The Sun, The Stars and The Sickle: Alt-WWII and a Tripolar Postwar World
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Crossing the Weser, Part 1
*If you've seen "The King's Choice"; you'll see where I've been a bit shameless
Fortress Oscarsborg,
Drøbak, Norway
April 9, 1940
4:19 AM
"RANGE, Sødem!" called out Colonel Birger Eriksen to his second in command.
The fortress Oscarsborg, and its commander, Colonel Birger Eriksen, neither young, were all that stood in the way of the Nazi assault on Oslo. They were all that stood between the attackers and the King, the Parliament and the gold reserves. However, they had both trained their whole lives for this. Now was their hour. Three ships were spotted, inching ever closer to the fortress. Three 28cm Krupp guns, forty years old and manned by recruits and too few artillerists, were made ready.
So old were the guns, they were nicknamed after the Biblical Moses, Aron and Josva
"The orograph shows 1800 metres, sir!"
Eriksen looked through his binoculars.
"Eighteen hundred? That's way too much! They're just passing Småsjkær! Set range, 1200 metres."
"Are... are we firing live ammunition, sir?" called out a young gunner nervously.
"You're damn right we are! These are enemies!" replied Eriksen. "No warning, no hesitation"
The ancient, manually-traversed Moses, creaked and groaned into position, aimed at the shadow of a ship.
"Sir" said Sødem, quietly "We're still awaiting confirmation from Kopås."
Eriksen noted the time on his watch. "On my command!" he shouted out to the crew of the gun Moses
"But what if-?" was Sødem's hushed protest
"Then I will either be decorated, or court martialed. FIRE!"
------
Bridge, German heavy cruiser Blücher
Drøbak Sound, Norway
4:21 AM
Rear Admiral Oskar Kunmetz, up until now, was a man who was very sure of what his immediate future would hold. He commanded a task force led by his flagship, the heavy cruiser Blücher. If everything went to plan, his forces would land in Oslo, unopposed, around dawn; march into the city and capture the King and parliament. Resistance would crumble. The British would moan, but offer little resistance. Their vaunted Royal Navy had become flabby and week in the interwar years, their battleship captains too cautious; the sort that would soil their whites at the word "U-Boat". Now, would the inevitable Kmight's Cross be with diamonds or just oak leaves and swords?
A flash of light appeared off the port bow, followed by the terrible sound of a shell tearing through the air, followed by the ship shuddering as the shell connected.
The bridge crew of the heavy cruiser Blücher hit the deck, still in shock at what had just happened
"You assured me they would offer no resistance!" shouted Captain Heinrich Woldag
"Intelligence indicated that we need not expect- " retorted a shocked Kunmetz, but he was cut off by the dreadful noise of shearing metal. There was a sickening crash as flaming chunks of what, just moments ago, were the Blücher's mainmast and main rangefinder fell on the deck and into the water below.
"General alarm! Damage report, now!" shouted Woldag.
Woldag was furious. "No resistance? Did the Abwehr take the day off? That 'no resistance' just"-
A second shell struck the Blücher, and explosions reverberted through the ship, much worse than the first.
As Kunmetz staggered to his feet, the ship's anti-aircraft guns began to return fire wildly, as another explosion sent a plume of flame upwards.
"Verdammt!" shouted Kunmetz. "We cannot fail! Get out of the range of their guns!"
"And what if they have mined the fjord? retorted Woldag
"Better we hit mines, than hit mines while their guns blow us to pieces! Besides, the intelligence reports in-"
"Damn your intelligence reports! Where the hell are they shooting at us from! The chart indicated some sort of ... training fortress
Just then a filthy, soot covered petty officer ran to the bridge.
"Captain! Admiral!" he saluted "Damage report"
"Well, let's have it, Herr Kraft. Where is Oberleutnant-" inquired Woldag.
"Below sir, examining the full extent of the damage." said Kraft, looking terrified. "A large caliber shell penetrated the floatplane hangar, and set fire to the fuel and set off the torpedoes stored there. Either the shell or the explosion penetrated the deck. Turbinenraum 1 is out of action; Kesselraum 1 has been damaged by the explosion and the steam pipes severed; electrical systems have been badly damaged, with power to turrets Anton and Bruno disabled. Several areas inaccessible due to fire and thick smoke. We are not sure of the extent of structural damage presently"
"Sir?" inquired Kraft. "May I speak freely?"
"Absolutely" replied Woldag
"The firefighting efforts are going badly; the Heer's men are useless and many of our recruits are just too green"
"Thank you, Kraft. To your duties dismissed. Make men out of those boys!" encouraged Woldag. "Thannemann!" he shouted into the receiver to his chief engineer "Flank speed, on whatever we've got left! Get us out of this while we still have a ship!"
Just then, another explosion rocked the Blücher...
---------
Scapa Flow, Scotland
April 9th, 1940
5:10 AM
Dawn had not yet broken, yet light danced on the choppy waters. Force Y was assembling; there was no time to waste.
The Phoney War was over. The Germans were not going to be allowed to invade Norway and use its fjords to hide her submarines; nor be counted as one more country under the Nazi yoke.
Rear Admiral Lancelot Holland, having been recalled from the Air Ministry, surveyed the bridge of his new flagship, HMS King George V. One couldn't be too careful, as it was rumoured that there were places on the ship where the paint was literally still drying.
Along with the battlecruiser Rodney, the carrier Courageous, three light cruisers, twelve destroyers, and a detachment of Royal Marines, the task would fall to them of keeping Norway from falling into Nazi hands. The old battleship Warspite would never be able to keep up with the Ugly Sisters, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, so she was left behind. Bellerophon and three heavy cruisers would screen for pocket battleships attempting to break out of the Baltic.
Holland could not be more satisfied with this force, but it was still going to be a nearly run thing...
Fortress Oscarsborg,
Drøbak, Norway
April 9, 1940
4:19 AM
"RANGE, Sødem!" called out Colonel Birger Eriksen to his second in command.
The fortress Oscarsborg, and its commander, Colonel Birger Eriksen, neither young, were all that stood in the way of the Nazi assault on Oslo. They were all that stood between the attackers and the King, the Parliament and the gold reserves. However, they had both trained their whole lives for this. Now was their hour. Three ships were spotted, inching ever closer to the fortress. Three 28cm Krupp guns, forty years old and manned by recruits and too few artillerists, were made ready.
So old were the guns, they were nicknamed after the Biblical Moses, Aron and Josva
"The orograph shows 1800 metres, sir!"
