After the war ends it mostly shifts to a monthly update cycle, yearly if it’s a quiet year. The way I write it is to follow an idea through to its logical conclusion far in the future, rather than just what is happening <<now>> ITTL. At the moment it grinds to a halt in the early 2000s, with the last update being the Bastille Day parade on the centenary of the Entente Cordiale.
A Blunted Sickle - Thread II
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Also take note that the city of Lübeck was quite opposed to Hitler. Their feud started in 1932 when it refused hosting a campaign meeting, and Hitler retaliated by removing its Free City status and incorporating it into Schlesvig-Holstein. Later (IOTL) it was split in two by the inner German border, hence its current position astride two states (and the fact that it was not restored as a free city). ITTL with no inner border it would probably be restored.
A thought about Lubeck.
While the Elbe is mined making Hamburg less useful, it is entirely possible that neither Copenhagen nor Lubeck have had their port entrances mined. The first because rule of the Danes was light enough that mining Copenhagen would have been viewed as too heavy for a nation in that sort of situation to the 3R. The second because the Germans weren't *that* worried about the other nations on the Baltic: F/S Union and the USSR...
Sounds like a very sensible and natural place for it to halt. I look forward to seeing how we get there.
Just caught up with this timeline after binging through it. It's absolutely fantastic. Will there be a breakdown of casualties after the war has ended?
After looking at the map of Germany it seems that the British or Dutch forces are approaching Bergen-Belsen. OTL in 1940 it was a POW camp, but since ITTL the Holocaust and Nazi repressions were accelerated, so it’s possible it’s functioning as a concentration camp. I wonder what is the reaction of the allied soldiers to the horrors they are uncovering
The Bergen-Belsen site has been captured - it's about 10 miles from Stalag-XIB which was liberated on the 26th of December. The advancing forces passed it to reach Celle that night.
At this point the camp that would become Bergen-Belsen may not exist at all due to the much smaller number of PoWs the Germans hold - at most it would be a satellite camp (Stalag-XIC) to -XIB.
No prospect of an update any time soon I'm afraid - the weather is finally improving so I'm spending as much time out in the garden as I can, and the headhunters are out in force. I've found myself talked into an interview by video-conference with a guy in Hong Kong on Friday (10pm his time), for a job a couple of miles from my old house. Ho hum...
At this point the camp that would become Bergen-Belsen may not exist at all due to the much smaller number of PoWs the Germans hold - at most it would be a satellite camp (Stalag-XIC) to -XIB.
No prospect of an update any time soon I'm afraid - the weather is finally improving so I'm spending as much time out in the garden as I can, and the headhunters are out in force. I've found myself talked into an interview by video-conference with a guy in Hong Kong on Friday (10pm his time), for a job a couple of miles from my old house. Ho hum...
Given the longer resistance to the Germans, even as they advanced. I would imagine that there might be more French and Belgian POWs. And the number of German POWs is going to be almost silly, but I could imagine that the POWs taken by the Entente in this advance might not even have time to be processed and shipped out (Canada?) before Germany surrenders.
Driftless
Donor
That line prompted a mental image, as if from a documentary, of a (nearly) endless line of German POWs trudging westwards along a barren muddy road. A narrator in the background intoning: "Once more, the German military marches towards France, but this time as a vanquished horde"
Given that the nascent civil war has likely compromised the usual means of deterrence against it, I'm betting the number of deserters who have simply decided to go home is even sillier.
A genuine joke, IATL... I like it.
IMO that makes more sense just beyond Paris; Paris itself might be too painful since it was actually seized
"How does a German get to England?"IMO that makes more sense just beyond Paris; Paris itself might be too painful since it was actually seized
"Walk to Paris and surrender"
Eric S. Raymond
Banned
OK, there hasn't been a post on this thread in way too long, and tonight I saw the perfect excuse:
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/523818-the-cold-blue
"The Cold Blue", a documentary about B-17s and their crews in WWII. I saw the first release at a special event tonight. Rumor has it there will be more showings in July.
