The Co-Prosperity Sphere

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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Chapter 333: Long and overextended Allied Supply Lines:

The Fall of Malta, Gibraltar and Cyprus have proven to be a heavy blow, not only for the British Empire, but for the Allies overall. The Axis Central Powers naval and air rule over the western and central Mediterranean Sea meant shorter and more secure supplie lines for Spain, Fascist France, Italy and Germany into Africa and heavily prolonged and stretched supply lines for the British, (the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Nations), Free France and America. This meant that the Naval Highways of the Empire were stretched far, as supplies for Egypt, the Middle East and India had to use the longer path around the Cape Route, instead of the much shorter route trought the Mediterranean Sea. This meant that the supply ships and convoys to there had to use thirty to fourthy percent more fuel and tonnage to do so. The good side was that besides german submarines and a few raider ships, this route was not only far securer, but could avoid most Axis Central Powers chances of attacking and intercepting these convoys to the front-lines. Knowing so before the war had even started, the British Empire had secured and modernised the longer route around the Cape in advance. From Southampton to Gibralar the distance was 1,143 Nautic Miles, from Southampton to Malta it was 2,134 Nautic Miles, from Southampton to Port Said in Egypt it was 3,049 Nautic Miles and from Southampton all the way to Bombay it was 6,096 Nautic Miles. From Southampton to Freetown in Westafrica it was 2,607 Nautic Miles, from Southampton to Cape Town it was 5,947 Nautic Miles, from Southampton to Durban it was 6,721 Nautic Miles and from Aqaba 7,198 to supply the Middle East Theater of the Second Great War. This was already a longer distance then the regular convoy route to India via Suez Canal. From Southampton to Mauritius it was 8,156 Nautic Miles, from Southampton to Colombo in Ceylon it was 10,250 Nautic Miles and from Southampton to Bombay it was 11,133 Nautic Milec over the Cape Route, nearly doubling the Suez Route.

To protect the Cape Route, Great Britain had increased and modernised the harbor and docks at Cape Town. A new drydock was able to have ships with up to 50,000 tons. A giant tank depot 1,86 miles away from Cape Town had been created, able to hold 200,000 tons of oil and pump them into the harbor of Cape Town with direct pipelines. The airport had been increased dramatically and Duiker Island had been fortified with 15 Inch (38,10 cm) guns. The old war harbour of Simonstown had been modernised, securing Cape Town to the south and was also known as the Gibraltar of the South. In the west region of the Cape Route, Freetown in Sierra Leone had been expanded to a immense naval and air base, that would see a direct Spanish and French Axis Central Powers assaul during the war in Africa. New harbor facilities, underground fuel depots, repair workshops, modern coastal fortifications and other facilities had been build before the outbreak of the Second Great War. Further more a strong garrison of British and indigenous troops had been placed there, helping repelling the immediate Spanish and Fascist French assault on the city. The harbours and cities of Durban, Mauritius, Colombo and Aqaba had been increased too.

This measures were meant to further secure the Cape Route and were only increased when the aggressive Italian Empire and it's imperialist foreign policy annexed Ethiopia and started to endanger the Suez Route in the Mediterranean Sea and East Africa. In Germany it was believed during both Great Wars, that the Mandates of former German Colonies of German South Weast Africa and German East Africa had been taken from Germany by the United Kingdom/ England/ the British Empire, because they posed a consant threat to the Cape Route as well as the British Empire and Colonies in Africa and India. When America entered the Second Great War on the side of the Allies, they decided that the war in Europe had to be priorized. But with the Axis Central Powers Neo-Ottoman and German assault into the Middle East, endangering the Allied Oil Fields there. After the fall of the Soviet Oil Fields in the Caucasus, the fall of the Syrian, Iraq Oil Fields was a heavy blow for the Allies, allowing the Germans and Neo-Ottomans further advances in the Middle East against the Allies as well as similar possible advances in the Caucasian Region and Southern Russia, against the Soviets.

 

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Chapter 334: The Pan-Arab Movement and the Mohammedan World:

Around 240 million people, or around twelve percent of all of mankind. This Mohammedan World reaches from the northwestern tip of Africa over the Middle Eastern, Asian all the way up to India and the Far East. It also consists great pars of Central Asia and southern Russia and reaches further down into Africa, clashing with Christian Missionaries there. Around approximately 170 Million Mohammedans live in Asia, 53 Million Mohammedans live in Africa and 15 Million Mohammedans live in Europe. One third of all Mohammedans lives in India, creating tensions between them and local Hindus as well as the British Colonial government and the same is true for the Hindu people living there. 50 Million Mohammedans live in the Dutch East Indies, now liberated by Japan into a few island puppet government of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The next strongest concentration of Mohammedans could be found in Turkey, Egypt and French North Africa. Mecca where the Saudi King Ibn Saud had incresed it's meaning as the religious center of the Mohammedan World once again. The spiritual center of Mohammedanism however was the Al-Azhar University and Mosque in Cairo. For centuries the religious leaders of Mohammedanism from all around the world had been educated there.

The Mohammedan mission south into Central Africa had increased over the last decades. The different Chrisian movements, like Catholic, Protestant and others, including Europeans, only number 11 Million people in Africa, including 4 Million members of the Ethiopian Church. Mohammedanism however has 23 Million members in the Bantu peoples alone. More then two-third of the whole Continent believe in the teaching of the Prophet Mohammed. This however was a nuisance for man colonial powers and the Axis Central Powers Governments and it's Idealogies in general. That was mainly because Pan-Mohammedanism and Pan-Arabism called for independent Arab States and did not join their call for a whide-spread revolution against the Allied Colonial Powers or the Soviet Union. Under the Pan-Arab colors black, white, green, and red that represented a certain Arab dynasty, or era, they opposed a simple shift from one colonial power ruling over them to another and many did not believe the Axis Central Powers promise of independence, because of their alliance with the Neo-Ottomans. Their black was the color of the banner of Muhammad and the Rashidun Caliphate and was later adopted by the Abbasid Caliphate; white was used by the Umayyad Caliphate; green was used by the Fatimid Caliphate; and red was both the flag held by the Khawarij and also represented the Hashemites, as well as the Ottoman Empire. These four colors derived their potency from a verse by 14th century Iraqi poet Safi Al-Din Al-Hilli: "White are our acts, black our battles, green our fields, and red our swords".

Because of that the Empire of Germany intendet to increase the merely 100,000 Christians in former East Africa to the rest of the 5,600,000 black people living there, as well as to the rest of their planned new colonial Empire in Africa. It would have to challenge the number of Mohammedans there, that had increased from 250,000 after the First Great War, to over 3,000,000 shortly before the Second great War. As the German Empires new Colonies in Africa was planned to span across all of central asia once, it had to be a bulwarq against the spread of Mohammedanism to the south. Concerned Christian Missionaries and Priests in favor of National Monarchism or Fascist Royalism tried to help this post-war Axis Central Power plans for africa because of this, including Spanish, Frenc, Italian and German ideologists and members. While Germany focussed on spreading the Church of Germany, Italy and Spain planned to increase the Catholig faith in africa, including a Italian plan to incorporate all of the 4 million member of he Ethiopian Church into the Catholic Church. In overall they called for a immense increase of the only 11 Million Christians in Africa during their new colonial partition when the Axis Central Powers would have won the Second Great War. The Neo-Ottomans however would have not approved of this ani-Mohammedan african plans had they known about it.

Realistic analysers and planners however recognized that what Mohammedan Nations lacked in power by now, they still made up by the strong opinion their faith had deep in their hearts. The realized how the faith managed to increase a feeling of unity, but also make fearless warriors and dedicated believers out of his members. It amazed and filled the Europeans with fear all the same. No other religion managed to include politic and religious parts of their lives to this extend until the rise of Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism as anti-western, anti-colonial and anti-imperial, purely asian faithes in the Co-Prosperity Sphere in the next decades.

As different as the states and nations of the Mohammedan World were, the unchangable heritage of the Quran created a undividable religious unity. Like during his whole history, modern Mohammedanism once again aimed for political power and recognition. The Turkish Sultans and Caliph attempts to unify a great region of the Mohammedan Space into a Great Empire, until the First World War stopped heir ambitions for good. But also the attempt of the Entente Powers to split up the region after the First Great War into their Colonial Spheres failed. It was revieled that the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire set free forces that dreamed of recreating the Mohammedan World wit Mohammedan-Arab Nationalism. Turkey, the Arabian heart land, Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq started their first path into new state sovereignity. Egypt and Iraq had forced Great Britain to accept their sovereignity with a friendship treaty.

The Awakening of the Mohammedan World, in Turkey and Iran in the form of national concentration, there like in Saudi Arabia, were a Mohammedan-religious reincarnation started. The changing relationship between national and religious forces showed themselves to be present everywhere in the Mohammedan World. They fused with National Monarchism or Fascist Royalism ideologies and intended a national pan-arab mohammedan awakening of the Ummah into a Mohammedan force of destiny once again. Every year up to the Neo-Ottoman revolution the cooperation of this mohammedan states on all aspects of daily life, all the way up onto the political landscape.

The Mohammedan Regions still under the control of European Colonial Government were in constant and strong change. Instead of joining the Axis Central Powers revolution against the Allies and the Soviet Union, they mostly rebelled against them like every other foreign power. Every once in a while there were anti-colonial uprisings and revolts in Marocco, Algier, Tunis, Libya, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq and other places. These demonsrations, strikes and open riots against the foreign rule had the Mosques as the center of their power. Even in Neo-Ottoman Syria were they first resisted French and then Neo-Ottoman rule and in India, were Mohammedan strikes, revolts and rebellions opposed British Empireal rule. There and in Transjordan, the British opposed the Arab and Mohammedan movements to gain independence, political outonomy and even a majority in both. They opposed the Jewish flow into Transjordania and every Hindu attempt to participate India in a way that gave major Mohammedan regions under Hindu rule and dominance in a bigger Hindu-Indian Nation and Religious State. They opposed the British with strong sentiment in northwest, northern and central India, were they made up a majority or at least a strong porportion of the overall population. While Italy managed to get along with some Mohammedan National groups in Libya for a short period of time, they too suffered drawbacks and rebellions during their colonial rule. Still some of the Mohammedans in North Africa, the Balkan Peninsula and the Soviet Caucasus and Central Asia joined the cause of the Axis Central Power, either because they intendet to get their independence like promised, or intended to fight the Allies, Soviets or even their Jewish and Hindu allies for that.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 335: Yankoku transformation inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere:

The Empire of Yankoku (also Yankukuo or Yanjiang) led by Yan Xishan (or Yen His-shan) had modernised it's economy, infrastrusture and started it's own modernisation and industrialisation before the Japanese and the Co-Prosperity Sphere showed up. It's 84,950,000 people were a population half as big as the northen Japanese puppet state and vassal of Manchukuo, but the state of Yankoku was three point five to four (later even up to seven) times smaller then Manchuria. The vast majority of it's people were Han Chinese, but Yan Xishan, or Father Yan as he was called, the great modernizer of the region claimed they were descendants of the former ancient chinese state of Yan. The fact that the majority of this region spoke Beifang Mandarin (Northern Mandarin, was used by Yan Xishan to claim that these dialect spoken in his new Empire was actually a modern version of the old Yan State's ethnic language and was therefor called Yan Chinese from now on. Despite this the dialect additinally knew three sub-dialects, known as Bao–Tang, Shi–Ji, and Cang–Hui, mostly spoken in the old provinces Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong. Other minorities, like soon 320,000 Japanese who settled in their new north Chinese puppet state lived in Yankoku too (most would settle along the coast, the Luan River, the Huan He River -or Yellow River- and along the Great Wall and the Grand Canal system), but their numbers were tiny compared to the Yan Chinese. Father or Emperor Yan had also a few Manchu inside his Empire, that he soon tradet with Yan (Han) Chinese and ressources of Manchukuo in a small population exchange. The Hui (Mohammedan) minority however that lived in his new nation state was offered to move to Huikoku in the west of the Co-Prosperity Sphere if they wished to do so, otherwise they were treated like all his other citizens.

