d***@minolta.com
2006-02-13 22:20:26 UTC
Simple WI:
Hitler dies of a massive coronary on Feb 13, 1941.
What happens next? Specifically:
1. Who takes over? Hess?
2. Does Germany invade the USSR in 1941?
3. Can new leadership make peace with WAllies?
My guess is that a loose coalition takes over - headed by Hess and
Goering, with Himmler and Bormann in the background.
The war continues. The Germans do not inavde the USSR - the economy
isn't ready. The nuttier Nazis get more play time from the coalition -
the Holocaust is even worse.
In December, the USA goes to war against Japan - if the Nazis are smart
(which they aren't), they do everything they can to avoid war - as it
is, the US comes in against them too.
Without Hitler's manic leadership, the army is left more to its own
devices - especially as the upper level Nazis vie for power. This
doesn't help - I'm not one who thinks the German could have won without
Hitler - but it does mean some fiascos are avoided - like Tunisia.
The German Navy is defeated on schedule or earlier - with no Murmansk
run, streched ASW resources can be more concentrated.
The US and Britain face a much more defensive Germany. Oil and gas
flow from Russia, limiting the value of Ploesti. The US and Britain
focus their bomber offensives on the Ruhr, and are savaged by a
not-dead-in-Russia Luftwaffe early on. More advanced Allied aircraft
even it out, but the Germans do better in the air.
With a bulked out German Army in Italy and France, direct action
against Europe is hard. The WAllies pick off the naval-able targets -
like Sardinia, Sicily, Crete and Corsica. In 1943, the big WAllied
offensive is against Norway - the aero-naval balance has swung in the
Allied favor, and the Germans can't reinforce as fast as the Allies
can. However, strong, professional German resistance spooks the
Wallies out of Overlord in 1944.
The A-Bomb gets done a few months early - with no USSR, the US devotes
more to a wonder weapon to even the odds. Overlord comes in May of
1945. A massive Allied army lands in France. The Germans mass huge
panzer forces against it - and are hit by A-bombs both over their
armies and in some cities. Allied airpower massively outnumbers the
Germans, and the WAllied army slogs forward against strong resistance.
Paris isn't liberated until November (make it November 11 for kicks),
and then the Allies are stopped cold. More A-bombs fall, and the
German regime thinks seriously about peace - the German project is
years away from completion.
The WAllies aren't facing Hitler Youth - they're facing the best of the
German Army and lots of it. As they bludgeon their way forward, Stalin
chooses that moment to unlease the Red Army on Poland...
Plausible? Or ASB territory?
Dave Knudson
Dave Knudson
Hitler dies of a massive coronary on Feb 13, 1941.
What happens next? Specifically:
1. Who takes over? Hess?
2. Does Germany invade the USSR in 1941?
3. Can new leadership make peace with WAllies?
My guess is that a loose coalition takes over - headed by Hess and
Goering, with Himmler and Bormann in the background.
The war continues. The Germans do not inavde the USSR - the economy
isn't ready. The nuttier Nazis get more play time from the coalition -
the Holocaust is even worse.
In December, the USA goes to war against Japan - if the Nazis are smart
(which they aren't), they do everything they can to avoid war - as it
is, the US comes in against them too.
Without Hitler's manic leadership, the army is left more to its own
devices - especially as the upper level Nazis vie for power. This
doesn't help - I'm not one who thinks the German could have won without
Hitler - but it does mean some fiascos are avoided - like Tunisia.
The German Navy is defeated on schedule or earlier - with no Murmansk
run, streched ASW resources can be more concentrated.
The US and Britain face a much more defensive Germany. Oil and gas
flow from Russia, limiting the value of Ploesti. The US and Britain
focus their bomber offensives on the Ruhr, and are savaged by a
not-dead-in-Russia Luftwaffe early on. More advanced Allied aircraft
even it out, but the Germans do better in the air.
With a bulked out German Army in Italy and France, direct action
against Europe is hard. The WAllies pick off the naval-able targets -
like Sardinia, Sicily, Crete and Corsica. In 1943, the big WAllied
offensive is against Norway - the aero-naval balance has swung in the
Allied favor, and the Germans can't reinforce as fast as the Allies
can. However, strong, professional German resistance spooks the
Wallies out of Overlord in 1944.
The A-Bomb gets done a few months early - with no USSR, the US devotes
more to a wonder weapon to even the odds. Overlord comes in May of
1945. A massive Allied army lands in France. The Germans mass huge
panzer forces against it - and are hit by A-bombs both over their
armies and in some cities. Allied airpower massively outnumbers the
Germans, and the WAllied army slogs forward against strong resistance.
Paris isn't liberated until November (make it November 11 for kicks),
and then the Allies are stopped cold. More A-bombs fall, and the
German regime thinks seriously about peace - the German project is
years away from completion.
The WAllies aren't facing Hitler Youth - they're facing the best of the
German Army and lots of it. As they bludgeon their way forward, Stalin
chooses that moment to unlease the Red Army on Poland...
Plausible? Or ASB territory?
Dave Knudson
Dave Knudson