alternatehistory.com
1940
1940
It returns! Was going to just write 1940-1943 - but a bit of mission creep happened with 1940 and it was bigger than expected.
1940
In Europe:
The French Front
The French Front continued in a state of indecisive stalemantes. Men, materiel and morale went into the meatgrinder of the Western Front with little or not result. German forces would eventually push out the combined Franco-British-Dutch-Belgian troops out of the low countries by the end of the year with heavy casualties on both sides.
The Scandinavian Front
As the French front stalemated, the Admiralty began to look for a way to break the back of Germany through a combination of terror bombing and blockade. Sweedish iron ore was a crucial component of the German war machine and in order to cut off this crucial supply the Navy began to lay mines. Despite strong protests of the Danish and Norwegian governments, the mine laying commenced.
Danish troops like pictured above provided valiant, if futile resistance.
Unknown to the Entente powers, Germany had contingency plans in case this occurred - planning to import Iron ore from the Soviet Union and the USA (through neutral Italy.) However, the Entente provided a useful casus beli to justify 'intervention' in the Scandinavian countries. On March 9 1940, German forces commenced "Operation Weserübung." The Danish campaign commenced swiftly with Denmark capitulating after less than a day. The Norwegian campaign would be a lot tougher.
Chiang Wei-Kuo, one of Chiang's sons was an officer in the elite Gebirgsjager mountain troops.
On March 11 1940, Norway faced the awkward situation of being the only country in the Second Great War to be simultaneously invaded by both the Axis and the Entente Powers. Prime Minister Churchill, who took power after Chamberlain's resignation in the aftermath of Germany's swift occupation of Denmark took decisive action through a 'pre-emptive intervention to assist the Norwegian Government' in what was referred to as Plan R 4. Unfortunately for Churchill, Norwegian Prime Minister Nygaardsvold was intent on maintaining neutrality and ordered Norwegian forces to fire on any troops attempting to land - thus the initial landings at Narvik was resisted by Norwegian forces...
While Norway was facing an 'intervention' in the North by Entente forces, Axis forces was simultaneously invading the South. The initial German invasion of Norway was botched with several troop carriers being sunk by a combination of mines, coastal artillery fire and bad luck. Faced with both the Entente and Axis invasions, the Nygaardsvold government fled to Helsinki along with the Royal family. Three months of brutal fighting in Norway commenced with the remaining Norwegian army splitting in three - a faction was loyal to the Mowinckel government set up in Narvik by Allied Forces, another faction remained loyal to the Helsinki Government and fought both Allied and Axis forces and the last (and smallest) faction declared loyalty to the Quisling Government in Oslo. It would not be until June that Entente forces were finally pushed out of the country.
Italy Enters the War
Buoyed by Axis success in the Scandinavian Front and with Italy no longer being needed to stay Neutral in order to facilitate shipments of international Iron ore, Italy now formally honoured the Axis Pact and declared war on the Entente (The British Commonwealth, France and Japan) on the 10th of July. Italian forces commenced limited offensives in British held Egypt and Somaliland and put on defensive facings on French-held colonies. Italian forces successfully occupied British Somaliland, but faced tough resistance in the Egyptian front. Italy faced the issue in the Mediterranean of having to wrestle with the powerful French and British navies and supplying her colonies proved difficult.
In Asia:
The Indo-China Front:
French forces are successfully kept at bay by difficult terrain and fanatical resistance by the National Revolutionary Army. The narrow front is easier to defend and Chinese troops enjoy local superiority in numbers. A pro-independence insurgency funded by Nanking and Berlin are not helpful for French supply lines either.
The Burmese Front:
The Burmese front poses even more significant logistics problems than the Indo-China front. The terrain in Yunnan is very mountainous, rough and are defended by locals who know the terrain and are fighting with grim determination for a cause they believe in. The British order of battle is a mixture of a core of British forces, colonial troops from India and Commonwealth troops from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The Tibet Front:
If the Burmese front was difficult, the Tibetan front was even worse logistically for both parties. The lack of infrastructure, rough terrain and huge distances meant that the "Tibet Front" was mostly a collection of commando raids and company-level actions organized by both sides. The Tibet front was notable for the use of Airships by the Chinese forces to resupply and land commando detachments behind enemy lines.
The North-China/Manchuria Front:
The North China front developed into a stalemate. It was trench warfare with tanks and aircraft. Everytime Japan managed to force a breakthrough with superior firepower, China would put the fire out by smothering it in bodies. Conversely, everytime the NRA forced a breakthrough through infilitration tactics and sheer manpower, Japan would smother it under concentrated naval support. As the year ended, Japanese and Chinese troops would glare at each other across pretty much the same lines they glared at each other from at the start of the year. Sure, the ground was bloodier - but it was the same ground.
