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Re: Pearl Harbor and FDR conspiracy theory [klehner] [ In reply to ]
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Battleships were mostly all the naval forces that existed (with the exception of a few carriers) before the war.

So what percentage of naval ships would have to be battleships for them to be "mostly all the naval forces"?

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If, by "some time", you mean a year, then, yeah.

Did the events of that year reveal anything about the effectiveness of battleships?

Some versions of history read that because of Pearl Harbor US was forced to become carrier dependent overnight. However, there had been, even before the British lessons from the Med, increased development of carriers in the US Navy:

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In World War I the Navy explored aviation, both land-based and carrier based. However the Navy nearly abolished aviation in 1919 when Admiral William S. Benson, the reactionary Chief of Naval Operations, could not "conceive of any use the fleet will ever have for aviation", and he secretly tried to abolish the Navy's Aviation Division.[23] Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt reversed the decision because he believed aviation might someday be "the principal factor" at sea with missions to bomb enemy warships, scout enemy fleets, map mine fields, and escort convoys. Even Roosevelt, however, considered Billy Mitchell's warnings of bombers capable of sinking battleships under wartime conditions to be "pernicious".[24] Having failed in its attempt to rig a demonstration attack against the decommissioned USS Indiana,[25] the Navy was forced by Congressional resolutions to conduct more honest assessments. Despite rules of engagement again designed to enhance the survivability of the ships,[25][26] the tests went so badly against the ships that the Navy grudgingly continued to build up its aviation wing. In 1929, it had one carrier (USS Langley), 500 pilots and 900 planes; by 1937 it had 5 carriers (the Lexington, Saratoga, Ranger, Yorktown and Enterprise), 2000 pilots and 1000 much better planes. With Roosevelt now in the White House, the tempo soon quickened. One of the main relief agencies, the PWA, made building warships a priority. In 1941 the U.S. Navy with 8 carriers, 4,500 pilots and 3,400 planes had more airpower than the Japanese Navy.[27]

Source.

________
It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev
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Re: Pearl Harbor and FDR conspiracy theory [klehner] [ In reply to ]
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klehner wrote:
spot wrote:
klehner wrote:
More FB gems:

"The main part of the fleet was pulled out of Pearl Harbor prior. Coincidence?"

"The Japanese were taking over the South Pacific and rattling swords and plotting against the U.S. There were aware of that knowing we already had one front. FDR knew it was going to turn into a war."


Good lord. I read a good article on Smithsonian.com about the attack today. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to put the US Fleet out of commission so that they could then attack the resource rich areas that they needed (Borneo, Indonesia, etc). The Japanese hadn't taken over the South Pacific yet; they needed to cripple the US first.

I pointed out that Japan had not yet attacked anything in the South Pacific at the time of Pearl Harbor. His response was that the Japanese had invaded China in 1937 (true) and Indonesia in 1940 (not true: 1942). I asked him when China moved to the South Pacific, and if he know the difference between Indochina and Indonesia.

He also said "And our three biggest aircraft carriers were not there and out fleet was minimally impacted which is a FACT".

Dunning-Kruger in full battle mode.

Since he capitalized FACT the argument is unassailable.
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Re: Pearl Harbor and FDR conspiracy theory [klehner] [ In reply to ]
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That FDR placed the blame fully on a single person, Admiral Kimmel, is the only conspiracy I'm buying into.
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