(August 3, 2011 at 11:59 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:but generally you only have the ships you started the war with.
True enough for the Japanese. However, we had begun the R & D for Essex class carriers and Iowa class battleships by 1939. When war broke out, instead of 10 ships we ordered 30.
The Japanese built one carrier from the keel up..the Taiho, and even that was started before the war began. Industrially, the Japanese were not match. Oddly, they knew that and attacked Pearl Harbor anyway. Interesting psychology there.
They were trying for a fast victory, as they could not sustain a long conflict. <--their psychology there.
Development of additional vessels during a war can be a difficult thing, especially when taking heavy losses. It depends on 2 things really: resources available and length of the war. If you don't have the resources to field ships quickly... then it might be more intelligent to focus strongly on your industry and technology than to waste what little you have on what will be a slightly dated reinforcement. If the war will only last for a few battles, then reinforcements are utterly pointless.
I've been in wars for centuries before... it completely changes your mentality. Eventually, one starts building only slightly more warships than they are losing because it takes resources to maintain "waste fleet" that could be far better used on refitting what you already have or not spent on military at all. The war stops mattering about numbers on each side, and it becomes a war of military technology, sabotage/espionage, and intel. It's really quite fascinating how much each side digs in along their border, testing its strength every few years.
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
