How would an early post WW2 invasion of USSR go?

Lets say the USSR gets the jump on us like is assumed in most scenarios, but we beat them back and are now entering Russia proper.

How would the invasion be handled? Would we attack at the same routes Germany did? How would the occupation work? Would it be broken up into zones like Germany?
 
Lets say the USSR gets the jump on us like is assumed in most scenarios, but we beat them back and are now entering Russia proper.

How would the invasion be handled? Would we attack at the same routes Germany did? How would the occupation work? Would it be broken up into zones like Germany?

I would say that the USSR takes up to the Rhine :p

But using your OP

Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad are all nuclear wastelands
The allies begin making independent states as they go

Something along those lines?
 
I'd love to know how this got started and how long we've been in the fight. If nothing else the partisan networks are already up and running with Germany and Japan as a potential allies. Korea and China will be killing fields as will Central Europe. This will run literally all over the world with decolonization now coming to the forefront and the whole of Eurasia in harm's way.

Given that the Russians have more manpower on the ground and capacity to resist even a few bombs, I think the Western Allies are in real trouble. France will be very determined to keep out the Communists and Greece will be as much a battlefield as Germany. Austria will likely be overrun in short order and the battlefields might run from the Po to the Rhine initially. Turkey will declare neutrality as before but not sure if the USSR will respect it. American nukes on key industrial sites (probably a few in the Urals will take precedent over Leningrad) or oil sites will cause havoc but likely not stop the Russian war machine. It will be long, bloody, and chaotic. The German technologies recovered by the Allies will be put to immediate use and we might see A9 style rockets up and running shortly, though with the USSR working furiously as well I'm not sure what new developments we will see from them. Look for the SKS and eventually AK-47 to be widespread while the Alliws start working with the FAL, depending on how "early" we are talking about.
 
Problem is, people of Britain were tired of war, plus sustained huge casualties, France, Italy and Greece got strong communist movement. US population was tired of as well. Of course, Poland, Hungary and Romania are anticommunist. Czechoslovakia, mostly Czech part is more pro Soviet. Ukraine, mostly western part, can partially join new crusade against communist, as Bandera's people fought on at least till 1947 anyway.
As to atomic bombing of Soviet industrial sites. Really depends, when war starts. In 1946 Soviets were putting into production improvised jet fighters. Numbers were not huge, but their main purpose was to train pilots. They can probably speed up the process in case they really are planning to start the war.
Problem is, western allies pulled out a lto of their forces in 1945/46 from Europe.
 
The invasion will immediately encroach on the WAllied occupation zones, so plenty of reasons for war will come up soon enough.

As for jet fighters, up until 1947 (testing)/1948(production) or so the Soviet jets were piles of junk, so if this comes up in 1947, the Soviets will be facing much better aircraft.
 
In the period following WW2 the Soviet Union was a disaster. Manpower had been bled dry, the most productive agricultural areas had been devastated, and while factories were turning out war goods from east of the Urals, production was inefficient vis a vis population centers and raw materials, excess transport needs etc. One reason the USSR agreed to entering war against Japan (other than getting some territorial loot) was that kept the Lend-Lease flowing from April through August 1945 & beyond a bit. The vast bulk of the populations of Poland, Hungary, Romania were hostile to the Soviet presence, the Czechs were not thrilled - only in Yugoslavia and to a lesser extent in Bulgaria were they truly welcome. Unless the Western Allies fold quickly, there will be very active partisan activity in Eastern Europe (and probably in Ukraine as well) making logistic support of Soviet armies much more difficult.

IMHO the Far East will be a walkover for the Allies. EVERYTHING in the Soviet Far East depends on the Trans-Siberian RR which Allied air power based out of Japan can trash at any time, and likewise the Pacific provinces will be totally at the mercy of Allied naval/naval air as the Soviet Pacific Fleet will be sunk quickly. The Soviets might over-run South Korea, but so what...any troops there can't be supplied. In China in 1945 Mao can't do much to help the cause...not yet.

The most reasonable strategy is for the Allies to plan for a peace that has the USSR at the pre-WW2 borders, out of Korea and the Kuriles (maybe not southern Sakhalin). An independent Ukraine is a maybe at best - depends on the situation when fighting ends.

If the USSR starts the war, their only chance is that the Allies throw in the sponge early, if not they can't win a prolonged conflict. Achieving the goals set out above can be done without occupying Moscow - doable but very very expensive.
 

CalBear

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I would agree with most of the other posters. The question is too broad as presented. The reason would be the key to the how. There is also the not insignificant matter of how the war has gone to the point when the Soviet frontier is reached. If the West has gutted the Red Army with tactical weapons or if there is a raging civil war in the USSR the approach would be very different than if it has been an attrition fight to the death.

Without the background it is hard to say.
 
Are we into Churchill's Operation Unthinkable?

No way USSR would have launched any attack. They were pretty beat up after WWII.

But if attacked (again), my bet is they would overwhelm US/UK forces.

Also worth noting: Soviet generals in 1945 were far more professional and used to operating big armies (1 million +). US/UK commanders had not been exposed to this type of big war.

Zhukov vs Bradley? hmmm

Ivan
 
Putting aside for the moment the numerous reasons why neither the United States nor the Soviet Union was willing to go to war in 1945-1948 time frame thinking strictly of the tactical military operations I believe it would have been a non nuclear war fought primarily in Germany and Poland. If the United States and Great Britain demobilize as they did in the OTL I see nothing to stop the Red Army before the Rhine and even that may not be defensible. If the Western Allies maintained their armies in place the first battleground would be the Fulda Gap. The Red Army would launch two axis of pincer attack to link us beyond Frankford. I think they would also attack through Austria. I would see the Red Army making good advances for the first few days but then the northern arm of the attack would see the British Army attacking south while the United States VII Corps would take a blocking position in front of the southern arm. The United States would immediately attack the Soviet Far East launching an amphibious landing near Vladivostok.
 
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