The RN has lost an important base, and the US can now make traffic to/from the Caribbean tougher for the Britsh and by extension puts the British colonies there at even greater risk. Even the limited aviation of WWI can do recon at quite a distance, and if the USA has Zeppelins or if the Germans manage to send any this range is greatly increased. Of course this is an important step in protecting the US coast, and worth the cost.
A New Balance
- Thread starter Jim Smitty
- Start date
And according to the treaty with the Germans this all important island can be used by them to further harass the British. There are a few islands in the gulf that are likely next on the dinner plate, but with Bermuda in American hands that cuts the British off from their holdings.
I like this post, another! *smash coffee cup*
I like this post, another! *smash coffee cup*
World War One, General Winter
The US offensive really depending on everything going as planned. The plan was to suck the bulk of the Canadian Army in the east to defend Toronto then cut that army and destroy it and hopefully force Canada out of the war quickly. It didn’t work. The Canadians were being far more cagy than what the Americans believed would be possible. With the Canadians now moving everything to defend Toronto like the Army staff believed they would forced the US to launch the rest of its offensive plans with the Canadian army not being encircle.
III Corp launched its offensive its offensive out of Maine with the aim of taking Halifax on October 10th. The same day VI Corp launched its offensive out upstate New York covering into Vermont and New Hampshire with the aim of reaching Varennes, Quebec. Each target had their own reason for being selected. Halifax was fairly simple, it was a major naval base for the Royal Navy and with it in American hands they could much better defend the Eastern Seaboard from British raiding and defending American shipping. Varennes was more complex. It was hoped in the planning of this offensive that they could pocket a large chunk of the Canadian Army in one fell move then turn on forcing Canada out of the war. As such control of the Great Lakes would never be in doubt. But by the 9th it was clear the Canadians weren’t going to follow the plan. This caused Varennes to take on much greater importance as it was the first point in reach of American forces where they could shut down St. Lawrence River. Take control of the lakes would never be in doubt.
Canada simply didn’t have enough forces to deal with the American offensive. Ottawa was screaming for the return of I Canadian Corp. But the American entrance into the war had thrown everything in London off balance. Even more since the French were in dire need of troops to defend the front and I Canadian Corp had already proven to be a hard fighting force and had been on the line when the American offensive into their homeland started. The French had been pushing for an even large amount of troops from the British Dominions to help fight the Germans. On October 14, the London answered Ottawa’s request for further troops and help, hold Halifax till relieve.
The British knew that there was nothing they could do for Canada till 1917 at the earliest. They had only just finished rebuilding the British Army after it was almost totally destroyed in the opening campaign in 1915 in Europe. They just didn’t have the troops to send to Canada to save her from the American onslaught. There only hope was to get the Canadians to hold Halifax till they could defeat the Germans then turn on the Americans. It was long odds and they knew it but the only place the badly outnumber Canadian Army could possibly make a stand against the US was at the Isthmus of Chignecto. This was the border of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. At just 15 miles wide it could hold if the Canadians got enough troops there fast enough.
For Ottawa they were left holding the bag and they knew it. There best units were overseas and in terms of everything they were outnumbered. By October 18 the Ottawa was already of thinking of asking for terms. The 6th Infantry Division had just been destroyed Huntsville the day prior. They were down to 5 combat effective divisions and London had been less than helpful. Then a day later fate stepped in. The Great Nor’easter of 1916[1] hit. Based on reports this nor’easter would rate between a 3 and 4 on the NESIS storm system a day later. Snow fall in some areas reached 18 inches in some areas. This storm effectively brought an end to the offensive that the United States had launched and caused a number of casualties.
The stormed forced the US to fall back in some areas. Yet it also gave the Canadians time to regroup and allowed them to hope for a miracle and reinforcements from the mother country would come to save them.
[1] Roughly the same as the OTL NESIS System. But I figure weather patterns can be effective by mankind and as such weather can be butterflied. Hence the Great Nor’easter of 1916 of ITL has no parallel with OTL.
III Corp launched its offensive its offensive out of Maine with the aim of taking Halifax on October 10th. The same day VI Corp launched its offensive out upstate New York covering into Vermont and New Hampshire with the aim of reaching Varennes, Quebec. Each target had their own reason for being selected. Halifax was fairly simple, it was a major naval base for the Royal Navy and with it in American hands they could much better defend the Eastern Seaboard from British raiding and defending American shipping. Varennes was more complex. It was hoped in the planning of this offensive that they could pocket a large chunk of the Canadian Army in one fell move then turn on forcing Canada out of the war. As such control of the Great Lakes would never be in doubt. But by the 9th it was clear the Canadians weren’t going to follow the plan. This caused Varennes to take on much greater importance as it was the first point in reach of American forces where they could shut down St. Lawrence River. Take control of the lakes would never be in doubt.
