Germany runs essentially Schlieffen Plan Take 2, and is stopped in France/Belgium. Hitler's government is overthrown, and his conquests reversed. Italy had joined the Allies late in the war, but suffered heavy losses attempting unsuccessfully to invade Austria, and Mussolini is essentially discredited as an independent player. Meanwhile, the USSR has just barely beaten Finland in the Winter War, and is generally regarded as a de facto German ally, and thus distrusted by everyone. The USA has remained neutral, so the British (and to a lesser extent the French and Italians) are seen as essentially the defenders of the Free World against the looming Bolshevik menace, exerting a de facto hegemony over non-Communist Europe (which at this point essentially consists of everything in Europe outside of the USSR proper).
India still goes independent, and many of the colonies follow, but without WWII (and especially without the Pacific War demonstrating how hollow British promises of protection were), the dominions still tend to look to the UK as their chief protector, instead of the US. If the Japanese do act up later, the UK plays a much more prominent role in the war, with the Royal Navy contributing significant forces (instead of being mostly tied up in Europe as OTL).
Germany runs essentially Schlieffen Plan Take 2, and is stopped in France/Belgium. Hitler's government is overthrown, and his conquests reversed. Italy had joined the Allies late in the war, but suffered heavy losses attempting unsuccessfully to invade Austria, and Mussolini is essentially discredited as an independent player. Meanwhile, the USSR has just barely beaten Finland in the Winter War, and is generally regarded as a de facto German ally, and thus distrusted by everyone. The USA has remained neutral, so the British (and to a lesser extent the French and Italians) are seen as essentially the defenders of the Free World against the looming Bolshevik menace, exerting a de facto hegemony over non-Communist Europe (which at this point essentially consists of everything in Europe outside of the USSR proper).
India still goes independent, and many of the colonies follow, but without WWII (and especially without the Pacific War demonstrating how hollow British promises of protection were), the dominions still tend to look to the UK as their chief protector, instead of the US. If the Japanese do act up later, the UK plays a much more prominent role in the war, with the Royal Navy contributing significant forces (instead of being mostly tied up in Europe as OTL).
That happened before the start of the war anyway!is there anyway to get (British) conscription from the Fall of France?
Or would that take a earlier POD?
This is a French wank.
How about having the British guard the army group hinges at Sedan?
Thing is, for a proper Britwank you need to get rid of the Fall of France - that's what led to the UK selling the family silver to the US and essentially handing over their previous role as global hegemon. It's pretty much impossible to come up with a PoD that still has France falling but leaves the UK coming out of WW2 stronger than if France doesn't fall.Good point, my scenario was keeping it as British as possible.
I agree with just about everything you've written here ...A Brit wank is easy - create a POD that start the rearmament process and rebuilding of the Army at least 12 month earlier
Questions in the House of Commons on 28 November 1938
Sir P. Harris asked the Prime Minister whether this country is, in certain circumstances, committed to send an expeditionary force to France; and whether, as a result of his visit to Paris, there has been any increase in such commitments?
The Prime Minister answered "The answer to both parts of the question is in the positive"
— Hansard Vol 342, 28 November 1938.
So by April 1940 Britain will have 20 - 25 Infantry Divisions (not 8) and 2000 to 4000 tanks (not 500 odd) and the greater % of these will be Matilda II or Valentine types and not 'Machine gun tanks' and he balance of these forces deployed to France and hopefully in an improved TL Belgium as well
Artillery, Radio, Aircraft, engine, Ammunition factories will have had an extra 12 months to start ramping up
For example one of the delays in producing longer gun barrels was a shortage of longer lathes and certain cutting tools - another 12 months of development headstart on the industry side and we would see much less of a delay for things like better anti tank guns, Directors for warships, Radios, Engines etc
There will still be teething problems and skill shortages but again a 12 month headstart means these issues are ironed out sooner.
Also playing hardball with both Germany earlier might give them pause - giving more time for britain and France to rearm
Also it seems that Britian seriously hamstrung itself earlier in the war by trying to assist those nations that would not help themselves (Belgium, Holland, Norway, Greece and to some extent France) - so make a maximum effort to see that they too carry out a a sort of Neutral rearmament and/or agree to receive military assistance in good time and not as in most cases after the 11th hour has passed.
