I had an idea for a TCB fic which has Equestria show up in 1937. While it would have the whole barrier and pony serum thing, the main focus would be on how this all affects history, and leads to our world changing radically. It would be treated as an alternate history story.

My biggest problem is trying to figure out the historical issues. What kind of weapons were used by the various nations, equipment, that kind of stuff. Help on that would be great.

5977332
1937 was the rise of the SMG as a primary weapon amongst Infantry so mostly compact, submachine guns. Pretty much half the shit from WW2 isn’t here and neither is half the shit in WW1. tbh the Interwar period is actually pretty clouded when it comes to military development and all that. It was mostly experimenting with Steel Shell planes and Newer tank variants utilising the Christy Suspension System and Turreted cannons rather than Sponsons and Hull Mounted Guns.

5977332
http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/guns-1930-1939.asp

Here.

5977338
Thanks.

Consider also how much of the supply train of all the major forces was still made up of horses and mules.

5977356
Actually France and England had major Railway supply lines. And vehicles used for supply transport were taking bigger precedence by 1923. I think it was by 1934 that the last actual mule and horse equipped logistics units were shifted to mechanised logistics.

5977332
Equipment wise it was pretty much the same loadouts as the previous war. Primary colour uniforms and steel helmets, webbing (Or weight distributors) and other such was the same. Grenades had become standard issue to even riflement, and as such grenadier regiments were hardly useful outside of demolitions (Not the same as German Grenadiers who were standard soldiers of the Wehrmacht).

The WW1 and WW2 british uniforms are generally distinguished by the removal of trousers and the usage of shorts instead because of Brittains focus on Africa. (Another note is the fact most ANZAC regiments kept their shorts even after leaving africa and used them in the trenches.)

Strategy in combat was mostly the same as well. Trench warfare was still the dominant concept but Major General John Monashes (An Australian General) Combined arms was taking hold in military minds. (Combined arms which is using all military resources. Armoured units supported by infantry, mobile logistics, airforce dropping supplies just behind the forward line, bombers, interceptors, the lot all working in concert in one immense push.) I believe by now the dreadnought class battleship had also been rendered obsolete. Also for reference, at this time, the world was in the midst of the depression, and Americas standing army was shit, under-equipped, and poorly trained. It took until WW2 for them to step up their game.)

5977440 Ideally, yes. In practice, no. By the end of the war, more correct. At the beginning, not really. Of all the forces, the US used the fewest horses, but in the Pacific theatre, they used a lot of mules.
From Wikipedia

The German Army entered World War II with 514,000 horses and over the course of the war employed, in total, 2.75 million horses and mules; the average number of horses in the Army reached 1.1 million.

5977451
Huh. my Military Theory teacher at Basic told me that our armies were pretty mechanised by 1934. Then again he was just reading what was in his curriculum.

Good to know.

5977455 And he’s right. *Our* armies were pretty heavily mechanized in WWII, but that’s a qualified statement. The *modern* army is so completely mechanized that I think Ft. Riley down the road here only has two dozen horses, and that’s for performance purposes and parades, mostly. Paraphrasing, “A good leader studies tactics, a great leader studies logistics.” Patton, for example, had the Germans on the run post-invasion, and if he could have just been supplied, would have saved a large number of casualties and time. Horses just could not cut it. Trucks did, in massive numbers.

Spread that million horses out over two wide fronts, add that horses are made out of meat, and the rest just naturally follows. They carried supplies into a lot of areas you couldn’t get a jeep and contributed their part to the war, but WWII was most certainly the tail end (sorry) of the horse as a large-scale transport. Still, the US Army did not get rid of their last mules until after Korea.

So, this would basically be the Great Powers having to whip themselves into shape to fight against the ponies and their barriers, along with many other nations?

The location of Equestria here is in the Atlantic. Would Japan be able to send and support troops?

5978032
To answer this despite it being a while, Yes. The japanese would have helped, the main powers for the Pacific would be Australia, Britain, And Japan. China is in tatters at the moment and most other asian countries didn't have advanced armies. If you are using 1937 then Hearts of Iron would give you a good map to use in who controlled what, and what the world was like. Japan was in the midst of war with China at this time as well, the rape of Nanching also happened around this time. Australia at this time had no standing army, mostly just militia that were forbidden from fighting outside of Australian land or territories, so you'd have them take a while to mobilize any form of ANZAC units. The British would have a significant naval presence in the Pacific so that would seriously help, the Japanese navy was also growing rapidly at this time. Also, the Japanese were heavily ideologically motiviated by the government using the Shinto Faith to swell their army.