My Fight - From the memoires of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[Slan]

My Fight - From the memoires of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Nation: USA
Start date: 1936
Difficulty: normal
Version: 1.4
Mod: Historical Plausibility Project*

* I started out with a late revision of version 0.9, but if I encounter problems, I will try and fix them on the fly. There won't be any major reloading done, though: if I already posted something, it won't be changed later.

This is mainly a promotional AAR, but I will try to be entertaining as well It is my fisrt time, so be gentle
I will take a reactive approach, for two reasons. First, I think it is historically correct. The USA's populace didn't want to go to war, neither did Roosevelt. Second, I can show you what's going on in the mod without much interference better this way
There won't be any artificial restrictions aside from trying to be isolationist (untill the sh*t really hits the fan, that is.) I also won't use any cheats.
There will be pictures, mainly in-game ones. I'm expecting about 5-10 per post. In the first years, the pace will be a bit slower, but I won't wirte every detail down (like every tech researched, only the main projects), but when War breaks out, I will be reporting it. Think of this as a diary of the President. (Also, there may, or may not be a twist near the end of the story.)
I intend to follow through to the end of the war with the Axis at least, but there's a chance of war with the Commintern as well, if things get ugly (but not too ugly for them first...) We'll see.

Also excuse me if some (or most...) of the diary entries will be out of character. I'm no historian, I have very little idea what kind of person Roosevelt was. But this is an alternative history, anyway Actually, by now dear old FDR is starting to talk like he has gone fishing, so I think he is rather out of character. Nevermind.

Table of contents:

• Chapter I. - Waking from a dream
• Chapter II. - The Second New Deal
• Chapter III. - War in Europe
• Chapter IV. - Arsenal of Democracy
• Chapter V. - Awekening the Giant
• Chapter VI. - First Contact
• Chapter VII. - Sunset and Torch
• Chapter VIII. - The soft underbelly of Europe
• Chapter IX. - A vacation in France
• Chapter X. - Rush for Berlin
• Interlude - The Dilemma
• Chapter XI. - Peace in our time

Yes, the 'Mein Kapmf' reference is intentional. No, there will be no similarities. Neither will this become a national socialist USA AAR. It is only for contrast. And for my amusement. Sad, I know.

[Slan]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933

1936.1.1, 22:00: It was like waking from a dream.
Well, in a way, I was waking up, I guess. It was 8:00 in the morning. I still had a terrible headache from yesterday, but I have far more responsibility than to worry about that right now (foreshadowing). My first thing after getting some coffee was to go into my office and make a few calls.

There's going to be some changes. First of all, in the cabinet. Henry Morgenthau helped a lot with setting up the New Deal, but currently, the skills of Robert Ferdinand Wagner will help even more. He was a member of my Brain Trust for a long time now already, giving him an actual position in my government will give him a free hand. The other person I wanted to change is the Chief of the Navy. William Harrison Standley is a really talented admiral, but right now we are not at war, and I don't plan on being involved in one soon either, so someone with a more theoretical mind and a bit more experience with peacefull matters could come in handy. My choice is William Danial Leahly. (I'm sorry, I just like people with three names!)

The new cabinet

Secondly, we will have to cut back on military spendings. We currently have two fleet carriers, a heavy cruiser, two destroyer flotillas and a submarine flotilla in the construction. They give job to a selected few, but that's far from enough, people still feel the Great Depression, and we have to show them, that we want and will do something about it, and the answer is not in building more ships! I've shown my ideas of a new industrial program to Wagner, and he agreed that they could really make a difference! We will start working on the implementation within the year.

I delegated the task of overseeing foreign trade to my new Secretary of State, Cordell Hull. It has a pretty low priority right now, and I can't really bother with it. Hull is a great compromiser, he will get things in order, I'm sure of it.

I had a little talk with my Foreign Advisor, William Friedman (a briliant biologist, but also a talented cryptologist) and we agreed upon a somewhat lower intelligence budget. Currently we have no need of them overseas. On the other hand, I don't want any funny business around here, so the limited resources our intelligence will get, will be funneled into counterespionage for the time being.

I also discussed our current research and development projects with some leading scientists to get a good picture of how things are going. We agreed upon less funding for military projects and more focus on industrial stuff, like the application of conveyer belts and the such. One of them also told me about a great way of applying theories about radio-waves in navigation and the atomic research seems promising, too. These computers are also pretty interesting, I think we can achieve a lot of wonderful things with them. We will pay close attention to them.
Having a limited budget for military resarch does not mean no budget, though. I still want to have a competent Navy and Air Force for this nation. These are troubled times. I ordered a meeting with my military advisors (Chiefs of all Army branches), and we agreed on the following plan: we will focus heavily on a combination of the Navy and the Air Force. Thus, we will invest into the research and development of Fleet Carriers. Leahly still has his concerns, but I believe in force projection. On the other hand, Carriers voulnarable on their own, so they will need some escorts. Various sizes of Cruisers will do for that. I want an up-to-date Air Force as well. Who knows? We may need it! We will be developing fighters and bombers alike, just to make sure.
The rest of the tenders will encompass small arms and armoured vehicles.

