Alternatives leading up to the war

Tony Williams' book The Future War has generated some commentary here and elsewhere on what could have occured from late 1935 to the original beginning of WW II. If you were in that position with one nation (and, knowing that at least some, if not many, other nations had similar knowledge available) what would you recommend they change in their original strategies and technologies?
Now, remember you are still dealing with the original political and military leadership of your chosen nation and should work within those limits.
I'll post my version in a few days after everyone gets a shot at this first. Let's see how inventive we really are....

 

Good idea - but a small correction, it's called 'The Foresight War'. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, you can read most of the 'run-up' to the war in the first chapter, which is available online from my website.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion
forum

 

My apologies for the faux pau Tony.

 

Well, the thing I most have wondered about changing is the French Maginot politics. I know they had put a lot of money into the fortresses but how about creating the powerful tank forces under De Gaulle´s leadership. So if the Germans could get past the Maginot line you could always send the tanks and stop their advance....

Also I think the Italians could do alot better. I don´t know, maybe make better and bigger tanks,get German officers(?) to help in making the Italian officers good leaders, just to start with.

 

If Czeckoslovakia had resisted the German invasion, Germany could not have attacked Poland in 1939. It would have been predicated on the threat or action of strong military intervention by France and strong political motivation by UK and France.

France had no intentions in either direction, so this would have required a political upheaval in France ca 1935 when political provarication in France resulted in a policy of denial.

France needed strong government in 1935 but they did not have it. Support for CZ in 1938 would have denied Germany of the opportunity it took. CZ industry was crucial to the attack on Poland which means that the takeover of CZ is crucial to the defeat of Poland.

Of course we could argue that militarization of the Rhineland was the first step to which an early decisive counter would have defuzed the war forever but I think that would be wishful thinking. Hitler had plans for defense at least until 1952 so any set backs in 1938 would have been minor to his grand theme.

Miltary conflict against CZ would have set back the German timetable by years. Regardless of any political actions by France or UK in the years 1938-1940 what would have been happening in USSR in those years?

With a strong UK/France alliance backed by armed intervention and an increasingly belligerent USSR history would be altered.

I do not believe that USSR would have attacked Germany any more than the weatern European nations would have attacked Germany but if those Nations had soundly punished Hitlers Reich for contraventions of the Versailles Treaty, Germany might have disappeared into an assimilated European Union.

A sound defeat in an invasion of CZ would have discredited Hitlers grizzly gang to a point where Germany would be made to toe the line and integrate into Europe. And CZ was certainly capable of dealing the Germans a deadly blow if only the western allies had supported them.

Of course Anschluss complicated matters slightly.

 

As well the possible power takeover by the generals might have taken place in 1938 or at least complicated matters as Hitler would have been forced to dismiss some generals if the coup had failed:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhalder.htm

Halder said that he called off the plot at the eleventh hour when Chamberlain's flight to Berchtesgaden was announced. He decided that if Hitler could get away with this he could get away with anything. Of Munich he said: "Never in history has there been such a betrayal. A country, at least equal to ours, forced to give up the strongest defence line in Europe. How could I have foreseen it?" In his view Germany would have been defeated in three weeks in the event of war.

 

The war would have had an interesting twist to it, if some smaller nation repressed Nazism, and defeated Hitler's armies, say Czechslovakia, Poland, Belgium or even the Netherlands. The outcome may have been different, and may not have been. Poland not likely at all, but would have been the most interesting if it did hold out to defeat not only the Germans.

 

The most interesting twist before the war might have been the Czechs but they were "sold" in the Munich meeting 1938 and had to surrender without a fight. As well , like mentioned, would Halder et co really have tried the coup if war was on its way??

The Polish situation was sealed with the Ribbentrop Molotov pact.