Change one single event of the War...

Yes, my father was in the SBD Scouting squadron at the time and related that all the SBD's carried live ordnance while scouting, including the Bombing squadron. The fighters didn't, of course, but did carry full loads of fifty caliber for their guns. Halsey wasn't going to take any chances in case he came across a Japanese fleet. My dad said they actually expected to, even before Pearl Harbor, and the pilots were all extremely nervous; maybe that's why some of them were seeing enemy ships where there weren't any.

I'm not sure, but I don't think the pre-war Navy made a habit of having three carriers in port at Pearl Harbor at one time. That was because the carrier airgroups were flown off to an airfield so the pilots could continue practicing flying while their carriers were in port. The problem was that, with three carrier airgroups, the airfields on Oahu would have become very crowded and made operations very difficult. After the war began, the Oahu airfields were expanded, and more built on neighboring islands, so there was less crowding. Incidentally, my dad piloted one of the SBD's flown off the Enterprise as she approached Pearl on Sunday morning. He arrived just as the raid was ending and tangled with a couple of Japanese planes. He was also shot at, and his plane hit, by some trigger-happy Marine AA gunners; the result was that he had to make an emergency landing. That was the first of several American planes he totaled during the war.

 

I wish Gamelin would have had the guts to push further into Germany in 1939 instead of waiting. No phoney war and the war could have halted as early as 1940

 

How about Malta? If the Axis forces could have taken it as planned, much more men and material could have reached Rommel, who could have put it to very good use. Perhaps Suez could have been siezed, the oilfields of the Mid-East, who knows? Wasn't there an pro-Nazi insurrection in Iraq about this timeframe?

Maybe the next move in the Med could have been Gibralter.

 

I've always wondered what would've happened if the Japanese had actually gone through with their third strike at Pearl Harbor? Maybe concentrating on the oil reserves and repair facilities. Maybe even follow that up with the planned attack on the Panama Canal. I don't know if it would have changed the eventual outcome of the war but, I can't help but think it certainly would have huge ramifications in how the Pacific theater of the war played out.

 

Hitler has a modicum more artistic talent so that he finds an art patron and spends his life churning out forgettable art, but sells just enough to maintain his ego - in fact he uses his ability to speak and coerce large people into inspiring a new artistic and creative Renaissance.

(I know this one goes from the realm of what if into a flight of fantasy)

 

Alternately, if I can't change that it will occur, then Hitler et al, all face the Nuremberg trials and pay for their crimes. They don't get to wear suits when on trial, they have to wear prison uniforms.

 

What "planned attack on the Panama Canal"? The Japanese did not have the ability to attack the Panama Canal in sufficient force to do much damage and, as far as I know, there was no plan for an attack on the Panama Canal at any time in 1942.

A third attack on Pearl Harbor probably would have come to grief since the defense was thoroughly alerted and all AA batteries manned, long before it could have been launched. The Japanese strike force lost 29 aircraft shot down over Pearl Harbor and a further 111 planes damaged (20 of which were written off as unrepairable). This represented 34% of the 411 (357 operational, plus 54 partially disassembled spares) aircraft available to Nagumo's force. A third strike (with 12 % fewer aircraft) would have to wait for the damaged aircraft to be repaired, and it's likely it could not be launched, strike Pearl Harbor, and return before dark.

In addition, the US Army had 57 remaining combat ready fighters, plus the 14 F4F's in Enterprise's air group, a total of 71 operational fighters which would have opposed a third strike. If, as was most likely, the Japanese had launched a third strike the next day, a total of 49 damaged, but repairable, US fighters might have been added to the defense (total; 120 fighters) to oppose a Japanese attack. Given these numbers, it's entirely unlikely the Japanese could have destroyed either the Pearl Harbor repair facilities or the fuel tanks. Five months later, the same Japanese force attacked the British Naval Base at Trincomlee, this time with orders to destroy the fuel tanks there. Of 51 tanks, and with no air opposition, the Japanese airmen managed to destroy just one tank, and that only by crashing a plane into it.

A third Japanese strike on Pearl Harbor was unlikely to change the course of the Pacific War at all.

See; http://www.navweaps.com/index_oob/OOB_WWII_Pacific/OOB_WWII_Pearl_Harbor.htm

 

If the Germans could have delayed Operation Barbarossa for at least a year, they could have got their panzer and motorized divisions fully modernized (upgraded guns on tanks, more heavier tanks, more trucks, etc) and more reliable transport for the infantry formations who relied mainly on "horse" power. Also, the Luftwaffe could have been refitted since they were well worn and bloodied from the Battle of Britain and the offensive in the Balkans. During that year of refitting, Malta could have been taken, and possibly Gibralter as well, then Rommel could have been re-enforced properly for the drive on the Suez. From there, who knows?

 

And what about the Russian army reorganisation being in a much more advanced state?
Meaning the germans would have faced severe russian opposition. PLus, the increase alone that Russia would've had in material (they were outproducing Germany Nealry in a 3-1 advantage), namely more nasty, T-34s, would've made the German advance even more dificult.



Cheers...

 

What Miguel B.said. Absent the contact with the T-34s and KV-1s, the Germans would have no great incentive for long 7.5cm tank guns, and anyway the 7.5cm PaK 40 only started coming off in 1942. In the meantime the Russhkis would be replacing those older tanks like T-26s and BT-7s in a one-for-one basis with said T-34s and KV-1s.

Ad the Russhkis had been caught in the middle of a large reorganization. Were you going to give them another year to shake down?

And between the Battle of Britain to Op. Bararossa almost one year had elapsed, plenty of time to refit. And I had no idea it had been so bloodied in the Balkans. Those Yugoslavs, Greeks and Brits must have been tougher than I thought after all.

Sometimes it's better to play with the cards you have on hand than going for the deck.

 

The US aircraft industry, NACA and, other aerospace researchers decide to make a concerted effort towards high speed flight in 1937 - 38. They begin to build large supersonic wind tunnels and other appratatus for this purpose.
This gives the US the potential to have something like the F 86 flying by 1944.

 

Bye bye Barbara!

 

Hitler’s insistence on two contradictory objectives in 1942: Stalingrad on the Volga River and the oilfields of the Caucasus. How this division of strength led to disaster.

 

Why do people always concentrate on finding a way for teh Germans to win, can't we all be thankful they didn't win?

 

You noticed that too did ya ? LOL

 

Ok, this is what a proper answer to this would be:

The Son bridge does not get blown.
XXX Corps gets through the other bridges it did in real life, but also breaks through into Arnhem.
And so on and so forth, the war ends late 1944/early 1945.

 

Of course!! Didn't ya noticed that quite a few of these 'What If" threads concern in some way the Axis winning? LOL

 

Aren't you forgetting The Twilight Zone? Where Pigs Fly and Germans Win WWII ™?

 

I would have liked for the Japanese to have stayed out of SE Asia. Their occupation and the resistance to that occupation led directly to the introduction of communism in French Indochina, the rise of the Pathet Lao and the Viet Minh, and ultimately resulting in the Vietnam War.

 

I guess something I said many pages back has some relevance here.


We all know the Allies achieved their glory and total victory in WW2 but people want to test their intelligence and see if they can devise how the axis could have.

Dont get me wrong though, Heck yes im glad we won!