Political Crossfire Forums

I shouldn't do this, BUT when rating aircraft I always minimize the Pacific war.. Only because for the most part the Japanese just didn't use any innovation as the war went on.. I'm not minimizing the men who fought there, on either side, or the sacrifices in the PTO.. Obviously the Japanese soldier was tough, hard, fanatical fighter.. But their equipment and tactics were pretty poor.

Lets face it, the Japanese used the same tactics and equipment in 1945 that they had and used in 1941.. The American Subs were sinking the whole Japanese navy and merchant ships yet the Japanese never changed their tactics, they seldom ever tried to protect their ships with convoys or air cover.. Same thing with the air war. 4 years later they had the same planes, the same tactics.. The Kamikazes were their biggest innovation they had in the air war, and it was a total failure..

That is why I minimize the Corsair, and some of the carrier war in the Pacific.. Again, I know I shouldn't, but that me..

I'm gonna have to agree with Boris. Hurricane is the most important fighter of the war. It won the battle of Britain. If the Brits had lost the BoB they would have booted Churchill, sued for peace, and nixed any possibility of an Allied counter-attack in the West. Germans and Soviets duke it out alone, which in all likely-hood means we would have had to deal with both Soviet and Nazi assholes well into the 1950s.

The Spitfire won the Battle of Britain.

If it wasn't for the presence of the Spitfires the bf 109s would have had the Hawker Hurricanes for a nice lunch. British tactics depended on using the Hurricane in conjunction with the Spitfire. They wouldn't have stood on their own against the superior Messerschmitt, even though they accounted for the majority of kills they were killing bombers while the Spitfire was taking out the fighter escorts...

Germany would have never totally defeated the USSR.. Even without the US and Britain in the war eventually Germany would have lost in Russia. t would have taken the Russians a lot longer, it would have gone on well past 1945.. But eventually the Russian Army, the vastness of the USSR, the winters, the supply problems, all would have eventually beaten the Germans in Russia..

But that's for another thread..