Operation: Unthinkable (Unthinkable)

Operation Unthinkable was a code-name of two related plans of a conflict between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Both were ordered by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1945 and developed by the British Armed Forces' Joint Planning Staff at the end of World War II in Europe.

On May 16, 1945 the Allies launched Operation Unthinkable, launching immense surprise attacks on Soviet troops stationed in Eastern Germany. The United States of America and the British Empire aimed to oppose the Soviet demands of a communist Easter Europe and to impose the will of the Western Allies. The operation first consisted of simultaneous surprise attacks on Soviet troops, and then to push their forces out of Germany. Approximately 10 Wehrmacht division were reorganized, and more were acquired from their former occupied zones and territories of Denmark, Norway, Bohemia and Moravia, Austria, the Netherlands, southern France, and the Baltic Republics. This later formed up to 300,000 German troops or 30 divisions. Former German generals that led OB West such as Gerd von Rundstedt and Albert Kesselring were soon put in command of the newly acquired German divisions.

A grand total of just over 6,000,000 troops were soon placed in immediate combat against Soviet troops. Rearmed panzer regiments along with the air superiority of the Western Allies soon initially decimated the Soviet forces stationed in the east. However, the operation was led slowed down by the downpour of large quantities of Soviet reinforcements.

Other nations from Eastern Europe, such as Romania, the Polish Armed Forces in Exile, and Greece soon joined the Western Allies in their operation against the Soviet Union; while other nations such as Bulgaria and Yugoslavia remained allied with the Soviet Union.

The operation ended following the slow paced retreat of Soviet troops from Eastern Germany.