A historical what-if question

[mapuc]

This is a what-if question which I have placed here and not in the GT.

Would USA have enough strength to take on Germany and Japan by themself ?

If we presume that UK and Russia is defeated it this what-if scenario.

Well there is still the rest of the common wealth who would be a great help to USA in their fight against Germany and Japan.

Markus

[Aktungbby]

Yes! Not only in numbers productionwise : example Sherman tanks put paid to anything the germans could muster panzerwise just on quantity alone-from the Soviet proven mantra "numbers have a cachet of their own"; and after Midway then Guadalcanal, Japan was really just a wearisome island hopping trial with inevitable results as American production numbers increased exponentially. The bottom line: both Japan and Germany would ultimately be up against the Manhattan Project with utterly compelling results-utter destruction or unconditional surrender. Geography also plays a critical role here. The Atlantic and Pacific are America's extremely difficult to overcome moat!

[Cybermat47]

Well, Hitler believed that he needed the entire industrial capacity of the European continent to even compete with America, so probably.

[Kapitan]

I am a bit 50 50 on this and heres why:

The German navy starves the UK into submission by destroying the ships on the atlantic, this means Germany will have free reign pretty much in the Atlantic with submarines.

Germany defeats Russia and is able to tap the Russian tank factory which can produce as many T34 and T36 as the Americans can with Shermans giving them almost a 1 to 1 parity, on top of that they continue producing the tiger and panzers giving them a slight numerical superiority.

The Baltic sea becomes a German lake and Sweden being rich in iron ore and other minerals is now exclusivly exporting to German with impunity from attack from the UK and Russia.

In order to effect a landing on the Atlantic side the United states would have to wrestle back control of the Atlantic, now had this happened prior to December 1941 that Germany defeats the UK that would be the hardest part yet.

The UK has a top secret program called Tube alloys based in Wales had the scientists and material not been transfered to the USA and Canada the atomic bomb project would likely have not happened thus Japan may have continued the fight, had the Germans Defeated the UK it would leave them free to asssist the Japanese in a lot of key areas, while Germany had no carriers they did have some ships and no doubt would have requestitioned any ship or aircraft the british left behind.

With Russia now in the pocket of German the logistics chain between Japan and Germany would be tiny in comparision to the USA plus with Russia being one of the Major oil producing countries and rich in natural gas as well as other much needed minerals Japan could have continued without having to run the gauntlet of USN Submarines.

The Key area to defeat the USN would have been in the Pacific islands midway and Hawaii because now your forcing the Americans to operate either from Australia or their own west coast line, this means predictability, technically you could cycle many submarines in and out of the areas effectively blockading them in port and the Germans would have had plenty of spare boats had the atlantic been secured.

As for total defeat of America via invasion i would say no this is because any amphibious landings on the mainland would have been met with total unity from the American and Canadian people i couldnt see it being sucessful.

What i could see is a negotiated peace where Australia and New zealand would be free but the rest would be Japanese control, while much of Europe would ceed to Germany (likely including control of british empire territories), Italy would control the Med and most of north africa and some of the middle east.

[mapuc]

Thank you for your expertise in this what-if.

Reading Kapitan's comment made me remember an episode of War Factories.

In this episode they talked about the famous German tank The Tiger.

While I sad there and watch this episode, listening to the historians and watching black and white film clip I was one big "!".

So I think Aktungbby could be more accurate on this.

Even though Germany would have 100 folds more material, the way the factories was created and how it worked, made them very ineffective.
This is the feeling I get by watching episode of War factories.

The tracked on these Tiger tanks had to be removed and replaced with a transporter tracks, before loaded on to a train. Then near the front they removed this transporter track and put the original back.
The gearbox was very complicated and it toke hours for tank driver to learn mastering it.

Each time a Tiger tank left the factory
a lot more Sherman left the factory(I can't remember who many it was)

This is a what-if question, so even Kapitan could be accurate we don't know, and thank God for that.

Markus

[Aktungbby]

/\ Indeed, the very brutal fact about the Sherman over the Tiger was that the undergunned Sherman was intended primarily as infantry support. It would take five Sherman's to knock out one Tiger...and that price would willingly be paid. THE FIREFLY upgrade helped. The Russian version of this became apparent at Kursk ie: the greatest tank clash in history, when Russian tanks simply negated the Tiger's favorable 2000 metre 88 cannon edge and rammed the superior German vehicles. Oddly, it was the Panzer V Panther that cost Germany that battle as production and shakedown problems delayed the commencement of Operation Citadel, intended to stabilize te Eastern front after the utter disaster at Stalingrad. The delay was utterly devastating as the Russian were able to better prepare completely to repel the German offensive. The war's initiative was then permanently in Russian hands... all the way to Berlin, assisted by a military 'distraction' and
breakout Operation Cobra from the beaches of Normadie!