THE RED GAMBIT SERIES

I'm enjoying Opening Moves right now.  Very readable, seems realistic.  I had a couple of thoughts about the Council of Germany and Austria. I think the main concession that they would have asked Eisenhower and the allies for was an official repudiation of the Oder Neisse border for Germany and Poland.  That border ensured that a huge chunk of historical German territory, with, in most parts anyways, a virtually 100% German population was given to Poland.  I would imagine that an explicit promise of the allies for a return of Germany to its borders of 1937 would go along way to getting full backing from the council for an alliance with the allies. 

   Also, I wonder if some surviving Social Democrat and a Centre Party member from pre Nazi time shouldn't be on the council from the start.  Papen was in the Centre Party, but was on its right wing fringe.

   Concerning Spain and its pledge of the former Blue division to fight with the allies, I believe that upwards of 80,000 men served with the Blue Division over its history. Not at the same time, but over the years it fought.  Soon after Germany attacked the Soviets in 1941, Franco said that if the Red Army would ever threaten to take Berlin, a million Spanish soldiers would defend it.  Of course the western allies got in the way of any such rescue project, but such a comment shows that Franco would certainly have ordered a major Spanish contribution to any allied army in a fight with the Soviets.  Also, I could imagine Portugal also getting into the fight, both as it was a British ally, and as part of an anti-communist crusade.  Just like the Franco regime, the Salazar dictatorship would be in big trouble with a full Stalin victory.

Hi, and thanks for the opinions. Fair points indeed. Those selected for the council were done so that they may carry the population with them. There were a number of alternatives of course.

Oder-neisse has not, as yet, been ratified, something I clearly have not stated openly. Although the groundwork had been long in discussion, it was set in place at Potsdam, whereas Potsdam has not occured because of the growing tensions.

This is quite clearly an error on my part, and I should not have assumed that readers would grasp that automatically. I am unsure how I can usefully address that at the moment, but I will think on it.

As for the Portuguese and Spanish... watch this space.

Thank you for your contribution :-)