Ideas required: A Communist Europe
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Japan never attacks Pearl Harbor, so the Allies never build up enough forces to perform Operation Overlord.
The Soviet Union rolls over the European Axis and takes control of France.
They then attack Franco-ist Spain in revenge for toppling their Popular Front and/or supplying the Third Reich. I am not too sure, however, of getting the United Kingdom to become Communist, at any rate.
You can even throw in a Red Japan.
Joy.
The Soviet Union rolls over the European Axis and takes control of France.
They then attack Franco-ist Spain in revenge for toppling their Popular Front and/or supplying the Third Reich. I am not too sure, however, of getting the United Kingdom to become Communist, at any rate.
You can even throw in a Red Japan.
Joy.
Eurofed
Banned
The by far most plausible option to make a Red Europe is a Communist revolution in Germany in 1919, the conseguent stillbirth of encircled Poland and success of Communist revolution in Hungary and Austria. The Russo-German Comintern builds up its industry and military during the 1920s and 1930s, then blitzkriegs France and Italy in *WWII, then fights the Anglo powers to a stalemate. Even an Unmentionable Mammal isn't out of the question, if America is slow to come to the rescue.
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Eurofed
Banned
ASB Sovetwank. Without Land-Lease and a second front, the Red Army would never get any farther than the 1939 border at the very most.
Eurofed
Banned
A) Since the only really plausible way for D-Day to fail is an immediate successful German counterattack, which would burn German resouces relatively little, we ought to expect that after a failed Overlord most German forces in France are redeployed to stalemate the Soviets in Poland and Hungary.
B) Assuming somehow the rest of your scenario works, the Americans would be even more hell-bent than OTL to suppress the Communists in France and Italy, whatever it takes. Notwithstanding how strong French and Italian communists were, the local anti-Communists were stronger still, esp. with abundant US help. Stalin would be told to behave, or eat artificial sunshine in Moscow.
I'd stick with the idea of spreading Communist revolution in Europe before WWII, optimally in the post-WWI chaos. Stalin most likely reaped as much success in WWII as he got IOTL, more or less.
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Markus
Banned
Germany can not redeploy much because even a failed Overlord would cost the Allies little as the initial invasion force was three airborne and elements of six infantry divisions. Even ASB-ish 70% losses would leave the Allies with 40 to 50 divisions in the UK.
Cook
Banned
I feel that your confidence in inevitable victory is based on twenty-twenty hindsight. At the time thoughts by the key players were different.
“Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower. Supreme Commander, Allied Forces Europe.
Eisenhower penned that and it was to be released in the advent of failure. Churchill went to bed the night before the landings fearing that 20,000 casualties would be the result.
"My God, I wish we had 9th Australian Division with us this morning"
Major-General Francis de Guingaund, Chief of Staff of Field Marshal Montgomery prior to D-day.
And just remember that D-day was meant to have happened 5 June 1944, it was delayed twenty-four hours due to stormy weather in the English Channel. If it had gone ahead on the 5th it would probably have failed.
Lend-Lease or Land-Lease?
At any rate, I could have sworn that the Lend-Lease Act started a couple of months after the German Invasion and not when after the Pearl Harbor.
Unless the size of the Lend-Lease increased after Pearl Harbor, but I cannot really find any information on that.
Eurofed
Banned
In such a case, the WAllies would simply redeploy such forces to exercise greater pressure on the Italian front and buffer up the landing in southern France, and nothing would likely change in comparison to OTL. Again, Stalin most likely got it as good as he could IOTL, Soviet Russia scraped the bottom of its resource barrel to reach the Elbe.
-I doubt there is much stalemating possible on the Eastern Front in the second half of 1944... Also, there have to be reserves kept in the West and South. (Hitler might even continue to assume that a failed attempt in Normandy would just conceal the REAL invasion in Pas-de-Calais... "The Jeeewish plutocrrracy haaas sacrific'd 20,000 men in order to trick meee....but I won't let my guarrd fall.").
