A Navy with an Empire - Banzai !!

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The year is 1936 and I enter the Emperor’s service with a mission. We’ve got a dream of turning Japan into a navy with an empire. Accomplish that fact we shall.

For now Japan still is a liberal conservative democracy but we must plot towards changing that as soon as possible so we can start our task, possibly even thru a military coup if necessary. Our first steps towards securing that was the replacing of quite a few minsiters to more favourable ones.

We replace the laissez faire capitalist armaments minister for one who knows how to actively optimalize resource management as resources are a key ingredient for the future success of our nation. Seeing we view the future depending on the navy it was evident to replace the minister of intelligence to one specialised in naval matters. Evidently the same goes for military matters. We also have a fair idea for a new foreign minsiter but for now we’d have to do with the current one which is quite popular and good for our standing in the world.

Looking beyond the government the clear issue was the fact we were resource-challenged. Careful consideration had to go in these matters. To me the obvious solution was expansion but for now we had to make do with what we had and prepare. Our industrial capacity was very solid but keeping it suplied was another matter, esp oil and rubber. Convoys were set up, lots of them and trade on teh world market was initiated.

Manchukuo was a puppet state of us and thus provided us quite some resources too. With the convoys from Korea and Taiwan to the mainland set up we were able to strike a delicate resource balance. This situation had a direct influence on our military ideas and concepts.

We had a more than decent army, infantry heavy with soem cavalery thrown in. We had a few motorized/mechanised/armoured units but decided the oil supplies ought to be for the fleet only so research towards that was halted and the few units we had like that were sent as a gift towards friendly regimes in Europe.

Now, the fleet was the centerpiece of our military and the plan was to make it even more so. The airforce of divebombers were made a subdivision of the navy as part of our advances in carrier doctrines and the army were to be retrained to interact better with the navy.

Military wise, we relied upon Grand Admiral Yamamoto to put our plans to work in the field. A great leader of unrivalled brilliance, he didn’t disappoint us. Put in charge of the whole military he set up our troops according to the new doctrine. The navy was divided in 3 fleets, the main fleet with the most modern ships under himself with Admirals Koga and Nagumo taking command of the 2 smaller fleets, situated in Korea and Taiwan. Each fleet consisted of a core of several battleships and carriers, surrounded by cruisers. The airforce was divided between the 3 fleets. The armies were stationed in the cities were the fleets were anchoured, ready to be sent to duty at any time. Nagano, another great Admiral was put in charge of the army management side of the New Military.

Lots of fields in which we could research but once again as before our doctrinal choices pretty much decided for us. It’ll come as no surprises lots of effort was put towards anything concerning naval issues and doctrines. Connected with that carrier-carried divebombers but no submarines. We opted for an open seas direct battle doctrine.

Another area we concentrated on was industrial advances. How to use resources more efficient, how to increase our capacity and such. This was quintessial to countering our resources troubles and getting the fleet production in gear.

Seeing we also wanted our army to work closely with the navy, we started recruiting and training elite marine units. Those would be our core troops, our finest men. We saved no trouble or effort to get a marine corps up and running at the greatest efficiency. We can’t wait to start putting those in the fields but it’ll take time ...

 

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Halfway thru 1936 we finetune our plans somewhat as the development of a marine corps starts taking shape in earnest. Industrial capacity is somewhat reduced in order to stockpile resources. Strides are being made concerning naval mainteance and support. Our fleet was now ready at our disposal at a whim.

The Spanish Civil War erupts in Europe. Hitler’s Germany decides to help out and gets Franco to join the Axis. We send some help over, more token help though but it improves our standing. Our oil supplies from now on will all be devoted to the navy, research into armoured and mechanised units gets halted and we get rid of the few such divisions we have (token help remember). Research in the areas of rocketry, nukes and subs also suffer because of our focus being totally shifted on our current projects to improve the navy.