Eriksen looked through his binoculars.
"Eighteen hundred? That's way too much! They're just passing Småsjkær! Set range, 1200 metres."
"Are... are we firing live ammunition, sir?" called out a young gunner nervously.
"You're damn right we are! These are enemies!" replied Eriksen. "No warning, no hesitation"
The ancient, manually-traversed Moses, creaked and groaned into position, aimed at the shadow of a ship.
"Sir" said Sødem, quietly "We're still awaiting confirmation from Kopås."
Eriksen noted the time on his watch. "On my command!" he shouted out to the crew of the gun Moses
"But what if-?" was Sødem's hushed protest
"Then I will either be decorated, or court martialed. FIRE!"
------
Bridge, German heavy cruiser Blücher
Drøbak Sound, Norway
4:21 AM
Rear Admiral Oskar Kunmetz, up until now, was a man who was very sure of what his immediate future would hold. He commanded a task force led by his flagship, the heavy cruiser Blücher. If everything went to plan, his forces would land in Oslo, unopposed, around dawn; march into the city and capture the King and parliament. Resistance would crumble. The British would moan, but offer little resistance. Their vaunted Royal Navy had become flabby and week in the interwar years, their battleship captains too cautious; the sort that would soil their whites at the word "U-Boat". Now, would the inevitable Kmight's Cross be with diamonds or just oak leaves and swords?
A flash of light appeared off the port bow, followed by the terrible sound of a shell tearing through the air, followed by the ship shuddering as the shell connected.
The bridge crew of the heavy cruiser Blücher hit the deck, still in shock at what had just happened
"You assured me they would offer no resistance!" shouted Captain Heinrich Woldag
"Intelligence indicated that we need not expect- " retorted a shocked Kunmetz, but he was cut off by the dreadful noise of shearing metal. There was a sickening crash as flaming chunks of what, just moments ago, were the Blücher's mainmast and main rangefinder fell on the deck and into the water below.
"General alarm! Damage report, now!" shouted Woldag.
Woldag was furious. "No resistance? Did the Abwehr take the day off? That 'no resistance' just"-
A second shell struck the Blücher, and explosions reverberted through the ship, much worse than the first.
As Kunmetz staggered to his feet, the ship's anti-aircraft guns began to return fire wildly, as another explosion sent a plume of flame upwards.
"Verdammt!" shouted Kunmetz. "We cannot fail! Get out of the range of their guns!"
"And what if they have mined the fjord? retorted Woldag
"Better we hit mines, than hit mines while their guns blow us to pieces! Besides, the intelligence reports in-"
"Damn your intelligence reports! Where the hell are they shooting at us from! The chart indicated some sort of ... training fortress
Just then a filthy, soot covered petty officer ran to the bridge.
"Captain! Admiral!" he saluted "Damage report"
"Well, let's have it, Herr Kraft. Where is Oberleutnant-" inquired Woldag.
"Below sir, examining the full extent of the damage." said Kraft, looking terrified. "A large caliber shell penetrated the floatplane hangar, and set fire to the fuel and set off the torpedoes stored there. Either the shell or the explosion penetrated the deck. Turbinenraum 1 is out of action; Kesselraum 1 has been damaged by the explosion and the steam pipes severed; electrical systems have been badly damaged, with power to turrets Anton and Bruno disabled. Several areas inaccessible due to fire and thick smoke. We are not sure of the extent of structural damage presently"
"Sir?" inquired Kraft. "May I speak freely?"
"Absolutely" replied Woldag
"The firefighting efforts are going badly; the Heer's men are useless and many of our recruits are just too green"
"Thank you, Kraft. To your duties dismissed. Make men out of those boys!" encouraged Woldag. "Thannemann!" he shouted into the receiver to his chief engineer "Flank speed, on whatever we've got left! Get us out of this while we still have a ship!"
Just then, another explosion rocked the Blücher...
---------
Scapa Flow, Scotland
April 9th, 1940
5:10 AM
Dawn had not yet broken, yet light danced on the choppy waters. Force Y was assembling; there was no time to waste.
The Phoney War was over. The Germans were not going to be allowed to invade Norway and use its fjords to hide her submarines; nor be counted as one more country under the Nazi yoke.
Rear Admiral Lancelot Holland, having been recalled from the Air Ministry, surveyed the bridge of his new flagship, HMS King George V. One couldn't be too careful, as it was rumoured that there were places on the ship where the paint was literally still drying.
Along with the battlecruiser Rodney, the carrier Courageous, three light cruisers, twelve destroyers, and a detachment of Royal Marines, the task would fall to them of keeping Norway from falling into Nazi hands. The old battleship Warspite would never be able to keep up with the Ugly Sisters, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, so she was left behind. Bellerophon and three heavy cruisers would screen for pocket battleships attempting to break out of the Baltic.
Holland could not be more satisfied with this force, but it was still going to be a nearly run thing...
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Another question. Does Israel exist in this Tl??
Yes, in the same place as OTL. For exact borders, that will come!
Vignette 1
Nagoya, Japan
April 23, 1940
TWELVE year old Shimajiro Nakayama was walking to school, while his eyes were drawn to a propaganda poster pasted up on a notice board.
On the left side of the poster was a proud Samurai, with a determined facial expression, and his right hand on the hilt of his katana, ready to draw it from its scabbard. To the Samurai's right (the viewer's left), standing shoulder to shoulder with him, was a European knight, his helmet visor open and his armour shimmering; clearly meant to be ambiguously English or French. The knight's piercing blue eyes were focused and conveyed resolve. On the Samurai's left shoulder was a hulking Viking warrior. Long, wavy blond hair flowed from his horned helmet, and he wore an impressive blond beard. His gleaming battle-axe was drawn and ready for action. The flags of France, Britain, and Norway fluttered in the background behind them with the Rising Sun above them and centred.
On the right side of the poster, the figures were quite different. In the centre was a crazed Adolf Hitler, baring his greenish-yellow teeth, with a sunken chest, flaring nostrils, and bloodshot eyes with Swastikas for pupils. In his left hand, he clutched a bloody butcher's knife. In his right, he held aloft a puppet of Chiang Kai-Shek, which itself had a spherical bomb with a lit fuse in its right hand. To Hitler's right was a sallow, corpse-like, club-footed Goebbels, his brown shirt flecked with spittle, an ape-like jaw with significant underbite hinged open; his clawlike hands gesticulating wildly. To Hitler's left was a grossly obese Göring, his brown shirt festooned with medals, including a bar that extended past his chest. He had a huge, gilded pickelhaube atop his head, and a massive belly puckered the buttons of his brown shirt and overhung his belt. In his right hand, he clutched his Reichsmarshall's baton; in his left, a large sausage link with a bite taken from it. A tattered, stained swastika flag was tacked in the background.
