Of lost monkeys and broken vehicles
- Thread starter Lascaris
- Start date
Poland actually going forward with a full mobilization is an interesting butterfly. I don't know exactly how much that would impact but when one notes that the Soviets didn't invade Poland until it was clear it would fall, it might lead to a much more convincing fight from the Poles. Of course they will almost certainly still fall, but a harder fight for the Germans is nothing but a good thing.
Why are these in a German-Soviet treaty ? Germany does not even had a say on the latter 2, let alone be in a position to grant them. Now if they were secret clauses in a secretly Soviet-German-Turkish addendum to the Treaty that would be imposed on revelation, maybe.
Well basically Germany and the soviets are carving their own zones of influence and basically they are trying to avoid a conflict in the future by having clear zones of influence with no overlap..and btw Constantinople was in the soviet sphere aswell in otl treaty..
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Agreed, especially seeing as the Poles didn't do *that* badly with the hand they were given and managed to take out a lot of German vehicles IOTL. If they're given at least a bit more time to fully mobilize and organise I can see the German invasion still succeeding but they'll take many more losses for their trouble.
Is it wonder? France wasn't really taking the war seriously, it is the only reason why Germany even rolling critical after critical managed to conquer them so easily and quickly, so with Germany realizing it needs to do better and looking significantly weaker I wouldn't be surprised if France goes down even easier.
I believe that you are mistaken. France was taking the war seriously, but needed to sort out its industry and all.
Sure, it had an incompetent high command, but the mistakes came from the very understandable assumption that the German invasion would come over the Northern European Plain first and not through the Ardennes, because forested hills are bad tank terrain unlike a vast plain. The French overcommitment over that assumption, as well as the incompetent high command's unwillingness to see it contested, is what resulted in the OTL shitshow in May 1940.
Also, the French political body had a very defeatist position, which led to very little willingness to commit resources for offensive purposes before it was perceived France was industrially ready.
Lets play this out. Say Greece has roughly the 210 infantry battalions of the OTL 1934 mobilization plan in TTL 1939, its a reasonable assumption after all. So call it 23 divisions. Subtract 3 divisions facing the Italians in Albania and 6-8 facing the Turks in Asia Minor. So a force of 12-14 divisions and roughly 350,000 men would invade Bulgaria with terrain and geography favouring the Bulgarians and the defenders having something around 270,000 probably. The Greeks MIGHT win, they have an edge in numbers and probably artillery after all but it's not going to be fast nor cheap. In the meantime in Asiatic Greece the Turks threw at least 400,000 men at half as many Greeks...
Well why not? The Germans and Soviets are carving all of eastern Europe between them. Germany has a clear say... on what it will be allowing the Soviets to do and vice versa. Post that dealing with the Turks is not much different than dealing with the Romanians and the Lithuanians when seen from Moscow and Berlin.
Speaking of the French high command there is a butterfly in Georges not being wounded. Not certain how much of an effect it should have though. Even if not wounded he's not going to be taking the top job, Daladier will still be backing Gamelin and Georges is thought of as too right wing. Now a more hale Georges could be more effective in command... or he could have had enough clashes with Gamelin and Daladier that he has been sent out of theatre altogether.
Georges is an interesting lead.
I don't know enough of him, so I can't see him yet taking the political mantle of Free France leadership as actively as de Gaulle, if we are gearing towards an OTL esque exile (by default, I would rather see him like Giraud).
But though he won't fill in Gamelin shoes yet, he is very well positioned to replace him in May 1940, though I don't know how far this being not the case IOTL had to do with his wounds from the Marseille attack, even indirectly. If he does succeed Gamelin, he may be critical in tipping the balance towards the hardliner faction led by Mandel in the cabinet against Pétain, surmising he had a standing and presence of his own strong enough to form with de Gaulle a coherent and significant voice from the Army in favor of continued fighting in opposition to Pétain's faction (unlike OTL when aside of de Gaulle, with Weygand in charge, there was nothing but a chorus of defeatism surrounding Reynaud),and would then organize the fighting retreat southwards to give time to and protect the evacuation to North Africa. Given how close the matter went, that could be it.
