The Drydock - Episode 065
Added 2019-10-26 08:31:39 +0000 UTC
Comments
Going to have to respectfully disagree with the assertion that Force Z would have been useful to the U.S. Pacific fleet in 1942. About that point in time, Nimitz actually had seven battleships (under the less than stellar VADM Pye). TF1 consisting of Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, New Mexico, and the Pearl Harbor survivors Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Maryland spent most of 1942 cruising between Seattle and San Diego "protecting" the West Coast. Granted, they weren't fast battleships like Prince of Wales, but one would think Nimitz could have come up with SOMETHING useful for them to do. The unfortunate reality was however, that the most perplexing oversight the U.S. Navy committed was in having practically no fast oilers even after almost two years into World War II. He barely had enough oilers for a few cruisers and modest fleet carriers. Having TF1 on the west coast meant they could be fueled without needing any of those oilers. I think if Force Z HAD been assigned to Nimitz, they would have wound up in San Francisco with TF1. Actually, I think it's an open question as to which Coral Sea loss was more devastating, Lexington or Neosho.
videodude26
2019-10-28 00:24:43 +0000 UTC
