A new Weltkrieg - A MP Kaiserreich AAR

[Karelian]

A new Weltkrieg - a short history



When we now look back to grim years between 1937 and 1944, it can clearly be seen that the global conflict known as a "second Weltkrieg" in German Empire and through the world was in reality a series of separate local- and global-level wars fought in Europe, America, Asia and Africa between the years 1937-1944. These wars brought ruin to empires, witnessed the rise of new major powers and redrew the map of the world in all continents. While many great powers actively pursued an aggressive and expansionist foreign policy that escalated the war even more, numerous countries who fought, or were fought over, had no choice over the matter. As this colossal conflict now draws towards end, it is time to try to analyze it in detail.

Kaiserreich 1.3b multiplayer campaign with terrain details and combat system copied from TRP to create more interesting gaming experience. The game is now over, me and four others played it through during a single LAN weekend from January 1936 to January 1944, with Germany, Commune of France, Russia, Japan and United States.

Subject of the upcoming eight update: Strange Bedfellows - 1942

 

[unmerged(191057)]

Nice! will follow

 

[Fancykiller65]

Always good to have KR AARs and its a MP one!
I'm not alone in KR MP AARs!! I think. Not sure if i was the first......
Anyway, I'm following too

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Interesting indeed.

 

[Karelian]

A Storm on the Horizon - 1936

KMS Tirpitz on the drydocks of Wilhelmshaven, 1936. The two new Bismark-class battleships were designed according to the lessons Kaiserliche Marine planners had learned from major naval engagements of 1st and 2nd Jutland and Rockall. Tirpitz was only a part of the naval expansion program Germany launched shortly before the market crash in 1936. Ever since end of the Weltkrieg on November 11th 1921, the Kaiserliche Marine had been steadily expanded and reinforced to maintain the hard-bought naval supremacy of German Empire. By 1936 the naval arms race was once again gaining speed as the expansion of Republican Navy in Britain forced Germany to fund yet another Naval Bill despite the opposition of Liberals.

The ghosts of the Weltkrieg

By 1936, the German Empire had seemingly consolidated her position as the leading global power. In continental Europe the German sphere of interest spread from Flanders-Wallonia in the west to Ukraine in the East, and all European states carved out from the collapsed Russian Empire in Brest-Litovsk had either Hohenzollerns or (in the case of Ukraine) Hapsburgs as their heads of state. Russia was weak and internally bitterly divided, and the Syndicalist labour movements in power in Commune of France, Union of Britain and Republic of the Sicilies had spent most of the 1920s recovering from their revolutions and internal turmoil. Outside Europe only Western Hemisphere remained outside German reach, as Freistaat Mittelafrika controlled majority of Africa and Algostasien GmbH was "a state within state" in southern parts of German puppet empire of Pu Yi in China. All in all it was too good to last. It is futile to name a single event as the starting point of the domino effect that once more pushed the world into chaos, since 1936 was a year filled with events of wide geopolitical importance.


"Bismark of Moscow" - Anton Denikin brought the short-lived democratic experiment in Russia to an end in order to "save the Motherland", as the old General himself commented. Under his leadership the decades of internal unrest and foreign domination in Russian politics came effectively to an end.

In Russia the assasination of Alexander Kerensky was followed by dissolution of Duma by the orders of General Denikin, who soon allied with the Conservatives led by Patriach Mikhail Pol'skii and transferred the capitol to Moscow where the Civil War-era general created a new administrative bureaucracy to consolidate his new authoritarian regime. In this situation Denikin was in dire need of internal allies, and thus the Conservative, monarchist elements of Orthodox Church gained new influence within Russian government. Internationally the new government of Russia had a relatively easy first year - even though the "Bloody Baron" Ungern von Stenberg in Mongolia announced new territorial claims that aimed to unify all Mongol regions under his control were already indicating the future trouble that lay awaiting in the former Russian sphere of interest in Central Asia.


Chengis Khan reborn to himself and an utterly mad and ruthless warlord to all foreign governments, Ungern von Sternberg ruled Mongolia as his personal possession.

The year was especially tense in central Europe. The Berlin stock market crash effectively brought down the Polish economy and was enough to force the Danish government to start a reform program and bring Dutch Social Democrats of SDAP to a new coalition government in the Netherlands. Elsewhere in Mitteleuropa the new economic downturn fuelled the flames of radical nationalism in Lithuania - after the diplomatic relations between Vilnius and Berlin were severed as the peak of the crisis, the stability of economic heartland of German sphere of interest was clearly in jeopardy for the first time since the turbulent 1920s.

In Western Europe the election of new Pope, Stephen X, altered the balance of power in Italian Peninsula as the Italian Federation decided to seek protection from Germany, resulting to the Berlin-Rome Agreement signed on July 3rd. The decision to abandon the Italian postwar policy of neutrality was most likely affected by the fact that the elections in Commune of France brought into power a new coalition that was clearly united behind the Sorelian goal of revenge against Germany. When mass conscription was re-established and a major rearmament program initiated, it is no wonder that Stephen X first brought the hated Austrians back to Italian politics and subsequently sought German protection. In October the British Trade Union Congress elections saw the triumph of autonomist fection led by Niclas y Glais. Initially foreign observers thought that this would indicate continuation of the isolationist foreign policy of UoB, but history would soon prove them wrong.

In September 1936 the global attention was mostly focused on the US Presidential elections of 1936. For the first time in ages, there was a true contest between four candidates that all had substantial regional support in different parts of the United States. Ultimately the deep disappointment to the inefficient Hoover administration and old parties in general created a fateful combination with the general mistrust towards syndicalist worker movement of Jack Reed and CSA. During the tense autumn of 1936 America First-Union Party candidate Huey Long barnstormed through the Midwest, lurind bitter agrarian voters to their side by promises of future prize regulation and sweeping reforms that would correct the past injustices of American economy.


Combining religious rhetorics and parallers to his inspiring speeches, Huey Long was able to "steal the thunder" of Jack Reed´s promises of social reforms by portraying himself as a supporter of the rights of common Americans who had deeply suffered from the economic stagnation of United States in post-Weltkrieg era. When he was elected as the 32nd President of the United States on November the 4th 1936, international observers correctly predicted that major changes laid ahead in America.


