WHO WILL BE TAKEN TO THE WOODSHED?

Guest Post by Ol’ Remus

Tom Ricks says, at Task & Purpose:

The next time we have a big war, I think the Navy will be our armed service that is caught the most flat-footed… there is not a single person wearing a Navy uniform that has experienced a full-on attack by an enemy fleet.

Nor does any other existing Navy have experience with a full-on attack by an enemy fleet, but the point is well taken. The last time the US Navy faced an enemy fleet was 75 years ago in the Pacific. We were taken to the woodshed for a sound thrashing. Then we won.

There’s no mystery why we were kicked around like a rag doll in the first year of the war. The Japanese Navy outclassed us in every respect except anti-aircraft gunnery. They had better ships and more of ’em, better planes piloted by seasoned veterans, superb ship handling, better torpedoes—ours ran deeper than intended, had shorter range and faulty firing pins—and battle tactics tested and tempered in combat.

On our side of the ledger, we had broken their naval code. The Navy used this inside information to conduct guerilla war on the high seas. Even so, these hit-and-run ambushes rarely came out better than break even and often worse. They counted as victories in the headlines simply because we landed some punches. Yet our precariously small fleet was being whittled ever smaller with each engagement. There came a time when we asked the hard-pressed Royal Navy for help.

Eventually we won the war in the Pacific because, like a Broadway play, it came in three acts. By mid-1943 we were roughly equal, and by mid-1944 to war’s end the US Navy was the class act of the world’s navies, in all respects, as demonstrated in the gigantic Battle of Leyte Gulf. This was the largest sea battle of all time. The Japanese fleet suffered near-total destruction. What little was left was mostly damaged, many beyond repair and some sank days later while making their getaway. The survivors went into hiding.

Consider this. In December of 1941 when the war started both the US and Japan had six first line aircraft carriers actually deployed. During the war the Japanese added six fleet carriers, four light carriers and seven escort carriers. Although they were of somewhat less quality than their American counterparts, good enough is the gold standard in war.

After the initial engagements of that war there was a brief time when we had only one battle ready carrier at sea in the Pacific. But by war’s end we had deployed 105 aircraft carriers—seventeen fleet carriers, eleven light carriers and seventy-seven escort carriers.

I recall reading of one Task Group—only part of a Task Force—having fifty-five aircraft carriers of various types assigned to it. Think of it. One Task Group had nine times our entire carrier fleet at the start of the war. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf mentioned above, the US Navy brought thirty-four carriers to the engagement, losing three small ones.

The Japanese deployed four carriers, total, only one of which was a fleet carrier. Despite fighting with valor, they lost them all, along with twenty-one other warships. It was, plainly, a rout.

The Japanese Navy had no carriers at war’s end, none, it had in fact ceased to be an effective fighting force long before the war ended, meaning it couldn’t defend itself, much less Japan. In 1945 our battleships were standing off the coast of Japan virtually unopposed, reducing industrial areas by direct gunfire.

The Japanese could have done the same to our west coast cities as a follow up to their attack on Pearl Harbor, but they were convinced we would withdraw from the Pacific before the week was out. Why risk it.

The ‘lesson learned’ is simple. At the end of the war we had the Navy we wished we had, and could have had, at the beginning. The next big war at sea will be decided in far less than a year, and on an as-is basis. Who will take who to the woodshed?

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MarshRabbit
MarshRabbit

If we face a crisis like World War II again, who will build the ships? I know the technology of warfare has changed, and we won’t need a World War II size navy. But our sagging industrial base may now be a national security issue.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

Marsh…
In addition to what you said about production, critical parts are being made overseas instead of onshore.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus

Also the fact that our navy can’t steer a straight course without colliding with something…

musket
musket

But they are both multi-cultural and diverse…doesn’t that count for something?

pyrrhus
pyrrhus

There will be no major, or even minor, wars at sea…There will be no cavalry charges either….We now live in a world of hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles, long range torpedoes, and soon energy weapons.

Boat Guy
Boat Guy

The British naval engaugement in the Falkland Islands should be a lesson to the value of a surface fleet . A couple well placed lucky missle shots and down they go to the bottom . Keeping an air defensive perimeter is not failsafe . Look what a couple of halfwits in an inflatable packed with explosives can do .
As for manpower 70% of American males are either physically or mentally unfit for military service .
Now my work history was in heavy industry building ships from frozen food carriers to 1,100 foot long Super oil tankers , a nuclear sub dry dock a couple oil rigs . I worked at one of the largest shipbuilding facilities on the east coast with a steel mill at its door step close enough to feel the heat as ingots were rolled into plates . At the time it was the third largest steel concern in the world and its “GONE” !
Make America Great Again without a thriving industry and trained journeymen to make the gears fit and turn , I don’t think so !
For 11 years of my young mans industrial career I walked past and worked in and around NO:2 machine shop . The only place in the world that could machine the heatsheilds for the Apollo missions . The shop is gone the men are gone and most were cheated out of 50% or more of their pension . Funny we never lost a man on re-entry , I wonder if the astronauts thought about that journeyman tool and diemaker and machinists with their apprentices were over paid union bums when that shield those men fabricated was the few inches perfectly cut and honed that kept them from being incenrated . Again it’s all gone now and we have not trained enough people to launch a bottle cap of the end of a bar but some how we are going to be great again for $10 bucks an hour . Ya sure that will happen LMAO !

not sure

Wow, you really are “The Boat Guy.” “Thanks for your service” is usually limited to military, but with the declining prestige of America, due to the shrinking and soon to be dried up pool of men with the know how to create America’s greatness. I would say thanks for your hard work in making America what it was, with the hope that one day, the pendulum may swing back the other way.

Boat Guy
Boat Guy

Not Sure : I did not do anything supernatural or heroic . I showed up ready to work everyday and went to school at night to keep my industrial know how current .
In the end I was left with 2 bankrupted pension plans and failing health at 64 yo .
My wife and I bought a modest home educated our child at great expense and now we see the hand writing on the wall .
Eventually we will be property taxed out of our home for so people like Paul Ryan can retire at 48 with a full pension as we now tread water till we drown .
Yes my friends working people in America are like Dixie cups , use them up and throw them away …

Not Sure

Sad, but true. Seems like the Dickens classic “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” I hope the best for you and your family.

A toast to the Dixie cups …..

Free Speech Forum

The USA is an immoral bankrupt warmongering police state.

The government and church are corrupt. Americans are immoral.

Jobs have been offshored. Illegal immigrants are flooding the country. The world has the biggest bubble in history. The lost wealth has been replaced by a fake debt bubble economy. Hard work is punished with regulations and laziness is rewarded with welfare.

There is really no reason to work now that everything is illegal and the 1% will end up with everything through taxes, forfeiture, fines, inflation, tariffs, subsidies, and fees.

The US will collapse when the Ponzi economy pops, Civil War 2.0 will break out, Americans will be sent to the concentration camps, and WWIII will start.

The end is certain. The question is when.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/01/trade-restrictions-closed-borders-1930/

Hong Kong

https://www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/Export/Export-markets/Countries/Hong-Kong/Doing-business/Tariffs-and-regulations

http://mecometer.com/compare/hong-kong-sar-china+north-korea/gdp-per-capita-ppp/

overthecliff
overthecliff

Broke countries don’t fight wars well. Our only hope is that our enemies are more broke than we are.

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