The Empire of Friedrich III and the rise of Germany (my first TL)
- Thread starter Onkel Willie
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Here's chapter 23 with the battle of Moscow, the wonderful Pacific Dash AND the battle for Malta. Enjoy 
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The German advance proceeded well under the supervision of none other than general Rommel. Russian forces in the area did what they could but were vastly outnumbered and Rokossovsky who was in charge in the area was forced to retreat. Ungern von Sternberg ordered him to stand firm as Tuchachevsky repelled what he thought was the real offensive on the Volga front. The latest German tank, the panzer IV, was performing well. Only the heaviest Russian anti-tank guns could penetrate their armor and only at short ranges whereas the 75 mm gun of the panzer IV could penetrate the armor of Russians tanks at ranges of 2000 meters or more. German air superiority meant that the Russians couldn’t use their dive bombers effectively to destroy German tanks. There were only about a hundred panzer IVs available and they didn’t influence the battle significantly. They would in later battles. The flat plains in Russia were ideal for such a big tank and they would be put to good use. In the meantime Ungern von Sternberg still did not see the disaster that was unfolding.
German forces continued to advance and met with significant resistance. Sadly for the Russians this wasn’t enough to stop them. The Germans and their allies reached the Obninsk-Serpukhov line by late June. Both cities were encircled and Russian forces in the city were crushed only after days of fighting. Many Russians only surrendered after they ran out of ammunition. To make things more difficult, many Russian officers had no qualms about ‘cheating’. Many of them pretended to surrender by raising a white flag only to shoot the Germans when they came too close. Rommel ordered harsh reprisals every time such incidents occurred. Imperial Germany had no problems with committing war crimes if the Russians did so too. This confirmed to many Russian soldiers what propaganda was telling them; that Germans were evil barbarians supporting the Jews in their plot to destroy Russia. The eastern front was becoming uglier by the year. This motivated both the Russians and Germans to fight on. By now the Germans were only 100 kilometres away from Moscow and they were closing. In the city of Podol’sk artillery fire could be heard in the distance. Finally Ungern von Sternberg came to his senses and released forces from the Volga front to support Moscow. German Heinkel He-277 heavy bombers started to bomb the city and its defences to soften it before German ground forces arrived. The city was destroyed by the time German forces arrived although the spires of the Kremlin still stood defiantly. They also tried to impede Russian troop movements headed towards Moscow. Russian defences around the city were quite impressive. As Ungern von Sternberg was acting like an idiot, Rokossovsky had done what he could. While Russian soldiers were fighting bravely to stall the Germans, a system of trenches, barbed wire, anti-tank obstacles and some minefields here and there was made. They utilized what was available. Trams and train carriages were used to block inroads. Debris was piled up to create defendable positions in the city. Without reinforcements it wouldn’t be of much value. All of this would just stall the Germans. By July 4th the Germans were within twelve kilometres of the city limits and shells started raining down in the city centre. Last preparations were made. The battle for Moscow was about to begin.
The last few kilometres to Moscow were the toughest ever. The Germans had to fight their way through strong Russian defensive positions. Russian resistance was becoming increasingly tenacious and Russian numbers were increasing as the first reinforcements arrived. After some of the heaviest fighting to date, the Germans reached the outskirts of Moscow on the early morning of July 7th. German armored spearheads which were the lead elements of Rommel’s 7th panzer division were the first to break the city’s outer defences and fight their way into the outskirts near Nemchinovka. Now the Germans would lose their advantage as Moscow would become the scene of extreme urban warfare. This suited the defenders best. The gap in Russian lines was widened quickly as a bunch of fanatical Ukrainian divisions arrived at the scene. They were determined to take part in this battle. Austrian, Romanian, Polish and Byelorussian forces quickly joined in. The Germans and their allies attempted to encircle the city. They reached Dolgoprudnyy in the north and Vyrubovo in the south. Russian reinforcements led by general Zhukov prevented the move from being successful. Instead of encircling and starving the Russians in a siege, the Germans would be forced to fight a battle of attrition. Now the one who could afford to lose more men, would win. The front stabilized after the Germans penetrated the city up to about two kilometres.
In the pacific the American fleet had been dealt a devastating blow and the Japanese reigned supreme in the pacific for now. Mainly for propaganda purposes Japanese carriers Akagi and Zuikaku conducted air raids in California. Los Angeles and San Francisco were the worst hit. The raids weren’t much. The Japanese sent some bombers and fighters which conducted some strafing runs. This caused quite some panic in the United States. Many believed that invasion was imminent. Yamato was also present. The appearance of the huge battleship was enough to cause fear let alone the shelling it did. The American government responded by beefing up defences on the west coast. Several hundreds of thousands were mobilized. Anti-aircraft guns were placed along with several large coastal batteries. Forces were withdrawn from Europe as well to beef up the California coastline. In the meantime the Japanese were gathering forces for their next move. They were planning to strike at Pearl Harbor and sink the remainder of the American pacific fleet. After two weeks of raiding, Yamato, Zuikaku and Akagi returned to Midway and the strike force that was being assembled there. Carriers Kaga and Hiryu arrived a few days later. Fast battleships, Kongo, Kirishima and Yamashiro were also pulled away from their duties and joined the growing battle fleet which consisted of six battleships, including the massive Yamato, six carriers, four cruisers, six midget submarines and forty destroyers. This was meant to be the end of the American presence in the pacific ocean.
Unfortunately Japanese admirals hadn't taken into account the German Far Eastern Squadron and the Royal Navy and some of their more brazen commanders. The German Far Eastern Squadron was led by admiral Theodor Krancke who had been planning a pacific dash to support the Americans ever since the second battle of Midway. By now the Germans and British had cracked Japanese codes. They did so shortly before the second battle of Midway which was too late to warn the Americans about the impending catastrophe. This way they also knew about the coming strike at Pearl Harbor and Krancke was not planning on letting that happen. The German fleet was based in Ceylon and was preparing to save their American allies. Somehow he had managed to convince his British counterparts to lend him some ships for this risky operation. He managed to gather a flotilla consisting of four carriers, five battleships, nine cruisers, thirty-five destroyers, seven U-boats and several support vessels. The fleet left port under the cover of darkness and total radio silence on April 23rd with only Krancke and a few others knowing the true objective and destination of this fleet.
The idea of sending some U-boats to tag along for the ride was an idea of Admiral Dönitz. He had been a U-boat captain himself and was a fanatic. He had bugged the admiralty and the minister of defence for years to have them build more U-boats. To shut him up some U-boats had been built and he got to implement his wolf pack tactics. Only about three hundred of them had been built until now which were spread out across the world. In the 1909-1911 war a few had been used and they had performed well. There effect was negligible and therefore the admiralty as was traditional paid more attention to battleships and later on to carriers after they had proven to be useful. That was a hard lesson which the Japanese had taught the Germans by sinking several of their precious battleships. As they tagged along, Krancke decided he might as well put them to some good use. The results would be spectacular and would prompt German admirals to listen to Dönitz. His U-boat program to increase the number of U-boats to one thousand would be implemented. The Americans would also become more interested in submarine warfare. Wolf pack tactics would be widely used in later years.
By now the Germans had told the Americans about the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Americans gathered what forces in the pacific they still had left. This included the four battleships which had survived the slaughter at Midway which were the Nevada, the Tennessee, Oklahoma and the aging Utah. The Americans also managed to get their hands on two more carriers. They already had the Enterprise and the damaged Yorktown. USS Ranger and the USS Hornet joined the American fleet at Pearl Harbor and all airplanes on Wheeler Field and Hickam field were made combat ready. This was about all the Americans could do. They had a good idea about the Japanese fleet strength and knew they could not win. The Japanese had six battleships and six carriers while the Americans had four battleships and carriers. Now they could only sit and wait and hope the Germans would arrive in time to aid them.
The Anglo-German fleet in the meantime was making good time. Krancke had chosen to take the more risky route. This was the route between the Dutch East Indies in the north and Australia in the south. It was dangerous as the risk of being detected was high. By April 27th the Anglo-German taskforce was off Darwin and they showed no sign of stopping. So far so good. Japanese planes hadn’t detected them yet and they hadn’t encountered any Japanese shipping either. The planned attack on Pearl Harbor drew away Japanese resources from the pacific which might explain why they remained undetected for quite a long time. Another reason why they remained undiscovered was because Krancke was staying as far away from the Dutch East Indies as possible until the planned dash for the pacific. Their luck ended on April 28th when a Japanese reconnaissance plane spotted the flotilla. Krancke cursed the clear skies even though he had been very lucky thus far and ordered it to be shot down but not before the plane’s pilot could send a message. They were discovered as they were steaming northeast south of the Solomon Islands. Aircraft carriers Shoho, Zuihu and Ryojo were nearby as were several cruisers and numerous land based aircraft. Two Japanese battleships, Hyuga and Ise, were a mere three hours away.
This rag tag force went into hot pursuit along with Japanese land based bombers. Krancke’s job was to get his force to Pearl Harbor in one piece. He wanted to avoid getting caught up in a battle which could slow him down and give the Japanese time to bring in reinforcements. The rear-end of the Anglo-German force skirmished with the Japanese several times. The inflicted damage was bigger than expected. An attack by a U-boat, U-61, managed to cripple Hyuga. German airplanes and some land based planes of the Royal Australian Air Force managed to fend off the carriers. The pursuit continued for several days. Things were going so fast that the Japanese were confused. They had ships spread about all over the place but didn’t respond quick enough. By April 29th the Anglo-German forces had managed to escape the Japanese in what would become known as the famous and celebrated Pacific Dash. In hindsight this was a miracle and it shouldn’t have and couldn’t have happened. Yet it did even though the Japanese were all around. The element of surprise, speed and sheer dumb luck had handed the Germans their victory. Unfortunately the skirmishing and all the manoeuvring had cost a lot of time. The Japanese were already at Pearl Harbor and were battling the Americans.
The battle started on the early morning of May 3rd 1942. The Americans were desperate as the Germans and British were still nowhere in sight. They were at least several hours away when the battle started. Fortunately the Americans didn’t make the same mistakes twice and made good use of the airplanes they had. This didn’t change the fact that the Japanese outnumbered them. The Americans sortied to fight the Japanese heroically for one last time or so they thought. It didn’t look like the Brits and Germans were coming. Miraculously they managed to keep at least their battle line consisting of four battleships from being sunk. Several cruisers were not so lucky. Three out of seven had been sunk and a fourth limped away back to Pearl Harbor after a crippling blow inflicted by the Yamato. USS Yorktown was also some taking heavy punishment. Luckily the British and Germans arrived just in time to prevent the carrier’s demise. Now the Japanese would find that they were ones who were outnumbered. The combined Anglo-German-American force had seven aircraft carriers, nine battleships, twelve cruisers, fifty-five destroyers and seven U-boats. The Japanese had only six battleships, six carriers, four cruisers, forty destroyers and six midget submarines.
The Anglo-German taskforce hurled itself at the Japanese to relieve the Americans. Their capital ships steamed toward them and thereby presented the smallest silhouette possible and in the meantime ‘kept firing those goddamn guns’ as Krancke ordered them to. German Bf-109s and British Spitfires took off from their respective carriers and engaged the Japanese in the air. Yamamoto was caught off guard as he hadn’t expected the Germans to arrive so soon. He had thought that Japanese ships would keep them busy longer. To add in the confusion U-boats popped up behind the Japanese fleet. They managed to immobilize the Kaga by hitting her rudder and props with torpedoes which forced the crew to scuttle the ship. Hiryu and Soryu were sunk as well. Yamato wasn’t spared either as the ambitious U-boat captains tried to hit the biggest most important targets. They sadly failed to sink her. The biggest face-off was yet to come. Germany’s huge battleship, the Kaiser, engaged the Yamato. The two giants exchanged fire and heavily damaged each other. The Yamato was more damaged though since German fire control and targeting systems were better.
Yamamoto wisely decided to retreat even though that wasn’t ‘honourable’. He had lost three battleships, three carriers, two cruisers, thirteen destroyers and all of his midget submarines before retreating. The Japanese had been dealt a blow and the Imperial Japanese Navy didn’t seem to be so invincible anymore. The Americans would recover from their losses at Midway soon. For the Japanese and their comparatively small industrial base this would be much more difficult. Their was a shimmer of hope for the Central Powers.
In Africa the French retreat had turned into a rout. The French did conquer German Morocco quickly. The German colonial force there was quite small. This way the Central Powers could not land any forces in Morocco. This was quite pointless as the Central Powers didn’t need to invade Morocco to defeat the French although crushing them from two sides would have done the job quicker. Morocco was difficult terrain and its infrastructure couldn’t support a large invasion force though. As Russia was fighting a desperate struggle for survival against the Germans, the Ottomans could afford to divert even more forces to North Africa to retake Libya. Anglo-Ottoman-American forces launched another offensive in late June just before the battle of Moscow started which would tie down a lot of Russian forces. Therefore the Caucasus front would remain quiet for now. The undersupplied Corps de l’Afrique fought well but was unable to stop the larger Ottoman-British-American force. Mussolini had been awarded with Libya and therefore many of the garrisons there consisted of Italians who didn’t treat the Libyans very kindly. The semi-autocratic Ottomans ruling from Constantinople weren’t everything either but at least they were fellow Muslims and they didn’t treat the Libyans any better or worse than any of their other subjects. The Italians on the other hand treated them like dirt. When artillery shells started to land, many Libyans revolted against their Italian overlords and routed the Italian garrisons. The Italian governor was killed in the process. After 1100 kilometres and over a month of fighting, the Anglo-Ottoman-American forces had retaken Libya and were standing at the border of French Tunisia. Libya was back in Ottoman hands again and sultan Abdülmecid II visited the province shortly after the fall of Tripoli on July 29th.
French and Italian forces by now were fighting a defensive war and couldn’t decisively defeat the Central Powers and both sides knew this. One to many mistake had been made and this had turned things around for the British, Ottomans and the newly arrived Americans. The pivotal point was the attempted Franco-Italian conquest of the Holy Land in late ’40 which was a catastrophe and a logistical nightmare for the French and Italians. The pivotal point was not the arrival of the Americans as many movies from Hollywood still show. Now the jump for mainland Europe could be made and the other axis powers would have to fight a war on their own ground like the Russians were already doing. Unlike their big Russian ally however, Italy and France couldn’t afford to lose so many men, resources and so much land in their defence. Russia due to its size alone was impossible to fully conquer. Petain and Mussolini didn’t have the luxury of being able to retreat for a thousand miles and destroy everything of value. The Italian people would feel what the true meaning of war was.
Preparations for an invasion of Malta had already begun before the offensive to retake Libya since Malta was an important stepping stone for an invasion of Sicily. Secondly, the fall of Malta would hamper the already troubled axis supply lines to North Africa. The invasion would be similar to the Franco-Italian invasion of the island over two years earlier except that everything would be in reverse. The Ottoman navy based at the Golden Horn near Constantinople left port and converged with Royal Navy units. The Ottoman navy which had been in decline during most of the 19th and early 20th century had been modernized with the oil revenue that had boosted the Ottoman Empire from the 1910s onwards and had turned the Ottoman Empire back into a Great Power during the twenties and thirties. This economic growth had enabled the Ottomans to modernize their country and bring it up to western standards. By the time the war started in 1938 the Ottoman navy was among the largest and most modern navies in the world and was equal to any contemporary European navy in terms of equipment and leadership. It was the fifth largest navy of the world after the Royal Navy, the High Seas Fleet, the United States navy and the Japanese navy in that order. It was only slightly larger than the French and Italian navies which until now had proven to be worthy opponents. The backbone of the Ottoman navy in 1942 consisted of nine battleships, four of which were of the Suleiman-class. The class had been laid down in 1936 and was the Ottoman attempt to keep up with the large battleships that the other naval powers were building such as the German Wilhelm der Grosse-class and the British Victoria-class. Its main armament consisted of twelve 38.1 cm (15 inch). Like the German Wilhelm der Grosse-class these battleships had two quadruple and two double mounts to conserve steel. The Ottoman navy had also built two carriers in spite of resistance in the Ottoman admiralty. That resistance disappeared after carriers had proven themselves in the pacific. Two more were had been laid down which would be commissioned in December 1943 and January 1944 respectively.
Both carriers and all four Suleiman-class battleships would take part in the invasion as would two other battleships, three battle cruisers, eleven heavy cruisers and forty destroyers. The British would commit two huge Victoria-class battleships, the HMS Victoria and the HMS Queen Anne, to battle. Two British carriers, Hermes and Ark Royal, were also contributed by the Royal Navy along with three battle cruisers and thirteen destroyers. Sadly the Royal navy could not contribute more as they were preoccupied in the pacific. Therefore the operation was put under Ottoman command. These seemingly large numbers were necessary as the French and Italian navies were still around. Land based Ottoman and British bombers pounded the Franco-Italian garrison. Italian and French fighters caused quite significant casualties but they gradually stopped coming as their airfields and other important installations were bombed to bits. Many had already been destroyed on the ground as well. This bombardment continued for over a week. This alerted Italian and French military and naval leaders which enabled them to respond. The French managed to scramble three of their Empereur-class battleships, four battle cruisers, twenty destroyers, three submarines and one carrier, Aigle whose sister ship was assigned to the Atlantic fleet which hadn’t sortied yet. The Italian Navy managed to pull itself together. Mussolini knew that something was going to happen and started to panic because he also knew that Italy would be next. In his panic he told his admirals that if one single enemy soldier would set foot on Italian soil, he would have their heads. This motivated them to do something instead of letting the French handle it. If Italy was to be invaded, no amount of propaganda would be able to convince the Italian people that all was well. They managed to bring together the best of what the Italian navy had. All four Littorio-class battleships, Littorio, Impero, Vittorio Veneto and Roma, would participate in the coming battle. Italy’s only carrier, the Aquila, two battle cruisers, seven heavy cruisers, and sixteen destroyers would also fight. The stage was set for one of the largest naval battles in the history of all participants.
