1)What if the Japanese defense department came up with a carrier based plane that was actually ready to be used in early 1942 that had say 1 1/2-2 times the range of any actual carrier based fighters or bombers. Could they have exploited it to any decent advantage? If so how?

2)What if, prior to the Battle of Midway, Japanese communications weren't compromised. How would the battle have played out?

1. They would still be inpinged by the profound lack of fuel that affected pilot training, airplane production and fleet freedom of action. Since the "new" fighter would not be able to engage the US subs that were causing the shortages by ravaging the merchant fleet, there would be very little to no effect.

2. That would be nearly impossible to answer since we don't know what was in the mind of the US commander in the absence of knowledge concerning "AF."

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Best Regards,
JW

1) Welcome to the forum. I think you will enjoy your stay here.

2) Your post is what we call a 'What If', and these are generally placed in our 'What If' area. The What If's are the third forum down in the second group of forums on our main page (two tanks below this one). When you check back here again, do not be surprised if your thread has been moved there. We also have a "New Member" forum, which is where new members are encouraged to make a post and receive their welcome. The 'New Member' forum is the middle of the top three forums on the main page.

3) Having 150%-200% of the range historically available would obviously be a big 'potential' advantage in any carrier vs. carrier battles. If the Japanese codes had not been broken, I doubt there would have been a battle of midway, as the US carriers wouldn't have ventured forth blindly, IMO.

I don't think I have encountered this Idea before, so will have to start off slowly and go from there. With Japanese codes unbroken, and the Japanese carriers having a big advantage in strike radius over the US carriers, it's hard too imagine how the war would have progressed. In general, I believe that the Japanese would still suffer as much aircraft attrition, and that this would have the same effect as historically.

In short, the Japanese carriers would survive longer, but their air wings would still suffer causalities, and their replacements would still be of inferior quality due to the failure of the Japanese pilot training programs. I think that having these advantages would result in the Japanese being able to hold out for as much as a year to a year and a half longer than historical. Once the US began producing vast numbers of carriers brimming with fresh, well trained pilots equipped with F6F hellcats, the writing would be on the wall...

Good first post! Interesting, original and with a clear PoD {Point of Departure}.

Again, welcome too the forums!

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Maskirovka: Show the world one thing...then do another.

http://maskirovka.blogspot.com/

Beat you to it, Shadow Master. Moved the thread before you posted

BTW, welcome to the forums.

Phear der PanzerPenguin!

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Lol, so you did! Heh heh heh. BTW, I may be getting HoI2DD soon! Any pointers for a new guy?

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Maskirovka: Show the world one thing...then do another.

http://maskirovka.blogspot.com/

Plan ahead and focus research in specific areas, don't do broad spectrum (and only research a tech no more then 1 year advance).

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A first post and its a "what-if" already?


Oh and welcome

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Kool. Any suggestions where too play online? Preferably with WW2F.com members?

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Maskirovka: Show the world one thing...then do another.

http://maskirovka.blogspot.com/

For a guy who can provide such good advice to a newbie you show a surprisingly good ability to go off topic

Here's some good advice for you: have you ever heard of the Simulations and Gaming section in WWII Activities and Hobbies? http://www.ww2f.com/simulations-gaming/

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