Nordic Alliance in World War Two

Which alliance would you most like to see develop? How do you think I'm doing so far?

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How could the nations of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have created the Nordic League, an enduring defensive alliance (that could come into play in 1939), between 1915 and 1935? Extra points for a Nordic Customs Union on top of that.
 

Grey Wolf

Gone Fishin'
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Walter_Kaufmann said:
How could the nations of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have created the Nordic League, an enduring defensive alliance (that could come into play in 1939), between 1915 and 1935? Extra points for a Nordic Customs Union on top of that.

How did Sweden and Finland get along in OTL ? I can see potential serious rivalries there but maybe Sweden accepted the new reality as being better than a Russian neighbour ? I don't know

Grey Wolf
 
As I recall, Sweden provided about as much aid as possible (without actually sending troops) to their neighbors during the Russo-Finnish War. I seem to recall their was a volunteer Swedish fighter wing in northern Finland during that same war. I even think that there was an agreement for a defensive alliance over that archipelago in the Baltic Sea which was scrapped due to Soviet pressure. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Since first posting this thread, I have found that, although Sweden declared its neutrality in 1914, they subsequently entered into an agreement with Norway and Denmark to defend the neutrality and protect the common economic interests of the Scandinavian countries.

So, I figure that the best way to tighten relations between the Scandinavian countries following World War One is to force them to honor this agreement. Thus, I believe that the most plausible route to a Nordic defensive alliance following WWI is a German invasion of Denmark during WWI.

What change would cause the German Empire to invade Denmark between 1914 and 1918?

Any other comments?
 
IOTL, there were various plans, more or less succesful, but never complete, to create a Baltic Entente, primarily between Finland and the Baltic states, with the goal of defending against a possible Soviet invasion. Maybe such a league could have been created some time in the twenties, and later on, the other Scandinavian nations join in, once USSR and Germany get more and more aggressive.
 
The Northern Wind: Part One​


1914 -​

June: Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinates Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, while he is in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

July: The First World War, as it becomes known, begins when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it fails to meet the unfulfillable 15-point ultimatum to be accepted within 48 hours.

August: The German Empire declares war on Russia following the latter’s mobilization in support of Serbia. Germany invades and occupies Luxembourg, then declaring war on France, Russia’s ally. German troops invade neutral Belgium in advance on France. Britain declares war on Germany after the latter fails to undertake to respect Belgian neutrality. The United States declares neutrality. Japan declares war on Germany. German forces occupy Brussels.

September: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden declare neutrality. All three sign an agreement to defend the neutrality and protect the common economic interests of the Scandinavian countries. Battle of the Marne ends German advance on Paris.

October: The siege of Antwerp ends when German forces occupy the Belgian city. The Ottoman Empire enters the war on the German side when they shell Russian Black Sea ports.

Novermber: The British navy suffers their first defeat at the Battle of Coronel.

1915 -​

January: German zeppelins bomb cities in Britain for the first time. United States Marines occupy Haiti. Germans use poison gas for the first time against the Russians.

March: The Royal Navy sinks the German battleship Dreden off the coast of Chile. The British attack on the Dardanelles fails.

April: The German troops introduce poison gas for the first time on the western front at the Battle of Ypres. Turkish troops begin the Armenian genocide in the Van region. ANZAC (Australia / New Zealand Army Corps) troops land at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.

May: The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 1,198 men, women, and children. The Second Battle of Artois begins. Italy joins the Allies by declaring war on Austria-Hungary.

August: The Battle of Sari Bair begins with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.

September: The first protoype tank is tested by the British Army.

1916 -​

January: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli. Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.

February: The Battle of Verdun begins in France.

March: Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican followers in an attack on Columbus, Mexico, killing 17 Americans. President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 American troops across the Mexican border in pursuit.

May: The Battle of Jutland begins off the western coast of Denmark.

June: The Battle of Jutland ends in an effective draw, neither side winning decisively.

July: The Battle of the Somme begins in France with 60,000 soldiers from the British Commonwealth dying on the first day alone. The United States still refuses to join in the war effort.

November: The Battle of the Somme ends with nearly 1,000,000 total deaths. The Hellenic Holocaust begins with a massacre of Greek civilians by the soldiers of the Ottoman Empire.

December: The Battle of Magdhaba begins in the Sinai desert with Australian and New Zealand mounted troops capturing the Turkish garrison.

1917 -​

January: Denmark sells the Virgin Islands to the United States for $25 million. The United States ends its search for Pancho Villa. Germany announces its intention to continue unrestricted submarine warfare.

February: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announced their new policy. The Russian Revolution begins to overthrow the Tsar. The Zimmerman Telegram, urging Mexico to declare war on the United States, reaches American hands.

March: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the thrown and the Russian Civil War begins. The Danish oficially hand over the Virgin Islands to the United States. The Battle of Gaza begins.

