my post was not dealing with carrier aircraft but in response to the discussion of air launched torpedoes. a guided SC 250 bomb would have been useful for long range aircraft to use, for instance the FW 200 Condor would use 3 bombs to assure a hit on merchant ships .
there could be some earlier M-R Pact or other dealings between Germany and the USSR? there was at least some consideration of offering Germany and Italy monies and/or territory by the Republican government to end any support for the Nationalist coup.
have Germany and Italy backed the Nationalist coup with an effort approx. like the historical events? have Germany and Italy had a falling out or chilling of their relations since the Nationalists were defeated? are Germany and the USSR in at least an uneasy collaboration in 1940?
a full blown...
the PE/Prince Eugen Hipper-class was an outlier too, with no more heavy cruisers planned and no other ships using the 8" gun caliber, the KM about as effective with (improved versions of) Leipzig-class and straddle the categories with their 6.8" guns.
not to say all the above a big improvement...
the KM plan was to return to diesel power for the Plan Z battleships, IDK exactly when that decision was made, but it is within the timeframe we are discussing.
a modest change would be to build a second set of Scharnhorst-class incorporating the changes they had on the drawing board...
it seems to me the RM and later the KM needed every sort of vessel more than speculative carriers, why not further develop the historical convert programs to add some aircraft handling? (in the spirit if not the details of the OP)
my prior allusion to the Sperrbrecher conversion of commercial...
have suggested something built off the Dithmarschen-class since reading they were considered as auxiliary cruisers, but the KM decided they were too valuable as supply ships to risk (this being when they only had five.)
a larger universe of the class could have been built putatively for...
combine both the above ideas across a wide universe of ships (for instance they converted approx. 100 large-ish commercial ships to Sperrbrecher mine-clearing ships/guard ships)
my prior speculation was for a fleet of tankers/supply ships of the Dithmarschen-class that could handle seaplanes...
it is an interesting subject, we would have to decide where Japan is in all this? if they are not in Manchuria (as suggested in the OP) or they have been dealt a major setback in the Second Sino-Japanese War (per my scenario.)
if China is not battling to reclaim parts of the country from Japan...
IDK @Carl Schwamberger it seems China-Japan would be in some sort of conflict, that would be nearly impossible to avoid? I had scribbled an alt.history for a successful KMT defense of Wuhan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wuhan, with a modest German air corps instead of the historical...
a realistic assessment shows the KM would have to fight a u-boat war and how can it best be supported? my speculation would be for a fleet of oil tankers, as Germany is both importing oil and chronically short of currency reserves, they could barter transportation for oil.
they could add...
do not want to offer speculation that this scenario is favorable or advantageous for Germany however it might have forced a more limited war on them, their later Panther-Wotan Line about as far as they get, with a capture of Leningrad replacing Stalingrad (in the timeline.)
that is a scenario...
it seems the Japanese regime (as it existed) could more plausibly improve relations with the USSR than with the US/UK?
we are way out in speculative territory here but the Allies would (likely) only embrace Japan if the USSR continued their collaboration with Germany? (I've always cited trade...