Three Fish V2

I figured I'd get this started and update it when I'm ready:

IOTL U-56 a Type IIC submarine intercepted the HMS Nelson when Churchill and the leadership of the Admiralty was onboard in October 1939; it fired three 'fish' at the Nelson, but none worked and the ship continued on, leaving the Captain of U-56 severely distraught and required extended leave before returning to duty, becoming the 'man that almost killed Churchill'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Zahn


This marked the beginning of the Torpedo Crisis that afflicted the Uboats from 1939-40 until the problems were worked out and cost the Germans the opportunity to sink well over 100 ships.

What If?
But what if the torpedoes had worked and they tore into the Nelson? In this TL I'm going to lay out a short outline of events that people are free to critique and I may flesh out into something longer later.

This TL sees the Nelson hit by the torpedoes, but given its strong anti-torpedo defenses it survives the hits and 'just' lists badly as it takes on water. The Admiralty is evacuated as the ship is now a sitting duck, but in the haste to get the VIPs off the listing ship the older Churchill slips and falls, striking his head, develops a blood clot, and later dies of his injury. Zahn is unable to get a message off to the rest of the Uboats in the area in time and the ship and fleet escape further damage. The Nelson is laid up but repaired within 12 months.

Churchill's death is a bad blow to the morale of the nation and his presence will be sorely missed some 1940. The Norway operation continues as per OTL as it was pretty obvious what needed to happen there, Churchill or no, though he pretty much laid out the operation before October:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Campaign#Initial_plans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wilfred

OTL pretty much plays out with more German gloating over their hit on the Nelson and the Royal Navy being more willing to get aggressive to reclaim their honor. Practically this doesn't mean much difference to the course of the war. The Nelson isn't really missed as it hit a mine in late 1939 anyway and was laid for for repairs IOTL, so it pretty much is ready about the same time in August 1940 as it was IOTL.

The big difference is quite obvious though: Churchill is not around during the Norway debate to take over, leaving Halifax as the only PM option. Tradition is waved to allow a Lord to take the position, as it was planned to be IOTL, and the very apprehensive Halifax takes over just as the Germans are attacking France and it all falls apart. By June he attempts to reach out to Hitler via Mussolini to get terms, but that plan is foiled by Italy's DoW on the Allies (which all happened as per OTL).

Instead he follows his back up plan as France capitulates and reaches out via Sweden. Intent on only accepting terms that didn't cost unacceptable amounts of land, treasure, and prevent British rearmament, Halifax is pleasantly surprised by Hitler demanding virtually none of that, simply turning over Malta to Italy so they have a minor gain to trumpet (it was thought to be indefensible anyway in June, so its a minor concession), demanding that German treaties with the continental powers be recognized by Britain, Britain expels the governments in exile, and returns any German property and citizens (in addition to prisoner swaps). Leaving Halifax with everything he wanted he brings the terms to the War Cabinet and despite some disagreement initially he manages to get agreement in the end that its better to take mild terms now and get out before things get worse than to continue and see what happens then; its thought that the US will not bother helping and with the USSR supplying German the blockade is moot anyway.

So Britain and German reach a white peace by early July 1940. Hitler concludes severe deals with the occupied continentals and in the case of Norway the King goes into exile with some of the merchant fleet rather than return to a Quisling-led government. The merchant fleet that goes with him contracts with Britain and the King moves to Canada. The deal gives Germany access to the colonial markets of the occupied countries, transfers their gold stocks to Germany (worth over $3 Billion in 1940 dollars), makes them accept Reichsmarks as payment, sets up tariffs beneficial to trade with Germany, and sees German troops occupy the countries, but not base offensive weapons in them (military naval vessels, bombers).

International trade resumes with an appalled world who now has to deal with a Nazi dominated Europe, which cuts out a lot of business that they used to do with Europe (namely small and medium sized US businesses, big corporations still have business with Europe). The US tries to set up embargoes against Japan, but cannot find willing partners in Europe and the US dare not embargo trade with Europe as their economy has already taken a major hit by the war and Nazi victory, even as the Nazis spend on necessary commodities using European gold. Trade with Britain is resumed to keep her friendly to Europe and because Germany simply cannot supply all the coal and various other needs of the occupied countries. Japan in the meantime worried about a US embargo puts its money in more friendly British banks to keep access to it. They continue to trade with the Dutch and British, both of whom are interested in keeping the Japanese off their back.

In September the Tripartite Pact is signed, effectively ensuring Britain would stay out of the coming war with the Soviets that Hitler planned, as British entry would mean fighting both Italy and Japan in addition to Germany. Meanwhile Germany furiously stockpiled oil, raw materials, and purchased machine tools and other essentials abroad to complete her armament's schemes and prepare for Hitler ideological war with the USSR.

Stalin in the meantime was in a panic over German success and upon occupying the promised territories in the Baltic and Bukowina as per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact he ordered planning for war with Germany, both defensive and offensive plans. It quickly became clear that as the massive expansion, reorganization, and modernization plans for the military were enacted, along with the new fortifications of the Molotov Line was conducted there just wasn't enough material to equip everyone that was being trained; in the event of war it would mean using all the old weapons that had been mothballed and never thrown away.

It also became clear that neither an offense or defense could be well conducted due to the massive changes underway, nevertheless MP 41 was worked out and Stalin banked on being able to buy off Hitler for another year until the reforms were completed. He kept up deliveries of promised materials, not questioning why the Germans weren't paying him as they bought abroad, allowed increasing overflights of German aircraft without engaging them, just lodging protests, and keeping only to secret mobilization of several hundred thousand troops to avoid provoking Hitler. Partly deluding himself into believing he was succeeding in keeping war at bay he accepted Hitler's personal notes about the build up not being a threat to Stalin and to contact him if his generals tried to start a conflict without Hitler's approval; this delusion was furthered by the warnings of war from spies, signals intercepts, and the British being somewhat discredited when their claimed start date, May 15th, came and went without war. Furthermore as Stalin anticipated the war would have a long ramp up, starting with border incidents and escalating into an invasion over the course of a week so that Hitler could claim he was attacked and acting defensively. Therefore planning for war and wanting to avoid it required soldiers to resist provocation at the border and when it was clear the invasion was gearing up for the Soviets to conduct an 'active defense', which meant counterattacking the enemy immediately rather than absorbing his blows; spoiling attacks would be used to disrupt German mobilization and the attacks of Panzer divisions, rather than letting them dictate the pace of the war. All of this was to combine disastrously when the invasion came in June.

