Balkans, Eastern Front, and Final solution
The Bulgarian King, Boris III, relays through his ambassadors to France and Germany a grieving letter of complaint towards the treatment of his brother-in-law, Umberto. The Germans blatantly tell through Minister Von Ribbentrop the Bulgarians to stop their pleas and to be ready to face consequences in the case of the lack of military commitment.
In Yugoslavia, Peter II is having major issues to calm down the puzzling fabric of the nation: the Serbs are more and more greedy and wanting to seize Albania, the Croats are angry about the fact that the Germans have occupied Istria and they have not still given the province to them and the Slovenians are incensed about Trieste. Moreover, some Chetnik and Ustaše are throwing fuel on the fire by clashing among themselves. The provinces of Zara and Fiume are annexed directly to the Croatia Banovina and the local Italians immediately face tremendous harassment.
The Yugoslav Military is deeply worn out, it suffered around 30-35% of casualties in the push towards Istria and Trieste, and the Germans are looking at them just to keep the Italians at bay in Albania, not thinking that the Yugoslavs may attain any offensive success against Visconti Prasca’s army. Thus, at the end of January, the bulk of the remaining cream of the Yugoslav Royal Army is rallied for the invasion of Albania and to quell the scattered insurgency in Kosovo by the local Albanians (stirred up by Italian agents).
The Soviets continue to push the Germans away from Moscow, retrieving the initiative and capturing back Kirov on January 13th putting large pressure on the Army Group Center. In the meanwhile, the Nazis continue to wipe out Jews, Gypsies, and communists in their rear and at the infamous Wannsee Conference of January 20th, the Final Solution is exposed and validated.
Battle for the Pacific and Southeast Asia & political evolutions
On January 1st, twenty-six Allied countries signed the Declaration by United Nations during the Arcadia Conference, now the Allies are officially born. In the meanwhile, the Japanese keep on marching through the Pacific Islands, landing larger and larger forces in the Philippines, with the start of the Bataan Peninsula siege on January 7th.
Additional landings are performed in Borneo, while the Commonwealth troops face the Japanese in heavy fighting around Kuala Lumpur starting from January 8th. The battle for Rabaul is still deeply contested and the Japanese suffer strong casualties before winning the resistance of the Australian troops at the end of the month.
Competent leadership (Lord Gort) in the Malaya campaign and the interdiction of the sea lanes by Royal Navy’s assets allow the Commonwealth to survive the Japanese tide and fight with them for every inch of the territory, draining Japanese resources while suffering a quite high death toll on their side. On January 25th Thailand declares war on the Commonwealth and the United States, opening another front.
In the following weeks, Lord Gort’s forces are obliged to retreat and abandon Kuala Lumpur, falling back towards Singapore. Despite the resolute will to resist, the Commonwealth’s troops are progressively encroached around the city by the aggressive Japanese tactics and fully sieged on February 15th.
In the meanwhile, the Japanese launch continuous bombing on Java and New Guinea, including a daring raid on Darwin, in Australia. A major naval confrontation between the Dutch and the Japanese occurs in front of the shores of Java at the end of February, with the Japanese victory. The causes of the defeat are quickly identified in the poor leadership of the Allied Fleet, who did not manage to wait for the arrival of more modern Royal Navy assets to sustain them during the battle.
The Japanese have now a virtual naval and air superiority in the area, allowing them to land at will on the various Indonesian islands until the first squads of the Mediterranean Fleet start to reach the Indian Ocean.
Italy’s status
Italy has suffered already some tremendous losses and has its own face full of bruises: the hardly gained Northeastern provinces have fallen to the Germans and Yugoslavs, the French are pressing both on the Alpine arch and in Lybia, Prince Umberto is a prisoner of the Nazis and the French-bashing took its toll on his own physical and mental shape. The King and Emperor Vittorio Emanuele is frailer and frailer, and the blow of his heir’s capture has shaken the Soldier-King in deep.
