What If The Nazis Had Invaded America in 1942
What If The Nazis Had Invaded America? Maps Reveal How Hitler Could Have Attacked The U.S. (As Imagined By 1942 Issue Of Life Magazine)
Option 1: The Nazis go straight for the East Coast with everything they have — submarines, bombers, and warships, delivering an assault up and down the east coast. Simultaneously, the Nazis pin down the Russians on the eastern front, allowing a rendez-vous with Japanese naval forces in the Indian Ocean. That Nazi-Imperial Japanese naval flotilla swoops around the north Pacific, and heads straight towards Los Angeles, attacking along the coast as it moves. Most frightening on this plan is the action of Nazi “Fifth Columnists” attacking from within the United States.
Option 2: is the much-discussed invasion by way of Gibraltar-Dakar-Natal-Trinidad, which President Roosevelt’s Good Neighbour policy has tried to defend against. It is based on combining the Jap, German, Italian and Vichy navies, freed by the capture of Gibraltar and Suez. They must fight the Allied fleets somewhere. Invasion pours up the Mississippi Valley.
Option 3: First Nazis join with Japanese ships in the Canary Islands, then they make an all out push for Norfolk, Virginia, to knock out the primary U.S. Naval base on the Atlantic. This would have opened the waters up for follow-on invasion forces (fifth column plays its traitorous role again).
Option 4: Island hopping. According to these plans, the Nazis would launch an assault on Norfolk, Virginia. First, the Germans would rendezvous with the 'Jap fleet' via the Azores, Madeira and Canaries.
Option 5: The Japanese fake an invasion of Hawaii, while Imperial forces take over the Panama Canal, slicing U.S. naval power in half. Japanese landings in South America are followed by an invasion that works its way up the west coast, once again to Los Angeles.
Option 6: Pearl Harbor revisited. This plan calls for a frontal attack on the West Coast via Pearl Harbor. The Japanese and Germans, supported by carriers, first land on the outer Hawaiian islands, set up air bases and close in on Oahu. More difficult is the big water jump to San Francisco.