Using the info here:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=344856

By June 1941 Europe had been at peace for nearly a year, but it was clear another conflict was brewing. German success had resulted in a line up to join the Axis when it was formed, with Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, Bulgaria, and Slovakia joining, and Greece signing a separate treaty with Germany to remain in her good graces, while Finland stood aloof to keep the USSR happy. Despite rumbles in Yugoslavia there was no action to overthrow the government. All powers were basically required to keep sending Germany raw materials until it was ready to start paying them back. The defeated powers of Western Europe were in the same boat. Materially the Wehrmacht was in top form as peace had allowed for further training and maintenance, plus facility construction in the East, meaning that forces were at a high operational readiness for the invasion of the USSR.

The Luftwaffe had in the meanwhile phased out the Do17 and replaced it with He111s and Ju88s, using the older bomber to either fit out night fighter units in Germany to free up the Ju88Cs for operations in the East, or to replace Ju52s in training schools. That meant that the Luftwaffe's transport units had made good all of their losses from May 1940 and more, with over 900 operational Ju52 ready by 1941, as many men had been graduated early from training with their training Ju52 for transport duty.

In the West the French auto industry had been left alone and given contracts to supply the German army to supplement Germany's truck output and to provide spares for all the trucks pillaged from France in preparation for Barbarossa. Italy had been left in the dark about the invasion to maintain secrecy, but it and Spain, along with some Portuguese 'volunteers' would join in after the invasion started, along with Hungary once Soviet bombers accidentally hit Hungary during the confused early fighting. Romania and Slovakia were in it from the beginning.

In the East the Luftwaffe had massive expanded compared to May 1940 and was more than double its size in combat aircraft. The fighting would be carried out by huge air fleets, the 5th in Norway for the attack on Murmansk, the 1st with two air corps in the Baltic states and with major naval air support via their float planes, the 2nd for AG-Center in Belarus, the 4th with AG-south in Ukraine, and the 6th for operations in the Black Sea using the anti-shipping specialists in Fliegerkorps X. AG-North would have access to the expanded KG100 pathfinder specialists, now in full wing strength and made up of the best bomber crews in the Luftwaffe. They would be supported by a newly formed Bf110 ZG, but the 1st Air Fleet would lack a Stuka wing like the other major air fleets.

Rommel would head up a corps with AG-North too, tasked with securing the Baltic states; Hitler had high hopes for him, which resulted in his promotion from division to corps commander. Securing Estonia was given major importance due to the value of its shale oil industry, the value of the ports to logistics, and the important route to Leningrad. It was also hoped that a quick mobile push into Estonia would cut off and destroy the Soviet naval units based there.

Invasion
When the offensive began on June 10th it came full force immediately, not in a slow build up like Stalin thought; though some work had been done to man defenses and disperse aircraft before the Germans attacked, much was still left undone with horrible consequences; all along the front well trained pilots using Knickebein radio guidance were able to hit Soviet airfields before light, catching the Soviets by total surprise. KG100 was particularly successful and was able to destroy hundreds of fighters around bases in Riga making the job of the LF 1 much easier in the coming days.

In Belarus the 3 full strength Stuka Wings, 1 Schlachtgruppe, and 3 full strength Destroyer Wings acted as close air support, shredding resistance where ever it was found, enabling the advance through the border areas to move forward at relatively low cost, while the bombers of 3 air corps interdicted Soviet logistics, supply depots, and road movement to a highly effective degree.

The weaker tactical support for AG-South showed in contrast, as it had only one Stuka wing and no Destroyer wings, but it was able to badly damage the Soviet armored concentrations that were forming to fight around Brody, aided by Ju88 and He111 dive and carpet bombing of massed armor formations. By the time Panzer units ran into Soviet MC in East Galicia they had been so badly disordered and savaged by air attack that they were able to sweep them up piecemeal at low cost and continue to roll on. Nevertheless it was taking heavier losses than in Belarus, especially among the Romanian component, which stalled badly in Bukowina and took heavy losses.

In the north the lack of Stukas didn't matter as much because its Destroyer Wing was able to render much the same service and the Soviets were far weaker than in Ukraine. The armor battle at Raseiniai was concluded in 2 days, largely because of the efforts of the Bf110s and Ju88s dive bombing and strafing the Soviet 3rd and 12th MC on the way to the battle allowing the light armor of Rheinhardt's XLI corps to envelop and destroy them piecemeal. It was a massive defeat, not least of which was aided by the unwieldy Soviet MC not having enough trucks for supply and being too large to effectively manage in a hostile air environment. Manstein's Panzer corps to the south ran unopposed to the Dvina where it seized a bridgehead and intact bridge with Brandenberger support, but was checked due to von Leeb being concerned about supply issues, infantry support, and concerns about Soviet units in the army's rear areas not yet swept up. Rommel to the North ran straight to Riga, brushing aside Soviet infantry to secure the Soviet airbase west of the city and crossings over the Dvina with the help of the 7th Flieger Division, which made a combat drop East of the river and nearly captured the command of the Soviet Northwest Front in the city; an uprising aided their liberation of the city, but the command staff was flown out before it could be captured. Rommel captured the city and bridges intact, cutting off the Soviet 8th army's retreat; he too was stopped on the river for the same reasons as Manstein. At Jakobstadt Rheinhardt followed up on its success at Raseiniai by seizing bridges over the river Dvina with the help of the 1st Luftsturm Regiment detached from the 7th Flieger; this was the unit of Eben Emael fame, but scaled up. It was supported after its drop by the 22nd air landing division, which itself was stripped of a regiment to support the 7th Flieger at Riga to make up for the 1st regiment dropping at Jakobstadt. In the aftermath of the success the 7th Flieger and 22nd Division would return their swapped regiments and would fight as regular foot divisions for rest the campaign.

Left with the Dvina being breached in 3 places and the 8th and 11th armies being trapped south of the river and effectively being destroyed the Soviet Northwest Front tried to launch a counterattack with the 21st MC against Manstein, but once again air power and the skill of the Panzer corps wrecked the attacker, forcing a retreat. The route before AG-North was now opened up due to the virtual destruction of the Soviet border armies, though the Soviet 27th and 22nd armies were moving to man the Stalin line on the Velikaya river in the wake of their failed counterattacks, while Estonia was defended by whomever had been garrisoning it in June and the survivors of the border battles that filtered East of the Dvina before the Germans seized the major crossings or found smaller crossings thereafter. Effectively it was lightly held and faced the Estonia Forest Brothers in their rear, which made a defense virtually impossible.

