Fascists: I swear I am not like Mussolini!
Catholic Church: ARE. YOU. SURE. ABOUT. THAT. MATE?
A Better Decade - a British TL.
- Thread starter Sarthak
- Start date
Catholic Church: ARE. YOU. SURE. ABOUT. THAT. MATE?
Franco was, AIUI, pretty staunchly monarchist and pro-church. His association with Italy might hurt his image somewhat but I do not think he would need to change his label. He was more a fascist by association anyway. His version of right wing authoritarianism was more tailored to Spain's situation.
Yeah Ik. Southeren was referencing to another TL of mine which he was an active part of in which I created a new ideology called 'Marxist-Monarchism' which gained traction in Indochina and some parts of the world as middle ground between Marxism and traditionalism
I’ve had a brief look through this so far and it seems straightforward, if overstating British economic, industrial and financial capacity quite significantly.
This leaps out at the reader in several places, with the most recent being the casual reference to a Britain paying off its Great War debt to the USA. I would suggest a little research on just how large that debt was, what Britain’s GDP range was in the 1920s and 1930s, what was total government expenditure/percentage spent on defence and debt/surpluses and deficits and related areas. At the moment, you are heavy on bright, big picture stuff and lack the actual detail of how your reforms are afforded, how they benefit the economy and what is their opportunity cost. This goes to the central idea of the timeline.
Splitting up India into convenient multiple entities seems more a notion developed in retrospect rather than actually what was on the cards at the time. It deftly sidesteps a very big issue in an unconvincingly contrives manner.
Some of the writing and ideas smack of modernity in stylistic terms, with talk of armoured divisions, “guys” and the Prime Minister being known by his first name. This detracts from immersion, which is essential if you are going to try to serve up a technical TL with an economic PoD.
Maybe it was just my aging eyes, but I thought I saw reference to US industry surpassing that of Britain as if this was an extremely recent event; this happened some point in the 1880s and the difference was now well beyond anything that encouragement of telephones could impact.
In over 20 years of studying the RN of this period, I’ve never come across any reference to a Dreadnought class of carriers. I’d go so far as to say that the book that featured said name is in error; it doesn’t come up in DK Brown, Eric Grove, Warship, Conways or any of the seminal texts. This may be merely a cosmetic choice, but comes across as a loaded one.
Additionally, there isn’t the need to scrap most of the older carriers, as they count as experimental tonnage. Scrapping gives short term economy, but a useful hull laid up in the 1930s can fill a secondary or tertiary role a lot quicker than new construction.
Converting the V/Ws to sloops doesn’t make sense. They are needed to make up the numbers of required flotillas until such time as the Standards replace them (for full details, see the excellent threads by NOMISYRRUC), after which they are better suited to long range escort destroyer conversion (as in @) if going down that path.
I will have to read through the section on tank development again on the morrow, but you might be overreaching there a tad.
With the right combination of policies, favourable circumstances, peace, fiscal strategy and leadership, Britain can definitely perform better in the interwar period. 10% better performance over 20 years is quite straightforward. Above 20% might be pushing it for the PoD. That translates as a 1939 GDP of 7.2 billion pounds as compared to 6 billion; useful, but not earth shattering.
Revenue in 1939 was 1286.4 million quid, or roughly 20%. That will be your ballpark (cricket oval?) figure of what the government can realistically expect for this era.
Extrapolate the data and the sums of what you are saying should be done, what should be purchased and built and how it all fits together and you’ll have a very comprehensive timeline.
This leaps out at the reader in several places, with the most recent being the casual reference to a Britain paying off its Great War debt to the USA. I would suggest a little research on just how large that debt was, what Britain’s GDP range was in the 1920s and 1930s, what was total government expenditure/percentage spent on defence and debt/surpluses and deficits and related areas. At the moment, you are heavy on bright, big picture stuff and lack the actual detail of how your reforms are afforded, how they benefit the economy and what is their opportunity cost. This goes to the central idea of the timeline.
Splitting up India into convenient multiple entities seems more a notion developed in retrospect rather than actually what was on the cards at the time. It deftly sidesteps a very big issue in an unconvincingly contrives manner.
Some of the writing and ideas smack of modernity in stylistic terms, with talk of armoured divisions, “guys” and the Prime Minister being known by his first name. This detracts from immersion, which is essential if you are going to try to serve up a technical TL with an economic PoD.
Maybe it was just my aging eyes, but I thought I saw reference to US industry surpassing that of Britain as if this was an extremely recent event; this happened some point in the 1880s and the difference was now well beyond anything that encouragement of telephones could impact.
In over 20 years of studying the RN of this period, I’ve never come across any reference to a Dreadnought class of carriers. I’d go so far as to say that the book that featured said name is in error; it doesn’t come up in DK Brown, Eric Grove, Warship, Conways or any of the seminal texts. This may be merely a cosmetic choice, but comes across as a loaded one.
