Hey
HangryBird, youre pretty good at alternate history. Does this strategy work for hitler 1933?
1. 1933 Begin stockpiling oil in underground facilities to disguise volumes.
2. Cultivate relationships with separatists from India and other British Asian and middle-eastern assets. Offer them weapons and training.
3. Develop truck portable, automated small arms production facilities. (Difficult but far from impossible.)
4. Develop truck portable oil drilling rigs and refineries.
5. Adopt American manufacturing techniques.
6. Build lots of tanks, trucks and mobile facilities sized to fit through Russian train tunnels.
7. 1936 Offer training personnel to Italy in return for them assisting with war production. (This will also to ensure a minimum level of competency and improve inter-corps co-ordination.)
8. Arm Indian separatists and have them kick the British out of India.
9. Get Hungary and Romania to join the axis powers before the end of 1938. Offer truck portable facilities to help develop their local resources and protect themselves from Russia.
10. Encourage newly independent India to invade countries between themselves and Russia.
11. Mobilise Hungary and Romania as soon as the join the alliance. But keep their forces hidden on their western borders.
12. Shift to a "war economy", to lift production of weapons and mechanised units.
13. 1937 Begin propaganda campaign centred around liberating the people of the USSR from Stalin.
14. Appeal to the US for help against Soviet aggression. (Even if they don't join in, they should send aid to Germany instead of Russia)
15. (As others have said) Delay or cancel the invasion of Poland.
16. Train and equip soldiers for a winter war in Russia.
17. Early 1938. Encourage the Indian army to invade southern Russia as Japan invades Soviet territory from the east and a combined force of Germans and European allies that has been building up in Hungary and Romania invades Russia from the west (Bypassing Poland).
18. Use Italian troops to garrison conquered territory and oversee the rebuilding of infrastructure and well being of civilian population.
19. Recruit fresh troops from newly "liberated" territories and arm them with captured weapons or small arms manufactured using mobile facilities.
20. Have new recruits complete the liberation of their countries from the Soviets.
21. Sweep up the eastern borders of Poland and the Balkan states and seize Moscow.
22. Install a puppet fascist government in Moscow.
23. Now that the rail head at Moscow is under control, send a fresh army group to seize Stalingrad and the oil fields.
24. Invade the Caucuses.
25. Offer the Balkan states and Finland trade and other inducements to join the Axis alliance.
26. Mobilise the Balkan states and Finland.
27. Have new troops from the Balkan states and Finland attend training with German trainers to ensure a minimum level of competency and improve inter-corps co-ordination.
28. Use combined Finish and German troops to secure areas north of Moscow to coastline.
29. Secure areas north-east of Moscow to coastline.
30. Secure areas east of Moscow to the Urals.
31. Secure areas south east of Moscow to the Caucuses.
32. Have Russian puppet government rebuild their military.
33. Give territory in far east to Japan.
34. Give the "Stans" to India.
35. Give Russian territory immediately to the east of Finland to Finland.
36. Withdraw axis military from ex-soviet territory, handing over nominal control to local puppets.
37. Commence sending fuel and war materials to Japanese held areas in Mongolia and China.
38. 1940. Update German military technology with jets, rockets and better tanks.
39. 1941. Have puppet Russian government invade Poland.
40. Enter Poland in force on a "peace keeping" mission.
41. Replace Polish government with puppets.
42. Redraw German borders at Poland's expense.
43. Have Russian forces withdraw.
44. Have Russian forces invaded areas south of the caucuses.
45. Have Indian army invade Iran and push across to Syria and the Suez canal.
46. Enter former British middle-eastern assets on a "peace keeping" mission.
47. Install puppet governments.
48. (Now that they have had a few years to get their training, leadership and equipment sorted out) Have Italy invade northern and sub-Saharan Africa with help from other Axis allies, but not Germany.
49. Have Italy invade northern and sub-Saharan French colonies with help from other Axis allies, but not Germany.
50. Support allies on the European mainland with German troops and support them in Africa with training, materials and "advisors".