There were some positions in the chain of command of our defense forces which needed to be filled. I dug up some names from some old reports. It is far from being top priority...

That's all for now. I will take an aspirin and go to sleep. This has been a long day.

[MajorMayhem]

Watching with interest. Your efforts should pay off here, I think this is going to be a great AAR!

[Slan]

Watching with interest. Your efforts should pay off here, I think this is going to be a great AAR!

Thank you, I hope so as well My only fear is that the war may be solved without me But even if Germany is defeated, there will be the Soviet Union to deal with, so I'm optimistic!

[Slan]

1936.3.10: We are going rather well with the finishing of those ships. The destroyers are already lunched, it is only a few months until the submarines and the cruiser arrives, and the two carriers will be operational within the year. That will pave the way four our new job creation program: a Trans-States Railway. That of course will be only a temporary measure: as soon as the railroad is completed, the jobs will disapear again. The second phase of the program, on the other hand will be a large scale industrializing project on the Western Coast, and in the Southern States. They could use some help with the catching up! But actually, that is not why I started this entry.
The war in Abyssinia. The hostilities ended with reestablishing the government under Italian control. Not that it really poses any direct threat to us, but it could make a very dangerous precedent!

1936.4.15.: Just like I feared, after the expansionism of Mussolini in Africa was fruitful, Hitler decided to take a bold step as well: he sent troops to the demilitarised zone of the Rheinland. This is clearly in violation of the Versailles treaty, but there were no real opposition against it. Hitler can get away with it for now, it seems. Well, it is German territory, I guess...

1936.5.26.: Naval development goes pretty well. We already have some pretty solid blueprints for new cruisers and carriers as well as a new tank engine to use in future models. We redistributed some resources to more industrial projects improving our mining and refining efforts.

1936.8.5.: I got new of unrest in Spain. The people are not really used to being a democracy there, I think. They lean towards extremists, and that will surely tear the nation apart. It's only a matter of time...

Unrest in Spain

1936.9.5.: As I was saying, a Civil War broke out in Spain. The recently elected left-wing coalition was unable to keep the communists and anarchists at bay, which led to open revolt in Madrid. That resulted in the escalation of the confilct between the Republicans and the Nationalists, and in now a days later, in full scale war.

The start of the Spanish Civil War

The fascists and communists couldn't keep their dirty hands out of the conflict of course, and started to support one side or the other in secret. (What? We have a low budget in foreign intelligence, but not that low...)

1936.9.9.: Speaking of Civil Wars. There was another one going on in China between the communists led by Mao Zedong and the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, for a few years now. Today, the two leaders agreed on an armistice to contain the Japanese threat. (Remember the Mukden-Incident from '31?) The strange thing about this, is that it was actually forced on Chiang: two of his generals kidnapped him! I'm a bit sceptic about such an uneasy alliance, though. Will it be strong enough in case of an actual Japanese invasion? Only time will tell. At any rate, the world starts to get more and more troublesome. I think I may need some spies overseas to keep me on level. I will call Friedman immediately!

1936.10.1.: Hitler announced the proposal of a defensive pact against the spread of Communism. That is clearly a provocation of the Soviet Union. Italy signed the so called 'Anti-Commintern Pact' in a few hours, and so did the Empire of Japan. They are up to some hanky-panky, I tell ya'!

1936.10.20.: On the brighter side: the production of those stupid carriers is finally done, so we can now start to build something more practical: the Trans-States Railway! It will go from Washington DC. through Campton, St. Louis, Tulsa, Santa Fe, through the Rocky Mountains to San Francisco! Meanwhile, we have nice progress in the development of tanks. These moving fortresses will rule the battlefield someday. I can only hope, that we won't need them...

1936.12.19.: Today, someone accused me (ME!) of staging a rigged election! I tought I was a popular person... No matter, they will forget it soon enough!

1937.1.1.: Stalin started a systematic purge against so-called 'traitors'. I can't believe this guy... Alright, I admit it, sometimes I feel like everybody around me is conspiring against me, but to make some show trials and executing half of his marshals is a bit extreme in my opinion... Note to self: don't get on his bad side! Or his right side? I'm not really sure, what would be worse. If he's my enemy, then at least he won't backstab me...

1937.2.21.: The first round of the first phase of the Second New Deal is done. That's a start! Lowering taxes a bit will also help gathering some support. (Not that I really need it mind you, everybody loves me!) Also, I orderd Hull (my Secretary of State, remember?) to try and outsource our military supply needs. We can do a lot more important stuff with our domestic industry than producing bullets, canned beans and toilet paper for our practically non-existent military. Like building even more railroads! And I was also thinking about financing some nice new harbours in the Pacific. It is lovely there in this time of the year!

