So I'm part way though binge-reading this TL, but I noticed something: There is a "part two of the butterflies" and a "part four of the butterflies" but there was no part three. You also mentioned making a buttergly post for Africa and Asia, but it doesn't seem to be there. Did something get deleted by accident?
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
- Thread starter Walter Rodney Kinghorn
- Start date
First off, thanks for reading this TL. Second, thanks for noticing, I just read that.
With the post-Second Long Recession posts (the stuff detailing every nation's response), I ended up mentioning the African colonies within the respective responses for the European countries. So nations like Spain and Portugal pushed for assisted migration to increase the colonial white populations and nations like Britain and France emphasised military buildup as Germany saw a takeover by the German Workers' Party. As for places like Asia, I included them in future posts for the "Nth Crack in the Dam" arc of posts before the Second World War.
The "Part Two" and "Part Four" titles are a bit misleading, but it reminded me a lot like Douglas Adams' Mostly Harmless where it stated on the cover "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers Trilogy". But apart from that, I had my head spinning over how many places I had to cover and I tossed up either writing it down or including it in future posts by alluding to certain things occurring. I chose that latter, first thinking it was a cop out then realising I could work around it. I wanted to walk that fine line between ATL detail and then getting bogged down in minuscule details.
I hope I didn't spoil anything for you, the last thing I needed was to do that. But I want you to know that you're great for pointing that out. It was just that I wanted to allude to certain things instead of simply showing you everything that happened in every place from 1929 to 1940.
All comments and thoughts are welcome.
1944: The Opening Of The Mouth Of Hell
We have seen the great danger of these weapons. We have seen their great power. We have seen their great danger and we have to see out the only possible solution. We must enact the Morgenthau-Ussher Program once the treaty is signed.
- Clarence Ussher, 1st President of the Morgenthau Institute Against Racecide, speaking to journalists in Cairo on the 27th April 1948.
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On the 14th March 1944, Operation Colonel Blood would reach its climax. A total of 5,000 Norwegian, Swedish, Irish and British soldiers would be launched from planes, to destroy the Vemork research facility and to disrupt the Pact of Steel's control over Norway. Every man knew that the plan would be a suicide mission, but it was better than the rumour of a "atomic bomb" or whatever it was supposed to be called. At the early hours, the 5000 men were launched from the planes, under fire from German planes and sighted by local Pact of Steel soldiers. At the same time, American and British planes dropped weapons in areas that had Norwegian resistance fighters, going as far as landing 30,000 (mostly Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic and Swedish) soldiers in Haugesund and Bergen on the 15th and 16th March 1944. Christopher Lee was one of the men who landed with those soldiers, charging forward to overwhelm the local defenders once again. Armed with grenades, the soldiers destroyed several machines as well as killed engineers and scientists who tried to continue with the experiments. Over 10,000 German soldiers were drawn into the area, hooking into a fight with Christopher Lee and the other soldiers. One Irish soldier rushed back to the defenders, having translated the final orders that were being given, shouting that they were outnumbered two to one, as fighting had been made in earnest. Christopher Lee would be heard saying, "Oh bugger, I've already shot five of the bastards. Here, take my rifle, I'd hate to see an Irishman going without" before running around to give spare ammunition to the other men.
Word of the fighting had gone around the local area, where Norwegian resistance fighters rose up once again. For sixteen hours, the two sides fought until Norwegian partisans attacked the Germans, giving Christopher and the rests of the men the chance to stage a breakout. Using all of the abandoned vehicles in the area, the men charged through a gap of the German lines around Vemork and retreated.
Vemork was destroyed, with the heavy water tipped over onto the grass or contaminated. 3,000 scientists, engineers and facility guards were killed, compared to 47 Irish and British soldiers. Lee and the survivors raced westward to Haugesund, a trip which took over 200km. Norwegian partisans would rise in numbers, with the local Pact of Steel-controlled government failing to censor the news of Vemork's destruction. Partisan attacks increased with one every two weeks in the year 1944. Vidkun Quisling would reform the movement into the Free Norwegian Army, numbering 60,000 by the end of the year, as the western coastline began to expel Pact of Steel forces and receive supplies from Britain and the USA. Even as the weapon received its first demonstration.
While the facility was destroyed, four more were established in the depths of the Russian Empire, far from the touch of the men and women of Colonel Blood. Night and day, scientists were working to build the final device. The ultimate reckoning. The philosophy of volkism was built around the idea of its existence being a necessary transition state before reaching "The Fascist State", as a polar opposite to the idea of socialism being a transition states between capitalism and communism. Just as socialism was to be enacted by violent means before establishing the peaceful communist state, volkism was built around the conflict between states formed under said ideology and the liberal democratic states that would fall prey to demagoguery. Due to the idea of the government being formed from the consent of the governed, it would then follow that in the event of social discomfort (war, corruption, etc), then the people would be more willing to accept greater methods to stabilise the status quo, since any government is therefore vindicated if they followed the will of the people. Of course, "greater methods" could be stretched in the interpretation once volkist elements infiltrated a country. One such method would be watering down any moral code between nations for example.
Then, at last, in the early hours of the 1st April 1944, Führer Manfred von Richthofen received a message from a telephone. Speaking into the phone, Wernher von Braun would state the three immortal words. "It is ready". Ordering the launch, Richthofen hung up and slept until 7am.
In the middle of the night of 4th April 1944. The pilot had a clear shot, escorted by a dozen Luftwaffe fighter planes. On that day, the bomb drop would trigger the push on the Spanish and French fronts. The pilot had the world in his hands. The target would be etched in the minds of the Allied Powers. The bomb was dropped and the planes hightailed it back to base in southern France before they were shot down.
The Spanish city of Seville would be rise to the sight of the sun, burning their flesh and scorching them into nothingness. On the 4th April 1944 at 5:23am, 104,568 men, women and children would die in the space of fifteen minutes from a 15 kiloton bomb. A further 171,460 people were injured by the radiation and by first, second and third degree burns. The King and the Spanish government were haunted by the news, with peoples tens of kilometres away seeing the bright light appear than disappear. Recordings of the event only fuelled the fear that was present. The King pleaded with the government not to surrender, going as far to say that Spain ought to merge into an Anglo-Spanish Union, before he slapped himself out of the panic.
At midday, the Spanish soldiers of the frontlines heard the news as the Pact of Steel resumed fighting in what would become the Seville Offensive (4th April - 25th September 1944). Across the country, Spanish and Portuguese forces conceded ground, with Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Soria and Burgos taken with ease. At the Battle of Santander (8th July 1944), 5,000 Spanish forces engaged in a rearguard action which save the lives of 60,000 Spanish and Portuguese soldiers as they were evacuated to Portugal. The 5,000 Spanish troops fought to the last, surrendering with only 37 survivors against 35,000 German and Serbian soldiers. Every survivor was transported to a uranium mine deep within the Ukraine in early December of that year. None of them would survive the war.
The Battle of Valladolid on the 26th August 1944 would deny the Pact of Steel a chance to make a run for Portugal and the Atlantic. Facing 50,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish soldiers, the Pact of Steel forces (numbering 82,000) under Alfred Jodl were stuck as they advanced further than what their supply lines could keep up. This was also around the time when Britain and Canada managed to engineer their own supplies of napalm. The first strike by Canadian bombers was responsible for the deaths of 11,000 men including Jodl who was caught in an inferno along with 200 of his fellow men. The sudden decapitation of leadership meant that the Allied forces, who were receiving 30,000 US soldiers as reinforcements, struck hard and fast. With half of their forces either dead, wounded or captured, the Pact of Steel retreated. Attempts to take Toledo and Córdoba in the following September led to the German forces being stonewalled. News of Allied forces reaching Naples on the 22nd September 1944 had forced the Pact of Steel to halt the offensive.
In March 1944, the Allied effort was divided into several codewords:
- Allied Army Group West (France)
- Allied Army Group Ringleader (Spain/Portugal)
- Allied Army Group Near East (British Raj, Middle East)
- Allied Army Group South (South-East Asia, Dutch East Indies)
- Allied Army Group North (Norway)
- Allied Army Group Atlantic (Central and South America)
The seventh Allied Army was to be given the codeword of Army Group Centre. Thomas Blamey would be promoted to Field Marshal and would conduct the operations with General Franscisco Franco's 7th and 9th Armies, General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and his French 12th Army and his own 1st ANZAC Army (plus the 2nd and 3rd Greek Divisions, 10th and 9th Ethiopian Divisions and the 8th Infantry Division from Britain). In total, there would be 520,000 men under his disposal.
Operation Thundering Typhoon would take place on the 18th March 1944. The Mediterranean contingent of the Royal Navy as well as the French Navy under Admiral Darlan attacked the east and north of Sicily respectively, launching bomber planes from aircraft carriers. As this occurred, Franco's 7th and 9th Army launched their landings on either side of Licata, in a stretch of land about 70km wide. As the men started fixing positions, General Leclerc's 12th Army launched from their boats and planes. Marshal Ettore Bastico was awoken at 6:45am by his subordinates, who demanded that he answer a telephone call. Having suffered a hangover, Bastico's head thumped a thousand times when he heard of Italian forces being pushed north by a large Allied force. Alternate Historians would state that Bastico could have overcome the landings had he not taken to drinking in the time after he left North Africa, but there would be no chance to test their theory out. By 9am, Blamey managed to land all of his forces on Sicily, forcing open a frontline that stretched from Licata in the west to Avola in the east, a 162km long frontline, one that was being pushed further and further north. Bastico would send 20,000 men to attack Licata at 12am (despite he had only 200,000 men on the island). Upon realising the situation, Bastico ordered his forces into position, with a further 35,000 men in reserve. Blamey, Franco and Leclerc communicated with one another, with the Frenchman and Spaniard confirming no large obstacles in the way. Blamey kept the Allied forces continuing forward, with Agrigento and Catania taken on the 2nd and 3rd of April 1944.
Then the news came the following day. Seville is gone, Blamey heard. Blamey, Franco and Leclerc were informed by a British agent by the name of Ian Fleming that Seville was destroyed by an atomic bomb. Blamey was urged to continue the offensive northward. But the matter was not resolved. Having established the material fact that the Pact of Steel can create one of these things, and these bombs can destroy a city, the question was asked regarding future fighting. Franco asked Blamey what would happen if it was used against their advance, instead of a city? Blamey hoped that the Pact of Steel did not make more than one.
Britain, on the other hand, required a test subject.
On the 12th April 1944, the offensive resumed, pushing the Italians further and further north. By the hour, towns and villages were opening their arms to the Allied forces, where commanders ordered the soldiers to not engage in punitive reprisals against civilians. Bastico was once again forced to evacuate, trying to delay the ground forces for as long as possible. On the beaches of Messina, the Italian soldiers began to board every and all boats in the area, hoping to stage a real resistance on the mainland. It was here that Marshal Ettore Bastico would draw the line. The Allies would not touch him or his men.
An atomic bomb, on the other hand. In the middle of the day, the people saw a second sun before they disappeared. A 60 kiloton bomb, dubbed "John Bull", was dropped from a British Lancaster bomber. A total of 105,998 people died from the initial blast including Bastico, with a further 136,775 wounded or injured or irradiated in such a way that they would die within three months. The news of the bomb drop forced all Italian soldiers in Sicily to surrender. In the time of April - June 1944, half of the Italian forces in Sardinia and Corsica staged a mutiny, before being put down by German soldiers.
Allied forces landed on mainland Italy starting on the 9th May 1944, just as the news of the bomb reached Italian civilians and local forces. Resistance dissolved as Blamey and his men took over Calabria. With two armies destroyed, the Italians had not many to spare. The decision to pull back soldiers to defend the homeland was countermanded by German, Russian and Serbian delegates when the Pact of Steel met at Copenhagen in April. Mexico did not send a delegate, as their government surrendered in early March and the Italians walked out, while all South American delegates had relayed the news of their defeats at the same time. By the end of the year, Blamey held the Italian Front from Salerno to Bari.
Army Group West would receive the news of the nuclear weapon used against Seville on the 4th April 1944. Philippe Pétain was the Commander-in-Chief, dealing with a force of now 3 million Allied soldiers, with fewer and fewer raids being conducted against the French Front. Pétain would strike with Operation Apollo, starting on the 7th April 1944. French forces would push for the Channel Coast, hoping to link up with the Dunkirk Pocket that has remained still for the time being. Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, Newfoundlander, Irish and British troops would push for Lyon while American troops would push south to the Pyrenees.
The Battle of Le Mans (10th April 1944) would be the first victory for the Allies this year, with 10,000 Germans killed to 3,000 Allied soldiers. Poitiers, Caen and Royal would end up being taken that same month. 4th of May 1944 would be at the Battle of Tours. Pact of Steel forces kept their grip on the city, as 500,000 soldiers faced 600,000 Irish, Australian and British soldiers for several hours. The surrender of the city would cripple the Pact of Steel in France, who were down to 1.8 million soldiers in France proper. Reinforcements would be demanded from the Benelux, Germany itself and Italy. The victory would allow Pétain some breathing room. The Americans began to feel the pressure facing 230,000 Italian and Russian troops in Bordeaux on the 27th May - 2nd June 1944, forcing a standstill but suffering severe casualties. La Rochelle at this time would be introduced to George S. Patton and the first of 50,000 US troops coming from South America as well as 50,000 Centralamericans under his command.
The sudden shock of Operation Apollo had German commanders bewildered. The news of South America being under Allied occupation had forced the hand of the Pact of Steel. US troops would arrive in Lisbon, 40,000 in total for Army Group Ringleader. Seeing the possibility of close to 500,000 soldiers being encircled, Führer Manfred Richthofen ordered a full retreat from Spain. Plan Nero, which was meant to be for France, would instead be enacted upon Spain.
On the 10th June 1944, Pact of Steel forces began to retreat from every front in Spain. They would give the Allies nothing but charred fields, poisoned wells and slaughtered animals. Bridges were blown up, several villages burned with their civilians chased into the nearby region and all wealth was taken away to be used and abused by the Pact of Steel soldiers. Having two nuclear weapons in store (each 75 kilotons), the Pact of Steel plundered the wealth of Madrid and Barcelona before detonating on the 29th June and the 3rd of July respectively. Combined, the total deaths reached 311,928 with a further 257,221 injured. The 500,000 soldiers would escape to southern France without any major concern. Except for those that were caught in the radioactive fallout coming from the winds north of Barcelona.
The British War Cabinet was in fury, with David Lloyd George and Michael Allenby arguing with one another, while Munitions and Productions Minister Clement Attlee tried to not mention the issue of an armistice. Allenby would order a countermeasure the night that Barcelona was bombed.
Taking off from Scotland on the 4th July, a squadron of bombers escorted by 200 RAF pilots set off for Germany itself. At the early hours of the 5th, the first British-made nuclear bomb was dropped on Bremen. 74,662 deaths and a further 125,771 injuries had awoken German citizens to the reality that their wonder weapons could be painful for them. Führer Manfred von Richthofen ordered all production to increase, a measure that was taken by Tsar Nicholas II when he was more lucid and less..........feeble.
The German officers around General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord debate about these atomic bombs. For over three days, Kurt and his officers discuss how it would be wonderful and horrific to have one hundred of those bombs detonate across France or Britain. Kurt had received intelligence from the Black Panther Ring, more specifically, from those who were less enthusiastic about the war. As of the 20th July 1944, there were at least seven nuclear bombs that Germany and the Pact of Steel had in stock, with fears that the Allies have the capacity to exceed that number by early next year. Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and his men tried to conceive of a way the Pact of Steel could win, but what they saw was an isolated Germany and her allies being picked off, city by city, by the powers of the world. Germany would be no more, he said to his fellows. That night, the plot began with 60 conspirators, who trusted no one.
