A scenario for WW2 history buffs: What if?

[rightwinger]

The European Theater was not a good venue for naval power. Too vulnerable to land based air attacks. Battleships were obsolete and a single carrier would have been sunk by subs or land based air attacks

(My bold)

I disagree. The ETO was excellent for naval power, especially for the Allies early on. We beat Rommel in Africa on logistics, his supply lines - naval & air - never delivered as promised, because Allied naval forces & land-based air kept kept hammering his supply lines. Even the relatively short run from Italy-Sicily-Tunisia was littered with the gutted wrecks of German merchantmen & aircraft.

The Brits also bottled up/destroyed French naval assets in the Mediterranean, & the Allied navy @ the invasion of Africa destroyed whatever French naval units refused to go neutral.

The key to this was that the Brits managed (by the skin of their teeth) to hold on to Malta. It's location allowed it to become for all practical purposes an unsinkable Aircraft Carrier which was in range of much of Italy and Western North Africa, and the shipping routes in the Western Med.

Which is why the European Theater was not a good place for naval warfare. If you notice all the US Aircraft Carriers we did not put a single one in the Mediterranian. It wouldn't have survived a month

 

[bendog]

(My bold)

I disagree. The ETO was excellent for naval power, especially for the Allies early on. We beat Rommel in Africa on logistics, his supply lines - naval & air - never delivered as promised, because Allied naval forces & land-based air kept kept hammering his supply lines. Even the relatively short run from Italy-Sicily-Tunisia was littered with the gutted wrecks of German merchantmen & aircraft.

The Brits also bottled up/destroyed French naval assets in the Mediterranean, & the Allied navy @ the invasion of Africa destroyed whatever French naval units refused to go neutral.

The key to this was that the Brits managed (by the skin of their teeth) to hold on to Malta. It's location allowed it to become for all practical purposes an unsinkable Aircraft Carrier which was in range of much of Italy and Western North Africa, and the shipping routes in the Western Med.

Which is why the European Theater was not a good place for naval warfare. If you notice all the US Aircraft Carriers we did not put a single one in the Mediterranian. It wouldn't have survived a month

Not to dispute you at all, because you are correct. But we did use the Wasp to fly off Spitfires for Malta twice. We never let Ranger even sniff that lake.
USS Wasp (CV-7) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia