TL-191: Filling the Gaps
- Thread starter Craigo
- Start date
Love it.
A while back I wrote a brief intro for what you may choose to call the Battle of the North Sea, embedded in my Kaiserliche Marine (1941) article. Feel free to use it as you see fit to flush out your ideas.
"A true manifestation of the dream of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Fredrick the Great class of Super-Dreadnoughts would prove to be the largest and most heavily armed ships every built. Subtlety was not the Friedrich the Great’s forte, because in addition the carrying the most tonnage of any battleship ever built, it was also the longest warship built at that time stretching an impressive 290m from stem to stern. The penalty for carrying the largest shells of any ship afloat was a further reduction in maneuverability and turning radius of 1050m (over half a mile).
Due to her size she possessed a tremendous array of secondaries along with four, triple mounted turrets, sporting 420mm guns (just shy of 17-inches), while the turret traverse speed is slightly inferior to American and British ships of the 1930s.
Her AA is fairly typical of other German battleships, with an adequate long-range punch that sadly does not follow through as planes come closer to the ship itself. Planes that made it past the long-range armament had no trouble hitting her due to her large size and abysmal turning circle. F.D.G’s armor was also typical of German battleship design, with a turtle-back armor scheme that made citadeling her at close range near impossible. Her deck armor is also quite substantial at 50mm, but as would be seen in the battles of 1942/3, would prove catastrophically unequal to the task of defending against British aerial bombs.
F.D.G’s mammoth size and armament was the final culmination of Kaiser Wilhelm’s meddling in Naval affairs. While the Germans continued to build ever larger Super Dreadnaughts that emphasized armor and firepower, the navies of other nations placed less emphasis in these areas. The United States began building up their Battleship fleet in the mid to late 1930s but with an emphasis on range, speed, and target acquisition. The USN Pennsylvania and later Maryland class super dreadnoughts fired a smaller shell than the German F.D Gs, but were almost 10 knots faster, significantly more maneuverable, and had a target acquisition of almost 45km. The Americans also focused much of their research and design on AA gunnery / technology, predicated upon their lessons learned fighting the Japanese during the Pacific War. Thus, while the Grosser Kurfurst / Friedrich the Great classes of battleships would largely rely on a screen of escort ships to protect them from approaching enemy aircraft, American capital ships were more than capable of defending themselves from all but the most overwhelming of air attacks. The Americans, British, and Japanese would also move rapidly ahead with development of purpose-built Aircraft Carriers, long range cruisers, and other asymmetric naval assets throughout the 1930s, leaving the Germans behind in this critical category. Only in submarine design and development would Germany remain a step ahead of her friends and foes alike.
Initially for the supporters of Super Dreadnoughts, the enormous investment in money and material appeared to be prescient, for in the crowning moment of the Kaiserliche Marine during the SGW, a task force of German ships, spearheaded by the Großdeutschland, Elsass, and three battlecruisers (Emden, Schlieffen, and Mackensen) intercepted and virtually annihilated a British squadron comprised of three modern dreadnoughts, and half a dozen cruisers and destroyers, that were supporting the British invasion of Norway. The unfortunate British squadron had expected support from Naval Aviation assets but in a disastrous turn of event, the Royal Navy carrier that was supposed to provide air cover was herself torpedoed and sunk by a German U boat the morning of the engagement, thus the German interlopers were free from airborne harassment. In this battle the Großdeutschland was credited with the destruction of two of the British dreadnoughts with the use of her main battery as well as two cruisers (one of which was sunk via secondary batteries). During this encounter battle, mother nature was also on the side of the Germans, as the high winds and moderate swells interfered with the superior British Y-ranging equipment’s effectiveness, and the reduced early morning visibility allowed the two squadrons to stumble into extremely closer range of one another, a factor that decidedly worked in favor of the Germans and their superior secondaries (not to mention the torpedo equipped dreadnought Elsass and accompanying battlecruisers).
The Germans and the British would both draw stark conclusions from this engagement. Unfortunately for the Germans it would be the wrong lesson, while for the Royal Navy they would learn the proper ones. The Germans discounted the absence of British aircraft as insignificant to the outcome and congratulated themselves (once again) for producing surface ship superior to those of the Royal Navy. This victory would thus encourage the appetites of those seeking a decisive surface engagement akin to the one fought in 1916. The British correctly identified the need for better carrier escorts as well as the necessity of air cover for future operations, and thus the Admiralty began taking steps to ensure that they would enjoy air superiority over the North Sea for any future engagement.
The following year, with the newly completed Graff Zeppelin and Peter Strassen finally operational, the Kaiserliche Marine would sortie virtually the entire High Seas Fleet in that was expected to be the decisive battle of the war. In fact, it turned out to be one of the decisive naval battles of the war, just not as Berlin had hoped. The following engagement would see the inexperienced aircrews of the Zeppelin/ Strassen cleanly outmatched. Both carriers would be lost along with 4 of Germany’s dreadnoughts. This included the super dreadnoughts Hindenburg and Wilhelm II, along with the Blucher, and Sachen. The British Grand Fleet then engaged the retreating High Seas Fleet with losses on both sides, and while the majority of German ships managed to escaped back to the safety of land-based aircraft from the Jutland Peninsula, the battle had already been won for the British. Among the thousands of casualties suffered was indeed German pride and confidence, a fact not lost on Grand Admiral Reader. In his memoirs after the war, Reader would write of the fitting irony, regarding the deceased sovereign and his namesake. For just as the Kaiser, who was to blame for much of Germany’s negligent naval expenditures of the interwar period, was known for his bluster, his namesake SMS Wilhelm II had sunk without ever having had the chance to fire her massive guns in anger."
Some cross posting.
Random random stuff about my homestate of Mississippi.
Mississippi before War of Secession. (1848-1862.)
Antebellum Mississippi/Pre-Civil War/War off Secession.
The Wings in Mississippi would be the OTL 'Bourbons'. Democrats/aristocratic conservatives who ran the State after Reconstruction and an lot of the time acted like it was still 1860 and not 1877, or water it down. For what it was worth, they did support diversify the state with outside investment to fuel railroads, industrial manufacturing, and was willing to work with Northen businessmen, fiends in big business as it were. (Among them was Lucius Q.C Lamar, Longstreet's VP, John Marshall Stone, Robert Lowry, James Z. George, and Edward C. Walthall. )
Then the OTL Populists of the State, the Radical Liberals. The small farmers and progressive third-party. (Financial reform, sliver coins, and paper notes. And to protect farmers from falling commodity prices and big on regulations to stop railroads from engaging in price-fixing schemes.) Among them Oliver Hudson Kelley, Thomas Gore, Absolom M. West, Rufus K. Prewitt, Clark Lewis, Joseph H. Beeman, and Frank Burkitt.
The Liberals (before the merger with the Radicals) would be competing with the Radicals (populists, financial reformers, industrialists) and a Farmers party. The Mississippi merger of Radicals, Liberals, and Farmers would be enough to really challenge the Whigs for the Governorship. (Thanks to @Joshua Ben Ari.)
Random random stuff about my homestate of Mississippi.
Mississippi before War of Secession. (1848-1862.)
1: Both Democratic and Whig Party was against California Statehood.
2: 1850 Compromise reaction is dramatic, prompting political realignment and an rush towards secession. Senator Foote lead many Mississippians with most Whigs and some Democrats into the Union Party, who was willing to give the compromise an chance and seek to perverse the union by by compromise. Foote himself was actively involved in formulating the legislation that admitted California as an free state also pushed for 'popular sovereignty' provision to vote on slavery.