The Great Retreat would be seen as a great humiliation, but it was necessary under the eyes of Führer Richthofen. Over 500,000 men were saved as well as the equipment that they held. The two atomic bombs dropped on Madrid and Barcelona halted any chance that the Allies could get at a rearguard action. Before they could do anything else, General Omar Bradley confronted the Pact of Steel forces at Toulouse on the 23rd July to the 8th August 1944. This would be the greatest American defeat for the year. 250,000 US soldiers ended up dealing with Pact of Steel forces that threatened to pincer them. Pushing back to the coast, the Americans would have 67,103 dead, 49,886 wounded and captured while the rest managed to escape by pushing west. Bradley would be relieved by General George S. Patton, who would amalgamate the American forces in France before awaiting further orders from Pétain after September 1944. Spain is liberated, but at the cost of close to a third of the country suffering radiation poisoning, severe infrastructure damage and a great amount of material wealth being taken by Pact of Steel soldiers. Spanish and Portuguese soldiers return to the French Front, though several hundred of them are medically discharged due to radiation sickness.
The two fronts are simply called the Western Front by September 1944, with the frontline going from Le Havre, down to Le Mans to Blois, then Limoges to Agen before moving to Andorra. Orders to advance are no longer given, as Spain is now a scene for humanitarian assistance. People are evacuated from the regions surrounding Madrid and Barcelona, with hundreds dying from sickness.
The King's Homeland Army pushed north at the Battle of Lamia (2nd - 7th March 1944), setting the tune for the rest of the year. The Pact of Steel had to retreat under lack of fuel and a need for soldiers in Western Europe. Art and Volos were taken in that month, with 20,000 Italian and Slavic prisoners. In response, 3000 Greek women and children were shot dead in Thessaloniki on the 6th April 1944. On the 8th April, over 7,000 citizens of the city rioted against the Pact of Steel's occupation forces as well as the rumour of Seville being bombed by a "wonder weapon". The Battle of Thessaloniki would occur here, as the French, Spanish and British naval forces attempted a landing on the beaches on the 12th April 1944. Guided by thousands of civilians, the 28,000 men landed in the city, to face 30,000 Pact of Steel soldiers. Orders were asked for a response against the Allied invasion, but there would be no order given for a nuclear weapon to be dropped. It was around this time that the German, Russian, Japanese and Austro-Hungarian nuclear scientists were aware of the potential of fallout, but not of the consequences related to health. The surrounding region gave way, as Egyptian and Arabic soldiers landed in the second and third waves on the 14th and 18th April respectively.
Anglo-Turkish forces would force the surrender of Armenia on the 17th June 1944, leaving 30,000 British soldiers as an occupying force. Turkish and Armenian groups were segregated, going as far as to build walls between ethnic divisions of towns and cities within the country. Meanwhile, the remainder advanced northward through the Caucasus Mountains, forcing Russian troops to return home. The Tsar's ministers fear a quick Allied advance, with a growing sentiment calling for all Russian soldiers to return to the Empire itself to defend. Meanwhile, several hundred Estonians protest at the wartime rationing (which had been in place as of 1935, long before actual conflict) and the restriction of civil liberties (which had been in place since 1924). The Tallinn Massacre on the 15th September 1941 would lead to 83 deaths and 713 arrests, with a further 1,000 homes inspected by state security forces.
The great gains made by the Allied forces slowed down by November 1944, with no chance of any offensives until the upcoming year.
However, the cost was far greater. Over 157,830 people died from direct exposure, 8 out of 10 being Filipinos. A further 217,885 would suffer permanent injuries and or incapacitation. 47,662 square kilometres of farmland and forest were obliterated by bombing and by napalm . General Walter Kinghorn coordinated the humanitarian effort to send medical supplies to the civilians first, using the resources at his disposal. Matsui's image with any collaborating Filipinos died overnight, as thousands either defected to the resistance or refused to hand over resources. Hundreds of working men would refuse to turn up to work to fulfil quotas or, if they were manhandled, they would deliberately work as little as possible. Women travelled in large groups, to prevent sexual assaults, while those without any living relatives would be sheltered in nearby homes, going as far as to adopt their surnames. No matter how hard they tried, the Imperial Japanese Army had realised the pressure that was coming over them in March and April.
On the 27th of April 1944, as Matsui was taking a train ride to Manila, over 100 Filipinos coordinated an effort to blow up the railway track. The train immediately derailed and crashed on its side, killing Matsui and 196 others. The train ride was filled with Matsui, his general staff and several hundred soldiers who would escort him. The attack would devastate the morale of the occupying force, as their leadership had been instantly decapitated. On the 1st May 1944, Hideki Tojo would come to take over Matsui's place, ordering a wholesale end to the use of collaborators. Tojo would also end the use of military tribunals for terrorists, instead opting to kill them on the spot the moment they were suspected. It is estimated, by the Morgenthau Institute Against Racecide, that 47 men and women were shot per day between the 1st May and the Liberation in November 1944.
General Walter Kinghorn led the Allied effort to retake Borneo, pushing north with 200,000 soldiers. Dutch bombers began to use napalm, at least twice as much as the Japanese did. On the 14th March 1944, the IJA commander in Borneo, Hajime Sugiyama, ordered a final assault to try and take the island and stall what appeared to be an inevitable Allied victory. The Battle of Sintang would be the first and only direct fight between the Allied and the Japanese on Borneo for the year, as the Allies refused to budge on their frontlines. Over fifteen assaults were made by the Japanese, exhausting their men as their air superiority was gone and their supply of chemical weapons had dwindled. From the 22nd March to the 7th June, the Japanese failed to push the enemy from the island, only being pushed further and further north. Kinghorn wanted to overcome the enemy forces, despite being outnumbered, pushing as far as Kapit before halting to wait for supplies. The Allies suffered 76,800 casualties to the Japanese 315,700 casualties. The IJA in Borneo were forced to deploy elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Spratly Islands and Palawan Island were taken by Dutch soldiers on the 7th - 18th March 1944, before moving on to Panay Island. The Filipino Resistance now had daily airdrops of weapons and supplies, as the Japanese airplanes and bombers were being shot down or sabotaged at their bases in the north. Tojo moved to execute as many as possible, before during and after his realisation of dwindling supplies. By May 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army could not afford any advances anywhere, as the skies above Japan soon riddled with British, French, Australian, Dutch and Canadian bombers. It was forced to move to different fronts (as was the case in Borneo) or hold ground for as long as possible, which is what Tojo was ordered to do.
General Edmund Ironside would lead a total of 200,000 Arab, British and Irish troops from northern Persia and Afghanistan into Central Asia proper.
Negros Island, Samar Island and the surrounding region was taken by June of 1944, as Australian and Dutch soldiers landed on beach after beach, where pockets of dozens or hundreds of Japanese troops were captured or killed. On the 9th July 1944, 140,000 Dutch, American and Australian soldiers landed on Luzon proper, near the city of Batangas. Meanwhile, Filipino resistance soldiers landed further west, capturing Libmanan and Naga on the 12th and 14th July.
August would be the brutal month, as the IJA in Borneo had completely evacuated by the 17th while multiple Allied landings were made in the north and west of Luzon. Tojo would be cornered with no way to get out. 60,000 IJA troops remained under his disposal, where they struck down, setting the stage for the Battle of Cabuyao starting on the 23rd August. Banzai attacks had shocked the advancing Allied forces, as some units were cut off. The US soldiers, having been somewhat prepared, were unready for the oncoming assaults day and night. The Dutch, British, New Zealanders and Australians were better off, but it would be naive to suggested that they brushed off the attacks. Over 27,600 Allied troops would be killed by these attacks compared to 14,570 Japanese. However difficult it was, the Allies and the Filipino resistance pushed on.
The Battle of Cabuyao would end as bombing of Manila and of the railway lines would cut off any fast stream of firearms and ammunition. The citizens were rioting daily, with stolen firearms being used against the occupants. Several men were lucky in that they discovered Tojo and his family in a restaurant on the 28th September 1944, shooting him and his relatives as well as the soldiers. Manila was taken on the 1st October 1944, with an offical surrender by the 3rd of October.
Operation Dandelion came into effect. It would be months of lobbying and pleading, but Prime Minister Alexander Young was more than willing to accept the risk. It would mean that New Zealand would not adopt nuclear energy in the post-war period until 1993 and it would also mean that the New Zealand Labour Party would be in government until 1966. But Young had no forecast, political or otherwise. On the 7th November 1944, Charles Hazlitt Upham, a pilot from New Zealand, would fly the Waitangi Express. A British-made bomber which would carry not one atomic bomb. But five. His diary that day said as follows:
Kumamoto: (100 kiloton bomb) - 19,827 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 83,665 injured or incapacitated.
Nagasaki: (76 kiloton bomb) - 107,465 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 139,772 injured or incapacitated.
Hiroshima: (137 kiloton bomb) - 192,337 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 351,090 injured or incapacitated.
Osaka: (100 kiloton bomb) - 279,168 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 918,076 injured or incapacitated.
Kyoto: (150 kiloton bomb) - 281,080 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 498,808 injured or incapacitated.
This was an absolute shitstorm to say the least. The Allies gave, to their credit, pamphlets up to a fortnight prior to the bombs going down. It was Konoe's decision to demand public announcements stating that the Allies were bluffing or lying. After the five bombs were dropped on Japanese soil, Konoe faced a cabinet revolt, with over half of the ministers threatening to resign if there was no call for an armistice. Konoe, having clung onto his beliefs, refused to meet with any of the ambassadors and remained true to his belief that Japan could outlast the Allies. He believed that the Imperial Japanese Army could not do anything stupid if they knew that the atom bombs had dropped on their own soil.
Until someone did something stupid.
Teruo Nakamura, the head of the Red Blossom Gang, travelled to Tokyo as his contingent of soldiers was being reassigned to the defence of the Japanese home islands in August. It was here that he and his men gathered to hatch their plan. Nakamura planned on storming the Cabinet meeting and installing Isoroku Yamamoto as Prime Minister. Nakamura's plan failed for several reasons. The first was that he was a Colonel, he was not in any power to command a great number of men. Number two, he relied on his subordinates to contact Yamamoto, despite the Admiral being out at the South China Sea dealing with the British, Dutch and US Navies. Number three, only 47 men were in the conspiracy. Now, while a coup like this requires a lot of secrecy, it would gave Nakamura a lot more wiggle room if there were a 1,000 or 2500 involved. Number four, he was not ethnic Japanese.
On the 11th November 1944, Nakamura and his 47 men stormed the government building, with the aim to kill Konoe. Nakamura's men were either lost in the building (since none of them bothered to get a map of the building) or lost heart and did not show up. Nakamura ended up with only 22 other members, all of whom were shot by loyalists. Konoe received only a light scuffle from Nakamura, as the latter had dropped his revolver. The attack would lead to a persecution of non-Japanese officers within the IJA, demoting close to three-quarters of them to private.
In the following December, demoted loyalists protested against their Japanese officers and began to revolt in Korea and in Taiwan. Bridges were detonated and towns were enclosed, refusing to let Japanese forces past or to give them any supplies at all. It would cause the mainland supplies to shudder to a halt by Christmas of 1944.
Zhang Zongchang would declare 1944 to be his miracle year, despite the sheer amount of battles he had to fight. With 550,000 men under his disposal, Zongchang would take a lesson from Napoleon Bonaparte thanks to the French and British military advisors that he had beside him. Chiang Kai-shek continued to trust him, plying him with as much water from his favourite river (just water from anywhere, but in buckets labelled with his favourite river) and different types of alcohol.
Putting himself under the doctrine of movement and mobility, he separated his force into 11 Divisions of 50,000 men each, forcing all of them to attack seperate targets. Planes and radios would then order divisions to converge on a certain position, giving Zongchang greater width of control at the expense of depth.
General Ungern-Sternberg advanced from Xi'an with 200,000 men, striking at Hanzhong on the 8th March 1944. Ungern-Sternberg hoped to take Hanzhong, which was a major supply depot for the Kuomintang forces, but he was bogged down. Seeing only one division, Ungern-Sternberg pushed forward, hoping to encircle the enemy. That was when he took the bait. Three more divisions arrived on the scene on the 9th March, attacking Ungern-Sternberg's flanks for several hours. The Russian general had to retreat, seeing no way for victory to be attained. Zongchang, as this occurred, was further east, taking three divisions of men to attack Russian and Japanese forces in Zhengzhou. Poison gas was used by both sides, with the Japanese more than willing to unleash every ton of phosgene and chlorine gas. From the 6th March to the 27th April, the two sides clashed until Zongchang breached the central defences. Zhengzhou was taken on the 28th, with 21,000 Russian/Japanese casualties to 39,000 Chinese casualties.
The last four divisions were further east assaulting the cities of Linyi and Jining in March, capturing both of them by the 29th April 1944.
May would lead Ungern-Sternberg to double back to Beijing, which served as his wartime headquarters for as long as the Pact of Steel held its position. At this point in time, he received news of Tsar Nicholas II's mental condition, where constant reminders need to be made to the ruler of the Russian Empire that the Empire of Japan is their ally and that the Ambassador is not an assassin. Ungern-Sternberg would need to figure out what would turn the tide.
Hajime Sugiyama would arrive in Korea on the 26th August 1944, with 413,000 soldiers that managed to evacuate from Borneo to prevent capture. Sugiyama would bring himself under Ungern-Sternberg's orders, where Sugiyama would be a part of the defences. Taking 800,000 men, Ungern-Sternberg would fortify his positions in Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi. Zongchang would try and push over the Yellow River, facing many delays as bridges were destroyed and fields were burned by the retreating Ungern-Sternberg. The Battle of Weifang was meant to deliver the province of Shandong into the hands of the Kuomintang Army, but the fierce determination of Sugiyama and his men denied Zongchang his chance. He was forced back over the Yellow River, staying on the southern banks for the rest of the year.
He would hear the news of the nuclear bombs, not just in Spain, but in Japan as well. For the first time in months, he smiled and took another glass of Jack Daniels.
By September 1944, Japanese shipping became impossible. Resupplying frontlines could not be achieved by any means apart from living off the land. With the bombs dropped in the following November, the mainland Japanese struggled to feed themselves and those with the scars.
The Indochina Front would end as Allied forces pushed across the Mekong in great numbers. Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck commanded the Thai, Indian, British, Australian, Dutch, Viet, Cambodian and Laotian troops as they pushed the weakened Japanese forces further and further north, with no turn backs at all. The Battle of Hà Tĩnh (7th April - 19th May 1944) destroyed any resistance the IJA forces had left. Chemical weapons were used against the Japanese, in retaliation for the year before. A total of 70,000 Kuomintang soldiers invaded the north of Indochina on the 16th August 1944, seizing Hanoi on the 29th September 1944. Japanese forces surrendered as news came in of the homeland being attacked by five nuclear weapons. A total of 118,000 Japanese troops had surrendered, a devastating blow to an already crippled nation.
The Gulf of Tonkin was no longer available to the Combined Fleet, which either remained at port or was traversing the seas surrounding Korea.
On the 7th February 1944, General Lucius D. Clay (replacing George S. Patton as Patton was ordered to form a second US army in Europe) began his offensive with 600,000 men. On the 10th February, Clay received the news of Mexican troops surrendering in Baja California, while the US Pacific Fleet managed to claim a stranglehold over the Gulf of California. Fighting had now devolved into stubborn guerrilla action by the Mexican forces, who were forced to blow up their own bridges and to burn swathes of farmland. As this was occurring, George Marshall's US Fourth Army was advancing north with 200,000 soldiers, capturing Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Mérida before March.
