Might get a bad name for it if it is covered with the skeletons of those who died there. I suppose they might do what they did on many other islands, dropping coats, pigs, and rabbits, and other animals to create food for possible castaways. Though they would just wreck what little vegetation the islands had. Anyways, perhaps something preventing any Suez Canal or any overland trade through the Ottoman Empire or the Egyptian portions that sometimes encompassed the whole of the Red Sea would make a southern route more important. Especially if the Omani managed to keep a large presence from Mozambique to the Persian gulf and was hostile to one of the colonizers.
Colonisation of the Kerguelen Islands?
- Thread starter Arkenfolm
- Start date
One thing about the Kerguelens, if anyone ever managed to make a living there, they'd either be the most desperate, emaciated, beaten down wretches you ever saw.... or the toughest sons of bitches on the planet. Possibly both at the same time.
BlondieBC
Banned
Agreed. There is no real point to using this island if you have better options. The only people I can possible see using it would be if it went to Imperial Germany who had nothing better. Maybe when the Germans get the extra land added to Kamerun, they get these island as additional concessions. Then it could be their "prestige" Indian Ocean colony and link to China. I could actually see some ATL's where Germany would keep a small garrison, coaling station, and port there. Probably under 500 unlucky sailor/soldiers in total.
Or maybe the USA ends up with them somehow in the 1900's, and we don't have access to Diego Garcia, so this is our "prime Indian Ocean" base.
BlondieBC
Banned
Yes, as an ego colony. They also make sense if you are running a world wide empire.
More or less what metalinvader665 suggest, but I imagine that birch and Norway spruce would be the first choice by European coloniser. Later they would likely increase the diversity in tree species. I also see in areas where they have crops, they will build shelterbelts out of stone to create hotter microclimates and lessen the damage cause by the strong wind. Fields will likely be small gardens rather than commercial fields, which likely will be kept by the women, while the men work as fishermen. https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/members/metalinvader665.34977/
An Unexpected Arrival...
The Fuhrer had been annoyed by the events on Kerguelen, although it was very doubtful that any commerce raiders could successfully run the Royal Navy blockade more than once, but 'Admiral Scheer' might have succeeded in doing so and been available for actions in the Norwegian Sea. When Himmler complained that keeping an eye on hundreds of family of the 'Scheer' diverted men he wanted to use elsewhere, Adolf Hitler had a rather snide idea that Goebbels agreed might be very useful. A neutral Swedish liner, the Motorschiffe Kungsholm, was chartered to transport the families to Kerguelen, her cabins becoming grossly overcrowded by conversion to a virtual troopship with bunks for nearly four thousand men, women and children. As the alternative was a prison camp, the families of most of the crew agreed to join their men, boarding Kungsholm at Hamburg with their most important possessions and a list of goods suitable for life on Kerguelen. It says a lot for German thoroughness that what was nicknamed 'Expedition Kerguelen' set out as well-equipped as a polar expedition, although completely unarmed.
"Has Hitler gone mad?" Churchill was not amused by the news from the Swedish Ambassador. "Kerguelen cannot house so many people - it will grossly outnumber the resident population!"
Bjorn Prytz sighed. "Bizarre, I agree, but I was told to inform you and to obtain safe passage for this neutral ship. It can be inspected but the Navy have sent an Examining Officer and he reports no contraband such as guns or ammunition are aboard. My government will be very unhappy if the ship is unreasonably delayed. I understand that neutral teachers have been engaged to teach English to the families. There is material aboard for constructing roofs and some windows. The bunk beds are to be offloaded at Kerguelen..."
"Diabolically clever." Churchill admitted to the War Cabinet. "We can't sink it or seize and intern it - to be ruthless would cost us goodwill throughout the world - and if the families get ashore, they'll turn the place into a German colony... Nye, you are thinking again - out with it!" The ex-miner was grinning.
"Bloody simple, Winston." Nye Bevan answered him. "We say they're political refugees and suggest they carry on to Australia. Get the Swiss and Portuguese to find out why they boarded that ship - I'm bloody certain that rat Himmler and his crony Goebbels're doing this to put us on the spot." He glanced around the Cabinet briefing room. "We let them ashore, let them see what a Godforsaken hole the place is, then offer free lifts to an Australian port."
"Might work, at that." Churchill agreed. "End of the war, we repatriate 'em." He saw Attlee frowning. "What is it?"
