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Updated 2005-11-10
1943 in Pete's Alternate Draka Timeline
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1943 (The Second Great War)
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- Situation in January 1943: Some optimists see the war as winding down soon, although some major powers are big winners (Germany, Domination, Japan) at the expense of the minor countries and the other major powers (France, Italy, Russia, Britain). The United States is still out of the action, and war has not yet touched South America. It's the beginning of the end for Russia, the second major power (after France) to vanish from the scene. Britain is safe from invasion, but may lose the fight for Spain and Portugal, and is now at war with the Domination everywhere but India. Italy has lost Sicily and Sardinia, and is vulnerable to a land invasion from the Trieste area; the threat of German intervention seems to be the only thing restraining the Domination.
- January 1943: The Finns start their own winter offensive, quickly retrieving the territory lost in 1940. After a short pause to discuss national strategy, they resume their march against scattered Russian opposition with new objectives of the entire Russian portion of the peninsula down to the southern end of the White Sea, the shores of Lakes Onega and Ladoga, and the gates of St. Petersburg.
The Germans now perceive the incipient collapse of Russia, and hastily kick off a winter offensive to grab their share. The last experienced Russian troops are harried out of eastern Poland, and pursued along the Baltic coast by a Northern Army tasked with the imposing goal of St. Petersburg by June. A Central Army heads through Poland for Minsk and then Moscow, also by June. The forces in Rumania are ordered to extend themselves towards Kiev and along the coast of the Black Sea as a Southern Army, but insufficient reinforcements are received to make more than token advances east.
Although the Russian forces outnumber the German, Japanese and Finnish attackers, the combination of all these plus the Domination is too much for the nerve of the central command in Moscow. Contradictory orders spew out daily, changing priorities based on outdated news received from the approaching fronts. Some front-line units lose the sense that they are part of a coherent whole, and begin operating as if surrounded, losing even more effectiveness. The Russian air force responds only when it can scavenge fuel and spare parts, and meets the invading air forces piecemeal with disastrous results.
The Spanish overrun most of Portugal but are held up outside Lisbon and the southern port of Faro by fanatical Portuguese resistance hoping for British rescuers. The British convoy carrying a BEF arrives in Lisbon almost unscathed by Spanish and Domination air attacks, the few Spanish naval attacks easily beaten off by the Royal Navy. However, a strong Domination air attack closely followed by the Drakan Navy wipes out the smaller convoy going on to Faro. After heavy Spanish artillery bombardment and Drakan naval and air attacks, Spanish troops enter Gibraltar, but the port and fortress have been demolished; the carnage caused by the Drakan nerve gas bombs is erroneously ascribed by the Spanish to their own artillery, as the gas has long since dissipated.
- February 1943: The Japanese, Germans, Finns and Drakans basically advance at will against the Russians, held back only by their own supply lines and the weather. A convoy from Murmansk of the Far Northern Fleet (West) of the Russian Navy and freighters carrying civilians becomes trapped in the ice, and is bombed to destruction by German long-range naval bombers operating out of Hammerfest, Norway using experimental weapons and tactics. The St. Petersburg fleet is decimated by Finnish torpedo boats in the Gulf of Finland before it ever encounters the German ships waiting in the Baltic, and returns to the harbor to scuttle. The remnant fleets in Odessa and Sevastopol are caught at anchor when German and Drakan planes (respectively) attack, and the survivors are scuttled or beached. The Domination then lands and secures the Crimean peninsula, with no Germans closer than Odessa. Strategos Edgar Tull, who authorized the invasion in defiance of the yet-untested boundaries in the non-aggression pact with Germany, is then ordered to clear and hold until the Germans arrive. He cautiously advances, eventually linking up with Domination troops that have marched along both sides of the Sea of Azov from Georgia, looking for contact with the Germans.
