Dead By Dawn: The Road To Revolution

[Enigmajones]

Czechoslovakia: The Failure of Partition in Bohemia and the rise of Slovak nationalism

Although many would argue that the German government's annexation of the Sudeten, as well as their claims on Austria, were the realization of long held and widely shared aspirations on the part of the German people, and hence were less than important when post-war reorganization of Europe would occur. However, this was not so. After the Regensburg Declaration, declared from the town where the National Socialist Republic had made it's final stand in 1934, it became abundantly clear that the Germans of the Sudeten, were well at home within their own nation. Although autonomy for the regions held by Germans was long sought, the failure of the German Revolt in 1932 had scarred the populace of it's nationalist identification, and between 1940 and the start of the Second World War, only 35% of self identifying Germans within Czechoslovakia supported Pan-German aspirations. There were still gripes with the singular nature of Czechoslovakian policy, on the racial identity of its citizens, but the stigma that had left both societies segregated had largely dissipated, leaving only a vocally abhorrent conservative minority, raging against the largely middle class and adapting Czechoslovakian German citizenry. Many in the Germanist faction would argue that this was achieved through indoctrination, however it is far more simple than that. Where as Germany, Italy, and the rest of Europe sought to carve out empires and deal with nationalist squabbling, Czechoslovakia remained an independent middleman handling trade between opposing sides, and producing arms and machines to sell to all parties. Czech and German businessmen became steadily allied over the years, and although Slovakia remained mired in backwater poverty, Bohemia became a rich and steady environment, producing large families and a better standard of living than most of it's neighbors, bar Germany. Until the Konigsberg Accords were signed by France, Germany and the Soviet Union, the Czechoslovak government had no cause to join the entanglements of political allies, having a large and well prepared enough army to last most entanglements. Although they would join the Rome Pact in 1969, it was known to be a reluctant move on the part of the government.

When the war began in 1975, the Czechoslovaks assumed that their mountains and armor would keep them from facing certain doom, but were shocked, when the reformed German military launched across the border, lacking the clannish rivalries and tactical disagreements of the previous German wars. Under the complete command of Ehrhard Wulle, second only to the advisory role of President Holzknecht, the German air, army and mechanized cavalry were able to grind their way through the smaller Cezchoslovakian host, aided by a lack of Italian support, and terrorist subversion on the party of the German National Peoples Party, DNVP, based on the party of the old Deutschesstaat but a successor to both the German National Socialist Party and the German Workers Party, and their Volkssport militia, who engaged in brutal tactics against the Czechoslovakian police and war effort, by targeting industrial centers and government buildings. The war also saw a new front of extermination against the civilian populace, with jets bombing civilian centers into dust, leaving chaos in there wake. With the front in Austria rapidly deteriorating and the Germans on the march, the Czechoslovak government realized that they were losing the war because of an inability to strike at the German heartland. From the start of hostilities in April to the capture of Prague in September of 1975, the Czechoslovak Air Force was able to extend bombing raids into Germany only in the slightest, being largely sued to attack German positions in the Sudetenland, while German raids left Prague a rubbled mess by the time the invaders arrived fresh from their success in Austria, where the Imperial government had fled the capital for the relative safety of Klagenfurt. When Germans entered the city and fighting began in earnest, the battle was brutal, as the center collapsed forcing a battle plan that gave the Germans ample time to pacify a rather viciously fervent region. President Benes refused to leave his people, and sent the Czechoslovak high command to lead the resistance, although most were captured by German forces. With nowhere to turn, President signed the Treaty of Prague, giving Germany the Sudetenland and Silesia, dissipating the Czechslovak Republic and founding the Bohemian Federation and the Slovak Republic.

In Prague, the new Bohemian government was a fraud, completely under the whim of German occupation forces, wherein mass murders were committed as social justice for crimes against the German people, even though this included hundreds of thousands of Sudeten Germans who supported the government, and who would later go on to aid the government in it's return to power. However, in Bratislava, the news was received gladly. The Slovaks had long been disenfranchised and in the view of the Slovak people, the yoke of the Czech was over, if only to be replaced by that of Germany, but independence was a satisfactory compromise in most eyes. As October began, the Germans still had to fight remaining loyalists in Moravia, as well as the active resistance of Bohemia, allowing for a Slovak government to be formed. However, before any session of parliament could be held, they faced an invasion from Hungary. Hungary had recently sacrificed hard fought gains in Romania to Iancu Serban, to both guarantee neutrality, and focus on a small scale annexation of territory in Slovakia, claiming it as the Feldviek. With the armed forces in disarray, Hungary was able to swarm over the Slovak border, ostensibly to guard against German occupation of Slovakia, but also to achieve their nationalist ideals. The Slovak government and people were enraged, and began a large scale guerrilla conflict against their occupiers, aiding German forces upon their entry into Slovakia in 1976.

 

[Enigmajones]

The Romanian Connection

Bucharest in 1977
The Bucharest Conference of 1977 was ironically unknown until relatively after 1977, being discovered via exploration during the Hamburg Treaty in 1980. The Romanian government, using their neutrality and isolation were able to play as middleman between many different governments. The Soviets, who wished to cancel out any action by the Chinese in Europe, as the Manchurian Front had proved unstable and hopeless, fought a vigorous war of intelligence against Chinese diplomacy. But Romania remained a linch pin in their strategy of keeping the Italians cornered in the Balkans, Bulgaria's neutrality aided them as well, keeping them fresh in case the Germans restarted their old campaign for the East. And so, in the Soviets desire to repel an invasion that was ideologically attuned to anti-Strasserist dialogues played over Soviet television in opposition to the "Alliance of Necessity" that was preached by the Comintern, they allowed the Chinese to send diplomats to Iancu Serban, knowing that the man had snubbed the French and taken an old exile back from their Nazi wonderland in Versailles. Perhaps he would shun the Chinese, Serban was more erratic than the weather, why would any hold trust in him?

It was in this cloud that Iancu Serban was able to host representatives from South Africa, a diamond seller on record, China and Australia, masquerading as a Sarawaki businessman. There was none of the usual flair for foreign diplomats that Serban usually banked on to rally public favor in his cult state. The Bucharest Conference was aided by the rebellions in Poland and the USSR, which were sparked by the Romanians, and aided by local nationalists and ideologues, in that in was able top contain itself in meeting with the sovereign of Romania, although his people called him Tata, or Father, at least if they wished to keep their heads. Serban was able to affect control over his populace with shocking growth in pro-establishment support, with a large an virile anti-Serban diaspora, as those who opposed the regime fled in small numbers more would be exiles being staked on spikes that lined the border with Hungary, well behind the military emplacements hastily thrown up in the new territory taken by the Romanians from the Hungarians in the Treaty of Cluj of 1976. During the conference, South Africa, and Australia, acting on behalf of the Commonwealth, hashed out an alliance between the two, who would act in tandem in Africa and Asia, moving against the Communists, aid the Pakistani's against the Indians, and open up the nuclear race. Australia would have programs in effect shortly before the bombing of Laurenco Marques in 1978. Ianu Serban, in exchange, was allowed to buy a bomb, the one that would be used on Odessa in 1978. The Soviet Civil War that was to follow would guard Romania from a large open conflict that it dreaded, but also gave it the space to expand on the continent, and to the east. Following the Conference, three conflicts would erupt, adding to the scope of the Second World War.

Portugal, who had been fighting against a low level guerrilla war in it's largest African colonies, faced a South African embargo and invasion, who fought to establish native led republics in the declared republic's of Angola and Mozambique. It was in 1977 that South Africa, aided by the Commonwealth seized the territories. The Portuguese were caught off guard, and by January of 1978, were fighting against a popular rising in Guinea, Angola and Mozambique, as well as in mainland Portugal, though those rebels were mainly college students. The Commonwealth aid, was mainly through Mozambique's shared border to the north of Mozambique, entering through Tanganyika. The rebellion was quickly won in Mozambique, although the cpital of Laurenco Marques was able to hold steady for Portuguese forces, due to the high amount of Portuguese colonists in the capital region of Portugal. However, the invasion would succeed when in February of 1978, the South Africans dropped an atomic bomb on the capital, marking the first of many uses of the atomic bomb in the Second World War.

 

[Enigmajones]

Where Are They Now

HU JINGYI: 1892-1937

Born and raised in Shaanxi province, Hu first came to notice in 1910, when he joined Sun Yat-Sen's Tongmenghui, or the National Revolutionary Alliance, a secret society comprised of China's different revolutionary elements. In 1911, following the Wuchang Uprising, Hu led a revolt in Shaanxi, cementing his status as a major force in the province. In 1913, Hu joined the Kuomintang and fought against Yuan Shikai's government, and afterwards continued to hold posts in the military of Shaanxi. When Feng Yuxiang orchestrated the Beijing Coup and founded the Guominjun (KMC), Hu allied himself firmly with the movement. Hu, as an aide to Feng Yuxiang, cooperated with the Soviets to gain funding, allowing the communists a free hand in the provinces in the control of the Guominjun. In 1927, the KMC and the KMT joined forces in hopes of uniting China under one government, attacking the Zhili and Chihili factions. However, due to a Soviet backed uprising in KMT territory, the expedition was a failure, causing the KMT and KMC to ally themselves to one another. In 1930, the KMC was folded into the KMT and Hu became the governor of Shaanxi. In 1937, after 7 years of peace, and ideological differences between the North and South of the Republic of China (KMT), Feng Yuxiang and Li Zongren launched an attack on Guangzhong in hopes of dislodging Chiang and the Blue Shirts Society from power. Hu was a participant and lead the KMC of Shaanxi in the Battle of Henan before being killed during a raid by Chiang forces.

