POD is Roosevelt dying in 1940, the Democratic party splitting between Garner and LaGuardia, and Wilkie winning.
When the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor and the US is precipitated into the war, there is no Yalta agreement. As a result the Republicans in control of the US armed forces decide to invade the "soft underbelly" of Europe and liberate the Balkans instead of the Soviet Union in preference to OTL's "Japan First" policy.
We build a much bigger army and airforce, a smaller navy, and many more tanks than in OTL. Perhaps we copy the T-34 and the German stugpanzer thingy, and whatever else occurs to us. Earlier armored personell carriers?
12/42-North Africa, pretty much as in OTL but with more men because there are fewer on the Japanese front. We rotate them into contact with the Germans and get them experienced because we will need them. Even as the fighting goes on we keep sending more supplies past them on the way to Cypress. Russia is preparing for the Stalingrad cauldron.
6/43-Greece and Yugoslavia. We take the Greek and Yugoslav islands one after another, each invasion under complete air superiority from airbases on the last island, and with specially built shore bombardment ships made of thirty foot thick reinforced concrete. They sail up to a mile away from shore and simply erase enemy fortifications over open sights. Our air bases on the islands pound the German rail system into tangled piles of rail and smoldering scraps of railstock. Stalingrad surrenders at the same time as Tunis.
9/43-Invasion of the mountains. We bring many invasion parties ashore at once and move up into the mountains, building roads and railroads as we go. The Germans fortify the mountain ranges against us, of course. We start using our pulsejet powered helicopters for leapfrogging the German bunker lines and turning the German flanks from three directions, left, right, and center. Germany is pushed back to the Dnieper, and across it by the Russians even thought they don't fight Kursk because they need the tanks for fighting us.
12/43-Invasion of the valleys. We continue on into the valleys as our railroads and roads connect up to the interior. Our aircraft are in range of Ploesti with fighter support. However, we don't bomb Ploesti, we shoot up the German rail system instead. It's much bigger, much less defended, and every bit as critical to oil supply as the fields and refineries. Russia is at the old border with Moldova and does not cross it as we have requested. They start moving troops north to the Polish border.
3/44-Across the southern Danube. We cross the Danube using pontoon bridges backed by huge quantities of artillary, transport helicopters, and pontoon bridges. The German army has one third of it's troops fighting us along the Danube, one third defending the coastline from Trondheim to Venice, and one third fighting the Russians, mostly to the north. Germany has had most of it's railroad rolling stock destroyed hauling oil out of Ploesti.
6/44-Conquest of Ploesti. Says it all. We occupy Ploesti and the Germans start retreating out Moldova and the rest of Rumania. We move in behind them in case the Russians get any ideas about crossing the Dniester or the Carpathians to the north. The Germans are still in the mountains north of Ploesti, and across the Danube from Yugoslavia.
9/44-Invasion of Italy. We have many landing craft in the Greek and Yugoslav islands. They sail across the Adriatic and land in three places. The Germans don't have anybody left to defend so their troops have simply left over the last few months. The new German lines are on the Alps. We also fight the Germans in the mountains north of Ploesti, but they are flanked out of Transylvania by our crossing of the Danube north of the Iron Gates into Vojvodina.
12/44-Invasion of the islands south of France. We land in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, against light opposition, which soon surrenders. The Germans are pouring troops into Poland and they are being simply destroyed by the Russian army, artillary, and airforce in grinding attritional battles. The Germans lost so many troops fighting us that they can't match the Russians, and they can't keep troops in the islands south of France when we are attacking in the Balkans. We take Hungary.
3/45-Invasion of Belgium. The Germans think that we have all our landing craft supporting the projected invasion of the south of France. They don't understand our shipyard capability. The invasion of Belgium in this timeline is the reverse of OTL. In OTL we had more landing craft in the south of France than in Normandy. The reverse this time. All the German troops are defending in the south of France when we go ashore in Calais against very light opposition. The Germans pull out of France as quickly as they can to the Siegfried line defences. We take Austria and Czechoslovakia, except for Ruthenia, taken by the Russians.
