Liberté, Egalité, Revanche - A KR French Republic AAR

[Adotham1]

Chapter III, part 3 - Home.

If Operation Carthage was like taking a walk to the fields, Operation Return would prove to be quite the opposite.

On December 13th, just eleven days before the Italian capitulation, General De Gaulle's Second Marine Corps, composed by 9 marine divisions, launched a naval invasion from Algiers to Marseille. They expected to find a demoralised enemy, since the Reichswehr's march through Paris and the Italian surrender. Instead, they found a resolved, well-trenched garrisons waiting for the landing.

An artillery bunker used by Communard troops defending Marseille.

The slaughter that followed the landing lasted days and only finished with the help of some militia men from the anti-syndicalist Mouvements Unis de la Résistance, who fought against the Communards at the streets of Marseille. Finally, Marseille was liberated on December 25th, a fact seen by the most conservative members of the military - as well as politics - that God was on the Republican side.

French resistance members planning their next move.

In quickly succession, more troops began to arrive. Juin's Troupes de Marine departed from Palermo and took over Toulon, thus securing another landing zone in the Côte D'Azur. Soon almost every military unit of the French Fourth Republic was deployed in Provence, which had been gradually seized by marines and guerrilla warriors from the resistance.

French officers and politicians inspecting the troops at Marseille.

What followed after the landings and the liberation of Provence was 6 months of atrittion war, with republican forces pushing forward to be later pushed back by a desperate Communard army, whose efforts of pushing back or even delaying the huge German offensive had been an utter failure. On February 1940, all of Normandy had fallen in German hands, thus granting to the Empire an excellent naval base from where invade Britain.

An aerial photo of Cherbourg, an important port in Normandy.

Finally, the Communard spirit of resistance was broken, and between March and May 1940 a general advance of the French Army saw Bourges being taken over without significant oppsoition. On the other side, Nantes was occupied by German forces, who previously had encircled and let what was left of the Communard Army out of supply at Brest. On June 17th, 1940, the government of the French Commune was forced to capitulate. Together with the occupation of the Helvetian Republic by German an Papal troops (yeah, Italian Federation DoW on the Internationale when Syndie Italy and France were already defeated), it seemed like the Syndicalist menace was finally neutralized in continental Europe.

However, it didn't mean the total reunification of France.

At the Conference of Bourges in June 25th, the Fourth Republic had to recognise the set up of a German puppet in Northern France. In exchange, the continuity of the non-aggression pact and the joint occupation zones in Italy were assured by Germany, who also delivered a valious prisoner to the Fourth Republic: Georges Valois, who was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of the French Republic a week after the conference. 2 months later Valois, as well as other members of both the Communard leadership and the Sorelian faction, were hanged out to death.

Valois and other prominent Sorelian figures at the trial.

A map showing the division between the German-controlled French Kingdom (north) and the French Fourth Republic (south).

King François III of France had already plegded his allegiance to Germany and Mitteleuropa.

France had been liberated, but only partially. The spectre of Syndicalism was no more, but then reactionaries and German lackeys controlled the northern half of the motherland. Bouisson, whose popularity dropped with the ratification of the Treaty of Bourges, accepted this sistuation as long as the last European bastion of Syndicalism, the Union of Britain, resisted. Exiled British politician and Admiral Winston Churchill said that "an iron curtain had fallen over France". But the French people knew it wouldn't take too long before France would be completely unified - be it by words or by guns.

 

[Adotham1]

And with that, Chapter III is over. France remains divided, but as long as the Syndicalist threat still exists in Britain, reunification will have to wait. Will the valiant French and Canadian soldiers manage to defeat the Maximist nightmare in the Union of Britan before Germany does? Or will this be the beginning of an era of total German domination? Find out in Chapter IV! Coming... Well, surely at some point!