"A potential disaster worse than the Titanic, if she's sabotaged or torpedoed." The shrewd Labour Party leader pointed out. "Going to need an ASW escort and a fast one, if I can believe her speed. At least a cruiser and two destroyers. But it'll make the Yanks and Neutrals know we don't want innocent blood spilt."
"Quite so. Damn - another task for the Navy!" Churchill groaned. "Means handing the liner from group to group as she sails south. The RAN may like the duty once in the Indian Ocean as training, but we have barely a month if she cruises at 14 knots. Thank God she's not a fast Cunarder!"
"...'This day did I resolve to keep a diary of the Expedition to Kerguelen and my own dear Friedrich.'" Marta Andersen wrote in the careful style she had been taught as a schoolgirl. "'I made the hard choice to bring Greta and Johan with me, for the Geheimestaatspolizei were otherwise going to take my dear children from me. We were given a day to gather a few personal possessions and were issued with other things by a military quartermaster before we were taken by lorry to Hamburg. The drivers understood the need to stop for children to relieve themselves, but it bore hardly on us all. We were glad to reach the ship, but it had been converted to something as Spartan as a floating barracks...'"
Marta faithfully recorded their escort down the Channel and a tussle between E-boats and MTBs off the Isle of Wight, as well as the ship being searched by a Royal Navy boarding party for military contraband and infections; the Swedish and Swiss Deputy Consuls aboard were as correct as the Navy officers and doctors, whilst the Swedish crew thought it an adventure as did hundreds of children who had overcome sea-sickness. Two poor souls prostrate with sea-sickness were taken ashore for treatment and there was a delay of four days whilst diplomats argued and politicians made up their minds; the British liaison officers interviewed all aboard, establishing that the families had been given a choice that was the lesser of two evils, but eventually agreed to allow the Kungsholm to continue, with American and Portuguese Deputy Consuls as well as two US journalists.
Two Destroyers and a Light Cruiser escorted the liner southwest, handing over to some Force H destroyers and a cruiser off the west coast of Spain, the ship pausing at Madeira for water and fuel, then heading south into South Atlantic station and another change of escorts that were to take the liner to refuel at Capetown ere she sailed eastwards to stormy Kerguelen. The doctors had insisted that all aboard walk several kilometres every day along her decks, getting fitter and acclimatised as far as they could manage, although Marta noted that the weather discouraged some with heat, cold, rain or frost. There was a sense of growing desperation and fear when they left Capetown, the Captain having to arrange for some passengers to be discreetly supervised to avoid the risks of suicide. Marta noted that one woman with a sad record of being unfaithful, nevertheless jumped overboard and was rescued by a boatload of Royal Navy seamen from the escort cruiser.
"'...She is frightened and wants to go to Capetown...'" Marta noted. "'...She does not have the courage to face her husband...'"
For her part, Marta had enough to do caring for her children, helping in a crèche and with schooling, but she was sure of the love of her husband Georg, so looked forwards eagerly to seeing him. The increasingly-turbulent weather worried her, but the Kungsholm and her escorts made light of it, driving eastwards through the waves at high speed, anxiously watching for the lights of the lighthouses on the west coast islands and headlands of Kerguelen. A lookout won a Reichsmark for sighting the Point Louis lighthouse in a few minutes of clear visibility, the Captain heading slightly to the south until he sighted the Point Bourbon light and altered course past Challenger Point to head for Port Resolution and pilotage to a safe anchorage. But the winds were still gusty, even in the lee of the mountains, the islands forbiddingly rocky and cheerless, so even the optimistic Marta had worries about their future there.
The crew had feared this moment but had done their best to enlarge their camp by laying foundations and erecting walls ready to be roofed with the materials in the holds of the cargo-liner and furnished from her cabins. Many feared that their families would regard them as cowards or traitors, only being reassured when the Governor spoke with the Council and organised a welcoming group amongst the colonists' women. As he pointed out, a larger colony meant more support for schools and other infrastructure of their colony on Kerguelen; the German crew had contributed to developments and had constructed miniature walled gardens like those found near some land-based lighthouses and in the Faeroes, allowing some fruit growth as well as hardy vegetables.
"Obermaat Georg Anderssen!" Came the day Georg had been waiting for, stepping forwards from the ranks drawn up on the parade ground. The liner had unloaded roofing materials before anything else, the crew of the Scheer forming work parties to roof the new family homes and assemble basic furniture. British and Aussie residents and garrison pitched in to help, with parties of women going aboard the liner to reassure the reluctant settlers that they would be welcomed, not shunned, so Marta brought Greta and Johan ashore with her, some of the first twenty families to meet their menfolk.. The children ran to their father, who bent down and hugged them a little self-consciously, until Marta caught up with them and Georg pulled her into his arms for an overdue hug and a kiss.
