Hello Alternatehistory.com! I would like to share with you one of my maps I made for an alternate history over at deviantARt.com The timeline focuses on the Soviet Union, its allies and enemies in an alternative historical setting in 1958. The timeline's point of departure is the Winter War between the USSR and Finland in early 1940. The date is set ten years after the conclusion of the great world conflict known in anglican literature as the Second World War and The Great Class War in European/Soviet terminology.
I want to share with you the following image. This is a series of maps which depicts the alternate development of the Second World War which resulted in the 1958 situation. For other maps and more detailed information; see my deviantArt profile
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The Fall of the Entente
Following the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the German-Soviet invasions into Eastern Europe, relations between the USSR and the Allies grew stiffer with each happening. In February 1940, the British decided to violate Norwegian neutrality by invading the country in order to aid the Finns in their struggle with the Soviets in the Winter War as well as to hinder Swedish iron trade with the Germans. The bold plan did not succeed, as the Germans too had made plans for securing Norway, and immediately staged a counter-invasion. More importantly, the M-R Pact had suddenly turned into a real military alliance with a common enemy and common interests and when the Red Army finally defeated the Finns in late March, it advanced into northern Norway repeating the Polish scenario.
The Norwegian Campaign was a military disaster for the British - the greatest in their history. The British withdrew from the continent in the May 1940. As the last soldiers were evacuated from Narvik in April, thousands were left to be fed to Soviet and German POW' camps. In the summer, the Germans launched a successful advance into France and the Low Countries. Meanwhile, the Soviets turned to their Asian borders; maneuvering and manipulating Persia and Afghanistan to allow Soviet military access, delivering those countries the same fate as the Baltic States. Military access gave the Soviets a base from which they launched an invasion of the British Empire of India in September 1940. India was poorly defended against an all-out invasion and Pakistan and Punjab was relatively quickly occupied by the Red Army.
Meanwhile, the German Luftwaffe, aided by Soviet bombers stationed in Norway, was gaining the upper hand in the air battle over Britain. By early 1941, the British had become seriously demoralized by bombings, the military disaster in Norway and the Soviet invasion of India. Additionally, they were alone in the war - France had fallen and the USA had declared a return to a strict isolationist policy (because of fear of the German-Soviet "Unholy Alliance" and because of security guarantees through recent treaties with Japan). The increasingly unpopular prime minister Winston Churchill was forced out of office as and a new government sued for peace with the Germans and the Soviets.
Typically, the peace was not to last, and it was even more fragile than the dreaded peace of Versailles. After all, the "Unholy Alliance" was only a marriage of convenience and everybody knew that. The Berlin Peace Conference in March 1941 brought about a new order in the world, but it stirred up relations between the victors - both of whom were preparing for pre-emptive attacks on each other. Britain kept its government and full independence, but became a bitter isolationist secondary power, downgrading the British Empire into a commonwealth. Pétain's French State became a satellite state of Germany like Eastern and Southern Europe. Germany and Italy gained control over the British and French colonies/mandates in the Middle East and Africa (except for South Africa). The USSR annexed Finland, the Norwegian province of Finnmark, Persia, Afghanistan and Pakistan west of the Indus River.
The German-Soviet War
In July 1941, this disharmonious world order was disrupted when the Germans and their allies invaded the Soviet Union. The invasion was designed to crush the Soviet state in European Russia in a matter of weeks. It was, however, a failure. The German armies halted before they even crossed the Byelorussian-Russian borders due to bad weather, logistical problems and overstretched fronts. The invasion was launched from Central-Eastern Europe, while Axis troops had to maintain defenses along the borders in Mesopotamia and in Norway, where little fighting took place. The winter of 1941-1942 produced a stalemate and the summer offensive of 1942 failed to produce victory for the Germans despite their advance into the Ukraine and Persia in order to gain access to Caucasian oil fields. During the winter of 1942-1943 the advance again halted and a proposed summer offensive of 1943 failed because the Red Army had by then managed to reorganize and reinforce the defense. The Axis had dug themselves deeper into the same tracks, while the Soviet state had stood its test of pan-national unity and cohesion and consolidated its war effort.