1937.5.3.: There was a greate peace demonstration held in Washington DC today. The people don't want to go to war. (Not that there are any going on. Except for the Spanish Civil War, but civil wars don't count! Except for fascists and communists it would seem, but we are neither!) I don't want to go to war either. (" - What, are you a pacifist? - No, sir! I'm a coward!") But we don't really have to, it seems. The second round of the firts phase of the Second New Deal goes pretty well, another section of the Trans-States Railway is completed. (Well, not exactly completed, only the basic facilities are finished as of now, but it is going smoothly nontheless!)

The Trans-States Railway under construction

1937.5.22.: The second round is now completed, now only some celaning up is left on the main sections, and some more work in the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains, which will be finished by August. But in the meantime, we can already start to work on the second phase: Industrialization of the Southern States! (The third phase will be the Western States, and finally the fourth will bring us to a vacation to the Pacific!) Wagner (the Secretary of the Treasury) told me that we might need foreign support to actually feed this overgrown industry, but so be it! Creating jobs is what's important right now, we will worry about economics later! (Well, Wagner already worries about it, but that's his problem. He should have a talk with Hull.) And we are working on improved methods of mining those resources anyway! A bunch of interesting (well, quite frankly rather boring...) projects just finished the implementation phase in this field.

1937.7.1.: Yet another sign of trouble comming our way: after an incident near Beiping, China, shots were fired, a Japanese soldier was arrested, an investigation was denied, and now Japan is officially at war with China. How strong will be the alliance between Chiang and Mao will be I wonder? It is still pretty quite there, but that's only the silence before the storm, I feel it! As a reaction to this event, Chaing sent out the word to the rebellious Warlords in China to set asaid their differences and join forces against the common threat. Later today, Japan asked Germany for recognition of Manchukuo. This state came to existence in '32, after Japan invaded the place following the Mukden Incident in '31 and installed Puyi, the last descendant of the Qing Dinasty as the Emperor. They were practically a puppet state eversince. Germany accepted the request of course, which saw an increase in Japan's and Germany's relations, but a decrease between Germany and the Republic of China.

1937.7.15.: After almost a year of struggle, the Spanish Civil War is finally over, the Republican government managed to restore order and put down the rebellious military.

The end of hostilities in Spain

1937.8.3.: Chaing's call did not go unanswered: the autonomous province of Shanxi, the northern provinces ruled by the three Ma-s and even the communists forces under Mao agreed to join forces. Open conflict is sure to follow in a few days. But at least the Second New Deal goes as planned. The first phase will be completed in November, and by the end of January, we will already see some results from the second phase!
For some reason, whenever we start some interesting research project, somehow it turns out to be a militaristic one in nature. I don't know why that might be. It may be because my military advisors are such geniuses that can see a military application for even the most harmless tools. (I'm starting to understand Stalin...)

1937.10.1.: I had a meeting today with Freidman and Hull to keep me in the loop on the situation in China. Japan is making some progress from two directions: the Kantung Army is invading along a long front from the North while a detachment of the Imperial Japanese Navy orchestrated an amphibious invasion at Qingdao. From what I gather, the later seems to be a bit over-exposed, but I don't know anything about the composition of troops there, so I might be wrong... (And I'm not a military genius at any rate either.)

The Second Sino-Japanese War in October, 1937

Later edit on 11.3.: The two invasions linked up by late october, which sealed the fate of the autonomity of Shanxi. Their soldiers will nevertheless keep fighting under the banner of the Republic. The United Kingdom took this as a sign: China needs help! They started to send material for China through the so-called 'Burma Road'. That will hopefully help the Chinese keep the Mikado at bay. I would also help them, but due to their financial problems, they won't accept my trade proposals...

Later that month

But at least the first phase of the Second New Deal is finished. (These phases go simultaneously, by the way.) So now we can start to build some proper airfileds and harbours on Guam. (Plus some coastal forts. These are troublesome times!) I will build a Luxury Hotel there as well! I may need it for relaxation later...

1937.11.6.: Japan declared the independence of Mengjiang, another puppet nation. Where do they get these?

1938.1.1.: The Japanese campaign seems to go unexpectedly and rather disturbingly well... That might be because of the well placed and well executed amphibious invasion back in October. But that doesn't change the fact that the Japanese are starting to be a real threat! If they can take out China, that will tip the balance in Asia, and will have dire consequences later on. The only thing that can slow their advance now is the involvment of the armies from Guanxi, and maybe Yunnan.
But that still won't stop the progress made on the second phase of the Second New Deal! 15 new factories opened their gates today in the Southern States. We will start to work on those imports now... Of course we can easily afford it from the sales of our huge Oil exports.

1938.2.5.: After minor clashes between Soviet and Japanese forces on the Manchurian border, the two sides agreed upon a Non-Aggression Pact. That's one less front to worry about for both of them. And it might very well be one more problem for me in the long run... On an unrelated note, we started to build a Rocket test site in Texas, Houston. This facility will help immensely in our future research! Meanwhile, the improvements on Guam are going nicely as well.

