| May 27 |  |
Editor says, what if Nazi Germany had adopted Hitler's Plan Z? muses Jeff Provine on the This Day in Alternate History web site. 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 June 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1941, on this day the Battle of the Atlantic took a sharp turn toward Axis power when Operation Rheinubung became one of the German navy's most glorious successes.
Bismarck Dominates Sea LanesAt the head the squadron was the seemingly invincible Bismarck, the largest battleship in history up to that time. Like its namesake, Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), the "blood and iron" of the German people would overwhelm Britannia's rule of the waves and establish a period of German domination, cutting off supplies desperately needed by the British war effort.
The Bismarck was born as part of Hitler's Plan Z, the bureaucratic allocation of resources to rebuild the Kriegsmarine. Hitler had already gained new political standing for the improved navy with the Anglo-German Naval Agreement in 1935. Four years later, Plan Z initiated enormous building projects, hoping to rival the Royal Navy by 1944 with four aircraft carriers, 68 destroyers, 249 U-boats, 55 cruisers of various classes, and ten battleships, the first of which would be the Bismarck. She was the largest warship the world had seen with a length of 251 meters, a speed of 31 knots, 13-inch-thick armor, and a vast array of armaments. Launched February 14, 1939, she would wait two years for her breakout action as World War II ground on.A new story by Jeff ProvineThe British, meanwhile, worked to limit the growth of German naval power. In addition to forcing them to divert resources to the land army, they destroyed the remnants of the French navy held by Vichy France in Operation Catapult on July 3, 1940. The British approached the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria and opened fire after an ultimatum asking for any ships to join the Free French Navy rather than falling into the hands of the Germans. While many French ships throughout the Mediterranean and world did just that, the British felt themselves forced to destroy the fleet to keep it out of Hitler's hands. In a surprise attack, the British sank the battleship Bretagne, damaged six other ships, and killed nearly 1,300 French sailors.
Attack at Mers-el-Kebir drove a rift between Churchill and the French Resistance under General Charles de Gaulle, but the British considered the risk of angering an ally reasonable compared to an Atlantic full of German ships. Hitler recognized the British fear of losing the naval superiority they had held for nearly two centuries and decided to redouble his efforts on Plan Z. Initially, he had only planned to neutralize the French fleet; now he decided to rebuild it into a Mediterranean battlegroup to aid his Italian allies. While resources were strapped as the war began with Russia, he decided Germany would make the best use of what it had. Ships would act in orchestrated battle groups where heavy escort would overwhelm any British resistance.
On May 18, 1941, Operation Rheinubung ("Rhine Exercise") began, forming up the impressive German fleet in the Baltic and storming the Denmark Strait on May 24 to break the British blockade. While only the Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen might have been ready for the battle, Hitler pressed his navy to finish repairs on the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst battleships and even rush to complete the sea trials for the Tirpitz, Bismarck's sister ship. Aided by U-boats as skirmishers and (whose arm had been wrenched by Hitler into cooperation), the sortie into the Atlantic began with the devastating battle off Norway where the Bismarck sank the HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy. Britain reeled, and Churchill famously demanded, "Sink the Bismarck!" The Navy swarmed to attack the battle group, focusing specifically on the flagship, but the German iron seemed unbreakable. After several more devastating assaults, the German ships finally turned back to France, where they would refuel and turn out into the Atlantic again to prey on Allied commercial shipping.
Also on May 24, FDR gave his speech announcing "unlimited national emergency" as Germans had seemingly come to gain the advantage in the Battle of Atlantic. Rather than repeating his 1933 idea of "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself", he addressed America with a dire warning of what Nazi takeover of the West would mean: restrictions on worship, workers enslaved to a foreign military machine, and children stolen into the ranks of the Hitler Youth. He emphasized his Pan-American Security Zone (which reached nearly to Iceland) and stated that German naval attack within the zone would be paramount to a declaration of war. Hitler, on May 27, announced German control of the seas.
When Germany began raids on the Canadian coast in September of 1941, Congress voted for a declaration of war, and the United States formally joined the Allies. The action quickly brought the East Coast Battles, where German battleships and newly refitted French aircraft carriers launched bombing raids on Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. Britain nearly folded as civilians suffered starvation and almost free attack from German planes, but finally the tide of the war turned against Germany in 1943 when the Bismarck was damaged beyond repair and scuttled in the Battle of Nassau. Taking up courage to counterattack, the Allies coordinated invasions, finally breaking the German resistance with the atomic bombs of 1946.
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Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Bismarck, Royal Navy, Operation Rheinubung, Naval, Plan Z. Editor says, in reality the Royal Navy sank the Bismarck. Hitler took little notice of the French fleet, considering it out of the way and focusing on his land and air forces. After sinking the Hood, the Bismarck was ruthlessly pursued by the Royal Navy until two carriers, three battleships, four cruisers, and seven destroyers converged to destroy the Bismarck utterly, with 2,200 sailors drowning along with her.
~ The Germans didn't have nearly the resources or the fuel (especially the fuel) for all this.
~ if Hitler has his planned carriers and Goering cooperates over naval air traing, which he did not in OTL, then we are in real trouble.
