Lend Lease Aid to Soviet Union

We all know that actually trying to complete Plan Z would have been national suicide for Germany on many levels, militarily, economically, and psychologically.

But what about the battleships called “Stalin’s republics”?

There were plans to build 15 of them, each almost as large as as a Yamato or Montana class battleship, although with less firepower. Only four were laid down (and only one was more than 20% complete) when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. After the war, all were scrapped. A similar fate met the Kronshtadt battlecruisers before the war.

Another naval project were the Stalingrad class battlecruisers. Originally designed before the war, the project was revived as aircraft carrier escorts after it. The project only advanced with Stalin’s backing, and his death led to all the ships being cancelled.

Given that the Soviets only barely completed their Kirov class light cruisers and the struggle on the industry to build even a small part of Stalin’s republics, would it have been harder for the Soviets to build this fleet or for Germany to build Plan Z? And if the Soviets succeeded, what would the impact on the war have been?

This probably assumes Germany doesn’t invade the Soviet Union until later.

No Tiger Pilot was active US military because the Tigers were replacing the Soviet Pilots before Pearl Harbor so they didn’t want to give Japan direct evidence of an act of war.

I don’t know to what extent Germany and Italy provided such assistance to each other, but a good study of the German-Japanese angle is “Reluctant Allies: German-Japanese Naval Relations in World War II,” by Hans-Joachim Krug, Yoichi Hirama, Axel Niestle, and Berthold J. Sander-Nagashima (published 2001).  As I recall, there wasn’t much such assistance between Germany and Japan; this was partly due to the fact that they were on opposite sides of the world from each other, with enemy-controlled land and sea between them, and partly due to the fact that Germany and Japan were essentially fighting separate (though connected) conflicts, and ideologically were more like cousins than brothers.  Japan did, as I recall, transport some strategic goods to and from Germany via long-range submarines a couple of times, but that was about it.

That plane story has to be one of the funniest stories to come out of the war.

IL2 Sturmovik and the T-34 all versions for WWII. The MIG15 for Korea. These three had a tremendous impact when they first appeared on the battlefield. Got to get the AK47 in there somewhere.

Leningrad.

From a morale standpoint for both nations, it was the next biggest after Moscow. Due to its proximity and the option of flanking through Finland, it would have been the easiest to take. From there, other Lend-Lease insertion points could be cut off or captured.
Also, this would allow a unified front. If (as they did) the germans drove all the way out to Stalingrad, that army group is a major proruption from the main front line, which is easily cut off. From Leningrad, the entire army is mutually supporting and can advance together on moscow.

The Winter War is an amazing tale of bravery on the Finns’ part.

@marine36:

But you see, Roosevelt wanted war with Germany, to help his buddy Stalin, so it would have happened eventually.

And I do believe the Tommies whipped Rommel all by there lonesome at El Alamean, though it is doubtful such success would have lasted once he got back to Tunisia and was reinforced.

The 6th Army. Yes, it was a significant number of men. A quarter of a million Germans is nothing to sneeze at! Personally, I don’t think moral is a factor in modern warfare, at least it isnt in the Corp, but you may be right there as well. It is reasonable to assume that the German soldiers are different from U.S. Marines, and are still affected by moral.

Rampant behavior of rape and murder? I am certain SS divisions maintained their dicipline in Russia, it was not until after the fighting had ended in an area and the soldiers had moved on than Himmler would move in with his death squads. The men of the SS where fine soldiers, do not label all of them barbarians for the actions of Himmler. Perhaps you have information that proves otherwise? Well, despite Himmler’s ruthless treatment of Russians, many Russians still did side with the Germans.

the SS were bastards, the waffen-SS were just foreigners. Can understand them a bit: who doesn’t hate RUSSIAN communists?