A shattered Sickle: A alternate eastern front and beyond

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

The dictator of the Soviet Union Josef Stalin had few things that he cared about one of those was his daughter Svetlana, this was something that the people of the Soviet Union shared with him. Thus when the recently annexed eastern Polish territories collapsed into riots and unrest following Soviet forces shooting on a crowd of protesters, she managed to convince her father to allow her to visit the territories in question to see if she could calm them down she would arrive in Brest-Litovsk on the 20th of June 1941 with a sizeable security contingent. Two days later the Germans invaded Josef Stalin upon hearing the news would have a disabling stroke that would incapacitate him for two weeks, those two weeks nearly doomed the Soviet Union. With the vast majority of the competent officers purged prior to the outbreak of the war by the crippling paranoia of Stalin and the general staff unable to act without potentially angering Stalin no orders left from Moscow, leading to mass encirclements, divisions that if they had attacked could of broken the Wehrmacht’s teeth just standing there often with massive desertions. However there were forces that stood against the Germans often due to no orders otherwise or defending their families the most prominent example of this would be the stand at Chernobyl wherein a armoured division and a infantry division were ordered to hold the town by General Zhukov in one of the last orders to leave Moscow before the N.V.K.D clamped down on communication the orders would not even reach the right divisions and had been incorrectly decoded leading to instead of them moving to occupy and fortify the airport that Svetlana was aimed to leave by they withdrew to Chernobyl and held there. The divisions would hold for two months with their famous rallying cry of “Chernobyl Stands.” Their valiant stand would buy vital time that was used to hold off the offensive to the Baku oil-fields.


As German forces punched across Ukraine, Belorussia, the Baltic republics and large parts of western Russia the condition of Stalin slowly grew better until, when German forces were overwhelming Smolensk the dictator awoke and gave three orders that would change the entire fate of the war the first was Soviet order 227: Not one step back. The next order was the continuation of the Great Purge with vast numbers of the General staff being shot, one of those being General Zhukov who was executed for the Chernobyl order, despite the fact that Svetlana herself begged her father to save him for he had ordered forces to the airport however they had been destroyed before they reached the airstrip. Svetlana herself had escaped as German forces assaulted the airstrip with a German soldier shooting the rear wheel.


The Soviets now stood with a leader and slowly the rate of German victories began to slow. Leningrad was placed under siege with Finnish forces advancing through the northern suburbs aiming for vengeance from the winter war which had lead to Finland losing it’s most important industrial areas to the Soviets. However no matter what Stalin ordered the Germans grew closer to Moscow. Thus Stalins third order was prepared, for now the Germans stood at the gates of Moscow. Stalin’s preparation’s would now be tested.


Right so this is my first timeline ever so please point out flaws in the writing and reasoning. Please be warned that it will get pretty dark in places. The P.O.D is a protest in Poland being shot up by the Soviets which leads to riots, which leads to Svetlana going to the Polish territories on the eve of operation Barbarossa. So Stalin’s nervous break down which happened in OTL becomes a non-fatal stroke over worry of his daughter.

 

[LucaTheDevilCat]

Good start

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

Cheers should have the second update up tomorrow

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

The western allies reaction to their new bedfellow in the war against the Nazis was one of relief with Churchill notoriously stating “If Hitler invaded hell I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.” To which Stalin would have no comment. The most well known leader of the free French Charles De Gaulle would hold a speech which focused on how France would be liberated by this new foolishness of the Germans.


The Germans stood at the gates of Moscow, their hosts stood ready to break the men that guarded the capital of the greatest threat to the German Reich’s domination of Europe. Josef Stalin’s commands had been obeyed to the letter the defences had been prepared, the men had been trained and weapons stockpiled all there was now was to hold the Germans off. On the 23rd of August 1941 the battle of Moscow began. Despite a spirited defence the Soviets were steadily pushed back until on the 24th of November the first German soilder saw red square three days later the Germans set foot on the symbol of the power of the Soviet Union it was the closet the Germans got on the first year of the invasion to killing a member of the politburo. For it was then that Stalin unleashed his secret weapon, Gas and an entire army trained for fighting through the billowing poisonous clouds. The Germans would be beaten back from the heart of Moscow, the last German force to withdraw from Moscow was a Waffen-SS squad on the 30th of November. The last German soilder would be executed by Josef Stalin himself on the 25th of December for propaganda purposes. The German Reich had been beaten but at what cost.

