I just started reading this timeline today and I'm really enjoying it so far. Also, can't wait to read about this world's version of the First World War.
A New Balance
- Thread starter Jim Smitty
- Start date
Jet Aircraft, You Say?
Near Rostock
Kaiserliche Luftwaffe Airfield
August 17 1937
Every Great Power had a host of secret weapon projects in the works. They were all looking for the ability to one up other nations. It was one of many different on going arms races that were going on in the world. Even some of the regional powers had secret weapon programs that were active. Yet the world was awash in military spending as the Great War had settle nothing. The Naval Treaties of the 1920s and early 30s had tried to scale back military spending. However when the Italians inked the deal to build battleships for the Ottoman Empire, it basically was the beginning of the end of any efforts at arms control. Even then everyone was still working on secret weapon projects trying to get an edge. All the end of the naval treaty system did was throw fuel on the fire.
Some projects were being worked on by multi nations in their efforts to get better gear into the field. These included means to find aircraft in the air and ships at sea beyond the horizon, or ways to bomb bridges without the need to send whole squadrons to take out the bridge, and so on. Today the Kaiserliche Luftwaffe was testing another one of those systems that were being worked on by at least five other nations[1]. It wasn’t a weapon system per say they were testing here today. However it could also change aerial warfare if they could get it to work right.
Even through the engine had made it through a series of bench test today was the first time that this jet engine design had been mated to an aircraft for a test flight. The aircraft[2] itself wasn’t meant to be a combat aircraft and no weapons had been fitted to it. This was proof of concept to see if a turbo-jet powered aircraft could fly. The aircraft wasn’t designed to set speed records as that could come later. Yet it was hoped by the design team that this aircraft would at least match the latest fighters currently in the service of the Kaiserliche Luftwaffe in terms of speed. This way they could prove the time and effort put into their project was worth it.
The whine of the jet could be heard by the engineers and technicians who were hear at this secret testing grounds near the Baltic Sea. The prototype aircraft was taxing out on the runway after performing taxing test over the past few weeks. Today through was the first flight test. Once the aircraft had finished taxing it was at the end of the runway waiting for the tower to clear him. Once the tower cleared the aircraft it started to roll down the runway. It was picking up speed as it when down the runway. Then about ¾ of the way down the runway the pilot pulled back on his stick and the aircraft took off.
Many believed they were watching history as this turbo jet power aircraft took off into air. There was only one problem with this idea. The British had beat them to the punch by 11 days.
[1] The British, Italians, and Soviets all have state back programs. The American and French efforts are privately funded efforts.
[2] Think He-178
Kaiserliche Luftwaffe Airfield
August 17 1937
Every Great Power had a host of secret weapon projects in the works. They were all looking for the ability to one up other nations. It was one of many different on going arms races that were going on in the world. Even some of the regional powers had secret weapon programs that were active. Yet the world was awash in military spending as the Great War had settle nothing. The Naval Treaties of the 1920s and early 30s had tried to scale back military spending. However when the Italians inked the deal to build battleships for the Ottoman Empire, it basically was the beginning of the end of any efforts at arms control. Even then everyone was still working on secret weapon projects trying to get an edge. All the end of the naval treaty system did was throw fuel on the fire.
Some projects were being worked on by multi nations in their efforts to get better gear into the field. These included means to find aircraft in the air and ships at sea beyond the horizon, or ways to bomb bridges without the need to send whole squadrons to take out the bridge, and so on. Today the Kaiserliche Luftwaffe was testing another one of those systems that were being worked on by at least five other nations[1]. It wasn’t a weapon system per say they were testing here today. However it could also change aerial warfare if they could get it to work right.
Even through the engine had made it through a series of bench test today was the first time that this jet engine design had been mated to an aircraft for a test flight. The aircraft[2] itself wasn’t meant to be a combat aircraft and no weapons had been fitted to it. This was proof of concept to see if a turbo-jet powered aircraft could fly. The aircraft wasn’t designed to set speed records as that could come later. Yet it was hoped by the design team that this aircraft would at least match the latest fighters currently in the service of the Kaiserliche Luftwaffe in terms of speed. This way they could prove the time and effort put into their project was worth it.
