Chapter 646: American Reaction and Strategy, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Central Pacific
Chapter 646: American Reaction and Strategy, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Central Pacific
ddg1nh5-e30a005e-456d-4991-a3f0-40a10f0d3223.png

In the Pacific Theatre, the Allies, mainly America had time to recover from their shock of the early months of the war and the surprising Japanese assaults, victories and expansions. At the borders of India, Australia and in Melanesia, the Japanese expansion was not stopped, but slowed down massively for once. During most of 1942 the Island of Guadalcanal had become the main battleground between the United States and Japan on land, sea and in the air. The loss of the control of Henderson Field in the North of Guadalcanal was a major blow for the Americans, but at the same time the defense of Port Moresby and the push-back of the Japanese forces towards the Kerema-Wau-Lae defense line in New Guinea meant that Australia was once again secure from all to direct raids and invasions. While it was true that the Japanese had managed to land in Darwin, their forces there were cut off from the rest of Australia, poorly supplied and would either soon retread or be defeated, while at the moment they could not fight at the more important front-lines. In the Central Pacific, the American forces were lead by fleet admiral Chester William Nimitz of the United States Navy, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces in the North Pacific and Central Pacific trying to stop the Japanese advance onto Hawaii and push them back, out of Alaska to the Kuril Islands, the Marianne Islands, Iwo Jima and Tokyo. In the south this command was given to General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, who had promised to return to the Philippines and sought to drive the Japanese out of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert- and Ellice Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands and finally the Philippines itself.
MacArthur-Nimitz.jpg

Sadly for both Nimitz and MacArthur, the War in Europe (and to a extent Africa and the Middle East) had priority. In the first half year of the confrontation in the Pacific six American divisions (or 270,000 man) had been send to the pacific, soon turning into 360,000 man, or 9 divisions, including two divisions of the U.S. Marine Corps till the End of 1942. The majority of this forces were placed under command of MacArthur. However the General who had first send them to New Guinea to prevent the Japanese from taking all of the island and endangering the supply lines to Australia, or even the continent and state of Australia itself. The landings on Guadalcanal soon included 60,000 American soldiers on Guadalcanal, but the Japanese conquest of Guadalcanal's western half, together with the destruction of Henderson Field and the Japanese building of their own secondary airfield in northern Malaita lead to the dispatching of 60,000 further American soldiers to the island of Malaita. Suddenly all of the American Marines under Mac Arthur's control were either in Guadalcanal or Malaita, leaving the defense of New Guinea to the U.S. Army alongside Australian and New Zealand forces. The devastating loss of the American supplies during the Guadalcanal Landing and the overall massive loss of American transports, pared with the Japanese naval and air supremacy, made it quiet hard for Mac Arthur to reinforce and supply his continuously fighting forces in Guadalcanal and Malaita with everything they needed, while at the same time preparing much better and stronger defenses as well as new Allied harbors and airfields in San Cristobal Islands, Santa Cruz Island and his headquarters on Renell Island, in anticipation and preparation of a continued Japanese push and finally conquest of Malaita and Guadalcanal. Mac Arthur knew that with the Hawaii Islands directly threatened Nimitz would gain much needed further reinforcements, battleships, carriers, transports, fighters and bombers, not him, With already thousands of Americans dead, a few dozen ships sunk and hundred of aircraft lost, Mac Arthur knew that holding onto Guadalcanal and Malaita, even if just as a prolonging of enemy Japanese losses, who were because of their direct assaults and aggressive way of warfare much higher then his own, was worth it, as it gave additional time to prepare the secondary Solomon Island defenses on San Cristobal Islands, Santa Cruz Island and his headquarters on Renell Island. Until then his Marines had to endure the Japanese aggressive assaults and push, while they desperately needed to remain in their positions for as long as possible. Still Mac Arthur hoped, there had to be a opening somewhere, maybe by coordinating a feint attack with Nimitz, leading to the Japanese to be distracted in the North and regrouping their major fleet forces there so that he could make a new push in the south?
 
