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Armor/AFV: What If?
For those who like to build hypothetical or alternate history versions of armor/AFVs.
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German armor in Korean War
HermannB
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 11:38 AM UTC
Hi Gang,
please think the following. The assasination of Hitler was a success and the Germans made a separate peace with the western allies.together they stopped the Soviets on the Oder and Neisse rivers. This created a German Republic in the border of roughly modern Germany. In return Germany send troops to the Korean peninsula. Question is now: what vehicles would this have been?
- Medium tank: Panther G or Panther II
- Heavy tank: E-50 version
- Towed artillery: 10,5cm FH18, 15cm FH18 and Nebelwerfer
- Tracked artillery: Hummel and Heuschrecke
- APC: Sd.Kfz. 215 D and modified Panzer IV chassis
- AT/AA: 8,8 cm Flak 41
- some new developed tracked hi-speed tractor
- Infantry with StuG 44, Karabiner 43 and MG3, 8,8cm
Raketenpanzerbüchse "Ofenrohr"
What do you think?
Bravo1102
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 01:00 PM UTC
Heavy tanks wouldn't be necessary in Korea. So no E-50s. The Panther would have done all that was needed the same as the Centurion or Pershing. Though in point of fact I don't think the Panther drive train would have up to the roads of Korea especially the mountain trails that Centurions excelled at climbing. The troops would have nicknamed the Panther "M32 trailer" because every time they saw one it was being towed by a M32 recovery vehicle.

Though a little tractor say based on a Pz. 38T chassis would be useful, maybe even an armored apc.

The infantry would have been the best equipped there with MG 42 and Stg 44. Might have prompted the Russians to send early variants of the AK-47 for testing.

The interesting thing would be the Air war. Just what Luftwaffe 46 stuff would be there against the Mig-15?
HermannB
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 01:05 PM UTC
Messerschmitt P.1101 and Focke Wulf TA 183 would be the logical choise.
Bravo1102
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 01:15 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Messerschmitt P.1101 and Focke Wulf TA 183 would be the logical choise.


Both of them were arguably the prototypes of the post war Mig jets that culminating in the Mig-15, so they might have out classed by the Mig. Unless the Germans had had the chance to do the same follow-on development and maybe license built Rolls-Royce engines that resulted in the Mig-15.
canismalus
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 01:46 PM UTC
Hi Hermann,

That's a cool and interesting idea. One question: would the Western allies have trusted Germany enough since '44 to let them merrily continue developing and producing their own weapons, or would the US and the UK have rearmed the Wehrmacht with their own equipment (which would have made it look a bit like the early Bundeswehr), just to better keep their new ally under control?

Jerry
Vicious
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 01:53 PM UTC
and Japan?????.....
HermannB
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 02:28 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Messerschmitt P.1101 and Focke Wulf TA 183 would be the logical choise.


Both of them were arguably the prototypes of the post war Mig jets that culminating in the Mig-15, so they might have out classed by the Mig. Unless the Germans had had the chance to do the same follow-on development and maybe license built Rolls-Royce engines that resulted in the Mig-15.



What about a Horten IX a.k.a. Go229 with reliable engines?
Bravo1102
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 02:35 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Messerschmitt P.1101 and Focke Wulf TA 183 would be the logical choise.


Both of them were arguably the prototypes of the post war Mig jets that culminating in the Mig-15, so they might have out classed by the Mig. Unless the Germans had had the chance to do the same follow-on development and maybe license built Rolls-Royce engines that resulted in the Mig-15.



What about a Horten IX a.k.a. Go229 with reliable engines?



A world beater

Imagine a few as friendly escorts to a USAF YB-49.
guni-kid
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 03:34 PM UTC
This is not even a what if, but mere Sci-Fi. And not even good one to be honest: What about the Holocaust? The unbeaten will of especially Churchill to NOT collaborate with the Nazis, under no circumstances? The standing will of Nazi leaders to conquer eastern territory? The whole situation is much, much more complex than just "consider this...". Sorry to say so, but that comes to my mind first: How would have ANYONE could have lived with all the atrocities coming from Nazi Germany to other nations, ethnic groups, disabled people, Jews etc.? That would have been the end of humanity way earlier than thought. So my answer would be: consider this first!

