The Battle off Samar

[Gibsons]

Hasley's heavy forces were on the other side of the Philippines; where he believed the Japanese naval forces were coming through.
Carrier planes could have been overhead in 24 hours if he turned around the carriers.
However, 24 hours of continual shelling by the Japanese would have decimated the ground troops.

No one really knows how the Iowa class would have stacked up against the pair of Yamoto class monsters

That's a topic that really gets battleship nerds fired up. There's a surprising number of them. Or they all just post a whole lot.

 

[OCGuy]

Isn't that the sultan from Aladdin?

 

[lupi]

just saw this


http://www.wargamer.com/article/360...the-graveyard-of-the-japanese-submarine-fleet

 

[BUTCH1]

just saw this


http://www.wargamer.com/article/360...the-graveyard-of-the-japanese-submarine-fleet

Cool, yea we used "hunter-killer" task forces of destroyers in the Atlantic as well, thing was as a ship passed over a sub and dropped charges the explosions muted the sonar for a bit and the sub could slip away, depending on the skill or her commander, with the task force one ship never attacked but maintained constant contact and directed fire, the "hedgehog" was also a great weapon, the subs could hear depth charges hitting the water and learn to evade before they got down to then, with the hedgehog it was not detectable until one of them hit, if it didn't rupture the pressure hull it usually did enough damage to force the sub to the surface and surrender or get shot to hell.

 

[BUTCH1]

That's a topic that really gets battleship nerds fired up. There's a surprising number of them. Or they all just post a whole lot.

Well there's no doubt that a "18 shell hit would be devastating but the USN had a rang-finding system that was outstanding, even when the Iowa's were used again in the '80's it was decided not to waste any $$ upgrading the fire-control to digital as what they had was already about 95% as good so long story short we would have likely prevailed with a far, far better accuracy than what the IJN had to work with, then again one never knows, one hit in the right spot and BANG! it's done, just ask the 3 survivors of the HMS Hood, she was every bit as powerful as Bismark but a shell went through her thin-plated decking right into the powder room, gone in 2.5 minutes, a volley of fire and smoke plumed 800ft into the air, probably killed almost all on board before they had a chance to drown..

 

[Gibsons]

Cool, yea we used "hunter-killer" task forces of destroyers in the Atlantic as well, thing was as a ship passed over a sub and dropped charges the explosions muted the sonar for a bit and the sub could slip away, depending on the skill or her commander, with the task force one ship never attacked but maintained constant contact and directed fire, the "hedgehog" was also a great weapon, the subs could hear depth charges hitting the water and learn to evade before they got down to then, with the hedgehog it was not detectable until one of them hit, if it didn't rupture the pressure hull it usually did enough damage to force the sub to the surface and surrender or get shot to hell.

One sentence? damn. I'm out of breath just reading it.

 

[BUTCH1]

One sentence? damn. I'm out of breath just reading it.

I was on my way to pick up some pizza, wife got into the "you on that damm forum again!, I'm hungry!" mode LOL. As you can tell I'm somewhat of a WW2 history buff.

 

[Gibsons]

I was on my way to pick up some pizza, wife got into the "you on that damm forum again!, I'm hungry!" mode LOL. As you can tell I'm somewhat of a WW2 history buff.

'sokay, not complaining. I am too.

 

[phucheneh]

I'm confused. They call this the most mismatched battle in naval history, but Wikipedia lists the American forces as having 400 aircraft?

Seems like kind of a fucking middle finger to those pilots...the ships didn't make the difference; the pilots did...

 

[slag]

Butch, you know your stuff that's for sure.

 

[K1052]

I'm confused. They call this the most mismatched battle in naval history, but Wikipedia lists the American forces as having 400 aircraft?

Seems like kind of a fucking middle finger to those pilots...the ships didn't make the difference; the pilots did...

They were not unfortunately much armed for anti-ship action..since nobody expected to see a large enemy surface fleet there guns a blazing. Had their F4Fs and TBFs been sitting on deck with AP bombs and torpedoes attached Center Force would have gotten massacred. They had to launch the wings as is and send them to Tacloban to rearm after they expended whatever armament they had.

At least they had a chance though. The captains of those destroyers knew they were dead men when they turned and made their attacks.

 

[lupi]

Aircraft squads from CVEs, meaning it was likely 2-1 stacked with CAP fighters and a significant portion of the attack planes set up for scouting.