What if Hitler had won the war?

[wayne gayle]

Ah, I wasn't going to bother posting this but it's been floating around in my subconscious for some reason;
What IF Germany had won World War II?

[PigCapitalist]

Ah, I wasn't going to bother posting this but it's been floating around in my subconscious for some reason;
What IF Germany had won World War II?

Wie es gehend ist, Wayne, Gut?

[bundyv1]

Ich bin etwas aus der Übung mit mein Deutsch ...

[markinmanc]

'The Producers' would be a documentary, not a comedy.

[VirtualLab]

'The Producers' would be a documentary, not a comedy.
Yep it would have been 'Springtime for Hitler' alright.

[LittleBrownFish]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_man_in_the_high_ castle
http://imdb.com/title/tt0109779/

[Tod Unctious]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Green_%28I reland%29


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Kathleen

[Professor Piehead]

Ah, I wasn't going to bother posting this but it's been floating around in my subconscious for some reason;
What IF Germany had won World War II?

Liam2me would have been born in his very own utopia.

[strict66]

check out "fatherland" by robert harris und "the man in the high castle" by philip k dick . both are about postwar world where the axis forces are victorious
worth a read especially the latter.

[farel']

All of europe would be Ruled by one government, and most of our laws would be based on those coming from German diplomats.......


Oh Wait.....

[warren888k]

the buses would always be on time :D

[the puerto rican feen]

Watch Fatherland with Rutger Hauer

[Professor Piehead]

the buses would always be on time :D

Yes, but think, where would they would be going?

[the puerto rican feen]

Yes, but think, where would they would be going?

straight to the labour/concentration camp of course

[pudgee]

I'm thinking something along the lines of 'unimaginable hell'.

I'm also waiting for someone to make this thread about Palestine.

[markinmanc]

straight to the labour/concentration camp of course

Knocknaheeney?

I'm thinking something along the lines of 'unimaginable hell'.

I'm also waiting for someone to make this thread about Palestine.

You just did, you Zionist apologist! ;)

[pudgee]

Knocknaheeney?



You just did, you Zionist apologist! ;)

Zionism and Nazism are exactly the same. The fact that there are anti-Semitic Russians in Israel proves this.

Seriously though, even seen Jake and Dinos Chapman's 'Hell'? That's what the world would be like. Except real. And worse.

[markinmanc]

Zionism and Nazism are exactly the same. The fact that there are anti-Semitic Russians in Israel proves this.

Seriously though, even seen Jake and Dinos Chapman's 'Hell'? That's what the world would be like. Except real. And worse.


None compare to Stagecoach bus inspectors though.

[Hang_Sandwich]

Ah, I wasn't going to bother posting this but it's been floating around in my subconscious for some reason;
What IF Germany had won World War II?

meh they wouldn't have been able to control the lands they had invaded, within a few years they'd be back out of most of the countries again. - except france surrender monkey and some other bordering countries - they could never have held england russia holland norway etc etc

[Eau Rouge]

The only way Hitler wins the war is if the Luftwafe win the Battle of Britain, which lets Hitler go to Russia a few months earlier, thus taking Moscow before the winter sets in. The other possibility is the American's never get involved, but on that case Stalin wins the war, not Hitler, and we all end up speaking Russian.

So Hitler wins, the American's never get involved in Europe. That still leaves the Japanese. Would they still see the US Navy as a threat to their expansions?
If they would, then I'm not sure what changes, you still get WW2, and most likely Hitler gets involved. Maybe without two full campaigns in Europe to worry about, the Nazi forces are enough to subdue the US in the Pacific, but I don't see invasion as likely, leading to a big stale mate, just like the Cold War.

The real interesting thing is what happens to Europe after Hitler dies. That depends on what happened with the American's, and whether or not Hitler left a successor that could hold power. If the Nazi's had long enough to take real hold, you get a Federal Europe, if not, you get a Balkan-esque break-up, and possibly WW3 from there.

[JonathanAnon1]

Prob wouldnt have made much difference to the Nationalists up the North, they probably would have been less oppressed under German rule.

In response to Eau Rouge,
......remember 2/3 of German soldiers fought on the Russian front, 100,000 Russian soldiers died in taking Berlin alone, so for the Germans to have won the war they would have had to either (a) Not attack Russia - They had the Ribbentrop/Molotov pact up to the point in 1941 when they invaded, so war wasnt inevitable between the two countries. (b) beaten the russians, which after the catastrophic failure at Stalingrad was never gonna happen.

