Japan, instead of bombing Pearl Harbor, launches an invasion of Siberia in order to help Hitler carve up the USSR. Plausibility? PODs? Results?
They could never have combated the americans eitherThey get screwed as they could never have combated the Soviets.
Japan, instead of bombing Pearl Harbor, launches an invasion of Siberia in order to help Hitler carve up the USSR. Plausibility? PODs? Results?
It is possible. I read a scenario about it in a book called Rising Sun Victorious, but I think that scenario was 1939 or 40.
In hindsight, it looks like a good idea. Vast mineral wealth of Siberia, especially oil (they go through all that trouble to extract oil, and when they get it, what do we do with it? Burn it.) it would be advantagous for Japan to take it. They could take Vladivostok with a surprise attack. Who knows, it might even be enough to topple the Stalin regime, though I'm not sure the combined Axis might could conquer the Soviet Union.
August Storm? WTF the Soviets couldn't pull off Finland in '39, never mind they didn't have the logistics, equipment, and experience to do anything of 1945 scale. Besides the Kwantung army was stronger in '39 than '45.Results: It's August Storm four years in advance, Japanese are kicked out of Manchuria but entrench in Korea, they find it difficult to sustain troops in China, kick the Soviets out of Sakhalin, the Japanese are forced to redeploy troops from China to Korea, likely a stalemate ensues. Depending on timing, Stalin cannot use Far East troops to stop Germans from getting close to Moscow, which may mean big trouble to Russia.