THE FRENCH LINE TL: SS Normandie survives fire converted into a WW2 troopship.

Premise
Let's say the advice of Vladimir Yourkevitch is taken and the ship is saved. Or the fire just doesn't happen and she is successfully converted. That gives the allies a THIRD mega troopship fast enough to not have to worry about u-boats. The SS Normandie can potentially carry nearly 15,000 troops per crossing. How does this affect the outcome of WW2? Does this shorten the length of the conflict? How does the North African campaign play out differently? Can D-Day happen earlier? Or when it does happen will the Allies have even more manpower, resources, weaponry?

Ultimately, how does this affect the upcoming Cold War settlement with the USSR? Are the Allies in a slightly stronger position, can they take Berlin first? Or maybe Czechoslovakia goes to the Allies? Hungary instead of Austria becomes neutral?
 
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So how many crossings per month could the two Queens and Normandie make? Figuring load/unload/maintenance time into the equation, my best guess would be two to three round trips per month...so at a surge, you're talking 135,000 troops per month across the Atlantic with a normal capacity of 90,000 monthly.

Gets interesting, I imagine having Normandie would reduce the need for converting cargo ships (my father made his Atlantic crossing in March of 1945 on a converted Liberty ship).
 
So how many crossings per month could the two Queens and Normandie make? Figuring load/unload/maintenance time into the equation, my best guess would be two to three round trips per month...so at a surge, you're talking 135,000 troops per month across the Atlantic with a normal capacity of 90,000 monthly.

Gets interesting, I imagine having Normandie would reduce the need for converting cargo ships (my father made his Atlantic crossing in March of 1945 on a converted Liberty ship).
Which would mean more cargo ships available for supplies, weaponry, ammunition, ect. Churchhill said the war was shortened by a year thanks to the two Queens. With Normandie, if he is correct, that means another 6 months shaved off. Hitler could be done by late 1944.
 
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Never thought it could be THAT useful in shortening the war. My mind is blown. And its post-war career might be pretty interesting... hopefully, it won't end like France.
 
Never thought it could be THAT useful in shortening the war. My mind is blown. And its post-war career might be pretty interesting... hopefully, it won't end like France.
I strongly suspect Mr. Churchill was being hyperbolic with his estimations but they're not unfounded, every little bit helps, especially with logistical assets like liner-sized transports.
Seriously thinking of doing a TL on this since I love ocean liners.
It would certainly be an interesting read to see if Normandie could last as long as the Queens in post-war service.
 
USS Lafayette
(POD is the SS Normandie doesn't catch fire. De Gaulle orders the French crew onboard Normandie to assist in the troopship conversion and they know the ship very well and provide the manpower to assist. The fire-fighting crew are also on hand to assist in any accidental outbreaks of fire before they have a chance to spread...)

With the seizure of the SS Normandie following Pearl Harbour and the US entry into WW2, she was converted into a 15,000 capacity troopship and rechristened USS Lafayette. Repainted in grey camouflage colours, she officially entered service in February 14, 1942 with all her passenger furnishings removed and safely stored in a Manhattan warehouse guarded by officials and crew from the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique. The utility of superliner troopships had been clearly demonstrated by Cunard's Queens persuading the US Navy to drop their plans to convert Normandie into a Pacific carrier.

Like the RMS Queens Mary and Elizabeth the USS Lafayette could travel alone without escorts. Her 30 knot average speed made her practically invulnerable to German U-boats. While the RMS Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary controlled by the Royal Navy focused on the Pacific and ferrying US troops to Australia, the USS Lafayette continued with a transatlantic run transporting men and material to Britain throughout 1942.

By late 1942 the situation had changed and both Queens were relocated to the Atlantic. The USS Lafayette had shipped 300,000 mostly untrained troops to Europe during 1942 and Operation Torch had begun in October after US troops trained in maneuvers in 1941 and transported to Britain had received the requisite amphibious landing training and equipment from the British. The landings were finished just ahead of FDR's reelection giving him a nice boost. Despite Vichy resistance, the Allies quite easily managed to overrun French North Africa.

