(01-10-2018 04:45 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(01-10-2018 03:24 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  Had (the Germans) been able to prosecute the offensive and destroy the British Expeditionary Force on the beach at Dunkirk instead of allowing them to evacuate the personnel they did, Britain would have ceased to be much more than an annoyance and they could have concentrated the majority of their forces against the Soviets.

I have to disagree, the reality of US and Russian manufacturing and manpower makes anything but total defeat inevitable. Even if the British were defeated or captured at Dunkirk it would only be a matter of time before the UK could re-engage via massive amount of US aid.

Britain wouldn't have been able to re-engage if they were forced to sue for peace facing a massive invasion with the majority of their army and just about all of their available heavy equipment not available to them.

Quote:

(01-10-2018 03:24 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  and was within striking distance of invading Australia when they attacked Pearl Harbor. With the bulk of Australia's forces committed to the fight in the Mediterranean theater had America not entered the war it's likely that Australia would have fell and with India under Japanese threat the defense of the Commonwealth would have fell to South Africa and Canada.

The Japanese goal for Australia was always containment, never invasion. The men and material needed to secure and invade Australia would be so overwhelming as to be impossible.The idea that Japan could have successfully invaded and conquered Australia needs a strong word: ludicrous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_J...rld_War_II

The link you provided indicates that the Imperial Navy indeed advanced a plan for the invasion of Australia. It was the Imperial Army who favored containment, and that was the beginning of the end for Japan as Australia was used as the spring board for the island hopping campaign that began with Guadalcanal.

The question is was Japan aware of how depleted Australia's military was when they declared war against the Japanese on Dec 8th, 1941? They only had eight incomplete divisions of Army troops, most of their aircraft were trainers, and less than 10 large warships available to defend the country due to so much manpower and material being send to fight Germany.