DBWI: The Germans don't kill George VI
- Thread starter Peppe
- Start date
Nick P
Donor
Come on, who hasn't seen Flight to Freedom on Sunday afternoon TV at least three times? I swear it's on every Bank holiday weekend, that or The Great Escape. 🙄
For a 1952 black and white film it actually isn't too bad. Powell and Pressburger did good job of capturing the tensions of getting his family to the airfield under the noses of the Gestapo - I mean, that bit with the flower seller playing the idiot to distract the cops while his wife and two young boys sneak round the edge of the town square is a masterpiece in comic-thriller scenes.
For the flight itself I'm impressed they bothered to find the actual De Havilland Dragon that Louis Ferdinand himself flew. They threw in some great aerial footage of the biplane dodging the attacking Me-109s and Spitfires until they spot the kids waving out of the windows. It is a shame that part didn't actually happen and it was simply a straight flight to Croydon with an RAF Hurricane escorting while a former KLM co-pilot did the navigating but never mind, it added to King Louis's myth and sold seats in the cinema! 😀
Keep in mind this got the US in the war inside a month. George VI was the first reigning British King to visit the US and he ha just done so in 1939 and he was quite popular. More than anything though the Germans’ actions demonstrated to Americans from all walks of life that there was nothing the Nazis would not stoop to.
Coulsdon Eagle
Monthly Donor
Wasn't that in part due to the Regency Crisis, when Churchill suggested it should be the Duke of Windsor, refighting the battles of 1936.
Urban myth that QEII came the closest to throwing a paddy in her life when Uncle David's name was put forward, and virtually the entire establishment sided with her.
Dolan
Banned
Yeah, she was vengeful and really strong-willed, even Churchill said that Queen Elizabeth "should've born a boy and he'll personally lead the charge to flatten the Nazis".
Also being the first (modern) British Monarch who both has the power and willing to push her authority to make her a political juggernaut instead of previous figurehead. Many deem Queen Elizabeth the Second's rise being parallel to the rise of Her First Namesake, so much that with her popularity and authorizaty, she managed to almost single-handedly keep the Empire largely intact.
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Deleted member 94680
It's a staple of my childhood. I prefer The Eagle Has Flown - the 1975 political thriller based on Henry Patterson's seminal work on the intrigues and espionage leading up to the Hohenzollern's escape. The flower seller scene has it's mirror image in the scene where Kira and Michael are avoiding the Gestapo agents (led by Bruce Glover's hideous Standartenführer) as they cross the square to the waiting bus. A masterpiece of tension and artful shots - gives me goosebumps every time.
Another reason that Churchill was removed was his plan to send Elizabeth off to Canada, there were documents saying that it would have been seen as a sign of surrender on the part of the royal family to be "running away". The part where he wished she was a man was really seen in his reasons to get her to leave. I don't think that he was expecting her to be so strong willed.
Another huge consequence was in the East.
After the execution the "peace" faction in Japan was able to hold the June 2nd coup and a civilian took over command of all the armed forces. There was a "purge" of Nazi supporters in government as they were seen as a threat to the Emperor. The minor civil war that happened stopped most of their military expansion until the fear of the Soviets made them return to Manchuko and reinforce what holdings that they had.
Another huge consequence was in the East.
After the execution the "peace" faction in Japan was able to hold the June 2nd coup and a civilian took over command of all the armed forces. There was a "purge" of Nazi supporters in government as they were seen as a threat to the Emperor. The minor civil war that happened stopped most of their military expansion until the fear of the Soviets made them return to Manchuko and reinforce what holdings that they had.
Even many in the Japanese armed forces were repulsed by the Germans' actions. I guess that makes sense, they worshipped their emperor as a god so I can see how the Germans killing the king and queen of another nation might offend their sensibilities a bit. More than one captured German general after the war said the reactions from the Americans and the Japanese caught them by surprise.
