Cool scenario
Hi Jake
Excellent alt history. More likely than the 1950 Moon landing by the BIS solid-propellant rocket design of 1939. Stephen Baxter wrote a short story around just that scenario, but I personally couldn't see it happening. Then there's the crash program in the "Man Conquers Space" pseudo-documentary which puts men on Mars via the 10 ship von Braun fleet by 1969.
Yours I can believe. Shame none of it happened.
Adam