Throughout the years France is known for its hardships in keeping promises. One of the greatest examples being how they promised their battleships to the British should they fall to Nazi Germany, yet they destroyed the ships instead of giving them.

Well what if they actually went through with their promise and gave the 241 battleships they had.

This Alt history scenario was requested by @sMayer11 , thanks to them for suggesting this interesting scenario and let's jump right in.

Now when France fell they had approximately 242 battleships. All of these were promised to the British should France fall to Hitler. However when France did fall in 1940 they destroyed about 50 of the ships and before they could destroy any more, the rest were forcibly taken by the Germans.

Now there are actually 3 scenarios for this. Let me get the 1st one out of the way real quick.

Now there was a high chance the warships would never reach the British due to Italian warships patrolling the Mediterranean and the German U boats patrolling the Atlantic. So ships may be captured or destroyed and never to be seen again.

However let's say Britain does get the 247 warships. Here's what could have happened.

The first scenario would be Britain launching an offensive. Let's begin. Operation Doomsday would begin on 4th July 1940 by the British with the help of their colonies. Approximately 80 000 troops from India, Canada and Australia are sent into Norway. Britain wouldn't dare something like this due to its low supplies. But in this time line the extra warships are extremely helpful and the British warships can be used to easily defend the British Isles. The northern European sea would be firmly under British control and their determination would throw the Germans out of Norway. After 3 weeks Norway becomes a puppet state of the British producing steel and oil and coal to the content of the British. 25th July and operation Sea Lion is commenced by Hitler. The German airforce is sent into British airspace however the British airforce is much more powerful due to more numbers thanks to the steal mines of Norway. The German troops who try to invade through the channel are obliterated by British warships. Operation failed.

August 1st-30th, no major conflict between the Germans and the British as both prepare for battle. Finally September 1st. Operation Dane. Freeing Denmark and digging a channel to separate the small land from Germany.

About 300 000 troops are prepared. The superior British airforce plunders the German planes and the combined British and French warships gain superiority and prevent Germany from sending further troops into Denmark. Churchill orders the tactical and strategic bombers to keep blasting the already weak lands connecting Denmark to Germany until the Battleships are also ordered to do the same. After 3 days Denmark is officialy an island and the German troops are stranded there. Hitler was unable to do anything the presence of the strong airforce and a strong navy. September 5th, British troops arrive in Denmark and take the lands with little to no resistance, the newly made island is also put to use to produce iron and steel.

I have reason to believe the war would be a stailmate in Europe and in Africa because of Britain being able to hold back the Axis due to their navy and new airforce. In this time line the British would wait until the Germans finally invaded the USSR and did something else stupid such as declare was on the US which would than help them win the war.

Now let's see how they would use the ships as a defense mechanism. 25th of July, operation sea lion and the invasion of Britain by Hitler. The mission was a fail due to the high amount of anti air weapons and the powerful British Airforce. Egypt would not be under as much pressure as the warships would be able to clear a path for supplies. Britain would be playing it as defensive as possible trying to build up resources.

Than on June 22nd 1941 operation Barbarossa would begin and the Soviets would join the allies, finally Britain wouldn't be alone. Than later on December 7th, after the attack on Pearl Harbour, the USA would declare war on Japan causing Hitler to declare war on them which would make the United States declare war on them. Finally the British wouldn't be alone.

Than on 3rd January 1942 Britain with the help of the warships, invade Sicily with some 400 000 troops this time having American soldiers as well. Slowly they would move up the Italian peninsula, how ever winter would come and they would have to settle in. At the same time after 7 months operation Normandy would take place landing troops in Northern France and slowly capturing the German lands. Meanwhile in the east the USSR would be ready to to push back and do exactly that. And than in 1945 Germany would fall and it would mostly be like our timeline.

However a more accurate timelines would be that Britain would use these ships to instead bring in more and more troops from it's colonies and try to attack Germany even before operation barbarossa. Here's how it may have gone.

April 27th 1941, Britain is still alone in the war against the Axis, so they decide to take matters into their own hands. Over the past year ever since the fall of France they had gathered thousands of soldiers especially from the heavily population British Raj, with the promise of separating it into Pakistan and India and giving full independence later. After they confirmed this hundreds of thousands of Indians joined and along with Canadians, Australians and some French and Polish regiments that survived. An army of almost 1 million is ammassed. With a large number of tanks and artillery and not to mention the might of the British navy, they would try to invade the Italian peninsula. They would again go up til Rome where they would have to enter a sort of siege. However unfortunately for them, this change of history would cause Hitler to delay operation Barbarossa and send the army prepared for the occasion to Italy in an effort to reclaim the peninsula. Although Britain would have Naval superiority the Germans and Italians would together have land and air superiority causing them to capture and destroy most of the British armies, Britain would lose 950 000 troops with the rest being captured. Their army would be defeated and they would have no army left except for some troops left to defend the homeland. This would inturn leave India, Australia and Canada stranded and while Canada was safe due to the USA. Australia and India would be largely at threat due to Japan, this would than cause Britain to play it even safer until the US and USSR would join the battle.

However this might very well be the fall of the British as by this point pearl Harbour and barbarossa wouldn't happen. Japan might delay Pearl Harbour as Australia and India would be ripe for the taking. Thus the Axis powers might focus the majority of their troops on Britain and may very well end their reign, although the main British Isles wouldn't fall and Canada would be safe, Africa, India and Australia may just very well fall.

Well there you have it. I hope you enjoyed reading and leave your suggestions for any other ending which could have happened here and if you want to give me a suggestion for an Alt history event feel free to ask. Good bye!