Part Three: The Long Awaited Update
Part Three: Tribulations and Tides Changing
1941 was a stressful year to be a Briton. With France fallen and Japan having entered the war, the Empire was pressed to its limits in a war in every ocean. Things seemed to have started off well enough at first. The Royal Navy triumphed in its first major fleet action against the Japanese, with
Glorious' bombers sinking the battleship
Nagato and the heavy cruisers
Maya and
Chokai being blasted to scrap by
King George V. On land, however, the sudden Japanese takeover of French Indochina cpresented a grave threat to the security of the British Empire in Asia. With hardly enough troops present to deter Japanese invasion, the British government made the controversial decision to create independent Dominions of India and Pakistan, in the hopes of raising an army quickly to defend the subcontinent. The Guangxi warlords, who had stayed out of "Chiang's War" in the interest of neutrality, were also alarmed enough to begin mobilizing their own army.
Germany, in the meantime, had its own new plan to tip the balance of power in the Atlantic. With the Nationalists resurgent again after their dramatic Winter Offensive, which pushed them within sight of the capital once more, Germany intervened with a declaration of war upon Republican Spain on January 29. The Spanish Republicans quickly aligned themselves with the Allies, hoping to get some British intervention to stave off their imminent doom.
But Antonio Salazar was not to be topped and had an even bigger surprise up his sleeve. Portuguese forces in the colonies of Angola and Mozambique had become beleaguered under constant assault from the light tank forces of South Africa. While a Portuguese pocket continued to hold out in northern Mozambique, in Angola, the last of Portugal's troops had surrendered and the port of Luanda had fallen.
"Luanda must be retaken," said Salazar, slamming his fist on his desk for form's sake. The Portuguese navy, led by the heavy cruisers
Matosinhos and
Vila Nova de Gaia dutifully set out to reclaim the distant colony.
Italy drove further into the Middle East, conquering Iraq. Italian forces then began to move around Vichy French Syria in a great pincer move to attack Egypt from behind, slogging their way through Jordan and Palestine in a long, hard fight. The Germans came down in force in, sweeping down through the northeast before turning westwards to surround Madrid. Italian forces reinforced the German lines from the east, while Portugal contributed many divisions to the Nationalists in the west. Britain gallantly sent what aid it could offer, landing a full corps in Gibraltar, although this force was soon crushed after Republican Spain's demise. The Republicans put the Spanish navy to the torch rather than allow Franco to get his hands on it upon their surrender.
Meanwhile, the Portugese expeditionary fleet, which faced a stiff South African defense of the port, ran into its worst fear: Royal Navy ships. They got lucky, however; it was only a pair of light cruisers that came to tangle with them. The Portuguese managed to damage and drive off both of the cruisers, although their own heavy cruiser
Matosinhos was badly damaged. The Portuguese ground on, determined to win, and finally dislodged the South African defenders to liberate Luanda. Citizens paraded in celebration in the streets of Lisbon, and medals were handed out generously for the men of both the army and the navy.
In the Pacific, what had started out promising for the Royal Navy was reversed by a series of disasters. The
Hood was lost in a botched engagement with a Japanese cruiser force, being finished off with torpedoes by the light cruiser
Natori.
Hood's loss was followed by that of the light auxiliary carrier
Hermes to the IJN's
Taiho.
Yet these losses paled in comparison to the catastrophic Battle of Seto Naikai, in which the Royal Navy lost two of its vital modern battleships.
Rodney perished under a hail of torpedoes from the
Kaga's Kates, while
Howe, a new-generation King George V class battleship, was sunk by the borderline museum piece
Fuso. This fiasco was just the start of a year of dismal and humiliating performance from the RN battle line, however. The IJN claimed another victory later in the year in which the old battlecruiser
Kongo took down
King George V.
The Italians and Germans held nothing back either.
HMS Valiant went down to the 11-inch gunfire of the heavy raiding cruiser
Admiral Graf Spee, while
Royal Sovereign perished under the assault of the RM's battlecruiser
Genova.
Prince of Wales at least managed to die with dignity; mortally wounded by the
Littorio, she spent the last of her life ramming into the Italian battleship and firing her guns at point blank range, taking her killer down with her.
Duke of York, the last of the King Georges, did not acquit itself so well.
That day, Churchill wept and Horatio Nelson's portrait spontaneously combusted.
The ever faithful
Malaya was the only jewel of hope left among the remaining battleships.