Roots and tradition of the ancient Yan were idealized and used for their own state claim and propaganda, while Father Yan also installed a series of modernisations and reforms of political, social and economical conditions inside his state. They were partly inspired by his desire to make Yankoku one of the most modern, prosperious and greatest member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and partly because Red Chinese, Communist and Socialist rebels operated in a guerillia war inside his young nation, treatening it's very existence at the first years. Because of this many social reforms and land reforms were implicated by Father Yan to start a agrarian reform to change the landscape of Yankoku forever. Plantations and farms for grain, soy, tobacco, peanuts and cotton were expanded, led by Japanese advisers and farmers, that used newly build irrigation systems and the smaller Japanese farm divisions to increase the number of farms and farmland used, while the overall size of farms was shrinking. Local farms and households were hold responsible for their own farms and surrounding system and the land was divided into new commune farming towns instead of single farms. The locals were responsible for a good harvest and had a great local control, as long as they sold contracted portion of their crops to the government as taxes. This move increased agricultural production by 25 percent in the next ten years and pricatized larger parts of the economy then ever before in north Chinese history.

Faher Yan often called this reforms the bottom-up approach and it helepd greatly fight back the Socialist and Communist agitations, propaganda and popularity. Private and even state-owned industries, companies and conglomerates were allowed to sell any production above the plan quota and tax requests. Depending on the marked situation commodities were sold at both plan and market prices (price flexibility), allowing citizens to always be able to pay for the daily needed clothes, food and other things of their normal life, despite the war and some shortages otherwise. Most buisnesses while state planned and encouraged, were managed by private individuals by enterprise contract and left for the most part as long as the taxes and quota were met. The system also allowed massive investments by Japanese and other Co-Prosperity Sphere investors to help the young economy of Yankoku to grow steadily. Father Yan also encouraged local town and village enterprises, run by the whole community in total authonomy, to strenghen local buisnesses, wealth and weaken the overall communist influence even further.

The Imperial Yankokuo Army was supported by Father Yan's own created Taiyuan Arsenal, the Bank of Yankoku, the Yankokuo Industrial Development Company and other Yankoku and Japanese conglomerates. Taiyuan Arsenal (Chinese: 太原兵工廠) was established by Yan Xishan in the Shanxi province in 1912. From the outset he was very interested in building an arsenal for manufacturing weapons to equip his Army. His motto was, "Armed force is the backing of justice". Construction on his plant was begun in 1912, and it was originally named Shanxi Machinery Bureau. As it expanded, it later became known as the Shanxi Military Technology Practice Factory. These forces were trained by the Japanese General Yasuji Okamura, General Hatazō Adachi, General Hayao Tada and General Moritake Tanab, who advised and strongly cooperated with the Yankoku General Su Tiren, General Shao Wenkai (Zhongze), General Wu Huawen, Lieutenant Commander Rong Zhen and other high ranking members of the Yankoku government, like General Wang Zuanxu, who was responsible for the Great Wall Fortification Line.

In 1923 the arsenal began making a Type 12 infantry gun, with a maximum range of 5,000 meters. In 1925, they began making a Type 14 infantry howitzer. Both were designed for mountain warfare. They also were able to set up production of copies of a German 105 mm heavy mountain gun and 88 mm field gun. In 1926, the Arsenal at Taiyuan had produced 1500 rifles, 500 Mauser type Broom handle Military Pistols, 300 mortars, mortar shells, hand grenades and three million rounds of ammunition per month with foreign technicians, assisted by American trained Chinese, supervising and training 8,000 Chinese workers. By 1930, Taiyuan Arsenal had 3,800 pieces of machinery and 15,000 workers and technicians. The plant was fully capable of producing not only pistols, rifles, and submachine guns, but also heavy machine guns, mortars, cannons, grenades, and other items. Taiyuan Arsenal was a major producer of both the ZB vz. 26 light machine guns and Tomson submachine guns. Much like Kuomintang National China in the south, Yankoku used both heavily, European, American and Japanese models and equipment, as well as domestic produced models and variations. When Japan incorporated Shanxi into the bigger State of Yankoku, Taiyuan Arsenal had already produced heavy mountain guns and field guns for a own small but strong militia and army. Taiyuan Arsenal continued to operate producing the ZB vz. 26 light machine guns, but chambered for the Japanese 6.5 mm caliber cartridge instead of the Chinese 7.92 mm. New weapons and munitions industry production were created and raw material was imported from other parts of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Light machine guns were made in Shanxi at the Chenggu factory, rifles were made in a Xiangning factory, pistols in another factory, and each place made hand grenades to make up for the initial lack of weapon production. Yan's munitions output grew steady thanks to the increasing trade inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere for the needed materials. At the start of the Chinese Civil was, Yankoku's factories monthly production of rifles was 800, light machine guns 400, pistols 60 and approximately 10,000 hand grenades. These arms and ammunition supported the Imperial Yankoku Army against Communist rebels and during the northern Co-Prosperity Sphere expension against the Soviet Union during Hokushin-ron. It also supported the National Chinese front of Wang Jingwei during the Chinese Civil War in the west and south. Both operations of Yankoku's 1,260,000 soldiers as well as it's Great Wall fortification line helped the purpose of defeating the Communist tread inside the own nation state as well as it's foreign supply and operation bases in the west and north beyond the own borders.

The Imperial Yankokuo Navy operated in the North Chinese Sea / Yellwo Sea (or Yankoku Sea as it was officially called in Yankoku), as well as along the Luan River, the Huan He (Yellow River) and the Grand Canal system. Ships for this fleet were build at the Tianjin Shipbuilding Yards (including Bohai Bay Naval Arsenal, Bohai Bay Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Bohai Bay Yards), the Quingdao Naval Yards, Rongcheng Naval Industries, Yantai Naval Shipbuilding, Penglay Shipyards and Laizhou Naval Industries and the Laizhou NavalYards Industries.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 336: Hitler's former Cabinet – A tale of Albert Speer:

Albert Speer was born in Mannheim, into an upper-middle-class family. He was the second of three sons of Luise Máthilde Wilhelmine (Hommel) and Albert Friedrich Speer. In 1918, the family moved permanently to their summer home Villa Speer on Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg, Heidelberg. Speer was active in sports, taking up skiing and mountaineering. Speer's Heidelberg school offered rugby football, unusual for Germany, and Speer was a participant. He wanted to become a mathematician, but his father said if Speer chose this occupation he would lead a life without money, without a position and without a future. Instead, Speer followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and studied architecture.

Speer began his architectural studies at the University of Karlsruhe instead of a more highly acclaimed institution because the hyperinflation crisis of 1923 limited his parents' income. In 1924 when the crisis had abated, he transferred to the much more reputable Technical University of Munich. In 1925 he transferred again, this time to the Technical University of Berlin where he studied under Heinrich Tessenow, whom Speer greatly admired. After passing his exams in 1927, Speer became Tessenow's assistant, a high honor for a man of 22. As such, Speer taught some of Tessenow's classes while continuing his own postgraduate studies. In Munich, and continuing in Berlin, Speer began a close friendship, ultimately spanning over 50 years, with Rudolf Wolters, who also studied under Tessenow. In mid-1922, Speer began courting Margarete (Margret) Weber (1905–1987), the daughter of a successful craftsman who employed 50 workers. The relationship was frowned upon by Speer's class-conscious mother, who felt that the Webers were socially inferior. Despite this opposition, the two married in Berlin on August 28, 1928; seven years elapsed before Margarete Speer was invited to stay at her in-laws' home. Speer later stated he was apolitical when he was a young man, and he attended a Berlin Nazi rally in December 1930 only at the urging of some of his students. On March 1, 1931, he applied to join the Nazi Party and became member number 474,481.

In 1931, Speer surrendered his position as Tessenow's assistant and moved to Mannheim. His father gave him a job as manager of the elder Speer's properties. In July1932, the Speers visited Berlin to help out the Party prior to the Reichstag elections. While they were there, his friend, Nazi Party official Karl Hanke, recommended the young architect to Joseph Goebbels to help renovate the Party's Berlin headquarters. Speer agreed to do the work. When the commission was completed, Speer returned to Mannheim and remained there as Hitler took office in January 1933.

The organizers of the 1933 Nuremberg Rally asked Speer to submit designs for the rally, bringing him into contact with Hitler for the first time. Neither the organizers nor Rudolf Hess were willing to decide whether to approve the plans, and Hess sent Speer to Hitler's Munich apartment to seek his approval. This work won Speer his first national post, as Nazi Party "Commissioner for the Artistic and Technical Presentation of Party Rallies and Demonstrations".

Shortly after Hitler had come into power, he had started to make plans to rebuild the chancellery. At the end of 1933 he contracted Paul Troost to renovate the entire building. Hitler appointed Speer, whose work for Goebbels had impressed him, to manage the building site for Troost. As Chancellor, Hitler had a residence in the building and came by every day to be briefed by Speer and the building supervisor on the progress of the renovations. After one of these briefings, Hitler invited Speer to lunch, to the architect's great excitement. Hitler evinced considerable interest in Speer during the luncheon, and later told Speer that he had been looking for a young architect capable of carrying out his architectural dreams for the new Germany. Speer quickly became part of Hitler's inner circle; he was expected to call on Hitler in the morning for a walk or chat, to provide consultation on architectural matters, and to discuss Hitler's ideas. Most days he was invited to dinner.

The two men found much in common: Hitler spoke of Speer as a "kindred spirit" for whom he had always maintained "the warmest human feelings". The young, ambitious architect was dazzled by his rapid rise and close proximity to Hitler, which guaranteed him a flood of commissions from the government and from the highest ranks of the Party. Speer belonged to a circle which consisted of other artists and Hitlers personal staff. If Hitler had had any friends at all, I certainly would have been one of his close friends Speer later said during the trial after the military coup in Germany. When Troost died on January 21, 1934, Speer effectively replaced him as the Party's chief architect. Hitler appointed Speer as head of the Chief Office for Construction, which placed him nominally on Hess's staff.

One of Speer's first commissions after Troost's death was the Zeppelinfeld stadium—the Nürnberg parade grounds seen in Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda masterpiece Triumph of the Will. This huge work was able to hold 340,000 people. Speer insisted that as many events as possible be held at night, both to give greater prominence to his lighting effects and to hide the individual Nazis, many of whom were overweight. Speer surrounded the site with 130 anti-aircraft searchlights. Speer described this as his most beautiful work, and as the only one that stood the test of time. Nürnberg was to be the site of many more official Nazi buildings, most of which were never built; for example, the German Stadium would have accommodated 400,000 spectators, while an even larger rally ground would have held half a million people. While planning these structures, Speer conceived the concept of "ruin value": that major buildings should be constructed in such a way they would leave aesthetically pleasing ruins for thousands of years into the future. Such ruins would be a testament to the greatness of Nazi Germany, just as ancient Greek or Roman ruins were symbols of the greatness of those civilizations.

When Hitler deprecated Werner March's design for the Olympic Stadium for the 1936 Summer Olympics as too modern, Speer modified the plans by adding a stone exterior. Speer designed the German Pavilion for the 1937 international exposition in Paris. The German and Soviet pavilion sites were opposite each other. On learning (through a clandestine look at the Soviet plans) that the Soviet design included two colossal figures seemingly about to overrun the German site, Speer modified his design to include a cubic mass which would check their advance, with a huge eagle on top looking down on the Soviet figures. Speer received, from Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach, the Golden Hitler Youth Honor Badge with oak leaves.

In 1937, Hitler appointed Speer as General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital with the rank of undersecretary of state in the Reich government. The position carried with it extraordinary powers over the Berlin city government and made Speer answerable to Hitler alone. It also made Speer a member of the Reichstag, though the body by then had little effective power. Hitler ordered Speer to develop plans to rebuild Berlin. The plans centered on a three-mile long grand boulevard running from north to south, which Speer called the Prachtstrasse, or Street of Magnificence; he also referred to it as the "North-South Axis". At the northern end of the boulevard, Speer planned to build the Volkshalle, a huge assembly hall with a dome which would have been over 700 feet (210 m) high, with floor space for 180,000 people. At the southern end of the avenue a great triumphal arch would rise; it would be almost 400 feet (120 m) high, and able to fit the Arc de Triomphe inside its opening. The German Military Coup against the Nazi Party led to the postponement, and later the abandonment, of these plans. Part of the land for the boulevard was to be obtained by consolidating Berlin's railway system. Speer hired Wolters as part of his design team, with special responsibility for the Prachtstrasse. When Speer's father saw the model for the new Berlin, he said to his son, "You've all gone completely insane" and many Germans would later think so to about this plans.