Canada simply didn’t have enough forces to deal with the American offensive. Ottawa was screaming for the return of I Canadian Corp. But the American entrance into the war had thrown everything in London off balance. Even more since the French were in dire need of troops to defend the front and I Canadian Corp had already proven to be a hard fighting force and had been on the line when the American offensive into their homeland started. The French had been pushing for an even large amount of troops from the British Dominions to help fight the Germans. On October 14, the London answered Ottawa’s request for further troops and help, hold Halifax till relieve.
The British knew that there was nothing they could do for Canada till 1917 at the earliest. They had only just finished rebuilding the British Army after it was almost totally destroyed in the opening campaign in 1915 in Europe. They just didn’t have the troops to send to Canada to save her from the American onslaught. There only hope was to get the Canadians to hold Halifax till they could defeat the Germans then turn on the Americans. It was long odds and they knew it but the only place the badly outnumber Canadian Army could possibly make a stand against the US was at the Isthmus of Chignecto. This was the border of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. At just 15 miles wide it could hold if the Canadians got enough troops there fast enough.
For Ottawa they were left holding the bag and they knew it. There best units were overseas and in terms of everything they were outnumbered. By October 18 the Ottawa was already of thinking of asking for terms. The 6th Infantry Division had just been destroyed Huntsville the day prior. They were down to 5 combat effective divisions and London had been less than helpful. Then a day later fate stepped in. The Great Nor’easter of 1916[1] hit. Based on reports this nor’easter would rate between a 3 and 4 on the NESIS storm system a day later. Snow fall in some areas reached 18 inches in some areas. This storm effectively brought an end to the offensive that the United States had launched and caused a number of casualties.
The stormed forced the US to fall back in some areas. Yet it also gave the Canadians time to regroup and allowed them to hope for a miracle and reinforcements from the mother country would come to save them.
[1] Roughly the same as the OTL NESIS System. But I figure weather patterns can be effective by mankind and as such weather can be butterflied. Hence the Great Nor’easter of 1916 of ITL has no parallel with OTL.
A reprieve until spring... still will be interesting to see how much each side lost and what territory they control.
Also does Canada have the industry to equip itself? Otherwise I see France taking up a lot of British manufacturing in terms of guns and munitions
Also does Canada have the industry to equip itself? Otherwise I see France taking up a lot of British manufacturing in terms of guns and munitions
I don't know about TTL Canada, but OTL Canada had a rocky start to WW1.
At first the war hurt a troubled economy, increasing unemployment and making it hard for Canada's new, debt-ridden transcontinental railways, the Canadian Northern and Grand Truck Pacific to find credit. By 1915, however, military spending equaled the entire government expenditure of 1913. Minister of Finance Thomas White opposed raising taxes.
Since many farm laborers had joined the Army, farmers began to complain of a labor shortage. It was hoped that factories shut down by the recession would profit from the war. Manufacturers formed a Shell Committee, got contracts to make British artillery ammunition, and created a brand new industry. It was not easy. By summer 1915 the committee had orders worth $170 million but had delivered only $5.5 million in shells.
The British government insisted on reorganization. The resulting Imperial Munitions Board was a British agency in Canada, though headed by a talented, hard-driving Canadian,Joseph Flavelle By 1917 Flavelle had made the IMB Canada's biggest business, with 250,000 workers.
Henri Bourassa, leader and spokesman of Quebec's nationalists, initially approved of the war but soon insisted that French Canada's real enemies were not Germans but "English-Canadian anglicisers, the Ontario intriguers, or Irish priests" who were busy ending French-language education in the English-speaking provinces. In Québec and across Canada, unemployment gave way to high wages and a manpower shortage. There were good economic reasons to stay home.
Canada fought hard in WW1, but it took a few years for them to get their house in order to do so. Depending on how Jim set up the pre-war pieces this could either be easier or harder for Canada to find its footing. They don't have years to get their economy in order, nor will the OTL initial 330,000 volunteers to the Army be enough. Canada can roll back and hold onto a single province, focus on defending it and leave the rest of the nation to the American's to occupy - they know their neighbor isn't going to burn everything down after all - but the political ramifications of such an action would mean people would be more inclined to give up on the idea of an independent Canada and that would channel into a hatred of the UK for putting them in that position.
After all, USA was completely reasonable in their requests, and the UK started the war by trying to influence domestic political systems.
World War One, Clash of the Titans Part One
The Caribbean was an area the US longed to expand its influence in. Even before the Spanish-American War which led to Cuba and Puerto Rico being annexed into the nation and put Cuba on to the path of becoming a state in 1898 the US wanted to expand its influence in the Caribbean. The US made a number of efforts to buy the Danish Virgin Islands before they finally did in 1879. There was also an effort to annex Santo Domingo prior to the Spanish-American War that failed on the Senate Floor. Yet the worsening of relations between London and Washington kept American efforts to expand its influence in check to some degree.
