Thande, Musso dies (kinda weak map, but I liked the writeup. 
)
Who dies? Mussolini.
This plunges Italy into a civil war similar to that of Spain in OTL, with communists coming out of the woodwark and the remaining Fascist leadership unable to enforce the rule of law. The Spanish Civil War does also break out a year or two later, but is seen as a sideshow. Hitler uses the Italian conflict as another excuse to rearm, and the Western allies, fearful of Soviet puppets on their doorsteps, continue to see him as the lesser of two evils.
Czechoslovakia and Austria are anschluss'd 37-38 "to protect the German people from Bolshevist elements", as the Communists begin to gain the upper hand in the Italian Civil War with direct support from the Soviet Union. Finally in July 1939 the remaining Fascist leadership virtually invites the Germans in to take over. The Wehrmacht is sent in and the Luftwaffe bombs communist-dominated cities, eventually creating ATL Italian versions of Guernica. However, the new blitzkrieg tactics are of limited use in Italy's often rocky and defendable terrain, and communist guerillas help to bleed the Germans by the death of a thousand cuts.
Hitler blames all of this (with some justification) on the Soviets, and orders the German General Staff to draw up a plan for the invasion of Russia, Operation Barbarossa. At the same time, but not publicly (as at this point they still want the West on side), the Nazis plot the expansion of their racial purity laws into the east, and the idea of depopulating Russia and using it as lebensraum. Poland, Romania and Hungary are bullied into permitting the passage of German troops, but no attempts at an annexation of Poland are considered - the Nazis reason that this will be much easier to accomplish when there is no Soviet Union to worry about and Poland is surrounded, plus they cannot afford to fight a two-front war with the Western nations that have guaranteed Polish independence.
Meanwhile, the communist-leaning Republicans win the Spanish Civil War and Franco's Nationalists are exiled to Spain's colonies and the Balearics. They are propped up with small numbers of German troops, with the result that Germany effectively has bases in Spanish Morocco and Spanish Guinea.
German Intelligence fears that Stalin is already planning an attack of his own, but in October 1939 those forces go to Finland instead. The Finns put up a stiff resistance, aided by the Germans, British, French, and unofficially the Swedes. The Red Army bogs down in Finland and Stalin rages more about traitors and purges, but continues a slow, grinding advance.
In May 1940 the Germans launch Operation Barbarossa. The Wehrmacht is more cautious than OTL, due to the lack of experience with the Blitzkrieg, but the fact that the attack is launched earlier means that they manage to reach Moscow by December. The less well trained Red Army is largely encircled or destroyed, but occasional reports of heavy Soviet tanks, easily outmatching the German Panzer IIs and IIIs, circulate. The Germans take Moscow with heavy losses but find it a pyrrhic victory -as in 1812, the Russians use scorched-earth tactics to prevent Moscow being of any use to the enemy. The Germans' Army Group Centre suffers comparable losses to Napoleon's Grand Armée as they retreat to secured German positions, against Hitler's orders.
Stalin is killed in the battle of Moscow, sparking a succession dispute. Molotov attempts to seize power but is defeated by a junta of generals and marshals, fed up with Kremlin political interference, and their political head is none other than Leon Trotsky, having survived several attempted assassinations and returned from exile. The Soviets begin duplicating their industry east of the Urals (the move not being as complete as in OTL) and producing more of their T-34 and KV-1 heavy tanks. Unlike German hopes, the USSR does not disintegrate.
Meanwhile, reports of the Final Solution leaking out means that both France and Britain break diplomatic relations with Germany, and collaboration with the Nazis in Russia (particularly after Stalin's death) is practically nil, but Hitler is convinced by now that the war is practically won. He orders an invasion of France drawn up to reverse the losses of Versailles. Army High Command does so, though believing that the plan is for several years in the future.
At the same time, in 1942 thanks to the US and Europeans cutting off oil and steel supplies for the Chinese war effort, the Japanese attack British, French and American possessions in the Pacific and attempt to seize the Dutch East Indies. They manage to occupy large parts of the latter, Malaya and Indochina, but the British hold on to Singapore and the French to Kampuchea. The Japanese later stage an unsuccessful but destructive invasion of Burma. A mainly American force systematically destroys the IJN one battle at a time, illustrating America's industrial capacity, and Japan is conquered by 1946 (the USSR declaring war in 1945 and scooping up Manchuria, Korea and Hokkaido).
