What if the Americans never made any mistakes in their procurement decisions.

[Kevin J]

The only possible mistake that I can see is:-
1. Not making any F5F Skyrockets.
2. Building the Buccaneer / Bermuda.
The only problem here is that if Skyrocket production is subcontracted to Brewster, its sure to be a failure.
3. Not enough Dominators built. I'd have used R-2800s without turbo superchargers to power it.

Any more ideas, guys?

 

[Peter Gunn]

Send a team of covert operatives to England, cronk Stanley Hooker over the head and spirit him to Detroit, chain him to a bench at the Allison division of GM and say "Supercharger".

 

[Kevin J]

Send a team of covert operatives to England, cronk Stanley Hooker over the head and spirit him to Detroit, chain him to a bench at the Allison division of GM and say "Supercharger".

I thought he stumbled on the supercharger idea by accident. Nice idea though.

 

[pbehn]

Those are the only mistakes made? Take a look at what aircraft the USA had in service at the time of Pearl Harbor and think again.

 

[Kevin J]

Those are the only mistakes made? Take a look at what aircraft the USA had in service at the time of Pearl Harbor and think again.

There's nothing wrong with either a P-40B/C or F4F-3 Wildcat vs the Zero. The problem at Pearl was the warning signs were ignored. The Japanese midget sub sunk, the radar readings being ignored. Even a P-36a scored a victory at Pearl.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

"What if the Americans never made any mistakes in their procurement decisions?"
You mean, like the mighty British?
Never happen! We're uniquely American.

 

[pbehn]

There's nothing wrong with either a P-40B/C or F4F-3 Wildcat vs the Zero. The problem at Pearl was the warning signs were ignored. The Japanese midget sub sunk, the radar readings being ignored. Even a P-36a scored a victory at Pearl.

I just mean the numbers in service, not the design.

 

[Kevin J]

I just mean the numbers in service, not the design.

IIRC, the IJN only had about 300 Zeroes. The USN had 195 F4F-3, 131 P-40B, 193 P-40C plus P-38's, P-39's, P-40E's. Scattered around the Pacific and the continental USA. What's that? Another 1000 fighters?

 

[XBe02Drvr]

IIRC, the IJN only had about 300 Zeroes. The USN had 195 F4F-3, 131 P-40B, 193 P-40C plus P-38's, P-39's, P-40E's. Scattered around the Pacific and the continental USA. What's that? Another 1000 fighters?

What counts is the numbers on scene, not the numbers in service. And the numbers alone don't tell the story; as we all know, tactics and training were inappropriate for the threat at hand, due to lack of intelligent use of available intelligence.
Cheers,
Wes

 

[pbehn]

IIRC, the IJN only had about 300 Zeroes. The USN had 195 F4F-3, 131 P-40B, 193 P-40C plus P-38's, P-39's, P-40E's. Scattered around the Pacific and the continental USA. What's that? Another 1000 fighters?

Basically I meant a change to the politics and procurement with everything pushed 18 months to 2 years back in terms of the urgency of the situation. going back to the early 30s, but in a democracy such things arent easy.

 

[syscom3]

Those are the only mistakes made? Take a look at what aircraft the USA had in service at the time of Pearl Harbor and think again.

Look at all the aircraft designs that were in the prototype stage in Dec 1942.

There was nothing wrong with what we had at that time.

 

[nuuumannn]

You mean, like the mighty British?
Never happen! We're uniquely American.

Winston Churchill once said, "You can count on Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else!"

 

[GrauGeist]

I just mean the numbers in service, not the design.

The U.S. was on the tail-end of the great depression and the military budget was less than a shoe-string.

Which is one reason that Pearl Harbor was a debacle - the Navy's budget dictated that all non-essential personnel would not be on duty on the weekends due to payroll cuts.

Add to that, short-staffing and limited asset purchases (by all branches).

 

[Shortround6]

Send a team of covert operatives to England, cronk Stanley Hooker over the head and spirit him to Detroit, chain him to a bench at the Allison division of GM and say "Supercharger".

Unfortunately that would be another American Mistake. Allison was in Indianapolis Indiana.

 

[Peter Gunn]

Unfortunately that would be another American Mistake. Allison was in Indianapolis Indiana.

When you're born and raised in the Metro Detroit area, ALL GM divisions are in DEETROIT...

 

[XBe02Drvr]

When you're born and raised in the Metro Detroit area, ALL GM divisions are in DEETROIT...

Another all-American top-down solution! Got to process him in with HR before you can put him to work.

 

[Kevin J]

Actually, you could probably add the early version P-39's. If us Brits thought in October 41 that it would take 6 months to wring out the bugs, and the Soviets didn't deploy it till summer 42, then the USAAF deployment of it to the Pacific in early 42 was clearly premature, earning itself not the best of reputations.

 

[Peter Gunn]

Also, both Indianapolis and Indiana are figments of imagination, they don't really exist.

 

[michael rauls]

Maybe this is as much a design discision as procurement but no drop tanks for the p47 comes to mind.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

Also, both Indianapolis and Indiana are figments of imagination, they don't really exist.

Kinda like Shangri-la, huh? Lest ye forget what came out of Shangri-la on Patriots Day 1942, even mythical places can bite you in the butt if you show it at them.