Somewhere far out in the Atlantic, a reinforced American destroyer squadron out on patrol
comes under fire.
The first few shots are off-target, but as American crews scramble to their battle stations,
the fire becomes much more accurate.
The USS Breckinridge takes a direct hit right on her bow, twisting metal and killing dozens
of sailors.
The high Atlantic waves pour into her from the giant hole left behind, and within minutes
she begins to sink.
In the distant horizon, the attackers are visible to US Navy spotters.
There's the tell-tale puff of multiple large caliber guns firing simultaneously on several
of the enemy vessels.
Twenty eight seconds later thirty 1500 pound shells smash into the American formation.
The results are devastating, and hundreds more American lives are lost in seconds.
The destroyers are all but helpless in the onslaught.
Their 4 inch guns can't hope to match the massive range of the enemy battleships, and
the only real hope they have is their torpedoes- but that means getting closer and braving
heavy enemy fire.
With few options left, the American ships turn onto their enemies with grim determination,
hoping to make use of their torpedoes.
There is no air cover for the destroyer squadron, most of America's carriers have long ago been
sent to the bottom of the Atlantic, and those that survive are held in reserve in the Pacific
in a desperate last stand to hold the Japanese off the California coast.
Likewise, most of America's battleships have long ago been lost to the major naval engagements
of 1942 and 1943.
Overwhelmed by a superior enemy with better planes, ships, and guns- and more of all three
of those- the US Navy has been able to do little but put up enough of a fight to discourage
an invasion of the homeland.
Until now.
As the destroyers steam towards their targets, ships being lost one by one under the withering
enemy fire, the full complement of the enemy formation at last comes into sight.
Rows of battleships supported by several squadrons of destroyers, and at the rear aircraft carriers
for establishing air dominance.
Several spotters planes have been launched and have allowed the enemy to accurately direct
the fire of the battleships below onto the Americans, but the carriers haven't even bothered
to launch their torpedo planes- they don't need to.
This last line of American defense in the Atlantic shatters and breaks in its suicidal
attack, the joint British and German task force, protecting the largest invasion fleet
ever assembled by mankind, continues on its path to the American east coast.
In the late 1930s, as Hitler began to ramp up his ambitions to create a new German Reich,
it was clear he had one major problem: the United States.
Taking on France and Britain would be difficult, though all of his advisors were confident
neither nation was prepared for war and could be defeated.
But if the United States were to once more throw its weight behind the Allies, as it
had in World War I, then Hitler's dreams of conquering Europe could be at serious risk.
Russia too would be problematic, but once his western flank was secure, shifting superior
German firepower to the Russian front would be simple.
Hitler's spies assured him that the Red Army was fundamentally weak- Stalin's great ideological
purges and paranoia both had resulted in the extermination of many of the Red Army's best
officers.
What remained was a rag-tag force of mostly conscripts led by officers who's primary qualification
wasn't battlefield expertise, but rather loyalty to Stalin.
The United States was the ultimate thorn in Hitler's side.
Even if the nation remained neutral, Hitler's dream of German superpowerdom only meant that
it would eventually be put into direct competition with the United States, a nation that German
observers were quick to point out was well on its way to becoming the dominant industrial
and economic power in the world.
Despite the Great Depression having leveled the US economy, the potential was nonetheless
there- its navy alone had grown by almost 100 ships by the time of Germany's invasion
of Poland.
It was obvious- Germany would either have to face America today, or defer the conflict
to a post-war era, when it had consolidated power in Europe.
However, postponing the conflict meant that the United States could continue to grow in
power while Germany depleted itself in combat, potentially giving America an insurmountable
lead.
Better that the US be dealt with now, while Germany was still strong.
But how, exactly?
First, American naval might would have to be neutralized- or at least heavily occupied.
A modern industrial power protected on both sides by vast oceans, the United States enjoyed
the best strategic position of any major nation in human history.
It could easily engage in trade with both the European and Asian world, while being
protected from both by the sheer size of the oceans at either coast.
America knew this too, which is why in the 20th century it had begun a sizable investment
in its Navy, which now rivaled the legendary British Royal Navy in might.
