Iron Storm II - 1EyedJacks vs Goodboyladdie
Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 6:45 pm
Hi all,
This is an alternative history Mod by Alikchi. First I would like to share with you the history behind this mod.
[center]Story/Background[/center]
By Marc Jones and AltNaval, with some extras and piecing together by Alikchi.
Based off Marc Jones' story, "Points of Departure"
[center]1914: The Dutch Fleet[/center]
In 1914, the Netherlands were on the verge of ordering their first battleships. A force of nine ships was envisaged by 1920 and these were to be built in German and Dutch yards. However, Germany counter-offered to subsidize the cost of 3 battle cruisers and the extra cost of docking and repair facilities in the Netherlands East Indies. De Zeven Provincien, Wilem Warmont and Van Brakel would allow the Dutch to feel confident that they had an adequate and well-balanced force defending the NEI. Britain cried foul - Vickers had been hoping to meet the Dutch request themselves - and went so far as to claim that they were actually for Germany's home account. The Kaiser, often his own worst enemy in these situations, claimed in a bombastic speech that they indeed were intended for the High Seas Fleet as replacements for cruisers lost in the Pacific. Following the outbreak of war, the ships were seized and renamed; Stein, Ziethen and Graf Spee respectively. They were returned after the peace settlement when the Dutch were compliant with handing over the former Kaiser to Allied authorities.
[center]1922: The Washington Treaty[/center]
The British, American, Japanese, Italian, and French delegations to the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armament each had their own separate, and sometimes conflicting, goals. The Japanese wanted as close to parity with the British and Americans as possible - anything less, and they would lose face. The American delegation (led by Charles Evans Hughes) wanted to end the naval race. The French want more ships than the Italians; the Italians want at least as many ships as the French. The British delegation (led by Sir David Beatty) wanted naval security for the duration of the treaty - and in particular, to complete their recently started G3-class "battlecruisers".
Eventually (after much haggling) a compromise agreement was signed, separated from but within the Washington Treaty document itself. This was the existing Washington Treaty with a new deal on top of it, a 'battlecruiser deal' allowing the British three G3s (now officially named the Invincible class), the United States three of their new Lexington ("Constellation-class") battlecruisers, and the Japanese two Amagi-class battlecruisers. The Admiralty felt that it had "won". Constellation is a tinclad toy compared to Invincible, so great is its inferiority in combat power. The Japanese Amagis are another story, but the 3:3:2 ratio was preserved, and overall, the treaty was a victory for the Empire.
The Washington Treaty also provided for each major Commonwealth nation (other than minors, i.e. South Africa) to have one capital ship as flagship. Japan protested this stipulation strongly at first, but relented when it was revealed exactly what capital ships they would be. Canada was to receive HMCS (ex-HMS) Canada, a relatively old dreadnaught that the Canadians could not afford to keep in active service anyways. After a few years serving as a training vessel, her boilers were wrecked and the Canadian government declared her a memorial vessel. She would not move on her own power again until November 1938.
Australia, as mentioned, did not permit the UK to represent their interests in the Washington Treaty, but could not afford to build a new capital ship anyways. Instead, the old Indefatigable-class battlecruiser HMAS Australia was scrapped, and HMS Tiger was acquired from the RN, assuming the previous flagship's name and position. Tiger was sold only a few months before the treaty - and its prohibitions on selling warships secondhand - came into effect. This was roundly denounced as "a breach of the spirit of the treaty" by opponents to the transfer in both Britain and Australia, and it certainly was one. However, the ambiguity of the treaty clause on ship sales (and Australia's connection to Britain as defined by the treaty) meant that no action was taken. Her crew nicknamed her "HMAS Unscrappable" - the issue of her existence was brought up in Parliament and blocked or deferred more than half a dozen times.
New Zealand had a strong economy, but a small one - certainly not large enough to support a new ship, built or purchased. HMS New Zealand, an Indefatigable-class battlecruiser and sister ship of the original Australia, would have to do. Symbolically transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy, New Zealand still had most of her operating expenses paid for by the RN. Laid up in the early thirties, she returned to the UK in 1937 for a major refit, installing new machinery, new 4.5" DP secondary weapons, floatplane equipment, and minor structural modifications. Too lightly armoured and constructed to engage capital ships, the Admiralty saw her as a perfect trade protection vessel and a cheap counter to the new German pocket-battleships.
[center]1930: Shimizu Arrives [/center]
The year is 1930, and Admiral Kenichi Shimizu has reached the pinnacle of his career as the Japanese Navy Minister. A friend of Yamamoto's and staunchly anti-war, he is nevertheless a strong proponent of naval aviation and intelligent project management. As Navy Minister he has direct control over ship design. He can influence fleet doctrine but it won't change overnight. However, as he has brought along the careers of like-minded officers, his influence reigns for for the next 15 years.
To help Shimizu out, he has had intelligence "acquire" a copy of the USN 1925 Plan Orange. It outlines a four part war including a crushing close blockade to starve his country into submission. The USN expects "Orange" to make the first move and that the US will plan a war to the limit of American domestic resolve, expected to be about two to three years. The political reality will be for the USN to surge forward in a bold initiative and secure the Philippines and the US army based there. From there they intend to advance stepwise up the chain of islands to Japan, establish bases and then shut down Japan's trade just as they did with the Confederate States in their Civil War.
Analysis of the plan showed that the USN would be strong and could double the size of her fleet in 2-3 years, but the lines of communication would be vulnerable. Shimizu wrote: "The Americans fear raiders. Attrition forces will be the key, not the battleline." He sets out to build a Navy based upon this observation.
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[Note: The lead-up to war and the war itself in Europe happens as historical until December 1940. The only other change from our timeline between 1930 and 1940 (other than the IJN's changes under Shimizu) is a slightly earlier American naval build-up, in response to the IJN's larger size than IRL and Japanese political provocations. Also, HMNZS New Zealand is available to participate in the Battle of the River Plate, sinking Graf Spee long before she can run to Montevideo.]
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[center]1940: O'Connor's Raid[/center]
December 1940. British forces in Egypt start their "five-day raid" against the Italians. To their astonishment the raid becomes a major offensive that extends into Cyrenicea, destroying most of the Italian 10th Army. Despite the massive diplomatic pressure that Churchill is bringing to bear, Metaxas, who has just recovered from a major illness*, and whose health is very fragile, refuses to bring Greece into the war, for fear of a German attack. Instead he accepts as much war material as possible for a major offensive against the Italians in Albania. As a result the Western Desert Force is not weakened, and O’Connor, having destroyed the remains of the Italian 10th Army at Beda Fomm on January 30th, bounces El Aghelia on February 1st 1941, heading straight west for Tripoli.
