Miscellaneous, Non-Frivolous ASB Ideas

Yeah, I thought that some rather unflattering commentary would arise on the part of the downtimers. While we're at it, perhaps older adults who lived through the Sixties would think of something along the lines of, 'Oh, great. Another Me generation'.

For another ASB idea, 'Modern Scientific Knowledge To 1960'. Which shows not only that smartphones and personal computers are possible, but also conclusively demonstrates that smoking is indeed bad for you and that the tobacco industry has been scamming everyone this whole time.

  Now that's an interesting idea.  Depending on the size of the eruption and how long it lasts but at the least the USN is going to have to find a new base and you could also see a need to evacuate a hell of a lot of civilians as well.  Plus it could have wider impacts around the world.

  Assuming the Japanese still strike south, which seems pretty certain, then the US fleet either has to operate from California, which means it can do very little or risk moving to say Singapore or Java.  That would be a distinctly exposed forward base even without the Japanese land advance through Malaya, which is unlikely to be altered at short notice.  Java would give them time to operate from there but I doubt it could provide support for a major fleet - Lordroel your input could be useful here - and they would lack a lot of the nation specific spares and equipment.

  A 3rd alternative might possibly be eastern Australia although again supporting capital ships would be a serious problem.  However some forces operating from there might be able to contest the OTL advance through the SW Pacific to isolate Australia/New Zealand from Australia, along with what British/empire forces can be put together.  Otherwise its wait until Hawaii is available again and then have to build up all the support structure, which could take a long while.

  Japan is going to do better initially and might be able to launch a larger invasion of India as well as seriously disrupt traffic in the Indian Ocean unless the US fleet does go to Java say and has major success.  You might see a more European focused war than OTL simply because very little can be done in the Far East, at least for a couple of years.  Which might not end the war in Europe markedly earlier given the need for a major build up of US land forces and gaining of experience and could see much higher western casualties.  Japan is likely to be hit by more nukes this time around as their going to be in a materially stronger position and probably feeling a lot more confident by summer 45.