2: Against them was the State Rights Party of Democrats who favor secession who had the support of Senator Davis, Governor Quitman, and most of the Legislature.
3: Foote wins the Governorship by only 999 votes in 1851 and the Union Party gain controlled of the State House of Representatives. His term was largely an lull in sectional tension till 1854.
4: Democrat John J. McRae (1854-1857.) promoted state improvements, such as the construction of railroads. Before leaving office, trains where running through Jackson to New Orleans on the Great Northen Railroad and through Meridian to Mobile and Ohio. Appropriate more money for state schools and adoption an new state code.
5: The Ostend Manifesto.
6: 1855, Governor McRae defeats Know-Nothing candidate Charles D. Fontaine, an former Democrat. National Democratic Party start to divide along sectional lines.
7: Mississippi Representative William Barksdale assists Preston Brooks beating Charles Summer by holding Summer by the coat.
8: Mississippians have hope for an resolution with the election of James Buchanan. Jacob Thompson of Mississippi becomes Sectary of the Interior. Robert J. Walker of Mississippi is appointed Governor of the Kansas Territory, but soon resigns over the validity of of the Lecompton Constitution
9: William McWillie first year as Governor seem to be an lull as he urgent the need to protect the fertile bottomland from flooding with levees and building additional railroads. This ends with Harper's Ferry. Democrat John Jones Pettus and disunionist disciple of Quitman overpowers Harvey W. Walter.
10: Pettus recommends $ 150, 000 for weapons and ammunition. Mississippi State Convention on Secession meet in Jackson, January 7, 1861 with William Barry as President and Lucius Q.C Lamar as Chairman to draft an ordinance of secession. Approved, 84, to 15.
11: Battle of Ship Island.
12: Shiloh and Corinth.
13: Admiral David Farragut bombs Vicksburg throughout July.
2: 1850 Compromise reaction is dramatic, prompting political realignment and an rush towards secession. Senator Foote lead many Mississippians with most Whigs and some Democrats into the Union Party, who was willing to give the compromise an chance and seek to perverse the union by by compromise. Foote himself was actively involved in formulating the legislation that admitted California as an free state also pushed for 'popular sovereignty' provision to vote on slavery.
2: Against them was the State Rights Party of Democrats who favor secession who had the support of Senator Davis, Governor Quitman, and most of the Legislature.
3: Foote wins the Governorship by only 999 votes in 1851 and the Union Party gain controlled of the State House of Representatives. His term was largely an lull in sectional tension till 1854.
4: Democrat John J. McRae (1854-1857.) promoted state improvements, such as the construction of railroads. Before leaving office, trains where running through Jackson to New Orleans on the Great Northen Railroad and through Meridian to Mobile and Ohio. Appropriate more money for state schools and adoption an new state code.
5: The Ostend Manifesto.
6: 1855, Governor McRae defeats Know-Nothing candidate Charles D. Fontaine, an former Democrat. National Democratic Party start to divide along sectional lines.
7: Mississippi Representative William Barksdale assists Preston Brooks beating Charles Summer by holding Summer by the coat.
8: Mississippians have hope for an resolution with the election of James Buchanan. Jacob Thompson of Mississippi becomes Sectary of the Interior. Robert J. Walker of Mississippi is appointed Governor of the Kansas Territory, but soon resigns over the validity of of the Lecompton Constitution
9: William McWillie first year as Governor seem to be an lull as he urgent the need to protect the fertile bottomland from flooding with levees and building additional railroads. This ends with Harper's Ferry. Democrat John Jones Pettus and disunionist disciple of Quitman overpowers Harvey W. Walter.
10: Pettus recommends $ 150, 000 for weapons and ammunition. Mississippi State Convention on Secession meet in Jackson, January 7, 1861 with William Barry as President and Lucius Q.C Lamar as Chairman to draft an ordinance of secession. Approved, 84, to 15.
11: Battle of Ship Island.
12: Shiloh and Corinth.
13: Admiral David Farragut bombs Vicksburg throughout July.
Antebellum Mississippi/Pre-Civil War/War off Secession.
1: Start of the Civil War, there was an total of 437, 404 slaves, and less then 800 free blacks.
2: Panic of 1837. Except for one in Yazoo City and one in Holly Springs, every private bank became insolvent, forfeited its charter and shuttered its doors.
3: Elite planters were concentrated in the most desirable agricultural regions along the Mississippi River. (The Natchez district.) Smaller planters cleared lands in the interior. The planter class was less then 20% of all slaveholders, and 1% of white families. Tons of famous duels.
By 1860, less then half of all white families could own even one slave. Yeoman farmers compose the majority of white families with varying social and political interests.
4: Mississippi Married Women's Property Act of 1839 which protected an married woman ownership of property.
5: Jefferson College, the Whitworth Female College, the Mississippi College, Oakland College. (We was underschooled.)
6: The Methodist Church was by large the largest denomination. By 1860, it was reported 60,000 members including 11,000 African Americans in 606 Churches.
7: Baptist churches was found in primarily in small rural communities. By 1860, 41,000 members in 529 churches. Slaves may have composed as much as one-third of Baptists members.
Presbyterians developed churches thanks to Scot-Irish immigration in the territory. Mississippi Presbytery founded in 1816. By 1835, the Synod of Mississippi was establish with 24 Presbyterians churches. Reached only 148 by 1860. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church came in the 1830s and had 60 churches in the Northen half of Mississippi by 1860 appealing to different sets of people.
Oldest was the Roman Catholic and Episcopalians. The Roman Catholic disappear when Spain left in 1798, until the 1840s when the Diocse of Natchez got it first bishop, and by 1860, there was only 17 churches. The Episcopalians got kicked out by the Spanish and didn't reocver till the 1820s to organize its first Diocese. Attracted wealthy planters, merchants and professionals, there was 25 Episcopal churches, mostly in the Natchez and the Gulf.
Jews mostly in Vicksburg, Natchez, Jackson and so on. (See here, here. And Beth Israel Congregation.)
8: Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek.
9: The Nullifier Faction jointed with the Whigs to form an unusual politician alliance. (Expect they the share dislike of President I AM THE LAW Jackson, they shared very little.) During the 1830s, the Whig-Nullifier group was often able to successfully the Jacksonian Democrats in statewide political contests.
2: Panic of 1837. Except for one in Yazoo City and one in Holly Springs, every private bank became insolvent, forfeited its charter and shuttered its doors.
3: Elite planters were concentrated in the most desirable agricultural regions along the Mississippi River. (The Natchez district.) Smaller planters cleared lands in the interior. The planter class was less then 20% of all slaveholders, and 1% of white families. Tons of famous duels.
By 1860, less then half of all white families could own even one slave. Yeoman farmers compose the majority of white families with varying social and political interests.
4: Mississippi Married Women's Property Act of 1839 which protected an married woman ownership of property.
5: Jefferson College, the Whitworth Female College, the Mississippi College, Oakland College. (We was underschooled.)
6: The Methodist Church was by large the largest denomination. By 1860, it was reported 60,000 members including 11,000 African Americans in 606 Churches.
7: Baptist churches was found in primarily in small rural communities. By 1860, 41,000 members in 529 churches. Slaves may have composed as much as one-third of Baptists members.
Presbyterians developed churches thanks to Scot-Irish immigration in the territory. Mississippi Presbytery founded in 1816. By 1835, the Synod of Mississippi was establish with 24 Presbyterians churches. Reached only 148 by 1860. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church came in the 1830s and had 60 churches in the Northen half of Mississippi by 1860 appealing to different sets of people.