 

[stnylan]

Half a country better than none, and another country to free... still a lot of work to do

 

[Adotham1]

Interlude III: "A world in flames"

<<The years between 1938 and 1941 were probably the second most violent years in all mankind history, just before the period of the Eighty Years War (1568-1648). In fact, the first conflict of 1938 started at the same place the long 17th century war did it - Belgium. A revolution overthrew king Adalbert of Flanders-Wallonia and restored the Kingdom of Belgium under Albert I. Inmediately the Reichswehr launched an intervention, resulting in a conflict that lasted from January to March that year. As expected, Germany stood triumphant in the aftermath, and Belgium was no more, with Albert I dethroned and the country divided between the duchies of Flanders and Wallonia, both ruled by Adalbert. Germany would have to quell yet another nationalist uprising, this time in Lithuania, which started in July and ended in September 1938 with the execution of Voldemaras and the restoration of the monarchy.

A pic of a young Adalbert von Hohenzollern, Duke of Flanders and Wallonia.

Augustinas Voldemaras, the ultranationalist dictator.

On January 10th, the Fourth Balkan War ended with a Bulgarian victory. Serbia was forced to cede Nis to the Bulgarians, and a demilitarized zone was imposed to Greece in Thessaly. Later, on November 19th, Bulgaria would launch an attack over Romania, the last country in the Balkans that supposed a threat to Bulgarian hegemony. That war would end on December 22nd, 1940, with Bulgaria restoring the Romanian monarchy under Nicolae I.

Bulgarian troops at the outbreak of the Fourth Balkan War.

Back to 1938, on February 1st the recently crowned Tsar Kirill I of Russia announced his reign's goal of taking back the territories that belonged to the Russian Empire before the Weltkrieg. Though many in Eastern Europe and saw this as a direct threat to their sovereignity, the Cossacks in the Don-Kuban region and the Kazakhs in Alash Orda celebrated the return of the imperial rule, inmediately pledging their loyalty to the Tsar. The nation of White Ruthenia, known by the Russians as Belarus, would do the same on August 1940.

Kirill Vladimirovich Romanov, Tsar of All the Russias.

Cossacks in Russian uniforms forming.

A series of campaings followed the imperial restoration: The invasion of Turkestan, on November 1938; the Caucasian War, on December that same year, which saw Armenia and Georgia being annexed by Russia, and Azerbaijan turned into a Russian protectorate; the Siberian Conflict, also called the Second Russo-Japanese War, which started in June 1939 with a Russian offensive over Mongolia, followed by a Japanese attack; the Persian War, on May 1940; and the Second Russo-Turkish War, on July 1941. By 1941, Russia saw herself involved in three wars in Asia, having defeated only Turkestan, Mongolia and Xibei San Ma, which also participated in the Siberian Conflict.

Japanese soldiers marching.

Between April and May 1938, a series of events that took place in the Ottoman Empire would lead to the end of the Sick Man of Europe. Everything started with the Kurdish War of Independence on April 14th. Although the uprising of Kurdistan was utterly crushed by Ottoman forces on August that same year, the instability created by the conflict led to the exit of both Albania and Tripolitania from the Ottoman sphere of influence. On maym disaster struck: The Cairo-Mecca-Teheran Axis, an alliance formed by Egypt, the Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia and Persia, launched their attack, seeking to conquer the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire. Inmediately after the outbreak of the conflict Cyprus became an independent state, and Yemen broke the Ottoman chains on August 1939 - only to be annexed by the latter on October that year.

Former Prime Minister Zogu overthrew King Wilhelm and crowned himself King Zog I of Albania.

The artist known as Abdülmecid II, Caliph and Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

On October 3rd, 1940, and in face of Russian attacks on Anatolia, the Treaty of Cairo was signed. The Ottoman Empire lost his Arab territories to the Axis,and had to recognise the independence of Tripolitania, Cyprus and Albania. What once was one of the most powerful empires in the world had been humiliated by some minor countries, and what was left was an even weaker sultanate in Anatolia and Constantinople.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,one of the factions involved in the Second American Civil War was defeated on September 22nd, 1939: the United States itself. At the Treaty of Denver, what was left of the federal government was integrated into the Pacific States of America, which then extended itself from the West Coast to the Midwest. On the other side of the border, however, conflict would go on between the Combined Syndicates of America and the American Union State. The latter wouldn't last too long, however, as syndicalist troops entered Atlanta at the beginning of September 1940, and on April 14th 1941, the CSA completely defeated the AUS, consolidating her grip over the eastern half of the former USA. Seeing a big threat in her syndicalist neighbour, the PSA applied for her entry in the Entente, an appliance both France and Canada were happy to accept.

