Makes sense. But why would they even consider warlord skirmish as something that valid given the technological disparity and racial view that color their perceptions.
Remember the Texas! The United States in World War II (an alternate history)
- Thread starter galveston bay
- Start date
McPherson
Banned
Because as the Korea unpleasantness will later prove... the Chinese warlords may have been corrupt, their troops may have have been underequipped, but a lot of them, when they had a chance to learn and were forced to fight the Japanese, as they often were. actually were very good troops leaders with a lot of good small unit leader subordinates who knew their stuff. The Chinese communist army will be officered and NCOed by a lot of these Sino-Japanese War veterans. This is about the same situation as to be found in the Republic of China Air Force, arguably one of the deadliest air forces on the planet in the 1930s, despite its poor equipment, funding and small size. Being forced to fight the Japanese tended to make the Chinese quite good in the air, or they did not survive. The PLAAF pilots learned their trade from some of these ROCAF survivors.
Coulsdon Eagle
Monthly Donor
I think you mean Scharnhorst (sunk at North Cape) & not Scheer which IIRC was sunk at anchor in Germany 1945.
Also better than many of the tanks they were using at the time. There were still a lot of BT-5s ,BT-7s, and T-32s around. The T34/76 (particularly T34/76A) was little , if any, better than a Lee and were the backbone. The T-34/76 Cs didn't even come out until 1942.
I actually like his lineup, for realism sake. He should have some real losers in the mix. I agree wholeheartedly about Stillwell, an overrated general if ever there was one. As bad as MacArthur IMO.
While I would love to have the first team up front right away, reasonably there is trial and error with generals and admirals
Frequently with an extra helping of incompetence for seasoning.
Driftless
Donor
The US Army (and others) lost some high grade talent, following the end of the Great War and the rapid downsizing that occurred. Indifferent pay, lack of promotion opportunities within the service led some top-flight candidates to move to the private sector. Of course, some of the very best remained, but there was a lot iffy talent, whose best skill was playing the bureaucratic/apple-polishing shuffle.
The T-34 did, at least, have a proper turret. Also needed 2-3 fewer crewmen, something that was still pretty important to the Red Army.
Overall, however, the Lee gets a lot less respect than it deserves. When it hit the Western Desert the Africa Corps and Italians had nothing that could match it. It had a short shelf life as tank design evolved, but at the time it was a beast. Same goes for the Sherman. When it was introduced it was probably the best tank in they world overall, far more reliable than any of its 1942-1943 peers, good armor, and strong gun compared to the 50mm and short 75s on the Pz.III. Problem was the U.S. was in full out mass production and the Sherman was "good enough" and had enough flexibility that it could get "upgraded. The powers that be decided that a thousand Shermans was a better choice than 100 M-26 (which was/is a valid decision, albeit a bit cold blooded, especially when you look at the fiasco that was Reich tank production) and that combined with the enduring siren song of the tank destroyer in U.S. Army circles meant to fell behind.
In a way it is a lot like the F4F in the Pacific War. Wildcat gets derided a lot, but the aircraft actually had a positive exchange rate against the A6M (per Lundstrom).
The M4A3E8 was overall as good a tank as any when it came to knocking out other tanks. Considerably better, IMO, than Tigers and Panthers as they actually could go over 100-125 KM before breaking down. A Tiger tank isn't doing you much good if it is constantly needing to be repaired. Pair it up with some 75mm Shermans with their HE rounds and you have a potent mix.
McPherson
Banned
It is more a tribute to the USNAS and USMC pilot cadres. Lundstrom agrees with Thach and Flately who called the F4F-4 the worst premier front line naval fighter in service among the naval powers of the critical late 1942, early 1943 period. That included the Seafire and the Sea Hurricane. The only thing that made that slow climbing, badly turning, gun-jamming sluggard Wildcat competitive with the Zero, was that the pilots stuck in it, learned to climb as high as they could, then dive in on the Zero in ambush and then pull out and zoom climb to repeat. Also they learned to fight in pairs and cover each other in the Thach Weave. This adaptation, while effective in kill/loss ratios still has some serious negative results when it comes to combat air patrol (CAP in fleet air defense)) and to escort fighter missions. (EFM in anti-ship strike offense). The Wildcat could not stay with and tie up the Zero in a dogfight. That meant at Coral Sea and Midway, the Vals and the Kates only had to worry about one firing pass and then their EFM cover would and could tie up the American CAP and the Japanese strikers were left alone virtually unmolested as they dropped fish and pushed over on Lexington and Yorktown. Worse was going the other way. The American EFMs were so busy trying to stay alive, that as Thach claimed "We were lucky any of us came back alive." He attributed the survival of American naval fighter pilots, nay any American pilots survival against the Zero, to three factors; Japanese showboating in the air, lousy Japanese marksmanship and sheer lack of teamwork training in Japanese fighter tactics.
