alternatehistory.com

As you know, in OTL a two-fronted war was the death of Nazi Germany. The Normandy landings severely weakened the Ostfront presence of the Heer/Waffen SS and consequently Bagration was a wild success, almost completely destroying Hitler's power in the East and enabling an outright conquest of eastern Germany. Of course, the pounding of the Luftwaffe over the skies of Europe contributed greatly to the ability of both the W. Allies and Soviets to achieve ultimate ground victory as well and that had been ongoing.

So, in this AHC that I have come up with as we near the anniversary of D-Day, make Nazi Germany able to successfully* resist both a full-strength Western Allied beachhead invasion into France or elsewhere in western Europe and the continuing advance of the Red Army simultaneously. The Nazis may or may not be able to successfully fully repel/push into the sea the initial Allied landing; it is up to you. (*They don't have to win, or successfully resist forever--just make a good showing so that they hold their territory for the most part for a fair length of time, or make the Allied/Soviet advances very slow and gradual, or are only ultimately stopped with The Bomb.)

For me, the easiest diversion to pull this off is to avoid the complete devastation of the German air force over the Reich so that the Nazis can keep air parity in the West for much longer, and air superiority in the East for much longer. Speed up the introduction of a relatively safe and reliable Messerschmitt 262 and/or the 190A-10s/Ds/Ta152s, perhaps better flak guns and successful introduction of the Ruhrstall X4 and similar anti-bomber guided missiles, perhaps. Also, the Nazis need far more practical tanks... instead of wasting so much time, money, and steel on worthless unreliable, gas-guzzling Tigers/Panthers, perhaps introduce something like a Panzer 3 or 4 with modern sloped armor and a bigger turret ring to fit a better gun, etc. If we must keep the Panther, then rework it into something more like the Stalin series--lower hull with thicker armor, a bigger gun, etc.

Creating some trouble in getting L-L over to the Russians would help too I would imagine... without tens of thousands of Studebakers, Shermans, various modern fighters (in some cases better than most if not all of what the VVS had in June 1944, such as P-51s), aluminum, and high-grade aviation and tank fuel, Bagration doesn't even remotely resemble what it did IOTL. A more successful U-Boat campaign? A stretch of severely choppy weather at sea that makes things dangerous for US supply ships?

A disclaimer: obviously I don't like Nazi Germany in any way and don't want them to have won or have survived longer in real life whatsoever--this is purely a theoretical AH exercise for me I am really curious about!

If someone has already made one or more threads on this, could you kindly link me?


MalcontentRex
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