The Anglo-Ottoman invasion fleet arrived at Malta on August 14th only to find the best of what the combined Mediterranean fleets of both France and Italy had to offer, assembled to battle them. The two fleets clashed and a battle ensued which would become known as the battle for Malta. Italian, French, Ottoman and British battleships broke formation and engaged their enemies. Especially the Italians fought remarkably well as they knew their country would stand or fall depending on the outcome of this battle. Impero and Roma teamed up against the HMS Victoria to start a fight that was an entire battle in itself. The two battered the Victoria. The huge battleship returned fire and nearly crippled the Roma. Its 16.5 inch (42 cm) guns packed quite a punch. After over an hour a 38.1 cm (15 inch) shell fired by the Impero penetrated the armor of the massive battleship and reached the ammunition storage. The battleship exploded in a massive fireball. The blast caused by all the exploding 16.5 inch shells could be heard as far away as Sicily and could be seen in Malta. The hull broke into two pieces which quickly sank. None of the over 2500 men on board survived. The Italians cheered but the battle wasn’t over though. The Suleiman and the HMS Anne disengaged from the French battleships they were battling and attacked the Impero and Roma. The crippled Roma fought well but was utterly destroyed by 15 and 16.5 inch shells. Impero exchanged some shells with the two but fell back and joined the French. The Anglo-Ottoman taskforce quickly gained the upper hand in the air because they had four carriers whereas the Franco-Italian force had only two. Planes stationed in Libya supported them. The few Italian and French planes on Malta that were still in working order took off as well. Air superiority was paramount. Without it this battle could have become very ugly for the Central Powers. It would have been a much more difficult victory. As the battle in the air turned in favour of the Brits and Ottomans, the big battleships kept on going. One of Suleiman’s sister ships, the Osman, engaged the Empereur. Promptly two French battle cruisers jumped on her and sank her. Both were sank by repeated aerial attacks. And so the battle raged on. Air superiority turned into air supremacy when both the Aquila and the Aigle were torpedoed. From that point onward the battle had already been decided. After another few hours of fighting, the battle had been decidedly won by the Ottomans and the British. The Italians and French had lost four battleships out of seven, two carriers out of two, three battle cruisers out of six, six heavy cruisers out of seven and twenty-three out of thirty-six destroyers. The British and Ottomans had lost less but their losses were still significant. They lost two battleships out of six, two battle cruisers out of six, four heavy cruisers out of eleven and ten destroyers. Nevertheless the invasion of Malta could begin.
. Chapter 23
The German advance proceeded well under the supervision of none other than general Rommel. Russian forces in the area did what they could but were vastly outnumbered and Rokossovsky who was in charge in the area was forced to retreat. Ungern von Sternberg ordered him to stand firm as Tuchachevsky repelled what he thought was the real offensive on the Volga front. The latest German tank, the panzer IV, was performing well. Only the heaviest Russian anti-tank guns could penetrate their armor and only at short ranges whereas the 75 mm gun of the panzer IV could penetrate the armor of Russians tanks at ranges of 2000 meters or more. German air superiority meant that the Russians couldn’t use their dive bombers effectively to destroy German tanks. There were only about a hundred panzer IVs available and they didn’t influence the battle significantly. They would in later battles. The flat plains in Russia were ideal for such a big tank and they would be put to good use. In the meantime Ungern von Sternberg still did not see the disaster that was unfolding.
German forces continued to advance and met with significant resistance. Sadly for the Russians this wasn’t enough to stop them. The Germans and their allies reached the Obninsk-Serpukhov line by late June. Both cities were encircled and Russian forces in the city were crushed only after days of fighting. Many Russians only surrendered after they ran out of ammunition. To make things more difficult, many Russian officers had no qualms about ‘cheating’. Many of them pretended to surrender by raising a white flag only to shoot the Germans when they came too close. Rommel ordered harsh reprisals every time such incidents occurred. Imperial Germany had no problems with committing war crimes if the Russians did so too. This confirmed to many Russian soldiers what propaganda was telling them; that Germans were evil barbarians supporting the Jews in their plot to destroy Russia. The eastern front was becoming uglier by the year. This motivated both the Russians and Germans to fight on. By now the Germans were only 100 kilometres away from Moscow and they were closing. In the city of Podol’sk artillery fire could be heard in the distance. Finally Ungern von Sternberg came to his senses and released forces from the Volga front to support Moscow. German Heinkel He-277 heavy bombers started to bomb the city and its defences to soften it before German ground forces arrived. The city was destroyed by the time German forces arrived although the spires of the Kremlin still stood defiantly. They also tried to impede Russian troop movements headed towards Moscow. Russian defences around the city were quite impressive. As Ungern von Sternberg was acting like an idiot, Rokossovsky had done what he could. While Russian soldiers were fighting bravely to stall the Germans, a system of trenches, barbed wire, anti-tank obstacles and some minefields here and there was made. They utilized what was available. Trams and train carriages were used to block inroads. Debris was piled up to create defendable positions in the city. Without reinforcements it wouldn’t be of much value. All of this would just stall the Germans. By July 4th the Germans were within twelve kilometres of the city limits and shells started raining down in the city centre. Last preparations were made. The battle for Moscow was about to begin.
The last few kilometres to Moscow were the toughest ever. The Germans had to fight their way through strong Russian defensive positions. Russian resistance was becoming increasingly tenacious and Russian numbers were increasing as the first reinforcements arrived. After some of the heaviest fighting to date, the Germans reached the outskirts of Moscow on the early morning of July 7th. German armored spearheads which were the lead elements of Rommel’s 7th panzer division were the first to break the city’s outer defences and fight their way into the outskirts near Nemchinovka. Now the Germans would lose their advantage as Moscow would become the scene of extreme urban warfare. This suited the defenders best. The gap in Russian lines was widened quickly as a bunch of fanatical Ukrainian divisions arrived at the scene. They were determined to take part in this battle. Austrian, Romanian, Polish and Byelorussian forces quickly joined in. The Germans and their allies attempted to encircle the city. They reached Dolgoprudnyy in the north and Vyrubovo in the south. Russian reinforcements led by general Zhukov prevented the move from being successful. Instead of encircling and starving the Russians in a siege, the Germans would be forced to fight a battle of attrition. Now the one who could afford to lose more men, would win. The front stabilized after the Germans penetrated the city up to about two kilometres.
In the pacific the American fleet had been dealt a devastating blow and the Japanese reigned supreme in the pacific for now. Mainly for propaganda purposes Japanese carriers Akagi and Zuikaku conducted air raids in California. Los Angeles and San Francisco were the worst hit. The raids weren’t much. The Japanese sent some bombers and fighters which conducted some strafing runs. This caused quite some panic in the United States. Many believed that invasion was imminent. Yamato was also present. The appearance of the huge battleship was enough to cause fear let alone the shelling it did. The American government responded by beefing up defences on the west coast. Several hundreds of thousands were mobilized. Anti-aircraft guns were placed along with several large coastal batteries. Forces were withdrawn from Europe as well to beef up the California coastline. In the meantime the Japanese were gathering forces for their next move. They were planning to strike at Pearl Harbor and sink the remainder of the American pacific fleet. After two weeks of raiding, Yamato, Zuikaku and Akagi returned to Midway and the strike force that was being assembled there. Carriers Kaga and Hiryu arrived a few days later. Fast battleships, Kongo, Kirishima and Yamashiro were also pulled away from their duties and joined the growing battle fleet which consisted of six battleships, including the massive Yamato, six carriers, four cruisers, six midget submarines and forty destroyers. This was meant to be the end of the American presence in the pacific ocean.
Unfortunately Japanese admirals hadn't taken into account the German Far Eastern Squadron and the Royal Navy and some of their more brazen commanders. The German Far Eastern Squadron was led by admiral Theodor Krancke who had been planning a pacific dash to support the Americans ever since the second battle of Midway. By now the Germans and British had cracked Japanese codes. They did so shortly before the second battle of Midway which was too late to warn the Americans about the impending catastrophe. This way they also knew about the coming strike at Pearl Harbor and Krancke was not planning on letting that happen. The German fleet was based in Ceylon and was preparing to save their American allies. Somehow he had managed to convince his British counterparts to lend him some ships for this risky operation. He managed to gather a flotilla consisting of four carriers, five battleships, nine cruisers, thirty-five destroyers, seven U-boats and several support vessels. The fleet left port under the cover of darkness and total radio silence on April 23rd with only Krancke and a few others knowing the true objective and destination of this fleet.
The idea of sending some U-boats to tag along for the ride was an idea of Admiral Dönitz. He had been a U-boat captain himself and was a fanatic. He had bugged the admiralty and the minister of defence for years to have them build more U-boats. To shut him up some U-boats had been built and he got to implement his wolf pack tactics. Only about three hundred of them had been built until now which were spread out across the world. In the 1909-1911 war a few had been used and they had performed well. There effect was negligible and therefore the admiralty as was traditional paid more attention to battleships and later on to carriers after they had proven to be useful. That was a hard lesson which the Japanese had taught the Germans by sinking several of their precious battleships. As they tagged along, Krancke decided he might as well put them to some good use. The results would be spectacular and would prompt German admirals to listen to Dönitz. His U-boat program to increase the number of U-boats to one thousand would be implemented. The Americans would also become more interested in submarine warfare. Wolf pack tactics would be widely used in later years.
By now the Germans had told the Americans about the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Americans gathered what forces in the pacific they still had left. This included the four battleships which had survived the slaughter at Midway which were the Nevada, the Tennessee, Oklahoma and the aging Utah. The Americans also managed to get their hands on two more carriers. They already had the Enterprise and the damaged Yorktown. USS Ranger and the USS Hornet joined the American fleet at Pearl Harbor and all airplanes on Wheeler Field and Hickam field were made combat ready. This was about all the Americans could do. They had a good idea about the Japanese fleet strength and knew they could not win. The Japanese had six battleships and six carriers while the Americans had four battleships and carriers. Now they could only sit and wait and hope the Germans would arrive in time to aid them.
The Anglo-German fleet in the meantime was making good time. Krancke had chosen to take the more risky route. This was the route between the Dutch East Indies in the north and Australia in the south. It was dangerous as the risk of being detected was high. By April 27th the Anglo-German taskforce was off Darwin and they showed no sign of stopping. So far so good. Japanese planes hadn’t detected them yet and they hadn’t encountered any Japanese shipping either. The planned attack on Pearl Harbor drew away Japanese resources from the pacific which might explain why they remained undetected for quite a long time. Another reason why they remained undiscovered was because Krancke was staying as far away from the Dutch East Indies as possible until the planned dash for the pacific. Their luck ended on April 28th when a Japanese reconnaissance plane spotted the flotilla. Krancke cursed the clear skies even though he had been very lucky thus far and ordered it to be shot down but not before the plane’s pilot could send a message. They were discovered as they were steaming northeast south of the Solomon Islands. Aircraft carriers Shoho, Zuihu and Ryojo were nearby as were several cruisers and numerous land based aircraft. Two Japanese battleships, Hyuga and Ise, were a mere three hours away.
This rag tag force went into hot pursuit along with Japanese land based bombers. Krancke’s job was to get his force to Pearl Harbor in one piece. He wanted to avoid getting caught up in a battle which could slow him down and give the Japanese time to bring in reinforcements. The rear-end of the Anglo-German force skirmished with the Japanese several times. The inflicted damage was bigger than expected. An attack by a U-boat, U-61, managed to cripple Hyuga. German airplanes and some land based planes of the Royal Australian Air Force managed to fend off the carriers. The pursuit continued for several days. Things were going so fast that the Japanese were confused. They had ships spread about all over the place but didn’t respond quick enough. By April 29th the Anglo-German forces had managed to escape the Japanese in what would become known as the famous and celebrated Pacific Dash. In hindsight this was a miracle and it shouldn’t have and couldn’t have happened. Yet it did even though the Japanese were all around. The element of surprise, speed and sheer dumb luck had handed the Germans their victory. Unfortunately the skirmishing and all the manoeuvring had cost a lot of time. The Japanese were already at Pearl Harbor and were battling the Americans.
The battle started on the early morning of May 3rd 1942. The Americans were desperate as the Germans and British were still nowhere in sight. They were at least several hours away when the battle started. Fortunately the Americans didn’t make the same mistakes twice and made good use of the airplanes they had. This didn’t change the fact that the Japanese outnumbered them. The Americans sortied to fight the Japanese heroically for one last time or so they thought. It didn’t look like the Brits and Germans were coming. Miraculously they managed to keep at least their battle line consisting of four battleships from being sunk. Several cruisers were not so lucky. Three out of seven had been sunk and a fourth limped away back to Pearl Harbor after a crippling blow inflicted by the Yamato. USS Yorktown was also some taking heavy punishment. Luckily the British and Germans arrived just in time to prevent the carrier’s demise. Now the Japanese would find that they were ones who were outnumbered. The combined Anglo-German-American force had seven aircraft carriers, nine battleships, twelve cruisers, fifty-five destroyers and seven U-boats. The Japanese had only six battleships, six carriers, four cruisers, forty destroyers and six midget submarines.
The Anglo-German taskforce hurled itself at the Japanese to relieve the Americans. Their capital ships steamed toward them and thereby presented the smallest silhouette possible and in the meantime ‘kept firing those goddamn guns’ as Krancke ordered them to. German Bf-109s and British Spitfires took off from their respective carriers and engaged the Japanese in the air. Yamamoto was caught off guard as he hadn’t expected the Germans to arrive so soon. He had thought that Japanese ships would keep them busy longer. To add in the confusion U-boats popped up behind the Japanese fleet. They managed to immobilize the Kaga by hitting her rudder and props with torpedoes which forced the crew to scuttle the ship. Hiryu and Soryu were sunk as well. Yamato wasn’t spared either as the ambitious U-boat captains tried to hit the biggest most important targets. They sadly failed to sink her. The biggest face-off was yet to come. Germany’s huge battleship, the Kaiser, engaged the Yamato. The two giants exchanged fire and heavily damaged each other. The Yamato was more damaged though since German fire control and targeting systems were better.
Yamamoto wisely decided to retreat even though that wasn’t ‘honourable’. He had lost three battleships, three carriers, two cruisers, thirteen destroyers and all of his midget submarines before retreating. The Japanese had been dealt a blow and the Imperial Japanese Navy didn’t seem to be so invincible anymore. The Americans would recover from their losses at Midway soon. For the Japanese and their comparatively small industrial base this would be much more difficult. Their was a shimmer of hope for the Central Powers.
In Africa the French retreat had turned into a rout. The French did conquer German Morocco quickly. The German colonial force there was quite small. This way the Central Powers could not land any forces in Morocco. This was quite pointless as the Central Powers didn’t need to invade Morocco to defeat the French although crushing them from two sides would have done the job quicker. Morocco was difficult terrain and its infrastructure couldn’t support a large invasion force though. As Russia was fighting a desperate struggle for survival against the Germans, the Ottomans could afford to divert even more forces to North Africa to retake Libya. Anglo-Ottoman-American forces launched another offensive in late June just before the battle of Moscow started which would tie down a lot of Russian forces. Therefore the Caucasus front would remain quiet for now. The undersupplied Corps de l’Afrique fought well but was unable to stop the larger Ottoman-British-American force. Mussolini had been awarded with Libya and therefore many of the garrisons there consisted of Italians who didn’t treat the Libyans very kindly. The semi-autocratic Ottomans ruling from Constantinople weren’t everything either but at least they were fellow Muslims and they didn’t treat the Libyans any better or worse than any of their other subjects. The Italians on the other hand treated them like dirt. When artillery shells started to land, many Libyans revolted against their Italian overlords and routed the Italian garrisons. The Italian governor was killed in the process. After 1100 kilometres and over a month of fighting, the Anglo-Ottoman-American forces had retaken Libya and were standing at the border of French Tunisia. Libya was back in Ottoman hands again and sultan Abdülmecid II visited the province shortly after the fall of Tripoli on July 29th.
French and Italian forces by now were fighting a defensive war and couldn’t decisively defeat the Central Powers and both sides knew this. One to many mistake had been made and this had turned things around for the British, Ottomans and the newly arrived Americans. The pivotal point was the attempted Franco-Italian conquest of the Holy Land in late ’40 which was a catastrophe and a logistical nightmare for the French and Italians. The pivotal point was not the arrival of the Americans as many movies from Hollywood still show. Now the jump for mainland Europe could be made and the other axis powers would have to fight a war on their own ground like the Russians were already doing. Unlike their big Russian ally however, Italy and France couldn’t afford to lose so many men, resources and so much land in their defence. Russia due to its size alone was impossible to fully conquer. Petain and Mussolini didn’t have the luxury of being able to retreat for a thousand miles and destroy everything of value. The Italian people would feel what the true meaning of war was.
Preparations for an invasion of Malta had already begun before the offensive to retake Libya since Malta was an important stepping stone for an invasion of Sicily. Secondly, the fall of Malta would hamper the already troubled axis supply lines to North Africa. The invasion would be similar to the Franco-Italian invasion of the island over two years earlier except that everything would be in reverse. The Ottoman navy based at the Golden Horn near Constantinople left port and converged with Royal Navy units. The Ottoman navy which had been in decline during most of the 19th and early 20th century had been modernized with the oil revenue that had boosted the Ottoman Empire from the 1910s onwards and had turned the Ottoman Empire back into a Great Power during the twenties and thirties. This economic growth had enabled the Ottomans to modernize their country and bring it up to western standards. By the time the war started in 1938 the Ottoman navy was among the largest and most modern navies in the world and was equal to any contemporary European navy in terms of equipment and leadership. It was the fifth largest navy of the world after the Royal Navy, the High Seas Fleet, the United States navy and the Japanese navy in that order. It was only slightly larger than the French and Italian navies which until now had proven to be worthy opponents. The backbone of the Ottoman navy in 1942 consisted of nine battleships, four of which were of the Suleiman-class. The class had been laid down in 1936 and was the Ottoman attempt to keep up with the large battleships that the other naval powers were building such as the German Wilhelm der Grosse-class and the British Victoria-class. Its main armament consisted of twelve 38.1 cm (15 inch). Like the German Wilhelm der Grosse-class these battleships had two quadruple and two double mounts to conserve steel. The Ottoman navy had also built two carriers in spite of resistance in the Ottoman admiralty. That resistance disappeared after carriers had proven themselves in the pacific. Two more were had been laid down which would be commissioned in December 1943 and January 1944 respectively.