Why do I see the USA actually winning in 43-45 in Oceania (as they already have some victories and the USN will soon far outbuild and outnumber the IJN)... And force Japan to renounce those Oceanian conquests (but let Japan keep China, DEI, Malaya, Indochina and Burma), so a hollow US victory (but no stomach for more losses).

And then... Japan retakes everything that it lost in the peace treaty as soon as the USA crumble (and France and Italy jump Britain in Africa). Which reverses what was already a hollow and costly victory for the USA.
 
Why do I see the USA actually winning in 43-45 in Oceania (as they already have some victories and the USN will soon far outbuild and outnumber the IJN)... And force Japan to renounce those Oceanian conquests (but let Japan keep China, DEI, Malaya, Indochina and Burma), so a hollow US victory (but no stomach for more losses).

And then... Japan retakes everything that it lost in the peace treaty as soon as the USA crumble (and France and Italy jump Britain in Africa). Which reverses what was already a hollow and costly victory for the USA.
The USA would most likely not give anything away in a peace deal, even less reconquered ground, but they might say take what you grabbed, as they essentially are not challenging it at that point either way...

I need a memory refresh. How many carriers both sides lost at Midway?
All of them, both of them, plus the US fleet got hammered in a second night battle quit a little bit that afterwards lead to the (very bloody) conquest of the island by the IJN forces.
I would guess that the battle was mid-way between an American victory, and a Japanese one?
Kind of Japanese offensice capacities were massively crippled, the American ones similary (but they will quickly build up to erase that problem in not even half a year. It also had massive influence on the US mid term elections (especially in states and population groups contributing to this "incompetend" led war effort) and overall changed Japanese and US strategies and tactics quit a bit... The USA still have one carrier in the Pacific, but it is outnumbered and it's very unlikely we'll see it in the south were the Japanese can field not only more carriers, but more land-based bombers and fighters as well. Most likely it will remain in Hawaii to secure the island with fighters, bombers and other ships there agaisnt any immenent Japanese threat, as the Japanese can not deploy as many offensive forces there as they can in the south (where they have more island based airfields overall).
 
Last edited:
Kind of Japanese offensice capacities were massively crippled, the American ones similary (but they will quickly build up to erase that problem in not even half a year. It also had massive influence on the US mid term elections (especially in states and population groups contributing to this "incompetend" led war effort) and overall changed Japanese and US strategies and tactics quit a bit... The USA still have one carrier in the Pacific, but it is outnumbered and it's very unlikely we'll see it in the south were the Japanese can field not only more carriers, but more land-based bombers and fighters as well. Most likely it will remain in Hawaii to secure the island with fighters, bombers and other ships there agaisnt any immenent Japanese threat, as the Japanese can not deploy as many offensive forces there as they can in the south (where they have more island based airfields overall).

I'm guessing this means the Japanese have learned or are learning the OTL Allied doctrine of never deploying carrier task forces outside the range of ground-based fighter cover.
 
How is the naval war between the Allies and ACP going ? I assume, better than IOTL as the ACP control Gibraltar, they have Spain and France... But still bad. Even combined, ACP navies are not a match for the RN and USN (and whatever remains of the Red Navy)
 
How is the naval war between the Allies and ACP going ? I assume, better than IOTL as the ACP control Gibraltar, they have Spain and France... But still bad. Even combined, ACP navies are not a match for the RN and USN (and whatever remains of the Red Navy)
They have Malta too, but yes they are massively outnumbered and everywere outside their coast where they can support things with naval bombers, they mainly use submarines and single, powerfull ships still, but they try to build up a larger navy in the secure Baltics and Med to challange Naval supremacy once ... (mostly not finished during this war ;D).
 
