The Co-Prosperity Sphere

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Chapter 467: The African Campaign – Part 10: Rommel's and Cavallero's Offensive into Egypt:

In Egypt the Allies were in full panic, as the Axis Central Power Forces had pushed past El Alamein, while the British Eight Army had retreated to Alexandria, the Western Desert Campaign was suddenly over. Hasty the British High Command in Cairo brurned and destroyed important papers, plans and everything else that should not fall into enemy hands, while their forses prepared for the defense of Alexandria and Cairo the best they could. Forces from the Middle East, mainly the Kingdom of Iraq and the Mandate of Palestine were redirected to Egypt to help with the defense of the colony and the Suez Canal in a attempt to stop Rommel. While many Egyptians wished not to fight, Cairo was declared a open city, but the British refused to leave without a fight. Maher Pasha was once again King Farouk I's favorit Prime Minister, despite British Protests.

The British had before pressed for Nahas Pasha as Prime Minister, but Farouk believed him to be a Bolshevik shemer. The British then had the Wafd-coalition government replace Hussein Sirri Pasha's government and appoint Nahas Pasha as Prime Minister. The British even threatened to make Prince Mohammad Ali the new King, should Farouk no comply and rolled a tank up to the palace. This moves where greatly unpopular in Egypt and the Egyptians were growing tired of British interference in their internal affairs. The Axis Central Powers vicory at El Alamein then led to open anti-British protests and some people even showing their open sympathy for the ACP. Most believed that Rommel would be in Cairo after only a month and panic was rising amoungst the British authorities and forces in Egypt.

The major problem for General Fieldmarshall Rommel and Marshall of Italy Ugo Cavallero was that despite some captured, left over British equipment, they still waited for major Axis Central Power reinforcements from Benghazi and Tobruk, as the British Navy still controlled the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. While the Axis Central Powers by now had Malta, Crete and Cyprus under their control to attack british convoys and Naval Fleets as well as British Positions in Egypt and Palesine directly. To speed up his supply lines Rommel even had the German High Command fly in equipment, vehicles and weapons by airlift as best as possible. Not only that it stretched the Axis Central Power Supply lines, but Rommel knew that the British could try to hold out in Alexandria and supply the city by sea like Tobrik before, remaining a threat to his flank and backwards supply lines on his was towards Cairo. This forced Rommel to deal with Alexandria first, before he even could think about pushing deeper into the Rest of Egypt. Rommel hoped that his enemy, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery would once again simply retread out of Alexandria, once the Axis Central Powers threatened to encircle it like El Alamain before. While this would leave more British Forces to defend the rest of Egypt, with Alexandria in his hand Rommel would suddenly have much closer Air support and supply lines.

That was the reson why Field Marshal Rommel along with the German and Austrian-Hungarian Forces intendet to push north onto Alexandria and the Nile Delta along the coast and northern center of Egypt, directly pushing towards Cairo. The Italians meanwhile under Marshal of Italy, Ugo Cavallero would turn south with the majority of their forces and capture as much of the south of Egypt as possible, were only minor British Garrisons were stationed. However over 2 Million Allied forces from Britain, Australia, India and New Zealand had arrived in Egypt because of it's massive strategic importance of Egypt and the Middle East. They had set off a massive bout of inflation that destabilised the Egyptian economy, making the war years a period of hardship and suffering for ordinary Egyptians, only further increasing anti-British, anti-Allied and pro-Axis Central Powers sentiments in the ordinary Egyptians. The Italian Fieldmarshall Ugo Cavallero meanwhile who rivaled with German Fieldmarshall Rommel for victories, fame and glory, whose forces had put up a good fight and who himself had a good grasp on the problems inheren to the war in the Mediterranean that the Italian Kingdom, the new Roman Empire had to fight, both agreed on one thing; more Axis Central Power ressources had to be delivered to Africa, not only for the Eastern Crusade instead. But both knew this would led to a fatal dispersion of Italy's meager resources and so both argued that Austria-Hungary and it's Balkan Peninsula puppets as well as the French, Spanish and even the Germans should send much more forces and equipment too.

 

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Chapter 468: The Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere Lottery, Bonds and Bills:

The Japanese liberation of the new member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere led to some interesting concepts and ideas to finance their new Empire and ambitions. Beside normal taxes, slave labor and even the payment of Japanese forces stationed inside their borders with Ressources in exchange. Despite this an the constant use of propaganda and other encouragement, that told the general Co-Prosperity Sphere population to work had and overhours for their liberty, independence, wealth and co-prosperity. One of this concepts was Konan Saiken and other related Lotteries in the various member states, that promised a top prize of $50,000 for a ticket prise of only $1 for each one. However despite heavy advertisement for the Lottery and overall high income thanks to most member states working literally for free for the Japanese Empire during the Second Great War for their Liberation, all civil employees of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and their overall military projects were required to buy at least one each Lottery. Alongside civilians who hoped to win the Grand Prize, this increased the ammount of Tickets sold immensely.

However taxes and these Lotteries were not the only way for Japan and the Co-Prosperity Sphere to have revenue for their militaries and newly established administrations. The Japanese also printed money, at first new one resembling at least partly the old, or former money for a fixed exchange rate, to stop the use of Imperialist Colonial Money, therefore called Liberation Money inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Slowly but steady over the years this money was then exchanged for local versions of the Yen, to copple the currency of the whole Co-Prosperity Sphere and Yen Block directly to the Japanese economy, industry and umbrella banks. Within the second year of the Japanese invasion, the use and ownership of colonial time money, was banned and ownership often was seen as being tied to Allied and Imperial Colonialist smuggler rings. The same bann was later true for th early Japanese Liberation money as well, that was changed in the rate 1:1 for the new member state Yen currencies. This Military Yen helped the Japanese quickly dominate local economies, while at the same time backing their own Yen with a gold standart from inflation while the Second Great War continued, alongside robbin most riches from the liberated or conquered regiond.

Another method of creating money for the Japanese and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, was the issuing of three types of bonds, the so called War Bonds, the Liberation Bonds and the Co-Prosperity Bonds, each type was issued and intended for different occassions, similar to promissory notes or note payables. War Bonds, as debt securities were issued by the Japanese and other new Co-Prosperity Sphere governments to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war, like the Japanese and other Co-Prosperity Sphere Armies and Navies that provided liberation and afterwards security and protection for the newly liberated member states. Liberation Bonds, were issued by the Japanese and other new Co-Prosperity Sphere governments to finance for items, clothes, houses and other possessions ousted from Colonial Imperialist (meaning in Co-Prosperity Sphere propaganda that they were European, or their organisations and churches, as well as anyone believed to have conspired or supported the former colonial government and colony administrations) before for nothing in exchange. The last version were the so called Co-Prosperity Bonds, these were issued by the Japanese and other new Co-Prosperity Sphere governments to finance military operations and other expenditure for the further industrialisation, modernisation of the Co-Prosperity Sphere member states, including a modern infrastrusture and repairing war damages, so that every citizen profited from buying some of these.

Another but similar methods were so called Military Bills, were different companies and enterprises or conglomerates were for their work, produced goods and ressourced not payed directly by the individual Co-Prosperity Sphere militaries or governments, but promised to be paid once the war was over. This was seen as a patriotic duty in harsh times and gave time before paying even huge sums off. As a exchange this and other similar bills could also be used by company owners to lower the taxes they had to pay in a special exchange system for taking part in the Military Bill financiation system. For every ten and later hundrets of so payed deals and transactions, the owner of one bill was allowed to pay one-hundredth of one percent of the sum less in taxes he had to pay overall. In eschange and collective all this systems helped Japan finance parts of it's military operation during the Second Great War. If the Japanese Empire would win, it controlled enough ressources and population to dominate not only Asia but the global trade-network in the near future and had no worries to care about repaying such a system, if the Japanese Empire lost and was beaten and broken, they could not do so either way, so in the eyes of the Japanese Military it ws a fool-proved plan.

 

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Chapter 469: Marcel Bucard and the Hunt for the Anti-Fascist French Resistance:

Marcel Bucard (born 7 December 1895, Saint-Clair-sur-Epte) was a French Fascist politician. A decorated soldier who earned a reputation for bravery in the First Great War. Bucard became active in politics after 1918, initially as a member of Action Française (an Integralist Fascist Royalist group) and then as a member of the overtly fascist and antisemitic Faisceau of Georges Valois. In September 1933, Bucard founded his own group, the Mouvement Franciste, arguably the most extreme group of the time, and one financed by Benito Mussolini's government. On 6 February 1934 the Francistes joined the other right-wing parties in the riots in front of the Palais Bourbon, originally a protest provoked by the Stavisky Affair, and possibly intended as a coup d'état. Subsequently, the Popular Front government banned his movement (as well as other all other right wing 'leagues', fascist, national monarchists or otherwise) upon its emergence in 1936; Bucard was imprisoned briefly. His attempt to recreate the movement as the Parti Franciste, a political party in 1938 was without lasting success, as it too was outlawed. After the Fall of France in the Second Great War, and the start of the creation of a collaboration Fascist French government in Mainland France, Bucard's Parti was again active from 1941 onwards, this time as a collaborationist.

Bucard called upon his Francists to give whatever support they could to the new Fascist French Kingdom and the Germans, including military intelligence and information concerning the Resistance. His role in the period was, however, limited, as he was usually absent due to suffering caused by old wounds; nonetheless, he was the co-founder of the Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme and heavily supported recruiting volunteers for the Eastern Crusade and even create Propaganda for it. At the same time he supported the Burgundian Order and argued that Francists should join it in support of the new Fascist Royalists/ National Monarchists New Oder in Europe, as well as the German National Monarchist Kraftfahrer Korps (National Monarchist Motor Corps) or the German High Sea Fleet or their French versions in support of the Axis Central Powers. While his support managed to gain volunteers for the Axis Central Powers, his role in military and political affairs of the French Kingdom and later the Third French Empire never became a major one. Still French Resistance members, Allied and French combatants behind the actually Frontlines would argue otherwise, as Vassart and his groups managed to reveal and kill quiet a huge amount of them either directly, or by encouraging people to join the Fascist French Milice and new regime Soldiers in the Army and Orders. Marcel Bucard died on March 13, 1976 in Strasbourg (Straßburg) Alsace-Lorraine in Germany.

 

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Chapter 470: The Aleutian Island Campaign – Part 3: The Battle of the Bering Sea:

The Battle of the Aleutian Islands was not going like planned for the Americans, as the so called North Area Fleet send there by Admiral Isoroko Yamamoto under the command of Vice-Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya, with a force of two aircraft carriers, ten cruisers, twenty-four destroyers, twelve submarines, and eight troop transports, along with supporting auxiliary ships. When the Japanese managed to take Amchitka Island captured after month long battle. Clearly as much soldiers, American and Japanese, died to frostbide, and the cold also contributed to the loss of aircraft, vehicles, because of the cold, frost and sometimes even ships because of icebergs. When the Japanese took Amchitka, many of the surviving Americans of the originally 15,000 defenders, evacuated to nearby Adak Islands, were further defences were began to be prepared. However the Japanese now dominated the Bering Sea, a situation that only worsened for the Americans after their losses at Midway. So as hasty overall 144,000 Americans in the Aleutes and Alaska build a highway, the Alaska Highway together with Canada over 1,700 miles (2,700km) to supply he forces there after the Japanese had bombed Dutch Harbor. Dutch Harbor itself was prepared for a possible Japanese invasion, by building better defences including bunkers and modern anti-air positions. For the retreating Americans on Adak Island it was living hell, because even the 6,000 American military personel serving there called it a cold, foggy, mud place with windy weather, Quonset huts; few women and no trees, as well as a volcano that from time to time would issue puffs of smoke, while fresh food was a rarity.