51. If 48 didn't cause a war with the French, 49 would have. While France is shipping it's best troops to the colonies, Blitzkrieg through Northern Europe.
52. Invade north Africa properly and completely control the Mediterranean.
53. Invade England.
54. Appoint puppet governments for France, England, Belgium and Holland.
55. Seize control of any remaining independent African nations.
56. Use the mineral wealth of Africa to rebuild France, England, Belgium and Holland and their respective economies.
57. Build massive infra structure projects like expanding ports, autobahns than span all conquered territories and standardising rail gauges across Europe and Africa.
58. Continue to advance military technology with a view to attacking the USA. (ICBMs, Long range bombers, landing craft, heavy transport aircraft, etc.)
59. 1943 Have all axis members step up building naval assets with a focus on aircraft carriers, transport ships and their escorts.
60. Early 1945. Invade the USA using the combined might of all axis allies. (If you're still reading, do you really want the details?)
-Edit-
For the masochists that really, really wanted it. Here are my steps to invading the USA following on from the above timeline.
Actually after thinking about it a bit more, 60. may be unnecessary.
If this sequence went as planned, the US would be one of our supporters.
a better course may be to broker a peace settlement between the US and the Empire of Japan, that leaves Hawaii under US control but China and SE Asia largely under Japanese control.
Of course for those that absolutely have to rule the entire world with earth shattering kabooms...
There are two approaches that could work:
- The first is the salami approach. Where you pick off smaller countries one at a time, so that no one conquest is enough to cause the US to declare war on you.
This was the method the Soviets/communists used during the cold war.
If applied correctly, it would leave the US with few or no allies when the time came to finish them off and could be used to damage their economy prior to the actual attack.
- The second is to go for the knockout! All out attack on mainland USA. *Then* mop up everybody else...
The first approach is self-explanatory and would grind on forever before getting to the punch line, so lets go for the knockout!
Without the help of the English and the French, the Manhattan project would have been delayed by months. So with England and France under defacto German control since 1943, this help to kick-start the research never happened. With that in mind we don't have to worry about atomic weapons for a couple of years.
Colonialism was still a point of pride during the early to mid 40s. So painting the US as the biggest threat to European and Russian colonialism could help form the basis of the propaganda needed to stir up support on the home front.
WARNING: My knowledge of US military WW2 bases within the USA is sketchy at best.
Expect me to say things like "Then set up a secret airbase in the middle of nowhere such as at X" Only to discover that while X may be wasteland now, back then it was a bustling airforce / army / naval air wing / atomic weapon test range (Quick! Everybody into a fridge!) / whatever base, including a standing garrison of 20,000 heavily armed gentlemen with no sense of humour. Please feel free to point this out. But if you could also suggest alternatives, that would be great. B-)
Part 1. Preparations.
There are three main theatres that I would consider for an invasion:
- Northwest
- Southwest
- North East
There are five main goals I would want to facilitate an invasion:
- Neutralize Canada (Following the fall of the UK, the UK government would move to Canada and Canada would completely mobilise. This is not to be underestimated. In our timeline it only took 2 - 3 years for Canada to recruit and train over 500,000 troops, over 150,000 airforce personnel, over 150,000 naval personnel, build hundreds of naval vessels, bombers and fighters. Did I mention they designed and built their own tanks?)
- Draw out and destroy the Canadian and US navies.
- Seize as much material as possible to both deny it to defenders and use it to relieve pressure on axis supply lines.
- Seize defendable territory for the inevitable counter attack.
- Draw in remaining US and Canadian militaries, and hit them while they are in transit.
- Transport loyal workers to continue local production in support of further conquest.
Europe, Early 1944.
1. Units drawn from Finland and other Baltic nations invade Sweden then Norway. This is to give them combat experience, test their equipment and logistical organisation prior to a US invasion.
2. German forces move in as "peace makers" and install puppet nazi governments.
The Baltic sea and straights now belong to Axis.
