Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

POD 41 Comments:

Jim: I enjoyed reading this one. The lack of the Bay of Pigs might just keep the Cuban exiles scheming in Florida – IIRC they got burnt badly and lost whatever sources they had in Cuba – and might lead to a second crisis at a worse point.

One concern is that the increased development of space will lead to a crisis over the deployment of Project Thor or something similar. The ability to do so will be very attractive to any cold warrior who could find his behind with a hand and the USSR would be unlikely to let it pass without comment. It means giving up whatever level of conventional superiority they have.

I’m not sure I see the USSR and the Chinese go to war. The USSR never attacked a nation that could have really caused them trouble and china would have qualified as such. (so did Afghanistan, but no one appreciated that until too late).

Mark Ford: No comments.

Dale Cozort: Reading one of your is always a pleasure. I enjoyed the story about socks and it made me laugh. I know; the quality of writers tends to go downhill. That made me laugh even louder – in my humble opinion GP is better than most of the Clancy novels, but the publishers disagree.

I still enjoy MARS though. Would the whoevers know enough to stage a coup in Syria? We still find it difficult to do that even today, with vast knowledge of how our political systems work. I want to read all of this. Hint hint…

Char’s end is interesting and quite sad. An epilogue would be nice.

1 - The destruction of a large part of the German army would probably result in a Russian attack that reached at least as far as Poland. Hitler and co would not have the west to worry about yet, so I’d guess that they’d be able to slow things down there. They’d probably accept some of Vichy’s offers of alliance, as well as pulling Rommel out of the desert and sending him to the front. Italy would try and change sides earlier, which would have interesting implications for the war. Generally, we might expect a powerful soviet army to grind its way through a far weaker German force and take Berlin.

I’m not sure how the west would react. I can’t see the American army being big enough to land in France and Churchill would be reluctant to try it. It could well lead to a deal struck between Vichy and the French commies for them to take over, allowing vichites to flee to Britain or the colonies. That puts a communist army on the borders and I can’t see why Stalin would not go for Spain and Italy under the guise of fighting communism. Humm, might make an interesting story.

In fact, Stalin might just hit Japanese china afterwards and claim most of the marbles. That means a cold war under far worse circumstances, more reassembling the Draka universe than OTL.

2 – Perhaps nothing other than a few tribes and extinct animals surviving. What might be really interesting would be a Japanese occupation of it in 1904 or a British on during the Crimea.

3 – Depends on exactly when. If it began during the battle of Warsaw, then Poland would fall to the soviets and probably part of Germany as well. The west might be able to stop it, but the French were riven with communists at the time, who would be seeing victory cometh.

5- Quicker colonisation by Europeans who don’t want slaves? Big game hunters paradise?

7 – Who found it first? I guess that whoever that was gets clear title. If UK then US stays out of Asia. If US, perhaps a home for blacks leaving Dixie.

9 – could mean that the Germans and the Russians come to blows two years early. If so the Russians would suffer badly for a while, but probably win in the long term. West stays out of the fighting.

10 – Poles get more of their army fighting longer?

Gold Rush: Interesting, but I can’t really comment.

French and North Africa: My best guess is that the real importance of a rump French government is that it will – hopefully – control most of the French navy. That would give the allies control of the Mediterranean, which would thus allow them to mop up Italy in short order. If the British on their own nearly produced a strategic victory, then the combo of the French and Brits should be able to deal with Libya before Rommel gets involved.

In which case, Germany will be stronger because it won’t be fighting in Africa. It will also have access to all the resources of France without having to pay lip service to Petain.

Saving the Inca Empire: An interesting challenge. My first thought would be to offer my brother an alliance, rather than constant opposition. The combination would allow more troops to be trained in new ways of fighting, while keeping older troops available to suppress dissent.

Second thought would be to prepare the battleground by moving unfriendly Indians out of the region, not to mention stripping it of all the gold.

