Topic: I'ld be fascinated if Japan had troops in Europe in WW2
Blayne Bradley
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I'm watching a somewhat hilarious anime called "Aix Powers Hetalia" and theres alot of scenes of Italy, Japan and Germany (nations are represented by individuals) and it begs the question of what would it have been like on an individual and operational level if Japan had managed to bring a few divisions of troops over to Europe, where would they fight? How well would they fight?
I think North Africa would make best use of them, the Russian front would simply swallow any reasonable number of divisions and the allies would have too much firepower and heavy equipment for the Japanese usually with lighter weapons to make that much use but then again, maybe 4-5 German equiped Japanese divisions could have held were the Germans didn't.
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I did see a History Channel show about the extra-large Japanese submarines that were used to ship supplies and technology back and forth between Berlin and Japan. There were navy people from Japan in Germany.
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Blayne: had Russia not known for sure that Japan wasn't going to invade, it might not have pulled its veteran divisions from the Japanese front. It is these very soldiers that valiantly marched/skiied from Siberia to the gates of Moscow. Their fierce counterattack drove Germany from seizing the capital.
Had Russia not been able to move those troops the war would have ended as the domes in Red Square collapsed.
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Blayne Bradley
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quote:Originally posted by Phanto: Blayne: had Russia not known for sure that Japan wasn't going to invade, it might not have pulled its veteran divisions from the Japanese front. It is these very soldiers that valiantly marched/skiied from Siberia to the gates of Moscow. Their fierce counterattack drove Germany from seizing the capital.
Had Russia not been able to move those troops the war would have ended as the domes in Red Square collapsed.
\
Eeeerm your completely missing the point.
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Think about it, Blayne.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Blayne Bradley
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No as you clearly didn't get what I was saying.
The assertion is how effective would In the European Theater would a reasonable number of Japanese divisions would be, I in know way suggested or implied an escalation of the war to include Japan as an active participant against Russia in the Soviet Far East.
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Who said anything about them actually invading? All it had to be was a credible bluff, something the Russians would believe.
No, it's not precisely what you said, but it's still an important and interesting thing to think about.
You think North Africa would have done this and that... but the reality IS that if they'd done soemthing like attack Russia, that is, if they'd had the manpower to do so, like you're imagining... well, the tide would have turned in quite a way.
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Blayne Bradley
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by 1940ish though the Japanese were already pretty set on the Southern Resource Area and attacking Russia would not have secured for them their needs even if they did push a considerable distance in if anything is a worse logistical nightmare for the Japanese as the Russians in Siberia have a much better ability to trade empty space for time.
While the Russian Siberian counter attack on germany hurt Germany hard it wasn't essential to winning the war then and there, the Russians were churning out so many divisions a month and the Germany armor was so perilously overstretched that minor local attacks would have seriously impeding the Germany efforts and possibly made it WORSE for the Germans as they or Hitler rather would still hold onto the deluded hope of taking Moscow further attriting their front line combat srength in an intendable forward strategic situation.
Japan would've hurt but the Japanese only really had around 20-30 divisions of which only 15 or so would have been effective into pushing into Russia, of which the Russians would only need a somewhat minimal amount to do holding actions and buying time.
But more to the point I was thinking more along the lines of saying what if a still not-attacking-russia Japan sent volunteers to fight for Germany in Europe say 5 divisions of good troops and say 500 pilots? Give them German planes and equipment what part of the war would they have done the best in and where?
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