You Are Forced Into A Time Machine

6,019 Views | 42 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by Bregxit
Madman
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AG
On a possibly one way ticket to the past. Your only say in the matter is that you will be transported to the beginning a war of your choosing. You only get to return to the present if you help the loser of that war win. By beginning I mean the fighting has started.

The war has to be pre WWII and for some magical reason it doesn't disrupt time to destroy your existence or any of the other time travel paradoxes. You also have access and the ear but not authority over the power players in the war you choose.

Which war are you choosing?

I might choose WWI and Germany. Would try to get the Germans to invest in Panzers from day one and also experiment with launching teams behind the lines in gliders. Would do a full court press on the US diplomatically and promise any concession asked for. I don't have the technical ability to make it happen but would try to get a M1 Garand type rifle into production ASAP. Kind of out of order in my response to my own thread but just trying to kick this off.
AgBQ-00
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If we could go post WWII I would immediately go to the Chinese Communist Revolution that occurred just after WWII. Pre WWII...Communist revolution in Russia. If the monarchy/Czarist regime falls but the reds don't come to power there is so much evil that could have been avoided
BQ_90
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Madman said:

On a possibly one way ticket to the past. Your only say in the matter is that you will be transported to the beginning a war of your choosing. You only get to return to the present if you help the loser of that war win. By beginning I mean the fighting has started.

The war has to be pre WWII and for some magical reason it doesn't disrupt time to destroy your existence or any of the other time travel paradoxes. You also have access and the ear but not authority over the power players in the war you choose.

Which war are you choosing?

I might choose WWI and Germany. Would try to get the Germans to invest in Panzers from day one and also experiment with launching teams behind the lines in gliders. Would do a full court press on the US diplomatically and promise any concession asked for. I don't have the technical ability to make it happen but would try to get a M1 Garand type rifle into production ASAP. Kind of out of order in my response to my own thread but just trying to kick this off.
America would have never sided with Germany, they had floated loans to the Western European powers; one of the biggest reasons we got into that war was to guarantee the countries that owed us money won. I guess if you said pay us the loans Britain and France owes us we might not have gotten involved.
Ciboag96
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Constantinople. Stop the murdering, thieving Ottomans. Constantinople remains a jewel of Europe and Hagia Sophia remains an Orthodox church.
ja86
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Ciboag96 said:

Constantinople. Stop the murdering, thieving Ottomans. Constantinople remains a jewel of Europe and Hagia Sophia remains an Orthodox church.
while your at it stop the the Fourth Crusaders from sacking the city first...
Madman
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I see everyone that has responded is thinking of doing good, which is good.

My original thought for me was more about what war could I possibly change the outcome of with my knowledge.

I don't consider myself an expert on any period. So for me it would need to be a war closer to the present day most likely. Unless I thought I could bring something revolutionary to the equation in the distant past.
Ciboag96
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ja86 said:

Ciboag96 said:

Constantinople. Stop the murdering, thieving Ottomans. Constantinople remains a jewel of Europe and Hagia Sophia remains an Orthodox church.
while your at it stop the the Fourth Crusaders from sacking the city first...



I'll add it to the list
aalan94
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Quote:

If we could go post WWII I would immediately go to the Chinese Communist Revolution that occurred just after WWII. Pre WWII...Communist revolution in Russia. If the monarchy/Czarist regime falls but the reds don't come to power there is so much evil that could have been avoided
The communist revolution in China started in 1927. The only way to stop it would be to stop Chiang Kai-Shek's massacre of communists in that year. After that event, Chiang (who was kind of a leftist, we forget) is hated by the communists and any agreement between the two is impossible. If you stop the massacre (and the Chinese Civil War that followed), it doesn't mean you stop communism. The fact is, neither side would have won the civil war without outside help, and unless Chiang agrees to be a Japanese puppet (unlikely), there is no one from outside who will support him. On the other hand, all things otherwise being the same, Stalin likely supports Mao.
AgBQ-00
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Do you think that the severe amount of deaths amongst the nationalist ranks during WWII fighting the Japanese changed the eventual outcome?
Jabin
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Any restrictions on technology transfer, say like giving machine guns to the Canaanites fighting Thutmose III at Megiddo? In other words, are we restricted to the technology of the day?

Speaking of Megiddo, Thutmose III took a high-risk route to Megiddo through a mountain pass which strung his army out for a long distance. His approach route surprised the Canaanite coalition arrayed against him, allowing him to enter the battlefield behind their lines. Someone going back in time could have warned the Canaanites allowing them not only to turn their armies, but perhaps also to destroy Thutmose's army piecemeal as it emerged from the mountain pass. Taking it a step further, if the Canaanites had been very aggressive, they could have sent a force around the mountains to attack and destroy Thutmose's baggage train, leaving him stranded.

