The Prisoners of Silence - NSDAP 1936-1991 (History and background)

[Miihkali]

Miihkali: Heh, enpä usko jääneeni. Ketähän teikäläinen mahtoi etsiskellä?

Erästä valtakunnan foorumilla vaikuttavaa tyyppiä. Pidähän lippu korkealla!

BTW, for Herbert West, have you saw that film or readed that short story named Herbert West - Reanimator... Both are GREAT! I just wanted to say...

[Zauberfloete]

I eagerly await the next update on the Arab-War!!

[Herbert West]

BTW, for Herbert West, have you saw that film or readed that short story named Herbert West - Reanimator... Both are GREAT! I just wanted to say...

Now, where do you think my nickname comes from?:P

[Miihkali]

Now, where do you think my nickname comes from?:P

Hah... Just asked And always remember, there's no stupid questions, there's only stupid persons who made questions

[Karelian]

Overview of the Middle-Eastern War, Part II



Political situation in Middle-East: Egypt

Egypt has passed through a critical period in her recent history characterized by bribery, mischief, and the absence of governmental stability. All of these were factors that had a large influence on the army. Those who accepted bribes and were thus influenced have constantly acted as the mischief-making elements of our society. They have been assisting one another, and traitors have been commanding the army. They appointed a commander who is either ignorant or corrupt. Egypt has reached the point, therefore, of having no army to defend it. Accordingly, we have undertaken to clean ourselves up and have appointed to command us men from within the army whom we trust in their ability, their character, and their patriotism. It is certain that all Egypt will meet this news with enthusiasm and will welcome it. As for those whose arrest we saw fit from among men formerly associated with the army, we will not deal harshly with them, but will release them at the appropriate time. I assure the Egyptian people that the entire army today has become capable of operating in the national interest and under the rule of the constitution apart from any interests of its own. I take this opportunity to request that the people never permit any traitors to take refuge in deeds of destruction or violence because these are not in the interest of Egypt. Should anyone behave in such ways, he will be dealt with forcefully in a manner such as has not been seen before and his deeds will meet immediately the reward for treason. The army will take charge with the assistance of the police. I assure our foreign brothers that their interests, their personal safety, and their property are safe, and that the army considers itself responsible for them. May God grant us success!

Radio broadcast that signalled the beginning of the Free Officers coup in 1950.

By 1952, all states of the Middle-East were more or less affected by the war. While Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria were more or less directly involved in the war, it´s effects were widely felt through the rest of the region as well.

Egypt:The country that had been the first to openly defy Western interests had so far been able to avoid severe defeats in the battlefied. The British and Commonwealth forces stationed in Suez were clearly preparing for an offensive, but so far the Nile valley and the major population centers had been spared from the destructive combat, with only occasional air raids reminding that the country was truly fighting a war. Yet internally Egypt was allready in deep turmoil. After the two previous coups that had finally toppled the British-aligned monarchy, the military junta of Free Officers-movement had sought to secure their power and avoid further internal powerstruggles. While the civil administration had unofficially remained in the hands of experienced bureucrats and politicians, the true power in country was now held by the Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council, a small clique of influential military commanders. The first internal disputes within this new organization materialized soon, and soon it became clear that they had to be solved and quickly if the new regime wanted to secure their power. Two influential figures would simply have to find a way to set aside their differences and work together to lead the Egyptian war effort. It all came down to two officers and their different plans for the future of Egypt.



A would-be linguist and a member of an old and well-known military family, Muhammad Naguib had gained great fame in Egypt while he commanded the Egyptian forces that occupied parts of western Palestine during the riots and fighting of 1948. His respected name and reputation had helped the movement to seize control of the country in 1950, when the old general had finally secretly agreed to support the coup plans. The Free Officers needed a well-known figurehead, and initially Naguib quickly rose to a position where he seemed to be the new man in charge. A year after the coup General Naguib was the Commander-in-Chief of Army, Prime Minister of Egypt and an influential member of the Royal Regent Council.