Following the only major airborne drop of the campaign being completed and the decision to use the airborne divisions as regular foot infantry for the rest of the campaign AG-North had over 200 Ju52s for supply, with about 65% operational by July. They had brought in some supplies to each of the Panzer corps as the infantry moved up and with them followed converted rail lines. Rommel was chomping at the bit to charge into Estonia and was the first let off the leash to run to Tallinn and then on to Narwa, given the lion's share of the air supply assets, while the rest of the 4th Panzer Group was held more to the pace of the infantry and rail conversion. They too though were allowed to advance beyond the Dvina by June 20th and Rheinhardt moved on to Pskov, while Manstein was ordered to cover the flank against the Soviet 22nd army by moving to Oposhka while the German 16th army moved up behind him.

In Black Sea the X. Fliegerkorps operated against the Black Sea Fleet with heavy success, mining both Sevastopol and Odessa heavily, while bombing the ships of the fleet in harbor and on the move. The heavy surface ships were mostly put out of action by August and attempts to reinforce and supply Odessa by sea were stopped by aerial attacks; the Germans were sooner reinforced starting in mid-July by Italian anti-shipping air units as Mussolini was eager to participate in the ideological struggle against Communism. This would make the later siege of Odessa far easier and bring it to a much speedier conclusion, plus heavily aid in the attacks on Sevastopol starting in October, as supplies and reinforcements could not be moved in and naval units did not survive to render fire support. The 6th Air Fleet would also render some air support to AG-South directly along the coast, especially during the Odessa fight.

In all the border battles ended heavily in the favor of the Axis, as they had the air power to smash up Soviet units too badly to fight a coordinated campaign; Stalin was left despondent after the fall of Minsk and retreated to his Dacha, but was coaxed out by his staff to continue the fight. The war was just beginning and the Soviet government was not about to give up without a brutal fight.

Rommel jumped off East of Riga on June 20th heading for Tartu between lake Peipus and lake Virts up the highway toward Tallinn, while the 7th Flieger and 18th army would move up West of Lake Virts toward Tallinn, while the 22nd division would detach from Rheinhardt's corps to follow Rommel. Facing little resistance after trapping most of the 8th army South of the Dvina, Rommel rolled over what Soviet troops were found, who were eager to avoid retribution at the hands of the Estonia guerrillas in the surrounding forests; the Estonians were thrilled to see the Germans move in and liberate them and they proved to be an invaluable aid to Rommel as he pushed ahead; they provided rear area security, translators, guides, and labor to help with rail conversion and completely understood the time pressures that the Germans were under and worked themselves very hard to aid in any way possible.

In his haste Rommel consistently outran supply, which even the allotted Ju52s had trouble keeping up with, as they also had to help the rest of the 4th Panzer Group and do reconfiguration work to turn the para JU52s into transports. Parachutes were even collected from the FJs to provide more for cargo drops. Luckily ammunition expenditures were limited in the push to Tallinn, so fuel made up the most important of the air lifted supplies, while the soldiers found the Estonians willing to provide food and water. Rommel ended up splitting his forces, sending a motorized division to Narwa with the Forest Brothers, and continuing on Tallinn by June 29th with Estonian volunteers, his Panzer division, and two motorized regiments. The shock of the collapse of the front and the rapid advance of Rommel had the Soviets unprepared to evacuate what retreating forces reached Tallinn on the 1st of July and Soviet forces were overrun, including naval forces after an uprising in the city and a rapid Panzer thrust into the city itself. Leaving his two regiments and the Estonians behind, Rommel rapidly turned, using captured Soviets supplies, and moved his Panzer division to Narwa where his motorized division and the Forest Brothers waited, immobilized by lack of supply. Soon Rommel's Panzer division joined them with Ju52 support. Reduced to two corps Rommel alone could not breach the Luga Line, but moving up the other side of Lake Peipus saw Reinhardt's Panzers rendezvous with his corps.

6th Panzer division led Rheinhardt's forces, who had breached Luga with the aid of a Brandenberger company at Kingisepp on the 2nd and Sabsk on the 3rd; he had to divert troops south to help Manstein, whose 8th Panzer division was caught in a trap by counterattacking Soviet forces and was mauled, but the Luftwaffe and reinforcements resolved the situation and resulted in badly smashed Soviet forces. Both Manstein and Rheinhardt had to limit their advance to the support of the 16th army as best as possible, but had breached the Stalin Line after a quick fight, Manstein having more of a fight than Rheinhardt, and both pushed on, Rheinhardt toward Leningrad with the bulk of the mobile forces, Manstein eastward to cover the flank.

Rommel's forces then presented Rheinhardt's breach with the reserves that were needed as troops were drawn further southeast to help Manstein, even if Rommel would have to wait until late July for his detached regiments to catch up with the corps, finally released by the 18th army occupying Estonia; with them would come the 7th Flieger division, whose highly trained troops would be invaluable in the fighting north of the Luga and the 22nd division who would help screen the flanks. Later the 18th army would join them.

For now Rommel's two divisions and the rest of Rheinhardt's corps pushed north of the Luga, with the help of an entire air corps tasked with helping them overcome the fanatical resistance of the scratch Soviet forces in their way; the weakness of the Soviet defensive forces was apparent due to the loss of the 8th and 11th armies early in the campaign and the loss of the troops at Tallin*. The defenses at Luga were largely breached by the 3rd, letting the armored division, the 6th Panzer, under General Erhard Raus, an Austrian commander new to the division, lead the way on the rush to the city. Airpower smashed any attempt to stop him or organize a counterattack on the flanks and by the 5th of July his division had entered the suburbs of Leningrad. The ability of the Germans to move into Leningrad was heavily aided by the entry of the Finns into the war and their distracting of the Soviet 23rd army north of the city, who were badly outnumbered by the Finns. Fighting was still fierce though, as militia and disorganized reservists who were still forming into divisions fought from partially finished defenses in the city.

Supply was exclusively carried out via airdrop or any relatively dry field where the Ju52s could land, whose airbases were now moved up to Estonia as rail conversion made opened up new forward staging areas and cut turn around time heavily. The Luftwaffe dominated skies making their supply runs safe from fighter interference. Kronstadt was being heavily carpet bombed by the Heinkels KG100, leaving the Destroyers and Ju88s to hit Soviet ground troops around Leningrad. Pushing in from the South the concentrated armored forces of Hoepner’s armored group pushed up to the Neva river in the heart of the city by the 19th, fighting the remnants of resistance, while the rest of Rheinhardt’s corps cleared the city south of the river. Heavy bombing of Soviet troops forming East of the city badly disrupted their efforts and despite supply difficulties and sabotage of the city’s infrastructure, the German forces were solidifying their hold. To the South Manstein was able to start grinding north toward the city with 1st Air Fleet’s other corps support, which smashed up defenses and Soviet armor in the area, but it was hard going due to the terrain and deep dug outs immune to air attack. Infantry of the 16th army assisted his push and kept the flanks covered near Novgorod.

