Operation Torch will not be decisive. Probably end up in a quagmire but one that prevents an Axis Monarchist victory over the British Commonwealth. The Japanese invasion of Australia, on the other hand, will be a disaster. It's biting off more than the Japanese can chew
The Co-Prosperity Sphere
- Thread starter CountofDooku
- Start date
Totally, instead of freeing Japanese Forces this to big too extendet stupid plan will tie down nearly a whole Japanese Army in Australia at the End without any significant gains. ;D
They’re taking one for the team and depriving the Brits of their Australian troops.
Yes, I agree. Operationally, the Japanese are bogged down, but strategically they've compromised the Allied defenses in Egypt by causing a mutiny among Australian troops when the British refused to allow them to return to defend Australia.
Operations and tactics mean nothing compared to the grand strategy.
When this war is over, I can see Australia going through massive nationalist sentiment that causes military expansion and for it to become a regional power
Maybe for short, but not on the long run with the C-PS a a growing and booming power base north (beginning in the 50s/60s and then growing once again in the 80s/90s or so). The second the Japanese force Australia to primerely trade with them and to open up to Japanese immigraton, any chance of Australian regional power and influence wil be gone.
Chapter 445: Basil's at his Best
Chapter 445: Basil's at his Best:
Outside of the so called Russian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), the Ukrainian SSR had been the Second most important inside the Soviet Union. It consisted of 443,000 km² or 275,300 mi² and 32 ,000,000 million people. The true Ukrainian settlement region however consisted of totally 760,000 km² or 472,300 mi². Out of this outside of the Ukrainian SSR settled Ukrainian ethnic region, 144,000 km² or 89,500 mi² belonged to the Russian SSR, 132,000 km² or 82,020 mi² in Poland, 17,600 km² or 10,940mi² in Romania and 14,800 km² or 9,200mi² in Czechslowakia. The independence of the Ukrainian people that was realized in 1648 after three centuries of suppression, was quickly lost again after only one century. The attempt to regain this independence after the First Great War, to seperate themselves from Greater-Russia, did not succeed either. The Ukrainian people however never stopped to believe that some day, they would on the base of their own ethnic settled lands erect a independent Ukrainian Nation State once again. Because of that, the Ukrainian SSR was a growing threat to the Soviet Rulers in Moscow, as it refused despite all repression, starvation and terror to give up it's Ukrainian identity.
Quiet the contrary, the Ukrainian the down-home and anti-communist roots of the Ukrainians hardened inside of them, even if it was deadly to show them to the outside world. The Nationalist tendencies of the Ukrainians was a in this chase growing problem for the Soviet rule from Moscow, as the Ukrainian SSR conentrated a huge amount of the economic power of the Soviet Union inside it's borders. The Ukraine was the major breadbasket for the Soviet Union, and in the Donetz region had it's biggest industrial region inside it's borders. The coal and iron ore from there powered the heavy industry and armament centers of the Soviet Union. The development of industrial regions and the water power station Dnjeprostroi only increased the industrial importance of the Ukrainian SSR. The Ukrainian harbors at the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov were one of the most important gateways of the Soviet Union into the Oceans of the World. With the creation of industrial centers in Central Asia and Siberia, the development of a agrarian region in the North and East, Moscow tried it's best to become more independent from the Ukrainian SSR and to decrease the political independence of the Ukrainian SSR.
This might have worked, had the Axis Central Powers not esablished the Kingdom of Ukrainia under Archduke Wilhelm Franz of Austria, later Wilhelm Franz von Habsburg-Lothringen, also known as Basil the Embroidered (Ukrainian: Василь Вишиваний, translit. Vasyl Vyshyvani, known as King E.K.S. Vasyl I. Vyshyvanyi von Habsburg) and the Red Prince/ King. Out of the former Polish eastern provinced of Poleskie with 36,700 km² or 22,804 mi² (with a population of 1,132,200) and Volhynian with 35,700 km² or 22,182 mi² (with a population of 2,085,600) formed the new Ukrainian Kingdom. However the Ukrainian settled Polish Provinces of Tarnopol with 16,500 km² or 10,253 mi² (with a population of 1,600,400), Stanislawów with 16,900 km² or 10,501 mi² (with a populaton of 1,480,300) and Lwów with 28,400 km² or 17,647 mi² (with a population of 3,126,300) became part of the Autria-Hungarian Empire, while in their majority Ukainian, became part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, instead of another part of the King of Ukrainia under Vasyl I Vyshyvanyi.
While Basil/ Vayl was not bothered that much by this, just like his Cossack, Polish and even some Russian subects in the newly independent Ukrainian Kingdom, many Ukrainian National Monarchists were outraged, that the region was not part of a Greater Kingdom of Ukrainia. Meawhile many Goten-Deutsche (Gothic-Germans alias Ukrainian-Germans) secretly supported this move, wishing for a Germanistion of the Autria-Hungarian Empir and the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. They even proposed to resettle the Ukrainians there into the Kingdom of Ukrainia, in exhange for Germans from Austria or the Ukraine, a idea heavily supported in Vienna. Basil/ Vasil manwhile in his Kingdom of Ukrainia with it's 515,400 km² or 320,286 mi² and 22,000,000 to 29,800,000 nagotiated a deal to appease the Ukrainian Nationalists, who wished to annex parts of the other ethnic Ukrainian regions (by now Austria-Hungary, Romania and Russia), to unite them into the Greater Ukrainian Kingdom of 760,000 km² or 472,300 mi². King Basil/ Vasil's deal with Austria-Hungary allowed for Ukrainian authonomy inside of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and to even elect their own government and send these elected into the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council or parliament) of the Kingdom of Ukrainia as part of the Ukrainian constitutional monarchy.
