“Aftermath”
June 8, 1940 Berlin
“We have accomplished one-third of our stated goals my friends. The Soviet Union is effectively destroyed and Stalin is either dead or in hiding, either suits our purposes well. Last night we received word that the Soviet Union began to fracture along geographical lines and these would be successor states have declared war on the Soviets.” Carnaris looks around at the gathered ministers. “Gentlemen, fully three-fourths or more of the Soviet Army is still moving towards the new border, in fact over 20 divisions of troops is waiting in Moscow for transport east. I don’t think that they’ll be getting to their new homes now.” Carnaris smiles and takes a sip of water. “Furthermore these successor states simply are not a threat to us, unless we say they are a threat for political purposes, the sum of the parts that is the new successor states are much less than the collective power of the whole. It may be a year or two or ten, but the Soviet Union will be destroyed without an additional German soldier dying to end the communist threat. Our operations plans never anticipated them falling like a rotten door, so gentlemen what do you propose for our next operation sets?”
Beck and Raeder look at each other and then Beck moves over to the board. “Gentlemen, I propose operation Nordic Hammer, the infantry invasion of Scandinavia. For some reason we allowed the Finnish to claim the thin strip of land from Murmansk almost to Leningrad when they did not assist in the invasion of the Soviet Union. We want that land back. Furthermore we are already at war with Norway and the invasion of Sweden and Finland will allow us to secure access to the rich mineral deposits. Admittedly we don’t have any production crippling resource shortages, but we are not running our factories at full capacity and we are suffering some material shortages.”
“When will we run out of resources at our current usage and production rates?”
“Sometime around 1950 I would estimate. We still have a 100,000 tons or more of our critical stockpiles.”
“More important however is preventing the Allies from stationing heavy bombers on the Scandinavian Peninsula to strike our critical facilities with. That is the primary goal of this operation. We will also be delaying this operation for a few months to allow us to reconstruct the railroads in the newly occupied territories and to finish upgrading our troops.”
“The operation we are all more interested in I believe is the invasion of the British Isles,” Raeder says as soon as Beck finishes. “Now compared to the British Navy we are severely lacking in ships, though they are some very nice ships. This will be a three part operation. The first part is only moderately related to the invasion of the British Isles but important nonetheless, that is the capture of Gibraltar. Before the end of the year veteran divisions will be pulled out of Russia and moved to the Spanish border, from there a general attack will commence and mainland Spain and the Rock will be taken. I don’t think that we want to rely on Franco for anything important. Once Spain is captured I will lead the 1st Carrier Squadron to the Canary Isles and remove the last of the Spanish holdouts.
The second part of the invasion plan is a systematic series of strikes on British naval bases in the Home Islands. This should help to remove the numerical superiority of the British and ensure naval superiority in the Channel area. These strikes will begin this year after the Spanish operation is completed.
The final stage of the invasion will be diversionary landings on the following beaches; Dover, Norwich, and Beverly. Within 12 hours of the initial landings I propose an atomic strike delivered by one of our strategic rockets to London. This will slow the flow of supplies to a trickle, create mass panic, and sap the morale of the British both their troops and the civilian population and give us the edge we need to get our troops safely ashore. Once the British have reacted to these landings and we have sufficiently reinforced them so that they will not be forced into the sea we will then invade via Portsmouth as our primary thrust.
In all honesty I think that we can make do with just the initial landings and the atomic attack, but I would vastly prefer to have the additional troop strength and lift capacity to make any of these diversionary attacks the real one or create a new diversionary beachhead. To that effect production has begun on a series of all sea-transports and the landing ships that will bring our troops ashore. Additionally we have begun laying down the beginnings of a real fleet, not just a handful of squadrons. Six fleet carriers, two battleships, and ten light cruisers and the carriers might be ready by December of next year.
June 7, 10 Downing Street
“Our worst fears have come to pass," Churchill's aide passes out a folder to everyone.
There is no longer anyone that can stop the Germans in the East except for us. The Soviets have their own problems now and the Germans can move most of their troops away from the Russian Theater. We have other commitments though don’t we?” Winston Churchill begins. “How can we protect the British Isles, Africa, India, and press the Germans anywhere?”
“As you mentioned the Army is stretched thin, though we have been steadily reinforcing ourselves in Africa, we will not be ready there for some time. Hopefully, we are leaving enough strength in the Isles.”
