AHC: Stroner Denmark by 1940.

Assuming the rest of history goes as per OTL and a POD not before 1800. What is a way to make Denmark stronger and larger by the time of the German invasion in 1940.
 
Retaining Norway is the obvious route but that needs a PoD c.1810-1815, which will butterfly 20th century history away.

A positive resolution (for Denmark) of the Schleswig-Holstein Question may help but demands an 1840-1870 PoD, again butterflying OTL 20th century away, it likely also implies increased tension with whatever Germany is eventually assembled from the post-HRE mess and a pissed off German minority within Danish borders...
 

Driftless

Donor
That's a tough proposition. The Danes don't have the resources to make their country completely invasion proof against the 1940 Germans. They could have been better prepared in hindsight, and slowed the Germans down more.

Jutland is good enough tank country where German numbers will carry the day. If the Danes had built a strong border fort system, the Germans might have opened a crack in the works by use of parachute troops and maybe some "end-around" seaborne landings. The Luftwaffe has numbers, technology, and veteran skill working for them as well.

Perhaps with earlier warning, the Dane's might have more troops in the field and anti-tank weapons dug in. The soldiers that were in place generally put up a good fight, there weren't enough of them. Also, earlier warning might help the small Danish air force to get dispersed or in better position to defend the country.

Not that it would benefit the Dane's, but any extra delay in the Germans seizing the airfields at Aalborg would really hamper the German assault on Norway. The Nazi's needed those fields immediately to keep to their very aggressive timetable. Any upset to that schedule gives Norway a better chance in the following days. Also, any losses to the JU-52's and parachute troops causes problems for the attacks on the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in the following month. Not much acceptable margin for losses in those specialists.
 

Redbeard

Banned
A Scandinavian military alliance
Retaining Norway is the obvious route but that needs a PoD c.1810-1815, which will butterfly 20th century history away.

A positive resolution (for Denmark) of the Schleswig-Holstein Question may help but demands an 1840-1870 PoD, again butterflying OTL 20th century away, it likely also implies increased tension with whatever Germany is eventually assembled from the post-HRE mess and a pissed off German minority within Danish borders...

Is indeed tricky, but I guess a minor PoD in 1864 would do. First of all avoiding the total military defeat when the Prussian army crossed the Alssund in the summer of 1864 and routed the Danish Army on the island of Als. This made any hopes of a favourable negotiated peace impossible and the result was the OTL humiliation. The border will probably be drawn very close to where it ended in 1920 but the important PoD will a stronger political backup for keeping a strong military. Bismarck will still have a considerable succes and go on to 1870 etc.

In OTL the military after 1864 became a heated political issue, with the conservatives (large land owners) supporting a strong military (mainly by fortifying Copenhagen) but with the growing opposition from farmers and workers considering a military of no use and leading to cripling disarmament after WWI when the socialdemocrats took over governmemnt. A more succesful military defence in 1864 might lead to a greater consensus on strong armed neutrality like in Sweden almost until present day. This might also make a Scandinavian military alliance possible before WWII, but anyway just keeping the Danish Military at its WWI level will make a huge difference. During WWI the Danish Army had five Infantry Divisions plus support troops and was relatively well armed (like Madsen LMGs). By 1940 that had been reduced to one (although relatively large) Infantry Division of which only a few thousand men were mobilised by 1940 however.

In this ATL Germany will not only have to allocate much larger forces to invade Denmark and Norway, but will more importantly need much more time to gain control over the important airbases to support operations in Norway. Will probably make it impossible to invade Norway and very costly to invade Denmark.
 
Prussia loses the Austro-Prussian War, as part of the peace treaty one of the terms forces them to give up their province of Schleswig-Holstein. The northern part of the Duchy of Schleswig that was majority Danish speaking is ceded to Denmark with that becoming the border with the German Confederation, the remaining territory is combined with the Duchy of Holstein to form the Grand Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein. The Grand Duchy is given to the Holstein-Gottorps in compensation for their having to cede the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg to the Kingdom of Hanover. That gets you a larger Denmark and slightly more powerful one. Perhaps having had the bad experience of the last war they decide to fortify the new border with a chain of fortresses?
 
Make Denmark have a larger population, Denmark could probably support a fair bit larger population than it have now. Another bit could be a smaller loss in 1864 making the national policy much more militarized, making it so there is a belief that Denmark would be able to put up a fight if a certain southern neighbor invaded again. OTL Denmark in many ways became a "vassal" of Germany.
 
This is very difficult though a lot stems from the victory of the First Schleswig War and the subsequent defeat during the Second. So I would suggest changes during the 1848-50 years with Denmark taking much greater losses in manpower making it obvious to politicians that there must be another path than just revel in "we beat the Germans"; possibly by way of the Tsar not being fond of the new Danish democracy of 1848 thus lending much less political support to force Prussia out of the conflict.
That should teach Denmark a lesson that its possible to fight the Germans but its costly in manpower and funds; a pyrrhic victory of sorts. This would force Denmark into thinking in other ways like procuring modern artillery and firearms which were considered but found to be too costly - here it would just be necessity demands it.
Then a smaller much better equipped meets the Germans in 1864 but with a realistic leadership that doesn't require a useless stand at Dannevirke and lets commanders in the field to decide. Not that the ladder will win the war on its own but it may prevent some of the blunders. This too may make for Denmark's early opting out realizing that Bismarck's partition proposal will be the lesser evil (assuming as such that the OP) and is open to the demand but secures in this way the support of Lord Russel and the other powers making for most of Schleswig to remain Danish.
Of course there will be tensions within the new state between Danes and Germans which may lead to the Danish armed forces relying on Danes as its manpower pool still making it necessary to have some small highly trained and supplied forces.
Thus come WWI we may see the politicians not resort to fortifying Copenhagen but on the basis of experience develop a series of fortified lines across Schleswig on the rivers and eastern hilly terrain.
Come the rise of nationalist Germany post WWI Denmark will much more be in the forefront as having its share in the bleeding borders hence another policy of neutrality must be developed. The great question of course being how would the WWI experience impact upon Danish politicians - would they still be pursueing armed neutrality or will they drift towards pacificism as OTL. OTL Stauning did during 1934-5 have thoughts of changing the Socialdemocratic defence policy to one of more relying on arms and ITTL this may well happen. As Redbeard stated a consensus on armed neutrality which may open the door to a Scandinavian pact though the OTL differences in between the parties will still remain as Denmark in a much more pronounced way will be having troubles on its German border whereas Sweden will still be looking to the East in anticipation of conflict.
 
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