So, if Reynaud still becomes PM, he is a possibility, but if Mandel becomes prime minister, he becomes a certainty (but in that case, Mandel wouldn't have bothered about dissenting cabinet voices like Reynaud did and would have gone in it alone if needed).
I don't know enough of him, so I can't see him yet taking the political mantle of Free France leadership as actively as de Gaulle, if we are gearing towards an OTL esque exile (by default, I would rather see him like Giraud).
But though he won't fill in Gamelin shoes yet, he is very well positioned to replace him in May 1940, though I don't know how far this being not the case IOTL had to do with his wounds from the Marseille attack, even indirectly. If he does succeed Gamelin, he may be critical in tipping the balance towards the hardliner faction led by Mandel in the cabinet against Pétain, surmising he had a standing and presence of his own strong enough to form with de Gaulle a coherent and significant voice from the Army in favor of continued fighting in opposition to Pétain's faction (unlike OTL when aside of de Gaulle, with Weygand in charge, there was nothing but a chorus of defeatism surrounding Reynaud),and would then organize the fighting retreat southwards to give time to and protect the evacuation to North Africa. Given how close the matter went, that could be it.
So, if Reynaud still becomes PM, he is a possibility, but if Mandel becomes prime minister, he becomes a certainty (but in that case, Mandel wouldn't have bothered about dissenting cabinet voices like Reynaud did and would have gone in it alone if needed).
Part 51
Polish-German border, September 1st, 1939
With tacit Soviet cooperation secured, Germany had not wasted more than three days and hadn't even bothered with a proper declaration of war before throwing close to 2 million men in 66 infantry divisions against Poland On the Polish side, army mobilization was still underway. 27 infantry divisions and 11 cavalry brigades had already been called up ahead of the general mobilization order in August 29 and a total of 352 infantry battalions out of a projected 455 had managed to mobilize by September 1st. Mobilization would continue during the fighting with the Poles managing to mobilize about 1,072,000 men by September 14th [1]. The invaders material superiority is even more overwhelming with 2,750 German tanks facing 228 Polish ones while in the air 669 Polish aircraft have to take on over 2,300 Luftwaffe planes which are also technologically superior, the only truly modern aircraft on the Polish side are 50 PZL P.50 fighters and 123 PZL.37 bombers. [2]. But the odds didn't matter. Poland was going to fight. To the last man and the last bullet if need be but would not surrender.
London and Paris, September 3rd, 1939
Britain and France had failed to immediately declare war when Germany had invaded Poland. Instead they had issued an ultimatum demanding a stop to the invasion. With it expiring without answer it was time for the guns as both countries declared war against Germany. Neither country was particularly enthusiastic about going to war, but both where determined and confident. Germany had been defeated in 1918. Now the British and French empires were even stronger relative to it than 20 years earlier. It might not be a fast war but sooner rather than later the allies should have crushing material superiority over Germany and end its threat for good this time.
South Africa September 5th, 1939
Somewhat to the British shock the South African government, of JBM Hertzog had tried to declare her neutrality in the war despite being obliged to follow London's lead normally. But Hertzog's own government had deserted him. By September 4th after furious parliamentary debate Hertzog had been forced to resign and Jan Smuts had formed a new government. Smut's had not lost time to declare war on Germany. But South Africa's internal troubles would just start as member if the strongly pro-German Ossewabrandwag group would refuse to serve, attack servicemen in uniform and even sabotage infrastructure.
Athens, September 9th, 1939
The Greek supreme war council was, again, in full session. The Greek government was understandably anything but happy with the start of the war in Europe. Greece had proclaimed her neutrality but the Greek merchant marine had come under German attack already from the first day of the war, German submarines and surface raiders were treating Greek ships no different than British ones, while not everything was good with the western allies, the Greek government had already been given notice that delivery of the Spitfire and Blenheim bombers it had on order had to be frozen indefinitely, understandable but highly problematic, little news were coming from the French offensive begun two days ago in the Saar, while the Germans seemed to be advancing even faster than expected in Poland, Pangalos had already summoned colonel Konstantinos Davakis, the army's foremost expert in armoured warfare to the council. At least Italy had not joined the war. Yet at least...
