The Co-Prosperity Sphere

[CountofDooku]

Very very bad ideas, for the ACP...

Don't try Sealion. You will just offer Britain a morale boost when your operation inevitably fails (and it will), plus lose morale, men and material yourself. And it will just make Britain and the USA angry enough to fight to the death.

Even ITTL, there is no way for the ACP to do a successful Sealion. The RAF and USAF will still be hampering any landing efforts (no matter the cost for themselves, and even if the Luftwaffe gains the upper hand it won't be a total victory, and the ACP would need a total victory ie. the RAF is not even fighting anymore to secure a landing). The Royal Navy and USN will be there too, and even the combined navies of Europe likely won't be enough (only the Italians, French and Spaniards have significant navies in the ACP) and anyway Rome, Paris and Madrid won't want to risk their entire navies on that, and good luck to coordinate four different navies speaking four languages. The Royal Army and Home Guard, then, will be there. And the ACP don't have the landing craft (and can't build enough of them fast enough), and both the Channel and the British coast are difficult. And even assuming it works initially despite all of that, the British Army will retreat to Wales, northern England and Scotland, and the RN and RAF will still use those as bases too, and the British will destroy roads, stockpiles, railroads... on the way of the invaders.

And don't try Amerika Bomber. You will just anger the US populace into war to the death, instead of getting a negotiated peace. And lose material, men, and morale (again) as inevitably the USAF will take the upper hand rather quickly.

Of course it's in character for the ACP (we are talking about the Germans who want to annex Burgundy from their ally while expanding to the Urals, the Italians who see themselves as Roman Empire 2.0, the French who want their Napoleonic glories back, etc) but it should and likely will bite them in the ass.

Toally agree, many of these ideas are outright crazy (much more of those to come ), TTL ACP are less racist and less genocidal then OTL, but their monarchistic parts ("for God and Emperor") give them a devine sense of a universal, never ending reign, that will encourage them to some very crazy schemes, plans, ideas and prototypes TTL.

 

[Tannenberg]

How many capital ships have the European Axis at the moment and how many are under construction?

 

[CountofDooku]

How many capital ships have the European Axis at the moment and how many are under construction?

While Plan Z is favored by the German Emperor and the Admirality, they know that aircrafts (England) and tanks (Russia) have a bigger priority for now, as they are unable to outproduce the US Navy and Royal Navy even with major support by the Italians and French any time soon and the Army can use these ressources much better. So not very much more then OTL right now (maybe plus a few ships of various sizes a best). Same reason the Imperial Japanese Navy will have fewer ships following TTL thanks to newer, earlier and more numbered tank models to compete against the Allies in India/Pacific and mostly against the Soviets in Siberia.

 

[CountofDooku]

Tomorrow: White Ruthenian Jewish National Monarchism/ Fascist Royalism and Manchurian transformation inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 322: Manchurian transformation inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere:

The Empire of Manchukuo had 42,560,000 citizens, out of which only 2,600,000 were technical Manchus. The majority of the 36,560,000 citizens was Han Chinese, with other big minorities being the 1,400,000 Chosen, 1,000,000 Mengjiang, 860,000 Japanese, 300,000 Hui Mohammedans, and other small minorities, including 48,000 Jews. To decries the Han Chinese opposition against the Manchurian Government, the Japanese and Coprospism, the propaganda (cinema and newspaper), schools and other means of education emphases heavily, that the so called Northeast Mandarin (Dongbeihua, meaning literally Northeast Speech) was a Manchu dialect and that the Han Chinese speaking it were a fellow Manchuic/ Tungusic ethnic group, just like the Manchu, Udege, Tungus, Nanai, Ulch, Orok, Negidai, Evenki and others in the region. Most Russians from the former Amur and Coastal regions were driven north into Siberia, only small groups remained close the new Manchurian border. While Emperor Puyi tried to use all minorities as a power-base against Han Chinese opposition to his rule and state, he and the Japanese never fully trusted the Russians living there and believed that a strong Russian population could one day again work against them as a fifth-colon of a new European/ Soviet Colonialism or Imperialism. The 1st Imperial Manchurian Army guarded the coastal provinces south of the Amur River and resettled the Russians living there, while the 2nd Imperial Manchurian Army guarded the conquered territory north of the Amur River and had started to resettle the Russians living there. The other Imperial Manchurian Armies (3rd, 4th and 5th) accompanied the Japanese Manchurian/ Siberian Army (also known as the Kwantung Army) at the direct frontline against the Soviet Union.

Under Supreme Command of Khande Emperor Puyi, the Manchurian forces were lead by the Manchu Imperial Household Minister and Interior Minister and General, Xi Quia (also known as Aisin Gioro Xiyia), Prime Minister and General Zhang Jinghui, General Zhang Haipeng and female General Yoshiko Kawashima, who were advised and supported on the front by the Japanese Generals Kenkichi Ueda and Yoshijirō Umezu of the Kwantung Army. They were heavily supported by the Japanese with weapons and equipment, but within the first years of independence, they established the Mukden Arsenal, Manchurian Aviation Company (Manshū Kōkū Kabushiki Gaisha or short MKKK), Harbin Heavy Industries, Shungyashan Army Arsenal, Chengde Engineering, Manchurian Airplane Manufacturing Company (Manshū Koku Hikōki Seizō Kabushiki Kaisha), Mudanjing Army Arsenal, Liaoning Arsenal, Manchurian Railways, Changchun Industries, Showa Steel Works and the Manchurian Industrial Development Company, among others to supply their forces locally with the help of manchurian Iron and Coal to build up their own military industry. The Imperial Manchurian Navy meanwhile produced most of it's forces in the western shipyards; Kwantung Naval Industries, Qingniwa (Pusan) Naval Yards, the Kwantung Shipyards (three shipyards), Panjing Naval Yards, Huludao Shipbuilding Industry, Qinhuangdao Shipyards and Haishenwai (Vladivostok) Heavy Naval Shipyard Industries (two shipyards).

Ukrainians meanwhile were tolerated and encouraged to stay as a minority, because of their contempt and hatred for what the Russian had done to them in Ukrainia was seen as a grantee, that they would oppose any Russian return to the Far East as long as they could live as peaceful, unmolested citizens of Manchuria for once. For the same reason the Jews in the former Jewish Autonomous Oblast were not troubled by the Co-Prosperity Sphere forces and many were even encouraged to help out in the administration of the government, even if they lacked any knowledge of Manchu (the official state language), the Dongbeihua (the non-official lingua franca and a official Manchu dialect) or Japanese (the other official language). While on the map it looked like the Manchuic ethnicity and tribes had gained a majority at the north and east of the new state that were annexed from Russia, in reality that wasn't the chase. That was the chase, because many of this territories outside the direct coast or rivers, were only sparely populated and the Japanese Empire used this fact to further increase the settlement of Japanese into this region.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 323: Axis Central Powers Jewish National Monarchism

Abba Shaul Geisinovich (later Abba Ahimeir) was born in Dolgi, a village near Babruysk in the Russian Empire (later White Ruthenia). From 1912 to 1914, he attended the Herzliya Gymnasium high school in Tel Aviv. While with his family in Babruysk for summer vacation in 1914, the First Great War broke out and he was forced to complete his studies in Russia. In 1917, he participated in the Russian Zionist Conference in Petrograd and underwent agricultural training as part of Joseph Trumpeldor's HeHalutz movement in Batum, Caucasia to prepare him for a life as a pioneer in the Land of Israel. In 1920, he left Russia and changed his name from Gaisinovich to Ahimeir (in Hebrew: Meir’s brother) in memory of his brother Meir who had fallen in battle that year fighting against Poles during a pogrom.

Ahimeir studied philosophy at the Liége University in Belgium and at the University of Vienna, completing his PhD thesis on Oswald Spengler's “The Decline of the West” in 1924 just before immigrating to the British Mandate of Palestine. Upon his arrival in the country, Ahimeir became active in the Labor Zionist movements Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel Hatzair. For four years, he served as librarian for the cultural committee of the General Workers Organization in Zikhrom Ya'akov and as a teacher in Nahalal and Kibutz Geva. During these years he regularly published articles in Haaretz and Davar, where he began to criticize the political situation in the Mandate of Palestine and of Zionism, as well as of the workers’ movement to which he belonged.