1938.4.23.: My fellow Americans are starting to feel the coming storm, they now held a great war demonstration in DC. I, of course promised them that we won't let foreign powers interfere with our freedom, but also made sure, that we won't go to war except if absolutely inevitable. That pleased the masses, it seems. Unfortunately, it won't help the situation in China by one bit. The communist forces of Mao are surrounded in Xianyang, while the republican forces are pushed back. Some minor successes were achieved in holding up the invaders, but the Kuomintang is about to collapse:

China in late April, 1938

1938.6.12.: The barbarians! I don't even want to go into the details, they are so disturbing, but the 'Nanking Massacre' event happened just now... Outrageous!

1938.9.7.: The second phase of the Second New Deal is completed, another 15 factories are completed today. We can start the third phase, on the Western Coast now! (And another bunch of foreign deals, but that's still not a problem.)

1938.9.11.: Another expansionist development, now from Germany. Actually, it is from Austria, but now Austria is part of Germany, so... Anyway, the Austrian Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg (under German pressure, of course) proposed a referendum on Austria joining the Third Reich (another violation of the Versile Treaty, by the way!), which was canceled after German troops crossed the borders and the Austrian National Socialist Party staged a coup d'état, and made the referendum pointless. Austria, with all its rich history and culture is now reduced to be a province of Hitler's Germany... (Or is it Germany, that became a part of Hitler's Austria? Hitler is Austrian after all. I hope there won't be any American presidents from Austria, they might propose another Anschluss!)

1938.10.4.: Germany mobilized the reserves! What the hell is going on there?!

1938.10.21.: So that's what Hitler has been up to! Today, in Munich, a meeting was held with the representatives of Italy, Germany, France and the United Kingdom to discuss the problems in the 'Sudetenland', a Czechoslovakian region, with a significant German population. Hitler wanted it for himself, of course (that can't be surprising after the Anschluss), and promised, that this is the extent of his ambitions for expansion. The attendants of the meeting agreed on this, trying to avoid another Great War. I'm not really convinced, though. (Hey! I may be a benevolent gentleman, but at least I'm not a naive optimist!) The consequence of this is that Germany got their hands on a series of fortifications on the Czechoslovakian border. (Did I mention that the Czechoslovakians were not even represented on this meeting? How nice those guys are in Europe! I almost regret not being one of them...)

1938.12.28.: The Japanese advance slowed to a stalemate, there were no major gains in the last few months. It may have been the fresh armies from Yunnan and Guanxi, or the Japanese changed their minds, I can't tell. The fact is, they can't deal with eachother, which lowered their threat towards us, at least for the moment.

1939.2.8.: Who would have guessed? Maybe Hitler really did mean it when he said that the Sudetenland was the extent of his ambition! They demobilized their army!

1939.2.21.: Who would have guessed? It was only a trick, to make everyone believe he had good intentions! There have been a border dispute between Czechoslovakia and Hungary for a 20 years now (a consequence of the Treaty of Trianon). Hitler used the growing tension to his own gain by giving a permission for Hungary to annex parts of Czechoslovakia, while supporting a Slovakian independence movement lead by Jozef Tiso, a Slovakian priest, and under the pretext of protecting the Slovakian people, German forces marched into Bohemia and Moravia. The events may be confusing and chaotic, but the results are pretty clear: Germany annexed half of former Czechoslovakia, while giving some parts to Hungary, and creating a puppet state from the rest. (What's this fetish of creating puppets with dictators anyway?) To make things a bit better (or even worse?), the United Kingdom declared that they guarantee the borders of Poland from now on. That might be relevant because of Danzig (and the rest of Western Poland), which was part of Germany way back, before the Great War. Now Hitler may think twice before doing anything further... (Also, Slovakia sign the Anti-Commintern Pact. Not that it really matters, but still.) A few weaks later Germany laid official claims on Memmel (Klaipeda) from Lithuania, which they reluctantly agreed to. So much for Hitler and his ambitions...

1939.3.2.: Probably as an indirect consequence of the Vienna Award mentioned before, Hungary signed the Anti-Commintern Pact, and joined in an alliance with Germany. (Hungary choose the wrong side in the Great War as well. History might be repeating itself.) I think we will have to cut back on research in the near future. We will need to have more spies to keep an eye on these new threats.

1939.4.3.: The third phase of the Second New Deal is going well. The first round of industrialisation of the Western Coast is done, giving a job for hundreds of thousands of people. Meanwhile, the fourth phase is going well too, Guam will soon become a paradise for the wealthy and the poor alike!

1939.5.5.: Today when I went to work, I found a blueprint on my desk. It was something called 'RADAR'. It looked like a dish stood up, and a spike went out from the middle. From the specification, I found out what it is good for: it can help with detecting where the enemy is! I arranged a cabinet meeting quickly, and after a brief talk with Wagner, Freidman and Laehy, I decided that the Hotel Paradise on Guam could use some decoration!

