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Old 24-06-2008, 06:49 AM   #68 (permalink)
spidge
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Ziggy Sprague did everything right that day and I am sure that type of battle had never been discussed, much less planned for. Lets see, lets run a scenerio where a group of 6 slow jeep carriers provisioned with ground attack ordinance, screened by 3 destroyers and 4 destroyer escorts, are attacked by 4 battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers. Naw, that'll never happen. Besides, if it did, the carriers and escorts will be toast. Un...be...lievable.
You can be assured that the Japanese had not discussed it either and were put totally on the back foot. They were used to these types of ships turning tail against such a force.

Maybe the Japanese thought that this group was a seaborne version of tokubetsu kōgeki tai "Special Attack Units" from which Kamikaze was taken.

To anyone seeing this battle, it could be thought of nothing else but suicidal.
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My Avatar is the memorial to the 22 Commonwealth Coastwatchers at the Temakin Cemetery on Betio (Tarawa Atoll) who were beheaded by the Japanese on 15th October 1942. http://www.dva.gov.au/media/publicat...mem_beito.html

"You were given the choice between war and dishonor.
You chose dishonor and you will have war."

(Winston Churchill made this prophetic pronouncement in a House of Commons speech in 1938, just after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement with Hitler. Chamberlain returned from Germany with the signed agreement in hand, proclaiming that "peace in our time" had been achieved. Churchill attacked Chamberlain's "politics of appeasement" in this and many other speeches.)

What did the Australians do in ww2 and other conflicts? Check out this site:
http://www.diggerhistory.info/00-pag...ster-index.htm
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