The Soviets slowly grind back the German war machine, assisted by the treasury of Italy, smuggled out of the country by the last few members of the communist government. Roosevelt is unable to convince the American people that Germany is a threat worth a preemptive attack, but the Jewish vote and other factors mean that the USSR is sold trucks and other nonmilitary units for low prices.
In 1943, after being pushed out of ruined Kursk and Stalingrad and their siege of Leningrad relieved by the Red Army pocketed in Finland at the start of the war, Hitler gives orders to gain some propaganda victories. Specifically he orders the total annexation of Poland and the Final Solution, so far carried out purely by fascist Polish proxies on a limited basis, to come to fruition. In response to this insane order, a secret group forms within the German army to...discuss a future without Hitler, led by Manstein, Guderian and Rommel. In response to the invasion of Poland and reports of the Final Solution, Britain and France declare war on Germany in November 1943. Based on analysis of the eastern war, France has abandoned its former defensive doctrine. In April 1944, French and BEF armies beat off a German attack - though one panzer force does make an embarrassing penetration through the 'impossible' Ardennes - and into the Saarland and Rhineland. The fresh RAF and ADA dominate the skies against the depleted and mostly deployed to the east Luftwaffe.
With the Soviets marching through Poland in 1945, the coup takes place. Hitler and other senior Nazis are assassinated and a military junta takes over under Manstein. A quick peace is reached with the West, the Nazi past is disowned (similar to Khruschev and Stalin in OTL) and, beating back the Soviet armies one last time, the Treaty of Warsaw surrenders all of eastern Europe and East Prussia to the Soviets. Bohemia-Moravia is "Finlandised" as we would say, while Finland becomes Soviet.
This map depicts the resulting cold war, with limited independence movements in the Far East, a Dominion of India with separate princely states, and a Trotskyite reformed "International Union of Socialist Republics" with a less centralised structure and no separate allied states, all one union. The German military regime has promised to restore Weimar democracy by 1960. There is a European Defence Pact, somewhat developed from the Anti-Comintern Pact, which includes Scandinavia due to the proximity of Soviet Finland.
)Who dies? Mussolini.
This plunges Italy into a civil war similar to that of Spain in OTL, with communists coming out of the woodwark and the remaining Fascist leadership unable to enforce the rule of law. The Spanish Civil War does also break out a year or two later, but is seen as a sideshow. Hitler uses the Italian conflict as another excuse to rearm, and the Western allies, fearful of Soviet puppets on their doorsteps, continue to see him as the lesser of two evils.
Czechoslovakia and Austria are anschluss'd 37-38 "to protect the German people from Bolshevist elements", as the Communists begin to gain the upper hand in the Italian Civil War with direct support from the Soviet Union. Finally in July 1939 the remaining Fascist leadership virtually invites the Germans in to take over. The Wehrmacht is sent in and the Luftwaffe bombs communist-dominated cities, eventually creating ATL Italian versions of Guernica. However, the new blitzkrieg tactics are of limited use in Italy's often rocky and defendable terrain, and communist guerillas help to bleed the Germans by the death of a thousand cuts.
Hitler blames all of this (with some justification) on the Soviets, and orders the German General Staff to draw up a plan for the invasion of Russia, Operation Barbarossa. At the same time, but not publicly (as at this point they still want the West on side), the Nazis plot the expansion of their racial purity laws into the east, and the idea of depopulating Russia and using it as lebensraum. Poland, Romania and Hungary are bullied into permitting the passage of German troops, but no attempts at an annexation of Poland are considered - the Nazis reason that this will be much easier to accomplish when there is no Soviet Union to worry about and Poland is surrounded, plus they cannot afford to fight a two-front war with the Western nations that have guaranteed Polish independence.
Meanwhile, the communist-leaning Republicans win the Spanish Civil War and Franco's Nationalists are exiled to Spain's colonies and the Balearics. They are propped up with small numbers of German troops, with the result that Germany effectively has bases in Spanish Morocco and Spanish Guinea.
German Intelligence fears that Stalin is already planning an attack of his own, but in October 1939 those forces go to Finland instead. The Finns put up a stiff resistance, aided by the Germans, British, French, and unofficially the Swedes. The Red Army bogs down in Finland and Stalin rages more about traitors and purges, but continues a slow, grinding advance.