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

The Implications of the battle of Moscow would be heard around the world in North Africa the Italian and British forces would hurl mustard gas at each other, with the casualties in the North African front skyrocketing the morale in Italy plummeted, alongside discontent to Mussolini. In Japan the fruits of the work of Unit 731 would be used in a strike force that was leaving Japan soon.


The winter brought a vital reprieve for the Soviets from the Germans, factories began to relocate to beyond the Ural Mountains and equipment and orders began to appear. The United Staes was quick to offer Lend-lease to the Soviets, although the Republican Party and the more conservative southern Democrat’s disagreed. In Germany the OKH managed to convince Hitler to allow the use of gas on both fronts, at the same time Hitler would authorise the construction of Sarin factories to be used aginst the Soviets and the British in North Africa.

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

Any thoughts?

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

The winter brought a vital reprieve for the Soviets from the Germans, factories began to relocate to beyond the Ural Mountains and equipment and orders began to appear. The United Staes was quick to offer Lend-lease to the Soviets, although the Republican Party and the more conservative southern Democrat’s disagreed. In Germany the OKH managed to convince Hitler to allow the use of gas on both fronts, at the same time Hitler would authorise the construction of Sarin factories to be used aginst the Soviets and the British in North Africa.


The dawn of Sunday the 14th of December 1941 seemed an ordinary day it would be anything but this day would show the naval power of the Japanese Empire. American forces were horrifically unprepared for a attack by air. They would most dearly pay for the incompetente and lack of preparation of their leaders.


The Japanese attack would be one of the most efficient military act in the Second World War. The first wave of the attack was bombers and fighters the bombs and Long Lance torpedo’s would be complemented with Gas and biological weapons attacks. The ships in the harbour would be crippled by the gas with a large number of battleships crew wiped out as the gas sunk down to the lower floors with often the engine room being filled with poisonous gas. This alongside the bombs and plunges being dropped form the sky nearly wiped the American pacific fleet. The second wave would attack the remaining ships and the army bases near pearl harbour. The third and final wave would attack the remaining airfields that hadn’t been reduced to pockmarked fields of strewn iron and corpses. Then the first landing craft landed at Pu’uola beach.


Following the decision to add gas and biological weapons to the task forces arsenal a suggestion was made that there should be an invasion of the Hawaiian islands to expand the Japanese reach across the Pacific and to further cripple the United States. The idea would be embraced by the upper leadership of the Japanese. The invading forces would soon secure the area around Pearl Harbour. With the defending forces all crippled and disordered the Japanese were able to occupy the majority of the Hawaiian island chain within a month. The last American forces would be hunted down on the 10th of February. By then the Americans and the Japanese would have bigger problems.

 

[Dolan]

So basically WMDs used in WW2?

I've read somewhere about scenario where Japan managed to heavily damage The Pacific Fleet, they could thus use several aircraft carriers to sail east and unleash Black Plague, Smallpox, Anthrax, and several nasty kinds of stuff unit 731 made in North American cities with what amounted to one way suicide mission on the Pilot's side(that WW2 Japanese is actually insane enough to do), they could ignite the worst pandemic ever in North America, and it will result in tens of millions of deaths due to both no decent anti-air cover in North American cities at this point, and no coherent pandemic response could be formed in North America at that time, and thus, knocking the US out early on due to what would be the most horrific act of genocide in human history.

If the US Managed to pull their shit together and divert all attention to containing the pandemic, it would only kill ~10 million people before the pandemic could be contained, grievous enough blow but not severe enough to prevent the US from taking even worse revenge on Japan later on. But if the US somehow rolled bad luck after bad luck on pandemic containment, it could go on to become the second time most of the North American population being wiped out by an Apocalyptic Pandemic...

