I played a WW2 computer game...

[robycop3]

Several years ago, I played a WW2 computer game, & I played as the Axis. I eliminated as many Axis mistakes as I could. I forced the surrender of the BEF in France by taking Dunkirk, etc. fast as possible, gave Rommel a lot more resources so he could capture the Suez Canal, did not attack the USSR nor declare war on the USA. And I occupied the British Isles, but britain kept fighting from her colonies such as Canada.

What i couldn't do was to get Japan to relinquish her attacks upon China, which would've ended our oil embargo on Japan, so war with the US was inevitable. As Tojo, I didn't sneak-attack Pearl Harbor without declaring war first, but I did attack the Philippines & Malaya, didn't launch the Midway attack, isolated Australia, & kept the Combined Fleet together as one force.

To keep a long story short, I was able to make the war last until 1964, but the Allies still won, as the Axis simply didn't have the resources that the Allies had. repeated german attacks upon US shipping brought the US into the war against Germany in 1943. Russia, fearful of a German attack, as the land war in the west was over, struck first, in 1944. However, Germany was able to turn almost her full might against Russia, & captured Moscow, Leningrad, & Stalingrad, but Stalin & Co. retreated to Siberia with most of their industry & was able to put up fierce resistance as the German supply lines were stretched.

Actually, I believe GOD influenced the much-quicker ending of WW2. Once Hitler's demon left him as France fell, he was quite-incompetent as a military commander, & his sneak attack on Russia aroused the Russians to great fury, as the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor did us.

No matter what, the Axis would've eventually been defeated, but GOD, I believe, shortened that war & spared millions more lives.

 

[Reynolds]

Several years ago, I played a WW2 computer game, & I played as the Axis. I eliminated as many Axis mistakes as I could. I forced the surrender of the BEF in France by taking Dunkirk, etc. fast as possible, gave Rommel a lot more resources so he could capture the Suez Canal, did not attack the USSR nor declare war on the USA. And I occupied the British Isles, but britain kept fighting from her colonies such as Canada.

What i couldn't do was to get Japan to relinquish her attacks upon China, which would've ended our oil embargo on Japan, so war with the US was inevitable. As Tojo, I didn't sneak-attack Pearl Harbor without declaring war first, but I did attack the Philippines & Malaya, didn't launch the Midway attack, isolated Australia, & kept the Combined Fleet together as one force.

To keep a long story short, I was able to make the war last until 1964, but the Allies still won, as the Axis simply didn't have the resources that the Allies had. repeated german attacks upon US shipping brought the US into the war against Germany in 1943. Russia, fearful of a German attack, as the land war in the west was over, struck first, in 1944. However, Germany was able to turn almost her full might against Russia, & captured Moscow, Leningrad, & Stalingrad, but Stalin & Co. retreated to Siberia with most of their industry & was able to put up fierce resistance as the German supply lines were stretched.

Actually, I believe GOD influenced the much-quicker ending of WW2. Once Hitler's demon left him as France fell, he was quite-incompetent as a military commander, & his sneak attack on Russia aroused the Russians to great fury, as the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor did us.

No matter what, the Axis would've eventually been defeated, but GOD, I believe, shortened that war & spared millions more lives.

IMO, the only way Hitler would have won WWII was to wait until after the A bomb was operational to start the War.

 

[robycop3]

IMO, the only way Hitler would have won WWII was to wait until after the A bomb was operational to start the War.

I believe the British had discovered some German scientists were working on an A-bomb early on, & so informed the US, which had far-more resources to develop it. Actually, the Germans only got as close as developing "heavy water".

The Allies had more people & far-more resources than the Axis.

Some have said that had Hitler kept the ME 262 jet as strictly a fighter, he woulda won the Battle of Britain & kept Germany from being bombed very much. But I believe it woulda been just a matter of time for the US & Britain to have made a better jet. The British had the first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, but it had many bugs to work out, & was used mainly against "buzz bombs" & for strafing runs, as it had a short range due to fuel consumption.

As for the Japanese, they developed theKawanishi N1K-J Shiden, or "Violet Lightning" fighter,(Called code-name "George" by the US) which was a match for the Corsair or Hellcat, but was difficult for many pilots to fly, & had a slow rate of climb, & poor performance at high altitude. It also had landing gear & engine problems. And Japan couldn't produse a large number of them too swiftly. But the US pilots definitely respected them, more than they did any other Japanese aircraft late in the war. But, had the Japanese had them earlier, in sufficiant numbers, with their bugs worked out, they coulda been a game-changer in dogfights. (Due to their slow climb rate, they were not good bomber interceptors.)

 

[Reynolds]

I believe the British had discovered some German scientists were working on an A-bomb early on, & so informed the US, which had far-more resources to develop it. Actually, the Germans only got as close as developing "heavy water".

The Allies had more people & far-more resources than the Axis.

