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

Problem was MB that the USA's military was 17th in the World right behind Portugal at the beginning of the War *https://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2014/jun/13/ken-paxton/us-army-was-smaller-army-portugal-world-war-ii/*Industry had to be completely retooled for production.That was a mad scramble.Yamamoto was phrophetic he said for the 1st 6 months of the war Japan would run all over the Pacific.He was hoping for quick US capitulation or neutrality.He guessed wrong there,but was educated in the USA so was aware of the countries production capabilities and knew Japan would have a problem if hostilities were protracted

Another thing in 1941-'42-'43 it certainly wasn't given that what we were producing would land in our Allies laps.Given the U-Boat Wofpacks ferocious appetite

I realize that the US military was small in 1941 but it was already being expanded rapidly even before Pearl Harbor.  The Draft was passed long before Pear Harbor so a lot of the guys who would do the fighting were already in boot camp when the first Zero swooped over Battleship Row. 

The other thing is that the US had two humongous advantages known as the Atlantic and the Pacific.  Neither Japan nor Germany had anything even resembling the transport and naval logistical capacity to cross those oceans and invade the US.  That meant that if the US needed time, the US could take time because nobody was going to cross our frontiers while we were building up forces. 

If the US had been totally unprepared to fight prior to 1945 the US could simply have built up forces and prepared/trained until 1945 then go. 

It's fun also to play at a more "normal" outcome at Midway, perhaps the US loses two carriers and has another badly damaged.  The Japanese have one sunk and one damaged, somewhat like Coral Sea.  They probably can take Midway at that point, but maintaining it over time would be a struggle for them.

Guadalcanal might arguably have been more pivotal had the IJN and Army been better able to coordinate.  ! MarDiv might have been wiped out.

I THINK the draft meant registration only, not actual drafting of troops.  I'm not sure how much we were building up ground forces prior to Dec. 7.

This I'm not sure the Gov't was actually drafting.Probably Didn't matter because of the volume of volunteers

We should give the women a lot of credit here also.

The WAC's got screwed metaphorically speaking.Paying for their own transportation and uniforms and many were not paid for their time or services rendered at all.God bless them talk about unselfishness

"The Imperial Japanese Navy lost all 79 of the torpedo-bombers aboard its four carriers at Midway. In 1942, Japan produced 56 torpedo bombers.

In the same battle, the U.S. Navy lost 40 carrier- and land-based torpedo-bombers. In 1942, the U.S. produced 1,525 torpedo-bombers."


I've never seen that stated like that before, it sort of lays it all out.

The Kate torpedo bomber was quite good at that stage and our Avengers were just starting to come off the lines.  GM built the TBM Avenger that started coming later that year I think after the TBF.

If you want to read more about Midway, I highly recommend Shattered Sword by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully:

https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Sword-Untold-Battle-Midway/dp/1574889249

The more I read about it the less sense it makes.  Upthread someone hypothesized about a more "normal" outcome to the battle but even an absolute Japanese victory would have, at best, been only a wash for the Japanese strategically:

In theory, Yamamoto's plan was to lure the American carriers out where they could be sunk.  I have no idea what made him think that this would work.  Yamamoto obviously didn't know that the Americans were reading his mail.  Prior to the battle the Midway garrison was substantially upgraded because we knew the Japanese were coming.  If the code hadn't been broken then the reinforcement wouldn't have happened and the American Carriers wouldn't have been in the area.  In that case there can be little doubt that the Japanese invasion would have been successful.  What then? 

Yamamoto's apparent assumption is that the Americans would have rushed their carriers out of Pear Harbor to fight off the invaders and/or retake Midway.  Frankly, that makes no sense.  If the Americans hadn't known about Midway in advance then most of the CV's would probably have been in the South Pacific anyway so they couldn't have responded before the Japanese carriers had to leave to refuel and rearm even if the Americans had wanted to send them. 

Even if we assume, however, that the American Carriers did happen to be in the Hawaiian Islands (~1,300 mi from Pearl Harbor) it still would have taken them about about 38 hours (at 30kt) to get to Midway. 

Just six months earlier the Japanese invaded Wake Island.  The US garrison on Wake repelled the initial invasion fleet and USS Saratoga was dispatched from Pearl Harbor on a ferrying mission to take additional aircraft to Wake for the defense of the island.  While Saratoga was en-route, the garrison at Wake reported that they were under attack by Japanese carrier-based aircraft.  Saratoga was immediately recalled because the interim CiC of the Pacific Fleet reasonably decided that it simply wasn't worth losing Saratoga to try to keep Wake. 

What made the Japanese think that the US would view Midway any differently? 

Losing Midway to the Japanese would have deprived the US of an advanced refueling point for submarines and that is about it.  Meanwhile, it would have been completely impossible for the Japanese to defend. 

In 1942, 43, and 44 the biggest problem the Japanese faced was that they simply lacked the logistical ability to supply all the far-flung islands that they had captured.  Midway would just have been yet another island that they couldn't possibly supply and it was reasonably close to Hawaii so the US could have basically surrounded it with submarines and attacked it with BB's, CA's, CL's, DD's, and aircraft from Hawaii (long range B24's) and from the CV's. 

The US Navy could have simply toyed with the Japanese on Midway and bled them dry in the process for as long as they wanted.  Then, when the US was ready to retake it the attack plan pretty much writes itself:
Day 1:  Fleet of landing craft, DD's, CV's, BB's, CA's, and CL's leaves Pearl Harbor at 10pm.  Travel time to Midway at 20kt, 56 hours. 
Day 2:  Fleet continues on course for Midway, B24's strike Midway Island and harbor overnight. 
Day 3:  Fleet continues on course for Midway, B24's strik Midway Island and harbor overnight. 
Day 4:  As fleet approaches Midway the BB's, CA's, CL's, and a few escorting DD's speed up and prepare to shell anything left on the island.  B24's strike Midway Island and harbor overnight.  CV's launch Dive and Torpedo bomber along with fighter escorts before dawn to arrive over Midway at dawn.  At dawn the Dive and Torpedo bombers bomb anything that hasn't already been destroyed while fighters take care of any potential Japanese aircraft and strafe targets of opportunity.  If there is anything left after all of that a few shells from the BB's will take care of it and the landings should be unopposed at 6am. 

By the way, CD, that boat you were on was a month old at the time. It's now in its 14th season. Still looks new. Time flies, eh?