The first Soviet counter-advance succeeded in the Ukraine in early 1944. From that time on, the slow and painful German retreat began. Slowly liberating the Ukraine, Byelorussia and the Baltic States, the Red Army pushed the Germans back to the original German-Soviet borders by the end of the year. The summer of 1945 witnessed a large Soviet assault into Poland and Romania and during the autumn and winter, the Soviets reached the original Soviet borders in Mesopotamia. Axis troops in the Middle East withdrew towards Turkey and the Germans forced the pro-German, neutral country to give them military access in order to defend the Balkans.
The Soviet advance into Europe halted, while the Red Army conquered the eastern regions of Turkey during the winter of 1945-1946. During February and March 1946, the Germans and Italians evacuated the country, as well as the entire Balkans south of Hungary. This defensive strategy was hard to swallow, especially for the Italians, but it reinforced the front in Poland and denied the Soviets the chance to cut the Axis forces in Turkey/Balkans off from Germany by advancing from Romania towards the Adriatic. This swift situational change left the Red Army in charge of Turkey, on which Moscow would later impose a pro-Soviet regime which was willing to cede the Armenian Highlands to the USSR. Securely moving through Anatolia, the Red Army swiftly and (almost) peacefully occupied Greece, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, joining up with the Soviet forces in Romania. In the summer of 1946, the Soviets launched an advance into northern Sweden, for the same reasons the British invaded Norway - to cut German iron supplies. Sweden surrendered quickly followed by a German strategic withdrawal from Norway, and joined the war against the Germans.
The German abandonment of Norway was unrelated to the events in Sweden. The troops were needed in Poland where the Red Army began an advance after counterattacking the last German offensive in the the area during the summer of 1946. The retreat was slower an more painful then ever before. The bloodiest military battles of the entire World War took place in Poland, Prussia and Eastern Germany during the winter of 1946-1947. By the spring, Berlin was captured by the Red Army, and Hitler relocated his government to Hamburg. The broken German Army fought along with zealous Waffen SS and Volksturm units as well as volunteers from France and the Iberian states in a shattered and undirected effort of violent survival. Soviet troops captured town by town, slowly and painfully pushing their way westwards. Hitler committed suicide when the Red Army entered the outskirts of Hamburg in December 1947, coinciding with a Soviet-directed coup in Italy. The previous summer had witness Italy decay into chaos following the imminent defeat of the Axis powers. Mussolini was forced from power by his comrades and a state of civil war existed until communists managed to gain control in December. Soviet military units quietly entered the country to secure the outcome.
The Last stand
Even with Hitler dead, and the war virtually lost, the Nazi leadership did not surrender. Great many Nazi leaders had already fled to Pétain's pro-German France and Franco's ultra-reactionary Spain. Following the Battle of Germany, an exodus of Germans, mostly Nazis, sought refuge in those countries. Himmler and the Waffen SS took over the reins in France, creating a short lived SS state, which allied itself with Spain. The Spanish had remained formally outside of the World War, but had been hugely involved in the defense of Germany by providing volunteer troops. Because of all this, the Soviet leadership issued a declaration of war against Spain and Portugal (France had already been considered occupied by Germany) and a crusade against fascism in Europe. The Spanish regime viewed itself as the last bastion of Christianity and the old social order of Europe. Madrid was to become the Constantinople of modern times.
These last months of the war were the most ferocious of them all. Franco's bastion of Western civilization was equipped with the best Nazi war criminals Himmler's SS state had to offer. The desperate atmosphere of a total annihilation of the old order in Europe drove both sides to commit unspeakable massacres and atrocities. Mass killings of Marxists, Jews, Nazis, reactionaries and German and Soviet POW's took place across Western Europe from Spain to Poland. After a few months of recuperation and clean-up operations in Germany, Stalin launched an assault into France in the summer of 1948. Waffen SS units fought until the last drop along with Iberian and French soldiers in a bloody "Rattenkrieg" and guerilla warfare. Spain and Portugal surrendered in September, when the "Holy Fortress" of Madrid fell to the Red Army. No peace treaties were signed between the USSR and Nazi Germany. The SS and Nazi guerrillas were gradually eradicated from Western and Central Europe over the course of 1948-1949.
