Fear God, Honour the King. Canada/British Commonwealth Kaiserreich AAR

[oberstbrooksy]

Fear God, and Honour the King!
The British Empire and Commonwealth during the Mid 20th century
A Kasierreich AAR

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''An Empire shattered, the King Exiled, a people dispossessed, a legacy tarnished, a nation torn asunder, our race scattered.
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These are the lowest ebbs of the British epoch, the nadir of the Anglo-Saxon/Celtic people.
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The world gazed in awe and stupefaction of our splendour, dazzled at our science, mesmerised by our wealth, cowed by our navy!
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Yet like Icarus, our hubris sowed our own fall, we built an empire upon which the sun never set, the bright beams of which affected our Constitution for the worse. We embarked on folly, engaged in a war that was not our own, weakened and our moral fibre worn, we fell into the worst form of national distemper.
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The viral contagion of sedition and socialistic syndicalism.''
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- Rudyard Kipling, The Fall of the Romans. 1929
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''The Day will come when we will return and reclaim what God and history has bequeathed us. And our Empire and race will reach unparalleled heights of greatness, those to rival venerable Rome!''
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- Winston Churchill, Speech given to the Australasian Parliament. March 1934

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This AAR, will tell the story and events surrounding and concerning the major international events of the Mid 20th century from the perspective of the British Empire, with a focus on the Dominion of Canada during this tumultuous time.

I have wanted to do this AAR for probably over a year now, I was considering doing it on HoI4 KR, but I don't think in its current form, the game or mod could reflect what I am hoping to achieve. So Darkest Hour should hopefully offer the abstract platform from which I can craft an entertaining and worthwhile story from.
I had also put this off as I didn't want to step on the toes of any other AARs pursuing a very similar theme. I hope for this to be a unqiue and worthwhile venture and read.


Mod, Kaiserreich
Country, Dominion of Canada
There will be basic modifications for gameplay and narrative purposes. ​

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[oberstbrooksy]

RESERVED

 

[oberstbrooksy]

Prologue - "this vast empire on which the sun never sets, and whose bounds nature has not yet ascertained."

By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India.

Reign: 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901

The calamitous collapse of the British Empire and prestige during the 1914 - 1926 period stands in stark and horrifyingly cruel humiliation by the state of affairs a scant, short decade previously, Britain had stood unmatched in prestige and apparent might. Through the 18th century, the British had emerged from a rising global power to the global hegemon after the defeat of Napoleon. Through economic growth, mastery of global trade, technological advance, colonial expansion and the unchallengeable domination of the seas by the Royal Navy. In 1853 - 56 Britain with France and the Ottomans dealt a hampering blow to the rise of Britain's closest rival, the Tsarist Empire of Russia. In 1858 the great Indian Rebellion was forcefully put down, leading to the steady expansion and consolidation of the Sub Continent into the British Indian Empire, or the British Raj. British rule expanded in the Far East, British trade and civilisation saw vast regions of Africa come under the Imperial British red on the map. Australia, New Zealand and Canada grew as beacons of Britsh civilisation and the Anglo-Saxon race, but these glories failed to present lingering maladies with in the Empire.

The Imperial Dream at its Zenith



The war against Russia had shown some critical failings in the British army, while British soldiers manning the thin red line advanced to victory almost relentlessly during the 18th Century and the Royal Navy Maintained the Pax Britannica, there were some disturbing defeats. British prestige was laid low in Afghanistan more than once. Her troops were humbled by the spear wielding Zulu Kingdom. The war against the Boer Republics had proved a humiliatingly cumbersome and bloody affair to subdue.

Rorke's Drift might have entered the Annuls of Victory Immortal, it did not however erase the shame of Isandlwana



The great wealth of Empire and the innovations of British science had seen a rapid industrialisation and urbanisation of the Great Britain during the Victorian age. This social change came hand in hand with social dilemmas and subsequently political agitation. The move from the country into the cities to man the news factories or to seek opportunities had resulted in great levels of slum housing, which led to outbreaks of pestilence, while advances in medical science and urban planning had remedied these specific maladies, there remained a significant urban poor constituency that was unrepresented and economically fragile. Immigration to the colonies tempered the excesses of this situation through out the 18th century, however it did not prevent the build up of radical politics that sought to exploit these denizens of Britons cities. Chartism sought radical liberal and some proto syndicalist/socialist reforms to the economic and political franchise in the 1840-50s. While the political franchise did steadily expand through out the century, it remained a reserved and an earned right out of reach for the common man, let alone woman. The growth and propagation of the malicious influence of the trade union movement agitated against the established norms of class, trades and profession and increasingly, against the very nature of the British concept of the capital driven market economy.

