V2 hits UK Parliament 1944 at King's Speech

It is unlikely but those rockets were NOT guided and gave no warning.

A very large proportion of the leadership of both parties would be killed.

George V1 would be a martyr

Elizabeth would be 18 and so not need a regent.

I am guessing that some absent parliamentarians would be able to take office, or MAYBE Elizabeth calls a General election and appoints the Cabinet secretary as interim PM until the election.

Any thoughts?
 
Two words: Operation Vegetarian.:eek:

Germany will cease to be as a nation-state after millions are killed by British reprisals.
The lands that were once Germany are later divided up between the Poles, French, Austrians, Czechs, Dutch, Danes and Belgians.

Not really. Nov 29th is a couple of months away from the final Nazi collapse. Op. Vegetarian would be counter-productive in the extreme to the Allied war effort at this point.
 
Not really. Nov 29th is a couple of months away from the final Nazi collapse. Op. Vegetarian would be counter-productive in the extreme to the Allied war effort at this point.

Agreed. Operation Vegetarian was never likely.

Its not like this wasn't ever a vague possibility anyway. The Windsors knew what they were risking by staying in London.

This would be just one more tragedy of the war.

I doubt there would be an election in the aftermath - with the war close to conclusion I think the coalition would hold off until the defeat of Germany.

More likely outcomes:

Not all in Parliament are killed as V2s didn't really work like that. So it depends who survives and in what shape they are.

The Houses of Parliament are torn down if they are too damaged, and instead the UK gets some hideous 1950s monstrosity in its place.

Mountbatten steps a little closer to the soft power around the monarch and waves away any further doubts about the marriage between Elizabeth and Phillip.
 
How?

It is unlikely but those rockets were NOT guided and gave no warning.

A very large proportion of the leadership of both parties would be killed.

George V1 would be a martyr

Elizabeth would be 18 and so not need a regent.

I am guessing that some absent parliamentarians would be able to take office, or MAYBE Elizabeth calls a General election and appoints the Cabinet secretary as interim PM until the election.

Any thoughts?
Err, in the original timeline wasn't London well and truly out of range of all V2 launch sites still in German hands by the end of November, 1944?
 
Err, in the original timeline wasn't London well and truly out of range of all V2 launch sites still in German hands by the end of November, 1944?

In OTL, 25 November 1944: A V-2 rocket destroys the Woolworths store in New Cross Road, south east London, killing 168, the highest death toll from one of these weapons. More than 100 people survive with injuries.

If this rocket is detored, then it could hit parliament.
 
List of Dead
King George VI, aged 48
Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, aged 70
Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee, aged 61
Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, aged 47

Minor MPs
Ebbw Vale - Aneurin Bevan, aged 46
Anglesey - Megan Lloyd George, aged 42 Daughter of David Lloyd George. Only woman to die in this event
Lanark - Alec Douglas-Home aged 41

Grieving Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King George VI, is crowned as Queen Elizabeth II at the young age of 18, same age as her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
 
Suitable husbands for Elizabeth,
- Obviously Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, IOTL Philip had meet with Elizabeth his third cousin, in 1934 and corresponded with her in 1939. I believe he would still be favourite to be her spouse.
- George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood who is a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and was the first grandchild of King George V.
- Prince Flemming Valdemar Carl, he youngest son of Prince Axel of Denmark and rincess Margaretha of Sweden
- Prince Lennart Bernadotte, grandson of King Gustaf V of Sweden
- David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, nephew of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and third cousin once removed to Elizabeth II.
- Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, the second son of Albert I, King of the Belgians and Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria.
 
In OTL, 25 November 1944: A V-2 rocket destroys the Woolworths store in New Cross Road, south east London, killing 168, the highest death toll from one of these weapons. More than 100 people survive with injuries.

If this rocket is detored, then it could hit parliament.

I agree its not impossible, but it is unlikely.

OTL V2 strikes don't seem to have hit that part of London very much:
http://londonist.com/2013/06/v2

Also that Woolworths was four miles closer to the continent than Parliament, which is quite a lot.

Not saying its impossible, but have to be hell of a chance!
 
Suitable husbands for Elizabeth,
- Obviously Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, IOTL Philip had meet with Elizabeth his third cousin, in 1934 and corresponded with her in 1939. I believe he would still be favourite to be her spouse.
- George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood who is a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and was the first grandchild of King George V.
- Prince Flemming Valdemar Carl, he youngest son of Prince Axel of Denmark and rincess Margaretha of Sweden
- Prince Lennart Bernadotte, grandson of King Gustaf V of Sweden
- David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, nephew of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and third cousin once removed to Elizabeth II.
- Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, the second son of Albert I, King of the Belgians and Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria.

I think its unlikely that Elizabeth would choose anyone but Phillip - she was in love with him for years before they married. Plus, with George VI dead but Mountbatten alive you remove the main obstacle to the marriage - much of the uncertainty about the match came from the King.
 
Hmm...

In OTL, 25 November 1944: A V-2 rocket destroys the Woolworths store in New Cross Road, south east London, killing 168, the highest death toll from one of these weapons. More than 100 people survive with injuries.

If this rocket is detored, then it could hit parliament.
Hmm. Hitting Deptford is pushing the limits of the V2 range at that date (after the capture of Walcheren Island at the start of November the Germans were having to fire from The Hague) and the Palace of Westminster is three miles further west.
I also think that parliament would have been meeting during the day, that someone in that circumstance would have noticed incoming V2's passing over southeast England, and that air-raid warnings would have been given, at least as far as a meeting of the UK government went, and that by the time your hypothetical V2 landed officials would have all been in shelters.
 
However...

List of Dead
King George VI, aged 48
Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, aged 70
Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee, aged 61
Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, aged 47

Minor MPs
Ebbw Vale - Aneurin Bevan, aged 46
Anglesey - Megan Lloyd George, aged 42 Daughter of David Lloyd George. Only woman to die in this event
Lanark - Alec Douglas-Home aged 41

Grieving Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King George VI, is crowned as Queen Elizabeth II at the young age of 18, same age as her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
I also think you're underestimating the casualty list, if everybody sits around doing nothing whilst a 'golden' V2 approaches and ploughs into the House of Lords chamber packed out with members of both houses for the opening of parliament (the Commons chamber was destroyed during night-time bomber attacks, back in 1941, so as far as I know the Lords would have been used for the opening at this time - I stand ready to be corrected if anyone has a reliable source they can quote on this point) before exploding. It's conceivable that the odd minister or secretary might be absent if there was some really pressing matter of war-business that required their presence elsewhere, or that other members might be absent due to illness or due to some other crisis/duty, to do with the war. Pretty much everyone else (in parliamentary terms) is going to have been there.
 
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