Alternate history is a great thing, it lets us explore possible alternative scenarios. In this one “How hitler could’ve won ww2” Using hindsight of course.
1. An agressive Germany at Dunkirk – Germany presses their tanks immediately on Dunkirk and captures it, surrounding hundreds of thousands of allied troops and destroying moral.
2. Opération Félix – one of the biggest thorns in the side of the German war machine was the British stronghold at Gibraltar. In this timeline after defeating the French in 1940 Germany invaded a weakened Spain and Portugal to capture Gibraltar. This cuts down the British naval power in the Mediterranean and strengthens the Italian naval power, allowing it to compete with the British.
3. Operation herkules in late 1940 – With a stronger Italian fleet the invasion of Malta becomes possible and happens, it costs a good amount of resources but provides tremendous benefit in weakening British naval power further in the Mediterranean. This also adds a better supply line to one Erwin Rommel in North Africa and that will come into play later.
4. An early German intervention in Greece late 1940 – At the same time as the capture of Malta, Germany joins the Italian campaign from the start and earlier on than in our timeline. The campaign goes very swiftly and Greece is captured in less than a month.
5. An Italian focus on quality of the units not the quantity of the units. Italy in our timeline was badly supplied but still attempted to create 100 divisions. This was bad. The focus should’ve been on the quality of units, so the number is getting cut down to 25% of the number in our timeline and their focus is going to be working on the next point
6. A combined German-Italian effort to capture Northern Africa in late 1940/early 1941 – Higher quality Italian troops and more numerous German troops marching to the Suez with actual supplies? They capture the Suez and all allied territory in Arabia. They still are at peace with turkey. Numerous British and French ships that don’t escape in time are captured and surrender to the Germans. This gives credence to the next point.
7. It’s around March 1941 at this point and after capturing Arabia and with a stronger navy the new axis navy goes on the offensive against the British. They take the initiative and are competitive against the British, although they still can’t gain naval supremacy so operation sea lion is off the table.
8. March 1941 – the Germans invade the soviets like normal except for two major differences: 1. They send any extra troops to Norway to capture the port of Murmansk and Leningrad earlier on. Due to how early on it is and how unprepared the soviets are for the German advance, the Germans manage to capture Leningrad and hold it 2. The extra troops not tied up in Greece are sent south with the southern front. This is the main German spearhead, everything else is secondary.
9. The Germans focus all of their efforts on reaching the Soviet caucuses, they play mostly defensive at operation north and center compared to what they did in our timeline, and by the time winter rolls around, while a lot less progress is made in the north (except for the far north from Norway) and the center, they’ve already captured the oil fields and Stalingrad in the south.
10. They don’t declare war on the United States, in 1941 leaving the Japanese to their own devices, this keeps the US out of the war in Europe until it’s too late.
11. Épilogue À – with the oil fields Germany pushes north and captures Moscow in late 1942, and this convinces the axis and allies to sign a peace treaty. Iberia is united under a fascist government, North Africa is given to Italy, Arabia is made a puppet by Germany after oil is discovered. The Mediterranean islands are divided between Italy and Iberia. Vichy France is made a permanent fascist puppet state and Norway and Denmark are absorbed into Germany. Besides Germany Italy is another great axis power and expands into Africa a bit more after the conclusion of the war, eventually breaking off from Germany forming an alliance with other former German puppets like Iberia, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria.
12. Epilogue B. Stalin retreats to the Ural Mountains, but continues the fight, and it takes four more years of fighting until a peace is signed in late 1946. Everything west of the Ural Mountains are considered in the German sphere of influence. Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic’s, Belarus, Lithuania The caucuses and a Russian Puppet government are all released as German puppet states and Finland is given a lot of territory in the north. Germany is a major winner. The Soviets consolidate their losses and have a very experienced army at this point. They will invade Iran after the war to strengthen their position against Germany.
13. Épilogue C – the USA focuses all of her war machine on Japan, and conquers it a lot earlier than in our timeline. Operation downfall happens in 1943 and the nuclear bombs are never field tested. The USA also captures all of Korea and manchuko from the Japanese , and all the islands in the pacific. Places like Australia, Canada and South Africa fall into the American sphere of influence. The USA is the strongest country after the war, the only country with nuclear weapons in 1950 and the only military/civilian populace that was untouched after ww2.
14. Épilogue D – The UK becomes communist after the ww2 loss and the loss of the colonies, especially India although they are their own brand of communism they are isolated and aligned with the us.
15. Épilogue E – China still becomes communist, and is much more aligned with Stalin due to the German threat than in our timeline. They don’t have manchuko or Taiwan (who are both in the American sphere).
16. Épilogue F – India is now a major player on the world stage, due to support from Germany they invaded and conquered all of Southeast Asia and repealed the Japanese and control everything not apart of China, they are trying to break away from German control and contend with communist influence from the soviets and the Chinese.
That’s everything, this is how I see the world:
Germany/the northern axis and The United States/this worlds version of nato are the two major superpowers
There’s also Italy/the southern axis and the Soviet/The Warsaw Pact with China (who are weakened from war) as the other two superpowers.
Ricky J. Smith 