JOSEF STROOP: 1895-1965: Born and raised in the German Empire, Stroop joined the Imperial Army in 1914 and served on the Western Front. He was wounded during his service and received the Iron Cross, Second Class. After the war, he returned to his job at the Land Register in Detmold, but became involved in General Ludendorff's neo-paganistic religious movement, the Tannenbergbund, in the 1920's, and became a member of the DNVP in 1928. When the German Civil War broke out, Stroop was appointed to the head of the Detmold militia, and due to troop reductions, ended up leading a battalion during Reichswehr operations in Thuringia. Following the war, Stroop returned to Detmold, and returned to the land register. Stroop returned to service in 1939 during the Danzig War, but due to his age, 44, was kept in reserve. Following the Danzig War, Stroop once again returned to Detmold. Returning to the Land Register in Detmold, he retired in 1955, with a civil servants pension. Josef Stroop would die in 1965, survived by his son Jurgen Stroop, who would become well known for the war crimes perpetrated during his time in the Nachtwache.

LI MI: 1902-1937: Li was born and raised in the Yunnan province, and although poor, was able to receive acceptance into the Whampoa Military Academy. He participated in the Northern Expedition of 1927, and gained favor from Chiang Kai-Shek after his response against the Wuhan government. Li would die during the fall of the Guangzhou government and the breakout of war in China in 1937.

KURT TANK: 1898-1933: Tank served in the Great War as a member of the German Cavalry, and after the war became enrolled in Berlin Technical University. Graduating in 1923, he gained employment at Rohrbach Metall-Flugzeugbau, a Berlin based aircraft design corporation. Tank originally worked in designing passenger aircraft, as war planes were banned under the Treaty of Versailles. Tank quit, and found work at Albatros, the famed builders of Germany's planes during the Great War. He began work as a test pilot, and in 1929, Albatros went bankrupt, and was merged with Focke-Wulf. In 1931, with the outbreak of the German Civil War, Tank joined the nascent Reichluftstreitkrafte, and flew reconnaissance missions over National Sociliast territory. In August of 1933, his plane was shot down and Tank died on imapct, he was 35.

HUGO SCHMEISSER: 1884-1953: Schmeisser was crucial in the growth and development of machine gun technology, and as such did not actively serve during the Great War. Following the Treaty of Versailles, Schmeisser and his brother formed their own company in Suhl, in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1922, he created a second company to keep himself from losing his patents if the first, Industriewerk Auhammer Koch und Co, went bankrupt. In 1928, Schmeisser developed the MP-28, and found a buyer in the German police. He also began to export his weapons, finding buyers in China, Japan and South Africa. In 1931, with the outbreak of the German Civil War, Schmeisser and his brother were ordered to Berlin, where they began construction on thousands of new machine guns for the Reichswehr. The IAKC became an international name in weaponry, and was funded partially by the German government. After the end of the Civil War, Schmeisser and his company produced more and more weapons, growing richer during the Ethiopian War, the Danzig War and the 3rd Balkans War. Schmeisser would die after perfecting hismasterpiece, the StG 44, which became the asault rifle of the Reichswehr. Schmeisser died in his home in 1953.

Uziel Gal: 1923-1957: Born and raised in Weimar, Gal's family fled Germany for Great Britain in 1931. Growing up in London, Gal became involved early on with the Labour Party. Due to the relative peace of Great Britain, Gal became an electrician. When the Franco-British War broke out, he remained in London. Gal died in 1957, as the result of a hate crime perpatrated by members of the National Socialist British Workers Party. He was 34.

YISRAELI GALIL: 1923-1995: Not much is known of Yisraeli Galil, he was born and raised in the Mandate of Palestine, and remained after Palestine was given independence in 1976. A member of Palestine's Jewish minority, Galil became acutely aware of the discrimination it began to receive and immigrated to the United States in 1981. He died in his home in Palm Beach, in 1995.

WILHELM MESSERSCHMITT: 1898-1937: Serving in the Great War, Messerschmitt and his colleague Friedrich Harth, designed the S5 Glider. In 1923, Messerschmitt founded his own aircraft company in Augsburg. He designed the Messerschmitt M 17 and M 18, and began production in 1927. Continuing his designs, Messerschmitt lost his fortune, when his planes were "confiscated" by the National Socialists and used in the National Socialist Air Corps. In 1937, Messerschmitt was executed for collaboration with rebel forces.


WILHELM CANARIS: 1887-1955: A member of the German Navy in the Great War, Canaris joined the Freikorps when the war ended, and then joined the Reichsmarine. He became a career naval man, and was promoted to Captain in 1931. Canaris lived out the war rather peacefully, and after the Civil War ended, remained in the Reichsmarine. In 1939, he was promoted to Admiral, and given control of the Baltic Fleet for the Reichsmarine. His failure's during the Danzig War disgraced Canaris. In 1940, he received a court martial, and retired. He died at the age of 68 in 1955. Before he died, Reinhard Heydrich visited with Canaris, although it is not known what was said, Canaris was given a heroes funeral in Berlin, and honored with a memorial statue at the Danzig War monument in Bremen. In 1966, members of the Nachtwache destroyed the statue and defaced the monument. Heydrich ordered the monument rebuilt, and had it dedicated before he left power in 1968. Immediately after his swearing in, Holzknecht ordered the statue and monument taken down. The statue of Canaris, would find it's way into the hand of thieves, and in 1970, was given to the city of New York, who placed it in a public park, which bears Canaris's name.

GUSTAV RITTER VON KAHR: 1862-1931: In 1920, von Kahr gained control of the Bavarian government in part thanks to military influence from the failed Kapp Putsch. Von Kahr created an environment that made Bavaria a haven for right wing nationalist groups, including those who advocated the secession of Bavaria from Germany. In 1921, von Kahr resigned when the government passed a decree forcing the government's to acknowledge the protection of the government. In 1923, after a series of heightening political violence in Bavaria, von Kahr was appointed the Staatskomissar of Bavaria, a virtual dictator. He formed an alliance of power with the head of the Bavarian police, Hans Ritter von Seisser, and Otto von Lossow, the leader of Reichswehr forces in Bavaria. Adolf Hitler, leader of the NSDAP, attempted to gain von Kahr's support in recreating the March on Rome and establishing a nationalist government Berlin under Erich Ludendorff, the famed war hero. Von Kahr refused, having his own plot to take power in Berlin. On November 9th, 1923, von Kahr hosted a meeting of 3,000 people at the Burgerbraukeller, which was stormed by Sturmabteilung forces and Adolf Hitler, who demanded the cooperation of von Kahr, Seisser and Lossow in the new government's formation. They refused and when the putschists marched on the War ministry, 15 were killed, including Hitler.

After the trial of the Nazi leaders, von Kahr retained control of Bavaria but lost popular support amongst the right and was taken out of power in 1927, when Gregor Strasser took official control of the NSDAP and held a mass protest against the traitor. In 1930, von Kahr, Seisser and Lossow were all killed by members of the Viking Bund on behalf of the NSDAP.

HORST WESSEL: 1907-1931: Horst Wessel was an early member of the Bismarckjugend and his father was a member of the DNVP. However, in 1926, citing differences with the ideology of the DNVP, he joined the NSDAP. While with the Nazi's he was selected to become a member of the Sturmabteilung, and soon caught the attention of Joseph Goebbels, a major propagandist whose role in the party grew under the support of the Strasser wing of the party. Horst Wessel soon became the leader of the SA-Troop in his local area in Berlin. Wessel was major plotter in the Berlin Uprising and was killed by members of the Reichswehr in the attack on the Reichstag.

JOSEPH GOEBBELS: 1897-1964: Goebbels, a writer known for schmoozing and his wit, joined the NSDAP in 1924, after witnessing Gregor Strasser speak. He immediately became head propagandist for the northern portion of the Nazi organization and in 1930, moved to Munich where Strasser had organized the largest Nazi base of power. When the Berlin Uprising began and the National Socialist Revolution seemed imminent, Goebbels became the head of propaganda for the national revolution. In 1933, with the war seeming more and more hopeless, Goebbels was sent to Switzerland to speak to foreign governments on the National Socialist governments behalf. When the Civil War ended, Goebbels fled Switzerland for France. In 1935, Germany requested his extradition, but Goebbels escaped again, this time to the United States. Goebbels settled down in New York City and became a successful novelist. He died in 1964, at the age of 67.

YAN XISHAN: 1883-1929: The warlord of the Shanxi province during the 1910's and 20's, Yan allied with Chiang Kai-Shek's National Revolutionary Army, when they began their Northern expedition. But the Communist revolt in the Wuhan had thrown the plan out of order and Yan allied himself to the Eastern League. In 1928, Zuolin consolidated control of the Eastern League as the Republic of China. In 1929, in a vicious campaign, the Republic of China, with the assistance of Japanese bombers, conquered Shanxi. Yan was executed by hanging in Beijing.

