Destroying the Panama Canal in the Second World War

What happens if Germany or Japan takes the Panama Canal out of service early in the Second World War?

Restoration becomes a top American strategic priority, but truly disabling the canal would require coordinated destruction of locks and supporting infrastructure.

The panel treats canal restoration as a national project large enough to rival the Manhattan Project in urgency and resources. It explores the difficulty of actually disabling the lock system, including explosive ships, commando attacks on pumping and rail infrastructure, and the importance of water level when attacking gates. The strategic lesson is that inter-ocean fleet movement depends on a highly resilient but still concentrated infrastructure system whose repair would dominate American priorities if comprehensively damaged.