Feels like the difference between Subic Bay and Singapore has more to do with what's above sea level than what's at/below it.
A Blunted Sickle - Thread II
- Thread starter pdf27
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Did the US have a formal fleet base outside the continental US prior to 1940? IIRC even the move from Long Beach/San Diego to Hawaii was very strongly opposed by some parties in the USN.
I was less thinking "Based" and more thinking "Damaged and low on fuel and closer to Singapore than to Subic. ". Especially if Subic falls, refueling at Singapore could give much greater time on station for US Submarines and such.
Would Kimmel have been any more understanding?
So the British might "run away" from a battle, long enough to get the sun to set?
It's taken me nearly six months to catch up on this from the beginning, and holy crap. This is a great premise, great execution, and truly spectacular attention to detail. I look forward to reading more (as life permits, of course)!
Once the 1940 and 1941 chapters are both available, I'd absolutely be interested in picking them up in exchange for a donation if that's still an option.
Once the 1940 and 1941 chapters are both available, I'd absolutely be interested in picking them up in exchange for a donation if that's still an option.
With Stalin having more Jews than he did iOTL (gaining all of Eastern Poland's Jews without the loss of a significant number of Soviet Jews to the Holocaust), I wonder whether there will be more of a push for the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
I'm unclear as to whether JAO borders the lands of the Japanese and Japanese puppet areas of Asia. Oddly enough with the Japanese wanting more Jews their areas of Mainland Asia, you could end up with a considerably larger contingent in the area. How much of it survives if a Jewish state exists in the Middle East is of course an open question.
I'd love to see the reaction of the various powers if Stalin is willing to have his Jews go to Palestine. Might be a threat that Stalin could use against the UK/Entente. (Have Poland give in on the new border with the USSR or we let our Jews go to the Middle East. )
Note, that's enough Jews to not only have the Jews outnumber the Arabs in Mandatory Palestine (The Arabs outnumbered the Jews 2-1 (1.2Mv.6M) as of 1945 iOTL , have the Jews outnumber *all* the Cypriots in any waiting areas in Cyprus and triple the size of the JAO (for the ones that want to stay in the USSR) and *still* have more Jews in European USSR than he had in iOTL 1946.
I'm unclear as to whether JAO borders the lands of the Japanese and Japanese puppet areas of Asia. Oddly enough with the Japanese wanting more Jews their areas of Mainland Asia, you could end up with a considerably larger contingent in the area. How much of it survives if a Jewish state exists in the Middle East is of course an open question.
I'd love to see the reaction of the various powers if Stalin is willing to have his Jews go to Palestine. Might be a threat that Stalin could use against the UK/Entente. (Have Poland give in on the new border with the USSR or we let our Jews go to the Middle East. )
Note, that's enough Jews to not only have the Jews outnumber the Arabs in Mandatory Palestine (The Arabs outnumbered the Jews 2-1 (1.2Mv.6M) as of 1945 iOTL , have the Jews outnumber *all* the Cypriots in any waiting areas in Cyprus and triple the size of the JAO (for the ones that want to stay in the USSR) and *still* have more Jews in European USSR than he had in iOTL 1946.
For the division of Germany what about dividing Germany, and Austria, into two. First off, Prussia is abolished and East Prussia is handed over to Poland.
Then a North German Republic is established with:
Brandenburg
Westphalia
Rhineland
Hesse-Kessel
Mecklenburg
Oldenburg
Saxony
Thuringia
Schleswig-Holstein
And a trimmed down Silesia and Pomerania
This nationd would be divided into occupation zones between the commonwealth, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium.
The other nation would be a South German Republic initially occupied by the French. Maybe the Hasburgs and some of the other royal families could eventually be restored too. This nation would consist of
Austria
Bavaria
Baden
Wurttemberg
Palatine
Saarland
Hesse-Darmstadt
And the city of Frankfurt to connect Hesse-Darmstadt's north and south parts
This would weaken both Germanys weaker than France and would restore the centuries old division of Germany along the mostly Protestant North and mostly Catholic South.
Besides that, the rapid collapse of the German Army is great from a propaganda standpoint. Unlike after WW1 there won't be German Generals strutting around and blaming the Jews, communists, and others for what happened. Second, I think PDF27 has mentioned that the Allies are still going to dismantle the Juncker's as an influential class in both the German public and also in the Army. With their dismantling the German militarism that the world has come to know and love, /s, would be gone just as much as OTL.
Then a North German Republic is established with:
Brandenburg
Westphalia
Rhineland
Hesse-Kessel
Mecklenburg
Oldenburg
Saxony
Thuringia
Schleswig-Holstein
And a trimmed down Silesia and Pomerania
This nationd would be divided into occupation zones between the commonwealth, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium.
The other nation would be a South German Republic initially occupied by the French. Maybe the Hasburgs and some of the other royal families could eventually be restored too. This nation would consist of
Austria
Bavaria
Baden
Wurttemberg
Palatine
Saarland
Hesse-Darmstadt
And the city of Frankfurt to connect Hesse-Darmstadt's north and south parts
This would weaken both Germanys weaker than France and would restore the centuries old division of Germany along the mostly Protestant North and mostly Catholic South.
Besides that, the rapid collapse of the German Army is great from a propaganda standpoint. Unlike after WW1 there won't be German Generals strutting around and blaming the Jews, communists, and others for what happened. Second, I think PDF27 has mentioned that the Allies are still going to dismantle the Juncker's as an influential class in both the German public and also in the Army. With their dismantling the German militarism that the world has come to know and love, /s, would be gone just as much as OTL.
