WI: Romania intervened in Fall Weiss

[Michael Wittmann]

What if Romania intervened on the side of Poland during Fall Weiss? Will Poland still be defeated or will resist back? I heard that Britain and France can send supplies and vehicles to Poland through Romanian ports and through Romania's interwar border with Poland.

For more info, see this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%...anian_Alliance

[seraphim74]

I do not think Romania would have helped. German invasion was too fast and to successful, western allies did nothing and Romanians had every reason to feel threatened by USSR. Romania might have mobilized her army but then it would have been too late, with German forces reaching Warsaw. For Romanians it would have been joining the war on the loosing side against much more powerful enemy, with second potential enemy (Stalin) being a big enigma. Much too risky.
And after Soviet invasion it would have been a suicide.

[Magnum]

Hi.

The supplies the British and French could send through the Black Sea ports would be too little too late to save Poland by themselves.

That said, Romania entering the war about the same time as Britain and France (this implies no refusal of Romanian intervention by the Poles themselves) could, IMHO, lead to one of these scenarios:

1. Germany quickly smashes Poland and goes on to defeat Romania in one or two quick and decisive border engagements, leading to a change in the Romanian leadership and a cease-fire. Could possibly be coupled with attacks on Romania by Hungary, Bulgaria and/or the SU. War goes almost as OTL from then on. (unless the oilfields & refineries sustain considerable damage, in which case Barbarossa is far less successful)

2. Germany quickly smashes Poland and goes on to invade Romania. However, the large distances, rugged and even mountainous terrain, horrible roads and the sizeable Romanian army lead to Germany suffering ireplaceable losses due to combat and/or attrition. This enables to Anglo-French to halt to German invasion in May 1940 by the skin of their teeth. Entente victory in late 1941 at the latest.


3. Reasoning that it's not too late to launch an offensive, French forces attack the Siegfried line in force before the Germans have overrun all of Poland. This either leads to:
a. they are reasonably successful, forcing the Germans to halt their offensive in the east. Entente victory within a few months as the German war-effort collapses
b. they fail miserably, leading to either 1) or 2)


So, what do you think ? Plausible ?

[Hkelukka]

20-50-30 and the second tier is 10-90

[LOTLOF]

No significant change.

The Soviets are not going to intervene. The French are not going to launch a serious offensive. The Germans may need an additional two or three months to conquer Romania, but they can bring it off easily enough.

There is a corresponding delay in refitting the tanks and shifting the bulk of the army to the west, but there should be no trouble being ready by May. A few more divisions will be needed for occupation duty but that is all.

Perhaps having the Germans a bit closer makes Greece and Yugoslavia rethink inviting in the British and staging a coup. The Germans have full control of the Ploetsi oil fields, but they pretty much did OTL. Jumping off points for Barbarossa might be slightly better.

[seraphim74]

Originally posted by LOTLOF

The Soviets are not going to intervene. The French are not going to launch a serious offensive. The Germans may need an additional two or three months to conquer Romania, but they can bring it off easily enough.

Why not?

The Germans may need an additional two or three months to conquer Romania, but they can bring it off easily enough.

Perhaps they could count on Hungarian support by offering them Transylvania.

[anotherlurker]

the romanians lose the border connection to poland/germany when the soviets take their share.

and neither hungary nor the soviets are going to let them through, quite the opposite - both have some axes to grind with romania.

[BlairWitch749]

the romanians get rolled; bad

in the first world war, with russia as an ally the germans, bulgars, austrians and turks cold cocked and completely defeated romania in 6 weeks

at that moment, Romania would be invaded by Germans and slovaks from the north west, Germans from the north, Germans and Hungarians from the west, Russians from the east and probably Bulgars from the south

Romania was well spelled out in the M-R pact; Stalin would attack too to take his cut in Bessarbia... Romania field army at that moment, whilst large was horrendously obsolete and largely without aircover and would collapse in the face of the Germans and Russians very quickly

entent support would be zero.... who says the turks even let british merchies through the straits.... poland just got whipped by the germans and russians; romania is being whipped by the germans and russians, that would give the turkish government very serious concerns about their security and at even the slightest wiff of protest of disapproval from the Germans and Russians they could not allow the entente in

[KACKO]

Slovakia didn't have border with Romania in1939. Ruthenia was occupied by Hungary in March 1939. Only way Slovaks could do if asked by Germans for few infantry divisions to attack from former Polish territory. I can't see Hungarians to let few Slovaks divisions on their territory. There were even problems in OTL in 1941 with transports of Slovak troops through former Slovak territory. In Kosice-Kassa railway station for example Slovaks were welcome by Slovak citizens of at the time Hungarian town, which was understandably not liked by Hungarians. And we are forgetting one thing. I believe Poland and Romania had some deffense treaty against Soviet union but not against Germany. No reason to act before Soviets attack and afterwards all was lost anyway.