Japanese attack Setember 4th 1939 how far will the Japs get before the US musters the strength to stop them and drive them back
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 Razor |
Simple premise re pearl harbour |
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Posts: 404 (11-May-2008 23:36:10) |
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bager1968 |
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Posts: 2930 (12-May-2008 03:25:24) |
Well, in September 1939, all the Japanese fleet would possibly catch is a few destroyers, subs, and smaller ships, and maybe a visiting cruiser, carrier or
battleship.
Pearl Harbor was only a resupply & forward operating base until 1941! The US Pacific Fleet (the battleships, and most of the cruisers & carriers) was based in San Diego, CA and San Francisco, CA (with smaller parts in Long Beach, CA and Bremerton, WA) until June 1940, when President Roosevelt ordered the fleet moved to PH. Even then, work on modifying PH to actually properly support the fleet was still not complete on Dec. 7, 1941. So your 1939 attack fills no real function except to warn the US in time to have the entire Pacific Fleet at sea and formed up for battle well before the Japanese fleet gets anywhere near the US west coast. If you want to attack the US Pacific fleet in its anchorage in 1939, you have to attack 2 widely separated main bases... both located on the mainland, and within support range of several air bases... which further spreads your attack forces if you want to destroy those aircraft on the ground. All in all, a 1939 attack angers the USA just as much, but damages the US Pacific Fleet even less, regardless of where the attack takes place. |
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SMS12 |
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Posts: 694 (12-May-2008 04:09:31) |
Assuming the Pacific Fleet is visiting PH at the time, the IJN strike will be 1/3 weaker. The two Shōkaku-class carriers were not in commission at
that time and, I think, Hiryu was just in commisson so her air group will be green.
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Dolphinstriker |
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Posts: 1848 (12-May-2008 06:09:18) |
Assuming the Pacific Fleet is visiting PH at the time, the IJN strike will be 1/3 weaker. The two Shōkaku-class carriers were not in commission at that time and, I think, Hiryu was just in commisson so her air group will be green. Also, the Zero had just gone into volume production, if it can be called that, in March, 1939. Only 837 Zeros were produced in the three years between March, '39 and March, '42, so there probably won't be many aboard the four Japanese fleet carriers in September, '39. Most carriers will still have A5M1 or A5M4 "Claudes" as their fighter planes. No Vals because they didn't enter volume production until December, 1939. The IJN still used a bi-plane dive-bomber called the Aichi D1A2, code named "Susie". It could carry a 250kg bomb and do all of 167 knots. It's combat range was about 200 nm. B5N1 "Kates" were available in numbers. Fewer experienced "China hands" as pilots too, since the air war in China didn't really get started until mid 1938, but I guess that's Ok since, as Badger pointed out, there won't be that many targets at PH.
Last Edited By: Dolphinstriker
12-May-2008 06:20:08.
Edited 3 times.
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Dave Bender |
Japanese attack Setember 4th 1939 | ||
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Posts: 6489 (12-May-2008 15:18:36) |
Rather unlikely as Japan was just finishing up the Manchurian war with the Soviet Union in September 1939. They lost that conflict because the small
Japanese economy could not supply enough artillery ammunition to the Imperial Japanese Army. Adding the US as an enemy under those circumstances would be
rather outlandish even by WWII Japanese standards. The Imperial Japanese Army would flat out refuse to supply troops for this adventure.
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