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What If? Alternate History: Speculate about WWII battles that never were. Could the Axis have won? What if Hitler had the bomb?

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Old March 10th, 2001, 02:07 AM
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After Kursk and the invasion of Sicily, Hitler's aura was beginning to fade with the military. What would have been a successful way of removing him from power and ending the war?

Mussolini was successfully removed until the intervention of the Germans. Could this have been done to Hitler?



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Old March 10th, 2001, 03:15 PM
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Same as '44 is the first "Final Solution to the Hitler Question" which comes to mind...
Various opposition groups had been trying to blow up the Mad Housepainter since '38 or '40, but everything from failing fuses to fizzled plots kept saving the Bohemian Corporal's butt...
Heck, if somebody would have had the nerve (and most likely a death wish) they could have simply walked up to him and shot him in the forehead...

The ending of the war is the tricky bit.

Presuming a resoundingly successful assassination attempt, like, let's say, blasting the Berchtesgarten(sp?) off the face of the earth with all the major nazi bigwigs at some sort of mutual ego-stroking conference within its walls, this would free up the heads of the military to form some sort of "special executive commitee", or whatever, and take over.
Presuming its 1943, there may be a slim chance of ending the war on a positive note for Germany, but the first thing which must be done is displaying your killed off nazis and making up some story about how the war was all their doing and we'd be happy to call it all off and make amends now that the bad, evil National Socialists are all kaput...
The Western allies might actually fall for this, especially America, since it would free up resources to hurl against the Japanese... Probably not, given FDR's "Germany First" policy, but if the shooting really stopped, who knows?
Your real problem is Crazy Ivan, who is now EXTREMELY pissed off, on the offensive, digging up mass graves and discovering razed towns & such...
With loads of good fortune, and a VERY convincing "awww, gee whiz , we're really sorry, but these crazy bolsheviks just won't play nice & negotiate" routine, you might be able to get the West to put pressure on the Russians to cut a deal for all of their territory back and some miscellaneous amount of cash reparations to be settled later...
You know damn well Crazy Ivan is coming over the wall again no matter what the deal and treaties that are signed, but at least this gives you the breathing room to retool, and stop the Anglo-American bombing campaign...
Maybe the mythic Western alliance against the Russians could even be trotted out once the Russians decide they want to conquer Europe after all!



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Old March 10th, 2001, 07:41 PM
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If the German General Staff had tried to remove Hitler at an earlier stage of the war as originally planned, I do think it could have happened.

As for who would be in charge--certainly not Goring, I dont think he had the tempermant for command of the nation and military both.

Maybe someone in the Kaisers family taking control???????
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Old March 10th, 2001, 07:43 PM
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Old March 11th, 2001, 02:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally posted by C.Evans:
If the German General Staff had tried to remove Hitler at an earlier stage of the war as originally planned, I do think it could have happened.

As for who would be in charge--certainly not Goring, I dont think he had the tempermant for command of the nation and military both.

Maybe someone in the Kaisers family taking control???????
Actually, if it was pre-war, Jolly Herman Probably would at least be a peaceful bet...
He was allegedly petrified of war with both the West and Russia for fear of Germany's unpreparedness, and probably would have let the military take care of military matters...
True, he wasn't what you'd call the archetype of a "leaderly" image, but he WAS supposedly the second most popular of the nazi bigwigs.
I'm picturing lotsa statues and grossly gigantic buildings ala Hitler's architectural plans, but no holocaust, and perhaps no war but the pan-European crusade against Bolshevism with Germany as the "Bulwark of the West" Hitler tried passing them off as when the war against Russia turned sour...

Heil Goring?!




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Old March 11th, 2001, 11:16 PM
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I agree somewhat but, he was also in this thing for personal wealth more than business. He was stealing all kinds of treasures from France and god knows where else, instead of being a commander in chief, and paying attention to his soldiers needs.

I do agree he is less a maniac than Hitler but, he was also a drug addict and not thinking clearly enough. Good points though!
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