Both carriers and all four Suleiman-class battleships would take part in the invasion as would two other battleships, three battle cruisers, eleven heavy cruisers and forty destroyers. The British would commit two huge Victoria-class battleships, the HMS Victoria and the HMS Queen Anne, to battle. Two British carriers, Hermes and Ark Royal, were also contributed by the Royal Navy along with three battle cruisers and thirteen destroyers. Sadly the Royal navy could not contribute more as they were preoccupied in the pacific. Therefore the operation was put under Ottoman command. These seemingly large numbers were necessary as the French and Italian navies were still around. Land based Ottoman and British bombers pounded the Franco-Italian garrison. Italian and French fighters caused quite significant casualties but they gradually stopped coming as their airfields and other important installations were bombed to bits. Many had already been destroyed on the ground as well. This bombardment continued for over a week. This alerted Italian and French military and naval leaders which enabled them to respond. The French managed to scramble three of their Empereur-class battleships, four battle cruisers, twenty destroyers, three submarines and one carrier, Aigle whose sister ship was assigned to the Atlantic fleet which hadn’t sortied yet. The Italian Navy managed to pull itself together. Mussolini knew that something was going to happen and started to panic because he also knew that Italy would be next. In his panic he told his admirals that if one single enemy soldier would set foot on Italian soil, he would have their heads. This motivated them to do something instead of letting the French handle it. If Italy was to be invaded, no amount of propaganda would be able to convince the Italian people that all was well. They managed to bring together the best of what the Italian navy had. All four Littorio-class battleships, Littorio, Impero, Vittorio Veneto and Roma, would participate in the coming battle. Italy’s only carrier, the Aquila, two battle cruisers, seven heavy cruisers, and sixteen destroyers would also fight. The stage was set for one of the largest naval battles in the history of all participants.
The Anglo-Ottoman invasion fleet arrived at Malta on August 14th only to find the best of what the combined Mediterranean fleets of both France and Italy had to offer, assembled to battle them. The two fleets clashed and a battle ensued which would become known as the battle for Malta. Italian, French, Ottoman and British battleships broke formation and engaged their enemies. Especially the Italians fought remarkably well as they knew their country would stand or fall depending on the outcome of this battle. Impero and Roma teamed up against the HMS Victoria to start a fight that was an entire battle in itself. The two battered the Victoria. The huge battleship returned fire and nearly crippled the Roma. Its 16.5 inch (42 cm) guns packed quite a punch. After over an hour a 38.1 cm (15 inch) shell fired by the Impero penetrated the armor of the massive battleship and reached the ammunition storage. The battleship exploded in a massive fireball. The blast caused by all the exploding 16.5 inch shells could be heard as far away as Sicily and could be seen in Malta. The hull broke into two pieces which quickly sank. None of the over 2500 men on board survived. The Italians cheered but the battle wasn’t over though. The Suleiman and the HMS Anne disengaged from the French battleships they were battling and attacked the Impero and Roma. The crippled Roma fought well but was utterly destroyed by 15 and 16.5 inch shells. Impero exchanged some shells with the two but fell back and joined the French. The Anglo-Ottoman taskforce quickly gained the upper hand in the air because they had four carriers whereas the Franco-Italian force had only two. Planes stationed in Libya supported them. The few Italian and French planes on Malta that were still in working order took off as well. Air superiority was paramount. Without it this battle could have become very ugly for the Central Powers. It would have been a much more difficult victory. As the battle in the air turned in favour of the Brits and Ottomans, the big battleships kept on going. One of Suleiman’s sister ships, the Osman, engaged the Empereur. Promptly two French battle cruisers jumped on her and sank her. Both were sank by repeated aerial attacks. And so the battle raged on. Air superiority turned into air supremacy when both the Aquila and the Aigle were torpedoed. From that point onward the battle had already been decided. After another few hours of fighting, the battle had been decidedly won by the Ottomans and the British. The Italians and French had lost four battleships out of seven, two carriers out of two, three battle cruisers out of six, six heavy cruisers out of seven and twenty-three out of thirty-six destroyers. The British and Ottomans had lost less but their losses were still significant. They lost two battleships out of six, two battle cruisers out of six, four heavy cruisers out of eleven and ten destroyers. Nevertheless the invasion of Malta could begin.
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Phönix
Banned
Great story. Relly injoy reading it. What I find very starge is though, that you seam to imply that the USA would still become so supreme, which would be very unlikley for such a timeline. But maybe I have missunderstood you.
I really like it, one of the best TL I read currently. But dont you think, that you should write about other stuff besides war too? I mean shure war is the most important thing, especially in the 20th century, but I think it kinda lackes the political and cultural side at the end. In the beginning you were quite detailed about the German English relations and the people as well as politicians. You might want to write somthing about the peope too, they are quite important. For instance the Germans lost the first world war becouse the people revolted at the end. They could have taken to edge of the defeat if not for the revolution. Plut Hitler would have never taken power. (or at least it would have been much more unlikley)
Just an idea.
Keep posting, greetz
I really like it, one of the best TL I read currently. But dont you think, that you should write about other stuff besides war too? I mean shure war is the most important thing, especially in the 20th century, but I think it kinda lackes the political and cultural side at the end. In the beginning you were quite detailed about the German English relations and the people as well as politicians. You might want to write somthing about the peope too, they are quite important. For instance the Germans lost the first world war becouse the people revolted at the end. They could have taken to edge of the defeat if not for the revolution. Plut Hitler would have never taken power. (or at least it would have been much more unlikley)
Just an idea.
Keep posting, greetz
I was gonna do something about that. We still got three years of war to go though.
The German block will be a decent counterweight. I've got some plans for Nationalist China as well. America will be a superpower but not the sole superpower and they won't be able to just boss around other countries. Germany, Britain and China won't like that.
The German block will be a decent counterweight. I've got some plans for Nationalist China as well. America will be a superpower but not the sole superpower and they won't be able to just boss around other countries. Germany, Britain and China won't like that.
Thank you everybody for all your wonderful comments. Here's chapter 24.
On August 15th 1942, the Ottomans and British invaded Malta. The operation was very similar to the Franco-Italian conquest of the island two years earlier. The island’s defences were pounded by British and Ottoman battleships. Planes stationed on Ottoman and British carriers bombed and conducted strafing runs on the island’s remaining defenders. A few hours later several hundreds of transport planes took off from Ottoman airfields in Libya. The operation was not impeded whatsoever by either the Italians or the French since their fleets were crippled and were and would remain unable to conduct any large scale operations in the Mediterranean Sea for the duration of the war. The transport planes arrived in the early afternoon and dropped two British paratrooper divisions. They quickly proceeded to take key points on the island such as the airfields or what was left of them and many important roads and junctions. The Franco-Italian garrison fought fiercely and tried to hold on to these areas. Anglo-Ottoman air supremacy forced them to back down eventually though. Lastly, an Ottoman force consisting of over 80.000 men landed on the coast of Malta and seized the island within a matter of hours. An Ottoman corps of engineers also participated in the landings. After the fall of the island they were ordered to restore the island’s airfields immediately. They would be needed for the next major operation in the Mediterranean campaign, the invasion of Sicily. The French in the meantime saw themselves forced to abandon their possessions in North Africa. Except for some small garrisons, the entire Corps de l’Afrique and general De Gaulle were withdrawn and returned to France. They did so in the most desperate evacuation ever. The French used the remainder of their Mediterranean fleet and every other vessel they could get their hands on to get their men out before this would become an impossibility. It was risky but it worked. This was the last time the French Mediterranean fleet would sortie. After the evacuation the fleet would remain in port until the very end. De Gaulle and the former Corps de l’Afrique were redeployed to Italy.
By now it was clear that Italy and France would be defeated within the foreseeable future. Estimates at the time varied from 18 to 24 months at most. Already the British, Germans and Ottomans were greedily eying Italian and French possessions in the Mediterranean and Africa. On July 1st, emperor Wilhelm III, his Chancellor Von Papen, British Prime Minister Lord Halifax, and sultan Abdülmecid II and his Grand Vizier met on the secret Conference of Constanta to discuss the partition of the Italian and French empires. The conference was held in the utmost secret and wouldn’t be revealed until years after the war by which time all participants would be either dead or long since retired, living a life in anonymity. The Americans were kept out of the loop on purpose as they were opposed to colonialism and would rather see the colonial empires dismantled altogether. Even if the Americans had been interested in colonies they probably would have been kept out. The Ottomans, British and Germans were arrogant and still viewed themselves as senior partners in the alliance because they were Europeans and because they had been fighting longer. Secondly, the British and Germans had saved the Americans at Pearl Harbor. In their opinion they ‘deserved’ a reward for their efforts. This was a reason for the Americans to be angry. Many American veterans wouldn’t like the Germans downplaying their role in the war. Years after the war when the secret agreement was revealed, the American government would become infuriated for not having a say in such an important matter. This would irreparably damage German-American relations. Britain and America would quickly reconcile though as Britain and Germany inevitably drifted apart after the war. The Americans were remarkably polite towards the Ottomans. This was probably because by then the Ottomans already were among the world’s most important oil producers. The American and German peoples would come to distrust each other. In the eyes of the average German, their government had done nothing wrong and were being blamed for something perfectly legal. In the eyes of the Americans, the German Empire was an oppressive and arrogant European colonial empire like any other and was stuck in its old ways.
The conference lasted from July 1st to July 9th 1942 and went remarkably smooth. Their weren’t many conflicts and a settlement was quickly agreed upon. Tunisia which had been taken from the Ottomans in 1881 by France, was to be restored to them. The largely Islamic Italian Somaliland and Eritrea would also become part of the Ottoman Empire. Italian occupied Abyssinia and French Somaliland were to be given to Germany thereby destroying Haile Selassie’s dream of ruling his country once more. French Africa was partitioned between Germany and Britain with the British gaining Algeria, Ivory Coast and modern day Niger while Germany gained modern day Mali and Mauritania. The plans went into effect almost immediately as neither France nor Italy had any significant amount of troops in Africa at this point. Said areas were overrun within weeks. The French and Italians were both too busy preparing for an imminent invasion to do anything about it. Mussolini reportedly said in despair: ‘I have destroyed Italy. There will be no New Roman Empire. Millions will curse me when this is over.’ He was becoming more apathetic as Italy lost more ground. He would be a shadow of his former arrogant and flamboyant self and Petain would come to dominate him more and more as the war in western Europe entered its closing stages. Some French and Italian forces would attempt to fight a guerrilla war in Africa but they lacked popular support. The locals had had enough of their oppressive fascist rulers. They reasoned that nothing could be worse than them. The intended guerrilla campaign which would supposedly ‘bleed the capitalist dogs dry’ never really even got going. Some attacks occurred but they ended within weeks since the French and Italians ran out of food and ammunition and because the Africans gladly showed their new masters were the French and Italians were hiding out. Some real diehards would live of the land and continue fighting but they never became more than a nuisance. Some of them would be found in the wilderness as late as the 1970s.
In the pacific the American position had been strengthened dramatically. They had suffered a devastating loss at Midway but American shipyards had worked hard to replace those losses. All six Iowa-class battleships had been finished by now and were ready for combat. USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, USS Missouri, USS Wisconsin, USS Illinois and the USS Kentucky joined the pacific fleet based at Pearl Harbor after completing their sea trials. They greatly bolstered the Pacific Fleet’s strength. The four battleships that had been lost at Midway had been replaced by ships that were more than suitable for their task. In addition to these ships, five Montana-class battleships, three Alaska-class battle cruisers, three Alaska-class battle cruisers which were being converted to aircraft carriers and the new Essex-class carriers were being built and they would join the fleet in 1943. The USS Essex would already be commissioned in December of 1942. These forces combined with the German Far Eastern Squadron and elements of the British Royal Navy were more than a decent counterweight against the Imperial Japanese Navy. By mid-1943 the Japanese would find that they were massively outgunned.
They would feel the power of the newly arisen American fleet first at Midway. Midway along with Wake Island and Guam had been taken by the Japanese to secure their eastern flank which they thought was threatened by an increasingly aggressive America. In reality the American government was not planning on moving against the Japanese. The embargo instated after the start of the Sino-Japanese war was about as far as the Americans could go without declaring war. The Japanese invasions of these islands had changed that attitude and now the Japanese would feel what American aggression really meant. The battle for Hawaii and the pursuit that followed in which the combined Pacific Fleet, the Far Eastern Squadron and the Royal Navy had defeated the Japanese, had left the Japanese battle group crippled. Three battleships, three carriers, two cruisers, six midget submarines and thirteen destroyers had been lost during the battle. Two more cruisers and many if not all destroyers had been lost during the pursuit. Fortunately for the Japanese the Anglo-German-American force broke off the chase after some time. They turned back to Hawaii to prepare for what would become known as the third battle of Midway. Because the Japanese fleet had been defeated at Pearl Harbor, Midway was left nearly unprotected. This time the Americans would win. On May 17th they reached Midway. All damaged American vessels had been repaired by now including the USS Yorktown which had barely escaped annihilation at Hawaii. It, along with its sister ships USS Enterprise and the USS Hornet provided the battle group’s air power together with the older USS Ranger. Three new battleships of the Iowa-class, the Iowa, the Missouri and the Kentucky provided the fire power for this strike forces. Reinforcements from the Atlantic had also been brought into the fray since the Royal Navy and the High Seas fleet clearly dominated the Atlantic. The French wolf packs were losing so American help there wasn’t needed. Eight cruisers, forty-five destroyers, six minesweepers, a few submarines and many support vessels also joined the invasion force. The submarines were added because of the success of German U-boats. American submarine commanders were very eager to learn about Dönitz’s wolf pack tactics. The Kaiser, which served as admiral Krancke’s flagship and the German carrier Graf Zeppelin also participated in this battle mainly because Krancke wanted to observe the capabilities of his American allies.
The fleet arrived at Midway on May 17th only to find a defence fleet that was next to nothing when compared to what it had been before. Yamamoto had retreated to Saipan and was regrouping there. The loss forced him to withdraw Japanese assets from the Indian ocean and other parts of the pacific as well. American battleships started pounding the island’s defences with 16 inch (40.6 cm) shells. The few cruisers that had been left behind to defend the atoll were dispatched quickly. Those that managed to get away, fled to Saipan only to be punished upon arrival for retreating. The abandonment of the Midway garrison widened the rift between the military and the navy. The Japanese garrison was undeterred however and wouldn’t have surrendered or retreated even if it could have unlike the navy which consisted of cowards in the opinion of many soldiers. It was over 40.000 men strong and none of those 40.000 men were planning on surrendering. The Japanese had a tradition of honour which didn’t allow things like surrender or retreat. This was further strengthened by propaganda. The Japanese garrison would fight itself to death instead of surrendering and they would take many Americans with them. This fierce resistance was typical. The Japanese would fight for every square inch of ground in order to defeat the Americans. Japanese military leaders still foolishly hoped that the Americans would make peace if Japan could give them a bloody nose. They would be proven wrong and the battle for Midway would be an indication of what the future had in store for those fighting in the pacific.
After a bloody battle in the air, air supremacy was established by the German-American strike force. American battleships and the German Kaiser continued to shell the island’s defences. In the meantime a group of B-17s had taken off from Hickam Air Force Base on Hawaii and added to the problems of the beleaguered Japanese garrison. Dozens of B-17s dropped tons of bombs on the Japanese who were unable to stop them as their anti-aircraft batteries had been disabled. The bombardment stopped after the commander of the attack force thought the target had been softened enough. An invasion force consisting of around 70.000 men landed on the coasts of the atoll. They almost immediately encountered the surviving Japanese who attacked them fanatically. The fanatic Banzai charges were terrifying to see. Wave after wave of Japanese soldiers charged towards their deaths and they kept coming. Casualty rates skyrocketed as the Americans quickly set their fear aside and learnt how to deal with these human wave attacks. The Japanese almost literally resisted until the very last man. Many even continued to fight with samurai swords after they ran out of ammunition. Such resistance was unseen by the Central Powers except maybe during the battle for Moscow which had begun on July 7th. It took the Americans fifteen days to subdue the island’s defenders. In future operations, American bombardments would become much more prolonged and much more intensive. The last few remaining Japanese soldiers surrendered on July 1st 1942 after running out of food and ammunition. Many would come to regret this decision because the Americans treated them very harshly. Many American soldiers and even officers had to restrain themselves in order not to kill their prisoners. That’s how much they hated them.
In the meantime an invasion force had also arrived at Wake Island and started to pound the island’s defenders. The other three battleships of the Iowa-class, the New Jersey, the Wisconsin and the Illinois, shelled the island’s defences which unfortunately caused some civilian casualties as well as the Japanese had been using them as slaves to build defences for them on the beaches. The Americans didn’t have anymore carriers for the operation so they had to ask the German’s and the British to lend them the carriers of their taskforce which had already saved them once. The Germans lent them the Barbarossa. The British sent the HMS Illustrious and the HMS Formidable but didn’t allow them to be put under the command of the Americans. They would operate on their own. As the island’s coastal defences were being pounded by 406 mm shells, German Bf-109s and Hs-129 dive bombers and British Spitfires took off from their respective carriers and engaged the Japanese in the air and attacked ground targets. Wake Island had a smaller garrison. It was smaller than the one on Midway but that didn’t mean it would be easy. The attack took place on May 18th, one day after the start of the attack on Midway. The original Japanese invasion force consisted of 4500 men and had been increased to around 20.000 men by the time the invasion started. The shelling and the bombing continued for several hours. The hastily constructed bunkers, casemates and artillery positions were silenced quickly although some Japanese guns managed to fire a few shells and damage an American cruiser and a minesweeper. After the bombardment and the establishment of American air supremacy, over 35.000 men were landed on the island’s beaches. Like the Midway garrison, they refused to surrender. They attacked the Americans with their infamous Banzai charges fanatically as ever. The Japanese fleet that was regrouping near Saipan attempted to relieve the defenders but were forced to retreat after a wolf pack of American and German submarines inflicted even more losses upon the Japanese navy. The last survivors laid down their weapons on July 2nd 1942, one day after the end of the third battle of Midway.
Now the only bit of American territory still under Japanese control was Guam. Both Midway and Wake Island were back in American hands. The Japanese had originally invaded them to eliminate a nonexistent threat to their eastern flank. Now that these islands were back in American hands, they would become a threat indeed. The American naval leadership chose not to attack Guam just yet because of the strong Japanese taskforce that Yamamoto was gathering there. They wanted to prepare thoroughly instead of barging in arrogantly and doing something stupid like the second battle of Midway which had cost the Americans dearly. The Americans didn’t underestimate the Japanese anymore. They knew they could win however. Their losses had been replaced and many new ships would be finished. Unlike the United States, Japan didn’t have many resources and a large industrial base. They could only build so many ships. At some point their losses would become irreplaceable and even unbearable. If and when that happened, Japan would be doomed. It wouldn’t be easy though. The fanatical resistance and the high death toll during the battles of Midway and Wake Island were a pattern that would repeat itself every time at every island that the Americans liberated.