The emblem of the Independent Labour Party, the First real Organised Syndicalist party in Great Briton



The glories of Empire and the steadily increasing quality of life had combined to subdue much outward public displays of dissatisfaction or demonstration on significant scale. However with the passing of the Queen Emperess, the facade of national unity and social cohesion appeared to pass into another era, like the memories of that illustrious Monarch. On January 22nd 1902, His Majesty, King-Emperor, Edward VII accended to the throne. Initial fears over his unsuitability to be King and portent for scandal proved to be unfounded, while the King struck a cord with his people, his reign was to be one of a decade of political fragmentation and increasing international tension.







His Majesty The King, Edward VII



The turn of the century marked a changing national state. The unease over the Boer war had shaken Britain international image, yet had seen the participation in that conflict of the Australian, New Zealand, Indian and Canadian possessions. In 1906 the Conservative dominance of government and parliament was shattered by the Liberal landslide and the first significant number of Labour MPs elected. Despite the parliamentary majority secured by the Liberals of over 200 seats, the 1906-1914 years would be turbulant ones for Britain. The issue of womens sufferage erupted in a major political issue and produced a militant campagin that secured high profile and often embarassing recording by the popular press. The rise of socialism and syndicalism seeped deeper into the British social fabric, exploiting any and all issues it could, the deeply constitutionally damaging Liberal People's Budget of 1910 failed to quell the ravenous demands and exploitations of the syndicalist trade unions. Constitutional crisis and political radicalism damaged the national morale, and the death of the King in 1910 set the stage for a national crisis that almost brought civil war onto the British Isles. King George V Reign would start in a period of crisis that would become systematic of his reign.

His Majesty King George V, By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India

''The King in Exile''



The Liberal government sought a fresh mandate to secure its legitimacy to challenge the House of Lords over the People's Budget. Twice in 1910 the nation went to the polls, in the course of which, the Liberals lost their commanding majority and a hung parliament ensued. In order to form a government, the Liberal government of HH Asquith sought the support of the Irish nationalists in Parliament. The cost of this agreement was the implementation of Home Rule for Ireland. A form of autonomy with in the United Kingdom or potentially a status of Dominion with in the British Empire, but feared by the Irish unionists as a move towards Irish independence outside of the Empire and under Catholic tyranny. This was a price, the historically sympathetic to Home Rule, the Liberal party was willing to foot the bill for.

The Home Rule Bill offered an autonomous Parliament for Ireland with in the United Kingdom, however largely Protestant, Anglocentric population of Ulster and the Anglo Irish feared their rights and liberties under what would be a heavily Catholic and Irish Gealiocentric legislature



The crisis deepened as the Conservatives remained implacably opposed to Home Rule and buoyed the hopes of the Irish Unionists. Seeking to resist Home Rule to the end, the Ulster branch of Irish unionism began to organise their own militia and army to resist by force of arms the implementation of Dublin rule in the form of the Ulster Volunteer Force. In response, the Irish nationalists began to organise their own counter army, the Irish Volunteers. Increasingly seeking ways to undermine its future foes, Germany sought to supply arms to both sides in this developing conflict, ''London's tribulations are Berlins gain'' as the situation would later be explained.

The Ulster Unionist movement was a direct challenge to the authority of British government policy.

However the plight of the Unionists led by Sir Edward Carson brought significant support from across the United Kingdom and wider Empire for their cause


Facing the very real possibility of civil war in Ireland that could easily have severe repercussions in Great Britain and the wider Empire, the King sought to mediate to his fullest extent. However, nothing would break the deadlock. With the British cabinet contemplating using military force against the Ulster Unionists, the officers of the main British garrison in Ireland at Curragh threatened mass resignation and hints of potential mutiny if ordered to move against the Northern Unionists.
The Cabinet and Army high command quickly backed down and assured the Ulster Unionists that the army would not move against them.
Seen as a betrayal by the British government, Irish nationalists moved forward with their organising of a militia to tackle the Northern Unionists.

The Irish Nationalist Volunteers had strong support in the rural South West of Ireland and Amongst the Gaelic Revival, with arms from Germany subject to Royal Irish Constabulary Raids, they felt a strong bias against them by the forces of the British state



The Home Rule Bill passed the Commons in May 1914, with the ParliamentaryAct of 1911 having removed the ability of the House of Lords to veto legislation passed by the Commons more than three times, the Home Rule Bill would become law by September 1914 and seemingly, civil war in Ireland was a certainty. However before the blood of patriots would spill upon Ireland's soil, an assassin's bullet in the Balkans would seal Irelands, Britains and the Empires' fate.