The Cesar of Mexico, high on cocaine and amphetamines, demanded constant and never ending updates on the Mexican efforts to stop the American attack on both fronts. The Cesar went as far as to contact the German ambassador and lend an atomic bomb. When the ambassador pointed out how difficult a venture it would be, the Cesar stated that Mexican oil would be lent to Germany and the rest of the powers at a 90% discount. This was something that the unionist Cesar of Mexico would abhor. After all, he won election after election on the back of railing against foreign powers and interests and in his darkest time, he chose to be a hypocrite.
It's one thing to be a hypocrite, to betray your values, the principles that you held onto for so long. It's another thing when a stranger accepts your breaking from principle as part of a deal. On the 3rd March 1944, a call was made to the German Foreign Office, relaying the news to the Führer. The first atomic bomb produced by the Pact of Steel was sent on a long rage plane from Bilbao in Spain, with the aim of reaching Mexico City and halting the ongoing American advance. Every second meant the difference between victory or defeat.
9,018km separated Cesar from a weapon that would make the Americans think twice. When the Junkers Ju 390 ran out of fuel and disappeared under the waters 600km east of Bermuda, Cesar's chance was gone. Days went past without any notification. Both the German ambassador and the Cesar realised the truth of things. By April, US forces occupied all of Veracruz and eastern Mexico as well as all territory north of Durango, which was captured on the 7th April 1944. General Clay's forces swept through the Mexican defences, with much of the heavy artillery and tanks captured by National Guard contingents.
Heavy bombing of Mexico City had shaken any resolve the Cesar of Mexico would have in his men. It must have been the reports of tanks coming from Veracruz, the bombers destroying Guadalajara or the men that were advancing with all speed towards him and the capitol. Orders were made to declare an armistice, but he was personally countermanded. On the 21st April 1944, Luis Napoleón Morones would attempt to board a plane and reach the enemy lines in the hopes of hammering out an agreement. At the same time, soldiers under the command of Plutarco Elías Callas would intercept the Cesar, opening fire. Luis Napoleón Morones, Cesar of the Third Empire of Mexico, passed away seven minutes after the onslaught of gunfire. He would only be 53 years old. At once, Callas would be declared Cesar, the second Emperor. Callas ordered all forces to withdraw to Mexico City itself, while all supplies of super weapons (Weapons of mass destruction that don't include nukes) were to be unleashed on the Americans.
On the 23rd April 1944, a large saturation bombing was made against both fronts. Chlorine, mustard, sarin and VX gas were unleashed against unaware soldiers, with over 37,500 soldiers incapacitated and a further 14,800 dead from exposure. Clay and Marshall ordered the advance to continue, as both sides were less than 100km from Mexico City. On the 26th April 1944, the fighting resumed, with the Mexicans being beaten back to their capitol city. Day and night, the US Air Force bombed the city, facing no opposition from the ground or from the Mexican Air Force.
The Battle of Mexico City began on the 1st May 1944, with 2.7 million US and Centralamericans versus 800,000 Mexican troops. Outnumbered, outgunned and weary, the Mexicans gave in on the 5th May 1944, with over half of their forces either wounded or killed. Callas would be found with a self-inflicted gunshot wounded, having bled out hours before the US soldiers entered the city. On the 6th May 1944, the Third Mexican Empire was no more.
George Marshall would be given his orders to move to France as soon as possible along with his men. Lucius D. Clay would become the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, being granted executive powers over the entirety of Mexico as of the 25th May 1944. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of American and Centralamerican soldiers were sent to Europe.
Hunger riots exploded in the new year, as volkist governments had no idea how to cope with manpower losses and the ever growing resurgence of the Allied Powers. Brazil could not muster more than 400,000 men to face Montgomery, as soldiers had to advance across the country to put down random demonstrations. Citizens went as far as to sabotage munitions production as well as supplies of food, in order to strike back against the enforced rationing system that had been in place since the start of the war. On the 11th March 1944, the Second Riograndense Republic was declared, raising a total of 25,000 soldiers. They would attack northern Argentina and strike Paraguay as Allied forces did the same on the 25th March.
Montgomery destroyed half of the Brazilian Army at the Battle of Montes Claros on the 17th April 1944, smashing any chance of Brazil regaining the momentum. As of that day, Brazil became a failed state, as state governors overruled any of the President's demands and law and order crumbled to nothingness. Afro-Brazilians were lynched, indigenous peoples began to rise in rebellion and white Brazilians deserted the army to protect their homes. On the 7th May 1944, Bernard Montgomery forced the surrender of Brasilia without a fight, before turning south to Rio de Janeiro. It was on the 12th May 1944 when Brazil would surrender. The entire country was overturned by civil strife as over seven different groups rose in rebellion against the volkist government. It was at that point that Montgomery would be given the task of overseeing Brazil's transition to democracy following the 1st June 1944.
Paraguay, seeing Brazil surrender on the 12th and seeing Argentina on the ropes, sued for peace on the 20th May 1944. Argentina would not surrender until the 16th August 1944, with the entire government (made up of Sons of Argentina members) was lynched and executed by pro-democracy mobs.
William Ezra Jenner would be elected to a second term in office, as he beat Republican candidate Robert Taft 459-72. Jenner would have Coleman Blease, the AIP Senator from South Carolina, as his running mate. Taft would have Joseph Martin Jr, the Speaker of the House from Massachusetts, as his running mate.
Jenner would end up winning Taft and Martin's home states by slim margins, as Catholic voters were being split down the middle. Despite the rhetoric of both Jenner and Blease and their continued support for segregation and anti-miscegenation laws, blacks voted 60-40 (more down to a consequence of Huey Long adopting Charles Curtis' economic policy and pushing for further intervention).
The Taft/Martin ticket only won Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
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Sorry for the long wait. I hope that all of you enjoyed this post. All thoughts and comments are welcome. I haven't gotten around to making maps, except for this one.
Red = Pact of Steel territory
Blue = Allied territory
grey = neutral.
I would like to make it clear that any inconsistencies found should be resolved by reading the text, which is the canon, instead of the map. The map isn't all perfect, just an approximation.
Here is the 1944 US Presidential Election as well.
All comments and thoughts are welcome. I appreciate any criticism and likes. Thank you all for watching.
- Clarence Ussher, 1st President of the Morgenthau Institute Against Racecide, speaking to journalists in Cairo on the 27th April 1948.
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EUROPE
'I've been looking forward to this,' said Christopher Lee, sarcastic to his fellow man. For the last four months, Lee and his fellow spies were being taught by Tolkien to speak in the constructed language, Sindarin was the name. For every day, seven hours a day, Lee and 20 others would write, read and speak a language that was not even real before the First World War. Tolkien would teach his language to those that took part in Operation Colonel Blood, with any captured operative speaking only in whatever Sindarin words they heard off the top of their heads. It wasn't until Fritz Joubert Duquesne personally tortured a female spy on the 7th March 1944 when he realised that the language was not English or Welsh or anything at all. Before killing her, he realised he was dealing with a conlang. He relayed the news to the Führer, who demanded every spy be coerced into giving up the secrets of the language.On the 14th March 1944, Operation Colonel Blood would reach its climax. A total of 5,000 Norwegian, Swedish, Irish and British soldiers would be launched from planes, to destroy the Vemork research facility and to disrupt the Pact of Steel's control over Norway. Every man knew that the plan would be a suicide mission, but it was better than the rumour of a "atomic bomb" or whatever it was supposed to be called. At the early hours, the 5000 men were launched from the planes, under fire from German planes and sighted by local Pact of Steel soldiers. At the same time, American and British planes dropped weapons in areas that had Norwegian resistance fighters, going as far as landing 30,000 (mostly Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic and Swedish) soldiers in Haugesund and Bergen on the 15th and 16th March 1944. Christopher Lee was one of the men who landed with those soldiers, charging forward to overwhelm the local defenders once again. Armed with grenades, the soldiers destroyed several machines as well as killed engineers and scientists who tried to continue with the experiments. Over 10,000 German soldiers were drawn into the area, hooking into a fight with Christopher Lee and the other soldiers. One Irish soldier rushed back to the defenders, having translated the final orders that were being given, shouting that they were outnumbered two to one, as fighting had been made in earnest. Christopher Lee would be heard saying, "Oh bugger, I've already shot five of the bastards. Here, take my rifle, I'd hate to see an Irishman going without" before running around to give spare ammunition to the other men.
Word of the fighting had gone around the local area, where Norwegian resistance fighters rose up once again. For sixteen hours, the two sides fought until Norwegian partisans attacked the Germans, giving Christopher and the rests of the men the chance to stage a breakout. Using all of the abandoned vehicles in the area, the men charged through a gap of the German lines around Vemork and retreated.
Vemork was destroyed, with the heavy water tipped over onto the grass or contaminated. 3,000 scientists, engineers and facility guards were killed, compared to 47 Irish and British soldiers. Lee and the survivors raced westward to Haugesund, a trip which took over 200km. Norwegian partisans would rise in numbers, with the local Pact of Steel-controlled government failing to censor the news of Vemork's destruction. Partisan attacks increased with one every two weeks in the year 1944. Vidkun Quisling would reform the movement into the Free Norwegian Army, numbering 60,000 by the end of the year, as the western coastline began to expel Pact of Steel forces and receive supplies from Britain and the USA. Even as the weapon received its first demonstration.
While the facility was destroyed, four more were established in the depths of the Russian Empire, far from the touch of the men and women of Colonel Blood. Night and day, scientists were working to build the final device. The ultimate reckoning. The philosophy of volkism was built around the idea of its existence being a necessary transition state before reaching "The Fascist State", as a polar opposite to the idea of socialism being a transition states between capitalism and communism. Just as socialism was to be enacted by violent means before establishing the peaceful communist state, volkism was built around the conflict between states formed under said ideology and the liberal democratic states that would fall prey to demagoguery. Due to the idea of the government being formed from the consent of the governed, it would then follow that in the event of social discomfort (war, corruption, etc), then the people would be more willing to accept greater methods to stabilise the status quo, since any government is therefore vindicated if they followed the will of the people. Of course, "greater methods" could be stretched in the interpretation once volkist elements infiltrated a country. One such method would be watering down any moral code between nations for example.
Then, at last, in the early hours of the 1st April 1944, Führer Manfred von Richthofen received a message from a telephone. Speaking into the phone, Wernher von Braun would state the three immortal words. "It is ready". Ordering the launch, Richthofen hung up and slept until 7am.
In the middle of the night of 4th April 1944. The pilot had a clear shot, escorted by a dozen Luftwaffe fighter planes. On that day, the bomb drop would trigger the push on the Spanish and French fronts. The pilot had the world in his hands. The target would be etched in the minds of the Allied Powers. The bomb was dropped and the planes hightailed it back to base in southern France before they were shot down.
The Spanish city of Seville would be rise to the sight of the sun, burning their flesh and scorching them into nothingness. On the 4th April 1944 at 5:23am, 104,568 men, women and children would die in the space of fifteen minutes from a 15 kiloton bomb. A further 171,460 people were injured by the radiation and by first, second and third degree burns. The King and the Spanish government were haunted by the news, with peoples tens of kilometres away seeing the bright light appear than disappear. Recordings of the event only fuelled the fear that was present. The King pleaded with the government not to surrender, going as far to say that Spain ought to merge into an Anglo-Spanish Union, before he slapped himself out of the panic.
At midday, the Spanish soldiers of the frontlines heard the news as the Pact of Steel resumed fighting in what would become the Seville Offensive (4th April - 25th September 1944). Across the country, Spanish and Portuguese forces conceded ground, with Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Soria and Burgos taken with ease. At the Battle of Santander (8th July 1944), 5,000 Spanish forces engaged in a rearguard action which save the lives of 60,000 Spanish and Portuguese soldiers as they were evacuated to Portugal. The 5,000 Spanish troops fought to the last, surrendering with only 37 survivors against 35,000 German and Serbian soldiers. Every survivor was transported to a uranium mine deep within the Ukraine in early December of that year. None of them would survive the war.
The Battle of Valladolid on the 26th August 1944 would deny the Pact of Steel a chance to make a run for Portugal and the Atlantic. Facing 50,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish soldiers, the Pact of Steel forces (numbering 82,000) under Alfred Jodl were stuck as they advanced further than what their supply lines could keep up. This was also around the time when Britain and Canada managed to engineer their own supplies of napalm. The first strike by Canadian bombers was responsible for the deaths of 11,000 men including Jodl who was caught in an inferno along with 200 of his fellow men. The sudden decapitation of leadership meant that the Allied forces, who were receiving 30,000 US soldiers as reinforcements, struck hard and fast. With half of their forces either dead, wounded or captured, the Pact of Steel retreated. Attempts to take Toledo and Córdoba in the following September led to the German forces being stonewalled. News of Allied forces reaching Naples on the 22nd September 1944 had forced the Pact of Steel to halt the offensive.
In March 1944, the Allied effort was divided into several codewords:
- Allied Army Group West (France)
- Allied Army Group Ringleader (Spain/Portugal)
- Allied Army Group Near East (British Raj, Middle East)
- Allied Army Group South (South-East Asia, Dutch East Indies)
- Allied Army Group North (Norway)
- Allied Army Group Atlantic (Central and South America)
The seventh Allied Army was to be given the codeword of Army Group Centre. Thomas Blamey would be promoted to Field Marshal and would conduct the operations with General Franscisco Franco's 7th and 9th Armies, General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and his French 12th Army and his own 1st ANZAC Army (plus the 2nd and 3rd Greek Divisions, 10th and 9th Ethiopian Divisions and the 8th Infantry Division from Britain). In total, there would be 520,000 men under his disposal.
Operation Thundering Typhoon would take place on the 18th March 1944. The Mediterranean contingent of the Royal Navy as well as the French Navy under Admiral Darlan attacked the east and north of Sicily respectively, launching bomber planes from aircraft carriers. As this occurred, Franco's 7th and 9th Army launched their landings on either side of Licata, in a stretch of land about 70km wide. As the men started fixing positions, General Leclerc's 12th Army launched from their boats and planes. Marshal Ettore Bastico was awoken at 6:45am by his subordinates, who demanded that he answer a telephone call. Having suffered a hangover, Bastico's head thumped a thousand times when he heard of Italian forces being pushed north by a large Allied force. Alternate Historians would state that Bastico could have overcome the landings had he not taken to drinking in the time after he left North Africa, but there would be no chance to test their theory out. By 9am, Blamey managed to land all of his forces on Sicily, forcing open a frontline that stretched from Licata in the west to Avola in the east, a 162km long frontline, one that was being pushed further and further north. Bastico would send 20,000 men to attack Licata at 12am (despite he had only 200,000 men on the island). Upon realising the situation, Bastico ordered his forces into position, with a further 35,000 men in reserve. Blamey, Franco and Leclerc communicated with one another, with the Frenchman and Spaniard confirming no large obstacles in the way. Blamey kept the Allied forces continuing forward, with Agrigento and Catania taken on the 2nd and 3rd of April 1944.
Then the news came the following day. Seville is gone, Blamey heard. Blamey, Franco and Leclerc were informed by a British agent by the name of Ian Fleming that Seville was destroyed by an atomic bomb. Blamey was urged to continue the offensive northward. But the matter was not resolved. Having established the material fact that the Pact of Steel can create one of these things, and these bombs can destroy a city, the question was asked regarding future fighting. Franco asked Blamey what would happen if it was used against their advance, instead of a city? Blamey hoped that the Pact of Steel did not make more than one.
Britain, on the other hand, required a test subject.
On the 12th April 1944, the offensive resumed, pushing the Italians further and further north. By the hour, towns and villages were opening their arms to the Allied forces, where commanders ordered the soldiers to not engage in punitive reprisals against civilians. Bastico was once again forced to evacuate, trying to delay the ground forces for as long as possible. On the beaches of Messina, the Italian soldiers began to board every and all boats in the area, hoping to stage a real resistance on the mainland. It was here that Marshal Ettore Bastico would draw the line. The Allies would not touch him or his men.