All the while plans to build a new Reich chancellery had been underway since 1934. Land had been purchased by the end of 1934 and starting in March1936 the first buildings were demolished to create space at Voßstraße. Speer was involved virtually from the beginning. He had been commissioned to renovate the Borsig Palace on the corner of Voßstraße and Wilhelmstraße as a headquarter for the SA, who were about to be relocated from Munich to Berlin in the aftermath of the Röhm purge. Speer completed the preliminary work for the new chancellery by May 1936. In June 1936 he charged a personal honorarium of 30,000 Reichsmark and estimated that the chancellery would be completed within three to four years. Detailed plans were completed in July 1937 and the first shell of the new chancellery was complete on 1 January 1938. On 27 January 1938 Speer received plenipotentiary powers from Hitler to finish the new chancellery by 1 January 1939. Yet for propagandistic reasons, to prove the vigor and organizational skills of National Socialism, Hitler claimed during the topping-out ceremony on 2 August 1938 that he had ordered Speer to build the new chancellery just that year. Speer reiterated this claim in his memoirs to show that he had been up to that supposed challenge, and some of his biographers, most notably Joachim Fest, have followed that account. The building itself, hailed by Hitler as the "crowning glory of the greater German political empire", was designed as a theatrical set for representation, "to intimidate and humiliate", as historian Martin Kitchen puts it. Because of shortages of labor, the construction workers had to work in two ten- to twelve-hour shifts to have the chancellery completed by early January 1939. But before that the Military Coup against Hitler and the Nazi Government happened and Speer was triald like many other leaders and significant figures of Nazi Germany.

Speer was under significant psychological pressure during this period of his life even before the trial. He remembered:

Soon after Hitler had given me the first large architectural commissions, I began to suffer from anxiety in long tunnels, in airplanes, or in small rooms. My heart would begin to race, I would become breathless, the diaphragm would seem to grow heavy, and I would get the impression that my blood pressure was rising tremendously... Anxiety amidst all my freedom and power! Speer admitted before the court that: "Of course I was perfectly aware that Hitler sought world domination .. At that time I could ask for nothing better. That was the whole point of my buildings. They would have looked grotesque if Hitler had sat still in Germany. All I wanted was for this great man to dominate the globe."

Speer was set free and not convinced of any crimes, besides of “aiding Hitlers megalomanic perversation of turning Berlin into Germany” claimed the Judge and all charges against Speer were dropped. What was also dropped were all plans and ambitions of architectural reorganisation of Germany. Instead the new government ordered Speer to rebuild the burned down Reichstag, only slightly more modern and he was also given new project to build for the Army and Air Force to further strenghen Germany's preparations for the coming next war.

In 1940, Joseph Stalin proposed that Speer pay a visit to Moscow. Stalin had been particularly impressed by Speer's work in Paris, and wished to meet the former "Architect of the Reich". Hitler, wished not for Speer to go, but Emperor Wilhelm II thought it to be a good idea to ease the German-Soviet relationship, a step needed if France should once again been taken out first, or a good disguise to calm down Soviet concerns about German-Polish cooperation, that was most likely aimed against any Russian ambitions. When Germany later attacked the Soviet Union, Speer was convinced that Russia could be beaten from his own impression during his visit there.

On 8 December 1941, Minister of Armaments Fritz Todt died in a plane crash shortly after taking off from Rastenburg. Speer who had aimed for Todt's position believed that his previous works and plans together with his abilities made him the best replacement. The German Emperor Wilhelm however believed Speer no to be fit for the position and had rather see Speer create new plans for modern Imperial German buildings and a future architecture of a modern German Empire that would lead and guide Europe in cultural, economic and architectural regards.

By that time, the German economy, unlike the British one, was not fully geared for war production. Consumer goods were still being produced at nearly as high a level as during peacetime. No fewer than five "Supreme Authorities" had jurisdiction over armament production—one of which, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, had declared in October 1941 that conditions did not permit an increase in armament production. Few women were employed in the factories, which were running only one shift, this would change during the Second Great War. With the dead of Todt, the German Military further centralized all power of the war economy and soon the German and European economy itself. Speer however soon proved himself to be a genius with organization, proving himself to be able to clean bombed out German city ruins and partly even continue his buildings even during Allied bombings. Speer then was send to the west, where he oversaw the construction or repair of roads, railways and even factories for the ongoing Eastern Crusade. Speer there got the attention of German Emperor Wilhelm II as he used slave labor of prisoners of war and local civilians to optimise their use during construction works. Speer also believed that using increased numbers of female labor and taking other steps to better organize German labor, like importing more slave labour from the occupied nations and obtaining workers for (among other things) armament factories would help, but not all of his ideas were taken serious as the Military and parts of the Aristrocracy believed to be far superior in this thinks then him.

Still despite Allied bombing runs, German production of tanks more than doubled till next year, production of planes increased by 80 percent, and production time for German submarines was reduced from one year to two months. The Allied answer was to increade bombing of German cities and to counter that former Reich Aviation Minister and now Air Admiral Hermann Göring ordered to increase the production of German fighters and bombers to defend Germany and to finally bring England down to it's knees. His main aim was to ensure the preservation and growth of fighter aircraft production and as Speer and Erhard Milch of the Reich Aviation Ministry, suggested a few methods that had already proven quiet efficient on a smaller scale, Göring implemented them greatly, but much to Speers disapoinment, Göring claimed that it was all his idea alone. This allowed Göring to claim extraordinary powers over labour, production and transportation resources, with its functions taking priority over housing repairs for bombed out civilians or restoration of vital city services. The factories that came under the Görings program saw their work-weeks extended to 72 hours. At the same time, Milch took steps to rationalise production by reducing the number of variants of each type of aircraft produced.

This combined work and plans were instrumental in bringing about the increased exploitation of slave labour for the benefit of Germany's war industry and its Imperial German Air Force (IGAF). The task force immediately began implementing plans to expand the use of slave labour in the aviation manufacturing. The Imperial German Military provided 64,000 prisoners for 20 separate projects at the peak of Göring's construction activities. Taking into account the high mortality rate associated with the underground construction projects, later historian estimated that the workforce involved amounted to 80,000−90,000 inmates. They belonged to the various sub-camps of Prisoner of War and Reeducation Camps and worked for Junkers, Messerschmitt, Henschel and BMW, among others. The cooperation between the Reich Ministry of Aviation, the Ministry of Armaments and the German Military proved especially productive. Although intended to function for only six months, already Milch discussed with Goring the possibility of centralising all of Germany's arms manufacturing under a similar task force under the Imperial German general Staff. Speer hovever opposed such a Rüstungsstab (Armament Staff) by now, sicne that would apply the same model of operation to all top-priority armament programs he had introduced, only to have Göring steal it from him.

The Rüstungsstab allowed Göring, for the first time, to consolidate key arms manufacturing projects for the three branches of the Imperial German Army, Navy and Air Force under the authority of one ministry. Several departments of former independent ministries, including the once powerful Technical Office, were disbanded or transferred to the new task force. The task force oversaw the day-to-day development and production activities of all new ship, tanks and aircraft designs from now on. The Rüstungsstab even assumed responsibilities for the underground transfer projects of the military and industry that were created to have military production underground, far away from the reach of Allied bomber runs by the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943. Till November 1943, 1.8 million square meters of underground space were ready for occupancy, encompassing over 1,000 spaces commissioned by the task force. Speer hoped that Göring would soon be overstrained and he could then once again have the chance of getting a leading position in the Rüstungsstab. At the same time Speer tried to become the leading architect for Emperor Wilhelm III and Germany's post-war city planning and architecture, even if he had to drastically part with his older plans, ideas and ambitions (the new once included German Skyscrapers and architecture inspired by the 1860 to 1918 German Empire) to do so.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 337: National Monarchism: Polish Georgeism/ Jerzyism

The National Monarchism inside the Kingdom of Poland was heavily shaped was heavily shaped by Mashall Józef Piłsudski, who ruled Poland dictatorical from 1926 to 1939. President Ignacy Mościcki who followed him briefly had not the same impact, but President Władysław Raczkiewicz, Foreign Minister Józef Beck, the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army Edward Rydz-Śmigły and the cabinet after him had, as they decided to give the German Empire and the Austria-Hungarian Empire the territories back they lost after the Second Great War. Fashism and Nationalism, as well as antisemitism had by then been long on the rise in Poland, so when Germany and later the Axis Central Powers (mainly Austria-Hungary) made their demands and in return for territory guaranteed the Polish independence. The Ruling Council of the authoritarian state then chosed (after long debates, street battles and even some political assassinations) Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony as the new Polish King of the new National Monarchist pro-Axis Central Power Government. Like all National Monarchism (sometimes called the German Way, or Wilhelmism) the state was authoritarian, but partly democratic, even with a Polish Senate and Parliament (were major aristrocratic families, industrial and military families had their seats). King George I. (Jerzy I.) focussed heavily on the Polish ehtnicity as a hegemonic group and his new state propaganda and that of the Axis Central Power improved the relations with Poland and declared Poland to be the shield of Europe against the mad Barbarism of the Soviet Union ever since the Polish-Soviet war after the First Great War. The Polish population in this newly centralized Empire was more hedrogenous then ever before, as the Polish Kingdom had lost the majority of it's northern, western, southern and eastern territory (were the Kingdom of White Ruthenia and the Kingdom of Ukrainia were created out of the White Ruthenian and Ukrainian minorities there.

Eager to modernize the Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Polskie), Georg I./ Jerzy I. Tried to be at best relationships with Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of White Ruthenia, the Kingdom of Ukrainia, the United Baltic Duchy and the Russian Empire surrounding his nation with economic and friendship treaties. He modernized the older cavalry in the Polish Army to motorized and tank divisions, buying German and Austria-Hungarian equipment to do so and training his forces alongside their own. Getting rid of his far-right polish nationalists as well as communists and polish royals that opposed him during the Night of the National Monarchy, the new Polish King, his government and his military ruled without opposition and quickly cemented their rule and stability in the nation. His goal to open up the Polish Kingdom for all minorities and faith, including Jews to settle in his new state, earned King Jerzy I. new citizens and good relations with the Kingdom of White Ruthenia in the East. The and the Kingdom of Ukrainia exchanged ethnic populations of one another. King Jerzy I who would later be remembered in the Kingdom of Poland and among the Polish People as Jerzy the Just, Jerzy the Good and even Jerzy the Pole from Saxon, claimed that Love between Catholics, Protestant, and Jewish fellow citizens was the core of the new Polish Kingdom and that declaration earned him some opposition among ultra-national, far-right, socialist and far-left groups. King Jerzy I and his followers claimed that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had failed, because unlike their own National Monarchist Catholic State, it lacked the hegemony of a majority group in any way or form. The Polish Kingdom therefore was better of as a true ethnic national state and should not expand beyond the borders of it's own polish settlement, but concentrate solely on modernizing it's state, society, industry and army to be truly on-pair with the strong and powerfull Nation States of the Axis Central Power in Central and Western Europe. While some in his government still wished for a expansion to the Teutonic Sea (Baltic Sea) or the Black Sea to get access to the global naval network and to claim a true Polish Sea for themselves.

This modernization and industrialization to modern standrts was possible, because King George I. (Jerzy I.) managed to convince the Polish Ruling Class, it's citizens and even more so the rest of the Axis Central Power, that they should invest in Poland. Poles who had to leave the now once again German, Austria-Hungarian, White Ruthenian and Ukrainian territories and lands, could rely on the Polish Government to build them new, modern houses, financed by the Axis Central Powers that had former polish lands and now settled the once Polish towns and villages and paid for the new buildings, towns and cities in poland as a exchange. At the same time the Imperial German Army heavily financed and building of roads and railways, much to King George I. (Jerzy I.) pleasure who encouraged them and other foreign investors to freely do so. Clearly this Imperial German Army investment was a preparation to increase the infrastructure for the planned Eastern Crusade against the Soviet Union, but King George I. (Jerzy I.) could not care less why they would chose to do so, as long as they did. The reign of King George I. (Jerzy I.) stood under the motto; nationalization (and family), modernisation (and hard work to get there) and a national Polish fatherland.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 338: Lessons learned at Midway: Aircraft Carrier Formations and Operations

One of the first lessions the Imperial Japanese Navy and the other Navies of the Co-Prosperity Sphere States learned bitterly from Midway, was the reality of losses they had encountered. Their own heavy losses in Pilots, Airplanes and Carriers meant, that the remaining Japanese Offensive and Defensive Fleets had to be relocated and reorganized, so that every fleet had at least one carrier, that proved to be the major weapon in this new kind of warfare, still remaining. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto therefore implemented a series of changes in personal, tactics, strategy and even building of new, future ships as well as modernizing of older models. He knew the Americans have had severe losses in carriers and pilotes themselves, but they still had reserves and the remaining Allies, mainly Great Britain and France would be able to send their own carriers in a combined Allied Fleet to support them in the Pacific if needed. This and their wast superior industrial, economical and population dominance over the Co-Prosperity Sphere for now, meant that Japan had to come of with new ideas, technology, tactics and strategy quickly if it wished to keep their offensive going and their liberated island defended against the Allied counter-attack that would follow once they had recovered their losses too.