The Great War had arrived.

 

[Montezuma II]

The Kingdom of Canada will reclaim the homeland!

 

[IconOfEvi]

The great revival of DH AARs begins, and it is glorious. And like the King-Emperor, we will return.

Eager

 

[TheRemQc]

With this anthem and this poster count me in sir!

 

[Guaire123456789]

God save the king

 

[Baron Jukaga]

I'm Ready, Aye, Ready to read more of this AAR!

 

[Bored Student1414]

Explaining the decline and fall of the British Empire I see with the biased loyalist and deeply anti-socialist historiography approach. I assume you will also cover the history of the major dominions of the Empire in particular Canada. How will Canada react to the fall of the Empire? Which aspects of the imperial legacy is most important to Canada and the exiles? The Empire itself? The democratic Westminster system? Canada is said to have been one of the most devoutly royalist and loyal of the dominions but also one of the most liberty loving ones as well. Will Canada be a bastion of liberty in a sea of syndicalism, communism, and autocracy? Or will it be a vengeful den of exiled autocratic aristocrats hell bent on revenge like another famous AAR? Reclaim the birthright! Restore the Order!
O Lord our God arise,
Scatter his enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix:
God save us all.

 

[SKStrategia06]

Subbed

 

[Rifal]

Democracy has been weighted, measured and found wanting. Discard it. The kings authority must be enforced!

 

[Anchises]

I enjoyed your Soviet Union WW3 AAR. The Pandemic that gripped the World in the Shadow of WW3 was really well done.

This AAR promises to be interesting aswell. Due to the very anti-liberal and anti-syndicalist undertones of the Prologue I could see an authoritarian and very traditionalist Empire.

 

[Bored Student1414]

The (exile?) narrator sounds somewhat authoritarian and implied to be obsessed with a sense of unity after the damaging divisions of the past, but real power in Canada lies with the elected Liberal Prime Minister Mackenzie King at the start of the game and not with the bitter exiles. Will the British exiles and Edward VIII subvert the democracy of their Canadian hosts or not? The Canadians are just a bunch of colonials are they not and do they not need the King's firm land to guide them? The King has have enough of this democratic process! Or will Prime Minister King and the Liberals outmaneuver the exiles to defend democracy and the independence of the Dominions from unelected British aristocrats? I am curious to see if Canada will defend the liberties and independence it holds dear or will it be an subverted democracy like its counterpart in the Crown Atomic or be transformed into an autocratic First Order-like fascist state devoted to the total destruction of the Union of Britain at all cost? I will read anyway no matter the outcome. Of course first, you cannot ignore Mr. Reed and the syndicalists directly south of the 49th Parallel.

 

[IconOfEvi]

Just a minor request, could you keep the font color regular, or white? It's rather difficult to read when it's all some color in a like shade to the background.

 

[oberstbrooksy]

I enjoyed your Soviet Union WW3 AAR. The Pandemic that gripped the World in the Shadow of WW3 was really well done.

This AAR promises to be interesting aswell. Due to the very anti-liberal and anti-syndicalist undertones of the Prologue I could see an authoritarian and very traditionalist Empire.

Thank you, I had hoped to return to that AAR, but sadly towards the end, the Grand Campagin mod just broke down under the weight of spamming divisions and the laptop I did it on had broke.

The (exile?) narrator sounds somewhat authoritarian and implied to be obsessed with a sense of unity after the damaging divisions of the past, but real power in Canada lies with the elected Liberal Prime Minister Mackenzie King at the start of the game and not with the bitter exiles. Will the British exiles and Edward VIII subvert the democracy of their Canadian hosts or not? The Canadians are just a bunch of colonials are they not and do they not need the King's firm land to guide them? The King has have enough of this democratic process! Or will Prime Minister King and the Liberals outmaneuver the exiles to defend democracy and the independence of the Dominions from unelected British aristocrats? I am curious to see if Canada will defend the liberties and independence it holds dear or will it be an subverted democracy like its counterpart in the Crown Atomic or be transformed into an autocratic First Order-like fascist state devoted to the total destruction of the Union of Britain at all cost? I will read anyway no matter the outcome. Of course first, you cannot ignore Mr. Reed and the syndicalists directly south of the 49th Parallel.