Pacific officer being welcomed by his Canadian counterpart at the beginning of joint military exercices.

Finally, the last notorious conflict that developed in this period - apart from the Second Weltkrieg - was the Indian Conflict. On July 29th 1938 the Princely Federation came to an end, being partitioned between the Bharatiya Commune and the rebellious southern princes. The peace between the latter didn't last long, however, as the Madras Republic, now calling itself as Dravidia Naru, declared war on Mysore and Travancore on December 12th, starting a conflict whose end was the former being annexed by the latter. On June 14th 1939, the syndicalists would launch an attack across the Dominion border, whose troops were caught off guard. A great amount of territories were lost to the Commune in her initial attack, but this advance was put to a stop with the arrival of French, Canadian and Australasian forces. Slowly but steadily, the troops of the Bharatiya Commune were pushed back and outran by Entente units, and in December 8th 1940, barely a year after the beginning of the war, the Commune and her Burmese allies were defeated. Through the Treaty of Delhi not only East India was put under control of the Dominion, but also were integrated the southern princely states of Mysore and Travancore. As a way both to reward French efforts and to celebrate their recovery of half their homeland, Burma was granted as a colony to the Fourth Republic.

Subhas Chandra Bose, who failed to unite India under the red banner.

Other conflicts and uprisings occured between 1938 and 1941, such as the Centroamerican war of 1939, who ended in a syndicalist victory; or the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, in which the loyalists of Alfonso XIII and his regent, Francisco Franco, resulted victorious, leading to the Spanish entry in the Entente after the fall of the French Commune. But none of those conflicts would compare to the one that was about to start at the end of 1941...>>

--- Extract from a Canadian high school's History book.

 

[stnylan]

Some nice little background details.

 

[Adotham1]

Chapter IV - On British Neck...

There was a short time of relief between the Communard capitulation on June 17th and the end of August. While both the Fourth Republic and the German-controlled "Kingdom of France" were reorganising their countries and armys and reinforcements from both the Entente and Mitteleuropa arrived, the Union of Britain, the last bastion of Syndicalism in Europe, seemed to have a moment of peace.

They hadn't, actually.

Both Entente and Mitteleuropean high commands orchestrated a series of naval invasion plans in order to bring down the Syndicalist - totalist, more specifically - regime of Oswald Mosley. Convoy raidings were launched by the Kaisermarine, the Royal Canadian Navy and the now powerful French Republican Navy, while bombers destroyed British factories and left cities in ruins, such as London or Liverpool. Besides, fake landings were made mainly in Scotland in order to keep Syndicalist forces far from the real landing zones.

Canadian troops with a fake medium tank.

The city of London was heavily hit by German bombers, but somehow St. Paul's Cathedral was left undamaged.

At last, on August 29th Operation Numenor, named after J.R.R. Tolkien's The Downfall of Numenor, was launched. Canadian troops landed on Dover and Plymouth, closely followed by French armored and marine divisions, who had as main goals secure the southern coast of England and advance through British territory in order to capture keypoints such as Liverpool, who would be essential to provide more reinforcements, and of course London. The Entente High Command expected few resistance due to the destruction of almost the entire British Army during the French and Italian campaigns, but Canadian and French forces found themselves with fearless although not so well armed militias who used guerrilla tactics to slow the Entente forces down.

Members of a British militia moments before preparing an ambush.

Despite these militias and what was left of the British Army's best efforts, Entente forces managed to advance and surrounded London on September 6th. The following siege of the city would last until October 25th. From this moment, British resistance to the invasion was shattered, and by November almost all of Britain was in the Entente's hands. Mosley and Eric Blair, his right hand man, disappeared, and their whereabouts were unknown to both the Entente and what was left of the British government, which, seeing all hope had gone, capitulated.

British troops abandoning their posts after receiving the order of surrender to the Entente's forces.

