No Winter War, Stalin turns against turkey in 1940.

The condisitons in ww1 caucasues battle are diffrent then they are in this time so the comparison is irelevent .

When i said battle hardend i ment to say a experianced military. At that point in time they were more competent then the russians (the latter red army is a diffrent beast all to gether). But if it was a one on one long war then yes if for nothing else then to be drowned in the blood of the red army. On a short war they could hold there own.

As for logistics if they cant go next door then they should stop being a military. I didnt say they could to astrakhan or take egypt i said they can reach baku which is in a very small country right next door. If they could advance into the caucasus i bet they could to baku.

edit:On a side not advancing to the the caucasus maybe little be more north is even harder if not impossible even with barbarousa. Every step they would take would be one more step into territory where natives would not want them. So i must respectfuly disagree with your honest opinion.And i think abdul could give a better and more detailed answer then i can about this i will PM him.

The Russians didn't kick butt in WWI - the Ottomans tried a very risky offensive which almost succeeded, but resulted in the loss of an army. Overall, performance wasn't stellar, but it took a much vaster Russian army a whole lot of time to get anywhere, and in the end it didn't have the morale to maintain the war effort for more than 2.5 years, whereas the Ottomans fought continuously for 12 years.

And the Ottomans also did well against the British.

In a 1940 situation, the Red Army has been thoroughly purged and disorganized by Stalin, and any offensive into Eastern Anatolia is going to run into serious trouble.

This would also defacto drive Turkey into the Axis camp, and I'm not sure the Soviets could defeat Turkey before Germany invades Russia.

This would be a disaster for Stalin, which is why he didn't press his claims against Turkey historically.
 
I agree with Grimm and AHP... this pure bad news for the Russians.

The Turks had been engaged in WW1 and a number of smaller engagements in the interwar period... their senior officers and NCO's had combat experience, plus they would have MORE advantages of defensive terrain that even the finns had... the mountains canalize the roads even more than the finnish forrests did and the turks have 42 quality infantry and cavalry divisions to defend them

The Turks where buyers of German heavy artillery pieces on very clever swivil mounts which could deny any mountain pass. They could also use their chromium to bargain for German and Italian AA guns which they would be more than happy to supply (especially Italy)... but then again, since Hitler had overwhelmingly made his wishes and feelings about Turkey clear, that sort of situation like Finland just couldn't exist...as soon as he finished crushing France he would send 100 divisions east immediately refitting them en route to the degree possible

Oh and one more thing there is a certain Soviet commander Stalin would choose to command an operation against the turks, not only because he had experience in the neighborhood, but also because he was from the region.... you could very easily see this offensive under the command of one seymon buddeny... and we all know his exact level of strategic prowess:eek:
 
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