hi all........not been around for quite a while, mainly cos my model making has a taken a turn in a different direction of late.
but recently elsewhere theres been a what-if GB going on........here was my contribution
Messerschmitt P1111 / Mitsubishi J5A Type 42 Carrier Fighter.....made from PM's kit, changed the undercart, added a missile and arrestor hook
One thing that’s always interested me with ‘alternative WW2’ scenarios is what would have happened if the USA had not entered the war. WW2 only went the way it did thanks to the USA’s industrial might (and to a lesser degree the USSR’s), basically it was a case of making war materiel faster than it could be lost in combat. The USSR was fortunate in being able to move its industry eastwards out of harm’s way but it still relied to a certain extent on tanks/aircraft/ships/etc coming from Britain/USA.
What if the USA had decided to stay neutral?.......up until Pearl Harbour there was quite a political movement for that to happen, stay out of Europe’s war......there was even a bit of support for the Nazis, although that went very quiet, very quickly once they did enter the war.
They might have carried on producing stuff to sell to Britain/Empire/USSR but since they were not involved in the war Lend/Lease wouldn’t have happened it would have been on a sale basis. (Would Britain / Empires cash reserves run out quickly?) If their industry hadn’t geared up like it did during the war then they wouldn’t have made the technological advancements as quickly as they did, they might have been left behind those who were involved in the conflict.
If the USA wasn’t seen as a threat would the Japanese not attacked PH?, and instead rapidly moved westward thro China, taking Northern India before turning Northwards to open a second front against the USSR in support of its European Axis allies......what if they had been able to use indigenous troops from the countries it had occupied as in some form of ‘Foreign Legion’ or Frei Korps as the Waffen SS had done......this would have given them the troops they would have need to avoid being over extended as they had in the real time line
Something that got me thinking about this was recently reading about how Germany and Japan tried to maintain contact during WW2.......after it got too difficult to send ships they used submarines....although only 1 managed to make the trip there and back safely,.....they used them to exchange personnel, various materiel, and technology.
So here’s my take........
1939 World War begins......Germany rapidly occupies most of Western Europe and parts of North Africa.......British Isles isolated.........Japan continues to expand its Empire in the far East
1941 America refuses to join the war seeing it as Europe’s War
Germany kicks off Operation Barbarossa and invades the USSR...key targets are the oil resources of the Caucasus and reducing the threat of Russian involvement in WW2
Japan abandons plan to attack Pearl Harbour and instead uses its resources to expand westwards, taking Northern India, China collapses completely giving Japan an easy victory. Japanese navy commands Western side of Pacific Ocean/Eastern side of Indian Ocean....effectively cutting off India from Australian/New Zealand help, they then turned north into the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, a thinly populated area which allowed rapid advancement.
By March 1943 forces of Germany and Japan meet up in Georgia, Southern USSR
USSR drastically reduced in size, a mild winter of 1941 allowed Axis forces to advance and take key cities of Kiev, Leningrad and Stalingrad. The advance was so rapid that USSR wasn’t quick enough to evacuate much of its military industry eastwards across the Urals to safety, isolated without help from Britain or USA it would struggle to hold the combined forces of European Axis and its Japanese allies. They would consolidate what they held, vital oil/agricultural areas; Germany in particular would move its own population into the newly occupied territories.
This joining up of East and West would also enable increased communication. Not just by rail but by air, allowing an exchange of material that both need.......for example rubber from the east in exchange for chemicals/oil from the west.
By late 1944 several special cargo trains arrives in Japanese controlled China, aboard is examples of Germanys latest jet aircraft as well as other technology.
The Japanese navy was particularly interested as it designing its next class of aircraft carrier, larger and with more range than previous carriers it was planned for them to control the Pacific/Indian Oceans, attacking Empire convoys and harassing Australia.
Unfortunately the German designs did not appear to be easily converted to naval operations, since Germany had little interest up til that time in naval air power, preferring land based patrol aircraft. Most designs being too fragile or not easily converted. They particularly liked the He 162 for its compact size which would have been an advantage on carriers but it was thought its narrow undercarriage would not be practicable for carrier operations. They finally settled on two designs. The FW P239 would become a bomber/torpedo bomber whist the ME P1111 would become the fighter.
In the end it proved to be an easy conversion......Mitsubishi took on the work, up rated undercarriage, arrestor hook and catapult launch gear and other improvements to make it suitable for use at sea.
The aircraft was named the J5A Type 42 but was always known as ‘The Bat’ by its pilots
Shown is one of the first aircraft assigned to the new carrier IJN Kuma on its maiden operational voyage off the coast of Australia. Flown by Major Ari-Bo of the 22nd Sento Hikotai (fighter squadron) he would become Japan’s first jet ace on the voyage against Australian fighters, totally out classing the Tempest aircraft it was using at the time.
It’s picturing carrying a single ‘Dragons Fire’ missile, an early guided AA missile adapted from a RheinMettall type XX
The redesign of the aircraft proved to be successful as did the aircraft carrier class, the Germans took it in return and used it as a basis for the Graf 2 series of carriers which would serve for more than 10 years in the Atlantic