With now even the remnants of the former 15,000 Americans stationed on Amchitka retreating to Adak, the situation only got worse, forcing Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., the commander of the defenses of Alaska and the Aleutian to divide these forces onto the remaining Aleutian Islands, or even back or Dutch Harbor in Alaska. There he could plan the American counter-attack to retake the lost Aleutian Islands at the momend occupied by the Japanese and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. This meant that the Allies, mostly the Americans bombed Amchitka Island with bombers from Adak Island, as well as by coastal bombardment from their ships, but because of the Japanese dominance of the Bering Sea at the moment, these naval raids were often as daring as quick and nerver truly targeted important facilities, even if they slowed down the Japanese use, or repair of the former American airfields there. Because of this Lieutenant General Buckner Jr. ordered to retread most US Forces not needed on Adak Island further east, either towards Alaska or spread them amongst the remaining Aleutian Islands. One of the major problems however was that Japanese and American submarines infested the Bering Sea, hunting each others ships and convoys, whenever they could find them. Because he knew by now how dangerous the Japanese were a night, because of their binocluars, the Americans tried to evacate by day under cover of their Navy and Air Force.

What they did not know was that the Japanese had actually send most of their North Area Fleet with the exception of one of their carriers and a few supporting ships down south after their heavy losses at of Midway, to protect the eastern defense parameter streatching across the Pacific from the Aleutian Island in the North to the Solomon Islands in the South. The same was true for the Americans, who by now had devided their remaining Fleet into three parts, the North Pacific Area Fleet (that defendet the Aleutians and Alaska), the Central Pacific Area Fleet (that was defending) the remaining central Pacific Islands of the Americans, including the Hawaii Islands) and the South Pacific Area Fleet (that was defending the Solomon Islands, Ellice Islands, New Hebrides, Fiji Island, Tonga Island and New Caledonia as well as the Coral Sea. That was the reason why the North Pacific Area Fleet helped with the Evacuation of most unneeded forces from Adak Island, however one of the Japanese Scouts and one of their returning bombers, caught the American transports and fleets starting the Operaion.

Immediately Vice-Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya, ordered his remaining North Area Fleet to attack, in hopes of not only catching the American off-guard with what he believed to be further reinforcements incoming to Adak Island for a reconquest of lost Amchitka Island. He did inform Admiral Isoroko Yamamoto of his suspicion and both agrees as the simple concept of retreaing from the Island and quiet possible giving up a part of their homeland and core territory by doing so was so foreign to them, that they could not even grasp the possibility that it was a wise step for saving American lives to later use them in other battles. Still believing to be victorious and far superior to the Americans, many Japanese, even normal sailors and captains inside their own Navy, were even unaware of their own losses at Midway, because of the Japanese Admirality covering it up. This on a ship level contributed to the Japanese North Area Fleet not taking their American opponents of the North Pacific Area Fleet. Unfotunate for the Japanese Fleet, this lead to Tactical Victory for the Americans, but a Strategic Victory for the Japanese during the Battle of the Bering Sea. While the Japanese prevented a major Evacuation of Adak Island, the American Fleet accidentally was supported by a American submarine close by, suddenly attacking the Japanese Fleet with torpedoes from behind. Because of this attack and the foggy, ice cold weather and upcoming storm in the Bering Sea, the Japanese Captains were confused and even Vice-Admiral Hosogaya believed the Americans to surround his North Area Fleet. With his remaining aircraft carrier further behind for security reasons and fear of American Island bases fighters and bombers, Boshiro Hosogaya had no clear overview of the battle and retreaded, even if the Americans until then have had higher losses in ship tonnage during the battle overall. During his retread the American increased the Japanese losses, when the American submarine sunk one of the Japanese cruisers and damaged another one lightly, while one of Hosogaya's destroyers was also damaged heavily and was out of service vor several months.

 

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Chapter 471: Robert Brasillach, Cinema, the Fascist Royalist French – National Monarchist German Relations and the Jewish Question:

Robert Brasillach (born 31 March 1909) was a French author and journalist. Brasillach is best known as the editor of Je suis partout, a nationalist newspaper which came to advocate various fascist movements and supported the Fascist French Kingdom and later Fascist French Empire. Born in Perpignan, he studied at the École normale supérieure, at the time a school of the University of Paris, and then became a novelist and literary critic for the Action française of Charles Maurras. After the 6 February 1934 crisis in the Place de la Concorde, Brasillach openly supported fascism. His politics are shared by several of the protagonists in his literary works, notably the two male main characters in The Seven Colours. Brasillach wrote both fiction and non-fiction. While his fiction dealt with love, life and politics in his era, his non-fiction dealt with a great variety of themes, ranging from drama, great literary figures and contemporary world events. His work in the realm of cinema history was particularly influential. Brasillach was fascinated by the cinema and in 1935 co-wrote a detailed critical history of that medium, Histoire du cinéma (re-edited in 1943), with his brother-in-law, Maurice Bardèche. This work remained the "most prominent aesthetic history of film for at least a decade", and a work that exerted considerable influence, via its impact until the 1970s. Unlike several other authors and critics of the time, Brasillach did not see cinema through an overtly political lens, although the 1943 re-edition of his work did contain certain anti-Semitic comments not included in the original. Despite being fervent nationalists and personally believing that each nation and people had a unique cinema, the authors instead focussed on international trends rather than local particularities. Brasillach frequented Henri Langlois' Cercle du cinéma (Cinema Circle). His personal tastes are detailed in his major work on cinema and in numerous articles of the period. These tastes ranged from Russian cinema (Battleship Potemkin and Alexander Nevski) to classics such as Charlie Chaplin, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, René Clair and Jean Renoir and to certain Hollywood films, such as those of John Ford, Frank Borzage and King Vidor. Brasillach was drawn to originality and explored foreign cinema, and became the first major critic in France to address Japanese cinema, namely Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and Heinosuke Gosho. While in prison, he worked on a third edition of his work on cinema and started to adapt a work on Falstaff which he hoped to film with Raimu.

Brasillach became an editor of Je suis partout, a fascist paper founded by dissidents from the Action Française and led by Pierre Gaxotte. Brasillach was attracted to the fascistic Rexist movement in Belgium, and wrote an article and later a book about the leader of the movement, Leon Degrelle. Brasillach admired what he perceived to be Degrelle's youth and charisma and Degrelle's insistence on being neither left nor right, supporting striking workers, encouraging love of God, the King and family and desiring to see the establishment of an anti-Communist and anti-capitalist, Christian-influenced corporate state. Brasillach was also greatly impressed by José Antonio Primo de Rivera and his Falangist movement. By contrast, he described Mein Kampf as a "masterpiece of cretinism" in which Hitler appeared to be "a sort of enraged teacher." From Fascism he therefore started to get influenced by the new Fascist Monarchist Movements. A soldier in 1940, Brasillach was captured by the Germans and held prisoner for several months after the fall of France. At his trial the prosecution alleged that his release was due to pro-German articles written while in captivity. He was freed in early 1941 and returned to his editorial duties at Je suis partout. He wrote in favor of the new Fascist French regime and Kingdom, but later embraced a more wholehearted germanophile policy of collaboration and German Imperial politics, while criticizing the Fascist French Empire and French state. He joined a group of French authors and artists in a trip to meet with German counterparts in Weimar and he supported the German militarisation and occupation of the Atlantic Coast and the eastern French Border Provinces. However he opposed the Burgundian Order, as he believed it's intention was to rip France apart for a German vassall state. He toured the Eastern Front, saw former Soviet Union Gulags, visited French volunteers and wrote, on his return to France, that he had gone from embracing a collaboration due to reason and rationality to being a collaborator for reasons of the heart ("De collaborationiste de raison, je suis devenu collaborationiste de coeur.") After his return, he called for the death of left-wing (socialist, communist and other) politicians and in the summer of 1944 signed the call for the summary execution of all members of the French Resistance. He was a member of the Groupe Collaboration, an initiative that encouraged close cultural ties between France and Germany. He went on to work for various journals, including Révolution nationale and le Petit Parisien.

As a mild anti-Semite, Brasillach often joked about Jews and supported their resettling and relocation into the East once the Eastern Crusade was won, or even to Africa in the South. Like many anti-Semite Fascist Royalist or National Monarchists he did not care where Jews lived and served the Emperor, as long as it was far away from his own home. The Kingdom of White Ruthenia, the Kingdom of Ukrainia, the Russian Empire, the Neo-Ottoman Empire Province of Yehudah/ Yehud/ Judea/ Judah, or Yehud, (the authonomous province of the Kingdom of Judea), or even the planned Franco-German-Polish Madagascar Plan, that would ultimately led to the German-French Protectorate of the Kingdom of Israel in Madagascar (similar to the former Malagasy Protectorate). However the Madagascar Plan did not work out as originally planned as the hard working Jewish Colonists supported by Jewish Communities from Eastern Europe or the Kingdom of Judea quickly cultivated the land, build new modern cities, attrackting even more Jewish settlers and soon nearly 3,000,000 (2,872,500) Jews lived on the Island, by a native population of 3,900,000 Malagasy. Over time the Jews became the majority, even if there were a few racial tensions. Brasillach meanwhile sought to cement his own legacy as his life drew to a close when he grew older. He composed several works during and after the Second Great War, but never got rid of his anti-Semitism, even claiming that the independent Jewish States in the Middle East (Judea) and Madagascar (Israel) were just working so well, because the Jews were earning the fruits of the local Arab or Malagasy workers and labor. This views however grew more and more unpopular among the Fascist French Royalist and National Monarchist in Europe troughtout the 1950s and 1960s, when Jews in all three majorly Jewish States, as well as inside the Rest of the Axis Central Powers and the Co-Prosperity Sphere were seen as hard working and loyal subjects of the Empires they lived inside. After Brasillach's death on June 2, 1977, the Association des Amis de Robert Brasillach was formed, to celebrates the author's work and legacy.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 472: Hokushin-Ron - Part 8: The Mengjiang-Mongolian Civil War:

The Hokushin-ron, the Great Siberian War, or North Asian War between the Co-Prosperity Sphere and the Soviet Union, was viewed as something else inside the Mengjiang Khanate and the Mongolian People's Republic. For both nations, the Mengjiang Mongolian Frontline of the War was much more personal, for them it was a Ideological Civil War. For Gonchigiin Bumtsend, the Chairman of the Presidium of the State Little Khural (titular head of state) of the Mongolian People's Republic it was a war of Japanese Imperial aggression, for Khan/ Khagan Demchugdongrub it was part of his so called Khalkha Campaign, the War of Reunification of all Mongol tribes and people, named after the largest tribe/ clan that the new Khan tried to use to create a united, homogeneous new Coprospist Mengjiang Nation State.

While better prepared for the conflict then the Mongolian People's Army, then Mengjiang Khanate Army was mostly stopped by the 17th Army of the Soviet-Mongolian Front and the Mongolian desert, hills and mountains, when they reached the northern Kherlen River and Lake Hulun. The new Khan had originally hoped to easily defeat and capture the much more primitive Mongolian People's Republic with his own forces, just like Benito Mussolini had done in Abessinia before. However the new Khan and Mengjiang failed to recognized that the Soviets had not only stationed their own forces in the Mongolian People's Republic, but that they also had equipped and trained the Mongolian People's Army.