An atomic bomb, on the other hand. In the middle of the day, the people saw a second sun before they disappeared. A 60 kiloton bomb, dubbed "John Bull", was dropped from a British Lancaster bomber. A total of 105,998 people died from the initial blast including Bastico, with a further 136,775 wounded or injured or irradiated in such a way that they would die within three months. The news of the bomb drop forced all Italian soldiers in Sicily to surrender. In the time of April - June 1944, half of the Italian forces in Sardinia and Corsica staged a mutiny, before being put down by German soldiers.
Allied forces landed on mainland Italy starting on the 9th May 1944, just as the news of the bomb reached Italian civilians and local forces. Resistance dissolved as Blamey and his men took over Calabria. With two armies destroyed, the Italians had not many to spare. The decision to pull back soldiers to defend the homeland was countermanded by German, Russian and Serbian delegates when the Pact of Steel met at Copenhagen in April. Mexico did not send a delegate, as their government surrendered in early March and the Italians walked out, while all South American delegates had relayed the news of their defeats at the same time. By the end of the year, Blamey held the Italian Front from Salerno to Bari.
Army Group West would receive the news of the nuclear weapon used against Seville on the 4th April 1944. Philippe Pétain was the Commander-in-Chief, dealing with a force of now 3 million Allied soldiers, with fewer and fewer raids being conducted against the French Front. Pétain would strike with Operation Apollo, starting on the 7th April 1944. French forces would push for the Channel Coast, hoping to link up with the Dunkirk Pocket that has remained still for the time being. Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, Newfoundlander, Irish and British troops would push for Lyon while American troops would push south to the Pyrenees.
The Battle of Le Mans (10th April 1944) would be the first victory for the Allies this year, with 10,000 Germans killed to 3,000 Allied soldiers. Poitiers, Caen and Royal would end up being taken that same month. 4th of May 1944 would be at the Battle of Tours. Pact of Steel forces kept their grip on the city, as 500,000 soldiers faced 600,000 Irish, Australian and British soldiers for several hours. The surrender of the city would cripple the Pact of Steel in France, who were down to 1.8 million soldiers in France proper. Reinforcements would be demanded from the Benelux, Germany itself and Italy. The victory would allow Pétain some breathing room. The Americans began to feel the pressure facing 230,000 Italian and Russian troops in Bordeaux on the 27th May - 2nd June 1944, forcing a standstill but suffering severe casualties. La Rochelle at this time would be introduced to George S. Patton and the first of 50,000 US troops coming from South America as well as 50,000 Centralamericans under his command.
The sudden shock of Operation Apollo had German commanders bewildered. The news of South America being under Allied occupation had forced the hand of the Pact of Steel. US troops would arrive in Lisbon, 40,000 in total for Army Group Ringleader. Seeing the possibility of close to 500,000 soldiers being encircled, Führer Manfred Richthofen ordered a full retreat from Spain. Plan Nero, which was meant to be for France, would instead be enacted upon Spain.
On the 10th June 1944, Pact of Steel forces began to retreat from every front in Spain. They would give the Allies nothing but charred fields, poisoned wells and slaughtered animals. Bridges were blown up, several villages burned with their civilians chased into the nearby region and all wealth was taken away to be used and abused by the Pact of Steel soldiers. Having two nuclear weapons in store (each 75 kilotons), the Pact of Steel plundered the wealth of Madrid and Barcelona before detonating on the 29th June and the 3rd of July respectively. Combined, the total deaths reached 311,928 with a further 257,221 injured. The 500,000 soldiers would escape to southern France without any major concern. Except for those that were caught in the radioactive fallout coming from the winds north of Barcelona.
The British War Cabinet was in fury, with David Lloyd George and Michael Allenby arguing with one another, while Munitions and Productions Minister Clement Attlee tried to not mention the issue of an armistice. Allenby would order a countermeasure the night that Barcelona was bombed.
Taking off from Scotland on the 4th July, a squadron of bombers escorted by 200 RAF pilots set off for Germany itself. At the early hours of the 5th, the first British-made nuclear bomb was dropped on Bremen. 74,662 deaths and a further 125,771 injuries had awoken German citizens to the reality that their wonder weapons could be painful for them. Führer Manfred von Richthofen ordered all production to increase, a measure that was taken by Tsar Nicholas II when he was more lucid and less..........feeble.
The German officers around General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord debate about these atomic bombs. For over three days, Kurt and his officers discuss how it would be wonderful and horrific to have one hundred of those bombs detonate across France or Britain. Kurt had received intelligence from the Black Panther Ring, more specifically, from those who were less enthusiastic about the war. As of the 20th July 1944, there were at least seven nuclear bombs that Germany and the Pact of Steel had in stock, with fears that the Allies have the capacity to exceed that number by early next year. Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and his men tried to conceive of a way the Pact of Steel could win, but what they saw was an isolated Germany and her allies being picked off, city by city, by the powers of the world. Germany would be no more, he said to his fellows. That night, the plot began with 60 conspirators, who trusted no one.
The Great Retreat would be seen as a great humiliation, but it was necessary under the eyes of Führer Richthofen. Over 500,000 men were saved as well as the equipment that they held. The two atomic bombs dropped on Madrid and Barcelona halted any chance that the Allies could get at a rearguard action. Before they could do anything else, General Omar Bradley confronted the Pact of Steel forces at Toulouse on the 23rd July to the 8th August 1944. This would be the greatest American defeat for the year. 250,000 US soldiers ended up dealing with Pact of Steel forces that threatened to pincer them. Pushing back to the coast, the Americans would have 67,103 dead, 49,886 wounded and captured while the rest managed to escape by pushing west. Bradley would be relieved by General George S. Patton, who would amalgamate the American forces in France before awaiting further orders from Pétain after September 1944. Spain is liberated, but at the cost of close to a third of the country suffering radiation poisoning, severe infrastructure damage and a great amount of material wealth being taken by Pact of Steel soldiers. Spanish and Portuguese soldiers return to the French Front, though several hundred of them are medically discharged due to radiation sickness.
The two fronts are simply called the Western Front by September 1944, with the frontline going from Le Havre, down to Le Mans to Blois, then Limoges to Agen before moving to Andorra. Orders to advance are no longer given, as Spain is now a scene for humanitarian assistance. People are evacuated from the regions surrounding Madrid and Barcelona, with hundreds dying from sickness.
The King's Homeland Army pushed north at the Battle of Lamia (2nd - 7th March 1944), setting the tune for the rest of the year. The Pact of Steel had to retreat under lack of fuel and a need for soldiers in Western Europe. Art and Volos were taken in that month, with 20,000 Italian and Slavic prisoners. In response, 3000 Greek women and children were shot dead in Thessaloniki on the 6th April 1944. On the 8th April, over 7,000 citizens of the city rioted against the Pact of Steel's occupation forces as well as the rumour of Seville being bombed by a "wonder weapon". The Battle of Thessaloniki would occur here, as the French, Spanish and British naval forces attempted a landing on the beaches on the 12th April 1944. Guided by thousands of civilians, the 28,000 men landed in the city, to face 30,000 Pact of Steel soldiers. Orders were asked for a response against the Allied invasion, but there would be no order given for a nuclear weapon to be dropped. It was around this time that the German, Russian, Japanese and Austro-Hungarian nuclear scientists were aware of the potential of fallout, but not of the consequences related to health. The surrounding region gave way, as Egyptian and Arabic soldiers landed in the second and third waves on the 14th and 18th April respectively.
Anglo-Turkish forces would force the surrender of Armenia on the 17th June 1944, leaving 30,000 British soldiers as an occupying force. Turkish and Armenian groups were segregated, going as far as to build walls between ethnic divisions of towns and cities within the country. Meanwhile, the remainder advanced northward through the Caucasus Mountains, forcing Russian troops to return home. The Tsar's ministers fear a quick Allied advance, with a growing sentiment calling for all Russian soldiers to return to the Empire itself to defend. Meanwhile, several hundred Estonians protest at the wartime rationing (which had been in place as of 1935, long before actual conflict) and the restriction of civil liberties (which had been in place since 1924). The Tallinn Massacre on the 15th September 1941 would lead to 83 deaths and 713 arrests, with a further 1,000 homes inspected by state security forces.
The great gains made by the Allied forces slowed down by November 1944, with no chance of any offensives until the upcoming year.
ASIA-PACIFIC
General Iwane Matsui would be crippled by the resolve of the Filipino resistance and the Allied forces. It would force him to enact Operation Sharkbait, on the 14th February 1944. Over 30 tons of chlorine, mustard, sarin and anthrax gas as well as nerve agents were unleashed by Japanese bombers on the resistance in the Philippines as well as the Allied positions in southern Borneo, not to mention certain areas being covered in napalm. Having been warned, Allied forces in Borneo managed to weather the barrage, with several thousand civilians being saved.However, the cost was far greater. Over 157,830 people died from direct exposure, 8 out of 10 being Filipinos. A further 217,885 would suffer permanent injuries and or incapacitation. 47,662 square kilometres of farmland and forest were obliterated by bombing and by napalm . General Walter Kinghorn coordinated the humanitarian effort to send medical supplies to the civilians first, using the resources at his disposal. Matsui's image with any collaborating Filipinos died overnight, as thousands either defected to the resistance or refused to hand over resources. Hundreds of working men would refuse to turn up to work to fulfil quotas or, if they were manhandled, they would deliberately work as little as possible. Women travelled in large groups, to prevent sexual assaults, while those without any living relatives would be sheltered in nearby homes, going as far as to adopt their surnames. No matter how hard they tried, the Imperial Japanese Army had realised the pressure that was coming over them in March and April.
On the 27th of April 1944, as Matsui was taking a train ride to Manila, over 100 Filipinos coordinated an effort to blow up the railway track. The train immediately derailed and crashed on its side, killing Matsui and 196 others. The train ride was filled with Matsui, his general staff and several hundred soldiers who would escort him. The attack would devastate the morale of the occupying force, as their leadership had been instantly decapitated. On the 1st May 1944, Hideki Tojo would come to take over Matsui's place, ordering a wholesale end to the use of collaborators. Tojo would also end the use of military tribunals for terrorists, instead opting to kill them on the spot the moment they were suspected. It is estimated, by the Morgenthau Institute Against Racecide, that 47 men and women were shot per day between the 1st May and the Liberation in November 1944.
General Walter Kinghorn led the Allied effort to retake Borneo, pushing north with 200,000 soldiers. Dutch bombers began to use napalm, at least twice as much as the Japanese did. On the 14th March 1944, the IJA commander in Borneo, Hajime Sugiyama, ordered a final assault to try and take the island and stall what appeared to be an inevitable Allied victory. The Battle of Sintang would be the first and only direct fight between the Allied and the Japanese on Borneo for the year, as the Allies refused to budge on their frontlines. Over fifteen assaults were made by the Japanese, exhausting their men as their air superiority was gone and their supply of chemical weapons had dwindled. From the 22nd March to the 7th June, the Japanese failed to push the enemy from the island, only being pushed further and further north. Kinghorn wanted to overcome the enemy forces, despite being outnumbered, pushing as far as Kapit before halting to wait for supplies. The Allies suffered 76,800 casualties to the Japanese 315,700 casualties. The IJA in Borneo were forced to deploy elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Spratly Islands and Palawan Island were taken by Dutch soldiers on the 7th - 18th March 1944, before moving on to Panay Island. The Filipino Resistance now had daily airdrops of weapons and supplies, as the Japanese airplanes and bombers were being shot down or sabotaged at their bases in the north. Tojo moved to execute as many as possible, before during and after his realisation of dwindling supplies. By May 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army could not afford any advances anywhere, as the skies above Japan soon riddled with British, French, Australian, Dutch and Canadian bombers. It was forced to move to different fronts (as was the case in Borneo) or hold ground for as long as possible, which is what Tojo was ordered to do.
General Edmund Ironside would lead a total of 200,000 Arab, British and Irish troops from northern Persia and Afghanistan into Central Asia proper.
Negros Island, Samar Island and the surrounding region was taken by June of 1944, as Australian and Dutch soldiers landed on beach after beach, where pockets of dozens or hundreds of Japanese troops were captured or killed. On the 9th July 1944, 140,000 Dutch, American and Australian soldiers landed on Luzon proper, near the city of Batangas. Meanwhile, Filipino resistance soldiers landed further west, capturing Libmanan and Naga on the 12th and 14th July.
August would be the brutal month, as the IJA in Borneo had completely evacuated by the 17th while multiple Allied landings were made in the north and west of Luzon. Tojo would be cornered with no way to get out. 60,000 IJA troops remained under his disposal, where they struck down, setting the stage for the Battle of Cabuyao starting on the 23rd August. Banzai attacks had shocked the advancing Allied forces, as some units were cut off. The US soldiers, having been somewhat prepared, were unready for the oncoming assaults day and night. The Dutch, British, New Zealanders and Australians were better off, but it would be naive to suggested that they brushed off the attacks. Over 27,600 Allied troops would be killed by these attacks compared to 14,570 Japanese. However difficult it was, the Allies and the Filipino resistance pushed on.
The Battle of Cabuyao would end as bombing of Manila and of the railway lines would cut off any fast stream of firearms and ammunition. The citizens were rioting daily, with stolen firearms being used against the occupants. Several men were lucky in that they discovered Tojo and his family in a restaurant on the 28th September 1944, shooting him and his relatives as well as the soldiers. Manila was taken on the 1st October 1944, with an offical surrender by the 3rd of October.
Operation Dandelion came into effect. It would be months of lobbying and pleading, but Prime Minister Alexander Young was more than willing to accept the risk. It would mean that New Zealand would not adopt nuclear energy in the post-war period until 1993 and it would also mean that the New Zealand Labour Party would be in government until 1966. But Young had no forecast, political or otherwise. On the 7th November 1944, Charles Hazlitt Upham, a pilot from New Zealand, would fly the Waitangi Express. A British-made bomber which would carry not one atomic bomb. But five. His diary that day said as follows:
Woke up, went to the plane, shouted "This is for Harvey Fucking Smith!" Had tea and biscuits, going to sleep a bit early.
The Japanese cities that were targeted were as follows. Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Osaka and Kyoto. All on the same day, hours from one another.
Kumamoto: (100 kiloton bomb) - 19,827 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 83,665 injured or incapacitated.
Nagasaki: (76 kiloton bomb) - 107,465 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 139,772 injured or incapacitated.
Hiroshima: (137 kiloton bomb) - 192,337 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 351,090 injured or incapacitated.
Osaka: (100 kiloton bomb) - 279,168 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 918,076 injured or incapacitated.
Kyoto: (150 kiloton bomb) - 281,080 dead from the initial blast or from fallout, a further 498,808 injured or incapacitated.
This was an absolute shitstorm to say the least. The Allies gave, to their credit, pamphlets up to a fortnight prior to the bombs going down. It was Konoe's decision to demand public announcements stating that the Allies were bluffing or lying. After the five bombs were dropped on Japanese soil, Konoe faced a cabinet revolt, with over half of the ministers threatening to resign if there was no call for an armistice. Konoe, having clung onto his beliefs, refused to meet with any of the ambassadors and remained true to his belief that Japan could outlast the Allies. He believed that the Imperial Japanese Army could not do anything stupid if they knew that the atom bombs had dropped on their own soil.
Until someone did something stupid.
Teruo Nakamura, the head of the Red Blossom Gang, travelled to Tokyo as his contingent of soldiers was being reassigned to the defence of the Japanese home islands in August. It was here that he and his men gathered to hatch their plan. Nakamura planned on storming the Cabinet meeting and installing Isoroku Yamamoto as Prime Minister. Nakamura's plan failed for several reasons. The first was that he was a Colonel, he was not in any power to command a great number of men. Number two, he relied on his subordinates to contact Yamamoto, despite the Admiral being out at the South China Sea dealing with the British, Dutch and US Navies. Number three, only 47 men were in the conspiracy. Now, while a coup like this requires a lot of secrecy, it would gave Nakamura a lot more wiggle room if there were a 1,000 or 2500 involved. Number four, he was not ethnic Japanese.
