Question:
does anyone else feel annoyed at the writen history of the British Pacific war? Considering how badly the yank
JD417
2006-11-14 02:50:41 UTC
needed us.?????
Thirteen answers:
PaulHolloway1973
2006-11-14 05:58:51 UTC
Your questions and comments indicate a great degree of cluelessness concerning Royal Navy operations in the Pacific Theatre.



I'll try and address your comments in the order that you made them:





"gentlemen, gentlemen aren't we forgetting that the british navy steamed with the americans for the entire pacific campaign??

In fact the british carriers were the only ones to have steel decks, therefore making them a little more durable during jap kamikarzi attacks????"



First off, the RN did NOT steam with the USN during the entire Pacific Campaign. From the time of Nagumo's carrier raids in the Indian Ocean in April 1942 until operations against targets in the Far East Indies starting in April 1944, the RN didn't operate with the USN at all, with the exception of the loaning of HMS Victorious to the USN towards the end of the Guadalacanal campaign due to the carrier losses suffered by the USN. She didn't see any action, so that's pretty much 2 whole years where the RN did nothing to support the USN in the Pacific.



The RN carriers did have armored decks, and they were fairly effective against kamikaze raids. However, they made a severe trade-off because the armored decks reduced the size of the hangar decks, and RN carriers typically carried an air group only half the size of their USN counterparts, which limited the usefulness of their air groups.



"My grandfather was an officer on the Indfatigable, the largest aircraft carrier this country built, certainly during the war, and the whole company of 5000+ men are forgotten......."



Your grandfather was a fine man for serving, and has my utmost respect for doing so.



I don't know where you get the 5000+ figure from, the Implacable class carriers had a designed crew of 1,585, but actually had a complement near 2,300 during actual service, which is still not even half your figure.



"austrailia was never a target, the japs had no intention of overstretching them selves they were only after the mineral and oil reserves of the philipeans.... get a grip man. the fact that the british fleets pacific home was austraila says that the country would have been defended..."



Yet the British Pacific Fleet wasn't established until 22 November 1944, who was defending Australia up til then? Not the previous British Far Eastern Fleet, as the were based in the Maldives and were of no use to Australia. You are correct in saying that the Japanese wouldn't have invaded Australia, they simply didn't have the resources, logistical support, or the troops to do so.



"as for the early british losses the japs took us by surprise too, but that was nothing to the incompetence of pearl habour, where as luck would have it the carriers were out on exercise. The americans knew they were coming and did nothing."



What about the loss of Princes of Wales and Repulse? No surprises there, it was simply hubris and incompotence which led to them making a sortie with no air support and a miniscule destroyer escort in the face of large numbers of shore-based Japanese bombers.



I think the question you should have asked is:



"Why is there such a paucity of books concerning Royal Navy opeartions in the Pacific and Indian Ocean Theaters during WWII?"



In my humble opinion that would have been a better question which would have yielded more fruitful answers.



Oh, and I would like to know why bearstirringfromcave thinks RN carrier design was superior to USN carrier design? (And the experiences in the Med didn't have much to do with it, as they changed almost nothing in their carrier designs even after the Med was secure).
Paul
2006-11-14 06:00:17 UTC
Prime Minister Churchill Had the best information in the world and the need to ensure the US involvement in the war. He learned from the Lusitania sinking in WW1 That the US would be reluctant to join the war without an "Alamo". The Idea was to inform President Roosevelt of the dangerand use Pearl as the Bait for the Japanese. Place all the Carriers along the Califronia coast. The Japanese plan was to attack California next and Churchill Knew this. The Plan was that the Over extended Japanese force would be crushed along the California coast. Churchill and Roosevelt would be heroes and the USA would be free tthrow her full might at Nazi Germany. The problem was that the American Educated Leader of the Japanese force smelled a trap and reversed Plans. Churchill never forgave himself for Pearls dead and gave as much support as he could muster in support of the US. He proved a true friend along with the peoples of Australia and the UK.
JVHawai'i
2006-11-14 03:29:58 UTC
Instead of grousing, write it! Historians tend to emphasize Britain's involvement in Europe, when they touch on The Pacific it is the tragedy of The Repulse & The Prince of Wales that gets replayed. Yes, British carriers were superior but that was due to lessons learned in The Mediteranean. Actually Roosevelt & Churchill agreed that the American Navy would concentrate on The Pacific, and quite frankly the Yanks did a terrific job.



