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The Fuhrer who won Europe: Adolf Hitler (1945-55)
The Fuhrer who won Europe: Adolf Hitler (1945-55)
In a sense, The Second Great War was the inverse of the First Great War. If in the First Great Warthe Entente had won a minor victory against Germany but kept Germany mostly intact territorially with loss of colonies, the reverse was the case in the Second Great War with Germany and her allies (Italy and China) forcing a minor victory and leading to the loss of many Entente colonies.
But while some classify the Second Great War as a minor Axis victory, Germany did not feel like a victor. Sure - she had confirmation of her hegemony over Scandinavia and Central Europe - but these were already held by the Germans. Germany didn’t actually win anything on the peace table other than the return of existing territory or confirmation of current lines of occupation.
Furthermore, Germany was in significant debt to the Americans (not to the extent of France, Britain and China - but some) and had to reconstruct East Prussia (which was stripped bare by Soviet forces) as well as to provide assistance to her allies.
It did not take long for the ‘stab in the back’ mythos to find her old targets again.
The Shoah
The Shoah has already been covered at length by others. However, recently de-classified intelligence relieased by the Americans under the auspices of the Sino-American Cooperative Organization reveals the alternatives that were considered. Although other options were considered such as expelling the Jews to Palestine and most chillingly - outright extermination - Hitler opted to go with the deportation of Jews and the confiscation of their assets.
Germanization
Hitler moved to reorganize the German spheres of influence. In addition to the Shoah, a list of extraterritorial privileges for German citizens were agreed to by the German puppet states and allies with only Italy being immune to these demands. These demands included free movement of german soldiers and citizens across their territory, fairly one sided trade agreements as well as other burdens. It is a damning indictment of Stalinist Soviet Union that the countries of Europe when forced to choose between the German whip or the Russian yoke chose the former.
From foe to friend: British-German Rapprochement
After Wallace’s defeat, President Dewey cancelled the Morgenthau Plan - resuming trade with all powers on a non-preferential, purely commercial basis. This would have a number of fairly significant ripple effects, but the most obvious was the the downfall of the Eden Government which fell apart from an inability to prioritize their now recently constrained fiscal situation. Simply put - the question was: Guns or Butter? Should Britain try and hang on to the colonies or alleviate the poverty and prioritize reconstruction.
Eden made the wrong choice. Prioritizing the defence of the colonies against the Trotskyist and nationalist insurgencies, staunch cuts were made across the board. Unfortunately was one of the coldest winters in recent memory and the cut of the fuel allowance led to many families going into crushing debt and poverty to heat themselves. And those were the lucky ones - the poorer ones or the ones that had no family left outright froze to death. Although the Eden government would hastily reverse this decision - it was too little, too late. Trust in the state had vastly collapsed with winter-fuel relief efforts being organized either by Trade Unions, Veterans Leagues or by Mosely’s Black Shirts.
In the chaos and instability of the election, the British Union of Fascists eked out a majority government in the 1949 election despite winning only a total of 33.09% of the vote due to the left-vote (44%) being split between the British Worker’s Party (Trotskiyist), the Communist Party of Great Britain (Stalinist), the UK Labour Party (Social Democrat/Democratic Socialist) and the Common Wealth Party (Social Democrat/Mutualist) and the outright collapse of the Conservative vote (12%). Terrified out of their minds of a fascist takeover, the Trotskyists and other elements of the hard left rose up in rebellion with some unions in support. The UK tethered on the brink for a few days as the bulk of the professional army stayed in their barracks. But they finally got their order from their King. George VI in return for Mosely guaranteeing the continuation of British democracy and the inclusion of Conservatives in the Mosely Government in the Great Offices of State (Secretary of State of the Home Office and Lord Chancellor)
George VI believed that he could control the fascists along with the senior conservatives. He would never get the chance to put his theory to action. He would pass away in December 1949 of ‘unknown causes’ leaving the young Elizabeth II as Queen of England.
Imagine just having a baby and having to deal with a fascist takeover. That's what Queen Elizabeth II had to deal with. I'd look pissed off too.
With a young, politically naive Queen in Charge, Mosely took action - reshuffling the Cabinet and consolidating fascist rule in Britain, ultimately entering the “Pact of Steel” by mid 1950
The consolidation of fascism in Britain and the entry of the United Kingdom into the pact of steel had a big impact on the international sphere. Stalin disbanded the “Monarcho-Communist” states of Bulgaria and Greece, overthrowing their monarchs who now had no support from their patron. The Belgians threw in their lot with the Pact of Steel, terrified of being isolated and left alone with a revolutionary France on it’s borders. But now the balance of power had shifted dramatically. Britain, Germany, China and Italy against the Soviet Union, Japan and France. Most importantly, the Axis now had a navy and would no longer be subject to blockades.
But not all was well in the Axis. While Britain and Germany was more than happy to throw the nationalist rebels they supported to the wolves (the Germans literally wholesale handing over their lists to the British of the rebels they supported and funded in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and the British handing over their lists of rebels in Libya and Ethiopia to Italy) - China was actually a sincerely anti-colonialist and nationalist power. While Chiang was happy to sell out other nationalists if it helped China (notice the fate of Central Asia), this was a different case and the BIS continued to misplace shipments of arms across Asia, Africa and the Middle East and continued to also misplace the list of rebels they were meant to give to their new allies.
