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Just read through the whole thing, this is awesome, and kind of scary. The way you presented this is kind of realistically scary.

Keep up the awesome job!
 
Hold on a minute - the Germans held a fierce rearguard action in Guildford? I'm at university in Guildford!

There goes the Cathedral and the High Street I guess :(
 
Kicking and Screaming

On December 7th, 1941 US troops in the Philippines were surprised to see more then two hundred planes swoop out of the sky to attack Manila, capitol of the Philippines and home to the largest concentration of US soldiers, planes, and ships in the pacific. The city boasted a garrison of 10,000 US troops, four carriers, ten battleships, and hundreds of smaller ships, along with 20,000 Filipino troops and the entire Philippine navy. Caught completely by surprise, the Americans and Filipinos were devastated, losing 23 ships, including the USS Yorktown, around 200 planes lost, and 3,000 soldiers and civilians killed.

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The USS Virginia being blasted apart

The attack was masterminded by Admiral Yamamoto, who had six carriers close to the island to launch the raid. Ready to follow up the attack were 30,000 Japanese marines and tanks who landed shortly after the attack, supported by battleship fire and more air power. Panicked by Japanese firepower, Major General Wainwright ordered a retreat from the city, leaving the Filipino government to fend for itself. After some sharp fighting, the city surrendered on December 11th and 15,000 Filipinos became the first POWs of the Pacific War.

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Japanese troops escorting surrendering Filipinos

The US fleet in Manila decided that it was time to leave. Admiral King tried to sneak past Yamamoto's fleet but was caught in an engagement on the 12th. Facing an enemy with twice as many carriers, King preformed quite well and managed to escape losing only a few destroyers. He got the fleet to regroup in Guam.

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A US aircraft carrier launching planes during the First Battle of the Philippine sea

When news of the attack on the Philippines reached Washington General MacArthur demanded that reinforcements be sent quickly to relieve Wainwright. Long disagreed, unsure whether the battle in the Philippines was winnable or not. It is also possible that Long didn't truly believe that the United States had really been attacked. Why would the Japanese attack a major naval power when they were already bogged down by the war in China?

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MacArthur contemplating what to do after getting news of the attack

The answer lies in politics. Japan's military dominated government was highly polarized between the army and navy, and they competed to see who could get more influence. The long, endless ground war in China had ensured that the army received far more funding and the navy became less influential. Admiral Nagano, head of the naval faction, refused to tolerate it. His solution was simple: start a new war which would mostly be fought at sea. After silencing dissent from Admiral Yamamoto, he ordered the Admiral to "prepare an attack that would cripple and discourage the United States, and ensure total and absolute war between us."

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Osami Nagano, the man almost singularly responsible for the Pacific War

While Long pondered action in Washington, the US troops on the Philippines were fighting for their lives. General Wainwright had taken control over the Philippine army, numbering around 100,000 men, along with the forces that had escaped Manila, creating a total of about 120,000 personnel, the vast majority of them Filipino. He also had an undocumented but considerable number of Hari Isda (Filipino Fascists) fighting as irregulars. He faced about 110,000 Japanese who possessed overwhelming air and naval superiority.

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Japanese troops charge forward into battle

Although he had numerical superiority, Wainwright found his defense becoming one long fighting retreat. His troops were not prepared for the hellish jungle conditions and were repeatedly outfought in small scale engagements. Fighting through February showed that any large scale counter-attack was impossible due to Japanese air forces, which brought a constant barrage down on American supply lines and troop concentrations. Desertion among Filipino troops was common, and a general hopelessness descended on the American forces. Disease and malnutrition set in, and soldiers started to kill their horses for meat.

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Filipino troops retreating, carrying supplies by hand

By April the American forces had run out of space to retreat. They were cornered at the Bataan Peninsula, and the perhaps 80,000 troops left fought a drawn out last stand, holding their positions until late May. It was on the 20th that Wainwright finally realized it was over and surrendered. The survivors of his army would spend the rest of the war being horribly mistreated in Japanese prison camps. All except the Hari Isda, who slipped through Japanese lines and began an insurgency on the islands.

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Some men were shot immediately upon surrender

What is fascinating about the Invasion of the Philippines is that it was fought with almost no acknowledgement by either the Americans or the Japanese that they were at war. Japan's official declaration of war would not even come until June, after the battle had already ended. Despite Long's best efforts to keep America isolated, the country had been dragged kicking and screaming into World War 2.
 
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a bermuda harbor ? :p

???

Dr. Gonzo said:
That would be fun.

