I love when info becomes "DECLASSIFIED"

@taamvan:

Nippon-wa;

no interservice cooperation
no shore bombardment support doctrine
no replacement potential for skilled pilots or crews
no landing craft of note
no formal logistics regime or preparations
no heavy bombers, airplane armor or ss/drop fuel tanks
no complex engineering (hydraulics, alloys, useful radios, automation, remote control, computers)
no radar of note
no secret code integrity
no plan to defeat the worlds largest economies and militaries all at the same time
no nearby allies
no substantial refineries, oil resources, or reserves
weak knowledge of their adversaries capabilities, technologies and dispositions
pre-modern battlefield tactics
outmoded and suicidal warfighting doctrine

CSA;

no iron or steel production of note
no railroads or rolling stock of note
no allies
no trading partners to save them
no independently backed currency or central bank credibility
no significant natural resources except agricultural ones
no logical or universal political doctrine
no unified command of state-based units
no central political control over taxation or policy
minimal ability to produce gunpowder, rifles, and cannon
capital located 100 miles from the capital of the more powerful side
no plan except to survive until the Union gave up

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?!?!?

Sweet ! But you got to much time on your hands  :-D

@CWO:

He was definitely a lucky fellow.  There was another A-bomb test back in those days which included an exercise by US tank and mechanized infantry units to test out the concept of armoured forces exploiting a breach in a simulated enemy line created by the use of a tactical nuclear weapon.  The exercise, as I recall, is mentioned in Richard M. Ogorkiewicz’s book Technology of Tanks, and I think the armoured force in question was designated Task Force Razor.

I shudder to think of the price paid by our service personnel back then. In the same vein, another winning idea from the era was the “Davy Crockett atomic mortar” (actually a recoilless rifle):

https://armyhistory.org/the-m28m29-davy-crockett-nuclear-weapon-system/

The Davy Crockett’s chief shortcoming was its inability to hurl the nuclear projectile far enough to ensure the gun crew didn’t fall victim to their own weapon. Key takeaway from the article:

“Since the warhead also posed a threat to the crew firing it, the Army recommended that soldiers manning the Davy Crockett select firing positions in sheltered locations, such as the rear slope of a hill.  Soldiers were also encouraged to keep their heads down to protect themselves from the warhead’s detonation.”

Not mentioned in the article is a quote from a soldier who served on a Davy Crockett crew, which I heard years ago. He said the most valuable piece of equipment in that weapon system was an e-tool, used by the crew to dig foxholes in the event they had to fire the weapon.

No Tiger Pilot was active US military because the Tigers were replacing the Soviet Pilots before Pearl Harbor so they didn’t want to give Japan direct evidence of an act of war.

@Caesar:

@Gargantua:

In this scenario I think a lot would depend on what happens in the east.  Not so much the west.

The Americans had the nuke, had the pacific on lockdown and had the capability to strategically bomb and invade a superpower via the pacific alone.  With Japan broken or at peace with the allies, this mean a us invasion of mainland Asia could have been conducted.

Mind you, there wasn�t much to invade in the Soviet Far East., but all the same.  Russia would be fighting a two front war with no lend lease as mentioned, against a swath of allied nations.

I doubt they’re would be a reason to land in China, US wanted to liberate China but the ROC couldn’t secure a deep water port. So if US had to land invade USSR from the east, they would have to bypass Japan and most likely would take out Japan first or go into USSR east thus forcing the USN to destroy the Red Pacific Fleet.

Depending on when the West decides to take on the Soviets, destroying the Red Pacific Fleet might have consisted of sinking ships the US had sent to Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hula (“Project Hula was a program of World War II in which the United States transferred naval vessels to the Soviet Union in anticipation of the Soviets eventually joining the war against Japan, specifically in preparation for planned Soviet invasions of southern Sakhalin and the Kuril islands. Based at Cold Bay in the Territory of Alaska, the project was active during the spring and summer of 1945. It was the largest and most ambitious transfer program of World War II.”)

-Midnight_Reaper

Zooey wrote:

Maybe we should have enlisted him to fight in the Korean war lol.

If we’d done that, the Chinese would have taken him prisoner during one of their “human wave” attacks. He would have been conscripted to fight in the Chinese Army. The Chinese would have used him in their invasion of India of 1962. Once he’d been taken prisoner/added to the Indian Army, he would have been used to help fight the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Upon being captured and conscripted by the Pakistanis, he would have been sent to fight in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. After being captured by Bangladesh, he would have been forced to serve in the Bangladeshi Army, especially in the Chittagong Hills Tracts Conflict (which began in 1975). He would have been captured by the Shanti Bahini (Bangladesh’s opponent in that conflict). But once that conflict ended, he would have been allowed to retire; quietly living out the rest of his days in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh.

Imagine it’s the 1980s. An old man in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is cooking food by an outdoor fire. A child comes up to him and begins a conversation. “I served in the war,” the old man says. “Which war?” the child asks. “Now that is a complicated question!” answers the old man.

@CWO:

@Gargantua:

This was an awesome read - Thanks Marc.

Glad you liked it.  The story reminded me a bit of a 1942 British film I have on DVD: “Went the Day Well?”, a movie about Nazi paratroopers in British uniforms who infiltrate an unsuspecting village in England (with the help of a local traitor) for a secret mission, then put it under military occupation when their cover is blown.  It’s astonishingly frank and uncompromising in depicting the way war inflicts brutalities on innocent civilians and on the way these civilians respond with equal brutality to defend themselves.  The scene that always sticks in my mind is the one in which a sweet little old lady talks pleasantly to a German soldier until he’s lulled into carelessness, then throws a jarful of pepper into his eyes and kills him with a meat cleaver while he’s writing in agony.

It’s a great firm isn’t it Marc … and still very “fresh” fit its age.

Sounds great.

@General:

   Cool!  Go Army!     Those were the days.    "Let’s all sing along"  A person doesn’t see that kind of stuff anymore. The Office of Emergency Management of yesteryear sure operated a bit different differently than the Homeland Security of today in regards to information to the public. Get’s me kinda in the mood to beat the Russians into the Ukraine.

Yes, I love the almost boyish enthusiasm in this video.  It’s made in a similar spirit to those G.I. Joe action figure commercials from the early 1960s, which actually used new lyrics set to the same tune (“G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe, fighting man from head to toe…”).

Some of the armoured / motorized maneuvers in the Caissons video remind me of the tank and bouncing-jeep sequence (set to the tune of “You’re in the Army Now”) found near the end of the classic WWII cartoon “War Dogs” :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMt8DJJg7bc