"I have a house for us." Georg told his wife. "Not grand, but it keeps off the wind and the rain. We have a Church, a school and a hospital. Some barracks are being kept for bachelors whose families have rejected them, poor lads."
"So do we go home, Vati?" Little Johan asked.
"Jawohl." One of the officers assured them. "Today is Familientag."
The Fuhrer had been annoyed by the events on Kerguelen, although it was very doubtful that any commerce raiders could successfully run the Royal Navy blockade more than once, but 'Admiral Scheer' might have succeeded in doing so and been available for actions in the Norwegian Sea. When Himmler complained that keeping an eye on hundreds of family of the 'Scheer' diverted men he wanted to use elsewhere, Adolf Hitler had a rather snide idea that Goebbels agreed might be very useful. A neutral Swedish liner, the Motorschiffe Kungsholm, was chartered to transport the families to Kerguelen, her cabins becoming grossly overcrowded by conversion to a virtual troopship with bunks for nearly four thousand men, women and children. As the alternative was a prison camp, the families of most of the crew agreed to join their men, boarding Kungsholm at Hamburg with their most important possessions and a list of goods suitable for life on Kerguelen. It says a lot for German thoroughness that what was nicknamed 'Expedition Kerguelen' set out as well-equipped as a polar expedition, although completely unarmed.
"Has Hitler gone mad?" Churchill was not amused by the news from the Swedish Ambassador. "Kerguelen cannot house so many people - it will grossly outnumber the resident population!"
Bjorn Prytz sighed. "Bizarre, I agree, but I was told to inform you and to obtain safe passage for this neutral ship. It can be inspected but the Navy have sent an Examining Officer and he reports no contraband such as guns or ammunition are aboard. My government will be very unhappy if the ship is unreasonably delayed. I understand that neutral teachers have been engaged to teach English to the families. There is material aboard for constructing roofs and some windows. The bunk beds are to be offloaded at Kerguelen..."
"Diabolically clever." Churchill admitted to the War Cabinet. "We can't sink it or seize and intern it - to be ruthless would cost us goodwill throughout the world - and if the families get ashore, they'll turn the place into a German colony... Nye, you are thinking again - out with it!" The ex-miner was grinning.
"Bloody simple, Winston." Nye Bevan answered him. "We say they're political refugees and suggest they carry on to Australia. Get the Swiss and Portuguese to find out why they boarded that ship - I'm bloody certain that rat Himmler and his crony Goebbels're doing this to put us on the spot." He glanced around the Cabinet briefing room. "We let them ashore, let them see what a Godforsaken hole the place is, then offer free lifts to an Australian port."
"Might work, at that." Churchill agreed. "End of the war, we repatriate 'em." He saw Attlee frowning. "What is it?"
"A potential disaster worse than the Titanic, if she's sabotaged or torpedoed." The shrewd Labour Party leader pointed out. "Going to need an ASW escort and a fast one, if I can believe her speed. At least a cruiser and two destroyers. But it'll make the Yanks and Neutrals know we don't want innocent blood spilt."
"Quite so. Damn - another task for the Navy!" Churchill groaned. "Means handing the liner from group to group as she sails south. The RAN may like the duty once in the Indian Ocean as training, but we have barely a month if she cruises at 14 knots. Thank God she's not a fast Cunarder!"
"...'This day did I resolve to keep a diary of the Expedition to Kerguelen and my own dear Friedrich.'" Marta Andersen wrote in the careful style she had been taught as a schoolgirl. "'I made the hard choice to bring Greta and Johan with me, for the Geheimestaatspolizei were otherwise going to take my dear children from me. We were given a day to gather a few personal possessions and were issued with other things by a military quartermaster before we were taken by lorry to Hamburg. The drivers understood the need to stop for children to relieve themselves, but it bore hardly on us all. We were glad to reach the ship, but it had been converted to something as Spartan as a floating barracks...'"
Marta faithfully recorded their escort down the Channel and a tussle between E-boats and MTBs off the Isle of Wight, as well as the ship being searched by a Royal Navy boarding party for military contraband and infections; the Swedish and Swiss Deputy Consuls aboard were as correct as the Navy officers and doctors, whilst the Swedish crew thought it an adventure as did hundreds of children who had overcome sea-sickness. Two poor souls prostrate with sea-sickness were taken ashore for treatment and there was a delay of four days whilst diplomats argued and politicians made up their minds; the British liaison officers interviewed all aboard, establishing that the families had been given a choice that was the lesser of two evils, but eventually agreed to allow the Kungsholm to continue, with American and Portuguese Deputy Consuls as well as two US journalists.