SHENG SHICAI: 1897-1967: As a member of the Guominjun, Sheng became heavily involved the ideological development of National Socialism within China. He was learned German and became Otto Strassers liaison to the Guominjun. When the proclamation of the National Socialist Republic began, he set up shop in Shaanxi and remained there until 1959. When the Zhang Xueliang invasion came, Sheng fled. When the World War ended, he returned and was present at the declaration of the Unitary Peoples Socialist Republic of China. He died in 1967, and was buried at a state funeral attended by Strasser-Ruan.

YANG ZENGXIN: 1867-1937: Yang was the dictator of Xinjiang virtually from the time of the Xinhai Revolution. He carefully allied himself to the Beiyang government and managed to keep himself in power. In 1928, Yang became the brunt of KMT attacks. His armed force proved stable, but not enough and in 1929, Yang was captured by KMT leaders and imprisoned in Guangzhou. Zengxin was executed following the capture of Guangzhou in 1937.

MA BUFANG: 1903-: Bufang was trained in Islam and was to become an Imam in his native Qinghai province, however in 1922, he followed his brother, into joining the military. As members of the Ma family, they joined the Ma Clique and set about defending the territory under their control, Qinghai, Ningxia and Gansu. In 1928, when the Western Expedition began, Bufang and his brother fought against their former allies in the Guominjun, and were defeated, excluding Bufang. After the death of his brother at the Battle of Lanzhou, Bufang pushed his forces into Qinghai and formed his own government amongst the Hui people. He orchestrated the assassination of the leaders of the Ma Clique, and orchestrated Qinghai's survival under his governorship. So in 1929, Ma Bufang became the governor of Qinghai Province. Bufang's Qinghai province was slightly detached from the Guangzhou government and when the war for control of China began in 1937, Bufang sided with the Guominjun, who had centered their government in Xi'an. Bufang orchestrated the founding of the Islamic Republic of China, centered in Qinghai and allied to Hu-Hsiang's National Socialist Republic of China. However, in 1938, Bufang's Islamic Army was defeated by Zhang Xueliang's New Beiyang Army and was executed for treason against the Republic of China.

ZHOU ENLAI: 1898-1976: Beginning his long career as a Communist politician as a student activist in Tianjin, Enlai quickly became a leading intellectual within Chinese Communism. Enlai was one of the early members of the KMT who supported Communism and urged unity among the two causes against the feared hegemony of Japanese supported Zuolin. After years of serving the KMT and the Communists in Europe, he returned to China to join the political department at the Whampoa military academy, the breeding ground for Chiang Kai-Shek's support group, which was largely supported and funded by the Soviets. Enlai became one of the many KMT ambassadors to the Soviets, hoping to continue funding for the Nationalist's. He saw brief military service during the war to consolidate control of Guangdong and was present at the capture of Guangzhou by KMT forces. Following the Zhongshan Warship incident, Enlai left the Whampoa clique and became more heavily involved with the Communists Party of China, becoming a major leader in the group. He also established ties with the remaining left wing faction of the KMT, especially those under Wang Jingwei. In 1926, he was majorly opposed to taking action against the KMT and was excised from the party by Mao Zedong. When the Wuhan government finally fell in 1930, Enlai returned to China taking control of the small Communist movement. In 1940, Enlai, fled China for the Soviet Union. It was at this time that he became Moscow's favored son. When the Soviet's founded the collaborationist force from Chinese soldiers, Enlai was appointed to the head of the organization. In 1961, when Soviet forces entered Beijing, Enlai was appointed the head of the new Peoples Republic of China. He served as head of the Peoples Republic of China until his death in 1976, shortly after the start of the Second World War.

RUDOLF HESS: 1894-1935: Hess, an aviator in the Great War, became involved with the Nazi movement in 1920, after hearing Adolf Hitler speak. Hess became a devotee of Hitler and personal assistant. He introduced Hitler to his friend, Haushofer, a professor who sought to explain history in terms of racial bias. Haushofer was influential on Hitler, but faced competition from Scheubner-Richter, who was against the concept of Lebesraum, a form of colonialism to be based around seizing huge territory in the east. During the Beer Hall Putsch, Hess commanded a brigade in the SA and after Hitler's death, was sentenced to 5 years in prison, although he would only serve 3. In 1926, after being released, he discovered that Rohm and Strasser had taken full control of the party. Finding a base amongst the original members, Hess attempted to retake control of the party in a speech at a Nazi rally in Munich in 1927. It was a meeting of party members, and Hess was still the official head of the party. However, Strasser used this meeting to officially take control of the party,

After being unseated from power, gathered around 1,000 other members and formed the splinter Nationalsozialistische Volkspartei or the National Socialist Peoples Party. He quickly found little to no support for his movement, tainted by it's association with the National Socialists, and considered a weaker version of the DNVP. As a result, in August of 1927, Hess met with Richard Walther Darre, the leader of the Artaman League. Hess formed an alliance, to make the NSVP the political front of the Artamanians. However, he lost control at the first party congress in Dresden, unseated in favor of Darre. Hess was ostracized from a position of power, but continued to make speeches for the NSVP around Saxony. When the Civil War came, he offered his service to the new Reichluftsteitkrafte, but was turned down due to his association with the Nazis. In 1935, Hess was found dead in his home in Dresden, from a self inflicted gun shot wound, he was 41.

OTTO SKORZENY: 1908-1977: Skorzeny was born to a middle class family in Vienna in 1908. He grew up without much and as a result was ambitious. In college, Skorzeny received his trademark scar whilst fencing. In 1931, Skorzeny became involved in the Austrian Nazi Party. However, when the Berlin Uprising occurred, he witnessed first hand the short and sweet coup of the Heimwehr and the power taken by Dollfuss. Joining the Heimwehr, and the newly formed Fatherland Front, a merger between the Christian Social Party and the Heimatblock. Skorzeny quickly proved himself capable, but was noted for his sympathy with the Nazi cause, and pushed out of politics. Skorzeny joined the Austrian Army when they were merged with the Heimwehr in 1933, and participated in the invasion of Bavaria in 1934. It was during this mission that he began his long friendship with the Italian military. In 1935, he commanded a battalion of Austrian volunteers in East Africa, fighting with the Italians. Following this service, Skorzeny returned to Austria and continued his military career, rising to the position of General in 1945.

With the outbreak of the World War, Skorzeny proposed a daring invasion of Czechoslovakia to seize the Sudetenland. He was turned down, but would end gaining complete control of Austrian forces when the invasion of Slovenia began in 1961. His occupation of Slovenia, or Kairn as it became formally known, was considered his finest moment. When the Second World War began, Skorzeny was the overall commander of Austrian forces, and fought hard to defend Austria from the onslaught of German forces. When German forces captured entered Vienna in 1975, and began the brutal occupation of Northern Austria, Skorzeny organized the resistance in the Austrian Alps. He would die in 1977, from a gangrenous wound. Skorzeny was honored in the rebuilding of Vienna, and was posthumously awarded the Tapferkeitsmedaille, Gold Class.

Skorzeny and other Austrian volunteers meeting with Il Duce after service in East Africa.

ALFRED ROSENBERG: 1893-1933: Alfred Rosenberg, a Baltic German and associate of Max von Scheubner-Richter. Supporting the whites in the Russian Civil War, Rosenberg immigrated to Germany in 1918. Arriving in Munich, he became a writer for the Völkischer Beobachter, a far right paper that was acquired by the occultist Thule Society in 1919. In 1920, it became the official paper of the NSDAP, thanks to Dietrich Eckhart, the Nazi's first propagandist. After the Beer Hall Putsch, the paper was shut down, and it's writers were imprisoned. Rosenberg escaped conviction, and was appointed head of the NSDAP. However, in 1924, after Hess was given the 5 year sentence, the NSDAP appointed him as the leader of the party, in order to pay homage to the Putsch. After leaving power, Rosenberg realigned himself with Scheubner-Richter, and began planning the formation of alliance with the Aratman League in 1926. In 1927, after Hess lost control of the party, Rosenberg joined the nascent NSVP, and was appointed head propagandist, splitting from Scheubner-Richter in 1928. Rosenberg quickly became wary of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Wehrbauren. With Darre, he attempted to keep control over Himmler's growing influence, but was eventually overruled. In 1931, Rosenberg was appointed the head of political ideology for the Wehrbauren, who had since evolved from a glorified neighborhood watch, into a full time paramilitary. In 1933, at the Battle of Dresden, Rosenberg was killed by "friendly fire". Himmler had been present and swore that the soldiers story was true. His body was returned to his hometown of Tallinn, and buried with honors from the NSVP. His tomb was destroyed in the Soviet invasion of Estonia in 1957.

Alfred Speer:1905-1981 : Speer was architectural student, who was present in Munich during the Beer Hall Putsch. In 1925, he transferred to Berlin, and became the assistant of Heintich Tessenow, whom Speer admired greatly. In 1930, Speer witnessed a speech by Joseph Goebbels and was disgusted with the ideology. He registered and began voting for the DNVP. When the Civil War broke out, Speer joined the Reichmarine and served during the hostilities, and was discharged in 1935. Speer became involved in rebuilding Southern Germany, and was given a free hand in the rebuilding of Kempten. Speer became a favorite architect of the establishment, and was key in the design of the Olympic Village for the 1944 Berlin Olympiad. At the outbreak of the World War, Speer was appointed the head of Public Safety, commanding labor gangs to build bunkers and fortifications throughout Germany. In 1962, he designed the Monument of Reunification in Danzig. He was famed for his abilities, and in 1964, immigrated to the United States, establishing an architectural firm in New York. He would die in 1981. His son, Albert Speer Junior, became an urban planner in New York.

