'I enjoy how Europeans take the WWII perspective. The US didnt win the war in Europe... Hitler was fighting Britan and Russia... Well. I HATE to break it to you Europeans, but while it was
USA,England, France, Russia <======> Germany, Italy
it was
USA <========> Japan
It took all 3 Euro-Powers to put a speed bump under the wheels of the blitzkreig, but the US had to deal with both Axis powers and not one. Dont you all forget about this fact. How well would England have lasted if the Japanese had sent their fleet to their shores? So before you point out how the US would have lost to germany had it not been for Russia, make sure you point out how the US was ALSO fighting the worlds second largest Navy at the same time (basicaly by itself... australia... sorry guys but you didnt do too much). '
It is really no surprise that people in other countries have a poor opinion of Americans. This is completely senseless, but I have to add my two cents here. First, the defeat of Germany during WWII was due to a variety of factors. Yes, the infusion of American supplies and equipment kept England afloat between 39 and 41, and the addition of Armerican forces from the beginning of 42 til 44 turned the tide against Germany/Italy in Africa and Europe. But, America would not have had a chance to enter the war if England had not tenaciously held out on her own after basically the rest of Europe and Scandanavia was occupied by the Germans.
As to the effectiveness of American forces, no to put us down-but we were not that good as an army. In 1939 when the war started we had the 19th largest army in the world. Our troops were still equiped mostly with M1903 Springfield rifles and WWI helmets and equipment. We had the second largest navy after England (Japan's was the 3rd largest) in the world-but most of our ships were out of date and a large portion of our destoryer force was mothballed at the time.
As to winning the war in Europe, during Operation Torch-which was the landing in Africa of American forces and our first stint of combat against the Germans-we darn near lost our expeditionary force at the Kasserine Pass (surprisingly, you never really hear of this battle in America) to the Germans. If that battle had gone the other way Rommel may have well kept Northern Africa in German/Italian hands.
As to the Japanese navy moving into English waters, they did. English waters in the Pacific. The Japanese would not have gone to the north Atlantic to attack England itself. First, the necessary logistics could not have been done--what were we going to let them use the Panama Canal? Or would Britain let them just run on through the Suez? Why would they want to send their navy around South America or Africa? It would take too much time, and they could be cut off too easily. Besides that, Japan wanted to set up an Empire in the Pacific-not Europe. That is why they attacked English and Dutch holdings in the pacific--for the natural resources (a la strategic resources in Civ3). That is also why they attacked America-we cut off their supply or oil and steel.
And before you say the Austrailians did not do much during our Pacific campaign, maybe you should look back at history. The Aussies and Kiwi's sent every man they could to fight along side our Marines and many of them died to help win battles like Guadal Canal. True, they did not have great navys or armies-but they contributed all they had and more. That goes for all the peoples in the territory occupied by Japan during WWII.
Think of this in Civ3 terms. America was a secure continent, away from both Germany and Japan, that had a huge amount of population and strat resources. Once we were attacked, we mobilized our economy to support the war and we basically out produced the entire world making everything and anything that related to the war effort. By the end of the war in the Pacific we were bring fleets of battleships, supported by hundreds of destoryers, to bombard Japanese islands. Our Marines hit the beachs knowing we had air superiority and we basically isolated and captured one island/city at a time... While the Japanese could only try to send in reinforcements and hold us back.
While fighting a two front war is tough, the way we fought during WWII could be seen as a blueprint for how to fight in Civ3. Of course you don't always get the secured continent with lots of resources and cities like America has---my last civ game gave me a great island with no iron or horses.... hows that for a starting point!!!
