The Germans will be in shock once they they see that the units that are ear marked for naval operations instead of sailing thru the saronic gulf in to the Aegean they sail thru the Corinth canal to the Corinthian gulf
Going through the Corinth canal would create a traffic jam, given the numbers of ships involved. The fleet would go south at a distance that it can either turn west or east and north depending on the target. Why the Allies don't know they had a leak in Alexandria do they? If the fleet went straight north it would signal Allied intentions that they are hitting Gallipoli. Or not. 😇The Germans will be in shock once they they see that the units that are ear marked for naval operations instead of sailing thru the saronic gulf in to the Aegean they sail thru the Corinth canal to the Corinthian gulf
We love Germany so much that we want to have many of them! 😇 Speaking of which a separate Bavaria is certainly within the realm of plausibility but what scuppered it OTL? After all for a time both Churchill and Stalin were for it...Tbf if the allies landed in Konigsberg idk if the entirety of the German population would be chased out of their homes.
I do hope the Prussians actually learn old Prussian tho lol.
Yes. 😇And my question on the fate of Matome Ugaki ITTL?
As many Germanies as possible would be an interesting tl in it of itself lol. But true. More Deutschland!We love Germany so much that we want to have many of them! 😇 Speaking of which a separate Bavaria is certainly within the realm of plausibility but what scuppered it OTL? After all for a time both Churchill and Stalin were for it...
To Ugaki being killed with Yamamoto ITTL or him getting his OTL fate?Yes. 😇
This fills me with dread for some... unspecific reason...or Athens is the starting base for the second Sicilian expedition.
Tbf if the allies landed in Konigsberg idk if the entirety of the German population would be chased out of their homes.
I do hope the Prussians actually learn old Prussian tho lol.
Why though? Prussians were German for hundreds of years and proud ones at that.Tbf if the allies landed in Konigsberg idk if the entirety of the German population would be chased out of their homes.
I do hope the Prussians actually learn old Prussian tho lol.
It's just that Prussian is a Baltic language and a revival would be interesting.Why though? Prussians were German for hundreds of years and proud ones at that.
With a fleet so big, heavy and specially including carriers this smell more like Sicilia open waters than Aegean constrained ones.Andrianople, April 28th, 1943
Max Merten was a content man. The original plans to clear out Thessaloniki from its Jewish population had had to be delayed due to train shipment constraints, but he had improvised successfully. Thrace had just been proclaimed Judenfrei, as 14 train shipments from Bulgarian and Turkish territory, had moved nearly 25,000 Jews through Bulgaria and Romania to the camps in Poland. The rounded up Jews from Kavala, Serres and Drama, nearly 4,000 more would follow in the next week. Then it would be the turn of Constantinople and finally Thessaloniki, the army there kept complaining the railroads through Serbia were overloaded and under constant air attack and sabotage. He could wait. After all Constantinople and the Dardanelles had over 57,000 Jews, slightly more than Thessaloniki. It was going to take months. And profit one Max Merten handsomely...
Warsaw, April 29th, 1943
The last fighters of the Jewish Military Union, escaped through a tunnel the Warsaw ghetto to the rest of Warsaw. After 11 days of heavy fighting, the Jewish resistance, doomed to destruction from the start was collapsing although it would take the Germans more than two weeks more to fully suppress it. But sometimes you had tot fight even if you were doomed to lose from the start...
Nicosia old town, April 30th, 1943
Lieutenant Alparslan Turkes was woken from the sound of shooting nearby. Moments later Emine Denktas burst into the room in the basement of the house that was hiding him. The 19 year old, her father Raif had named her after her deceased mother she had told him was visibly agitated but still held it together he noticed.
"We must move you. Someone talked, the Greeks just hit the house we were hiding the Germans and Special Branch is on the way here."