On November 20th 1940 the Treaty of Naples was signed, meaning the end of the Third International. Germany, the Fourth Republic and the Italian Federation agreed on restore an independent, democratic Switzerland, with his independence guaranteed by the three countries. Britain would remain under Canadian military occupation until a restorarion of the United Kingdom was possible*. Finally, Southern Italy was, as expected, integrated into the Italian Federation, in exchange for a plebiscite over Savoy, Corsica and Nice, which would decide whether these regions belong to either France or Italy.

With the war against the Internationale finished, both the Entente and Mitteleuropa enjoyed a full year of peace - a fragil one. The Entente proceeded to finish the limited wars it was involved in: On December 8th, the Bharatiya Commune was defeated and the southern Indian states decided to rejoin the Dominion of India. Three events took place at "Republican France", as people around the world referred to the zones controlled by the Fourth Republic: On March 13th 1941, the Subterranean Railroad was established in order to provide a escape way and a reach to those French who tried to run away from the German-controlled kingdom. Five days later, on March 18th, elections took place, with the Republican Socialists securing their majority. Despite this, Fernand Bouisson's popularity was at an all-time low due to his and his government's unability to retake all of France and the losses of French lifes during the liberation of Britain and other conflicts abroad, such as the Indian and the Centroamerican wars. An impeachment managed to succeed in the National Assembly, and the result was a government of "compromise" with the Radical candidate André Mallarmé as the new President of the Republic.

André Mallarmé, the new President of the French Fourth Republic.

Mallarmé's goal was simple: to succeed there where the previous President failed. In August 1941, a partial mobilization order was given, and French troops began to concentrate around the "royal French" border. In response, troops from the Reichswehr began to appear in order to help their still weak satellite in the event of a war. Soon, both Entente and Mitteleuropean forces appeared in France, and the conflict seemed inevitable.

And it was indeed.

At the first lights of November 6th, 1941, French troops crossed the border and the aviation took off from their air bases. Another war in Europe erupted.



*Note: I don't have any idea why Canada decided not to release the United Kingdom. They even made the focus and yet Britain is in Canadian hands.

 

[Adotham1]

Finally, Chapter IV is here!! It has been a short, yet intense chapter, seeing the downfall of the Union of Britain and the beginning of a new war between the Entente and Mitteleuropa.

An interlude showing the status of the world in 1941 will come after this chapter. After that, we'll see how this clash of titans goes on...

 

[stnylan]

Well now the liberation of Britain is most welcome, but now comes the second great enemy.

 

[volksmarschall]

Been reading through this. Have enjoyed it greatly! Always love the KR mod and to see what happens in different people's games and how it comes out in AAR form.

Bravismo! Keep up the good work. Looking forward for more!
Cheers!

 

[ThaHoward]

Interesting and well written! I look forward to the end game of this Weltkrieg. Poor France will have yet another devastating war on her lands.

 

[Adotham1]

Interlude IV: "Factions at war".

(Note: For some reason - probably because I was way too focused on the war against Germany - I didn't write what happened between the DoW on Germany and August 1942, meaning that there are 9 months blank on my draft. However, I somehow could make up what happened in those 9 months by seeing the global status at August 1942 - the date from where I resumed my draft. So the main goal of this interlude is to provide you with a general vision of what happened during that lapse of time by seeing how the things are at the beginning of Chapter V, which will come not too late after this. I'm sorry for the inconvinients this may cause and I hope that you still enjoy this AAR despite this)

<< To say that the Entente and Mitteleuropa were the only existent and infighting factions during the period starred mainly by the War of Liberation - as French historians named it - would be nonsense, as well as a proof of almost a total lack of knowledge of the global situation between the destruction of the Third Internationale and the aftermath of the aforementioned war. There were several regional powers and factions at this time that it would be stupid not to, at least, mention them.

