AHC/WI: Worst possible USA/UK WWII relations

How bad can the relationship between the two western Allied powers get? Compared to the relationship with the USSR, Britain and the USA coordinated their campaigns very well, shared secret technology, etc. But what if arrogance from the US and Britain caused them to try and fight the Axis on their own terms, to pursue their own interests? How bad can it get?

Ideas I had:

Delayed Manhattan project

Decreased technology sharing on radar and electronics

Solo British Invasion of Balkans

Solo American Invasion of France

More American priority on Pacific Theater

Americans back Darlan and other Vichy defectors, Britain separately backs DeGaulle

America supports independence of liberated colonies like Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia if they get there first


How many of these could plausibly happen? What would it take to get them to happen? Could it get worse?
 
The Americans blackmail Britain into Sledgehammer in 1942/3, consisting mainly of British and Commonwealth Troops, then blame them when it fails.
 
Perhaps a British communist revolution puts Britain much closer to the USSR? There's TL about Britain going "red" but I'm not sure off the top of my head whether it involves a British-Soviet alliance.
 
The Americans blackmail Britain into Sledgehammer in 1942/3, consisting mainly of British and Commonwealth Troops, then blame them when it fails.

Agreed. Something like this, where the American's force Britain to participate in a futile operation, causing high casualties to British forces and minor losses to American forces, and then blame Britain for their own losses
 
That's even harsher than my Roald Dahl getting caught idea. (Dahl was an agent for British Security Coordination in WWII. Among his activities were sending a speech of then-VP Henry Wallace to get copied at the embassy when he was supposed to be reading it, and sleeping with Claire Booth Luce.)
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Perhaps a British communist revolution puts Britain much closer to the USSR? There's TL about Britain going "red" but I'm not sure off the top of my head whether it involves a British-Soviet alliance.

A Communist revolution in Britain during WWII? Even the ASBs admit that that's ASB. Besides, Churchill would just give them a mean look and they'd immediately surrender.
 
Perhaps a British communist revolution puts Britain much closer to the USSR? There's TL about Britain going "red" but I'm not sure off the top of my head whether it involves a British-Soviet alliance.

AComatoseIbex

Given how chummy elements of the US leadership were with Stalin a markedly more left wing Britain, especially if it was talking about early independence for colonies would be likely to improve relations with the US government.

I've been toying with an idea for a TL, a different 3rd option to Churchill and Halifax in 1940, that results in distinctly worse relations between the main allies, UK-US ones being cooler and especially from 43 UK-USSR ones being distinctly Arctic. [Basically too lazy to do the research:eek:]

Could see a number of the points being suggested occurring. Very unlikely to see Britain forced into a Sledgehammer because both Churchill and Brook knew how stupid the idea was and how limited British manpower was.

Steve
 
I could potentially see Britain refusing to operate the Arctic Convoys to Russia, which could lead to cooler relations with the US, especially if the US are pushing for Britain to supply Russia with equipment and resources.

Then, various other incidents where America is trying to push for 1 or more things that are unrealistic (Operation Sledgehammer for instance), Britain refusing to even consider them, either because they are just too unrealistic or because it would be British troops and equipment on the line, not American, and they don't want to throw away their troops on a hopeless fantasy.

Plus, various other factors, such as the Destroyers for Bases deal being far less/worse for Britain than in OTL, or America's refusal to turn over any information regarding the Manhatten Project to Britain (rather than being simply reluctant to share info as in OTL) could also sour relations.

Probably not enough during wartime to break the alliance, seeing as Britain did need America (even though I'm loath to admit it), especially Lend-Lease and troops/equipment to defeat the Axis powers.

However, after the war, the politician's aren't likely to forget how badly America screwed over Britain, which would lead to a major cooling of relations between Britain and America post-war
 
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