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  1. Pacific War Redux

    You misuse a tool and it fails to work, is it the tool's fault? If 48 aircraft go out, drop 400 bombs over an invasion flotillia with 24 transports & 20 escorts, and get 20 hits, sinking 8 transports and damaging 5 more, with several hits/near misses on escorts as they are moving slowly among...
  2. Pacific War Redux

    You will see more on the Commonwealth in coming posts. I have a great respect for the Australian military, which I believe was very poorly served by higher command in the Pacific, as well as by circumstances. As you have seen the circumstances are slightly improved, and the leadership is sure to...
  3. Pacific War Redux

    The B-17 was designed, from inception, as a anti-ship platform. The reality of the thing is that it wasn't nearly as effective as hoped. It could, and did, have decent success against ships in port, or against low speed vessels, especially bombing from below 15K. It was fighter that general...
  4. Pacific War Redux

    The eventual Wake airfield was 9500 feet. It is much shorter in 1941, but long enough (as was the near mirror built on Midway). I believe that you will find historically the B-17 was used with some success, even in small numbers, against moored ships, even during the mad scramble of December...
  5. Pacific War Redux

    The AAF had allowed themelves to get complacent, things were going really well, almost like they had believed it would work pre-war against what was mostly the Japanese second team. With no really useful AAA or fighter coverage opposing them, the U.S. command got the wrong impression. The...
  6. Pacific War Redux

    The Claudes can (max ceiling was 32K), but they don't have to & yes, they handle like pigs at that altitude, as does the Zero. Unfortunately, the USAAF doesn't know the ins & outs of the A6M yet and have fallen into a pattern. The B-17's are bombing from around 20,000 feet, which is higher than...
  7. Pacific War Redux

    The Aleutians are the same as IOTL. That is the thing about Alternate History that I really like. You can go from a base, make a few plausable changes and have a drastic difference in events.
  8. Operation Compass succeeds

    The Japanese fighters did fairly well when faced with the smaller armament of early war fighters, especially against rifle caliber rounds. This was what the standard was throughout the world when the Zero was developed, with 20mm cannon just starting to make their appearance, and then in fairly...
  9. Pacific War Redux

    Here is the next installment December 18-21. Enjoy. Comments, as always, are very welcome. December 18, 2008 Refueled and having collected as strong of an escort as available, including the battleship USS Maryland, the Saratoga departs Pearl Harbor for Wake Island. Japanese submarine...
  10. Alternate WW1 and WW2.

    How about scaling down the maps?
  11. Could Patton have reached Berlin?

    The 25K refers to the number of German troops inside the city proper. There were, of course, a far larger number outside the City. The 25K however, were mostly Waffen SS and Hitler Youth. They were the most fanatical, close, if not the equal to, the Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima or Okinawa...
  12. Could Patton have reached Berlin?

    Could he have reached Berlin? Sure. Taken it? Not quite as sure. the Soviets took as many total casualties capturing Berlin proper (80,000-100,000) as the U.S. expected to take in the full invasion of Japan, in both Coronet & Olympic. There were 25,000 troops in Berlin, many, although not...
  13. Military WI: Fireteam and camoflauge widespread in WWII

    Uh... The Marines used camo across the Pacific starting in mid-1943, becoming commonplace by the end of the year. Another way to look at it is that the Marines started wearing camo as soon as the gear ordered in mid 1941, when the expectation was fighting in Europe, where camo wasn't nearly...
  14. Bar Room Blitz

    If its all hand to hand, go with Recon. If we are adding edged weapons it starts to move to some of the ancient groups. On the other hand, if everyone can bring their favorite sidearm, the Corps and the Aussies will be standing there with ringing in their ears after the rest hit the floor.
  15. If No Nazis, then Japanese China?

    Very true. Isolationism was more of a revulsion to WW I trench warfare than anything else. The U.S. had a very odd view of China at the time, a mix of "inside every chinese is an American trying to get out" and a quasi-anti colonial feeling (despite having gunboats stationed in country) that...
  16. AH Challenge: Nazis Lasted to 1946

    All valid points, assuming you have the time. You do not with a POD of 6/10/44. Bagration kicks off on 6/22/44, Romania is out of the war in early August, and Finland is effectively defeated at the same time (the treaty wasn't signed until 6/19/44, but they were done well before). It is...
  17. AH Challenge: Nazis Lasted to 1946

    It has to work better than what was tried IOTL.;)
  18. AH Challenge: Nazis Lasted to 1946

    August 1946 is REALLY difficult. Hmmm... Shoot Hitler, Goering, Gobbels, et al, in back of head. Chop off heads. Make mines. End the V-1 & V-2 program. Use resources to make mines. Make more mines. Put all efforts (forced labor, whatever it takes) into building defenses along the Rhine...
  19. Pacific War Redux

    %$^#!!! Braincramp.:o
  20. Pacific War Redux

    The Alaskas were a ship in search of a mission, almost a text book example of what happens when no one thinks about what they are doing when they ask for something. They were effectively the same size as an Iowa class battleship (806 feet long, 32.5 feet draught vs. 868 feet/35foot draught)...
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