1940-the alternative

Discussions on alternate history, including events up to 20 years before today. Hosted by Terry Duncan.
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Lord Gort
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1940-the alternative

#1

Post by Lord Gort » 27 Aug 2002, 01:22

Its september 1940, the brits aint gonna give in. Hitler contemplates the east. In November 1940 Admiral Raeder of the German navy formulated a blue watter plan for defeating Britian and making germany the worlds leading power. It involved focusing all her production on constructing a huge fleet and useing it and a combination of panzer and paratroop forces to capture Gibralter and to occupy all of N.Africa aswell as the middleast, strangling the Imperial British route to India whle gaining the precious Petroleum supplies of the persian gulf.


Its 1940 Hitler chooses Readers plan, does it work?

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The Desert Fox
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The fate of Britain with Axis Naval supremacy

#2

Post by The Desert Fox » 27 Aug 2002, 11:09

I tend to think that the Uk would really have been put in the shit if this plan had been pursued. Britian losing control of the seas would have meant it no longer could call upon the massive manpower resources it claimed from the Commonweath. It also would have suffered from the reduction of supply of war material from the USA.

Without British Naval supremacy the war in North africa would certainly have gone the way of the Axis. For the main reason for Rommels defeat was the effect of British supremacy on the water crippling his lines of supply. With Axis naval supremacy this would have been reversed, Britain would have struggled for supplies. For example the continual supply of Australian and Indian army troops in North Africa would have been severly reduced.

Regards
The Desert Fox


valadezaj
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#3

Post by valadezaj » 28 Aug 2002, 18:26

I believe if Hitler had solely concentrated on England it might have been possible to defeat her. The problem was the danger from the east. The Russians were doing everything they could to undermine Germany's position on the continent I really don't see what alternative Hitler would have. He would either have to extend his pact with Russia (he tried and failed to do so) Or leave Russia alone hoping for the best, something that extremly dangerous. Faced with these choices Hitler took a gamble that Russia could defeated quickly before Britain and US could invade Europe the gamble failed but he came very close to winning.

neo_neon
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#4

Post by neo_neon » 29 Aug 2002, 04:48

Could Germany even carry out that plan? As well all know running a ship costs allot of money. For example they keep mothballing and bringing out the USS Missouri because of the cost of running big battleship. I watched a documentary on it and in the Gulf War it cost 1 million dollars a day to run it. The meals alone are very expencive. Im not sure of the ships company but its probably several thousand. Which means you need to multiply whatever the ships company is times three.

Point being I don't think Germany could have made a Naval force to beat the British without making their other branches suffer. There is only so much money to go around. Germany in WW2 is well known for her excellent infantry equipment and tanks. Something would have had to go with making a navy with enough force to take on the UK. A navy is insanely expencive. An Aicraft carrier costs 4.5 billion dollars today. True they have more gadgets now but they dont need to add fuel into the equation with nuclear power. :\ we got 12 of them (soon to be 13
USS Ronald Reason). LoL no wonder our taxes are so high. If you want the link for the price check out this.

http://usmilitary.about.com/library/mil ... rriers.htm

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The Desert Fox
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German wealth up to 1943.

#5

Post by The Desert Fox » 29 Aug 2002, 16:34

Military hardware then, as now was expensive. Germany however had a small bonus that the allies didnt have, a wealth of financial resources from:
(a) The seizure of assets from the Jews of Europe
(b) the spoils of war Poland
(c) the spoils of war from from Western Europe.

Evidence of this wealth was the state of the home front in germany which was not seriously affected until 1943. Luxury goods where in good supply, until after Stalingrad. This defeat forced germany to be on a full war footing as announced by Gobbels in a famous speech of that year. (Cannot remember exact details, but went to effect that Total war had been declared).

regards
The Desert Fox

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