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  1. Israel uses nukes in '73--does it HAVE to lead to a US-Soviet nuclear exchange?

    Not that I can cite. I have read it over the years in various journals and newsletters dating back into the early 1990s. I will grant that the actual SIOP remains very close held. It would be nice to think that things wouldn't break this way, but, again, based on what I've gleaned over the...
  2. Israel uses nukes in '73--does it HAVE to lead to a US-Soviet nuclear exchange?

    Based on pretty much every scenario that has ever made it to open source the answer is yes. That goes for just about every usage ANYWHERE. The U.S. was already cocked, the Soviets were edging up, and the balance of fear made launch on warning the order of the day. There is a small...
  3. WI: No Atomic Bomb, Invasion of Kyushu Fails

    While there was increasing resistance among the American high command about the invasion, as the picture of exactly what the Japanese had managed to move to Kyushu (about the only individual at high level who was still enthusiastic was, unsurprisingly, MacArthur), with the prevailing belief...
  4. Question on the Pacific War

    The Japanese had limited lift, the IJA was also less than entirely enamored with the diversion of resources from the main battle, which was the conquest of China. The South Seas Detachment was used to take both Guam and shortly thereafter Rabaul. The 48th Division, used as the main assault...
  5. Technical lost opportunities: Japan

    Oops. Need to retake my Reading is FUNdemental class.
  6. What if Democratic member of Congress voted against Iraq War in 2002?

    ^^^ This. The Bush Administration sold the American people a bill of goods (including me, I bought into the whole WMD argument) and the people were strongly in support. This was only 3 weeks before the 2002 election. At least 15 of the Democrats who voted Yes would have lost their...
  7. Technical lost opportunities: Japan

    instead of the Ki-46 the Army could have used the Ki-21 (speed difference at altitude is only 20 mph, and with a little lightening, deleting the majority of the defensive weapons (the K1-46 only carried one tail stinger), and dropping the crew requirements from 7 to 3 in the recon role, the...
  8. A Novice with Questions on the Somme

    First, welcome. :) I also fixed the title typo. :D Now to the issues... One of the most critical things to keep in mind is that the Western Front wasn't just at the front of the technological wave, it frequently was creating new tech, more or less on the fly. Tech was introduced before...
  9. Technical lost opportunities: Japan

    With this you have also nicely summed up the other major issue with Japanese production. The Navy and Army acted like the other was almost an enemy. Service rivalries are one thing, all major countries have them (just look at the crap the FAA would up with early on), but the Japanese took to an...
  10. Alternate Allied Invasion of France

    Just about as bad, but we are now talking Rodeo, but with troops lacking the experience from North Africa. Be a bloody disaster.
  11. US colony of Irak

    Current political subject. Large on-going Thread in Chat on the entire subject. LOCKED
  12. WI Maginot line was built from the Swiss border to the English Channel.

    This is one of those ideas that works if you have 75 years of hindsight. Otherwise, all it does is break France's economy and may in itself bring about either a Far Right or Far Left overthrow of the Republic.
  13. Alternate Allied Invasion of France

    Problem with this is what do you use to conduct the invasion? British sure can't manage it, not with the Western Desert still in balance, trying to scrape up forces for Malaya, once you get to Spring the losses in Greece and at Crete use up most of the reserves. The U.S. doesn't really...
  14. Technical lost opportunities: Japan

    The devil is always in the details. You have a pretty good description of some of cascade effect of changing the production, but there is also the need to covert assembly lines over from the G4M to the B7N or any other aircraft, something that, in itself, will take a couple of months...
  15. Could Pearl Harbor be delayed?

    As to the embargo, the requirement was to withdraw from French Indochina. Effectively annexing France's colonies, not the war in China, as is sometimes believed, was what brought the hammer down on Tokyo. The U.S. had told Japan flat out not to do it, or else. They did it and the U.S. (and it...
  16. A Different Pacific War...

    The Canal was a MUCH more difficult target than seems to be considered here. The U.S., as of August 26, 1939, placed a series of measures in place to defend the Canal. These included limiting ALL Commercial traffic to on side of the locks (thereby greatly limited the damage that a ship could...
  17. Technical lost opportunities: Japan

    The B7A was probably the aircraft with the greatest chance of being a significant problem for the Allies. Fast as fighter at 350mph, was supposed to be capable of out-turning an A6M and still capable of carrying a torpedo. Had it not experienced the same sort of "death of a thousand cuts"...
  18. What would a modern IJA and IJN consist of?

    Interesting. Sort of ignores the whole hyper aggressive fascist military state element that WAS Imperial Japan. The Military, either branch, could bring down the government, at will.
  19. What would a modern IJA and IJN consist of?

    Never stopped them when the Empire existed. If anything the IJN would want "super-duper carriers". Just look at the Yamato class. Had to build entirely new yards just to construct the things? Equal or even better wasn't good enough. The Japanese, during the Imperial period, had some serious...
  20. Most Feared/Efficient Warsaw Pact(Not counting KGB) secret police?

    Effective was probably the Stasi. Less hidebound than the KGB, closer to the front lines, made them more flexible and innovative. The Hungarians were supposed to be scary as all hell. They had a very restive population, one that had damned near thrown off the yoke, back in the day, so they...
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