You could pretty much pull names out of a hat & not do worse.Alanith said:Just a bit. In an effort to get back on track... How about McArthur having been replaced with (General of your Choice)? A harder fought Philippine campaign for Japan can only be good for shortening the war.
I'd nominate Wainwright, myself.
In the dark, I don't think so. Whereas, the doctrine was, TFs would have sub scouts... (Minisubs, maybe not--but...)Driftless said:one from the PBY
Plus, where were the PBYs flying? And how far out were they?
It's not impossible...but I'd give it low odds.
b0ned0me said:That sort of bullshit has been around forever and probably always will be. Probably started with the first flint handaxes and I suspect the latest iteration is the F-35...
I've raised the prospect of heavily mining IJN anchorages as the best use of the large boats & of freeing the fleet boats from wasteful & dangerous close surveillance. It has the side benefit of leaving IJN virtually without countermeasures;b0ned0me said:perhaps flapping a hertz horn into contact with a Japanese carrier instead? Floating mines are so random they make for a good deus ex.
I once posted a thread positing widespread use of this method making the Pacific War boring...
You're dead right, that's the easiest way. Bombing is hard; knocking them out & keeping them out takes effort, & most of the DEI oilfields were mostly out of reach.Simon said:how difficult is it to put an oil field or refinery beyond use and then keep it that way? ...keep bombing them or attack the tankers
Putting tankers at #1 priority from Day One, OTOH, would have been an excellent idea. OTL, it was around August 1943 (says Blair; search "tanker priority" if the link doesn't go right to p486). The trouble is, tankers were tough targets, & BuOrd couldn't build enough torpedoes as it was....
However, if it's done, you can immobilize the Combined Fleet in under a year.
Put DDs at #2 priority, you can leave convoys defenseless & weaken IJN task forces... Maybe you derail the Tokyo Express, too. (Actually, I'd tell MacArthur or Kinney to go easy on it: it burns so damn much fuel,
If I were designing the operational look of the war, I'd pull all the subs back to Pearl. I'd persuade FDR to surplus off the S-boats to France & Canada. I'd turn over their crews (& maintenance men) & torpedoes
I'd expect the war to end in the middle of '43 when Japan's economy collapses.
Of course, if the Brits want to help by doing better in Malaya or India, I won't object.
I'll say this: I don't think there'd be nearly so many big, dramatic battles, because IJN CVs & such would be busy sinking after running into unswept mines