Of lost monkeys and broken vehicles

Especially since Churchill is no longer PM I could see the new government making the argument that they aren’t responsible for filling any promises the prior government may have made. Not that I think Collins would accept that but it’s probably the basis for a compromise county by county referendum instead of a complete hand over
Ever since the voter group in question deserted the Liberals over the Black and Tans, Labour has been the recipient of the not inconsiderable Irish Catholic vote in the UK. They are actually rather less likely to renege on any agreement than the Churchill led government.
The Collins government would be best advised to seek plebiscite on a constituency by constituency basis. They should then pick up Newry and Mourne, Fermanagh and West Tyrone and the City of Derry. These aren't economically prosperous regions and should end up pushing post war Irish politics a bit further to the left than OTL.
Genuinely not sure what West Belfast would decide to do. Would they vote to become an exclave of Collins' Ireland or would they (with the post Beveridge welfare state waiting in the wings) reluctantly and cynically decide to remain in NI? They are, at that time, a poor, largely working class area a lot of whom travel to work in other parts of Belfast or work in a factory (Mackies) that makes textile manufacturing machinery for linen Mills in solidly Unionist districts of NI and other textile mills on the UK mainland.
 
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pls don't ban me

Monthly Donor
me looking at Bulgaria
look-how-they-massacred-my-boy-meme.gif

is this the prize to pay to not end up communist?
 
OTL, the Belgiums, Dutch and Poland (last two to some degree for a short while), plus small units of Norway and Denmark, contributed to the occupation of Germany, plus there was plans for the Brazilians to help in the US occupation of Austria - will other nations also contribute for the occupation of not only Germany and Austria, but also Japan?
 
At this point in ATL it would be fascinating to see if the fates of Prince Vĩnh San, Amin Al-Husseini, Louis Renault and others who either were killed or could have potentially been killed around this time are changed compared to OTL.

Speaking of which was Raoul Wallenberg's fate changed compared to OTL?
 
Appendix Fate of world battleships September 1945
Royal Navy
  • Anson class
    • HMS Anson: In service
    • HMS Howe: In service
    • HMS Lion: In service
  • King George V class
    • HMS King George V: In service
    • HMS Prince of Wales: Sunk in action, battle of Endau, 26/12/1941
    • HMS Duke of York: In service
  • Nelson class
    • HMS Nelson: In service
    • HMS Rodney: In service
  • Admiral class
    • HMS Hood: Sunk in action, battle of Endau, 26/12/1941
  • Repulse class
    • HMS Renown, Sunk off Norway, by U-64, 12/4/1940
    • HMS Repulse: Sunk in action, battle of Lofoten islands, 10/4/1940
  • Queen Elizabeth class
    • HMS Queen Elizabeth: Sunk by Italian combat divers, Alexandria harbor, 13/12/1941
    • HMS Barham: Sunk in action, battle of Kythera, 30/3/1941
    • HMS Malaya: In reserve
    • HMS Warspite: In service
    • HMS Valiant: Sunk by Italian combat divers, Alexandria harbor, 13/12/1941
  • Revenge class
    • HMS Revenge: In reserve
    • HMS Resolution: In reserve
    • HMS Royal Oak: Sunk by U-47 Scapa Flow, 14/10/1941
    • HMS Ramillies: In reserve
    • HMS Royal Sovereign: In service with Soviet Navy
USN
  • Iowa class
    • USS Iowa: In service
    • USS New Jersey: In service
    • USS Missouri: In service
    • USS Wisconsin: In service
    • USS Kentucky: Under construction
  • South Dakota class
    • USS South Dakota: In service
    • USS Massachusetts: In service
    • USS Indiana: In service
    • USS Alabama: Sunk in action, bank of Leyte, 25/10/1944
  • North Carolina class
    • USS North Carolina: In service
    • USS Washington: In service
  • Colorado class
    • USS Colorado: In service
    • USS Maryland: In service
    • USS West Virginia: In service
  • Tennessee class
    • USS Tennessee: In service
    • USS California: In service
  • New Mexico class
    • USS New Mexico: In service
    • USS Mississippi: In service
    • USS Idaho: In service
  • Pennsylvania class
    • USS Pennsylvania: In service
    • USS Arizona: Sunk Pearl Harbor, 7/12/1941
  • Nevada class
    • USS Nevada: In service
    • USS Oklahoma: Sunk Pearl Harbor, 7/12/1941
Marine Nationale
  • Richelieu class
    • Richelieu: In service
    • Jean Bart: In service
  • Dunkerque class
    • Dunkerque: Scuttled Toulon, 29/12/1941
    • Strasbourg: Sunk in action, battle of Denmark straits, 22/4/1941
  • Bretagne class
    • Bretagne: Scuttled Toulon, 29/12/1941
    • Provence: Sunk in action, battle of Ligurian sea, 14/6/1940
    • Lorraine: In service
Soviet Navy
  • Gangut class
    • Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya: In service
    • Marat: Sunk 23/9/1941
    • Frunze: In service
    • Parizhskaya Kommuna: Sunk in action, battle of Samsun, 27/6/1941
  • Revenge class
    • Archangelsk (Royal Sovereign): In service
Hellenic Navy
  • Salamis class
    • Salamis: In service
Regia Marina
  • Italia class
    • Italia: In service
    • Vittorio Veneto: Sunk in action, battle of Cythera, 30/3/1941
    • Roma: In service
    • Impero: Construction suspended
  • Andrea Doria class
    • Andrea Doria: Sunk in action, battle of Cythera, 30/3/1941
    • Duilio: In service
  • Cavour class
    • Cavour: Sunk Taranto, 13/11/1940
    • Giulio Cesare: In service
Kriegsmarine
  • Bismarck class
    • Bismarck: Sunk in action, battle of Denmark Straits, 22/4/1941
    • Tirpitz: Sunk in action, battle of North Cape, 26/12/1943
  • Sharnhorst class
    • Sharnhorst: Sunk in action, battle of Lofoten islands, 10/4/1940
    • Gneisenau: Sunk in action, battle of Svalbard, 9/3/1942

