WI an Allied attack on Soviet Union in 1940?

Given the incompetencies of 1940 Anglo-French strategic bombing forces compounded by the usual problems that these raids face, Pike likely does little, if any, actual damage so I don’t see how it will cripple the Soviets.

Well, even the article on Operation Pike says "In any event, Allied bombers would probably have been ineffective in destroying the fields, as in 1940 British night bombing raids against Germany were so inaccurate that few bombs managed to be dropped within miles of their targets, a disadvantage that remained for the whole war. With around 100 bombers each capable of carrying only half a ton of bombs, low payload and poor accuracy made it is extremely unlikely that they would have any great effect on Soviet oil facilities anyway. Furthermore, the overall objective of denying Germany fuel supplies was flawed, as even Allied intelligence concluded that Russian oil only comprised a small part of Germany's fuel, the bulk of which actually came from Romania. Operation Pike was driven more by desire for action while avoiding direct confrontation on the battlefield during the Sitzkrieg, overconfidence from strategic bombing enthusiasts, and pursuing an idea of hurting both countries at once than actual military value."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pike#Planning

It is worth noticing that this article completely ignores Soviet AA defense which had been in place by the summer of 1940: numerous AA artillery and machine guns, defensive balloons, more than 1,000 fighter planes and more than 300 long range bombers. The allied bombing force had only 24 heavy bombers and the rest (slightly over hundred) were light and medium bombers, some of them obsolete. So what would be their real chances with a strong opposition factored in?

While Turkey assured the allies that they can use its air space, in the case of the Soviet bombing retaliation (like bombing Ankara, Istanbul or whatever) this position could change: even by the end of WWII Turkey did not have an effective AA and the Brits and French had very little resources to spare.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
I side with the bombing fails and Soviets could wreck the British position in the Middle East scenario.

I did scenario along these lines, although I invoked ASBs just to skip right past the plausibility discussion.


https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ory-with-mideast-as-soviet-satellites.408727/


It assumed that the Soviets won in the Middle East, but that the Nazis turned on them anyway. Once the Germans attacked the Soviets, the Brits had to forgive and aid the Soviets as the only way to defeat the Nazis.

Here is the map for the end of the war:
Cold War_1949 - Mideast in Warsaw   Pact-zoom-2.jpg
 
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