Sundowner: A History Of The Cold War

[Hudson Platt]

The Final Push - November 1, 1945

“Quite fitting to the time of Halloween, the invasion of the Japanese homeland officially began this week. 630,000 US military personnel are operating on or near the tropical beaches of Kyushu, fighting in conditions absolutely never seen in the Pacific Theater. After days of intense combat the enemy was on the run and the beachhead was secure. Military commanders have assured the public that the invasion will be swift in one final push to bring the Japanese to unconditional surrender.”
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This is my first TL, so please be gentle with me!! (Joking, criticize me to hell and gone if you want)

The POD is the US doesn't start working on an Atomic Bomb until 1945, same as the Ruskies! Also, Japan doesn't surrender even despite the Soviet occupation of Manchuria and US invasion threat. The first bit will be about Japan, but I wont go much into the actual invasion. Wish me luck!

 

[Hudson Platt]

1945-1946 - Operation Paperclip. Numerous German scientists associated with the A-4 program, including Werner Von Braun, are relocated to the United States.

June 30, 1946 - After seven years, with almost one entirely in Japan, World War Two is over. On June 30, 1946, Soviet and American forces meet in Tokyo. They find the Emperor dead, with a sword through his stomach. Tojo's body lies in his office, dead by pistol suicide.

September 2, 1946 - What is left of the Japanese government surrenders unconditionally as America counts the cost of Operation Downfall. Sixty-six thousand American lives are lost and the myth of American invincibility is shattered. In addition, the Soviet Union occupies Hokkaido and Northern Honshu, establishing the Japanese Peoples Republic. All of Korea is also put under a communist government. The Americans set up their own Allied state called the Constitutional Monarchy of Japan. The border for the divided Japan is the Agano River.

September 8, 1946 - Japan signs official surrender documents aboard the carrier USS Midway in Tokyo Bay.

USN Battleship USS Missouri Under Attack By Kamikaze Aircraft On X+4. Seconds After This Picture Was Photographed, The Ship Also Took Several Torpedoes From A Lurking Japanese Mini-Sub. This, Coupled With Damage Sustained By Shinyo Suicide Boats On X+2, Proved Too Much For The Iowa-Class BB, Which Was Evacuated And Scuttled Around Midnight.
​

Throughout 1947 - Ground launches of captured Agrette Fours, as well as US reverse engineered "Bumper Rocket" are conducted in both the US and SU.

June 5, 1947 - Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan.

 

[Hudson Platt]

October 1, 1947 - First flight of the F-86 Sabre. This aircraft will become the main US combatant in MiG Alley.

October 3, 1947 - In a speech, Stalin announces that construction on the Palace of the Soviets, which was halted due to the 1941 German invasion, will resume, with an estimated time of completion of mid-1955.

December 16, 1947: First flight of the MiG-15. This will become the main North Japanese (cough cough Soviet cough) combatant in MiG Alley.

February, 1948 - Honoring their agreement with the Soviets, US forces withdraw from South Japan. The Soviets had already withdrawn their forces from the JPR in January.

Long Live The Japanese Peoples republic!!!​

 

[Hudson Platt]

April 9, 1948 - [Earlier cuz nukes don't exist yet] Tens of thousands of North Japanese soldiers with Russian T-34/85 and T-54 armor in support swarm across the Agano River, cutting large swaths through the inexperienced and under-equipped troops of the Constitutional Guard. Truman declares that America will not allow another Poland and asks the UN to commit troops to halt the communist advances.

April 16, 1948 - North Japanese begin entering the northern suburbs of Tokyo. By the next night, they have several divisions near contact.

April 17, 1948 - The Second Battle of Tokyo begins when JPR troops launch an all out assault toward the city center. Well dug in American units inflict triple and in some cases quadruple losses on the enemy, but are steadily pushed back.

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April 20, 1948: Attempts by lightly escorted Superforts to raid the hydroelectric industries of the JPR are met with crippling losses at the appearance of the MiG-15. The USAF soon begins conducting fighter sweeps with the F-80 and F-86, starting the MiG Alley air duels.

April 30, 1948 - US attack aircraft, such as F4U Corsairs, begin striking JPR tanks and troops columns with rockets and jellied gasoline, now only a few blocks from the Government Districts.

May 4, 1948 - The forces of X-Corps, under Five Star General Douglas MacArthur, stage an amphibious assault at Iwaki. The limited North Japanese forces in the area are caught by surprise and quickly pushed back.

May 5, 1948 - Recently reinforced US units in Tokyo launch a massive counterattack against the overextended and exhausted JPR forces. By dawn the next day, only sporadic and isolated pockets of resistance continue in greater Tokyo, with thousands of Marines pushing up toward Iwaki to link up with X-Corps.

May 13, 1948 - Russian fighter pilot Yevgeni Yeremin shoots down his twentieth US jet, making him the most successful Soviet leading ace since World War II.

MiG-15 Fagots Curving In To Attack A USAF B-29, 1948.​

 

[Fries]

Bit of a confusing timeline after the PoD.