After the purges in the 30s (after all Stalin loved killing his own people even more than foreigners), the Russian army was in ribbons which is why the Germans were virtually able to take Moscow without much resistance on the way. The Russians were dragged into the war, and although they did invade Poland from the East in 1939 at the same time that the Germans invaded from the West, they were not prepared for a battle with Hitler's well oiled machine. It took a year to ready up.

I think the more interesting question is "What would have happend if the Germans/Russians/Japanese were the first to develop the atomic bomb?". If the japanese had developed this any time up to the Mariana's Turkey Shoot, i.e. when they still had a proper air force, this could have dramatically changed the Pacific war. hmmmmm.

[pudgee]

"Prob wouldnt have made much difference to the Nationalists up the North, they probably would have been less oppressed under German rule."

Fucking hell.

[O'Connor]

I guess the royal family in england would be german then.

wait!...I think they are german?

[pudgee]

I guess the royal family in england would be german then.

wait!...I think they are german?

LOL!!!

[bundyv1]

I guess the royal family in england would be german then.

wait!...I think they are german?

Some sort of cousins as well ..... I think

[Eau Rouge]

(b) beaten the russians, which after the catastrophic failure at Stalingrad was never gonna happen.

they were not prepared for a battle with Hitler's well oiled machine. It took a year to ready up.



I understood that the Nazi's had relatively little trouble dealing with the Red Army as they marched East, and that it was the harsh winter that bogged them down more than anything, and that winter allowed the Russians to regroup and fight back. Had Hitler invaded Russia a few weeks earlier, the harsh winter wouldn't have set in yet, allowing his troops to capture Russia before it could regroup. Is that not your view of it?

[Professor Piehead]

Prob wouldnt have made much difference to the Nationalists up the North, they probably would have been less oppressed under German rule.

In response to Eau Rouge,
......remember 2/3 of German soldiers fought on the Russian front, 100,000 Russian soldiers died in taking Berlin alone, so for the Germans to have won the war they would have had to either (a) Not attack Russia - They had the Ribbentrop/Molotov pact up to the point in 1941 when they invaded, so war wasnt inevitable between the two countries. (b) beaten the russians, which after the catastrophic failure at Stalingrad was never gonna happen.

After the purges in the 30s (after all Stalin loved killing his own people even more than foreigners), the Russian army was in ribbons which is why the Germans were virtually able to take Moscow without much resistance on the way. The Russians were dragged into the war, and although they did invade Poland from the East in 1939 at the same time that the Germans invaded from the West, they were not prepared for a battle with Hitler's well oiled machine. It took a year to ready up.

I think the more interesting question is "What would have happend if the Germans/Russians/Japanese were the first to develop the atomic bomb?". If the japanese had developed this any time up to the Mariana's Turkey Shoot, i.e. when they still had a proper air force, this could have dramatically changed the Pacific war. hmmmmm.

Much more than that. I can't remember a bomber ever taking off from a Japanese carrier, a suicide sub into San Fransisco?

[JonathanAnon1]

I understood that the Nazi's had relatively little trouble dealing with the Red Army as they marched East, and that it was the harsh winter that bogged them down more than anything, and that winter allowed the Russians to regroup and fight back. Had Hitler invaded Russia a few weeks earlier, the harsh winter wouldn't have set in yet, allowing his troops to capture Russia before it could regroup. Is that not your view of it?

Yep, I agree he probably would have taken Moscow if he had beaten the weather. Again, another decision not driven by practicality. But this still doesnt mean that he would have taken Russia completely. One of the issues with taking Stalingrad was that the supply lines were overextended. They had taken about 90% of the city when the Russian counter attack encircled them within the city. Goerring attempts to supply them from the air did not work. And as the Germans moved further into Russia (stretching their supply lines further and further) they would have faced similar logistical issues in other Russian cities.

I dont claim to be an expert on the subject, but I would think that three things would have prevented the Germans from taking Russia.
1. Like you said, the weather. German troops were not kitted out for the weather.
2. Logistical/fuel/food supply issues. Russia, well as it was, was a HUGE country.
3. The sheer numbers of Russians and their will.... "Not one step back"... etc etc.