1939.7.27.: Something must have happened in China while I wasn't looking:

China in the middle of the summer of 1939

Japan must have lost the will (or the means) to fight... It seems that all problems will be solved on their own! How nice

1939.8.21.: Or not... Germany and the Soviet Union has made a Non-Aggression Pact. I have a baaaaad feeling about this...

1939.9.1.: Where's Albania? I'm asking, because my Secretary of the State, Cordell Hull just reported, that Italy has annexed them... But he had something a bit more important to say too: Germany declared war on Poland!

[MajorMayhem]

Youve nailed China dead on. Id like to see how the resulting civil war turns out. Ill be sure to give HPP a try when ive got the time.

[Slan]

Youve nailed China dead on. Id like to see how the resulting civil war turns out. Ill be sure to give HPP a try when ive got the time.

Well, not dead on, I'm afraid... The Japanese are retreating fast, and will soon be fighting for their lives in Manchuria, and it's only late '39. (I admit, it is already a great feat to achieve a 2 years long stalemate by the AI in HoI3, but still not enough!) I think their economy simply collapses because of the threat they generate...

[TheBromgrev]

From experience, they probably ran out of rares. They didn't have much to start with, and their threat keeps trading partners away. If they get desperate, then maybe they'll look towards Borneo...

[Slan]

From experience, they probably ran out of rares. They didn't have much to start with, and their threat keeps trading partners away. If they get desperate, then maybe they'll look towards Borneo...

I'm afraid that's too little too late... Yeah, the effect of threat on trading still needs some tweaking.

[Slan]

1939.9.1.: So, there's a war now in Europe. And a big one at that: on the one side there's Germany and Slovakia, on the other there's the British Empire with the other members of the Commonwealth of Nations (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) who answered the call in a few days, France, and some Asian puppets of the British Crown (Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Bhutan and Nepal). Two weeks from the declaration of war, the Empire of Japan also joined Germany's club (but didn't join the war). Italy followed them soon.

This means an entirely new situation for our politics. A war in Asia is an important thing, but a war in Europe between highly industrialized nations is a very serious matter. I called together the cabinet to discuss this. We agreed on some changes in the plans. First, we will cut back on some of the social reforms of the original New Deal. Second, as soon as the remaining work is done from the Second New Deal, we will start to reorganize our Navy and Air Force. We won't look weak! We will be able to defend ourselves if we must! The first step that we can take right now is to start building 5 Wichita-class and 5 Atlanta-class cruisers.
Also, the change of our policies now allow us to stop paying for foreign materials for our industry. The factories will need to fend for themselves. They will be able to now. That means we can break some trade agreements with Germany for example (we were importing some energy sources from there.) We also won't need the metals imported from Canada and the various rare materials imported from the Netherlands (well, actually from the Dutch East Indies, but they had to go through Amsterdam first...), and the United Kingdom (same here). I also refuse to export metal and oil to Germany, so those trades are off as well.

1939.9.30.: After almost a month of intensive fighting, the government of Poland fled to London. Most of Western Poland is annexed to the Third Reich, Eastern Poland somehow ended up being Soviet territory (does this have something to do with that Non-Aggression Pact I wonder?), and the rest is now occupied by the Germans. Hitler now has a common border with Stalin, but with that damnd pact of theirs, it doesn't really matter now, does it? The whole Wermacht can now turn to the west, and go sit on the Siegfried Line. Although, I really doubt that they can break through the massive fortifications of the Maginot...

1939.10.10.: The last parts of the Second New Deal are done. Now we can turn our attention to getting prepared. As the proverb says: "Hope for the best, but plan for the worst!" I'm doing just that. Currently, there's not much I can actually do because the people are still unwilling to go to war (and quite frankly, so am I), but I can go about making our defensive forces quite formidable. That's a start. I asked my Chief of Staff, Malin Craig to give me an overview of our armed forces:

Statistics about our armed forces

Now, most of our destroyers and submarines are outdated. I don't want any more destroyers (our cruisers will do the job even better), but we will need better subs, so we started to build 5 new flotillas. We only have 5 carriers. That looks threatening, but not threatening enough! I ordered two new ones. That's it for now, but more is on the way. (We will need to wrap some things up first.) The Air Force will come next.

1939.11.1.: The frontline in China has been static for over a month now just outside of Beiping. The Japs must have been able to regroup and form a proper defensive line. What's more, later that month the they started to gain land again!

1939.12.25.: Merry Christmas to everyone! My present was the best, ever! A giant standing dish with a spike coming out of the middle, on Guam! I will have so much fun with it! (Like peeking into Hirohito's book while he's reading it before going to sleep!) Also, the completeion of those dishes means we can start to build another carrier!