Dublin, September 10th, 1939
Back in April 1938 Michael Collins, had secured an agreement with Britain to return the Irish treaty ports to Ireland on the unofficial understanding that should the need arise facilities in Ireland would be made available to British forces, after all Ireland was part of the Commonwealth. Then he had called a snap election as soon as he was back from London, easily securing over half the popular vote and 77 out of 138 seats in the Dail. But now war had come and what Ireland should do. Deciding whether Ireland would follow the rest of the Commonwealth to war was an easy decision, this was not Ireland's war, over the centuries too many Irishmen had died in Britain's imperial wars for Collins taste, both for and against it, thus when the vote had come in front of the Dail it had been overwhelmingly in favour of declaring neutrality. But even if it was not written in the treaty of the previous year, Collins had given his word that should the need arise some support would be given Britain and Collins had always been a man of his word. Ireland might be neutral. But her neutrality would be heavily tilting towards the allies...
Saar, September 18th, 1939
The French offensive drew to a halt. In twelve days the French army had advanced 8km in the face of resistance that could be best described as anemic...
Soviet-Polish border, September 20th, 1939
800,000 Soviet troops backed by 4,700 tanks and 3,300 aircraft attacked over the border, while the Soviet Union announced to the world that it considered Poland to had ceased to exist. Polish border troops fought back as best as they could against the new enemy but the Polish army was already crumbling under the German attack. Now facing also the Soviets any hopes of prolonged resistance in the so called "Romanian bridgehead" the Poles had planned for before the war were gone. The only question now was how many Polish soldiers would manage to escape Poland to fight another day...
Warsaw, September 25th, 1939
Sixty Dornier Do-19s led an attack of 1,090 aircraft against the Polish capital, the Germans used everything down to Ju-52 transport planes indiscriminately dropping nearly 900 tons of bombs and inflicting thousands of civilian casualties. The huge four engined bombers had been kept out of combat so far but by now the Polish air force was mostly gone and Warsaw's air defences severely understrength from weeks of fighting leaving the Germans to bomb the city almost at will. Still the actual military results were questionable. Propaganda results were anything but questionable though, as the western press would write that Polish casualties from the bombing run in the tens of thousands. But Warsaw would not surrender for 6 more days.
Trieste, September 28th, 1939
Vittorio Veneto, was delivered to the Regia Marina. Some final fitting out before joining the fleet was still required but the Italians were in a hurry. Italy so far had kept neutral in the new war. But this could change at any moment, the duce was most interested it seeing the unfortunate state of affairs that was peace change sooner rather than later after all. At slightly over 44,000t normal displacement and armed with 9 16in guns the new ship was easily the most powerful battleship in the world, only her sister Littorio, itself also fitting out was a match to it. The French counterpart to the Italian ships, Richelieu would need till the end of the year to complete anf her sister Jean Bart was due to complete in February 1941. Of course by the end of 1940 one could also expect the two German battleships of the Bismarck class and at least the first of the three King George V class battleships to enter service. But Italian propagandists could conveniently claim that both the British and the German ships had "merely" 15in guns, the two Ansons building for the Royal Navy were still away out and no-one knew what was going to happen to the new battleships the Germans had ordered just before the way. As no-one knew what was going on in Japan and the Soviet Union. The Japanese were building... something. And the Soviets simply refused to give any information publicly...
