The thing is, I don't really see why there'd be the same fascination with Hitler, what happened to his body, etc etc in this timeline.
I'm sure his thorough disappearance will spark some curiosity, but it's going to be limited by the different circumstances of this war.
It'll be mostly the historians - the world at large will assume he died in the coup and his body was quietly buried.
That's a point, as well one has to consider that the Holocaust hasn't had the time to reach the same depths of depravity and industrialised murder as IOTL. I imagine he will probably be seen as a repeat of Kaiser Wilhelm II, albeit a more brutal and megalomaniacal one.
This also plays into the Entente's postwar relationship with Germany: there will be seen to be something wrong with German culture, rather than the idea of the Nazis as a particularly evil aberration. That is going to feed into a very long occupation, and German civil society being torn down to the very smallest building blocks and only slowly built up again. It will be a very, very long time before you ever again see a German in uniform holding a weapon.
The idea of Poles solving their problems via uprisings will be validated to an insane degree. This idea is already popular OTL. Moreover, ITTL Poles will learn that far-off allies can be counted on. This is going to be so weird post-war.
The world is a very, very different place to OTL 1945. That's one of the reasons this timeline runs so slowly - I'm having too much fun writing the 1950s and 60s!
As for Mussolini's willingness to attack in the Alps without any preparations, it must be remembered that he did this in the OTL against the French, whose forces were much stronger than anything the Germans are likely to have along the Italian border. IIRC, Mussolini ordered his troops to attack without waiting to mobilize to fill out the divisions with reservists. Militarily it was a disaster for the Italians, but diplomatically (in the short term) it was a success as it gave Italy a seat at table when France surrendered.
The problem is more one of reaction time than anything else: he's been caught on the hop by it on Christmas Eve, and until the British and French make a move the significance won't be immediately obvious. How fast do you think the Italian government of the time can move when they're caught by surprise on holiday with their families?
I rather think it'll be less succesful here. Sure, in OTL a snap offensive was enough, but then the complete fighting had been just about a long month. Here there's been multiple sustained offensives. A snap offensive now is likely to result in the Entente ignoring minor transgressions of the past, not in giving Mussolini a REAL seat at the big boys table.
It's far too much for him to get anything at the peace conference - what he
might get to keep is whatever he can get his grubby little hands onto before the end of the war.
Well, at least on paper. What is the real situation ITTL?
I think the key is that this is mobilization strength - and by inference not peacetime ration strength. The Soviets are also known for rigid adherence to the plan, and discouraging initiative (well, at least at this point in history) - so they won't be mobilizing as fast as possible trying to be ready early but instead taking their time to finish previous tasks and still be ready at the required date.
Ironically it might now then be the Finns calling for a trade embargo, as they have little reason to love a regime that threw them under the Soviet steamroller once. The Swedish government will naturally have less sanguine view to the matter, considering their closer proximity to German-controlled territories.
It isn't so much a trade embargo, as that Germany simply can't pay them for imports any more - and the Swedes don't feel like extending credit any more than the Finns do. With Narvik open, they have a choice - and the Entente are happy enough to pay cash to keep it out of German hands.
There were a few mentions about weapon smuggling a while back, and the Hungarian public opinion was strongly pro-Polish at the time as well. And in any case they'd better do something. Even though Munich Agreement will be viewed as a common sin of all participants from the TTL postwar perspective, the following dismemberment of Czechoslovakia will make the Hungarians look bad if they don't have something to counter that.
Were you reading my notes?
With the Hungarians declaring, it's not even going to take that long.
Probably not.
Depends. But as Germans were doing worst I guess here they just have whatever they manufactured plus Italian planes.
Proposed name: Yukon Railway Corporation
AlCan railway maybe? It's the Alaska Highway with a different thing for the wheels to run on, essentially.
The railway will certainly help at least one man with the initials MP.
You mean ITTL Michael Palin will actually reach Little Diomede?
Interesting to see TTL Anthropoid be s success (RIP Gabčík) but it does leave the question of where's Heydrich TTL?
He's too senior and close to Heydrich to stay free for very long, so either he got out somehow or was shot by the Heer.
That's an interesting development. So the Polish informed the Hungarian government in advance as a contingency if the Entente did not help? I wonder if we should expect Mousalini to 'try' to do something shortly as he has proven to be sensitive to the Balkans states (for lack of a better term even though Hungary is technically not in the region its government shares characteristics with many of the other states) showing too much independent initiative.
A little bit more than that - the Hungarians have been preparing for this for a while now.
The German army in the West is a thin shell that protects what is left. It will be weak in most areas, with areas of strength backed by favourable ground. Smashing through that shell will take casualties, but once through the massive firepower and mobility will condemn the German forces to be surrounded or bypassed. The Entente can advance faster than they can retreat. With Hungry joining the war, the German High command will realize that they need to find the best deal they can for survival. Not likely they will get it, look forward to seeing them making ever increasing desperate proposals to the West to end the war.
Problem is, at the moment there is literally nothing they can offer the Entente that would make one iota of difference.
And not only would they have sufficient reserves to stem an offensive once through the crust, it's probably more or less incapable of actually moving those non-existent reserves to where they would be needed at anything faster than marching pace.