In the case of France - British Officers where 'Shaken' when the realised the state of the French Army in 1939 - its difficult for us to accept today but the perception in the late 30s was that the French Army was the most powerful army in the world.
Start making changes a year or so earlier here and an awful lot gets changed / butterflied
So in short a better Britwank requires at least a strong '1941' BEF and a more organised French Army and Airforce by 1940.
A more robust policy in places like Malaya and in dealings with Thialand
A clearer pre war understanding with main dominion nations ie India, Canada, South Africa and Australia regarding the number of troops that they would be able to provide and the area of responsibility they were willing to undertake - all suffered early in the war from the impact of inter party politics (or some such) that delayed the raising and arming of troops for over seas deployment and poor liasion with Whitehall
Indeed had a fraction of the number of troops eventually provided by those nations been made available in 1940 (more than in OTL) then I believe that the events in North Africa could have been resolved far quicker not only freeing upo troops for elsewhere but possibly even butterflying certain issues
But the main change as always has to be France
No fall of France - No Vichi France campaigns
No fall of France - very possibly no Italian Entry into the war
No fall of France - No Japanese taking possession of indo China and the snowball effect that lead from this with the US
No Fall fo France - very likely with a combination of the above - more units and better quality units and leaders available for the Far East - less chance of the Japanese invading and if they did a greatly reduced chance of them being as sucessful as they were.
So ultimately a Britwank has to go hand in hand (pun intended) with a French Wank
I always fail to see what LUCK had to do with Sickle Cut ... to me luck in battle is something that happens to change the course of the battle that is completely outside the control of either combatants. To me Sickle Cut was a calculated risk that paid off, it was planned and executed well against an alliance that contained three main parties, one of which was prepared for mobile warfare but too small to really influence the outcome, one that was not so well prepared to meet the German war machine and also too small to influence the outcome and a third that was ill prepared for anything other than a static defensive encounter but contained the majority of the forces and maintained majority control over the two smaller allies. The German gamble worked ... it wasn't luck, it was good execution of a risky plan that counted on the French being as bad as they were.Blunted Sickle is a Britwank, but only because of the relatively terrible performance and luck of the allies OTL was a total Britscrew.
If we consider the UK to be more warlike and start to properly re-arm a year or two earlier, why not also go the whole hog and invade Germany whilst it is still engaged in Poland (or shortly after). The BEF, which is now 2 or 3 three times larger than OTL, which is even more mobile and with better equipment and has the French army and the Maginot line to fall back behind if things don't go well, could quite easily make a huge incursion into German held territory and break the Germans before the war has even properly started.
A wank is when a country does well, not necessarily when it wins the important battles. For example, having the whole of Europe descend into three centuries of insular infighting right after the Columbian Interchange would be a Native American-wank, because it would buy them time to re-populate with (hopefully) smallpox resistance.
Thing is, both the French and Germans were committed to risky plans - the Germans to thrusting through the Ardennes and letting their Panzer spearheads shoot forwards without worrying about their rear, and the French to placing essentially their entire reserve on the front line as far from France itself as they could. I'd say that you could make a decent case that the Germans were lucky that the French committed to such a bad plan - and one which was so well suited to the German plan, placing as it did the cream of their armies within the planned German encirclement! That isn't something you can honestly plan for or predict, so I'd argue that it was to some extent luck.I always fail to see what LUCK had to do with Sickle Cut ... to me luck in battle is something that happens to change the course of the battle that is completely outside the control of either combatants. To me Sickle Cut was a calculated risk that paid off, it was planned and executed well against an alliance that contained three main parties, one of which was prepared for mobile warfare but too small to really influence the outcome, one that was not so well prepared to meet the German war machine and also too small to influence the outcome and a third that was ill prepared for anything other than a static defensive encounter but contained the majority of the forces and maintained majority control over the two smaller allies. The German gamble worked ... it wasn't luck, it was good execution of a risky plan that counted on the French being as bad as they were.
A wank is when one country rolls the dice and it keeps landing on a six while the other country (or countries) rolls the dice and it keeps landing between one and five.
Germany between 1936 to 41/42 is an example of the former and Britain the latter.