Just started reading the book Nemesis by Max Hastings. He mentions various examples of how Germany and Japan failed to cooperate as allies during the course of the war, including one minor one:
Obviously, if Japanese industry, already in a pretty parlous state, makes Panzerfausts, it isn't making something else, and I'm not sure of their ability to supply them to the various armies outside Japan, given the US naval blockade/generally rubbish IJA supply situation etc. So, probably doesn't make that much difference really. It'd save Japanese troops having to muck around with those mines-on-poles or sitting in a foxhole with an artillery shell and a hammer etc, I guess, and would make just the ideal thing to hand out to those 28 million civilian militia people they had ready to meet the expected invasion of the Home Islands...
The main thing I was thinking though was that anything that delays the Soviet advance into Manchuria, even a little bit, might have a big impact on the post-war world. Or possibly not...
Anyway, thoughts?
One of Japan's most serious deficiencies in 1944-45 was lack of a portable anti-tank weapon, but no attempt was made to copy the cheap and excellent German Panzerfaust.
Obviously, if Japanese industry, already in a pretty parlous state, makes Panzerfausts, it isn't making something else, and I'm not sure of their ability to supply them to the various armies outside Japan, given the US naval blockade/generally rubbish IJA supply situation etc. So, probably doesn't make that much difference really. It'd save Japanese troops having to muck around with those mines-on-poles or sitting in a foxhole with an artillery shell and a hammer etc, I guess, and would make just the ideal thing to hand out to those 28 million civilian militia people they had ready to meet the expected invasion of the Home Islands...
The main thing I was thinking though was that anything that delays the Soviet advance into Manchuria, even a little bit, might have a big impact on the post-war world. Or possibly not...
Anyway, thoughts?