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That form of deterrent makes sense if dealing with a rational opponent, but the Soviets were far more blasé about mass casualties than the Western democracies. They might accept 50 million dead in exchange for geopolitical domination of Western Europe's ashes

Hi, being Irish, Eire is what the writer of the Constitution, DeValera, came up with. We just call it Ireland, or the Republic. The actual Gaelic word is Eireann, but very few people speak Iriah

Just realised that the one thing your excellent TL is missing is ... conflict. Bear with me here, just coming off a 10 hour shift at 7am. But modern war is replete with examples of commanders buggering up strategy because they simply don't like each other. My favourite is Davout almost begging...

Could people please not call it Eire? No one here does (and, yes, I know it's in our Constitution, but there is a fucktonne of crap in that document)

Oh, I agree. In which case, he should have just declared war and grew a set. Sorry. I have had too many arguments about this subject with people who try to cloak moral cowardice with national interest. ITTL, Ireland stands happily on the sidelines and loses nothing. OTL, Ireland as a belligerent...

The Swedes had several drivers that dictated they behave in a certain manner; economically, their iron was essential to the German efforts, and they knew that if they kicked off that the Germans would have no compunction about invading, especially after Barbarossa. The situation ITTL is not the...

Rug, meet Churchill. Seriously, though, Churchill absolutely despised DeValera, the Irish Prime Minister of the time, going back to the first treaty preliminaries and a multitude of interactions since then. He even proposed seizing the Irish Treaty Ports OTL, though there is no driver for that...

The Presidency in the 3rd Republic was a far less important position than in the 5th; when De Gaulle promulgated the constitution of the 5th, he deliberately made the Presidency a powerful executive to avoid constant governmental changes that plagued the 3rd Republic. Governments - cabinets...

What's the lingua franca for mixed units or units in close coordination, out of curiosity?

Just realised that the sheer number of European cultural treasures that were destroyed OTL will survive here. I was reading something completely unrelated about the Abbey of Monte Cassino, and realised it will survive ITTL

Is that round interchangeable with ITTL French ammunition?

If you mean German commanders, you have done a good job of getting rid of the best of them. The only top drawer general let us Kesselring, maybe Guderian, but he didn't have Army command until very late in the war

Thought that for the last while, I think I posted about it. Go straight for the Saarland and the Ruhr. You won't end the war this Winter, but by depriving the Germans of a large part of their coal and steel, you're ensuring a leisurely drive to Berlin next Spring

Maybe not quite as sharp but, from what I understand of the military, you never really lose the experience. They would certainly be vastly better than Soviet conscripts with no experience. The French certainly have a long memory, but equally they would know that facing limited troops with...

Just read up on Operation Pike (I was at a wedding all day yesterday so had plenty of time to distract myself). When the Franco - British alliance get nukes, would not an ideal test of a nuke be the Baku oilfields? If they nuke them, the USSR is then easy meat; their economy and armoured forces...

And this time facing, literally, millions of French and British veteran soldiers, with an unbroken string of strategic victories behind them, highly mechanised and with full air support. Not fun for the Germans

That will play merry hell with troop morale. If you know your family is either freezing or starving, you will not fight hard for the regime that allows it. This War is over by April. That actually makes it a relatively short war by historical standards - 1940 to mid 1942

Just did some checking, the Winter of 1941 was the coldest of the 20th century, all over Europe. No reason to stop operations in the West, then - as I said, the sooner they take the Ruhr, the better

With all the focus on the north and Reinhardt's drive to Brussels, when he is finally cut off, I assume the British armies will go into reserve for rest and replishment, at least for a while. Corap and Touchon should be ready by then to finally go on the offensive, there is still plenty of time...

My mistake, I should have known that about Fall Grün. The North wasn't really a huge issue until the 60s, largely inspired by the student riots in France and the Civil Rights movement in the States. I don't know enough about the genesis of the former, beyond students being students, but I can't...