Wider-war roadmap

danube

Danube: the occupation breaks

1

Austria had four occupation zones and a separately divided Vienna. The Soviet zone was not simply all land east of a single straight frontier.

The German war ends four-power cooperation. Local clashes isolate occupation detachments and expand into a campaign across Upper/Lower Austria.

US and British occupation forces, French western-zone forces, Soviet forces; Austrian police and volunteers initially, not a ready post-1955 Austrian army. Polish II Corps reinforcements compete with its Bavarian assignment.

Linz, the Enns, St Pölten, Vienna; Salzburg and the Alpine approaches as rear areas.

Direct continuation of the southern German front. Passau and Regensburg provide the geographical hint; do not promise a particular German-campaign result.

Keep US Forces Austria distinct from Third Army unless a scenario order transfers control. French western Austria and contested Vienna matter.

Backlog — research before production

adriatic

Adriatic: the Morgan Line

2

The Morgan Line separated Allied and Yugoslav military control in disputed Venezia Giulia. Trieste’s final settlement was still being negotiated in 1946.

Border violence and a Yugoslav attempt to alter the settlement draw British/US troops and selected rearming Italian formations into open war.

British and US occupation formations, Italian cobelligerent/rebuilt units; Yugoslav Army. Italian readiness and Allied arms restrictions need an explicit wartime change.

Trieste, Gorizia, the Isonzo/Soča approaches, Ljubljana corridor; southern Austria connects the theatre.

Shares Mediterranean shipping and reserves with Austria. Slovenia and Croatia are geographic regions within Yugoslavia, not independent 1946 armies.

Tito can cooperate with Moscow while pursuing Yugoslav aims. Do not assume later 1948 relations or unquestioning Soviet tactical control.

Backlog — research before production

aegean

Aegean: civil war becomes an international front

3

Greece faced internal conflict and disputed frontier assistance to guerrillas from its northern neighbours; UN investigation followed late in 1946.

A conventional offensive from Bulgaria and/or Yugoslavia is a new WW3 event. Soviet and Romanian formations require a transit and concentration plan through the Balkans.

Greek Army remains central; British troops initially, US expeditionary formations later after transport. Greek communist guerrillas are distinct from Soviet, Bulgarian, Yugoslav and Albanian regular forces. Free Romanian/Bulgarian units grow here only after recruitment.

Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Thrace and Aegean ports; western frontier operations form a different axis.

Provides the home theatre for Balkan exile contingents and a bridge to Turkish Thrace.

Romania does not border Greece. Do not make irregular forces an instantly unified Soviet field army or treat Greek civilians as one political bloc.

Backlog — research before production

straits

Turkey and Iran: the Straits and the eastern frontier

4

Soviet pressure over the Turkish Straits and the Soviet troop-withdrawal crisis in Iran were real issues in 1946.

Moscow refuses or reverses its Iranian withdrawal; pressure on Turkey becomes open war. Choose either a Balkan/Thracian offensive, a Caucasian offensive, or a phased combination.

Turkish and Iranian national forces first; Soviet forces from the Caucasus and selected Balkan groupings; British/US air, naval and later ground support.

Turkish Thrace, Bosphorus and Dardanelles; Kars/Erzurum; Iranian Azerbaijan and routes toward northern Iran.

Aegean events affect Turkey, but eastern Anatolia is also directly exposed to the Soviet Caucasus. Iran is not a prerequisite for that threat.

Treat western and eastern Turkey as distinct operational theatres with long supply distances. Historical Soviet withdrawal from Iran must not silently become a permanent occupation.

Backlog — research before production

north

Northern approaches: Norway, Finland and the Baltic

5

Finland pursued a constrained postwar policy; Sweden retained neutrality. The historical Danish occupation-brigade agreement came in 1947.

Choose the trigger: Soviet movement toward northern Norway, coercive transit demands on Finland, or a Baltic crisis. Swedish entry requires a separate decision or attack.

Norwegian and Danish national forces, British/US expeditionary support and Soviet forces. Finland can resist, accommodate or be coerced; Sweden may remain neutral or mobilise independently.

Finnmark and the Arctic approaches; southern Scandinavia and the Baltic form a separate operational focus.

Denmark protects the northern land/sea approaches while Polish and British forces fight in northern Germany.

Neither Finland nor Sweden is automatically a Soviet ally. Amphibious/air/naval logistics make this a distinct production scope.

Backlog — research before production

asia

Asian war: a sequel-scale setting

6

China’s civil war was unresolved in 1946; the People’s Republic belongs to 1949. Postwar occupation and colonial conflicts competed for Allied forces.

The European war changes Soviet withdrawal, arms transfers and foreign intervention. Choose a primary theatre before extending the conflict across Asia.

Chinese Nationalists and Communists, Soviet Far Eastern forces, US occupation forces and Commonwealth contingents; Japanese rearmament is a separate, major fictional decision.

Manchuria / northern China and the Korean occupation boundary first; Japan as a base and vulnerable occupation commitment. Indochina and Indonesia are separate political wars.

Europe cannot receive the same Australian/NZ or US formations still committed here. Every cross-theatre transfer has one persistent identity.

Do not import the 1950 Korean War, a unified Communist China, independent 1948 Korean states or later equipment into 1946.

Backlog — research before production

india

India and the imperial settlement

7

Independent India and Pakistan emerged in 1947 in actual history; 1946 begins with British India and competing political demands.

Global war and the existing Churchill-election divergence alter the timing and terms of withdrawal. Choose whether independence accelerates, is delayed, or produces a different partition.

British Indian Army and British formations, with recruitment and political loyalties evolving. Later Indian/Pakistani forces need a defined independence and asset-division event.

Initially ports, garrisons and imperial supply routes; any frontier campaign requires its own conflict premise.

Manpower used in the Mediterranean or Asia competes with domestic stability and demobilisation.

Do not treat the Indian Army as an unlimited interchangeable imperial reserve or assume the historical 1947 settlement survives unchanged.

Backlog — research before production

rear

Africa and the Americas: a consequential rear

8

Do not assume a 1946 Latin American communist-state bloc. Cuba’s later revolutionary government belongs to a different period and Cuba is in the Caribbean.

Use shipping, bases, oil, food, recruitment and domestic political pressures before inventing new continental land fronts.

National governments and colonial administrations with their own interests. African territories and South American states supply resources and routes without becoming automatic combat factions.

Suez / North African routes, Cape shipping, Atlantic ports and American industrial supply.

Supply losses and colonial unrest can constrain the European war without requiring another campaign map.

Strategic importance does not require a playable land campaign. A specific intervention or revolutionary victory needs a researched local premise.

Backlog — research before production