Oldest was the Roman Catholic and Episcopalians. The Roman Catholic disappear when Spain left in 1798, until the 1840s when the Diocse of Natchez got it first bishop, and by 1860, there was only 17 churches. The Episcopalians got kicked out by the Spanish and didn't reocver till the 1820s to organize its first Diocese. Attracted wealthy planters, merchants and professionals, there was 25 Episcopal churches, mostly in the Natchez and the Gulf.
Jews mostly in Vicksburg, Natchez, Jackson and so on. (See here, here. And Beth Israel Congregation.)
8: Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek.
9: The Nullifier Faction jointed with the Whigs to form an unusual politician alliance. (Expect they the share dislike of President I AM THE LAW Jackson, they shared very little.) During the 1830s, the Whig-Nullifier group was often able to successfully the Jacksonian Democrats in statewide political contests.
The Wings in Mississippi would be the OTL 'Bourbons'. Democrats/aristocratic conservatives who ran the State after Reconstruction and an lot of the time acted like it was still 1860 and not 1877, or water it down. For what it was worth, they did support diversify the state with outside investment to fuel railroads, industrial manufacturing, and was willing to work with Northen businessmen, fiends in big business as it were. (Among them was Lucius Q.C Lamar, Longstreet's VP, John Marshall Stone, Robert Lowry, James Z. George, and Edward C. Walthall. )
Then the OTL Populists of the State, the Radical Liberals. The small farmers and progressive third-party. (Financial reform, sliver coins, and paper notes. And to protect farmers from falling commodity prices and big on regulations to stop railroads from engaging in price-fixing schemes.) Among them Oliver Hudson Kelley, Thomas Gore, Absolom M. West, Rufus K. Prewitt, Clark Lewis, Joseph H. Beeman, and Frank Burkitt.
The Liberals (before the merger with the Radicals) would be competing with the Radicals (populists, financial reformers, industrialists) and a Farmers party. The Mississippi merger of Radicals, Liberals, and Farmers would be enough to really challenge the Whigs for the Governorship. (Thanks to @Joshua Ben Ari.)
General Events of TL-191, 1862-1882
Point of Divergence: On September 10, 1862, General Robert E. Lee's Special Orders, No. 191 is recovered by a Confederate corporal and Confederate private in Frederick County, Maryland, which is returned to a courier, successfully delivered to their recipients, and allows the Confederacy to win a decisive battle that grants it independence.
Point of Divergence: On September 10, 1862, General Robert E. Lee's Special Orders, No. 191 is recovered by a Confederate corporal and Confederate private in Frederick County, Maryland, which is returned to a courier, successfully delivered to their recipients, and allows the Confederacy to win a decisive battle that grants it independence.
- 1862
- September 12-15: Battle of Harper's Ferry occurs and ends just like OTL.
- September 13: Battle of Charleston occurs and ends just like OTL.
- September 14-17: Battle of Munfordville occurs and ends just like OTL.
- September 19: Battle of Iuka occurs and ends just like OTL.
- September 23: Battle of Wood Lake occurs and ends just like OTL.
- September 24: Bombardment of Fort Sabine occurs and ends just like OTL.
- September 30: Battle of Newtonia occurs and ends just like OTL.
- October 1: Battle of Camp Hill occurs. Army of the Potomac is defeated by Confederate forces. Decisive Confederate victory.
- October 1-3: Battle of Saint John's Bluff occurs and ends just like OTL.
- October 3-4: Second Battle of Corinth occurs and ends just like OTL.
- October 4: Battle of Galveston Harbor occurs and ends just like OTL.
- October 4: Capture of Philadelphia by Confederate forces. McClellan surrenders to Lee at Independence Hall.
- October 5: Battle of Matamora occurs and ends just like OTL.
- October 8: Battle of Perryville occurs and, unlike OTL, ends in a Major Confederate victory.
- October 10: Battle of Corinth (Kentucky) occurs. Decisive Confederate victory.
- October 22: Battle of Old Fort Wayne occurs and ends just like OTL.
- October 22: Second Battle of Yemassee occurs and ends just like OTL.
- October 27: Battle of Labadieville occurs and ends just like OTL.
- October 29: Battle of Island Mound occurs and ends just like OTL. This is the last battle of the War of Secession.
- November 4: The War of Secession officially ends. The Confederacy is officially recognized by the United States through the mediation of Britain. Kentucky and the Indian Territory are given to the CSA, in exchange for Missouri and West Virginia. The claim of Confederate Arizona is abandoned.
- 1863
- Economic Crash of 1863 in the United States.
- Hosea Blackford is born around this time.
- July 10: Second Mexican Empire is established, just like OTL.
- August 16: Dominican Restoration War begins, just like OTL.
- October 3: Mexican delegation arrives in Trieste to offer Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph Maria von Hapsburg-Lorraine the Crown of Mexico. He agrees only is there is a referendum that is favorable to the idea, just like OTL.
- December 4: 1863 Mexican Referendum occurs with questionable results, just like OTL.
- 1864
- April 10: Maximilian accepts the Crown, just like OTL.
- April 14: Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte, leave Miramar for Mexico, just like OTL.
- May 29: The Imperial Couple arrive in Veracruz, just like OTL.
- August 10: Uruguayan War begins, just like OTL.
- October 12: Paraguayan War begins, just like OTL.
- November 8: Abraham Lincoln loses re-election.
- 1865
- Maximilian, with the influence of Matthew Fontaine Maury, encourages Confederate immigration to the Empire, almost in a similar manner like OTL.
- The Thirteenth Amendment that bans slavery, except as a form of punishment, is passed in the United States. It is one of the last things that Lincoln was able to do before his term ends.
- February 20: Uruguayan War ends, just like OTL.
- March 4: Inauguration of the 17th President of the United States of America.
- March 13: The Second Mexican Empire is divided into 50 departments, just like OTL.
- July 15: Dominican Restoration War ends, just like OTL.
- September 16: Maximilian adopts as his heirs Salvador de Iturbide y Marzán and Agustín de Iturbide y Green, grandsons of Agustín de Iturbide, the First Mexican Emperor, just like OTL.
- 1866
- May 31: France continues to allow French forces to remain in Mexico until the later part of the 1860's.
- June 14: Austro-Prussian War begins, just like OTL.
- July 16: Austro-Prussian ends, just like OTL.
- 1867
- Concerned that any findings of gold in Russian America would allow it to be easily conquered by either the Americans or British, and that they were in need of money after being defeated in the Crimean War, the Imperial Russian government offers to sell their North American territory to both nations. Britain refuses and the United States is unable to buy it due to a lack of enough payment. Russian America remains with the Russian Empire.
- July 1: The Dominion of Canada is formed, just like OTL.
- November 5th: 1867 C.S. Presidential election, occurs.
- 1868
- Six Years' War begins in the Dominican Republic, just like OTL.
- March 4: Inauguration of the Second Confederate President.
- November 3: 1868 U.S. Presidential election occurs, just like OTL.
- October 10: Ten Years War begins in Cuba, just like OTL.
- Six Years' War begins in the Dominican Republic, just like OTL.
- 1869
- President Buenaventura Báez attempts to convince the United States to annex the Dominican Republic, almost similar to OTL.
- 1870
- During the 1870's, the Confederates become involved in Cuba and are able to annex Cuba as a Confederate territory after defeating the Spanish in the Spanish-Confederate War. To circumvent the issue of re-imposing slavery to the island without banning it due to its constitutional impossibility, White Confederates from the mainland are barred from settling on the territory, unless given special permission by the government. This is similar to the situation in the Indian Territory, but it is a temporary solution.
- The proposal to annex the Dominican Republic is rejected by the United States, almost in a similar manner in OTL.
