Modelling > Scenarios
Japan invades Australia
Volkodav:
Armour, the divisions formed to fight in Africa were retained for the defence of Australia. Combined with the motorised and mechanised cavalry the Japanese would have struggled. Tactical air power using the tactics perfected in north Africa.
Old Wombat:
Not only that but the infantry tactics learned in North Africa would have had more value in Australia than they did in New Guinea, so returning AIF troops wouldn't have had to unlearn a lot of stuff & learn a whole bunch more at great cost. Also, the terrain is better for tank operations & even the old Matilda II was better than the Japanese tanks of the era
I'm not saying we wouldn't have put up a good fight, just that we'd lose.
Our navy, although quite modern at the time (with a few famous exceptions, like the V & W class destroyers), was vastly outnumbered, had no aircraft carriers & no battleships. They would have been slaughtered, leaving the entire coastline open to the IJN to operate harrassing raids & major operations against major population centres like Brisbane (not really major at the time but certainly of strategic value) Sydney & Melbourne, & strategic targets like dockyards, Fisherman's Bend, rail assets, bridges & other strategic sites.
Anyway:
I'd be assuming importation of US-made aircraft & engines, P-40's & radial engines, mostly, & British-made engines, especially Merlins & Hercules, with some aircraft. With local licenced production of various aircraft being ramped up to the max.; Spitfires, Hurricanes, P-40's, Beaufighters, Mosquitoes, Marylands, Wellingtons & Bostons being high on the potential list.
I'd, also, expect an acceleration of indigenous aircraft, such as the CA-4/11 Woomera & the CA-15 (Kangaroo).
Also, ground assets, such as the AC1 Sentinel (P&W Wasp powered, as intended), AC3 & AC4 tanks.
Naval assets would be harder to acquire or build. The best option would be Lend-Lease from the US & there is no way Australia could get the manpower required to crew a navy large enough to be any real threat to the IJN.
:))
Guy
raafif:
Another option would be for Japan to sweep from Singapore thru Java then swing west around New Guinea & occupy the south coast of NG instead of going across (so no Kokoda), thus avoiding all the trouble of the jungle. Cut off Aussie troops successfully fight out to Darwin.
I'm thinking that, if our politicians were responsible people, we'd have had a single-gauge (instead of 3 gauges) rail line from Melbourne to Brisbane by 1920 at the latest. What prevented that is the "Dis-united States of Ausralia" that still exists - every state has had its own navy, a different rail gauge, different education system etc etc etc -- I'm sure a war-between-the-States could have been fought over all this. Just this week a senior politician was pushing for a new local mass-transit system NOT to be compatible with the main-line railway.
Why did japan have so many carriers & battleships ? .... with an early decision not to attack the USA, Japan's navy is not as great as in real life. I see this as a land/air campaign with relatively small naval forces ie troop & cargo transport, land bombardment & subs sinking shipping from Canada & Sth Africa. With a mainly land war on Asian soil, Japan goes for land airfields & sees carriers more as cargo ships for aircraft than floating airfields (perhaps carriers are the domain of the Japanese Air Force, not the Navy, in much the same way that the US sees the Army/Marines/Navy/AF division of responsibilities?) --- would this see the Zero (as a Navy design) sidelined in favour of Army/AF designs ?
Yes, I see Aussie troops being recalled from Nth Africa & the UK. As far as equipment is concerned we did an o.k. job with what was on hand. Even tho the Kirsch Improvised A/car (on civil car chassis) had a very ballistic light-armour body + turret, I don't think it would have been good at anything other than urban-patrol & other A/cars on hand were very 1930s in design. The Universal carrier was in production - the mortar & 2pdr versions would be ok for our use on the run in defending Oz. Dingo & Rover (aussie design ones) armoured-cars and the later Rhino armoured cars on CMP chassis (I like to call them Wombats ;) ). We did well with the Sentinel tank - based on the components of the US M2 Medium Tank, our design was better than the later Sherman. The standard AC-1 with 2pdr or 6pdr guns were good, particularly the AC-IV with British 17pdr gun. The AC-III with twin 25pdrs would make an excellent bunker-buster - I'm sure the Japanese would build plenty of those. Matilda-IIs would make an ok Infantry tank, tho over-armoured for our needs unless Japan bought German guns / made their own design of equal gun power.
We still need an indigenous light fast tank like the Stuart.
M.A.D. correctly pointed out that, to start with, we had nothing, so pressed existing designs into service.
One Wirraway was converted to a single-seater in the field, so I guess the "Wirraway" would be a Fighter & the bomber would be the "Wirrabomber". Followed by Boomerangs which were a bit short (tended to tumble when landing on rough ground) but a small fuselage extension + local in-line engine would make a good Mk.II version.
In addition to the Wirrabomber we have Ansons fitted with turrets & bomb-racks (my old foreman's first job was fitting turret-rings to RAAF Ansons in Brisbane in 1943).
Our light-bomber would be a few Hudsons & the Beaufort. While nice, the Beaufighter is a major change to the Bristol design despite some common components like the undercarriage & outer wings etc. Perhaps superceeded Blemheims/Bolingbrokes from UK & Canada converted locally into fighters with two P&W R-1830s ?? Minus turret, 3rd crewman & bombs in favour of a belly gunpack + the more powerful engines would the Blenheim do ?
I do hope we don't get those Hampdens from Canada tho :icon_sueno:
His idea of a DC-3 bomber, is a classic of improvisation done by Holland, Russia, Israel & others -- airlines give up their aircraft for conversion until new designs can come on stream. Needing a "bomber nose" we graft on Beaufort parts from stock ....
Volkodav:
An Australian STUG using a 25 pounder on a stretched widened and unarmored carrier platform.
Hawker Aircraft Australia established to manufacture Harts, Furies and Demons in the early 1930s switches to Hurricanes and Henleys in 1940-41.
Rolls Royce Australia established to manufacture Armoured cars and vehicle engines in the early1920s expands to produce Kestrel then Merlin engines in the 1930s.
raafif:
source needed for reasonably accurate & detailed line-drawings for Australian pattern Universal carriers & Sentinel tanks (incl. different turret types) for modifying into whif profiles - I have Matilda & Valentine drawings.
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