Shattered World - A Worse World War :
Part 7
Autumn stagnation, Italian ambitions
In Rome, the capital of Mussolini's Italian Empire, the dictator is becoming
restless. Hitler, whom Mussolini sees as little more than a clone of himself,
has won successes fighting the hated red communists of the Soviet Union.
Romania has been retaken, most of Poland is in German hands, and the Germans
hold the mineral riches of Sweden. All of this and Mussolini has accomplished... nothing.
Nothing more than some Italian units fighting in Romania anyway.
The time has come for Italy to be more than just a minor axis ally of Hitler.
Mussolini wants Egypt, Greece, and control of the Mediterranean. Nothing
less than the establishment of a new Roman Empire is what the Italian dictator
has in mind. A meeting with Hitler should be called. New military expenditures
should be secured to enlarge and modernize an Italian army whose equipment
lags five years behind that of the other powers of Europe. A gap too wide
in these days of rapidly advancing military technology. Yes, Mussolini saw
that the time had come for Italy to spread it's wings and flex it's muscles.
Whether or not Mussolini's ambitions can be matched by Italy's industry,
military, and people remains to be seen.
July 28th 1939 to November 13th 1939
July 28th 1939
In a meeting between Mussolini and Hitler the Italian dictator expresses
his wish for Italy to become more than just a minor Axis ally of Germany.
Mussolini has ambitions towards British Egypt, Greece, and parts of Yugoslavia
as well as the entire Mediterranean in general. Hitler refuses to allow Mussolini
to confront the British empire. Doing so would mean war with the Alliance
for Democracy and possibly the United States as well. To keep Mussolini happy,
Hitler agrees to force Yugoslavia into the Axis powers and as part of that
arrangement Italy will be allowed to annex much of western Yugoslavia. The
possibility of taking Greece will be left open for some point in the future.
Mussolini, not entirely satisfied with the meeting with his fellow fascist
dictator, prepares to enact large new military spending measures to modernize
the rapidly aging Italian armed forces.
August 5th 1939
With the front now stabilized along the Vistula river and west of Warsaw
in Poland, Hitler demands that the general staff draw up plans to seize Warsaw
before Autumn sets in. The general staff goes to work reluctantly preparing
an operation to take the heavily defended city.
August 12th 1939
Operation "Case Orange", designed to take Warsaw and it's surrounding suburbs,
is launched. Under cover of heavy artillery and air bombardment German engineers
begin constructing temporary bridges over the Vistula to the north and south
of Warsaw. In the center German infantry launch a direct frontal assault
under cover of heavy artillery. The tactics being used are basically refined
trench infiltration tactics perfected in the 1917/1918 period on the western
front.
August 13th 1939
The German attempts to establish bridge heads across the Vistula are a disaster.
The engineering units are largely wiped out by Soviet bombers and massed
artillery barrages. The front in which the Germans were attempting to attack
was simply too narrow and the Soviets could concentrate their forces to easily
repel the German crossing attempts.
In the center German infantry make decent progress through the Soviet defensive
works west of Warsaw and are in fact already entering the city's suburbs.
August 21st 1939
Despite heavy losses German infantry have managed to secure the parts of
Warsaw on the western side of the Vistula. Soviet forces on the eastern banks
manage to repel several German attempts to cross. The German operation is
declared "a success" by Hitler and then quickly ended. Western Warsaw is
in German hands but the Soviets hold powerful defensive positions on the
Vistula's east bank. The losses suffered by the Germans in western Warsaw
are high enough to make the general staff reconsider it's suburban warfare
tactics.
August 22nd 1939
Germany annexes the Danzig Corridor and much of northwestern Poland. A harsh
"ethnic cleansing" campaign is launched to drive all "non-Germans" from these
newly annexed regions. This includes Jews and Poles who look anything like
Jews or Slavs. The rest of German occupied Poland is to remain under the
control of the German army.
August 27th 1939
In the largest single strategic bombing mission of the war to date, over
600 German medium bombers hit Soviet railheads, stockyards, and industrial
plants in Minsk. Soviet air defenses are ill coordinated and crumble under
the large fighter-escorted attack. Other Soviet cities from Leningrad to
Odessa are suffering relatively persistent attacks on similar targets. The
Red Air Force has been forced into a mostly defensive stance due to superior
German aircraft and pilots. However, both sides are taking heavy losses in
the air and the Soviets can afford the losses more than the Germans can.
