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warspite1 -> RE: What Book Are You Reading at the moment? (1/21/2016 5:18:40 AM)
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ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus
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ORIGINAL: warspite1
The Indian Ocean Raid achieved nothing from a strategic point of view - but did use up fuel, placed more wear and tear on five fleet carriers of the KB and more strain on the pilots - who had been in operation for 6 months practically solid by the time of Midway - and for which there was not exactly a steady stream of replacements was there?
The Kido Butai was an enormously powerful asset, it had plenty to occupy itself with in the Pacific without wasting time and effort in the Indian Ocean.
As for Krugman, yes perfectly serious. Look at some of the past winners of the Nobel Prize - you think winning one is a guarantee of anything? The guy likens the world economy to a baby-sitting club. The respect for him as an economist is hardly universal....
Well, the raid in fact achieved two things: the Royal Navy would not be interfering with the Japanese operations in Burma... And second, they would abandon the Indian Ocean, withdrawing to Eastern Africa... One less threat, guess what, that's what the Japanese high command wanted back in the spring of 1942.
"The respect for him [Krugman] as an economist is hardly universal...."
I hope you are talking about trained economists... And above all, I hope a certain Niall Ferguson (the Census thing) is not on the picture.
If you don't read him, your loss. I agree, let's stick to books [:)]
warspite1
I have read him [&:] as per my earlier post.
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One less threat, guess what, that's what the Japanese high command wanted back in the spring of 1942.
Why have you missed out that what the Japanese really wanted was the destruction of the Eastern Fleet?
The fact was (and fair enough the Japanese could not know this) the Royal Navy in 1942 was never going to be a threat in the Indian Ocean because a) it was having to fight in the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the Southern Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean and just did not have the ships to spare to put together a balanced, sensible fleet in the Far East b) the bases were not up to the job - that was what Singapore was supposed to be for....
By the way you said Somerville was 'literally hiding'. That is not what actually happened was it? Quite the reverse, both his 'old tarts' and the Fast Division were at sea hoping to catch Nagumo in a night battle but (probably fortunately) by the time the Japanese arrived the Fleet had turned west to refuel and replenish.
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