Instead of invading a primitive brother nation that literally defended itself with swords, speers and horses against his rifles, armored cars, tanks and planes, Khan Demchugdongrub faced a equally equipped and skilled enemy that knew the terrain and used it against the invading Mengjiang Army. The lack of infrastructure and mountainous, frozen terrain prevented any further push onto the Yablonoviy Range, were the Mongols and their Red Army allied had established defensive positions with trenches, anti-tank, anti-air and artillery positions. This meant that they prevented a direkt northern push for the Khanate's forces to capture Chita, Ulan-Ude or the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar and quickly end the Mengjiang-Mongolican Civil War.

What was worse in this situation, was that Khan Demchugdongrub felt betrayed by the Japanese for starting the northern war against the Soviet Union, as he believet he could have taken out Mongolia if it had been a sole Mengjiang-Mongolian Civil War again, without any Russian involvement. While he was right that the Japanese prioritiesed more on other newly created and liberated Co-Prosperity Sphere member nations and states, the Khan failed to recognize how much they still had modernised his Outer Mengjiang/ Mongolian Empire, build infrastructure and industry like before in Chosen, Manchukuo and Yankoku. Not only that, but the much more modern Japanese Mengjiang Expedition Army directly supported his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Mengjiang Khanate Armies in their northern push and liberation/ conquest from the very beginning, often facing the Soviet Red Army in the Area directly, lifting the most heaviest pressure and fights from their Mengjiang allies.

At the moment however, Khan Demchugdongrub requested further Japanese assistance and help to break trought the heavy Soviet-Mongolian defences, push onto the Mongolian capital and archive glory and victory as the new Khan. The Japanese however had already very thin supply lines and reinforcements in the area, therefore they were unable to support the Mengjiang Khanate like it wished, or they themselves wished to do, as even their own plans saw them pushing deep into Central Siberia and Central Asia. At the moments however these plans were not much more but dreams, as the Japanese and even the remaining Co-Prosperity Sphere lacked enough motorized, mechanized or even mounted forces for such a immense offensive deep into the enemy territory.

At the same time the Soviet Union's Red Army also lacked the supplies and reinforcements in Mongolia and the Far East for any major offensive of their own, because Stalin claimed nearly all of it for the European Front of thie Great Patriotic War against the Axis Central Powers and rightfully so. Because of that they mostly used their own Cavallry and that of their Mongolian allies for small, local skirmishes against the Japanese and Mengjiang forces in the south-west, where the front was not fully covered by either side and had huge gaps, were fast and mobile forces could easily slip trought. The original idea of this tactic came from Khan/ Khagan Demchugdongrub during his so called Suiyuan Campaign. Now both sides used this tactic whenever possible to raid their enemies supply lines as well as camps, tent cities, small farm estates and sometimes even towns behind the Mengjian-Mongolian frontline.

To still show at least a little bit of support for the Mengjiang Khanate, the Japanese, as well as even the Empires of Manchukuo and Yankoku send their own small reinforcements in form of a single division they could spare for this part of the Hokushin-ron front. Much more important for Mengjiang however, was the fact that the Japanese were sending some of their fighters and bombers (mostly older captured or bought models from the European States, including the Axis Central Powers) together with their own pilots to the Mengjiang Khanate. While not very few fighters and bombers, the fact that the Red Army used the majority of theirs either in Europe or in the Soviet Unions own Far East, gave the Japanese a local superiority over Mongolian airspace. But even with this going for them the Japanese and the Co-Prosperity Sphere soon faced another problem in Mongolia, the lack of good targets. Many roads were nothing more then paths and dirt roads, while bridges were often primitive wooden constructs, if there were bridges at all, not only that but the most settlements were nothing more then tents, also known as yurts and Ger/ Gher. Because of that even the most primitive or outdated Imperial Japanese Army Air Force reconnaissance fighters and bombers often had nothing to bomb directly, as every bomb used was much more expensive and costly than anything it could destroy in the Mongolian People's Republic. This meant that Japanese fighters using their machine-guns often had better targets and more kills or destructions among the Mongolians, then their fighters and bombers had with regulair bombs.

Khan Demchugdongrub who had hoped for a bigger support and a final breaktrought was suddenly the one tuning his rethorics down once he heard that his Japanese advisers and the Japanese Mengjiang Expedition Army with their fighters and bombers were thinking about using biological and chemical bombs to finally push trought the Soviet-Mongolian defence lines in Mongolia in hopes to break the western frontline between the Co-Prosperity Sphere and the Soviet Union led Comintern at the northern front. Now however Khan Demchugdongrub protested harsh, even wrote a letter to the Japanese Emperor Hirohito, when the local Japanese Commanders did not listen to him. The Khan knew one thing for sure and that was, that Mengjiang/ Mongolia lacked most things, including ressources or even truly fertile land. This meant that the only viable ressource he truly had in the region, were the Mengjiang People itself. The Imperial Japanese High Command agreed, mostly because they saw the lack of fertile land and ressources as a reason, why no Japanese settler would be truly interested in Mengjiang and the same was true for Manchu, Yankoku and Han Chinese either. That was the reason the Japanese agreed with the Khan in this decision and did not use biological or chemical weapons to break the Soviet-Mongolian Frontline defenses in Mongolia.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 473: Pierre Dominique Costantini and the Bonapartist Empire and the Anti-Bolshevist French Legion:

Pierre Dominique Costantini or commandant Costantini (born 1889) was a French soldier, journalist, writer and Bonapartist militant. Costantini fought as an officer in the First Great War and as a reserve officer in the armée de l'air during 1939–1940. He founded the Mouvement social européen. In 1940, he founded the collaborationist Ligue française d’épuration, d’entraide sociale et de collaboration européenne and with Jean Boissel, Marcel Déat, Pierre Clementi and Eugène Deloncle co-founded the Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme (LVF). Under the new Fascist French Kingdom and later Empire, he supported Bonapartist Propaganda and called the Eastern Crusade a rightfull continuation of Napolen I's just Invasion of Russia. During the Second Great War he wrote La Grande pensée de Bonaparte (Paris, Éditions Baudinière, 1940), La Haute signification de la Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme, (Paris, 1942) and Ode au masque de Napoléon (Paris, Éditions Baudinière, 1943). At the same time he edited the Ligue's organ, the journal L'Appel and also founded the Union des journalistes anti-maçons, a anti-Freemasonry journalist union that focussed on ending freemason and partly even Jewish influence inside the French Empire. However many Fascist Royalist and National Monarchist believed the Jews and Freemasons not primarily responsible for the French Revolution and their influence was mostly seen as unimportant compared to the new Fascist French Parties and Aristrocracy. So Pierre Costantini's influence on real or supposed Freemasons and Jews as journalists and writers remained limited, while his influence on the new Royal/ Imperial French Aristrocracy and Bonapartist Emperor and his predecessor was major for French Writers and Historicans to come, even after his death in 1986.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 474: The Ta'ang Liberation Army:

At the border region between the former Kingdom and now Empire of Yikoku, the current Kingdom and future Empire of Burma and the Siamese/ Thai Empire, lived the Ta'ang people, a Mon-Khmer etthnic minority around the region of the Shan State. The Chinese also knew them as De'ang (also spelled Déáng Zú or Deang) people. When the Co-Prosperity Sphere advanced into British Burma they had hoped to gain independence, or the right to govern themselves, but were soon dissapointed, when Ba Maw declared them to be part of the new Burmese Kingdom. The British therefore had no problems, convincing the Ta'ang to rise up against this injustice and create the Ta'ang National State Liberation Army, to fight back against the Burmese for their own independence. Secretly they were also supported by the Cambodian/ Kampuchean Kingdom, who sponsored othern Khmer groups against the Empire of Siam/ Thailand and even the Empire of Vietnam, because they felt this Kampuchean lands had been unjustly stolen from them when the Japanese decided who would get these regions. Beginning the fight against Burma and Siam/ Thailand in 1942/43, the Ta'ang soon also fought Yikoku, using the mountainous border regions as a retread area and safe refugee, from were to plot for their total independence, or at least a Ta'ang Self-Administered Province. Brilliantly playing all these Co-Prosperity Sphere members against one another, the Ta'ang agreed to cease-fires, whenever their situation across the border became problemativ and they needed a safe area to retread too. They financed Briish and Cambodian supplies and weapons with Opium Trade, harvested from their fields in regions under their control, with huge benefits from this poppy cultivation. As a downside this caused a serious drug addiction among local people and groups, including their own.

As a reaction to this Burma and Siam/ Thailand fought against these rebells as well as the Opium smugglers and burned the Opium plantations whenever they could find them. However the Japanese, as well as the Siamese/ Thai, Burmese and partly even Yikoku militaries and authorities did not outright burn the captured Opium. In most chases they simply sold it in areas with civil unrest, or minorities in rebellion against their rule. However, they as well as the British and the Allies highly overestimated the Ta'ang guerrillas, who themselve claimed to have at least 5,000 fighters to get more supplies and equipment overall. In reality they simply used clever tactics and the terrain to their maximal advantage and never had more then 1,500 to a maximum of nearly 3,500 fighters at the high of their campaigns and even these were often split up into various groups operating in very different areas. Because of the diffen terrain full of jungle, hills and mountains, combined with a enemy who was native to the area, the Japanese, Burmes, Yikoku and Siamese/ Thai Armies fighting these rebells had a hard time. To give them at least a little support, the Imperial Japanese Army not only trained them better, but also gave them many of their outdated equipment, including surplus or older airplane models of fighters and bombers, to establish a Air Force for the newly liberated member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Just like the Japanese did before with European Planes, now the Manchukuo, Yankokuo, National Han Chinese, Vietnamese, Yikoku, or Burmese used Japanese planes, like the Nakajima Ki-27 for their armed forces. Many of this new and young air forces were improvised and heavily relied on Japanese Air Force training and even Japanese Pilots assistance. While they managed to get some victories over Allied planes and shut down some Hurricanes, Spitfires, and P-40s, nearly half of those delivered to Burma and Yikoku piloted by Burmese and Yikoku pilots were shot down in the year of delivery. It took time and effort to train the newly trained pilots until they were able to survive without the help of Japanese wingman.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 475: Margherita Sarfatti, the Fascist Royalist Italy/ Roman Empire and Fascist Royalist, Falangist and National Monarchist Movements in Latin America:

Margherita Sarfatti (born April 8, 1880) was an Italian journalist, art critic, patron, collector, socialite, a prominent propaganda adviser of the National Fascist Party. She was Benito Mussolini's biographer as well as one of his mistresses. Margherita Sarfatti was born Margherita Grassini, in Venice, the daughter of Amedeo Grassini and Emma Levi. Amedeo was a wealthy Jewish lawyer and businessman. He was a fiscal attorney for the Venetian government and a close friend of Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, later Pope Pius X. He would later be made a Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy. Sarfatti grew up in a palazzo situated at the Canal Grande in Venice and was educated by private tutors. However, she was soon attracted by socialist ideas and escaped her parents' home at age 18 to marry Cesare Sarfatti, a Jewish lawyer from Padua. He was 13 years her senior, but shared her socialist beliefs. In 1902, the couple moved to Milan. There, they became prominent in the city's artistic life, hosting weekly Salons that became the centre of the Futurist and Novecento Italiano artistic movements. They had several children. Their eldest son, Robert, enlisted in the Italian army during World War I, and was killed in action on Monte Baldo in January 1918, aged 18. In 1911, Margherita Sarfatti met Benito Mussolini -three years her junior- and started a relationship with him. After losing her husband in 1924, she wrote a biography of Mussolini. This was first published in 1925 in Britain under the title The Life of Benito Mussolini; it was published the following year in Italy with the title Dux.

