Would the world be any different if America had entered world war 2 a lot sooner?

Question

America's involvement in world war 2 started on the Japanese
attack of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th 1941. But armed conflict in
Europe had been going on since 1937, and Japan had invaded
Manchuria in 1931, and started a full scale war with China in 1937.
If America had entered the conflict in Europe as soon as France
and England had declared war on Germany, it could have saved
millions of lives.

Answer 1

The US was pretty heavily involved in WW2 long before Dec 7, 1941. They had been providing Russia and Great Britain with massive amounts of military aid via Lend Lease and had been escorting convoys in the north Atlantic long before officially joining the war.

As for saving millions of lives by officially joining sooner, I highly doubt it. Remember, the US military was in a complete shambles in 1939 and hardly in a position to influence the war much at that time.

Answer 2

Its true earlier involvement could have saved millions of lives. But unfortunately there was a political movement to keep the US out of the "European War" and it was politically impossible to join the fight before Pearl Harbor made Japan our enemy and then, because Japan and Germany were allies, Germany declared war on us, and then we declared war on them. It is possible that earlier involvement would have prevented Hitler from attacking the USSR in which case the USSR would have emerged from the war, if it got involved at all (don't forget the non-aggression pact Stalin had with Hitler) much stonger and able to march across all of Europe, pick up the pieces of Germany and France just as easily as it picked up the remnants of Poland and eastern Germany. Its an interesting question. Like they say, though, history does not reveal its alternatives.

Answer 3

The simple answer is Britain may of been the one saving your butts. If you dont think that to be the case remember you fought against a German army that had suffered many defeats and was not at full strength. The war lasted 4 years when you came in but had you come earlier you may not of had it so easy ( wasnt easy i know but compared to other nations it was childs play ). The German Army was several times better than the US army in 1939 and capable of defeating you somewhat easily. The only Army it believed it would struggle against was the British and our Empire. Germany had thought about an earlier attack against the USA but declared you to weak and it would deal with you later. It didnt think Britain would get involved as we often left the mainland to deal with its problems on there own so German thought it would conquer mainland Europe then attack the USA. Obviously this never happened as Britain did get involved and later the US did the same.

It would of been alot different had events not happened at the time they did. The US basically entered at the perfect time, Germany was weakening and Britain and the Euro armies were getting a second wind.

Russia just snorted a big line of coke and went mad but thats a different story.

Answer 4

.You're probably right, but, in 1939 the american army only had around 200,000 men, our military was one of the worlds smallest, it still would have taken a year or so to build a military and convert industry to a wartime production. In the meantime, Hitler may have invaded England to keep us out of Europe or Japan may have struck earlier, possibly carrying out thier planned invasion of the U.S.........Oh, WWII started on Sept.1, 1939, England declared war on Sept 3,1939 ................Pre Pearl Harbor American involvment.....U.S.S, Panay, a U.S. navy gunboat attacked and sunk by Japanese in the Yangtze River on Dec. 12, 1937 while evacuating people from Nanking...........U.S.S Niblack attacks a German U Boat that had just sank a dutch freighter, April 10, 1941.................U.S.S. Greer attacks German U Boat off coast of Iceland, Sept.4,1941..............U.S.S Reuban James, Torpedoed 31 Oct 1941 by U-552 while escorting convoy HX-156 across the North Atlantic, Reuben James was arguably the 1st American combatant sunk by deliberate enemy action (if one accepts the Japanese apologies for the Panay)................................On November 28, 1939 the RAF 601 Sqdn attacked a German seaplane base at Borkum, one of them,Flying Officer Carl Davis was an American serving in the RAF........There were 7 Americans serving as pilots in the RAF when the Battle of Britain began. Pilot Officer William M.L.Fiske of 601 Sqdn was the first American to die on 17 August,1940. During 1940 RAF Sqdns #71,#121 and #133, known as the Eagle Sqdns were made up of entirely American pilots. They saw combat in several British campaigns in Europe before America entered the war. 50% of them were lost in combat.

Answer 5

Japan had lost 2 million troops in China up until 1945, that was about 70% of their total fight force. They were restricted to large cities and suffered heavy casualities whenever they adventured into the chinese countryside. So no, Japan wouldn't have beaten China in the long run. If you compare the number of troops that fought in the Chinese civil war later, there were almost 6 million Chinese troops to fight the Japanese. - Note, the Chinese lost their industrial capacity in its north eastern region which is why they lacked the equipment to fight the Japanese, at the sametime they were propping up industrial centres in central China which was well away from any Japanese air attacks.

Answer 6

Russia would still be a power and china would have been broken up into smaller countries, Russia was prepared to invade parts of china from the northwest but there troops were needed to hold off hitler. If we would have been active in europe hitler would not have bold enough to throw his resources aganst russia which would have given us a toughter time in europe and russia could move tword china

Answer 7

America had a hands-off attitude concerning Asia and Europe. A lot of people would have had us help out, but U.S. isolationism mandated no interference. BUT! We fired up the grand American work force and supplied millions and millions of tons of materials and supplies of war to our friends and even Stalin's Soviet Union. Planes, bombers, tanks, weapons, munitions, fuel, tires, transportation, and American volunteers.
And when we did enter Europe, We kicked @ss in just a short time. It wasn't easy, but we prevailed. And after the war, We rebuilt Europe. And I'm damn proud of my country!

Answer 8

My Father was in China from 1936 to 1940 with the USMC. Tell him we were not at war sooner than '41.

Answer 9

War in Europe started in 1939. I don't think it would have made any difference.

Answer 10

it might have, we could have have ended it sooner, because our pacific fleet was in pearl harbor, we would have moved them, so they would have been saved, as for europe, we could have saved france, and helped britian, fend off the germans