Recent content by Gunner's_Quadrant

Just not British motorbikes, their cars were the same way. I had an MGB that had an assigned carlift at my local foreign car repair shop. I think I funded his early retirement with that car. Same went for anyone I knew who had a Jaguar.

Where are you getting this from? The big killer was the aerial torpedo. Of the 4 active battleships sunk, the California and Oklahoma were solely due to torpedo hits, the West Virginia took 7 torpedo and 2 AP bomb hits (I would tend to lean towards torpedoes being the primary cause of her...

Doctrine is how you plan and train to fight. That does't preclude the exigencies of war preventing you from following your doctrine but if you have the choice you try to follow your doctrine. There is no such thing as FIXED doctrine, but you don't want to spend months or years training to...

The Kido Butai (1st Air Fleet) consisted of the 1st, 2nd and 5th Carrier Divisions at the onset of the Pacific war. 2nd Carrier Division was originally slated by the Japanese Navy General Staff to cover the Southern Operations (Malaya and NEI) but that was changed when Yamamato threatened to...

If it at Wake, It would have to a Wake 3.0 or something along those lines. The Japanese would probably have to make a third attempt to take the island, this time with major elements of the IJN and that might draw out the US Navy and you could get a version of MIdway. The IJN wanted a...

Unlikely. If the Kido Butai is not returning from Pearl Harbor, there are no significant reinforcements remaining within the IJN 4th Fleet to meet the larger USN relief task force. The whole of the IJN 4th Fleet was assigned to the capture of Wake Atoll with the exception of one light cruiser...

He is not referring to Fabrique Nationale but the FM (Fusil Mitrailleur) 24/29. The French knock-off of the BAR with the magazine feed coming from the top rather than from underneath.

A nice dry Beefeaters just may be his cup of tea. XD

Watch out, next thing we know P-M will have a character named Roland appear in the story. ;)

Ah yes, the bumbling Football Cardinals, AKA the Big Red and the Gridbirds. I so well remember Bill Bidwell and his magnificent management team. With every draft, you were always wondering how they would manage to pass on the best player available and instead draft some unknown prospect that...

Eddie Albert did sing in musicals like Oklahoma and The Music Man; he wasn't ever a recording artist like Frank Sinatra. I remember seeing him as a kid singing at the St. Louis Muni in The Music Man.

Militarily it is going to be extremely tough. If the French had been successful with Operation Lea in 1947 and captured or killed the Viet-Minh leadership, then the French might have had a chance. The French managed to more or less keep a stalemate on military terms through 1950. It was only...

Actually, this is drastically undercounting USMC firepower on Midway. They had: 2 - 7" batteries (4 guns) 3 - 5" batteries (6 guns) 8 - 3" batteries (28 guns) [6 USMC defense battalion batteries of 4 guns and 2 USN manned batteries of 2 guns] Plus the machines guns you mentioned.

I'm having a hard time understanding this scenario. I can possibly envision the Poles accepting some sort of alliance with Germany. What I can't see is the new alliance then making a surprise attack on the Soviet Union in 1939. The Germans weren't planning for a war in 1939. Hitler didn't...

That is a definite possibility but von Papen has the personality and beliefs that would fit quite well with the "Financier".