It didn’t stop the US from laying the ground work. They had turned Guantanamo Bay in Cuba into a first rate naval base and the home of the American Caribbean Squadron. A squadron had hosted four Colossus Battleships, four Battlecruisers, 12 pre-Colossus Battleships, 8 Armored Cruisers, and a host of lesser ships. They had built up coastal defenses in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the American Virgin Islands. Yet for the most part all they could do since the chill in relations between London and Washington was wait and buy their time.
For the British they couldn’t allow such a build up to go unanswered. In 1901 the British started a major upgrade of their naval station at Kingston. They also started to build up forts on their Caribbean holds for the first time in many decades as relations between London and Washington grew colder by the year. Yet the forts outside of Kingston and Bermuda had a lower priority as the British were also engaged in a massive build up its fleet at the same time. The Americans were finally taking the defensive of their nation seriously for the first time in their history and the Germans were coming on strong as well as they were trying to build their place in the sun.
Once the war in Europe started, the British couldn’t just strip their North American and West Indies station bare of ships like some would had like to. They also by the time war between the United States and British Empire the Royal Navy had only 4 Battlecruisers, 8 pre-Colossus Battleships, 6 Armored Cruisers, and lesser units in the Caribbean. They did leave the West Indies Regiment in the Caribbean and tried to expand it into a full division instead of sending it to the Western Front where manpower was badly needed. That said the West Indies Regiment was equipped the Lee-Metford Rifle instead of the more modern Lee-Enfield. Artillery was lacking in general and outside coastal artillery there was very little artillery found in the British Army in the Caribbean in 1916.
For the Americans their goal was to keep their trade lines open with the South American and Central American nations before launching their own offensive to clear out the British positions in the Caribbean. Yet that plan had been in place when the British were at peace with Europe. The war had caused the British to withdraw a pair of the Battlecruisers that they normally kept there for operations elsewhere. This withdraw of their more modern battlecruisers created a window for the United States in the Caribbean. This opening would leave to the Battle of Jamaica Channel.
The British Squadron in the Caribbean knew they only had one chance of living, to get into place and perform a blockade of Guantanamo Bay to keep the American Caribbean Squadron in check till they got reinforcements. There was only one problem with the plan of Rear Admiral Reginald Tyrwhitt. Vice Admiral Hugh Rodman wasn’t about to allow his squadron to get trap in port. The day Roosevelt when before Congress to ask for war with the British Rodman put his squadron to sea. Just like Tyrwhitt did. The two fleets were setting out to blockade the other before the war had even started. The only thing they took too different routes. Tyrwhitt when up the Jamaica Channel where Rodman when to the west before coming back around to the east to blockade Kingston.
Both forces reached positions to blockade their ports that they had selected by the time the war had started only to find that the fleet they had set out to blockade wasn’t there. With no fleet to blockade in their harbors, both admirals decided to retire back to their home ports and wait for the next target of opportunity. Tyrwhitt because of the oil storages retired by the most direct and most fuel-efficient route which was back through the Jamaica Passage. Rodman decided to go for some merchant raiding before retiring back to Guantanamo. He sent his pre-Colossus battleships west in the area of British Honduras. Yet he took his Colossus Battleships and Battlecruisers into the Jamaica Passage to try his luck there before returning to base.
It didn’t stop the US from laying the ground work. They had turned Guantanamo Bay in Cuba into a first rate naval base and the home of the American Caribbean Squadron. A squadron had hosted four Colossus Battleships, four Battlecruisers, 12 pre-Colossus Battleships, 8 Armored Cruisers, and a host of lesser ships. They had built up coastal defenses in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the American Virgin Islands. Yet for the most part all they could do since the chill in relations between London and Washington was wait and buy their time.
For the British they couldn’t allow such a build up to go unanswered. In 1901 the British started a major upgrade of their naval station at Kingston. They also started to build up forts on their Caribbean holds for the first time in many decades as relations between London and Washington grew colder by the year. Yet the forts outside of Kingston and Bermuda had a lower priority as the British were also engaged in a massive build up its fleet at the same time. The Americans were finally taking the defensive of their nation seriously for the first time in their history and the Germans were coming on strong as well as they were trying to build their place in the sun.
Once the war in Europe started, the British couldn’t just strip their North American and West Indies station bare of ships like some would had like to. They also by the time war between the United States and British Empire the Royal Navy had only 4 Battlecruisers, 8 pre-Colossus Battleships, 6 Armored Cruisers, and lesser units in the Caribbean. They did leave the West Indies Regiment in the Caribbean and tried to expand it into a full division instead of sending it to the Western Front where manpower was badly needed. That said the West Indies Regiment was equipped the Lee-Metford Rifle instead of the more modern Lee-Enfield. Artillery was lacking in general and outside coastal artillery there was very little artillery found in the British Army in the Caribbean in 1916.
For the Americans their goal was to keep their trade lines open with the South American and Central American nations before launching their own offensive to clear out the British positions in the Caribbean. Yet that plan had been in place when the British were at peace with Europe. The war had caused the British to withdraw a pair of the Battlecruisers that they normally kept there for operations elsewhere. This withdraw of their more modern battlecruisers created a window for the United States in the Caribbean. This opening would leave to the Battle of Jamaica Channel.
