What might have followed if King George VI and Winston Churchill had gone to sea for D-Day and both been killed?
Short answerAnthony Eden would likely have become prime minister, while Princess Elizabeth would have become queen much earlier.
NotesAnthony Eden is treated as Churchill's acknowledged successor by 1944. A D-Day disaster killing Churchill and George VI would therefore trigger political and royal succession at the same time. Eden's premiership could in turn reshape the next election, although the electoral outcome remains open. Princess Elizabeth would become queen decades earlier than she did historically. The counterfactual rests on wartime succession positions and does not claim that such a voyage occurred.