re: Japan vs Nazi Germany (hypothetical alternative history)

OK... back to the German-Japaneses war of 1944. We've already established the German ground forces would completely outclass their Jap counterparts, but just to drive that point home we'll open up the air power comparison by giving you a glimpse at an aspect of air pwoer the Germans had that the Japs simply didn't... fround support.

German Ground Support aircraft...

This is the tank busting version of the Stuka. In addition to being able to put bombs on target with unmatched precision, this version had two under wing 37mm anti-tank guns that would rip anything to shreds the Japs put on the battle field. One caveat though, this aircraft required complete air supremacy as it was a sitting duck to fighters.

And this brings us to the aspect of air control. Which ever side has air control can dominate the other side totally. Simply put, air control means your planes can go up and do what you want them to do while the other side cannot. Air control is decided by who has the best pilots and fighters.

When it comes to the question of who had the best pilots, the Germans once again will have the edge. The reason for this is that while the Jap pilots in the early part of the war were second to none, there simply was just not enough of them. The japs took too long in training their pilots. This meant that while the initial crust was awesome, as those pilots died, the training process in Japan could never keep up with that natural attrition of warfare.

The Germans on the other hand also had very well trained pilots but not to the point there was not a steady stream of well trained pilots being fed into the Luftwaffe. (at least not until late in the "real" WWII). Thus when it comes to pilot expertise, it's really a toss up. Both sides have excellent pilots, Germany just has more of them.

This leads us to who has the best fighter aircraft? Well for the Germans, in 1944 they would have two primary front line fighters, the BF-109G;


and Fock Wulf Fw190


The Jap Air forces would have the A6M3 Zero;


And the Nakajima Ki-43-IIa "Oscar"


First off, armor protection goes to Germany by default. The Japs put zero armor on their aircraft. As for speed, the FW190 could hit 400 mph+ while the BF109 could hit 398 MPH. As for the Zero, it's top speed was 331 MPH and the Oscar topped out at 329 MPH. Bottom line the Germans outclassed the Japs in speed. So what about climb? The FW-190 and Zero were very close but the BF-109 could out climb them all. Finally, the aspect of armament, the Germans mixed in both HMG's and cannons while the Japs tended to concentrate two cannons on their fighters. The Germans had the advantage here in that they had both a hard punch and more lead to throw out.

so who would have air control? Probably Germany for two reasons, they had numbers on their side and their fighters were faster. Bottom line is speed kills.

Next up...a look at the naval aspect of this war.