Rommel arrives on February 15, a week ahead of elements of the 15th Panzer division. To his horror he discovers Tripoli in complete chaos, with scanty defences and Italian morale lower than their bootstraps. The British commander, O’Connor, is scraping up every unit he can get his hands on to beat the Germans to Tripoli, having been warned about this by ULTRA decrypts. Every Matilda that can run and every gun that can be fired is being loaded up and shipped west after some Herculean efforts on the part of British & Australian engineers. Rommel in the meantime is trying to organise the defence of Tripoli, but is failing to get much in the way of Italian co-operation. An effort on the part of Graziani to defend the Buerat position fails after O’Connor outflanks it with the Australian 4th Division & then rolls up the flanks. With another 18,000 Italian prisoners heading east, the defences of Tripoli are looking very ragged, especially as LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) forces are already in the area & are scouting it out.
By February 20, Rommel has assembled about a brigade’s worth of troops, equipped with 30 Mark 3 Panzers. He has a few Pak 37 anti-tank guns, but his only 88mm guns are still in ships unloading their cargo in Tripoli harbour. The rest of his forces are still on their way. O’Connor has now assembled the British 7th Armoured, 4th Australian, 6th Australian and 4th Indian divisions. The growing Desert Air Force (DAF) backs him up and the guns of the Mediterranean fleet led by Admiral Cunningham. O’Connor plans to bounce the defences of Tripoli and smash Rommel’s forces whilst they are still assembling.
He succeeds. O'Connor attacks on February 22, 1941. Although the Italian artillery fights well, the Italian infantry rapidly crumbles. A counterattack by M113 tanks is crushed by British antitank fire. Faced with a collapsing southern flank, Rommel throws his panzers in - straight into the arms of B and C squadrons of the 2nd battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment and 3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns ordered by O'Connor to depress and fire upon the panzers. The Germans slam into the Matildas but take heavy losses from both them and the AA guns. Reduced to 7 Panzers, Rommel desperately attempts to disengage and retreat north, chased by the remaining 10 Matildas. Unfortunately there is no respite as the Australian 4th and Indian 4th divisions push through the Italian lines, coming within sight of the harbour of Tripoli.
A demoralized Graziani, faced with a collapsing perimeter, orders all forces to surrender. Chaos swiftly erupts as the Italians surrender but the Germans fight on. Fighting lasts intermittently until 6pm, following the failure of a last attack by Rommel to punch a hole in the tightening British grip on Tripoli. Reduced to 2 panzers and a handful of weary men, Rommel is eventually forced to bow to the inevitable and surrenders to a rather surprised young Australian subaltern.
“As I was standing there, a tattered figure staggered up to me and saluted. Then he said with a wry grin that he wished to surrender. I asked who he was. He replied: “I am the poor German bastard in charge of this shambles. My men are too damned tired to fight any more. Can you please take care of them? We have a lot of wounded.” About half an hour later I escorted this courteous fritz to the new HQ to the south of the city. O’Connor – short, dapper, tough as nails – was standing outside. He looked at me, flicked an eyebrow at the fritz and said: “Who are you, then?” The fritz snapped off a sizzling salute. “Major-General of panzer troops Erwin Rommel,” he said, “Former commander of German troops in North Africa.” The two men just looked at each other, the air almost crackling between them. Then O’Connor grinned and saluted back. “I read about your campaign in France, General.” Rommel replied: “Yes, and you seem to have matched it here. A British Blitzkrieg, general.” Godfrey Sullivan, The New Anzacs, p59, 1950.
[center]More Action in the Med[/center]
The fall of Tripoli was a disaster for the Italians, who had now lost the whole of their North African Empire. Their holdings in East Africa were now also under threat from an offensive by General Alan Cunningham, who was advancing into Abyssinia from multiple directions. However although weakened, Mussolini’s position was not threatened. Furious, he demands new offensives in Albania against the Greeks and in the Mediterranean against the British fleet.
The destruction of Italian North Africa has another effect. The French North African Empire watches the Italian humiliation with great glee. Their forces are still quite strong, and they have useful contacts with both the Free French and the British. The British recovery has shown that the war was by no means over. Serious thought is given to the chances of re-entering the war, especially as Laval has gathered most of the reins of power and is effectively running Vichy France, sidelining a humiliated Petain. The French commander in chief in North Africa, General Weygand, has always had political ambitions. Now he starts to reconsider his view that Germany would win the war.
[center]The Far East[/center]
Moreover the capture of North Africa and the continuing campaign against Italian East Africa means that large forces can be moved to reinforce the Far East, where the Japanese are becoming restive. Lt.-General Percival, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff’s choice for the post of commander of the Malayan garrison is desperately ill in a Singapore military hospital with malaria. Churchill reviews the candidates for Percival’s replacement. He picks Maj.-General Bill Slim, who is quickly promoted to Lt.-Gen and sent off to his new position.*
"Slim, or Uncle Bill as he was known, was a revelation. He blew into the post like a gust of wind, and set up training exercise after training exercise in the jungles and mountains of Malaya. One brigadier complained at the Japs would of course stick to the roads and could be stopped with roadblocks so all this new jungle training was rubbish. He was called in and got a roasting that scared the shit out of him. When he made the mistake of complaining again he ended up on a very slow boat to Port Stanley. And then the floodgates opened and Winnie sent us lots of nice presents, like Matildas by the score and guns by the tonne. The RAF in Malaya before was a joke. When it switched over in Malaya from Brewster Buffalos to Spits and Hurribombers, no one was laughing any more. Especially not brother Jap, who got more and more worried as he looked south." Robert Harris, The Gates Of Singapore Are Barred, pp136.
More and more troops are now available for the garrison of Malaya, with the arrival of British, Australian and New Zealander units. Slim had taken a cool look at the defences of Malaya and Singapore. He starts to refortify. Singapore is to be the last stand position, should Malaya fall. However Malaya itself has some good positions. Slim starts to fortify in the Penang - Alor Setar area. Previously this had been thought too far with the forces available. Now that he has the men, Slim makes a start. He also starts to train his men in the arts of jungle fighting. The arrival of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, the brilliant New Zealander who played a big part in winning the Battle of Britain, is a big boost as AOC Malaya. Park appeals to London for more planes, more AA guns and more facilities. He gets them, as Spitfires, Hurricanes and Wellingtons start to arrive.
The Japanese have not been idle. From their new bases in French Indochina they can exact a strong influence over the entire area. However, the reinforcement of Malaya worries them deeply. Promises of territory combined with outright bullying of Thailand's leaders have allowed them to essentially occupy that country. The Allies can only stand by helplessly as Imperial Army troops march in to "protect" Thailand from "outside aggression", the Thai army only providing sporadic resistance. The Army Air Force begins flying in aircraft and establishing suitable airfields around the country, and Yamashita's 25th Army sets up camp in Singora, on the very border of Malaya. Britain and the US protest strongly but are simply not prepared or ready to do any more than that. The Japanese position in Southeast Asia strengthens daily, matching that of the British.
[center]Balkan Entanglements [/center]
Meanwhile in Greece, the Greek Army is almost ready for its spring offensive against the Italians. Large amounts of munitions have been bought from Britain, including a force of 50 Matilda tanks. It is a small number, but they are considerably better than the L10 tanks that the Italians have deployed. The Greeks confidence is high. They have weathered the winter well, and outthought and outfought the Italians, whose men were at the end of their tether.
