Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: fudgums on June 09, 2010, 02:03:10 PM

Title: Always pondered why...
Post by: fudgums on June 09, 2010, 02:03:10 PM
Japan never attacked the Soviet Union in 1941 rather than the US. I was watching a show on Military channel(go figure) on Japan's conquest of China. It went into the small undeclared wars through 1939. http://www.changingthetimes.net/bookreviews/nomonhan.htm (http://www.changingthetimes.net/bookreviews/nomonhan.htm) I ran across this and got me a interested in the subject.

To conclude Japan never attacked Soviet Union in 1941 because of the battles that were lost in 1939? This one battle changed how WWII turned out? By attacking the USSR rather than the USA, kept USA out of the war and Soviet Union would fall?
Title: Re: Always pondered why...
Post by: Soulyss on June 09, 2010, 02:14:30 PM
Certainly an interesting topic, I'll admit that I'm not an expert on the subject but it strikes me that the Japanese army was very ill equipped to fight a large land campaign verses the Soviet Union.  If I'm not mistaken the Soviets would have enjoyed significant advantages in man power, tanks and artillery and would have fought over more or less open terrain in Mongolia where they would have been able to bring all the superior firepower to bear. 

As it is the U.S. ground forces enjoyed many of the same advantages in the South Pacific but due to the terrain they were limited compared to the ETO.   
Title: Re: Always pondered why...
Post by: OSU on June 09, 2010, 02:35:15 PM
That seems similar to the biggest "what if" of WWII, what if Hitler hadn't invaded Russia? What if Japan had attacked Russia instead of the U.S.? Would we have still gotten involved? I don't think that Japan would have been able to fight Russia for an extended period of time. Definitely an interesting question.
Title: Re: Always pondered why...
Post by: Rino on June 09, 2010, 02:39:47 PM
     The Japanese attacked Soviet forces before 1941 and got their butts kicked.  That's where
Georgi Zhukov <sp?> got his start.
Title: Re: Always pondered why...
Post by: Guppy35 on June 09, 2010, 03:10:52 PM
     The Japanese attacked Soviet forces before 1941 and got their butts kicked.  That's where
Georgi Zhukov <sp?> got his start.

They tried at least twice and as Phan said, got soundly defeated by the Soviets.  This lead to a signing of a non-aggression pact or something similar by the Japanese.
Title: Re: Always pondered why...
Post by: Plazus on June 09, 2010, 03:31:45 PM
What if the Me262 entered service a year earlier and Hitler never commited suicide?  :noid
Title: Re: Always pondered why...
Post by: AAJagerX on June 09, 2010, 06:53:47 PM
What if the Me262 entered service a year earlier and Hitler never commited suicide?  :noid

More 262's would've been shot down, and Hitler would've been put on trial.   :D