Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
Had the US carrier fleet been wiped out, how could Japan have stopped us from building more carriers? Japan's five or six carriers could not have sustained air superiority over the West Coast, not against large numbers of land based US planes. The shipyards of the West Coast would have replaced the Midway losses in six months.
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You miss my point: Out and out production did not win the war by itself. Technology did. Technology we did not have in 1942.
But the counter question to yours is: If we had lost Midway, how could we have stopped them from raiding the west coast, including the shipyards?
We could not...or at least we would be severly hindered.
With the advantage of mobility they could pretty much pick the time and place.... Anywhere our forces were not. The US military would have been relegated to the role of "Waiting for them to arrive."
BTW: If the US had lost Midway, there is no way the US could have replaced 3 heavy carriers in 6 months.
ONLY 1 Essex class carrier was produced in 1942 and only 3 of the light Independence class carriers. And all came in the 2nd half of the year. Not quite up to going face to face with the Japanese heavies.