1940.1.1.: And a Happy New Year! My new year was quite happy! I was re-elected! (It didn't come as a surprise, though, with all the good I've done to the people, and the negligable taxes we take. People love not to pay for our work...) Unfortunately this means that I will have to re-shuffle my cabinet a bit. The new Secretary of State will be Alfred Emanual Smith. He's a nice guy, he apologizies even for others' mistakes. Plus, he has three names. Robert Ferdinand Wagner will remain the Secretary of the Treasury, he has done well ever since I hired him. I hired a new guy for the post of Foreign Advisor: William Joseph Donovan. He is much better at politics than Friedman was. The new Chief of the Army will be David McKenzie Kay and the new Chief of the Air Force will be Henry Harley Arnold.

1940.1.19.: Another round of Hitler's warmongering, the new victims are Denmark and Norway. A day later, Germany demanded transit rights through Sweden so they can get material to occupied Norway, or else. (Not that they actually occupy Norway or anything...) The Swedish didn't dare to oppose of course. The war against Denmark lasted for about 3 weeks, after which, the Danish government fled to London. (It is getting a bit crowded there.) To prevent German intervention on Iceland and Greenland, we've been asked to take control of the situation. We did so. Reykjavik is a nice place, but it needs some decoration...

1940.3.12.: German forces started to march into Belgium. I seem to remember something similar back in '14... A day later Luxemburg was attacked as well (the government fled to London after a few days), but the German advance seems to be halted. In spite of this (or because of this?) Germany lunched another offensive on 3.24., now against the Netherlands. A week later, King Leopold III of Belgium has already lost all hope. (I can't tell why... There's not a single German soldier on Belgian soil...)

1940.6.2.: The three biggest cities of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Arhnem as well as the port city of Den Haag already fell. There's not much of them left unoccupied.
Now, we have a new contender for the 'Most ambitious expansionist of the century' award: Stalin. After his success in secretly grabbing half of Poland (arguabley taking back, as Russa owned that land a while back), they laid claim on Bessarabia, with the Nothern part of Bukovina (which actually never part of Russia...) Jumping on the occasion, Hungary asked permission from Germany to press another award in Vienna, now claiming most of Transylvania, which Hitler agreed on.
The following day, Stalin made another step towards the aforementioned award, and sent an ultimatum to the three Baltic States, demanding to let him station troops on their territory, which later changed to creating a new, communist government, which would join the Union. They realized that they had no chance of opposing, and they agreed. Now Hitler and Stalin have a quite long common border. Of course it still doesn't matter squat, as they still have their pact. Meanwhile, the Germans are slowly advancing in the Low Countries. They are having trouble with the dense forests and the rivers, but despite of them, making progress. The same can't be told about the front in China, which is pretty much the same as half a year ago.

1940.6.18.: Stalin just can't sit on his arse, can he?! He just expressed his claims on Karelia, part of Finnland. The finns think they are tough, though, so they decided to fight for what's theirs! Well, they have balls, I give them that. They don't have enough guns or tanks or plans, though, so they will lose quickly, but they might keep their balls at least... The Swedish also have some, but not much: they decided to send volunteers and material in aid of Finnland, but wouldn't risk a full-scale war with the Soviets. We, on the other hand have not only balls, but rockets as well! I won't go into the technical details, the point is, that these things go really fast, and can do a lot of damage. Because of that, it is important that we own this technology, not someone else! For defensive purposes of course.

1940.6.27.: The Germans are making their way into France now, they already captured Dankerque, Calais and Lille.

1940.7.8.: There's no more Belgian held land in Europe, and the Wermacht is advancing evermore rapidly into French soil now. They will be starting to siege Paris at any moment now. In Finnland, the Soviets quickly took land in the South, holding their ground in the North, but losing battles in between. (Actually, how can they do anything there? As far as I know, there's nothing there...) By the way, I'm getting a little nervous. My new Foreign Advisor just told me about massive concentration of forces on the border from Canada! What are they up to?

1940.7.22.: Paris is surrounded by German troops. The Soviets are advancing impressively fast into Finnland from the South. In China, there still a stalemate. On Guam, the RADAR dish is fully operational now, and while I can't take a peek into Hirohito's morning paper, I now know full well about all the Japanese troops stationed in the Pacific. That may come in handy later!

1940.7.29.: Why was I not notified of this?! The Italians joined the war! They had already broken through the French defenses in the South, and taken a fair chunk of Southern France!

Italian advance in France

1940.7.31.: After a short, one and a half month long war, Finnland is ready to fold to the Russian demands. Paris fell to the Germans. The Italians surrounded Marseille and the deffensive fortifications on the border, while advancing into Tunesia, Egypt and cleared all of Somalia of British forces.

1940.8.8.: We finished a set of RADAR dishes on Reykyavik. Field Marshal Stevens arranged the defenses of Iceland, consisting of an infantry division for the time being. By now, Southern France is mostly under Italian occupation, while the Nothern Coast is held by the Germans, and the two forces are about to link up around Cosne-Cours, thus cuting the supply lines from the still defended Maginot Line. France is about to collapse...