Finally alarmed to the point of action, the Tsar returns to Moscow with the Tartar Guards, and takes military control from the indecisive Socialists. In the absence of coherent news from the Domination and Finnish fronts to the north, east and south, he determines the prime threat to be from the Germans in the west, and orders a focus on the Minsk–Moscow route. This does delay the German advance in that direction, but to the detriment of the other areas. The Tsar's taking control of Russian forces confuses the situation even more, as a few officers refuse to obey his orders.
The damaged resonant cavity magnetron device captured in Persia is finally examined in England, and the principle of operation determined. When the British inform the Americans of their find and its implications, they are nonplused by the "we knew that" response.
Lisbon holds out with British reinforcements, but Faro falls. A British landing at Santander on the northern coast of Spain is initially successful, but is withdrawn after a second force bound for Bilbao runs into a naval minefield and is decimated, and the first landing begins to lose ground to a Spanish counterattack. Spanish forces are concentrated on the Atlantic coast and against Lisbon, to defend strongly against another British move and complete the conquest of Portugal. The Domination ceases providing support to Spain, but with the end of British resistance at Gibraltar it isn't missed.
In an effort to distract Germany, and mollify the governments in exile based in London, a British raid on the French coast is planned for late spring.
- March 1943: The Americans and British begin developing components and electrodetectors based on the magnetron, but the Domination has a significant lead. The Germans, Japanese, Italians and Russians have nothing in operation that can even detect microwaves, and are still unaware of the technology.
As winter starts to ebb in Russia, problems with unburied bodies and poor roads arise. The Domination and Germany temporarily grind to a halt to address these issues in their conquered territories. The first German and Domination forces meet outside Myokaly'iv on the Black Sea coast east of Odessa. In the absence of another natural boundary nearby, the Domination falls back to the Dnipro River, and begins to firm up a boundary with German forces there, stretching up towards Kiev. The Domination now hopes to claim the eastern half of the Ukraine once Russia is defeated. All the organized combatants in Russia reduce their pace of operations as Marshal Winter gives up command to General Mud. The Finns are glad to stop, having nearly achieved even their most optimistic objectives; they have isolated Murmansk and reached the outskirts of St. Petersburg.
The Domination mounts three invasions of Spanish territory, seizing airfields on the Balearic Islands in an airborne assault, and landing armored forces on the beaches near Cartagena and Cadiz on the southern coasts. From the Balearic Isles, Drakan aircraft can reach the entire east of Spain and easily intercept any Italian efforts to interfere. Parts of the Drakan armored forces trap the Spanish forces holding Gibraltar, and two major columns converge on Madrid. Italy quietly ties itself closer to Germany. Spanish diplomats are still unwilling to ally with Germany even after this betrayal. The Domination is taking a vast gamble with attacking Spain now; should Germany or Italy resume hostilities there are no reserves to spare from the other operations in China and Russia, the long borders with Germany, Italy and India, or the pacification and rebuilding efforts that have begun in areas conquered earlier.
- April 1943: When more reports are assembled, the Tsar is dismayed to find that he retains control of a rough circle ranging from 300 to 600 miles out from Moscow. Only fragmentary news is received from beyond the Urals in the absence of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, but it appears the organized Russian forces there have been wiped out by the Domination and Japanese, or are isolated by the weather and awaiting attack by the invaders. Rejecting the choice of surrender to Germany as the least disagreeable foe, the Tsar orders a scorched earth policy and holdout tactics as his final legacy, and rides southwest with the Tartar Guards.
The Domination, trying to take control of the Russian population in the areas it seized, presses vast numbers into forced labor on supply lines and related infrastructure improvements. Some who evade capture begin causing problems through armed resistance. Small units that fortified for the winter now take to the country in search of food and supplies, becoming roving partisans. Germany resumes a methodical advance, attempting to remove all resistance from the rear areas before moving on. The Southern Army begins to receiving the reinforcements needed to achieve its objectives, but the boundary with the Domination up to Kiev has become a fait accompli that will have to be resolved by diplomats.
