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To: hanamizu
There were tankers, but 3/4's or so got assigned to the European Theater.

Hence, the paucity of BBs in most of the early battles around Guadalcanal. Or as somebody put it, once navies started steaming into battle, fuel became a factor.

There was a recent posting about the Russo-Japanese War, and "The Voyage of the Damned" (see U2B for whole sad trip), the second Russian fleet to fight against the Japanese. For some strange reason, the Russians didn't fill up on coal before making the final leg to Vladivostok. Japan had its spies, and the IJN admiral correctly guessed that the czarists were going to have to take the shorter route, so he was able to stage the majority of his ships accordingly.

During WWI, the fairly new oil-fired USS Arizona was limited to the Eastern US seaboard because the Brits were still coal-based, and were incapable of refueling it (as well as the threat of U-boats.)

54 posted on 02/12/2020 2:12:32 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: Calvin Locke

Russo-Japanese War, and “The Voyage of the Damned”


Ah, the Russian ship Kamchatka! Constantly under attack by Japanese torpedo boats.


67 posted on 02/12/2020 2:32:40 PM PST by hanamizu
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