This was obviously a source of tension in the Axis, but one that Chiang and Hitler’s close friendship would paper over. But once the two were gone the tensions and contradictions inherent in China - a revolutionary, anti-colonialist, third worldist, anti-European, nationalist power in a club of Empires desperately trying to retain their Empires and oppress people of colour across the world would lead to the Sino-German Split of 1956.
Why do you think we've got the bomb.
Project gotterdammerung
But the Axis was happy to overlook these differences for now and work together on a variety of projects. This meant deploying Wehrmacht forces across Africa, the Middle East and Asia to suppress nationalist uprisings and test unpleasant new weaponry.
The biggest cooperation was in the project gotterdammerung, the project to weaponize the power of the fission. While German scientists were the first to theorize that the atom could be split and that this could be potentially be turned towards destructive use, the Nazi ideology had led to the expulsion of hundreds of researchers to China (the most prominent among them was Max Born) and a handful who managed to escape to the states (the most prominent being Albert Einstein.)
Sino-German efforts to develop a bomb during the Second Great War had run headlong into the wall of lack of resourcing and also the refusal of Jewish-German scientists to work with a regime they considered abhorrent. They had literally been expelled by Germany and they did not want to work with Nazi German scientists or help the war cause.
After the war, with many of China’s hydro-electric power plants destroyed by the Japanese-British “damnbusting” campaign, they finally agreed to work on the peaceful use of nuclear power in developing a reactor, provided that their research wasn’t used for destructive purposes. After making Dai Li pinky swear that the research wouldn’t be used for war or shared with the Nazis, they got to work.
But Dai Li was a very naughty boy and made copies of all the research and provided it straight to the Germans. The entry of British scientists into the Axis also helped speed up the research. On New Year’s Day in 1955, an explosion on the mountains of the Carpathians helped usher in the New Year for some very unlucky Romanian peasants in the Kingdom of Romania. The Axis Powers had won the race to build nuclear weaponry.
Preparations began for the invasion of the Soviet Union in a couple of years. Much of the funding to the armed forces for China and Germany had gone to the nuclear weaponry project and the armed forces were still using tanks developed in mid 1940s (for Germany) and the mid 1930s (for China.)
But Hitler would not live to see his triumph. 10 days after his 66th birthday on April 30 1955, Hitler would breath his last. The Fuhrer was dead. But who would succeed him?
In a sense, The Second Great War was the inverse of the First Great War. If in the First Great Warthe Entente had won a minor victory against Germany but kept Germany mostly intact territorially with loss of colonies, the reverse was the case in the Second Great War with Germany and her allies (Italy and China) forcing a minor victory and leading to the loss of many Entente colonies.
But while some classify the Second Great War as a minor Axis victory, Germany did not feel like a victor. Sure - she had confirmation of her hegemony over Scandinavia and Central Europe - but these were already held by the Germans. Germany didn’t actually win anything on the peace table other than the return of existing territory or confirmation of current lines of occupation.
Furthermore, Germany was in significant debt to the Americans (not to the extent of France, Britain and China - but some) and had to reconstruct East Prussia (which was stripped bare by Soviet forces) as well as to provide assistance to her allies.
It did not take long for the ‘stab in the back’ mythos to find her old targets again.
The Shoah
The Shoah has already been covered at length by others. However, recently de-classified intelligence relieased by the Americans under the auspices of the Sino-American Cooperative Organization reveals the alternatives that were considered. Although other options were considered such as expelling the Jews to Palestine and most chillingly - outright extermination - Hitler opted to go with the deportation of Jews and the confiscation of their assets.
Germanization
Hitler moved to reorganize the German spheres of influence. In addition to the Shoah, a list of extraterritorial privileges for German citizens were agreed to by the German puppet states and allies with only Italy being immune to these demands. These demands included free movement of german soldiers and citizens across their territory, fairly one sided trade agreements as well as other burdens. It is a damning indictment of Stalinist Soviet Union that the countries of Europe when forced to choose between the German whip or the Russian yoke chose the former.
From foe to friend: British-German Rapprochement
After Wallace’s defeat, President Dewey cancelled the Morgenthau Plan - resuming trade with all powers on a non-preferential, purely commercial basis. This would have a number of fairly significant ripple effects, but the most obvious was the the downfall of the Eden Government which fell apart from an inability to prioritize their now recently constrained fiscal situation. Simply put - the question was: Guns or Butter? Should Britain try and hang on to the colonies or alleviate the poverty and prioritize reconstruction.
Eden made the wrong choice. Prioritizing the defence of the colonies against the Trotskyist and nationalist insurgencies, staunch cuts were made across the board. Unfortunately was one of the coldest winters in recent memory and the cut of the fuel allowance led to many families going into crushing debt and poverty to heat themselves. And those were the lucky ones - the poorer ones or the ones that had no family left outright froze to death. Although the Eden government would hastily reverse this decision - it was too little, too late. Trust in the state had vastly collapsed with winter-fuel relief efforts being organized either by Trade Unions, Veterans Leagues or by Mosely’s Black Shirts.