On April 2, 1941 the Greek offensive opened with a massive bombardment of the Italian lines south of Qukes. With a huge hole blown in the Italian Lines, the Greeks punch through with their tanks, crushing an attempted counter attack by L10s. The Greeks push on, driving the Italians before then and bouncing the Qukes-Elbasan mountain pass to descend on the rear of the Italian army. By now panic is enveloping the Italian commanders in Albania, as they try to stop the torrent of Greeks from cutting their army in two. They fail. On April 10 the Greeks reach the Adriatic at the town of Kavaje, With few useable harbours for supplies the cut off section of the Italian army surrenders three days later. The day after that General Botazzi, commander of the Italian Army of Albania, asks for an immediate armistice. Despite orders from a furious Mussolini to stand and fight (Botazzi’s reply of "Tell the Duce that he should stand and fight here himself, instead of ranting in Rome. We asked for guns and he gave us paperwork," causes a great deal of eyebrow raising) Italian forces capitulate on April 16th 1941.
In an extremely smart move Metaxas follows up by asking Hitler to negotiate a peace between Greece and Italy. Hitler does not want to humiliate Mussolini, but he does want peace in this area, in order to prevent the British from intervening.
Howver Mussolini is now in severe political trouble, because April 16th started what was to be become known in Italy as ‘The Week of Woe.’
[center]The Battle of Paxoi[/center]
By the middle of April, the British had smashed the Italian army of Abyssinia to pieces. On April 18, the Duke of Aosta, CinC Abyssinia, surrenders after the battle of Addis Ababa, which had seen Cunningham join forces with General Platt, who had advanced out of the Sudan, and then comprehensively defeated the Italian army. Aghast at the loss of the last part of his African Empire and fully aware of the mutterings against him that were filling the political circles of Rome’s high society, Mussolini realised that he needed a high profile success to tide him over. On hearing that a Greek convoy was due to sail from Corfu to Cephalonia on the 22nd, he orders the Italian battle fleet to sail and destroy it.
His orders are greeted with consternation by the Italian naval command, which had lost heart since their defeat at the battle of Cape Matapan the previous year. Faced with a firing squad, Admiral Campioni orders the fleet to get ready to put to sea. Campioni can summon up the battleships Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, and a patched up Guilio Cesare, as well as 6 cruisers and 14 destroyers.
As the orders went out to get to sea, eager British ears were listening in. Admiral Cunningham, the elder brother of General Cunningham, is now based in Tripoli with the Mediterranean Fleet and is champing at the bit to finish off what he had started at Cape Matapan. He can call on the battleships Warspite, Malaya, Barham, Valiant and Canada, as well as the aircraft carriers Formidable, Illustrious and finally Ark Royal. Cunningham also has 6 cruisers and 18 destroyers.
By 2am on the 22nd, Campioni is feeling his way in the dark towards Corfu, when suddenly three star shells exploded above his battle line. Seconds later huge plumes of water are erupting on every side of his flagship Littorio. Cunningham has arrived.
Cunningham had made his approach as stealthy as possible, tracking his prey by radar. By now all of his major warships are equipped with this, and he was able to gain an excellent idea of the position of the enemy and crossed their T. The British ships are also highly trained at night engagements, while their Italian opponents are not to the same degree. Finally, at a range of 8 miles the big battleships swung their turrets around, tracking their prey, before opening fire.
The second salvo from all five British battleships slam into Littorio and reduce her to a wreck in seconds, Campioni being killed outright in the blast. The Italian battle line is forced to swing to either side of the blazing battleship to avoid it, enabling the British to get a better glimpse of their spread. By now Warspite is engaging Vittorio Veneto, Barham and Malaya are taking on the Guilio Cesare, while Valiant and Canada engage the Italian cruisers.
Guilio Cesare lasts ten minutes before it succumbs crushed by the 15 inch shells that obliterated its upper works. It sinks at 3.40am, 10 minutes before the Littorio. Vittorio Veneto, targeted by all five British battleships, blows up at 3.56am after a shell from Barham penetrated its forward magazine and rips it in half. Of the rest of the Italian fleet, 2 destroyers and a cruiser survive, limping back to Taranto the next morning. Cunningham’s fleet is cheered into Tripoli, having suffered a total of 235 casualties. Italian losses have never been determined exactly.
The battle of Paxoi (the nearest landfall) seals Mussolini’s fate. Most of the Italian fleet has been wiped off the face of the earth, and Italy’s African Empire has been lost, along with a total of almost half a million men. The Vichy French Navy sees what the Royal Navy has done to their old nemesis, the Regia Marina, and certain loyalties begin to waver. The heavy cruiser Algerie and more than half a dozen destroyers slip out of Toulon on the night of April 23rd, defecting to the Allies.
On April 24th the Fascist Grand Council meet. Mussolini is quietly invited to retire, leaving under armed guard for an unknown destination. The King of Italy invites Marshal Azzani to become Prime Minister. On top of his agenda is an immediate appeal to Britain and Free France for an armistice.
[center]Rheinübung[/center]
In the meantime the fight against the British and their gathering allies must go on. On May 1, 1941, Bismarck sorties from the Baltic, in an attempt to wreak havoc in the Atlantic. Admiral Lutjens would have preferred to wait another two weeks until the cruiser Prinz Eugen is also ready, but Admiral Raeder, his CinC, orders him to go anyway. The Fuhrer is impatient for some action.
Bismarck is spotted in the Kattegut on May 2 by an alert Danish agent, who radios a warning to London. He is backed up by a Norwegian agent a few hours later when Bismarck passed Bergen. The Home Fleet mobilises at once. There are three possible avenues of entry to the Atlantic – the Denmark Strait, the Iceland-Faeroes gap and the Faeroes-Shetland gap. The CinC of the Home Fleet, Admiral Tovey, is faced with some hard decisions. He decides to send HMS Incomparable and Renown to the first, Prince of Wales and Repulse to the second, and HMS Hood and King George V to the last. After some additional thought he adds the carrier HMS Victorious to the Denmark Strait group, commanded by Vice-Admiral Holland.
At dawn on May 5 the cruiser Norfolk glimpses a strange shape in the fog in at the northern end of the Denmark Strait. She investigates, spots Bismarck, and ducks back into the fog, her radio screaming a sighting report at full blast. Holland takes a good long look at the situation. Incomparable, an Invincible-class battlecruiser, has poor stern arcs, so he must attempt to make the full use of her powerful forward 16-inch guns. He decides to alter course so that his force meets Bismarck at dawn the next day, crossing the German T.