FRITZ TODT: 1891-1933: Todt was an early member of the NSDAP, and was a key military strategist for the Sturmabteilung. In 1930, he was responsible for the founding of the National Socialist Flyers Corps, and was responsible for the organization of the Nazi NSFK during the German Civil War. In 1933, he piloted a reconnaissance flight over Dresden. He was shot down, but his body was never recovered.

HERMANN GOERING: 1893-1923: Hermann Goering was a famed pilot in the Luftsreitkrafte, serving alongside the infamous "Bloody Red Baron" Richtofen. After the war, Goering moved to Denmark and then Sweden, working for a Swedish airline. After meeting Count Eric von Rosen's sister in law, Caren von Cantznow, Goering fell in love and relocated to Bavaria in 1922. He joined the NSDAP in 1922, and quickly gained a following, being appointed Oberster-SA Fuhrer in 1923. Goering lead the SA forces during the Beer Hall Putsch, and suffered a shot to the leg during the coup. He was smuggled to Innsbruck, but succumbed to his injuries do to an infection sustained while being smuggled.

JOACHIM PEIPER: 1915-1978: Joachim Peiper was born in Berlin and raised in Silesia. His father was a veteran of the East African Campaign in the 1900's, the Great War, and was a member of the Freikorps. After the Aratman league arrived, his father joined the Wehrbauern, and aided the rise of Heinrich Himmler. Peiper was a member of the Aratmanian scout movement, and then the Wehrbauern, whom he joined at 16. At 17, do to his father's influence with Himmler, he was appointed to become Himmler's secretary. In 1936, he participated in Himmler's revolt against the German government, but was not present when the base fell to the Reichswehr. He survived, and became involved in the Nachtwache, a successor to the banned NSVP and Aratmanian League. As a member of the Nachtwache, he was the leader of the Himmlerist faction, promoting an ideology of rejecting Judeo-Christian morals, and a return to a time of established order, from the ranks of the pure German people. As such he was very unpopular with the government and the DNVP. In 1940, Peiper was appointed to the head of the Nachtwache, and supported the groups acts of rebellion against the government of the DNVP.

Peiper began to speak secretly in academic circles throughout Germany, arguing for a return to a Germany before the Great War, a time of peace and honor. He was laughed at often, but Himmlerist theory became popular with small subsets of the National Socialist. In 1944, Peiper founded National Socialist Action, or the Nationalsozialistisch Aktion. The NSA gained a large following in the student movements, but found his main opponent to be Diedrik Holzknecht, a young Berlin students, whose theories on Strasserist economic theory were considered the most applicable. So the two merged their movements in 1949, forming the NSE or National Socialist Unity. Through Holzknecht's oratory skills, and Peipers organizational foundations, they made rapid success. At the first party meeting in 1950, held in Amsterdam, Holzknecht was selected to be the leader of Fuhrer of the NSE, and Peiper was appointed head of the Stabswache, the personal bodyguard and the Nachtwache, who were formally tied to the NSE and it's paramilitary wing. Their uniforms, designed by Peiper, were silver shirted, in order to represent a new era of National Socialism. The Stabswache however, were given black uniforms, and were known for the skeleton key insignia. In 1959, the NSE began to gain complete dominance of the student population, thanks to the harsh reign of Staatsoberhaupt Reinhard Heydrich.

However, in 1960, Holzknecht made well known to Peiper that it was time to assert the power of the Fuhrer within the NSE, and dissolved the Nachtwache. A new volunteer paramilitary, wearing the brown uniforms of the old Sturmabteiling, known as the NSE-Aktion, was founded. He appointed his newfound ally, Erhard Wulle. Peiper was allowed to retain control of the Stabswache, but the blow had been clear, and the message had been simple, Strasserist theory was the theory of the party. Peiper continued to well support for his organization, reforming the Nachtwache as a separate organization from the NSE. The new night watch mixed Volkisch traditions with the occultist practices of the Thule Society, promoting a new form of Aryan paganism. Peiper also folded the Stabswache, and formed the Schutzstaffel as the new guard of the Fuhrer. In 1964 and 1965, Peiper was responsible for many of the protests against the rule of Heydrich. In 1968, when free elections occurred, Peiper was elected as the representative of Saxony in the Reichstag. After the NSE received control of the government and Holzknecht was appointed Chancellor, Germany became a veritable melting pot of paramilitary associations. The Nachtwache swelled it's ranks, while the NSE-Aktion grew into a large force. After the Regensburg Declaration, the Stahlhelm bund front soldaten attempted to merge with the NSE-A, and were turned down. After Holzknect established the Republic of Germany in January of 1968, the Reichsbanner Scwarz-Rot-Gold was reestablished, as the paramilitary wing of the SPD. Peiper quickly grew weary of them, as well as the Otto Braun Youth.

In 1970, Peiper orchestrated a false flag operation. In the Reichstag on December 12th, 1969, Peiper claimed to have irrefutable proof that the SPD were receiving funding from the Rome Pact, as well as the DNVP. The Reichstag adjourned before the accusations could be addressed, but on Christmas Eve, Holzknect suspended the Reichstag and declared a state of emergency. Holzknecht then ordered the SS into a killing spree. Peiper was responsible for the deaths of 26 members of the Reichstag, including Falkenrath, the head of the DNVP. By the end of January, the National Socialists had begun their rule of Nazi Germany. Peiper and the Nachtwache became massively influential, and while Erhard Wulle was appointed to the head of the National Revolutionary Army (the Nationalumstürzlerischdruck), Peiper became the new secret police chief of Germany. When the Second World War broke out, Peiper's Nachtwache was personally given control over operations against the rebellious Third Polish Republic. From 1974-1976, Peiper was responsible for "population reductions" eradicating up to 35% of Poland's civilian population. With the outbreak of the Soviet Civil War in 1977, Peiper returned to Germany to command SS units in action against the American-Canadian invasion via Denmark. In 1978, after the Americans captured Hamburg, Peiper committed suicide in his family home, dying at the age of 63.

Himmler with Peiper in Berlin, 1935


IAN SMITH:1919-1966: Ian Smith was born in Southern Rhodesia, and was known growing up as an athlete and a scholar. In 1942, he graduated from Rhodes University in South Africa, and returned to Southern Rhodesia. His skill's as a Rugby player were noted, and while at university, he had become the captain of his team. In 1943, he joined the Western Province Rugby team and became the captain of the United Rhodesian side in 1944, who were still competing as a province in the Currie Cup. In 1945, Smith captained the United Rhodesian team in the Inaugural Rugby World Cup. Smith would captain the 1950 squad as well, and then retired. In 1951, he began his coaching career, and would eventually become the coach of his native Rhodesia. In 1966, he was killed in a guerilla attack outside his mansion estate in Salisbury.

 

[Enigmajones]

Dead By Dawn Major League Baseball: 1975

American League
West
Milwaukee Brewers (Orioles)
Cleveland Indians
Chicago White Sox
Detroit Tigers
Cincinnati Crimson (Angels)

East
Philadelphia Athletics
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles (Royals)
New York Yankees
Atlanta Firecrackers (Rangers)
Washington Senators (Twins)

ALCS
Philadelphia over Milwaukee

National League

West
San Francisco Seals (Philadelphia Phillies)
Kansas City Royals (Mets)
Saint Louis Cardinals
Minnesota Giants
San Diego Padres
Los Angeles Braves

East
New York Redlegs
Pittsburgh Pirates
Dallas Rangers (Dodgers)
Chicago Cubs
Montreal Expos
Houston Colts (Astros)

NLCS
New York over San Francisco

World Series
New York Redlegs over Philadelphia Athletics

 

[Enigmajones]

The End of the British Civil War
That the British Civil came to an end, was in many ways a surprise. Although the Traditionalists still held territory before the intervention, they were far smaller than its original push to take Scotland and lower England. Violent battles were fought by the Legitimists, even taking Aldershot in the third battle at such a location in 1974. By 1977 only three pockets existed. The Bristol channel remained in Traditionalist hand on its south bank, and remained control of most of Gloucestershire and Monmouth. This allowed them to gain supplies from the Commonwealth. They retained complete control of Northern Ireland, thanks in part to the mass of Commonwealth troops who arrived during the war. The navy had been divided along political lines, and the Traditionalists had taken Scapa Flow earlier in the war, though by 1971 they had been thoroughly purged, forcing the Cameronians and other Scottish conservatives to flee to London, which remained in Traditionalist hands do through Kent which survived as the second of the enclaves remaining in Britain of Traditionalist force, while the enclave known as Holland also retained loyalty, it was taken on an offensive in 1976. Guerrilla's associate with the League of Saint George had there day, but was largely defeated before the arrival of United States troops in 1977, at least in Scotland and other Legitimist ares of Britain. The Peace Initiative of the Carter Administration was in full swing, and that began with and American intervention against the Traditionalists only link to life, the Commonwealth. Although the Commonwealth maintained control of of Britain's African colonies, and lands taken following the Franco-British War, Australia, New Zealand, Sarawak and Malaya remained the heavy weights of the organization, with African troops serving in the British Civil War, as well as in the short naval war that ensued between Argentina and Australia over the conquest of the Falklands in 1966, and an embargo against Venezuela's conquest of Guyana in 1969. The United States backed Venezuela, who they needed to stymie Communist rebels coming from Colombia. This is the first time that America had crossed Australia, as both had been militarizing for years.

