Italia Eterna

[Mr.Bluenote]

I'm presently sketching out an ATL were Italy says neutral in WWII and the Japanese Empire declare war on only the USSR in early '41.

The primary POD is the meeting between Hitler and Mussolini in ´34 and the secondary is Erhard Milch seeking refuge in Italy after Goerings accidental death in a car crash in the midthirties (Der Dicke apparently helped hide that Milchs' Jewish ancestry) At the meeting Mussolini begins to see Hitler as a loose canon and a mad man. Later Milch and Italo Balbo amongste others implements more of Douhets thoughts on modern warfare etc etc.

So my question is, if Britain don't have to fight the Italians in the Med or the Japs in the Far East (not before ´41 anyway), how will they deploy their forces and more importantly how will they wage the war? Will we see larger Diepp-style raidfs or even an invasion attempt by Britian alone?

Best regards and all!

- Mr.Bluenote.

Honeste vivere, alterum non ladere, suum cuique tribuere!

[NHBL]

They will still have to guard against Italian or Japanese actions, which will tie down significant forces, but not as major as in OTL.
Note that they were not at war with Japan in the far east until late 1941, so no difference at all there.
No chances can be taken with the Suez Canal whatsoever, so forces must stay there.
The supply situation gets better, since the garrisons in Africa aren't uising supplies at combat rates. In addition, perhaps Britain might buy food from Italy, to be shipped in Italian hulls.
Germany doesn't have to bail out Mussolini afer some of his fiascos, so Germany has more forces as well.
This means Britain may well carry out more raids, but won't have what it takes to even consider an invasion.
Is Germany at war with the USSR? This will be play a key role (to massively understate things) in what else is going on.

[Mr.Bluenote]

Is Germany at war with the USSR? This will be play a key role (to massively understate things) in what else is going on.

Yes, the German do their usual thing :) First Poland, then France/UK and the USSR! Except I think they leave Denmark and Norway out of the war. Since the Germans would get some supplies via the Italians (As you suggest with the British), they would be less dependent on Sweden.
One reason Italy is better of in Italia Eterna is that they use their large merchant fleet to trade with Turkey, Argentine, Japan, Germany, USA etc etc. Hmm, how would the Brits react to that? Try to stop the Italian ships?

What I'm having a very difficult time figuring out is, how are the Brits going to fight the Germans without the Mediterranean Front and perhaps Norway?

And, ooops, my bad! Yes, indeed the Japanse Empire and the Brist goes to war in late 1941... Embarrassing! :)

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

Honeste vivere, alterum non ladere, suum cuique tribuere!

[Mr.Bluenote]

Believe! Obey! Fight!
The function of a citizen and a soldier are inseparable!
- Benito Mussolini.

Austria's independence was immediately threatened when Hitler assumed power in Germany. He made it clear that expansion was his goal, with Austria's large German speaking population as the logical target. But this did not sit well with Mussolini and his Fascist goverment. In 1934, Austria was protected by Italy, it provided a buffer between the borders of Germany and Italy, and its Chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, was a personal friend of Mussolini. Mussolini vowed to protect Austia's independence with all his might and his Italian Legions if needed be!

The first meeting between Hitler and Mussolini occurred on June 13, 1934. Hitler was advised not to wear a uniform, in order to appear more as a diplomat, rather than the war monger his was perceived as by the Italians. Hitler appeared wrinkled and out of place compared to the uniformed and bellicose Italian Duce. Hitler admonished Mussolini to stop trying to protect Austria and that he wanted Chancellor Dollfuss replaced. Mussolini flatly said no! When Hitler replied that is was sheer folly to go to war over Dollfuss, Mussolini commented that the German persecution of Jews was folly. Neither dictator seemed to speak the same language or to have understood what each was saying.
Somehow Benito Mussolini began to realise that there is something very wrong with Hitler and the way things were being done in his newly fangled Third Reich. Of course he had seen the reports from Servizio Informazioni Militari, that indicated Hitlers was dead serious with all his insane statements about Lebensraum in the East, and racial purity and, not to forget, concerning Austria. Mussolini didn’t like to be bested, but suddenly he knew that He might have to fold, since Italia couldn’t match Germany in a shooting war, not now at least, and not as long as the country had to do without a more modern and larger industrial complex and the armed forces to match the Germans, or the French for that matter.
Mussolini, who had reached his position as Duce il Fascisti as much by being a good judge of character as anything else, was suddenly seeing the world around him with other eyes, and he did not especially like what he saw! Mussolini stod there for the moment completely lost in thought, seeing himself, the world and his beloved Italia, as he never had before. He began to reflect more closely on the nature of the scruffy looking civilan besides him. Somehow the absence of an elaborate uniform made a deep impression on Mussolini. If Hitler really meant for war with the rest of the world, what about the rest of his intolerable nonsense, this racial bullshit he so spoke of in that little book of his, Mein kampf! My Struggle!? Mussolini smiled briefly and bitterly. What in the name of Roma Eterna did the Germans see in that insane little man?!
For the rest of the meeting, Mussolini seemed distracted and absorbed in his own thoughts. Hitler, who maintained a certain affection, indeed admiration for the Italian, if not for his country and regime, was convinced it was pure awe. Truth be told, Mussolini was frightened. And it was a sudden fear of Germany and Hitler.

Hitler returned to Berlin assuming that the German acquisition of Austria was approved by Mussolini, who returned to Rome distrusting and fearing the Germans. On July 25, 1934, Dollfuss was killed by Nazi assassins in his office. On the day he was killed, the Austrian Chancellor was scheduled to fly to Italy for a meeting with Mussolini. Dollfuss’ family was already waiting for him in Rome. Mussolini took upon him the difficult task of telling Dollfuss’ family of his death.
Mussolini more than suspected that his friend had been assassinated either on Hitlers direct order or by Nazi agents of some sort. Still fumeing with rage Mussolini took two bold steps. He ordered Italian troops to the Austro-Italian border and sent a wire telegram to Vienna guaranteeing Austria's independence. Mussolini expected France and Britain to send the same message, but that never happened. As it happened Italy was confronting Germany alone. Mussolini would never forget the great European powers for their treason, or Hitler and Nazis for making him have to tell his friends familiy of his murder.

Germany was not yet prepared for war and Mussolini's firm stand was enough for Hitler to abruptly change his plans. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, which allready had prepared a special announcement regarding the fall of Austria, and Dollfuss' fitting death, had to stop it in the last minute and revise it with new statements from Hitler, who noe condemed the murder of Chancellor Dolfuss and the subsequent apprehension of the assassins and their deportation to Austria for trial.
In many eyes Mussolini emerged from the tastless spectacle as a hero and won the admiration from England (Churchill for one never stopped admirering Mussolini’s courage) and France. But it was a Mussolini who had looked over the edge and found a deep bottomless abyss waiting. He however felt confident enough in his position, that he used this to advance his prospect of a new Roman Empire.

Timeline Early Thirties
September 14, 1930: Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.

January 15, 1931: Italo Balbo completes a 10.400 km flight from Orbetello to Rio de Janeiro.

November 8, 1932: Roosevelt elected President of the United States.

January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Chancelleor of Germay.

Febuary 27, 1933: The Reichstag burns.

March 12, 1933: The first KZ camp is opened.

April 1, 1933: Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.

July 14, 1933: NSDAP, the Nazi party, declared only legit party in Germany.

October 14, 1933: Germany quits the League of Nations.

August 12, 1933: Italo Balbo lands in the USA. He was welcomed like a hero. President Roosevelt invited him to lunch, and the Sioux Indian tribe appointed him chief, with the name of "Flying Eagle".

January 5, 1934: Italo Balbo is sent to Libya as Governor.

March 2, 1934: Dino Grandi is fired as Foreing Minister and sent to London as ambassador.

June 13, 1934: Mussolini has a revelation while meeting with Hitler.

July 25, 1934: Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria is assasinated in his office.

August 19, 1934: Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.

[Mr.Bluenote]

Midthirties
War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.
– Georges Clemenceau.

Having met the Führer of Germany in person, Mussolini knew war and much, much worse were brewing. To revitalize Italy and counter the eventual German threat, he brought men like Italo Balbo, Dino Grandi and Giuseppe Bottai back from obscurity, and disfavour, and gave them the task of bringing Italy forward and out of its stupor. Balbo, Grandi and Bottai gathered a follwoing of able administrators and bright innovators around them and began the work of bringing Italy into modern times. Men like Farinacci and Starace was rapidly sidelined or picked up by the OVRA or other dark clad men at night.
The new men, soon to be called the Leonardi, after the brilliant Leonardo da Vince, spearheaded a series of reforms that shook up the slow and somewhat atrophied Italian economy. The first was land reform, where the major landowners’ stranglehold on land was broken, a series of agricultural cooperatives and businesses was set up under Leonardi supervison. Troops had to be called in here and there, especialley in Sicily and southern Italy, and a few regular battles fought between soldier and the Landowners mafiosi. Ironically, this was one of the things the landowners had used the Fascists to do in the early 1920’s. In the end the reforms got implementet and many of the large landowners ended up with a small plot in the colonies, their large tracts of land and equally large fortunes confiscated and put to better use. Infrastructure also became a paramount concern for the Leonardi, and imposing highways, which had a conspicious likeness to the German Autobahns, and an extended likewise impressing railways were being build all over Italy and the colonies. The Leonardi also began looking into the hidden oil reservoires rumored to be found in Libyan desert.

Mussolini’s new understanding of the world and his sense of a mission didn’t prevent him from walking distrubingly close to the abyss in foreign matters. Mussolini felt that for Italy to become a true great power it had to play a very active role in foreign affaires and thus gain prestige and create a sense of national pride. Abyssinia was always considered in the sphere of Italian influence, and it was also the only remaining country in Africa which still preserved its indepence. Abyssinia had also defeated the Italians at Adwa in 1896, so in Mussolini’s eyes Abyssinia was perfect for a test of Italia’s arms. Mussolini therefor ordered the conquest af Abyssinia, over the reinstated Foreign Minister, Dino Grandi’s objections. To repair the damage to Italy’s international reputation he sent the young and charming Gian Galeazzo, Count Ciano, to London and the everpopular Balbo on a goodwill tour to the USA (many americans, among them president Roosevelt and Lindbergh, fondly remembered the Italian Flying Eagle). Grandi, Ciano and Balbo’s efforts immediately began softening the already weak and ineffective sanctions the League of Nations.

The Spanish Civil War allowed the Italian Commando Supremo to see the effect of modern warfare, and to a certain degree exercise the use of its armed forces and new weapons, but more importantly, it allowed the Germans and Italians an opportunity to develop and embrace radical new methods of war.

Timeline Midthirties
Febuary 2, 1935: Giuseppe Bottai is appointed as minister in the newly created super ministry of Ministri dell'Industria e del Economia Nazionale (Ministry of Industry and National Economy), Dino Grandi is reinstated as head of the Ministri degli Affari esteri (Foreign Ministry) and Italo Balbo as ministerial head of Ministro della Produzione bellica e del Aeronautica (Ministry of War Production and the Air Force) with Rino Corso Fougier as undersecretary.

March 16, 1935: Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.

September 15, 1935: Germany implement Nuremberg Race Laws.

July 32, 1935: General Badoglio is replaced as head of Commando Supremo by Mussolini, and general Ugo Cavallero put in his place.

October 3, 1935: Mussolini sends his legions under the command of marshall Rudolfo Graziani across the Abyssinia border from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.

October 6, 1935: Adowa in Abyssinia is conqured. Italian troops ravaged the place and is rumored to have killed several civilians.

November 19, 1935: Italian forces is now some 100 miles into Abyssinia. Resistance is surprisingly heavy throughout the country, but the envigorated Italian forces were more than ready to deal with it. Graziani however is somewhat worried and ask Rome for further reinforcements.

November, 23 1935: Mussolini forces the Pope to accept the Abyssinian Coptic Church. Following this step resistance seem to be ebbing away.

December 4, 1935: The Italians bring in more and better tanks organized in the Brigata Corazzata Speciale (Special Brigade Unit). Italy also deploy their first long range reconnaissance company of motorized cars in the Reparto Esplorante di Corpo d'Armata di Manovra or RECAM (Reconnaissance Unit of the Army Mobile Corps). One young captain, Junio Borghese, is to become world famous as a daring commando.

December 10, 1935: Back in Rome the Chief of Commando Supremo, Ugo Cavallero is taking carefull notes of the Abyssinian campaign, and wonders if not the armoured units should be grouped in more organic divisions and used en masse.

December 30, 1935: General Cavallero dispatches the armoured Ariete Division and the newly mechanized Trento Division to the Abyssinian theater.

March 7, 1936: German troops occupy the Rhineland.

May 5, 1936: The victorious Italian army marched into the capital of Addis Ababa and Abyssinia is formally annexed.

June 27, 1936: Count Ciano is nominated ambassador to Britain.

June 30, 1936: The former Abyssinian Emperor Haile Selassie, who barely escaped the invading Italians, speaks before the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland: "It is us today. It will be you tomorrow!" He warned the assembly. Dino Grandi in turn took to the stand and asked who could do more for the poor, illiterate Abyssinians? Italia the great European power or the corrupt and nepostistic ex-emperor?” After further verbal exchanges the League decided not to respond militarily and instigated minor economic sanctions against Italy, but these were soon undermined by carefull and clever Italian diplomacy.

July 2, 1936: Italo Balbo once more lands in the USA. He and Charles Lindberg becomes fast friends. The large Italian minority, and quite a few native Americans, hails Balbo as a true hero!

July 5, 1936: General Francisco Franco rebels at the Madrid government and start the Spanish Civil War.

20 July, 1936: General Franco’s emmisaries to Hitler and Mussolini request military aid and technical assistance. While Hitler promptly accepted the offer, Mussolini is more cautious. He does however send advisors, observers, some volunteeers and shipments of older weapons to Spain.

August 1, 1936: Olympic games begin in Berlin.

[Mr.Bluenote]

Late thirties
The great masses of people... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one!
- Adolf Hitler.

Mussolini sad there for the moment completely lost in time and thought. German troops had just crossed the borden to the rump Czech state, thereby violating the Venezia Treaty. He began to reflect more closely on Hitler. If Hitler really meant for war with the rest of the world, the he probably ment the rest of his insane ramblings! Mussolini found it hard to belive, that Hitler really meant what he had written in Mein Kampf about the Jews and all the other numerous kinds of people, he seem to hate so passionately. Mussolini himself had known, and knew Jews. There were even Jews in the Party, men who held postions of importance and prominence in his regime. Hah, he had even loved a couple. Fondly Mussolini remembered his Queen of Sheeba, Margherita Sarfatti. Did he really want those hinted-at and oh-so-subtle and rather permanent solutions for the Jews? Mussolini found the answer deep in his soul and squared his impressing jaw.
He called for Milch. When the still imposing former German officer came. Mussolini just sat there quitely for a long time and then suddenly asked: “Do you know of these rumors that are coming from your old homeland?”
Milchs face stiffened but answered nonetheless: “Yes, Duce! I do!”
Mussolini nodded, he had feared as much, but asked the next question anyway. “And do your former Führere take himself and all his own nonsence seriosly?”
Milch went pale, which was more than enough answer for Mussolini. “Ah, I thought so! Well then,” he said, “we shall have to see to that!”.

Mussolini and the Leonardi enacted several new economic measures designed to gear up and expand the Italian economy. Some industries would be shifted away from civilian production and into military production. The armed forces begin a five year military buildup plan which ironically would decrease the size of the armed forces, especially the army, but thoroughly modernize their weapons, equipment and doctrines.
Following the economic and military reforms the Italian Army decided to replace the bulk of their outdated artilley, especially the heavy artillery, which for the most part were old Austro-Hungarian pieces. The army selected two good and thoroughly modern designs, one a gun with a caliber of 149mm and a howitzer with a caliber of 210mm. One of Ugo Cavallero’s Army designteam made the plans for the 210mm howitzer, while Ansaldo drew up the howitzer. A production order for no less than respectively 900 and 400 was placed.
Together with the focus on artillery Cavallero and his resident Leonardi under colonel Berlese began an extensive tank and anti-tank research program. Alle the lessons from Spain and Abyssinia taken to heart.
Milch and Italo Balbo had grand designs for the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Airforce). Planes like Giuseppe Gabrilli’s G.50 Freccia and later the updated FIAT G55 Centauro would together with Mario Gastoldi’s Macchi series, including the MC.200 Saetta, the MC.202 Folgore and the MC.205 Veltro, would gain RA an edge in the air for years to come.

In Germany, the Jews were coming under increased pressure as Hitler and the Nazi Party stired up more resentment against them. Hitler's inner circle soon began to consider deporting Jews or place them in camps where they can be exploited as slave labor along with other undesirables. A few voiced opions of more final solutions.
Anti-Jewish sentiment was also on the rise in most of Europe. Especially in Austria, France, Hungary, Romania and Russia. In Italy however it seems that the madness that is seizing most of the continent is passing the nation by. Mussolini and his Fascists approved of many a thing in Hitler’s Germany, but in the end National Socialism with its focus on race, blood and soil, was not anything like Mussolini’s Fascism. Fascism was founded on unity and on the idea of a corporativistic whole, and all that mattered was loyalty to the State, the Fascisti, and, of course Mussolini, not blood, race or somesuch nonsence!

While Mussolini as mentioned sent advisors and observers to Spain, he did not involved Italy further in the Spanish Civil War. Hitler several times asked his Italian opposite number to join Germany’s so called volunteers in fighting the socialists in Spain. Mussolini refused to commit Italy to any further adventures at present. But he did however sign a non-aggression treaty with Germany and, in a greate coup for the new Italian foreign policy, and Count Ciano in London personally, the United Kingdoms. The new Mussolini would rather cut his own throath than follow Hitler to Hell or, for that matter, risk war with the British, at present at least.

In 1938 the Mussolini and Grandi had another chance to shine on the international scene. To Mussolini it seem that his former friend had begun his descent into his Wagnerite nightmare: Hitler had initiated an invasion of the Sudetenlands and annexed Austria in the Anschluss. Both were actions positively prohibited by the Versailles Treaty. Neither the French or the British wanted a war, as they were far from ready for one, but they couldn’t let Germany’s acts of unabassed aggression go unanswered. Mussolini got the French and British out of the impasse by chairing a peace conference in Venezia. The Venezia Conference’s end document ratified the German acts, but obtained assurances from Hitler that this would be the end of his expansionism. The Venezia Conference was hailed by many as a masterpiece of statemanship by Mussolini, and Grandi. The British PM, Chamberlain, would return to England waving a piece of paper and proclaming peace in our time…

Timeline Late Thirties
January 3, 1937: Grandi and von Ribbentrop meets in Münich and signs a non-agression pact. The German Foreign Minister presses for more binding agrements, but Grandi refuses.

May 22, 1937: Goering dies in an car accident. Hitler is heartbroken and declares a national day of mourning. Goering recieves a full state funeral and a sadden Hitler holds one unusually calm memorial speech.

May 24, 1937: Ernst Udet is promoted to Air Marshall and Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe.

May 29, 1937: Gestapo-agents arrest Luftwaffe general Erhard Milch on the suspecion of Jewish ancestry. Without Goerings patronship and support Milchs Jewish background is exposed and he is found of mixed blood and unworthy to serve in the armed forces of the Third Reich by a court martial!

June 7, 1937: Erhard Milch is welcomed in Rome! Mussolini is not particulary interested in the strange racism of Hitler and sees Milch as an asset to be milked. Mussolini offers Milch a place in the Regia Aeronauticas R&D department and put him in an Italian uniform. Milch is soon becoming an important part of the research and development program.

June 9, 1937: Hitler is enragde but is more or less told to go to Hell by and equally enraged Mussolini.

June 11, 1937: In the USSR, Stalin begins the first of many purges of the Red Army.

October 7, 1937: Mussolini and Grandi meets with Chamberlain and his Freign Minister in London. The Italians succeeds in getting the British to sign a non-agression treaty.

March 12, 1938: Hitler announces the Anschluss, or union, with Austria. The Italian government, and Mussolini, protest vehemently, but ultimately to no end.

August 12, 1938: German military mobilizes.

August 13, 1938: Italian military mobilizes. Commando Supremo Chief, Ugo Cavallero, warns Mussolini that the armed forces is not ready for war.

August 15, 1938: Foreign Minister Dino Grandi suggest an peace conference. Mussolini agrees.

September 30, 1938: The Peace Confrence is held in Venezia in Northern Italy. British PM, Chamberlain, appeases Hitler.

October 10, 1938: The Italian Army demobilizes. Mussolini and General Cavallero is shocked by the poor states of the conscripts and thir equipment. There’s a lot more to do for the Leonardi.

October 15, 1938: The German Army occupy the Sudentenland, and the Czech government resigns.

Nov 9, 1938: Nazis in Germany instigates the Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass).

[DuQuense]

Theres lots of room in Abbysinia, and even a Bibical tie-in Queen Sheeba

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nine out of ten people like chocolate; the tenth is a liar :D

[Mr.Bluenote]

Yup, lots of open space in both Libya and Abyssinia! It would be a nice place to hide a few millions Jews from an egomaniac wihh a genocidal agenda, neh? :)

So, what do you think? Shpould I post more? Or is it just boring, seen before and haunted by bad gramma?

The best regards!

- Mr.B.

Honeste vivere, alterum non ladere, suum cuique tribuere!

[Guilherme Loureiro]

Now that thing about Milch being milked was BAD.

You mentioned Graziani in one of the earlier posts. I thought he was a nobody before the Abyssinian War, and definitely not a Marshall. I could be wrong, though.

[Mr.Bluenote]

Now that thing about Milch being milked was BAD.

You mentioned Graziani in one of the earlier posts. I thought he was a nobody before the Abyssinian War, and definitely not a Marshall. I could be wrong, though.

Haha, yes, I know, but I couldn't resist! I'll rewrite that part! :)

Regarding Graziani, your right! My bad, sorry! Graziani was a major general from 1930 until promoted marshal on the 9th of May, 1936! I'll correct that one to! :)

Best of regards!

- Bluenote.

Honeste vivere, alterum non ladere, suum cuique tribuere!

[Mr.Bluenote]

1939
Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur!
- Giulio Douhet.

I intend to declare war, not wage it!
- Mussolini.

When Germany, not to the overt surprise of anyone in Rome, invaded Poland against all previous agreements. Mussolini met with Balbo, Grandi and his son-in-law, the ambassador to London, Count Ciano, in Mussolini’s office in the Palazzo Venizia in Rome. When Mussolini asked what the Italian position should be. Balbo with usual lack of finéss showed simply said that Italia must never be reduced to shoe-shiners of German jackboots, neither to lackeys of the capitalistic pigs in London and Paris. Both Mussolini and Grandi agreed, eventhough the young Ciano would have liked to se the Legions march of to war! But as Baldo said "Either it will be necessary to rid the world of Hitler or he will selfdestruct!” Mussolini laconically said. "Hitler will have a bad ending!"

Mussolini himself wouldn’t mind to see the arrogant French, the snobbish British, the red revolutionaries in the USSR or the insane Nazis cut down to size, but he knew that Italia could not survive a conflict with Germany or the United Kingdom. At least, not without a more larger, modern industrial complex and the armed forces to match the Germans or the British. Well, weak as she might be Italia had its own goals, and Mussoloni would see that they at least were reached.

While the Allies, as France and the British had begun reffering to themselves, and Germany were busy squaring off over Poland, they had no time to spare when Italia claimed Albania as its rightfull provins. Italia had a long standing political and financial interest in Albania, and Mussolini used this as a reason for the invasion and annexation. In late march Foreign Minister Grandi met with Albania’s King Zog and gave hin an ultimatum, which in fact was more a declaration of war than anything else. Albania was then invaded and annexed in a text book demonstration of efficiency by the newly formed San Marco marines and other of Italia’s new legions.

Timeline 1939:
April 7, 1939: The Regia Marina anchored off the coast of Albania, an began landing 2 divisions of Bersaglieris and a regiment of marines under general Messe, one of the Army’s new shining stars. Resistance was sporadic, weak and overcome without difficulties.

April 8, 1939: King Zog along with his family escaped to Greece and were subsequently granted asylum by Athens.

April 16, 1939: Albania surrendered to Fascist Italia and on King Victor Emmanuelle III united the crown of Albania to that of Italia and the colonies.

March 15, 1939: Germany takes control of the Czech State. Slovakia gain independence.

May 22, 1939: Germany and Soviets sign Pact of Steel. Most of the Pact is secret, but the two countries publicly declare a non-agression and mutual aid pact.

July 11, 1939: Last stand of the International Brigades at Barcelona. Franco’s forces decimate the foreign troops, but takes serious casualties duing so.

July 26, 1939: The first the post-Milch fighters is taken into service by the RA. The new series of Macchi MC.200M is to replace the older G.50. Through new technics and more efficient management the cost og the MC.220M is reduced by some 50% and the bulding time is cut down to about 10.000 man hours. Futhermore onboard radios, canon armament and more powerfull inline motors is installed in the M-series.

July 28, 1939: The Nationalists entered Madrid.

July 30, 1939: Hostilities in Spain ceased.

August 1, 1939: General Franco announced that the war was over.

August 6, 1939: Mussolini pressures Franco into considering accepting the House of Savoy's claim to the vacant Spanish Throne. Franco makes no definite comiment at this stage.

August 25, 1939: Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.

August 31, 1939: British fleet mobilizes. Civilian evacuations begin from London.

September 1, 1939: The German army crosses the border to Poland.

September 3, 1939: Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.

September 4, 1939: British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.

September 5, 1939: Italia and the USA proclaims neutrality. German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.

September 10, 1939: Canada declares war on Germany.

September 17, 1939: The USSR invades Poland from the east. Polish defences quickly collapses

September 29, 1939: Germany and the USSR divide Poland as agreed upon in the Pact of Steel.

November 8, 1939:Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.

October 18, 1939: The first new upgunned and armoured tanks of the M18/39 series is accepted for service. Different Sermovente selfpropelled guns and tank hunters is tested by the Italian army. Ugo Cavallero is most satisfied and orders several vehicles for his new armoured and mechanized division.

November 30, 1939: The USSR launches an attack on Finland. Italian volunteers, arms, and advisors is send to Finland. Mussolini condemns the invasion and Stalin rather harsly: “One man, one man only, a real tyran, through a series of infinite provocations, betraying with a supreme fraud the population of his country, wants nothing more than war and has prepared for it day by day with diabolical obstinacy!”

December 14, 1939: The USSR is expelled from the League of Nations.

[Mr.Bluenote]

The begining
Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest of violence!
- Francis Jeffrey.

When Hitler assumed power in Germany, he made it clear that expansion was his goal, and with Austria's large German speaking population it seemed as the logical target for his ambitions. This however did not go dwon well with the Fascist leader of Italia, Mussolini. Austria was protected by Italia, as it provided a buffer between the borders of Germany and Italia, futhermore its Chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, was a personal friend of Mussolini. Mussolini loudly vowed to protect Austia's independence with all his might and the Legions og Italia if needed be!

The first meeting between Hitler and Mussolini occurred on June 13, 1934. Hitler was advised not to wear a uniform, in order to appear more as a humle and ordinary statesman, rather than the blustering and war mongering fool many Italians perceived the German Führer to be. Hitler appeared somewhat out of place compared to the stylish uniformed and bellicose Italian Duce. Hitler nonetheless began to admonish Mussolini to stop trying to protect Austria and that he wanted Chancellor Dollfuss replaced. Mussolini flatly said no! When Hitler replied that is was sheer folly to go to war over Dollfuss, Mussolini commented that the German persecution of Jews was folly. Neither dictator seemed to speak the same language or to have understood what each was saying.
Somehow Benito Mussolini began to realise that there is something very wrong with Hitler and the way things were being done in his newly fangled Third Reich. Of course he had seen the reports from Servizio Informazioni Militari, that indicated Hitlers was dead serious with all his insane statements about Lebensraum in the East, and racial purity and, not to forget, concerning Austria. Mussolini didn’t like to be bested, but suddenly he knew, that He might have to fold, since Italia couldn’t match Germany in a shooting war, not now at least, and not as long as the country had to do without a more modern and larger industrial complex and the armed forces to match the Germans, or the French for that matter.
Mussolini, who had reached his position as Duce il Fascisti as much by being a good judge of character as anything else, was suddenly seeing the world around him with other eyes, and he did not especially like what he saw! Mussolini stod there for the moment completely lost in thought, seeing himself, the world and his beloved Italia, as he never had before. He began to reflect more closely on the nature of the scruffy looking civilan besides him. Somehow the absence of an elaborate uniform made a deep impression on Mussolini. If Hitler really meant for war with the rest of the world, what about the rest of his intolerable nonsense, this racial bullshit he so spoke of in that little book of his, Mein kampf! My Struggle!? Mussolini smiled briefly and bitterly. What in the name of Roma Eterna did the Germans see in that insane little man?!
For the rest of the meeting, Mussolini seemed distracted and absorbed in his own thoughts. Hitler, who maintained a certain affection, indeed admiration for the Italian, if not for his country and regime, was convinced it was pure awe. Truth be told, Mussolini was frightened. And it was a sudden fear of Germany and Hitler.

Hitler returned to Berlin assuming that the German acquisition of Austria was approved by Mussolini, who returned to Rome distrusting and fearing the Germans. On July 25, 1934, Dollfuss was killed by Nazi assassins in his office. On the day he was killed, the Austrian Chancellor was scheduled to fly to Italia for a meeting with Mussolini. Dollfuss’ family was already waiting for him in Rome. Mussolini took upon him the difficult task of telling Dollfuss’ family of his death.
Mussolini more than suspected that his friend had been assassinated either on Hitlers direct order or by Nazi agents of some sort. Still fumeing with rage Mussolini took two bold steps. He ordered Italian troops to the Austro-Italian border and sent a wire telegram to Vienna guaranteeing Austria's independence. Mussolini expected France and Britain to send the same message, but that never happened. As it happened Italia was confronting Germany alone. Mussolini would never forget the great European powers for their treason, or Hitler and Nazis for making him have to tell his friends familiy of his murder.

Germany was not yet prepared for war and Mussolini's firm stand was enough for Hitler to abruptly change his plans. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, which allready had prepared a special announcement regarding the fall of Austria, and Dollfuss' fitting death, had to stop it in the last minute and revise it with new statements from Hitler, who noe condemed the murder of Chancellor Dolfuss and the subsequent apprehension of the assassins and their deportation to Austria for trial.
In many eyes Mussolini emerged from the tastless spectacle as a hero and won the admiration from England (Churchill for one never stopped admirering Mussolini’s courage) and France. But it was a Mussolini who had looked over the edge and found a deep bottomless abyss waiting. He however felt confident enough in his position, that he used this to advance his prospect of a new Roman Empire.

Timeline Early Thirties:
September 14, 1930: Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.

January 15, 1931: Italo Balbo completes a 10.400 km flight from Orbetello to Rio de Janeiro.

November 8, 1932: Roosevelt elected President of the United States.

January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Chancelleor of Germay.

Febuary 27, 1933: The Reichstag burns.

March 12, 1933: The first KZ camp is opened.

April 1, 1933: Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.

July 14, 1933: NSDAP, the Nazi party, declared only legit party in Germany.

October 14, 1933: Germany quits the League of Nations.

August 12, 1933: Italo Balbo lands in the USA. He was welcomed like a hero. President Roosevelt invited him to lunch, and the Sioux Indian tribe appointed him chief, with the name of "Flying Eagle".

January 5, 1934: Italo Balbo is sent to Libya as Governor.

March 2, 1934: Dino Grandi is fired as Foreing Minister and sent to London as ambassador.

June 13, 1934: Mussolini has a revelation while meeting with Hitler.

July 25, 1934: Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria is assasinated in his office.

August 19, 1934: Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.

Midthirties
War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.
– Georges Clemenceau.

Having met the Führer of Germany in person, Mussolini knew war and much, much worse were brewing. To revitalize Italia and counter the eventual German threat, he brought men like Italo Balbo, Dino Grandi and Giuseppe Bottai back from obscurity, and disfavour, and gave them the task of bringing Italia forward and out of its stupor. Balbo, Grandi and Bottai gathered a follwoing of able administrators and bright innovators around them and began the work of bringing Italia into modern times. Men like Farinacci and Starace was rapidly sidelined or picked up by the OVRA or other dark clad men at night.
The new men, soon to be called the Leonardi, after the brilliant Leonardo da Vince, spearheaded a series of reforms that shook up the slow and somewhat atrophied Italian economy. The first was land reform, where the major landowners’ stranglehold on land was broken, a series of agricultural cooperatives and businesses was set up under Leonardi supervison. Troops had to be called in here and there, especialley in Sicily and southern Italia, and a few regular battles fought between soldier and the Landowners mafiosi. Ironically, this was one of the things the landowners had used the Fascists to do in the early 1920’s. In the end the reforms got implementet and many of the large landowners ended up with a small plot in the colonies, their large tracts of land and equally large fortunes confiscated and put to better use. Infrastructure also became a paramount concern for the Leonardi, and imposing highways, which had a conspicious likeness to the German Autobahns, and an extended likewise impressing railways were being build all over Italia and the colonies. The Leonardi also began looking into the hidden oil reservoires rumored to be found in Libyan desert.

Mussolini’s new understanding of the world and his sense of a mission didn’t prevent him from walking distrubingly close to the abyss in foreign matters. Mussolini felt that for Italia to become a true great power it had to play a very active role in foreign affaires and thus gain prestige and creat a sense of national pride. Abyssinia was always considered in the sphere of Italian influence, and it was also the only remaining country in Africa which still preserved its indepence. Abyssinia had also defeated the Italians at Adwa in 1896, so in Mussolini’s eyes Abyssinia was perfect for a test of Italia’s arms. Mussoloni therefor ordered the conquest af Abyssinia, over the reinstated Foreign Minister, Dino Grandi’s objections. To repair the damage to Italia’s international reputation he sent the young and charming Gian Galeazzo, Count Ciano, to London and the everpopular Balbo on a goodwill tour to the USA (many americans, among them president Roosevelt and Lindbergh, fondly remembered the Italian Flying Eagle). Grandi, Ciano and Balbo’s efforts immediately began softening the already weak and ineffective sanctions the League of Nations.

The Spanish Civil War allowed the Italian Commando Supremo to see the effect of modern warfare, and to a certain degree exercise the use of its armed forces and new weapons, but more importantly, it allowed the Germans and Italians an opportunity to develop and embrace radical new methods of war.

Timeline Midthirties:
Febuary 2, 1935: Giuseppe Bottai is appointed as minister in the newly created super ministry of Ministri dell'Industria e del Economia Nazionale (Ministry of Industry and National Economy), Dino Grandi is reinstated as head of the Ministri degli Affari esteri (Foreign Ministry) and Italo Balbo as ministerial head of Ministro della Produzione bellica e del Aeronautica (Ministry of War Production and the Air Force) with Rino Corso Fougier as undersecretary.

March 16, 1935: Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.

September 15, 1935: Germany implement Nuremberg Race Laws.

July 32, 1935: General Badoglio is replaced as head of Commando Supremo by Mussolini, and general Ugo Cavallero put in his place.

October 3, 1935: Mussolini sends his legions under the command of general Rudolfo Graziani across the Abyssinia border from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.

October 6, 1935: Adowa in Abyssinia is conqured. Italian troops ravaged the place and is rumored to have killed several civilians.

November 19, 1935: Italian forces is now some 100 miles into Abyssinia. Resistance is surprisingly heavy throughout the country, but the envigorated Italian forces were more than ready to deal with it. Graziani however is somewhat worried and ask Rome for further reinforcements.

November, 23 1935: Mussolini forces the Pope to accept the Abyssinian Coptic Church. Following this step resistance seem to be ebbing away.

December 4, 1935: The Italians bring in more and better tanks organized in the Brigata Corazzata Speciale (Special Brigade Unit). Italia also deploy their first long range reconnaissance company of motorized cars in the Reparto Esplorante di Corpo d'Armata di Manovra or RECAM (Reconnaissance Unit of the Army Mobile Corps). One young captain, Junio Borghese, is to become world famous as a daring commando.

December 10, 1935: Back in Rome the Chief of Commando Supremo, Ugo Cavallero is taking carefull notes of the Abyssinian campaign, and wonders if not the armoured units should be grouped in more organic divisions and used en masse.

December 30, 1935: General Cavallero dispatches the armoured Ariete Division and the newly mechanized Trento Division to the Abyssinian theater.

March 7, 1936: German troops occupy the Rhineland.

May 5, 1936: The victorious Italian army marched into the capital of Addis Ababa, and Abyssinia is formally annexed. Rudolfo Graziani is promoted to Field Marshall.

June 27, 1936: Count Ciano is nominated ambassador to Britain.