One of the first changes to come, was the implementation of a Deck Park Doctrine (the storing of aircraft on the flight deck) for all carriers. Just like the Royal Navy before the Second Great War, the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft capacity was determined by the hanger size rather than the flight deck size. The United States Navy Carriers mean while normally parked most of their complement on the flight deck and used the hangers for maintenance and repair. As the flight deck offers more storage space, United States Navy Carriers for the same displacement carried larger aircraft complements then their Co-Prosperity Sphere counterparts. This was mostly, because the Japanese believed the hanger provided more protection for both aircraft and crew. While the Japanese did use temporary deck parks during aircraft recovery due to elevator cycles; aircraft were immediately moved to the hanger. This operational method was known as continuous recovery and it was most likely that fighters moved below were wheeled to the fore of the hanger to their proper stowage spots, as the forward elevator cannot be used when recovering aircraft). Before the start of the Second Great War in the Pacific, Imperial Japanese Navy fleet carriers usually embarked about 18 fighters. Half were for escorting strikes, while the other half were for the combat air patrols (CAP). Standard procedure called for one shotai (3 fighters or one Section) to be in the air, 1 spotted for launch, and the last one in a lesser state of readiness. Each fighter was responsible for an air sector adjacent to his home carrier, and in theory the CAP could be directed to any threatened sector. This Imperial Japanese Navy air formation of 3 aircraft shotai, was followed by the 9 aircraft chutai, and finally the 18 to 27 aircraft daitai. The shotai is a much looser version of the RAF "vic" formation.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and many other Japanese Naval Admirals, Vice Admirals and Naval Planners knew that until Midway, when their heavy losses changed the game and their plans to win the war, that Deck Parks needed to be carried out in a at least limited fashion. Two shotai (sections) for a total of six fighters would be added to fleet carrier complement; and be stored, armed and fueled on the flight deck. Light carriers would implement the limited deck park doctrine with only one shotai additionally, due to the overall aircraft availability. The first shotai's purpose on the regulair carrier, is to provide additional and rapid deployment CAP, while the second can do the same or provide additional escort for strike aircraft, while the roles for the shotai on the light carriers were mixed, depending on the situation. This hybrid approach would maintain the Imperial Japanese navy's preference for strong attack capability, whilst helping to address insufficient fighter numbers within fleet carrier complements in a fairly efficient manner and also boost their own fleet defense further. This new tactic, strategy and doctrine was especially good for the Imperial Japanese Navy's Northern Striking Force (5th Carrier Division with the former reserve Carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku of the Shōkaku-class), as they had had fueling stations on both hanger decks, as well as the flight deck. Additinally to this new planes, more life boats were implemented in future battleships and carriers to save as much of the skilled crew, mechanics and pilotes as possible.

This changes were not very costly to implement in terms of times for modernization and ressources. Therefore another idee implemented after Midway, was to make Carrier aircraft formations much more independent from their home carrier. This knew Admiral Yamamoto, would permit maximum flexibility to maintain front line strength. Before this Imperial japanese Navy air groups were organic to the carrier itself, thus should either the carrier or air group be badly damaged both were withdrawn until they could be brought back as a unit. Midway and the heavy Japanese losses received there proved, that this method would be counterproductive for the Imperial Japanese Navy during this war and so the Naval High Command and the Admirality introduced a routating, flexible system, that also exchanged pilotes, instructors, tactics and strategies with the Imperial Japanese Army. Both the IJN and IJA air forces also generelly started to cooperate closer after Midway and planned operations together, were both forces would support each other for the victory of the Empire in the future.

It was also ordered, that every carrier would receive a dedicated Air Defence Officer who would coordinate with the Air Officer to meet the carrier, division or fleet's defensive requirements. The Air Defence Officer would be stationed at the Air Defence Shack, and from there would be able to receive timely urgent intelligence to make effective use of it. Before this, the the carrier's air officer (hikocho) had to run both flight operations and somehow maintain control of the ship's CAP. In effect each carrier was responsible for controlling their own CAP fighters. Furthermore, standing instructions required urgent intelligence to pass thru air group commanders first, which inevitably and often created delays. Midway had proven that these measures were timely and outdated and could easily mean Japans defead against the now awakened giant of America said Admiral Yamamoto and so they needed to be fixed. At the same time dedicated short-range radio frequency for the Combat Air Patrol was implemented, this would permit control of the CAP without interfering with other air operations. Before Modway, the Imperial Japanese Navy IJN carriers communicated with all their aircraft (CAP, Recon and Strike) on a single radio frequency and it was this lack of control that effectively meant the CAP was self directed. This would have to change and many Admirals and Navy Air Officers argued, that every single one of these groups (CAP, Recon and Strike) needed their very own frequencies.

To improve the fleet's anti-submarine patrol and deterrence capability, one carrier in each carrier division (after Midway for many months the only carrier in each group, instead of two) had to contribute to a constant anti-submarine patrol, in opposition to the IJN submarines Naval Hunting Doctrine (and later the IJN submarine Night Hunting Doctrine) against the Allies. Thus a fleet with 2 carrier divisions would have 2 carriers helping to provide the anti-sub patrol, while the other 2 carriers would be "off-duty" status and preparing for other operations and reserves. Each patrol would contain a full shotai (3 aircraft) to increase the chance of detection, and to permit a heavier saturation attack against spotted submarines. Within the fleet, during daylight hours these duty carrier would maintain both a small combat air patrol and anti-submarine patrol (usually two Type 99 Val Dive Bombers). CAP aircraft tended to stay aloft for two hours at a time. On the flight deck a small number of fighters or dive bombers were kept warmed up. Meanwhile, on the "off-duty" carriers crews conducted routine maintenance and training.

To further increase the Imperial Japanese Navies remaining carrier, naval fighter and bomber capacity, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto ordered a additional, new Night Operations Doctrine and equipment for carrier aircraft to complement and support the Japanese superior Night Fighting Tactics with Battle Ships. So the Night Operations Doctrine was developed as part of the Navy's Night Fighting Doctrine (night landing on carriers) and their Night Battle Doctrine (alongside Battleships, Battlecruisers, Cruisers and Destroyers). This effectively increase Japanese carrier power as more sorties can could from now on be flown. A ratio of 1 ordnance cart per 2 attack aircraft (dive and torpedo bombers) would be implemented. The additional carts would be stored below the parked aircraft in the hanger (effectively in the position they would be if they were carrying out arming procedures). This soon increased ratio would noticeably decrease the time required to arm attack aircraft. Before Midway the carriers Akagi and Kaga had a ratio of 1 ordnance cart per 3 torpedo aircraft. Akagi with the smaller torpedo aircraft complement had 6 carts, while the Kaga had 9. As a consequence the arming of aircraft was slowed down drastically and the Imperial Japanese Navy Admirals saw this as one of the main reasons for the Midway Disaster among other problems, that were now planned to get fixed as fast as possible for Japan.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 339: National Monarchism or Fascist Royalism in Africa: South Africa:

The Ossewabrandwag (OB) (Ox-wagon Sentinel) in South Africa was an anti-British and pro-German organisation in South Africa during the Second Great War, which opposed South African participation in the war. It was formed in Bloemfontein on 4 February 1939 by pro-German Afrikaners. The main force of Afrikaner nationalism at this time was the "Purified National Party" of D. F. Malan, which broke away from the National Party (also in opposiion of the war) when the latter merged with Smuts' South African Party in 1934. Another important element was the Afrikaner Broederbond (AB, Afrikaner Brotherhood), a quasi-secret society founded in 1918, and dedicated to the proposition that "the Afrikaner volk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God..." 1938 was the centennial anniversary of the Great Trek (the migration of Boers to the interior). The Ossewabrandwag was established in commemoration of the Trek. Most of the migrants travelled in ox-drawn wagons, hence the group's name. The group's leader was Johannes Van Rensburg, a lawyer who had served as Secretary of Justice under Smuts (as Minister), and was an admirer of Imperial Germany. The Boer militants of the Ossebrandwag (OB) were hostile to Britain and sympathetic to Germany. Thus the OB opposed South African participation in the Second Great War, even after the Union declared war in support of Britain in September 1939. While there were parallels, neither Van Rensburg nor the OB were genuine Fascists Royalists or National Monarchists back then. Still, the OB was based on the Führer-principle, fighting against the Empire, the capitalists, the communists, the Jews, the party and the system of parliamentarism on the base of national-monarchism. Members of the OB refused to enlist in the South African forces and sometimes harassed servicemen in uniform. That erupted into open rioting in Johannesburg on 1 February 1941; 140 soldiers were seriously hurt. Even more dangerous was the formation of the Stormjaers (Assault troops), a paramilitary wing of the OB. The nature of the Stormjaers was evidenced by the oath sworn by new recruits: "If I retreat, shoot me. If I die, avenge me. If I advance, follow me" (Afrikaans: As ek omdraai, skiet my. As ek val, wreek my. As ek storm, volg my). The Stormjaers engaged in sabotage against the Union government. They dynamited electrical power lines and railroads and cut telegraph and telephone lines. These types of acts were going too far for most Afrikaners, and Malan ordered the National Party to break with the OB in 1942. Still many white South Africans supported National Monarchist and Fascist Royalist ideas, as their politics towards the natives, were guided by a strict divide between white and black (a system later copied by the Confederate States of America/ Confederacy/ Dixieland/ Dixiecrats for their nation state). Two million white citzens inside South African Union opposed a majority of 6,5 million blacks. The white ruling class hoped to protect their right to rule, because of their hard work for the nation and the land. Their main goal was therefore to protect Wit Suid-Africa (White South Africa) with the clear seperation of whites and blacks, not only economical, political, but also regional. Segregation policy however was not easy to archive, as the daily life of white leaders included work and service by blacks to keep the whole system running. A equaisation of blacks into the living standarts, payment and civilisational standarts of the European civilisation, therefore was undesired by mosts whites in the South African Union and also believed to be unrealistic and dangerous for the state and society.

Further more the growing migration of blacks into the cities of the white peoples, because of the poverty of the Kraal (native enclosured settlements) concearned many. After every drought and bad harvest a wave of hungry blacks swarmed the cities of the white citizens. The ground that the blacks still owned was way to few to support feeding them all, especially with their more primitive methods of farming. This problem and the distribution of property increased the tensions. Only about ten percent of all land was owned by blacks, while they made up 75% of the whole population. The reservation for blacks, that the government had assigned the black population was heavily overpopulated. In Cape Land (Capeland) whites owned 108 african morgan, blacks only 4,3 african morgan. In Oranje whites owned 73 african morgan, blacks only 0,3 african morgan. In Transvaal the whites owned 45 african morgan, blacks 3,7 african morgan. In Naal whites owned 47,3 african morgan, blacks only 2,6 african morgan. This lead to a ever increasing racial tension in the South African Union between whites and blacks, so that the government spend 10 million pound to give at least a part of this land back into the hands of blacks in a attempt to connect a unified region in Transvaal for the settlement of blacks. At the same time this project was supposed to help the black citizens to cultivate the land with modern methods and technology. But this decision did not ease up the racial and territorial tensions and questions in the South African Union, but instead further increased them. White national Afrikaanse movements strongly opposed this policy every day as it quickly lead to a even further increasing black population that was still unable to support itself. While some supported a policy of respect and tolerance for each other, many opposed any form of interracial mixing in the same cities and any form of assimilation. Instead many members of the OB, Stormjaers and other white naitional movements called for a reclaiming of the former Boer Colonies (South African Republic and Organge Free State) as only white dominated and ruled states (a dream later fullfilled by the Apartheit government) thanks to new settlers coming from Europe), supporting at least partly National Monarchist and Fascist Royalist factions in South Africa (that sometimes even including the League of Nations Mandate former German South-West Africa, the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Basutoland Protectorate, Swaziland Protectorate and at least in the hopes of some expansionalist Afrikaners, even North and South Rhodesia, as well as Nyassaland).

