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 Denmark Egypt Kingdom of Greece Mexico Mongolia Luxembourg Netherlands New Zealand Norway Commonwealth of the Philippines Poland South Africa Yugoslavia France (until 1940) Free France (after 1940) British Raj (until 1943) Republic of India (after 1943) Axis Major: Germany Italy Japan Minor: Albania Free India Bulgaria Burma Reorganized Republic of China Croatia Hellenic State Hungary Iraq Kampuchea Laos Manchukuo Mengjiang Republic of the Philippines Romania Slovakia Thailand Turkey Vietnam France (after 1940) Finland (after 1941) 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 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, during this time, On 27th September, the Warsaw surrendered to the Germans, and the last relative significant Polish Army Troops surrendered on 6th October.

In April 1940, 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 on 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 on the war plan Fall Gelb, The 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, After successfully cut the Allied Forces form the rest of France, British, Belgian and French forces were forced to retreat towards the sea.

On 26th May, around 338,000 Allied forces had been surrounded at Dunkirk. The generals commanding the German divisions ignored the Führer's 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, the Allies were only able to evacuate more than a few dozen thousand soldiers.

Soon after the fall of Dunkirk, the German troops push towards France, In middle of the chaos and massive civilian evacuations, was unable to defend their land, Reynaud resigned on 16th June. 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 main british expeditionary forces captured on Dunkirk, The German Fallschirmjäger among the support of the Francoist Spain manage to capture Gibraltar, leaving the mouth of the Mediterranean closed to British reinforcements and a large fleet of the Royal Marine trapped. The Italian forces, grasping the opportunity surged in In North Africa successfully overrunning the poorly equipped and trained Egyptians, whilst the British defenders fell in short order thereafter, their meager supplies failing to outlast those of the Italian, Without any reserve and with the moral breaked by the disaster in dunkirk, the British and Egyptians forces were pushed in the following years, The Italians captured Cairo and Suez by around 1942, Leaving the Royal Navy unable to leave the mediterranean sea, Egypt fallen in 1943 as the Italians manage to connect with their aislated troops on Italian East Africa than still manage to hold the constant British and Ethiopian rebels attacks, following this, the African front stuck for the rest of the war

Among this victories on Africa, Italy decided to Invade the Kingdom of Greece on 28th October, but surprising all the world, the Greeks manage to defend themselves and stop the invasion a few weeks after his beginning. A few months later in the late 1940 and early 1941, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria agreed to adhere to the Tripartite Pact and thus join the Axis. 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 Serbian organizations such as National Defense, the Military and the Chetniks Association and 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, The 'Operation 25' begun on 6th April and the Axis Powers invaded Yugoslavia and Greece as well, The Yugoslavia surrendered on 17 April meanwhile the Greeks didn't surrender until 1st June, After the fall of the continental Greece and as the 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 begin the operation Unternehmen Barbarossa, An large surprise attack on the Soviet border took place, Among the Germans, the Finnish begin their own war against the Soviets taking the lands that were lost on the Winter War and Karelia, despite the best efforts of stop the invasion by the soviet defenders, they weren't able to contain the Axis Forces on mostly all the fronts, Only a few months after the operation begin, major cities as Kiev, Minsk and Leningrad fallen to the Axis Powers, and the Red Army was in total retreat towards the east, Moscow Fallen on 25th December 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 Collapse of the Soviet Union, the Axis Powers manage to occupied the lands until the A-A line without any major resistance, Despite the Soviet Union is considered dissolved on the last days of 1941, The remaining Red Army Divisions and partisans refuse to surrender and keep fighting against the Germans, even after the World War Two end, The best example of this fights is the West Russian War.

Operation Sealion (1943 - 1945)

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

In 1943 and seeing the fall of Russia, the Republic of Ireland decided to join in the Axis powers, invading Northem Ireland on early 1943, Taking advange of this new front and with mostly all the Royal Navy was trapped on the Mediterrean or in the Pacific and without an major number of American Ships on the continent, The Germans launched the largest Amphibious Attack in the history, The Operation Sealion 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 was 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 the best attempts too cut the Axis Supplies, The remanents of the Royal Navy and some U.S Navy ships on Europe were unable to defeat the Kriegsmarine and Regia Marine surpriority and the Germans manage to secure their supplies lines and begin the attacks towards the rest of Great Britain, London fallen Early 1944 and the Allied Moral breaks apart, multiple rebellions around the British Empire begins like the Levant Uprising, Among this and the following the constant offensives The Allies were forced to retreat backwards towards Scotland losing almost almost all the main cities of the country, where they manage to hold until April 1945, When the last pockets on the north of the island surrender.

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 into China. Due to this movement, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt imposed a partial embargo on some resource exports. This embargo became more restrictive and harsh as the months went by, until mid-1941, when the new 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. When the Japanese planes arrived at the docks, they found the main American fleet docked for a training exercise that was delayed a few hours, without preparation for an fast and effective defense. Taking advantage of the american position, the Dive Bombers and Torpedo Bombers began the attack. In the following hours, two waves attacked and sank most of the main ships at the base. The USS Enterprise was hit by multiple torpedoes and began to sink. Following this, the Japanese continued non-stop bombing the other ships that could barely maneuver to avoid the attacks.

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 on the pacific. In total, 4,806 Americans were killed and 2,356 others were wounded, making it the deadliest event ever recorded in Hawaii. Important base installations, such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, and fuel, were destroyed during the attack, and more than 180 US aircraft were destroyed. Over 30 light ships were damaged or sunk. All eight U.S. Navy battleships present were damaged and 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 one 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.