June 30, 1936: The former Abyssinian Emperor Haile Selassie, who barely escaped the invading Italians, speaks before the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland: "It is us today. It will be you tomorrow!" He warned the assembly. Dino Grandi in turn took to the stand and asked who could do more for the poor, illiterate Abyssinians? Italia the great European power or the corrupt and nepostistic ex-emperor?” After further verbal exchanges the League decided not to respond militarily and instigated minor economic sanctions against Italia, but these were soon undermined by carefull and clever Italian diplomacy.

July 2, 1936: Italo Balbo once more lands in the USA. He and Charles Lindberg becomes fast friends. The large Italian minority, and quite a few native Americans, hails Balbo as a true hero!

July 19, 1936: General Emilio Mola issues his proclamation of revolt in Navarre. The uprising is of the a shaky start in most of Spain. But Mola's forces was successful in the Canary Islands, Morocco, Seville and Aragon.

20 July, 1936: General Mola’s emmisaries to Hitler and Mussolini request military aid and technical assistance. While Hitler promptly accepted the offer, Mussolini is more cautious. He does however send advisors, observers, some volunteeers and shipments of older weapons to Spain. On the advice of his Foreign Minister, Mussolini is carefull to direct most od his support to the Carlists elements within Mola’s coalition, and makes sure the would knows the Fascisti is backing the Spanish monarchy, not just a rebellious general!.

July 26, 1936: The COMINTERN agrees to send volunteers and funds to aid the Republican cuase in the Spanish Civil War.

July 29, 1936: German transport aircraft begin to airlift Nationalist troops from Spain's North African territories to Spain itself.

August 1, 1936: Olympic games begin in Berlin.

August 8, 1936: The French Government begin to change its attitude towards Republican Spain and stops further sales of arms and ammunition to the Republicans in late ’36. This markes the beginning of the Non-Intervention Policy by most western countries..

August 24, 1936: The new Soviet Ambassador, Marcel Rosenberg, arrives in Republican Spain. He is accompanied by a large number of Russian advisers. Mussolini and his gorvernment view this with suspicion.

September 19, 1936: The Republican submarine B6 was sunk by Italian destroyer, Emanuele Pessagno, off the coast near Gibraltar.

October 2, 1936: Nationalist general Francisco Franco dies in airplane crash under mysterious circumstances.

October 5, 1936: General Mola is proclaimed Generalissimo (Commander-in-Chief) and Head of State in Burgos.

October 12, 1936: Soviet aid begin to arrive in Republican Spain.

October 25, 1936: A large part of Spain's Gold Reserve is transferred to the USSR. This is payment for the Soviet aid.

October 29, 1936: Soviet tanks and aircraft appeares at the front in Spain for the first time. Italian commandos under now major Junio Borghese is ordered to capture and bring back examples of the Soviet weapons if possible.

November 17, 1936: The German Condor Legion is in action for the first time.

November 18, 1936: Germany, and later Mussolini, recognises General Mola's government. In Rome Dino Grandi meets with several representatives from the Spanish Carlist movement.

December 23, 1936: The first Italian volunteers and shipments of Italian supplies arrive in the Nationalist port of Cadiz.

Late thirties
The great masses of people... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one!
- Adolf Hitler.

The optimist thinks that this is the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist knows it!
- J.Robert Oppenheimer.

Mussolini sad there for the moment completely lost in time and thought. Graman troops had just crossed the borden to the rump Czech state, thereby violating the Venezia Treaty. He began to reflect more closely on the Graman Führer. If Hitler really meant for war with the rest of the world, the he probably ment the rest of his insane ramblings! Mussolini found it hard to belive, that Hitler really meant what he had written in Mein Kampf about the Jews and all the other numerous kinds of people he seem to hate so passionately? Mussolini himself had known, and knew Jews. There were even Jews in the Party, men who held postions of importance and prominence in his regime. Hah, he had even loved a couple. Fondly Mussolini remembered his Queen of Sheeba, Margherita Sarfatti. Did he really want those hinted-at and oh-so-subtle and rather permanent solutions for the Jews? Mussolini found the answer deep in his soul and squared his impressing jaw.
He called for Milch. When the still imposing former German officer came. Mussolini just sat there quitely for a long time and then suddenly asked: “Do you know of these rumors that are coming from your old homeland?”
Milchs face stiffened but answered nonetheless: “Yes, Duce! I do!”
Mussolini nodded, he had feared as much, but asked the next question anyway. “And do your former Führere take himself and all his own nonsence seriosly?”
Milch went pale, which was more than enough answer for Mussolini. “Ah, I thought so! Well then,” he said, “we shall have to see to that!”.

The Leonardi enacted several new economic measures designed to gear up and expand the Italian economy. The armed forces begin a five year military buildup plan which ironically would decrease the size of the armed forces, especially the army, but thoroughly modernize their weapons, equipment and doctrines.
Following the economic and military reforms the Italian Army decided to replace the bulk of their outdated artilley, especially the heavy artillery, which for the most part were old Austro-Hungarian pieces. The army selected two good and thoroughly modern designs by Ugo Cavallero’s Army designteam, one a gun with a caliber of 149mm and a howitzer with a caliber of 210mm. A production order for no less than respectively 900 and 400 was placed.
Together with the focus on artillery Cavallero and his resident Leonardi under colonel Berlese began an extensive tank and anti-tank research program. Alle the lessons from Spain and Abyssinia taken to heart.
Milch and Italo Balbo had grand designs for the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Airforce). Planes like Giuseppe Gabrilli’s G.50 Freccia and later the updated FIAT G55 Centauro would together with Mario Gastoldi’s Macchi series, (The MC.200 Saetta, MC.202 Folgore and MC.205 Veltro) gain RA an edge in the air for years to come.

In Germany, the Jews were coming under increased pressure as Hitler and the Nazi Party stired up more resentment against them. The Nazu inner circle soon began to consider deporting Jews or place them in camps where they could be exploited as cheap and ready aviliable slave labor along with other undesirables. A few voiced opinions of more final solutions.
Anti-Jewish sentiment was also on the rise in most of Europe. Especially in Austria, Czechoslovakia , France, Romania and Russia. In Italia, and Hungary, however it seems that the madness that is seizing most of the continent is passing the nation by. Mussolini and his Fascists approved of many a thing in Hitler’s Germany, but in the end National Socialism with its focus on race, blood and soil, was not anything like Mussolini’s Fascism. Fascism was founded on unity and on the idea of a corporativistic whole, and all that mattered was loyalty to the State, the Fascisti, and, of course Mussolini, not blood, race or somesuch nonsence!

While Mussolini as mentioned sent advisors and observers to Spain, he did not involved Italia further in the Spanish Civil War. Hitler several times asked his Italian opposite number to join Germany’s so called volunteers in fighting the socialists in Spain. Mussolini refused to commit Italia to any further adventures at present. But he did however sign a non-aggression treaty with Germany and, in a greate coup for the new Italian foreign policy, and Count Ciano in London personally, the United Kingdoms. The new Mussolini would rather cut his own throath than follow Hitler to Hell or, for that matter, risk war with the British, at present at least.

Italian propaganda brings out the big guns when the exiled King of Spain, Armadeus I, makes a public appearance in Monaco with his brother the King of Italia in the sommer of 1937, and his heir Carlos Amadeus. General Mola view this as an attempt to undermine his authority, witch it in a way is. Grandi knows that the Italian support to Mola’s Nationalists is somewhat unpopular in Britain, so the Foreing Ministry tries to make it a matter of supporting the Carlists in Spain instead of the Nationalists. Following the rather succesfull PR event, Italia steps up its shipments of arms and supplies. Most of the weapons however is older equipment which is being replaced by the Italian armed forces.

In 1938 the Mussolini and Grandi had another chance to shine on the international scene. To Mussolini it seem that Hitler had begun his descent into his Wagnerite nightmare: Hitler had initiated an invasion of the Sudetenlands and annexed Austria in the Anschluss. Both were actions positively prohibited by the Versailles Treaty. Neither the French or the British wanted a war, as they were far from ready for one, but they couldn’t let Germany’s acts of unabassed aggression go unanswered. Mussolini got the French and British out of the impasse by chairing a peace conference in Venezia. The Venezia Conference’s end document ratified the German acts, but obtained assurances from Hitler that this would be the end of his expansionism. The Venezia Conference was hailed by many as a masterpiece of statemanship by Mussolini, and Grandi. The British PM, Chamberlain, would return to England waving a piece of paper and proclaming peace in our time…

Timeline Late Thirties:
January 3, 1937: Grandi and von Ribbentrop meets in Münich and signs a Non-agression pact. The German Foreign Minister presses for more binding agrements, but Grandi refuses.

April 19, 1937: The Falange and Carlists Movement in Spain is united and becomes the Royalists.

May 22, 1937: Goering dies in an car accident. Hitler is heartbroken and declares a national day of mourning. Goering recieves a full stat funeral and a sadden Hitler holds one an unusual calm memorial speech.

May 24, 1937: Ernst Udet is promoted to Air Marshall and Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe.

May 29, 1937: Gestapo-agents arrest Luftwaffe general Erhard Milch on the suspecion of jewish ancestry. Without Goerings patronship and support Milchs jewish background is exposed and he is found of mixed blood and unworthy to serve in the armed forces of the Third Reich by a court martial!

June 7, 1937: Erhard Milch is welcomed in Rome! Mussolini is in direct opposition to Hitler’s policies regarding Jews, and on the advice of Italo Balbo, who sees Milch as an great asset to the Regia Aeronautica, Mussolini offers Milch a place in the Regia Aeronauticas R&D department and puts him in an Italian uniform. Milch is soon becoming an important part of the research and development program.

June 9, 1937: Hitler is enragde but is more or less told to go to Hell by and an equally enraged Mussolini.

June 11, 1937: Soviet leader Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.

August 4, 1937: Amadeus I, the exiled King of Spain, his son and heir, Carlos Amadeus, and King Vittorio Emmanuele III of Italia makes a public appeareance in Monaco. General Mola appearantly is furious.

October 7, 1937: Mussolini and Grandi meets with Chamberlain and his Foreign Minister in London. The Italians succeeds in getting the British to sign a non-agression treaty.

March 12, 1938: Hitler announces the Anschluss, or union, with Austria. The Italian government, and Mussolini, protest vehemently, but ultimately to no end.

August 12, 1938: German military mobilizes.

August 13, 1938: Italian military mobilizes. Commando Supremo Chief, Ugo Cavallero, warns Mussolini that the armed forces is not ready for war.

August 15, 1938: Foreign Minister Dino Grandi suggest an peace conference. Mussolini agrees.

September 30, 1938: The Peace Conference at Venezia. British PM, Chamberlain, appeases Hitler at Munich.

October 10, 1938: The Italian Army demobilizes. Mussolini and General Cavallero is shocked by the poor states of the conscripts and their equipment. There’s a lot more to do for the Leonardi.

October 15, 1938: The German Army occupy the Sudentenland, and the Czechoslovakian government resigns.

Nov 9, 1938: Nazis in Germany instigates the Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass).

1939
Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur!
- Giulio Douhet.

I intend to declare war, not wage it!
- Mussolini.

When Germany, not to the overt surprise of anyone in Rome, invaded Poland against all previous agreements. Mussolini met with Balbo, Grandi and his son-in-law, the ambassador to London, Count Ciano, in Mussolini’s office in the Palazzo Venizia in Rome. When Mussolini asked what the Italian position should be. Balbo with usual lack of finéss showed simply said that Italia must never be reduced to shoe-shiners of German jackboots, neither to lackeys of the capitalistic pigs in London and Paris. Both Mussolini and Grandi agreed, eventhough the young Ciano would have liked to se the Legions march of to war! But as Baldo said "Either it will be necessary to rid the world of Hitler or he will selfdestruct!” Mussolini laconically said. "Hitler will have a bad ending!"

Mussolini himself wouldn’t mind to see the arrogant French, the snobbish British, the red revolutionaries in the USSR or the insane Nazis cut down to size, but he knew that Italia could not survive a conflict with Germany or the United Kingdoms. At least, not without a more larger, modern industrial complex and the armed forces to match the Germans or the British. Well, weak as she might be Italia had its own goals, and Mussoloni would see that they at least were reached.

While the Allies, as France and the British had begun reffering to themselves, and Germany were busy squaring off over Poland, they had no time to spare when Italia claimed Albania as its rightfull provins. Italia had a long standing political and financial interest in Albania, and Mussolini used this as a reason for the invasion and annexation. In late march Foreign Minister Grandi met with Albania’s King Zog and gave hin an ultimatum, which in fact was more a declaration of war than anything else. Albania was then invaded and annexed in a text book demonstration of efficiency by the newly formed San Marco marines and other of Italia’s new legions.

Timeline 1939:
January 24, 1939: Reinhard Heydrich og the RSHA is ordered by Himmler to speed up emigration of Jews.

January 30, 1939: In his speech before the Reichstag on the sixth anniversary of his coming to power, Hitler proclaims: “In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power, it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the state and with it that of the whole nation and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face. Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevising of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!” In Rome Mussolini skaes his head and comments: “He’s not a very good speaker, is he?”

April 7, 1939: The Regia Marina anchores off the coast of Albania, an begin to land 2 divisions of Bersaglieris and a regiment of marines under general Messe, one of the Army’s new shining stars. Resistance is sporadic, weak and overcome without difficulties.

April 8, 1939: King Zog along with his family escapes to Greece and was subsequently granted asylum by Athens.

April 16, 1939: Albania surrenders to Fascist Italia and on King Victor Emmanuelle III unites the crown of Albania to that of Italia and the colonies.

March 10, 1939: Stalin postulates a kinship between Nazism and Communism in a radio speech.

March 15, 1939: German troops occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia, annexing Bohemia and Moravia and giving Ruthenia to Hungary. Slovakia is granted indepencence. This was all in violation of Venizia Agreement of the previous year, but only produced weak British and French protests. Mussolini is furious.

May 22, 1939: Germany and Soviets sign Pact of Steel. Most of the Pact is secret, but the two countries publicly declare a non-agression and mutual aid pact.

July 11, 1939: Last stand of the International Brigades at Barcelona. Mola’s forces decimate the foreign troops, but takes serious casualties duing so.

July 26, 1939: The first the post-Milch fighters is taken into service by the RA. The new series of Macchi MC.200M is to replace the older G.50. Through new technics and more efficient management the cost of the MC.220M is reduced by some 50% and the bulding time is cut down to about 10.000 man hours. Futhermore onboard radios, canon armament and more powerfull inline motors is installed in the M-series.

July 28, 1939: The Royalists enters a ruined Madrid.

July 30, 1939: Hostilities in Spain ceases.

August 1, 1939: General Mola announces that the civil war is over.

August 6, 1939: Mussolini pressures Mola into considering accepting the House of Savoy's claim to the vacant Spanish Throne. Mola makes no definite comiment at this stage.

August 25, 1939: Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.

August 31, 1939: British fleet mobilizes. Civilian evacuations begin from London.

September 1, 1939: The German army stream over across the border to Poland.

September 3, 1939: Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.

September 4, 1939: British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.

September 5, 1939: Italia and the USA proclaims neutrality. German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.

September 10, 1939: Canada declares war on Germany.

September 17, 1939: The USSR invades Poland from the east. Polish defences quickly collapses

September 29, 1939: Germany and the USSR divide Poland as agreed upon in the Pact of Steel.

November 8, 1939:Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.

October 18, 1939: The first new upgunned tanks with welted armour of the M18/39 series is accepted for service. Different Sermovente selfpropelled guns and tank hunters is tested by the Italian army. Ugo Cavallero is most satisfied and orders several vehicles for his new armoured and mechanized division.

November 30, 1939: The USSR launches an attack on Finland. Italian volunteers, arms, and advisors is send to Finland. Mussolini condemns the invasion and Stalin rather harsly: “One man, one man only, a real tyran, through a series of infinite provocations, betraying with a supreme fraud the population of his country, wants nothing more than war and has prepared for it day by day with diabolical obstinacy!”

December 14, 1939: The USSR is expelled from the League of Nations.

December 24, 1940: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas appeal for peace.

[Mr.Bluenote]

1940
Italians must be kept standing up by kicking them in their shins!
- Mussolini.

In 1940 Hitler ordered an invasion of Belgium and Holland and thus avoided the direct confrontation in Alsace and Lorraine. France soon imploded and fell to the German Panzers, who seem to roam at will. It was during these hectic days that Mussolini seized, what he saw as a golden opportunity. As the Germans took Paris and the French government collapsed in confusion, Italian forces in Eritrea quickly took control of the French colony, Djibouti. Likewise did a couple of Italian Alpini divisions spearheaded by the now famous San Marco marines under Umberto, Prince of Piemonte and commander of the Italian Western Army Group land in the Savoy. Needless to say, the population of Italia was ecstatic.

Immediately Germany and England both wanted to know what the intentions of Italia was, and Grandi in the Foreign Ministry quickly replied. His sent a special envoy to Germany, reaffirming the non-aggression treaty and Italia’s neutrality and went to London himself, where he stated that the invasion of Djibouti were a unfortunate, but necessary act to ensure the safety of maritime traffic in the Rea Sea. And that the liberation of Savoy was the obvious solution to a long controversy between Italia and France. After all, as the Italian Minister put it, with a new, pro-German government forming under Petain, did the British really want to risk these strategically important territories falling under Nazi control? And did the British really want to start a war with yet another nation, while they were trying to fight a seemingly lost war with Germany? In the end Churchill acquiesced to the Italian’s naked aggression, but couldn’t, or would, hide his contempt for these actions.

Timeline 1940:
January 8, 1940: Rationing begins in Britain.

March 3, 1940: Britain intends to proposed ban on Italian imports of German coal.

March 9, 1940: Dino Grandi fly to London and succeeds with the aid of Count Ciano to reach an agreement regarding the freedom of Italian trade. It is rumoured that Mussolini and Churchill exchange several telegrams and even had telephone conversations during the negotiations.

March 16, 1940: The German Luftwaffe bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland.

April 9, 1940: Finland signs a peace treaty with the USSR. Returning Italian veterans is marched through Rome, where they are cheered and complimented by Mussolini and Cavallero as true heirs to the proud inheritage of the Roman Legions. Standing by Musolini and King Vittorio Emanuelle III’s side is Carlos Amadeus, the son of exiled Spanish king. Italian news reels show a lot of pictures of the young man in the following week..

May 10, 1940: Germany invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In Britain Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.

May 12, 1940: Dino Gradi meet with general Mola in Madrid. Mola is under intens Italian pressure to allow Carlos Amadeus back in Spain and accept him as King.

May 15, 1940: Holland surrenders to the Germans.

May 26, 1940: Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo begin. As Calais fall to the rapidly advancing Germans the evacuation becomes frantic.

May 27, 1940: Luftwaffe activity increases in France and will gain absolute supremacy over Northern France in the next days. Some 40,000 Allied troops is brought of the beaches at Dunkirk.

May 28, 1940: The last night of the Dunkirk evacuation sees 50,000 Allied troops evacuated from Dunkirk. All in all some 120,000 Allied troops escapes the Germans. After heavy fighting the German spearhead bearch the defence and takes 100,000 Allied prisoners and captures huge quantities of equipment and supplies.

May 28, 1940: Belgium surrenders to the Germans. Churchill fly's to Paris to meet with the Supreme Allied War Council. His position is precarious because of the Dunkrk catastrophe.

June 3, 1940: Lufwaffe bomb Paris.

June 8, 1940: Carlos Amadeus is finnaly crowned King of Spain, and Spain proclaimed a constititional monarchy with Emilio Mola as premier.

June 14, 1940: Paris falls to the Germans. Italia, and Mussolini, who explodes with envy stays quiet, though the British and the French expect war at any moment. The Italian public cries for war, but Mussolini and his inner circle, the Leonardi, decides it's better to play it safe and see how the situation develops. A few secret preparations is taking place though.

June 16, 1940: The quick fall of France and the British governments apparent weakness is the sign Mussolini had been waiting for. As the Germans occupy Paris and the French government tries to rally, Italian forces in Eritrea cosses the borders and quickly take control of Djibouti. Likewise a couple of Italian divisions are landed in Savoy, thus reestablishing the border at the 1859 lines.

June 18, 1940: Marshal Pétain becomes French Prime Minister.

June 19, 1940: Mussolini holds his now famous Forum Romanum speech: "In just 30 years of Fascist rule, Italia has eclipsed France. In the next century, we will rise above Britain and Germany and leave them in the dust behind us!"

June 21, 1940: Italian torpedo boat Clio is sunks by Fench submarine Narval off the coast of North Africa.

June 27, 1940: The French sign an armistice at Compiègne.

June 28, 1940: Hitler tours Paris.

July 1, 1940: German u-boots begins a limited campaign against merchant shipping in the Atlantic. Hitler is very carefull about ulimited submarine warfare, since he clearly remembers the American reaction in the Great War.

July 5, 1940: French Vichy government breaks off relations with Britain. Subsequently British Britain recognizes colonel Charles de Gaulle as leader of the Free French and aides in the conquest of Vichy Equatorial Africa. De Gaulle sets up his Free French in Dakar.

July 10, 1940: Battle of Britain begins. Air Marshall Udet’s Luftwaffe concentrates on British radar installations and air bases.

July 23, 1940: Stalin orders the Red Army into the Baltic States. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is annexed. In Rome Mussolini suffers a fit and vows to fight communism whenever possible.

August/september, 1940: The Battle of Britain. Italian observers are present om both sides. Ciano reports that the British seem to be somewhat annoyed with the Italians. Luftwaffes M109 and longe range Heinkel fighters are doing remarkably well against the British ditto.

August 13, 1940: Luftwaffe begins to raid British airfields and factories further inland. Most of the British radar installations is at this time totally destroyed and the RAF fights halfblinde.

August 15, 1940: Air Marshall and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief Ernst Udet is complimented by Hitler at his forward headquarter at the English Channel in France.

August 21: First Battle of London. Luftwaffe tries to draw the RAF into a decisive battle.

August 25: Second Battle of London. Massive air battle with over 800 planes involved. Heavy casualties on both sides. A jubilant Udet proclaims RAF dead and gone.

September 3, 1940: Hitler plans the invasion of Britain under the codename Operation Sealion. Kriegsmarine Commander in Chief Raeder protest.

September 5, 1940: Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.

Septemer 7, 1940: Third Battle of London. The RAF seems to bee quite alive, but is mauled even further bu the Luftwaffe. Air Maskal Udet and his Chief of Staff, Felmy, begins to worry over the many casualties Luftwaffes pilots are taking..

September 15, 1940: Massive air raids on British Channel Ports. RAF has withdrawn into the interior and the bombers reign free.

Sept 16, 1940: United States military conscription bill passed.

September 20, 1940: A exultant Hitler orders Operation Sealion executed.

September 23, 1940: Thousands of German troops drown in the English Channel when a sudden storm hits the invasion fleet. The Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine clashes violently the next days and both sides suffers dearly. Luftwaffe and the Kriegmarine’s torpedo bombers presence seems to tip the balance ever so slightly in the Germans favour, but the weather ruins the invasion.

October 1, 1940: A disguested Hitler sacks Keitel and Raeder and postpone Operation Sealion indefinitely.

October 2, 1940: Dönitz is promoted to Commander in Chief for the Kriegsmarine and ordered to step up his u-boot campaign.

October 3, 1940: Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles and unleasheds the u-boots. The humiliation of Operation Sealion has made Hitler forget all about the Americans, now he wants to see Britain brought down no matter to cost.

October 7, 1940: German troops enter Romania.

October 18, 1940: Hitler fails to convince neither of Mola, Mussolini or Pétain to enter the war against Britain. The meeting is somewhat of a disaster since the invited French and Italian statesmen dislikes each other profoundly.

November 5, 1940 - Roosevelt reelected as president in the USA.

November 10, 1940: Italian torpedo boat Calipso sinks after hitting a mine near Tripoli.

November 14, 1940: Germans bomb the British port of Hull.Large parts of the city is destroyed in violent firestorms that are fueled by the huge stocks of coal in the city.

November 20, 1940: Hungary, Slovakia and Germany signs a so called armed alliance treaty, mentioned countries is hence known as the Central Powers.

November 23, 1940: Romania joins the Central Powers.

December 12, 1940: Mussolini meets with the Turkish president Inonö. Inonö relays a piece advice to Mussolini: “never ever fight the British!” The meeting ends with Turkey buying som outdated Italian warships, u-boats and bi-planes.

December 23, 1940: Italian torpedo boat Fratelli Cairoli sinks after hitting a mine off the coast of Tripoli.

[Alikchi]

I like this. I especially like your alternate Mussolini. Keep going! :)

[Mr.Bluenote]

I like this. I especially like your alternate Mussolini. Keep going! :)

Thank you very much, Alikchi - had begun to wonder if anybody read it! :)

I'll post 1941 either tomorrow or the day after - I'm having a few difficulties with Britain and a civil war in Yugoslavia!

Besides that, any comment or ideas?

Best regards!

-Mr.Bluenote.

[DuQuense]

Having thousands of Free French in Senagal during the war will have interesting after effects. :rolleyes:

having "non German freindly" italian troops in Albania will also have interesting effects. As a Road block to German expansion down the Balkans, No Germans in Greece. ?Whould the Germans even go into Jugoslavnia? ?IF not what happens to Marchall Tito? Italian surrport to reinstall the Jugoslavnia King.

Interesting- will tune in tommorrow for the next exciting episode.

[Mr.Bluenote]

1941
Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains!
- Churchill.

We cannot be less present than Slovakia. We have to repay our ally!
- Mussolini.

Mussolini, remembering the rapports about Hitler and his mad obsession with racial purity, used the various Jews within the Fascisti, who all seemed to be among the Leonardi, to set up an office that would favour immigration from occupied Europe into the Italian colonies.
Under the aegis of the Leonardi hundreds of new farmsteads was opened up to refugees from Nazi prosecution, and exiled Italian political and military outcasts. Nummerous new fishing communities was created along the coastlines. New industries was set up, at first related to the agricultural and infrastructural needs, but in the following years extended to other sectors as well. During the diplomatic offensive in the USA several American coporations were invited in to make their own fortunes in Italia and especially in Italian Africa. Infrastructure was also opgraded, with networks of new paved roads and an ever growing railway network.
An important radical decision in Italian politics was made in regard to the coloniesand its inhabitants. Just like Algeria was with France, Libya was proclaimed an integrated part of Italia. Unlike the French, however, Italia decided not just to annex the land, but to integrate the people living there as well. Citizenship was at first extended to most of the Libyan population. Later Eritreans, Somalis and Abyssinians would be rewarded with citizenship for their merits and loyalty to Italia. Like Caracalla’s Edict had extended Roman citizenship to the entire Empire, the Kingdom now extended the same citizenship to larger and larger parts of its population. Mussolini of course made much of this parallel, which Foreign Minister Grandi’s people overseas, not surprisingly, did too. These new citizens would provide Mussolini and the Fascisti with some of their most ardent supporters and steadfast soldiers in the years to come.

In mid 1941 Carabinieri major Talamo and group of the Sezione Prelevamento (Withdrawal Section) of SIM broke into the American embassy in Rome and stole a code book known as the Black Code. They photographed the codes and put the book back in its place with no one the wiser. The photograhs were then used to decipher secret American diplomatic communication. Eventough Grandi at first was furious at the serious breach of diplomatic protocol, he was later trilled by having direct acces to the Americans mail. The Black Code would become a essential tool for the Ministri degli Affari esteri in many years to come.

Italian and Iraqi diplomats met in Rome for a disussion of Italian arms sales and aid in creating a mordern Iraqi army, navy and air force. In return Italia is granted very favorable terms regarding access to olie. This source of vital oil provides the Italians with the ability to use their Fleet and airforce with greater impunity. Secretly Rashid Ali’s envoys promises to nationalize british oli interests in Iraq in return for Turko-Axis protection. As for now however the second part of the negotiations is put on hold and held secret.

In the early summer of ´41 Yugoslavia disintegrated into civil war triggered by German pressure for it to join the Central Powers. Mussolini ordered the military to intervene as peace keepers, and back the Kroatian Nationalists amongst others. The various nationalities were allready fighting each other with great entusiasm, and Mussolini played them out against each other while the Germans were trying to figure out what to do – The German army apparently was not available to deal directly with the Yugoslavs. The Serb elements in the Yugoslavian army tried to resist, but the modernized and well equiped Italian armed forces managed to overwhelm all resistence with an impressive display of new tactics and superior logistics. Two forces, one from Northeastern Italia and one from Albania, under the command of respectively general Giovanni Messe and marshall Rudolfo Graziani, drove deep and fast into Yugoslavian territory, and soon had little to do but collect the masses of Albanian, Kroatian, Montenegrin and Slovenian POWs and deserters. The Serb units fought well, and forced the Italians to work for their victories in parts of the country.
The final break up of Yugoslavia took part in the Athens Balkan Conference. Italia claimed Dalmatia, most of Slovenia, Kosova and other mostly Albanian populated territories. Greece and Bulgaria divided Macedonia between them, while Romania and Hungary took Vojovdina and other border regions as well. Three new nations was made out of the former Yugoslavia: the Kroatian Republic, the Kingdom of Montenegro and finally the Kingdom of Serbia. Germany’s foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, who seemed odly non-present as if his mind was elsewhere, claimed German sovereingty over northern Slovenia at the Conference. Mussolini still needing Hitler’s goodwill gave in to the German demands, over the very vocal protests of the inhabitants by the way.

In London, Churchill and the Imperial Staff began to see the neutral Italia as much more of a problem than an active and hostile Italia – After all you could strike at an enemy, but at a supposed friend, no! The British dedicated a large naval force to watch over the Italians, whose suddenly quite clever government seemed capable of action and adventure at any given opportunity. Besides the naval and air units, no larger force of men was needed, so the Imperial Staff began to reinforce garrisons in the Far East, while keeping an eye out for trouble in the Mediterrenean.
The good relations Dino Grandi and his envoys had built with Spain, Turkey, USA and even the Greek became an effective block to any thought, on the British side, to take matters further. The enthusiasm the various Italo-American communities showed at Mussolini’s many successes, and his increased prestige in the USA, were enough to convince Churchill and his cabinet not to take steps against the Italians. Once again Mussolini and Grandi managed to wiggle their way though the diplomatic difficulties. Indeed, by acting as guarantor for Bulgarian, Greek, Kroatian, Spanish and Turkish independence and neutrality, Mussolini’s prestige increased even further, at least outside of Whitehall…

Deep within himself Mussolini felt an urge to fight the menace of communism, and, not to forget, he needed to be on the German’s good side, however much he personally detest their Führer. When the Central Powers invades the USSR, the Fascisti on Mussolini’s order organised, and the Army equiped, an Italian Volunteer Legion, Corpo di Spedizione Italiano, under general Ettore Bastico to join the fighting on the Eastern Front. Five divisions of Blackshirts and Young Fascists was formed and shipped out East. Mussolini however did not declare war on the USSR, and made sure the world knew the Italian forces at the front were volunteers. The Italian units was actually rather well equiped and trained. The units was all staffed with officers from the Abyssinian, Albanian and Yugoslavian campaigns, and many of ther men had some kind of military experience. SS and some Wehrmacht units on the Eastern Front would later complain that the Italian soldiers protected and even evacuated Jews when the notorious Einstazgruppen showed up. Later in the war Italia expanded its commitment and sent regular army units, among them the armoured Ariete and the alpini Julia divisions.

Timeline 1941:
January 1, 1941: Germany begins negotiations regarding Bulgaria's entry into the Central Powers.

January 12, 1941: The Kingdoms of Italia and Spain signs the Mediterrenean Pact with Turkey as an assosiated member. The Mediterrenean Pact is a defensive alliance and free trade zone all in one. In a now famous speech, Mussolini referres to the Rome/Madrid Pact as an Axis in which all of the Mediterrenean revolves around. The term Axis will be the unofficial name of the pact

January 14, 1941: New reform spree in the Italian Army. Over 20 generals and more than 300 other officers are fired. Besides that, the numbers of divisons was further reduced by merging them in triangular divisons instead of binary ones. More anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery added to all divisions no matter type.

January 23, 1941: Hitler demands that Bulgaria joins the Central Powers, but the Bulgarians play for time, and seek closer ties with the Axis. Mussolini guarantees Bulgarias indepencence, much to Hitlers annoyance

January 29, 1941: Greek general, and ruler, Metaxis dies. Alexandros Korizis takes his place.

Febuary 12, 1941: The British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden and general Sir John Dill, Chief of the Imperial General Staff leave Britain for a tour of the Balkan capitals in order to try and establish a counterweight to the Central Powers and the Axis. However, Yugoslavia refuses to see them and Turkey and Bulgaria refuses their proposals flat out. Only Greece shows some interest.

Febuary 14, 1941: Hitler starts to apply pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Central Powers.

Febuary 15, 1941: Great Britain breaks off all diplomatic relations with Romania, as it is clear that the Romanians are firmly allied with the Central Powers.

March 1, 1941: Bulgaria joins the Axis after the discovery of a planned pro-British coup.

March 4, 1941: After Bulgaria's entry into the Axis, Hitler increases the pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Central Powers. as he demands that Yugoslavia joins now and accept stationing of German troops.

March 7, 1941: Günther Prien’s u-boot, U-47, is sunk by the British destroyer, HMS Wolverine.

March 11, 1941: President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act. Congress at the same time gives Italia loan guarantees.

March 18, 1941: British Commandos raid the coast of Northern France and takes several prisoners.

March 25, 1941: Under heavy pressure Yugoslavia finally signs with the Central Powers. Four Yugoslav ministers resign rather than accept the terms of the treaty. Anti-German demonstrations in Yugoslavia.

March 27, 1941: A coup in Yugoslavia! General Simonic overthrows the government, and the treaty with the Central Powers is renounced. King Peter takes control and forms new cabinet under his supervision. Civil war erupts as pro-Central Powers, pro-Axis, pro-Allied, royalists, communists and sepparatists fights it out.

March 29, 1941: The Italian Army moves into Yugoslavia to restore order and peace.

April, 1941: Most of the month Lufwaffe attacks targets in Britain. The intense focus placed on construction and development of fighters under Air Marshall Udet, have given the Luftwaffe air supremacy over most of Southern Britain, but there are simply to few bombers for the attacks to be effective and they are taking casualties the Luftwaffe cannot afford. The German airforce suffers heavy losses and Udet is forced to call of the Blitz..

April 2, 1941: Several clashes between Italian troops and Yugoslavian army units. Most of Kroatia allies with Mussolini. The Regina Aeronautica carries out devastating attacks on Yugoslavia and wipes out the Yugoslav air force on the ground.

April 3, 1941: British Commandos once angain raid the coast of Northern France. An enraged Hitler orders every caught Commando shot instantly.

April 4, 1941: Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq. Within the day, the Axis and Turkey has recognized the new regime under Rashid Ali. Britain demands that Iraq refrains from selling oil to any anti-British nation. Mussolini in a radio broadcast calls the new Iraqi regime: "A gathering of brave patriots, who is upholding Iraqi national sovereignty and defending the rights of Arabs everywhere!"

April 9, 1941: Italian troops capture Skopje in Macedonia. Great Britain severs diplomatic relations with Hungary and Slovakia.

April 11, 1941: Italian forces capture Nis and Monastir in Yugoslavia. In Zagreb, Ante Pavelic, the Kroatian Fascist leader, proclaims the independent state of Kroatia, and set himself up as Poglavnik (leader).

April 13, 1941: Italian forces begin their effort to push down the Yugoslav coast in order to link up with the 11th Army comming north from Albania.

April 14, 1941: Heavy German air attack on Plymouth, Hull and London. Luftwaffe navigators misjudges their positions and hit central London instead of the docks as intended.

April 16, 1941: RAF Bomber Command attacks Hamburg in retaliantion for the air attack on London two days before.

April 18, 1941: Greek forces invade Macedonia in support af the Italian aim of bringing peace to the wartorn country. The new Italian M20/40 tank is seen in combat for the first time, Armed with a long 50mm main gun and well protected by welted armour, the tank is a very unpleasant surprise to the Serbs.

April 23, 1941: Italian and Kroatian troops occupy Sarajevo in Yugoslavia.

April 27, 1941: In the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, King Peter, sureenders to the Italian general Messe.

April 28, 1941: RAF Bomber Command attacks Berlin.

April 29, 1941: Fighting continues in Macedonia for the next dozen days.

May 1, 1941: Last major Luftwaffe bombing raid on Britain. London is hit several times. Following this attack, RAF generals are highly suspicious over the sudden absence of Luftwaffe from the skies over Britain. It seems that most aircraft has been withdrawn from France all together.

May 5, 1941: Vichy military court sentences 56 NCO’s and privates, siding with de Gaulle to death or hard labour in absentia. All property of free French fighters is to be confiscated.

May 10, 1941: A lone Me-110 fighter is shot down over the Channel. It’s later revealed that the pilot was no other than Nazi Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess.