The caption was simple. It read:
"CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS CAREFULLY"
April 23, 1940
TWELVE year old Shimajiro Nakayama was walking to school, while his eyes were drawn to a propaganda poster pasted up on a notice board.
On the left side of the poster was a proud Samurai, with a determined facial expression, and his right hand on the hilt of his katana, ready to draw it from its scabbard. To the Samurai's right (the viewer's left), standing shoulder to shoulder with him, was a European knight, his helmet visor open and his armour shimmering; clearly meant to be ambiguously English or French. The knight's piercing blue eyes were focused and conveyed resolve. On the Samurai's left shoulder was a hulking Viking warrior. Long, wavy blond hair flowed from his horned helmet, and he wore an impressive blond beard. His gleaming battle-axe was drawn and ready for action. The flags of France, Britain, and Norway fluttered in the background behind them with the Rising Sun above them and centred.
On the right side of the poster, the figures were quite different. In the centre was a crazed Adolf Hitler, baring his greenish-yellow teeth, with a sunken chest, flaring nostrils, and bloodshot eyes with Swastikas for pupils. In his left hand, he clutched a bloody butcher's knife. In his right, he held aloft a puppet of Chiang Kai-Shek, which itself had a spherical bomb with a lit fuse in its right hand. To Hitler's right was a sallow, corpse-like, club-footed Goebbels, his brown shirt flecked with spittle, an ape-like jaw with significant underbite hinged open; his clawlike hands gesticulating wildly. To Hitler's left was a grossly obese Göring, his brown shirt festooned with medals, including a bar that extended past his chest. He had a huge, gilded pickelhaube atop his head, and a massive belly puckered the buttons of his brown shirt and overhung his belt. In his right hand, he clutched his Reichsmarshall's baton; in his left, a large sausage link with a bite taken from it. A tattered, stained swastika flag was tacked in the background.
The caption was simple. It read:
"CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS CAREFULLY"
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Vignette 2
Oh man, the propaganda TTL is so much fun to write, there are so many opportunities that have opened up, for Japan especially!
Here's another:
I'll edit in a scene setting and date later; this is just too much fun to write!
SIR Winston Churchill was known to have particularly favoured two Japanese posters in particular, going so far as to have had one of each framed.
The first, dating from 1941, was a widely admired one of the era, praised even by artists. A simple but superbly executed ligne claire piece, it depicts a blue sea, and yellow sun rising in the top left. Two battleships are depicted sailing in formation at great speed; the wave formations on their bows and the wakes they are shown to create on the calm sea set this scene.
Except for a proportionally correct naval jack flying from each ship's bow, there are no overtly nationalistic symbols. Ship aficionados delight in the detail shown even in simplified and stylized form, leaving the identities of the ships in no doubt. They are the Japanese battleship Amagi (the pagoda mast on her sister Akagi was slightly different in its construction), and the British battleship Prince of Wales; the tiny but visible scarlet St. George's Cross in the position of her ship's badge the telltale.
The caption (given either in English or Japanese), reads: "Indestructable Fleets. Inseparable Friendship. Inevitable Victory".
The second was intended for Japanese viewership only. It depicted Churchill as an oni giant; a creature in Japanese mythology. To this end, a giant Churchill was depicted charging through the Chinese countryside as grateful Japanese and Hong Kongers looked on in the foreground.
The giant Churchill had a craggy face with the corners of his mouth downturned, chomping on an enormous cigar, the size of a factory chimney by the scale of the poster. He wore a bowler hat and a striped suit in a suitably English cut, with ill-matched hobnailed shoes, and wielded an uprooted English oak as a club.
Cresting a hill and with a foot upraised, Sir Winston was poised to crush a group of huts flying the Hammer and Sickle.
This poster had limited circulation and was quickly withdrawn.
Churchill was initially presented one of these posters as a gag gift, but sincerely appreciated it.
Churchill's life is filled with apocrypha, so it may be taken with a reasonable degree of suspicion that he actually said the following words of it in his later life:
"The only unfortunate thing I can think of about this depiction is that it has all but ruined sitting for other portraits for me. Now, each time I sit or stand with as much dignity as I can muster, all I can think of is how no other artist can ever depict my essence with quite such clarity"
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Crossing the Weser, Part 2
Bridge, German heavy cruiser Blücher
Drøbak Narrows, Norway
April 9th, 1940
4:24 AM
"OVER there!" shouted an excited seaman, pointing at a concentration of flashes, presumably where the last shell came from.
Blücher's Flakvierling light AA guns peppered the Norwegian coastline roughly in the direction of the Kopås battery, but to no effect.
Captain Woldag asked the chief artillery officer, Engelmann as to whether the main guns in turrets Cäsar and Dora could be brougt to bear on the guns at Kopås, but they could not be depressed enough.
The stricken Blücher gained speed, too slowly for Captain Woldag's liking, carrying it out of the range of Oscarsborg's main guns.
Woldag looked over at the able seaman at the helm, as Kunmetz hastily scrawled a report.
"Fifteen degrees starboard rudder" Woldag instructed the helmsman
The wheel turned, but the Blücher did not.
Captain Woldag called for his executive officer, Fregattenkapitän Erich Heymann to investigate.
Another petty officer, Haider, came to the bridge to make his report.
"Shellfire from the shore batteries has disabled the equipment for steering from the bridge, and further fire has disabled the pumps for the fire hoses. Auxiliary steering gear is operational. Generator Room 3 out of action"
"Thank you, Haider" said Woldag. "Oh, and Haider- where is Kraft?"
Haider's expression was downcast. "The infirmary, sir. He was injured while leading a firefighting party"
"Very well. To your duties dismissed. I thank you again."
Woldag's frustration gave way to grave concern. While Blücher did not appear to be in danger of sinking, his ship was on fire, without a third of its power and without firefighting pumps in unfriendly waters facing a surprisingly determined and resourceful enemy.
-----
Fortress Oscarsborg
Drøbak, Norway
April 9th, 1940
4:40 AM
The crippled Blücher slipped out of the range of Oscarsborg's guns.