Just like in their civilian careers, the Queen Mary and Lafayette developed a friendly rivalry in two ways. First, they competed in how many crossings they could manage per year. And the number of men they could carry per journey as well as monthly. RMS Queen Mary ultimately had an edge over the USS Lafayette since her vast first class public rooms put her at a disadvantage and her record of carrying 15,740 soldiers and 943 crew in a single journey in 1943 was never bettered by the USS Lafayette. The RMS Queen Mary continued to hold an edge over speed as well maintaining a slight half knot advantage over the USS Lafayette.

But when it came to comfort, soldiers being transported to Europe would rate the USS Lafayette over the Queen Mary. Her superb open, uncluttered decks and streamlined profile meant that far more soldiers could enjoy being outside rather than being always crammed inside with over ten thousand others with poor ventilation. Lafayette was also much less prone to rolling than the Queen Mary.

During her civilian career, the SS Normandie had a problem with propellers that could solve her vibration problem as well as being sturdy enough not to constantly break and require replacements. This problem was solved by the US Navy in 1943.

The rapidity of the Allied landings and capture of French North Africa convinced them to push on into Tunisia which they captured by late October before the Italians and Germans were able to land any significant number of divisions. The speed of the Allied advance caught the Axis by surprise and by November all of Italian Libya had been captured.

 
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The Italian Campaign
While Rommel had been the favoured commander to take on the Allies in North Africa in 1942, the rapidity of their advance meant he had to leave nearly as soon as he arrived back in Tunisia in late October, as the situation was deemed hopeless. Hitler wavered between keeping him in West Europe to stop an eventual Allied invasion of France but then transferred him to the eastern front to finish off the Russians where his expertise in tank warfare would be invaluable. Rommel would ultimately arrive in February, 1943 when the Battle of Stalingrad had already been lost and it seemed that the Eastern Front had reached a turning point. In the Summer of 1943, Rommel would participate in the German advances at Kharkov and Kursk where he attempted to replicate his Blitzkrieg successes in France. This culminated in the Battle of Prokhorovka in June, 1943, the biggest tank battle ever fought where the Germans scored a victory but also suffered heavy losses and so their victory in many ways was pyrrhic as they lacked the ability to replace their losses like the Soviets. This would mark the final involvement of Rommel in the east as Hitler recalled him to Germany due to the deteriorating situation in Italy. But due to the hilly terrain of Italy, Kesserling was given the command.

In December, 1942, the Allies invaded Sicily and had control of the island by January of the next year. The first Allied troops had landed in Calabria the following month and soon swept through Southern Italy with the Axis unable to stop the amphibious landings. These 200,000 strong mostly US troops supplementing all those who fought in North Africa had been trained in the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides to fight in Italy's rugged terrain and islands throughout 1942. Mussolini was deposed and arrested by the Italian authorities who tried to negotiate a peace with the Allies. German forces in Southern Italy were few next to the massive Allied landings and soon Hitler was forced to abandon the south. The Germans planned numerous defensive lines just south of Rome to stop the Allied advance and sent a large number of reinforcements. They also rescued Mussolini placing him in control of a new puppet regime in the north. The war in Italy soon ground to a halt for the remainder of 1943. But by the end of the year, with Allied forces in Italy having nearly doubled they resumed their advance.

Four major offensives broke the line and resulted in the capture of the entire German 10th Army. Rome was in Allied control by December 1943. With the removal of the 10th Army, the stage was set for a rapid offensive into Northern Italy. The Germans did not have the numbers to mount significant defensive lines and reinforcements from Germany would be too late. The last major defensive line, the Gothic Line was smashed in February 1944 by a concerted assault of a million Allied soldiers. The Germans retreated to the Ljubljana Gap while the rest of Italy rose up against the German occupation. Mussolini and his mistress would successfully escape to Switzerland. The road to Vienna was open.
 
