el cid again
Posts: 14604
Joined: 10/10/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: YankeeAirRat Well considering that the builders, Harland and Wolf (the same who built the Olympic class of Ocean Liners for White Star along with 6 of late war carriers of the Commonwealth fleet); had rushed the launching so that it occured on the 20th of May in 1944; it would have only reasoned that outfitting of the carrier might have occured as early as 02DEC45. Remember that by May of 1944, the war in Europe was basically won and the CVE's had the battle of the Atlantic in the bag. From there the builders were also neck and almost nose deep in projects from refit/repairs of older ship to new build that they wouldn't have reasonably been able to finished the ship any sooner, the launch was probably done to free space on the slipways so that another ship could be laid down. Everyone was fighting for pierspace and resources to finish off thier ship, so it might have taken a while since an older ship or two would have been wanted over a new build simply because of the experience going on in the crew and the ability of a refit to get out faster then a new build. As to the HMS Pioneer, she was rushed because her mission had changed from that of a needed flight deck for the invasion of Japanese Home Islands into being a mobile aircraft repair depot. It would take some serious digging through the Royal Navy Archives at HMNB Portsmouth to even begin to dig through all the paperwork that went with the decisions near the end of the war for the UK with regards to the Royal Navy. I would also note that by 1944, for the Royal Navy they had 13 carriers in what would be considered "Fleet" class ready to assist the US 3rd and 7th Fleets in Operation Downfall and almost 20 CVE's of various times ready to assist as soon as they transferred from the Atlantic with other elements of the home fleet. So just like the later Essex class carriers, Montana class battleships, Midway class carriers and a few other early war builds that were in the slips or getting ready to head to the slips when the war was winding down in 1944. The logic of Scenario 105 differs from strict history in that Japan has planned better and converts more shadow program carriers sooner (in a couple of cases, avoiding their loss before conversion began). This was not apparent in 1941, but in 1942 it became clear the threat in PTO was greater than was actually the case IRL. Just as RN sent a carrier to back up USS Enterprise when she was alone (code named USS Robin for Robin Hood), so in 105 it makes some sacrifices to send more to PTO. This is a Japan Enhanced Scenario and its logic does NOT apply to scenarios 101 to 104 (which are essentially full blown and simplified, each with active and passive Russian options).
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