By year’s end 1936 the first marines entered training, to be ready early next year for some hardcore action. Republican Spain joins the Comintern to counter the Axis alliance, tensions are on the rise in Europe but for now the conflict is being fought in Spain only but with help from all sorts of sides. Closer to home Nationalist China is making advancing in subjugating rival factions around China. Sinkiang was annexed and the Commies weren’t doing too well though they were hanging on nicely.

1937. On the homefront propaganda is doing its work. People start seeing the need for leadership like ours and we have good hopes that the upcoming elections will install us firmly. People started believing war was inevitable and who better to have in charge then.

And this duly happened. When elections role around we oversaw a change from liberal conservative to paternal autocrat. Everything was going as planned. A new foreign minister was installed to establish good relations with nations with similar poilicies around the world. The democratic world did not like this. Not much they could do though. More new personnel was added in the minsitry of armaments and security according to plan.

The next logical step was waging war. Like Hitler used Spain we needed a trainingground for our renewed forces. The full subjugation of Manchukuo was just that. Manouvers around the border were staged, preparing the offensive and trying to provoke them into making a wrong move. And so it happened.

One infantry army was set up protecting our current holdings in Korea. The 2nd infantry army attacked from the West as main offensive, supported by the cavalery corps which attacked from Korea. Carriers were situated off teh coast from which dive bombers supported the attack by constant pounding of the enemy forces. While the Manchukuo forces tried to bolster some defence, the Marines were unloaded in the East to strike from the other side and encircle them. This airsupported 3 pronged attack was way too much for the hapless enemy to take and they duly surrendered soon.

Manchuria now was fully Japanese as the Manchukuo state was annexed. More convoys were set up to transport the new resouces back home, just steel and coal though. Evaluating our forces we mus conclude the new doctrines seem to work very fine. The marines easily carried the dayand were far superior to anything out there. The airforce did exactly what it had to do but faced so little opposition it’s hard to assess them. The cavalery proved to be very useful as rapid intervention force. We had no tanks but blitzed we sort of did anyway. The infantry took some losses but performed adequately, nothing more though and it’s not like the opposition was very strong. The test was satisfactory now for the real job ...

 

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And the real job is the invasion of China. Huge, vast and full of resources and torn by internal strife. Not to mention close by, the perfect target. Plans are made for the invasion to start in early 1938.

We will attack from Manchuria with a quick drive with the cavalery army to Beijing while being backed up by 2 infantry armies, moving slower and consolidating the gained lands. Who said u need armours to blitz? Obviously this all happened under air support.

That wasn't all either, the coup de grâce would be a naval marine invasion from Taiwan just south of Shanghai striking straight at the industrial heartland of China while most of their armies were caught up defending Beijing. Continuous air strikes from carriers prepared the terrain.

Yamamoto's plan couldn't fail, nicely crafted and totally applying our superior doctrines. Yamamoto himself kept the Chinese fleet at bay with the Imperial Fleet. Keeping the easy pickings for himself as the Chinese hardly have a great fleet.


And the plan worked like a charm. The northern invasion armies soon found themselves at the gates of Beijing, however compared to how easy it went up till then we now faced a large well dug in Chinese frontline defending Beijing.

We halt the offensive and let the bomber squads keep pounding the defense lines. This was the cue for the naval invasion. As was expected teh Chinese were very much caught unprepared seeing as they were halting the
northern invasion.

Chinese air forces however had concentrated themselves around the capital area of Nanking and provided more than expected resistance. But we have lots of carriers and lots of planes on those carriers and those numbers were overwhelming when compared to the Chinese airforces.

We took some losses, some 2 bomber squadrons, but in the end we won the battler over Nanking. Meanwhile the Marines had moved up along the coast and took Shanghai were reinforcements were delivered. A beachhead was established there to support our offensive in Nanking.

The Chinese fleet tried to escape to the south but was intercepted by Yamamoto. It wasn't pretty, let's just say the Chinese fleet is a thing of the past now and that Yamamoto was a superior tactician . In the north battles between our infantry and Chinese partisans erupted in Beijing. It wasn't pretty and lots of Japanese soldiers died.

