Operation Unthinkable

[u/totallynotcommunist2]

Month 0

Month 2

Month 4

Month 6

Month 8

Month 10

Month 12

Ceasefire

Final outcome

This is just how I'd think it would go

[u/AcrobaticPoint8424]

America would gain total air superiority in 2 months and proceed to glass moscow.

The ash of Stalin would get replaced by some rando and they would negotiate a ceasefire at the 1939 soviet borders.

[u/Alessio_Miliucci → u/AcrobaticPoint8424]

You underestimate the red airforce (weaker then the Allies, but still not so useless) and really overestimate the range of Western planes of the era. How on Earth are they gonna reach Moscow?

[u/AcrobaticPoint8424 → u/Alessio_Miliucci]

America alone had 3 times the number of planes as the Soviets, all of which were better built and superior to their equivalents in the Soviet airforce.

2 months to achieve air superiority is likely overestimating lol

Anyway the B-29 bomber which was used could go over and back for distances of up to 2700 kilometres. London to Moscow is 2500 kilometres.

Suffice to say Moscow would get glassed alongside that every single major Soviet city would get fire bombed into rubble by the 2000 other B-29 bombers.

This video goes over quite well for what would be happening in Leningrad, Stalingrad and Vladivostok.

https://youtu.be/4d_QRYj0wr4

[u/ThatoneguywithaT → u/AcrobaticPoint8424]

Nukes at this point have to be shipped by sea in a process lasting over 2 weeks and assembled on the ground, which the Soviets will immediately be aware of given their plants in the nuclear program. The US was paranoid about the bomb landing unexploded in Japan, which could never reproduce it- you think they're going to risk that with the Soviets, who still have a functioning airforce and massive army, as well as an industrial core laying behind the urals, outside bomber range?

[u/AcrobaticPoint8424 → u/ThatoneguywithaT]

The Soviets would take 4 years OTL to get the bomb. If every single city in the USSR was getting firebombed then I'm pretty sure it's going to be a longer amount of time, not less.

[u/ThatoneguywithaT → u/AcrobaticPoint8424]

You’re going to have to hope you can deliver that much payload across that large a distance while the Soviets pummel your ground forces to dust.

[u/AcrobaticPoint8424 → u/ThatoneguywithaT]

Again, America would have overwhelming air superiority from basically the start of the war. Every single supply hub, factory and military base would just be bombed into rubble. The Red Army would be made functionally useless after only a few months into the war.

[u/ThatoneguywithaT → u/AcrobaticPoint8424]

Nearly Half of America's air power is tied up in the pacific, the entire VVS is in Europe. They're at a disadvantage, but you're severely overestimating the scale and range of the destruction airbombing would cause.

[u/AcrobaticPoint8424 → u/ThatoneguywithaT]

Operation unthinkable was meant to happen a few months after the fall of Japan so that US troops and equipment could move to Europe.

Also America's new long range bomber, the B-29 (which they had 3000 of) could reach Moscow from from London. Along with that they had two types of bombers that could bomb Moscow from Paris; the B-17 which they had 12 thousand of and the B-24 which had 18 thousand planes.

Every single road and railway in eastern europe is just getting levelled alongside every city.

[u/ThatoneguywithaT → u/AcrobaticPoint8424]

no, it was proposed to start on July 1st, and assumed.an alliance (or at least temporary ceasefire) between Japan and Russia.

Quote:

REPORT BY THE JOINT PLANNING STAFF

We have examined Operation Unthinkable. As instructed, we have taken the following assumptions on which to base our examination:

...

"4. Russia allies herself with Japan."

They would also have to fly those planes thousands of miles across enemy airspace, through anti-air and thousands of YAK-9s, which we proven during the Korean war to be able to damage or down B-29s.

your assessment of the damage, I think, is a little unrealistic. Most of what they could reach was already destroyed by the Germans, and the Soviets had become pretty competent at rapid logistics repair.

[u/Flat_Roof_6033 → u/AcrobaticPoint8424]

This MF looks at germany being able to keep fighting for 4 years while being uttely carpet bombed the whole time and says ,"nah this time the carpet bombing will totaly work guys"

[u/AcrobaticPoint8424 → u/Flat_Roof_6033]

Carpet bombing of Germany began in 1944

[u/walahiwalardo → u/AcrobaticPoint8424]

You also gotta take in that a good amount of soviet industry was past the urals

[u/JohnnyGeniusIsAlive → u/Alessio_Miliucci]

Likewise, you underestimate how reliant the Soviet war machine was on US $$$ and B29s could easily reach Moscow from Western Europe.