IJN
  • Yamato class
    • Yamato: Sunk in action, battle of Okinawa, 7/4/1945
    • Musashi, Sunk in action, battle of Leyte, 25/10/1944
    • Shinano: Sunk in action, battle of Leyte, 24/10/1944
  • Nagato class
    • Nagato: Sunk in action, battle of Leyte, 25/10/1944
    • Mutsu: Sunk in action, battle of Leyte, 25/10/1944
  • Ise class
    • Ise: Sunk by aircraft, 24/7/1945
    • Hyuga: Sunk by aircraft, 24/7/1945
  • Fuso class
    • Fuso: Sunk in action, battle of Leyte, 25/10/1944
    • Yamahiro: Sunk in action, battle of Leyte, 25/10/1944
  • Kongo class
    • Kongo: Sunk in action, battle of Guadalcanal, 16/11/1942
    • Haruna: Sunk in action, battle of Endau, 25/12/1941
    • Hiei: Sunk in action, battle of Guadalcanal, 15/11/1942
    • Kirishima: Sunk in action, Indian Ocean raid, 6/4/1942
 
I wonder if Dragoumis will return to power after the Greek elections, i hope so. I am also curious what will the new UK government do about Cyprus. I think the most probable outcome would be increased self-governing and a referendum to take place in 5-10 years to approve or not the union with Greece. (with the UK retaining a large base in Akrotiri but not in Dhekeleia ).
Also, that is a lot of UK battleships and I am sure some of them will be decomissioned! Is there any chance that Greece would be interested in purchasing one? Although with the Turkish Navy almost non-existent and the Italians not being enemies anymore, probably Greece would not need such a ship.
 
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I wonder if Dragoumis will return to power after the Greek elections, i hope so. I am also curious what will the new UK government do about Cyprus. I think the most probable outcome would be increased self-governing and a referendum to take place in 5-10 years to approve or not the union with Greece. (with the UK retaining a large base in Akrotiri but not in Dhekeleia ).
Also, that is a lot of UK battleships and I am sure some of them will be decomissioned! Is there any chance that Greece would be interested in purchasing one? Although with the Turkish Navy almost non-existent and the Italians not being enemies anymore, probably Greece would not need such a ship.
Tbh I'm just hoping that at the very least the Warspite isn't scrapped like irl and kept as a museum ship, criminal that they did that irl
 
Tbh I'm just hoping that at the very least the Warspite isn't scrapped like irl and kept as a museum ship, criminal that they did that irl

In fairness Warspite iOTL was heavily damaged and UK's economy was not in the best state so repairing a battleship just to use as a museum wouldn't be easy to justify.

