I can't help but wonder what might have been possible if our modern military was available during WWII.

Do you think the bad actors might have not started their aggression?

If they did, all in, would we have snuffed them out in a month?

A sub taking out the Yamato as it left dry dock the first time, targeted strikes on Hitler's headquarters, things like that.

The possible scenarios are intriguing.

Thermobaric bombs on Guadalcanal or Iwo Jima, bunker busters. The ability to use guided weapons.

I'd imagine millions of lives saved, communism eliminated along with other barbaric regimes silenced.

What a different world we'd live in!

Even if we had a modern military during WW2, we'd also need the will to use it.

Keep in mind that the US during the run-up to WW2 was intensely isolationist, with no desire to get involved in another massive foreign war like WW1. Without a direct attack like Pearl Harbor forcing us into the war (with such an attack being very unlikely if the US had possessed such a massive military superiority), many of the folks in the US at the time would have been content to simply stay on our side of the oceans and let the Axis run roughshod over Europe, Africa, and Asia.

On the flip side, the US might have been more willing to get involved in WW2, if they had been able to rely on safely and quickly demolishing the Axis using smart bombs and cruise missiles, with minimal risk to US lives.

quote:

Originally posted by Snapping Twig:
communism eliminated

How so? We were fighting alongside the Communists during WW2, not against them.

Yeah but then we would have to look back to WW1, which, if it had turned out differently or not happened at all may not have resulted in the rise of Hitler or the USSR. So lots of factors at play there.

This may warm your heart....


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...inal_Countdown_(film)

I love this movie!!!
"Splash the Zeros"

quote:

Originally posted by spunk639:
This may warm your heart....


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...inal_Countdown_(film)

I have no military background, but in my armchair opinion:

As mentioned in the OP, I would think so much could be easily done to eliminate command and control, destroy supply lines, destroy air and naval assets, artillery, etc., without specifically trying to target the fighting men or population centers, that we could easily "win" in a matter of weeks.

I don't think it's the weapons, it's more of a will/drive to fight.
US had bigger and better trained military with very modern weapons but it
Did not stop terrorists from attacking US.
They are willing to fight US in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan while outnumbered and outgunned.

quote:

Originally posted by scsigs:
I don't think it's the weapons, it's more of a will/drive to fight.
US had bigger and better trained military with very modern weapons but it
Did not stop terrorists from attacking US.
They are willing to fight US in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan while outnumbered and outgunned.

That's not working out too well for them.

Back to the original question though -- short of nuclear weapons ... the widespread availability of PGMs is an awesome advancement in conventional warfare. Drones too.

Think about the entire GB / US bombing commands - absolutely MASSIVE undertakings - were required to carpet bomb often resulting in untold collateral damage but minimal military effect. They might launch 300 planes to take out one oil refinery. Take 150 casualties, kill 200 civilians but barely damage the facility...

15 PGMs in today's arsenal could wipe the factory off the map. That alone would have changed the nature of WW2.

But it's a great observation - that war techniques are a reflection of the technology of the age. WW2 - massive land Armies in the millions and massive Air Forces battling over continents - will likely never be repeated. Just like WW2 wasn't fought like WW1.

I think we are just scratching the surface with robotics and drones. We will continue to see amazing advances there.

------------------------------

I believe this is the answer to your question.

quote:

Originally posted by The Bandit:
I love this movie!!!
"Splash the Zeros"

quote:

Originally posted by spunk639:
This may warm your heart....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...inal_Countdown_(film)

Every time I see that scene I'm thinking "How do you suppose they say 'WTF WAS THAT!?" in Japanese?"

Something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce2jEDfPwG8

sounds an awful lot like Gulf War 1

As long as there are people who will sell out their own country for a buck, there will always be enemies with the same capabilities we have.

And if we had our modern military, would the Axis have the same respective level of technology?

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
And if we had our modern military, would the Axis have the same respective level of technology?

For the purposes of my scenario - no, just us.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Even if we had a modern military during WW2, we'd also need the will to use it.

Keep in mind that the US during the run-up to WW2 was intensely isolationist, with no desire to get involved in another massive foreign war like WW1. Without a direct attack like Pearl Harbor forcing us into the war (with such an attack being very unlikely if the US had possessed such a massive military superiority), many of the folks in the US at the time would have been content to simply stay on our side of the oceans and let the Axis run roughshod over Europe, Africa, and Asia.

On the flip side, the US might have been more willing to get involved in WW2, if they had been able to rely on safely and quickly demolishing the Axis using smart bombs and cruise missiles, with minimal risk to US lives.

quote:

Originally posted by Snapping Twig:
communism eliminated

How so? We were fighting alongside the Communists during WW2, not against them.

Answer is obvious.

We fought along side them because we didn't have the strength to fight the axis otherwise. Enemy of my enemy and all that.

Carrying the thought more modern, what if we had today's military capabilities in Korea of the 50's or Vietnam of the 60's and 70's? Maybe the other side(s) capabilities would have been the same? We're not the Nazis of pre and WW II era at the forefront of many of the military and other technologies that exist now? Maybe it would have been the reverse with the Allies on the receiving end? Endless possibilities with many not necessarily in favor of us. Luckily the Axis powers were lead by the 'genuises' they were! Self inflicted destruction. Ever wonder where the Soviets and Chinese might have gone back then if it wasn't for Stalin and Mao's purges of their officer corps and population purges.

quote:

Originally posted by scsigs:
I don't think it's the weapons, it's more of a will/drive to fight.
US had bigger and better trained military with very modern weapons but it
Did not stop terrorists from attacking US.
They are willing to fight US in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan while outnumbered and outgunned.

Islamic Terrorists do not fear death - In fact, they welcome it, literally.

I take the scenario proposed in the OP as a national military v. national military scenario, with no particular belief in guaranteed martyrdom for members of the Axis.

quote:

Originally posted by rusbro:

quote:

Originally posted by scsigs:
I don't think it's the weapons, it's more of a will/drive to fight.
US had bigger and better trained military with very modern weapons but it
Did not stop terrorists from attacking US.
They are willing to fight US in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan while outnumbered and outgunned.

Islamic Terrorists do not fear death - In fact, they welcome it, literally.

I take the scenario proposed in the OP as a national military v. national military scenario, with no particular belief in guaranteed martyrdom for members of the Axis.

From the stories my dad told me and history channel documentaries, I believe most German soldiers were very brave and willing to die for their ideology at the time, probably more so than terrorists.

In my opinion even if the good side had our current weapons, Germany woulld still have started WWII. It just would of ended faster.

quote:

Originally posted by Snapping Twig:
Answer is obvious.

We fought along side them because we didn't have the strength to fight the axis otherwise. Enemy of my enemy and all that.

No, the US didn't start seeing the Soviet Union as a major threat until after WW2, with the Soviets having emerged from the war with a massive modern army, in control of a large swath of Europe, transformed into a major global economic power, and having seized a large chunk of Germany's skilled minds and scientific and technological innovations.

It isn't as if, were it not for the Germans and Japanese, the US would have fought the Soviets even earlier. Rather, were it not for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which allowed the Soviets to in turn occupy most of Eastern Europe and forced them to rally together, improve their military, and massively increase their industrial output and harvesting of resources, the Soviet Union would have continued to not be viewed as a serious threat by the US.

Because without the German invasion and subsequent defeat as a driving force for modernization, innovation, and cultural unity, the Soviet Union would have remained much like it was in the 1920s and 1930s: an poorly led, internally fractured technological backwater, plagued by famine and pogroms, hopelessly snarled in bureaucratic in-fighting, and outfitted with a numerically large but dated and sub-par military force.