What if the US joined the Axis in World War II? 1943
Follow-up to this post: https://similarworlds.com/news/world-war/5037874-What-if-the-US-joined-the-Axis-in-World-War-II-1942 If you're behind, check it out if you want to see what leads up to the series of events detailed in this post.
To start from the beginning: https://similarworlds.com/news/world-war/5037835-What-if-the-US-joined-the-Axis-in-World-War-II-1939-1941
February 2 The Axis forces retreat from Stalingrad, but without the heavy loss of our timeline.
February 22 In China, the Japanese 3rd, 6th and 40th Divisions take Changsha.
March 15 60 Japanese battalions start the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign.
March 26 In Tehran, Stalin, Churchill and the Japanese prime minister Tojo have a meeting to discuss the future strategy.
Churchill gives a speech, saying "These three powers are like the teeth of a trident. We will hit together all the enemies of peace." The name Trident will remain to designate the alliance of UK, Japan and the Soviet Union for the remainder of the war.
March 30 At Peenemünde in Germany, there is the first successful launch of a V-2 rocket. The rocket reaches in a height of 85 kilometers. The Americans show great interest. But the Germans don't need to invest enormous resources on this technology. There is available an easier way to bomb London. At the start of 1943, the US Army 8th Air Force arrived in France and Normandy. The Germans never had heavy bombers and are hampered by poor aircraft range. The arrival of US bombers changes the situation.
March 31 64 B-17 and B-24 bombers, dispatched from the air base in Châteaudun, France, fly the first American bombing raid against the British, targeting the port of Southampton, escorted by Messerschmitt Bf 109's. They lose four planes. An increasing number of raids will follow in the next months. From Norway, American B-17 bombers participate in the German effort against Leningrad.
April 2 Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the Japanese 11th Army enters Changde. In the meantime, the Soviets invade Xinjiang.
May 9 General Eisenhower arrives in Berlin ready to assume the post of commander of American forces in Europe. 250 USAAF heavy bombers are available in Europe. The Eagle Squadron, the American volunteers in the Luftwaffe are officially transferred to the US Army Air Force. In the East, the Soviets continue their slow advance.
May 13 The Chinese Army collapses. Chang Kay Shek surrenders in India to the British. But the communists organize guerilla actions in northern and eastern China behind the Japanese lines. Japan lacks sufficient manpower to control China's vast countryside. Apart from bolstering Japanese morale, the conquest brings few benefits for Japan. China is agrarian and poor. The captured territories don't have any industrial infrastructure and the main problem for the Japanese is not China.
By 1943, American factories begin to churn out seemingly endless quantities of equipment, ships and planes. There is no match between USA and Japan regardless of how many initial victories there are. The population of the US in 1940 is 132,000 while the population of Japan is half with 73,000. US produces 5 times the steel, 7 times the coal, 40 times the iron ore, 80 times the cars and has more modern factories. The US has the resources to quickly design and produce new generations of fighters, bombers and carriers in great numbers, while Japan mainly relies on updating prewar designs and can't even produce enough of those. In addition, the US has all the necessities for making new weapons within its borders. Japan and Britain have to import everything. In our timeline, the American superiority in men and equipment was being largely diverted to the European war. In this situation, USA adopts a "Asia first" policy, using most of their power against Japan. And the US has another trump card.
May 25 A team led by Enrico Fermi, with the participation of German scientists Werner Heisenberg and Paul Harteck initiates the first nuclear chain reaction. The Manhattan Project has begun. The United States is the only nation that can waste resources in the development of a weapon which might work or not.
June 22 On the Eastern Front, the Germans are now far from Moscow and Stalingrad and continue to lose ground. But Red Army forces have a salient near Kursk. The situation on the Eastern Front is different from our timeline. There is no lend-lease for the Soviets. It was not vital for the Soviets, but it still delivered 11,000 planes, 6,000 tanks and 300,000 trucks. The Germans don't have to spend a fortune defending France. Italians, Romanians and Hungarians are still on the field. The Axis has a million more soldiers available. There is no bombing of German industries. There is a huge upgrade in the quality and quantity of German war material. New weapons, the Panther tank and larger numbers of the Tiger heavy tanks are present at Kursk.
July 5 The Battle of Kursk begins. The Germans attack the Kursk salient with two simultaneous attacks from north and south. The Soviets launch powerful counterattacks. One of which leads to a large armored clash, the Battle of Prokhorovka, but they cannot stop the Germans. After four days in the Kursk salient, six Soviet armies are cut off and destroyed. The Soviets lose 3,000 tanks. From now on, the Soviets will be unable to launch further important offensives.
August 2 The situation is worsening for the other two teeth of the Trident as well. In the Pacific, the Battle of Marshall starts.
August 18 The US Marines land on Kwajalein, but sustain high casualties.
September 6 The 503rd Parachute Regiment under MacArthur lands on Wake. The fighting on the island will continue to the end of the war.
In the Atlantic, the British convoy losses are increasing. Everything has to arrive through waters infested with German submarines, which are often resupplied in the USA's harbors and there us the increasing presence of the US Navy. The German Admiral Dönitz move the Tirpitz from Norway to the US Atlantic coast, where it will be better protected from air attacks. The UK has to maintain its vital supply lanes to places like India and South Africa in order to keep its industrial base supplied. The arctic route is dangerous and the Persian route is long, while Iran could switch sides at any moment. There are the continued bombings of the British industrial areas. The USAAF based in France is now a formidable force
September 10 Liverpool is heavily bombed in Operation Gomorrah, which, at the time, is the heaviest air assault in history. Birmingham and Manchester are bombed, then Sheffield, London, Plymouth, Leeds and Glasgow. The Luftwaffe increases the raids. An air raid on Edinburgh causes a seven-day firestorm.
September 20 The Luftwaffe and USAAF drop 2,300 tons of bombs on London. Sometimes, there are heavy losses between the bombers. The American hope, that the Flying Fortress B-17 with its 13 Browning guns 12.7 mm would be able to take on the RAF fighters, especially when they were flying in formation, proved to be wrong.
September 14 Of the 290 B-17 bombers sent on the mission over Leeds, 60 are lost outright and another 29 are damaged so heavily that they have to be scrapped, despite the air cover of German FW-190 fighters. Other targets are hit. USAAF bombs Alessandria in Egypt and Malta. Massive bombing of Soviet industrial areas and there are attacks on cities such as Voronez, Tula, Murmansk and Leningrad
The UK still has a strong fleet: 16 battleships, 52 carriers (though most of these were small escort carriers), 62 cruisers, 257 destroyers, 131 submarines and nine other ships. But American productivity is growing enormously and while the UK's industrial capacity is failing. The Axis powers become stronger day after day and the British and their allies are in trouble. No lend-lease, which means that the US has about 30,000 planes, 27,000 thanks, 600,000 other military vehicles, over 1,800 merchant craft and 1,400 naval vessels more.
Steel production USA: 85,898 USSR: 34,845 British Empire: 30,946 Germany: 25,527 Japan: 16,693 Italy: 3,503
The British High Command knows that in the long run, there is no hope of winning this war. The Royal Navy plans to draw the US Atlantic fleet into a decisive battle, the outcome of which could turn the tide…