I know, it's about modelling and technical stuff here in the forum. But considering ideas like this we should keep the historical background at least slightly in mind. So I come to the conclusion as said before: no simple "what if" here but pure dystopian Sci-Fi stuff... (with high probability Korea would have never happened the way it did... not to talk about totally different ways of technical developments if Russia would have never won the war) My two cents to it.
Bonaparte84
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 03:56 PM UTC

Quoted Text

This is not even a what if, but mere Sci-Fi. And not even good one to be honest: What about the Holocaust? The unbeaten will of especially Churchill to NOT collaborate with the Nazis, under no circumstances? The standing will of Nazi leaders to conquer eastern territory? The whole situation is much, much more complex than just "consider this...". Sorry to say so, but that comes to my mind first: How would have ANYONE could have lived with all the atrocities coming from Nazi Germany to other nations, ethnic groups, disabled people, Jews etc.? That would have been the end of humanity way earlier than thought. So my answer would be: consider this first!

I know, it's about modelling and technical stuff here in the forum. But considering ideas like this we should keep the historical background at least slightly in mind. So I come to the conclusion as said before: no simple "what if" here but pure dystopian Sci-Fi stuff... (with high probability Korea would have never happened the way it did... not to talk about totally different ways of technical developments if Russia would have never won the war) My two cents to it.



While I agree the OT scenario to be quite far-fetched given the remaining threat on the esatern front, the Korean War being a UN operation and all, when it comes to German atrocities (including the Holocaust), they only started mattering to the Allies when the war was over. Arguably no strategic choice whatsoever during WW2 resulted from considerations on how to avoid/ punish German atrocities. They may have contributed to the general idea followed by the Allies that the Nazi system had too be removed, though I suspect it was more linked to the system's desire for (aggressive) geographical expansion rather than mistreating large portions of European people.

Also, the OT made it clear that the Nazi top brass would have successfully been removed in 1944. This would not have cleared Germany of Nazis, but power would have been held by the military which was only partially Nazi-infested. The resistance around Stauffenberg might not have been democrats, they would still have been much better than the Nazis and possibly a viable candidate for peace negotiations with the Western Allies.

And please don't pretend like this hobby should be politically correct, when it never was and never will be. (Unless we all start building medics and ambulances only...)

Now to the technical side: If the Mig 15 was an enhanced design of German tech, in the given scenario the Soviet Union could not have based its own research on German tech or at least not to the extent that took place after the war, using inter alia original plans and the same German engineers... There probably would not have been a Mig 15, or definitely not one superior to their German counterparts. Also, assuming that Germany was allied to the Western Allies, German designs and research would not have suffered from the same shortages of rare raw materials like what actually occured during the war.

Just my "2" cent

regarding
Hederstierna
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 04:51 PM UTC
Well, Sci-Fi or What if, but as far as I remember, General Patton was quite eager to continue the war towards the East. Maybe you should think about somehow letting Patton be elected for precident after Roosvelt, then the politics might add up.
Just a thought
Jacob
guni-kid
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 05:32 PM UTC

Quoted Text


While I agree the OT scenario to be quite far-fetched given the remaining threat on the esatern front, the Korean War being a UN operation and all, when it comes to German atrocities (including the Holocaust), they only started mattering to the Allies when the war was over. Arguably no strategic choice whatsoever during WW2 resulted from considerations on how to avoid/ punish German atrocities. They may have contributed to the general idea followed by the Allies that the Nazi system had too be removed, though I suspect it was more linked to the system's desire for (aggressive) geographical expansion rather than mistreating large portions of European people.