May 15, 1941: The Athen Balkan Conference. Jugoslavia is partitioned. Italia gains Dalmatia, most of Slovenia, Kosova and other territories with Albanian speaking majorities. The rest of the former country of Yugoslavia is taken by Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Three sovereign nations is established: The Kingdom of Montenegro, a Kroatian Republic and the Kingdom of Serbia. After some bickering Germany gains Northern Slovenia as rightfull compensation for her non-interference.

May 17. 1941: Italia sells a handfull of submarines and some other naval vessels to Romania and Turkey.

May 19, 1941: Egyptian liner Zamzam reported sunk by Germans in the South Atlantic, passenger list included over 200 Americans.

May 21, 1941: The US merchant ship Robin Moor is sunk by the German u-boot, U-69. This sinking of a neutral American vessel is publicly denounced by President Roosevelt and becomes yet another argument for him in his secret desire for bringing the United States into the war on Britains side. An RAF reconnaissance plane sight the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen on their way out into the Atlantic Ocean.

May 24, 1941: Bismarck along with Prinz Eugen sinks the pride of the Royal Navy, the battle cruiser Hood, and the Prince of Wales. Count Ciano delivers an official note of condolation signed be Grandi to the British PM, Churchill.

June 1, 1941: Bismarck and Prinz Eugen arrives in Brest for repairs.

June 4, 1941: Border clashes between Iraqi and Vichy French forces on the Syrian-Iraqi border. British forces begins build-up in the area.

June 8, 1941: Soviet news agency, Tass, denies German threat to the Motheralnds borders and calls rumours absurd and to be obvious anti-revolutionary propaganda made up by the capitalists in London and Rome.

June 12, 1941: Operation Otto is launchend without any declaration of war by the Central Powers. Millions of soldiers from the Central Powers crosses the border to the USSR. The fighting is hard and the Germans find the soft and wet russian ground very difficult to manuever on. The Soviet supreme command, STAVKA, rushes reserves forward.

June 13, 1941: The NKVD begin to arrest those in the Baltic States who might support a German occupation. Several thousands are rounded up and sent of the to Gulags in Siberia.

June 14, 1941: The USA freezes German assets in America.

June 19, 1941: The ground hardens and the Central Powers begin to gain ground as their panzers can roam free. Large formations of Soviet soldiers are incircled and reduced in the next few weeks.

June 20, 1941: Italian torpedo boat Confienza sinks in the Adriatic after being rammed by a merchant vessel.

June 23, 1941: The Red Army launches a tank counter-attack near Tilsit in Lithuania, but it's repulsed with heavy losses. Subsequently Army Group North sweeps into Lithuania and Belarus, taking Vilna and Kaunas.

June 28, 1941: Army Group Centre's Panzer Groups meet east of Minsk and trapping over thirty divisions of the Red Army. Army Group South’s mostly Romanian, Slovakian and Hungarian troops meets tougher than expected resistance in its drive through the southern Ukraine. The Italian ekspedition force is fighting as part of Army Group South.

July 1, 1941: British troops lands in Vichy French Syria. Among the British forces are Free French forces under selfproclaimed general De Gaulle and Free Polish Brigades. The Vichy French defends themselves with great tenacity, if not skill, but is overwhelmed.

July 3, 1941: For the first time since the beginning of the war, Stalin speaks to the Soviet people over the radio: “A grave threat hangs over our country!” Stalin demands utmost resistance in the patriotic war against Fascism and calls for a policy of scorched earth where the Red Army is forced to yield ground and the formation of people's partisan groups behind enemy lines, and the summary execution of all cowards and shirkers.

July 6, 1941: Germans capture Minsk and nearly 200,000 Soviet soldiers.

Juli 10, 1941: Mussolini’s second son, Bruno, dies in air crash. Mussolini is devasted and withdraws completely from public life the next days. Army Group North captures Pskov and advances toward Leningrad.

July 12, 1941: Violent Soviet counter attack is repulsed be Germans in the area of Korosten to the west of Kiev.

July 15, 1941: Stalin appoints new commanders for the fronts. Voroshilov gains the northern front, Timoshenko for the central and Budjenny for the southern. Armoured units of Army Group North advances within 10 miles of Kiev.

July 20, 1941: Germans cross the Dnieper in the Ukraine. Stalin appoints himself Defence Commissar. USSR resumes diplomatic relations with German occupied countries.

July 22, 1941: Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets.

July 27, 1941: American olie companies begin a search for olie in Italian North Africa.

July 31, 1941: Himmler instructs Heydrich to prepare for the final solution to the Jewish question.

August 1, 1941: United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states.

August 9, 1941: Finland eclares war on the USSR, but do not join the Central Power’s alliance. Finnish forces immediately begin to attack along the border.

August 14, 1941: Roosevelt and Churchill announces the Atlantic Charter.

August 16, 1941: German and Romanian forces of Army Group South captures Nikolaev, an important Soviet naval base on the Black Sea. In the north, Novgorod falls the the rapidly advancing Germans panzer formations.

August 17, 1941: Army Group North in its drive toward Leningrad captures Narva. The Romanians lay siege to the Black Sea port of Odessa.

August 21, 1941: Marshal Voroshilov tells the people of Leningrad to be brave and defend their city to the last bullet in the true spirit of communism and Mother Russia.

August 24, 1941: First German assault on Leningrad. Heavy Romanian losses around Odessa.

August 30, 1941: Finnish forces reach Leningrad from the north and engage in the second assault on the city.

September 1, 1941: Nazis order alle Jews to wear a yellow star. In the Jewsih ghetto in Waszaw SS-units go on a rampage, killing thousands and sending thousands more to the rapidly expanding KZ camps. Italian diplomats ensures that a large part of the Jews destinied for the camps is end to Italia instead!

September 3, 1941: First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.

September 8, 1941: Leningrad is now completely surrounded by German and Finnish troops.

September 11, 1941: German order of the day says Leningrad must be taken quickly, regardless of cost. Zhukov takes command of city.

September 12, 1941: The first snow reported on Russian Front. German forces in the Kremenchug bridgehead across the Dnieper in the Ukraine and advance north to aid in the encirclement of Kiev.

September 13, 1941: German High Command announces that Russian POWs will get less rations than other nationalities. Third battle of Leningrad. German units fight their way into the subburbs and dig in.

September 17, 1941: In Ankara, Italian and Turkish diplomates signs sweeping economic and military aid treties, not quite an allinace but very close. A secret protocal, the Grandi-Inonü protocol, effectively and for all purpose divides the Balkans and the Middle East between them.

September 19, 1941: A sumber and very quiet Mussolini visits Italian volunteers at Uman, Ukraine. Stalin is enraged but, pracmatic as ever, do not declare war on the Kingdom of Italia. Major uprising in the Ukraine and Baltics.

September 20, 1941: Fourth Battle at Leningrad! Most of the city ends up in Finno-German hands. Both sides thake very heavy losses in the battle.

September 21, 1941: In Kiev the long forbiddennational flag of the Ukraine is raised and nationalist forces sieze radio broadcasting facilities and declare an independent Ukraine.

September 24, 1941: Germans take Kiev. Major elements of the Red Army, mainly those consisting of soldiers from the Ukraine and the Baltic, refuse to obey orders and join with various nationalist rebels.

September 26, 1941: The Free French government in Dakar signs an alliance with the Soviet Union. Harsh Soviet attempts to crush the unrest among ist units have utterly failed and thousands of troops either rebel or surrenders to the Central Powers.

September 27, 1941: Nazis and Ukrainian nationalists begin to execute Jews in Kiev. Italian troops intervene and and full scale battle is only just adverted. The Nazi succeeeds in killing nearly 1,000 Jews before that!

September 28, 1941: An Soviet-British-US conference opens in Moscow. The conference ends with the signing of a protocol committing Britain and the USA to supply Russia with hundreds of aircraft each month and to deliver tons of aluminium, rubber, tin, food and medical supplies. After what is known as the Fifth Battle at Leningrad the city is finally subdued and occupied.

October 1, 1941: Operation Typhoon begins as the German army launches its attack on Moscow. Libya is proclaimed an integrated part of the Kingdom of Italia. The Axis, Turkey, Greece, Japan and Iraq recognizes the new nationalists gorvernment of Ukraine. The Central Powers is omniously quiet.

October 7, 1941: Stalin lifts ban on religion in Russia to boost morale. German advance on Moscow continues with the capture of Vyasma.

October 9, 1941: Hitler announces that the war in the East, for all intents and purposes, has already been decided with Leninggrad, Minsk and Kiev under the control of the Central Powers.

October 10, 1941: Premier Mola send three light Spanish divisons made up of volunteers to the Eastern Front. The Spanish will fight side by side with the Italians in 1st Axis Volunteer Army. Later a reinforced brigade from Kroatia is added. General Zhukov is put in charge of the West Front for the defence of Moscow. Army Group South concludes the battle along the Sea of Azov and takes 100,000 prisoners.

October 11, 1941: Rumours of an impending capture of Moscow by the German Army cause thousands of civilians to flee the city.

October 12, 1941: Army Group Centre captures Kaluga and Bryansk. Women and children is evacuated from Moscow.

October 13, 1941: German forces of Army Group Centre capture Kalinin, just 100 miles west of Moscow.

October 16, 1941: Romanians with the aide of the 1st Axis Volunteer Army finally take Odessa. In Bucarest, marshall Antonescu is shocked by the numbers of casualties.

October 24, 1941: Germans encircles Kharkov. A Soviet attempt to break out of the Kharkov pocket allows roughly 100,000 Soviet soldiers to escape before the Germans angain surrounds the pocket. Some 400.000 Soviet soldiers remain trapped around Kharkov.

October 30, 1941: Germans reach Sevastopol.

November 11, 1941: Aircraft carrier Ark Royal is torpedoed off Gibraltar by U-81 and later sinks. Speaking from Red Square in Moscow, with the spearheads of the Wehrmacht less than 100 miles from the capital, Stalin predicts that: “the Fascist German invaders are facing disaster!” The very same day Kharkov falls to the Central Powers.

November 13, 1941: British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk just west of Gibraltar by an u-boot.

November 17, 1941: Reichskommissariat Ostland is established and Alfred Rosenberg is put in control. Siberian troops engages German units in front of Moscow in temperatures of -20°C.

November 25, 1941: U-331 sinks the battleship HMS Barham in the Mediterranean.

November 20, 1941: Central Powers take Rostov.

November 27, 1941: Soviet troops retake Rostov. To the north series of large chaotic tank battles are taking place. Both sides are severely depleted, but the Central Powers continue to push forward.

December 5, 1941: German attack on Moscow is abandoned. Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

December 6, 1941: The Red Army launches a major counteroffensive around Moscow.

December 12, 1941: German Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels broadcasts an appeal for winter clothing for the German troops on the eastern front.

December 19, 1941: Another assasination attempt on Hitler. The assassin is believed to be an disgruntled Austrian.

December 25, 1941: Italian ans Spanish volunteers of the Axis Army resist the Soviet counteroffensive around Stalino.

December 31, 1941: Allied shipping sunk by the German u-boots in the entire year of 1941 is 503 ships, equalling 2,530,011 tons. 35 of the Kriegsmarine’s u-boots were lost in the same period.

[Alikchi]

What is Turkey planning? They seem to be signing treaties left and right, but I remember them as being very neutral.. "dividing the balkans and the middle east" between Turkey and Italy is an interesting idea, to say the least.

By the way, is Italy building any aircraft carriers?


Excellent TL. :0

[Mr.Bluenote]

What is Turkey planning? They seem to be signing treaties left and right, but I remember them as being very neutral.. "dividing the balkans and the middle east" between Turkey and Italy is an interesting idea, to say the least.
Hmm, yes, I know. My basic idea is that with the Med being somewhat more peacefull (no Italo-British war), the Rome/Madrid Axis, the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, the apparently very agressive nature of Hitler and his seemingly good chum Stalin and the more independent Iraq, Inonü, clever as he were, wouldn't mind getting closer in with Italia/Spain (weapons, training, security etc etc).
And dividing is perhaps to strongly put, sorry, I was thinking in terms of interest zones ala the Allies and USSR during and after the War.

By the way, is Italy building any aircraft carriers?
I don't really know. I would love to see the RM put a few to sea, but can they afford it? I hope to do some more updates on the economics later, but I think the Regia Marina is put on hold while the Regia Esercito reforms and the Regia Aeronautica rebuild (udgrades with post-Milch fighters, bombers etc etc).

I'm thinking about doing a few short stories with Borghese in the Spanish Civil War. One where he and his men capture som Soviet gear, and one where they stop a large secret shipment going from Republican Spain to the USSR (hehe, yes, it's the gold reserve :))
If option number two is picked I'll rewrite parts of the TL, and viola the Axis it somewhat richer and the USSR somewhat less! :D

Excellent TL. :0
Thank you! I don't know how plausible it is, but I'm having fun imagening a more eh, intelligent Mussolini and stronger Italy.
Funy thing though, I posted the TL on Comando Supremo Forum too and most people there said nothing about Mussolini growing a brain, but commented that Milch's defection was unrealistic! :rolleyes:

Best regards and all!

- Bluenote.

PS: Oh, and I hope to put 1942 up sometime around sunday or monday!

[Mr.Bluenote]

I've changed a few things in the Italia Eterna TL. First of all, Goering dies earlier, so Walther Wever takes over Luftwaffe instead of Udet. Secondly, the Spansh gold reserve is intercepted before it reaches the USSR. A few things too have been edited in 1941, so I thought, I would repost it

1941
Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
- Winston Churchill.

We cannot be less present than Slovakia. We have to repay our ally!
- Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini, remembering the rapports about Hitler and his mad obsession with racial purity, used the various Jews within the Fascisti, who all seemed to be among the Leonardi, to set up an office that would favour immigration from occupied Europe into the Italian colonies.
Under the aegis of the Leonardi hundreds of new farmsteads was opened up to refugees from Nazi prosecution, and exiled Italian political and military outcasts. Nummerous new fishing communities was created along the coastlines. New industries was set up, at first related to the agricultural and infrastructural needs, but in the following years extended to other sectors as well. During the diplomatic offensive in the USA several American coporations were invited in to make their own fortunes in Italia and especially in Italian Africa. Infrastructure was also opgraded, with networks of new paved roads and an ever growing railway network.
An important radical decision in Italian politics was made in regard to the coloniesand its inhabitants. Just like Algeria was with France, Libya was proclaimed an integrated part of Italia. Unlike the French, however, Italia decided not just to annex the land, but to integrate the people living there as well. Citizenship was at first extended to most of the Libyan population. Later Eritreans, Somalis and Abyssinians would be rewarded with citizenship for their merits and loyalty to Italia. Like Caracalla’s Edict had extended Roman citizenship to the entire Empire, the Kingdom now extended the same citizenship to larger and larger parts of its population. Mussolini of course made much of this parallel, which Foreign Minister Grandi’s people overseas, not surprisingly, did too. These new citizens would provide Mussolini and the Fascisti with some of their most ardent supporters and steadfast soldiers in the years to come.

In mid 1941 Carabinieri major Talamo and a group of the Sezione Prelevamento (Withdrawal Section) of SIM broke into the American embassy in Rome and stole a code book known as the Black Code. They photographed the codes and put the book back in its place with no one the wiser. The photograhs were then used to decipher secret American diplomatic communication. Eventough Grandi at first was furious at the serious breach of diplomatic protocol, he was later trilled by having direct acces to the Americans mail. The Black Code would become a essential tool for the Ministri degli Affari esteri in many years to come.

Italian and Iraqi diplomats met in Rome for a disussion of Italian arms sales and aid in creating a mordern Iraqi army, navy and air force. In return Italia is granted very favorable terms regarding access to olie. This source of vital oil provides the Italians with the ability to use their Fleet and airforce with greater impunity. Secretly Rashid Ali’s envoys promises to nationalize british oli interests in Iraq in return for Turko-Axis protection. As for now however the second part of the negotiations is put on hold and held secret.

In the early summer of ´41 Yugoslavia disintegrated into civil war triggered by German pressure for it to join the Central Powers. Mussolini ordered the military to intervene as peace keepers, and back the Croatian Nationalists amongst others. The various nationalities were allready fighting each other with great entusiasm, and Mussolini played them out against each other while the Germans were trying to figure out what to do – The German army apparently was not available to deal directly with the Yugoslavs. The Serb elements in the Yugoslavian army tried to resist, but the modernized and well equiped Italian armed forces managed to overwhelm all resistence with an impressive display of new tactics and superior logistics. Two forces, one from Northeastern Italia and one from Albania, under the command of respectively general Giovanni Messe and marshall Rudolfo Graziani, drove deep and fast into Yugoslavian territory, and soon had little to do but collect the masses of Albanian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Slovenian POWs and deserters. The Serb units fought well, and forced the Italians to work for their victories in parts of the country.
The final break up of Yugoslavia took part in the Athens Balkan Conference. Italia claimed Dalmatia, most of Slovenia, Kosova and other mostly Albanian populated territories. Greece and Bulgaria divided Macedonia between them, while Romania and Hungary took Vojovdina and other border regions as well. Three new nations was made out of the former Yugoslavia: the Croatian Republic, the Kingdom of Montenegro and finally the Kingdom of Serbia. Germany’s foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, who seemed odly non-present as if his mind was elsewhere, claimed German sovereingty over northern Slovenia at the Conference. Mussolini still needing Hitler’s goodwill gave in to the German demands, over the very vocal protests of the inhabitants by the way.

In London, Churchill and the Imperial Staff began to see the neutral Italia as much more of a problem than an active and hostile Italia – After all you could strike at an enemy, but at a supposed friend, no! The British dedicated a large naval force to watch over the Italians, whose suddenly quite clever government seemed capable of action and adventure at any given opportunity. Besides the naval and air units, no larger force of men was needed, so the Imperial Staff began to reinforce garrisons in the Far East, while keeping an eye out for trouble in the Mediterrenean.
The good relations Dino Grandi and his envoys had built with Spain, Turkey, USA and even the Greek became an effective block to any thought, on the British side, to take matters further. The enthusiasm the various Italo-American communities showed at Mussolini’s many successes, and his increased prestige in the USA, were enough to convince Churchill and his cabinet not to take steps against the Italians. Once again Mussolini and Grandi managed to wiggle their way though the diplomatic difficulties. Indeed, by acting as guarantor for Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, Spanish and Turkish independence and neutrality, Mussolini’s prestige increased even further, at least outside of Whitehall…

Deep within himself Mussolini felt an urge to fight the menace of communism, and, not to forget, he needed to be on the German’s good side, however much he personally detest their Führer. When the Central Powers invades the USSR, the Fascisti on Mussolini’s order organised, and the Army equiped, an Italian Volunteer Legion, Corpo di Spedizione Italiano, under general Ettore Bastico to join the fighting on the Eastern Front. Five divisions of Blackshirts and Young Fascists was formed and shipped out East. Mussolini however did not declare war on the USSR, and made sure the world knew the Italian forces at the front were volunteers. The Italian units was actually rather well equiped and trained. The units was all staffed with officers from the Abyssinian, Albanian and Yugoslavian campaigns, and many of ther men had some kind of military experience. SS and some Wehrmacht units on the Eastern Front would later complain that the Italian soldiers protected and even evacuated Jews when the notorious Einstazgruppen showed up. Later in the war Italia expanded its commitment and sent regular army units, among them the armoured Ariete and the alpini Julia divisions.

Timeline 1941:
January 1, 1941: Germany begins negotiations regarding Bulgaria's entry into the Central Powers.

January 12, 1941: The Kingdoms of Italia and Spain signs the Mediterrenean Pact with Turkey as an associated member. The Mediterrenean Pact is a defensive alliance and free trade zone all in one. In a now famous speech, Mussolini referres to the Rome/Madrid Pact as an Axis in which all of the Mediterrenean revolves around. The term Axis will be the unofficial name of the pact

January 14, 1941: New reform spree in the Regia Esercito (the Royal Army). Over 20 generals and more than 300 other officers are fired. Besides that, the numbers of divisons is further reduced by merging them in triangular divisons instead of binary ones. More anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery added to all divisions no matter type.

January 23, 1941: Hitler demands that Bulgaria joins the Central Powers, but the Bulgarians play for time, and seek closer ties with the Axis. Mussolini guarantees Bulgarias indepencence, much to Hitlers annoyance

January 29, 1941: Greek general, and ruler, Metaxis dies. Alexandros Korizis takes his place.

Febuary 12, 1941: The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax and general Sir John Dill, Chief of the Imperial General Staff leave Britain for a tour of the Balkan capitals in order to try and establish a counterweight to the Central Powers and the Axis. However, Yugoslavia refuses to see them and Turkey and Bulgaria refuses their proposals flat out. Only Greece shows some interest.

Febuary 14, 1941: Hitler starts to apply pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Central Powers.

Febuary 15, 1941: Great Britain breaks off all diplomatic relations with Romania, as it is clear that the Romanians are firmly allied with the Central Powers.

March 1, 1941: Bulgaria joins the Axis after the discovery of a planned pro-British coup.

March 4, 1941: After Bulgaria's entry into the Axis, Hitler increases the pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Central Powers. as he demands that Yugoslavia joins now and accept stationing of German troops.

March 7, 1941: Günther Prien’s u-boot, U-47, is sunk by the British destroyer, HMS Wolverine.

March 11, 1941: President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act. Congress at the same time gives Italia loan guarantees.

March 18, 1941: British Commandos raid the coast of Northern France and takes several prisoners.

March 25, 1941: Under heavy pressure Yugoslavia finally signs with the Central Powers. Four Yugoslav ministers resign rather than accept the terms of the treaty. Anti-German demonstrations in Yugoslavia.

March 27, 1941: A coup in Yugoslavia! General Simonic overthrows the government, and the treaty with the Central Powers is renounced. King Peter takes control and forms new cabinet under his supervision. Civil war erupts as pro-Central Powers, pro-Axis, pro-Allied, royalists, communists and sepparatists fights it out.

March 29, 1941: The Regia Esercito moves into Yugoslavia to restore order and peace.

April, 1941: For most of the month Lufwaffe attacks targets in Britain. The intense focus placed on construction and development of modern long ranges fighters under the Wever-Kesselring duo, have given the Luftwaffe air supremacy over most of Southern Britain, but there are simply to few heavy bombers for the attacks to be effective and they are taking casualties the Luftwaffe cannot afford. The German airforce suffers heavy losses and Wever is forced to call of the Blitz..

April 2, 1941: Several clashes between Italian troops and Yugoslavian army units. Most of Croatia allies with Italia. The Regia Aeronautica carries out devastating attacks on Yugoslavia and wipes out the Yugoslav air force on the ground.

April 3, 1941: British Commandos once angain raid the coast of Northern France. An enraged Hitler orders every caught Commando shot instantly.
Fordism is introduced in Italia as Ford Motor Company sets up a joint venture with FIAT. In the following years this a other assembly-line factories will makes thousands of truck for bth civilian and military use.

April 4, 1941: Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq. Within the day, the Axis and Turkey has recognized the new regime under Rashid Ali. Britain demands that Iraq refrains from selling oil to any anti-British nation. Mussolini in a radio broadcast calls the new Iraqi regime: "A gathering of brave patriots, who is upholding Iraqi national sovereignty and defending the rights of Arabs everywhere!"

April 9, 1941: Italian troops capture Skopje in Macedonia. Great Britain severs diplomatic relations with Hungary and Slovakia.

April 13, 1941: Italian forces capture Nis and Monastir in Yugoslavia. In Zagreb, Ante Pavelic, the Croat Fascist leader, proclaims the independent state of Croatia, and set himself up as Poglavnik (leader).

April 14, 1941: Italian forces begin their effort to push down the Yugoslav coast in order to link up with the 11th Army comming north from Albania.
Heavy German air attack on Plymouth, Hull and London. Luftwaffe navigators misjudges their positions and hit central London instead of the docks as intended.

April 16, 1941: RAF Bomber Command attacks Hamburg in retaliantion for the air attack on London two days before.

April 18, 1941: Greek forces invade Macedonia in support af the Italian aim of bringing peace to the wartorn country. The new Italian M20/40 tank is seen in combat for the first time, Armed with a long 50mm main gun and well protected by welted armour, the tank is a very unpleasant surprise to the Serbs.

April 23, 1941: Italian and Croat troops occupy Sarajevo in Yugoslavia.

April 27, 1941: In the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, King Peter, surrenders to the Italian general Messe.

April 28, 1941: RAF Bomber Command attacks Berlin.

April 29, 1941: Fighting continues in Macedonia for the next dozen days. Hitler fires Air Marshall Wever as head of the Luftwaffe. Albert Kesselring takes his place.

May 1, 1941: Last major Luftwaffe bombing raid on Britain. London is hit several times. Following this attack, RAF generals are highly suspicious over the sudden absence of Luftwaffe from the skies over Britain. It seems that most aircraft has been withdrawn from France all together.

May 5, 1941: Vichy military court sentences 56 NCO’s and privates, siding with de Gaulle to death or hard labour in absentia. All property of free French fighters is to be confiscated.

May 10, 1941: A lone Me-110 fighter is shot down over the Channel. It’s later revealed that the pilot was no other than Nazi Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess.

May 12, 1941: Drastic reforms in the Regia Marina. Ships under construction is to be finished, but no new one build in the next two years. Ressources are being diverted to the army and airforce. The admirals however very reluctantly accepts that they can either built or buy up to two carriers, but that is it - no more expensive cruisers or battleships in that period.

May 15, 1941: The Athen Balkan Conference. Jugoslavia is partitioned. Italia gains Dalmatia, most of Slovenia, Kosova and other territories with Albanian speaking majorities. The rest of the former country of Yugoslavia is taken by Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Three sovereign nations is established: The Kingdom of Montenegro, a Croat Republic and the Kingdom of Serbia. After some bickering Germany gains Northern Slovenia as rightfull compensation for her non-interference.

May 17. 1941: Italia sells quite a few submarines and some other naval vessels to Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Turkey.

May 19, 1941: Egyptian liner Zamzam reported sunk by Germans in the South Atlantic, passenger list included over 200 Americans.
Regia Marina begins construction af a light carrier, the Aquila, and seeks either American or Japanese help with the construction of a larger fleet carrier as well.

May 21, 1941: The US merchant ship Robin Moor is sunk by the German u-boot, U-69. This sinking of a neutral American vessel is publicly denounced by President Roosevelt and becomes yet another argument for him in his secret desire for bringing the United States into the war on Britains side.
An RAF reconnaissance plane sight the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen on their way out into the Atlantic Ocean.

May 24, 1941: Bismarck along with Prinz Eugen sinks the pride of the Royal Navy, the battle cruiser Hood, and the Prince of Wales. Count Ciano delivers an official note of condolation signed by Grandi to the British PM, Churchill.

June 1, 1941: Bismarck and Prinz Eugen arrives in Brest for repairs.

June 4, 1941: Border clashes between Iraqi and Vichy French forces on the Syrian-Iraqi border. British forces begins build-up in the area.

June 8, 1941: Soviet news agency, Tass, denies German threat to the Motherlands borders and calls rumours absurd and to be obvious anti-revolutionary propaganda made up by the capitalists in London and Rome.

June 10, 1941: The Regia Marina begin to investigate the posibility of putting radars on their ships. The lesson of sinking of HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales by the Germans is taken to heart.

June 12, 1941: Operation Otto is launchend without any declaration of war by the Central Powers. Millions of soldiers from the Central Powers crosses the border to the USSR as the codeword Dortmund is passed on. The fighting is hard and the Germans find the soft and wet russian ground very difficult to manuever on. The Soviet supreme command, STAVKA, rushes reserves forward.

June 13, 1941: The NKVD begin to arrest those in the Baltic States who might support a German occupation. Several thousands are rounded up and sent of the to Gulags in Siberia.

June 14, 1941: The USA freezes German assets in America.

June 16, 1941: The American car-maker General Motors begin to set up a modern factory just outside Milano. The factory is to produce sturdy little cars ala the German Volkswagen, again for both civilian and military use.

June 19, 1941: The ground hardens and the Central Powers begin to gain ground as their panzers can roam free. Large formations of Soviet soldiers are incircled and reduced in the next few weeks.

June 20, 1941: An Italian torpedo boat, the Confienza, sinks in the Adriatic after being rammed by a merchant vessel.

June 23, 1941: The Red Army launches a tank counter-attack near Tilsit in Lithuania, but it's repulsed with heavy losses. Subsequently Army Group North sweeps into Lithuania and Belarus, taking Vilna and Kaunas.

June 28, 1941: Army Group Centre's Panzer Groups meet east of Minsk and trapping over thirty divisions of the Red Army. Army Group South’s mostly Romanian, Slovakian and Hungarian troops meets tougher than expected resistance in its drive through the southern Ukraine. The Italian ekspedition force is fighting as part of Army Group South.

July 1, 1941: British troops lands in Vichy French Syria. Among the British forces are Free French forces under selfproclaimed general De Gaulle and Free Polish Brigades. The Vichy French defends themselves with great tenacity, if not skill, but is overwhelmed.

July 3, 1941: For the first time since the beginning of the war, Stalin speaks to the Soviet people over the radio: “A grave threat hangs over our country!” Stalin demands calls for a policy of scorched earth when ever the Red Army is forced to yield ground and utmost resistance in the patriotic war against Fascism. In the same speech Stalin also orders the formation of partisan groups nadn that all cowards, shirkers and incompetents be summarily executed.

July 6, 1941: Germans capture Minsk and take nearly 200,000 Soviet soldiers prisoner.

Juli 10, 1941: Mussolini’s second son, Bruno, dies when his airplane crashes. Mussolini is devasted and withdraws completely from public life the next days. Army Group North captures Pskov and advances toward Leningrad.

July 12, 1941: Violent Soviet counter attack is repulsed be the Central Powers west of Kiev.

July 15, 1941: Stalin appoints new commanders for the fronts. Voroshilov gains the northern front, Timoshenko for the central and Budjenny for the southern. Armoured units of Army Group South advances within 10 miles of Kiev.

July 20, 1941: Germans cross the Dnieper in the Ukraine. Stalin appoints himself Defence Commissar. USSR resumes diplomatic relations with German occupied countries.

July 22, 1941: Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets.

July 27, 1941: American oil companies begin a search for oil in Italian North Africa.

July 31, 1941: Himmler instructs Heydrich to prepare for the final solution to the Jewish question.

August 1, 1941: United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states. Finland declares war on the USSR, but do not join the Central Power’s alliance. Finnish forces immediately begin to attack along the border.

August 14, 1941: Roosevelt and Churchill announces the Atlantic Charter.

August 16, 1941: German and Romanian forces of Army Group South captures Nikolaev, an important Soviet naval base on the Black Sea. In the north, Novgorod falls the the rapidly advancing German panzer formations.

August 17, 1941: Army Group North in its drive toward Leningrad captures Narva. The Romanians lay siege to the Black Sea port of Odessa.

August 21, 1941: Marshal Voroshilov tells the people of Leningrad to be brave and defend their city to the last bullet in the true spirit of communism and Mother Russia.

August 24, 1941: First German assault on Leningrad ends with heavy losses. Considering the German effort in the North around Leningrad, the Romanian forces around Odessa opts for a siege.

August 28, 1941: Finnish forces reach Leningrad from the north and engage in the second assault on the city.

September 1, 1941: Nazis order alle Jews to wear a yellow star. In the Jewsih ghetto in Waszaw SS-units go on a rampage, killing thousands and sending thousands more to the rapidly expanding KZ camps. Italian diplomats ensures that a large part of the Jews destinied for the camps is send to Italian Africa instead!

September 3, 1941: First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.

September 8, 1941: Leningrad is now completely surrounded by German and Finnish troops.

September 11, 1941: German order of the day says Leningrad must be taken quickly, regardless of cost. Zhukov takes command of city.

September 12, 1941: The first snow reported on Russian Front.

September 13, 1941: German High Command announces that Russian POWs will get less rations than other nationalities.
Third battle of Leningrad. German units fight their way into the suburbs and dig in to defend their gains ans reconsolidate.

September 17, 1941: In Ankara, Italian and Turkish diplomates signs sweeping economic and military aid treaties, not quite an alliance but very close.

September 19, 1941: A somber and very quiet Mussolini visits Italian volunteers in the Ukraine. Stalin is enraged but, pracmatic as ever, do not declare war on the Kingdom of Italia. Major uprisings in the Ukraine and Baltics.

September 20, 1941: Fourth Battle at Leningrad! Most of the city ends up in Finno-German hands. Both sides thake very heavy losses in the battle. A young girl, Tanya Savicheva, writes in her diary: "20th September at 7.30 morning 1941. The Savichevs are dead, all dead, only Tanya remains." Tanya herself dies in following days.

September 21, 1941: In Kiev the long forbidden national flag of the Ukraine is raised and nationalist forces sieze radio broadcasting facilities and declare an independent Ukraine.

September 24, 1941: Army Group South take Kiev. Major elements of the Red Army, mainly those consisting of soldiers from the Ukraine and the Baltic, refuse to obey orders and join with various nationalist rebels. Marshall Budjenny commits suicide in his HQ after radioing Stalin that it is over.

September 26, 1941: The Free French government in Dakar signs an alliance with the Soviet Union.
Harsh Soviet attempts to crush the unrest among ist units have utterly failed and thousands of troops either rebel or surrenders to the Central Powers.

September 27, 1941: Nazis and Ukrainian nationalists begin to execute Jews in Kiev. Italian troops intervene and and full scale battle is only just adverted. The Nazi succeeeds in killing nearly 1,000 Jews before that!

September 28, 1941: An Soviet-British-US conference opens in Moscow. The conference ends with the signing of a protocol committing Britain and the USA to supply Russia with hundreds of aircraft each month and to deliver tons of aluminium, rubber, tin, food and medical supplies.
After what is known as the Fifth Battle at Leningrad the city is finally subdued and occupied. Most of Army Group North is no longer able to mount offenvise actions due to the high level of casualties taken in the batlles for Leningrad. General Zhukov is killed fighting side by side with his men in one of the last pockets of resistance in the city.

October 1, 1941: Operation Typhoon begins as the German army launches its attack on Moscow.
The Axis, Turkey, Greece, Japan and Iraq recognizes the new nationalists gorvernment of Ukraine. The Central Powers is omniously quiet. Libya is proclaimed an integrated part of the Kingdom of Italia.

October 7, 1941: Stalin lifts ban on religion in Russia to boost morale. German advance on Moscow continues with the capture of Vyasma.

October 9, 1941: Hitler announces that the war in the East, for all intents and purposes, has already been decided with Leningrad, Minsk and Kiev under the control of the Central Powers.

October 10, 1941: Premier Mola send three light Spanish divisons made up of volunteers to the Eastern Front. The Spanish will fight side by side with the Italians in 1st Axis Volunteer Army. Later a reinforced brigade from Croatia is added.
General Konev is put in charge of the West Front for the defence of Moscow. Army Group South concludes the battle along the Sea of Azov and takes 100,000 prisoners.

October 11, 1941: Rumours of an impending capture of Moscow by the German Army cause thousands of civilians to flee the city.

October 12, 1941: Army Group Centre captures Kaluga and Bryansk. Women and children is evacuated from Moscow.

October 13, 1941: German forces of Army Group Centre capture Kalinin, just 100 miles west of Moscow.

October 16, 1941: Dino Grandi and team of Leonardi visits Argentine and Brazil. They conclude several trade agreements with include rubber and varoius metals.

October 24, 1941: Germans encircles Kharkov. A Soviet attempt to break out of the Kharkov pocket allows roughly 100,000 Soviet soldiers to escape before the Germans angain surrounds the pocket. Some 400.000 Soviet soldiers remain trapped around Kharkov.

October 30, 1941: Germans reach Sevastopol on the Crimean Penninsula. The fortified city is besieged.

November 4, 1941: General Petre Dumitrescu’s Romanian forces accepts the surrender of Odessa.

November 11, 1941: Aircraft carrier Ark Royal is torpedoed off Gibraltar by U-81 and later sinks.
Speaking from Red Square in Moscow, with the spearheads of the Wehrmacht less than 100 miles from the capital, Stalin predicts that: “the Fascist German invaders are facing disaster!” Much to Stalins aggrevation Kharkov falls to the Central Powers the same day.

November 13, 1941: British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk just west of Gibraltar by an u-boot.

November 17, 1941: Reichskommissariat Ostland is established and Alfred Rosenberg is put in control. Siberian troops engages German units in front of Moscow in temperatures of down to -20°C.

November 22, 1941: U-331 sinks the battleship HMS Barham in the Mediterranean.

November 24, 1941: Central Powers take Rostov. Ukainian combat units are being formed under Axis supervision. German commanders in the area stay quiet.

November 25, 1941: From Rome a strangly subdued, but very intens Mussolini speaks of the evil of Communism and the furture of a free Ukraine. Hitler considers ordering the Ukrainian units, and even some Axis ones, disarmed and interned, but is persuaded to accept the situation for now by general Halder, Chief of the OKW.

