| March 2 |  |
Editor says, what if the proposed Anglo-French military intervention in the Winter War had actually gone ahead? (this more belligerent response is re-queled by an earlier action in which Allied Air Forces bomb Stalin's supply of Baku's oil in October 1939). 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 December 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1940, on this day the sovereign governments of Norway and Sweden granted transit rights which authorized a British-French Corps to disembark at the Norwegian port of Narvik and support Finland via Sweden while securing supply routes along the way.
Allied Military Intervention in the Winter WarIn reality the actual prospect of Allied forces fighting the Red Army in the snow was quite ephemeral. Because the diplomatic exchange of these official requests masked a covert feint devised by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. His secret plan was for the vast majority of the 135,000 men sent to aid the Finns to occupy the Swedish iron ore fields that were supplying Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, upon hearing of the plan Adolf Hitler stated that should Allied troops enter Sweden, Germany would invade.
Of course the allied strategy of neutralising enemy resources had been fixed right at the beginning of the war with the fateful decision to bomb Azerbaijan's oil fields. And that military reaction to the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact led inevitably to the Russians joining the Axis.
Doubtless the Swedish Cabinet's approval of the transit rights request was relucantly given upon the threat of a similiar strike. Yet for all its obvious geographical disadvantages, a Scandinavian theatre clash would enable the Allies to strike a blow of military authority with their considerable air and sea power. And perhaps a military stalemate that starved the Axis of strategic resources might lead to a peace settlement on more favourable terms. But as things turned out, the Winter War was merely an interlude between the Phony War and the Phony Peace. This was the infinitely more complex situation inherited by the incoming British Prime Minister when Neville Chamberlain died on 9th November 1940.
This article is part of our Resource War thread..
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Resource War Source: Wikipedia Labels: Finland, Winter War, Britain, France, World War 2. Editor says, in this article we explore an idea on the Military History Forum web site and repurpose content from Wikipedia which concludes ~ On 18 June 1941, the Swedish government quickly agreed to Nazi Germany's demand to transit rights across Sweden for German troops on their way from the then occupied Norway to Finland, in order to join the German attack on Soviet union. A total of 2.14 million German soldiers, and more than 100,000 German military railway carriages, would cross neutral Swedish territory in a thunderous display of "might over right" for the next three years.
~ Would Hitler stay allies with Stalin in this TL? This is my big question, how does England respond to barbarossa when at peace with Germany?
~ March 2, 1940, and Anglo-French Corps is in Narvik with the stated purpose of supporting the Finns and the real purpose of seizing the Swedish iron fields that the Swedes had been using to supply Germany with iron. First, effect - Germany will be reluctant to invade Norway. German rhetoric might encourage the Norwegians to call up their armed forces this making Hitler even more reluctant. The Anglo-French forces occupy the Swedish iron fields. Germany invades Sweden and is caught up in a war with a country that can raise 300,000 men to fight in the forests and hills of central Sweden..
Germany may invade Denmark (easy pickings), but leave Norway alone since they are caught up fighting Sweden. Germany may even delay invading France, Belgium and The Netherlands. If the Sitzkrieg in the west goes on until the spring of 1941, Stalin may attack Poland, Hungary, Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc. and we could be looking at Russian troops in central Germany by mid 1942.
~ I've always wondered why France and the UK declared war only on Germany after the 1939 invasion of Poland. There was a show on PBS awhile ago about the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland and how chummy the Nazis were with in Soviets, according to Germans and Russians who were there at the time. The only thing that screwed up a potential alliance between Nazi Germany and the USSR was Hitler's invasion in 1941.
~ Norway would get caught in the middle, neutrality impossible as either Germany would take it as they did or the Anglo-French would, as they did to secure Iceland before it could possibly fall.
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