The true problems began soon afterwards. Unlike the quite radical younger members of the Free Officers, General Naguib was a conservative, moderate man. He firmly believed that military should not get too involved to the Egyptian political life, and argued that the coup´s major mission had been fulfilled with the removal of the corrupt monarch. He openly stated that now the junta should begin the process that would transfer the power into the hands of a democratic government through free elections as quickly as possible. Naguib´s plans met strong opposition within the Council, and soon he realized that one person was extremely reluctant to accept such proposals, and that he was actively trying to gain control of the whole RCC. The name of Naguib´s main opponent was Gamal Abdel Nasser. He insisted that instead of transferring the power back to the civilian politicians as quickly as possible, the Council should first use their power to "restore the dignity of our country."

At first Nasser demanded that Egypt should initiate a radical land reform plan that would gain the new government much support from the country´s poor and oppressed agrarian population. He proposed a plan that aimed to transform Egyptian agriculture by drastically reducing acricultural rents that held large parts of the debt-ridden peasants in a virtual slavery, and by expropriating all land property above 200 feddâns. Once Nasser´s plans were accepted and put into effect, he soon gained large numbers of new, devoded supporters from the poor farmers whose lot in life had been considerably improved by the land reform.

Then Nasser continued his fast-paced political campaign. In March 1951 he stated tht Naguib had been right with his demands of new elections and constitutional government - but insisted that the constitution of Egypt should now be reformed to better reflect the current political situation and "the will of the people." Naguib was initially skeptical, but when Nasser strongly supported his demands for free democratic elections in the near future, Naguib finally fell to Nasser´s trap and pledged his support for the constitutional reform. In exchange Nasser gained Naguib´s reluctant acceptance to the violent crackdown of Muslim Brotherhood and other political opponents of Free Officers. And while Naguib was able to strike a bargain with Atlee´s government and finally end all colonial ties to Britain in February 1951, Nasser had made sure that the new constitution was drafted according to his wishes. The new document supported the position of Islam as the state religion, and declared that Egypt was a sovereign Arab state with a new constitution that aimed to "the extinction of feudalism, the end of imperialism, the destruction of capitalistic influence, and the establishment of a strong national army, of social justice, and of a sound democratic society."

Soon general Naguib realized that the situation in the country was getting out from his control. With all pre-war political parties effectively suppressed and banned and the members of the RCC mostly supporting Nasser, Naguib´s new legal powers actually mattered rather little in Egyptian domestic policies. He realized that his legal rights to veto were more or less handicapped by the fact that Nasser had filled the new administration and the RCC with his own supporters, and that the new upcoming elections would most likely change nothing. The new members of the National Assembly would be elected solely among the chosen candidates of the single legal party, the National Union. But by now Naguib was no longer able to slow down the inevitable. In June 1951 the new constitution was ratified by a plebiscite, and Nasser became the new President of the Republic, receiving 99.9% of the votes. Few days later he replaced the last seven supporters of Naguib from the RCC after higly awarding them with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Nile. Now Naguib was little more than a popular figurehead for Nasser´s regime. When Nasser then bought a large number of obsolete German weapons from the Reich, Naguib realized that Nasser was openly preparing for a direct confrontation with the Western powers - a conflict that the old general had so carefully tried to avoid. Yet Naguib also firmly believed that unless he would personally oppose and defy Nasser´s ambitions, Egypt would surely lose all hope of becoming a neutral, democratic regime. But before the two men and their supporters had a chance to finish their struggle for power, the situation in the nationalized Suez Channel led to the Allied invasion.

Egypt entered to the conflict with a leadership torn apart by internal dissent and differences. Nasser was suprised by the determination of the Allies, and now he was forced to make some kind of temporary truce with his own General Staff, where the majority of the high-ranking Old Guard officers still held Naguib in high esteem and regarded Nasser as a dangerous gambler who had overplayed his hand. Thus the Egyptian war effort was severely handicapped by the mutual mistrust between Nasser and the supporters of Naguib, and it was rather clear that a new internal conflict would most likely follow the current war, no matter what it´s outcome would be.

