A shorter European war leaves Britain and France stronger, less dependent on American military power, and still joined by a substantial combined fleet. The Soviet Union might continue its battleship ambitions without having conquered Eastern Europe or acquired the same postwar strategic position. That produces a different naval competition from the familiar American-Soviet Cold War. The balance remains open because extending a 1940 counterfactual much farther would exceed the evidentiary limits set at the start.
Notable Point · 3:01:03-3:01:42
A different postwar naval balance
The closing thought replaces the familiar Cold War with a stronger Anglo-French bloc and a Soviet Union outside Eastern Europe.