World War III (Joan of What?)

World War III (often abbreviated to WWIII or WW3), also known as the Third World War, was a global war that lasted from 1938 to 1946, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations – including all of the great powers – eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the and the. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In a state of "total war", the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres (in which approximately one million were killed), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War III the deadliest conflict in human history.

had already invaded in 1936, and the  aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the  in 1937, but the world war is said to have begun on 1 October 1938, with the joint invasion of  by Britain and the now- and subsequent declarations of war on Britain and France by Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. From late 1938 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Britain controlled much of Europe, and formed the Fascist League with Australie and Japan. The war continued primarily between the Fascist powers and the Allies, with campaigns including the North Africa and East Africa campaigns, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz bombing campaign, the Balkan Campaign as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic. In June 1941, the Fascist League launched an invasion of the Russian Republic mainly with the Battle of Khalkin-Gol in Mongolia by Japan. This opened the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the League's military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan attacked Cygnian colonies, and quickly conquered much of Southeast Asia.

The League advances halted in 1943 when the overthrew the existing  and restored the monarchy. The end of the Hellerist dictatorship raised Allied morale greatly, resulting in decisive victories against League forces in the Battle of Swanstone and Battle of Saigon. Britain and France also suffered a devastating defeat at Tsaritsyn in Russia. In 1944, with a series of British and French defeats on the Eastern Front, and Allied victories in the Asia-Pacific, the League lost the initiative and undertook strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1945, the Allies invaded France and Australie; Russia regained all of its territorial losses and invaded French-occupied Eastern Europe. During 1945 and 1946 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy. Australien forces were also crushed by the Allies and by 1945 Australie was occupied by the Cygnians.

The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Britain by the Allies, beginning with the aerial Battle of Britain, and culminating in the capture of London by Allied troops and the subsequent British unconditional surrender on 22 March 1946. Following the Manchester Declaration by the Allies on 10 April 1946 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, Cygnia dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, Japan surrendered on 15 August 1946. Thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.

World War III altered the political alignment and social structure of the world. The (UN) was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers – Cygnia, Russia, China, Germany and Austria – became the permanent members of the. The influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia and Africa began. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery.

Invasion of Spain: 1938
The French invasion of Spain kicked off the third and final world war. The French invasion would be from 4 ways. Naval forces would land troops in the north and east while land troops would invaded from the Northeast across the Pyrenees and from Portugal. The intitial combat in WWIII was in the skies mainly over Barcelona and Madrid. The underequiped Spanish Air Force was no match for the Forces aeriennes francaies and their ultramodern Amiot 143 bombers and MS 405 fighters. The Spanish were equipped with WWII era-German French, and Portuguese weapons. The French army crossed the Pyrenees at a snails pace it seemed with the tight high mountains and steep slopes. French naval vessels bombarded Barcelona after the Air Force launched their first raids. French marines equipped with new Fusil automatique 1937 rifles (these weapons would later be copied by the Germans into Grewher 43 rifles) quickly broke into the city. Meanwhile on October 3rd, Portuguese troops with French equipment launched a invasion of Spain and their colonial holdings. Meanwhile with Spain collapsing Japan on October 10th took the Philippines followed by a Australien occupation of Samoa. By October 12th French and Portuguese troops had met in Madrid. French Forgein Minister Georges Bonnet offered to spare Madrid if the Spanish surrendered. They refused. The battle for Madrid was hardfought with some 60% of the original city destroyed in the fighting. Fighting elsewhere in Spain saw the British land troops Southern Spain. The British forces moved their way up into Andalusia and met up with the fasicst in hiding Fransisco Franco and placed him as the head of the government in what Mosely was calling the "Protectorate of Andalusia". On October 19th, 1938 Spain surrendered and succumbed to Fascist control. France formally annexed Basque and Catalonia. Portugal took Galicia and the Canary Islands. Meanwhile Japan annexed the Philipinnes and Samoa was placed under the rule of the government in Willemsland, Australie. Spanish North Africa was annexed by Portugal and Spanish Sahara was partitioned between France and Portugal. Britain retook Gibraltar and the sotuehern penninsula in Iberia. Franco's weak Fascist regime was tied from Seville.