On the 11th November 1944, Nakamura and his 47 men stormed the government building, with the aim to kill Konoe. Nakamura's men were either lost in the building (since none of them bothered to get a map of the building) or lost heart and did not show up. Nakamura ended up with only 22 other members, all of whom were shot by loyalists. Konoe received only a light scuffle from Nakamura, as the latter had dropped his revolver. The attack would lead to a persecution of non-Japanese officers within the IJA, demoting close to three-quarters of them to private.
In the following December, demoted loyalists protested against their Japanese officers and began to revolt in Korea and in Taiwan. Bridges were detonated and towns were enclosed, refusing to let Japanese forces past or to give them any supplies at all. It would cause the mainland supplies to shudder to a halt by Christmas of 1944.
Zhang Zongchang would declare 1944 to be his miracle year, despite the sheer amount of battles he had to fight. With 550,000 men under his disposal, Zongchang would take a lesson from Napoleon Bonaparte thanks to the French and British military advisors that he had beside him. Chiang Kai-shek continued to trust him, plying him with as much water from his favourite river (just water from anywhere, but in buckets labelled with his favourite river) and different types of alcohol.
Putting himself under the doctrine of movement and mobility, he separated his force into 11 Divisions of 50,000 men each, forcing all of them to attack seperate targets. Planes and radios would then order divisions to converge on a certain position, giving Zongchang greater width of control at the expense of depth.
General Ungern-Sternberg advanced from Xi'an with 200,000 men, striking at Hanzhong on the 8th March 1944. Ungern-Sternberg hoped to take Hanzhong, which was a major supply depot for the Kuomintang forces, but he was bogged down. Seeing only one division, Ungern-Sternberg pushed forward, hoping to encircle the enemy. That was when he took the bait. Three more divisions arrived on the scene on the 9th March, attacking Ungern-Sternberg's flanks for several hours. The Russian general had to retreat, seeing no way for victory to be attained. Zongchang, as this occurred, was further east, taking three divisions of men to attack Russian and Japanese forces in Zhengzhou. Poison gas was used by both sides, with the Japanese more than willing to unleash every ton of phosgene and chlorine gas. From the 6th March to the 27th April, the two sides clashed until Zongchang breached the central defences. Zhengzhou was taken on the 28th, with 21,000 Russian/Japanese casualties to 39,000 Chinese casualties.
The last four divisions were further east assaulting the cities of Linyi and Jining in March, capturing both of them by the 29th April 1944.
May would lead Ungern-Sternberg to double back to Beijing, which served as his wartime headquarters for as long as the Pact of Steel held its position. At this point in time, he received news of Tsar Nicholas II's mental condition, where constant reminders need to be made to the ruler of the Russian Empire that the Empire of Japan is their ally and that the Ambassador is not an assassin. Ungern-Sternberg would need to figure out what would turn the tide.
Hajime Sugiyama would arrive in Korea on the 26th August 1944, with 413,000 soldiers that managed to evacuate from Borneo to prevent capture. Sugiyama would bring himself under Ungern-Sternberg's orders, where Sugiyama would be a part of the defences. Taking 800,000 men, Ungern-Sternberg would fortify his positions in Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi. Zongchang would try and push over the Yellow River, facing many delays as bridges were destroyed and fields were burned by the retreating Ungern-Sternberg. The Battle of Weifang was meant to deliver the province of Shandong into the hands of the Kuomintang Army, but the fierce determination of Sugiyama and his men denied Zongchang his chance. He was forced back over the Yellow River, staying on the southern banks for the rest of the year.
He would hear the news of the nuclear bombs, not just in Spain, but in Japan as well. For the first time in months, he smiled and took another glass of Jack Daniels.
By September 1944, Japanese shipping became impossible. Resupplying frontlines could not be achieved by any means apart from living off the land. With the bombs dropped in the following November, the mainland Japanese struggled to feed themselves and those with the scars.
The Indochina Front would end as Allied forces pushed across the Mekong in great numbers. Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck commanded the Thai, Indian, British, Australian, Dutch, Viet, Cambodian and Laotian troops as they pushed the weakened Japanese forces further and further north, with no turn backs at all. The Battle of Hà Tĩnh (7th April - 19th May 1944) destroyed any resistance the IJA forces had left. Chemical weapons were used against the Japanese, in retaliation for the year before. A total of 70,000 Kuomintang soldiers invaded the north of Indochina on the 16th August 1944, seizing Hanoi on the 29th September 1944. Japanese forces surrendered as news came in of the homeland being attacked by five nuclear weapons. A total of 118,000 Japanese troops had surrendered, a devastating blow to an already crippled nation.
The Gulf of Tonkin was no longer available to the Combined Fleet, which either remained at port or was traversing the seas surrounding Korea.
THE AMERICAS
On the 7th February 1944, General Lucius D. Clay (replacing George S. Patton as Patton was ordered to form a second US army in Europe) began his offensive with 600,000 men. On the 10th February, Clay received the news of Mexican troops surrendering in Baja California, while the US Pacific Fleet managed to claim a stranglehold over the Gulf of California. Fighting had now devolved into stubborn guerrilla action by the Mexican forces, who were forced to blow up their own bridges and to burn swathes of farmland. As this was occurring, George Marshall's US Fourth Army was advancing north with 200,000 soldiers, capturing Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Mérida before March.
The Cesar of Mexico, high on cocaine and amphetamines, demanded constant and never ending updates on the Mexican efforts to stop the American attack on both fronts. The Cesar went as far as to contact the German ambassador and lend an atomic bomb. When the ambassador pointed out how difficult a venture it would be, the Cesar stated that Mexican oil would be lent to Germany and the rest of the powers at a 90% discount. This was something that the unionist Cesar of Mexico would abhor. After all, he won election after election on the back of railing against foreign powers and interests and in his darkest time, he chose to be a hypocrite.
It's one thing to be a hypocrite, to betray your values, the principles that you held onto for so long. It's another thing when a stranger accepts your breaking from principle as part of a deal. On the 3rd March 1944, a call was made to the German Foreign Office, relaying the news to the Führer. The first atomic bomb produced by the Pact of Steel was sent on a long rage plane from Bilbao in Spain, with the aim of reaching Mexico City and halting the ongoing American advance. Every second meant the difference between victory or defeat.
9,018km separated Cesar from a weapon that would make the Americans think twice. When the Junkers Ju 390 ran out of fuel and disappeared under the waters 600km east of Bermuda, Cesar's chance was gone. Days went past without any notification. Both the German ambassador and the Cesar realised the truth of things. By April, US forces occupied all of Veracruz and eastern Mexico as well as all territory north of Durango, which was captured on the 7th April 1944. General Clay's forces swept through the Mexican defences, with much of the heavy artillery and tanks captured by National Guard contingents.
Heavy bombing of Mexico City had shaken any resolve the Cesar of Mexico would have in his men. It must have been the reports of tanks coming from Veracruz, the bombers destroying Guadalajara or the men that were advancing with all speed towards him and the capitol. Orders were made to declare an armistice, but he was personally countermanded. On the 21st April 1944, Luis Napoleón Morones would attempt to board a plane and reach the enemy lines in the hopes of hammering out an agreement. At the same time, soldiers under the command of Plutarco Elías Callas would intercept the Cesar, opening fire. Luis Napoleón Morones, Cesar of the Third Empire of Mexico, passed away seven minutes after the onslaught of gunfire. He would only be 53 years old. At once, Callas would be declared Cesar, the second Emperor. Callas ordered all forces to withdraw to Mexico City itself, while all supplies of super weapons (Weapons of mass destruction that don't include nukes) were to be unleashed on the Americans.
On the 23rd April 1944, a large saturation bombing was made against both fronts. Chlorine, mustard, sarin and VX gas were unleashed against unaware soldiers, with over 37,500 soldiers incapacitated and a further 14,800 dead from exposure. Clay and Marshall ordered the advance to continue, as both sides were less than 100km from Mexico City. On the 26th April 1944, the fighting resumed, with the Mexicans being beaten back to their capitol city. Day and night, the US Air Force bombed the city, facing no opposition from the ground or from the Mexican Air Force.
The Battle of Mexico City began on the 1st May 1944, with 2.7 million US and Centralamericans versus 800,000 Mexican troops. Outnumbered, outgunned and weary, the Mexicans gave in on the 5th May 1944, with over half of their forces either wounded or killed. Callas would be found with a self-inflicted gunshot wounded, having bled out hours before the US soldiers entered the city. On the 6th May 1944, the Third Mexican Empire was no more.
George Marshall would be given his orders to move to France as soon as possible along with his men. Lucius D. Clay would become the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, being granted executive powers over the entirety of Mexico as of the 25th May 1944. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of American and Centralamerican soldiers were sent to Europe.
Hunger riots exploded in the new year, as volkist governments had no idea how to cope with manpower losses and the ever growing resurgence of the Allied Powers. Brazil could not muster more than 400,000 men to face Montgomery, as soldiers had to advance across the country to put down random demonstrations. Citizens went as far as to sabotage munitions production as well as supplies of food, in order to strike back against the enforced rationing system that had been in place since the start of the war. On the 11th March 1944, the Second Riograndense Republic was declared, raising a total of 25,000 soldiers. They would attack northern Argentina and strike Paraguay as Allied forces did the same on the 25th March.
Montgomery destroyed half of the Brazilian Army at the Battle of Montes Claros on the 17th April 1944, smashing any chance of Brazil regaining the momentum. As of that day, Brazil became a failed state, as state governors overruled any of the President's demands and law and order crumbled to nothingness. Afro-Brazilians were lynched, indigenous peoples began to rise in rebellion and white Brazilians deserted the army to protect their homes. On the 7th May 1944, Bernard Montgomery forced the surrender of Brasilia without a fight, before turning south to Rio de Janeiro. It was on the 12th May 1944 when Brazil would surrender. The entire country was overturned by civil strife as over seven different groups rose in rebellion against the volkist government. It was at that point that Montgomery would be given the task of overseeing Brazil's transition to democracy following the 1st June 1944.
Paraguay, seeing Brazil surrender on the 12th and seeing Argentina on the ropes, sued for peace on the 20th May 1944. Argentina would not surrender until the 16th August 1944, with the entire government (made up of Sons of Argentina members) was lynched and executed by pro-democracy mobs.
William Ezra Jenner would be elected to a second term in office, as he beat Republican candidate Robert Taft 459-72. Jenner would have Coleman Blease, the AIP Senator from South Carolina, as his running mate. Taft would have Joseph Martin Jr, the Speaker of the House from Massachusetts, as his running mate.
Jenner would end up winning Taft and Martin's home states by slim margins, as Catholic voters were being split down the middle. Despite the rhetoric of both Jenner and Blease and their continued support for segregation and anti-miscegenation laws, blacks voted 60-40 (more down to a consequence of Huey Long adopting Charles Curtis' economic policy and pushing for further intervention).
The Taft/Martin ticket only won Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
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Sorry for the long wait. I hope that all of you enjoyed this post. All thoughts and comments are welcome. I haven't gotten around to making maps, except for this one.
Red = Pact of Steel territory
Blue = Allied territory
grey = neutral.
I would like to make it clear that any inconsistencies found should be resolved by reading the text, which is the canon, instead of the map. The map isn't all perfect, just an approximation.
Here is the 1944 US Presidential Election as well.
All comments and thoughts are welcome. I appreciate any criticism and likes. Thank you all for watching.
1945: The Turning of The Tide
Central and South America was an occupied zone. Close to two-thirds of the entire Western Hemisphere were under occupation, a situation that was never foreseen before. American military and civilian experts had no idea how to operate this conglomerate of nations that now had to democratise. Paraguay, on the 26th February 1945, instituted a democratic government under the rule of Jorge Duarte (born 7th June 1916), a pro-democratic activist that was a major figure in the Paraguayan ethnic community in the United Kingdom. While under joint US-Chilean occupation, Duarte was elected as President in a monitored election in March 1945, a role that was severely restricted by a bicameral Chamber of Congress and a National Supreme Court. While turnout was one-tenth of the expected numbers, it did not turn into violent protests. Duarte installed reforms and relaxed state controls over industry and civilian life. Paraguay would declare war on the Pact of Steel on the 9th April 1945. Argentina, having formed a democratic government under President Ricardo Balbín last September and winning the January 1945 election in a landslide, joined in the fight against the Allies.
Bolivia was resurrected, with a Pacific coastline carved out of Peruvian territory surrounding Lake Titicaca and directly west from it. Battered and demoralised from the fighting, the Bolivian President would not be able to contribute men or materials to fighting in Asia or Europe. Colombia would be placed under direct US-Peruvian-Venezuelan-Ecuadorian occupation for the rest of the war, with the resulting loss giving way to a brain drain. Dissidents and experts who were sickened by Colombia's regime fled to the US or formed communities in Spain, New Zealand or the Dutch East Indies. Brazil was dissolved and gave way to a British-US occupied zone, the largest in the world. Mexico became a US zone as of the 1st January 1945.
From March 1945 onwards, a total of 1.3 million men would be sent from Central and South America to Europe or Asia. The Germans, the Japanese, the Pact of Steel. They didn't know that a freight train was going to hit them. No amount of nukes would stop it.
The Free Norwegian Army led the fighting in Army Allied Group North, with the north of the country being liberated in the space of six weeks before 1st April. Norwegian lands were bombarded by Irish, British and Canadian bombers, pushing the already thin German forces further east. Oslo was the grand prize, the one place where taking it would legitimise Vidkun Quisling's government. Tolkien and Christopher Lee were the first men to notify MI5 of a decoded German order to erase Oslo from the map, set for the 8th May. Time was not on their side.
On the 1st May, the Allies launched a firebombing campaign against Hamburg, Berlin and other northern German cities. It wasn't showing any results, until a group of seven bombers flew from Kiel over the Jutland. The Allies found their bombers. At once, fighters scrambled to take them down, with the sight of 7 bombers giving the idea of seven nuclear weapons. If that was the case, Britain and France had already prepared countermeasures. One bomber was shot down, then three and another one. Two remained. One went straight for Oslo. The other deviated course for Stavangar, the largest Norwegian port held by the Allies.
On the 1st May 1945, a 176 kiloton bomb was dropped on Stavangar at 6:41am. 51,772 men, women and children (most of whom were active soldiers) died in the blast, with a further 39,876 suffering from injuries. The bomb destroyed 7 warships, 3 of which belonged to the Royal Navy (one was the battlecruiser Hood), with their crews either dying from the blast, being sunk along with the ships or debilitated by severe injury.
On the 2nd May 1945, two bombs were dropped. One 190-kiloton bomb on Tsaritsyn and a 110-kiloton bomb on Stuttgart. Tsaritsyn lost 49,882 people due to the bomb, with a further 87,224 from injury. It was the first bomb dropped on Russian soil, as Tsar Nicholas II suffered a stroke several hours before hand. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia declared herself as Regent on the 4th May 1945. She was confronted by ministers who had stonewalled the Tsar's decisions in his condition. She would therefore direct the war effort from the 10th May 1945. Her husband, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, supported her decision.
Meanwhile, Stuttgart would sustain 50,254 deaths and 71,365 injuries. German officers attempted to halt the spread of news across the Third Reich and across the frontlines, but the news reached Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and his conspirators, who now numbered over 2,700 officers and soldiers. Hammerstein-Equord's plan was to depose Richthofen and install a military government to negotiate a deal with the Allies.
