Mac and family come back to the US in early November for the Holidays and are scheduled to not return to Manila until after having a previously setup meeting with the President in January to go over plans for the Far East . Have some Senators stroke his ego before to get him to come back. Pan Am could offer them Clipper tickets for free as a way to have some free publicity.
Malaya What If
- Thread starter Fatboy Coxy
- Start date
Big internal Democratic splits.... the Democratic coalition was Southern white social reactionaries who were pretty damn conservative on fiscal matters unless that money was coming back to their state/district plus northern urban working class and liberals plus Prairie populists. The Northern urban working class & liberals could work reasonably well with the Populists but there was massive tension in these two factions working with the Southern segregationists.
From a functional point of view, FDR after 1938 was working with a mostly oppositional Congress as the Southern segregationists had an informal coalition with conservative Republicans so keeping Rhode Island on board for internal to coalition reasons was a reasonably political imperative.
The screw upside and failures are probably the only thing for thrNavy's procurement behind Brewster aviation.
It wasn't just the House, the old(cracist) South, controlled 20 votes in the senate That is a quarter of the seats in the Senate.
Yeah, maybe half as good as the occupation troops in Japan was ready for Korea.
That's 20/20 hindsight thinking and far from certain on the ground in the eyes and minds of those around in 1940-41. Especially when it came to the Germans before the Americans got into whole hog. In the minds of the vast majority back then, the war was up in the air until 1942 and onlyva sure damn thing from late '42 on.
We know better NOW but they didn't THEN. We need to remember these things.
He's skilled and done a fine job, true, but he's long in the tooth at 64 and likely going to be mentally and physically exhausted after months of fighting just to keep his command alive. Best to bring him home, shower him with medals and praise, and send him to naval command schools to lecture the new generation of commanders on what to expect.
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More like 26 seats: 22 from the 11 former Confederate states, plus 4 from Kentucky and West Virginia. (West Virginia was far from a "Solid South" state, for obvious reasons. In fact WV sent mostly Republicans to Congress in 1910-1930. But during the 1930s WV was strongly Democrat, and its Democrats were very much in sympathy with the white supremacists further south.)
One thing that's forgotten here is MacAthur's stature with the American PUBLIC. Yes he was loved by the Republican political establishment but this wasn't unusual, as much of the military then as now tended to lean Republican, dating from the aftermath of the Civil War. But he was a figure of national stature that was a WWI hero (won the Medal of Honor, and EARNED it), brought West Point into the 20th century as its superintendent, was the youngest chief of staff for the army, broke up the Bonus March personally as he fekt as head if the Army and they were vets it was his responsibility and he shouldnt pass the buck (however distasteful the task). And so on. The guy was front page news for DECADES, and he earned the press! It's why he had his ego.
Leaving him to be captured by the Japanese wasn't just going to piss off a bunch of Congressmen, it was going to piss off the voting public. MacAthur was seen at that time by the bulk of the US public, Republican and Democrat, as America's top general. THE general!
Yeah. Shocks me too. But that was the majority opinion.
Thus the Japanese capturing him would be a huge propaganda blow to the US, a win for Japan, and frankly the Allies needed a known full ranking general with a reputation leading the potential defense of Australia. Since the Philippines were already boned...
Leaving him to be captured by the Japanese wasn't just going to piss off a bunch of Congressmen, it was going to piss off the voting public. MacAthur was seen at that time by the bulk of the US public, Republican and Democrat, as America's top general. THE general!
Yeah. Shocks me too. But that was the majority opinion.
Thus the Japanese capturing him would be a huge propaganda blow to the US, a win for Japan, and frankly the Allies needed a known full ranking general with a reputation leading the potential defense of Australia. Since the Philippines were already boned...
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To be fair, barring the Marines, that was the state of much of the entire US Army. At the time the popular opinion was the nuke made ground warfare redundant so training and procurement for the ground forces gad severely slacked off. The Japanese occupation force were cops more than anything so were slacker than most, but not by much.
Yeup. The style of coalition politics that existed inside the US parties up until the early '00s is pretty alien to most today. Hell, even alot of older folks are unaware of it unless theyre political junkies. Byt back in the 20th century the parties simply couldn't function without it. Each party was constantly balancing internal interests and cutting backroom deals to hold things together.