Two Destroyers and a Light Cruiser escorted the liner southwest, handing over to some Force H destroyers and a cruiser off the west coast of Spain, the ship pausing at Madeira for water and fuel, then heading south into South Atlantic station and another change of escorts that were to take the liner to refuel at Capetown ere she sailed eastwards to stormy Kerguelen. The doctors had insisted that all aboard walk several kilometres every day along her decks, getting fitter and acclimatised as far as they could manage, although Marta noted that the weather discouraged some with heat, cold, rain or frost. There was a sense of growing desperation and fear when they left Capetown, the Captain having to arrange for some passengers to be discreetly supervised to avoid the risks of suicide. Marta noted that one woman with a sad record of being unfaithful, nevertheless jumped overboard and was rescued by a boatload of Royal Navy seamen from the escort cruiser.
"'...She is frightened and wants to go to Capetown...'" Marta noted. "'...She does not have the courage to face her husband...'"
For her part, Marta had enough to do caring for her children, helping in a crèche and with schooling, but she was sure of the love of her husband Georg, so looked forwards eagerly to seeing him. The increasingly-turbulent weather worried her, but the Kungsholm and her escorts made light of it, driving eastwards through the waves at high speed, anxiously watching for the lights of the lighthouses on the west coast islands and headlands of Kerguelen. A lookout won a Reichsmark for sighting the Point Louis lighthouse in a few minutes of clear visibility, the Captain heading slightly to the south until he sighted the Point Bourbon light and altered course past Challenger Point to head for Port Resolution and pilotage to a safe anchorage. But the winds were still gusty, even in the lee of the mountains, the islands forbiddingly rocky and cheerless, so even the optimistic Marta had worries about their future there.
The crew had feared this moment but had done their best to enlarge their camp by laying foundations and erecting walls ready to be roofed with the materials in the holds of the cargo-liner and furnished from her cabins. Many feared that their families would regard them as cowards or traitors, only being reassured when the Governor spoke with the Council and organised a welcoming group amongst the colonists' women. As he pointed out, a larger colony meant more support for schools and other infrastructure of their colony on Kerguelen; the German crew had contributed to developments and had constructed miniature walled gardens like those found near some land-based lighthouses and in the Faeroes, allowing some fruit growth as well as hardy vegetables.
"Obermaat Georg Anderssen!" Came the day Georg had been waiting for, stepping forwards from the ranks drawn up on the parade ground. The liner had unloaded roofing materials before anything else, the crew of the Scheer forming work parties to roof the new family homes and assemble basic furniture. British and Aussie residents and garrison pitched in to help, with parties of women going aboard the liner to reassure the reluctant settlers that they would be welcomed, not shunned, so Marta brought Greta and Johan ashore with her, some of the first twenty families to meet their menfolk.. The children ran to their father, who bent down and hugged them a little self-consciously, until Marta caught up with them and Georg pulled her into his arms for an overdue hug and a kiss.
"I have a house for us." Georg told his wife. "Not grand, but it keeps off the wind and the rain. We have a Church, a school and a hospital. Some barracks are being kept for bachelors whose families have rejected them, poor lads."
"So do we go home, Vati?" Little Johan asked.
"Jawohl." One of the officers assured them. "Today is Familientag."
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I love the work you're doing here. Very, very good appropriation of this thread.
But I'll remind any readers that Kerguelen-related stuff still isn't done. It's discussed earlier in this thread, but there's a lot yet to say and there'll still be more involving these barren islands than corditeman's TL here.
But I'll remind any readers that Kerguelen-related stuff still isn't done. It's discussed earlier in this thread, but there's a lot yet to say and there'll still be more involving these barren islands than corditeman's TL here.
Post # 87 Is Complete...
...The dirty tricks of Hitler have more than doubled the population of Kerguelen. A possible wartime ploy that could backfire or give Germany a postwar colony. Or is this a Svalbard outcome?
Ideas welcomed. Now - on to an update in another TL...
*Profound Embarrassment - And Exhaustion*
...The dirty tricks of Hitler have more than doubled the population of Kerguelen. A possible wartime ploy that could backfire or give Germany a postwar colony. Or is this a Svalbard outcome?
Ideas welcomed. Now - on to an update in another TL...
