"Project Normandy:" Failed D-Day Invasion Story Idea

How about Stalin dies in May 44 - a power struggle ensues and Bagration is called off or delayed and/or the Axis takes advantage of the confusion and there is a temporary reversal on the Eastern front. As a result D-Day is delayed.

One of the issues with the POD is that once the trigger is pulled on Op Overlord it is very difficult to percieve a realistic scenario where it fails to achieve its goal!

There was in fact an plan to kill Stalin in September 1944, Operation Zeppelin. There would be an degree of Soviet infighting, especially along the Molotov/Beria axis. Best case, the Americans and British takes Berlin.

Don't see why it can't be push to May...

(A Zhdanov-Malenkov-Molotov troika that quickly removes Beria and other die-hard Stalinists from power seem likely.)
 
Me and @ObssesedNuker have been debating this a lot lately, conclusion we seem to have agreed on is that the War lasts into the Summer of 1945 and thereafter occupation zones largely end up IOTL.

I never agreed that the occupation zones would be the same. What I agreed is that the WAllies would still get a occupation zone. In all likelihood, the western zones are probably going to be at least somewhat smaller, given the extra political clout the Soviets would have.
 
I never agreed that the occupation zones would be the same. What I agreed is that the WAllies would still get a occupation zone. In all likelihood, the western zones are probably going to be at least somewhat smaller, given the extra political clout the Soviets would have.

In my defense, this was particularly unclear:


Agreed, as between both scenarios I think we both still realize the Western Allies will make it into Germany.

Through political agreement, if not military conquest. Although I imagine those occupation zones the Soviets do agree too would be looted clean and sowed with communist cells.

Whole reason I gave up the debate is it seemed we agreed on the overall conclusion, just the details.
 
I've been thinking about this idea for a while, and I have a rough timeline created already with the goal to eventually turn it into a novel/book/thing using an epistolary narrative (World of Laughter, World of Tears or The Ides of March for example. Project Normandy is just the working title for me until I can come up with something different, but I want to get some feedback on the idea and the timeline I have so far.

POD: The weather reports for June 6 are not as reliable as OTL and it's unknown if the stormy weather occuring on June 5 will break. General Eisenhower decides to delay the invasion two weeks, to June 18-19. (OTL, from Wikipedia: At a vital meeting on 5 June, Eisenhower's chief meteorologist (Group Captain J.M. Stagg) forecast a brief improvement for 6 June. ATL, Captain Stagg does not give this forecast).

The airborne troops go in the evening of June 18/19, and first landings occur early on June 19. However, despite early success, a major storm that wasn't forecasted swept up the Channel the afternoon of June 19 (This did occur OTL), sinking hundreds of boats, killing thousands of soldiers and supplies of follow-up reserves, grounding the Air Force and making it impossible for the Navy to support the landings. The Germans used this opportunity to smash the landings (Rommel was at hand and not in Germany, so was able to rally the defenders), and killed or captured many of those that landed, some 160,000 soldiers in total (50,000 killed in the storm and on the beach, 100,000 captured) Only when the storm died off on June 22, with the entire invasion in shambles, did the 10,000 or so uncaptured survivors manage to be evacuated back to England.

The "simple" timeline I've created so far (a more detailed timeline is also in work, but this is just the barebones version):

June 19, 1944: D-Day Fails due to postponement and major storm (POD).

June 23, 1944: Eisenhower Resigns, Montgomery given command of the Supreme Allied Command

June 17, 1944: Battle of Saipan begins

July 1944: Bretton Woods Conference

July 20, 1944: July 20th Plot fails. Rommel is not implicated and survives the purge

July 25, 1944: Vote of Confidence in UK, Churchill barely survives.

July-October 1944: Operation Bagration, Soviet advances into Eastern Europe

August 1, 1944: Warsaw Uprising begins. Soviet’s halt outside of Warsaw, Nazi’s put down the revolt, Soviet’s then sweep in and take over Poland.

August 1944: FDR has a stroke and pulls out of Presidential election. Truman is named the new Democratic candidate, James Byrnes is named new VP, no one is happy, Democratic party begins to fracture.

September 1944: French Resistance rises up in occupied France, fighting is fierce, Paris destroyed.

September 1944: Finland drops out of war.

October 1944: Belgrade reclaimed by Tito and Yugoslav partisans

October 1944: Operation Dragoon in southern France is launched, successfully lands, then struggles to move north. Further troops are sent to French Resistance occupied Brittany and Bordeaux.

October 1944: Moscow Conference: Churchill and Stalin meet, but the meeting is rough and little is decided.

October 1944: Further offensives in Italy push north of Rome.

October 1944: Battle of Leyte Gulf and Invasion of Philippines

November 1944: Republican Thomas Dewey just wins the Presidency, with 43% of the vote, Truman with 41%, and Wallace splitting the Democrat vote with 18%.

January 1945: New Soviet Offensive, marches into Germany proper, Austria and other Central European nations.

February 1945: Yalta Conference. Dewey doesn’t attend, post-war occupation left to decide later

February 1945: Battle of Iwo Jima

February 1945: Bretton Woods plan shelved by new administration, plans for post war rebuilding are scaled down.

March 1945: Allies break through in Italy. Hitler retreats from Berlin to Bavarian Alps.

April 1945: Offensive in France, slow fighting against Erwin Rommel’s forces

April 1945: British/Canadian landings liberate Netherlands

May 1945: Soviets occupy Berlin, race across North European Plain to the North Sea and Rhine.

May 1945: UK Elections: Labour and Clement Attlee wins a majority government, Churchill leaves office.

June 1945: Soviet, British, American, French and Canadian troops meet at multiple places along the Rhine River. Only Bavaria remains in Nazi hands.

June 26, 1945: United Nations formed in San Francisco.

July 1945: Hitler and top cronies (Goering, Goebbels, Speer and others) sneak into Switzerland. Rommel, with no further contact to high command, surrenders.

August 1945: Potsdam Conference. Stalin, Dewey, Attle and de Gaulle meet, conference is very rocky: Dewey declines Soviet aid against Japan, the Occupation zones finally set up in Europe.

September 1945: Dewey authorizes nukes on Japan: Kyoto is destroyed, Emperor Hirohito and family killed due to taking refuge in nominally safe city. Nagasaki destroyed a week later. USSR declares war on Japan anyway, but American Marines land in Korea before the USSR reaches the Yalu River. Japan surrenders soon after

September 1945: Kuomintang China, with huge American aid, is able to occupy much of the mainland, confining the Communists to Soviet held Manchuria and near Mongolia.

October 1945: “Alpine Crisis:” Hitler’s escape to Switzerland revealed, Soviet’s give ultimatum to oblivious Swiss government, invades, occupies whole nation, captures Hitler and Nazis. UK, France and US condemns the invasion.

November 1945: Peace of London: negotiations take place: Almost all of Germany, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Hungary, Greece and Romania are Soviet, Rhineland, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and France are reformed as democratic nations. US forces are still stationed in Western Europe for now, with plans to have them all home by 1948 and demobilization takes place.
FDR dies before or after the convention? Before and no Truman for President, at best a compromise VP pick at the convention
 
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FDR dies before or after the convention? Before and no Truman for President, at best a compromise VP pick at the convention
FDR dies just a few days after the convention, when he was returning from a meeting with General MacArthur at Pearl Harbor. Hence Truman already being named VP, and the chaos that unfolds after.
 
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