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Great AAR, I simply love it and can't get enough of it. The war has begun with America and now the Axis will have to feel the wrath of the Willkie Administration and the United States Armed Forces.
Forward to victory with the Republicans!
And Nimitz scored a great victory over the IJN and Yamamoto.
Forward to victory with the Republicans!
And Nimitz scored a great victory over the IJN and Yamamoto.
Excellent, excellent AAR. I love the changes, both subtle and blunt in the political history of the United States. My only advice, try seperating the paragraphs by a space. It breaks up the word blocks a bit and makes it slightly easier to read.
Other than that, amazing job!
Other than that, amazing job!
El Pip: Yes. I was surprised at how quickly I got the Operation Torch event. Historically, the Allies invaded North Africa in November 1942. However, I am invading North Africa seven months ahead of schedule! 
I estimate that at this rate, the war in Europe will be over about in two or three years. The war against Japan will probably take longer if I have to invade China.
Lord Strange: I said it before and I will say it again: this is why I don't want to go to war with Japan. China is going to be a pain in the neck, especially since it's a known fact that the Nationalist China AI is infantry happy.
Faeelin: Since the Americans still hold Wake Island, I moved the Battle of Midway over there. To be honest, I consolidated a few smaller battles into this big battle. The Imperial Japanese Navy has indeed lost four carriers, and no one in Japan is happy about it.
White_Knight: Thank you. I am having a lot of fun writing this.
The Axis Powers: Okay, someone remind us again why we are at war with the United States.
With 1942 being an mid-term election year, the Republicans are beginning to smell victory right now.
Yes, perhaps Nimitz will be rewarded someday with a 1970s all-star Hollywood film about how he defeated the IJN at Wake Island.
Estonianzulu: Thank you very much for the advice. I do apologize for the way the text is set up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Willkie and Civil Rights
In 1924, when he was a thirty-two-year-old Democrat, Wendell Willkie traveled to the Democratic National Convention in New York City to serve as an Ohio delegate.
Held at Madison Square Garden, the 1924 convention became a tremulous affair. With two strong front-runners (former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo of California and New York Governor Al Smith), delegates spent ballot after ballot fighting back and forth. To break the bitter deadlock, the delegates finally reached a compromise after one hundred and three ballots: former Solicitor General John W. Davis of West Virginia.
The hate group Ku Klux Klan, very powerful at the time, cast a shadow over the convention. Supporting McAdoo, the Klan attempted to defeat the Roman Catholic Smith. In opposition, an attempt was launched to insert a plank into the platform condemning the Klan for its violent ways. Smith-backer Willkie entered this dispute by vigorously supporting the plank. Although the plank was defeated by a single vote, Willkie’s position did not go unnoticed by the Klan. They sent him an angry telegram asking when he had “joined the payroll of the Pope”. The response:
“The Klan can go to hell.”
As for Davis, he limped his way to defeat in November. With the economy booming, American voters chose to keep cool with Republican President Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts.
Coolidge/Dawes (Republican/Red) – 373 Electoral Votes – 32 States Carried – 15,716,133 Popular Votes – 53.97% of Total Votes
Davis/Bryan (Democratic/Blue) – 145 Electoral Votes – 15 States Carried – 8,394,695 Popular Votes – 28.83% of Total Votes
Follette/Wheeler (Progressive/Yellow) – 13 Electoral Votes – 1 State Carried – 4,830,909 Popular Votes – 16.59% of Total Votes
Seventeen years later, Willkie carried his twin commitments of civil rights and civil liberties with him into the White House.
Unlike his predecessor, Willkie was not afraid to openly embrace civil rights. Indeed, he set the standard by which all future Presidents would be judged. Upon taking office, the Republican President told Southern Democrats what he thought of their segregationist attitude by ordering the desegregation of the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and other New Deal programs. He also openly denounced repressive Jim Crow laws in the South (such as the notorious poll tax) and supported anti-lynching legislation. Needless to say, this greatly angered the South; thus ensuring their presence in the Democratic camp until the civil rights-friendly Great Society program of the 1960s triggered a political realignment towards the Republican Party.
In June 1941, after being informed by the nation’s African-American leaders that qualified Negro workers were being passed over by defense contractors and therefore weren’t receiving their fair share of jobs, Willkie issued an executive order which created the Fair Employment Practices Committee. The FEPC banned discrimination “in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.”
As a result of these actions, millions of African-Americans achieved better jobs with better pay. The FEPC in particular became a major milestone for civil rights, since it marked the first time since Reconstruction that the Federal Government took an active role in guaranteeing equal opportunity for blacks. Among those who praised the President for his actions was A. Philip Randolph, the beloved and powerful head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
In September 1942, Willkie took things a step further by signing another executive order – this one fully desegregating the armed forces. Although he was greatly warned by his military chiefs (among others) not to make such a radical move at the present moment, Willkie did it anyways. Upon signing the monumental executive order, the President declared, "[Negroes] should have the right of every citizen to fight for his country in any branch of her armed services without discrimination."
On July 19th, 1942, Willkie became the first President to address a convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People:
“It is becoming apparent to thoughtful Americans that we cannot fight the forces of imperialism aboard and maintain a form of imperialism at home. Yet, we have practiced within our own boundaries something that amounts to race imperialism. The attitude of white citizens toward the Negroes has undeniably had some of the unlovely and tragic characteristics of an alien imperialism – a smug racial superiority, a willingness to exploit an unprotected people.
Our very proclamations of what we are fighting for have rendered our own inequities self-evident. When we talk of freedom and opportunity for all nations, the increasing paradoxes in our own society become so clear they can no longer be ignored.”
The next summer, after a violent three-day race riot raged through Detroit, Michigan that left thirty-four people dead, Willkie addressed the nation and publicly chastised politicians on both sides of the political aisle for having ignored “the Negro question” all these years and went on to compare racism with Fascism:
“All the forces of Fascism are not with our enemies. Fascism is an attitude of mind which causes men to seek to rule others by economic, military, or political force or through prejudice. Such an attitude within our own borders is as serious a threat to freedom as is the attack without. The desire to deprive some of our citizens of their rights—economic, civic, or political—has the same basic motivation as actuates the Fascist mind when it seeks to dominate whole peoples and nations. It is essential that we eliminate it at home as well as abroad.”
