DBWI-Operation Mercury succeeds

What would happen if Operation Mercury-the German plan to capture Crete after the fall of the Greek mainland-had succeeded?
 

Deleted member 1487

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.
 
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.

Probably not - Typical Winston one would have thought that some one would have stopped him - he being a Prime Minister of a democratic nation and not a fascist Dictator hmmmm?

On the plus side by late 1942 Allied Bombers operating from Crete had despite horrific losses destroyed several of the major Oil refineries in central Europe and to varying degree damaged all the others creating serious fuel shortages that Germany never really recovered from.

This would seriously impact operations in Russia in 1942 and despite this Hitler sent all of the fuel reserves to the Southern Front in order to launch "Case Blue" an all or nothing effort to capture the Baku oil Fields.

The attack as we know failed and the Russians being far far stronger than Germany realised paid them back for the previous year cutting of both Army Group A and B.

With insufficient fuel stocks no realistic attempt could be made to break the troops out and one by one the various pockets of troops were overrun - the last one Elements of 1st Panzer army and the third Romanian Army managed to hold out in and around Rostov till March of 1943

In all almost 1.5 Million German and Axis forces had been listed as Killed or Captured. 2000 Tanks were lost and 1100 Aircraft lost to all causes.

The Axis never recovered and the Central Front Collapsed by Mid 43 and the Red Army met up with the Allies on the Rhine @ Christmas 44.

Obviously had Mercury succeeded none of that would have happened
 

Deleted member 1487

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.
 
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.

OOC: But apparently Churchill would go "Salonika 2.0" in 1942 with out any of the advantages they had in 1915 :rolleyes:
 

Deleted member 1487

OOC: But apparently Churchill would go "Salonika 2.0" in 1942 with out any of the advantages they had in 1915 :rolleyes:
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.
 
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