In the Mediterranean theatre the Ottomans, Americans and British were preparing for the invasion of Sicily but unusually bad weather forced them to postpone the operation. The weather was very bad for the time of the year. The Mediterranean sea usually was very sunny and saw few storms. Now the Ottomans, Americans and British had to wait as they were held back by rain, wind and rough seas. The invasion was supposed to start on September 7th 1942. Because of the persistent bad weather it had to be put off for two months. On November 11th a window of opportunity opened up. The Central Powers’ weather forecasts predicted about fifteen days of good weather in a row. The invasion fleet immediately set sail and arrived at Sicily two days later on November 13th. This would be more difficult than previous operations against the Italians and French. Several elite units of the Imperial French Air Force were stationed in southern Sicily. Land based Wellington bombers took off from airfields on Malta and in Libya and bombed Italian coastal defences. Each bomber dropped about two tons of bombs. Hundreds of them took part in the operation. Italian coastal defences were strong however. They were the strongest in the world at that time. Spitfires and Ottoman fighters stationed on Malta and on British and Ottoman aircraft carriers defended them against French and Italian fighters. A bloody aerial battle ensued which would consume a lot of resources. The attackers were forced to bring in more and more fighters but eventually did establish air superiority. In the meantime 15 inch (38.1 cm), 16.5 inch (42 cm) shells fired by battleships and smaller calibre shells such as 11 inch (28 cm) shells fired by cruisers battered Italian defences. This went on for hours and didn’t go unopposed. Italian and French dive bombers and torpedo bombers attacked the invasion fleet and sank several smaller ships. Light cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers and the like suffered the most from these raids. Luckily these attacks eventually died down.
One day later on the early morning of November 14th 1942 over 110.000 British, American and Ottoman men landed on the beaches of Sicily. Unfortunately Sicily’s coastal defences were strong and the shelling and aerial bombardment had destroyed only about fifteen percent of the defences of the selected landing site. They landed between Gela and Scicli. The terrain there was very smooth there which made operations easier. By now, after some very heavy losses, the battle in the air had turned in favour of the Anglo-Ottoman invasion force. This had enabled them to land several tens of thousands of paratroopers. Casualties among them were high as well as they had to overcome staunch resistance to reach their objectives. Luckily they managed to secure their targets by the time the landings commenced. Several transport planes and paratroopers were subjected to heavy fire from Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. This was another explanation for the losses they had suffered. By the end of the day Sicily’s coastal defences had finally been breached and the invasion force had linked up with the paratroopers and had established a solid foothold on the island. This beachhead would become stronger as hundreds of thousands soldiers flowed in. The Italians would keep this pocket contained for quite a while. Nevertheless, the invasion of Italy could begin. This would mean the end of Mussolini’s dream of a New Roman Empire in which the Mediterranean would be an Italian lake.
Italian forces undertook several counterattacks which were quite vigorous at first. They were however repelled each time and morale among the Italians dropped. By now the beachhead was secure and control of the skies rested firmly within the hands of the British and the Ottomans. British and Ottoman engineers had quickly constructed improvised airfields which were large enough to land transport planes on. They were ready by early December. Now the Anglo-Ottoman navy didn’t have to rely on small harbours and landing craft to ferry in more men. By January 1943 the Anglo-American-Ottoman presence had grown to over 800.000 men and by that time they had already defeated the French and Italian soldiers that surrounded them and had all but overrun the island. In Rome Mussolini only grew more apathetic. He realized that his empire was going to end and he couldn’t bare the thought. He became desperate. The Italian people were becoming more restless as well. Fascist state propaganda was telling them that al was well. How could that be if Italy’s colonial empire was gone and enemy soldiers were standing on Italian soil? Mussolini could almost hear the Ottomans, British and Americans knocking on Rome’s gates.
In Russia Moscow had become the focal point of the efforts of both the Germans and the Russians. The city’s defences had been breached in early July and fighting had been going on in the city ever since. It was a bloody battle as both Russia and Germany poured in more and more men and resources in order to take the city. The city itself was in ruin but the fight went on as neither the Germans nor the Russians wanted to give up the city. Brutal fighting from house to house had already become characteristic for the battle for Moscow. Russian and German soldiers were fighting an epic struggle over a heap of rubble. The city still had some strategic value though as it still was a railway hub which served an important role in Russian logistics. The battle was mostly symbolic for the Russians though and they desperately tried to hold on to the city. Moscow was very important in Russian history after all. The entire battle for Moscow was a war itself. Russian propaganda worshipped the soldiers who heroically defended the city. In spite of this Russian resistance, German, Austrian, Polish, Ukrainian and Byelorussian forces crept forward slowly but surely. By now the Germans and their allies had advanced into the city very deeply. They were only two kilometres away from the Kremlin which was being subjected to artillery fire by now and further to the south, southwest of Kropotkinskaya, they were attempting to cross the Moskva river . The old fortress stood defiantly however. The spires of the Kremlin would remain out of German hands for now. By the end of 1942 the battle was far from over.
And so 1942 ended and 1943 started. It had been a good year for the Central Powers and an abysmal year for the Axis powers. A firm foothold had been established on Sicily and there was no more Axis presence in Africa. Northern Holland had been liberated. The Japanese had suffered their first defeats in the pacific. German forces penetrated into Russia deeper and deeper and had reached Moscow. Their was a shimmer of hope, hope for a victory for the Central Powers. They hadn’t won yet though. Neither side was destroyed and nobody was planning on surrendering. They weren’t exhausted yet and both sides had some more tricks up their sleeve. The combatants of both sides still had a long way to go before war’s end and final victory.
. Here's chapter 24.Chapter 24
On August 15th 1942, the Ottomans and British invaded Malta. The operation was very similar to the Franco-Italian conquest of the island two years earlier. The island’s defences were pounded by British and Ottoman battleships. Planes stationed on Ottoman and British carriers bombed and conducted strafing runs on the island’s remaining defenders. A few hours later several hundreds of transport planes took off from Ottoman airfields in Libya. The operation was not impeded whatsoever by either the Italians or the French since their fleets were crippled and were and would remain unable to conduct any large scale operations in the Mediterranean Sea for the duration of the war. The transport planes arrived in the early afternoon and dropped two British paratrooper divisions. They quickly proceeded to take key points on the island such as the airfields or what was left of them and many important roads and junctions. The Franco-Italian garrison fought fiercely and tried to hold on to these areas. Anglo-Ottoman air supremacy forced them to back down eventually though. Lastly, an Ottoman force consisting of over 80.000 men landed on the coast of Malta and seized the island within a matter of hours. An Ottoman corps of engineers also participated in the landings. After the fall of the island they were ordered to restore the island’s airfields immediately. They would be needed for the next major operation in the Mediterranean campaign, the invasion of Sicily. The French in the meantime saw themselves forced to abandon their possessions in North Africa. Except for some small garrisons, the entire Corps de l’Afrique and general De Gaulle were withdrawn and returned to France. They did so in the most desperate evacuation ever. The French used the remainder of their Mediterranean fleet and every other vessel they could get their hands on to get their men out before this would become an impossibility. It was risky but it worked. This was the last time the French Mediterranean fleet would sortie. After the evacuation the fleet would remain in port until the very end. De Gaulle and the former Corps de l’Afrique were redeployed to Italy.
By now it was clear that Italy and France would be defeated within the foreseeable future. Estimates at the time varied from 18 to 24 months at most. Already the British, Germans and Ottomans were greedily eying Italian and French possessions in the Mediterranean and Africa. On July 1st, emperor Wilhelm III, his Chancellor Von Papen, British Prime Minister Lord Halifax, and sultan Abdülmecid II and his Grand Vizier met on the secret Conference of Constanta to discuss the partition of the Italian and French empires. The conference was held in the utmost secret and wouldn’t be revealed until years after the war by which time all participants would be either dead or long since retired, living a life in anonymity. The Americans were kept out of the loop on purpose as they were opposed to colonialism and would rather see the colonial empires dismantled altogether. Even if the Americans had been interested in colonies they probably would have been kept out. The Ottomans, British and Germans were arrogant and still viewed themselves as senior partners in the alliance because they were Europeans and because they had been fighting longer. Secondly, the British and Germans had saved the Americans at Pearl Harbor. In their opinion they ‘deserved’ a reward for their efforts. This was a reason for the Americans to be angry. Many American veterans wouldn’t like the Germans downplaying their role in the war. Years after the war when the secret agreement was revealed, the American government would become infuriated for not having a say in such an important matter. This would irreparably damage German-American relations. Britain and America would quickly reconcile though as Britain and Germany inevitably drifted apart after the war. The Americans were remarkably polite towards the Ottomans. This was probably because by then the Ottomans already were among the world’s most important oil producers. The American and German peoples would come to distrust each other. In the eyes of the average German, their government had done nothing wrong and were being blamed for something perfectly legal. In the eyes of the Americans, the German Empire was an oppressive and arrogant European colonial empire like any other and was stuck in its old ways.
The conference lasted from July 1st to July 9th 1942 and went remarkably smooth. Their weren’t many conflicts and a settlement was quickly agreed upon. Tunisia which had been taken from the Ottomans in 1881 by France, was to be restored to them. The largely Islamic Italian Somaliland and Eritrea would also become part of the Ottoman Empire. Italian occupied Abyssinia and French Somaliland were to be given to Germany thereby destroying Haile Selassie’s dream of ruling his country once more. French Africa was partitioned between Germany and Britain with the British gaining Algeria, Ivory Coast and modern day Niger while Germany gained modern day Mali and Mauritania. The plans went into effect almost immediately as neither France nor Italy had any significant amount of troops in Africa at this point. Said areas were overrun within weeks. The French and Italians were both too busy preparing for an imminent invasion to do anything about it. Mussolini reportedly said in despair: ‘I have destroyed Italy. There will be no New Roman Empire. Millions will curse me when this is over.’ He was becoming more apathetic as Italy lost more ground. He would be a shadow of his former arrogant and flamboyant self and Petain would come to dominate him more and more as the war in western Europe entered its closing stages. Some French and Italian forces would attempt to fight a guerrilla war in Africa but they lacked popular support. The locals had had enough of their oppressive fascist rulers. They reasoned that nothing could be worse than them. The intended guerrilla campaign which would supposedly ‘bleed the capitalist dogs dry’ never really even got going. Some attacks occurred but they ended within weeks since the French and Italians ran out of food and ammunition and because the Africans gladly showed their new masters were the French and Italians were hiding out. Some real diehards would live of the land and continue fighting but they never became more than a nuisance. Some of them would be found in the wilderness as late as the 1970s.
In the pacific the American position had been strengthened dramatically. They had suffered a devastating loss at Midway but American shipyards had worked hard to replace those losses. All six Iowa-class battleships had been finished by now and were ready for combat. USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, USS Missouri, USS Wisconsin, USS Illinois and the USS Kentucky joined the pacific fleet based at Pearl Harbor after completing their sea trials. They greatly bolstered the Pacific Fleet’s strength. The four battleships that had been lost at Midway had been replaced by ships that were more than suitable for their task. In addition to these ships, five Montana-class battleships, three Alaska-class battle cruisers, three Alaska-class battle cruisers which were being converted to aircraft carriers and the new Essex-class carriers were being built and they would join the fleet in 1943. The USS Essex would already be commissioned in December of 1942. These forces combined with the German Far Eastern Squadron and elements of the British Royal Navy were more than a decent counterweight against the Imperial Japanese Navy. By mid-1943 the Japanese would find that they were massively outgunned.
They would feel the power of the newly arisen American fleet first at Midway. Midway along with Wake Island and Guam had been taken by the Japanese to secure their eastern flank which they thought was threatened by an increasingly aggressive America. In reality the American government was not planning on moving against the Japanese. The embargo instated after the start of the Sino-Japanese war was about as far as the Americans could go without declaring war. The Japanese invasions of these islands had changed that attitude and now the Japanese would feel what American aggression really meant. The battle for Hawaii and the pursuit that followed in which the combined Pacific Fleet, the Far Eastern Squadron and the Royal Navy had defeated the Japanese, had left the Japanese battle group crippled. Three battleships, three carriers, two cruisers, six midget submarines and thirteen destroyers had been lost during the battle. Two more cruisers and many if not all destroyers had been lost during the pursuit. Fortunately for the Japanese the Anglo-German-American force broke off the chase after some time. They turned back to Hawaii to prepare for what would become known as the third battle of Midway. Because the Japanese fleet had been defeated at Pearl Harbor, Midway was left nearly unprotected. This time the Americans would win. On May 17th they reached Midway. All damaged American vessels had been repaired by now including the USS Yorktown which had barely escaped annihilation at Hawaii. It, along with its sister ships USS Enterprise and the USS Hornet provided the battle group’s air power together with the older USS Ranger. Three new battleships of the Iowa-class, the Iowa, the Missouri and the Kentucky provided the fire power for this strike forces. Reinforcements from the Atlantic had also been brought into the fray since the Royal Navy and the High Seas fleet clearly dominated the Atlantic. The French wolf packs were losing so American help there wasn’t needed. Eight cruisers, forty-five destroyers, six minesweepers, a few submarines and many support vessels also joined the invasion force. The submarines were added because of the success of German U-boats. American submarine commanders were very eager to learn about Dönitz’s wolf pack tactics. The Kaiser, which served as admiral Krancke’s flagship and the German carrier Graf Zeppelin also participated in this battle mainly because Krancke wanted to observe the capabilities of his American allies.
The fleet arrived at Midway on May 17th only to find a defence fleet that was next to nothing when compared to what it had been before. Yamamoto had retreated to Saipan and was regrouping there. The loss forced him to withdraw Japanese assets from the Indian ocean and other parts of the pacific as well. American battleships started pounding the island’s defences with 16 inch (40.6 cm) shells. The few cruisers that had been left behind to defend the atoll were dispatched quickly. Those that managed to get away, fled to Saipan only to be punished upon arrival for retreating. The abandonment of the Midway garrison widened the rift between the military and the navy. The Japanese garrison was undeterred however and wouldn’t have surrendered or retreated even if it could have unlike the navy which consisted of cowards in the opinion of many soldiers. It was over 40.000 men strong and none of those 40.000 men were planning on surrendering. The Japanese had a tradition of honour which didn’t allow things like surrender or retreat. This was further strengthened by propaganda. The Japanese garrison would fight itself to death instead of surrendering and they would take many Americans with them. This fierce resistance was typical. The Japanese would fight for every square inch of ground in order to defeat the Americans. Japanese military leaders still foolishly hoped that the Americans would make peace if Japan could give them a bloody nose. They would be proven wrong and the battle for Midway would be an indication of what the future had in store for those fighting in the pacific.
After a bloody battle in the air, air supremacy was established by the German-American strike force. American battleships and the German Kaiser continued to shell the island’s defences. In the meantime a group of B-17s had taken off from Hickam Air Force Base on Hawaii and added to the problems of the beleaguered Japanese garrison. Dozens of B-17s dropped tons of bombs on the Japanese who were unable to stop them as their anti-aircraft batteries had been disabled. The bombardment stopped after the commander of the attack force thought the target had been softened enough. An invasion force consisting of around 70.000 men landed on the coasts of the atoll. They almost immediately encountered the surviving Japanese who attacked them fanatically. The fanatic Banzai charges were terrifying to see. Wave after wave of Japanese soldiers charged towards their deaths and they kept coming. Casualty rates skyrocketed as the Americans quickly set their fear aside and learnt how to deal with these human wave attacks. The Japanese almost literally resisted until the very last man. Many even continued to fight with samurai swords after they ran out of ammunition. Such resistance was unseen by the Central Powers except maybe during the battle for Moscow which had begun on July 7th. It took the Americans fifteen days to subdue the island’s defenders. In future operations, American bombardments would become much more prolonged and much more intensive. The last few remaining Japanese soldiers surrendered on July 1st 1942 after running out of food and ammunition. Many would come to regret this decision because the Americans treated them very harshly. Many American soldiers and even officers had to restrain themselves in order not to kill their prisoners. That’s how much they hated them.
In the meantime an invasion force had also arrived at Wake Island and started to pound the island’s defenders. The other three battleships of the Iowa-class, the New Jersey, the Wisconsin and the Illinois, shelled the island’s defences which unfortunately caused some civilian casualties as well as the Japanese had been using them as slaves to build defences for them on the beaches. The Americans didn’t have anymore carriers for the operation so they had to ask the German’s and the British to lend them the carriers of their taskforce which had already saved them once. The Germans lent them the Barbarossa. The British sent the HMS Illustrious and the HMS Formidable but didn’t allow them to be put under the command of the Americans. They would operate on their own. As the island’s coastal defences were being pounded by 406 mm shells, German Bf-109s and Hs-129 dive bombers and British Spitfires took off from their respective carriers and engaged the Japanese in the air and attacked ground targets. Wake Island had a smaller garrison. It was smaller than the one on Midway but that didn’t mean it would be easy. The attack took place on May 18th, one day after the start of the attack on Midway. The original Japanese invasion force consisted of 4500 men and had been increased to around 20.000 men by the time the invasion started. The shelling and the bombing continued for several hours. The hastily constructed bunkers, casemates and artillery positions were silenced quickly although some Japanese guns managed to fire a few shells and damage an American cruiser and a minesweeper. After the bombardment and the establishment of American air supremacy, over 35.000 men were landed on the island’s beaches. Like the Midway garrison, they refused to surrender. They attacked the Americans with their infamous Banzai charges fanatically as ever. The Japanese fleet that was regrouping near Saipan attempted to relieve the defenders but were forced to retreat after a wolf pack of American and German submarines inflicted even more losses upon the Japanese navy. The last survivors laid down their weapons on July 2nd 1942, one day after the end of the third battle of Midway.
Now the only bit of American territory still under Japanese control was Guam. Both Midway and Wake Island were back in American hands. The Japanese had originally invaded them to eliminate a nonexistent threat to their eastern flank. Now that these islands were back in American hands, they would become a threat indeed. The American naval leadership chose not to attack Guam just yet because of the strong Japanese taskforce that Yamamoto was gathering there. They wanted to prepare thoroughly instead of barging in arrogantly and doing something stupid like the second battle of Midway which had cost the Americans dearly. The Americans didn’t underestimate the Japanese anymore. They knew they could win however. Their losses had been replaced and many new ships would be finished. Unlike the United States, Japan didn’t have many resources and a large industrial base. They could only build so many ships. At some point their losses would become irreplaceable and even unbearable. If and when that happened, Japan would be doomed. It wouldn’t be easy though. The fanatical resistance and the high death toll during the battles of Midway and Wake Island were a pattern that would repeat itself every time at every island that the Americans liberated.