Other ethnic and regional goals of the Ukrainian National, lik claiming and taking land from Romania Kingdom and the newly established Empire of Russia were not aimed as strong by Basil/ Vasil as by Ukrainian Nationalists. Mainly because King Basil/ Vasil knew that good relation with the Russian Empire were as important as good relations with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Basil realized that with the Finnish Kingdom, the United Baltic Duchy , the Neo-Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus Region and the Imperial Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere (mainly the Empire of Manchuria) claiming and conquering Soviet Union and Russian Borderlands, the remaining Russian harbors at the Black Sea became much more important or them. So Basil or Vasil of the Kingdom of Ukrainia meet with the Ukrainian Nationalists and declared them that with the Austria-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire as their main allies in the Region it was best to not anger them with territorial claims.
Further more Basil/ Vasil told them, that if the Ukrainians playied their cards right, both side would protect their independence from the other, fearing ech other to gain more power and that with the German Empire also depending on their grain and iron ore, the Ukrainian Kingdom would also get it's independence granted by them and could become a major independent and influential power inside the Axis Central Powers and Europe. In further support of Ukrainian Nationalism and his own Monarchism, therefore the ruling Ukrainian National Monarhism, King Basil the Embroidered/ Vasyl Vyshyvani announced the Vyshyvanka (Ukrainian: вишива́нка or виши́ванка) Day, named after the colloquial name for the embroidered shirt in Ukrainian and Belarusian national costumes. Vyshyvankas were distinguished by local embroidery features, that Basil/ Vasil himelf wore and earned his nickname from. From this day onward, on Vyshyvanka Day, Ukrainian Culture, Tradition and Values were celebrted and it beame the second most important Ukrainian Kingdom holiday after the Ukrainian Independence Day itself.
Outside of the so called Russian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), the Ukrainian SSR had been the Second most important inside the Soviet Union. It consisted of 443,000 km² or 275,300 mi² and 32 ,000,000 million people. The true Ukrainian settlement region however consisted of totally 760,000 km² or 472,300 mi². Out of this outside of the Ukrainian SSR settled Ukrainian ethnic region, 144,000 km² or 89,500 mi² belonged to the Russian SSR, 132,000 km² or 82,020 mi² in Poland, 17,600 km² or 10,940mi² in Romania and 14,800 km² or 9,200mi² in Czechslowakia. The independence of the Ukrainian people that was realized in 1648 after three centuries of suppression, was quickly lost again after only one century. The attempt to regain this independence after the First Great War, to seperate themselves from Greater-Russia, did not succeed either. The Ukrainian people however never stopped to believe that some day, they would on the base of their own ethnic settled lands erect a independent Ukrainian Nation State once again. Because of that, the Ukrainian SSR was a growing threat to the Soviet Rulers in Moscow, as it refused despite all repression, starvation and terror to give up it's Ukrainian identity.
Quiet the contrary, the Ukrainian the down-home and anti-communist roots of the Ukrainians hardened inside of them, even if it was deadly to show them to the outside world. The Nationalist tendencies of the Ukrainians was a in this chase growing problem for the Soviet rule from Moscow, as the Ukrainian SSR conentrated a huge amount of the economic power of the Soviet Union inside it's borders. The Ukraine was the major breadbasket for the Soviet Union, and in the Donetz region had it's biggest industrial region inside it's borders. The coal and iron ore from there powered the heavy industry and armament centers of the Soviet Union. The development of industrial regions and the water power station Dnjeprostroi only increased the industrial importance of the Ukrainian SSR. The Ukrainian harbors at the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov were one of the most important gateways of the Soviet Union into the Oceans of the World. With the creation of industrial centers in Central Asia and Siberia, the development of a agrarian region in the North and East, Moscow tried it's best to become more independent from the Ukrainian SSR and to decrease the political independence of the Ukrainian SSR.
This might have worked, had the Axis Central Powers not esablished the Kingdom of Ukrainia under Archduke Wilhelm Franz of Austria, later Wilhelm Franz von Habsburg-Lothringen, also known as Basil the Embroidered (Ukrainian: Василь Вишиваний, translit. Vasyl Vyshyvani, known as King E.K.S. Vasyl I. Vyshyvanyi von Habsburg) and the Red Prince/ King. Out of the former Polish eastern provinced of Poleskie with 36,700 km² or 22,804 mi² (with a population of 1,132,200) and Volhynian with 35,700 km² or 22,182 mi² (with a population of 2,085,600) formed the new Ukrainian Kingdom. However the Ukrainian settled Polish Provinces of Tarnopol with 16,500 km² or 10,253 mi² (with a population of 1,600,400), Stanislawów with 16,900 km² or 10,501 mi² (with a populaton of 1,480,300) and Lwów with 28,400 km² or 17,647 mi² (with a population of 3,126,300) became part of the Autria-Hungarian Empire, while in their majority Ukainian, became part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, instead of another part of the King of Ukrainia under Vasyl I Vyshyvanyi.
While Basil/ Vayl was not bothered that much by this, just like his Cossack, Polish and even some Russian subects in the newly independent Ukrainian Kingdom, many Ukrainian National Monarchists were outraged, that the region was not part of a Greater Kingdom of Ukrainia. Meawhile many Goten-Deutsche (Gothic-Germans alias Ukrainian-Germans) secretly supported this move, wishing for a Germanistion of the Autria-Hungarian Empir and the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. They even proposed to resettle the Ukrainians there into the Kingdom of Ukrainia, in exhange for Germans from Austria or the Ukraine, a idea heavily supported in Vienna. Basil/ Vasil manwhile in his Kingdom of Ukrainia with it's 515,400 km² or 320,286 mi² and 22,000,000 to 29,800,000 nagotiated a deal to appease the Ukrainian Nationalists, who wished to annex parts of the other ethnic Ukrainian regions (by now Austria-Hungary, Romania and Russia), to unite them into the Greater Ukrainian Kingdom of 760,000 km² or 472,300 mi². King Basil/ Vasil's deal with Austria-Hungary allowed for Ukrainian authonomy inside of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and to even elect their own government and send these elected into the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council or parliament) of the Kingdom of Ukrainia as part of the Ukrainian constitutional monarchy.
