I continue reading the “Trilogy of the Pacific War” and have finished more than half of it.
I believe I will be able to finish it in H1 this year as targeted.
Today I come with another take-away— Growth is all that matters.
For the navy, the transition took a long while from “Battleships-dominated” theory to “Aircraft carrier centered” warfare.
When the Americans initially tried to hit ships in the open sea with air attack in 1942, the efficiency were extremely low and all sorts of incredible mistakes were made. There were countless descriptions in the book:
- Spy planes mis-communicated the critical intel, leading the whole air squadron to attack less significant targets while leaving the fleet vulnerable
- Attack squadrons could not find enemy fleet somehow, even though the correct coordinates were communicated to them
- Radio did not work, so the commander dare not give orders to the squadrons in the air, worrying that this would confuse pilots to death
- Planes could not find their carriers, or even tried to land on enemy carriers
- Tons of bombs dropped without hitting a single target
- Pilots risked their lives to release torpedoes that did not work
- US air squadrons could not even form formation in the air and execute coordinated attacks
- … …
But only one year later, in 1943/1944, similar descriptions started to disappear and were replaced with only simple terms of how many ships were sunk and how many planes were lost.
No more drama in the attack. Luck was no longer a factor. Ships expected to be hit when they saw enemy planes…
This showed that the US fleet had increased their air attack capabilities in the open sea.
And only then it could be said that aircraft carriers had become a dominating factor in the naval warfare.
Of course, the learning journey came with its own costs — ships that were sunk, planes that were destroyed, crews that were killed…
But that was the only way.
On the other hand, the British, as the traditional naval superpower of the world, was completed missing in this journey.
So they dominated nothing after the war and were never again a superpower.
As long as we stay in the game and keep growing, we will not be obsolete.
Otherwise, just look at the British today and think about “The No More empire on which the sun never sets”.