>> Let's take a look at Asia, as represented by the image above. Three factions were disputing each other the control of the Far East: The Volga-Danubian Alliance, composed by the restored Russian Empire, its client state of Mongolia, Cisleithania - the Austrian-controlled part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - and the Kingdom of Hungary. This alliance was then at war with the Co-Prosperity Sphere, integrated by the Empire of Japan, the Kingdom of Siam and his client States, the Transamur and the Fengtien republics. The Japanese-led faction had the advantage on 1941, as Transamurian and Japanese forces advanced through Siberia. However, the Sphere was also at war with the Sino Coalition, an unlikely alliance formed by the Qing Empire and the republican sympathizers of the Yunnan Republic. The Volga-Danubian Alliance, on the other hand, were also at war in the Middle East with both the remnants of the Ottoman Empire and the Cairo-Mecca-Teheran Axis, the alliance between Egypt, Arabia and Iran who defeated the Ottomans some years before.

>> The triumph of Syndicalism in Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela led to an alliance between these three countries: the Latin American Union (LAU). However, even with the combined power of their armies these nations couldn't push back the Platinean offensive. Due to this, Brazilians found that the heart of their nation, Sao Paulo, was being put under siege by Platinean forces that managed to land at their shores. Apart from this, the national populist Realm of Peru was being invaded by both a Syndicalist - but no a member of the LAU - Chile and a democratic Ecuador that was pursuing his former invaders. The Chilean front advanced so much that Lima, Peru's capital, had been encircled and put under siege. North of that, peace reigns as an Entente-controlled Central America and Caribbean was in place.

>> Peace prevailed in North America as well, but it was an uneasy one. With constant claims and demands over New England and the Pacific States from the Central Commitee of the Combined Syndicates of America, there was a general belief that a conflict would erupt sooner or later. Whether the Entente would manage to destroy the last great bastion of Syndicalism or would fall under the huge CS Army remained to be seen then, however.

>> The War of Liberation didn't limit itself to Europe, as there was fighting at the colonies as well. In this battlefield the German dominion of Mittelafrika had the upper hand as their advances over French Africa show in the map above, though the colonial administration of the French Fourth Republic managed to occupy Morocco. Portugal's colonial empire was in a dire situation as well, with the Mittelafrikan askari advancing through Angola and Mozambique. However, with the Dominionist victory in the South African Civil War, it was just a matter of time that South Africa rejoined the Entente and, perhaps, took part in the conflict.

>> Last but not least, Europe. At a high human cost (some experts state that France lost over 2 million soldiers during the conquer of the Kingdom of France), French troops managed to advance well into the Kingdom of France, while Canadian forces launched Operation Overlord, a massive landing over Calais and Flanders. Another successful landing was launched over the Netherlands, who capitulated inmediately. With that move, not only there was a certain risk for Germany of being invaded, but also for the Mitteleuropean forces of seeing themselves trapped between the Entente ones, as France was pushing from the south and Canada from the north, and the two-sided front around Paris stretched even more as days passed. Besides, there was the Volga-Danubian threat, for both Russia and Austria-Hungary wished to take back what they thought it belonged to them. However, the Entente offensive was put to a temporary halt in August 1942, when Irish troops dared to land an occupy several key zones in a rather undefended Britain, delaying the arrival of reinforcements and giving to Mitteleuropean forces in the continent a precious time to reorganise... >>

--- Extracted from a Modern History class at Moscow State University.

 

[volksmarschall]

And while the world burns and is at war, Sweden remains untouched as ever!

 

[stnylan]

Useful overview of the world.

 

[Adotham1]

Chapter V - Revenge.

The first stages of Operation Payback, as the Entente High Command named the attack on Mitteleuropa, caught both the German and the royal French forces off guard. Brittany was occupied in its entirety by the Troupes de Marine before Mitteleuropean forces, too busy trying to contain the human wave that was the French Republican Army on the front, could react properly. On the other side a secondary operation, named Overlord was launched at Calais and Flanders by the Royal Canadian Army. Overlord was a huge success, given that it was the first time a massive landing operation, different from others that had been more limited such as Operation Carthage, that managed to not only succeed in his main goals - establishing a second front in France while cutting the enemy naval capability by taking the French dockyards - but also managed to go even further, forcing the capitulation of the Duchy of Flanders.