The British Squadron in the Caribbean knew they only had one chance of living, to get into place and perform a blockade of Guantanamo Bay to keep the American Caribbean Squadron in check till they got reinforcements. There was only one problem with the plan of Rear Admiral Reginald Tyrwhitt. Vice Admiral Hugh Rodman wasn’t about to allow his squadron to get trap in port. The day Roosevelt when before Congress to ask for war with the British Rodman put his squadron to sea. Just like Tyrwhitt did. The two fleets were setting out to blockade the other before the war had even started. The only thing they took too different routes. Tyrwhitt when up the Jamaica Channel where Rodman when to the west before coming back around to the east to blockade Kingston.
Both forces reached positions to blockade their ports that they had selected by the time the war had started only to find that the fleet they had set out to blockade wasn’t there. With no fleet to blockade in their harbors, both admirals decided to retire back to their home ports and wait for the next target of opportunity. Tyrwhitt because of the oil storages retired by the most direct and most fuel-efficient route which was back through the Jamaica Passage. Rodman decided to go for some merchant raiding before retiring back to Guantanamo. He sent his pre-Colossus battleships west in the area of British Honduras. Yet he took his Colossus Battleships and Battlecruisers into the Jamaica Passage to try his luck there before returning to base.
A naval clash! The results of this could cause major changes in the war. Also we are seeing the effects of the oil shortage on British operations.
This isn't dead but I'm more at a crossroads. This was to take a lot less time to get to 1937 and the lead up to WWII ITL. I'm debating of just doing a few thousand word recap of WWI and divide up the territory or keeping at the current pace and get going again. Thoughts?
World War One, Russia
The Great War or World War One as it later became known radically changed the course of history. A war that started over a minor territorial dispute in the Balkans would end up redrawing the map world wide and setting off a change of events that still are felt almost 100 years after the war ended. The only thing that was clear by the time the ink was drying on the Treaty of New York, the old order of things had been shattered and as the shooting was still going on in a number of places on who would lead these nations it was clear that The Great War was not the war to end all wars as some would had you to believed it was as peace was breaking out in some nations in 1919 and things were trying to return to normal.
Russia was perhaps the nation that was hardest hit by the war[1]. They were struggling to hold its own against Germany and Austria-Hungary before things started to snowball out of control. They suffered from lack of industry, weapons, equipment, and after 1916 food. The only thing the Russians had plenty of was manpower. Yet in modern wars manpower through important couldn’t make up for shortcomings in just about everything else. Manpower also couldn’t make up for poor leadership which plagued Russia and led to her fall by late 1917.
What started Russia’s path in a downward spiral was two events that happened within months of each other. The first was when the Russian Baltic Fleet mistaking attacked a Swedish Naval Cruiser and brought Sweden into the war. This was followed by the British enraging the US by trying to play in American politics and brought them into the war cutting Russia off from the massive industrial might and supplies of the United States. Prior to the US entering the war their industries had millions of dollar of contacts from the Russian government from everything from tractors to locomotives to wheat. Even through at first the US was only fighting against the British they embargoed all nations then allied with the British. Many of these contacts had been either paid for before hand in the limited amount of loans they could get through US Banks or had been paid for in hard cash. This lost of goods really hurt the Russian war effort and was only made worse when the US finally entered the wider war fully in early 1917.
Most of 1916 was known to the Russians as the Great Retreat. After a number of failed offensives and the lost three armies and even more being damaged it was decided to withdraw to more defensive positions instead of trying to make us of the Congress of Poland to attack the Germans as the Germans just proved to be too good at turning the Russian flanks. This was made worse as the Swedes entered the war forcing the Russians to send two corps to defend Finland from Swedish attacks.
In the Caucasus the Russians were able to put a better defense against the attacking Ottomans in 1916. Yet this was partly due to the terrain which favored the defender. Partly to do the lack the Ottomans having even coming close to finishing their modernization of their army. Finally, to the brave Armenian units who volunteered to fight for the Russian crown against the damn Turks. Yet the Armenians playing such an active role in the defense of the Caucasus was used as a reason to by the Turks to start killing Armenians in their own territories whole sell, otherwise known as the Armenian Genocide.
For the Russians it was in 1917 everything started to coming undone. It started shortly after President Roosevelt was sworn in for his third term when he expanded the American war effort to all of the British allies. Then came the Baltic Offensive of 1917. With a large track of Poland under their control yet the logistics of another offensive to go deeper into the Russian Steeps being questionable the Germans elected to stay close to the coast and attack up into the Baltic areas. This was done following the German-Swedish Naval Victory at Moon Sound which gave them more or less total control of the Baltic.