The Australians had whetted their appetites during service in the Indochinese War, and invested heavily in the British Civil War. The British Empire that had begun the war, was not as it always was, with the Indian War bringing the Empire to its knees, some of which included the loss of Australian troops who fought to keep the Empire as it was. In fact there main point of contention with the Legitimist government, was its willingness to eradicate the Empire, and give democracy to it's former colonies. As well as their anti-monarchist streak, while Australia served as the home of the Commonwealth figure head, the members of the Windsor Family. 1977 was also a year after the Bucharest Convention, during which the Commonwealth began to act in tandem with the South Africans to fight black communist governments from forming, by establishing republics in Mocambique and Angola. This war would need to draw Australian forces, and with the Traditionalist military waning, to the point where the many former London backers had fled for safer and Australian shores. This left London a city under a soft siege as neither saw reason to sully the beautiful city of London with full on battle, though Traditionalists had fought total war principles during and throughout the Civil War. When the United States arrived in England in 1977, they were the first in a massive wave of troops coming for British shores. American troops came at the behest of the Legitimist government, who had lacked the foreign ally that the Traditionalists thrived with. With America's declaration of intervening in the War that had spanned for 11 years, the Australians sent protests to the United States, protests that led to the Belfast Accords, by which the Kingdom of Northern Ireland was created, since the Royal Family saw no reason to leave Australia, which didn't question the need for royals. The Kingdom of Northern Ireland also remained in the Commonwealth which the Legitimist government refused to do it. When it became clear that Australia was not going to continue there support in the face of American intervention, the Traditionalists were overrun with hysteria, and settled in for a long siege.

The American troops were quick to act, and "liberated" Bristol Channel by a naval and military push against Bristol, with the Traditionalists losing any Welsh territory they had. London proved a tougher nut to crack, with street fighting making Britain resemble scenes that the British people equated with the German and Continental Wars of the early 30's and 40's. American troops continued to arrive in Scotland and throughout the Irish Sea, destroying the Traditionalist forces where they saw them. London fell after a month of hard fighting, aided by the occupation of Kent by American forces and the fleeing of Traditionalists on barges headed for Commonwealth territory, including to the easily accessible Northern Ireland, which remained the only part of the British Isles under Commonwealth control, including Australian troops, although they would leave Northern Ireland to their own devices soon enough given their fronts in Africa. What is most important, is that the United States gained a spring board to Europe, with France facing what would be, one of the largest armadas gathered in modern history.

 

[Enigmajones]

The Rise of Canada in relation to the British Civil War

When the British Civil War began in 1966, the effect on the British Empire was palpable. Guyana and the Falkland Islands both fell to continental powers Venezuela and Argentina, while the people of the crown colonies in the Caribbean faced a new overlord, and not America, but the Dominion of Canada. The Canadians had slowly but surely increased its presence in British colonies in North America including not only the West Indies, but also the island of Bermuda, largely thanks to the increasing toll of war in India from 1954 to 1965, which forced British troops to occupy territories in India. While Canadian troops increased so did trade and emigration of people from Canada to the Caribbean, but on a larger level the other way around. While Canadians began to radically develop ties with the Leeward Islands, Windward Islands and Jamaica, the territories with the largest Canadian influence were Bermuda and the Bahamas.

In Bermuda, the Indian War was noted for being the time when Canadian and American ships rapidly outgrew the British, in both military and trade. With the end of hostilities in 1965, the people of Bermuda expected the British to return to their territory in the Atlantic, but such a return was short lived, ending shortly after the beginning of the British Civil War in 1966. For three months the people of Bermuda were supported by the British military supplied to Bermuda. However this ended when Commonwealth (largely Australian and New Zealander, but also Traditionalist navy) forces landed on the island and took control of the garrison, who were recalled to serve in the front lines in England, Scotland and Wales. About a week after news of this reached the Legitimist Faction in the British Civil War, a cable was sent to the Canadian ambassador, who was leaving the city after its seizure by the Traditionalist faction and military, for his home in Montreal. The cable essentially gave Canada the right to control British territory in the West Indies and South America, until such a time when the Legitimist government could return its attention to certain colonies. Given the Legitimists stance on self determination of its former colonies, this was rather unusual but the British government didn't want Communists to take power in the colonies like it had in India. While the Canadians would end up restoring the promise of self determination to the West Indies, it came at a cost. While the Canadians, and to a lesser extent the United States, were responsible for the establishment of the West Indian Federation, there were two main exceptions, Bermuda, and on a larger scale, the Bahamas.

While the Bahamas was a majority black nation, the system of government in the colony was in the hands of its white merchant class, including several millionaires like the man who was responsible for the Nassau convention of 1967, Roland Symonette, a son of a methodist preacher who gained his wealth initially during the running of liquor to the United States during Prohibition, but ended up a real estate and shipping magnate. With his wealth, and the support of the whites in the Bahamas, and some support from local blacks comfortable with the status quo, the Nassua convention garnered enough votes from representatives within the islands government to ask for annexation into the Dominion of Canada as one or several provinces. While this was accepted, it was aided by the United States, who wanted to create a bulwark and border state in case the Commonwealth, i.e. the Traditionalist military and their supporters launched an attack on the Western Hemisphere and attempted to restore the imperial power of the former British Empire. In 1975, when Canada declared war on the Soviet Union, the USSR chose to not only support their allies in Colombia, but also in any revolutionaries in the West Indian Federation, and especially in increasingly hostile black citizens of the Bahamas. As the Second World War began, the fight within the Bahamas began to develop from a low level guerrilla insurgency, to a force that would cause trouble for the Canadians, as they attempted to hold the 3 provinces and territory of the Bahamas.

 

[Enigmajones]

The Red Tide

Following the independence of India in 1965, and the Communist coup within India a massive military buildup began. This was joined with a social plan to destroy the past caste system and establish an egalitarian communist state within the newly independent territories. There were also plans to destroy their greatest rival, Pakistan. When the Second World War reached South Asia, it began in the Punjab between defending Pakistanis and invading Indians in October 1975. The Indian military was still led by those heroic soldiers who had fought in what came to be called the National Liberation War, and the people still idolized them and despised both the British Imperialists and their capitalist pig dogs in Pakistan. This was a rather simplification of the relationship between Pakistan and the Commonwealth, since they had quit the Commonwealth shortly after the outbreak of the British Civil War, although they retained military ties to Australia, New Zealand and Malaya. Many in India distrusted the British Civil War in the beginning assuming it was a trick to lull the Indian people into a false sense of security before a second invasion to destroy all that had been built in India since the rebuilding had begun 10 years prior to the outbreak of war in 1975.

While the war with Pakistan was considered the top priority in the circles of power in Hyderabad, there was a secondary front for the Indians to claim, the war with the colonial power in Burma. Indian soldiers had been fighting in Burma since the beginning of the Revolt in the the 1950's, using Burmese territory to escape British reprisals, as Burma was an independent ally of the British and thus tasked with holding their own borders. While there were Commonwealth bases in Burma, these were largely on the coast as stopovers on long trips from Singapore to India. Thus it was up to the Burmese to pursue their own war, what came to be called the Bush War by the Burmese government and the Rangoon press. When India achieved its independence from the British, Burma was quick to deny recognition to the government of India unless they denied the Communists the right to share power. This was not to be, and following the culling of the Nehruists, many of his ilk fled to Burma, and established themselves as an Indian community within Burma, that was largely in favor of the government that offered them sanctuary. By the outbreak of the Second World War, the Bush War had been going on for almost three decades, and the siege state was in full effect. Thanks to the ability of the Indians to supply nationalists throughout the interior with support, by 1975 the Burmese government held a small amount of territory in the south, centered around Rangoon and its environs. With the Pakistanis turning into a quagmire, the Indian government believed it needed a secondary front, so that they could gain glory so the people would be pleased. Whether or not this made much sense hardly matters, as the Indians declared a war on capitalism and imperialism, and in the early days of 1976, 50,000 Indian soldiers crossed the Burmese border and began to make assaults at the Burmese and declaring a collaborationist state known as the Peoples Republic of Burma.

