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Add to listConsolidate Western Europe, build up your defenses, go whole-hog into blockading the UK with subs and planes, and do not invade Russia.
Without invading Russia won't Germany run out of money sooner than later? Without plunder the house of cards collapses. Economy of Nazi Germany - Wikipedia.Consolidate Western Europe, build up your defenses, go whole-hog into blockading the UK with subs and planes, and do not invade Russia.
Without invading Russia won't Germany run out of money sooner than later? Without plunder the house of cards collapses. Economy of Nazi Germany - Wikipedia.
Also, I'm not sure Hitler, with his preoccupation with Bolshevism and Jewry, his anti-Communism and anti-Semitism can drop the idea of Lebensraum at the expense of an enfeebled Russia. The Nazis aren't Nazis otherwise. But the general staff aren't rabid Nazis, so a coup may be in the works.
You forgot rebuild the barge fleet as German economy craters due to lack of transportConsolidate Western Europe, build up your defenses, go whole-hog into blockading the UK with subs and planes, and do not invade Russia.
And Britain will be doing whatever it can to stop iron ore getting to Germany from Sweden, AIUI Germany's primary source (Swedish iron-ore industry). I also expect the Germany-leaning/allied governments in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Croatia might be questioning their choices heading into autumn/winter 1940. Italy had declared war on Britain in June 1940, just a few months before Germany's disaster in the Channel. Will the Italians demand that Mussolini make peace or that the King replace the government? And the French aren't going to sit back and do nothing while their German occupiers are on the back foot, so we can expect new resistance and perhaps a collapse of the Vichy government.Hummm, build U-Boats or barges? Without barges the coal and iron won't get to the steel works and then the steel can't get to the ship yards.
My guess is that before Christmas 1940, Generalmajor Hans Oster and/or other likeminded Generals have Hitler, Goebbels, Göring, Himmler and perhaps Bormann arrested and quickly executed, with Marshall Law declared thereafter. Without Hitler or Himmler, in early 1941, the SS are purposeless and are broken up and integrated into the regular Wehrmacht.
Little known but good ole adolf plundered the pension funds. One cn see at least in europe that is a massive fund to dip into.Well, I gave you what they needed to do to recover from a failed Sealion. That Hitler would not do it is historical, but this is a what-if. As for Germany running out of cash, both nations were happy to barter.
German generals revolting? They didn't do that in 1938 or indeed in 1944 when the situation was far worse.
I think the Generals' attempt to kill Hitler in 1943 would have occurred in 1940 after much of the army is drowned in the Channel.
I am not Stalin's fan, I consider him a bloody dictator, nevertheless I guess it is necessary to use scientific approach to the evaluation of his activities. So I wonder if there is any evidence of his aggressive plans. I only know plans for a preemptive strike against the Wehrmacht during its deployment. But there is no evidence that they were put into action. The Soviets learned a brutal and very painful lesson in Finland demonstrated to the Soviet high command that the army was totally unprepared for large-scale offensive operations despite its impressive superiority in tanks and aircraft.as he historically apparently had planned?
I'm not aware of any primary sources, but IIRC I've read mentions of this in several books, though I haven't read about any detailed plans. Might be some general high level musings of the sort "once our army and industrial production is in shape, the Communist World Liberation will proceed to Germany", which is of course very different from detailed plans and preparations.I am not Stalin's fan, I consider him a bloody dictator, nevertheless I guess it is necessary to use scientific approach to the evaluation of his activities. So I wonder if there is any evidence of his aggressive plans. I only know plans for a preemptive strike against the Wehrmacht during its deployment. But there is no evidence that they were put into action. The Soviets learned a brutal and very painful lesson in Finland demonstrated to the Soviet high command that the army was totally unprepared for large-scale offensive operations despite its impressive superiority in tanks and aircraft.
Perhaps such plans would have emerged after 1942, but not before. The Soviet leadership was aware of the weakness of the Red Army: the rearmament had only just begun, organization was far from optimal, and the training of officers was insufficient.
However, the first-strike improvisation in the case of the "Seelöwe" failure seemed pretty plausible to me.
It was just rhetoric "for internal use". Stalin was a Machiavellian pragmatist and can hardly be suspected of being overly peaceful. But at that time he was still in touch with reality.Might be some general high level musings of the sort
The men and army material was a drop in the bucket compared to the Russian campaign.While losing 40k men per se isn't unrecoverable, losing most of the Navy will sting but Germany was never much of a naval power anyway