World War II

World War II
Clockwise from top left German soldiers advance through northern Russia · German flamethrower team · Soviet Ilyushin Il-2s over German positions near Moscow · Soviet POWs on the way to prison camps · Soviet soldiers fire artillery
Date	1 September 1939 – 4 July 1945
Place	Major theaters: Europe Pacific Atlantic Indian Ocean South-East Asia China Japan Middle East Mediterranean North Africa Horn of Africa Central Africa Australia Caribbean North and South America
Result	Axis Victory
Belligerents
Allies Major: United Kingdom Soviet Union (after 1941) United States (after 1941) Minor: Australia Republic of China Canada Belgium Brazil Egypt Kingdom of Greece Luxembourg Mexico Mongolia Netherlands Newfoundland New Zealand Norway Commonwealth of the Philippines Poland South Africa Yugoslavia Denmark (1940) France (until 1940) Free France (after 1940) British Raj (until 1943) Republic of India (after 1943) Axis Major: German Reich Italian Empire Empire of Japan Minor: Albania Bulgaria Burma Reorganized Republic of China Croatia Hellenic State Hungary Iraq Kampuchea Laos Manchukuo Mengjiang Philippine Republic Rumania Slovakia Thailand Vietnam France (after 1940) Finland (after 1941) Turkey (after 1942) Free India (after 1943) Ireland (after 1943)
Leaders
Main Allied leaders: Nikolai Bukharin Thomas E. Dewey Winston Churchill Chiang Kai-shek Main Axis leaders: Adolf Hitler Hirohito Benito Mussolini

World War II or the Second World War was an international conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945. It was the decisive event which created the timeline of The New Order: Last Days of Europe, as the Axis victory propelled the Greater Germanic Reich and the Empire of Japan to the status of world powers and resulted in the destruction of the Allies.

In OTL, the Germans do not conquer the British mainland as Operation Sealion fails, and the Germans fail to capitulate the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. In the timeline of TNO, though, the Germans succeed in many of the decisive operations that failed for the Germans in OTL.

History

Background

Interwar Years in Europe

In the aftermath of World War One, the old European order was shattered. Empires which had existed for centuries, such as Russia's, the Ottomans' or the Habsburgs', collapsed. The ascension of Germany had been stopped in its tracks, and the new republic crushed beneath humiliating military and economic restrictions, despite only being defeated on one front. Even the victorious Western allies had their nations shaken to their cores. Millions were left with their faith in the inevitable progress of man destroyed.

The first major change was the rise of the Bolsheviks to power in the former Russian Empire in 1917, with the revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin (and his successor, Nikolai Bukharin) creating the first stable socialist state, and one with a mission to spread Marxism across the world. This, though it inspired the leftists of the world, was far more empowering to the reactionaries who feared communist expansion, creating the red scare.

This first took shape in Italy. After years of growing political tensions, almost boiling over into a civil war at various points, Benito Mussolini and his fascists took power in Italy in 1922, creating the first fascist state. From there, a new movement began, in opposition to communists, socialists, liberals, and all those deemed a threat to the nation. True fascist ideologues, conservatives, nationalists, militarists and broader anticommunists united in Germany and Spain, under Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco respectively. In particular, the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany saw substantial change to Europe. What was a fairly weak liberal republic quickly turned into a ultranationalist, irredentist and totalitarian one-party state, and one which saw territorial expansion, military buildup and the reversal of the deeply unpopular treaty of Versailles.

Italy and Germany would find common ground in their fascist leadership and desire for expansion. Ethiopia, Albania, Austria and Czechoslovakia were subjugated, all to the relative inaction of the United Kingdom and the French Republic, both of whom followed a policy of appeasement, in an effort to preserve peace.

Second Sino-Japanese War

Japan invaded China on 7th July 1937 (Second Sino-Japanese War) after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, During the invasion, the Japanese troops captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing in 1937, which led to the Nanjing Massacre, After failing to stop the Japanese in the Battle of Wuhan, the Chinese central government relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior. By 1939, after several Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japan's lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate.

War in Europe.

Blitzkrieg on Europe (1939-1940)

On 1st September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag incidents, On 3rd September, based on their alliance agreements with Poland, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. By 27th September, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans, By 6th October, Poland had capitulated.

In April 1940, Operation Weserübung began, in one fall swoop, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off. Denmark capitulated after six hours and Norway in 2 months. The British failure to defend Norway led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who was replaced by the politician Winston Churchill on May 1940.

