The Tiger I Tank Purchased By Japan

[Wardukw]

Ahhh cool matey but still ..that manufacturing would still be a massive problem.
I'm still thinking about all the processes for making armoured steel and the tracks for a vehicle that size and the amount of time it would take just to set up a factory to build em.
They have been able to modify a existing factory but that also takes alot time ..im wondering if it was even a feasible idea in the first place.

[Dizzyfugu]

Japan simply did not have the technical industry resources to produce armor/tanks like the Tiger - if if they had wanted it!

[Weaver]

They could produce thick plate for warships and small plate for AFVs, so the technology did exist in the country, but it's the amount of time and resource neccessary to reorganise it, scale it up and train enough skilled workers that would be the sticking point. it isn't that they couldn't do it in theory, it's that they couldn't do it in the middle of WWII in time or at scale to affect the end of WWII.

[Old Wombat]

They also had to budget their resources carefully.

Despite gaining control of 3 of the world's major phosphate producing islands (Nauru, Ocean Island & Christmas Island) & the oil production facilities of the Dutch East Indies, they never managed to produce or export enough of these (& other) commodities back to Japan, mostly due to their own inefficiencies. Furthermore, they never had a decent supply of quality iron ore, which is one reason why Australia was in their sights; but only after they had neutralised the immediate/near-future threat from the USA, which never happened.

[rickshaw]

Iron Ore was only a post-war discovery in the massive quantities we are familiar with Guy.  Before WWII, Oz had only basically discovered on large ore bearing body - Iron Knob, situated near Whyalla in South Australia and it was how and why Whyalla was established by BHP - a convenient place to build ships and rail lines.  Japan's interest in Australia was fairly innocuous, more because of it being a British Dominion than anything else.

[Rheged]

Iron Ore was only a post-war discovery in the massive quantities we are familiar with Guy.  Before WWII, Oz had only basically discovered on large ore bearing body - Iron Knob, situated near Whyalla in South Australia and it was how and why Whyalla was established by BHP - a convenient place to build ships and rail lines.  Japan's interest in Australia was fairly innocuous, more because of it being a British Dominion than anything else.

People may enjoy reading "The Battle of Sydney"   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Sydney-novel-John-Vader/dp/0450012085   What if in written format.

[jcf]

The timeline doesn't work to use an I-400, the three completed were laid down between March and October of 1943.
Launch dates were between January and September of 1944, completion between December 1944 and July 1945.

[Wardukw]

So at the end of the day no matter how you look at it Japan would've had a total nightmare even trying to build a tiger.

[NARSES2]

You need about 1.6 tons of iron ore to make one ton of steel ..the numbers just go up from there and that doesn't include everything else needed to build a machine of that size.

Plus the coal/coke and limestone to make the iron and then some scrap to add to the molten iron in (probably) the open hearth furnaces to turn it into steel. Japan may still have had some Bessemer's in use, but I'd need to check. BOS steel making (which most mere mortals  confuse with Bessemer) is post war. EAF's would have been used for special steels, but then you need a lot of scrap.

[Wardukw]

You need about 1.6 tons of iron ore to make one ton of steel ..the numbers just go up from there and that doesn't include everything else needed to build a machine of that size.

Plus the coal/coke and limestone to make the iron and then some scrap to add to the molten iron in (probably) the open hearth furnaces to turn it into steel. Japan may still have had some Bessemer's in use, but I'd need to check. BOS steel making (which most mere mortals  confuse with Bessemer) is post war. EAF's would have been used for special steels, but then you need a lot of scrap.

And all the space needed to store it all without it being seen from above.
Someone somewhere would notice a huge increase in freight being moved towards shipping points..docks..rail yards ..wouldn't be to long before the Allies found out .

[jcf]

If it had been sent to Japan on a sub, the most likely way would have been through the use of a
Type XB minelayer, most of which were converted to freight carriers. The cargo was stored in the
mine-laying tubes or in containers welded to the deck. 

Type XB U-234 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

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