Some even dreamed of a Greater South Africa, a independent nation with it's own King (according to some national-monarchist and fascist-royalist movements). The Integration of the Protectorates of Bechuanaland (712,247 km2 / 275,000 sq mi with 200,000 citizens), Basutoland (30,355 km2 / 11,720 sq mi with 600,000 citizens) and Swaziland (17,364 km2 / 6,704 sq mi with 125,000 citizens) was the first step to creating a bigger, a Greater South African state that would dominate all of Africa south of the Equator. For this reason some inside Great Britain even proposed the creation of a new, unified Rhodesian Dominion, to counter-balance the growing South African Union dominance inside Africa and the British Empire, a plan not realized until the oubreak of the Second Great War. Some white Afrikaners even argued in support of a Coup against a government, that forced them into a war, they did not want and in their eyes, betrayed them and their society for the appeasement of the uncivilized, black majority. As a result of this growing agression and tensions, the South African Union government cracked down on the OB and the Stormjaers, placing thousands of them in internment camps for the duration of the Second Great War, a move that would prove to be counter prodctive. At the end of the war, the OB was absorbed into the National Party (officially the Reunited National Party/ Herenigde Nasionale Party, RNP/ HNP) and ceased to exist as a separate body. The RNP would carry many of the National-monarchist and Fascist-royalist ideals of the OB and the Stormjeager into mainstream white politics and allow the rise of a racist, pro-German Apartheit regime.

Most of this began with the celebration of the Great Trek in the 1930s, a move that play a major role in the growth of Afrikaans nationalism. It is thought that the experiences of the Second Boer War and the following period, between 1906 and 1934, of a lack of public discussion about the war within the Afrikaans community helped set the scene for a large increase in interest in Afrikaans national identity. The celebration of the centenary of the Great Trek along with a new generation of Afrikaners interested in learning about the Afrikaans experiences of the Boer War catalyzed a surge of Afrikaans nationalism. The centenary celebrations began with a re-enactment of the trek beginning on 8 August 1938 with nine ox wagons at the statue of Jan van Riebeeck in Cape Town and ended at the newly completed Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria and attended by over 100,000 people. A second re-enactment trek starting at the same time and place ended at the scene of the Battle of Blood River.

The commemoration sparked mass enthusiasm amongst Afrikaners as the re-enactment trek passed through the small towns and cities of South Africa. Both participants and spectators participated by dressing in Voortrekker clothing, renaming streets, holding ceremonies, erecting monuments, and laying wreaths at the graves of Afrikaner heroes. Cooking meals over an open fire in the same way the Voortrekkers did became fashionable amongst urbanites giving birth to the South African tradition of braaing. An Afrikaans language epic was made to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Great Trek, Die Bou van 'n Nasie (1938). The film told the Afrikaans version of the history of South Africa from 1652 to 1910 with a focus on the Great Trek. A number of Afrikaans organisations such as the Afrikaner Broederbond and Afrikaanse Taal en Kultuurvereniging continued to promote the centenary's goals of furthering the Afrikaner cause and entrenching a greater sense of unity and solidarity within the community well into the 20th century. The Great Trek was used by Afrikaner nationalists as a core symbol of a common Afrikaans history. It was done in a way that promoted the idea of an Afrikaans nation and in a narrative that promoted the ideals of the National Party. In 1938, celebrations of the centenary of the Battle of Blood River and the Great Trek mobilized behind an Afrikaans nationalist theses.

The narrative of Afrikaner nationalism would become a significant reason for the National Party's victory in the 1948 elections after the Second Great War. This in turn allowed the party to implement its stated program of apartheid. A year later the Voortrekker Monument was completed and opened in Pretoria by the newly elected South African Prime Minister and National Party member Daniel Malan in 1949. A few years later, "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika", a poem written by Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven referring to the Great Trek, would chosen to be the words of the South African national anthem and the national state would be renamed Afrikaaners Union/ South Afrikaaners Union (Unie van Afrikaander/ Unie van Suid-Afrikaaners). The new regime would implement strict racial segregation and became openly pro-German and friendly towards the Axis Central Powers and even received scientistic, economic and political support while increasing it's own infrastructure and industry. The future Relationship with the British Empire (also known as the Anglican, or English Empire) however remained complicated, as British Premier Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley not only opposed the idea of a South African King on pair with the British King, but also proclaimed to reinforce the Empire, by tieing it closer together. After Mosley's consolidation of the British Isles, he brought back the Dominions (thanks to the fear of a Axis Central Powers and Co-Prosperity Sphere dominance and hegemony over them) into the Empire as dependent territories and secured them as territory, colonies and strenghen the Imperial Loyalists in the British Empire to form a autoritarian, Mosleyist Empire.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 340: Taikoku transformation inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere:

The State of Taikoku (also Taikukuo or Taijiang, former Guangxi Clique) became a powerfull member of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The ceeding of the Island of Hainan to Japan wo used it for it's Imperial Japanese Navy, as well as it's Army and Navy Air Force was compensated by a growing infrastructure and industry, that despite the Guangxi Civil War was rebuild and growing thanks to Japanese conglomerates and investors. Roads and railways were quiet expanded inside of Taikoku already and together with the many rivers, the economy and trae grew steadily (afer infrastructure and industry were rebuild after the Guangxi Civil War), exporting Iron, Tin, Wolfram and Cotton over it's ports into the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The state's own propaganda proclaimed that the major groups, the Tai, Cantonese and Zhuang were so close as cultures and ethnic groups (as well as oher minorities like the Yue, Yao, Miao, Dong, Tujia and ohers) that they were part of their own independent ethnic and cultural group of Taikokuo. Up to 408,382 Japanese lived in Taikoku in 1941/42, mostly along the coasts and rivers, but the majority of the 46,723,000 citizens were members of the Tai, Cantonese and Zhuang, that Li Zongren and his government merged into one thanks to propaganda, education and mixing their culture and archiecture in every city whenever they could. Besides a large Japanese colony, even before the outbreak of the Second Great War, the Chinese Civil War or the Pacific War, Taikoku was one of the most heavily populated member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphre besides Japan, Chosen, Manchuria, Yankoku and National Han China. Taikoku was also one of the most modernised, industrialised regions with a great infrastructure.

It's military tradition and industry allowed Taikoku to supply and equip one of the biggest Armies and Navies in the Co-Prosperity Sphere, right from it's early days on. Canton (Guangzhou) Steel Works, Taikoku Railways, Nanning Heavy Industries, Canton Army Arsenal, Wuzhou Industries and Nanning Army Industries supplied the growing Imperial Taikoku Army that rose above 1,000,000 troops of the original Guangxi Clique. Some of this forces had a very questionable loyality to the new government and so Li Zongren used political commissar (Zhengwei), a political officer corps, that used surveillance. The Zhengwei were first mentioned in Li Zongren's military and political guidance book "For My Soldiers". Government party activities were propagated throughout the military and these uniformed political military officers, sometimes were civilian party and government officials that should keep the forces in line and gain experience in he military at the same time. The Zhengwei was a political government cell within the military and much of the government and it's partys were also former military members, up to the highest ranks. This earned Taikoku the wrong prejudice of being a military junta in much of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and the rest of the world. Purely political Zhengwei of the party and government often served as observers and second-in-command, because of their lack of true military training and education during their first years in Taikoku's Imperial Army and Navy forces. This system allowed Taikoku to grow it's army to 4,000,000 forces at the heigh of the Second Great War, with nearly 2,000,000 fighting in the Chinese Civil War, Burma and the Pacific (New Guinea). Thanks to the Zhengwei system, the majority of this forces remained loyal and only few defected to the enemy, local bandits or worked as their spies and saboteurs. The Imperial Taikoku Army used a wide variation of imported and dublicated Allied (British, French and American) equipment (everything from tanks to airplanes) from before the war, own Chinese build models and imported Japanese ones. The Imperial Taikoku Navy either used bought older Japanese vessels, or build it's own ships at Canton/ Guangzhou Naval Yards, Nansha Shipbuilding Yards, Jiangmen Naval Industries, Zhuhai Shipyards, Wuzhou River Yards, Nanning River Fleet Yards and Liuzhou Shipyards. While many of it's naval forces were cruisers, destroyers, as well as battleships and carriers (the new pride of the Taikoku Navy) intendet to rule the Taikoku Sea (South Chinese Sea), nearly half of the Imperial Taikoku Navy actually was made up by riverboads and escorts to guard the huge river transportation network troughout the new state.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 341: The Ma Umau Rebellion and Uprising:

The Allies believed the Italians to be beaten inside of East Africa and declared that Ethipoia would soon be released as a independent nation once again. A few Italian Soldiers (a mere Brigade) however managed to escape with their equipment into the British Kenya Colony, were they allied with anti-British freedom fighters and rebells. These Kenya Liberation Movement called itself Ma Umau, meaning “Our Grandfathers”, a term used since the revolt of 1938 led by Muindi Mbingu during which he urged the colonists to leave Kenya so that his people (the kamba) could live freely like the time of “Our Grandfathers” (Twenda kwikala ta maau mau maitu, tuithye ngombe to Maau mau maitu, nundu nthi ino ni ya maau mau maitu). The italians learned Uma Uma, a communication code used by the Kenyan guerrillas and managed o ally the Kikuyu, Meru, Embu tribes as well as the Kamba and Maasai to their cause against the white European colonist-settlers and government of the British. The British responded by using parts of the British Army and Colonial Forces originally meant for Egyot and Syria to opress the rebellion alongside armed white colonial settlers and local auxiliary militia, like some pro–British Kikuyu people. The Free French forces in East Africa were send to Syria and Egypt, together with the majority of Commonwealth Forces, but some Indian and African Commonwealth Soldiers remained to aid the British against the Rebellion in Kenya.

The Italien help and training for the Ma Umau Rebellion with what little equipment and weapons they had brought with them ino Kenya helped the rebellion to start again. They originally raided a few colonialist farms and villages to gather further supply, inspireing some local auxiliary militia in Kenya sympathic to the rebells and the Kenyan independence to join them. Over time their rebellion would divide the European colonial community in Kenya and the metropole and the natives. The rebellion would also violently divide the Kikuyu community. Luckily for the British, the Ma Umau Uprising remained internally divided, despite Italian and later Imperial German attempts to unify the factions and also failed to capture widespread public support. This was partly because the movement was so divided and violent and the British and the Allies had a policy of divide and rule. However while the Free French, for the sake of their own Colonial Empire supported the British, the Americans and even the Soviet Union supported a decolonialisation, including a independend Kenya. This prevented to harsh British tactics and strategies during the Second Great War as long as the British and Free French were heavily depending on American and Soviet support in fighting the Axis Central Powers and the Co-Prosperity Spere. In 1944 the Kenya African Study Union (later the Kenya African Union) started to support the Ma Umau Rebellion. The British Empire tried a policy of divide and rule, but even many native Kenya citizens that not agreed with the Ma Umau wished for independence and self-rule. The fight against the Ma Umau would cost Britain £55 million alone, during it's twelve years of uprising and rebellion, while the whole Second Great War would cost the British Empire a total of £55 billion.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 342: The American Homefront:

The Second Great War was not very popular with the American Public to say the least. Many even pro-American newspapers depictet it as the war to save European Colonies, or Stalin's reign of terror. The American First Commitee and similar organisations outright called for a end of the war, with popular spokesman like Charles Lindbergh to support their cause. Many Germans, Ukrainians, Russians and other European Minorities or their descandence in America supported the Axis Central Powers at least partly over the Allies, most because they opposed Stalin and supported the Tsar even printing their own newspaper to spread their opinions further. Even many Leftists were against the War, even if it helped the Soviet Union as they believed the new rush of Patriotism was a distractions from America's own social and economic problems in the working class and the trade union. Many Communists and Socialists soon changed their mind, as the war changed the United States. During the course of the war the nominal GDP more then doubled, wages and salaries nerly tripled, as did Federal civilian employment and female employment. Labor Union membership grew by over 50 percend and the national debt soon ballooned by over 600 percent. Many on the Left believed that the war sooner or later would bring a socialist American revolution and with it socialism to America with all this changes.

In the Midwest and among the Military many did not support the war either. Many military members, after the devastating losses of the Philippine Sea and Midway had shown the Japanese superiority and, even worse the incompetence of their own commanders and leaders in this war, despite having intellgience of the enemies codes, felt their brothers, friends and family members died for nothing because the wrong people were leading them to battle. Many Businessmen, Southerners and people of British descendant however supported the war like the government of America did, while many Jews were split over the whole struggle in Europe and did not care that much about the Pacific.