Explains why Newport was the location for torpedo development. Still doesn't excuse the Navy fucking up torpedo development. Also explains why getting MacAthur out the Philippines got fast-tracked, but that was going to happen due to his national stature no matter what, however. MacArthur had a name recognition second only to the president and a few movie stars. Plus he had a use...
Actually, no. No matter his MANY other faults Mac was no coward. He'd proven that many times over. However again that was counterproductive propaganda-wise, especially if alot of his troops survive to be captured. The latter issue ended up being a propaganda issue anyhow, but at least they had a live MacArthur for the press to rally the populace of the US and Australia around in early '42. And lets not underrate that.
Moral counts, a LOT.
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Actually Hart came back to the Chair of the Eneral Board. In 1944 he became Senator fron Connecticut not a bad bump. He could have stayed a bit longer at Pearl to help Nimitz up to speed about the ABDA cluster. L
MWI 41062409 HMS Hermes
Fatboy Coxy
Monthly Donor
1941, Tuesday 24 June;
The big dry dock gates closed on HMS Hermes, while the port superintendent waited for the all-secured signal from the ship, before he ordered the pumping stations to start emptying the dock. She had arrived here yesterday for a ten-day maintenance overhaul, including a bottom scrap, a quite regular thing. For the crew, a lot of shore leave was promised, although a number of transfers happened as men left for other ships with promotions, newly arrival men replacing them.
Except this wasn’t exactly quite regular, the maintenance overhaul was just a little added bonus, to a new Admiralty initiative. Although remaining on the active list, Hermes was going to be used to help create a reserve of carrier aircrew here in Singapore, to be drawn on by the Mediterranean Fleet for replacements. But this would also support the expansion of the Eastern Fleet should Britain need to do that.
Two days ago, her FAA 814 squadron had flown off to Sembawang airfield, where by splitting both the air and ground crews in half, adding fresh replacements arriving in convoy WS 7A, from the UK, they would create a sister squadron, FAA 839. In addition, two more new squadrons would also be raised at Sembawang. The four squadrons would now sit under the command of Royal Marine Major William HN Martin, as the 12th Naval Air Wing.
The 714 FAA, would be equipped with an assortment of aircraft, a few Supermarine Walrus, some Buffalos, obviously, the Swordfish, and half a dozen Fairey Albacores, which would be fitted with ASV Mk II radar. She would provide an OTU role for new pilots moving onto the Swordfish or Buffalo, while also undertaking air-sea rescue in Singapore waters, as well as limited coastal reconnaissance.
A more ambitious undertaking was the formation of FAA 895, a fighter squadron equipped with 12 plus 8 reserves, of the now surplus Brewster Buffalos. Each aircraft had to be converted for carrier operations, including the fitting of an arrestor hook and a life raft. The aircraft had fixed wings, but its small length and breadth meant it could fit on Hermes lifts, allowing it to be carried. Currently only eight aircraft were ready, along with seventeen pilots, four of whom were experienced. Hermes flight deck had been marked out on Sembawang’s runway, but landings and take-offs were unrealistic there due to not being able to reposition the runway with the wind and no arrestor wires. Nevertheless, it had given pilots a good idea of size of landing area.
Capt Richard Francis John Onslow, DSC, RN, commanding officer of HMS Hermes was going to be a busy man, because having overseen his ships overhaul, and had a week to shakedown, he would then begin carrier take off/landing flight training for the fighter and two torpedo squadrons, while at the same time having two destroyers join him, in forming Force T. Later, when the new pilots were judged to have reached a respectable level of efficiency, they would move to conducting torpedo attack operations, both day and night, as well as anti-submarine searches, with the assistance of one of the two Rainbow class submarines stationed in Penang. Yes, Onslow was going to be a very busy man.
