AHC: Drag out WW2 for as long as possible.

The Allies decide not to nuke Japan and engage in 4 more years of bloody battle taking every island in turn until Tokyo surrenders in 1949.
 
The Allies decide not to nuke Japan and engage in 4 more years of bloody battle taking every island in turn until Tokyo surrenders in 1949.
I do not think this would happen absent a change in the war in Europe. I have recently seen that LeMay never though an invasion of Japan would be necessary even if no nuclear bomb was dropped. The highest casualty day in the history of the world was when fewer than 200 B-29 bombers firebombed Tokyo.

After the end of the war in Europe, Lemay wanted to move 10,000 British and American B-17, B-29, and Lancaster bombers from Europe to Okinawa. Japan is well within their range when based on Okinawa. Imagine firebomb raids on Japan involving thousands of four engine bombers. These would inflict much more damage than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
 
A stouter Anglo-French defence in May 1940 greatly increases human casualties. France is eventually conquered by Germany, but the French countryside is littered with craters. Not as bad as WW1, but enough to prevent farmers getting food to markets.
The British Army is gutted of both soldiers and weapons.
An exhausted Wehrmacht pauses until the summer of 1941 before invading the British Isles.
The first attempt at Sea Lion is repulsed when they run out of ammunition.
Eventually British fascists help them gain a toe hold in an East Coast port. Germany is never able to control all of the British Isles because geurillas and smugglers hold out in Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Hadrian’s Wall acquires anti-tank ditches, mine fields and barbed wire.
The British gov’t and King evacuate to Canada.
The USA remains officially neutral, but sells weapons to the British Commonwealth while selling raw materials to fascists.
The Vichy French Navy works for fascists, controlling the Mediterranean. They support Vichy French soldiers attacking southwards along the Palestinian coast.

Mussolini only bites off as much as he can chew. Italian frogmen, submarines and airplanes mine the Suez Canal.
 
Turkey joins the Axis and tries to retake Syria/Jordan/Palestine. They could also fight northwards in the Caucasus region, which would widen the Eastern front quite a bit for Russia and take a large source of oil from them.
IDK much about Mediterranean and Black Sea shipping during WW2 but I'd imagine Turkey's control of the Bosporus would be very helpful in fighting Russia.
Why not get the old Central Powers Gang back together?
 

thorr97

Banned
No stuttering advances against the BEF pocketed there at Dunkirk. Bagging those troops would've meant gutting the British Army. The BEF was literally the very best and the heart of the British army. It would take years to train up and season their replacements. A captured BEF would mean a far more defensive Britain. That would have severe knock-on effects in every other theater. Not as much support available in North Africa and what support there would be would be far less skilled and capable. The idea of parting with any hardware to support the Soviets would be met with blind panic by those on the General Staff in the UK. The Far East would've been even less supported. And so on. While it might not have allow the Reich to successfully invade the UK, the threat of it might've been enough to panic the politicians in Parliament into demanding Churchill - or his replacement - "seek terms with Herr Hitler before it was too late!!!!"

Another point would be if the weather forecasters got it wrong on June 6th, 1945 and that storm which arrived a week after the landing happened just a day after. The beachhead and Mulberrys are trashed and that allows the Germans to push the Allies back into the sea. A failed landing in Normandy could add a year to the war's outcome.

Out in the Pacific there'd be the classic one of the US Navy's carriers being dockside at Pearl on that Sunday morning. Having the Japanese target the drydocks and fuel tank farms would also have worsened things.

On the Eastern Front - and in general - having Hitler be less doubt filled. It wasn't that the guy only gave bad orders so much as that he changed his orders too much. The stuttering of the Wehrmacht columns driving to Dunkirk is one example of that. Hitler ordered them to advance. Then to stop. Then to advance. Then to stop. That pattern was repeated against the Soviets. A more cohesive plan of attack - and of holding his generals to account when they failed - would've made things far worse for the Soviets.

Across the Pond, remove FDR. He loses his 1940 re-election bid or drops dead soon thereafter or is forced out of office prior to Pearl for his waging that undeclared war against Germany in the Atlantic. A US thus more focused on the Pacific and more hostile to the UK (why are Americans going to Europe to fight for the British keeping their empire when it's Japan that attacked us???) would've made things drag out in general as well.
 
