AH: Berlin Crisis

Would you guys be interested in a timeline that is in a world were the Berlin crisis goes horribly wrong?
 
Which Berlin crisis, the one in the 40s or the one in 1961? And does "horribly wrong" mean WW3 or something else?
 

Hyperion

Banned
Which side would it have to go horribly wrong for.

Maybe Stalin gets mad that the US and other western powers are still able to resupply their capitalist/facist holdout in Berlin and decides to sac and shoot all of his top military and political commanders in East Germany.

Stalin did worse, and purging a few dozen people wouldn't be a great leap.
 
I suspect that would result in Russia losing its only year-round ice-free port with any connection to the Pacific (yes, Vladivostok).
 
A Berlin crisis by the 60s will result in a really bad nuclear nightmare. Something going "wrong" during the 1948 blockade could start a war, or Berlin tacked on to the Hungarian Crisis of 1956. In both of these cases, while you would see atomic weapons used (in 48 by the US in 56 by both sides) the # of weapons and damage would be way less than anything from the later 50s and certainly Cuba onward...
 
Which side would it have to go horribly wrong for.

Maybe Stalin gets mad that the US and other western powers are still able to resupply their capitalist/facist holdout in Berlin and decides to sac and shoot all of his top military and political commanders in East Germany.

Stalin did worse, and purging a few dozen people wouldn't be a great leap.

Stalin didn't just "go mad".
 
Interesting

If the airlift fails, the only options are to surrender West Berlin or send truck convoys down the autobahns in defiance of the USSR. Assuming the US/UK try the latter, do the Sovs stop them by an armed roadblock on the border?
If so, do the WAllies try to force the issue with armed escorts? Assuming conflict, does it stay localised or does it kick off WW3? I think these are the salient questions that come into play in this scenario.
 

Eurofed

Banned
One thing is certain, if WW3 starts because of the Berlin Blockade, it would swftly turn into a NATOwank. In 1948-49, the USA had 110-235 nukes vs. Soviet 0-1, clear airforce superiority, and no qualms about first use in their strategic doctrine.

After dozens of Soviet cities get artificial sunshine, Western diplomats may talk terms of Soviet surrender with members of the Post-Soviet junta government. Russia is screwed, and the Cold War ends in 1950.
 
The Berlin Airlift did not commence until just after the Soviet-Yugoslav split, but the crisis precipitating the airlift was underway already. I'd wonder if a hotter/messier Berlin crisis might butterfly the split, perhaps leading to a different outcome in the Greek Civil War or Yugoslavia gaining Trieste
thoughts?
 
US capability to deliver atomic weapons to USSR in 1948 was very very limited as many previous threads have demonstrated. Likewise, even for all the deficiencies of the Soviet Army, numbers count and the allied forces (no NATO in 1948) in Germany/Western Europe were not only small, but were not set up with good interoperability, common codes, even common ammo & filler lines for fuel, vehicle electrical systems that would let a US vehicle give a jump to a Brit vehicle with a dead battery, etc.

Having said that, after initial advances the Soviets get trashed...and in 1948 you'd have significant resistance forces operating against them in Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Baltic States. And in 1948 the USSR had not recovered from WW2 with industrial plant & food production (and manpower).

BTW in 1948, especially since Chinese Civil War not really over, US gets free ride attacking Soviet far east...
 
Top