Oslo was taken by Irish and Norwegian troops on the 17th May 1945, with Vidkun Quisling declaring:
Fritz Joubert Duquesne and the Black Panther Ring worked overtime to discover any new breakthroughs that the Allies had made and to discover any leaks within the German ranks. One such leak brought all hairs standing upright. On the 23rd May 1945, a message was decoded, stating that Allies now had twenty two nuclear weapons as opposed to eleven from the Pact of Steel. This alarmed Duquesne, who only informed the Führer and the government. The suggestion was made for a surprise strike on Britain, which was dropped when the advisors realised that British airspace had not been cleared and the inferiority of superweapon numbers would only invite a greater reprisal which the Allies could easily renew.
It was on that advise that the Führer and the remaining Pact of Steel powers advised all nuclear strikes to halt. However, the Regent for the Russian Empire was absent from the meeting on the 7th June 1945.
The Northern Front would sweep north from Oslo, taking Trondheim and the remaining outposts in Lapland by July 1945, taking 200,000 German and Russian soldiers prisoner and seizing Murmansk and the surrounding region. It would do nothing to help the Pact of Steel when Swedish diplomats announced their defection from the Pact of Steel. Over 30,000 Swedish volkists were arrested in their attempt to seize power in Stockholm during August.
Toulouse was taken on 6th March 1945, while Narbonne was delivered on the 11th. The Spanish and French frontlines managed to merge together without any worry, while Pact of Steel forces managed to hold their ground further east. The defection of Sweden in August allowed for the Allied forces to push towards Paris during the same month. At the same time, the BEF advanced through to Zeeland, facing gas attacks and stiff resistance. Over 40,000 casualties were sustained in five weeks as the islands were taken by September. The Dutch coastline was bombarded, day and night by the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force. The coastline all the way to the Friesian Islands was taken via amphibious invasions from August to October, under the threat of counterattack. Over 550,000 men from the Dutch East Indies, the United States and South America as well as Britain, Spain and Portugal participated in the missions, which managed to overwhelm the 300,000 German and Russian soldiers.
The defeats managed to trigger a hunger riot in Bavaria, along with a Polish uprising in late September. The following October would lead to riots in the Baltic, some parts of the Balkans and the whole of Finland south of the Lapland region. Over 700,000 Russian soldiers were diverted to deal with the situation, as Anglo-Turkish troops advanced north of the Caucasus Mountains and successfully claimed the whole of the Crimean Peninsula in October. The Pact of Steel retaliated with Sevastopol nuked on the 6th September 1945, killing 39,885 people and injuring a further 92,342. This was followed by the destruction of Thessaloniki six days later, with 117,693 dead and a further 179,227 injured.
Bulgaria was being taken, as Pact of Steel forces began to withdraw from the Black Sea coastline. Constantinople being open to the Allies meant that British and French warships could now raid shipping in the region. Foodstuffs that were meant to go from the Ukraine were being seized, hundreds of tons per day until the Pact of Steel attempted to try 100% overland transportation.
Thomas Blaimey had no resistance in Italy, as the fascists faced partisans that would join the enemy by the hundreds and the thousands. The Vatican's condemnation of the volkist movement and of fascism had strengthened the Catholic movement in the country, even though the fascists did not hate the Papacy. Rome was liberated on the 17th July 1945, before the advance continued northward. The prospects of a reunited Italy began to grow, moreso from the underground anti-fascist Catholic Phalanx Movement (not to be confused with the Falange Party in Spain), which was a radical traditionalist, anti-imperialist, anti-modernity movement that grew from the Italian Civil War.
The absolute surrender of all Japanese forces in Indochina had crippled all resolve for the remaining Japanese forces in China and Korea. Operation Dandelion and the increased presence of US, British, French, Dutch and Australian submarines had cut off 7/10ths of materials going to the frontlines had ended any possible Japanese military victory. February 1945 gave way to a communique established by Australian Prime Minister Walter Massy-Greene and New Zealand Prime Minister Alexander Young to call for Japan's surrender. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe refused to give in.
Zhang Zongchang advanced further north, as he received reinforcements from Indochina. By mid-March 1945, the Allied forces in China numbered 1,260,000 men compared to around 650,000 men. The Battle of Hebei started on the 28th March 1945, with British and Indian troops pushed with over 3,000 tanks over a 100km frontline. The death of Ungern-Sternberg from an airstrike over Beijing dissolved much of the Russian morale, where over 300,000 soldiers surrendered in Central Asia and Inner Mongolia. Beijing itself would be claimed in August, after 300,000 casualties were sustained overall.
In March, 40,000 US and Canadian soldiers landed on the Kuril Islands claiming them from the poorly armed Japanese garrisons, which numbered 70,000.
Operation Athena would be launched on the 17th April 1945. A nuclear bomb (200 kiloton) would be launched against the city of Sendai, which killed 314,776 people and injured a further 791,824 people. At the same time, a total of 350,000 US and Canadian soldiers landed on the island of Hokkaido. The initial landings had faced struggles, with the first five days leading to 70,000 casualties. But after May, the resistance could not be found. Riots and rebellion were now open on the island, with thousands welcoming the occupiers.
Operation Cardholder was the invasion of the Korean Peninsula at Incheon on the 9th June 1945, with 230,000 Indian, Australian, Dutch, New Zealander and British soldiers aided by Chinese vessels. The native Korean population rose in rebellion, cutting off the Japanese retreat to the homeland.
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Bit short, but the war is coming close to ending.
All thoughts and comments are welcome.
Here is the map for Europe.
Blue = Allied territory
Red = Pact of Steel territory
Yellow = In open rebellion
Bolivia was resurrected, with a Pacific coastline carved out of Peruvian territory surrounding Lake Titicaca and directly west from it. Battered and demoralised from the fighting, the Bolivian President would not be able to contribute men or materials to fighting in Asia or Europe. Colombia would be placed under direct US-Peruvian-Venezuelan-Ecuadorian occupation for the rest of the war, with the resulting loss giving way to a brain drain. Dissidents and experts who were sickened by Colombia's regime fled to the US or formed communities in Spain, New Zealand or the Dutch East Indies. Brazil was dissolved and gave way to a British-US occupied zone, the largest in the world. Mexico became a US zone as of the 1st January 1945.
From March 1945 onwards, a total of 1.3 million men would be sent from Central and South America to Europe or Asia. The Germans, the Japanese, the Pact of Steel. They didn't know that a freight train was going to hit them. No amount of nukes would stop it.
The Free Norwegian Army led the fighting in Army Allied Group North, with the north of the country being liberated in the space of six weeks before 1st April. Norwegian lands were bombarded by Irish, British and Canadian bombers, pushing the already thin German forces further east. Oslo was the grand prize, the one place where taking it would legitimise Vidkun Quisling's government. Tolkien and Christopher Lee were the first men to notify MI5 of a decoded German order to erase Oslo from the map, set for the 8th May. Time was not on their side.
On the 1st May, the Allies launched a firebombing campaign against Hamburg, Berlin and other northern German cities. It wasn't showing any results, until a group of seven bombers flew from Kiel over the Jutland. The Allies found their bombers. At once, fighters scrambled to take them down, with the sight of 7 bombers giving the idea of seven nuclear weapons. If that was the case, Britain and France had already prepared countermeasures. One bomber was shot down, then three and another one. Two remained. One went straight for Oslo. The other deviated course for Stavangar, the largest Norwegian port held by the Allies.
On the 1st May 1945, a 176 kiloton bomb was dropped on Stavangar at 6:41am. 51,772 men, women and children (most of whom were active soldiers) died in the blast, with a further 39,876 suffering from injuries. The bomb destroyed 7 warships, 3 of which belonged to the Royal Navy (one was the battlecruiser Hood), with their crews either dying from the blast, being sunk along with the ships or debilitated by severe injury.
On the 2nd May 1945, two bombs were dropped. One 190-kiloton bomb on Tsaritsyn and a 110-kiloton bomb on Stuttgart. Tsaritsyn lost 49,882 people due to the bomb, with a further 87,224 from injury. It was the first bomb dropped on Russian soil, as Tsar Nicholas II suffered a stroke several hours before hand. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia declared herself as Regent on the 4th May 1945. She was confronted by ministers who had stonewalled the Tsar's decisions in his condition. She would therefore direct the war effort from the 10th May 1945. Her husband, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, supported her decision.
Meanwhile, Stuttgart would sustain 50,254 deaths and 71,365 injuries. German officers attempted to halt the spread of news across the Third Reich and across the frontlines, but the news reached Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and his conspirators, who now numbered over 2,700 officers and soldiers. Hammerstein-Equord's plan was to depose Richthofen and install a military government to negotiate a deal with the Allies.
Oslo was taken by Irish and Norwegian troops on the 17th May 1945, with Vidkun Quisling declaring:
THE WORLD HAS NOT BEEN BLED YET!
Fritz Joubert Duquesne and the Black Panther Ring worked overtime to discover any new breakthroughs that the Allies had made and to discover any leaks within the German ranks. One such leak brought all hairs standing upright. On the 23rd May 1945, a message was decoded, stating that Allies now had twenty two nuclear weapons as opposed to eleven from the Pact of Steel. This alarmed Duquesne, who only informed the Führer and the government. The suggestion was made for a surprise strike on Britain, which was dropped when the advisors realised that British airspace had not been cleared and the inferiority of superweapon numbers would only invite a greater reprisal which the Allies could easily renew.
It was on that advise that the Führer and the remaining Pact of Steel powers advised all nuclear strikes to halt. However, the Regent for the Russian Empire was absent from the meeting on the 7th June 1945.
The Northern Front would sweep north from Oslo, taking Trondheim and the remaining outposts in Lapland by July 1945, taking 200,000 German and Russian soldiers prisoner and seizing Murmansk and the surrounding region. It would do nothing to help the Pact of Steel when Swedish diplomats announced their defection from the Pact of Steel. Over 30,000 Swedish volkists were arrested in their attempt to seize power in Stockholm during August.
Toulouse was taken on 6th March 1945, while Narbonne was delivered on the 11th. The Spanish and French frontlines managed to merge together without any worry, while Pact of Steel forces managed to hold their ground further east. The defection of Sweden in August allowed for the Allied forces to push towards Paris during the same month. At the same time, the BEF advanced through to Zeeland, facing gas attacks and stiff resistance. Over 40,000 casualties were sustained in five weeks as the islands were taken by September. The Dutch coastline was bombarded, day and night by the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force. The coastline all the way to the Friesian Islands was taken via amphibious invasions from August to October, under the threat of counterattack. Over 550,000 men from the Dutch East Indies, the United States and South America as well as Britain, Spain and Portugal participated in the missions, which managed to overwhelm the 300,000 German and Russian soldiers.
The defeats managed to trigger a hunger riot in Bavaria, along with a Polish uprising in late September. The following October would lead to riots in the Baltic, some parts of the Balkans and the whole of Finland south of the Lapland region. Over 700,000 Russian soldiers were diverted to deal with the situation, as Anglo-Turkish troops advanced north of the Caucasus Mountains and successfully claimed the whole of the Crimean Peninsula in October. The Pact of Steel retaliated with Sevastopol nuked on the 6th September 1945, killing 39,885 people and injuring a further 92,342. This was followed by the destruction of Thessaloniki six days later, with 117,693 dead and a further 179,227 injured.
Bulgaria was being taken, as Pact of Steel forces began to withdraw from the Black Sea coastline. Constantinople being open to the Allies meant that British and French warships could now raid shipping in the region. Foodstuffs that were meant to go from the Ukraine were being seized, hundreds of tons per day until the Pact of Steel attempted to try 100% overland transportation.
Thomas Blaimey had no resistance in Italy, as the fascists faced partisans that would join the enemy by the hundreds and the thousands. The Vatican's condemnation of the volkist movement and of fascism had strengthened the Catholic movement in the country, even though the fascists did not hate the Papacy. Rome was liberated on the 17th July 1945, before the advance continued northward. The prospects of a reunited Italy began to grow, moreso from the underground anti-fascist Catholic Phalanx Movement (not to be confused with the Falange Party in Spain), which was a radical traditionalist, anti-imperialist, anti-modernity movement that grew from the Italian Civil War.
The absolute surrender of all Japanese forces in Indochina had crippled all resolve for the remaining Japanese forces in China and Korea. Operation Dandelion and the increased presence of US, British, French, Dutch and Australian submarines had cut off 7/10ths of materials going to the frontlines had ended any possible Japanese military victory. February 1945 gave way to a communique established by Australian Prime Minister Walter Massy-Greene and New Zealand Prime Minister Alexander Young to call for Japan's surrender. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe refused to give in.
Zhang Zongchang advanced further north, as he received reinforcements from Indochina. By mid-March 1945, the Allied forces in China numbered 1,260,000 men compared to around 650,000 men. The Battle of Hebei started on the 28th March 1945, with British and Indian troops pushed with over 3,000 tanks over a 100km frontline. The death of Ungern-Sternberg from an airstrike over Beijing dissolved much of the Russian morale, where over 300,000 soldiers surrendered in Central Asia and Inner Mongolia. Beijing itself would be claimed in August, after 300,000 casualties were sustained overall.
In March, 40,000 US and Canadian soldiers landed on the Kuril Islands claiming them from the poorly armed Japanese garrisons, which numbered 70,000.
Operation Athena would be launched on the 17th April 1945. A nuclear bomb (200 kiloton) would be launched against the city of Sendai, which killed 314,776 people and injured a further 791,824 people. At the same time, a total of 350,000 US and Canadian soldiers landed on the island of Hokkaido. The initial landings had faced struggles, with the first five days leading to 70,000 casualties. But after May, the resistance could not be found. Riots and rebellion were now open on the island, with thousands welcoming the occupiers.
Operation Cardholder was the invasion of the Korean Peninsula at Incheon on the 9th June 1945, with 230,000 Indian, Australian, Dutch, New Zealander and British soldiers aided by Chinese vessels. The native Korean population rose in rebellion, cutting off the Japanese retreat to the homeland.
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Bit short, but the war is coming close to ending.
All thoughts and comments are welcome.
Here is the map for Europe.
Blue = Allied territory
Red = Pact of Steel territory
Yellow = In open rebellion
1946 - The Great Surprise
The new year brought the inevitability of defeat. Many millions of men were marshalled on the frontlines, ready to defeat volkism and fascism.
Resistance from the Japanese homeland came in the form of 400,000 Japanese soldiers that had to be split into garrisons across the entire island. Children as young as 11 were armed with rifles, knifes, bamboo shoots that were sharpened at one end, anything to attack the occupation force. Landings began at Mutsu Bay on the 26th March 1946, with 260,000 US, Canadian and Australian soldiers landing under heavy fire and severe resistance. Local collaborators were few and far, as strategic areas were either resistant to the Allied effort or had been damaged in such a way as to deny possession to the enemy.
Canisters of chlorine and mustard gas were deployed, even as Japanese resistance was caught in the crossfire. The surrender of Korea occurred on the 8th April 1946, with the occupation force reduced to 50,000 while 180,000 soldiers were sent to Japan. Vladivostok was captured on the 19th April 1946, with 30,000 casualties suffered altogether. The Russian war effort had collapsed in the East, as Siberian units refused to fight on following the death of their charismatic ruler. The Free Republic of Korea had formed itself on the 15th April 1946 under its leader President Syngman Rhee, having the authority of the entire Korean Peninsula. The last of the Japanese holdouts surrendered at this time.