If she was lightly damaged or undamaged it might have been justifiable (unlikely unfortunately, which very much would be a crime on the level of USS Enterprise CV-6). It will be nice if Britain is able to preserve at least one battleship. Perhaps one of the Anson class? They are new so will likely survive the short-term post war even if put in the reserve. With three ships instead of one Vanguard it is much more likely a ship can survive a decent bit into the Cold War after which the ship might well survive as a museum (with perhaps a spell of reactivation against the Soviets ala US and their reactivation of Iowas in the 80s (also would be fun to see Royal Navy activate a battleship if Falklands War were to happen iTTL).
 
In fairness Warspite iOTL was heavily damaged and UK's economy was not in the best state so repairing a battleship just to use as a museum wouldn't be easy to justify.

If she was lightly damaged or undamaged it might have been justifiable (unlikely unfortunately, which very much would be a crime on the level of USS Enterprise CV-6). It will be nice if Britain is able to preserve at least one battleship. Perhaps one of the Anson class? They are new so will likely survive the short-term post war even if put in the reserve. With three ships instead of one Vanguard it is much more likely a ship can survive a decent bit into the Cold War after which the ship might well survive as a museum (with perhaps a spell of reactivation against the Soviets ala US and their reactivation of Iowas in the 80s (also would be fun to see Royal Navy activate a battleship if Falklands War were to happen iTTL).
I suppose you're right about the cost post-war but I still think the grand old lady of Jutland deserved a better end. However, I am now picturing the Belgrano getting taken out by an 18" salvo from a surviving Anson class BB and the mental picture of that might make it worth keeping one of those instead of Warspite :coldsweat:
 
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Ever since the voter group in question deserted the Liberals over the Black and Tans, Labour has been the recipient of the not inconsiderable Irish Catholic vote in the UK. They are actually rather less likely to renege on any agreement than the Churchill led government.
The Collins government would be best advised to seek plebiscite on a constituency by constituency basis. They should then pick up Newry and Mourne, Fermanagh and West Tyrone and the City of Derry. These aren't economically prosperous regions and should end up pushing post war Irish politics a bit further to the left than OTL.
Genuinely not sure what West Belfast would decide to do. Would they vote to become an exclave of Collins' Ireland or would they (with the post Beveridge welfare state waiting in the wings) reluctantly and cynically decide to remain in NI? They are, at that time, a poor, largely working class area a lot of whom travel to work in other parts of Belfast or work in a factory (Mackies) that makes textile manufacturing machinery for linen Mills in solidly Unionist districts of NI and other textile mills on the UK mainland.

I do agree that something like this is the eventual result regarding North Ireland. The West Belfast question is an interesting one. I could see a lot of backroom negotiations happening pre election to keep it in North Ireland to avoid the headache for everyone involved, as a West Belfast enclave sounds like a real hassle for the people living there and both the Irish and British governments.

I'm sure it will be terribly humane and executed with all the order the Soviet military and friends were renowned for, still with the borders being that much further east, the refugee crisis post-war is likely to be that much more... manageable? I wonder if that means the GDR will have somewhat less land in the west, i remember a couple of chapters ago it had mentioned the Germans had been holding the Elbe in the west...




The war's finally over and everything's already on fire, time for the cold war I suppose! All that's left is where the lines fall on the map...

Speaking of lines on maps, I haven't posted any new rampant speculation for awhile! This might be one of the last for the thread honestly, maybe a couple during the cold war as things shake out, but the lines aren't going to be shifting all that much through the cold war I imagine...

View attachment 904540
Mostly smaller tweaks from the last time I posted but with some notable changes in regards to the last few chapters...

I put western-Germany down as unified because I can't be bothered to deal with occupation zones again, so I just slapped the Trizonesia flag over it, I gotta wonder how or if Western Germany turns out here if the border is at the Elbe... or if it turns a bit more German-Confederation-y? Or some sort of south-German state forms with Bavaria and Austria.

For the prospective GDR, I just thought it would look kind of silly for them to have Silesia but not at least some portion of Pomerania- so I'm hoping the Oder line gets tweaked just a bit... especially if the wallies are further east it'd make sense to me, and if Poland isn't getting Silesia I'd think they'd end up with the whole of Prussia in exchange. The Soviets are still getting gains in Anatolia so letting Poland have it shouldn't be too hard to swallow, especially with the comparative status of the Polish exiles, that and Lwow remaining Polish under Curzon B would probably smooth things over... somewhat. They've got the Baltics+Finland in their pocket now anyway, Kalliningrad likely doesn't change the calculus much.