I don't think the allies would want to unite Austria with any part of Germany TTL. The Entente explicitly forbade unification at the end of WW1. Implementing any form of it is going to be seen as rewarding/vindicating the Nazi's and Junker class. Second while the Entente are going to be flexible on resorting the Hapsburgs they don't want them having an Empire. Giving them half of Germany would leave them in a strong position to try to regain the Hungarian crown and some of their other possessions compared to just giving them Austria.
Prussia being abolished and East Prussia being handed over to Poland I can see happening TTL but I would ask you re-think about the rest.
Restore all of them and have a Malaysian style short term elective monarchy /s
I’m pretty sure PDF said their will be no division of Germany ITTL. Also, that really doesn’t seem like enough compensation for Poland, which just lost half its country to the Soviets. I think it’ll look more like
- Saarland to France (they need something for their troubles after everything, and this is really the only option)
- East Prussia, Silesia and most of HinterPommferen to Poland
- Maybe South Schleswig to Denmark, as the Western powers control all of Germany and thus don’t need to compete with communism for the hearts of the Germans, though this one is the most likely to not happen
- and finally, and this is guaranteed, an expulsion of all Germans from all lands outside of the new reduced Germany, in order to weaken revanchism in light of Munich.
Maybe - depends on the state the Japanese are in at the time. Grabbing the whole of Manchuria as a client state (with someone rather more pliable than Mao) is also an option.
Very much so. Singapore has probably the finest facilities between Yokohama and Plymouth (and yes, that includes places like Taranto).
Only an idiot fights according to what they think their enemy's strengths are. And letting your carriers close with an enemy surface fleet is moronic.
Thanks. PM me if you're interested in 1940, I've not turned 1941 into a .pdf yet, and will probably wait until the war finishes to do so.
I've managed to do a little bit more recently, mostly 1950s SAM systems - I'm finding it very hard to write at the moment so am doing whatever I can to try to get going again. Writing is helpful, but a major struggle at the moment.
Bloodhound, Thunderbird and Sea Slug are all going to get replaced by something which looks very like Talos, except with Thunderbird-style wrap around boosters and vertical launch to make ship integration much easier.
Sadly, I can't imagine the Soviets being less anti-Semitic than in OTL.
Additional problem: Czechoslovakia are officially part of the Entente, and Hungary is a co-belligerent. Even a Hapsburg restoration in the form of a King of Austria with no power is going to cause something of a freak-out in the region.
The in-universe view ITTL is that dividing up Germany led to the most militaristic state (Prussia) taking over and Germany following that model as a whole. The plan to avoid this is essentially a very long (~100 years) of the whole of Germany, paid for by the Germans. That punts the whole problem far enough down the road that it'll be someone else's job to find a solution.
Any sort of monarchist restoration depends on the sentiments of the people of the south German regions. While I think Bavaria is possible, I really doubt Baden or Hesse have a similar amount of support for a monarch.
From what i have read Wurttemburg and Saxony did have some support for a restored monarchy like Bavaria, though the sentiment was stronger in Saxony than in Wurttemburg.
I also see the Dutch annexing some border territory in line with their OTL annexation proposals. Maybe not Cologne or Aachen but Cleves and East Frisia could be on the table.
Perhaps an Alt federal Germany could have sub national monarchies in certain states like Bavaria or Saxony as a compromise with the monarchists.
I think you are right that PDF27 has mentioned that Germany wont be divided my bad. Regarding Silesia and Pommerania I think the German's will keep a bit more but then OTL such as Breslau and Stettin.
Right, I think you have mentioned that Germany won't be divided before and I accept your argument as to why and I agree with it. I was thinking that the allies would want to exploit a natural fault line in Germany to divide it and weaken it. The division into South Germany and North Germany would be closer in population size and peers instead of prewar Germany which was substantially larger than Austria. The biggest problem with a unified Germany is that it has a large well educated and highly skilled population so it will generally have a larger economy than either France or Britain. Dividing it into two would even the economic playing field for the British and French. Basically its better to deal with two peers than a single large neighbor. But as I said your arguments and reason are perfectly good conclusions so I won't bring it up again.
The one thing I am skeptical about is the idea of a long, you mention 100 years, occupation. I just don't think it will be possible for two large democracies to occupy an entire country, itself a democracy eventually again, for that long of a period of time. The German people need to be reminded that they lost the war but that is secondary to destroying Prussian militarism i.e the Junker class and the current German Army. Forcing German's to pay for the occupation might work for a decade or two but eventually, this might generate resentment against the Entente. The worst possible scenario is that Germans might start to see the Russians as not so bad. Generations born after the war or who didn't experience it would start to ask why they are being punished for their parent's or grandparent's mistakes. I might elaborate more later on this a bit later, but I look forward to you clarifying this as I could see the intentions of the Entente to do a long 100-year occupation but in reality it being cut down to about 20 years or so.
I don’t think Breslau will be kept German, both because without it Poland would hardly be getting the majority of Silesia (and with the amount of land the Soviets took Poland needs a lot of compensation), Poland has a history of sovereignty in the region and thus preexisting claims, and finally France and Britain will be eager to ensure they don’t get economically dominated by Germany postwar (after all, taking away their military won’t stop them from mass exporting).