| June 22 |  |
Editor says, what if Adolf Hitler had committed more resources to the Kriegsmarine? 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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In 1941, on this day the Red Army launched a full-blown attack on Northern Germany and Romania that confirmed the worst Nazi fears about the true extent of Stalin's military buildup.
Flugzeugträger Part 5:
The Zhukov PlanFor the past two years, the Führer had diverted limited resources to the Nazi German Navy. Significantly, he had also overruled Hermann Goëring by giving the Kriegsmarine operational control of aviation assets aboard the aircraft carriers Peter Strasser and Graf Zeppelin. Both decisions had enabled Grand Admiral Erich Raeder to pull off the invasion of Iceland, a stunning victory that redefined the balance of power in the Western hemisphere.
And yet the hidden price of that pyrrhic victory became immediately apparent as soon as German counter-espionage teams intercepted code "icebreaker". Significantly outnumbered on the ground, the Luftwaffe was unable to turn the tables by striking a decisive blow on the Red Airforce. And within days Hitler's regime was facing a crushing defeat.
This post shares some commonality with the sister articles in the Flugzeugträger thread.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Flugzeugtrager Source: Wikipedia Labels: Plan Z, Kriegsmarine, German Navy, Adolf Hitler, Second World War. Editor says, in authoring this thread we have repurposed content from Wikipedia and IHR. We have also built upon suggestions and comments provided by Scott Palter and Matt Dattilo earlier in the thread.
~ This is a qualified maybe. In OTL Stalin was in the midst of both a radical army reorganization and a radical force enlargement in 1941. Both would have to have been put aside in 1940 for this to happen.
~ Interesting spin on Barbarossa...
~ Stalin definitely was doing his reorganization in prep for a European operation, but he wanted to wait a few more years to get everything ready (ideally, to clean up Europe as he did post-war). But, Hitler got the jump on him. If Stalin started early, then Europe is his. Spooky.
~ Interesting to consider post-war Europe without the devastating losses suffered by the USSR in the OTL. I think a third world war would have been a much stronger possibility.
~ A crushing defeat for Hitler in 1941? No Pearl Harbor, D-Day or Holocaust? I'll drink to that!
~ Oh, and with no Pearl Harbor, there is no Hiroshima, either. It just gets better and better! And as for Stalin taking over all of Europe...I think the logistics would have limited him to Russia's traditional conquered territories, like Poland. That was SO traditional, in fact, that Catherine the Great used the Polish throne for a toilet, no kidding.
~ I think Hitler would have been able to rally the German people to his banner (so to speak) to resist the Russians, much in the same way Stalin did -- many Germans who opposed Hitler was also anti-Communist and very pro-Germany types. This very well could have turned out to be a bloody affair on almost WWI levels. Could an invasion of Romania have ushered in a Yugoslavian/German alliance against the Reds?
~ There'd have been a Holocaust, just not one directed mainly/exclusively at the Jews. Stalin had a long list of people who he thought needed to be dead. That said, in 1941 the Red Army was in no shape for anything of the sort, and without the Nazis' atrocities to steel the soldiers' spines, they'd have had a lot of trouble with defections and turncloaks.
~ Hitler only got the jump on Stalin. Stalin would have inveded Europe at some point.
~ Mike, of course Stalin would have invaded Poland, Hungary and other nations of Eastern Europe...so the question is, would Stalin have gone on to conquer Western Europe as well? Or was it just too far away.
~ I don't see the Red Army as readyin '41 to inflict a "crushing defeat" on the Nazis. Remember, this is the same Red Army which was forced back to the suburbs of Moscow by the Wehrhacht before it finally turned the tide (with western aid).
~ And Stalin did have a nasty habit of killing his best generals. Among many other nasty habits, needless to say.
~ @Eric - the best units were packed in close to the frontier and got pocketed early. Plus Stalin was in the middle of one of his reorganization/expansion drives so there were a plethora of half formed units, especially mech and tech services. Makes the Suvorov thesis unlikely. The cards read a Soviet attack in 1942-43 not 1941.
~ Red Army was still reeling from the loss of experienced officers and weapons engineers during the Great Purges. They were very good at attacking the Baltic States, they succeeded against Finland, barely, and stabbed Poland in the back. They were in no position to take on hitler, certainly not with Gehlen and Canaris watching the Russians' every move. An attack of this kind might have crossed the Vistula, but would not have passed the Oder-Neisse.
~ 1941 the head of Foreign Armies East was Kinzel. Gehlen takes over OTL 1942. Also German military intelligence against the Soviets was pathetic. They were totally surprised 1941 by how many trained reserves the SU had. They were surprised by Stalin's December counterattacks and by his ability to carry them out. They were surprised by the planet offensives that surrounded Stalingrad and almost won the war. They were repeatedly surprised by the strength and direction of the Soviet offensives in Ukraine from Kursk to the spring 44 thaw. They were totally fooled by Bagration. Germany was good at operational level OOB but hopeless beyond.
~ It is difficult to believe that Soviets were ready to take on Germany in 1941. Or while German and Soviet forces eyed each other across occupied Poland, Goring's Luftwaffe wouldn't have been overflying the new border. Remember, central Poland is a vast plain, not the hills and forests of the Ardennes, where tank armies could hide between hills and under trees. (German aircraft carriers in 1941 are problematic. It not only takes many years to design and build them, it also takes a long time to learn how to use them. Just ask the Soviets, who never figured it out, or the Chinese, who have decided to start slow and small. Only three countries ever really mastered carrier warfare by 1941 -- the US, Britain, and Japan, and they had been at it a long time.)
~ The Germans did a decent job on tactical and lower level operational intelligence. They were normally pretty good on OOB and immediate reserves. That said Ivan spoofed them repeatedly. The depth of the Kursk defenses were a surprise. The early December counterattacks at Moscow were a surprise. Bagration was a total surprise. Maskirovka was a Soviet specialty.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