Also, the OT made it clear that the Nazi top brass would have successfully been removed in 1944. This would not have cleared Germany of Nazis, but power would have been held by the military which was only partially Nazi-infested. The resistance around Stauffenberg might not have been democrats, they would still have been much better than the Nazis and possibly a viable candidate for peace negotiations with the Western Allies.

And please don't pretend like this hobby should be politically correct, when it never was and never will be. (Unless we all start building medics and ambulances only...)

Now to the technical side: If the Mig 15 was an enhanced design of German tech, in the given scenario the Soviet Union could not have based its own research on German tech or at least not to the extent that took place after the war, using inter alia original plans and the same German engineers... There probably would not have been a Mig 15, or definitely not one superior to their German counterparts. Also, assuming that Germany was allied to the Western Allies, German designs and research would not have suffered from the same shortages of rare raw materials like what actually occured during the war.

Just my "2" cent

regarding



I still take the liberty to disagree here, but it's opinions, that should be obvious

I don't pretend to be politically correct, and I don't even want to have that discussion, I think I made that clear. If not so: I'm sorry for the confusion. It's still about the hobby, especially here in the forums. And about the technical side... That leads me to my conclusion, which is my discomfort with those kind of What ifs, that's all. If others like it, alright with me! I still don't.


One more thing: Do you REALLY think, the whole Holocaust thingwould have been passed by in general with just removing some nazi Elite guys? Well, again: I don't! And also all the complex causal effects coming with this... and the Allieshave never made the slightest assumption on letting Nazi Germany go with it (as the Dönitz administration actually hoped) But all that's been said enough already...

EDIT: I know, it is posted in the What If section of the forums. And I don't want to attack anyone on What If questions here! I'm still presenting my opinion on certain What If thoughts here.
Chuck4
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Posted: Monday, January 23, 2017 - 06:45 PM UTC
Korean War followed from Soviet Union winning the war in the west and wanting a slice of the spoils in the still going war in the east against Japan. This is how a communist North Korea was set up. Remember stalin had been paranoid about the western allies concluding a separate peace and coming after the USSR together with Germany. If the Soviet Union was to suffer such a reverse as to actually be stopped in the west, and the western allies then does conclude a peace with Germany, soviet paranoia about a combined attack from the west would reach a maximum, and would probably not have had the appetite to redeploy forces from Europe to go east after Manchuria and Korea. The whole chain of events leading to a communist North Korea would not happen. Instead, when Japan is finally defeated, Japanese armies would still have firm control of Korea and Manchuria. Manchuria would probably be surrendered in an orderly fashion to the Chinese nationalists, instead of being taken in a blitzkrieg by the soviet army and handed to the Chinese communists alone with the captured Japanese arms and armament industry in Manchuria. The nationalist would then likely win the subsequent civil war and there would not be a communist china. Likewise Korea would also likely to fall under us jurisdiction, so no communist North Korea.

So the upshot is if the Soviet didn't completely crush Germany, then there would be no communist regimes in east Asia and no Korean War.

hugohuertas
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 02:35 AM UTC
I find it quite funny how people usually argue about "What-if" scenarios, as if human History had been straight-lined and anything but random from time to time.
Just for one example, if we look at the early 20th Century times, who could imagine the final results of the clandestine and German-aided return of Lenin to Russia?
And countless examples of unexpected effects can be found through History if we do just a brief research.
So who can be so assertive about what could happen in a given scenario, such as the one HH is proposing?
We have always to keep in mind exactly what the title "what-if" means, and that every theoretical scenario we choose opens a number of possibilities, like the "multiverse" theory...
I find the imaginative technical analysis really refreshing, no matter what political ideas we may have.
And we are not talking here about sci-fi or things against physical laws either.
canismalus
#465
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 02:46 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I find it quite funny how people usually argue about "What-if" scenarios, as if human History had been straight-lined and anything but random from time to time.
Just for one example, if we look at the early 20th Century times, who could imagine the final results of the clandestine and German-aided return of Lenin to Russia?
And countless examples of unexpected effects can be found through History if we do just a brief research.
So who can be so assertive about what could happen in a given scenario, such as the one HH is proposing?
We have always to keep in mind exactly what the title "what-if" means, and that every theoretical scenario we choose opens a number of possibilities, like the "multiverse" theory...
I find the imaginative technical analysis really refreshing, no matter what political ideas we may have.
And we are not talking here about sci-fi or things against physical laws either.