We didn't want the same thing happening while trying to take Nanking, despite having our elite units there, so we set out to totally and utterly crush any, possible resistance there and wipe out everything that stood in our way. And so it happened.

This did not go down well with the Western democracies, esp the USA, as they started referring to it as the Nanking Massacre and the population suddenly all knew about the Japanese Empire. Ah well, we have a war to win. Needless to say this strenghtened Chinese resolve to resist.

Back home the industries shifted into a higher gear thanks to the resources from Manchuria. When it comes to steel and coal we are well provided but ruber we don't have and for oil we were dependent on the world market.

With Beijing now also under our control, despite taking heavy lossess we established our northern headquarters there. Next up was the linking up of the northern and southern armies along the coast. The ChHinese tried to pup a stop to that plan.

But as long as it was close to teh coast naval air support was enough to deter the Chinese, seeing their airforce had been heavily battered. The elite marines and cavalary army met up and tried to encircle the Chinese detachment using its superior speed despite the lack of knowledge of the terrain.

This worked largely and the marines managed to catch some Chinese divisions but the rest escaped into the mountains deeper inland which stopped our operation as our horsies lacked certain mountain skills. The cavalery army was now held back in a holding defensive role while the marines advanced carefully.

Meanwhile, because of the JApanese invasion, the Chinese communists had benefitted taking over several nationalists holdings and were now establishing some serious gains in the north. This opened perspectives ...

However we now had to face the limitations of our chosen doctrines and modus operandi. Despite it having huge benefits, teh drawbacks started to become clear. After the Chinese managed to catch some Japanese divs out of supply it became clear.

We just didn't have the means necessary to conquer and hold such a large and diffferent terrain that was China. Well, we could do it but it would have been at enormous costs and just not worth it. Expeditions in the West would have been very costly. We invaded China for the resources, now we had to try to translate our position into one where we get exactly that.

We currently holded the whole coast, which contained just about all the nationalists industries and the area around Beijing. The Nationalists were stuck with lots of resources and no industries to use them in and with their whoel coast occupied very limited ways to get them on the world market. Not to mention the obvious communist threat.

Yamamoto entered secret negogations to try and hammer out a deal. Both sides did not like each other but at the moment both would benefit from a deal. So a deal was struck. We got what we wanted, a steady flow of resources without needing to continuously fight over it while we promised the Nationalists to return al occupied lands and help them beat the commie insurgence.

Not to mention the fact an end to hostilities costing many men, many more than on our side, at least for now. We both knew both sides would take the earliest opportunity to renege on the agreement. But for now we happily accepted the resources for our industries while helping the Nationalists beat up and eventually eliminate the communist threat.

The elite Marines had yet again proven their worth and their leader, Hata was promoted to Field Marshall and put in charge of all the Marines and now reported directly to Grand Admiral Yamamoto. The Japanese people overall were pleased even though quite a few infantry men were lost, about a third of the northern invasion army had not returned from China.

This had been a real war but one that had been concluded more than satisfactorily, we got what we wanted and we weren't tied up there so we were free to pursue other avenues ...

 

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And one of those other avenues included getting access to the resources we still lacked, namely oil and rubber. Malaysia and Indonesia looked like the place to be and we increased the efforts of the war machine. The Japanese people were more than pleased with our recent victories so that wasn’t much of a problem.

But another reorganisation of the armed forces was to be done before we could start all that. Losses from the war had to be recovered and seeing the enemy would have more prowess next time, imrpovements had to be made. Infrastructurewise our home provinces were very well defended with forts and anti air batteries virtually everywhere, however what was still needed was an elite army for the defense of the home isles. So just that was what got done. If anyone were to ever come close to landing in Japan (very unlikely seeing our fleet) then we’d be xure to put up such a fight they’d wish they hadn’t..

