The Forge of Weyland

Have the dutch been evacuating stuff while this has been going on ?
Some stuff. Gold, diamonds, probably some artwork - Phillips and their employees and a lot of vacuum tubes have gone, and with the extra time probably any Jews that can make it. Basically like OTL but with more time
 
5th June 1940
5th June

Atlantic


British troops had been occupying Iceland since the 10th May in order to make sure the island wasn't taken over by the Germans. This had required additional troops, and given the urgent need for these men in Norway and France, some way of reducing the burden on Britain, while making sure the country is protected from Germany, is needed.

Secret talks have been going on with the USA, aimed at the Americans taking over the protection duties, and as a result President Roosevelt has ordered the US Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Stark to prepare a US Marine Corps brigade for future deployment to Iceland. It is hoped that the occupation by a neutral power will reduce the tension as well as keeping the island safe. From the British point of view, they currently have no real need for Iceland except to make sure that the Germans don't take the island over, all they want is an airfield and a refuelling station.

France

As part of the reorganisation of the command of the Army, French Prime Minister Reynaud appoints Colonel de Gaulle as the Undersecretary of State for War. While this is to a considerable extent due to political reasons, General Billotte is prepared to accept him in this role. While he has considerable reservations about deGaulle - not least his opinion of his political connections - he feels he will do reasonably well in the role, and at least be keen on pushing the improvements the Army wants to build up strength to push the Germans out of France and Belgium.

Werner Mölders was shot down by French pilot René Pomier-Layrargues near Mons in France. Fortunately he bailed out safely, but was captured by the French police. In view of the recent German propaganda of his medal award, the action receives considerable space in the Allied newspapers. He would later be sent to Canada where he would spend his time chopping trees rather than flying aeroplanes.



6th June

Norway


The Allied advance continues to progress well. The opposition is mainly nuisance delaying actions by relatively small units while positions are prepared further south. The Allies outnumber the German troops, the bulk of whom are in the south of the country, and are hampered by the poor transport links further north. The German plan is to fall back to a line north of Krokstrdra, where the terrain will limit the use of tanks. This would also allow the men to be resupplied by sea, if the Kriegsmarine can get some small ships and trawlers into Mo-i-rana.

When asked, the Kriegsmarine is unusually positive as to the resupply request. A group of small ships is being assembled at Trondheim, and it should be possible to start a convoy off the next morning, under Luftwaffe protection. The main problem will be drawing off the heavy covering force in the Norwegian sea - while air reconnaissance is patchy, there seem to be at least three groups in the area, including some heavy ships (although the number of battleships reported is considered to be exaggerated by the fliers). The ships marked for Operation Juno will set sail from Kiel tonight, and then move to draw off the Allied ships and give the resupply convoy safe passage.

Unknown to the Kriegsmarine is that the Allies are also intending to run a convoy into Mo-i-rana, this time ferrying in a French Alpine battalion as well as a battalion of Polish troops, to occupy the town and threaten the German supply lines. This will be escorted by a force of cruisers and destroyers, with a heavy escort group held further north. As the land advance is going well, the plan is to start the ships off from Narvik on the evening of the 7th, allowing a landing soon after dawn. This is to try and reduce the chance of the Luftwaffe being able to respond before the men are ashore.

North Sea

Captain Cruchley took a look through his binoculars at the horizon, which remained empty of ships. For a change, the weather in the North Sea was rather pleasant, although not up to the standards of the Mediterranean. The ship had barely enjoyed the sunny skies there before being recalled to Scapa. It seemed that the original reason for her journey to the Mediterranean, a worry that Italy might join the war, had receded. The secret briefing notes he'd been given indicated that as Italy hadn't intervened when things had looked bleak at Sedan, they wouldn't, and since then they seemed to have adopted a rather less belligerent attitude. The decision to hold on in North Norway meant that the fleet in the Norwegian Sea needed more heavy ships, and as Warspite was familiar with the ares, she had been chosen. It had annoyed Admiral Cunningham that he would need to move his flag from his recently-acquired flagship , but he would have to make do.

The decision to rearrange the ships in the Mediterranean had been decided after consultation with the French, who had a considerable force there themselves. As Italy was, at the moment, not seen as an immediate danger, the decision had been taken to divide up the responsibility for the area. The Mediterranean fleet, based at Alexandria, would look after the eastern part. This allowed them to cover the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal, one of their traditional roles.The French fleet, based in Toulon, would be in charge of the western area. Force H was to retain its main role of intercepting surface raiders, but would be available if needed, either to back up the French or to move north.

Of course, things were a lot more complicated than just assigning ships to fleets, the main problem being that while the two navies had some experience in operating in tandem, they had a lot of differences in all sorts of areas, even things as basic as communications. The decision had been made at a high level that this would be improved, but Crutchely didn't see that happening soon.

In addition to Warspite, the French had sent along a light force. After escorting the British ship to Rosyth, they would remain in the Norwegian Sea as the French contribution to the naval force supporting the Allied army in Norway. As the British would now be looking after the Eastern Mediterranean, the French had sent along the heavy cruisers DuQuesne and Suffren, as well as three destroyers - Le Fortune, Basque and Forbin, as they were seen as not being needed in Beirut. They would refuel at Rosyth then join the units off Norway. The French ships would be under the command of Vice Admiral Godfroy, who when he had finished his discussions with the Admiralty would be in command of the French units, however during this transit run Captain Crutchley would be in command.

Crutchley scanned the horizon again, then took a look at the French ships escorting him. While smart-looking, he wondered how long their light Mediterranean paint job would last in the rather less hospitable seas off Norway. Still , they had shown efficiency and skill in the few practice manoeuvres they'd done on passage, so he thought that once they'd got used to the area it would all work out. And it wouldn't hurt to emphasise the solidarity between the two nations. For himself, he was looking forward to getting back into action. After his ship's earlier endeavours at Narvik, training in the Mediterranean had seemed a bit of a letdown. They would be in Rosyth this evening to refuel, and then he would find out just what Warspite would be asked to do.
 
