Bearcat
Banned
The Nimitz should head into the West Pac after dealing with Pearl.
There are a limited number of useful warships (CVLs, BBS and CAs) and several invason convoys to target. The Borneo convoy at Miri around the 15th / 16th. The Lingayen Gulf convoy around the 21st / 22nd, and the Legaspi one around the same time, maybe a day earlier. Then maybe shipping in the Gulf of Thailand.
Wake isn't an issue. Without Hiryu and Soryu, it still has a few Wildcats, and with everything else going on, the IJN probably folds that hand.
By Christmas Eve, it'll be time to get the hell out of Dodge. Aviation fuel is running low and the carrier's magazines are getting thin. Hardly matters: Japan's whole operational plan has been shredded and used for toilet paper.
MacArthur gets called home to 'xplain to Lucy about losing his air power. Since the PI will hold, he never becomes a media hero (anymore than pre-war anyway).
Even if Nimitz takes no additional role in the war, it is already a Japanscrew of epic proportions.
But of course she will. When we take the Marianas. And Iwo. And Okinawa. And finally, when its time to make Hirohito bear the unbearable.
As for Berlin?
Advice to Adolph: bring marshmallows...
There are a limited number of useful warships (CVLs, BBS and CAs) and several invason convoys to target. The Borneo convoy at Miri around the 15th / 16th. The Lingayen Gulf convoy around the 21st / 22nd, and the Legaspi one around the same time, maybe a day earlier. Then maybe shipping in the Gulf of Thailand.
Wake isn't an issue. Without Hiryu and Soryu, it still has a few Wildcats, and with everything else going on, the IJN probably folds that hand.
By Christmas Eve, it'll be time to get the hell out of Dodge. Aviation fuel is running low and the carrier's magazines are getting thin. Hardly matters: Japan's whole operational plan has been shredded and used for toilet paper.
MacArthur gets called home to 'xplain to Lucy about losing his air power. Since the PI will hold, he never becomes a media hero (anymore than pre-war anyway).
Even if Nimitz takes no additional role in the war, it is already a Japanscrew of epic proportions.
But of course she will. When we take the Marianas. And Iwo. And Okinawa. And finally, when its time to make Hirohito bear the unbearable.
As for Berlin?
Advice to Adolph: bring marshmallows...