Meanwhile we garrissoned Korea with some lower quality infantry divs and left the plains of Manchuria to the cavalery divisions. Some units were stationed in China to make xure the Chinese would upkeep their shipment promises. The elite marine army was moved to Taiwan from where it kept itself prepared for rapid deployment.

There also was the matter of the defence of our homelands on the seas and in the air. On the seas, quite unsurprisingly, everything was a-ok but in the air our defensive capabilities left a lot to be desired. The Chief of Staf as can be detected very much was a proponent of the school of defence. Research was focused on developping new fighter models to defend our skies. This would keep us busy for a bit.

But the situation in Europe decided otherwise. Germany annexed Austria to their realm in the Anschluss. Germany looking ever more powerful, seemed like an excellent partner in crime to us, esp considering we were contemplating war against the Allies of the UK and France. With Germany to distract them strongly in Europe it could make our job a lot easier. So midway thru 1938 we officially joined the Axis together with Germany and Italy.

This made the USSR get a lot more suspicious of us as border patrols increased along Manchuria. Our research into new fighter planes went most satisfactorily and soon we started building our new air defence corps, a full 12 divs. Our elite land defence units also started their work. In the lull between wars we also figured it to be safe to upgrade the Imperial Fleet. We also found new ways of converting coal to oil at favourable rates, making us not overly dependent on the world market for oil. We were making big strides.

Our new found alliance proved to be a very thing inderdeed. The German experts divulged several advances when it came to submarine construction and warfare. It was a field we had neglected so far but with the kickstart it recieved now we added it to our arsenal of naval weapons. Totally contrary to our power projection decisive battle doctrines for the seas we nevertheless set up a submarine corps with reasonably advanced subs thanx to German engineers. From Italy we copied spaghetti, it proved to be very popular amongst our elite marine units.

Obviously we returned the favour. We didn’t have much in the way of a technogical edge over the Germans (well, not in categories they could use – they ain’t gonna run far with a carrier after all) but adding our recently much enlarged impact on world matters to the Axis alliance was a very nice for Hitler. He could me even more of a bully in diplomacy now and be ever more daring. The Sudetenland soon was demanded and received. A few months later the rest of Bohemia was added to Greater Germany without a shot being fired or any real objection. A puppet state was installed in Slovakia too. Yamamoto’s fleet which had been refitted nicely cruising along Hong Kong, French Indochina and Singapore I bet was no stranger to that.

It also made us more bold in our moves. With the defence corpses on land and in the air in place we started looking to get on the offensive again. We started asserting and increasing our influence in the Filippines, which was not appreciated at the other end of the Pacific. We decreased investments in science a bit in order to create more marine units, a telling sign if ever there was one. The Imperial fleet now consisted of a set of battleships, carriers with new naval bombers, surrounded by cruisers protecting the transports holding the rapid deployment marine forces. This fleet could strike hard anywhere anytime, well maybe not the very inland of continents.

The situation in Europe escalated as Italy declare war upon Albania and Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with th USSR whiel massing armies on the Polish border. Well, actually the situation in the whoel world escalated as we staged a coup in the Filippines putting a fascist government in place, this should make it very easy for us to take it over if we ever wanted to. Our American sources inform us that Roosevelt increased military spending dramatically.

Military wise in the world, the US had the largest airforce in the world and its fleet was 2nd only to ours, but only just. They also had several well trained marine units. On the other hand it was the USSR who had the largest army, but not all of it high quality though. Just like the Italians really. They also had quite large numbers but if the war versus Albania was anything to go by highly effective effective it wasn’t. The Germans had the largest armoured forces, very well trained infantry and a nice set of tactical bombers and subs. The Axis powers looked strong. The Allied powers of the UK and France were powers too but looked outnumbered and outgunned. The US and USSR looked to stay offside for the time being. Feeling on top of the world Germany sent a demand to Poland to hand over Danzig or ...

