Is a sucessfull Japanese invasion of Australia during WW2 more feasible than Sealion?
- Thread starter Malone
- Start date
So, minimize the risk of invasion by keeping it small, maximizing the potential of Sealion both as bluff and for attrition, by drawing the RN and RAF into the Channel for a spanking? Great idea! But isn't the point of these discussions always something about Hitler must invade Russia, yada yada, fill in the bullshit?
Don't be silly. Read your Geoffrey of Monmouth. Totnes is the only place to land. (I might of got that wrong, it's been a long time. Could be Teignmouth.)
Well if its captured one thing Sealion has certainly captured some peoples imagination
Ahhhh Rule 1 of The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries - Nods
Ahhhh Rule 1 of The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries - Nods
Meanwhile, back in northern Australia, the first Japanese troops pushing inland, having lost many of their comrades in the mangroves to large salt water crocodiles and tiny jellyfish, encounter their first Cassowary ...
(Emus are pussies compared to these evil bastards).
(Emus are pussies compared to these evil bastards).
I must say that I don't see a hell of a lot to this thread, but, what there is, is hilarious...
I'm referring the 2 dozen carrier America shat out to crush the Japanese fleet
(yes i know its a joke)
In the spirit of Sea Lion threads past and present I'm sure we can put our collective heads together and figure out a way to make this work.
For instance, what about the following. I don't live in Australia but just using Google Maps I don't see why this wouldn't work out.
1. The Japanese take Papua New Guinea. This gives them a strong point for launching further attacks just off the Australian coast. Obviously the POD is the capture of Port Moresby which would cause the Allies to withdraw forces from Thursday Island, etc., because it's now too close to enemy territory.
2. Right as everyone expects, what looks like a large amphibious force heads towards Darwin.
3. That's a feint, obviously, kind of like the Allies going for Calais. The real Japanese army is poised to invade the Cape York Peninsula. Looking at my map this would avoid some of the potential defences around places like Darwin and there don't look like any other fortified points in the area to put up resistance. Clearly the Australians have neglected this vital point although admittedly my only historical source is Google Maps.
4. Obviously they don't have their landing fleet to do this, but they could spring a surprise: just after nightfall on the day before the invasion, the collected submarine fleets of Japan, Italy and Germany surface in a long row, deploy platforms to create a sea bridge, and the whole army just races across under cover of darkness before anyone has a chance to notice and react in time.
5. Although some wag's going to point out this still doesn't help the Japanese much, it's another feint! Just as everyone's getting ready to respond to this new invasion, it turns out the Japanese go back home the same way that night but the real force lands in fast boats in Sydney while everyone's distracted, sort of like the Germans could have done via the Thames, takes Canberra as quick as they can, and then it's all over. The stunned Allies have no choice but to abandon Australia.
Maybe this won't work but just throwing it out there as an idea.
For instance, what about the following. I don't live in Australia but just using Google Maps I don't see why this wouldn't work out.
1. The Japanese take Papua New Guinea. This gives them a strong point for launching further attacks just off the Australian coast. Obviously the POD is the capture of Port Moresby which would cause the Allies to withdraw forces from Thursday Island, etc., because it's now too close to enemy territory.
2. Right as everyone expects, what looks like a large amphibious force heads towards Darwin.
3. That's a feint, obviously, kind of like the Allies going for Calais. The real Japanese army is poised to invade the Cape York Peninsula. Looking at my map this would avoid some of the potential defences around places like Darwin and there don't look like any other fortified points in the area to put up resistance. Clearly the Australians have neglected this vital point although admittedly my only historical source is Google Maps.
4. Obviously they don't have their landing fleet to do this, but they could spring a surprise: just after nightfall on the day before the invasion, the collected submarine fleets of Japan, Italy and Germany surface in a long row, deploy platforms to create a sea bridge, and the whole army just races across under cover of darkness before anyone has a chance to notice and react in time.
5. Although some wag's going to point out this still doesn't help the Japanese much, it's another feint! Just as everyone's getting ready to respond to this new invasion, it turns out the Japanese go back home the same way that night but the real force lands in fast boats in Sydney while everyone's distracted, sort of like the Germans could have done via the Thames, takes Canberra as quick as they can, and then it's all over. The stunned Allies have no choice but to abandon Australia.
Maybe this won't work but just throwing it out there as an idea.
Wait just a damn minute...wouldn't this work for a certain nameless aquatic mammal? My God, man, have you rescued Sea lion?
Someone actually did make this suggestion in a Sea Lion thread from years ago. I can't find the link just now.
Ditto with the fast boat raid down the Thames to capture London and, of course, with the invasion of the Isle of Wight. So far as I can tell, the one ironclad law of armchair strategizing is that pretty much if you can think of it, someone has proposed it as a solution to Sea Lion.
You're kidding, right? The entire point of these discussions is to make sure Hitler marches into Russia right on schedule. The OP threw a hunk of red meat into the crowd and then took off, (I'm surprised he didn't add German Wunderwaffen to the comparsion of 'most antagonistic subjects of WW2 juxtaposed by the premise of most likely to succeed).
In terms of an actual Japanese invasion of Australia, after Midway a toot at Darwin, Broome or even Perth might have been feasible as a distraction to the Solomons and Lae, but overall, like Rommel in Africa, the mission would have to be strategic diversion. And, like Rommel in Africa, the danger would be that what was a useful diversion would be reinforced to ensure maximum failure as the Allies closed in.
The Sandman
Banned
Darwin would probably be easier to support should the Japanese take it than the Solomons were, and assuming the fall of Papua and Horn Island the Japanese could make it difficult to retake before the US builds a railway north from Alice Springs. Figure that driving the Japanese from Australia soaks up most if not all of late 1942 to mid-late 1943, at least.
I was hoping the post was sufficiently over the top that I didn't really need to come out and say it.
So, if I understand correctly, you weren't serious about the pontoon bridge made of submarines? I'm crushed...
Darwin or Broome. Maybe Perth. But the entire thing would be pointless strategically except as a diversion.
No, no, man, he's got all wrong. The Axis doesn't have enough submarines to form a bridge across the English Channel.
The real way to do this is to put those lazy sods at the Nazi base in Neuschwabenland to work calving off a 26 mile long piece of one of the Antarctic ice shelves, and tow it up to Calais. The Wehrmacht then drives over to Dover, and the iceberg is unsinkable by either the RAF or the RN. Game, set, match.