What If Argentina did go Axis during WWII ?

[dragon]

Unfortunately Mr. Arias lived a very long life.  I believe he died in the early 1990s at the age of 80 something.  

Now, the Panama Canal at that time could have easily been taken out of commission by blowing up Gatun Dam (largest earthen dam built- contains Gatun Lake, which provides the water for the locks) or damaging the locks at Miraflores and Pedro Miguel.  Possibly helped by one of those japanese aircraft carrier/submarines on the Pacific side?

[NARSES2]

Having transisted the canal, it wouldn't take much to block it at all. One medium size freighter in the right place !

Chris

[Joe C-P]

Unfortunately Mr. Arias lived a very long life.  I believe he died in the early 1990s at the age of 80 something.  

Now, the Panama Canal at that time could have easily been taken out of commission by blowing up Gatun Dam (largest earthen dam built- contains Gatun Lake, which provides the water for the locks) or damaging the locks at Miraflores and Pedro Miguel.  Possibly helped by one of those japanese aircraft carrier/submarines on the Pacific side?

Dictators and tyrants seem to do that, don't they?  

Blowing up a dam, especially a big earthen one, is not that easy. It takes significant amounts of explosive placed properly, and earth is harder to move than a concrete dam. The locks are a much easier target, and if they can be jammed open then Gatun Lake will drop until they're fixed.

Japan had sent some sub carriers to attack the Canal in the last days of WW2, but by that time there were plenty of defending aircraft and integrated air defenses, so the attack would likely have just been shot down. If they had sent the subs early in the war, though, even a small group of planes might have managed to damage a lock or two. This is something to research - how many sub-launched planes and carrier subs did Japan have at the time of Pearl Harbor?

JoeP

[elmayerle]

Not that many as I remember, basically the I-19 and her sisters and, at the time, the most dangerous aircraft they were flying were Glen's.  They would've definitely needed to develop a more capable aircraft earlier in order to hit the locks in '42.

[Swamphen]

Hmm. Wonder how hard it would be to put floats on a (disassembalable) Val?

[elmayerle]

Not that many as I remember, basically the I-19 and her sisters and, at the time, the most dangerous aircraft they were flying were Glen's.  They would've definitely needed to develop a more capable aircraft earlier in order to hit the locks in '42.

They had developed the Aichi M6A1 Seiran which could carry an 800kg bomb. There is also a theory that they would have been painted up as US a/c.

But I don't believe it was ready for use in 1942; the sources I've seen show the development as only started that year.  You'd have to backdate the start of both it and the I-400 class of submarines to have them used against the Panama Canal in '42 as we were discussing.

[dragon]

Having transisted the canal, it wouldn't take much to block it at all. One medium size freighter in the right place !

Chris

There is also the very narrow GAILLARD CUT.  Block that sharp turn, and you have trouble.  

Interestingly enough the same machinery is still in operation since day 1.  It is very lo-tech and easy to operate.  I got to operate the controls once on a tour of the Miraflores locks (my uncle was the first De Facto Panamanian Administrator of the Panama Canal and a signer of the Torrijos-Carter accord).  

Getting back to the backstory....Up to this day there are a lot of Latin Americans who are suspicious of anything that the US has anything to do with.  For example, there are many in Latin America who believe wholeheartedly the CONSPIRACY THEORISTS' view on the September 11, 2001 events (i.e. Some of the most outrageous ideas available: No one of the jewish faith died that day in the twin towers, the US Government planned and executed the whole action, the CIA planned the whole thing...etc).   A Latin-American President even claimed that the "real tragedy" wasn't Sept. 11, 2001 but Sept. 11, 1973 (fall of Salvador Allende of Chile).  This suggests that that most of the distrust had to have started around the time of the "Banana Wars" of the 1930's.  Therefore this visceral hatred of the US most likely comes from those days.  Maybe this would be a motivation for Latin America vs. USA scenario.