 

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Or Germany would declare war. In no way wanting to give up Danzig and backed by its allies, the UK and the Commonwealth and France Poland refused to give in. World War II had started. On the offensive there was Germany, obviously, with its prime allies of Italy and Japan. The minor nations of Slovakia and Nationalist Spain also were part of the Axis. On the other hand was Poland, the UK, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The Soviets stayed out but did try and make the best of the opportunity and invaded the Baltics.

Military operations had commenced and the Imperial Fleet, already lined up close to Malaysia, started hostilities. Because of the blitzkrieg the Allies, who were brutally kicked into a wartime economy recently, faced with an already war prepared Axis, took some major early setbacks. Hong Kong easily falls to a marine invasion. Malaysia provided some more issues but still largely unprepared as it was, was soon taken after. Our submarine units prove to be a very good investment as several Allied convoys were intercepted. The only downside is the fact we now have to delve into our oil supplies for all the fleet movement.

Back in Europe, the UK, unable to do much on the continent itself, started relentlessly bombing German factories and infrastructure. As was to be expected the Polish forces were no match for the superior Germans. They soon found themselves in Warsaw threatening the very existance of the Polish state. We continued sinking Allied convoys while asserting our control over the Maysian territory. We were right at home while the Brits had more important things to handle back home, half the world away. The other agressors moved forward too. Italy, from their base in Ethiopia, moved into British East Africa while the Soviet Union annexed Estonia.

Our own operations shift into a higher gear. A 2nd marine army is ready for deployment. We decide upon Naval Bombers as the way forward for the airforce and research gets changed accordingly. The sub fleet gets sent out to India to hamper local shipping there but takes some heavy losses and needs to be pulled back for refitting. A new type of heavy battleships enteres full production and should down the line give us pacific hegemony. We start looking to French Indochina for further actions and contemplate what to do with the state of Siam separating Malaysia and French Indochina. We decide upon taking out Siam so to be able to set up a compact South Asian Japanese zone which we can control completely. Defeat did not enter our minds, resistance had been futile at best so far.

As was planned Siam was invaded. They joined the Allies and we soon found ourself fighting joined Siamese, French and British forces in Siam. A large battle over Bangkok ensued. It cost us 4 air divisions and a whole set of reinforcements but we were succesful in beating the Allied forces effectively opening up the whole of South East Asia to us. We duely took advantage and established Japanese rule over Indochina and Siam. We make Bangkok our beachhead there and from there send our sub fleet on new raiding missions around India. We now shared a border with British India in Burma and set up a frontline.

While in Europe Finland caves to Russian demands and hands over several provinces, thus avoiding certain war, we set up a convoy system transporting the new found rubber resources back home to Japanese factories. New destroyer s were built especially for this occasion. We were now dependent on foreign trade for oil only and now with war going on at high prices for us. The 2nd set of raids from our subs hit British India hard and we try to move into Birma. We succeed in advancing a bit but evetually we fell back behind the river and dug ourselves in. The Brits didn’t look like trying to kick us out atm and we didn’t have the forces to subjugate India so we hit a sort of stalemate. No such stalemate in Europe as Germany annexes Poland and the USSR annexes Latvia.

It’s february 1940 now and the Axis powers were doing very well. Italy also started winning in French North Africa and Germany was gearing up to invade France. For Japan the obvious objectives still to go were copleting the coup in the Filippines and getting Guam and thus getting the US out of the Japanese zone of interest. The Filippines were up first. While the Imperial Fleet was underway the USSR annexed Lithuania. With the first experiences of war under our belt we make some changes to our cabinet. We install an efficient sociopath as Minister of Security and install a Decisive Battle Doctrine proponent as Chief of Army after the tactic had proved to be so successful.