1940.9.3.: Bulgaria signed the Anti-Commintern Pact (I will start to call it the Tri-Partite Pact, involving Germany, Italy and Japan, with their allies.) After that, it's Bulgaria's turn to ask for lands from Romania. The Dobrogea region was captured from Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War, and now with German pressure on the Romanian king, they seceded it back. There's clearly no connection between these events, but on the same day, an armestice offer was sent to Hitler from the newly formed French government lead by Philipe Pétain. He believed that the Germans have already won the war, and decided that it is in France's best interest to give in to the Axis forces, so they can at least keep their independence. Now most of Northern France is under German occupation, Southern France is under Italian, and a tiny little stripe of land remain under direct French rule, along with the colonies.

France before the armistice

France after the armistice

[MajorMayhem]

Ooooooh, a improved surrender event for france! shiny!

[Slan]

Ooooooh, a improved surrender event for france! shiny!

There are some of those (5 versions, to be precise.)

Currently, just about anything can happen. Will Italy start a new conflict in the Balkans? Will the Japanese kicked out of Asia once and for all? Or will they make their comeback yet? They may even have something up in their sleeves. And what about the USSR? Has Stalin gave up on his ambition of international communism? Will they fall like a house of cards when the inevitable clash with their Arch-Nemesis finally arrives? Only time will tell... And me, of course

[Nikolai]

Lovely. Good job so far.

[Slan]

@Nikolai: Thanks!

I played ahead to late '41, but due to some complications (namely the stupid Indochine decision, and its vanilla consequence of it being immediately being conquered by Guanxi) made the whole thing go down the toilet in a nice little whirlewind (whirlewater?...), so I needed to make some changes, and I will return to the Vichy event tomorrow.

[TheBromgrev]

I'm glad the new Vichy event worked. Historically, Vichy controlled southern France because Italy didn't do much. Here, AI Italy took more land than AI Germany and was rewarded. I never liked the vanilla historical-only approach. Imagine what Mussolini would do if he did half the work and gained nothing.

[Surt]

I think Japan imploded the moment they got a common boarder with GuangXi, which before didn't realise they got access to China (vanilla Bug?) and now sees Japanese next to them will run around the now spread and exhausted Japanese formations and surround them and annihilate them.

[Slan]

I think Japan imploded the moment they got a common boarder with GuangXi, which before didn't realise they got access to China (vanilla Bug?) and now sees Japanese next to them will run around the now spread and exhausted Japanese formations and surround them and annihilate them.

You are typing in a haste again, aren't you?
Yes, something like that. I gave Japan some border gurads but that is only a temporary measure, as they will be immediately out of supply, and Guanxi is sitting on the border. In HoI2, Indochine was inaccessible from the North, but I don't know how I could simulate here. Maybe a line of 0 infra probinces? The AI tends to ignore them... The same trick could (and actually, should) be used in Finnland, to prevent force concentration in the middle. There's nothing there now, and even less was in '40...

EDIT: The trick seems to work, so I will be back in a few hours with Chapter IV!

[Slan]

1940.9.7.: With France effectively fallen (well, there's some guy in Brazzaville called Charles de Gaulle, who thinks he is the main man now, and started to call that village 'Free France', but allow me the benefit of doubt here...), there's only the United Kingdom left to fight the fascists. (You could somewhat count Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong into this as well, but they are rather pre-occupied with each-other usually to be any help.) We still won't (can't) join the war directly. But that won't stop me from giving a helping hand for democracy all over the world!
Here's what I tought: first of all, I will stop every trade with Germany and Italy, effectively embargoing them. (Not that we had any trade with them lately, but the gesture is important! By the way, I only needed to embargo Germany, because as a respons to this, Italy embergoed us. That saved me some trouble.) When we are done with that, we will trade some outdated destroyers to the UK in exchange for basing rights (Which we won't really use, but hey! We are the good guys, we can afford one-sided deals!) in some backwater places. We also managed to pass a new congressional act, allowing me to sell, transfer, lend or lease war materials to nations I consider vital to the defence of the United States of America. (These are of course the United Kingdom, France and the Republic of China, at the moment.)
Japan also took the opportunity, and occupied Indochine saying they are protecting it from the British. Well, the British have a nasty habit of colonizing unprotected territory, so you could say they have a point, but didn't this new French government protect it better than they can? Against China, for example?... And this was not enough for Hirohit, he bullied Siam into the Axis as well! (Plus, he installed a new government there some for flavour...)

1940.9.12.: Something is clearly wrong with our intelligence and foreign ministry! Italy and Greece are now at war, and I wasn't even told about it! From what I gather (From British newspapers!!! Thank you, guys, really!), the Italian king, Vittorio Emanuel III sent an ultimatum to Greece, demanding transit rights. The Greeks petitioned for protection with the British Crown, and they got it. Now they are in an alliance with the British against the Axis powers. This is the first time in this war, that I see some incompetence from Italy: they already lost most of their Albanian holdings to Greece by the end of the month.