September 3rd 1939
Stalin approves plans for a huge winter counteroffensive to be unleashed
in Poland and Sweden sometime in November.
September 8th 1939
Despite Hitler's warnings in their July meeting Mussolini begins massing
Italian troops on the Greek border and the Italian navy begins conducting
"maneuvers" off the Greek coast. Greece declares a state of emergency, requests
entry into the Alliance for Democracy. The Alliance warns the Axis Powers
that an invasion of Greece would mean an end to Alliance economic support.
September 11th 1939
In a last minute phone call from Berlin Hitler threatens to expel Italy from
the Axis Powers if Mussolini goes ahead with the invasion of Greece. Mussolini
backs down at the last moment calling off his planned invasion. Alliance
economic support is simply too important to Germany's war industry. Hitler
wants no direct confrontation with the Alliance until the Axis Powers have
dealt with the Soviets.
September 13th 1939
Hitler gives Italy the go ahead to invade the Kosovo and Bosnian provinces
of Yugoslavia in order to keep Mussolini from dropping out of the Axis Powers.
Italian troops begin shifting towards the Yugoslavian border. Yugoslavia's
requests for help are ignored by the Alliance and Greece. The Alliance is
not willing to risk war with the Axis and they realize that Yugoslavia, surrounded
by Axis nations, is in an indefensible position. Surrounded by the Axis Powers
the Yugoslavs seem doomed to join them one way or another.
[note: It might seem odd that the Alliance would back Greece but abandon
Yugoslavia in this way. My reasoning behind this is that the Alliance has
already written off Yugoslavia as a lost cause. Serbian and Croat nationalists
have already been pushing to enter the Axis and the Yugoslav monarch is weak
and unpopular. Greece, on the other hand, is much more stable and important
economically as it controls Crete and vital shipping lanes in the Mediterranean
and Aegean seas. The Alliance is not willing to risk war with the Axis at
this point and writes off Yugoslavia in return for saving Greece via economic
pressure]
September 15th 1939
Italian troops cross from Albania into Kosovo and from northeastern Italy
begin advancing down the Yugoslavian coastline. Yugoslavian resistance is
unexpectedly fierce and the Italian advance begins to falter almost immediately.
September 18th 1939
After advancing little more than ten kilometers on either front the Italian
drive stalls as the Yugoslavians mount stubborn counter attacks into the
Italian flanks. Mussolini calls on help from Italy's Axis allies.
September 19th 1939
Hitler reluctantly authorizes a hasty invasion of Yugoslavia to help his
fascist allies in Italy. German, Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces begin moving
to the Yugoslavian border.
September 26th 1939
The Luftwaffe and minor axis air forces launch a crushing attack on the Yugoslav
air force which destroys over half of the Yugoslav planes on the ground.
German and minor axis forces cross into Yugoslavia.
September 28th 1939
German mechanized infantry shred through Yugoslavian lines in the northern
part of the country as Stukas and heavier bombers devastate any Yugoslavian
attempts to concentrate forces. Zagreb falls to German forces. Italian forces,
now aided by the Luftwaffe, resume their advance down the coastline and into
Kosovo where Pristina comes under heavy air and artillery bombardment.
October 3rd 1939
Yugoslavian army in complete disarray and under assault from every direction.
Sarajevo and Belgrade under siege.
October 5th 1939
The king of Yugoslavia flees to Greece. A provisional Yugoslavian government
surrenders to the Axis Powers in order to avoid the destruction of Belgrade
and other Yugoslavian population centers. Communist elements reject the surrender
and flee into the back country.
October 12th 1939
Yugoslavia divided into nationalist Serb and Croatian "Republics" which are
in fact fascist regimes loyal to Germany. These new German puppet states
are admitted as the latest Axis members. The remaining northern and southern
portions of the former nation of Yugoslavia, including Montenegro, Kosovo,
Slovenia and Bosnia, are annexed by Italy giving Mussolini's Italian Empire
a stronger presence in the Balkans. Throughout Yugoslavia a low intensity
guerilla resistance is begun by communist elements.
October 13th 1939
Hitler has become convinced that Germany needs more Axis allies to help it
face the huge Soviet Union and perhaps, in the future, the Alliance for Democracy
as well. In a bid to convince Turkey to join the Axis Powers, Hitler offers
the Baku oilfields to Turkey and full Axis support to invade the Caucasus
in order to take the promised oil fields. Turkey would receive a broad stretch
of the Caucasus including the strategic oil fields and mineral-rich mountains.
