Who do you think had better control of the Pacific? I mean I believe in a strong navy and think that the allies had a stronger one than any other. Who do you think had better ships and subs too?
well that has two parts...depends on the time you are refering to...who had better control and better ships...probably Japan until about Guadalcanal ended. By the time Gaudalcanal was evacuated by the Japanese in early 1943...the new generation of cruisers, destroyers, battleships and carriers were starting to enter service in greater numbers. also by this time the US was REALLY cracking down on Japanese shipping through submarines... The Japanese carrier airarms were a fraction of what they had been only a year previous and because of Midway their power had been severely restricted. The Japanese still had a threating destroyer/ cruiser force...but because of allied improvements in gunnery radar...their night tactics were not as succesful as earlier (RADAR sees farther than human eyes!) at the same time the US was growing at a huge rate...Gunnery RADAR was being perfected closing the gap the japanese had in there night tactics...more reliable torpedoes...the essex class carriers were about to be introduced...escort carriers were being introduced...Fletcher class destroyers were coming out in large numbers...we had a large nuber of well trained airmen, and a solid program to produce future skilled airmen...Washington and South Dakota Class battleships were on the scene....and the marines the japanese learned were a force to be reconed with!. I would say that from Dec. 7th 1941- the japanese withdrawl from Guadalcanal in early 1943...the Japanese had more control over the pacific....From then to the end of the war the US had seized control and it was only a matter of trying to take the territory from the Japanese...who could put up a fight but could never get an upper hand again. ------------------ Admiral William "Bull" Halsey... There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
What a response! I have nothing left to say, cause I think you have said it all. I agree with everything too, keep it up, I like these detailed posts.
What is this Gaudalcanal you are talking about? Some naval base the Japanese has occupied I guess. How did that open the way for all those new ships?
Guadalcanal is located in the south pacific at the end of the solomon Islands chain. Here is a map to help put things into perspective. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/pacificwar/pacwar.gif If you look...the solomon islands run upwards toward New Guinie...that large island leads to the southern part of the Phillipines. the allies had two plans of attack against the Japanese...South pacific campaign led by MacArthur and the army...also the Central campaign led by the Navy and Marines. The Southern campaign was designed to make for the phillipines starting in the Solomon islands (guadalcanal) and moving up New Guinie isolating pockets of resistence and invading what needed to be taken...(island hopping) with an end goal of liberating the philippines and the central campaign was designed to push for the Marianas islands chain (central pacific...and also on map) in order to aquire bases to start a bombing campaign of mainland Japan. Then the two forces would combine and push for Japan and take whatever was needed for the invasion (thus Iwo Jima and Okinawa) Guadalcanal was SO important because it was the BEGINNING of this strategy against Japan...and also it was the first allied offensive against japan. Guadalcanal had nothing to do with the warships i mentioned...it was the fact that...Guadalcanal was won without those new warships when the US navy was pretty much on par with Japan and it was very possible that Japan be able to counter the invasion of Guadalcanal. BUT they didn't and thats my point...if Japan couldn't defeat the US at that time...then there is no way Japan could hope in defeating the US once the new warships were finally introduced and put into action. By the time Guadalcanal ended in early 1943 the US were just starting to aquire the many Essex class fleet carriers and Princeton class escort carriers...as well as the many fletcher class destroyers that were laid down at the beginning of the war. Those new warships would not only replace our losses...but propell the US into having the largest navy ever! So if Japan couldn't check our offensive before those ships were introduced then there chances in the future seemed very slim! For more info about Guadalcanal here's a link giving more details about the many engagements on land and at sea! http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/brochures/72-8/72-8.htm i like your questions A.GREG! keep it up!!!