At the same time, the President worked closely with the executive secretary of the NAACP, Walter White, to successfully pressure Hollywood into changing its’ film portrayals of African-Americans from stereotypes to more positive roles. White himself became a close friend and political adviser to the President.
Controversially, Willkie’s civil views also extended to Japanese-Americans. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor fueled racial suspicion that ethnic Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast would openly support their ancestral county. As a result, there was much public and political pressure exerted on the Willkie Administration to do something about them. Among the most vocal of this demand was the Republican Attorney General of California, Earl Warren.
However, the President refused to give in. He rejected the loyalty questioning of Japanese-Americans. When asked about his opinion during a press conference, Willkie remarked:
“I do not believe in the idea that ‘a Jap is a Jap’ anymore than the idea that every Italian has a picture of Mussolini hanging on their wall or every German is a Nazi sympathizer. Are there a few bad apples? I am sure there are. However, it is ridiculous to suggest that everyone is a Benedict Arnold waiting to happen.”
Instead, he firmly embraced the Munson Report - a State Department study of Japanese-American loyalty. The report made a strong case that:
“The story was all the same. There is no Japanese `problem' on the Coast. There will be no armed uprising of Japanese. There will undoubtedly be some sabotage financed by Japan and executed largely by imported agents…In each Naval District there are about 250 to 300 suspects under surveillance. It is easy to get on the suspect list, merely a speech in favor of Japan at some banquet being sufficient to land one there. The Intelligence Services are generous with the title of suspect and are taking no chances. Privately, they believe that only 50 or 60 in each district can be classed as really dangerous. The Japanese are hampered as saboteurs because of their easily recognized physical appearance. It will be hard for them to get near anything to blow up if it is guarded. There is far more danger from Communists and people of the Bridges type on the Coast than there is from Japanese. The Japanese here is almost exclusively a farmer, a fisherman or a small businessman. He has no entree to plants or intricate machinery.”
With the document clearing stating that “the vast majority were loyal to America”, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover backing it up with his own report declaring that "every complaint in this regard has been investigated, but in no case has any information been obtained which would substantiate the allegation”, the President adopted the Munson Report’s findings and enacted policies that allowed Japanese-Americans to prove their loyalty to their fellow countrymen – such as serving in the military.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
By October 1942
Throughout the summer of 1942, Eisenhower’s forces raced across the North African desert virtually unopposed. For the Allies, his arrival was a godsend. With the addition of American troops, they hoped to finally force the forty-four Italian divisions trapped in Derna to surrender. Once they have been removed from North Africa, the Italian mainland itself would become extremely vulnerable to an amphibious invasion.
Watching events unfold in North Africa, Germany moved to strengthen the Mediterranean coastline against invasion. Conducting Case Anton, the Wehrmacht occupied Vichy France – thus bringing an end to French collaboration.
Meanwhile on the Eastern Front, the situation was growing grim. Hitler resumed his offensive in the spring of 1942. Pressing forward, the Wehrmacht pushed the Red Army towards the gates of Moscow.
On the southern end of the front, the Germans captured the Ukraine and advanced towards the oil fields of the Caucasus. Stalingrad, the major industrial city on the Volga River, was captured, cutting off the Soviets' direct access to their fuel. The fall of Stalingrad was also an ideological and propaganda coup for Hitler, since the city was named after Stalin.
The war on the Eastern Front had transformed into in a desperate race against time. The Germans knew they had to force the Soviets to sue for peace before their western allies could open a second front in Europe. If that happened, then the Germans would be forced to divert forces in order to halt the invasion. Fortunately for Stalin, a second front was in the works.
Out in the Pacific, the Japanese spent the summer licking their wounds after sustaining devastating losses in the Battle of Wake Island. Feeling that they needed to regroup, the Imperial Japanese Navy abandoned the Marshalls and withdrew westward. The Americans, by contrast, eagerly moved into the neighborhood.
The toughest fight in the Marshalls took place on the Kwajalein Atoll. The amphibious landing there became the first to face serious Japanese opposition. Well-supplied and well-prepared, the strong Japanese garrison contained the invaders at the beach – forcing MacArthur to withdraw his forces and admit defeat (a bitter pill for him to swallow). Hell-bent on removing this stain, he returned to the drawing board.
Studying the lessons gained by the defeat, the commander concluded that in order to reduce the garrison on Kwajalein, he had to reduce the enemy’s strength. MacArthur decided on a ruse to trick the Japanese. He abandoned Bikini, predicting that “the enemy will assert effort into regaining their islands.”
The ruse worked. By spreading out their otherwise unassailable forces to recapture Bikini, the Japanese made Kwajalein an easier target. Facing only a token force, the Marines returned to the atoll again. This time, they were successful in taking Kwajalein.
In his October 1st report to the Commander-in-Chief, MacArthur confidently predicted that “after Bikini is ours again, the rest of the Marshalls should shortly fall into line.”
I estimate that at this rate, the war in Europe will be over about in two or three years. The war against Japan will probably take longer if I have to invade China.
Lord Strange: I said it before and I will say it again: this is why I don't want to go to war with Japan. China is going to be a pain in the neck, especially since it's a known fact that the Nationalist China AI is infantry happy.
Faeelin: Since the Americans still hold Wake Island, I moved the Battle of Midway over there. To be honest, I consolidated a few smaller battles into this big battle. The Imperial Japanese Navy has indeed lost four carriers, and no one in Japan is happy about it.
White_Knight: Thank you. I am having a lot of fun writing this.
The Axis Powers: Okay, someone remind us again why we are at war with the United States.
With 1942 being an mid-term election year, the Republicans are beginning to smell victory right now.