As the weather improves, Japan makes further landings along the northern Pacific coast of Russia, and gains control of all the important settlements and military bases. Japan now controls the coastline from the Bering Straits down to Singapore, and the Trans-Siberian Railroad corridor almost up to Irkutsk. The British positions in Alaska are an obvious next step, but are of little strategic importance to either Britain or Japan, although entering North America would alarm the United States.
The King of Siam leads a violent struggle in the jungle against the Japanese with little progress to report. His pleas for additional British troops are only now getting results.
Seeking a way to provide some good news to the British public in a way that won't provoke the Indian pacifists, Britain begins withdrawing non-Indian troops, especially Australians, from the borders of India and Afghanistan, and sending them east to Siam and Malaya. Defensive outposts are built on important islands in the Dutch East Indies, and New Guinea is bolstered with more Australian troops. Even Canadian readiness is increased, particularly on the Pacific coast. The plan is to fight the Japanese in Siam first, so long as the Domination appears willing to make peace. Then the long process of rolling the Japanese back from their conquests will begin. Cooler heads have finally noticed that all Britain has really lost so far are Cyprus, Gibraltar, Hong Kong and Singapore — strategic but not vital.
The Domination continues their slow advance along the Chinese frontier with India, reducing individual warlords' mountain fortresses with artillery and aerial bombardment, using Janissary assaults only when absolutely necessary. The line of advance is currently between the sources of the Indus and the Brahmaputra — there are few well-known landmarks in the vicinity. Although the British provide aid when they can, most of the warlords are too proud to cooperate in defense and usually refuse to leave their fortresses, traits that the Japanese took advantage of in Manchuria years earlier.
The pressure on the British and Portuguese forces left in Lisbon eases as Spanish units react to the Drakan landings, but they stay on the defensive. The elite Spanish armored divisions are handily defeated near Cordoba by more experienced and better equipped Drakans, and the Spanish air force is outnumbered and out-fought whenever it ventures within range of the Domination Air Corps. Only the sheer number of infantry blocking the routes to Madrid keeps the capital under Spanish control.
- May 1943: Tsar Georgiy II dies with many of his Tartar Guards on a road east of Minsk, just another victim of a German strafing attack. The news is slow to spread, but has no effect on the outcome in Russia. The scorched earth policy, taken literally by some, causes indiscriminate destruction as deliberately set fires rage out of control in parts of the Ukraine. Only spring rains and natural barriers (rivers, swamps) prevent a regional holocaust. The fires and holdout actions slow the invaders' advances, but organized Russian resistance is now only holdout groups and bands of roving partisans that range from families and squads to brigades.
The Domination advances along the Volga and Don, concentrating on seizing concentrations of population, industry and food production. Holdouts are often isolated and bypassed by Citizen forces, for later attention by assaulting Janissaries. The Urals are left alone for now, although aerial reconnaissance is followed by bombing of industrial or military concentrations. The Russian factories producing military equipment are difficult targets to secure, but the Drakans gain important design information on both the Russian and German equipment that was produced there. The Domination thus gains the advantage of being able to learn from the designs of both a nearly defeated foe and another power that may be an enemy again in the future. Germany has gained no such comprehensive information about Domination equipment, and Italy can be expected, at best, to also request German designs.
The Portuguese wish to command the increasing British forces in their country but, wary of any ally controlling a BEF, the British refuse. Germany orders an attack through the Pyrenees to try to grab some Spanish territory as well, but fanatical Basque defenders slow the advance to a crawl. Most of the Spanish units not already in combat converge on Madrid, feeding themselves piecemeal to the Drakans if they don't enter the city through the remaining open routes.
The British temporarily open a new front when they stage a large commando raid on the French port of Cherbourg in the early morning of May 28th. It runs into some of the first Atlantic Wall defenses built by Germany, yet manages to achieve stunning success in seizing objectives in the town. Unfortunately, the landing and retrieval fleet suffers terrible losses from the Luftwaffe and the coastal guns still held by the Germans; the troops are forced to improvise an assault on the guns before they can re-embark. A quick operation planned to last no more than 18 hours turns into days, as German ground forces elsewhere in the region are slow to respond compared to the Luftwaffe. The British troops find themselves pinned in the town and begin fortifying, hoping that they won't pay for attracting German attention with all their lives.