+1
Vicious
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 04:36 AM UTC
i like it is a good exercise for fantasy...

but because the enemy of my enemy is my ally, allies have allied themselves with the Germans,Stalin for many allied was a lot more dangerous then Nazi Germany, "OK"?...but think that Uncle Joseph was watching them and do nothing? ... and if for the same reason the evil mustache had allied with the Japanese? ... if you expect an attack to the east across the Pacific coasts you need a fleet that the Soviet Union does not have but that the empire of the rising sun in part still have including bases on the islands and on the coast,also Japan has had access to part of German secret weapons and other technologies, wanting to get ahead you could also imagine a pact for the division of the Asian continent including Japan,Soviet Union and Mao's China,in one shot remove the Western powers and China nationalist of Chiang Kai-shek's control of the whole of Asia and the Pacific ... what do you think? ...
Bravo1102
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 06:10 AM UTC
What if this is the world of the novel Fatherland ?

The Holocaust doesn't matter because it's a closely guarded secret and would remain so for another 10 years. The Germans in Korea are not fighting Communists but the Chinese Nationalists! They pushed out the Japanese and installed a puppet state in the north. Germany is supporting a Korean nationalist government in the South in opposition to the USA and the Chinese nationalists. Germany and the US are the two nations in a cold war and fighting through proxies in Asia...

The Russians developed the Mig-15 from a crashed Ta-183. Stalin was killed in the fall of Moscow to the Germans in 1942. A stalemate with an armistice in place exists in the Urals. The armistice was negotiated by President Dewey of the US. FDR was killed in a 1932 assassination attempt.

If you're going to do alternative history might as well go all out.

This war could also happen in the Harry Turtlebaum war where Germany didn't lose World War I and the US is split into two since the American Civil War. The refight of the European War a generation later ends with a defeated Britain though the US is reunited. The Germans are fighting a Russian socialist state, not communist. Lenin was never smuggled into Russia. It is a US and German expeditionary force to stop Russian expansion east after the fall of the Japanese or to mop up a Japanese rump state in Korea.

You got to go all out with alternative history. As said before stir up the waters of history and things will go quite differently. But engineering remains a constant. Things may be somewhat different but it's only skin deep. Designs would happen the same way, just in different places but probably by the same people. If only for the sake of model building.
Photoguy1
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 07:31 AM UTC

Quoted Text

This is not even a what if, but mere Sci-Fi. And not even good one to be honest: What about the Holocaust? The unbeaten will of especially Churchill to NOT collaborate with the Nazis, under no circumstances? The standing will of Nazi leaders to conquer eastern territory? The whole situation is much, much more complex than just "consider this...". Sorry to say so, but that comes to my mind first: How would have ANYONE could have lived with all the atrocities coming from Nazi Germany to other nations, ethnic groups, disabled people, Jews etc.? That would have been the end of humanity way earlier than thought. So my answer would be: consider this first!

I know, it's about modelling and technical stuff here in the forum. But considering ideas like this we should keep the historical background at least slightly in mind. So I come to the conclusion as said before: no simple "what if" here but pure dystopian Sci-Fi stuff... (with high probability Korea would have never happened the way it did... not to talk about totally different ways of technical developments if Russia would have never won the war) My two cents to it.