Anderssen's torpedoes, weapons as old as the fortress' guns, had worked flawlessly. Eriksen was no seaman, but knew enough to know that a ship in that condition would never reach Oslo.
He checked his binoculars again. The second ship still advanced. Eriksen thought briefly about engaging it with the remaining gun Josva; Moses and Aron could not be reloaded in time. He quickly buried the thought.
"Sir?" inquired Sødem "Shall I check the orograph?"
"No, Sødem, that will not be necessary". Eriksen turned to face his men.
"The fortress has served its purpose. Our part of the fight is over. Godspeed you, and long live the King!"
As his men fell out, Sødem remained.
"Sir,"
"No need for formalities now, my friend, speak your mind" said Eriksen
"I never expected that- and with such overwhelming odds, that we should be able to-" struggled the younger officer.
"It's far from over, Sødem."
"Of course not, I was referring to this, engagement?" said Sødem, more as a question than a statement.
"Ah" said Eriksen "I would say that one day they will make a film about this, but no one would believe it"
Sødem chuckled
"Easy for you to laugh" said Eriksen "You've nothing to worry about, you're young. I hope the actor they get to play me is handsome"
-------
SS Lac Deschesnes
Somewhere in the North Pacific
April 10th, 1940
Sometime between Oh Dark Hundred and Oh Christ Thirty
ORDINARY Seaman Christopher Barton, known to his friends as "Chris" and by the boatswain and mates as "paint that", went to sea looking for adventure.
He didn't find it.
His ship, Lac Deschesnes, was carrying nickel ingots, and aluminum coils. She was sailing from Vancouver, Canada; bound for Yokohama, Japan. It was an incredibly long, incredibly dull run with none of the tropical islands he thought might lay between. At least it smelled better tham the cannery back home.
A "City" class destroyer, HMCS Montréal, and "Suburb" class sloop, HMCS Port Credit escorted convoy GZ-19 as protection against submarines.
Unsurprisingly, there were no U-boats in the North Pacific. Boredom was the only enemy
All there was out there was the vast sea in every direction.
Drøbak Narrows, Norway
April 9th, 1940
4:24 AM
"OVER there!" shouted an excited seaman, pointing at a concentration of flashes, presumably where the last shell came from.
Blücher's Flakvierling light AA guns peppered the Norwegian coastline roughly in the direction of the Kopås battery, but to no effect.
Captain Woldag asked the chief artillery officer, Engelmann as to whether the main guns in turrets Cäsar and Dora could be brougt to bear on the guns at Kopås, but they could not be depressed enough.
The stricken Blücher gained speed, too slowly for Captain Woldag's liking, carrying it out of the range of Oscarsborg's main guns.
Woldag looked over at the able seaman at the helm, as Kunmetz hastily scrawled a report.
"Fifteen degrees starboard rudder" Woldag instructed the helmsman
The wheel turned, but the Blücher did not.
Captain Woldag called for his executive officer, Fregattenkapitän Erich Heymann to investigate.
Another petty officer, Haider, came to the bridge to make his report.
"Shellfire from the shore batteries has disabled the equipment for steering from the bridge, and further fire has disabled the pumps for the fire hoses. Auxiliary steering gear is operational. Generator Room 3 out of action"
"Thank you, Haider" said Woldag. "Oh, and Haider- where is Kraft?"
Haider's expression was downcast. "The infirmary, sir. He was injured while leading a firefighting party"
"Very well. To your duties dismissed. I thank you again."
Woldag's frustration gave way to grave concern. While Blücher did not appear to be in danger of sinking, his ship was on fire, without a third of its power and without firefighting pumps in unfriendly waters facing a surprisingly determined and resourceful enemy.
-----
Fortress Oscarsborg
Drøbak, Norway
April 9th, 1940
4:40 AM
The crippled Blücher slipped out of the range of Oscarsborg's guns.
Anderssen's torpedoes, weapons as old as the fortress' guns, had worked flawlessly. Eriksen was no seaman, but knew enough to know that a ship in that condition would never reach Oslo.
He checked his binoculars again. The second ship still advanced. Eriksen thought briefly about engaging it with the remaining gun Josva; Moses and Aron could not be reloaded in time. He quickly buried the thought.
"Sir?" inquired Sødem "Shall I check the orograph?"
"No, Sødem, that will not be necessary". Eriksen turned to face his men.
"The fortress has served its purpose. Our part of the fight is over. Godspeed you, and long live the King!"
As his men fell out, Sødem remained.
"Sir,"
"No need for formalities now, my friend, speak your mind" said Eriksen
"I never expected that- and with such overwhelming odds, that we should be able to-" struggled the younger officer.
"It's far from over, Sødem."
"Of course not, I was referring to this, engagement?" said Sødem, more as a question than a statement.
"Ah" said Eriksen "I would say that one day they will make a film about this, but no one would believe it"
Sødem chuckled
"Easy for you to laugh" said Eriksen "You've nothing to worry about, you're young. I hope the actor they get to play me is handsome"
-------
SS Lac Deschesnes
Somewhere in the North Pacific
April 10th, 1940
Sometime between Oh Dark Hundred and Oh Christ Thirty
ORDINARY Seaman Christopher Barton, known to his friends as "Chris" and by the boatswain and mates as "paint that", went to sea looking for adventure.
He didn't find it.
His ship, Lac Deschesnes, was carrying nickel ingots, and aluminum coils. She was sailing from Vancouver, Canada; bound for Yokohama, Japan. It was an incredibly long, incredibly dull run with none of the tropical islands he thought might lay between. At least it smelled better tham the cannery back home.
A "City" class destroyer, HMCS Montréal, and "Suburb" class sloop, HMCS Port Credit escorted convoy GZ-19 as protection against submarines.
Unsurprisingly, there were no U-boats in the North Pacific. Boredom was the only enemy
All there was out there was the vast sea in every direction.
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Interesting, although I wonder if there's a analogue to the Non-Aligned Movement within the Neutral powers ITTL's Cold War.
Without giving away too much, there will be some attempts at a unified "Fourth World" movement, but you will have to stay tuned for the results.
Different forces than OTL will be tugging in different directions, so there will be some old and some new players on the unaligned team.
Crossing the Weser- Primer A
Excerpts from "Fighting Ships of the Second World War". J. Willis, Penguin Books, 1957
AFTER the Battle of Drøbak Sound, the first major naval engagements of the Second World War took place, as will be described in chapters following.
