History Question

[Harrybanana]

I've been giving some thought (too much time on my hands I guess) to the question of What would England have done if Japan had declared war on Russia before Pearl Harbour. Would they have declared war on Japan. It occured to me that some of the answer might lie with what did they do when Finland, Rumania and Hungary declared war on Russia. Obviously this was a different situation, but now I'm curious. Does anyone know? Did the UK declare war on these countries, or did they declare war on the UK? And if so, when?

[aletoledo]

there were several border clashes between russia and japan prior to 1939 and I don't think engalnd even blinked. I think I've read three seperate books describing the russia/japan border skirmishes and not once was england brought up.

I think england was still in a state of colonial rule in 1939 and they discredited anything the japanese would possibly accomplish, so they were very complacent. so I doubt they would have cared about anything if it didn't directly affect them.

[silodhlehan]

I seem to remember england giving support to the finns in the 1940 war and considering declaring war on the USSR but never doing it. I think before they could do anything norway was lost.

I know re churchills memoirs he wanted the russians to go easy on rumania as they wanted to capitulate before the red army reached their borders late in the war.

Might be interesting to track their militia and have them go poof from france etc if Romania falls.

The Brits were a japanese ally in WWI. And though suspicious did have treaties with them. And worried about them to the point of moving ships to singapore. If they declared war on Russia who knows. The brits were more worried what the japs would do to india / australia/ singapore.


An historical one, of trivial nature that bugs me is the railroad to alaska I'm sure there was none and thats why they built the Alaskan highway from edmonton to alaska during the war. Too bad you can't do that in the game.[:(]


the egyptian - uganda railroad would have helped the germans!

[Harrybanana]

Sorry, perhaps I should have clarified. It's true England supported Finland in the Winter War and was at best neutral in the earlier Russian-Japanese conflicts. But this was before England and Russia were Allies in the War against Germany. I don't think it supported Finland in it's war against Russia after Barbarossa. So I guess I should have asked, What would England have done if it were Allied with Russia against Germany and then Japan DOWed Russia? Probably it would not have DOWed Japan itself, at least not without American support, because it was too weak vis a vis Japan anyway. But we'll never really know.

But forget all that, I'm just curiuos now? Were the UK and Finland ever at war in WWII and if so who declared War and when. I assume the UK was at War with Rumania as they bombed the Ploesti oil fields, but who declared war and when. Does anyone know?

[mcaryf]

Hi Harrybanana

The information below came from this web site about Canadian Finnish relations:
http://www.finland.ca/doc/en/fincan/history.html

The Soviet Union pressured England to declare war against Finland. England in turn pressured the Commonwealth to join in the declaration of war. At first, Canada was reluctant to declare war against Finland. Finally, on December 6, 1941 (Finland’s Independence Day) England declared war on Finland and Canada followed suit a day later. Two hours before the news of Pearl Harbor reached Ottawa, Finnish immigrants were issued exemption certificates that protected them from harsh treatment as enemy aliens in Canada.


Mike

[aletoledo]

thats an interesting point I guess harry, but it seems a bit hard to actually implement in the gamne.

if there was a DoW, would just the british forces unfreeze and the US forces stay frozen? seems like it would require a lot of code rewrite to enable this. something like this would be perfect for a W@W2.

[SGT Rice]

I'll offer an opinion.

During WWII the British hadn't yet resigned themselves to letting go of the Empire ... but they were painfully aware of their weakness vis-a-vis Japan in the Far East; very worried about a Japanese invasion of SE Asia. I believe their initial reaction to a Japanese attack in NORTHERN Asia would have been a sigh of relief; only if the Japanese experienced major success and posed a threat (along with the Germans of course) to Russia's existence would Churchill have considered provoking the Japanese.

In that situation the WA gambit of launching an air attack on Japanese forces in Siberia doesn't seem so far-fetched (although it still shouldn't trigger US entry).

[mcaryf]

I am not sure I agree with you entirely about the British being very worried about the Japanese. I think there was a very great degree of complacency about the likely capabilities of the Japanese and I do not think the British remortely expected to lose SE Asia. They were aware that the Japanese could cause difficulties in places like Hong Kong and I think this explains the fact that they bowed to Japanese pressure and closed the Burma Road carrying supplies to China for a while.

However, I do not think the British would have acted if the Japanese had attacked the SU, they were just not in a position to make an impact on that.

Regards

Mike