This Is How the Axis Could Have Invaded the United States

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Interesting article restrospective in Gizmodo, based on a March 1942 Life magazine article "Now the US must fight for its life." The article began: "You are looking at the first German missile of this war to land on the soil of the Western Hemisphere. Before it is over, you will certainly see a lot more of the same."

http://gizmodo.com/5837575/this-is-how-the-nazis-could-have-invaded-the-united-states

The Germans had a number of plans for the invasion of America, and the  mini-campaign in the NUTS! War Without End book is (loosely) based on a variant of Plan 5 as discovered in German archives after the war. The Germans planned to take the Azores, and then Bermuda and the Bahamas as advanced bases. Then they would have launched diversionary attacks down the St. Lawrence river and up the Mississippi while making a main strike through the Chesapeake Bay and into Washington, DC.

The book "Target America" describes how the Germans also conducted research into a variety of long-range strike systems, including V-1 rocket carrying transport ships, submarine-towed V-2 rockets, FW-200 Condor planes fitted with V-1s, a series of long-range "America Bombers"  (such as the Ju-390 with a 6,000 mile range -- or 3,000 mile combat radius -- one of which made a test flight from an airfield in France to within 12 miles of the US coastline in 1944), and of course the Sanger Space Bomber.

So if you're playing the Weird War genre, keep in mind that but for circumstances and technology developments this aspect of the Weird War could have been quite real.


Japanese armor in California


German "America Bombers" attack an airport new New York City

[Engel]

Great find. And interresting reading. Thanks.

[janner]

Very interesting example of what nonsense military planners can come up with when left with nothing much to do 

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

This article in Life came out before the Battle of Midway -- early 1942 looked pretty grim....so think of it as what your nightmares may be after seeing defeat after defeat, and hundreds of thousands of your soldiers killed and captured, and allied country after country go down to defeat at the hands of the Axis.

There had been some successes in North Africa, but all of Europe had fallen and the German army seemed unstoppable as it marched across the  stepped of Russia. The Japanese had largely seized control of the Pacific and were at the gates of Australia -- bombing Darwin, attacking coastal shipping and gearing up for an invasion.

So in that context, the Life magazine article isn't just having too much time on your hands, but trying to posit what thinks could look like if the defeats kept coming.

[Plynkes]

There had been some successes in North Africa, but all of Europe had fallen...

Not quite all. 

[Captain Blood]

Good show, Plynkes 

[Sir Dryden]

Yeah Plynkes, good show indeed.
That Canuck looks very defiant 

Yours truly,

Sir Dryden

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Well, I've never considered Britain to be fully "European."  Call me old fashioned!!

[Plynkes]

A lot of Britons feel the same way, but I'm not one of them. 

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

The Britons? 'Ew are the Britons?

[janner]

Good show, Plynkes 

Not to mention the many 'neutral' European states that were not touched by Germany.

As to the threat, if they couldn't even take Thorney Island, why worry about Bermuda!

Look at the logistical implications of what they are actually suggesting - even in the midst of a dire strategic situation, it is totally hat stand.

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Again, in the context of early 1942 when all of Europe had gone down to Nazism (except Britain) or been co-opted, and Japan strode the Pacific like a seeming juggernaut, who knew?? It's easy to speak from almost 70 years of 20/20 hindsight with full knowledge of the true state of the German industrial-war machine.

But hey, in the Wierd War, *anything* could happen!

[janner]

Again, in the context of early 1942 when all of Europe had gone down to Nazism (except Britain) or been co-opted, and Japan strode the Pacific like a seeming juggernaut, who knew?? It's easy to speak from almost 70 years of 20/20 hindsight with full knowledge of the true state of the German industrial-war machine.

But hey, in the Wierd War, *anything* could happen!

Again, all of Europe had not gone down to Nazi control even in 1942. For example, Iberia, Sweden and Switzerland remained neutral. Further Japanese success in the Pacific had no influence on the practicalities of Germany running an amphibious assault across the Atlantic when they couldn't even manage the Channel.

You are making broad generalisations in support of a silly article. Anyone with an once of common sense would have cracked that this was rubbish in 1942 even without the benefit of 50/50 hindsight.

Agree, in Weird War anything can happen, but that wasn't what the article was about either 

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Oh jeesh -- don't be sematical and such. Were Sweden and Switzerland going to stand up to Germany?? Could they be counted as "allies" -- or were they neutrals at the sufferance of Germany, which could have conquered them had it wanted to. Iberia? Please -- inactive Axis allies at worst. Franco's fascism government cooperated extensively with the Axis, same with "neutral" Portugal. By early 1942, were there any active opponents to the Axis left on the Continent other than the USSR, which looked pretty well toasted at that time?? No.

Had the allies had any significant successes in stopping the Japanese at that time? No.

The silly article is a musing on nightmare during a time when things looked grim for the Allies, and you're taking it waaaayyy too seriously!! Anyways, have fun in whatever gaming genre you enjoy!