RedParadize, for all practical purposes, it is impossible for the USAAF to win. The only chance it has is dramatic incompetence on the part of the USAF, and even then it needs a shitload of luck. So if Regan had a Stalinesque outburst and decided, and somehow managed to, liquidate eighty five percent of the USAF officer corps a couple of years before the hypothetical campaign...and the American equivalent of the Greens party got into power and completely cut off all funding to the USAF, then maybe, the USAAF might have a slight chance.

 

Barring these kind of completely absurd pre-conditions, USAAF has NO (read 0.00%) chance of success, and a very slight (read 0.01%) chance of remaining a cohesive, organized fighting force for longer than twenty four hours.

 

It's not enough for the USAAF to know the locations of the enemy air bases before hostilities commence. Given the extreme disparity in effective combat power, the major operating centres (the air-warfare version of the Schwerpunkt) has to be identified. Sure, spies can discover several key air bases. That's not anywhere near enough information for a decisive attack:

 

Where in the twenty five square kilometre (or possibly more) base are the ammunition, fuel, personnel, command bunkers (etc etc) located? What about th

Hahaha... you are kind off expeditive. Now i am really done

 

To be honest when i started this topic, I was not expecting it to go in such details. 

 

I realise it now that in my inital "Battle of Britain alike" scenario was impossible for the USAAF. I started to realise it when I first calculated the average distance between airfeild. So i said the WW2 victory was only possible if the plane was already in the air before the initial attack. At that point I was still beleiving it was possible.

 

But when Sentinel28  pointed me that 3 sortie was possible in the elapsed time. It become more hard to keep an winnable ratio, they would have to be 1 hours away from their target before USAF start to engage them. thats mean on the border of  modern side airspace. USAF would have to be sleeping on the wheel to let an operation of that scale getting that close. thats for sure. Even with politic limitation. Modern side would be able to quickly react. At the best USAAF would gain what? one hours? two hours? at that point a big and decisive strike start to be less then possible. I should have drop, but I didn't.

 

I admit my defeat... the gap is to high.

 

PS to gf0012-aust.

I must admit at the end i was irritated by the way you were writing. But you clearly know what you talk about.

I had some doubt about that at some point, I had the feeling that you where saying that number was not important at all.

The 1945 USAAF could contaminate the entire United States with nuclear bombs between 1945 and 1955 so there would not be a future 1991 USAF.

 

 

 

Just a few off the top of my head (for the mental exercise: I realize RP has admitted an honorable defeat):

 

Adobe Walls

Beecher's Island

Haystack Fight

 

Fort Ticonderoga

 

Balaclava (Thin Red Line)

 

Rorke's Drift

 

Avranches (Mortain Counterattack)

Arracourt

Alligator Creek (Guadalcanal)

Samar

 

Vietnam

Actually, I misattributed that post to RedParadize, so it's all good.  I think we're all on the same page.