Japan didn't surrender because of the nuclear bombs - they surrendered because the Soviets invaded.

May I recommend that instead of the lack of a working nuclear bomb (which would obviously still be a PoD, seeing as it seems to be important), the Japanese simply don't surrender?

Good TL, anyway. Watched.

Edit: nvm, i'm pissed. japanese dont surrender on the missouri, the ship my grandfather was born on and the ship my great-grandfather was the composer for the US navy band. 0/10, terrible timeline /sarcasm

 

[jonathan hanson]

1945-1946 - Operation Paperclip. Numerous German scientists associated with the A-4 program, including Werner Von Braun, are relocated to the United States.

June 30, 1946 - After seven years, with almost one entirely in Japan, World War Two is over. On June 30, 1946, Soviet and American forces meet in Tokyo. They find the Emperor dead, with a sword through his stomach. Tojo's body lies in his office, dead by pistol suicide.

September 2, 1946 - What is left of the Japanese government surrenders unconditionally as America counts the cost of Operation Downfall. Sixty-six thousand American lives are lost and the myth of American invincibility is shattered. In addition, the Soviet Union occupies Hokkaido and Northern Honshu, establishing the Japanese Peoples Republic. All of Korea is also put under a communist government. The Americans set up their own Allied state called the Constitutional Monarchy of Japan. The border for the divided Japan is the Agano River.

September 8, 1946 - Japan signs official surrender documents aboard the carrier USS Midway in Tokyo Bay.

View attachment 498178
USN Battleship USS Missouri Under Attack By Kamikaze Aircraft On X+4. Seconds After This Picture Was Photographed, The Ship Also Took Several Torpedoes From A Lurking Japanese Mini-Sub. This, Coupled With Damage Sustained By Shinyo Suicide Boats On X+2, Proved Too Much For The Iowa-Class BB, Which Was Evacuated And Scuttled Around Midnight.
​

Throughout 1947 - Ground launches of captured Agrette Fours, as well as US reverse engineered "Bumper Rocket" are conducted in both the US and SU.

June 5, 1947 - Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan.

That is a Yamato class battleship sir

 

[Hudson Platt]

May 25, 1948 - Kyuichi Tokuda is killed by artillery fire while attempting to flee Sendai.

May 27, 1948 - Sendai falls. The capitol of the JPR is moved to Sapporo.

May 29, 1948 - US Sabre ace Joseph McConnell downs his fifteenth MiG, making him Americas most successful peacetime combat pilot.

June 7, 1948 - The Battle of Aomori begins as UN forces attempt to force the last JPR forces off the island of Honshu.

US Combat Transports At Imabetsu. Many Military Historians Consider The Amphibious Assault That Destroyed Any Hope Of JPR Forces Escaping To Hokkaido To Be The Definitive Point Of The First Japanese War.

B-29s Over Sapporo During The Closing Stages Of Operation Goldfish.​

 

[Hudson Platt]

That is a Yamato class battleship sir

Better?

i'm pissed. japanese dont surrender on the missouri, the ship my grandfather was born on and the ship my great-grandfather was the composer for the US navy band. 0/10, terrible timeline /sarcasm

I CAN change that, if you want me to. Sorry for any inconvenience.

 

[Hudson Platt]

June 14, 1948 - The last JPR forces on Honshu surrender in the town of Akita.

June 19, 1948 - North Japanese Pe-2 bombers escorted by MiG-9 Fargos raid South Japanese and occupied/liberated North Japanese cities, but hundreds are shot down by US air defense fighters. Many US pilots call it "The Second Turkey Shoot." Only in the city of Nagano is serious damage done, with several bombs and strafing runs striking a UN convoy moving through the city, killing almost three hundred US soldiers.

Downed Pe-2 Outside Yokohama.

One Of The Victims Of The Nagano Convoy Massacre. Despite US Losses, The Air Battles Over Honshu Seriously Depleted North Japanese Air Strength At The Time It Was Needed The Most To Defend Against The Inevitable US Landings On Hokkaido.​

 

[Hudson Platt]

June 22 - June 30, 1948 - In a massive naval invasion, second only to Overlord and Downfall, the US invades and occupies the entirety of Hokkaido over a nine day period. Resistance is fairly minimal, as hundreds of North Japanese soldiers recognize which way the wind is blowing and either surrender or drop their weapons and flee. However, there is soon nowhere to flee to as Sapporo and all of Hokkaido fall under US occupation. South Japan has won the Japanese War.

July 4, 1948 - Biggest Fourth of July celebrations in recent history, as the very first Cold War showdown has ended in victory for the forces of freedom.

July 6, 1948 - An added bonus for victory in North Japan is the capture of an intact MiG-15 at an airfield outside Sapporo. It is transferred to Wright-Patterson AFB for evaluation.

