Yama

I don't think that in this scenario - no invasion to USSR - Germany would gain by invading those other countries it historically did not invade - Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Turkey and whatnot. They would have been capable of course, but cost/benefit seems dubious at best. Capturing Gibraltar, possible IMO if you throw everything for that goal, but is it worth THAT much? Same goes for bribing Spain to German side - again, plausible, but amount of freebies Germany would have to give to Spain to get them to join Axis and actually be useful ally would be prohibitive. Also, those neutral cou

'Only 43...%' ? I don't know, sounds fairly large share for me. Luftwaffe had no reason to keep much of its strength tied up in Eastern Front in wintertime when potential for air operations was limited. Frontline strength was increased for Kursk, then it fell again after offensive had failed.

Germany was in debt to USSR not so much because they couldn't pay, but because they (rightly) saw no reason to ship valuable stuff to a country they planned to invade in very close future.

At some point, Turkey might have had no choice, however: one of the German attempts to negotiate a deal with Soviets had them propose Soviets expanding towards Middle East, in favour of Finland and Romania which were uncomfortable expansion targets from German point of view. Had Soviets accepted this approach, it would have placed Turkey in difficult position.

1. They don't have to. Germany had already achieved all their primary war aims. In football terms, they went up 3-0 in first half and only had to play for tie until other side got bored and went home. Which, for all the bluster about fighting in the beaches, was closer than people generally care to admit. You said Germany would have to 'ask for terms' but that in itself would be a win for Germany. What kind of 'terms' you think Britain would be able to assert on Germans? Withdraw from Low Countries and Norway and Denmark? I don't think they had any problems with those. France already had

Maybe, but they could have done same with France and the boats would probably be on their way now...

Seriously, the Soryu option sounds like even bigger minefield than Shortfin Barracuda. Problem is not that French can't deliver a sub, the problem is Australian specific requirements. Same thing as with Collins class.

I actually prefer this over the white one which I REALLY didn't like. But yes it's still too harsh and contrasty. Pastel colours ftw!

Finns drew up plans for a Mosquito copy which would have used DB 605 engines. Plan required Germany to deliver reasonably intact examples. However, Finnish aircraft industry was so overworked that this complicated project would have taken years to produce anything flightworthy and the project was given up in favour of acquiring more Ju-88's, which also never materialized.

True. Much of that experience was screwing things up, however.

I rather liked it. It was very slow but that works fine for me and most characters are interesting. For a Nordic series of this type, it was very well done. Sure there was some forced plot and character stupidity, but no worse than in most other similar works.

Hitler led WW2 like someone playing Hearts of Iron: he looked at the map, saw all those delicious industrial resources and raw materials and thought "Why should we pay for those, since we can just conquer them and take them for free?" Many of his advisors warned him before Barbarossa that those dastardly Soviets would just destroy the resources when they withdraw and it would take much effort to get them back in production. Hitler refused to listen such doomcasting, however. Surprisingly enough, it turned out his advisors were correct.

Think it's more likely that Sweden is 'persuaded' into joining Axis (which is what initially happened in Yugoslavia). Churchill's hare-brained scenes would have certainly helped here. I don't think Germany was in position to very quickly invade Sweden in Spring 1940.

USSR was a net exporter of grain through the '30s. After German-Soviet trade agreements, nearly all of this trade went to Germany.