Change one single event of the War...

One change in ww2? That would be let von Bock attack with all the force to Moscow in August 1941. All or nothing! I would love to see that man greet the parade on his horse for Moscow like Paris...His dream come true!

 

I am going to stay out of WWII a bit. I suposse WWI is far more important than WWII. WWI made the XX century and our history. There wouldn't have been WWII, Cold War, Viet Nam, Korea, Russian Revolution, etc. Maybe the USA would still be some forgotten country, maybe the British and French empires would still there. Who knows?

And Kai, totally agree. My grandfather has told me about that. Von Bock wanted to finish his military career as a kind of Von Moltke, Von Schlieffen, Von Blücher, Von Scharnhorst or Von Gneisenau... a REAL field marshall: the conqueror of Moscow, the winner of WWII.

And God, the man could!

 

Otto, you mean Friedrich's avatar here!

 

The number of lives lost

 

Japanese attack on Sydney Harbour-the rammifications of this attack are too numerous to mention and really leave us Australians, even now, with a foul taste in our mouths!

 

I have to agree with Mustang... But I would have also liked to see an Allied counter attack on Crete.

 

A sentimental reply - it probably wouldn't have changed anything, but I'd have liked 30 Corps to have relieved Johnny Frost's men at the Bridge....

 

I totally agree with Mustang--I would have liked to cut the total of lives lost

 

I would have liked to change the racial policies of the Nazis. No persecution of Jews or Slavs, no holocaust.

Instead, 300.000 (or was it 600.000??) more Germans (among them excellent scientists, soldiers, citizens), a Ukraine willing to help Germany overthrow Stalin, a content Poland... and that alone would save 6 million lives in total.

 

Greetings Gents! My "what if" topic concerns Singapore. My contention is that had British Commonwealth troops staged one last-ditch, total commitment, bayonet-charge attack, preceded by a "rolling thunder" mortar and artillery barrage, they would have broken the back of Japanese resistance on the island. They outnumbered the Japanese by a considerable margin and many of the Allied troops located in coastal defense positions, never got into the fray, nor fired a shot in anger. It may not have changed the outcome of the battle, but it might have prolonged it and set back the Japanese timetable of conquest by several weeks or more.

 

I'm with Freiderich here a bit. Given the choice I would change the assassination of the Arch Duke that started WW1 and therefore shaped the 20th Century.

But as for WW2, I would change the defeat of Poland into the defeat of Germany's attack on her. Imagine, German forces are defeated by the technically inferior Poles. Hitler would never have even considered taking on Britian and France after that. Even the Russians would have had second thoughts about taking on Poland.

Millions of lives would have been saved. The course of history altered. Germany's influence over European affairs changed forever.

___________________

"Happy the people whose annals are blank in history books" - Montesquieu 1689-1755

 

I don't quite get this part. Are you saying Germanty would be weaker or stronger? I would say that such a situation wouldn't change Germany's influence over Europe at all.

Even losing two world wars hasn't changed things much in the end (and I can't think of something that could change it more). Germany is still a giant that is causing alarm every now and then and the current "we are strong once more, kneel or feel our strength" policy being haphazardly conducted in typical German uncoordinated fashion (I strongly disagree with this policy BTW, the USA has done the same thing and it earned them 11. September) is just an example of this.

 

John, my final analysis of the Battle for Singapore is that the British quite simply "cocked it up". I have a rather extensive article on the battle on my site which, although old, does show that luck was on the Japanese side throughout the entire battle.

The British did not fortify the northern beaches at all, even when it was clear that Malaya would be lost on the grounds that it would be bad for morale. There weren't even slit trenches up there.

The British also evacuated the northern landing areas just before the Japanese came ashore. And later in the battle they again just spontaneously decided to retreat. In all of WW2 I have yet to come across a more disorganised force that lost to such an inferior enemy. The Rumanians at Stalingrad were at least outnumbered and outgunned.

 

Andreas

Too right. Percival refused the requests of his Engineer Major to build defences because "they would be bad for civilian morale". However you also have to lok at the overall state of the Commonwealth forces at thet time in Malaya. The Aussies pretty much started deserting from day one, and morale collapsed fairly quickly, to the extent that Gordon Bennet made his own getaway and Aussie deserters roamed the waterfront firing on ships taking civilians to safety. The Indians had just gone through a massive army expansion, consequently many officers did not know their own men, whilst some Indian units were heavily infected with Nationalism. The Sikhs, of course, did very well: they did do a good well-documented bayonet charge and the Japs fled (well, a few hundred bearded 6-foot Sikhs waving bayonets would make anyone think twice). British forces were badly trained, and many newcomers just went straight into the bag at the end. Leadership in general was terrible.

Percival was the last man on Earth who should have led an army, Brooke-Popham (who kept falling asleep whilst he was talking in staff meetings) was the worst Theatre Commander ever. At least Tom Phillips can only be accused of rash stupidity, rather than craven timidity.

Jumbo

 

When Hitler invaded Poland, France to have attacked Germany from the West. Germany would have had to cease fire because there were not enough divisions to fight a two front war even if Poland did not have armour. Hitler would have been ousted by the people and WWII would not have taken place in Europe.

 

Sorry to interrupt gentlemen, I don't mean to hirack any threads, I just wanted Friedrich to see a couple new available Avatars:



Ok, back to the discussion...

 

I also go for Operation Typhoon.

Von Bock get the troops he wants and he captures Moscow end of December.