Additionally, there isn’t the need to scrap most of the older carriers, as they count as experimental tonnage. Scrapping gives short term economy, but a useful hull laid up in the 1930s can fill a secondary or tertiary role a lot quicker than new construction.
Converting the V/Ws to sloops doesn’t make sense. They are needed to make up the numbers of required flotillas until such time as the Standards replace them (for full details, see the excellent threads by NOMISYRRUC), after which they are better suited to long range escort destroyer conversion (as in @) if going down that path.
I will have to read through the section on tank development again on the morrow, but you might be overreaching there a tad.
With the right combination of policies, favourable circumstances, peace, fiscal strategy and leadership, Britain can definitely perform better in the interwar period. 10% better performance over 20 years is quite straightforward. Above 20% might be pushing it for the PoD. That translates as a 1939 GDP of 7.2 billion pounds as compared to 6 billion; useful, but not earth shattering.
Revenue in 1939 was 1286.4 million quid, or roughly 20%. That will be your ballpark (cricket oval?) figure of what the government can realistically expect for this era.
Extrapolate the data and the sums of what you are saying should be done, what should be purchased and built and how it all fits together and you’ll have a very comprehensive timeline.
No the current Carlist claimants IOTL have gone uniorincally Monarcho-Socialist so I was referencing that.
Deleted member 94680
A Commonwealth realm with the Monarch as the Head of State maybe?
Britain may soon be faced with a moral problem. Lets suppose that the Soviets defeat the Polish and drive deep into Poland. Also Lithuanian borders East Prussia. Once the Soviet Army approach the border of Germany, will th Soviets stop or will they keep on going into Germany? Will the Germans decide not to wait but instead surge across the Polish border to defend Germany?
It is not in Britain best interest for the Soviet Union to over run Germany. At the same time, we are talking about the Nazis. What would Britain do if the Germans suddenly ask for supplies and equipment to stop the Soviets from over running Germany?
It is not in Britain best interest for the Soviet Union to over run Germany. At the same time, we are talking about the Nazis. What would Britain do if the Germans suddenly ask for supplies and equipment to stop the Soviets from over running Germany?
Deleted member 94680
Unfortunately, in Britain, the Nazis of 1938 aren’t the Nazis of OTL 1939 or onwards. They’re just a bellicose bunch of right-wing martinets who like parades and fancy uniforms. Sure, they’ve undone Versailles at several turns and expanded their borders, but many in Britain can “kind of see where they’re coming from”. Most importantly, they’re not Communists and they’re willing to fight the Red Menace. Better Adolf and his boys than Tommy who’s just come back from Africa.
hmm we are all Peronists here. Seriously though the Peronist Party are the world experts at repackaging Fascism for new times....
April – June, 1938, and some Changes.....
Chapter 17: The Eastern War
***
April – June, 1938
***
The Lithuanian Army during peacetime was a fully volunteer force of around 25,000 men, with mobilization during wartime meant to give the army a force of 150,000 men in the battlefield. For a small nation such as Lithuania, the numbers were very impressive. And the weapons used in the army were pretty impressive as well in many cases. The Lithuanians used modern rifles, had modern armored fighting cars, and a few modern French built tanks as well. However, the problem was that the heavy equipment was low in the country. The country’s airforce was also full of pretty modern biplanes domestically produced in Lithuania. The ANBO IV was a well equipped light attack biplane for it’s time and well capable of standing on it’s own two feet with the Polish biplanes. However, the problem for the Lithuanian airforce was that they only had around 40 of these ANBO VI biplanes, and the loss of a good amount of pilots would be catastrophic for the Lithuanians.
ANBO IV biplane used by the Lithuanians.
The mobilization of Lithuanian reserves began as the active army began making a country wide defensive line awaiting the Soviet Troops having gained military access in Estonia and Latvia to arrive. For the Polish, the problem was simply the Soviets. The Polish plan however was to utilize a series of constructions and strategic fortifications at the border and deal with Lithuania before reaching a favorable peace with the Soviets and then as a bonus, humiliate the Soviets again. The German promise of SS Brigades, who were veterans of the Civil War in Spain, to aid Poland was also a sweetener and the German material aid also started to pour into Poland. Panzers made their presence known and a few German biplanes also made their way into Polish hands along with German Krupp guns and German rifles as well
In France, the need to rearm had been made clear, however the French armed forces and the French economy were just not in any shape to support this in any form or action. Daladier needed to stall the German rearmament progress and the diplomatic talks going on with France and Germany to make sure that France to react to any German threat or aggression, which Daladier was sure that Germany would take advantage of this war raging in Eastern Europe at the current time.
Georges Bonnet
He appointed Georges Bonnet to temporarily appease whatever the Germans demanded to buy time for the French to remilitarize and rearm faster and get the French economy in order as well. French diplomats started to cross the channel and began courting the elites of Westminster for a renewal of the Entente Alliance as well.
