Chapter 26
20th of March 1942
Haruji found himself stunned.
For the first time since the beginning of the Second Great War, as the British are calling it, not the war was dominating the news, but a political scandal.
This scandal weighed very heavy, as it even oversounded the most recent events of the war, namely the Japanese landing in France.
The landing itself should prove to be a disaster, as supply issues denied the Japanese the exploitation of their victory at the landing. They were efficiently trapped in Bordeaux.
In the homeland, a it had become known that a minister had been bribed by companies.
The weapons industry had paid lots of money to the minister in order gain more contracts for new weapons.
Of course, the media made this an issue of national security, because they expected that this was an act of treason. If the company was delivering weapons that paid the most to the government, it wasn’t guaranteed that the army fought with the best weapons available.
The minister was reassigned but did ultimately have to surrender all his political duties later on.
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3rd of April 1943
“Alright men, our orders are clear! After our second landing in Brest, our marines were trapped by superior German units and are fighting a desperate struggle! It is our task to land behind the German defenders, cut them off and destroy them!
We should catch them by surprise and then we’ll push south to liberate the French ports along the Atlantic coast.”
Takumi repeated the plan once more to his men.
Recent technological advances had enabled them to perform amphibious invasions a lot more efficiently, yet those tactics weren’t really needed at the moment, as they were once more landing at an undefended beach.
The cliffs offered a stunning view, and Takumi was glad he didn’t have to attack them with the Wehrmacht shooting at them.
The British in the East had just launched their final assault to liberate Paris from Axis occupation, while the Wehrmacht had managed to push the Soviets back from the Weser River towards Hamburg.
It seemed as if the Wehrmacht might just have regained the initiative, but their orders were clear.
Takumi felt that attacking the Soviets now might prove to be the right thing, because then they’d be hit before they could muster the power they’d gain from occupying the entirety of Germany.
High Command, however, ordered to keep fighting against the Axis, as neither the Japanese nor the British wanted to wanted to fight the Axis and the Comintern at the same time.
Instead, the politicians counted on Stalin’s good will to re-establish the pre-war borders after the fall of Germany at least in Western Europe.
Thus, the Soviets would be allowed to keep their holdings in Eastern Europe, but at least the alliance of the Allies could be re-founded.
The fighting in the days after the landing went smoothly, as the Germans were completely surprised by the Japanese attacking them from behind.
As such, they quickly surrendered to Takumi’s motorized units on the 7th of April.
The soldiers they had captured by then had nothing left of the pride that drove them through Poland a few years ago.
Instead, they were meager figures, each of them looking desperate, but also glad that the war had finally come to an end for them.
One of the officers spoke a little English and he asked McFarne and Takumi for a small conversation after his surrender.
At first, both were inclined to refuse, but the German simply started talking.
“Please, you must listen to me. The Russians must not succeed in this war!” he claimed.
“And why is that? Because the Communists are the worst enemies of your damned ideology?” McFarne asked.
“Ideology doesn’t matter. I’m an officer, and I was such even before the Nazis rose to power. But you must listen. I beg you!”
“So tell us what you want to say.” Takumi said calmly, silencing McFarne with a gesture of his hand.
“Thank you, dear sir. Our government has made significant advances in areas that were never entered by technology before. Our scientists have developed long range-radars with which the entirety of Europe can be observed. The Soviets already captured the radar in Königsberg. Should they get their hands on the one in Wilhelmshaven, they’ll be able to monitor all of Europe. By then, Stalin will be invulnerable, he will be able to foresee all possible assaults. Also, we have developed a weapon that’s called ‘Vergeltungswaffe’. In principle, it’s a single, flying bomb whose explosion destroys large areas.
The Russians have already gained lots of knowledge about this weapon, but if they gain all of it, they’ll be able to bomb your cities and you’ll be unable to stop it.”
“Now that’s interesting. First sergeant, get me a radio. I need to contact the Army HQ so that he can repeat what he just told us to High Command.” Takumi said.
This conversation happened on the 6th of April.
On the 7th, paratroopers were redeployed to Britain in order to launch an airborne assault on Wilhelmshaven. High Command had decided that capturing this radar might be of vital importance for the time after the war.
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8th of April 1943
Yet, it was too late.
The operation was never launched.
One day ago, the British had managed to capture Paris and with it, the German Reich collapsed once and for all.
As the news about the fall of Paris were spread among the German ranks, the Wehrmacht surrendered unconditionally to its former worst enemy, the USSR.
With this surrender, Stalin grabbed all the territory that was once occupied by the Germans, save for the Netherlands and Belgium, in which the British managed to bring in the old exiled governments before the Soviets could move in there.
The Russians also gained access to several Atlantic ports in Western France, which they didn’t re-establish as had been requested by the Allies beforehand.
Also, Poland was to remain part of the USSR instead of becoming a puppet. Germany received its old territories in Silesia for the cost of Eastern Prussia. Thus, Stalin established a communist regime in former Germany and immediately re-armed the Wehrmacht and gave it a huge part of its army as an expedition force.
In fact, Germany was now almost as strong as it had been before the war.
As another war seemed inevitable, High Command made a new plan.
The Japanese were to capture all other nations that had once planned to join the Axis, i.e. Vichy France, Xibei San Ma and, because it aimed at joining the Soviets, Xinjiang.
Those conflicts might easily trigger the conflict with the Russians, but getting those nations under Japanese control meant that the country’s flanks would be clear as well there would be more opportunities for assaults on the USSR.
In the meantime, the world had fallen under a red hegemony.
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Author's Note:
i wanted to go for a huge showdown after the fall of the Reich. Therefore, an assault on the RUssians just didn't seem right.
but you might see it, soon....
Well, if you are out of transports, let's hope the British can succeed in liberating one or two occupied countries before they fall into Soviet hands.
The onyl countries that could be liberated were the Netherlands and Belgium. Unfortunately, that was all. But things aren't over yet
Do I detect an eventual showdown between the Allies and the Commies?
Yup.
On a sidenote:
Rel life has finally caught up with me. I was done with my A-Levels in early April and now, the period of lots of spare time is over, as I'll start working as a student in a large german company from tomorrow. I'll move into a residential establishment for this and I do only have an old laptop with me that can't run Hearts of Iron 3. So you may expect a slowdown in my update-schedule.
I don't want to let this die, though.
I have already gotten this far now, so I intend to bring it to an end.