Explaining the decline and fall of the British Empire I see with the biased loyalist and deeply anti-socialist historiography approach. I assume you will also cover the history of the major dominions of the Empire in particular Canada. How will Canada react to the fall of the Empire? Which aspects of the imperial legacy is most important to Canada and the exiles? The Empire itself? The democratic Westminster system? Canada is said to have been one of the most devoutly royalist and loyal of the dominions but also one of the most liberty loving ones as well. Will Canada be a bastion of liberty in a sea of syndicalism, communism, and autocracy? Or will it be a vengeful den of exiled autocratic aristocrats hell bent on revenge like another famous AAR? Reclaim the birthright! Restore the Order!
O Lord our God arise,
Scatter his enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix:
God save us all.

I wont give it away, but revanchism will be the order of the day.

Just a minor request, could you keep the font color regular, or white? It's rather difficult to read when it's all some color in a like shade to the background.

Done, sorry I guess the colour scheme I have set up for the forums makes black stand out better than the default.


And thank you everyone else for your input. I'll try to keep this fairly regular updates dependent on work committments

 

[Bored Student1414]

Of course, every nation and non-syndicalist political party in the Entente has revanchism as the party line except for Admiral Darlan. No one plans for Taiwan style peaceful coexistence with the Third Internationale. I assume you may also help the National French regain their land as well. Good luck. Syndicalism is the very definition of failure! The Union will fall!

 

[oberstbrooksy]

Of Wars and Revolutions:
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The Great War
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Europe and the world stumbled into the Great War* in the dying months of the long Summer of 1914. The shedding of Austrian royal blood demanded recompense by the sclerotic Hapsburg realm from the impertinent Serbian Kingdom. Over July and August, Europe became electrified as telegram from Royal house to Royal House inevitably creaked into the foreboding drone of locomotives on the move and the tread of millions of men marching into the cacophony of machine gun fire and artillery shelling, marking the start of a decade and a half of bloodshed, death and disaster. Russia, France, the British Empire, Greece, Serbia, Rumania, the Arabs, Italy, Japan and Portugal rose to gallantly face the Teutonic menace of hated Germany, the decrepit Austrian-Hungarians, the perfidious Bulgarians and the heathen Ottomans.

The Infamous day upon which the collective fate of Empires, Nations and Kings was sealed.

Before either side realised it, they had bungled into a war none of them knew quite how to fight. Expecting the war of manoeuvre like the Franco-Prussian, Austro-Prussian wars or any multitude of the colonial conflicts of the previous decades, were bewildered when confronted by opponents of similar or stronger strength, equally well equipped and industrialised to sustain the conflict. Digging into their respective positions in elaborate trenches and unable to mount offensives without the prospect of horrific causalities and little gain in ground. By late 1914 both great armies on the Western Front had degenerated into stagnate fighting over destroyed, blood soaked ground. 1915 seen the British Expeditionary force in France and Belgium bolstered by her Imperial family, British Tommy's took heavy blows in 1915, but dealt them out in equal measure, Tommy was learning to fight this new war.

In the East, Tommy and Bruce attempted to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war with a landing in the Dardanelles. An act of supreme folly that seen the youth of Britain, Australia and New Zealand cut down in surf and on the beaches of Thrace for 8 months of bloody and futile slaughter. The sacrifice of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps helped to solidify a national identity not as strongly linked to the mother country, which would help conceive a uniting myth of the conception of shared Australasian identity forged in the Great War that would provide a setting for which the new Confederation could establish itself when the Mother Country would fall to insurrection in the years ahead. After Gallipoli, the Australian and New Zealanders would see battle in the West and against the Turks in Palestine where they would become very effective soldier’s indispensable to the British offensive until the collapse of the war in the west undercut their ability to deal a final, decisive blow to the Ottoman empire.

The Youth of the Antipodal Dominions Secured Immortality for their Courage and Skilful Soldiery