Because of the fame of Mussolini and the author's familiarity with the dictator, the book was a success. Seventeen editions were printed and it was translated into 18 languages. Sarfatti is memorialized in Guido Cadorin frescoes in the (now called) Grand Hotel Palace, Via Veneto No. 70, Rome. Fiammetta and I wanted to pass into immortality in the salon's frescoes, said Sarfatti referring to her daughter, who is portrayed with her in the frescoes. As the fascist government's politics were not anti-semitic and the party's membership rolls were open to Jews, Fascist Royalism never was influenced by a racial legislation until the Military Coup in Germany in 1938. Margherita Sarfatti continued to write newspaper articles as a journalist and also wrote a few books about the rising political ideology, as well as biographies about the most important and influential people involved in it inside of Italy. In 1946 after the Second Great War she left Italy/ the Roman Empire to cover the growing influence of Fascist Royalist, Falangist and National Monarchist Movements in all of Latin America. She travelled Argentinia, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, writing about the local parties, factions and people involved in this movements, before returning to Italy/ the Roman Empire in 1957. She continued to wrote and also became a influential force in Italian/ Roman Imperial art, before she died on October 30, 1961.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chaper 476: Guadalcanal – Part 1: First Skirmishes:

On Guadalcanal, the 11,000 initially landed Marines faced hard times, after the Battle of Savo Island on July 8–9, 1942. Nearly all of their equipment, ammunition and food was sunk before being unloaded together with most of their transports as well as the escorts covering them by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Only five days' worth of food had been landed from the transports, which, along with captured Japanese provisions, gave the Marines a total of 14 days' worth of food. To conserve supplies, the troops were limited to two meals per day. The shelling of the beachhead by Imperial Japanese Ships further destroyed some equipment and killed at least a few dozend American soldiers and other personel. Food and supplies were limited, luckily the Marines had their divisional artillery allready landed, consisting of thirty-two 75 mm and 105 mm howitzers together with a little bit of ammunation for them. The Marines knew their position was problematic, but it could get worse soon, so they scrapped together whatever the retreatign Japanese had left of their tools, weapons and foot, to use it for themselves. The 11,000 Marines on Guadalcanal initially concentrated on forming a loose defensive perimeter around Lunga Point and the airfield, moving the few landed supplies and equipment within the perimeter and desperaely started finishing the airfield. In four days of intense effort, the supplies were moved from the landing beach into dispersed dumps within the perimeter. Work began on the airfield immediately, mainly using captured Japanese equipment.

Allied troops encountered a severe strain of dysentery soon after the landings, with one in five Marines afflicted by mid-August. Although some of the Korean construction workers surrendered to the Marines, most of the remaining Japanese and Korean personnel gathered just west of the Lunga perimeter on the west bank of the Matanikau River and subsisted mainly on coconuts. A Japanese naval outpost was also located at Taivu Point, about 35 kilometers (22 mi) east of the Lunga perimeter. On 8 July, a Japanese destroyer from Rabaul delivered 226 naval reinforcement troops to the Matanikau position. On 12 July the airfield was named Henderson Field after Lofton R. Henderson, a Marine aviator who had been killed during the desastrous Battle of Midway.

On the evening of 12 July, a 25-man U.S. Marine patrol, led by Division D-2 Lieutenant Colonel Frank Goettge and primarily consisting of intelligence personnel, landed by boat west of the US Marine Lunga perimeter, east of Point Cruz and west of the Japanese perimeter at Matanikau River, on a reconnaissance mission with a secondary objective of contacting a group of Japanese troops that U.S. forces believed might be willing to surrender. Soon after the patrol landed, a nearby platoon of Japanese naval troops attacked and almost completely wiped out the Marine patrol. On 14 July 1942 first Japanese reinforcements and fresh troops in response to the American Invasion came from Truck and Rabaul to counter-attack the American Marines. Handerson Airfield was finally finished and operational on 18 July, giving the Allies the possibility to supply the landed forces at least via transport aircraft from nearby allied Island positions or from the Carrier USS Wasp, as well as the escort carrier USS Long Island, a risky operation for both carriers.

In response, on 19 July, Vandegrift sent three companies of the U.S. 5th Marine Regiment to attack the Japanese troop concentration west of the Matanikau. One company attacked across the sandbar at the mouth of the Matanikau River while another crossed the river 1,000 meters (1,100 yd) inland and attacked the Japanese forces located in Matanikau village. The third acted as reserves for the forst two Regments. After briefly occupying the village, the three exhausted Marine companies returned to the Lunga perimeter, having killed about 34 Japanese soldiers while losing eight marines. While they fought bravely, a strong Japanese counter-attack forced them to finally retreat. However the Japanese were unsure how many heavy equipment and supplies the Americans had truly landed and hasiatating with a full-out attack, as they believed the Americans had established a heavily fortified perimeter around their beachhead and Handerson Field (as their scouts had spottet the entrenchment as well as the American howitzers), so the Japanese did not cross the Matanikau River for now. This action, sometimes referred to as the "First Battle of the Matanikau", was the first of several major actions around the Matanikau River during the campaign. The Japanese hesitation probably saved the American beachhead and the landed Marines in this early stage of the Guadalcanal Campaign.

On 20 July, the escort carrier USS Long Island delivered two squadrons of Marine aircraft to Henderson Field, one a squadron of 19 Grumman F4F Wildcats and the other a squadron of 12 Douglas SBD Dauntlesses, together with desperately needed supplies. The aircraft at Henderson became known as the "Cactus Air Force" (CAF) after the Allied codename for Guadalcanal. The Marine fighters went into action the next day on the first of the from then on almost-daily Japanese bomber air raids. By July 21 the Japanese counter-attack had retaken Tulagi and Gavutu–Tanambogo in the north under heavy fighting and the increasing Japanese probing attacks since at least July 14 made it clear that the Japanese themselves had landed heavy reinforcements on Guadalcanal. Still it was quit, as the Japanese prepared for a massive counter-attack on Henderson field in combination with one of their bombing raids and another shore-bombardment from their incoming Fleet from Rabaul. On 22 July five U.S. Army Bell P-400 Airacobras and their pilots arrived at Henderson Field with even further supplies for the strongly rationed Marines. In the meantime, the Japanese, Koreans and Taikoku soldiers landed on Guadalcanal had brough their own anti-tank, anti-air and howitzer artillery in position for their main counter-attack.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 477: Ugo Spirito and Corporatist Fascism:

(Professor Ugo Spirito in 1967)

Ugo Spirito (born September 9, 1896, Arezzo) was an Italian fascist political philosopher and subsequently an idealist thinker. He has also been an academic and a University teacher. Spirito undertook academic study in law and philosophy. He was initially an advocate of positivism although in 1918, whilst attending Sapienza University of Rome, he abandoned his position to become a follower of the Actual Idealism of Giovanni Gentile. By the age of 22 he was a self-proclaimed fascist and actualist. Spirito's particular interest in fascism was corporatism and he came to discuss the subject in depth through the journal Nuovi Studi di Diritto, Economica e Politica. He wrote extensively on his favoured topic of 'integral corporatism', a system where ownership would be concentrated in the hands of workers rather than shareholders. This belief in integral corporatism was sometimes equated with a commitment to common ownership. Effectively therefore he represented the left-wing of fascism by supporting corporatism as a means of mass nationalisation and was thereby criticized from many other fascists who accused him of Bolshevism. Spirito's economically left-wing ideals however came to fruition in Fascist Italy when it transformed into the Roman Empire. In the later years of Italian fascism Spirito became a favourie with Benito Mussolini, who in 1942 supported the publishing of a book of his theories, entitled Revolutionary War. Mussolini supported this idea and believed it could help form a traditionalist Roman society, were the Roman Proletarii would own and use most of the land and property that would once again be distributed by the Roman Senate to those who had served their Republican Empire long and loyal. Outside of his involvement in fascist politics Spirito held professorships at the University of Pisa, University of Messina, University of Genoa and at Rome itself. Initially his academic attention was taken up with economics and criminal law but later in his career he became more interested in philosophical questions. In terms of publications he served as editor of the Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana and the Enciclopedia Italiana and as joint director of the Nuovi Studi di Diritto, Economica e Politica. As a University Professor he and his theories influenced the idea of the new Imperial Roman Proletarii quiet heavily even after his death on April 28, 1979, in Rome.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 478: Coprospist States: the Empire of Japan and the Imperial Japanese Diet:

Inside the Japanese Empire, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (大政翼贊會/大政翼賛会 Taisei Yokusankai), or Imperial Aid Association, had been created by the Prime Minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoe, to promote the goals of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and the Shintaisei (New Order) it envisioned for Asia and the World. This meant that the Imperial Rule Assistance Association organized the Imperial Japanese Diet (Kokkai) alongside national syndicalist and coprospist lines. It served as a umbrella organisation of the whole Kokkai and assigned it's members to branches, based on faction, coalitions and occupation, to develop channels for mass participation of the common population to assist with the Imperial Rule. As the Imperial Japanese Diet was organized along geographic lines, following the existing political sub-divisions, all local government leaders at each level of village, town, city and prefectural government automatically received the equivalent position within their local Imperial Rule Assistance Association branch. Four major factions managed to rise alongside Coprospism inside the Imperial Japanese Diet, the Kokkai. One faction was the Imperial Coalition (8,6%), led by Prince Konoe itself, it unified the Imperial Household (Shōwakai -昭和会- Shōwa Society)under Emperor Hirohito, as well as the Kazoku Coalition (Peerage Coalition, from the House of Peers, 貴族院 Kizoku-in in the Japanese Imperial Diet ), that was a merging of the Daimyō and Kuge, thereby a representation of the old ruling aristrocratic factions and clans that wished to preserve their own power, influence and a more traditional class and cast hirarchy.

Another faction that had emerged were the powerfull Zaibatsu (財閥, "financial clique"), family controlled monopolies and conglomerates, consisting of a holding company on top, with a wholly owned banking subsidiary providing finance, and several industrial subsidiaries dominating specific sectors of a market, either solely, or through a number of subsidiary companies. The Zaibatsu were the heart of economic and industrial activity within the Empire of Japan, and held already great influence over Japanese national and foreign policies before. The largest Zaibatsu were the Rikken Minseitō (36,1%), a political party connection between the Mitsui group and the Imperial Japanese Army and the Rikken Seiyūkai (35,2%), a political party connection between the Mitsubishi group and the Imperial Japanese Navy. After all at the start of the Chinese Civil War, the Big Four Zaibatsu (Yondai Zaibatsu: Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and Yasuda) alone had direct control over more than 30% of Japan's mining, chemical, and metals industries and almost 50% control of the machinery and equipment market, a significant part of the foreign commercial merchant fleet and 70% of the commercial stock exchange. The Zaibatsu greatly improved their public image through increased charity work and grew in political influence after 1932. Two out of the Big Four, two Sumitomo and Mitsui, have roots in the Edo period while Mitsubishi and Yasuda trace their origins to the Meiji Restoration. Throughout Meiji to Shōwa, the government employed their financial powers and expertise for various endeavors, including tax collection, military procurement and foreign trade. However they rivaled with each other and after the Russo-Japanese War, a number of so-called "second-tier" Zaibatsu emerged, mostly as the result of business conglomerations and/or the award of lucrative military contracts. Some more famous second-tier Zaibatsu included the Okura, Furukawa, and Nakajima groups, among several others. The monopolistic business practices by the Zaibatsu resulted in a closed circle of companies until Japanese industrial expansion on the Asian mainland (Chosen and Manchukuo) began in the 1930s, which allowed for the rise of a number of new groups (Shinko Caibatsu), including Nissan. These new zaibatsu differed from the traditional zaibatsu only in that they were not controlled by specific families, and not in terms of business practices.

