Re: RI October 2024

On 2024-11-18, Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:

In article <vhc1a4$ga5m$1@dont-email.me>,
 Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> wrote:
>

On 11/16/24 21:53, Robert Woodward wrote:

In article <lpt8n4F7c0eU1@mid.individual.net>,
  ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote:

...

So anyway, that's a long winded setup.  The actual action of these
books is mainly centered on a dysfunctional Alabama family whose
sons are all in the military, and whose daughter has escaped an
unsuitable marriage by fleeing to Pearl Harbor.  There are also
story-lines centering on an American ex-pat who has been flying for
a Polish resistance squadron, and who is consequently in bad odor
at home as a mercenary (the US being at peace with both Germany &
Japan as the series starts), a battle cruiser first officer in the
US Asiatic fleet, various Japanese notables and minor characters
who come and go.
>

 
"battle cruiser first officer in the US Asiatic fleet"?!
 
The US Navy did not have battle cruisers (the "Lexington" and "Saratoga"
would had been, but that class was cancelled by the Washington Naval
Treaty and those 2 ships were converted in Aircraft carriers). In fact,
the biggest ship in the US Asiatic fleet in 1941 was the USS Houston
(9195 tons displacement) which was classified as a heavy cruiser solely
because of 8 inch gun main batteries (it was originally classified as a
light cruise)
 

 
Did you forget the Alternate History?

>
The given Point of Departure was almost 2 decades after the Washington
Naval Treaty. Assuming that the Nazi Party will still take over Germany
is bad form if there was no Washington Naval Treaty is lazy plotting.

The Washington Naval Treaty is certainly relevant, in that it severely
limited the big ships Japan, US, and most of Europe could have and
build (the first modern big disarmament treaty), but it had very
little effect on the Nazi Party taking over Germany - it did not have
limitations on German power.

All the German limitations and enormous burden on Germany that
certainly contributed to the rise of the Nazis and WWII were laid out
earlier in the Treaty of Versailles.

(I haven't read the books so may be misinterpreting the Alternate World
here in my quibble.)

Chris