Eisenhower's resignation letter - 1944

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In the film of Fatherland , the point of departure for the alternate history is the failure of the D-Day landings.

I took that scenario and imagined the message that General Eisenhower would have written to the troops after their defeat.

It is based on two real artifacts:
  • The content is very similar to the actual notes that General Eisenhower hand-wrote for a message in case D-Day did fail.
  • The format of the message is from one that he actually sent out to the troops on Victory in Europe day.
 
It's actually that Heydrich Survives which allows the USSR to be crushed and the British starved out.

That's the book, which is also very implausible (albeit a cracking work of AH) but not as absurd as the movie's 'D-Day Fails allowing Sea Lion to happen, the USSR is held in Belarus indefinitely'.
 

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That's the book, which is also very implausible (albeit a cracking work of AH) but not as absurd as the movie's 'D-Day Fails allowing Sea Lion to happen, the USSR is held in Belarus indefinitely'.

The Idea of D-Day failing allowing the Nazis to win seems to happen a lot.

Also it kind of makes sense if you add your own bit of context to the novel.
 
The Book makes more sense, and the Idea of D-Day failing allowing the Nazis to win seems to happen a lot.

I've always wondered if there's something subconscious about that, when I was little I thought it was called 'Decision Day' because it was the turning point of the war.
 
It's actually that Heydrich Survives which allows the USSR to be crushed and the British starved out.

That's the book, which is also very implausible (albeit a cracking work of AH) but not as absurd as the movie's 'D-Day Fails allowing Sea Lion to happen, the USSR is held in Belarus indefinitely'.

Yeah, they changed the PoD for the movie.

The AH of Fatherland isn't particularly plausible, but it's just a setting for the novel. The actual background AH is handwaved on a single page.

I wrote a review that analyses the POD if you're interested.
 
That's a good summary you've got there. One little nitpick of mine was with the V-3 though, it already existed in OTL, so the the A9 would have been christened the V-4, although I guess the British surrender might have prevented the construction of the Supergun in the first place.

That's right. The "V3 rocket" is either a mistake by Robert Harris, or he deliberately called it that in the book because most readers wouldn't be able to guess what an A9 was.

IMO though, the rockets/cannon might not have been called Vergeltungswaffen in 'Fatherland world' anyway, as there would be much less strategic bombing to take 'revenge' for if Britain had surrendered in 1944.
 
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How was The Hangman's survival mean to help in the war against the Soviet Union?

I think the chain is possibly:
  1. Heydrich survives.
  2. He takes over in France (which was on the cards at the time of his assassination).
  3. He implements similar carrot and stick tactics as he did in Czechoslovakia.
  4. They work (again).
  5. More war production in France.
  6. Better equipped German Army.
  7. Operation Blue succeeds.

Only point 1 and 7 are explicitly stated in the novel.
 
I think he would have also been able to help the spy game for Germany.

That's a thought. One of my major quibbles with Fatherland as AH is that a major divergence didn't seem to follow from Heydrich surviving- I could see more efficiency leading to Operation Blue succeeding, but I couldn't for the life of me see how that would lead to them winning in the Atlantic. Maybe Heydrich puts some pieces together while in France and manages to convince Hitler the Allies are reading Enigma?

I agree, though, that the timeline of Fatherland isn't really important. It's still one of the best and most chilling works of alternate history I've ever read.
 
You forgot something

Maybe it's just a woman's perspective, but what if Eisenhower's relationship with Kate Sommersby pushed him closer to resigning, especially if he was demoralized by the failure of D-Day? A man needs moral and spiritual support, and the love of a young woman would certainly be more welcomed at a time when his spirit was lowest. Hadn't he considered stepping down at one time, including leaving Mamie as well as the Army, in order to be with Kate?
It does sound silly, but personal choices can influence major decisions more than they should.
 
Maybe it's just a woman's perspective, but what if Eisenhower's relationship with Kate Sommersby pushed him closer to resigning, especially if he was demoralized by the failure of D-Day? A man needs moral and spiritual support, and the love of a young woman would certainly be more welcomed at a time when his spirit was lowest. Hadn't he considered stepping down at one time, including leaving Mamie as well as the Army, in order to be with Kate?
It does sound silly, but personal choices can influence major decisions more than they should.

I think it's almost certain that Eisenhower would at least offer his resignation if D-Day failed.

I guess the thought of being able to divorce and remarry might have helped that, assuming that Eisenhower and Kate Summersby actually did have an affair. Wikipedia suggests it's not certain that they did.

I've not seen anything saying he considered resigning during OTL WW2. This NYTimes article suggests that he may have asked for permission to get divorced in order to marry Kate Summersby and had that permission rejected by General Marshall.
 
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