Other ethnic and regional goals of the Ukrainian National, lik claiming and taking land from Romania Kingdom and the newly established Empire of Russia were not aimed as strong by Basil/ Vasil as by Ukrainian Nationalists. Mainly because King Basil/ Vasil knew that good relation with the Russian Empire were as important as good relations with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Basil realized that with the Finnish Kingdom, the United Baltic Duchy , the Neo-Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus Region and the Imperial Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere (mainly the Empire of Manchuria) claiming and conquering Soviet Union and Russian Borderlands, the remaining Russian harbors at the Black Sea became much more important or them. So Basil or Vasil of the Kingdom of Ukrainia meet with the Ukrainian Nationalists and declared them that with the Austria-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire as their main allies in the Region it was best to not anger them with territorial claims.
Further more Basil/ Vasil told them, that if the Ukrainians playied their cards right, both side would protect their independence from the other, fearing ech other to gain more power and that with the German Empire also depending on their grain and iron ore, the Ukrainian Kingdom would also get it's independence granted by them and could become a major independent and influential power inside the Axis Central Powers and Europe. In further support of Ukrainian Nationalism and his own Monarchism, therefore the ruling Ukrainian National Monarhism, King Basil the Embroidered/ Vasyl Vyshyvani announced the Vyshyvanka (Ukrainian: вишива́нка or виши́ванка) Day, named after the colloquial name for the embroidered shirt in Ukrainian and Belarusian national costumes. Vyshyvankas were distinguished by local embroidery features, that Basil/ Vasil himelf wore and earned his nickname from. From this day onward, on Vyshyvanka Day, Ukrainian Culture, Tradition and Values were celebrted and it beame the second most important Ukrainian Kingdom holiday after the Ukrainian Independence Day itself.
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Basil the Embroidered:"exists"
Ukrainians:
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/203/777/19e.png
Ukrainians:
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/203/777/19e.png
Chapter 446: Imperial Japan and the Japanese Sea
Chapter 446: Imperial Japan and the Japanese Sea:
Against a attack by the great Anglosaxon Seapowers, or any other naval power, the Empire of Japan had a natural protection, thanks to it's especially well location in the world. The enormous ways anyone had to travel to Japan, undermined any fighting power and potential of even the American and British Navies immensely. The way from Singapore to Yokohama alone is nearly 3,000 km or 1,864 miles long. Therefore it is highly unlikely that all light and heavy ships of any naval power would be able to cross this distance without problems. And even if a march northwards could be made without any issue, the true problems only started then. The strongly divided, long Japanese coast full of bays allow a ideal field of operations for the Imperial Japanese Navy, it's sumarines, cruiser, destroyers, battleships, carriers and their fighters and bombers, against any enemy fleet.
One of the biggest possible and most serious dangers for the Island Nation of Japan, was a blockade. But even in the worst chase scenario, the Empire of Japan still had the opportunity to increase the ecnomic power of the other Co-Prosperity Sphere nations it controlled as puppets or depending territories on the Asian mainlans, to limit the poblems chased by any bockade. To do so the Mice-trap for enemy fleets, that was the Japanese Sea, had to be secured by coastal artillery, minefields in the straits and the own Japanese Navy and it's Army and Naval airforce. Whoever wished to hurt Japan here had to dare move into the Japanese Sea with his fleet somehow, but this was a dangerous and daring task. The only power who had no such problems for some time, was the Soviet Union, who had a fortified harbor position directly at the Japanese Sea with Vladiwostok, a torne in the Japanese flesh. While the Soviets had heavily fortified the harbor city and heavily increased their Far East Fleet there. But their airplanes and fleet (fifthy to sixthy submarines estimated the Japanese). With only 1,000 km or 621 miles afar from the ten Millions of Japanese in the Area of Tokio-Osaka-Kobe. Because the Soviets heavily increased their position from Vladiwostok to the Mongolian People's Republic, the Empire of Japanese, Chosen/ Korea and Manchukuo together with the Mengjiang Khanate increased their own build up in the region.
To deal with this growing threat, the Imperial Japanese Army decided for Hokushin-ron, the Northern Expansion Doctrine/ Northern Road and eliminated the Soviet Red Army and Red Navy in the Area with a surprise attack alongside Chosen and Manchurian forces. With the Soviet Far East conquered, Karafuto (Sachalin) in Imperial Japanese and the Rest in Imperial Manchurian hands, the northern Danger from the Soviet Union was gone. The Co-Prosperity Sphere suddenly ruled all coasts and straits of the Japanese Sea (also known as Eastern Chosen Sea in Korea/Chosen, or Eastern Manchurian Sea in Manchuria) and found itself in a unique and promising situation. Japan or it's allies and vassals/ puppets of the Co-Prosperity Sphere had supreme power over all of the Japanese Sea allowing them to use the Region in a similar way then the Empire of Germany and the Axis Central Powers used the Teutonic Sea (or Baltic Sea), as a secure training ground for their ships and larger naval maneuvers.