Poland, October 9th, 1939
The last units of operations groups Polesie, were forced to surrender to the Germans, Warsaw had already fallen from October 1st the same day the invading German and Soviet armies had met each other. Poland had fought for over 5 weeks before being destroyed. But her destruction had not come entirely cheaply to the Wehrmacht. Over 51,000 men had been lost along with 385 aircraft and 312 tanks. [3] Hundreds more aircraft and tanks had been heavily damaged and many would likely never be returned to service. From the Polish armed forces some 40,000 had been interned in Hungary and another 72,000 in Romania. [4] Hungary, traditionally friendly to Poland, was already letting the interned Poles quietly slip into Yugoslavia from were they could either take trains through Italy to France or move down to Piraeus and take from there a ship to Marseilles. In Romania the elected government under Ion Bratianu, while proclaiming its neutrality had been rather more openly supportive of its Polish allies, German pressure had been met by polite reassurances that "Romanian oil exports to Germany would continue normally" while the Polish gold had left Constanta for Constantinople under the discreet escort of Greek destroyers, Britain and France wanted to avoid using their own warships in the Black Sea lest they further alienate the Soviets and increasing numbers of Poles found their own way in the mostly Greek passenger ships of the Constantinople-Constanta route...
[1] In OTL it was 316 battalions by September 1st and ~1 million men. So the additional day mobilizing gains Poland about 70,000 men.
[2] That's 50 P.50s and 31 PZL.37s in addition to OTL, which means the Poles have TTL a modern fighter if in rather limited numbers. Wever's boys are in for a few surprises...
[3] In comparison to 285 and 236 in OTL
[4] Roughly 42,000 Poles more have escaped TTL into Romania.
With tacit Soviet cooperation secured, Germany had not wasted more than three days and hadn't even bothered with a proper declaration of war before throwing close to 2 million men in 66 infantry divisions against Poland On the Polish side, army mobilization was still underway. 27 infantry divisions and 11 cavalry brigades had already been called up ahead of the general mobilization order in August 29 and a total of 352 infantry battalions out of a projected 455 had managed to mobilize by September 1st. Mobilization would continue during the fighting with the Poles managing to mobilize about 1,072,000 men by September 14th [1]. The invaders material superiority is even more overwhelming with 2,750 German tanks facing 228 Polish ones while in the air 669 Polish aircraft have to take on over 2,300 Luftwaffe planes which are also technologically superior, the only truly modern aircraft on the Polish side are 50 PZL P.50 fighters and 123 PZL.37 bombers. [2]. But the odds didn't matter. Poland was going to fight. To the last man and the last bullet if need be but would not surrender.
London and Paris, September 3rd, 1939
Britain and France had failed to immediately declare war when Germany had invaded Poland. Instead they had issued an ultimatum demanding a stop to the invasion. With it expiring without answer it was time for the guns as both countries declared war against Germany. Neither country was particularly enthusiastic about going to war, but both where determined and confident. Germany had been defeated in 1918. Now the British and French empires were even stronger relative to it than 20 years earlier. It might not be a fast war but sooner rather than later the allies should have crushing material superiority over Germany and end its threat for good this time.
South Africa September 5th, 1939
Somewhat to the British shock the South African government, of JBM Hertzog had tried to declare her neutrality in the war despite being obliged to follow London's lead normally. But Hertzog's own government had deserted him. By September 4th after furious parliamentary debate Hertzog had been forced to resign and Jan Smuts had formed a new government. Smut's had not lost time to declare war on Germany. But South Africa's internal troubles would just start as member if the strongly pro-German Ossewabrandwag group would refuse to serve, attack servicemen in uniform and even sabotage infrastructure.
Athens, September 9th, 1939
The Greek supreme war council was, again, in full session. The Greek government was understandably anything but happy with the start of the war in Europe. Greece had proclaimed her neutrality but the Greek merchant marine had come under German attack already from the first day of the war, German submarines and surface raiders were treating Greek ships no different than British ones, while not everything was good with the western allies, the Greek government had already been given notice that delivery of the Spitfire and Blenheim bombers it had on order had to be frozen indefinitely, understandable but highly problematic, little news were coming from the French offensive begun two days ago in the Saar, while the Germans seemed to be advancing even faster than expected in Poland, Pangalos had already summoned colonel Konstantinos Davakis, the army's foremost expert in armoured warfare to the council. At least Italy had not joined the war. Yet at least...