In 1928, Ahimeir, along with Yehoshua Yevin and famed Hebrew poet Uri Zvi Greenberg, became disillusioned with what they viewed to be the passivity of Labor Zionism and founded the Revisionist Labor Bloc as part of Ze'ev Jaboinsky's Revisionist Zionist Movement. Ahimeir and his group were regarded by Revisionist Movement leaders as an implant from the Left whose political Maximalism and revolutionary brand of nationalism often made the Revisionist old guard uncomfortable. In 1930, Ahimeir and his friends established the underground movement Brit HaBirionim (The Union of Zionist Rebels) named for the Jewish anti-Roman underground during the first Jewish-Roman War. Brit HaBirionim was the first Jewish organization to call the British authorities in Palestine a “foreign regime” and refer to the British Mandate over Palestine as “an occupation.” The group initiated a series of protest activities against British rule, the first of these took place on October 9, 1930, and was directed against the British Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, Drummond Shiels, when he was on a visit to Tel-Aviv. This was the first sign of rebellion in Palestine’s Jewish community against the British and the first time that Ahimeir was arrested in the country.

In 1933, Brit HaBirionim turned its activities against Nazi Germany. In May of that year, Ahimeir led his followers in a campaign to remove swastikas from the flagpoles of the German consulates in Jerusalem and Jaffa. Brit HaBirionim also organized a boycott of German goods. Brit Habirionim became fierce critics of the Haavara Agreemen and of its chief negotiator, Haim Arlosoroff. When Arlosoroff was killed in on a Tel-Aviv beach in June 1933, Ahimeir and two friends were arrested and charged with inciting the murder. Ahimeir was cleared of the charge before the trial even began but remained in prison and began a hunger strike that continued for four days. He was convicted of organizing an illegal clandestine organization and remained incarcerated in the Jerusalem Central Prison until August 1935. His imprisonment put an end to Brit HaBirionim.

Upon his release, Ahimeir married Sonia née Astrachan and devoted himself to literary work and scholarship. His articles in the newspaper Hayarden led to his re-arrest at the end of 1937 and three months in the Acre Prison together with members of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and other prominent Revisionist activists. When the coup happened in Germany that put a end to Nazi rule and the new German Empire got rid of the anti-Jewish laws and politics, Ahimeir visited Berlin, Colonia, Breslau, Frankfurth and Suttgart to hold speeches. He argued that despite this changes towards Jews in Germany their true home remained a future Israel. Still he argued that National Monarchism or Fascist Royalism had now proven not to pe generally bad for Jews with this new change in Germany and that parts of this ideology could benefit the Jewish own goals and ideals.

Because Ahimeir regarding Zionism as a secular, territorial phenomenon. He was the first to speak of "revolutionary Zionism," and call for a revolt against the British administration in Palestine. His worldview generally placed the contemporary political situation into the context of Jewish history, specifically the Second Temple Period, often casting himself and his friends as anti-imperialist freedom fighters, the British administration as a modern incarnation of ancient Rome and the official Zionist leadership as Jewish collaborators. Ahimeir's views had a profound influence on the ideology of the Irgun and Lehi undergrounds who later initiated an urban guerrilla war against the British. Ahimeir described himself as a fascist during the late 1920s and early 1930s, and wrote a series of eight articles in the Hebrew Doar HaYom newspaper in 1928 entitled "From the Notebook of a Fascist," few of his contemporaries took these leanings seriously. Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who consistently maintained that there was no room for Fascism within his Revisionist movement, dismissed Ahimeir’s rhetoric and argued that he and his Maximalist followers were merely playacting to make a point and were not serious in their professed Fascist beliefs.

In the October 7, 1932, edition of "Hazit Ha'am", Jabotinsky wrote:
Such men, even in the Maximalist and activist factions, number no more than two or three, and even with those two or three – pardon my frankness – it is mere phraseology, not a worldview. Even Mr. Ahimeir gives me the impression of a man who will show flexibility for the sake of educational goals… to this end he has borrowed some currently fashionable (and quite unnecessary) phrases, in which this daring idea clothes itself in several foreign cities."
Ahimeir’s fascist royalist/ national monarchist sympathies however, were only encouraged, as the Axis Central Powers began the Second Great War with the Allies (France and Great Britain) as their main enemies.

When Wilhelm, the King of White Ruthenia, the younger brother of German Emperor Wilhelm III even invited Jews into his newly formed nation and kingdom, Ahimeir started to speak there too, in hopes to gain further support from local Jews (now liberated from Polish oppression and Soviet atheism) for his own movement. Ahimeir realized that the vision King Wilhelm had could be molded to support his own vision, he directly and active supported the Jewish immigration into White Ruthenia (albeit not in the same degree as those Jewish Immigrants to the Mandate of Palestine) and hoped that with hard work and a show of loyalty the White Ruthenian Jews could not only build up a economic and financial, but also a political power base in the new state, from where they could pursuit overall Axis Central Powers (mainly the Neo-Ottoman Empire's) opinion to support a Jewish State of Israel in the Mandate of Palestine (either fully independent, or at least internally independent by all means and once again a save heaven and home for Jews all around the world. While Ahimeir rose to a prominent adviser (speaking both White Ruthenian and Russian) for White Ruthenian king Wilhelm, he clashed with one of his other advisers and government members, Vincent Hadleuski, a right-wing conservative and Christian advocate for a majorly Catholic White Ruthenia. Ahimeir supported many political economical and even military Jewish Movements in White Ruthenia and the Axis Central Powers, who would fight in the Eastern Crusade against Russia, in hopes to gain favor in their political governments for his people by doing so.

But because of his constant fights and arguing with Hadleuski, Ahimeir and some of his closest allies and friends turned southeast and offered their service as well as that of Jewish volunteers forces and soldiers to the Caliph Abdulmejid II. Ahimeir hoped that by supporting the Caliph's advance trough Syria and conquering Israel's territory from the British oppressors, the Caliph would be eager to liberate them to a Jewish nation state. As Caliph Abdulmejid II already had planned to use Jews as the new population for the region, instead of the rebellious and traitorous Arabs who had betrayed the Ottoman Empire to the British, he welcomed Ahimeir and his ideas with open arms. While the two became close allies and had a common enemy in the British, Ahimeir's dream of Israel in the end hoped for more then just full internal autonomy to be honest, just in full independence, Jewish freedom, the Jewish people and the Jewish Nation could be strong enough to prevent any future annexation, diaspora, pogroms and other horrors they had endured since they had lost their homeland. Caliph Abdulmejid II however dreamed of recreating the Ottoman Empire to it's lost glory and aim for territorial expansion once again, as the Turks had already planned during the First Great War.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 324: Dayak Besar:

As their American submarine slowly emerged from the waves, Officer Taylor Richards asked himself how their local trip to this Indonesian island could do much for the Allied war effort in Southeast Asia. Officer Petrick Wilson also questioned what the dutch civilian Professor Simon van Westerling was doing here accompanying them.

“So what exactly are we doing here?” questioned Officer Wilson interested in the exact circumstances of their secret mission.

“That's easy, we supply some local tribes with weapons to fight the Japs.” grinned Officer Richards who was here on order of the British Military intelligence. He was referring to the Dayak (also known as Dyak or Dayuh), the native people of Borneo. The name however was a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the central and southern interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. Dayak languages were categorized as part of the Austronesian languages in Asia. The Dayak were animist in belief; however, many converted to Islam and since the 19th century there has been mass conversion to Christianity. This missionary work had helped the Dutch Linguist Simon van Westerling to establish contact with some of this tribes and study them, their culture and language. Using a small rubber boat to travel from the submarine inland along one of the rivers of Borneo, the small group and their weapons bypassed the Japanese Garrison and the local Brunei Sultanate forces.

“When we enter the village, let me do the talking.” said Simon, not only because he was the only one of the group to understand parts of their language, but also because these Savages could kill foreigners on the spot if they felt offended or angered in any way he had heard and seen.

“Look at this primitives, how would they be able to help us?” questioned Officer Wilson seriously worried at this native tribesman they passed with a troubling look.

“They are skilled warriors and hunters, expert in this jungles and this island is their home, they are exactly what we are looking for.” was Officer Richard convinced hat these people would serve their purpose quit well.

“If we manage to unify some of the Dayak tribes as a guerrilla force against the Japs, maybe they can distract them.” agreed Officer Wilson, but he was not convinced that they would be able to do anything more.

“And that's the plan.” smiled Petrick Wilson with a grin. “It doesn't matter if this primitives fight good or bad against the Japs.” knew the Officer from similar experience and use of native scouts, guerrilla warriors and tribesman in Papua alongside American, Australian, British, Dutch and New Zealand forces. “As long as they attack local Malayan towns and villages, they tie down Japanese and Co-Prosperity forces that can't fight us anywhere else.” advised Officer Wilson knowingly that that was the best strategy at the moment to tie down the Japanese advance and resources.