The United States makes a belated diplomatic move: the Philippines is upgraded to an official protectorate of the USA, and promised their first referendum on independence in 1949.
- June 1943: Slowed by the effects of the Tsar's last orders, units of the German Central Army reach Moscow. A siege of St. Petersburg by the German Northern Army begins on schedule, assisted by Finns.
Germany starts turning exclusionist internally when the issue arises of who will get to immigrate to the Lebensraum of Russia and the Balkans (both of which have been largely depopulated by respectively the wholesale slaughter and the years of see-saw fighting). Old hatreds begin to rise, and some groups have scores to settle. The Reich's government begins by announcing that certain groups will not be allowed to receive subsidized settlement packages: anarchists, Communists, Socialists, homosexuals, Gypsies, Slavs and trade unionists are in the initial "cut." It is a short step to registration of the entire population of the German-controlled territories based on political, racial and religious groupings.
Japan and the Domination make contact along the Trans-Siberian Railroad near Krasnoyarsk. Both control only a narrow corridor along the railway, and must now deal with the settlements that were bypassed in the interest of speedy advance. Germany, Finland, Japan and the Domination realize (some sooner than others) that Russia is now up to them to divide diplomatically, or further conflict will ensue. Multi-national negotiations begin on boundaries within Russia, since the previous agreements don't conform to the existing lines of control.
The British troops in Cherbourg are finally withdrawn or killed in rear-guard actions after 13 days; airborne reinforcements and supply drops only prolong the agony before a Royal Navy force is able to silence the coastal guns and approach the town. The German reaction is to increase the pace of Atlantic Wall construction, and sack several generals who became too complacent, but the operations in Russia are not significantly affected.
Domination forces close in on Madrid, although the influx of defenders from the rest of the country continues. A German flanking amphibious invasion near Barcelona is successful, but it fails to draw off stubborn defenders from the Pyrenees, so it becomes the primary gateway for German troops into Spain. The Domination and Germany exchange angry words over a possible conflict in Spain, but there is too much at stake in Russia to jeopardize non-aggression for now. The Portuguese become more aggressive since Spanish attention is on Madrid, and Britain continues to pour in troops and supplies to deter the Domination from coming after Lisbon next.
Anxious to avoid "victory disease" even as battles sputter to a halt, Technical Section begins a detailed analysis of known German and Russian designs, and compares them with current and projected equipment.
[I really didn't want to do this German racist thing, knowing that I'll be accused of starting off the Nazis in this timeline, just a few years later and as faceless Militarists instead. Personally, I'm of Polish and Ukrainian descent, my father labored for the Nazis after the fall of Belgrade until liberated in Austria, and I visited Auschwitz (near Oswiecim — "Oświęcim" in Polish) once. One view of the room full of hair was enough for me. But this would be a legitimate issue at the time when it arose, and I think the progression is reasonable in this situation. Remember though, "They came first for the Communists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. … Then they came for me, and by that time, there was no-one left to speak for me." Those familiar with political science, or avid readers of the S.M. Stirling discussion group on http://groups.yahoo.com/, will recognize the beginnings of organic nationalism here. It only gets more vicious and exclusionary with time, unless something changes the situation.]
