AHC: USSR goes to war against Nazi Germany without France falling?

raharris1973

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Looking for PoDs after October 1939 only please. In OTL Germany defeating France was a condition permitting the Germans to then attack the USSR. Outline how the USSR would get into a war with Germany and with what effect if France continues to hold out and resist Germany on the European mainland?
 
Japan does something stupid to the USSR. Hitler declares war on the USSR without being obliged to.
 
Easy. Hitler dies. The generals carry on, hoping to bring the Anglo-French to a 1917. But the admirals sink a couple USN vessels too many in 1942, and the USA declares war on Germany. In 1943, as the US divisions are arriving in numbers in Le Havre, the Soviets suddenly see the light and attack the Germans.
 
Looking for PoDs after October 1939 only please. In OTL Germany defeating France was a condition permitting the Germans to then attack the USSR. Outline how the USSR would get into a war with Germany and with what effect if France continues to hold out and resist Germany on the European mainland?
Well, had France resisted until spring of 1941 (let's say that fighter planes production and pilot training in UK and France pre-war was given priority, so in May 1940 allies have air parity or slight superiority against Luftwaffe and manage e.g. to destroy bridges and pontoon bridges over Meuse, thereby preventing encirclement coming from the Ardennes.

With allied superiority in the air, the German ground forces, now facing ever more mobilized UK army (though still far less influential than the French one), fail to cross a line delineated by, say, Scheldt in the north and Meuse in the east. That could easily keep France in war in 1941 and the temptation for Stalin to use the situation when total majority of German forces being focused on France would be strong. Though he was very careful when it came to Germany and might still resist until 1942 or later.
 
... the temptation for Stalin to use the situation when total majority of German forces being focused on France would be strong. Though he was very careful when it came to Germany and might still resist until 1942 or later.

In May 1940 Germany had just 21 infantry and a horse cavalry division in the east. Corp and army support we're thin and air support would have come from a reserve in Germany.

Knocking that aside to sieze Prussia, Warsaw, & Polish Carpathia would have been tempting.
 
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