WI: Germany has a heavy tank before 1942

I'm pretty sure it was Hitler that initially told them to be ready in 1942,

Nope. The closest he ever said to that effect was "the nation would have to settle the issue of Lebensraum by 1943 at the latest" in 1937. He was horribly upset when the generals told him otherwise.

"No doubt Hitler was counting on support from his advisers. Their response must have been a shock and a disappointment. In the discussion that followed the Fuhrer's monologue, Blomberg (Wehrmacht Commander in Chief) and Fritsch (Army Commander in Chief) raised serious objections to his plans. They were not moral objections... What disturbed the generals was the possibility that Germany might become embroiled in a war with France and Britain before the Wehrmacht was ready. They disagreed with many specific points of Hitler's analysis, and they cautioned him against moving too quickly."
-Megargee, "Inside Hitler's High Command," p.38

Fritsch in particular took his objections to Hitler's ambitions very seriously and was public in his opposition, and in trying to rally others in opposition - most particularly Chief of the General Staff, Ludwig Beck. Hitler got around these objections by simply getting rid of Blomberg (on charges that his wife had posed for pornographic pictures) and Fritsch (on trumped up accusations of homosexuality), after which he took the position of Commander in Chief for himself, and appointed the toady Wilhelm Keitel as his Chief of Staff. By taking the post of Chief of Staff, Hitler had also done an end run around Beck's continuing opposition to his plans. By 1938 this came to a head over Czechoslovakia, where his opposition to Hitler's plans led Beck to resign, writing in extreme prescience:

"In order to make our position clear to historians in the future and to keep the reputation of the high command clean, I wish, as Chief of the General Staff, to make it a matter of record that I have refused to approve any kind of National Socialist adventure. A final German victory is impossible."
-Megargee, p.52

Beck had hoped his resignation might be followed by mass resignations among the other Generals. Not a single one of them followed him. Hitler even managed to get Beck not to publicize his resignation for "national security reasons," which removed any effect the act might have had on the wider German population.

started a regional war against Poland that turned into a general war in Europe that was not supposed to happened until 1942 even under Hitler's accelerated time table.
Under Hitler's accelerated timetable, the war was actually supposed to have started in 1938. He later commented multiple times that Chamberlain had cheated him of his ideal war. We have contradictory accounts of his reaction to the Anglo-French declaration of war but his demand to hit the French ASAP generally indicate he was not unduly put off by it.
 
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Shameless plug here, but for anyone interested in an alternate German high command in which Blomberg and Fritsch stay on and the military command structure isn't quite so full of political appointees, see my sig.:D
 

Deleted member 1487

Stupid question: Why didn't Germany just produce more heat ammo? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-explosive_anti-tank_warhead#History


If a Panzerfaust was able to kill any tank of its day, and the Germans had heat ammo capable of firing out of 75mm canons in 1940, if they simply produced more of it they could have avoided packing larger guns on their tanks.
They produced a lot of it. The problem it is short ranged because it cannot be traveling too fast when fired or it won't work properly, so using it combined with a long range, high velocity weapon doesn't work. Another issue too is that the spin stabilized shell doesn't work all that well compared to fin stabilized, which they mostly did not have in WW2.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohlladung
 
Nope. The closest he ever said to that effect was "the nation would have to settle the issue of Lebensraum by 1943 at the latest" in 1937. He was horribly upset when the generals told him otherwise.

"No doubt Hitler was counting on support from his advisers. Their response must have been a shock and a disappointment. In the discussion that followed the Fuhrer's monologue, Blomberg (Wehrmacht Commander in Chief) and Fritsch (Army Commander in Chief) raised serious objections to his plans. They were not moral objections... What disturbed the generals was the possibility that Germany might become embroiled in a war with France and Britain before the Wehrmacht was ready. They disagreed with many specific points of Hitler's analysis, and they cautioned him against moving too quickly."
-Megargee, "Inside Hitler's High Command," p.38

The navy was even worse of. The famous "Plan Z" was set up for completion in the 1946-48 frame. Instead, it was forced to start the war with barelly enough to patrol the coast and launch some raids...
 
Everyone fooled with multi-turrets, it was almost a fad. But the concept was flawed, and the germans dumped it. As for post-France, they didn't see any real need for them untill the KV-1 slammed into their faces...

Maybe by 1942 and after. But in 1939? Even with reuse of Skoda's Pz35/38, there was barelly enough production to start the war. And don't forget it's not just a matter of factories, but also of steel available.

It's easy enough to do away with the multiple turrets at the pre-production stage.
They didn't have to wait until the KV-1 surprise. The Russians had given them an earlier 'red flag' which was ignored, when the Russians were allowed an inspection tour of German tank factories. They kept asking to see the 'heavy tanks', no amount of denial would convince them that they weren't being hidden. Only, in retrospect did they realise that the attitude meant that the Russians had a heavy tank of their own, and assumed the Germans would as well.
Opportunity lost.
 
It's easy enough to do away with the multiple turrets at the pre-production stage.
They didn't have to wait until the KV-1 surprise. The Russians had given them an earlier 'red flag' which was ignored, when the Russians were allowed an inspection tour of German tank factories. They kept asking to see the 'heavy tanks', no amount of denial would convince them that they weren't being hidden. Only, in retrospect did they realise that the attitude meant that the Russians had a heavy tank of their own, and assumed the Germans would as well.
Opportunity lost.

I think they didn't believe because everyone at the time was designing or testing heavies. But the germans had been testing the theories of how to use armour to an extent no one else had. That made them belive they wouldn't need a heavy, because it would no fit into the "go fast and hard" tactics they were developing.
 

Ramontxo

Donor
Everyone fooled with multi-turrets, it was almost a fad. But the concept was flawed, and the germans dumped it. As for post-France, they didn't see any real need for them untill the KV-1 slammed into their faces...



Maybe by 1942 and after. But in 1939? Even with reuse of Skoda's Pz35/38, there was barelly enough production to start the war. And don't forget it's not just a matter of factories, but also of steel available.

Do away with the Hippers and use founds and material. It would also help with the UK and maybe use some of the founds also to provide The Luftwaffe with marine support squadrons (handwaving Reader and Goering s character necessary of course)
 
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