Turkes cursed and followed the girl. The last six months had been a frustation to put it mildly. Being a native of the island he had been a natural choice to take part to the mission here. The local Turks had been sympathetic, but with four fifths of the population of the island Greek most of the local leaders were unwilling to support a revolt, Emine here and her father were the exception. Perhaps he shouldn't blame them. Perhaps but he did. The motherland's need mattered more, and the motherland needed all the help it could get. At least if the leaders didn't care the common people did heed to the motherland. He and his comrades had been able to organise sabotage, get intelligence from the many Turks in the police, demonstrations, even a few guerrila bands. But the British had reacted by dismissing any Turks they suspected from the police, recruiting auxiliary police units among the Greeks and unleashing them all and the local army units on them. With the enthusiastic backing of the local Greeks of course. The heavy handed reaction had gained the Kara Cete, the fighting group set in the island, yet more support but after six months it had whittled down almost to nothingness. It didn't matter he'd go on as long as he could...
Buffalo, New York, May 3rd, 1943
The next batch of licence built P-51B, left the Curtiss factory. The appearance of the Italian Series 5 back in the fall of 1942 over the Mediterranean had been something of a shock and Curtiss own P-40 clearly could not compete with them. Switching production from P-40L to the P-51B was an obvious fix, both aircraft were using the Merlin engine and it did not make sense when there was a shortage to Merlin engine supply to use them on Warhawks instead of Mustangs. Production of the Allison engined P-40s was continuing unabated.
Olympus, May 7th, 1943
A thousand guns opened on the German, Italian and Bulgarian positions. As his soldiers hunkered down in their trenched under the barrage waiting for the tanks and infantry to follow Erwin Rommel calmly waited for the attack to develop. He had available more than half a million men to meet the Allied assault and had been forewarned about it. True more than two thirds of his soldiers were Italians and Bulgarians but Rommel was not making the mistake to underestimate them as many of his fellow German officers were doing...
Lemnos, May 7th, 1943
The guns of Georgios Averof thundered at Turkish positions, as Lynx and Mustang Mk III fighters darted overhead to hit targets further inland. The Greek 13th Marine and the 4th Archipelago Infantry regiments had hit the beach at dawn, the III Airborne brigade under Christodoulos Tsigantes had preceded them overnight. Uncle George had led the liberation of Lemnos a generation ago. Now it was back...
Beyazit Square, Constantinople, May 9th, 1943
Fevzi Cakmak looked from one of the windows of the old building of the Ottoman Ministry of war to the square, the Forum of Theodosius back in Byzantine times, he could not remembed what the Greeks called it nowadays and if he could help it it would never matter again. The Greeks had hit Lemnos two days ago, it would likely fall but he expected this, simultaneously with the beginning of the attack on Olympus, this one was apparently developing slowly, the Allies were making small probes for the time being preceded by massive artillery barrages. The Allied fleet had left Greek ports initially heading south. Exactly as expected. He hid a smile. Air reconnaissance had become very difficult given heavy Allied air activity over the Aegean but the Allies apparently still were not aware their plans had leaked, they still hoped to confuse the Axis about the actual target.
Mediterranean Sea, May 10th to 11th, 1943
Ships from ports as far away as Algiers, Tunis, Piraeus, Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut were converging across the Mediterranean. Eight battleships, two aircraft carriers, twenty cruisers and thousands of smaller craft massed with five divisions of the 8th British Army under Richard O'Connor and the 7th US Army under George Patton assembled. History's largest amphibious force since the Greeks had unleashed 1,186 ships for the eyes of Helen would be going to action at dawn...
In late1942 (between 1st and 2nd Alamein), some British "commando-type" groups in Egypt staged a wave of raids on Axis rear areas in Libya. (The LRDG was not involved except for transportation.) The raids all failed, some quite badly.Correction, the Turkish and the Italian secret services have been reasonably effective throughout the war...
I hope that in TTL Max Merten will get what he deserves - the gallows.And profit one Max Merten handsomely
Oh definitely.I hope that in TTL Max Merten will get what he deserves - the gallows.