| June 16 |  |
Editor says, what if Adolf Hitler had committed more resources to Plan Z? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the July 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1939, on this day the Nippon Kaigun and Kriegsmarine began a summer-long joint exercise that resulted in the German double aircraft carrier group being stranded in the Far East at the outbreak of war.
Flugzeugträger Part 3: Convergence of Operation Z & Plan ZNeedless to say, the internment was a source of huge frustration to Grand Admiral Erich Raeder. His Plan Z rearmament program had been explicitly authorized by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, but then the real negotiations had begun in earnest - with the Fuehrer.
But then fate intervened, and the Grand Admiral was finally given a historic opportunity to demonstrate that the German Navy could make a real difference. Because in late 1941, Raeder's patience was finally rewarded by a private visit from Chuichi Nagumo. The Japanese Admiral wanted to discuss the feasibility of German carriers Graf Zeppelin and Peter Strasser supporting his Kido Butai in a pre-emptive attack on an undisclosed allied military base. The success of the joint exercises had demonstrated that such a mission was operationally possible, although matters of command needed to be delicately discussed. And yet a complete coincidence gave Raeder the assurance that needed. Because Nagumo had chosen the codename Operation Z. It was more than the fickle finger of fate, it was destiny. Because the strike from the Axis third wave force destroyed drydocks and fuel storage depots, putting the eventual US victory back by two whole years.
This post shares some commonality with the sister articles in the Flugzeugträger thread.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Flugzeugtrager Source: Wikipedia Labels: Graf Zeppelin, Kriegsmarine, Aircraft Carrier, Iceland, Second World War. Editor says, in authoring this bluesky scenario we have collaborated with guest historian Scott Palter and have repurposed content from Wikipedia. 1) Wikipedia reports ~ a combination of political infighting between the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, wrangling within the ranks of the Kriegsmarine itself and Adolf Hitler's waning interest all conspired against the carriers
~ Interesting...
~ Say goodbye to the entire Pacific Fleet if this happened. Japan could have waltzed onto the beaches of Hawaii and Alaska if they so desired in this scenario.
~ Actually, it might not. If effective U.S. entry into the war is delayed by two years, then when the A-bomb is developed it may be used against German cities first, since Germany would still be fighting in August 1945. (The Manhattan Project porbably wouldn't be held up in this scenario.) Even if it's only the Pacific war that's affected. things would go hard for the Philippines and Australia. And a further delay might mean that Russia would have ended up playing more significant role in fighting Japan, possibly leading to a Korea-like postwar partitiion.
~ In 1947, Harry Truman was president, rather than the ailing Franklin Roosevelt. I wonder what effect this would have had on the allied negotiations at the Yalta Conference, where even Stalin was shocked at how serious ill the president seemed to be.
~ Eric, I'm not sure that A-bombs would have been used against German cities in any scenario. Western Europe is just too crowded and there were too many Americans of German descent in the US to keep such a move from being politically dangerous.
~ 1. How do Raeder and Nagumo physically meet? Even if Raeder is stranded in Japan he can come back to Germany via the Soviet Union which was allied to Hitler 1939-1941.
2. The third strike require a change in Nagumo's orders from Tokyo rather than two more carriers. The orders did not make the Pearl Harbor infrastructure a priority. The orders DID make getting back quickly to support the advance into the East Indies a priority. The second strike had the bulk of Japan's lost planes. Logic said the third would be worse. He had beaten the estimates by not losing any carriers [plans had presumed he would lose two]. However the loss in air crews had been noticeable and Japan was not geared to replacing them [in a fit of bureaucratic stupidity Japan maintained extremely high peacetime standards on air crew training and thus graduated very few replacements; this changed only after the Solomons campaign].
~ Two extra carriers would give the Axis a huge push in the initial war (Pearl Harbor, Midway, Coral Sea), but I agree with Mr. Palter that eventually they'd run dry and the Allies would push back. Eventually...
~ The two biggest changes having the German carriers are:
1. Solves FDR's problem of how to be at war with Germany. If Germans are partially responsible for Pearl we are at war.
2. May tempt the Japanese to follow up their raid into the Indian Ocean with a full invasion of India trying for a link up with Kleist's forces advancing on Baku and Rommel's advancing on Cairo.
~ Would the German commanders have cooperated with the Japanese in offensive operations without direct approval from Berlin? And once Operation Barbarossa got going, would the Japanese have been drawn in, and would the Germans' fleet shut off Vladivostok?
~ Japanese needed more than two carriers plus support ships to tackle Ivan. Like a Panzer Army...
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
