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#Post#: 1903--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: pilotofficerprune Date: February 25, 2019, 3:11 am
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To be honest, a year from now I don't know what I'm going to
want to do. Maybe I'll have had enough of Wing Leader and will
put it down and move on to something else. Maybe I'll take a
break. Maybe I'll have an idea for a different expansion.
What I will NOT be doing is any kind of 'Luftwaffe 1946'
expansion. That concept stinks of 'Hooray for Herrenvolk' and
doesn't even bear scrutiny. Pretty much all the advanced German
concepts were either failures or would likely have been
failures. The 'secret weapons of the Reich' stuff is pure
wankery.
For me, actual history is far more interesting. Who needs secret
German weapons when we have the far superior Allied ones?
(Seriously, American and British kit was soooo much better than
any of these drawing board designs.) Just after the war a lot of
Wallied wartime designs reached service, and they were
great--some of the best piston-engined warplanes we have ever
seen. Only they were rapidly being eclipsed by the new jets. By
1950 jets dominated, and in Korea the process was so far
advanced that the need for close support and long-endurance
forced many USAF pilots in the Far East to de-convert from jets
back to P-51Ks.
However, in 1948 the tipping point for jet dominance was close
but had not quite been reached. For example, in the RAF there
were substantial numbers of Meteors for home defence, but there
were hardly any abroad. The first jet squadron in BAFO Germany
(Vampires) only deployed in early 1948. This is the true
twilight of the piston-engined warplane and the Berlin blockade
saw a crisis that could have begun a hot war.
Now, I know some historians have suggested that the Soviets had
been bled dry by the war, and didn't relish a fight with the
West--particularly given America's monopoly on the A-Bomb. Maybe
a land drive into blockaded Berlin would have been pushing on an
open door, just as the Soviets caved on British columns driving
to Vienna just after the war. However, it's still an interesting
counterfactual, with scope for air combat in Germany, the
Baltic, the Black Sea, Palestine/Israel, Iran and the Far East
(Vladivostok?). There's a lot of coolness there, isn't there?
Of course, I'd need to generate a overarching scenario on which
to base game scenarios. If only I knew a political scientist who
could help me devise one? (Stares hard at Karl.)
#Post#: 1906--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: Elias Nordling Date: February 25, 2019, 4:06 am
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Since it's all hypothetical, you can bring Sweden into the war
too, which wasn't impossible depending on the situation.
Here's a neat timeline of Swedish equipment. It would be an odd
mix, with Mustangs, Spitfires, the domestic J21 and its attack
version A21. And Vampires...
#Post#: 1907--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: pilotofficerprune Date: February 25, 2019, 4:11 am
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Having visited the Flygvapenmuseum and the wonderful Cold War
display there, I'm inclined to agree. Both the J 21 and B 18B
would make good ADCs.
#Post#: 1908--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: pilotofficerprune Date: February 25, 2019, 4:14 am
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Of course, the scenario we want to avoid was this one,
postulated by Life magazine in 1945:
HTML http://alternate-timelines.proboards.com/thread/637/world-war-iii-hour-1948
#Post#: 1909--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: Elias Nordling Date: February 25, 2019, 4:31 am
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A little premature, but fairly prescient of what a 1960s nuclear
war would look like!
Not sure how the US planned to protect the B29:s going for
Russia in 1948, but there is certainly a base for a scenario
here, though we don't need the actual dropping of nukes in it.
Given the still limited range of the US strategic bombers, an
Soviet invasion of the Swedish island Gotland would make sense
as a base for a scenario, as it is just about the closest land
area to Moscow reasonably accessible to the US at the time.
During the Cold War, the Swedish Air Force built up a huge air
attack force tailored to intercept and sink a Soviet invasion
fleet coming across the Baltic, but that was later. In 1948,
everything would be much more ad hoc.
#Post#: 1910--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: Elias Nordling Date: February 25, 2019, 4:41 am
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Did a quick check of distances: The distance between Visby on
Gotland and Moscow is about 1000 km as the B29 flows. The
distance between Iwo Jima and Tokyo is 1200 km. I can imagine
the Soviets having done this math.
#Post#: 1915--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: Karl Mueller Date: February 25, 2019, 10:09 am
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I don't think I would try to spin a yarn about the Blockade
Crisis being balanced on a knife edge that could have tipped
into war by a minor event, but that if you retell the postwar
story with multiple postwar events each being more
dangerous--Berlin, Czechoslovakia, communist success in the
Chinese civil war, Greece, Iran--you can gin up the war that a
lot of people were expecting. Especially if you make Stalin even
more nuts.
Speaking of nutters, if you wanted a war in 1949 It would just
take a tale with MacArthur winning the Presidency in 1948.
#Post#: 1916--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: Karl Mueller Date: February 25, 2019, 10:18 am
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I assume a 1948 expansion might also include scenarios not from
a WW3 timeline, like 1948 A-I war fights (though they were
mostly smallish).
One thing you might ponder would be whether there are any
counterfactual but plausible end-of-war things you'd be
interested in, like an Operation Olympic defense of the home
islands setting, where there are no Axis wonder weapons but the
Allies are using planes that just missed the end of the war.
#Post#: 1917--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: pilotofficerprune Date: February 25, 2019, 10:30 am
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Regarding 1948. So, you're thinking of a series of escalating
events, such as:
* The Soviets support the KKE/DSE in Greece with aid from 1946,
cresting with a major shooting match in 1948 that draws in
British and US armed forces in support of the government.
* In Iran the Soviets continue to support the Barzani Peshmerga
in Mahabad with military aid. They refuse to back down over the
Soviet-Iranian oil agreement and so America pledges the Shah
military support, at which point conflict begins to escalate:
initially between Iranian and Soviet forces.
* The Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia in 1948. The
Americans decide to support the Slovakians and there is a
countercoup, followed by American aid and a US division to aid
the Czech authorities.
* When the Berlin blockade is imposed, there is an attempt to
drive supplies through the land corridor. The Soviets initially
back off, but then skirmishes break out as the American armoured
column approaches West Berlin and the fighting escalates.
Is this the sort of thing you mean?
Actually, Operation Olympic also sounds good. Maybe a great
excuse to introduce the P-51H.
#Post#: 1920--------------------------------------------------
Re: Future-Proofing ADCs to 1948
By: Elias Nordling Date: February 25, 2019, 1:08 pm
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One suggestion for the post war development that could help
bring the tension up and give some options for how the scenarios
are built, is that the Soviets decide to keep Bornholm with the
hope of negotiating an airbase there a bit like they did with
bases in Finland.
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