WI The Forces used in the Battle of the Bulge had been at Battle of Berlin

Perhpas evacuate the over 100,000 men left behind in Courland earlier?

It is not as if the Soviets didn't need to mop that pocket up.

And have half of the 250,000 men guarding Denmark and Norway(and more or less took shelter there in the final months) sent to Poland.

With what? Where are you going to find the rolling stock? Across which rail network nodes are you going to move those trains?
 
The post war occupation zones were already set. That was one of the reasons that the Allies stopped where they did in Germany.

True, both sides had advanced into each other's occupation zones in the final months of fighting, and both withdrew to the pre-arranged areas after the fighting stopped.
 
What about just shifting Luftwaffe forces east? As is was they were only getting slaughtered for no effect against the Western Allies, it only makes sense to put them where they could effect events. Even late war, with only 10% of a decimated air force, the Germans were still able to operate effectively against the Russians. Why no concentrate Bodenblatt against the Soviets and strike with the intent to maim? It would be possible to inflict some serious casualties on the Russians at this point and who knows, made even slow them down a week or two. At this point all is lost and if we are discussing about how to affect the Soviets a bit, this would do it.
Transfer the LW east and launch constant strikes and maybe a Bodenblatt against advancing forces, which they still were able to OTL and often win despite being outnumber by 3:1 or more margins. Withdraw from the Balkans and Greece and set up a line in Austria and Hungary and attempt to bleed the Soviets as much as possible. If the forces used at the Bulge were instead available in the East and the forces in the Courland pocket were evacuated and used in Prussia, then things slow down in the East considerablly. Let the Volkssturm surrender in the west to force the Western allies to deal with loads of prisoners that are useless to your war effort. The war will still end in an allied victory, but with hopefully higher Soviet casualties and and later allied win, with less Soviet violence against civilians during the war.

This would mean more Allied influence postwar. IIRC Tito was willing to work with the Americans...

this is just a thought,
at best, the remnants of the German army could delay The Red army, which would allow the US and UK forces to get closer to Berlin, not by much, but closer.
so does this affect East/west Germany's borders?

I.D. White was only 24 hours from Berlin when Ike told him to hold in place. In this case he could have taken Berlin.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
This would mean more Allied influence postwar. IIRC Tito was willing to work with the Americans...



I.D. White was only 24 hours from Berlin when Ike told him to hold in place. In this case he could have taken Berlin.

Not hardly. The Reich wasn't going to go that easily. Berlin was going to be a bloodbath and Ike & FDR/Truman/Churchill had long since decided that Stalin could take the 100K casualties for the honor of giving 3/4 of the city back to the Western Allies.
 
Not hardly. The Reich wasn't going to go that easily. Berlin was going to be a bloodbath and Ike & FDR/Truman/Churchill had long since decided that Stalin could take the 100K casualties for the honor of giving 3/4 of the city back to the Western Allies.

But remember a lot of the Germans were surrendering to the Western Allies. There are a lot of people who thought I.D. White could have taken Berlin.
 
But remember a lot of the Germans were surrendering to the Western Allies. There are a lot of people who thought I.D. White could have taken Berlin.

The commander of 9 th army at Seelöw heights and the commander of army group Weichel both told their men to hold on and wait for shermans to come up behind them and support them.

A american attack on Berlin from the west would have been less bloodier than the russian advance since i have the feeling the 12th army wouldnt have tried to stop them to hard and with that out of the way the americans would have nothing in front of them to stop them. And once in Berlin, maybe only absolute die hard SS would fight the americans, everyone else would have put their uniforms away and come out with flowers.

Many of the soldiers that actually fought in Berlin were units from the army group Weichel that after the russians broke through had nowere else to go but Berlin and the meatgrinder

Somehow i dont see SS Nordland fighting the americans house to house for Berlin
 
Top