The future updates will show the German grip on Europe is not as precarious as was once thought.
After being insanely busy with school work the last 3 to 4 days, I finally managed to find enough spare time to finish this update.
Africa was now free. However, it did have several problems that would plague it in the future if not addressed. The three biggest were a massive lack of education, lack of strong national identities, and lack of experienced leaders. The colonial powers had, with a few exceptions, not allowed the native Africans to be educated. That meant that the vast majority of the native African population was uneducated. That in turn meant that they were vulnerable to demagogues and others who promised big things that were impossible in reality. Also, the new nations were not natural creations, as many had never existed before and almost none of them were created along ethnic lines. That meant that they lacked any form of jointed national heritage or identity. The absence of these things would mean that the Africans of these countries would define themselves not as Benin-Sahelians for example, but as whatever ethnic group, Tuaregs for example, they belonged to. That meant that these nations would be vulnerable to coups and civil wars as the various ethnic groups battled it out because one ethnic group was oppressing another. Native Africans had also traditionally been barred from politics and government which meant that their was a complete lack of Africans with experience in these areas. There were experienced leaders, both the leaders of the military and the various leaders of the different ethnic groups, but these men would have no experience in, say foreign affairs. The military men would also be prone to trying to run the nation like they had run their army, with an iron hand. This could lead to African countries being led by brutal military dictators. This in turn explained why many of these African nations were now being led by Whites and not by native Africans. These problems had to be addressed soon or the African continent risked becoming chronically unstable. For Truman, the biggest and first step to addressing these problems could be addressed in one word: schools. In addition to addressing the education problem, schools could also create a sense of national rather then ethnic identity by teaching them about the history and culture of the nation and the people that made it up rather then just the history and culture of their ethnic group. It was for this reason that Truman managed to get all of the recently liberated nations to pass compulsory education laws. Truman also allocated millions of dollars to building schools in these countries and encouraged charitable organizations to do the same. While their was great uproar about spending this money abroad rather then on addressing problems at home, Truman silenced much of it by saying that American blood had been spilled to free these countries and that those lives lost would be in vain if the American people allowed these countries to devolve into places rife with civil war, oppression, and dictators. He also pointed out that it would be a disgrace to the American people and to the soldiers currently fighting overseas if everything they fought for, freedom, democracy, and equality, were to be lost in the territories they liberated. What then had they thought for? Truman pointed out that as they were responsible for liberating these nations that it was America's responsibility to ensure that the continent did not backslide. The efforts paid off. By the mid 1970's, the literacy rate in Africa was on par with that of people in Europe and America and Whites no longer made up a majority of the government and its officials in these countries. The children who had grown up in this generation also no longer defined themselves chiefly as a Zulu, a Tuareg, or a Banda or any other of the myriad of ethnic groups that made up the continent, but as South African, a Malian, or a Congolese or a citizen of whatever nation they lived in. This mean that these nations now experienced stable governments and the Africa avoided the all to easy fate of becoming a backwater region and became a full member of the world community. It would become the shinning example of what the brave men who fought in World War II had fought for and as an example that all the sacrifice was worth it. The modernization and prosperity of Africa is perhaps the greatest legacy of the war and of Truman's presidency. The Americans had taken a continent that had been exploited for centuries and turned it into a thriving place, fully capable of competing with the rest of the world in all manner of things. The Africans never forgot who had made all of this possible and still revere Truman to this day, with many schools and public buildings being named after him. They also remained as staunch allies of the United States long after the Americans relinquished the heavy political control they had exerted over the continent in the early 70's.
All of this, however, was still very far in the future and the war remained anything but won at present. The Japanese still held Asia in a deadly stranglehold that they showed now signs of releasing, the Americans offensive in Austria had stalled and the American advance in the Middle East was still advancing much more slowly then they had hoped. Africa had been freed, but for now, it remained insignificant to the greater war. The African armies were horribly out of date and underequipped and they were no where near ready to make as meaningful a contribution to the war as Truman had hoped. Italy was still looking good and America also received news that sent American morale soaring to new heights.
Field Marshal Montgomery had managed to capture the region of Friedrichshaffen in Bavaria. This was huge. For the first time since the start of the war, part of the German homeland was occupied by the Allies. Hitler was furious. He knew if news of this got out, it would be a massive embarrassment to his government. Germany was the supposed to be the most powerful nation on Earth, how could they allow part of their homeland to be occupied. He knew the answers the German people would draw from this would not be good. Hitler now realized that Germany was rapidly losing its position as the pre-eminent power in the world to the United States and that something had to be done now if that process was to be avoided. He ordered massive amounts of men sent to Austrian and Italian fronts to try and plug the gap and gain back as much territory as possible. The Allies had unwittingly stirred up a hornet's nest. When the aforementioned forces arrived, they immediately attacked Montgomery's troops. Montgomery knew that, despite his much vaunted victory, he could not hold the region and ordered a retreat. This was not to be the last time an allied commander would be forced to do so. The Alpine Offensive had begun. It would be the first successful German counterattack since the Spanish campaign. The first place to fall in the offensive after the Allies had been pushed out of Germany itself was the city. Innsbruck.
