AHC/WI - Central Europe Doesn't Go Red

Few years ago, a previously suspended member once wrote in some thread that it was Britain's strategy during WW2 that made Central Europe go red. I'm not sure what he may have been thinking about, but it's too late for me to ask now. Do you guys what he may have been talking about? What paths Britain may have pursued to keep the Soviets out of Central Europe? What states are we talking about exactly? Only the Balkans or even perhaps Poland and Czechoslovakia? What about East Germany?
 
Few years ago, a previously suspended member once wrote in some thread that it was Britain's strategy during WW2 that made Central Europe go red. I'm not sure what he may have been thinking about, but it's too late for me to ask now. Do you guys what he may have been talking about? What paths Britain may have pursued to keep the Soviets out of Central Europe? What states are we talking about exactly? Only the Balkans or even perhaps Poland and Czechoslovakia? What about East Germany?


Wow, to answer this question one could go on & on! To sum up, the answer is no. CE
went red because Russian troops pursuing retreating Nazis took care, as they crossed
CE, to plant the seeds for future Red regimes. Churchill wanted the Allies to attack
Hitler from the Mediterranean(what he famously called "the soft underbelly of Europe")but did NOT get his way & in 1944
IOTL the main Allied effort went into France.
No British troops went into CE- just Russian
ones. Problem was, attacking the so-called
soft underbelly was quite difficult, as the
I'll-fated Italian campaign showed. Militarily
speaking, going into France made much more sense.
 
It's difficult to see how Britain could have prevented it. In fact, the UK strategy was perhaps more in favour of keeping the Reds out of CE than the American one. It was 'peripheral', i.e. wearing down Germany by attacking multiple targets outside of recognised major conflict zones, unlike the US insistence on a French landing. If I remember rightly, Britain argued in favour of intervening in Yugoslavia to prevent the communists from having a monopoly on power post-war, and even attempted to establish a foothold in Greece (Dodecanese Campaign).

Communist central Europe was not the fault of the British but of Nazi Germany, in its underestimation of Soviet military potential.
 
Czechoslovakia, with more western influence, could have stayed outside the Eastern Bloc. They had a strong Communist movement, but it was faltering (for a variety of reasons, but really, it came down to people finding out that Communism wasn't just patriotic anti-Nazism bur rather meant that your farm was gonna get collectivized), and that was the reason that it had the coup in '48.

If the West had committed to supporting the other parties, or indicated that they would support the government in the time of crisis, perhaps it could have been averted.
 
Hypothetically a more aggressive west Allied strategy in 1942-43 might have accomplished something. But the variables are extensive & may lead to the same general end state of OTL just as easily.
 
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