Meanwhile in Westminster, the Prime Minister alongside the entirety of the cabinet were debating on what to do with the war that had just erupted in eastern Europe. Some men like Churchill advocated for the invasion of the Soviet Union itself to put the sword through the Bolshevik heart, however this was quickly thrown off the cards. The British Armed Forces had neither the logistical capability nor the numbers to throw at the Soviets for such a feat. Besides, the entirety of the justification of the war showed Poland as the aggressor, as the Soviets were honoring a ratified and genuine treaty, and nothing much else could be done to stop that, short of making British looking like the supported broken treaties and aggressors.
However the British ambassador to Moscow nonetheless presented a pseudo-ultimatum to the Soviet hierarchy that warned Stalin not to remove Polish sovereignty if the Soviets won the war. This was a clear threat. However Stalin, somewhat dispassionately and somewhat reluctantly assured the British that at most the Soviets would take the lands claimed by the Soviets and war reparations and give Vilnius to Lithuania and they would not take Polish sovereignty away. Stalin was a realist and knew that any attempt at regime change in Poland would also be taken as the Soviets backtracking on this promise, and quietly ordered the NKVD to not support any leftist element in Poland, for fear of British and by extension, French reactions.
Moscow 1938.
On April 15th, the Polish army entered the border towns of Lithuania such Alytus and pushed the Lithuanians back away from the border regions. Meanwhile the first elements of a few brigades of the Red Army entered Lithuania and were now being transferred to the frontlines with one tank brigade being present as well. The fact that Lithuania, Latvia as well as Estonia all used the old Russian Empire rail gauge made it easier for the Soviets to transfer troops by rail because of the fact that they didn’t need to change the gauge systems. The first soviet troops in Lithuania would fight in the Battle of Elektrenai in April 19th, which was successfully defended by the Lithuanians as well as Soviets from the Polish attackers. The presence of Soviet troops in Lithuania confirmed to Poland that Latvia and Estonia were allowing military passage of Soviet troops from their lands, but also proved that Estonia and Latvia were unwilling to join the war as part of the Baltic Entente. The subsequent Polish planning was made at cutting off the Lithuanians from the Latvian border completely so that aid would not be forthcoming from the border at all. The Lithuanian Navy was basically non-existent and any attempt at ferrying troops and supplies would find themselves attacked by Polish submarines operating in the Baltic Sea.
The Summer Offensive of the Polish was then being planned to capture the town of Zarasai and then into the Lithuanian north and cut off the major supply routes from Latvia which the Lithuanians needed desperately.
For the moment, the Polish went on the defensive as they waited for the German supplies. Meanwhile speaking about Germany, this war was a golden gift for the Germans. The Polish were acting as their proxies in the war and soaking up all the lost blood. The German economy which had been strained so badly due to the rearmament and addition of Austria which only made finances all the more tumultuous suddenly evaporated as they started increased armed imports across the border along with synthetic oil exports to Poland to keep the polish war machine running. Volunteer brigades were also being formed to fight against the Soviets and Lithuanians to get combat experience and fresh divisional and brigade commanders were to be sent to Poland to get military experience first hand. This war was quickly becoming a godsend for the German economy and the Wehrmacht.
Meanwhile in Spain, the situation for Francisco Franco was severely weak. The entire motto of his drive against the Republicans had been their anti-clerical sentiments, and he had used the religious feelings of the people to his advantage and had gained huge amounts of support. However with Mussolini being the idiot that he was, the storm on the Vatican had severely made Fascism weak, at least in the Christian world as a whole. Orthodox Christians and Protestants did not recognize the pope as their leader, however whether they were Catholics, Copts, Orthodox, or Protestant, the March on Rome had made Fascism very very unpopular in the Christian world. Despite Franco declaring himself a National Socialist like Hitler, this had little effect. He had won the Civil War but now it seemed that the victory would be sprung underneath him with religious tensions.
Francisco Franco after capturing Barcelona.
It was quickly becoming clear that he needed to do something to make keep the situation under control and regain the absolute power he once had, which was currently being stripped away from the zealous catholic generals who were eyeing him with mistrust every now and then.
On April 29th, he invited Infante Juan, the Count of Barcelona to Madrid from London, sending a letter stating that he wished to negotiate the reinstitution of the monarchy within the Spanish World. The offer was taken up by Infante Juan quite eagerly and with a plane flight he reached Madrid on April 30th.
King Juan I of Spain with his wife during the coronation.
The New Flag of the Kingdom of Spain.
During the next week he started negotiating with Franco. Franco absolutely stressed the importance of Catholicism and was quite disconcerted by the Infante’s liberal views on religion. However the situation as looking quite desperate for Franco by this point and he didn’t need to dilly dally and neither did he have the time to do so. On May 7th, he announced that the Count of Barcelona and Franco had reached an agreement for the restoration of the monarchy and a public plebiscite would take place in the Spanish state to see if the people would want the restoration happen. This was merely a formality, since Franco was absolutely going to rig the plebiscite regardless of its results. The results came in on May 20th in one of the world’s most hastily done plebiscites which showed somewhat dubiously that the around 94% of the population supported the restoration. Infante Juan was crowned Juan I of Spain as the Kingdom of Spain was restored. The deal struck between Juan and Franco was that Franco would be the effective executive power of the state, though he would have to consult with Juan I for his decisions, and the armed forces would remain Juan’s, and that Juan would not interfere in anything less than an emergency.
