BDV wrote:So, as to avoid strawmen, as a pre-condition for a possible German rope-a-dope with Bolshevik Russia over Bessarabia Invasion of Holland and Invasion of Norway are supposed to not happen, saving Wehrmacht's rapid reaction capabilities. I proposed a confrontation between an already mobilized Wehrmacht/Germany and a Soviet Russia still in the throes of re-organization (military and industrial, at all levels), and re-armamaent (ALL major WWII Soviet weapon systems, with the exception of the Mosin-Nagant rifle were introduced in 1940-1942 timeframe), and which did not have the time to plunder the conquered territories.
In this scenario, before the PanzerDivisionen waltz in "to the rescue" somewhere in late July - early August, Bolshevik Russia's RKKA would be bloodied, in addition to the Winter War's 300k casualties, by an additional large number of casualties. These casualties would be the result of the attempt to quickly subdue the uppity Romanians, who are defending in a mini-version of Russia's layered river lines, and sport a road network not much above the one that gave Wehrmacht fits in their OstFront Adventure. In toto about ~500k casualties for RKKA before a single shot fired in anger by any of Schicklgruber's finest.
Please point out the specifics of what makes this proposition as "showing complete lack of thought or common sense".
Yes, by all means lets avoid strawmen.
You are ignoring the reality of where the Germans were at the end of June 1940. To "waltz in to the rescue" the Germans first need to:
a). Get replacements of men and equipment, especially for the Panzerdivissionen. They began the campaign with 554 PzI, 920 PzII, 347 PzIII, 280 PzIV, 118 Pz35t, 207 Pz38t, and 154 BeflPz...and lost 182 PzI, 240 PzII, 135 PzIII, 97 PzIV, 62 Pz35t, 54 Pz38t, and 69 BeflPz. Roughly 35% of their gun-armed Panzers. They received 48 PzI, 35 Pz35t, 36 Pz38t, 71 PzIII, 19 PzIV, and 8 BeflPz as replacements, leaving them at about 80% equipment strength. Most also had lost heavily in trained manpower.
b). Re-organize the Panzerdivisionen based upon the lessons learned in Poland and France, in a process that began in July and was not completed until c. February 1941. The first three new divisions began organizing in August.
c). Re-balance the Heer and other services in order to keep industry operating...thus the discharge of over 800,000 essential workers back to industry upon the fall of France. Four Landwehr and 15 Infanterie divisionen were disbanded as part of the program, while six other Landwehr divisionen were converted to occupation commands.
d). Deal with the unfinished question of England.
e). Resolve the simple fact that Germany was not Romania's ally at this time. It was not until the loss of Bessarabia that the fascists overthrew King Carol...until that point Romania was nominally aligned with Britain and France.
You are also ignoring the reality of the the Romanian military in 1940. It was doctrinally similar to the French, but worse equipped. They had some 126 LTvz35, 75 Renault R-35, and 75 FT17 tanks in two regiments and various detachments, 14 corps HQ, 19 infantry divisions, 16 reserve infantry divisions, 1 border guard division, 4 mountain brigades, and nine cavalry brigades...of which only 15 divisions were available to defend against the USSR. Another 14 looked to its mortal enemy Hungary and one watched Bulgaria. And of those, the equipment state was so bad that when it came time to mobilize for Barbarossa a year later, only 13 infantry and 1 reserve division could be fielded...after 1 infantry and 3 reserve divisions were disbanded in November 1940. I suspect your uppity Romanians are not remotely capable of doing a Finland on the Soviets.