Germany launches an unprovoked attack on America in 1937

[Carl Schwamberger]

Had not read this thread before today. Its 'convoluted' in the path from A to B. A few years ago I followed a similar thread focused on getting the US into the war in 1939. The route I proposed as a aggressive nazi attack on the US Quakers who were assisting Jews in exiting Germany circa late 1938 or in 1939. That organization, the American Friends Service Committee was one of the very few groups of any substance assisting the German Jews & several of the nazi leaders were furious over their "tricks". The thought here is representatives of AFSC are attacked, imprisoned, killed by SA members & other nazis. Interference by the US diplomatic corps results in attacks and assassination of a US diplomat. nazi government complicity in these actions is almost imeadiatly outed. Unlike incidents in China Hitlers government bungles handling the affair, enraging a fair portion of the US population. Rosevelt who had moved away from the isolationist position 1938-39 & was increasingly influenced by the US internationalists, Francophiles, and warhawks. In this situation the resulting diplomatic and other ill will over the Quaker Affair into active support for the Ango/French DoW September 1939. Its unlikely Roosevelt & co would get a DoW then, but Hitler has half the vote in this. If the US-German tensions are high enough he might 'punish' the US by including it as one of the belligeterants. Seizing US investments in Germany would asa punitive measure would crank up the tensions, and discourage some of the Germanophiles in the US, such as Ford, DuPont, Rockefeller, ect...

This Quaker Affair route is still fairly out there, & at the edge of what was politically possible in 1939, but its not quite Alien Space Bat territory.

AFSC History

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pech.12232

https://scholarship.tricolib.brynmawr.e ... 0a/content

[MikeMeech]

Nazi Germany launches a 'terrorist' attack on the USA in 1937? Wow.....

How can America respond? (Assuming she finds out that the Nazis are responsible - Polish, French and Soviet agents might help with that, even by fabricating the necessary 'evidence')

1. Seize all German assets in the USA.
2. Imprison all German citizens currently in the USA.
3. Declare a full trade embargo on Germany.
4. Declare that any country in the world that trades with Germany, from now on, will have a full trade embargo placed on it by the USA. (I.e. the USA will not trade with any country that also trades with Germany. And since most countries in the world depend more on trade with the US than trade with Germany, most countries will accept and join the anti-German trade embargo.)
5. Declare war on Germany.
6. The US Atlantic Fleet (mainly battleships and cruisers, but also 1 aircraft carrier) sails for Germany, with the mission of bombarding a coastal North German city like Wilhelmshaven (including civilian areas.) Other US Navy vessels hunt and either capture or destroy every German merchant ship they can find.
7. The US government tries to persuade France and Britain to join the war. For both Britain and France, this is a great opportunity to deal with the Nazi threat before it becomes too dangerous. France especially is likely to accept, provided the US sweetens the pill by offering France free armaments and war supplies (Lend Lease type agreement).

Nazi Germany will soon be in a very dire situation, I think.......

Hi
Post WW1 the USA had gone out of its way to avoid closeness with European countries, its failure to join the League of Nations, despite being Wilson's idea, its policy over war debts, that appeared at times to favour Germany over its former co-belligerents etc. Now, after the 'attack' the USA expects the Europeans or rather France and Britain to suddenly come to their aid? After all in 1937 the USA did not have much in the way of armaments to offer anyone free or not (they had yet to get the benefit of large orders from France and Britain that was a massive cash injection for US Industry, especially the Aircraft industry which included money to expand their factories that happened a few years later). Both France and the UK had already started their re-armament programs, although still having much to do.
So what could the US offer, well they could revoke all debt owed by France and the UK, join the League of Nations?
If the US Navy turned up off the German coast they would need nearby bases for re-fuelling, re-arming and repairs, presumably from the UK, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands and Belgium are unlikely to get involved. If they need a base maybe they could get Scapa Flow re-opened and built up again earlier than the OTL, if so they would have to pay a lot to push that forward. The British would have to put the defences back in earlier than OTL including shore defence and anti-air guns, air defence fighters and troops to defend the place. All would increase the rate of the UK re-armament, which costs money earlier than planned for.
France would worry about the Germans invading if they joined the USA in hostilities, so they might demand that the US sends all the troops they have available to be based on French soil to show commitment, the USA was not totally trusted on foreign policy in the inter-war period. They would probably have to be at least partially equipped by the French and British due to the state of the US Army at this time, it would also mean if the USA had a change of mind and retreated to the continental USA they would lose troops and not just leave the French to pick up the pieces.
I am not sure how effective a single US carrier would be with the type of air group it had in 1937, also shelling the German towns may be a risk as small German vessels like torpedo boats, any destroyers etc they might have had in 1937 could cause damage to the US Fleet. The other what if is if the US goes out of its way to attack Germany does Japan take advantage of the situation?

Mike

[Carl Schwamberger]

... After all in 1937 the USA did not have much in the way of armaments to offer anyone free or not (they had yet to get the benefit of large orders from France and Britain that was a massive cash injection for US Industry, especially the Aircraft industry which included money to expand their factories that happened a few years later). Both France and the UK had already started their re-armament programs, although still having much to do. ...

In 1937 it went further than 'little to offer'. The Neutrality Acts restricted by law exports of arms and war material. Congress would have to redo that legislation. OTL there was a fight to roll back the neutrality Acts in 1939. If US industry had not been pushing that in the hope of large French arms orders there would hat have been enough support in Congress.

[Terry Duncan]

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Terry