As in 1915 and 1916 the Russian Army was simply not a match for the German forces being thrown at it. In some of the newly raise units only one in every three soldiers had a rifle with the unarmed soldiers having orders to pick up rifles off their fallen comrades. Some units were even being issued modified Berdan Rifles that had been taken out of storage as there were shortages of everything. Yet instead of making sure every soldier had a rifle before sending them to the front the Russians were creating even bigger and bigger armies. Riga fell to the advancing German Armies by mid-June and by doing so trapping three rifles corps in the rest of Latvia and cut off from the rest of the Russian Army.
Back in the Caucasus the Ottomans were able to advance but at a bloody price. This wasn’t because of any improvement in the Ottoman’s abilities to fight a war but because the Russians were pulling out artillery units from the Caucasus and sending them to the Baltic. Yet following the fall of Riga things turned even worse for the Ottomans when the Romanians entered the war expanding the front yet again. This was a pure territorial lust push by the Romanians who saw which way the wind was blowing and saw that they could grab Bessarabia. For the Russians the units facing the Romanians were not the best the Russian Empire could offered.
The roosters started to come home to roost in the fall of 1917. The efforts to increase the size of the army had stripped many farms of the labor they needed to bring in the harvest. In major cities across the Russian Empire food stocks were being depleted and no new harvest was being brought in to replace these stocks. By October a loaf of bread in Moscow was running as high as 5,000 rubles as they were that hard to come by.
With victory being almost unknown in over two years of war and hunger starting to creep in to most Russian lives they had enough. Protest started in many cities across Russia that echoed those in the wake of the defeat to Japan a decade prior, but louder, much louder. Tsar Nicholas II was forced abdicate during the November Revolution. The Imperial Russian Government was further replaced with a duel power agreement between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet. Even through the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet had many disagreements on a number of key points there was one they all agreed on, this war needed to end. With that in mind they asked for a cease fire with the Central Powers on November 19 1917. Then signed the Treaty of Konigsberg[1] only weeks later and only weeks before the Russian Civil War started.
[1] A lot of land is changing hands and some times its going through a few people so I’m doing one update outlining how the final maps in 1919 look.
Russia was perhaps the nation that was hardest hit by the war[1]. They were struggling to hold its own against Germany and Austria-Hungary before things started to snowball out of control. They suffered from lack of industry, weapons, equipment, and after 1916 food. The only thing the Russians had plenty of was manpower. Yet in modern wars manpower through important couldn’t make up for shortcomings in just about everything else. Manpower also couldn’t make up for poor leadership which plagued Russia and led to her fall by late 1917.
What started Russia’s path in a downward spiral was two events that happened within months of each other. The first was when the Russian Baltic Fleet mistaking attacked a Swedish Naval Cruiser and brought Sweden into the war. This was followed by the British enraging the US by trying to play in American politics and brought them into the war cutting Russia off from the massive industrial might and supplies of the United States. Prior to the US entering the war their industries had millions of dollar of contacts from the Russian government from everything from tractors to locomotives to wheat. Even through at first the US was only fighting against the British they embargoed all nations then allied with the British. Many of these contacts had been either paid for before hand in the limited amount of loans they could get through US Banks or had been paid for in hard cash. This lost of goods really hurt the Russian war effort and was only made worse when the US finally entered the wider war fully in early 1917.
Most of 1916 was known to the Russians as the Great Retreat. After a number of failed offensives and the lost three armies and even more being damaged it was decided to withdraw to more defensive positions instead of trying to make us of the Congress of Poland to attack the Germans as the Germans just proved to be too good at turning the Russian flanks. This was made worse as the Swedes entered the war forcing the Russians to send two corps to defend Finland from Swedish attacks.
In the Caucasus the Russians were able to put a better defense against the attacking Ottomans in 1916. Yet this was partly due to the terrain which favored the defender. Partly to do the lack the Ottomans having even coming close to finishing their modernization of their army. Finally, to the brave Armenian units who volunteered to fight for the Russian crown against the damn Turks. Yet the Armenians playing such an active role in the defense of the Caucasus was used as a reason to by the Turks to start killing Armenians in their own territories whole sell, otherwise known as the Armenian Genocide.
For the Russians it was in 1917 everything started to coming undone. It started shortly after President Roosevelt was sworn in for his third term when he expanded the American war effort to all of the British allies. Then came the Baltic Offensive of 1917. With a large track of Poland under their control yet the logistics of another offensive to go deeper into the Russian Steeps being questionable the Germans elected to stay close to the coast and attack up into the Baltic areas. This was done following the German-Swedish Naval Victory at Moon Sound which gave them more or less total control of the Baltic.
As in 1915 and 1916 the Russian Army was simply not a match for the German forces being thrown at it. In some of the newly raise units only one in every three soldiers had a rifle with the unarmed soldiers having orders to pick up rifles off their fallen comrades. Some units were even being issued modified Berdan Rifles that had been taken out of storage as there were shortages of everything. Yet instead of making sure every soldier had a rifle before sending them to the front the Russians were creating even bigger and bigger armies. Riga fell to the advancing German Armies by mid-June and by doing so trapping three rifles corps in the rest of Latvia and cut off from the rest of the Russian Army.