Thutmose's victory at Megiddo left Egypt as the dominant world power in the Middle East for centuries. Thutmose followed up his victory at Megiddo with constant excursions out of Egypt even further north into Mesopotamia. If Thutmose III had been defeated at Megiddo, perhaps all of world history would have been radically different.

One factor of Thutmose's victory at Megiddo is its impact on Biblical history. Assuming that the Hebrews' Exodus from Egypt occurred in 1446 BC and their entry into Canaan occurred ~1406 BC, Thutmose's victory over the Canaanite coalition ensured that there were no major military powers in Canaan able to oppose the Hebrew entry into Canaan. By that time, Thutmose had been succeeded by his son who was much less militarily inclined that Thutmose III, Egypt's interest in Canaan was entirely in the coastal areas and not in the hill country where the Bible tells us that the Hebrews settled, and Egypt had settled into a situation in Canaan where they had left puppet rulers that Egypt had purposefully demilitarized. If Thutmose had been defeated at Megiddo, the Hebrews would have encountered much more powerful and militarized Canaanite city-state opponents.

(And, for those interested in this stuff, the Amarna letters are a collection of letters from those Egyptian puppet rulers to Pharaoh dating to around 1400 BC. In the Amarna letters, the Egyptian puppet rulers are screaming to Pharaoh for help in fighting off the wild " "Apiru" tribes that had shown up and were defeating them one-by-one.)
HeightsAg
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This is not correct. Google the Xian Incident. Chiang was on the verge of wiping out the CCP when he was detained in a coup and forced to change his policy. And if the KMT didn't have to sacrifice his best troops and weapons to fight Japan from 1931 to 1945 - there is no way Mao would have won regardless of external support.
Madman
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It is my understanding that the Chinese Nationalists would probably had enough men and equipment to destroy the communists all the way up to the Japanese Ichi-Go campaign

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ichi-Go

A Japanese last hurrah of sorts that accomplished nothing but more death and suffering for China.
Rabid Cougar
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Charleston, April 1861. Would not have let them fire on Fort Sumter or any occupied Federal installations. .. let's see how this turns out by not "starting it"....
AGinHI
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I'm going to break your rules, but how about a battle?

I tell Varus don't go.

And what if - and it's an extreme what if which has been well speculated on, so nothing new -

There was no Germany?
Eliminatus
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Madman said:

On a possibly one way ticket to the past. Your only say in the matter is that you will be transported to the beginning a war of your choosing. You only get to return to the present if you help the loser of that war win. By beginning I mean the fighting has started.

The war has to be pre WWII and for some magical reason it doesn't disrupt time to destroy your existence or any of the other time travel paradoxes. You also have access and the ear but not authority over the power players in the war you choose.

Which war are you choosing?

I might choose WWI and Germany. Would try to get the Germans to invest in Panzers from day one and also experiment with launching teams behind the lines in gliders. Would do a full court press on the US diplomatically and promise any concession asked for. I don't have the technical ability to make it happen but would try to get a M1 Garand type rifle into production ASAP. Kind of out of order in my response to my own thread but just trying to kick this off.
I would have the Germans expand their Uboats fully along with the land cruisers.

And yell at Moltke to not weaken the right flank in 1914
Green2Maroon
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I might have the Allied powers take Gallipoli far more seriously. This was a more major operation than the British and French high commands realized.
Martin Cash
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July 1, 1863. Tell Lee to get the hell out of Pennsylvania.
The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2
Stive
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Martin Cash said:

July 1, 1863. Tell Lee to get the hell out of Pennsylvania.

You're willing to stay in 1863 if it doesn't flip the script on the war?
A. You're assuming he would listen to you when he wouldn't listen to Longstreet.
B. You're assuming that him leaving Pennsylvania allows the south to win the war.

Vicksburg still falls that week, and the western theater continues to be squeezed. I think the south still loses the war, and you get to spend the rest of your life in late 1800's America.
Martin Cash
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Stive said:

Martin Cash said:

July 1, 1863. Tell Lee to get the hell out of Pennsylvania.

You're willing to stay in 1863 if it doesn't flip the script on the war?
A. You're assuming he would listen to you when he wouldn't listen to Longstreet.
B. You're assuming that him leaving Pennsylvania allows the south to win the war.

