Chapter XX - Beyond Europe!
The Euroaxis foothold in Europe looking the safest it had ever been, the full attention of the OKW could be turned to the broadening of the Reich's interests on other continents, something that hasn't been a possibility at least since 1941, and arguably never to this extent. Be it as it may, the German panzer columns had come knocking to the gates of India, where even Alexander the Great was forced to turn his ambitious gaze back where he came from. Alexander was a fool.
Despite heavy casualties, the battle is concluded in a devastating victory, marking the end of the stiff resistance of the British crown jewel of India. The frontline is promptly left to the Italian infantry, freeing the German armor up for some more ambitious plans in the future.
Air doctrines are continuously being upgraded, and Hugo Sperrle keeps toiling even on somewhat useless techs like naval bomber roles. At least our allies in Social Italy might be able to use the blueprints to bolster their already fearsome naval bombing wing.
In complete contrast to India, any resistance in Egypt was sporadic and disorganized, allowing for a rapid advance by the Axis coalition forces. The Arab Federation started resembling a functional country once more, the majority of their territory liberated from the hated French.
Never ceasing to look for encirclement opportunities, Feldmarschall Hoth helps maintain the balance of power overwhelmingly on the German side. Even more doctrine techs are also developed, German scholars having almost limitless access to successful battle reports to study from.
Attention is now turned to try and improve the performance of our already admirable yet aging submarines a little further, as well as to bring the equipment of the venerable Fallschirmjäger up to date.
The Axis-affiliated communist power of Albania, despite the previous land grab, decides to foster friendly relations with Greece by returning their national territory in Epirus to them. However, they compensate themselves by (somehow, I have not noticed this happening and had no role in it) annexing the entirety of former Yugoslav Macedonia.
In a cheeky attempt that sends the chills down the collective spine of the Luftwaffe command, the Americans decide to try and deliver a nuclear payload to Germany once more, albeit unsuccessfully. The Italian pilots dealt with the radioactive threat before the German pilots needed even to take off.
A former Italian fortress of Tobruk is captured by the British for the second time, with an encirclement of a French-commanded Canadian division. In contrast to the last time it happened, these are received as good news.
Soon after, a vital airfield in Benghazi is also captured, resulting in the destruction of the controversial strategic bomber wing. While there is no way of knowing this, as the Americans scuttled their planes entirely, there is always a faint hope that the nuclear payload was forced to be destroyed as well.
Hugo Sperrle, ever the student of useless knowledge, sticks to his task of furthering German knowledge in the naval bombing department.
Iran is put on the map once more in its full glory, having been unlawfully circumcised by the joint Allied-Soviet invasion of 1942.
Despite having been thought defeated, the Indian forces managed to rally back to the defense of Gwadar and defeat the complacent Italian infantry, with heavy casualties on both sides. Since the German panzers already were dispatched back to Europe, the frontline is rendered static for the time being. The province of Zahedan is a perfect defensive position if the reality of war necessitates it.
After a long while, an American carrier is sunk off the coast of Florida. The worrisome development is that the Yanks apparently have so many carriers that they no longer bother naming them, or have run out of notable Americans to honor.
On a positive note, the first experimental air cavalry units are deployed. Able to advance with frightening speed and strike where they are least expected makes them a quintessential unit of the modern blitzkrieg.
As expected, after months without adequate supply, the American garrison in Reykjavik disintegrates on contact, consisting of five divisions in name only.
With the arrival of English armor to the Atlantic coast of Africa, they are greeted with a huge concentration of American forces. After the initial shock, they are bolstered by the reports of the American supply state on Iceland, and Filed Marshall Messervy makes an executive call to attack frontally. Not much resistance is expected if the American divisions exist only nominally and are in fact platoon sized.
"If" proved to be a crucial distinction. The American forces in Africa in turn seem to want for nothing, their fortress of Rabat kept in excellent supply by their Free French allies. The only thing missing seems to be a desire to fight, as they don't even attempt to counterattack.
Yet another modern model of interceptor plane developed, the attention is turned to our equally numerous and important fighter planes.
Not ones to easily give up, the English armored force attempts to cut the Rabat holdout off from their supply lifeline, bolstered by their apparent inaction.
More's the pity, as Casablanca also has a garrison consisting of four modern armor divisions. Again, Messervy decides against waiting for slow reinforcements and simply decides to drive around it after a brief rest to recover the organization of his troops.
The cause of the American inaction seems to reveal itself as a part of the sinister plan to lull the German command into a false sense of security, so a decapitating nuclear blow could be delivered to Berlin or some other vital city of the Reich. However, the English interceptors stand vigilant.
Undeterred by the African adventures of the English expeditionary force or the nuking attempts, Field Marshall Hausser dispatches a marine division with a mere 88 soldiers guarding Greenland.
With submarine tactics having been brought up to date, a new model of armored car is put into development.
Realizing the bait had failed, and that the supply lifeline of the Moroccan holdout had been cut, the American leadership decides to damn all caution and go on an all-out attack against the nonexistent English reserve, putting them in peril of encirclement and destruction. Even without a supply trickle, the Americans enjoy enough of a numerical and technical superiority in the area to pose a real threat to the overconfident English armor, supported at the moment only by three Greek divisions spread over a quarter of the Sahara desert.
Never one to back down from a challenge, Messervy doubles down on the attack and decides to try and exploit the American counterattack to capture the now hopefully weakly defended supply stockpile. However, it seems that the stockpile is already empty, as general Patton is forced to command undersupplied headquarter units in a delaying action despite the nominally strong American presence in the area.
He is promptly defeated, but has bought plenty of time for the American forces to advance along the coast of Algeria.
The new armored car model is quickly completed, and new computing machines are looked into to facilitate faster running of the "Dunkelste Stunde" war simulation quite popular with the OKW.
With the capture of Greenland and Iceland, the OKW's ever-so-ambitious eye is turned towards the insane prospect of invading the American continent itself. While insanity is way too light a term to describe the plan standing currently on the table before the Führer, somehow, the mood in the room is that of careful optimism. While the Americans command a huge army, navy and airforce, as well as a mind-boggling productive capacity, a good part of their power is trapped all over the world due to their merchant marine being a mere fraction of the size it needs to be to supply the logistical behemoth that are the 80 armored divisions under their command. Additionally, their important cities are now in range of German nuclear weaponry, allowing for a shock-and-awe initial attack to cut off the head of the beast in one fell swoop. That, combined with the steep casualty rates that the Americans have been sustaining for the past years, may just be enough to tip the scales in favor of an armistice on favorable terms to Germany, if not outright capitulation. Despite the inherent difficulty of the daunting task put before the armed forces of the Reich, one thing has become increasingly clear to everyone involved: even if the chances of total victory on the American continent are minimal, the chances of losing the war are practically zero. America had lost this war the moment they were forced out of Europe, they just need one last trashing to accept this inevitable fact of life.
