@Black_Elk:
It’s sobering to consider how much more terrifying the war could have gotten if these weapons were actually used.
I know what you mean. Somewhere I have an alternate history story where Germany decided to use nerve gas at Kursk. They not only wiped out thousands of Soviet troops, they also captured hundreds of tanks and planes that were perfectly good to use once the nerve gas dissipated. What was worse for the Russians was the winds were blowing east so the big nerve gas cloud also wiped out even more troops further east.
The Germans did indeed use these Soviet weapons to good effect. Not only did they turn the war in Russia, they had more reinforcements to send to Sicily. In this scenario, the Italians were still in the war on the German side and apparently they really liked the Soviet IL-2 Sturmoviks. Luftwaffe pilots apparently didn’t care for them.
D-Day happened and the Allies first made good progress. However, it was eventually reversed due to the Germans ability to flood the area with many more Tigers and Panthers then they actually did in history.
Eventually, the Western Allies did sue for peace with the Euro-Axis. The US was still in a vicious war with Japan and was beating them badly. For peace with the US/UK, Germany totally sold out their “ally” Japan, basically letting the US have their way with them.
Now there existed a Cold War between the West and Germany. This lasted for some 50 years until the mid 90s. US history was radically different as well. I don’t remember what happened with England, but Canada and Mexico ended up joining the US which now had 100 states. A big Western Hemisphere union came about with the US and all Central and South American countries, called the Pan-American Union I think, for security against the now huge Third Reich. The Third Reich eventually fell in the mid 90s due to some sort of vicious computer virus created in the US and introduced into the Reich’s computer systems. The Reich crumbled almost overnight, with a number of US supported “revolutions” throughout Europe hastening the fall.
With the Third Reich’s downfall, some new threat popped up. Some kind of terrorist organization similar to Al Qaeda but with a different name. The 9/11 attacks even occurred but instead of the World Trade Center and Pentagon, I think it was the Golden Gate Bridge, the Capital Building and Sears Tower that were attacked.
Also, the list of presidents in the US was way different than what we had. At one point, either the US president or Vice president was in our world a Russian president. Really weird US history in this alternate reality story, but still interesting.
As for my question, it sounds like most of you pretty much think what I did. If we would have kept on going, the US would have eventually won. I think India/ANZAC would have worked their way up and liberated Russia. The US Navy and Air Force, with help from the RAF, would have overwhelmed the shiny new Kreigsmarine. Italy would have lost control of the Med. I don’t think Sealion would ever happen. Or if it did, then it would be too costly to Germany and the US would liberate England fairly easily. Eventually I think Germany and Italy would have no choice but to turtle on Europe itself with a hugely powerful US in the west and Med and a steadily growing Red Army backed by India and ANZAC units in the east.
The only problem is I think playing out this game would have taken way too long, like 25-30 rounds or so. We just wanted to get the tables put away.