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Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman
How many of those radar battlewagons where sunk at pearl?
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Most.
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Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman
Arguably radar was the ONLY advantage the Americans had during the first half of the war.
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That, and having broken the Japanese naval ciphers. Both of which led directly to the Japanese losing at Midway to the inferior American ships.
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Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman
Japan had superior carriers
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Not really. They just a lot more of them.
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Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman
superior carrier aircraft and their battlewagons where bigger and superior to anything the American fleet could boast. their cruisers where also superior, the only real advantage America had was in her escorts. US submarines where nothing less than a joke in the early stages of the war as they didn't have any torpedos worth a damn.
In an open battlewagon to battlewagon engagement the American fleet would never of stood a chance. Ironicly by sinking the big guns at pearl, Japan removed her best chance of winning a decisive engagement against the US fleet in open water. carrirs where only beginning to be understood and developed by the US admiralty, losing their battleships forced American admirals to rely on their carriers and develp them into war winning weapons later in the campaighn.
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All true. See my point above regarding Midway.
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Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman
There is no way to get out of the fact that it was numerical superiority in carriers and aircraft that beat the Japanese, not quality.
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This is not an accurate reflection of what happened. The US was kicking Japanese butt long before the US achieved numerical superiority. Numerical superiority allowed the US to shorten the war, but the Japanese would have lost it even had the US fleet never surpassed the Japanese fleet in numbers. The simple fact is that the Japanese did not have the logistics to maintain their fleet and the US developed superior aircraft in 1942, which even in inferior numbers would have been enough to crush the Japanese fleet. The Japanese couldn't replace their losses at the rate they were suffering them, even before the US swamped them with numbers.