Meanwhile, offensives resumed in Europe on the 1st April, following fears that the Germans would use nuclear weapons following the crushing of several hunger revolts. The Allies committed themselves to Operation Thunderbolt on the 7th April 1946. 100,000 Norwegian, Swedish and British troops crossed the Øresund under the cover of darkness. Despite the precautions taken, the soldiers were jumped by the German defenders. The attackers managed to form bridgeheads on the coast, covered by gunfire coming from overhead planes or from the ships on the coast. Copenhagen became a nightmare, as defenders were encircled and forced to double back to defensible positions that would be or were overrun in a matter of hours. The liberation of Copenhagen did not end until the 14th April 1946, when German forces were betrayed by the Danish people and by Danish partisans. Paratroopers landed further west, on the north of the Jutland Peninsula on the 17th April 1946.
The 1st of May 1946 led to Operation Charcoal. 200,000 Chinese, British and Korean soldiers, some of whom were wearing their old IJA uniforms, landed on the beaches at Nagato and Omi Island. Facing a resistance of 17,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians, the Allied forces made their way onto the land, pushing as far as 74km inland before halting. The nuclear fallout had taken a great toll on the Japanese people, with food riots across the entire island by May 1946. The firebombing campaigns by Australian, British, Canadian, New Zealander, American and Chinese bombers had dissolved any resistance in the country. On the 9th June 1946, Fumimaro Konoe and his entire Cabinet were seized by 300 members of the Imperial Japanese Navy, under the command of Mineichi Koga. At 7:05pm on the 9th June 1946, Konoe was forced to commit seppuku alongside half of his military government, the others accepting trial by the Allied powers. Emperor Yasuhito and the Imperial Family were brought forward to order a halt to all the fighting. Having cleared Konoe and the opposition, Koga formed the "All-Loyalist Imperial Government" on the 10th June 1946, with himself as Prime Minister.
The Armistice was made on Midday of the 10th, with all Allied forces remaining in their positions. The men had heard of the hard progress made, with the liberation of France in March as well as Bulgaria on the 6th June 1946. But no progress was made. The frontlines would be half a world away, with 600,000 to a 1,000,000 being sent from Asia to Europe to finish off what was started in the year of 1940. The Pact of Steel were not lazy. Concrete bunkers lined the Rhine river, tons of chemical weapons were stored and the Croats and Serbs were not going to end their fight anytime soon. But Russia was sending a message, a faint and bizarre message.
On the 4th July 1946, the revelation was made public. The Tsar, Nicholas II, had passed away. His heir, Empress Olga I of the Russian Empire, was crowned on the next day. Her inaugural speech would change history. She officially declared that the Russian Empire would change sides and declare war on the remaining Pact of Steel nations. At once, Russian supply routes had halted, cutting oil, pig iron and steel supplies from Germany and the other remaining states. But due to the build up, the end was not there. Despite declaring war, Empress Olga I was caught by surprise on the 8th July 1946. 1500 German planes made a daring strike across Russia, sending chlorine, mustard and VX gas against surprised units of Russian soldiers or civilians. That day was responsible for the deaths of 57,889 people and the permanent injury of close to 300,000. On the 14th July 1946, Tsarist troops invaded Moldavia and Romania along the Black Sea coastline. Not giving in to the demands of the Germans, Romanians began to rise up in revolt, welcoming the liberators. However, Pact of Steel forces would not give up the Romanian oil fields. Heavy bombardment starting from August would not only halt Allied gains, but also reverse them. By October, Pact of Steel forces made their way back to northwestern Bulgaria.
However, news came of the conquest of Liguria. This meant that the Adriatic sea was the only southern coastline that remained, along with the Baltic and North Sea coastlines that remained under heavy Pact of Steel control. The Saarland was conquered before August, but not before leading to over 300,000 Allied casualties to only 80,000 German casualties. The fighting had taken up much of the initiative of the Allied soldiers, forcing them to wait until the next year to make a breakthrough. The war was not over yet and the Pact of Steel had their nuclear weapons in play.
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Here is the map as of the end of 1946.
Blue = Allied front
Red = Pact of Steel
Hope you all likes this post
Resistance from the Japanese homeland came in the form of 400,000 Japanese soldiers that had to be split into garrisons across the entire island. Children as young as 11 were armed with rifles, knifes, bamboo shoots that were sharpened at one end, anything to attack the occupation force. Landings began at Mutsu Bay on the 26th March 1946, with 260,000 US, Canadian and Australian soldiers landing under heavy fire and severe resistance. Local collaborators were few and far, as strategic areas were either resistant to the Allied effort or had been damaged in such a way as to deny possession to the enemy.
Canisters of chlorine and mustard gas were deployed, even as Japanese resistance was caught in the crossfire. The surrender of Korea occurred on the 8th April 1946, with the occupation force reduced to 50,000 while 180,000 soldiers were sent to Japan. Vladivostok was captured on the 19th April 1946, with 30,000 casualties suffered altogether. The Russian war effort had collapsed in the East, as Siberian units refused to fight on following the death of their charismatic ruler. The Free Republic of Korea had formed itself on the 15th April 1946 under its leader President Syngman Rhee, having the authority of the entire Korean Peninsula. The last of the Japanese holdouts surrendered at this time.
Meanwhile, offensives resumed in Europe on the 1st April, following fears that the Germans would use nuclear weapons following the crushing of several hunger revolts. The Allies committed themselves to Operation Thunderbolt on the 7th April 1946. 100,000 Norwegian, Swedish and British troops crossed the Øresund under the cover of darkness. Despite the precautions taken, the soldiers were jumped by the German defenders. The attackers managed to form bridgeheads on the coast, covered by gunfire coming from overhead planes or from the ships on the coast. Copenhagen became a nightmare, as defenders were encircled and forced to double back to defensible positions that would be or were overrun in a matter of hours. The liberation of Copenhagen did not end until the 14th April 1946, when German forces were betrayed by the Danish people and by Danish partisans. Paratroopers landed further west, on the north of the Jutland Peninsula on the 17th April 1946.
The 1st of May 1946 led to Operation Charcoal. 200,000 Chinese, British and Korean soldiers, some of whom were wearing their old IJA uniforms, landed on the beaches at Nagato and Omi Island. Facing a resistance of 17,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians, the Allied forces made their way onto the land, pushing as far as 74km inland before halting. The nuclear fallout had taken a great toll on the Japanese people, with food riots across the entire island by May 1946. The firebombing campaigns by Australian, British, Canadian, New Zealander, American and Chinese bombers had dissolved any resistance in the country. On the 9th June 1946, Fumimaro Konoe and his entire Cabinet were seized by 300 members of the Imperial Japanese Navy, under the command of Mineichi Koga. At 7:05pm on the 9th June 1946, Konoe was forced to commit seppuku alongside half of his military government, the others accepting trial by the Allied powers. Emperor Yasuhito and the Imperial Family were brought forward to order a halt to all the fighting. Having cleared Konoe and the opposition, Koga formed the "All-Loyalist Imperial Government" on the 10th June 1946, with himself as Prime Minister.
The Armistice was made on Midday of the 10th, with all Allied forces remaining in their positions. The men had heard of the hard progress made, with the liberation of France in March as well as Bulgaria on the 6th June 1946. But no progress was made. The frontlines would be half a world away, with 600,000 to a 1,000,000 being sent from Asia to Europe to finish off what was started in the year of 1940. The Pact of Steel were not lazy. Concrete bunkers lined the Rhine river, tons of chemical weapons were stored and the Croats and Serbs were not going to end their fight anytime soon. But Russia was sending a message, a faint and bizarre message.
On the 4th July 1946, the revelation was made public. The Tsar, Nicholas II, had passed away. His heir, Empress Olga I of the Russian Empire, was crowned on the next day. Her inaugural speech would change history. She officially declared that the Russian Empire would change sides and declare war on the remaining Pact of Steel nations. At once, Russian supply routes had halted, cutting oil, pig iron and steel supplies from Germany and the other remaining states. But due to the build up, the end was not there. Despite declaring war, Empress Olga I was caught by surprise on the 8th July 1946. 1500 German planes made a daring strike across Russia, sending chlorine, mustard and VX gas against surprised units of Russian soldiers or civilians. That day was responsible for the deaths of 57,889 people and the permanent injury of close to 300,000. On the 14th July 1946, Tsarist troops invaded Moldavia and Romania along the Black Sea coastline. Not giving in to the demands of the Germans, Romanians began to rise up in revolt, welcoming the liberators. However, Pact of Steel forces would not give up the Romanian oil fields. Heavy bombardment starting from August would not only halt Allied gains, but also reverse them. By October, Pact of Steel forces made their way back to northwestern Bulgaria.
However, news came of the conquest of Liguria. This meant that the Adriatic sea was the only southern coastline that remained, along with the Baltic and North Sea coastlines that remained under heavy Pact of Steel control. The Saarland was conquered before August, but not before leading to over 300,000 Allied casualties to only 80,000 German casualties. The fighting had taken up much of the initiative of the Allied soldiers, forcing them to wait until the next year to make a breakthrough. The war was not over yet and the Pact of Steel had their nuclear weapons in play.
*************************
Here is the map as of the end of 1946.
Blue = Allied front
Red = Pact of Steel
Hope you all likes this post
1947 - Back To The Wall
The new year had presented new challenges. Intelligence reports were brought before the world powers, of the thousands of miles of German entrenchments. From the North Sea to Switzerland, around the Hungarian Plain through the Vistula to Danzig, concrete bunkers and trenches contained the resistance of millions of people. Bombings had slowed down the effort, but not killed off the will to fight.
Across the world, there were calls for a white peace, for a status quo ante. Others called for fresh elections. Britain had legislated to have a Wartime Government until 1945, before being extended until 1947. France had to face another year of political unease, as Prime Minister Georges Bidault was at loggerheads with Philippe Pétain over the need to call for an election. Pétain wants the French to vote after the war is won, while Bidault believes that the public should have voted as soon as France was liberated. The people are non-plussed and Bidault is all in for the war effort, only supporting the vote to prevent foreign countries accusing France of sliding into authoritarianism. Over 3 million French soldiers are arming to fight against the Germans now, with many willing to take the Saarland and all of Germany west of the Rhine to pay for the occupation and for the 70 years of humiliations and defeat.
The Battle of the Rhine began on the 3rd March 1947. Over 23,000 artillery guns opened fire for six hours, with over 15,000 US, British, Spanish, French and Portuguese fighter planes and bombers crossed the front lines and bombed enemy positions. Frankfurt was in flames, alongside Stuttgart and Nuremberg. At 1pm, Allied forces advanced through the Saarland and pushed to the Rhine. Over 8,000 tanks faced 7,200 German and Austrian tanks in battles that went for the entire month. For every Allied tank that was destroyed, another two Pact of Steel tanks had to be recalled as Russian forces came closer and closer to Danzig and the Vistula River. The fighting had withered the resistance, with Führer Richthofen calling for a retreat. The Allies had managed to get to the Rhine, to then face heavy resistance from the other side of the river. On the 3rd - 27th April, amphibious landings were made across the Rhine, beaten back every time. A total of 34,000 German casualties were sustained, against 59,000 Allied casualties.
Allied leaders changed plans and swung back west to Belgium and The Netherlands, pushing against stiff resistance in Antwerp and Walloon in the period of April-May. The 15th May 1947 will see Antwerp liberated at the expense of 40,000 Allied casualties to 19,000 German casualties. June 1947 led to the Allies taking Tilberg, Breda, Middelburg, Eindhoven, Venlo, Helmond and Maastricht. The offensive to the Meuse River had captured 100,000 Dutch and German volkists and killed 34,000, with only 27,000 Allied killed or wounded. Queen Wilhelmina returned to The Netherlands, flanked by 10,000 East Indian and Dutch soldiers, on the morning of 27th July 1947 in Rotterdam (9 hours after the city was liberated). When news arrived of the Queen's presence on Dutch soil, the remaining Dutch territory under Pact of Steel control surrendered and joined the remainder of the liberated Netherlands on the 2nd August 1947.
As the surrender occurred, Allied forces managed to crack the northern barriers in the Jutland. German and Austrian troops were given little chance when they faced 200,000 British, Danish, Swedish and US soldiers coming through Schleswig-Holstein. The Battle of Hamburg on the 26th August - 19th October 1947 became the last victory of the Allies in the west, as the Germans launched 15 nuclear bombs across the entirety of the Jutland from Elmshorn to Aalborg on the 21st October 1947. A total of 317,663 deaths are recorded with another 400,000 - 450,000 injured or dying from the strikes.
Meanwhile, the lightning defeats in the west sparked a civil war within the Kingdom of Croats, Slovenes and Serbs. Slovenian forces mobilised and broke off as an independent Slovene state on the 15th June 1947, joining the Pact of Steel, three days after the KCSS government had announced negotiations had begun with the Allies. Through the rest of June, Croats and Serbs had scattered into pro-volkist and pro-monarchist mobs, with Serbian, Croat and Slovene troops recalled from all fronts to restore. German officers attempted to bring them into order, instead relying on the newborn Kingdom of Slovenia (which was arguing that it was the real monarchists, not the government that was trying to sue for peace). Greek, Macedonian and Albanian troops began to liberate the south of the country for the Allies in July, with the Croats declaring for the Allied cause on the 23rd August. In the same month, Czechoslovakia and the Hungarian Plain was pierced by Russian, Romanian and Bulgarian troops.
In September of 1947, Polish and Ukrainian activists united to form the Polish-Ukrainian Commonwealth, a fusion of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as the Intermarium concept from during the First World War, influenced by the ideology of the late Józef Piłsudski. The Polish, having failed in their recent uprising, were willing to accept any independent nation to call their own. The Ukrainians were roped into the plan, but independence meant independence. As for the other Baltic nations, it would be a matter of the postwar sentiments of the new Tsarina. While she did not raise any alarms following the September proclamations, there are more Russian soldiers to look for in Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius.
In revenge for Denmark being irradiated, Schwerin and Wismar were glassed on the 31st October 1947. 97,882 deaths, 113,473 wounded.
********************************
The map
I hope that this post is good. The next one won't be as long. Thank you all for those that watched this TL, thoughts and comments are welcome.
Across the world, there were calls for a white peace, for a status quo ante. Others called for fresh elections. Britain had legislated to have a Wartime Government until 1945, before being extended until 1947. France had to face another year of political unease, as Prime Minister Georges Bidault was at loggerheads with Philippe Pétain over the need to call for an election. Pétain wants the French to vote after the war is won, while Bidault believes that the public should have voted as soon as France was liberated. The people are non-plussed and Bidault is all in for the war effort, only supporting the vote to prevent foreign countries accusing France of sliding into authoritarianism. Over 3 million French soldiers are arming to fight against the Germans now, with many willing to take the Saarland and all of Germany west of the Rhine to pay for the occupation and for the 70 years of humiliations and defeat.
The Battle of the Rhine began on the 3rd March 1947. Over 23,000 artillery guns opened fire for six hours, with over 15,000 US, British, Spanish, French and Portuguese fighter planes and bombers crossed the front lines and bombed enemy positions. Frankfurt was in flames, alongside Stuttgart and Nuremberg. At 1pm, Allied forces advanced through the Saarland and pushed to the Rhine. Over 8,000 tanks faced 7,200 German and Austrian tanks in battles that went for the entire month. For every Allied tank that was destroyed, another two Pact of Steel tanks had to be recalled as Russian forces came closer and closer to Danzig and the Vistula River. The fighting had withered the resistance, with Führer Richthofen calling for a retreat. The Allies had managed to get to the Rhine, to then face heavy resistance from the other side of the river. On the 3rd - 27th April, amphibious landings were made across the Rhine, beaten back every time. A total of 34,000 German casualties were sustained, against 59,000 Allied casualties.
