nbcman
Donor
When Germany surrendered in may 1945, they still occupied southern Norway, Denmark, northern Yugoslavia, parts of Italy, Austria, Czechia, parts of the Netherlands and Kurland.
As we know in OTL, eastern Austria, Yugoslavia, Czechia and Kurland were liberated by the soviets after the Reich surrendered. Now they could have pushed on to liberate all of Norway and Denmark (they allready controlled Finmark and Mecklenburg), and also all of Austria and parts of northern Italy. Logisticly this is completely plausible, but they didn't in OTL, not to piss the WAllies off. What of they did?
Alternatively, what if D-Day fails, or the soviets do better early on? The soviets could easily take over all of Germany, all of eastern europe, Norway and Denmark. Maybe even the Benelux and (parts of) France and Italy.
In the cold war, you may have no sino-soviet split, the DPRK wins the korean war, etc.
The Germans had already surrendered in Italy over a week before the main German surrender so that is out. The Germans had also surrendered in northwest Germany, Netherlands and Denmark before the main German surrender plus the British 8th Army was already east of Hamburg and had reached the Baltic so the Soviets would have to pass through their army to advance further. Basically, the only areas that the Soviets could reach that weren't already occupied were the areas that they occupied IOTL. Maybe the Soviets could have landed troops in Denmark on the islands by sea or by air and advance more in northern Norway. But that's it. Unless you want to propose the Soviets advance on other German occupied areas such as the Channel Islands or the French ports?