This picture of the main landing zone in Calais reflects how big Operation Overlord was.

With this initial successes, the Entente High Command became really optimistic about the course of war at the beginning of the summer of 1942. They planned a massive attack on all fronts, expecting to find a demoralized and disorganised enemy. Some officers and politicians, such as President André Mallarmé himself, said that the war would be finished even before autumn arrives.

But then the unexpected happened.

The Republic of Ireland, a member of Mitteleuropa that had limited itself to send expeditionary forces to Europe and some occasional air raids over the Atlantic Ocean, managed to land in Britain, the main supply depot for the Entente forces operating in the north of France. The Irish troops managed to expand through a rather undefended island, until Canadian troops who were destined to France were dispatched to contain this invasion. That put a halt to the operations in Northern France, and the Entente had to cancel the great offensive that had to take place hardly days after.

Irish soldiers marching through the fields of Britain.

Although the French Republican Army delayed their part of the offensive as well, that was only for a few days: Neither the French officers nor their soldiers were willing to wait more for the liberation of their country. On August 5th, French troops began marching to the front again, expecting the enemy to be in disarray and weakly prepared for a massive French attack.

On August 7th, 1942 took place what today is called Le Loire Sanglant or The Bloody Loire: thousands of French soldiers died trying to reach the enemy positions in key points along the Loire river. What was expecting them wasn't a disorganised, almost willing to surrender enemy, but well positioned machine gun posts and trenches, which unleashed hell over the French forces, painting the river red with their blood. Some experts say that, during the long month this battle lasted, nearly a million French lives were lost. In the process, Mitteleuropean forces even managed to make French ones to fall back to Brittany, securing Normandy.

A German unit during a French assault attempt, August 1942.

And it certainly could have been even more, if it wasn't by a last minute plan designed by General De Gaulle. This plan, named Operation Fantôme, consisted on a swift attack led by an armored spearhead to the region of Alsace-Lorraine. Soon De Gaulle's colleages called him a mad man and his plan a useless, suicidal attack. "Better a suicidal attack than the slaughter they're calling 'offensive' over the Loire" was the reply De Gaulle gave to his peers.

But more powerful was the answer given by the facts themselves, as Operation Fantôme was a huge success. French armored divisions proved to be quick and powerful enough to advance through Nancy and Alsace-Lorraine with hardly any resistance. With that movement, the main supply route for Mitteleuropean forces was cut off. What was even more, supplies from Germany and the rest of Mitteleuropa from the Ardennes rarely even managed to arrive, as Canadian forces resumed their offensive by the beginning of September. The front, and the backbone of the forces of Mitteleuropa, were cut of supply and about to be encircled.

And the day it finally happened was on September 26th, 1942, the day Paris was liberated. That day, king François III of France abdicated and the Kingdom of France officially ceased to exist while French and Entente soldiers were warmly welcomed and Parisians celebrated their freedom. But that day, Normandy was also liberated, as well as several other cities and regions in France.

The crowd cheers his saviors as they enter in a Paris free from tyranny.

The mitteleuropean forces were encircled, but not in a single front, but in several small points through Northern France. It was then when the probably darkest moment in the history of modern France took place: a merciless offensive was ordered against these points, even if they ended by offering their surrender. So was how France made his enemies taste her long awaited revenge, with bloodshed and no mercy. Very few prisoners were made in the following battles in France until November 10th, when the last units of Mitteleuropa fell under French fire.

Few soldiers from Mitteleuropa were 'lucky' to be PoWs, like these five German soldiers.

Despite the situation, Mitteleuropa refused any peace offer that came from the Entente, and that would prove to be its doom, specially when, on October 7th, the Russian Empire declared war in order to bring its former imperial territories back, with the recently restored Austro-Hungarian Empire following his ally some time after. In the middle of November, the Netherlands capitulated, and the Entente forces began to cross the Rhine, having already occupied almost the entire Southern Germany. Not even the several militias raised to help what was left of the Reichswehr were enough to stop the Entente offensive, and on November 24th, 1942, the French tricolor flag was raised from the rooftop of the Reichstag in Berlin.