The Zaibatsu, as well as their political and military allies and supporers alleid with political factions (like the Tōhōkai -東方会- the Society of the East, or the Kokumin Dōmei -国民同盟- National Alliance) that had a similar ideology and believed in advocating corporatism as their endgoal that would one day fully take over parliamentary democracy. For them the Coprospism under Fumimaro Konoe and Hideki Tōjō was the ideal vision of a state in most of their mind. Under the Kōain (興亜院), the Co-Prosperity Sphere Development Board all all government activities and economic initiatives inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere were closely coordinated. However even with very similar goals there was still a huge difference, between the means to get their and the true endgoal of some of these societies, groups and political parties. Under slogans like "Co-Prosperity for me, Co-Prosperity for all!" or "Coprospism now, Coprospism forever!" the new system advocated for things it had copied from the British Empire as well as the Russian Empire/ Soviet Union two of the oldest and vast Empires in the world known to mankind. Ethnic and religious minorities were allowed to administrate themselves and live freely within the bigger national member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, sometimes they even were encouraged to assimilate themselves into the bigger group to form one unifying new nation state.

Authoritarian, Populist and Democratic Parties, Factions and Alliance, even some Socialist or former Communist ones (like the Shakai Taishūtō -社会大衆党- Socialist Mass Party, of middle class shop owners resentful of the Zaibatsu, salaried-workers, and some minor bureaucrats, who supported the Coprospist agrarian and social reforms) in the Kokkai could find something inside Coprospism that spoke to them, because Coprospism was authoritarian, democratic, populist and socialist all combine into one part. Local groups like farm comunities, neighborhoods, or factory workers were encouraged to buy, use and own everything they needed for specific goals communally. Workers who worked more hours, or especially hard, thereby producing more, could inside of Coprospism earn more wage and were partly even incorporated in the growing profit and expansion of heir Zaibatsu by doing so. This small system was incoorporated in every part of the hirarchy in the Empire of Japan and by extension also to the whole Co-Prosperity Spere, meaning that it's population worked hard for their own Co-Prosperity, Wealth, Liberation and Education, becoming merged with the Statist government as a society, were all economis and social aspects were controlled by the very group it affected. It combined traditionalism, with modern Industrialisation in a harmonic movement. Hard work and loyality were thereby not only encouraged, the overall citizen profited from the growing Co-Prosperity Sphere's influence and power, thereby making them also accomplice's and supporters of it's crimes, like de facto slave labor in the liberated and occupied regions of Asia and the Pacific, or a increasing Opium and Drug trade (90% in the world coming from the Co-Prosperity Sphere) with all it's smuggling around the world.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 479: The Axis Central Powers and Co-Prosperity Sphere Armored Trains and Armored Tank Trains:

At first mainly used by the Austrian Hungarian Empire, or the United States of Austria inside their own Empire and later the Kingdom of Ukrainia, Armored Trains later became widely used by the Axis Central Powers and later even the Co-Prosperity Sphere. They were mainly used to pacify and secure regions with major partisan activities. However the tracks in the Soviet Union had a different track width and so the invading Axis Central Power Forces faced a few initial problems. One of the solutions for this, was the invention of the Armored Tank Trains (ATT) or Train Tanks, a trackless variation without any rails. Here the tanks or armored vehicles were simply linked like train wagons in a row. Sometimes with a single tractor for all, sometimes with the ability to seperate each individual to use every armored vehicle and tank seperately thanks to his own motors, once they were no longer connected.

This system often featured a fixed tank hunter gun, or self-propelled heavy gun in the front position, to provide immense and overwhelming fire in the direction the Armored Tank Train was heading. The following linked armored vehicles and tanks tha followed then often had roatable, regular tank turrets and sideway machine-guns and armored troop, or supply and equipment transporters, often followed by a central one with a FLAK (Flugabwehrkanone or Anti-Aircraft gun) to secure the Armored Tank Trains against possible attacks from above as well as provide good anti-Infantry support at the same time. Then another one with a tank turret followed, before finally at the end a armored vehicle with heavy machine-guns came. Sometimes the last one was also a self-propelled gun or heavy tunk hunter, sometimes also with the ability to change the Armored Tank Train moving direction completely arount.

In the vast Russian territory Armored Tank Trains soon proved themselves to be highly effective and even much easier to maintain and repair then regular armored trains. Surely they were way less armored, big and without as massige weaponry, but they made up for it with their mobility, their speed and the fact that their movements were not limited by railways in any form or way. Sure the terrain still limited it's overall movement, a dense forests, swamps, steep hills and mountains. In Armored Trains, the Germans quickly made use of a so called Fremdgerät (External Device), often a additional Tankette (mostlycaptured enemy ones) used as an armoured reconnaissance draisine, an attempt to overcome one of the inflexibilities of the armoured train, being limited to the track. This idea of a Fremdgerät was soon added to the Armored Tank Trains, in the form of Tankettes and small tanks at the front and the back, both able to seperate much quicker from the main Armored Tank Train then it's regular parts. They were often used to scout ahead or fight partisans that retreated to terrain unpassble for the whole Armored Tank Train. While not perfect (sometimes the interlinked armored vehicles and tanks chock with one another and thereby blocked the whole combined vehicle), the Axis Central Powers used at least 100 Armored Tank Trains (not all at the same time) in the Second Great War. The Austrian-Hungarian Army used 16 inside it's own Empire and on the Balkans, 24 in the Kingdom of Ukrainia and southern Russia (including the Caucasian Mountains), the German Empire used 42 during the Eastern Crusade (six in Service of the Finnish Kingdom, four in Service of the United Baltic Duchy, five by the Kingdom of White Ruthenia, two in the Kingdom of Ukrainia -one on the Crimea- and 13 in service of the Russian Empire -a numebr only increasing during the Second Russian Civil War), two in the Balkans, two in Skandinavia, four in Western Europe -France, Spain and the Iberian Peninsula and at least eight in Africa and the Middle East. The French Kingdom, the Spanish Kingdom and the Italian Kingdom (or Roman Empire) all had two to eight and the Neo-Ottoman Empire six Armored Tank Trains during the Second Great War.

Similar to the Axis Central Powers, the Co-Prosperity Sphere Armies (mainly the Kwantung Army, the Imperial Manchukuo Army and the Mengjiang Khanate Army) who had used Armored Trains before heard of the Austrian-Hungarian and German designs of the Armored Tank Train and made their own plans to utilize this new weapon for the Co-Prosperity Sphere mainly in Siberia and Central Asia against the Soviet Union in the immense expansion of the Russian and Mongolian territory. Inside the Mengjiang Khanate, Khan Demchugdongrub even used a personal Armored Train or Armored Tank Train to travel his Empire. For a short periot of time, the German Idea for a Landkreuzer (Land Cruiser) and the Japanese plans for the O-I Super Heavy Tank became interlinked with the programm, but the Imperial German High Seas Fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy both protested the particular Army programms in both nations as a waste of ressources and time, that would better be put into mor battleships and carriers in their opinion.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 480: Coprospist States: the Chosen Empire and the Imperial Chosen Diet:

Inside the Empire of Chosen, Hwangje (Emperor) Uimin (also Euimin), in Japan also known as Ri Gin, ruled together with the Chosen Imperial Family from Changdeokgung Palace. To secure his rule and government, the Imperial Chosen Diet had formed the Imperial Rule Association, to sabilize his rule, by forming a unified government out of all factions, parties and coalitions. This however meant that many very difficult groups and ideas were united under one banner and that the Hwangje had to find a small path to balance along, if he wished to create a strong and independent Chosen once again, that also supported his rule. One of the most supportive parties of his new rule, besides his own Imperial Chosen Society, was the so called Wa Party, or Wa Clique (coming from the Chinese Word for Japanesem Wa or Wō). The Japaese Settlers in Chosen (by now 2,000,000 of the overall population of 24,000,000) voted for this party, mainly landowners, engineers and others. They alone owned, controlled and governed over 52% of the Land in Korea and were responsible for most of the overall modernization of industry and infrastructure, with increasing numbers of telephones, automobiles and other modern goods. While supported by many Chosen (mostly these Koreans working for them, some even ordered to do so if they wished to keep their jobs), the Party stood largely for more modernisation, Co-Prosperity, increasing Japanese Colonialisation and it formed a Coalition (the Japanese-Chosen/ Chosen-Wa Brotherhood) with the Chosen Imperial Liberty Party, a pro-Imperial authority, partly liberal democratic group.

Another supporter of the Government was the Imperial Chosen Traditionalists, in close ties with the Imperial Chosen Society (some people were members of both parties). The Traditionalist united Chosen Gun (군; 君), Princes and Yangban (兩班), civil servants and military officers, landed or unlanded, aristocrats into a conservatise, traditional block that supported the Empire as well as the restauration and preservation of their own status. Most of the Chaebol, large industrial Chosen, or Japanese-Chosen conglomerates run and controlled by an owner or family also supported the government, that gave them nearly no rules to apply to at all. The word chaebol/ chaebŏl, or jaebeol (재벌, from jae "wealth or property" and beol "faction or clan", similar to the Japanese Zaibatsu. Many Chosen Chaebol were often subsidiary companies of Japanese Zaibatsu, or at least controlled a minimum of 50% by them). The biggest of them (Seoul Army Arsenal, Chosen Railways, Pusan Naval Arsenal (Pusan Naval Yards), Hwanghae Heavy Industries, Incheon Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Nanam Shipbuilding) not only formed their own political blocks and factions, but also allied themselves with the Imperial Chosen Army (Seoul Army Arsenal, Chosen Railways, Pusan Naval Arsenal and Hwanghae Heavy Industries) or the Imperial Chosen Navy (Incheon Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Nanam Shipbuilding).

Not as much supporting for the Hwangje Uimin and his Imperial Rule Association were some other parties and factions inside his coalition government. The Democratic Chosen Party was very liberal and the Chosen Reformist Party both advocated for more, direct democracy. The Chosen Liberty Party meanwhile, while conservative was for a full independence of Korea away from any Japanese influence with, or without the Co-Prosperity Sphere, therefore they were closely watched as possible anti-Coprospist. The Korean Independence Movement meanwhile that was born out of the early independence movements from Quing Rule and Japanese Rule had split in two different parties; the Coprospist Chosen Independence Movement, that directly supported the new Korean Nation State, even if it wished for even more authonomy and independence and the more radical Joseon Independence Movement that stood for isolationism and total Korean independence, but had to work underground illegally and gained very few supporters. The Chosen Party for Peace and Justice advocated for a juridical and social just reforms and coalitioned with nearly every other party, as they cared not for the overall system and ruler as long as a fair, social and just society for all Chosen People was the result. More direct opposing to the Chosen government of the Imperial Rule Association under Emperor Uimin was the Chosen Patriot Party, who in theory would support him and his government, were all for the new Chosen independence and membership in the Co-Prosperity Sphere but believed Chosen should be much more independent in it's own politics and economy inside of it. The Chosen Nongmin Pary (Korean Peasent's Party) meanwhile, a very socialist, partly even communist views and recruited their voter potential from the worker's and peasents inside Chosends farms and factories.