The Canadian expeditionary Corps would largely fight its war on the fields of Flanders. First tasting battle at Ypres, becoming adept at marksmanship and trench raiding, the Canadian soldier became a welcome sight to be on the flank of a British division on the line. In 1916 the catastrophe of the Somme, the British attempt to relieve the crushing German offensive upon their French allies at Verdun, the Newfoundland Regiment* spilled blood and extracted it from the Germans alongside their British brothers during the battle. The costs of the war in 1916, rocked by the Irish revolt of 1916, and the weakening of her allies, especially Russia's inferior performance on the Eastern Front were beginning to drag ever more on a growing war weary domestic population in Britain and her colonies. In Canada, conscription hadn't been imposed, such an idea was especially abhorred in Quebec, the Pals battalion project had ended by Summer 1916 due to the losses of that year, the introduction of conscription in Britain and the growing attritional strategy of the war in the trenches were drawing in more and more men that the Dominions, least of all Canada could supply via volunteer service. Canada's seminal moment in the conflict was the battle of Vimy Ridge during the wider Battle of Arras. The combined Canadian divisions fighting for a single objective, with men from across Canada and securing a decisive victory over the German foe electrified a war weary nation. Like Gallipoli secured Australasian nationhood, Vimy secured Canada's. During the collapse of the French war effort in 18-19 and the retreat of the British/Imperial forces to prevent being outflanked by the German offensive, the Canadian-Indian-British rear-guard action at Neuve Chapelle, Lys River and Hazebrouck severely halted the German run away advance in the British sector of the front and ensured that the British/Imperial army in France could not be claimed to have been beaten in the field. With the collapse of France and the subsequent untenable position of the British forces in Flanders and Picardie untenable, the entire Imperial expeditionary corps along with a sizeable proportion of the Belgian army in exile were evacuated to the British isles.

Canadian and British Soldiers go over the top towards Vimy Ridge and into Immortality

India also contributed significantly to the allied war effort. The initial stages of the Mesopotamian campaign were conducted almost exclusively by Indian troops, while the campaign fell into serious trouble in its opening stages, the Indian army were able to turn the offensive around and in time play a crucial distraction, manpower and material expending force for the Ottomans when their troops were desperately needed elsewhere. The High point of the Indian push in Mesopotamia was the fall of Baghdad to the I and II Corps of the Indian army. While this victory would prove to be ultimately fleeting with the collapse of the Entente war effort, it was of immense pride and Honour to Indians that they had fought against one of the formally great powers of the Orient and had not been found wanting. Indian troops also fought in the East Africa campaign and sent a sizeable contingent of men to France to support the overall struggle there. As the situation in France deteriorated, many Indian soldiers were transferred from the Middle Eastern theatre to counter the German 1919 offensive. While ultimately unsuccessful, Indian soldiers played a crucial role in the rear-guard actions that followed. Over the course of the conflict, almost 1.8 million Indians volunteered for service to the Crown and in 1920 there were plans being devised for the mobilisation of dozens of new Indian divisions for an attempt to reopen a front against the Central Powers.

The British Indian Army played a crucial part in wrapping up certain fronts, freeing up men for the Western Front

South Africans, Caribbean and an assortment of all kinds of native troops served under the Kings colours during the war, however such an effort did not lead to the desired victory. The collapse of the French and the Russians undercut our heroic efforts. For the incompetence of the French soldier and the shambolic Russian failed us. A generation of Britain and the Empires finest have been squandered by the inability of our then allies to maintain half the standard, persevering pluck and resourcefulness of the British soldier. Our navy dominated the seas, we had Germany under a ruinous blockade, our technical skills had produced weapons with the potential to win the war, but before our ships could starve the Hun into submission and our tanks in such great a number as to crush his armies into the field, victory was stolen from us by the inability of the French to hold their nerve in the face of the German.

Undefeated in the Field, the British Army was only brought low by the Incompetence of its allies

Forced from the continent by the German offensive and the French capitulation, the British Empire found itself in an uneasy ceasefire with Germany. Concessions to Germany from the powers she had defeated were promptly occupied by Empire troops, the Royal Navy skirmished with the German Navy, stalemate on the Suez front and the home isles secured against invasion, there was little avenue for progressing the conflict for either side. The Peace with Honour was signed on November the 11th 1921, ending the Great War after seven years of ruinous conflict and while territorially the British Empire was intact, in terms of prestige and global standing, Britain was a significantly diminished power when faced with a European continent either answering to Berlin or enthrones of revolution. In uneasy peace, Britain found itself in a national malaise that would end in her own fall.

1.3 million British and Empire troops had fallen during a war that many now questioned the reasons for
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*The Great War is known as the WeltKreig in Teutonophone/Continental European nations
*While a separate Dominion during the War, upon Newfoundland’s incorporation into Canada, her regiments and legacies became those of Canada​

 

[TheRemQc]

This is... so biased... so unfair... I like it!

 

[Bored Student1414]

Oh it was the fault of those cowardly French and Russians that the Entente lost the war. It was not the fault of poorly prepared generals and the government that the war was lost. It was not that the Americans never joined the war and never propped up the failing morale of the Entente armies. I am shocked the narrator did not blame syndicalists undermining the British war effort.

 

[RandomDrongo]

Well, you know patriotism is not a precursor of rational thought. So it's pretty IC that overtly patriotic and pro-Empiresqe narrator sound this way: if the facts are against the Motherland, woe to the facts!