- Winfield Scott Featherston, a Brigadier General from the War of Secession, becomes Senator of Mississippi.
- March 1: Paraguayan War ends, just like OTL.
- April 22: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov is born, just like OTL.
- July 19: Franco-Prussian War begins, just like OTL.
- September 1: Fall of the Second French Empire, just like OTL.
- September 4: Proclamation of the Third French Republic, just like OTL.
- September 20: Capture of Rome occurs, just like OTL.
- 1871
- Rome declared the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Italian Unification ends, just like OTL.
- January 18: Unification of the German Empire, just like OTL.
- January 28: Franco-Prussian War ends, just like OTL.
- 1872
- February 29: María Josepha Sophia de Iturbide is born, just like OTL.
- July 4: Calvin Coolidge is born, just like OTL.
- November 5: 1872 U.S. Presidential election occurs, just like OTL
- 1873
- Scipio, a Black Confederate slave, is born.
- March 4: Inauguration of U.S. President, just like OTL
- November 4: 1873 C.S. Presidential election occurs.
- December 30: Alfred Emanuel Smith is born, just like OTL.
- 1874
- March 4: Inauguration of Third C.S. President
- August 10: Herbert Hoover is born, just like OTL.
- 1875
- Ottoman Empire files for partial bankruptcy and places its own finances under the control of European creditors, just like OTL.
- 1876
- July 4: U.S. Centennial occurs, just like OTL.
- November 7: 1876 U.S. Presidential Election occurs, just like OTL.
- Fourteenth Amendment is passed. Deals with defining citizenship in the USA. Grants birthright and parentage citizenship, regardless of race and color.
- 1877
- March 4: Samuel J. Tilden is inaugurated President of the United States.
- 1878
- Tilden is asked to arbitrate in the disputed Chaco region between Argentina and Paraguay. He grants it in favor of Paraguay. The department of Presidente Tilden and its capital, Villa Tilden, are named in his honor.
- January 9: Umberto I becomes King of Italy, just like OTL.
- June 5: José Doroteo Arango Arámbula is born, just like OTL.
- September 20: Upton Sinclair is born, just like OTL.
- December 18: Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili is born, just like OTL.
- April 5: War of the Pacific begins, just like OTL.
- 1879
- Maximilian I of Mexico dies of malaria. His 30 year old adoptive son, Salvador, is chosen as imperial prince regent, since the 16 year old Agustin de Iturbide y Green, who is next in-line to the throne is too young to rule. He changes the territorial boundaries of Mexico and reverts back to its 1864 state borders.
- October 7: Dual Alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary is formed, just like OTL.
- November 4: 1879 C.S. Presidential election occurs. James Longstreet becomes President of the Confederate States.
- 1880
- March 4: Inauguration of President James Longstreet.
- November 7: 1880 U.S. Presidential election occurs, just like OTL.
- 1881
- April 2: After coming of age, Agustín III becomes Emperor of Mexico, although he would rely on his cousin for guidance in ruling over the Empire.
- March 4th: James G. Blaine is inaugurated President of the United States.
- June 14: The Beauregard Purchase occurs, named after P. G. T. Beauregard, the C.S. ambassador to Mexico, and the states of Sonora and Chihuahua are transferred over to Confederate control for CS$3,000,000 worth of gold and silver. A land lease for the Confederates is also granted for the Mexican territory of Baja California. President Blaine threatens war under a false narrative that the Confederates forced Mexico to sell part of their land. He gives the Confederacy 10 days to withdraw from the purchased land or face war.
- June 25: The Second Mexican War, also known as the War of 1881, begins after the United States refuses to allow the Confederates to lawfully purchase the states of Sonora and Chihuahua and lease the Mexican territory of Baja California. Britain, France, and Mexico join the Confederate States against the USA.
- 1882
- April 22: The USA is defeated. President Blaine creates Remembrance Day as a day of national mourning. American revanchism, which is known as Remembrance, is also created and defines the political climate of the late-19th Century to early-20th Century in the United States.
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General Events of TL-191, 1882-1914
Point of Divergence: On September 10, 1862, General Robert E. Lee's Special Orders, No. 191 is recovered by a Confederate corporal and Confederate private in Frederick County, Maryland, which is returned to a courier, successfully delivered to their recipients, and allows the Confederacy to win a decisive battle that grants it independence.
Point of Divergence: On September 10, 1862, General Robert E. Lee's Special Orders, No. 191 is recovered by a Confederate corporal and Confederate private in Frederick County, Maryland, which is returned to a courier, successfully delivered to their recipients, and allows the Confederacy to win a decisive battle that grants it independence.
- 1882
- Abraham Lincoln forms the Socialist Party of the United States of America.
- May 20: The Quadruple Alliance is formed between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and the United States.
- May 22: The Confederate Exclusion Act is passed, which prohibits Confederate immigration to the United States. Some exceptions are made: those born before 1882 and/or those involved in commercial business between USA and CSA.
- May 25: A Constitutional Convention is held in Richmond to adopt a new constitution so that slavery can legally be abolished. Despite much protest domestically and facing economic sanctions from Britain and France, the 1882 Constitution is passed. However, Black Confederates are made to be permanent residents of the CSA.
- 1883
- The Confederate Indian Territory is granted statehood.
- Flora Hamburger is born.
- 1884
- May 8: Harry S. Truman is born, just like OTL.
- July 31: Anthony Dresser in born.
- November 4: Blaine looses re-election.
- 1885
- Fifteenth Amendment is passed. Deals with the conscription of male U.S. citizens when reaching the age of 18.
- 1886
- The German Empire gives the United States a statue as a gift for its 110th Anniversary. It is named the Statue of Remembrance and depicts Columbia with a sword in one hand pointed upwards toward the sky. It has a strong resemblance to the Hermann Statue in Deltmold, Germany.
- A relative of Winfield Scott Featherston is born.
- Gordon McSweeney is born.
- 1887
- The Confederate Cuba Territory is granted statehood.
- 1888
- March 9-June 15: Year of Three Emperors in Germany, just like OTL.
- May 13: The Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery, just like OTL.
- June 17: Heinz Guderian is born, just like OTL.
- November 6: Thomas Brackett Reed is elected President of the United States.
- 1889
- Mayerling Incident occurs, just like OTL.
- April 20: Adolf Hitler is born, just like OTL.
- March 4th: Inauguration of President Thomas Brackett Reed.
- November 15: Empire of Brazil continues to exist. With the support of His Imperial Majesty, Pedro II, Isabel becomes the first Empress of Brazil, after his abdication.
- 1890
- Confederate Chihuahua Territory and Sonora Territory are granted statehood.
- Cincinnatus is born.
- 1891
- Irving Morrell is born.
- Erwin Rommel is born.
- 1892
- Jefferson Pinkard is born.
- 1893
- Huey Pierce Long, Jr. is born, Just like OTL.
- 1894
- CSA begins to make plans with the Nicaraguan government to create a canal that would connect the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
- José Doroteo Arango Arámbula illegally immigrates to the CSA where he is able to pass off being White and becomes involved in the political landscape of Chihuahua.
- Hipolito Rodriguez is born.
- 1895
- President Reed signs a mutual support treaty between the USA and Haiti after hearing of a possible invasion, if not just a strong meddling in the affairs, of Haiti by the Confederates.
- February 26: Imperial Prince Regent, Salvador of Mexico, dies.
- 1896
- November 3: Alfred Thayer Mahan is elected President of the United States.
- 1897
- March 4: Inauguration of President Alfred Thayer Mahan.
- October 29: Saul Joseph Goldman is born.