We may not win the carrier battle.
Hitler won't start attacking the US., Pearl Harbour came as a complete surprise to the Nazis, but use his navy to blockade Britain.
One last point, if the war goes on till 19146 HITLER HAS THE BOMB.
~ Logistics. Germans lacked the fuel to keep a fleet off the North American coast. Had they done so US and Canadian air could have sunk them all as German ships lacked enough AAA. The concept of 4 carriers each with 42 planes providing sufficient cover is a stale joke.
~ Bismark would have been handily outgunned by almost any british battleship and every american battleship- the newest US BB's coming on line, like Washington, had 9 16 inch guns, better speed and better armor. Even the older british battleships could match Bismark for gunpower, if not speed. I think to make this timeline work, the US and British fleets would have to have gone through a major period of neglect during the depression and thus be much weaker.
~ in the event of a highly successful camopaign in the NE Atlantic by Hitler's navy, Rudolf Hess' mission to Scotland will not be a failure. It will be a similar glorious success, with the draft treaty he is carrying produced and the announcement made in London that negotiations have succeeded.
The Hees- Hamilton Pact goes down in the history books as a success.
~ Re Richard Roper: the Nazis would have needed longer than until '46 to build the bomb. Their nuclear project was hindered by the loss of many top scientists who fled to America and Britain, by bureaucratic infighting, by technical errors and by the destruction by the Allies of the Norsk Hydro plant which was nthe Nazis' chief source of heavy water. I'd guess it would have taken them until 19948 or '49--which means it doesn't happen unles the U.S, stays out of the war.
~ Sorry, they were 4 MONTHS, I repeat 4 MONTHS behind us, hencethe panic to get the Manhatten Project of theground. Origianally the calculations in Britain, saida whole room of uranium isotope would be needed for a critical mass until the calculations were redone in Birminham. FDR had originally failed to understand the nature of a bomb.
~ Apparantly not. The bombs were intended for Dresden and Berlin and not Japan originally.
~ @Richard - not saying you are wrong but would love a source for Dresden as intended target. My memory says Munich but the books I could check in are sadly long gone.
~ The books I have seen repeatedly say Dresden and Berlin.
~ Which books/authors?
~ Sorry, can't rember withouit checking and am rather busy.
~ Was worth a shot...Thx anyway.
~ The target all along was Germany. Serious opposition among the scientists only arose once Germany fell. The issue was not race however. The physics community was overloaded with emigrees/Europeans and also tilted quite left [common among educated European emigrees]. As long as we were using the bomb to help the Soviets it was a good thing. Once we were not [Hitler was gone and Stalin was neutral in the Pacific at that time] moral doubt surfaced. Not a coincidence. Same as once the bomb clearly became an anti-Soviet weapon our left decided it was immoral. The racial argument was tactical detail.
~ yeah, I know.
~ US looked the other way on Communist, pro-Communist leanings in the Manhattan project. Spirit of the Times plus we were allied to the SU. We felt badly burned when it came out that Fuchs, Rosenbergs et al had passed the key design data to the Soviets. Oppenheimer had red ties. He had had second thoughts on using the A Bomb and opposed the H Bomb. These things happen in wartime and while it was a Cold War [outside Korea and Indochina] we were at war with the Soviets.
~ It is far from certain the Rosenbergs passed "America's nuclear secrets" to the Soviets. Oh yes, the brother inlaw confessed years later he had made it up, saying "it was my wife or his, they would have come after my wife".
This is because Truman claimed they were all American nuclear secrets, always triggering press releases from Winston Churchill, and ignoring the fact the original work had been at a secret location in NE Wales.
He also believed the Soviets would never get the bomb, despite his sirforce generals trying to tell him otherwise.
~ I used Rosenberg as shorthand for people who don't know the details. Insert Greenglass if you prefer. Julius and Ethel were part of the spy ring. Exactly who did what is in the part of the old KGB/NKVD archives that will probably never be opened to the public. Greenglass/Rosenberg were important because it extended the scope of Soviet penetration beyond foreigners resident here [Fuchs etc.]. At best Julius only passed electronics rather than nuclear secrets. It was still espionage.
~ Greenglass,many years later, admitted he had made the story up to take the heat of his own wife. "they would have gone after my wife" he had been a machinist, machining the molds for the explosive segments for an implosion.
The problem was the Council on Foreign Relations believed the Soviets would take 10 years to develop the bomb, Truman believed they never would, hence the witch hunt to find "spies".
Since the Soviets hoovered up the Nazi nuclear programme and had a limited one of their own, it is not surpising Truman was rapidly disillusioned, but refused to accept it.
~ Greenglass lied one of the two times. Absent the KGB archives being fully opened we will never know which time. However let us presume Rosenberg only spied on electronics. He was still a spy and his wife was still a Moscow line Communist.
~ The Rosenbergs were not able to spy on the electronics from New York. They could only relay what Grennglass, Rosenberg's brother-in-law told them, and this was confined to descriptions of the physical shapes of the molds. greenglass confessed years latr he had only implicated the his brother -in law to take hte heat away from his own family.
hence the extraordinary story Kenneny and his brother were actually considering a pardon for the rosenbergs.
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