Last edited:
Chapter 647: Himmlerists
Chapter 647: Himmlerists
wewels11.jpg

Not many of the Schutzstaffel (SS) survived the anti-Nazi coup of the German Military in 1938, but many who did managed to find a safe-space in the newly formed German Orders, first the Teutonic Order, then the Burgundian Order and finally the Gothic Order and the Austrian Order as well. While the most known radical SS members as well as the highest ranking ones were dealt with or had to go into hiding, so some just left any direct organization at all. They secretly formed the Himmlerist trying to infiltrate the German Orders and use them for their own goals to form ethnic German states out of the regained German Empire territories, or the German conquered regions close to the German Empire. Their End goal was Germanization of all those regions, to form a stable German wall of Wehrbauern (defensive peasants); in the West from the English Channel (what they called the Burgundian Channel in the North) to the French Côte d'Azur (known to them as the Burgundian Riviera) in the East, as well as as from the Baltic Duchies to Ukrainia in the East as well as the Balkan Peninsula to the north of Italy in the South. In their minds the goal was a massively German Ethnic State and Colonies in the heart of Europe, that would rule over other what they believed to be German ethnic states too, like France (Franken), Spain (Western Goths), Italy (Eastern Goths), England (Anglo-Saxony) and others. To fulfill this ambitious program they not only helped to settle German colonists in these areas themselves with a little help from the German Empire and the Austrian Empire/ United States of Austria, but to fully re-Germanize the believed to be Germanic (Aryan and honorary Aryan) people in these areas by teaching the German language and culture (even before their native ones) to them in schools and universities run by the Orders. This method had not only friends and supporters, but quit some high opposition in many regions, especially eastern France (even from French Fascist Royalists), Bohemia (Czechs), Moravia (Czechs), Galicia (Polish), Lodomeria (Ukrainian), West Prussia (Polish), Posen (Polish), Kurland/ Courland (Latvians), Lettgallen/ Latgale (Latvians), Südlivland/ South Livonia (Latvian), Nordlivland/ North Livonia (Latvian), Ösel/ Saaremaa (Estonians), and Estland/ Estonia (Estonia), White Ruthenia (White Ruthenians) and in Ukrainia (Ukrainians).
Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-H15390%2C_Berlin%2C_Kaserne_der_LSSAH%2C_Vergatterung.jpg

The former SS members and other racial Germans who believed in Social Darwinism and the idea of a superior Aryan German race actually managed to infiltrate most of the German Orders and while they remained a small minority, they remained a vocal minority and thereby managed to influence the overall politics and ideologies of those German Orders quit massively. However the remaining influence of the German Army in these regions managed to keep the most destructive and dangerous ideas of these racist radicals somewhat in check. While this secret Himmlerist wished to eradicate the weak and those with disabilities, maybe even the majority of those native populations in the area, the Imperial German Army, Imperial German Government and the Emperor himself were not having any of it. As long as they were loyal subjects, obeyed the law (of German occupation forces), payed their taxes and did not openly spy, sabotaged or rebelled as guerrilla they were left mostly alone even if the German language and culture was still heavily promoted in their regions. Then again that was the fate of every European nation state and land inside the Axis Central Powers when Germany would win the Second Great War. In the End over time however, the Himmlerist would vanish, a mere wraith, a ghost of the former Nazi Party and the SS, a nightmare of a ideology and time long outlived by a new Germany, a new ideology and a new vision of a Utopian future. This was also because many Himmlerists did not even survive the Second Great War until then, as many were still quit fanatic and enthusiastic, fighting in elite forces on the front-lines at any given time with high causalities because of that. While they often had the best training and equipment any Himmlerist fallen meant less influence of the former SS on the German Order they had been part of. Over the course of the Second Great War thereby their influence and ideology further decreased and would finally End with the overall liberalization and more democratization in Germany and the Axis Central Powers at the beginning of the 1960ies all the way until the 1980ies.
 
Personally, I think they would be best left right out, or used right in the front... in the overlapping fields of fire.
Main problem at the beginning might have been not everyone thinking like that could be outright be outed as a SSler or Nazi, also Germany needed it's trained soldiers at the point some of them were discovered. However I would assume some of the Orders gave suicide-missions to some of their special "Black Knight" members...
 
