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Chapter I

September 11th 1938

Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov flies to Prague where he assures President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš that the Soviet Union mutual military assistance treaty with Czechoslovakia signed in May 16th 1935 will be guaranteed (Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov never flew to Prague on this date making this the POD for the TL-38 timeline).

September 12th 1938

Adolf Hitler during a speech at a Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg on the Sudeten crisis, condemns the actions of the government of Czechoslovakia in endangering peace in Europe with their actions against the Germans, Hungarians, Poles, and Slovaks population living in Czechoslovakia.

September 13th 1938

United Kingdom Prime Minster Chamberlain and leader of Germany Adolf Hitler meet at Hitler's residence in Berchtesgaden together with Konrad Henlein leader of the Sudeten German Party (SdP), a branch of the Nazi Party of Germany in Czechoslovakia.

September 14th 1938

Josef Stalin leader of the Soviet Union orders the Soviet Army to prepare for possible war with Germany.

September 15th 1938

Konrad Henlein leader of the Sudeten German Party is arrested by Czechoslovakian police when he arrives back into Prague after having meat with United Kingdom Prime Minster Chamberlain and leader of Germany Adolf Hitler two days earlier in Germany (in OTL he was never arrested but here the Czechoslovak government believing that Germany will not go to war with them due their backing of the Soviet Union decided to remove in their eyes a threat to Czechoslovakia).

Adolf Hitler is informed of the arrest of Konrad Henlein by Czechoslovakian police, while furious he decides to use the arrest to show the United Kingdom and the French Republic is a danger to all Germans living in Czechoslovakia. The same day he calls French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier where he make it clear that Germany will not stand by much longer while Germans are oppressed in Czechoslovakia.

September 16th 1938

French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier having a heated telephone discussion with Adolf Hitler flew to London where he meet British officials to discuss a course of action concerning the arrest of Sudeten German leader Henlein a day earlier. When the discussion ended, two proposals where made that the British and French hopped the Czechoslovak government would agree on (1) the United Kingdom and the French Republic demand the immediately release of Konrad Henlein and (2) Czechoslovakia is to cede to Germany all those territories where the German population represented over fifty percent of the Sudetenland's total population. In exchange for these two concession, the United Kingdom and the French Republic will guarantee the independence of Czechoslovakia.

September 17th 1938

The British-French proposals made a day earlier is rejected by the Czechoslovak government and opponents of it in United Kingdom and the French Republic itself.

Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of Sudetendeutsches Freikorps (English: Sudeten German Free Corps, a paramilitary organization that successor to Freiwillinger Schutzdienst, also known as Ordnersgruppe, an organization that had been established by the Sudeten German Party in Czechoslovakia.

September 18th 1938

Italy's leader Benito Mussolini in a speech in Trieste, Italy declared "If there are two camps, for and against Prague, let it be known that Italy has chosen its side," (this implication makes it clear that Mussolini will supported Germany in the crisis going on in Czechoslovakia).

During a meeting between Neville Chamberlain and the recently elected Premier of France, Édouard Daladier, and Daladier's Foreign Minister, Georges Bonnet, it becomes apparent neither the British nor the French governments are prepared to go to war over the Sudetenland.

September 19th 1938

The Czechoslovak government announces that they will not release Konrad Henlein on the ground that he was the former head of the Ordnersgruppe, an organization implication in large number of terrorist activities.

September 20th 1938

Czechoslovak government has announced the leaders of the United Kingdom, French Republic and Germany come to d Czechoslovak to discusses way to reduce the tensions.

September 21st 1938

United Kingdom Prime Minster Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and Germany Führer Adolf Hitler meet President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš in Prague. During one meeting that evening with only Prime Minster Chamberlain and Führer Adolf Hitler and their interpreters attending Hitler asked Chamberlain "Does the United Kingdom fully back the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany", Chamberlain responded "Precisely", to which Hitler responded by shaking his head, saying that with the arrest of Konrad Henlein by Czechoslovakia, Germany could only be satisfied by Czechoslovakia to be completely dissolved and its territories redistributed to Germany, Poland, and Hungary, and told Chamberlain to help him with this or face the consequences. Chamberlain was shaken by this statement. Hitler went on to tell Chamberlain that since their last visit on the 15th, Czechoslovakia's actions, which Hitler claimed included killings of Germans, the arrest had made the situation unbearable for Germany.

September 22nd 1938

During the Prague Conference President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš makes it clear to them that any military action by the Germans against Czechoslovakia will result in the Soviet Union supporting Czechoslovakia independence. Despite attempts by both Prime Minster Chamberlain and Prime Minister Édouard Daladier to seek a solution to the crisis the Prague Conference ends in failure as neither Germany or Czechoslovakia want to comprises.

September 23rd 1938

Adolf Hitler issues the Sudeten Memorandum, which demands that Czechoslovakia release Konrad Henlein and to cede the Sudetenland to Germany no later than September 28th in order to avoid war.
Unaware that the Soviet Union has plans to invade them, the Polish army masses along the Czech border.

September 24th 1938

A new Czechoslovakian cabinet, under General Jan Syrový, is installed who first decree is to begin general mobilization of the Czechoslovak army in responses to the German ultimatum. The Soviet Union also announce that unlike the United Kingdom and the French Republic, the Soviet Union is willing and able to come to Czechoslovakia's assistance.

September 26th 1938

United Kingdom Prime Minster Chamberlain sends Sir Horace Wilson to carry a personal letter to Hitler declaring that the United Kingdom and the French Republic want a peaceful resolution to the Sudeten crisis. Later that evening, Hitler gave his reply in a speech at the Sportpalast in Berlin, in which Hitler again made it clear, Czechoslovakia has until September 28th to release Konrad Henlein and cede the Sudetenland to Germany or face war.

September 27th 1938

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain makes a national radio broadcast, where he makes it clear that the United Kingdom will not go to war with Germany over Czechoslovakian independence.

Soviet Army divisions begin massing at the border with Poland, the Soviet plan to aid Czechoslovakia is simple invade Poland and seize control of Poland and make it a buffer state and prevent it from falling in the German sphere of influence and link up with the Czechoslovak army to assist them in driving out the Germans out of Czechoslovakia.

Read more: TL-38: Darkness over Earth
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