[Karelian]

Here´s the latest update, hopefully the complex situation in the Middle-East slowly becomes clearer for you as well. And now the big news: I finally made a major overhaul to the official history of this timeline.

The bitter peace between the Reich and the USSR is signed earlier than in previous version because of the diplomatic mistrust between the Western Allies and Stalin, Soviet Union remains independent from their ideological Chinese rival and maintains her position as a major world power (I still have to decide who leads the country after Stalin though), Germany and France won´t have anything to do with the possible wars in Indochina, Northern Ireland remains in British hands and so forth.

If you have any comments on these changes, please go ahead and express them in this thread.

[Nathan Madien]

While I don't have any comments on the changes you have announced (I think they are good), there is one thing about your version of history that I haven't understood. If D-Day failed and became a disaster for the Allies, how did FDR win re-election in 1944? I remember D-Day historian Stephen Ambrose writing an essay on the possible results of a D-Day failure and one of the results was FDR being defeated in November and replaced by Thomas E. Dewey. So I am just wondering how in the face of "Bloody Normandy" FDR managed to convince American votes to give him a fourth term.

[Dinglehoff]

Thatcher leads his country to a war.

Thatcher as in Margaret Thatcher or a different Thatcher? Thatcher in OTL was a woman.

[HKslan]

Long time reader, first time commenting. First I really like your writing, you're very talented and I really appreciate the obvious huge amount of work you've put into this.

I don't have anything to ask about your recent changes, but I've got a question that's unrelated--have the General Government and Bohemia-Moravia received any further independence following the war? Seeing as they haven't been absorbed into the Reich, I'm wondering if they are more satellite states rather than 'placeholders' and if the hostile German policy towards Czechs and Poles has changed any throughout the years?

[Karelian]

Thatcher as in Margaret Thatcher or a different Thatcher? Thatcher in OTL was a woman.

Yep, and Finnish is a language that does not distinguish gender in nouns or even in personal pronouns My bad. I´m naturally talking about Ms. Margaret Hilda.

Nathan Madien: A good, difficult question. One can only assume that Eisenhower, not FDR, became the main scapegoat of Overlord´s failure. Thus FDR could possible be able to rally his supporters for one last time, especially because the aproaching defeat of Japan, and poor Ike would be forced to humiliating retirement and lose his earlier popular support.

HKslan: As "projectorates" of the Third Reich, the General Government and Bohemia-Moravia are still far from free, though the active oppression of wartime era has slowly turned into pernament, indifferent occupation. Their limited cultural autonomy includes the usage of Polish and Czech in regional administration and local tv- and radio broadcasts, but even the latter two are used mainly to provide local propaganda alternatives to the Radio Free Europe and Western satellite-channels. Neither nation is allowed to have their own military units (unless small regional police forces are counted), and both regions are still strongly garrisoned by German troops.

[Nathan Madien]

Nathan Madien: A good, difficult question. One can only assume that Eisenhower, not FDR, became the main scapegoat of Overlord´s failure. Thus FDR could possible be able to rally his supporters for one last time, especially because the aproaching defeat of Japan, and poor Ike would be forced to humiliating retirement and lose his earlier popular support.

That is possible, of course. I mean, even with the D-Day disaster, FDR could have used the victories in the Pacific as an election counterweight. That being said, it is interesting how Churchill's career as Prime Minister was effectively killed by Bloody Normandy while FDR hung onto his job.

[Karelian]

That is possible, of course. I mean, even with the D-Day disaster, FDR could have used the victories in the Pacific as an election counterweight. That being said, it is interesting how Churchill's career as Prime Minister was effectively killed by Bloody Normandy while FDR hung onto his job.

USA wasn´t being slowly strangled to starvation with renewed U-boat blockade, and V2-rockets were hitting London, not Washington DC or New York. And while FDR could still confidently point to the events in Pacific, Churchill had no such good news to tell.

[Faeelin]

An odd thought: Is there an internet?

[Nathan Madien]

An odd thought: Is there an internet?