“Gentlemen,” begins the naval minister, “I have some serious reasons to be concerned. Our reconnaissance flights have shown that there have been no less than six carriers and numerous escorts laid down. In other terms that shipyard in a year or so will produce more carriers than we have in our fleet currently. The Germans may not have to tie up the Home Fleet, much less close the Channel if they instead outnumber us 2 to 1. We cannot at this time divert enough resources and industry to counter their ship building program. Forgive me if I sound defeatist,” he says as he wipes his forehead with an embroidered kerchief, “but by this time next year Germany could be landing on the British Isles.”
“If they do, then we will fight them on the beaches, in the streets, in the countryside, to the last man, woman, and child. God willing.”
August 4 Near Leningrad
“…Our mobile units will race for the coast punching holes in the Finnish lines while the infantry moves to contain hostiles and catch up to the airborne cav. Questions gentlemen?” Field Marshal von Cochenhausen asked of his men. There were none, these men were veterans serving from the mountains of Austria to the plains of low-lying France, the deserts of Africa, the Caucasus Mountains of the Soviet Union… and now mere months after defeating the Soviets on the border between Saint Petersburg (renamed by the Germans who captured the city, though Leningrad was still on all of the maps.
The Fins may have been spared an invasion from the Soviet Union in the Winter of 1939, but it is hard to fight a winter war in mid-summer. The lightning holes punched by the armored calvary, done in the Libyan deserts and again in the plains of western Russia. The infantry following behind and mopping up, trapping armies forcing them to surrender, not allowing them to run and fight again, nothing new at all having been done as early as the Austrian conflict. The enemy simply not having enough bullets to engage his foes? That was new.
The advance into Finland wasn’t anything to write home about, thought Hauptmann Weiss we have more corps on their border than they have divisions and are using rifles that the Soviets were holding in reserve. Twelve days of fighting and organized resistance stopped. Thank God for that. Was it to be Sweden or Norway for the corps next? Or sent back to the border to protect the Fatherland from the Soviet Successor States? Sooner or later Germany had to control Scandanavia, the British Isles, and Africa to prevent a future American strategic bombing. It is all to protect the Fatherland from the Allies that destroyed Germany after the Great War, but how does invading America help us?
June 8, 1940 Berlin
“We have accomplished one-third of our stated goals my friends. The Soviet Union is effectively destroyed and Stalin is either dead or in hiding, either suits our purposes well. Last night we received word that the Soviet Union began to fracture along geographical lines and these would be successor states have declared war on the Soviets.” Carnaris looks around at the gathered ministers. “Gentlemen, fully three-fourths or more of the Soviet Army is still moving towards the new border, in fact over 20 divisions of troops is waiting in Moscow for transport east. I don’t think that they’ll be getting to their new homes now.” Carnaris smiles and takes a sip of water. “Furthermore these successor states simply are not a threat to us, unless we say they are a threat for political purposes, the sum of the parts that is the new successor states are much less than the collective power of the whole. It may be a year or two or ten, but the Soviet Union will be destroyed without an additional German soldier dying to end the communist threat. Our operations plans never anticipated them falling like a rotten door, so gentlemen what do you propose for our next operation sets?”
Beck and Raeder look at each other and then Beck moves over to the board. “Gentlemen, I propose operation Nordic Hammer, the infantry invasion of Scandinavia. For some reason we allowed the Finnish to claim the thin strip of land from Murmansk almost to Leningrad when they did not assist in the invasion of the Soviet Union. We want that land back. Furthermore we are already at war with Norway and the invasion of Sweden and Finland will allow us to secure access to the rich mineral deposits. Admittedly we don’t have any production crippling resource shortages, but we are not running our factories at full capacity and we are suffering some material shortages.”
“When will we run out of resources at our current usage and production rates?”
“Sometime around 1950 I would estimate. We still have a 100,000 tons or more of our critical stockpiles.”
“More important however is preventing the Allies from stationing heavy bombers on the Scandinavian Peninsula to strike our critical facilities with. That is the primary goal of this operation. We will also be delaying this operation for a few months to allow us to reconstruct the railroads in the newly occupied territories and to finish upgrading our troops.”