With the outbreak of the war in Asia, the Soviet Union, who had once been favored in New Delhi, were seen as collaborators for allying with Nazis as opposed to spreading the global revolution. Another very small contingent of Indian troops would serve in the European Front, largely in Albania with Greeks and Turkish troops. The Soviets were largely present in Albania to remain in command. In fact its well known that the majority of the officers commanding Greek and Turkish troops during the Albanian Front were Soviet, or Soviet trained, which was the case with several well known Greek and Turkish leaders who became well known in the Eurasian Union post war. The Soviets were fighting in China to defend their puppet and their control over Taiwan and military bases in Vietnam. The UPSRC had launched an all out offensive against the Soviet backed Peoples Republic of China. Soon after the launch of the attack, the so called Drive to the Sea began, which ended with capture of the northeastern seaboard of China, and a quickly dissolving front in Manchuria, with desertion in the Communist military forces higher than in any other during the Second World War. The Soviets also faced several large revolutionary forces within its own territory, especially the Caucuses, which had a large number of Soviet troops, ones who would join with the Eurasian Union once the Soviet government fell. Before getting to that point was a long war of attrition against the Soviet state, backed largely by Chinese and Romanian funding, two nations who wished to see the downfall of Russia. Although the Soviets were able to keep most control of major cities during this time of civil unrest, some fell to support for anarchists, nationalists, centrists and the like, but in Soviet Central Asia, Southern Russia and Ukraine, as well as in the Baltic military districts of Latvia and Estonia, the revolutionary groups began to win more and more of the country until the Soviets were forced to withdraw their forces from the Albanian front, and thus was forced to turn over command to the Greeks and Turkey in the beginning of 1978, to deal with the loss of their allies in China, a Japanese seizure of Taiwan, backed by the Americans, the loss of several large cities in the Russian countryside and riots in the major cities, the Soviet Union seemed ready to burst from its seams. Then the breaking point came, when in May 3rd of 1978, before the launch of the Romanian invasion of the Soviet Union, a nuclear weapon was dropped on the city of Odessa, and the beginning of the end had come for the Soviet Union.[/QUOTE]

 

[Enigmajones]

The White Community in Africa

To discuss African history would be to broad a scope for this work and as a result, will discuss only the relation between the White colonials and their native counterparts. In 1975, at the start of the Second World War, there were only 8 "native" states. The Republic of the Soudan was the largest of the myriad West African states who had been granted independence in the late 1960's, after the end of the Indian War. Although the largest of the states in West Africa (which included Senegambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ghana and the Ivory Coast) Soudan was a country deemed by Europeans as a anarchy in action with warlords being common in most of the West African states. These West African states had little colonization and thus were allowed to drift to independence. However the British, or at least the Commonwealth was adamant that its colonial territories would not be infringed on. The West African Protectorate, the name that the Australian led Commonwealth used in reference to what in OTL would be known as Nigeria and Niger, was the largest of these colonies, but included Tanganyika and East Africa as well. Out of all of these territories, the settlement of whites was rare in these colonies, where the largest white population in 1975 resided in East Africa, where they had grown to be about 90,000 strong. This was minuscule in comparison to other nations attempts at colonization but alas the White race would prove their worth across the continent.

In all of Africa there were also other colonial states. By 1975 Mozambique, Angola and Guinea were all under Portuguese control, but fading fast. While colonials had embarked to Angola and Mozambique since the 1930's, it had increased during the 1960's as jobs grew scarce at home. There was also an attempt to create a white colonial population. In 1975, there were 300,000 whites in Mozambique, while the numbers in Angola are less solid. Either way before their independence in 1978, the whites lived in the lap of luxury with the soon to be destroyed city of Laurenco Marques, now known as Maputo. When the war started in 1977, the South Africans made their plan well known. The whites who had entered Mozambique and Angola, would relocate to South Africa to shore up the largest white controlled territory on the continent. To join the Afrikaners and the Anglo South Africans would take time, but for the immediate future South Africa promised the evacuation of those citizens to new homes in the South African heartland. South Africa also experienced a trickle of immigrants following the opening of hostilities in Europe. These were mostly from nations that other nations had ruled out, mainly Albanian and Greek, both of whom were under the control of Communist forces. (By 1978 most of Albania was under Greco-Turkish occupation and would eventually become the basics for the creation of the Eurasian Union, but thats. able for another day.

By and large the largest white community in Africa besides the South Africans were undoubtedly the Italians. Although they had come late to the colonial game when they seized Libya in the 1910's but by 1975, the Italians controlled a swath of territory stretching from Tripolitania and Benghasi in the north to Camerun in the south, along with T'Chad and Oubangi-Chari in the middle. They had gained most of these territories following their entrance in the Franco-British War and had been steadily investing in their colonial power. The main concentration of Italian colonization by the start of the Second World War was concentrated in coastal Libya. Due to their racial policy in Tripolitania and Benghasi large portions of Muslim Libyans were deported en masse to refugee camps in the sparse and dry Fezzan. Although these camps came to be the size of cities, they were cities of cloth and blood with little in the way of support from the Italian government. After gaining the territories from France, Mussolini had described the initiative to create a Tripoli to Douala railroad. This was completed in the early 1970's being complete two years before the war began in Europe. However the line would often be cut by Mujahideen often and as a result the convoys of troops were forced to use the African Imperial Highway 1, finished in 1957, which linked the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. The Italians also expended efforts to colonize other parts of their African territory. The second largest community of Italians in Africa was clearly in Camerun, including a population of Asmaran Italians who had been kicked out of Eritrea when that territory was repatriated to Ethiopia in the 1930's. Douala was affectionately known as Piccola Roma to its Italian inhabitants, the city never had more than 5 % of its population as speaking Italian as a first language. There were close to 70,000 Italians in Camerun as a total, excluding the 30,000 in Douala. Douala, as a major port was given command of the coastal region of what was called East Camerun, while the vast interior was considered East Camerun and thus had separate governance. (These terms are the American names. ) The people Algeria have been discussed prior to this and will not be covered.

 

[Enigmajones]

The Fall of the USSR

Although it is often assumed that the Great Revolts were the cause of the fall of the USSR, however these historians often ignore the glaring truth, the Soviet government was able to fight the various rebel forces within their territory while still maintaining control of their territory and their allies. The true cause of this nations defeat is the Franco-German invasion that struck against the USSR in spring of 1978, several weeks after the Romanian attack on Ukraine and the decimation of the Soviet port and metropolis of Odessa. With Odessa destroyed, most of trade in the Black Sea not heading to Soviet positions in Greece and Turkey, were centered on Crimea, while the majority of the navy was active in the Mediterranean in their trade wars against both the Middle Eastern Bloc (Syria, Palestine, Egypt) and the Rome Pact, leaving the naval docks of Crimea largely denuded. Even so, with their allies in Greece and Turkey (as well as Kurdistan, but that is rather backward nation with little value other than shoring up the border with Iran) being led by Soviet officers, the largest concentration of Soviet troops in Europe (slightly less troops than those that fought in Manchuria against the USPRC) was in Albania. With most of the country occupied in the early days of 1978, by Soviet, Greek and Turkish troops, there was also a collaborationist movement lead by Gazmir Fejzullahu, a man who had served as the chief of police of Tirana before the war, who established a communist state while purging the nationalist elements that had supported the government that had joined with Italy. With most Albania under control of the communists, there was a resistance, centered largely in unoccupied Kosovo and in an administratively sense, in the city of Shkoder on the border with Yugoslavia.

The importance of the troops in Albania was that when the Germans and the French, who had up until the invasion been allies with the USSR, surged across the border, they found the best trained soldiers either in the Far East along the Sino-Mongolian border, or in Albania fighting the Rome Pact. There was a large portion of troops in the USSR, but the vast majority were stationed in the Caucuses to sure up the border with their allies in Turkey and with the western influenced Iran to their south and along the border with the Azeri SSR. There were troops in the heartland of the Rodina, such as in Leningrad and Moscow, but not nearly enough to fight the French and German invasion. Although eastern expansion had been a major theme in not only early Nazis, but as well with German nationalists, who believed that the east of Europe, up until the Urals would become the imperial domain of the German people, or Volk, and that the subhuman Slavs would serve as perpetual human slaves to ensure that the German state never loses its racial purity. As Nazism had grown quite a bit since its starts in the the 1920's, its message had often become muddied over time. For instance, the Eastern question of the NSDAP and those of the NSE are radically different. While both hold that Communism is an evil of the people, the modern National Socialists of Germany and France didn't seek to establish an empire in the east. Both Holzknecht and Geroux had discussed that the true goal of the Eastern question was how to create a great national socialist Russian state to replace the Communist Soviet Union. With this great ally, possibly under a restored monarchy or a presidential republic, theories differ, the Germans would be assured that with Russia not spreading Communism, they would be safe to finish their conquest in Central Europe and the allow the French to not only take lands they saw as theirs, but redraw the borders of Western Europe to establish a French led alliance system in perpetual alliance with Germany.

As has been mentioned, the main focus of the German army was pacifying both the newly acquired territories of Austria and the Sudeten, and enforcing the defeat of any Rome Pact forces that stood in their path, with their main enemies being Imperial saboteurs in Austria fighting against the German occupier, and in creating an ally of the Bohemian Federation, the Germans puppet state in control of the agreed upon Czech lands. The French were focusing their troops on their so called Southern Plan, which had the ultimate goal of not only defeating Italy, but returning it to its past state of warring city states under what they saw as the potential German and French influence. They planned to gut the Rome Pact in both Berlin and Paris, with the French seeking to disassemble the remaining European colonies in Africa and the Italian supported Colon government in Algeria. With these plans already in motion, it is known that the idea of an invasion with German military circles was scoffed at. Truly Communism was an ill that needed to be destroyed, but the alliance of necessity that was the Konigsberg Accords, was working well. While the Soviets threw their troops into the meat grinder that was Albania, the Germans and French could keep their troops fresh should the United States move to interfere in the war. The French weren't as easy to scoff at the plan, and had already formed a series of battalions under the title of the LVFCB (Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchévisme or Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism). Although only formed in 1974, they had been formed by Adolphe Geroux with little public profile to ensure that any news the Soviets would receive, would be rumor and nothing that would shatter the alliance formed in Konigsberg. By 1978, this group of 200,000 were ready for conflict, and its officers awaited final word from the government to gain marching orders. The fact that it happened in spring was not serendipitous, it took until the first month of 1978 for Holzknecht to agree. Although there were many troops available, these troops would not be under the command of Erhard Wulle, who was leading the army in Austria, but instead under the scope of German General Gunther Wolf, a soldier who had fought with bravery on the Eastern Front in the First World War and was eager to bring vengeance against those who had slain his brothers. While these German troops were rerouted from Austria and Bohemia, they were joined by the vastly larger French force, which was aided by an attachment of French armor that accompanied the LVFCB, that joined with the German armor to mass on the border shared between not only Poland, but also Lithuania. As such both of those nations militaries were called to fight as well. Poles, being caught in a violent quagmire of political ramification within their territory, and under constant German supervision, were often kept away from the front in Russia, though several Polish regiments served with pride during their time. The Lithuanians, who had faced a lower scale revolt were not given such breaks and as a result many Lithuanians would die in the ensuing conflict.