In the Mediterranean theatre the Ottomans, Americans and British were preparing for the invasion of Sicily but unusually bad weather forced them to postpone the operation. The weather was very bad for the time of the year. The Mediterranean sea usually was very sunny and saw few storms. Now the Ottomans, Americans and British had to wait as they were held back by rain, wind and rough seas. The invasion was supposed to start on September 7th 1942. Because of the persistent bad weather it had to be put off for two months. On November 11th a window of opportunity opened up. The Central Powers’ weather forecasts predicted about fifteen days of good weather in a row. The invasion fleet immediately set sail and arrived at Sicily two days later on November 13th. This would be more difficult than previous operations against the Italians and French. Several elite units of the Imperial French Air Force were stationed in southern Sicily. Land based Wellington bombers took off from airfields on Malta and in Libya and bombed Italian coastal defences. Each bomber dropped about two tons of bombs. Hundreds of them took part in the operation. Italian coastal defences were strong however. They were the strongest in the world at that time. Spitfires and Ottoman fighters stationed on Malta and on British and Ottoman aircraft carriers defended them against French and Italian fighters. A bloody aerial battle ensued which would consume a lot of resources. The attackers were forced to bring in more and more fighters but eventually did establish air superiority. In the meantime 15 inch (38.1 cm), 16.5 inch (42 cm) shells fired by battleships and smaller calibre shells such as 11 inch (28 cm) shells fired by cruisers battered Italian defences. This went on for hours and didn’t go unopposed. Italian and French dive bombers and torpedo bombers attacked the invasion fleet and sank several smaller ships. Light cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers and the like suffered the most from these raids. Luckily these attacks eventually died down.
One day later on the early morning of November 14th 1942 over 110.000 British, American and Ottoman men landed on the beaches of Sicily. Unfortunately Sicily’s coastal defences were strong and the shelling and aerial bombardment had destroyed only about fifteen percent of the defences of the selected landing site. They landed between Gela and Scicli. The terrain there was very smooth there which made operations easier. By now, after some very heavy losses, the battle in the air had turned in favour of the Anglo-Ottoman invasion force. This had enabled them to land several tens of thousands of paratroopers. Casualties among them were high as well as they had to overcome staunch resistance to reach their objectives. Luckily they managed to secure their targets by the time the landings commenced. Several transport planes and paratroopers were subjected to heavy fire from Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. This was another explanation for the losses they had suffered. By the end of the day Sicily’s coastal defences had finally been breached and the invasion force had linked up with the paratroopers and had established a solid foothold on the island. This beachhead would become stronger as hundreds of thousands soldiers flowed in. The Italians would keep this pocket contained for quite a while. Nevertheless, the invasion of Italy could begin. This would mean the end of Mussolini’s dream of a New Roman Empire in which the Mediterranean would be an Italian lake.
Italian forces undertook several counterattacks which were quite vigorous at first. They were however repelled each time and morale among the Italians dropped. By now the beachhead was secure and control of the skies rested firmly within the hands of the British and the Ottomans. British and Ottoman engineers had quickly constructed improvised airfields which were large enough to land transport planes on. They were ready by early December. Now the Anglo-Ottoman navy didn’t have to rely on small harbours and landing craft to ferry in more men. By January 1943 the Anglo-American-Ottoman presence had grown to over 800.000 men and by that time they had already defeated the French and Italian soldiers that surrounded them and had all but overrun the island. In Rome Mussolini only grew more apathetic. He realized that his empire was going to end and he couldn’t bare the thought. He became desperate. The Italian people were becoming more restless as well. Fascist state propaganda was telling them that al was well. How could that be if Italy’s colonial empire was gone and enemy soldiers were standing on Italian soil? Mussolini could almost hear the Ottomans, British and Americans knocking on Rome’s gates.
In Russia Moscow had become the focal point of the efforts of both the Germans and the Russians. The city’s defences had been breached in early July and fighting had been going on in the city ever since. It was a bloody battle as both Russia and Germany poured in more and more men and resources in order to take the city. The city itself was in ruin but the fight went on as neither the Germans nor the Russians wanted to give up the city. Brutal fighting from house to house had already become characteristic for the battle for Moscow. Russian and German soldiers were fighting an epic struggle over a heap of rubble. The city still had some strategic value though as it still was a railway hub which served an important role in Russian logistics. The battle was mostly symbolic for the Russians though and they desperately tried to hold on to the city. Moscow was very important in Russian history after all. The entire battle for Moscow was a war itself. Russian propaganda worshipped the soldiers who heroically defended the city. In spite of this Russian resistance, German, Austrian, Polish, Ukrainian and Byelorussian forces crept forward slowly but surely. By now the Germans and their allies had advanced into the city very deeply. They were only two kilometres away from the Kremlin which was being subjected to artillery fire by now and further to the south, southwest of Kropotkinskaya, they were attempting to cross the Moskva river . The old fortress stood defiantly however. The spires of the Kremlin would remain out of German hands for now. By the end of 1942 the battle was far from over.
And so 1942 ended and 1943 started. It had been a good year for the Central Powers and an abysmal year for the Axis powers. A firm foothold had been established on Sicily and there was no more Axis presence in Africa. Northern Holland had been liberated. The Japanese had suffered their first defeats in the pacific. German forces penetrated into Russia deeper and deeper and had reached Moscow. Their was a shimmer of hope, hope for a victory for the Central Powers. They hadn’t won yet though. Neither side was destroyed and nobody was planning on surrendering. They weren’t exhausted yet and both sides had some more tricks up their sleeve. The combatants of both sides still had a long way to go before war’s end and final victory.
Why would German-US relations worsen because of Germany holding on to its colonies and wanting to divide up the cake among the other European colonial powers? I understand where you're coming from, but the whole prospect of the conference excluding the US AFTER they provided substantial material and personal aid to the Europeans just seems like forcing into existence former conflict in order to "spice up" your timeline (no offende intended, mind you ). An inconlusive conference or even a broken-off conference because of irreconcilable differences concerning colonialism might be a better solution. Apart from Wilhelm II's somewhat heavy-handed reign, I cannot for the life of me imagine German officials, including the guy at the top being THAT dumb, otherwise they wouldn't have come that far in the first place. They proved not to be too dumb in your timeline.
OTL Great Britain, France, Belgium and others also held on to their colonies, staying allied with the US with no overt ill side-effects. The colonial question solved itself in the 60s and 70s, although much of the groundwork was laid by the fundamental bipolarity of OTL's world - Soviet-sponsored independence movements as well as the general idea of self-determination.
With a strong, pseudo-communist USSR (the USSR never was communist or socialist in the fost place, it was more of an oligarchy) out of the picture ITTL, however, and VERY strong Great Britain and Germany, I imagine a certain growing apart over time. But that would mostly happen a generation after the war. Remember, Germans, Brits, Ottomans and Americans fought and bled together. This creates a special bond that also transcends into politics and policy as soon as those who actually were in blood, guts and mud up to their necks together cease being soldiers and become decision makers in their respective societies.
So, to sum up my ramblings, I concur with the eventual outcome in German-US or rather, European-US relations, but not with the way there. Being a serviceman myself, I may be a tad too romantic in my view of a feeling of brotherhood among soldiers from different countries, but my experiences tend to support that kind of view.
Speaking of which...I wonder how Europen-Russian relations will look like after hostilities cease. Will Germany and the other combatants be magnanimous in their victory or are you planning on small-minded, petty and harsh conditions? I hope you butterfly into existence a far-seeing and wise decision by the victorious countries, otherwise the stage is set for decades more of low-intensity warfare and terrorism...
). An inconlusive conference or even a broken-off conference because of irreconcilable differences concerning colonialism might be a better solution. Apart from Wilhelm II's somewhat heavy-handed reign, I cannot for the life of me imagine German officials, including the guy at the top being THAT dumb, otherwise they wouldn't have come that far in the first place. They proved not to be too dumb in your timeline.OTL Great Britain, France, Belgium and others also held on to their colonies, staying allied with the US with no overt ill side-effects. The colonial question solved itself in the 60s and 70s, although much of the groundwork was laid by the fundamental bipolarity of OTL's world - Soviet-sponsored independence movements as well as the general idea of self-determination.
With a strong, pseudo-communist USSR (the USSR never was communist or socialist in the fost place, it was more of an oligarchy) out of the picture ITTL, however, and VERY strong Great Britain and Germany, I imagine a certain growing apart over time. But that would mostly happen a generation after the war. Remember, Germans, Brits, Ottomans and Americans fought and bled together. This creates a special bond that also transcends into politics and policy as soon as those who actually were in blood, guts and mud up to their necks together cease being soldiers and become decision makers in their respective societies.
So, to sum up my ramblings, I concur with the eventual outcome in German-US or rather, European-US relations, but not with the way there. Being a serviceman myself, I may be a tad too romantic in my view of a feeling of brotherhood among soldiers from different countries, but my experiences tend to support that kind of view.
Speaking of which...I wonder how Europen-Russian relations will look like after hostilities cease. Will Germany and the other combatants be magnanimous in their victory or are you planning on small-minded, petty and harsh conditions? I hope you butterfly into existence a far-seeing and wise decision by the victorious countries, otherwise the stage is set for decades more of low-intensity warfare and terrorism...
Actually the Americans have been in the war since April 1942. The conference took place in July. The American contribution hasn't been very big until now (but it will be). Actually, the Brits and Germans saved their asses and not the other way around in a risky operation that could have cost them their Far Eastern Fleets. Sure, the Americans sent volunteers before they came into the war but those were worth only a few divisions. The Germans, British and Ottomans OTOH have been at war for four years now and have done most of the work. By the time American forces arrived in Africa, the French and Italians were already losing. I hope you understand the actions of the Germans/British/Ottomans better now. Like I said; they think they 'deserve' a reward.
Nevertheless, the Americans will be pissed off when they find out what happens. They wanted to play a part in the peace conferences. America is big and powerful and should have been involved in their opinion although their contribution until that point has been negligible (which you wisely shouldn't mention to Americans ITTL even though it's true).
True but that was because the world was bipolar. The Americans needed allies against the USSR. America, being a former colony, didn't really like colonialism. But didn't really press the issue in many cases. Here's one exception which kinda proves my point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_Indies#Removal_of_the_colonial_state
The countries that have declared independence (ie the Ukrainian National Republic, the Byelorussian Republic and two other countries that are yet to be established) will remain independent. Russia won't be occupied but may not have WMDs. There will be some arms restrictions but no war reparations.
Seems moderate to me. (so no Versailles like thingy). Such proposals will be there though. The Austrians and Ottomans would rather see Russia burn in nuclear flames but I'm planning on letting cooler heads prevail. Under the leadership of Czar Michael II and his son George, Russia and Germany will eventually reconcile. Those are my thoughts. Suggestions are welcome. But first I'm going to let Russia fight a valiant battle to the death. Fascist Russia is going out with a bang.
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Yeah, I can see your point, although I still think the decision is short-sighted and an underestimation of the US's power. But that's "Old Europe" at its worst
As for the influence of OTL's bipolar world order after WW II, I guess I mentioned that in my disjointed ramblings somewhere...will there be any independence movements in the Europen countries' colonies? I sure hope so. Lots of interesting stuff to be utilized for your TL. No reason for the ATL colonial powers not to suffer the same fate as their OTL counterparts, after all
I like the thought of the CPs not going Versailles all over the Russians and wait with bated breath for your next installments...
As for the influence of OTL's bipolar world order after WW II, I guess I mentioned that in my disjointed ramblings somewhere...will there be any independence movements in the Europen countries' colonies? I sure hope so. Lots of interesting stuff to be utilized for your TL. No reason for the ATL colonial powers not to suffer the same fate as their OTL counterparts, after all
I like the thought of the CPs not going Versailles all over the Russians and wait with bated breath for your next installments...
There will be independence movements in the colonial empires. Some empires will fight, and get embroiled in a long guerrilla war which they will lose. Others will exist in some form until modern day (in the form of a 'Commonwealth' or something).
BTW I'm planning on wrapping up this war rather quickly since its quite obvious whose going to win by now (one or two chapters I think). So from now on it'll be less detailed. I hope you don't mind. But look on the bright side; I've got all kinds of interesting ideas for the postwar world.
BTW I'm planning on wrapping up this war rather quickly since its quite obvious whose going to win by now (one or two chapters I think). So from now on it'll be less detailed. I hope you don't mind. But look on the bright side; I've got all kinds of interesting ideas for the postwar world.
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JJohnson
Banned
Hey Onkel Willie,
Awesome timeline, and very detailed! I'm working on a similar concept for my thread, wherein Germany does unite Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, and will eventually join a British-American alliance in at least one world war. If you wanted to contribute anything there, feel free. I can't wait for the next chapter on your thread.
James
Awesome timeline, and very detailed! I'm working on a similar concept for my thread, wherein Germany does unite Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, and will eventually join a British-American alliance in at least one world war. If you wanted to contribute anything there, feel free. I can't wait for the next chapter on your thread.
James
Americans
I could see the Americans covertly supporting some of the independence movements with money and surplus or obsolete weapons. Perhaps through some of the more poorly regulated ports of the world.
I could see the Americans covertly supporting some of the independence movements with money and surplus or obsolete weapons. Perhaps through some of the more poorly regulated ports of the world.
I forgive you. I'm quite a Germanwanker myself. Isn't this TL a bit of a German wank? If not, it will be once you've read this chapter. (Hint. It's in the 13th paragraph). This chapter details the end of the war. Now I can get to implement my ideas for the postwar world.
And long it was indeed. By the start of 1943 the Axis powers were clearly losing the war. Of all Axis powers Italy was in the worst state. The Italian populace was unhappy as the Italian army was losing and shortages of fuel and food became worse. Ottoman and British bombers stationed on Sicily regularly bombed industrial areas in northern Italy which added to Italy’s problems. The number and duration of power outages increased. With help of French forces Mussolini remained firmly in power of Italy and he in turn remained a loyal vassal of the French. By January 1943 Sicily was in entirely in hands of the Central Powers and they immediately started to prepare for an invasion of the Italian mainland. British and American forces landed on the ‘toe’ of Italy on April 11th 1943 which was the earliest possible date due to adverse weather conditions. By now Italian morale had plummeted to new depths because of this invasion. It was unbelievable but true. Enemy forces were actually standing on the soil of the Italian mainland. That hadn’t occurred since before the Italian unification. The French however resisted heavily under the leadership of De Gaulle who had been promoted to marshal for some reason even though his actions in Africa didn’t deserve such a reward. Veteran units of the former Corps de l’Afrique participated in these battles. Another landing by an Anglo-American force took place near Salerno which was nearly repelled by French and Italian forces. Landings near Bari and Foggia on the other hand went according to plan although several ‘praetorian guard’ units of the Imperial French Air Force caused quite a ruckus on several occasions. In spite of this the port of Bari and the airfields around Foggia were captured. Albania which was still a loyal Italian puppet under king Amedeo I made an official protest because their territorial waters had been violated but they were ignored. The king of Albania had been wise not to join his Italian ally when war broke out.
Back in Rome Mussolini’s position was becoming untenable as his supporters rapidly declined in number until only a few fanatical supporters of the old guard were left. There was talk of a coup d’etat to remove the fascists from power. Only the French presence in Italy prevented this from occurring. Petain ordered that Italy was to be held at all cost and that any defensive lines were to be as far away from France as possible in order to prevent the Central Powers from taking strategically important airfields. These defensive lines prevented the Central Powers from just marching on Rome as they had envisioned. It took them until early October to get to Rome by which time the coup which had been planned for some time indeed took place. General Rodolfo Graziani and Marshal Piedro Badoglio secretly contacted several enemy military leaders announcing that they were planning a coup with some supporters and that he would establish a military junta. This junta was to surrender and join the Central Powers provided that he and his fellow conspirators would receive amnesty. The governments of Britain, the United States and the Ottoman Empire considered the offer for over a week and agreed to the offer. On the early morning of October 1st several Italian divisions marched on Rome. Most of these soldiers were disgruntled and demoralized because of their defeats, the general situation of their country which was hopeless and their own various problems which they blamed Mussolini for. Italian soldiers quickly took control of key points in the city and Italian armored formations rolled through the streets of Rome. In the meantime British paratroopers landed near Mussolini’s palace. Unfortunately Mussolini had already fled the city along with what little French troops and loyal black shirts were in the city. By now many French troops were tied up elsewhere. Many of them were surrounded in Anzio. Few of the surrounded forces would escape from Anzio. After the coup British, Ottoman and American forces took Rome encountering no resistance. Instead they were hailed as liberators by the population.
Count Ciano who had understood which way the wind was blowing supported the junta and negotiated Italy’s surrender. Most Italian armed forces supported the new government because they were sick of the war. They laid down their weapons and Italy surrendered unconditionally. Mussolini in the meantime had established his new government in Ravenna which ironically had been the capital of the Western Roman Empire when it was on the verge of its collapse. Now the city would see the collapse of another Roman Empire. His new ‘Empire’ was called the Fascist Republic of Italy. Some units of the Italian army which still supported him and of course the infamous black shirts joined him in northern Italy which was still in the hands of the Italians and French, more of the latter though. The Fascist Republic of Italy was a mere puppet state under French control. The first thing Mussolini did was to declare that Rome would never be his capital again because the people had cheered after he had fled the city. Despite the conditions that had been agreed upon earlier, the Central Powers demanded the extradition of several generals. The top dogs in the military junta managed to avoid being arrested though. Furthermore the Central Powers demanded that the remainder of the Italian armed forces be put under their command and would fully assist in the overthrowing of Mussolini and that the Italians would do everything to find fascist criminals that remained in southern Italy. After the war the Italians were to demobilize their armed forces and Italy would not see its colonies returned nor would they ever be allowed to produce weapons of mass destruction. Mussolini had ordered the use of chemical weapons on several occasions. The Central Powers had immediately retaliated with their own arsenals.
The situation of the French and Italians became worse and worse as time progressed. The weak garrisons on Sardinia and Corsica were overrun in January 1944 by an invasion force of under 30.000 men. Petain rightfully feared an invasion in southern France. His Mediterranean navy was all but gone. It was a shadow of its former self and couldn’t hope to fend off a full fledged invasion fleet especially since they lacked air superiority. This also explains the quick capture of Corsica and Sardinia. The military leaders of the British, Americans and Ottomans ultimately decided against this as the French southern coast was very heavily fortified. A land campaign in France and Italy would do just fine in their opinion.