Oslo's temporary reprieve ended. German troops occupied the city. King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav and the loyal members of parliament fled north; Vidkun Quisling was executing his coup d'etat. The situation looked bleak for Norway on the ground.
At sea, however, Brittania continued to rule the waves.To demonstrate the disparity, a look at the Royal Navy and Kreigsmarine:
Germany possessed no aircraft carriers, and had one, Graf Zeppelin beibg built; by the time of the invasion of Norway, the Royal Navy had eight, with ten more under construction.
The Royal Navy possessed nine modern battleships built to post Battle of Jutland designs, all armed with 16" guns. Of this number, the Nelson and Triumph classes comprised four ships each, and the remaing ship, King George V was the lead ship of her class of 7. *(see insert G)
Three additional ships from the 1937 Programme (Queen Mary, Prince of Wales, Duke of York) were due to be commissioned in 1940; and two from the 1938 Programme (Lion, Temeraire) to be commissioned in 1941.
The seventh, Vanguard, was split off from the 1938 Programme, to be laid down in 1939 to a slightly revised design.
The "KGVs" were designed and built as "Treaty Battleships". The 1937 Paris Naval Treaty specified a maximum of 42 000 tons at standard load for new battleships. An escalator clause was placed into the Treaty, allowing an escalation of 33%, to 56 000 tons. In either case, main gun caliber was not to exceed 16".
The contemporary American Louisiana class battleships, and Italian Vittorio Veneto class battleships met this limit too, as did French battleships Richelieu and Jean Bart before their modernizations beginning in 1953.
Vanguard was originally intended to be a slight modification of the KGV, with a revised secondary battery and other improvements. An additional two ships, Conqueror and Thunderer, were proposed but never ordered nor assigned to shipyards.
Vanguard went through several redesigns, and the result was one quite different than the original plan; this will be addresed in a later chapter.
Germany, having signed the 1937 Treaty as well, possessed two small battleships.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were fast, capable ships, but were designed to counter the French Dunkerque class small battleships of some 26 000 tons; as well as operating against cruisers and as commerce raiders. Their 11" (280mm) guns simply lacked the punch to take on much larger British battleships.
To this end, Germany embarked on the construction of four new battleships, the Bismarck class. Bismarck was laid down in mid- 1935, Tirpitz in late 1935; Großer Kurfürst and Hindenburg in 1937 and 1938 respectively.
Of moderate length, great beam and shallow draughts, (848'x124'x30'), Bismarck in some ways more exhibited characteristics of older battleships. Her turrets were twin turrets, her armour was in distributed scheme as opposed to the all-or-nothing scheme favoured by the navies of Britain, the United States and Japan in particular. Her most scathing critics dismiss her as a ship designed with re-fighting Jutland in mind.
Bismarck also included a series of firsts. Capable of a rated 29.75 knots (although she achieved 30.01 on trials), her powerplant was unlike any other yet seen. She made a total of 160 000 horsepower. The wing shafts were powered by banks of MAN diesels, for 50 000 horsepower per shaft. The centre shaft was a turboelectric drive system; an electric motor was powered by a Brown-Boveri turbine with steam supplied by 4 ultra high pressure Wagner boilers, rated for 60 000 shp.
Her eight 16.5" guns were also the largest of any battleship of the time. They were originally built at a compliant 16" , but the guns were built to be bored out and barrels reseleeved. This choice was deliberate- Rheinmetall designed the hoists to be capable of accommodating both 16" (406 mm) and 16.5" (420 mm) projectiles. The turrets themselves were quite large for twin turrets, designed as such so they could accommodate separate powder and projectile hoists.
The mighty Bismarck, however, would not be ready in time for the naval battles off Norway.
The Kreigsmarine also lacked sufficient numbers of cruisers and destroyers. It is worth noting that the Imperial Japanese Navy lay down no battleships between 1937 and 1940, in order to clear the backlog of battleships requiring moderinization (and thus to learn from the innovations introduced), and to build more badly-needed cruisers.
AFTER the Battle of Drøbak Sound, the first major naval engagements of the Second World War took place, as will be described in chapters following.
Oslo's temporary reprieve ended. German troops occupied the city. King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav and the loyal members of parliament fled north; Vidkun Quisling was executing his coup d'etat. The situation looked bleak for Norway on the ground.
At sea, however, Brittania continued to rule the waves.To demonstrate the disparity, a look at the Royal Navy and Kreigsmarine:
Germany possessed no aircraft carriers, and had one, Graf Zeppelin beibg built; by the time of the invasion of Norway, the Royal Navy had eight, with ten more under construction.
The Royal Navy possessed nine modern battleships built to post Battle of Jutland designs, all armed with 16" guns. Of this number, the Nelson and Triumph classes comprised four ships each, and the remaing ship, King George V was the lead ship of her class of 7. *(see insert G)
Three additional ships from the 1937 Programme (Queen Mary, Prince of Wales, Duke of York) were due to be commissioned in 1940; and two from the 1938 Programme (Lion, Temeraire) to be commissioned in 1941.
The seventh, Vanguard, was split off from the 1938 Programme, to be laid down in 1939 to a slightly revised design.
The "KGVs" were designed and built as "Treaty Battleships". The 1937 Paris Naval Treaty specified a maximum of 42 000 tons at standard load for new battleships. An escalator clause was placed into the Treaty, allowing an escalation of 33%, to 56 000 tons. In either case, main gun caliber was not to exceed 16".
The contemporary American Louisiana class battleships, and Italian Vittorio Veneto class battleships met this limit too, as did French battleships Richelieu and Jean Bart before their modernizations beginning in 1953.
Vanguard was originally intended to be a slight modification of the KGV, with a revised secondary battery and other improvements. An additional two ships, Conqueror and Thunderer, were proposed but never ordered nor assigned to shipyards.
Vanguard went through several redesigns, and the result was one quite different than the original plan; this will be addresed in a later chapter.
Germany, having signed the 1937 Treaty as well, possessed two small battleships.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were fast, capable ships, but were designed to counter the French Dunkerque class small battleships of some 26 000 tons; as well as operating against cruisers and as commerce raiders. Their 11" (280mm) guns simply lacked the punch to take on much larger British battleships.
To this end, Germany embarked on the construction of four new battleships, the Bismarck class. Bismarck was laid down in mid- 1935, Tirpitz in late 1935; Großer Kurfürst and Hindenburg in 1937 and 1938 respectively.