Yes, perhaps Nimitz will be rewarded someday with a 1970s all-star Hollywood film about how he defeated the IJN at Wake Island.
Estonianzulu: Thank you very much for the advice. I do apologize for the way the text is set up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Willkie and Civil Rights
In 1924, when he was a thirty-two-year-old Democrat, Wendell Willkie traveled to the Democratic National Convention in New York City to serve as an Ohio delegate.
Held at Madison Square Garden, the 1924 convention became a tremulous affair. With two strong front-runners (former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo of California and New York Governor Al Smith), delegates spent ballot after ballot fighting back and forth. To break the bitter deadlock, the delegates finally reached a compromise after one hundred and three ballots: former Solicitor General John W. Davis of West Virginia.
The hate group Ku Klux Klan, very powerful at the time, cast a shadow over the convention. Supporting McAdoo, the Klan attempted to defeat the Roman Catholic Smith. In opposition, an attempt was launched to insert a plank into the platform condemning the Klan for its violent ways. Smith-backer Willkie entered this dispute by vigorously supporting the plank. Although the plank was defeated by a single vote, Willkie’s position did not go unnoticed by the Klan. They sent him an angry telegram asking when he had “joined the payroll of the Pope”. The response:
“The Klan can go to hell.”
As for Davis, he limped his way to defeat in November. With the economy booming, American voters chose to keep cool with Republican President Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts.
Coolidge/Dawes (Republican/Red) – 373 Electoral Votes – 32 States Carried – 15,716,133 Popular Votes – 53.97% of Total Votes
Davis/Bryan (Democratic/Blue) – 145 Electoral Votes – 15 States Carried – 8,394,695 Popular Votes – 28.83% of Total Votes
Follette/Wheeler (Progressive/Yellow) – 13 Electoral Votes – 1 State Carried – 4,830,909 Popular Votes – 16.59% of Total Votes
Seventeen years later, Willkie carried his twin commitments of civil rights and civil liberties with him into the White House.
Unlike his predecessor, Willkie was not afraid to openly embrace civil rights. Indeed, he set the standard by which all future Presidents would be judged. Upon taking office, the Republican President told Southern Democrats what he thought of their segregationist attitude by ordering the desegregation of the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and other New Deal programs. He also openly denounced repressive Jim Crow laws in the South (such as the notorious poll tax) and supported anti-lynching legislation. Needless to say, this greatly angered the South; thus ensuring their presence in the Democratic camp until the civil rights-friendly Great Society program of the 1960s triggered a political realignment towards the Republican Party.
In June 1941, after being informed by the nation’s African-American leaders that qualified Negro workers were being passed over by defense contractors and therefore weren’t receiving their fair share of jobs, Willkie issued an executive order which created the Fair Employment Practices Committee. The FEPC banned discrimination “in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.”
As a result of these actions, millions of African-Americans achieved better jobs with better pay. The FEPC in particular became a major milestone for civil rights, since it marked the first time since Reconstruction that the Federal Government took an active role in guaranteeing equal opportunity for blacks. Among those who praised the President for his actions was A. Philip Randolph, the beloved and powerful head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
In September 1942, Willkie took things a step further by signing another executive order – this one fully desegregating the armed forces. Although he was greatly warned by his military chiefs (among others) not to make such a radical move at the present moment, Willkie did it anyways. Upon signing the monumental executive order, the President declared, "[Negroes] should have the right of every citizen to fight for his country in any branch of her armed services without discrimination."
On July 19th, 1942, Willkie became the first President to address a convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People:
“It is becoming apparent to thoughtful Americans that we cannot fight the forces of imperialism aboard and maintain a form of imperialism at home. Yet, we have practiced within our own boundaries something that amounts to race imperialism. The attitude of white citizens toward the Negroes has undeniably had some of the unlovely and tragic characteristics of an alien imperialism – a smug racial superiority, a willingness to exploit an unprotected people.
Our very proclamations of what we are fighting for have rendered our own inequities self-evident. When we talk of freedom and opportunity for all nations, the increasing paradoxes in our own society become so clear they can no longer be ignored.”
The next summer, after a violent three-day race riot raged through Detroit, Michigan that left thirty-four people dead, Willkie addressed the nation and publicly chastised politicians on both sides of the political aisle for having ignored “the Negro question” all these years and went on to compare racism with Fascism:
“All the forces of Fascism are not with our enemies. Fascism is an attitude of mind which causes men to seek to rule others by economic, military, or political force or through prejudice. Such an attitude within our own borders is as serious a threat to freedom as is the attack without. The desire to deprive some of our citizens of their rights—economic, civic, or political—has the same basic motivation as actuates the Fascist mind when it seeks to dominate whole peoples and nations. It is essential that we eliminate it at home as well as abroad.”
At the same time, the President worked closely with the executive secretary of the NAACP, Walter White, to successfully pressure Hollywood into changing its’ film portrayals of African-Americans from stereotypes to more positive roles. White himself became a close friend and political adviser to the President.
Controversially, Willkie’s civil views also extended to Japanese-Americans. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor fueled racial suspicion that ethnic Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast would openly support their ancestral county. As a result, there was much public and political pressure exerted on the Willkie Administration to do something about them. Among the most vocal of this demand was the Republican Attorney General of California, Earl Warren.
However, the President refused to give in. He rejected the loyalty questioning of Japanese-Americans. When asked about his opinion during a press conference, Willkie remarked:
“I do not believe in the idea that ‘a Jap is a Jap’ anymore than the idea that every Italian has a picture of Mussolini hanging on their wall or every German is a Nazi sympathizer. Are there a few bad apples? I am sure there are. However, it is ridiculous to suggest that everyone is a Benedict Arnold waiting to happen.”
