^Ignore the ass hole

What steps Santa?

I think the axis would have had a chance if they had delayed war and focused on attacking the Soviet Union. I doubt western democracies would have gone to war for the USSR, although who knows.

I mean, it's true, they could have. Like if instead of Pearl Harbor, Japan had opened a second front on Russia, the axis certainly could have won. If the axis focused more on nuclear power, the axis could have won. If Hitler didn't have a policy of fighting to the last man, or just listened to his generals more, the axis could have won. So yes, the axis could have won.

I seriously doubt 1. Nuclear power could have made a difference unless we extend the timeline 20 years. 2. That Japan could have opened up a second front against Russia without obtaining resources that would have resulted in the US getting involved. 3 That the axis could have done anything militarily to win the war after the US and even just the USSR got involved.

So despite your snotty response I think you should be a lot less snotty

You just said you doubt the US would join for the USSR's sake....

Also yes nuclear power would have mattered. Because then they would have an atomic bomb.

By that time Western Democracies were involved and the US had cut off aviation fuel to Japan, changes everything

Also, let's say the US gets involved with a second front. Russia is almost definitely crippled by that time, since they lose most of their iron and oil and would likely lose Moscow trying to defend it, allowing Japan to build up navies to deter the Americans, and now would have hegemonic control over Asia.

Like would it have definitely won the war, maybe not, but could it have, almost certainly.

As Germany, how do you invade Russia without invading Poland and having France/Britain declare against you? How do you then commit everything eastward with declared enemies literally on your doorstep? How do you ignite the same animosity between Russia and western Europe that would hypothetically lead the latter to stand by as you invade the former, without inviting Russia to annex the Baltic states through a non-aggression pact? How do you invade Russia without the materiel captured in the western campaign and the infrastructure, weapons, vehicles built between '39 and '41? Ditto: how do you handle the logistics of occupying Russia and exploiting its resources? How do you protect this incredibly long flank in your ongoing war?

Opening against Russia just seems like a recipe for disaster.

The Axis could have won the war.

krellin could have won the war for the axis if they hadn't banned him.

Yeah, the German army still heavily used horses during the invasion of Poland. An invasion of Russia wouldn't have gone over well. Axis had no chance, given their lack of resources

I have no doubt that the Axis could have won if they hadn't incited the United States into joining the war.

I mean gold, it was going well until the weather at eh Battle of Kursk fucked up the Germans.

the war in europe was over when the germans were stopped before moscow. the japanese had been soundly beaten by the russians in border skirmishes in the late thirties and were not going to fight russia. the end result would have been the russians in all of germany by 1946.

Russia would've roflstomped the Japanese military. Japan's armor was garbage

And Capt Brad is right. When they failed to take Moscow, they lost. When they failed to take Moscow, Leningrad OR Stalingrad, it was definitely over

russia did stomp the japanese, twice before the war and rolled them up at the end in manchuria

Lol they wouldn't have, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sorge#Wartime_intelligence_supplied_by_the_Sorge_Ring

It's easy to win when the troops aren't there.

Although Japan and Germany were allies, they never acted as such. If they would have coordinated efforts against Russia (instead of Japan pissing off the US and then Germany declaring war on the US, giving FDR the excuse he needed to enter the European theater), as Vashta stated earlier, they would have most likely won.

If Germany keeps hitting airfields, instead of razing London to the ground after Britain bombed Berlin during the Battle of Britain, the Royal Air Force would have simply run out of planes during the most critical time of the war for Britain.

Tons of chances for the Axis to have won WWII.

Also, matticus, don't forget the crazy decision to have the german army to stand by during dunkirk. coulda wiped out much of the british army.

After Germany lost, the British secretly recorded the captured German nuclear bomb group. They were told that the US had successfully tested a bomb. The Germans didn't believe it had really happened because their calculations required more material than the US used.

There was never a successful German effort and they were more scared of getting shot for a failure, so they delayed work thinking the war would be won without them.