I think we'll get a pretty nice looking Poland either way. On a map anyway, doesn't look like they're dodging Communism here...

Split Yugoslavia remains because I can't see that not erupting in flames, surprised it hasn't already to be honest...

I think Ireland and the UK might find some sort of compromise leading to a smaller Northern Ireland based on the last chapters, which will surely have knock-ons in the long run. I don't think the British can entirely renege on Churchill's deal, that would be rather... bad for relations with Ireland going forward. Especially should Britain find itself rather... busy elsewhere.

For Greece itself, just border tweaks with Bulgaria and a divided former Italian mandate in the south. While I do think Cannakale and western Constantinople are likely to end up Greek in the long run, I bet it runs out the 40's as a divided free city of some sort.

Anyway, I think this is my last shot at speculative mapping until the final peace is revealed at least...

Vaeius when have the Soviets ever been anything but a gentle and caring when it came to humanitarian efforts? They’re famous for gently forcing people onto caring trains straight to sunny Siberia after all.

Sarcasm aside I agree that even if it’s just Lower Silesia the humanitarian crisis should be more manageable and less deadly. I don’t think the Germans get to keep Pomerania like you show on the map, but If they do that even more people that they get to avoid dealing with getting displaced. And West Germany could he bigger but I have doubts.

I can see Kaliningrad getting given to Poland in exchange for Silesia. Since the Soviets have land in Anatolia and potentially Uskudar to deal with I can definitely see them deciding that’s one colonization project they don’t need to deal with currently.

I think in Yugoslavia, Stalin is waiting to see what he might get without spending anything. The napkin agreement gave him a percentage of the country and others and he's probably interested in seeing what he gets out of those agreement and how the Wallies expect him to follow through on his half of the napkin before making a move. That being said while I understand his choices I’m not sure why the men on the ground are so patient.

Greece mostly looks right although I think the Greeks take the majority of the Rhodopes though. Its defensively a smart idea, there’s a lot of Pomaks, and I can’t see the WAllies caring to much if the Turks in the area are told to assimilate or leave.
 
Sarcasm aside I agree that even if it’s just Lower Silesia the humanitarian crisis should be more manageable and less deadly. I don’t think the Germans get to keep Pomerania like you show on the map, but If they do that even more people that they get to avoid dealing with getting displaced. And West Germany could he bigger but I have doubts.
I guess it's just a bit of hope for the map making bit of my brain. I prefer an un-split Pomerania if possible...
Greece mostly looks right although I think the Greeks take the majority of the Rhodopes though. Its defensively a smart idea, there’s a lot of Pomaks, and I can’t see the WAllies caring to much if the Turks in the area are told to assimilate or leave.
me looking at Bulgaria
Are you trying to make him cry...?
-
Because I kinda am now...

RampantCWspeculationygspartitionedconsolodatedsg.png


I guess had had one more speculative map in me. So, likely fate of Pomerania now reflected- and I guess it looks fine but still, slightly more Greek gains in the Rhodopes, and a slightly enlarged South-German Union for funsies and potential British meddling. Although it does make me wonder what a prospective North-West German state would be called... The North German Republic?
 
One thing to post-war border, concretely Czechoslovakia - Germany - Poland interference point and Germany - Poland border from this point.
In OTL there was no problem, because Lusatian Neisse springs in Czechoslovakia, so borders are defined from CS - PL - GER interference point clearly.
But ITL Eastern Neisse springs outside Czechoslovakia teritory, so it needed defined interference point and borders from that to spring.

But here is simply solution - Kłodsko was historicaly part of Czech kingdom and, except the rest of Silesia, was part of Czech (Prague) diocese. Geographically is separated from rest of Silesia region by Bardzkie Mountains.
Main argument - in 1945 Kłodsko still have significant Czech minority.

So solution is clear: Let’s Czechoslovakia claimed Kłodsko region, so Easter Neisse springs within Czechoslovakia and CS - PL - GER interference point (and Germany - Poland border) was clearly defined as it was OTL.
 
And one question to @Lascaris : Who liberated Prague? Western forces? Soviets? Czechoslovakians themselves? Or it was still under germany occupation when Third reich had surrender?
 
