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what most people are forggetting about the american people and WWII
1. Most people supported a non-involvment with the war in europe: it was the europeans problem, let them solve it was the general concensus. It wasnt until after pearl harbor, and the axis tripact finally declared war on the US, that the nations people were finally galvanised enough to get up, get a gun, and prepare to cross the oceans to fight the japanese and the germans.
2, although we became the arsenal of democracy for just about everything, at first we didnt have anything. Heavy tanks were almost unknown in the US: most went to the british through canada. Bombers, fighter, and transports didnt exist in a large quantity. we simply hadnt built them yet, because the catalyst of pearl harbor hadnt occoured.
3. The main defensive drive in the US was defence through coastal forts along the seacoasts. they essentially did away with the net work after wwii, but a lot of the older forts had up to 14 inch disapearing rifles and 10 inch mortars guarding the harbors and such.
4. the population of the midwestern states was mostly farmers, and they were just recovering from one of the worst droughts in the nations history. The midwest was almost barren in some places. the population was in the areas conducive to life as they knew it, which was on the east and west coasts. and the least defended coast was the west coast.
5. Relations with mexico were extremely poor: and yes, arrasngement for any amount of money could have insured the sucess of a german landing group.
6. What most people cant believe was just how many liners and cruise ships the germans had for troop transport. the germans were big on their entertainment: i know that one of the british's primary targets was to sink and bottleneck in bremmerhaven as much of the german sea assets as possible, to keep it from being used in WWII.
7. The germans had very good surface raiders that pounced on merchant ships. If the british hadnt sent their assets after them early in the war, theres no telling what the outcome would have been on american shipping, before we ramped up to replace the losses in the battle of the atlantic with the submarines.
8. Theres one historical item being left out that was the most cruical factor in the war: radar. The british developed radar during the early days of WWII: it was the americans that mass produced it, and installed iit in everything from ships to planes. But without the brits, you simply didnt have someone to develope, test, and prove its effectivness.
Britain was the key pin that kept the germans from taking advantage of the US weaknesses, until we were properly motivated to come out swinging. without britain, im sure it would have been a long, bloody road for the US. and if the USSR and japan were feeling froggy, im sure they could have jumped our tailends with them.
I am immently grateful that Britain gave us a chance to get our head out of the sand, and into the conflict to win.
“If we should have to fight, we should be prepared to do so from the neck up instead of from the neck down.”— General James H. Doolittle, USAAF
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