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Well the UK had a pretty nasty recession about 1920-1924 OTL, so that’s two big economies in trouble. Russia and Germany were obviously in deep trouble, I assume central and Eastern Europe were not having a great time following all the border upheavals. So it could get pretty big and nasty...

A lot of people seem to think the stock market crash caused the Great Depression, but actually I believe it was more that the collapse of the twenties boom eventually caught up to the runaway craziness of the stock market and gave it a reality check. Massive industrial overcapacity, gluts and...

Yeah I think Gallipolli was a failure of competence rather than concept. The other ‘plans’ are so flawed in concept they be hard to pull off with perfect competence and the enemy’s active cooperation.

Yes, this has been pointed out already. And to repeat, this was in large part because the stukas and 109s had been in service for two and a half years. The training was sorted, all the spares and repair organisation was sorted, the air and ground crews were thoroughly familiar with planes and...

I believe OTL bomber command were all about “industrial targets in centres of population”, “profitable targets in profitable areas” and other such fig-leaves until someone gifted them “dehousing”. Hence the complete lack of concern about accuracy until they realised they were missing not just...

The premise seems rather illogical, to be honest. The US basically decides to follow a path of tossing unlimited amounts of money into an open-ended proxy war fought on its behalf by the British empire, with most likely no prospect of ever getting its money back since if Britain wins it would be...

I see others have beaten me to the punch here, but it’s hard to emphasise enough how miserably painful it is to implement a major generational technology leap in a large organisation under serious time pressure. The RAF did the same thing of jumping from biplanes and simple monoplanes to proper...

That’s a good point, but the countervailing example is that about thirty years earlier the French had invaded Germany and in short order had German armies roaming central France malletting french armies to splinters and capturing Paris. And still, after humiliating total national defeat, France...

Don’t forget that this is all in the age of coal and triple expansion, stokers shovelling coals and so on. The fast ocean liners were able to run the Atlantic at 20 knots but the battleships will have to chug sedately or run out of coal half-way. Fuck knows how the destroyers would make it...

To be fair I think they and most others expected a re-run of 1918 style trench warfare, I.e a well-organised and lethal defensive system that would brutalise an ill-prepared assault but could still be penetrated with tolerable casualties by a well-organised methodical assault. The 100 days...

saving Poland is pretty much ASB from 1939, it’s such a bad situation. Saving France is more like dodging the row of ten double-sixes the Germans rolled, but I have to say the “bring it! I’m ready!” gambit never occurred to me for some reason. It would likely work better than most options and...

But even this would be a hugely controversial and risky decision from Gamelin. Just start out with a plan guaranteeing that in the absolute best case the Boche would be knocking on the door, and having artillery firing 15 km over the border. Very likely penetrating divisions some kilometres into...

As I understand it, the central problem was that the French state was riven from top to bottom and side to side. The left and right parties hated each other, individuals within each party were at daggers drawn, many politicians regarded the military as transparently manoeuvring to prepare a coup...

Pfft. Lichtenstein and Luxembourg come to blows over the Lado triangle. The conflict drags on until the UK tires of it and arranges the transportation of three regiments of Bugandans who seize Lichtenstein and colonise both Lichtenstein and Lado under the suzerainty of the Bugandan king as a...

Well, yes. I mean at the time the whole Monroe Doctrine rested on the Brits telling people not to be silly in South America. But that’s all a bit dull, entertainment decrees that this madcap scheme is launched before London realises that yes the Kaiser has really lost his marbles. Now what...

Really? I mean, look at that wiki page. Large parts of it looks like the transcript of a mental patient describing conversations they once had while doing drugs with a bunch of PolSci students. The whole thing is unlikely. I can well believe that Hitler spouted all that, but it also wouldn’t...

Who says he made it up? He may have misremembered it in part or gotten a conversation with Hitler muddled with Hess or whatever. Some stressful times between 1943 and 1950. Personally I think it is most likely a fair representation of something Hitler once said, but I’d be wary of relying on it...

Yeah but he’s quite obviously insane as well as Prussian. Once he’s got his army ashore it’s only a matter of time before he puts a pickelhaube on the Statue of Liberty and has Krupp running Philadelphia. Also, what better way to end the influence of America than to Germanise it? In fact, it’s...