By July 15th the city had been largely cleared of resistance and Soviet troops started to pull back across the Volkhov river to the East to form up new armies to renew their offensive to retake the city. To the North the Soviet 23rd army had been trapped and was being squeezed between Finns and Germans, with attempts to evacuate troops via Ladoga Lake interdicted from the air. Keeping a large area west of Volkhov the Soviets dug in, expecting reinforcements and husbanding what was left of their forces by the end of July, despite Stalin’s apoplectic rage over the loss of Lenin’s city and home of the revolution. Zhukov was dispatched to organize an offensive to retake the city, but upon arrival discovered the sorry state of the forces available after the disaster that had befallen the Northwest and Northern Fronts.

As the 18th army moved in in August to relieve the 4th Panzer Group around Leningrad Hitler began planning to remove most of the Group from AG-North to send south to assist AG-Center against Moscow, leaving only Rhienhardt’s Panzer corps as armor support for AG-North. It would serve to relieve some of the supply burden on the Army Group and aid in the big remaining task, the capture of Moscow. They wouldn’t head south until September though; in the meantime 1st Air Fleet was to be left intact to support AG-North and finish off Kronstadt, plus any remaining pockets of resistance west of the Volkhov, having helped to clear the Baltic Islands in August and open Tallinn to shipping from Germany. Kronstadt would fall by the end of September, scuttling all of its warships first, and sabotage of the port in Leningrad severely reduced its capacity, while mines made would require months to remove before supply could be brought directly into the city.

In the meantime much of the population was marched out south through Ingermannland, as there was no way to feed them and most of the city infrastructure had been sabotaged in the meantime. Mass evacuations had reduced numbers in the city, but the Germans march out over 1 million people by the end of 1941, while in the city itself many starved over the course of the year due to lack of ability to feed them when city food stocks ran out and lack of rail supply; German troops were prioritized first, while Soviet PoWs were mostly worked to death repairing the sabotage inflicted, as there was little ability to feed them either. In the Baltics the Einsatzgruppen followed in the wake of the German army and began their murder mission, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Jews in the region. They would be involved in the removal of population from Leningrad and horrible massacres of civilians to ease road congestion in the forced relocations. In the wake of victory the German military brought with it Nazi death squads and their plans of extermination; anyone that was happy to be liberated by the Germans quickly grew to regret that feeling.

*IOTL the 8th and 11th armies, including those successfully pulled out of Estonia, were critical in defending the path to Leningrad; ITTL their absence makes the offensive far easier to overcome, especially with Rommel’s corps available ITTL and an extra air corps that wasn’t present IOTL.

AG-South

This section of the front is going to largely be the same as IOTL because the only additional forces are a wing of Stukas and He 111s, while the rest of the air fleet is at full strength and rested because of no Balkan campaign. The fundamentals of the campaign are pretty much otherwise there, though the extra airpower and operational rates enabled a lot more damage to Soviet forces for less German losses to achieve roughly the same thing.

Instead I'll focus on what's different, which is on the Romanian/Black Sea Front.

Operation Munich proved to be a brutal fight right off the bat, as the Soviet Southern Front was much more prepared for the fight than most any other and had rough terrain to defend. The Romanian army lacked the abilities of their big ally and even with the introduction of nominal Italian forces the presence of only one smaller German army, the 12th, with them forced the Romanians to do all the heavy lifting. The fighting was mostly resolved in the month of July and carried the Romanian army to the fortifications of Odessa as Hitler granted Antonescu the strip of Ukraine beyond Bukowina in return for their continued help.

The Siege of Odessa was to be an even more brutal fight for the Romanians, but was heavily aided by the German X. Fliegerkorps interdicting Black Sea supply and reinforcement efforts. Though nighttime was largely free from aerial harassment, during the day Luftwaffe, Romanian, and later Italian aircraft bombed anything that moved, while conducting heavy mining efforts of Odessa and Sevastopol. The mines did more than anything to shut down shipping during 'off' hours for the Soviets and the lack of reinforcements and supplies, plus the lack of ability to evacuate civilians unable to contribute to the defense badly hurt. Even though they were inflicting heavy losses to the Romanians grinding forward in WW1 style trench battles, the Soviet defenders were depleting stocks rapidly and were finally forced to capitulate in mid-September after nearly 6 weeks of siege.

As in Bukowina, Odessa saw mass murders of Jews by the Romanian army, which was all too happy to conduct its own Holocaust as it advanced. Cleansed of 'undesireables' Odessa would become part of Romania as the capital of Transnistria and would result in the demobilization of Romanian forces to help incorporate this area into the rest of the country.

With the fall of Soviet positions West of the Dniepr Axis forces moved into Crimea in late September, shattering resistance as they cleared the peninsula. Having accomplished the task of smashing Soviet naval power west of Crimea X. Fliegerkorps with its Romanian and Italian support, all grouped now in the 6th Air Fleet turned on Sevastopol. The Stukas of the air fleet were rebased behind the advancing German 11th army to attack ground targets, while level bombers hit the port and Bf110s attacked any residual shipping trying to bring supplies or reinforcements into Sevastopol. The surface fleet had largely been damaged or sunk in the port early in the war, with mines having bottled them up, preventing escape to safer areas; it gave the Romanian fleet, such that it was, freedom of action in interdicting Odessa, but now also helping against Sevastopol. Soviet submarines were very dangerous though, which kept shipping beyond the coast and Axis surface warships away from the port. Many had rebased along the Caucasian coast, but some still operated out of Sevastopol.

As German forces started to close in on Sevastopol in late September naval infantry were formed out of the stricken warships in the harbor, while the civilian population was put to work building defenses. The lack of manpower to man them was a serious problem and civilians were eventually armed to much up the deficit. Axis air power made reinforcing the port extremely hazardous, as there was an entire air fleet dedicated to interdicting the port. Even nighttime movement of ships was deemed too dangerous due to mining efforts and the loss of multiple transports forced the cancellation of further supply efforts. The heavy use of air power then tamped down much of the defenders' ability to resist, as fighters swept Soviet aircraft from the sky, bombers suppressed the port and inner defenses, while Stukas and Bf110s provided CAS to 11th army units moving against the city. Von Manstein had been transferred south to the 11th army and now was heading up efforts to take the port since October. Despite the weak lines of supply into Crimea the heavy use of CAS enabled German troops to work their way forward through the suppressed defenses of Sevastopol and by mid-November the city had fallen. With it was lost the majority of the Black Seas Fleet, but for some small surface units and submarines that were able to make it out. Soviet relief efforts forming at Taman opposite Kerch were cancelled in November when a naval assault on Crimea was deemed pointless.