We easily complete the Filippines takeover, our troops are able to walk into Manilla freely and easily subjugate the islands as part of the Japanese Empire. Our Italian allies in East Africa bring us news about a large British fleet that was sighted making its way to India. We subsequently withdraw our subback under the cover of the Imperial Fleet. The Brits wouldn’t dare attack that and for now we don’t feel much for withdrawing the heart of our forces from our sphere of influence. This made it so, that apart from some cross river shooting, war between the Allies and Japan became a minor sideshow to the main act in Europe.

Obviously as could be expected the US did not appreciate our taking over of the Filippines at all. They hit us with an oil embargo effectively making is dependent on our own reserves. Luckily those were more than sufficient for now. Still a way out would have to be found.

In Europe the MolotovRibbentrop had been respected and the USSR had made xure they got their share of Poland. This made the USSR share a border with Germany. The USSR now started demanding Bessarabia from Romania but for now they refused. The UK kept hitting Germany hard with carpet bombing but it didn’t stop the Germans from massing troops at the other side of the Maginot line. Then Germany declared war upon Belgium and Luxembourg in an effort to circumvent the Maginot line. An Eben Emael does not make a Maginot. When Lucemboug falls, as can be expected extremely soon, Italy annexed Albania and DOWed Yugoslavia.

We are occupying ourselves installing the new regime in the Filippines. Especially the infratructure in the jungle could do with an upgrade. Same for Indochina. The US positions a large fleet in Guam. Popular support in the USA for a war was at an alltime high. By april 1940 signs of the US getting more and more into war production were clear. War was inevitable, we might as well strike first ...

 

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In Europe Germany’s plans were working like a charm. They had already taken Brussels and were on the move to Paris. Italy struck France hard in Africa taking big parts of French North Africa. The UK is holding firm in Egypt. The Romanians, like the Fins, budge too now and give up Bessarabia to the soviets. The Chinese leader Chiang Kai Check stays firmly in control and is started to express more and more anti-Japanese sentiments. By may Paris is encircled.

June 1940, Paris falls and subsequently France capitulates after realising they were completely out of their depth. A new ,Vichy France was set up with a small contingent of Free French fighting on with the British. Northen France and the Atlantic coast was ceded to Germany, Paris included, Italy demanded and recieved Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia whereas we officially got Indochina handed over to us. Italy annexes Yugoslavia with German help and declares war on Greece. Our industries were in full force now. Our navy was the largest and most advanced in the world. Expansion plans were being made. The Axis was thriving.

War in Europe was very subdued all of a sudden. Apart from regular British bombing raids on Germany and the Italians having a lot of trouble in Greece the Axis reigned supreme. Hitler informs us of his plans to strike at the USSR in July. We protest but Hitler cannot be dissuated. Knowing we would need him for our own plans later, we promise to join in while pointing out our army was not suited for large scale inland warfare. On July the 1st Germany DOWs the Comintern, which apart from the USSR contained Mongolia, whome we would face, and Republican Spain.

The USSR has tanks at our borders and apart from some low quality infantry we had no real force tehre, most of it being tied up in the suth of the empire. On the otehr hand the Mongols pose no trouble and we easily capture the whole of Sakhalin and any Russian island in the area. Northern Manchuria gets invaded by Russia. We try and sue for peace with the soviets, wenever wnated this war, but they refuse. They left us no choice but to get the marines in. A tactical bombing squadron was soon into place and we used the terrain very well to disadvantage the enemy panzers.

The marines land from Yamamoto’s fleet in Vladivostok and take the city. Any Russian ship in the area is quickly disposed of. The USSR also strikes into Koningsberg from the Baltics while Republican Spain manages to elminate France and its armies. This only increased Axis resolve and pushed us all closer together. Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria joined the Axis.

We moved troops overseeing the Chinese resource deliveries to Manchuria and soon had enough troops there to go on the offensive ourselves. Manchuria was quickly taken back and the Russians were pushed back behind the Amiu river. This was more than far enough for us but we promised Hitler to tie up a considerable amount of soviet troops there if he’d help realise our own plans. We had decided upon invading Indonesia to replenish our oil stockpiles. The Italians meanwhile hadn’t sat still either. Greece was annexed and Egypt was taking from the British with heavy fighting taken place around the Suez Canal.

