I'm sure everyone here appreciates the significance of the hole in air cover over the central atlantic had in the Battle of the Atlantic, and that the British were very interested in basing airplanes on the Portuguese held Azores Islands.
They were able to secure them diplomatically, but by the time they did so, they had already effectively won the convoy war (IIRC, October 1943) and the remaining strategic impact had lessened considerably.
What if we have an alternate scenario where Portugal is not willing to hand over the islands, so the British, probably around the time when France is appearing to collapse, simply seizes them. As far as I know, the islands were completely undefended, so physically grabbing them wouldn't be that hard.
What are the likely consequences of this though? Would the rest of the British commonwealth have laid any major objections? How would the U.S. have reacted? Portugal's obviously going to be upset, but they don't seem that tough, but would that kind of naked aggression be enough to swing over some other nations into Hitler's bag? Would these sorts of penalties be acceptable in light of getting a much safer route from Canada to England?
They were able to secure them diplomatically, but by the time they did so, they had already effectively won the convoy war (IIRC, October 1943) and the remaining strategic impact had lessened considerably.
What if we have an alternate scenario where Portugal is not willing to hand over the islands, so the British, probably around the time when France is appearing to collapse, simply seizes them. As far as I know, the islands were completely undefended, so physically grabbing them wouldn't be that hard.
What are the likely consequences of this though? Would the rest of the British commonwealth have laid any major objections? How would the U.S. have reacted? Portugal's obviously going to be upset, but they don't seem that tough, but would that kind of naked aggression be enough to swing over some other nations into Hitler's bag? Would these sorts of penalties be acceptable in light of getting a much safer route from Canada to England?