As well as a well defended area for future naval production, with new shipyards and harbors, to increase the secure trade in the Japanese Sea between the Japanese Home Islands and the Co-Prosperity Sphere member States and Nations on the Asian mainland. The Kempeitai together with the Imperial Japanese, Chosen and Manchurian Army and Navy forces therefore heavily secured the coastal area of the Japanese Sea and even controlled and questioned local fishermen and trade ship crews on a regular basis or even prevented them from enterin certain zones of the Japanese Sea. This way the Japanese Sea became a secure production, training and development region for the Japanese Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, ever since they managed to conquer and secure the region for themselves. Evil and anti-Japanese or anti-Co-Prosperity Sphere voices would often contemptuous and joking called the Japanese Sea the Japanese Bathtub, because of it.
Against a attack by the great Anglosaxon Seapowers, or any other naval power, the Empire of Japan had a natural protection, thanks to it's especially well location in the world. The enormous ways anyone had to travel to Japan, undermined any fighting power and potential of even the American and British Navies immensely. The way from Singapore to Yokohama alone is nearly 3,000 km or 1,864 miles long. Therefore it is highly unlikely that all light and heavy ships of any naval power would be able to cross this distance without problems. And even if a march northwards could be made without any issue, the true problems only started then. The strongly divided, long Japanese coast full of bays allow a ideal field of operations for the Imperial Japanese Navy, it's sumarines, cruiser, destroyers, battleships, carriers and their fighters and bombers, against any enemy fleet.
One of the biggest possible and most serious dangers for the Island Nation of Japan, was a blockade. But even in the worst chase scenario, the Empire of Japan still had the opportunity to increase the ecnomic power of the other Co-Prosperity Sphere nations it controlled as puppets or depending territories on the Asian mainlans, to limit the poblems chased by any bockade. To do so the Mice-trap for enemy fleets, that was the Japanese Sea, had to be secured by coastal artillery, minefields in the straits and the own Japanese Navy and it's Army and Naval airforce. Whoever wished to hurt Japan here had to dare move into the Japanese Sea with his fleet somehow, but this was a dangerous and daring task. The only power who had no such problems for some time, was the Soviet Union, who had a fortified harbor position directly at the Japanese Sea with Vladiwostok, a torne in the Japanese flesh. While the Soviets had heavily fortified the harbor city and heavily increased their Far East Fleet there. But their airplanes and fleet (fifthy to sixthy submarines estimated the Japanese). With only 1,000 km or 621 miles afar from the ten Millions of Japanese in the Area of Tokio-Osaka-Kobe. Because the Soviets heavily increased their position from Vladiwostok to the Mongolian People's Republic, the Empire of Japanese, Chosen/ Korea and Manchukuo together with the Mengjiang Khanate increased their own build up in the region.
To deal with this growing threat, the Imperial Japanese Army decided for Hokushin-ron, the Northern Expansion Doctrine/ Northern Road and eliminated the Soviet Red Army and Red Navy in the Area with a surprise attack alongside Chosen and Manchurian forces. With the Soviet Far East conquered, Karafuto (Sachalin) in Imperial Japanese and the Rest in Imperial Manchurian hands, the northern Danger from the Soviet Union was gone. The Co-Prosperity Sphere suddenly ruled all coasts and straits of the Japanese Sea (also known as Eastern Chosen Sea in Korea/Chosen, or Eastern Manchurian Sea in Manchuria) and found itself in a unique and promising situation. Japan or it's allies and vassals/ puppets of the Co-Prosperity Sphere had supreme power over all of the Japanese Sea allowing them to use the Region in a similar way then the Empire of Germany and the Axis Central Powers used the Teutonic Sea (or Baltic Sea), as a secure training ground for their ships and larger naval maneuvers.
As well as a well defended area for future naval production, with new shipyards and harbors, to increase the secure trade in the Japanese Sea between the Japanese Home Islands and the Co-Prosperity Sphere member States and Nations on the Asian mainland. The Kempeitai together with the Imperial Japanese, Chosen and Manchurian Army and Navy forces therefore heavily secured the coastal area of the Japanese Sea and even controlled and questioned local fishermen and trade ship crews on a regular basis or even prevented them from enterin certain zones of the Japanese Sea. This way the Japanese Sea became a secure production, training and development region for the Japanese Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, ever since they managed to conquer and secure the region for themselves. Evil and anti-Japanese or anti-Co-Prosperity Sphere voices would often contemptuous and joking called the Japanese Sea the Japanese Bathtub, because of it.
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Chaper 447: The African Campaign – Part 9: Second Battle of El Alamain
Chaper 447: The African Campaign – Part 9: Second Battle of El Alamain:
General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel had learned from the Battle of Alam el Halfa, where he had tried to bypass the strong Allied (mainly British) defences in the south, only to be stopped by stron Allied positions on the Alam Halfa Ridge/ Alam-el-Halfa Ridge and a Allied counter-offensive from the Ruweisat Ridge. Still Rommel had learned from the Battle that the British defences in the South, were the Greek Brigade, the Free French and the British 44th and 50th Divisions alongside the 22nd and 23 Armored Brigade and the 7th Armored Divison were positioned, the Allied defences were at their weakest. Knowing from Axis Central Powers bombing raids from Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus on the northern British and Commonwealth positions directly in El Alamein, Rommel knew that the enemy was building up massive forces and could soon overwhealm him if this continued. This Allied Army build up was slowed down by pro-German, pro-Axis Central Powers and pro-Egypt independence, Egypt spies and saboteurs, who blew up parts of the Allied supply railways towards El Alamein and even startet some minor protests, strike as well as even local uprisings against British rule in Alexandria and Cairo. Axis Central Power bombers therefore targeted the roads and railwas from Cairo and Alexandria to El Alamein, now that Allied convoys from the west were impossible, with Gibraltar and Malta firm in Axis Central Power hands. Rommel knew that time was playing against him, but luckily thanks to the recent victories in Russia and the Imperial German High Command and the German Emperor Wilhelms hope to start Mohammedan unrest from Egypt to India, he received fresh and new forces for Northern Africa, even if some of the German supplies and forces moved further west and south, the incoming Italians forces were joined by a few Austrian-Hungarian motorized and infantry division, while most Fascist French and Spanish forces together with some of the German reinforcemens moved west and south from North Africa, instead of east. Rommel knew that the Allied had massed their forces in the North, including the British 1st and 10th Armored Division, the British 51st Highlander Division, the 9h Ausralian Division, the 2nd New Zealand Division, the 4th Indian Division and he 1st South African Divison. They faced the Italian 102nd Trento, 25th Bologna and 7th Bersa Divisions and Brigades, while the Italian 101st Trieste, 133rd Littorio Divisions and the Austrian-Hungarian Infantry and Tank divisions, together with the German 90th Light Division defended the secondary defence line, should the Allies manage to break trought the first one and the Axis Central Power minefields and defensive positions.