Last edited:
Chapter 648: The Battle of Kerema and Kamina
Chapter 648: The Battle of Kerema and Kamina
800px-GuadKoliPointMarineWounded.jpg

In New Guinea, the Island of Papua the Allies, mainly the Americans, Australians and New Zealand fought the Japanese and Taikokuese (called Cantones in Western press as Taikoku itself was mostly called Canton since it's “independence” as a Japanese puppet state). Their own heavy Allied defenses had started a trench warfare on both sides, not to mention poisonous animals, plants, the use of native tribesman as auxiliaries and the overall usage of mines and overall traps along this front-line. Knowing that the Americans would win on the long run thanks to increasing numbers and supplies they felt secure for a while, but the Japanese raids deep beside the Allied lines and the problem of reinforcing and supplying these Allied forces deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea proved risky. So Mac Arthur planned to use his own numbers for a push on Lae, the main Japanese resupply port for the entire frontline and their most forward outpost. However the Japanese-Taikoku position was very well defended and fortified, not only by trenches, but also heavy artillery and bunkers. Because of this Mac Arthur realized a direct assault on Lae was not only dangerous, but deadly for the Allied position on the Island. Because of this Mac Arthur decided to not attack Lae on the northern Front-line directly for now.
Photography10.jpg

Instead Mac Arthur focused on the southern front-line around Kerema and Kamina, were the Japanese and Cantonese forces had a much less well supplied and well defended line. Most of them in the south were weakened by bad or non-existing supplies, swamp illness and other diseases. Combined with the fact that they were furthest away from Lae and relatively close to Port Moresby, it looked like the ideal position for a Allied counter-attack. Even more so as the Allies still controlled the Coral Sea in southern Papua New Guinea, even if the Japanese had mined the Torres Strait and tried to disrupt the Allied transports with naval bombers and submarines from nearby bases on Nuigui/ Papua itself. With the help of the local Hamtai tribe and the Toaripi tribe to help with transport of supplies and guide reinforces to the frontline directly from Port Moresby. The massive Allied attack came to a total surprise of the Japanese, even more so as they had still far more forces on the frontlines and believed to be in preparation of their own attack to drive the Allies out of the island. The initial Allied attack outnumbered the Japanese forces and quickly overran the southern frontline in some parts, having the Japanese and Cantonese on the run.
ART27547-688.jpg

That was at last, until the Japanese and Taikoku forces started to apply their air superiority in fighters and bombers over the island. Frightening the Allies and more importantly encourage the Co-Prosperity Sphere forces, these fighters and bombers were actually very bad in actually hitting anything as the dense jungles or destroyed no-mans-land looked all alike and it was hard to tell friend-from-foe in such circumstances, leading to many instances of friendly fire on both sides. Then the statement started, when Japanese and Taikoku holdouts in undiscovered bunkers in the jungles, often behind enemy lines suddenly started to sabotage, infiltrate and raid the Allied supply lines, forcing Mac Arthur to redirect many of this forces alongside local tribesmen auxiliaries, to secure the reinforcement from Port Arthur and wipe out this remnants of Japanese and Cantonese resistance behind the actual frontline. This further slowed down Mac Arthur's forces in the region, despite support by nearby naval forces, sadly air forces from Australia were often to far away and out of reach. Then suddenly the Japanese and Taikoku forces used their transport and light tanks developed for amphibious use in the southern swamp jungles of the New Guinea Island, pushing the Allied forces back, quit massively and under heavy losses. In the End the Japanese would lose three times the manpower the Allies lost during the campaign, nearly loosing their superiority in soldiers and manpower before the Allies even received any reinforcements again. Still Japanese propaganda portrayed the Allied heavy losses as a major victory on their step to liberate the whole Island and push forward to Australia. Many in Japan and the overall Co-Prosperity Sphere even believed this as the military itself and their imperial government was the only source of information from outside of their own member nations at all.
22811.jpg
 
Tomorrow a chapter about the German Order and one about Allied bombings, similar to OTL SS we will get a overview of certain German Order Divisions, their leaders, equipment and other stuff for TTL.
 
Top