I haven't been there yet, but it appears really cool. My general themes on this revolve around the defeat of Great Britain, and the relatively ripe fruit of the Med falling Hitler's way, while irrevocably isolating the Soviet Union. Alternatively, the neutralization of England bringing about the defeat of the Commonwealth in the Med. There are a ton of possible permutations off these. However, that these events didn't occur as is postulated points to the rare combination of diplomatic skill, strategic foresight, timing, and luck play into the outcome. Thanks for the read. I look forward to it.

One has to wonder what if the entire French fleet had fallen lock, stock, barrel, and fully loyal to a fascist and anglophobe officer corps answering to the K.M. Wow! One of the largest warfleets in the world, with hardly anything of consequence stationed in French Indochine, IIRC.

"One of the largest warfleets in the world," Exactly how large would that be?

Based on Overys 1939 figures in "The Road to War" the combined French /German /Italian fleet could look as follows... BB/BC = 7+2+2 = 11 AC = 1 CA/CL= 18+11+22 =51 DD/DE= 72+50+126= 248 SS= 80+57+105 = 242 The 1939 RN fleet would be... BB=15 CV=6 CA/CL=54 DD/DE=145

Would your line of speculation subtract the French ships lost by British action in 1940, or German losses through August 1940? Or add in US ships transfered to the British? What is the "AC" in the Axis list? Any way to pop up numbers on hulls under construction? Numbers for British submarines?

Sorry was typing that as I was running out the door to dinner,it means CV . I chose Overys figure simply as a start point you will have to subtract what they lost after the start of the war.I'm assuming here Nazis get to French Fleet before RN does. UK SS are listed in 1939 as 54 James Levy in his THE ROYAL NAVY'S HOME FLEET IN WORLD WAR II, lists the 1939 fleets as French BB 7+ 3 building CV 1+ 1 building CA 7 CL 12+ 1 building DD 58+ 8 building SS 77+ 10 building Italy BB 4+ 4 building CV 0 CA 7 CL 14 +12building DD 49+ 12 building SS 105+ 14 building Italy BB 2+ 4 building CV 0 +1building CA 5 +3building CL 6 +3building DD 22+ 8 building SS 56+ 55 building UK & Dominions BB 15+ 7 building CV 6 +6building CA 15 CL 22 +23building modern & 27 pre 1924 cruisers DD 103+ 31 building modern & 78 pre 1924 Destroyers SS 57+ 11 building Some of the discrepency between these and the earlier figures reflect differing criteria. For example Germany has 22 destroyers strictly speaking, but they also had a dozen older [late 1920s] Torpedo boats that are closer to DE but similar to RN older Destroyers. Similarly they also had another 10-20 smaller torpedo boats with lesser armament that blur the destinction.

Getting the German to the French fleet before the Brits do is tough. the Brits were holding back to some extent bcause they thought the Germans had not taken control. As it was they still managed to render a fair portion hors d combat without trying very hard. The French ships would have to move out of harms way long before the Frano/German armistice. The Italians were a tougher proposition. It took over a year to hunt down & sink a significant part of their fleet. Of course if the Nazis do get control of several French fast battleships and crusiers it makes the early war raiding strategy move viable and forces the Brits to take greater risks in picking off the enemy. ships.

True enough since the RN attack occured in early July. But if their was a apriora annex to the invasion of France , that involved planning for the invasion of the UK [as a part of a staff study], then that problem could have been examined. Germans could have moved Fighter and bomber wings to deter any battleships sortie and put the fleet on alert or dispersed it to other French ports?