Dublin, September 10th, 1939
Back in April 1938 Michael Collins, had secured an agreement with Britain to return the Irish treaty ports to Ireland on the unofficial understanding that should the need arise facilities in Ireland would be made available to British forces, after all Ireland was part of the Commonwealth. Then he had called a snap election as soon as he was back from London, easily securing over half the popular vote and 77 out of 138 seats in the Dail. But now war had come and what Ireland should do. Deciding whether Ireland would follow the rest of the Commonwealth to war was an easy decision, this was not Ireland's war, over the centuries too many Irishmen had died in Britain's imperial wars for Collins taste, both for and against it, thus when the vote had come in front of the Dail it had been overwhelmingly in favour of declaring neutrality. But even if it was not written in the treaty of the previous year, Collins had given his word that should the need arise some support would be given Britain and Collins had always been a man of his word. Ireland might be neutral. But her neutrality would be heavily tilting towards the allies...
Saar, September 18th, 1939
The French offensive drew to a halt. In twelve days the French army had advanced 8km in the face of resistance that could be best described as anemic...
Soviet-Polish border, September 20th, 1939
800,000 Soviet troops backed by 4,700 tanks and 3,300 aircraft attacked over the border, while the Soviet Union announced to the world that it considered Poland to had ceased to exist. Polish border troops fought back as best as they could against the new enemy but the Polish army was already crumbling under the German attack. Now facing also the Soviets any hopes of prolonged resistance in the so called "Romanian bridgehead" the Poles had planned for before the war were gone. The only question now was how many Polish soldiers would manage to escape Poland to fight another day...
Warsaw, September 25th, 1939
Sixty Dornier Do-19s led an attack of 1,090 aircraft against the Polish capital, the Germans used everything down to Ju-52 transport planes indiscriminately dropping nearly 900 tons of bombs and inflicting thousands of civilian casualties. The huge four engined bombers had been kept out of combat so far but by now the Polish air force was mostly gone and Warsaw's air defences severely understrength from weeks of fighting leaving the Germans to bomb the city almost at will. Still the actual military results were questionable. Propaganda results were anything but questionable though, as the western press would write that Polish casualties from the bombing run in the tens of thousands. But Warsaw would not surrender for 6 more days.
Trieste, September 28th, 1939
Vittorio Veneto, was delivered to the Regia Marina. Some final fitting out before joining the fleet was still required but the Italians were in a hurry. Italy so far had kept neutral in the new war. But this could change at any moment, the duce was most interested it seeing the unfortunate state of affairs that was peace change sooner rather than later after all. At slightly over 44,000t normal displacement and armed with 9 16in guns the new ship was easily the most powerful battleship in the world, only her sister Littorio, itself also fitting out was a match to it. The French counterpart to the Italian ships, Richelieu would need till the end of the year to complete anf her sister Jean Bart was due to complete in February 1941. Of course by the end of 1940 one could also expect the two German battleships of the Bismarck class and at least the first of the three King George V class battleships to enter service. But Italian propagandists could conveniently claim that both the British and the German ships had "merely" 15in guns, the two Ansons building for the Royal Navy were still away out and no-one knew what was going to happen to the new battleships the Germans had ordered just before the way. As no-one knew what was going on in Japan and the Soviet Union. The Japanese were building... something. And the Soviets simply refused to give any information publicly...