“Please don't look directly at the warriors and avoid all unnecessary possible provocations.” advised the Linguist Simon van Westerling once again warning.

“Pffft, it is not as if they simply kill and eat us right?” grinned Officer Wilson amused at his own little joke, but as the other two next to him just stared frightened and serious, he gulped loudly. That would be the last time the young Officer talked along the trip until they were back again, safely inside the submarine. In the longhouse he tried to avoid the many skulls visible there and tried his best not to be suspicious, disrespectful, or in any other way provocation to these native primitives tribal warriors and their chiefs. The forces they would unleash as a united tribal federation agains Japanese and Brunei Malayan people on Borneo would soon be known as the Dayak Independence Army, fighing to expell the Japanese invaders and the Malayan colonists and settlers coming from the Siam/Thai annexed Malayan Peninsula.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 325: Nightmares of a Victory:

Nervous the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and it's Premier lay awake at night. Joseph Stalin had underestimated the Germans time needed to prepare a attack on Russia and he had underestimated the possibility of Japan attacking later, forcing him into a two-front war. The new Russian Empire was a ideological and moral competition swaying the minds of the local minorities and Russians together with the other Axis Central Powers, posing a real tread to his rule and ideology. This meant that he even thought about lifting some restriction's on local minorities and even inviting the churches back, until the chief of the Soviet security and secret service (NKVD) Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria reassured him that with more control and terror the situation would be quickly back under control, not leaving them and their rule weakened in Russia once the ACP were beaten. With fresh troops from Siberia, Stalin had ordered the defence of Moscow, that came under Axis Central Powers attack on 2 September 1941. Refusing to leave the city, Stalin made his final stand, ready to stop the invasion right before it would rule supreme over the Soviet Union.

The Battle of Moscow (also known as the Moscow Miracle in Soviet Russia, lasting from 2 September 1941 – 7 December 1941) would lead to a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a 600 km (370 mi) sector of the Eastern Crusade Front during the Second Great War. With a whole Soviet Army tied down in Georgia and cut off from the rest of the Soviet Front, Caucasian Oil Fields under German control and the northern harbors occupied by Finland, Germany or the United Baltic Duchy, Stalin was grateful that his compromises with Japan's Co-Prosperity Sphere in Manchuria and Mongolia had given him time to concentrate westwards and secure the Far East against a possible Japanese attack, allowing desperately needed allied supplies to reach the Soviet Union. British oil from Iraq and Persia (over a extended long eastern Iranian and Central Asian trade route) additionally kept his tank, mechanized and motorized divisions mobile and a danger to the ACP for now.

The Soviet defensive of Moscow effort frustrated Emperor Wilhelm's and Tsar Vladimir attack on the capital and largest city of the Soviet Union. Moscow was one of the primary military and political objectives for Axis Cnetral Power forces in their Eastern Crusade against the Soviet Union. The German strategic offensive, named Operation Tsar Coronation (German: Kaiserkrönung/ Zarenkrönung), called for two pincer offensive, one to the north of Moscow against the then severed Moscow-Leningrad railway towards the northern Soviet front by two German Panzer (Tank) Armies, and another to the south of Moscow Oblast against the Soviet Union's Western Front south of Tula, by another Panzer Army (a Austria-Hungarian one) with another German Army advanced directly towards Moscow from the west. The Axis Central Powers offensive towards the Soviet capital was nothing less than an all-out attack. It would not be exaggeration to state that the outcome of the Second Great War hung in the balance during this massive attack and Stalin knew so too.

Initially, the Soviet forces conducted a strategic defence of the Moscow Oblast by constructing three defensive belts, deploying newly raised reserve armies, and bringing troops from the Siberian Military District, ready and trained to fight in the cold winter. Stalin was heavily criticized for not retreating the whole government with himself further east and some Soviet leaders and institutions already evacuated east, while preparations for the defence of Moscow were made and further defence positions were about to be established. As the German offensives were halted, a Soviet strategic counter-offensive and smaller-scale offensive operations forced the German armies back to the positions around the cities of Oryol, Vyazma and Vitebsk, and nearly surrounded two German and one Tsarist Russian army. It was a major setback for the Axis Central Powers, the end of the idea of a fast victory in the USSR. Some German generals were afterwards excused from their command and replaced by others, often their direct military planning rivals, who had argued for a new Caucasian offensive to crush the Soviet forces there and secure the oil fields to the north and the Ukrainian grain fields to the east.

Stalin on the other hand, while victorious had faced many arguing and incompetence by some of his Commanders and Marshalls, as well as political Commissars and Government members, leading to his growing mistrust and paranoia against his own Command Staff and Government, that was secretly further fueled with false rumors of other disloyalty and even a coup by Beria and the NKVD for their own purpose. As even some Moscow civilians protested Stalin's regime in the streets and waved the illegal Tsarist/ Russian Empire flags, they were quickly shot according to martial law, before the situation escalated further. Ever since then, Stalin had been unsure of who to truly trust inside the Soviet Union, as many (even military high ranking) defectors to Tsar Vladimir and his Russian Empire proved him right. When Japan and the Co-Prosperity Sphere then attacked the Soviet Far East and managed to encircle and destroy some of the Soviet Armies there, Stalin was happy to stop them in Mongolia and at the front before Ulan-Ude. Still he was unable to recognize his own fault for not anticipating the Japanese assault just like he did not manage to anticipate the German one before. Instead Stalin blamed it on his Generals and Marshall's, giving him the wrong advise and on his spies, feeding him the wrong information's. This lead to some executions and a increasingly steady growing paranoia by Stalin. After all thanks to the now two-front war, the last Soviet Reserves were nearly completely exhausted and the only Western Allied supply still reaching him had to come over Central Asia and Iran on sometimes primitive roads. While the Soviets and Allies hastily build new roads and railroads there, Stalin knew without another miraculous Soviet Army offensive, his days could be numbered. With his forces lacking oil and supplies, as well as running out of reserves now, he needed to enlist or enforce even more Russian manpower, throw poorly trained masses at the enemy to stop their continuous assaults and conquests once and for all.

Stalin slept less and started to smoke and drink more ever since, as all the stress proved his own regime was not only bad for the health of his own people and government members in fear under him, but for himself too. While the later so called First Battle of Moscow was a Soviet victory and ACP defeat, it would ultimately lead to the fall of the Soviet Union, the final nail in Stalin's and the Soviet's coffin. It would start a rethinking in German and Axis Central Powers military operations and lead to the disastrous ACP Caucasus Campaign (25 June 1942 – 11 August 1942) that nearly annihilated the Soviet Unions Southern Front and would lead to the disastrous Soviet counter-offensives with 10 field, 1 tank and 4 air armies, called Operation Uranus.

 

[CountofDooku]

The mental downfall of Stalin and the overall fall of Soviet Union Russia is about to begin. ;D

 

[skarosianlifeform]

Good that you avoid the "if Germans behave decently to locals, Soviet government collapses instantly like a house of cards" trope, but instead have a slow collapse.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 326: Co-Prosperity Sphere Naming Chaos:

The Kwantung Army in Manchuria wished a great autonomy for itself and the new state from the very beginning. That was one of the main reasons they heavily invested in mines, infrastructure and industry in the region. Other member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere would later follow their example and build their own Armored Cars, Tankettes, Self-propelled Guns and Tanks, as well as airplanes and ship types, instead of just buying Japanese models. After Khalkhin Gol, Manchukuo designed most of his tanks after Japanese one, but also a few on western bought models, as well as captured Soviet ones. Much like in Co-Prosperity Sphere Burma later many of the Manchurian tank designs could operate on both the roadway and railway lines, to better secure the state against local partisans and guerrilla wars. To many western historians, this was when the confusion about the Co-Prosperity Sphere tanks began.

The Japanese Tank naming system was arranged around the Army Imperial Year System. The Imperial Year was used as the standard for designating the type, based on the mystical founding of Japan in 660 BC. The accepted practice was to use the last two numbers of the year as a type number, as in the Type 89 medium tank of 1929, with Type 100 for items accepted in 1940. Beginning after 1940 only the last digit was used, so Type 2 equipment was accepted in 1942.Each tank is given a separate name, based on the order in adaption, the Order System. The Type 89 medium tank was the “I-Go”, or “first car/model” while the Type 95 light tank was the “Ha-Go”, or “third car/model” (no second model has been identified). Starting from the Type 97 Chi-Ha, the naming system was changed to incorporate the classification of the tank. Each tank would get a two letter name, with the first letter standing for the type of tank and the second for the order in which the tanks were developed.