In May 1940 the Germans launch Operation Barbarossa. The Wehrmacht is more cautious than OTL, due to the lack of experience with the Blitzkrieg, but the fact that the attack is launched earlier means that they manage to reach Moscow by December. The less well trained Red Army is largely encircled or destroyed, but occasional reports of heavy Soviet tanks, easily outmatching the German Panzer IIs and IIIs, circulate. The Germans take Moscow with heavy losses but find it a pyrrhic victory -as in 1812, the Russians use scorched-earth tactics to prevent Moscow being of any use to the enemy. The Germans' Army Group Centre suffers comparable losses to Napoleon's Grand Armée as they retreat to secured German positions, against Hitler's orders.
Stalin is killed in the battle of Moscow, sparking a succession dispute. Molotov attempts to seize power but is defeated by a junta of generals and marshals, fed up with Kremlin political interference, and their political head is none other than Leon Trotsky, having survived several attempted assassinations and returned from exile. The Soviets begin duplicating their industry east of the Urals (the move not being as complete as in OTL) and producing more of their T-34 and KV-1 heavy tanks. Unlike German hopes, the USSR does not disintegrate.
Meanwhile, reports of the Final Solution leaking out means that both France and Britain break diplomatic relations with Germany, and collaboration with the Nazis in Russia (particularly after Stalin's death) is practically nil, but Hitler is convinced by now that the war is practically won. He orders an invasion of France drawn up to reverse the losses of Versailles. Army High Command does so, though believing that the plan is for several years in the future.
At the same time, in 1942 thanks to the US and Europeans cutting off oil and steel supplies for the Chinese war effort, the Japanese attack British, French and American possessions in the Pacific and attempt to seize the Dutch East Indies. They manage to occupy large parts of the latter, Malaya and Indochina, but the British hold on to Singapore and the French to Kampuchea. The Japanese later stage an unsuccessful but destructive invasion of Burma. A mainly American force systematically destroys the IJN one battle at a time, illustrating America's industrial capacity, and Japan is conquered by 1946 (the USSR declaring war in 1945 and scooping up Manchuria, Korea and Hokkaido).
The Soviets slowly grind back the German war machine, assisted by the treasury of Italy, smuggled out of the country by the last few members of the communist government. Roosevelt is unable to convince the American people that Germany is a threat worth a preemptive attack, but the Jewish vote and other factors mean that the USSR is sold trucks and other nonmilitary units for low prices.
In 1943, after being pushed out of ruined Kursk and Stalingrad and their siege of Leningrad relieved by the Red Army pocketed in Finland at the start of the war, Hitler gives orders to gain some propaganda victories. Specifically he orders the total annexation of Poland and the Final Solution, so far carried out purely by fascist Polish proxies on a limited basis, to come to fruition. In response to this insane order, a secret group forms within the German army to...discuss a future without Hitler, led by Manstein, Guderian and Rommel. In response to the invasion of Poland and reports of the Final Solution, Britain and France declare war on Germany in November 1943. Based on analysis of the eastern war, France has abandoned its former defensive doctrine. In April 1944, French and BEF armies beat off a German attack - though one panzer force does make an embarrassing penetration through the 'impossible' Ardennes - and into the Saarland and Rhineland. The fresh RAF and ADA dominate the skies against the depleted and mostly deployed to the east Luftwaffe.
With the Soviets marching through Poland in 1945, the coup takes place. Hitler and other senior Nazis are assassinated and a military junta takes over under Manstein. A quick peace is reached with the West, the Nazi past is disowned (similar to Khruschev and Stalin in OTL) and, beating back the Soviet armies one last time, the Treaty of Warsaw surrenders all of eastern Europe and East Prussia to the Soviets. Bohemia-Moravia is "Finlandised" as we would say, while Finland becomes Soviet.
This map depicts the resulting cold war, with limited independence movements in the Far East, a Dominion of India with separate princely states, and a Trotskyite reformed "International Union of Socialist Republics" with a less centralised structure and no separate allied states, all one union. The German military regime has promised to restore Weimar democracy by 1960. There is a European Defence Pact, somewhat developed from the Anti-Comintern Pact, which includes Scandinavia due to the proximity of Soviet Finland.
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