Posted on 11/16/2001 1:23:50 PM PST by tonycavanagh
Within days of the defeat of Germany in World War II, Winston Churchill ordered his war cabinet to draw up contingency plans for an offensive against Stalin that would lead to ``the elimination of Russia'', according to top secret British documents.
The resulting battle plan included the use of up to 100,000 German troops to back up half a million British and American soldiers attacking through northern Germany. It assumed that Stalin would invade Turkey, Greece, Norway and the oilfields of Iraq and Iran in retaliation and launch extensive sabotage operations in France and the Low Countries.
A 29-page report, codenamed Operation Unthinkable, was presented to the Prime Minister on 22 May 1945, 14 days after the end of the war in Europe.
It assumed that the Third World War would start on 1 July 1945, probably with a surprise attack by 47 British and American divisions between Dresden and the Baltic.
The war cabinet plan ruled out ``total war'' against the Red Army, which outnumbered the Allies by more than two to one, adding that there was no reason why an Anglo-American invasion of Russia would fare any better than Hitler's Operation Barbarossa.
Historians had long believed that the tense period immediately after the meeting of the armies of West and East led to plans of this sort, but today's publication is the first proof of their existence.
Professor D.C. Watt, the eminent historian who has written the official history of the British cabinet office in wartime, said it was the first time the papers had been read by anyone other than the principals.
``Nobody has ever seen this kind of thing before,'' he said, ``but we have had strong suspicions that they must have been written.''
The Unthinkable plan was eventually rejected by Churchill on the advice of the Chiefs of Staff and replaced with a defensive scheme to guard against invasion by the Red Army..
I count myself amongst this lot.
Tony
Tony
Tony
Well, the Germans attacked Russia with over a million men and it did not turn out so well. On the other hand, I am sure American forces would also be coming WEST right after they finished up with Japan
I wonder if it has ever been wargamed.
Tony
Whoever thought of it, it was a brilliant plan. It would have saved a lot of global agony all these years.
As a wargamer, I can say that this, and just about any other scenario like it has been wargamed.
GLC
Assuming political unity, I think the men and material resources of the U. S. and Britain would have been more than a match for the Soviet Union. U. S. and British industry were outproducing the Soviets by far. We would have easily gained and held sea and air supremacy. And remember, we had the bomb by that point. Stalin wouldn't for many more years.
What was the result or results.
Tony
That is how I read it, the Soviet Union was an ally, there was still Japan to beat, and with Germany and Japan beaten the people would want their boys home.
Tony
Tony
Two million Soviet and Eastern Europeans found themselves on our side of the line when WWII ended. We shipped them back to imprisonment and death under Stalin. Many committed suicide rather than return. We could have used them to invade the Soviet Union.
We had a monopoly on the A-Bomb for 4 years.
The reason we did not push on to Moscow was not because it was impractical. It was because of traitors in both the US and British governments.
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