Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Of course, hindsight and all that, the Japanese should have been more careful at Midway and should have launched a third attack at Pearl.

Distance,daylight9perhaps) and not knowing where the US Flat Tops were kept them from doing that.Found out 6months later what ignorance of enemy falt tops could do

The US effort had two fronts, MacArthur's which relied on island hopping and up through New Guinea, which was a bit unimaginative really, and what Nimitz was doing in the central pacific, which was directed at Guam/Tinian/Saipan as bases for the B-29s.  The Phillipines could have been bypassed.  Peleliu should have been bypassed, it was irrelevant, and a very nasty fight that took 1st MarDiv out of the Iwo fight.  We wanted Iwo Jima as a landing field for damaged B29s.

Of course, hindsight and all that, the Japanese should have been more careful at Midway and should have launched a third attack at Pearl.

Peleliu was probably Nimitz' worst mistake of the war.
Iwo Jima's role as an emergency landing field for B-29s has been overemphasized to help justify the huge casualties we absorbed in taking the island.  The claim that 25,000 American airmen were saved by way of emergency landings at Iwo can't be sustained.

The Japanese were brave and audacious, but they never seemed to get the proper balance between boldness and caution.  The raid on Pearl Harbor was strategically bold, but Nagumo executed it in a cautious way.  That raid needed to hit the Navy so hard that it would not be combat effective for at least the next 6 months, and would have to withdraw back to bases on the West Coast for logistical reasons.  Instead, it only destroyed 2 battleships and a few smaller vessels.  The other BBs they "sank" were refloated, repaired, and sent back into the war (not that they were all that vital anyway).  The carriers were not in port, and the Japanese left the tank farms, the sub base, and other maintenance and C2 facilities virtually untouched.

Peleliu was probably Nimitz' worst mistake of the war.
Iwo Jima's role as an emergency landing field for B-29s has been overemphasized to help justify the huge casualties we absorbed in taking the island.  The claim that 25,000 American airmen were saved by way of emergency landings at Iwo can't be sustained.

The Japanese were brave and audacious, but they never seemed to get the proper balance between boldness and caution.  The raid on Pearl Harbor was strategically bold, but Nagumo executed it in a cautious way.  That raid needed to hit the Navy so hard that it would not be combat effective for at least the next 6 months, and would have to withdraw back to bases on the West Coast for logistical reasons.  Instead, it only destroyed 2 battleships and a few smaller vessels.  The other BBs they "sank" were refloated, repaired, and sent back into the war (not that they were all that vital anyway).  The carriers were not in port, and the Japanese left the tank farms, the sub base, and other maintenance and C2 facilities virtually untouched.

My dad served as an electricians mate in the navy during WWII and landed on Peleliu after it was taken

He used to tell stories of watching corsairs take off fly across a bay and dropping their load all the while never retracting their landing gear

He claimed it was the shortest bombing run in WWII although Im not sure about that

He used to tell some real interesting stories about that place

I read somewhere there was 300 miles of open water in the N.Atlantic that either Navy/Coast Guard couldn't touch(w/o refueling).Started employing B-24 submarine patrols.The Liberators at the time were the only aircraft that could fly non stop across the Atlantic

Yeah, the old "Mid-Ocean Gap."  Libs were the fix for it.
I'd have rather been in a B-17 than a B-24, but there were things Libs could do and Flying Forts couldn't.
Speaking of airplane names, we didn't assign them until WWII, and we sort of just followed suit behind the Brits, who had long given their aircraft official names and then did the same with purchased (later Lend-Lease) P-36s, P-40s, B-17s, F4Fs, PBYs, etc.
Some of our WWII airplane names were the coolest ever.  Warhawk.  Flying Fortress.  Wildcat.  Hellcat.  Corsair.  Lightning.  Thunderbolt.  Mustang.  Liberator.  Dauntless.  Avenger.  Catalina.
And those great airplanes were mostly built by women.  Thank God for all the Rosies.

I'd guess Japanese artillery was raining down on the air field.  It was on the "Canal of course, along with Japanese battleships coming in at night.  I am still shocked that battleships could not put an airfield out of operation for days.  They cruised the straits with impunity and rained down shells most of the night.  Henderson Field was mostly up and running the next morning despite losing some planes.  Those IJN BBs should have been able to demolish the air strip with their 14 inch guns.

The Seabees don't get their due.  Take out Henderson Field and this battle probably is a major US defeat.

It was the Yamato, the Musashi had been sunk earlier by carrier based aircraft.

It was the Yamato, the Musashi had been sunk earlier by carrier based aircraft.

I stand corrected.  That's not the first time I've made that error either.