Board Thread:Timeline Discussions/@comment-7559950-20130911012534/@comment-1419039-20140720163814

Personally as far as Plausible is concerned, I don't think it would've been possible to pull off with Japan. Japan was already stretched thin with China when they started with Pearl, and I highly doubt even if they didn't attempt to attack Pearl that they would not be successful in defeating China totally. It's the kind of thing that screwed them over in the long term really.

Germany on the other hand, is simply a matter of luck. Remember that Stalin was still in Moscow as it was besieged. It wouldn't be unlikely if some German sniper would somehow manage to infiltrate the Kremlin and put a bullet through his skull. For all the evil Stalin did, his force of will kept the Soviet's together long enough to exhaust and eventually defeat Nazi Germany. If he dies, his successor would most likely be Beria, who is not even popular within his own party. A Plausible victory would see the Nazi's push the Soviets to the east of the Urals, and then focus on playing defense until the Western Allies are too tired to continue. Of course it would lead to a Cold War, but its very plausible.