What if Red Alert had a period accurate Allied arsenal?

[Killing_You]

***IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER***The following is a simple, for fun, thought experiment. It is not in any way, shape, or form, intended to reflect actual canon or the development of Red Alert: A Path Beyond. Let's just have some fun discussion!

INTRODUCTION   This is a question we've all spitballed at one point or another. We've often wondered something along the lines of, "I wonder what kind of Light Tank the Allies would have actually used?" Or, "If they didn't use the Abrams for the Medium Tank due to recycling assets from Tiberian Dawn, what would the Medium Tank be?" It comes up now and then in relation to specific units, but I had the thought of, "Why don't we collect this discussion here?" So, that's what I'd like to do. 

   But first, let's set the scene. Great World War 2 (or Red Alert 1, as we all know and love), is speculated to take place around the late 1940s-early 1950s. I've seen some specific dates such as 1949-1953 thrown around, though honestly I'm not sure what the source is. Regardless, the mere presence of Stalin supports this time frame, as in real life he was in office until his death in 1953 (though an alternate universe with no Hitler and no WWII could arguably extend his life and rule by a few more years, but that's a discussion for another time), so this is what we'll go with. Let's also account for the fact that old equipment often stays in the military for decades on end if it does its job well enough, and the idea that C&C is generally accepted to be ~10 years ahead of our timeline in terms of tech (with some notable oddball exceptions, such as the Chronosphere and Iron Curtain). In general, anything that fits the WWII or Early Cold War (c. Korean War era) should be acceptable.

  Now, for my initial post, I'm going to try to use a British, a French, and a German example, as those were the three playable countries in Red Alert. But really, any European country would count. (If you really want to cite American equipment, though, that can be counted amongst the small lend-lease force lead by General Carville, which would not likely be the bulk of the Allied army). 

   And now... we begin.

INFANTRY

   So, let's begin with the Infantry. I'll break them down by weapon type rather than unit, because otherwise we'd have the Rifle Soldier, Technician, Rocket Soldier, and nothing else. I'll also be sort of using APB's infantry roster as a reference for the sake of simplicity.

   For Assault Rifles, when doing (quick) research for this post, I didn't expect to find a whole lot of suitable candidates, and was prepared to just give them the FN FAL, but I got a couple of nice surprises. Germany, of course, would get the famous StG 44 (because seriously, who doesn't love the StG 44?), while Britain and France would get a couple of fascinating, lesser known rifles; the EM-2 and the CEAM Modèle 1950, respectively. You could argue that the FAL would be used across the board as it was in our timeline, and it likely would be in the running (alongside other candidates such as the G3) for faction wide late war adoption, but for the early-mid points where a lot of the arsenal would be manufactured in house, those are my picks.

   As for Pistols, though, there's no shortage of candidates here. Frankly, you could just go across Europe at the time and come up with a ton of suitable candidates. With that said, I did say that I'd go for one British, one French, and one German example, so how about... the Browning Hi-Power (which is technically Belgian, but it was adopted by the UK in our timeline, so it fits) for Britain, the MAC Mle 1950 for France, and the famous Walther P38 for Germany. (Bonus round: the Spy would use either Bond's famous Walther PPK or the Welrod.)

  Now... Shotguns... sad to say, there's basically nothing good here. As far as I could find, almost nobody outside of the US produced anything other than double barrel shotguns until Franchi came out with the SPAS-12 in 1979. The only exception is the Sjögren Inertia, so that's kind of our best bet outside of importing the Remington 870 or Ithaca 37 en masse. I know, I'm disappointed, too. But hey, sometimes you just gotta work with what you got.

   Thankfully, Sniper Rifles are much easier to find suitable candidates for. I think it goes without saying that the British would sport the Lee-Enfield since it's a damn good rifle. Similarly, it's hard to see Germany using anything other than the Karabiner 98k. France, however, doesn't have any world famous candidates, but it does have one that fits the bill quite well; the MAS-49.

   Onto the subject of Machine Guns. I'll be sticking with heavier General Purpose machine guns that would be used in gun emplacements, pillboxes, on vehicles, etc. Britain, once again, has an obvious choice in the form of the Bren Gun, although the Lewis Gun and Vickers K are also solid choices. France has a few good choices as well, though I'm going with the AA-52 for this post. As for Germany, well... how could I not give them the MG 42? Especially since the darn thing was tweaked to become the MG 3 and is still being used to this very day.

   Time to touch on Submachine guns. Here, I was real tempted to give Britain the Sten due to my personal love for it, but it makes sense to go with the Sterling (which did replace the Sten IRL) instead. France has a very small pool to choose from, but the MAT-49 fits the bill quite nicely, so that's what they get. Germany has no shortage of submachine guns to choose from, but ultimately I decided to settle on the Walther MPL. As much as I love the MP5, I have to admit that the MPL fits RA's time period and aesthetic just a bit better.

   Last, but certainly not least, Rocket Launchers. Technically, these can be separated into Man-Portable Anti-Tank Systems (MANPATS) and Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS). Let's tackle MANPATS first. Britain is easy here. PIAT. Boom. Done. France, same thing. All I could find for them was the 73mm LRAC, so that's what they get. Germany has a few good choices, but my inner Medal of Honor fan simply can't go with anything other than the Panzerschreck. Now, as for MANPADS... eh... none of the three countries had one of note until the Mistral as far as I can tell, so they all get imported FIM-43 Redeyes.

