|
Post by hornet32 on Dec 26, 2013 19:52:22 GMT -5
Just as one wonders where Hitler planned to go on his way East one also wonders where imperial Japan was headed OZ could not be the goal as Japan did not have the resources to occupied OZ .
There is one thing certain in all of this the U.S. put check mate on both Germany and Japan , Italy and in the end the USSR . There is a Queen in England a P.M. in Germany a President in France and peace on earth through most of the world because the YANKS came and took care of business .
|
|
|
Post by Swampy on Dec 27, 2013 0:04:02 GMT -5
The US saved the world, no question about it, but, as to what Hitler wanted in invading Russia, he wanted lebensraum (living space), and I don't know if he wanted or expected to go all the way to Vladivostok.
|
|
|
Post by Sir John on Dec 27, 2013 0:28:34 GMT -5
Agree with the OP, but make no mistake, the Yanks "took care of business" ONLY because you were forced into it.
No Pearl Harbor, and no German declaration, and you would NOT have entered WW2. The "arsenal of Democracy" yes, but as shop-keepers giving credit with your factories working 24/7. Your unemployment problem solved, and your Depression over.
As for Australia, they looked at the possibility, decided it was too big a task, and scrubbed the idea. (they knew the 6th, 7th, and 9th was waiting, and looking for a fight)
JMO
SJ
|
|
|
Post by hornet32 on Dec 27, 2013 11:42:18 GMT -5
There is no doubt the Australians were ready and willing to put up a fight but the question remains just where was Imperial Japan going they had already occupied the Countries they needed for raw materials and they had the 8th building railroads for them .
|
|
|
Post by Sir John on Dec 27, 2013 15:26:04 GMT -5
That big island to the south was a threat in itself.
Mac had 3 millions square miles of dirt and 300,000 men (plus a few recently arrived Yanks) to train in it, everything from desert to jungle. Also about 50 or more airfields and a dozen ports to use as a base to strike north. NOTHING in New Guinea or as far north as Balikpapen was safe from attack.
Fenton Airstrip to Balikpapen was the longest B24 raid of the war, about 1300 miles each way.
If they could have, they would have!
SJ
|
|
|
Post by hornet32 on Dec 27, 2013 19:41:56 GMT -5
The Japanese became victims of their own imagination , had they consolidated their gains they're Empire might of lasted another year or two , but no they just had to go to midway to get their ass stomped then they just had to go to Papua NG were they met MacArthur .
|
|
|
Post by Sir John on Dec 27, 2013 19:56:47 GMT -5
"then they just had to go to Papua NG were they met MacArthur ."
That would have been a fluke, as Dugout Doug was only there 5 minutes. Port Moresby was far too close to the front line, he preferred Melbourne, a much safer 4000 kms away.
SJ
|
|
|
Post by hornet32 on Dec 27, 2013 20:07:22 GMT -5
Big Mac was a busy man and a pain in the ass to the FDR administration but there was no way around him the MacArthur family were power players in the GOP and they had the goods on FDR both political and personal .
|
|
|
Post by hornet32 on Dec 29, 2013 22:08:16 GMT -5
The old digger took his hat off his head and held it over 'is heart with a tear in 'is eye he said thank God for General Mac 'e saved us all 'e did .
|
|
|
Post by Sir John on Dec 29, 2013 22:37:19 GMT -5
I think I know what the average Australian soldier said about big mac.
|
|
|
Post by Swampy on Dec 29, 2013 23:37:15 GMT -5
I think I know what the average Australian soldier said about big mac. Do you want fries with that?
|
|
|
Post by hornet32 on Dec 31, 2013 15:35:20 GMT -5
The old digger trudged up the trail brings up a lot of old memories he said and 'ere right 'ere he stood with mud on 'is shoes looking out General Mac was a godsend 'e was .
|
|
|
Post by Sir John on Dec 31, 2013 16:13:24 GMT -5
General "Dugout Doug" MacArthur in Port Moresby, November 1942, by which time the japanese were in full retreat back up the Kokoda TRACK across the Owen Stanley Range. Macs first two questions at the briefing were, "Is my dugout deep enough?", and "Can a jap sniper hit me from Buna?". His next questions were, "What are the Kokoda Track and the Owen Stanley Range?" The first answer was "maybe", so he jumped back in his fleet of MTBs and B17s, and came back to OZ where it was safe. SJ
|
|
|
Post by hornet32 on Dec 31, 2013 21:30:01 GMT -5
sitting at his local with some mates , a pint of bitters half finished in his hand the old digger said with misty eyes if it weren't for General Mac them bloody wogs in New Guinea would be speaking Japanese , aye mumbled a few , one old mate who had dozed off woke up with a start and with a gleam in his eye said you know the one with the bone through her nose started looking pretty good , aye said the mates .
|
|
|
Post by Sir John on Dec 31, 2013 21:59:37 GMT -5
"one old mate who had dozed off woke up with a start and with a gleam in his eye said you know the one with the bone through her nose started looking pretty good , aye said the mates ."
an anecdote from a 'Rats of Tobruk' function back in the '80s.
Every Australian Army battalion had a 'Colour Patch'. Two colours on a khaki background and in the form of a square, triangle, oval, or rectangle. The ex-Tobruk New Guinea vets said that after a few months, "the native women looked whiter every day", and that they wanted to change their colour patch to "White over black on a sandy background".
SJ
|
|