Lunatic said:I respectfully disagree. The Japanese people were willing to sustain tremendous losses in defense of the Emperor. The Japanese military commanders still believed that if they could inflict sufficiently high losses on the Allies the Allies would accept a negotiated surender and they were willing to endure many times that level of losses to achieve this.
Had the USA forgone the use of non-conventilonal weapons (the A-Bomb and nerve gas) Allied losses would have run to the mid 6 figure mark, perhaps even as high as a million. And Japanese losses would have been 10 fold as high. And the Soviets would have ended up in complete control of China and at least two and probably three of the Northern Japanese Islands (they hold one today), if not the entire contry. And the Soviet's would have had no respect for Japanese culteral identity or tradition.
Sure losses would've been high, but the USA wouldn't have signed any form of Peace treaty with the Japanees, no they would've only accepted a Japanees surrender.
And eventaully, against the might of the USA, the Japs would've surrendered.
Having the A-Bomb dropped on Japan was the best thing that could have happened to them short of a miracle of enlightenment in the Japanese milititary leadership. It saved millions of Japanese lives and allowed them to retain the largest part of their cultural identity. Had they endured a an invasion, even without the Soviets being involved, their culture would have been almost completely lost.
I agree 100%.
How? They'd have hung back until the critical moment when Hitler made his move and wiped out his invasion force.
Hung back ? Lunatic, the RN would be sunk before even having the chance to escape.
Hitler didn't have the resources to build a Luftwaffe' large enought to stop that (especially at night).
Without any RAF, oh yes he had.
Sea-Lion was a fantasy cooked up in a cocain/amphetamine/morphine daze. The German's had no capacity for such an operation and had they tried it the war would have ended much earlier.
Read this essay: http://www.flin.demon.co.uk/althist/seal1.htm
Convinced?
=S=
Lunatic
Remember Lunatic, we're talking no'more RAF here.
And as your link suggests, the RAF would have had a huge part in defeating any invasion force.