...And as a result, 14 years after the report of 1916, the Federal Trade Commission made a study to see how the wealth of this land was distributed, and did they find it still as bad as it was in 1916? They found it worse! They found that 1 percent of the people owned about 59 percent of the wealth, which was almost twice as bad as what was said to be an intolerable condition in 1916, when 2 percent of the people owned 60 percent of the wealth. And as a result of foreclosures, failures, and bankruptcies, which began to happen prior to and in the year of 1929, before the campaign of 1932, and at this late date, it is the estimate of all conservative statisticians that 75 percent of the people in the United States don't own anything, that is, not enough to pay their debts, and that 4 percent of the people, or maybe less than 4 percent of the people, own from 85 to 90 percent of all our wealth in the United States.

Remember, in 1916 there was a middle class--33 percent of the people--who owned 35 percent of the wealth. That middle class is practically gone today. It no longer exists. They have dropped into the ranks of the poor. The thriving man of independent business standing is fast fading. The corner grocery store is becoming a thing of the past. Concentrated chain-merchandise and banking systems have laid waste to all middle opportunity. That "thin margin of merely well-to-do in between" which the Saturday Evening Post mentioned on September 23, 1916, has dwindled to practically no margin of well-to-do in between. Those suffering on the bottom and the few lords of finance on the top are nearly all that are left.

It became apparent that the billionaires and multimillionaires even began to squeeze out the common millionaires, closing in and taking their properties and wrecking their businesses. And so we arrived (and are still there) at the place that in abundant America where we have everything for which a human heart can pray, the hundreds of millions--or, as General Johnson says, the 80 million--of our people are crying in misery for the want of the things which they need for life, notwithstanding the fact that the country has had and can have more than the entire human race can consume...*

*Part of the "Share our Wealth"-speech that was one of the cornerstones of the Long campaign.

 

[Karelian]

The Road to War - 1937

The Imperial Eagle, insignia of the Mittelafrikan Schutztruppen. When Statthalter Göring started a colonial war in Africa in August 1936 and promtly occupied and annexed Portuguese colonies, Berlin was forced to accept that the earlier decisions to grand nominal autonomy to Mittelafrika in 1925 and assing Göring as the new Statthalter in 1934 had created a situation where the son of a former governor ruled most of Africa as his own personal domain and Berlin had little chance to intervere. Yet this minor and relatively quick conflict was quickly removed from headlines as more severe crises shocked the world.

Preparations and doctrinal debate

When the international situation was rapidly escalating, military planners of major powers were doing their best to learn the correct lessons from the horrors of the Weltkrieg. In Commune of France, the decision to re-introduce mass conscription was followed by an official program that aimed to prepare the country for total war by stepping up the rearmament program even further. In Russia the reforms initiated by Denikin took a surprising turn. While all major political forces in the country agreed that Russian Army was in a miserable state and in a dire need of reform, the internal disputes among General Staff and leading opposition forces prevented Denikin from pushing through his preferred option, restoration of Czarist-era system and doctrinal thinking. Unwilling to admit his first actual defeat in the internal power struggle, Denikin surprised his opponents by declaring his support for the most radical and ambitious of the proposed reform plans. Most likely his decision was affected by the fact that the designer of this reform program was his former comrade-in-arms. The ideas of the new program were relatively simple, but radical in the sense that their acceptance would in reality throw away a generation of tradition and established "military maxims" of Russian Army. It is largely due that fact that the proposal came from a respected Civil War-era veteran commander that it was seriously considered as an option in the first place. The designer of the plan had studied and taught in the best military academies of Russia and led Russian troops in all major wars the country had been in involved in the last thirty years. Decorated with the Cross of St. George and First class of Cross of Saint Vladimir before the Civil War, General Sergey Leonidovich Markov had established the Volunteer Army together with Denikin and Kornilov and led it to victory against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War.


Having seen the horrors of attritional trench warfare already in icy Mantchuria in 1904, the experiences of Eastern Front of the Weltkrieg and the bitter fighting against the Red Army in Civil War had firmly convinced Markov of the need of a major reform in doctrinal and operational thinking of Russian Army. Unwilling to see a repetition of the humiliating defeats of past decades, he had studied the major campaigns of the Weltkrieg in detail, focusing especially on the successes of Brusilov Offensive and the role of mobile cavalry forces during critical campaigns of the Civil War. Based on his findings, Markov had devised a new operational doctrine focused on swift breakthroughs that were to be followed by the destruction of enemy operational reserves and continued advantage past the frontlines to the key strategic areas.



The development in Russia did not go unnoticed in Germany, where the country was preparing for Reichstag elections a middle of the worst economic crisis in history. The economy was in dire straits, unemployment was running rampart and the rhetorics of extremist parties in both parts of the political spectrum were becoming increasingly radical and hostile. But while the man on the street and political agitator debated about political matters, the professional soldiers of Große Generalstab were discussing the future course of German military doctrine and future reforms of Reichsheer. The status quo upheld by Generalstabschef Hans von Seeckt had died along with the old Generalfeldsmarschall, and when August von Mackensen had announced his intention to retire from active service, the younger generation of German military planners was determined to promote their own careers by challenging their more traditional-minded colleaques in the questions of doctrine. The key question was the age-old debate between mobility and firepower - the promoters of firepower supported the idea that increased lethality of modern battlefield clearly benefitted defensive tactical approach, and that the reforms should focus on improving firepower. Their opponents claimed that the new emphasis for tanks in Commune of France demanded a like-minded defensive approach with a mobile armored reserve designed to contain enemy breakthroughs and spearhead swift counterattacks. Kaiser Wilhelm II´s decision to approve a "Markov-styled" mobility-focused reform program for Reichsheer infuriated the remaining Old Guard of Große Generalstab, but proved rather beneficial once the period of reorganizing the army was finally over.



