thomas81 wrote:
debateable. The way I see it, with Moscow firmly under German subjucation the nazis may have been in position themselves to offer intervention in the Pacific war (At one stage the Germans were holding out for Japanese assistance from the North East when the tide turned against their favour during the attack on Moscow). With the USA outnumbered, it may have forced them back to the west coast with their tails between their legs. If the Germans had managed to build their heavy water bomb before the Americans built their nuke, that would have been another game changer.
Of course it's debatable. We're indulging complete fantasy.
I don't see that anyone has made the case that Moscow (let alone the rest of the Soviet Union) could have possibly been firmly under German subjugation. This isn't Poland, where there was a strong anti-communist population looking West for protection from the Soviets. This wasn't Czechoslovakia or Austria where the local German-nationalist population could be recruited (and resupplied from effective infrastructure). Even if, improbably, the Germans had taken Moscow, that would not have brought them any closer to conquering the Soviet Union. And even if they had taken the Soviet Union, the infrastructure would have made German intervention in the Pacific impossible--there simply wasn't the railway capacity to get an army across Asia, and the Russians wouldn't have fought for the Germans. They would have been far more likely to fight against the Japanese in Manchuria, where Russia had historical claims.
The heavy water bomb would have been a game changer, to be sure. But with that, the Americans would have dropped Fat Man on Berlin, rather than Hiroshima. Nothing in German development would have stopped the Manhattan Project.
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--James
07 Mar 2013, 3:14 am