The reinstitution of a Catholic Monarchy restored faith in the Spanish people about Franco’s pro-clerical movement and Franco officially started to nurture a new ideology which he called Francoism after himself, because he was modest like that.
Meanwhile in Germany, on May 17th, Adolf Hitler made the OKH as well as the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe stop planning for Fall Grun or Case Green, or simply the invasion of Czechoslovakia for the German claims on the Sudetenland. Czechoslovakian and German relations remained low and repeated German claims on the Sudeten region ever since 1935 hadn’t made relations better. The Czechs as well as Slovaks had already began to start the construction of extensive fortifications all across the German border and any invasion would be a costly one. There were worries in the German High Command that the British would also intervene and the prowess shown by the British in battle in the Italo-British War could not be matched by the Germans until mid-1939. Hitler ordered ordinance factories instead to direct production to supply the Poles and the Wehrmacht to gain experience from the fighting in the east.
In Zara, the small Republic having a population of 120,000 was not doing well for itself. The British had recognized the small nation along with France to antagonize the previously Fascist Italy, however now with the threat of Fascist Italy quickly being shifted into the rugs and pages of history, the Republic was quickly slipping from the minds of the people in Westminster and Paris. This made the economic situation of Zara extremely tenuous and finally in May 24th they sent a letter to Belgrade asking for integration with the Yugoslav kingdom to sustain themselves. Belgrade accepted this offer, and Zara officially became a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on May 31st a week later as Yugoslav columns entered the city and the republic was no more. In order to heal the slightly hitched Yugoslav-British relations, the British quickly recognized the annexation of Zara into Yugoslavia.
Meanwhile in the east, the Baltic War was still raging on, though for the past month, it had been a low intensity fight. Even though this was the case, the Lithuanians had been fighting back pretty strongly. Under the command of Brigadier General Antanas Gustaitis, the Lithuanian airforce had made some daring hit and raid and run attacks at the Polish airforce and the Polish Armed Forces in the ground. However despite this, the Lithuanian numbers were crumbling before the Poles, and in May 31st the Summer Offensive began to cut off Lithuania from Latvian borders.
Antanas Gustaitis
The Polish I corps managed to surprise the Soviet III Corps stationed in Utena and seized the city in the subsequent Battle of Utena. The loss of Utena made the Lithuanian flanks in the south exposed, and the around 90,000 Lithuanian troops mobilized by this point in the south withdrew from the south and formed a defensive line from Marijampole all the way to Kaunas, Ukmerge and Panevezys as well. Meanwhile the Soviets after months of mobilization started launching tentative probes into the Polish lands, and after seeing only defensive postures from the Polish immediately was ordered to go on the offensive. The Battle of Varanovichi saw the first major Polish and Soviet Clash and the end result of the battle was numerically a Polish victory, however the Soviets managed to take the city granting them the tactical and strategic victory in the Battle. Down South in Ruthenia, the city of Lutsk was also taken by the Soviets and the much discriminated Ukrainians of the city welcomed the Soviet troops in the south, comprised of mostly Ukrainian troops as liberators, with photos of citizens greeting the Ukrainian soldiers with the flag of the Ukrainian SSR were widely circulated across the world.
Flag of the Ukrainian SSR.
Whilst all this was going on, the British and Americans met in Boston alongside delegates from Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to draw up a treaty between the now nicknamed Imperial Trading Block for the Sterling Zone. The Boston Agreement signed on June 3rd stipulated a new set of trading relations in uniformity with the Sterling Zone as one unilateral body, in accordance with the Imperial Preference and the Commonwealth economic policies which were being used throughout the commonwealth as a whole.
The Boston Agreement was by no means the only economic agreement being reached by the British Empire this month. The Japanese Empire had been tripping over themselves over the Battle of Taranto and British naval technology, however had been unsuccessful in receiving much detail and much information regarding the battle as a whole, despite how hard they tried. The bare maximum of their data still consisted of the information which the British Ministry had released and nothing else. The Strike South generals in the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy were also heavily discredited by the Italo-British War, as it showed that the British were more than willing to use force in their way of getting what they wanted. The consensus being developed in Imperial Japan was to simply now win the war in China, with rigid discipline at the moment to keep any sort of international condemnation like that off the Nanjing Massacre to a bare minimum, and bring East Asia under their sphere of influence fully. However this was easier said than done. The population depth and the strategic depth that the Nationalists and Communists in China, was too high for the Japanese to overcome properly. The Japanese continued to advance at a slow and sloggy pace, however the Chinese continued to regroup inland and attack after regrouping, bogging down Japanese forces as well as heavily draining the Japanese Economy. In fact many reports were coming from the Finance Ministry about the fact that Japan wouldn’t have gold reserves to pay the Americans and Dutch with by the end of 1941. This was still a good three years off, however such a news was horrible in the context of economics, and it was clear to some in the Japanese hierarchy that something needed to be done. Thus the Japanese had been sending out Olive branch offers to the British ever since the end of the Italo-British War for an oil trade deal for the Japanese resources which were being extracted in Manchuria and Korea. Finally on June 8th, another economic agreement was reached called the Seoul Agreement between the Japanese Empire and the British Empire as the Japanese began buying British oil from Kuwait, the Trucial States, as well as Egypt in return for the resources that Japan could give to the British at lowered prices rather than the jumped up prices that America and many in the New World demanded.
