Operation Unthinkable: 'Russia: Threat to Western Civilization'

British War Cabinet, Joint Planning Staff (via NR's "The Corner") ^ | May 22, 1945 | British War Cabinet, Joint Planning Staff

[Mount Athos]

As the Second World War drew to a close, Churchill asked the British chiefs of staff a simple question: What would it take to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and Great Britain? Their answer: More than we’ve got. (Link to 37 declassified pages, jpeg format)

[Mount Athos]

Many conservatives wonder why we didn't confront communist menace at the end of WWII, to avoid putting millions through the misery of the cold war. The giveaway at Yalta is particularly baffling and maddening for many. This document shows that Churchill considered an alternate possibility. Further discussion and review at http://corner.nationalreview.com/

[WoofDog123]

fascinating read, I would assume this was a topic being discussed between the UK and US at some levels in the late stages of the European theater of the war.

[yldstrk]

It is apparant from the report that the Allies simply could not take Russia on at the time.

Interesting and fascinating to know they considered it, however.

[LibLieSlayer]

Patton could have taken them and he vowed such.

LLS

[HenpeckedCon]

The allies would have been slaughtered. The Soviets had over 400 divisions. The allies barely had 100. Even if we rearmed the Wehrmacht it would have been a bloody and ultimately losing battle.

[Justa]

The Soviets had 1500 divisions, superior tanks and much more artillery. We had air power, shorter supply lines and the bomb. It’d have been ugly but we likely could have defeated them with the same tactics used against the Germans: fix the enemy with ground forces, use air power to destroy their supplies and armor concentrations then go on the offensive. Advance, repeat.

[LibLieSlayer]

We were feeding them... clothing them and fueling their tanks... We OWNED the air. They would not have been able to sustain the needed action.

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

See my post below yours. I have studied this for years.

LLS

[HenpeckedCon]

We’ll never know, but one thing is for certain. The U.S. Army would have lost a lot of good men.

[Wallace T.]

If the British government, which was more anti-Communist than the U.S. government at the time, issued an essentially negative appraisal of British and American success in an offensive war against the Soviets, you can trust that they were being realistic. However, had the Republicans won the Presidency in 1944, even with a proto-RINO like Thomas Dewey, the U.S. would not have allowed the Soviets to occupy eastern Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, and pushed further eastward in Germany, perhaps even taking Berlin ahead of the Red Army. By April 1945, German resistance to British and American advances had diminished, even as they continued to fight the Soviets to the death. The German rank and file attitude, except for the remaining Nazi zealots, was better the democratic Western powers than the Communists.

[ModelBreaker]

Many conservatives wonder why we didn't confront communist menace at the end of WWII, to avoid putting millions through the misery of the cold war. The giveaway at Yalta is particularly baffling and maddening for many. This document shows that Churchill considered an alternate possibility. Further discussion and review at http://corner.nationalreview.com/

We have long known that Churchill was worried about this issue. Among other things, he argued himself blue-in-the-face with Roosevelt to launch an invasion thru the Baltics. The reason was to change the facts on the ground post-war. Roosevelt had already decided to partition Europe with the Soviets and ignored or actively interfered with all of Churchill's attempts to prevent or mitigate the effects of post-war Soviet occupation of Europe.

[Max in Utah]

I don’t know about the shorter supply lines part, but we could have mass-produced the new German jet fighters and we also had heavy long range bombers, which Hitler never did.

[Gritty]

Interesting reading.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

I have studied this for years.

Have you studied this: There was one reason and one reason only why the United States was unified in WWII as in no other war in its history (no, not the Jap sneak attack): The Left saw it as the saving of Soviet communism. If the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact had held six more months, war against a Germany backed by Stalin would have split this country in two. And most of Roosevelt's administration would have been in the wrong half. (Remember Henry Wallace?) After all the "Uncle Joe" propaganda during the war, it would have been even worse in 1945. Stalin had to start it and he waited three years.

[Justa]

The Soviets had a logisitics nightmare for supplying their forces. They had to rebuild the roads, rails and ports as they went hence their stop-and-go progress westward. Coming from the Urals their supplies had about the same distance as from America but was very vulnerable to interdiction. They'd have been stopped where they were just by losing the oil and transports sent by Lend Lease.

Imo the best equipment the Germans had for practical use was their panzerfaust man-portable anti-tank weapon. We didn't have anything comparable until the 1980s. The factories and supply chains for their other superior weapons were inoperable at the end of the war so their jets, Type XX subs, V2s, tanks, etc. would not have parts or replacements.

[Max in Utah]

I think we could have defeated the Soviets in a determined effort, but after living through the Depression and fighting the Axis powers, most Americans were more than ready for peace and a little prosperity for a change. Unless the Russkies had launched a Pearl Harbor-type attack on us we wouldn’t have had a chance of enlisting civilian support for a new fight.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

The allies would have been slaughtered. The Soviets had over 400 divisions. The allies barely had 100.

Yeah, but we had The Bomb.

Adios, Moscow.

[N3WBI3]

Except theres that pesky Russian Winter it doomed Napoleon, Hitler, and would have probably shredded the Allies. The war could only have be won via a blitz using air power and the bomb... Too ugly to fight *especially* right on the heels of WW2 other than the brits (who were themselves pretty beat up) only the US had a true fighting capacity.

[LibLieSlayer]

What you say is true... but we did lose tens of thousands of American lives in confronting the Soviets from the end of WWII until this very day. How many European lives would have been spared if they had not been allowed to fester? Sometimes great sacrifices are necessary to prevent larger sacrifices... something America has a tradition of ignoring. Much the same with the WOT today... too many just think if we all sing cum ba ya... we will live in Nirvana. How much of a threat would iran be today if we had followed Patton's advice?

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

Oh... you mean “Mr. Roosevelt's War”? (sarc)

LLS