To say that the war was solely fought between the Franco-Germans and the Soviets, it also aided the already fervent rebellions in the Ukraine and southern Russia. It was also aided by the rise of a angered student populace who dreaded the idea of serving in a pointless war. This occurred in the Caucuses largely in the Azeri, Georgian and Armenian communities. As a result the forces stationed in that region were forced to attempt to quell the fires of revolt. Also as a result of this, they were unable to march north to aid their allies. In the initial Franco-German assault they faced little resistance in the Baltic States and resulted in the establishment of German friendly governments in Estonia and Latvia. Both states had been under Soviet occupation since the end of the First World War and their independence was met with rabid support from the oppressed peoples of those two states. The greatest military victory came shortly before the onset of summer, two months into the invasion, when a Franco-German force laid siege to Leningrad. Although the battle was harsh the Franco-Germans that took the city would gain international scorn for the destruction of historic buildings and the looting of that cities cultural wealth. The amount of Russians being killed assured that the French and Germans would be seen as an invading outsiders, not liberators as they saw themselves. Although a collaborationist Russian army was formed to assist the invaders and serve the Russian Government of National Salvation, the government established under an officer of the Red Army who had been captured in the fighting, Radovan Saitov, was appointed Head of State from the newly established capital, Minsk. Although this army and government would fight with the Franco-Germans until their retreat in late 1980, it would go on to become one of the main governments fighting in the Soviet Civil War. After Leningrad, the Soviets swore they wouldn't lose Moscow, and as the French and Germans approached the capital, it was the beginning of winter when the invaders reached the gates of Moscow. By the beginning of 1979, the capital of the USSR, Moscow had fallen and the French and Germans declared victory. With this victory they swore that time for their plans had come to fruition and that victory in Europe was at hand. Although the Soviets still retained a force, it was trapped thousands of miles from its heartland, and was as such, mostly useless. However there was one thing the Germans and the French hadn't thought, the looming American invasion of Europe. This would be a dire move, as they refused to realize that a great Armada was forming just across the British Channel.

 

[Enigmajones]

The Far East in the Second World War: 1975-1980

To discuss the Far East during the Second World War, it is important to know where it began. The Unitary Socialist Peoples Republic of China, under its leader Strasser Li had been preparing for war with its communist neighbor, the Peoples Republic of China. Following the defeat of Japan in the First World War Asia faced a redrawing. The Japanese weren't just a regional power, at the time of their invasion of Eastern Russia, they were a global player. With the fall of Japan, came the fall of the Beijing government. In the waning years of the war, China was gripped by a National Socialist purge of former "imperial lapdogs" and when the Soviets marched across the border in Manchuria, the local officials in Beijing saw a Soviet occupation as acceptable, compared to facing a war tribunal led by the Nazis. As a result, within several months of the surrender by Japan, the formation of a new Communist government was adopted by many leading politicians and generals, although those who saw it as a mean of natural advancement were upset that the new leadership was drawn from not only POWs who had turned in Siberia, but also by those communist Chinese who had fled to the USSR over the years. Zhou Enlai, a noted Soviet ally, was appointed as the first General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and thus became the nations sole leader. However in other parts of China a new movement had taken hold of the people, National Socialism.

While the the former collaborators with the Japanese turned to the Soviet teat, the people in Western China, formed small local governments, which invariably allied together to establish not only control over the areas not under Soviet occupation, but also in the areas under the Soviet thumb. As more and more people joined with the Nazi bands the movement became more solidified, and in the memory of the old alliance of between the GMC and the KMT, formed a new government which was originally titled the National Republic of China, and met in Guangzhou to hash out a national government to oppose the Soviet backed and occupied territory. In memory of his service in establishing the old National Socialist Republic's ideology, Otto Strasser, the former commander of the Nazi army during the Nordenmarsch and brother of the famed Gregor Strasser, was made a member of the ruling council that was to create the new government. Since Otto had relocated to China in the 1930's he had learned the local dialect in Gansu and had married a local woman during his time. He had five children, two boys and 3 girls. The eldest son, Strasser Ruan, took up National Socialism with a vigor and became well known in the movement during the years when the Beijing government held sway over all the land. As a commander he gained his troops loyalty, and saw his chance to support the new government as his fathers aide. However, the second son would be the one to go down in history as the leader of the USPRC, Strasser Li. While his elder brother was easy to make friends, Strasser Li was reserved. To his friends, ones interviewed before his rise to power at least, he was cold at the best of times and often quiet. However, as his father was forced, like so many others, to hide during the reign of the Zhang regime, and as his brother became a partisan, Strasser Li also joined the movement, gradually earning his place in the command, as the spy master for the National Socialists underground. When his father was brought into the government in Guangzhou, Li joined his older brother in aiding his father. However, do to his loyal service, Li was brought in to keep the secrets of the new government. As 1961 began, the new government was locked in gridlock between the National Socialists and the KMT and was looking to face the invasion of the Soviets. However, as Moscow had once been an ally of the Nazis in China, the movement seemed to expand their hold. In the summer of 1962, with the new Peoples Republic of China reforming their armed forces quickly, Strasser Li acted. Using men he had leverage over, and those who worked in the National Security Service,he organized a coup, with his brother Ruan taking command of the new army. The coup was also a purge of KMT revivalists and created a new government based in Guangzhou, one declared the Unitary Socialist Peoples Republic of China. Within a week, Strasser Li had organized all the components and was unanimously declared President of the USPRC.

Following the establishment of the USPRC, Strasser Li began the process of building a military that could one day unite the whole of China, as well as the creation of a new bureaucracy to administer the territories under their control. He also built on a secret police force similar in strength to that of Romania under Iancu Serban, though less extreme. Building on the basis of National Socialism was also important as the USPRC became a one party state, under the National Socialist Unified Front, essentially dominated by the National Socialist Party of China, but also allowing small parties to join in the government as well. As the years went by, the grip of Strasser Li increased and the relations with the Peoples Republic, and therefore the Soviet Union, growing colder by the year. The USPRC invaded Nepal in 1966, and afterwards established a puppet government in Kathmandu. This frightened the PRC and Zhou to a large degree but realized the USSR cared little for the British allied government. In January of 1976, ten years later, the USPRC enacted the protocol for unifying China, Operation Qin Shi Huang. The attack was swift, and with the USSR distracted by the war in Europe, the Chinese army under Strasser Ruan launched an assault and drive to Beijing. The PRC's military had largely been funded by the USSR, and there was around 100,000 Soviet troops in the PRC, to control the ports that tied them to the Taiwan Soviet Socialist Republic, a territory seized from the Japanese at the end of the first World War. They also held several military bases, scattered at certain points throughout the country. These bases would soon be overwhelmed, as the campaign in Manchuria became a joke. Although more troops were being sent, this was ended when the USPRC Air Corps, flying from bases in Ningxia, rained hell fire down the Trans-Siberian Railway, even going as far, once they had seized territory in Eastern China, to bomb Vladivostok, even though the USPRC had not declared war on the USSR. Strasser Li considered assaulting Taiwan, but seeked to one day annex the territory and didn't want bad blood when they eventually joined the revolution. It is also true that the USPRC lacked the naval force to take Taiwan, especially in the face of the USSR, which had expanded its Pacific Fleet following the lessons of the Siberian Campaign in the First World War.

As such, on the high seas, the PRC and USSR held all the cards. While the USPRC had a large army and air force, they possessed only two aircraft carriers, both of which were tethered in Hong Kong, a territory seized in 1967 from the British. This lasted only about three months however, as the USPRC bulldozed the opposition in Manchuria and Eastern China, and forced the PRC's navy to flee to Vladivostok, with the PRC government aboard, or as many as humanly possible. As such from 1977, the war in China was largely over, and while some troops were sent to support their allies in Manchuria, the vast majority of troops returned to Russia, abandoning their fortresses so they could battle the Franco-German invasion. While the majority of these troops would never battle the French and Germans, they would gradually become the core of the USSR government in exile, centered in Novosibirsk, that claimed control over the whole of the USSR, regardless of the realism of that claim. As such by 1980, when the war ended in the west, China signed a peace agreement, that recognized their demands, and established a united China under the USPRC, although their claim to Taiwan would never come to a satisfying conclusion in their favor, being recognized as a American allied Republic of Taiwan in 1979, after dealings between the Novosibirsk government and the United States.