If the sirens ever sound it'll take me over an hour just to get all the junk out of my bunker, and my neighbours think mine's pretty empty. Off hand I can't think of any who's bunker is actually ready for immediate use and not full of crap. I don't think they've been inspected since 9/11.
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I really don't think it's accurate to say that the bomb on Berlin was revenge for George's death. Remember, in 1945 the war was still in the balance; the Germans still controlled Russia up to the Urals, and the Allies were bogged down in Brittany. Nuking Berlin was huge; it killed Hitler, turned much of the military against the Goring regime, and set off the power struggle between Himmler and Goring. It's very hard to argue that the bomb didn't win the war, so I don't think that the Allies would have been merciful had George still been alive.
The best part is, though it is played up for laughs, it is largely true.
ASUKIRIK
Banned
Well, the "Axis Japan" theory brought forth by some alternate historians here is indeed an interesting concept, and we did know that there were Nazi supporters within the Militarist ranks who took hold over Japan during the Second World War.
In my humble opinion though, without the attack on British Royalty, it would merely turn Japan neutral instead of being active member of the Allies, because after all said and done, the Kuomintang China is a close ally of Nazi Germany, and they were always claiming that not only Manchuria, but Korea, French Indochina, and Burma being what should have been "Integral and inseparable parts of China", so much that China joining the Axis War efforts is a foregone conclusion.
No American disgust over Axis actions (especially with Chiang outright lauded Hitler for 'removing that stain of feudalism and colonialism'), might mean that there will be no reversal of previous pro-Chinese sympathies and anti-Japanese sanctions in the US. Sure, the US did not go supporting Japan overnight, but continuing US-Japan trade in Steel and Oil enabled Japan to withstood Chinese and later Soviet aggression. A Neutral Japan who at the very same time still being put under US sanctions might ended up chaffing under Chinese pressure.
Dolan
Banned
Well, back then, with Britain almost throwing in the towel, The Italian Monarch tried and failed to coup Mussolini (who grew stronger after the purge), and with how the US still seen to hates Japan more than hates the Nazis, Chinese higher-ups might think that Axis Victory is inevitable and thus, think affirming their alliance with the Nazis as the best thing they could do to took advantage of the European Chaos.
Who knows that only seven years later China would be permanently split and broken? Ending their thousands of years as an united entity?
ASUKIRIK
Banned
And maybe this is late, but considering how long Prince Richard, her eldest Nephew as the heir to the British Throne, and how she adopted all her nephews and nieces after the tragic death of their parents (her sister and brother-in-law who died from car crash in 1968) and they called her as "mother" in both public and private life, the Royal Princes and Princesses ended up mistakenly being thought as the natural children of Queen Elizabeth II (instead of her nephews and nieces), we often forgot that like her Renaissance namesake, Queen Elizabeth the Second never married.
That fact alone might be able to explain why the Parliament did not really think too much about The Queen being a politically active monarch, but it sure made me think an alternate scenario where King George VI survives the War and either her father push the then Princess Elizabeth to marry, or maybe without her parent being dead and she was practically left alone, she won't end up growing into a strong-willed, brilliant, but also bitter and vengeful Queen who spurred all the potential matches offered to her.
The name "Elizabeth" itself might also ironically being a much more popular choice to the greater populace, as with two Queen Elizabeths that never ended up married, the name ended up carrying some connotations not only for strong, independent women who fears nothing but also being spinsters who reject all men trying to woo them. The name "Elizabeth" did ended up being very popular with feminists for the very same reasons though.
OOC EDIT: Now her children is actually her nephews and nieces.
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OOC: Man, you know that Elizabeth has a younger sister, right (and who would not have died with her parents)? And that I had mentioned her as having had children.... (although admitedly the idea of Liz II not marrying has its merits)
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ASUKIRIK
Banned
OOC: Edited to make Elizabeth the Second Virgin Queen formally adopted all her nephews and nieces and deem them as her children. We're just too young to really remembered who they actually are.
I think the speech Hitler gave to the Reichstag about what a glorious accomplishment it was for Germany as soon as he found out about it kind of kills that idea.