The Butterfly Effect: A British AAR

[El Pip]

It was also pretty vital to be one if you wanted to get onto the board of the bank of England. And most people did want to get on the board.

There's actually three different types of banker and man of finance at the time (mostly holding true to today): the become obscenely wealthy people, the city grandees who want honours and a ton of retirement boards and Quangos, and the City grandees, meaning City of London hierarchy, who want to get on the various Courts and become Lord Mayor.

Pretty much this, the last two categories can be blurry but there is a sharp divide between them and the first category. The divide is one of motivation not outcome or skill, some City Grandees were obscenely wealthy and some of the scrabblers who prioritised only money ended up bankrupt, often because they had tried to ignore politics.

Hence the interest in a series of 'leaguless' post war treaties, I suppose. More stuff needs to get resolved now rather than later.

But the resolutions are hard, unless you have the stomach for a lot of 'population transfers' and other unpleasantries, which the Soviets absolutely did.

Fascist thinking hasn't covered itself with honours so far TTL. Mussolini ruined Italy for a few decades. Germany has accomplished some internal short term progress and a lot of rearmenant but at the cost of midterm Catastrophe without a massive looting war or bakruptcy.

Outside looking in, the third way doesn't look quite so food for thought as OTL 1937/8.

Indeed, it will not surprise you there is a chapter brewing on this very subject.

Problen with Hungary from the Nazi perspective is they want a bit too much land in areas we want, and their other claims are also complicated because there's some Germans there as well.

Compared to Bulgaria which wants majority Bulgar regions, Macedonia (which at the time can be argued to be majority Bulgar) and Istanbul. Even their maximalist claims for the Thracian coastline and an adriatic connection at the expense of southern Albania aren't difficult. And none of it is actually land we want or claim.

This is entirely true, yet I still maintain Hungary ended up being the better wartime ally for Germany. Bulgaria never actually declared war on the Soviet Union, kept finding excuses not to co-operate with Germany and then ended up trying to quit the war early and declare neutrality. They made a very small contribution to garrisoning Yugoslavia and some of the bits of Greece they occupied, but that was about it. The only land battles Bulgaria fought in the war were after it had switched sides and was fighting against Germany, this is not a sign of a good ally.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

this is not a sign of a good ally.

A sign of good sense though.

 

[Killerduck]

I wish Chrome remembered my half written longer response...

Anyway, informative and interesting as usual. Many new stuff about Danzig I didn't know, and many stuff about Poland that I half known - they seem in character. Interwar Poland did suffer from main character syndrome, most of their schemes can be plausible only in HoI4.

And possible German-Polish axis sounds fun. New Entente always seemed incompatible with French plans for long and defensive war - if Germans are battering at Poland France cannot wait to fully mobilise and rearm, they are essentially forced into WW1 strategy but with much weaker eastern ally.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

I wish Chrome remembered my half written longer response...

Anyway, informative and interesting as usual. Many new stuff about Danzig I didn't know, and many stuff about Poland that I half known - they seem in character. Interwar Poland did suffer from main character syndrome, most of their schemes can be plausible only in HoI4.

And possible German-Polish axis sounds fun. New Entente always seemed incompatible with French plans for long and defensive war - if Germans are battering at Poland France cannot wait to fully mobilise and rearm, they are essentially forced into WW1 strategy but with much weaker eastern ally.

You can manually save your drafts using the post save function.

 

[Lord Durham]

I am just pleased that you are making the attempt. As it happens there is a summary post produced by @TheButterflyComposer which should help in getting you somewhat up to date, you can consider him to be my Boswell in this regard; The TBC Unofficial Summary Post

The TBC Unofficial Summary Post is a great reference. You should consider adding it to your first post index for those readers who may want to jump on board.

I agree with the Wraith interpretation obviously. There will never be any more detail than that, but it was such a huge factor in Nazi thinking and how they measured 'success' or not that you have to very cautiously brush up against the issue every now and then.

I can agree with @Wraith11B's interpretation, too. But I also thank @TheExecuter for pointing it out. Rules like this are important, especially as the Powers That Be above my pay grade can get pretty ornery, considering today's antisemitic climate.

Anyway, good post, El P.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

The TBC Unofficial Summary Post is a great reference. You should consider adding it to your first post index for those readers who may want to jump on board.

It remains out of date, but I'm sure it'll get updated at some point in the indeterminate future.

 

[Wraith11B]

It remains out of date, but I'm sure it'll get updated at some point in the indeterminate future.

A very @El Pip way of thinking... One that he would definitely approve of.