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Normandy
The withdrawal of Rommel from the East had a deleterious impact on Axis morale and as the Soviet counter-offensive began in the Autumn of 1943, the Germans were forced to gradually withdraw. By winter they had retreated to the Hagen line in front of Bryansk. In the south, Kharkov which had been won in the summer was lost by winter. This set up 1944 as the critical year where the German Eastern Front would collapse and the Ukraine, Belarus, Novgorod, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia would be taken by the Soviets by winter.

While the Allies could have advanced on the Ljubljana Gap and attempted to take Vienna, they did not want to relieve German pressure on the east against the Soviets. So the decision was taken to halt the offensive. The decision was made that the Italians could be trusted not to side with the Axis again as soon as the Allied troops left. However several hundred thousand troops would remain behind to guard the Ljubljana Gap. This decision infuriated the Soviets. The Germans would launch several limited offensives in 1944 attacking northeast Italy but fail to make any progress.

This was due to threat from the West persuading Hitler not to devote too much resources on that front. Throughout late 1943 coinciding with the liberation of Italy, the Allies also built up for an invasion of France. With three super liners ferrying men, the various cargo ships could concentrate mostly on ferrying vehicles, ammunition, planes, and other equipment where a sinking would result in few loss of lives. To mislead the Axis, the Allies launched Operation Bodyguard and led the Germans to think they would attack Normandy with Calais and southern France being the diversion to draw away German panzer divisions. In April 1944, a diversion fleet was massed in the area... while the Allies attacked Southern France

It was Operation Vendetta. The Germans had already dissolved the Vichy French govt and taken over the entire country. But they hadn't any time to build many fortifications in the area and the German army was stretched thin: Fighting the Soviets in the east, building and defending the Atlantic Wall, guarding the Ljubljana Gap and Vienna, and now southern France. The largest amphibious invasion in history involving 240,000 men in just the first day coming from Italy coincided with a land offensive against the French Riviera. The operation was a complete success helped by the extremely favourable weather. The initial invasion was followed up by further waves of men coming from North Africa as the three super liners were now plying the transatlantic Gibraltar-Algiers route.

However the Germans continued to think for weeks that it was a diversion tactic with the real target being Normandy. After a few weeks, Rommel finally took his tank divisions south to meet the Allies. But he was bogged down by difficult terrain in the Massif Central. The Royal Navy had also attacked Bordeaux, making transportation of men and tanks beyond the Garonne river impossible. With the Allies making advances using mostly infantry in the Massif Central, Rommel risked being cut off and retreated back to the plains of northern France.
 
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The Final Year
Rommel was frustrated. Despite winning numerous tank engagements and surrounding many Allied tank battalions and forcing their surrender, he was ultimately forced to retreat due to taking horrendous losses from Allied planes. Having never seen them in action before, he had severely underestimated Allied airpower. Rommel realized that even with a three to one tank kill ratio, he was losing the war. He was also being giving orders to abandon France and retreat east to preserve his Panzer divisions. But Rommel had somehow been given warning that Hitler had uncovered his personal involvement in the plot against him. Thus Rommel decided to disobey the Fuhrer and attempted to surrender to the Allies... only to be assassinated by one of his own officers. With the panzer divisions now in disarray over the leadership vacuum, with many not sure whether to believe Rommel had tried to surrender or why he was assassinated, they were overrun by the Allies. The German garrison surrendered Paris in July 13, 1944.

In what was by far the most intense celebration of France's National Day in its history, De Gaulle entered the city to great acclaim where a million Parisiens turned out. He assumed control of the city as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic. With the Free French armies joining the allies in greater and greater numbers, the German garrisons of the Atlantic Wall were themselves surrounded and besieged. Many surrendered, others attempted to break out and retreat east but were cut off by the Allies. The Allied forces made for Calais where the forces in Britain finally disembarked in Northern France, reversing the humiliation that they had suffered at Dunkirk. They made straight for the Low Countries. Despite intense German resistance in the Ardennes, they were ultimately forced to retreat. By the end of 1944, not only France, but Belgium and the Netherlands had been liberated.