A stouter Anglo-French defence in May 1940 greatly increases human casualties. France is eventually conquered by Germany, but the French countryside is littered with craters. Not as bad as WW1, but enough to prevent farmers getting food to markets.
The British Army is gutted of both soldiers and weapons.
An exhausted Wehrmacht pauses until the summer of 1941 before invading the British Isles.
The first attempt at Sea Lion is repulsed when they run out of ammunition.
Eventually British fascists help them gain a toe hold in an East Coast port. Germany is never able to control all of the British Isles because geurillas and smugglers hold out in Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Hadrian’s Wall acquires anti-tank ditches, mine fields and barbed wire.
The British gov’t and King evacuate to Canada.
How do the Germans get into an East Coast port and invade the rest of the country from there? I'll be charitable and assume the fascists take Harwich (125 miles from Holland) rather than a port further north and around 200 or 300 miles from the Continent. Even so, the RAF will still exist and will make light work of any seaborne invasion. Ditto the Royal Navy - as far as I'm aware, ships are not necessary for trench warfare. Furthermore, even in Hitler's plans, which mainly consisted of unicorns that shat rainbows going around and giving free rides to "Aryan übermenschen", he only considered invading Britain up to a line from Gloucester to Maldon (see the picture below); he never imagined a full invasion of England. Your idea needs a good deal of input from the Altrincham Scouting Brigade for it to get anywhere.

800px-OperationSealion.svg.png


My solution: Paulus takes Stalingrad and Stalin orders a round of purges. He then has a "stroke" and is replaced by a cabal of Marxist diehards from the Red Army. They carry on guerrilla warfare whilst Britain (under Halifax) and America (under an isolationist - pick a name, any name) give in and give the Germans uti possedis peace terms. The Russians keep the war going until someone attacks us and the whole thing's over in a couple of years. War keeps on until 1975 at the latest.
 
Hitler dies in 1940, Goring takes over. Stalin is accepted into the axis, the USSR get a sphere of influence over all the east, except Romania which goes to Germany. Germany gets central Europe. The USSR and Germany become co-belligerents from that point on. Japan is kicked out of the Axis, Germany's advisor program to China is restored. China falls early into communism and becomes pro-Soviet and pro-German.

FDR is the one that declares war on Germany, Congress approve by a slim majority.

The US and UK go completely insane and declare that no outcome other than unconditional surrender is acceptable.

WW2 drags into the 1950s, at which point the US and UK take back the insane demand for unconditional surrender and a negotiated peace takes place.
 
a) General Sanjurjo avoids death by excess luggage, leads the Nationalists to victory in the Spanish Civil War, and is Caudillo afterwards.

b) The Allies break Enigma a few weeks earlier, and as a result anticipate and destroy the German invasion of Norway. In all the gloating over this triumph, the Enigma breach leaks.

The setback in Norway and the need to revamp ciphers completely delays FALL GELB (the German attack in the west) till the end of July 1940.

With Germany apparently in check, FDR decides the war crisis does not require him to run for a third term. He announces his retirement at the convention in late July. (For real: no "voice from the sewer".) Sen. Burton Wheeler (MT), who OTL was prepped to jump in if FDR withdrew, does so and gains the nomination.

At the beginning of August, Germany attacks in the west and blitzes France like OTL. The campaign ends in September, and after the Norway debacle, the Germans have no thought of invading Britain. Instead Hitler decides to bomb and starve Britain. No Battle of Britain, just the Blitz. To aid in the Battle of the Atlantic, Hitler asks Spain to join the Axis; Sanjurjo, far less cautious than Franco, agrees.

Things get very ugly for Britain in the Atlantic...

In the US: the Allied collapse in Europe upends the election. Wheeler is a fanatic isolationist. Willkie tries to take advantage of this by going outright interventionist. It almost works: Willkie sweeps the northeast, gaining 11 states with 198 electoral votes. But Wheeler gains three midwestern/mountain states with 16 EV. (Wheeler's isolationism is an advantage there; plus he has ties to the Progressive wing - he was Fighting Bob LaFollette's running mate in 1924.) Wheeler wins, 267-264.

While Wheeler is President, there will be no US aid to the Allies (OTL he was vehemently opposed to Lend-Lease), much less any direct involvement. (Even the Japanese can see they shouldn't poke the US.)

Back to the war.


Resuming...

One reason for the delay in resuming is I'm not sure how to continue. There will be a lot of handwaving from here on.

With Spain in the war, the Battle of the Atlantic is much more difficult for the Allies. OTOH, with Norway under Allied control, the BoA is more difficult for the Germans, too. Not a wash.

Germany and Spain will want transit through Morocco to Rio de Oro and the Canaries. This will annoy the French.

With the Kriegsmarine gutted and the Norway result ruling out an Axis invasion of Britain, the British decide not to do the Mers-el-Kébir operation. So additional French colonies join Free France, including French Indochina. (Dunno if there was really a chance of this.)

