August 1953 - May 1954
Italy Goes West
The defeat of the British Raj and the subsequent conquest of India locked down Europe and Asia for good. Germany took control of mainland India, and Portugal maintained its occupation of Ceylon, meaning that except for Switzerland, the Middle East, and a neutral Sweden, no Allied presence remained on the Euro-Asian mainland. The Americans had managed to land forces and establish a beachhead in Africa, but a large Axis force had kept them from making any progress into the continent.
With the war seemingly at an overseas stalemate, it was Italy that attempted a bold move. In the fall of 1953, the Italians sent troops across the Atlantic and staged two separate landings in North America -- a small detachment captured St. John's island in Canada before landing on the mainland in southeastern Canada, and another smaller force succeeded in an improbable amphibious assault that saw New York City occupied by Italian troops. It was a bold move for Mussolini, and while the troops in New York were quickly repelled, the arrival of Portuguese reinforcements turned eastern Canada into a battlefield. The combined forces of Portuguese armor and Italian infantry moved rapidly into Canada, pushing back light defensive forces until they came to the border with the United States. With Canada unable to repel the assault, the U.S. Army took over, locking down Maine under martial law and forming a hasty defensive line against the Axis invaders, who managed to break part of the garrison and capture part of western Maine in a dramatic victory over the superior American forces.
That the invasion managed to capture U.S. territory was an impressive feat, but the daring assault eventually turned against Portugal and Italy. In a staggering display of naval force, a small fleet led by an advanced carrier, the USS Saratoga, sank the entire Portuguese navy after a string of skirmishes off the coast of Canada. Not only did that strip Portugal of any control of the seas, but it meant that the forces deployed to Canada were stranded. Losing a battle at sea was bad enough -- but when the Portuguese troops on land realized that they were now trapped, morale began to plummet quickly.
The invasion slowed to a halt, and before long the Americans were capitalizing on the stalemate to start making breakthroughs, overwhelming the tired and out-of-supply invaders. From there, it was only a matter of time until every Portuguese division on the mainland was captured. Those who survived the assaults surrendered, and the lost Canadian ground was retaken swiftly. Only the Portuguese Marines, left stranded on St. John's, remained in the area. The Marines, kept supplied by carefully-navigated supply convoys, maintained a fortified position on the island, awaiting an opportunity to be evacuated back to the fatherland.
Invading Canada and the United States was a daring move, but in the end it proved coastly, cutting Portugal's military strength by nearly half, resulting in the annihilation of nearly every armored division in the Portuguese army.
