We all know how the second world war ended in Europe, with allied forces surrounding
Berlin and Hitler killing himself in his bunker before the entirety of the German army surrendered,
stopping the spread of fascism throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
But throughout much of the war, this end was anything but certain and there was a real
fear that Germany and the axis powers couldn’t be stopped.
Luckily, Hitler was an ineffectual military leader and much of Germany’s failures on
the battlefield can be traced to his poor decisions.
But what would have happened if the Germans had removed him early in World War II?
The Date is May 15th, 1940, and World War II has erupted with unprecedented violence
across the heart of Europe.
For eight months British and French troops had largely held their defensive positions
across France and Belgium during a period known as the “Phoney War”.
Despite the declaration of war by France and Britain on Germany, neither side had yet launched
any major offensives, and only minor skirmishes had taken place between the two sides.
Then suddenly, with shocking ferocity the German army ambushed the Allied forces by
cutting through the thick Ardennes forest.
Considered far too difficult terrain for large columns of tanks and vehicles, the move is
a logistical miracle and a strategic coup for the Wehrmacht, which quickly flanks and
splits the British and French forces in two.
Hooking to the north, the Germans have caught the majority of Britain's expeditionary forces-
over 300,000 men- between themselves and the north sea.
Disaster looms for Britain, a defeat of their BEF will cripple Britain's military and see
the single greatest loss of personnel by any power in centuries.
Across the channel an armada of boats assembles, the British desperate to save their stranded
forces along with eighty thousand French forces.
Naval vessels along with fishing vessels and even pleasure craft are recruited into the
effort, creating an armada of over eight hundred ships to rescue the doomed soldiers.
On the German side, German general Gerd Von Rundstedt orders a halt to the offensive against
the retreating British and French forces.
His subcommanders are in complete shock, they are days away from crushing the bulk of Britain's
army and inflicting a mortal blow on the French forces.
A halt here, just miles from Dunkirk, will allow the British and their allies to retreat
to the safety of Britain.
But Rundstedt is concerned that the marshy ground around Dunkirk will prove too difficult
for his Panzers, and despite objections from nearly all his subcommanders, the order is
given for the Panzer assault to halt.
The order is relayed to German high command, and directly to the desk of the Fuhrer himself.
Hitler agrees with Rundstedt's assessment and approves a halt to the offensive operation,
against the protest of nearly all of his generals.
An official approval of Rundstedt’s halt order is dispatched via secretary to a wire
operator, who prepares to transmit the order to the units out in the field.
Suddenly though, the operator, a young German officer, is escorted away from his work station
by German military police and in three days time he will find himself amongst the troops
preparing for the assault into France's south, confused by his swift and sudden change of
posting.
In his place is another young German officer, this one fiercely loyal to Field Marshall
Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Armed Forces High Command.
The officer dispatches a modified version of Hitler's orders to Rundstedt, ordering
him to continue with the assault.
A day later Hitler is furious to discover that his order has been botched, and the blame
is laid on the new young wire officer.
He is punished for his mistake by being stripped of rank and sent to the front, though secretly
Field Marshall Keitel has already prepared to restore the officer's rank once he arrives
at his new unit and is clear of Hitler's wrath.
Hitler's increasing micromanaging of the war is grating on Keitel and the other senior
officer's nerves, and with alarm they are beginning to realize that the Fuhrer considers
himself a strategic genius who insists on running the war his own way- yet Hitler's
own battlefield experience never went past trench warfare in World War I.
He never even held his own command.
In Dunkirk the Luftwaffe savages the British, and despite the brief lull in the fighting,
they are not able to construct key defensive positions that will buy time for the retreat.
The Panzers savage the British forces long before the rescue armada is able to sail away
more than a few thousand to safety.
The British Expeditionary Force and their French allies are crushed, with tens of thousands
of casualties and over two hundred thousand taken prisoner.
Historians consider the Dunkirk defeat the greatest military catastrophe in history.
Back at the German High Command, Field Marshall Keitel holds a secret meeting with the other
senior military commanders- they have successfully defeated the British forces at Dunkirk, but
Hitler's order to halt the Panzer divisions would have seen this major victory turned
into a disastrously missed opportunity.
The generals grow increasingly worried about the Fuhrer's capacity to lead Germany's armed
forces.
Weeks later France falls, with German troops triumphantly marching through the streets
of Paris.
The French government in exile in Britain joins its ally in calling for US help.
In America, congress agrees to accelerate the production of war material to be shipped
to Britain, and President Roosevelt dispatches William J. Donovan, a trusted confidant and
World War I veteran to Britain in order to assess Britain's ability to resist the Nazis.
President Roosevelt and the American people on a whole are wary of joining another World
War, and despite their close ties to Britain there is little appetite for joining a war
on the losing side and sacrificing hundreds of thousands of American lives.
Donovan arrives in Britain and despite the British foreign ministry's best efforts to
paint the situation in a positive light, it's clear to the experienced soldier that the
loss of the entire British Expeditionary Force has crippled Britain's military.
Within two days of arrival he sends a secret telegram to President Roosevelt, informing
him that it is his personal assessment that the best Britain can do in its war against
Germany is defend its home isles, and use its mighty fleet to keep Germany landlocked
on the mainland.
Roosevelt agrees with the assessment and in a private session with congress, informs US
lawmakers that he has no interest in declaring war against Germany.
Material support to Britain will continue, but America is not willing to sacrifice its
soldiers in a European war.
German intelligence learns that America is not considering joining the war on the Allies
side, and sends its own delegations to Washington.
They implore America to cease its shipments of materials to Britain, which the US refuses
but in a bid to maintain relations, they do agree to limit the total tonnage of goods
shipped to their former ally.