*Profound Embarrassment - And Exhaustion*
Nice update.
What is the population of Kerguelen now? Is it producing much food?
I wonder if the UK will send some more settlers to Kerguelen to ensure that they don't get outnumbered by the Germans.
What is the population of Kerguelen now? Is it producing much food?
I wonder if the UK will send some more settlers to Kerguelen to ensure that they don't get outnumbered by the Germans.
Excellent Comments!
Anybody else got anything? Fluttersky, you are edging into CMII Territory.
Flooding Kerguelen with Brits and Aussies qualifies for 'Hostilities Only' war service...
...And forces expansion of the infrastructure - well thought out!
Anybody else got anything? Fluttersky, you are edging into CMII Territory.
Flooding Kerguelen with Brits and Aussies qualifies for 'Hostilities Only' war service...
...And forces expansion of the infrastructure - well thought out!
Originally, I thought that possibly a colony ship gets blown off course, or even have a ship full of children fleeing from WWII have an IRL Lord of the Flies except... weirder since it is basically a patch of cabbage with a buncha kids on it. Have them form a little society, nobody notices the islands until maybe even the space age, or have the island just be left alone, and assuming they don't die off you have a... bizzare little society. Assuming they don't freeze.
But I like your TL better
But I like your TL better
Originally, I thought that possibly a colony ship gets blown off course, or even have a ship full of children fleeing from WWII have an IRL Lord of the Flies except... weirder since it is basically a patch of cabbage with a buncha kids on it. Have them form a little society, nobody notices the islands until maybe even the space age, or have the island just be left alone, and assuming they don't die off you have a... bizzare little society. Assuming they don't freeze.
But I like your TL better
Not a way to make a colony, but good for a movie. Probably involves cannibalism.
An Act Of Desperate Genius :
The posturing of Adolf Hitler over Kerguelen had been bad news in Canberra, for it caught Robert Menzies just as he was about to resign as head of the United Australia Party after spending too long in London. In what in his Memoirs he termed 'An Act of Desperate Genius', the embattled Premier successfully proposed to Churchill and to Peter Fraser, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, that the garrison on Kerguelen be enlarged as a training base and that wartime 'Hostilities Only' volunteers be recruited from hardy Tasmanians and South Islanders as settler families to counterbalance the increase in Germans. The first barrack-type buildings were insulated Nissen and Romney huts on a local rubble and gravel foundation mound, but the local stone, sand and imported cement, were to be used to construct walls and floors in the local manner. Recruitment was very successful; the main recruits were families without essential work permits and in most cases exempt from military service due to health reasons or other unsuitability, preference being given to families living in fairly harsh environments, as being most suited to Kerguelen.
The transport Mataurua arrived at Norway Bay about a week after the first German families had been landed and unloaded construction workers and building materials to be taken to the site of a new town. Later, a landing pier was constructed there, doubling the port size of the Colony - the first part of what was to become the Naval training base of HMRAN Port Menzies. But most of the Scheerstadt expansion was complete before the first draft of New Zealanders arrived in what they named West Dunedin, a mix of expatriate Scots and sturdy Maori rapidly settling in to homes part-built, part-prefabricated, with assistance from the local settlers. There is no doubt that the formation of this fourth town massively expanded the tiny colony, the inhabitants of Port Resolution slightly dismayed but reserving judgement. Scheerstadt knew it was a reaction to their presence, whilst the tiny fishing town of Molloy just shrugged shoulders at these mad Australasians.
Economically, West Dunedin was initially dependent on the growth of the Naval and Marine training base, regarded as a pure military wartime creation, but nevertheless providing a location where Arctic training could be carried out and 'live fire exercises take place. The New Zealand parliament might grumble that the same could have been achieved in part of South Island, but 'being abroad' was psychologically very important; thousands of miles away from home, Aussies and New Zealanders knew their efforts put a crimp in Hitler's plans, as well as removing the risk of demonising fairly ordinary and decent German paramilitaries and civilians. Scheerstadt was a useful training aid, the inhabitants getting used to patrols of trainees and mock 'attacks', initial alarm giving way to amusement and then a blasé acceptance; the children got gifts of sweets and toys, copying the Australasians after a time, so 1941 ground on with a 'Southern Spitsbergen' mentality emerging.
