You in Control of German Forces

If you don't like the what if section because some might suggest how to better deploy Germany's force then i suggest you bugger off somewhere else and annoy some other forum site.

Heil Hitler

v.R

 

I would have put more resources into a stronger navy (and defeat the British royals and take the continent of europe.)

 

By 1942 the Germans were finished. They had lost the war. It was only a matter of when they recognized it. Now, in May 1941:

Order the OKW to begin fortifying the Eastern border with the Soviet Union. Do what it took to keep the Soviets out of the war and avoid a war with them.

Have the Luftwaffe pulverize Gibraltar so that I could increasely slip naval units into the Med. Possibly make a deal with the Soviets to aquire some of their naval assets to use in the Med.
Have the Luftwaffe also start pummelling Alexandra and Malta. Basically what I want to do here is neutralize the Royal Navy and RAF in the Med.
Aquire merchant bottoms and escort ships to move supplies and troops to North Africa. Finish the British in Egypt and take the Suez Canal. Begin fostering uprisings in other Middle Eastern states against the British by promising autonomy to them. Give Egypt autonomy and let the Italians deal with that.
Begin a crash program to build fighters and train pilots to finish the RAF bomber offensive.
Tell the OKM to pull their U-boats out of the mid Atlantic and concentrate them nearer Britain. Greatly increase Luftwaffe participation in the battle of the Atlantic by pushing production of long range maritime attack and patrol aircraft. Have these concentrate on "independent sailers" and strikes on escorts.
Send at least two or three surface raiders to the Pacific with a support ship or two. Have these operate out of either the Soviet Union or Japan as possible.

Continue to strike Britain by air but at a lower and sustainable rate of sorties.

Appease the US to keep them actively out of the war.

Sooner or later Britain will cave in and negotiate a peace.

Once that is settled, start planning to do Russia.

 

While imaginative, this doesn't address the fact that Germany is and was a food, fuel, fiber, iron and alloy importing nation. If they pull up short in 1941, they are worse off than if they had never started the problem!

Unless you postulate that the USSR will continue to supply them with crude, alloys, and grains as they build up the "wall"? Stalin was too sharp to do that.

Now they have less grain imports, less POL imports, less fiber imports, and almost NO alloy like maganese, nickel, and molybdenum. Oh well, such is the life of a totalitarian society, n'est pas?

 

Actually, they are much better off. The Soviets were supplying food, oil and even nickel and moly. And, in much greater amounts than Germany got by invading. Having a smaller military on the ground helps too. There would be no need for massive successive drafts of manpower to fight what would become primarily a naval and aerial war.
Without the US and facing a much stronger Luftwaffe the RAF would not be able to sustain their bombing program. Originally their losses were in the 6 to 10% range for much of the war. If this were to shoot up to 9 to 15% the bombing program would have become unsustainable (9% on a 500 plane mission is 45 aircraft. 15% would be 75 losses). At those rates the RAF couldn't replace their losses.

Also, once the US gets embroiled in a Pacific War along with Britain / the Commonwealth, there is the added burden of defeat there for the British and the end to most or all Lend-Lease if the US isn't involved in Europe.

I've said this one before too. As Germany I'd declare war on Japan just to keep the US out of a European war!

Britain alone against a Germany not at war with the Soviet Union is eventually hit. Hitler's mistake was taking on more and more enemies too fast. Better a slice of pie than losing the whole pie altogether.

 

Ya left out this part of my post: Unless you postulate that the USSR will continue to supply them with crude, alloys, and grains as they build up the "wall"? Stalin was too sharp to do that.

That was my qualifier, I still hold that Stalin was way too astute politically (if not militarily) to continue to help a possible enemy. He had a well thumbed copy of Mein Kampf with heavily underlined portions which proves he was well aware of Hitler's desires for "lebensraum" in the east, at the expense of "Russia".

But then again, humans react to different stimuli in different ways. Stalin seems to me however to have always reacted first to his own, not the Soviet's advantage. Hard for us to use the lens of hindsight to say any advantage would be gained by a "stop" in eastward expansion, or would change the eventual demise of the European Axis, followed by their Far East compatriots.

Perhaps we are arguing at cross purposes? I don't believe Stalin would continue to supply Hitler's Reich if a strong defensive line was established. And consequently Hitler would still have to invade and attempt to occupy territory in the east.

 

Why would Stalin suddenly stop selling Germany raw materials? Hitler is obviously busy with Britain. The Germans are building fortifications along their new border and not provoking the Soviets. Mein Kampf could be explained away as Hitler got Poland ergo Hitler got his liebenstraum.
Historically, the Soviets were sending raw materials to Germany right up to the day the Germans invaded. This in spite of reconnissance overflights of Russian territory, a huge military build up in the East, and a material build up of immense proportions. Stalin wanted to believe Hitler would not invade. Here Hitler doesn't.

 

VonNoobie,this is what i would do if i am in charge of the german arm forces.

I would forget in trying to coqure USSR and just concentrate on just europe (Engalnd,poland,france and austria and romania). This would allow the german arm forces alot stroger and with only one front open.I would make sure that i had a well stock u-boat s and aircraft carriers ready beofre i make my move.
Put all of the german forces all towards one front,this will destroy the allies.after destroying the allies,i would then turn towards the USSR and destroy them after using the ussr forces to help me destroy the allies.

 

I have to side with Clint on this one. As much as it is fairly popular to try and explain Mein Kampf away, it was clearly Hitler's blueprint and Russia was always part of the plan. While much of the West viewed Hitler's writing as disjointed ramblings, Stalin understood the immediate and real danger Hitler's Third Reich represented.

I do not believe that "Stalin wanted to believe Hitler would not invade". Rather, Stalin always believed Hitler would invade, yet hoped for time to build up his defenses for when that happened. My personal view is that Stalin's paranoia is what put him in this frame of mind. However as it turns out, it's not paranoia when one's fears are based in reality.