The majority of tanks fell into three categories – Chi, Ke and Ho, or Medium, Light and Gun, with Chi and Ke used as single character abbreviations for Chiu (or Chui) and Kei. There seems to have been a category for Heavy (O, short for Oo), but this is only "confirmed" in the sense that it was the unofficial name given to the 120 ton tank O-I. The overall end system was Car (Shi), Light (Ke), Medium (Chi), Gun Tank (Ho), Heavy (Ju) and Super Heavy (O, or Oo). The numbering system used was based on the Iroha, a Japanese poem. This used every character from the Japanese syllabary once, and for a long time was used to put those characters in order (in a rather poetic version of the ABC). The first two lines of the poem, transliterated in roman letters, ran:
i ro ha ni ho he to
chi ri nu ru wo

That meant that I or Yi was 1, Ro was 2, Ha was 3, Ni was 4, Ho was 5, He was 6, o was 7, Chi was 8, Ri was 9, Nu was 10, Ru was 11 and O or Wo was 12. To give an medium tank example:
Chi-I (Medium First): None (most likely Experimental Type 1 Tank)
Chi-Ro (Medium Second): Type 89 I-Go
Chi-Ha (Medium Third): Type 97 Chi-Ha
Chi-Ni (Medium Fourth): Type 97 Chi-Ni (never got out of prototype status)
Chi-Ho (Medium Fifth) Type 98 Chi-Ho (never got out of prototype status)
Chi-He (Medium Sixth): Type 1 Chi-He
Chi-To (Medium Seventh): Type 4 Chi-To
Chi-Ri (Medium Ninth): Type 5 Chi-Ri
Chi-Nu (Medium Tenth): Type 3 Chi-Nu

This numbering system was adapted by all of the Co-Prosperity Sphere members and this is where the confusion truly began. Manchuria the first to introduce the system, started their counting for Types not in 660 BC, but in 1636, the beginning of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty rule over China, as their continuation Puyi saw his new empire. This Manchurian system was used for both, tanks and equipment bought from Japan, as well as their own produced ones. However, the Japanese dated the creation and liberation of Manchukuo in 1932 as the starting date for solely in Manchuria (Made in Manchuria) produced goods and equipment of all kind. The Manchurian tanks focused on Light and Medium first, but started to create Heavy and Super Heavy tanks after their terrifying encounter with superior Soviet tanks during Hokushin-ron.

Mengjiang hat the same numbering problem, as the Japanese started their count for the Khanate in 1933, while the Mengjian Khanate started their count in the year 1206 with their foundation date, as the Empire of Genghis Khan. The Empire of Yankoku had the same problem, as the Japanese counted the creation of the state in 1935, while the government viewed the first Yan State in the 11th century BCE as their starting point for the counting system and their own history. Han China was even more complicated, as some companies used the Qin State in 9th century BC as their numbering systems, others began with the Han Dynasty in 202 BC and a few started with the Republic of China in 1912. The same chaos was true for all other military equipment and most other member states for the Co-Prosperity Sphere that mostly not started with the Japanese liberation of of their homelands, but with the year their sates or dynasties were formed.

They all used mostly the same method for renumbering the Japanese and other bought vehicles too. While the members of the Co-Prosperity Sphere knew what to refer to when one of the other member states military used their own classifications, it was pure hell for Allied and Soviet code-breakers and spies, who refereed to the Japanese models solely. This was because they believed that all used the same classifications the Japanese had introduced, causing many false reports and confusions during the Asian and Pacific Theaters of the Second Great War. A similar chaos erupted with Airplanes and Ships, because even when they used the same models or variations of these, every member state of the Co-Prosperity Sphere used his own classifications.

 

[skarosianlifeform]

After the Germans beat the Soviet forces trapped in Caucasus, and the counter-offensive (Uranus) fails, the Red Army will have even less reserves (and will be litterally reduced to conscripts), will be demoralized, and Stalin will likely do more and more purges (either because of his growing paranoia, or because he's furious about defeats and wants scapegoats, or because there are more real opponents) which will further cripple the Red Army and push more civilians, conscripts and officers to defect, desert or mutiny... While the ACP forces launch another offensive towards Moscow, and the city finally falls. Then, Soviet Union will likely finally crumble (either as all soldiers desert en masse or defect to the Czar en masse, or the Red Army leaders launch a coup, or Beria launch a coup, etc).

Then, at some point, the Allies will likely try to land in Europe. They might even rush it, wanting to try their landings "while Germans are still engaged on the Eastern Front" (right after Soviet collapse)... and will likely fail horribly.

 

[CountofDooku]

Maybe?! ;D ^^ will not confirm or deny too much before it's written as a chapter.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 327: Hitler's potential Cabinet – A tale of Karl Hermann Frank:

Karl Hermann Frank (born 24 January 1898) was born in Karlsbad, Bohemia, in Austria-Hungary and taught by his father (a proponent of Georg Ritter von Schönerer's policies) about nationalist agitation. Frank attempted to enlist in the Austro-Hungarian Army in the First Great War, but he was rejected due to blindness in his right eye. He spent a year at the law school of the German language Charles University in Prague and worked as a tutor to make money. An extreme advocate of the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany, Frank joined the German National Socialist Worker' Party (Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei; DNSAP) by 1923 and was involved in setting up several DNSAP chapters in northern Bohemia and Silesia. In 1925, Frank opened a book store which specialized in National-Socialist literature. Frank joined and helped organize the Sudeten-German Homeland Front (SdH) in 1933, which officially became the Sudeten German Party (SdP) in 1935. He then worked in the SdP public relations and propaganda department. In 1935, Frank became deputy leader of the SdP and was elected a member of the Czechoslovak Parliament. Coming to represent the most radical National Socialists in the SdP, Frank was made Deputy Statthalter (Stadtholder) of German-Bohemia (German: Deutsch-Böhmen) when it became part of Austria-Hungary again with the integration of the former states of Czech and Slovakia. Disappointed that Hitler had not chosen to annex Austria after the military coup had happened in Germany, Frank knew that there were other ways to improve German powers and positions in this two-Empire-solution of 1938. As the Statthalter of Deutsch-Böhmen (German Bohemia – former Sudetenland in Bohemia), Frank promoted a further Germanisation of the area with new German settlers in Deutsch-Böhmen as well as Deutsch-Mähren (German Moravia – former Sudetenland in Moravia and Schlesien) to increase both states over time and to force the Czechs back into Böhmen (Bohemia proper – former Czech Protectorate), as a Czech Reservation of sorts.

His Austrofascistmonarchist ideological group believed rightly, that the fall of the former Austria-Hungary was caused by dividing nationalism and that the best way to stop a repeating of the same situation, was to increase the German population in the Austrian part of the Dual-Monarchy, until it would become a solid majority. While in the south of Austria, Slovenes, Italians and Serb-Croats were a majority in the regions, their overall number paled compared to the Austrian Provinces. Some Italians were even relocated to Italy, to prevent a further border dispute over ethnic groups between both Empires. In the north, the situation wasn't as easily to manage as in the south. While the Sudeten German Party (SdP) got 1,249,534 (15.2%) of the votes and became the strongest of all parties in all of Czechoslovakia and had won about 68% of the German votes, thus surpassing the German Social Democratic Workers Party, the German Christian Social People's Party and the Farmers' League, this was not enough for the dreams of a true German Bohemia after the re-integration into Austria-Hungary. The division in the new Austria-Hungarian Diet had weakened the German lead in this provinces out of the not unreasonable fear, that a united Czech political front could otherwise outmatch them heavily. In the new state of Deutsch-Böhmen the former SdP (now Bohemian German Party, German: Böhmendeutsche Partei, abbreviated BdP) gained the majority of the votes, making Frank the new Statthalter (Governor) of the region. In Deutsch-Mähren however, the former SdP (now Moravian German Party, German: Mährendeutsche Partei, abbreviated MdP) gained the majority of votes, making Konrad Ernst Eduard Henlein, the former leader of the SdP the Statthalter there. Both dreamed about increasing the number of children for ethnic Germans in these areas with financial government substitution and special honors. They dreamed about one day having a purely German Böhmen und Mähren (Bohemia and Moravia proper – former Czech Protectorate), with a German majority and a administration composed entirely of the German officials. They had very close ties to the Galician German Party (German Galiziendeutsche Partei) in West-Galizien (polish populated West Galicia) and Ost-Galizien (Ukrainian populated East Galicia), as well as close ties to Franz Karmasin's Carpathian German Party (German: Karpatendeutsche Partei, abbreviated KdP) in the State of Hungary (more precisely the Slowakenland, or former Slovakian Protectorate).