The air-war:
Wellington Bombers launched frequent sorties to bomb Chinese cities.
The National Revolutionary Air Force was re-organized to be an independent force and reorientated from a primarily Army-support air force to an air-defence one. The FR VI - licensed copies of the BF - 109 continued mass production. And the NRAF had a lot to defend against, British Wellington bombers flying from Hong-Kong, Malaysia and Burma as well as French bombers who came day and night to bomb Chonqing, Guangzhou and China's southern industrial base. Japanese bombers flew frequent sorties from Manchuria and from carriers to bomb China's coastal cities off her eastern seabord - Shanghai, Nanking and others.
The NRAF was fighting a losing war against three modern air forces, while it struggled to re-equip to the FR VI and Chinese cities burned. Horror images of burnt Chinese men, women and children were frequent staples of Axis propaganda that was produced for American audiences. But as more and more FR VIs came online - particularly the cannon-equipped variant that took on bombers with more ease than the machine-gun equipped ones.
The Propaganda War:
The British Declaration of War against China offended many of her Indian subjects - particularly the leaders of the Indian National Congress. For one, the war had very heavy colonialist undertones, for another offence was taken that India was included in the declaration of war without consultation with her leaders and finally, Indian troops were being used to fight a war against a 'friendly' country. For many Indian National Congress members, the Kuomintang was a friendly party and many INC leaders had been hosted by the Kuomintang.
Indian National Congress member and independence leader
The situation in India was tense, and matters were not helped when a faction of the INC - led by Subhas Chandra Bose fled to Nanking in October 1940 and set up a Provisional Government of India. Bose also set about organizing an Indian National Army from Indian exiles and prisoners of war. Nanking further stoked the fires of anti-colonialist sentiment by sending arms to Indochinese, Indonesian, Malay, Burmese and other Asian independent movements.
The 1940 US Election
The defining issue of the US Election was the "Roosevelt Doctrine" - an assertion that the US would continue to trade with 'whomever, wherever and whatever' and that it would ignore any blockades. The war had made the US very rich. It sold raw materials, war goods and credit to both the Entente and the Axis - laying it on a path to recovery. It wasn't a surprise that Roosevelt won with a landslide.
It returns! Was going to just write 1940-1943 - but a bit of mission creep happened with 1940 and it was bigger than expected.
1940
In Europe:
The French Front
The French Front continued in a state of indecisive stalemantes. Men, materiel and morale went into the meatgrinder of the Western Front with little or not result. German forces would eventually push out the combined Franco-British-Dutch-Belgian troops out of the low countries by the end of the year with heavy casualties on both sides.
The Scandinavian Front
As the French front stalemated, the Admiralty began to look for a way to break the back of Germany through a combination of terror bombing and blockade. Sweedish iron ore was a crucial component of the German war machine and in order to cut off this crucial supply the Navy began to lay mines. Despite strong protests of the Danish and Norwegian governments, the mine laying commenced.
Danish troops like pictured above provided valiant, if futile resistance.
Unknown to the Entente powers, Germany had contingency plans in case this occurred - planning to import Iron ore from the Soviet Union and the USA (through neutral Italy.) However, the Entente provided a useful casus beli to justify 'intervention' in the Scandinavian countries. On March 9 1940, German forces commenced "Operation Weserübung." The Danish campaign commenced swiftly with Denmark capitulating after less than a day. The Norwegian campaign would be a lot tougher.
Chiang Wei-Kuo, one of Chiang's sons was an officer in the elite Gebirgsjager mountain troops.
On March 11 1940, Norway faced the awkward situation of being the only country in the Second Great War to be simultaneously invaded by both the Axis and the Entente Powers. Prime Minister Churchill, who took power after Chamberlain's resignation in the aftermath of Germany's swift occupation of Denmark took decisive action through a 'pre-emptive intervention to assist the Norwegian Government' in what was referred to as Plan R 4. Unfortunately for Churchill, Norwegian Prime Minister Nygaardsvold was intent on maintaining neutrality and ordered Norwegian forces to fire on any troops attempting to land - thus the initial landings at Narvik was resisted by Norwegian forces...
While Norway was facing an 'intervention' in the North by Entente forces, Axis forces was simultaneously invading the South. The initial German invasion of Norway was botched with several troop carriers being sunk by a combination of mines, coastal artillery fire and bad luck. Faced with both the Entente and Axis invasions, the Nygaardsvold government fled to Helsinki along with the Royal family. Three months of brutal fighting in Norway commenced with the remaining Norwegian army splitting in three - a faction was loyal to the Mowinckel government set up in Narvik by Allied Forces, another faction remained loyal to the Helsinki Government and fought both Allied and Axis forces and the last (and smallest) faction declared loyalty to the Quisling Government in Oslo. It would not be until June that Entente forces were finally pushed out of the country.
