A North African collapse could bring an earlier Italian break with Mussolini and open a different route into southern Europe, while Japan's defeat would also alter the overall endgame. British, Free French, and Italian forces might enter southern France or fight Germany in Italy without repeating the historical Mediterranean sequence. Britain benefits from keeping more merchant shipping and avoiding some of the debt and market disruption associated with a longer war. A 1942 end to the European and Asian wars is offered as a contingent estimate rather than a fixed result. Removing the Norwegian heavy-water story and shortening the conflict could also change the collaboration and industrial urgency that produced the Manhattan Project without preventing an eventual atomic age.
Chapter · 2:46:50-3:00:03
An earlier end to the war - and its wider consequences
The closing discussion follows a shorter war into Italian regime change, British finances, German commerce, and the uncertain development of atomic weapons.