Frank and Henlein, who as the Statthalter now both wielded great power in the former protectorates of Czech, started to be encouraged by each others goals and ideology. They controlled the police apparatus in the state regions, including the police, security, intelligence and military branches. As Statthalter (Governor and chief of police), Frank and Henlein pursued a policy of harsh suppression of dissident Czechs and pushed for the arrest of Bohemia and Moravia's Statthalter, Alois Eliás (who maintained contact with the Czechslovak government-in-exile). These actions by both were countered by the Austrian Emperors "soft approach" to the Czechs thereby encouraging anti-German resistance by strikes and sabotage. This frustrated Frank and Henlein, leading them to secretly working to discredit the Emperor's weak, anti-German policy in favor of their own party and their German-Austria-Coalition.

They decision to adopt a more radical approach in Bohemia and Moravia. They tried to enforce a more pro-German policy, fight resistance to the Austria-Hungarian (mainly Austrian in this part of the Dual-Monarchy) government, and keep up production quotas of Czech motors and arms that were extremely important to the Austria-Hungarian war effort". The working relationship between Frank and Henlein was a good one as they both were ambitious and brutal. They launched a reign of terror in the German-Bohemian and German-Moravian states, arresting and killing opponents and ramping up the deportation of Czechs to relocate them into Bohemia or further east. Between 4,000 and 5,000 people were arrested and between 400 and 500 were executed by February 1942. However their power ended in their states and much to their disappointment their power did not extend to all of Bohemia and Moravia. Henlein and Frank therefore used the Czech Resistance and their bombings and killings in the German-Bohemian and German-Moravian states to justify harsh counter-measures. One of their orders stated to shoot all the men, send all the women to reeducation camps, and place those few children considered worthy of "Germanization" in the care of purely German families, with the rest being murdered. With nearly 14,000 soldiers they crossed the border into Bohemia and Moravia state, claiming to raid against local partisans in a anti-partisan warfare. This de facto made Henlein and Frank the most powerful officials in the former Czech Protectorate. They executed civilians suspected of supporting the partisans, but in the end were unable to destroy the partisan brigades, as their harsh and hateful policy against some rebels and partisans, brought further support on the Czech public against the Austria-Hungarian Empire.

Despite his work, Frank believed to be rightfully fighting a traitorous insurgence, supported by Socialists, Communists, Comintern and Pan-Slavic groups as Stattalter Karl Frank believed. Frank was married twice. On 21 January 1925 he married Anna Müller (born 5 January 1899 in Karlsbad). The couple had two sons Harald, born 20 January 1926, and Gerhard, born 22 April 1931. They divorced on 17 February 1940. On 14 April 1940 Frank remarried a physician, Karola Blaschek (born 13 August 1913 in Brüx). The couple had three children together, two daughters Edda, (born 16 August 1941) and Holle-Sigrid (born later on 8 March 1944), and two sons Wolf-Dietrich (born 20 August 1942) and Gunther (born 17 May 1946). While Frank loved his own daughters and sons greatly, he had little empathy for the children of traitors who worked against the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and his dream to further Germanizate the states of Austria within Austria-Hungary.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 328: Lessons learned at Niugini/Niu Gini (New Guinea): Jungle Warfare

The Green Hell Handbook, a Guide to Burma and Niugini/Niu Gini Warfare
- Himura Kano

…
“It is best to advice our forces, to make a practice of using various types of defensive positions, according to the terrain, the time available for construction, and the strength of the enemy. On Guadalcanal and parts of New Guinea, we frequently established our defenses on low, jungle-covered ground, in preference to high ground. In Burma, where less jungle is encountered, we usually established our positions on terrain heights and near the crests of heights.”
…
“Our defenses in one area are of two types, temporary and permanent. The temporary types were small self-contained, cleverly concealed squad posts, 30 feet in diameter and situated some 300 yards apart. They usually contained 10 men. These posts, designed for all-around defense, served as hideouts from which our patrols could operated at night. The so-called permanent-type defenses, or main positions, instead are sited on natural obstacles. They contained mortars, for which the temporary squad positions serves as observation posts. Several of the this positions will best be situated along the edges of woods, and others were located from 30 to 40 yards inside the woods.”
…
“It is best to cut fire lanes for most of our positions. This lanes, extending out from the positions in different directions, usually were 15 to 30 feet long and never more than 2 feet wide. We should depend largely upon foxholes and individual weapon pits for defense positions in his forward area. Most of the positions will have to be well camouflaged with natural foliage, and most of the foxholes should be covered, with lids resembling trap doors. Our soldiers would keep these lids down except for short periods of observation. Some of these positions are 4 feet deep. Around the top of each position was a bundle of brushwood, about 2 feet high and tied together with wire. One of these posts contained three grenades, a rifle, an individual cooker, and an ammunition box full of rice and various papers, evidence of the self-contained nature of our individual defense positions.”
…
“Many of our deeper defense trenches on the front are T-shaped or L-shaped. A large number of trenches were not occupied. These extras were dug to allow us to shift from one position to another, for reasons of security. It is not a exaggerated to say that our soldiers must have spent most of their time digging. Usually our defending soldiers would hold their fire until the attacking forces launched an assault, sometimes from a distance as close as 50 yards. In accordance with previously stated defense doctrine, our soldiers, if driven front their positions, will soon launch a counterattack. This attack should start with a shower of grenade-discharger shells and is followed immediately by a charge with automatic-weapon support.”
…
“Our foxholes in one area of the front were 2 1/2 feet deep, and did not contain well-developed machine-gun positions. The foxholes were in two rings around the top of a hill, one just below the crest and the other spaced around the top of the hill. Additional foxholes, of a different construction, were found at the bottom of the hill.”
…
“We have been reluctant to disrupt interlocking cross fire plans for their light machine guns when the guns were attacked from the front by infantry. Almost invariably we will have to sacrifice even a good light machine-gun target if firing would give away the location of a strategic observation post.”
…
“While being shelled or bombed, we could fled our frontline defence posts, to the dugout, secure that we could abandon our light machine-gun posts without being assaulted while the shelling was actually in progress. In one or more trees, that affords a view of all approaches to the position, we will built a combination sniper's nest and sentry post. One of our soldiers will have to keep watch during the daytime while the others slept or relaxed, allowing a 24-hour guard.”
…
“Animals (like Cattle) left behind by the enemy fleeing the combat zone will be driven by our soldiers into places where they could be conveniently watched from under concealment. When natives bent on looting— (usually a few men traveling together) tried to steal the groups of cattle back, our soldiers will pop out and arrest them. The captives then will be taken before one of our officer and questioned about the opposing forces. If the natives could not supply sufficient information, one of them will be released to go back to the enemy lines and find out more, while his friends were held as hostages. If the released native did not return by a given date, the remainder of his group were shot for stealing. Since the native released would often be separated from his family by us if he failed to return, he will generally came back with some information because it was the easiest way out, both for himself and his fellow looters.”
...
“While it is efficient to use local allies and support from natives, so save our supply rations for longer campaigns, we can not solely rely on these alone. To save our own ammunition we must therefore advice our soldiers to hunt local animals with bow and arrows like natives tribesman and other locals.”
…
“Our patrols could always be counted upon to do the unexpected. They should often withdrew from our own held areas while these were being scouted by patrols of opposing forces. When the latter patrols reported back with the information that the enemy had fled, our own forces would simply reoccupy the area with a strong force. When the opposition moved a considerable force into the area, we can then opened up on them with a murderous fire at close range.”
…
“We are particularly keen about using all sorts of ruses to draw mortar and automatic fire. One or a few of our individual soldiers, waving a flag, running out into open spaces for this purpose, should do the trick. When automatic fire is opened on him/them, he/they will drop to the ground while other soldier of us, secretly following him/them, under cover, observed the enemies location of the automatic weapon or weapons doing the firing, so they could open up on it a short time later.”
…
“At night our forces can send a man toward our lines with a machine gun and tracer ammunition. This gunner should fire in short bursts at places believed to be occupied by the opposing forces. When he was fired upon, he ducked to the ground while his pals in the rear tried to locate the positions of automatic weapons firing at our machine gunner. If our gunner failed to receive fire from a suspected position he would move on to another, all the time closing in on opposing positions until someone eventually fired at him with their weapons.”
…
“To escape detection, our mortars often began firing either immediately after our guns had fired or just after impact of our mortar bombs.”
…
“In some areas of he front, our soldiers put up dummy men in an effort to fool the opposing forces, believing we had larger numbers, or to fire upon false positions. These dummies (often even with dummy equipment) were sometimes mannequin (even self-made ones), but were sometimes also corpses, or tied up enemy prisoners. With some small changes and buildings unto our rifles and a water bucked, we can use the dripping water to fire these rifles, creating the illusion that these positions even fire upon the enemy. ”
…
“To confuse the enemy, our forces should fire signals, or use lightning signals similar to their own, shortly after they had used theirs, but with different meaning and pointing at different directions.”
…
“It appears to be wise, to copy some of the local tribesman and warriors ideas of natural camouflage in the surrounding areas, while moving or in any any form of position.”
…
“As we have learned from experience in the Jungle, the old concept of Fake Trees and Fake Rocks/ Fake Mountain Bunkers (with concrete) is to be encouraged among our fortified lines, bunkers and positions. This well hidden and natural looking ares can either be used to ambush the enemy when he attacks, or already had pushed past them. These positions could then open fire from his side, or even behind later, or serve as well covered entrenches for underground tunnels and bunkers. From there our reserves and bypassed forces can push out and wreak havoc among the enemies back, his supply lines and even his front-line defences from behind.”
…
“Self-made improvised additions to our standard equipment can greatly increase our strength and possibilities. When we equip our snipers with small shields that allow to protect them, our snipers can camouflage this shields with additional dirt and tree branches to hide behind secure positions. His sniper positions and nests will also function as sentry posts.”
...

