The Rif War

One of the lesser known 20th century wars gets an Alternate History

Review: Sky People

A Polish Zero?

The Poles develop a fast, maneuverable fighter comparable to the Japanese Zero in the late 1930s.  

Point Of Divergence is an amateur press magazine and also a forum for discussing AH and AH-related ideas.  Here is my comment section.

Very short entry on this scenario for this issue.  I’m still trying to work out how several things would play out.  Hopefully more next time. 

The period from July to September 1940 was a time of maximum danger for the British historically.  IN this alternative timeline, Spain has entered the war on the Axis side, stretching already thinly stretched British forces even thinner.

The bulk of the military power Britain has been able to put together in the wake of Dunkirk is tied up defending Britain from what looks like an impending German invasion.  There is little in the way of air or ground power to deal with the likes of Italy and Spain.  Fortunately for the  British, both Italy and Spain are militarily second rate powers at best, with obsolete equipment, poorly organized and trained armed forces, and economies dependent on the outside world for much of what they need to survive.  Spain is even more lacking in modern equipment than Italy, though the Spanish make up for that to some extent by being tough, experienced fighters.

Neither Spain nor Italy has any chance of surviving long on their own against a first rate industrial power like Britain, especially not when Britain can draw on the even greater industrial power of the United States.  Spain and Italy can only be competitive when the bulk of British forces are tied up elsewhere.  Historically, the British stood off Italian forces in North Africa with only minor forces committed until the German invasion threat eased, and then sent enough modern forces to the area to quickly rout the Italians.

The British got a major boost historically because the Italians divided their efforts between taking on the British and building up for futile adventures in the Balkans, initially planning an attack on Yugoslavia in late summer of 1940, then carrying out a poorly organized attack on Greece in October 1940.  The Italians were capable of producing enough reasonably good tanks and planes to take on one minor power or distracted great power.  They were nowhere near capable of taking on a minor power and even a distracted great power at the same time.

One of the benefits to the Axis in this time-line is that the Italians are concentrating on defeating the British in the Mediterranean.  Mussolini does want to pursue Balkan adventures at some point, but for now he is more concerned about protecting what he sees as his Spanish client-state.

With the fall of Gibraltar, the British have little or no access to the western Mediterranean.  The Italian and Spanish navies have free reign there.  Britain can only supply Malta from the east.  Also, Italian surface warships and submarines have a clear path to the Atlantic.  German and Italian planes from bases in southern Spain and Spanish Morocco dominate the ocean several hundred miles out into the Atlantic, forcing shipping further out into the Atlantic.  German commerce raiders move to Southern Spain, both to give Spain some protection against the British fleet and to have easier access to the Atlantic.

Major German or Italian surface ships in a position to break out into the Atlantic are a deadly threat to the British because they could easily overwhelm the escorts for most British convoys, destroy whole convoys, and then dash back under German air cover.  The Germans can do that to some extent from Norway, but being able to do it from the southern periphery of Europe as well as the northern one makes the Royal Navy’s task much harder.  They need to maintain a fleet near enough to Spain in order to head off any Axis breakout there, while still maintaining a watch on German surface forces in France and in Norway, all oft this while convoying ships all over the world, and maintaining a reserve to deal with any German invasion of Britain.

Posted on Feb 3, 2012.

More Stuff For POD Members Only

What you see here is a truncated on-line version of a larger zine that I contribute to POD, the alternate history APA.  POD members get to look forward to more fun stuff.