The offer is tempting but the Turkish coalition government remains afraid
of the Soviets and the Red Army. Turkey is beginning to lean towards joining
the Axis but will need further German successes to convince them.
Spain is also enticed by Hitler with promises of large-scale German economic
and military support to rebuild Franco's still-wounded nation. Franco is
reluctant to join the Axis but he sees the possibility of getting concessions
out of Hitler and makes outrageous demands that Hitler refuses to agree to.
October 21st 1939
The Soviet Black Sea fleet begins conducting maneuvers near the Bosporus
straight. Italian attacks on Soviet shipping in the Aegean have provoked
this action. Turkey claims that the straight is open to all nations but Soviet
requests for it's naval ships to pass through the straight are denied "pending
appropriate reviews of the situation" Italian ships have been boarding and
searching all ships bound for the Soviet union in the Aegean sea to the outrage
of Greece and Turkey which both claim the area. Greece can do nothing since
it is surrounded by the Axis Powers and Turkey tolerates the Italian blockade
because it is hurting the Soviets. Also, the Turks don't wish to anger the
Axis Powers whom they are considering joining. Stalin begins to toy with
the idea of sending the Black Sea fleet through the straight without Turkish
permission but decides to put that confrontation off for the moment. The
winter counter-offensive is coming soon after all.
November 5th 1939
In Greece calls within the government for Alliance assistance prompt a call
for a meeting of "neutral democratic nations" in Europe to consider the idea
of an expanded Alliance for Democracy. Britain and France agree to the meeting
immediately and December 2nd is chosen as the start date.
November 13th 1939
The Soviet Union unleashes it's winter counter offensive across a front stretching
from the Baltic Sea to Warsaw with the goal of wheeling from north to south
to cut off German forces along the Vistula and rupture the entire German
front in central Poland. Just over 1 million Soviet soldiers and over 2000
tanks have been thrown into the huge attack with General Zhukov in overall
command. Facing them are the roughly 450,000 German soldiers and 700 panzers
of Bock's Army Group B. On the same day Soviet forces cross into German occupied
Sweden with 120,000 troops where only 45,000 German soldiers face them. Germany
had stripped most of it's heavy forces from Sweden to take part in the invasion
of Soviet occupied Poland.
Initial Soviet gains in Poland and Sweden are impressive, they have caught
the German General staff by surprise. They had expected some sort of winter
counter offensive but nothing on this scale. The force the Soviets are throwing
at them has the potential to smash German Army Group B in northern Poland
and drive to the German border if the Germans do not perform a flawless defense.
German forces south of Warsaw are pinned along the Vistula with Soviet armies
facing them across the river. Army group B will be on it's own until divisions
in Yugoslavia and Romania can be transferred to the northern front.
[note: Due to the lack of purges in the Soviet Union the Red Army has many
more competent Generals than it did in OTL. Despite this I still think Zhukov
would rise to the top very quickly. His skills are put on display in the
Soviet invasion of Poland in 1937 and in the defense of Warsaw in the summer
of 1939. This is why I have him commanding the winter counter-offensive in
northern Poland in the winter of 1939-1940]
On rugged icy hills in Scandinavia, across the snow shrouded plains of
eastern Poland and the Romanian-Soviet border, in the cold and dark waters
of the Norwegian and Barents seas, and in the warmer waters of the Aegean,
the Axis Powers and Soviet Union clash across Europe while the Alliance and
neutral nations look on. Neither side has yet gained the upper hand. Across
Europe and the world a tense calm hangs in the air. The huge war fronts have
been relatively quiet for several months. Besides the storming of Yugoslavia,
a minor sideshow of the epic unfolding struggle, nothing much has happened.
Hitler and Mussolini plot to expand the Axis, Stalin plots to crush German
forces in Sweden and Poland, while the Alliance and the U.S. plot the best
way to stay out of the war while containing both of the warring parties.
Europe is on the verge. Spain and Turkey tilt towards the Axis as Greece,
the Low Countries, and Norway turn towards the Alliance. The U.S. remains
isolationist but public opinion is leaning more and more in favor of the
Alliance.
Meanwhile, in the far east, Japan is locked in a struggle to conquer mainland
China and it's eyes are turning outward toward vulnerable European colonies,
U.S. possessions, and Soviet far eastern territory.
Without realizing it the nations of the world stand on the brink of global
disaster. The coming years shall rock the foundations of the world and the
plunge into chaos may begin at any time.
To Be Continued...
Back to Part 6
Advance to Part 8
Back to Main