April: The United States declares war on the German Empire, entering the First World War. Canadian troops win the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

May: The United States Congress passes the Selective Service Act, initiating the draft in the US.

July: Arabian troops led by T.E. Lawrence capture Aqaba from the Turks.

October: A German unit accidentally crosses the border into Denmark while patrolling at night. Shots are exchanged between the Germans (who think they are firing at British) and some Danish soldiers. By the end of the month, Danish troops are rushing to the border and Norwegian and Swedish troops are arriving in Denmark, as per their agreement. [1]

November: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden all declare war on Germany, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Sweden only agrees to declare war on Germany if Norway and Denmark support the reconquest of Finland and Karelia. The British proclaim the Balfour Declaration, supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Vladimir Lenin leads a nearly bloodless coup and siezes power in Russia. The Battle of Cambria begins. The Ukraine declares itself a republic.

December: The mostly Danish and Norwegian army push into northern Germany, eventually slowing down on the outskirts of Kiel. American troops, recently arriving in Britain, begin arriving in Denmark to help with the thrust into Germany. The mostly Swedish army pushes east into Russia (although it is not sanctioned by the Allies, no move is made to stop it). Finnish revolutionaries suprisingly side with the Swedes.

[1] – In OTL, the commander of this unit successfully steered the company away from the border. However, in TTL, the commander is sick and, thus, the executive officer, accidentally leads them across the border.

1918 -​

January: The Danish-Norwegian-American army captures Kiel and continues south. The Swedish army in Finland, virtually unopposed, capture Tampere and also continue to move south. Another Swedish detachment heads east, for Murmansk.

February: Lithuania declares its independence from both Germany and Russia. The Danish advance comes to a halt outside of Lubeck and, despite repeated attacks, the advance makes no further progress, despite the crumbling German Army.

March: The Soviet Union moves its capital from Petrograd to Moscow. In France, the Second Battle of the Somme begins. Swedish forces capture Turku and head for Helsinki. Outside of Lubeck, a young Bavarian Coporal, by the name of Adolf Hitler, is struck by an enemy mortar shell and killed.

May: A Swedish detachment backed by Norwegians, Danes, and Finns lays siege to Murmansk while Swedish forces in the south finally meet some resistance fifty miles outside of Helsinki.

July: The Second Battle of the Marne begins in France. The entire Romanov family is executed by the Bolsheviks. Both Helsinki and Murmansk are captured as the Soviet Union is still unable to mount any successful defense.

August: The “Spanish Flu” becomes a pandemic. Outside of Lubeck, American Coporal Alvin York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132. The Battle of Amiens begins in France.

October: Swedish forces capture Vyborg. Other Swedish and Finn forces approach Petrozavodsk. Czechloslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary. The first Polish government in 200 years convenes in Warsaw.

November: Swedish forces capture Petrozavodsk. General armistice throughout Europe as Austria-Hungary collapses and Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates the thrown. Many nations throughout eastern Europe are granted their independence.

December: Iceland becomes an autonomous kingdom, yet remains united with Denmark. Finland, including all of Karelia and the Kola peninsula becomes an autonomous kingdom united with Sweden. European and American delegates arrive in Paris for the peace talks.

to be continued...
 
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Confed, you have to think more about it. No, maybe they will not be able to match the Germans man-for-man but the Nordic League of this ATL will be much better prepared militarily. It's almost impossible to invade Norway and Sweden if there are A) determined defenders and B) relatively good equipment. Both nations have military bases built in the fjords. Almost impossible to destroy. The only reason that Germany succeeded in Norway in OTL was because there was a pacifist, anti-warfare gov't. Even then it was sort of fly-by-night. Where the Norwegians chose to fight, they fought well.

Also, if there is a Nordic League, the invasion of either Norway or Denmark will cause the Swedes, who, in OTL, were the major supplier of Nazi resources, to declare war on Germany. Without the Swedish resources, Germany would have fallen even faster. It's unlikely that Germany would have invaded in the first place.
 
Yeah, up until October of 1917 everything is OTL. I didn't know exactly where to start so I decided to just start from the beginning.
 
The Northern Wind: Part Two​

1919 –
January: The 18th Amendment passes in the United States, authorizing Prohibition. The Paris Peace Talks officially open in Paris. The League of Nations is founded to ‘prevent’ future wars on the scale of the First World War.

February: In Italy, Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party.

March: The first meeting of the Communist International (ComIntern) convenes in Moscow, Soviet Union. The American Legion, composed of United States veterans, is formed in Paris. Benito Mussolini’s Fascist political movement first gets underway in Milan, Italy.

August: In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is passed into law. Afghanistan gains its independence from Great Britain.

October: United States President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke. Although not killed, the stroke leaves him partially paralyzed. Despite the President’s veto, Prohibition goes into effect in the United States.