Glad to see the Bund squashed, can't have un-American groups like that tainting the Kingfish. That said I don't think anyone should ever rely on MacArthur, particularly in the scheming confines of a dictatorship.

Hopefully you can send him to be reliable somewhere else. I hear the Philippines is nice this time of year.

If he had been on the Philippines he might very well be dead now... I'm not sure whether that a good thing or a bad thing, considering I'm making the plot up as I go along.

SovietAmerika said:
I'd have helped you Taft, but considering I'm chilling in Rainywood, I unfortunately couldn't vote. Didn't want to get arrested, you dig?

Even if Taft had beaten the rigged vote he still would have just gotten arrested, so don't feel to bad.

Julius Clonkus said:
Surely Long will not fall for this obvious false flag operation by British agents aimed at drawing America into yet another war that will bring only more horrendous economic troubles and grief for America with little to be gained in the end?

Of course we didn't fall for it. We somehow ended up in a war anyway.

Prince of Savoy said:
Just read through the whole thing, this is awesome, and kind of scary. The way you presented this is kind of realistically scary.

Keep up the awesome job!

That's actually what I was going for. I wanted to take all those good old American values and turn them on their head.

Ovg said:
Ev'ry man a king, ev'ry man a king, ev'ry man lying in a roadside ditch...

Still, I am monitoring this thread, I love what you did with Britain .

All men are equal(ly poor)

Antonine said:
Hold on a minute - the Germans held a fierce rearguard action in Guildford? I'm at university in Guildford!

There goes the Cathedral and the High Street I guess

There goes the neighborhood...

Sumeragi said:
Now, who would it have been, I wonder.

(spoilers) IT'S THE JAPS!
 
Poor Long, all that work against involvement for no gain.:p
 
I wonder if this is going to create an Unholy Alliance situation between the US and Britain. If so I bet Britain will end up regretting the help.

Better than fighting both America and Germany though.
 
Consequences

The attack on the Philippines was not the only one launched by the Japanese in December 1941. On the eighth they used their land bases in China to attack Hong Kong, overwhelming the small British garrison and forcing surrender in a few days. They used mobile Marine forces to sweep across the Dutch East Indies and their precious reserves of oil. They shattered British positions in Burma and forced a long, difficult retreat under constant air attack. The Japanese military seemed invincible.

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British troops in Burma retreating through unhealthy Jungle conditions

The British planned to stop the Japanese at Singapore. The island city was heavily fortified against attacks from the sea and landward side, had huge numbers of AA guns, a garrison of 80,000 men, and enough supplies to last them a year. General Arthur Percival was so confident that he sent a message to Prime Minister Churchill stating "Singapore is where the Japanese will lose the war." The forces under his command were a mixed bunch, with a number of them Indian, Australian, or Malaysian.

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Just one of the many massive naval guns of Fortress Singapore

Percival's opponent, General Tomoyuki Yamashita, was given the impossible task of taking Singapore with five Japanese divisions and five Siamese divisions, amounted to 100,000 men. British air forces in Singapore had been transferred to help in the Battle of Britain, giving him total air superiority. The British navy had retreated from Singapore and so he could attack with his naval forces at will. He also had a devastating secret weapon. Bicycles.

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Japanese troops bicycle through the jungle towards Singapore

On the 8th of February, 1942, as American troops in the Philippines began their fighting retreat, the Japanese began their attack on Singapore. Japanese troops on bicycles swept through the jungle to attack British forces on the mainland from unexpected directions, moving faster then the British thought possible. General Percival, panicked by the sudden appearance of Japanese forces from a jungle thought impassible, ordered a full retreat from the mainland, consolidating his forces on the island and blowing up the bridges linking Singapore to the mainland. This slowed the Japanese but left 10,000 Indian soldiers on the wrong side, who had to surrender.

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A few troops move across the bridges before they are blown up

Rightly thinking he had the British on the run, General Yamashita ordered several landings on the island from different directions on February 10th, thinking to throw the British off balance. Landings in the Southwest went well, creating a beach head for Japanese troops, but landings in the North by the Imperial Guard met with disaster, as Australian troops forced them back across the river with heavy casualties and no gains.

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The Imperial Guard fight for a foothold and fail

However, with civilian casualties mounting and more Japanese troops landing every second, along with continual air attacks, Percival decided the battle was lost and surrendered. However, his second in command, the Australian Lieutenant General Gordon Bennett, did not give the order for the rest of the army to surrender. Instead, he ordered a counter attack which came into effect on the 12th. General Yamashita, thinking the battle over, was caught completely by surprise and now it was his turn to panic. Thinking that he was being attacked by fresh British reserves (in actual fact the exhausted 22nd brigade, which had been fighting for four days strait, led the attack) Yamashita ordered a retreat and let 7,000 men become trapped on Singapore island with no way out. Most committed suicide, 564 surrendered. The Japanese were beaten off the island by the 15th.