Prime Minister and Chief of Government Balbo has been progressively extending his grasps on the political and military establishment, ousting the old bigwigs like Badoglio outside the key levers of power. Count Ciano has been talking with his British homologue, Anthony Eden, who replaced Viscount Halifax, about additional reinforcements to turn the tide on the Piave, being rebuffed. The British want to keep their Empire united, and the Japanese offensive has promoted the surge of Indian nationalism, obliging the Commonwealth to address the topic urgently.
After all, the Germans are bleeding themselves in Italy and Russia, the French are already under check in Africa, Britain can just await and sit out for a while. The Americans, now on the same boat and outraged by the Japanese attack, are still shocked, but President Roosevelt has the iron will to crash the Japanese until Tokyo is shattered in ruins. In any case, the Americans immediately start to bankroll the Commonwealth, the Free French, and Italy with resources, money, and more and more equipment, despite their strategy has been defined as “Japan First”.
The Balbo’s cabinet begins to enlist in its cadres the full support of the Church and the most reactionary and conservative Popular Party currents gladly rally the Catholic organizations' support, now again legal. The left-wingers are more and more split among themselves: several Socialists, Republicans, and Liberal-Socialists see the war as the continuation of 1915, with the same motivations of the interventionism, plus the fact that Italy has been attacked. Some relevant exiled politicians like Pacciardi (who distinctively fought in the Spanish Civil War against the Italian troops sent by Mussolini) return to Italy with the consent of Grandi (literally sending Balbo ballistic) and together with Saragat from the Socialist party, he is allowed to begin to organize a wider national resistance front.
The occupied Corsica is officially annexed to the Kingdom of Italy with the creation of the provinces of Ajaccio and Bastia. Local administration shifts from the military one to a civilian one, with Pietro Giovacchini (Corsican-Italian irredentist leader), promoted to Bastia Prefect and Marco Angeli (another Corsican-Italian irredentist) as Ajaccio Prefect. The French language is banned, and Italian is immediately stated as the unique official language. The Italians try to win the hearts and minds of the Corsicans by pouring millions into the infrastructure of the dirt-poor island, treated as a colony for 150 years by the French: during these years the remote villages begin to finally have medical assistance, running water and sewers. Few maquisards appear in the countryside attacking Corsican collaborationists and Italian troops, but overall, the newly redenta province does not contribute too much in terms of turmoil.
The military situation on the Northeastern front seems to be tenable on the Piave line, with the ANZAC reinforces that already poured any hole in the bruised Italian troops. The context in Trentino is now grimmer: Auer/Ora barrage seems to be doomed, since there are chances of another flanking movement from East by the Germans, and plans are drafted to transform Trento into a stronghold. Other arrangements are made to avoid any German attempt from Cadore and Cordevole valleys toward Veneto plains at the rear of the main line of Piave. The winter, snowier than usual and quite cold limited the actions of the two armies, with reduced german probings of Italian defences at Zenson del Piave and Crocetta del Montello on January 7th and 8th.
The capture of Umberto was instead more a blow in morale than a major military setback: the Italo-British forces are now reinforcing themselves between Zuara and Tripoli, receiving tons of equipment and Commonwealth colonial reinforcements. The command of Auchinleck is confirmed, even if the new energic commander of the Italian XX Motorized-Armored Corps, Lieutenant General Giovanni Messe, continuously pushes for more decisive actions being always dismissed by Marshal Graziani.
Some gliders landed on Lampedusa airfield on January 15th, loaded with élite Folgore paratroopers at the command of the Air Marshal Muti: the local Carabinieri garrison commander immediately senses the threat and orders the Carabinieri to stop the Air Marshal: it is useless, the paratroopers have the upper hand and manage to reach the house in which Mussolini is held. Muti crashes with his shoulders the wooden door screaming: “DUCE!”, finding Mussolini wearing civilian clothes and writing something on a notebook.