Allied leaders changed plans and swung back west to Belgium and The Netherlands, pushing against stiff resistance in Antwerp and Walloon in the period of April-May. The 15th May 1947 will see Antwerp liberated at the expense of 40,000 Allied casualties to 19,000 German casualties. June 1947 led to the Allies taking Tilberg, Breda, Middelburg, Eindhoven, Venlo, Helmond and Maastricht. The offensive to the Meuse River had captured 100,000 Dutch and German volkists and killed 34,000, with only 27,000 Allied killed or wounded. Queen Wilhelmina returned to The Netherlands, flanked by 10,000 East Indian and Dutch soldiers, on the morning of 27th July 1947 in Rotterdam (9 hours after the city was liberated). When news arrived of the Queen's presence on Dutch soil, the remaining Dutch territory under Pact of Steel control surrendered and joined the remainder of the liberated Netherlands on the 2nd August 1947.
As the surrender occurred, Allied forces managed to crack the northern barriers in the Jutland. German and Austrian troops were given little chance when they faced 200,000 British, Danish, Swedish and US soldiers coming through Schleswig-Holstein. The Battle of Hamburg on the 26th August - 19th October 1947 became the last victory of the Allies in the west, as the Germans launched 15 nuclear bombs across the entirety of the Jutland from Elmshorn to Aalborg on the 21st October 1947. A total of 317,663 deaths are recorded with another 400,000 - 450,000 injured or dying from the strikes.
Meanwhile, the lightning defeats in the west sparked a civil war within the Kingdom of Croats, Slovenes and Serbs. Slovenian forces mobilised and broke off as an independent Slovene state on the 15th June 1947, joining the Pact of Steel, three days after the KCSS government had announced negotiations had begun with the Allies. Through the rest of June, Croats and Serbs had scattered into pro-volkist and pro-monarchist mobs, with Serbian, Croat and Slovene troops recalled from all fronts to restore. German officers attempted to bring them into order, instead relying on the newborn Kingdom of Slovenia (which was arguing that it was the real monarchists, not the government that was trying to sue for peace). Greek, Macedonian and Albanian troops began to liberate the south of the country for the Allies in July, with the Croats declaring for the Allied cause on the 23rd August. In the same month, Czechoslovakia and the Hungarian Plain was pierced by Russian, Romanian and Bulgarian troops.
In September of 1947, Polish and Ukrainian activists united to form the Polish-Ukrainian Commonwealth, a fusion of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as the Intermarium concept from during the First World War, influenced by the ideology of the late Józef Piłsudski. The Polish, having failed in their recent uprising, were willing to accept any independent nation to call their own. The Ukrainians were roped into the plan, but independence meant independence. As for the other Baltic nations, it would be a matter of the postwar sentiments of the new Tsarina. While she did not raise any alarms following the September proclamations, there are more Russian soldiers to look for in Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius.
In revenge for Denmark being irradiated, Schwerin and Wismar were glassed on the 31st October 1947. 97,882 deaths, 113,473 wounded.
********************************
The map
I hope that this post is good. The next one won't be as long. Thank you all for those that watched this TL, thoughts and comments are welcome.
I am wondering if factions within the German government or military will try to launch a coup.
1948 - The Final Year
Across the irradiated waste of the Jutland, Allied troops poured into the north of the Third Reich, undefended by miles of concrete bunkers (as was the case of the Rhine and the Hungarian Plain). The plans to shift the entire Western Front to the north would take weeks, but it was a gamble as it reached Berlin first compared to west, south or east.
As the frontlines shifted and the enemy flooded in, German officers would not repeat the mistakes of the Japanese uprising. On the 6th February 1948, using the capture of Kiel as a just cause, General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord launched an assault on Berlin. Taking a grand total of 25,000 men, he turned on the city instead of linking up with the defenders at the Elbe. The conspirators, armed with Mauser C-96 rifles and MG42s, attempted to push through the city. In the building that was once the Reichstag, Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord declared himself "Minister-President of the Prussian State" at 2pm that day. The radio stations were captured by soldiers loyal to Kurt, spreading the word of Prussian secessionism as well as a open call for a ceasefire.
The news was spread across Germany and the rest of the frontlines. The hunger strikes rose up again in Bavaria, thrice as big and ten times as intense. On the 11th February 1948, Duke Albrecht of Bavaria was declared King Albrecht I of Bavaria. Supporters of the House of Wittelsbach and the Saal-Schutz clashed in the streets and in the fields, with the former aiding Allied forces by sidestepping blockades and defences established by the Third Reich. This also coincided with Switzerland's entry in the war on the 16th, allowing 500,000 Allied soldiers to fly and ride over Swiss lands in exchange for a payment of $50 billion USD, which President William Jenner was willing to provided. By the end of February, Bavaria was lost and the Rhine was being swept up from the south.
In Nuremburg, Führer Richthofen considered the Ragnarok Option. One where the remaining stockpile of nuclear weapons would be launched in an all-out, last-ditch attempt to end the war. The nuclear research facilities were either bombed or captured by German deserters to spare them destruction from the Allies. As of the 1st March 1948, the Third Reich and her allies only had 9 nuclear weapons in play. Without further consultation towards any allies, Richthofen ordered all missiles to launch at the United Kingdom and France. The message was sent, but traitors had intercepted them as well. Prussian soldiers and Bavarian soldiers stormed facilities in Augsburg and Kassel, ensuring that 7 of the 9 did not launch. Two escaped. One was shot down over the Channel, but one hit a target.
A 270 kiloton bomb hit Paris on the 3rd March 1948, at 3:14am. At once, the wee hours of the morning became brighter than the summer. It would be the last thing people would see. 598,234 people would die, a further 973,566 are wounded, requiring amputations or any other medical care. The Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa, The Arc de Triomphe, the Palace of Versailles, they were gone. The Louvre was destroyed, Notre Dame a rotting burning flame. The beating heart of a nation was ripped out in an instant.
People.
Went.
Mad.
On the 12th March 1948, a riot was induced by Frenchmen reading letters from their loved ones, who had escaped with first, second or third-degree burns from the nuclear fire. In the open city of Darmstadt, over 4,000 German POWs were the victims of extrajudicial killing by French soldiers numbering between 300 to 4,000. They were independent at first, with rumours going no higher than the Colonels and Sergeants. But as the bodies appeared (nooses hung from lamp poles or from nearby trees, the most commonplace method), the French generals attempted to curb the violence. The perpetrators refused to give themselves in and given the news that the French Presidential Election will be in August this year, the last thing that the Prime Minister or the President needs is a let-up on Germany's punishment.
Across all fronts, the Pact of Steel were collapsing. From dominating over one-third of the whole world to now being enclosed within Europe itself. From Europe it came and to Europe it went. In March, Austria-Hungary surrendered on the 26th, allowing Greek, Bulgarian and Romanian troops to enter Germany by the south-east. The Slovenians had been beaten into submission by Italian, British, Greek and French troops.
Führer Richthofen assembled 100,000 loyalist soldiers and stormed Berlin in response, hoping that crushing the newborn Prussian state would turn the tide of the war. Leading from a turbojet plane, Richthofen coordinated the attack from the air, while loyalists on the ground pummelled the city block by block. It was on the 1st April 1948 when radio transmission between Richthofen and the other jet planes had been cut at midday, when Richthofen's plane was shot down by a British jet fighter. Some report the kill was made by a Polish man, an Australian or a man from Devon. The evidence appeared inconclusive.
The Battle of Berlin ended on the 7th April 1948, when confirmation was made of Richthofen's charred corpse. At the same time, the Federal Republic of Deutschland was declared in Hanover three days before hand. The Third Reich was besieged on all sides and was now done. The remaining frontlines of the Pact of Steel surrendered by the 15th April 1948. The Second World War is over.
The Final Score was about to begin.
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Hello, the war is finally over. Now I am going to go through the post-war stuff. Likes and comments appreciated.
As the frontlines shifted and the enemy flooded in, German officers would not repeat the mistakes of the Japanese uprising. On the 6th February 1948, using the capture of Kiel as a just cause, General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord launched an assault on Berlin. Taking a grand total of 25,000 men, he turned on the city instead of linking up with the defenders at the Elbe. The conspirators, armed with Mauser C-96 rifles and MG42s, attempted to push through the city. In the building that was once the Reichstag, Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord declared himself "Minister-President of the Prussian State" at 2pm that day. The radio stations were captured by soldiers loyal to Kurt, spreading the word of Prussian secessionism as well as a open call for a ceasefire.
The news was spread across Germany and the rest of the frontlines. The hunger strikes rose up again in Bavaria, thrice as big and ten times as intense. On the 11th February 1948, Duke Albrecht of Bavaria was declared King Albrecht I of Bavaria. Supporters of the House of Wittelsbach and the Saal-Schutz clashed in the streets and in the fields, with the former aiding Allied forces by sidestepping blockades and defences established by the Third Reich. This also coincided with Switzerland's entry in the war on the 16th, allowing 500,000 Allied soldiers to fly and ride over Swiss lands in exchange for a payment of $50 billion USD, which President William Jenner was willing to provided. By the end of February, Bavaria was lost and the Rhine was being swept up from the south.
In Nuremburg, Führer Richthofen considered the Ragnarok Option. One where the remaining stockpile of nuclear weapons would be launched in an all-out, last-ditch attempt to end the war. The nuclear research facilities were either bombed or captured by German deserters to spare them destruction from the Allies. As of the 1st March 1948, the Third Reich and her allies only had 9 nuclear weapons in play. Without further consultation towards any allies, Richthofen ordered all missiles to launch at the United Kingdom and France. The message was sent, but traitors had intercepted them as well. Prussian soldiers and Bavarian soldiers stormed facilities in Augsburg and Kassel, ensuring that 7 of the 9 did not launch. Two escaped. One was shot down over the Channel, but one hit a target.
A 270 kiloton bomb hit Paris on the 3rd March 1948, at 3:14am. At once, the wee hours of the morning became brighter than the summer. It would be the last thing people would see. 598,234 people would die, a further 973,566 are wounded, requiring amputations or any other medical care. The Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa, The Arc de Triomphe, the Palace of Versailles, they were gone. The Louvre was destroyed, Notre Dame a rotting burning flame. The beating heart of a nation was ripped out in an instant.
People.
Went.
Mad.
On the 12th March 1948, a riot was induced by Frenchmen reading letters from their loved ones, who had escaped with first, second or third-degree burns from the nuclear fire. In the open city of Darmstadt, over 4,000 German POWs were the victims of extrajudicial killing by French soldiers numbering between 300 to 4,000. They were independent at first, with rumours going no higher than the Colonels and Sergeants. But as the bodies appeared (nooses hung from lamp poles or from nearby trees, the most commonplace method), the French generals attempted to curb the violence. The perpetrators refused to give themselves in and given the news that the French Presidential Election will be in August this year, the last thing that the Prime Minister or the President needs is a let-up on Germany's punishment.
Across all fronts, the Pact of Steel were collapsing. From dominating over one-third of the whole world to now being enclosed within Europe itself. From Europe it came and to Europe it went. In March, Austria-Hungary surrendered on the 26th, allowing Greek, Bulgarian and Romanian troops to enter Germany by the south-east. The Slovenians had been beaten into submission by Italian, British, Greek and French troops.
Führer Richthofen assembled 100,000 loyalist soldiers and stormed Berlin in response, hoping that crushing the newborn Prussian state would turn the tide of the war. Leading from a turbojet plane, Richthofen coordinated the attack from the air, while loyalists on the ground pummelled the city block by block. It was on the 1st April 1948 when radio transmission between Richthofen and the other jet planes had been cut at midday, when Richthofen's plane was shot down by a British jet fighter. Some report the kill was made by a Polish man, an Australian or a man from Devon. The evidence appeared inconclusive.
The Battle of Berlin ended on the 7th April 1948, when confirmation was made of Richthofen's charred corpse. At the same time, the Federal Republic of Deutschland was declared in Hanover three days before hand. The Third Reich was besieged on all sides and was now done. The remaining frontlines of the Pact of Steel surrendered by the 15th April 1948. The Second World War is over.
The Final Score was about to begin.
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Hello, the war is finally over. Now I am going to go through the post-war stuff. Likes and comments appreciated.
A Personal Message
Hi guys.
You might be looking at this, thinking that it was going to be another addition to the timeline.
It isn't.
The reason why I wanted to write this was because I didn't want to up and leave from this spot.
This Thread got 55,000 views, which is the largest for any of my threads. To every person who read this, THANK YOU.
But you'll be asking me why.
Why this post?
It has been a month since the last post and a lot longer since I've had a good line of thought. At the beginning, I knew how the First World War would end and how things were going to fall into place. But now, I have no idea.
What is bothering you?
A few things:
1. The US Presidential elections. I feel that it is now ASB that Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr could be president. Charles E. Hughes would be likelier.
2. Editing Wikipedia, which is something that I need to get good at.
3. The amount of nukes thrown feels a bit too much. I can't keep track of the number of cities or people blown up. I feel like its a mass death scenario.
4. I chugged through the first posts because I didn't have a job. Because I work, go to the gym and like my sleep, I can't think of anything else.
There must be good things?
1. Australian ATL politics
2. The Red Baron as Führer
3. ATL Aussies Rules
4. A stronger British Empire
So, what now?
I don't want this thread locked. I would like for anyone to ask questions about what would have happened or give opinions on the story as a whole.
Remake when?
Two or four years from now, assuming I bother with it again. Good concept, ATL Gallipoli and all that, but I'd need a lot longer to go back to the start. In the meantime, there are two stories that I am working on:
The Battle of White Plains: An American Revolutionary TL in the Pre-1900 section. You can find it here
A Most Dangerous Task: A Personal ISOT into the Monmouth Rebellion in the ASB section. You can find it here.
Those two will be the ones I'll be working on, as well as some others in the future.
See you when I see you.
You might be looking at this, thinking that it was going to be another addition to the timeline.
It isn't.
The reason why I wanted to write this was because I didn't want to up and leave from this spot.
This Thread got 55,000 views, which is the largest for any of my threads. To every person who read this, THANK YOU.
But you'll be asking me why.
Why this post?
It has been a month since the last post and a lot longer since I've had a good line of thought. At the beginning, I knew how the First World War would end and how things were going to fall into place. But now, I have no idea.
What is bothering you?
A few things:
1. The US Presidential elections. I feel that it is now ASB that Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr could be president. Charles E. Hughes would be likelier.
2. Editing Wikipedia, which is something that I need to get good at.
3. The amount of nukes thrown feels a bit too much. I can't keep track of the number of cities or people blown up. I feel like its a mass death scenario.
4. I chugged through the first posts because I didn't have a job. Because I work, go to the gym and like my sleep, I can't think of anything else.
There must be good things?
1. Australian ATL politics
2. The Red Baron as Führer
3. ATL Aussies Rules
4. A stronger British Empire
So, what now?
I don't want this thread locked. I would like for anyone to ask questions about what would have happened or give opinions on the story as a whole.
Remake when?
Two or four years from now, assuming I bother with it again. Good concept, ATL Gallipoli and all that, but I'd need a lot longer to go back to the start. In the meantime, there are two stories that I am working on:
The Battle of White Plains: An American Revolutionary TL in the Pre-1900 section. You can find it here
A Most Dangerous Task: A Personal ISOT into the Monmouth Rebellion in the ASB section. You can find it here.
Those two will be the ones I'll be working on, as well as some others in the future.
See you when I see you.
As a somewhat lurker on this site, I need to tell that your timeline is the main inspiration to starting write mine. Everything just feels so realistic and plausable, but still we end having so many different situations that make it really unique! I haven't finished yet, but I'm eager to continue reading that and your American Revolutionary TL.
Thank you. I'm glad that I could inspire someone else to write a TL.
Very true. I had rushed sone bits and failed to say others. India, China and Africa among other places had not as much attention as it should have
Speaking as a fellow timeline writer, I can only say that it's only wrong to fail to give an area attention if you are able not to and your brain is being cooperative (writers block is a mighty foe). The goal isn't to make a perfect work, the goal ought to be making the best one you feasibly can. Just my two cents.