The internet was a by-product of the Cold War, so I would imagine the internet still being a fruit to enjoy. Of course, in Europe the internet would be a carefully-controlled fruit.

[Karelian]

Faeelin, Nathan Madien: Since the New Europe is hopelessly lagging behind in the developement of information technology in all other fields except purely military applications (no personal computers or mobile phones avainable for common citizens, that´s for sure), the access to the of the joint-European data network is stricly limited:http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...6&postcount=35

[Faeelin]

Faeelin, Nathan Madien: Since the New Europe is hopelessly lagging behind in the developement of information technology in all other fields except purely military applications (no personal computers or mobile phones avainable for common citizens, that´s for sure), the access to the of the joint-European data network is stricly limited:http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...6&postcount=35

Yes, I can see why giving people printers would horrify a totalitarian government; I was thinking about the US, actually.

[Karelian]

Overview of the Middle-Eastern War, Part III


*
Every Arab-speaking people is an Arab people. Every individual belonging to one of these Arabic-speaking peoples is an Arab. And if he does not recognize this, and if he is not proud of his Arabism, then we must look for the reasons that have made him take this stand. It may be an expression of ignorance; in that case we must teach him the truth. It may spring from an indifference or false consciousness; in that case we must enlighten him and lead him to the right path. It may result from extreme egoism; in that case we must limit his egoism. But under no circumstances, should we say: "As long as he does not wish to be an Arab, and as long as he is disdainful of his Arabness, then he is not an Arab." He is an Arab regardless of his own wishes. Whether ignorant, indifferent, undutiful, or disloyal, he is an Arab, but an Arab without consciousness or feeling, and perhaps even without conscience.

Sati' al-Husri, Damascus, 1930.

* Main office building of al-Hizb as-Sūrī al-Qawmī al-Ijtimā`ī or the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, located in Beirut during the late 1940´s.

Decline of the Free French power in Middle-East

After the Allies had successfully occupied the French Mandates of Syria and Lebanon during the Operation Exporter in July 1941, they were too occupied elsewhere to divert their efforts against the rising force of local nationalism and calls for independence. After it received nominal control of the former colonies, the Free French movement of general De Gaulle gave permission for general elections in the region, and this political activity was soon followed by formal declarations of independence.

When the WWII officially ended in 22nd of April 1946, the second colonial power in the region was already struggling to maintain control over the Middle-East as well, since the new Labour government of Britain was facing a major uprising in the Mandate of Palestine. Meanwhile the CFLN leadership of the Free French had its own problems in the region. After withdrawing most of their remaining loyal troops from Italy to Algiers and French West Africa, the government of general De Gaulle had nevertheless decided to maintain limited French military presence in Lebanon and Syria as well. The official reason for this decision was the CFLN intention to defend the new-found independence of the two republics against "the collaborational and illegal occupation regime of metropolitan France."

This policy wasn´t initially approved by their former Allies. The political relations between the US administration and de Gaulle and his followers had steadily grown worse during the war era. Eisenhower´s "military expedient"-deals with Admiral Darlan and General Giraud had been followed by de Gaulle´s ill-faded radio speech held during the critical hours of Operation Overlord. After the bloody failure in Normandy many Americans remembered well that de Gaulle had openly revealed the true nature of the landings - and while the reasons for the failure of Overlord lied entirely elsewhere, this event did not ease the mounting tensions between de Gaulle and his Allies one bit.

When the hopes of freeing mainland France in the near future were buried by the Accord of Zürich, the worth of continued support to the CLNF leadership lost most of its value in the eyes of the Allied planners. According to the official analysis, de Gaulle´s remaining loyalist forces were scattered around the former French empire in Africa, and he no longer had chances to effectively destabilize Laval´s government in French mainland. In the new Cold War situation American and British diplomats initially predicted that the former French empire would soon disintegrate completely, with major national movements seizing power in all former French colonies. According to the supporters of this theory, de Gaulle´s regime was eventually bound to be replaced by new national governments that would be quite willing to cooperate with the Western Allies in exhange of economical support and military protection, while supporting CLNF now would only needlessly provoke the local populations of former French colonies.

