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...and the US did it in basically four years.
Add to that the hundreds of subs, DEs and DDs (Destroyer Escorts and Destroyers), the 90 or so cruisers and the eight new battleships (South Dakota class and Iowa class) commissioned during the war.
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Indeed. You only mention the naval shipbuilding. Let's not forget the aircraft, the army equipment, &c. In the 1930's US had a formidable industrial capacity. In 1945 it had grown, very much, and was half of that of the whole World.
Yes, massive aircraft building:
Fighter aircraft built during the four years of the war?
Over 5,000 additional F-4 Wildcats.
Over 12,000 F-6 Hellcats
Over 12,000 F4U Corsair IIs
Over 12,000 additional P-40 Warhawks
Almost 10,000 additional P-39 Airacobras
Over 15,000 P-51 Mustangs
This is well over 65,000 of those types of fighter aircraft alone
Principle Bomber Aircraft?
Over 10,000 additional B-17 Flying fortresses
Over 13,000 B-24 Liberators
Almost 10,000 B-25 Mitchells
Over 5,000 B-26 Marauders
Over 3,000 B-29 super Fortresses
That's over 40,000 bombers.
Dive Bomber and Torpedo Aircraft?
Almost 6,000 SBD Dauntless
Over 7,000 SB2C Helldivers
Over 5,000 TBF Avengers
That' over 18,000 other naval aircraft
We're not including cargo aircraft here and there were tens of thousands of those...over 10,000 C-47 Skytrains alone.
But for combat aircraft, the U S produced a total of over 120,000 aircraft in four years! That is simply astounding and boggles the mind..
Of course, remember, tens of thousands of these aircraft were for allied nations...Britain, Russia, etc.
Jura The idiot
General
I'm not good in tanks but I've read the peak production just in Lima, Ohio facility was one thousand tanks weakly (in Spring of 1945)
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Here is a bit of a slightly random question I have had for a while - just how effective would modern anti-ship missiles be against WWII style heavily armoured battleships? How about if one added modern ERA on top of traditional steel armour?
Compared to the old WWII brawlers, modern warships are glass cannons.
They are very well defended glass cannons, with multiple layered integrated defences, however, if anything does manage to get through those defences, modern warships can be shockingly fragile.
There are no truly modern examples I can think of, but the best are probably during the Falklands war, when a single missile or detonating bomb strike is often enough to disable and ultimately destroy top of the line Destroyers and Frigates.
I think the Falkland War was a big wake up call for a lot of navies who had started to cut corners with warship materials, so hopefully warships produced after the war learnt those lesson, and made their ships out of sterner stuff.
However, I think the general expectation is that anything less than a carrier will probably be knocked out of the fight at best if it took a solid AShM hit.
Given all that, would it be worthwhile to re-examine warship armour packages to help ensure a hundred million or billion dollar warship isn't taken out by a single lucky shot?
Compared to the old WWII brawlers, modern warships are glass cannons.
They are very well defended glass cannons, with multiple layered integrated defences, however, if anything does manage to get through those defences, modern warships can be shockingly fragile.
There are no truly modern examples I can think of, but the best are probably during the Falklands war, when a single missile or detonating bomb strike is often enough to disable and ultimately destroy top of the line Destroyers and Frigates.
I think the Falkland War was a big wake up call for a lot of navies who had started to cut corners with warship materials, so hopefully warships produced after the war learnt those lesson, and made their ships out of sterner stuff.
However, I think the general expectation is that anything less than a carrier will probably be knocked out of the fight at best if it took a solid AShM hit.
Given all that, would it be worthwhile to re-examine warship armour packages to help ensure a hundred million or billion dollar warship isn't taken out by a single lucky shot?
lcloo
Captain
Interesting question. HMS Hood was sunk by a lucky shot from Bismarck within minutes of battle, while Bismarck took very heavy hits from shells and torpedoes, and remained afloat for several days.
Generally today's anti-ship missiles carried small war heads are not real threat to heavily armoured capital ship of WW2, unless it hit the magazine like the case of HMS Hood, or cause major fire as in HMS Sheffield which was actually sunk under tow in bad weather, in Falkland war.
If money is no consideration (very unlikely), heavy armour and double (or even more) hulls war ships can be built. But no matter how heavy the hull and superstructure are armoured, it can still be mission killed. And mission killed ship is a sitting duck for submarines or air strikes.
Generally today's anti-ship missiles carried small war heads are not real threat to heavily armoured capital ship of WW2, unless it hit the magazine like the case of HMS Hood, or cause major fire as in HMS Sheffield which was actually sunk under tow in bad weather, in Falkland war.
If money is no consideration (very unlikely), heavy armour and double (or even more) hulls war ships can be built. But no matter how heavy the hull and superstructure are armoured, it can still be mission killed. And mission killed ship is a sitting duck for submarines or air strikes.
Torpedoes detonating below hull is always a good bet. ASROC or just launch them from helos safely out of AA range.
If you have a modern carrier, any battleship is screwed because they are already screwed against carriers since WWII.
Most likely a old battleship would be discovered by modern assets before the battleship has an idea of where its opponents were, and sub can be sent to wait for the take down. An old BB is going down not knowing what happened.
If you have a modern carrier, any battleship is screwed because they are already screwed against carriers since WWII.
Most likely a old battleship would be discovered by modern assets before the battleship has an idea of where its opponents were, and sub can be sent to wait for the take down. An old BB is going down not knowing what happened.
German submarine launched torpedoes that took out the Royal Navy HMS Barham. Here, just a few minutes after being hit, she rolls over and explodes:
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