Religion also played a important role in Imperial Chosen Politics, as the traditional Shinist/ Shindo, the Chosen shamanist (神敎; Shingyo or Shinkyo, "religion of the spirits/gods"), or Shindo (神道, "way of the spirits/gods"), as a polytheistic and animistic ethnic religion that worshiped of gods (신 shin) and ancestors (조상 josang) was established as a State Cult and Religion as well as a political party and seen as a Chosen form of Shintoism (in the overall Chosen religious census Shinto/ Shindo were always co-opting and merged as the absolute same, no matter what individual answer had been given when asked about the religion of a household or clan. Buddhism and Confucianism played no big role in Chosen politics, but the Cheondoists a blending of Confucianism and Chosen shamanist Shindo in form of a Sect had their own minor political party, the Chosen Cheondoism Party. The same was true for the Daejongist Faith, who had the Daejongism Party following their rituals with nearly 400,000 members.

A more radical political religious movement was the Heavenly Rapture, a political and religious party and sect, a Shindo/ Confucianist fassade for the officially illegal Christian (基督敎 Gidoggyo) religious faiths, like the Catholic (天主敎 Cheonjugyo, "religion of the Lord of Heaven") and Protestant (裂敎 Yeolgyo, "religion of split") groups. This Christians had been linked with Korean nationalism and independence movement, strengthening both in the process. As a response to their refuse to take part in the Japanese State Shinto/ Chosen State Shindo, they were outlawed and had to move underground, while at the same time, numerous religious movements that since the 19th century had been trying to reform the Korean indigenous religion, notably Cheondoism, flourished and were even openly welcomed by the Coprospist Government (including Chosen Shindo and Chosen Buddhism). The independence movement and christian groups were partly supported by the Chosen intellectual elite, and they both encouraged elf-support and self-government among members of the Korean church, that lead to the finally the identification of Christianity with Korean nationalism for some. A little more over half a Million people in Chosen (around 2,4% of the population, with nearly 3% of them being Protestant, the rest Catholic) were Christians and most of them lived in the northern half of the peninsula. Heijō/ Pyongyang was a major Christian city and profited from the fact, that Confucian influence was not as strong as in the south. Already in 1880 the city had more than 100 churches and more Protestant missionaries than any other Asian city and by 1942 one-sixth (50,000) of its population of about 300,000 people were Christian converts out of around 480,000 Christians in total. Theese Christians had close ties to the Democratic Chosen Party, Joseon Independence Movement and the Chosen Patriot Party and claimed that their numbers were in reallity mre true to 800,000 or even more then 1,000,000, or around 4% of the overall Chosen Population). While not directly against Christianity, Hwangje Uimin saw how they had destabillised other Asian cultural and religious traditions and because of that the Chosen Emperor himself favored Shindo/ Shinto/ Shinist more, were he was not only viewed as head-of-state, but a god-like figure.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 481: Agostino Lanzillo and the Italo-Roman Empire:

Agostino Lanzillo (born 31 October 1886) was an Italian revolutionary syndicalist leader who later became a member of Benito Mussolini's fascist movement. Agostino Lanzillo was born in Reggio Calabria on 31 October 1886 to Salvatore and Giuseppina (Cosile) Lanzillo. Agostino attended primary school and secondary school in his hometown. He acquired a Law degree from the University of Rome and wrote his thesis on the socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Lanzillo was drawn to revolutionary syndicalism and became a follower of George Sorel. For some, the importance of Sorel in socialist historiography is in my opinion close to that of Marx and Engels. Lanzillo corresponded personally with Sorel, and published in 1910 the first biography of Sorel. Lanzillo also contributed to the syndicalist journals Avanguardia Socialista and Il divenire sociale. In 1909, George Sorel started collaborating with the French nationalist-monarchist movement Action Française, creating national syndicalism. While many in the Italian Left attacked Sorel and reproached him for his close links with Action Française, Italian revolutionary syndicalists supported Sorel. Lanzillo, for example, defended his master in a series of articles published in Il divenire sociale. Later, Lanzillo wrote to the national syndicalist journal La lupa. From 1912, Lanzillo published under Benito Mussolini editorship, contributing to Avanti!, Utopia and Il Popolo d'Italia. In 1921 Lanzillo was a lecturer in political economy at University of Rome. In 1922 he became a Professor of Political Economy at the Royal University of Milan and in 1923 he became a professor at the University of Cagliari. Later, Lanzillo was appointed rector of Royal Advanced Institute of Economics and Commerce in Venice. Lanzillo was among the founders of the fascist movement, and was a member of National Fascist Party. Lanzillo was a member of Italian Chamber of Deputies (a house of Italian Parliament), in the 27th parliamentary session (24 May 1924 – 21 January 1929). Lanzillo was also a member of the one-party National Council of Corporations in 1931. Lanzillo agued that the Italian Colonial adventure was nessessary to break tribal, ancient structures that still enslaved african societies and was holding them back. With Italian and later Roman colonial rule he saw the opportunity of establishing syndicalist doctrines and test them out as state models in the Italian colonies of Libya and Africa Orientale. He also argued that unlike the Roman Empire that once again brought civilisation to barbaric people, the Allies, mainly Britain, America and Free France only hold onto their colonies for Imperialist and egoistic reasons, that was why the Italians should better govern their colonies instead of them. Lanzillo later died on March 3, 1952, still believing in the Syndicalist Nation State of the Roman Empire hehad helped to create.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 482: Lucien Rebatat and the Fascist French Empire:

Lucien Rebatet (born 15 November 1903) was a French author, journalist, and intellectual. He is known as an exponent of fascism and virulent antisemite but also as the author of Les Deux étendards, regarded by some as one of the greatest novels of the post-war era. Rebatet was born and died in Moras-en-Valloire, Drôme. As a young man, Rebatet was educated in Saint-Chamond, Loire. From 1923 to 1927 he studied at the Sorbonne, after which he became an insurance agent. It was only in 1929 that he began his career as a writer, becoming a music and film critic (the latter under the pseudonym François Vinneuil) for the far right integralist Action Française newspaper. In 1932 Rebatet became a contributor to the right-wing newspaper Je suis partout, for which he wrote most of his life. In 1938 he became head of information for Action Française and worked closely with the movement's founder, Charles Maurras. Long before the outbreak of war between France and the German Empire, Rebatet expressed sympathy for National Monarchism, notably in his articles for Je suis partout ("I Am Everywhere"), in which he accused Jews of fomenting a war to topple the old European Monarchies onceagain (reffering to the First Great War). In 1940 he was drafted into the French Army and, although he served, openly hoped for a "short and disastrous war for France".

After the Fall of France he became a radio reporter for the new Fascist French government. He soon left this post, as well as Action Française, to join Jacques Doriot's newspaper Cri Du Peuple, and to continue his writings for Je suis partout. In 1942 Rebatet published a lengthy pamphlet entitled Les Décombres ("The Ruins"), in which he traced the forces he believed to have led France to its fall. He firmly accused Third Republic politicians and its military leadership, as well as French Jews - who he claimed were the prime cause of France's political and military woes. Les Décombres is the clearest expression of Rebatet's fascism, as well as his most virulently antisemitic work. The same year, he began writing Les Deux étendards ("The Two Standards"), his first novel, that he finished in 1944. He continued to write for newspapers and even his own novels, becoming a famous author in the new French Kingdom and later French Empire. In 1945 he wrote his second novel Empereur des Français ("The French Emperor"), the beginning of a series about the Fascist Royalist French, starting with their First Empire under Napoleon as their true beginning leading all the way trought the French Empires and Emperors until the very recent one. This series would continue to be written by him until 1957 and include ten novels alone. In the meantime, he wrote other historic books, like one about the history of music. His final work was on the history of European Empires and Emperors as a whole, written in 1965, published in 1969. While still a strong supporter of Fascist Royalism, his antisemitism became less pronounced as most Fascist Royalist and National Monarchist movements, government and ruling families started to tolerate and accept Jews as normal citizens as long as they remained loyal and hard working subjects and citizens. Rebatat died on 24 August 1972 in Balazuc as one of the most popular and famous French Imperial authors, reguarded by some as the best too.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 483: The newest Co-Prosperity Navies in 1942-43:

With the expension of the Co-Prosperity Sphere thanks to new member states, the Co-Prosperity Sphere Navies had expanded in overall factions and subdivisions, while at the same time they had in reality shrunken in size, thanks to losses during the War in South-East Asia and the Pacific. Member States like Burma, the Philippines, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, Sumatra, Java and New Guinea (Niugini/Niu Gini – soon to be known as the Kingdom of Papua) made demands for better and bigger ships, in fear of Allied raids or invasions, while at the same time the Co-Prosperity Sphere Dockyards were already used to their full capacity to replace the losses or undergo the conversions of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Some member states even gaines new naval capacity, like the Empire of Tibet, the Empire of Yikoku and the Mengjiang Khanate. The Tibetans used mostly smaller patrol ships, or gunboats of the Imperial Tibetan Navy on rivers like the Yellow River, the Yangtse River, the Mekong River, the Salween River, the Irrawaddy River, the Brahmaputra River, the Yarlung Tsangpo River, the Sun River, the Atun River, the Kosi River, the Ghangra River, the Karnall River, the Ganges River, the Sutlej River and the Indus River for patrols and to protect their shippments there, who often were quicker and better transport routes then the roads and paths trought the mountains. Yikoku mostly used the Salween River, he Mekong River and the Yangtse River to quickly connect it's valleys and mountain regions with the capital for a centralised state and at the same time defend their little nation state's independence against outside forces wih their small Imperial Yikoku Navy patrol ships, or gunboats there.

The Mengjiang Khanate's Navy, the Khanat Mengjiang Navy mewnahile had a active duty for the first time since the Mongol Invasion attempt on Japan. One of the main missions for their patrol ships, or gunboats was to guard their direct border across the Sanggan Gol (Sanggan River) and Hatan Gol (Yellow River) in the south to prevent Hui rebells or Communist from infiltrating their nation and during the Second Great War (the Mengjiang-Mongolian Civil War) along the Herlen Gol (Kherlen River) in the north, were they fought against Mongol People's Republic and Soviet Union Red Army forces. After the Second Great War, when Mengjiang annexed the Mongolian People's Republic and the Tuvan People's Republic and grew over over 1,06 million people, as well as 170,500 km2 or 65,800 sq mi from the Tuvan People's Republic, 1,564,116 km2 or 603,909 sq mi from the Mongolian People's Republic. Out of the Soviet Union, the Mengjiang Khanate annexed after the Second Great War 351,300 km2 or 135,600 sq mi from the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, 431,500 km2 or 166,600 sq mi from the Chita Oblast, 92,600 km2 or 35,800 sq mi from the Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as well as 112,630 km2 or 43,484 sq mi out of the eastern Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The Mengjiang Khanate organised all this new territories as Aimags (Provinces) and Sums (Districts) inside their own Mengjiang (Mongolian) Khanate (Empire). With this new territories also came lakes like Hovsgol Nuur and Uvs Nuur, Baikal Nuur, Khyargas Nuur, Khar Us Nuur, Ulungut Nuur, Markakol Nuur, Irthysch/ Saissan Nuur and Balkhas Nuur in the west as the border to the Russian Empire and the Ili Nuur, the new southern river border to the Tibetan Empire. This meant that the Mengjiang Navy once again had a growing, proud navy even if they still not were back at the height of their power, because the first Khanate had the strongest Navy on earth once.

