Thanks to an last-minute illness in the family, Friedrich Zahn, Germany’s greatest statistician,[1] learns about Hollerith machines in 1933. As a result, Nazi Germany is more computerized than in our timeline, resulting in a successful blockade of Britain and Operation Sealion.
Note[]
Realistically neither could have happened.
Better statistical computers would not changed the lack of actually sea experience or the greater navy Britain had.
Britain had already done a study (in secret) that implied that if they very carefully rationed food they could do without imports.[2] All the breaking of the U-boat blockade did was lessen the pressure to put such a plan into action.
Another logic issue is Thomas E. Dewey being president. His youth and his non-interventionist stance as things deteriorated in Europe was a major drawback in nomination for the 1940 election (it went to Wendell Willkie). Now he did get the 1944 nomination but his 45.9% verses Roosevelt's 53.4% didn't translate to the Electoral College where Roosevelt won 432 to 99.
In OTL Friedrich Zahn died February 1, 1946, an honorary citizen of Wunsiedel.[3] Despite holding numerous high-ranking positions under the Bavarian king, Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany (as part of the SS), he is little more then a footnote in history.
References[]
- GURPS WWII: Weird War II pg 137
- ↑ born 1869
- ↑ "Could the Nazis have starved Britain into submission?"
- ↑ Aly, Gotz (2017) The Nazi Census: Identification and Control in the Third Reich Temple University Press