The Long, Cold Winter (An Alternate World War 2)

The Long, Cold Winter​
“It was not my fault; I want to make that very clear. Moscow made every effort to undermine the military action in Finland and completely ignored the reality of the situation. They rob the army of the officer corps, split the command system, ignore the terrain, and tell me that I am to annex the country within a month? Impossible! If they had given us the tools we needed, we could have finished the war before the British acted and saved ourselves a lot of trouble.”
-Kliment Voroshilov shortly before his death in Mexico City, Mexico

“In a way [the Allied intervention] was a relief. The worst-case scenario had occurred, and we no longer felt the need to avoid it.”
-General Kirill Meretskov

December, for the Soviets, was an embarrassing bloodbath. January was a month of transition. On February 1st, a new, concentrated offensive began, attempting to break through the Mannerheim line. The Soviet tactics had been improved, but still relied on the ability to absorb casualties better than their opponents. The Finnish Army had concerns over their ammunition supplies, but the trickling supplies from Britain had kept the cannons firing. In spite of the heavy casualties, the Red Army managed to break through the line and forced the Finns to withdraw one stronghold at a time. The Soviets failed to perform a complete breakthrough, but it was clear that without Allied troops arriving that a complete loss was only a matter of time. The Finnish government quietly sought a way to negotiate a ceasefire, but could get no reply from Moscow.

“Be a lion at home, and a fox abroad.”
-Iranian Proverb
“They call you generous and make you lose your property, they call you brave and make you lose your life.”
-Turkish Proverb

In retaliation for the Turkish and British bombing of the Baku oil fields, the USSR invaded Iran and Turkey. The Turkish army was respectfully prepared for retaliation and was well trained for fighting in the mountainous region. The Red Army advanced slowly and struggled to keep a supply line open over the mountains. In Iran the going was easier. The Iranian Army was woefully inadequate and the Soviets were only truly slowed by the poor infrastructure. Bandar-e Anzali on the Caspian Sea was seized through an amphibious assault on February 3rd. Reza Shah, terrified of conquest by Iran’s old enemy, immediately requested international aid from the United States and the Allied powers. British and French forces from Arabia and India entered the country and began moving north to meet the other invading army.

“The world has been dragged into war by the aggression of totalitarian warlords. Democracy and peace have been ignored, and peaceful and neutral nations have found themselves ignited by the flame of war which threatens to spread to our shores… There is absolutely no doubt in the mind of a very overwhelming number of Americans that the best immediate defense of the United States is the success of the Allied nations in defending themselves, and that it is important, not only from our historic and current interest in the survival of democracy in the world, but also from a selfish point of view of American defense, that we should do everything to help the Allied peoples defend themselves...”
-Franklin Roosevelt fireside chat
 
The Germans are going to have a lot of problems with an inasion of Sweden. The Swedes were supplied with a lot of German weapons before WWII broke out including the famous 88mm gun. The swedes would also have far more tanks than any other Scandinavian country. Thus an invasion would be far more costly and it would also endanger any German invasion of Norway.

Germany lacked the capacity to launch two naval operations at the smae time. Sweden also did have cruisers, destroyers, submarines and coastal defense ships. While the Kriegsmarine could overwhelm itthe Royal Swedish Navy could inflict loses on the Germans that they could ill afford.
 
Really enjoying this.

I would think this might shake Italy out of the German camp with a little help from the Allies. Any chance of that? Maybe not fighting Germany, but neutrality, getting rich on German factory orders and trying to pick off a bit of the Balkans here and there.

What about the Balkans? Anti-communism win out?

And the Japanese, what of them? Though Sakhalin and the Russian Far East are tempting, they've already been creamed by the Reds by 1940, right? Plus they're already pretty heavily invested in China. And joining a Russian-German pact allows them (unlike OTL) a long-but-direct link to Germany. But OTL supply problems also disappear if they join the Allies, leave China alone and go after Russia again. Either way they potentially have something to gain.

Hope this keeps up!
 
Depending on how the Northern Front is going, Whe can have a lot of Butterflies as Mussolini decides what to do, following the invasion of France.
 
I'm very glad everyone is enjoying this, I've wanted to do this timeline for some time now. The unnatural bedfellows of the USSR and Nazi Germany is going to turn the world on its head in a very fun way. I'll do my best to keep updating regularly.
 
The Germans are going to have a lot of problems with an inasion of Sweden. The Swedes were supplied with a lot of German weapons before WWII broke out including the famous 88mm gun.

Really? I knew that Krupp and Bofors cooperated (illegally) in developing the 88, but I thought that Sweden used a native 80 mm gun. Do you have any numbers of the swedish 88s and what happened to them after the war?
 
Ever since I first read about the proposed Allied intervention in the Winter War that was shot down by the Swedes, I've wanted to see a TL like this one. It seems like an opportunity to avoid having to support one dictatorial mass murderer to defeat another one. Thanks.

You ever read the Sword of Honor trilogy, by Waugh?
 
Why didn't you like the one in the link? (I'm the author and I'd like to know)
Oops, me and my big mouth.
It's a good story but I find it rather dystopian. In the first place, I really don't think the Swedes and Norwegians would really take the side of the totalitarian powers. It's one thing to insist on neutrality to protect your people and economy but once bullets start flying, I think they'd grudgingly support the Allied intervention in the Winter War.
More broadly, for silly moralistic reasons rather than realpolitik, I think the West ought to have joined the battle during the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact era because it would have put all the bad guys on one side rather than robbing Peter to pay Paul (or more accurately, giving Paul trucks so he can run over Peter). My gut just tells me it would have certainly been harder than OTL WWII but not as brutal as The Great Mistake portrays it.
 
Top