We strike hard and fast in Indonesia while Germany invades Holland proper. Hardly a great military power our offensive are very succesful. The US is getting really pissed now but we reach new heights in carrier doctrines that marvel the US. Insults are exhanged. That was hardly going to stop us though. We added Indonesia to our possessions while Germany added Belgium (Antwerpen had long held out) and Holland to theirs. Belgian Congo didn’t fall into Axis hands as the Brits beat us to it and Papua New Guinea fell to Australia.

On the Eastern Earopean front Fermany controlled the Baltics, Bielorussia and Moscow. Leningrad held out while the Ukraine was still largely sobiet controlled. Germany settled a dispute between its minor allies Romania and Hungary in Hungary’s favour. Romania had no choice but to comply. Transsylvania was ceded to Hungary. Germany was all powerful in Europe. Italy meanwhile had crept up in Africa next to Congo taking lots of British lands. French West Africa was now Vichy French and Egypt was Italian. In the middle East Brits and French in Syria stood firm.

October 1940 came as a bit of a shock to us, yet not totally unexpected. China ceased sending resources. We retaliated by sending the elite marines and the fleet to take Shanghai and surroundings but stopped there. We didn’t let this escalate into a full blown war as we didn’t want to get caught in the Chinese trap again. Chang Kai Check seemed to be able to live with that and didn’t push it much. Only the air was often made unsafe wit scrambles. Over the cuorse of the standoff thsi would cost us several divisions of planes but it’s ot liek we had sent our most hightech stuff to China anyway. It did hurt our resources flow quite a bit but soem creative accounting and putting new convoys into place set us straight again. There wasn’t an abundance but we could get by.

Leningrad fell to Germany after being cut of from the rest of the USSR whereas the Germans now also started advancing into the Ukraine. Winter was coming though. With our own fronts stabilised and the Axis seemingly being the foremost pwoer in the world we turned our attention elsewhere and sent a formal demand to the US stating we want Guam to be handed over to us. They made the wrong choice and refused ...

 

[BiB]

On the 4th of December 1940 we strike the surprised US fleet at Guam with the Imperial Fleet. Carriers loaded with various divisions of the new top of the line naval bombers supported by our new big gun battleships attack at dawn. It was a total success as several battleships and carriers were sunk and the marines managed to take over the island. The US joined the Allies and was now at war with the powerful Axis.

Now the time had come for Grand Admiral Yamamoto to really shine, major open seas battles all over the Pacific awaited him and we had the fullest confidence in him bringing it to a good end. Various skirmishes between cruiser fleets ensued but the major fleets managed to evade each other. Our marines got a chance to showcase their island dropping skills and did just that. Several US islands fell to the Japanese, like Wake and Midway. The US fleet had reassembled itself near a place called Pearl Harbour as our Imperial Fleet moved ever more forward.

This all took a serious time amount of time and soon it was summer ’41 already with no major battle yet to have taken place. On the Russian steps the German blitzkrieg had been downgraded to a mere war of attrition which suited the USSR but still with Leningrad and Moscow under German control their situation looked dire at best. The Ukraine was the true battleground of this war.

The UK had managed to build up Britain itself into Fortress Britain and any chance of Germany setting foot on ground there was pure fantasy. However in the jewel of the crown of its empire, India, unrest was rising ut as long as the Axis kept up their war efforts the UK had more important issues to tackle. The Italian offensive in Africa had been halted as the UK managed to hold on to Suez and stopped the Italians at Kongo and Rhodesia.

As much as the Ukraine was the battleground of the land part of the war, so became Pearl Harbour the battlefield of the naval part of the war. Yamamoto at last had managed to manouvre the US Navy into a position from which it had no choice but to try and fight it out. The amount of battleships and cruisers on each side were pretty much even but what tilted the scales in favour of the Japanese was the fact that Yamamoto, a proponent of naval-air combined arms as he was, had pushed thru research all along about carrier doctrines and now possessed easily the most advanced carrier fleet and doctrine in the world. Not to mention him being a superior tactician.

