Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters
What I’d be looking for are the higher-probability Patton timelines with the same divergence point...
* The one where the negative reactions among the western allies weren’t unexpected. Churchill, having spent the last three or four years making positive references to Stalin in the House of Commons, flattered himself that some people might have believed him. For that matter, he felt a sneaking sympathy for anyone who having been told that victory over Germany would bring peace and security, had been looking forward to that. So when the Labour members of his war cabinet came to him to say that this turn of events would not be popular, and that they could not support it, he took a deep puff on his cigar, contemplated his whisky, and then got on the scrambled line to Washington to suggest that military enthusiasm among field commanders was all well and good, but sometimes had to be tempered by those with a more strategic viewpoint. As Roosevelt was just reading an intelligence report that noted that DeGaulle actually seemed marginally more likely to try to out-bid his rivals in the Communist former Resistance than to go along with an American policy, Patton was requested to return to Washington on the next flight.
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Interesting twist, while Churchill was easily the highest ranking individual on the Allied side that would like to see the Soviet Union ended once and for all, he also had to know of the cost to do so, especially in a UK close to 1917 levels of economic stress. He would have been aware that a protracted campaign in Russia would not only weaken the economy of the UK, but also their stature on the world stage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters
* The one where the Americans didn’t have a magic unlimited supply of A-bombs, or maybe the Soviet Air Force just got lucky in the art of shooting down B29s and leaving radioactive craters. The Red Army worked around the one hit their logistical chain did suffer, most German soldiers surprised Patton by telling him where to put his offer of a chance to kill more Russians, and the North German Plain turned into a killing ground, Zhukov schooled Patton in the way that quantity has a quality of its own, and by the end of 1945, the T-34s were rolling into Paris. And being cheered more than a little.
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Given the initial setup, I don't think we are working with a "magic" supply of atomic weapons, since this timeline relies on US weapons all being made with New Mexico based uranium, I doubt that you would have the lag between the first three weapons, and serial production starting in late 45/early 46, as they did on our timeline.
B29s; The was B29 generally able to fly higher and faster at altitude than virtually all WW II
Russian aircraft*, I doubt the Russians will catch very many B-29s.
*Even in Korea, B29s flew 21,000 sorties, and only lost 34 B-29s to all causes.