This is my first thread so be patient if this has been asked before. I did searches for a quicker Allied victory in World War 2 and all the PODs I could find were either before the war or very early in it. I wondering what are some good realistic PODs that that take place after the US enters, that could lead to a quicker victory. What strategy could the Allies take to win more quickly, or was our timeline arguably the quickest.
Ok, I'll try my hand at this. I'm going to cheat a bit though, so warning right off the top, as it were.
- Dec 7th, 1941 the Japanese attack as OTL
- Dec 1941, US army troops garrison most of the major islands in the westernmost Aleutians islands, with especial attention paid to Attu and Kiska.
- Dec 1941, Airbase construction the length of the Aleutians are immediately begun.
- Dec 1941, US transfers 100 merchantmen to the Soviet Union, for exclusive use in Alaskan - Siberian supply route.
- Dec 1941, US Congress approves an earlier and much larger Al Can highway.
- Dec 1941, a massive investment in infrastructure commences, with Alaska - Aleutians being brought up to US heartland standards within 2 years.
- Jan, 1942 to May 1942 go pretty much as OTL, but the major changes come in next month.
- June, 1942, the Battle of Midway results is an even more crushingly huge defeat for the Japanese, because of the massive increased defenses in the north. The greatly enlarged and more battle worthy 11th air force, operating from the heretofore unsuspected airbases all along the Aleutians give a through bitch-slapping to the northern force, so the IJN in down 6 carriers rather than the 4 from OTL.
- June 1942 to Dec 1942, the Guadalcanal campaign goes quite a bit better than OTL, due in no small part to the Japanese believing that a huge US buildup in the Aleutians is an obvious prelude to an invasion on Japan from the north. Perhaps they even initially think those landings a a ruse/faint, to draw their forces to the far southeast, when the REAL attack will then come the North.
- Dec 7th, 1942, combined US/Soviet ground offensive commences, driving the Germans back.
- Dec 7th, 1943, unable to stop, or even really slow down the US/Soviet armies, the Germans realize the writing is on the wall, so to speak, and begin seeking terms.
The cheating is knowing that, historically, the Japanese will not be conducting an anti-commerce shipping campaign with their submarine fleet, and that as long as the USSR refuses to DoW Japan, they will not have their shipping being targeted at all, so unlike historical losses to the German U-Boats, pretty much everything sent to Europe historically actually makes its way to the USSR in TTL, the USA forms the 8th air force in the soviet union, not the UK, and Torch is replaced by those troops being sent the other way round.
Ok, that's cheating, but removing the shipping losses to the U-Boats by not going to Europe/Africa, means those same ships can be better used on the longer (but far safer) northwestern route.
Reasons:
Fighting the Germans and the Japanese, and most shipping going to Europe/Africa needlessly offers that tonnage as targets for uboats while slowing down US buildup in one place. Fighting the Germans where they are weak, and out of supply is good, but going into Africa has our troops operating on their own. Operating alongside the battle hardened Red army, the US fights the Germans sooner, and there is no need to have a long range fighter escort for bomber missions over Germany, as the US/Soviet air forces go toe to toe with the Luftwaffe, and begin strangling the Wehrmacht by slaughtering German supply convoys, so their already poor supply situation only gets worse, faster and sooner than in OTL, and more and more trucks and horses get bombed and strafed, as more and more American troops & equipment continue to pour into Siberia and are delivered to the "Eastern Front" via a greatly improved TSR.
You cannot really start fighting the Japanese, and by this I mean taking territory back from them, without the huge supply train that hasn't been built yet in 1941, but by going northwest, you eliminate most US losses to the uboats (you cannot just cutoff all supplies to the UK after all), and the US army in the USSR presumably can be supplied just as well if not better than Torch could be.
The key to this is rapidly building airbases on Attu and Kiska islands, to the Japanese are not even able to attempt to hit the supplies heading to Anchorage/Nome, and from there, on USSR flagged ships, into Siberian ports/ trans-Siberian railway.
Beating Germany means beating the German army, and showing them that their troops, deep within the USSR and at the end of an increasingly bad supply train, cannot hope to win, forces them to leave Africa on their own, as they cannot afford the troops/shipping/supplies committed to a sideshow.
Breaking the German army earlier means breaking Germany sooner, and Germany suing for peace in early 1944, means everyone is going to be able to devote all their attention to the Japanese, so...
Is this any good?
But with Hitler out of the way, a negotiated peace would be possible. And with America in the war and the failure of Barbarossa, there would be a lot of German generals looking for a way to end the war they would realize they could no longer hope to win.