3. Build prefab, air-portable, well insulated buildings.
4. Improve the designs of all tanks with a focus on simplifying their designs and improving reliability, cold weather performance and field serviceability. Where practical, Introduce a three tool maximum for repairing / replacing any given component.
5. Build copies of DC3s and DC4s.
6. Build as many Jet fighters and bombers based on the B-17 as possible.
7. Build tank / vehicle transport vessels with drive on / drive off capabilities.
8. Commence training for commando groups.
Former Soviet Union, Early 1944.
1. Build prefab, air-portable, well insulated buildings.
2. Build copies of DC3s and DC4s.
3. Built thousands of T-44 tanks.
4. Build as many Jet fighters and bombers based on the B-17 as possible. Reverse engineer captured British jet engines.
5. Build tank / vehicle transport vessels with drive on / drive off capabilities.
6. Commence training for commando groups.
Within Canada, the USA and Mexico From early 1944 through to invasion day:
1. Send spies into mainland USA and Canada to locate aircraft, armaments, and munitions factories, military ship yards, training facilities, command and control facilities, radar facilities and other sites of interest.
2. Acquire remote properties near enough to Canadian and US mainland defensive costal positions to act as rallying points but far enough away to avoid suspicion and away from obvious flight routes. If they are big enough and near the future beach head, build an airstrip, but disguise it with light weight buildings or livestock.
3. Acquire properties further away also away from obvious flight routes and start using them to house a slowly growing strike force. If they are big enough, build an airstrip, but disguise it with light weight buildings or livestock.
4. Acquire busses and covered trucks from local manufacturers.
5. Establish a regular bus service (multiple times per day) connecting Mexican ports to the major Mexican cities and the major Mexican cities to Houston, El Paso, Tucson and San Diego in the US. Recruit Spanish troops to act as drivers. Carry both legitimate local travellers and infiltrators.
6. Establish "diffusion networks" to move people to safe houses from unmarked drop-off points within the US.
7. Continue to smuggle in materials and troops dressed as civilians until the invasion. Either sending them via Mexico or flying them direct to your safe houses in Russian built DC3s from carriers. Use female troops from the former Soviet Union, have them pose as refugees and get work at the target installations, if possible.
8. 1 day prior to the attack on Perl Harbour. Move all troops in US to safe houses nearest their target facilities, prepare ambush sites and an inactive defensive perimeter in the mountains around Santa Diego.
South and mid Pacific From early 1944 through to invasion day:
1. Early 1944. Send the Russian fleet to reinforce the Japanese fleet. The Japanese fleet should still be in reasonable shape since they have been supplied via Russia for the last four years. Instead of fighting internally for resources to complete their various ship building projects, all Japanese ship yards should be getting the raw materials they need and the fleet is supplied with as much fuel as they need. Since they have been focusing on nation building, fighting the Soviets and China, they never picked a fight with the US. Therefore they have not lost any major assets yet. (Redesign mini subs to allow them to deploy and retrieve divers without surfacing.)
2. if possible, acquire property and establish airstrips on the Baja peninsula, as far from settlements as possible. No buildings and no supplies. Just long strips of flat ground that will be difficult to spot from the air. (The same way the Japanese built airstrips in Northern Australia immediately prior to bombing Darwin. Only part of the bombing was from carrier-launched aircraft.)
3. Have Russian, Romanian, Italian and Japanese aircraft factories build thousands of copies of American DC3 and DC4 aircraft. Paint insignia on them that looks like US insignia or civilian aircraft belonging to various legitimate American airlines.
4. Send the combined fleet to conquer the former German colonies in SE Asia that were lost during WW1 and any other part of SE Asia that is not currently aligned with the US or a European nation. ie, Japanese ships do the fighting and Russian ships do the supply work, to build up the experience levels of the crews. (The same way the Spanish civil war was used to build German command and pilot experience.) Exploit all natural resources ASAP, once the shooting stops.