Instead, he firmly embraced the Munson Report - a State Department study of Japanese-American loyalty. The report made a strong case that:
“The story was all the same. There is no Japanese `problem' on the Coast. There will be no armed uprising of Japanese. There will undoubtedly be some sabotage financed by Japan and executed largely by imported agents…In each Naval District there are about 250 to 300 suspects under surveillance. It is easy to get on the suspect list, merely a speech in favor of Japan at some banquet being sufficient to land one there. The Intelligence Services are generous with the title of suspect and are taking no chances. Privately, they believe that only 50 or 60 in each district can be classed as really dangerous. The Japanese are hampered as saboteurs because of their easily recognized physical appearance. It will be hard for them to get near anything to blow up if it is guarded. There is far more danger from Communists and people of the Bridges type on the Coast than there is from Japanese. The Japanese here is almost exclusively a farmer, a fisherman or a small businessman. He has no entree to plants or intricate machinery.”
With the document clearing stating that “the vast majority were loyal to America”, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover backing it up with his own report declaring that "every complaint in this regard has been investigated, but in no case has any information been obtained which would substantiate the allegation”, the President adopted the Munson Report’s findings and enacted policies that allowed Japanese-Americans to prove their loyalty to their fellow countrymen – such as serving in the military.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
By October 1942
Throughout the summer of 1942, Eisenhower’s forces raced across the North African desert virtually unopposed. For the Allies, his arrival was a godsend. With the addition of American troops, they hoped to finally force the forty-four Italian divisions trapped in Derna to surrender. Once they have been removed from North Africa, the Italian mainland itself would become extremely vulnerable to an amphibious invasion.
Watching events unfold in North Africa, Germany moved to strengthen the Mediterranean coastline against invasion. Conducting Case Anton, the Wehrmacht occupied Vichy France – thus bringing an end to French collaboration.
Meanwhile on the Eastern Front, the situation was growing grim. Hitler resumed his offensive in the spring of 1942. Pressing forward, the Wehrmacht pushed the Red Army towards the gates of Moscow.
On the southern end of the front, the Germans captured the Ukraine and advanced towards the oil fields of the Caucasus. Stalingrad, the major industrial city on the Volga River, was captured, cutting off the Soviets' direct access to their fuel. The fall of Stalingrad was also an ideological and propaganda coup for Hitler, since the city was named after Stalin.
The war on the Eastern Front had transformed into in a desperate race against time. The Germans knew they had to force the Soviets to sue for peace before their western allies could open a second front in Europe. If that happened, then the Germans would be forced to divert forces in order to halt the invasion. Fortunately for Stalin, a second front was in the works.
Out in the Pacific, the Japanese spent the summer licking their wounds after sustaining devastating losses in the Battle of Wake Island. Feeling that they needed to regroup, the Imperial Japanese Navy abandoned the Marshalls and withdrew westward. The Americans, by contrast, eagerly moved into the neighborhood.
The toughest fight in the Marshalls took place on the Kwajalein Atoll. The amphibious landing there became the first to face serious Japanese opposition. Well-supplied and well-prepared, the strong Japanese garrison contained the invaders at the beach – forcing MacArthur to withdraw his forces and admit defeat (a bitter pill for him to swallow). Hell-bent on removing this stain, he returned to the drawing board.
Studying the lessons gained by the defeat, the commander concluded that in order to reduce the garrison on Kwajalein, he had to reduce the enemy’s strength. MacArthur decided on a ruse to trick the Japanese. He abandoned Bikini, predicting that “the enemy will assert effort into regaining their islands.”
The ruse worked. By spreading out their otherwise unassailable forces to recapture Bikini, the Japanese made Kwajalein an easier target. Facing only a token force, the Marines returned to the atoll again. This time, they were successful in taking Kwajalein.
In his October 1st report to the Commander-in-Chief, MacArthur confidently predicted that “after Bikini is ours again, the rest of the Marshalls should shortly fall into line.”
Last edited:
1943 Overview of the Willkie Administration
Army
Infantry: 36
Cavalry: 9
Motorized: 5
Armored: 15
Paratroop: 2
Marine: 10
Mountaineer: 10
Garrison: 5
Headquarters: 4
Militia: 6
Navy
Battleship: 18
Light Cruiser: 15
Heavy Cruiser: 17
Battlecruiser: 4
Destroyer Group: 36
Carrier: 6
Light Carrier: 3
Submarine: 7
Transport: 27
Air Force
Fighter: 2
Interceptor: 5
Strategic Bomber: 3
Tactical Bomber: 7
Naval Bomber: 3
Close Air Support: 3
Transport: 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
By January 1943
The final months of 1942 witnessed the beginning of the end of Italian participation in the Second World War. The first blow Mussolini suffered that autumn was the collapse of his forces in North Africa. The Allies poured everything into what General George S. Patton called “pounding the enemy into Hell”. The Italian commander in Derna, Ugo Cavallero, rejected calls to surrender, optimistically declaring that the Allies would only capture Derna over his dead body. A group of desperate soldiers took Cavallero for his word, rising up in mutiny and assassinating him. Only then did the Italians in Derna surrender, bringing an end to the Axis presence in Africa.
The second blow came when the Americans swiftly followed up the victory in Derna by launching Operation Husky: the invasion of the 9,926 square mile island called Sicily. In a large-scale amphibious operation, Marines landed in Catania (located at the foot of the Mount Etna volcano) and opened a foothold there.
Having secured Catania, the Americans simply flooded Sicily. Facing the tremendous combined strength of the United States Army and Army Air Force, the Italians had no choice but to abandon the island and withdraw to the mainland via the narrow Strait of Messina. The Americans pursued them across the Strait and - by the start of 1943 - occupied the toe of the Italian boot.
By invading Italy, Churchill believed the “underbelly of Europe” would provide the Allies with their best chance to win the war in Europe. To the North, the Germans experienced mixed success. On the one hand, they embarrassed the British by crushing their flimsy invasion of Norway. On the other hand, they lost a strategic ally when Finland was finally overrun by the Soviets and forced to switch sides. Otto Wille Kuusinen, head of the Finnish Communist Party, was then installed as the new President of Finland by Moscow. The Soviets would ruthlessly control Finland for nearly half-a-century.
