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Originally Posted by von_noobie
Ok, true there were only the possibility of 2 carriers been sunk at Hawii, But it is a what if so lets stick with the 5 carriers of this topic.
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We can do that.
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Originally Posted by von_noobie
Midway - Yes it had a powerful air group, But didnt it take a masive beating in the opening Japanese air strike on the Island, So that air group wouldnt help at all, The planes were destroyed or damaged on the ground, and the yanks got real busy running around removing bombs and munitions to prevent secondary explosions. The Japanese invasion force my take severe infantry casualties (MAY) but they still had to do there shore bombardment, who knows what effect that could have on the defending Infantry.
Simply, The Americans could not hold midway with out here carriers, The Japanese force simply would have over powered them.
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Whoops. No carriers=no Doolittle Raid=no Midway operation. Scratch this one out. Instead, in the Coral Sea, with no carriers,*maybe* Port Moresby gets taken. On the other hand, the US may expend the resources to get land-based air in there, and stop the invasion in a different way, without a carrier battle. Unknown. Worst case? New Guinea is taken, and the Japanese get a lead in the Solomons.
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Originally Posted by von_noobie
Guadacanal - Ok, If the Americans destroyed the Japanese carriers at Midway then of course the Americans would win at Guadacanal, How ever, In this scenario the Japanese carriers were not able to be destroyed and as such would have been able to provide a security force until the air field was built up aswell as the Island defences.
Simply, Carriers provide defence until Guadacanal fully operational, Nothing the yanks can do about it any time soon.
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Soon being a year, perhaps. By early 1943, the Essex class is coming into service, along with the Independence CVLs, the Cleveland class cruisers, the first two new BB classes, and several new aircraft, including the Hellcat, the Corsair, the TBF, and the 5th Air Force probably gets built up quicker than it did (in reaction to the no carriers) to help defend Australia's lifelines. Remember, there were never any Japanese plans to take over Australia. They knew they didn't have the manpower, they were just going to isolate.
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Originally Posted by von_noobie
As for the Americans being able to put damaged or sunked carriers back into use, Possibly depending on there condiction, How ever, A ship, flooded, Hit numerous times by bombs and torpedos, As well as being flooded, Would take a long time to put back into action.
First they have to be refloated, then they have to basically rip the gutts out of them becouse its all been stuffed by water, As well as new flight decks, crew replacements and hull repair, This all assuming it structerly sound would take upto a year to complete, Minimum of 8 months. they would not make it to Midway And would be lucky to even have the possibilty of making Guadacanal.
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Moot point, really, with what I've written above. By early '43, the US industrial advantage would have done what it did historically, and the Japanese would lose their advantage. The war would still be won by the US, it would just cost more time, blood, and treasure, but, after an attack like Pearl Harbor, the US isn't going to want to make peace with the Japanese short of defeat.
I think more land-based air would have been thrown in to compensate for the carriers. Also, it might have put Torch off somewhat, as some of the manpower used for Torch, and some of the ships and planes would have been used to shore up Australia, so, the Guadalcanal situation might not be as bad as it seems in your writing above. Lots of maybes and what-ifs and other variables in this whole scenario, really.