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 329: Hitler's former Cabinet – A tale of Konstantin Hierl:

Konstantin Hierl (born 24 February 1875) was a major figure in the administration of Nazi Germany and later the German Empire. He was the head of the Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst; RAD) and an associate of Adolf Hitler before he came to national power.

Hierl was born in Parsberg near Neumarkt in the Bavarian Upper Palatinate region, and attended secondary school (Gymnasium) in Burghausen and Regensburg. In 1893 he joined the Bavarian Army as a cadet. He obtained the rank of lieutenant in 1895 and graduated from the military academy in 1902. He was promoted to captain (Hauptmann) in 1909. He served as a company commander in the Bavarian infantry. In the First Great War Hierl served as a member of the general staff of the I Royal Bavarian Reserve Corps, part of the German 6th Army fighting on the Western Front, where he achieved the rank of a lieutenant colonel.

Upon the German defeat and the November Revolution of 1918, Hierl became head of a paramilitary Freikorps unit. Hierl played a role in organizing the Black Reichswehr paramilitary forces in the early years of the Weimar Republic. In 1925, he joined Ludendorff's the far-right Tannenbergbund political society, which Hierl left two years later.

In 1929 he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) and became head of Organization Department II that same year. In the federal elections of 1930, he became a member of the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) parliament. On 5 June 1931, two years before the Nazi Party ascended to national power, Hierl became head of the FAD (Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst), a state sponsored voluntary labor organization that provided services to civic and agricultural construction projects. There were many such organizations in all of Europe at the time, founded to provide much-needed employment during the Great Depression.

Hierl was already a high-ranking member of the NSDAP when the Party took power in January 1933. He remained the head of the labor organization - now called the Nationalsozialistischer Arbeitsdienst, or NSAD. Adolf Hitler named him as State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Labor under Franz Seldte, with the order to build up a powerful labor service organization. Facing Minister Seldte's resistance, Hierl in 1934 switched to the Reich Ministry of the Interior under Wilhelm Frick in the rank of a Reichskommissar. On 11 July 1934, the NSAD was renamed Reichsarbeitsdienst or RAD (Reich Labor Service) which Hierl would control as its chief. The Reich Labor Service was divided into two major sections, one for men (Reichsarbeitsdienst Männer - RAD/M) and one for women (Reichsarbeitdienst Frauen - RAD/F). The RAD was composed of 40Gau-sections (Arbeitsgau). In 1936 the Reich Labor Service built the model village of Hierlshagen, named after Hierl. He was named Reich Labor Leader (Reichsarbeitsführer) in 1935 and Reichsleiter in 1936. Also in 1936, he was awarded the Golden Party Badge. After the military coup against Hitler, Hierl managed to convince the court that his work focused on strengthening a monarchist conservative Germany, not a single party or individual. Hierl stayed in his office under the new ruling German National People's Party (German: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) and the returned Emperor Wilhelm II, under direct control of the Imperial German Diet.

During the Second Great War, hundreds of RAD units were engaged in supplying frontline troops with food, ammunition, repairing damaged roads and constructing and repairing airstrips. RAD units additional constructed coastal and inland colonial fortifications in all of Axis Central Powers Europe (many RAD men worked on the Atlantic Wall), laid minefields, manned fortifications, and even helped guard vital locations and Prisoner of War camps. The role of the Reich Labor Service was not limited to combat support functions. Hundreds of RAD units received training as anti-aircraft units and were deployed as anti-aircraft corps on FLAK batteries.

Over the course of the war, the RAD under Hierl heavily used forced labor, partly from occupied territory civilians (often unemployed people, but also convicted prisoners) , additionally even Allied and Soviet Prisoners of War that were forced into service by harsh terms and severe punishment. This way Hierl's RAD and similar organizations within the Axis Central Powers brought back a new age of slavery to every part of Europe they controlled since the Second Great War, earning Hierl the nickname Enslaver of Europe.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 330: The East Coast under Siege:

The American shooting season:

The Second Happy Time, also known among German submarine commanders as the American shooting season, was the informal name for a phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis Centra Powers submarines and warships attacked merchant shipping and Allied naval vessels along the east coast of North America. The first “Happy Time” was in 1940–41 in the North Atlantic and North Sea. Germany, Italy and the rest of the Axis Central Powers declared war on America, like they had promised the Co-Prosperity Sphere in the Anti-Comintern Pact and in exchange Japan and the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere joined the Eastern Crusade against the Soviet Union in the Far East. Both factions knew that if the Soviets and/or the British Empire could be beaten before the Americans showed up in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the war would most likely end in their victory during that time and decisions. The Second Happy Time lasted from December 1942 to about July of the next year and involved several German naval operations including Operation Haifisch (or Operation Shark) and Operation Hercules. German submariners named it the happy time or the golden time as defense measures were weak and disorganized, and the U-boats (submarines) and warships were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During this period, Axis Central Powers submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons and the loss of thousands of lives, mainly those of merchant mariners, against a loss of only 22 U-boats. Although less than losses during the 1917 campaign in the First Great War, it was roughly one quarter of all shipping sunk by U-boats during the entire Second great War and a devastation start for the American entry into the Second Great War. Some later historians would call it the Atlantic Horror and place the blame for the nation's failure to respond quickly to the attacks on the inaction of Admiral Ernest J- King, commander-in-chief of the U.S. fleet. Others however would point out that the belated institution of a convoy system was at least in substantial part due to a severe shortage of suitable escort vessels, without which convoys were seen as actually more vulnerable than lone ships.

Operation Reichsadler (German: Operation Imperial Eagle):

Together with the Imperial German Navies raid on the shipping along the US East Coast, the Imperial German Air Force (IGAF) under former Reich Aviation Minister and now Air Admiral Hermann Wilhelm Göring launched the so called Operation Reichsadler (German: Operation Imperial Eagle) against the American East Coast cities. Since the Americabomber Project was not yet finished, the Axis Central Powers, led by Germany used bases in Spain and Spanish North Africa to start Airship Aircraft Carrier (AAC) raids on the US East Coast cities as targets. Since most AAC were unable to carry even light and medium bombers, these raids were done by fighters, with a minimal bombing carrying capacity and quiet ineffective on a military scale. They targeted Boston, New York, Baltimore, Newark, Philadelphia and Washington. New Yorks Mayor La Guardia knew that during a new Great War, his city would be a prime target, believing that it was imperative that New York City begin taking steps to protect itself. In addition to 62,000 air-raid wardens, the mayor was asking for 28,000 specially trained volunteers to manually turn off the city lights in the event of a blackout. A fire auxiliary force was already being trained, and volunteer ‘spotters’ (who would remain on rooftops should enemy planes attack) were being canvassed until June 1940. While these Axis Central Powers bombing attacks made little damage, as the fighter and dive bomber planes had little carrying capacity, the fighters flew trough the cities, firing at everything they saw (civilians, cars, trolleys, ships and buildings) to increase the possible shock value and to prove that Germany was able to even reach the US coast. Some German fighters were shot down, others ditched into the Atlantic, but some returned back to their AAC's afar from the coast and returned to Europe. Out of six AAC's one was lost to the American Airforce and would later serve as a blueprint for the United States own AAC models.

