WI: Japan Invades Australia in WW2

Alex1guy

Beedok said:
I wonder what's more likely to succeed, Japan invading Australia or Sealion?
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Define succeed. Invade and conquer the nations involved? Neither. Sealion needs not discussion and Australia is simply to big. Invade an occupy something for an extended period of time. Australia I guess but it's still a waste.
 

Riain

Banned
Magniac said:
...........If they actually did take Darwin and/or Broome there would be massive domestic pressure on the Australian government to focus on reclaiming those northern continent areas first, even if it meant ignoring the situation in PNG. I'm not saying any Australian govt. would be allowed by MacArthur to adopt a 'Darwin First' policy at the expense of defending Papua, but there would be a lot of conflict around that. It would mean something in the short term.
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Curtin didn't win an election until 1943, he became PM because Menzies had lost the support of 2 independents who crossed the flooor and gave their support to Labour. If Australia was invaded and Curtin didn't do enough about it he could be deposed by these 2 independents or even dumped by his own party like Chamberlian was in Britain in 1940. In fact a lodgement might do wonders for Australia's sovereignty in WW2, we could stop being everyones bitch and marshall our own forces under our own command.
 

thevaliant

Even if its foolhardy, and even if we know it's not worth it, if the Japanese did take Darwin one question:

Effect on North Africa theatre?
 

Riain

Banned
The 9th division was the only one left in Nth Africa by mid 1942, the 6th and 7th had been or were in the process of being bought back to the Pacific theatre.

The AIF isn't really the problem, its the RAAF and RAN. RAF bomber command was full of RAAF personnel scattered throughout units willy-nilly. In the event of invasion I'd think the govt would demand the return of these men regardless of the effect on the bombing of Germany, which woulkdn't go down too well with the British.
 

elkarlo

Banned
Grimm Reaper said:
I suspect that getting to the invasion sites would be surprisingly easy in the logistical sense.
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True. But just out of arguments sake, what would taking and holding Darwin entail? As, it is pretty isolated from the rest of OZ. I could see taking some slices like this as rather feasible. Rather than an outright invasion, which would be insane supplies wise.

Even if the Japanese had awesome ASW measures and plenty of shipping, I don't think the Japanese army would be capable of seizing such a large area. Not too mention that the Japanese tanks would run into problems if faced with any real Allied Armour.
That and the Japanese army simply didn't have any real heavy weapons
 

Airship_pirate1901

How many Japanese troops would be dead or wounded in a land were everything is out to kill you,and not just the human inhabitants but Mother Nature would like to have a word with you!:D:D:D
 

Readman

I think a good aspect to think about is that such an operation would require a tremendous amount of intelligence signals and traffic, which would be intercepted and made use of through MAGIC/PURPLE. Granted, that early in the war the codes weren't 'fully' cracked. Having said that...its unlikely if not impossible the Allies wouldn't have some idea as to an invasion of Australia.

But....and here is something I just had popped into my head, and so requires a bit of handwavium, we have scenario wherein the Japanese know the codes are broken, and pull almost a reverse-Midway by making lots of noise about invading Australia but in fact throwing off the allies. But even thats is incredibly unlikely.
 

Evermourn

I'm getting the feeling that some posters don't fully appreciate just how big Australia is, and how remote Darwin is from the densely populated bits.
 

Lord Brisbane

Evermourn said:
I'm getting the feeling that some posters don't fully appreciate just how big Australia is, and how remote Darwin is from the densely populated bits.
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Assuming that the North Australia Railway is put out of action by enemy bombing, shelling or destroyed as any Australians use it to retreat from the Japanese, that would put the closest railhead at either Alice Springs or Mt Isa/Dajarra to Birdum (the southern most point of the NAR). Which is the guts of nearly 900km as the crow flies.

So to retake Darwin, assuming the Japanese just take the town/port and destroy it or don't advance very far outside of a defended beachhead, that would either mean using coastal freighters (with Japanese naval power unlikely) or coming overland from either SA or QLD, as those have the nearest railheads.
 

M79

Japan really does not have the shipping for this, never mind that Australia is fairly well defended by late 1942. All this does is drain Japanese manpower and distract from better opportunities elsewhere.
 

SoC

Invasion is theoretical possible, but as stated earlier the IJA was never going to attempt it. On his deathbed Tojo was interviewed about this, and he stated that (paraphrased) "there was no intention to invade".
IIRC the IJN was keen on the idea but it was shot down by the army for the fact that it was basically doomed to failure. Japan successfully invading and conquering Australia is if anything more ASB than the Seamammal, because Northern Australia is the closest thing to hell on earth.
 
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