With Finland under their thumb, the Red Army was able to move critical forces south; thus preventing the Germans from reaching Leningrad and Moscow. Even though Hitler had seized the oilfields of the Caucasus, Stalin was confident that the arrival of the Americans in Southern Italy would provide him with much-needed relief.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, MacArthur’s prediction to his boss came true in spades. Not only did the Americans secure the Marshalls in short order, they also captured Satawan – the gateway to the Carolines.
The key to the Carolines was Truk, a major naval base. The Americans knew the Japanese would not give it up without a fight. In the closing days of 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy put up a defiant but futile stand in the waters of the Eastern Carolines.
They then withdrew from the Carolines, losing two carriers and several escort ships in the process. According to American intelligence reports, the strength of the Imperial Japanese Navy had been reduced to six battleships, two carriers, four battlecruisers, and sixty-seven other ships.
For the Republican Party, victory on the battlefront translated into victory on the home front. On November 7th, 1942, Americans headed to the polls to cast their votes for the mid-term election. In a referendum on the performance of Willkie and the Republicans, the voters awarded the G.O.P their best showing since 1938. Although the Democrats managed to retain control over the incoming Seventy-Eighth Congress, their majority in both houses became slender at best. In all, the Republicans picked up fifty seats in the House of Representatives and eleven seats in the Senate. The composition of the new Congress:
-House of Representatives: 219 Democrats; 212 Republicans; 2 Progressives; 1 American Labor; 1 Farmer-Labor
-Senate: 56 Democrats; 39 Republicans; 1 Progressive
Among the winners was Ralph L. Carr. The Republican Governor of Colorado, Carr’s defense of racial tolerance earned him the President’s support on the campaign trail. The Governor ended up narrowly defeating Democratic Senator Edwin C. Johnson. As Senator, Carr would gain a reputation for advocating fiscal restraint.
Another G.O.P. winner was Wellington D. Rankin of Montana. The brother of Jeannette Rankin, Wellington was a lawyer by nature. Narrowly defeating Democratic Senator James E. Murray, Wellington would prove to be competent in the Senate. However, he could never escape the shadow of his sister’s lone vote against America’s entry into World War Two.
Outside the Congressional races, the most notable contest was the New York gubernatorial election. For twenty years, the Democrats had occupied the Governor’s seat in Albany. That came to an end in 1942 when Dewey easily defeated Democratic New York State Attorney General John J. Bennett, Jr. to become the forty-seventh Governor.
When the President learned of Dewey’s victory in New York, he was not happy about it at all. Ever since Willkie defeated him for the Republican Presidential nomination two years earlier, nothing but mutual enmity and rancor developed between the two men. Willkie was offended by Dewey’s isolationism and opposition to his status as the standard-bearer of the Republican Party. Dewey thought Willkie was exploiting the Party of Lincoln for his own personal gain. Willkie was suspicious of the Governor-elect’s sudden conversion to internationalism. Dewey believed the President had been too reckless during his first year in office. Dewey’s election as Governor of New York only deepened the open hostility. Historically, the seat in Albany often led to a seat on a major Presidential ticket. In Willkie’s mind, “that bastard wants to be Governor so he can be President. Well, I am not going to let him. I will fight him in ’44, I will fight him in ’48, and I will fight him any other time.”
Army
Infantry: 36
Cavalry: 9
Motorized: 5
Armored: 15
Paratroop: 2
Marine: 10
Mountaineer: 10
Garrison: 5
Headquarters: 4
Militia: 6
Navy
Battleship: 18
Light Cruiser: 15
Heavy Cruiser: 17
Battlecruiser: 4
Destroyer Group: 36
Carrier: 6
Light Carrier: 3
Submarine: 7
Transport: 27
Air Force
Fighter: 2
Interceptor: 5
Strategic Bomber: 3
Tactical Bomber: 7
Naval Bomber: 3
Close Air Support: 3
Transport: 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
By January 1943
The final months of 1942 witnessed the beginning of the end of Italian participation in the Second World War. The first blow Mussolini suffered that autumn was the collapse of his forces in North Africa. The Allies poured everything into what General George S. Patton called “pounding the enemy into Hell”. The Italian commander in Derna, Ugo Cavallero, rejected calls to surrender, optimistically declaring that the Allies would only capture Derna over his dead body. A group of desperate soldiers took Cavallero for his word, rising up in mutiny and assassinating him. Only then did the Italians in Derna surrender, bringing an end to the Axis presence in Africa.
The second blow came when the Americans swiftly followed up the victory in Derna by launching Operation Husky: the invasion of the 9,926 square mile island called Sicily. In a large-scale amphibious operation, Marines landed in Catania (located at the foot of the Mount Etna volcano) and opened a foothold there.
Having secured Catania, the Americans simply flooded Sicily. Facing the tremendous combined strength of the United States Army and Army Air Force, the Italians had no choice but to abandon the island and withdraw to the mainland via the narrow Strait of Messina. The Americans pursued them across the Strait and - by the start of 1943 - occupied the toe of the Italian boot.
By invading Italy, Churchill believed the “underbelly of Europe” would provide the Allies with their best chance to win the war in Europe. To the North, the Germans experienced mixed success. On the one hand, they embarrassed the British by crushing their flimsy invasion of Norway. On the other hand, they lost a strategic ally when Finland was finally overrun by the Soviets and forced to switch sides. Otto Wille Kuusinen, head of the Finnish Communist Party, was then installed as the new President of Finland by Moscow. The Soviets would ruthlessly control Finland for nearly half-a-century.
With Finland under their thumb, the Red Army was able to move critical forces south; thus preventing the Germans from reaching Leningrad and Moscow. Even though Hitler had seized the oilfields of the Caucasus, Stalin was confident that the arrival of the Americans in Southern Italy would provide him with much-needed relief.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, MacArthur’s prediction to his boss came true in spades. Not only did the Americans secure the Marshalls in short order, they also captured Satawan – the gateway to the Carolines.