I'm pretty sure every regular on this thread wants to see this. It's an immersive experience made from 15 hours of archival footage left over from the making of a famous 1943 propaganda film called "The Memphis Belle", With voiceovers by the some of the men in the film, now in their 90s. As with Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old", this is history in the words of men who lived and made it. Beautiful, tremendously atmospheric visuals and a rather haunting score by Richard Thompson.
If you've ever wondered what a flight of B-17s looked and sounded like going to war, or what the effects of a real-world WWII bombing run looked like from the air, this will show you very vividly.
Scenes very like it will be running in ITTL "present time". Likely the launch fields will be in France rather than England, with correspondingly shorter mission durations. Fewer ships will get shot up by fighters following the Luftwaffe's heavy early losses of trained personnel. But it will still be between -40F and -60F at altitude, flak will take a hideous toll, and the devastation on the ground will be similar.
Strongly recommended.
EDIT: "The Memphis Belle" is on YouTube and it is interesting to compare the restored footage in "The Cold Blue" with the film it was originally cut into. Note that there is a different "The Memphis Belle" film from 1991 that is a fictionalization of the original filmed in Hollywood; it doesn't use any of the footage from the documentaries. YouTube link follows:
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/523818-the-cold-blue
"The Cold Blue", a documentary about B-17s and their crews in WWII. I saw the first release at a special event tonight. Rumor has it there will be more showings in July.
I'm pretty sure every regular on this thread wants to see this. It's an immersive experience made from 15 hours of archival footage left over from the making of a famous 1943 propaganda film called "The Memphis Belle", With voiceovers by the some of the men in the film, now in their 90s. As with Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old", this is history in the words of men who lived and made it. Beautiful, tremendously atmospheric visuals and a rather haunting score by Richard Thompson.
If you've ever wondered what a flight of B-17s looked and sounded like going to war, or what the effects of a real-world WWII bombing run looked like from the air, this will show you very vividly.
Scenes very like it will be running in ITTL "present time". Likely the launch fields will be in France rather than England, with correspondingly shorter mission durations. Fewer ships will get shot up by fighters following the Luftwaffe's heavy early losses of trained personnel. But it will still be between -40F and -60F at altitude, flak will take a hideous toll, and the devastation on the ground will be similar.
Strongly recommended.
EDIT: "The Memphis Belle" is on YouTube and it is interesting to compare the restored footage in "The Cold Blue" with the film it was originally cut into. Note that there is a different "The Memphis Belle" film from 1991 that is a fictionalization of the original filmed in Hollywood; it doesn't use any of the footage from the documentaries. YouTube link follows:
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Ian_W
Banned
The experiences of the Air Forces will be very different in this TL.
One of the major butterflies is that Bomber Command is not the only way for the British to hit back against the Germans in 1940-41, and so it becomes a much less important part of the War - there is also an earlier assessment of just how inaccurate night bombing was, and that didn't help Bomber Command at all.
In this timeline, tactical bombing and pinpoint raids supported by daytime fighters are the experience of bomber crews, rather than the strategic bombing of OTL.
Presumably all the airbases with good German planes are also being dashed across.
Less of an impact than you’d think - the RAF have Typhoons available which have pretty decent range, while the Germans are desperately short of fuel.
High altitude bombing is also a thing here, the pressurized Wellington made it into service in small numbers. You don’t really see much deep penetration bombing though, the armies are getting priority, and when you do it’s pretty inaccurate.
Finally, Bomber Command was a pretty feeble thing in 1941. All that has happened is that circumstances meant it has grown slower than OTL. The terrible weapon it became by 1945 won’t be a thing until MAUD becomes available.
No luck writing anything at the moment - trying to get a new car before the current one dies, writing my application to be a Fellow of the IMechE, fending off headhunters and busy at work too...
High altitude bombing is also a thing here, the pressurized Wellington made it into service in small numbers. You don’t really see much deep penetration bombing though, the armies are getting priority, and when you do it’s pretty inaccurate.
Finally, Bomber Command was a pretty feeble thing in 1941. All that has happened is that circumstances meant it has grown slower than OTL. The terrible weapon it became by 1945 won’t be a thing until MAUD becomes available.
No luck writing anything at the moment - trying to get a new car before the current one dies, writing my application to be a Fellow of the IMechE, fending off headhunters and busy at work too...