On Midrats 27 August 2017 - Episode 399: The Asiatic Fleet of 1941 and its Lessons of Today

Please join us at 5pm(EDT) on 27 August 2016 for Midrats Episode 399: The Asiatic Fleet of 1941 and its Lessons of Today

Nothing is really new, unprecedented, or that unique. If you are

willing to look with the right eye, though tools may have changed, the fundamentals often remain the same.

In the opening months of WWII, there is a story we don't study enough - mostly because it is not a pleasant story.

For today's episode, we're going to take some time to do look at the story of the Asiatic Fleet in 1941, and what her story might inform us about the challenges today.

Our guest for the full hour will be Hunter Stires, a student at Columbia University and a researcher at the Center for the National Interest.

From our guest's article from last August's Naval Institute's Proceedings, he sets the stage;

Even in the missile age, we can gain much insight on naval strategy in Asia from the trials and travails of Admiral Thomas C. Hart and his castoff flotilla of all-gun cruisers, four-stacker destroyers, and diesel submarines manned by the weathered “old China hands” of the Asiatic Fleet. Hart and his 11,000 highly experienced officers and men, most with many more years in service than their counterparts elsewhere in the Navy and Marine Corps, faced the same challenges that our forward forces and strategic planners are grappling with today, including the use of submarines and surface ships to find and destroy high-value targets in denied areas at war’s opening, the indefensibility of forward bases, and the vital importance of mobile logistics assets to replace them.

Join us live if you can or pick the show up later by clicking here. Or you can also pick the show up later by visiting either our iTunes page or our Stitcher page.