After the capitulation of Norway and months of preparation, The German Troops invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France on 10th May 1940 with war plan Fall Gelb. German armored units made a surprise push through the Ardennes and then along the Somme valley, cutting off and surrounding the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium, successfully cutting the Allied Forces from the rest of France. Desperate to escape encirclement, British, Belgian and French forces were forced to retreat towards the sea.

By 26th May, around 338,000 Allied personnel had been hemmed in at Dunkirk. Despite the orders from Generals Rundstedt and Kluge to halt, commanders of the German divisions ignored orders and continued pushing into the city. Dunkirk fell in the first days of June, despite the best attempts of the Royal Navy and volunteer ships to evacuate the bridgehead, the Allies were only able to evacuate more than a few dozen thousand soldiers.

Soon after the fall of Dunkirk, the German troops pushed towards the south of France, now in the middle of chaos and massive civilian evacuations, unable to defend their territory. On the 16th June Reynaud resigned, he was succeeded by Pétain, who delivered a radio address to the French people announcing his intention to ask for an armistice with Germany, which was affirmed on 26th June 1940.

Mediterranean and African Front.

Italian L3/33 Tankette on North Africa during the invasion of Egypt. 1940.

In the aftermath of the Fall of France, and with the bulk of the British Expeditionary Force captured in France, the German Fallschirmjäger , with the support of the Francoist Spain managed to capture Gibraltar, leaving the main mouth of the Mediterranean closed to British reinforcements and a large fleet of the Royal Navy trapped. The Italian forces, grasping at this opportunity, surged into North Africa successfully overrunning the poorly equipped and trained Egyptian Army, whilst the British defenders fell in short order thereafter, their meager supplies failing to outlast those of the Italians. Without any reserves and with moral laid low by the disasters in France and the Low Countries, the British and Egyptians forces were slowly pushed back from Egypt. The Italians captured Cairo and Suez by around 1942, leaving the Royal Navy unable to leave the Mediterranean. By 1943, Egypt was wholly occupied by the Italians, as the Italians managed to link up with troops in Italian East Africa that were desperately fending off attacks from British and Egyptian forces. Following this, the African front remained a stalemate till the end of the war.

Bolstered by their victories on Africa, Italy decided to invade the Kingdom of Greece, however, contrary to expectations, the Greeks managed to defend themselves and halted the Italian invasion a few weeks, seeing success against the Italian Army. However, it was not to last. Between late 1940 to early 1941, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria agreed to adhere to the Tripartite Pact and formally joined the Axis. Using this, Germany then pressured Yugoslavia to join as well. The Yugoslavian Regent, Prince Paul, yielded to this pressure, and declared Yugoslavia's accession to the Pact on 25th March 1941. This move was highly unpopular with the Serbian Nationalist National Defense Organisation, the Yugoslav Military and the Chetniks, alongside a large part of the Serbian population as well. Military officers (predominantly Serbs) executed a coup d'état on 27th March, forced the Regent to resign, and declared 17-year-old King Peter II to be of age.

Following the news of the coup, 'Operation 25' began on 6th April and the Axis Powers invaded Yugoslavia, using it to enter Greece. The Yugoslavians surrendered on 17th April, whilst the Greeks resisted until 1st June 1941. After the fall of mainland Greece, German Fallschirmjäger were dropped over the airfields of northern Crete to occupy the island.

Operation Barbarossa (1941)

German Troops on the Moscow front, October 1941.

On Sunday, 22th June 1941, The German forces began Operation Unternehmen Barbarossa, A large surprise attack on the Soviet border took place. Alongside the Germans, the Finnish began their own war against the Soviets, taking the lands that were lost in the Winter War and Karelia. The Soviets were taken by surprised, and were mauled in the chaos and confusion.

Despite the best efforts of the Red Army to stop the invasion with counterattacks sent at every available moment, they weren't able to contain the Axis Forces on mostly all the fronts. Major cities as Kiev, Minsk and Leningrad fell to the Axis Powers, and the Red Army was in total retreat towards the east. Moscow fell to the Germans on 25th December 1941 and Bukharin was ousted by Stalin in a coup. Despite Stalin's attempts to maintain cohesion within the Union and prepare for a possible counterattack, this coup marked the dissolution of the Soviet Union, plunging it into chaos and anarchy.

Soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Axis Powers managed to reach the A-A line without any major resistance. Despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1941, remaining Red Army Divisions and partisans refused to surrender and kept fighting against the Germans, even after the conclusion of the Second World War, the best example of this continued struggle is the West Russian War.

Operation Sealion (1943 - 1945)

Westminster Bridge a few days after the Fall of London, 1944

In 1943, seeing the fall of Russia, the Republic of Ireland decided to join in the Axis powers, invading Northen Ireland in early 1943. Taking advange of this new front and with most of the Royal Navy trapped in the Mediterrean or in the Pacific and without significant numbers of American warships near the British Isles, the Germans launched the largest amphibious assault in the history, Operation Sealion. The operation took place on the English Counties of Kent, West Sussex, East Sussex and the Isle of Wight around late 1943.

Whilst the invaders were desperate to keep the bridgehead and landing zones as wide and unassailable as possible, the defenders were scrambling to respond to the more immediate threat of the existing bridgeheads, attempting to forestall further landings and scrambling the Royal Air Force as best as could be managed, all whilst the immediate evacuation of senior government and the Royal Family was evacuated first to Scotland and later to Canada.

Despite their best attempts to cut the Axis supplies, the remnants of the Royal Navy and a handful of U.S Navy ships in the Atlantic were unable to defeat the Kriegsmarine and Regia Marina's naval superiority, and the Germans managed to secure their supplies lines and began attacking towards the rest of Great Britain. London fell in early 1944 and Allied morale having dealt multiple blows thusfar, collapsed. With the fall of London, multiple rebellions around the British Empire began, such as the Levant Uprising. With the constant stream of offensives by the Germans, the Allies were forced to retreat back to the Scottish Highlands, with cities such as Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh falling in quick succession. By April 1945, after a hasty evacuation by US Army Forces, the remaining troops left saw no other option and capitulated to the Germans.

Pacific War

Attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1940, with the Fall of France in Europe, the Japanese invaded French Indochina in an effort to embargo all imports to China. Due to this movement, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt imposed a partial embargo on resource exports to Japan. This embargo became more restrictive and harsh as the months went by, until mid-1941, when newly inaugurated U.S. President, Thomas E. Dewey, established a total embargo on oil. Following this, the Japanese Empire approved the plan for a surprise attack against the American Navy. The attack was approved by the Imperial Conference despite the concerns of some of the highest-ranking admirals in the empire, one of whom was Isoroku Yamamoto, who maintained that if the American aircraft carriers were not sunk during the attack, the Japanese Empire could be doomed to a war of attrition.

On the morning of December 7th, the Naval Base of Pearl Harbor was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft launched from six aircraft carriers of the Kidō Butai. When the Japanese planes arrived at the docks, they found the main American fleet docked for a training exercise that had been delayed.

Dive Bombers and Torpedo bombers began their attack runs at 7:48 a.m., with US Navy crews taken by surprise. In the following hours, two attack waves sank most of the main ships at the base. The USS Enterprise was hit by multiple torpedoes and began to list. Following this, the Japanese continued non-stop bombing the other ships that could barely maneuver to avoid the attacks and without preparation for an fast and effective defense.

USS Enterprise sinking during the attack.

The attack ended around midday, resulting in a total Japanese Victory and almost total devastation of the American navy in the Pacific. In total, 4,806 Americans were killed and 2,356 others were wounded, making it the second deadliest event in Hawaii's history. Important base installations, such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, and fuel storage facilities, were destroyed during the attack, and more than 180 US aircraft were destroyed, with over 30 light ships were damaged or sunk.

Amongst the eight U.S. Navy battleships present. all were damaged and six sunk, but the most devastating losses for the Americans were the sinking of their two Yorktown Class Carriers present at the base, the USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown. On the other hand, Japanese losses were light, with only 64 deaths. With this devastating defeat, the U.S. Navy was completely immobilized for almost a year while it was being rebuilt. The day following the attack, U.S. President Thomas E. Dewey declared war on Japan. In response, Germany and Italy, following the Tripartite Pact, declared war on the United States.

Pacific Theater (1942-1945)

In the early months of 1942, the Japanese Empire launched a series of invasions across the Pacific, targeting strategic locations such as the Philippines, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. Exploiting the destruction of the American Navy in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese made significant advances in the region. Notably, they also invaded Vladivostok, capitalizing on the disarray following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unlike China, where the Japanese faced staunch resistance, the Russians were unable to halt the Japanese conquest of the Russian Far East as the remnants of the Red Army were fragmented among warlords and the anarchy.

