France/UK win 1940, Hitler dead, -- Peace Terms????

May 1940 --RAF moves almost all RAF to France, Bomb-Straff German conveys in Ardennes. German Advance much Slower, No Fuel for Rommel's Calvary Dash,

Mid June - Belgium/France still Holding out, Germans pushed back to Border, Italy never entered, Military Coup, Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, several others Victims of lead poisoning.

[Roll Eyes] Hess- new Fuehrer. [Roll Eyes] [Smiley not working] Military in Charge.

Germans ask for terms --- ?What would they Be?


[I Know -- this borders on ASB -- but it is barely possible]
 
Strange terms.
Western Powers would request poland independence, probably leaving danzig to germany.
probably also a change iin the status of bohemia protectorate but Reich keeps sudetenland, and slovakia remain separated.
Austria still anschluss-ed : it was a plebiscite.
status quo ante on western front, no reparations of sort.
Germany would agree provided it is to have some sort of economical primacy on bohemia, and maybe a slice of wartegau.
I doubt CCCP would return its share of poland and baltic states, but probaby would not attack finland and maybe bessarabia stays Rumanian
 
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It's not ASB. If the RAF and French airfroce had bombed the Germans during the Meuse crossing then the war probably would have ended there and then. I reckon France would push for tough sanctions, and I think Britain would get behind them in demanding Austria be separated from Germany. They'd also of course demand Polish independence, although there's little they can do about the Soviet controlled areas. They'd probably make Germany cede parts of Prussia around Konigsberg to Poland as well as the Corridor as compensation as well as reparations.
 
This is a fascinating question.

What kind of terms the Germans would be willing to accept would depend on just how bad the Wehrmacht has been hit and what else is going on - just how restless is Stalin looking is a big one. On the other hand the Allies would have to give off the impression that they are willing - and able, this is a big one - if necessary, to do it the hard way and march all the way to Berlin and make the Germans cry uncle.

The memory of Versailles and the Dolchstoß-legend would IMO make any German leadership pretty disinclined to make territorial concessions without actual Allied boots on German soil and German military and industrial warmaking assets in ashes - it would be political suicide to throw away the spoils of the victory in the East without strong war-weariness in the general populace. They would try to keep Austria, Sudetenland and Danzig, keeping the parts of Schlesien and Posen lost in WW1 is out of the question. While losing the best assets of the Wehrmacht to that bombardment would certainly go a long way towards disenchanting the Germans from the war that they really only got into after the unexpectedly easy victory over France, I really don't see the war end in 1940 quite frankly. The Allies would be absolutely disinclined to accept a Germany that is stronger and larger than in 1937, and it is politically impossible for the Germans to just give up their gains. So the war will have to go on until war-weariness has mounted to a point where one side or both sides have to give up some of their demands.

On the other hand you gotta keep in mind that Germany is gonna lose this one, no doubt about it. And the new leadership knows that. They are going to run out of raw materials and food even faster than in the original timeline since they have captured only a fraction of the gold, weapons and raw materials they got their hands on in the original timeline and they are not going to get any new allies after this loss of prestige and great-power-credibility. They would probably attempt to delay the Allies for as long as possible and then go for a desperate, Battle-of-the-Bulge-like push to get the Allies to agree to the status quo ante of August 1939, but it's not happening.

This is gonna end in a civil war in Germany, with the Soviets and Allies moving into the vacuum and waging war over the spoils. How the postwar borders look like depends on how much German army is left to help the Allies when the Soviets decide to make their move. If the Germans are really depleted when the Soviets move, and/or Americans don't move quickly I actually see the Soviets on the Rhine or even the Atlantic in this one.
 
1940 with france still standing is going to be pretty much 1925-minded.
NOBODY want to continue a war, all still shudder remembering trench warfare.
Also, most of public opinion in entente countries recognize Versailles as something too harsh for the good of europe.
Thus, ethnically german territories remain to german: Austria, Sudetenland, Danzig.
 
In 1940 there is still a significant number of politicians in the UK and France with an interest in seeing Germany as a viable buffer against Soviet expansion (and the Soviets have showed their hand in this respect, appearing all the more like an expansionist power), so a gentle peace as outlined here (Sudentland, Austria and Danzig to Germany) is a realistic one. The question is, if Poland is to be re-established, how do the allies deal with the fact that Eastern Poland is still occupied by the Soviets? Does a war follow between UK, France (and Germany?) against the USSR over Poland? Or is Poland left as a thin sliver (as little as General Government if the Polish Corridor is not returned for the same reasons as Sudetenland) in Eastern Europe?
 
Your theories are a lot more boring than mine :)

I really don't see Germany getting a leg up after they basically took a great big dump in the Brits' Cheerios at Munich quite frankly.
 
IMHO, a lot would depend on the new German leadership's attitude towards Hitler's tenure. If they convincingly take steps to restore the independance of Bohemia and Poland (minus the corridor, but not much more), stop the criminal treatment of the German Jews and make moves towards a re-introduction of a democratic system, then I can imagine them getting away with a lot.

If not, I can see the Western Allies, now that they have shown they can be victorious, try their luck on the offensive. After all, a Germany with its regime toppled and sueing for peace is apparently in a weak state of affairs.
 
IMHO, and I'm usually wrong these days, I think the attitude of/towards Italy and the USSR is going to be a big decider here. Stalin just gobbled up half of Poland, and is menacing the Baltic states (OTL he moved in as "compensation" vis-a-vis German gains in the West). Italy obviously is not going to enter the war, but the situation in Egypt is not clearcut domestically, and undefeated with a large navy, Italy is going to be looking a lot more menacing on the sidelines than we know they were.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
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