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Bu-Air received blistering reports about the Wildcat from those USN pilots (^^^) I noted and Lundstrom quotes them in those letters. In some respects, the F4F, in the way the program was incompetently mismanaged, was almost as great a crime as the Brewster F2A and resembles the overall mess the USN bureaus made in their other (torpedo, bomb, and shell) 1930s era procurement programs. There is a reason I would have stood Leahy, Stark, Tower, and the Atomic Playboy against the wall after the appropriate courts martial.
!@# !@#$ them.
marathag
Banned
Sad thing was, the US had the factory space and resources to build just as many Shermans, as OTL, plus could have had some of the companies that didn't get M4 Contracts renewed in 1943, to make numbers of the specialty tanks, like Jumbos, or the other designs that McNair spiked that didn't fit his ideal of fast, open topped Tank Destroyers rather than more SPGs that were closer to the Soviet or German model. Two dozen M9 3" GMCs would have been handy in Tunisia
In 1941-1942, the US planned to build far more tanks, that later were dialed back
It was politics, rather than lack of Money, facilities, workers or raw materials
Will more nations join the war in direct combat as well? OTL, post-Pearl Harbor, only Mexico and Brazil were the only nations that send armed forces (apart of the US). Could Cuba and Venezuela (and other nations - like Ethiopia, Iran and Iraq) also send other forces.
Also, could the US been also armed with more British-made equipment that OTL? Like, for exemple, building an Churchill NA 75 regiment? For those that don't know, it's pretty much an Churchill tank armed with the M4 Sherman 75mm gun.
Plus, will the USS Wasp and Ranger be more active in the European campaign?
Also, could the US been also armed with more British-made equipment that OTL? Like, for exemple, building an Churchill NA 75 regiment? For those that don't know, it's pretty much an Churchill tank armed with the M4 Sherman 75mm gun.
Plus, will the USS Wasp and Ranger be more active in the European campaign?
Thing about fleet carrier is that after, at the latest, Torch and the introduction of the CVE, there really has not place for them in the ETO/Med. Our author could keep them in the game of course, but after Wasp's two runs to Malta there was no serious need for her outside of the Pacific. Ranger wasn't seen a true fleet carrier of the sort needed in the PTO, mainly due to speed and her light construction, and she did spend her war in the Atlantic, partly at an aircraft ferry, some time with the RN Home Fleet operating in the North Sea and against a couple of Norwegian ports, but by 1944 she was dedicated to training duty, specifically for night fighters.
More raids and more support for Mediterranean ops. A bit more ASW assist perhaps. But, nothing decisive.
McPherson
Banned
The utility of flattops is such that these ships are useful even in ASW and anti-ship operations and coastal support operations (a la the experience of Kido Butai in 1937-1941) on the flank of an army's operations.
Uhm; the operations could be effective where the land-based access to air-power is not accessible. I could suggest targets: Diego Suarez; etc., in the abstract.
And, consider: that the aircraft carriers are "fleet fuel tankers" in principle.
McPherson
Banned
The basics in the Pacific...
Pacific War 101.
Pay attention to Japanese economic imperialist policy, General Slim, THE CHINESE NATIONALISTS and their advice, MacArthur's incompetencies, Stillwell's ignorant arrogant stupidity, and of course the Eastern Front (Russia) dance at this time, also as Eastern Command (Burma specifically.) folds up completely as a going concern in the Pacific War and finally fails at this juncture. Only William Slim among the allies seems to have a clue at this point.
Also note the British "balloon campaign". The Japanese did not invent that "concept".
Pacific War 101.
Pay attention to Japanese economic imperialist policy, General Slim, THE CHINESE NATIONALISTS and their advice, MacArthur's incompetencies, Stillwell's ignorant arrogant stupidity, and of course the Eastern Front (Russia) dance at this time, also as Eastern Command (Burma specifically.) folds up completely as a going concern in the Pacific War and finally fails at this juncture. Only William Slim among the allies seems to have a clue at this point.
Also note the British "balloon campaign". The Japanese did not invent that "concept".
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Anyone any good with Photoshop? Remember the Texas would make a great propaganda slogan. Or even a movie title.
Where is Albert Wedenmeyer? He was more simpacto with the generalismiso then Vinegar Joe.