The whole situation tensed once more, as President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 after Axic Central Power spies were cought by the FBI at the East Coast (Amagansett New York, Jacksonville Florida), brought there by submarines to sabotage, spy and after a Japanese submarine had surfaced and bombed Los Angeles earlier. The Executive Order 9066 removed all Issei (Japanese Nationals) and Nisei (Japanese Americans) from the west coast and many Germans, Ukrainians, Russians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Hungarians, French, Spanish and other European Minorities nationals and descandents into Internment Camps in the Midwest, for the suspition of spying or sabotating for the enemy. Or in some chases publish war critic newspapers and propaganda to undermine the American war support. As the War Powers Act had given the president sweeping powers to conduct the war, allowing him to initiate and terminate war contracts, set government agencies for wartime priorities, freze foreign assets and censor the media if he wished, many Americans saw this new powers and politics with worries. They linked these different decisions together and pointed out that even FDR's New Deal poliic had already looked a lot like what Hitler had done in Germany to boost and rebuild the German Economy. Some even feared that President Roosevelt wished to become a American Dictator with the help of this Great War and questioned his motivations for the whole war even stronger than they had before.

This of coarse, played right in the hands of Isolationist and anti-war movements. The American First Committee alone had over 1,200,000 members at his height during 1941/42 and while they were advocating to stay out of the war completely, they also supported improving America's defence and strenght to deterrent the Axis Central Powers and the Co-Prosperity Sphere to respect American independence and the Monroe Doctrine. These groups and their agitation would lead to the growing support of the American First Party in 1944 and their participation in the 1944 US Elections (and the loss of FDR against the new President Dewey during it), as well as the rise of the Southern Dixiecrat faction breakaway of the Democratic Party. The great division of the american public and nearly every citizens family over the Second Great War and the issues comign along with it, as well as the rise of National Monarchist, Fascist Royalist, Socialist and Communist Groups along with it would nearly lead to a Second American Civil War. Their divide of the American people and state would -along with the huge debt, unemployment and the unability of the Allies (Great Britain and Free France) to pay the Americans- ultimately pave the way for the Divided States of America. Unwilling to start a hot American Civil War once again, as america had seen enough dead citizens and was already hugely in debt, President Dewey did what was best (but not what was popular among the military and somep politicans and citizens) and let the secessionist states go. He focussed on rebuilding the American economy, tried at least neutral or partly friendly relationships with the new American States and always reminded the public that he was willing to reintegrate the states that had left if this was what they wished. Dewey's isolationism would help the United States to recover after the Axis Central Powers and the Co-Prosperity Sphere had defacto won the Second great War once America and soon after Great Britain and the Commonwealth ended with it with a White Peace and thereby also ended the Allies participation in it.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 343: National Monarchism: Danish Christianism

The National Monarchism in Denmark was unlike any other in the Axis Central Powers, thanks to King Christian X. As a member of House of Glücksburg, a Dano-German branch of the House of Oldenburg, he was born into the Danish royal family, both his father and his grandfather were born as princes of a German ducal family. While he was authoritarian, with a strong stress of the importance of royal dignity and power, had led to the Easter Crisis of 1920, when he dismissed a democratic elected cabine. His popularity was quiet low afterwards, but Christian managed to convince the public of his good attentions by actions during the Second Great War. While only of symbolic value, he rode trought the streets of Copenhagen unaccompanied by guards every day and became a symbol of resisting the German occupation. In solidary to the Danish Jews, he wore the Star of David until the German Empire stopped it's anti-Semitic laws and politics with the end of Adolf Hitler. His reign spanned two world wars, and thanks to his role as a rallying symbol for Danish national sentiment during the German Occupation, he became one of the most popular Danish monarchs of modern times.

It was Christian X who quickly realized that the flat Danish land could not withstand the Imeprial German tanks for very long period of time, Jutland would have been overrun quickly and without any mountain ranges from wich a draw-out resistance could be mounted against the Imperial German army, Denmark's Army, Navy and the Danish Army Air Corps stood no chance. With the threat of the Imperial German Air Force bombing Copenhagen and only one of his generals in favor of continuing fighting, Christian X and the entire Danish government capitulated, in exchange for maintaining political independence in domestic matters. As a strategic important region for Scandinavia and the Battle for Britain, Denmark remained occupied by German forces. Unlike others, who went into Exile, like Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, King Peter II of Yugoslavia, President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia and others, during the Imperial German occupation of their countries, Christian X remained in his capital. His brother King Haakon VII of Norway had triked the Germns into supporing him insead if Prime Minister Quislings and gained a huge support base in the Nasjonal Samling and the Hirden in Norway. At the same time however King Leopold III of Belgium had been imprisoned in Belgium by the German Empire and his state had been split up by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the French Empire.

In support of collaboration with the German Empire and the Axis Central Powers were the National Monarchist Party of Denmark (Danish: Danmarks Nationalmonarcistiske Arbejderparti; DNMAP), the Danish foreign minister and prime minister Erik Julius Christian Scavenius, Princess Helena Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (German: Helene Adelheid Viktoria Marie) the third eldest daughter of Friedrich Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and his wife Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, a princess of Denmark through her marriage within the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg to Prince Harald of Denmark. Princess Helena and other pro-German, pro-Axis Central Powers and National Monarchist sympathiser during the Second Great War supported the HIPO Corps (Danish: HIPO-korpset) was a Danish auxiliary police corps (the word HIPO is an abbreviation of the German word Hilfspolizei or auxiliary police), established by the German Military Police, the Lorenzen Group (Danish: Lorenzengruppen) and Peter Group (Danish: Petergruppen) two armed paramilitary groups, the Danish People's Defence (Danish: Dansk Folke Værn or Dansk Folkeværn) was the civilian arm of the Danish Schalburg Corps and the Free Corps Denmark (Danish: Frikorps Danmark) was a Danish volunteer free corps created by the DNMAP, all recruited from the ranks of Danish Namo collaborators.

When Germany later implemened Martial Law in August 1942, Christian's official speeches reflected the government's official policy of cooperation with the occupying forces, but this did not prevent him being seen by the Danish people as a man of "mental resistance." During the first two years of the German occupation, in spite of his age and the precarious situation, he nonetheless took a daily ride on his horse, Jubilee, through Copenhagen, unaccompanied by a groom, let alone by a guard. He did so in order to demonstrate that he did not abandon his sovereign rights in th face of occupation. When the Germen Emperor Wilhelm send king Christian X a telegram in 1942, congratulating him on his seventy-second birthday, the king's reply telegram was a mere, Spreche Meinen besten Dank aus. Chr. Rex (Giving my best thanks, King Christian). This perceived slight, known as the Telegram Crisis, greatly outraged the German Emperor and he recalled his ambassador from Copenhagen and expelled the Danish ambassador from Germany, threatening Denmark with full occupation and declaring martial law (officially in response to some Danish resistance groups). German pressure then resulted in the dismissal of the government led by Vilhelm Buhl and its replacement with a new cabinet led by non-party member and veteran diplomat Erik Scavenius, who the Germans expected would be more cooperative. Unknown to the Germans, however had the full confidence of the king, who recognized the increasing Imperial German and Namo threat to Denmark. Denmark had already lost parts of his southern territory to Germany and Christian X feared that, whatever independence Denmark had been able to maintain during the first years of the occupation would end abruptly with the German putsch in August 1942.

After a fall with his horse on 19 October 1942, Christian X was more or less an invalid for the rest of his reign and life. While the role he played in creating the Easter Crisis of 1920 greatly reduced his popularity, his daily rides, the Telegram Crisis and the admiring stories spread by Danish circles all around the world had once again made him popular to the point of being a beloved national symbol. The pressure put on Denmark and the Danish during the Second Great War after the Telegram Crisis and the German declaration of Martial Law in the country, forced Christian X to sign the Integration Treaty (also Treaty of Coppenhagen) that integrated Denmark into Germany. Fearing that total annexation like in Belgium, might happen to Denmark too, Christian X saw this as the only way to save at least a little bit of Danish independence, national sovereignity and dignity. Much like the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Denmark became a German State, but the Danish (now officially a German minority group like Saxons, Bavarians and others) had special rights reguarding it's internal politics and freedom within the German Empire. This independence over it's army, railways, post office, diplomatic body, parliament and internal elections was the main reason King Christian X accepted the treaty instead of handing the government over toa German Miliary Administration. Despite this forced treaty that brought Denmark into Germany, Christian X would be remained as a fighter for Danish independence, nationalism, souvereignity and dignite (leading to the double meaning of his form of National-monarchism; Christianism, a reference to christian morals and the Danish democratic opposition against to much Namo and Faro authoritarianism), even long after his death on 20 April 1947.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 344: Andaman Island Horrors:

With the integration of the Nicobar Islands into the Kingdom of Siam/ Thailand and the Andaman Island into the newly independent Kingdom of Burma, the Co-Prosperity Sphere started to put garrison forces in these regions, to shield it's western coastal trade and flank from Allied raids and invasions. In north and middle Andaman some Indians lived alongside the native Great Andamanese and Jarawa populations, as well as the Onge in South Andaman Island and the Sentinelese in South Sentinel Island. Many who had been brought to the island were prisoners from British India and Burma, only a few worked on plantations and farms. Occupied by Japan during the Second Great War, there was a divide who should rule the islands once liberated. The Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (Provisional Government of Free India) lead by Subhas Chandra Bose, claimed the islan for a independent indian state, but Siam/Thailand and Burma also claimed the region for their own states. While Bose visited the island during the war to support his claim, he renamed them Shaheed (Martyr) & Swaraj (Self-rule). While Bose raised the flag of Indian independence on the island during his visit, the Japanese decided to give the Nicobar Islands to Siam/ Thailand, as a secure ouer base for the future planned Cra/Kra Canal. The Andaman Islands however were given to the new independent Kingdom of Burma, as a compensation for all the territory it had to give up to Siam/Burma and therefor loose. The Japanese, Siam/Thai and Burmese then used the native population and former British prisoners as forced abor, to help them establish their own garrisons, small ports and airfields on the islands. These labor forces were also encouraged to develop the islands fisheries, timber, and agricultural resources to support this occupation and garrison forces, so they would not rely to much on importet ressources. The former inmates if they cooperated openly with the Co-Prosperity Sphere against the Allies were promised to return to a liberated India, or settle on the islands as citizens if they wished to do so.

These plans were quickly put into action, while Japan and Burmese nationalist still liberated Burma, but not everywhere they worked like planned. On the South Sentinel Island, the initial party of Japanese and Burmese soldiers, send to build a small makeshift dock and even a small airfield near the coast for patrols or even a few naval bombers. This first group however never responded back to the military headquarters in Rangoon and soon a second group was send under the assumption that Allied (most likely British and Indian forces or commandos) had assaulted the base during the build and could use it for their own raids against Co-Prosperity Sphere naval supply lines from Singapore to Rangoon in Burma, or the railroads from Singapore to Bankok in Siam/Thailand. The Destroyers, Cruisers and landing crafts send to retake the Island under Commander Sakaa Naoko, saw it as a good training exercise to future landings planned against the Indian Coast, the island of Ceylon, the Maledives or the Chagoc Archipelgo to secure their rule in the Indian Ocean. His landing forces soon encountered the hostile natives, but their modern weapon quickly desroyed any resistance of these Sentinelese, who have even before rejected, often violently, any contact with the outside world. Their time of being a uncontacted, untouched civilisation was suddenly over, disrupted by a force and war they did not know or care about in any way or form. As Commander Naoko wrongly believed that the native savages had eaten the previous force and workers and not only killed them as intrudors to their island, his forces were delicately in their handling of any native resistance. After the last members of their tribe were either rounded up by the Japanese/ Burmese forces, or killed, the rest of them was deportet to the Burmese main land as slave labor, like any other resisting native tribes on the Andaman Islands. In their place convicted criminals from Burma and Siam/Thailand were used as forced labor, as the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army, as well as the Burmese and Siamese/Thai Kingdoms believed that the use of Allied prisoners of war was to risky in chance that a British/Indian, American or other Allied force would land in the Andaman Islands and then easily liberate this prisoner forced labor force.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 345: Namo and Faro in South America: Argentina

In Argentina Nimio de Anquín (born 1896), a Thomist writer wished to combine the models of European Fascism and later Fascist Royalism with his own attachment to the Catholic Church. He was born in Córdoba, Argentina and studied law at National University of Córdoba. With his studies in Argentina completed he travelled to Germany to study philosophy under Ernst Cassirer Whilst in Europe he developed his interest in politics and became a follower of the ideas of Charles Maurras after coming into contact with his work. Soon de Anquín sought to develop his own political ideas by seeking to combine Thomism with Hegelianism, leading him to call for a national syndicalist state. His idea of combining Fascism (Fascist Royalism) with the Christian Catholic faith, lead him to his own political carrier in 1934. He was a founder of the Instituto San Tomas de Aquino in Córdoba, Argentina in 1929 and this group would become linked to the Argentine Fascist Party. In 1934 he joined the Fascismo Argentino de Córdoba (Blueshirts). By the following year he had taken over as leader of the group, which by then had changed its name to the Frente de Fuerzas Fascistas in 1935. Various groups then merged in 1936 to emerge as the Union National Fascista under de Anquin's leadership. A strong admirer of Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism, he argued that Argentine nacionalismo should follow the Italian model by seeking to mobilise mass support but that the domestic version of fascism should put a stronger emphasis on the centrality of Catholicism to national identity than its European counterparts.