Vicksburg still falls that week, and the western theater continues to be squeezed. I think the south still loses the war, and you get to spend the rest of your life in late 1800's America.
Better than the craptastic country we have today.
The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2
Green2Maroon
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Probably not. Life expectancy sucked for one.
Stive
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Martin Cash said:

Stive said:

Martin Cash said:

July 1, 1863. Tell Lee to get the hell out of Pennsylvania.

You're willing to stay in 1863 if it doesn't flip the script on the war?
A. You're assuming he would listen to you when he wouldn't listen to Longstreet.
B. You're assuming that him leaving Pennsylvania allows the south to win the war.

Vicksburg still falls that week, and the western theater continues to be squeezed. I think the south still loses the war, and you get to spend the rest of your life in late 1800's America.
Better than the craptastic country we have today.

Based on…….
Madman
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Very few scenarios or places in the world I would want to live in 1863.

Even if I was wealthy in 1863. Would be incredibly difficult to become accustomed to to "doing without" AC or central heat for example.
BQ78
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Long life or impactful life, which would most people choose? I know which I would prefer.
YokelRidesAgain
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This is cake. I'm going to be the consigliere for Santa Anna, and offer a few simple rules.

1) Don't back your army up against water on three sides.

2) Keep lookouts.

3) Entertain strumpets AFTER you win the war.
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
doubledog
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Rabid Cougar said:

Charleston, April 1861. Would not have let them fire on Fort Sumter or any occupied Federal installations. .. let's see how this turns out by not "starting it"....
Nice idea, however you would need to quell all of the fire-eaters in the south.. One of those fire eating groups would have started something somewhere.
Stat Monitor Repairman
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What was the book or movie where they go back in time to try and stop something and it ends up happening anyway but in a slightly different way?
JABQ04
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Timeline by Michael Crichton?
YokelRidesAgain
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Stat Monitor Repairman said:

What was the book or movie where they go back in time to try and stop something and it ends up happening anyway but in a slightly different way?
All of them?
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
YokelRidesAgain
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doubledog said:

Rabid Cougar said:

Charleston, April 1861. Would not have let them fire on Fort Sumter or any occupied Federal installations. .. let's see how this turns out by not "starting it"....
Nice idea, however you would need to quell all of the fire-eaters in the south.. One of those fire eating groups would have started something somewhere.
I wouldn't risk my future by betting on the Confederacy in the Civil War, but I think the idea is sound. The most realistic way for the South to win the war is to defeat Lincoln in the 1864 election, and holding off of the start of military hostilities for as long as possible could have helped to bring that about.
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
BQ78
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I think many esteemed authors agree with you but I have never thought the election of 1864 mattered. If Lincoln had lost the election, he would have upped the ante to end it by the beginning of March by pressuring Grant and Sherman to move on the offensive during November- March. It would have killed more people but the Union would have still won. As it was, even without a winter offensive, it ended a month later.
YokelRidesAgain
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BQ78 said:

I think many esteemed authors agree with you but I have never thought the election of 1864 mattered. If Lincoln had lost the election, he would have upped the ante to end it by the beginning of March by pressuring Grant and Sherman to move on the offensive during November- March. It would have killed more people but the Union would have still won. As it was, even without a winter offensive, it ended a month later.
I'm suggesting a counterfactual in which there are no military engagements for 6, 9, or 12 months after the actual start of hostilities in "our timeline".

The reason that the 1864 election didn't matter is that by the time it happened it was clear to everyone that the war was going to be won by the Union side. Electing McClellan and snatching defeat from the jaws of total victory made no sense.

Had the election taken place within, say, 6 months of Fredericksburg and before Gettysburg, perhaps things are different.
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
BQ78
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Oh, I just read your post independently, that makes more sense.
Sapper Redux
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YokelRidesAgain said:

doubledog said:

Rabid Cougar said:

Charleston, April 1861. Would not have let them fire on Fort Sumter or any occupied Federal installations. .. let's see how this turns out by not "starting it"....
Nice idea, however you would need to quell all of the fire-eaters in the south.. One of those fire eating groups would have started something somewhere.
I wouldn't risk my future by betting on the Confederacy in the Civil War, but I think the idea is sound. The most realistic way for the South to win the war is to defeat Lincoln in the 1864 election, and holding off of the start of military hostilities for as long as possible could have helped to bring that about.


Realistically, I think April of 1861 was about as long as any of them were willing to wait. They wanted a war.
An L of an Ag
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JABQ04 said:

Timeline by Michael Crichton?


"Quantum foam makes me roam ".
JABQ04
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????
It's been a long time since I've read or seen the movie.
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