Operation Unthinkable (Churchills Plan for War with the Soviet Union)

[tonycavanagh]

A bit of what might have been History to chew over for all the armchair strategists out there.

I count myself amongst this lot.

Tony

[tonycavanagh]

What might have been.

Tony

[tonycavanagh]

Any views could it of succeeded

[Nogbad]

After WWII, the pacifist mathematician, Bertrand Russell, advocated using the atomic bomb against Russia before they obtained it.

[green team 1999]

great finding thanks.

[tonycavanagh]

What do you think Serge could Russia of taken on a combined American British army.

Tony

[2banana]

The resulting battle plan included the use of up to 100,000 German troops to back up half a million British and American soldiers attacking through northern Germany.

Well, the Germans attacked Russia with over a million men and it did not turn out so well. On the other hand, I am sure American forces would also be coming WEST right after they finished up with Japan

[tonycavanagh]

I hought it would make a change from all the Harry Potter Threads.

I wonder if it has ever been wargamed.

Tony

[7thson]

Maybe it could, maybe not. Don't forget. By this time, our State Department was infiltrated with lots of sympathizers. It could have succeeded if we used the A bomb. At that time, in 1945, we - the United States - was the only one who had it. Russia, with the rest of the world, was in shatters. We could have taken a plane right over Moscow and wiped it out. No more Stalin, etc. Maybe if Harry Truman could have been given a glimpse of the future to come he might have ordered it. Korea, Vietnam, Greece, China, an out of control CIA, JFK, Cuban Missile Crisis, Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson, terrorists, the Iran hostage crisis, etc. Most of this happened due to Communism.

[OK]

There go you Brits trying to steal George Patton's idea.

Whoever thought of it, it was a brilliant plan. It would have saved a lot of global agony all these years.

[Captain Kirk]

Source please?

[Campion]

Patton would have loved this.

[GreenLanternCorps]

Tony,

As a wargamer, I can say that this, and just about any other scenario like it has been wargamed.

GLC

[Snuffington]

I think such an attack was strategically possible, but probably not politically survivable. I just don't see how the U. S. or British public would back another war so soon on the heels of defeating Germany.

Assuming political unity, I think the men and material resources of the U. S. and Britain would have been more than a match for the Soviet Union. U. S. and British industry were outproducing the Soviets by far. We would have easily gained and held sea and air supremacy. And remember, we had the bomb by that point. Stalin wouldn't for many more years.

[tonycavanagh]

re : As a wargamer, I can say that this, and just about any other scenario like it has been wargamed.

What was the result or results.

Tony

[SgtSki]

The Alllies plus the Germans from the west. The US plus the Japanese from the east. The atomic bomb who knows?

[tonycavanagh]

re : but probably not politically survivable. I just don't see how the U. S. or British public would back another war so soon on the heels of defeating Germany.

That is how I read it, the Soviet Union was an ally, there was still Japan to beat, and with Germany and Japan beaten the people would want their boys home.

Tony

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I have to agree. The US was certainly sick of war and would have been hard pressed to justify a "preventitive" attack on a former ally. Americans wanted to come home and resume normal lives and I suspect the Brits did too.

[tonycavanagh]

Hi Captain Kirk forgot to post a URL, but if you put Operation Unthinkable into your search engine you will get a lot of information on this plan.

Tony

[LarryLied]

It would have worked for two reasons:

Two million Soviet and Eastern Europeans found themselves on our side of the line when WWII ended. We shipped them back to imprisonment and death under Stalin. Many committed suicide rather than return. We could have used them to invade the Soviet Union.

We had a monopoly on the A-Bomb for 4 years.

The reason we did not push on to Moscow was not because it was impractical. It was because of traitors in both the US and British governments.