@"bo_sox48
I have no doubt that the Axis could have won if they hadn't incited the United States into joining the war."

The US public didn't want to get involved in 'another european war', so the president literally gave away hardware and ammunition (in the lend-lease program) to the allies, in the hopes of influencing things without going to war, and then provoked the Japanese into attacking the US so they could actually join the war.

And the japanese took the bait.

Also, re:nuclear weapons. If germany had been a little less anti-sementic, several of the top german physicists might not have fled to the US, where they helped develop the atomic bomb. If laws against Jews had not been passed in the 30s... Who knows.

Also if the play Copenhagen is to be believed, the german scientists may have intentionally sabotaged their nuclear weapon program. (Messing up the calculations to make it look like too much Uranium was needed, which resulted in research funding being thrown at the V1/V2 rocket programs instead...)

At some point with alternative history you have make too many changes. If the Nazis had been less anti-Semitic, they wouldn't have been Nazis in the first place. If Hitler isn't motivated by irrational anti-Semitism, maybe he doesn't rise to power in the first place.

But it seems to me that Hitler decided to make a deal with Stalin for a good reason. Invading Russia was a huge project. Would France and Britain have gone to war "for Russia?" No, but they also would have been aware that Hitler wasn't going to stop. Hard to say that they wouldn't have stood by and watched. And if Germany couldn't win on the Eastern Front with resources from western Europe, why would they be able to win without them?

Japan, meanwhile, attacked the US because we wouldn't trade with them and they needed what we had in order to keep their military functioning. Maybe the US would have been willing to see Japan take out Russia, maybe not.

But a situation where the Axis attacks Russia and then later decides to turn on the rest of the world isn't World War II.

If germany had wanted to invade the soviet union without war with france, they could have pressured the Polish government into allowing german troops pass through Poland.

But there was no way you wanted to get involved in a long drawn out war with russia while the french and english were at their backs.

Invading and defeating france first was a very effective method of protecting their rear. With Italy allied, and nationalist spain unlikely to allow allied troops land; an amphibious invasion was a huge undertaking, along with italy invading greece... Basically germany put itself in a position to face the soviet union one-on-one.

And it turns out, despite several advantages, they lost. (As everyone else has... Except for the Mongols)

The posts on this I rate best so far are from SantaClausowitz, Orathaic & Pastorlan.
I usually think along the lines of what things might the countries fighting Hitler's nazi regime & the Japanese done to win the war quicker or with less loss of lives.

First step to winning the war would have been to.delay it's start. After Chamberlain's ? English PM..back down after Czechoslovakia ? if instead of pushing harder and invading Poland, which caused the replacement of the weak English PM.with Winston Churchill, Hitler had announced a false partial disarmament program, and spent another year or two pushing his secret R&D programs, building infrastructure eg rail into Czechoslovakia / Austria ?
The fake disarmament is an excuse to scrap the worst equipment, it's more about keeping a weak English PM in office and allowing the supporters of Hitler in the English establishment to prevent/ limit.any real preparations. for war, a fake discharge of several.hundred thousand men from German army is just an opportunity to divert.manpower to improving infrastructure for "defense" industries etc
If Soviet Russia is the target, not the West then perhaps Hitler should have allied with the Chinese against the Japanese.. that lines Germany up with the Western Allies and gives Germany an ally on Russia's Eastern flank
Best thing..don't fight the world war with guns, use trade and commerce
When I suggest the China option, there's the purchaser of a whole lot of your worst tanks and guns etc and Hitler could have started supporting the Chinese earlier than 1939
But the Hitler Germany had was incapable of winning the war he started.

So an option to fight the war with trade and commerce. after Czechoslovakia. Start a massive rail and port project with Turkey.. Link Germany with Turkey by rail through the Balkans and build a major new port facility at the Turkish end..steal trade from shipping coming through Suez canal, so it gets moved not by ship across Mediterranean round Spain and up to Europe.but gets transported by rail quicker, and vice versa, freight out of Northern Europe goes by rail to Turkey then shipped.