- Plans to create a canal in Nicaragua are revealed and President Mahan threatens war with the Confederacy if they do not cease all attempts at building it. The Confederates back down after not being guaranteed to receive help from Britain and France.
- 1898
- Anglo-Confederate Alliance is formed.
- 1899
- November 2: Boxer Rebellion occurs, almost similar to OTL. Nine-Nation Alliance: Britain, France, Japan, Germany, USA, CSA, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.
- 1900
- Charles W. La Follette is born.
- 1901
- September 7: Boxer Rebellion ends, almost similar to OTL.
- November 27: Hispano-Japanese War occurs.
- 1902
- March 24: Thomas Dewey is born, just like OTL.
- December 5: Hispano-Japanese War ends in Japanese victory.
- December 9: Venezuelan Naval Blockade begins, almost similar to OTL.
- 1903
- February 19: Venezuelan Naval Blockade ends, almost similar to OTL.
- 1904
- Franco-Russian Alliance is formed, just like OTL.
- April 8: Entente Cordial is formed between Britain and France, just like OTL.
- 1905
- March 1905: First Moroccan Crisis begins, just like OTL.
- 1906
- May 1906: First Moroccan Crisis ends, just like OTL.
- 1907
- After signing the Anglo-Russian Entente, the Quadruple Entente is formed between Britain, France, Russia, and CSA. Almost similar to OTL.
- 1908
- October 5: Bosnian Crisis begins, just like OTL.
- 1909
- March 31: Bosnian Crisis ends, just like OTL.
- November 2: Thomas Woodrow Wilson is elected C.S. president.
- 1910
- Confederate-Mexican Alliance is signed between the Empire of Mexico and the Confederacy that grants military support for each other in case of war with the USA. No obligations for other Quadruple Entente members are made, however, Mexico would eventually become an associated ally/co-belligerent during the First Great War.
- March 4: Inauguration of President Thomas Woodrow Wilson.
- 1911
- April-November: Second Moroccan Crisis begins and ends, just like OTL.
- September 29: Italo-Turkish War begins, just like OTL.
- 1912
- October 8: Balkan Wars begins, just like OTL.
- October 18: Italo-Turkish War ends, just like OTL.
- November 5: Theodore Roosevelt is elected U.S. president.
- 1913
- March 4: Inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt.
- July 18: Balkan Wars end, just like OTL.
- 1914
- June 28: Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, just like OTL.
- July 28: First Great war begins, almost similar to OTL.
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It shouldn't be, if Dr. Turtledove did some research on Brazilian history.
Pedro II's male children were born and died before 1862. His only living heirs were his two daughters and didn't believe that the elites would ever accept a woman as ruler of an empire.
Brazil becoming a republic in TL-191 is a reasonable correction.
In this timeline old TR fought and won the First World War, allowing the United States of America to finally make good as a Great Power after fifty years of humiliations - doubtless leading to him topping many "Greatest Presidents" lists to boot - I'm astonished he didn't live to be ninety after that sort of boost!
It do plan on writing some more articles for this thread sometime soon. In the meantime, I figured that I'd cross-post these posts from the Photos of Timeline 191 thread about different nations during the Twentieth Century and GWII. I may expand some of these posts into full fledged articles at some point in the future.
King Mindaugas II of Lithuania, born Prince Wilhelm of Urach, Count of Württemberg, 2nd Duke of Urach, the German King of the Kingdom of Lithuania from July 11, 1918 until his death in Vilnius on March 24, 1928. He was the first king of Lithuania since the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795.
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King Mindaugas III of Lithuania, born Karl Gero, Duke of Urach, the second king of the German puppet state of the Kingdom of Lithuania from 1928 until his death in 1981. Although born and raised in Germany, he enthusiastically adopted the nation and culture of his adoptive land of Lithuania. He was an inspiring leader during the Second Great War and the Russian invasion of the Baltic states.
Rüdiger von der Goltz, German general and leader of the Baltische Landeswehr, the armed forces of the Baltic-German Couronian and Livonian nobility, during the early years of the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1919. After the fall of the Russian Empire and during the Estonian and Latvian Wars of Independence, the Baltische Landeswehr was supported by the German Empire, which sought to establish a "Baltic Duchy" over Courland and Livonia under Baltic German hegemony. However, after three years of world-wide war, the German army was war weary and demoralized, and as a result the German armies and their proxies in the Baltic region were not able to suppress the Latvian and Estonian nationalists, which were supported by some volunteers from the United Kingdom, which wanted to weaken German power in the aftermath of their defeat in the Great War. All of this climaxed in the Battle of Cēsis from June 19 to June 23, 1919, in which the Estonians and Latvians defeated the Baltische Landeswehr, after-which the war stagnated into stalemate. On August 31, 1919, negotiations began between the German and Estonian and Latvian governments. On November 19, 1919, the Treaty of Tartu was signed between the German Empire and the Republic of Estonia and the Republic of Latvia. As a result, the republics of Estonia and Latvia were recognized by the German Empire in exchange for both republics becoming puppet states of the German Empire and recognizing the German puppet state of the Duchy of Livonia, a Baltic German-led state between Latvia and Estonia. Afterwards, the Baltische Landeswehr was disbanded, with its members either moving to Germany, staying in Latvia, Livonia and Estonia or joining the Latvian, Livonian and Estonian armies where they offered valuable help to the fledgling armies against fears of a Russian or Bolshevik invasion. After this, von der Goltz continued to fight with German armies fighting against the Bolsheviks until 1921. After his return to Germany, he was the head of the German department on the military education of German youth from 1925 to 1932. Afterwards, he went into retirement. During the Second Great War, he briefly returned to public life and appeared at many events throughout the German Empire supporting and raising funds for the war effort against the Entente Powers. After the war, the Duchy of Livonia was divided up between Latvia and Estonia and exchange for both nations loyalty to Germany during the Russian invasion of the Baltics. On November 4, 1946, von der Goltz died of natural causes on the Kinsegg estate, in the village of Bernbeuren, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire.
A soldier in the Baltische Landeswehr, circa 1918.
Konstantin Päts, first President of Estonia.
Jānis Čakste, first President of Latvia.
Kazys Škirpa, leader of the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), a Lithuanian nationalist organization that was anti-German, anti-Russian, anti-semetic and anti-Polish. Founded in 1941, during the Russian invasion and occupation of Lithuania, the LAF fought against the armies of Germany, Poland, the Baltic States and the Russian Empire, as well as German, Jewish, Polish and Russian civilians. In spite of being officially against Russia, members of the LAF were known to selectively collaborate with the Russian occupiers. After the war, Škirpa fled Lithuania to Switzerland and then to Rome, Italy. In 1952, he was extradited from Italy to Lithuania. After a lengthily trail in Vilnius, he was sentenced to death for numerous war crimes. He was executed by hanging in Vilnius on December 23, 1953 at the age of 58.
Flag of the Chetniks, which was a Serbian nationalist and royalist para-military group that was active in Austro-Hungarian-occupied Serbia during the Second Great War. The Chetniks were established by Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović, a veteran of the Serbian Army during the First Great War and a general in the Serbian Territorial Army, the para-military force and de-facto army of Austro-Hungarian-occupied Serbia. During the war, the Chetniks fought against the Austro-Hungarians alongside other Serbian rebel groups. Out of all of the Serbian rebel groups, which including republicans, communists, socialists, nationalists and royalists, the Chetniks stood out as the most terroristic and brutal. During the war, the Chetniks committed a number of atrocities against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats in Bosnia, as the Chetniks hoped to established a "Greater Serbia" after a fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These atrocities included the killing of civilians, burning of villages, assassinations and destruction of property, thus exacerbating existing ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the war, the Chetniks received token support from the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of France and the United Kingdom. After the war, the Chetniks were disbanded and banned by the Austro-Hungarian and Serbian authorities. By 1945, the Chetnik insurgents had been completely decimated.
Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović, leader of the Chetniks. On June 17, 1944, "Uncle Draza" was killed in a violent fire-fight against Austrian, Hungarian, Croatian and loyalist Serbian soldiers outside of the city of Kragujevac. His dead boy, which was full of bullet holes, was then dumped in an unmarked grave in the surrounding countryside.
Milan Stojadinović, first Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia, a constituent kingdom of the Danubian Empire, a successor state to the Austro-Hungarian Empire established on June 14, 1950.
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Vladimir "Vladko" Maček, first Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Croatia, a constituent kingdom of the Danubian Empire.
Ante Pavelić, leader of the Ustaše, a Croatian actionist and ultra-nationalist terrorist organization and para-military group active during the inter-war period and the Second Great War. The party was founded in 1932 by Pavelić, a former member of the Croatian Party of Rights who was exiled from Austria-Hungary for publically espousing violent views against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Hapsburg monarchy, along with other emigrant Croats and former members of the Croatian Party of Rights in Montpellier, Kingdom of France. The Ustaše was highly nationalistic and supported the establishment of an independent "Greater Croatia" free of ethnic Serbs, Germans, Hungarians, Jews and Roma, but tolerant of Bosniaks. During the inter-war period, the Ustaše was unofficially supported with funds by both the Kingdom of France and the Russian Empire. During the Second Great War, the French-based Ustaše failed to gain any mainstream support within the Croatian lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as most Croats were loyal to the Emperor and fearful of the Serbian Chetniks. After the surrender of France to Germany, Pavelić fled on a private plane to Zurich, Switzerland, afterwhich he fled to Cartagena, Spain. On August 17, 1944, while landing outside of Cartagena, his plane crashed, killing all men on board. The remants of the bodies of the dead were then cremated and dumped into the Mediterranean Sea by Falangist Spanish authorities. Soon afterwards, the party disbanded and was banned in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Serbian Chetniks, alongside other royalist and republican rebels, march with captured Austro-Hungarian soldiers through Užice, autumn 1942.
Serbian chetniks with a captured Austrian officer, 1943.
Members of the Slovene Blue Guard, a small Slovenian rebel group that fought against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1943. By the end of the war, the Blue Guard was almost completely decimated, with almost all its members executed or in custody.
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Flag of the Danubian Empire, adopted on June 14, 1950.
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José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Caudillo of the Spanish State from 1939 until his deposition in 1947. After the death rancisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, the young Primo de Rivera, leader of the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista, the main actionist party in Spain, became the de facto leader of the Spanish nationalists, with General Emilio Mola as the leader of military of the Spanish Nationalists, in opposition to the Kingdom of Spain and the Anarcho-Communists of Catalonia. After the end of the Civil War, the Joven Caudillo began a consolidation of total power over the nation of Spain with the assistance of his allies in the Falange, the Spanish Army, the Catholic Church, numerous militia groups, among others. Throughout his rule, Spain was an actionist and authoritarian state which showed total brutality towards any and all leftists who rose up in rebellion during the civil war, as well as any other political dissidents, including monarchists, republicans, freemasons and the Jewish minority in Spain. As a result, the White Terror in Spain, which lasted throughout the 1930s and 1940s, caused many deaths amongst both public and private individuals in Spain. Jews were not murdered, but were very much discriminated against in Spanish society. The Spanish State also intensely suppressed any forms of Basque, Catalan, Galician, Aragonian and Andalusian nationalism and also many aspects of their respective cultures. The same held true for Puerto Rico, the last jewel of the Spanish Empire. Any form of Puerto Rican separatism was intensely suppressed and propaganda supported the idea that the island was an integral part of Spain and as Spanish as the mainland.
During the Second Great War, Spain remained neutral but sympathetic to the Entente, and even sent the Blue Division to fight with the French armies in the Low Countries and Germany. In 1947, partly as a result of the American invasion of Puerto Rico in 1946, Primo de Rivera was deposed as leader of Spain by General Emilio Mola, with Mola becoming the new Caudillo of Spain and Prime de Rivera being forced to retire, with Carlos Arias Navarro as Prime Minister. Primo de Rivera died suddenly from cancer on September 29, 1965 at the age of 62.
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Emilio Mola, Caudillo of Spain from 1947 to 1970. During the 1950s, Caudillo Mola, while continuing to rule Spain as a right-wing authoritarian republican dictatorship and as a conservative, Catholic and so-called "moral" nation, also began to open up the Spanish State more to outside world, abandoning some of the autarkic economics of the past decade and opening Spain up to foreign investment, mostly from the United States, Germany and the resurgent and recovering nations of the United Kingdom and France. During the 1950s and 1960s, Spain became one of the most popular tourist destinations for Americans and Germans, this being in spite of the politics of Spain which most foreigners found to be distasteful. In the 1960s, Spain relaxed some of its anti-Jewish laws, but continued to brutally suppress any form of regional ethnic identity. Mola died on May 29, 1970 at the age of 82, after which an authoritarian military junta ruled over Spain until the return of democracy to Spain from 1972 to 1974.
Flag of the Spanish State, officially adopted on May 20, 1939.
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King Leopold III of Belgium, king of Belgium from 1917 until his death in 1980 and during the German occupation of Belgium that lasted from 1917 to 1945. He became king of Belgium after the abdication of his father King Albert I in the aftermath of Belgium's defeat in the First Great War. During the first years of the German occupation of Belgium, the nation was under a military administration. After the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Germany allowed limited parliamentary rule and elections to return to the nation and coexist with the military administration, under the condition that the new governments would not oppose German occupation. On May 25, 1945, the independence of Belgium was restored in return for Belgian loyalty towards Germany during the Second Great War, with the restored Kingdom of Belgium as a puppet state of Germany.
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Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, the younger brother of King Leopold III and a general in the Belgian Territorial Army, the Belgian militia of German-occupied Belgium, during the Second Great War.
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Léon Degrelle, leader of the Rexist Party, an actionist, royalist, catholic, traditionalist and corporatist political party that was active in Walloonia in German occupied-Belgium and influenced by the Action Francaise party in the Kingdom of France. The party was founded on November 2, 1935 and called for a restoration of Walloon sovereignty from German occupation and alliance of an independent Walloonia with the Kingdom of France. In 1938, the party was banned by the German authorities, with Degrelle being arrested by the German military and imprisoned in Brussels. After the French invasion of Belgium, Degrelle was released from prison by the French armies. Afterwards, the Rexist Party was reestablished, and Degrelle began activity collaborating with the French and British occupiers of Belgium and supported either a unification of Walloonia into the Kingdom of France or Walloonia as a principality and puppet state of the Kingdom of France with Degrelle as regent of Walloonia. During the French occupation of Belgium, Degrelle was also a founder of and colonel in the Walloon Regiment, a regiment of pro-French Walloons in the French Army. During the war, the Walloon Regiment was known to have committed a number of war crimes against both Belgian and German civilians and soldiers. After the liberation of Belgium by Germany and the German capture of Brussels on February 20, 1944, Degrelle fled to Paris with other Rexists and pro-French Walloons. By April, 1944, Belgium was completely recaptured by Germany and the Walloon Regiment had been almost completely decimated. Soon afterwards, Degrelle fled to Bordeaux. After the surrender of France to Germany, Degrelle fled to Mérida in the Spanish State. For the next decades, Degrelle, under the name of José León Ramírez Reina, lived a comfortable life in Spain and actively supported the Falangist government. After the return of democracy to Spain in the 1970s, Degrelle now in his sixties and seventies, continued to live comfortably, and he had no regrets over his past allegiance to the Kingdom of France and Action Francaise and still actively supported far-rightist remnant groups in Spain. On September 12, 2000, Degrelle died of cardiac arrest at the age of 94 in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain.