Italy Enters the War
Buoyed by Axis success in the Scandinavian Front and with Italy no longer being needed to stay Neutral in order to facilitate shipments of international Iron ore, Italy now formally honoured the Axis Pact and declared war on the Entente (The British Commonwealth, France and Japan) on the 10th of July. Italian forces commenced limited offensives in British held Egypt and Somaliland and put on defensive facings on French-held colonies. Italian forces successfully occupied British Somaliland, but faced tough resistance in the Egyptian front. Italy faced the issue in the Mediterranean of having to wrestle with the powerful French and British navies and supplying her colonies proved difficult.
In Asia:
The Indo-China Front:
French forces are successfully kept at bay by difficult terrain and fanatical resistance by the National Revolutionary Army. The narrow front is easier to defend and Chinese troops enjoy local superiority in numbers. A pro-independence insurgency funded by Nanking and Berlin are not helpful for French supply lines either.
The Burmese Front:
The Burmese front poses even more significant logistics problems than the Indo-China front. The terrain in Yunnan is very mountainous, rough and are defended by locals who know the terrain and are fighting with grim determination for a cause they believe in. The British order of battle is a mixture of a core of British forces, colonial troops from India and Commonwealth troops from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The Tibet Front:
If the Burmese front was difficult, the Tibetan front was even worse logistically for both parties. The lack of infrastructure, rough terrain and huge distances meant that the "Tibet Front" was mostly a collection of commando raids and company-level actions organized by both sides. The Tibet front was notable for the use of Airships by the Chinese forces to resupply and land commando detachments behind enemy lines.
The North-China/Manchuria Front:
The North China front developed into a stalemate. It was trench warfare with tanks and aircraft. Everytime Japan managed to force a breakthrough with superior firepower, China would put the fire out by smothering it in bodies. Conversely, everytime the NRA forced a breakthrough through infilitration tactics and sheer manpower, Japan would smother it under concentrated naval support. As the year ended, Japanese and Chinese troops would glare at each other across pretty much the same lines they glared at each other from at the start of the year. Sure, the ground was bloodier - but it was the same ground.
The air-war:
Wellington Bombers launched frequent sorties to bomb Chinese cities.
The National Revolutionary Air Force was re-organized to be an independent force and reorientated from a primarily Army-support air force to an air-defence one. The FR VI - licensed copies of the BF - 109 continued mass production. And the NRAF had a lot to defend against, British Wellington bombers flying from Hong-Kong, Malaysia and Burma as well as French bombers who came day and night to bomb Chonqing, Guangzhou and China's southern industrial base. Japanese bombers flew frequent sorties from Manchuria and from carriers to bomb China's coastal cities off her eastern seabord - Shanghai, Nanking and others.
The NRAF was fighting a losing war against three modern air forces, while it struggled to re-equip to the FR VI and Chinese cities burned. Horror images of burnt Chinese men, women and children were frequent staples of Axis propaganda that was produced for American audiences. But as more and more FR VIs came online - particularly the cannon-equipped variant that took on bombers with more ease than the machine-gun equipped ones.
The Propaganda War:
The British Declaration of War against China offended many of her Indian subjects - particularly the leaders of the Indian National Congress. For one, the war had very heavy colonialist undertones, for another offence was taken that India was included in the declaration of war without consultation with her leaders and finally, Indian troops were being used to fight a war against a 'friendly' country. For many Indian National Congress members, the Kuomintang was a friendly party and many INC leaders had been hosted by the Kuomintang.
Indian National Congress member and independence leader
The situation in India was tense, and matters were not helped when a faction of the INC - led by Subhas Chandra Bose fled to Nanking in October 1940 and set up a Provisional Government of India. Bose also set about organizing an Indian National Army from Indian exiles and prisoners of war. Nanking further stoked the fires of anti-colonialist sentiment by sending arms to Indochinese, Indonesian, Malay, Burmese and other Asian independent movements.
The 1940 US Election
The defining issue of the US Election was the "Roosevelt Doctrine" - an assertion that the US would continue to trade with 'whomever, wherever and whatever' and that it would ignore any blockades. The war had made the US very rich. It sold raw materials, war goods and credit to both the Entente and the Axis - laying it on a path to recovery. It wasn't a surprise that Roosevelt won with a landslide.
- CCA
- Word Count: 1.4k