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The What if...? thread

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GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Here, let's hypothesize about different situations and history and what would have happened if they turned out different than they did. These events do NOT necessarily have to be war-related.

What if Hitler had given a speech after the inhabitants of Stalingrad welcomed him and the German army into Stalingrad, before he started rounding up the Jewish civilians?

Answer: Had Hitler given a speech and ralliled the Stalingrad people behind him, they would have followed him when he started rounding some of them up. Hitler would have had the Stalingrad weapons factories to use at his disposal, and would have easily conquered Russia, and then Britain. He then would have regrouped his forces and attacked North America at full force. North America would fall to the combined forces of Japan and Germany, ending WWII. Hitler wouldn't screw with Asia, at least, not yet. But a few years or a few decades later, he would take over the rest of Asia, too, and the whole world would be under Hitler's rule.

Probably should have focussed on Britain altogether before he went to Stalingrad, in fact.

What if Hitler delayed the war?

Answer: He would have had the nuke, and it would be GG world, regardless. He would have simply nuked London, New York, or Washington and gotten Britain and the US to surrender almost immediately. Game, set, match. Hitler takes Europe, Japan takes Asia, and Hitler takes Asia shortly thereafter.

We are so god damn lucky Hitler was a horrible military strategist. If he had ANY military ability, the world would be under the rule of Nazi Germany today.
It gives me the creeps how easily he could have conquered the world. And he almost did. Thank god he sucked with tactics.
 
What if Hitler had given a speech after the inhabitants of Stalingrad welcomed him and the German army into Stalingrad, before he started rounding up the Jewish civilians?

Answer: Had Hitler given a speech and ralliled the Stalingrad people behind him, they would have followed him when he started rounding some of them up. Hitler would have had the Stalingrad weapons factories to use at his disposal, and would have easily conquered Russia, and then Britain. He then would have regrouped his forces and attacked North America at full force. North America would fall to the combined forces of Japan and Germany, ending WWII. Hitler wouldn't screw with Asia, at least, not yet. But a few years or a few decades later, he would take over the rest of Asia, too, and the whole world would be under Hitler's rule.

Probably should have focussed on Britain altogether before he went to Stalingrad, in fact.

I don't think it would have been quite as easy as all that. Stalin was more than willing to throw as many Russian lives away to beat Hitler, and I don't think that having the Stalingrad weapons factory under his control would've meant the conquering of Russia or Britain. And what exactly would Hitler have said to the people of Stalingrad that would make them follow him? It would have to be pretty impressive to get around the language barrier. An invasion of Britain would've just drawn the U.S. into the war earlier than Pearl Harbor. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Hitler had no plans to attack North America. It just wouldn't be feasible, even under the best circumstances.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Nintendo Ate My Children said:
I don't think it would have been quite as easy as all that. Stalin was more than willing to throw as many Russian lives away to beat Hitler, and I don't think that having the Stalingrad weapons factory under his control would've meant the conquering of Russia or Britain. And what exactly would Hitler have said to the people of Stalingrad that would make them follow him? It would have to be pretty impressive to get around the language barrier. An invasion of Britain would've just drawn the U.S. into the war earlier than Pearl Harbor. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Hitler had no plans to attack North America. It just wouldn't be feasible, even under the best circumstances.

Stalingrad was Russia's main weapons facility/city, actually. If it had fallen, Hitler would have had a lot of the russian's weapons at his disposal, and would have just continued pushing further east.

And I don't think you heard me the first time: The people of Stalingrad WELCOMED Hitler into their city. They THREW HIM A PARTY. Only when Hitler started rounding up the civilians (without giving a speech of any inspiration, nonetheless, and you know how powerful of a speaker Hitler was) did they realize, "Hey, this guy's just as bad as Stalin! Why should we let a filthy German kill uswhen we can at least be killed by our own blood?" (or something to that effect), and revolted.

If Stalingrad fell, the world was FUCKED, I guarantee you.

And Hitler DID declare war on the US. He probably was planning on attacking the US once Britain fell. But he definitely wanted to invade the US.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
what if General Gates was successful in ousting Washington in his coup attempt during the Constitutional Convention?

answer: US falters. game over. back to the brits.

Robert E Lee abandons battle plan at gettysburg, turns and marches toward washington, dividing up his forces a la Sam Houston. Union army gets beaten and confederacy takes washington and victory. They go home to realize that the French and Mexicans had started plans for an invasion shoudl the confederacy have won?

A: the south is forced to enlist the services of the north and the UK/Canada to help stave off the foreign armies. countries reallign, possible reestablishment of the british empire.
 

Ash Housewares

The Mountain Jew
GaimeGuy said:
Here, let's hypothesize about different situations and history and what would have happened if they turned out different than they did. These events do NOT necessarily have to be war-related.

What if Hitler had given a speech after the inhabitants of Stalingrad welcomed him and the German army into Stalingrad, before he started rounding up the Jewish civilians?