November 29, 1941: Soviet troops retake Rostov. To the north series of furious tank battles are taking place. Both sides are severely depleted, but the Central Powers continue to push forward. Italian offficers in the area wires Comando Supremo with horrified reports of giant unstoppable Soviet tanks.

December 1, 1941: Japanese naval advisors arrive in Italia. The Japanese officers are experts on carrier warfare.
German advance units from Army Group Center enters the suburbs ringing Moscow.

December 3, 1941: More German troops join the attack on Moscow. Operation Typhoon reach a cressendo with heavy inner City fighting. Stalin is said to still be in the city.

December 5, 1941: German casualties during the attack on Moscow mounts alarmingly. Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

December 6, 1941: Under general Konev the Red Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow.

December 10, 1941: German attack on Moscow is abandoned, and the battered German units begin to fall back. Konev is promoted to Marshall.

December 12, 1941: German Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels broadcasts an appeal for aid in form of winter clothing for the German troops on the eastern front.

December 19, 1941: Another assasination attempt on Hitler. The assassin is believed to be an disgruntled Austrian.

December 25, 1941: Italian and Spanish volunteers of the Axis Army succesfully resist a weak Soviet counter-offensive in the eastern Ukraine.

December 31, 1941: Allied shipping sunk by the German u-boots in the entire year of 1941 is 503 ships, equalling 2,530,011 tons. 35 of the Kriegsmarine’s u-boots were lost in the same period.

[Mr.Bluenote]

1942
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic...
- Josef Stalin.

One thing we must be clear about, my Führer, is that the extremely critical situation we are in now cannot be put down to the enemy’s superiority alone. It’s also due to the way in which we are led!
- Erich von Manstein.

Italian efforts to put their economy onto a war footing begun to bear fruit in 1942 . Production of vehicles, aircraft, guns and modern tanks had increased considerably with the help of the American investments and the many Leonardi-reforms. Italia is, much to the joy of Mussolini and most of the Italians, no longer a third rate nation in industrial or military terms, although the Germans, Soviets and British continue to outproduce Italia by some margin, the gap is closing.

Germany is dependent on many things oil, chrome, steel, etc., which has to be imported. As the Polesti oilfields in Romania comes under sporadic Soviet air bombardment up to the capture of the Crimean Peninsula, the German dependency on Romianian oil becomes evidenet. Eventhough the oilfields suffer little actual damage, Hitler orders von Ribbentrop in the Foreign Ministry to secure oil and other much needed raw materials from other sources. Von Ribbentrops attention turn to Italia.
Italian manufacturers are given rights to construct various aircraft engines and guns on licens. In exchange, Italia would dedicate ist substantial merchant fleet to suppling Germany with oil and raw materials. The British, naturally, protested Rome’s dealings with the Nazis, but faced with internal opposition towards taking matters further, the British had to let it rest. It is however rumored that Churchill for a while considered kidnapping Mussolini. Ironically a few British politicians and high ranking military officials actually believed in the Italian propaganda about her military capabilities. Stil with the Italians in control of Libya, Abyssinia and Djibouti, the more and more pro-Axis governemnt in Turkey and Iraq, the British government found it wise to cooperate with the Fascisti in Rome. The British were after all struggling hard to survive as an empire, with the Middle East in the shadow of Mussolinis newly created New Italian Empire, the Far Eastern under the constant threat, and later full scall assault, of Emperial Japan, and with most Europe in the hands of the Central Powers.
Besides that, Italia’s humanitarian aid to the millions of Jews ensured that no democracy could successfully sell a war with Mussolini’s regime to its population.

Following the British-led Allied landings in Morocco, Algiers and Madagascar, Italian forces moved against Vichy French positions in the Mediterrenean. As Vichy France began to crumble under the Allied and German onslaught, the Italian legions landed in Corsica and struck deep into Tunesia.
Corsica fell to the marines of San Marco division and the paratroops of the Folgore and Nembo divisions, while mobile and armoured divisions moved from Libya into Tunesia. While the Regio Esercito’s units moved rapidly and whitout serious setbacks, the Regia Marina met the sortieing Vichy French Fleet northwest of Tunis. The Battle of Tunis in which the Italian navy and air force engaged the French ditto was as bloody and intese as a naval battle can be. The Italian fleet commander, admiral Campioni, received word that the French fleet was heading east away from the british task forces landing troops in Algiers and Marokko, and agressively began to intercept. The Italian fleet, consisting of 4 Battleships and 10 cruisers of different classes, met the French at dawn. The French fought hard and with great elán. Eventhough it was obvious that the Italians would win. And the Italians did win, but the cost was high; Littorio was sunk more or less with all hand and Giulio Cesare and Conte di Cavour was damaged. The Zara and 2 light cruisers were also either sunk or badly damage. 8 destroyers and some smaller vessels were likewise sunk or damaged. The entire French Fleet was sunk, or as it is later claimed by French revisionists, scuttled.

The mobile divisions of Marshall Rudolfo Graziani’s heavily reinforced Libyan army struk north from Libya, outflanking the Mareth line and dashed north towards Tunis. The Vichy French defenders hurridly withdrew and staged a last defense in the city itself. After two days of heavy fighting and bombardement by the Italian heavy artillery and the remaining ships of the Regia Marina, the French finally surrendered to Graziani. Eventhough Graziani couldn’t use the Regio Esercito’s new superior tactics or mobility to full extent in the end of the short campaign, the rapid rise in the Italians fighting abilities were very visible indeed. When the Allied forces finally had battled their way though the French defenders in Algiers and Morocco Italian units were waiting at the Tunesian-Algerian border.

With these new victories in hand, Mussolini proclaimed the creation of The New Italian Empire, with the Italian King, Vittorio Emmanuele III, as Emperor Vittorio Emanuelle I of the New Roman Empire.

Across the Ukraine the Italians and their Axis allies worked hard to create an nationalist, but of course Axis-friendly, Ukrainian administration. The vast ressources of the Ukraine were best to be exploited under a somewhat independent Ukraine. At least that was the thoughts in Rome and Madrid. The Germans however seemed to think otherwise, and clashes between Axis administrators and officers and their German counterparts were becoming the norm. In several incidents, Axis units, with the help of the Romanians, actually disarmed and interned some overzealous SS-men. With the German Army heavily engaged on all fronts in the USSR, and all the casualties taken in considerarion, Hitler had to let the situation in the Ukraine run its own course.

Timelie 1942:
January 13, 1942: Germans begin a u-boot offensive far out in the Mid-Atlantic. So called Milk Cows aid the German u-boots in their endavour.

January 14, 1942: As the GEE-equiped Lancaster bomber is entering service the Bomber Command is issued with Directive No.22, which ends the recent period of aircraft conservation by the RAF.

January 20, 1942: SS-RSHA leader Reinhardt Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the final solution to the Jewish problem.

January 26, 1942: First American Brigade of Volunteers arrive in Britain.

Febuary 12, 1942: British aircraft spot the German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen as they enter the straits of Dover, and immediately launches several attacks with both MTBs and Swordfish aircraft against the German squadron. As the battles rages on, the battleship Scharnhorst hits a mine, wich only inflicts minor damage. A short time later British destroyers from the port of Harwich and aircraft from both Bomber and Coastal commands joins in. The German ships are forced to turn back, but lices to fight another day.

February-March: The British begin to reinforce their garrisons in Sumatra, Singapore and Malaya. It is considered vital to maintain control of the Straits, so a cruiser squadron is also sent.

March 3, 1942: RAF Bomber Command, under its new C-in-C, Air Vice Marshal Harris, attacks the Renault plant in the Paris suburb of Billancourt. This somewhat successful raid was a much needed morale boost for the British. On this same night, the Lancaster bomber makes its operational debut, laying mines of the French port of Brest.

March 14, 1942: Japan begins drawing up detailed plans for its war against the colonial opressors of Asia. The Japanese want to grab as much of the Southeaster Pacific as they can before the USA is able to intervene. If the Americans decide to get involved, the Japanese figures that the will meet the US Navy’s battle-line somewhere in the vicinity of the Philippines and with the help of their modern carriers destroy it there.

March 24, 1942: The 1st Axis Volunteer Army in USSR is reconstituted and reinforced with armour and anti-tank weapons and a few of the new Serveromentes. Two new divisions of Blackshirts is sent and integrated in the force. Several load of weapons and other equipment is loaded of at Odessa and given the the Ukranians.

April 23, 1942: German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.

April 25, 1942: In his Easter day radio address, Hitler proudly announces: "cleansing of Germany and Poland of the Jews". He claims that the Jews are being exciled to Africa. This is partly true since many educated Jews and other people with usefull skills actually are being resettled in the Italian Colonies there. It is howevere far from all Jews that have that chance… The U.S. government, with its large Jewish population, remains silent on the issue in adherence to its strict policy of neutrality.

April 29, 1942: The Belgian resistance destroys Tenderloo chemical works. Executions by the Germans reported to be running at 25-30 a month in Belgium.

May 8, 1942: The Central Powers begin their summer offensive begins in the Crimea.

May 10, 1942: Winston Churchill warns that Britain will use poison gas on Germany if the Germans do so on the Soviet Union. The battle for Sevastopol continues with over 300,000 men fighting it out around the fortress-city. The German artillery ranges from ordinary field guns to enormous 800mm superheavy siege mortars.

May 12, 1942: Marshall Timoshenko launches his summer offensive in the Southern USSR with the aim of cutting of suurounding Kharkov with two pincers.

May 21, 1942: The Central Powers finally halt the Soviet summer offensive just short of Kharkov, and von Kleist counter-attacks ferociously. The Germans aim to pinch off the Soviet spearhead. The Soviets leaders and soldiers lack the skill to handle the fast pace of the German blitzkrieg, and the Soviet divisions crumbles under the onslaught.

May 21, 1942: Adolf Hitler plans the German summer offensive. The first priority is secure the resouces of the Ukraine, and then asserting the German rule in the area. Hitler is most annoyed with the socalled indepandent Ukrainian government.
Soviet partisans destroys railway tracks between Bryansk and Roslavl. Axis and Ukrainian forces move in to secure the area. After some fighting most of the partisans giuve up. The local population is more than eager to help rid the region af these left-over communist. An irritated Josef Goebbels diaries: "in consequence, we shall soon have to either deal with these upstart Ukarinians or simply resognize their government!”

May 22, 1942: U.S. President Roosevelt meets with Dino Grandi and Italo Balbo in Washington for talks about trade, shipping rights and the situation in Europe in general.

May 23, 1942: The Soviets plan to hit the Germans in the Kharkov area again, while ironically the Germans plan to hit the Soviets in the exeact same area. Along the Bryansk-Vyazma railway Axis, Ukrainian and some units from the Central Powers force most of the partisans either to give up or to be destroyed. After the establisment of an Ukrainian government, the partisan bands seem to be loosing ground. Around Khakov the Soviet and German offensive tear into each other with unseen agression and ferosity. Moscow admits the loss of 10,000 dead, 90,000 missing, and 500 tanks destroyed, while Berlin hardly mentions the battle. SIM estimates the Germans to have suffered some 3,000 dead, 20,000 missing, and, most worrying, the loss of nearly 150 panzers.

May 26, 1942: The Soviet Union and Great Britain sign a 20-year treaty of alliance. Both nations agree not to negotiate or conclude any armistice with Germany or her allies except by mutual consent.

May 27, 1942: SS-general Reinhardt Heydrich is attacked in Prague by British Commandos.

May 28, 1942: The Soviet forces caught in a pocket southeast of Kharkov suurenders. Some 200 Poles are taken from Warsaw to the village of Magdalenka and gunned down.

May 30, 1942: First thousand bomber British air raid against Germany. The new German fighters, amongst them the FW-190 is taking a dreadfull toll on the British bombers.

June 1, 1942: Hitler arrives at Poltava, the HQ of Army Group South to approve Field Marshal von Bocks plan for the main offensive against the oil field in Caucasus. The siege of Sevastopol continues with round-the-clock bombardment by heavy artillery and Luftwaffe bombers.

June 2, 1942: Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz. Italian authorities step up evacuation and emmigration plans fro the occupied areas. More clashes between Axis and SS-forces in the Ukraine.

June 6, 1942: Some 8,000 British and Canadian troops conduct a raid-in-force against the French port of Dieppe. The raid ends in disaster, when the Germans quickly reinforce and utterly destroys the landing force. Besides the loss of 8,000 well-trained and ramed men, the RAF loses 107 aircraft and the Royal Navy lose a destroyer. In the Crimea general Erich von Manstein orders an assault on Sevastopol. The entenched Soviets resist fanatically, but the Germans do gain ground eventough they horrendous casualties.

June 10, 1942: SS-Units totally destroy the city of Lidice in reprisal for the assasination attempt on Reinhardt Heydrich. Another German offensive in the East begins as two German armies attack east from Kharkov on the Volchansk Front. The massive unstoppable panzer-assault rolls on until the 26th, shattering the opposing Soviet forces.

June 11, 1942: The court-martial of a German army captain Michael Kitzelmann begin in Orel. Kitzelmann, who won an Iron Cross, has spoken out against atrocities being committed on the eastern front, and is hence court-martialled. Kitzelmann is known to have said: "If these criminals should win, I would have no wish to live any longer." However before he is shoot, Kitzelmann is sprung from the prison. Several guards and assailants die in the ensueing gun-battle

June 20, 1942: A wounded Junio Borghese is visited by Marshall Bastico in his hospital bed in Kiev and awarded yet anothet batch of medals, and is promoted to colonel by Mussolini’s personal request.

June 25, 1942: American foreign secretary Cordel Hull and several officers arrives in London.

June 26, 1942: The town of Elista, in the central part of the northern Caucasus, falls to the Central Powers. Further north, several German advance units probe across the Volga north and south of Stalingrad.

June 28, 1942: Under the codename Operation 'Blau, the German summer offensive is launched for real. Marshal von Bock hurls three armies and 11 Panzer divisions East in a massive assault whose objective is nothing short of the Caucasus mountains and oilfields. A veteran tells Propaganda Kompanie men: "It's quite different from last year, it's more like Poland!”

July 5, 1942: Central Powers finally take Sevastopol.

July 9, 1942: Germans begin a drive toward the river Volga and Stalingrad.

July 22, 1942: First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps. Treblinka extermination camp opened. Dino Grandi flies to Berlin to Protest the deportations. Sympathetic Germans apparently reveal the existens of the death camps to him.

July 24, 1942: Grandi, Mussolini and several topranking Leonardi meet in Rome. They disscus how to rid the world of Hitler without giving Stalin a free hand in Europe. Michael Kitzelmann is said to testify at the meeting.

July 30, 1942: British Foreign Secretary Halifax, who himself was informed by Ciano, tell the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis. The American reaction is one of disbelief and outrage. Several American politicians declare that those henious crimes will be avenged.

August 8, 1942: The Central Powers reach the Volga and begin to pound Stalingrad from the air. Hitler orders von Bock to smash the city flat, but nor to enter it! The hard earned lessons of Leningrad, Moscow and Sevastopol is haunting Hitler and the OKW.

August 12, 1942: Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.

August 15, 1942: Italia begins increasing the size of its garrisons in Libya and Sardinia. In a speech Mussolini refers thus to North Afrika: "it is a land destined to be ruled by the Italian people!" In thes ame speech he refers to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum (Our sea).

September 9, 1942: The Central Powers captures the Black Sea naval base of Novorossiysk, while other units cross the Straits of Kerch from the Crimean to Taman. Stalingrad is now suffering the same round-the-clock pounding as Sevastopol.

September 12, 1942: German forces under Fedor von Bock dig-in around Stalingrad and bring up more heavy artillery. The River Volga is now closed to Soviet traffic. In the caucasus Groznij is taken, but the surrounding oilfilelds is destroyed by the retreating Soviets.

October 8, 1942: Soviet and German armoured units clash in the Volga steppe battle. Soviet T-34 and KV-1’s is proven superior to anything the Germans has in their arsenal. German pazers is forced to fall back suffering heavy casualties.

October 16, 1942: Soviet forces tries to recross the Volga, but is pushed back with heavuy casualties.

November 1, 1942: In their advance toward Ordshonikidse in the Caucasus, German panzer-units capture Alagir on the upper Terek river.
Italian advisors begin arriving in both Iraq and Persia. The former has begun to distance itself from Britain.

November 8, 1942: Operations Paladin and Crusader begins as British forces launch an allout attack on Vichy French territories in North Africa and Madagascar.

November 12, 1942: In the Battle of Tunis the Vichy French and Italian Fleets engage and hammer way at each other for most of the day and some of the night. The new radarguided Italian guns af the capitol ships prove to be superior, and the last Frech ship is sunk at midnight.

November 11, 1942: German forces march into Vichy France. In a letter to Marshal Petain, Hitler declares that the purpose of this move is to protect France against the nefarious British.
In an interview with American journalists, Stalin describes British aid to the USSR as of little use and effect.
Japanese combined forces secure the French colony of Indochina for the Emperor in the name of peace and brotherhood. Most of the French in the Colony disapeares and is never heard from again

November 13, 1942: Italia launches oprations angainst Corsica and Tunesia.
In a speech to the Congress of Soviet Deputies, Stalin warns that the absence of more opposition the the Fascist powers of Europe may end badly for all freedom loving countries, including the USA. He furthermore declares that the aim of the USSR is to save mankind from regression into savagery and medieval brutality.

November 16, 1942: The Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins. The Red Army opens its winter offensive with a pincer movement round Stalingrad, while the forces trapped in Stalingrad tries to break out. The offensive has the aim of encircling and destroying the German forces besigeing Stalingrad. The initial attacks by the Soviets are somewhat succesful. Soviet gains in Caucasus are also announced.

November 21, 1942: Italian and British-led Allied forces meet at the Algier-Tunesian border in North Africa. All of Vichy France is now either in Allied, German or Italian hands.

November 25, 1942: Soviets are beaten back into Stalingrad and the armoured trusts north and south of the city is contained. The Central Powers is however unable to throw them back across the Volga. Axis and Ukrainian forces is being rushed forth.

December 1, 1942: Italo Balbo and Milch gains Mussolini and Bottai’s blessing for the development of jet fighters.

December 2, 1942: Professor Enrico Fermi sets up a special research project in the Department of Metallurgical Studies at Milano’s University. Fermi is working closely with other scientists from all over occupied Europe, such as Leo Slizard.
Army Group Don under Marshall von Manstein is formed to relieve and reinforce von Bock’s Army Group B around Stalingrad.

December 6, 1942: An longerange recon-aircraft spots Japanese transports steaming west off Cape Cambodia towards Malaya. The British, having feared a Japanese attack for most of the year, feel confident that they can stop the Japanese no matter what they are up to.

December 7, 1042: British Commandos make a daring and succesfull raid on Bordeaux harbour.
The Japanese Army, Navy and Airforce launches simultanious attacks on Thailand, Malaya, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

December 13, 1942: Thailand formally allies herself with Japan. In the battle of Lumbok Strait the Japanese destroy an Allied naval squadron which attempts to prevent Japanese landing on Bali. Japanese carrier based planes raid Darwin in northern Australia, inflicting severe damage to the habour and surrounding city.

December 15, 1942: Von Manstein lets loose with his counter-attack against the Soviets at Volga and Stalingrad, but runs headlong into a Soviet attack.

December 16, 1942: Axis forces under Marshall Bastico barely hold their ground against massive Soviet attacks along their stretch of the Volga front. Bastico contribues this to the new anti-tank weapons and the rather good M20/40 tank. Its long 50mm main gun is however deemed to small. Along the entire front the fighting is fierce and heavy, but ultimately neither side is able to decisively defeat the other.
The Battle of the Java Sea runs continuesly for three days, but eventhough the Allies fought bravely, the Japanese won in the end. The Allies, under the command of a Dutch admiral, loses five cruisers and six destroyers, while the Japanese only loses some transports.

December 26, 1942: The Japanese commander in Malaya, general Yamashita, senses that British is not as strongly entrenched as they think, and sends his troops forward in a series of rapid attacks and flanking manouvers. Determined not to allow the British any time to reorganise and counter-attack, Yamashita’s forces push forth with reckless speed. Everytime the British try to make a stand, the Japanese outflanks them through the dense jungle. The British commander in Malaya, general Montgomery, is totally unable to handle this kind of warfare.

December 30, 1942: After a 12 day sige, the Japanese storm Hong Kong. The city surrenders after nearly 20 hours of fighting. More than 12,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers is killed, missing or wounded. Over Rangoon the RAF and American Volunteer Group downs more than 70 Japanese aircraft for the loss of only 20 of their own. The Spitfire is a formidable plane compared to anything the Japanese have at hand.
In a vote the Congress Party in India supports the British war effort, which lead to Gandhi’s resignation as leader of the Party.
Planes from Admiral Kondo's five Japanese carriers attack the Royal Navy's base at Colombo in Ceylon. Kondo’s fleet, the Southern Force, is tasked with destruction of the Royal Navy in the Indian Ocean. In just 22 minutes Admiral Nagumo's 1st Air Fleet all but sink every British ship in the port. The cruiser, Cornwall, is the only ship to escape the carnage unharmed.

December 31, 1942: The Red Cross are now spending nearly £500,000 per month on food parcels for allied POWs.
In what is to become known as the Battle of the Barents Sea, the German warships, Lützow and Admiral Hipper together with 6 destroyers, attacks the Allied convoy, JW-51B, and slaughters it.
Allied merchant shipping sunk by u-boots and raiders in the year 1942 is 1,343 ships, equalling 7,154,285 gross tons. 57 of the Kriegsmarine’s u-boots were lost during the same period.

[Alikchi]

Interesting.. Spits and Monty in the Far East. The Japs should be having a bit harder time.. :eek: This is because there's no North African war, correct?

Where does Italy get its oil, anyways? Albania? Or have they discovered the Libyan fields yet? I seem to remember a TL where Italian-controlled Libya made Mussolini billions..

I would comment more but I'm on a time limit. Good post though. :)

[Mr.Bluenote]

Interesting.. Spits and Monty in the Far East. The Japs should be having a bit harder time.. :eek: This is because there's no North African war, correct? :)
Regarding the Spits, yeeees!!!! Most definitly! Regarding old Monty, no! I'm no Monty fan, and I really don't think he would know want to do with himself, ot his troops, in a jungle against Yamashita! He and Leese will get their butts kicked continously til Wavel and Slim (the unsung hero of WWII) take over! Oh, and yes, Monty and the reinforced garrisons in the Far East is because of the lack of enemy presence in North Africa!
I've read a rather intrigueing scenario in Rising Sun Victorious where the Americans launch an attack (after Pearl) against the Japanses in an attempt the relieve the Phillippines. So I wondered, what if the Japanese just didn't give a damn about the Americans and tried to knock out the Brits, Dutch and other PacRimmers first, and then, if necessary, deal with the Americans deep inside their own territory!

Where does Italy get its oil, anyways? Albania? Or have they discovered the Libyan fields yet?
Eh, they buy it! :) There has been no freezing of assets or embargo against the Italians in this TL. Iraq and Persia is quite friendly, and so is the Saudis. The Brits don't really know what to do with Mussolini and his chums, so they try not to provoke him, or his apparent pals, the US, unnecessarily... Halifax is FM instead of the somewhat anti-Italian Eden etc etc...
Regarding the Libyan oilfields. There's a tread on Comando Supremo, I think, where it is said, that is was known at the time, that there was oil in Libya! If it's true, I don't know. Anyway, I've made the big american oli companies run around in the desert looking for the black gold, so who knows...

I would comment more but I'm on a time limit. Good post though. :)
Please do, and thank you very much!

The best of regards!

- Bluenote.

[Alikchi]

More comments! And come on people, I'm not the only one reading this! :o

I agree with you on Monty. I can't see him being able to handle the kind of quick jungle warfare Yamashita likes. And Wavell rocks. :) I'm assuming that the US didn't embargo Japan, then? That seemed to be what threw Japan into that. It'll also be interesting to see how the Japs do with an extra year to prepare..

The Ukraine nationalist state is a good idea. I'm interested in what happens to them.. of course, it all hinges on who wins the Great Patriotic War, as always. :) The Germans and Soviets really seem to be hammering each other in 42, with no end in sight. :p

By the way, has Italy declared war on Vichy, or is Mussolini just grabbing what he can when he can? :)

[LDoc]

I've got to say you may have created one of the most likeable dictators in history! I found this Tl last night and read all of it in one sitting, somthing i rarely do. Good job and I eagerly wait for a update.

[Mr.Bluenote]

I've got to say you may have created one of the most likeable dictators in history! (...) Good job and I eagerly wait for a update.
Thank you, LDoc! Sorry for all the bad gramma and spelling though! :) Hmm, likeable dictators?! Is that good? :) I must admitt that Mussolini baffles me - he seems quite clever and openminded at times and a total oaf the rest of the time! Very peculiar I should say! I'll try to write 1943 sometime this week!

I agree with you on Monty. I can't see him being able to handle the kind of quick jungle warfare Yamashita likes. And Wavell rocks. :)
Yes, I'm looking forward to writing those parts of the TL! Wavell and Slim deserves better and Monty a lot worse than they got in OTL. ;)

I'm assuming that the US didn't embargo Japan, then?
Oh, they did, on August 1, 1941. There's quite a lot of independent trading with both the Italian, Danish and Norwegian merchant fleets sailing unimpeded on the worlds oceans, and a more independent minded Middle East and Persia, so I think the Japanese would have somewhat larger oil reserves in this TL to play with. They'll be able to waite until late 1942 to strike at the British and Dutch. The attitude will be something like this: if the Americans wants to fight, then let them come all the way across the Pacific in their old Battleships and we'll shown them a thing ot two about modern naval warfare. Plausible? Perhaps not, but I'll have fun writing about large naval clashes in or around the Phillippines with US battleships versus IJN carriers. Without the attack on Pearl, the US would still, I think, believe in and rely on the battleship as their primary warship.

The Ukraine nationalist state is a good idea. I'm interested in what happens to them.. (...) The Germans and Soviets really seem to be hammering each other in 42, with no end in sight. :p :)
I'm in two minds regarding the Ukrainians. I'm considering a summit ala the one in '34 where Hitler and Mussolini with entourage really have a falling out regarding the status of Ukraine, whereupon Mussolini admits the Ukraine to the Axis and more or less is ready to fight the Germans head on... Grandi might even advocate an United Nations of sorts with the Axis countries and other non-aligned nations (Argentine, Portugal, Persia, Brazil, Turkey, Geece, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Egypt, Iraq... maybe even the US). Far out, yes, but would it be any fun?
Heh, I think '43 will be worse... Bigger tanks and guns! More intens and hatefull fighting. The terror bombings of Moscow. The siege of Dtalingrad (OTL Leningrad, I think). Or perhaps it finally succeeds for the SIM to assassinate Hitler... Or Borghese and his men might kidnap him?!

By the way, has Italy declared war on Vichy, or is Mussolini just grabbing what he can when he can? :)
Mussolini might have grown a brain in Italia Eterna, but he's still looking to create an Italian Empire (There was a lot of Italians in Tunesia and there's a somewhat valid claim on Corsica so...) and to gain colonies, honor, glory and all that! :p

And once again, thanks for the feedback and the interest shown!

Best regards!

- Blunote.

[LDoc]

Although i think that Mussilini (talk about bad spelling) was smart some times I do think that he has the tendency to expect more then he can get such as in his war against Greece and his dealings in N. Africa before Rommal arrived. What i'm saying is that Italy may get itself involved in a war it simply can't handle. Maybe their is another civil war in spain with the the Royalist versus the Republicans (i.e. Anarchist and Communist).

[Mr.Bluenote]

Although i think that Mussilini (talk about bad spelling) was smart some times I do think that he has the tendency to expect more then he can get (...) What i'm saying is that Italy may get itself involved in a war it simply can't handle.

Hmm, I'm inclined to let Greece and Italy be peace in this Tl. Never quite figured what possed Mussolini to invade Greece at that time, if at all... But you might be on to something in you analysis, LDoc.

So what if we make Mussolini and Hitler fight it out over the Ukraine and the Nazi persecution of Jews? The Allies and the Axis join forces and we have a rather nasty situation in both Northern Spain and Italy...

Maybe their is another civil war in spain with the the Royalist versus the Republicans (i.e. Anarchist and Communist).
Hmm, would the Spanish have the energy to begin a second round of fighting? With Mola as PM and Aosta as king I think Spain would have a fair and somewhat just leadership (unless of course you happen to be a Communist)...

Thanks for the comment, though!

Anyone else who has any comments or critiscism?

I have most of 1943 lined out, but have some serious editing to do! :)

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[Redbeard]

Without the war in the Med and North Africa there is no chance whatsoever for the Japanese to take Malaya and Singapore. They could only do so in OTL because Churchill insisted on all available British resources being poured into the war in the Med. and in NA. Without Italy on the axis side any German operation in Med, beyond an occasional U-boat sortie, is unlikely.

With a few extra Brigades of trained troops, 40 tanks and 400 extra fighters (i.e. a fraction of what was poured into the 1941 OTL offensives) Malaya and Singapore would have had a very good chance of resisting any Japanese onslaught - no matter what kind of British naval forces are east of Singapore. And with Singapore and Malaya on British hands the IJN has no chance in the IO and keeping conquests in Dutch East India will be very difficult. The British will have no trouble in dominating the IO and still keep a watch over the Med. as long as they control the Suez Canal. Only Moses dividing the waters could take that control away from the British in this scenario. The Med. being acessible to British shipping will drastically improve British logistics as the long route around the Cape is superflous (the 8th Army and India was supplied around the Cape in OTL). An open Med. will even allow bigger losses in the Atlantic before it becomes critical.

I guess the British plans against Japan next would be recapturing/consolidating Hong Kong and then a blocade warfare cutting off the Japanese mainland from vital resources (oil, metals and minerals).

A fact to remeber in this context is, that in 1941 Great Britain alone produced more airplanes than Germany, Italy and Japan all together!

Regards

Steffen Redbeard

[Faeelin]

The other question is what kind of fleet the US has in 42. IIRC, the peacetime plan was huge.

[Mr.Bluenote]

Without the war in the Med and North Africa there is no chance whatsoever for the Japanese to take Malaya and Singapore.
Hehe, yes, that's why I'm counting on Monty to screw up royally! :D Jokes aside, could a beaten (France and especially Dunkirk) and largely untried and somewhat ill-equiped (without the fighting in NA, how would British tanks fx look in this ATL?) British Army stand against a Japanese attack in Malaya and Burma. Secondary, the British leadership would in my opinion be very inferior to the Japanese ditto. Monty, slow as he were, versus Yamashita, quick as he were, in a jungle environment... Hm, poor Monty, I'd say...
Another impotant factor would be that the IJN is concentrated against the British and their Allies, which probably would mean that Singapore and Malaya would be isolated, or am I exagerating Japans maritime strenght? And with Hood and the Prince of Wales gone, the Royal Navy too would be somewhat unsure of itself... or would it be out for blood?

The other question is what kind of fleet the US has in 42. IIRC, the peacetime plan was huge.
Regarding the US Navy! I have no idea want kind of strenght they would have, but I assume they would concentrate on battleships. How would the attitude among the US admirals be towards carriers if there had been no Pearl, and subsequent sinking of the entire battle-line? Its my impression that the focus was placed on carrier-warfare because of the lack of battleships and that the Japanese proved the carriers effectiveness first hand (so to speak)...

And once again thanks for your comments!

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[Redbeard]

The OTL British Army in Malaya consisted mainly of raw recruits as trained troops and hardware were needed elsewhere (by demand of Churchill). There were a small number of trained troops present (AFAIK no combat experience), and these tropps generally stood up very well to the Japanese.

The main problem of the British in Malaya probaly is another though. Prewar a sound plan (Matador) had been worked out prescribing that on the first indication of japanese hostility British units should advance up into the Isthmus of Kra (Thailand) and from here block the acess to Malaya. The East coast of Malaya then was practically cut off from the densly populated western Malayan Peninsula, which also had a roadnet in density approaching Europe. Plan Matador needed some 40-50 batalions, a tank regiment and 500 fighters, but the British had only some 30 batalions (most untrained), no tanks and little more than 100 fighters, and only a few days before hostilities was authority issued to locally initiate Matador. The local commander actually had a chance to initiate Matador, but his nerves failed him. IMHO it would have had a chance, even with the understrength British forces present. But if the forces prescribed by Matador had been present, which the Imperial General Staff recommended, but was vetoed by Churchill, then I'm certain the Japanese would have been doomed. But understrength and fighting on the broad front of Malaya instead of the narrow Kra meant a doomed British cause.

Next Monty would be perfect for leading operations like in Malaya. If there was one thing Monty understood, it was keeping cohesion and the line unbroken. That was afterall how he earned his spurs in the 1940 campaign. I don't think Yamashita was much else than bold (and brutal), and the Japanese Army rarely impressed with tactical ingenuity. It's much like we don't elevate the British of 1940 to godly status because they rounded up the Italians in North Africa.

Regards

Steffen Redbeard

[Mr.Bluenote]

Ah, yees, Matador. Operation Matador was based on something called Operation Etonian and designed to forestall a Japanese attack on Thailand by invading the country first (Kinda like the Norway debacle).
Well, Matador in relation to Italia Eterna has two drawbacks (as in real life). 1) Matador required the occupation of a neutral Thailand, but at this time in the ATL, the Japanse are allready in place in Thailand (their ally). Lets say that is not so, then the original argument still stands. The US would not accept that Britain attacked neutral states (or at least so the British thought)... 2) The timing of Matador was imparative, since the British only had some 60 hours to secure Thailand before the Japanese arrived. Considering Monty's usual very meticulous way of doing things he probably would take 60 days... :)

Ehm, the static line thinking is not good in a Jungle, Steffen. Furthermore, Monty was, in my opinion, not very good at fluent battles as he relied on explicit and convoluted plans.

Why do you think that Yamashita was brutal? Because of his warcrime conviction? The trial was somewhat dubious as far as I know...

The real combat power in ATL Malaya would be provided by the 7th Australian Division, and they would give as good as they took, no question. Still, it took the Allies a long time in OTL to get used to fighting the fast Japanese columns... and is this setting the Brits lack a lot of OTL's experiences (no Norway, no NA).

And the British didn't excatly round up the Italians in NA, you know... Part of that is myth and British WWII propaganda.

Still, it seems that I have a lot more reading, writing and editing to do on 1943... :)

As allways it's a pleasure to have your thoughts and input, Steffen - thanks!

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[Redbeard]

Please take into consideration, that UK would not allow Japan in Thailand (or French Indochina), if she has any chance of opposing it. In OTL being involved so heavily in Europe (Med at the time) stopped the British from keeping the Japanese out, but a central point of British interwar Far East policies was to occupy the Isthmus of Kra if Japan went into Thailand. Matador and it's main principles wasn't a plan thought out just before the war, but has it's traces back to the immediate post WWI years. So in order to have Japan be in Thailand by 1940's we'll need to have UK involved in a major conflict elsewhere. If UK had decided to intervene against Italy in 1935 (Abyssinia) the low preparedness for war in UK at that time would have had the British fully engaged, but on the other hand I doubt the Italians would come out stronger in the end, and that will ruin your scenario...

I guess we will not agree on Monty, but I look forward to seeing more from you.

Regards

Steffen Redbeard

[Mr.Bluenote]

Please take into consideration, that UK would not allow Japan in Thailand (...) If UK had decided to intervene against Italy in 1935 (...) but on the other hand I doubt the Italians would come out stronger in the end, and that will ruin your scenario...
Hmm, yes, that's a good point. I'll tweak 1942 a bit the reflect this. How would the US react to overt British aggression? As mentioned the British was somewhat worried about the Americans reaction to an invasion of Thailand in OTL...
And yes, an earlier clash between Italy and Britain would most definitely ruin my scenario (to say the least)! :)

I guess we will not agree on Monty, but I look forward to seeing more from you.
Haha, no apparently not, Steffen! :) And thank you very much!

I have a question regarding the US Navy and its strenght! The US planned to expand its Navy (Two Oceans Act, I think it was called, yes?) drastically, so that it would be some 3,000,000 tonnes in ´42 compared to roughly 1,500,000 when the act was passed in '40. Now, which kind of ships would be build? Battleships? Ot would carriers be prominent?

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[Mr.Bluenote]

1942
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic...
- Josef Stalin.

One thing we must be clear about, my Führer, is that the extremely critical situation we are in now cannot be put down to the enemy’s superiority alone. It’s also due to the way in which we are led!
- Erich von Manstein.

Italian efforts to put their economy onto a war footing begun to bear fruit in 1942 . Production of vehicles, aircraft, guns and modern tanks had increased considerably with the help of the American investments and the many Leonardi-reforms. Italia is, much to the joy of Mussolini and most of the Italians, no longer a third rate nation in industrial or military terms, although the Germans, Soviets and British continue to outproduce Italia by some margin, the gap is closing.