The whine of the jet could be heard by the engineers and technicians who were hear at this secret testing grounds near the Baltic Sea. The prototype aircraft was taxing out on the runway after performing taxing test over the past few weeks. Today through was the first flight test. Once the aircraft had finished taxing it was at the end of the runway waiting for the tower to clear him. Once the tower cleared the aircraft it started to roll down the runway. It was picking up speed as it when down the runway. Then about ¾ of the way down the runway the pilot pulled back on his stick and the aircraft took off.
Many believed they were watching history as this turbo jet power aircraft took off into air. There was only one problem with this idea. The British had beat them to the punch by 11 days.
[1] The British, Italians, and Soviets all have state back programs. The American and French efforts are privately funded efforts.
[2] Think He-178
Royal Titles
Sydney, Imperial Federation
Kirribilli House
September 3 1937
Kirribilli House was one of three official residences of the Imperial Federation’s Prime Minister. The other two at Canberra and Wellington. As part of the comprises needed to make Imperial Federation happen the government of the Imperial Federation’s government was divided between three cities. These cities being Sydney, Canberra, and Wellington. Sydney was the home of the Judicial Branch of the government of the Imperial Federation. The Prime Minister of the Imperial Federation rotated between the three cities as he had to visit all three cities depending what was going on at any given time within the Imperial Federation’s government.
Prime Minister Donald Storm had just returned from Wellington after going to meet with the Governor General of the Imperial Federation in Wellington. With Wellington being home to executive branch of the government made things tricky at time but it was what made the Imperial Federation what it was. Currently Don was stopping at Kirribilli to recover from the journey to Sydney that he had made on HMIFS Wellington. He didn’t have the best of sea legs and it took a few days for it to pass however that didn’t stop him from making the trip on a regular basics. It was also why some of the members of his government had travelled down by train from Canberra to meet with him.
The senior member of the government was Foreign Secretary William Currie[1]. The reason for this meeting was the health of Queen Victoria II. Everyone knew Victoria II’s health was failing her and some were wondering how much longer she would be on this Earth. This was an important issue for the British Empire. Victoria II had never married and many believed she was a virgin as had many suitors over the years but has rejected all of them. Since she had no children of her own this created some issues on the line of succession to the royal throne. The royal line of succession when back to the first Queen Victoria before you could find another royal to take the throne as CEP has passed laws that barred German Princes and Princesses that were issues from Queen Victoria or her grandchildren that had married into German nobility. This led to the first in the line of the throne being Princess Victoria[2].
However she had her own issues that were brought forward with the possibly of her being on the throne. It wasn’t because she was slow witted or poor public speaker. She was publicly everything that Prime Minister Churchill would wanted in a monarch. She was someone who would allow Churchill run the government however he damned well please. No it was her private life that was the issue. Like Victoria II she had rejected all of the suitors that had been brought forward. However there was the lack of purely that was there with Queen Victoria II that was the issue. It was the issues of her rumored Sapphic Affairs[3] that was the issues.
Even through those rumored Sapphic Affairs had never been proven to be true they created issues for the Imperial Federation. One of the things the Imperial Federation had done in the wake of the Great War was try to actively increase immigration to it so they could build a better population base to better defend itself from the United States and Empire of Japan. Large numbers of Canadians had made the track to the Imperial Federation. However with the rule changes to immigration it became basically you had to be a white Christian to get a visa to the Imperial Federation. They even allowed a few Jews to get visas to the Imperial Federation but they had to skills critically[4] needed by the Imperial Federation to get in.
This was how the Imperial Federation reached almost a population of 11 million people by this point. However this effort to increase the population had let to almost a million Polish people having made the trip to the Imperial Federation. Together with other emigrates the Imperial Federation had almost population of almost 1.5 million Roman Catholics in their nation. With the rumors of Princess Victoria’s Sapphic affairs it was clear that it would create major headaches for the Imperial Federation. They weren’t the British Isles were Freedom of the Press had been dead for over a decade now. They still had a free system of government. Even the Conservative Empire Party’s branch cadet party the Empire Party here in the Imperial Federation had little traction with only one seat in the House of Representatives and a few thousand party members. Even the seat they had was largely because that district was so politically divided that it allowed them to take it.
Don was still a bit green as he started to speak, “Gentlemen, Governor General Prince Arthur, Duke of Gloucester informed me that the cancer that Queen Victoria is suffering from is terminal. Her doctors give her at most six months to live before she moves on to the next world.”
