There are already thousands of
Alternate Histories in which the British army is destroyed or captured leaving
Dunkirk, sometimes allowing the Germans to successfully invade Britain or
forcing the British to make peace. I
wondered about a different variant on that theme.
First, lets clear up a couple of
myths. Firstly, the French army at
Dunkirk had not been completely defeated. Those
men fought bravely to hold the perimeter while large amounts of the British
boarded boats and left France behind. Secondly,
the terrain of Dunkirk was not suitable for Panzers.
I donít say that the Panzers could not have taken the town; I say that
they would have been severely mauled, just as some of Rommelís panzers in
Africa were at the first battle of Tobruk.
The French wanted the British to
assist them in holding the town and its environs.
Lets assume that, instead of a retreat, Churchill insists on a gallant
gesture and orders the British and French army to dig in round the town.
As there was something like a three-mile perimeter, its possible to base
some RAF squadrons at Dunkirk, although Churchill is canny enough to insist that
they are prepared to fly to Britain at a moments notice.
The existence of the dug-in
forces come to the attention of the Germans and they take action.
They push together two panzer divisions and some infantry, with air
support, and attack from the east. They
get pushed back with heavy casualties, which is a boost to allied morale.
Hitler is not amused.
The Germans really have two
choices here. They can launch
another attack with proper support, or they can lay siege to Dunkirk and
continue pressing west. Hitler
becomes obsessed with Dunkirk and orders the German army to prepare to attack
Meanwhile, the British and
French are preparing to meet the next blow.
Anti-aircraft guns and ammunition are shipped into Dunkirk, while the
French work on re-establishing defensive lines in the south of France.
Paris is abandoned in good order and the French have time to mass their
remaining tanks and aircraft.
On 1st June, the
Germans launch a full-scale attack against dug-in British and French troops.
Itís a meatgrinder, the Germans are fighting a battle thatís against
their doctrine and historical experience (think Verdun on a smaller scale),
while this is the sort of battle that the British and French trained to fight.
After a week of fighting, the Germans have secured air-control, but the
allied AA guns are being used properly and the German bombers are very easy to
hit in a dive. As the weather gets
worse, the Allies are able to turn that to their advantage.
The German morale is suffering,
while the British and French morale is increasing.
The leaders of their nations, however, are grimly aware that Britain is
bleeding away its troops in a futile battle, while the French are preparing more
southern defense lines. Incidentally,
the battle has convinced Mussolini not to declare war.
After two weeks, the end is in
sight for Dunkirk, but the Germans have suffered reverses elsewhere.
The French tanks have been pushing at German forces and the masses of
French troops that the Germans did not have time to put in camps are forming
into a resistance movement as the German advance slows.
As the cream of the German army fades, Stalin starts getting tougher with the German supplies. The Germans have been getting raw materials from the USSR practically for free, now Stalin starts asking for access to the German tank designs. The Germans comply, although Stalin thinks that heís being cheated, as the most advanced German tank is no match for the T-34. (This happened in OTL.)
The Germans suspect that they
are on the ropes, although they still have a good chance of winning.
The German General staff believes that Hitler has gone mad, but they
donít want a repeat of the disaster of 1919, when Germany was forced to bear
all the blame for the war. However,
in mid-June, Hitler is assinated, with Goring as his nominal successor.
Goring opens peace talks with
the allies and orders a pullback to the 1914 borders of Germany, although they
continue to occupy Belgium and Holland. He
demands that the allies begin peace talks and works hard to push the French and
British apart. This works to some
degree and relations sour.
The real motive behind the peace
talks is simple: Stalin has been
building up in the Cascaous for a probable advance into Iran or Turkey.
This worries the British as they have a commitment to defend Turkey from
anyone, worse, a soviet push into Iran would be almost unstoppable.
They have a good motive to make peace.
The peace treaty is signed in
July. The Germans keep
Alsace-Lorraine from the French. They
also receive back German East Africa and the Belgian Congo.
Holland and Belgium become German satellites.
Norway is released, while Denmark is directly annexed, while Iceland and
Greenland become British. The Dutch
Far Eastern territories become German, but the US reacts against this and Hitler
weasels out by selling them to Japan. Roosevelt
works on building up the US military so that the US voice has to be heard about
With the peace in Europe, Stalin
slows down the build-up in Russia. He
does not want a major war yet with anyone.
He works on absorbing his new territories, while planning to attack Japan
Germany expels most of the Jews
and other undesirables. Goring
knows how close Germany came to defeat and does not want to give the outside
world any excuse for causing trouble. Many
of the Jews go to Palestine until the British refuse to take any more.
Italy takes in the rest and uses them to colonise Libya.