As a part of the modernization program the standard weapons of the average infantrymen were also updated: old null-acht-fünfzehn-Maxims and the air-cooled M18-variants (upper picture) were finally replaced by new Einheitsmaschinengewehr M36 (lower picture), the definitive German infantry weapon of the war.

It turned out that the reforms were done in a nick of time. In April 17th 1937 war returned to Europe. The gradual reapproachment of governments of Greece, Serbia and the Iron Guard regime of Romania had finally resulted in a concrete military alliance known as the Belgrade Pact, and while Hungary and Ottoman Empire stood still, the three revancist countries declared war on Bulgaria that had annexed part of their territories roughly twenty years earlier. While the war in the Balkans soon stagnated down into trench warfare, it served as a catalyst for major events elsewhere in the world. On May 20th the Carlist militias broke into open riot in northern Spain, followed by a a general uprising of CNT-FAI militias on 5th of June. On the same day, Commune of France and Republic of the Sicilies announced that they considered CNT-FAI to be the legal govenrment of Spain and since the leadership of Spain had requested their military assistance in quelling the counter-revolution, they now considered themselves to be at war against Carlist rebels and the "counterrevolutionary clique of Madrid."



On July 4th reports from China told about major armed confrontation between forces of Fengtieng Republic and Qing Empire. When Berlin sought to offer a negotiated settlement, official reply from Tokyo noted that the proposal "was not the worth of the paper it was written on." Japanese Empire invaded Qing mainland from Manchuria on the following day. Meanwhile events in Russia were changing fast as well. During the summer Denikin and his Conservative supporters had finally fulfilled their long-lasting dream, as a new Romanov Czar returned to the throne of Russia. Petr Krasnov, the leader of Cossack state of Don-Kuban Union, refused to acknowledge the new Czar as legitimate, and much to a schock of Mitteleuropan observers the Russian troops invaded on August 9th after the new Czar had publicly claimed the Cossack lands as legitimate parts of Russian Empire. In the light of these events the United States of America seemed relatively peaceful. After the Presidential elections results had been contested by the CSA, Long had made a series of public speeches where he swore to respect and uphold the Constitution and law and order and urged all other political forces within the country to do so as well. While former President Hoover openly criticized him, Long continued his work determined to stabilize the volatile situation within the country. One of his first reforms was to reorganize the War Office into United States Department of Defense and Homeland Security. While this move was officially promoted in Congress as a proof of the peaceful orientation of the foreign policy of Long Administration, naming recently retired General Douglas MacArthur as the first leader of the new Deparment was in reality a result of a secret bargain between top Army leaders and President Long. Using the global instability and the threat it was causing to continental United States as a pretext, Long authorized MacArthur to enlarge the National Guard into a force of over fourteen standing infantry divisions. While they were officially stationed over the states, some observant citizens took notice that the new training centers and bases of the expanded National Guard encircled the primary support region of Reed´s CSA.

But while the internal dissent in the United States remained high for months, the economic policy of Long Administration soon stabilized the situation even though it also betrayed many of his most fervert supporters. By opting to use more neutral National Guard to maintain military presence within the country instead of organizing paramilitary groups of the South into unified militia Long wanted to make sure that the political polarization of American society did not get out of hand. His cautious approach was also seen in his agricultural reforms, where he ultimately agreed to let the market decide the prizes despite his earlier promises to control the markets. The decision to drop the proposed California Aircraft Tax was also a key factor in securing his position as the legitimate, if widely despised, President of the United States. The threat of major civil unrest many had predicted never materialized. When the Empire of Austria-Hungary declared public membership of the German defensive alliance of Mitteleuropa in November 1937, the war raged on in China, Spain, Balkans and Central Asia, where Islamists of Turkenstan had invaded Alash Orda and this aggression had caused the governments of Persia, Afganistan and Azerbaizan to join forces by signing the new Saadabad Treaty.

Russia was reclaiming her former Empire, Third International was spreading the Syndicalist ideals trough the force of arms, Japanese were expanding their influence in Asian mainland and Germany, while still neutral, was fervertly preparing to defend her position. And having secured his position at home, President Long had grand plans for the future as well...

 

[Enewald]

Looking intriguing.

 

[Karelian]

The World at War - 1938

Soldiers of the L'Armée Populaire de la Commune de France unloading in the port of Barcelona. The swift Franco-Sicilian intervention to the Spanish Civil War led complete victory of left-wing militias of Comitè Central de la CNT-FAI by 2nd of January 1938. The military effectiveness of the forces of Syndicalist Internationale shocked the strategists of Mitteleuropa and Entente, especially as Paris soon showed that the new leadership of the Commune of France was more than willing to "export the Revolution" by force of arms.

The Spark That Ignited The Powder Keg




When Heinrich Brüning, the 11th Reichskanzler of German Empire received the news from South Asia on February 18th 1938 he didin´t immediately realize the full importance of the matter. For Brüning the outbreak of a new war in Asia was at first merely an annoying distraction in a middle of the economic crisis wreaking havoc in Mitteleuropa. After he had skillfully led the coalition of Zentrum and NLP to victory in Reichstag elections, his reputation as a financial expert with a disciplined, thrifty approach towards financial affairs allowed him to win the acceptance of Kaiser and secured him a position as a replacement of von Papen, his old rival. During his former cabinet role as a State Secretary of Finance in von Hutier´s government Brüning´s plans to turn Germany into a true welfare based on the ideas of Christian democracy had been blocked in the Reichstag by opposition of SDP and GDVP, but now he was determined to stabilize the economy of Mitteleuropean ecomic area by the ideas of Catholic Corporatism. Sadly Brüning would not have the chance to realize his lofty goals during the upcoming years. While von Papen had vowed to "protect the interests of Germany everywhere, everytime and against everyone" and to "destroy the demons of Syndicalism and Marxism wherever they hide", Brüning had publicly promised to focus on economy and improving the standard of living of average Germans. But now the past decisions and mistakes made during the two decades after Weltkrieg were coming back to haunt him and the rest of the world.

