Posted on 12/31/2019 12:28:21 PM PST by artichokegrower
Americans have never accepted defeat easily. Not in sports, not in politics, not in warfare. Defeats in battle have only been sustained, in the American psyche, when the enemy has resorted to treachery, or the soldiers defending a given position were overcome by overwhelming odds, despite heroic and inspiring resistance.
(Excerpt) Read more at toptenz.net ...
“FDR knew the attack was at Pearl, why else were all the aircraft carriers gone that day?”
Dumb luck.
In his biography, Saburo Sakai said that early in the war, the American pilots were excellent. Their planes weren’t.
As the war progressed, American planes were superior. He said the B-29 was faster than the Zero he flew early in the war.
“Sorry, but he knew....”
Because a good conspiracy theory must never be denied
Gen St. Claire’s defeat happened at what is now Fort Recovery Oh. My grandmother (mom’s)had a farm where I dug up 3 soldiers as a boy. On my dad’s farm they camped the night before on the creek which is a quarter mile from where the Missinawa river springs forth. Near and dear to my formative upbringing.
I read that too. The advantage the Japanese had was actual combat experience. And once the Americans worked out decent tactics the tables turned dramatically. The Thatch Weave particularly. But at the time of PH the Japanese were the best Naval AF on Earth.
Agree and I should have said “Autobiography”.
Thanks for posting!
I read the different comments above and spent some time looking up Battle of the Wabash and the following Battle of Fallen Timbers. Then I did some research on Confederate black powder VS Union. I hadn’t planned on commenting on this thread. But I did have a question.
“... where I dug up 3 soldiers as a boy”
What did you do with them?
While Wake Island was lost it gave the japs their first black eye from us in the war. It took them two tries to take it.
He may have known, or because of the Japs having changed plans for some ships under construction, and making carriers out of them, our military had to step up the carrier groups training.
As far as the battleships being tightly packed: they were at their usual moorings. Of course, an aerial attack was probably thought unlikely back when those moorings were built.
The 1st one was sometimes called “The Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks” because we lost five cruisers that night. That led to a new name for the straits off of Savo Island—Ironbottom Sound.
Yeah, but no excuse for MacArthur sitting in Malacañang Palace AFTER hearing about Pearl and keeping the B-17s at Clark Field all day. We lost them all when we should have been bombing Formosa.
Sometime read the real story about the Americans at Clark Field. They were taking extraordinary measures including keeping the planes in the air.
They had to land to refuel and it was right then when the Japanese attacked.
Bump
They’re forgotten because the loser eventually won the war.
I did!
Brereton, the base commander, repeatedly called Sutherland, MacArthur’s Air Chief, to get MacArthur’s approval to attack but he was DENIED—nine hours AFTER Pearl. Brereton had them up flying around all morning waiting for the signal for Mac to come. He landed them around at 10:30 AM to refuel—only THEN did Mac authorize the mission and that’s when the Jap planes hit.
Had we gone in after we heard about the attack at Pearl, we would have? Who knows? Probably still lost the Philippines but at least done some damage.
What a mess. we lost 18 B-17s on the ground.
Interior lines as well.
If the Union had adopted Winfield Scott's "Anaconda Plan" at the beginning rather than a year+ later, the war would have been quicker and much less bloody! If Scott wasn't 74, aged and ailing, he might have been able to push this plan. Alt-history is always a fun mind game!
I would count the Battle of Mogadishu as a military defeat. I doubt most young adults know of it.
I would count the Battle of Mogadishu as a military defeat. I doubt most young adults know of it.
FDR was a treasonous rat. People will mostly ignore your post because a lot of people don’t want to acknowledge how long the enemy has been tearing down and working against the country.
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