Meanwhile for the Poles, the war in Lithuania was stalling as the Soviet reinforcements arrived and probes started to come in from the Soviets in their hinterlands. They were quickly covered by German Volunteer Divisions and extra material aid, however dissent in the Polish ranks was slowly creeping in.
In Greece itself, the 1938 Legislative Elections took place in which Ioannis Metaxas’s party gained around 32% of the electorate vote, the GLRE gained around 19% of the electorate votes, and the Liberals gained around 18% of the votes. The National Union of Greece gained, 21% of the votes becoming the opposition party in Greece and the Communists gained around 8% of the popular vote in the legislative elections. The rise of National Socialism in Greece slowly continued as the deputy Prime Minister of Greece was now the leader of the National Union of Greece, Georgios Kosmodis; and his pro-Christian and anti-Muslim extreme rhetoric would begin to show itself as relations with Turkey would plummet alongside relations with Albania, both of which had been trying to start a new relationship with Greece ever since the end of the Great War.
In June 12th, the Poles broke the Lithuanian lines, and took the city of Kaunas itself resulting the famous Battle of Kaunas, in which 1000 Lithuanian troops managed to conduct successful rear guard actions to allow the majority of the 20,000 Lithuanian troops posted in the city escape to fight another day, resulting in many deaths. President Smetona changed his administrative capital to Klaipeda and stated that the fight would continue on from there, and now with the Soviet troops arriving en masse to Lithuania and starting to increase the scale of their probes, the Poles were quickly becoming bogged down, even though their premise of cutting of supply was partially achieved as the southern supply routes were now cut off for the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
In June 20th, the Evian Conference took place between the Western European countries and the United States about the fleeing German Jews who were fleeing the state sponsored prosecution of Jews in Germany. America was willing to take around 27,000 Jews, and whilst Herbert Samuel himself had been unwilling to overburden Britain, he stated that Britain would be willing to take around 12,000 to 15,000 Jews from Germany and grant them livelihood in Britain. France took around 5,000 jews. The rest were unfortunately unable to flee prosecution and were forced to live under the horrific situations that the Jews were being forced to in Germany. Many Austrian Jews had already fled into Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and Yugoslavia, where many family members lived and were willing to give refuge to their relatives.
The Evian Conference.
By the end of the month, the Soviets had managed to slowly push the Poles about 15 to 20 kilometers back from the original border and whilst this was going on, the Germans increased their presence in Polish government and the Polish Armed Forces, with many suspecting something suspicious to be going on…….
Frontlines.
***
***
April – June, 1938
***
The Lithuanian Army during peacetime was a fully volunteer force of around 25,000 men, with mobilization during wartime meant to give the army a force of 150,000 men in the battlefield. For a small nation such as Lithuania, the numbers were very impressive. And the weapons used in the army were pretty impressive as well in many cases. The Lithuanians used modern rifles, had modern armored fighting cars, and a few modern French built tanks as well. However, the problem was that the heavy equipment was low in the country. The country’s airforce was also full of pretty modern biplanes domestically produced in Lithuania. The ANBO IV was a well equipped light attack biplane for it’s time and well capable of standing on it’s own two feet with the Polish biplanes. However, the problem for the Lithuanian airforce was that they only had around 40 of these ANBO VI biplanes, and the loss of a good amount of pilots would be catastrophic for the Lithuanians.
ANBO IV biplane used by the Lithuanians.
The mobilization of Lithuanian reserves began as the active army began making a country wide defensive line awaiting the Soviet Troops having gained military access in Estonia and Latvia to arrive. For the Polish, the problem was simply the Soviets. The Polish plan however was to utilize a series of constructions and strategic fortifications at the border and deal with Lithuania before reaching a favorable peace with the Soviets and then as a bonus, humiliate the Soviets again. The German promise of SS Brigades, who were veterans of the Civil War in Spain, to aid Poland was also a sweetener and the German material aid also started to pour into Poland. Panzers made their presence known and a few German biplanes also made their way into Polish hands along with German Krupp guns and German rifles as well
In France, the need to rearm had been made clear, however the French armed forces and the French economy were just not in any shape to support this in any form or action. Daladier needed to stall the German rearmament progress and the diplomatic talks going on with France and Germany to make sure that France to react to any German threat or aggression, which Daladier was sure that Germany would take advantage of this war raging in Eastern Europe at the current time.