The later would definitely be the death knell of The Allies and outright win the war for the Axis but... well... there are always possibilities of it becoming World-Ending Plague indeed.

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

It won’t be that bad but the United Staes will have a lot worse war then they ever did in OTL.

 

[Manatee]

I've read somewhere about scenario where Japan managed to heavily damage The Pacific Fleet, they could thus use several aircraft carriers to sail east and unleash Black Plague, Smallpox, Anthrax, and several nasty kinds of stuff unit 731 made in North American cities with what amounted to one way suicide mission on the Pilot's side(that WW2 Japanese is actually insane enough to do), they could ignite the worst pandemic ever in North America, and it will result in tens of millions of deaths due to both no decent anti-air cover in North American cities at this point, and no coherent pandemic response could be formed in North America at that time, and thus, knocking the US out early on due to what would be the most horrific act of genocide in human history.

If the US Managed to pull their shit together and divert all attention to containing the pandemic, it would only kill ~10 million people before the pandemic could be contained, grievous enough blow but not severe enough to prevent the US from taking even worse revenge on Japan later on. But if the US somehow rolled bad luck after bad luck on pandemic containment, it could go on to become the second time most of the North American population being wiped out by an Apocalyptic Pandemic...

I mean unit 731 deployed biological weapons in china and it only killed like 700 thousand and they did not have a functioning medical system like the US so It cant be that bad or China would not exist today.

 

[Icedaemon]

Personally, I doubt that Italy and the UK had leaders insane enough to willingly start using chemical weaponry in what to both was really a front of secondary importance. After all, if an enemy's troops have been killed by chemical weapons, said enemy or their allies might conceivably drop chemical or biological weapons from their bombers next time and both Italy and the UK had at this time homelands which enemy bombers could access.

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

That will be addressed in further updates. But rest assured chemical weapons will be used aginst civilians.

 

[Radek]

So basically WWII on steroids, with WMDs and wholesale mass murder on the menu. Whoever ends up surviving this madness, humanity as a whole loses.

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

Got it one.

 

[Alex1guy]

So basically WMDs used in WW2?

I've read somewhere about scenario where Japan managed to heavily damage The Pacific Fleet, they could thus use several aircraft carriers to sail east and unleash Black Plague, Smallpox, Anthrax, and several nasty kinds of stuff unit 731 made in North American cities with what amounted to one way suicide mission on the Pilot's side(that WW2 Japanese is actually insane enough to do), they could ignite the worst pandemic ever in North America, and it will result in tens of millions of deaths due to both no decent anti-air cover in North American cities at this point, and no coherent pandemic response could be formed in North America at that time, and thus, knocking the US out early on due to what would be the most horrific act of genocide in human history.

If the US Managed to pull their shit together and divert all attention to containing the pandemic, it would only kill ~10 million people before the pandemic could be contained, grievous enough blow but not severe enough to prevent the US from taking even worse revenge on Japan later on. But if the US somehow rolled bad luck after bad luck on pandemic containment, it could go on to become the second time most of the North American population being wiped out by an Apocalyptic Pandemic...

The later would definitely be the death knell of The Allies and outright win the war for the Axis but... well... there are always possibilities of it becoming World-Ending Plague indeed.

No. Simply none of that is true.

America had a more than capable medical apparatus to deal with the diseases that Japan had concocted. Japan routinely unleashed all the diseases you mentioned on China, they didn't suffer millions of dead and they have a far worse medical infrastructure. You might see a few thousand deaths, not tens of millions. The diseases you described, while deadly, can't be deployed on a massive scale by Japan and not against the US who had developed and learned methods to deal with pandemics following the Spanish flu. There'd be a period of infection, hundreds or several thousand may die in the initial confusion, but the US learned to deal with the Spanish flu which was incredibly deadly and far more wide spread.

Nothing Japan had made would come even close to spreading that much.

Also Japan invading Hawaii, even with bio/chem weapons, isn't really possible. Those gas weapons don't work in the manner described. Gas shells wouldn't be very effective dropped from planes over water, unless they hit something, the shells will just sink and not do anything. Gas works best in really tight environments like trench lines and cities where it can settle. You could hit the base maybe, but it would be limited against ships that can move and on an open environment like a harbor.