That wasn’t all that surprising. Queen Victoria had been sick for years and had already been through two periods of regents as she recovered from different aliments. William was the first to speak. He was a former Canadian Army General who had decided to move on instead of swear allegiance to the United States or their bastard states they created out of his home nation. “Would Churchill allow us to do what we need to do?”
It was the whole reason the Imperial Federation had wanted their current Governor General. Prince Arthur, Duke of Gloucester was currently a royal but the fourth in line to the British throne. Unlike Princess Victoria he was married, but it was a left hand marriage. The 45 year old prince had married a 27 year old Imperial Federation commoner that had been in the Governor General’s office before he reached the office back in 33. Yet they fell in love and became a couple and were married last year. She was currently pregnant with the couple’s first child. But because of the left hand marriage they had been forced to renounced all rights to the British throne for their children. Yet the couple was loved within the Imperial Federation.
Don spoke again, “Churchill might allow it, but he would want something in return.”
[1] Arthur Currie is a good analog for William Currie ITL.
[2] Born in 1877, an issue of Princess Helena and Prince Christian. There are few others that ahead of her in the normal line of succession to the royal throne but they are German Princes and Princess and politically untouchable in the UK.
[3] Yeah Princess Victoria is a full on Lesbian. She just been able to hide it fairly well but rumors keep coming up that she has never been able to fully disprove.
[4] Doctors, leaders in science, engineers, and stuff like that.
Kirribilli House
September 3 1937
Kirribilli House was one of three official residences of the Imperial Federation’s Prime Minister. The other two at Canberra and Wellington. As part of the comprises needed to make Imperial Federation happen the government of the Imperial Federation’s government was divided between three cities. These cities being Sydney, Canberra, and Wellington. Sydney was the home of the Judicial Branch of the government of the Imperial Federation. The Prime Minister of the Imperial Federation rotated between the three cities as he had to visit all three cities depending what was going on at any given time within the Imperial Federation’s government.
Prime Minister Donald Storm had just returned from Wellington after going to meet with the Governor General of the Imperial Federation in Wellington. With Wellington being home to executive branch of the government made things tricky at time but it was what made the Imperial Federation what it was. Currently Don was stopping at Kirribilli to recover from the journey to Sydney that he had made on HMIFS Wellington. He didn’t have the best of sea legs and it took a few days for it to pass however that didn’t stop him from making the trip on a regular basics. It was also why some of the members of his government had travelled down by train from Canberra to meet with him.
The senior member of the government was Foreign Secretary William Currie[1]. The reason for this meeting was the health of Queen Victoria II. Everyone knew Victoria II’s health was failing her and some were wondering how much longer she would be on this Earth. This was an important issue for the British Empire. Victoria II had never married and many believed she was a virgin as had many suitors over the years but has rejected all of them. Since she had no children of her own this created some issues on the line of succession to the royal throne. The royal line of succession when back to the first Queen Victoria before you could find another royal to take the throne as CEP has passed laws that barred German Princes and Princesses that were issues from Queen Victoria or her grandchildren that had married into German nobility. This led to the first in the line of the throne being Princess Victoria[2].
However she had her own issues that were brought forward with the possibly of her being on the throne. It wasn’t because she was slow witted or poor public speaker. She was publicly everything that Prime Minister Churchill would wanted in a monarch. She was someone who would allow Churchill run the government however he damned well please. No it was her private life that was the issue. Like Victoria II she had rejected all of the suitors that had been brought forward. However there was the lack of purely that was there with Queen Victoria II that was the issue. It was the issues of her rumored Sapphic Affairs[3] that was the issues.
Even through those rumored Sapphic Affairs had never been proven to be true they created issues for the Imperial Federation. One of the things the Imperial Federation had done in the wake of the Great War was try to actively increase immigration to it so they could build a better population base to better defend itself from the United States and Empire of Japan. Large numbers of Canadians had made the track to the Imperial Federation. However with the rule changes to immigration it became basically you had to be a white Christian to get a visa to the Imperial Federation. They even allowed a few Jews to get visas to the Imperial Federation but they had to skills critically[4] needed by the Imperial Federation to get in.
