RP WI The Asiatic Fleet survived?

CalBear

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Back in the early 1980s, I heard that MacArthur, and his Japanese counterpart,
both believed in bushido. MacArthur, according to the NBC News special on the
Bataan Death March, wasn't going to be taken alive.

Of course he wasn't going to be taken alive. He was going to tuck his tail between his legs and run out on his men. He would then, for his personal glory, piss away a surprising number of his troops lives so he "could return".

While I have enormous issues with the way that Bushido was interpreted by the IJA, especially regarding the treatment of PoWs and civilians, it was a Code of Behavior that required serious personal bravery and sacrifice (two traits that were remarkably absent in Douglas MacArthur). Killing yourself to avoid being a prisoner is quite different that killing yourself because you have failed in your duty. If MacArthur had believed in Bushido he would have shot himself as soon as he arrived in Australia (if not while still on The Rock) as payment for his failure in his duty as an officer.

As far as MacArthur's relationship with Admiral Hart; EVERY subordinate officer under MacArthur's command was subject to demeaning orders, belittling comments, and random acts of stupidity from the man. That all of them didn't hate the man is what is actually noteworthy. In the 'Nam, he would have, as likely as not, been fragged.
 

Markus

Banned
Actually it does not require that much butterflying.

Pres. Roosevelt sometimes micromanaged the USN -like initiating the production of sub chasers. Let him order the Asiatic Fleet to be reinforced to "deter" Japan. Yes, that won´t work, but the US Government had some strange ideas about the Japanese. The USN does not want to loose more ships in what it views as a battle lost by default, but has to follow the orders.
So the Omaha-class cruisers Concord, Trenton and Memphis together with CA USS Chester and a transport with 5inch anti-ship guns and additional 1.1inch AA-guns for DESRON 29 had tp the PI. That´s not much compared to the size of the USN, but a nice boost for ABDA-firepower in general and the old destroyers in particular.

Meanwhile the Dutch have order three dozen SBC Helldivers and set up a working air warning service. Now the Brits contribute some more Hawker Hurricanes –a plane that could take a lot of damage- and send the obsolescent Blackburn Skua dive bombers to Malay.

Getting to the Japanese ship was not difficult since they had no radar and thus very poor early warning and a dive bomber flown by a capable pilot will score a hit.


edit: And it was that ass McArthur who prevented Gen. Bereton from conducting what clould very well have been a devastating strike. The US had the time to get the B-17s to Taiwan before the IJN´s bombers could take of, they had very good information on the japanese airfields and the Japanese had totally ngelected their defences: no air warning service, no camouflage, no shelters. It would have been like shooting sitting ducks!
The IJA bombers had taken off on schedule, but they did not that much damage, it was the Navy bombers who wiped out McArthurs air power on the ground.
 
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edit: And it was that ass McArthur who prevented Gen. Bereton from conducting what clould very well have been a devastating strike. The US had the time to get the B-17s to Taiwan before the IJN´s bombers could take of, they had very good information on the japanese airfields and the Japanese had totally ngelected their defences: no air warning service, no camouflage, no shelters. It would have been like shooting sitting ducks!
The IJA bombers had taken off on schedule, but they did not that much damage, it was the Navy bombers who wiped out McArthurs air power on the ground.

Remember, this is the Bereton who planned Operation Tidal Wave. The attack could hav hurt the Japanese, but at the cost of most of the Bombers. admitidly, they would be lost on the ground anyways, but I somehow am unsure of how much damage they can actually do. And as you said, it was the naval aviation which wiped out the USAAC on the ground.
 

Markus

Banned
The attack could hav hurt the Japanese, but at the cost of most of the Bombers.

Hardly! This would have been a classic high altitude attack. Without an air warning service interception is next to impossible, because the planes will be detected too late. B-17´s fly too high and too fast and Japanese fighters are too lightly armed. This would be like Midway, just with stationary targets.
 
Who was it that said earlier that the state of the defences in the Pacific were consistent with a low threat environment? They were on the money.

There were so many small things that could have been done, work that was started but not completed, forces in the process of delivery. But in the end Japan got in first and in a blink of an eye bought a low threat environment into the reality of modern war of the highest intensity.

As for PoW & R and ABDA, they were not automatically doomed, let alone doomed for no result. If Force Z was kept on a short leash, and reinforced in the early weeks of the war it could intervene profitably, perhaps stopping the amphibious landings that occured during the Malayan campiagn and also stopping the invasion of Pelambang. If these ships were sunk after that then at least they would have contributed something to the defence of the area.
 
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