5. Establish air bases within striking distance of Manila bay, Subic bay and Clark USAAF base in the Philippines.
6. End of winter early 1945. Position Japanese and Russian aircraft carriers to destroy all ships in Pearl harbour and launch a full invasion of the islands.
7. Begin stockpiling at Baja base and step up the movement of troops into the US.
8. Deploy mini subs in Perl harbour.
9. Smuggle teams ashore on the Hawaiian islands to confirm key ships are docked in the harbour and destroy land based radio comms gear capable of reaching the US with strict orders to avoid any action until the night before the attack.
10. Three days prior to the attack on Perl Harbour, send in commandos nightly, operating from Japanese submarines and mini-subs to attach lines of mines to the bottom of the USN ships in Manila bay, Subic bay, Perl harbour and ports on the western coast of the US. Time all mines in Perl harbour to detonate on the day of the attack. All others are to detonate two days later.
11. Have Japanese commandos working from a submarine attach a large amount of high explosives to the first gate on the western end of the Panama Canal. (Also set to explode in approx. three days.) Put a metal box, the same colour as the gate around each cluster of explosives to act as camouflage.
12. Position one Asian carrier fleet 500 miles west of the western end of the panama canal.
13. Use divers to destroy the undersea cables to the US. Timed to occur once long range land based radios are disabled.
14. Move infiltrator units in southern California to safe houses near their targets, ambush locations and to the currently inactive defensive perimeter in the mountains around the Santa Diego area.
15. Deploy ground based radar stations on the perimeter.
16. Tora Tora Tora. (Attack Perl harbour) But this time follow it up with a full blown land invasion and occupation. Use commando teams that disabled the comms gear to ensure there are no observers at the invasions landing site.
17. Use Hawaii as a staging point to mass troops and fighters, ready to move onto the US by air. Time the arrival of 50,000 troops on cruise ships with civilian corporate colours, and civilian freighters at the Santa Diego docks to coincide with the airborne troops landing and the local infiltrators seizing local shore defences and key military targets. Also send specialist tank transport ships capable of "drive on, drive off" disguised as freighters. Time their arrival for the morning following Invasion day. Follow up with similar transporters carrying fuel and supply trucks.
18. Reposition most aircraft carriers to act as stepping stones to Hawaii and then on to the US Via Baja. Have remaining carrier fleets either patrolling for USN vessels that escaped the initial attack or lying in wait within striking distance of the panama canal.
19. Day of attack on Perl Harbour + 2 days. Commence Japanese invasion of the Philippines as per our timeline.
North Pacific From early 1944 through to invasion day:
The main drivers for the development of USAAF bases in Alaska were the lend lease program (to facilitate the transfer of aircraft to Russia) and as a response to the attack on Perl harbour. Without these triggers, the number and size of the bases would have been limited. However it would still have contained a few critical airfields with an almost unlimited supply of fuel (via a pipeline), mostly for extreme cold weather testing.
1. Northern winter early 1944. Establish airstrips in Alaska as far from settlements as possible. No buildings and no supplies. Just long strips of flat ground that will be difficult to spot from the air. (These are to serve as jumping off points to take the US air bases and as alternative, bad weather landing sites.
2. All quiet until the start of winter late 1944. This should allow grass to grow on all airstrips that are not on permafrost. The grassroots will temporarily stabilise the fields and help slow the damage thousands of aircraft landing and taking off will cause.
3. Start of winter late 1944. As weather allows, move prefab buildings to hidden airfields and begin stockpiling fuel and supplies.
Secure the perimeter beyond the line of sight and sound of the airfields to reduce the chances of accidental discovery. (Restrict flight paths to unpopulated areas.)
4. Build up troop concentrations, both at the new airfields and at the jumping off points in eastern Siberia.
5. Arrange transport for the bulk of troops, tanks and other materials to travel by sea from Eastern Siberia and Japan.
Time arrival of ships at Port Crescent, Port Angles, Tacoma, Renton, Olympia, Aberdeen, Seattle harbour and the harbours around Vancouver at roughly the same time on Invasion day.
