wdolson
Posts: 7110
Joined: 6/28/2006 From: Near Portland, OR Status: offline
|
I think most American adults would need to look too. On average, Americans are terrible at Geography. The Germans did take advantage of the US being brought into the war to move many u-boats within US continental waters. What ASW ships the US had were out in the middle of the Atlantic, leaving the coast undefended. With no blackouts in US cities, the u-boats preyed on tankers traveling from Texas up to Nova Scotia and sank many of them. The Germans knew that oil was a critical need in England and their goal was to sink enough tankers right after the US's entry to force the UK out of the war. They did a lot of damage, but ultimately failed in that goal. I agree with the others who have said that late 41 or early 42 was the only window of opportunity for the Japanese. The DEI was fortifying and replacing all their aging aircraft with new planes from the US, McArthur was making some progress fortifying Luzon, and the Japanese knew the US was undergoing a massive naval build up. The gun club running the IJN probably wasn't too concerned about the new Essex class carriers due for 1943, but there were several fast battleships due in 1942. By the end of 1942 the US was going to have significantly more BBs than Japan with about 1/3 of them being brand new, fast BBs. As it turned out they were mostly a waste of steel, but few knew that in 1941. Japan's only hope was to hit the Allies hard before they had a chance to strengthen their defenses and before the oil ran out. I believe they had enough oil stockpiled to last about 8 months in December 1941. Bill
_____________________________
WitP AE - Test team lead, programmer
|