In the chaos and instability of the election, the British Union of Fascists eked out a majority government in the 1949 election despite winning only a total of 33.09% of the vote due to the left-vote (44%) being split between the British Worker’s Party (Trotskiyist), the Communist Party of Great Britain (Stalinist), the UK Labour Party (Social Democrat/Democratic Socialist) and the Common Wealth Party (Social Democrat/Mutualist) and the outright collapse of the Conservative vote (12%). Terrified out of their minds of a fascist takeover, the Trotskyists and other elements of the hard left rose up in rebellion with some unions in support. The UK tethered on the brink for a few days as the bulk of the professional army stayed in their barracks. But they finally got their order from their King. George VI in return for Mosely guaranteeing the continuation of British democracy and the inclusion of Conservatives in the Mosely Government in the Great Offices of State (Secretary of State of the Home Office and Lord Chancellor)
George VI believed that he could control the fascists along with the senior conservatives. He would never get the chance to put his theory to action. He would pass away in December 1949 of ‘unknown causes’ leaving the young Elizabeth II as Queen of England.
Imagine just having a baby and having to deal with a fascist takeover. That's what Queen Elizabeth II had to deal with. I'd look pissed off too.
With a young, politically naive Queen in Charge, Mosely took action - reshuffling the Cabinet and consolidating fascist rule in Britain, ultimately entering the “Pact of Steel” by mid 1950
The consolidation of fascism in Britain and the entry of the United Kingdom into the pact of steel had a big impact on the international sphere. Stalin disbanded the “Monarcho-Communist” states of Bulgaria and Greece, overthrowing their monarchs who now had no support from their patron. The Belgians threw in their lot with the Pact of Steel, terrified of being isolated and left alone with a revolutionary France on it’s borders. But now the balance of power had shifted dramatically. Britain, Germany, China and Italy against the Soviet Union, Japan and France. Most importantly, the Axis now had a navy and would no longer be subject to blockades.
But not all was well in the Axis. While Britain and Germany was more than happy to throw the nationalist rebels they supported to the wolves (the Germans literally wholesale handing over their lists to the British of the rebels they supported and funded in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and the British handing over their lists of rebels in Libya and Ethiopia to Italy) - China was actually a sincerely anti-colonialist and nationalist power. While Chiang was happy to sell out other nationalists if it helped China (notice the fate of Central Asia), this was a different case and the BIS continued to misplace shipments of arms across Asia, Africa and the Middle East and continued to also misplace the list of rebels they were meant to give to their new allies.
This was obviously a source of tension in the Axis, but one that Chiang and Hitler’s close friendship would paper over. But once the two were gone the tensions and contradictions inherent in China - a revolutionary, anti-colonialist, third worldist, anti-European, nationalist power in a club of Empires desperately trying to retain their Empires and oppress people of colour across the world would lead to the Sino-German Split of 1956.
Why do you think we've got the bomb.
Project gotterdammerung
But the Axis was happy to overlook these differences for now and work together on a variety of projects. This meant deploying Wehrmacht forces across Africa, the Middle East and Asia to suppress nationalist uprisings and test unpleasant new weaponry.
The biggest cooperation was in the project gotterdammerung, the project to weaponize the power of the fission. While German scientists were the first to theorize that the atom could be split and that this could be potentially be turned towards destructive use, the Nazi ideology had led to the expulsion of hundreds of researchers to China (the most prominent among them was Max Born) and a handful who managed to escape to the states (the most prominent being Albert Einstein.)
Sino-German efforts to develop a bomb during the Second Great War had run headlong into the wall of lack of resourcing and also the refusal of Jewish-German scientists to work with a regime they considered abhorrent. They had literally been expelled by Germany and they did not want to work with Nazi German scientists or help the war cause.
After the war, with many of China’s hydro-electric power plants destroyed by the Japanese-British “damnbusting” campaign, they finally agreed to work on the peaceful use of nuclear power in developing a reactor, provided that their research wasn’t used for destructive purposes. After making Dai Li pinky swear that the research wouldn’t be used for war or shared with the Nazis, they got to work.
But Dai Li was a very naughty boy and made copies of all the research and provided it straight to the Germans. The entry of British scientists into the Axis also helped speed up the research. On New Year’s Day in 1955, an explosion on the mountains of the Carpathians helped usher in the New Year for some very unlucky Romanian peasants in the Kingdom of Romania. The Axis Powers had won the race to build nuclear weaponry.
Preparations began for the invasion of the Soviet Union in a couple of years. Much of the funding to the armed forces for China and Germany had gone to the nuclear weaponry project and the armed forces were still using tanks developed in mid 1940s (for Germany) and the mid 1930s (for China.)
But Hitler would not live to see his triumph. 10 days after his 66th birthday on April 30 1955, Hitler would breath his last. The Fuhrer was dead. But who would succeed him?
- CCA
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