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What Would Have Happened if Germany Had Invaded the U.S. During World War II?
Slate ^ | August 2, 2015 | By Quora Contributor

Posted on 08/02/2015 7:44:26 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Invading the North American mainland can be safely left in the realm of bad Hollywood films. And that's even today, with larger ships, jet cargo aircraft, and more people. While it makes for a great strategy, in the end, it's just a nonstarter. Why?

The Germans had no forward base in the New World. If they had seized Iceland, any of the French protectorates in the Caribbean, or northern South America, then an invasion, while still a stretch, could have been conceivable. Without forward bases to deploy to and from, an invasion isn't going to happen.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: france; germany; russia; unitedkingdom; ww2
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To: central_va

If the Nazis invaded Switzerland with a million troops, the Swiss home guard militia would have just shot twice and went home.

This scenario has already been played out in the film “Iron Sky”.

http://www.ironsky.net/


101 posted on 08/03/2015 5:23:53 AM PDT by MikeSteelBe (Austrian Hilter was, as the Halfrican Hitler does.)
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To: gusty

That’s the propaganda we’ve been fed.


102 posted on 08/03/2015 5:24:32 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: gusty

This is true. We definitely benefited from the Nazis in that we got their best scientists and thinkers except for a few, and those remaining didn’t always have “critical mass”. I like to point out that without “immigration”, what would out atomic and space programs have been like. It’s not the numbers of immigrants, it’s the “who”.

When the USSR broke up, the US kept their quotas on. A lot of Jewish scientists, doctors, and engineers wanted to come here but couldn’t. So they went to Israel, and they have an open door for Jews. They try to help to get them established with a place to live and a job. So there were ex-Soviet nuclear physicists running street sweepers there.


103 posted on 08/03/2015 5:25:35 AM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day".)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Land power meets Naval power. Naval power wins every time.


104 posted on 08/03/2015 5:30:44 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: The Antiyuppie

Ok the handfull of brilliant scientist doesn’t mean we H-1B visas by the hundreds of thousands.


105 posted on 08/03/2015 5:32:41 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: redfreedom

Let’s assume Britain did collapse and become a German occupied country in WWII. (Had Hitler and Goering not been such idiots, it might have happened)


The b-29 began development as an idea in 1938 for just such a possibility. An order was placed on aug of 1940, quite a bit before Pearl Harbor. Securing Iceland as a forward base was one of the first things we did, but it did also relieve England of this job so they could focus elsewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress

Boeing began work on pressurized long-range bombers in 1938, in response to a United States Army Air Corps request. Boeing’s design study for the Model 334 was a pressurized derivative of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress with nosewheel undercarriage. Although the Air Corps did not have money to pursue the design, Boeing continued development with its own funds as a private venture.[4] The Air Corps issued a formal specification for a so-called “superbomber”, capable of delivering 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) of bombs to a target 2,667 mi (4,290 km) away and capable of flying at a speed of 400 mph (640 km/h) in December 1939. Boeing’s previous private venture studies formed the starting point for its response to this specification.[5]

Boeing submitted its Model 345 on 11 May 1940,[6] in competition with designs from Consolidated Aircraft (the Model 33, later to become the B-32),[7] Lockheed (the Lockheed XB-30),[8] and Douglas (the Douglas XB-31).[9] Douglas and Lockheed soon abandoned work on their projects, but Boeing received an order for two flying prototypes, given the designation XB-29, and an airframe for static testing on 24 August 1940,


106 posted on 08/03/2015 5:53:44 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

With today’s nuclear weapons an enemy need not ever set foot on US soil to defeat it.

Two or 3 EMP weapons exploded over the US would result in total electrical power loss to the nation, causing the deaths & starvation of the majority of the population. Most of those that survive will be living a 19th century lifestyle for years to come - candles for light, fireplaces & campfires for warmth & cooking, boiled water to drink.

Without power commerce would slow to a trickle, there would be few open stores, no goods on the shelves, no food at the closed grocery stores, no gas at the pump even if you could get your car to run. Transportation & communications would stop. Banks are closed, credit cards don’t work, checks are worthless, & the dollar may not buy much. Government, if it can function at all, would be powerless to do more that invoke an unenforceable martial law.