A German soldier's corpse lies in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Four days later, the 28th of November, the German Provisional Government, established after the departure of Kaiser Willhelm II and those loyal to him to Mittelafrika, offered peace to both the Entente and the Volga-Danubian Alliance, which had recently arrived to Danzig, having occupied all of Eastern Europe in a swift, brutal offensive. Four treaties were signed on the next days, concerning four of the Mitteleuropa members (Netherlands, Flanders, Wallonia and Germany) and the fate of France:

• Treaty of Medan: It was demanded to the Netherlands partial demilitarization and its total neutrality, declining to take part of either Mitteleuropa or any other alliance. In exchange, all of its posessions were respected.
• Treaty of Brussels: The duchies of Flanders and Wallonia disappeared and, once more, the Kingdom of Belgium was restored. The Belgian government, led then by the Verdinaso party, pledged for Belgian neutrality, a pledge accepted by the Entente, who reinforced that neutrality with guarantees from both France and the recently restored United Kingdom of Great Britain. Besides, Belgium recovered the region of Wallonie du Sud, taken by Germany after the First Weltkrieg.
• Treaty of Brest: This treaty, signed between France. Germany and the Italian Federation, recognised the unity of France under the government of the Fourth Republic, as well as its sovereignity over Alsace-Lorraine and Nancy. Besides, the Italian and French governments agreed on a plebiscite over Savoy, Nice and Corsica, which would take place on August 13th, 1943.
• Treaty of Berlin: Both the Entente and the Volga-Danubian Alliance recognised the existence and sovereignity of the German Federal Republic, in exchange for territorial losses: Alsace-Lorraine and Nancy to France, Wallonie du Sud to Belgium and Eastern Prussia to Russia. Besides, the territories of the former duchies of Schleswig and Holstein would be lent to Russia and France, respectively, although France would end by giving Holstein back.

The so-called "German Government in exile" refused to acknowledge the German capitulation, but suddenly, on November 29th, Kaiser Willhelm II died of a heart attack, having suffered from the loss of his empire and his own home: a feeling French people knew too well, on the other hand. His son Willhelm was crowned as Kaiser Willhelm III. However, due to the loss of their beloved Kaiser and the terrible shape of the colonial forces, the German Government in exile saw itself forced to ask for an armistice with the Entente, which, wishing to recover as soon as possible from the war, accepted almost inmediately.

Kaiser Wilhelm the Third, Emperor of a lost empire.

And with that, 1942 ended with peace after 3 years of uninterrupted war in Europe. It ended with the French Republic finally back at home.

 

[Adotham1]

And with that I present to you the aftermath of the so-called War of Liberation. France is back, the German Empire is now in the position France was at the beginning, and the world sees a new age beginning.

However, the end of the war with Germany and some of their allies doesn't mean the end of the war with the rest of Mitteleuropa. Ireland and Finland are still fighting against the two new titans, the Entente and the Volga-Danubian Alliance. We will see their final fate in the next interlude, although I'm pretty sure you already know that they have almost no chance against such mighty alliances.

After that, well... Germany has been defeated, and the Combined Syndicates of America are the last great threat that still exists to the Entente. Probably I will wait until a more than possible war against them, and when finished... Well, I think that would probably be the end of this AAR.

But let's get back to what we have now - Next interlude coming soon!

 

[stnylan]

One can't imagine Ireland and Finland by themselves will last long.

And sorting out the peace always seems tricky.

 

[ThaHoward]

The Kaiser is dead! Long live the Kaiser! Or that might not be true anymore... Eitherway it's great that the Entente stomped out the German yoke, it's interesting to see how different various game can be.

It will be interesting to see what happen next, will Finland fall to Russia and Ireland to UK (Canada?)?

 

[volksmarschall]

War is always a deadly and bloody affair. But with the death and collapse of old orders, new ones will arise. What beckons forth now in the aftermath of apocalypse? One can only ever wait and see...

 

[Mr. Bobert]

Cor, that was a good read.

 

[Lordban]

Can we take a look at the border gore?

And with regards to royals, I'm pretty certain it would have gone the way of the Guillotine!