The key to the Carolines was Truk, a major naval base. The Americans knew the Japanese would not give it up without a fight. In the closing days of 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy put up a defiant but futile stand in the waters of the Eastern Carolines.
They then withdrew from the Carolines, losing two carriers and several escort ships in the process. According to American intelligence reports, the strength of the Imperial Japanese Navy had been reduced to six battleships, two carriers, four battlecruisers, and sixty-seven other ships.
For the Republican Party, victory on the battlefront translated into victory on the home front. On November 7th, 1942, Americans headed to the polls to cast their votes for the mid-term election. In a referendum on the performance of Willkie and the Republicans, the voters awarded the G.O.P their best showing since 1938. Although the Democrats managed to retain control over the incoming Seventy-Eighth Congress, their majority in both houses became slender at best. In all, the Republicans picked up fifty seats in the House of Representatives and eleven seats in the Senate. The composition of the new Congress:
-House of Representatives: 219 Democrats; 212 Republicans; 2 Progressives; 1 American Labor; 1 Farmer-Labor
-Senate: 56 Democrats; 39 Republicans; 1 Progressive
Among the winners was Ralph L. Carr. The Republican Governor of Colorado, Carr’s defense of racial tolerance earned him the President’s support on the campaign trail. The Governor ended up narrowly defeating Democratic Senator Edwin C. Johnson. As Senator, Carr would gain a reputation for advocating fiscal restraint.
Another G.O.P. winner was Wellington D. Rankin of Montana. The brother of Jeannette Rankin, Wellington was a lawyer by nature. Narrowly defeating Democratic Senator James E. Murray, Wellington would prove to be competent in the Senate. However, he could never escape the shadow of his sister’s lone vote against America’s entry into World War Two.
Outside the Congressional races, the most notable contest was the New York gubernatorial election. For twenty years, the Democrats had occupied the Governor’s seat in Albany. That came to an end in 1942 when Dewey easily defeated Democratic New York State Attorney General John J. Bennett, Jr. to become the forty-seventh Governor.
When the President learned of Dewey’s victory in New York, he was not happy about it at all. Ever since Willkie defeated him for the Republican Presidential nomination two years earlier, nothing but mutual enmity and rancor developed between the two men. Willkie was offended by Dewey’s isolationism and opposition to his status as the standard-bearer of the Republican Party. Dewey thought Willkie was exploiting the Party of Lincoln for his own personal gain. Willkie was suspicious of the Governor-elect’s sudden conversion to internationalism. Dewey believed the President had been too reckless during his first year in office. Dewey’s election as Governor of New York only deepened the open hostility. Historically, the seat in Albany often led to a seat on a major Presidential ticket. In Willkie’s mind, “that bastard wants to be Governor so he can be President. Well, I am not going to let him. I will fight him in ’44, I will fight him in ’48, and I will fight him any other time.”
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christ, the germans did well getting that far. looks like they're screwed now, what with an early landing in italy. nice work.
Given how much Willkie has offended large chunks of his own party, much of the Southern states and generally acted in a fairly obnoxiously arrogant fashion it will be interesting to see if 'being in a war, keep the President' wins out over 'Willkie is an arse, get someone else'.
I suspect it will be the former, but I wouldn't discount the latter. What may swing it is any significant defeat, many will blame it on desegregating the armed forces and therefore Willkie. Interesting times.
I suspect it will be the former, but I wouldn't discount the latter. What may swing it is any significant defeat, many will blame it on desegregating the armed forces and therefore Willkie. Interesting times.
Oi, germans are still holding in the east!
Maybe make a landing after they beat the soviets.
Maybe make a landing after they beat the soviets.
El Pip said:
But the Southern states do not tend Republican, so why not let them hang?
True enough, but there's several 'border' states that could be tight races if handled properly. Plus of course wilfully winding up chunks of the electorate does tend to get noticed by everyone else, not always with good results.Faeelin said:
El Pip said:
Welkie lost the South, he wasn't going to get it back I think. But states like California and Pennsylvania, two big ones Welkie lost in the last election, would probably not be so adverse to seeing the old south get all hot and bothered.
BritishImperial: Yes. Of course, this puts me in a bind. I need to divert as many German divisions away from the Eastern Front as possible. Getting the Bitter Peace event now would make my situation quite ugly.
El Pip: *chuckles* Quite right, El Pip. Willkie doesn't get the idea that just because you are the President of the United States, you can't just do whatever you want. You have to appeal to people, even if you don't agree with them. As you pointed out, he alienated isolationists with his interventionist views, he alienated Southern Democrats with his equality views (which will no doubt delay the historical change in the South from Democratic to Republican majority), and he has now alienated other people by refusing to move against the Japanese-Americans.
Interestingly, President John Tyler got expelled from his own Whig Party for pretty much acting independently without following the Whig agenda. Willkie is also heading in that direction; of course, he has World War Two as a safety net. The 1944 election is going to be very interesting.
Enewald: I don't want them to beat the Soviets. I need the Soviets, even though they are Communists.
Estonianzulu: Hence, FDR winning a fourth term even though he was approaching death's door by late 1944. He had D-Day and Leyte Gulf to point to.
08/15/09: For my revision, I included the composition of the 78th Congress. Historically, the Republicans won fourty-seven seats in the House and nine seats in the Senate in 1942. For this AAR, I threw in an additional three seats in the House and two seats in the Senate for the G.O.P. Carr and Rankin were historical losers who became alternate history winners.
Faeelin: The Southern States did not start moving towards the Republican Party until the Democratic Party implemented Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s. As I mentioned earlier, as a result of Willkie's pro-civil rights stance, the Southern States may remain Democratic longer than they historically did out of anger. Willkie may not represent the views of the Republican Party, but right now he is the Republican President and he isn't making friends with Southern Democrats.
El Pip: That will play out in the 1944 Election.