The fact that the second Weltkrieg begun on Indian subcontinent was not coincidence. Ever since the riots that swept through British Raj on 1925, the territory controlled by Muhammed Shuja Al-Mulk, the Prince of Delhi had remained the sole foothold of Western imperialism in the region. In the south the various princes and rajahs had combined their forces into Princely Federation, but this isolationist burgher state was in many was a desperate last stand of the old order, united against a terrible foe that was spreading through the subcontinent like a wildfire. The organized trade unions had started the uprising in India back in 1925, and since 19th of October 1925 the People´s Republic of Bengal had formed the center of Syndicalism in South Asia. While the royalists for the British rule had so far been able to consolidate their position in largely Muslim Delhi, the oppressed peasants of Pricerly Federation had heard the Bengalese call for revolution loud and clear. In the early 1930's Bengal had begun to take a more "outwards-looking" stance once more. With a new foreign policy aimed at supporting syndicalist movements in her neighbours with the aim of agitating revolution and the political collapse of those states, the leaders of the People´s Republic were pushing the Subcontinent towards a new general war. Roughly a year after Commune of France and Union of Britain had expanded their military missions in Bengal, the reformed and expanded People´s Liberation Army sent their first units to infiltrate the southwestern border of Princerly Federation. During the day the isolated sporadic firefights in borderzone escalated as artillery barrages pawed the way for advancing Bengalese forces. Once the war had begun, it escalated rapidly. On 21st of February the government of Burma collapsed under the weight of the Bengal-sponsored 'peasant revolution', and the new regime joined to the war against Princerly Federation. Shocked by this new threat to regional status quo, the government of Delhi decided to act before it would be too late and declared war on Bengal on 22nd of February. On the same day Commune of France declared that an attack against Bengal was a declaration of war to the whole Syndicalist International, and three days later first waves of bombers of Armée de l'Air du Peuple attacked key military airfields, harbours and garrison areas in Algeria. The day was 25th of February 1938, and a new global war between Entente and Syndicalist International had begun.



With Gibraltar in Syndicalist hands, the Commune was able to quickly gain air and naval supremacy on Alboran Sea and subsequently invade Algeria, the last stronghold of exiled old Nationalist government of France. But while the Algerian coast quickly fell to invading Syndicalists, their following move once again caught foreign observers by surprise. On 18th of March the Franco-Spanish armies stormed accross the border of Portugal without a formal declaration of war, officially "responding to the calls of local workers in order to rid them from the oppressive junta of Lissabon." Eleven days later Portuguese ARmy surrendered, and the country was officially annexed to the new Anarchist Federation of Iberia, while the Commune occupied the islands of Azores and Madeira. But while the armies of International and Entente struggled in Algeria, Germany was not standing idle. The first expeditionary forces begun to arrive to bolster the defences of Italian Federation during this time, while hectic diplomatic traffic between Vienna and Berlin sought to restore the old alliances of Weltkrieg in order to make Mitteleuropa strong enough to withstand the upcoming storm. Yet Brüning was struggling uphill. Once Lithuanian nationalists were once again brought back into the fold and the government of Poland had additionally agreed to sign a defensive alliance with Berlin, social chaos in the Ukraine threatened to get out of hand. After Vasyl I Vyshyvanyi had called Nikita Khrushchev to solve the burgeoning agricultural crisis and the influential landlords had ousted this ambitious left-wing populist from government after his "Hundred Days", the attempts to stop the program of land reform Khrushchev had promoted led to a wide peasant rebellion. Led by Hetman Skoropadsky the Ukrainian Army was slow to restore order in the countryside due the fact that most conscripts had no desire to fight against their fellow countrymen.

In Eastern Ukraine the turmoil was further expanded when radio broadcasts from Moscow declared that the ultra-Orthodox Faith and Nation movement had gained more influence in Russian foreign policy. Pledged to defend the rights of the faithful in Russia and abroad, these religious nationalists were soon turned into a powerful pawns of Russian foreign policy during the crisis of upcoming years. After the annexation of Don-Cuban Union, Moscow was able to stand down Ungern von Sternberg who willfully withdrew his forces back to the old borders of Mongolia, thus bringing the whole lenght of the Transsiberian Railway back to Russian control in mid-May. While the war between Alash Orda and Turkenstan continued futher south in Central Asia, international attention was soon fixed on the extremely tense situation of Western Europe. After encircling the bulk of the remaining armies of Nationalist government to Tunis, Paris was confident enough to strip up a new regional crisis by demanding the Romandy province from the Swiss. Unwilling to get involved to the upcoming war in Europe, the Swiss government accepted despite of German promises to guarantee the current borders of Switzerland.

Syndicalists seemed unstoppable, and the wavering war effort of Nationalist France suffered another severe setback when Tuaregs rose to a major revolt in Sahara, soon followed by local nationalist movement in Guinea in Equatorial Africa. Only Tunis held on, largely due the fact that Canadians had reinforced the surrounded capitol by fresh troops. Yet the troops within the pocket realized that their position was quickly becoming hopeless, as Syndicalists bombers operating from Sicily were able to strike against the city harbour at will and around the clock. The position of Entente eased a little when the new government of South Africa agreed to officially join the war on June 24th - but since the Entente supply convoys had already been using South African harbours based on the existing treaties the actual effect of this renewal of an old alliance was relatively insignificant on a global scale.
On June the global revolutionary activity spread to southern America. At first the government of Centroamerica was deeply surprised and quickly defeated when their fellow Syndicalists from Mexico decided to interfere when Centroamerican troops tried to invade Equador - this regional war ended quickly as Mexico annexed the territories of Centroamerica. During the next month the new Syndicalist regime of Brazil decided to seek revenge from the previous defeat in the Great South American War four years earlier, and invaded the Gran Chaco region on July 12th.



While the Germans were busy in quelling a major Syndicalist-funded colonial revolt in Indochina, President Long "turned the page on the history of American diplomacy" on September 15th by getting the United States involved to the war in La Plata after it was beginning to look like the Argentinians would soon lose to Brazilian Syndicalists. While Reed ordered the CSA to organize massive peace demonstrations and a series of strikes through the country, Long was able to force his way through the Congress by stating that this was merely another "police mission in South America" and thus conducted in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine - these claims were followed by accusations that the do-nothing policy of Hoover Administration had caused the previous war in the region in the first place and now USA would have to "sort this mess out."