The island of Svalbard was then dominated by Norwegian and Russian mining interests, a demilitarised zone legally administered by Norway; Hitler's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, tried to get international agreement for a similar Treaty covering Kerguelen, but Britain and the Dominions were able to scupper this, pointing out that Britain was both de facto and de jure possessor and settler of the Kerguelen Islands. The Germans were just prisoners of war and squatters, who were only being allowed to stay due to (a) remoteness and (b) humanitarian considerations. However, it had to be admitted that the Germans were making an economic contribution to Kerguelen with the Sugarweed Sherry and various farming ideas, so Britain was making sure adequate wages were paid and that Krancke had municipal authority as Mayor to levy a rate in money, goods and labour, credited at the 'Admiral Scheer Hausbank' and valued in Kerguelen Pounds at par with Sterling. Schooling was being organised at a small school and a Clinic had been set up as an outstation of the military hospital under construction at Norway Bay. The bulk of the German and New Zealand settlers had been set to constructing roads from Norway Bay to Port Resolution, Molloy, Scheerstadt, the mines and the reservoirs - a project that would last into late 1942.
The remoteness of Kerguelen had made it perfect as a training camp, but it also had little impact upon the progress of the war, the loss of the Scheer similarly being of limited impact; the loss of HMS Ark Royal triggered a brawl in West Dunedin, but Operation Barbarossa raised only jibes about what happened to Napoleon. The fighting in North Africa and Malaya later raised issues of just how valid the cold-weather training centre would be, but Krancke mildly remarked at a meeting of himself, the Governor and the Colonel of Port Menzies that training was training and that Kerguelen needed the balance kept. But the centre was run down as more Australasians arrived and the Germans became regarded as 'trusties', the inhabitants of Scheerstadt increasingly respected for keeping the peace and being Germans rather than Nazis.
The posturing of Adolf Hitler over Kerguelen had been bad news in Canberra, for it caught Robert Menzies just as he was about to resign as head of the United Australia Party after spending too long in London. In what in his Memoirs he termed 'An Act of Desperate Genius', the embattled Premier successfully proposed to Churchill and to Peter Fraser, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, that the garrison on Kerguelen be enlarged as a training base and that wartime 'Hostilities Only' volunteers be recruited from hardy Tasmanians and South Islanders as settler families to counterbalance the increase in Germans. The first barrack-type buildings were insulated Nissen and Romney huts on a local rubble and gravel foundation mound, but the local stone, sand and imported cement, were to be used to construct walls and floors in the local manner. Recruitment was very successful; the main recruits were families without essential work permits and in most cases exempt from military service due to health reasons or other unsuitability, preference being given to families living in fairly harsh environments, as being most suited to Kerguelen.
The transport Mataurua arrived at Norway Bay about a week after the first German families had been landed and unloaded construction workers and building materials to be taken to the site of a new town. Later, a landing pier was constructed there, doubling the port size of the Colony - the first part of what was to become the Naval training base of HMRAN Port Menzies. But most of the Scheerstadt expansion was complete before the first draft of New Zealanders arrived in what they named West Dunedin, a mix of expatriate Scots and sturdy Maori rapidly settling in to homes part-built, part-prefabricated, with assistance from the local settlers. There is no doubt that the formation of this fourth town massively expanded the tiny colony, the inhabitants of Port Resolution slightly dismayed but reserving judgement. Scheerstadt knew it was a reaction to their presence, whilst the tiny fishing town of Molloy just shrugged shoulders at these mad Australasians.
Economically, West Dunedin was initially dependent on the growth of the Naval and Marine training base, regarded as a pure military wartime creation, but nevertheless providing a location where Arctic training could be carried out and 'live fire exercises take place. The New Zealand parliament might grumble that the same could have been achieved in part of South Island, but 'being abroad' was psychologically very important; thousands of miles away from home, Aussies and New Zealanders knew their efforts put a crimp in Hitler's plans, as well as removing the risk of demonising fairly ordinary and decent German paramilitaries and civilians. Scheerstadt was a useful training aid, the inhabitants getting used to patrols of trainees and mock 'attacks', initial alarm giving way to amusement and then a blasé acceptance; the children got gifts of sweets and toys, copying the Australasians after a time, so 1941 ground on with a 'Southern Spitsbergen' mentality emerging.
