Germany uses the Lancaster ?

[ThomasP]

Once upon a time,

The wealthy and powerful in the US launch a second Business Plot, and succeed the second time around. This disrupts/interferes with/ends the US war effort against Germany and Japan - Operation Torch, D-Day, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki never happen. Russia surrenders or sues for peace in early-1943 due to the casualty rates being too high. Hitler is killed shortly thereafter and mentally competent people take control of the German high command. While consolidating its gains Germany has time to figure out its current research attempts into the A-bomb are so far off the correct path that they have to start over for the most part. 8-10 years later Germany has the A-bomb. Germany A-bombs the UK. Instead of the UK using their A-bombs or their newly developed nuclear bomb(s) on Germany, the UK surrenders and gives Germany the Royal Navy. The US does nothing. The new Kriegsmarine allows Germany to invade Iceland, since the US thinks Iceland is not important. The Ju 390 now has a clear path to the US. The year is now somewhere between 1951-53. The US lies sleeping after the coup and is unaware of Germany's intent and/or the US is perfectly willing to suicide, and so does not bomb Germany back into the stone age using the B-29/B-36/B-50 and the couple of hundred A-bombs in inventory.

Germany wins.

The end

 

[SaparotRob]

Sounds reasonable.

 

[pbehn]

The US population was about 1/3 German ethnicity. A cabal of Deutsche Amerikanische Bund members in the upper ranks of the military secretly screens the troops for pro-German sympathizers, assigns them to Iceland, and allows the Germans to land their planes there. They hope that a successful bombing of New York will set off a panic which they can exploit to sieze control of the country.

Churchill forgets he is half American and suddenly remembers his ancestors friendship with Prince Eugen, grounds the RAF and sends the navy to St Helena. A Nuclear attack on USA needs the complete cooperation of the USA and its main ally in Europe. For it to take place there needs a situation that would mean there wasnt a war in the first place.

 

[Antarctica]

interesting spec comparisons between the heavy bombers, particularly range - cut from the lists in Lerche's book ...

 

[Onslow]

As a twist, on this, what if we diverge in early Sept 1940? The Luftwaffe continues attacks on RAF airfields and associated air defence facilities instead of allowing its attention to be diverted into attacking cities. This leads to the total collapse of 11 Group. With local air supremacy achieved, Operation "Sealion" goes ahead.

.....and since (as the battle of Crete and other examples prove) the LW couldn't smash the Royal Navy, the Heer gets caught without supplies and slaughtered.

 

[Wavertree]

It took the Soviet Union three years to reverse engineer the B-29 to produce the Tu 4. First flight 1947.

But I think the German engineers were far better than their Russian counterparts. Russia only improved their aircraft after they had captured the German engineers.

 

[Wavertree]

interesting spec comparisons between the heavy bombers, particularly range - cut from the lists in Lerche's book ...View attachment 726378

The one critical component missing is the bomb load - the Lanc would be in 1st place. And why only the MkI??

 

[Shortround6]

But I think the German engineers were far better than their Russian counterparts. Russia only improved their aircraft after they had captured the German engineers.

Russia had lot of problems in the late 30s and during WW II. They were limited in materials and machinery. The Russians were even limited by their existing machinery as to what production machinery they could make. Making prototypes was a lot different than making production aircraft (or engines) on the scale that the Russians usually did.

Russia had been trying to play catch up since the 19th Century. Thinking/theory was very good but production/industry was lacking and that was before 1914, after which things in the toilet. By the late 20s things were worse than they were in 1914.
The captured German engineers got to work in a Russian industry that could take some breathing room from war time production and get caught up to the higher world level.