As the bulk of the Brazilian Army was deployed to the frontlines in Gran Chaco, the US amphibious landings right to the outskirts of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro met practically no resistance. Soon the American officials had managed to contact Getulio Vargas and strike a bargain with his reformist movement, the only credible non-Syndicalist opposition force that had resisted the excesses and failed economic policy of President da Silva Bernardes. When the US troops reached the border of Bolivia and thus encircled the Brazilian Army to Gran Chaco, Vargas was able to convince the generals to accept him as the new President when Long had publicly promised that "the past injustices and territorial changes in South America" would be eventually dealt with in a grand peace conference. The end of the Second South American War was a stunning success for President Long. For the first time since the Spanish-American War United States had fought in a major war in Western Hemisphere. The war had been a decisive American victory, and now Long could count on the governments of La Plata and Brazil as strong regional allies.

The new foreign policy of Long Administration culminated when the new Secretary of State Cordell Hull coordinated the creation of Tratado Interamericano de Asistencia Recíproca, known in the United States as the Rio Pact. In this new organization the governments of the United States, La Plata, Brazil, Peru and Chile agreed to formulate a joint military alliance that publicly aimed to "defend the Western Hemisphere from foreign aggressors and secure peace in the region." With only Mexico and surrounded Bolivia being the sole countries left with Syndicalists governments in the whole continent, Long was pleased with his results. His actions had turned the United States away from the traditional isolation in a time when German hegemony was in jeopardy and aggressive great powers sought to alter the global balance of power in all continents, and forged an all-American alliance that was strong enough to defend itself against external (and internal) threats.

While the world watched as the Great Arab Revolt plunged the Ottoman territories in the Middle East into chaos, another crisis was brewing in North Atlantic. What begun as a treaty for selling cheap fuel for fishing fleet of recently independent republic of Iceland created a new front to the second Weltkrieg when the government of Canada sought to break the naval blockade set up by Republican Navy of Union of Britain by force on 6th of December. The world entered the new year of 1939 in a situation where there was little reason to celebrate: China was burning as Japanese forces, having defeated the Qing Empire, fought their way deeper into Central Asia through the lands of the Ma warlords. Jihadists of Turkenstan continued their struggle against Alash Orda, Delhi, Princerly Federation, Bengal and Burma fought for supermacy in South Asia while Germans sought to crush the guerrilla movement in Indochina. Ottomans were trying to quell their revolting Arab subjects, while Commune troops were trying to extend their control through the remaining territories of French government-in-exile. Everyone had expected the new war to begin by a confrontation of Mitteleuropa and Syndicalist Internationale, but so far the deeply fortified Franco-German border remained silent. Meanwhile Paris was unable to lure London to their camp, as Niclas y Glais woved "to solely focus on crushing these bloody Royalists once and for all."

 

[Viden]

Suscribed!

 

[Enewald]

And the Portuguese colonies?

 

[Karelian]

And the Portuguese colonies?

Annexed by Mittelafrika. Read the fine print from the beginning of 1937-update

 

[Karelian]

The Eye of the Storm - 1939

Commune AMC 1935S scanning for targets in Tunis Bridgehead in 1939. The superiour quality of French armor and the fact that all of their tanks had radios gained the Syndicalist armored forces a reputation as an effective fighting force during the battles of the Algerian Campaign of 1939.

While Entente and Syndicalist International gathered forces in the Tunis Bridgehead, Russians utilized the operational freedom the tension in Central Europe gave them in the lands of their former empire. When the radical Socialist regime of Georgia sought to suppress the organizing Monarchist movement, Faith and Nation started a series of mass demonstrations condemning the "godless Bolsheviks oppressing our fellow Orthodox Christians in Georgia." Citing the unrest in Georgia as an official reason, the government of Czar Vladimir I promtly send troops to Azerbaizan on 3rd of January 1939. Even though they had originally united to resist possible aggression from Turkenstan, governments of Persia and Afghanistan promtly honored the terms of Saadabad Treaty and declared war against Russia. Yet the effectiveness of Markov´s reforms was once again evident, and before the Persian Army was able to rally to help the struggling Azeris the Russians arrived to Baku and declared that the "rebellious province of Azerbaizan" was once again a legal part of Russian Empire. The offensive in Caucasus continued until March 23rd, when humiliated Persia was forced to accept Russian occupation of her two northernmost provinces habitated by ethnic Azeris. While many had predicted that Czar Vladimir would not stop the offensive before Kabul, the strong-worded German and Ottoman protests against the idea of Russian naval bases on the shores of the Indian Ocean most likely contributed to the fact that Russians opted for a negotiated peace.

Meanwhile Lithuanian nationalists continued to stir up trouble in Mitteleuropa. Despite their official return to alliance with Germany, they continued to promote the idea of unifying the historical lands of "Lithuania Propria" under their banner. On a high summit between Foreign Ministers in April White Rhutenian officials accepted their claims based on the results of a referendum, and Lithuania gained a large swath of territory where only an insignificant minority spoke Lithuanian. Meanwhile the Russian conquest of Caucasus continued. After the exiled leaders of Georgian monarchists called for help from Moscow, Czar Vladimir I once again sent in the troops. Invasion begun on 22nd of March, and Russians declared victory on 16th of May. The re-emerging Russian Empire once again had a land border with Ottomans. War in Central Asia took a new turn roughly a month later. Despite the small-scale assistance from Russia, Alash Orda had finally succumbed under the assault of Turkenstani forces when humiliated Ungern von Sternberg had joined the war in hopes of expanding his own personal empire. Now, after victory against Alash Orda the Turkenstani leaders wasted no time in making grand declarations of their future plans. After they had declared that they were fighting to create a new Caliphate that would bring large swaths of Muslim lands currently under Russian control under their control, they turned their forces southwards and invaded Persia and Afghanistan, undoubtedly lured by the apparent easiness the Persians had been defeated by Russians mere months earlier. Yet when von Sternberg kept most of his troops in readiness in Mongolian mainland and Afghanistan mounted a lighting offensive to southern Turkenstan, it soon became clear that just like the previous conflict in Central Asia, this too would become a long and bitter war.


