Glad we beat them back then, glad they are on our side nowadays as China continues to grow.
Coming in 2009, the new "Helicopter Carrying Destroyer" Hyuga.
Hmmmm.....looks like she could carry more than just a few choppers. A few JSF's perhaps?
I'm not so sure the sun ever really shone on the IJN. Maybe for an hour or two at most. Check out
http://www.combinedfleet.com/economic.htm
for a good write-up about what Japan was getting into even starting a war with the US, and what might have happened *even if Japan had won at Midway*. Regardless, it was a great victory, especially for the codebreakers, without whose help, our carriers would not have been lying in wait at Midway for the Japanese fleet.
Ah yes I am very familar with Combined Fleet.com :-)
One point regards Japan and US production capablity. IIRC Grumman Aircraft Company by itself produced almost as many aircraft as all of Japan during WW-II!!!
The IJN was a tough foe and very well trained. The IJN aircraft, fleet and men were superior in most cases to the US Navy at the START of WW-II. Midway was a very near thing for the U.S. even with the codebreaking work of CMD Rochefort and the code gang at Pearl.
What must be considered is what would have happened had the US lost at Midway. Had the IJN vanquished the American Fleet and occupied Midway that would have left the US Navy with only two carriers, Saratoga and Ranger, with Ranger being a stretch. The first of the Essex class carriers were roughly 6 months out from being in service. .
The loss of Midway would have hampered the submarine campaign against Japan as the fleet subs used Midway as a topping off point for fuel and provisions both coming and going.
Without the use of Hornet and Enterprise the Guadalcanal campaign would probably not have been fought. With the Japanese occuping the Solomons the supply line to Australia is subject to interdiction. To prevent this is why Nimitz and the US launched the Guadalcanal Campaign.
Yes I do believe the the US Navy would have prevailed against the IJN eventually but it would have been a lot longer and bloodier campaign.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Glad we beat them back then, glad they are on our side nowadays as China continues to grow.
Coming in 2009, the new "Helicopter Carrying Destroyer" Hyuga.
Hmmmm.....looks like she could carry more than just a few choppers. A few JSF's perhaps?
The first A6M Zero prototype went to the airfield in a ox cart. They didn’t use a truck ‘cause the roads were so bad that the aircraft carried that way were damaged; they didn’t use a railroad because there wasn’t one between factory and the airfield.
In the US, we would have called that a “clue.”