- July–August 1943: Dismayed at the dismemberment of another great power and the decaying situation in Spain, Britain and the United States begin serious talks towards a defensive alliance in several secret meetings held on Nantucket. The United States thinks Japan may turn their way next, and Britain thinks Germany will invade if given time to consolidate their gains, or the Domination and Japan will now divide China and then turn upon India. The chief problem is now time; if the aggressors are given time to use the territory gained, they will be unstoppable or will have to fall upon each other. The Planning Section in Castle Tarleton has already come to much the same conclusions, and recommends going after the remaining minor countries of Europe to "clear the field," including the current operation in Spain followed by one to seize Portugal (regardless of war with Britain). Provoking an incident with Germany, and taking their only major source of natural petroleum, the Ploesti complex, is another goal. While the Domination would like several years to pacify the recent conquests, the current situation is inherently unstable and must end with only one continental European superpower, either the Domination or Germany now that Russia is gone. Japan is almost a direct competitor now, and if somehow the United States or Britain can be induced to destroy it, the Domination can become master of Asia as well. Britain will have to wait until a massive amphibious force can be built (which Germany has already lost).
The continuing aerial assaults on London and other English cities with aircraft assembly plants have settled into a routine of nightly (because daylight operations were too costly) bombings by the Luftwaffe. The British are careful to exaggerate the Luftwaffe's effects for international news, as they wish to conceal that most of the bombs are falling in the countryside on dummy lights.
Negotiations continue between the Domination and Germany and Finland, and the Domination and Japan, to set new boundaries within Russia and create at least a temporary peace. Fighting continues in the Russian countryside only as partisans are hunted down, and Moscow and St. Petersburg are besieged and cleared. The Siam front reaches a turning point, as the Royal Siamese forces are able to regain a foothold on a major river leading down to Bangkok and continue to hold it against multiple Japanese banzai attacks. As more British forces arrive, the Siamese situation continues to improve as the Japanese immediately throw away new arrivals to the area.
A German thrust along the Mediterranean coast links up with the Barcelona landing, and causes some Basque defenses to crumble when flanked. After drawing much of the Spanish Army on themselves, the Drakans surround Madrid and spread out for the rest of the country. Portuguese and British forces go on the offensive as well, and retake all the lost territory from the few remaining Spanish, with a view to stopping at defensible positions at or near the Portuguese border.
- September 1943: Germans wipe out the last holdouts in Moscow, and St. Petersburg falls to German and Finnish troops. In separate negotiations, Germany and Japan agree to revised boundaries with the Domination. Finland receives the entire region north of a line between St. Petersburg (with guaranteed maritime access to the harbor), Lakes Ladoga and Onega, and a point on the White Sea coast west of Archangel. The Domination receives the territory east of the Dnipro below Chernobyl, then the boundary runs east near Tula to the Volga at Nizhny Novgorod, then along the Volga west towards the lakes north of Yaroslav, and from there north to the White Sea. The boundary with Japan becomes the Yenisey River south to Krasnoyarsk, then a vague line towards Lanzhou and then Kumming. Actually, nobody but the Finns has bothered to conquer much of the northern area from Russian holdouts, but now it's just a matter of time. All of Mongolia and much of western China are still unconquered too.
The first conclusions are returned from the Technical Section study of German and Russian equipment. Revised priorities lead to the installation of heavier flank armor on Hond clanks at the cost of amphibious capability, add automatic frequency scramblers to all tactical radios, and increase investment in jet engine technology research. The Drakans are heartened to find no hints of microwave electrodetector technology in the Russian or German designs or captured equipment. Whole Legions are equipped with the modified equipment over the next months as operations permit. The Domination gives out liberal leave to front-line units at only a slightly slower pace than the other powers in Russia, but none believe that these new boundaries will last for very long.
Madrid holds out, but the Domination and Germany quickly subdue the rest of Spain. Portugal makes some minor territorial gains, but the British are conservative and only allow the Portuguese to take what they think can be held against the Domination. Germany ends up with about half the Pyrenees and a wide swath from Tarragona (on the coast south of Barcelona) inland to Zaragoza and then north to the mountains, along with a narrow strip along the northern Pyrenees next to France. The Domination gets the rest of Spain, although the Basques give them trouble too, and a smoking pile where "the Rock" of Gibraltar used to be.
The Drakans approach Lhasa along the Brahmaputra, but other forces are charging across the high deserts of western China now that the action is over in Russia.