Tired soldiers of Canadian Expeditionary Forces in Tunisia. The Canadian decision to send their best troops to support French exiles in Tunisia was in many ways one of the turning points of the Second Weltkrieg.

Meanwhile the death struggle of French government-in-exile continued in Tunisia. After their first frontal assaults against the strongly defended Entente bridgehead had failed to meet success, the Commune had opted to lay siege on the encircled defenders and sought instead to defeat the vital supply convoys coming through the Suez Channel with the approval of German government. Since everything from aircraft fuel to canned food had to be imported all the way from Delhi and South Africa, the submarines and naval bombers of Republic of the Sicilies and Commune of France enjoyed their "happy times" in the First Battle of Mediterranean, as the convoy warfare in the region was later known. While the German garrison in Malta struggled to maintain order in the island filled with refugees fleing from the fighting in Tunisia, the Internationalist stranglehold kept tightening. When the final offensive begun on December 1939, the tired defenders no longer had artillery ammunition to prevent a breakthrough and complete collapse of organized resistance. When exhausted and thirsty survivors of a force of twenty-two Entente divisions were marched away to captivity, the fate of Petain´s government was sealed. On 13th of December Commune of France accepted the unconditional surrender of the exiled old government of France, thus officially ending civil war.


The victory in Tunisia and the end of the civil war made the leaders of Syndicalist International confident of the fact that a global revolution was within reach, and that they´d have to act fast before the reactionaries would join forces against them.

French government soon declared that Tunisian people were from now on free from colonial oppression - and unsurprisingly the first decision of the "free people´s government" of President Habib Bourguiba was to declare support for International war effort. By December 1939 Entente seemed to be on the verge of collapse on all fronts. In Indian Front the Bengalese People´s Liberation Army and their Burmese allies had so far been able to push the armies of Princerly Federation further south, while Delhi had been forced to stay on the defensive and wait for outside help. With the bulk of the expeditionary forces of Canada lost in Tunisia, such help would most likely not be forthcoming anytime soon. But while the world held it´s breath, the leaders of Syndicalist Internationale were busily preparing for their next move.

Their decision to declare war on Italian Federation on 17th of December was a calculated risk. With the threat of Entente invasion of southern France and Sicily removed by the victory in Algeria and the war in Indian Front going smoothly as well, the military planners of Commune most likely calculated that a swift attack by troops transferred to southern Italy, combined with an amphibious landing to central Italy would succeed in reaching the Po river valley before Mitteleuropa would be able to send reinforcement through the Alpine valleys of Austria. Hoping that their early success would ensure a quick victory in the Italian Front and thus secure their southern flank for a general offensive in Flanders-Wallonia during the next summer, the Syndicalist International went ahead with the invasion plan. On the following day the German government grimly stated that their oblications to the Italian Federation was a matter of honour, and thus a state of war now existed between Mitteleuropa and Syndicalist International. As the Western Front once again sprung to life after mere twenty years of fragile peace, the governments of Russia, Japan and United States were busily making plans on how to take advantage of the new global conflict.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Onwards to Paris! Let's free the world from the Syndicalist scum!

 

[Enewald]

Every war has a third party involved who knows how to abuse those in despair..

 

[Faeelin]

Heh. So the only way for the US to avoid the Civil War is Long? Wundebar.

 

[unmerged(116928)]

Amazing, Karelian! I really like the AAR, if only you could throw a few more screenshots in.

 

[serutan]

Heh. So the only way for the US to avoid the Civil War is Long? Wundebar.

Yup. Which I found exceedingly strange, given the hostility that is supposed
to exist between Long and Reed. I would have supposed that Reed would
have seceded the moment Long was inagurated. I asked in the Kaiserreich thread a couple of times if this was a bug, and got no reply.

 

[Karelian]

A Gathering of Vultures - 1940

German Pommern-class Sturmpanzerwagen near Brussels in Flanders-Wallonia. Continuing the design philosophy adopted in Weltkrieg-era Oberschlesien-series, Pommern-class Sturmpanzer was a specialised heavy break-through vehicle plagued by slow speed and high fuel consumption that made it ill-adapted for fast-paced operations. Starting in the early twenties, its development and production were repeatedly delayed due the general German lack of interest towards armor research. The result was a vehicle that was both technologically complex and expensive and already obsolescent when real mass-production started in the late thirties.

All Quiet on the Western Front

The famous French Chasseurs Alpins were initially planned to be used in a swift breakthrough attack against the formidable defences of the Alpine Wall, but the appearance of German and Austrian reinforcements made the French to abandon their plan.

By starting the war in December International had sought to ensure that the Western Front would remain stable so that the best forces of Syndicalists could be focused to the offensive in Italian Peninsula. The trick worked - the overly cautious generals of Große Generalstab were shocked about the timing of the Syndicalist invasion of Italy, and it took them a while to really believe that the attack in Italy wasn´t a feint for a surprise winter offensive in the Western Front. While the reformed Wehrkreis-system begun to formulate and mobilize the bulk of the reserve divisions of Reichsheer, the famous Alpenkorps were hastily dispached from Bavaria and trasferred by rail through Austria-Hungary to bolster the defences of Italian Federation. While the Germans were reluctant to commit significant forces to what they saw as a theater of secondary importance, they were forced to act first as the reformed armies of Austria-Hungary were far from ready (and willing) to interfere in Italy with full strength. While Vienna willfully sent their elite Tirolian Kaiserschützen Alpine troops to assist their German comrades-in-arms, the continuing war between Bulgaria and the Belgrade Pact ensured that Hungarians wanted to keep almost whole Magyar Királyi Honvédség stationed within southeastern border of the Empire, while Galitzians and Bohemians were equally unwilling to sent their sons and husbands to struggle in the cold winter of Italian Alps.

