h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

12 Dec. 1941 - how much longer would Britain have been able to hold on without the addition of American industrial might?

I thought it was December 7th.

Yep, December 7th A Day That Will Live In Infamy. If the President had moved his little finger to wiping out the threat on its way to Hawaii, perhaps the US would not have joined in WWII and then they'd not have been able to tell us ever since that they won it. Like they did the Great 1917-18 War, bless 'em. Wait till Mel Gibson gets into that bit of history.

Yes, Dec. 7 is correct. I was mixing my month numbers (12) and my day numbers (7).

Britian would have lasted quite a long time, Hitler had invaded russia by then, Britian had fought ON HER OWN FOR OVER 19 MONTHS by then.

Churchill had fought. Britain just growled and grumbled. Hitler thought that if he left us alone after squishing us into Dunkirk we'd stay quiet and he could concentrate on eating up European Russia which no-one would miss, except that Stalin took a dim view of this so the pattern of alliances changed and it's just as well that Winston did a lot of shuttle diplomacy with the US to get them on board this 'European War' that they wanted to Monroe their way out of.

Also, don't forget the Battle of the Atlantic. The U-boats were devistating the sealanes into Britain. The American liberty ship building progam was able to keep the food and military supplies flowing.