I agree that knowing the historical battle plans really helped the Allies out in France. That took longer than we really had.
The 'chain breaker' which I agree was necessary, hinged on the Soviet Union playing its cards close to the vest. Would the real Stalin have jumped into the fray so soon, maybe....maybe not.
Had the Soviets not jumped in and forced us to put powerful units on the defense there, I'm moderately confident that we could have broken through the Allied lines and gotten out of Turkey. Would have still been a hard fight, but 3-6 more months of Russian inactivity would have given us the vital window to get the first divisions into the Levant.
And that was the kicker IMHO. If we had been able to get a single supplied railway into Syria, we could have poured Panzer, Panzer Grenadier, and SS Panzer Divisions into the Levant without the hard caps on our numbers like we had in North Africa. Had the N. Africa logistics rules not been strictly enforced, we could have put another armored corps there, and been able to 'barely' make the breakthrough. Since that wasn't possible, we had to have a second way into the region, one that did not rely on those restrictive rules. A single railway would have done it, and we could have taken that theater before the US got into the war.
As I've said before, and in this game I believe it was the hinge factor as well, Germany must Take North Africa and the Levant. With all of that under their control, they can put heavy defenses to the West and keep the Allies from breaking into the Med. for a long time, perhaps indefinitely. Without N. Africa and the Levant, Germany is doomed to fight on 2-3 fronts for the whole war.......
The 'chain breaker' which I agree was necessary, hinged on the Soviet Union playing its cards close to the vest. Would the real Stalin have jumped into the fray so soon, maybe....maybe not.
Had the Soviets not jumped in and forced us to put powerful units on the defense there, I'm moderately confident that we could have broken through the Allied lines and gotten out of Turkey. Would have still been a hard fight, but 3-6 more months of Russian inactivity would have given us the vital window to get the first divisions into the Levant.
And that was the kicker IMHO. If we had been able to get a single supplied railway into Syria, we could have poured Panzer, Panzer Grenadier, and SS Panzer Divisions into the Levant without the hard caps on our numbers like we had in North Africa. Had the N. Africa logistics rules not been strictly enforced, we could have put another armored corps there, and been able to 'barely' make the breakthrough. Since that wasn't possible, we had to have a second way into the region, one that did not rely on those restrictive rules. A single railway would have done it, and we could have taken that theater before the US got into the war.
As I've said before, and in this game I believe it was the hinge factor as well, Germany must Take North Africa and the Levant. With all of that under their control, they can put heavy defenses to the West and keep the Allies from breaking into the Med. for a long time, perhaps indefinitely. Without N. Africa and the Levant, Germany is doomed to fight on 2-3 fronts for the whole war.......
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