Largest possible Soviet gains

[Tprynn]

John Birmingham's Final Impact, the USSR (Through future tech and insane tactics) capture not just eastern Europe but also ignored Germany and take Greece, Northern Italy, chunks of Vichy France and Austria, Persia, Afghanistan, Korea, Indochina and shared occupation of Japan with the USA.

While such gains would be virtually impossible OTL, it did raise the idea of how much territory can the Soviet Union capture and hold.

[ObssesedNuker]

In Europe? Everything east of the Rhine and east/northeast/north of Italy
In the Pacific? All of OTLs gains plus the entirety of Korea and Hokkaido, with a northern part of Honshu as a "maybe".

[Snake Featherston]

The problem the USSR has with making its maximum gains is that this requires Stalin delay his Purge until after war with the Germans, which would mean that his army with its full set of modern leaders and concepts is at its best degree able to implement them. But a scenario where this happens has political and military butterflies sufficient to resemble OTL only in superficial details, namely that the USA *will* be involved in a war with both Germany and Japan in alliance with the UK and the USSR, but the latter may well start grinding up and spitting out entire countries before the former even get a significant number of troops in North Africa, let alone Europe.

[Michel Van]

In french Comic "Paris, Secteur Soviètique" by Pecau & Ducal and Séjourné, play that scenario

D-day end in total fiasco and the Allies are force to move from Italy over Rhone Valley to the Third Reich frontier
Hitler trow everything he got to ward down Rhone Valley, in insane hope for fast victory on west front.
In the end of the war, the USA and British reached south Paris, also Red Army reached North Paris

but is that realistic scenario ?

[Snake Featherston]

Originally Posted by Michel Van

In french Comic "Paris, Secteur Soviètique" by Pecau & Ducal and Séjourné, play that scenario

D-day end in total fiasco and the Allies are force to move from Italy over Rhone Valley to the Third Reich frontier
Hitler trow everything he got to ward down Rhone Valley, in insane hope for fast victory on west front.
In the end of the war, the USA and British reached south Paris, also Red Army reached North Paris

but is that realistic scenario ?

No it's not. The Soviets don't have the logistical wherewithal to get much past the Rhine in this phase of the war, as their own manpower crisis means that they can only go so far before they run out of both manpower and men behind the firepower.

[ObssesedNuker]

Originally Posted by Snake Featherston

No it's not. The Soviets don't have the logistical wherewithal to get much past the Rhine in this phase of the war, as their own manpower crisis means that they can only go so far before they run out of both manpower and men behind the firepower.

The Soviet manpower crisis in OTL 1945 isn't like that. Even excluding the 5 million Red Army soldiers they don't have participating in the ETO and the 3 million[1] surviving Soviet POWs who Stalin will probably use before persecuting, there are still plenty of men of military age left for the Soviets to draft if they are willing to put even more woman and children in the factories and farms in their place[2].

The real problems for losing another million or so men will be on the Soviet reconstruction efforts post-war (although this can be partially-offset by looting the Ruhr) and an even worse demographic bomb further down the line. And besides, if the Soviets are on the Rhine, German resistance is has collapsed anyways.

[1]Off the top of my head, not an exact number.
[2]As the historical record indicates: they are.

[Killer300]

Well, one could just alter how Barbossa goes by making it where no Purges occur, however even then, you're drastically changing history, and additionally, they aren't getting Italy. That's just... way too much.

[Doctor Imperialism]

What's the POD here? With a failed Normandy, the Soviets could get most of Europe.

[UrbanRedneck]

But would they be able to turn all of Germany (not just the East), France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark and the others into Soviet vassal states like they did eastern Europe? Remember the Hungarian revolt?

[Doctor Imperialism]

Originally Posted by UrbanRedneck

But would they be able to turn all of Germany (not just the East), France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark and the others into Soviet vassal states like they did eastern Europe? Remember the Hungarian revolt?

Here's an idea - What if the Soviets preserved Vichy France? They would, of course, install a Communist puppet government, but a divided France is easier to manipulate than a united one.

[PoeFacedKilla]

i don't even think the soviets could hold on to all of Germany for long.

[OS fan]

Originally Posted by ObssesedNuker

the 3 million[1] surviving Soviet POWs who Stalin will probably use before persecuting

He wouldn't. Stalin was suspicious of people, not to say paranoid. Many Russian POWs ended up in the Gulags.