Normally I'd say the same, but IIRC the total manpower of the US+UK armies in 1943 are actually larger than what the Wehrmacht had on the Eastern Front. That's also not factoring in the air forces and supply, as Allied artillery was a huge factor in their combat power. Of course the question is what the supply situation is given the rail situation and partisans, plus the logistical weight of the air forces.
AFAIK Napalm was only available from 1944 on. The first use I can find is in Normandy as retaliation for the Germans shooting a bunch of SOE prisoners.
So I did say in OP only ETO=European Theater of Operations forces as of 1943, so the ANZACs, Marines, Africans, most of the Indian army, and elements of the British army are not part of this scenario.
Given that they're facing over 6 million front line Soviet troops advancing is probably a pipe dream and more likely they'll be trying to hand on by their fingernails in the defensive posture given their very limited replacement capacity (the Brits were worse off, but the US was running out of manpower even pre-Normandy due to industry demands for labor).
I see you're an optimistOh geez... the Western Allies get crumpled. I don't even think they'll have the chance to entertain brutal anti-guerrilla operations since they'll be too busy being routed and chased back to Central Europe or whenever the Soviets run out of the ability to just willfully chase the Allied forces westward.
La-la land
La-la land
Already noted that these Divisions are all over the world spread across various fronts;
Which doesn't tell the full picture given how much of the British and US armies were actually non-divisional corps and army level assets like artillery, AAA, cavalry, engineers, etc.
warfarehistorynetwork.com
www.ww2-weapons.com
The Soviet divisions were quite a bit smaller and rarely were at TOE from this point on, plus had substantially less firepower and flexibility, but there were a lot of them and a lot of replacements.
True, but Soviet army and corps (and army group) assets were limited as of 1943 and really only grew to major proportions over the course of the year and definitely in 1944.
I didn't count the ones in the US either, just averaged out the ones available over the course of 1943 in Europe.
I thought most horse fodder was found in Russia? The Axis forces lived off the land as much as possible and did so quite successfully. What they generally failed at was sending things home in anticipated quantities.
Oh, live and learn.
As a crisis it largely was by 3Q, but some shortages remained until 1944. Remember in terms of food Russian factory workers were still dying at work due to starvation as late as 1944.
I'll have to do some research on that one. AFAIK they tried to source that in Ukraine.
The maximum possible is two offensives of 300-500km each. After such a leap you stop to establish railroad supply as trucks alone no longer cope. It is almost like a Law of Physics
In OTL they did. About half of ALL L-L reached the USSR by way of the Soviet Far East.
I'd attribute that more to mismanagement than to actual shortages. Or to hearsay ...
Actually from this book:
www.cambridge.org
Interestingly I wonder if the greater mobility (initially) of Allied forces in 1943 coupled by a more flexible high command (theoretically) would allow them to retreat to more defensible borders. By 1944 the 'eastern armies' were begging Hitler to let them retreat to the narrowest point between the Baltic and Black seas to shorten the line and allow for the concentration of forces and to free up a couple dozen divisions as a reserve. Obviously he did not, but maybe given the lack of Allied divisions they might try that and force Soviet forces to overextend their logistics while a proper defensive line is built up as well as shorten their own supply lines, eliminate partisan threats to the rear, and fall back on better air bases further west. In that case we might well see the Allied armies form 'reserve' divisions out of the rear area elements that were above need (as the article said above they could have formed about 15 such divisions) to hold fixed positions like Soviet 'fortified zone' units and where their lack of combat training would be minimized. At that point it would be a question of where they'd find enough equipment to form all of those units, as they'd need a lot of firepower to make up for their inadequacies.How long and far is the Soviet advance going to be? Is it like the Rhine by Autumn or we going all the way to the Atlantic after the initial shattering?
Do the Western Allies get the Italian Army as Co-Belligerents on September 1st regardless? 😛
I really want the British Colonials and ANZACs to invavde through Persia or some nonsense like that.
Maybe the Japanese allow foreign shipping to Vladivostok via Lend Lease and the Pacific Army bursts forth World in Conflict style?