Anton Mussert, leader of the National Dutch Movement (Nationale Nederlandse Beweging), the main actionist political party within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was influenced mainly by the Fascists in Italy and the Mosleyites in the United Kingdom. During the Anglo-French invasion of the Netherlands, Mussert and NNB actively collaborated with the invaders and established an actionist Dutch Provisional Government in French-occupied Breda that actively supported an actionist takeover of the Netherlands, as well as Dutch regiments in the French Army. Luckily, the heavily defended Amsterdam never fell to the armies of France and Great Britain. After the liberation of the Netherlands by the German and Dutch armies, Mussert and all of the members of his provisional government were arrested by the Dutch army. On August 6, 1944, the NNB was banned within the Netherlands. On June 8, 1945, Mussert was executed by firing squad outside of The Hauge for the crimes of high treason against the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The official symbol of the NNB. The official flag of the NNB consisted of this symbol in the center in black defacing a flag of the Republic of the Netherlands in Orange, White and Light Blue.
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands giving a speech over Radio Oranje, the official radio program of the Dutch government in Amsterdam, in the aftermath of the Anglo-French Invasion of the Netherlands, October 20, 1941. Wilhelmina would continue to reign as Queen of the Netherlands until her death at the age of 80 in 1960.
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands speaking to the Untied States Congress in Philadelphia, 1945. In her speech to Congress, she thanked the United States of America for being allies with Germany during the Entente invasion of Netherlands and for supporting the Netherlands during the war. She also called for a continued friendship between the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, hearkening back to the Dutch colonization of New York and other parts of the future United States.
Fredrik Kaarle I, born Frederick Charles Louis Constantine, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse, the German and first king of the Kingdom of Finland, a puppet state of the German Empire established in the aftermath of the First Great War.
Queen Margaret of Finland, born Princess Margaret of Prussia and the youngest sibling of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The crown of the monarchs of Finland.
King Filipo I of Finland, born Philipp, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse, the king of Finland during the Second Great War, during which the majority of the Kingdom of Finland fell under Russian occupation. In spite of this, the remnants of the Finnish army put up a stiff and stubborn resistance to the Russian occupation forces and as a result became famous for their resistance throughout the war.
(OOC: I know there is some inconsistency in the books about Finland. However, it makes more sense that Finland would be independent after GWI, with a German and Finnish victory against the Finnish Bolsheviks like IOTL. I think in the books it's possible that they could have been referencing a Finland under occupation by the Russian Empire).
Joris Van Severen, leader of the Diets-Flemish National Solidarists (Diets-Vlaamsch Nationaal Solidaristen), an actionist and Dutch nationalist political party in German-occupied Belgium that advocated for the integration of Flanders into the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the creation of a Greater Netherlands or "Dietsland." In 1938, the party was banned and Van Severen fled to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, where he soon afterwards became acquainted with Anton Mussert, leader of the NNB. The two became good friends and began to work together. After the Entente invasions of Belgium and the Netherlands, Van Severen and the DFNS collaborated with both the French in Belgium and the French and the British in the occupied Netherlands, with many members joining Dutch units in the French Army. After the war, Van Severen was captured by the German Army and put into custody, where he committed suicide in prison on May 27, 1944.
Staf De Clercq, leader of the Flemish National Union (Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond), an actionist and Flemish nationalist political party in German-occupied Belgium. Unlike the DVNS, the VNV did not want a union with the Netherlands and wanted Flemish independence instead. In 1938, the party was banned and De Clercq fled to the town of Dunkerque, Kingdom of France. After the French invasion of Belgium, De Clercq returned to Belgium and him and the VNV began to collaborate with the French occupiers, hoping for an independent Flanders to be established after the end of the war. He died in Antwerp in 1942.
Cornelius Eduardus "Ward" Hermans, the leader of the VNV after the death of Staf de Clercq. After the liberator of Belgium by Germany, Hermans was captured by the German armies and was then arrested for collaboration. After Belgium regained independence, Hermans and other Entente collaborators were tried for collaborating with the enemy and for treason against Belgium. He was found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was eventually released in 1976 due to his poor health, and he died of natural causes in 1980.
Benito Mussolini (July 29, 1883-June 26, 1968), leader and founder of the National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista), an Italian far-right and Actionist political party that was founded on November 9, 1917 and officially disbanded by the Italian government on May 31, 1920. Mussolini, a former socialist, founded the aforementioned party largely as a result of Italy not entering the First Great War on the side of the Entente Powers and other domestic problems within Italy, such as corruption, poverty and even some other issues such as trains not running on time. In response to losing the elections of 1920, on May 21 and May 22, 1920, Mussolini and his supporters in the PNF, along with Gabrielle D'Annunzio (March 12, 1863-May 21, 1920), leader of the right-wing to far-right Italian Nationalist Association (Associazione Nazionalista Italiana), staged an attempted coup in Rome known as the "March on Rome." The coup ended in a complete failure after the death of D'Annunzio, possibly on the orders of Mussolini, and a harsh crackdown by the Italian Army. After the coup. Mussolini was was arrested, tried, and convicted of treason against the Kingdom of Italy, and was then imprisoned for five years in the San Vittore Prison in Milan. After he was released from prison in August, 1925, Mussolini had found his former political base had evaporated and joined other smaller far-right parties in Italy, none of which had any serious chance of gaining any power. As a result, Mussolini retired from politics and moved to a life of obscurity in his hometown of Predappio. He spent the rest of his life living in obscurity and working numerous odd jobs around the area of his hometown. He also wrote a number of books about Italian history, political theory, among other subjects. Throughout the 1930s, numerous far-right and Actionists within Italy called on Mussolini to come out of retirement to lead a new far-right coalition, but he refused on every occasion. On June 26, 1968, Mussolini died of heart failure in Predappio at the age of 84. None of his children or descendants ever attained political office.
OOC: Much of this comes from the Filing the Gaps post on the Kingdom of Italy.
King Umberto II of Italy (September 15, 1904-October 28, 1982), King of Italy for almost thirty-five years between December 28, 1947 until his death in 1982. His reign saw the Kingdom of Italy becoming an important secondary power in Europe and Africa throughout the Post-War Era, as well as an increasing of relations between Italy and Germany.
King Victor Emmanuel IV of Italy (February 12, 1937 - ), King of Italy from 1982 to the present day.
Rafeal Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his US-backed deposition in 1946. During his rule, the ruling party known as the Dominican Party, which had been described by many historians as Actionist, was the sole legal party in the nation, and Haitians and Afro-Dominicans in the Dominican Republic suffered persecution and even ethnic cleansing, despite Trujillo himself being part Black Haitian himself. During the Second Great War, Trujillo, while keeping the Dominican Republic officially neutral during the war, maintained friendly relations with Featherston's Confederate States, and wanting to have a place for his nation in the Confederate "New Order", actively surrendered about 100 to 250,000 Haitians and Afro-Dominicans to the Confederates and their death-camps in Confederate-occupied Haiti. In May, 1946, almost two years after the end of the war, an American joint operations between the USMC and Navy invaded the Dominican Republic and overthrow Trujillo, who was then placed in US Military Custody. After a brief trail, on June 24, 1947, Trujillo was executed by hanging in Santo Domingo, the capital city he once named after himself as Ciudad Trujillo, for crimes against humanity. The US then installed a provisional occupation and provisional government before recreating the Dominican Republic as the third Dominican Republic on July 1, 1954.