- October 1943: A Drakan anti-partisan unit discovers the primary Russian atomic weapons research site near Novosibirsk. Although most of the scientists fled into the bush and were killed, and Russian and Drakan looting wrecked much of the facility, enough information survives to make valuable contributions to the Domination's efforts. A second warhead design based on the Russian research is put on a parallel production basis to reduce the risk of a design error, especially as it employs plutonium instead of enriched uranium, and a different reaction initiation mechanism. Technical Section estimates the Russians would have had a test warhead in January 1945 if the country hadn't collapsed, putting them ahead of the Domination by six months up until the cessation of supply deliveries back in November 1942. Technical Section now projects the first Drakan fission warhead will be ready for test in March 1945.
Domination troops take Madrid after the use of contact nerve gas bombs, an atrocity that isn't widely known until 1944. The Domination now offers worldwide peace with Britain at the cost of recognizing the Drakan gains. Although Portugal objects, Britain is still too enamored with peace and accepts, and the border in Portugal is soon massively fortified. After all, Portugal and India are now the only points of contact with the Domination; attacking from India might cause the loss of effective British control there, and Portugal is a poor starting point to take on the master of Africa. One concession the Domination makes is halting the advance into western China; they even withdraw behind the Takla Makan desert to the Tien Shan mountain range near the pre-war western Chinese border. The Drakans still hold onto a region of the Himalayas and Tibet along the northern Indian border, including Lhasa, though. This preserves the Chinese Army of National Resistance, still a fractious group of warlords despite the title, so they can continue to oppose the Japanese with British support. Although the Archon is criticized for this move, the Drakans need a pause to control their recent conquests more than they need further conflict in Portugal, or wasting troops in subduing the Chinese just to reach a notional line that adds few resources to the Domination.
Eastern Orthodox Christians and the highly visible Orthodox Jews are added to the groups discouraged from emigrating to the territories conquered by Germany in Russia and the Balkans. Persecution of the proscribed minorities rises in Germany and German territories, and those who registered in those groups are preferentially selected for forced labor, but as yet there is no official extermination campaign.
Germany offers to make Finland and Italy "associate members" in a German Economic Sphere. Britain unsuccessfully attempts to convince Finland to resist cooperation with Germany. Italy, its dreams of empire shattered, meekly goes along with Germany hoping to avoid being torn apart by the Domination and Germany. Portugal is an ally of Britain and the probable next victim of the Domination's aggression. Switzerland continues to be an island of neutrality between German-held territory and Italy. The Luftwaffe bombing of England is initially suspended for bad weather, and then held back as a good-faith gesture by Germany to Britain. The "European Peace" begins as Britain officially accepts Germany's conquests in Europe as the price of peace.
Eager to turn from conquest to pacification, the German government suddenly orders all research into advanced battlefield weapons and technology to be halted. This stifles Germany's jet aircraft, atomic bomb, ballistic rocket program, and several other areas of research and development just as they are reaching the practical stage. But the Militarist hierarchy is convinced that current German weapons are still the best in Europe, and the promised wonders won't help in anti-partisan and policing efforts.
- November 1943: The Domination begins massive anti-partisan operations in Drakan Spain, practically sweeping the countryside for people. An official peace prevails across Europe, but military forces are still active almost everywhere. Britain believes they have finally achieved peace through their steadfastness, although really the aggressors have practically exhausted themselves and run out of easy targets.
British concentration of effort on Japan begins to push back in Siam, and the Imperial Japanese Navy and Royal Navy have several small clashes in the eastern Indian Ocean and Java Sea as the Royal Navy struggles back into the area.
- December 1943: "Undesirable" minorities fleeing German persecution begin seeking asylum in Switzerland and Italy, although the Swiss soon deflect all but the richest ones aside. The influx slightly harms the Italian economic and diplomatic situation, but the Vatican insists on welcoming and assisting refugees even as it continues fruitless efforts to ameliorate conditions for Catholics in German- and Domination-held territories.
Only the British and Japanese are still at war this Christmas.
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