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1936
Part III
Part III
The Spanish Civil War
"War in Spain"
-Madrid
Failed coup d'état started fighting in streets of various Spanish cities. Group of generals oppposing the elected socialist government which was unable to stop months lasting chaos took matter into their own hands. Right now it is too early to know exact details and identity of those persons, but inner Spanish sources name such personalities as generals José Sanjurjo, Emilio Mola or Francisco Bahamonde.
The Times, 16th July 1936
On the day of 15th of July long lasting inner turmoil in Spain finally resluted in the open war. League of Nations, largely failing in the case of Ethiopian War, decided to treat this war as an inner conflict of a sovereign nation and declared neutrality.
This however didn't stop two other powerful nations. First one to intervene was Germany. This nation had only recently left League of Nations and thus didn't feel tied by this particular resolution.
Germany was quickly followed by Soviet Union. The same nation joined League of Nation on 18th September 1934, just to antagonise Germany and now it was decided to continue the same noble strategy.
While Germany also pressured Italy to join in, Mussolini still had his hands tied in Ethiopia, where mountains and brave local militias managed to hold Italian advance.
This of course raised some eyebrows among the British citizens and governement was pressured to take a stand.
Part od Stanley Baldwin's speech given in the House of Commons on 6th August 1936
While taking strict neutral stand in public, various historians claimed, that British government in fact secretely wished Nationalists to win. That would be no surprise at all. Previous government led by Prime Minister Manuel Azana assumed very leftist position and later got Soviet support. Conservative government must have seen another communist nation in Europe as bigger threat then another fascist one. An indirect support for this claim might also be the fact, that Cyril Deverell halted the planed upgrade of British army for a few weeks.
Of course now we will probably never know the anwer, since Italian troops finally marched into Addis Ababa and Mussolini thus gained enough freedom to send voluntier forces that joined the fighting on 6th November 1936.
Nationalists forces gained upper hand and started pushing Republicans back. Maybe it is just coincidence, but only a week later British government officially proclaimed neutrality.
So government finally found something that all members could agree on and Christmas were celebrated with much higher spirits then last year.
With Italian volunteers and German Legion Condor, led by such notable personalities as general of Luftwaffe Hugo Sperle or lt. general Wilhelm von Thoma, Spanish Civil War resulted into quick victory for Nationalists that was celebrated on 30th May 1937
Jarrow March
Dissatisfied public in North East England made their voice be heard and marched all the way down to London. Unfurtunately for them, Stanley Baldwin's cabinet alread alocated generous funds to this unemployment ridden region and first government-owned industrial complex was just two moths before finish.
"...athough our hearts are with you, there is nothing we can do now. Please return to your homes; we can promise you, that every single one of you will get work shortly..."
Sir Neville Chamberlaine addresing crowd on 1st October 1936
To lessen the pain a bit, everyone who wanted got money to buy train ticket home.
Next Time: World events and such
Footnote: Thanks for your sympathy. I guess I won't be getting My Life 2 untils they will add save/load function
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1936
Part IV
Part IV
World Events
-From the handful of world events that didn't influence United Kingdom directly
Germany started to stretch the diplomatic muscle over Europe and Asia.
First step was signing the Pact of Steel with Italy on 21st January. Mussolini was Hitler's closest ally in Europe and some time later that year in Spanish Civil War also actual ally.
Next Hilter turned to Asia.
Inner turmoil in China was yet again on the rise, so central government in Nanking was pleased to extend old tradition of Sino-German cooperation and agreed to sent raw rare materials such as tungsten or antimony in exchange for military assistance.
While both nations gained something, the real winner here was Germany where lack of rare materials threatend Hitler's rearmament plan.
After securing material needs, Hitler (or better his foreign minister Konstantin von Neurath) turned to Asian superpower Japan. Von Neurath was seeking to balance the traditional politics of cooperation with China with Hitler's affinity to empirial Japan, the archenemy of China. In the end he decided to use the common enemy represented by communism on the German side and traditional animosity between Japan and Russia to sign so-called Anti-comintern Pact on 18th November.
Meanwhile Italy continued the war against Ethipia which started in October 1935. After the initial success, Italian advance came to a halt. Units aproaching from south were too weak to break enemy's resistance in harsh terrain around the capital of Adis Abeba, while northern army got stuck for several months in mountains on Bati-Fiche-Debre Markos line.
While it took more resources and time then anticipated, on 5th OctoberAdis Abeba finally fell and for the time being Ethiopia got annexed.
Lost Units Found
One of the greatest misinformations of the 20th century happened in early spring 1936
Three brigades with nearly 9.000 men were discovered in the province of Kampala. Nobody knew how they got there since no other units were able to enter this territory. British press initially speculated, that those units might be those that got lost during Gallipolli campaign.
Norfolk regiment found?
After the news of uknown military unit apearing in central Africa, our right-wing government was not yet able to give us any explanation of it's origin. Is it possible, that 21 years missing Norfolk regiment was finally found?
The Manchester Guardian, 4th March 1936
Finally after weaks of searching through army records it came out, that those men were in fact the expedition of mj. General Pakenham-Walsh, which was trying to prove that Africe can be crossed with regular army units. Sadly this experiment ended on shores of the Lake Victoria
Next time: 1937
Footnote: I know this is not much, but in order to keep the documentary style, I had to give also obvious information. At least I was able to add a little joke to brighten it up.
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long lost army unit... nice touch.
I didn't even know it was possible to work with both China and Japan.
I didn't even know it was possible to work with both China and Japan.
At least it has DLCs. You can buy them in six-packs
Thats not DLC, its a subscription to make the game bearable.
Thank you all, but my personal life just got a bit turn for the worse and I also need to finish with the book I'm working on, so I'll be forced to put this AAR on hold. It is too hard now to focus on writing I need to do and this is just even harder. But rest assured I do plan to finish it and I even won't install any new version or patch before that. I just hope my life won't get another unpredictible twist...
Good luck. Hope for everything to work out for you soon in RL.
Too often Starship Troopers turns into Forever War.
Too often Starship Troopers turns into Forever War.
hmmm if this is the history channel surely Nostradamus must have some input!
good stuff btw
good stuff btw