Marian Gunzel, I am with you. I find the whole idea of the Western Allies cozying up to the Nazis too distasteful for words. "The enemy of my enemy..." well, in 1944 Stalin and the Soviets weren't the enemy. The British just willing to look the other way at the 50 RAF Airmen killed after the Escape from Stalag Luft III? The Canadians willing to overlook the massacre of Canadian PoWs in Normandy, the French simply overlooking the price that they had paid for 4 years? My Father fought the Germans in WW2, his unit participated in the Liberation of a Camp, not a big Death Camp but a smaller labor Camp. After he saw the episode of Band of Brothers where they liberated such a Camp he couldn't sleep. That was the first time he ever told me, he made me promise never to tell my Mom. A promise I have kept to this day even tough he died in 2009. Look folks can pretend what they want but for me there is always going to be a moral side.
Vicious
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 08:00 AM UTC
[/quote]
Marian Gunzel, I am with you. I find the whole idea of the Western Allies cozying up to the Nazis too distasteful for words. "The enemy of my enemy..." well, in 1944 Stalin and the Soviets weren't the enemy. The British just willing to look the other way at the 50 RAF Airmen killed after the Escape from Stalag Luft III? The Canadians willing to overlook the massacre of Canadian PoWs in Normandy, the French simply overlooking the price that they had paid for 4 years? My Father fought the Germans in WW2, his unit participated in the Liberation of a Camp, not a big Death Camp but a smaller labor Camp. After he saw the episode of Band of Brothers where they liberated such a Camp he couldn't sleep. That was the first time he ever told me, he made me promise never to tell my Mom. A promise I have kept to this day even tough he died in 2009. Look folks can pretend what they want but for me there is always going to be a moral side.[/quote]

Unfortunately, history is full of governments and big powers that just to keep it or anything to achieve their goals they "forgot"or pretended not to see such atrocities, too often in politics and war the end justifies the means ... throughout the cold war in order to fight the opposite block all have opened up the eyes of dozens of massacres conducted by "friendly countries" or financed guerrillas or supported dictators on both sides .... allies have never made a Nuremberg trial in Italy why? ... The fascist made and was part of the same massacres and deportations of Jews etc .... but there the allied dont have any intrest in doing that!

sorry for the

Bravo1102
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 08:40 AM UTC
You guys do know that many members of the Gestopo assisted the occupying powers with administration and thereby escaped prosecution? They burned their uniforms, claim they were only paper pushers and change sides and the Allies looked the other way.

Shall we get started on all the soul searchingmany occupied countries like France and Greece have done throwing accusations of collaboration back and forth? Greece fought a civil war after WWII partly because of that. Italy nearly did too. A lot of the criminals escaped with only a handful of major people prosecuted. Peiper had most of the charges against him dropped for Malmedy let alone the massacres of civilians and POWs across France and Russia that Waffen SS was responsible for. So much swept under the rug in a rush to rebuild.

If the Allies never liberated the camps and the archives thrown open the Holocaust would have remained an ugly rumor that papers like the NY Times dismissed as out of hand. If it wasn't for the films and trials and first hand accounts, all of which WOULD NOT exist without a complete Allied victory no one would have been the wiser. This Holocaust would have been dismissed like the Holocaust deniers still try to do today. The world came very close to it being hidden like so many other atrocites and incidents of genocide.
panzerconor
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 09:25 AM UTC
I was having a good time reading this thread and all the interesting and good comments and points until...wtf?

Take it for what it is- German vehicles in the Korean War. That's what we're talking about. Let's say the Holocaust was discovered, those responsible punished and executed in the same camps they worked at, etc.

THEN, when Soviet aided N Korea invades S Korea, NATO responds and Germany sends troops and tanks.

What I would like to ponder is:

Would German Infrared equipment be mass produced? Would other NATO vehicles/troops begin using it?

AND, I think the German SPGs and tank destroyers would do well here. Maybe not the giants like the Jagdtiger or Jagdpanzer unfortunatey, but smaller ones based on the 38t or PzIV chassis.

