ASBs fill the Axis gas tank, December 1941

Its a boost for now. As soon as its damaged, the Axis doesn't have the ability to repair anything electronic. Anything made with tech from 1942 on is useless.

The stuff that Germany has can run around more. However, it doesn't really allow them to make much more of anything, as the German economy wasn't just limited by petroleum - It was limited by loads of stuff. Copper, Nickle, ferrous ores, coal, all that fun stuff.

It is probable that they run deeper into the Soviet Union in the 1942 timeframe, assuming the Germans can move the oil from North Africa to Italy and the rest of Europe. Albania will make for some interesting times, as there's not much in the way of infrastructure to transport either crude oil or refined products OUT of Albania.

North Africa will be interesting. By " oilfields, production and distribution infrastructure of Libya from its modern production peak" do you mean oceangoing transport in addition to pipelines and refineries? How about tanker trucks? Its entirely possible that the Regia Marina will have a short period of relevancy, prior to a more permanent abyssal residency. As I recall, the Italian Navy was seriously fuel starved for much of the war. However, the problem is, of course, that they're not nearly as good as the Royal Navy, due the the RN having been constantly at war for over two years, and the RM has spent most of it in port, so the levels of training will be HUGELY disparate. Not to mention the RN had started flooding the Med with subs. Having modern tankers will make thing interesting, as they can sail faster than contemporary tankers, and are more survivable, being built with double bottoms (mostly double bottoms, at peak production for the Libyan fields, I think) and may be able to take more than one or two torpedoes before sinking.

The Netherlands fields will make life interesting for a short while. I strongly suspect those fields will get the Ploesti treatment in fairly short order, as they are FAR closer to bases for both bombers and escort fighters than Ploesti. It appears that by the middle of 1943, at the worst, P-47s can escort there and back. I don't know what kind of production it could do at its highest rate, so I can't really estimate how much it would help.

The Austrian field maxed at about 55,000 bpd, which is a fairly good bump to the Axis supply. However, I can't find data to give you a hard percentage.

So, there would be more fuel for doing stuff. Training pilots, running armored units around, ferrying supplies with trucks, naval sorties, maybe even civilian usage. Training the pilots would allow for replacements to have more time in the air prior to entering combat. Unfortunately for the Germans, they did not tend to cycle their combat pilots to training units, so while more fuel would allow their novices more time in the air, I don't think it would be a long term improvement, as their replacement system for pilots was as flawed (in a different way) than the US Army's replacement system.

As far as I know, the submarines were not seriously short on fuel until the closing days of the war. They still did training in the Baltic and spent a lot of time at sea trying to cut Britain's sea lanes. It was the surface fleet that was hamstrung by fuel issues, and, to be honest, they served better as a fleet in being than an actual combat fleet, so no real changes there, except perhaps Tirpitz gets sent out one to many times and ends up sunk earlier.

Its in Russia that this is likely to be a major thing. Case Blue could, with more fuel, take all of the Baku region and possibly everything up to the southern Volga south of Stalingrad. Additionally, with more fuel, limited offensives could have been undertaken in the northern part of Russia as well.

However, in the end, Germany still goes down due to all the other problems it faces, not just shortages, but having managed to get most of the rest of the world to declare war on them. Its possible they get another 6 months to a year and a half out of it, but the Allies still invade France, and the Russians still have more men and equipment. Perhaps the Iron Curtain falls along the Oder rather than the Elbe, in the 6 month timeframe, or perhaps in the extra year and a half, its on the Vistula.

Belushi TD

It is my understanding that the German army was hamstrung by a lack of transport and armor rather than a lack of men in Case Blue. If you look at their rate of advance, its roughly what you'd expect infantry to accomplish. If they've got the fuel to run trucks along with the armor, you're looking at a much faster rate of advance.


If the war lasts 6 months longer, it probably lasts longer because the Russians are starting from much further east. If we posit that the Germans can take the Baku region to the Volga south of Stalingrad, they've got a MUCH better defensive scenario, because the Volga guards their southern front very well. Significantly fewer men and machines required to defend it. They can then concentrate the bulk of their men along the Leningrad - Moscow - Stalingrad line. They still have too few men, but at least this way the Russians have to fight like hell to make holes in the line to exploit.

So, if the war lasts longer because the Russians are 6 to 8 months behind where they were in @, that means that Eisenhower and the Allied forces keep rolling east for 6 months. When the German Army falls apart, like it did in late April 45 IOTL, its a sprint to the east. My guess is that by the time an atomic bomb is ready for use, Berlin surrenders to the western Allies, and no one wants to drop one on Poland or any other occupied country, so Japan still gets both fat boy and little man.

I think the OP stated that anything damaged downtime stays damaged unless they can repair it there.

Belushi TD