In the South of the Frontline, where the 44th British Infantry Division and the 1st Free French Brigade massed forces for a faint assault, Rommel entrusted the Italian Divison 17th Pavia, 132nd Ariete and a Austria-Hungarian support Division of Infantry and Light Motorized to hold the frontline in support of their defences by the Axis Central Power minefields there. The Center however, where the Allies had the Greek Brigade, the British 50th Infantry Division and the British 7th Armored Division as reserves, General Field Marshall Rommel planned his major assault. The plan was to use mockup trucks and tanks in the north to convince the Allies that he had more troops then he truly had, while his main forces, consisting of the Italian 27th Brescia Division, the German 164th Light Division as well as the German 15th and 21st Tank Divisions together with some Austrian-Hungarian prepared their main push. When the Allies attacked in the North and South on September 23, 1942, after increasing German and Italian bombing runs on their positions, Rommel waited till their first assault was stopped by Axis Cnetral Powers reinforcements and reserves. The Allies then started to attack again, but weaker this time, the moment Rommel had waited for. With the bulk of his own forces, he penetraed the weak Allied center between the Ruweisat Ridge and the Munassib Depression, forcing the 7th (in the South) and 10th (in the North) British Armored Divisons to come to the resque. The Axis Central Powers northern front had given a little bit of terrain, but the Eight Army under Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery had fallen for Rommel's trick, mostly because the Allies could not believe after the Axis Central Powers heavy bombardment and scouting of their Northern position, that the main Battle could happen anywhere except there. Rommels main oush was brutal and quick and soon some British and Greek forces were wavering. Because the Ruweisat Ridge and the Munassib Depression hindered to quick Allied counters, his forces pushed quiet far east, rendering the southern Free French and British forces cut off from the northern and eastern rest of their army.
Taking Alam Nayil, Rommel used the Allied confusion to his advantage and pushed further east towards Alam el Halfa once again, knowing that if the Allied had massed so much of their forces north, for a offensive, that the remainign forces there would not be as heavy and well defendet then last time, and that this time they would also lack the support of the main Armroed British Divisions. Because of this decision, the rush eastwards to Alam el Halfa became a race between the Germans, Austrian-Hungarians and Italians on the offensive and the retreating British 50th Infantry Divisions, the Greek Brigade and the 7th british Armored Division, as well as the more southern Free French Brigade and the 44th British Infantry Division, who feared to be cut off from the rest of the Alleid forces and be annihilated by another one of Rommels quick advances. It was Rommel's own myth now that helped the Axis Central Powers main assault in the center and caused a Allied rout and panick in the south, with more and more Greek, French and British forces there falling back in fear of a encirclement and surrounding by Axis Central Power Forces. Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery on the other hand meanwhile realized that this Axis Central Powers breaktrought, his own fleeing southern forces (by now attacked by the following Italians and Austrian-Hungarians) and the retreating Allied center, combined with the southward curve of the great Qattara Depression meant, that the Axis Central Powers Army now had a good chance to break trought in the south, cut off his army in two there and defeat them too quick for his own reserves and reinforcements to arrive from the Northwest, where they were massed.
The Second Battle of El Alamain would be one of the true mysteries of history, later historicans would compare it to Cannae, a reversed Cannae of some kind that is, since Montgomery's Army still outmatched that of Rommel in numbers of all kind. But the German's daring push trought the weak Allied Center, away from their northern massed bulk of the Allied forces caused the southern Allied front to panic and a mass retread started. Montgomery ordered the Allied forces falling back to form a new souhern defence line along their prepared positiond along the Alam al Halfa Ridge, were parts of the 44th British Infantry Division, the British 50th Infantry Division, the British 7th Armored Division and the 1st Free French Brigade managed to form a new defensive line all the way east to the cities and towns of El Ruweusat and Hamman, to keep the Allied railways to the main defences and forces in El Alamain open. Rommel however had hoped for the Allies to move like this and used the last of his reserves and the remaining fuel (dropped by the German transport Airship Lettow-Vorbeck shortly before the Battle) to turn east, cross the undefendet desert and surround the still superior Allied Army in El Alemain, just like the Axis Central Powers had done in Tobruk before. Until October 11, 1942 the Axis Central Powers bombing on the remaining Allied positions increased and despite deadly dogfights over the area and scouting by each side, Rommel managed to convince Montgomery with his earlier victory and dummies, that he at least had a equal army compared to his, while in reality the Axis Central Powers still had fewer numbers and whould have crumbled under a massed Allied counter-offensive. So Montgomery orders his massed forces to break out of the surroundet position, eastwards. The majority of the Eight Army escaped eastwars to Alexandria, were a new defensive position was quickly build, but the damage was done. The Axis Central Power Forces now had the opportunity to advance further into Egypt, threaten Cairo, the Suez Canal, and the western flank of the Middle Eastern Front. Ever since the end of Operation Crusader, in late 1941 Allied forces had lost to that of the Axis Central Powers in northern Africa. Rommel immediately made plans for further operations to take Egypt after receiving more reinforcements to garrison and secure his now even more overstretched supply lines. The Axis Central Powers Offensive deeper into Egypt, was unwillingly supported by the Co-Prosperity Sphere and Japan, with their Invasion of Darwin in Australia on December 8, 1942 , leading to the uprising of Australian soldiers in Africa and the Middle East who wished to return home to defend their homeland from Invasion, instead of fighting for the British Empire on the other half of the world. This first Commonwealth Forces Crisis had a huge impact on Allied morale, when the Indian forces did something similar during the 1943 Japanese, Burmese, Yankoku, Tibetan and Indian National Army Invasion (Liberation Offensive) into Assam and Benghal as a reaction to a British and Allied Offensive into Burma earlier in 1943.