1940.10.1.: In light of some of the lates developments, I saw fit to recall our forces from the Philippines, and send them to Guam.

1940.10.9.: Seeing the trouble down South, Germany decided to help out, but for this, they need to get there first. A formal demand was sent to Yugoslavia for transit rights through their lands, which was agreed upon. Unfortunately for Hitler and the Yugoslavian king, this was the last drop. Senior military officers staged a coup and installed Peter II as king, and declared the agreement void. That surely made Hitler rather furious, becuase German forces started to invade the country.

I see the madness in your eyes...

1940.11.2.: The five flotillas of submarines are lunched, so we can now start to build two more carriers. Our Navy looks quite a lot better than it did a year ago! (Alright, we still need at least one more year to finish those carriers, but when we do... )
The German-Italian invasion of Yugoslavia is going slowly because of the hilly terrain, but I wouldn't give them more than 1-2 months... Another point for mr. Hitler and Co. (We have finally developed our radars on ships so well, that we can start to train our crew in using them...) It seems that something is going on in the Central African jungles: the remnants of the Belgian Army lunched a counter-offensive against the occupying Italian forces in French Central Africa (namely Gabon), and took back Libreville. Good job!

1940.12.13.: The ten cruisers I ordered last year have arrived. It's time to order ten more!

1940.12.18.: I was right about Yugoslavia: after one and a half months of heavy fighting, they surrendered to Germany. The government fled to Kripton. Alright, just kidding, they actually fled to London, but that's getting boring now... In the following days, Germany and its allies partitioned Yugoslavia: everyone got their claimed land back, and the rest remained under occupation by Germany. Additionally, a new nation, Croatia has been formed. A puppet yet again. Now only the war with Greece is left.

The partitioned Yugoslavia

1941.2.6.: The Greek government has fled to London, leaving Greece to be occupied by Italy. That means it is realtively peacefull again in Europe. But not in Africa! Italy has almost completely occupied Egypt by now, and linked up with the forces in Somalia!
Considering how many carriers we will have, I think we should have someone who know something about them. That's why I appointed Chester William Nimitz as the new Chief of the Navy.

1940.3.9.: I orderd the production of two transport plane wings today. We also started a new program to train our officer corps. We have developed a lot of new doctrines lately, they need to learn to use them. We will need to cut back on research a bit for that to achieve, but currently we are quite good at technology anyway.

1941.4.5.: Today we sent the first actual Lend-Lease shipment to the United Kingdom. I hope they will put it to good use.

1941.4.18.: Hitler renounced the Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union! I know you couldn't trust that guy! Meanwhile, there's something going on in Northern France. The Channel Islands are still held by the British, and now they took Granville as well! I don't really think that will last long to tell the truth (it may even be some uprising, actually...)

1941.5.25.: There's a counter-attack developing in Egypt, British (or whatever) forces are pushing back the Italians, who are forced back to Alexandria and behind the Nile river. Things may be starting to get better! We also sent the first shipment of Lend-Lease material to China.

1941.6.16.: Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union! Hungary also joined the war right away! Now we will have to send aid to them too...

The start of the invasion in the Soviet Union

1941.6.30.: We have been embargoed by Hungary! I think domestic porn will have to do from now on...

1941.8.7.: Now we are embargoed by Bulgaria as well. I don't even know what you could import from Bulgaria, so I can't say I'm bothered by that.

1941.8.21.: The Axis forces (currently Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, and their puppets are involved in the war) are making some progress into Eastern Poland. They made a small pocket in Stanislawow. Commonwealth forces are pushing back Italy out of Egypt, and getting closer to the Lybian border.

1941.9.25.: There are British forces in Mombasa. I'm sure, they weren't there before! The advance in Egypt slowed down a bit, while the Axis forces are in Western Russia now. The Nationalist forces made progress in Northern China.

1941.10.26.: What now? A Soviet landing in Benghazi? What the hell is going on in North Africa?!

Utter chaos in Northern Africa

On an unrelated note, we have just finished the development of flying bombs. What a great defensive weapon, don't you think?

1941.11.17.: We have completed our first two transport plane wings. Three more is on the way. Do you remember my nuclear project? No? Maybe I didn't told you, because it is a Secret Project! Well, it is half-way complete, we can start to build Nuclear Reactors now, which we did. It will be an amazing source of power, when it will be complete!

1941.12.1.: Japan started a campaign against the British and Dutch colonies in Asia! We can't just sit by and do nothing! Screw the Monroe Doctrine! I'm appointing a new Minister of Security: Robert Houghwout Jackson. He was Attorney General until now. His first job will be to organize a campaign to convince the people that we have to take action against the fascist threat!

1941.12.4.: "Yesterday, December 3, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." - That's how I started my speech today in the Congress. Well, there's no other way no. We are officially at war.

A fiendish attack on Pearl Harbour

[Nikolai]

Oh, those pesky Japanese...

[MajorMayhem]

Nice Peral Harbour event. Thought about adding manpower, to represent American civilians volenteiring?