The fighting in Italian Front was initially a delaying action where the Holy Army of Italian Federation sought to buy time under the command of Josef Ferdinand von Österreich-Toskana while the People's Army of the Republic of the Sicilies under the command of Umberto Marzocchi sought to push northwards through the hills and valleys of Apennines. At the same time the strategists of International launched the second phase of their long-awaited invasion: this time the target was the Ottoman client state of Libya. Offensive begun on 10th of January, and nine days later a grand ceremony organized by von der Schulenburg, von Arbengau and Nihâl Pasha witnessed the rebirth of the old wartime alliance - all Central Powers were once again fighting against a common enemy. For international observers the strength of the new alliance was dubious at best. "Even though the Austrians surprisingly managed to maintain status quo within their Empire in 1937, they are too internally divided to provide effective assistance for Germany. And as for the Ottomans...well, Berlin has once again willfully chained itself into a corpse", quoted a Japanese diplomat upon hearing the news of the revival of the old alliance.


A machine gun team of German Alpenkorps with MG-M36, fighting somewhere in the Italian Alps during January 1940. The swift appearance of these elite mountaineer units proved decisive in stopping the Franco-Sicilian attacks on all fronts.

The goal of Syndicalist Libyan campaign was soon clear. While a single army corps occupied Morocco after Germans had evaquated their small garrison from the country without a fight, the front begun to move steadily eastwards as Commune armored columns blasted their way through the disorganized Libyan units. As the collapse of Libyan war effort seemed imminent, Egypt was finally lured away from the hostile neutrality towards Mitteleuropa by persistent German diplomats, and joined the war against approaching French on 18th of March. Immediately after this the first colonial troops from Mittelafrika were sent northwards to bolster the defences of Suez Channel through Sudan. Meanwhile the cruisers and U-boats of Kaiserliche Marine were beginning to score their fist successes in their hunt for Syndicalist merchant shipping. These activities were especially harmful for Burma and Bengal, since both countries were soon firmly isolated from the rest of the International by a joint naval blockade conducted by Entente and German navies.


Commune troops driving through a small Libyan village. The extensively motorized and mechanized Commune units used their SOMUA Chenillette-type halftracks and similar vehicles to conduct fast-paced mobile warfare and managed to surprise, bypass and encircle their foes in the deserts of North Africa on several occasions.

The expansion of hostilities in world's oceans during the summer of 1939 did not go unnoticed in the United States. As the members of Rio Pact had all been trading extensively with Germany and other major Mitteleuropean countries, the growing danger in North Atlantic was once again forcing the government of the United States to react. Once again President Long did not intent to idly wait for the problem to solve itself. Ever since the beginning of war between Entente and Syndicalist International American diplomats and top military officials had been in secret contact with an isolated regime that felt itself especially threatened by the new hostilities. On April 18th US finally struck a bargain with Michael Collins, and Republic of Ireland gained security guarantees from US as a part of the de Valera-Hull Agreement. President Long stated that by using Irish ports and airfields, the US Navy was able to cover the whole North Atlantic and escort neutral merchant shipping from North and South America all the way to German ports. Naturally the agreement also meant that the Rio Pact now had a secure bridgehead near continental Europe.


In Western Front the extensive networks of field fortifications on both sides ensured that neither side of the new Weltkrieg was willing to "go over the top" first. Syndicalists preferred to attack the weaker members of reformed alliance of Central Powers first, while Germany was unwilling to commit her reserves to West while Russia was threatening the smaller members of Mitteleuropa in the East.

Globally the remaining great powers that were still neutral in the raging Weltkrieg were first and foremost weary of one another in Asia and Pacific. Due the insistence of MacArthur the United States had send over twenty divisions to bolster the defences of Philippines and key Pacific Islands, and the Pacific Fleet had been steadily reinforced as well. While Tokyo was seemingly focusing the attention of Japanese imperialism to mainland Asia, Secretary of State Hull had sternly warned his Japanese colleaque Kenkichi that a war in the Pacific region would not be tolerated by the US. The key goal of US diplomacy in the region was to keep Russia and Japan away from forming a regional alliance and splitting up China in Asian mainland, and securing status quo in Southeast Asia and Pacific by defending Legation Cities, Philippines and Netherland East Indies against Japanese aggression in the case of war. For Japan the key goal was clearly a domination of whole Chinese mainland. Though the occupation of Qing Empire had already secured them a huge swath of territory, the subjucation of Ma warlord states into a Japanese puppet state had secured them a position deep in Central Asia. Ever since the shortlived and brutally crushed Korean Revolution in 1937, Japan had been an authoritarian democracy where average citizens enjoyed relative strong rights and freedoms despite the ultimate control of the Emperor and strong influence of military-industrial elite. Determined to spread their influence and freedom of Western imperialism further in Asia, the Japanese were thus in a collision course with German Empire. And then there was Russia. In 1939 the religious, reactionary and nationalistic regime of Czar Vladimir I Romanov was widely feared and despised in nearly all neighbouring countries, and considering their overall situation the new Russian Empire was clearly bent on reconquering the territories lost during the Weltkrieg through diplomacy - and if that failed, by force of arms. But in the spring 1940 further expansion without a major new war simply wasn´t possible. The Kingdom of Finland had secured official German protection and military alliance in previous year, and the countries in the German sphere of interest bordered Russia from Arctic to Caspian Sea. In Central Asia the Turkoman-Mongolian alliance fought a bitter war against Afghanistan and Romania - and then there was the Far East, where the traitor Kolchak and his remaining followers hunkered under the Japanese protection behind the Amur River.