This should have sent up red flags for the allies to withdraw from the soon to be exposed Lech, but the Allied commanders in Italy had grown overconfident due to the quick pace of their advance. They remained confident that they could push the Germans back and ordered a counterattack on Innsbruck. The next region the Germans hit was the Ljubljana salient. The fall of Innsbruck meant that it was now surrounded on three sides and the Americans were forced to abandon it. While this was happening, the Americans had retaken Innsbruck only to discover they could not hold it. They were forced to withdraw to Trento.
The Americans would make several more attempts on the city. None of them would be able to retake the city for long. While this was going on, events on the Adriatic coast continued to go America's way, giving no indication of the collapse that was soon to come. American forces forced the Italians out of their temporary capital of Split.
While this was going on, events in the Middle East continued to go in America's favor. They Oulton managed to force the Italians to abandon the region of Hilla with little resistance.
General Lemmnitzer also launched an attack against Mosul that would soon bear fruit.
However, as in Italy, these victories gave now indication of the storm that was brewing in the area.
Back in Italy, General Walker and his tanks, which had recently withdrawn from Ljubljana, came under attack in their new positions in Venetia.
The attack was understrength and Walker was able to beat it off, but it was a precursor of things to come.
While things were beginning to get dicey in Italy,in the Middle East, it was business as usual. Eichlenberg was able to seize Basrah int he latest round of American offensives.
This was significant because it provided a port that could more easily reinforce American forces in the Iraqi and Arabian deserts. American reinforcements from Africa would soon start landing at this position.
Back in Italy, the last American counterattack on Innsbruck had been repulsed and the Americans in Lech braced for a counterattack. However, the Germans decided to attack a different region. They launched a vicious assault on Trento, where the battered regiments that had just launched the last assault on Innsbruck were licking their wounds. The Americans were not prepared for the assault and they were forced to retreat.
The Allied forces in Lech hurriedly evacuated before they were cut off in hopes of turning back the assault. The hastily rushed in American and Allied reinforcements from Lech were able to blunt the assault, but this was not the last the allies in the region would hear from the Germans. For the mean time however, they focused their attention on the Adriatic coast They attacked the city of Rijeka, forcing the American forces their to flee to Venice.
This put the American forces in Split in the unenviable position of being surrounded. In danger of being wiped out, the Americans hurriedly ordered them evacuated by sea to Venice
While the war was starting to go sideways in Italy, good news came in from an unexpected theater. McArthur had finally managed to get the long stagnant Pacific campaign going again. He decided to launch an attack on New Guinea and quickly managed to seize the city of Port Moresby
He then takes the force under his personal command and leads an assault on Kerema while he orders General Freeman to advance on Buna and Stillwell to take the Owen Stanley Mountains.
The plan is to isolate the region of Milne bay and force the Japanese force their to surrender, then wheel around and start advancing west across the island.
While this was happening, Oulton's attack on Mosul was repulsed.
The attack on Hilla also falters while an attack on Nasirya by recently arrived American reinforcements continues to go well.
However, soon after this the Germans and Italians launched a counterattack out of Mosul on Karbala and forced the American forces their to withdraw.
This forced Clark to order the units advancing on Nasiryah to call of their advance and instead move into Najaf to reinforce the region and prevent the Germans from surrounding the force in Basrah by seizing it.
In Italy, the situation continued to deteriorate. After beating back numerous attempts on the City of Venice, Walker and his men finally reached their limits and were forced to retreat south of the Po River into Ferrara.
This was a minor disaster. Trento now stood dangerously exposed to the Germans and attempts to retake Venice would ultimately fail. Eisenhower now realized the seriousness of his situation and began to try to focus on the defense of Milan and ordered the men in Trento to hold out for as long as they could before retreating, as he knew the region would fall, as indeed it did not long after. Milan was now the key to Northern Italy. If Milan fell, their would be nothing standing between the Germans and Genoa. Eisenhower would have no choice but to abandon his positions in Grenoble and Nice and hope to get to Genoa before the Germans did. This would allow the Vichy French to retake the highly fortified regions he had just abandoned. Faced with this two pronged offensive, Turin would have to be abandoned and Genoa would have enemies to the North, Northeast, and West, making holding the region a tricky proposition. If he lost the race to Genoa, he and his men would be cut off from their supplies and reinforcements and he would have no choice but to abandon Northern Italy. The entirety of Northern Italy, and quite possibly the Italian campaign, was now in jeopardy.
