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Conscription into SS was mostly in the the Baltics. The rest of the foreign troops were volunteers. It is also true that they did their best to attract volunteers. SS truly became a living testament to the conquests, nearly one of each. How well did the 'crusade' explanation do? Denmark's...

What they tried to do was to portray the invasion of USSR as a 'crusade' against communism. It worked to some extent - Denmark is a case in point (government sanction of volunteers into SS). The amazing thing is how many they managed to sign up from occupied countries. France is probably the...

How far back would it be politically possible to go? Somehow, there should be room for a counter-attack on the flanks of the invasion.

even so, transport planes have difficulty transport trucks and tanks. ... but it takes time to gather it all up.

A lot is really hindsight. If we try to look at the actual situation in 1941, there could be certain initiatives: -Realise how temporary MR is and leave the Stalin line in place -prepare an instant counter-attack - somewhere -having prepared withdrawal - despite having just got into possession...

difficult to see Hitler giving up on anything. Brooke counted on the fact that Hitler would allow troops to stay in place rather than withdraw to better positions. On top of Hitler was fine with re-enforcing a lost cause. We could even let it be more obvious: Hitler pulls out of Africa just...

There are many good reasons why Brooke wanted to start in the Med: Opening the Med would free up some 10 million tons of cargo space on a yearly basis (I read somewhere) Operating towards Italy would force Germany to allocate forces to hold Italy - as Brooke predicted. Italy would become a...

Moscow will have to fall early in the process for not becoming a death trap during the winter. The approaches to Moscow will have to be secured as well. If all of it falls into place for Germany, 1942 in Russia will look very different. 1) Russia had still huge reserves in Far East Command...

Italy actually planned to bomb NY. They did have the aircraft that could fly the distance and come back again. Mussolini cancelled it because ...... they would hit NY and there were a lot of Italians there - so ... no-go but imagine....

One of the political decisions with consequences was to NOT utilise Italy as a strategic trap as Brooke wanted. Brooke wanted to ensure that maximum of german troops were in Italy. it is not easy to move anything through the Alps; hence what was in Italy at the start of Overlord would stay...

With Italy as neutral it could also become a Switzerland and Sweden: Safe from allied bombing but producing war material for Germany.

The big unknown in all this seems to be Stalin. Let us look at 1938 a bit: 1) Hitler correctly anticipated that Chamberlain would fold based on Hitler's rapport with him. Chamberlain did not expect anybody to be this 'sneaky' 2) Hitler further counted on bullying France into submission. 3)...

Hitler's goals were way too ambitious. That is also why the generals advised a 'mini-offensive' with far more achievable goals. If everything had gone right (for the mini-offensive that is), Germany might have been able to delay the defeat in the West with a handful of months at the most. And...

The Czech defences were not called the 'Maginot in the East' for nothing. The thing about not being finished is a bit misleading apparently. I read (somewhere) that it was very minor things of no consequence for the majority of it all. In essence, the fortifications were some 80+% finished for...

It is a bit of a funny one now. If we try to look at what can easily be defended, we might see that if Hawaii is a bit far away for prompt actions, there really are only two options: 1) Philippines 2) Singapore Which one could most easily be defended? Carriers and in-shore action in 1941/2...

So it is really full circle again. Not really possible to twist reality. So Conclusion: Rommel was actually right in not wasting time on Malta (which would have sucked resources and time) but taking the gamble on getting to Cairo with what he had. Rommel did predict that the British could...

I found a few nuggets off Wiki: "The 1930s saw a period of instability in the relations between the Maltese political elite, the Maltese Catholic church, and the British rulers; the 1921 Constitution was suspended twice. First in 1930–32, when British authorities assumed that a free and fair...

Well, if the British are off the island, Malta becomes irrelevant. Why would Italy bother? there is no threat to their shipping to North Africa if the British are off. I am not clued up on Maltese politics, so please 'educate' me. The analogy is that the Dutch did not trust their local troops...

Very interesting. Insofar as the Japanese strategy was to 1) get to the resources (and that means SWP) 2) guard the flank by eliminating the USN as a short-term threat then if the USN is putting the majority of its ships into Singapore, PH as we know it will not happen. If we imagine the...

Viper, those are great points. So the idea was basically dead when we got to end 1941? Churchill pushed for it. Could Singapore have been a decisive factor at all? better than PH, which was far away after all.