Estonianzulu: Correct. The only Southern State Willkie won (in this AAR) in 1940 was Delaware. Of course, Delaware is a Republican-leaning state - having gone to Hoover in 1932 and Landon in 1936. As much as Willkie is annoying the Old South, he is also becoming quite popular with African-Americans and other pro-civil rights people. In turn, that is eating into the Democratic Party's base of support.
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The Casablanca Conference
The year 1943 would witness a series of high-level conferences which dictated the course of the war and laid down the foundation for the postwar world. The first meeting to take place that year was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco on January 14th. Meeting to plan European strategy were Willkie, Churchill, and Free French leaders Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud.
Among the issues dealt with during the ten-day conference was the future of France. The question of who truly represented Free France divided the four men into two camps. Willkie supported Giraud, a senior but obscure General who had nothing going for him other than the fact that he wasn’t de Gaulle.
Churchill, on the other hand, recognized de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French resistance. Tall and strong-willed, de Gaulle refused to treat Giraud as an equal. Although the President was sympathetic towards Free France, he greatly detested de Gaulle. In his eyes, de Gaulle was vain, brilliant, self-centered, unyielding, and difficult to work with. Privately, Willkie called him “an obsessed, arrogant bastard even more devoted to dying empires than Winston.”
De Gaulle was equally unimpressed with Willkie; indeed, de Gaulle hated him for unilaterally liberating Morocco from French control and for insisting that the former French colonies of Lebanon and Syria remain independent.
With the relationship between the two men as cold as ice, it is rather amazing that the conference didn’t fall apart. Swallowing the poison, Willkie reluctantly gave into Churchill’s insistence that the United States recognized de Gaulle. In addition to the France question, the Allied leaders agreed that the only peace term they would accept from the Axis was unconditional surrender. Perhaps the most important decision made in Casablanca was the elimination of the idea to invade Northern France via crossing the English Channel. Willkie agreed with Churchill that Italy was the “underbelly of Europe” and therefore wanted to solely focus on invading Europe by rolling up the Italian boot and then storming into Western Europe.
After the conference ended, Churchill went to the airport to see Willkie off. In a gesture of disdain, de Gaulle refused to attend the departure.
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By April 1943
During the first few months of 1943, the Americans worked their way up the Italian peninsula. It was a slow affair; the Apennines forcing them to fight through mountainous terrain and unpredictable rivers. The Axis used the geography to their advantage, establishing a series of defensive lines in which to hamper the enemy’s advance.
Slowly, but surely, the Americans punched through each defensive line. By the middle of April, Eisenhower had broken through the Gustav Line (which ran across Italy near the ancient town of Cassino). He only now had to breach the fall-back Adolf Hitler Line to seize Routes 6 and 7 – the roads leading to the beautiful Italian capital of Rome.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, MacArthur’s forces captured Truk and swept through the rest of the Carolines. They then swung northward towards the Marianas. By securing the arc-shaped archipelago, the Japanese home islands would become vulnerable to Allied strategic bombers. The first island in the Marianas campaign was Guam.
The largest of the Marianas (thirty miles long by nine miles wide), Guam had been under Spanish control until the United States seized control of the island in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. The Japanese had taken the island away from the Americans, only to have it snatched away from them after a brief battle – strangely, one Japanese soldier would hold out in the jungle until January 1972. With Guam retaken, the Construction Battalions of the United States Navy – better known as the Seabees – began to transform the island into a giant airfield for strategic bombers while the Marines prepared to attack the island of Rota – located forty miles north-northeast of Guam.
During the Battle of Guam, the President received intelligence reports indicating that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto had scheduled an April inspection tour of Iwo Jima and Saipan. With the Americans fast approaching, Yamamoto wanted to see for himself how the major islands of Iwo Jima and Saipan were preparing themselves for the enemy’s certain arrival. Having been handed a golden opportunity to exact revenge for Pearl Harbor, Willkie reacted quickly. He ordered the Secretary of the Navy to “get Yamamoto”. Knox subsequently passed the Presidential order down to Nimitz.
To avoid Japanese detection, a squadron of Lockheed P-38G Lightning fighters would fly west of the Marianas and intercept Yamamoto as he flew from Iwo Jima to Saipan. On April 18th (the one-year anniversary of the Doolittle Raid), the sixteen P-38Gs took off from the airbase on Palau and flew north under radio silence.
Right in-between Iwo Jima and Saipan, the P-38Gs located their target: two Mitsubishi G4M Betty medium bombers and six Mitsubishi A6M Zero escort fighters. After a short engagement, the two Betty bombers were shot down and slammed into the Pacific Ocean. The success of this mission raised morale in the United States while simultaneously shocking Japan. Indeed, the news that Yamamoto had been killed did not become official until May 21st, 1943. As for the fifty-nine-year-old Admiral, his body would never be recovered.
Isoroku Yamamoto (April 4th, 1884 - April 18th, 1943)
El Pip: *chuckles* Quite right, El Pip. Willkie doesn't get the idea that just because you are the President of the United States, you can't just do whatever you want. You have to appeal to people, even if you don't agree with them. As you pointed out, he alienated isolationists with his interventionist views, he alienated Southern Democrats with his equality views (which will no doubt delay the historical change in the South from Democratic to Republican majority), and he has now alienated other people by refusing to move against the Japanese-Americans.
Interestingly, President John Tyler got expelled from his own Whig Party for pretty much acting independently without following the Whig agenda. Willkie is also heading in that direction; of course, he has World War Two as a safety net. The 1944 election is going to be very interesting.
Enewald: I don't want them to beat the Soviets. I need the Soviets, even though they are Communists.
Estonianzulu: Hence, FDR winning a fourth term even though he was approaching death's door by late 1944. He had D-Day and Leyte Gulf to point to.
08/15/09: For my revision, I included the composition of the 78th Congress. Historically, the Republicans won fourty-seven seats in the House and nine seats in the Senate in 1942. For this AAR, I threw in an additional three seats in the House and two seats in the Senate for the G.O.P. Carr and Rankin were historical losers who became alternate history winners.
