1921/1923 GENERAL MITCHELL BOMBS BATTLESHIPS

[tss77]

rizon72 Did you forget about what happened to the Battleship Prince of Wales and the Battle Cruiser Repulse sunk at Sea and firing back the Japanese managed that very well. One more thing General Mitchell was fighting the War Department bureaucracy and the Navy ;Those Gentlemen in the Navy especially the top brass were Battleship Admiral's and they were not listening to anyone that appeared as a threat to their status.

[cabbievonbump]

Concerning Pearl Harbor. Consider this. The Japanese used about 360 aircraft in the raid, and of the 8 battleships present at the time, three damaged but serviceable as is, four sunk and later raised (although Oklahoma never returned to service) and one that was only partially salvaged. The targets were not maneuvering. Four years later, it took 1000 aircraft sorties to sink the Yamato. The difference? Yamato was maneuvering, thus harder to hit. Comments?

[rizon72]

Mitchell was also an idiot. Yes he recognized air power, but failed to see exactly how airpower would change naval warfare. The biggest problem was you had a battleship which had no crew, was in poor condition, was not moving and not firing back.

Sinking a battleship (or any ship) was actually tougher than he thought. If he had worked with the navy, naval airpower might have been very different for WW2.

[frantic1971]

Mitchell was truly amazing. With prophetic clarity he realized that that air power would be decisive in future wars. And this was TWENTY years before the Battle of Britain, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Midway, the allied air campaign against Germany and Japan, and the A bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[matamuelas]

Nice, Mitchell is one dishonored prophet of Air Power, humilliated by their own countrymen...

Sad he wasn't alive when Pearl Harbour happened, so he could said "guys, don't want to say "I told you guys", but I realy did it".

USA paid a high tribute at Pearl Habrour, horror that was fed by their own square head military advisors, even the same that saw when the Ostfriedsland was badly damaged by thiny little "mosquitos"of Mitchell ...

I wonder if his image was later rehabilitated.

[Contrajoe]

@matamuelas I think he eventually got a medal of honor.

[TonyN737]

I know Billy Mitchell's greatgrandson, same name, same job, and a very cool guy.

Thank you General Mitchell.