At 4.30am on May 6 the British ships pick up Bismarck on their radar. They are hidden in the western horizon, while Bismarck is lit by the eastern pre-dawn light. Furthermore thanks to bad operational instructions about the use of radar, Bismarck has her own radar shut down to prevent detection. At 4.35am the two British battlecruisers fire broadsides at Bismarck, straddling her at once. The second broadside from Incomparable smashes into the direction layer machinery on Bismarck’s forward section. She is now effectively blind and is trying to close the gap in order to open up her stern arcs of fire. Incomparable and Renown start to pound Bismarck mercilessly with 16-inch and 15-inch shells, destroying her forward superstructure and killing Lutjens and Captain Lindemann. Although she manages to open up her stern arcs, she is pounded to pieces, with a fatal hit on Dora turret from the delighted crew of Norfolk, supported by HMS Suffolk which arrives rather late.
The coup de grace is delivered by Victorious as the raw but eager crews of her Swordfish sink five torpedoes into her starboard side. Bismarck sinks at 7am, although many survivors of her crew insist that she was scuttled.
[center]Barbarossa and the End in the Med[/center]
Hitler shrugs off his naval losses. He has already declared his resolve to attack Russia. British and American intelligence both supply Stalin with more than enough evidence of the Wehrmacht’s plans, but he ignores them. Hitler, he thinks, will not attack, as he has too much to lose from the attempt. This is a serious mistake.
The German attack falls upon the surprised Soviet forces on schedule in the pre-dawn darkness of Sunday June 22, 1941. Within three days the first Soviet operational echelon has been slashed to pieces and the panzers are thundering eastward.
By the end of the first month, morale is high in the German camp. The best of the Soviet forces have been annihilated on the frontier, the Germans have taken most of the Baltic States and Belorussia and are starting to press deep into the Ukraine. Stalin starts to move more and more men into the Kiev bulge in order to hold the city and try to outflank the Germans.
Hitler also has his eyes on Kiev and, to the dismay of his generals, orders that the Kiev salient be pinched off. Much to his disgust, Guderian, the tank genius who crushed the French, rumbles south instead of east.
In the middle of this mass of plans, the news from Rome comes as a dreadful shock. On August 17, 1941 Italy signs an armistice with Britain and the Free French. The status of the Italian Empire – as was – is put on hold, Italy agrees to cease all offensive actions and German forces are invited to return home. As soon as possible. Now.
Hitler is annoyed but not totally surprised – he had no faith in an Italian government that did not contain Mussolini. He diverts another two divisions from France to fortify the Alpine passes and continues to focus on the Russian Front.
The Allies are delighted – the Mediterranean is open again. The siege of Malta is lifted and the Italian fleet is no longer a threat. Churchill immediately decides to send more forces to the Far East. Warspite and Malaya, along with Formidable, Eagle and Canada, pass through the Suez Canal heading for Singapore. The new Far Eastern fleet is commanded by Cunningham, with Admiral Harwood taking over in the Med, in charge of a joint British-Free French fleet, the core of which is composed mainly of the older Revenge-class BBs. By November, with signs of Japanese aggression looming, further reinforcements are dispatched: Prince of Wales, Rodney and Repulse, along with Ark Royal. Repulse is to be paired with the battlecruiser HMAS Australia (ex-HMS Tiger). Canada and Eagle operate in trade protection duties, based from Columbo. The four other battleships, 2 battlecruisers and 3 carriers (including Hermes) form the core of Force Z, based at Singapore.
There is another effect from the Italian armistice. A pro-British Italian naval officer, no longer shackled by his allegiance to his former allies, has a quiet word in the ear of the returning British ambassador. He mentions that the German B-Dienst intelligence group seems to be having some success in decoding the main Royal Naval convoy code... The code is changed at once to a machine-based version that B-Dienst, despite their best efforts, cannot break. Suddenly the German U-boat arm is blind.
[center]Japan, the Far East, and the Beginning of the War in the Pacific[/center]
On October 12th, Prince Konoye confers with General Tojo, War Minister, Admiral Oikawa, Navy Minister and Admiral Toyoda the foreign Minister. Toyoda tells Tojo the blunt truth - that there is no hope of a diplomatic settlement with America unless Japan yields her position in China. Shocked, Tojo answers that this is impossible. Prince Konoye argues that it could be possible to leave the situation as it is, with broken economic relations but short of war. Again, War Minister Tojo replies that such a solution would be plainly unacceptable as the Japanese economy would be slowed down to a level preventing even just implementing the current armament program. Crude oil inventories have dwindled at an alarming rate since the beginning of 1941, from 20,000,000 barrels on April 1st to 15,000,000 on September 30th. The meeting breaks up without a decision. Only a few days later, Konoye resigns in disgrace and Tojo takes his position as Prime Minister.
Admiral Shimada, the Minister of the Navy, tries to postpone any decisive move by arguing that the Imperial Japanese Navy could not be in a position to execute distant offensive operations in the current situation of oil inventories. Tojo reacts by according the Navy the largest share of the national oil reserves. The "civilian" government continues its slide towards war. The Navy and Army are already making war plans.
Japan must have access to the raw materials that abound in the Dutch East Indies, most importantly the oil. But the risk is growing. Admiral Yamamoto takes a hard look at the situation. The British Far Eastern fleet now assembling in Singapore is a threat. However the US fleet at Pearl Harbor is the bigger threat – it is larger and will probably threaten Truk or the Marianas in the event of war. In addition, the Japanese occupation of Thailand (since June, "to prevent further fighting and keep peace after the French-Thai Provisional Agreement") has essentially returned the strategic balance to what it was before the British reinforcement. Vice-Admiral Ozawa's Kido Butai - Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Kairyu, Koryu, and Unryu - is still slated for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The IJN Main Force - the battle line - has moved to Cam Ranh Bay, under the aegis of Kondo's 2nd Fleet. Force Z must be destroyed in order to secure the waters around the strategic target areas in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. The IJN cannot fight with just a few BatDivs; it has to to fight a fleet action. Such a fleet action is necessary for the success of the Japanese Grand Strategy. There is no alternative. Hiei, Kirishima, Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise, Hyuga, Nagato, Mutsu, Amagi, and Atago swing at anchor in Cam Ranh Bay, supported by Soryu, Donryu, and two CVLs. The battlefleet is under the direct control of Nagumo, while the four supporting carriers are to be led by Vice-Admiral Yamaguchi.
Training is intensifying on board the ships of the Far Eastern fleet. Cunningham has seen the strength of the airplane during his time in the Mediterranean. His aircraft carriers carry fewer planes then the Japanese carriers, but are better armored. However he has struck up an excellent relationship with AOC Malaya Park and knows that as long as he stays inside range of land-based aircraft, he will have good cover.
By the middle of November the Axis is sinking into the mud, or rather the snow. The onset of the Russian winter is starting to cripple German forces in the east as they pound on the defences of Moscow. Italy is out of the war and is running out of places to hide Mussolini. And Japan is running out of oil and is champing at the bit to start a war that Yamamoto knows it cannot win.
Having won his battle against the Japanese chiefs of staff, Yamamoto reluctantly starts to get things in gear. On schedule the First Air Fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Ozawa leaves harbor. It heads eastward.
Final Note
I'd like to thank Marc Jones and AltNaval for allowing me permission to use their materials here, and David Chessum and Mark Bailey for help on the WT.
