Thanks for the welcome!

Notice I said that if Hitler gave the go ahead for the redoubt in 42/43. So given that, I think we could assume adequate time for a very tough defensive line to have been constructed. The whole what if of this scenario is what if Hitler had been sane enough to appreciate the odds were stacked against him and he would really need the redoubt. Training troops in Alpine/Gureilla warfare and devoting signficant resources to it. Maybe he would have hoped that if he could prolonge the war, then the Russian and allied co-operation would have broken down. Red Army troops at the borders of Italy, would they want that? I think in any scenario where the war is lengthened there is the potential for lots of things to happen.

The Germans could have stockpiled ammo at the redoubt, built underground factories and generally set up a functioning state.

I don't see the Americans under Eisenhower pushing ahead into the redoubt. Especially if casualties were horrific. With the Germans couped up, why bother about them?

The Russians I certainly could see going on regardless. But how far would this lengthen the war? And given the terrain, what casualty levels are we looking at? This could have bought further time for Hitler to be deposed, maybe by Himmler or the Prussian old guard, and then might we have not seen a peace agreement reached?


I think the idea of an aborration of a state, a small Nazi state in central Europe ignored by everyone, penned in, is very interesting and I wonder how it could have developed.