While the big guns were disappointing overall to say the least, the same cannot be said of the Royal Navy's carrier fleet, which truly distinguished itself in that year of hardship. Having already delivered
Nagato to the depths, the carrier force followed up with sinkings of the battleship
Ludendorff and the battlecruiser
Milano, while the RAF's Coastal Command brought down another German auxiliary carrier, the
Weser. The British began looking more towards the aircraft carrier as the future of naval warfare and began planning their future construction and research around that doctrine.
On June 4, 1941, Germany declared war on the Soviet Union, joined by its other Axis partners, including Japan. Germany, Hungary, and Romania launched a broad front offensive, driving the Soviets back steadily over the next few months. Significant forces also arrived from Italy, Spain, and Bulgaria, along with minor contribution by other allies.
Finland, however, was completely unprepared for a second war; the Soviets had learned from the mistakes of the horrific six-month Winter War and crushed Finland in a blitzkrieg over within weeks.
With Sweden and its vital resources next in line, the Germans dispatched a northern corps to help slow the Soviet advance.
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I've run out of time to completely update this, but I figured you guys have been waiting long enough, I'd write up as much as I could. Bullet points on other stuff I'll add to this update:
- Soviet Navy's generally acquiitted itself decently fighting against both the Germans and the Japanese, aside from an incident in which a stack of 6 subs got sunk together (being that this is a no fog game, they're not really helpful anyway). Their only losses so far have been obsolete vessels
- Front line right now is from Leningrad to the Crimea. Germany's actually in a very good manpower situation (still well over 1000) because of how much naval spending there's been.
- Royal Navy battle line is megafucked. The only surviving battleships right now are
Malaya,
Nelson,
Barham, and
Queen Elizabeth, although
Jellicoe and
Beatty are due in March. I've taken the liberty of making
Malaya the new Pride of the Fleet to honor its improbable accomplishments.
- RN carrier fleet still strong, eight fleet carriers total,
Indomitable and
Glorious on patrol in the Mediterranean right now under a skill 7 admiral, and new generation carriers will be ordered upon completion of the battleships.
- I've expedited most of the Dutch and French fleets to British control to make up for RN losses and because the UK can supply and repair them far better than either government-in-exile.
- Epic action in South America that needs proper attention. Argentines and Peruvians broke through Brazilian defenses and captured Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. And then Uruguay suddenly entered the Allies...sending the Argentines scrambling back to set up a defense. Too late, the Uruguayans went and took Buenos Aires. They're being contained again now, but Brazil has rebounded and liberated Rio and is in position to attack Sao Paulo. Uruguay saved the day!
- Portugal did that on its own. I didn't do it. Just wanted to establish that.
- Japan is kicking Russia's ass in the Far East at the same time as the Chinese are driving them back. It's...interesting.
- Persia joined the Axis but is not in the war yet
- Italians are fighting the Soviets real hard in the Middle East, Turkey's been cut in half, reconnected, and cut again. Italians appear to be effectively supplying their army by sea when it is cut. They've reached the Sinai and are trying to fight their way into Egypt. The Allies are holding them atTobruk in the West - it's actually the Greek corps from all the way before still there, expedited under British command right now.
-
Glorious and
Courageous are just murderous.
King George V also apparently found the time to destroy six heavy cruisers of both Italian and Japanese nationality before its ignominious defeat.
- Current German major ships afloat are SHBB
Fuhrer, 4 CVs, 2 CVLs, 3 BBs,
Gneisenau,
Schleswig-Holstein, and 6 CAs. 2 new CVs due in May, 2 new BBs in August/September, a bunch of new destroyers to address shortage.
- US doom carrier fleet + the 5th and final
Montana due by the end of the year. Japan has not DOW'd US yet, I'm giving them a two month grace period to do it next time I play. If they don't, I will make them do it manually around March 1 or so.
- Those crazy Italians will have two new BBs coming out in summer of 42. Currently afloat are
Vittorio Veneto,
Andrea Doria,
Giulio Cesare,
Roma,
Cristoforo Colombo, and
Niccolo Machiavelli, as well as 3 CVs, 1 BC (Genova), and 1 CVL. Italian admirals are all crazy good and the ones leading the BBs and CVs in the 5-6 range by now.
- India's holding the front fine, not falling too easily but not overpowering the Japanese either. British are also holding out in Singapore. Japan seems too committed with fighting China and Soviets at the same time for any large scale amphibious ops.
- I'll post the fully detailed updates on losses and current strengths later too
Here's a map of the world as it stands now. If there's any other questions you'd like me to cover, please let me know.