Germany is dependent on many things oil, chrome, steel, etc., which has to be imported. As the Polesti oilfields in Romania comes under sporadic Soviet air bombardment up to the capture of the Crimean Peninsula, the German dependency on Romianian oil becomes evidenet. Eventhough the oilfields suffer little actual damage, Hitler orders von Ribbentrop in the Foreign Ministry to secure oil and other much needed raw materials from other sources. Von Ribbentrops attention turn to Italia.
Italian manufacturers are given rights to construct various aircraft engines, weapons and guns on licens. In exchange, Italia would dedicate ist substantial merchant fleet to suppling Germany with oil and raw materials. The British, naturally, protested Rome’s dealings with the Nazis, but faced with internal opposition towards taking matters further, the British had to let it rest. It is however rumored that Churchill for a while considered kidnapping Mussolini. Ironically a few British politicians and high ranking military officials actually believed in the Italian propaganda about her military capabilities. Stil with the Italians in control of Libya, Abyssinia and Djibouti, the more and more pro-Axis governemnt in Turkey and Iraq, the British government found it wise to cooperate with the Fascisti in Rome. The British were after all struggling hard to survive as an empire, with the Middle East in the shadow of Mussolinis newly created New Italian Empire, the Far Eastern under the constant threat, and later full scall assault, of Emperial Japan, and with most Europe in the hands of the Central Powers.
Besides that, Italia’s humanitarian aid to the millions of Jews ensured that no democracy could successfully sell a war with Mussolini’s regime to its population.

Following the British-led Allied landings in Morocco, Algiers and Madagascar, Italian forces moved against Vichy French positions in the Mediterrenean. As Vichy France began to crumble under the Allied and German onslaught, the Italian legions landed in Corsica and struck deep into Tunesia.
Corsica fell to the marines of San Marco division and the paratroops of the Folgore and Nembo divisions, while mobile and armoured divisions moved from Libya into Tunesia. While the Regio Esercito’s units moved rapidly and whitout serious setbacks, the Regia Marina met the sortieing Vichy French Fleet northwest of Tunis. The Battle of Tunis in which the Italian navy and air force engaged the French ditto was as bloody and intese as a naval battle can be. The Italian fleet commander, admiral Campioni, received word that the French fleet was heading east away from the british task forces landing troops in Algiers and Morocco, and agressively began to intercept. The Italian fleet, consisting of 4 Battleships and 10 cruisers of different classes, met the French at dawn. The French fought hard and with great elán. Eventhough it was obvious that the Italians would win. And the Italians did win, but the cost was high; Littorio was sunk more or less with all hand and Giulio Cesare and Conte di Cavour was damaged. The Zara and 2 light cruisers were also either sunk or badly damage. 8 destroyers and some smaller vessels were likewise sunk or damaged. The entire French Fleet was sunk, or as it is later claimed by French revisionists, scuttled.

The mobile divisions of Fieldmarshal Rudolfo Graziani’s heavily reinforced Libyan army struk north from Libya, outflanking the Mareth line and dashed north towards Tunis. The Vichy French defenders hurridly withdrew and staged a last defense in the city itself. After two days of heavy fighting and bombardement by the Italian heavy artillery and the remaining ships of the Regia Marina, the French finally surrendered to Graziani. Eventhough Graziani couldn’t use the Regio Esercito’s new superior tactics or mobility to full extent in the end of the short campaign, the rapid rise in the Italians fighting abilities were very visible indeed. When the Allied forces finally had battled their way though the French defenders in Algiers and Morocco Italian units were waiting at the Tunesian-Algerian border.

With these new victories in hand, Mussolini proclaimed the creation of The New Italian Empire, with the Italian King, Vittorio Emmanuele III, as Emperor Vittorio Emanuelle I of the New Roman Empire.

Across the Ukraine the Italians and their Axis allies worked hard to create an nationalist, but of course Axis-friendly, Ukrainian administration. The vast ressources of the Ukraine were best to be exploited under a somewhat independent Ukraine. At least that was the thoughts in Rome and Madrid. The Germans however seemed to think otherwise, and clashes between Axis administrators and officers and their German counterparts were becoming the norm. In several incidents, Axis units, with the help of the Romanians, actually disarmed and interned some overzealous SS-men. With the German Army heavily engaged on all fronts in the USSR, and all the casualties taken in considerarion, Hitler had to let the situation in the Ukraine run its own course.

Timelie 1942:
January 13, 1942: Germans begin a u-boot offensive far out in the Mid-Atlantic. So called Milk Cows aid the German u-boots in their endavour.

January 14, 1942: As the GEE-equiped Lancaster bomber is entering service the Bomber Command is issued with Directive No.22, which ends the recent period of aircraft conservation by the RAF.

January 20, 1942: SS-RSHA leader Reinhardt Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the final solution to the Jewish problem.

January 26, 1942: First American Brigade of Volunteers arrive in Britain.

Febuary 12, 1942: British aircraft spot the German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen as they enter the straits of Dover, and immediately launches several attacks with both MTBs and Swordfish aircraft against the German squadron. As the battles rages on, the battleship Scharnhorst hits a mine, wich only inflicts minor damage. A short time later British destroyers from the port of Harwich and aircraft from both Bomber and Coastal commands joins in. The German ships are forced to turn back, but lices to fight another day.

February-March: The British begin to reinforce their garrisons in Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and Sumatra. As one of the few British generals to have aquittet himself Bernard Law Montgomery is sent to Malaya to command to defnces of both malaya nd Singapore. Two suadrons of Spitfires are sent along with the army reinforcements. As it is considered vital to maintain control of the Straits, so a cruiser squadron is also sent. Admiral Pound and Churchill considers sending one or two battleships or perhaps a carrier too.

March 3, 1942: RAF Bomber Command, under its new C-in-C, Air Vice Marshal Harris, attacks the Renault plant in the Paris suburb of Billancourt. This somewhat successful raid was a much needed morale boost for the British. On this same night, the Lancaster bomber makes its operational debut, laying mines of the French port of Brest.

March 14, 1942: Japan begins drawing up detailed plans for its war against the colonial opressors of Asia. The Japanese want to grab as much of the the Asian mainland and the southeaster Pacific as they can before the USA is able to intervene. If the Americans decide to get involved, the Japanese figures that the will meet the US Navy’s battle-line somewhere in the vicinity of the Philippines and with the help of their modern carriers destroy it there.

March 24, 1942: The 1st Axis Volunteer Army in USSR is reconstituted and reinforced with armour and anti-tank weapons and a few of the new Serveromentes. Two new divisions of Blackshirts is sent and integrated in the force. Several load of weapons and other equipment is loaded of at Odessa and given the the Ukranians.

April 23, 1942: German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.

April 25, 1942: In his Easter day radio address, Hitler proudly announces the cleansing of Germany and Poland of the Jews. He claims that the Jews are being exciled to Africa. This is partly true since many educated Jews and other people with usefull skills actually are being resettled in the Italian Colonies there. It is howevere far from all Jews that have that chance… The U.S. government, with its large Jewish population, remains silent on the issue in adherence to its strict policy of neutrality, but several private fund-raisers are being held along with numerous rallies of Redshirts. Lindbergh speaks at several occasions.

April 29, 1942: The Belgian resistance destroys Tenderloo chemical works. Executions by the Germans reported to be running at 25-30 a month in Belgium.

May 8, 1942: The Central Powers begin their summer offensive begins in the Crimea.

May 10, 1942: Winston Churchill warns that Britain will use poison gas on Germany if the Germans do so on the Soviet Union.
The battle for Sevastopol continues with over 300,000 men fighting it out around the fortress-city. The German artillery ranges from ordinary field guns to enormous 800mm superheavy siege mortars.

May 12, 1942: Fieldmarshal Timoshenko launches his summer offensive in the Southern USSR with the aim of cutting of suurounding Kharkov with two pincers.

May 21, 1942: The Central Powers finally halt the Soviet summer offensive just short of Kharkov, and General von Kleist counter-attacks ferociously. The Germans aim to pinch off the Soviet spearhead. The Soviets leaders and soldiers lack the skill to handle the fast pace of the German blitzkrieg, and the Soviet divisions crumbles under the onslaught.

May 21, 1942: Adolf Hitler plans the German summer offensive. The first priority is secure the resouces of the Ukraine, and then asserting the German rule in the area. Hitler is most annoyed with the socalled indepandent Ukrainian government.
Soviet partisans destroys railway tracks between Bryansk and Roslavl. Axis and Ukrainian forces move in to secure the area. After some fighting most of the partisans giuve up. The local population is more than eager to help rid the region af these left-over communist. An irritated Josef Goebbels writes in his diary: "In consequence, we shall soon have to either deal with these upstart Ukrainians or simply recognize their government!”

May 22, 1942: U.S. President Roosevelt meets with Dino Grandi and Italo Balbo in Washington for talks about trade, shipping rights and the situation in Europe in general. Balbo tours Redshirt conventions and rallies in most of the US the next weeks and is often seen with Charles Lindbergh.

May 23, 1942: The Soviets plan to hit the Germans in the Kharkov area again, while ironically the Germans plan to hit the Soviets in the exeact same area. Along the Bryansk-Vyazma railway Axis, Ukrainian and some units from the Central Powers force most of the partisans either to give up or to be destroyed. After the establisment of an Ukrainian government, the partisan bands seem to be loosing ground. Around Khakov the Soviet and German offensive tear into each other with unseen agression and ferosity. Moscow admits the loss of 10,000 dead, 90,000 missing, and 500 tanks destroyed, while Berlin hardly mentions the battle. SIM estimates the Germans to have suffered some 3,000 dead, 20,000 missing, and, most worrying, the loss of nearly 150 panzers.

May 26, 1942: The Soviet Union and Great Britain sign a 20-year treaty of alliance. Both nations agree not to negotiate or conclude any armistice with Germany or her allies except by mutual consent.

May 27, 1942: SS-general Reinhardt Heydrich is attacked in Prague by British Commandos.

May 28, 1942: The Soviet forces caught in a pocket southeast of Kharkov suurenders. Some 200 Poles are taken from Warsaw to the village of Magdalenka and gunned down.

May 30, 1942: First thousand bomber British air raid against Germany. The new German fighters, amongst them the FW-190 is taking a dreadfull toll on the British bombers.

June 1, 1942: Hitler arrives at Poltava, the HQ of Army Group South to approve Fieldmarshal von Bocks plan for the main offensive against the oil field in Caucasus. The siege of Sevastopol continues with round-the-clock bombardment by heavy artillery and Luftwaffe bombers.

June 2, 1942: Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz. Italian authorities step up evacuation and emmigration plans fro the occupied areas. More clashes between Axis and SS-forces in the Ukraine.

June 6, 1942: Some 8,000 British and Canadian troops conduct a raid-in-force against the French port of Dieppe. The raid ends in disaster, when the Germans quickly reinforce and utterly destroys the landing force. Besides the loss of 8,000 well-trained and ramed men, the RAF loses 107 aircraft and the Royal Navy lose a destroyer. In the Crimea General Erich von Manstein orders an assault on Sevastopol. The entenched Soviets resist fanatically, but the Germans do gain ground eventough they horrendous casualties.

June 10, 1942: SS-Units totally destroy the city of Lidice in reprisal for the assasination attempt on Reinhardt Heydrich. Another German offensive in the East begins as two German armies attack east from Kharkov on the Volchansk Front. The massive unstoppable panzer-assault rolls on until the 26th, completely shattering the Soviet front.

June 11, 1942: The court-martial of a German army captain Michael Kitzelmann begin in Orel. Kitzelmann, who won an Iron Cross, has spoken out against atrocities being committed on the Eastern Front, and is hence court-martialled. Kitzelmann is known to have said: "If these criminals should win, I would have no wish to live any longer." However before he is shoot, Kitzelmann is sprung from the prison. Several guards and assailants die in the ensueing gun-battle

June 20, 1942: A wounded Junio Borghese is visited by CCNN-general Francisci in his hospital bed in Kiev and awarded yet anothet batch of medals, and is promoted to colonel by Mussolini’s personal request.

June 25, 1942: American foreign secretary Cordel Hull and several officers arrives in London.

June 26, 1942: The town of Elista, in the central part of the northern Caucasus, falls to the Central Powers. Further north, several German advance units probe across the Volga north and south of Stalingrad.

June 28, 1942: Under the codename Operation Blue, the German summer offensive is launched for real. Fieldmarshal von Bock hurls three armies east in a massive assault whose objective is nothing short of the Caucasus with its oilfields. A German veteran tells reporters from the Propaganda Kompanie: "It's quite different from last year, it's more like Poland!”

July 5, 1942: Central Powers finally take Sevastopol. General Erich von Manstein is promoted to Fieldmarshal

July 9, 1942: Germans begin a drive toward the river Volga and Stalingrad.

July 22, 1942: First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps. Treblinka extermination camp opened. Dino Grandi flies to Berlin to protest the deportations. Sympathetic Germans apparently reveal the existens of the death camps to him.

July 24, 1942: Grandi, Mussolini and several topranking Leonardi Fascisti meet in Rome. They disscus how to rid the world of Hitler without giving Stalin a free hand in Europe. Michael Kitzelmann is said to testify at the meeting.

July 30, 1942: British Foreign Secretary Halifax, who himself was informed by Ciano, tell the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis. The American reaction is one of disbelief and outrage. Several American politicians declare that those henious crimes will be avenged.

August 8, 1942: The Central Powers reach the Volga and begin to pound Stalingrad from the air. Haæder at the OKW orders von Bock to smash the city flat, but nor to enter it! The hard earned lessons of Leningrad, Moscow and Sevastopol is haunting Hitler and the OKW.

August 12, 1942: Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.

August 15, 1942: Italia begins increasing the size of its garrisons in Libya and Sardinia. In a speech Mussolini refers thus to North Afrika: "It is a land destined to be ruled by the Italian people!" In the same speech he refers to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum (Our sea).

September 9, 1942: The Central Powers captures the Black Sea naval base of Novorossiysk, while other units cross the Straits of Kerch from the Crimean to Taman. Stalingrad is now suffering the same round-the-clock pounding as Sevastopol.

September 12, 1942: German forces under Fedor von Bock dig-in around Stalingrad and bring up more heavy artillery. The River Volga is now closed to Soviet traffic. In the Caucasus Groznij is taken, but the surrounding oilfilelds is destroyed by the retreating Soviets.

October 8, 1942: Soviet and German armoured units clash in the Volga steppe battle. Soviet T-34 and KV-1’s is proven superior to anything the Germans has in their arsenal. German pazers is forced to fall back suffering heavy casualties.

October 16, 1942: Soviet forces tries to recross the Volga, but is pushed back with heavuy casualties.

November 1, 1942: In their advance toward Ordshonikidse in the Caucasus, German panzer-units capture Alagir on the upper Terek river.
Italian advisors begin arriving in both Iraq and Persia. The former has begun to distance itself from Britain.

November 8, 1942: Operations Paladin and Crusader begins as British forces launch an allout attack on Vichy French territories in North Africa and Madagascar.

November 12, 1942: In the Battle of Tunis the Vichy French and Italian Fleets engage and hammer way at each other for most of the day and some of the night. The new radarguided Italian guns of the capitol ships prove to be superior, and the last Frech ship is sunk at midnight.

November 11, 1942: German forces march into Vichy France. In a letter to Fieldmarshal Petain, Hitler declares that the purpose of this move is to protect France against the nefarious British.
In an interview with American journalists, Stalin describes British aid to the USSR as of little use and effect.
Japanese combined forces secure the French colony of Indochina for the Emperor in the name of peace and brotherhood. Most of the French colonists disappeares and is never heard from again

November 13, 1942: Italia launches oprations angainst Corsica and Tunesia.
In a speech to the Congress of Soviet Deputies, Stalin warns that the absence of more opposition the the Fascist powers of Europe may end badly for all freedom loving countries, including the USA. He furthermore declares that the aim of the USSR is to save mankind from regression into savagery and medieval brutality.

November 16, 1942: The Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins. The Red Army opens its winter offensive with a pincer movement round Stalingrad, while the forces trapped in Stalingrad tries to break out. The offensive has the aim of encircling and destroying the German forces besigeing Stalingrad. The initial attacks by the Soviets are somewhat succesful. Soviet gains in Caucasus are also announced.

November 21, 1942: Italian and British-led Allied forces meet at the Algier-Tunesian border in North Africa. All of Vichy France is now either in Allied, German, Japanese or Italian hands.

November 25, 1942: Soviets are beaten back into Stalingrad and the armoured trusts north and south of the city is contained. The Central Powers is however unable to throw them back across the Volga. Axis and Ukrainian forces is being rushed forth.

December 1, 1942: Italo Balbo and Milch gains Mussolini and Bottai’s blessing for the development of jet fighters. The first Italian jet, the Caproni Campini CC.2, had flown some years before, but it is only now that jets are deemed workable.

December 2, 1942: Professor Enrico Fermi sets up a special research project in the Department of Metallurgical Studies at Milano’s University. Fermi is working closely with other scientists from all over occupied Europe, such as Leo Slizard and Lise Meitner.
Army Group Don under Fieldmarshal von Manstein is formed to relieve and reinforce von Bock’s Army Group South around Stalingrad.

December 3, 1942: Hard pressed by the Japanese Thailand formally allies herself with Japan. In Malaya general Montgomery is in doubt wether to launsh Operation Matador or not.

December 6, 1942: Fieldmarshals von Manstein and von Bock lets loose their counter-attack against the Soviets along the Volga and around Stalingrad, but runs headlong into a Soviet attack.
An longerange reconnaissance plane spots several Japanese transports steaming west off Cape Cambodia towards Malaya. The British, having feared a Japanese attack for most of the year, feel confident that they can stop the Japanese no matter what they are up to. General Montgomery is ordered to prepare to execute Matador. Montgomery, who distrusts the Australians who would be instrumental in Matador, asks for further reinforcements.

December 7, 1942: British Commandos make a daring and succesfull raid on Bordeaux harbour.
The Japanese Army, Navy and Airforce launches simultanious attacks on Malaya, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. A reluctant Montgomery launches Matador after a personal telegram from Churchill.

December 9, 1942: Heavy fighting at the border between Thailand and Malaya as the Australian 7th Divison clashes with the Japanese under general Tomoyuki Yamashita in a meeting engagement just southwest of the Kra Isthmus. Yamashita’s highly mobile columns are able to penetrate the Australian line. The Austrailans stubbornly hold their ground, but British and Indian units coming up from behind panics and begin to fall back.

December 13, 1942: In the battle of Lumbok Strait the Japanese destroy an Allied naval squadron which attempts to prevent Japanese landing on Bali and Sumatra. Japanese carrier based planes raid Darwin in northern Australia, inflicting severe damage to the habour and surrounding city. The Roosevelt administration warns Japan that it will not tolerate further attacks on Australia or attacks on New Zealand!
Army Group Don and Army Group South is in trouble at the Volga. Von Manstein’s Army Group Don is is suffering appaling casualities but manages to inflict worse on the advancing Soviets. The Soviet attack stalls. Von Bock’s Army Group South is hard pressed to contain the Soviet forces in Stalingrad and prevent a total collaps of the Caucasus.

December 15, 1942: The Australian 7th Division is ordered to fall back, as the are now deep within Malaya. Montgomery is blaming the Australian commander for the failure of Matador.

December 16, 1942: Axis forces under CCNN-general Francisci barely hold their ground against massive Soviet attacks along their stretch of the Volga front. Francisci contribues this to the new anti-tank weapons and the rather good M20/40 tank. Its long 50mm main gun is however deemed to small. Along the entire front the fighting is fierce and heavy, but ultimately neither side is able to decisively defeat the other.
The Battle of the Java Sea runs continuesly for three days, but eventhough the Allies fought bravely, the Japanese won in the end. The Allied ABDA command, under the command of a Dutch admiral, loses five cruisers and six destroyers, while the Japanese only loses some transports. The Japanese lands on Timor.

December 20, 1942: The Soviets Offenvie around Stalinggrad is called off. Both sides is exhausted and in rather bad shape. The murderous weather is especially hard on the Axis and to a slightly lesser degree the Central Powers. Army Group Don and Army Group South is merged under Fieldmarshal Fedor von Bock. Von Manstein is called back to Berlin.

December 26, 1942: The general Yamashita sends his troops forward in a series of rapid attacks and flanking manouvers. Determined not to allow the British any time to reorganise and counter-attack, Yamashita’s forces push forth with reckless speed. Everytime the British try to make a stand, the Japanese outflanks them through the dense jungle. The British commander in Malaya, general Montgomery, is totally unable to handle this kind of warfare. The retreating 7th Australian Division is destroyed somewhere in the Malayan jungle. Fierce airbattles rage in the Malayan skies as RAF and the Japansese airforce fights it out. The Spitfire is a formidable plane compared to anything the Japanese have at hand, and Japanese casualties rise high!

December 30, 1942: After a 12 day sige, the Japanese storm Hong Kong. The city surrenders after nearly 20 hours of fighting. More than 12,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers is killed, missing or wounded. Over Rangoon the RAF and American Volunteer Group downs more than 70 Japanese aircraft for the loss of only 20 of their own. Once again the few available Spitfires saves the day.
In a vote the Congress Party in India supports the British war effort, which lead to Gandhi’s resignation as leader of the Party.
Planes from Admiral Kondo's five Japanese carriers attack the Royal Navy's base at Colombo in Ceylon. Kondo’s fleet, the Southern Force, is tasked with destruction of the Royal Navy in the Indian Ocean. In just 22 minutes Admiral Nagumo's 1st Air Fleet all but sink every British ship in the port. The cruiser, Cornwall, is the only ship to escape the carnage unharmed. The Japanese lands on Java.

December 31, 1942: The Red Cross are now spending nearly £500,000 per month on food parcels for allied POWs.
In what is to become known as the Battle of the Barents Sea, the German warships, Lützow and Admiral Hipper together with 6 destroyers, attacks the Allied convoy, JW-51B, and slaughters it.
Allied merchant shipping sunk by u-boots and raiders in the year 1942 is 1,343 ships, equalling 7,154,285 gross tons. 57 of the Kriegsmarine’s u-boots were lost during the same period.

[Mr.Bluenote]

1943
At the beginning of the campaign... we german soldiers, generally speaking knew little of our adversary...
- Max Simon.

15.30 enemy tanks broke through south of Ariete positions 5 kms north-west of Bir el Abd. Ariete now sorrunded. Ariete tanks now fighting!
– Last message from Ariete Division HQ.

In the Italian society many things had changed in the last years. By allowing women to work and the creation of a modern industry based on assembly lines with round-the-clock shifts the Italians had at the same time created a more fluent and fluctuating way of life which revolutionized the day to day life of most Italians. The women gained prominence as more and more jobs were created and the men who usually would have taken them ended up in the Armed Forces or in the colonies. Most disquiting to the Church and the conservatives within the Fascisti was the emergence of a new female role; the dominant one, who ran the family and made the money...

The Italian Fascisti had spent the last years doing their best to integrate the ever-increasing numbers of refugees into the society and the colonists, while building up the military and indutries. Now not only Italia offered a open door policy towards the refugees of Europe, but Spain too joined in. The mass deportations of Jews and other so called undesirables from most of Europe into Italia and Spain and then on to their colonies grewas the Geramsn became more and more obsenced with cleansing their new lands. By the end of the war, some five million men, women and children would have settled in the New Roman Empire and nearly a million in the Kingdom of Spain..

The Italians uncompromising stance with Germany regarding Jews, and the hard work put into making a modern industrial society, received the American administrations de facto blessing in ‘42 – it is even said that Roosevelt became somewhat of a fan of the Fascisti Leonardi and their reforms and policies. Now not only conservatives of both the American parties and the anti-communists elemenst sustained and admired the Fascist Regime, but so did a large part of the average Americans, and of course large parts of the Jewish population, eventough many Jews were anti-Fascists and had participated in the opposition to the totalitarian Italian regime. As a direct consequense of this, financial aide and investments from various corporations, philanthropic organisations, who did their outmost to help the Jewish and other European refugees, and from then Federal government itself began to arrive. It was eagerly used by the Leonardi to increase Italia’s industrial base and to step up the pace of settlements in the colonies. Roosevelt hoped that Italia would be in a position to do something about the threat of Nazism and therefor opened new lines of credit to the Fascisti regime in Rome.

In April the Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (National Hydrocarbons Board), ENI, was established to oversee and manage all aspects of the oilproduction, in cooperation with the Americans oil companies, of course. One part of the ENI was the Agip Mineraria, which was tasked with propesvting. Though Agip Mineraria was supposed to concentrate on prospecting for more sources of Oil in the New Italian Empire, the AM soon branched out and began looking for natural gas, coal and other related raw materials. The American oil companies was, as promised by Grandi, Balbo and Bottai, given some rather lucrative contracts.

Meanwhile, in Britain, Churchill and his cabinet was in serious trouble. He had become PM on the grounds that he at least knew how to, and more importantly was willing to, fight a war! He had promised the British a war, but had gained only defeat! Except following the standard British strategy of always picking on the weaker ally of a hostile coalition and taking out Vichy France, there had been nothing but defeat and disaster. Reactionaries in his own Conservative Party and several Liberal Democrats together with rigth-wing Labour members begang to talk about Halifax or even Atlee as a new PM. As Japanese naval and air units ran rampage throughout the Pacific, theybegan to push for a peace with the Central Powers on the basis of the Status Quo Ante. This would allow the British Empire to concentrate on Japan, who at present threaten the very Empire. Chuchill however was as adamant as only he could be, that there would be no peace with Hitler! In Rome the exact wording was noted and the SIM began to plan Operation Marius in earnest. After the fall of Singapore, and Churchill’s demise as Premierminister of Britain, the Italian SIM accelerated their plans!

After the Japanese invasion of Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, Mussolini and Grandi who had a very expansive and anti-British foreign policy in the Middle and Far East, began to refocus their efforts. They no longer supported men like Bose and Ghandi in India, and shut down their various anti-British radio stations and other similar endeauvours.
The Japansese naval advisors and the diplomates in Rome was quitely expelled. The Italian diplomates in Rome went home abourd the ships of the RM’s Far Eastern Fleet. Most of the men in the Fascisti inner circle, not only the Leonardi, had come to the conclusion, that war with Germany, and perhaps the Central Powers as such, was inevitable. In such an situation some sort of alliance with Britain was highly preferable, and thus the ties with Japan had to be cut!

In the USSR and Ukraine thing began to heat ud as several smaller and a few larger new German offensives got under way, and the Axis resisted Germany’s bid to take control of the Ukraine. Hitler, furious with his almost-ally, asked for a personal meeting with Mussolini, who he by some strange reason still liked. Mussolini, who had been more and more reclusive since the death of his son, simply said no. A reply that was edited to a more polite respons by Grandi’s men in the Ministri degli Affari esteri. Hitler however was still deeply insulted and was quoted saying: "Tell Mussolini and his Jewish comerades, that I will never forget them for this!!! Never, never, never, whatever happens..."
General Vittorio Ambrosio arrived in the Ukraine with the 1st Armoured Corps consisting of Ariete, Trento and Catanzaro. The very capable Ambrosio, who would later be known as the Steppenwolf, was to help the Axis forces defend Ukraine as best they could. The Julia Divion and several Spanish, Croatian and even Bulgarian units and reinforcement also landed in the Ukrainian ports in early ’43. The Regia Aeronautica and Regia Marina too sent forces to the East.

After the orders to begin Operation Marius for real had been given, SIM-general Amé had conversation with Italo Balbo and Dino Grandi. Grandi thought that the assassination, or simple murder as Balbo called it with his usual lack of finess, was not very gentlemanlike. Italo Balbo just looked hard at the Foreign Minister and said one of the most famous and unorthodox sentences of the war: "I will have that Nazi Bloodbeast killed in its lair for the world to see!"
The SIM also proved its worth with yet another daring success, or lucky break! In late ‘43 the Italian intelligence service got their hands on Junkers Jumo jet-engine designs. These design plans received great attention by the Italian engineer Roberto Longhi, who was already working on the RE2007 jet-fighter, but had trouble with the propulsion. By erarly ‘44 the first RE prototype took to the skies. An exultant Balbo records the moment as one of supreme elevation. The test pilot said it was like flying with the angels themselves. A Macchi jet-bomber prototype was also proposed and made ready for tests sometime in ´44.

Timelie 1943:
January 2, 1943: A fast convoy from Italia arrives at Sevastopol. Italian RM specialists has been at the habour since its capture working feverishly with both Germans and Ukrainians to reopen the port. Two CCNN-divisions, the mechanized Giovanni Fascisti and the alpini Monterosa unloads among other smaller units.

January 3, 1943: Montgomery’s forces are falling back in Malaya. The little excentric general howver keeps his army together and prevent any major breakthrough. In the Indian Ocean, the British are gathering reinforcement as fast as they can after the Far Eastern Fleet was sunk in late ‘42. The new Far Eastern Fleet is divided into two groups, Force A containing of 2 aircraft carriers, 1 battleship, 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and Force B consisting of 1 light carrier, 4 battleships, 3 light cruisers. The Convoy JW-51B is attacked and suffers severy under its way to Murmansk.

January 5, 1943: Two British heavy cruisers steaming to their stations is spottet and sunk by Japanese planes. The British Admirals are eager to bring the war to the Japanese and thus sorties with both Force A and B.
Luftwaffe launches its first major bombing raid angainst Moscow. Over 300 heavy and some 200 medium bombers take to the sky and are escorted by long range Heinkel fighters.

January 7, 1943: The Japanese Fleet make contact with Force A. Within hours, both carriers, the battleship and some auxiliaries are sunk. Force B who was heading to join up with Force A, turns away but is chased by the Japanses. Despite the Spitfires obvious supoeriority on land, the British carrierborn planes lacks years behinds the Japanese ones. This is the fisrt sea battle were the Fleets never get in visual contact. Every engagement is fought by planes launched from carriers. After nearly 12 hours of fighthing the British Force B is more or lesse destoryed. The remnants retreat to Mombasa, while the Japanese returns to home waters for refurbushing and repairs.

January 14: 2nd Moscow Meeting between Churchill and Stalin. During the conference, Churchill announces the war can end only with the unconditional surrender of Germany and her allies in the Central Powers.
Luftwaffe launches yet another major bombing raid angainst Moscow. Most of the raillinks are now damaged or destroyed. The STAVKA is worried about being able to shift forces from north to south or vice versa.
The Japanese begin their invasion of Burma from Thailand, attacking up the now cleared Kra Isthmus. They quickly capture the British airfields around Tenasserim, enabling land based Japanese fighters to scort bomber attacks against Rangoon. The Japanses still suffers appaling loses to the defending Spitfires.

January 16, 1943: The Central Powers begin a limited offensive against the Soviets in Stalingrad. Mosh of the city is reducedd to rubble and some of the outlying districts are taken by German and Romanian troops.
General Vittorio Ambrosio set up his 1st Armoured Corps headquarters in Sevastopol. The British Foreign Minister Halifax warns ambassador Ciano in London that the Her Majesty’s Governent will not accept regular Italian Army units in combat agaisnt the USSR. Ciano is said to have smiled and begun to talk about the weather and crickett.

January 22, 1943: The Germans expand their offensive operations around Stalingrad to push back other Soviet units. Hungarian and Slovakian reinforcement has arrived in large numbers and their presneces tips the balance in the Central Powers favour. The Axis is conspiciously inactive.

January 27, 1943: Another assassination attempt on SS-general Reinhardt Heydrich. This time the man with the heart of steel is gunned down and killed. Hitler is outraged, but the SS is unable the find the guilty. In SIM headquarters in Rome the commanding officers are satisfied with the death od the man behind the Wannsee Conference. Full attention is now given to a more prominent target.
Japanese forces enters Kuala Lumpur, which is a main supply base for the British. By this time Japanese forward elements are coming in to contact with another Austrailan units, the 8th Australian Division. As usual the Austrailans fight tenaciously. However Japanese amphibious landings to their south force them to retreat and ends British hopes of a protracted defence of Johore.

Febuary 2, 1943: Soviets troops at the western part of Stalingrad surrenders as the armies north and south of the city is forced across the Volga. Von Bock’s Army Group South is battered, but victorious. It however is unable to do mush more for the noext moinths, than to hold on to its gaisn and try to rebuild.

Febuary 8, 1943: Marshall Konev launches major offensive against Kursk. German lines crumble and several newly deployed units panics. He aims to overrun the air bases form which the Luftwaffe strike against Moscow.
British and Commonwealth forces complete their evacuation of Malaya and withdraw to Singapore. Being heavily reinforced Singapore now has the equivalent of six divisions to defend it, but morale is low and there are serious shortages of weapons and supplies in general. Montgomery however seems able to install some fighting spirit in his troops.

Febuary 14, 1943: The German naval attaché in Tokyo prevail on the Japanese to attack Allied merchant shipping instead of warships. With the aid of German tactics and the fact that there’s relatively few major ports in the area, the Japanse submarines enjoy great successes in ´43. As a byproduct the Japanese cencetrates on anti-submarine warfare too as well and begins to convoy its ships.
Three RA Squadriglia equiped with the Macchi MC.200M and one with FIAT BR.20 bombers arrive in the Ukraine. Several anti-air units with reinforved 90mm elements arrive too.

Febuary 15, 1943: Montgomery's Malayan Army is besieged in Singapore.

Febuary 16, 1943: The Germans stabilizes the front some 30 miles west of Kursk. Von Manstein is placed in command of the entire Eastern Front in a newly created command, OB Ost, by Halder in OKW much to Hitlers annoyance. Hitler would have preferen to oversee the front hilselves, but Halder and Jodl together with Zeitzler in OKH is adamant.

Febuary 18, 1943: The Gestapo arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.
The Imperial Japanese Navy blokades Singapore. Several British and Commonwealth attempts are ,made to break the blokade, but each fails much to Montgomery’s dismay.

Febuary, 22, 1943: New Italian convoy to Sevastopol and a joint Italo-Spanish one to Odesssa. In Odessa the Alpini Division Julia unloads together with Spanish reinforcements. In Sevastopol the Armoured Division Ariette and two mechanized Divisions, the Trento and newly formed Catanzaro, unloaded. Ariete is equiped with the upgunned M20/40(G) tank and a bataljon of the new heavy P.41 tanks.

March 2, 1943: German forces begin to build-up for a counter-atack towards Kursk. Von Manstein is concerned about the diluting of the relative sparse German forces. It is his intention to eliminate the Kola peninsula and thereby stop the British from suplying the Soviets via the Arctic ports.

March 8, 1943: The first Squadriglia of the RA equiped with the FIAT G55/M Centauro begins to deploy in northern Italia. The Centauro is equiped with radio, powered by a DB 605 A-1 engine and armed with five 20mm cannons. The Regia Marina version, the G55M/S Torpedo Fighter, is able to carry a Whitehead Fiume torpedo. The Centauro is supposed to replace the Macchi MC.200M. The Centauro is the first Italian fighter plane to be produced entirely by new assemble-line technics. The Italian aircraft production has risen to 5.500 planes in ‘43.
Japanese troops cross the river Salween in Burma. This caused panic in the 17th Indian Division, which began to fall back. The Burma Army commander, General Hutton, managed to stop the retreat at the river Bilin. Many Allied officers and their soldiers in the Far East are thoroughly demoralized. The supreme commander in the area, Archibald Wavell, is worried.

March 15, 1943: Germans re-capture Kursk.

March 16, 1943: Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 32 merchant ships sunk by German u-boots.
Under increasing threat of being outflanked by the advancing Japanese, the 17th Indian Division is finally given permission to withdraw across the river Sittang, but is attacked by the Japanese before they can do so. The entire division is destroyed.

March 18, 1943: General Wavell reassumes post as C-in-C India and Burma. Burma is now cut off from the Southwest Pacific.

March 20, 1943: Hutton. Wavell had given Alexander orders to hold Rangoon at all costs. Immediately, orders were issue for the 1st Burma Division to counter-attack the Japanese from the north and 17th Indian Division which had be reinforced was to attack east of Pegu. Both attacks failed and Alexander realised that Rangoon could not be held. He ordered that Rangoon be evacuated and his troops withdraw north to the Irrawaddy Valley to regroup.

March 23, 1943: Rangoon falls to the Japanese as the British forces escape to the north. The 17th Indian Division was now holding the Irrawaddy area and the 1st Burma Division the upper Sittang valley. The Chinese Expeditionary Force were farther north, with the Fifth Chinese Army defending Mandalay and the 6th Chinese Army was at Toungoo and defending the Burmese province of Shan.

April 1, 1943: The fall of Singapore. Having run out of ammunition and water general Montgomery is forced to surrender to general Yamashita. In an speech to the House of Commons Winston Churchill says: “After four weeks of fierce resistance, Singapore’s garrison has succumbed to overwhelming Japanese forces. We should salute their stubborn resistance. Each man involved, when asked; what did you do in the war, should answer proudly; I was at Singapore!” The Australian Primeminister calls the surrender of Singapore the Australian Dunkirk!