We engaged the US fleet into battle in november ‘41, a long, hardfought battle, but in the end the carrier superiority did what was expected from it for years now and pulled victory our way. The state of the art naval bombers punished the enemy ships and caused the enemy loads of trouble. It didn’t help them we sank quite a few carriers of them in the attack on Guam. This was a decisive strike versus the US concerning the Pacific naval war. The last of their carriers was sunk and qute a few battleships followed suit. We didn’t get away unscathed either. Lots of cruisers which were brought to the battle under the idea of quantity over quality were sunk and we also lost a carrier (and some planes) but all in all the core of the fleet remained intact. Hawai was consequently taken over by a marine invasion.

With a new beachhead established in Honolulu in December ’41 and our Fleet docked there we were looking ahead as to what to do now. We had reached our objective of swiping the Japanese sphere of influence clear from US interference but we still had to find a way to keep it that way. The US Pacific fleet might have been defeated, the US was far from.

However we were part of the Axis and they were part of the Allies. Now our allies had managed to seriously beat up on the allies of the USA. In the summer of ’41 Germany had swiped the Ukraine clear and was sieging Stalingrad. Italy now was a colonial power that had taken the place of France. And we had our Empire of resources. The only Ally still worth sommink to the US was the UK but they had opted for a fullly defensive position and were now more interested in trying to keep their Empire together than liberating France.

The USSR held out still during the winter of ’41-’42 but in the spring of ’42 the USSR capitulated to the Axis. The Baltics, Bielorussia, Ukraine and access to the Caucasian oil fields were ceded to Germany whereas we kept the taken islands and Sakhalin while also keeping everything up to the Amiu river occupied. 1 down, 2 to go. We replaced our foreign minister with one that had studied in London and started secret takls with Britain. As we did that German submarines strangled American convoy shipping and we had sent our fleet to the American coast to bomb California.

The growing unrest in India, combined with German submarine warfare and the amassing of Japanese troops on the Indian border made the Brits be open to suggestions. They made the sane choice and opted for their own Empire. Peace was concluded and the Commonwealth and France had no choice but to comply. Strategical bombing of Germany ceased and Axis submarine stayed clear of UK convoys. Japan kept Malasyia and Italy kept the conquered African territory however teh Suez Canal remained firmly in British hands, much to teh dismay of our Italian allies but like the French they had no choice but to comply. This made it possible for the UK to send over lots of troops to pacify India and still keep an Empire, though a diminished one. The objections from the Lord of the Admirality, Churchill, were dismissed.

However the USA, who hadn’t been hit like the UK had been for years now refused this peace and fought on. However with the German subs now able to focus only on American ships and Japanese bombing of Los Angeles combined with the Imperial Fleet taking control of the Panama Canal, cutting of the US Atlantic fleet, made the American public think twice about wanting to continue the war, esp with the peace terms as offered on the table. Dissent increased and the isolationist wing gained momentum. By autumn ’42 the US also was ready to talk peace. There was no way we could ever invade them or decisively beat them but they could make us win. And so they did. The isolationists took over when Roosevelt died and a strategic peace was concluded.

The Americans were given full control over the Americas and were free to establish their influence there. Japan got all the pacific islands including Honolulu and established their Eaast Asian-Pacific Sphere of Influence. We gave back control of the Panama Canal and the Aleutes. Germany was accepted as master of continental Europe and installed various puppet states and ultimately helped France get into power in Spain. Without soviet help Republican Spain didn’t stand a chance. Italy had their Mediterranean-African empire. The UK kept a dispersed empire.

Peace had been concluded, the world had been divided into several zones of influences with the Axis powers being predominant winners of the 2nd world war, but if this was the basis for a lasting peace remained to be seen ...