Who Could Have Won WWII?

[aspqrz]

Re WW2aSS, also, the Divisional and Manpower data may be OK for the US and UK, but I am aware that there are considerable problems with its data compared to Australian, New Zealand and, I believe, Canadian and South African manpower and unit data which leads many to believe (including myself) that it may not be as reliable as you suggest for any but the major powers and, possibly, the major western allied powers

(Russian data available at the time of publication was, to be generous, wildly suspect ... I mean, Stalin managed to hide the actual population of the USSR before the war to the extent that everyone believed his figures [which is why the Germans were so surprised that they were still fighting new divisions in late 41 when they 'knew' they'd killed the entire manpower available to the Red Army a couple of times over], which gave it as only 2/3rds [or less] of what it actually was).

Phil

[RN7]

If you are talking about a what/if scenario about Britain (and Russia) fighting Germany without the US then you also have to look at other consequences of that. The Allied bombing campaign will not be as effective without the USAAC or will Allied air superiority in the West occur as it did. It will also affect naval warfare in the Atlantic and changes in real world industrial figures and German strategies are also likely.

I am still convinced the Germany had the capacity to bomb Britain. The He-177 despite its limitations could reach industrial centres in the UK from many locations in occupied Europe, unless it was flown from eastern locations in Germany such as Berlin. Also if we are talking about a war where the US is not directly involved then we also have to look at the development of other German long ranged bombers which never got off the ground in reality due to the war ending in 1945.

Did you look at http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/...hip/index.html

There is a lot of data about lend lease shipments to the Britain and the Commonwealth that needs to be examined.

Figures for merchant ship losses in the Atlantic don't completely match wherever you look. Some merchant ship losses data from WW2aSS may have been amalgamated with other theatres, and ships captured and damaged but not sunk may also have been included in loss figures.

Another decent site on line is.........

http://www.naval-history.net/WW2Camp...tlanticDev.htm

........although I'm not sure about his sources.


The link I gave you for US Lend Lease figures also has very good information about the Battle of the Atlantic

https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN...dex.html#index
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO...009/index.html
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN....html#contents
http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK...dex.html#pagev

And a great many other topics as well......

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/


Another good site about U-boats is http://uboat.net/index.html

[RN7]

Originally Posted by aspqrz

Re WW2aSS, also, the Divisional and Manpower data may be OK for the US and UK, but I am aware that there are considerable problems with its data compared to Australian, New Zealand and, I believe, Canadian and South African manpower and unit data which leads many to believe (including myself) that it may not be as reliable as you suggest for any but the major powers and, possibly, the major western allied powers

(Russian data available at the time of publication was, to be generous, wildly suspect ... I mean, Stalin managed to hide the actual population of the USSR before the war to the extent that everyone believed his figures [which is why the Germans were so surprised that they were still fighting new divisions in late 41 when they 'knew' they'd killed the entire manpower available to the Red Army a couple of times over], which gave it as only 2/3rds [or less] of what it actually was).

Phil

The Soviet divisional data is flawed but its still is a good source. I have not found to many problems with the other countries with the accuracy ranging from very good to fair with a few discrepancies. Its generally a good reliable source of information.

Another source I use for military forces and industrial output for 1939/40 and the lead up to WW2 are League of Nations statistics which are extremely detailed. I have the stats for every member of the League of Nations burned on to a CD but its over in America at the moment.