In Northern Italy, spies reported that the German forces guarding the Ljubljana Gap were being weakened to strengthen defences both in the east against the USSR and west against the Allies. Thus in early 1945, in concert with planned Allied offensives into Western Germany and the Rhineland, the Allied forces in Italy attempted to seize the Ljubljana gap. Italy wanted to redeem herself in the eyes of the Allies and hopefully win a more favourable peace settlement. Thus Italian troops equipped with US weaponry performed well in the offensive and combined with Allied airpower took complete control of the area in just one month. Allied forces began to pour into Austria and Rhineland, simultaneously meeting ferocious German resistance. While in the east, the Soviets were advancing into Poland.
 
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Downfall
By early 1945, the Soviets had knocked Romania out of the war and subsequently was expected to take Bulgaria. Greece had been completely liberated since the Germans retreated in a great hurry to Yugoslavia with the entire German occupation force in the Balkans ordered home swiftly to defend Vienna. Harassed the entire way by partisans and low on supplies and equipment, they proved to be little match to the well-equipped Allied forces now entering Austria. Vienna was taken in April and Hungary immediately signed an armistice with the Western Allies first rather than be occupied by the advancing USSR. This prompted the Germans to launch a coup to take over the govt and arrest Miklós Horthy. However, the allies then quickly entered Budapest by May defeating combined German and Hungarian armies. Afterwards, instead of mounting a more costly invasion into Bavaria, the forces in Austria opted to attack Bohemia or western Czechoslovakia even as Soviet forces moved in to take Slovakia.

Germany's desperation was apparent as they lost the Rhineland to the advancing Allies and all their cities and industrial centres had been become bombed out shells of their former self. The prevailing notion in the German armies of the West was that the war had been lost and they could expect more favourable treatment from the West than the USSR, thus the Allies were met with minimal resistance as they advanced quickly.

The Soviets on the other hand continued to face fanatical resistance in the East and they retaliated by committing atrocities against the German populations of the areas they seized, assisted in some cases by enthusiastic locals. This caused a migration of millions of eastern Germans westwards and many died along the way. But it also hardened the resolve of the remaining German armies in the east.

By June 1945, Hitler had committed suicide alongside most prominent Nazi officials as the Soviet and Western armies surrounded Berlin. Berlin was cut off from Bavaria by mostly Italian forces after they captured Prague. Both sides agreed (after much diplomacy as to who was to be allowed to seize the city) to launch the final offensive together and hours later, Berlin fell. The remaining holdouts of German garrisons in places like Denmark, Norway, Aegean Islands, Channel Islands, Bavaria quickly surrendered in the following months. The war in Europe was over.
 
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Settlement in Europe
Changes from OTL.

-For its western borders, Germans go back to pre-WW2 borders + lose East Frisia to Netherlands, North Frisia to Denmark and Sarre to France.

-Berlin becomes a UN international city. (no division) Will be given back to a united Germany in thirty years time.

-USSR occupies East Germany (similar borders to OTL minus Dresden/Leipzig) for thirty years. Supposing West Germany is peaceful for 30 years, East Germany will be allowed to unite with West Germany.

-Poland (same borders as OTL), Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria become USSR satellites (as in OTL).

-Hungary, Czechia, Austria become non-aligned countries.

-Italy keeps its pre-WW2 borders, except for Albania and Rhodes/Dodecanese given to Greece. Loses no territory to Yugoslavia except Zadar. Just like OTL Ethiopia is given independence again.
 
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-For its western borders, Germans go back to pre-WW2 borders + lose East Frisia to Netherlands, North Frisia to Denmark and Sarre to France.
Pre-WW2 borders? Does it include the Sudenland?

