Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Impact of Mahan on Naval History - Decisively more than just battles" video.

@redaethel4619 probably not. :^) The entire can would probably do an imitation of the "crumple zone" on cars today, absorbing the impact by being crushed. If I was going the brute force route, I would pick some decrepit old tub, like Arkansas or Nevada: slower, but a lot more mass and much more stoutly built. Only critical factor is how deep the water is around the fort.
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So Mahan advocated for bases and protection of the supply lines to those bases. Yet, just as Mahan was doing all this scribbling, the US took the Philippines and Guam, both having very nice harbors, from Spain, but the US did not take the rest of the Marianas and Carolines from Spain at the same time, leaving the door open for a hostile power to take those islands and stand astride the supply lines to Guam and the Philippines. First Germany, a nation later hostile to the US, bought those islands from Spain. Then the Japanese, later very very hostile to the US, took those islands from Germany. Then the US garrison in the Philippines was cut off and starved, because the US couldn't run the gauntlet of enemy bases to relieve the Philippines, just as Mahan warned could happen. How could the US miss something so obvious?
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@WALTERBROADDUS The US Asiatic squadron didn't have a port it could call it's own. What the Philippines and Guam have in common are very nice harbors. I figure the US knew exactly what it was about. The interesting thing is. shortly after the battle, the German squadron showed up and behaved very aggressively against Dewey's squadron. Ultimately, Germany backed down from it's interest in grabbing the Philippines. Interesting to ponder for a moment, if the Germans had been successful in pushing Dewey out and taking the Philippines for themselves. Then, Japan would have rolled up the Philippines in 1914, when they rolled up most of the other German possessions in the Pacific. Then, in 41, Japan could attack Malaya, without so much as a speed bump in their way.
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@Knight6831 I don't think the US getting involved over a handful of US citizens on a British flag ship would happen. Lusitania was sunk in May of 15. The US didn't get into WWI until after Germany had had a long running sabotage program in the US destroying property and killing Americans, and after Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in Feb 17 and sinking US flagged ships, and after Germany tried to induce Mexico to commit to invading the US, if the US entered the war on the UK's side. If "something" significant enough to bring the US in, in 39, did happen, two outcomes: 1: the US sends troops and equipment into France during the sitzkreig, aka "phony war", strengthening defenses enough that the Battle of France in May-June of 40 bogs down into a rerun of WWI. or 2: the US doesn't move until the invasion of France. France's collapse was so fast the US would not be able to intervene on the ground, so the balance of 40 and 41 go as they did historically: the US providing material to the UK so they can hang on, while US forces are built up enough to intervene effectively.
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@WALTERBROADDUS Teddy was Assistant SecNav, until May 10th. Dewey attacked Manila on May 1. I supposed it's possible that an Assistant SecNav could order/motivate offensive actions in the far east. Teddy seems to have had more foresight than any ten other people and would be most likely to see the value of the bases. His quick departure for the army would explain the US' lack of follow-through in taking the rest of the Marianas and Carolines to protect the supply line to the Philippines. By the time Teddy was VP March of 01, where he could make things happen on a national/global scale again, it was too late. Germany had already moved.
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@WALTERBROADDUS agreed. It would have taken something horrendous to get the US in that early. I really can't imagine what the Germans would have been motivated to do at that point. Maybe, in 40, after the fall of France, and the UK refused to sue for peace, and FDR was shipping as much material to the UK as he could get a way with, the Germans might be motivated to do something provocative: like having U-Boats in US territorial waters, laying right off NY and Boston harbors, sinking everything in sight. If Germany had not suspended unrestricted submarine warfare in 1915, it could have brought the US into the war then, instead of the US entering the war when unrestricted sub warfare was resumed in Feb of 17.
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@WALTERBROADDUS thanks. I have not studied the Spanish-American war enough to know all those details. As said in my earlier post, Teddy would have been the one to pull off something like that, and his diversion into the army at that critical time explains the lack of follow-through to secure the rest of the Marianas and Carolines. Have you identified the strength of the naval forces the other powers sent to Manila at that time? I have ID'd the German ships: 3-protected cruisers, 1-unprotected cruiser and 1 obsolete ironclad.
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