So a larger GDR ITTL?
That's up in the air at the moment. But the general idea is that if the Poles keep Lvov the Germans will keep Breslau.
So, in term of actual news that aren't just carry overs or equivalents OTL:

I. The electoral campaign in Spain hasn't gone to the Communist way. If they can't get more then 11% in 1945 I can't see them having a real shot at power anytime soon...
Had to do some diving into 1936 electoral results. PCE had gotten 2.99% of the vote. The associated Catalan party another 0.34%. Total 3.33%. I had them more than triple their electoral results, not unlike the Greek party under the same circumstances and in line with the reports that it had tripled its membership during the civil war.
II. And of course, things are already getting unpleasant in the Middle-East. I do get the sense that Abdulah, who was usually a fairly adept chess player, might be making of a blunder here. He hasn't gotten his hand on Syria yet, where some might be spooked by him going for a military solution and his ods of being accepted as king would diminish, and the Kurds might just wonder if he meant it when he recognized their independence. Moreover, I'd imagine that in the aftermath of ITTL WWII the West probably care more about the fate of the Middle-Eastern Christians then it generally did in OTL.
The Syrian president does not want Syria subsumed into Arabia. By the same token even OTL there was a pro-Abdullah party in Syria, it should be fairly larger TTL. As for the Kurds Abdullah obviously tries to cut off his losses and trusts into the well known antipathy between the Kurds and the Assyrians, Kurdish irregulars were playing a large role in the Assyrian genocide back in 1914-18 and also participated in the Shimela massacres in the 1930s.
I wonder what may possibly have changed, in the OTL US Military decision process about the final draw of Japanese cities to be targeted, for that ITTL, Kokura would have been the first to be targeted with the 'Little Boy', instead of Nagasaki, Niigata or even Hiroshima...
OTL Kokura was a target what saved it OTL was cloud cover on August 9th leading to the attack aiming Nagashaki instead. Why first an not second? Hiroshima's status as an embarkation port is worth even less TTL after the crushing defeat of the IJN at Leyte...
I think that while such percentage would get them a minority position if they would would manage to reach electoral or political agreements with the rest of the Left parties they would form a voting bloc with considerable influence. One that even with a parliamentarian majority. Ochoa's ruling coalition would have to consider or even depending on the Spanish Republic Constitution/electoral system for granting seat in the Spanish Cortes/Congress for the political parties, an key one...
The constitution is in the process of being rewritten. And one should remember that unlikely caudillo or not the man has won two civil wars...
Hopefully no assyrian massacres.
One can certainly hope that.

Very interesting that they went for Kokura instead. It was a secondary target OTL so I could see something simple changing it like poor conditions over Hiroshima on the 6th, having it replace Nagasaki on the 9th.
This apparently was what happened in the reverse on the 9th. And weather should not be EXACTLY the same after a few megatons of explosives, incendiaries et all failed to fall at exactly the same place.
Judging by what was written now at the Potsdam conference and during the Constantinople conference I believe Japan still has possession of the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin as they weren’t invaded in august. Only Manchuria was. So Japan gets a big win for in the long run.
They got invaded on schedule. Compared to Manchuria though...
Spain is trying to put herself back on the right path. Hopefully it goes well for them.

The new border as I understand it leaves most of Lower Silesia to the Germans. That’s something like two and a half million people not being forced to move which will only be a good thing as Germany tries to deal with the massive influx of people they’re about to get thrown at them. Same for the Poles and Curzon line B
That's still in the air...
And then there’s the Assyrians. The smart choice would be to take the Autonomy offer. Because even if the Assyrians manage to fight off Abdullah they probably then just lose to the Kurds and have nowhere to run after spiting in the face of their other neighbor. If Abdullah is really only concerned with the oil than it will be a relatively hands off situation the Assyrians can enjoy. That’s a much better fate than OTL all things considered. Maybe the can even negotiate to gain custody of some other holy sites if Abdullah is feeling magnanimous like the Green Church in Iraq.
The smart choice may be that. I fairly much doubt the Assyrians would be willing to take it any more that the Israelis would be willing to take his offers of autonomy.
On that note, these 2.5 million Germans and Silesia's resources would make the GDR a more powerful force long-term.
If in the end East Germany to be gets them it also means West Germany does not get as many refugees.
The war's finally over and everything's already on fire, time for the cold war I suppose! All that's left is where the lines fall on the map...
Funny that you'd mention drawing the lines on the map... simultaneously with the cold war starting...