Many of the new Co-Prosperity Sphere member States Navies however were established as auxillary force by the Imperial Japanese Navy at first. Especially for the newly liberated member states in south-east asia, of the former French, British and Dutch colonies, like Vietnam, Cambodia/ Kampuchea, Laos, Burma, Philippines, Brunei, Sulawesi, Moluccas, Bali, Tenggara, Sumatra, Java and Nuigui (Papua) at first often had only wooden ships (like logboats or Junks), as well as a few landing craft and outdated, older weapons and ships either captured from their former European and American Imperialist Colonizers, or given to them by the Imperial Japanese Navy (out of older ships they could no longer use for frontline service, but that were still good to guard coastlines and convoys). To crew these ships, the Imperial Japanese Navy often used local citizens who had preciously served as sailors for the colonial powers and switched sides, or were trained by the Imperial Japanede Army under Japanese Officers and Captains. They served as militias and sailors aboard the ships given to them, or build by Japan as members of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. With Japanese advisers, trainers and guidance, they formed their own naval branches. Still after the devastating losses in carriers after Midway, the Imperial Japanese Navy lacked the ressources and naval ship yard to repair their own ships, rpelase lossed ships, or convert their remaining ones, while at the same time building up the new Co-Prosperity Sphere member states navies. Because of that they were sold older, outdated Japanese Navy ships as a start. However, many of these member states had hoped for more modern and better equipment to defend their own independence better against Allied and Soviet Imperialism and Invasions. Because of this they demanded more moder and bigger ships fitting for such a role, like battleships or carriers, things the Japanese and the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere could, or would at the moment not provide, because they needed these ship types and classes themselves.

To at least temporary fix this problem, the Imperial Japanese Navy came up with a solution that at least adressed some of this problems. Therefore they invented the Light Battleships, were Battlecruisers, or Heavy Cruisers were converted with more gun batteries into sort of Batteships, while with the same method Light Cruisers or Destroyers were converted in Heavy Cruisers or Battlecruisers. The Carrier Problem, or better the Carrier wish for this new Co-Prosperity Sphere member states remained however and while member states like Chosen, Manchukuo, Yankoku, National Han China or Taikoku could build their own ones, no matter how long this took for their few and not top modern shipyards and naval building capacities, the newer, smaller Co-Prosperity Sphere member states in South-East Asia, the former colonies had this luxury not. For them the Imperial Japanese Navy gathered all transport ships and tanker ships they had captured from the Allied powers during their conquest, or build themselves, to convert them into Light Carriers. Because the Imperial Japanese Navy needed Carriers, Battle-Carriers/ Half-Carriers and all Light-Carriers they could build and get themselves after Midway, the other member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere only got those, who provided a deck space insufficient for the Japanese, or those who would be to slow for operations in the open Pacific. Inside the liberated island nations of South-East Asia however, supported by coastal artillery and land based fighters and bombers, this Light Carriers (aften called Ultra Light Carriers by the Allies who saw them often as nothing more then a little better seaplane tender).

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 484: The Middle East Campaign – Part 2: The Campaign into Israel/Palestine and the Battle of Haifa:

While Axis Central Power Bombers hit Haifa and Tel Aviv, the situation on the Ground was not that much better for the British and their American Allies in the League of Nations Mandate of Palestine. The Axis Central Powers had established a frontline across the Wadi Hauran westwards, following Ard er Ruwesidat and Harrat er Rajil into the Javal Druz region along the Syrian Jordanian border region and into northern Mandate of Palestine. There the Neo-Ottoman General Nuri Killigil and their German allies of the Syrian Army (German: Erste Orientarmee, First Orient Army) had entered into the northern Mandate region and the Axis Central Power became the so called Palestina Army with the goal to end the British Mandate in the region and to reestablish the former Ottoman Beirut Vilayet, Syria Vilayet, as well as the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem. Since the Axis Central Powers believed the desert between Syria, Iraq and Palestine to be impassable, they only guarded this flank with a few troops. The majority of their army meanwhile concentrated on taking northern Palestine and northern Jordania hoping to capture Haifa, were the Iraq oil pipeline from Mossul ended in oil depots at Haifa harbor at the Bay of Acre. Taking Haifa would not only allow the end of Allied oil transports from there, vital for the British Empire, but also relief the Bagdad Army (German: Zweite Orientarmee, Second Orient Army) that was fighting in Iraq and open up Haifa harbor for direct, closer and faster Axis Central Powers supplies by sea route from the Turkish Mainland harbors at the Mediterranean Sea. The Neo-Ottoman and German Axis Central Power forces alongside some Jewish and Arabian local supporters and militias had managed to conquer a line from the southern Syrian border along Lake Tiberias all the way to Acre, that was used as a temporary forward supply harbor. However the Neo-Ottomans quickly used the Jewish settlements around Lake Hula and Lake Tiberias to push their idea of a future Jewish settled, self-administrated Province of their Empire forward.

Thir clearly enraged the Arabs in the region, from wich some had supported the Axis Central Powers against Britain to gain their independence, just as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini had declared in his call for Jihad. With now some Arabic and some Jewish group supporting wither, the Allies or the Axis Central powers, the siuation became rather confusing, groups like the Jewish Brigade, or the Palestine Regiment fought alongside the British and Americans forces, while at the same time starting sabotages and a irregular warfare against the Axis Central Powers. At the same time the underground Jewish militias like Haganah and others, as well as the Arabian group Palestine Jihad and other Arabian militias supported the Axis Central Powers and started their own sabotages and guerrilla warfare agains the Allies. Loylities became split, neighbors and even the same family members became enemies over wich side to trust and to fight for and soon protests erupted in the largest cities like Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Jerusalem. The protest quickly turned into fighting of the various groups and as Arabs and Jews attacked each other and their own opposing groups, the British Army in the Mandate of Palestine suddenly had to face a open revolt behind their frontline. Bridges, railroads and supply depots were sabotaged, or raided by various groups to supply their members with weapons and open fightingstarted in the streats of the bigger cities. Most shoked by this were the American forces in the area, who fought alongside the British, Commonwealth and Free France soldiers in the region and had a generell low opinion on the future of Imperialism and Colonialism because of their isolationistic world view as well as their own dislike of global colonial empires and their world wide power games by now.

Because of the fighting in the streets and the incoming frontline of the Axis Central Powers, many civilians in Haifa tried to leave the city by ship, train or even on foot and veciles, using the roads. The British therefore had to use their reserves, local allied Militia and even their own Royal Marines to fight back against the rebelling groups and factions. With already short supplies and reinforcements, because of the fronts in Egypt and Iraq, the British, even with american help had a hard time securing the region. While they managed to hold onto major cities like Haif, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, outer towns and regions, like Nazareth, Hebron, Beersheba and Ramalla as well as surrounding area were in the hands of various of the rebel forces and uprising groups, Jewish and Arabian alike, sometimes even right nect to each other. Because of the Axis Central Powers threat, the Americans and British focussed mainly on holding the major cities and strategis regions, like Gaza, Lydda, Tulkarm and other major regions along the major railways and supply lines. This meant that many of the rebellious groups and factions were left unharmed, as long as they not further attacked any Allied forces and positions right now. Even some districts in the major cities like Haifa, el Aviv and Jerusalem were left in the hands of this rebelling Arabian or Jewish groups, leading to confusing situations, where they controlled territory right next to one another, even fought in some streets with Allied forces right next to them on the other side of this roads in buildings opposing the positions held by them.

Once the German and Neo-Ottoman Forces pushed onto Haifa from their positions at Acre, Majd al Kurum and Shafa 'Amr. They captured Salfuriya and defeated the some Arabian rebels at Nazareth, whie allying with their Jewish enemies and pushed onto Haifa from the north and the east. Only in the south over Atlit the Allies managed to hold open a supply line, while the Axis Central Powers cut off the city in the east and tried to push into it. There however they met heavy American and British resistance along allied Commonwealth, Arabic and Jewish soldiers, while some of the local Arabian and Jewish rebell groups even openly sided with them and declared their neutrality. Because of this, the Battle of Haifa became a confusing mess, just like the Battle of Stalingrad had been before, with some neightborhoods, streets and houses deep in enemy held regionsl or sometimes even right next to them, with some houses or even rooms in one house held by one faction, and the next hold by the other. For weeks the fighting continued but with ongoing Axis Central Powers bombing raids, shelling by Axis Central Powers and Allied ships and fleets alike, the fight for Haifa became a stalemate, with the north and east of the city under control by the Axis Central Powers (the German Empire, the Neo-Ottoman Empire as well as local militias and forces, like the Jewish Haganah, the Arabian Palestine Jihad and some others forces), while the west and the south remained in the hands of the Allies (America, Great Britain, the Commonwealth, the Jewish Brigade, the Palestine Regiment and some other groups).

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 485: Coprospist States: the Empire of Manchukuo and the Imperial Manchukuo Diet:

Inside the Empire of Manchukuo, the Kangde Emperor Aisin-Gioro Puyi ruled with help and support of the Concordia Association (Mǎnzhōuguó Xiéhehuì) and the Hoankyoku his very own intelligence agency. With the help of the Concordia Association, as promoted by the Pan-Asian movements, the different peoples and ethnic nationalities in Manchukuo were granted their own self-determination and communal rights, under the slogan Manshū no Minzoku (Nationalities of Manchuria), in a federal state with minority rights, modelled after the British Empire or the Soviet Union as a blueprint for the overall Co-Prosperity Sphere. The main goal was to unify the central state and avoid separatis movements, like the ones that had weakened the olf Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the old Russian Empire. The days of true rule over other groups was propagated a over, in Manchuria all people would live equal and in harmony and co-prosperity, including Japanese (Yamato), Chosen (Koreans), Mengjiang (Mongols) and even Han Chinese (who were simply declared a Manchu subgroup because of their Northeast Speech/ Northeastern Mandarin dialect, that the Manchu and Japanese simply declared a Manchu (Manju Gisun) dialect, of a Manchu subgroup who were part of the Tungusic people. With this lie old in schools and daily propaganda, Emperor Puyi secured the loyality of the General Affairs Council, managed to secure the Civil Service and government from to much Japanese/ Kwantung Army influence (while some “advisers still maintained”, but the majority was now Manchu and put there by the Emperor himself), moved the capital to Mukden once again and grew the Legislative Council to a full legitimate legislative branch of his authonomy member state inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere. With closer ties and collaboration to the Japanese Kwantung Army, that was by now partly supplied from Manchurian industries itself and grew more autonomic. The Imperial Manchurian Army and the Imperial Manchu Navy were established as a Five People's Army, as equal five races and thnic groups meant they also had to be equally ready to obay the new nation state and fight for it and each other.

A new Manchu National identity was established and the Court was filled with many Manchu (here Manchurian Han Chinese were not counted for higher government and administration roles) to ensure their cultural and political government in their nation. With the new Religions Law of May 1938, a cult of Emperor-worship closely modeled after the Imperial cult in Japan where Hirohito was worshiped as a living god, began in Manchuku. Like Japanese Shinto and the Chosen Shindo/ Shingyo, the Manchurian Shamanism and Han Chinese folk religions Shén were declared the same Asian religious tradition and seen as Shénto. In religious census all three were viewed as the same, thereby increasing their overall numbers in relation to other religions in Manchuria. They were viewed as similar traditions, like the small differences between Japanese, Chosen and Manchurian Buddhism. Christian faith meanwhile, like Catholic and Roman, even more so Eastern Orthodox were seen as Imperialist European forces, established to take down Asian tradition, cultures and religions, to colonise their people. However in Manchuria, White Russians, exiled from the Russian Civil War had been given refugee and were tolerated as loyal and helpful subjects, therefore their Christian faith remained untoched as long as they remained loyal to the Empire of Manchukuo. The same was later true for the Jewish and Green Ukrainians in their self-administrated provinces.

