From: Jim Webster (james.webster@iomartdsl.com)
Date: Wed Nov 17 2004 - 01:36:06 PST
Darrell Ramsell wrote:
> I also learned that another deciding factor was that the 12 inch gun
> that were on the island could not be turned around to fire to the north
> because they assumed an invasion would come by sea.
A bit of basic research would have shot this myth to pieces...
On some batteries they had to demolish part of the structures but most
of them did have all-round traverse... the problem was that the only
ammunition they had was APHE designed to attack warships and which had
little effect on land targets due to the inbuilt delay for the HE portion.
Incidentally the weapons & ammunition captured in the Philippines was
three times that captured at Singapore and the 'heavy weapons' that
'were not issued to the troops' were 18 2-pdr anti-tank guns. Not exctly
useful in an infantry battle where there were virtually no tanks and the
few that had appeared were easily destroyed by the Boyes anti-tank
rifles issued to the infantry - indeed later in the war some were
delivered to the marine Corp and used for the same purpose until the
arrival of the Bazooka.
The reason for the surrender was that the japanese had captured the
reservoirs and we were unable to retake them. The USA was to gain plenty
of knowledge later in the war on how well the japanes could defend
something in the islands campaigns. So how did you think the exhausted,
thirsty defenders of Singapore - a thousand miles from reinforcements
and resupply were going to do?
Now can we get back to talking about MV's?
TTFN
Jim
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