On June 4, 1942, the Japanese Navy launched an assault on the island of Midway. Unbeknownst to them, the Americans had successfully broke Japanese Naval cryptological codes and sprung a trap. Despite the Americans' inability to mount a substantial counterattack due to a shortage of aircraft carriers, Admiral Chester Nimitz decided to launch an offensive using the USS Saratoga and the USS Hornet. This desperate attempt to sink Japanese carriers and turn the tide of the war ended in another devastating defeat for the Americans, resulting in the loss of one carrier, leaving them with only one for the following months.

In the ensuing months, the Japanese established complete control over the Pacific theater. Exploiting their dominance, they broke through Chinese defenses and expanded their influence. By 1943, concurrent with Operation Sealion in Europe, India erupted in open revolt against British rule. Taking advantage of the situation, Thailand invaded the poorly defended British Malaya. Despite this, the Americans managed to had some notable victories and offensives as a campaign of Island Hopping was launched. Despite the fact that most of the original US Navy had been decimated, new and better US ships, planes, guns, tanks, and more were being produced at an astonishing rate while the IJN could not afford to replace any losses. Soon, victories like the Battle of Saipan and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which saw the near total annihalation of most IJN and IJNAF firepower. However, at the Battle of Iwo Jima, the Japanese Navy would launch a surprise attack on the US Navy at Iwo Jima in an attempt to halt the naval invasion of the island. While the battle did result in the sinking of around 200 out of 400 USN ships, the IJN had lost nearly every ship not destroyed by 1945. Thus, the Axis Powers looked for another way to end the war...

Atomic Bombing of Hawaii

Atomic cloud over Honolulu. 4th July 1945.

Following the pyrrhic victory at Iwo Jima and the rapid expansion of the American Fleet, the Japanese Empire sought a means to end the war before facing further American offensives and potential territorial losses in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the German Reich, having recently subdued the last resistance in Scotland and solidified control over Europe, proposed the use of a new weapon to compel American surrender.

On the morning of the Independence Day in 1945, high above the Hawaiian island of Oahu, a lone German bomber, launched from a unknown Japanese airport ,deployed for first and only time in the history a atomic bomb over a civilian city, the city being Pearl Harbor. The devastating attack was the deadliest event in Hawaii's history, inflicted nearly 50,000 casualties and caused the total annihilation of the American fleet stationed at the base and the total destruction of the it, Among the heavy destruction of Honolulu. Witnessing the catastrophic effects of the bomb, the American President, Thomas E. Dewey opted to pursue peace negotiations.

Actual History (OTL)

While in the TNO universe. Germany and its allies won World War II, in our timeline they did not (obviously).

Germany's atomic bomb program was cancelled by 1943, due to Nazi leadership disagreeing with nuclear physics and the sabotage of the heavy water production in Telemark, Norway.

Operation Barbarossa was a horrendous failure, seeing major defeats at the cities of Leningrad, Stalingrad and Moscow unlike in TNO.

Pearl Harbor was not as disastrous for the US Navy due to the US carriers being out at sea at the time of the attack. Additionally, Italy failed to capture Cairo, Britain was never invaded in Operation Sealion.

Additionally, Japan was forced to capitulate after being nuked twice and a Soviet invasion, Berlin fell to the Soviets, and Italy was invaded by the Allies before forced to sign an armistice.

Perhaps the biggest change from OTL is mainly, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's four Presidential Terms not occuring and the rise of Bukharin instead of Stalin.

In OTL, Roosevelt was the only US President to run for four terms, and in those four terms, he signed the New Deal to get America out of the Great Depression, built up the military and provided the Allied Powers with much needed supplies via the Lend-Lease Act, prior to America's entry to the war, seeing Nazi Germany as a big threat to democracy.

However, in the world of TNO, Republicans forced Roosevelt's hand when it came to a 1940 re-election bid, due to many Republicans attributing the New Deal with Bukharin's failed Five-Year plan, which leads us to the second pre-war divergence.

In OTL, Stalin industrialized the USSR, albeit at an extensive human cost, which greatly helped the Soviet Union defeat the Nazis alongside the Lend-Lease program to the Soviets which kept the Red Army equipped and in the fight. However, in TNO, Nikolai Bukharin, rises to power and fails to bring Russia out of the borderline feudalism that had plagued the Russian Empire and USSR, leading to the fractured state that Russia is at game start.