Suppose the British nuclear program was able to develop its own explosive metal bombs before the end of the war against the Race. Perhaps Britain kept a portion of the Race plutonium for themselves before passing the rest on to the US to give them a head start, or maybe the Americans gave one of their bombs for the British to use. If in the Cairo Peace Treaty, the Race treated the British on the same level as the US, Germany, and the USSR in the canon TL (since they'd all be nuclear-armed), could Britain have retained at least some of its overseas empire? Like India and Burma, for instance?
Worldwar WI: Britain Gets the Bomb?
- Thread starter Nerdlinger
- Start date
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Probably not, Britain would have a harder time deploying it and has no significant forces in the field anywhere, India and Burma are completely Race controlled, there are no British forces still fighting there
As Danth points out, the British would have options. And the Race's controlling India isn't necessarily problematic, since the Race occupied large swaths of the US and USSR and yet abandoned them after the peace.
RamscoopRaider
Donor
I never said they would not, they just have fewer than Germany, the US or Russia
The USA and USSR were also right there, there is a difference between giving it back to the people next to you who have armies right there and giving it to the people half a world away who don't have any significant military forces within thousands of kilometers
The parts of the USA and USSR the Race occupied were also considered integral parts of those countries, India was a colony and not an integral part of Britain, and the USSR still lost Poland in the deal
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Explain, were there significant troops there in Worldwar fighting the Race? If so book and page # or link to Turtlewiki?Sierras leone
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Maybe, maybe not
As far as I recall British forces in the Middle East were pretty much gone, and the Middle East is fairly far away
The US, Britain and Germany got their stuff back because they still had armies contesting it and had good logistics routes there, they could credibly threaten that territory, Britain can't do that for the Middle East
I could see Britain get some minor Islands back but nothing more
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Gibraltar held in canon, wasn't sure about the islands
The problem is that Britain's only bargaining chip is nukes, the US, Germany and USSR have better chips, namely all those divisions they have fighting the Race on land, by the end of the war they had a good chance of retaking that land
Not really The race could have just nuked them into oblivion
All the states relied on nukes as bargaining chips now
RamscoopRaider
Donor
The could have but they did not want to use more nukes and leave the colonization fleet with no place to go, Atvar did not want that at all
The nukes would help but they weren't everything
It's hard to judge as all three that had nukes in canon had major forces fighting the Race, Britain doesn't have major forces fighting the Race, so they have fewer bargaining chips than the Race
With Britain it's "We can nuke you if you don't give us this back" and the Race can say "we can nuke you back if you try, and you can't take those back or hurt us without nukes, and any exchange will be worse for you"
With the big three it's "We can nuke you, and our armies are advancing and killing you're dudes" to which the Race can say "Nuke us and we nuke you back harder, but we are losing males we can't afford to lose, we'll pullback if you'll stop"
Maybe they land in France?
I mean they beat the Race In GB so why not assault northern France
I mean they beat the Race In GB so why not assault northern France
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Northern France is still Nazi held, and trying an amphibious assault against Race air superiority is a bad idea
Not to mention their source for landing craft is busy elsewhere and not making them
That's a good point about the British not having organized military resistance in India (or in any colony). Even with the bomb, they wouldn't really have the pull in negotiations that the Big Three had. Shame.
I was about to pose that question. I'm guessing it's really the same sort of situation as with the British. The Japanese are adjacent to their mainland holdings, but they had been basically reduced to partisan bands fighting against the Lizards in China. They'll at least get away with what they did in the canon TL (Home Islands, southern Sakhalin, Taiwan, Hainan, Philippines, Indochina, Indonesia, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, Timor, Papua, New Guinea, and the various little Pacific islands), but probably no more. It's surprising that the Race let them get away with Indochina in the canon TL. Unless it was an error on the map, I suppose the humidity and jungle growth of the region made the Lizards unwilling to root out the Japanese there.
The Race wouldn't hand back the empire just because the British blew up one random ass port in Africa.
And the British would keep their independence anyway. Would they really be willing to risk their small island to nuclear annihilation over Kiplingesque nostalgia and market dominance in India? I doubt the Big Three would object much.
And the British would keep their independence anyway. Would they really be willing to risk their small island to nuclear annihilation over Kiplingesque nostalgia and market dominance in India? I doubt the Big Three would object much.
Yeah but Tokyo got nuked so I think they may bomb Peking or Harbin
Also they got midway