Frivolous ASB thread

  Well that screws the German blitzkrieg.  Could be a much shorter WWII although quite possibly with much more of Europe ending up under Soviet control. - although another thought below on this!

  A lot might depend on the details.  Assuming that background industry isn't changed so they can still produce WWII weapons then they will enter service over the next few months but with its much greater production capacity and the lack of a need to move so much of its industry the Soviets should have the upper hand despite the mess their forces are in this period.  Simply the lack of most/all its motorised equipment and a/c would be crippling for Germany when its trying to storm its way deep into the Soviet Union.

  At what date in WWI are we talking about?  If near/at the start neither side have any armour or real motorised vehicles let alone units while a/c are extremely primitive.  If say 11-11-18 then Germany will have tanks and a/c in considerable numbers albeit primitive compared to 1941, especially the German tanks which were very large and cumbersome even if now in 22-6-41 numbers.  Soviet forces would be in a real mess due to the revolution and then Lenin's coup and the resulting disorder so they could have little/no a/c and not sure if they would have any armour at all.

  The other question is since this refers to German and Soviet forces then it means that other combatants are not affected.  In which case Romanian, Finnish, Hungarian and Italian forces on the eastern front have now become a lot more powerful in relative terms as they do have fairly modern armour, a/c, artillery etc.  Ironically for Finland if they get to keep them they have a fair number of captured Soviet tanks from the Winter War which might be very effective until the Soviets get new production in service.

  Similarly Britain's position is greatly increased.  German forces are now from 1918 at the latest so we have a huge technological advantage.  Their U boats will be a lot less effective while their surface warships will now be 1918 coal burners.  Too late to save the Hood but Tirpitz would be at best a Baden class BB and the twins would be say Lutzow class BCs from WWI, both a lot slower and with no radar, coal fired etc.  In the air BC could once Britain realised what had happened even revert to daytime raids as the German a/c would be able to do very little or nothing to stop it and could then possibly do a hell of a lot of damage.  Ditto in Libya while the Italians are unaffected the Afrika Corp are now deprived of competent tanks [having lumbering A7V ] and they have very little in the way of AT guns and no motorised transport or AA guns and very primitive a/c. 

  Its probably too much to hope for a quick British landing in France as it simply doesn't have the military strength at the moment.  However you could see a decisive victory in N Africa very quickly and possibly say a liberation of Norway given what would happen in terms of the defensive strength of the German occupying garrison.  Also such a sudden change in the military strength might mean Japan pauses about driving south.  Although it might try attacking the Soviets which would be bad for them in the short term but Japan is so far from anything really important for the Soviets and wouldn't themselves have the strength to occupy more than most of the Pacific region of the Soviet empire.  In doing so they would cut off L-L via this route but would tie themselves down greatly in an atrictional conflict they can't win and reduce probably fatally the strength of forces available for a drive south.

  Anyway a very interesting idea with a lot of potential perturbations.

  Yes but given their speed and [un]reliability their not going to get very far very fast and their sheer size will make them fairly easy targets once the Soviets get some AT guns or their own modern tanks start entering service again.  Also those WWI designs had large crews, 18 men for the A7V's so operating them is going to be a pig.  If they get such tanks replacing all panzers on a 1 for 1 basis they will need something like 4 times as many men simply to man them.  Not to mention the problems of supporting and servicing them, especially since they will be pretty much unknown to the WWII army and do they have any WWI spare parts coming with them?