Search results for query: *

Forum search Google search

  1. What if the US Pacific Fleet remained based on the West Coast over 1940-1?

    What if the US Pacific Fleet remained based on the West Coast over 1940-1? I am assuming that US policy remains otherwise the same but that the objections of Admiral Richardson, who may have called Pearl a "god-damned mousetrap", are accepted.

  2. No Sealion Plan

    Let us assume that alien space bats persuade Grand Admiral Raeder to attempt the not too difficult task of becoming the most honest leader of the Third Reich. Thus he asks to see Hitler very soon after 22nd June 1940 and argues very strongly that it is absolutely impossible to invade Britain...

  3. What if health concerns had prevented the acceptance of cell phones?

    Cell phones (mobile phones in the UK) are a ubiquitous feature of modern life. A recent article http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/8/808.short suggests that they may have some effects on their users brains. Could they have been rejected and how would that change the world?

  4. Inquest on the Emperor Kōmei

    During most of the tumultuous years from the arrival of Commodore Perry in Japan in 1853 to the complete defeat of the last forces of the Shogunate in 1869, one man could be trusted to support all the wrong policies. This was the Emperor Osahito, posthumously named Kōmei, who supported the...

  5. AH Challenge: Bring Homer and Isaiah together

    Obvious we are confronted with the possibility of multiple Homers and Isaiahs. However, it does seem that some of them might have been contemporaries. They are obviously both experts at reporting the acts of gods in verse, so it might be interesting if they exchanged ideas.

  6. Different survivors of the Meiji Restoration

    Although not a particularly bloody episode, the Meiji Restoration did see quite a high turnover of its leaders including Yoshida Shōin executed, Kusaka Genzui killed in battle, Sufu Masanosuke forced to commit suicide, Takasugi Shinsaku of disease and Sakamoto Ryoma assassinated. What if some of...

  7. Ultra revealed immediately after WW2

    What if someone walks into the office of a Swedish newspaper in May 1945 to sell a story. The story is that the British were reading most of the German codes during WW2. He (or she) could be British or American and trying to make money from his knowledge now it is no longer critical for winning...

  8. The Guns of Djibouti

    According to Colin Smith's “England's Last War against France”, page 320, there was a battery of 330 mm Modèle 1931 guns, the same as the main armament of Dunkerque and Strasbourg, at Orongea Point defending Diego Suarez in 1942. http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNFR_13-50_m1931.htm gives these...

  9. The Fifth Island

    My POD starts from the traditions of the Heike monogatari because I do not know what actually occurred and involves the relationship between Minamoto no Yoritomo and his younger half-brother Minamoto no Yoshitsune. It is ASB because it posits that Yoritomo actually likes his half-brother. Thus...

  10. Sealion Interview

    Everyone loves a successful Sealion as it is the only military way to achieve German victory in WW2 after 3rd September 1939. The alternatives such as a successful Barbarossa can be countered by an eventual Anglo-American nuclear attack if conventional warfare proves too slow and costly. The...

  11. What if Darlan orders French ships to leave British ports?

    I have very little information about the French Fleet between 22nd June 1940 and 3rd July 1940, so I am posting this in the hope that someone else knows something. My question is what if Darlan had ordered any ships in British controlled ports on the 22nd June to sail to French controlled or...

  12. When would the USA have entered WW2 without a Pacific War?

    Would the USA have entered WW2 and when if there had been no Pacific War? For example, we can imagine no Sino-Japanese War in 1937 or peace between Japan and China before 1941 or that Japan avoided signing the Tripartite Pact or otherwise annoying the USA and thus no sanctions or that the USA...

  13. What if the V-1 had been deployed much earlier?

    Reading the Osprey book on the V-1, "V-1 Flying Bomb 1942-52: Hitler's Infamous 'Doodlebug" by Steven J. Zaloga, gives some information on V-1 development. Argus began testing its Argus-Schmidt pulse jet in January 1941 and it flew in April 1941. However, Argus had no airframe designer and there...

  14. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who the stupidest of them all?

    Who was the most stupid political figure of the period before and during WW2? Military leaders can be included if their stupidity was political such as Admiral Yamamoto's attack on Pearl Harbor.

  15. Second Sino-Japanese War ends in December 1937

    Around December 1st 1937, Chiang Kai-shek must have been rather unhappy. The Nine Power Conference had broken up without promising any intervention and the USSR was also not promising any direct intervention against Japan. Chinese forces had been heavily defeated both around Beijing and Shanghai...

  16. What was the worse military plan of all time?

    Classics might include the Austro-Russian plans for Austerlitz or Yamamoto's plan for Midway. These are examples of plans which misuse superior forces so that they risk suffering a decisive defeat. However, plans that overlook a fundamental problem are also of interest. For example, I have heard...

  17. The Washington Commercial Treaty of 1922

    In late 1921, the USA, Britain and Japan had good reason to conclude a naval limitation treaty as the USN could not get money from Congress and the economies of Britain and Japan could not support an unlimited naval race. The problem was getting Japan to agree the 60% ratio that was desired by...

  18. High Seas Fleet sails to Kronstadt

    As we all know, the High Seas Fleet was at Wilhelmshaven in October 1918 when Scheer in a moment of madness ordered an attack on the Grand Fleet. OTL this caused the Wilhelmshaven Mutiny. Now what if Scheer had been removed because the Government had heard of his plans and it had been decided...

  19. Challenge: Stop the rise in crime!

    There was a rapid rise in the crime rate in several countries between 1960 and 1990 as shown by the graph below from http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111.pdf and also from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CanadaViolentCrime.gif. Can anyone suggest how...

  20. What if Japan invades India in 1942?

    This is almost ASB because the IJA will not release the troops and the IJN didn't want to turn away from the USN. Further both were absolutely right. Japan would not have gained very much from even the most successful invasion imaginable. Thus this does not belong in a "How can Japan do better"...
Top