Quoted:
Quoted: Personally if Hitler had not declared war on the US in support of Japan, the US would have eventually been dragged into involvement in Europe anyway. I doubt Hitler could have stopped himself from messing with the US in the long run. The US was too big a sleeping giant for Hitler to ignore, and in all likelyhood he would have done something to start a war with the US eventually, possibly involving Central or South America and the US Monroe Doctrine.
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I agree 100%, eventually we would have been fighting the Germans. But what if by not declaring war on us, Hitler had delayed US entry for a year or so? Think of the weapons Germany was working on that may have had a bigger impact if the ending of the war had been delayed, jet technology, improved submarines, strategic bombers, etc.? What about troops that might have been available for the Eastern Front if not tied down *so soon* in Africa, Sicily, or Italy fighting both the US and British forces?. I agree that we would have been fighting the Germans sooner or later, but it *may* have been a completely different conflict if we had started the long road back by invaded N. Africa a year and a half after we actually did (or Sicily or Italy as German forces in N. Africa were already in retreat, then again that does not mean they would have been pushed out by British forces).
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It's a bit of a two edged argument though. When the US first entered the war, some of the equipment it was using wasn't particularly good (eg: early war US tanks). It took actual combat experience to see what equipment was good enough and what wasn't. Without that first hand experience, what reason is there for the US to develop better equipment before the shooting starts at a later date? Does the US build up stocks of what was already in the inventory and go in with that, or do they try to quess what changes they'll need to make and develop new equipment without the experience of actual combat? Will the new untested equipment have it own set of unexpected weaknesses that won't become apparent until it's used in anger? What paths does German fighter development take if there is no massed B-17/B-24 bombing campaign to deal with?
Also another point to consider, if things had gone sour in Russia before he declared war on the US, or even if the German timetable were delayed again, Hitler may have chosen to *not* declare war on us. At the time he found it so easy to do so because the German high tide was still flowing (well, and let's face it, the Italians were not turning out to be the most reliable allies).
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Actually, lets say Hitler manages to not piss off the US for at least another year beyond actual history, but he does go into Russia as planned. The Russians had to fight a delaying action until they had built up the industrial capacity to equip an army and airforce that could push Germany back. Lend-Lease gave Russia a supply of equipment until their relocated factories got back into full production. If the US is kept out of the situation, does Russia get any Lend-Lease support from the US? The UK also got a lot of equipment from the US under Lend-Lease. Do they get any now? How does that affect their ability to slow down German expansion?
If an unsupported Russia and UK are fighting an overall losing battle against Germany, Washingtom will at least see an expanding Germany and the consequences of Hitler's regime growing in territory and power. Does the US then contrive some provocation with Germany as a pretext for getting into the war?
I know someone who is a professional analyst with a thinktank that contracts to the Pentagon. He's been writing an alternate-history series of stories that paralell this very issue. There was an actual attempt by some senior members of Churchill's government to open peace talks with Germany behind Churchill's back. In reality Germany was slow to respond because they thought it was a trick, the plotters were uncovered during that delay and that was the end of it. In his alternate history version, Germany responds quickly, Churchill is deposed from power by the plotters and England and Germany agree to peace terms (the other UK Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia, India, etc, reject the agreement and stay in the fight). That means that there is no England for the US to operate from, so they have to do things differently. Here's a link to the stories.
The Big OneHe originally started writing the stories after being fed up with all the "The Germans win WW2" alternate histories that exist.