Japan stays out of Indochina.

Friction between France and the Axis boils over in mid-1941. The Axis occupies southern France and Morocco, and tries to seize Dakar. Most of the French Fleet, including several battleships, escape to Dakar. The remaining French colonies join Free France.

On-going NW Africa campaign in the desert N of Dakar, and in the Atlantic to the west. Morocco and Canaries as an Axis base, disrupting Allied LoC to Africa, but the Axis is at a very long LoC itself and the RN still has dominance of the sea.

Gibraltar and Malta fall; Italy gets entangled in the NW Africa theater and never invades Greece. Greece Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia remain neutral. Italy does invade Egypt and Britain does counterattack, but three months later than OTL, with less success. Some German reinforcements, but not Rommel, so it stabilizes.

Axis invasion of the USSR in June as OTL. Ironically - without ULTRA, Britain does not provide the completely detailed warning of OTL, which Stalin dismissed as British provocation. Looking only at Soviet sources, he sees the invasion coming and has the Red Army prepared. So the initial Axis victory is massive, but not colossal as in OTL. Also, Finland remains neutral (apologies to DrakonFin, but that's what I think would happen), freeing up several hundred thousand troops for the main front. The German attack stalls around Novgogorod, Vyazma, and east of Kiev.

Pausing here... this will be completed later.
 
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FBKampfer

Banned
Avoid the Winter War, and the USSR is even more laughably unprepared to fight the Germans.

Massive purges are instigated IN THE MIDDLE of the German onslaught, and the Red Army bashes its own brains out in the middle of the most crucial time.

This delays needed reforms, likely equipment upgrades as well, given the general cluster fuck the Eastern Front will become as a result.

Immediately upon capture, French industry is updated to produce Germany-standard equipment.

Thousands of more Panzer III and IV's are available in the latter half of 1942 and 1943, and 109's and 190's rolling off the line by the end of 1941.

Hitler still being Hitler makes most of the same mistakes, like Stalingrading himself in 1942.

However the Soviets are still fighting like concussed lemmings by the end of 1943 due to delayed reforms and heavier purges.


So despite losing 6th Army, the Backhand Blow goes off better thanks to more Panzers and somehow even more Three Stooges-esque Russian performance.

Kursk smashes another two Russian field armies, but fails to turn into a complete rout due to the massive Soviet reserves available.


Allies land in 1944 like OTL but better standing in the East let's them turn all of France into a brutal slog, marked with multiple counter-offensives.

Germany, instead of catastrophically collapsing after Bagration is ground in between the Allies and the Soviet Union, the Soviets reach Berlin short another 3 million men or so, and are very clearly at the end of their leash as far as manpower.

Germany surrenders in February 1946.

Japan, though starving, idiotically decides to fight on. The Soviets, having been gutted by the Wehrmacht, commit much less forces to Manchuria. The Japanese, incorrectly, feel they can hold out.

Unsure of the moral implications of the Atom Bomb, Truman does not pull the trigger. The Allies attempt an invasion, but are appalled at the casualties and nuke Hiroshima, Kokura, and Nagasaki on one day, and Japan surrenders 72 hours later, on September 28th 1946.
 

Marc

Donor
Exactly what it says on the tin. Keep the war going for as long as possible.

May I ask why? It does feel odd as theoretical exercise in supposing. As a war gaming premise perhaps - if there are bonus points awarded for lasting longer.
And no handicap for the Holocaust also lasting longer.
 
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Britain on the side of the Axis, America and Soviets are the only major powers in the Allies.
 
Avoid the Winter War, and the USSR is even more laughably unprepared to fight the Germans.

Massive purges are instigated IN THE MIDDLE of the German onslaught, and the Red Army bashes its own brains out in the middle of the most crucial time.
Depends how you avoid Winter war. If Soviets do not press any demands against Finland it would be hard to get Fins to join war against USSR. Auddenly you are freeing app 750k men plus another 950k who were xasaulties on Soviet side during Continuation War. Without Finland in Leningrad is accessible. You are putting Germans into worst position then OTL.
 

Kaze

Banned
In a fit of insanity... all the participants agree to have the war is conducted without gunpowder (this includes machine guns, tanks, and artillery) and gasoline powered vehicles.
 
Have Germany allow the USSR join the Axis. The Royal Navy would still be a very tough obstacle for the Axis to bypass, but there'd be pretty much no way of defeating the Axis land army. Would end up in a long war where they'd struggle to tire the other one out initially, but the Axis would eventually win (stalemate at the most).
 
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