Some have said that had Hitler kept the ME 262 jet as strictly a fighter, he woulda won the Battle of Britain & kept Germany from being bombed very much. But I believe it woulda been just a matter of time for the US & Britain to have made a better jet. The British had the first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, but it had many bugs to work out, & was used mainly against "buzz bombs" & for strafing runs, as it had a short range due to fuel consumption.

As for the Japanese, they developed theKawanishi N1K-J Shiden, or "Violet Lightning" fighter,(Called code-name "George" by the US) which was a match for the Corsair or Hellcat, but was difficult for many pilots to fly, & had a slow rate of climb, & poor performance at high altitude. It also had landing gear & engine problems. And Japan couldn't produse a large number of them too swiftly. But the US pilots definitely respected them, more than they did any other Japanese aircraft late in the war. But, had the Japanese had them earlier, in sufficiant numbers, with their bugs worked out, they coulda been a game-changer in dogfights. (Due to their slow climb rate, they were not good bomber interceptors.)

We only developed it with help of exiled German scientists. It's a given that Hitler would have had to keep his Jewish hatred in check long enough to build the bomb.
A p-51 pilot used to come to the barbershop and talk to us yung uns. According to him, the Zero was by far the best plane in the air on either side. He said flying them post war confirmed what he saw in combat.

 

[robycop3]

The Zero was the best-handling fighter any side had, so I've been told by people who piloted Zeros, Mustangs, Hellcats, & Corsairs, ME 109s, Hurricanes & Spitfires. (Never talked to anyone who piloted Russian fighters.) And Zeros had the longest stay-aloft time.

However, the Zero didn't have the armament to match the Allies' planes, & it was fairly-fragile; it didn't take too many hits to take it out. Furthermore, it had no armor to protect the pilot. It sacrificed armament & sturdiness for speed, handling, & range. But it WAS the BEST fighter plane in the world for awhile !

 

[robycop3]

The American aircraft were much-tougher than their Japanese counterparts. While the Wildcat, the most-common American carrier fighter, was inferior to the Zero in handling, & slightly-slower. However, the Wildcat was much-tougher & could take an immense amount of punishment & keep flying, while the Zero could not.

Japanese ace Saburo Sakai flew Zeros his entire war career. He said he once shot up a Wildcat badly, til he ran outta ammo, & it still kept flying & even turned in Sakai's plane & hit it several times. (Sakai, outta ammo, was leaving the area.) He said he told newer pilots to never fly head-on at an American plane, as it was heavier-armed & would shred his plane without taking much damage itself.

Another thing-the best Japanese pilots would keep flying until they were killed or disabled.(Sakai flew right up til the surrender, despite having lost an eye.) OTOH, the Americans rotated their fighter pilots, using many of its experienced man as instructors to new pilots on battle tactics.

The attrition among the experienced japanese pilots resulted in many raw rookies going up against experienced Americans in superior aricraft, We see some of the results of that disparity in "the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".

 

[Roy]

I once read that General Chennault and an entourage from China met with a congressional committee, seeking aid for China, before Pearl Harbor. He showed them a manual that he had compiled on the Jap Zero, and when the so-called experts looked at it, they thought it was trash. They said that it was impossible to outfit a fighter plane with four machine guns and a cannon.

After Pearl Harbor, the took the manual off the shelf and dusted it off and started reading it.

 

[robycop3]

I believe a Zero came down intact on either Attu or Kiska, & our guys got it back into flying shape & thoroughly tested its performance so they could pass their findings on to the brass & our pilots, so they could better deal with the Zeros.

 

[Roy]

I believe a Zero came down intact on either Attu or Kiska, & our guys got it back into flying shape & thoroughly tested its performance so they could pass their findings on to the brass & our pilots, so they could better deal with the Zeros.

The American Volunteer Group (AVG), which Chennault headed up in China was shooting down Japanese airplanes before the U.S. declared war. The AVG pilots were told not to dog fight the Zeros because they could easily out maneuver the P-40s which the AVG flew. They could attack the Zero by diving on it if they had a significant advantage of altitude. The P-40 was able to out run the Zero because it was faster. It also carried a heavier payload of ordinance.

 

[robycop3]

And, Roy, as were almost all American "pursuit" planes, the P-40 was much-tougher than a Zero; it acquired armor for the pilot early on. And its hydraulic, fuel tanks, & fuel lines had some protection from the gitgo.

(Military Intel: the only time an aircraft has too much fuel is when it's on fire.)

 

[Roy]

And, Roy, as were almost all American "pursuit" planes, the P-40 was much-tougher than a Zero; it acquired armor for the pilot early on. And its hydraulic, fuel tanks, & fuel lines had some protection from the gitgo.

(Military Intel: the only time an aircraft has too much fuel is when it's on fire.)

The air battles in World War 2 are fascinating to hear about. My dad enlisted in the Navy toward the end of the war and serviced F-6Fs, which was America's answer to the Zero, although it came along late in the war.
General Chennault is someone that I heard about all my life because his mom and my great grandma were sisters. His mom died when he was six years old and he was in and out of my great grandma's house a lot because he didn't hit it off too well with his new step mom.