VEHICLES

   Right, with the infantry sorted out, let's move on to vehicles. This time, we'll just go down the roster of vehicles present in RA1. We'll ignore things like the RADAR Jammer, MCV, and Chrono Tank, since those were 100% fictional designs and I see no need to morph them to real world standards. I'm also not going to go into Supply Trucks or Ore Trucks since I didn't find that particular rabbit hole very interesting, and since the Mobile Gap Generator would've just been insert truck here with a miniature gap generator placed on the bed, that will get ignored. Same goes for the Demo Truck, as we all know it's just a Supply Truck with a nuclear warhead in the back. Just take your pick of the myriad of trucks available at the time.

   Starting off with the Ranger, I fully expected to find nothing for Britain and France, and just give them imported Willys MBs, but once again I was pleasantly surprised. I'll be giving Britain the Bedford MW, and France will get the Laffly V15. They're not perfect fits, but they're solid enough that the Red Alert variants could've been tweaked to fit this role. As I implied, however, Germany has a solid existing candidate in the Kübelwagen.

  Getting good APC candidates turned out to be an interesting case. I could go in any direction, but I opted to try and stick as close to the M113 as possible for aesthetic purposes. With this in mind, Britain has a few different possibilities such as the Universal Carrier, but I think the ideal choice here is the FV432. France will get the AMX-10P, though I was heavily tempted to go with the AMX-VCI instead. Now, Germany is an interesting case, and I struggled with this for quite a bit. About the only period appropriate APC I could find was the Sd.Kfz. 251, which doesn't fit the aesthetic I'm going for. The experimental Gepanzerter Mannschaftstransportwagen 'Kätzchen' was closer, but the visuals are still off. In the end, I decided that they'll be importing the Pansarbandvagn 302 from Sweden. I feel like I'm copping out a bit here with imports, but given that it's a period appropriate European vehicle that fits the aesthetic, I feel like this is fine.

   Jumping ahead to Minelayers, this is easy. Just take any of the above and add the necessary components (such as a shovel and winch) to create an Engineering variant. No need to overcomplicate this one.

   Now we get into the meat of where this discussion usually springs from, starting with the Light Tank. Now we're really getting into personal preference territory, as there's a TON of variants that have been tossed around over the years, largely thanks to World of Tanks and War Thunder bringing a lot of them into the public zeitgeist. (Friendly reminder not to leak classified documents on this or any other post, please!) Now, for Britain, they don't really have anything that fits the bill for a round turreted, 75mm gun, so this is going to be a "my gut" pick, and for that I think I'll go with the Crusader Tank. France will get the AMX-13 with the FL 11 turret for that distinct roundness. With Germany, I was initially tempted to go with the Panzer III and do something weird to justify this, but I stumbled upon an even better candidate: the Spähpanzer Ru 251. True, it was never made IRL, but I never said anything against experimental designs being turned into viable units for this alternate universe!

   On to Medium Tanks. Initially, I considered giving Britain the Centurion, but in my research I stumbled upon a tank that fits the aesthetic much better; the Chieftan, which is what I'll be giving to the British for this post. The French don't really have a whole lot of great candidates for this, but the AMX-30 fits close enough, so that's what they get. As for Germany, once again, there really is no better pick than the Leopard 1.

   Let's finish off ground vehicles with one that has been the subject of major interest in the last year due to the advent of a new model: the Artillery. I has a bit of a tricky time finding something for Britain, but the FV433 Abbot fits well enough, so that's what they get. France, on the other hand, there's no contest. Mk F3 155mm, hands down. Germany has a few candidates, none of which are perfect, but I think the Hummel works well enough for them.

   Now let's move to aircraft, starting with the only buildable air unit available to the Allies; the Longbow. This one is going to be a cop out, since Europe didn't have a homebrew attack helicopter until the Agusta A129 Mangusta, so I very nearly just gave everyone imported AH-1 Cobras and called it good... but then I stumbled across something interesting. As it turns out, the early stages of the Cold War nearly saw the advent of Project BO115, a German attack helicopter. So, for this post, we'll say that this project got completed and was adopted across the board by the Allies.

   Before we move on to navy, let's touch on Bombers, since they'd be dropping troops and parabombs every now and then. Britain has many, many choices here, but I'm going to go with the Handley Page Victor. France has significantly less choices, however, with the closest candidate being the Latecoere 570, so that's what they'll use until the Victor gets standardized. As for Germany, I'll give them the Junkers Ju 390.

   Time for Navy, starting with Gunboats. This one was a bit tricky, as what exactly the Gunboat was originally was a bit weird, so I looked at corvettes, patrol vessels, and light destroyers. Here, after sifting through dozens of potential candidates, I decided to go with the Flower-class corvette for Britain, the D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso for France, and the Type 139 patrol trawler for Germany.

   Destroyers are a weird subject, as guided missile based frigates/destroyers are a relatively recent thing, so the entries here will have their armament stripped off and replaced with a missile launcher. The exception is the British Type 22 Broadsword-class frigate, since that comes with a missile launcher as standard, and is the main reason why it was picked to be the Destroyer in APB. France and Germany will modify the Aconit and the Köln-class frigate, respectively.

   Last, but certainly not least... Cruisers. Or, as they should be called, battleships, given how they operate in game. Frankly, it only makes sense to follow through on that thinking. So, to finish us off, I will give Britain the Revenge-class battleship, France the Dunkerque-class battleship, and Germany the famous Bismark-class battleship.

CONCLUSION

   Whew. That took quite a bit.

   But what do you think? Do you agree with my picks? If not, what would you think would be better suited for these roles? Or rather, what would your ideal period accurate Allied arsenal look like? How would you arm the other nations? What, if any, of these would be across the board standard by the end of the war? Please discuss away!

[hunterX]

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