The most important battle of WW2

[evangilder]

Well said, Les! The Hellcat's contribution in the Pacific was significant. I can't wait for our Hellcat to return to the Museum in January. It has been on temporary assignment in Texas. Ours is painted up as Minsi III, Davis McCampbell's bird.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

man you guys are lucky...............

[MP-Willow]

The Hellcat was very good, but that is not to say the F4F Wildcat could not dance with the IJN. True she was not as nimble or graced as the Zero, but the F4F would do its best to get you home.

AS for the P-38, she was very good and could have been better if the P-47 and P-51 programs did not take the escourt jobs. But if the war went on Grummens two finest Cats were ready, the F7F and the F8F!!!

I hope to have our deadicated Pacific thread ready this weekend, if there are no objections?

As for this topic, have you concidered what did not hapen? If Japa is convinced not to attack the US by Germany then how long would the US have stayed out?

[lesofprimus]

With the Hellcat and the Wildcat, it wasnt a matter of a better fighter, just better tactics and using ur aircrafts abilities to destroy enemy fighters.... The Thatch Weave is a perfect example of this....

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Yeah but what about the Corsair. It was quite an aircraft. Compared to the P-38 or the P-40 or the Hellcat it entered the war late but it was a major contributor too.

[cheddar cheese]

Well said, it appears to have been overlooked

MP-Willow, should I put a poll on the homepage about pacific aircraft? If so what planes shall I include?

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I think you should. I would put the Corsair, P-38, Zero, Hellcat, atleast for starters. There were many more that could follow into that catagory. It is funny though how the aircraft fromt he european theatre seem to get more attention then those of the pacific, atleast that is what it seems like.

[cheddar cheese]

I know where your coming from there. I will definately be including those 4, any others?

[lesofprimus]

The Shiden..... A couple othe Japs planes too maybe....

[cheddar cheese]

how about P-47/P-51/P-40?

[MP-Willow]

P-40!!! C.C any Poll would need to be set up for fighter or Bomber and you would have to say Naval or Land base. To my top fighters would be the A6M, P-40, Ki-43, P-38, F6F, F4U

Also Spitfire, and Hurrcaines were used. So you have lots to lok at.
Bombers, Betty, B-24, B-24, B-29- This is the one place where the B-17 was removed early in the war

WE Do need more Pacific dscussion, and yes it is and was always Second fiddle to Europe and as 1944 came along even more so because OVERLORD was so important

[HealzDevo]

Here are my list:

1. Battle of Britain: as this was the first time it
was proven that the Nazi war machine was not
unstoppable and did have a weakness.
2. Stalingrad: This marked the high-water mark of
Nazi expansion across Europe as soon they were
engaged in retreat.
3. D-Day the storming of the Normandy Beaches which
pushed the Germans away from their airfields and
bases in France that they had been using to
batter Britain.
4. Midway: An important battle which threw the
Japanese into a head-long battle in which a lot
of the Japanese High-seas fleet was lost
including almost the entirity of the Japanese
High-Seas Fleet.
5. Iwo Jima: This threw the Japanese back towards
their own home-land from their fortified
positions in the islands of the Pacific.
6. The Mission to stop the Nazis developing Heavy
Water for making an Atomic Bomb. This commando
mission saved America and Britain from the
prospect of Allied Cities getting decimated by
the atomic bomb.

These are the five battles that I consider most important out of WW2. These are just my personal list. The sixth one is added as I personally think this is important as Germany had bombers with the range to bomb the US and an atomic bomb would have been added threat in this situation. The Amerika bombers were designed by Germany to have the range to reach America from bases in Germany. So far as I know they did actually carry out bombing raids on the US that didn't do much damage.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

The Mission to stop the Nazis developing Heavy
Water for making an Atomic Bomb. This commando
mission saved America and Britain from the
prospect of Allied Cities getting decimated by
the atomic bomb.

i saw a program about that and what they did was amazing, operation grouse it was called (proberly not spelled correctly).....................

although interestingly that wasn't the only time we had to destroy german heavy water, after the raid on the factory that made the stuff, they had some left and were shipping it into germany, the only place we could stop it was when it was on the boat so we sunk the boat with the heavy water, the lake was to deep for the germans to dive down and get the heavy water, they had some of the most amazing technology in the world, but they couldn't invent a decent diving suit

[cheddar cheese]

Didnt they use Horsas for that mission?

[MP-Willow]

HealsDevo:
Your ist of Battles is a good one, but Midway was much closer then you make it out and stopped Japanese expansion west. It was a head-long battle, but one to bring out the American Carriers. If the Navy had not been able to break the codes and also confirm that it was midway island, as it was never refered to by name, then things would have been very different.

Iwo, was very importent for the airforce. The air Core needed it as a safe landing place for shot up B-29s. It was on a direct rute to and from the Marianas were the bombers were based. Also from Iwo formosa and the home Islands could be reached by fighters.

In total I like your list. I would say that we should talk of important battles in each Theatere. As the Pacific, Europe, Africa, and The China-Burma-India weer all very different.

Now Wellcome to your little bit of the Internet. Please pull up a chair and hang out your shingle. I have read a bit about the German bomberes but not that they did bomb the US, Japan bobing the Mainland yes.