Alternate History: WWI

I never understood the mythical idea of the USA being invaded by an Asian or European power, outside of a raid (also far fetched) in the 20th century. Simply impossible.

 

it'd be a challenge for sure

 

droski and I were referring to WWII?

 

The Germans did attack shipping, and did have a few U boats off the East coast. They even sunk vessels in the Caribbean. Had the war in the North Atlantic gone differently, they would have been able to attack shipping over such a large area for trade not even bound directly for Europe as to make defending against it very difficult until surface radar became common place 2 years into the war. Again, this is in reference to WWII.

I recommend reading the memoirs of Donitz.

 

They also supposedly had a U-Boat that surfaced off the coast of Galveston, TX.

 

Found a few in Long Island Sound as well

 

The Cape Hatteras coastline was a battlefield. There are multiple British cemeteries out there that are maintained by the UK & fly the Union Jack over them that hold the remains of British sailors that washef up on the beaches after their ships were torpedoed by German subs. Germany had spies on the islands too. Hitler was scouting a jump off point for an invasion of the US. It was folly seeing how he couldn't muster enough ships to invade England being only 90ish miles away, but it happened nonethless.

 

Pretty crazy that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains sites in 153 countries.

 

The sun didn't used to set on the British Empire

 

Have you seen Red Dawn?

 

Weren't we selling the Brits pipes that looked suspiciously like gun barrels, farming tracked vehicles, etc in 1940+? I could be remembering wrongly, but I know Roosevelt and company were really skirting the neutrality stuff pre-1942.

That said, WWI was the dumbest war (out of a lot of dumb wars) in human history.

 

We sold the British war material openly starting soon after the battle of France.

 

Checkmate

 

The Japanese got some Aleutian Islands. Not really what you guys mean I know. Alaska wasn't a state yet either.

 

It's funny because there were a lot of people very, very irate about Belgium in WWI.

I also, find it fascinating that WWI is given such short shrift in the history books. I think the sheer drudgery and stalemate make it a little less attractive as a war to the more dramatic invasions and movements of WWII.

However, and I've always mentioned this to my history classes in school, I think that WWI may be the most important event of the last 150 years in world history, or since the Industrial Revolution. Once you study the war, it's quite amazing how far its tentacles reach and how dramatic an effect it had on society at the time. Europe became a much more cynical and less religious place following the war. The geo-political landscape the war affected is astounding. The Balfour Declaration, the Russian Revolution, Ho Chi Minh and French Indochina at Versailles, all the stages set for WWII, etc. etc. were all offshoots or directly related to WWI.

 

Great points, Uni. I'll also add that for a country that saw no change in its political system, French society/culture was changed more by WWI than any country's, and they were on the winning side!

 

Pretty crazy that Attu is as far from Seattle as Liverpool is from Boston. My mental map of the Aleutians is much more compressed than they actually are.

 

Ya, it is big out there. Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the United States combine. Chew on that.

 

Didn't one of the Neutrality Acts focus mainly on not arming aggressor nations only?