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  1. A couple of Pacific War what-ifs:

    Superior training only as long as it took to kill off the pilots from the pre-war cadre. Again, I would point to the losses among the airwings at Midway &as well as the losses that would have occurred in any defense of Midway, both in future naval clashes and, especially, in defending the Island...
  2. A couple of Pacific War what-ifs:

    While it is true that Jpanese factories managed to produce over 2,000 aircraft a month in 1944, it is important to look at what these aircraft were. Most fighters were A6M Zeros with only a few being the modern Ki-61/100, with the light & medium bomber designs being the same aircraft that had...
  3. THE DIRTY DOZEN .....

    The problem is that, unlike the set-up in the original DD, these other scenarios involve no-anglo regions & the idea of 12 white (okay, 11 white & 1 black) guys wandering around Japan or North Korea in wartime is far more unlikely than the already pretty absurd scenario.
  4. A couple of Pacific War what-ifs:

    Good lightweight vs. Very Good heavyweight. Lightweight doesn't have a prayer in the long rin.
  5. A couple of Pacific War what-ifs:

    There is also the posibility of converting more Cleveland CL hulls to light carriers to suplement the Essexes. While the Independences were not full fleet carriers they had sufficient speed to keep with the Essexes & the reduction of CLs would not have been a serious loss to the U.S. The...
  6. Challenge: Benedict Arnold a hero of the revolution

    Absolutely. If he'd died a month after Saratoga there would be cities named for him across the U.S.
  7. Sunrise Lands Speculation

    CUT is, it increasingly appears, much more than a simple movement adopted by the Unibomber. It very much appears that we will be seeing more of the Powers that created the original ISOT as well as the Emberverse.
  8. Japanese Anti-submarine

    Japan was dreadful at ASW. Japanese destroyers COULD have been very effective & sometimes were, but their tactical and strategic thinking prevented any reasonable ASW campaign. Warships were offensive weapons and ALL warship action was supposed to help bring about the "Great Battle" where the...
  9. A couple of Pacific War what-ifs:

    The feat of killing Yamamoto was spectacular since it required exact navigation over water and exquisite timing, not due to the range. The P-38 would have been able to escort B-17 & 24 bombers on missions over Midway and the Lightning demonstrated in combat that it was the equal of the A6M. The...
  10. A couple of Pacific War what-ifs:

    1) They did. Actually they did better than that A6M Zero - Max range 3100 kilometers (1900 miles) FF Wildcat - Max range 1350 Kilometer (845 miles) SeaFire MK III - Max range 845 kilometers (510 miles) Fairly Firefly - Max range 1700 kilometers (1050 miles) Introduced later in the war...
  11. Japan surrenders earlier: consequences for the European front?

    There's not enough money on this Earth to get the USN to move carrier groups into the Baltic. The U-boats had been driven from the Atlantic, but the Baltic? Different matter entirely. Marines could do a great forced entry, assuming that you could get sufficient fleet gunfire to support them...
  12. What if the Japanese Attacked Russia Rather than America in WWII?

    Yes it was. In 1940 the U.S. had finally gotten into gear and begun a long delayed upgrade of defense across the board. It was this trend, especially the Naval Expansion Act of 1940 (http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq59-20.htm), which effectively doubled the authorized number of carriers...
  13. What if the Japanese Attacked Russia Rather than America in WWII?

    Not to spoil the debate, but... Why would Japan attack the USSR? How could Japan ignore the U.S.? It seems that the entire reason that Japan rolled the dice in December of 1941 has been forgotten in the desire to game out this scenario. The USSR did not have the ability to cut off the...
  14. WI: Decisive Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq War

    Rather like arming the fellow who is preparing to burgle your home. Never a good idea and almost never done. The USSR leadership, in the end days, knew that radical Islam (or what was then perceived as radical Islam) was a HUGE threat. Much of the USSR's hard currency came from Islamic regions...
  15. WI: Decisive Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq War

    Not a chance. No way the U.S. or the West allows allows the Ayatollah (aka The Boogeyman) the chance to overrun Saddam (who was our Son-of-a-Bitch at this point) and threaten Saudi Arabia & the rest of the Gulf oil states. Orto quote Ronald Reagan on America's position: "would do whatever was...
  16. The Australian-Indonesian War of 1999

    HMMM... Arguably the closest (or second closest) U.S. ally gets knifed in back by repressive, famed Human rights violator. No USSR. No 9/11 yet. ANZUS AND DEFENSE The Australia, New Zealand, United States (ANZUS) security treaty was concluded at San Francisco on September 1, 1951, and...
  17. Aerial refuelling in WW2

    The butterflies here go WAY beyond the post war period. How many P-38s and/or P-47s (the long range escorts until the P-51 was developed from the A-36) are withheld from the Combat fronts? How many P39/63s do not go to the USSR. (As an aside, what would the reputation of the P-38 & especially...
  18. Aerial refuelling in WW2

    One major change would the possibility of the U.S. being bombed. That alone would have enormous butterflies. Even a rudimentary refueling system would have greatly increased the damage that allied heavy bombers could have inflicted (e.g. IIRC, the max bombload of a B-17 was over 8 tons, but...
  19. Confederate 9/11

    I have an even better idea. Take this lunacy to ASB where it belongs.
  20. Confederate 9/11

    No it doesn't; or more properly it doesn't have any silos WITH missiles. Not since the late 60's when the Titan was retired. I have to agree that this entire idea is, at best, poorly thought out. However... 9/11/01 - Southern separatists launch airliner attacks on WTC & Washington DC...
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