Answer: Had Hitler given a speech and ralliled the Stalingrad people behind him, they would have followed him when he started rounding some of them up. Hitler would have had the Stalingrad weapons factories to use at his disposal, and would have easily conquered Russia, and then Britain. He then would have regrouped his forces and attacked North America at full force. North America would fall to the combined forces of Japan and Germany, ending WWII. Hitler wouldn't screw with Asia, at least, not yet. But a few years or a few decades later, he would take over the rest of Asia, too, and the whole world would be under Hitler's rule.

Probably should have focussed on Britain altogether before he went to Stalingrad, in fact.

What if Hitler delayed the war?

Answer: He would have had the nuke, and it would be GG world, regardless. He would have simply nuked London, New York, or Washington and gotten Britain and the US to surrender almost immediately. Game, set, match. Hitler takes Europe, Japan takes Asia, and Hitler takes Asia shortly thereafter.

We are so god damn lucky Hitler was a horrible military strategist. If he had ANY military ability, the world would be under the rule of Nazi Germany today.
It gives me the creeps how easily he could have conquered the world. And he almost did. Thank god he sucked with tactics.


not a clue what you're saying about Stalingrad

delaying the war would have been a terrible blunder, Hitler's best chance would have been waging war sooner but Mussolini had insisted on delaying hostilities

Hitler's tactics were fairly sound, his sense of grand strategy was appaling - he ignored logistical concerns and anything else that didn't fit whatever strange little world he was off in

I don't have any reason to believe Germany could have created nuclear weapons or maintained the resources to produce an arsenal of them

as for focusing on Britain, he did and the RAF fought him off so he backed down to get to his real plan, Barbarossa

as for an attack on the US, best the Germans could come up with was a bomb run against New York that would require ditching the aircraft, it was a terrible expensive risk and so they never went through with it, I'm a bit hazy on the details so thats a bit vague
 
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GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Ash Housewares said:
I don't have any reason to believe Germany could have created nuclear weapons or maintained the resources to produce an arsenal of them
They were in the process of developing an atomic bomb. Einstein revealed this in his letter to Truman, which convinced the US to start creating their own nuclear weapons.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
I don't have any reason to believe Germany could have created nuclear weapons or maintained the resources to produce an arsenal of them

Not only did they have some, but we captured a Uboat off the coast of New England and when inspecting it found enough uranium to sustain a few nuclear bombs.

Also, the reason I have no pity for what we did to Japan is because they were about 2 weeks away from having their own nukes, which they were designing in North Korea. Why do you think it took them til we almost nuked TOKYO for them to surrender? They thought they'd be able to fight back...
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
whytemyke said:
Not only did they have some, but we captured a Uboat off the coast of New England and when inspecting it found enough uranium to sustain a few nuclear bombs.

Also, the reason I have no pity for what we did to Japan is because they were about 2 weeks away from having their own nukes, which they were designing in North Korea. Why do you think it took them til we almost nuked TOKYO for them to surrender? They thought they'd be able to fight back...
I haven't heard that.

But even surrendering after two atomic bombs was difficult for Japan to swallow. They believe in fighting to the death. Any type of surrender would be very tough on their pride, on their traditions, on what they believed in.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they were, in fact, developing their own bombs.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
Yeah, I had to do a TON of online research until I could find two legit sources on it, and I'm not about to go through finding all that stuff again. But military intel reports taken after we got into Tokyo said that not only did we seize plans of theirs for their own nuclear device, but also that they were mere weeks away from being able to use it. Their reports even said that the japs field tested one at the end of July that year, only 3 weeks before they surrendered. It just so happens that the country to come across North Korea, where the weapons labs were held, first was.... you guessed it, the USSR. :)

**EDIT HERE: Oh yeah, by the way... their bombs weren't meant to take out cities like ours were. Theirs were meant to take out carrier groups. They had their biological warfare program (which they were only days from unleashing on the US, as well) which could destroy cities far cheaper than a bomb could.**


Yeah. Their pride didn't suddenly change from one bombing to another. Notice that we bombed them and they surrendered less than 36 hours before the next warned bombing, which took place a full week later.

Another reason not much of this has been discovered, beyond the few documents we took from their War Department in 1945, is exactly because Russia moved in so fast afterwards to the areas where they were testing, that they promptly seized all data, and we know how the USSR beauracracy handles intelligence: EXTREMELY WELL.
 

Ash Housewares

The Mountain Jew
I didn't say they weren't trying, but they never made it, and I don't know that their nuclear program was being given top priority. It is on the revisionist side to think that given the opportunity they would put everything into their nuclear program, wouldn't everyone? They don't know what we know now about atomic weapons to have so they didn't give it the capital needed and it failed, maybe if they waited until 1948? But this seems like quite the stretch

edit - this is regarding Germany btw
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
whytemyke said:
Yeah, I had to do a TON of online research until I could find two legit sources on it, and I'm not about to go through finding all that stuff again. But military intel reports taken after we got into Tokyo said that not only did we seize plans of theirs for their own nuclear device, but also that they were mere weeks away from being able to use it. Their reports even said that the japs field tested one at the end of July that year, only 3 weeks before they surrendered. It just so happens that the country to come across North Korea, where the weapons labs were held, first was.... you guessed it, the USSR. :)

**EDIT HERE: Oh yeah, by the way... their bombs weren't meant to take out cities like ours were. Theirs were meant to take out carrier groups. They had their biological warfare program (which they were only days from unleashing on the US, as well) which could destroy cities far cheaper than a bomb could.**

Yeah. Their pride didn't suddenly change from one bombing to another. Notice that we bombed them and they surrendered less than 36 hours before the next warned bombing, which took place a full week later.