While the Second Happy Time, as well as the Operation Imperial Eagle had no major implications to the American ability and power in the war, unlike the loss of Midway, all these events had great and dramatic impacts on the United States Senate elections of 1942, held November 3, 1942 and it's final outcome. Since quiet some time some Axis Central Powers and Co-Prosperity Sphere minorities (split over the Second Great War as most Americans were) had stared anti-war newspapers and propaganda, often in alliance with American anti-war groups and pacifist movements. Headlines like: Roosevelt sends American Boys to die in King Geroge's War, American Blood for Dutch Oil, Bring our Boys Home, America for America, George Washington: no entangling alliances, Why fight for MacArthur's colonial imperialism? (a reference to his famous words to one day return to the Philippines) or Hey, hey FDR, how many boys have died afar? Could be red and heart throughout the United States. It didn't help President Roosevelt, that to counter these dissidents, enemy agitators and spies by interning some Americans of Axis Central Powers (Germans, French, Russians, Ukrainians and other Europeans in the East Coast) and Co-Prosperity Sphere (Japanese, Chosen, Manchu, Mengjiang, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and other Asians on the West Coast) descendant if they were suspected or found guilty of any crimes, spying and enemy agitation against the United States.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 331: German–Japanese/ Axis Central Powers/ Co-Prosperity Sphere industrial and technological co-operation:

In the years prior to the Second Great War in Europe and Asia a significant collaborative development in heavy industry between German companies and their Japanese counterparts as part of their evolving relations (Anti-Comintern Pact) with each others began. This was one major factor in Japan's ability to quickly exploit raw materials in the areas of the Empire of Japan and the Co-Prosperity Sphere later liberated and put under their military control. It also helped with the Japanese and Manchurian preparations for Hokushin-ron, the war against the Soviet Union in the Russian Far East and Siberia. The Japanese used the German and Axis Central Powers failures in the Eastern Crusade to better prepare their forces with winter closing (even specialized ones) and later even anti-tank weapons for Japan and Manchuria, like the Panzerfaust (Bazooka) for infantry or Jagdpanzer (tank destroyer) models to use against the Soviets after 1942. In exchange the Germans got blueprints for modern Super Heavy Battleships, Carriers and other Japanese technology and knowledge about their war against the American Navy.

Nippon Lurgi Goshi KK was a Japanese company of the period involved in Japanese-German cooperation. The Lurgi AG German industrial group was a partner, and it was the Lurgi office in Tokyo. At the end of 1941 the Japanese acquired all the low temperature carbonization patents of Lurgi for Japan, Manchuria, and of China. The agreement gave the Japanese the right to construct plants and an exclusive use of patents. A flat payment of approximately 800,000 Reichsmark, was received from the Japanese, this sum being cleared through the German government. One of the aims was synthetic oil. For example, the South Sakhalin Mining and Railway Company plant at Naihoro/Oichai in Karafuto perhaps motivated the licensing: the southern Karafuto brown coal with a content of paraffin tar (about 15%), and low water content, was suitable for hydrogenation.

• Mitsui Kosan KK Miiki (Ohmura) operated from about 1938. Lurgi AG installed an activated carbon plant to operate with the Fischer-Tropsch plant. Coke and water gas were produced, the coke ovens being built by Koppers.
• The shale plant at Fushun (Japanese Bujum), Manchukuo, was capable of annual production of 200,000 tons of chale oil. The Imperial Japanese Navy also had an interest there in producing some diesel oil and gasoline, in low amounts, while the Imperial Japanese Army wanted to produce even greater numbers.
• The Manshu Gosei Nenryo plant at Chinchow (Kinshu), was a Fischer-Tropsch plant producing about 30,000 tons per year, online from about 1940.
• Near Beijing, in Hopei, the Kalgari factory was to develop the local bituminous coal. It could be used also for the Mengjiang coal of the Cahar-Suiyuan mines.
• A gasification plant at Rumoe in Hokkaido was build in 1942.
• Chosen Sekitan KK at Eian was a small low temperature carbonization plant which was processed about 600 tons of coal per day. This plant yielded from 15,000 to 20,000 tons per annum of coal tar.
• Ube Yuka Kogya KK (No.2), at Ube was a low temperature carbonization plant, with a synthetic ammonia plant. This was a collaboration with Heinrich Koppers AG of Essen.

Japan and Germany signed agreements on military technological collaboration, both before the outbreak of the Second Great War, and during the conflict. However, the first air technology interchange occurred during World War I when Japan joined against Germany on the side of the Allies, and Germany lost a Rumpler Taube aircraft at Tsingtao, which the Japanese rebuilt as the Isobe Kaizo Rumpler Taube, as well as an LVG, known to the Japanese as the Seishiki-1, in 1916. After the war had ended the Japanese purchased licenses for the Hansa-Brandenburg W.33 which was built as the Yokosoho Navy Type Hansa in 1922, and as the Aichi Type 15-ko "Mi-go" in 1925.

During the Second Great War the Japanese Navy traded a Nakajima E8N "Dave" reconnaissance seaplane (itself a multi-generational development of the Vought O2U to Germany, later seen in British markings on the German raider Orion, as well as the dispatch of a Mitsubishi Ki-46 "Dinah", among other weapons.
In the other direction:

• The German Focke-Wulf company sent a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5, and was contracted to send a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 V-10 (S-1) or Focke-Wulf Ta 152.
• The Heinkel company sent examples of the Heinkel He 50 A (manufactured in Japan by Aichi as the D1A1, Allied codename "Susie"), Heinkel He 70 "Blitz", Heinkel He 112 (V12,12 B-0, Japanese designation A7He1), Heinkel He 100 D-1 (in Japan designated AXHe1), Heinkel He 116 (V5/6), and Heinkel He 118 (DXHe/Yokosuka D4Y Suisei), Heinkel He 119 V7 and V8, Heinkel HD 25, Heinkel HD 62, Heinkel HD 28, Heinkel HD 23, Heinkel He 162 "Volksjager" under the variant named Tachikawa Ki 162, and Heinkel He 177 A-7 "Greif" designs.
• The Bücker company sent its Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann which in Japan was designated the Kokusai Ki-86 (Army) or Kyūshū K9W (Navy).
• Dornier sent its Dornier Do 16 Wal (in Japan made by Kawasaki as the KDN-1), Dornier Do N built as the Kawasaki Army Type 87 heavy bomber, and the Dornier Do C.
• Fieseler sent the Fieseler Fi-103 Reichenberg, and Fieseler Fi 156 Storch (redesigned by the Japanese and produced as the Kobeseiko Te-Gō).
• The Junkers company sent its Junkers K 37 (developed by the Japanese as the Mitsubishi Ki-1 and Ki-2), Junkers G.38b K51 (Japanese design Mitsubishi Ki-20), Junkers Ju 88 A-1, Junkers Ju 52, Junkers Ju 87 A, Junkers Ju 86 and made sales of its Junkers Ju 290, Junkers Ju 390 and Junkers Ju 488 designs.
• The Messerschmitt company sold the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3/4, Messerschmitt Bf 110, Messerschmitt Me 210 A-2, Messerschmitt Me 163 A/B "Komet" (a Japanese design based only on the partial drawings received was the Mitsubishi J8M/Ki-202 Shusui rocket interceptor) and Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a whose design influenced the Nakajima Ki-201 Karyu; and studied the possibility of the use of the Messerschmitt Me 264. Also sent was the design of the Messerschmitt Me 509, which may have influenced the design of the Yokosuka R2Y1 Keiun reconnaissance plane.
• The Arado company sent an example of Arado Ar 196 A-4, which had been traded for the Nakajima E8N.
• Focke-Achgelis sent its design Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 Bachstelze, an observation aircraft for submarines, and other aircraft examples.

When it came to aircraft equipment, the Japanese Army fighter Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien ("Tony") used a license-built Daimler-Benz DB 601A engine which resulted in the Allies believing that it was either a Messerschmitt Bf 109 or an Italian Macchi C.202 Folgore until they examined captured examples. It was also fitted with Mauser MG 151/20 20mm cannons also built under license.

