Operation Unthinkable: Churchill's World War III

Operation Unthinkable, designed by Ty Bomba, allows one or two players to explore the possible outcomes inherent in the campaign that would’ve resulted had Winston Churchill’s plan for starting World War III in July 1945 been put into effect. For that to have happened, two changes in the timeline need have taken place during the first half of that year.

First, Churchill would’ve had to put off the British general election until after Japan was defeated. He had the political leverage to do that, but against all good advice he chose not to do so. He mistakenly believed the recent victory over Nazi Germany was enough to sustain his coalition government in power.

Second, he would have had to convince US President Harry Truman, then only recently come into office after the death of FDR, that preemptive war against the Soviets was the best choice among a limited number of strategic options. A close study of the debate that went on historically within the White House and Pentagon at the time concerning the idea indicates that, by March 1946, those Washington powerbrokers had become convinced a new World War – with the USSR as the primary enemy – was indeed coming and coming soon. Had that conviction taken hold in Washington just eight months sooner – and it well might have, had Stalin or Tito been only a little more aggressive in their territorial and political demands – this would not be an alternative history design.

The general flow of the game inescapably has the Allies on the offensive at its start. On the Soviet side, that player is immediately faced with a decision to either “fight forward,” with Berlin as the central core of that gambit, or retreating east with the idea of slowly wearing down the Allied offensive and then counterattacking into its flanks late in the game. Further, though the Allies have the ability to make paradrops and amphibious invasions, they lack the dedicated manpower necessary to make such gambits automatically decisive. Most games are decided either in and around Berlin or somewhere east of the Oder-Neisse line.

Each hex on the map represents eight miles (13 km) from side to opposite side. Each full game turn represents one week. Each unit of maneuver represents a corps or army. There are 192 medium-size (9/16”) units. Complexity is low-intermediate, and a game can be completed in under four hours. The system is solitaire friendly.