Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "USS North Carolina - Guide 071" video.
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Excellent explanation why one battleship sometimes emerged from 20 or more designs, even some that look ridiculous today. Also a good explanation for why theBrtish wan'ted to hold to, or even lower, treaty tonnages for all ships covered by the treaties. not just battleships.
I don't think the British ever took the Japanese navy seriously, or understood the threat they were to their Pacific colonies. I think they thought the Pacific was the US Med, and we would handle things there. Ultimately, of course, we did, but not for almost three years, and not before Britain lost everything but Australia and New Zealand. It's said the the fall of Singapore nearly gave Churchill a stroke, and he thought it was worst British defeat in the history of the Empire.The British Pacific fleet arrived only in late 1944, when naval power became less important in the war with Germany, and the US was beginning to liberate former British territories with no care if the British got them back again. The BPF served as what was hoped to be a trump card against US territorial appetites and a power in being to put down those pesky attempts of the colonies to become independent. Once again, the British seemed to have no idea how radically the tides of politics had changed since 1939. The BPF was costly and never had any real influence on regaining the colonies nor the outcome of the war.
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OK, Sempill sounds like a fascist, a Japanophile, and someone deeply in debt who needed money. He was protected in part because prosecuting him would reveal the British had broken the Japanese codes and in part because of the class and noble system at that time. It's one reason why I'm glad that kind of system doesn't exist in the US. I suspect, like most good diplomats, that he also knw about skeletons in the closets of those who might have had him prosecuted, including Churchill. That, however, is only guess. What none of this shows is exactly what kind of secrets he was passing to the Japanese and how damaging to the British and/or the US.
The Japanese had very little interest in British aircraft after about 1930 beyond flying boats. They knew the US was their real enemy and the one they would have to defeat before they ever took on the British. The Japanese developed carrier aircraft far superior to anything Britain possed in the 30's. There were very few British FAA fighters that were superior to the Zero in the whole of the war, and a majority of planes were either things like the ancient Swordfish, or US aircraft like the Wildcat, Avenger, and Corsair. Actually, I can't think of a single British aircraft type on British carriers of the Pacific Fleet. They were all American made. I don't think information passed on to the Japanese in 1941, the latest year he could have had access to secret data on British naval aircraft, would have been have much help to the Japanese.
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No, that was the Battle off Samar. The battle of Leyte Gulf was much larger than that one engagement. While it was certainly a heroic fight, the idea that a couple of destroyer escorts fought off the whole Japanese fleet is just wrong. The order of battle was 3 destroyers, 4 DE's, and 6 escort carriers with 400 aircraft. The Japanese had a mere 13 floatplanes. It was the aircraft from the escort carriers that really saved the day for Taffy 3. The destroyers and DE's radar fire control that gave the US vessels such accurate gunfire, especially from the five inch guns of the destroyers and even the single five incher's from the escort carriers, harried and even sunk a few ships, with aid of down the throat torpedo attacks. Brave as they were, only one of the seven DD's and DE's wasn't sunk or badly damaged when the battle was broken off. Still, without those aircraft from the escort carriers making such sustained and effective attacks, it's unlikely Admiral Kurita would have broken off the attack.
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