apj101

US was poor in cash terms only, on a debtors basis it was owed a lot of cash by the other allies. Resource wise it still had good oil reserves, and in a post war era pre war debts arn't usually honoured

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well geoff5093... v0031 got the one page needed for his/her history class....thanks to apj101

I read, and reread your analysis apj101 and it seems quite plausible (and well written). I wonder just how many Japanese troops would have died if they did not surrender? I wonder if the US would have continues the nukes and the fire bombings.. or if the the US would have tried to invade Japan... also, the Japanese would have successfully invaded Alaska... and from there cut through Canada into the North West of the continental US (remember, that was Japan's attempt)... Also, Japan's keep losses throughout the Pacific left their navy in bad straights, if we rewrite history and those turn to key victory, they could have had a chance earlier....

On the German front(s) if the US failed either at Normandy or after ,during the battle of the bulge.. things might be different. I guess Germany would have had to try and attack the UK by air again, but they lost soo many aircraft at the battle of the bulge.... Also, I wonder how they would have beat Russia... with the incredibly cold winter and the trouble the Germans had keeping supply lines working... and Russia burning everything as they retreated.... the German's would have had to postpone the Russian front until the end of Winter.

I think Germany's greatest mistakes were spending an enormous amount of resources on the annihilation of an entire race/religion and trying to fight Russia in the winter. (even Hitler's generals tried to assassinate him because they didn't like his decisions..),

So many Germans died because of that winter.... and almost a million alone were killed fighting in Stalingrad.. Russia's losses were enormous in comparison.. but they just kept pouring in troops....

As for the African and Middle Eastern fronts the British actually thought the Germans might enter Southwest Asia and where prepared... Other than fighting the Vichy French and local forces nothing really happened there. If Germany would have beaten the US in West and beaten back the Russians in the East.. where would the resources have been for the middle east? They would have been stretched too thin... same goes for Africa and the battle for the Mediterranean, the Vichy French, Italy and the Germans were fighting there with nothing...

There were many military blunders that contributed to the defeat of the Japanese and the Germans. If you have ever played the board game risk, the number 1 reason you lose (other than having a bad day rolling the dice) is stretching yourself too thin. It is terrifying to think how everything might have turned out if the axis powers never made a few key blunders... and a few key battles turned in their favor.

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