War makes for Strange Bedfellows – A Second World War timeline

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INTERMISSION: Map of Europe, April 1940
The Situation in Europe as of April 1940

April 1940.png


Blue: Allies (United Kingdom & Dominions [not shown] + France)
Light Blue: Under Allied occupation
Burgundy: German-Soviet bloc (Germany + Soviet Union)
Orangish-Red: Under German occupation
Yellowish-Orange: German client states
Purple: Sweden (co-belligerent of Germany)

The Western Front remains in a state of "Phoney War". Denmark has fallen under German occupation whilst Norway has capitulated to the British. The Scandinavian Front remains a stalemate whilst Finland has had an arm and a leg ripped off by the Soviets, and the Allies are preparing to bomb Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus.
 
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If I'm honest, I haven't even begun to think about nukes. I'm sure I'll get around to it in due course but likely not until late 1940 has been covered.
This might be one of the more probable ways the Germans have a successful nuclear project, being allied with the Soviets. Or seriously pursuing one.
 
In this scenario, will the Soviets still get word of an atomic weapon project in the US? If the Soviets know, do they pass the info to Berlin?

Difficult, in this scenario there is a lot less goodwill towards the URSS and many that willingly work for her here will be a lot less cooperative due to their alliance with the Nazist against the UK (ITTL the M-R pact was a real shock for many leftist and the propaganda arm of the URSS worked a lot to make it more palatable and succeeded only after Barbarossa, here? Nope).
Speaking of that the PCF (the communist party of France) will be in troubled water, in OTL the M-R pact caused a defection of a fifth of the representative and ITTL i suspect they will be more and repression against what remain even more strong.
Plus Project Manhattan depend on the fall of France, without that i doubt the UK will be so generous and forthcoming in giving so many freebies to the USA
 
INTERMISSION: Neville Chamberlain's Declaration of war on the Soviet Union, 19 September 1939
Just one last late Christmas present for you all, Chamberlain's war speech on Russia. I've tried to write this in a style that would seem appropriate for Chamberlain to deliver, hope you enjoy.

Neville Chamberlain's Declaration of war on the Soviet Union
19 September 1939

"It was little over two weeks ago that I last addressed you from Downing Street, to inform you that once again this country was to undertake involvement in a war on the continent against Germany. The cause of our declaration was their deliberate and flagrant attack against Poland. As such, we, along with France, fulfilled our obligations to the Poles and declared war on Germany to show the world that we would not tolerate such violations of peace. Since then, the Poles have been bravely resisting this evil onslaught unleashed upon them.

However, Germany would not be the only problem faced by Poland. On Sunday, September 17th, Joseph Stalin – the leader of Soviet Russia – ordered his troops to cross the Polish border in the east, most likely in accordance with the agreement he signed with Hitler in Moscow in August. We did not expect such an attack from the Russians. Only weeks before their treaty with Germany, we were engaged in talks with the Russian leadership with regards to containing the threat from Germany.

But it is now clear to us that Stalin had no interest in containing Hitler, nor of preserving the peace. His only interest, like Hitler, is conquest. Conquest and subjugation to brutal Bolshevik ideology. His interest was in the destruction of Poland by any means necessary, including the use of military force.

This development was completely intolerable to us. As such, we and France announced to Moscow that we would fulfil our obligations to Poland against any attacking nation. The British ambassador in Moscow then handed the Russian government a final notice yesterday, on the 18th. They were to inform us by 12 o’clock on Tuesday September 19th that they were prepared to immediately withdraw their forces from Poland, or a state of war would exist between them and ourselves. Regrettably, no reply from Moscow was heard, and subsequently this country is now at war with Soviet Russia.

I know that many of you will be wondering what is to happen now, and I cannot blame you for wondering. We now face the greatest enemies this country has ever faced in its entire history. In my broadcast on September 3rd, I informed you that we would be fighting evil things. Indeed, the evils of Nazism and Stalinist Bolshevism represent the greatest threat to peace, to justice and to everything that is good. But we have a clear conscience. We have now resolved to finish this job by any means necessary. I know that you will all continue to play your part in this struggle, just as you were before, whether you be in the fighting services on the ground, or working in Civil Defence ensuring the safety of our people, or in wartime manufacturing, producing the tools we need to finish this job. The tools we will need to strike back the forces that strive against us, and ensure that the right and the good will triumph.

May God bless you all."


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Neville Chamberlain
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

I'll get back to writing the regular chapters now, but I have exams to revise for so there might be some delays.
 
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Chapter 11 - Bombs and Mountains
Chapter 11 – Bombs and Mountains
Operation Pike
April – May 1940

On the afternoon of 28 April 1940, 96 Bristol Blenheim bombers of No. 11 and No. 45 Squadron RAF took off from RAF Habbaniya and began to fly over Iraq – and then Turkey – on the approach to the Soviet city of Grozny. The first Allied strategic bombing raid on the Second World War was now taking place. Unfortunately, many planes were unable to find their targets. Of the 96, less than 35 actually found their targets [1]. The attacks over Baku that evening by 14 Squadron were more successful with over 45% of the bombers successfully striking their targets, lighting the night sky with bright orange flames. Overall, the first night of operations for the British had been less successful than hoped for. The French strike on Batum had been most successful of the 28 April raids, with most of their Martin Marylands striking their targets, which included the port on the Black Sea [2]. During the Batumi raid, civilian areas of the city had been hit, which gave the Pravda publishing machine plenty of propaganda for the next day’s paper.