This was how the Imperial Federation reached almost a population of 11 million people by this point. However this effort to increase the population had let to almost a million Polish people having made the trip to the Imperial Federation. Together with other emigrates the Imperial Federation had almost population of almost 1.5 million Roman Catholics in their nation. With the rumors of Princess Victoria’s Sapphic affairs it was clear that it would create major headaches for the Imperial Federation. They weren’t the British Isles were Freedom of the Press had been dead for over a decade now. They still had a free system of government. Even the Conservative Empire Party’s branch cadet party the Empire Party here in the Imperial Federation had little traction with only one seat in the House of Representatives and a few thousand party members. Even the seat they had was largely because that district was so politically divided that it allowed them to take it.
Don was still a bit green as he started to speak, “Gentlemen, Governor General Prince Arthur, Duke of Gloucester informed me that the cancer that Queen Victoria is suffering from is terminal. Her doctors give her at most six months to live before she moves on to the next world.”
That wasn’t all that surprising. Queen Victoria had been sick for years and had already been through two periods of regents as she recovered from different aliments. William was the first to speak. He was a former Canadian Army General who had decided to move on instead of swear allegiance to the United States or their bastard states they created out of his home nation. “Would Churchill allow us to do what we need to do?”
It was the whole reason the Imperial Federation had wanted their current Governor General. Prince Arthur, Duke of Gloucester was currently a royal but the fourth in line to the British throne. Unlike Princess Victoria he was married, but it was a left hand marriage. The 45 year old prince had married a 27 year old Imperial Federation commoner that had been in the Governor General’s office before he reached the office back in 33. Yet they fell in love and became a couple and were married last year. She was currently pregnant with the couple’s first child. But because of the left hand marriage they had been forced to renounced all rights to the British throne for their children. Yet the couple was loved within the Imperial Federation.
Don spoke again, “Churchill might allow it, but he would want something in return.”
[1] Arthur Currie is a good analog for William Currie ITL.
[2] Born in 1877, an issue of Princess Helena and Prince Christian. There are few others that ahead of her in the normal line of succession to the royal throne but they are German Princes and Princess and politically untouchable in the UK.
[3] Yeah Princess Victoria is a full on Lesbian. She just been able to hide it fairly well but rumors keep coming up that she has never been able to fully disprove.
[4] Doctors, leaders in science, engineers, and stuff like that.
So the plot thickens with the alt - Australians.
Jim what are IFANZ's diplomatic relationships like with South America, from memory I believe the UK had a good relationship with Chile and Argentina pre WW 1. Has that relationship continued ITTL and, has IFANZ been able to improve their trade to either nation?
Jim what are IFANZ's diplomatic relationships like with South America, from memory I believe the UK had a good relationship with Chile and Argentina pre WW 1. Has that relationship continued ITTL and, has IFANZ been able to improve their trade to either nation?
More Small Arms
Alice Springs Proving Grounds
Assault Course
September 17 1937
The Imperial Federation Army or the IFA, was never really crazy about the Enfield Semi-Automatic Rifle. The Enfield Rifle through an able rifle and did well in IFA testing, but it was rejected by the IFA over cost and the level machining needed to make the damn thing. The toggle blowback action was just too costly for the IFA to adopt. As such the IFA had decided to hold its own design contest to replace the Lee-Enfield Rifle which they were still using as standard issue for their army. One of the few requirements for this rifle was that it fired the new .280 rifle round that had been adopted by the British Army. Other than that there were very few requirements other than it had to be a semi-automatic rifle that held at least 10 rounds and weight less than 10 pounds.
In this the IFA was helped by the fact a number of Czech gunsmiths had decided to move to the Imperial Federation to get away from the political mess that was Austria-Hungary. With the fairly relaxed immigration rules in the Imperial Federation made it a favorite nation for those running from Austria-Hungary. This was what allowed the Imperial Federation to pouch a few talented Czech gun designers. So far none of the guns designed by the Czechs-IFs had been adopted by the military of the Imperial Federation. But a few of their pistols had been adopted by police departments in the Imperial Federation and were making money on the civilian market as well.
Yet as Corporal Matt Jones ran the assault shooting course he was thinking that this rifle was the fucking best thing he had ever been blessed to fire in his time as in the Army. The B36[1] as it was known was a bloody improvement over the Lee-Enfield Rifles. It was about a pound lighter than the Lee-Enfield but the damn thing also had the ability to fire in full automatic. And it was controllable once you got use to firing the B36. As Jones was running the assault course design to simulate a combat assault he dropped the magazine release as he changed out the 20 round magazine. Pulling the bolt back to send the first round into the breech he when about clearing the assault course. Using the full auto of the rifle, Jones was putting three round burst into the targets he was coming up.