April 6, 1943: Axis forces in Ukraine begin to pull back from the front. When asked why by Manstein, CCNN-general Francisci proclaims the need to reconstitute and reinforce.
Kursk is lost to the Soviets once angain.
General Wiliam Slim replaces Alexander as commander in Burma.

April 13, 1943: As a Chinese Army is forced to retreat it fails to destroy the bridge over the river Sittang. This leaves the way to the Chinese border wide open for the advancing Japanese units. General orders the 1st Burma Corps to counter-attack and destroy the City. Eventough the British troops are unable to reach the bridge, they actaually win several smaller engagements during the attack. But dangerously exsposed to Japanses flanking-attacks the 1st Burma Corps is forced to withdraw towards the Yenangyuang oilfields.

April 19, 1943: SS-units launches a campaign to wipe out the Polish resistance in Warszaw.
Japanese aircraft bomb Mandalay in central Burma, killing nearly 2,000 people. Their loses were hight hpwever as the RAF fighters challenged them all the way. RAFs loses are now so high, that the last Spitfires and other fighters are withdrawn to India.

April 22, 1943: Oil is found in great quantities in Libya. The ENI is therefore created.
In London Churchill is forced to step down as PM. He is replaced by Atlee.

May 1, 1943: The British begin to destroy the oil wells at Yenangyuang. The 1st Burma Division with the help of the 38th Chinese Division, manages to extricate itself from a pocket south of Yenangyuang, before being completely surrounded.

May 16, 1943: First of many massive British air raid on the Ruhr. The Bomber Command will pound the industrial heart of Germany for the rest of the year with high casualties but with some success anyhow.

May 22, 1943: Dönitz curtails u-boot operations in the Atlantic.
Japanese troops capture Lashio, thereby cutting the vital Burma Road supply route into China. The 1st Burma Corps completes its withdrawal over the Irrawaddy at Mandalay in Burma.

May 25, 1943: The Japanese capture Monywa and Mandalay. The fall of Monywa was especially serious as this threatened to cut off the British withdrawal towards India. Under General Slims personal command the withdrawal is well organized and is not turned into a rout.

May 30, 1943: The Regia Marina’s first carrier, the Aquila, puts to sea on her maiden voyage. The larger fleet carrier, Bruno Mussolini, is to be ready in early ’44. At the same time a somewhat reluctant Regia Aeronautice hands over 5 squadriglia (squadrons) of fighters, torpedo-, dive- and navalbombers to the Regia Marina. The RM is allowed to start the conversion of the liner Augustus into a carrier under the name of Sparviero to replace the lost battleship Littorio.
The in good order and with General Slim in command hhe 1st Burma Corps’ rearguard crosses the border from Burma into India. A lot of the soldiers, many of them veterans, actually do something completely unbritish and marches up to General Slim and salutes him in turn.

June 1, 1943: Germans begin yet another offensive against Kursk.

June 3, 1943: The Japanese lands at Tulagi and later in the day at Port Moresby. Austrailan and other Allied forces fights hard and with determination. The Royal Navy and Allied warships in the area are not able to stop the Japanese form reinforcing their bridgheads.
Kapitänleutnant Otto von Bülow aboard U-404 sinks the British carrier HMS Biter. All detonate prematurely and HMS Biter escapes without damage.

June 5, 1943: Japanese establish a puppet government in Burma.

June 10, 1943: Pointblank-directive to improve Bomber Commands efficiency and strategy is issued.
Von Manstein orders the units under his command to dig-in in the central and southern USSR, and then begins to shift divisions north. Dönitz’ u-boots begins to roam in the cold and dark arctic waters in force.
Panic spreads in Northern Australia as it is known that Port Moreby and most of New Guinea has fallen to the Japanese. Once again Roosevelt reminds the Japanese in no uncertain terms, that invasion and/or attacks on either Australia or New Zealand is considered to be attacks on the USA itself.

June 11, 1943: Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland. The Luftwaffe beins a continous bombing campaign angainst Moscow and the indutrieal areas behind the front.

June 22, 1943: Army Group North, heavily reinforcend throught May and June, begins Operation Balder. The Central Powers push east from Petrograd (formerly known as Leningrad). Along the Finno-Soviets front the Finns and Germans begins to advance into the Kola peninsula.

June 30, 1943: The Central Powers, a few Hungarian and Slovakian units have joined Army Group North, and the Finnish forces battles their way east facing hard opposition from the Soviets soldiers. Much to his consternation von Manstein discovers that the Soviet Soldiers are becoming very good indeed. As the commander of Army Group North, Fieldmarshal von Leeb says: “All the bad ones have died – they are burried all around us!”

July 8, 1943: Murmansk is under siege by Finno-German forces. It’s not possible due to the poor state of the infrastructure to bring up heavy artillery, so the besieging forces has to rely on the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine fro fire support.

July 14, 1943: The KM Bismarck, KM Tirpitz and several other German warships arrive at Murmansk. The ships immediately beging to shell the city.

July 24, 1943: British bombing raid on Hamburg. Most of the city is ravaged by firestorms. Kesselring is said to have gone into stupor upon the news from Hamburg. He immediately visited the city.

July 27, 1943: RAF’s bombers strike Hamburg again. Another series of firestorms sweep through the old city. This time however Luftwaffe was ready and the German fighters slaughters the Lancasters of Bomber Command.

August 1, 1943: The Central Powers come withon sight of Archangelsk, but the weather seriously hampers operations.

September 12, 1943: In Berlin a dozen of former German soldiers and some civilians, many of them Austrian by birth, is caught by the Gestapo. Michael Kitzelmann is among the captives. Under torture they confess to trying to assasinate Hitler and that the Italian intelligence service aided them.

September 14, 1943: German forces begin to deploy at the Italo-German border. Italian troops on the other side are diggin in and preparng their defenses. Since the German anexation of Autrian the border have been fortified rather heavely.

September 16, 1943: A bomb explodes in Fieldmarshal von Mansteins HQ in Petrograd. Von Manstein and several of his senior officers are killed, among them the commander of Army Group North, Fieldmarshal von Leeb.

September 18, 1943: Colonel Junio Borghese and an small band of Italians are flying home to Italia from Stockholm in Sweden under aliases provided by the Italian ambassador in Sweden.

September 20, 1943: German forces launch an attack on the alpine passes, but the well-prepared Italians resists and hold their line. The 90mm anti-air gun seems very good at destroying Panzers. So are the heavy armed Guastatori-units! Fierce airbattles rage over the Italo-German front. Italian fighters seems able to hold their own agaist the Germans. Grandi howevere formally ask Britain for help and aid. Giuseppe Bottai in the Ministri dell'Industria e del Economia Nazionale and Italo Balbo in the Ministro della Produzione bellica e del Aeronautica, fears that Italia will not be able to keep up with the level of attrition.

September 21, 1943: In one of his last public speeches Mussolini declares that a state of war exist between the Central Powers and the Axis: “Today the New Roman Empire goes to war, but not to wage war on the German people, for whom we have nothing but affection, or on Germany, for which we have nothing but respect, but on Hilter and his coterie of bloodsucking and genocidal Nazis, for whom we have nothing but contempt!” The crowd was at first silent then thunderous applause broke out to the cries of A Noi, Boia chi Molla and Duce!

September 23, 1943: The British PM Clement Atlee invites the Italains to join the Allies. Ciano in London accepts on behalf of the Italian Governmant.
Italian Commandos under Colonel Borghese begins to infiltrate the German lines and spreading confusion with assasinations and sabotage.

September 26, 1943: Soviets launches an offensive on the Ukrainian front. In the chaotic situation both Axis and Central Powers forces resists. The Axis and German units are also busy gighting each other. On many occasions POW’s are summarily executed. Both SS and CCNN units, and the Ukrainian troops too, are prone to do this without any remorse.

October 1, 1943: General Giovanni Messe takes command of the 2nd Armoured Corps stationed at Po. He prepares to either counter-attack to blunt any German breakthrough or to take the fighting to the Germans. The divisons under his command, the armoured Littorio and Centauro, the Centauro is equiped with heavy P.41’s, and the mechanized Trieste and Lupi di Toscana are itching to have a go at the Germans. Later the 7th British Armoued Division will join the 2nd Armoured Corps.

October 5, 1943: The Regia Marina takes resposibility for the security of shipping the Mediterrenean . The Royal Navy begin the gather ships, among tem the battleships Valiant and Warspite, for a return to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A small German offensive into Italia via France is stopped dead in its tracks by the Italians. In the Pyrenes Mountain beteween occupied France and Spain the Spanish and a few British units fight a holding action against the Germans.

October 12, 1943: The Germans are unable to break through the Alpine passes on the Italo-German border and shift their focus the to Balkans.

October 21, 1943: Croatia is invaded bu the Germans and occupied. Resistance is surprisingly hard. Messe’s 1st Armoured Corps begins to redeploy to the east together with numerous Divisions from Regio Esercito reserve.

October 29, 1943: German and Italian armoured formations clash at the Italo-Slovenian border. M20/40 and P.41’s fight it out witj German Panzer MkIV’s and Panthers, while German 88mm and Italian 90mm guns tries to intervene at long range. In the end the Italian are forced back to Udine by the superior German armour and the likewise superior tactics displayed by the crews and officers. Messe is however far from beaten… One of the german generals present, Erwin Rommel, recals that the Italians were brave and annoyingly good defense, but somewhat inflexible in a fluent battle.

November 1, 1943: British forces begin their first land counter-offensive against the Japanese in Arakan, western Burma. At the same time more British forces deploy in Italia and Spain.

November 4, 1943: The Germans attacks towards Udine in Northern Italia, but is stopped by the heroic actions of some Messe’s bersaglieri’s. The elité infantrymen’s suicidal courage surprises the Germans, and a few British too.

November 6, 1943: After heavy fighting the Germans capture Kiev in the Ukraine. Francisci and Ambrosio conducts an exemplary campaign against von Bock’s Army Group South and is able to hold on to both Odessa and the Crimean Peninsula. In Odessa the Romanians don’t seem to really be into it, as the commander of Julia later recalls.

November 12, 1943: Secret meeting between Grandi and envoys from Hungary and Romanian in Scwitzerland. The countries pledge not to fight each other on the Eastern Front or anywhere else.
A Japanese bombing raid on Calcutta turns into a disaster for the Japanese as RAF-fighters sweeps the skies clean of the Japanese planes.

November 14, 1943: The Regia Aeronautica launches an airstrik on Münich. The Piaggio P.108B bomber seems to be quite effective.

November 18, 1943: Large British air raid on Berlin. Hitler is said to be wounded, but the rumour is unconfirmed. British troops re-crosses the border between India and Burma and strike southeast towards Akyab.
Udine falls to the Germans. Italian and Allied troops withdrwa in good order towards Vittorio Veneto where the next line of defence is placed. Folgore and Nembo troops are dropped behind enemy lines together with both British and Italain Commandos and emmedialtly begins to spred mayhem. In respons SS-units levels several smaller Italian towns. Embolded by the raid on the 14., the RA launches yet another bombing raid on both Münich and Nüremberg. The bombers this time suffers rather heavy casualties.

November 28, 1943: Mussolini, Stalin and Atlee meet in Tehran. Harry Hopkins is present too, which many British nesmen make quite a fuss about. The meeting is said to have been somewhat embarresing, since Stalin and an obviously worn Mussolini did not like each other very much. Mussolini’s insistence that Ukraine be given its independence after the war did not help…
The defensive line at Vittorio Veneto is broken. The Pusteria Alpini Division is complete destroyed in a rearguard action.

December 2, 1943: Mussolini is said to have suffered a stroke. Balbo, Grandi, Bottai and the Leonardi Fascisti offers Ciano the temporary leadership of Italia as acting Duce. His experience with the British, and the fact that their senior politicians seems to like him, will aid the Italian cause immensely in the months to come. Heavy fighing around Treviso. German units tries with some success to force their ay throuhg the Alpine passes once again.

December 4, 1943: First British-German armoured clash in northern Italia (Ironically it‘s the 7th British against the 7th German). The British A13-tanks are no match at all for the German ones and the 7th Armoured Division looses most of its tanks in the battle. Littorio counter-attacks to save the retreating British, but is mauled by Rommel’s panzers. Most of the British troops are saved however.

December 6, 1943: The Germans attack the new Italian defensive line at Treviso, but are repulsed.

December 12, 1943: British Typhoon and Italian SIAI SM-91 anti-tank fighter-bombers begin to roam the skies over northern Italia.

December 14, 1943: The bad weather forces an end to all offensive operations in northern Italia.

December 26, 1943: Ordered to run the German gauntlet and break through to the port of Archangelsk the allied convoy JW-55B sails from Britain under heavy escort. A German attack by KM Graf Spee and the battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and cruiser Prinz Eugen encounters a protective force from Home Fleet. After a fierce engagement, Scharnhorst is sunk, but so are the HMS Belfast and HMS Duke of York. Only 200 men from the three ships survives.

December 31, 1943: Allied merchant shipping sunk by u-boots and raiders in ‘43 is 1,313 ships, equalling 7,124,285 gross tons. 41 of the Kriegsmarine’s u-boots were lost during the same period.

[LDoc]

Please don't drop this its got some real potential.

[Mr.Bluenote]

Please don't drop this its got some real potential.

Not to worry. LDoc! I'll try to get both '44 and '45 (maybe '46) done to wrap things up! The TL is just getting rather large and therfore difficult and more time consuming to handle! :)

Any other comments?

Best regards!

- B.

[Alikchi]

The situation Yugoslavia is going to be a mess, maybe even messier than it was in OTL. What of Tito? :eek: Or Mussolini, for that matter. "In one of his last public speeches"? He gonna bite the bullet soon, I bet.
And the U-boats got pounded in 43. Poor Donitz. :p

Also, the Holocaust. Just how many have been saved?

Anyways, it's pretty clear Germany's going down, the only thing left is when and how. With the Italian peninsula already in Allied hands, and an army that can at least hold its own against the Germans, it's probably going to be soon, no? Unless Hitler has something up his evil Nazi sleeve.

The Japs really are pounding the poor Commonwealth forces. I guess with no USA involvement, and no North African distraction, it's a fairly even match.

One question. "Kapitänleutnant Otto von Bülow aboard U-404 sinks the British carrier HMS Biter. All detonate prematurely and HMS Biter escapes without damage." I'm confused. :confused:

[LDoc]

I think the real wild card is going to be the post-war scene. I mean you have a alliance of dictators in the Axis, a almost guaranted alliance of democracies in Britian and the US, and then of course the communist. Is a three way cold war comming up? or is this simply going to devole into the third world war.

[Mr.Bluenote]

One question. "Kapitänleutnant Otto von Bülow aboard U-404 sinks the British carrier HMS Biter. All detonate prematurely and HMS Biter escapes without damage." I'm confused. :confused:

Yeees, I know! It's embarassing! I have taken several smaller OTL events and edited them to Italia Etrena. In OTl the torpedo detonates prematurlely, but I changed that... Ehem, and forgot to edit it out...

Regarding the Jews. I would suspect some 60-70%.

As long as the fighting is on Italian turf, and its primarily defensive, the Germans will have a very hard time, yes. However when the Allies and Axis troops goes on the offensive... Only thing more dangerous than an attacking German soldier, is one defending himself! :)

I think the real wild card is going to be the post-war scene. I mean you have a alliance of dictators in the Axis, a almost guaranted alliance of democracies in Britian and the US, and then of course the communist. Is a three way cold war comming up? or is this simply going to devole into the third world war.
Yeah, that's one of the more difficult ones. But I think that the Axis countries will slide towards democracy... Or perhaps some kind of Cold War stand-off? The USSR will probably be the big looser in this context!

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[LDoc]

ME NEED POST!!! POST!!!!!

[Mr.Bluenote]

ME NEED POST!!! POST!!!!!

Haha, thanks LDoc! :)

I'll try to wrap things up and get 1944 posted around sunday! Have been somewhat preoccupied lately!

So, any other comments or what have we out there?

Best regards!

- Mr.Bluenote.

[Paulo the Limey]

Very good TL so far. As to be expected from me, a few questions on why the British are doing so badly though. Please bear in mind that I've only read up to the revised 1942 so far:
1) Why did you have both Hood and PoW sunk by the Bismark?

2) Where do the Germans get their torpedo planes to attack the RN during the abortive Sealion? And why is it that the only thing saving the UK was a storm, despite the fact that just about everyone who has read about Sealion regards it as a blueprint for failure in itself?

3) Monty proved himself capable of handling methodical defence against Rommel at alam-Haifa (sp?), why not in the Far East? Specifically, on what basis doyou have the British, and especially the Indian troops panicking, when they are moving towards the front as re-inforcements? You seem determined for Operation Matador to fail, despite most agreeing that
a) It was a good plan which would have very high probability of stopping the Japanese cold
b) The only reason it wasn't implemented was Churchill's pressure for action in the med,which cannot exist in this TL.
4) Wouldn't the US step in militarily as soon as Japan launched its war of conquest?
When I've got a bit more time I'll go over the TL in a bit more detail- it makes for a very good read so far, my only problems with it is that things seem a bit too easy for the Italians so far- when do they start suffering from the victory disease?

Paulo the Limey,
defending British Interests in this TimeLine :D

[Mr.Bluenote]

Very good TL so far. As to be expected from me, a few questions on why the British are doing so badly though. Please bear in mind that I've only read up to the revised 1942 so far:
Thanks! The Brits did somewhat poorly OTL, I'd say, but you points are taken and duely noted! Reread the IE TL when I begun on 1944 in earnest, and I think you'r right, Paulo! I'll correct a few things here and there. Especially the horrendous gramma and spelling! :)

Being an incorrectable anglophile I try to correct the slights on Britain with my MoS/Brits in Space TL! :D

1) Why did you have both Hood and PoW sunk by the Bismark?
Hmm, the Germans didn't run as OTL, when Hood blew up, instead they attacked the PoW. I read a few things about the encounter and it seems that the Prince of Wales wasn't really ready for action, being a new ship and all, so I think it's possible. I didn't write it, but I'm pretty certain both Eugen and Bissy were damaged when they returned to habour (why else return at all, eh? :) ).

2) Where do the Germans get their torpedo planes to attack the RN during the abortive Sealion? And why is it that the only thing saving the UK was a storm, despite the fact that just about everyone who has read about Sealion regards it as a blueprint for failure in itself?
Oh, Goering dies in a car crash early on, so Wever and Kesselring are in charge of the Luftwaffe. As they are not the political empire builders Goering was, the Kriegsmarine get an air arm, hence naval and torpedo bombers...
Sealion did fail... Nah, I know what you mean, Paulo! :) Well, RAF was held at bay and the Luftwaffe/Kriegsmarine felt confident, they could control the channel for the duration af the invasion, so off Sealion went... had the Germans landed in Britain, they would most likely have been cut off by the RN and beaten, yes, but they never got that far in IE.

3) Monty proved himself capable of handling methodical defence against Rommel at alam-Haifa (sp?), why not in the Far East? Specifically, on what basis doyou have the British, and especially the Indian troops panicking, when they are moving towards the front as re-inforcements? You seem determined for Operation Matador to fail, despite most agreeing that
a) It was a good plan which would have very high probability of stopping the Japanese cold
b) The only reason it wasn't implemented was Churchill's pressure for action in the med,which cannot exist in this TL.
Uh, let's see, I've think Redbeard and I discussed this a lot back then. :) Well, first of all, I think Monty was slow and completely WWI-minded. This is jungle territoty, it took the Allies a looong time to get used to fighting in the jungle - ordinary western tactics and doctrines are not suited for fighting mobile columns ala the Japanese in such an environment.
The Commonwealth forces often panicked when flanked by the Japanese... Reinforcements move forward using roads, Japanese forces moves around them using the jungle, hence panic among the advancing troops...
Haha, yes, I didn't really believe in Matador. Two things, it relied on speed and that the US didn't look unfavorably on the Allies for attacking a nuetral country (Siam/Thailand). Speed with Monty? No way, no how (or not as I see him :) ) and we have the British being very worried about offending the US, because they are somewhat hard pressed. Besides, AFAIK the Japanese used nummerous amphibious landings, so wether or not the Kra Istmus would have blocked the Japanese attack completely is an open question!

4) Wouldn't the US step in militarily as soon as Japan launched its war of conquest?
Hmm, don't know. My understanding of US politics at the time might be off, but I can't see the US getting involved in the war without Pearl Habour and/or the German declaration of war. Or an attack on, say, Australian as mentioned.

When I've got a bit more time I'll go over the TL in a bit more detail- it makes for a very good read so far, my only problems with it is that things seem a bit too easy for the Italians so far- when do they start suffering from the victory disease?
Thanks again, Paulo! Yeah, you'r right, but retrospective grants you great powers when writing an ATL! ;) The Germans are giving the Italians a bit of a thrashing in 1943, not to worry. And all things considered, the Italians are not extending themselves that much; Tunis, Savoy, Corsica and Djibouti. In OTL they went for Egypt and the Suez aganist the Brits... :)

Best regards!

- Mr.Bluenote.

[Mr.Bluenote]

1944
It is a curious thing that although every individual soldier returning from the Eastern Front considers himself personally superior to the Bolshevik soldier, we are still retreating and retreating!
- Joesph Goebbels.

The Italian armed forces will defend themselves from attacks coming from any other direction.
- Pietro Badoglio.

In Rome the mood is bleak as the Germans steadily fight their way south. The sense of loss is only substanciated as Mussolini dies in March. The young Count Ciano has been acting Duce since Mussolini’s stroke in late ´43 and has done a rather good job. He is, however, in many Italians eyes seen as a bit of a British lackey. Backed by the everpopular Balbo, Bottai and Grandi Ciano nonetheless tries to gain the fascist Grand Council nomination as Duce. The divisions within the National Fascist Party (PNF) already began to manifest when Mussolini suffered a stroke and came into the open with full force when he finally died. Ciano is as noted backed by the Leonardi, but strongly opposed by the Old Guards among Acille Staracce and Farinacci’s supporters, who called themselves Praetorians, and defined themselves as loyalists (opposed to the British dogs among the the Leonardi). Staracce and Farinacci don’t agree on much else than their opposition to the Leonardi. The two groups fought a brief political battle for the power in the Fascist Grand Council, but in the end the popular Leonardi won (it did help that Farinacci apparently disappeared).

After some major setbacks the war takes a definite turn for the better as the German advance in Northern Italia is finally stopped, and the Spanish, British, Free French and Polish forces cross fron Spain into France. In the east Italian Marines and Bersaglieri lands on the Croatian coast, while Canadians lands east of Venice. The German commander, General Schörner, in the area is close to panic, but is unanble to withstand the landings since the Regia Marina and Royal Navy’s capital ships is there in force to support the troops coming ashore, and most of the Italian peninsula is under Axis and Allied air dominance. The Italian and Canadian troops thus get ashore more or less unopposed and soon begin to move inland. With Axis and Allied troops in his rear, and the Alpine passes stil contested, the German supply-lines are vunerable. General Schörner orders most of his reserves against the bridgeheads, only to see them slaughtered by generously applied air and sea power.
During the numerous smaller and larger Axis and Allied successes several guerilla uprisings take place in France, Holland, Belgium and other German coocupied territories. The actions of Pope Pius XII in the Vatican and the minor Central Powers don’t excatly help the Germans either!

Ciano, now Duce of Italia, and Dino Grandi finally manages to get the Vatican actively involved in the war. Evidence of the many Nazi attrocities and their genocide of among others the Jews finally tip opinions in the Vatican over into the Axis camp. The fact that the Axis is whole heartedly anti-Communist doesn’t hurt either.
In a radio-speech the Pope, Pius XII, give some rather graphic details of the Nazi mass-murders and indicated that not only was men killed without any pity or shame, but also women and children too; “Nazism is the arrogant apostasy from Jesus Christ, the denial of His doctrine and of His work of redemption, the cult of violence, idolatry of race and blood, the overthrow of human liberty and dignity!� Pius XII ends his speech by excomunicating Hitler.
In Hungary, where Admiral Horty, who is a catholic as most of Hungarians and never an anti-semite, rules, and in Slovakia, where the President of Slovakia is a priest, Monsignor Tiso, the Pope’s speech generates unrest among both the leadership and the public. Both countries, Hungary already planned for a case like this, withdraws from the Central Powers and their ambassadors in Bulgaria and Sweden ask for terms from Roma, and as somewhat of an afterthought London. Hungarian and Slovak forces on the Eastern Front immediately joins Axis units or seek towards Axis controlled territory. Whenever possible they fight both the Germans and the Soviets. As of 1944 the situation in the Ukraine is a complete mess.
In Croatia, Cardinal Stepinac, the Bishop of Zagreb, who had influence in the Ustasha movement, used every mean to condemn the insane acts of the Nazis and spur the Croatian people on to even greater resistance. The war in occupied Croatia had suddenly turned from bad to nasty for the Germans there. Whole towns are burned to the ground and untold numbers of civilians murdered by the special SS anti-partisan units, who in turn got ambused, tortured and killed on every possible chance.
Romania held on for a while, but Marshall Antonescu, who himself was quite a strong anti-semite, gave in and took Rumania out of the Central Powers. It was rumoured at the time, that Italian Commandos held Antonescu’s family hostage.
The Pope’s excommunication of Hitler and his denouncement of Nazism is a big turnaround for especially the Bavarians and the former Austrians. Passive resistance to the Nazi regime flourish and a slow trickle of deserters begin to make their way into Axis and Allied captivity. Here and there entire units mutinied! One of the best known deserters is General Erwin Rommel, who surrenders with most of his division. Rommel, and a surprisngly high number of men from his 7th Panzer Division, spends the rest of his life in exile in Tripoli, where he dies a bitter and broken man; “I have wasted the best men in pursuit of the worst possible cause!�

In the Ukraine one of the wars most heroic acts took place around Odessa. The Julia Alpini Divison, trapped in Odessa by the Germans (Romanian forces was apparently not available to take part in the liberation of the city) and having ran out of ammunition tried to break out in a WWI-style bayonnet charge. One of the German officers present later accounted that the suicidal charge was beautiful, but not war! In the Crimean and eastern Ukraine a true of kinds between Soviet and Axis forces existed and the Germans are beaten back by General Ambrosio’s I. Armoured Corps and CCNN-general Francisci’s Camini Nere troops.
Over most of the USSR guerrilla bands are raiding German and Soviet depots for weapons and supplies, blowing up trains, mine roads and ambushing German and Soviet troops, but moslty they adopt hit and run tactics, blocking mountain passes and ambushing patrols.

Oil began to extracted from the growing Libyan oilfields in ´44. Until late the same year it would only be crude oil, but the first Italian refineries would come online in both Libya and on Sicily. The oil produced was mostly sold by the American oil companies, but the Italian used their part to partially substitute oil importes. The hard currency earned via the US corporations was used to buy material necessary to war effeort. Still the oil revenues prevented a economic collaps and even streghtened the Italian economy in certain areas!

In the far East the British with the aid of their Commonwealth allies finally had some good luck as General Slim begun to push back the Japanses forces in Burma and the Royal Navy entered the Indian Opcean in numbers again!


Timelie 1944:
January 6, 1944: In Italy, a new gas field is found at Cortemaggiore in the Po region, but the fighting prevent its use.

January 27, 1944: The Red Army break into Leningrad, but is unable to hold their gains against the Finno-German counter-attacks.

Febuary 16, 1944: Gestapo begins the resettlement of the Southern Tyrolers and other potentially pro-Italians to Poland and Belarussia.

March 4, 1944: Soviet troops begin an offensive on the Belorussian front. The Allies conduct their first major daylight bombing raid on Berlin.
Mussolini dies while in coma. Ciano is appointed Duce and backed by the Leonardi. Ciona speaks that eevning to the Italian people: “I speak to you today in order that you should hear my voice and should know that I am now in charge of the Italian Empire. Do not worry, my fellow Romans. We shall win this war and Italia’s sons, its Legionaires, will return home with pride. Be patient, my friends, and victory shall be ours!�

March 18, 1944: British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany. Luftwaffe’s defences are beggênning to crack.

March 20, 1944: Roberto Longhi’s first RE2007 jet-fighter takes to the skies. After two test flights, Italo Balbo himself tries the new plane. “It’s like flying with the angels themselves!�

March 22, 1944: In Odessa the Alpini Division Julia is finally overwhelmed by the Germans, but goes down fighting in what is perhaps the hardest hand to hand combat ever seen.

April 8, 1944: German troops withdraw from eastern Ukraine as Axis troops under the Steppenwolf, General Ambrosio, and CCNN-general Francisci breaks out of the Crimean. The Regia Aeronautica has total air superiority over most of the Ukraine. Their new Macchi MC.200M’s reign supreme in the skies of the Ukraine.

April 12, 1944: Major uprisng in Kiev. German troops are forced out of the city.

April 20, 1944: A Macchi jet-bomber is tested for the first time.

May 1, 1044: In a widely broadcasted speech Pope Pius XII denounces Nazism and excomunicates Hitler as well!
The Regia Marina’s second carrier, the larger fleet carrier, Bruno Mussolini, begins its sea trials at Taranro. Work on the conversion of the liner Augustus into the Sparviero carrier is progressing rather slowly though.

May 9, 1944: Axis and Allied units break out into southern France. Troops are being landed around Toulon and Marseilles as well.

May 11, 1944: Axis and Allies launches a major attack aimed at recapturing the Po in northern Italia. The 7th German Panzer Division simply surrenders and the front line is broken. General Giovanni Messe’s II. Armoured Corps soon reaches Bolzano in an impressive and speedy blitz. The two armoured divisons under his command, Littorio and Centauro, have been re-equipped and refurbished with heavy P.41’s, and together with the mechanized Trieste and Lupi di Toscana divisions they achive a complete breakthrough.

May 12, 1944: Japanese admiral and commander of the Kido Butia, Chuichi Nagumo is killed as his plane is short down by british Mosquito’s over Dutch East Indies. Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa takes command instead!

May 14, 1944: After a final round of secret negotionas Hungary, Slovakia and Rumanian changes sides and joins the Axis. In Bukarest firefights erupts as pro-German Iron Guardas clash with pro-Axis loyalists. Marshall Antonescu and his family is said to be under the personal protection of the Italian Colonel Junio Borghese.
British and Indian forces clear the Arakan area in western Burma as aprt of a larger offensive against the Japanese in Burma. Under the more than competent command of General William Slim, or Our Bill as the vetarans from the last years dreadfull retreat affictionately call him, the Commenwealth forces have risen to the challenge and are now able to fight the Japanese on equal terms.

May 15, 1944: Germans withdraw from the Leningrad area. Finland seek an armistice, but Stalin rejects their pleas. London remain quite, while Roma and Madrid accepts.

May, 20, 1944: KM Graf Spee and KM Prinz Eugen ancors off Iceland and the crew surrenders. After that episode, a apoplectic Hitler orders all surface vessels of the Kriegsmarine to stay in port! The sailors are formed up in Naval Brigades and sent to the front.

May 25, 1944: Germans retreat from Southern France after having lost a large battle around Roussillon. The newer Axis and Allieds fighter bombers is takling a heavy toll on the Germans. Military analysts in both the SIM and the Allied ditto believe that Luftwaffe is definitively broken.

June 1, 1944: Disregarding the Axis acceptance of the Finnish peace proposal, the Soviets unleash a large offensive against the Finnish front.

June 5, 1944: Axis and Allied forces enter Lubjana. Later the same day Italian and Polish units cross into German occupied Croatia. Ustasha partisans and air dropped Italian Commandos greet the advancing troops.

June 6, 1944: Zagreb is liberated. Italo-British armoured formations race north in an attempt to cut off retreating German formations. British Generals Horrocks and Leese and Italian General Stefanis show themselves to be equals of the best German panzers leaders.

June 12, 1944: Operation Katarine begin. The Soviet summer offensive is centered at the central parts of the eatsren front. The Germans, who have suffered murderous casualties the last years begun to pull trops out of both France and Italia.

June 17, 1944: In a new naval clash at the Java Sea a Commonwealth task force under British Admiral Cunningham defeats a larger Japanese force. The Royal Navy once angain rules the sea!

June 26, 1944: Last German troops is pulled out of Italia. The town of Bressanone liquidated by SS-units in response for guerilla activity.
Commonwealth forces continue to press in to Burma, but encounters heavy Japanses resistance.

July 9, 1944: British and Spanish troops liberates Bordeaux.

July 13, 1944: French and British units enters Lyon.

July 20, 1944: German assassination attempt on Hitler fails. This time the SIM has nothing to do with it as most SIM operatives in Germany are either dead or hiding from Gestapo.

August 7, 1944: British troops “liberate� Vichy. Petain is found shot by Anglo-French troops entering his residence. Well-known writer and reistance fighter Albert Camus is charged with the murder, but is soon released due to lack of evidence. Camus is later elected French President and will be known as the Savior of the Empire..

August 20, 1944: Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.

August 27, 1944: Germans begin a major counter-attack toward Lyon, but is stopped cold by Allied air power. Lancasters are used in a tactical role. British officers touring the bombed out remnants of the German assault force is horrified to see the result of the massive bomber attack.

August 29, 1944: Resistance uprising in Paris.

September 2, 1944: Soviet troops take Brest-Litovsk.

September 5, 1944: Polish Home Army uprising against Nazis in Warsaw begins. By direct request by both the Poles themselves, but also by the Axis, General Sosabovski's Independent Polish Air Brigade is dropped into the city.

September 7, 1944: Liberation of Paris.

September 10, 1944: Due to heavy US pressure and the USSR finally agree to a cease-fire with Finland. Ciano and his inner circle are furious that the British didn’t do more to help the Finns.
Commonwealth in northern Burma forces link up with Nationalist Chinese forces. Supplies begin to flow northeast into China again.

September 17, 1944: Operation Augustus is launched. Augustus is an airborn assault on southern Germany. Airborn units are to hold key areas, while mountain troops and Commandos capture the vital Alpine passes, so that Axis and Allies armoured formations in Operation Scipio can strike deep into Germany from the south. The operation is only partly successful as thousands of airborn troops are killed before the armour reaches their positions. Several hundreds British, Polish and Italian paras are saved by the local population. Innsbruck is, however, taken.

September 26, 1944: Soviet troops occupy Estonia.

October 2, 1944: Warsaw Uprising continues as tons of equipment is dropped by British planes, and the Polish Paras boost the Polish capitals defences.

October 10, 1944: Soviet troops capture Riga.

October 14, 1944: Axis and Allied forces enters Vienna. Several Waffe SS-units fight til the last bullet. The Hitler Jugend division is totally anihilated in the fighting. Its commander, General Meyer, commits suicide.

October 21, 1944. Massive German surrender around Vienna. Only Waffen SS-troops continue to fight.

October 23, 1944: Warsaw Uprising ends as the Polish Home Army finally is forced to surrenders to the Germans. Polish Paras slipping out of the city towards the east are being captured by Soviet forces and ends up in Gulags in Siberia. The last Paratrooper dies in 1966. The tale is only known after the collaps of the USSR in 1979.

October 24, 1944: Last pocket of resistance in Vienna is crushed.

October 30, 1944: Auschwitz is captured by the Soviet Red Army. For the rest of the war very few Germans are taken prisoner by the Soviets.

November 3-17, 1944: Battle of Münich. The Axis and Allied forces experience yet another bloody urban fight. Most of the civilian population aids the Axis and Allied units as best they can. Armed bands of Bavarians and Austrians are fighting side by side with the Italians.

November 17, 1944: Last SS and Wehrmacht units in Münich surrenders. SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolf orders his command to stand down and resistance in Bavaria effectively ends. The battered Axis and Allied forces are unable to exploite the break, since most of their units are exhusted and won out by the heavy fighting since Operations Augustus and Scipio.

November 21. 1944: Germans begin to evacated France and the low Countreis. They hope the form a defensive line at the Rhine.

December 1, 1944: Italo Balbo and Duce Ciano tours the front that has now stabilized in a line from Stuttgart to Regensburh. Everywhere they are greeted with enthusiasm by the Italian troops.

December 20, 1944: French and British troops reaches the Rhine.

December 24, 1944: French armoured units enters a jubilant Strasbourg.

December 31, 1944: Allied merchant shipping sunk by u-boots and raiders in ‘44 is only 433 ships, equalling 2,349,440 gross tons. 102 of the Kriegsmarine’s u-boots were lost during the same period. The Atlantic war is over for the Germans and once again the u-boots have lost…

[Mr.Bluenote]

Sigh, I finally did it! :)

Sorry for the long wait, but I had an inspirational break down! :)

This 1944 post is just a rather rough draft, but I'd like some input before I finalize it! There need to be more material on what's going on in the Ukraine, the Balkans and out East, yes? Ideas?

I stole the idea (one of many I've borrowed :rolleyes: ) of excommunicating old Adolf from a discussion we once had at the Comando Supremo, and I kinda liked it! But how would it have worked in reality?

So, what do ya all say?

Best regards!

- B.