Hey, they have some powerful rowing boats!
I thought that was Norway's navy.

1617705816964.png
 
I am holding out for 3rd Wake with Super Yamatos and Montanas.


A couple of things.

There are significant wood chopping opportunities in Senegal and significant sand movement solutions needed in Tchad and Mali.

On the US don't forget FDRs biggest issue in the November election, so sending murican boys to invade Iceland is not going to play well with the isolationists - and FDR is looking at an unprecedented third term of abject failure ( still at 25% unemployment) he is not the far sighted visionary defender of Democracy - the Brits French Norwegians, Belgians, Dutch, Aussies, NZ, Indians, SA, Malayans and suchlike doing a pretty good job of that ayway.

Speaking of Norwegians would their continued belligerance have an effect on Icelandic attitudes nordic solidarity and all that.
 
Invading?
Certainly not, America is simply acting as a good neutral nation and helping to defend the brave Icelandic people (and their pet volcanoes) from the evil warmongers, showing them the path of true happiness and apple pie!
 
On the US don't forget FDRs biggest issue in the November election, so sending murican boys to invade Iceland is not going to play well with the isolationists - and FDR is looking at an unprecedented third term of abject failure ( still at 25% unemployment) he is not the far sighted visionary defender of Democracy - the Brits French Norwegians, Belgians, Dutch, Aussies, NZ, Indians, SA, Malayans and suchlike doing a pretty good job of that ayway.
This is a good point actually - IOTL the exchange of forces happened after the election.

The British need to make a show of withdrawing after the which the independent Icelandic government requests (neutral) American forces to guarantee their neutrality.
 
The British need to make a show of withdrawing after the which the independent Icelandic government requests (neutral) American forces to guarantee their neutrality
Well, technically, iceland isn't independent yet. OTL that happened in 1944 when a law/agreement expired, and the Icelanders decided not to renew it.
 
This is a good point actually - IOTL the exchange of forces happened after the election.

Yes the US is not going to go full lend lease right now and the Brits are very unlikey to press for anything that affects the US election. On balance they would probably prefer FDR to win, but thats more the devil you know US neutrality laws were baked in to the assumptions and any US president is unlikely to harden them and its a toss up whether any would loosen them. While there has been no fall of France there has been terror bombing of the Dutch and Belgians and the purchases are largely fighter aircraft designed to stop Nazi Murder Bombers.

And Until November FDR is heavily constrained in what he can do because noone will believe him when he deploys the bulk of the USMC in a war theatre and claims its no big deal.
 
Yes the US is not going to go full lend lease right now and the Brits are very unlikey to press for anything that affects the US election. On balance they would probably prefer FDR to win, but thats more the devil you know US neutrality laws were baked in to the assumptions and any US president is unlikely to harden them and its a toss up whether any would loosen them. While there has been no fall of France there has been terror bombing of the Dutch and Belgians and the purchases are largely fighter aircraft designed to stop Nazi Murder Bombers.

And Until November FDR is heavily constrained in what he can do because noone will believe him when he deploys the bulk of the USMC in a war theatre and claims its no big deal.
Well, that's why they are having secret talks, after all!
 
Well, technically, iceland isn't independent yet. OTL that happened in 1944 when a law/agreement expired, and the Icelanders decided not to renew it.
Well they were independent in the same way as Canada and Australia were and they reclaimed the powers the Crown had after Denmark was occupied so I'd say they may not be de jure independent but they were certainly de facto independent
 
Technically, at this point Roosevelt hasn't actually become the Democratic candidate for President anyway; that wouldn't happen until mid-July at the convention, primaries not yet being the deciding thing in 1940. For that matter, there's no Republican candidate yet, either, since the Republican convention won't open until the end of the month more or less three weeks in the future of the latest update. Given the differing world situation, Roosevelt may not actually try to get a third term--certainly in early 1940 he didn't seem interested, taking a number of actions that were inconsistent with plans for a third term. On the other hand, domestic issues may lead him to stick around anyway, to try to prolong the New Deal in the face of Republican opposition to it (apparently, he believed that pro-New Deal Democrats were unlikely to win).

Meanwhile, on the Republican side it seems doubtful to me that Wilkie will be the candidate. His nomination was more or less a direct response to the Fall of France, and although he probably experienced a bump earlier the fact that the French and British seem to be hanging on okay probably means that this has faded and the weaknesses of the leading candidates--Taft's isolationism and Dewey's inexperience (at the time he was also isolationist, but given his later views I see it as probable that he would change his mind in office)--are far less prominent. Wilkie is likely to do better than would have been expected earlier, but not well enough to clinch the nomination. Given Dewey's popularity at the time (the Gallup poll on May 8 showed that he had 67% support!), I would guess that he's likely to be nominated.

On the whole, it seems most likely to me that Dewey is nominated and Roosevelt doesn't run. Who the Democratic nominee is in this case is unclear to me. In any case, certainly the election is going to be different than OTL, because one of the most important issues IOTL is, at a minimum, going to be framed and perceived quite differently ITTL.
 

Driftless

Donor
While there has been no fall of France there has been terror bombing of the Dutch and Belgians and the purchases are largely fighter aircraft designed to stop Nazi Murder Bombers.

FWIW, both Dutch and Belgian immigration to the US, especially later 19th Century was to the isolationist strongholds in the Midwest and Northwest. Not that either group are particularly large voting blocs, but their well-connected presence still may have some impact on US politics.
 
Top