General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel had learned from the Battle of Alam el Halfa, where he had tried to bypass the strong Allied (mainly British) defences in the south, only to be stopped by stron Allied positions on the Alam Halfa Ridge/ Alam-el-Halfa Ridge and a Allied counter-offensive from the Ruweisat Ridge. Still Rommel had learned from the Battle that the British defences in the South, were the Greek Brigade, the Free French and the British 44th and 50th Divisions alongside the 22nd and 23 Armored Brigade and the 7th Armored Divison were positioned, the Allied defences were at their weakest. Knowing from Axis Central Powers bombing raids from Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus on the northern British and Commonwealth positions directly in El Alamein, Rommel knew that the enemy was building up massive forces and could soon overwhealm him if this continued. This Allied Army build up was slowed down by pro-German, pro-Axis Central Powers and pro-Egypt independence, Egypt spies and saboteurs, who blew up parts of the Allied supply railways towards El Alamein and even startet some minor protests, strike as well as even local uprisings against British rule in Alexandria and Cairo. Axis Central Power bombers therefore targeted the roads and railwas from Cairo and Alexandria to El Alamein, now that Allied convoys from the west were impossible, with Gibraltar and Malta firm in Axis Central Power hands. Rommel knew that time was playing against him, but luckily thanks to the recent victories in Russia and the Imperial German High Command and the German Emperor Wilhelms hope to start Mohammedan unrest from Egypt to India, he received fresh and new forces for Northern Africa, even if some of the German supplies and forces moved further west and south, the incoming Italians forces were joined by a few Austrian-Hungarian motorized and infantry division, while most Fascist French and Spanish forces together with some of the German reinforcemens moved west and south from North Africa, instead of east. Rommel knew that the Allied had massed their forces in the North, including the British 1st and 10th Armored Division, the British 51st Highlander Division, the 9h Ausralian Division, the 2nd New Zealand Division, the 4th Indian Division and he 1st South African Divison. They faced the Italian 102nd Trento, 25th Bologna and 7th Bersa Divisions and Brigades, while the Italian 101st Trieste, 133rd Littorio Divisions and the Austrian-Hungarian Infantry and Tank divisions, together with the German 90th Light Division defended the secondary defence line, should the Allies manage to break trought the first one and the Axis Central Power minefields and defensive positions.
In the South of the Frontline, where the 44th British Infantry Division and the 1st Free French Brigade massed forces for a faint assault, Rommel entrusted the Italian Divison 17th Pavia, 132nd Ariete and a Austria-Hungarian support Division of Infantry and Light Motorized to hold the frontline in support of their defences by the Axis Central Power minefields there. The Center however, where the Allies had the Greek Brigade, the British 50th Infantry Division and the British 7th Armored Division as reserves, General Field Marshall Rommel planned his major assault. The plan was to use mockup trucks and tanks in the north to convince the Allies that he had more troops then he truly had, while his main forces, consisting of the Italian 27th Brescia Division, the German 164th Light Division as well as the German 15th and 21st Tank Divisions together with some Austrian-Hungarian prepared their main push. When the Allies attacked in the North and South on September 23, 1942, after increasing German and Italian bombing runs on their positions, Rommel waited till their first assault was stopped by Axis Cnetral Powers reinforcements and reserves. The Allies then started to attack again, but weaker this time, the moment Rommel had waited for. With the bulk of his own forces, he penetraed the weak Allied center between the Ruweisat Ridge and the Munassib Depression, forcing the 7th (in the South) and 10th (in the North) British Armored Divisons to come to the resque. The Axis Central Powers northern front had given a little bit of terrain, but the Eight Army under Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery had fallen for Rommel's trick, mostly because the Allies could not believe after the Axis Central Powers heavy bombardment and scouting of their Northern position, that the main Battle could happen anywhere except there. Rommels main oush was brutal and quick and soon some British and Greek forces were wavering. Because the Ruweisat Ridge and the Munassib Depression hindered to quick Allied counters, his forces pushed quiet far east, rendering the southern Free French and British forces cut off from the northern and eastern rest of their army.