To view the entire alternative history I am supplying the link here: http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~tgh4635/manual/
This is an alternative history Mod by Alikchi. First I would like to share with you the history behind this mod.
[center]Story/Background[/center]
By Marc Jones and AltNaval, with some extras and piecing together by Alikchi.
Based off Marc Jones' story, "Points of Departure"
[center]1914: The Dutch Fleet[/center]
In 1914, the Netherlands were on the verge of ordering their first battleships. A force of nine ships was envisaged by 1920 and these were to be built in German and Dutch yards. However, Germany counter-offered to subsidize the cost of 3 battle cruisers and the extra cost of docking and repair facilities in the Netherlands East Indies. De Zeven Provincien, Wilem Warmont and Van Brakel would allow the Dutch to feel confident that they had an adequate and well-balanced force defending the NEI. Britain cried foul - Vickers had been hoping to meet the Dutch request themselves - and went so far as to claim that they were actually for Germany's home account. The Kaiser, often his own worst enemy in these situations, claimed in a bombastic speech that they indeed were intended for the High Seas Fleet as replacements for cruisers lost in the Pacific. Following the outbreak of war, the ships were seized and renamed; Stein, Ziethen and Graf Spee respectively. They were returned after the peace settlement when the Dutch were compliant with handing over the former Kaiser to Allied authorities.
[center]1922: The Washington Treaty[/center]
The British, American, Japanese, Italian, and French delegations to the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armament each had their own separate, and sometimes conflicting, goals. The Japanese wanted as close to parity with the British and Americans as possible - anything less, and they would lose face. The American delegation (led by Charles Evans Hughes) wanted to end the naval race. The French want more ships than the Italians; the Italians want at least as many ships as the French. The British delegation (led by Sir David Beatty) wanted naval security for the duration of the treaty - and in particular, to complete their recently started G3-class "battlecruisers".
Eventually (after much haggling) a compromise agreement was signed, separated from but within the Washington Treaty document itself. This was the existing Washington Treaty with a new deal on top of it, a 'battlecruiser deal' allowing the British three G3s (now officially named the Invincible class), the United States three of their new Lexington ("Constellation-class") battlecruisers, and the Japanese two Amagi-class battlecruisers. The Admiralty felt that it had "won". Constellation is a tinclad toy compared to Invincible, so great is its inferiority in combat power. The Japanese Amagis are another story, but the 3:3:2 ratio was preserved, and overall, the treaty was a victory for the Empire.
The Washington Treaty also provided for each major Commonwealth nation (other than minors, i.e. South Africa) to have one capital ship as flagship. Japan protested this stipulation strongly at first, but relented when it was revealed exactly what capital ships they would be. Canada was to receive HMCS (ex-HMS) Canada, a relatively old dreadnaught that the Canadians could not afford to keep in active service anyways. After a few years serving as a training vessel, her boilers were wrecked and the Canadian government declared her a memorial vessel. She would not move on her own power again until November 1938.
Australia, as mentioned, did not permit the UK to represent their interests in the Washington Treaty, but could not afford to build a new capital ship anyways. Instead, the old Indefatigable-class battlecruiser HMAS Australia was scrapped, and HMS Tiger was acquired from the RN, assuming the previous flagship's name and position. Tiger was sold only a few months before the treaty - and its prohibitions on selling warships secondhand - came into effect. This was roundly denounced as "a breach of the spirit of the treaty" by opponents to the transfer in both Britain and Australia, and it certainly was one. However, the ambiguity of the treaty clause on ship sales (and Australia's connection to Britain as defined by the treaty) meant that no action was taken. Her crew nicknamed her "HMAS Unscrappable" - the issue of her existence was brought up in Parliament and blocked or deferred more than half a dozen times.
New Zealand had a strong economy, but a small one - certainly not large enough to support a new ship, built or purchased. HMS New Zealand, an Indefatigable-class battlecruiser and sister ship of the original Australia, would have to do. Symbolically transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy, New Zealand still had most of her operating expenses paid for by the RN. Laid up in the early thirties, she returned to the UK in 1937 for a major refit, installing new machinery, new 4.5" DP secondary weapons, floatplane equipment, and minor structural modifications. Too lightly armoured and constructed to engage capital ships, the Admiralty saw her as a perfect trade protection vessel and a cheap counter to the new German pocket-battleships.
[center]1930: Shimizu Arrives [/center]
The year is 1930, and Admiral Kenichi Shimizu has reached the pinnacle of his career as the Japanese Navy Minister. A friend of Yamamoto's and staunchly anti-war, he is nevertheless a strong proponent of naval aviation and intelligent project management. As Navy Minister he has direct control over ship design. He can influence fleet doctrine but it won't change overnight. However, as he has brought along the careers of like-minded officers, his influence reigns for for the next 15 years.
To help Shimizu out, he has had intelligence "acquire" a copy of the USN 1925 Plan Orange. It outlines a four part war including a crushing close blockade to starve his country into submission. The USN expects "Orange" to make the first move and that the US will plan a war to the limit of American domestic resolve, expected to be about two to three years. The political reality will be for the USN to surge forward in a bold initiative and secure the Philippines and the US army based there. From there they intend to advance stepwise up the chain of islands to Japan, establish bases and then shut down Japan's trade just as they did with the Confederate States in their Civil War.
Analysis of the plan showed that the USN would be strong and could double the size of her fleet in 2-3 years, but the lines of communication would be vulnerable. Shimizu wrote: "The Americans fear raiders. Attrition forces will be the key, not the battleline." He sets out to build a Navy based upon this observation.
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[Note: The lead-up to war and the war itself in Europe happens as historical until December 1940. The only other change from our timeline between 1930 and 1940 (other than the IJN's changes under Shimizu) is a slightly earlier American naval build-up, in response to the IJN's larger size than IRL and Japanese political provocations. Also, HMNZS New Zealand is available to participate in the Battle of the River Plate, sinking Graf Spee long before she can run to Montevideo.]
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[center]1940: O'Connor's Raid[/center]
December 1940. British forces in Egypt start their "five-day raid" against the Italians. To their astonishment the raid becomes a major offensive that extends into Cyrenicea, destroying most of the Italian 10th Army. Despite the massive diplomatic pressure that Churchill is bringing to bear, Metaxas, who has just recovered from a major illness*, and whose health is very fragile, refuses to bring Greece into the war, for fear of a German attack. Instead he accepts as much war material as possible for a major offensive against the Italians in Albania. As a result the Western Desert Force is not weakened, and O’Connor, having destroyed the remains of the Italian 10th Army at Beda Fomm on January 30th, bounces El Aghelia on February 1st 1941, heading straight west for Tripoli.
