Britain and eventually the US would still aid the Soviets later if Hitler went east. Alliance and Lend Lease would be in both parties interests regardless if the USSR was briefly a full fledged axis power or just Hitler's cobelligerent.
France resisisting at least 4 more weeks.not sure what it would take to tip scales and cause plan to go forward?
France resisisting at least 4 more weeks.
Indeed, were I a better military historian I'd write something like that. A re-run of 1914 was probably the most likely outcome and if France holds then things get quite interesting.The most interesting version of this timeline is if Pike happens, but the Germans fail to break through in France.
If that raid does go off, Baku will be wrecked for some time.
Not likely. Bomber command was all kinds of terribad at that time, so accuracy is liable to be abysmal, and the Soviets were quite used to containing oil fires in Baku so the few firebombs which do hit anything aren't likely to do much damage. Plus, the nature of the Baku deposits make it a cinche to repair.
You can't miss the place, it's very distinct from the air, discounting all the natural gas being burned off from flare pipes.
They never had to deal with hundreds of incendiary bombs going off within a short time, either. Oil spills were everywhere, and crude stored in open-air lagoons
You can't miss the place
You very much can. The British in that time were often unable to hit the right country,and hitting a big city was a good job.
What about the chances of this Quadratic Pact of winning WW2? Could this "super-Axis" conquer the world or would they at most be able to secure all of Eurasia
Bomber Command never missed Kiel, Hamburg or Brest.
Not Brest. Hamburg is inland along a river, Kiel is nestled somewhat inland as well, so it isn't a regular coastal target. Baku on the other hand is a very distinctive and rather unmissable target if there is enough moonlight to reflect on water:Early in the war, they sometimes did.
Italy is the interesting power here, Mussolini knew that Italy was not ready for war in 1940, and had certainly gone back and forth on whether Germany or Britain would make the best ally throughout the 1930s.Personally I think the whole Operation would lead to an unofficial expanded Axis, only with Japan as a co-belligerent given it's more obvious hostility to the USSR and Italy being more of a wildcard given the Anti-Comintern thing.