Having cleared the peninsula of resistance by December the German 11th army moved north to aid in the advance on Rostov, while the Romanian 3rd army sat in defense of Kerch while to the West Italian and other Axis shipping was now freed up to move through the Dardannelles to make supply runs into Odessa to help ease the rail logistics burden; eventually they would be able to bring supplies into Sevastopol, but the port would take months to clear and repair. The 6th air fleet was rebased to Crimea where it would help reduce the remaining Soviet naval presence in the East Black Sea, specifically by targeting the major remaining port of Novorossiysk and helping support AG-South along the Sea of Azov and near Rostov.

In Ukraine to the north Soviet positions were collapsing after the battle of Kiev had destroyed the bulk of Soviet forces and the campaign seemed to culminate with the pinning of remaining forces along the sea of Azov, leading to their destruction and German forces being forced forward to Rostov, capturing it after a bitter battle. Held by the 11th army and supported by the 1st Panzer army and elements of the 6th and 4th air fleets the city was held against heavy Soviet counter attacks to retake it, despite major supply troubles that were eased by Ju52 supply. By the close of the campaign Ukraine was in Axis hands, though hold on it was tenuous in the face of logistics issues and Soviet continued resistance, none of which was anticipated to be nearly as heavy as it had been; even by winter the Soviets, who were planned to have been overcome by August, still fought bitterly in defense of their homeland. The major campaign was still being fought to the north and where the ultimate outcome would be decided.

Off the main fronts there was still action going on that had critical influence on the war.

Finland
In Finland with its entry in late June it took until July to get actively involved in the ground combat on a large scale. To the North the Germans launched their offensive at Murmansk in late June, surprising the Soviets, but quickly bogging down due to the lack of infrastructure for supply, tough wilderness terrain, and climate in the Arctic Circle. To make matters worse the Soviets reinforced and dug in, actually outnumbering the attackers. They would bash away until September before finally calling off the offensive and losing over 10,000 men in the process. Another offensive further South aimed at cutting the Murmansk railroad made much better progress thanks to Finnish participation, while the Germans, unprepared for the conditions, similarly floundered as they had further north.

Ultimately with the success of the offensive at Leningrad concerns over getting too involved in the German war effort abated, because it was increasingly felt that Germany would win and the dream of gaining all of Karelia would be achieved, so Finnish forces proceeded with their offensive as part of Arctic Fox, the offensive aimed at reaching the white sea. This offensive was successful when in September resources and manpower freed up from the Leningrad front appeared and enabled them to overwhelm Soviet defenses. This would ultimately spell doom for Murmansk, as cut off from supply and ability to get imports in the city became useless.

For the rest of the world moving supplies into the Murmansk prior to this was considered too dangerous given German efforts in the region and ultimately a poor idea because supply to the Soviets would likely be captured by the Germans when they won. Conventional wisdom around the world was that the Soviets were finished given the losses they had sustained by August and the fall of Leningrad and severing of the Murmansk railway only compounded that perception.

Further South with the fall of Leningrad and the shifting of resources to other sectors upon reclaiming their 1939 border with the Leningrad Oblast the Finns continued to push out in September against Belomorsk to establish an Eastern boundary anchored on a river line, which was ultimately achieved by the end of the year, by which time Murmansk had surrendered due to lack of supply, leaving Karelia totally under Finnish control. As the Finns asserted their rule over this new territory German troops were pulled out of the area to be rehabilitated after hard combat. The Finns held their new lines independent of the Germans and were effectively now no longer active participants in the war.

Iran
The British were deeply concerned about the German move into Russia, but given the Axis Pact, their incomplete rearmament plans, distant relationship with the US, and trade with Europe direct entry or even obvious supply of the Soviets was out of the discussion. Efforts were made to aid the Soviets somewhat though, both via Canada selling goods via the Pacific route and via Iran. In the case of Iran the British were deeply concerned about the Shah's pro-German stance and hiring of German firms to work on infrastructure in his country, so in the wake of the failed Iraqi Rebellion in May 1941 they had troops on Iran's border and made demands on the Shah to expel German contractors and fall in with British demands; when Barbarossa started and the Shah demurred a joint Soviet-British decision was reached to invade the country and replace the Shah with someone more friendly so that supply lines could be set up. The Shah, realizing what was coming informed German nationals to flee to neutral Turkey to avoid the British invasion, which they all managed to do before the joint Anglo-Soviet invasion took over the country; the Iranian military had been badly undermined by pro-British generals and general lack of preparedness to fight, so the 'war' was little more than an occupation.

Of course upon occupation of the country it was discovered that despite the work the Germans had been doing in country on infrastructure, rail lines were woefully inadequate and Britain did not have the resources to upgrade them. The Soviets did their best with the areas under their control, but Iran would ultimately only be able to provide a trickle of supplies. Still, through that Britain sold the Soviets non-military goods to avoid the fallout from providing British weapons that would appear at the front. Food, fuel, and machine tools were the big purchases instead. Nevertheless Hitler was still furious at British actions, but could do little about it during his invasion.

Japan
Barbarossa put Japan in a difficult position, as it now felt empowered to get away with things while the world was distracted, causing a full occupation of French Indochina; this triggered further sanctions from the US, which while Japan's finances were out of reach still meant the major market for Japan was closed off and resulted in her hard currency stocks rapidly dwindling. As it depended now on Dutch oil and other raw materials from the DEI something needed to be done; after failed negotiations with the Dutch for credit they appealed to the Germans to turn over the DEI, which was rebuffed as unacceptable. Japan was quite furious that German violated the spirit of the Axis Pact by refusing to concede Asia to Japan as had been acknowledged in the Pact and began considering invasion and renunciation of the deal. The consequences of this were obvious though, as Japan was certain that would mean war with the US, who was increasingly hostile to Japanese expansion and it would guarantee that Germany would not help in that war. Britain too would probably need to be fought in the event of the seizure of the DEI as they would also be threatened by Japanese invasion of another colonial power's assets just nearby; they already were very skittish about the Japanese actions in Indochina. Plus trade with Germany was highly necessary given the loss of trade with just about everyone else due to embargoes and currency losses and German ability to make things Japan was unable to.

As Japan debated its future actions based on its declining assets, Germany became increasingly aware of Japan's thirst for resources as it tried to pressure Japan into joining the invasion of the USSR. Japan had been extremely hesitant to do so given her poor track record fighting the Soviets, commitments in China, and the lack of serious resource gains in doing so. Still, Germany was aware of how critical the Siberian supply routes were becoming to the USSR and wanted those interdicted, plus have some Soviet troops drawn off of the European fronts. To keep Japan in the alliance and from doing something stupid in Asia (from the German perspective) they approached Japan again in September about joining the war in return for DEI resources on credit, plus technology transfers, and some shipments for free of high tech German industrial equipment.

