Hitler has a mild stroke...

Hitler has a mild stroke after the Fall of France, and it effects his thinking. He looses his obsession with the Russians, but instead becomes obsessesed with oil. Instead of Barbarossa, he orders the forces of the Axis to attack Istanbul, and drive across the straigth into asia. From where to threaten Persia and British India, and support the North African conflict by driving into Syria and Iraq to secure their oil fieldsand threatening the Suez if at all possible.

How do the battles unfold, is there any possibility of sucess for the Germans. How does Russia react? And what is the ultimate conclusion of WWII under this scenario?
 
Considering that anti-communism was a big part of National Socialist dogma, I can't see him loosing interest in destroying the Soviets. Perhaps if the stroke knocked some sense into him, and he removed the British from the Middle East first, that could work. I guess there's an off chance of forcing Churchill to accept peace where the British are left with a free hand in their empire, and the Reich a free hand in Europe. It would also offer more routes to attack the Soviets, and a much longer frontier to fight from. No matter; the Reich could not conquer something as large as the Soviet Union. The war might drag on for ten years, but the Soviets would inevitably win (assuming the Stalinist Government isn't toppled).
 
It's not the Bosphorous per se, but the 1600 kilometres of the very mountainous Anatolian hinterland, and that's not including the even longer supply chain back to the Reich.

Farther than Moscow and Stalingrad? And in reality, with anything approaching the same level of resistance?

(The Bosphorus, in my HO, not being that much of an obstiacale.
 
Not sure about the distances, but the terrain and infrastructure would be worse than the Wehrmacht encountered in Russia. And the reason why the Germans couldn't take Moscow was precisely because of logistics.


Yes, but this sort of reasoning assumes the Turks, by themselves, are able to put up a resistance equivalent in men, manpower, technology, and leadership equivalent to that of the Russians in 1940-1941.

Frankly, Mountains, despite their hardships, do not defend themselves. And unless you really think the industrial, and military output of Turkey in 1940 or 1941 equaled that of the Soviet Union, let alone the quality or technology of their troops, and the strength of their government, I don't get where you are comming from.

So, short of Arguing that the Turks can kill 3,000,000 German soldiers, naval officers, and airmen, or stop them from pouring across the Bosphorus.....where are we?
 
Maybe the Reich can force Turkey into the Axis Pact, maybe bribe them with some of the Caucausus and Cyprus when the war is over. Of course, Turkey would be occupied by the Soviet Union in that case....
 
Yes, but this sort of reasoning assumes the Turks, by themselves, are able to put up a resistance equivalent in men, manpower, technology, and leadership equivalent to that of the Russians in 1940-1941.

Frankly, Mountains, despite their hardships, do not defend themselves. And unless you really think the industrial, and military output of Turkey in 1940 or 1941 equaled that of the Soviet Union, let alone the quality or technology of their troops, and the strength of their government, I don't get where you are comming from.

So, short of Arguing that the Turks can kill 3,000,000 German soldiers, naval officers, and airmen, or stop them from pouring across the Bosphorus.....where are we?

Do you understand the word "logistics"?
 
I can see the Germans getting bogged down in the Perisan gulf whilst a Soviet invasion cuts the German Empire in two.
 
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