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Japanese POWs wondering what will become of them

Singapore was a narrowly avoided disaster for the British, but under newly promoted General Bennett, it would hold for the rest of the war, withstanding several more Japanese attacks and winning a disproportionate number of Victoria Crosses. Bennett would himself win a Victoria Cross for his dogged determination. General Yamashita would be court marshaled for retreating and General Percival would spend the rest of the war in a POW camp. Singapore, which would have been a disaster to lose, had held against he Japanese.

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A heroic painting of Bennett in uniform

After the battles of Singapore and the Philippines ended, and the Pacific war began in earnest, President Long, Prime Minister Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek met in Calcutta to discuss a formal allied alliance. Although much got done, including Long pledging to send badly needed supplies to the Chinese, and the beginning of coordinated efforts in the Pacific, tensions between some of the world's most powerful men were high. In his history of the war, Churchill described Long as "a paranoid, small minded man, looking to create enemies so he can destroy them," and Chiang as "an incompetent, corrupt fool." Although Churchill disliked both of his allies, Long and Chiang apparently got along quite well, a sign of events that would occur after the war. In his history he said "It was quite clear that this was not an alliance of allies, but enemies who put off stabbing each other in the back to face a common foe."

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Churchill looking somber after the Calcutta conference

The Calcutta conference was exclusively on the Pacific war. Long went out of his way to avoid mentioning Germany or the situation in Europe, although Churchill tried several times to address it. It was quite clear that Long did not want to become involved in Europe.

He would have little choice in the matter however, as on June 10th, 1942, Hitler's declaration of war arrived.
 
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Fascists vs Fascists ... Interesting.
 
Poor Long, all that work against involvement for no gain.:p

It's almost a pity, isn't it?

NapoleonComple said:
I wonder if this is going to create an Unholy Alliance situation between the US and Britain. If so I bet Britain will end up regretting the help.

Better than fighting both America and Germany though.

This is not an alliance of democracies, but rather an alliance of enemies that face a common foe.

Deathknight15 said:
I like it! Keep it up

Thank you!

MarkusH said:
I hope the germans are wise enough to not aid Japan in this war.

You'd think so, but they aren't.
 
Ah, the British won at Singapore! That should keep the Japanese occupied...

Great job as always. I have to feel sorry for Churchill here; he must feel like the only sane man in a world of dictatorial nutjobs.
 
American fascism vs. German facism

Now would be the best time to explain the key differences between American fascism and it's European relative. Although they went by the same name, fascism was an ideology specialized for the needs of each country it appeared in. Although both Long and Hitler were unarguably ruthless and brutal men, they had distinct ideological differences which made it easy for them to become enemies.

Firstly, on economic matters Hitler favored a mix of mega-corporations in the pocket of the state, and often set up by it. Although these companies were often financed by the government and their primary customers were the government, they were private entities. Some not only survived the war but achieved enormous success afterwords, most notably Volkswagen.

Long, on the other hand, had a much more populist approach closer to Stalin's "communal ownership" economic system. Virtually every company was directly controlled by the government. These companies usually achieved near monolithic status over whatever industry they controlled, such as the American Railway Company, which controlled around 99% of all railways in 1942. Some companies were run by state governments, while others were federally owned, usually those that operated trans-state or internationally.

On social issues, the two had less differences. Both wanted to encourage the "traditional" (used in it's loosest possible sense) values of their culture, whatever they were. In Germany this meant celebrating German opera, the Catholic Church, and a military-industrial complex. But in America it meant embracing rural ideas and small town values. Long, himself coming from rural roots, loved small town America, and it was the most commonly mentioned place in his speeches. His confidence in local authority manifested itself in locally raised National Guard units.

OOC: Just wanted you to get a feel for the difference between Hitler and Long. A much longer update is on the way. Also, I realized there is not a single video of Long speaking in this AAR, so here you go:

[video=youtube;hphgHi6FD8k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hphgHi6FD8k[/video]
 
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America is ready... right?

On June 10th, 1942, hours after receiving Hitler's deceleration of war, President Long made a radio address to the American people on the coming conflict. It is one of the most widely quoted of Long's speeches, famously called the "America is ready," speech.