However, I can only imagine what a North Korean soldier, coming from a largely rural background would react to confronting a Tiger

My 2 cents



Chuck4
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 10:04 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I was having a good time reading this thread and all the interesting and good comments and points until...wtf?

Take it for what it is- German vehicles in the Korean War. That's what we're talking about. Let's say the Holocaust was discovered, those responsible punished and executed in the same camps they worked at, etc.

THEN, when Soviet aided N Korea invades S Korea, NATO responds and Germany sends troops and tanks.

What I would like to ponder is:

Would German Infrared equipment be mass produced? Would other NATO vehicles/troops begin using it?

AND, I think the German SPGs and tank destroyers would do well here. Maybe not the giants like the Jagdtiger or Jagdpanzer unfortunatey, but smaller ones based on the 38t or PzIV chassis.

However, I can only imagine what a North Korean soldier, coming from a largely rural background would react to confronting a Tiger

My 2 cents






No differently than how he would react when confronted with a m-46.

If anything, such encounters would happen much less often due to korea's very poor narrow gauge Japan bequeathed railway that can't transport a tiger ii, and tiger ii's inability to go more than a few dozen miles on roads without breaking down.

German weapons in Korea would hardly make much difference compared to British or American weapons in the same theater. If anything, the superior reliability and road mobility of British and American tanks would make them superior in Korea.
AgentG
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 10:18 AM UTC
A mere five years after defeat, with the country's manufacturing capability utterly destroyed, I can't see much in the way of German equipment partaking in the festivities. While some take offs from paper panzers might be possible with Allied assistance, I think German troops using US and/or British vehicles is more likely. Now technology, there is the other side of the coin. IR equipment on M46's, advanced rocket systems like MLRS, jets, the list is endless.

G
MassimoTessitori
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 10:28 AM UTC
Interesting exercise of what if.
I suppose that, should have Germany obtained a separate peace with Western allies concerned for the Soviet Union, the most heavy worries of this nation would have been the defence of its eastern border. It is unlikely that it had any interest into sending an expeditionary force to the other side of the world.
Besides, Germany would have still considered with great suspects by Western allies, and not required to.
Besides, should Germany have obtained a separate peace, it is likely that Japan would have obtained it too; so, eventually we could have seen Japanese forces in Korea, not Germans.
For what I know, Japaneses were really required to send troops into Korea by the US, but they refused because their new constitution, imposed by the US, forbids the involvement of the Japanese army in wars outside the country (their involvement into iraq in recent years was considered as a peacekeeping mission).
Bravo1102
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Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 - 10:32 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I was having a good time reading this thread and all the interesting and good comments and points until...wtf?
...

What I would like to ponder is:

Would German Infrared equipment be mass produced? Would other NATO vehicles/troops begin using it?

AND, I think the German SPGs and tank destroyers would do well here. Maybe not the giants like the Jagdtiger or Jagdpanzer unfortunatey, but smaller ones based on the 38t or PzIV chassis.

However, I can only imagine what a North Korean soldier, coming from a largely rural background would react to confronting a Tiger,




Coming across it bogged down in a rice paddy he would probably wonder how much he could get for the scrap metal. Tigers would be mobile artillery at most. They just did not have the mobility to handle Korean roads and inclines. Besides, China historically did have ISU-152 and IS-2. But heavy armor is really useless in Korea except as artillery.

The IR gear would have been invaluable in stopping Chinese and North Korean attacks. But you're overlooking the stopping power of the MG-42 versus American 30 caliber machine guns. The MG-42 with its high rate of fire and relative lightness compared to the M1918A3 30 call or BAR would have made a big difference.

The vehicles that probably be the most useful would be full tracked armored personnel carriers, Grilles and Hummels. Korea was an artillery war and German self propelled artillery in 1945 was rather lackluster outside of anti-tank. So there would have been the new generation that was being worked on in 1945. Maybe even a Jagdtiger or the one of the proposed heavy sp would have sent over as artillery.
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