Of moderate length, great beam and shallow draughts, (848'x124'x30'), Bismarck in some ways more exhibited characteristics of older battleships. Her turrets were twin turrets, her armour was in distributed scheme as opposed to the all-or-nothing scheme favoured by the navies of Britain, the United States and Japan in particular. Her most scathing critics dismiss her as a ship designed with re-fighting Jutland in mind.
Bismarck also included a series of firsts. Capable of a rated 29.75 knots (although she achieved 30.01 on trials), her powerplant was unlike any other yet seen. She made a total of 160 000 horsepower. The wing shafts were powered by banks of MAN diesels, for 50 000 horsepower per shaft. The centre shaft was a turboelectric drive system; an electric motor was powered by a Brown-Boveri turbine with steam supplied by 4 ultra high pressure Wagner boilers, rated for 60 000 shp.
Her eight 16.5" guns were also the largest of any battleship of the time. They were originally built at a compliant 16" , but the guns were built to be bored out and barrels reseleeved. This choice was deliberate- Rheinmetall designed the hoists to be capable of accommodating both 16" (406 mm) and 16.5" (420 mm) projectiles. The turrets themselves were quite large for twin turrets, designed as such so they could accommodate separate powder and projectile hoists.
The mighty Bismarck, however, would not be ready in time for the naval battles off Norway.
The Kreigsmarine also lacked sufficient numbers of cruisers and destroyers. It is worth noting that the Imperial Japanese Navy lay down no battleships between 1937 and 1940, in order to clear the backlog of battleships requiring moderinization (and thus to learn from the innovations introduced), and to build more badly-needed cruisers.
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Primer B
Excerpts from "Fighting Ships of the Second World War". J. Willis, Penguin Books, 1957
Appendix "G"
BRITAIN'S renowned Royal Navy, in the early 1920s, found itself in an uncomfortable position. Britain had invented the dreadnought battleship- typified by an all-big-gun armament operating under director control, and steam turbine propulsion. First Sea Lord Sir John "Jackie" Fisher also developed the battlecruiser- a faster, longer ship with cruiser-like speed and battleship sized guns. Much larger machinery was required, and in these early days, was often provided by mixed-firing boilers: coal was sprayed with fuel oil to increase its burn rate and calorific values. One can imagine how truly horrible the conditions must have been for the firemen who kept these ships in motion.
The problem Britain faced, however, was that much of her Navy was obsolescent if not obsolete.
Her battleships were generally slow; the Revenge class, the newest at the end of the Great War, were only capable of 21 knots. The ships of the preceding Queen Elizabeth class was designed to be capable of 25 knots, but in their severely overweight condition, they could only manage 24. It was also found that battleships with an intermediate speed between battlecruisers and slow battleships had little additional usefulness, as they were bound to the speed of the slower ships in the battle line.
Guns, too, were of concern. The Royal Navy's BL 15" Mark I gun, a wire-wound gun of 42 calibers, was an excellent weapon, which fired a very heavy shell for its caliber. It had a low muzzle velocity, which gave the liners a long life at the cost of vertical penetration. However, the United States and Japan had both introduced 16" guns on their Colorado and Nagato classes respectively. Britain tested an 18" gun in a single mount on the battlecruiser Furious, but the gun proved too powerful for the ship's light structure. Firing it was reported to cause a hail of rivets to fly each time.
Britain's battlecruisers were also found to be dangerously deficient in protection, as the battle of Jutland demonstrated so clearly. The final capital ship that Britain had designed in this era, Hood, had her design revised several times to improve her armour, leaving her overweight and wet, although her great length,fineness and powerful machinery nonetheless allowed her to make her rated speed.
The only way to rectify this was a new generation of ships.
A series of proposals were drawn up, one for a new class of battlecruisers, and one for battleships. Using the letters of the alphabet, split in the middle and descending for the former, and ascending for the latter, the two winning proposals were the "G3" battlecruiser and the "N3" battleship. The former was designed to displace some 48 000 tons, carry 9 new 16" in three turrets, and achieve a speed of 32 knots and protected against 18" fire,. The latter, of similar displacement, was supposed to carry 9 18" guns, protected against the same, but at a much slower speed of 23 knots.
The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty restricted newly constructed capital ships to 16" guns, and the total tonnage of Britain's fleet of capital ships to 630 000 tons. To this end, all capital ship classes armed with 13.5" or smaller guns were scrapped, and the battlecruisers Courageous, Glorious and Furious, known to sailors as "Outrageous","Laborious" and 'Spurious" or collectively as "Fisher's Follies" were converted to aircraft carriers.
The "G3" design was accepted in a modified form, and became the Nelson class. The four ships in this class carry the names of great British admirals. The modifications represent slight departure from the original; it gave up protection against 18" shellfire (since such guns were banned), in exchange for 30' extra length amidships to protect the funnel uptakes and superstructure from her own blast, as her "Y" turret was installed between the two to shorten her citadel. Their machinery was also upgraded from 160 000 to 180 000 horsepower, and their bunkerage increased. This class was laid down in 1922, and construction proceeded at a slow, peacetime pace in civilian shipyards. They were only euphamistically called "battlecruisers"; their protection exceeded every preceding class of battleship, and they were the largest and heaviest warships in the world when completed. They were the world's first fully-realized fast battleships.
The "N3" design proved a greater challenge. It would have been the preference of the Admiralty to simply order an additional four Nelsons, but Parliament balked at the cost, and the other signatories were concerned about the great destructive potential held by the former class. The solution was an "economy" battleship; but one that would not be a second class ship at the outset like the Revenge class was. Designs "O3" and "P3" were rejected; their 23 and 25 knot speeds simply too slow. The design that won out was "Q3"; it became the Triumph class and carried on the lineage of many of the Royal Navy's most famous names. These ships had a very efficient hull form with significant transom, which made them somewhat difficult to handle in following swells, but were otherwise quite satisfactory. Their reduced length of 740', some 146' shorter than the Nelsons with the same beam made them able to utilize far more docks.
The Triumph class ships displaced some 40 000 tons, and carried all of their main armament forward. They also had four shafts, but with machinery half as powerful as the Nelsons. However, this still gave them a speed of some 28.25 knots; enviable for a battlecruiser of the preceding decade. Smaller and easier to complete, two were built in HM Dockyards and two were assigned to civilian shipbuilders. Although they spent their lives in the shadows of their predecessors, they were nonetheless excellent ships, and superior to most foreign contemporaries.
