Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-10975360-20131208111308/@comment-3398633-20131210012316

Rdv, perhaps you didn't read what I said, but the Germans were already assembled for a landing invasion. They had ships (remember the Bismark), but they needed to destroy the British air force first which could take out any of the German landing ships. Getting to Britain wasn't a problem. Getting their safely was. On Russia, Hitler had no intention of conquering the whole of Russia. He didn't want Siberia which he regarded as useless in the long run. Getting the Russians beyond the Urals was the main goal of the German invasion. Once the Russias before the Urals were conquered, the land where 70% of the current population and 85% of the economy are located, then Hitler could simply beat back Soviet offenses until a treaty was signed.

Imp, you are correct on the Med. Sea part, I overlooked that fact. However, that was the whole purpose of Germany taking Greece. He needed access to the region so he could divide the British forces in Asia from those in Europe, as well as getting to their bases in Cyprus and Malta. Hitler had overwhelming support from the Arabs, and Persia was politically aligned with Hitler and the Axis during the war (read about the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia for more). The Arabs viewed the British as invaders, and Hitler, though he didn't like Arabs, viewed them with respect. He planned on taking Egypt and then using the Arab support to gain additional forces from Iraq, Syria and Jordan, all of whom had leaders who were members of the Ba'ath Party, which was in turn inspired politically by the Nazi Party.

India had huge numbers of troops and people, but industry wasn't one of them. One of the main rules of colonialism is that you don't give your servants the ability to fight back. The British wouldn't have built the factories because of some basic issues. One was that the Indians still didn't like the British, and Azad Hind made that a fact the British couldn't ignore (Azad Hind's leaders are regarded as heros in India, but traitors in Britain). Additionally, India was largely and still is an agrian nation. It didn't have the capabilities to industrialize overnight, nor the experience needed to build complex tanks, aircraft, and warships, all of which were carried out in small complexes the British government controlled. The Japanese blew threw Malaysia, China, Burma, and Indonesia in a matter of weeks. India was the same as China but it lacked the same military experience the Chinese had for the past thirty years. If Japan entered India, they wouldn't have encountered the millions of experienced troops the Chinese had. The Indians were good and plentiful fighters, but nowhere near as numerous as the Chinese.

Also, the Battle of Port Moresby was a minor air battle, which was carried out by a group of Japanese fighters and a handful of Australian AA units on the ground. Port Moresby had the blessing of being an existing military base, as well as proximity to the Australian mainland, where unlike in India, an existing industrial infrastructure existed and tens of thousands of Australian, New Zealand, and American troops were stationed, as it was the garrison of Allied forces fighting the Pacific.