AH challenge: best prepared Poland in WW2

Ahem...

First - no navy cuts. You all forget that Germany was not the only one agressive neighbour - fleet was needed to keep sea lines to France open, in event of war with USSR.
Second - smn said no PZL-37 medium bomber. Leave them alone - they were misused in September 1939. If they were used against Luftwaffe airfileds...
Third - fighter planes. There are a number of possible changes: 1. Instead of making PZL-38 Wilk twin-engined, make it one-engined. Wilk was supposed to be, IIRC, a fighter-bomber, so it's not that hard to make a change. Then you'd have a prototype of modern fighter in early 1937... 2. Continue PZL-11 development up to the version with Mercure VIII in 1937/8 - not the most modern, but 50 km/h better than the best in-line figher 1939 OTL. 3. Cancel PZL-44 passenger plane programme - it'd cut a year of development of PZL-50.
Four - DO NOT WITHDRAW deep into country - at least at first. Say that Polish Army set up positions leaving Greater Poland and Pomerania for German to march into. Because the Wehrmacht in that scenario may walk in, almost reach Polish lines... And then Hitler calls for international conference: "They left those lands by themselves, so they apparently don't want them."
Five - almost forgot - do not let French force in 1921 Poland to keep at peacetime 30 infantry divisions nad 9-10 cavalry divisions, and make the Polish offer hold: 21 infantry and 7 cavalry divisions. 70% of OTL - if the military budget stays the same, it means much more money to spend on armanents.

That's it for now...
 
Originally posted by Tizoc
First - no navy cuts. You all forget that Germany was not the only one agressive neighbour - fleet was needed to keep sea lines to France open, in event of war with USSR.
Second - smn said no PZL-37 medium bomber. Leave them alone - they were misused in September 1939. If they were used against Luftwaffe airfileds...
Third - fighter planes. There are a number of possible changes: 1. Instead of making PZL-38 Wilk twin-engined, make it one-engined. Wilk was supposed to be, IIRC, a fighter-bomber, so it's not that hard to make a change. Then you'd have a prototype of modern fighter in early 1937... 2. Continue PZL-11 development up to the version with Mercure VIII in 1937/8 - not the most modern, but 50 km/h better than the best in-line figher 1939 OTL. 3. Cancel PZL-44 passenger plane programme - it'd cut a year of development of PZL-50.
Four - DO NOT WITHDRAW deep into country - at least at first. Say that Polish Army set up positions leaving Greater Poland and Pomerania for German to march into. Because the Wehrmacht in that scenario may walk in, almost reach Polish lines... And then Hitler calls for international conference: "They left those lands by themselves, so they apparently don't want them."
Five - almost forgot - do not let French force in 1921 Poland to keep at peacetime 30 infantry divisions nad 9-10 cavalry divisions, and make the Polish offer hold: 21 infantry and 7 cavalry divisions. 70% of OTL - if the military budget stays the same, it means much more money to spend on armanents.
Tizoc, you're absolutely right about the navy. I think we all have a tendency to concentrate on Polish preparation for war against Germany and forget that Poland had also to be prepared for war with USSR. Until 1937 Germany wasn't actually dangerous to Poland from purely military point of view, so it is clear that Polish goverment thought mostly about war with Soviets. I think that a really serious change of Polish priorities might be in 1936, after German remilitarization of the Rhine region and lack of French reaction. Therefore Poles could make some changes in their military policy only after that time, although actually there was not so much they could change.
1. I already told you, you're right. But a little more aggresive planning against Germany might do some good, instead of concentrating on the coast defense and keeping big submarines locked in Gdańsk/Danzig Bay. With a little luck Polish sailors might do some real damage to the enemy. Frankly, in 1939 Kriegsmarine didn't fight too well despite big advantage - they didn't sink not a single Polish ship (all Polish ships lost were destroyed by Luftwaffe), although 3 Polish submarines interned in Sweden can be counted as neutralized.
2. I'm not so sure about PZL-37s. Yeah, sure, they could have attacked some German airfields, but since Polish fighters were few, they would have to do it without any escort - and that would mean suicide. Night attacks are also improbable, considering that many German bases were in fact field bases and finding them by night would be too difficult. Cancel it or better reduce their number.
3.I do not agree about PZL-38. I do not think it is so easy to convert 2-engine aircraft into a single-engine one. But canceling it together with PZL-44 might help build P-50 quicker with some spare time to correct any mistakes. Also, modernize all P-11c to P-24 standard, if it was possible.
4. That was what Polish command feared and that was the reason Polish Army was standing along very long border. And here I totally disagree with you - OTL showed what the cost of it was. Personally, I would recommend main forces standing deep in Polish territory with the border screened by the cavalry and every motorized unit Poles could spare. Some mine fields and preparation for destruction of bridges and railways might be laso useful. Also training some guerilla and sabotage units to stay behind German lines, with enough weapons and explosives to hurt German logistics.
5. Smaller army? Well, perhaps...But that also means less trained men as reservists, not to mention smaller force to use, even if Polish units were stronger...I'm not sure about it.

This is all very nice, but most of those changes require 3 things: money, money, money. Money Poland had not. So we need some good POD to make Poland survive the Great Depression in much better shape.
Oh, and one more thing. I still don't believe Poland could have defeated Germany in 1939. Fight longer, harder, bleed Germany out - yes. To win on its own, without France - no. (Britain too, of course, since France wouldn't have moved without the British, but in 1939 Poland needed land offensive in the west, and that was the job for the French).
 
I'm tempted to make a timeline from the POD up to the end of World War 2....but I'm afraid I'd make it terrible since I really have not done a AH timeline before.
 
I think I need to make few things clearer:
1. PZL-37 - before it went into line, the medium bombers were Fokkers F.VII/3m. They definetely needed replacing. Besides, fighter escort scarcity is not a problem - if bomber attacks take place at night.
2. PZL-38 - I wasn't talking about redesingning an existing plane. Just that the requirments for what became PZL-38 didn't specify if the plane is to be one- or two-engined. IIRC, it was only said that it has to have an 20mm cannon and be able to be equipped with a 300kg bomb.
3. What do you mean modernise PZL-11 to PZL-24 standard? It is impossible to put a Gnome-Rhone 14 engine (used by PZL-24) into PZL-11 frame... Instead it was possible to build another batch of PZL-11's, that instead of Mercure V/VI engine (up to 630hp, IIRC) used Mercure VII (710 hp) or VIII (840 hp). Stop-gap measure, surely, but better than nothing.
4. Smaller army in peacetime (70-80% of OTL) wouldn't cause such trouble as you claim, I believe. After all, in 1939 there were reservists that DEMANDE to be called in, but weren't, because there wasn't enough weapons to arm them...
5. Money. Actually, the things I mention do not need more money. I.e. Polish airforce with the same amount of money spent, could've been 600-700 palnes strong in late 1939 instead of 450. The small number was mostly caused by nothing more than mismanagment of existing resources.

BTW, have checked http://www.dws.org.pl/ ? There is a lot more about what Poland could do in September 1939. Lots of read. It also make you feel like a complete amateur, but oh well... And of course everything is in Polish.
 
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