British cruisers of the 1920s and 1930s were built to conventional designs, compliant with the 10 000 ton displacement limit put into place in 1922 and confirmed at the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927, where "heavy" and "light" cruisers were defined, electing not to experiment with flight-deck cruisers.
This was in contrast to the other major naval powers, and meant there was no British equivalent to the American Syren (CLV-1) class light aviation cruisers of 1935 (which pioneered the use of an angled flight deck), or the Japanese Tone class heavy cruisers.
Appendix "G"
BRITAIN'S renowned Royal Navy, in the early 1920s, found itself in an uncomfortable position. Britain had invented the dreadnought battleship- typified by an all-big-gun armament operating under director control, and steam turbine propulsion. First Sea Lord Sir John "Jackie" Fisher also developed the battlecruiser- a faster, longer ship with cruiser-like speed and battleship sized guns. Much larger machinery was required, and in these early days, was often provided by mixed-firing boilers: coal was sprayed with fuel oil to increase its burn rate and calorific values. One can imagine how truly horrible the conditions must have been for the firemen who kept these ships in motion.
The problem Britain faced, however, was that much of her Navy was obsolescent if not obsolete.
Her battleships were generally slow; the Revenge class, the newest at the end of the Great War, were only capable of 21 knots. The ships of the preceding Queen Elizabeth class was designed to be capable of 25 knots, but in their severely overweight condition, they could only manage 24. It was also found that battleships with an intermediate speed between battlecruisers and slow battleships had little additional usefulness, as they were bound to the speed of the slower ships in the battle line.
Guns, too, were of concern. The Royal Navy's BL 15" Mark I gun, a wire-wound gun of 42 calibers, was an excellent weapon, which fired a very heavy shell for its caliber. It had a low muzzle velocity, which gave the liners a long life at the cost of vertical penetration. However, the United States and Japan had both introduced 16" guns on their Colorado and Nagato classes respectively. Britain tested an 18" gun in a single mount on the battlecruiser Furious, but the gun proved too powerful for the ship's light structure. Firing it was reported to cause a hail of rivets to fly each time.
Britain's battlecruisers were also found to be dangerously deficient in protection, as the battle of Jutland demonstrated so clearly. The final capital ship that Britain had designed in this era, Hood, had her design revised several times to improve her armour, leaving her overweight and wet, although her great length,fineness and powerful machinery nonetheless allowed her to make her rated speed.
The only way to rectify this was a new generation of ships.
A series of proposals were drawn up, one for a new class of battlecruisers, and one for battleships. Using the letters of the alphabet, split in the middle and descending for the former, and ascending for the latter, the two winning proposals were the "G3" battlecruiser and the "N3" battleship. The former was designed to displace some 48 000 tons, carry 9 new 16" in three turrets, and achieve a speed of 32 knots and protected against 18" fire,. The latter, of similar displacement, was supposed to carry 9 18" guns, protected against the same, but at a much slower speed of 23 knots.
The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty restricted newly constructed capital ships to 16" guns, and the total tonnage of Britain's fleet of capital ships to 630 000 tons. To this end, all capital ship classes armed with 13.5" or smaller guns were scrapped, and the battlecruisers Courageous, Glorious and Furious, known to sailors as "Outrageous","Laborious" and 'Spurious" or collectively as "Fisher's Follies" were converted to aircraft carriers.
The "G3" design was accepted in a modified form, and became the Nelson class. The four ships in this class carry the names of great British admirals. The modifications represent slight departure from the original; it gave up protection against 18" shellfire (since such guns were banned), in exchange for 30' extra length amidships to protect the funnel uptakes and superstructure from her own blast, as her "Y" turret was installed between the two to shorten her citadel. Their machinery was also upgraded from 160 000 to 180 000 horsepower, and their bunkerage increased. This class was laid down in 1922, and construction proceeded at a slow, peacetime pace in civilian shipyards. They were only euphamistically called "battlecruisers"; their protection exceeded every preceding class of battleship, and they were the largest and heaviest warships in the world when completed. They were the world's first fully-realized fast battleships.
The "N3" design proved a greater challenge. It would have been the preference of the Admiralty to simply order an additional four Nelsons, but Parliament balked at the cost, and the other signatories were concerned about the great destructive potential held by the former class. The solution was an "economy" battleship; but one that would not be a second class ship at the outset like the Revenge class was. Designs "O3" and "P3" were rejected; their 23 and 25 knot speeds simply too slow. The design that won out was "Q3"; it became the Triumph class and carried on the lineage of many of the Royal Navy's most famous names. These ships had a very efficient hull form with significant transom, which made them somewhat difficult to handle in following swells, but were otherwise quite satisfactory. Their reduced length of 740', some 146' shorter than the Nelsons with the same beam made them able to utilize far more docks.
The Triumph class ships displaced some 40 000 tons, and carried all of their main armament forward. They also had four shafts, but with machinery half as powerful as the Nelsons. However, this still gave them a speed of some 28.25 knots; enviable for a battlecruiser of the preceding decade. Smaller and easier to complete, two were built in HM Dockyards and two were assigned to civilian shipbuilders. Although they spent their lives in the shadows of their predecessors, they were nonetheless excellent ships, and superior to most foreign contemporaries.
British cruisers of the 1920s and 1930s were built to conventional designs, compliant with the 10 000 ton displacement limit put into place in 1922 and confirmed at the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927, where "heavy" and "light" cruisers were defined, electing not to experiment with flight-deck cruisers.
This was in contrast to the other major naval powers, and meant there was no British equivalent to the American Syren (CLV-1) class light aviation cruisers of 1935 (which pioneered the use of an angled flight deck), or the Japanese Tone class heavy cruisers.
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Crossing the Weser, Part 3
Oslo, Norway
April 20th, 1940
THE FUEHRER's birthday was today, so his German colleagues were celebrating.
Vidkun Quisling, however, was restless.
The reports from the North were becoming more desperate. The remnant of the Army that had remained loyal to the King- which was most of it- continued its advance southward, bolstered by a brigade of Royal Marines. Attempts to retake Trondheim had failed, and the Royal Navy was able to supply them by sea, virtually unchallenged. An attempt to land Gebirgsjaeger at Tromso ended in disaster- the ships were spotted by a fishing boat, of all things, which reported it to the Royal Navy via partisans. Armed transports with a torpedo boat escort do not stand up well to heavy cruisers, as it turns out.
Bergen was now threatened.