Back in the Caucasus the Ottomans were able to advance but at a bloody price. This wasn’t because of any improvement in the Ottoman’s abilities to fight a war but because the Russians were pulling out artillery units from the Caucasus and sending them to the Baltic. Yet following the fall of Riga things turned even worse for the Ottomans when the Romanians entered the war expanding the front yet again. This was a pure territorial lust push by the Romanians who saw which way the wind was blowing and saw that they could grab Bessarabia. For the Russians the units facing the Romanians were not the best the Russian Empire could offered.
The roosters started to come home to roost in the fall of 1917. The efforts to increase the size of the army had stripped many farms of the labor they needed to bring in the harvest. In major cities across the Russian Empire food stocks were being depleted and no new harvest was being brought in to replace these stocks. By October a loaf of bread in Moscow was running as high as 5,000 rubles as they were that hard to come by.
With victory being almost unknown in over two years of war and hunger starting to creep in to most Russian lives they had enough. Protest started in many cities across Russia that echoed those in the wake of the defeat to Japan a decade prior, but louder, much louder. Tsar Nicholas II was forced abdicate during the November Revolution. The Imperial Russian Government was further replaced with a duel power agreement between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet. Even through the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet had many disagreements on a number of key points there was one they all agreed on, this war needed to end. With that in mind they asked for a cease fire with the Central Powers on November 19 1917. Then signed the Treaty of Konigsberg[1] only weeks later and only weeks before the Russian Civil War started.
[1] A lot of land is changing hands and some times its going through a few people so I’m doing one update outlining how the final maps in 1919 look.
World War One, Italy
Italy is one of four nations that could buy for the title of the nation that World War One hit the hardest. However, its hard to feel sorry for the Italians. They were motived by pure territorial lust and threw their treaty obligations to the wind and sold their services to the highest bidder. Had it honored its treaties it held prior to the war what would happened to Italy would had been radically different and truly changed the course of history. However, Italy weaseled its way out of its treaty system in such a way that it would been laughable if not so serious. For this Italy paid a heavy price.
For Italy the main front it was facing was known as Italian front just by about everyone and was in Northern Italy against its land border with the Austro-Hungarians. They also held a secondary from in the Balkans aimed at supporting the Serbs and pushing back against the Greeks and Bulgarians. With the fate of Italy hung on the Italian Front. Most of the battles here were known as some number Battle of the Isonzo in 1916. To put it bluntly the Battles of Isonzo were a waste of men, equipment, and money in a stupid effort to attack in the mountains that ring the Italo-Austro-Hungarian border.
The real action that was beyond the pointless and stupid slaughter of the Italian Front for Italian soldiers was on the Balkans Front. Here the Italian 3rd Army join forces with the Serbs. By July they had taken up positions with the Serbs to defend Belgrade which was only kilometers from the front by this time. With the Russians in full on retreat during the summer of 1916 the Austro-Hungarians turned their focus on defeating the Serbs than Italians. Serbia however was the priority as they to take the important land links to better supply the Greeks and Ottomans.
On July 18th the Belgrade offensive was started by the 8th and 9th Austro Hungarian Armies against the Italian 3rd and Serbian 1st Armies. On paper these armies were fairly evenly matched. However, one needs to note that the Serbs had basically mobilized their army to the largest size at the cost of their economy. Basically every male Serb of military age, i.e. 17-45 had been impressed into service. By July even with the Italians securing their one remaining supply line the Serbs were on the ropes logistically. It didn’t help matters that the Serbs and Italians used different ammo. Plus they were having to fight off the Bulgarians and Greeks on top of the Austro-Hungarians.
Both the Italians and Serbs fought bravely against the Austro-Hungarians but when the Greeks and Bulgarians both when on the offensive weeks later didn’t help matters. If anything it push the Serbs and Italians to the brink. It was by early August through the Serbian artillery limbers started to run out shells across the front. Italian industry wasn’t up to the task of a vast industrial war such as this war and with the US embargo they couldn’t tap into the only nation that could had possibly felled the demand. Italian limbers weren’t far behind the Serbs in going dry in the Balkans front.
As the Serb and Italian limbers were going dry the Austro-Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Greeks all started to get the upper hand. The lines defending Belgrade finally cracked on August 9th. Thanks to the planning of the Austro-Hungarians they were able to drive a wedge between the Italians and Serbian Armies and moved to encircle Belgrade. The Italians fell back the Serbs refused to abandon Belgrade as rumors of how Serbs were treated behind the lines had filler back to the Serbs on the other side of the lines. It was stupid as the Austro Hungarians laid siege to the city, destroying it. Only 1/3 of the pre-war population of the city lived to see the end of the war and the city itself was destroyed.
