Onward! Onward to Portugal, comrades!
After several posts in the same vein, could someone please explain to me why Stalin suddenly in late 1944 or early 1945 decided that he was not fighting the Nazis to crush and occupy as much of Germany as he could, and taking over much of the Eastern Europe in the process (as convenient) but in fact was conducting an all-out assault on Europe and trying to take over also many of his theoretical allies (France) or non-combatants (Switzerland) all of a sudden, in other words going to war against the Western Allies and several other countries besides at the drop of a hat and while his armies have been bled white, their chains of logistics are already being pushed to the limits and parts of the Soviet Union,even, are experiencing near or true famine (not to say anything of the recently conquered territories)?
I mean should we be talking about how far Stalin could push it realistically, taking into account such things as political expediency, the true capabilities of the Red Army in 1945 and the general shape of the USSR and its military-industrial organization, food situation etc.?
At some point, even the USSR can't take it anymore and will break under the weight of the war. I think Stalin knew quite well that was not very far in 1945.
And the OP did specify "without triggering off WWIII".
This. Pretty much, essentially this.
Too many times I see these scenarios drawn up with the Soviets sweeping across Europe with ASB logistics. With no accounting for the reality that the Soviets used a different rail gauge (which cut down on the advancement of working rail lines by 80%), and the principle rail lines running through the Balkans ran from the NW to the SE, not the NE to the SW. Running down postwar superhighways that haven't been built, dropping airborne divisions that would only exist as a few battalions until well after the war.
FYI? The Swiss Army was BIG in 1944-45, and fully mobilized in the strongest most fortified terrain in the world. Lotsa luck, Ivan Ivanovich. At the time, the Soviets only had a small number of dedicated mountain divisions, and they were mostly serving as defensive troops in the Caucasus and the Turkish border.
If the Heer transports the bulk of their panzer divisions in the west to the east, the Soviets will face at least one major blunted offensive. Even if only one. If they don't, Valkyrie succeeds. (1) Whether the bomb kills Hitler or not. Because leaving the Eastern door open while damming up the west after a failed D-Day is the strategy of the Battle of the Bulge x10.
1) Frankly, even Hitler couldn't justify a strategic redeployment back east, as the whole idea of sending those panzers to France was about defeating the coming invasion, and THEN using the panzers to defeat the Soviets.
Anybody who thinks the Soviets can reach and conquer France and Spain has been reading too much John Birmingham.
OTL a Soviet general (Popov?) suggested at a dinner that they keep going and conquer Western Europe. Stalin immediately slammed his fist on the table and growled angrily: "And who will feed them?"
"Empty stomachs make for angry hearts"-Vladimir Lenin