By the time Jones had finished the assault course he had used three of the six magazines he had on him. But the officers who had been watching Jones run the assault course and was now grading performance as they walked behind him were judging that the bulk of the targets Jones had engaged were dead. Even those that didn’t get kill shots would be wounded. It was another great performance by the B36 which was just running away with the rifle contest for the Imperial Federation.
[1] An M2 Carbine, but scaled up to fire .280 British. My Kentucky Windage math puts this rifle around the 7.5 to 8 pound weight range. Unloaded most likely.
Assault Course
September 17 1937
The Imperial Federation Army or the IFA, was never really crazy about the Enfield Semi-Automatic Rifle. The Enfield Rifle through an able rifle and did well in IFA testing, but it was rejected by the IFA over cost and the level machining needed to make the damn thing. The toggle blowback action was just too costly for the IFA to adopt. As such the IFA had decided to hold its own design contest to replace the Lee-Enfield Rifle which they were still using as standard issue for their army. One of the few requirements for this rifle was that it fired the new .280 rifle round that had been adopted by the British Army. Other than that there were very few requirements other than it had to be a semi-automatic rifle that held at least 10 rounds and weight less than 10 pounds.
In this the IFA was helped by the fact a number of Czech gunsmiths had decided to move to the Imperial Federation to get away from the political mess that was Austria-Hungary. With the fairly relaxed immigration rules in the Imperial Federation made it a favorite nation for those running from Austria-Hungary. This was what allowed the Imperial Federation to pouch a few talented Czech gun designers. So far none of the guns designed by the Czechs-IFs had been adopted by the military of the Imperial Federation. But a few of their pistols had been adopted by police departments in the Imperial Federation and were making money on the civilian market as well.
Yet as Corporal Matt Jones ran the assault shooting course he was thinking that this rifle was the fucking best thing he had ever been blessed to fire in his time as in the Army. The B36[1] as it was known was a bloody improvement over the Lee-Enfield Rifles. It was about a pound lighter than the Lee-Enfield but the damn thing also had the ability to fire in full automatic. And it was controllable once you got use to firing the B36. As Jones was running the assault course design to simulate a combat assault he dropped the magazine release as he changed out the 20 round magazine. Pulling the bolt back to send the first round into the breech he when about clearing the assault course. Using the full auto of the rifle, Jones was putting three round burst into the targets he was coming up.
By the time Jones had finished the assault course he had used three of the six magazines he had on him. But the officers who had been watching Jones run the assault course and was now grading performance as they walked behind him were judging that the bulk of the targets Jones had engaged were dead. Even those that didn’t get kill shots would be wounded. It was another great performance by the B36 which was just running away with the rifle contest for the Imperial Federation.
[1] An M2 Carbine, but scaled up to fire .280 British. My Kentucky Windage math puts this rifle around the 7.5 to 8 pound weight range. Unloaded most likely.
The Imperial Federation has tried to court the Chileans, as the Argies ITL are kind of assholes. They had also tried to court the Southern Philippines, Mexico, and a few others. It has met with mix degrees in outcomes.
Maybe, I only know they are fielding a full side assault rifle based off the M2 Carbine.
Warcrimes 37
Shanghai, Japanese Occupied
Alleyway
October 2 1937
Lieutenant Louis Belanger was currently looking to make a contact with the remaining Chinese resistance to the Japanese in the City. Shanghai had fallen after the Japanese broke out the chemical weapons as the Chinese warlords and gangs who had defended the city didn’t have any defense against chemical weapons. Hell, gas mask wouldn’t had helped as the Japanese used about a 60/40 mix of Mustard Gas and Lewisite against the defenders of the city. The Japanese had made sure their use of the chemical weapons had been down wind of the International Zone in Shanghai. This had kept the international zone from feeling the effects of the chemical attack. But they saw the effects first hand as a stream of Chinese who had been in the blunt of had made it to the safety of the international zone. It took some pressure to get the Japanese to allow the Americans, Germans, and Italians who had gotten the bulk of the badly wounded Chinese out of their concession for better medical care.