-Otherwise, I agree that a different aftermath of WW 1 might be more probable to bear a Communist Europe, although a multipolar one. Now that might be interesting.
-Or how about a POD which creates a world without nuclear weapons???
A 1941 failed Sealion could be another option. If nothing, it would buy Stalin some time to launch his offensive in 1942. Even if Hitler attacks in 1942, it is already a disaster for the Reich. Think of a fully rearmed Red Army (and not equipped with wooden planes and mid-30s era tanks as OTL).
King Thomas
Banned
For whatever reason, the USA does not get involved in Europe. The USSR takes it (or all of it but a section of France).
I doubt a 'Blitzkrieg' by Red Germany and the Soviet Union would be needed; the left was extremely popular in Italia. Musso was even a Socialist before seeing the liberations of Hungary and Roumania being crushed). Had Germany become free under Luxembourg/Liebknecht, most likely Musso would've remained Red and perhaps even have led Italia - but as a Socialist, not a Corporatist/Fascist.
With Italia Red, the reactionary fascists of Spain would stand little chance. Franco only crushed the Republic with massive help from the Nazis and Fascist Italia - active help from free countries like Red Hungary, Germany, Italia, etc. would keep the Republic free.
The interesting aspect of this would be Southeastern Europe and the Scandinavian/Baltic states... would the People's Revolution in Latvija have liberated the country, sparing it the dictatorship of Smetona? Would Jugoslavija have gone red - or perhaps collapsed into a Red Serbia, a Fascist Croatia, and a Slovak-style Fascist Slovenija? Bulgaria - would its monarchy have survived? Greece? And Czechoslovakia... split asunder, with a Communisty Czech Republic and a fascist Slovakia?
With Italia Red, the reactionary fascists of Spain would stand little chance. Franco only crushed the Republic with massive help from the Nazis and Fascist Italia - active help from free countries like Red Hungary, Germany, Italia, etc. would keep the Republic free.
The interesting aspect of this would be Southeastern Europe and the Scandinavian/Baltic states... would the People's Revolution in Latvija have liberated the country, sparing it the dictatorship of Smetona? Would Jugoslavija have gone red - or perhaps collapsed into a Red Serbia, a Fascist Croatia, and a Slovak-style Fascist Slovenija? Bulgaria - would its monarchy have survived? Greece? And Czechoslovakia... split asunder, with a Communisty Czech Republic and a fascist Slovakia?
I don't think World War II is necessarily your best bet for this. Rather, you have to have a combination of things to go terribly wrong shortly after World War II if you want to have Western Europe dangerously close to the Soviet sphere of influence.
The best POD for this is probably Franklin Roosevelt not putting Harry Truman on the ticket in 1944. When Roosevelt dies in 1945, Wallace becomes President. The war continues as per OTL, Wallace uses the bomb, but agrees with Stalin to set up occupation zones in Japan much like IOTL Germany. Hokkaido, thus, is taken under Soviet control directly, while northern Honshu becomes the Democratic Republic of Japan. Korea comes under complete control by Kim Il Sung.
Wallace, who is as staunchly anti-imperialist (if not moreso) than Roosevelt, supplies aid to Ho Chih Minh, rather than Stalin. This pisses off the French under Charles De Gaulle. Wallace approves aid for a 'Marshall Plan' ALT, but more aid flows in from the Soviet Union. In Italy, the Communists win the 1948 general election, and in Greece, the Civil War goes in favor of the Communists. France, too, is falling under the influence of the Iron Curtain, as French Communists become increasingly dissatisfied with the flimsy French Fourth Republic.
Wallace comes under increasing attack at home after the Republicans take control of Congress in 1946, and is himself denied renomination by the Democrats in favor of Alben Barkley in 1948. By the time Thomas Dewey is inaugurated, the North Japanese have invaded South Japan and France has had it's own communist revolution at the ballot box, leaving the U.K. isolated in an increasingly 'red' continent.
