Comments by "Doug JB" (@dougjb7848) on "The Drydock - Episode 150" video.
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@lord_crush777
Meaning “all eight battleships are utterly destroyed?”
First, ask yourself how much the least damaged of the PH battleships (_Nevada_
Pennsylvania Tennessee Maryland contributed to the US war effort between their return to active service and early 1943, when US amphibious landings begin marching west across the Pacific.
Answer? Not much.
Second, ask yourself how much of a handicap the amphibious landings in 1943 would have faced without gunfire support from those four PH survivors.
Answer? They would have been handicapped, but likely still successful, because the USN would have transferred all its old battleships that were doing literally anything else into the Pacific to support those landings.
Third, would the Southern Force broken through at Surigao Strait if the USN force were without the PH survivors?
Likely not.
So, I do not believe that the utter destruction of the eight battleships at PH would have caused serious consequences. In fact, not-putting so much effort into recovering, repairing and modernizing 25 year old battleships might have allowed the USN to put the first of the Essex class into the water earlier, or complete all four Iowas soon enough, and with enough “big gun ship” need still evident, that the Montana class would have few been built. Heck, maybe the USN would have been able to start building the Midway class before the war ended!
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@lord_crush777
Meaning “all eight battleships are utterly destroyed?”
First, ask yourself how much the least damaged of the PH battleships ( Nevada
Pennsylvania Tennessee Maryland contributed to the US war effort between their return to active service and early 1943, when US amphibious landings begin marching west across the Pacific.
Answer? Not much.
Second, ask yourself how much of a handicap the amphibious landings in 1943 would have faced without gunfire support from those four PH survivors.
Answer? They would have been handicapped, but likely still successful, because the USN would have transferred all its old battleships that were doing literally anything else into the Pacific to support those landings.
Third, would the Southern Force broken through at Surigao Strait if the USN force were without the PH survivors?
Likely not.
So, I do not believe that the utter destruction of the eight battleships at PH would have caused serious consequences. In fact, not-putting so much effort into recovering, repairing and modernizing 25 year old battleships might have allowed the USN to put the first of the Essex class into the water earlier, or complete all four Iowas soon enough, and with enough “big gun ship” need still evident, that the Montana class would have few been built. Heck, maybe the USN would have been able to start building the Midway class before the war ended!
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