The island of Svalbard was then dominated by Norwegian and Russian mining interests, a demilitarised zone legally administered by Norway; Hitler's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, tried to get international agreement for a similar Treaty covering Kerguelen, but Britain and the Dominions were able to scupper this, pointing out that Britain was both de facto and de jure possessor and settler of the Kerguelen Islands. The Germans were just prisoners of war and squatters, who were only being allowed to stay due to (a) remoteness and (b) humanitarian considerations. However, it had to be admitted that the Germans were making an economic contribution to Kerguelen with the Sugarweed Sherry and various farming ideas, so Britain was making sure adequate wages were paid and that Krancke had municipal authority as Mayor to levy a rate in money, goods and labour, credited at the 'Admiral Scheer Hausbank' and valued in Kerguelen Pounds at par with Sterling. Schooling was being organised at a small school and a Clinic had been set up as an outstation of the military hospital under construction at Norway Bay. The bulk of the German and New Zealand settlers had been set to constructing roads from Norway Bay to Port Resolution, Molloy, Scheerstadt, the mines and the reservoirs - a project that would last into late 1942.
The remoteness of Kerguelen had made it perfect as a training camp, but it also had little impact upon the progress of the war, the loss of the Scheer similarly being of limited impact; the loss of HMS Ark Royal triggered a brawl in West Dunedin, but Operation Barbarossa raised only jibes about what happened to Napoleon. The fighting in North Africa and Malaya later raised issues of just how valid the cold-weather training centre would be, but Krancke mildly remarked at a meeting of himself, the Governor and the Colonel of Port Menzies that training was training and that Kerguelen needed the balance kept. But the centre was run down as more Australasians arrived and the Germans became regarded as 'trusties', the inhabitants of Scheerstadt increasingly respected for keeping the peace and being Germans rather than Nazis.
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Post # 96 Is Complete...
...But is this just the calm before the storm?
Comments and suggestions welcomed.
...But is this just the calm before the storm?
Comments and suggestions welcomed.
Into 1942...
Axis progress during late 1941 and early 1942 had many in Kerguelen wondering whether Governor Galway would be displaced by Kapitan Krancke, who was the third at the meetings they held with Captain Roy Dowling, the Commander of HMAS Norway Bay. For himself, Krancke was disenchanted with Nazism, preferring to hope for the overthrow of Hitler by Generals and Admirals when the war faltered, but he assured his two administrative colleagues that he was all for an integrated approach to common problems.
"I don't trust the Japanese." Krancke explained. "If they attack Kerguelen, they will not differentiate between Brits, Aussies and Germans. My crew will stand by to help defend the Island and our families."
Krancke was 48 at the time, like his wife Gunny on the verge of 49; Gunny Thielen was suffering from pneumonia due to the weather, but she would rather be with her Theodor than waiting in Germany; she felt Hitler had let down Germany and her brave husband, so wanted him gone and the war ended. A surprisingly-large number of the Crew's dependants felt the same, betrayed into being sent to this cold and stormy prison of a militarised settlement; the Aussies and Brits were good-natured and forgiving, their children played together at kindergarten and in the schools, whilst the doctors did not treat Germans any differently from the Allies. A definite Kerguelenvolk attitude had emerged, notably after a German search team had found three missing New Zealander children at the cost of a broken leg; as one of the three was part-Maori it had cemented good relations between the three main settler groupings.
"Wir sind drei Kameraden." Krancke voiced what most felt. "Kerguelen may be small, cold and windswept, but it is home to us all." Dowling and Galway exchanged looks, aware that this was a great propaganda coup, but kept it to themselves.
The fall of Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, had been a tremendous shock for Australia, whilst attacks on Port Moresby and Darwin - and, later, bombardment of a Sidney suburb by a Japanese submarine - had shown Australia and New Zealand that an enemy was at the door. For Kerguelen, largely unprotected except for a training command, the next phase in Japanese operations was to be a horrible shock, nearly as bad as the shelling by Admiral Scheer. The six-strong fast carrier attack force under Admiral Nagumo had been tasked with Operation C, the Indian Ocean raid aimed at British and Allied shipping near Ceylon, including hopefully HMS Indomitable and HMS Formidable. That they caused damage, sank two cruisers and some merchantmen, was a matter of history, but it was unexpected that part of the force two carriers, four destroyers and five I-class submarines, headed south to attack Diego Suarez in Madagascar and tiny Kerguelen. Japan and wanted submarine bases in Vichy-controlled Madagascar, so when Operation Ironclad made an early lodgement, the Imperial Japanese Navy looked for a substitute, or at least to put Kerguelen out of commission as a military facility.