Political parties inside the Concordia Association, the General Affairs Council, the Legislative Council and the Imperial Manchu Diet were of various origin and ideals. The Imperial Manchu Society (or Manchu Restauration Association) was the Court and Administration of mainly Manchus eager to remain in power and even increase the Manchu influence, as well as the true ethnic Manchu minority and some Manchu Han Chinese who truly believed the government propaganda that they were just another reginal branch of Manchurians . They directly supported the Rule of the Quing Dynasty and therfore Puyi's Aisin Gioro Clan. Their Party was supported by the Japanese Imperial Delegation (also known as Japanese Commission or Red Banner), that was partly a delegation of diplomats from the Japanese Empire, partly a Japanese political party concerned with the rights and goals of the increasing numbers of Japanese settlers and colonists inside Manchuria. Another supporter of the Manchu government was the so called Black Dragon Society (Kyūjitai; 黑龍會; Shinjitai: 黒竜会 kokuryūkai), or Amur River Society (Kokuryū-kō in Japanese), a paramilitary, ultranationalist group and later Manchu political party named after the Heilongjiang (Black Dragon River, the Amur River). It ran operations in China, Manchuria and Siberia, helping the Japanese and Manchu spies and armies in the area to liberate these parts of Manchuria (Eastern Manchuria, the Russian Far East), that the European Russian Empire had stolen from the Asian Nation of China before. They had close ties and alliances with Buddhist Sects in Manchuria and Asia and also contact to parts of the Mohammedan population, as well as close ties to leading government, military and powerful business leaders, that gave it a power and influence far greater than most other ultranationalist groups. More and more a mainstream political organisation, it attacked liberals and leftists who tried to use the State of Manchuria as a test field for a more leftist and socialist form of Coprospism. The organisation used Opium smuggling and it's intelligence apperatus to even inspire Mohammedan and African uprising, proclaiming unlike the Allies, the Co-Prosperity Sphere would threat them as equals. In this version, they used a Black Dragon as their symbol, that was fighting and defeating the American Eagle and the British Lion. They even became patrons for the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammed and Pacific Movement of the Eastern World in America, until this branch of their society was arrested by the FBI on February 27, 1942 in the San Joaquin Valley, California. In Manchuria they supported the Manchu Government and their reconquest of Eastern Manchuria between the Amur River and the Eastern Coast. They even spied on European unasian people and groups, sometimes even assassinated or deported them north into Siberia.

Another faction inside of the Empire of Manchuria, was the Fengtian Coalition, partly remnants of the old Fengtian Clique and partly local warlords, as well as province and district governors and mayors who wished for more local authonomy and self-administration. It partly opposed the government, at least in terms of centralization, but welcomed the idea of five equal races and ethnic groups in Manchuria, even when these five were later increased to incorporate the local Jews and Ukrainians as well as other smaller groups. The the former White Forces from the Russian Civil War, as well as the Russians living in the area were slit in two major groups. The Imperial Restauration League, a coalition of White Forces that originally had supported the Hokushin-ron, the Northern Assault of the Co-Prosperity Sphere (mainly Japan, Chosen and Manchuria) into the Soviet Union and had hoped for a recreation of the Far Eastern Republic. They together with many Russians in Exile in Manchuria even had established the provisorial government of the new Far Eastern Republic in Vladivostok, until Japan and Manchuria betrayed them and took the whole region for themselved. Some members of the White Movement and the Russian minority afterwards formed a underground Movement (the Far Eastern Front) to fight this unjust occupation, but most of Whites continued to fight the Red Army to retake the Russian Empire, even more so after Tsar/Tzar Vladimir had signed a border agreement with the Japanese Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, accepting their member states claim in support for further fighting the Soviet Union and it's Red Army, while focussing on the mainly ethnic Russian heartland for a new, smaller Russian Empire. The other two “European” Parties inside Manchuria where the Legislative Assembly Party, a Jewish poliical movement, that governed the Jewish Autonomous region on their own, as well as the Zakytajščyna/ Zelenyj Klyn Party, a Ukrainian Party that governed the so called Green Ukraine, the Ukrainian settled parts of the Manchurian. Other parties were the Mangjiang Khanists (or White Banner), the remaining Mongols in the Manchu State that advocated for continuing their nomadic lifestyle and a free crossing of their traditional tribal land between Manchuria and Mengjiang whenever they pleased. Because they were not very popular or a major party outside of the western Manchurian Provinces of North Xing'an, East Xing'an, West Xing'an, South Xing'an and Rehe.

The Mohammedans in Manchuria as a minority were represented by the Green Turban Party/ Green Turban Association. The only three parties autright forbidden, besides openly socialist and communist ones were the Mandarin Clique (called Green Lanterns in Manchuria itself, as they were seen as Traitors against Manchukuo), a group of Han Chinese who while supporting Puyi's dream of a unified China, they did not believe in his Imperial Rule. Quit opposing to this they often supported the Han Chinese Majority Rule and democratic republican ideals of a future Han Chinese dominated state in the borders of the former Quing Dynasty. They were opposed by the Qing Coalition (or Blue Banner), a political Party in Manchuria of Han Chinese who, while not willing to assimilate themselves in overall Manchu Culture, favored a return of Puyi as Emperor over all od China. While the Manchu Chosen Party (or Black Banner) was the legitimate party of the Chosen people inside of Manchuria, the Joseon Society, meanwhile was also banned, as this Korean political party advocated for integrating the south Manchurian lands into the Empire of Chosen, to connect it with the Chosen Peninsula like the ancient Korean Kingdoms of Balhae and Goguryeo had once done. The League of Heavenly Harmony, Justice and Coprospism (Yìhékyōeikentuán) was a direct Pan-Asiani, Co-Prosperity Sphere political party that outright supported close cooperation between Manchuria and the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, while opposing any form of foreign (European -including American-, and even Christian and Mohammedan influence in Manchukuo, even if some viewed both religions because of their place of origin in West Asia, as Asian). Just like the Black Dragon Soviety, the Yìhékyōeikentuán openly supported the Empire of Manchukuo, Puyi, the Hoankyoku and the Kwantung Army and were a major force opposing any form of Christian Faith, or Russian and Ukrainian settlement in Manchuria, no matter if these European Imperial Colonialists and European Imperial Religions as they called them, were obedient and loyal subjects or not. Their open assaults and rethoric led to the ban of the Tiānguó Political Party, a union of various Christian Groups and Movements in Manchuria. While the banning of the Tiānguó Political Party did not outomatically outlaw Christian Faith and open worshipping, the Black Dragon Soviety, the Yìhékyōeikentuán and other similar groups prevented any new Christian proselytize or openly attended church service outside of directly Ukrainian/ Russian administrated provinces and districts.

Other major political parties with close ties to the Imperial Manchurian Army and Imperial Manchurian Navy, as well as the Kwantung Army were Mukden Arsenal, Manchurian Aviation Company (Manshū Kōkū Kabushiki Gaisha or short MKKK), Harbin Heavy Industries, Shungyashan Army Arsenal, Chengde Engineering, Manchurian Airplane Manufacturing Company (Manshū Koku Hikōki Seizō Kabushiki Kaisha), Mudanjing Army Arsenal, Manchurian Railways, Changchun Industries, Showa Steel Works, the Manchurian Industrial Development Company, Kwantung Naval Industries, Qingniwa (Pusan) Naval Yards, the Kwantung Shipyards, Panjing Naval Yards, Huludao Shipbuilding Industry, Qinhuangdao Shipyards and Haishenwai (Vladivostok) Heavy Naval Shipyard Industries. Together they formed the Manchurian Development Board as a political party and a advising gremium for the government. Further more formed the Imperial Manchurian Army, the Kwantung Army and the Zaibatsu Conglomerates supporting them the Manchurian Heavy Industries political party and coalition, making the Kwantung Army and the Imperial Manchurian Army part of three political coalitions and parties at once. The Imperial Manchurian Navy meanwhile and the Shipyards and Naval Industries supporting them formed the Manchurian Naval Industries as a political party togethwer, while the Imperial Manchu Navy itself also formed a party and interest group of their own.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 486: The Middle East Campaign – Part 3: Mesopotamia

With the German and Neo-Ottoman Bagdad Army (German: Zweite Orientarmee, Second Orient Army) attacking from their provisional headquarter in Mossul, and fought for El Kajim. The Germans and their allies soon realized that the desert between the Rivers of Euphrates and Tigirs was hard terrain to pass. Instead they used Axis Central Powers fighters and bombers, while General Nuri Pasha tried to break trought the Allied defence lines. They were opposed by General Sir Harold Alexander the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Middle East Command and his British and Commonwealth forces (including Indian 10th Infantry Division, Australian), as well as the Arab Legion of Transjordan, the Iraqforce, the Palestine Regiment and the Jewish Brigade. The New Zealand Forces however had already been relocated to Asia to fight the Japanese and Co-Prosperity Sphere in British Burma and British Malaya. However the British had another new ally in the region once again, the Kurdish Corps. Sure the Allies, or more exactly the League of Nations had not secured the Kurdish promised State if Kurdistan after the First Great War, but with the Neo-Ottoman treatment of Minorities in their new Empire that ranged from forced labor to actuall genocide, the Kurds and many minorities before the incoming Neo-Ottoman forces were not to eager to wait for the Turks to force their will on them. Instead the so called Kurdish Brigade and the Kurdistan Liberation Army used volunteers to help with the defence of the remaining Kurdish regions in Iraq.

The Americans that had helped with the defence of the remaining Iraq (and most importangtly their oil fields and rafineries) faced a few Axis Central Powers assaults on their defensice positions, but luckily had their own planes, fighters and bombers to counter the enemy ones. This helped stabilize their positions at first, but after their recent victories in the Eastern Crusades and during the Battle of England, the Axis Central Powers redirected some more fighters and bombers to Africa and the Middle East. While their beachheads in Western Africa were problematic at the Moment, the Americans could mass produce and supply the rest of the African and Middle Eastern frontlines for the Allies. Unlike the Axis Central Powers however, the Allied supply lines from Great Britain or even America had quit a few problems beside their immensely longer routes of advance, harassed by Axis Central Powers naval bombers and submarines. Still the Allies did everything to supply their forces on the ground as fast as they could, not only with fighters, bombers and regulair supplies, but also with all kinds of vehicles, from transport trucks to armored trucks and tanks. With combined efforts and a little help from the hars Iraqi terrain, they managed to stop the next Axis Central Powers advance. This was partly also because the Neo-Ottoman Army Forces were not as motorized and mechanized than their Imperial German Army allies and therefore slowed them down. With the help of their Arabian allies, the British even suggested a daring plan in the legacy of Lawrence of Arabia, use local scouts to guide their path trought the believe to be impassible and attack the German and Neo-Ottoman positions from behind. The Americans approved of the plan, but the desert dunes and sandy stormes lead to many Allied vehicles to get stuck or lost in the Iraqi desert.