Partisans also aided them everywhere, and confounded his forces equally. One couldn't turn their head without seeing a royal cypher grafitto,
He was an unpopular man abroad, by all accounts. French editorials mocked him. He was booed during Pathe newsreels in London. In Tokyo, a special venom was reserved for him; the Japanese, with their devotion to their Emperor and rigidly defined sense of honour. Quisling did not see anything dignified about propaganda posters that displayed him gored on a Viking's horned helmet, or licking Hitler's boots either.
The Germans too, undermined him at every turn. Their toady, Terboven was a thoroughly dull-witted and disagreeable man, was nonetheless angling for power. The King had declared Quisling's government unlawful; and rejected too the Administrative Council on the 16th of April, with little deliberation. Since then, the Germans treated him like a junior partner, and he battled to remain relevant. Did they not know, he thought that it was none other than he, Quisling, who had reached out first?
The Germans, as much as they tried to hide it, also became nervous. Their navy had been, and continued to be savaged. Nearly everything larger than a torpedo boat had been sunk or damaged, and now the flow of supplies was starting to slow- five transport ships had been lost last week. The British were emboldened. Their utterly mad destroyermen would charge at anything and try to sink it. Aircraft now began to harass shipping in the Baltic.
The consequences of that, were that now supply shortages began to crop up in key places. One battalion did not receive new boots here, a company got less ammunition or three-quarters rations there.
What Quisling didn't know was that German shipyards weren't able to make good the losses. Steel was earmarked for something else. Something bigger than this...
April 20th, 1940
THE FUEHRER's birthday was today, so his German colleagues were celebrating.
Vidkun Quisling, however, was restless.
The reports from the North were becoming more desperate. The remnant of the Army that had remained loyal to the King- which was most of it- continued its advance southward, bolstered by a brigade of Royal Marines. Attempts to retake Trondheim had failed, and the Royal Navy was able to supply them by sea, virtually unchallenged. An attempt to land Gebirgsjaeger at Tromso ended in disaster- the ships were spotted by a fishing boat, of all things, which reported it to the Royal Navy via partisans. Armed transports with a torpedo boat escort do not stand up well to heavy cruisers, as it turns out.
Bergen was now threatened.
Partisans also aided them everywhere, and confounded his forces equally. One couldn't turn their head without seeing a royal cypher grafitto,
He was an unpopular man abroad, by all accounts. French editorials mocked him. He was booed during Pathe newsreels in London. In Tokyo, a special venom was reserved for him; the Japanese, with their devotion to their Emperor and rigidly defined sense of honour. Quisling did not see anything dignified about propaganda posters that displayed him gored on a Viking's horned helmet, or licking Hitler's boots either.
The Germans too, undermined him at every turn. Their toady, Terboven was a thoroughly dull-witted and disagreeable man, was nonetheless angling for power. The King had declared Quisling's government unlawful; and rejected too the Administrative Council on the 16th of April, with little deliberation. Since then, the Germans treated him like a junior partner, and he battled to remain relevant. Did they not know, he thought that it was none other than he, Quisling, who had reached out first?
The Germans, as much as they tried to hide it, also became nervous. Their navy had been, and continued to be savaged. Nearly everything larger than a torpedo boat had been sunk or damaged, and now the flow of supplies was starting to slow- five transport ships had been lost last week. The British were emboldened. Their utterly mad destroyermen would charge at anything and try to sink it. Aircraft now began to harass shipping in the Baltic.
The consequences of that, were that now supply shortages began to crop up in key places. One battalion did not receive new boots here, a company got less ammunition or three-quarters rations there.
What Quisling didn't know was that German shipyards weren't able to make good the losses. Steel was earmarked for something else. Something bigger than this...
Audacity counts for a lot, but iron is a completely different metric!
Still, Germany manages to hold the south of Norway including Oslo, the ports of Kristjansand, Egerslund and Stavanger.
U-Boote make the Baltic a dangerous place for the Royal Navy to operate; they are concerned especially since the audacious sinking of the battleship Royal Oak at her anchorage in Scapa Flow by Gunther Prein the year prior.
As for the world at large:
Italy, at this point, remains neutral. The United States is too, and their eyes are on Japan and her conquests in China. This requires Britain to maintain a force in the Mediterranean, as the French battleships of the Richelieu class are not yet complete.
As for Japan, the Kwantung Army has advanced west, into Inner Mongolia. General Tojo is under strict orders not to provoke a war with the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the Panzer Is that the Chinese forces have must be coming from somewhere...
The Imperial Japanese Navy is clearing up the backlog of ships ordered in the late 1930s. A second flight of four Agano class light cruisers, two additional Tone class heavy cruisers near completion, and the larger portion of an order of 56 Akizuki class destroyers are well underway (having been laid down in 1939); the aircraft carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku are slated for completion in 1941.
After the incident, Hyuga was heavily modified, as was her sister Ise; becoming hybrid carriers with guns and superstructure aft of the funnels removed. The Fuso class ships, the IJN's traning ships in the interwar years, had similar conversions, albeit retaining 3 turrets instead of 2.
This clears the way for the following ships.
Final revisions are being made to the designs of the Yamato class battleships; three are to be laid down either in late 1940 or early 41; as is the large, angled-deck aircraft carrier Taiho. Five additional but smaller carriers, the Unryuu class (essentially repeats of Hiryu but with angled decks) have also been ordered, as well as the remainder of 56 Akizuki class destroyers. Three large light cruisers, the Oyodo class, have been authorized, two configured in a relatively conventional layout to lead destroyer flotillas, (essentially enlarged Aganos) and the lead ship as a submarine leader. Work is also progressing on very large experimental submarines...
The United States is reinforcing the Philippines, with General Walter Krueger arriving in December 1939 with a division. The USA is also ramping up highly ambitious naval construction. The 1940 construction program includes, reportedly, four small battleships, eight battleships and twenty-four aircraft carriers (US Ships Wasp, Hornet, Scorpion and Firefly accelerated to 1939), with the goal of a Two Ocean Navy, Second to None.
General Von Manstein is working on Fall Gelb.
The Soviet Union is not overly concerned about Japan; any serious attempt at invasion will not get very far. Japan is primarily a naval power, with a small army and one with little armour, albeit an army with excellent aircraft. Stalin, however, does not trust Hitler. He begins to prepare for an invasion from the West, although the purges have weakened the Red Army.
France too is nervous; les Boches have been waiting to avenge Versailles for years.
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