Valona, January 11th, 1946
Ten thousand rifles and 68 artillery pieces begun getting unloaded from the Greek merchant ships. The rifles, had start life as Ottoman Mausers in another world before getting captured by the Greeks during the 1st Balkan war and the Asia Minor war. The artillery consisted of equally ancient Schneider and Krupp 75mm guns and a handful of Schneider 105mm heavy guns. But if obsolescent, the Greeks had replaced them as soon as American and British aid had start flowing in, they still worked. If Greek military aid affected Hoxha it didn't show as the same day he proclaimed the Albania People's Republic from Tirana.
Tokyo, January 19th, 1946
The trials of Japanese war criminals begun.
Paris, January 20th, 1946
Despite the advice of Georges Mandel Charles De Gaulle resigned from his position as premier.
Vietnam, January 26th, 1946
The first battle between the French army and Vietnamese rebels took place. From Saigon, former emperor
Duy Tan, now back to Vietnam after decades of exile, would vocally criticize the French actions. Undeterred two weeks later the French would attack the Vietminh om Ben Tre province.
Moscow, February 9th, 1946
Josef Stalin gave a public speech over the radio declaring that a new war was inevitable due to the capitalist development of the world economy, and the Soviet Union would need to concentrate its efforts on national defense...
Off Palestine, February 16th, 1946
That the ship was flying the Greek flag hardly deterred the British coast guard from intercepting it. The nearly one thousand Jewish refugees aboard would end up in interment camps, outside Palestine. Palmach would retaliate three days later by burning down a cost guard station. But the British continued to try to stop Jewish immigration to Palestine, just as Jews tried to slip through the blockade...
Constantinople, February 20th, 1946
Maximos, metropolitan of Chalkedon became the new patriarch of Constantinople ending the wartime vacancy of the ecumenical see nearly five years since the exexution of Chrysanthos II.
Argentina, February 24th, 1946
Juan Peron won handily the presidential election. Vocal American support for the opposition had backfired with many voters preferring Peron in reaction. Peron's Argentina would soon become the destination for Europeans with reasons not to want to remain back in Europe if they did not want to find themselves permanently without a job, in prison, or in front of a firing squad. The Argentine government would actively recruit people ranging from Edward Dewoitine and Kurt Tank to Adolf Eichman...
Shkumbin river, Albania, March 3rd, 1946
Over twenty-five thousand nationalist soldiers attacked over the river in an attempt to take Elbasan. The LNC defenders actually were numerically superior but were rather more deficient in heavy weapons and artillery...
Over Belgrade, March 7th, 1946
A pair of Petlyakov Pe-2s went down. Moments later the JKRV Spitfire that had shot down them would go down in turn shot down by the JRV Yak-9s that were escorting the bombers. The JKRV had start the war with 214 modern aircraft and five years of war experience. JRV, its communist counterpart, had begun with slightly more, the Soviets had delivered 235 aircraft to it during the end of the war. But now Stalin had promised Tito a staggering 653 aircraft, Il-2, Pe-2 and Yak-1/3/9s, by the end of the year. The nationalists were not as lucky so far. America was aloof considering the civil war in Yugoslavia a British affair. And Britain so far was rather more stingent with its aid. 71 Spitfires were being delivered it was true...
Shkumbin river, Albania, March 19th, 1946
Spiro Moishu ordered a halt to the nationalist offensive. Despite heavy casualties on both sides his troops had failed to caprure Elbasan. His troops would dug in on their side of the river waiting for a better time...
Drina river, April 6th , 1946
The second battle of the Drina begun. The nationalists were well dug in and still had nearly five hudrend tanks available. But by now the Soviets had deliverd Tito, heavy artillery and 206 tanks among other equipment. The British had promised the nationalists 52 tanks but these had not been delivered yet. The only arms reaching Serbia had been what weapons the Greeks could spare...
Chicago, April 7th, 1946
The crowd, many of them Italian-Americans, rose in applause as Winston Churchill proclaimed in the presence of president Truman that "From
Stettin in the
Baltic to Fiume in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent."
Paris, April 17th, 1946
Somehow Marcel Bloch had survived for a year his release from Buchenwald. But the damage to his heath had proven too much...
Syria, April 17th, 1946
The country became officially independent. French and British troops had already left it over the previous weeks. But these had not happened before the French this time working together with the British had intervened to stop the Syrian and Kurdish attacks against the Assyrians and had moved them to Lebanon, their numbers swelled with twenty thousand more Assyrians from the Kurdish controlled Jazira province, where hopefully the Assyrians would be spared further attacks till their final fate could be arranged. Meanwhile Lebanon had proclaimed it own independence, to its north the Alawites had proclaimed their independence as well but the Sunnis had in turn proclaimed union with Syria. And of course Syrian Kurdistan was de facto already part of the Kurdish state but Damascus had not yet officially recognized this. And while the French might have left, they had made certain their former clients were well armed. It would prove a wise precaution...
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