Intrigued, Japan sussed out the German offer and ultimately agreed as the Soviet front in Siberia was denuded of resources to fight in Europe.
http://www.operationbarbarossa.net/the-siberian-divisions-and-the-battle-for-moscow-in-1941-42/
Marshaling their resources the Japanese assembling IJN troops for attacks on Vladivostok, while the Kwantung army would do the invasion of Siberia itself, but given the lateness in the year to launch a major invasion of Siberia Japan was more interested in keeping its penetration minor and focus on shutting down Pacific supply to the USSR and let the Germans deal with the bulk of the Soviet army.

Attacking in Late October the IJN quickly cut off Vladivostok, surprising the Soviets, and seizing the north Sakhalin island, while the IJA moved to cut off Vladivostok from the landside and the rest of the Kwantung army pushed toward Lake Baikal, screening Outer Mongolia in the process. Soviet forces resisted fiercely, but stripped of their best units, men, and equipment, not to mention supplies, the Soviets buckled under the onslaught. Vladivostok fell by December and the Japanese secured their 1941 objectives by securing defensible borders by winter along mountain ranges East of Lake Baikal. Having nothing to counterattack with Soviet forces in Mongolia held their positions and the rest withdrew into Siberia.

It was yet another disaster for the Soviets to lose their Eastern supply routes and face yet another enemy. The US and Britain were of course dismayed by the entry of Japan into the war, but neither was willing to declare war over it and just prepared their own militaries for the fallout and finally began to increase joint planning in the Pacific and Atlantic. Talk of starting humanitarian aid to the Soviets via Iran advanced, but was contingent on the Soviets continuing to resist into 1942.

Since the defeat and treaty in 1940, the national unity government continued due to the perceived crisis situation with the disastrous lack of equipment due to Dunkirk. This enabled elections to be put off as Britain furiously rearmed, but did so mindful of financial constraints due to the hostile relationship with the US that refused to offer aid until Britain had used up its currency reserves and ended imperial preference in the colonies and commonwealth; that was clearly unacceptable, so cooperation remained non-existent. The ending of the naval war allowed Britain time to rearm via its own imperial resources to keep its foreign exchange up and trade with Japan and German dominated Europe brought in greater funds, though it was clear that that trade was helping the Axis. The mindset was defensive rather than offensive, so when proposals to create a special department of sabotage to infiltrate Europe, these were rejected for fear of irritating Hitler and resuming the war, which left MI6 to create intelligence networks in Europe and keep eyes and ears on the evolving situation. There wasn't much of an intention to resume conflict with German unless the Germans started it, so planning was kept to existing in the new political environment on the continent.

Fighter and Coastal Command were built up to resist any attempts to bombard or blockade the Home Isles, along with rebuilding the army using intelligence gathered from returning soldiers on how to fight the German army with its maneuver doctrine that upset the expectations of the British army. At the same time the Royal Navy built up a surplus of destroyers and other escorts to deal with a result to submarine warfare in the event of hostilities. Once these priorities were resolved then thoughts of building up Bomber Command to take the fight to the Axis if needed, plus as a deterrent in future political issues. Efforts were also paid to improving night navigational techniques, plus lack of practical experience meant having to operate on a lot of assumptions about what the next go around would be like, as Britain had not bombed Germany much during the hostilities nor was bombarded. Electronic development though offered a variety of interesting technologies that the RAF was somewhat eager to develop, but lacked full funding for.

When intelligence via signals intercepts and the German resistance began providing Britain with information about Barbarossa, Germany's invasion of the USSR, Halifax was delighted, as he could watch the Nazis dismantle the Soviets and get beaten up in the process, plus then be locked down in the East for decades holding down occupied peoples; Britain remembered their own unpleasant experience intervening in the East after WW1 in their attempt to stop the Soviets taking over Russia. Of course he ordered intelligence to be passed on to the Soviets to make Hitler's job all that much harder, but was dismayed to discover that Stalin did not act on it, thinking it was a ruse to get him to fight his erstwhile ally. Secretly however anti-communists in MI6 also passed intelligence on the Soviets to the Abwehr.

The invasion of the USSR in June 1941 brought a major sea change in Britain politically, as now the imminent threat of Germany to Britain was diverted and when Halifax offered no plans to assist the Soviets other than the Iran invasion, which was much more about securing British oil interests than helping the Soviets, Labour walked out of their deal with the Conservatives and made the government untenable with calls for an election, which had already been put off too long. The resulting elections in September wiped out the Conservative position and ended with Clement Atlee as PM. Atlee was not about to declare war as Britain was in no way ready to fight again and it would have been political suicide to fight an aggressive war against the Axis at this time, but he started expanding cooperation with the USSR and reached out to the US; FDR found Atlee far easier to work with than Halifax, especially as Attlee was far more interested in confronting German expansion. Still, issues remained between British and US interests, but both sides were more willing to cooperate now than earlier. One of the first areas of cooperation was the sharing of intelligence about the Axis, mostly one way due to the lack of a foreign intelligence service in the US, which was rectified by Congress in the wake of the Barbarossa invasion's success; MI6 started offering training to the prospective US agents forming the new OSS in Canada. Though not yet ready to get into action against Germany they could start making contacts in occupied Europe and start aiding the AVG in China by setting up military training for the Chinese and start getting supplies in via the Burma Road.

The invasion of Siberia by the Japanese came as a huge shock to the Anglo-Americans when it started and pretty much caused both to write Stalin off as a potential ally in the long run, because he was expected to fold. Instead more effort was put into preparing for war with an Axis dominated Eurasia. In the meantime Cash and Carry was repealed in the US, which resulted in the ban of war material sales to the active belligerents (a loophole using Iran as a trans-shipper was allowed to help the Soviets and if needed France and Spain could do the same for Germany), but the sale of raw materials continued, which was the vast majority of what Germany bought anyway. Britain too limited sales of war materials to Germany, but a similar loophole existed for non-belligerents in Europe.

Both Britain and the US worked to limit German influence in South America, effectively driving them out of much of Latin America by the end of 1942 but for Chile and Argentina. They also busted the a German spy ring in the US in September 1941, which worsened relations between Europe and America:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duquesne_Spy_Ring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bol%C3%ADvar

Links to IG Farben with US Standard Oil were also exposed, along with various other German corporate activities in the US, which helped lead to boycotts of German and US businesses, but trade still continued as nothing done had been illegal, its just that profits were hurt by public opinion turning against the Germans and US associated businesses. Media was very active against Germany and helped push the public increasingly into an anti-Axis mindset and was willing to sanction activities like the AVG in China, though isolationists still remained somewhat powerful, especially as the anti-communist movement overlapped with the isolationists somewhat and they were thrilled by Germany's invasion of the USSR, as they saw a chance to destroy communism in its cradle. Nevertheless internationalists were winning the hearts and minds in America and leveraging the public toward increasingly aggressive anti-Axis action, which was furthered by the economic downturn caused by Axis domination of European and Asian markets.