Poland, October 9th, 1939
The last units of operations groups Polesie, were forced to surrender to the Germans, Warsaw had already fallen from October 1st the same day the invading German and Soviet armies had met each other. Poland had fought for over 5 weeks before being destroyed. But her destruction had not come entirely cheaply to the Wehrmacht. Over 51,000 men had been lost along with 385 aircraft and 312 tanks. [3] Hundreds more aircraft and tanks had been heavily damaged and many would likely never be returned to service. From the Polish armed forces some 40,000 had been interned in Hungary and another 72,000 in Romania. [4] Hungary, traditionally friendly to Poland, was already letting the interned Poles quietly slip into Yugoslavia from were they could either take trains through Italy to France or move down to Piraeus and take from there a ship to Marseilles. In Romania the elected government under Ion Bratianu, while proclaiming its neutrality had been rather more openly supportive of its Polish allies, German pressure had been met by polite reassurances that "Romanian oil exports to Germany would continue normally" while the Polish gold had left Constanta for Constantinople under the discreet escort of Greek destroyers, Britain and France wanted to avoid using their own warships in the Black Sea lest they further alienate the Soviets and increasing numbers of Poles found their own way in the mostly Greek passenger ships of the Constantinople-Constanta route...
[1] In OTL it was 316 battalions by September 1st and ~1 million men. So the additional day mobilizing gains Poland about 70,000 men.
[2] That's 50 P.50s and 31 PZL.37s in addition to OTL, which means the Poles have TTL a modern fighter if in rather limited numbers. Wever's boys are in for a few surprises...
[3] In comparison to 285 and 236 in OTL
[4] Roughly 42,000 Poles more have escaped TTL into Romania.
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So war has finally started, and soon the Greeks will find themselves at war against the Italians, Turks and Bulgarians. Not much has changed since the days Constantinople was the capital of the empire. Could some of those Poles end up fighting in Greece? I know Greece is going to be among the victors at the end of the war ( no reason for an axis victory here) but I fear she might not be better off than the losers if she ends being up liberated by the Soviets, who may still have some desires on the queen of the cities. So all help would definitely be welcome.
On an unrelated note, what happened to the Greeks on the Black sea coast (Bulgaria)? Both in your timeline and OTL?
On an unrelated note, what happened to the Greeks on the Black sea coast (Bulgaria)? Both in your timeline and OTL?
Both iotl and ttl the greek population was subjected under a voluntary population exchange
And so the engines of war are turned on...
Poland fought 3 days more than OTL, caused more damage to Nazi Germany and more Polish soldiers escaped . I feel that Greece will enter the wr sooner than OTL (28/10/1940).
Poland fought 3 days more than OTL, caused more damage to Nazi Germany and more Polish soldiers escaped . I feel that Greece will enter the wr sooner than OTL (28/10/1940).
Alright this was an unexpected surprise. So, Wever survives and has Goering's job. Luftwaffe has a strategic bomber.
What does it mean though? We know that the german economy had finite resources. We know from Tooze that Luftwaffe was assigned already a great percentage of overall raw materials. At the same time, the Germans are also building Bismarck-class battleships and the Heer cannot be any smaller. To have 60 Do-19s in a single operation means that there more of the four-engined bombers around. If there is a 80% availability in the first days of the war for a 60-bomber strike, then there are 75 of these around. If there are four-engined bombers in the Luftwaffe OOB, then a number of twin-engined ones won't have been built. How many though? I don't have the knowledge to answer. An uneducated guess would have been roughly double the number or perhaps just shy of double.
At the same time, I struggle to see how Luftwaffe could have a different doctrine when it comes to tactical support. The entire prussian/german doctrine was seeking a quick victory by destroying field armies. The whole apparatus of the Wehrmacht was built around this principle. I have a hunch that in this occasion that the strategic force will simply take resources from the tactical bombing force, but without having the numbers to achieve anything important on its own. There is no chance that the Germans can build huge numbers of Do-19s in time for the Battle of Britain. One could say that they could use the strategic bombers to strike at the Urals. However, we know from our history, that the Bombar Command took years to get decent numbers of aircraft and develop a proper doctrine. Resources the Luftwaffe doesn't have. Moreover, it also comes down to logistics: good luck trying to sustain a bomber campaign from Smolensk. It is not East Anglia nor Lower Saxony.
In our timeline, the priority program at 1940 was the Ju-88. A very capable twin-engined bomber for the era. Now, if the Luftwaffe tries to produce Do-19s along with twin-engined bombers, somehow I feel that they will butcher the Ju-88 program or significantly reduce it at the very least. The transition from Do-17 and He-111 to Ju-88 may come later and be much slower. There is simply no capacity for both projects. A later and slower transition is good news for Allies airforces.
