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  1. After "Landing on" deck for WWII carriers, good or bad?

    If you look closely, you can see the barrier abaft the rear of the funnel structure. You can also see just how narrow the deck is compared to the wingspan of the aircraft.
  2. After "Landing on" deck for WWII carriers, good or bad?

    Ramp strikes are, to be mild, nasty accidents, especially when an aircraft breaks up. Anyone who has watched World at War or other documenteries, has seen a couple of different ramp strikes (my "favorite" is when the F6F breaks in half right behind the cockpit). Imagine a plane hitting the...
  3. The Last Centurion

    Zombie thread closed. Number of Banned members in it, considering it is only 3+ pages long is amazing.
  4. After "Landing on" deck for WWII carriers, good or bad?

    The down sides vastly outweigh any up side. It would still be far to hazardous to operate a deck park under the elevated deck (imagine the carnage that a ramp strike could cause) and even if you did so the number of aircraft that could be staged would be considerably lower.
  5. WI: Armored Deck Essex Class Carriers

    Massive waste of resources. The Essex were an exceptional warship with stunningly short build times (1st steel to commission in 14-16 months), remarkable survivability, and easy battle damage repair. RN CV ran four years, The Shokaku class took 44-45 months, Taiho ran 31 months. Even if the...
  6. What does the High Seas fleet do if Britain stays neutral?

    It rusts at anchor. Sort of like it did for 90% of the war.
  7. Japan Doesn't Invade China, Longest Possible Pacific War?

    Uh... Why would there even BE a war? The Japanese have no need for oil, they have no significant friction with the U.S., UK, France, or The Netherlands. The only way a war starts is if someone high in the command structure goes utterly nuts and orders an unprovoked and unsupported...
  8. WI: USA called out on Highway of Death?

    Well, in this case someone, probably the ICRC, explains to all and sundry that they are, in actual fact, incorrect in their understanding of basic international law. The far fringe mob doesn't accept it and calls for various persons to be brought to trial (as actually happened BTW, and seems...
  9. WI: USA called out on Highway of Death?

    Well, to begin with, the "Highway of Death" was a load of crap. Reports at the time remarked on how FEW casualties were there. what the Coalition did was kill vehicles. Iraqi forces would grab them to withdraw (or just steal them), Coalition aircraft would overfly, the passengers would bail...
  10. AHC: Sealion not a controversial topic on this forum

    Nope. SO don't think this is going to happen.
  11. 'Eagle Claw' vs 'Neptune Spear'

    It went beyond training, planning scale, or even prep, although all of those were critical. The two biggest factors were "corporate inertia" and technology. The U.S. military was at its lowest ebb since 1950 in early 1980. The damage done by Vietnam had not been cleared out of the system...
  12. WI: Lee Oswald Makes It To Trial

    Probably should be a Ban for pushing this sort of malarkey, but lets see if a lighter touch will work. Kicked for a week for pushing 'nother JFK conspiracy fantasy.
  13. Longest possible Pacific War

    Honestly the scenario that Red uses is better than the lowest U.S. cost option, which was just starve and burn the Japanese Empire to its knees. U.S. KIA losses would have been low, probably under 3,000, certainly not more than 10,000, excluding PoWs who would have died before liberation but...
  14. Longest possible Pacific War

    Summer 1946, much more likely Spring. This assumes no Bomb, no invasion, and no Soviet entry. Full sea and air blockade, ongoing bombing (keep in mind that the 8th AF was scheduled to begin full operations with B-29s in September, flying from Okinawa, something that would bring Northern...
  15. WI Pearl Harbor put on high alert?

    Initial contact was by USCG Condor at 03:50. USS Antares sighted the sub at 06:30, at 06:33 her log indicates that a patrol plane dropped two smoke pots on the contact. Ward's log indicates that it opened fire on a confirmed submarine (and reported this action) at 06:37. The AAR for DESDIV...
  16. WI Pearl Harbor put on high alert?

    The additional fins wouldn't really be a problem, all they did was prevent the torpedo from diving deeper than normal. At useful attack range the change in accuracy would have been minimal. Fuchida wouldn't have had any option to change the strike targets. The plan, which was largely his...
  17. WI Pearl Harbor put on high alert?

    The alert question is one of the more interesting ones presented regarding the attack. There are a number of threads here where it is discussed in considerable detail, but things generally devolve into the nature of the warning and the amount of notice. A direct "the enemy is going to launch...
  18. Shinano Supercarriers for the IJN?

    oops... Returned to the grave.
  19. WI: Viet Cong Attack America

    How? The number of Vietnamese in the U.S. prior to the war was minuscule. The funding of the VC was even lower than that. The VC were a pack of politically motivated thugs. They were about as grass roots as things got. That being said.. This was the very height of the Cold War. An...
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