Bombardment of Ellwood

A modern treaty counterfactual imagines British ships reaching their tonnage limits while carrying less armament than their hulls were designed to accept.

Seydlitz would not have made it home if more of the shells that struck her had exploded, given how badly damaged she already was.

Rome did not maintain a standing navy to suppress it.

Ellwood's undefended oil facilities and good communications made it a conspicuous coastal target where an attack would quickly attract attention.

Seven Japanese submarines produced real disruption off an enormous coastline, exposing the mismatch between American capital-ship construction and its shortage of small escorts.

I-17 combined torpedoes, a deck gun, and a seaplane under a career submarine commander whose background contradicts the popular revenge story.

Nothing, provided the fleet also builds an escort ship to protect it.

I-17 fired for twenty minutes at Ellwood's fuel installations, missing the tanks while damaging a derrick, pump house, and nearby structures.

I-17's gun specifications put the Ellwood shell estimates in perspective: its theoretical rate of fire greatly exceeded the likely bombardment total.

The Ellwood raid primed defenders for the Battle of Los Angeles, when confused warnings and mass anti-aircraft fire caused casualties without a confirmed enemy aircraft.

No. The balloon is a later probable explanation for the alert, but there is no indication that the anti-aircraft barrage hit it.

The contrast between the burning of Washington and the defense of Baltimore explains an older American memory of coastal attack and invasion.

A secondhand wargame story changes British command and troop numbers to explore a different War of 1812.

The Baltimore expedition belonged to a wider British attempt to pressure several American ports while veteran manpower and naval forces were becoming available after the Napoleonic Wars.

American delaying action at North Point and Fort McHenry's denial of naval fire support made a direct assault on Baltimore too costly for the British plan.

Intermittent news, reports of victories, and hostility to perceived support for Napoleon explain continued British support for the war.

Wellington's post-Waterloo appointments leave no obvious time for a Canadian visit, despite local traditions associating his name with the country.

It also reflected a sincere British public view that the United States had attacked while Britain was fighting Napoleon, whom many Britons regarded as Europe's great enemy.

During the Orleans action, a German U-boat attacked coastal traffic, exchanged fire with flying boats, and accidentally sent shells onto American soil.

U-156 carried far more gun ammunition than torpedoes, making gunfire a plausible choice against a slow tug and its tows.

The story and submarine number remain uncertain, although that kind of bold visit was plausible for the large German cruiser-submarine family.

The four-masted barque Peter Iredale links Fort Stevens to an earlier story of sail, grounding, rescue, and an unsuccessful salvage attempt.

The Japanese shelling of Fort Stevens produced far more alarm than military damage.

Renewed European claims to the Louisiana Purchase were a speculative post-1814 possibility that linked diplomacy to the problem of demobilizing Napoleon's veterans.

Yes, eventually.

The occupation of Attu and Kiska served several aims at once: protecting Japan's northern approaches, complicating the Midway campaign, and claiming American territory for psychological effect.

It had a diversionary role and also served Japan's effort to extend its defensive perimeter.

Kinkaid brought battleship, ordnance, cruiser, and carrier-task-force experience to the recovery of the Aleutians.

Hosogaya's apparent surface advantage at Komandorski competed with the possibility of an unseen American carrier force.

Two small Japanese carriers struck Dutch Harbor, damaged its facilities, and inadvertently gave the United States a recoverable Zero fighter for technical study.

The Dutch Harbor carrier force combined Ryujo's small hull with Junyo's limited time to work up after conversion.

Gun crews, infantrymen, and civilian contractors improvised defenses during and between the two Japanese raids on Dutch Harbor.

The Alaska Highway was newly authorized when the Aleutian campaign began, leaving American forces dependent on distant support.

Kiska's tiny weather-station detachment was overwhelmed, while William House evaded capture for fifty days before starvation forced his surrender.

It was an improved Zero variant rather than an advanced prototype, but its recovery still revealed the newer variant's characteristics at close range.

It was possible in theory, but currents, distance, cold, and the extra support burden made the Aleutian route much harder than the routes the Allies actually used.

Fog allowed two Japanese light cruisers and ten destroyers to evacuate 5,193 men from Kiska through the blockade.

Attu's occupation brought civilian deaths, imprisonment in Japan, and permanent displacement of the surviving villagers.

An unnoticed interval without a Japanese garrison preceded the costly American landing on Attu in May 1943.

Yes, if Japan could actually build, fuel, crew, and operate them; the paper total alone could not create combat power.

Japan evacuated Kiska before the Allied landing, yet mines, booby traps, and friendly fire made Operation Cottage costly against an absent garrison.

Uncertain radar contacts prompted two American battleships to fire 518 fourteen-inch shells without a confirmed target or hit.

Installing a cable through the American blockade would itself have been an extraordinary engineering operation; the combined signs of evacuation warranted reconnaissance.

Britain and the United States would also gain years to develop their fleets, industry, and overseas support infrastructure.

Eric Brown made the first controlled carrier landing and takeoff by a pure jet in a Sea Vampire aboard HMS Ocean in December 1945, while the earlier American Ryan FR Fireball arrival was a crash landing by a mixed-power aircraft.

Possibly, but the Army might keep developing its existing tanks without wartime experience, so the timetable could differ.

Discovery of Japan's 18-inch-gun battleships could change which British capital ships were retained or modernized before a later war.

Japan had both long-range submarines and naval landing troops, but it does not appear to have combined them into such a plan, even though the concept was feasible.