Comments to me: I think that only a few of the things prepared for sea lion were sent to the med. Certainly there was no attempt to take Malta in OTL. If Hitler ran the Italian war effort from day 1, it could hardly be worse. If a few panzer units were running from Italian fuel, they could manage some successes. Incidentally, the British army will be weaker (as will the RAF) because of losses in their victory. Would the cabinet allow so much of the army to be sent to Egypt? Historically, without sea lion, they were very unhappy with Churchill sending units there.

Regarding your comments to Dale Speirs, I’m not convinced that there is a decline in reading with the WWW, more of a refinement. I buy books that I know about from the web and in some cases have read on the web first. There’s just something about having a book in your hand. That said, remembering the false accusations regarding Bush’s nam service, it does allow far more people to speak.

Mego: Keep going anyway. Many people find it fascinating as well.

Robert Gill: Love the cartoon strip, hated the movies. And a million curses on whoever wrote the Thunderbirds movie script!

2 – They did love their heroes, so it will probably be forgotten about. Or perhaps it will be seen as a morally just decision.

4 – 1) No Chinese cultural revolution, instead the current advance into free markets earlier. Might just make china more powerful. 2) EU has Britain and Germany in from the start, counter-balancing the French. Federal EU has a united military base by 1970ish and is powerful when the USSR collapses, and gets unexpected new resources when the iron curtain is torn away.

6 – Japan does not have so many fuel problems. That makes them more self-sufficient and probably more powerful than OTL. No war with America.

8 – Probably nothing. Damn Saudis

Comments to me: Unless the Japanese somehow end up with ICBMs and a way of preventing the US from making them, I can’t see them enforcing their demands. The US might leave them alone in their co-pros sphere, but just surrender?

Other comments: I find it hard to believe that the US could get an agent that deep into foreign politics. If he did, then why not press for a US alliance and subordinate Iraqi policy to the US completely?

David Freitag: Regarding the Indian mutiny, there were apparently several different groups with different aims, often involving massacring their rivals. Some of the leaders were ex-soldiers who wanted to keep fighting because that was how they got paid. So if they achieved permanent success, it would still mean fighting until the British took over again.

The Tai-Pings could have been helped by the British commander in shanghai or Hong Kong. Might make a nice story; fourth son, others in India taking over, he decides to support the Tai and see if he can make a kingdom.

Robert Alley: I liked your alternate USSR scenario, but I can think of one possible flaw. The French and British had the ability to build nukes, at least enough of them to give the USSR a bloody nose. We might end up with the European powers (and Australia) confined to their own areas while the soviets slowly take over Africa and the Far East.

Not necessarily a bad outcome – a soviet-style program might just help Africa, apart from South Africa. It’s hard to imagine the whites just giving in – more like that they’ll dig in and fight what they will see as a race war.

Between the USSR and China, I tend to see the Russians as the clear winners, perhaps by deploying nukes to exterminate the chicomms. China cannot pose a serious threat unless they have support from someone else, at least until they develop ICBMs, which will take longer without soviet support.

Regarding sealion, the worst case for Germany is that they will lose fifteen divisions, which is small compared to what they could field with extra effort and some sacrifices. My working assumption was that the Germans – Hitler at least – thought that the war was over in 1940 and drew down the German army. Madness, I know.

Meanwhile, the British will have lost some forces they can ill afford, while the public would demand that heavy forces remain in the UK. That means that they can send even fewer forces to Third Army, assuming that it exists in ATL.

Gunpowder Plot got completed – thanks. Its more of a future history than an AH, but I was unsure how to take it when I began.

Kawato – RBNC

David Johnston – To me: I tend to see the USSR as being timid towards foes that can fight back or drag out the war too long. Note that the only target that the USSR went to war with was ‘harmless’ Afghanistan, which on paper was no threat.

Tom Cron – Speculation. 2) Unless the Americans get very lucky, the British would probably tear them to ribbons as they advanced, causing a huge number of deaths – ouch. It might just cost the Americans the war, if Washington is disgraced so badly, while recruitment for the army will head down. If the British use it as propaganda, it will weaken America still further.

5) Chaos. Gamelin was not the best officer, but IIRC there was no one with a reasonable claim to the post. Daladier did not have the prestige to push him forward either. So the Germans attack in the middle of the confusion and score a bigger victory.

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