6/45-Crossing the Rhine. We use our helicopters and pontoon bridges to cross the Rhine. Germany is fighting the Russians in the suburbs of Berlin as we cross the Rhine into the Netherlands, and then loop up. Germany surrenders as the German generals lose contact with Berlin. We move into West Germany and Denmark.
The Balkans belong to us by right of conquest. Russia has only the land they fought for, Poland, the Baltics, and Finland, as well as East Germany. We have Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia except the Sudetenlands, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and as the Germans preferentially surrender to us, Norway as well.
We have had twice as many troops on the ground of Europe for twice as long, fighting twice as many Germans for twice as long. We suffer four times as many casualties and inflict four times as many casualties as in OTL.
Russia is gratefull and makes that well known. Even though they still killed twice as many Germans on the ground as we did, we did kill half the Germans that died in the war counting the air bombardments of Germany we inflicted from our bases in Greece, the Balkans, Italy, France, and Britain.
During the next three years we administer the Balkans, trying to prevent ethnic cleansing and build an antiRussian alliance. We are not successful, but they are so afraid of the Russians that there is no opposition to our troops in the Balkans. We keep twice as many troops in Europe as in OTL, mostly in the Balkans instead of Germany. The expense is twice as high as in OTL because of more troops and more foreign aid.
In the elections of 1948 the Democrats send Wallace to the White House because of the expense of the war and the general feeling that the Balkan nations are ungratefull. We pull out of Korea and evacuate to Cheju Do, after the Korean national elections are won by the Communists. With all the collaborationists and landlords evacuated by us, the Koreans have no one to send to labor camps.
Taiwan is also a refuge for the Nationalist Chinese when the Taiwanese elections bring in a socialist government that is very nervous about the Chinese Communist party and interested in admitting the Nationalist Chinese to Taiwan for protection.
When the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor and the US is precipitated into the war, there is no Yalta agreement. As a result the Republicans in control of the US armed forces decide to invade the "soft underbelly" of Europe and liberate the Balkans instead of the Soviet Union in preference to OTL's "Japan First" policy.
We build a much bigger army and airforce, a smaller navy, and many more tanks than in OTL. Perhaps we copy the T-34 and the German stugpanzer thingy, and whatever else occurs to us. Earlier armored personell carriers?
12/42-North Africa, pretty much as in OTL but with more men because there are fewer on the Japanese front. We rotate them into contact with the Germans and get them experienced because we will need them. Even as the fighting goes on we keep sending more supplies past them on the way to Cypress. Russia is preparing for the Stalingrad cauldron.
6/43-Greece and Yugoslavia. We take the Greek and Yugoslav islands one after another, each invasion under complete air superiority from airbases on the last island, and with specially built shore bombardment ships made of thirty foot thick reinforced concrete. They sail up to a mile away from shore and simply erase enemy fortifications over open sights. Our air bases on the islands pound the German rail system into tangled piles of rail and smoldering scraps of railstock. Stalingrad surrenders at the same time as Tunis.
9/43-Invasion of the mountains. We bring many invasion parties ashore at once and move up into the mountains, building roads and railroads as we go. The Germans fortify the mountain ranges against us, of course. We start using our pulsejet powered helicopters for leapfrogging the German bunker lines and turning the German flanks from three directions, left, right, and center. Germany is pushed back to the Dnieper, and across it by the Russians even thought they don't fight Kursk because they need the tanks for fighting us.
12/43-Invasion of the valleys. We continue on into the valleys as our railroads and roads connect up to the interior. Our aircraft are in range of Ploesti with fighter support. However, we don't bomb Ploesti, we shoot up the German rail system instead. It's much bigger, much less defended, and every bit as critical to oil supply as the fields and refineries. Russia is at the old border with Moldova and does not cross it as we have requested. They start moving troops north to the Polish border.