[LordKalvan]

Sigh, I finally did it! :)

Sorry for the long wait, but I had an inspirational break down! :)

This 1944 post is just a rather rough draft, but I'd like some input before I finalize it! There need to be more material on what's going on in the Ukraine, the Balkans and out East, yes? Ideas?

I stole the idea (one of many I've borrowed :rolleyes: ) of excommunicating old Adolf from a discussion we once had at the Comando Supremo, and I kinda liked it! But how would it have worked in reality?

So, what do ya all say?

Best regards!

- B.

Very good TL, Bluenote! I found it just today, and read all of it in a whiff.
I agree with most of your scenario, and in particular with the idea that the Axis will move soon toward democracy. As usual, it is much easier to enforce a dictatorship when economy is not going well. The future looks quite good for Italy, what with the oil found in Lybia and (I expect) with an economic sphere of influence in Ukraina and the Middle East.
What happened to fermi and his research group? are we going to see the Italians nuke Berlin?
TTL is quite an improvement for the Balkans too. Besides the fact that war ravages are less than in OTL, the region should be spared a Russian occupation.
Go on with the good work!
I'm lookin

[Cockroach]

Hmm, the Germans didn't run as OTL, when Hood blew up, instead they attacked the PoW. I read a few things about the encounter and it seems that the Prince of Wales wasn't really ready for action, being a new ship and all, so I think it's possible. I didn't write it, but I'm pretty certain both Eugen and Bissy were damaged when they returned to habour (why else return at all, eh?)
Just a little reminder, in OTL even that breif engament left the Bismark damaged in such a way as to reduce the usable amount of fuel onboard. Add additional damage and the Bismarks is very unlikely to get back even with out the RN chasing it.

[Mr.Bluenote]

Very good TL, Bluenote! I found it just today, and read all of it in a whiff.
Thanks alot Kalvan! There's quite a few rather embarassing spelling mistakes etc etc, but I'm glad you liked it!

I agree with most of your scenario, and in particular with the idea that the Axis will move soon toward democracy. (...) The future looks quite good for Italy, what with the oil found in Lybia and (I expect) with an economic sphere of influence in Ukraina and the Middle East.
I have this strange notion that Ciano creates some kind of Mediterrenean (incl. the Balkan nations, Iraq, Persia and the Ukraine) Forum of Nations ala the EU. Democratization will probably set in a few years after the war.

What happened to fermi and his research group? are we going to see the Italians nuke Berlin?
Heh, yeah, I thought about that, but the Italians don't really have the means to do it that quickly, but sometimes around 1950, there might rise a mushroom cloud somewhere out in the Libyan desert!

Just a little reminder, in OTL even that breif engament left the Bismark damaged in such a way as to reduce the usable amount of fuel onboard. Add additional damage and the Bismarks is very unlikely to get back even with out the RN chasing it.
It's been a while since I wrote the encounter (and read about it), but didn't Bismarck leak oil? I'm not certain further combat would necessarily increase that leak, but point taken, C!

Anyway, thanks for the commenst!

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[LordKalvan]

Yes, a Mediterranean pact would be very nice, and stabilize the region.
I've also the notion that Palestine would be much quieter, since there would be on one side a strong Turkish umbrella, and on the other a stable Iraq: between the two, it should be possible to steer Syria, Lebanon and Palestine toward a peaceful development. By the way, in this scenario it is quite likely that a large portion of the jewish refugees would be settled in Lybia and in Ethiopia (in particular Lybia would require substantial numbers to develop the oil industry and the petrochemical): this would be helpful to defuse the crisis in Palestine (less impact of the Holocaust, less guilty feelings in Europe, and thriving Jewish settlements which would attract the post-war refugees).
If this Mediterranean pact may be extended to the Black Sea countries (Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria) it would result in a very strong economic area, with important resources in both population, agriculture and mining (plus a lot of oil)

[Mr.Bluenote]

Yes, a Mediterranean pact would be very nice, and stabilize the region. (...) If this Mediterranean pact may be extended to the Black Sea countries (Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria) it would result in a very strong economic area, with important resources in both population, agriculture and mining (plus a lot of oil)
There's one heck of a potential at least if the Pact is able to survive, yes. Iin the beginning it would be hard pressed though, I think. The war has ruined the economy and most of Ukraine, if not all of it, Spain is still recovering from the Civil War and Northern Italiy and parts of the Balkans has been fought over.
Considering the strange economic notions of Fascism, I could see the Pact as something like COMECON... :) But I think I'll take the Pact in the EU direction or what do you say?

I've also the notion that Palestine would be much quieter (...) this would be helpful to defuse the crisis in Palestine (less impact of the Holocaust, less guilty feelings in Europe, and thriving Jewish settlements which would attract the post-war refugees).)
Indeed! Very good points! The entire political situation in the Middle East would very different form OTL, no doubt! I'm prone to believe, however, that the UK would still have a lot of trouble with the Arabs, considering that the Axis apparently treat them more respectfully and as independent countries, nor just coloinies. The state of Israel would probably never exist, but some Jewish movements would most likely still call for a true homeland. Still, the Italian overseas parts (the Empire) would benefit greatly from its close association with the Jews, drawing in educated and hard working immigrants and American investments en masse.

Regards!

- B.

[LordKalvan]

I am looking forward to a Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the war. Given the overall good relations between Italy and USA in TTL, I assume that the Axis will get its share. Plus there is oil in Lybia and in Mosul (even without getting ambitious in Persia or in Saudi Arabia, at least Kuwait should pass from British to Axis sphere of influence): all of this means big money, and since the American oil companies are already active in Lybia and the American jews remember who accepted the regees during the war....

[Mr.Bluenote]

I am looking forward to a Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the war.
Hmm, would there be a Marshall Plan? The US is not at war, so...? Favorably loans, some continuation of lend-Leese perhaps, but a Marshall Plan?

Plus there is oil in Lybia and in Mosul (even without getting ambitious in Persia or in Saudi Arabia, at least Kuwait should pass from British to Axis sphere of influence): all of this means big money, and since the American oil companies are already active in Lybia and the American jews remember who accepted the regees during the war....
The honeymoon of the Axis and British led Allies won't hold forever - to many divergent interests, primarily economic, I'd say. The Brits will most likely fight tooth and nail to keep Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in their sphere of influence, while Italy, and the Axis as such, probably have more than enough on its plate already.

Besides, how much does oil matter in the post-war world? It's my impression that most oil was used for fuel, while the various industries, power plants etc etc was coal driven? If so, in a world somewhat ruined by the war, would the demand of oil be very high anywhere else than in the US?
I'm think of having Italy and the Axis reenginering, so to speak, their industries and infrastructure, so that natural gas will by used for heat and oil as fuel for power plants ect etc.

As a combination of factors the US will help the Axis as best it can - anything else would be political suicide, I think!

And, yes, it would seem that we share an interests in some TLs, Kalvan! :)

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[Pendragon]

Hmm, would there be a Marshall Plan? The US is not at war, so...? Favorably loans, some continuation of lend-Leese perhaps, but a Marshall Plan?

This was actually a question I wanted to know. Do you have plans for bringing the US into the War. And who will help the British defeat the Japense: Italia or nobody.

Also, how dominant do you plan on making Italia in the post-war world. World power type nation that gets what it wants, or something less massive. I ask because this thread is entitled Italia Eterna and, to me at least, it would make sense if Italia was a predomiant and poweful country.

Oh, and I just want to say that its very good and that I can't wait for further updates.

[Mr.Bluenote]

This was actually a question I wanted to know. Do you have plans for bringing the US into the War. And who will help the British defeat the Japense: Italia or nobody.
Well, most ATL's tend to bring in the US, but I think I'll leave them out of this one. There's no Japanese attack on Pearl and the Germans are having their own troubles, and lots of them as it is, so no... I think... :)
Without being involved in the war, I'm having some difficulties seeing a Marshall Plan, at least as we know it form OTL. What's do you guys say? Kalvan?

Also, how dominant do you plan on making Italia in the post-war world. World power type nation that gets what it wants, or something less massive. I ask because this thread is entitled Italia Eterna and, to me at least, it would make sense if Italia was a predomiant and poweful country.
Italy will be way more powerfull in this ATL, than OTL, no doubt. Fermi and Co will develope the Bomb sooner or later, there's oil in the Empire and the Mediterreanen Pact and Forum of Nations will give Italy a lot more influence that ever before. As I wrote Italia Eterna I begun to, eh, appriciate the problems facing the Italians, so it would be almost ASB if Italy ended up as a superpower...
I suppose we'll end up having three powerblocks (and a somewhat isolationistic USA on the sidelines); the Commonwealth, the Italian Empire and the USSR.

Oh, and I just want to say that its very good and that I can't wait for further updates.
Thank you very much, Pendragon! I'll try to post 1945 within the next few days. I'll plan to end the TL with 1945 and a post-war Epilogue... unless of course there's a public demand for more! :)

My regards!

- Mr.B.

[LordKalvan]

the idea of keeping the USA out of WW2 is attractive: at least a change with 99% of TL. I see no problem on the European front, but what is going to happen in the Pacific?
As a minimum, I might expect Japan to occupy French Indochina and DEI. I do not think that either UK or the USA can accept this scenario without protest (or without entering into a war), even if the Japanese make no hostile move against Hong Kong or Singapore.
So we might have a "limited" war scenario: the Japanese occupy Indochina, but this triggers English reaction. Australian forces occupy the DEI to "protect and safeguard Dutch interests". Now what? A reasonable bet would be the USA blessing this intervention, and backing English guarantee. It would even be possible to have the marines occupying the Moluccas from Philippines. At this stage there should be also an oil embargo against Japan (to force them to release Indochina, and against their war in China). OTOH, the English are much less pressed than in OTL, and they should have more ships available for the SE Asia theatre (and ANZAC/Indian troops who can be deployed in the DEI). If the Americans "occupy" a part of the DEI, they should be much more aware of the danger of Japanese reprisals, so even PH becomes more unlikely. But the key point is that Japan without DEI oil cannot survive. So what would you expect?

Marshall Plan: granted, if there are no Americans on the European front, it is quite likely that there will be no Marshall Plan as such. OTOH, I would like to hope that USA will see the advantage in having a stable Mediterranean region, and that the good Italian/USA relations established in the thirties will continue. Instead of pure aid, you could have land lease, or joint development (I'm always thinking of Ukraine, which would be a great place to develop). And there is serious oil money: Lybia and Iraq, as a minimum.
Obviously a lot will depend on who will be elected as US president after Roosvelt. Another important issue will be what kind of France will come out of the war, and if they will fall within the arms of the British Empire (more likely) or of the Axis.

Let me make a wild guess: UK will come out of the war in a much better shape than in OTL. In particular in the SE Asia and Pacific. They will be much more reluctant to let the Empire go (and there will be also less centrifugal forces). It is possible that the USA may not be elated by this revival of Impaerial policies, and become more friendly to the Axis

[DuQuense]

With Britian having attacted Vichy French in North Africa, I can see hard feeling between the two after the war.
?Why didn't the British India Army occupy Vichy Indo China at the same time as Africa fight? ?And what happened to Vichy Caribean?

Given a extra year of only China, ?did the Japanese do better there?

[Mr.Bluenote]

the idea of keeping the USA out of WW2 is attractive: at least a change with 99% of TL.
Haha, yes, quite right! :)


As a minimum, I might expect Japan to occupy French Indochina and DEI. I do not think that either UK or the USA can accept this scenario without protest (or without entering into a war (...)
Hmm, in OTL the Japanese more or less took over Indochina from Vichy after the Vichy-Siam (Thailand) war, and the US didn't do much else than rattle the saber. I must admit that I think, that outside a direct attack on the US (or the Phillipines), FDR would have a very, very difficult time getting the US involved in the war. I know I wrote about the American promise to defend Australia and New Zealand, but that's as far as I see the US go... Am I wrong, you think? I might be overestimating the unwillingness of the US to go to war...

But the key point is that Japan without DEI oil cannot survive. So what would you expect?
Oh, they originally got oil via their best buddies the Italians. Third party trading and all that. That's why, the Japanses are not as desperate as in OTL. No need to provoke the US, just go after the Allies... Now, without the Italians, they have to move fast, yes, but since they'r not at war with the US, they'll have a lot more to throw at the Dutch and British in SEA...

Obviously a lot will depend on who will be elected as US president after Roosvelt. Another important issue will be what kind of France will come out of the war (...) UK will come out of the war in a much better shape than in OTL. (...) They will be much more reluctant to let the Empire go (...). It is possible that the USA may not be elated by this revival of Impaerial policies, and become more friendly to the Axis
Well,without the war, I think Dewey would win out... Anyway, you'r right, the US will see the Med as a prime investment area, but how much they'll care fot the British Empire? Hmm, hard to say.
France and to a lesser degree the British will be somewhat in trouble, no Marshall Plan means no limitless access to US aid, hence France will have to rebuild on its own, but the country is not as devastated ATL, and the Brits wil be stuck with the bill (both in blood and gold - see question at the bottom of my post please) for the war. In this case I'd rather say the Brits would be in worse shape than OTL, but I'm not sure about that!
I totally agree on the British Empire though, the Brits would try as best they could to keep the Empire, even with Atlee and Bevin at the helm. Britain would need the Empire to revieve and rebuild their own economy in the post-war world, and for security too, not to forget!

With Britian having attacted Vichy French in North Africa, I can see hard feeling between the two after the war. Why didn't the British India Army occupy Vichy Indo China at the same time as Africa fight? And what happened to Vichy Caribean??
Yeah, but DeGaulle and his Free French are around in hte IE TL, so not to many hard feelings, I'd say... on the other hand the French seem to have a looong memory! :) Regarding Indochina, I suppose, as mentioned above, the Japanese were already in place. The Free French propably got the French possesions in the Caribean and elsewhere as in OTL.

Given a extra year of only China, ?did the Japanese do better there?
Hmm, didn't really think of that, I must say, but yeah, most likely...

Regarding the butchers bill being paid by the Brits, and our imperialistic Japanese friends, how will the end be for Japan? There's no US and no nukes (yet), so will the British have to invade, or what's your take? A British Empire invasion of Japan itself will cost them dearly (to say the very least)...

Thanks for the comments!

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[LordKalvan]

The situation in the Asia/Pacific scenario will be a messy one.
I think we all agree that Japan will gobble up Indochina as soon as France folds up. OTOH, why should UK (who is less pressed than in OTL) let the DEI go without making a move? And it would be rational to try and get a support from USA, rather than going alone. Now it's true that Roosvelt cannot get a war so easily, but this would not be a declaration of war. It would be an intervention to preserve order, under request from the legitimate Dutch government. It's a kind of lawyering, but politics is a bit like that.
And if you want, the USA have already made a hostile move (the oil embargo). So it's not a completely new situation.

Going back to France, I agree that Free France will probably stick to UK: they were allies from the start, and the actions taken after the armistice were against Vichy France (a collaborationist state). Plus Italy has taken the opportunity to grab some real estate after the armistice.

Regarding UK, they will end the war in a worse financial position than OTL (no Marshall plan, no uncle Sam to foot the bill). However, even in OTL uncle Sam asked for collaterals before footing the bill, and UK payed through the nose for a number of years. So, it is not so different: in TTL, UK won the war on its own, this means that there is more pride and more imperial feelings (and the Americans are not so chummy as in OTL). All of this goes in the direction of Empire, and this will sooner or later get in contrast with the USA (I expect it will be in the Pacific, or in China). Just reading tea leaves, mind

[Mr.Bluenote]

1945
This is the epitaph I want on my tomb: Here lies one of the most intelligent animals who ever appeared on the face of the earth!
- Mussolini.

Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong!
- Adolf Hitler.

As the year 1945 began it was clear that the war angainst Germany would not last much longer. As the RAF and RA routine began to bomb the cities of the Third Reich, the once proud city of Berlin got to know war rather intimately. The dark heart of the Third Reich suffered continuos attacks, which saw thousands upon thousands civilans killed and entire city blocks razed. And Berlin was not even the city that was hardest hit; Dresden and Hamburg for all purpose got obliterated by two huge air raids in early ’45.
As if the merciless Axis and Allies bombing of the Reich’s cities was not enough, the land war too went against the Germans. From the East the Soviet Red Hordes pushed ever closer and from the South and Wets the Axis and Allies fought their way stubbornly towards the Vatherland. Seen from the HQ of General Ewald von Kleist, OB Ost, this was unacceptable. In March, von Kleist, the hero of Kharkov and Przemysle, launched a military coup, Operation Parsiphall, and is said to have shot Adolf Hitler himself. Loyalist troops from the Wehrmacht arrested SS personel and disarmed army units not thought to be reliable. Von Kleist and the little terrier of a man, Oberstgruppenführer, Sepp Deitrich, knew each other from the Eastern Front and seemed to have put Parsiphall together. Along with Luftwaffe’s chief, Albert Keselring, they soon took control of Germany and established a provisional government!

In South East Asia General Slim and Admiral Cunningham launched a more or less continous offensive against the Japanse forces, who only a year before had overrun most of Asia east of India. Even with the aid of Italia and the entire Commonwealth it was obvious that it was not going to be easy liberating the old colonies. Fighting was hard and intense, but steadily the Japanese was forced back. 1945 would see Burma, Singapore and a completely ruined Hong Kong return to British rule.

The war was as good as won, but now all the heard work really began as several of Dino Grandi’s men in the Ministri degli Affari esteri (Foreign Ministry) joked. Both Grandi and Ciano laboured hard and endlessly to secure a lasting and fair, at least fair seen from Rome, peace. At the great peace conference in Paris, the Italian diplomates sidetracked the French and made sure Germany remained more or less as it had been before the war. A few changes occurred, though, Austria and Bavaria emerged as independent countries. Czechoslovakia was split up into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Axis wholly supported an independent Ukraine and Poland, but the less than stable environment on the eastren Front made this no easy task. As 1945 ended and 1946 begun, Ukraine, however, had been recognised as an independent nation and Axis member, while Poland still was occupied by Germany and the USSR.

The Leonardi leadership in Rome foresaw the need for a big stick, as the American president Theodore Roosevelt once had said, in matters relating to security and foreing policy. Enrico Fermi and his nuclear research team begun to get a hitherto unheard of level of funding. Laboratories was set up in northern Italia at the great hydroelectric plants near the Alps, and several others in the deep Libyan desert. The pace of research became even more frantic as the United States exploded a nuclear device in late Decmber!

Meanwhile Grandi worked to create an expanded Axis, and later Ciano’s dream of a Forum of Nations, containing not only Spain and Italia, but also Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Bavaria, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, Iraq, Persia and the not yet liberated Poland. Invitations was also extend to Syria and Egypt as well, but respectively France and Britain vetoed. For most of late ’45 diplomates and foreign ministers travelled to and forth the various capitals of Europe and the Orient. As the diplomates laboured, the Comando Supremo and the Italian armaments industry sold weapons en masse to the new Axis countris and sent an unending stream of advisors and security personal.

One of the reason why the Italians felt they needed to hurry getting these new super weapons was, not surprisingly, the Soviet Union. For the time being Stalin and his Red Hordes were of no threat as they fought both external and internal enemies. Sooner or, perferably, later the situation would stabilize and it would be pay back time.
Over most of the USSR partisan and guerrilla bands ran wild, creating utter havoc in the interior. And as armed insurgents and rebelling Nationalists was not enough several minor and one general strike paralyzed the big country. The NKVD cracked down on both the insurgents and the strikers with great severity, but the situation were far from stable at years end. Draft and food riots along with armed uprisings would plague the USSR for several years.

In 1945 the first Italian refineries began to operate in earnest in both Libya and Sicily. The Leonardi put a lot of energy into transforming the Italian infrastructure and industry from using coual to using natural gas and oil instead.
Italian and American companies formed numerous joint-ventures in 1945 and began to prospect and later mine various raw materials, among them chrome, copper, lead, zinc and even some oil.

Timeline 1945:
January 2, 1945: Canadian and British troops lands at Ostende and Rotterdam. Dutch and Belgian resistance units are already patrolling the streets. Other units are harrashing the few German troops not yet safe behind the Rhine.

January 8, 1945: The Soviet Red Army tries yet again to force its way over the Vistula River, but the Germans are holding their ground. Reinforcements are drawn in spite of Hitler’s protests from other fronts.

January 12, 1945: The Japanese launch a fullscale offensive against Nationalist positions in China. The Japansese hope to encircle large groups of troops and gain access to vital territory, while cutting off the reopened supply route from Burma.

January 24, 1945: The Regia Aeronautica launches its first airstrik on Berlin. The heavy Piaggio P.108G bombers suffer few loses from Luftwaffe fighters as they are escorted by new long range FIAT G55/M(F) Centauro, but the intense German FlaK take its toll on the Italian bombers.

February 1, 1945: In Rome, the Eternal City and capital of the New Italian Empire, Ciano, Balbo, Grandi, Bottai and several topranking Leonardi Fascisti meet. They disscus how to organize the post-war world, and the Empire.

Febuary 3, 1945: Last major German offensive on the Eastern Front. Air Marshall and Luftwaffe C-in-C, Albert Kesselring, has carefully husbanded his resources and the Luftwaffe for a while at least gain supremacy over the front. Wehrmacht troops under command of East Front-veteran General Ewald von Kleist advance rapidly in southern Poland and retake Krakow. The offensive finally stops after a weeks heavy fighting just outside Jaroslav and Przemysle.

Febuary 13, 1945: Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids. In Italia the political leadership as well as the Comando Supremo is shocked by what they percieve as pure terrobombing, but Blabo is less squirmish: “It’s not pretty, but it’s effective! Let the Germans and their cities burn, like they burned their victims these last years!�

March 1, 1945: The city of Hamburg is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids. Voices amongst the Allies express doubt about the Point Blank-tactics and the bombing of civilian targets in general.

March 4, 1945: General Ewald von Kleist, the hero of Kharkov and Przemysle, meets with Hitler in the Führer’s vast underground bunker system in Berlin. Von Klesit is accompanied by his aid and right hand, General von Manteuffle. To this day nobody really know what happened in the bunker, but Hitler, von Manteuffle and several others ends up dead after a vicious firefight!

March 5, 1945: After the deaths of Hitler Operation Parsiphall kicks off in Germany. Troops from the Wehrmacht arrests SS personel all over the Reich. Here and there the SS resists, but suprisingly no Waffen-SS units take up arms against the Wehrmachts troops. General von Kleist seems to be in control of Germany.

March 7, 1945: SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler commits suicide. The German High Command, OKW, set up a Provisional Government under General von Kleist.

March 8, 1045: Von Kleist, now calling himself Reichspresident, offers the Axis and Allies an armistice. Von Kleist seems to have some sort of agreement with both the Luftwaffe and the Waffen-SS as he is often seen with Airmarshall Kesselring and Oberstgruppenführer Dietric.

March 10, 1945: A US naval task force centered around two carriers are relocated from the Pearl to the Phillipines. It is based in Manila Bay. Washington and the local Philipino governemt is denying any overt threat to Japan. Needless to say the Japanese leadership in Tokyo are furious!

March 12, 1945: Mass surrenders of Germans troop to Axis and Allies forces along the fronts. In the Sudentenland, Hungary and at the Rhine some 500,000 Germans are taken as PoWs. Units along the Vistula hold their ground and keep fighting. They are even reinforced by troops from the other fronts and the interior.

March 14, 1945: Soviet troops finally crosses the Vistula and immediately begin an assult on Warsaw.

March 15, 1945: Reichspresident von Kleist outlaws the DNSAP and order all non-Communist KZ inmates to be set free at once and an immediate stop to the persecution of Jews.

March 16, 1945: The last German units facing the Axis and Allies surrenders at the Ruhr pocket as their commander, Fieldmarshall Model, commits suicide.
The Red Army fights its way into a ruined Warsaw. Much to the Soviets amazement, scattered remnants of the Polist Home Army resist more or less alongside the stubborn German defenders!

March 17, 1945: Joseph Goebles and his family surrenders to an advance unit of Italian Alpini in Sudentenland.

April 1, 1945: Representatives of the new German governemnt meet with envoys from the Axis and Allies in Prag. An armistice is signed between the Germans and the Axis and Allies. Further negotiations are to be held in Rome in a weeks time.

April 5, 1945: General Slim’s hard charging Commonwealth forces, now designated 4th Army Group, reaches the old British airfield at Tenasserim. Soon Spitfires, Typhoons and Hurricans will begin to fly from the enlarged airfields. Air superiority is now with the Allies in Asia.
In a sudden Chinese counter-offensive, the Chinese actually defeats the Japanese forces around the border to Burma, thus opening the Ledo road once more. Though the Japanese manage to inflict a good deal of casualties in return, they are thoroughly defeated and lose close to two divisions in the fighting.

April 8, 1945: Kesselring, Speer and von Schulenburg meets with Ciano, Grandi, LeCelerc and Bevin in Rome. The negotiations are tough, but the Germans have no other option than to agree to the terms offered. As it has already happened German troops are to withdraw from all occupied territory and their positions along the fronts. Furthermore they are to start negotiations with the Soviets at once, release all prisoners of war and hand over all senior members of the DNSAP. Further negotiations and the final treaty will be handled at a later meeting in Paris in late Maj!

April 10, 1945: Ciano and Atlee along with their foreign ministers, Grandi and Bevin, meet in London. French leader, Charles DeGaulle is present as well, but as the Italians insists on calling him Colonel, the meeting ends in a French boycott. Grandi and Ciano are actually quite pleased as they hope the British will tire of the pompous French.

April 17, 1945: Most of the victorious 4th Army Group prepare for an attack on Thailand, but the VII. Corps move south towards the Malayan Peninsula and the XXIV. Corps move against Rangoon. Fighter cover is total and the Allied tactical bombers wreak havoc amongst the Japanese.

April 30, 1945: Most of the PoW’s in German hand have been handed over to the Axis and Allies, but most of the Nazi-leadership has either disapered or committed suicide. A few arguments erupts between the Allies and von Kleist’s envoys as to wether SS-general Joseph Dietric should be extradited also!

Maj 1, 1945: A Regia Aeronautica Squadriglia equiped with the new long range FIAT G55/M(F) Centauro arrive at Tenasserim. These Centauro are the first Italian planes to fitted with drop tanks and have two powerfull 30mm guns in addition to their four 12,7mm machine guns.

Maj 24, 1945: Commonwealth forces are finally poised for a strike at Singapore. The new Far Eastern Fleet under Admiral Cunningham are approaching the Strait, while general Browning’s Marine and light infantry forces prepare for an amphibious assault. Meanwhile 4th Army Group draw the Japanese to the north in defence af Malaya as they advance.

Maj 26, 1945: The Royal Navy along with its Commonwealth allies blokades Singapore.

Maj 27, 1945: Eventhough the Germans are still fighting the Soviets along the Vistula, the peace conference is nonetheless held in Paris. “To be quite frank�, as Balbo is heard to have said, “it suites me well the Germans keep on killing the Red Bastards!� Surprisingly enough the von Kleist government is very cooperative, still there are a few bumbs along the way.

Maj 28, 1945: Back in early 1943, the German naval attaché in Tokyo prevailed on the Japanese to employ German submarine tactics, now the the Japanese submarines attacks Cunningham’s Fleet off Singapore and its supply convoys with great effect.

Maj-June, 1945: The Allies suffers heavyly under the Japanese submarine onslaught, but with their better ASW and with some escort reinforments the submarine offensive peter out.

June 1, 1945: Austria, Bavaria and the Czech Republic are formed as independent nations as part of the Peace Treaty of Paris.

June 5, 1945: Rangoon is retaken by the 4th Army Group. Soon advance parties from the VII. Corps move angainst Singapore. As General Slim is recorded for saying: “The Jungle is our friend now!�
General Ambrosio’s I.Armoured Corps is shipped home from the Ukraine. They leave all their equipment, however, to the fledgling Ukrainian Army along with a cadre of specialists to train them. Ambrosio and his men are celebrated as heroes from their arrival at Taranto to their parade through Rome side by side with General Messe’s veterans form the II.Armoured Corps. CCNN-general Enrico Francisci’s blackshirts stay in the Ukraine for the moment. During July and August they will be replaced by other Camini Nere-troops and regular Regio Esercito units.

June 9, 1945: A very moved Ciano is greeted by jubillant masses as he return to Roma. At an improvised rally near Palazzo Venizia, Ciano held one of his most memorable speaches ever: “As our dear departed Duce once said; the New Roman Empire goes to war! Now I stand before you, dear fellow Romans, and says; today the New Roman Empire has WON the war!� The huge mass of people went completely crazy at his word and broke out in thunderous applause and called Ciano Duce!

June 12, 1945: The Chinese Nationalists launches an attack at the Japanese forces in northern Burma. They are soon forcing the Japanese back into Thailand.

June 14, 1945: After having been delayed the British finnaly attack Singapore from both air, sea and land. The battleships Valiant and Warspite bombard the Japanese defenders merciless, while the RAF hammers them from the air. General Brownimgs troops land around the city and are soon supported by units from the 4th Army group and ANZAC-forces.

June 21, 1945: After a full week of heavy and bloody fighting the last Japanese forces in Singapore are defeated. Over 1,000 wounded Japanese commits suicide as the city falls.

June 28, 1945: German forces re-enter Warsaw and is able to push the Soviets back across the river.

June-July, 1945: The strain of war is beginning to show in Japan, where many politicians and the more moderate officers cannot see the need for continuing the war. The last months massive setbacks have opened their eyes for the fact, that they are losing the war. The Nationalists in China are growing in strength, they have even shown the world that they can beat the Japanese alone, Singapore has been recapture by the Allies, the Kido Butai suffered its first major defeat in battle and tension is rising in the Dutch East Indies.

July 2, 1945: As in Japan the strain of war is beginning to show in the Soviet Union. Stalin’s hold on power is slippingly. Across most of the USSR, wokers and peasant truly unite as a general strike spread rapidly throughout the country.

July-August, 1945: As the Red Army is trapped along the Vistula, Nationalist elements among the many suppressed minorities in the USSR begin to rise up and take up arms against the Communists. Guerrilla and partisan bands raid Red Army supply depots for weapons and supplies, or is covertly supllied by either the Germans or the Axis, and start to ambush Red Army patrols and smaller units.

August 1, 1945: The Soviet Union and Germany finally sign an armistice. The real peace negotiations will continue into the 50’s. Germany, USSR and the Allies will quarell over the re-establisment of Poland until 1948.

August 3, 1945: A Regia Marina task force centered around the new battleships Italia and Impero of the Littorio class, the light carrier Aquila and the fleet carrier Bruno Mussolini arrives at Singapore. A force of fast transports loaded with two reinforced regiments of the nearly legendary San Marco Marines accompany the Italian task force.

August-September, 1945: The 4th Army Group clears out the last remnants of Japanese resistance in Malaya and Burma, while Commonwealth and Italian units invades the Dutch East Indies..

September 22, 1945: The first unit, the 6. Stormo, of Caproni Reggiane 2007 jet-fighters become operational around La Spezia. A second unit is due to become operational in late ‘45.

September-October, 1945: British and Commonwealth forces invades Thailand. The Thai government soon collapses and the new government ask the Allies for terms, while it turn on its former Japanese ally. Japanese and Thai forces clash around the countryside. General Slim and the 4th Army Group soon drive the stranded Japanese back into Indochina.

October 3, 1945: Nationalist Chinese troops retake Beijing. Beijing is once angain the capital of China. Chiang Kai-shek enters in trumph.

October 5, 1945: Primeminister Atlee and Chief of Staff Alanbrooke visits the HQ of the 4th Army Group. Slim is promoted to Fieldmarshall.

October 15, 1945: The first two really modern Italian-designed tank enters production. The Carro Armato Celere Sahariano, a medium tank equiped with a long 76mm gun, is base on the British cruiser tanks. It, however, already seems somewhat outdated. The second design show more promise. The Carro Armato Pesante (heavy) 50/45 was a heavy 50-tonnes tank build around a reliable V12 engine and equipped with a heavy British-made 17pdr. maingun.

October 20, 1945: The majority of the Dutch East Indies are cleared of Japanese forces. Fighting will continued to the final surrender of the Japanese in late 1946.

November 1, 1945: The Allies begin to move against both Indochina, as French forces have now arrived in Burma and Thailand, and Hong Kong.

November 28, 1945: Ciano, Stalin and Atlee meet in Athens. Once again Harry Hopkins is present as an unofficila representative for the Americans. As Mussolini did Ciano insist that Ukraine is to be given its independence. Backed up by the powerfull armed forces of Axis, Ciano threatens Stalin with war if he does not comply! Stalin actually caves in as he know his Red Army is incapable of fighting a major war right now!

November-December, 1945: Fierce fighting in Indochina as France tries to re-establish control over their former colony. By the end of the year, France control most of the build-up areas, while the countryside is either controlled by the Viet-Minh or the Japanese.

December 22, 1945: At Alamogordo in New Mexico the US demonstrates a new powerfull weapon! At Enrico Fermi’s labs the workpace picks up.

December 23, 1945: A prototype of an inter-continental bomber is testflown by Regia Aeronautica pilots in Sicily. Though, it is only a proto-type it causes a great commotion in the medias, both the Italian and foreign ones. The big ungainly plane is, however, already nearly ouydated as the Macchi Mc.500 Jet bomber is test flown in early 1946.

December 30, 1945: After terrible losses and one the most fiercely contested battles of the war, Allied forces under the direct command of Fieldmarshall Slim himself is finally able to raise the Union Jack over the ruined city of Hong Kong. In London both Alanbrook and Atlee are shocked by the number of casualties. It is decided to concentrate on suppling and training Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists Chinese forces, blockading the Japanese Home Islands and bombing the populated areas into ruins for most of 1946, while the Commonwealth builds up its forces once again.

[LordKalvan]

Very good, Mr. Bluenose. Now don't tell me that you are going to stop. I am much more interested in the post-war period, and in seeing how the Mediterranean and the Black Sea will develop.
I forecast an economic boom in these areas once the first difficult years are over. The Americans have stayed out of the war, so they should be quite flush with cash, and willing to participate in the development.
Is Italia going to get a foothold in the Pacific, in consideration of their help against Japan? China should be happy of having another trading partner, and cadres for re-building the country. If Ciano and Grandi are smart enough, they will keep their entente with the USA in the Pacific theatre too.
I'd like to see what's goping to happen with DeGaulle. TTL France should be much more bitter and disillusioned than OTL.

[swamphen]

I enjoyed this one. :) Of the 'bad four', Musso was the least-evil of the bunch (altho against Hitler, Stalin and Tojo, that ain't sayin' much.). However, in order for him to "grow a brain", I'm afraid an ASB is necessary... :p

I too would like very much to see this TL continued! :cool:

[swamphen]

P.S. are the trains still running on time? :p

[LordKalvan]

I enjoyed this one. :) Of the 'bad four', Musso was the least-evil of the bunch (altho against Hitler, Stalin and Tojo, that ain't sayin' much.). However, in order for him to "grow a brain", I'm afraid an ASB is necessary... :p



Well, Mussolini was not so crazy as he was depicted by the Allied propaganda: his single big mistake was to assume the war was over in June 1940 (admittedly, a very big mistake). Don't forget that the same man who would be reviled a few years later had the sympathy of many European leaders pre-1939 (including Churchill). The mistake was in getting on the German side: even if he had chosen the winning side, to live in a Nazi-dominated Europe would not have been nice

[DuQuense]

Remenber without Roosevelt to give away Formosa, And Salhalkin Islands. Japan comes out different than OTL. And will Britian make the US mistake of Using the Capured Japanese to continue running Korea.

[LordKalvan]

Remenber without Roosevelt to give away Formosa, And Salhalkin Islands. Japan comes out different than OTL. And will Britian make the US mistake of Using the Capured Japanese to continue running Korea.

I confess that Formosa was what I had in mind for giving Italia a foothold (king-size) in the Pacific.
I do agree that it is better not to use Japanese POWs to run Korea. OTOH, I would also like to keep Manchuria independent from China (that would be harder than Formosa; in TTL, however, Ukraine was surgically removed from USSR, so why not Manchuria from China? Given the abundant resources, Manchuria would really look like a Far east Ukraine - and again it would be the place where to implement an USA/Axis economical cooperation): with proper management and capitals, it could be the first of the New Tigers

[Grey Wolf]

Interesting; I've not been folllowing this closely enough to comment sensibly, though this struck me as odd :-

At the great peace conference in Paris, the Italian diplomates sidetracked the French and made sure Germany remained more or less as it had been before the war. A few changes occurred, though, Austria and Bavaria emerged as independent countries.

The last sentence seems to completely negate the previous one, its quite a significant loss of territory, and puts the German border in a really odd place, as well as being quite a loss of industry (off the top of my head BfG and BMW)
and prestige.