Probably 75% of the people would die within 6 months. They will continue to die without proper nutrition, health care, & shelter from the weather.

At that point, an intact South African army/navy could conquer our land if they so desired. The continental US, largely uninhabited, would be an excellent place to colonize!


107 posted on 08/03/2015 5:59:46 AM PDT by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: mrsmith
Why east? The USA would have nuked Moscow?

Also, Poland ceased to exist in 1939, it was torn apart and neither half retained the name Poland, it being incorporated into Germany and the Soviet union respectively

108 posted on 08/03/2015 6:03:41 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: MinorityRepublican

The Germans couldn’t even invade England just a short distance away. Hogwash question.


109 posted on 08/03/2015 6:22:10 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: ealgeone

well, Poland didn’t have restrictions on private firearms ownership (as far as I can read). But the fact is that they were a flat land with no rivers or mountains to defend them from a two-way attack (both germany and russia attacking at the same time)


110 posted on 08/03/2015 6:26:47 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: 2banana
I actually think if WWII veterans could see in 1941 what American would turn into - they would refuse to fight.

I was on vacation last week and spent some time with Dad's squad leader, who's 95. He didn't go that far, but he's definitely discouraged and looking forward to putting this life behind him...

111 posted on 08/03/2015 6:33:58 AM PDT by awelliott (What one generation tolerates, the next embraces....)
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To: redfreedom

Canada was a dominion, which meant self-government. Remember that Canada declared war on the Germans one week after the UK did — as a sign of independence


112 posted on 08/03/2015 6:36:10 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: The Antiyuppie

They could have done that once the Red Army was defeated.


113 posted on 08/03/2015 6:45:54 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Cronos

Conceivably, had the Russians not moved in, the Poles could have held out long enough for Britain and France to come to their aid (of course that aid was never going to come), but at least it would have given them a fighting chance.

A lot of people don’t realize, that the Germans lost 15.000 soldiers during the September campaign.


114 posted on 08/03/2015 6:48:05 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder; dfwgator
What would have happened had Germany won WWI?

Well, had they won WWI it would be by a squeak. They lost the moment the USA entered the war (no patriotic speaking, just cold, hard facts) -- at the most they cold have hoped for a draw in 1918

If they won, then they would have still have the USSR (a monster they helped create) and the German workers would have risen to form their own Soviet states

Austro-Hungary too would have formed soviets. ditto Italy, France etc. -- remember that during the Polish-Soviet war the workers in the UK, Germany and France prevented supplies heading to Poland.

Net result if the Germans won WWI AFTER the Russian collapse is a Soviet union that would have been based in Berlin but stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific -- over all of europe, russia, china

THAT would have been horrendous

115 posted on 08/03/2015 6:51:05 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder; dfwgator

After this Eurasian Soviet, it would have hit south, into the Ottoman empire and and the middle east and india.


116 posted on 08/03/2015 6:52:04 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Maybe they were just vacationing.

117 posted on 08/03/2015 6:54:24 AM PDT by McGruff (Eat a snickers...)
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To: Cronos

Very possible, people forget just how close we got to the Revolution spreading all over Europe after the war.

Had it not been for Pilsudski, and the “Miracle of the Vistula”, Europe may very well had gone all Soviet.

Which sets up a potential conflict between German Communists and the Soviets, over who is the leader of the Communist movement.

I don’t think even the German Communists would have been happy with taking their orders for Moscow for long.


118 posted on 08/03/2015 6:54:26 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator; The Antiyuppie
That's a big what-if. There was a massive difference between the conduct of the Germans in WWII and those in WWI -- WWI were still somewhat gentlemen (and before that, they were pretty much gentlemen)

The Mein Kampf very clearly portrayed slavs as untermenschen. There was no question of treating them humanely.

119 posted on 08/03/2015 6:58:31 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Cronos
The Mein Kampf very clearly portrayed slavs as untermenschen. There was no question of treating them humanely.

That is not in dispute....My point is that the Germans should have tricked the Russians into believing they would be treated more like the French were. Once the resistance was wiped out, then the Germans could have gone ahead with their plans. Basic rule of war is, make it easy for your enemy to surrender. The Germans gave the Russians no choice but to fight back.

120 posted on 08/03/2015 7:09:02 AM PDT by dfwgator
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