As much as I enjoy a good Naziwank (sarcasm!), I think maybe we should try something less staid. So: input requested. Here's some stuff to consider.
1) Poland, Denmark, Norway fall as OTL
2) Original, non-Manstein plans for the invasion of France kept and adhered to. France manages to halt the initial offensive, though losing all of Belgium and meaty chunks of her northeast. A generally similar penetration to, say, January 1915. Mussolini decides to take his time before declaring for Hitler.
3) The Germans marshal their forces and make a final, concerted, and costly push in the fall, taking Paris in October. But it's a grind. Hitler's war machine - and Germany's economy - is nearly broken in the process, and will never fully recover. The French Army and government are harried in their retreat to Algeria, but survive and begin the process of fighting broken-backed. A plant in Georgia starts producing Somua-licensed tanks, and the new African troops France is raising will be outfitted with American weapons.
4) It is now January 1941. Mussolini, feeling that with France "out of the war", Germany is bound to win, jumps in. The war in the Mediterranean commences with the Italians in Libya being pinched in from the east and west by Britain and France. The first few detachments of the Afrika Korps, including Rommel, arrive just in time to be destroyed/captured in the defence of Tripoli. Libya falls.
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Right, this is as far as I've gotten, which seems far enough for you gents to shred it apart.
Where to go from here? Stalin's sitting on the sidelines waiting to pounce.
1) Poland, Denmark, Norway fall as OTL
2) Original, non-Manstein plans for the invasion of France kept and adhered to. France manages to halt the initial offensive, though losing all of Belgium and meaty chunks of her northeast. A generally similar penetration to, say, January 1915. Mussolini decides to take his time before declaring for Hitler.
3) The Germans marshal their forces and make a final, concerted, and costly push in the fall, taking Paris in October. But it's a grind. Hitler's war machine - and Germany's economy - is nearly broken in the process, and will never fully recover. The French Army and government are harried in their retreat to Algeria, but survive and begin the process of fighting broken-backed. A plant in Georgia starts producing Somua-licensed tanks, and the new African troops France is raising will be outfitted with American weapons.
4) It is now January 1941. Mussolini, feeling that with France "out of the war", Germany is bound to win, jumps in. The war in the Mediterranean commences with the Italians in Libya being pinched in from the east and west by Britain and France. The first few detachments of the Afrika Korps, including Rommel, arrive just in time to be destroyed/captured in the defence of Tripoli. Libya falls.
---
Right, this is as far as I've gotten, which seems far enough for you gents to shred it apart.