6. Observe radio traffic near USAAF airbases and Canadian radio listening posts to identify possible code words and radio check schedules.
7. The day before the Perl Harbour attack. Move infiltrated troops on the mainland USA and Canada housed in remote staging areas, to safe houses near their target facilities, ambush locations and inactive defensive perimeter positions around the Puget Sound area . Deploy ground based radar stations on the perimeter.
8. Seize control of the Canadian radar posts.
9. Use Russian built DC3s to ferry paratroopers wearing difficult to identify, white coveralls closer to key airfields.
Timed to arrive on foot, unobserved and surround the bases by lunch time.
10. Lunch time, the day before the attack on Perl Harbour. Use Russian built DC3s to land troops and fighter pilots in white coveralls at key airfields in the Aleutian islands, Bering Sea islands and Alaska. While the rest of the base is eating lunch, unload near the control towers / control buildings and walk in as if they are US personnel. Seize control of any communications equipment (defend it if necessary) and signal for troops outside the perimeters to take control of the airfields.
12. Take control of any fighter craft on the ground. Paint over their insignia and redeploy them to provide air-cover for the airfields and escorts for the invasion force air transports.
13. Maintain the radio check schedules.
14. Bring in your own ground crews to manage the refuelling of aircraft.
Atlantic ocean / East coast of North America From early 1944 through to invasion day:
1. Northern winter early 1944. Establish airstrips in Greenland, as far from settlements as possible. No buildings and no supplies. Just long strips of flat ground that will be difficult to spot from the air.
2. Start of winter late 1944. As weather allows, move prefab buildings to hidden airfields and begin stockpiling fuel and supplies.
Secure the perimeter beyond the line of sight and sound of the airfields to reduce the chances of accidental discovery. (Restrict flight paths to unpopulated areas.)
3. Begin Build up of units drawn from the Baltic countries and western Russia, in Norway, Scotland and at the secret airbases in Iceland.
4. Position U-Boats as follows in five main groups with orders not to engage and to stay out of sight until two days after the first attack on the western coast of mainland USA:
- One off the sea approaches to New York's harbours.
- One off the sea approaches to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay
- One between the northern most point of Cape Cod and Rock Port.
- One off the coast of New Orleans.
-One near the eastern end of the panama canal.
5. Position European carrier fleets 500 miles west, south-west of the Atlantic U-boat groups.
6. The day before the attack on Perl Harbour. Using the U-boats as a launching point, have commandos infiltrate the harbours from Newfoundland to the Mexican border using "maned torpedoes" attaching lines of explosives to the bottoms all USN vessels they can find. Attach explosives to the base of the largest dry-dock doors that can be reached in the time allowed. Rig them all to explode in approximately three days. (timers were a bit crude in those days)
Part 2. Invasion USA (The biggest flash mob in history)
Both Pacific invasion points:
1. 3:00AM. All infiltrator units seize control of their military targets as quietly as possible and raid the houses of politicians and senior officers. Kill or capture, but do it quietly. Take any and all steps necessary to stop anybody from raising the alarm.
2. Ships dock in their allocated ports.
3. 4:00 AM Defensive perimeters become active.
4. Ships start unloading troops.
5. 4:30 AM Seize control of any public transport and start moving captured munitions and tanks to defensive perimeter and ambush positions.
6. 5:30 AM. Airborne units arrive at designated airfields and seize control with assistance from infiltrator units as per the technique used in Alaska.
7. Any B29s (or variants) that are captured are to be immediately fuelled and sent to Moscow and Berlin via Siberia. For reverse engineering.
8. Any other large aircraft are to be fuelled and sent to staging points to help move more troops into the invasion areas and remote staging areas east of the Rocky Mountains. Mobile radar units are to be deployed in the remote staging areas. The goal is to have over 100,000 troops on the ground in both west coast beach heads by sunset.