The Italians started to fall back but they were having to keep everyone at arms length. Then came the all important Battle of Skopje. If Skopje fell to the Greeks and Bulgarians the land supply route to over half of the Italian 3rd Army would be cut as the Italians were still wheeling from Belgrade when Skopje started on August 19th. Fighting at Skopje was such the Italians would go on to award 19 Gold Medals of Military Valour for bravery there in the span of two weeks of fighting. Fighting came to focus on Vodno with the mountain changing hand three times during the course of the first two weeks of fighting. Yet it fell to Greek and Bulgarian troops for a fourth time on September 4th.
It was after the fourth time that mountain change hands did the Italians decide to pack it in. They were able to get a number of troops out the pocket that was closing around them. Yet still the Italians 38th Division was trapped but to try and hold on at Skopje any longer meant the loss of more of the Italian 3rd Army that would be larger than a single division on top of the already bloody price paid to hold Skopje for as long as they had.
With the Italians on the ropes in the Balkans the death blow from the north came. The Germans had detached an army to boost Austro Hungarian troop strength in the Italian front. Then they launched a joint offensive against the Italians across the front. Luigi Cadorna was killed early in the battle but this wasn’t figured out by the Italian high command for a critical 48 hours. Using lessons from the Western Front the Germans used gas in mass and it was as effective as in the west as the Italians didn’t have the gas mask to issue its army. Put together with a well planned offensive it was hell on the Italians and broke the back of the Italian 2nd Army by October 4th. The Italian 2nd Army was finished as a fighting unit a week later.
With defeat looking clearer and clear as more of Italy was coming under Austro-Hungarian control the Italians requested a cease fire on October 19th 1916.
For Italy the main front it was facing was known as Italian front just by about everyone and was in Northern Italy against its land border with the Austro-Hungarians. They also held a secondary from in the Balkans aimed at supporting the Serbs and pushing back against the Greeks and Bulgarians. With the fate of Italy hung on the Italian Front. Most of the battles here were known as some number Battle of the Isonzo in 1916. To put it bluntly the Battles of Isonzo were a waste of men, equipment, and money in a stupid effort to attack in the mountains that ring the Italo-Austro-Hungarian border.
The real action that was beyond the pointless and stupid slaughter of the Italian Front for Italian soldiers was on the Balkans Front. Here the Italian 3rd Army join forces with the Serbs. By July they had taken up positions with the Serbs to defend Belgrade which was only kilometers from the front by this time. With the Russians in full on retreat during the summer of 1916 the Austro-Hungarians turned their focus on defeating the Serbs than Italians. Serbia however was the priority as they to take the important land links to better supply the Greeks and Ottomans.
On July 18th the Belgrade offensive was started by the 8th and 9th Austro Hungarian Armies against the Italian 3rd and Serbian 1st Armies. On paper these armies were fairly evenly matched. However, one needs to note that the Serbs had basically mobilized their army to the largest size at the cost of their economy. Basically every male Serb of military age, i.e. 17-45 had been impressed into service. By July even with the Italians securing their one remaining supply line the Serbs were on the ropes logistically. It didn’t help matters that the Serbs and Italians used different ammo. Plus they were having to fight off the Bulgarians and Greeks on top of the Austro-Hungarians.
Both the Italians and Serbs fought bravely against the Austro-Hungarians but when the Greeks and Bulgarians both when on the offensive weeks later didn’t help matters. If anything it push the Serbs and Italians to the brink. It was by early August through the Serbian artillery limbers started to run out shells across the front. Italian industry wasn’t up to the task of a vast industrial war such as this war and with the US embargo they couldn’t tap into the only nation that could had possibly felled the demand. Italian limbers weren’t far behind the Serbs in going dry in the Balkans front.
As the Serb and Italian limbers were going dry the Austro-Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Greeks all started to get the upper hand. The lines defending Belgrade finally cracked on August 9th. Thanks to the planning of the Austro-Hungarians they were able to drive a wedge between the Italians and Serbian Armies and moved to encircle Belgrade. The Italians fell back the Serbs refused to abandon Belgrade as rumors of how Serbs were treated behind the lines had filler back to the Serbs on the other side of the lines. It was stupid as the Austro Hungarians laid siege to the city, destroying it. Only 1/3 of the pre-war population of the city lived to see the end of the war and the city itself was destroyed.
The Italians started to fall back but they were having to keep everyone at arms length. Then came the all important Battle of Skopje. If Skopje fell to the Greeks and Bulgarians the land supply route to over half of the Italian 3rd Army would be cut as the Italians were still wheeling from Belgrade when Skopje started on August 19th. Fighting at Skopje was such the Italians would go on to award 19 Gold Medals of Military Valour for bravery there in the span of two weeks of fighting. Fighting came to focus on Vodno with the mountain changing hand three times during the course of the first two weeks of fighting. Yet it fell to Greek and Bulgarian troops for a fourth time on September 4th.
It was after the fourth time that mountain change hands did the Italians decide to pack it in. They were able to get a number of troops out the pocket that was closing around them. Yet still the Italians 38th Division was trapped but to try and hold on at Skopje any longer meant the loss of more of the Italian 3rd Army that would be larger than a single division on top of the already bloody price paid to hold Skopje for as long as they had.