Rommel arrives on February 15, a week ahead of elements of the 15th Panzer division. To his horror he discovers Tripoli in complete chaos, with scanty defences and Italian morale lower than their bootstraps. The British commander, O’Connor, is scraping up every unit he can get his hands on to beat the Germans to Tripoli, having been warned about this by ULTRA decrypts. Every Matilda that can run and every gun that can be fired is being loaded up and shipped west after some Herculean efforts on the part of British & Australian engineers. Rommel in the meantime is trying to organise the defence of Tripoli, but is failing to get much in the way of Italian co-operation. An effort on the part of Graziani to defend the Buerat position fails after O’Connor outflanks it with the Australian 4th Division & then rolls up the flanks. With another 18,000 Italian prisoners heading east, the defences of Tripoli are looking very ragged, especially as LRDG (Long Range Desert Group) forces are already in the area & are scouting it out.
By February 20, Rommel has assembled about a brigade’s worth of troops, equipped with 30 Mark 3 Panzers. He has a few Pak 37 anti-tank guns, but his only 88mm guns are still in ships unloading their cargo in Tripoli harbour. The rest of his forces are still on their way. O’Connor has now assembled the British 7th Armoured, 4th Australian, 6th Australian and 4th Indian divisions. The growing Desert Air Force (DAF) backs him up and the guns of the Mediterranean fleet led by Admiral Cunningham. O’Connor plans to bounce the defences of Tripoli and smash Rommel’s forces whilst they are still assembling.
He succeeds. O'Connor attacks on February 22, 1941. Although the Italian artillery fights well, the Italian infantry rapidly crumbles. A counterattack by M113 tanks is crushed by British antitank fire. Faced with a collapsing southern flank, Rommel throws his panzers in - straight into the arms of B and C squadrons of the 2nd battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment and 3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns ordered by O'Connor to depress and fire upon the panzers. The Germans slam into the Matildas but take heavy losses from both them and the AA guns. Reduced to 7 Panzers, Rommel desperately attempts to disengage and retreat north, chased by the remaining 10 Matildas. Unfortunately there is no respite as the Australian 4th and Indian 4th divisions push through the Italian lines, coming within sight of the harbour of Tripoli.
A demoralized Graziani, faced with a collapsing perimeter, orders all forces to surrender. Chaos swiftly erupts as the Italians surrender but the Germans fight on. Fighting lasts intermittently until 6pm, following the failure of a last attack by Rommel to punch a hole in the tightening British grip on Tripoli. Reduced to 2 panzers and a handful of weary men, Rommel is eventually forced to bow to the inevitable and surrenders to a rather surprised young Australian subaltern.
“As I was standing there, a tattered figure staggered up to me and saluted. Then he said with a wry grin that he wished to surrender. I asked who he was. He replied: “I am the poor German bastard in charge of this shambles. My men are too damned tired to fight any more. Can you please take care of them? We have a lot of wounded.” About half an hour later I escorted this courteous fritz to the new HQ to the south of the city. O’Connor – short, dapper, tough as nails – was standing outside. He looked at me, flicked an eyebrow at the fritz and said: “Who are you, then?” The fritz snapped off a sizzling salute. “Major-General of panzer troops Erwin Rommel,” he said, “Former commander of German troops in North Africa.” The two men just looked at each other, the air almost crackling between them. Then O’Connor grinned and saluted back. “I read about your campaign in France, General.” Rommel replied: “Yes, and you seem to have matched it here. A British Blitzkrieg, general.” Godfrey Sullivan, The New Anzacs, p59, 1950.
[center]More Action in the Med[/center]
The fall of Tripoli was a disaster for the Italians, who had now lost the whole of their North African Empire. Their holdings in East Africa were now also under threat from an offensive by General Alan Cunningham, who was advancing into Abyssinia from multiple directions. However although weakened, Mussolini’s position was not threatened. Furious, he demands new offensives in Albania against the Greeks and in the Mediterranean against the British fleet.
The destruction of Italian North Africa has another effect. The French North African Empire watches the Italian humiliation with great glee. Their forces are still quite strong, and they have useful contacts with both the Free French and the British. The British recovery has shown that the war was by no means over. Serious thought is given to the chances of re-entering the war, especially as Laval has gathered most of the reins of power and is effectively running Vichy France, sidelining a humiliated Petain. The French commander in chief in North Africa, General Weygand, has always had political ambitions. Now he starts to reconsider his view that Germany would win the war.
[center]The Far East[/center]
Moreover the capture of North Africa and the continuing campaign against Italian East Africa means that large forces can be moved to reinforce the Far East, where the Japanese are becoming restive. Lt.-General Percival, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff’s choice for the post of commander of the Malayan garrison is desperately ill in a Singapore military hospital with malaria. Churchill reviews the candidates for Percival’s replacement. He picks Maj.-General Bill Slim, who is quickly promoted to Lt.-Gen and sent off to his new position.*
"Slim, or Uncle Bill as he was known, was a revelation. He blew into the post like a gust of wind, and set up training exercise after training exercise in the jungles and mountains of Malaya. One brigadier complained at the Japs would of course stick to the roads and could be stopped with roadblocks so all this new jungle training was rubbish. He was called in and got a roasting that scared the shit out of him. When he made the mistake of complaining again he ended up on a very slow boat to Port Stanley. And then the floodgates opened and Winnie sent us lots of nice presents, like Matildas by the score and guns by the tonne. The RAF in Malaya before was a joke. When it switched over in Malaya from Brewster Buffalos to Spits and Hurribombers, no one was laughing any more. Especially not brother Jap, who got more and more worried as he looked south." Robert Harris, The Gates Of Singapore Are Barred, pp136.
More and more troops are now available for the garrison of Malaya, with the arrival of British, Australian and New Zealander units. Slim had taken a cool look at the defences of Malaya and Singapore. He starts to refortify. Singapore is to be the last stand position, should Malaya fall. However Malaya itself has some good positions. Slim starts to fortify in the Penang - Alor Setar area. Previously this had been thought too far with the forces available. Now that he has the men, Slim makes a start. He also starts to train his men in the arts of jungle fighting. The arrival of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, the brilliant New Zealander who played a big part in winning the Battle of Britain, is a big boost as AOC Malaya. Park appeals to London for more planes, more AA guns and more facilities. He gets them, as Spitfires, Hurricanes and Wellingtons start to arrive.
The Japanese have not been idle. From their new bases in French Indochina they can exact a strong influence over the entire area. However, the reinforcement of Malaya worries them deeply. Promises of territory combined with outright bullying of Thailand's leaders have allowed them to essentially occupy that country. The Allies can only stand by helplessly as Imperial Army troops march in to "protect" Thailand from "outside aggression", the Thai army only providing sporadic resistance. The Army Air Force begins flying in aircraft and establishing suitable airfields around the country, and Yamashita's 25th Army sets up camp in Singora, on the very border of Malaya. Britain and the US protest strongly but are simply not prepared or ready to do any more than that. The Japanese position in Southeast Asia strengthens daily, matching that of the British.
[center]Balkan Entanglements [/center]
Meanwhile in Greece, the Greek Army is almost ready for its spring offensive against the Italians. Large amounts of munitions have been bought from Britain, including a force of 50 Matilda tanks. It is a small number, but they are considerably better than the L10 tanks that the Italians have deployed. The Greeks confidence is high. They have weathered the winter well, and outthought and outfought the Italians, whose men were at the end of their tether.
