How long could WWII be delayed?

tenthring

Banned
You need Hitler to decide in favor the the industrialist/market faction in 1936 to slow re-armed meant and stabilize Germanies finances. Otherwise I think war is inevitable on roughly the same timeline. It's clear by event 1937 they were planning to take Austria and Czeckoslovakia simply. To get at their gold reserves and Skoda, lest they face an economic collapse.

Btw, any timeline other then what we got probably doesn't become WW2 because Hitler never conquers France. He honestly hit a sweet spot in 1940.
 
Simple have Hitler get assassinated before 1939 and get someone more interested in maintaining economic stability as fuhrer (Goerig is a popular choice).
 
Simple have Hitler get assassinated before 1939 and get someone more interested in maintaining economic stability as fuhrer.

Yep. Don't even necessarily need someone interested in maintaining economic stability... pretty much any other potential German leader you care to possibly name then would likely have stopped after the Anschluss and definitely cashed in after Munich.

You might (very strong emphasis on might there) get a different war years later, when France, Britain, and Russia have reformed and rebuilt their militaries, and Germany is on the downswing of disappointment after the economy begins to crash from the overheating and the early bloom of fascist glories has worn off and so the Nazi leadership does something rash that the Allies now feel strong enough to punish but by then the odds would be so strongly and obviously against Germany that its unlikely the Wehrmacht would go for it.
 
After Munich Hitler dies (Medicine overdose maybe? Thanks Dr. Morell!) and Hjalmar Schacht takes over.

I'd love to read that.
 
With a 1935 POD.
forever .. war was not inventible in 35
1st so hittler gets back lost german lands and Austria.
during this time, the Soviets and French do a much better job of building up forces to contain hittler and makes Germany think twice about Poland or france.

Things settle into a cold war type setting .. Germany settles into a more sane economic policy.

It would still be a nightmare for those living in Germany
 
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Britain and France start the process of serious rearmament earlier - say the various treasuries loosen the purse strings earlier - even an 18 month head start should make vast changes

For example the British Defence Spending at the beginning of 39 was just 4% (later increasing to 8%) of the Budget - increase this by just a few % in 1936/7 and that would pay massive dividends in 1940

The army may start to expand earlier - tanks and Aircraft production / factories expanded earlier as well as the associated technologies and their supporting industries.

For France - in June 1940 they were just on the cusp of completely modernising their Airforce (along with large numbers of US Built aircraft due to arrive) and their Tank Production was 2nd only to the USSR with the latest designs far in advance of the best German tanks of the day.
 

tenthring

Banned
Britain and France start the process of serious rearmament earlier - say the various treasuries loosen the purse strings earlier - even an 18 month head start should make vast changes

For example the British Defence Spending at the beginning of 39 was just 4% (later increasing to 8%) of the Budget - increase this by just a few % in 1936/7 and that would pay massive dividends in 1940

The army may start to expand earlier - tanks and Aircraft production / factories expanded earlier as well as the associated technologies and their supporting industries.

For France - in June 1940 they were just on the cusp of completely modernising their Airforce (along with large numbers of US Built aircraft due to arrive) and their Tank Production was 2nd only to the USSR with the latest designs far in advance of the best German tanks of the day.

The air force bit can't be stressed enough. The one area the Germans had material superiority during the Battle of France was in the air force. Stukka dive bombers made the entire breakthrough and race to the sea possible. Had the French air force done better I don't think they would have succeeded.
 
Nobody wanted another war but Hitler. The Great War really was the war to end all wars and it would have done, but for that sick f**k. Get rid of him, Europe gets to where it is today much earlier and probably without British Europhobia to boot.
 
I don't think Hitler would have stopped; but suppose Poland and Germany resolved the corridor situation and Germany is ceded back land that eliminates that source of friction. At that point Hitler turns inward and focuses on the infrastructure projects to consolidate and improve the Reich from a domestic standpoint. Germany's economic standing in the world increases and she plays nice with the rest of Europe.

I think WW2 then becomes focused on the USSR and their expansionist tendencies. The Finnish war becomes much more of a global concern and issues with Rumania, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania become the catalyst of a war between Capitalist countries against the USSR (Communism). All of Europe is deathly afraid of Bolshevism so I think that's the direction it takes.
 
There are SO many ways WWII could be stopped with a 1935 PoD. Some of them involve a short European War, depending on how much Hitler is allowed to get away with. But, if France stops the Remilitarization of the Rhineland in '36, Hitler looks like a gambler who lost (rather than the genius who kept winning iOTL until well after the war started), and he likely gets pushed out of power soon after, and there's no war.
 
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