November: World Health officials declare the end of the Spanish Flu Pandemic. It has claimed the lives of nearly 25 million human beings, nearly twice as many as the First World War. The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1920 –
January: League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending the First World War. The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations. The Netherlands refuses to extradite the former Kaiser, Wilhelm II. Turkey gives up all non-Turkish areas of the former Ottoman Empire.

February: Norway is given Svalbard. Estonia declares independence from Russia. Kurt von Krieger, a former Captain in the German Army, presents his national socialist program in Hannover.

March: The upstart Nordic National Party gains a majority in the Swedish Parliament, or Rikstag. Two of the Nordic nations, Denmark (including Iceland and Greenland), and Norway, form a military alliance which becomes known as the Nordic Defense Alliance (NDA). An associated Nordic Customs Union is in the process of negotiation. It is still unknown whether Sweden, the most powerful Scandinavian nation, will join the Alliance. The NDA is simply an extension and formalization of the agreement which brought the three nations into the First World War. Wolfgang Kapp fails at his nationalist coup attempt in Germany due to public resistence and a general strike. The United States Congress refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. The German Government asks France for permission to use its own troops against the Ruhr Red Army in the French occupied area.

April: German army marches to Ruhr ro fight the rebellious Ruhr Red Army. Riots occur between Arabs and Jewish settlers in Jereuselum. Germany and the Soviet Union agree to the exchange of prisoners of war. French troops occupy Frankfurt. The Russo-Polish War begins when Polish troops attack Russia.

May: Polish troops occupy the city of Kiev. Belgian and French troops leave the German cities they have occupied since 1918.

June: Hungary loses 71% of its territory and 63% of its population in Treaty of Trianon. The Soviet Red Army retakes Kiev. A new border treaty between Denmark and Germany hands over the Danish-occupied city of Kiel to the Danes. The border between the two nations is set less than twenty kilometers south of the city.

July: The Red Army invades Poland. The Soviet recognizes the independence of Lithuania. Poland sues the Soviet Union for peace. The terms of peace are rejected and the war continues.

August: The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of Estonia and Latvia. The Red Army is defeated at the gates of Warsaw. The 19th Amendment is passed in the United States, guaranteeing women’s suffrage.

September: Kurt von Krieger, the head of the National Socialist German Workers’ (NSDAP or Nazi) Party, makes his first public political speech in Hannover. Krieger turns out to be a gifted orator.

November: The first commercial radio station in the world announces the results of the United States Presidential election. Warren G. Harding becomes the 29th President. In Geneva, the first full assembly of the League of Nations is held. The first act is the acceptence of the constitution of Danzig free state.

December: After a long wait, Sweden (including Finland, which, in turn, includes Karelia and the Kola peninsula) joins the Nordic Defense Alliance, granting a larger measure of legitimacy to the organization. Martial law is declared in Ireland after several months of religious terrorism sweep through the major cities.

to be continued...
 
Captureing Kiel!

If the capture of Kiel is sudden enough, or some orders are botched by the Germans, perhaps the Nordic League will find itself in possession of a slightly used battleship or two, or perhaps a battlecruiser. Even if they scuttle any ships that can not put to sea, many scuttlings are not quite as thorough as they may hope. If they held the port, they could probably keep some of the ships after the war.
They may not be really useful--but a couple of dreadnoughts will come in handy to deter Russian agression. In addition, dreadnoughts were a mark of status in this time, and so may help the Nordic League maintain some presrtige. Any chance of them keeping Kiel--and its navy yard?
Just a few thoughts from the local battleship nut.
 
I have the Danish-Norwegian-American forces capturing Kiel. If they capture Kiel, yes, it stands to reason that will capture the Navy Yard and, thus, at least part of the German High Seas Fleet. This will be a major acquistition for the Baltic-dominant NDA which will probably have problems with the Russian navy during WWII. Maybe some aging but venerable ex-German battleships will see use in the Baltic during WWII...
 
Yes, I believe it was. I have the Danish troops seizing the eastern mouth, but not the western. The western is too close to the city of Hamburg, which would be an incredibly hard nut to crack. Plus, it'll provide a region for the alt-Hitler (his name is Kurt von Krieger) to seek for the Reich.
 
Yes

The Kiel Canal was critical to the High Seas Fleet, allowing it to transfer ships to and from the Baltic as needed. Most likely, it would be ships under repair that could be captured. The others could all head for Wilhelmshaven.
 
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Cutting the Canal

Depending on how the land campaign goes, things could be worse for the High Seas Fleet if no one expects the Nordic Alliance to be able to reach the canal--they do, and trap the fleet in Kiel. This is unlikely, the German generals were not idiots.
What is likely, however, is that the Alliance forces find themselves having to deal with serious naval gunfire support from both dreadnoughts and pre-dreadnoughts. This is heavy artillery that can move at 20 knots and fire while moving--but is very low angle compared to amny railguns
 
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