Stalin goes West 1945

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

WI Stalin decided to destroy his "Capitalist Enemies" in 1945 by attacking British/American/French troops. POD France was bloodier to liberate and the Allies take 50% more casualties then OTL and never get more then 10 miles into Germany before Stalin attacks. Even with the change I don't think it is very likely but on the remote chance it would be, what happens?

No contest. Besides the issue of nuclear weapons, Germany may have been going down fast, but only a bit faster than Russia, which had scraped the bottom of the manpower barrel, emptying out factories to fill the uniforms. The US had not even begun to stretch its human and industrial resources. I doubt the Soviets would last a month in an offensive against the Western Allies.

Remember also the issue of logistics - while the Soviets produced tanks et. al., they were also somewhat dependent on US logistical assistance, and as their supply lines lengthened, their military potential would diminish.

This would have been suicide for Stalin.

 

[Abdul Hadi Pasha]

I'm going to favor the argument that the Russians would have an initial advantage, simply because there are millions upon millions of men coming at the Allied troops, but in the end, US industrial strength is going to quash it. The Tiger tank was a tough bastard, far stronger than the T-34, not all around, but in regards of armor and such. I heard the ratio was something like 7 or 8 Shermans for every Tiger. The Germans would say that "Yes, we can kill 7 Shermans, but the Americans always have 8." The same applies here. Regardless of whatever deficiencies the Allied troops might have in armor, they make up for in quantity. The T-34s would be drowned by sheer numbers. The Soviet Air Force could not compete with the Allied Air Force, nor could their navy.

And what was the operational distance of the B-29? If placed in Turkey, India, or perhaps Persia, could it reach the Soviet factories east of hte Urals?

There were also millions and millions of Western troops, and if the Soviets attacked us we would quickly coopt the Germans. I don't think this would last long enough for production issues to be very important. The Soviets just didn't have the manpower to fight and run factories, nor would their morale have survived attacking us.

 

[Brilliantlight]

No contest. Besides the issue of nuclear weapons, Germany may have been going down fast, but only a bit faster than Russia, which had scraped the bottom of the manpower barrel, emptying out factories to fill the uniforms. The US had not even begun to stretch its human and industrial resources. I doubt the Soviets would last a month in an offensive against the Western Allies.

Remember also the issue of logistics - while the Soviets produced tanks et. al., they were also somewhat dependent on US logistical assistance, and as their supply lines lengthened, their military potential would diminish.

This would have been suicide for Stalin.

The biggest problem I see is food supply. With the end of lend-lease and the inability of the USSR to turn soldiers into farmers makes it hard to see how Russia could feed itself.

 

[swamphen]

One other question is - how would Ivan Ivanovich (Russian John Doe) have reacted to the Kremlin signing a peace with the barbarians? Not well I think.

I've built a timeline around this possibility (using a "butterfly" POD), inspired by a (very short) "alternate history" in a review of a model of the Ta 183.

http://www.swamphen.net/misc/whatif/timeline.htm

And here's what the time-scooper turned up from this timeline :

 

[Brilliantlight]

There were also millions and millions of Western troops, and if the Soviets attacked us we would quickly coopt the Germans. I don't think this would last long enough for production issues to be very important. The Soviets just didn't have the manpower to fight and run factories, nor would their morale have survived attacking us.

Do you think the Allies would have driven them from Eastern Europe only or have Moscow as the goal?