But while the Truman administration was trying to persuade their British allies to speed up the decolonization process of the Empire, the Axis powers of continental Europe had quite opposite plans. President Laval´s government still had ambitions towards their former possessions in Algiers and Western Africa, and after the "triumvirate" of Speer, Goebbels and Lammers supported by the military-industrial complex finally emerged victorious, the new leadership of the Reich soon took contact to Paris and expressed a renewed interest towards covert plans that aimed to destabilize the Free French rule in Africa and Middle-East.

Political situation in Lebanon and Syria

Initially the German ambitions towards Mediterranean region were rather opportunistic, since the major rebuilding effort of war-torn Europe was still seriously limiting their abilities to offer any concrete support for pro-Axis elements within the region. But the Germans were once again on the move in the right time: the chaos caused by rising tide of Arab nationalism combined with the unrest of Palestine and the British decolonization efforts left the Free French forces in nominally independent Lebanon and Palestine in an extremely vulnerable position.

The volatile situation of Lebanon offered ample opportunities to the agents of Abwehr and their supporting specialists of CIG, Centre d’information gouvernemental. With the mixed population of Marotine Christians, Shi´a and Sunni Muslims, Druze and various smaller religious and ethnic groups, the political situation of Lebanon was extremely complex and unstable. With the help of experienced French spies and their contacts in the region, the active spying rings of Abwehr soon made a detailed report in August 1950, and sented their analyzes to Berlin. According to this document that soon became known as the Beirut Memorandum, the former Mandate countries had two political organizations that could prove themselves as useful, suitable allies worthy of German support.


Antun Saadeh and his party were an influencial force in Syrian and Lebanese politics in 1950.

The first political force was known in French as the Parti Populaire Syrien and more commonly as the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, SSNP. The party had been founded as a small, secret group in November 1932, and during the war era it had been violently suppressed by the French colonial authorities. The party´s leader had been arrested and interrogated several times, and finally he had been forced to go in exile to Argentine. The founder and leader, Antun Saadeh, had returned to independent Lebanon three years ago, and ever since his supporters had violently clashed with the official authorities and their Free French supporters. And just a year ago, in 1949, the Lebanese government had canceled legislative elections mainly because of the predicted success of SSNP. Now rumors of a planned coup circulated within the country, and Saadeh himself was hiding somewhere in Syria.

SSNP had distinct similarities with the NSDAP: It had slowly risen from minority into the circles of power, and was a hierarchical organization with a powerful, visionary and nationalistic leader who promised a greater future for his nation. But the social nationalism, the ideology of Saadeh was quite different from Hitlerist views. According to Saadeh geography was the most important determining factor of nationalism. Since it was more important than religion, ethnic origin or language, he concluded that the Arabs could not form one nation - but many nations could be called Arab. Saadeh envisioned a new, unified Syria that should restore her ancient greatness as an entirely secular, progressive state that "extends from the Taurus range in the northwest and the Zagros mountains in the northeast to the Suez canal and the Red Sea in the south and includes the Sinai peninsula and the gulf of Aqaba, and from the Syrian sea in the west, including the island of Cyprus, to the arch of the Arabian desert and the Persian gulf in the east."

While SSNP was also active in Syria, there an another political force was emerging as the strongest player in the field of domestic policy. Like the SSNP, this new party was primarily an ideological organization, thus marking a clear difference to the older parties that primarily represented certain strongmen and their clans. This new party courted the educated Syrians, the petty bourgeoisie, and also received support from the Syrian working class. While being officially center-leftist, the vaque and wide political program of Baath was actually rather similar to fascism. Baathists were Pan-Arabs who hoped to resurrect the Arab world from it´s long slumber under Western domination, unify the Arab-speaking world into a solid political and economical alliance and reform the conservative societies into modern, secular regimes. From he German viewpoint the Baathist support for economy based on "Arab Socialism" that rejected classical Marxism and instead clearly resembled National Socialism was much more appropriate than SSNPs own concepts of economical reforms. The Baathists in Syria and Lebanon were still struggling to overcome the unified opposition of the moderate, reactionary political forces and the Free French authorities while competing for popular support with the SSNP and communists at the same time.