The Japanese had cut off the bulk of the foreign concessions off from business as usual with the rest of Shanghai since the fall of the city. They were still allowing food to come into the International Zone, but outside of the British Concession there was little to do now. This was because of the fact the Japanese were worried that Americans, Germans, and possibly French and Italians would be running guns to the remaining underground pockets of resistance in the city. This was because during the Battle for Shanghai the Japanese found guns from basically every nation in the hands of Chinese troops who were defending the city. In truth, the Americans and Germans were running guns and ammo to the Chinese. Granted it wasn’t the latest and greatest they were give Chinese but a gun built in the 1880s could still kill a person just as easy as a gun built in 1937. But even before that China had become the dumping ground for old small arms as the Chinese would pay for them in silver, gold, or gems to get their hands on weapons.
Louis was an officer within the Office of Naval Intelligence, the de facto US intelligence agency. The ONI had expanded its mission from learning naval secrets to performing almost all overseas intelligence operations the United States took part in. The army did have some of its own intelligence programs but it was designed more as battlefield intelligence than overseas intelligence like the ONI performed. Louis was on his second operation tour overseas after his tour of duty at The Center in Maryland. Louis was help on getting operational tours as he spoke four other language beside English. Be had been assigned to Franklin Naval Base to keep taps on Japanese. It was a free lance billet that allowed him to travel over East Asia to learn what the Japanese were up to.
It was why Louis had made his way to Shanghai. He was hearing rumors of the Japanese were doing do the Chinese and he wanted to see if they were true. He was currently making his way to one the known hangouts of one of the larger gangs that controlled a sizable part of the city before the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Louis had no plans to try and make contact with that gang. He just wanted to see if the rumors that were going around in China were true or not. The Japanese didn’t have the freedom of the press that America. Hell even Germany, France, and Italy with their laws had freer press than what the Japanese had. The Japanese had total control of their press and the British weren’t that much better. So what the Japanese were really doing in China wasn’t about to get reported in either press.
After climbing to a building that was gave Louis a sight picture of the hang out he made his way to get that picture. What Louis saw made him want to throw up his lunch. He could see Chinese, well he assumed they were Chinese, stacked up like cordwood. It was the Japanese punishment for the criminal gangs for putting up as hard fought defense of the city as they had. The Japanese knew like everyone else that criminal gangs ran the city of Shanghai before the start of the war. The Japanese had assumed wrongly that they could waltz right in and take the city. Yet instead the Chinese were fighting like madmen to stop the Japanese and had only fallen back after heavy use of chemical weapons.
The Chinese were fearful that the Japanese would kill the old and those of military age and enslave the rest of the men and march their women off to the whore house. Given what the Japanese have done in the Northern Philippines these fears were justiciable. The Japanese were now just proving those fears were grounded in fact. Louis was taking pictures of this so his day wouldn’t had been wasted. Yet after snapping a few pictures he decided to bug out. The area was crawling with Japanese soldiers and he didn’t want to get caught.
Alleyway
October 2 1937
Lieutenant Louis Belanger was currently looking to make a contact with the remaining Chinese resistance to the Japanese in the City. Shanghai had fallen after the Japanese broke out the chemical weapons as the Chinese warlords and gangs who had defended the city didn’t have any defense against chemical weapons. Hell, gas mask wouldn’t had helped as the Japanese used about a 60/40 mix of Mustard Gas and Lewisite against the defenders of the city. The Japanese had made sure their use of the chemical weapons had been down wind of the International Zone in Shanghai. This had kept the international zone from feeling the effects of the chemical attack. But they saw the effects first hand as a stream of Chinese who had been in the blunt of had made it to the safety of the international zone. It took some pressure to get the Japanese to allow the Americans, Germans, and Italians who had gotten the bulk of the badly wounded Chinese out of their concession for better medical care.
The Japanese had cut off the bulk of the foreign concessions off from business as usual with the rest of Shanghai since the fall of the city. They were still allowing food to come into the International Zone, but outside of the British Concession there was little to do now. This was because of the fact the Japanese were worried that Americans, Germans, and possibly French and Italians would be running guns to the remaining underground pockets of resistance in the city. This was because during the Battle for Shanghai the Japanese found guns from basically every nation in the hands of Chinese troops who were defending the city. In truth, the Americans and Germans were running guns and ammo to the Chinese. Granted it wasn’t the latest and greatest they were give Chinese but a gun built in the 1880s could still kill a person just as easy as a gun built in 1937. But even before that China had become the dumping ground for old small arms as the Chinese would pay for them in silver, gold, or gems to get their hands on weapons.