But ignoring that aspect, Japan also lacked the supply and naval lift, the fleet that attacked in OTL were operating at the extreme edge of their range and had an incredibly limited window to pull off the attack they did, otherwise they'd literally run out of fuel on the way back home. They also were busy launching an invasion of the Philippines and the Pacific which tied up much of their military capacity. Japan's efforts in the opening weeks was on driving the US out of its backyard and crippling its fleet to secure its invasion of Indonesia. They don't have 4 to 5 divisions (the minimum they'd likely need) to spare, and even if they did, they simply lacked the shipping in 41 to maintain the thousands of kilometers long supply chain needed to fuel such an invasion force, followed by an occupation force. Japan had a very limited set of assets to work with in the Pacific, taking Hawaii was not something they wanted, its simply too difficult to attack and defend.

They did however consider using gas and chemical weapons during the invasion of the American and British possessions like Malaysia and the Philippines. With the chem and bio weapon genie out of the bottle, maybe they go for it ITTL, unleashing things on the heavy population centers of SEA.

 

[JanWellem]

If Japan really did this, Admiral Halsey's prediction that once the United States would be through with them the Japanese language would only be spoken in hell might very well become true. I could then easily see the United States nuking Japan back to the Hadean, surrender or no surrender, until there wouldn't even be a cockroach alive on the Home Islands.

 

[Borya]

Svetlana was teenager. Why would she do anything political?

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

Svetlana was teenager. Why would she do anything political?

The trip was more of a publicity stunt to show that Stalin cared about the people of the Soviet Union.

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

The first major Soviet counter attack would be code named operation Sickle. The goal was to push the Germans back from Moscow. It would be a catastrophic failure.



The attack would be launched on the 14th of March. By then the first batches of Sarin had reached the German forces near Moscow alongside vital supplies. The German forces would unleash the fruits of their scientists creations crippling the Soviet attack. The attacks which were comprised of infantry and armoured forces were completely unprepared for the gas. They had been equiped with gas masks designed for the gases used in the First World War. The nerve gas almost wiped out their infantry forces while their tanks would fare better their filters did still allow the gas to trickle through. The armoured attack would be blunted and quickly broken. While eventually the Sarin ran out the attacks did not achieve it’s lofty goals of pushing the front back to Smolensk it did end the immediate threat to Moscow.


Hitler would celebrate the German victory and ordered the construction of more Sarin factories to be used in the next offensive. He would also announce the deceleration of war between the German Reich and the United States of America. A decision which would ultimately doom the German Reich.

 

[Waltzing Brunhilda]

Across the newly opened pacific front the Japanese would launch attack after attack on the multitude of small islands owned by the Americans or colonial powers. The most notable would be the assault on Guam. The Japanese would unleash their gas and biological weapons upon the defending forces. The landing forces swept across the corpse dotted beaches and tore through the gas filled cities of Piti and Hagatna. The invasion would become known as the slaughter of Guam due to the sheer amount of Gas and biological weapons unleashed on the small island. Out of the 23’394 people on Guam prior to the invasion 10 would survive to the end of the war, the island itself can not be resettled until the 23rd century due to the plagues that infested the island. Out of the invasion force none would survive till the end of the war.


The American forces in the Philippines commanding officer was lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur. A man who despite what some would claim would be completely unprepared for the Japanese attack. The attack would be launched at the same time as the attack on Pearl Harbour. He would get no warning no preparation just a flight of Japanese planes heralding death. His headquarters would be hit by three anti-ship bombs completely obliterating the building wiping out a majority of the high command in the Philippines. He himself would survive that attack as at the time he was inspecting a marine division nearby. Said division would be attacked by a pair of Zeros which cut down swathes of the men there. Miraculously General MacArthur would survive completely unscathed from that attack. As he moved to rally the American forces around Manila his Jeep would be hit by a bomb killing him and everyone around him instantly. The remaining American forces in the Philippines would fight a battle of attrition for four months before they would be wiped out by gas attacks and smallpox.