Could Nazi Germany have knocked the UK out of World War 2, assuming no Battle of Britian?

FBKampfer

Banned
You make it sound like defeating the Soviet Union is trivial.
There would have been another round of fighting later on, but I believe Stalin would have gone for a Brest litovsk if offered terms (integrity of the Russian borders being prerequisite). Not based on the rumors that he was considering asking for one, but just that if offered, they didn't stand to lose anything the Germans hadn't already taken, and it offered a breather that, at the time, it looked like the USSR could have desperately used.


Overall it would end up with Russians at the Reichstag, but it satisfies the requirement that UK gets out of the war.
 
Germans had a specified Küstenminenleger, a small coastal minelayer with 32kts speed and 4 mines. However, the class was not a success due to unreliable machinery. They also used Räumboote for minelaying, although for offensive minelaying their use might be dicey. If Germany decided the minelaying would be a priority, they could have well feasibly built a massive amount of Küstenminenleger equivalents in fairly short time using surplus aircraft engines. That might, however, result in a yet another Luftwaffe fleet, like Siebel ferries...

that smaller type of S-boat was considered a failure and little used. post-war they constructed the Jaguar-class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar-class_fast_attack_craft since it could carry two dozen mines one could perform work of four historical craft AND it does not preclude them operating other duties

this seems a good compromise between historical motley crew of ships and the unbuilt class of minelayers mooted pre-war.
 
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