OCC: Much of this comes from this post.
Hector Trujillo, the younger brother and close associate of the aforementioned dictator and a general in the Dominican Army who actively participated in the murders of and deportations of Haitians and Afro-Dominicans into Confederate-occupied Haiti. After the US invasion of the Dominican Republic, he was arrested, tried and finally executed for crimes against humanity on October 26, 1947.
Joaquín Balaguer, the first democratically-elected President of the Dominican Republic after the Trujillo dictatorship. Until his death in 2000, he served as President of the Dominican Republic many times, first from 1954 to 1960, then from 1970 to 1976 and again from 1988 to 1996.
Alexander Kolchak, Prime Minister of the Russian Empire under the far-right and Actionist Union of the Russian People from 1932, soon after the ascension of Tsar Mikhail II to the Russian throne, until his resignation in July, 1944 after Russia's humiliating loss in the Second Great War. After his resignation he was replaced by an interim military-government under General Pytor Wrangel, one of his former allies in the government. On March 7, 1945, after months of suffering from depression after Russia's loss in the Great War, he committed suicide by a gunshot from a pistol to his head.
General Pytor Wrangel, a politically independent member of the Russian government during the Second Great War and the interim Prime Minister of Russia from 1944 to 1946. After his time as Prime Minister, the Russian Empire would be under the rule of numerous semi-democratic governments until the rise of the Russian Republic and the beginning of the Second Russian Civil War in 1964.
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Nicholas II (May 18, 1868-June 6, 1932), Tsar of Russia from 1894 to 1932 and during both the First Great War and First Russian Civil War.
Mikhail II (December 4, 1878-September 22, 1950), Tsar of Russia from 1932 until his death in 1950 and during the Second Great War.
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Tsar Vladimir (August 30, 1917-April 21, 1992), Tsar of Russia from 1950 until his deposition in 1964. He spent the rest of his life living in exile in Switzerland.
The funeral procession of Tsar Mikhail II in St. Petersburg, October 1, 1950. During the funeral, in scenes reminiscent of the funeral of King Leopold II of Belgium in 1909, many of the residents of St. Petersburg booed and hissed as the funeral procession went by, as Tsar Mikhail II had become a largely hated figure amongst a lot of the Russian people for his role in the persecution of the Russian Jews, his authoritarianism and his failure to gain victory for Russia during the Second Great War.
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Crowds of people gather to see the casket of Tsar Mikhail II in Moscow, September 29, 1950.
Basil Brooke (June 9, 1888-June 26, 1947), known as Basil Brooke, 5th Baronet from 1907 until 1922, when Ulster was officially annexed by Ireland and all noble titles were abolished, a prominent Northern Irish politician of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. During the Irish War of Independence and the Ulster Rebellion of 1924, Brooke led his own paramilitary group known as Brooke's Fermanagh Vigilance, a smaller part of the Ulster Volunteers, which was made up of Northern Irish Great War veterans. After Ulster was annexed into Ireland, Brooke led the UUP, although the party was on the fringes of Irish politics and was heavily suppressed by the Irish government in Dublin. During the 1920s and 1930s, Brooke moderated in message in an attempt to gain more votes and began to support Ulster becoming an autonomous part of the Republic of Ireland. During the Second Great War and the British invasion of Ireland, Brooke and the UUP actively collaborated with the invading British Army and Churchill/Moseley government of the United Kingdom. From 1942 to 1944, Brooke was declared the provisional Prime Minister of Northern Ireland by Winston Churchill, a mostly symbolic title as Ulster was still run by the military. After the war, the UUP was banned by the Irish government for its collaboration with the British invaders, and all its members were tired for treason against the Republic of Ireland, with said members either being executed or imprisoned. Brooke himself was sentenced to death and was executed by hanging on June 26, 1947 at the age of 59.
W.T. Cosgrave (June 6, 1880-October 24, 1945), leader of the Fine Gael party and leader of the opposition during the early history of the Republic of Ireland. During the Second Great War, as Fine Gael desired to establish a corporatist United Ireland within the British Commonwealth, Cosgrave actively collaborated with the British invaders and the British government of Churchill and Moseley. As a result, he was tried for treason and was executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin on October 24, 1945 at the age of 65. After this, the remaining members of Fine Gael reformed themselves into a new party under the same name after disavowing their collaborationist party members.
Eoin O'Duffy, a general in the Irish Army who was the leader of the National Corporate Party, a far-right, clerical, corporatist and catholic political party that collaborated with the British during the Second Great War. After the war, O'Duffy was arrested by the Irish Army for treason, but he died of natural causes while in custody in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin on November 30, 1944.
Gearóid Ó Cuinneagáin (born John Gerald Cunningham), leader of the Ailtirí na hAiséirghe (meaning "Architects of the Resurrection"), an Actionist party active in Ireland during the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s after its foundation in 1938. Unlike O'Duffy's NCP, the ANA was staunchly anti-British and even participated to a minor degree in the guerrilla war against the invading British armies. The party also advocated for an Actionist Irish state similar to those in France and the CSA, and also called for the increased usage of the Gaelic Irish language over English, with English being a secondary language in Ireland and with a possible future abolition of the English language within Ireland. After the war, the party remained on the fringed of Irish politics. Ó Cuinneagáin dissolved the party in 1955 and retired from politics for good.
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I mainly had some ideas on the Entente's invasion of Norway, the Alsace-Lorraine and Low Country campaigns.
I'd also gladly jump in on this project, I've had ideas about this for years
In fact; I was in the midst of building an Entente and German Order of Battle
What I've gone so far
Anglo-French Invasion of Germany & the Low Countries
Codename: Operation Charlemagne
French 1st Army Group - Invasion of Alsace-Lorraine
- French 1st Army
- French 2nd Army
- French 7th Army
- French 9th Army
- French 10th Army
Entente 2nd Army Group - Invasion of Low Countries
- French 3rd Army
- French 4th Army
- French 6th Army
- British Expeditionary Force
-- British 1st Army
-- British 4th Army
--- British I Airborne Corps
---- British 1st Airborne Division
---- British 7th Airborne Division
What I've gone so far
Anglo-French Invasion of Germany & the Low Countries
Codename: Operation Charlemagne
French 1st Army Group - Invasion of Alsace-Lorraine
- French 1st Army
- French 2nd Army
- French 7th Army
- French 9th Army
- French 10th Army
Entente 2nd Army Group - Invasion of Low Countries
- French 3rd Army
- French 4th Army
- French 6th Army
- British Expeditionary Force
-- British 1st Army
-- British 4th Army
--- British I Airborne Corps
---- British 1st Airborne Division
---- British 7th Airborne Division
This looks very good. My only question: would the British have airborne units? I thought the U.S. was the first to use them at Chattanooga in 1943?
Its mentioned they are the only ones in the North American continent that it's used; it's more then distinctly possible, as I'm assuming, the British used them to neutralize several German and Dutch fortification in Belgium and the Netherlands to make the advance easier similar to how the Germans used them in their invasion of the Low Countries.
Well not mentioned, it's a common theme that events in Europe directly influence or inspire offensives in North America (the barrel roll offensive being an exception)
I'm working on a more detailed OrBat
Well not mentioned, it's a common theme that events in Europe directly influence or inspire offensives in North America (the barrel roll offensive being an exception)
I'm working on a more detailed OrBat