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I'm currently working on the draft of a timeline that will be placed into the Writer's Forum set in and around the Second World War, and one of the plot elements is that in mid-1943 the Evil Diabolical SS/Ahnenerbe have discovered an ancient and terrible Lovecraftian weapon in the depths of the Normandy countryside, and after many sacrifices and chanting and reading from magic books, they have succeeded in creating a Magical Nazi Super weapon. The weapon can't be moved, but it has more than sufficient range to devastate any of the proposed landing sites for Operation Overlord.

The Allies get word of this Super Secret Terrible Lovecraftian Weapon of Doom (TM) and decides, after many frantic high-level meetings, that they must therefore cancel Overlord. That's a key plot point, but it's the military fallout from this decision that I'd like some input/advice on. So far, I have as resulting developments:

  • Particularly angered by the decision to cancel Overlord (which was as a result of British pressure overall) the Joint Chiefs have taken the decision to begin transferring significant portions of their forces away from the build-up in Britain, particularly naval assets - Admiral King has been distinctly successful in persuading the Joint Chiefs to begin transferring capital ships and landing craft to the Pacific Theatre. Some US assets will be transferred to the Italian Front
  • Under the connivance of Churchill and his life-long obsession with side-projects and 'the Underbelly of Europe', the Imperial General Staff have decided upon a two-prong approach to replace Overlord. Firstly, approximately half of the British and Commonwealth forces building up for Normandy will instead be transferred to the Mediterranean. Some forces will be transferred directly to the advance up the Italian spine, while others will be held back for planned future operations in Greece, the Balkans and perhaps even Turkey
  • Secondly, under Major-General Sir Andrew Thorne, the Scotco formation in Scotland will be reinforced with British and Canadian forces, as well as a smattering of other Allied units, under the title Apostle Force. Taken from the name of the OTL force that liberated Norway in 1945, the Apostle objectives will be to land in Norway and advance eastwards, with long-term objectives of placing pressure on Finland and easing supply pressures to the Soviets
  • There will also be some British and Commonwealth assets sent to the Far Eastern Front, although I'm quite hazy about what could/should be sent and what the consequences might be.

That's just about where I am with future plot developments in regards to the overarching military situation. A great deal of it is up in the air, and therefore I'd like to throw the floor open to suggestions/advice/constructive criticism. Very little has been written yet, so I'm happy to change as needed, although I'd like to retain the Norway/Turkey axis of advance where possible, just to make it a little different than OTL.

I should also note that, as this is being written in the Writer's Forum, I'll be focusing more on writing, story and related elements, rather than 100% reality. So while I want to make things as plausible as I can, and don't want to write the Frisian Islands campaign, I'm ready to utilise a little Handwavium where needed and bend the rules for the sake of the story.

With that being said, I'd love to know what people think the future of the Western Front (and the domino effects on the Eastern and Far Eastern Fronts as well). The current date in the timeline is late 1943.
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