A couple of reasons I am doing another rewrite of the Eastern Front: I did some more reading of the 1941 campaign and discovered just how many things I overlooked like the absence of the 2nd and 5th Panzer divisions that had taken part in Balkans and only appeared during the Battle of Moscow, which would be available here, which without the wear and tear of that campaign would have had a significant difference, same with all the thousands of trucks that the Afrika Korps used that are available ITTL for the East (about 10% of the entire army stock was used for one corps in Africa).

Also the Luftwaffe was badly worn down more than I think from 1940-41; for Luftflotte 2 supporting AG-Center they had two wings of Bf110s, but together they could only field ~50 operational aircraft, less than 25% of their total aircraft on hand. Also given that twice as many aircraft are available as were historically on hand the Luftwaffe could both hit the VVS (Soviet air force) AND the Red Army on day one, rather than needing over a week of bombing airfields before they could support ground ops, which meant the Minsk Pocket was conducted IOTL with very limited air support. ITTL there is a dedicated ground support force that is enhanced once the VVS is bombed out. The Ju87s and Bf110s are at peak maintenance ITTL, so have a LOT more ability to support ground forces than IOTL. That pretty seriously changes everything from day 1 of Barbarossa, especially along the central Axis. So I felt a rewrite was in order given the factors that I did not weigh appropriately.

Now that`s a lot more ordered text. The Reichtangle approves.

always admire a lot of research and effort put into alt.history.

ITTL my question would be with GB out of war, plausible Germany turns back to China?

always think of Machiavellian turn in which (Wang Jingwei regime?) China provokes a Soviet move into Manchuria?

with obvious goal of having them (Soviets and Japanese) bleed themselves to death.

started by use of chemical or biological agents or Marco Polo bridge-type incident?

(not sure if Germany had quite the cupboard of nasties Japan had? but anything they gave the Chinese to use would , almost certainly, be blamed on Japanese? and Japanese themselves might be convinced some lower level operatives moved?)

thaddeus said:

always admire a lot of research and effort put into alt.history.

ITTL my question would be with GB out of war, plausible Germany turns back to China?

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No, China is being conquered by Japan and they've lost their entire coast. That marked the end of trade IOTL; Japan is anti-communist, has fought the USSR, and is the only potential ally that can help against the Soviets outside of Europe. So Japan is the better bet.

thaddeus said:

always think of Machiavellian turn in which (Wang Jingwei regime?) China provokes a Soviet move into Manchuria?

with obvious goal of having them (Soviets and Japanese) bleed themselves to death.

started by use of chemical or biological agents or Marco Polo bridge-type incident?

(not sure if Germany had quite the cupboard of nasties Japan had? but anything they gave the Chinese to use would , almost certainly, be blamed on Japanese? and Japanese themselves might be convinced some lower level operatives moved?)

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China had no capacity to do so and Stalin was helping Chiang at one point. Germany had no bio-weapons program before 1941 or 1942 IIRC.

Your POD with Churchill's death is a good one but my question is why you didn't include Walther Wever in the TL as well?

I've seen you argue convincingly how the Luftwaffe and the German war machine in general would be much better off if Wever didn't die in 1936.

Or are you trying not to give the Nazis too much of an advantage?

If the German torpedoes worked better in Oct '39, doesn't that mean that German U-boats have more success in the Norway campaign?

The other option, is shoot down the plane that Churchill is on, while on one of his flights to Paris - this leads to Cabinet paralysis, with Halifax able to seek 'peace terms'!

merlin said:

If the German torpedoes worked better in Oct '39, doesn't that mean that German U-boats have more success in the Norway campaign?

The other option, is shoot down the plane that Churchill is on, while on one of his flights to Paris - this leads to Cabinet paralysis, with Halifax able to seek 'peace terms'!

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Those 3 particular torpedoes. Not everyone.

I'm looking forward to seeing what AGC's push is like. They have two additional armor divisions, twice as many aircraft, 11 more days to get the job done, and the USSR experienced significantly more casualties ITTL due to the earlier loss of Sevestapol, Kharkov, and Leningrad.

Is it possible the Germans actually get into the streets of Moscow and then AGC gets shattered? It makes for long, terrible war.

Cmyers1980 said:

Your POD with Churchill's death is a good one but my question is why you didn't include Walther Wever in the TL as well?

I've seen you argue convincingly how the Luftwaffe and the German war machine in general would be much better off if Wever didn't die in 1936.

Or are you trying not to give the Nazis too much of an advantage?

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Way too early and it creates massive butterflies; the Churchill situation is very easy to manage in the regard. Maybe on day I might do a Wever lives TL, but that doesn't guarantee Britain is out of the war like ITTL.

Minsk

The initial border battles heavily favored the invaders, who were aided by Stalin's orders not to provoke the Germans and thus stood down when they should have been preparing to resist. Brandenburger commandos and various sabotage teams made up of mixed German and Eastern European exiles parachuted into Soviet held territory ahead of the advance to disrupt communications, seize important bridges and prevent their destruction, and create as much havoc as possible to disrupt Soviet resistance. Perhaps the most important element of the first of the pocket battles was the Luftwaffe. It had been divided into two forces for the operation, the operational bomber force that would seize air superiority via bombing airfields from dusk on the day of the invasion in coordination with the first of the artillery bombardments of the army, then switch to battlefield interdiction and train busting, and the direct army support force, initially concentrated under Richthofen's command in Luftflotte 2, who would run the tactical bombing campaign against Soviet forces in the way of AG-Center.

The two air missions would run simultaneously, with the operational bombers starting first in the early morning of June 10th while still dark, assembling in the night to hit Soviet airfields within range to prevent the VVS from interfering with the ground campaign. Using the Knickebein radio guidance system the best night flyers were guided to their targets at night where pathfinders leading the bomber groups dropped flares on the targets to light them up for the rest of the force, which subsequently pounded them to uselessness. German airmen were astonished to see by the light of the flares the lines of Soviet aircraft crammed together for what looked like inspections, making their job ridiculously easy. In all over 3000 Soviet aircraft would be lost in the first week, the majority in the first bombing raids on the morning of the invasion.