Taking Alam Nayil, Rommel used the Allied confusion to his advantage and pushed further east towards Alam el Halfa once again, knowing that if the Allied had massed so much of their forces north, for a offensive, that the remainign forces there would not be as heavy and well defendet then last time, and that this time they would also lack the support of the main Armroed British Divisions. Because of this decision, the rush eastwards to Alam el Halfa became a race between the Germans, Austrian-Hungarians and Italians on the offensive and the retreating British 50th Infantry Divisions, the Greek Brigade and the 7th british Armored Division, as well as the more southern Free French Brigade and the 44th British Infantry Division, who feared to be cut off from the rest of the Alleid forces and be annihilated by another one of Rommels quick advances. It was Rommel's own myth now that helped the Axis Central Powers main assault in the center and caused a Allied rout and panick in the south, with more and more Greek, French and British forces there falling back in fear of a encirclement and surrounding by Axis Central Power Forces. Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery on the other hand meanwhile realized that this Axis Central Powers breaktrought, his own fleeing southern forces (by now attacked by the following Italians and Austrian-Hungarians) and the retreating Allied center, combined with the southward curve of the great Qattara Depression meant, that the Axis Central Powers Army now had a good chance to break trought in the south, cut off his army in two there and defeat them too quick for his own reserves and reinforcements to arrive from the Northwest, where they were massed.
The Second Battle of El Alamain would be one of the true mysteries of history, later historicans would compare it to Cannae, a reversed Cannae of some kind that is, since Montgomery's Army still outmatched that of Rommel in numbers of all kind. But the German's daring push trought the weak Allied Center, away from their northern massed bulk of the Allied forces caused the southern Allied front to panic and a mass retread started. Montgomery ordered the Allied forces falling back to form a new souhern defence line along their prepared positiond along the Alam al Halfa Ridge, were parts of the 44th British Infantry Division, the British 50th Infantry Division, the British 7th Armored Division and the 1st Free French Brigade managed to form a new defensive line all the way east to the cities and towns of El Ruweusat and Hamman, to keep the Allied railways to the main defences and forces in El Alamain open. Rommel however had hoped for the Allies to move like this and used the last of his reserves and the remaining fuel (dropped by the German transport Airship Lettow-Vorbeck shortly before the Battle) to turn east, cross the undefendet desert and surround the still superior Allied Army in El Alemain, just like the Axis Central Powers had done in Tobruk before. Until October 11, 1942 the Axis Central Powers bombing on the remaining Allied positions increased and despite deadly dogfights over the area and scouting by each side, Rommel managed to convince Montgomery with his earlier victory and dummies, that he at least had a equal army compared to his, while in reality the Axis Central Powers still had fewer numbers and whould have crumbled under a massed Allied counter-offensive. So Montgomery orders his massed forces to break out of the surroundet position, eastwards. The majority of the Eight Army escaped eastwars to Alexandria, were a new defensive position was quickly build, but the damage was done. The Axis Central Power Forces now had the opportunity to advance further into Egypt, threaten Cairo, the Suez Canal, and the western flank of the Middle Eastern Front. Ever since the end of Operation Crusader, in late 1941 Allied forces had lost to that of the Axis Central Powers in northern Africa. Rommel immediately made plans for further operations to take Egypt after receiving more reinforcements to garrison and secure his now even more overstretched supply lines. The Axis Central Powers Offensive deeper into Egypt, was unwillingly supported by the Co-Prosperity Sphere and Japan, with their Invasion of Darwin in Australia on December 8, 1942 , leading to the uprising of Australian soldiers in Africa and the Middle East who wished to return home to defend their homeland from Invasion, instead of fighting for the British Empire on the other half of the world. This first Commonwealth Forces Crisis had a huge impact on Allied morale, when the Indian forces did something similar during the 1943 Japanese, Burmese, Yankoku, Tibetan and Indian National Army Invasion (Liberation Offensive) into Assam and Benghal as a reaction to a British and Allied Offensive into Burma earlier in 1943.
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The Offensive will come in a later Chapter after Guadalcanal. BTW not only in the 1850s, in 1943 there was the Great Bengal Famine because of the refugee masses fleeing from the Japanese in Burma, the whole area is allready a powder keg, when the Japanese then attack Bengal and Assam TTL to cut of the Allied air bridge as the last thing, supporting the United Chinese Front from the outside world and at the same time secure Burma from more British assaults like before in the same year all hell will break lose.
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Chapter 448: The Co-Prosperity Sphere Philippines
Chapter 448: The Co-Prosperity Sphere Philippines:
In the 16th century, the United States of America aquired the Philippines from Spain after the war of 1898/99. 7083 islands in total, 2441 of those were inhabited. These Islands next to the Asian mainland have been expanded by the Americans into a advanced powerfull base, to secure their position inside the Pacific and combine this with the economic exploitation of the Islands. When the wave of independence and liberation movements in Asia, hit the Philippines as well, the United States allowed the Philippines their independence on March 24, 1943, with a new law and the promise to give them full independence in 1944. But this independence act however was not meant for the Philippine people, but rather for the agrarian circles inside the United States themselves, who were outraged because of the duty-free imports of Philippine trade goods (like sugar), to stop the cheap competition for the american agriculture. With the limitation of the duty-free imports, the Philippines were supposed to accustom themselves for the total end of a free american Market. If the Philippines would be able to survive economically without this support was unsure. Similar unsure was what new routes the then independent island nation might chose to take. That was the main problem and question for many Philippinos of the time.
The Japanese and the newly formed members of the Co-Prosperity Sphere (Chosen/ Korea and Manchukuo) as well as many other still independent Asian Nations however saw this as a farce, as the United States claimed rights and regulations for themselves and the Philippines, they outright refused to other nations in the world (like their forced free marked and non-intervention policy in China, while they themselves prohibited any other non-American nation to interfere in their own Sphere of Interest in North and South America). As a interim solution US President Roosevelt and Philippine President Quezon agreed in April 1938, that while the Philippines should get their authonomy in 1944, their true independence would first come in the year 1960. Until this day the Philippines would remain depending on the United States and in exchange be part of the economic area of the american block, remaining as a Philippine Protectorate of the United States of America. This meant that until then the foreign policy of the Philippines would remain under the control of the American government. At the same time the United States would maintain the right to maintain troop and fleet bases in the Philippine Islands. In other words, the Philippines would remain somewhat of a American Colony and base in the region, to limit the Japanese ambitions and expansions. The United States of America were resolute, to stop the Philippines from falling into the Japanese Sphere of Influence. This outraged many Philippine Independence Movement and led to the beginning close ties between the Ganap Party and some others with the Empire of Japan.
