WW2 thread

Germany and Japan weren't that close. Germany was a fascist state, Japan was not.

I don't think Japan was at war with Russia at the time either. Which probably had a lot to do with it.

When May next meets Putin she should whisper in his ear....'remember Murmansk'...

The Japanese were interested in building a Pacific empire and mobilised their resources towards achieving that goal.

As said, Germany was never in a position to order Japan around.

2 main reasons Japan did not see it as advantageous to itself.

1. In 1941 Japan was preparing for a massive war with Britain and America.

2. Japan had actually attacked the USSR before Hitler did and it didn't go well... .
   
google Khalkin Gol .

DR C indeed they weren't that close that is true. In hindsight giving Japan incentive to at least take some Soviet resources away to the East may have helped swing the invasion?

Yes foinavon Japan certainly took advantage of the Allies having other areas to direct resources to and there was a domino effect on the colonies falling to the Japanese.

tobermory - Thanks I was not aware of that battle - I knew about the earlier war in the early 20th C.

Russia had signed a cease fire with Japan.

Japan was at peace with Russia until they attacked them in the last few days of the war.

Russia had already invaded Japan early 39 and gave them some ...did they sign a peace agreement after that ? 

Russia had unfinished business from pre WW1 (1905) they took a bit of a pasting i think

OP is right that having Japan open a second front against the USSR would possibly have enabled Barbarossa to succeed. Why not? Probably because Hitler was mad and actually believed his own racial theories -- the Slavs were an inferior race who would soon fold (and the early success of the invasion probably fed into that) and (b) the least said about the Japanese the better.

And partly because Hitler had no plan b. He never expected to be fighting Britain and France, and after France fell he expected Britain to sue for peace. Up to that point, every invasion had been over in a matter of weeks. Britain staying in the war tied up German forces not only in the west but also in Africa.

A similar question is why Germany did not seek an alliance with Spain -- where it had helped install a fascist government.

The men on the Arctic convoys say hello. The Allies might not have opened the second front Stalin wanted (ie bringing D-Day forward a year or two) but was it 75% of Soviet tanks at the battle of Moscow were British? Some high number anyway. Post-war Soviet propaganda overlooks the role of British supplies but they were crucial, especially before Soviet arms factories could be relocated east out of harm's way.

Hitler urged Japan to join forces against Russia and seize the soviet far east, if they wait Germany may not need them.
some Japanese leaders favoured this, the northern route. Others favoured the southern course and seizing Dutch French and British colonies. the navy favoured the southern route.

Japan needed oil because of Rosevelts  embargo and they were running out of oil. Indonesia is Japans only possible sourse of oil
the Dutch and French are defenceless and Britain in difficulty. the only obstacle to the southern course is the US pacific fleet. The southeren course means war with America

The decision was south.
a soviet spy in Tokyo signals Moscow that Japan would not attack and only after hearing this does Stalin make the crucial decision to transfer his far eastern forces westward.
These powerful forces commanded by Zhukov turned the tide in the battle for Moscow and at the same time Japan attacked pearl harbour.
The most important week in the history of WW2

Yes, Stalin had some of his best troops trained for winter warfare etc down protecting the japanese flank, after Japan was committed to fighting the US he was able to bring them up and throw them at Stalingrad or Khursk.

"A similar question is why Germany did not seek an alliance with Spain -- where it had helped install a fascist government."
Spain wasn't interested, Franco wasn't hitler, and it's up for argument if he was a fascist, that word is hugely overused.
I think he made nice noises and smiled at Adolf to be pleasant then did precisely nothing as he wanted to sit it out.
Seem to remember Hitler being pretty angry with him and considered him ungrateful re the earlier help.

hitler declared war on the yanks after PH .....now that was a stupid thing to do.....

JC...admiral canaris had a photo of franco on his wall and not hitler..........franco I agree had little in common in character with hitler other than their hatred of communism

think if franco was a betfair punter he would be a 1.01 backer  with fast pictures...............the only time he would have joined the axis powers if victory was almost certain

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  10 Mar 17 12:34 
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hitler declared war on the yanks after PH .....now that was a stupid thing to do.....


Apparently Churchill and M16 had some information about this attack but Churchill was reluctant to inform the US. I have no doubt he was best pleased when Hitler declared war on the US..

think the spy dusko popov told j edgar hoover a few weeks before the japs were going to bomb PH.....he chose to ignore it........probably deliberately

Just been going back over my grandad's army records. I originally thought he was called up and shipped off to India in 42, but looking again at the papers it says he signed up in 1940 - 2 days after the blitz started. Now I'm going to have some extra digging to see what he was doing with the RA until India. Anyone have family ww2 records? they are a goldmine of information but damn they are hard to decipher!

RA = Royal Artillery? Anti-aircraft guns (especially during the blitz)? Does typing the name of the regiment and year into google find anything?

Yeah Ramrura Royal Artillery. I was hoping to pin down exactly where he would have been. He lived in Brixton at the time. I'll keep plugging away.