Ever since the voter group in question deserted the Liberals over the Black and Tans, Labour has been the recipient of the not inconsiderable Irish Catholic vote in the UK. They are actually rather less likely to renege on any agreement than the Churchill led government.
The Collins government would be best advised to seek plebiscite on a constituency by constituency basis.
They would be best advised... but by whom? Collins himself was no doubt a capable man but he died too young and too early in OTL to really know how he would develop.

me looking at Bulgaria
look-how-they-massacred-my-boy-meme.gif

is this the prize to pay to not end up communist?
I must note that this, with the border on Plovdiv, was proposed seriously by some people. Just saying. :angel:

1698576307074-jpeg.865766


Could have been worse. Like Turkey.
Turkey will certainly be losing territory in the east to what becomes a Kurdish state. Now I'm not certain losing majority Kurdish territory that is dirt poor as of 1945 is that bad long term. I believe there is at least one paper by Bilgel and Karahasan claiming that sans the PKK conflict Turkish GDP would be 14% higher.


OTL, the Belgiums, Dutch and Poland (last two to some degree for a short while), plus small units of Norway and Denmark, contributed to the occupation of Germany, plus there was plans for the Brazilians to help in the US occupation of Austria - will other nations also contribute for the occupation of not only Germany and Austria, but also Japan?
Having a few Greeks and Spanish take part in the occupation of Germany would certainly make for some interesting propaganda... now I don't think Greece after demobilization can provide all too many troops.the remaining active army should be around 120,000 men or so.
At this point in ATL it would be fascinating to see if the fates of Prince Vĩnh San, Amin Al-Husseini, Louis Renault and others who either were killed or could have potentially been killed around this time are changed compared to OTL.
A few "where are they now" posts are in the plans as part of wrapping up the war.
Speaking of which was Raoul Wallenberg's fate changed compared to OTL?
Sweden declared war on Germany in August 24th, 1944. Swedish diplomats should had been kicked out of Axis countries, effectively just Germany and Hungary at this point.
With no IJN battleships to nuke, why do I have a feeling Katsuragi is the one to end up nuked at Bikini Atoll ITTL?
Pretty certain the Americans will find a battleship or two... all these standards getting decommissioned.
I wonder if Dragoumis will return to power after the Greek elections, i hope so.
He is a rather hale 67 years old and his family generally tended to reach old age, his elder sister Natalia lived to 101 dying in 1973 and his younger brother Philip to 90.
I am also curious what will the new UK government do about Cyprus. I think the most probable outcome would be increased self-governing and a referendum to take place in 5-10 years to approve or not the union with Greece. (with the UK retaining a large base in Akrotiri but not in Dhekeleia ).
In OTL it did propose offering a constitution of shorts and a legislative council. TTL you still have a legislative council post 1931...
Also, that is a lot of UK battleships and I am sure some of them will be decomissioned! Is there any chance that Greece would be interested in purchasing one? Although with the Turkish Navy almost non-existent and the Italians not being enemies anymore, probably Greece would not need such a ship.
Greece does have a single modern battleship at the moment... which truth to tell may well be overkill already.
About as OTL? But not salvaged and returned to service as OTL?
Not certain about the second part but truth to tell it is irrelevant. Anything before Nelson and Rodney will be going to the scrapyard in short order.
Tbh I'm just hoping that at the very least the Warspite isn't scrapped like irl and kept as a museum ship, criminal that they did that irl
Well... why the proposals to do so failed OTL?
In fairness Warspite iOTL was heavily damaged and UK's economy was not in the best state so repairing a battleship just to use as a museum wouldn't be easy to justify.

If she was lightly damaged or undamaged it might have been justifiable (unlikely unfortunately, which very much would be a crime on the level of USS Enterprise CV-6). It will be nice if Britain is able to preserve at least one battleship. Perhaps one of the Anson class?
The modern battleships likely survive in one form or other to 1960. Post that.. it of course depends on what happens with the Soviet Navy as well. Which should be getting a significant fraction of the surviving Italian navy. Which at the moment has 3 Littorios, one of them half finished, 2 older battleships and a carrier...

