Re: Wake Island reinforced
Even Buffaloes would have proven useful. As at Midway they were fully capable of making at a minimum a first pass on Japanese bombers successfully and causing considerable damage. It is in the following mix up with the escorts they had problems. At Wake the Japanese G3M bombers would have had no escort and proved easy meat even for the F3A.
Had the US gone all-out and actually managed the landing of an additional Marine defense battalion, in its entirety, I doubt Japan would have taken the island at all. This doesn't mean Wake would have proved much use to the US until at least late 1942 but, it might have held giving the US a much needed political victory.
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