-Italy keeps its pre-WW2 borders, except for Albania and Rhodes/Dodecanese given to Greece. Loses no territory to Yugoslavia. But they lose Ethiopia which is given independence again.
What about Libya?
 
Pre-WW2 borders? Does it include the Sudenland?


What about Libya?
Nope I meant Germany's western borders. It's eastern borders remain same as OTL, so Sudetenland go to Czechia. (which is separated from Communist Slovakia).

Libya remains an Italian colony for now. (+ the Slovenian littoral, Adriatic islands, Istria, Rijeka remain Italian) Italy also loses no border territory with France. But the French get the Saarland.
 
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(POD is the SS Normandie doesn't catch fire.)

With the seizure of the SS Normandie following Pearl Harbour and the US entry into WW2, she was converted into a 15,000 capacity troopship and rechristened USS Lafayette. Repainted in grey camouflage colours, she officially entered service in February 14, 1942 with all her passenger furnishings removed and safely stored in a Manhattan warehouse guarded by officials and crew from the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique.
The Fire took place on Feb 9, 1942. There was still a lot of work to do. She would not have been in service for at least another month (and probably longer) so you need to back up the time line some.
Like the RMS Queens Mary and Elizabeth the USS Lafayette could travel alone without escorts. Her 30 knot average speed made her practically invulnerable to German U-boats. While the RMS Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary controlled by the Royal Navy focused on the Pacific and ferrying US troops to Australia, the USS Lafayette continued with a transatlantic run transporting men and material to Britain throughout 1942.

By late 1942 the situation had changed and both Queens were relocated to the Atlantic. The USS Lafayette had shipped 450,000 troops to Europe during 1942 and Operation Torch had begun in September. The landings were finished in October, 1942 just ahead of FDR's reelection giving him a nice boost. Despite strong Vichy resistance, the Allies quite easily managed to capture French North Africa due to overwhelming numerical superiority.
I need to pull out 'The Queens at War" and see what the deployment of the Queens was in 1942. I know they made some runs to the Mid East reinforcing 8th Army but not sure of how many or when. Torch wasn't going to begin in September. the forces weren't available yet. November was the soonest they could happen.
Just like in their civilian careers, the Queen Mary and Lafayette developed a friendly rivalry in two ways. First, they competed in how many crossings they could manage per year. And the number of men they could carry per journey as well as monthly. RMS Queen Mary ultimately had an edge over the USS Lafayette since her vast first class public rooms put her at a disadvantage and her record of carrying 15,740 soldiers and 943 crew in a single journey in 1943 was never bettered by the USS Lafayette. The RMS Queen Mary continued to hold an edge over speed as well maintaining a slight half knot advantage over the USS Lafayette.

But when it came to comfort, soldiers being transported to Europe would rate the USS Lafayette over the Queen Mary. Her superb open, uncluttered decks and streamlined profile meant that far more soldiers could enjoy being outside rather than being always crammed inside with over ten thousand others with poor ventilation.
No - troops were not allowed on deck of any of the fast liners during Atlantic transits. They were restricted to their buning areas except for two meals a day served at standing up tables (sometimes at strange hours). The design was not comfort but efficiency. The passageways in the ship would not permit troops to move around except with coordination. The schedule was also set well in advance with arricals and departures planned well in advance so coverage (They were not in convoy but did have some escort and general support coverage) could be coordinated.
 
This changes nothing for general cargo delivery, of amphi lift. Both of those items limited Allied operational/stratigic capability as much or more than manpower.
 
This changes nothing for general cargo delivery, of amphi lift. Both of those items limited Allied operational/stratigic capability as much or more than manpower.
But I'm sure with the greater manpower available, factories would prioritize producing these things. (Hint: less aid to the Soviets.) Plenty of additional cargo ships to carry them that otherwise would be devoted to carrying troops.
 
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