View Single Post
  #78 (permalink)  
Old July 9th, 2009, 07:23 PM
Devilsadvocate's Avatar
Devilsadvocate Devilsadvocate is offline
WW2F Veteran
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: St. Helens, OR
Posts: 2,085
Salute!: 34
Saluted 253 Times in 175 Posts
Devilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to allDevilsadvocate is a name known to all
Default Re: What if MacArthur goes on the offensive in the PI?

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Dudek View Post
"By March of 1942, the War Department planned to have 165 heavy bombers and 240 fighters based in the Philippines. The 7th Bombardment Group (H) staged in California and B-17s of its 38th and 88th Reconnaissance Squadrons were en route when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor" Taken from wiki.

That's just over 400 aircraft scheduled for delivery in March alone. Add six months to the equation and you wouldn't be far from the over all total.
I've read all of the Hyperwar stuff on the reinforcement of the Philippines and none of it adds up to the four US divisions, 44 submarines, and 1,000 planes you previously claimed.

Your conclusion that 400 aircraft were "scheduled" to arrive in March, 1942, is in error. The quotation says that "By March, 1942, the War Department planned to have 165 bombers and 240 fighters based in the Philippines." That includes units already there in 1941, and doesn't mean all those planes would be delivered in one month, nor does it mean that deliveries would continue at 400 planes a month.

Nice try, but there is no way the Philippines would be garrisoned with 1,000 modern combat aircraft by the fall of 1942. And Mac's pipe dream of 200,000 well-trained Filipino troops can be discounted. In actual fact, he barely was able to mobilize 80,000 poorly equipped and untrained Filipino troops, which despite their undoubted courage, were more or less worthless against the Japanese troops.