Freebird, I give up. If your line of reason is accurate, the Brits never lost Singapore. The place was indefensible from the start. Not doubting your facts but the interpetation of them all means the disaster that was the defense of Singapore never happen. It did, it was a complete cockup...
Point came up that Germany expanded it's Army in the early 30s and England did not. At the time, Britain was working under the "Ten Year Plan" (or rule or some such). Idea behind it was if there was no war on the horizon for 10 years, the defense budget would be kept to a minimum. Even with...
Very true. But it also lead them to war earlier than they wanted to. Hitler was shooting for 1945, but the failure of Western Democracies at Munich led him to the conclusion he could go with what he had. The guy always was a gambler.
On another point, all that expansion of the military put...
Remember it. Was in college. Very dim memory. I recall they hit all the targets. At least that was what I recall. Had some collateral damage from one of the F111s dropping it's load after taking a missle. Probably the one that is missing.
Things were quiet over there after that. He got the...
Kinda. Well, maybe. The thing is, Singapore is right in a key trade route. England is a trading country so they control the space. Similar to the logic of Gibraltor, Cape Town, Aden, The Falklands, ect. Gives you presence in the area.
Part of the presence is a kind of "Don't screw with us"...
About 1100 miles from Gibralter to Malta whereas Columbo to Singapore is about 1700 miles. Figure a fast convoy does about 10 knots, that is 4.5 days to Malta and and another two days ( or 7 days total) to Singapore from Columbo. Not a drastic difference. Both Convoys would start out in a...
Agreed. Wouldn't think of it being ignored, more worn down to the point of collapse or invasion. It would not be in the Japanese character to run a long siege but it was a possibility. Especially with the option of Singapore being a thorn in the side of the Japanese.
However, that being said...
Freebird, thanks for the response. I'm not sold on the viability of it as it, taken as a whole, leads to the Dominion forces not losing the Penisula and Singapore. But they did. While many of your points have validity, one has to accept the history is what it is.
For instance, while the RAF...
I had heard about those training setups. I think it is referred to in the book "Dreadnaught". They were also used for an annual training/wargame which culminated in the Kaiser getting on a horse and leading a totally unrealistic calvary charge that swept the field. Evidently, after a lot of...
Or the training wasn't useful in the circumstances that occured. I would think along the lines of the Vic V Finger Four in the Battle of Britian or early war US Tank doctrine (something of an armored calvary charge into German guns that were hidden or at least more battlewise to show less to the...
I agree with you. P40 has the main advantage of being available. But in the form of the late 30s/early 40s airframe, the old P36 version, it really wasn't a second gen aircraft. Needs a bit of reworking. But, as they say, the perfect is the enemy of the good enough. In the early war period, it...
There really isn't much to do beyond putting the P40 up. If the P51/F4U are out of the picture, the P47 is already up and P38 is moving along, only the Packard engined P40 is left. Maybe the P63 but that was a fighter from a time gone by (local defense) and all the action was in the attack end...
Agreed, training is important. Not saying it isn't. I was thinking of the old expression "Three minutes in combat is worth 2 years of training". I guess it supposes you survive you first three minutes.
But given two armies that are trained (and the Japanese army was well trained if it was...
Yeah, that was not a very powerful Engine (80HP?). Add that to the Eindecker being not the most easy aircraft to fly and all that weight was a problem.