Another reason not much of this has been discovered, beyond the few documents we took from their War Department in 1945, is exactly because Russia moved in so fast afterwards to the areas where they were testing, that they promptly seized all data, and we know how the USSR beauracracy handles intelligence: EXTREMELY WELL.

So then the whole idea that the USSR learned how to make nukes by spying on the US was a myth. :p
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Ash Housewares said:
I didn't say they weren't trying, but they never made it, and I don't know that their nuclear program was being given top priority. It is on the revisionist side to think that given the opportunity they would put everything into their nuclear program, wouldn't everyone? They don't know what we know now about atomic weapons to have so they didn't give it the capital needed and it failed, maybe if they waited until 1948? But this seems like quite the stretch

edit - this is regarding Germany btw

You honestly believe they wouldn't have had a bomb ready for another decade? I think that the world is lucky Hitler put the nuclear research on hold, against his advisors' wishes. There's a lot of things hitler did wrong, but he still came close to conquering the world.
 

Ash Housewares

The Mountain Jew
GaimeGuy said:
You honestly believe they wouldn't have had a bomb ready for another decade? I think that the world is lucky Hitler put the nuclear research on hold, against his advisors' wishes. There's a lot of things hitler did wrong, but he still came close to conquering the world.

they didn't have a nuke by 1945, the project tanked and they canned it, why would it be different in time of peace? And how long could Hitler afford to wait?
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
GaimeGuy said:
So then the whole idea that the USSR learned how to make nukes by spying on the US was a myth. :p

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it lends to the possibility of a country with virtually zero nuclear research done building up such power so quickly with the idea that they may have had a helping hand. Nobody can say for certain, but they're definitely mutually exclusive events (spying on us and having those papers already)
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Ash Housewares said:
they didn't have a nuke by 1945, the project tanked and they canned it, why would it be different in time of peace? And how long could Hitler afford to wait?
Hitler also put the whole project on the backburner for his little invasion of europe.

If he had delayed the invasion and spent more resources on his nuclear program, I guarantee you he'd have had a bomb within a year, hell, probably within 6 months.
 

Ash Housewares

The Mountain Jew
well if you want to 'what if' that the Nazis could see the future and know the potential of the atomic project to the extent that they would forsake all other operations in favor of this unprecedented mysterious experiment, then I guess you can
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Ash Housewares said:
well if you want to 'what if' that the Nazis could see the future and know the potential of the atomic project to the extent that they would forsake all other operations in favor of this unprecedented mysterious experiment, then I guess you can
HITLER decided to put the project on hold. His advisors suggested otherwise, but, well, he was the man in charge.
 

Boogie

Member
GaimeGuy said:
Hitler also put the whole project on the backburner for his little invasion of europe.

If he had delayed the invasion and spent more resources on his nuclear program, I guarantee you he'd have had a bomb within a year, hell, probably within 6 months.

Wow, your personal guarantee, huh? Well that settles it.

I know people don't want to go digging, but you just can't have an historical discussion/argument without sources.

Becuase saying "no, you're wrong, this is how it was" without any actual reasoning or proof beyond your own assurance is just a bunch of bullshit.
 
And I don't think you heard me the first time: The people of Stalingrad WELCOMED Hitler into their city. They THREW HIM A PARTY. Only when Hitler started rounding up the civilians (without giving a speech of any inspiration, nonetheless, and you know how powerful of a speaker Hitler was) did they realize, "Hey, this guy's just as bad as Stalin! Why should we let a filthy German kill uswhen we can at least be killed by our own blood?" (or something to that effect), and revolted.

Is this part of your "what if?" scenario or do you really have no idea what you're talking about? Adolph Hitler never set foot in Stalingrad, and the Russians sure as hell didn't welcome him or any other Germans into their city. Also, even if you're the world's greatest speaker, and it won't matter if your audience is Russian and you're speaking in German.

Also, declaring war on a country and invading that country are two very different things. Hitler had no intention whatsoever of invading or conquering the United States. Defeating them in battle, yes, invading, no. Hitler had enough problems trying to launch an invasion force over the English Channel, much less trying to launch one across the Atlantic Ocean.

As far as Germany and Japan't nuclear capabilities, that subject is still up for debate. Some argue that perhaps they were farther along on their nuclear research than previously thought, however, it's impossible to say with any degree of certainty exactly how far along Germany and Japan (especially Japan) were in their nuclear research.
 

AntoneM

Member
The fact remains that the US were the first to use a Nuke in war, consequently we were the last to do so since the mother fuckers were so devastating.

What if Persia had conquered Bizantine to be followed by Muslim rule over what is present day western Europe? My how things would be different.
 
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