The direct support force had with it 3 Stuka and 3 Bf110 wings, plus a fighter wing and CAS groups which would reap their own bloody harvest starting after daylight on the 10th. The Bf110 had found a new life as a ground attack/light bomber, which it excelled at in Russia. With Soviet air power largely disrupted for the first week and thereafter being slaughtered by the vastly more experienced and better equipped Axis air forces, the tactical bombers of Richthofen's air corps were effectively able to operate without any aerial threat; their biggest concern was ground fire, which was quite a bit worse in the East due to the Soviets being trained to open up with every weapon possible against enemy aircraft; this proved to be a more effective option than running away as the Western armies had done in the face of the Luftwaffe, but meant men were still highly exposed to bombers and cannon fire from aircraft.

The fighting on the ground was heavily one sided when the offensive began, as with total air dominance, lopsided preparation, and concentration of force the Germans just rolled over Soviet troops on their way toward a double pincer aimed on Minsk. The resulting pocket would actually be several smaller ones contained within a larger battle collectively known as the Battle of Minsk and would result in over 400k PoWs and thousands of captured/destroyed heavy weapons of every category. Over 150k men were able to escape (OOC: instead of 250k men IOTL due to the extra airpower and panzers) the pocket as the mobile units of the German army outpaced the foot infantry division and left gaps for smaller units to escape out of without their heavy equipment. The Luftwaffe ensured that any large formation was bombed and strafed, so it disrupted some breakout efforts, though with Guderian's troops taking longer to reach Minsk an exit route remained open for several crucial days.

Stalin, still in the offensive mindset and not yet despondent about defeat ordered massed armor counter attacks to prevent the pocket at Minsk from being closed, but the badly disordered and poorly coordinated attacks operated in a hostile air environment and against an army that vastly out performed it, which resulted in an armor force of some 2000 Soviet tanks being virtually wiped out (OTL only about half destroyed) when Bf110s were vectored in to deal with it. By the time the pocket was closed and being liquidated by the follow on infantry, well supported from the air, offensive efforts were already being made by the Panzers to continue on to deal with the masses of Soviet troops to the East of Minsk. Unexpectedly the Soviets had managed to form another echelon of troops without detection from German intelligence, so rather than having won the war in the first battle German forces would have to fight yet another encirclement on the road to Moscow; intelligence now though was indicating that there was another echelon being mobilized even further back, so now what was planned on being a short campaign was quickly proving to extremely flawed in conception, potentially fatally so.
As it stood though the Luftwaffe still had reach and was able to disrupt Soviet reserves in the path of the Panzers, so while doubt began setting in among the German General Staff, for now it appeared that they could adapt to the unplanned for Soviet reserves and crush them just as readily as they had the Western Front at Minsk. Crossing the Stalin Line with ease German forces slipped even further East, looking for the next decisive battle.

Just a point of order: ITTL the Germans because of no blockade are able to take more full advantage of their own industry, but also that of the occupied countries. That means they can produce trucks on lines that were shut down IOTL like Opel's at Rüsselsheim.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel#World_War_II

World War II brought to Rüsselsheim the only year in the entire history of Opel – 1945 – in which it produced few vehicles, since that first Lutzmann-authored Opel was made in 1899. Before the conflict broke out, the Adam Opel AG had established itself as the largest motor vehicle manufacturer in Europe. The combination of Opel know-how with GM resources had produced outstanding results. In spite of stifling red tape, the economic atmosphere in Germany in the 1930s had powerfully fertilized the growth of this and other auto companies. But in the case of Opel, at least, it was clear that the expansion of this industrial machine was not directed in any way toward military objectives.


Even after June 1940, official connections between Opel and America were not broken and monetary gain continued throughout the war which was controlled by the J.P Morgan firm, the Rüsselsheim plant was never given a major role in Germany's war preparations. Neither was Ford's plant in Cologne considered trustworthy enough for a big assignment, such as tank manufacture, in view of their earlier foreign associations. Initially, of course, it had appeared that the war would be a short one settled in Germany's favour. Auto plants were shut down, to conserve resources, but not converted to other jobs.


When in 1942 it became clearer that the fighting would go on for a while, car and truck factories were switched to war work in a modest way, Opel taking up the production of aircraft parts and tanks. Only at the Brandenburg plant did truck manufacture roar ahead at full speed. From the end of 1938 onward to big Opel Blitz trucks had been powered by the same basic 3.6 L engine used in the Opel Admiral. To meet the growing demands of wartime, 3 short tons (2.7 t) trucks of Opel design were built under license by Daimler-Benz at the former Benz factory at Mannheim.

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Being able to import US machine tools to help convert lines over and supplement their own machine tool industry, they can complete armaments plans much more quickly than IOTL when they had a 2-3 year back log on machine tool production; also certain projects are put on hold ITTL due to the victory in 1940 and need to maximize existing types for the Russian campaign, namely no tooling for the Me210, He177, or Ju288 until things are won in the East. Existing production is locked in. Also Uboat production is pretty much shut down due to no need after the defeat of Britain, though orders that had the hulls laid down are completed. The lack of those major expenses frees up a lot of production for building things like more locomotives and rolling stock for the East, beyond OTL's numbers, more spare parts for Panzers and trucks, more trucks, etc. Plus with imports France, the Netherlands, and Belgium can continue to produce, especially parts for trucks taken into German service, but also whole new vehicles. So as their industries are demilitarized and put back on a peacetime footing, they are producing non-combat stuff for the German military to ensure there are enough trucks and trains to make up for what was taken by the Germans, but also what the Germans still want.

Even though IOTL and ITTL the Germans plan on the fight in the East being a short campaign, they still are planning on the occupation up to the Urals, so are accumulating trucks, trains, weapons, etc. to use once the major fighting ends and huge territories of the East are incorporated into the German sphere. So that means as time goes on there are a lot more spares in terms of trucks for the Germans because they have the resources to actually make them. Also due to not having to have huge occupation forces all over Europe they haven't mobilized as many men initially, leaving a lot more men in industry working; they will eventually be mobilized, but the workforce is going to be substantially higher throughout 1941 than it was IOTL, which enables this.

Question: If there are extra Panzer divisions, why are they in the center and not AGS?

pattersonautobody said:

Question: If there are extra Panzer divisions, why are they in the center and not AGS?

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Center was the main effort IOTL. That's why they loaded it up with two panzer groups, two air fleets, and virtually all of the stukas. It was thought that once the decisive battle in Belarus was fought then they'd shift their strength north or south as needed. So now 3rd Panzer group is as strong as 2nd. There are 3 mobile corps of 2 panzer divisions and 1 motorized division each, instead of one with 2 panzer/2 motorized and one with 2 panzer 1 motorized. It gives a lot more flexibility to 3rd Panzer to operate.

Is Hitler still going to end up dead with Goering taking command?