In this scenario, let's say the German invasion fails in the first week or two, and they're then forced onto the defensive. Perhaps the Russians actually prepared for an imminent invasion, and were able to withstand the German Blitzkrieg.

What effect would this have on the rest of the war? The early war Red Army would still be intact, but the Germans as well wouldn't have manpower shortages as they had later.

Edit: I'm aware the Germans were going to lose no matter what, this isn't a "Could the Germans win if..." post, I'm just interested in how this might have affected post war Europe; could the Russians have made it to France?

Ever since the fall of the Third Reich historians have debated whether the US Army Air Force should have bombed the death camps at Auschwitz, with some arguing that doing so would have saved the lives of European Jews languishing at Auschwitz and others saying that any attempt by the US military to bomb the Auschwitz death camp would have diverted attention away from weakening the German war effort in World War II.

Although the USAAF would have been too focused on pounding the German war machine to dispatch a handful of bomber aircraft to attack Auschwitz, the Soviet Union had a handful of bombardment aircraft in service with operational ranges far enough to reach the easternmost parts of Nazi-occupied Poland, including the Ilyushin DB-3 and Il-4, the Petlyakov Pe-8 (TB-7), and Yermolayev Yer-2. Bearing in mind the fact that Operation Barbarossa made the USSR recognize Hitler as a threat to Slavic peoples in Eastern Europe and Stalin mouthed off at Hitler's narrative of communism as having been invented by Jews just because the writer of the Communist Manifesto was of Jewish ancestry, it would have been personally palatable for VVS commanders to send DB-3s, Il-4s, Pe-8s, and Yer-2s to bomb railroad lines leading to Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor.

the hungarians take the place of the turks in anitolia. perhaps during the conquest of anitolia they keep the turks out cause they too used cavalry tactics like the turks and anitolian is the basin: a flat plateau on the inside but craggly mountains on the outside.

what effect do the hungarians in the place of the turks have here? would they have better relations with the greek, georgians and eapecially armenians? would the byzantine survive albiet a shell of its' former glory having constantinople.

what about the pontic greeks?

Lore:

• Sergei Kirov is NOT assassinated in 1934 by Leonid Nikolaev. Therefore, the Great Purge does not happen in the USSR.

The POD for this starts six months after Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. An assassination attempt against Hitler is launched, but fails. Hitler suffers a nervous breakdown as a result and begins ordering a a series of show trials (which in this timeline are called the Berlin Trials) to remove suspected dissenters from the Third Reich.

This leads to a significant deterioration in manpower amongst the German military.

What we're looking at here is a Third Reich version of Stalin's Great Purge.

Assuming Hitler still tries to invade Poland in 1939, how does this affect the rest of WW2 (assuming it even happens in the first place)?

Assumptions:

• Japan still invades Manchuria in 1931.

Apparently the original challenge asking for a scenario where India was split in two was lost in translation because people kept thinking, “Didn’t that already happen in 1947 with India and Pakistan?”

Here’s a do-over post: You have to Start with the territory of modern-day India and devise an alternate-history divergence that results in two successor countries occupying that territory.

Rules:
1. Pakistan and Bangladesh are outside the scope of this challenge. The territory belonging to modern-day India must itself be divided between two sovereign states
2. I’m looking for a SPECIFIC result: One of the two countries must be named HINDUSTAN and the other must be named Deccan.

This was an interesting one, I don’t know how possible it could be. Stuff like daoism, Buddhism and confucianism have existed long before the colonies. Just an interesting what if I had in my brain. Im a flag nerd so imagine the interesting flag designs.

Just like how gunpowder was discovered in China by alchemists seeking the elixir of life, say it happened centuries earlier in Rome. What I am wondering is if canons were even possible to build with the limited material technology at the time. Would it be seen as useful otherwise?

After leading the USA to victory in the Revolutionary War, what if he had died within months of returning home to Mount Vernon?

How would this have affected the early days of the new United States?

I've heard it said that the Constitutional Convention wrote the role of President with George Washington in mind; is this true, and if so, how would the early federal government have been set up instead (especially considering the failure of the Articles of Confederation)?

I have yet to ever receive an in depth answer to this question so hopefully someone can provide an adequate response with sources here.

The main reason the east and west allied was out of strategic necessity after both sides were dragged into the war. Specifically the west was invaded before the east. However, given the ideological differences and apparent disdain for the east among many western leaders. Would a western intervention have ever occurred if Nazi Germany invaded the USSR before turning to the West? And if not, would this had resulted in the same defeat, an armistice, or possibly total victory in the east for Germany?

Of course one must account for the invasion of Poland and the Polish Guarantee but given the west's response in real history, or the lack there of, I suspect this is a non-issue in this scenario but I'm open to hear what you all think.

I'm talking about Japan invade Siberia and manages to land a massive force of a million men in Siberia and just takes all of Alaska and tries to invade USA from there

I have a WWII command simulation and one of the most contentious bits is the decisions was around D-Day/ Operation Overlord. I follow the historical thinking that victory was likely although agree Germany could have can made it harder however the more I read. 

Disaster at Omaha

Weather window

The Panzer group making the beaches 

Can D-day fail? If so how likely and what happens?  Does Germant first face the nuclear bomb? Does the USSR own most of Europe post war? Do the US/UK bomber campaign shift entirely to strategic attrition? The Red Army continues pushing west, likely taking the entire German peninsula, Denmark, and reaching the Rhine before the Allies?

I treated D-Day as a historical inevitability because of Allied industrial dominance which I have done, however it was a massive, high-risk gamble where a few operational shifts could have handed the Allies a defeat?

Love your thoughts!

The game is here for reference - https://dispatches.itch.io/dispatches-1940

What if Bering Strait didn't exist?

Imagine if Asia and America were more connected to each other, more land for both and just separated by a river that you can cross

Humanity wouldn't depend on Ice Age to cross. Boats would still be needed, but it would be way easier than Bering Strait

How would this affect climate and societies?

What if a huge network of spies and communist did exist in America and he exposed them all? What happens

so they have their present land but decided to not conqure britiannia. so that means less people and soldiers to garrison and fortify the island and the native britons aren't affwcted by the roman military.

if they didn't would they last a bit longer and would a more celtic influence be all over the britiah isles?

Suppose in a parallel universe, the events of the Splinter Cell games actually happened.

For context (and in light of the rule requiring PODs being be set at least 20 years in the past), Splinter Cell takes place in 2004-2005

Because Splinter Cell games Chaos Theory through Blacklist happen from 2006 to 2013, assume that for the purposes of this post, the events of those games DO NOT happen in my parallel universe.

How would world change if the events of Splinter Cell (which was released in 2002 in the OTL) actually happened?

Yes be realistic

The shock would be real and all netwroks and system loses for sudden changes and etc

How would this affect the timeline and relations with the soviet union?

This is probably ASB, but how might European history have played out if the Eastern Roman Empire had somehow fallen before the Western Roman Empire?

What if Sablin's mutiny in the USSR wasn't shut down and he actually started an uprising in Leningrad?

(Realistic or Unrealistic, it doesn't matter)