What if: Stalin delays invasion of Finland till Spring 1940?

Started by Syt, February 19, 2012, 02:22:28 AM

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Syt

February 19, 2012, 02:22:28 AM
The 1939 winter invasion of Finland was a bit of a disaster at first for the Soviets, and though they sorted their shit out near the end and learned their lessons the hard way, it remained a bit of a stain on the Red Army's reputation.

What if the invasion had been held off till Spring or Summer 1940? Would the Reds have steamrolled over the Finns? Would the Soviet airforce have made a difference with significantly more daylight to use?

Also, what would this have meant for the 1941 invasion by Germany? Would the Reds have been better or worse prepared? Especially, how would their performance be in the winter without the Finnish experience?
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Razgovory

#1
February 19, 2012, 10:29:51 AM


I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Darth Wagtaros

#2
February 19, 2012, 11:19:20 AM
Finns would have been fucked up.  Germans would have got the Reds whilst they were even more disorganized than before.
PDH!

DGuller

#3
February 19, 2012, 11:50:37 AM
Simo Hayha would probably be dead after his first hundred kills.

Siege

#4
February 19, 2012, 03:18:08 PM
Raz, what's the meaning of those pictures?
What are you trying to say?


"All men are created equal, then some become infantry."

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

"Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!"

Eddie Teach

#5
February 19, 2012, 03:38:26 PM
I don't think this would affect the timeline of the Manhattan Project very much.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

Razgovory

#6
February 19, 2012, 06:05:27 PM
Quote from: Siege on February 19, 2012, 03:18:08 PM
Raz, what's the meaning of those pictures?
What are you trying to say?

Old Languish joke.  Alt History questions tended to eventually degrade into a discussion about the giant ants of Brest-Litovsk.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Viking

#7
February 19, 2012, 06:24:06 PM
Total undeniable and complete disaster for the Allies.

Since by April 1940 the British have not set aside a force to enter northern finland to help the finns against the Soviets leaving them completely unprepared to even oppose symbolically the german invasion of Norway. This means that rather than having the government have to justify why they failed in norway when prepared they would not have to do so. Furthermore a war purely at sea would have left Churchill with no-one to blame for the allied fiasco there. This means that by May 10th 1940 Chamberlain is still solidly in power with the reshuffle removing the obviously incompetent Churchill rather than the misguided Chamberlain. After the French Surrender Chamberlain and Halifax suggest an armistice with Hitler ending the war in the west.

Then the Giant Ants of Brest-Litovsk eat the Third Shock Army and the Fourth Panzer Army at the start of Barbarossa.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.
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