Germany's 1903 Plan To Invade America (WW2, war, Great Britain, general)

[Six Foot Three]

I reciently read about how Kaiser Wilhelm II and the General Staff drew up plans (Operational Plan Three) in 1903 to attack and invade several cities along the American east coast with 60 warships and 100,000 men as he was jealous and worried of America becoming a world power under Teddy Roosevelt. They had planned to shell Manhattan and invade Boston to force the financial collapse of the country however it finally was put on the back burner as they worried that it could back fire on them and bring about America's wrath.

Interesting as to what would have been the outcome if this would have happened ???

[kevxu]

Extraordinarily hare-brained, I think. This would have left them with two hostile countries between their invasion forces and their home base: England and France. Neither country was anything but lukewarm to hostile about the Kaiser.

England in particular might have been quite perturbed by a large invasion force so near to Canada.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by kevxu

Extraordinarily hare-brained, I think. This would have left them with two hostile countries between their invasion forces and their home base: England and France. Neither country was anything but lukewarm to hostile about the Kaiser.

England in particular might have been quite perturbed by a large invasion force so near to Canada.

Are you kidding me? England wouldn't have let them get out of the Heligoland Bight, let along across the Atlantic Ocean. There would have been 100,000 German troops on the bottom of the North Sea.

[Thyra]

Well, I certainly learned something new today Thanks!
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_Plan_Three]Operational Plan Three - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/urlWilhelm was not the most stable person in the world. He had a large collection of uniforms and would change into several different ones every day. Among other eccentricies.

[cpg35223]

The other thing to consider is that every major power has war plans to fight just about every other major power. Somewhere in the deep recesses of the Pentagon, I'm pretty sure that there are war plans to invade unlikely places such as New Zealand and Italy, plans that are revised from time to time.

[Six Foot Three]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

Are you kidding me? England wouldn't have let them get out of the Heligoland Bight, let along across the Atlantic Ocean. There would have been 100,000 German troops on the bottom of the North Sea.

Good observation cpg ......as i hadn't thought about the U.K. would possibly get involved on our side back then.

[Indurain]

Originally Posted by 6 FOOT 3

I reciently read about how Kaiser Wilhelm II and the General Staff drew up plans (Operational Plan Three) in 1903 to attack and invade several cities along the American east coast with 60 warships and 100,000 men as he was jealous and worried of America becoming a world power under Teddy Roosevelt. They had planned to shell Manhattan and invade Boston to force the financial collapse of the country however it finally was put on the back burner as they worried that it could back fire on them and bring about America's wrath.

Interesting as to what would have been the outcome if this would have happened ???

Thanks for this 6'3".

I wasn't aware that Germany had plans to invade the USA in 1903.

I do know that Adolf Hitler and his cronies had identified locations in the USA where jews were located in 1943/44
Williamsburg, New York had it's name on a V2 rocket.

One of my extended family worked on the rocket programme developed by
VonBraun.
Hitler & Co had clearly identified hamlets/towns/cities in the USA that had jews among them and that the rockets were developed, in part, to wipe them out.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by 6 FOOT 3

Good observation cpg ......as i hadn't thought about the U.K. would possibly get involved on our side back then.

A great book to read on the subject is Dreadnought by Massie, detailing the buildup of the German Imperial Fleet and the subsequent British alarm. The British would have absolutely never allowed the project of German naval power like that. Neither would the French, for that matter.

What's more, given the American capacity for very quick mobilization as demonstrated in both the Civil War and the Spanish American War, what would the Germans have possibly hoped to achieve? Permanent occupation would have been but a pipe dream, given the American tradition of local militias, the German supply lines would have been sunk by the formidable American navy even without British interdiction, and then you would have had one seriously ticked off American public. The Americans would have simply picked off German colonies in the Pacific and Africa while building an immense fleet in the Atlantic. It wouldn't have been pretty for Kaiser Bill.

I mean, didn't he ever hear about Conservation of Enemies as a working principle of foreign policy? This would have been as stupid as the Athenians decision to attack Syracuse just when they had the Spartans on the ropes during the Peloponnesian Wars.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by 6 FOOT 3

Interesting as to what would have been the outcome if this would have happened ???

It has already been done for you by author Robert Conroy in "1901"

From Publishers Weekly
This cleverly conceived alternative history proposes that Kaiser Wilhelm II launches an invasion of the U.S in 1901 after President McKinley summarily rejects a demand that he surrender Cuba and the Philippines to the Germans. The long bloody struggle which follows after the enemy establishes a beachhead on Long Island and captures New York City precipitates depths of destruction never visited by a foreign power upon American soil. The German Command believes that the mere fact of the attack will be sufficient to make the Americans sue for peace and turn over the territories. They are dreadfully wrong, of course, and, after a stress-induced heart attack kills McKinley, the new president, Theodore Roosevelt, begins to put together a fighting force to oppose the supposedly unbeatable German war machine.

http://www.amazon.com/1901-Robert-Conroy/dp/0891418431/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3

I read it about five years ago when it first came out and my memory is that it is a mediocre book, not incompetent, but not especially imaginative or surprising.

[Six Foot Three]

Something to ponder is what if ....... the Kaiser did attack us and we and Great Britain retalited and drove him out of Germany in 1903/1904 and so possibly Germany may have never entered WW1 in 1914 which eventually led to Hitler coming to power in which he launched WW2.

Like i said what if .......