It would have been easier than that; they had a non-aggression treaty with Russia that they broke. Had they not done that, Russia likely would not have joined the Allies, and it’s not out of the question that they might have joined the Axis.
That wouldn’t guarantee an Axis win, but without nuclear weapons, the Allies wouldn’t be able to sustain a land war against a Germany/Russia alliance.
If Hitler hadn’t declared war on the US, we may have only focused on Japan. Fortunately for Roosevelt things evolved in just 3 days from ‘holy shit japan attacked us’ to ‘we’re gonna beat the whole fucking world to death with superior manufacturing’. good thing there’s absolutely NOTHING either japan nor germany can do to bomb detroit or the rest of US production. Pretty soon liberty ships are coming off the line in numbers that ensure the germans can never stop aid to the UK. And japan - sure they sunk a bunch of nice (but obsoleted by carriers) battleships but that’s pretty much where it ends in terms of punishing US installations.
There were already skirmishes between US ships and German u-boats for well over a year before US was bombed at Pearl Harbor. So, even if Pearl Harbor didn’t happen, there is another Lusitania moment waiting to happen for US to justify declaring war on Germany.
(As a side note, the bit of history on US and German naval skirmishes before Pearl Harbor seems to be getting sidelined and unknown by those who weren’t alive at the time)
valid, the wolfpacks had the entire east coast mapped out and were chomping to attack more US shipping. BUT. imho this simply illustrates how stupid hitler was. Picking a fight with the ally of your enemy to stop just supplying and start shooting stops working rapidly as liberty ship production outpaces the german’s ability to sortie subs (and of course we were reading their comms eventually, making it a turkey shoot). it’s like the japanese and germans thought they had some magic way they’d keep the rust belt out of the war and oops, that kinda destroyed them. our ability to endlessly manufacture new and better shit as the war went on, and their inability to hurt production at all while theirs was being destroyed… history is full of “what were they thinking?” moments in hindsight.
Oh and the US probably shouldn’t have strangled Japanese with oil embargos which probably precipitated actual hostilities.
The USSR spent the previous decade trying to build an antifascist pact and was snubbed as the western powers signed their own non-aggression pacts with Germany. They pledged to send 1 million troops to invade Germany if the western powers would support them. Instead the western powers handed over Czechslovakia to Germany and Poland, hoping they would go east and deal with the greater threat, communism.
The USSR didn’t sign a non-aggression-pact with Germany because they wanted their number one enemy to succeed, but because it was the only way to draw the western powers in against Germany. Hell Britain was only stopped from sending troops to invade the USSR during the Winter War on the side of the axis by Sweden denying them transit.
It would have been easier than that; they had a non-aggression treaty with Russia that they broke. Had they not done that, Russia likely would not have joined the Allies, and it’s not out of the question that they might have joined the Axis.
That wouldn’t guarantee an Axis win, but without nuclear weapons, the Allies wouldn’t be able to sustain a land war against a Germany/Russia alliance.
If Hitler hadn’t declared war on the US, we may have only focused on Japan. Fortunately for Roosevelt things evolved in just 3 days from ‘holy shit japan attacked us’ to ‘we’re gonna beat the whole fucking world to death with superior manufacturing’. good thing there’s absolutely NOTHING either japan nor germany can do to bomb detroit or the rest of US production. Pretty soon liberty ships are coming off the line in numbers that ensure the germans can never stop aid to the UK. And japan - sure they sunk a bunch of nice (but obsoleted by carriers) battleships but that’s pretty much where it ends in terms of punishing US installations.
There were already skirmishes between US ships and German u-boats for well over a year before US was bombed at Pearl Harbor. So, even if Pearl Harbor didn’t happen, there is another Lusitania moment waiting to happen for US to justify declaring war on Germany.
(As a side note, the bit of history on US and German naval skirmishes before Pearl Harbor seems to be getting sidelined and unknown by those who weren’t alive at the time)
valid, the wolfpacks had the entire east coast mapped out and were chomping to attack more US shipping. BUT. imho this simply illustrates how stupid hitler was. Picking a fight with the ally of your enemy to stop just supplying and start shooting stops working rapidly as liberty ship production outpaces the german’s ability to sortie subs (and of course we were reading their comms eventually, making it a turkey shoot). it’s like the japanese and germans thought they had some magic way they’d keep the rust belt out of the war and oops, that kinda destroyed them. our ability to endlessly manufacture new and better shit as the war went on, and their inability to hurt production at all while theirs was being destroyed… history is full of “what were they thinking?” moments in hindsight.
Oh and the US probably shouldn’t have strangled Japanese with oil embargos which probably precipitated actual hostilities.
The USSR spent the previous decade trying to build an antifascist pact and was snubbed as the western powers signed their own non-aggression pacts with Germany. They pledged to send 1 million troops to invade Germany if the western powers would support them. Instead the western powers handed over Czechslovakia to Germany and Poland, hoping they would go east and deal with the greater threat, communism.
The USSR didn’t sign a non-aggression-pact with Germany because they wanted their number one enemy to succeed, but because it was the only way to draw the western powers in against Germany. Hell Britain was only stopped from sending troops to invade the USSR during the Winter War on the side of the axis by Sweden denying them transit.