Hitler has a lot answer for. The Russians boxed clever using Geurilla type tactics in the cities, but Hitler didnt. Invaded Russia too late.... didnt kit out their troops for the weather...... and was too proud too pull back the troops from Stalingrad when the situation was very very dangerous, which led to the loss of 200,000 troops and the turning point of the second world war in Europe.

I think Hitler was on a loser when he invaded Russia, but his intelligence before the war had told him different. If he had kept his pact with Russia, he would have had his full complement to hold the Western front.

But I guess that is why WWII is so fascinating. There were many points when things could have turned out different, given different decisions by the leaders.

[JonathanAnon1]

Much more than that. I can't remember a bomber ever taking off from a Japanese carrier, a suicide sub into San Fransisco?

I'm not sure what you mean. They sent torpedo bombers to Pearl Harbour. and they bombed the airfields on Guadalcanal, one of the first American landings in the Pacific.

I was more thinking that if they had the bomb, they could have eliminated the islands that the Americans had captured. For example, the Americans captured Iwo Jima so that they would have an airfield closer to Japan. One bomb would have killed everything on Iwo Jima. That's all that I mean.

[Professor Piehead]

Yep, I agree he probably would have taken Moscow if he had beaten the weather. Again, another decision not driven by practicality. But this still doesnt mean that he would have taken Russia completely. One of the issues with taking Stalingrad was that the supply lines were overextended. They had taken about 90% of the city when the Russian counter attack encircled them within the city. Goerring attempts to supply them from the air did not work. And as the Germans moved further into Russia (stretching their supply lines further and further) they would have faced similar logistical issues in other Russian cities.

I dont claim to be an expert on the subject, but I would think that three things would have prevented the Germans from taking Russia.
1. Like you said, the weather. German troops were not kitted out for the weather.
2. Logistical/fuel/food supply issues. Russia, well as it was, was a HUGE country.
3. The sheer numbers of Russians and their will.... "Not one step back"... etc etc.

Hitler has a lot answer for. The Russians boxed clever using Geurilla type tactics in the cities, but Hitler didnt. Invaded Russia too late.... didnt kit out their troops for the weather...... and was too proud too pull back the troops from Stalingrad when the situation was very very dangerous, which led to the loss of 200,000 troops and the turning point of the second world war in Europe.

I think Hitler was on a loser when he invaded Russia, but his intelligence before the war had told him different. If he had kept his pact with Russia, he would have had his full complement to hold the Western front.

But I guess that is why WWII is so fascinating. There were many points when things could have turned out different, given different decisions by the leaders.

Thank god for our gay mathematician.

[Edmund Blackwater]

Read Fatherland.

[Actin The Sham]

Has there ever been any other guys with the surname "Hitler," since the second world war?

[Tod Unctious]

I think some changed they're names to Hisler and the like, but i could be very wrong...

[warren888k]

Yes, but think, where would they would be going?

heh heh, maybe not as bad as where the bus takes me!

[wat_boy]

I dont claim to be an expert on the subject, but I would think that three things would have prevented the Germans from taking Russia.
1. Like you said, the weather. German troops were not kitted out for the weather.
2. Logistical/fuel/food supply issues. Russia, well as it was, was a HUGE country.
3. The sheer numbers of Russians and their will.... "Not one step back"... etc etc.


you could add the roads or lack off i should say to that list too, bad weather in russia was a nightmare for tracked vehicles as they just got bogged down for weeks at a time

[3pointplay]

Another delay for the Germans was they kept on having to bail the Itailan army out along the way, If not for that the Germans would have been in Stalingrad well before the winter kicked in.

[KC]

We would have a great national football team !

[wat_boy]

ultimately, Hitler was probably the main reason the Germans did not win the war, he did not trust any of his generals, kept relieving them of their command and thought most of them to be incompetent which was certainly not the case.

[wayne gayle]

Some interesting opinions there, but I suppose if Germany did win I would hope what would have happened is that a lot of good people in the world would take up arms and eventually defeat the Nazis.

[JonathanAnon1]

Interesting discussion alright.

I agree with both the guys above about the roads and Hitler's paranoia. If he had abided by the Russian pact, and occupied Britain and Ireland, he would have made it very difficult for the Americans to get involved in the European conflict. If he had headed East then to get the oil in the Middle Eastern countries, he could have linked up with the Japanese to attack the Russians. That would have been his best shot at winning the war.

