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I don't think that Nazis had serious plans to invade the U.S.A. Until Hitler declared war, not the Americans, the USA was a role model for Nazis and economical allies. Hitler's declaration of war was viewed by Nazis as tremendously stupid.
Before Pearl Harbor they could have possibly done a better job working from within. There were a lot of Germans here, such as Lindbergh, who were sympathizers and could have pushed a pro-Nazi agenda. Once we were actually attacked though that whole concept went down the tubes.
My dad joined the navy before the war, but my mom after the war started was on the west coast. There were fears of an invasion taken seriously by people. It doesn't matter, reaction wise, if the ideas logistically were far fetched, because people were afraid Japan at least would try.
My guess would be that any attempt would have been short lived. Take the west coase or east and you have the vast middle. They would face (then or now) massive resistance. Even moreso, taking the middle would sap every resourse. Likely the size of the empire and the lack of resorces to keep it, would doom it in quick order anyway.
Not that it wouldn't leave a lot of horror and death and destruction and episodes of genocide behind, but it would have been destined to fail. The one saving grace would have been growing an offensive technology fast, but while the bomb was bring worked on sources of uranium were limited and would have continuted to.
Hitler would have made the historical mistake of getting too ambitious and trying to take too much, which has failed for many others. Historically, its a lot easier to take than keep.
Hitler did not have either the navy or the merchant shipping to even contemplate mounting an invasion of the United States. At most a raid could have been mounted. There's nothing wrong with speculating about alternative history, but this one is just totally absurd.
Japan did have a better, larger navy than the Nazis, as well as more merchant shipping, but the enormous distances made an invasion more than a little bit impractical for them. They would have to have taken Hawaii first to use as a staging area. Even the Pearl Harbor attack was a stretch for them range-wise, as was the attempted capture of Midway Island.
Hitler did not have either the navy or the merchant shipping to even contemplate mounting an invasion of the United States. At most a raid could have been mounted. There's nothing wrong with speculating about alternative history, but this one is just totally absurd.
Japan did have a better, larger navy than the Nazis, as well as more merchant shipping, but the enormous distances made an invasion more than a little bit impractical for them. They would have to have taken Hawaii first to use as a staging area. Even the Pearl Harbor attack was a stretch for them range-wise, as was the attempted capture of Midway Island.
Had they sent an invasion force the Japanese probably could have taken Hawaii as they did the Philippines and held it for awhile. There were quite a few Japanese Americans there who while they did not aid the Japanese may not have put up a huge resistance to occupation, particularly had the Japanese government worked out a power sharing deal with them. Probably not PC to say that, but it would have been a real possibility.
Had they sent an invasion force the Japanese probably could have taken Hawaii as they did the Philippines and held it for awhile. There were quite a few Japanese Americans there who while they did not aid the Japanese may not have put up a huge resistance to occupation, particularly had the Japanese government worked out a power sharing deal with them. Probably not PC to say that, but it would have been a real possibility.
I'm not so sure about whether the Japanese could have taken Hawaii. They were stretched a bit thin, when you consider all the troops they had in China, the Philippines, and various other places along their Pacific Ocean perimeter. If you mean an invasion force accompanying the Pearl Harbor naval attack force, that would have been perhaps their best chance because of the element of surprise. After that the surprise was lost and the U.S. began a quick build-up of forces in Hawaii, and those forces did not have the same complacent attitude. Even the first Japanese effort to take tiny Wake Island was rebuffed by the Marine defenders, although they were successful a few days later.
If England had fallen it's entirely possible once they consumed took over all of Europe's war materiel.
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