With the Italians on the ropes in the Balkans the death blow from the north came. The Germans had detached an army to boost Austro Hungarian troop strength in the Italian front. Then they launched a joint offensive against the Italians across the front. Luigi Cadorna was killed early in the battle but this wasn’t figured out by the Italian high command for a critical 48 hours. Using lessons from the Western Front the Germans used gas in mass and it was as effective as in the west as the Italians didn’t have the gas mask to issue its army. Put together with a well planned offensive it was hell on the Italians and broke the back of the Italian 2nd Army by October 4th. The Italian 2nd Army was finished as a fighting unit a week later.
With defeat looking clearer and clear as more of Italy was coming under Austro-Hungarian control the Italians requested a cease fire on October 19th 1916.
This war was even worse for the Italians, they changed sides and lost, they were surely humiliated in the peace treaty. Italy gets together in very possible communist
Russia in civil war and if any side that wins will have a ruined Russia and a large part of lost territory including Ukraine.
The French will be worse off in the war although they will win, they will have a totalitarian government to be able to revive the grandea of the French nation.
The British, as it was the result of the war and how many troops they lost, surely that although in ruin economy and the people starving they went better than their allies.
I'm just saying the United States was the biggest winner of the war.
The Germans if they won both their army and people tired but they won, if the situation is not good, it will not be worse than it was in our history, with a navy that did not mutiny and a weak army but victorious any revolution will be crushed .
Austria hungary will have to see how to please their minorities and reform the empire quite possibly.
The Ottomans, if they win, will emerge quite well from this war.
Russia in civil war and if any side that wins will have a ruined Russia and a large part of lost territory including Ukraine.
The French will be worse off in the war although they will win, they will have a totalitarian government to be able to revive the grandea of the French nation.
The British, as it was the result of the war and how many troops they lost, surely that although in ruin economy and the people starving they went better than their allies.
I'm just saying the United States was the biggest winner of the war.
The Germans if they won both their army and people tired but they won, if the situation is not good, it will not be worse than it was in our history, with a navy that did not mutiny and a weak army but victorious any revolution will be crushed .
Austria hungary will have to see how to please their minorities and reform the empire quite possibly.
The Ottomans, if they win, will emerge quite well from this war.
As everything in the world there are two side of the arguments; from Rome pow the austrian were not white virgins backstabbed by the greedy italians...but people that had during the alliance demanded only but had given very very little (even in term of support regarding other italian objective), even thinking to invade the supposed ally a couple of times and Italy backing out was not so shocking as Wien desired that as othewise it will be forced to divide the pie and so give to the italians a big mean to legally not be obbligated to fullfill their treaty duty not consulting them in their Dow (plus the 'theoretically' defensive nature of the CP)
Plus there were the fear that if Italy fought alongside the CP once the war was finished A-H will have backstabbed Italy (and Romania if still neutral or allied) to resolve all her problems...as said things are rarely black and white, expecially in WWI.
Edit: sorry but the italian army not having gas mask it's a little difficult to believe with more funds available as Rome asking terms; as everybody knows that this will mean revolution and the fall of the monarchy so there will be no incentive to surrender (not happened in OTL with basically the offer of a white peace so i greatly doubt that will happen here).
Germany was pissed by the Italians backing out at the last second like they did for laughable reasons. That's why they only offered Italy scraps to enter on the CP side. Had Italy honored the treaty it would been a whole different ball game in what Germany would given Italy at the peace table. That included an alliance post war.
The Italian Army put that money they saved from no war with the Ottomans into more artillery and steel helmets, not gas mask. Gas after all had been banned by treaties so there is no reason to put the money into something to defend against gas as no one would ever us it. Then again once the Germans did use it, they had already joined the war and they didn't have the industrial resources to fully equip the army or even a corp. Some units did have gas mask but no where near enough. As to Italy bowing out, 2nd Army had been routed it, 3rd Army was on the ropes, and no French or British troops can come and save the day ITL like OTL post Caporetto. They each have their own problems. The army knew if they kept fighting the losses would be even bigger at the peace table and the only way they could say in the game is with Allied troop reinforcements, which wasn't coming. They cut their losses and started to brace for the worse.
Sorry, but here must start some little rant and i preempetly give you my humblest apologies if i soud rude or irritating...but the idea that was thanks to the Anglo-French reinforcements that Italy held the CP at bay it's just a myth; the relatevely meager contigent barely fought and arrived when the front was already stabilizated and was quickly retreated, what was sent later was used just as reserve.
The italian brass already thought that the Piave line will not resist and make plan to continue the war as everybody knows that even a white peace mean revolution, so no cut the losses will not be in the mind of anyone as their own head are on the line.
Ironically the defeat at Caporetto (at least on OTL) basically united the entire nation as the fear of Austrian invasion mobilizated everyone.
The problem of Germany making offer is that they had even less credibility than the Entente at Versailles, in the eyes of the italian goverment.