In OTL, America entered World War II after the raid/attack on Pearl Harbor.
Is there any other way America can enter the war, w/o Pearl Harbor?
Is there any other way America can enter the war, w/o Pearl Harbor?
June 1941
The U-203 stalks the USS Texas in the North Atlantic near Iceland while it is carrying out Neutrality Patrol duties. Historically the Germans did not fire
Now assume mist causes some confusion regarding the identity of the American warship, and the Uboat fires and manages to hit and even worse sink the battleship. Casualties would be heavy if it goes down in the far north Atlantic, and even Isolationist Congressmen would be under heavy pressure to declare war.
Long shot, but certainly one that does not require many butterflies to happen.
easy reference can be found here... there are others
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/uss-texas-last-of-its-kind.htm
My # 3 would be in China. In January of 1941 Sir William Johnstone "Tony" Keswick , a member of the Shanghai International Settlement Municipal Council was shot by the leader of the Japanese Street Union Association during a mass ratepayers meeting. The dispute itself was not internationally political (it had to do with local taxes), but with the general political climate it would be difficult to imagine it blowing up into an Incident between the IJA forces occupying Shanghai and U.S. (4th Marines) and British Army troops assigned to defend the Settlement
I don't think this will do it. The response to the Panay Incident, an actual attack on a US warship, triggered calls for American forces to withdraw from China.
This would allow full U.S. escort all the way to British ports, effectively ending the Battle of the Atlantic unless Hitler decided to wage an undeclared war, which wouldn't last long, since a U.S. already at war would be a lot less willing to play games in the Atlantic. So Hitler can either accept the effort to defeat the UK via blockade has failed or go to war with the U.S. six months BEFORE Barbarossa
Nice set of choices there.
Well, no matter what Hitler decides there is the fact that soon American made planes manned by British crews will be bombing German forces and cities. Hitler's going to tolerate that just as much as the US would tolerate it if Japan started hitting American cities with German made bombers.
Um, the British were flying US purchased planes in 1940, as were the French. Cash and Carry was the policy and Hitler didn't care enough. Same with LL when it started in mid 1941
In OTL, America entered World War II after the raid/attack on Pearl Harbor.
Is there any other way America can enter the war, w/o Pearl Harbor?
On 1 September 1939 Athenia, commanded by Captain James Cook, left Glasgow for Montreal via Liverpool and Belfast. She carried 1,103 passengers including about 500 Jewish refugees, 469 Canadians, 311 US citizens and 72 UK subjects, and 315 crew.
Despite, the clear indications that war would break out any day, she departed Liverpool at 13:00 hrs on 2 September, without recall, and on the evening of the 3rd was 60 nautical miles (110 km) south of Rockall and 200 nautical miles (370 km) northwest of Inishtrahull, Ireland, when she was sighted by the German submarine U-30 commanded by Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp around 16:30. Lemp later claimed that the fact that she was a darkened ship steering a zigzag course which seemed to be well off the normal shipping routes made him believe she was either a troopship, a Q-ship or an armed merchant cruiser.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Athenia
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[*]Total wild-card idea. The Panay incident nearly escalates into war, and the US has to back down because it has no army to speak of. This leads to a proposal for major US rearmament, in part to stimulate the economy (heading back down in 1937-1938), and to sop up some of the unemployed men (there are lots of potential volunteers); but also because with the rise of Nazi Germany, the US needs a real army. By 1939, the US has about 800,000 men in service, including a strong tank corps. German operations in Spain and Poland are sufficiently appalling that the US public suppports joining the Allies. The US declares war - with the stricture that only volunteers for foreign duty will be sent overseas. The US sends a fully mechanized corps sized AEF to France by March 1940. (The AEF, arriving late, is held in reserve around Reims. When the panzers break through at Sedan, the AEF leads the counterattack and drives the Germans back to the Meuse.)
....
Well.
- Total wild-card idea. The Panay incident nearly escalates into war, and the US has to back down because it has no army to speak of.
In OTL, America entered World War II after the raid/attack on Pearl Harbor.
Is there any other way America can enter the war, w/o Pearl Harbor?