Lost Freeway
Banned
What would happen if Operation Mercury-the German plan to capture Crete after the fall of the Greek mainland-had succeeded?
Maybe Churchill wouldn't have gone for Salonika 2.0 in 1942 and gotten tens of thousands killed trying to break out of the rocky mess than is Greece, while causing their position in Africa to fall apart.
OOC: there is no way in hell that any of that was possible. Crete for one did not have the infrastructure to support strategic bombers, the bombers available in 1942 did not have the ability to survive over Europe, which is EXACTLY why the British refused to conduct day bombing; they didn't have the ability to navigate to Romania from Crete by night in 1942. It was only in 1944 by bases that they could successfully navigate to mine the Danube. At best in late 1943 they could have started using it as a base to target Romania from Crete with US bombers for daylight bombing, but would have serious problem from the fact that all the major ports are on the north side of the island far closer to the Greek mainland than any British ports, so it will be subjected to aerial suppression and Italian naval raids; Decima MAS would have an absolute field day attacking Crete because it was so close to bases in Greece and so far from any Allied bases. Crete would be a very difficult base to use offensively except as a staging area to invade Greece.
Churchill was not rational going into Greece in 1940, so its FAR more likely that rather than Dieppe he tries to get the second front started in the Balkans, is constant pet project; that way he can go for the bomber offensive against Romania after seizing a reasonable foothold for airbases in Greece, pressure Turkey into joining the war, and convincing Bulgaria to get out. Of course that's what he thought was possible IOTL.OOC: But apparently Churchill would go "Salonika 2.0" in 1942 with out any of the advantages they had in 1915![]()