By now the Americans mobilized rapidly. American numbers increased dramatically which enabled them to send more support to Europe. The Ceasar line which ran from Tarquinia to Teramo via Spoleto was finally breached in March 1944 and the march for Ravenna started. Fighting in the Italian mountains would be difficult but fascist Italy was doomed nonetheless. French lines along the Rhine were breached at roughly the same time. It had taken the Central Powers a long time to breach the powerful French lines in spite of their air superiority. Operation Wellington was the attack plan. It was named after the general who had defeated Napoleon at Waterloo which had definitively ended the first French Empire. This operation would end the third French Empire. Massive aerial bombardments destroyed the defences along the river Rhine. Petain ordered his forces to stand firm which they did. British and American paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines and took heavy casualties in the process. The French had already destroyed all bridges years ago when the north of Holland had been liberated. The Dutch government in exile had returned to Holland by this time. The lack of bridges forced the Central Powers to make this an amphibious operation. Many landing vehicles were disabled but a foothold was established and British and American forces flowed into southern Holland. South Holland was liberated within ten days. American and British forces advanced south rapidly pushing the French ahead of them. They were supported by the Imperial German Air Force which had already established air superiority over northern France. This air superiority enabled them to defeat the French army which was in itself still a formidable force. Many French tanks which were in fact superior to most contemporary American and British models were destroyed because of this air superiority. Had the French air force been what it once was, this would have been nearly impossible.
French resistance increased when the first enemy forces crossed their border. American and British forces swept through northern France in a large encircling move aimed at trapping French forces in the Rhineland. Petain saw this and with pain in his heart he ordered his troops to leave the Rhineland. The culmination of this death struggle was the battle for Paris which ended after ten days on April 18th 1944 when the last remaining forces in the city surrendered. Over 150.000 men had fended off an Anglo-American force that was five times bigger for ten days. The city was in ruins. The only thing still standing firm was the Eiffel Tower which had survived the bombardments of the past few years and the shelling that had preceded the battle. Even though the Americans and British had done most of the work, the Germans didn’t allow them to liberate the Rhineland. The Germans were preoccupied in Russia but still managed to scrape together some divisions for the liberation of the Rhineland. It was mostly symbolic as the French had already left. Nevertheless they received a hero’s welcome. The Anglo-American advance increased in speed as the French military situation worsened. Ammunition was in short supply as were food and fuel. The only oilfields in Italy in the Po valley had already been taken by now which left Italy and France without fuel. Petain had moved his seat of government to Grenoble and ordered the defence of ‘Fortress France’ from there. Many defensive positions had been created in the mountains prior to the war as a precautionary measure but these hadn’t seen much maintenance and were used for ammunition storage. This was because for a time it had seemed as if France would win. Many French fought for their lives because they were afraid of being executed for desertion which was becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in the last few months.
In a last act of defiance the French Atlantic fleet set sail to fight. It had remained in port for most of the war because of the Royal Navy and High Seas Fleet. The French fleet was all but destroyed in an apocalyptic battle with the Royal Navy and High Seas Fleet which took place on April 19th west of Bretagne after the fall of Paris. Many would condemn Petain for his decision to fight until the very end. The war was practically over and yet he didn’t surrender which only caused the death toll to rise. A small group of his supporters would worship him as a hero and as a martyr after his execution.
The Fascist Republic of Italy had already collapsed in the face of the onslaught of the Ottomans, British and Americans as the French were no longer able to prop the fascists up. To add to this untenable situation several divisions of federal Austrian troops broke through Italian lines in the alps. The front there had been quiet because the Austrians also considered the eastern front more important. With the imminent collapse of the Italians the Austrians decided to grab whatever they could and marched on Venice. Mussolini left Italy on a submarine headed for Albania on May 25th just when the Americans and British started to lay siege to Grenoble. He foolishly believed that the Albanians would grant him asylum because of their alliance and because the Albanian king was a relative of the Italian king. He seemed to forget that Victor Emmanuel III had joined the military junta and the Central Powers in the south. He fled in disguise with a fake passport under an assumed name. The Albanians immediately repatriated him after they had figured out who he was. He was sent to Bari were he was arrested and imprisoned. Both France and the tiny remains of fascist Italy along the French border surrendered on June 3rd 1944. Petain was left no choice as his comrades turned against him to save themselves. Petain in the meantime couldn’t force himself to commit suicide. He was captured and was forced to witness the end of his empire. Emperor Philippe I was now just Philippe Petain again. He was stripped of his titles and his rank in the military and all of his decorations were taken away. Now he was just a citizen. The Third Empire was gone and for the first time in six years their was peace in western Europe.
France and Italy had surrendered which still left two Axis powers in the war. These were Russia and Japan. Both were geared to total war and were prepared to fight until the bitter end. Ungern von Sternberg had sacked his minister of armament and had appointed a new one. Under his leadership the production of weaponry increased dramatically during 1944 and 1945. This however didn’t turn back the tide in favour of Russia. The combined power of Germany, Austria, the Ottoman Empire, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, the Baltic Archduchy, Ukraine, Belarus, the United States and Great Britain would destroy Russia. The battle for Moscow had been lost due to the combined pressure of Russia’s enemies. The battle would go down in history as the bloodiest battle in history and a decisive victory for the Central Powers on the eastern front. The battle started on July 7th 1942 when German forces breached the outer defences of the city. A desperate struggle among the piles of rubble ensued. This devastating battle continued for almost a year until the last Russian forces in the city were crushed in late May of 1943. The most famous event of this battle was the planting of the German and Ukrainian flags on the highest tower of the Kremlin after it had been stormed. The battle for the Kremlin was an entire battle in itself. It had taken the Germans and their allies days to clear out the entire complex. This battle had inflicted devastating losses on both sides which would take them a long time to recover from. As a result it took quite some time before another major offensive could be undertaken by any of the combatants. The Germans were the first to launch a major offensive since the Russians were forced to uphold a defensive posture which was difficult enough. The fall of Moscow caused a strain on Russian logistics. Moscow was an important railway hub and its loss caused the Russian logistics situation to turn into a nightmare.
After having recovered from the battle, the Germans launched a winter offensive to take Astrakhan which was successful unlike previous attempts which had all been thwarted. It started on August 4th 1943. Because of supply problems following the fall of Moscow Zhukov was unable to effectively counter the Germans. As a result Romangrad fell on September 19th after some vicious fighting and the Germans crossed the Volga. German forces continued to march for Astrakhan. Zhukov knew that if Astrakhan were to fall Russia would lose its most important supply. He was one of Russia’s best generals and one of the best in the war. In spite of his efforts however Astrakhan was overrun by German and other forces by late October thereby cutting Russia off from its main oil supply. Ungern von Sternberg was outraged and immediately launched an offensive under his direct command. It failed miserably of course and the status quo remained unchanged. Ottoman, British and American forces in the south finally broke through Russian lines around Baku in early November 1943 and defeated the entrapped Russian forces. In the face of inevitable defeat these Russian forces led by Rokossovsky surrendered. He was the first Russian general to surrender and fall in enemy hands. Again Ungern von Sternberg lived up to his nickname of Crazy Baron and exploded in rage. Fortunately for him the Central Powers couldn’t advance much further because their supply lines were very stretched by now. Very soon they would become overstretched. The Russians were unable to do much either because of the sheer numbers arrayed against them and their lack of fuel. During the 30s some oilfields had been discovered in Siberia but the full extent of these wouldn’t be discovered until after the war. The Siberian oilfields at this time couldn’t provide more than about 35% of what the Russian army needed. This meant that the oil shipments to Japan ceased. Russia would remain on the defensive for the duration of the war. And so a stalemate ensued.
This only meant that Japan would lose quicker. Five Montana-class battleships named USS Montana, USS Ohio, USS Maine, USS New Hampshire and USS Louisiana were launched and joined the Pacific Fleet along with three Alaska-class battle cruisers, three Alaskas concerted to carriers and several Essex-class carriers around mid-1943. The Pacific fleet massively outgunned the Japanese by now and the last bit of American territory in Japanese hands, Guam, was liberated in August of that year. The naval battle that preceded it was a devastating defeat for the Japanese. They lost the Yamato which had to battle the USS Missouri and the USS Louisiana. They also lost three more carriers The Americans then set out to repay their debt to the Germans for their part in the rescue at Pearl Harbor. They liberated the Marshall Islands and the Carolinas one by one. The pattern was the same everywhere. American ships shelled each island for days on end. After that they landed an invasion force only to encounter the survivors whose fanaticism hadn’t been lessened by the shelling. Their infamous Banzai charges caused a high death toll but they kept coming undeterred. Hordes of fanatical screaming Japanese were a frightening sight indeed. They however could not withstand the military and industrial might of the United States not to mention Germany and Britain. The Philippines were mostly liberated by December 1944 as German and British forces started to push into Burma and even Thailand. The Japanese had already lost several provinces to guerrilla fighters. Some fighting continued until the as late as August 1945. Because of this pressure from all sides Japan was forced to divert forces from other fronts. The problem was that Japan just lacked the numbers and industrial power to stand up against the combined forces of the United States, Britain, Germany and China. The stalemate in Manchuria was finally broken around December 1944. By early April 1945 Manchuria had been liberated and Chinese tank divisions were standing on the Yalu river and were ready to invade Korea.
During that same time period the Americans launched the invasion of Okinawa. Okinawa was Japanese territory which meant that the Japanese fought twice as hard. Battleships Musashi and Shinano made a daring dash toward Okinawa to beach themselves and use their guns as coastal artillery until they were destroyed. Shinano was sunk by the combined efforts of the USS Kentucky and aircraft carrier USS Essex. Musashi made it however and caused quite a lot of trouble until heavy aerial bombardment disabled the massive battleship’s main guns. American casualties were high. Japanese pilots resorted to kamikaze attacks to stop the Americans. This didn’t work but resulted in the sinking of USS Hornet and the battle cruiser USS Hawaii. Okinawa finally fell on May 20th 1945 giving American B-17 and the quite new B-29 bombers a base of operations close to Japan. Formosa was liberated in mid-July after over a month of fighting in a joint Sino-American operation. Areas occupied by the Japanese fell like dominos before the advance of the Central Powers. Combined German-British forces liberated German-Indochina in March 1945. By mid-1945 the Japanese had lost most of their gains except for the Dutch East Indies and part of Korea.
And then on the early morning of June 18th something happened that would change politics and the way wars would be waged forever. Somewhere in Thuringia, east Germany a team of nervous scientists were making last preparations for the test of Germany’s latest weapon which they hoped would win them the war. It was the culmination of seven years of research and building in a combined Anglo-German effort. Everything was checked. Emperor Wilhelm III was there to personally see what this so called super weapon could do. He wasn’t much of a scientist and had no idea what to expect. He had spent good money on this; money which could have been used for other things so it had better be worth it. He had heard that it even had a name. The weapon had been named ‘Thor’ after the Norse God of thunder. A very nervous Leo Szilard told him that was everything was okay and that he would give the go ahead for detonation. Everybody, even the emperor, put on their safety goggles and peered through the tiny windows of the bunker located about twenty-five kilometres away from ground zero. The countdown started. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. The controller pushed the button. On 7:01 AM on June 18th 1945 the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated. A massive fireball lit up the foggy, dim morning. The combined spectators were stunned. Everyone remained silent. The first to speak was the emperor himself. ‘What have we done. May God help us all’ he said. As the dust settled, data from a seismograph were gathered and the scientists frantically started to work. According to initial calculations the blast yield had been around 22 kilotons. Britain detonated its first nuclear weapon a few days later on June 21st. It was named Cyclone and, with a blast yield of 21 kilotons, was only slightly weaker than its German counterpart Thor.
German scientists reported that with the available supplies of enriched uranium they could build two more similar devices within a month. Wilhelm III approved and preparations were made for the unleashing of a fire storm over Russia. On 3 AM on July 16th 1945 a heavily loaded Junkers Ju-390 took off from a remote airfield somewhere in East Prussia to drop Mjolnir. The selected target was Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s fourth largest city. Initially Moscow, Romangrad and St.Petersburg were also on the target list but they were removed since the first two were in Germans hands and fighting was going on in the third. The German bomber arrived after almost two and a half hours of flight at 5:27 AM and released its destructive cargo. Most of the city’s inhabitants were sleeping when it happened and they would never know what hit them. 113.000 lives were erased in the blink of an eye. The city was the scene of unseen suffering, devastation and carnage. The city looked like something from a post apocalyptic movie. Many more would die because of radiation sickness shortly after the explosion or of cancer years later.
Ungern von Sternberg ordered a cover up as soon as he found out. Black Eagle and secret police units surrounded the city letting no one in or out. Nevertheless rumours reached the Russian people about the mysterious destruction of an entire city despite efforts to suppress these. It was only a matter of time. The destruction of an entire city couldn’t go unnoticed for long. The security perimeter was established five miles from the city. Even from that distance the kilometres high smoke columns could be seen. An ultimatum was sent to Ungern von Sternberg who resided in Perm which served as his capital by now since fighting was going on in the outskirts of Russia’s capital St.Petersburg. Ungern von Sternberg stubbornly ignored the ultimatum hoping that the Germans had only one such weapon. The Germans had given him 72 hours to consider the offer. It expired unanswered and the Germans kept to their word. On July 19th yet another city was devastated in nuclear flames by a second bomb nicknamed Odin. Kazan was left as a scar on the face of the earth but still Ungern von Sternberg refused to surrender. The Germans threatened to destroy another city. Unfortunately this was bluff. Germany no longer had any atomic bombs. They were all gone. Time passed and Ungern von Sternberg seemed to be proven right about Germany’s bluff.
Now he would use the last trick up his sleeve. Russia at the time had a nuclear weapon’s program as well. During the last two years of the war he had pressured his scientists for results. He needed a miracle to win the war. Because Russia was fighting a war on its own soil less resources were available for their project. Therefore the Russians had obtained less enriched uranium than the Germans. They had enough for one relatively weak bomb. The Russians couldn’t bomb Germany with it because of German air superiority. Therefore it was used on the battlefield. One Russian bomber took off and released its cargo over unsuspecting German troops. An 8 kiloton blast fried twenty thousand German soldiers east of Moscow on July 22nd. Instead of making peace the Germans called for their British allies for aid. On July 25th a British Lancaster took off from an airfield in Lithuania and flew towards its destination to release ‘Hurricane’. The chosen target was Samara. It went up in flames just like the two cities that had preceded it. In the meantime Czar Michael II could no longer stand the utterly pointless suffering of the Russian people at the hands of this madman. He and a few high ranking government officials and military leaders staged a coup. On July 26th Imperial Guard and army units stormed the dictator’s palace. He was overthrown and fascist rule ended. To this day no one is sure what happened to Ungern von Sternberg. Some say he died when his palace was stormed. Others say he escaped to Persia. The CIA, the German secret service, the Ottoman secret service and the Okhrana searched for him well into the sixties but never found him. Czar Michael II agreed to an armistice a few hours later and travelled west. He personally signed Russia’s unconditional surrender in St.Petersburg on August 1st 1945.
Unbeknownst to the Germans and the British, the Americans had tested their first nuclear weapon as well. On July 16th, the day that Nizhny Novgorod was destroyed, they tested their atom bomb which had been nicknamed Trinity. Oppenheimer was standing in a bunker in the Nevada desert and he and his team were frantically triple checking everything. Finally, when everything seemed to be in working order, he gave the go head. The countdown started and he, his team and several high ranking government officials and military officers huddled up in front of the bunker’s tiny windows. The countdown ended. Three, two, one zero. The controller pushed the button. To everyone’s astonishment and disappointment nothing happened. The controller pushed again. Again nothing happens. The controller frantically started smashing the button. Suddenly a small mushroom cloud could be seen. The test had failed. Trinity was a dud. The tremor caused by the blast was weak as was shown by a seismograph. According to preliminary calculations the blast yield had been about 1 kiloton. Truman sighed in disappointment when he heard the news and was starting to think this project had been a waste of money and resources. Then however confused reports reached him of the destruction of a Russian city. A few hours later it was confirmed. Germany had detonated an atomic bomb over a Russian city. Now he knew it was possible and told his scientists to double their efforts. Fortunately the Manhattan project was two pronged. Germany and Britain had focused solely on the implosion type weapon whereas the Americans had invested in the gunshot type assembly as well. Moreover, Oppenheimer and his team thought that they could figure out what went wrong and could have another Trinity type weapon within six months.
The bomb was checked by Oppenheimer and his scientists. It seemed to be in working order. Against the advice of Oppenheimer, Truman gave the order to use this bomb nicknamed Little Boy against Japan without testing if it worked. America was a great power and could not afford to remain behind on Britain and Germany in the race for nuclear weapons. And so it was done. On August 6th 1945 ‘Little Boy’ was dropped by a B-29 bomber on the city of Osaka. Osaka was one of the very few cities in Japan that hadn’t been fire bombed to its foundations during the war. A 16 kiloton blast destroyed the city and killed tens of thousands. This was supposed to force the Japanese to surrender. The military leaders which were practically running Japan by now did not surrender believing that the Americans didn’t have more bombs like the Russians had done before. The gamble paid off and the Japanese people would have to suffer some more. Truman gave the order to start preparing for operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan which was scheduled to start in November 1945. Oppenheimer had told him that he could have another five bombs ready by then. These would be used to clear the landing sites on Kyushu not knowing about the radiation that would kill American soldiers even after the war. Many American soldiers died in Japan; they just didn’t know it yet when they returned to America.
For several months nothing had happened. Japanese military leaders were baffled by this lack of activity from the Americans. Some of the more superstitious ones foolishly believed that divine intervention had stopped the Americans. They would be proven very wrong. The invasion commenced as planned. Five B-29 bombers stationed on Okinawa took off in the morning of October 31st 1945 and were headed for Kyushu. They arrived about fifty-five minutes later and released their cargo over the beaches of southern Kyushu where several tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers were incinerated instantly by 13 to 18 kiloton blasts. The island’s coastal defences were raised to the ground of course. When emperor Hirohito heard he ordered his forces to stand down. In the face of nuclear destruction he saw no other choice but surrender. His order never reached his troops however. Several Japanese military leaders staged a coup and overthrew the emperor. The country was split as of now. Hirohito fled south towards the Americans disguised as an officer. He was accompanied by a band of soldiers and loyal Imperial Guards. When word leaked out some parts of the army and what was left of the navy joined the emperor on Kyushu. In the meantime the invasion went on. Something was known about radiation by now and the invasion force was ordered to wait 24 hours before landing any men. This was of course totally inadequate.
Landings commenced on schedule on X-day on November 1st. Despite the nuclear destruction their was significant resistance. The beaches were taken without resistance. The defence forces located further inland however were left untouched by the atomic bombs and fought as if their lives depended on it. Over thirteen divisions were stationed on Kyushu to defend the island from invasion. Several Chinese divisions also participated in the attack since the Chinese wanted revenge for the crimes committed against their country. Their country had taken the brunt of the Japanese army until the outbreak of the Great War. Before that it was just the second Sino-Japanese war which already started in 1936 two years prior to the outbreak of the war in Europe and three years before the outbreak of the war in Asia. The Chinese battleship Qin also participated in the attack as did China’s first aircraft carrier Sun Yat Sen which had been launched only six months before the invasion. Construction on this carrier had already begun before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese conflict. When the war broke out construction was halted because resources needed to be diverted to more important weapons such as tanks, planes, rifles and machineguns. By this time the carrier was completed for about 55%. For several years its hull lay their in dry dock. In the meantime it was damaged by Japanese bombing raids several times. Construction restarted in mid-1944. By this time pressure from the other Central Powers on Japan was very big thereby relieving the Chinese. Repairs were made and construction continued. In May 1945 the ship was finally commissioned. Several British. Australian and German ships also aided the Americans in the operation. The largest naval force ever assembled was there to support the invasion. Forty-four aircraft carriers, twenty-five battleships and over four hundred destroyers supported the invasion force which consisted of fourteen American and five Chinese divisions. A foothold was quickly established on the radioactive beaches.
Resistance was heavy. The objective was to capture the southern third of Kyushu which would serve as a base for land based aircraft for the follow up operation called operation Coronet. This invasion was called operation Olympic. The Japanese navy and what was left of the air force used kamikaze tactics to stall the invaders. Manned torpedoes, midget subs and minor warships were also used in this manner. The Japanese also had a few capital warships left. They had six carriers, four cruisers and one battleship. None of these were used however due to fuel shortages. These attacks caused severe casualties but this didn’t stop the invasion. The Japanese army did all it could but was driven back nonetheless. The biggest problem was lack of ammunition. There wasn’t enough to go around for every soldier. Many soldiers therefore fought with whatever was available. This ranged from samurai swords to bamboo spears. The civilian population also joined in to fight the American invaders in a guerrilla war. The Americans however used harsh methods copied from the Germans to quell the guerrillas. Furthermore instead of going into the mountains and countryside to fight the guerrillas, the Americans stuck with just controlling the cities and main roads and other key points they needed for operation Coronet. They rarely chased raiding guerrillas out of a well founded fear for ambushes. Because of this resistance it took the Central Powers until early December to establish full control over southern Kyushu. The guerrillas armed themselves with what was available. Many used longbows and muzzle loading muskets and fought like madmen.
No moves for northern Kyushu were made but the fire bombings by B-17s and B-29s on Japanese cities there continued. Likewise Banzai charges from Japanese forces in the north continued. And so the death toll rose on both sides. Chinese versions of the Junkers Ju-88 stationed in Korea joined American bombers. In the meantime Chinese versions of the Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers terrorised Japanese shipping. This plane had been rejected by the Germans in favour of the Henschel Hs-129 panzerknacker because it wasn’t well armed. The Chinese thought otherwise. This had cost them dearly as they were no match for Japanese Zeros. Fortunately the Japanese air force was all but gone by now. These bombers had been transferred to Korea after it had been conquered. Chinese troops were already at the Yalu river by early April had and conquered the Korean peninsula in little over two months. The last Japanese forces were evacuated by the navy in June in a nigh impossible operation. They pulled it off with what little ships and fuel were left. Korea was officially liberated on June 14th 1945 and the Republic of Korea was founded shortly thereafter.
By the time southern Kyushu was under control, preparations for operation Coronet were already underway. According to initial reports the operation Coronet would be much easier since the Japanese had wasted many soldiers in the defence of Kyushu. It was expected that the military junta which still controlled Honshu and Hokkaido would surrender after one or two more battles. By then the Japanese army would be crippled, out of fuel, out of food and out of ammunition. This was worsened by American wolf packs which sank everything sailing under a Japanese flag. The operation was scheduled to take place on march 1st 1946. To make things slightly easier, Shikoku was under control as well. Emperor Hirohito had fled there with loyal government forces and several divisions of the Imperial Guard. After his arrival he immediately contacted the Americans and ordered his forces to lend their fullest cooperation to the Americans. There was some muttering about this decision but in the end everybody complied. In the weeks preceding the invasion of Honshu the bombings intensified. The bombings continued for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and were conducted by American, Chinese, British and German planes.
Operation Coronet started on schedule on Y-day on March 1st 1946. American forces landed on Kujukuri beach on the Boso peninsula. A combined Sino-German-British force landed at Hiratsuka at Sagami Bay. This took place after intensive shelling by American, British and German battleships. Both army groups quickly linked up and marched on Tokyo. The under equipped and ill supplied Japanese troops fought valiantly but couldn’t stop the invaders. They were pushed back in the Kanto Plain. Even now the military junta refused to see the gravity of their situation and ordered their troops to keep on fighting. By now more German forces had landed. The Germans were somewhat harsher in their methods of subjugating countries than the Americans. They had already proven that when they had to quell rebellions in their colonies. Those hadn’t occurred in years though. Nevertheless the Germans could still be quite ruthless if they thought it was necessary and they would prove it later on. The battle for the Kanto Plain was followed by the battle for Tokyo which was over in few days. Still the Japanese didn’t surrender. The Japanese military leaders ordered one last desperate offensive, a last ditch effort for the sake of glory. It was aimed at relieving Tokyo which had been practically overrun. Japanese forces fought fanatically and to the surprise of many got quite far in some places. The Germans who were suffering the most from this offensive displayed their will to win. The Germans unleashed a massive artillery bombardment on the Japanese. This however was no ordinary bombardment. The local German commander had authorized the use of chemical weapons. Thousands of shells filled with mustard gas, chlorine gas, phosgene gas, tabun and sarin were used resulting in tens of thousands of Japanese casualties. The Japanese mostly lacked gas masks unlike their adversaries which explains the high death toll. Now finally the Japanese military junta surrendered seeing that they could no longer resist. Many generals however committed seppuku, ritual suicide, before they could be captured. The ones that didn’t would face a trial for war crimes and another one for treason. The armistice was signed on April 4th 1946.
Japan was the last country to surrender thereby ending the war. This struggle would become known as the Great War which was a suitable name. This war had been the largest military, industrial and ideological struggle in the history of mankind and truly was the war to end all wars. There had been a lot of fighting in all areas, weather types and terrible conditions one can imagine. The road to victory was covered with the dead bodies of 70 million people, soldiers and civilians alike. No one had been spared. Old people, men, women and children had all suffered during this terrible war. Now, finally after almost eight years of continuous warfare, the struggle was over. Finally there was peace.
Chapter 25
And long it was indeed. By the start of 1943 the Axis powers were clearly losing the war. Of all Axis powers Italy was in the worst state. The Italian populace was unhappy as the Italian army was losing and shortages of fuel and food became worse. Ottoman and British bombers stationed on Sicily regularly bombed industrial areas in northern Italy which added to Italy’s problems. The number and duration of power outages increased. With help of French forces Mussolini remained firmly in power of Italy and he in turn remained a loyal vassal of the French. By January 1943 Sicily was in entirely in hands of the Central Powers and they immediately started to prepare for an invasion of the Italian mainland. British and American forces landed on the ‘toe’ of Italy on April 11th 1943 which was the earliest possible date due to adverse weather conditions. By now Italian morale had plummeted to new depths because of this invasion. It was unbelievable but true. Enemy forces were actually standing on the soil of the Italian mainland. That hadn’t occurred since before the Italian unification. The French however resisted heavily under the leadership of De Gaulle who had been promoted to marshal for some reason even though his actions in Africa didn’t deserve such a reward. Veteran units of the former Corps de l’Afrique participated in these battles. Another landing by an Anglo-American force took place near Salerno which was nearly repelled by French and Italian forces. Landings near Bari and Foggia on the other hand went according to plan although several ‘praetorian guard’ units of the Imperial French Air Force caused quite a ruckus on several occasions. In spite of this the port of Bari and the airfields around Foggia were captured. Albania which was still a loyal Italian puppet under king Amedeo I made an official protest because their territorial waters had been violated but they were ignored. The king of Albania had been wise not to join his Italian ally when war broke out.
Back in Rome Mussolini’s position was becoming untenable as his supporters rapidly declined in number until only a few fanatical supporters of the old guard were left. There was talk of a coup d’etat to remove the fascists from power. Only the French presence in Italy prevented this from occurring. Petain ordered that Italy was to be held at all cost and that any defensive lines were to be as far away from France as possible in order to prevent the Central Powers from taking strategically important airfields. These defensive lines prevented the Central Powers from just marching on Rome as they had envisioned. It took them until early October to get to Rome by which time the coup which had been planned for some time indeed took place. General Rodolfo Graziani and Marshal Piedro Badoglio secretly contacted several enemy military leaders announcing that they were planning a coup with some supporters and that he would establish a military junta. This junta was to surrender and join the Central Powers provided that he and his fellow conspirators would receive amnesty. The governments of Britain, the United States and the Ottoman Empire considered the offer for over a week and agreed to the offer. On the early morning of October 1st several Italian divisions marched on Rome. Most of these soldiers were disgruntled and demoralized because of their defeats, the general situation of their country which was hopeless and their own various problems which they blamed Mussolini for. Italian soldiers quickly took control of key points in the city and Italian armored formations rolled through the streets of Rome. In the meantime British paratroopers landed near Mussolini’s palace. Unfortunately Mussolini had already fled the city along with what little French troops and loyal black shirts were in the city. By now many French troops were tied up elsewhere. Many of them were surrounded in Anzio. Few of the surrounded forces would escape from Anzio. After the coup British, Ottoman and American forces took Rome encountering no resistance. Instead they were hailed as liberators by the population.
Count Ciano who had understood which way the wind was blowing supported the junta and negotiated Italy’s surrender. Most Italian armed forces supported the new government because they were sick of the war. They laid down their weapons and Italy surrendered unconditionally. Mussolini in the meantime had established his new government in Ravenna which ironically had been the capital of the Western Roman Empire when it was on the verge of its collapse. Now the city would see the collapse of another Roman Empire. His new ‘Empire’ was called the Fascist Republic of Italy. Some units of the Italian army which still supported him and of course the infamous black shirts joined him in northern Italy which was still in the hands of the Italians and French, more of the latter though. The Fascist Republic of Italy was a mere puppet state under French control. The first thing Mussolini did was to declare that Rome would never be his capital again because the people had cheered after he had fled the city. Despite the conditions that had been agreed upon earlier, the Central Powers demanded the extradition of several generals. The top dogs in the military junta managed to avoid being arrested though. Furthermore the Central Powers demanded that the remainder of the Italian armed forces be put under their command and would fully assist in the overthrowing of Mussolini and that the Italians would do everything to find fascist criminals that remained in southern Italy. After the war the Italians were to demobilize their armed forces and Italy would not see its colonies returned nor would they ever be allowed to produce weapons of mass destruction. Mussolini had ordered the use of chemical weapons on several occasions. The Central Powers had immediately retaliated with their own arsenals.
The situation of the French and Italians became worse and worse as time progressed. The weak garrisons on Sardinia and Corsica were overrun in January 1944 by an invasion force of under 30.000 men. Petain rightfully feared an invasion in southern France. His Mediterranean navy was all but gone. It was a shadow of its former self and couldn’t hope to fend off a full fledged invasion fleet especially since they lacked air superiority. This also explains the quick capture of Corsica and Sardinia. The military leaders of the British, Americans and Ottomans ultimately decided against this as the French southern coast was very heavily fortified. A land campaign in France and Italy would do just fine in their opinion.
By now the Americans mobilized rapidly. American numbers increased dramatically which enabled them to send more support to Europe. The Ceasar line which ran from Tarquinia to Teramo via Spoleto was finally breached in March 1944 and the march for Ravenna started. Fighting in the Italian mountains would be difficult but fascist Italy was doomed nonetheless. French lines along the Rhine were breached at roughly the same time. It had taken the Central Powers a long time to breach the powerful French lines in spite of their air superiority. Operation Wellington was the attack plan. It was named after the general who had defeated Napoleon at Waterloo which had definitively ended the first French Empire. This operation would end the third French Empire. Massive aerial bombardments destroyed the defences along the river Rhine. Petain ordered his forces to stand firm which they did. British and American paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines and took heavy casualties in the process. The French had already destroyed all bridges years ago when the north of Holland had been liberated. The Dutch government in exile had returned to Holland by this time. The lack of bridges forced the Central Powers to make this an amphibious operation. Many landing vehicles were disabled but a foothold was established and British and American forces flowed into southern Holland. South Holland was liberated within ten days. American and British forces advanced south rapidly pushing the French ahead of them. They were supported by the Imperial German Air Force which had already established air superiority over northern France. This air superiority enabled them to defeat the French army which was in itself still a formidable force. Many French tanks which were in fact superior to most contemporary American and British models were destroyed because of this air superiority. Had the French air force been what it once was, this would have been nearly impossible.
French resistance increased when the first enemy forces crossed their border. American and British forces swept through northern France in a large encircling move aimed at trapping French forces in the Rhineland. Petain saw this and with pain in his heart he ordered his troops to leave the Rhineland. The culmination of this death struggle was the battle for Paris which ended after ten days on April 18th 1944 when the last remaining forces in the city surrendered. Over 150.000 men had fended off an Anglo-American force that was five times bigger for ten days. The city was in ruins. The only thing still standing firm was the Eiffel Tower which had survived the bombardments of the past few years and the shelling that had preceded the battle. Even though the Americans and British had done most of the work, the Germans didn’t allow them to liberate the Rhineland. The Germans were preoccupied in Russia but still managed to scrape together some divisions for the liberation of the Rhineland. It was mostly symbolic as the French had already left. Nevertheless they received a hero’s welcome. The Anglo-American advance increased in speed as the French military situation worsened. Ammunition was in short supply as were food and fuel. The only oilfields in Italy in the Po valley had already been taken by now which left Italy and France without fuel. Petain had moved his seat of government to Grenoble and ordered the defence of ‘Fortress France’ from there. Many defensive positions had been created in the mountains prior to the war as a precautionary measure but these hadn’t seen much maintenance and were used for ammunition storage. This was because for a time it had seemed as if France would win. Many French fought for their lives because they were afraid of being executed for desertion which was becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in the last few months.
In a last act of defiance the French Atlantic fleet set sail to fight. It had remained in port for most of the war because of the Royal Navy and High Seas Fleet. The French fleet was all but destroyed in an apocalyptic battle with the Royal Navy and High Seas Fleet which took place on April 19th west of Bretagne after the fall of Paris. Many would condemn Petain for his decision to fight until the very end. The war was practically over and yet he didn’t surrender which only caused the death toll to rise. A small group of his supporters would worship him as a hero and as a martyr after his execution.
The Fascist Republic of Italy had already collapsed in the face of the onslaught of the Ottomans, British and Americans as the French were no longer able to prop the fascists up. To add to this untenable situation several divisions of federal Austrian troops broke through Italian lines in the alps. The front there had been quiet because the Austrians also considered the eastern front more important. With the imminent collapse of the Italians the Austrians decided to grab whatever they could and marched on Venice. Mussolini left Italy on a submarine headed for Albania on May 25th just when the Americans and British started to lay siege to Grenoble. He foolishly believed that the Albanians would grant him asylum because of their alliance and because the Albanian king was a relative of the Italian king. He seemed to forget that Victor Emmanuel III had joined the military junta and the Central Powers in the south. He fled in disguise with a fake passport under an assumed name. The Albanians immediately repatriated him after they had figured out who he was. He was sent to Bari were he was arrested and imprisoned. Both France and the tiny remains of fascist Italy along the French border surrendered on June 3rd 1944. Petain was left no choice as his comrades turned against him to save themselves. Petain in the meantime couldn’t force himself to commit suicide. He was captured and was forced to witness the end of his empire. Emperor Philippe I was now just Philippe Petain again. He was stripped of his titles and his rank in the military and all of his decorations were taken away. Now he was just a citizen. The Third Empire was gone and for the first time in six years their was peace in western Europe.
France and Italy had surrendered which still left two Axis powers in the war. These were Russia and Japan. Both were geared to total war and were prepared to fight until the bitter end. Ungern von Sternberg had sacked his minister of armament and had appointed a new one. Under his leadership the production of weaponry increased dramatically during 1944 and 1945. This however didn’t turn back the tide in favour of Russia. The combined power of Germany, Austria, the Ottoman Empire, Romania, Poland, Lithuania, the Baltic Archduchy, Ukraine, Belarus, the United States and Great Britain would destroy Russia. The battle for Moscow had been lost due to the combined pressure of Russia’s enemies. The battle would go down in history as the bloodiest battle in history and a decisive victory for the Central Powers on the eastern front. The battle started on July 7th 1942 when German forces breached the outer defences of the city. A desperate struggle among the piles of rubble ensued. This devastating battle continued for almost a year until the last Russian forces in the city were crushed in late May of 1943. The most famous event of this battle was the planting of the German and Ukrainian flags on the highest tower of the Kremlin after it had been stormed. The battle for the Kremlin was an entire battle in itself. It had taken the Germans and their allies days to clear out the entire complex. This battle had inflicted devastating losses on both sides which would take them a long time to recover from. As a result it took quite some time before another major offensive could be undertaken by any of the combatants. The Germans were the first to launch a major offensive since the Russians were forced to uphold a defensive posture which was difficult enough. The fall of Moscow caused a strain on Russian logistics. Moscow was an important railway hub and its loss caused the Russian logistics situation to turn into a nightmare.
After having recovered from the battle, the Germans launched a winter offensive to take Astrakhan which was successful unlike previous attempts which had all been thwarted. It started on August 4th 1943. Because of supply problems following the fall of Moscow Zhukov was unable to effectively counter the Germans. As a result Romangrad fell on September 19th after some vicious fighting and the Germans crossed the Volga. German forces continued to march for Astrakhan. Zhukov knew that if Astrakhan were to fall Russia would lose its most important supply. He was one of Russia’s best generals and one of the best in the war. In spite of his efforts however Astrakhan was overrun by German and other forces by late October thereby cutting Russia off from its main oil supply. Ungern von Sternberg was outraged and immediately launched an offensive under his direct command. It failed miserably of course and the status quo remained unchanged. Ottoman, British and American forces in the south finally broke through Russian lines around Baku in early November 1943 and defeated the entrapped Russian forces. In the face of inevitable defeat these Russian forces led by Rokossovsky surrendered. He was the first Russian general to surrender and fall in enemy hands. Again Ungern von Sternberg lived up to his nickname of Crazy Baron and exploded in rage. Fortunately for him the Central Powers couldn’t advance much further because their supply lines were very stretched by now. Very soon they would become overstretched. The Russians were unable to do much either because of the sheer numbers arrayed against them and their lack of fuel. During the 30s some oilfields had been discovered in Siberia but the full extent of these wouldn’t be discovered until after the war. The Siberian oilfields at this time couldn’t provide more than about 35% of what the Russian army needed. This meant that the oil shipments to Japan ceased. Russia would remain on the defensive for the duration of the war. And so a stalemate ensued.
This only meant that Japan would lose quicker. Five Montana-class battleships named USS Montana, USS Ohio, USS Maine, USS New Hampshire and USS Louisiana were launched and joined the Pacific Fleet along with three Alaska-class battle cruisers, three Alaskas concerted to carriers and several Essex-class carriers around mid-1943. The Pacific fleet massively outgunned the Japanese by now and the last bit of American territory in Japanese hands, Guam, was liberated in August of that year. The naval battle that preceded it was a devastating defeat for the Japanese. They lost the Yamato which had to battle the USS Missouri and the USS Louisiana. They also lost three more carriers The Americans then set out to repay their debt to the Germans for their part in the rescue at Pearl Harbor. They liberated the Marshall Islands and the Carolinas one by one. The pattern was the same everywhere. American ships shelled each island for days on end. After that they landed an invasion force only to encounter the survivors whose fanaticism hadn’t been lessened by the shelling. Their infamous Banzai charges caused a high death toll but they kept coming undeterred. Hordes of fanatical screaming Japanese were a frightening sight indeed. They however could not withstand the military and industrial might of the United States not to mention Germany and Britain. The Philippines were mostly liberated by December 1944 as German and British forces started to push into Burma and even Thailand. The Japanese had already lost several provinces to guerrilla fighters. Some fighting continued until the as late as August 1945. Because of this pressure from all sides Japan was forced to divert forces from other fronts. The problem was that Japan just lacked the numbers and industrial power to stand up against the combined forces of the United States, Britain, Germany and China. The stalemate in Manchuria was finally broken around December 1944. By early April 1945 Manchuria had been liberated and Chinese tank divisions were standing on the Yalu river and were ready to invade Korea.
During that same time period the Americans launched the invasion of Okinawa. Okinawa was Japanese territory which meant that the Japanese fought twice as hard. Battleships Musashi and Shinano made a daring dash toward Okinawa to beach themselves and use their guns as coastal artillery until they were destroyed. Shinano was sunk by the combined efforts of the USS Kentucky and aircraft carrier USS Essex. Musashi made it however and caused quite a lot of trouble until heavy aerial bombardment disabled the massive battleship’s main guns. American casualties were high. Japanese pilots resorted to kamikaze attacks to stop the Americans. This didn’t work but resulted in the sinking of USS Hornet and the battle cruiser USS Hawaii. Okinawa finally fell on May 20th 1945 giving American B-17 and the quite new B-29 bombers a base of operations close to Japan. Formosa was liberated in mid-July after over a month of fighting in a joint Sino-American operation. Areas occupied by the Japanese fell like dominos before the advance of the Central Powers. Combined German-British forces liberated German-Indochina in March 1945. By mid-1945 the Japanese had lost most of their gains except for the Dutch East Indies and part of Korea.
And then on the early morning of June 18th something happened that would change politics and the way wars would be waged forever. Somewhere in Thuringia, east Germany a team of nervous scientists were making last preparations for the test of Germany’s latest weapon which they hoped would win them the war. It was the culmination of seven years of research and building in a combined Anglo-German effort. Everything was checked. Emperor Wilhelm III was there to personally see what this so called super weapon could do. He wasn’t much of a scientist and had no idea what to expect. He had spent good money on this; money which could have been used for other things so it had better be worth it. He had heard that it even had a name. The weapon had been named ‘Thor’ after the Norse God of thunder. A very nervous Leo Szilard told him that was everything was okay and that he would give the go ahead for detonation. Everybody, even the emperor, put on their safety goggles and peered through the tiny windows of the bunker located about twenty-five kilometres away from ground zero. The countdown started. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. The controller pushed the button. On 7:01 AM on June 18th 1945 the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated. A massive fireball lit up the foggy, dim morning. The combined spectators were stunned. Everyone remained silent. The first to speak was the emperor himself. ‘What have we done. May God help us all’ he said. As the dust settled, data from a seismograph were gathered and the scientists frantically started to work. According to initial calculations the blast yield had been around 22 kilotons. Britain detonated its first nuclear weapon a few days later on June 21st. It was named Cyclone and, with a blast yield of 21 kilotons, was only slightly weaker than its German counterpart Thor.
German scientists reported that with the available supplies of enriched uranium they could build two more similar devices within a month. Wilhelm III approved and preparations were made for the unleashing of a fire storm over Russia. On 3 AM on July 16th 1945 a heavily loaded Junkers Ju-390 took off from a remote airfield somewhere in East Prussia to drop Mjolnir. The selected target was Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s fourth largest city. Initially Moscow, Romangrad and St.Petersburg were also on the target list but they were removed since the first two were in Germans hands and fighting was going on in the third. The German bomber arrived after almost two and a half hours of flight at 5:27 AM and released its destructive cargo. Most of the city’s inhabitants were sleeping when it happened and they would never know what hit them. 113.000 lives were erased in the blink of an eye. The city was the scene of unseen suffering, devastation and carnage. The city looked like something from a post apocalyptic movie. Many more would die because of radiation sickness shortly after the explosion or of cancer years later.
Ungern von Sternberg ordered a cover up as soon as he found out. Black Eagle and secret police units surrounded the city letting no one in or out. Nevertheless rumours reached the Russian people about the mysterious destruction of an entire city despite efforts to suppress these. It was only a matter of time. The destruction of an entire city couldn’t go unnoticed for long. The security perimeter was established five miles from the city. Even from that distance the kilometres high smoke columns could be seen. An ultimatum was sent to Ungern von Sternberg who resided in Perm which served as his capital by now since fighting was going on in the outskirts of Russia’s capital St.Petersburg. Ungern von Sternberg stubbornly ignored the ultimatum hoping that the Germans had only one such weapon. The Germans had given him 72 hours to consider the offer. It expired unanswered and the Germans kept to their word. On July 19th yet another city was devastated in nuclear flames by a second bomb nicknamed Odin. Kazan was left as a scar on the face of the earth but still Ungern von Sternberg refused to surrender. The Germans threatened to destroy another city. Unfortunately this was bluff. Germany no longer had any atomic bombs. They were all gone. Time passed and Ungern von Sternberg seemed to be proven right about Germany’s bluff.
Now he would use the last trick up his sleeve. Russia at the time had a nuclear weapon’s program as well. During the last two years of the war he had pressured his scientists for results. He needed a miracle to win the war. Because Russia was fighting a war on its own soil less resources were available for their project. Therefore the Russians had obtained less enriched uranium than the Germans. They had enough for one relatively weak bomb. The Russians couldn’t bomb Germany with it because of German air superiority. Therefore it was used on the battlefield. One Russian bomber took off and released its cargo over unsuspecting German troops. An 8 kiloton blast fried twenty thousand German soldiers east of Moscow on July 22nd. Instead of making peace the Germans called for their British allies for aid. On July 25th a British Lancaster took off from an airfield in Lithuania and flew towards its destination to release ‘Hurricane’. The chosen target was Samara. It went up in flames just like the two cities that had preceded it. In the meantime Czar Michael II could no longer stand the utterly pointless suffering of the Russian people at the hands of this madman. He and a few high ranking government officials and military leaders staged a coup. On July 26th Imperial Guard and army units stormed the dictator’s palace. He was overthrown and fascist rule ended. To this day no one is sure what happened to Ungern von Sternberg. Some say he died when his palace was stormed. Others say he escaped to Persia. The CIA, the German secret service, the Ottoman secret service and the Okhrana searched for him well into the sixties but never found him. Czar Michael II agreed to an armistice a few hours later and travelled west. He personally signed Russia’s unconditional surrender in St.Petersburg on August 1st 1945.
Unbeknownst to the Germans and the British, the Americans had tested their first nuclear weapon as well. On July 16th, the day that Nizhny Novgorod was destroyed, they tested their atom bomb which had been nicknamed Trinity. Oppenheimer was standing in a bunker in the Nevada desert and he and his team were frantically triple checking everything. Finally, when everything seemed to be in working order, he gave the go head. The countdown started and he, his team and several high ranking government officials and military officers huddled up in front of the bunker’s tiny windows. The countdown ended. Three, two, one zero. The controller pushed the button. To everyone’s astonishment and disappointment nothing happened. The controller pushed again. Again nothing happens. The controller frantically started smashing the button. Suddenly a small mushroom cloud could be seen. The test had failed. Trinity was a dud. The tremor caused by the blast was weak as was shown by a seismograph. According to preliminary calculations the blast yield had been about 1 kiloton. Truman sighed in disappointment when he heard the news and was starting to think this project had been a waste of money and resources. Then however confused reports reached him of the destruction of a Russian city. A few hours later it was confirmed. Germany had detonated an atomic bomb over a Russian city. Now he knew it was possible and told his scientists to double their efforts. Fortunately the Manhattan project was two pronged. Germany and Britain had focused solely on the implosion type weapon whereas the Americans had invested in the gunshot type assembly as well. Moreover, Oppenheimer and his team thought that they could figure out what went wrong and could have another Trinity type weapon within six months.
The bomb was checked by Oppenheimer and his scientists. It seemed to be in working order. Against the advice of Oppenheimer, Truman gave the order to use this bomb nicknamed Little Boy against Japan without testing if it worked. America was a great power and could not afford to remain behind on Britain and Germany in the race for nuclear weapons. And so it was done. On August 6th 1945 ‘Little Boy’ was dropped by a B-29 bomber on the city of Osaka. Osaka was one of the very few cities in Japan that hadn’t been fire bombed to its foundations during the war. A 16 kiloton blast destroyed the city and killed tens of thousands. This was supposed to force the Japanese to surrender. The military leaders which were practically running Japan by now did not surrender believing that the Americans didn’t have more bombs like the Russians had done before. The gamble paid off and the Japanese people would have to suffer some more. Truman gave the order to start preparing for operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan which was scheduled to start in November 1945. Oppenheimer had told him that he could have another five bombs ready by then. These would be used to clear the landing sites on Kyushu not knowing about the radiation that would kill American soldiers even after the war. Many American soldiers died in Japan; they just didn’t know it yet when they returned to America.
For several months nothing had happened. Japanese military leaders were baffled by this lack of activity from the Americans. Some of the more superstitious ones foolishly believed that divine intervention had stopped the Americans. They would be proven very wrong. The invasion commenced as planned. Five B-29 bombers stationed on Okinawa took off in the morning of October 31st 1945 and were headed for Kyushu. They arrived about fifty-five minutes later and released their cargo over the beaches of southern Kyushu where several tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers were incinerated instantly by 13 to 18 kiloton blasts. The island’s coastal defences were raised to the ground of course. When emperor Hirohito heard he ordered his forces to stand down. In the face of nuclear destruction he saw no other choice but surrender. His order never reached his troops however. Several Japanese military leaders staged a coup and overthrew the emperor. The country was split as of now. Hirohito fled south towards the Americans disguised as an officer. He was accompanied by a band of soldiers and loyal Imperial Guards. When word leaked out some parts of the army and what was left of the navy joined the emperor on Kyushu. In the meantime the invasion went on. Something was known about radiation by now and the invasion force was ordered to wait 24 hours before landing any men. This was of course totally inadequate.
Landings commenced on schedule on X-day on November 1st. Despite the nuclear destruction their was significant resistance. The beaches were taken without resistance. The defence forces located further inland however were left untouched by the atomic bombs and fought as if their lives depended on it. Over thirteen divisions were stationed on Kyushu to defend the island from invasion. Several Chinese divisions also participated in the attack since the Chinese wanted revenge for the crimes committed against their country. Their country had taken the brunt of the Japanese army until the outbreak of the Great War. Before that it was just the second Sino-Japanese war which already started in 1936 two years prior to the outbreak of the war in Europe and three years before the outbreak of the war in Asia. The Chinese battleship Qin also participated in the attack as did China’s first aircraft carrier Sun Yat Sen which had been launched only six months before the invasion. Construction on this carrier had already begun before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese conflict. When the war broke out construction was halted because resources needed to be diverted to more important weapons such as tanks, planes, rifles and machineguns. By this time the carrier was completed for about 55%. For several years its hull lay their in dry dock. In the meantime it was damaged by Japanese bombing raids several times. Construction restarted in mid-1944. By this time pressure from the other Central Powers on Japan was very big thereby relieving the Chinese. Repairs were made and construction continued. In May 1945 the ship was finally commissioned. Several British. Australian and German ships also aided the Americans in the operation. The largest naval force ever assembled was there to support the invasion. Forty-four aircraft carriers, twenty-five battleships and over four hundred destroyers supported the invasion force which consisted of fourteen American and five Chinese divisions. A foothold was quickly established on the radioactive beaches.
Resistance was heavy. The objective was to capture the southern third of Kyushu which would serve as a base for land based aircraft for the follow up operation called operation Coronet. This invasion was called operation Olympic. The Japanese navy and what was left of the air force used kamikaze tactics to stall the invaders. Manned torpedoes, midget subs and minor warships were also used in this manner. The Japanese also had a few capital warships left. They had six carriers, four cruisers and one battleship. None of these were used however due to fuel shortages. These attacks caused severe casualties but this didn’t stop the invasion. The Japanese army did all it could but was driven back nonetheless. The biggest problem was lack of ammunition. There wasn’t enough to go around for every soldier. Many soldiers therefore fought with whatever was available. This ranged from samurai swords to bamboo spears. The civilian population also joined in to fight the American invaders in a guerrilla war. The Americans however used harsh methods copied from the Germans to quell the guerrillas. Furthermore instead of going into the mountains and countryside to fight the guerrillas, the Americans stuck with just controlling the cities and main roads and other key points they needed for operation Coronet. They rarely chased raiding guerrillas out of a well founded fear for ambushes. Because of this resistance it took the Central Powers until early December to establish full control over southern Kyushu. The guerrillas armed themselves with what was available. Many used longbows and muzzle loading muskets and fought like madmen.
No moves for northern Kyushu were made but the fire bombings by B-17s and B-29s on Japanese cities there continued. Likewise Banzai charges from Japanese forces in the north continued. And so the death toll rose on both sides. Chinese versions of the Junkers Ju-88 stationed in Korea joined American bombers. In the meantime Chinese versions of the Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers terrorised Japanese shipping. This plane had been rejected by the Germans in favour of the Henschel Hs-129 panzerknacker because it wasn’t well armed. The Chinese thought otherwise. This had cost them dearly as they were no match for Japanese Zeros. Fortunately the Japanese air force was all but gone by now. These bombers had been transferred to Korea after it had been conquered. Chinese troops were already at the Yalu river by early April had and conquered the Korean peninsula in little over two months. The last Japanese forces were evacuated by the navy in June in a nigh impossible operation. They pulled it off with what little ships and fuel were left. Korea was officially liberated on June 14th 1945 and the Republic of Korea was founded shortly thereafter.
By the time southern Kyushu was under control, preparations for operation Coronet were already underway. According to initial reports the operation Coronet would be much easier since the Japanese had wasted many soldiers in the defence of Kyushu. It was expected that the military junta which still controlled Honshu and Hokkaido would surrender after one or two more battles. By then the Japanese army would be crippled, out of fuel, out of food and out of ammunition. This was worsened by American wolf packs which sank everything sailing under a Japanese flag. The operation was scheduled to take place on march 1st 1946. To make things slightly easier, Shikoku was under control as well. Emperor Hirohito had fled there with loyal government forces and several divisions of the Imperial Guard. After his arrival he immediately contacted the Americans and ordered his forces to lend their fullest cooperation to the Americans. There was some muttering about this decision but in the end everybody complied. In the weeks preceding the invasion of Honshu the bombings intensified. The bombings continued for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and were conducted by American, Chinese, British and German planes.
Operation Coronet started on schedule on Y-day on March 1st 1946. American forces landed on Kujukuri beach on the Boso peninsula. A combined Sino-German-British force landed at Hiratsuka at Sagami Bay. This took place after intensive shelling by American, British and German battleships. Both army groups quickly linked up and marched on Tokyo. The under equipped and ill supplied Japanese troops fought valiantly but couldn’t stop the invaders. They were pushed back in the Kanto Plain. Even now the military junta refused to see the gravity of their situation and ordered their troops to keep on fighting. By now more German forces had landed. The Germans were somewhat harsher in their methods of subjugating countries than the Americans. They had already proven that when they had to quell rebellions in their colonies. Those hadn’t occurred in years though. Nevertheless the Germans could still be quite ruthless if they thought it was necessary and they would prove it later on. The battle for the Kanto Plain was followed by the battle for Tokyo which was over in few days. Still the Japanese didn’t surrender. The Japanese military leaders ordered one last desperate offensive, a last ditch effort for the sake of glory. It was aimed at relieving Tokyo which had been practically overrun. Japanese forces fought fanatically and to the surprise of many got quite far in some places. The Germans who were suffering the most from this offensive displayed their will to win. The Germans unleashed a massive artillery bombardment on the Japanese. This however was no ordinary bombardment. The local German commander had authorized the use of chemical weapons. Thousands of shells filled with mustard gas, chlorine gas, phosgene gas, tabun and sarin were used resulting in tens of thousands of Japanese casualties. The Japanese mostly lacked gas masks unlike their adversaries which explains the high death toll. Now finally the Japanese military junta surrendered seeing that they could no longer resist. Many generals however committed seppuku, ritual suicide, before they could be captured. The ones that didn’t would face a trial for war crimes and another one for treason. The armistice was signed on April 4th 1946.
Japan was the last country to surrender thereby ending the war. This struggle would become known as the Great War which was a suitable name. This war had been the largest military, industrial and ideological struggle in the history of mankind and truly was the war to end all wars. There had been a lot of fighting in all areas, weather types and terrible conditions one can imagine. The road to victory was covered with the dead bodies of 70 million people, soldiers and civilians alike. No one had been spared. Old people, men, women and children had all suffered during this terrible war. Now, finally after almost eight years of continuous warfare, the struggle was over. Finally there was peace.
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