I suppose you're right about the cost post-war but I still think the grand old lady of Jutland deserved a better end. However, I am now picturing the Belgrano getting taken out by an 18" salvo from a surviving Anson class BB and the mental picture of that might make it worth keeping one of those instead of Warspite :coldsweat:
16 inch but that's a little tad been of overkill?
I do agree that something like this is the eventual result regarding North Ireland. The West Belfast question is an interesting one. I could see a lot of backroom negotiations happening pre election to keep it in North Ireland to avoid the headache for everyone involved, as a West Belfast enclave sounds like a real hassle for the people living there and both the Irish and British governments.
Who proposes a county by county referendum? Probably not Dublin, the opposition will be asking for Collins head of he does, equally not London, the Conservatives will be accusing Labour of treason. So whom? Would the Americans really want to get themselves involved?
Vaeius when have the Soviets ever been anything but a gentle and caring when it came to humanitarian efforts? They’re famous for gently forcing people onto caring trains straight to sunny Siberia after all.

Sarcasm aside I agree that even if it’s just Lower Silesia the humanitarian crisis should be more manageable and less deadly. I don’t think the Germans get to keep Pomerania like you show on the map, but If they do that even more people that they get to avoid dealing with getting displaced. And West Germany could he bigger but I have doubts.

I can see Kaliningrad getting given to Poland in exchange for Silesia. Since the Soviets have land in Anatolia and potentially Uskudar to deal with I can definitely see them deciding that’s one colonization project they don’t need to deal with currently.
Uskudar is in a situation not unlike Berlin. Would getting Channak mean Konigberg is left to Poland? After all the Soviets would still want a Baltic port that is not freezing...
I think in Yugoslavia, Stalin is waiting to see what he might get without spending anything. The napkin agreement gave him a percentage of the country and others and he's probably interested in seeing what he gets out of those agreement and how the Wallies expect him to follow through on his half of the napkin before making a move. That being said while I understand his choices I’m not sure why the men on the ground are so patient.
The war is over, Yugoslavia itself been left to the Yugoslavs... and how do they handle demobilization and uniting the two armies? Four months have passed since the end of the war in Europe. Keeping about 8-900,000 men under arms in peacetime isn't exactly practical.
 
And one question to @Lascaris : Who liberated Prague? Western forces? Soviets? Czechoslovakians themselves? Or it was still under germany occupation when Third reich had surrender?

Germany, April 20th, 1945

Nuremberg was captured by the US 7th Army, which then turned its advance southwards towards Munich. The next date the German forces encircled in Ruhr would surrender to the Anglo-Americans with 317,000 Germans going into captivity. On the 22nd the 7th Army would cross the Danube.

While appearing that Munich was taken by French and Greek Army units ahead of 'schedule', the crossing of the Danube on the 22nd seems that followed the OTL schedule...
So, speculating, I would guess that if TTL there was the OTL informal on field Eisenhower-Antonov agreement that 'the US forces would stop on the line of the Czech cities of Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) – Plzeň – České Budějovice'.
Then barring major changes ITTL, on the Allies political command directives and/or a more proactive and confrontative Gral. Eisenhower, with respect to the Soviets, I'd have to presume that Prague would still would have been taken by the Red Army.

Finally, a question of my own, ITTL, the first official Allied-Soviet link up in Germany, was as IOTL done by the Maj. Gen. E. F. Reinhardt 69th Infantry Division with the 58th Guards Division. in Torgau?
 
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While appearing that Munich was taken by French and Greek Army units ahead of 'schedule', the crossing of the Danube on the 22nd seems that followed the OTL schedule... So, especulating, I would guess that if TTL there was the OTL informal on field Eisenhower-Antonov agreement that 'the US forces would stop on the line of the Czech cities of Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) – Plzeň – České Budějovice'. Then barring major changes ITTL, on the Allies political command directives and/or a more proactive and confrontative gral Eisenhower, with respect to the Soviets, I'd have to presume that Prague would still would have been taken by the Red Army.

Finally, a question of my own, ITTL, the first official Allied-Soviet link up in Germany, was as IOTL done by the Maj. Gen. E. F. Reinhardt 69th Infantry Division with the c, in Torgau?
Yeah, but OTL Red army reach Prague on 8th of May, some sources say night from 7th to 8th as the earliest time.
But ITL war ended on 6th of May and Berlin ( Soviet’s main target) fallen as OTL so it should not been diference.
 
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