Louis was an officer within the Office of Naval Intelligence, the de facto US intelligence agency. The ONI had expanded its mission from learning naval secrets to performing almost all overseas intelligence operations the United States took part in. The army did have some of its own intelligence programs but it was designed more as battlefield intelligence than overseas intelligence like the ONI performed. Louis was on his second operation tour overseas after his tour of duty at The Center in Maryland. Louis was help on getting operational tours as he spoke four other language beside English. Be had been assigned to Franklin Naval Base to keep taps on Japanese. It was a free lance billet that allowed him to travel over East Asia to learn what the Japanese were up to.
It was why Louis had made his way to Shanghai. He was hearing rumors of the Japanese were doing do the Chinese and he wanted to see if they were true. He was currently making his way to one the known hangouts of one of the larger gangs that controlled a sizable part of the city before the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Louis had no plans to try and make contact with that gang. He just wanted to see if the rumors that were going around in China were true or not. The Japanese didn’t have the freedom of the press that America. Hell even Germany, France, and Italy with their laws had freer press than what the Japanese had. The Japanese had total control of their press and the British weren’t that much better. So what the Japanese were really doing in China wasn’t about to get reported in either press.
After climbing to a building that was gave Louis a sight picture of the hang out he made his way to get that picture. What Louis saw made him want to throw up his lunch. He could see Chinese, well he assumed they were Chinese, stacked up like cordwood. It was the Japanese punishment for the criminal gangs for putting up as hard fought defense of the city as they had. The Japanese knew like everyone else that criminal gangs ran the city of Shanghai before the start of the war. The Japanese had assumed wrongly that they could waltz right in and take the city. Yet instead the Chinese were fighting like madmen to stop the Japanese and had only fallen back after heavy use of chemical weapons.
The Chinese were fearful that the Japanese would kill the old and those of military age and enslave the rest of the men and march their women off to the whore house. Given what the Japanese have done in the Northern Philippines these fears were justiciable. The Japanese were now just proving those fears were grounded in fact. Louis was taking pictures of this so his day wouldn’t had been wasted. Yet after snapping a few pictures he decided to bug out. The area was crawling with Japanese soldiers and he didn’t want to get caught.
Brave man to be taking pictures of Japanese atrocities in China. Will these pictures make it into international circulation and, if so will the world care?
Personally I think that the AATO should be named differently. The name of the organization sounds like its just an Pro-American organization that only benefits the United States and is all about them instead of the rest of the parties involved. Some other names that I would suggest are the Pan American Union, Organization of American States, Leauge of American Republics/Nations, the Havana Pact, Western Hemisphere Origanization, North American Treaty Organization.
I like Pan American Union. Also how about American Continental Union?
As to the AATO Name, I really have never been that good at naming things. So a change might happen, not sure through.
After everything that has happened in this world, Poland, Serbia, Veneto, the Northern Philippines, Soviet Union, Soviet Spain, Soviet Portugal and Colonies, India, French Indochina, and I might be forgetting a one or two. Most will just shug in indifference and go on about their day at the present moment.
Both saw native revolts against their colonial masters. And said revolts were put down brutally.
They Call it Peace
Riyadh, German Occupied
Masmak Fort
October 19 1937
Germany had taken control of Riyadh during their multi-prong offensive against the seat of the Saud Government. They had launched two armor prongs out of Bismarckshaven with each being regimental in size. They also had sent a regiment fallschirmjägers to help take the city. The Arabs were not as well trained as the Germans but they had fought insanely hard to hold on. Yet by the end of August the German Flag was flying over Masmak Fort. Ibn Saud had been killed during the fighting to hold on to the Masmak Fort. Many of his sons died in fighting in Riyadh or elsewhere in Arabia or had taken their own lives to keep from being captured leaving the Germans in a bit of a pickle. They had no one left to sign a peace treaty that they were going they were going to force on the Saudis.