Maybe a little better than that, but not much.
At this point even Italy would declare war on Germany, Mussolini would not let such occasion pass and he want history to remember him.
Yes. How many days will it take though?
1) I take it the fact that it is less rushed is the reason that a rail link to Alaska is preferred over the road link.
2) Oddly enough iOTL, Konstantin von Neurath wasn't sentenced to death by the Nuremberg trials.
3) Hungary's entrance into the War. How far in advance did the Entente know that the Hungarians were entering the war? How much will the be allies of convenience only (the equivalent of the Soviets iTTL). Hungary alone isn't that much of a threat to the 3R, but it turns a *lot* of areas that were rear echelons into active combat zones. I'm surprised that the Hungarians advanced in Poland, they've got a much larger border with pre-war Austria and pre-war Czechoslovakia now controlled by the 3R to worry about.
- Yep - at this point in OTL the only thing a road link had to commend it was being much faster to build than a railway. For moving goods or people long distances the railway was still seen as the best option. Here, without a war on (or the imminent threat of one), but it very much being a long-term danger then a railway gets the nod.
- He's still the man in the hot seat, and the Beneš government need to make it look like they're fighting alongside their allies.
- They didn't have any warning at all, although the Poles did. Balkan diplomacy at it's finest.
4) Romania. The opposite side from Yugoslavia. I'm not sure how the Romanian Oil gets to Germany, but unless it goes through Yugoslavia, they've lost the 3R as a customer. Not sure how much the USSR could pivot from a plan to invade Poland to one to invade Romania...
It doesn't go to Germany, and IOTL didn't until after the Fall of France when the Germans could put the screws on. Here, that never happened.
I strongly suggest that the Polish Home Army had informed the Hungarians well before they informed the Entente.
Yes. London and Paris are going to be
fuming right now.
Slovak Army will be in better situation too as its forces will be not encamped among German troops and captured, there are not almost 3 divisins (well more like brigades in numbers) out of Slovak territory (Romania/ Hungary and Italy OTL and especially they didn’t spent/ lost shitload of material in Eussia. Sure Air Force is obsolete, bi planes, but what Germans have left of their Air Force? So still on local level pretty decent.
Everything depends how it happens. If actions against Germans will be organized from top, by order from President Tiso as Commander, they will avoid confusion of OTL when some garrisons/ commanders were not willing to join. With situation in Germany (small civil war), Allies advencing, Uprising in Poland and Hungary joining on Allied side it is more likely order will come from top. Especially as Slovaks and Hungarians were watching each other. Slovaks will see it as Hungarians are jumping on wining side and will do the same as soon as possible.
Heh. Would be funny if Slovaks declared war, pushed into Protectorate and liberated parts of Czech lands. Benes would feel pretty bad. How would he claim title President Liberator of it was actually President Tiso who liberated majority of Czech lands.
- There are no formed bodies of German troops in Slovakia at the moment, just the usual liaison officers, etc.
- The Slovaks know that this is their only chance to secure their independence/home rule after the war - jump in too early and the Germans squash them, too late and the Entente treat them as an Axis power and puts Beneš back in charge.
- The Entente have probably denounced the Munich agreement by now, and the Vienna Awards are something they will want to discuss at length. What they don't have is a firm policy on what they should do instead, having been concentrating on other things. The Slovaks have at most a few weeks to create facts on the ground before it gets to the top of the to-do list...
As an aside, given the overall Entente High Command view that the War happened because of insufficient combined action, I would not be at all surprised if the Entente gave very broad hints to all the Balkan countries that they should have a system of mutual guarantees and that Hungary should lead it.
Half right
But really who should be most interested in some kind of mutual guarantees are Poland, Hungary and Romania, as right now they have one in common - border with USSR. Of course under conditions Hungary will managed to hold onto Ruthenia. Which was part of even post Munich and post Vienna award Czechoslovakia. I guess if Hungarians wants to keep it is in their interests to support Slovak independence as Slovaks are not interested in it at all - they are interested in return of territories lost in March war 1939, but not in Ruthenia. What an interesting twist.
Thing is, Poland will be looking to London and Paris for guarantees - and particularly if they can keep them occupying Germany.
With the offensive re-opened, I'd like to remind people that the Charge To Warsaw is going to make the Hundred Days look like the Somme.
Yep. Motor transport gets you a lot.
I'm assuming that the Poles were in contact with the Hungarians, probably ongoing contact since the beginning of the war. They would have wanted to establish some sort of route for smuggling supplies to the resistance. By advancing into Poland the Hungarians can claim "We are not jumping on the corpse of Germany for loot, we are helping to preserve the valiant Poles from the depredations of the despicable Soviets. By the way, got any stuff we can have cheap, just to help us help the Poles you understand."
Oh, and by they way, this territory we took from Czechoslovakia in the Vienna Awards? This is not the territory you are looking for, move along.
The Hungarians have armor, and the Polish Home Army probably doesn't ... and going to where the opposition isn't and the Home Army is strikes me as a good idea for the Hungarians.
They're a long way from Warsaw (~500km), over terrible roads in the dead of winter. The British are the same distance from Berlin, with vastly better roads and far more motor transport.