Georges Bonnet
He appointed Georges Bonnet to temporarily appease whatever the Germans demanded to buy time for the French to remilitarize and rearm faster and get the French economy in order as well. French diplomats started to cross the channel and began courting the elites of Westminster for a renewal of the Entente Alliance as well.
Meanwhile in Westminster, the Prime Minister alongside the entirety of the cabinet were debating on what to do with the war that had just erupted in eastern Europe. Some men like Churchill advocated for the invasion of the Soviet Union itself to put the sword through the Bolshevik heart, however this was quickly thrown off the cards. The British Armed Forces had neither the logistical capability nor the numbers to throw at the Soviets for such a feat. Besides, the entirety of the justification of the war showed Poland as the aggressor, as the Soviets were honoring a ratified and genuine treaty, and nothing much else could be done to stop that, short of making British looking like the supported broken treaties and aggressors.
However the British ambassador to Moscow nonetheless presented a pseudo-ultimatum to the Soviet hierarchy that warned Stalin not to remove Polish sovereignty if the Soviets won the war. This was a clear threat. However Stalin, somewhat dispassionately and somewhat reluctantly assured the British that at most the Soviets would take the lands claimed by the Soviets and war reparations and give Vilnius to Lithuania and they would not take Polish sovereignty away. Stalin was a realist and knew that any attempt at regime change in Poland would also be taken as the Soviets backtracking on this promise, and quietly ordered the NKVD to not support any leftist element in Poland, for fear of British and by extension, French reactions.
Moscow 1938.
On April 15th, the Polish army entered the border towns of Lithuania such Alytus and pushed the Lithuanians back away from the border regions. Meanwhile the first elements of a few brigades of the Red Army entered Lithuania and were now being transferred to the frontlines with one tank brigade being present as well. The fact that Lithuania, Latvia as well as Estonia all used the old Russian Empire rail gauge made it easier for the Soviets to transfer troops by rail because of the fact that they didn’t need to change the gauge systems. The first soviet troops in Lithuania would fight in the Battle of Elektrenai in April 19th, which was successfully defended by the Lithuanians as well as Soviets from the Polish attackers. The presence of Soviet troops in Lithuania confirmed to Poland that Latvia and Estonia were allowing military passage of Soviet troops from their lands, but also proved that Estonia and Latvia were unwilling to join the war as part of the Baltic Entente. The subsequent Polish planning was made at cutting off the Lithuanians from the Latvian border completely so that aid would not be forthcoming from the border at all. The Lithuanian Navy was basically non-existent and any attempt at ferrying troops and supplies would find themselves attacked by Polish submarines operating in the Baltic Sea.
The Summer Offensive of the Polish was then being planned to capture the town of Zarasai and then into the Lithuanian north and cut off the major supply routes from Latvia which the Lithuanians needed desperately.
For the moment, the Polish went on the defensive as they waited for the German supplies. Meanwhile speaking about Germany, this war was a golden gift for the Germans. The Polish were acting as their proxies in the war and soaking up all the lost blood. The German economy which had been strained so badly due to the rearmament and addition of Austria which only made finances all the more tumultuous suddenly evaporated as they started increased armed imports across the border along with synthetic oil exports to Poland to keep the polish war machine running. Volunteer brigades were also being formed to fight against the Soviets and Lithuanians to get combat experience and fresh divisional and brigade commanders were to be sent to Poland to get military experience first hand. This war was quickly becoming a godsend for the German economy and the Wehrmacht.
Meanwhile in Spain, the situation for Francisco Franco was severely weak. The entire motto of his drive against the Republicans had been their anti-clerical sentiments, and he had used the religious feelings of the people to his advantage and had gained huge amounts of support. However with Mussolini being the idiot that he was, the storm on the Vatican had severely made Fascism weak, at least in the Christian world as a whole. Orthodox Christians and Protestants did not recognize the pope as their leader, however whether they were Catholics, Copts, Orthodox, or Protestant, the March on Rome had made Fascism very very unpopular in the Christian world. Despite Franco declaring himself a National Socialist like Hitler, this had little effect. He had won the Civil War but now it seemed that the victory would be sprung underneath him with religious tensions.
Francisco Franco after capturing Barcelona.
It was quickly becoming clear that he needed to do something to make keep the situation under control and regain the absolute power he once had, which was currently being stripped away from the zealous catholic generals who were eyeing him with mistrust every now and then.
On April 29th, he invited Infante Juan, the Count of Barcelona to Madrid from London, sending a letter stating that he wished to negotiate the reinstitution of the monarchy within the Spanish World. The offer was taken up by Infante Juan quite eagerly and with a plane flight he reached Madrid on April 30th.
King Juan I of Spain with his wife during the coronation.
The New Flag of the Kingdom of Spain.