While many inside Japan and the Co-Prosperity Sphere saw the Philippine as a new member state and nation to join them and secure the path of their convoys and transports to the South-East Asia as their ressource region. Others however, saw it mainly as a future Japanese colony and settlement area for Japanese colonists, as the Philippines were only a little bit smaller then Japan, but only had one fifths of it's population. They saw the Japanese liberated Ganap Philippines as a part of the Co-Prosperity Sphere ressource region with their gold, iron ore, chopper, coal, lead, chrome, manganese, molybdenum and even some petroleum. The Japanese therefor tried to convince the Ganap Philippines, that had a strong democratic tradition and a new coalition government as a member state of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, to not only aim for totall independence, but to also become a willingly member of the Coprospist world and the Yen Block, securing the trade routes of the Co-Prosperity Sphere's northern industry and population centers towards the southern ressource area and profit from doing so in the process. While this process under the new Ganap Unity Government Coalition was willingly at the beginning, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, as well as other major Co-Prosperity nations and member states were not willing to let the Philippines fall into enemy hands. Therefore the Ganap Philippine Army and the Ganap Philippine Navy together with their own air forces were trained and equipped by the Empire of Japan and Japanese Officers and Commander even led parts of the mainly Phillipine forces directly at the beginning.
In the 16th century, the United States of America aquired the Philippines from Spain after the war of 1898/99. 7083 islands in total, 2441 of those were inhabited. These Islands next to the Asian mainland have been expanded by the Americans into a advanced powerfull base, to secure their position inside the Pacific and combine this with the economic exploitation of the Islands. When the wave of independence and liberation movements in Asia, hit the Philippines as well, the United States allowed the Philippines their independence on March 24, 1943, with a new law and the promise to give them full independence in 1944. But this independence act however was not meant for the Philippine people, but rather for the agrarian circles inside the United States themselves, who were outraged because of the duty-free imports of Philippine trade goods (like sugar), to stop the cheap competition for the american agriculture. With the limitation of the duty-free imports, the Philippines were supposed to accustom themselves for the total end of a free american Market. If the Philippines would be able to survive economically without this support was unsure. Similar unsure was what new routes the then independent island nation might chose to take. That was the main problem and question for many Philippinos of the time.
The Japanese and the newly formed members of the Co-Prosperity Sphere (Chosen/ Korea and Manchukuo) as well as many other still independent Asian Nations however saw this as a farce, as the United States claimed rights and regulations for themselves and the Philippines, they outright refused to other nations in the world (like their forced free marked and non-intervention policy in China, while they themselves prohibited any other non-American nation to interfere in their own Sphere of Interest in North and South America). As a interim solution US President Roosevelt and Philippine President Quezon agreed in April 1938, that while the Philippines should get their authonomy in 1944, their true independence would first come in the year 1960. Until this day the Philippines would remain depending on the United States and in exchange be part of the economic area of the american block, remaining as a Philippine Protectorate of the United States of America. This meant that until then the foreign policy of the Philippines would remain under the control of the American government. At the same time the United States would maintain the right to maintain troop and fleet bases in the Philippine Islands. In other words, the Philippines would remain somewhat of a American Colony and base in the region, to limit the Japanese ambitions and expansions. The United States of America were resolute, to stop the Philippines from falling into the Japanese Sphere of Influence. This outraged many Philippine Independence Movement and led to the beginning close ties between the Ganap Party and some others with the Empire of Japan.
While many inside Japan and the Co-Prosperity Sphere saw the Philippine as a new member state and nation to join them and secure the path of their convoys and transports to the South-East Asia as their ressource region. Others however, saw it mainly as a future Japanese colony and settlement area for Japanese colonists, as the Philippines were only a little bit smaller then Japan, but only had one fifths of it's population. They saw the Japanese liberated Ganap Philippines as a part of the Co-Prosperity Sphere ressource region with their gold, iron ore, chopper, coal, lead, chrome, manganese, molybdenum and even some petroleum. The Japanese therefor tried to convince the Ganap Philippines, that had a strong democratic tradition and a new coalition government as a member state of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, to not only aim for totall independence, but to also become a willingly member of the Coprospist world and the Yen Block, securing the trade routes of the Co-Prosperity Sphere's northern industry and population centers towards the southern ressource area and profit from doing so in the process. While this process under the new Ganap Unity Government Coalition was willingly at the beginning, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, as well as other major Co-Prosperity nations and member states were not willing to let the Philippines fall into enemy hands. Therefore the Ganap Philippine Army and the Ganap Philippine Navy together with their own air forces were trained and equipped by the Empire of Japan and Japanese Officers and Commander even led parts of the mainly Phillipine forces directly at the beginning.
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Given the rift that's opened between France and Britain, or indeed, continental Europe and Britain, I wonder if the Europeans might make an effort to fight back (so to speak) against the idea King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as the archetypal heroes of medieval Europe, and start pushing Emperor Charlemagne and the Twelve Paladins out of the shadows and into the limelight. Considering Charlemagne didn't just rule over any one European nation but all of them - his empire included France, Germany, Italy, and parts of Spain - he could be considered as more...representative, of European ethos than Arthur, who was purely British (if not actually just Welsh).
Don't worry my friend. Take it easy! It must be hard working on this TL!