The following Monday, three ships, two of which had been part of WS 8A arrived in Singapore. The cargo the two ships carried, included 20 Fairey Battle Mk II, 6 Swordfish torpedo bombers and 1 Supermarine Walrus flying boat. They also a large number of Merlin XX aero engines, for the Canadian Hurricanes, and another 30 x 3-inch mobile AA guns, along with a large number of predictors and height finders. The accompanying small troopship had carried enough air and ground crew to fill out the two FAA Swordfish squadrons, along with a RN draft, transferred from a UK trooper in Bombay.
The big dry dock gates closed on HMS Hermes, while the port superintendent waited for the all-secured signal from the ship, before he ordered the pumping stations to start emptying the dock. She had arrived here yesterday for a ten-day maintenance overhaul, including a bottom scrap, a quite regular thing. For the crew, a lot of shore leave was promised, although a number of transfers happened as men left for other ships with promotions, newly arrival men replacing them.
Except this wasn’t exactly quite regular, the maintenance overhaul was just a little added bonus, to a new Admiralty initiative. Although remaining on the active list, Hermes was going to be used to help create a reserve of carrier aircrew here in Singapore, to be drawn on by the Mediterranean Fleet for replacements. But this would also support the expansion of the Eastern Fleet should Britain need to do that.
Two days ago, her FAA 814 squadron had flown off to Sembawang airfield, where by splitting both the air and ground crews in half, adding fresh replacements arriving in convoy WS 7A, from the UK, they would create a sister squadron, FAA 839. In addition, two more new squadrons would also be raised at Sembawang. The four squadrons would now sit under the command of Royal Marine Major William HN Martin, as the 12th Naval Air Wing.
The 714 FAA, would be equipped with an assortment of aircraft, a few Supermarine Walrus, some Buffalos, obviously, the Swordfish, and half a dozen Fairey Albacores, which would be fitted with ASV Mk II radar. She would provide an OTU role for new pilots moving onto the Swordfish or Buffalo, while also undertaking air-sea rescue in Singapore waters, as well as limited coastal reconnaissance.
A more ambitious undertaking was the formation of FAA 895, a fighter squadron equipped with 12 plus 8 reserves, of the now surplus Brewster Buffalos. Each aircraft had to be converted for carrier operations, including the fitting of an arrestor hook and a life raft. The aircraft had fixed wings, but its small length and breadth meant it could fit on Hermes lifts, allowing it to be carried. Currently only eight aircraft were ready, along with seventeen pilots, four of whom were experienced. Hermes flight deck had been marked out on Sembawang’s runway, but landings and take-offs were unrealistic there due to not being able to reposition the runway with the wind and no arrestor wires. Nevertheless, it had given pilots a good idea of size of landing area.
Capt Richard Francis John Onslow, DSC, RN, commanding officer of HMS Hermes was going to be a busy man, because having overseen his ships overhaul, and had a week to shakedown, he would then begin carrier take off/landing flight training for the fighter and two torpedo squadrons, while at the same time having two destroyers join him, in forming Force T. Later, when the new pilots were judged to have reached a respectable level of efficiency, they would move to conducting torpedo attack operations, both day and night, as well as anti-submarine searches, with the assistance of one of the two Rainbow class submarines stationed in Penang. Yes, Onslow was going to be a very busy man.
The following Monday, three ships, two of which had been part of WS 8A arrived in Singapore. The cargo the two ships carried, included 20 Fairey Battle Mk II, 6 Swordfish torpedo bombers and 1 Supermarine Walrus flying boat. They also a large number of Merlin XX aero engines, for the Canadian Hurricanes, and another 30 x 3-inch mobile AA guns, along with a large number of predictors and height finders. The accompanying small troopship had carried enough air and ground crew to fill out the two FAA Swordfish squadrons, along with a RN draft, transferred from a UK trooper in Bombay.
Will the rest of 1941 see the same OTL results of Operation Barbarossa? There is nothing in the OP POD to suggest otherwise. So here is the crux of the matter. Despite the better situation in Malaya we've seen so far in this ATL how much more reinforcement and supplies will continue to be sent to the Far East as the Germans advance apparently inexorably toward Moscow? Can Malaya and Singapore be able to hold out on a better managed but still tenuous shoestring? At the very least will Burma? This is a very interesting situation.
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Which is a State Side posting, just as I suggested. A staff position AFTER a period of rest would be fine. These guys are NOT machines.