September 3, 1948 - The first tests of the R-1/SS-1 Scunner tactical ballistic missile are largely successful, with two of the test vehicles reaching suborbital space. Intrigued, Stalin allocates more funding to OKB-1 and orders them to have the R-2 theater ballistic missile ready to be accepted into service by mid-1949. He also begins expressing interest in the designs for the R-3 IRBM. The lift-off mass for the R-3 will be 71.72 metric tons, with a burnout mass of 8480 kg.

R-3 Vorona.

US Soldiers In Hokkaido Read About The End Of The Japanese War In An American Victory.​

 

[Hudson Platt]

Soviet Cosmonaut Yevgeni Yeremin[1] On His Fourth And Final Orbit Of The Earth On October 5, 1958.

"The Stratojet Incident" May 6, 1959.
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[1] A Fictional Character.

 

[Hudson Platt]

September 11, 1948 - The USN destroyer USS Gearing is torpedoed by the Soviet sub S-24 while it was conducting a routine patrol in the North Sea, for no apparent purpose. An hour and a half later, the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea joins it on the seabed, having been on the receiving end of four torpedoes from a Soviet S-Class submarine 93 kilometers northwest of Pearl Harbor. Over 900 US sailors and enlisted men are killed in the two attacks.

September 12, 1948 - The US drops the first ever A-Bomb on a large Soviet military base near Vladivostok, killing thousands. The Soviet Union retreats, and the Nuclear Age begins.

September 13, 1948 - Upon hearing of the news of the "demonstration" of US nuclear capability, Stalin has a heart attack and is incapacitated. Within minutes of this event, President Truman goes on the air in one of the first major events to be televised. He declares that the US has been working on atomic weapons since 1943, and now has only 200 nuclear bombs ready for battlefield use. It is not until 1993 that this is revealed to be the biggest bluff in history; the US had only been working on atomics since 1945, and used their only bomb on Vladivostok! However, the bluff pays off when no further Soviet provocations take place.

September 14, 1948 - The Soviet Union begins a crash program of nuclear weapons development.

USS Coral Sea (CV-43) On Fire And Listing To Port Following An Unprovoked Attack By Soviet Submarines.

The Mushroom Cloud Produced By "Silver Scepter" As seen From Vladivostok's Western Outskirts.​

 

[Svyatoy Medved]

God Damn. That's really quite a message.

This Cold War is going to be brutal. The Soviets are going to be smarting over that hit for a long time. It makes them look weak, so they're going to be compensating for that by being mean motherfuckers for the next fifty years.

 

[Hudson Platt]

Thanks for the feedback and likes people, it really means a lot.

To clear up any confusion, the soviets sunk USN ships because they wanted to show that they weren't pushovers, as some took them to be after they "let" North japan die.

 

[RMcD94]

What changed which means that the mass soviet spies in the atomic program and USA don't report that it was their only bomb?

 

[Hudson Platt]

What changed which means that the mass soviet spies in the atomic program and USA don't report that it was their only bomb?

The Soviets had no idea atomic weapons were possible until they got smacked in the face with one, so they never sent spies into the US nuclear program.

 

[RMcD94]

The Soviets had no idea atomic weapons were possible until they got smacked in the face with one, so they never sent spies into the US nuclear program.

That was the case in otl but Soviets still had spies about Manhattan. Even sending no one, people recruited already wanted to help Soviets or defected later

 

[Fries]

I CAN change that, if you want me to. Sorry for any inconvenience.

twas a joke, haha

 

[Hudson Platt]

October 6, 1948 - Joseph Stalin dies in his sleep because of complications sustained by his recent heart attack. After a brief power struggle (during which Lavrentiy Beria mysteriously disappears) Vyacheslav Molotov comes out on top. He immediately announces a Red Army troop reduction of two million troops, sparking hopes that he may not be as radical as his predecessor. In private however, he orders work on the atomic bomb project to be sped up considerably. He draws funds from all other branches of the military, except the rocketry program, which also receives additional funding.

October 31, 1948 - Canada conducts its first nuclear test "Operation Iceshot" in an undisclosed location on Baffin Island.

November 20, 1948 - Operation Hurricane; Britain tests a nuke in the North Sea. It is revealed that both Britain and Canada worked closely with the US on the Baltimore Project and, in exchange for Canadian uranium and British technical expertise, both requested to build atomic weapons of their own. The US acquiesced, reasoning that allies with nukes (UK, Canada) are better than enemies with nukes. (Soviet Union)

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December 24, 1948 - First test of the R-2 Galaktika, months ahead of schedule thanks to recent monetary support. It achieves an altitude of 1,100 kilometers at a speed of 7 km/s, and a range of 5,300 km from Kapustin Yar. Korolev is ordered by Molotov to ballast the (empty) warhead with gravel to prevent an accidental satellite launch. Apparently, Molotov wants to keep the Soviet advantage in rocketry secret. However, Korolev does obtain permission to launch a "small orbital scientific payload" on the R-3 when it enters testing readiness in early 1950.

R-2 Flight-A.
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[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

Wait why would the US delay the atomic bomb program? There's no way they'd pass on something like that.