"At eight o'clock this morning, we received from the German embassy a note that said quite plainly: 'A state of war now exists between the Third Reich and the United States of America.' Now it was Secretary of State Coughlin that brought me this, and when he showed it to me I said 'Shoot! I don't know what a Reich is but if it's the third one they must be pretty desperate!' But I didn't say 'Oh, we're in trouble now!' cause we ain't. Cause' we got more guns, we got more tanks, we got more planes, and we got more ships then any kraut can dream of. In fact we got so many guns that we could arm every man in the American, Chinese, and British armies twice! And we are making more guns, more tanks, more planes, and more ships with every second that goes by. I am ready to unleash on Mr. Hitler the army, the army air corp, the navy, the marines, the national guard, and reduce Berlin to a smoking crater. I don't know if Mr. Hitler has a bunker but if he doesn't he'd better start building one, 'cause we're comin'. I may take us awhile, because we have to go through a little thing called Japan. But our war plan is to take Japan in 42 and 43 and then take Germany in 44 and 45 and that's how it's gonna happen! So Mr. Hitler, if yo' listenin', let me say that America is ready for you! But you ain't ready for America!"

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Huey Long during his heroic speech

Was America as ready as he boasted? No. But following Germany's deceleration of war he became filled with the motivation to make it so. For years Long had boasted that his politics and his economics were better then any other, and he intended to prove it. But getting America ready was not as easy as it seemed, for while for outside appearances America was strong and capable, it was just for outside appearances...

Industrial Production

One of America's greatest strengths during the First World War was the ability to replace losses, an ability the other combatants no longer had. This same ability would be vital in the Second World War. Long hired Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. son of the famed efficiency expert, to maximize America's industrial production. At only 31, he quickly brought a sense of energy to the war production committee, and Long gave him free rein. In his autobiography Gilbreth says "When I got there it was all an absolute mess. Factories and railroads couldn't create coherent schedules, so that shells supposed to be delivered to New York would end up in Baltimore, while New York received metal for the planes Baltimore was supposed to build. Moreover, the state companies often failed in the greatest sense to use the skills of their employees to the fullest advantage. Most horrifying however, was the sheer amount of wasted motion by the workers involved." Gilbreth toured over 400 factories across the United States and delivered hundreds of lectures on how to improve an individuals output and the system as a whole. He also suggested drafting women into the workforce so more men could be drafted for the military. When Gilbreth was hired American production efficiency was perhaps 47%. In two years he increased it to 91%. By 1944 American production was more then double Germany's and Japan's combined. With his help American industry could not only fight a two front war, it could win a two front war.

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Female American workers producing bullets

The Enemy

Long was already a master of public opinion, but the war meant America's enemies had to be dehumanized. He hired Walt Disney to create propaganda cartoons for children, the most well known being Der Fuehrer's Face a short staring Donald Duck. He also hired numerous artists, including the well known political cartoonist Theodor Geisel, known to his fans as Dr. Seuss, to draw up propaganda focusing on the Japanese currently living in the United States. It struck such a cord that Long ordered the arrest of all Japanese. Across the West Coast Japanese-Americans, many of them natural born citizens, were taken from their homes and put into internment camps, were many of them suffered mistreatment. Most would spend the rest of their lives there.

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Some of Dr. Seuss's propaganda, warning against Japanese spies

Military Forces

The most important men of the war were undoubtedly the men fighting on the front lines. The American military made up for it's lack of experience and training with sheer numbers, getting 2.3 million men mobilized within the first few weeks of official war. But as strong as the numbers were, American soldiers were a deeply divided lot. Admirals King and Nimitz's fleets were each fiercely loyal to their Admirals before anyone, even long. The marines were so loyal to their leader that they were commonly called "MacArthur's Marines" instead of US Marines. Each branch of the National Guard was loyal to whoever was governor of their state, and the Militia was devotedly loyal to Long himself. Although the different branches of the military were strong, their ability to work together had yet to be tested.

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MacArthur's Marines ready to kill some Japs
 
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Fascists vs Fascists ... Interesting.

It will be... interesting.

NapoleonComple said:
Ah, the British won at Singapore! That should keep the Japanese occupied...

Great job as always. I have to feel sorry for Churchill here; he must feel like the only sane man in a world of dictatorial nutjobs.

Winston Churchill is really only good at fighting wars. Luckily, there are plenty to fight!
 
Maybe if Britain stays really really quiet the Germans, Japanese and Americans will kill each other?
 
Good update! The last part about a divided military is worrying though...
 
Well, Long doesn't mess around - even though his level of eloquence might not qualify him as a silver-tounged orator.