During the next week he started negotiating with Franco. Franco absolutely stressed the importance of Catholicism and was quite disconcerted by the Infante’s liberal views on religion. However the situation as looking quite desperate for Franco by this point and he didn’t need to dilly dally and neither did he have the time to do so. On May 7th, he announced that the Count of Barcelona and Franco had reached an agreement for the restoration of the monarchy and a public plebiscite would take place in the Spanish state to see if the people would want the restoration happen. This was merely a formality, since Franco was absolutely going to rig the plebiscite regardless of its results. The results came in on May 20th in one of the world’s most hastily done plebiscites which showed somewhat dubiously that the around 94% of the population supported the restoration. Infante Juan was crowned Juan I of Spain as the Kingdom of Spain was restored. The deal struck between Juan and Franco was that Franco would be the effective executive power of the state, though he would have to consult with Juan I for his decisions, and the armed forces would remain Juan’s, and that Juan would not interfere in anything less than an emergency.
The reinstitution of a Catholic Monarchy restored faith in the Spanish people about Franco’s pro-clerical movement and Franco officially started to nurture a new ideology which he called Francoism after himself, because he was modest like that.
Meanwhile in Germany, on May 17th, Adolf Hitler made the OKH as well as the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe stop planning for Fall Grun or Case Green, or simply the invasion of Czechoslovakia for the German claims on the Sudetenland. Czechoslovakian and German relations remained low and repeated German claims on the Sudeten region ever since 1935 hadn’t made relations better. The Czechs as well as Slovaks had already began to start the construction of extensive fortifications all across the German border and any invasion would be a costly one. There were worries in the German High Command that the British would also intervene and the prowess shown by the British in battle in the Italo-British War could not be matched by the Germans until mid-1939. Hitler ordered ordinance factories instead to direct production to supply the Poles and the Wehrmacht to gain experience from the fighting in the east.
In Zara, the small Republic having a population of 120,000 was not doing well for itself. The British had recognized the small nation along with France to antagonize the previously Fascist Italy, however now with the threat of Fascist Italy quickly being shifted into the rugs and pages of history, the Republic was quickly slipping from the minds of the people in Westminster and Paris. This made the economic situation of Zara extremely tenuous and finally in May 24th they sent a letter to Belgrade asking for integration with the Yugoslav kingdom to sustain themselves. Belgrade accepted this offer, and Zara officially became a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on May 31st a week later as Yugoslav columns entered the city and the republic was no more. In order to heal the slightly hitched Yugoslav-British relations, the British quickly recognized the annexation of Zara into Yugoslavia.
Meanwhile in the east, the Baltic War was still raging on, though for the past month, it had been a low intensity fight. Even though this was the case, the Lithuanians had been fighting back pretty strongly. Under the command of Brigadier General Antanas Gustaitis, the Lithuanian airforce had made some daring hit and raid and run attacks at the Polish airforce and the Polish Armed Forces in the ground. However despite this, the Lithuanian numbers were crumbling before the Poles, and in May 31st the Summer Offensive began to cut off Lithuania from Latvian borders.
Antanas Gustaitis
The Polish I corps managed to surprise the Soviet III Corps stationed in Utena and seized the city in the subsequent Battle of Utena. The loss of Utena made the Lithuanian flanks in the south exposed, and the around 90,000 Lithuanian troops mobilized by this point in the south withdrew from the south and formed a defensive line from Marijampole all the way to Kaunas, Ukmerge and Panevezys as well. Meanwhile the Soviets after months of mobilization started launching tentative probes into the Polish lands, and after seeing only defensive postures from the Polish immediately was ordered to go on the offensive. The Battle of Varanovichi saw the first major Polish and Soviet Clash and the end result of the battle was numerically a Polish victory, however the Soviets managed to take the city granting them the tactical and strategic victory in the Battle. Down South in Ruthenia, the city of Lutsk was also taken by the Soviets and the much discriminated Ukrainians of the city welcomed the Soviet troops in the south, comprised of mostly Ukrainian troops as liberators, with photos of citizens greeting the Ukrainian soldiers with the flag of the Ukrainian SSR were widely circulated across the world.
Flag of the Ukrainian SSR.
Whilst all this was going on, the British and Americans met in Boston alongside delegates from Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to draw up a treaty between the now nicknamed Imperial Trading Block for the Sterling Zone. The Boston Agreement signed on June 3rd stipulated a new set of trading relations in uniformity with the Sterling Zone as one unilateral body, in accordance with the Imperial Preference and the Commonwealth economic policies which were being used throughout the commonwealth as a whole.