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Now here is the map series. For more information on the East Asian developments, see my deviantArt profile.
Please, discuss and constructively criticize
I want to share with you the following image. This is a series of maps which depicts the alternate development of the Second World War which resulted in the 1958 situation. For other maps and more detailed information; see my deviantArt profile
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fall of the Entente
Following the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the German-Soviet invasions into Eastern Europe, relations between the USSR and the Allies grew stiffer with each happening. In February 1940, the British decided to violate Norwegian neutrality by invading the country in order to aid the Finns in their struggle with the Soviets in the Winter War as well as to hinder Swedish iron trade with the Germans. The bold plan did not succeed, as the Germans too had made plans for securing Norway, and immediately staged a counter-invasion. More importantly, the M-R Pact had suddenly turned into a real military alliance with a common enemy and common interests and when the Red Army finally defeated the Finns in late March, it advanced into northern Norway repeating the Polish scenario.
The Norwegian Campaign was a military disaster for the British - the greatest in their history. The British withdrew from the continent in the May 1940. As the last soldiers were evacuated from Narvik in April, thousands were left to be fed to Soviet and German POW' camps. In the summer, the Germans launched a successful advance into France and the Low Countries. Meanwhile, the Soviets turned to their Asian borders; maneuvering and manipulating Persia and Afghanistan to allow Soviet military access, delivering those countries the same fate as the Baltic States. Military access gave the Soviets a base from which they launched an invasion of the British Empire of India in September 1940. India was poorly defended against an all-out invasion and Pakistan and Punjab was relatively quickly occupied by the Red Army.
Meanwhile, the German Luftwaffe, aided by Soviet bombers stationed in Norway, was gaining the upper hand in the air battle over Britain. By early 1941, the British had become seriously demoralized by bombings, the military disaster in Norway and the Soviet invasion of India. Additionally, they were alone in the war - France had fallen and the USA had declared a return to a strict isolationist policy (because of fear of the German-Soviet "Unholy Alliance" and because of security guarantees through recent treaties with Japan). The increasingly unpopular prime minister Winston Churchill was forced out of office as and a new government sued for peace with the Germans and the Soviets.
Typically, the peace was not to last, and it was even more fragile than the dreaded peace of Versailles. After all, the "Unholy Alliance" was only a marriage of convenience and everybody knew that. The Berlin Peace Conference in March 1941 brought about a new order in the world, but it stirred up relations between the victors - both of whom were preparing for pre-emptive attacks on each other. Britain kept its government and full independence, but became a bitter isolationist secondary power, downgrading the British Empire into a commonwealth. Pétain's French State became a satellite state of Germany like Eastern and Southern Europe. Germany and Italy gained control over the British and French colonies/mandates in the Middle East and Africa (except for South Africa). The USSR annexed Finland, the Norwegian province of Finnmark, Persia, Afghanistan and Pakistan west of the Indus River.
The German-Soviet War
In July 1941, this disharmonious world order was disrupted when the Germans and their allies invaded the Soviet Union. The invasion was designed to crush the Soviet state in European Russia in a matter of weeks. It was, however, a failure. The German armies halted before they even crossed the Byelorussian-Russian borders due to bad weather, logistical problems and overstretched fronts. The invasion was launched from Central-Eastern Europe, while Axis troops had to maintain defenses along the borders in Mesopotamia and in Norway, where little fighting took place. The winter of 1941-1942 produced a stalemate and the summer offensive of 1942 failed to produce victory for the Germans despite their advance into the Ukraine and Persia in order to gain access to Caucasian oil fields. During the winter of 1942-1943 the advance again halted and a proposed summer offensive of 1943 failed because the Red Army had by then managed to reorganize and reinforce the defense. The Axis had dug themselves deeper into the same tracks, while the Soviet state had stood its test of pan-national unity and cohesion and consolidated its war effort.