When Adolf Hitler died in 4th of January 1951, the mass-printed versions of Mein Kampf´s Arabic edition were allready widely distributed accross the Middle-East. When combined to the earlier writings of men like Sati´ al-Husri, who already in 1930´s had defined his vision of Pan-Arab nationalism by stating that: "We can say that the system to which we should direct our hopes and aspirations is a Fascist system ", it is no wonder that the actions of Nasser gained wide popular support for National Socialism the Middle-Eastern countries, whereas their governments became increasingly alarmed of the spread of Pan-Arabic ideology.

Pan-Arabism of Baath had also one important advantage over SSNPs visions of Greater Syria: The first ideology was now spreading through the Arab world like a wildfire. Nasser and Naquib had risen to power in Egypt at the early days of the same year, and Abwehr was also aware of Baathist activities in the Hashemite pro-Western monarchy of Iraq. Thus the political specialists of Auswärtiges Amt and Abwehr began to devise a plan that used the intelligence provided mainly by informants of the French CIG. Instead of the earlier military campaigns of the Reich, this kind of activity was a sign of the transformation of German foreign policies to the new Cold War-era situation: Direct military activities outside the Axis sphere of interests determined during the Zürich negotiations should be avoided at all costs in order to avoid new direct military confrontation with the USA and it´s allies.

Yet the Germans calculated that by using indirect methods and taking advantage from the unstable situation of the region they could achieve quick, decisive results that would bring friendly, pro-Axis regimes to power in Lebanon and Syria, thus increasing German influence to the Middle-Eastern affairs and isolating neutral Turkey even further away from the Western sphere of influence. But while the Germans were busily establishing contacts and making preparations, the internal situation of Syria and Lebanon became increasingly difficult.

After the British forces had withdrawn from Palestine in 1948 and the region had descended into a bitter civil war between the Jewish and Muslim paramilitary organizations, the neighbouring Arab countries were all more or less tempted to get involved to the conflict. But instead of simply promoting the noble cause of supporting their fellow Muslims, the monarchs and politicians of Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt all sought to increase their own influence in the region while simultaneously preventing their political foes from taking advantage from the situation. Needless to say, their vague motives and mutual mistrust prevented the various Arab units operating in Palestine from effectively coordinating their war efforts, thus enabling the small, but well-led and determined Jewish militias to continue their desperate struggle.

At the same time when the large influx of refugees from Palestine further destabilized Lebanon, the popular mood in Syria grew tired to the stagnated war in Palestine, continuing presence of the Free French military forces and President Shukri al-Quwatli´s inability and reluctance to alter the situation. Just like the French spying rings had predicted, their informants within the SSNP soon reported that the party was preparing for a coup in Syria - probably accompanied by wide unrest in Lebanon as well.

Operation Zedernholz

After Abwehr´s early reports and initial plans had gained the acceptance of the new leadership of the Reich, the operation received more funding and entered into a new stage. After Berlin had agreed to the main points of Damascus Memorandum, Fawzi al-Qawuqji´s supporters in Palestine and the new German contacts within the local Baath party circles in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt had initiated a low-profile campaign of volunteer recruitment. Officially entitled as refugees fleeing from the civil war of Palestine, the chosen men were then given visas by the new fascist regime of Greece, and their long journey began. Their true destination was in the Dodecanese Archipelago, at the remote island of Patmos. The islands had been seized by the Germans after the Italian capitulation, and while they had been recently been transferred back to the control of RSI, Germans still maintained small-scale military presence in the area.

Here the volunteers, who had been officially stationed to the islands in temporarily refugee camps began their training. And here the Waffen-SS took over. The organization that had recently suffered from wide internal purges and radical reforms was still the one with most experience of using foreign volunteers, and in addition the trainers were not only veterans from the last war, but their NCOs and lower-rank officers were almost exclusively Muslims as well. These men had volunteered to continue their career in the service of the Waffen-SS, and among their ranks were Bosniaks from 13.Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS "Handschar", Muslim Albanians from the 21. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Skanderbeg, while a large number of them also came among the ranks of the various small Muslim nations of Caucasus.


