Japan would have capitulated if the US was willing to spend the time in a blockade/siege without doing an invasion.
It would have cost millions more in Japanese lives from starvation and LeMay's forces burning down everything but the smallest hamlet.
What was missing was the willingness to...
According to the wikipedia, the 747 took about 4 years from design begin to certification. So something like 3 to 5 years from a order being placed until ready to go.
The 2nd strike against Pearl took heavier losess due to the guncrews being ready. In a warned situation....the AA guns are crewed and ready and a stiff defense is immediately offered. To say nothing of the disruption a mass of defensive fighters over Pearl could have caused. The Japanese...
I have wondered at that myself. I know the conventional wisdom is war is inevitable...but I do question that. If Japan showed a degree of restraint and went after only the Dutch Indies and other non-US terroritories...and kept up a drumbeat of "we are fighting Europeans...not Americans" and...
rockets were carried on PTs to use against Japanese powered barges from what I remember. Targets with a draft too shallow for torpedos of the era to reliably work against. So you basically are talking a smaller, less well-armed PT and I don't really see a mission such a boat fills better than...
I doubt the changes caused by this weapon not being built would be noticeable in terms of invested men and material. it was clearly a waste, but the percentage it represented in terms of what Germany was generating is so small it disappears in the rounding errors.
If Lance Henriksen played the Terminator, I think the movie would have a different feel. Closer to the horror movie it almost is (Halloween with guns). If Robert Patrick played the role in T2... the film series would have a nice realistic adjustment in that you couldn't immediately identify a...
I think a large part of it simply that people do not really know WWII and how horrible it was. Their basic knowledge is Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. They don't know Pelileu or Iwo Jima or okinowa. They think the single most destructive air-raid of the entire war (pacific and european...
the only way I see is some technology advances that require a vehicle THAT big but provides a way to protect it. Say laser weaponry good enough to detonate incoming artillery shells and missiles. Running that would require a LOT of power. Nuclear or a pile of gas-turbines and bunkers of...
Hello,
I am contemplating a story set in the 1890s. Correct infantry usage of rifles is something I'd like to depict (British and American armies at this time). Can anybody point me to something like a field manual for infantry from that time frame? A document that would be a training...
If you want to revive the battleship I think you need a very strong anti-missile/aircraft defense coupled with an offensive capability with more range than the old-style cannons that is cheaper than an airstrike. Either lasers or railguns have the potential to be able to destroy any missile or...
The open battle of the Falkland Islands war, you had the Royal Marines using a Carl Gustov recoil-less rifle as anti-shipping ordnance. Didn't sink the ship they were shooting at...but they did more than scorch the paint.
RPGs have been used as anti-helicopter weaponry.