9. All captured fighters are to be used to assist the jet fighters providing air cover and ground support.
10. While Canada is highly mobilised, it's bases tend to be spread out. It should be possible to wipe them out one at a time using the same tactics used to seize the airfields in Alaska. So start working through the west most bases, dropping paratroopers just beyond the line of sight of the base, waiting for them to get within striking range of the perimeter and then landing an assault group on the local airfield.
11. At some point during the day, any nearby military formations that have not been subdued will attempt to either attack or fight their way out of the captured area.
Either way, ambush and destroy them.
12. At some point today the mines that were attached to the USN and CRN vessels will start detonating. So avoid engaging them directly or getting too close.
13. Invasion day +1. Continue troop build up at beach heads. Attempt to land 300,000 troops and tanks in both beach heads by sunset.
14. Extend the defensive perimeter to the lower eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and push north and south towards San Francisco.
15. Commence bombing of US and Canadian military and manufacturing targets within 200 miles of the defensive perimeter.
16. Commence a carrier based attack on San Francisco's naval yards and any USN vessels that are still there. This should draw units away from the beachheads to prevent a potential landing near San Francisco and protect the significant military assets in the area. This should also draw a significant number of navel vessels away from the east coast to the west via the Panama canal.
As soon as The US and Canada realise they are under serious attack from the Pacific, they will throw everything they have at the west coast.
17. Invasion day +2. As the defensive perimeter moves further out along the coast, redirect the incoming transport ships to ports closer to the front line, but no closer than 10km. Redirect aircraft to airfields just beyond the defensive perimeter.
East coast.
1. West coast Invasion day +2 (East coast invasion day). 3:00AM. Baltic units using landing craft beach near shore defences on the Canadian Atlantic coastline.
2. 5:00AM Seize control of the shore batteries and radar stations.
3. Launch attacks on the bases in northern Quebec using the same strategy as in Alaska. Prioritise the flight schools. Kill or capture ground forces, Evacuate prisoners and wounded by air, striping the airfields of aircraft and then move on to the next one.
4. Using an Icebreaker, civilian freighters, "drive on, drive off" vehicle transporters (and when they can't go any further, half tracks towing lines of sleds from the vehicle transporters), land 20,000 troops at Quebec city and another 20,000 troops at Montreal. With the help of infiltrator units, kill or capture any senior military personnel, seize production facilities and any war materials, set up a defensive perimeter and move any captured weapons and tanks to the perimeter and ambush positions.
5. Using airborne troops, infiltrators and troops transported in civilian freighters seize control of Prince Edward island and Nova Scotia.
6. Using airborne troops, infiltrators and troops (German and other European countries) transported in civilian cruise ships and freighters seize control of Portland, Portsmouth, Boston and the Rhode Island area. (Same tactics as west coast invasions.) The idea is to give an impression of a rapidly moving front line to discourage attacks on the more remote landing points.
7. Follow up with tanks, trucks and fuel tankers from "drive on, drive off" vessels.
8. Set up mobile radar stations to assist coordination and early warning for air cover.
9. Evacuate wounded using the aircraft and POWs on the freighters.
10. Move Atlantic carrier fleets to within 50 km of the submarines to provide air cover.
11. At some point today the mines attached to the ships will start to explode.
By now, some of them will be part way through the Panama canal or heading towards the southern tip of South America. Between the ships exploding in the canal and the western most gate being destroyed, this should cripple USN Pacific operations and nearly cripple its Atlantic operations as well. The first assumption will be that this is a massive U-boat attack. When the U-boats actually do attack it will confirm this assumption.
12. As USN vessels slow down to hunt U-boats, hit them from the air.
13. Contact Mexican government and let them know that if they stay out of the fighting, they will not be attacked and they may be given back territory lost during past Mexico / USA conflicts (to be negotiated).
14. Use infiltrators to ambush US military units that are moving west or heading for newly captured areas on the east coast.