The Battle of Riyadh had been a bloody battle. Before the start of the battle with all of the reinforcements that Ibn Saud had brought in to defend his city the population had just reach a tick north of 40,000 men, women, and children in the city. Now? There might be a few hundred left in the city, and they were almost all German. The bulk of the German military had already withdrawn from the city as there were so few civilians left in the city to worry about. The soldiers of Ibn Saud used women and children as human shields or ways to get bombs to kill Germans close enough. By the end of the battle, the German shot at anything that wasn’t wearing a German uniform. During the battle itself the German forces took just over 3,000 casualties, with around 1,400 being dead. The city itself was destroyed. What wasn’t destroyed was looted. Besides the Masmak Fort there were only a few mud huts still standing.
Now with no peace treaty being possible as the last of the sons of Ibn Saud have been found dead a few days ago had caused Germany to change course. As the Romans had done with Carthage, they were going to make a desert and call it peace. That was why German Sappers were wiring a large amount of explosives all around the Masmak Fort. The Germans were using just under 300 kilograms to bring down the Masmak Fort which itself was heavily damaged during the Battle for Riyadh. They didn’t want to hold the worthless desert that Riyadh sat on so they were just going to destroy the city and poison the wells and withdraw into German Arabia[1].
At the moment the plans were to withdraw the remaining German troops in Riyadh in the next few days. At which point the idea of city in Riyadh or the area in general would be unthinkable for the foreseeable future. But they wouldn’t spike the water wells till they were ready to withdraw out of the city. They needed that water now. But once they withdrew from the city they would have a nice buffer zone from what remains of the Saudi Government fragments which were spread out on the west cost of Arabia. And with the Saudis not having a navy to worry about the Germans figured by spiking the wells would be enough to get left alone in German Arabia.
[1] Roughly OTL Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. There are some border changes but that should give a good idea what German Arabia looks like.
Masmak Fort
October 19 1937
Germany had taken control of Riyadh during their multi-prong offensive against the seat of the Saud Government. They had launched two armor prongs out of Bismarckshaven with each being regimental in size. They also had sent a regiment fallschirmjägers to help take the city. The Arabs were not as well trained as the Germans but they had fought insanely hard to hold on. Yet by the end of August the German Flag was flying over Masmak Fort. Ibn Saud had been killed during the fighting to hold on to the Masmak Fort. Many of his sons died in fighting in Riyadh or elsewhere in Arabia or had taken their own lives to keep from being captured leaving the Germans in a bit of a pickle. They had no one left to sign a peace treaty that they were going they were going to force on the Saudis.
The Battle of Riyadh had been a bloody battle. Before the start of the battle with all of the reinforcements that Ibn Saud had brought in to defend his city the population had just reach a tick north of 40,000 men, women, and children in the city. Now? There might be a few hundred left in the city, and they were almost all German. The bulk of the German military had already withdrawn from the city as there were so few civilians left in the city to worry about. The soldiers of Ibn Saud used women and children as human shields or ways to get bombs to kill Germans close enough. By the end of the battle, the German shot at anything that wasn’t wearing a German uniform. During the battle itself the German forces took just over 3,000 casualties, with around 1,400 being dead. The city itself was destroyed. What wasn’t destroyed was looted. Besides the Masmak Fort there were only a few mud huts still standing.
Now with no peace treaty being possible as the last of the sons of Ibn Saud have been found dead a few days ago had caused Germany to change course. As the Romans had done with Carthage, they were going to make a desert and call it peace. That was why German Sappers were wiring a large amount of explosives all around the Masmak Fort. The Germans were using just under 300 kilograms to bring down the Masmak Fort which itself was heavily damaged during the Battle for Riyadh. They didn’t want to hold the worthless desert that Riyadh sat on so they were just going to destroy the city and poison the wells and withdraw into German Arabia[1].
At the moment the plans were to withdraw the remaining German troops in Riyadh in the next few days. At which point the idea of city in Riyadh or the area in general would be unthinkable for the foreseeable future. But they wouldn’t spike the water wells till they were ready to withdraw out of the city. They needed that water now. But once they withdrew from the city they would have a nice buffer zone from what remains of the Saudi Government fragments which were spread out on the west cost of Arabia. And with the Saudis not having a navy to worry about the Germans figured by spiking the wells would be enough to get left alone in German Arabia.
[1] Roughly OTL Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. There are some border changes but that should give a good idea what German Arabia looks like.