[Nicewanbiy]

Hot dogs would just be called frankies.

[Darker Conscience]

Mweh, did the Russians not already have the Germans defeated before America even entered the war?

[Professor Piehead]

Mweh, did the Russians not already have the Germans defeated before America even entered the war?

December 1941, no.

[Darker Conscience]

December 1941, no.

Really??

My bad.

[Professor Piehead]

Really??

My bad.

Not really. The germans had got to within artillary range of Moscow by early December. I think the russian winter offensive from Zhukov and the siberian divisions began a couple of days before pearl harbour on December the seventh. The Russians knew that they only had to hold out until the winter, for the Germans, it could only go one way from there. Most people forget that the Russians removed whole factories by rail to beyond the Ural mountains, out of German bomber range, quite amazing.

I don't know if you've seen these before, worth a watch....

http://www.tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/4515

[wat_boy]

The germans had got to within artillary range of Moscow by early December.

14 miles i think it was

http://www.tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/4515

seen all of those on the history channel, very good

[Eleven]

Wayne, hate to break it to you, but nobody wins a war, no matter what the wise man George Bush tells us. People being killed no matter who’s side they are on, or a few acres of land changing hand only has losers on both sides. If you ever get the chance to read books by Antony Beevor on World War II, you will understand where I am coming from.

[wayne gayle]

Wayne, hate to break it to you, but nobody wins a war, no matter what the wise man George Bush tells us. People being killed no matter who’s side they are on, or a few acres of land changing hand only has losers on both sides. If you ever get the chance to read books by Antony Beevor on World War II, you will understand where I am coming from.

Yeah, I read Stalingrad and Berlin 1945.

[Professor Piehead]

Wayne, hate to break it to you, but nobody wins a war, no matter what the wise man George Bush tells us. People being killed no matter who’s side they are on, or a few acres of land changing hand only has losers on both sides. If you ever get the chance to read books by Antony Beevor on World War II, you will understand where I am coming from.

I think everyone on here understands that, with the exception of Liam2me.

[Wumble]

I understood that the Nazi's had relatively little trouble dealing with the Red Army as they marched East, and that it was the harsh winter that bogged them down more than anything, and that winter allowed the Russians to regroup and fight back. Had Hitler invaded Russia a few weeks earlier, the harsh winter wouldn't have set in yet, allowing his troops to capture Russia before it could regroup. Is that not your view of it?

No. According to Albert Speer no less, Hitler's attitude towards the Russian war-machine was based on bad intelligence gathered in the field: the Germans had a chance to inspect Russian armaments which were outdated and in poor condition and the message went up the chain of command was that all Russian equipment was poor and outdated. It wasn't.

This is to say nothing of his absolute conviction (before he realised the error of his ways and hailed "the Slav" as rather better at killing Germans than the Germans had been at killing them, in a straight-up fight) that to be Germanic was to be victorious. He was a raving lunatic, don't forget.

Hitler didn't trust air-power. To him, the tank was the future of warfare. This and hundreds of other fatal errors concerning the Luftwaffe, from the toleration of a smacked-up Goering right the way down to cutting costs and holding up work on a German jet-fighter that would have sliced the RAF and USAF a new one.

So, he was convinced that the Steppes would become German property with the simple expedient of throwing many destined-for-victory German troops and hundreds of thousands of tanks at the poorly trained and badly equipped Red Army. As I said, he was a raving lunatic. After Stalingrad, there was never any hope of placating the Russians and his greatest fear was hearing the rattle of ruski tanks over his bunker. He killed himself before he ever got to hear that but he knew there were less than a mile or so away at the time. He stabbed Stalin in the back and bet the farm on a frontal infantry and cavalry assault.

The US won the war with bombers and airborne troops. Any one of thousands of decisions made through the 1930s and right up to 1944 could have made all the difference. If some days had only been sunny, or cloudy, or stormy then we might have had a completely different 20th century.

I'm too tired to think about this. Bis morgen, kamaraden.

[Wumble]

Has there ever been any other guys with the surname "Hitler," since the second world war?

Patrick Hitler, his Irish nephew.

No, I'm not kidding.

It was eventually agreed that the Hitler name would be allowed to go extinct. No loss, for 'tis an ugly name.

