"5th" French republic in 1946?

[Lascaris]

So Charles De Gaulle forms Rally of the French People a year early, in time to contest the French 1946 elections. His party wins ~41% of the vote as much as it got in the 1947 municipal elections. He goes on to win the presidency winning against a communist candidate in a two round election. France gets a semi-presidential system broadly similar to the 5th republic from late 1946, with De Gaulle winning one more election in 1953 (or alternatively elections in 1951 and 1956) before stepping down and Mollet's socialists getting the presidency.

France still joins NATO, not certain how De Gaulle handles Indochina and Algeria, although I suspect he does not cling to Indochina for as long as the 4th republic at the very least. No idea about Suez although I would not be surprised if it happened, don't see Le Grand Charles accepting Nassser getting ideas. But what about military projects in the TTL France? I'd expect an earlier nuclear program and Dassault still coming to dominaye the aircraft industry but post that the devil is in the details I suppose...

 

[Archibald]

It happens in France Fights On universe, but with a 1940 POD.
Not sure it was feasible OTL with 1945 POD. If De Gaulle threw the towel in 1946 (and the guy was stubborn) there must be some big roadblocks he couldn't get past.

 

[Archibald]

De Gaulle probably give up Indochina (too little, too far) but Algeria ? no way. It was very much seen as a full-blown department or region just like Brittany or Corsica, so no way it escaped France grip. Even a visionary like De Gaulle would probably fall in this trap.
If the "7 year presidency" is applied from 1946, then 1953, 1960 and 1967 would be election years. Whether De Gaulle would hangs to power THAT long is hard to guess;

 

[Archibald]

As mentionned Dassault would probably dominate even earlier, from Ouragan onwards, 1949. As for the nuclear program, British OTL dates are indications of what France could achieve (US aid to GB on nuclear matters was ON-OFF during the 50's).
Depends how heavily does the Algerian conflict weights on the overall budget, probably right from 1945 (Setif massacres, May 8 1945).
France also has to rebuild.

 

[Michel Van]

With De Gaulle as French President in 1949
The Nuclear Bomb get full support
But also it's delivery systems

One of them is the Super V2 program
first rebuild of V2, then Improvement, then storable propellant like the A8 proposal
in end a MRBM with 2 big solids and winged A8 as Core to bring nuclear warhead to Moscow

since France need testing of this version, it's very likely that they do Satellite launches in 1950s

 

[Lascaris]

As mentionned Dassault would probably dominate even earlier, from Ouragan onwards, 1949. As for the nuclear program, British OTL dates are indications of what France could achieve (US aid to GB on nuclear matters was ON-OFF during the 50's).
Depends how heavily does the Algerian conflict weights on the overall budget, probably right from 1945 (Setif massacres, May 8 1945).
France also has to rebuild.

Duy Tan's aircraft crashed before 1946, but if you start from sometime around 1943 to get Charles the great in power he offers an obvious avenue of Vietnamization so to speak. Algeria sure De Gaulle is certain to fight. But I suspect he's equally certain to be giving extensive rights to the Algerian population after 1946 and not care about colon reaction.

Side thought about French nuclear program. In OTL De Gaulle scuppered the cooperation agreement with Italy and Germany but with the French economy doing generally well and the program at an advanced state the cost of doing so was limited. The calculation around 1955 may well be different. Of course to extend things if this actually go forward, it's hand in hand with "Mirage IIIs" (or the reasonable fascimile thereoff Dassault designs) for both Luftwaffe and AMI...