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Military Pron - The Pacific War (8 of ?)

Nov 8, 2023, 12:37 PM

The last time we were in the Pacific it was the early 1930s.

And the early 1930’s were just a different sort of time.

There was outrageous opulence.

And hard practicality.

There was high design.

And low brow.

There was extreme wealth.

And abject poverty.

There was prohibition,

and the speakeasy,

And questionable medical advice.

Alright, I slipped Nico Time in there. Like birds, it’s not real.
And it was the Golden Age of Burlesque. Oh yeah!

My grandad lived through the 25% unemployment at that time. He explained it to us kids with a stern warning:
“You can always borrow a dollar if you have a dime, but don’t ever borrow a dollar with a borrowed dime.”

J.P. Morgan was even more succinct on what caused the Great Depression.
He said: “Someone asked for a real dollar.”

Back in the Pacific, Japan found a solution for its unemployment and closed factories.
They invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria. That’s one way to put people back to wok. I mean, work.

America was looking for solutions, too. And while Japan was invading its neighbors to make up for past slights, America was developing new military technology for future wars. Like personal combat tanks.

And armored golf carts.

It’s an idea that has been recently revisited.

The American military also tested the limits of airborne cavalry.

With mixed results.

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Lighter-than-air craft were constructed and tested in the 30’s.

Car at bottom left

Also with mixed results.

But fat-bottomed blimps are another idea that have made their way back into the minds of military planners, over 100 years later.

All-in-all, the US military in the 1930’s was a great place for a young lad to grow into a man.

It was a place to make new friends.

Learn new skills.

And cut loose on the town for some raucous frolicking with the boys.

The gaiety was real.

A really lucky guy might even meet a swell lady-friend. And dream of someday holding hands.

But it wasn’t all ice-cream and puppy love.
We didn’t invade anyone in the 1930’s, but we did have a 20-year presence in Haiti to wrap up.

That military occupation had been at the request of the National City Bank of New York, aka Citibank, to protect, you know, their interests.

We finally pulled out of Haiti in 1934 during the “Good Neighbor” policy in the Caribbean; once we had re-established a suitable environment for business.

Back in the Pacific, our two primary concerns in the early 1930’s were to 1) protect our shiny new canal,

and 2) protect our shiny new island possessions.

To do those two things, we conducted Naval Fleet Operations for practice, and a he77 of a lot of them. They were called Fleet Problems numbers I – XXII.

Every single year, for almost twenty years, alternating between the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Navy practiced against possible enemy attacks.

An enemy might come East though the Atlantic and Caribbean, or West across the Pacific, to attack our canal or islands.
But who those enemies might be was anyone’s guess.

And every year, East or West, the US Navy lost to the attacker.

Sometimes it was simulated sabotage, like when an “enemy stowaway” snuck off his ship and blew up the Panama Canal gates.

Sometimes it was sneaky submarine attacks, like when a submarine launched a floatplane armed with bombs and blew up the Panama Canal gates.

And sometimes it was full on invasions or air raids, like the multiple times our fleet was sunk at Pearl Harbor, or when Hawaii itself was invaded.

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Here’s the ugly summary of all our pre-war games, and how we lost every one of them.

1923-Fleet Problem 1; Airplanes destroy canal gates.

1924-Fleet Problem 2, 3, 4; Saboteurs blow up canal gates and sink a battleship in the canal.

1925-Fleet Problem 5; Home fleet defeated.

1926-Fleet Problem 6; Airplanes destroy canal gates.

1927-Fleet Problem 7; Airplanes destroy canal gates.

1928-Fleet Problem 8; Home fleet defeated.

1929-Fleet Problem 9; Airplanes destroy canal gates. (USS Saratoga “sunk” by USS Lexington after the canal was destroyed.)

1930-Fleet Problem 10; Home fleet defeated. USS Saratoga “crippled” by USS Lexington, after the canal was destroyed.)

1931-Fleet Problem 11; Canal destroyed.

1932-Fleet Problem 12; Canal destroyed.

1933-Fleet Problem 13; Hawaii captured.

1934-Fleet Problem 14; West Coast invaded.

1935-Fleet Problem 15; Canal destroyed.

1936-Fleet Problem 16; Hawaii captured.

So you get the idea. Luckily, with 20 years of intense preparation, America would be ready if war actually came. But we’re not quite there, yet. For now, everyone is still friends, so let’s party like it’s 1936!

In 1936 there was yet one more conference in London to sort out naval parity in the Pacific. When Japan walked out half way through the conference, that was a bad, and final, sign.

Japan had already been secretly naughty. When the 1930 treaty limits set cruiser tonnage to 10,000 tons, the Japanese simply built their cruisers to 15,000 tons to make up for past slights. Anyone with eyes could tell what was going on. It was like looking at athletes on steroids. Obvious is just too obvious.

An American 10,000-ton cruiser, the USS Indianapolis.

A Japanese “10,000”-ton cruiser, the IJN Takao.

The Takao is 10,000 tons?

The British protested and said: “We know a thing or two about building ships. You can’t build a ship with (10) 8” guns and a 4” armor belt at 10,000 tons, or else we would be doing it.”

The Japanese insisted they were complying with the rules, but after 1936 it didn’t matter. There were no more rules.
The gloves were off, and it was every nation for themselves.

And then suddenly, in 1937, Japan lost World War 2.

Never mind that the war hadn’t even started yet, and that Japan wouldn’t realize they’d lost till almost a decade later. The dice were cast, and they crapped out. And that’ll be my tease for next time.

And speaking of teases, let’s enjoy some of the lovely ladies of the era as we depart.

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Tempted to go off on a USS Indianapolis tangent, but LAWWWWD

Re: Tempted to go off on a USS Indianapolis tangent, but LAWWWWD

It's a real ugly story. It's substantially as told by Quint, but most of the men died of dehydration or exposure...they were in the water for 3-1/2 days.

Estimates are that of almost 1200, 300 went down with the ship, 300 survived, sharks maybe killed 100 and ate all the dead.

The PBY that flew over in the story actually landed, so men could grab onto it, and it never took off, it just radioed and waited for rescue ships.

Several stations received distress calls that it had been torpedoed, but no-one responded. One guy was drunk, another thought it was an ambush trick by the Japanese, others just sat on their hands.

The captain was court-martialed for failure to zig-zag, though his orders were "if necessary", and no one told him jap subs were operating in the area, though through intelligence intercepts they knew they were there. He was the only captain court-martialed in the war for loss to enemy action, and Nimitz later got him off the hook.

But, the whole affair haunted him for the rest of his life and he later committed suicide.

Yep. Knew about the maligning of the captain and his fate.

Nic Cage was in it.

It also sunk July 30th, not June 29th (as told by Quint)

Re: Tempted to go off on a USS Indianapolis tangent, but LAWWWWD

For more on airships

Military Pron - The Pacific War (8 of ?)

Tempted to go off on a USS Indianapolis tangent, but LAWWWWD

Re: Tempted to go off on a USS Indianapolis tangent, but LAWWWWD

Yep. Knew about the maligning of the captain and his fate.

Nic Cage was in it.

It also sunk July 30th, not June 29th (as told by Quint)

For more on airships

TigerBoard POTD