As one of the first persons to combine Fascism with Catholicism directly, de Anquin became one of the first Fascist Royalists in the world. In 1934 he was suspended from his lectureship at the Colegio Nacional de Monserrat, in Córdoba, due to the violence of his movement. The violence continued however until active repression began in late 1936 when he attempted to force university students to sign a letter in support of Francisco Franco. By 1939 the Union National Fascista had grown significant, thanks to the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War and other National Monachist and Fascist Royalist governments, that had by then taken over most states of Europe. Their Axis Central Power alliance fascinated de Anquin, who was sympathising with them and who wrote in 1941 that “by the great Hitler and Mussolini, liberalism and ugly democracy have died”. De Anquins continued to write on political matters, inevitably focusing on his two favoured themes of militant nationalism and anti-democracy, producing newspapers to support his ideology and movement of the Argentine Fascist Party (Partido Fascista Argentino, PFA) and later National Fascist Royalist Union (Unión Nacional Fascista Monárquico, UNFM). Ieological de Anquin denounced the middle and upper class for complicity and cowardice and claimed that communism, Judaism, and degenerate Radicalism were responsible for murders and the problems of Argentina. De Anquin by God, honour, and the Fatherland, to return the homicidal bullet of thos who opposed a strong Argentine. Is growing popularity led to his participation in the Revlution of '43. The coup happened out of fear of the US pressure to change Argentina neutral position and with the goal of hurting British economic interests in the country and ultimately replacing Great Britain as the dominant economic power in Argentina and South America.

The coup led to the rule of the Generals Arturo Rawson, Pedro Pablo Ramirez (the founder of Argentina's Fascist Royalist militia, the Guadia Nacional and General Edelmiro Farrell. The coup was heavily supported by the military, the population and the church. It was heavily anti-communistic and quickly took over the education and all other aspects of Argentina life. In the end de Anquin formed a mixture of conservative government and military junta, as Caudillo Presidente. He ended the week democracy and the decade of coups. Strongly de Anquin claimed neutrality during the Second Great War, but was openly sympathic to National Monarchists and Fascist Royalists, as well as the Axis Central Powers. He believed that with their help, Argentina would replace Britain and America as the dominant, hegemonic powers in South America. Under Caudillo Presidente de Anquin, Argentine was called the Argentine League in memory of the Federal League or League of Free Peoples (Spanish: Liga Federal or Liga de los Pueblos Libres) an alliance of provinces in what is now Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil that aimed to establish a confederal organization for the states that had emerged from th Spanish Colonial Empire under José Gervasio Artigas. This meant that the Argentine League tried to gain land from Uruguay, Bazil and Great Britain (Falkland Islands, leading to the Falkland Crisis/War) and because of this de Anquin also supported the Brazilian Integralists during the Brazilian Civil War. During his Caudillo Presidency, de Anquin often showed himself in line with Juan Manuel de Rosas and José de San Martín.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 346: India in turmoil: Cripps Mission and the Quit India Movement

In late February 1942 the British government send senior minister Sir Stafford Cripps, Lord Privy Seal and leader of the House of Commons on a mission to secure full Indian cooperation and support for their efforts in the Second Great War. Cripps a member of the left-wing Labour Party, traditionally sympathetic to Indian self-rule, but was also a member of the coalition War Cabinet led by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who wished to block Indian independence. In a attempt to nagotiate a agreement with the Indian national Congress, that spoke for a majority of Hindu Indians, as well as with Muhammad Ali Jinnah from the All-Indian Mohammedan League, who spoke for the minority Mohammedan population. Cripps promised elections and self-government (in the form of a Dominion status) if India stayed loyal to the British and their war efford. The proposals were discussed under Cripps together with the Indian leaders and even published. Both major indian parties refected the proposal and Churchill himself called them unacceptable for Great Britain too. Because of this no middle way was found and the Cripps mission failed to archive it's goal. The Indian National Congress then moved towards the Quit India Movement declaring that India refused to cooperate in the war effort. As a response, the British imprisoned practically the entire Congress leadership for the duration of the war, further spreading the Indian mistrust in the British and vice versa. The only group in support of the British war efford were Jinnah an his Mohammedans, who hoped to gain the right to opt out of a future Indian Union in favor of a independent Mohammedan state after the war. When the British promised him to include this right to opt out of a future Indian Union, Jinnah and his supporters openly helped the British war efford, but were seen as traitors by other independence nationalist movements.

With the failure of Cripps Mission, the Quit India Movement was launched at the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942, during the Second Great War, demending the end of British Rule to India. Gandhi then called for Do or Die, during his Quit India speech that gave the movement it's name, delivered by him in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. There the British used Tear Gas against the protestors, that called for Indian Independence (a decision playing into the hands, of anti-British Co-Prosperity Sphere propaganda). Because of this, the All-India Congress Committee launched mass protests troughtout all of India, demanding what Gandhi called "An Orderly British Withdrawal" from India. But even as it was wartime, the British Empire were prepared to act and as their response, almost the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress was imprisoned without trial within hours of Gandhi's speech. Most of them spent the rest of the war in prison and out of contact with the masses. The British Colonial Government had the support of the Viceroy's Council, that was in it's majority Indian,, of the All India Mohammedan League, the princely states, the Indian Imperial Police, the British Rajn Army and the Indian Civil Service. Many Indian businessmen, who were profiting from heavy wartime spending did not support the Quit India Movement either, as they hoped for more profits within the British Colony of India.

Many Indian students meanwhile paid more attention to Subhas Chandra Bose, who was in exile, established a Co-Prosperity Sphere government in Sadiya/ Sediya, where Lt Col. A. D. Loganathan was appointed its Governor General. For many religious Indians, it was no coincidence, that Bose's provisorial capital city Sadiya/ Sediya (xôdiya), literally meant "land of rising sun", just as Japan, that was helping in Bose's war for indian liberation. The city and the whole region had not only bin the third capital of the Chutia Kingdom, but was also the place, were ge Eastern form of Prakrit and the modern form of Assamese were developed, The city was also famous for a flower named satphul (the word means "blessing" or a "desert flower"), similar to the Jasmine. There in Sadiya/ Sediya, Bose established the provisional government of Assam as the newest member state of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and raised the Indian National Army (INA) as well as it's special forces, the Bahadur Group, that was extensively involved in operations behind enemy. Their growing numbers and support were the reason, why Bose called out "Give me blood, and I shall give you freedom!" as his own slogan for Indian independence, in strong opposition to Ghandi's democratic way and nonviolent civil disobedience and protests. Bose's new government was also backed by the Axis Central Powers member states, who recognized it as legitime, the same way the Co-Prosperity Sphere and even the majority of indians did, after the British arrested and imprisoned nearly all members of the Indian National Congress. Because of this dramatic and dangerous development, the American President Franklin Roosevelt, pressured the British Prime Minister Churchill to give in to at least some of the Indian demands. While the Quit India campaign was effectively crushed, Grea Britain refused to grant immediate independence, saying it could happen only after the war had ended. The Japanese, the Co-Prosperity Sphere and even the Axis Central Powers used this for their own propaganda, calling it empty promises to ensure a continue of British rule and opression of India. Their propaganda claimed, that only Netaji (Hindustani: "Respected Leader") Subhas Chandra Bose, could liberate India and the imprisoned members of the Indian National Congress and other protesters and truly liberate India with the help of the Indian people's own power and not on British mercy and terms.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 347: Operation Alexander/Unternehmung Alexander

In Egypt, the Axis Central Powers, prepared Operation Aleander (Unternehmung Alexander – named so to give the Allies the false impression that this offensive ould focus mainly on the Middle East) as a part of the Western Desert Campaign. Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel and Ettoro Bastico led the German, Italian, Fascist French, Spanish and even some Austrian-Hungarian forces in a plan to defeat the British Eighth Army commanded by Sir Harold Alexander and Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery. Their plan was the surrounding and destruction of Montgomery' forces in El Alamein, before the Allies (mainly the Americans) would send massive amounds of equipment and fresh forces. They tried a plan to make a Axis Central Powers victory possible, before stronger Allied forces would arrive before the Eighth Army got new reinforcements. To do so the mainly German and Italian forces launched a new attack on 30 July that wold last until 5 August 1942 in the south of El Alamein. The Battle itself would be known as the Battle of Alam el Halfa, because of the ridge that stopped the original Axis Central Powers assault and push to the east.

Thanks to the Ultra intelligence interceptions, Montgomery, knew beforehand of Rommel's intentions and left a gap in his southern defence sector, knowing full well that he Axis Central Powers planned to attck there. To counter this plan, the Allies deployed the bulk of their artillery and armor on Alam el Halfs Ridge (20 miles or 32 km) behind the front. Montgomery additionaly also used a new tactic, were tanks were used in an anti-tank role, remaining in their elevate position atop of the ridge. The main British plan was to hold the armor back and fire upon the advancing Axis Central Powered forces, until their push an breaktrought was stopped. Then the still fresh Allied (mainly British and Commonwealth) Forces could push out to counter-attack the then already exhausted and greatly weakened enemy troops.

Before the battle even began, German, Italian, Austrian-Hungarian and Neo-Ottoman bombers from Cyreneica, Cyprus and Syria heavily attacked the fortified Allied positions and forces in El Alemain to soften them up before Rommel's main attack. This however gave Mont, even more prove that their intelligence had intercepted the right time and that the rest of the cought Axis Central Powers massages and plans was most likely true too. The main push was lead by German, Italian and Austrian-Hungarian forces, quickly breakin the southern Allied defence line and pushing further east and then north, once they were behind the enemy defence lines. Everything worked smooth until the moment, the advancing Axis Central Powers tanks and transports reched the feed of the Alam el Halfa Ridge. Suddenly heavy Allied bombardment from the highgound position stopped their advance and fresh Allie reinforcements from the north and east even forced them back a little bit into a position they could better defend.

That his assault over the ridge failed, was one of the major setbacks of Rommel's push into Egypt and the overall Axis Central Powers war in North Arica. Rommel withdrew to a securer defence position, hoping for fresh and new supply and reinforcements for his forces, before the Allied ones would arrive, to start a new offensive as quick as possible. But his supply lines were very streched and the infrastructure in Africa a overall cathastrophy to say the least. Montgomery on the other hand, decided not to followRommel after his withdrawal an to not exploit this defensive Allied victory. Montgomery instead believed that the continued methodical build up of strength for his autumn offensive, was still the best course of action.

Lieutenant-General Bernard C. Freyberg, of the 2nd New Zealand Division, however had other plans ans started a attack launched against the Italian positions, suffering heavy losses whiledoing so. Rommel meanwhile had noticed that the devastating Allied attacks had greatly weakened his motorized, armed forces, the spearhead of his army, forcing him to break of his offensives and retreat to mor securer position. Rommel hoped that new Axis Central Powers reinforcements and fresh troops together with new fighter and bomber attacks ould break the Allied air superiority and dominance on the ground, opening the gates to Egypt, before the balance of power swited to greatly in the Allies favor. Out of his originally nearly eight divisions, Rommel had lost 2,900 kiled, qounded or captured soldiers. 49 tanks, 36 aircraft, 43 guns and 217 transport vehicles had been destroyed in the battle. The 4 Allied Divisions meanwhile had suffered 1,750 killed, wounded or captured soldiers, lost alongside 86 tanks and 74 aircraft. But in his final analyse of the battle, Rommel saw more then a tactical defeat and retreat.