A MG-M36 machine gun nest manned by reservists of Füsilier-Regiment Prinz Heinrich von Preußen (Brandenburgisches) Nr. 35 in Elsaß near Mülhausen. During the first years of the new Weltkrieg the memory of the past horrors of Western Front still lingered in the old battlefields, and the actual fighting was limited to "old-fashioned" trench warfare filled with limited scouting raids, sniping and harassing artillery fire.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on May 20th 1940 was in many ways nothing more than a calculated risk. Plagued by wide internal unrest and uprisings of Syndicalist and Anarchist partisan groups, Ukraine was no longer the "bread basket of Mitteleuropa" but instead a failed state with long, undefensible borders. The fact that the units of Ukrainische Wehrmacht were scattered through the country for anti-partisan duties made the country even more lucrative target. Yet Czar Vladimir I was playing a very dangerous game by sending his tanks to Ukrainian steppe: while the Central Powers were fighting against the Syndicalist International on two fronts, they were still numerically clearly the strongest military alliance in whole Eurasia. Yet the Russian gamble succeeded. As the local population in eastern Ukraine greeted Czar´s armies as liberators and Russian cavalry and tanks split the country in half by their lighting advance to the Black Sea coast, Vladimir I used his diplomatic contacts and personally promised to increasingly senile Wilhelm II that he would be willing to limit the war in the East to the annexation of Ukraine.


Based on licenced prototype design of American Engineer Walther Christie bought during the last year of Kerensky Administration, the Russian Невский-type fast "cavalry tanks" spearheaded the offensives of semi-motorized Cavalry Armies of the Russian Empire during the fighting in Ukraine in 1940.

When Commune troops approached the border of Egypt and the security of Suez Channel was in jeopardy, the leaders of Central Powers were increasingly unsecure of their chances to win a prolonged two-front war. As Russian delegation hinted that Commune had secretly proposed them a joint invasion of Middle-East and focused more forces on Caucasus Front against the Ottomans, Germany was ultimately forced to admit that Russia held the upper hand, and agreed to acknowledge the annexation of Ukraine in the Peace of Kiev on 2nd of July 1940. Despite wartime cencorship right-wing German press was shocked and disgusted and von der Schulenburg was openly called "a stooge of the Czar and traitor of German people." Few weeks later reinforced Commune troops had occupied whole Libya, and were pushing the Mitteleuropan troops ahead of them in Egyptian soil. On November 10th the opposing armies once again clashed near the small village of El Alamein on the last line of defense that separated the battle-hardened Syndicalists from Alexandria and Nile Delta.

The War in the Air 1938-1940



During the first two years the end of the era of biplane fighters soon became an acknowledged fact, and all airforces caught up in the most heated air war campaigns of the first years of the Second Weltkrieg were soon using solely monoplane designs. Yet the various airforces of the major powers entered the war with vastly different designs and air combat doctrines.

The German Luftstreitkräfte was first and foremost a creation of a single man: von Richthofen had led the service ever since it was given an independent status on February 1925. In December 1939 the expanded German airforce had finished a grand rearmament program where old biplane Arado Ar D.XVs had been replaced by brand new Fokker D.XXI:s. The new German interceptor was a plane designed for the new demands of the expanded German colonial empire: it was designed to be capable of acting as a light close-support aircraft, the system was easy to maintain and the plane was also able to operate from makeshift airfields if necessary. The influence of Red Baron was clearly visible on the excellent maneuverability of the new plane type. During the first dogfights against the fighter squadrons of Commune´s AAP in the winter skies of December 1939 the German Fokkers met their primary adversary of the early war years. But while Commune´s Morane-Saulnier MS.406 proved to be slightly faster and more heavily armed with four belt-fed 7.5 mm MAC MG:s, pilots of Luftstreitkräfte were able to hold their ground and perform surprisingly well due the better maneuverability of their Fokkers. Yet the fate of the few licence-build export-model Fokkers operated by Imperial Chinese Air Service of Qing Empire should have been a stern warning for German military advisors. When the Japanese invaded Chinese mainland, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service operated a revolutionary new fighter design that easily outmanouvred even the agile Fokkers. In addition to outstanding maneuverability, the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa was also able to climb fast due the light weight of it´s airframe.

Elsewhere in the world demands for fighter aircraft were highly different. The United States Army Air Corps had wanted a fighter capable of operating primary as a fighter cover for dedicated frontline CAS aircraft such as Curtiss A-25 Shrike, and Curtiss met these demands by designing the P40 Warhawk, a plane that had strong structure including a five-spar wing and armour around the engine and the cockpit, enabling it to withstand considerable damage. Elsewhere in North America the Royal Air Force followed suit by adopting licence-build Grumman F4F Martlet as their new frontline fighter - another American-designed plane type known for its rugged reliability due relatively heavy armor and self-sealing fuel tanks. Later on this plane type would be hard-pressed when engaging the Spitfire, the primary new short-range high-performance interceptor of the Republican Air Force in the skies of Canada...

 

[Karelian]

Thanks for the feedback, here are some answers for your questions.

Onwards to Paris! Let's free the world from the Syndicalist scum!

Hah, the free people of Commune of France shall never capitulate to the bloodthirsty imperialist clique seeking to crush the revolution!

Every war has a third party involved who knows how to abuse those in despair..

Or several in this case.

Heh. So the only way for the US to avoid the Civil War is Long? Wundebar.

Yup. Which I found exceedingly strange, given the hostility that is supposed to exist between Long and Reed. I would have supposed that Reed would have seceded the moment Long was inagurated.

We discussed this matter in our LAN group as well. When Long is selected, the United States is no longer considered a full democracy. A single slider change towards Democratic in this situation will seemingly convince the CSA to remain content on opposing America First in Congress and by wide strikes - in turn it will also prevent Long from organizing Minutemen into a new street fighting paramilitary force that would unavoidably start a violent clash with CSA - thus starting the 2nd Civil War. Additionally I prevented Long from doing any of his promised wide-sweeping reforms and taxating aircraft industry of California - once again clear proof of the fact that Congress is not supporting his agenda. Since the random events of the rest of the game coinicendally supported this explanation I found this approach acceptable and not a mere bug in the event chain. Especially since a single random "Constitutional Policy attacked by the opposition"-event would have collapsed my carefully crafted ploy by making CSA sedece.

Amazing, Karelian! I really like the AAR, if only you could throw a few more screenshots in.

Unfortunately I only have three save games from mid-game, but you´ll get more in-game screenshots in due time.

 

[unmerged(44312)]

God! I love your AARs! And it is really nice to see you writing a Kaiserreich one.