November
The war in the East continued. While the Wehrmachtpursued their relentless push through Siberia, British naval chapters concentrated to base warfare in the Southern Pacific, stripping the Allies bare of supply points, airbases and navalbases from which they could hamper the front in Birma. By November 1942, the 8th Royal Marine Corps had succesfully pushed back and annihilated an Australian-American offensive on the island of Papua New Guinea. After their defeat at Port Moresby, Australian forces were forced to retreat to Milne Bay where they were whiped off the map by a concentrated bombing run from the Indomitable CTF. All remaining defenders surrendered, and Australia had now become a frontline nation in the war for the Pacific.
Operation First to Bangkok proved to be a spectacular failure for the Wehrmacht: Weiss did not succeed in breaking the Northern Indochina defence line, as mountainous terrain and cunning Japanese tactics halted German and British advance. The stalemate in Northern-Siam continued, with over 150 Allied divisions entrenched in the mountains making it impossible for the India formation to pass. To weaken the front, the RAF and Luftwaffe began a massive coordinated bombing run, eliminating most of the Southern Army Group’s logistic support, as well as 95% of Siam’s industrial base. Only time would tell if the damage done would be sufficient to break the Japanese defence.
British forces surrender to IJA soldiers after a failed offensive in Northern-Siam
In the meanwhile, back on the British Isles, the new CTF Home Command neared completion, as ships from the Reserve Fleet docked in Portsmouth to join formation with the new carriers. The HMS Poseidon and HMS Anchorage, part of the Dover-Class, were the first British carriers of higher technological standard than their Japanese counterparts, but only time could tell if their effectiveness would match the Hiyo and Soryu-Class in battle.
By December 1942, Pact forces had completely overrun the Soviet defenders. The USSR had lost all of it’s important industrial centers, and 3/4th of the Trans-Siberian railroad had been either occupied or destroyed by bombing runs. Low on supplies, oil and morale, the Russian defenders had no choice but to dig in for the winter. Under special command of Field Marshall Van Geyte, the Wehrmacht decided to continue the offensive even during winter, to catch the Russians off-guard. Manpower losses on both sides were enormous, but the crushing momentum of a continent-wide blitzkrieg continued to break every Russian formation it encountered.
In the meanwhile, Armeegruppe Süd detached from the main offensive to invade China from Sinkiang, where it linked up with Field Marshall Weiss his India Formation, to support the British offensive against Siam. Even though it had been under siege for more than 5 months now, the defenders in Singapore refused to surrender, and the port remained in British hands.
By the end of 1942, three years after the war had started, the Channel Pact seemed invincible.
But the greatest threat to the Channel Pact, was not a foreign power...