Perhaps the equipment that the French sent to Turkey in 1939-1940 can be used to form in the 1930-1940 winter a polish division. Being veteran soldiers and not conscripted miners/workers will help in getting the formation ready sooner.
Will all Poles find their way to France on time? If not, some may end up in Constantinople or Greece. We may end up having a Andrzej Kallinski Brigade. A certain Greek-Polish water polo player can be a liaison in that unit.
The ones that had not left following the 1906 pogroms were exchanged in the early 1920s under the provisions of the treaty of Neuilly.
He doesn't have Goering's job. He's right under Goering.
Here I believe it is time for me to point to part 24:
and part 42...
There all the time in plain sight!
A bit more seriously aircraft accidents and bullet trajectories are fickle things. If Carden or Pulawski can avoid theirs... so can lean Hermann and Wever.
They are also building an aircraft carrier. Lets not forget the aircraft carrier!
I would note that 1090 aircraft bombed Warsaw. Not 1150 as per OTL. For the time being Do-19 has taken up the place most of Do-17s 1939 production would had taken for Dornier, which is one of the reasons it's Do-19 and not Ju-89. Which probably means I quite possibly also killed off Do-217... although this is the Germans we are talking about, I can absolutely see them building both in penny packets.
I can't really see the Germans being able to build a strategic bomber force anywhere near what the west built. But even a limited force can have some uses.
The Mikoyan design bureau is hearing with great interest about this high level unescorted bombing campaign... just saying.
Nothing so dramatic at the moment. Wever's strategic air force may not amount to very much itself but he has some other positive effects on the German side, no dice bombing requirement for Ju-88 (and He-177) for example. So things even out. There is of course also a certain other change that has taken place west of the Rhine...
No comments but one thing the French are absolutely NOT short of is infantry material and field artillery...
Again no comments. No rather one comment. Which is the one country locally producing Polish designed aircraft at the moment?
Not particularly likely IMO ok the Germans have Do-19 in limited numbers. Who will be escorting them to the east of Moscow... assuming there is Barbarossa? They'll be launching unescorted raids into the teeth of the PVO? Of course at a minimum the Soviets now will need a high altitude fighter even in limited numbers...
So a not addicted Hermann....
What is the status of the Graf Zeppelin compared to OTL? Also did the British build two Ark Royals?
LN-161 and -165...
How much better than the MS406 it actually is?
True, very true.
What is needed more is a better appreciation of the Poles as soldiers. Perhaps the greater german casualties can do the trick?
This is a sign of trully excellent effort at producing an alternate history timeline. Not just meticulous research but also an overarching plan and internal consistency.There all the time in plain sight!
One thing is for sure: the following Indiana Jones quote DOES NOT apply to this story.
Exactly. Can the PVO really intercept a German raid against Moscow & beyond during early Barbarossa?
That was a specific set of somewhat unlikely circumstances. Whether that's good of bad for the Germans... the man was pretty capable how many morphine addicts you know to manage to end up number two in a great power? He was also an empire builder par excellence. So if he's even more active does it mean he's trying to siphon off even more resources for his own internal empire at the cost of everyone else? And how much does THAT affect the German war effort as a result. Do the Germans end off better, worse or about even in other words?
Nope. Couldn't see Ramsay McDonald fuelling the naval race , the man was pretty reluctant, at some point during his first ministry he was even worrying about the Greeks building a handful destroyers in British yards. On the other hand as mentioned in part 39...
I wonder how much that affects the French come down to that and how much MAS40 could be accelerated...
Its faster, with a quite higher climb rate and apparently just as manoeuvrable. Even more importantly it's quite easier to build. Of course while easier to build there is the obvious bottleneck of engine production....
Then -165 if chosen over D-520 offers quite a bit of standardization...
at a minimum you had hundreds of MiG-3s....