Editor says, what if Adolf Hitler had committed more resources to Plan Z? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the July 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.

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Editor says, in authoring this thread we have repurposed content from Wikipedia and the Alternate History Discussion Group. Also we are grateful for an insight from former serviceman Matthew Dattilo of the Today in History web site.

Chris Oakley commented on 2012-06-15 14:49:21 ~ Sounds like somebody's been reading "Third Reich Victorious"....

Jared Myers commented on 2012-06-22 06:36:04 ~ I've often wondered what the end-result would have been if Hitler poured a lot of $$$, time, and resources into the Kriegsmarine. Not sure if the Germans would have beaten the Brits in the end, but definitely the power-hold that the Royal Navy had over the Atlantic would have been MUCH more precarious and weakened as a result of a resurgent German Navy. At best (for the Third Reich), a bolstered Kriegsmarine could have held the entire length Channel for Germany to mount a successful Operation Sea Lion. I'd like to see Part II of this article.

Eric Oppen commented on 2012-06-22 06:51:52 ~ They'd have been a lot better off putting the money into LOTS more U-Boats. Churchill said after the war that the U-Boats were the only things that ever really worried him. A hundred more U-Boats, combined with converting them to be mainly minelayers (mine warfare is much more efficient than prowling around with torpedoes) could have starved Britain out. Oh, and NOT going after Russia until AFTER the UK was out of business would have been a good idea, too.

Scott Palter commented on 2012-06-22 10:07:48 ~ They would have been better off selling the entire Navy to the US for oil and food deliveries. The German economy was by the mid-30's working at over 100% of capacity [yes there was mammoth waste but that was built in the system; the Fuhrer Reich was simply bureaucratically far more inept that the Kaiser Reich]. So more of X means less of something else. Essentially a bigger navy means smaller air force and army. Given that the Fall of France was a near run thing and that Barbarossa failed it is hard to argue that what was needed was more useless ships. Germany can never win a naval building race with the UK much less the entire Anglosphere.

Jeff Provine commented on 2012-06-22 17:17:08 ~ Looking at a much bloodier Battle of Britain and Battle of the Atlantic. Fortunately, there aren't so many islands for hard-fought island-hopping in the Atlantic. Wonder if it would be enough to bring Portugal into the war?

Matthew Dattilo commented on 2012-06-22 19:31:53 ~ Here's a thought: had Germany indeed devoted more resources to the Kriegsmarine, would the invasion of the Soviet Union have taken place? It was certainly a central pillar of Hitler's plans, but imagine a war in which Operation Barbarossa was pushed back to 1944, after England had been isolated to the point of capitulation by a stronger German surface fleet.

Mike commented on 2012-06-22 20:13:27 ~ Did a Book report on this in school. 250 more Uboats then Germany actually had an England would have been starved into submission. Churchill talked a big game about never surrendering but the fact is without food England would have sucked it up and done so. Don't know if that would have changed the over all victory by the allies but England would have gone down and the war would have been a whole lot more hard fought.

Scott Palter commented on 2012-06-22 20:52:04 ~ @Matthew - with that much smaller an army/AF does France fall? The six weeks war with France was a quite near run thing. If the German blitz i a tad less strong fair chance the army group in Belgium escapes the trap and France does not fall. @Mike - that many more U-boats means the UK counters with more corvettes and jeep carriers, fewer tanks. These things have a reaction, counter logic. By the fall of 1940 the British Empire without the US was outproducing Germany in most weapons categories. Making more small ships and fewer tanks/big bombers was an easy switch for the Empire as they inherently had more than enough small ship building capacity. The bottleneck was BIG ships.

Eric Lipps commented on 2012-06-23 00:30:01 ~ Hitler would have had to start his naval buildup years before 1939 to have had any realistic chance of matching the British. And unless he could smehow have kept it secret, that big a buildup of the Kriegsmarine would have telegraphed his aggressive intentions even more than his Army buildup, which Britain and France could kid themselves was aimed only eastward.

Jackie Rose commented on 2012-06-24 13:47:45 ~ Alas, Eric, Britain and France were very good at kidding themselves, having been through The Great War 20 years earlier,with its terrible loss of life. Students were even signing to Oxford Pledge, never again to fight for king and country...but of course, they wound up having to do it all the same. The government even knew that Germany was re-arming, but despite Churchill's urgent pleas, it did not...or could not...stop it, until it was almost too

Scott Palter commented on 2012-06-24 18:49:13 ~ @Jackie - British could not afford a world war. So they delayed rearming for a few years until it was obvious they had no choice. They then prioritized the RN and RAF over the Army. The screwy economics of the Sterling Block and the perpetual dollar shortage are easy to wish away [Churchill did] but in fact were quite accurate.