“The operation we are all more interested in I believe is the invasion of the British Isles,” Raeder says as soon as Beck finishes. “Now compared to the British Navy we are severely lacking in ships, though they are some very nice ships. This will be a three part operation. The first part is only moderately related to the invasion of the British Isles but important nonetheless, that is the capture of Gibraltar. Before the end of the year veteran divisions will be pulled out of Russia and moved to the Spanish border, from there a general attack will commence and mainland Spain and the Rock will be taken. I don’t think that we want to rely on Franco for anything important. Once Spain is captured I will lead the 1st Carrier Squadron to the Canary Isles and remove the last of the Spanish holdouts.
The second part of the invasion plan is a systematic series of strikes on British naval bases in the Home Islands. This should help to remove the numerical superiority of the British and ensure naval superiority in the Channel area. These strikes will begin this year after the Spanish operation is completed.
The final stage of the invasion will be diversionary landings on the following beaches; Dover, Norwich, and Beverly. Within 12 hours of the initial landings I propose an atomic strike delivered by one of our strategic rockets to London. This will slow the flow of supplies to a trickle, create mass panic, and sap the morale of the British both their troops and the civilian population and give us the edge we need to get our troops safely ashore. Once the British have reacted to these landings and we have sufficiently reinforced them so that they will not be forced into the sea we will then invade via Portsmouth as our primary thrust.
In all honesty I think that we can make do with just the initial landings and the atomic attack, but I would vastly prefer to have the additional troop strength and lift capacity to make any of these diversionary attacks the real one or create a new diversionary beachhead. To that effect production has begun on a series of all sea-transports and the landing ships that will bring our troops ashore. Additionally we have begun laying down the beginnings of a real fleet, not just a handful of squadrons. Six fleet carriers, two battleships, and ten light cruisers and the carriers might be ready by December of next year.
June 7, 10 Downing Street
“Our worst fears have come to pass," Churchill's aide passes out a folder to everyone.
There is no longer anyone that can stop the Germans in the East except for us. The Soviets have their own problems now and the Germans can move most of their troops away from the Russian Theater. We have other commitments though don’t we?” Winston Churchill begins. “How can we protect the British Isles, Africa, India, and press the Germans anywhere?”
“As you mentioned the Army is stretched thin, though we have been steadily reinforcing ourselves in Africa, we will not be ready there for some time. Hopefully, we are leaving enough strength in the Isles.”
“Gentlemen,” begins the naval minister, “I have some serious reasons to be concerned. Our reconnaissance flights have shown that there have been no less than six carriers and numerous escorts laid down. In other terms that shipyard in a year or so will produce more carriers than we have in our fleet currently. The Germans may not have to tie up the Home Fleet, much less close the Channel if they instead outnumber us 2 to 1. We cannot at this time divert enough resources and industry to counter their ship building program. Forgive me if I sound defeatist,” he says as he wipes his forehead with an embroidered kerchief, “but by this time next year Germany could be landing on the British Isles.”
“If they do, then we will fight them on the beaches, in the streets, in the countryside, to the last man, woman, and child. God willing.”
August 4 Near Leningrad
“…Our mobile units will race for the coast punching holes in the Finnish lines while the infantry moves to contain hostiles and catch up to the airborne cav. Questions gentlemen?” Field Marshal von Cochenhausen asked of his men. There were none, these men were veterans serving from the mountains of Austria to the plains of low-lying France, the deserts of Africa, the Caucasus Mountains of the Soviet Union… and now mere months after defeating the Soviets on the border between Saint Petersburg (renamed by the Germans who captured the city, though Leningrad was still on all of the maps.
The Fins may have been spared an invasion from the Soviet Union in the Winter of 1939, but it is hard to fight a winter war in mid-summer. The lightning holes punched by the armored calvary, done in the Libyan deserts and again in the plains of western Russia. The infantry following behind and mopping up, trapping armies forcing them to surrender, not allowing them to run and fight again, nothing new at all having been done as early as the Austrian conflict. The enemy simply not having enough bullets to engage his foes? That was new.
The advance into Finland wasn’t anything to write home about, thought Hauptmann Weiss we have more corps on their border than they have divisions and are using rifles that the Soviets were holding in reserve. Twelve days of fighting and organized resistance stopped. Thank God for that. Was it to be Sweden or Norway for the corps next? Or sent back to the border to protect the Fatherland from the Soviet Successor States? Sooner or later Germany had to control Scandanavia, the British Isles, and Africa to prevent a future American strategic bombing. It is all to protect the Fatherland from the Allies that destroyed Germany after the Great War, but how does invading America help us?