The first Soviet counter-advance succeeded in the Ukraine in early 1944. From that time on, the slow and painful German retreat began. Slowly liberating the Ukraine, Byelorussia and the Baltic States, the Red Army pushed the Germans back to the original German-Soviet borders by the end of the year. The summer of 1945 witnessed a large Soviet assault into Poland and Romania and during the autumn and winter, the Soviets reached the original Soviet borders in Mesopotamia. Axis troops in the Middle East withdrew towards Turkey and the Germans forced the pro-German, neutral country to give them military access in order to defend the Balkans.
The Soviet advance into Europe halted, while the Red Army conquered the eastern regions of Turkey during the winter of 1945-1946. During February and March 1946, the Germans and Italians evacuated the country, as well as the entire Balkans south of Hungary. This defensive strategy was hard to swallow, especially for the Italians, but it reinforced the front in Poland and denied the Soviets the chance to cut the Axis forces in Turkey/Balkans off from Germany by advancing from Romania towards the Adriatic. This swift situational change left the Red Army in charge of Turkey, on which Moscow would later impose a pro-Soviet regime which was willing to cede the Armenian Highlands to the USSR. Securely moving through Anatolia, the Red Army swiftly and (almost) peacefully occupied Greece, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, joining up with the Soviet forces in Romania. In the summer of 1946, the Soviets launched an advance into northern Sweden, for the same reasons the British invaded Norway - to cut German iron supplies. Sweden surrendered quickly followed by a German strategic withdrawal from Norway, and joined the war against the Germans.
The German abandonment of Norway was unrelated to the events in Sweden. The troops were needed in Poland where the Red Army began an advance after counterattacking the last German offensive in the the area during the summer of 1946. The retreat was slower an more painful then ever before. The bloodiest military battles of the entire World War took place in Poland, Prussia and Eastern Germany during the winter of 1946-1947. By the spring, Berlin was captured by the Red Army, and Hitler relocated his government to Hamburg. The broken German Army fought along with zealous Waffen SS and Volksturm units as well as volunteers from France and the Iberian states in a shattered and undirected effort of violent survival. Soviet troops captured town by town, slowly and painfully pushing their way westwards. Hitler committed suicide when the Red Army entered the outskirts of Hamburg in December 1947, coinciding with a Soviet-directed coup in Italy. The previous summer had witness Italy decay into chaos following the imminent defeat of the Axis powers. Mussolini was forced from power by his comrades and a state of civil war existed until communists managed to gain control in December. Soviet military units quietly entered the country to secure the outcome.
The Last stand
Even with Hitler dead, and the war virtually lost, the Nazi leadership did not surrender. Great many Nazi leaders had already fled to Pétain's pro-German France and Franco's ultra-reactionary Spain. Following the Battle of Germany, an exodus of Germans, mostly Nazis, sought refuge in those countries. Himmler and the Waffen SS took over the reins in France, creating a short lived SS state, which allied itself with Spain. The Spanish had remained formally outside of the World War, but had been hugely involved in the defense of Germany by providing volunteer troops. Because of all this, the Soviet leadership issued a declaration of war against Spain and Portugal (France had already been considered occupied by Germany) and a crusade against fascism in Europe. The Spanish regime viewed itself as the last bastion of Christianity and the old social order of Europe. Madrid was to become the Constantinople of modern times.
These last months of the war were the most ferocious of them all. Franco's bastion of Western civilization was equipped with the best Nazi war criminals Himmler's SS state had to offer. The desperate atmosphere of a total annihilation of the old order in Europe drove both sides to commit unspeakable massacres and atrocities. Mass killings of Marxists, Jews, Nazis, reactionaries and German and Soviet POW's took place across Western Europe from Spain to Poland. After a few months of recuperation and clean-up operations in Germany, Stalin launched an assault into France in the summer of 1948. Waffen SS units fought until the last drop along with Iberian and French soldiers in a bloody "Rattenkrieg" and guerilla warfare. Spain and Portugal surrendered in September, when the "Holy Fortress" of Madrid fell to the Red Army. No peace treaties were signed between the USSR and Nazi Germany. The SS and Nazi guerrillas were gradually eradicated from Western and Central Europe over the course of 1948-1949.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now here is the map series. For more information on the East Asian developments, see my deviantArt profile.
Please, discuss and constructively criticize