15. Through out the day, continue to pour in more troops to each of the captured areas.
16. Continue to bring in infiltrators via Mexico, but direct them away from the newly captured areas.
17. East coast invasion day +1. Complete the pacification of Prince Edward island and Nova Scotia.
18. Expand the defensive perimeters around the newly captured areas and consolidate control of those areas.
19. Take control of the area east of the Rhode island area.
20. East coast invasion day +2. Start moving troops and tanks from Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia north and west to secure the area between Nova Scotia and the southern bank of the St Lawrence river.
21. U-boats attack all US flagged shipping.
22. Continue to pour troops into newly captured areas and expand the defensive perimeter.
23. Expand radar coverage using captured radar stations and mobile radar stations.
24. Start flying jet air cover from Nova Scotia, Portland, Portsmouth and Boston as well as the older propeller driven fighters.
25. Send heavy scouting parties from Montreal to scout both sides of the Ottawa River as far as Ottawa, searching for lookouts.
26. East coast invasion day +5. Using infiltrators, airborne units approaching the city from the southwest and an assault group travelling up the frozen Ottawa river, seize control of the town and any stockpiled materials. Set up a defensive perimeter.
27. Using infiltrators, airborne units approaching the city from the southwest and an assault group travelling down the frozen St Lawrence river, seize control of towns on both sides of the river all the way to Kingston.
28. Surround and destroy the military college at Kingston. Ensure all instructors are killed or captured.
29. Fly in reinforcements to strengthen and extend the defensive perimeter on both sides of the river. Fly out civilians and POWs so they don't get caught in the cross fire or give away troop movements.
30. East coast invasion day +6. Surround and seize Fort Drum and Watertown.
31. Baltic units continue to surround and destroy the military bases in Ontario. This has to be completed before the snow clears enough for the roads to open and the Canadian military are able to link up with the US military.
32. By now there should be over 1,000,000 European troops with appropriate winter equipment and vehicles in the area between Portland and the Rhode island area. They should have wiped out any significant US military presence between this area and the St Lawrence river. Establish a defensive line from lake Ontario through Syracuse, Albany and Springfield to the Rhode Island area. (And of course continue to bring in more troops, vehicles and other materials.)
33. East coast invasion day +8. Surround and eliminate the WestPoint Military academy and it's instructors.
33. Capture area between Rhode Island and the Hudson river.
34. East coast invasion day +10. Capture area between Albany and Binghamton to shorten defensive line.
36. Commence bombing manufacturing and military targets within 700 km of defensive positions.
37. To maintain momentum, surround, isolate and bypass the major cities. Focus on military bases and manufacturing facilities. Eventually the rule of law will breakdown and do most of the work for you.
This has gone on far too long. Rinse and repeat...
By the end of winter (If all goes well):
Balkan and northern Russian troops should be occupying most of eastern and south central Canada.
Russian troops should be occupying the Alaska, western Canada, the west coast of the US down to San Francisco and all the territory to the edge of the great plains through Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.
Japanese troops should be occupying the rest of California across to New Mexico.
European troops should be occupying most of the north-eastern Atlantic coast down to Virginia Beach in Virginia and across to the southern tip of Lake Michigan.
Following one of the biggest tank battles in history, ranging over the great plains between T-44s, improved Panthers and improved Tigers on one side and mostly Shermans on the other...
The US had a habit of not designing something new until what it had was becoming unviable. Now don't get me wrong. They moved from need to drawing board to production increadibly quickly, but they didn't usually plan for what would come next until after the new product was becoming ineffective.
In this scenario, I held off using jet technology in Europe so the US would not see the need to develop their own. I also didn't use slave labour to build it, so the quality control was much better, leading to more reliable aircraft. The result being that European and Asian jet fighters immediately made the US prop driven fighters obsolete, but the lack of air cover and speed of the invasion removed their ability to develop and field their own jets.
Without the ability to develop new weapon systems and upgrade the existing ones, the war devolves into an extended mopping up and occupation operation. Not saying it wouldn't be ugly. Not saying it would be any more successful than the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. But as far as large scale war goes, it would be over.