In exchange Germany promises to not harass American shipping vessels.
The joint American-German accord frees up naval vessels from the Atlantic, which quickly
transition to the Pacific through the Panama Canal.
While war has been raging in Europe, Japan has continued its aggressive campaign in China
and the United States is wary of Japan's ambitions in the Pacific.
Japan knows that if it is to successfully grow its empire, it must quickly neutralize
China and the Americans both, it is too small a nation to wage a long-term war of attrition
against the superior manufacturing might of the United States.
Plans for a surprise attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor are considered, and
then quickly scrapped when the fleet is reinforced by major elements from the Atlantic.
America pushes Japan to cease its hostilities against the Chinese, but stops just short
of declaring war.
For their part, the Japanese largely ignore America's demands and continue to push Chinese
forces south and west out of Manchuria.
Having placed America on a war footing, President Roosevelt dispatches large amounts of troops,
planes, and ships to the Philippines in order to secure American interests.
On a diplomatic visit, the Japanese ambassador assures President Roosevelt that Japan's ambitions
are limited to China, yet Roosevelt demands that Japan pull its forces out of China and
cease its hostilities.
In Europe, Germany has consolidated its hold on France and Belgium, and launches an assault
into Belgium in order to seize vital iron mines and other vital wartime industries in
the country.
Sweden remains neutral and in secret negotiations, Finland agrees to support German offensives
against the Soviet Union.
With Britain's military crippled by the defeat at Dunkirk and America refusing to join the
European war, Germany knows its position in France is secure.
This frees up many divisions of infantry and panzers who all prepare to join Germany's
eastern command for a massive assault against the Soviet Union.
Prior to the start of the invasion, code named Operation Barbarossa, German ambassadors meet
with President Roosevelt and present an offer by Hitler himself: a non-aggression pact.
The pact is mutually beneficial to both sides, it will ensure that Germany need not fear
a British/American invasion of France, and it will allow the US to concentrate on a single-front
war against Japan to remove them from China.
The deal is signed and publicly declared three days later, sinking British hopes that America
will join the war on their side.
With the declaration of the non-aggression pact between the US and Germany, Japan immediately
launches a surprise attack against American forces in the Philippines, while a carrier
strike group launches a massive air raid against Pearl Harbor.
With the buildup of American forces in the Pacific though, the assault against the Philippines
is easily repelled, and the surprise attack against Pearl Harbor is a disaster.
Japanese aircraft manage to cripple and destroy several American battleships and destroyers,
but the bulk of the fleet is already out on maneuvers and not in harbor when the attack
arrives.
American submarines locate the Japanese carriers waiting for their air crews to return and
savage the carrier strike force, sinking three of the six carriers.
Dozens of returning Japanese aircraft can't find room to land on the surviving carriers
and crash land into the sea.
The US officially declares war on Japan and immediately launches offensives against is
Pacific holdings, while transferring hundreds of thousands of troops to mainland China.
At the same time, Germany declares war on the Soviet Union, and the blistering German
assault catches the Red Army completely by surprise.
Finnish forces, eager to retake territory lost in the Winter War of 1939, join in the
assault and quickly reclaim all territory they were forced to cede to the Soviets.
With France secured against invasion via the joint German-US non-aggression pact, the bulk
of Germany's forces are free to join in the assault against the Soviet Union.
In the initial stages of the offensive, Hitler once more meddles with the strategies and
plans of the German military high command.
His command to begin the mass extermination of Europe's jews has driven a deep rift between
himself and Field Marshal Keitel, who has rallied most of the High Command to his side.
In a stunning move, the High Command launches a coup and removes Hitler from power.
The SS, under the command of Heinrich Himmler, launches an assault on army headquarters in
Berlin, but Wehrmacht units, long wary of the SS, rush to the defense of the High Command.
In a brief battle lasting just a few hours, the SS contingent is defeated, and military
police arrest Heimlich Himmler.
Martial law is declared across Germany and the Wehrmacht begins a campaign of police
action against the fanatical SS loyalists remaining, leading to many firefights between
the Germany army and the surviving SS units.
The state sanctioned genocide of the Jewish and other marginalized people are stopped
and Hitler and Himmler are both placed on trial for incompetence and crimes against
humanity, with the extermination camps built by the SS serving as key evidence against
them both.
In days they are executed, and Germany begins to reform itself as a republic.
By 1945 the German army has successfully conquered the eastern territories of Russia, and content
to hold the richer areas of the Soviet Union have forced a cease fire on the crumbling
Soviet Union.
Germany now controls Europe from as far west as France to as far east as Kazakhstan.
In the Pacific, the United States at last pushes Japan out of China, and with the dropping
of two atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the war in the Pacific comes to an end.
The year is now 2019, and the world is very different from the one we know today.
The German Republic continues to control the majority of mainland Europe.
An alliance of vassal states that includes Britain and Spain forms the bulk of a German-led
alliance known as the European Union.
In the Pacific, the Philippines, Australia, Japan and China form the backbone of the Pacific
Treaty Organization, led by the United States of America.
The removal of Hitler in the early stages of World War II has allowed a German Republic
to flourish following their conquest of Europe, and with the collapse of Communism in the
remnants of the Soviet Union, the world never experienced a cold war.
International treaties limit the number of nuclear weapons amongst the two global superpowers,
Germany and the United States, to only seven hundred active warheads.
Of course it’s impossible to know how World War II would have played out had Hitler been
removed, but there’s a good chance that many of the worst atrocities of the war would
not have been allowed to continue had he and his Nazi cronies not been in power.
But how do you think World War II would have gone if Hitler had not controlled Germany
for so long?
Let us know in the comments!
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