Posted on 11/05/2013 4:27:14 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
And with the spare change of our engineering and industrial base, build two different types of atomic weapons. In 1943, every developed country in the world had physicists who knew that it was possible to build atomic weapons. But not one of them considered it feasible to actually try to do so because they lacked any spare industrial capacity for the effort. Except us.
But as for the US Navy, and the massive Pacific Fleet, take a look at the Alaska Class Large Cruisers.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/1201/040201.htm
In reality, she was a 27,000 ton battlecruiser, the first built in a generation. In the photos, you can see she was an absolutely beautiful ship. She and her two sisters were also completely superfluous. We didn’t need them. The only reason we built them was because we thought the Japanese were building something comparable.
And that was the difference between the United States and every other nation at war. They all scraped together whatever they could to make what they absolutely needed to fight the war. In the case of the USSR, they made about 20,000 variants of the T-34, but almost no trucks or radios. The Germans could only make 5000 Panthers. We made not only what we needed, but we made whole weapons systems because we wanted to and we could.
Excellent points, henkster. I agree the Alaska was beautiful - and huge. There’s an aerial shot of her tied up next to the Missouri and she’s not a whole lot smaller. Very impressive ship.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.