On April 2, 1941 the Greek offensive opened with a massive bombardment of the Italian lines south of Qukes. With a huge hole blown in the Italian Lines, the Greeks punch through with their tanks, crushing an attempted counter attack by L10s. The Greeks push on, driving the Italians before then and bouncing the Qukes-Elbasan mountain pass to descend on the rear of the Italian army. By now panic is enveloping the Italian commanders in Albania, as they try to stop the torrent of Greeks from cutting their army in two. They fail. On April 10 the Greeks reach the Adriatic at the town of Kavaje, With few useable harbours for supplies the cut off section of the Italian army surrenders three days later. The day after that General Botazzi, commander of the Italian Army of Albania, asks for an immediate armistice. Despite orders from a furious Mussolini to stand and fight (Botazzi’s reply of "Tell the Duce that he should stand and fight here himself, instead of ranting in Rome. We asked for guns and he gave us paperwork," causes a great deal of eyebrow raising) Italian forces capitulate on April 16th 1941.
In an extremely smart move Metaxas follows up by asking Hitler to negotiate a peace between Greece and Italy. Hitler does not want to humiliate Mussolini, but he does want peace in this area, in order to prevent the British from intervening.
Howver Mussolini is now in severe political trouble, because April 16th started what was to be become known in Italy as ‘The Week of Woe.’
[center]The Battle of Paxoi[/center]
By the middle of April, the British had smashed the Italian army of Abyssinia to pieces. On April 18, the Duke of Aosta, CinC Abyssinia, surrenders after the battle of Addis Ababa, which had seen Cunningham join forces with General Platt, who had advanced out of the Sudan, and then comprehensively defeated the Italian army. Aghast at the loss of the last part of his African Empire and fully aware of the mutterings against him that were filling the political circles of Rome’s high society, Mussolini realised that he needed a high profile success to tide him over. On hearing that a Greek convoy was due to sail from Corfu to Cephalonia on the 22nd, he orders the Italian battle fleet to sail and destroy it.
His orders are greeted with consternation by the Italian naval command, which had lost heart since their defeat at the battle of Cape Matapan the previous year. Faced with a firing squad, Admiral Campioni orders the fleet to get ready to put to sea. Campioni can summon up the battleships Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, and a patched up Guilio Cesare, as well as 6 cruisers and 14 destroyers.
As the orders went out to get to sea, eager British ears were listening in. Admiral Cunningham, the elder brother of General Cunningham, is now based in Tripoli with the Mediterranean Fleet and is champing at the bit to finish off what he had started at Cape Matapan. He can call on the battleships Warspite, Malaya, Barham, Valiant and Canada, as well as the aircraft carriers Formidable, Illustrious and finally Ark Royal. Cunningham also has 6 cruisers and 18 destroyers.
By 2am on the 22nd, Campioni is feeling his way in the dark towards Corfu, when suddenly three star shells exploded above his battle line. Seconds later huge plumes of water are erupting on every side of his flagship Littorio. Cunningham has arrived.
Cunningham had made his approach as stealthy as possible, tracking his prey by radar. By now all of his major warships are equipped with this, and he was able to gain an excellent idea of the position of the enemy and crossed their T. The British ships are also highly trained at night engagements, while their Italian opponents are not to the same degree. Finally, at a range of 8 miles the big battleships swung their turrets around, tracking their prey, before opening fire.
The second salvo from all five British battleships slam into Littorio and reduce her to a wreck in seconds, Campioni being killed outright in the blast. The Italian battle line is forced to swing to either side of the blazing battleship to avoid it, enabling the British to get a better glimpse of their spread. By now Warspite is engaging Vittorio Veneto, Barham and Malaya are taking on the Guilio Cesare, while Valiant and Canada engage the Italian cruisers.
Guilio Cesare lasts ten minutes before it succumbs crushed by the 15 inch shells that obliterated its upper works. It sinks at 3.40am, 10 minutes before the Littorio. Vittorio Veneto, targeted by all five British battleships, blows up at 3.56am after a shell from Barham penetrated its forward magazine and rips it in half. Of the rest of the Italian fleet, 2 destroyers and a cruiser survive, limping back to Taranto the next morning. Cunningham’s fleet is cheered into Tripoli, having suffered a total of 235 casualties. Italian losses have never been determined exactly.
The battle of Paxoi (the nearest landfall) seals Mussolini’s fate. Most of the Italian fleet has been wiped off the face of the earth, and Italy’s African Empire has been lost, along with a total of almost half a million men. The Vichy French Navy sees what the Royal Navy has done to their old nemesis, the Regia Marina, and certain loyalties begin to waver. The heavy cruiser Algerie and more than half a dozen destroyers slip out of Toulon on the night of April 23rd, defecting to the Allies.
On April 24th the Fascist Grand Council meet. Mussolini is quietly invited to retire, leaving under armed guard for an unknown destination. The King of Italy invites Marshal Azzani to become Prime Minister. On top of his agenda is an immediate appeal to Britain and Free France for an armistice.
[center]Rheinübung[/center]
In the meantime the fight against the British and their gathering allies must go on. On May 1, 1941, Bismarck sorties from the Baltic, in an attempt to wreak havoc in the Atlantic. Admiral Lutjens would have preferred to wait another two weeks until the cruiser Prinz Eugen is also ready, but Admiral Raeder, his CinC, orders him to go anyway. The Fuhrer is impatient for some action.
Bismarck is spotted in the Kattegut on May 2 by an alert Danish agent, who radios a warning to London. He is backed up by a Norwegian agent a few hours later when Bismarck passed Bergen. The Home Fleet mobilises at once. There are three possible avenues of entry to the Atlantic – the Denmark Strait, the Iceland-Faeroes gap and the Faeroes-Shetland gap. The CinC of the Home Fleet, Admiral Tovey, is faced with some hard decisions. He decides to send HMS Incomparable and Renown to the first, Prince of Wales and Repulse to the second, and HMS Hood and King George V to the last. After some additional thought he adds the carrier HMS Victorious to the Denmark Strait group, commanded by Vice-Admiral Holland.
At dawn on May 5 the cruiser Norfolk glimpses a strange shape in the fog in at the northern end of the Denmark Strait. She investigates, spots Bismarck, and ducks back into the fog, her radio screaming a sighting report at full blast. Holland takes a good long look at the situation. Incomparable, an Invincible-class battlecruiser, has poor stern arcs, so he must attempt to make the full use of her powerful forward 16-inch guns. He decides to alter course so that his force meets Bismarck at dawn the next day, crossing the German T.
At 4.30am on May 6 the British ships pick up Bismarck on their radar. They are hidden in the western horizon, while Bismarck is lit by the eastern pre-dawn light. Furthermore thanks to bad operational instructions about the use of radar, Bismarck has her own radar shut down to prevent detection. At 4.35am the two British battlecruisers fire broadsides at Bismarck, straddling her at once. The second broadside from Incomparable smashes into the direction layer machinery on Bismarck’s forward section. She is now effectively blind and is trying to close the gap in order to open up her stern arcs of fire. Incomparable and Renown start to pound Bismarck mercilessly with 16-inch and 15-inch shells, destroying her forward superstructure and killing Lutjens and Captain Lindemann. Although she manages to open up her stern arcs, she is pounded to pieces, with a fatal hit on Dora turret from the delighted crew of Norfolk, supported by HMS Suffolk which arrives rather late.
