Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Axenolith
"The speculative question of the day though would be whether or not the Allies would have risked flying an atomic weapon over an occupied Europe swarming with jet aircraft and operational wire guided anti aircraft missiles in 1945\46..."

Oh please.

The Germans had lost the war long before 1944, much less 1945.

By D-Day (June 6, 1944), the Germans could only muster 180 fighter aircraft and 198 bombers against the entire allied invasion (which was covered by over 5,000 U.S. and British fighters and bombers).

This mismatch in the skies permitted the 6 invading allied army divisions to smash through the more than 40 German Army Wehrmacht divisions that were deployed to repel any invasion against the Constinent.

The first launch of the German V-1 cruise missile was made that month in response to the D-Day invasion (because the Germans had no other way to reach London by that point).

The first American test flight of the JB-2 "Loon" cruise missile was made in October of that same year (though this secret project was kept in the dark so as not to have to share the technology with the Soviets - and later reported as not having taken place until 1946).

Regardless, the German industry was incapable of producing enough fighters to counter the routine 1,000 bomber allied raids over Germany. Had German industry been up to that task (an impossibility - worse, they didn't have fuel for the few fighters that they did manage to cobble together), then the first nuke would have been placed on a minisub and towed into a Nazi harbor.

By late August of 1945, the U.S. was producing 7 atomic bombs per month.

Had the Germans held out any longer than they did, most of central Europe would still be radioactive to this very day.

The war was never in question. The combined might of Germany and Japan could not match even half of the economic might and industrial output of the U.S.

That's death for any war of attrition.

40 defending army divisions getting whipped by 6 (yes, just six) invading army divisions at Normandy pretty well spells out the fighting ability of the two sides, too.

The Russians lost millions of men, the Germans lost millions of men, and the Japanese lost millions of men. On the other hand, the U.S. lost only 385,000. That's a heck of a statistic when you consider that it was the U.S. that got hit by the major surprise attack.

By 1945, the U.S. was producing half of the entire planet's gross domestic product (GDP).

No enemy of America had an effective way to inflict serious damage on America's homeland, either.

WW2 wasn't a war so much as it was national suicide on the part of Germany and Japan (though it turned out pretty well for them when you consider how well we re-wrote their governments for them and how much aid we sent to them after they surrendered).

But the war's outcome would not have been changed if the Soviets had been forced to sue for peace. That trick didn't even work for the Germans in the FIRST world war when the sides were more closely matched, and it certainly wouldn't have worked in 1945.

Neither the Germans nor the Japanese had the edge in technology that counted such as computers, mass production, atomic weapons, or cryptography.

Henry Ford alone was manufacturing a heavy bomber EVERY MINUTE from a single one of his factories.

What idiots would go up against that level of industrial and technological might (besides idiots that don't realize how badly they'll be beaten)?!

77 posted on 08/11/2002 12:33:04 AM PDT by Southack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies ]


To: Southack
Like I said, speculatively...

By D-Day (June 6, 1944), the Germans could only muster 180 fighter aircraft and 198 bombers against the entire allied invasion (which was covered by over 5,000 U.S. and British fighters and bombers).
On day one, I heard they actually only mustered 2 over the British beaches. That being said, they maintained an average of 581 operational fighter aircraft on the western front (not the Reich proper) from june to october. Most of them were probably staged deeper in France, but my issue is a what if...
This mismatch in the skies permitted the 6 invading allied army divisions to smash through the more than 40 German Army Wehrmacht divisions that were deployed to repel any invasion against the Constinent.
Of those 40 Div, there weren't a hell of a lot of them at Normandy and none of the major Panzer divisions were forward deployed. Once again though, I'm talking about had the invasion failed and on the face of it, some divisions like Panzer Lehr and the 1st SS being a few miles from the beach coupled with a few days of overcast could have put that success in jeopardy.

What does the Loon have to do with the price of tea in China? It was nothing but a V-1 knockoff, and since it had a Ford engine in it, it'd probably need an in flight mechanic anyway ;).
Germanys highest fighter production rates were achieved in 1944, the fuel situation didn't begin to seriously cripple them until around that winter.

My point is that had Europe been firmly in German control, their would have been hesitancy in utilizing the bomb over occupied territory if the Allies thought their was even a slim chance it might fall into German hands, towing it into a port might have been thought of, but that would probably had a greater chance of failure. I'll add additionally here that use of the bomb on Germany probably would have motivated the Germans to start slinging nerve agents.
Now, I don't doubt that industrial might carried the day, and Europe could have had a lot of hot spots if they held out, but if the Russians decided to call it quits and the Germans were able to focus on the West without a French beachhead, don't you think that the Allies might have possibly considered negotiation? I'd think the British would have second thoughts about being the Atlantic aircraft carrier suffering Tabun laden V1\2 retaliations for atomic attack.

107 posted on 08/12/2002 10:19:51 PM PDT by Axenolith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson