The End of the Day

THE END OF THE DAY
PARADISE (1935–1959)

London, 15th November 1938

Oswald Mosley feels very satisfied with the election results. Having returned about twelve percent of the vote, the British Union of Fascists now stands to broker a coalition with Neville Chamberlain, that sheep in sheep’s clothing. What had made the difference? Oswald isn’t sure if he knows himself; his victory at Cable Street? The defection of Halifax and his mob of senior Tories? The shattering of Labour? Who can say. Of-course, for now, Oswald will have to be content with a minor cabinet position, Deputy Minister of the Interior, but from there his ambitions are bound only by the limits of his own imagination.

He thinks back on his exit from the Labour Party and his foundation of the New Party, the new beginning. It will be his first time returning to parliament in six years. They’d mocked him then, said he’d be entering the Dustbin of History, more the fools they. The BUF was a combination of many of the smaller fascist movements that had sprung up after Mussolini’s March on Rome. He, the great Helmsman, had welded them together and out of the disparate mass he had formed an indivisible whole. His victory is certain, it is only a matter of time.

As he strolls along the bank of the Thames on the morning of November 15th he finds himself whistling Wagner.
 
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Just one question. IOTL the last British general election before WWII happened in
1935. After that, the ruling Tories saw no
need of holding another one for some time
(& of course under the British Constitution,
they did not have to for a maximum of 5
years )& did not do so(remember Churchill
did not IOTL come to power in 1940 through
an election). In this ATL, what factors were
so different that the Tories felt they had to
have an election in 1938?
 
Just one question. IOTL the last British general election before WWII happened in
1935. After that, the ruling Tories saw no
need of holding another one for some time
(& of course under the British Constitution,
they did not have to for a maximum of 5
years )& did not do so(remember Churchill
did not IOTL come to power in 1940 through
an election). In this ATL, what factors were
so different that the Tories felt they had to
have an election in 1938?

Quick disclaimer: This timeline has no central POD, there are a few starting in 1930. The most important are: Cable Street is a success thanks to massed Police backing, the split that occurs in the Labour Party in 1931 onwards is much worse, and, most crucially, the Communist Party of Great Britain is much larger, more popular and better organised. All of these factors lead to Mosley's BUF gaining ground. The 1938 election was an attempt to shore up the Tories which, as you shall see, backfires horribly.
 
1938

Extract from “A Concise History of Britain: 1900 – 1939”

“If the election of 1938 was intended to shore up support for Chamberlain’s floundering Conservative Government then, once again, Chamberlain badly misjudged the prevailing winds of change. Before the election, Chamberlain had stated that due to the vast number of opposition parties no real challenge could be levied against the Conservatives, he simply could not imagine such a challenger coming from the radical right.

Originally an animal of the centre of politics, Oswald Mosley had made the transition to totalitarian fascism after the rather dismal failure of the New Party in the late 1920s. Mosley’s success from 1935 onwards can largely be chocked up to two things; the defection of six high-ranking Tories, now known as “The Whitechapel Seven”, and the sudden and disconcerting growth of the British Communist Party. The fear that the Communists might supplant Labour and become the second largest party in Britain was pervasive among the British Aristocracy, combined with the general public’s hysterical fear of the ideology of Marxism itself, afforded Mosley (who’s no nonsense stance on Communism was well known) a great deal of public goodwill. The defection of Halifax, less than a month before the election was due to take place, was one of the major blows that discredited Chamberlain’s leadership.

The election destroyed the Conservative majority, if only by a few seats. The BUF were immediately drafted into an unholy alliance with the Conservatives. As Chamberlain himself put it, “Better that Mosley piss in our tent than in the street”. Years later, Winston Churchill, stewing away in American exile, spoke of the incredible foolishness of this position; “Neville’s idea seems to have been that it was perfectly sound and reasonable to swallows poison in lieu of his pride. I had argued that the Conservative Party should form some alliance with any of the Labour rumps that still occupied parliament, Attlee for example had proven himself a skilled orator and charming intellectual. Instead of any of the fine gentlemen on the centre-left of the Isle, Chamberlain chose to ally himself with an amoral ignoramus, a thuggish oaf with no skill as orator, leader, or administrator!”

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November – December

Mosley spends his first month in the Government lying low, building relationships with the hard-right in Chamberlain’s government. Then on December 1st Mosley supposedly uncovers a plot from “within parliament” to “push Britain into war with foreign powers”. There is very little evidence to back up the Mosley Papers (which claim, among other things, that Labour Party MPs and Tory backbenchers are trying to turn Britain into a Russian satellite). All that comes from it is the expulsion of a Mr Winston Churchill from the Tory Party. Still, it makes Chamberlain seem tough on foreign interference in British politics and seems almost like a political victory. Mosley’s influence will only continue to grow in the following months.

In the town of Halifax there is a month-long scare after three women are attacked by a maniac with “bright buckled shoes”. Mosley takes to BBC Radio to call for armed police to deal with the man, and calls the hysteria “indicative of the degenerate state of our democracy”.

The Nazi Leadership watches the unfolding changes in Britain with sincere interest. Hitler had considered holding off the invasion of Poland until Autumn of 1939, however, if Mosley can bring Britain on side that plan could very rapidly change.

With Mosley ascendant and his chances of leading the BUF now a distant pipe dream, William Joyce slips discreetly across the Channel and into German obscurity.
 
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1939

JANUARY 15th

PRAGUE

“…I repeat, German forces have moved into Czechoslovakia. Put down your arms, resistance to Germany is unnecessary, Germany is your friend…”

PARIS

“…Prime Minister Phillipe Petain repeated his statement that France considered the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German forces an act of unparalleled aggression and that if Hitler should attempt to militarily occupy areas of Poland then force would be used to repulse him…”

LONDON

“…Deputy Minister Mosley today addressed crowds in Hyde Park, condemning the weak and vacillating nature of the French Government and called on Marshal Petain to stand down his forces rather than risk another world war…”

WARSAW

“…six terrorists of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were today executed by Military Police Units for acts of treason against the Polish State. The OOU has frequently collaborated with the Fascist Government in Berlin, in an attempt to undermine the State of Poland…”

HAMBURG

“Germany calling…Germany calling…”

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January – April

The February Coup; BUF paramilitaries fire on various opposition MPs in Whitechapel. Following a brief firefight, the BUF bullyboys are joined by units of the British Army. The combined forces fight their way into and then occupy Parliament and Buckingham Palace; several Army commanders send their troops out to back Mosley up and within hours the Capital is in his hands. The armed forces don’t immediately go over but most units have sworn loyalty to The Leader by February 16th. Immediately Mosley forms a National Salvation Council staffed by BUF gauleiters, agrarian conservatives and the British commanders who brought him to power. The Empire closes ranks around the Boss and within a week of the assault the British Union of Fascists reigns supreme.

Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop phones Mosley personally to congratulate him. After this brief conversation, Von Ribbentrop convinces Oswald to abandon Britain’s commitments to Poland. Once the treaty is in pieces on the floor of the Polish embassy, Hitler no longer fears war on two fronts. On March 3rd the XI Panzer Corps penetrates the Polish border at Mokra, they are followed by Heinz Guderian’s First Field Army.

The Battle for Poland is vicious and brutal. Polish forces fight like lions and wherever they are they fight to the death. The Battle of the Borders ends in a German victory as Polish troops are either routed or completely destroyed. In a series of lightning offensives Erich Von Manstein cleverly cuts off the larger Polish armies into manageable pockets.

Stalin hates the Poles and most Poles hate Stalin, but that mutual disgust is as nothing when weighed against the hatred both slaver from every pore for Hitler. When the Nazi invades Stalin bites the bullet and supplies the Polish Army with thousands of tonnes of bullets, steel, spam and other supplies. For generations to come, the Poles will not forget that the Russians stood with them at the eleventh hour. By late April the Germans have encircled Warsaw. Seeing the writing on the wall, the Poles reluctantly invite the USSR in to assume control of what little free Polish territory remains, which is what Stalin had planned from the start. The Russians meet the Germans at Brest-Litovsk and a prolonged staring match begins.

For three weeks, after all Poland has fallen, Radio Warsaw proudly blares the Polish National Anthem and urges resistance. On April 18th it falls silent.

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Inaugural Address of PM Oswald Mosley:

“Friends, Countrymen, Loyal Citizens of the Empire,

Today, February 2nd 1939, a date which shall live forever in the halls of greatness, your Fascist forces, supported by the troops of your armed forces toppled the obsolete, bureaucratic and fundamentally Jewish government of Monocles you were previously forced to endure. I shall, as your Prime Minister, principally focus my attention on destroying the influence of these scoundrels once and for all.

My governments policies are simple, efficient and glorious. They can be summed up thusly; Peace, Justice and Order.

Under the previous government, Jewish influence dictated international policy. In the ancient cabinets of mighty London, the sweepings of the Ghettos held sway over swashbuckling Englishmen, no longer. The push, to pull this country into a European War to aid some old Hebrews’ co-religionists ends permanently today. From this point forward the aim of my government, the people’s government, shall be the rejection of Bolshevist Jewish influence and the support of independent European states.

In the Britain of the International Cliques, there was no real justice, not for the dock worker, or the farmer or the factory owner, the wealth producer. There was only justice for old money, with all its corrupting influence, and our great state was poisoned. In my Britain, your Britain, I shall revive the sacred tradition of English Liberty. I will be harsh and tough on those who break our laws and defame the glory of our state., I shall give no man quarter, whether he be the richest of earls or the poorest of urban slum dwellers.

This new government for a new age has committed itself to a policy of order. Great Britain had been slowly slipping towards sinful conflagration, with murderers free to stalk the street and violent gangs of thugs suppressed the freedoms of honest God-fearing citizens. Our government therefore would like to firmly commit to the eradication of violent crime and terrorist organisations within our borders.

These promises I make for the People of Britain and all of mankind.”

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“Mosley is a truly monstrous creature but by my mind his pompous waffling alone earns him a place at Nuremberg. The speech on February 2nd cemented Mosley as the leader of the conspirators and de facto leader of Great Britain. It placed the government’s successes on his shoulders, in spite of the fact that at this time the National Salvation Council was a decision-making body with no real leader, Mosley serving more as a figure-head than anything else. The inaugural speech gave him the mandate to begin accumulating more and more power.”

– Clement Attlee, 1950
 
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May – August

The Polish Free Army establishes itself at its Headquarters in Kiev. Stalin is always looking for cat’s paws and the brave and gruff men of the Arma Krajowa are exactly what’s needed. For now, he allows them to use Soviet territory for training and recruiting, although cross-border raids are, for the time being, out of the question. Tensions immediately spring up between local Ukrainians and the Poles. Memories of the 1922 Polish-Soviet War are very fresh in the Ukrainian's minds. Mutual fear of the Stalinist secret police prevent hostilities from breaking, and over the Summer many thousands of NKVD troops will be deployed in and around Arma Krajowa bases.

Mosley announces the restructuring of Parliament into three houses; the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the House of Learned. The new House of the Learned is made up of the creme of the BUF, Anglican Church and those more reliably fascist Conservatives, it shall serve as the highest decision making body in the land, supposedly, second only to the National Salvation Council in terms of importance. These three houses shall work as a tiered system with the Commons passing laws up to the Lords who then pass laws along to the Learned. In truth all three shall merely act as rubber stamps for the decrees enacted by the National Salvation Council. It does, however, maintain Mosley's thin veneer of respectability, which is bolstered by the King's endorsement of the Fascist State in a three hour speech made from Buckingham Palace. In it he decries both Parliamentary democracy and the weak, vacillating nature of Neville Chamberlain and his government. In spite of appearances, Mosley knows full well that his regime is incredibly weak, Britain is not the Balkans, its people are not used to military leadership. He needs sham elections and fast. For now, violence and mass deportations to the Shetlands shall keep the opposition underground or in line.

No one takes much notice on the continent, which is gradually gearing up for a showdown between the forces of the two great powers; France and Germany. The process of moving German forces West has put a strain on German industry, especially considering the pinprick attacks being launched by the slowly awakening dragon of the Polish underground. Hitler needs to knock out France quickly and then reposition his forces to the East. Mosley and Franco will aid him, with the British Navy cutting off the French from the Atlantic and Franco’s troops ready to cross the Pyrenees. Only Mussolini can be truly counted as not dependable, though surely the lure of territorial conquest will be too much for him to resist. 300,000 French troops are deployed along the Maginot Line in Alsace-Lorraine, watching the same fields their Fathers watched two decades ago. Only 10,000 are reserved for the densely wooded Ardennes region, on the grounds that no earthly force can penetrate it.

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“Moral was very low among our force on the German Frontier. We felt abandoned by all the world. The British, who had stood with us through the last war, were now in an alliance with Germany. The Generals still had their ideas stuck in 1917, unprepared for the Lightning War that was to come. I developed there a great hatred for the bourgeois Generals who were sitting in their palaces eating rum chocolates as we starved. It was there, on that frontier in those months of hell that I discovered the truth about politics. Political power does not grow out of the ballots of the people but from the barrel of a gun.”

– Jean Paul Sartre
 
Halifax, Gort, Chamberlain, the wider Conservative Party.

Perhaps I didn't pick wisely with Gort, but I should say that this is taking place within a climate of increased fear over Bolshevism and political violence, in which he became radically disposed against going to war. I didn't want to do a character assassination on the man which was why I tried to present him as sympathetic. As for the wider conservative party they've largely been purged by late 1940, but I can see your point. After a decade of uncertainty, they allied with a man who was seen as mostly harmless, I was trying to draw parallels between the Mosley-Conservative alliance and the Hitler-Zentrum Alliance of 33.

Perhaps I should re-write the timeline and repost it at a later date. It needs more detail and a serious rethink on my part.
 
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Anchises

Banned
Perhaps I didn't pick wisely with Gort, but I should say that this is taking place within a climate of increased fear over Bolshevism and political violence, in which he became radically disposed against going to war. I didn't want to do a character assassination on the man which was why I tried to present him as sympathetic. As for the wider conservative party they've largely been purged by late 1940, but I can see your point. After a decade of uncertainty, they allied with a man who was seen as mostly harmless, I was trying to draw parallels between the Mosley-Conservative alliance and the Hitler-Zentrum Alliance of 33.

Perhaps I should re-write the timeline and repost it at a later date. It needs more detail and a serious rethink on my part.

I think you simply need an earlier POD.

I really like the style and tone of your TL and the premise is interesting.

I just think that for genuine British Fascism you need a severe catastrophy.

Maybe India violently tries to secede after WW1 and things spiral from there ?
 
I think you simply need an earlier POD.

I really like the style and tone of your TL and the premise is interesting.

I just think that for genuine British Fascism you need a severe catastrophy.

Maybe India violently tries to secede after WW1 and things spiral from there ?

Thank you very much, I’ve wanted to write this TL for a while so I think my main problem is knowing where I want it to go but not having a clear POD.

I like your Indian secession idea, I may just have to steal it.
 

Anchises

Banned
Thank you very much, I’ve wanted to write this TL for a while so I think my main problem is knowing where I want it to go but not having a clear POD.

I like your Indian secession idea, I may just have to steal it.

By all means.

I think it was Deluge by Tooze where he analyzes the crisis of the British Empire after WW1. It shouldn't be that hard to plunge Great Britain into a deep crisis after WW1.

For the Conservative-Fascist alliance you want, just look at Italy and the Blackshirts.

Basically right-wing paramilitary strikebreakers, tolerated by the Reactionaries.

You are right that fear of socialism is a key ingredient for Fascism, just give the establishment the feeling that they can't control the situation. A bunch of weak Tory governments, increasingly powerless against a violent and growing communist movement.*

They can't do the things necessary to stop the Reds, so they turn to the BUF to do the dirty work for them.

* Of course there needs to be no real danger of a communist takeover, radical right and radical left just need to create the impression of challenging the established order.
 
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