Rommel realised that his troups fought hard and inflicted bigger causualities and losses on the Allies then the other way around. If both sides would receive the same supplies and reinforcements, there would be no problem for the Axis Central Powers, but Rommel was sure that the time limit for his operational ability to initiate offensives was limited, the more material and troops the Americans were bringing into Africa. With the possibility of a second or third Front in western Africa, the ability to defend the Axis Central Powers base in Africa, was heavily relieing on his next offensive and breaktrought, knew Rommel. Only then the Axis Central Powers strategic aims in the African theatre could remain a possibility, wrote Rommel in his report to Emperor Wilhelm III in Berlin, who quickly greenlighted new supplies and troops for him. Realising the urgency of the situation, the German Emperor allowed 350,000 troops, over 200 tanks, ove 1,000 field guns and thousands of aircraft to be send to reinforce Rommel and other African Fronts alongside other Axis Central Power forces. These troops were desperately needed to counter the 500,000 troops, over 1,800 tanks, over 1,200 field guns and thousands of aircraft, the Americans were now transporting into Africa (only 108,000 of these American forces had arrived in Africa and the Middle East to help out the British and Commonwealth Forces until now).

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 348: The French Collaboration Government and the Dream of a Greater Fascist French Empire:

Under Fernand de Brinon, Marquis de Brinon (born 26 August 1885), a French lawyer and journalist, the National Monarchist and Fascist Royalist Government was formed, that made Napoléon VI of the Bonaparte dynasty first King, then Emperor. De Brinon, was Born into a wealthy family in the city of Libourne in the Gironde département, he studied political science and law at university but chose to work as a journalist in Paris. After the First Great War, he advocated a rapprochement with Germany and became friends with Joachim von Ribbentrop. Fernand de Brinon married Jeanne Louise Rachel Franck, a.k.a. Lisette, the Jewish former wife of Claude Ullmann; she converted to Catholicism. The Brinons became leading socialites in 1930s Paris, and close friends of the political right-wing elite and of radical leader Édouard Daladier. In co-ordination with Ribbentrop's personal representative in Paris, Otto Abetz, Brinon headed the France–Germany Committee, designed to influence France's political and cultural establishment in a pro-German direction. This was Imperial Germany's main propaganda technique in their attempt to influence French politics before the Second Great War. During the rise of Germany and he European crisis coming along with it, Brinon sent accounts of the discussions of the French Cabinet to the German government, obtained from two ministers. As a leading advocate for collaboration following France's defeat by Germany in the Second Great War, in Juni 1940 Brinon was invited by Pierre Laval, Vice-Premier of the new Fascist French Regime, to act as its representative to the German High Command in occupied Paris. In August of that year he also established the Groupe Collaboration to help establish closer cultural ties between Germany and France. The Group promoted a National Monarchist, Fascist Royalist Europeanist, Germanophilia outlook and sought the rebirth of France through part of Europe-wide "National Monarchist/ Fascist Royalist Revolution".

In 1942, Emperor Napoléon VI, head of the Fascist French Empire, gave him Fernand de Brinon the title of Secretary of State. As the now third-ranking member of the new French Empire and because of his enthusiastic support for the fascist royalist cause, Brinon's importance to the German Empire allowed him to nagotiate the Annexation of southern Belgium in exchange for Alsace-Lorraine/Elsaß-Lothringen and started many comissions, eschanges and projects to bring both nations closer together. This allowed 100,000 Alsatians and 30,000 Mosellans to enroll and serve in the Imperial German Army during the war as full Imperial German Citizens, many of them would fight in the Eastern Crusade, in North Africa, in Syria, or secure the coasts of the French Empire against a Allied Invasion. Marquis de Brinon also pushed for educational reforms and other propaganda, that would bring the French Empire even clother to Germany, by claiming (and rewriting history) that not only the majority of foreign words in the French Language came from German Languages (German and English), but that the French Language and the French people themselves, were in their majority a fellow German (and that the lesser ancient extent of Germanic people such as Franks, Alamans and Norsemen was actually the majority and dominant factor, instead of Gauls, Ligures, Latins, Iberians, Celtic and Romans). The French People however were split and while some wished to work closely with the German Hegemonial Center (Germany and Austrian-Hungary) inside the Axis Central Powers, other Collaborational French hoped to form a Romanic French-Italian-Spanish counter balance and power inside the Axis Central Powers (in many of this French ideological plans this Latin-Block as Mussolini had called it, the French Empire would become the dominand power inside such a Axis Central Power internal Romanic/ Latin Block). A thirt Fascist French Imperial Faction meanwhile, promoted a third way, a French Imperial way as their own faction and power block inside the Axis Central Powers, to counter both, the German and Latin/ Romanic Blocks with a French Empire that would in their dreams and ambitions one day reunite the whole French speaking world into a Greater French Empire that even Napoleon I would have been proud of.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 349: Lessons learned at Midway: The Plan of a new Fleet

The Pacific War had proven to the Japanese and the Americans, that Carriers were the weapon of the future and that the area of Battleships was over. The heavy losses both sides have had during Midway meant that Japan had now the problem to compete with the much bigger and far superior industrial capacity of America in terms of shipbuilding. A race Japan, could only loose know Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and so the Imperial Japanese Navy thought of ways how to beat the Americans in this carrier race, before they would rebuild their own carriers and hopefully win the war by then, or at least force a white peace. New Japanese Carriers and even modernized new ones from now on had a armored deck, instead of a wooden one.

Strategy One: Anti-aircraft Ships:
One of the first new strategies was the creation of anti-aircraft ships (AAS); Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, Battleships and even Carriers whose amount of AA was dramatically increased, to top that of any American and British ships during the time. Some of this anti-aircraft turrets and platforms were simply added to the top and even the side hull of these ships, to maximise the possible account. This often made the transport for ammunition to these AA turrets problematic and sometimes nearby rooms were repurposed as AA ammunition depots to easier and faster supply these AA defence turrets. This AA gun ships served as AA platforms for the rest of their fleet and to function properly, their main gun rangefinder was replaced with a high-angle one and a machine-gun director towers for further controll and direct their AA fire.

Strategy Two: Aviation Carriers/ Half-Carriers/ Battle Carriers:
The need for more Carriers lead to some quiet unconventional and drastic ideas and changes. The new Battle Carrier idea focussed on the conversion of Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, or even Battleships into so called Aviation Carriers (AC), Half-Carriers (HC), or Battle Carriers (BC). To do so the entire aft sections of this ships were rebuild, the turrets removed and their ammo storage rooms were modified to hold gasoline, bombs and other ammunition. A small aircraft deck was extended to the stern of the ship, with a rail system to use six to twelve (two to four sections/ shotai) airplanes. These were fighter, close air support or, dive or torpedo bombers. They all were Aichi E16A Zuiun floatplanes, Mitsubishi F1M Pet or Aichi E13A Jake floatplanes, since regular carrier aircrafts could start, but not land on the shorter decks of Half-Carriers/ Battle Carriers. Therefore a crane had to lift the planes up on the ship again, once they landed nearby after finishing their mission. This conversions increased the Imperial Japanese Navy Fleets scouting capability and overall number of available planes in a battle. The overall AA armament on this ships was also heavily increased, not as much as that of special anti-aircraft ships, but nearly half of that.

While the main role as frontline combatant ships had changed with this conversions into a more supportive role to provide reconnaissance, scouting, or fighter and bomber launch for the rest of the fleet with the ability to launch all her planes in roughly half an hour. Additionally Half-Carriers/ Battle Carriers could also still use their forward and side turrets of this ship on coastal targets and smaller enemy ships and were less vulnerable then regular carriers, when they same close to other small ships. Technically the Half-Carriers/ Battle Carriers were larger Aviation Tenders/ Seaplane Tenders, or Seaplane Carriers, that could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation. They were later sometimes further converted to Escort Carriers or even Light Carriers. The Japanese even converted a few transport ships and tankers into limited-purpose aircraft carriers, by adding a flight deck and a few scouts to these ships. This way they could be used as escort scouts and use their airplanes against enemy submarines.

As no new fleet aircraft carrier were to be excepted operational at least until 1944, conversion plans were made for all the Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers and Battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Soon the Furutakas and Aobas were ruled out as considered too small and the Yamatos was not only to new but too important for conversion. The conversion of other ships was outruled, as they were to new, to costly, or to fast (and could thereby escort other carriers as Anti-aircraft ships better). The conversion of cruiser of the Myōkō-class, Takao-Class, Mogami-Class and Tone-Class would took around 8 months to finish. It would result in light carriers with 195-200m x 23,5m flight deck and an aircraft capacity of roughly 30 planes. The conversion the battleships of the Kongo-Class, Ise-Class, Fuso-Class and Nagato-Class would take 18 months to finish. It would result in vessels with around 210-220m x 34m flight deck and an aircraft capacity of roughly 54 planes. The Kongos were later later ruled out of this plan, as their high speed allowed them to escort carriers and the Nagato's 410mm cannons were still considered a powerful armament, so they were ruled out too. This lead to the decision to convert the Ise, Hyuga, Fuso, Yamashiro and other ships instead.

Strategy Three: Escort (Aircraft) Carrier:
Since new carriers were to expensice and time consuming to build, Japan focussed parts of it's ressources on the conversion of Half-Carriers/ Battle Carriers, but also on Escord Carriers. Escort Carriers were typically half the length and a third the displacement of larger fleet carriers. Therefore Escord Carriers could be build much faster and with less ressources. They still carried much fewer airplanes then regulair carriers, but much more then Half-Carriers/ Battle Carriers. Some of the Escord Carriers were later converted into full light carriers.

Strategy Four: Light Carriers:
Light Carriers (CVL) were similar to Escort Carriers, but were fast enough to directly operate alongside regular Fleet Carriers without slowing the rest of the fleet down at all. After Midway the Imperial Japanese navy planned to build more of this ships to quickly catch up with their losses of regulair Fleet Carriers and be fully operational for further offensives in the Pacifis very soon.

Strategy Five: Submarine Tender/ Submarine Carriers:
Another idea favored by Admiral Yamamoto and other Admirals of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was the use of Submarine Tenders/ Submarine Carriers, a concept very similar to Seaplane Tenders/ Seaplane Carriers. These ships were able to supply and support submarines far away from any harbor, further increasing their range and time of operation. Some versions even carried midget submarines or human torpedos later on as full Submarine Carriers, allowing them to be used far beyond enemy lines and own bases. This original ship concept was soon adapted unto Submarines. Submarines were already used to transport fuel and raw materials past Allied blockades and raided sea regions, so this development was quit natural in the eyes of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The first Submarien Carriers only carried smaller submarines, midget submarines or human torpedoes. They had to surface to man these ships and than dive again before releasing them operational. Some concepts soon played with the idea to release this smaller submarines nearly like torpedoes from the sides or deck if the submarine. In these versions they were boarded from inside the carrier submarine, then realeased from it and could then operate on their own. However it took time to load these smalelr submarines again, even with a crane and during this time, they were quit vulnerabland could easily be attacked by enemy planes and ship during this time, as they were unable to submerge during this process.

Stratgey Six: Submarine Aircraft Carriers:
The overall idea of submarine carriers would lead to the largest submarined build during the Second great War, the I-400-class submarine (伊四百型潜水艦 I-yon-hyaku-gata sensuikan) that would remain one of the largest submarines ever build, since the Japanese topped themselves in the 1950s/60s. The IJN would call this type of submarine Sentoku type submarine (潜特型潜水艦 Sen-Toku-gata sensuikan, Submarine Special). The type name was shortened to Toku-gata Sensuikan (特型潜水艦 Special Type Submarine). They were submarine aircraft carriers able to carry three Aichi M6A Seiran aircraft underwater to their destinations. They were designed to surface, launch their planes, then quickly dive again before they were discovered. They also carried torpedoes for close-range combat. The I-400 class was designed with the range to travel anywhere in the world and return. A fleet of 18 boats was planned in 1942, and work started on the first in December 1942 at Kure Naval Yards, Hiroshima. A year later the plan was diversed into multible shipyards and the I-400 and I-401 was build at Kure,while the I-402 and I-403 were build at Sasebo. It would be the first Submarine Aircraft Carrier (SAC) and the Japanese would later plan to submerge carriers with the same abilities, but who could carry as much planes as Escord Carriers, Light Carriers and regulair Fleet Carriers. These variations were actually build by the Japanese in the future after the Second Great War.

(modified, possible conversions plans for the Mogami)