Israel was for much of its history one big defeat away from destruction and had some close calls
If Pakistan had treated Bengalis better, Bangladesh might not be a thing right now.
Generally, I would actually agree with you BUT in 1942 Australia was, before March, pretty well indefensible. It lacked troops, it lacked weapons, it lacked armour and it lacked aircraft. All that was facing a Japanese offensive was Militia - home defence troops. The best equipped, the best trained, the most experienced troops were overseas in early 1942 in the AIF. Until their return, Australia was facing a modern, well equipped and motivated enemy. After mid-March 1942, the AIF returned but only amounted to two divisions of infantry.
Yes, the numbers would suggest that the IJA and IJN were on a losing wicket but the numbers were also the same for the invasion of Malaya and the Philippines. They won both those and the invasion of the NEI.
All it needed was that troops diverted to New Guinea and Guadalcanal should be used to first take Perth and then take Brisbane.
Why the fascination with Darwin? It is an isolated outpost not connected by anything except a single road from Adelaide. You'll note, I suggest that they avoid Darwin and instead concentrate on the even more isolated Perth and then swing their major forces to attack Queensland/Brisbane. and thence south to Sydney/Canberra.
Well, an earlier rise of Hindu nationalism in India could make Bengalis and Punjabis more willing to see themselves as "Pakistanis" first.While I take your point about how the Bengali's were treated, I can't see split Pakistan working longterm no matter what
Well, an earlier rise of Hindu nationalism in India could make Bengalis and Punjabis more willing to see themselves as "Pakistanis" first.
You don't seem to understand the logistical difficulties involved. The Japanese do not have the capabilities to pull this off. They don't have the ships needed to land a force big enough, let alone supply it. Even if they did have the ships, the distances we are talking about would make it absolutely impossible to escort these convoys.All it needed was that troops diverted to New Guinea and Guadalcanal should be used to first take Perth and then take Brisbane.
Fascination? Darwin is the only part of Australia the Japanese could possibly take. And even then they wouldn't be able to supply it for any given length of time.Why the fascination with Darwin? It is an isolated outpost not connected by anything except a single road from Adelaide. You'll note, I suggest that they avoid Darwin and instead concentrate on the even more isolated Perth and then swing their major forces to attack Queensland/Brisbane. and thence south to Sydney/Canberra.
@Rickshaw. I think you do not understand how big Australia is.
It is the Sixth Largest Country in the World by Land mass. It sits on 3 time zones. A Modern Airliner takes over 3 hours to cross from Brisbane to Perth. You'd need to drive 46 hours between these two cities.
And the majority of the interior is basically desert or wasteland. And then there is the wildlife...
You don't seem to understand the logistical difficulties involved. The Japanese do not have the capabilities to pull this off. They don't have the ships needed to land a force big enough, let alone supply it. Even if they did have the ships, the distances we are talking about would make it absolutely impossible to escort these convoys.
Fascination? Darwin is the only part of Australia the Japanese could possibly take. And even then they wouldn't be able to supply it for any given length of time.
Ah, your talking about occupation. Darwin could easily be supplied by sea from the NEI.
Going for Perth is absolutely insane, let alone Perth AND Brisbane. Again, you don't seem to understand Australia is a continental landmass.
No, it is sensible. Perth to draw all the Australian forces westwards and then attack the East Coast when the majority of the population lives.
The difficulties in conquering Australia for the IJA & IJN is not number of opposing regular army and tanks, it's size of territory and how far away it is in terms of supply lines. It would swallow up what IJA could get there, and the IJN would run itself ragged trying to keep what IJA it could keep in contact with, supplied.
You know who would be hugely in favour of this idea? the USN (hell the RN might even free up some ships to take a bit of revenge)
Only the troops in New Guinea were needed in New Guinea, or are you going to just bypass it? (that would make supplying forces in Australia harder)
However I do think the New Guinea campaign is relevent here because it kind of highlights the issues with operating in difficult terrain at the end of your (contested) supply lines.
If you ignore Darwin it will become the nexus for behind your lines action. Cairns would I think do the same it was historically staging area for the pacific campaign anyway (not that I actually think the IJA would get far enough for Cairns to ever be behind it's lines, unless it literally landed in Cairns)
"Concentrate on isolated Perth and then swing over to Brisbane"
That is (on the A1) 4300km
that not forgetting that Perth is 4000km from Darwin, (Brisbane is 3400km)
Also you are going to go to Perth and then Queensland & NSW!
You might want to start reading my posts before replying to them. I specifically mentioned the inability of the IJN to escort convoys, and the lack of ships to form those convoys. Nowhere did I mention road or rail.I understand them very well. You, like most Europeans/Americans are fascinated by roads/rails for some reason. If I was attacking Australia in 1940s, I would use sea borne logistics. Ignore the under developed roads/rails. Attack the capital cities which are nearly all on the coast. Funny that.
You are assuming they need to occupy the whole continent. They don't.
You are assuming there would be sufficient of the US and RN left to take that revenge. Why?
You are assuming that the US and Australia would have sufficient forces to occupy New Guinea and defend Australia. Why?
It also indicates the poor planning ability of the IJN... They needed more native porters to supply their forces across that difficult terrain than existed in New Guinea.
Ignore it for the most part, yes. Ignore it completely? No. Darwin was a suckhole for Japanese and Allied forces. Japanese forces to attack it which was a waste of time and Allies because it needed forces to defend it. Darwin was never of much importance in reality. It was a minor port in a minor theatre.
Not across country if that is what your talking about. It was never my attention. My intention was to apply forces from the sea. You know, land them from the sea.
You might want to start reading my posts before replying to them. I specifically mentioned the inability of the IJN to escort convoys, and the lack of ships to form those convoys. Nowhere did I mention road or rail.
Darwin cannot be supplied, because again the IJN doesn't have the shipping available.
And no, invading Perth is still batshit insane simply because of the distances involved. And yes, again I'm talking about the distances by ship.
I haven't posted a single map in this thread, nor have I mentioned rail or road links between Perth and Brisbane.Yet you had a map with the rail/road link between Perth and Brisbane all mapped out.
Wrong. The Japanese were chronically short of shipping during the entire war. Pre-war, they relied on foreign shipping to a large degree, which of course was no longer possible when they declared war on practically every country with a merchant marine. There was not a single moment starting from the attack on Pearl Harbor until the Japanese surrender that the Japanese had an adequate number of supply ships and tankers. Consequently, Japanese outpost garrisons were usually short of supplies, and offensives were on a very strict timetable, since the shipping was always needed elsewhere.Depends on when. In 1941-42, they had the shipping. In 43 they still had the shipping. In 1944-45, they lacked it.
Well, since the Japanese don't have destroyers with the range to escort these convoys, anything and everything could interfere with the shipping. Land based air, submarines both surfaced and submerged, literally any allied ship that can carry a gun, and of course the distances involved which mean you need a lot of ships for these runs to begin with, since they will be underway for a very long time.And what was going to interfere with the shipping?
Turkey could easily not exist. Chop off the kurdish and Armenian parts, chop off the more Syrian parts, chop off the more greekish parts, balkanize the rest.Literally any Middle Eastern country could have been bigger, smaller, more inclusive or less inclusive. I think Egypt & Turkey would be the only countries too big to remove.