Possible Russian & Japanese WW2 Super Weapons

[PhilKearny]

Perhaps the Russians could be really tricky and use a dies engine and wide tracks to create a relatively reliable and mobile tank.

For the Soviets: Perhaps a tank with a 76 millimeter cannon that they can produce in 1941? Could they put enough sloped armor on it that it defeats most German antitank weaponry?

Hrm. Can we handwave this weapon so that it's fairly simple to mass produce? Maybe we could see the Soviets swarm west and defeat the German invasion with hordes of better tanks.

 

[Faeelin]

Perhaps the Russians could be really tricky and use a dies engine and wide tracks to create a relatively reliable and mobile tank.

Pff. Next you'll propose they launch the first man into space.

 

[BlairWitch749]

For the Soviets: Perhaps a tank with a 76 millimeter cannon that they can produce in 1941? Could they put enough sloped armor on it that it defeats most German antitank weaponry?

Hrm. Can we handwave this weapon so that it's fairly simple to mass produce? Maybe we could see the Soviets swarm west and defeat the German invasion with hordes of better tanks.

They had this tank, it was called the KV-1 and it had thick armor that couldn't be defeated by any German weapon except at 500 meters except the 88mm AA gun in 1941

 

[Dilvish]

Here is my crazy idea for Japan. The Imperial Navy had an atomic program that was researching the use of nuclear power for ships. The British and US navies had similar programs, if I remember correctly. In this alternate world, the IJN's atomic program still gets merged with the IJA's eventually. Atomic energy is the goal though. (I am assuming that getting the fissible material needed for a reactor is easier than getting the fissible material for a bomb. I don't know what it would take to get to a controlled nuclear reaction versus an uncontrolled one.)

The war is still going badly for Japan and the Axis; there is no hope of getting atomic-powered ships or power plants ready in time. An atomic powered ship or three won't turn the tide anyway. In this ATL, I also have Adm. Yamamoto remain alive, because he is a poker player. Casting around for any sort of hope of cushioning Japan's coming defeat, he realizes Japan's atomic program could be used for a really big and really low odds bluff.

Sadly, I do not have the writing skills to do my idea justice.

 

[strangeland]

For the Soviets: Perhaps a tank with a 76 millimeter cannon that they can produce in 1941? Could they put enough sloped armor on it that it defeats most German antitank weaponry?

Hrm. Can we handwave this weapon so that it's fairly simple to mass produce? Maybe we could see the Soviets swarm west and defeat the German invasion with hordes of better tanks.

Only if this TL is a Sovietwank! Of course we all know German superweapons projects never yielded over-engineered crap and that Stalin only won because he had more men than Hitler had bullets.

 

[tallwingedgoat]

One possible Japanese super weapon would be a better Yokosuka "Baka" bomb. It was a jet propelled kamakaze bomb carried by a Betty bomber. The high speed made it hard to stop. It's draw back was the short range. The Betty bombers got shot down before the Bakas could be launched.

If it had a better engine, say a pulsejet booster, they could be a much greater threat to the carriers.

 

[Geon]

Russian Superweapons and Japanese Bomb

For the Soviets to have the luxury to develop superweapons means that at minimum their armies have to seriously blunt the inevitable German invasion well west of Minsk. IOTL the USSR was too busy fighting for its life to focus on superweapons and turned out loads and loads of regular weaponry that proved a lot more efficient than Hitler's attempts to leap into the 1950s. So the changes that would let the USSR invest in this require much bigger changes in the wider war.

I agree with Snake as regards the Soviets. In addition I have to point out that the Soviets didn't need a super weapon from 1942 onward. The army they had built was nigh on unstoppable. Why would they need a superweapon?

As regards the Japanese there are reports/rumors from some questionable sources at best that the Japanese actually succeeded in building and testing a primitive atomic bomb in Korea on August 5, 1945, the day before Hiroshima. According to this rumor the bomb came too late to do the Japanese any good. Soon afterward the Japanese nuclear facilities were overrun and that area is now under North Korean control. Supposedly all the scientists and technicians were captured by the Soviets and disappeared.

Has anyone else heard about this and what are your thoughts regarding it?

Geon

 

[TofuTanker]

As regards the Japanese there are reports/rumors from some questionable sources at best that the Japanese actually succeeded in building and testing a primitive atomic bomb in Korea on August 5, 1945, the day before Hiroshima. According to this rumor the bomb came too late to do the Japanese any good. Soon afterward the Japanese nuclear facilities were overrun and that area is now under North Korean control. Supposedly all the scientists and technicians were captured by the Soviets and disappeared.

Has anyone else heard about this and what are your thoughts regarding it?

Geon

Those claims were widely disputed and specifically dismissed in multiple history articles.