AHC: Shorten the Pacific War

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.
You could pretty much pull names out of a hat & not do worse.:rolleyes: (Would even Fredendall be worse?:eek:)

I'd nominate Wainwright, myself.:cool:
Driftless said:
one from the PBY
In the dark, I don't think so. Whereas, the doctrine was, TFs would have sub scouts... (Minisubs, maybe not--but...)

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...
:rolleyes: Sadly true.
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'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;:eek: IJN minesweeping was (if such is possible:p) worse than their ASW.:eek:

I once posted a thread positing widespread use of this method making the Pacific War boring...;) (It got less attention than this one.:p)
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
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.

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....:rolleyes:

However, if it's done, you can immobilize the Combined Fleet in under a year.:eek::cool:

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,:eek::eek: it's a kind of seppuku, so its continued operation is a net gain to the U.S.:p {No, that's really true.;)})

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:cool: to the fleet boats. I'd mine the living hell out of IJN harbors (Truk & Rabaul especially) & monitor movement of minesweepers with TA (& shoot the minesweepers;)). I'd put all my fleet boats in the Luzon/Formosa Straits, off Bungo & Kii Suido, off Tsushima, & in the Yellow Sea. (When MacArthur asked for subs to deliver supplies to P.I., I'd tell him, "You got them into it, you deliver the damn supplies.":rolleyes:) I'd put tankers #1, escorts #2. I'd plead with OP-20G to crack the maru code, in exchange for my first born, if needed.;) I'd send Christie & Fife to command a lifeboat squadron in Idaho.:rolleyes: I'd give younger officers more chances at command (tho TTL, it would be harder even than OTL). I'd seriously consider shooting MacArthur myself.:p

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.:p

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:rolleyes: & not having fuel,:rolleyes: but it would be shorter...;) (It probably wouldn't inspire as many movies, tho.:eek::p)
 
Alien and Sedition Bat said:
Hang everyone involved in the inexcusable torpedo scandal.
We have universal agreement there.:p Except, once the Mark XIV is terrible, its the fixing it that's the problem.:rolleyes:

So what do you say about loss of a few 100 of them impacting how soon that gets done? Does it make a difference? Does it shift Nimitz toward mining? Does it shift skippers toward using guns? Or does it not really matter?
 
But the US wont have a target to train their carrier planes if that happens.

Lots of other "targets" for combat experience were present. Other than Wake the USN made at least three raids, maybe four and aborted the Raubal raid in February after downing fourteen IJN bombers. Halsey & Fletcher also instantly shed the peacetime training restrictions and made intensive use of the bombing ranges around Hawaii & near San Diego during the early months.
 
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