They don't like it up 'em!

To redress the Axis love thing going on lets have a thread where you can stick it to Fritz... basic premise is-pick an event/theatre/weapons system, so whatever you would like and then for a short while others can contribute how much better (in hurting Fritz/the Jap/ the Italians/etc) it could have been if only....

Lets start with the Matilda tank
 
To redress the Axis love thing going on lets have a thread where you can stick it to Fritz... basic premise is-pick an event/theatre/weapons system, so whatever you would like and then for a short while others can contribute how much better (in hurting Fritz/the Jap/ the Italians/etc) it could have been if only....

Lets start with the Matilda tank

If it had a better/more reliable transmission and larger/multi role gun they could have gutted instead of shaken up 7th panzer
 
If it had a better/more reliable transmission and larger/multi role gun they could have gutted instead of shaken up 7th panzer

Definitely. Having a tank which is invulnerable to all but the heaviest of guns doesn't do alot of good if it can't get there and take out other tanks.
 
Agreed with the engine and transmission and gun issue, BUT which engine? and what gun? That be the question...earlier development of the 6pdr would have been nice, maybe a CS tank and 2 6lbers per troop, 5 troops per squadron-all also equipped with radios...
 
Agreed with the engine and transmission and gun issue, BUT which engine? and what gun? That be the question...earlier development of the 6pdr would have been nice, maybe a CS tank and 2 6lbers per troop, 5 troops per squadron-all also equipped with radios...

The French 47mm AT gun (which boasted excellent ballistic qualities... it could pierce more armor than the l24 75mm gun on the panzer 4's of 1940) and it could fire high explosive and AP rounds should have been the gun

And the petrol 270hp engine that was installed in the Char B1 tank should have been the matilda's engine. That engine was not only reliable, but would have drastically improved the Matilda's power to weight ratio making it far more lethal and manueverable
 
I read in Len Deighton's "Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of France" that one of the French army's many, many issues was that it lacked anti tank guns for its troops-despite having designed an excellent 47mm one, it was still exporting many of them. Could it have sold some of these to the British Army, perhaps?

If I may add another one from about the same time-Maurice Gamelin. He wasn't doomed to being a tired has been (he did well in the First World War, and he actually planned counter attacks just before Weygand replaced him-he immediately scrapped these, of course)-how could he have done better?
 
I suggested this earlier but what if the Belgian Chasseurs Ardennais http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=137759 had by some accident held a few towns and villages such as St. Vith to the death in May 1940. Last time I suggested that an enthusiastic German Abwehr unit had cut the telephone wires used to order them to withdraw northwards. A book about the actions that did occur is reviewed at http://stonebooks.com/archives/031026.shtml. Obviously, the CAs would also benefit from buying a few French 47 mm anti tank guns.
 
Well, this is kind of hard, because it would have been difficult for the war to go much better for the Allies after late '42.

WI the Allies land at Anzio instead of Salerno, and are not driven into the sea? I can't see it happening. It isn't an insane idea, but a very reckless one.

(I have three more off the top of my head, but I'm going with the OP's request to take one change and let the forum consider it for awhile - and only one is in the Med. I didn't know I was a Med head until today:eek:).
 
A proper army support aircraft like a Hawker Henley developed to be able to dive bomb, launch 3 inch rockets and strafe the advancing German columns in France 1940. Casualties would probably have been similar to the Fairy Battle but they would have been able to chew up a lot more German units. Maybe slow the Germans up enough for the French Army and the BEF to regroup and launch a succesful counter attack.
 

Cook

Banned
WI the Allies land at Anzio instead of Salerno, and are not driven into the sea? I can't see it happening. It isn't an insane idea, but a very reckless one.

Landing at Gulf of Salerno gives you the port of Naples, Salero is nowhere near the size of Naples harbour, plus, it is beyond the range of tactical air support aircraft operating from Sicily.

However, if after Sicily was taken the Allies had promptly taken Sardinia and Corsica, and had used them as bases for air support they would have been able to hit targets all the way to the Po valley and opened the way for an amphibious landing north of Rome, just as Kesselring feared.
 
French Tank Doctrine

If the French developed a better tank doctrine, concentrating them, it would have been ugly for the Germans.
 
Widespread use of the M26 Pershing tank starting on D-Day.

An earlier closing of the Falaise gap.

Extend the war in Europe to late summer in 1945 and watch a single B-29 turn Berlin into a self lit parking lot.

All could have happened after 1942.
 
WI the Allies land at Anzio instead of Salerno, and are not driven into the sea? I can't see it happening. It isn't an insane idea, but a very reckless one.


Landing at Gulf of Salerno gives you the port of Naples, Salero is nowhere near the size of Naples harbour, plus, it is beyond the range of tactical air support aircraft operating from Sicily.

However, if after Sicily was taken the Allies had promptly taken Sardinia and Corsica, and had used them as bases for air support they would have been able to hit targets all the way to the Po valley and opened the way for an amphibious landing north of Rome, just as Kesselring feared.

What I was looking at with Anzio was why it was a reckless bet. IF the allied invasion force survives, they get an actively allied Italy, and don't have to fight all the way up the boot (ie, they get Naples for free, etc). If the are driven off the beach however, the allies suffer a huge troop and morale loss, and the war effort takes years to recover. Not worth the bet.

Since the thread seems to be more for technical stuff than political, how about this one?

The US develops a torpedo that doesn't imobilize the IJN, with laughter. :eek:
 
I can't claim to be any great expert on these things, so maybe someone could tell me if any RAF bombers early in the war had enough payload capability to air launch a Spitfire? I know Spits were used for strafing targets of opportunity in Occupied France, air launching would give them a bit more range.
 
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