The defences of Kerguelen were by then little better than they had been since the attack by Admiral Scheer with a light cruiser, some sloops and four destroyers, a larger naval base, an expanded seaplane base and an expanded naval air station. The ground forces consisted of a well-armed battalion of trainee troops, a half-trained but well-armed battalion of Home Guards and a third trained but unequipped battalion of German naval infantry and artillerymen. Galway was fairly certain that an invasion would be driven off, but he, Dowling and Krancke, feared losing ships, aircraft and men, so had dispersal plans in hand and fairly extensive air raid sheltering. Their land-based artillery and magazines were dispersed throughout the settlement area and every Home Guard had his rifle and some ammunition in a locked cabinet at home. The German force would be armed if and when an invasion seemed imminent, after Galway had thought everything over, their weapons being held in special semi-sunk air raid shelters guarded by Royal Marines.
Axis progress during late 1941 and early 1942 had many in Kerguelen wondering whether Governor Galway would be displaced by Kapitan Krancke, who was the third at the meetings they held with Captain Roy Dowling, the Commander of HMAS Norway Bay. For himself, Krancke was disenchanted with Nazism, preferring to hope for the overthrow of Hitler by Generals and Admirals when the war faltered, but he assured his two administrative colleagues that he was all for an integrated approach to common problems.
"I don't trust the Japanese." Krancke explained. "If they attack Kerguelen, they will not differentiate between Brits, Aussies and Germans. My crew will stand by to help defend the Island and our families."
Krancke was 48 at the time, like his wife Gunny on the verge of 49; Gunny Thielen was suffering from pneumonia due to the weather, but she would rather be with her Theodor than waiting in Germany; she felt Hitler had let down Germany and her brave husband, so wanted him gone and the war ended. A surprisingly-large number of the Crew's dependants felt the same, betrayed into being sent to this cold and stormy prison of a militarised settlement; the Aussies and Brits were good-natured and forgiving, their children played together at kindergarten and in the schools, whilst the doctors did not treat Germans any differently from the Allies. A definite Kerguelenvolk attitude had emerged, notably after a German search team had found three missing New Zealander children at the cost of a broken leg; as one of the three was part-Maori it had cemented good relations between the three main settler groupings.
"Wir sind drei Kameraden." Krancke voiced what most felt. "Kerguelen may be small, cold and windswept, but it is home to us all." Dowling and Galway exchanged looks, aware that this was a great propaganda coup, but kept it to themselves.
The fall of Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, had been a tremendous shock for Australia, whilst attacks on Port Moresby and Darwin - and, later, bombardment of a Sidney suburb by a Japanese submarine - had shown Australia and New Zealand that an enemy was at the door. For Kerguelen, largely unprotected except for a training command, the next phase in Japanese operations was to be a horrible shock, nearly as bad as the shelling by Admiral Scheer. The six-strong fast carrier attack force under Admiral Nagumo had been tasked with Operation C, the Indian Ocean raid aimed at British and Allied shipping near Ceylon, including hopefully HMS Indomitable and HMS Formidable. That they caused damage, sank two cruisers and some merchantmen, was a matter of history, but it was unexpected that part of the force two carriers, four destroyers and five I-class submarines, headed south to attack Diego Suarez in Madagascar and tiny Kerguelen. Japan and wanted submarine bases in Vichy-controlled Madagascar, so when Operation Ironclad made an early lodgement, the Imperial Japanese Navy looked for a substitute, or at least to put Kerguelen out of commission as a military facility.
The defences of Kerguelen were by then little better than they had been since the attack by Admiral Scheer with a light cruiser, some sloops and four destroyers, a larger naval base, an expanded seaplane base and an expanded naval air station. The ground forces consisted of a well-armed battalion of trainee troops, a half-trained but well-armed battalion of Home Guards and a third trained but unequipped battalion of German naval infantry and artillerymen. Galway was fairly certain that an invasion would be driven off, but he, Dowling and Krancke, feared losing ships, aircraft and men, so had dispersal plans in hand and fairly extensive air raid sheltering. Their land-based artillery and magazines were dispersed throughout the settlement area and every Home Guard had his rifle and some ammunition in a locked cabinet at home. The German force would be armed if and when an invasion seemed imminent, after Galway had thought everything over, their weapons being held in special semi-sunk air raid shelters guarded by Royal Marines.
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Isaac Beach
Banned
Kerguelenvolk ftw. I do wonder about what potential butterflies this could cause. I'm not exactly knowledgeable on military operations in the Indian Ocean during WWII but sending that detachment south seems like it would cause some reverberation unto the Japanese order of battle, however small.
Or is this TL supposed to be a bit more microcosmic? In that what happens on Kerguelen really doesn't effect anyone else. Which would be fine btw, still an awesome TL.