The coup de grace is delivered by Victorious as the raw but eager crews of her Swordfish sink five torpedoes into her starboard side. Bismarck sinks at 7am, although many survivors of her crew insist that she was scuttled.
[center]Barbarossa and the End in the Med[/center]
Hitler shrugs off his naval losses. He has already declared his resolve to attack Russia. British and American intelligence both supply Stalin with more than enough evidence of the Wehrmacht’s plans, but he ignores them. Hitler, he thinks, will not attack, as he has too much to lose from the attempt. This is a serious mistake.
The German attack falls upon the surprised Soviet forces on schedule in the pre-dawn darkness of Sunday June 22, 1941. Within three days the first Soviet operational echelon has been slashed to pieces and the panzers are thundering eastward.
By the end of the first month, morale is high in the German camp. The best of the Soviet forces have been annihilated on the frontier, the Germans have taken most of the Baltic States and Belorussia and are starting to press deep into the Ukraine. Stalin starts to move more and more men into the Kiev bulge in order to hold the city and try to outflank the Germans.
Hitler also has his eyes on Kiev and, to the dismay of his generals, orders that the Kiev salient be pinched off. Much to his disgust, Guderian, the tank genius who crushed the French, rumbles south instead of east.
In the middle of this mass of plans, the news from Rome comes as a dreadful shock. On August 17, 1941 Italy signs an armistice with Britain and the Free French. The status of the Italian Empire – as was – is put on hold, Italy agrees to cease all offensive actions and German forces are invited to return home. As soon as possible. Now.
Hitler is annoyed but not totally surprised – he had no faith in an Italian government that did not contain Mussolini. He diverts another two divisions from France to fortify the Alpine passes and continues to focus on the Russian Front.
The Allies are delighted – the Mediterranean is open again. The siege of Malta is lifted and the Italian fleet is no longer a threat. Churchill immediately decides to send more forces to the Far East. Warspite and Malaya, along with Formidable, Eagle and Canada, pass through the Suez Canal heading for Singapore. The new Far Eastern fleet is commanded by Cunningham, with Admiral Harwood taking over in the Med, in charge of a joint British-Free French fleet, the core of which is composed mainly of the older Revenge-class BBs. By November, with signs of Japanese aggression looming, further reinforcements are dispatched: Prince of Wales, Rodney and Repulse, along with Ark Royal. Repulse is to be paired with the battlecruiser HMAS Australia (ex-HMS Tiger). Canada and Eagle operate in trade protection duties, based from Columbo. The four other battleships, 2 battlecruisers and 3 carriers (including Hermes) form the core of Force Z, based at Singapore.
There is another effect from the Italian armistice. A pro-British Italian naval officer, no longer shackled by his allegiance to his former allies, has a quiet word in the ear of the returning British ambassador. He mentions that the German B-Dienst intelligence group seems to be having some success in decoding the main Royal Naval convoy code... The code is changed at once to a machine-based version that B-Dienst, despite their best efforts, cannot break. Suddenly the German U-boat arm is blind.
[center]Japan, the Far East, and the Beginning of the War in the Pacific[/center]
On October 12th, Prince Konoye confers with General Tojo, War Minister, Admiral Oikawa, Navy Minister and Admiral Toyoda the foreign Minister. Toyoda tells Tojo the blunt truth - that there is no hope of a diplomatic settlement with America unless Japan yields her position in China. Shocked, Tojo answers that this is impossible. Prince Konoye argues that it could be possible to leave the situation as it is, with broken economic relations but short of war. Again, War Minister Tojo replies that such a solution would be plainly unacceptable as the Japanese economy would be slowed down to a level preventing even just implementing the current armament program. Crude oil inventories have dwindled at an alarming rate since the beginning of 1941, from 20,000,000 barrels on April 1st to 15,000,000 on September 30th. The meeting breaks up without a decision. Only a few days later, Konoye resigns in disgrace and Tojo takes his position as Prime Minister.
Admiral Shimada, the Minister of the Navy, tries to postpone any decisive move by arguing that the Imperial Japanese Navy could not be in a position to execute distant offensive operations in the current situation of oil inventories. Tojo reacts by according the Navy the largest share of the national oil reserves. The "civilian" government continues its slide towards war. The Navy and Army are already making war plans.
Japan must have access to the raw materials that abound in the Dutch East Indies, most importantly the oil. But the risk is growing. Admiral Yamamoto takes a hard look at the situation. The British Far Eastern fleet now assembling in Singapore is a threat. However the US fleet at Pearl Harbor is the bigger threat – it is larger and will probably threaten Truk or the Marianas in the event of war. In addition, the Japanese occupation of Thailand (since June, "to prevent further fighting and keep peace after the French-Thai Provisional Agreement") has essentially returned the strategic balance to what it was before the British reinforcement. Vice-Admiral Ozawa's Kido Butai - Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Kairyu, Koryu, and Unryu - is still slated for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The IJN Main Force - the battle line - has moved to Cam Ranh Bay, under the aegis of Kondo's 2nd Fleet. Force Z must be destroyed in order to secure the waters around the strategic target areas in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. The IJN cannot fight with just a few BatDivs; it has to to fight a fleet action. Such a fleet action is necessary for the success of the Japanese Grand Strategy. There is no alternative. Hiei, Kirishima, Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise, Hyuga, Nagato, Mutsu, Amagi, and Atago swing at anchor in Cam Ranh Bay, supported by Soryu, Donryu, and two CVLs. The battlefleet is under the direct control of Nagumo, while the four supporting carriers are to be led by Vice-Admiral Yamaguchi.
Training is intensifying on board the ships of the Far Eastern fleet. Cunningham has seen the strength of the airplane during his time in the Mediterranean. His aircraft carriers carry fewer planes then the Japanese carriers, but are better armored. However he has struck up an excellent relationship with AOC Malaya Park and knows that as long as he stays inside range of land-based aircraft, he will have good cover.
By the middle of November the Axis is sinking into the mud, or rather the snow. The onset of the Russian winter is starting to cripple German forces in the east as they pound on the defences of Moscow. Italy is out of the war and is running out of places to hide Mussolini. And Japan is running out of oil and is champing at the bit to start a war that Yamamoto knows it cannot win.
Having won his battle against the Japanese chiefs of staff, Yamamoto reluctantly starts to get things in gear. On schedule the First Air Fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Ozawa leaves harbor. It heads eastward.
Final Note
I'd like to thank Marc Jones and AltNaval for allowing me permission to use their materials here, and David Chessum and Mark Bailey for help on the WT.
To view the entire alternative history I am supplying the link here: http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~tgh4635/manual/