Another nation involved would be Korea. Since the defeat of Japan, the semi independent Kingdom of Korea, seen by the public as a collaborationist movement, was overthrown by the people following a mass strike that group the country to a halt. Shortly afterwards, Soviet forces arrived in the north and began a long march to establish an ally in Korea. As a result the Workers Party of Korea, established in exile by Korean revolutionaries and intellectuals, accompanied the Soviet troops, leading Korean brigades trained by the Japanese, but now a part of the Soviet invaders, or liberators, depending on ones own opinion. As such, when the constitutional convention was convened in Incheon the WPK took full control of the government and established the Workers Republic of Korea. This frightened a large group of Koreans, in particular, those who resided in Japan. During the First World War, to have as many Japanese leading and joining the army, meant they needed people to do the menial work. As such many Chinese and Koreans were imported to serve in factories to provide the necessary shells and munitions, tanks and airplanes. When the war ended, and the Communists took power in Korea, many Koreans feared they would face reprisals from the public for serving the Japanese war machine. This also affected another major power, Japan.

Japan, after its defeat in the first World War, had drifted into isolation. Its defeat in Siberia had killed off so many Japanese men, that certain women of good repute would be forced to marry a Chinese or Korean man, as there were no single Japanese ones available. There was also a brain drain as Japan found itself forced to rebuild. The only colony retained by the Japanese were their holdings in Micronesia and the islands in the South China Sea, which were better off held by a third party, that party being Japan. By the start of the Second World War, the regime in Japan, had largely usurped the both the Emperor and the Diet, and was supported by their closest ally, the United States. When the United States entered the war in early 1979, Japan was brought into discussions to enter the war, but the USA saw no reason to open a second front in the war. As such the Japanese kept themselves in isolation. However, one force saw to erase this, a revolutionary group known as the Japanese Red Army. Formed in 1965 to combat the oppressive nature of the Militarist regime, they quickly gained a following that sought to reverse the ban on the Communist Party of Japan, which occurred following the Toranomon incident where a Communist assassinated the Crown Prince. This group would seek to combat the reversals in the nation and sought to bring a egalitarian state to the poor and unsteady Japan. As the war ended, the Japanese were combating a full guerrilla movement, with little support from their allies in the US and the Commonwealth.

 

[Enigmajones]

The Netherlands: Decolonization and National Socialism

The first party that could be considered Fascist in the Netherlands was the National Union, formed in 1925 by Carel Gerretson, a writer and right wing ideologue. While they were first they would not be the strongest. Out of all the revolutionary and reactionary groups to be formed, the NSB or the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands, took the branding of the strasserist NSDAP and modeled their positions after the Fascists in Rome, with the NSB having several prominent Jewish members. As such, they did not advocate for anti semitism or violent revolution. Under its founder and leader, Anton Mussert, the NSB became the largest nationalist party, although not the only revolutionary force. Also present was the National Socialist Dutch Workers Party. More of a carbon copy of the NSDAP, the NSNAP held even less influence than the mildly successful NSB and aspired to be join a future Greater Germany. When the German Civil War broke out Mussert denounced the outbreak of war and asserted his party would remain peaceful. As such when the war ended the NSB cut any ties they had with the banned NSDAP and spoke in favor of the government of Von Schleicher. This, accompanied with a visit with Benito Mussolini, gave the NSB some support. The party received a xenophobic support base when Jewish refugees entered the Netherlands. Although far less than those that fled to the United Kingdom, United States and Sweden, many in the Netherlands became outraged at a perceived Jewish invasion, and supported the NSB.

However, Mussert, who had no attachment to anti semitism, refused to take up the the National Socialist position on Jewish bolshevism and instead sought to represent Dutch ideals. As such, many members were to split with the NSB and move their support to the Black Front or ZF. The ZF would prove to take up National Socialism, even after the defeat of the Nazis in the Civil War, and by 1937 had a small but ardent following. The NSB had improved but many in the Netherlands found this distasteful and in the 1937 general election, the NSB finished with 4 seats. With the right fractured, the left wing Social Democratic Workers Party, or the SDAP was able to garner enough votes to form a majority government with several other left wing groups, including the Communist Party, or CPN. As a result there was.a nation wide crackdown on right wing groups, and as a result both the NSB and ZF were banned.

It was also during the 1930's that another political force made its presence clear. The Indo people, a group of mixed native blood and European began to make overtures to the Queen Wilhelmina to authorize the independence of the Dutch East Indies, under an Indo led government. Although formed during the Great War, a time when the Netherlands remained neutral, the Volksraad was only serving in an advisory role and when it was created it held 60 members. For the various indigenous people of the Dutch East Indies, 30 members were given. 25 for the Europeans and 5 for the Chinese, Arab and other foreign orientals. However by the 1930's, many Europeans feared that the indigenous people, many of whom supported independence, would slaughter their former masters when the war was over. So the Dutch government, decided to reform the Volksraad, offering 30 seats to the Indo people, 20 seats to the Europeans and 10 to the rest. This enflamed many, and support for the Dutch hit an all time low. However, the Indo people rejoiced and joined the Dutch elite in the East Indies. As the rest were kept away from power, the populace began to support a violent overthrow of the system. However, the rebels were divided. Many groups were formed often several to an island, and often with support within only one or two islands. As such, the Indo people and the Europeans were able to form a new government that kept the indigenous people away from power.

Although the Indonesian people were restive, the Dutch threw full support behind the Volksraad government and authorized the formation of a separate military branch just for the East Indies. Many of the indigenous would join the new army, which offered Guilders for their service and power over their enemies. One by one, Dutch soldiers arrived to train the new Dutch East Indian Army or NO-IL and combat the flood of weapons from Sarawak. As such on Borneo, in the 1940's, rebellions erupted over the territory controlled by the Dutch. Sukarno, the leader of the independence movement was taken by the government and executed in 1941. As such many Indonesian nationalists fled from the Dutch East Indies, particularly to Sarawak and Malaya. In both British Commonwealth nations, anti communism was the largest reason for supporting a Indo government in the East Indies. In Malaya, there was a large support for Communism, which would lead to violence in 1946, when communists erupted throughout Malaya. Many Indonesians decided to fight for the Malayans and helped squash the communists by 1947, a feat achieved with British support. It was this that began the commando brigades of the NO-IL, when the Malayans decided to back the Indonesians who wanted independence, causing a split in the Commonwealth between Malaya and Sarawak on the rebels side, and the Australians and New Zealanders who backed the Dutch colonial government and the authority of the Volksraad. So with this in mind, the commando units of the NO-IL began large scale attacks on nationalists from Borneo to Batavia. A Dutch military officer, Raymond Wetserling, assigned to serve in the NO-IL, became a vital member of the Indo government and although he supported remaining within the Dutch Empire, this was shot down and the United States of Indonesia (RIS) was established in the former Dutch East Indies, up to the border with Australian New Guinea.

The establishment of the RIS created a state that was a federal republic that recognized the sovereignty of its member states. When the nation was created there were several components, but the largest and most powerful was the Republic of Indonesia, which held control over most of Sumatra and Java. This federal component allowed the Indo people to establish control over the Republic of Indonesia, and exert dominance over the RIS as a whole. With the federal system in place Indonesia would remain an ally of the Netherlands for the immediate future never truly drifting from that position after the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the Southern Oceanic League.

In the remainder of the Dutch colonial empire there was some talk of independence, but a referendum in Suriname resulted in a sweeping support for remaining within the Dutch nation, and the government chose to retain its Caribbean territories. There was some talk of these islands joining the West Indian Federation, but this was not achieved, leading to an odd arrangement by which the Dutch held one side of Saint Martin, while the other was under the West Indian administration. This was considerable given that the British had taken all of the French islands in the Caribbean following the Franco-British War, and with the British Civil War most of the West Indies was united under the West Indian Federation. The Dutch presence would prove successful as the Dutch holdings were either a backwater, or in the fashion of Curacao feeling safe in the Dutch hold as a way of keeping the communist Colombia at bay to their southwest.

With its the Dutch Empire waning, support for the government began to wane. While the SDAP had held power for quite some time, the outbreak of the First World War broke this stranglehold on the political scene. As Heydrich and Germany flexed its military muscle, and the seething Danish-Norwegian enmity erupted in a flurry of naval battles right to the north of the Netherlands, it was at this time that the NSB resurfaced as a popular movement. The NSB, whose leader Anton Mussert had died shortly after the start of the First World War, found themselves with a power vacuum resulting in the rise to power of Tjapko van Bergen, as a compromise between the two present factions (those who followed Strasserism and those who followed Fascism).

Bergen, who had formerly been a Dutch Olympian rower, was also a firm anti-semite and declared that the current war was the result of an international Jewish conspiracy that had formerly backed the USSR and sought to bring down the Dutch nation from within, as well as without. As the war became more and more bloody, scared citizens flocked to the NSB and began to agitate for a new government to take power. Under Bergen the party turned from Fascist thought, to Strasserist thought. In 1958, with the war still in full swing a new government was formed after a general election. Though the NSB did not take power, it became the largest party of the opposition. When the war ended in 1960, the Netherlands was facing increasing Jewish immigration, and with these new refugees came more vocal anti-semitism and with the rise of the NSE in Germany, the NSB was growing in popularity.

In the 1965 election, the NSB took power with Tjapko van Bergen becoming the Leider van de NSB and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, with France and Germany turning to Nazism the world came to ignore goings on in the Netherlands. In 1970, the NSB suspended election indefinitely and partook in a vicious series of pogroms against Jewish citizens. Soon they would arrive in many a different nation and tell the tales of their survival. When the Second World War erupted, there was a suspension of democracy, and though the Netherlands did not enter the war, their support was clear.