Grey Wolf

[LordKalvan]

Interesting; I've not been folllowing this closely enough to comment sensibly, though this struck me as odd :-

At the great peace conference in Paris, the Italian diplomates sidetracked the French and made sure Germany remained more or less as it had been before the war. A few changes occurred, though, Austria and Bavaria emerged as independent countries.

The last sentence seems to completely negate the previous one, its quite a significant loss of territory, and puts the German border in a really odd place, as well as being quite a loss of industry (off the top of my head BfG and BMW)
and prestige.

Grey Wolf

You are mostly right, but I interpreted Bluenose's sentence as saying that no occupation zone will be created in Germany, and the French-German border will not change. In TTL Germany is still a (almost) viable proposition: even if the cities were hammered by bombings, Germans are holding on the Eastern front. Compared with OTL, they got out of the war almost unscathed, even if they are going to loose Bavaria and Austria (plus Bohemia and the Sudetenland).
Maybe I'm reading too much into this (and Bluenose should confirm) but I've the impression that France came out of the war much weaker (and with much less consideration) than in OTL. Remember that the USA stayed out of the war (no Marshall plan), and that with the Axis holding the southern European flank there is no need for USA/UK to support French pretensions to create a bulwark against Russia

[LordKalvan]

BTW, if France wanted to carve up Germany (De Gaulle made a try for it OTL, didn't it?), the first thing to be set up would be a Rhineland (or even a Westphalia). As it is, France is still adjoining the (rump) Germany, while the buffer states shield the Balkans and Italy. Not a truly perfect situation from a French POV

[Mr.Bluenote]

Hrmhrm, Kalvan, it's BlueNOTE, not Bluenose... :)

I enjoyed this one. :) Of the 'bad four', Musso was the least-evil of the bunch (altho against Hitler, Stalin and Tojo, that ain't sayin' much.). However, in order for him to "grow a brain", I'm afraid an ASB is necessary... :p
Thank you, Swamphen! Hmm, as Kalvan points out, Mussolini was not that dumb, eventhough he seems somewhat dim at times. Actually he's a bit of an enigma. He could be clever, inteligent, eloquent and likable, but sometimes he seemed in dire need of a brain, yes! Not having any fascists sympathies, I must admit that I kinda like Mussolini.

Remenber without Roosevelt to give away Formosa, And Salhalkin Islands. Japan comes out different than OTL. And will Britian make the US mistake of Using the Capured Japanese to continue running Korea.
The situation in the Far East is giving me some trouble. As I see it, right now, the British and the Commonwealth will burn themselves out pushing the Japanese back. It will be a tough and rather cruel war, where the Japanese will be given no quarter, nor ask for any!

You are mostly right, but I interpreted Bluenose's sentence as saying that no occupation zone will be created in Germany, and the French-German border will not change.
Yes, you're quite right! But now that GW mentions it, I can see the sentence might strike one as being odd! Germany will be a country ruled by Germans, with an Army and what not! I got the idea of an independent Bavaria after reading a Churchill biography - it's mentioned -, and thought it would fit nicely with the Pope excommunicating Hitler and the Nazi's... Catholic Italia would likely get along nicely with Bavaria and Austria...

Maybe I'm reading too much into this (...) but I've the impression that France came out of the war much weaker (...)
Yeah, the French are in trouble. No Marshall plan and heavy fighting in Indochina...

Well, I have some material for a prologue, but if you guys are interested, I'll see if I can cook up some posts for the late 40's, the 50's and perhaps the 60's?!

Thanks a lot for all your feedback!

Best reagds!

- Mr.Bluenote. ;)

[LordKalvan]

[QUOTE=Mr.Bluenote]Hrmhrm, Kalvan, it's BlueNOTE, not Bluenose... :)

[QUOTE]

I'm covered in shame and do apologise. :( It will never happen again

Going to the end of your last post, I'd love seeing a continuation of TTL. The Far east is intriguing, and maybe you could also address the Russian situation.
In OTL Stalin was not a nice guy, but he managed to win his war, was accepted as an ally and Russia became a big power. Since victory is the best medicine ever, a lot of things were forgiven and forgotten. TTL, the situation is not so nice. Russia lost Ukraine, is not making significant progresses in poland, and is likely not to be considered a first class winner in the end. This might exacerbate internal tensions. What do you think?

[swamphen]

I'd really like to see it continued up to the 60s...and maybe beyond? :)

One thing I have to ask: in TTL, did My Favorite Person from All of
History, Soviet ace Lydia Litvyak, suffer the same fate she did in OTL
or is she still around?

[Mr.Bluenote]

I'm covered in shame and do apologise. :( It will never happen again
Haha, it's allright, Kalvan. I actually thought you did it on pupose, you know joking a bit! :)

(...) The Far east is intriguing, and maybe you could also address the Russian situation.
Funny thing, I started the TL as an Italian one, but the moment the War broke out in earnest, the focus kinda shifted on its own! Nonetheless, yeah, I'll probably have to do a lot about the Far East, Europe and the Soviet Union.

In OTL Stalin was not a nice guy, but he managed to win his war, was accepted as an ally and Russia became a big power. (...) Russia lost Ukraine, is not making significant progresses in poland, and is likely not to be considered a first class winner in the end. This might exacerbate internal tensions. What do you think?
The war was harder in Italia Eterna, believe it or not, so the Soviets are reallly worn out in 1945 - just like in OTL, only alot worse. That taken in consideration, I think that a stalled front in Poland, no invasion of Manchuria and a heck of a mess on the home formt is pretty likely... I don't know if the USSR will stay Communistic, though - maybe a military revolt? But that's been seen before. I'm actually more inclined to have Uncle Joe consolidate his power and come back around 1950 loking for some pay back, when the British and French have bled themselves white out in the East!

I'd really like to see it continued up to the 60s...and maybe beyond? :)?
Okay, then I'll give it a go! I can visualize the late 40's and most of the 50's, but the 60's and 70's without Vietnam etc etc, that I'm having some problems with! How would Gemany and Japan look 20 years after this ATL's 2nd World War? What about the US? Would they turn highly isolationistic? Perhaps the victorious fascisti movement take hold in Britain and France as well?

Oh, btw, in my former post I of course meant I had material for an epilogue, not a prologue! Ooops! :o

One thing I have to ask: in TTL, did My Favorite Person from All of History, Soviet ace Lydia Litvyak, suffer the same fate she did in OTL or is she still around?
Oh, she might still be around, but then again fighting on the Eastern Front was worse, so...

Best regards!

- Bluenose. ;)

[LordKalvan]

Haha, it's allright, Kalvan. I actually thought you did it on pupose, you know joking a bit! :)

I think I got you in the end :rolleyes: the apology was disproportionate to the damage

Funny thing, I started the TL as an Italian one, but the moment the War broke out in earnest, the focus kinda shifted on its own! Nonetheless, yeah, I'll probably have to do a lot about the Far East, Europe and the Soviet Union.


The war was harder in Italia Eterna, believe it or not, so the Soviets are reallly worn out in 1945 - just like in OTL, only alot worse. That taken in consideration, I think that a stalled front in Poland, no invasion of Manchuria and a heck of a mess on the home formt is pretty likely... I don't know if the USSR will stay Communistic, though - maybe a military revolt? But that's been seen before. I'm actually more inclined to have Uncle Joe consolidate his power and come back around 1950 loking for some pay back, when the British and French have bled themselves white out in the East!


If Uncle Joe is coming back for more, the guys who will get the biggest worries are Germany and the Axis. After all, France and UK are sheltered behind them. Unless you think that USSR could go along different lines. Look at this: UK is focussed on Empire, so I expect that in TTL Indian indipendence will not be a done thing. They might get some devolution, and they might not.
1950 is not so far away, but Uncle Joe could fuel the resentment of Indian indipendentists, and even start a Mao-type guerrilla, sending in supplies through Persia and Afghanistan. It is a bit difficult to make up a suitable invasion route for a modern army (logistics would be awful) but it would be a different scenario for sure. Russia would avoid confronting head-on Germany and the Axis, and, as you say, the Far East should have bled both French and British.

BTW, what's happening in China? The Nationalists should be doing somehow better in TTL. The big issue is how much the Americans are sending them, and thru which route

[LordKalvan]

Thinking better on the above, I believe Russia will do the classic Russian thing, and try to pick up Persia. Now this is an interesting scenario: the Axis is in Turkey and Iraq; UK is in the Gulf and India (and obviously in Khuzestan and Southern Persia). It should be a nice, messy confrontation. We might even see an Afghan-style situation 50 years earlier (the Turks fuelling Moslem populations in the Caucasus, and promoting pan-Turkism in Central Asia. The Russians engineering a coup - if not a blunt invasion - from the Caspian sea. And finally the British trying to juggle all the balls in the air). Mind, Persia situation is different in TTL: there has been no abdication of Reza Shah and he might still be on the throne. In such a case, he would be more sympathetic toward the Axis.
And obviously no one (including even the USA) can afford a Russian stranglehold on the Persian Gulf. Not that I can see an American intervention: their strategy would be to develop Iraq (which is in the Axis field) and give aid to the Axis in general, and to Turkey in particular. It would be something completely different from OTL, even if the pieces on the board are the same

[Mr.Bluenote]

I think I got you in the end :rolleyes: the apology was disproportionate to the damage
Indeed! :)

If Uncle Joe is coming back for more, the guys who will get the biggest worries are Germany and the Axis. After all, France and UK are sheltered behind them. Unless you think that USSR could go along different lines. Look at this: UK is focussed on Empire, so I expect that in TTL Indian indipendence will not be a done thing. They might get some devolution, and they might not.
I have this idea about Germany and the USSR reaching an understandment of sorts - I don't think that the Germans would want to dance with the bear for some time. Besides, Poland will probably emerge between to two. So, as you say, it's the Axis (Ukraine), the British Empire, Persia (that was not occupied in this ATL - no Germans in NA, hence no Russo-British invasion of Persia to protect supply-lines) and what ever states emerges out of the Japanese collapse out east... Perhaps a Machurian War instead of a Korean one? USSR invades Machuria in 1950 and British forces scramble to protect the infant state? War between China and the USSR? There are endless posibilities, I think...
Or as you say, a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and/or Persia. I think that Stalin will hate the Brits for their percieved betrayal in the War and for their support of Poland, Ukraine etc etc...

BTW, what's happening in China? The Nationalists should be doing somehow better in TTL. The big issue is how much the Americans are sending them, and thru which route
I suppose Chiang Kai-shek is doing rather well, both the Brits and the Americans are suppling him as OTL, but Mao will not be aided by Stalin, who has problems of his very own.

Once again, thanks for you comments and ideas!

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

[LordKalvan]

Indeed! :)


I have this idea about Germany and the USSR reaching an understandment of sorts - I don't think that the Germans would want to dance with the bear for some time. Besides, Poland will probably emerge between to two. So, as you say, it's the Axis (Ukraine), the British Empire, Persia (that was not occupied in this ATL - no Germans in NA, hence no Russo-British invasion of Persia to protect supply-lines) and what ever states emerges out of the Japanese collapse out east... Perhaps a Machurian War instead of a Korean one? USSR invades Machuria in 1950 and British forces scramble to protect the infant state? War between China and the USSR? There are endless posibilities, I think...
Or as you say, a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and/or Persia. I think that Stalin will hate the Brits for their percieved betrayal in the War and for their support of Poland, Ukraine etc etc...

Quite reasonable. Germany and Russia cannot go on too long slugging each other (even if Uk and the Axis are rooting for this): Germany is certainly exhausted, and the loss of Bavaria will be felt (less manpower). The peace treaty with UK would have included some provisions for a restored Poland: the best bet would be for a restored Poland with the 1939 borders. This is the most acceptable solutions for the two belligerents too: a buffer state is re-created between Germany and Russia. Now, the question is what policy the new Polish state will implement (or will be allowed to implement :rolleyes: )
There is quite a change in Central Europe, with a strong presence of the Axis. OTOH, the major interest of the Axis will be to develop Ukraine (both for manpower and resources). The new Czech republic is also likely to be attracted within the Axis sphere; same for Hungary and Austria (and probably Bavaria). While the Axis is not a confessional alliance (there are a lot of Moslems inside the alliance, even if all of them are located in laicist states), the presence of both Italy and Spain may give it a Catholic flavor. The Vatican may also have been instrumental in detaching Bavaria from Germany.
With the exception of Bohemia, all the new (or restored) Central European states are mainly Catholic: even Ukraine has a strong Catholic component, which will be favored to completely detach them from Russia. The question should be if the Axis (ok, mainly Italia) has the economical and financial strength to go and creating a strong economical sphere of influence in central and Eastern Europe. The answer is yes, if we assume that the USA will consider the Axis a necessary bulwark against both Russia and Germany. Additionally, there should be quite a virgin market where American companies would be expected to make significant profits. Considering that Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia can contribute a strong technical cadre, it could be done. It takes a man with a real vision to lead along this path. It might have been done by the Roosvelt and Mussolini of the 1930s: I have a few doubts that their successors are cut of the same cloth.


I suppose Chiang Kai-shek is doing rather well, both the Brits and the Americans are suppling him as OTL, but Mao will not be aided by Stalin, who has problems of his very own.

- Bluenote.
What is going to be the final settlement in Far East? UK will be quite stretched if they want to do everything on their own (Manchuria, Korea, occupation duties in Japan). The French will be lucky to be able to recover Indochina, I strongly doubt that they may give any help in the North.
UK will want to keep Hong kong, and maybe Shanghai too. This will not help in terms of making the Chinese very friendly, the more so if the British want to keep Manchuria as a separate state. Plus the DEI will be an issue too. An Imperial britain will not see favourably a decolonisation in OTL Indonesia, which might open unwelcome doors in India and Indochina.
Let's make a guess: joint occupation of Japan with the Axis (just to make it more interesting, let's assume that Turkey is also sending troops to the Far East - it happened for Korea, after all). Manchuria set up as an indipendent state with British protection. Same for Korea.
Italia gets Formosa as a protectorate, the former (pre WW1) German colonies in the Pacific and Okinawa.
The Nationalist Chinese are quite pissed off (Manchuria, Tibet, Formosa, Hong Kong, maybe even Shanghai). There might even be a rapproachment with Uncle Joe in the cards.
What do you think?

[Mr.Bluenote]

Late 40’s
Do you remember that month of April,
that long train heading to the front.
It carried thousands of Alpini:
let's go let's go, it's time to leave!
It carried thousands of Alpini:
let's go let's go, it's time to leave!

After three days of railroad,
and two more long on foot,
we arrived to Mt. Canino
and we had to rest under the cloudless sky...
we arrived to Mt. Canino
and we had to rest under the cloudless sky...

If you are hungry then look far
if you are thirsty take you cup in hand
if you are thirsty take you cup in hand
the snow will quench our thirst.
if you are thirsty take you cup in hand
the snow will quench our thirst.
- English Translation of Mount Canino, popular Alpini WW1-song

As the fighting petered out in Europe the New Italian Empire emerged as one of the post-war worlds dominant powers. Mussolini and his successor as Italian Duce, Ciano, and their clique of progressive Fascisti, the so-called Leonardi, had created a new, modern and efficient Italia and opportunistically expanded the Empire by cynically exploiting the weaknesses of the other European powers, France in particular, as they battled each other to a bloody standstill.

Since the Leonardi entered the political scene in Italia the former stagnating and rather backward country had progressed, both economically, industrially and, not to forget, socially, with an impressive pace. The liberal immigration laws before and during the War, combined with the Nazi’s insane genocidal policies, had provided Italia with the settlers necessary to start re-populating their Empire with well-educated and industrious Europeans, thus kick-starting the development of the African Coloinies, and creating a middle-class fanatically loyal to King, Party and Country – not necessarily in that order, though.
The Fascisti under first Mussolini and now Ciano had in tandem with the King shown to be an unifying factor in the otherwise deeply devided country. Now the riches of Italia was more evenly spread, no Northener saw his Southern neighbours as poor beggars, nor did any Southerner scorn Northerners as Capitalistic pigs. Still, there were pockets of poverty; Albania, Corsica, parts of Libya, Sicily and Tunesia was in general underdeveloped and suffered from a lack of investment. Likewise was organised crime a problem in many of the very same parts of the now widespread Italian Empire. It was nothing that an increase in public investments and a reinforced bureaucracy along with a few hundred hard men from the Opera Vigilanza Repressione Antifascismo or OVRA (Secret State Police) could not remidee with time.

Time was, however, not necessarily on the Empire’s side. Italia’s and therefor the New Italian Empire’s economy had been booming before the War, and with the influx of American investments grew even in those darkest days as the Germans briefly advanced down the peninsula. The sweeping economic and social reforms of the mid and late 30s and the discovery of oil in Libya and other valuable resources around the Empire had helped the Leonardi to expand the Italian economy and industrial base immensely. Now that the War had ended, the economy was one of the major concerns in Giuseppe Bottai’s Ministri dell'Industria e del Economia Nazionale (Ministry of Industry and National Economy) and among the Leonardi in the Ministri delle Finanze (Ministry of Finance). Duce Ciano’s idea of a free trade zone and a political forum for members of the Axis and associated countries did cause some Leonardi to worry that cheap products would push Italian made products out of the marked, but as the matter was discussed in some detail it was soon obvious that for the forseable future there simply was no competition, nor were any bound to arise any time soon. There, however, was the big problem of widespread poverty and devastation in most of Europe. The Leonardi thought that with sufficient economic backing they could rebuild and expand not only ther Empire’s economy, industry and infrastructure, but also that of their Axis-allies. Bottai and the financial wizards concocted a scheme to generate income by selling weapons to fellow Axis-members in return for raw-materials and to mostly South American countries in return for much needed cash, selling oil, gas and coal to whoever could afford it, borrowing heavily on very favoritable terms from the Americans and, finally, to open up both Italia and the Empire to foreign investors besides the Americans – as the Italian themselves poured resources into their new military and economic partners, they needed help to keep developing the oversea Empire. Even with Roosewelt dead, his successor, Harry Truman, who more or less owed his election as President to the many Italian and Jewish votes, was very attentive and sympathetic to the Italians needs. The unique cross-continental Italo-American relationship would be a great boon for Italia in the years to come as American loans and investments helped fuel the Italian economy and keep it afloat.

By accepting the flood of refugees form Europe and integrating them with ruthless efficiency, thus substantially altering the demographic composition of the Colonies, the Leonardi and Italia as such, had created a large group of loyal and industrious supporters. Several high-ranking Leonarid see the Italians ability to channel Europena refugees overseas as the meain reason for the Empire's succes. In other words Italia only became an Empire because of its access, so to speak, to settlers. All in all over 3 million people left the Continent to settle in the Colonies before and during the War and this allowed for the creation and subsequent consolidation of the New Italian Empire. The almost aggressive integration process hadn’t been a painless one, as some of the original inhabitants in the Colonies much to their horror suddenly found themselves a minority in their own homelands. Some reacted violently, with anti-Semitic and, seen from Rome, even worse, anti-Italian riots, but was crushed with extreme severity by the battle hardened and self-confidnet Regio Esercito. Most of the time the growing Colonial middle-class merely asked for, and usually got, respect for their native culture and religion. As the European War ended the Italians restricted immigration to the Colonies somewhat, but still took in those who had something to offer the Empire, and sometimes those who were just being persecuted. Strangely enough the Leonardi and the Italians in general seemed quite pleased with their reputation as the good samaritans of Europe.

Not only the various financial ministries had their work cut out for them in the post-war period. In Dino Grandi’s Ministri degli Affari esteri (Foreign Ministry) tensions ran high as well as the diplomates strived to deal with a new and very different world. Many of the new nations in Central and Eastern Europe had difficulties with each other regarding minorities and their mutual borders. Most of the time, Grandi and the envoys from the Foreign Ministry succeded in creating acceptable compromises, but sometimes had to threaten with brute force as in the case of Hungary and Rumania. The situation was not truly solved and would haunt the Ministri degli Affari esteri for several years, until it finally exploded in the mid-50’s.

The most pressing matter was still the situation along the Vistula where the fighting between Germany and the Soviet Union continued, although with a rather subdued intensity as both countries was nearing their breaking points. Germany had been bombed and dismembered and the once mighty Soviet Union was plagued by rebellion and the loss of the Ukraine and uncounted millions of lives. The new German leader, former general, now Reichspresident Ewald von Kleist hoped to force the Soviets into a peace somewhat advantageous for the Germans, while Stalin needed a victory against the Fascist to bolster his failing grip on power. The war finally ended in late 1946 when former SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Deitrich and a crack Panzer Army consisting of veterans from the old SS-units struck out from Krakow and drow north in an offensive reminiscent of the early 40’s. As the Soviet lines collapsed the Red Army’s leadership and the STAVKA began to panic. In Moscow Stalin knew he had to make peace, and make peace fast. Ironically a new Poland re-emerged on the world stage created by the strength of German arms and fittingly bought by German blood. Both von Keist and Stalin saw Poland as a bulwark against the other, but none of them were willing to supply the new nation with land, so to speak. With the new German victories, Stalin had to swallow the bitter brew of defeat and give the Poles back the land he had stolen from them back in the autumn of 1939. Likewise did the Baltic states re-emerge, but the Soviet kept their gains in Finland.

Poland was not the only place the Red Army saw action in the late 40’s, besides, of course, crushing the nummerous internal uprisings. In the regions bordering northern and eastern Ukraine there were continious figthing on scales both small and large, eventhough a peace treaty had been signed. It seemed, however, that the Ukrainian and their former masters in Moscow could not in reality agree on the precise border between the two countries. For most of the periode between the peace in Europe and mid-1948 the USSR and Ukraine fought one long undeclared border war. Italia, not wanting the war to flare up again, still saw the need to support their new ally, so a volunteer cossack unit was formed in Italia, manned by anti-Comminist veterans from all over Europe and equipped by the Regio Esercito. The Gruppo Autonomo Cosacchi saw extensive combat during the entire period and was used by the Comando Supremo to test new weapons, tactics and to train officers. The Gruppo was nearly 30,000 man strong when the USSR and Ukraine finally agreed on the borders. Nearly half the force ended up in French Indochina fighting Nguyen Sinh Cung’s Communistic Viet-Minh guerillas on behalf of the French, and to make sure the Regia Marina kept its new naval bases.

After the end of hostilities in Europe, France was in dire need of cash to fund a reconstruction effort and finance their war against the various Nationalistic movements that had sprung up in their colonial empire. Britain had their own pressing problems and therefore were in no position, nor in any mood to offer much aid or even comfort to the French!
The French government thus tried every possible way of getting financial aid, any aid, including asking the much despised Italians. With the United States very firmly behind the New Italian Empire, it seemed to be the only way of getting any help. The Italians, however, were very forthcoming, but demand a steep price indeed. First of all, the Italians wanted their gains recognized by the French governmant and the Regia Marina wanted some naval bases in Madagascar and Indochina, all under Italian rule and having extra-territoriality! The hard pressed French finally agreed after nearly six months of debate in the Chamber of Deputies and amongst the French Cabinet itself, where DeGaulle was replaced by the phlegmatic LeClerc in late ‘46! In the spring of 1947 shipments of oil, coal and even food began to flow from the New Italian Empire to the failing French ditto. Combined with favorable loans and payments in hard currency the LeClerc-Government managed to bring some stability to France.

In the Far East the Royal Navy, aided by the Axis naval units send to reinforce their war-time allies, saw plenty of action as they battled the increasingly desperate Nihon Teikoku Kaigun, or Japanese Imperial Navy, for control of the sea-lanes and various islands in South East Asia. As the Asian War, as its was known after the European Peace, dragged on, Britain experienced its own problems as they fought to keep their Empire together and defeat the Japanese, while stepping ever closer to a fullscale depression. Morale in Britain and the Commonwealth suffered as the public saw some two hundred thousand young men become casualties in the Far East, and the late 40’s saw an all-time low in patriotic fevor in Britain and the Commonwealth. Draft riots was not only a Soviet problem as the 1940’s drew to an end.
Far from having suffered the grievious losses of Germany and the Soviet Union, Britain was being worn down at a steady pace, and the loss is not to be measured by bare numbers only. The soldiers who bore the brunt of the fighting, especially early in the European War, had been the volunteers, the brightest and the bravest, inspired by the lofty altruistic ideals that were so dominant in the traditional British upbringing. In the eyes of the common Briton, not to mention the common Australian and Canadian, the British politicians and generals had sacrificed with the noblest of intends, no doubt, probably the best and finest men ever to go to war. The lack of Churchills’ inspirational and energetic personality was now felt by Atlee and his Cabinet as they struggled to unite the British and Commonwealth populations behind the increasingly unpopular war!
Because of the domestic situation most of the fighting on the Asian mainland was conducted by the Chinese and mostly Indian divisions, while the Royal Navy slowly blockaded the Japanese Home Isles and the Royal Airforce began to bombe the Japanese cities into ruins as more and more heavy bombers got transfered from Europe. The first 1,000 bombers raid launched at a Japanses city, Kagoshima, leveled the city completely. Those who did not die in the bombings, subsequently did in the firestorms. In 1947 those bombing raids more than anything else, including the sinking of the last operational Kaigun units and Shiang Kai-shek’s China is One-proclamation, brought the Japanses Empire to the negotiating table.
For most of the remaining decade the British Foreing Office tried to make some sense out of the mess in Asia. Shiang Kai-shek had more or less liberated his own country and now waged a very successful campaign against the Chinese Communists. While he was preoccupied, the Brits recognized the Manchurian Empire under Emperor Pu-Yi, but had a pro-British government installed. Henry Pu-Yi didn’t really mind much as he was used to being merely a puppet anyway. Furthermore Shianghai and Hong Kong was proclaimed respectively an open port, soon to be controlled by a multi-national force, and an integrated part of the Empire. Korea too gained its long awaited independence under the auspice of Britain. Needless to say, Shiang Kai-shek was not pleased, but was rather busy at the time, so he had to accept the British decision, for now...
The British fairly soon recognized the fact that they could not hold their Empire down by force, so something would have to go, especially since the various Indian divisions began to show a reluctance to accept commands from their British officers, and most of the Commonwealth units began to demobilize even before the formal peace treaty with Japan was signed. The first former colony to gain independence was the Dutch East Indies – not a British colony in the first place, it seemed like a good place to start! Soon Malaya and Burma followed suit, and finally in october 1949, after much bloodshed and trouble, India gained its independence from Britain.
Most of the Asian War and now the somewhat haphazard peace settlement had undermined Atlee’s government and in the 1950 General Election Labour lost with an extremely wide margin. Anthony Eden and his Conservative Party won the Election rather handidly, but had the same problems as the former government, so their politics all in all weren’t that different. One thing did change, however, Eden got Churchill to come out of his retiremt and travel the country holding speeches and generally rekindling people’s spirit. The General Election of 1950 saw Oswald Mosley’s British Union gain 5 seats in the House of Commons and several smaller unsuccessful Fascist Parties run.

The post-war world offered much hardship for the Italians, but the average Italian went about his business with a newfound pride and industry. A severe blow was delivered to the Italian resolve in Maj, 1948, as Italo Balbo, the Eagle himself and the man more than any responsible for the rebirth of Italia, died in a plane crash. As he used to, Balbo had been flying one of the Regia Aeronautica’s newest proto-types, the heavy 8-engine Macchi Mc.2000 jetbomber when something went terribly wrong and the plane blew up in mid-air. The enormous state funeral in Rome was very impressive indeed and, some say, even more emotional than Mussolini’s funeral in ’44. All the leading Fascisti gathered with nearly a half a million, if not more, Italian citizens and thousands of Regia Aeronautica personel to pay their final respects for the beloved Eagle.

[LordKalvan]

Nice work, Mr. Bluenote! :)
I like the way your TL is developing, even if it was a pity you have had Balbo going out in a plane crash. With all his characterial defects, Italo balbo must have been a likeable rogue.
I would have expected that the British might have tried to hold longer in India. Still the pressure for indipendence (together with some discreet aid from the Axis and the USA) coupled with the british being overextended in Far East must have been too much for them.
The French apparently are repeating the same mistakes of OTL, trying to hold to all the (remaining) pieces of their oversea empire, and loosing them one after the other. Btw, it must have galled them having to ask the Italians for aid: I can almost hear De Gaulle gnashing his teeth.
Who's developed nuclear capacity at this stage? I would assume the peace treaty with the West has put a crimp on German plans. Stalin has other worries. The French lack the money. I would expect that UK, Italia and (possibly) the USA have developed nuclear capacity, but still far from having got a H bomb.
If Italia has been able to get over the first difficult post-war years, the road should soon become very smooth. The integration of the refugees has given them a lot of potential, and the special economical ties with the USA are providing both the financial strength and the technology back up to make a real break through.
As a matter of fact, all the Axis should be doing well: in OTL, Spain was a kind of pariah, Turkey was always considered more of an advance defense basis than anything else, and Central Europe was under the Soviet thumb. In TTL, all of these countries should be booming, contributing to, and benefiting from, the Ukraine boom. It has always been my idea that a strong and richer Turkey would have greatly beneficial effects on the whole Middle East (beside the fact that in TTL Israel is not a dividing issue).
A completely different world came out of Mussolini having a single moment of lucidity: very amusing.

I'm travelling in Europe these days, so I cannot contribute much. However, I am always looking forward to read your thread.

[G.Bone]

good TL Bluenote! keep going!

[LordKalvan]

As an additional thought, I am quite strongly convinced that the economic boom of the Axis will result into a democratization of all their regimes. Theprocess may be slower or faster, but you cannot keep the lid on people who become affluent. Poor people are the best prospect for dictatorships :D

[Mr.Bluenote]

Nice work, Mr. Bluenote! (...) I like the way your TL is developing, even if it was a pity you have had Balbo going out in a plane crash. With all his characterial defects, Italo balbo must have been a likeable rogue..
Thanks you once again, Kalvan! It's good of you to comment so extensively on the TL! I appreciate it!
Well, I don't think that the Italians should have it to easy in the IETL, so.... Balbo was no doubt a thug, but he seemed likable in a strange piratical way, yes.

I would have expected that the British might have tried to hold longer in India. Still the pressure for indipendence (together with some discreet aid from the Axis and the USA) coupled with the british being overextended in Far East must have been too much for them..
Exactly! I can't see the British Empire holding on to very much for a very long time after this ATL WW2, even if they would have liked to. I hope the part on Britain gave the empression of an Empire in some sort of decline. Should I elaborate in the next instalment?

The French apparently are repeating the same mistakes of OTL, trying to hold to all the (remaining) pieces of their oversea empire, and loosing them one after the other. Btw, it must have galled them having to ask the Italians for aid: I can almost hear De Gaulle gnashing his teeth..
Well, I hope to give the ATL a little twist by having the Italo-British relationship degenerate into some kind of Cold War and the Franco-Italian one into an uneasy alliance. The Italians will fight to keep first Indochina and Madagascar in French hands because of their bases there, then slowly get involved in Africa etc etc.
Hehe, I personally cant' stand DeGaulle so I had him replaced with LeClerc. I'm currently in favor of letteing French go "Junta" under LeClerk, DeTassigny and Juin... What's your take, guys?

Who's developed nuclear capacity at this stage?
I'm putting that into the 1950's part, where the Italians test their first bomb in Libya. The French will perhaps be cut in on the Italian programme, since they have acces to Uranium, or could that be found somewhere in the Axis?
I suppose the US and perhaps the British have their own programmes, but at a somewhat lower level than OTL. The British and American programmes lack resources and the coorperation between several international scientists of OTL. Or might not the long Asian War actually have accelerated the British programme?
The Germans will probably do their outmost to develop nuclear weapons, but they will be short on resources, but propably more focused since they too need a big stick to keep the bear away!

If Italia has been able to get over the first difficult post-war years, the road should soon become very smooth. (...) As a matter of fact, all the Axis should be doing well: in OTL, Spain was a kind of pariah, Turkey was always considered more of an advance defense basis than anything else, and Central Europe was under the Soviet thumb. (...) It has always been my idea that a strong and richer Turkey would have greatly beneficial effects on the whole Middle East (...).
Rebuilding and fighting the large number of smaller wars will no doubt strain the economy, but I suppose that in the 60's the Axis nations economies will boom. Most of the 50's, however, will be somewhat bleak and poor, I think, since we have a very poor and wartorn Europe and eventhough the US aids the Italians and the Axis quite generously, it's far from the Marshall Plan.
On the issue of Turkey I totally agree. Still, both Turkey and Spain, not the mention the other Axs countries, were rather backwards in regards to industry and infrastructure. It will take time and money (lots of both I fear) to elevate them to a modern standard.

A completely different world came out of Mussolini having a single moment of lucidity: very amusing..
Yes, I hope so. I try to make Italian Eterna a little bit different from other WW2 TL's!

I'm travelling in Europe these days, so I cannot contribute much. However, I am always looking forward to read your thread.
Really? Where in Europe? Oh, and thanks again!

good TL Bluenote! keep going!
Thanks a lot, G! I'm glad you like it! I hope to post the 50's in a few days! The post-war parts are taking a lot of time to write!

As an additional thought, I am quite strongly convinced that the economic boom of the Axis will result into a democratization of all their regimes. Theprocess may be slower or faster, but you cannot keep the lid on people who become affluent. Poor people are the best prospect for dictatorships :D
Quite right! That's my opinion as well, Kalvan, so look out for a democratization of the Axis around the mid-60's.

Best regards!

- Mr.Bluenote.

[G.Bone]

BTW- will a map be coming in sometime in the future? How much of Africa/Greece is part of the "Italian Empire"? How is the US coming along?

[Mr.Bluenote]

BTW- will a map be coming in sometime in the future? How much of Africa/Greece is part of the "Italian Empire"? How is the US coming along?
I would like to put up a map, unfortunately my skills in that department are somewhat lacking! :)

Regarding Greece, it's an independent nation in the Axis/Forum of Nations. Africa consist of the normal Italian colonies plus Djibouti and Tunisia.

The US is rather isolationistic and play little role as such in the world, besides lending money and selling products to the nations around the world. Should I perhaps make some notes on the US in the next post?

Thanks for the comment!

Best reagds!

- Mr.B.

[LordKalvan]

Exactly! I can't see the British Empire holding on to very much for a very long time after this ATL WW2, even if they would have liked to. I hope the part on Britain gave the empression of an Empire in some sort of decline. Should I elaborate in the next instalment?

Yes, please. I´d love it.


Well, I hope to give the ATL a little twist by having the Italo-British relationship degenerate into some kind of Cold War and the Franco-Italian one into an uneasy alliance. The Italians will fight to keep first Indochina and Madagascar in French hands because of their bases there, then slowly get involved in Africa etc etc.
Hehe, I personally cant' stand DeGaulle so I had him replaced with LeClerc. I'm currently in favor of letteing French go "Junta" under LeClerk, DeTassigny and Juin... What's your take, guys?
Once again in full agreement. DeGaulle became a monument tohimself well before the 5th Republic! Anyone is better than him.
OTOH, I have some ideas about proxy wars for the Italian Empire (see below)



I'm putting that into the 1950's part, where the Italians test their first bomb in Libya. The French will perhaps be cut in on the Italian programme, since they have acces to Uranium, or could that be found somewhere in the Axis?
I suppose the US and perhaps the British have their own programmes, but at a somewhat lower level than OTL. The British and American programmes lack resources and the coorperation between several international scientists of OTL. Or might not the long Asian War actually have accelerated the British programme?
The Germans will probably do their outmost to develop nuclear weapons, but they will be short on resources, but propably more focused since they too need a big stick to keep the bear away!
There is uranium in Central Africa, very close to Lybia. Then there is Katanga(what happened to Belgian Congo?) And I would bet that in the cold war with UK the Italians would become friendly with South Africa :D



Rebuilding and fighting the large number of smaller wars will no doubt strain the economy, but I suppose that in the 60's the Axis nations economies will boom. Most of the 50's, however, will be somewhat bleak and poor, I think, since we have a very poor and wartorn Europe and eventhough the US aids the Italians and the Axis quite generously, it's far from the Marshall Plan.
On the issue of Turkey I totally agree. Still, both Turkey and Spain, not the mention the other Axs countries, were rather backwards in regards to industry and infrastructure. It will take time and money (lots of both I fear) to elevate them to a modern standard.
Your points are well taken, but...
- there is a lot of oil revenues in the Axis coffers
- Turks (in particular) and Ukrainiáns are very good troops to fight a low-intensity proxy war. Same thing would be true for Croats and Serbs. If the Italians are smart enough....

Yes, I hope so. I try to make Italian Eterna a little bit different from other WW2 TL's!
You´re really doing that. Keep writing! :cool:


Really? Where in Europe? Oh, and thanks again! Germany, Italy & Switzerland. I´m posting this from Frankfurt Airport, on my way back to Australia :D


Thanks a lot, G! I'm glad you like it! I hope to post the 50's in a few days! The post-war parts are taking a lot of time to write!


Quite right! That's my opinion as well, Kalvan, so look out for a democratization of the Axis around the mid-60's.
Do that! and do ot overrate the Italo-French Entente!!!

Best regards!