would it really have been better if Germany had been allowed to seize all of Poland and the Baltics? If Operation Barbarossa had started hundreds of kms closer to Moscow? If the Nazi administrations in Eastern Poland, Lativa, and Estonia had been established two years earlier?
Fascists in the US and the UK would say, uncategorically, "Yes".
I wonder whether France and the UK would have allied with Germany if it looked like the Nazis were going to wipe Russia off the map.
In February of 1940, while after ww2 in Europe had started, Britain and France approved a plan to send 135,000 troops to Finland to fight the Soviet Union in the Winter War. They were ultimately only stopped from doing so after Norway and Sweden denied their armies transit, and Germany invaded Denmark in April.
If France and the UK were so desperate to fight the USSR that they were eager to send a substantial portion of their military strength to do so while they were at war with the Third Reich (!) you can be almost certain they would've been happy to help Hitler do so if possible.
Yeah, that's my favorite untold story, how they came just this close to declaring war on the USSR in February 1940. There would have been an expeditionary force and bombing of Soviet oilfields from French Syria. But then the Finns surrendered and we were shunted onto the timeline we're familiar with.
France and UK would have never allied with Germany. Their banks had loans all over the place and you think the Germans were going to pay them back? Heck, the US got involved in the Great War to protect its banks' investments in Entente countries.
Fascists in the US and the UK would say, uncategorically, "Yes".
I wonder whether France and the UK would have allied with Germany if it looked like the Nazis were going to wipe Russia off the map.
In February of 1940, while after ww2 in Europe had started, Britain and France approved a plan to send 135,000 troops to Finland to fight the Soviet Union in the Winter War. They were ultimately only stopped from doing so after Norway and Sweden denied their armies transit, and Germany invaded Denmark in April.
If France and the UK were so desperate to fight the USSR that they were eager to send a substantial portion of their military strength to do so while they were at war with the Third Reich (!) you can be almost certain they would've been happy to help Hitler do so if possible.
Yeah, that's my favorite untold story, how they came just this close to declaring war on the USSR in February 1940. There would have been an expeditionary force and bombing of Soviet oilfields from French Syria. But then the Finns surrendered and we were shunted onto the timeline we're familiar with.
France and UK would have never allied with Germany. Their banks had loans all over the place and you think the Germans were going to pay them back? Heck, the US got involved in the Great War to protect its banks' investments in Entente countries.