AHC the Germans attack Pearl Harbor

How do you get the Germans to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941, just like they said in "Animal House".

I thought about this a little and I think the POD would be a really bad Japanese defeat at the hands of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, but I think I need help from there.
 
Perhaps, but perhaps the POD to make this happen belong before 1900.

Yeah, this is so far out there you'd practically need the POD to happen pre-1900. Basically weaker Japan and Germany's colonial empire in the Pacific gets buffed massively. Japan also doesn't join WWI (or joins on Germany's side), and obviously Germany wins WWI. In WWI, the German Imperial Navy possesses several seaplane tenders which in 1918 launch a raid on Scapa Flow, sinking a battleship and damaging/sinking several smaller ships of the Royal Navy--this contributes to the British decision to pull out of the war, and more importantly, convinces Germany of the need for naval aviation. The Imperial Navy's Pacific fleet includes several carriers in it, and allied with the Japanese in a war against a Russo-American alliance, come 1941 a major raid against Pearl Harbor occurs conducted entirely by German aircraft launched from German ships.
 
Your put it in the right forum. Frankly, the POD needs to be early enough Germany has pacific islands and a good navy (not as good as the RN, but better than OTL French), so you need a POD before Germany was even a country. Anything afterwards would probably just at best have a big fleet that can't go to Pearl Harbour
 
Maybe if little Germanies like Saxony and Hannover have a large diaspora in the French colonies. Suppose then in TTL Franco-Prussian war, Prussia/Germany not only takes Lorraine, but also some of these colonies to ensure solidary with its new joiners. The colonies taken have a population ratio of say 3 French: 1 Saxony/Hannover/Sauve/Whatever Germany: 1 Other European: X natives, where X is anything from 1 to 16. And say that the disporia left Europe for better money opportunities say... 3 generations ago and married with each other. Not early enough and there is a large population gap in TTL Germany and too many generations and there is a risk of outbreeding and feeling less German. Or if it's in America which has an assimilation cheat from 1800 to 1970s, that's already too long, but I don't think places like Vietnam has that.

Problem is that while that gives ports available for an attack on Pearl Harbor, there needs to be funding. Probably 3/4 ships would be based in either the North sea of the Mediterranean (depending on who Germany's allies are) and only the last 1/4 would go to the colonies. Or just fuck USA over so that their pacific fleet is like 30 ships.

With pacific colonies, we can always cook up reasons for Germany to attack America. Making it slightly less suicidal so that someone more tactically aware than one OTL Austrian corporal with a mustash is the hard part
 
The Spanish American War and the Boxer Rebellion both happened right before 1900, otherwise Germany could have picked up more Chinese territories or the Philippines with some changes to the events.

However there are some post-1900 elements you can use. The main one is Japan gets crushed like a bug by Tsarist Russia, which is implausible but would at least have some serious butterflies. If Japan becomes a weak state, it can no longer do much in China, leaving China wide open for German influence. And you can do alot with China in the post-1912 chaos. If Tsarist Russia reveals itself as a military superpower, the power dynamics in Europe will probably change completely. You should see Britain siding with Germany against Russia and France for balance of power reasons. That butteflies away World War I.

So OK, with generating lots of butterflies from reversing the Russo-Japanese War, you get a fascist or quasi fascist USA, because the no or different World War I changes the Depression, facing off against Hohenzollern Germany and Britain, and the Germans have a powerful ally with China or are heavily involved in China. Since Britain is an ally, the Germans don't have to concentrate everything in the North Sea, and build up their Far Eastern fleet and equip it with carriers. The movement of the US Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Hawaii still happens somehow. The world war is between Britain/ Germany and allies against the USA as allies, and the Europeans strike first with a British strike against Norfolk and a German strike against Pearl Harbor using carrier aircraft. There, I think I did it.
 
Facist or democratic, I can't image America ending up on Britain's bad side after 1870 unless America directly intervenes against British interests, with America's politics being considered internal. Germany won't invest in colonies farther than Somalia if they think they will end in a war with Britain. But if Germany is on good terms with Britain, than they wouldn't attack USA at Pearl Harbor. Uh oh...
 
Does German troops of an early unified Germany(hence being able to participate in colonialism early)landing in the Kingdom of Hawaii through what is now known as Pearl Harbor count as an attack on Pearl Harbor?
 
Does German troops of an early unified Germany(hence being able to participate in colonialism early)landing in the Kingdom of Hawaii through what is now known as Pearl Harbor count as an attack on Pearl Harbor?

Maybe, and it would royally piss off both the United States and Britain.
 
I almost wonder if you could get this as a result of a German-British or German-American rivalry over control of Hawaii before the OTL annexation (or if it has to be in 1941, in a world where the Kingdom never ended). Historically the Russians, British, and Americans all vied for influence there, so assuming some crazy early German unification maybe they get all colonial somewhere else in the Pacific and then try to expand into Hawaii. Maybe they invade backing a claimant to the throne of the Kingdom?
 
How do you get the Germans to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941, just like they said in "Animal House".
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