World War Two Delayed!

First question for the board:

If Hitler listens to his advisors and Mussolini and take a year to build his forces and incorporate his gains from Munich, what effect would this have had on the military forces of Belgium, Holland, Norway and other smaller powers attacked by Germany?

In effect Poland is invaded in 1940 and the next five(Benelux, Denmark and Norway) in 1941.
 
First question for the board:

If Hitler listens to his advisors and Mussolini and take a year to build his forces and incorporate his gains from Munich, what effect would this have had on the military forces of Belgium, Holland, Norway and other smaller powers attacked by Germany?

In effect Poland is invaded in 1940 and the next five(Benelux, Denmark and Norway) in 1941.

Germanys is relatively a lot weaker in comparison to the UK and France (German industry was constrained by raw material access at this point in time). Holland at lease was reequipping (I'm pretty sure Norway was too, nit sure about the others), aircraft coming from the USA. With a delay in starting, they'd probably get a lot more of these deliveries on time. May make little difference in Europe, however the DEI could become tougher to take.

But the issue isnt really the minor powers. Due to industry constraints , and the looming increase in US production (which they saw, correctly, going to the allies), time wasnt on Germany's side. Indeed, it was only lack of supply (in particular ammunition), and the need to correct problems with the army, that made Hitler wait till 1940 to attack France, he wanted to go right after finishing Poland.
Hitlers advisors did want him to wait while those two issues were addressed, but Hitler was correct in that the earlier the attack, the better the odds - by Munich, UK/France had accepted war was coming, and their military spending was rising very fast
 
germany would be screwed delaying that long

they would lose air superiority right away. the french and british were introducing new models superior to the me109 and the british would have a lot more than just 1 armored division in the bef
 

The Sandman

Banned
Germanys is relatively a lot weaker in comparison to the UK and France (German industry was constrained by raw material access at this point in time). Holland at lease was reequipping (I'm pretty sure Norway was too, nit sure about the others), aircraft coming from the USA. With a delay in starting, they'd probably get a lot more of these deliveries on time. May make little difference in Europe, however the DEI could become tougher to take.

Is that necessarily true, though, if Hitler can get something like Molotov-Ribbentrop set up and thus import vast quantities of raw materials from the Soviet Union?

Although I expect the real problem would have been the German currency reserves; how long would it take for them to run out if the war had been delayed by a year?
 

LittleSpeer

Monthly Donor
Lets not forget, it would be 1941 and the allies would have more units and have better weapons. If the Manstein plan still gets used then the allies just may be able to counterattack and cut off the breakthrough. Also if the war in France take to long then the red bear to the east will take its chance to ponce and "save the day" making Europe more red then OTL.
 
First question for the board:

If Hitler listens to his advisors and Mussolini and take a year to build his forces and incorporate his gains from Munich, what effect would this have had on the military forces of Belgium, Holland, Norway and other smaller powers attacked by Germany?

In effect Poland is invaded in 1940 and the next five(Benelux, Denmark and Norway) in 1941.

For one Poland would of converted at less 1/2 of here Cav Brigs to mech Brigs . And would of recived at less 50 to 100 of the Mos 406 fighter .
Yugoslavia would of had at less 2 more fighter sqs of bf 109 which she was building under licence .
 
I think the Germans would be relatively worse off. They would be better off, especially when it comes to the second rate (higher welle) infantry divisions - they mostly had ww1 equipment (MGs, artillery) and a lot of 4-8 weeks trained conscripts, but many of the nations Germany attacked was re-equipping like mad after Munich.

Norway was buying modern fighters from the US, buulding small destroyers and had orders for tanks, AT guns and modern artillery coming from Sweden. They were also in the process of doing something about the 85 day conscription, the non-existant NCOs (the rank was there, but they got the same training as conscripts) and severe shortages of officers.

The Netherlands had tank orders from the US and were buidling a new modern armoured car with bofors/landsverk turrets and had orders for modern artillery at bofors.

The Belgians were re-equipping their air force with Hurricanes and were producing new artillery and their excellent T-13 AT vehicle at mad rates.

The Poles were projecting a 9TP tank (a few examples actually built when the Germans invaded) and had several more interesting projects in the pipeline. The Pzl P.50 fighter was coming, along with pruchases of MS.406s and Hurricanes as well as more artillery. The Poles had a substantial war industry, but exported much of their products until late 1938 in order to gain capital for further expansion of their industry. If they gain a year to produce more AT guns, tanks and planes, the Germans might find them a harder opponent.
 
Is that necessarily true, though, if Hitler can get something like Molotov-Ribbentrop set up and thus import vast quantities of raw materials from the Soviet Union?

Although I expect the real problem would have been the German currency reserves; how long would it take for them to run out if the war had been delayed by a year?

They'd already run out...!
The trade with Russia would have collapsed in late 41 due to the inability of the Germans to pay. Leaving everything one year later just makes it worse. (They paid for much of it using the money they got from the occupied countries, which isnt hapenning for at least another year)

Plus that putting everything back a year means the Russians are much tougher by 42. So even if the war in the west goes as well as OTL (very unlikely), the Germans still get screwed.
 
Top