The Boston Agreement was by no means the only economic agreement being reached by the British Empire this month. The Japanese Empire had been tripping over themselves over the Battle of Taranto and British naval technology, however had been unsuccessful in receiving much detail and much information regarding the battle as a whole, despite how hard they tried. The bare maximum of their data still consisted of the information which the British Ministry had released and nothing else. The Strike South generals in the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy were also heavily discredited by the Italo-British War, as it showed that the British were more than willing to use force in their way of getting what they wanted. The consensus being developed in Imperial Japan was to simply now win the war in China, with rigid discipline at the moment to keep any sort of international condemnation like that off the Nanjing Massacre to a bare minimum, and bring East Asia under their sphere of influence fully. However this was easier said than done. The population depth and the strategic depth that the Nationalists and Communists in China, was too high for the Japanese to overcome properly. The Japanese continued to advance at a slow and sloggy pace, however the Chinese continued to regroup inland and attack after regrouping, bogging down Japanese forces as well as heavily draining the Japanese Economy. In fact many reports were coming from the Finance Ministry about the fact that Japan wouldn’t have gold reserves to pay the Americans and Dutch with by the end of 1941. This was still a good three years off, however such a news was horrible in the context of economics, and it was clear to some in the Japanese hierarchy that something needed to be done. Thus the Japanese had been sending out Olive branch offers to the British ever since the end of the Italo-British War for an oil trade deal for the Japanese resources which were being extracted in Manchuria and Korea. Finally on June 8th, another economic agreement was reached called the Seoul Agreement between the Japanese Empire and the British Empire as the Japanese began buying British oil from Kuwait, the Trucial States, as well as Egypt in return for the resources that Japan could give to the British at lowered prices rather than the jumped up prices that America and many in the New World demanded.
Meanwhile for the Poles, the war in Lithuania was stalling as the Soviet reinforcements arrived and probes started to come in from the Soviets in their hinterlands. They were quickly covered by German Volunteer Divisions and extra material aid, however dissent in the Polish ranks was slowly creeping in.
In Greece itself, the 1938 Legislative Elections took place in which Ioannis Metaxas’s party gained around 32% of the electorate vote, the GLRE gained around 19% of the electorate votes, and the Liberals gained around 18% of the votes. The National Union of Greece gained, 21% of the votes becoming the opposition party in Greece and the Communists gained around 8% of the popular vote in the legislative elections. The rise of National Socialism in Greece slowly continued as the deputy Prime Minister of Greece was now the leader of the National Union of Greece, Georgios Kosmodis; and his pro-Christian and anti-Muslim extreme rhetoric would begin to show itself as relations with Turkey would plummet alongside relations with Albania, both of which had been trying to start a new relationship with Greece ever since the end of the Great War.
In June 12th, the Poles broke the Lithuanian lines, and took the city of Kaunas itself resulting the famous Battle of Kaunas, in which 1000 Lithuanian troops managed to conduct successful rear guard actions to allow the majority of the 20,000 Lithuanian troops posted in the city escape to fight another day, resulting in many deaths. President Smetona changed his administrative capital to Klaipeda and stated that the fight would continue on from there, and now with the Soviet troops arriving en masse to Lithuania and starting to increase the scale of their probes, the Poles were quickly becoming bogged down, even though their premise of cutting of supply was partially achieved as the southern supply routes were now cut off for the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
In June 20th, the Evian Conference took place between the Western European countries and the United States about the fleeing German Jews who were fleeing the state sponsored prosecution of Jews in Germany. America was willing to take around 27,000 Jews, and whilst Herbert Samuel himself had been unwilling to overburden Britain, he stated that Britain would be willing to take around 12,000 to 15,000 Jews from Germany and grant them livelihood in Britain. France took around 5,000 jews. The rest were unfortunately unable to flee prosecution and were forced to live under the horrific situations that the Jews were being forced to in Germany. Many Austrian Jews had already fled into Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and Yugoslavia, where many family members lived and were willing to give refuge to their relatives.
The Evian Conference.
By the end of the month, the Soviets had managed to slowly push the Poles about 15 to 20 kilometers back from the original border and whilst this was going on, the Germans increased their presence in Polish government and the Polish Armed Forces, with many suspecting something suspicious to be going on…….
Frontlines.
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Hmm, maybe the Brits could convince their dominions to let in some extra Jews. Unlikely, but you never know. Maybe make the Empire look good to the Jewish.
Well, arab-jewish talks are being held as shown during the war chapters. What are your predictions. I have dropped some hints in the new chapter.
I hope the monarchy in Spain survives and thrives bit pissed it's not the Carlists since they are awesome but still better a king then a Fascist reactionary regime that uses the facade of monarchism to prop itself up. Oh wait...
I'm wondering about flags oddly enough. I don't think the Irish would take on a new flag with a union jack on it, no matter how good relations with the British are. The tricolour is perfectly fine and doesn't really need changing. I don't think having the union jack on your flag is a requirement to being a dominion.
Also whilst in some ways I find Spain's new flag attractive, I would think they would keep the flag close to the previous flag of the Kingdom of Spain or possibly transition to one identical to the modern one, with maybe something Francoist added to it.
I know it's minor, but still flags
Also whilst in some ways I find Spain's new flag attractive, I would think they would keep the flag close to the previous flag of the Kingdom of Spain or possibly transition to one identical to the modern one, with maybe something Francoist added to it.
I know it's minor, but still flags
True I have been thinking about the Irish flag, and I have been half minded about it. Shall I change it?