Picking up on an earlier discussion about an abortive German intervention in the Austria coup of July 1934, I wondered what might have happened had the Stresa Front been more enduring than happened in OTL.
So, let's take it slowly. Hitler orders the under-trained and under-equipped Army to invade Austria in support of the Austrian Nazis in their putsch against the Dollfuss Government. Lacking intelligence, the Germans cross the border but face resistance from Austrian units bolstered by the Italians and supported in a clandestine manner by the Swiss, who provide the Italians with vital intelligence about German movements.
In a couple of engagements, the Germans are defeated and are compelled to withdraw back across the border. Austrian Army units are cheered as they re-enter Vienna while Italian units move up to Bregenz. Hundreds of Austrian Nazis are forced into exile.
Mussolini is feted when he visits Vienna a week later and receives similar plaudits from Britain, France and even President Roosevelt. The British withdraw from naval talks with Germany and at Stresa, Britain, France and Italy pledge to defend Austria from German aggression and pledge to defend the Versailles Treaty clauses outlawing Anschluss.
The states of Central Europe are encouraged by the Stresa Front and France re-establishes its diplomatic efforts. By the beginning of 1936, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia have joined the Stresa Front which is in effect an anti-German front.
The French ostentatiously move forces to the Rhine bridges as a show of strength as Mussolini is feted in London and has dinner with Edward VIII at Buckingham Palace. The new King, once thought an admirer of Hitler, warms to Mussolini and calls him a "great European and a great Latin". Josef Goebbels condemns Mussolini as an "enemy of Germany".
Is this possible - if so, any thoughts on where this might go ? Will the Sudetenland flare up and threaten a war in 1938 ? Will Germany still do a deal with the USSR ?
So, let's take it slowly. Hitler orders the under-trained and under-equipped Army to invade Austria in support of the Austrian Nazis in their putsch against the Dollfuss Government. Lacking intelligence, the Germans cross the border but face resistance from Austrian units bolstered by the Italians and supported in a clandestine manner by the Swiss, who provide the Italians with vital intelligence about German movements.
In a couple of engagements, the Germans are defeated and are compelled to withdraw back across the border. Austrian Army units are cheered as they re-enter Vienna while Italian units move up to Bregenz. Hundreds of Austrian Nazis are forced into exile.
Mussolini is feted when he visits Vienna a week later and receives similar plaudits from Britain, France and even President Roosevelt. The British withdraw from naval talks with Germany and at Stresa, Britain, France and Italy pledge to defend Austria from German aggression and pledge to defend the Versailles Treaty clauses outlawing Anschluss.
The states of Central Europe are encouraged by the Stresa Front and France re-establishes its diplomatic efforts. By the beginning of 1936, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia have joined the Stresa Front which is in effect an anti-German front.
The French ostentatiously move forces to the Rhine bridges as a show of strength as Mussolini is feted in London and has dinner with Edward VIII at Buckingham Palace. The new King, once thought an admirer of Hitler, warms to Mussolini and calls him a "great European and a great Latin". Josef Goebbels condemns Mussolini as an "enemy of Germany".
Is this possible - if so, any thoughts on where this might go ? Will the Sudetenland flare up and threaten a war in 1938 ? Will Germany still do a deal with the USSR ?