 

[robycop3]

While the Hellcat couldn't turn as tightly as a Zero, nor did it have the range, it was faster, more-heavily-armed, especially when it had six.50 cal MGs, had armor for the pilot, which Zeros didn't, & was much-tougher & harder to destroy than was a Zero.

Chennault & "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell both had abrasive personalities & different philosophies about warfare, a sure formula for a feud, & those 2 had plenty of feuds ! Chennault had better washington connections, so he got his way much of the time. However, when the Japanese resumed their land attack on China, many of his airbases were captured, but his air operation continued successfully. Not long before the war ended, Chennault was replaced as Commander of the 14th Air Force by Gen. George Stratemeyer, who rose to command the whole of the AAF in that area.

(BTW, his family pronounced their surname
"she-NAULT", not the proper French pronunciation of "she-NO".

 

[Roy]

It was really too bad that the two generals (Stilwell an Chennault) couldn't find some common ground. They were both admirable and very competent.
I have a feeling that Chennault's contemporaries may have thought that he didn't deserve to be a general because Chennault was medically discharged (hearing loss) from the army as a captain. He became a stunt pilot for a while, entertaining at air shows. When he got word that the Chinese government was interviewing for applicants who could put together and direct an air force for them, he threw his hat into the ring.
Madame Chiang was conducting the interviews. She was pretty much Americanized, being a protestant Christian and educated in the United States. Most of the applicants were European. Chennault may have been the only American viiing for the job. Before he left for China, a Louisiana socialite helped him get one of those "Dixie Colonel" titles in order that he could present himself as Colonel Chennault. Anyway, Madame Chiang liked him better than the others, so he got the job.

When the Air Corps came to China, Chennault was commissioned a general (as if he went from Army captain to Army general) and given a different assignment. Some AVG pilots felt betrayed because they had not signed up to be in the Air Corps. As AVG pilots, their salary was comparable to that of top U.S. military brass, and they received a bonus for each plane they shot down.. They were told to either become Air Corps pilots or walk back to the U.S.

 

[robycop3]

Before the USA & Japan were at war, the Japanese protested because an American leader was fighting them with American planes & pilots.

 

[Roy]

Before the USA & Japan were at war, the Japanese protested because an American leader was fighting them with American planes & pilots.

At that time, they were all mercenaries although Chennault had convinced the U.S. government to release some interested active duty pilots so they could join up with the AVG.

 

[Roy]

There was a deacon at a church where I attended back in the 90s who was a bomber pilot during WW2. He said that prior to the war, the Air Corps required pilot trainees to have a college degree, and since that left him out, he went to Canada, joined the RCAF, and began flight training with them. He said that he had just completed training when the U.S. declared war on Japan and Germany. The U.S. then brokered a deal with Canada to have all RCAF pilots, who were U.S. citizens, transferred to the Air Corps.

Once the war got going, the college degree thing was suspended because of a steady need for pilots.

 

[robycop3]

My dad was a tail gunner on a B-17 in the ETO before becoming a quartermaster. His job as a QM was to see that a French unit had all the non-combat material they needed. (Food, meds, uniforms, etc. Their weapons & ammo were supplied by another QM.) Dad followed them all the way to Nuremberg, coming into France with them in July, 1944, being present at some of the trials of the top nazis. He was DC'd in early 1946.

 

[Roy]

Hey Roby, did your dad talk much about the missions he flew on? A lot of pilots and crew didn't want to talk about those things.

 

[robycop3]

Hey Roby, did your dad talk much about the missions he flew on? A lot of pilots and crew didn't want to talk about those things.

Not much, except he said the hardest thing he did conscience-wise was to strafe Italians. It was hard for him to view them as enemies, as there were many Italians in his 'hood when he was a boy. And he would instantly correct anyone he heard badmouthing the Tuskegee Air Force. He said they twice kept his plane from being shot down in German-occupied territory.

And he spoke about the French eating anything, other than people, which was, or had been, alive.

 

[ad finitum]

IMO, the only way Hitler would have won WWII was to wait until after the A bomb was operational to start the War.

Hitler's economic decisions painted Germany into a corner in 1939, where socialism was already driving the country into critical shortages of food and petroleum products. The German people were starting to go hungry. Because Hitler refused to import these goods from abroad, since it would necessitate working through international banks (run by Jews), the policy of stealing resource through war was the only option. The only problem with going to war was that it required oil to do so, which was in short supply. This is why the Germans relied so heavily upon horses and leg-infantry. They couldn't fuel a fully mechanized army. Only the panzer and panzer grenadier divisions could be supplied with oil and petrol (and the Luftwaffe). Everyone else had to walk and use horses for supply and artillery transport. This was also the main reason for invading the Soviet Union. They basically had to in order to obtain land/grain and oil from the Caucuses.

Germany couldn't wait for an a-bomb or anything else. They were in dire straits due to their political philosophy.