There are other cases of military technology interchange. The Ho-Ru SPG with 47 mm AT cannon, resembled the German Hetzer tank destroyer combined with wheel guide pins like the T-34. The heavy tank destroyers Ho-Ri I and II, armed with a 105 mm cannon, have been influenced by German Jagd heavy tanks Elefant and Jagdtiger. The Type 4 Chi-To medium tank, armed with a 75 mm cannon, and the Type 5 Chi-Ri medium tank, armed with 75 or 88 mm cannon, were influenced by the Panther, Tiger I, and Tiger II German tanks. The Type 1 Ho-Ha half-track armored personnel carrier was similar to the German Sd.Kfz. 251 armored fighting vehicle. Japanese Ambassador General Hiroshi Ōshima in the name of Japanese Army bought one example of the Panzerkampfwagen PzKpfw VI Ausf E Tiger I tank with additional equipment.

The Japanese Navy received examples of the German Type IX D 2 submarine Ausf "Monsun" and other submarines, such as the Type IX D 2's U-181 (Japanese submarine I-501) and U-862 (I-502), the Italian submarine Comandante Cappellini (I-503), and Reginaldo Giuliani (I-504), the German Type X D submarine U-219 (I-505), the Type IX 1 U-195 (I-506), two Type IXC submarines (RO-500 & RO-501), and Flakvierling anti-aircraft cannons, with a disarmed V-2 and others. Japanese Navy received later in last war stages from Germans, some advanced technology of Type XXI "Elektro-boote" class for designed The Sen Taka (submarine, high speed) and Sen Taka Sho (submarine, high speed, small) models, in high bursts of speed, could run faster submerged than on the surface for up to an hour, only comparable in underwater speed to the I-201-class was the German related sub type. The other way around Germany got the plans for some Japanese submarine transports to secretly carry important resource of high priority trough the British blocade.

In 1935, a German technical mission arrived in Japan to sign accords and licenses to use the technology from the Akagi-class aircraft carrier for use in the German aircraft carriers Graf Zeppelin and the rest of it's Graf Zeppelin-Class from Deutsche Werke Kiel A.G. Kaiserwerke later even got the plans and licenses for the Yamato Super Heavy Battleship, it intended to remodel for it's own purpose in the Plan Z, replacing the older Scharnhorst- and Bismarck-class battleships one day. They also acquired the technical data on the adaptations to the Messerschmitt Bf 109T/E and Junkers Ju 87C/E, for use on such carriers. This technology was also applied in the following aircraft:

• Fieseler Fi 156
• Fieseler Fi 167
• Arado Ar 95/195
• Arado Ar 96B
• Arado Ar 197
• Heinkel He 50
• Avia B 534. IV

The Japanese (on a much larger scale then the Chinese) also bought licenses and acquired aircraft or even tanks (sometimes singly and sometimes in large quantities) from most of the western countries. These included the United Kingdom (with which it had a close relationship up until shortly after the end of the First Great War) and whose De Havilland aircraft were extensively used, France, who supplied a huge variety of aircraft of all types from 1917 through to the 1930s, and whose Nieport-Delage NiD 29 fighter provided the Japanese Army Air Force with its first modern fighter aircraft, as well as the bias toward extremely manoeuvrable aircraft. The United States of America supplied the Douglas DC-4E and Douglas DC-5, the North American NA-16 (precursor to the T-6/SNJ) as well as others too many to list. This resulted in many Japanese aircraft being discounted as being copies of Western designs - which from 1935 onwards was rarely the case except for trainers and light transports where development could be accelerated, the Nakajima Ki-201 and Mitsubishi J8M being rare exceptions.

The Nippon-German Technical Exchange Agreement would increase heavily until 1944/45 and Japan relied heavily on the, obtaining manufacturing rights, intelligence, blueprints, and in some cases, actual airframes for several of Germany's new air weapons, the same way the German started to relied heavily on the, obtaining manufacturing rights, intelligence and blueprints for modern Japanese ships. These included the Me 163 Komet (developed as the Mitsubishi J8M Shusui), the BMW 003 axial-flow jet engine (which was reworked to Japanese standards as the Ishikawajima Ne-20), information on the Me 262 which resulted in the Nakajima J9Y Kikka), data on the Fiesler Fi-103R series (which culminated in the development of the Kawanishi Baika), and even data on the Bachem Ba 349 Natter point-defense interceptor. While the Nakajima Kikka bore some resemblance to the German Me 262, it was only superficial, even though the Ne-20 engines which powered the Kikka were the Japanese equivalent of the German BMW 003 engine which initially powered the Me 262 prototype. Also, the Kikka was envisioned from the outset not as a fighter, but as a special attack bomber and was only armed with a bomb payload. Modern Jet fighters and bombers would increase the value of Japanese island airfields and fortified positions in the pacific during the Second Great War, shielding it's Pacific Front further to the east against the Americans and Allies.

After 1944 even twelve dismantled V-2 (A-4) rockets were shipped to Japan. These left Bordeaux in August 1944 on the U-219 and U-195, which reached Djakarta in December 1944. A civilian V-2 expert was a passenger on the U-219 and traveled together with the parts to Japan. These rockets would further inspire the Japanese plans to capture Hawaii and use it as a base to attack the American West Coast with rockets or long-range Pacific Bombers.

 

[Anhtuan]

Does the Chinese civil war still a stalemate, or it’s already finished?

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 332: Co-Prosperity Sphere naval minefields:

Bengal Bay/ Indian Ocean naval minefields:
The Japanese/ Co-Prosperity Sphere naval minefields in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal were of two kinds; defensive and offensive ones. The Defensive ones included the Java and Sumatran naval minefields, the northern and southern Andaman ones (with a passage to the later Cra/Kra Cannal in between) and the northern and southern Burmese ones. Their main purpose was to make any allied attempts of naval invasions, or break in into Co-Prosperity Sphere dominated waters nearly impossible with a little help of island and other land based fighters and bombers. The more offensive minefields however were meant to disrupt allied trading alongside Japanese submarines. Most of these minefields were located in the northern Indian Ocean, or the east coast of Africa, while some in the southern Indian Ocean were meant to cut off Australian trade with the rest of the allies to it's west later on (the so called Australian Blockade). Additionally land based bombers searched the northern Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal for enemy ships, forcing them trough very dangerous waters, or a much longer, southern route in the open ocean. The allies on the other hand mined the east coast of Ceylon and India once the Second Great War had started, out of fear of a Japanese naval invasion there.

Pacific Ocean naval minefields:
Like in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean was mined by the Japanese and Co-Prosperity Sphere. The first minefields were placed in the Chinese Sea to disrupt Chiang's National Chinese supply lines and the navy that had stayed loyal to him. These corridors were later in the Second Great War still used by the Japanese convoys to stay a little bit more secure against Allied submarines. When the war in the south against the American and European Colonial Powers started, the South Chinese Sea was mined even more, as well as the Philippine Sea. Some of this later mines sunk American supplies and warships during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Major enemy ship routes between island straits were then mined by the Japanese to secure their flanks and trade, while endangering that of the Allies. The liberation of the southern resource area into new member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere had new minefields placed along their coasts in fear of Allied invasions and in hopes to use the Imperial Japanese Navy in a more offensive war in the Pacific, while this minefields helped smaller local naval defence groups still secure the whole region. The waters between Papua and Australia (Torres Strait, Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria) were mined and patrolled by fighters and bombers stationed in Japanese held islands of the north to disrupt any Allied trade north of Australia and supplies for Allied forces in Papua. In the east parts of the Coral Sea and the Solomon Sea (later even the Tasman Sea) were also mined by the Japanese to secure their invasions in eastern Papua and the Solomon Islands against Allied interference, and to further support future invasions against New Caledonia and other targets, so that Australia would be cut off to the east too. In the north and along their Home Islands, the Japanese mined the coast and the Straits to cut off the Allied supply transports for the Soviet Union, when the Co-Prosperity Sphere invaded the Russian Far East. The Allies meanwhile mined most of the northern coast of Australia against a likely Japanese invasions, as well as the Coral Sea and Solomon Sea to stop any further Japanese raids and invasions in the region. Along the Aleutian Islands, the Americans mined the sea to prevent any further Japanese invasion along there into Alaska, while Hawaii was secured by two of the biggest American naval minefields against any possible Invasion of the Islands from the western Pacific. In the east even the Panama Canal was mined to prevent any Japanese raids against this vital gateway between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.