[PigCapitalist]

Wiki Says


William Patrick Hitler was the only son of Alois Hitler, Jr., and his Irish-born wife Bridget Dowling. They had met in Dublin when Alois was living there in 1909, and eloped to Liverpool where William was born in 1911. Hitler's nephew is recalled by elderly former neighbors, and in Liverpool folklore variously as "Billy" or "Paddy" Hitler. The family lived in a flat at 102 Upper Stanhope Street, which was destroyed in the last German air raid of the Liverpool Blitz on January 10, 1942. It has remained a bomb site ever since. Dowling wrote a manuscript called My Brother-in-Law Adolf, in which she claimed Adolf Hitler had moved to Liverpool with her and Alois from November 1912 to April 1913, in order to dodge conscription in Austria. The story has been popular, but is dismissed by most historians as fanciful.

In 1914 Alois returned to Germany, but Bridget refused to join him, as he had become violent. Unable to reconnect due to the outbreak of World War I, Alois abandoned the family, leaving William to be raised by his mother. He remarried, bigamously, but re-established contact in the mid-1920s when he wrote to Bridget asking her to send William to Weimar Republic Germany for a visit. She finally agreed in 1929, when William was 18. Alois had another son with his German wife, Heinz Hitler, who, in contrast to his cynical half-brother, became a true-believing Nazi and died in Soviet captivity.

In 1933, William Patrick Hitler returned to Nazi Germany in an attempt to benefit from his uncle's rise to power. His uncle found him a job in a bank. Later, he worked at the Opel car factory and then as a car salesman. Unsatisfied, William Patrick persisted in asking his uncle for a better job, and there were rumors he might sell embarrassing stories about the family to the press if he did not receive one; among the rumors would have been his father's bigamous marriage. In 1938, Adolf asked William to relinquish his British citizenship in exchange for a high-ranking job. Fearing a trap, William panicked and fled Germany and then tried to blackmail Hitler with threats to allege to the press that Hitler's alleged paternal grandfather was actually a Jewish merchant. Returning to London he wrote an article for Look magazine titled "Why I Hate my Uncle."[1]

In 1939, William and his mother went to the United States on a lecture tour[1] on the invitation of William Randolph Hearst, and were stranded there when World War II broke out. After making a special request to President Franklin Roosevelt, William was cleared to join the United States Navy in 1944; according to a story printed in newspapers at the time of his enlistment, when he went to the draft office and introduced himself, the recruiting officer replied, "Glad to see you Hitler, my name's Hess."[1]

William Patrick Hitler served in the US Navy and the Naval Medical Corps before being discharged in 1947, after being wounded during the course of the war.[1] After leaving the service he changed his last name to Stuart-Houston,[2] married a German woman, moved to Patchogue on Long Island, New York, and had four sons. He used his medical training to establish a business analysing blood samples for hospitals.

He was married to Phyllis Jean-Jacques, born in Germany in 1923, whose sister had kept in correspondence with William via mail. After their relationship had begun, Patrick, Phyllis, and Bridget sought anonymity in the U.S. In 1949 they had their first son, who was given the name Alexander Adolph by Patrick. They would later have three more sons, by the names of Louis, Howard, and Brian William.[1]

William died in 1987 and was buried alongside his mother, Bridget, at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Coram, New York. [3] Phyllis passed away on November 2, 2004.

Howard, a Special Agent with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service, died in an automobile accident on September 14, 1989[4] without having had any children, leaving his brothers Alexander Adolph, Louis and Brian William as the last three members of Adolf Hitler's paternal bloodline. It has been said that these three have vowed not to have children themselves[5], and none of them have married, but Alex, now a social worker, has said that he knows of no such pact, and that if it had been made, it was made by the other two brothers without his involvement.[6][1]

Despite his public disapproval of his uncle's ideology, not only did William Patrick give his eldest son (born in 1949) the middle name of Adolph, but it has been pointed out that his adopted name Stuart-Houston is remarkably similar to that of famous British anti-Semitic ideologist Houston Stewart Chamberlain, often cited by Nazi sympathizers at the time.[1] The family, however, says that William had rejected Nazi beliefs and had embraced the American Dream and had been wounded fighting for the US during World War II.[1]

[Eleven]

Wayne, if you read those books, what's with the title of the thread so?

[thegillabbeygowl]

I have met many Germans over the last year.
They are a strange strange bunch.
I have not met a normal one yet.