It had also worked to deter any European expansion of power into its hemisphere of the world.
The United States would tolerate no threat based in the southern or northern spheres
of the American continents.
The German navy wasn't big enough to take on the Americans alone, its navy was more
focused on controlling the Baltic sea- and already faced incredible difficulty in doing
so thanks to the British and French navies.
What was needed was an ally with a strong navy of its own, and Japan afforded just such
an opportunity.
If the United States could be distracted in the Pacific, not only might it be deterred
from joining the European war, but when the time came to bring the fight to American shores,
the US would have to split its fleets between the Pacific and Atlantic.
But Japan would never be able to support an actual invasion of the American homeland,
which is what would be needed to truly neutralize the threat that the US posed to German dreams
of superpowerdom.
It simply wouldn't be economic, or realistic, to ship German troops and equipment all the
way to the Pacific where it could be escorted to the American coast by Japanese ships.
Instead, it would have to be an Atlantic power that aided the German effort, and only one
nation had the naval might to challenge, and destroy, the American navy: Great Britain.
But how could Britain be persuaded to join its bitter enemy in a fight against the United
States?
Well, if Britain could be defeated quickly enough, or at least made to suffer heavily,
then perhaps Hitler could coerce the British to view America as an enemy, opposed to its
own colonial interests.
It was no secret that the American president, Franklin Roosevelt, and his vice-president,
Harry Truman, were both no fans of European colonialism.
Already talks amongst American leadership echoed a sentiment that if the US were to
aid the Allies, it would only do so with the assurances that many of Britain and France's
colonies would be liberated in the post-war period.
With British colonies providing much of its industrial and economic power, surely England
could be convinced that opposing the United States was in its own best interests.
After all, Hitler had no plans to take and hold the British isles themselves- Britain
could be allowed its independence and even given favorable trading status with the new
German reich, in exchange for helping it crush America.
However, even before a naval invasion by a joint German-British fleet could commence,
American industrial power would have to be pounded into submission.
And that was a hell of a challenge considering New York was 4,000 miles (6400 km) from Berlin.
German engineering genius however, could solve that issue.
Enter the Amerikabomber, a massive long range strategic bomber which could take off from
airfields in France and deliver several tons of bombs to the American east coast.
With competition from several different manufacturers, Hitler's dream of seeing New York city in
flames, and Hermann Goring's ambition to “stuff the mouth of arrogance across the sea” would
finally come true.
The die was cast, Hitler finally had a plan to crush America and ensure uncontested German
superpowerdom in the age to come.
There was just one problem- none of Hitler's plans were even remotely realistic.
First, gaining British cooperation was exceedingly unlikely at best.
Had Hitler actually succeeded in forcing Britain to surrender before American intervention,
perhaps the Royal Navy could have been wrangled for his effort to destroy American naval might
as part of an unconditional surrender.
However, the US entry into the war in 1941 all but insured that Britain would continue
to resist, and a cross-strait invasion was still an impossibility for the German army-
even without American reinforcements waiting to greet them on British soil.
Secondly, Hitler's dream of a bomber capable of reaching US soil was pure fantasy.
Not only were the engineering challenges of such a long range bomber incredibly difficult
to overcome, and expensive, but German bombers would be put into the same position that Allied
bombers would face themselves later in the war: forced to attack a heavily defended target
with no fighter escorts.
The savage mauling American bomber crews faced over Europe at the hands of the Luftwaffe
due to a lack of a long-range fighter made it clear that Hitler's plan to bomb the United
States was destined for disaster even if the technical challenges were overcome.
However, the nail in the coffin for Hitler's plan to bomb the US came when Portugal lent
the use of the Azores to the allies, denying Germany desperately needed airfields in the
Atlantic.
The truth is that other than a hazy ambition to attack the United States at home, Hitler
never truly had a plan to invade the US that was remotely realistic.
In a conversation with the Japanese ambassador in 1942, Hitler admitted that he did not yet
know how to defeat the United States.
Surely a troubling line of conversation coming from the wartime ally that dragged Japan into
a one-on-one deathmatch with America in the Pacific.
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