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Oil refinery in Grozny hit by Allied bombers [4]

Stalin was, as expected, outraged by the attacks. He was quick to condemn the “unspeakable evil imperialist aggression” and vowed revenge for dead Soviet citizens. He ordered that anti-air defences in the Caucasus be stepped up and that any efforts to make an overture to the Allies be stopped [3]. As far as Stalin now saw it, Britain and France were his main enemies. In order to fight them more effectively, he finally settled on deepening relations with Göring’s Germany. To this effect, he dispatched Molotov to renegotiate the existing German-Soviet agreements in the hope of building a formal military alliance between the two [5].

The few daylight raids brought similar, if slightly lower, success rates. By day 4 (2 May 1940), Allied bombers had begun to face resistance from Soviet Polikarpov I-16s and I-153s who managed to shoot down 5 bombers approaching Baku. Anti-aircraft guns had also been moved into place, but few of the troops possessed the newest 37mm and 85mm guns.

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Polikarpov I-16

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Polikarpov I-153


On the political front, the Soviets were now attempting to persuade Turkey and Iran to stop Allied bombers flying over their territory. On the 5th, the Soviet ambassador in Ankara, Aleksey Terentyev, presented Turkish president İnönü and Foreign Minister Saracoğlu with an ultimatum threatening to bomb Turkish cities unless they stopped French and British military aircraft from violating their airspace. Not wanting to bring Turkey into the war, İnönü complied and informed the French and British governments that they would no longer be able to fly over their territory to carry out attacks on Russia. Iran did the same on the 8th.

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İsmet İnönü, President of Turkey

The withdrawal of Turkish and Iranian support for the operation severely hampered Allied operations. Their main routes to Batumi and Grozny were finally cut off. Daytime raids were halted after this point. Despite this, night raids over Baku continued as the Ankara and Tehran had little means of stopping the Allies.

On 15 May 1940, the night raiding of Baku was temporarily halted as events further west now took precedent…

Footnotes
- [1] RAF Bomber Command had a terrible accuracy record in early-to-mid 1940, so this isn’t too unreasonable a success rate.
- [2] Whether by accuracy or by luck is up for you to decide since this is my first real attempt at describing an alternate military operation, and I don’t know how accurate it seems to you.
- [3] I made a brief mention of this in Chapter 8.
- [4] This is actually a picture of the Columbia Aquila refinery in Romania during Operation Tidal Wave
- [5] As of TTLs April 1940, Germany and the Soviet Union are co-belligerents fighting common enemies, and not formal allies.

Comments?
 
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There is a little problem with Persia...basically they don't have the mean to intecept the allied bomber, sure they can try but the persian air force used outdated biplane that really can't come near the aircraft the French and the British are using, even knowing their route so while there will be a formal protest and the persian government will stop the british to use their facilities, honestly there is nothing that they can do to phisically stop the planes; not considering that were planned also night operation and in this case both Turkey and Persia have even less capacity of intercept the allied mission
Even because Persia want to remain neutral and avoid anger both side and there is also the matter of the german personell there so while they fear the Soviet they must also consider possible British repercussion.
Finally better taking in consideration that at the moment the Red Air Force in term of pilot training, plane maintenance and reliability and general equipment is more a danger for itself than for the enemy and knowing his usual response there will be a series of little purge to eliminate the scapegoat for the not stellar performance of the military.
Honestly the more probable outcome of the Soviet diplomatic pressure will be a slow down of the day operations, probably limiting to the Persian route and going only on less effective night raid (that will be hard for the Turkysh to intercept or even detect)
 
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Given that the Entente didn't manage to stop the German onslaught in 1940's OTL , with more Soviet support I don't see how they can ITTL....
 
There is a little problem with Persia...basically they don't have the mean to intecept the allied bomber, sure they can try but the persian air force used outdated biplane that really can't come near the aircraft the French and the British are using, even knowing their route so while there will be a formal protest and the persian government will stop the british to use their facilities, honestly there is nothing that they can do to phisically stop the planes; not considering that were planned also night operation and in this case both Turkey and Persia have even less capacity of intercept the allied mission
Even because Persia want to remain neutral and avoid anger both side and there is also the matter of the german personell there so while they fear the Soviet they must also consider possible British repercussion.
Finally better taking in consideration that at the moment the Red Air Force in term of pilot training, plane maintenance and reliability and general equipment is more a danger for itself than for the enemy and knowing his usual response there will be a series of little purge to eliminate the scapegoat for the not stellar performance of the military.
Honestly the more probable outcome of the Soviet diplomatic pressure will be a slow down of the day operations, probably limiting to the Persian route and going only on less effective night raid (that will be hard for the Turkysh to intercept or even detect)
I’ve edited the update now, hope it’s improved it.
 
Given that the Entente didn't manage to stop the German onslaught in 1940's OTL , with more Soviet support I don't see how they can ITTL....

And futhermore part of British army is fighting in Sweden and occupying Norway. So BEF in France is going to be even
smaller than in OTL.

And even if France somhow manage to resist Wehrmacht better thn in OTL it is going to be really hard fight.
 
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