The best POD for this is probably Franklin Roosevelt not putting Harry Truman on the ticket in 1944. When Roosevelt dies in 1945, Wallace becomes President. The war continues as per OTL, Wallace uses the bomb, but agrees with Stalin to set up occupation zones in Japan much like IOTL Germany. Hokkaido, thus, is taken under Soviet control directly, while northern Honshu becomes the Democratic Republic of Japan. Korea comes under complete control by Kim Il Sung.
Wallace, who is as staunchly anti-imperialist (if not moreso) than Roosevelt, supplies aid to Ho Chih Minh, rather than Stalin. This pisses off the French under Charles De Gaulle. Wallace approves aid for a 'Marshall Plan' ALT, but more aid flows in from the Soviet Union. In Italy, the Communists win the 1948 general election, and in Greece, the Civil War goes in favor of the Communists. France, too, is falling under the influence of the Iron Curtain, as French Communists become increasingly dissatisfied with the flimsy French Fourth Republic.
Wallace comes under increasing attack at home after the Republicans take control of Congress in 1946, and is himself denied renomination by the Democrats in favor of Alben Barkley in 1948. By the time Thomas Dewey is inaugurated, the North Japanese have invaded South Japan and France has had it's own communist revolution at the ballot box, leaving the U.K. isolated in an increasingly 'red' continent.
von kressenstein
Banned
With all the turmoil in the second decade of the 20th century, it is possible for Red Revolutions to succeed. However if they are brutal/opressive and non responsive to the peoples needs they will be swept away.
However if they prove to be better to the alternatives, soviets could spring up all over Europe. I would think the Russian Civil War would have to end earlier, and Comrade Stalin would need to take an extended vacation due to illness. It's all about competence, not lunacy.
Another interesting idea is that in 39 when Germany invades poland, and Russia invades from the East they just keep on rolling westward. Not sure how far they would get, but in theory they could march to the Atlantic with the help of some hand waving and maybe one or two alien interventions along the way
Just depends on how much surprise they could achieve on western Europe. (I seriously doubt it would work due to 1 Stalin and 2 Stalin's knack for being as wacked as Hittler in their inability to make friends and allies for more then what ever time is needed to begin to achieve an objective.)
after Sept. 1945 it's not going to happen with out terrible things taking place to major cities around the world.
However if they prove to be better to the alternatives, soviets could spring up all over Europe. I would think the Russian Civil War would have to end earlier, and Comrade Stalin would need to take an extended vacation due to illness. It's all about competence, not lunacy.
Another interesting idea is that in 39 when Germany invades poland, and Russia invades from the East they just keep on rolling westward. Not sure how far they would get, but in theory they could march to the Atlantic with the help of some hand waving and maybe one or two alien interventions along the way
Just depends on how much surprise they could achieve on western Europe. (I seriously doubt it would work due to 1 Stalin and 2 Stalin's knack for being as wacked as Hittler in their inability to make friends and allies for more then what ever time is needed to begin to achieve an objective.)after Sept. 1945 it's not going to happen with out terrible things taking place to major cities around the world.
Nothing short of aliens, naturally. Back then Red Army was nothing like even 1941 (clearly shown by the Winter War). My guess is that after a month or two of Nazi-Soviet bloodbath in Poland the Allies finally decide to go for it.
Yet another option (which always worked in HOI 2
) is a Soviet assault sometime in spring-summer 1940, while Hitler is busy in France.von kressenstein
Banned
Nothing short of aliens, naturally. Back then Red Army was nothing like even 1941 (clearly shown by the Winter War). My guess is that after a month or two of Nazi-Soviet bloodbath in Poland the Allies finally decide to go for it.
Yet another option (which always worked in HOI 2
Might work ... but would require Stalin to be a touch more sane.