The first NCO course of the Arabische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen-SS. While the unit mostly trained with modern weapons like the StG/43 assault rifles seen in the picture, it was finally armed with Soviet-made WWII-vintage weaponry to at least partially hide the level of German involvement.

The training was intensive, and while the rank-and-file of the new light mountain infantry unit trained for mountain and desert warfare (combat reports of the veterans of DAK were widely studied during the NCO and officer courses), partisan operations and standard light infantry tactics, the Abwehr was making preparations in the Middle-East. The German-Egyptian Arms deal with Nasser´s Egypt helped to sway many influential Baath leaders towards the German viewpoint. It seemed to further support the German thesis that just like in the earlier case of Republic of China, Germany was the only major power that viewed the Arab countries as an equal partners and wanted to promote their liberation "from the colonial yoke." And while the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, local Communist movements and the pro-Western governments in Hashimite monarchies and more democratic regimes in the Middle-East remained sceptical and even outright hostile towards German ambitions, the rise of Nasser and the continuing violence in Palestine steadily increased the support of pro-German versions of Pan-Arabism.

5th of August 1951, less than a year after the general outlines of Damascus Memorandum had been accepted, the hastily trained Arab Legion was reportedly ready for combat. Latest espionage reports indicated that Syrian Social Nationalist Party was preparing to initiate their coup attempt in Syria. In addition Nasser had nationalized the Suez Channel, and news of increased diplomatic contacts between governments of Transjordan, Iraq and Saudi-Arabia and the Western Allies pressured the German government to act quickly. The Middle-East was in turmoil, and now the question seemed to be what force would be the first to act. A week later, when the radio broadcast from Damascus stated that the pro-SSNP junta led by Adib ibn Hasan Shishakli was taking control of Syria, the members of Arabische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen-SS who had been infiltrating Lebanon and receiving shipments of smuggled weapons and equipment received orders to go ahead with operation Zedernholz - and while the Baathist militias initiated a series of attacks against SSNP in Lebanon and Syria, the small units of the SS Arab Legion gathered, armed themselves and started their surprise attacks against the Free French military bases in the region.


With camouflage uniforms, modern combat gear (notice the modern German steel helmets) and solid training, the small commando detachments of Arabische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen-SS spearheaded the popular Baathist uprisings in Lebanon and Syria. The news of their actions soon reached London and Washington, and while these units and the Baathist militias they supported successfully toppled the governments of the two republics, their actions initiated the process that led to the Allied invasion in the next October.

[rcduggan]

so Nazi's take over in the Levant, but the Allies are going to intervene? complete chaos. I like it.

[Karelian]

so Nazi's take over in the Levant, but the Allies are going to intervene? complete chaos. I like it.

Middle-East thus becomes the first true testing ground of Truman Doctrine, and with the increased petroleum production around the Persian Gulf it´s importance becomes even greater as the hostilities continue. In the situation of late 1951, just before the Operation Damask with Nasser in control of Suez and continuing chaos in Palestine, pro-Western Lebanon became increasingly important for the petroleum supply of Italy and Britain.

In 1950, year before the German intervention internal troubles of Lebanon and Syria the Trans-Arabian Pipeline Company finally finishes the three-year long construction of the Tapline. By connecting the Gulf oilfields of Qaisuimah to the harbor of Sidon with transportation capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, this joint project of most important US petroleum corporations was almost crucial for the global energy markets of the day. In addition to the question of Jewish homeland and the control of Suez, the Allies are determined to keep this pipeline operational.

[HKslan]

I can't remember, is it mentioned in the timeline or somewhere else how this 'conflict' ends? It's a shame the Reich is supplying them with such ancient equipment, it's a good opportunity to evaluate their most current tank design against the Pattons.