[JonathanAnon1]

No. According to Albert Speer no less, Hitler's attitude towards the Russian war-machine was based on bad intelligence gathered in the field: the Germans had a chance to inspect Russian armaments which were outdated and in poor condition and the message went up the chain of command was that all Russian equipment was poor and outdated. It wasn't.

Hitler didn't trust air-power.

The US won the war with bombers and airborne troops.

On point one, this is absolutely correct. I watched on "The World At War", Hitler was quoted as saying that you just had to "Kick in the front door" and the whole thing would collapse or something like that. Only thing I would slightly disagree with is that you message gives the impression that the Russian were prepared for war, but this is not actually the case. Their equipment was outdated and the army was depleted by the purges of the 30s. It took them a year to get ready for war. Hitler very nearly took Moscow while they were doing this. Only Jack Frost, head of the Russian 4th Infantry, saved them. :-)

I'm not sure about Hitler not trusting air power. I haven't read this anywhere. He trusted them to a) Win the Battle Of Britain on their own b) Conquer Poland/France etc using the Blitzkreig tactics. C) Supply 250,000 troops in Stalingrad. Or maybe it was just that he trusted Goerring too much. He was full of s**t.

Although the Americans joined the war against Germany in 1941, they only really entered the European theatre on D-Day, so to say that the Russians pretty much had the war won by the time the Americans joined has some sense of truth in it. The Germans were on the back foot by then, think they were fighting in Poland by then, could be wrong, but the Germans were in severe retreat after Kursk which was two years earlier.

[wayne gayle]

Wayne, if you read those books, what's with the title of the thread so?

Sheesh, I said I'd read "Stalingrad" and "Berlin-1945" by Antony Beevor, which are historical accounts of The Battle Of Stalingrad" and the fall of Berlin in 1945.
Not hypothetical analysis' of what might have happened if Hitler won the war.

[pudgee]

I find it a little odd that this question is being discussed almost solely in military/strategic terms.

[wayne gayle]

I find it a little odd that this question is being discussed almost solely in military/strategic terms.

Yeah, I know I was kind of thinking more of what everyday life would be like for people under Nazi rule.

[Professor Piehead]

I find it a little odd that this question is being discussed almost solely in military/strategic terms.

The sword is more interesting than the pen.

[Wumble]

On point one, this is absolutely correct. I watched on "The World At War", Hitler was quoted as saying that you just had to "Kick in the front door" and the whole thing would collapse or something like that. Only thing I would slightly disagree with is that you message gives the impression that the Russian were prepared for war, but this is not actually the case. Their equipment was outdated and the army was depleted by the purges of the 30s. It took them a year to get ready for war. Hitler very nearly took Moscow while they were doing this. Only Jack Frost, head of the Russian 4th Infantry, saved them. :-)

Hitler tried to fuck comrade Joe up the ass. This is why the Russians weren't ready. Hitler was so convinced that communism was a faulty ideology that he was sure they wouldn't be able to arm in time and that when they did the results would be laughable. You just don't strategically beat the Russians on the ground in Russia. That's been a constant of European warfare for centuries.

I'm not sure about Hitler not trusting air power. I haven't read this anywhere. He trusted them to a) Win the Battle Of Britain on their own b) Conquer Poland/France etc using the Blitzkreig tactics. C) Supply 250,000 troops in Stalingrad. Or maybe it was just that he trusted Goerring too much. He was full of s**t.Just because you haven't read it, it isn't so? I suggest reading Speer and Burleigh to begin with. The airplane was a tool to Hitler, the tank was his obsession. This isn't my opinion, it's a historical fact.

Although the Americans joined the war against Germany in 1941, they only really entered the European theatre on D-Day, so to say that the Russians pretty much had the war won by the time the Americans joined has some sense of truth in it. The Germans were on the back foot by then, think they were fighting in Poland by then, could be wrong, but the Germans were in severe retreat after Kursk which was two years earlier.One of the most important functions of the US/UK etc. army (don't forget they weren't the only ones fighting) was the halt the Russians at the Elbe. The primary objective, obviously, was to crush Germany. The secondary was to provide a bulwark. The allies didn't like communism much more than they liked nazism. Then and there, it was the lesser of two evils.

I'm still too tired to go all counterfactual on this. Coffee. Need coffee.