3/44-Across the southern Danube. We cross the Danube using pontoon bridges backed by huge quantities of artillary, transport helicopters, and pontoon bridges. The German army has one third of it's troops fighting us along the Danube, one third defending the coastline from Trondheim to Venice, and one third fighting the Russians, mostly to the north. Germany has had most of it's railroad rolling stock destroyed hauling oil out of Ploesti.
6/44-Conquest of Ploesti. Says it all. We occupy Ploesti and the Germans start retreating out Moldova and the rest of Rumania. We move in behind them in case the Russians get any ideas about crossing the Dniester or the Carpathians to the north. The Germans are still in the mountains north of Ploesti, and across the Danube from Yugoslavia.
9/44-Invasion of Italy. We have many landing craft in the Greek and Yugoslav islands. They sail across the Adriatic and land in three places. The Germans don't have anybody left to defend so their troops have simply left over the last few months. The new German lines are on the Alps. We also fight the Germans in the mountains north of Ploesti, but they are flanked out of Transylvania by our crossing of the Danube north of the Iron Gates into Vojvodina.
12/44-Invasion of the islands south of France. We land in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, against light opposition, which soon surrenders. The Germans are pouring troops into Poland and they are being simply destroyed by the Russian army, artillary, and airforce in grinding attritional battles. The Germans lost so many troops fighting us that they can't match the Russians, and they can't keep troops in the islands south of France when we are attacking in the Balkans. We take Hungary.
3/45-Invasion of Belgium. The Germans think that we have all our landing craft supporting the projected invasion of the south of France. They don't understand our shipyard capability. The invasion of Belgium in this timeline is the reverse of OTL. In OTL we had more landing craft in the south of France than in Normandy. The reverse this time. All the German troops are defending in the south of France when we go ashore in Calais against very light opposition. The Germans pull out of France as quickly as they can to the Siegfried line defences. We take Austria and Czechoslovakia, except for Ruthenia, taken by the Russians.
6/45-Crossing the Rhine. We use our helicopters and pontoon bridges to cross the Rhine. Germany is fighting the Russians in the suburbs of Berlin as we cross the Rhine into the Netherlands, and then loop up. Germany surrenders as the German generals lose contact with Berlin. We move into West Germany and Denmark.
The Balkans belong to us by right of conquest. Russia has only the land they fought for, Poland, the Baltics, and Finland, as well as East Germany. We have Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia except the Sudetenlands, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and as the Germans preferentially surrender to us, Norway as well.
We have had twice as many troops on the ground of Europe for twice as long, fighting twice as many Germans for twice as long. We suffer four times as many casualties and inflict four times as many casualties as in OTL.
Russia is gratefull and makes that well known. Even though they still killed twice as many Germans on the ground as we did, we did kill half the Germans that died in the war counting the air bombardments of Germany we inflicted from our bases in Greece, the Balkans, Italy, France, and Britain.
During the next three years we administer the Balkans, trying to prevent ethnic cleansing and build an antiRussian alliance. We are not successful, but they are so afraid of the Russians that there is no opposition to our troops in the Balkans. We keep twice as many troops in Europe as in OTL, mostly in the Balkans instead of Germany. The expense is twice as high as in OTL because of more troops and more foreign aid.
In the elections of 1948 the Democrats send Wallace to the White House because of the expense of the war and the general feeling that the Balkan nations are ungratefull. We pull out of Korea and evacuate to Cheju Do, after the Korean national elections are won by the Communists. With all the collaborationists and landlords evacuated by us, the Koreans have no one to send to labor camps.
Taiwan is also a refuge for the Nationalist Chinese when the Taiwanese elections bring in a socialist government that is very nervous about the Chinese Communist party and interested in admitting the Nationalist Chinese to Taiwan for protection.
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