Fate of European militaries in a Nazi victory

Nazi Germany wins the war and has control of the continent from the English Channel to the Urals.

What happens to the non German militaries across Europe (France, Balkans, Low Countries etc)?

Are they folded into the Wehrmacht or kept as their own entities in something similar to the Warsaw Pact?

How large would they be and how would they be treated?
 
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The Low Countries (and Scandinavia) wouldn't exist in such a scenario, so their people would just get funneled into the Wehrmacht. Any nominally independent countries (shrunken France, Finland, Croatia, etc) keep their own militaries at a level just large enough for internal control and maybe fighting partisans in the East.
 
Depending on the circumstances you would also have SS Volunteer Divisions like Charlemagne being recruited from the subject nations.
 
A Nazi victory assumes the USSR has been trashed. The Nazis have no enemies on the continent, so unlike the USSR there is no need for strong satellite militaries. Those of German allies like Romania, Hungary will be integrated with common equipment (if older) or with local equipment to standard calibers etc and commonality rules like NATO. Finland probably falls in the same category. You'll probably see Spain and Italy with independent militaries but again a lot of commonality. As noted conquered nations/territories that are part of the Reich will have males serving in the Wehrmacht. Conquered nations not absorbed, such as France, will have very limited militaries for primarily home defense or static use.
 
A Nazi victory assumes the USSR has been trashed. The Nazis have no enemies on the continent, so unlike the USSR there is no need for strong satellite militaries. Those of German allies like Romania, Hungary will be integrated with common equipment (if older) or with local equipment to standard calibers etc and commonality rules like NATO. Finland probably falls in the same category. You'll probably see Spain and Italy with independent militaries but again a lot of commonality. As noted conquered nations/territories that are part of the Reich will have males serving in the Wehrmacht. Conquered nations not absorbed, such as France, will have very limited militaries for primarily home defense or static use.

This is probably about accurate. The Reich will de-fang the national militaries of conquered nations into primarily being local defense forces that would be integrated into a greater chain of command in the Reich. France might get a bit of slack (as it would be the jumping point for a Anglo-American invasion) but it would probably fit into some mechanism of the Reich. Spain and Italy would probably be independent but tied to the whims of the Reich.
 
The Low Countries (and Scandinavia) wouldn't exist in such a scenario, so their people would just get funneled into the Wehrmacht. Any nominally independent countries (shrunken France, Finland, Croatia, etc) keep their own militaries at a level just large enough for internal control and maybe fighting partisans in the East.

Finland is a special case here, because it will be significantly enlarged and will directly border Nazi-controlled territories in the former USSR. For a decade or two after the war is officially ended, at least, it will need larger than OTL peacetime forces just to enforce order in these areas. Given how overstretched the Germans themselves would be, the Nazi leadership demanding that Finland should send "police forces" to other parts of northern Russia would be likely. In comparison to the OTL, Finland would be seriously more militarized in the 50s and 60s, given that the Civil Guards organization will still exist as a national militia when it was disbanded on Soviet demands IOTL.

Generally speaking, as I think that the Reich proper can't keep a major number of its young men in uniform all the time just to hold its massive new empire together, I'd predict more demand for non-German allies'/satellites'/clients' soldiers in the New European Order. Whether these soldiers would be deployed (actually or nominally) in national uniforms or whether they would be put into the uniforms of an enlarged pan-European Waffen-SS in a "continental foreign legion" type of deal, or whether the setting would be something else, depends on what kind of a Nazi leadership follows Hitler. Under any circumstances, though, I believe that the Nazis would want the "lesser nationalities" doing the dirtywork of running their empire on the ground where possible so that the true Aryans can enjoy the spoils of victory. In military terms, this would mean deploying foreign auxiliaries for guard and "police" duties, counterinsurgency, engineer units and other such less than glamorous jobs.
 
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A Nazi victory assumes the USSR has been trashed. The Nazis have no enemies on the continent, so unlike the USSR there is no need for strong satellite militaries. Those of German allies like Romania, Hungary will be integrated with common equipment (if older) or with local equipment to standard calibers etc and commonality rules like NATO. Finland probably falls in the same category. You'll probably see Spain and Italy with independent militaries but again a lot of commonality. As noted conquered nations/territories that are part of the Reich will have males serving in the Wehrmacht. Conquered nations not absorbed, such as France, will have very limited militaries for primarily home defense or static use.
I'd say there are many different levels of trashed. The most likely conclusion to the war isn't some sort of Fatherland scenario with the German border on the Volga after all.


Assuming a very successful war I think Italy would retain a very independent military - they aren't about to let the Germans dictate to them after all. And this would probably be reflected in the Balkans too.
 
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