Peace...
?
2016-10-22 05:39:06 UTC
Heck, that's stressful. If we hadn't gained the progressive conflict then we does not even have the country we've on the instant so as that's for sure an significant one. The Civil conflict grew to become right into a substantial turning element in u . s . and back if the Union had not suceeded then I haven't any doubt that u . s . could have fallen into the palms of a Hitler or Stalin. and of course if we hadn't fought back in the two of the international Wars who is familiar with what could have occurred. i'm gonna take out the Korean and Vietnam wars as being all that significant. The conflict on terror is only as significant as any of the international Wars because of the fact we won't be able to back off in worry. If I had to declare only one conflict then i could pick the progressive conflict.
paranthropus2001
2006-11-14 04:07:14 UTC
Have you also considered the unbelievable military incompetence of the British in the Pacific campaign?Who put that military idiot Percival in command in Singapore and Malaya?..Churchill did!.Who refused to let Australian troops to go back from the mid east to defend Australia, until he was literally forced to do it by Curtain, Churchill..This military disaster called Churchill will never be forgiven for that!..If it hadn't been for the Americans at the battle of the coral sea, Australia would have been invaded!..Who was the first to defeat the rampant 'Honourable sons of Nippon' in a land campaign in ww2?It was Australians who beat them over the Owen Stanley mountains in Papua, Buna, Goa,Salamoa, Milne bay, where were the British?..Why did you suffer the disasters of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse?..and the Hermes, sent to Ceylon without aircraft aboard?..Churchill was to blame!..That the British navy did so well in the pacific is accepted as fact, That British soldiers in Burma and other places did as well as they did is amazing when you consider the sheer incompetence of the leadership they had been given!..Churchill when he was sober, had written off the pacific, despite what his war cabinet said to him over and over again!..If it hadn't been for the Americans the pacific would have been Japanese even now!
?
2016-04-17 03:40:14 UTC
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Diadem
2006-11-14 03:02:02 UTC
yeah ...Britain goes way back. I give them credit for colonizing America, and I salute them for storming up the beach at the Germans too...But its time to wakey-wakey, and smell the coffee lads, and remember "us" yanks have more of what you have...and then some. We dont care if the history books should be rewritten, the fact is that all you guys are still there...so nevermind the history books.

wasnt there a British fishing boat in the pacific around 1944 or so? So they were there afterall...oh ok.
-
2006-11-14 03:40:17 UTC
It's kind of pointless to try and suggest to Americans that they may be over-estimating their importance in anything. Most of them don't know how to question what they were taught in school, and what they read in their own American history books. And what they were taught was that they are the greatest nation on earth, they don't need anybody, but we all need them.



Sometimes history is subject to interprutation, but American schools do not educate people to think for themselves and form opinions. They just throw "facts" at them, with which to support the belief that they are great and they win everything, and they deserve all the credit for everything that has ever gone right with the world.
2006-11-14 03:47:16 UTC
Americans are brainwashed into a superiority complex from a young age. I shudder to think what sort of "history" they are taught at school.



If you listen to them they won WWII single handedly.



The sacrifices of people like the Battle of Britain pilots - who beat off the invasion of Britain against incredible odds in 1940 (ie two years before the Yanks even joined the war) seem to mean nothing to them. And as the daughter of a man who fought in the British army in WWII this annoys me. It annoyed him as well!



So nothing surprises me really when it comes to their version of "history".
Bryan
2006-11-14 02:59:20 UTC
I have great admiration for the British, but they did not have a huge presence in the Pacific and were not central to success or failure in the Pacific. However, if you wish to dispute this claim please provide details of battles fought in the Pacific whose outcomes hinged on British participation.
bolle
2006-11-14 02:52:48 UTC
Britain is the best country ever to grace the solar system.
2006-11-14 04:29:16 UTC
Yeah your right hey
2006-11-14 05:02:05 UTC
hey my friends friend my enimys enimy


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