Faeelin: The Southern States did not start moving towards the Republican Party until the Democratic Party implemented Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s. As I mentioned earlier, as a result of Willkie's pro-civil rights stance, the Southern States may remain Democratic longer than they historically did out of anger. Willkie may not represent the views of the Republican Party, but right now he is the Republican President and he isn't making friends with Southern Democrats.
El Pip: That will play out in the 1944 Election.
Estonianzulu: Correct. The only Southern State Willkie won (in this AAR) in 1940 was Delaware. Of course, Delaware is a Republican-leaning state - having gone to Hoover in 1932 and Landon in 1936. As much as Willkie is annoying the Old South, he is also becoming quite popular with African-Americans and other pro-civil rights people. In turn, that is eating into the Democratic Party's base of support.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Casablanca Conference
The year 1943 would witness a series of high-level conferences which dictated the course of the war and laid down the foundation for the postwar world. The first meeting to take place that year was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco on January 14th. Meeting to plan European strategy were Willkie, Churchill, and Free French leaders Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud.
Among the issues dealt with during the ten-day conference was the future of France. The question of who truly represented Free France divided the four men into two camps. Willkie supported Giraud, a senior but obscure General who had nothing going for him other than the fact that he wasn’t de Gaulle.
Churchill, on the other hand, recognized de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French resistance. Tall and strong-willed, de Gaulle refused to treat Giraud as an equal. Although the President was sympathetic towards Free France, he greatly detested de Gaulle. In his eyes, de Gaulle was vain, brilliant, self-centered, unyielding, and difficult to work with. Privately, Willkie called him “an obsessed, arrogant bastard even more devoted to dying empires than Winston.”
De Gaulle was equally unimpressed with Willkie; indeed, de Gaulle hated him for unilaterally liberating Morocco from French control and for insisting that the former French colonies of Lebanon and Syria remain independent.
With the relationship between the two men as cold as ice, it is rather amazing that the conference didn’t fall apart. Swallowing the poison, Willkie reluctantly gave into Churchill’s insistence that the United States recognized de Gaulle. In addition to the France question, the Allied leaders agreed that the only peace term they would accept from the Axis was unconditional surrender. Perhaps the most important decision made in Casablanca was the elimination of the idea to invade Northern France via crossing the English Channel. Willkie agreed with Churchill that Italy was the “underbelly of Europe” and therefore wanted to solely focus on invading Europe by rolling up the Italian boot and then storming into Western Europe.
After the conference ended, Churchill went to the airport to see Willkie off. In a gesture of disdain, de Gaulle refused to attend the departure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
By April 1943
During the first few months of 1943, the Americans worked their way up the Italian peninsula. It was a slow affair; the Apennines forcing them to fight through mountainous terrain and unpredictable rivers. The Axis used the geography to their advantage, establishing a series of defensive lines in which to hamper the enemy’s advance.
Slowly, but surely, the Americans punched through each defensive line. By the middle of April, Eisenhower had broken through the Gustav Line (which ran across Italy near the ancient town of Cassino). He only now had to breach the fall-back Adolf Hitler Line to seize Routes 6 and 7 – the roads leading to the beautiful Italian capital of Rome.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, MacArthur’s forces captured Truk and swept through the rest of the Carolines. They then swung northward towards the Marianas. By securing the arc-shaped archipelago, the Japanese home islands would become vulnerable to Allied strategic bombers. The first island in the Marianas campaign was Guam.
The largest of the Marianas (thirty miles long by nine miles wide), Guam had been under Spanish control until the United States seized control of the island in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. The Japanese had taken the island away from the Americans, only to have it snatched away from them after a brief battle – strangely, one Japanese soldier would hold out in the jungle until January 1972. With Guam retaken, the Construction Battalions of the United States Navy – better known as the Seabees – began to transform the island into a giant airfield for strategic bombers while the Marines prepared to attack the island of Rota – located forty miles north-northeast of Guam.
During the Battle of Guam, the President received intelligence reports indicating that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto had scheduled an April inspection tour of Iwo Jima and Saipan. With the Americans fast approaching, Yamamoto wanted to see for himself how the major islands of Iwo Jima and Saipan were preparing themselves for the enemy’s certain arrival. Having been handed a golden opportunity to exact revenge for Pearl Harbor, Willkie reacted quickly. He ordered the Secretary of the Navy to “get Yamamoto”. Knox subsequently passed the Presidential order down to Nimitz.
To avoid Japanese detection, a squadron of Lockheed P-38G Lightning fighters would fly west of the Marianas and intercept Yamamoto as he flew from Iwo Jima to Saipan. On April 18th (the one-year anniversary of the Doolittle Raid), the sixteen P-38Gs took off from the airbase on Palau and flew north under radio silence.
Right in-between Iwo Jima and Saipan, the P-38Gs located their target: two Mitsubishi G4M Betty medium bombers and six Mitsubishi A6M Zero escort fighters. After a short engagement, the two Betty bombers were shot down and slammed into the Pacific Ocean. The success of this mission raised morale in the United States while simultaneously shocking Japan. Indeed, the news that Yamamoto had been killed did not become official until May 21st, 1943. As for the fifty-nine-year-old Admiral, his body would never be recovered.
Isoroku Yamamoto (April 4th, 1884 - April 18th, 1943)
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There goes a great man. But how are you going to liberate China?
And the germans are still winning in the east.
And the germans are still winning in the east.
Soon neither Wilkie nor De Gaulle would bother for Syria. At this pace, in six months the Germans would reach it from the Caucasus.
This just might follow the pattern of Great War, with a (hopefully temporary) German victory in the East.
Karelian said:
Probable. But I've seen two possible course the German AI tends to take when you invade through Italy or the Balkans. Either they ignore you until you reach austria, or if you're not fast enough strip troops from everywhere to block you.
Its going to be bad if the Germans get BP. Then a huge horde will descend on Italy...
they're still yet to take moscow or leningrad, though, and actually seem to be further away if my memory serves. the ai has done very well but they almost never manage to take moscow in my experience.