The War Expands: 1938-1940
Along with invading Spain, France also invaded the Netherlands after the Dutch and German declaration of war on October 4th, 1938. The French army had crossed into Flanders and South Holland. The Dutch army was small at first but had recruited some 30,000 men by the declaration of war. The French and Dutch first clashed at Antwerp as the French attempted to take the port. The first battle was brutal and dragged on for 2 weeks. The First Battle of Antwerp managed to halt the Fascist advance on the rest of the Dutch front. However on October 23rd the French won out and the forces in cities like Ghent and Rotterdam were under the threat of being destroyed. On October 30th Rotterdam fell to French troops. The winter weather began to set in during the battles of early November. In parts of Zuid-Holland and Ultrecht the German and Dutch forces massed and counter attacked on November 7th in Operation: Rolling Hills. The farthest the allied troops managed to get was Antwerp with the second battle for that city. The French with extra British troops managed in 10 days to push the Allied troops away. On November 20th the French drove into the rest of the Netherlands mainly overrunning the coast and parts of the South even taking some villages in Western Germany. In Amsterdam the French propped up Anton Mussert with the newly formed Batavian Republic. The fascist Dutch supporters were thrown into combat at a firefight near Veendam in the Northeast. They were slaughtered. Many refused to charge. Others simply ran to the other side to fight for the Allies. Soon French soldiers had to enforce the fascist jackboot on the Batavian conscripts. Meanwhile to the south the French and British provoked the New Italian Empire under Victor Emmanuel II to attack into Austria, a German puppet kingdom. The Italian army had increased its size ever since the jubilant Prime Minister Benito Mussolini launched a coup and ousted the liberal government with the consent of King Emmanuel. The Italian army had the adequate number of weapons and vehicles but it was the quality of them which made the Italian army fair badly. The rifles couldn't shoot straight half the time, the vehicles were poorly armed and armored and broke down often. And the Italian Air Force still liked using their Fiat Cr series which dated back to the Fiat Cr.20 aircraft from 1926. The Italian invasion of Austria was slow as its troops slogged through snow and mountains. Into 1939 the Italian army was slowed 120 miles from Vienna and locked in a war of atrition. Pietro Badoglio, the hero of the Abysinnian Conflict from earlier was declared Generalissimo of the Italian army in Austria. Italy's feudal attempts to seize Austria all winter would end in failure.

The German army was the best of the then current Allied forces in the beginning of 1939. Germany had its armored vehicles and they were decent but most came from borrowed Czech designs. Not to mention some were being used by the Czech army. One notable Czech sniper of Corpral Vaclev Jezek who survived the war fighting in the Rhineland, Austria, his home country twice, Russia, Italy, and lastly, he shipped himself off to Siberia where he was wounded by a stray Japanese machine gun bullet in Korea. The French and British on March 3rd, 1939 occupied all of Holland. French troops drove into the northwest states of Germany. Spring 1939 saw heavy fighting in the Rhineland as the Germans attempted to "Bleed the French white" as they attempted to retake Alsace-Lorraine.

"Good evening my friends. Today I announce that late this afternoon, French forces waved the flag of fascism over Cologne. I promise, that we Germans, shall do everything in our power to stop the hordes that were influenced by that of the Anglo-Saxon menace. Their anti-German, jealous ideologies drive them to hating us so much we must put each and every one of them down like animals. For that is who they are. I call you, every man, woman, and child, capable of fighting. To take up your arms and protect your families. The state of the Reich and of god are at stake of being torn down by madmen at the heads of dying empires. Kill the schwein that seek to tear us down. For we shall fight on the beaches, fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the streets, and in the fields. We shall never surrender"- aging Kaiser Wilhelm II to the Reichstag, August 1939.

However even as the Kaiser spoke some of the most influential words of the war. The call of two new ideologies would clash, not in Europe, Africa, or Asia, but in the land down under.

For years the Democratic Republic of Cygnia and the Australien Rijk had been at each others throats for years. The Australasian arms raced consumed each others populations. The peace all came crashing down in September of 1939. The invasion was swift in the early plans by Australie to take parts of Cygnia. The battle of Tennant Creek was the first major battle in the front. The Australiens under the leadership of Johan Vijolen and their copy of the French combined arms tactics used earlier (now know by the Australiens as Bilksem orrlog). The main commander General Hans van Heuten combined his Luchmacht air squadrons with fast moving Schilld regiments Cygnian tanks such as the Cruiser III and the heavier medium tank the M3 Heller with its 75mm sponson gun were easy tagets for the Fokker FA-87 Pelican dive bombers of the Luchmacht. Through the later part of September and October the Australien advance was halted by the Cygnian Lieutenant General Jackson Kennedy (who would prove himself in the latter Pacific front of 1944-1946). The commanders of Cygnia and Australie waited over the coarse of the Southern Winter. Rushing supllies to the troops sitting in the scorching sun and training for combat in the summer. But that was in the center of the continent. Up north the fighting continued with General Vijolen fighting to take Darwin. The fighting in the city was fierce. Cygnian troops, outgunned and surrounded surrendered in January 1940 due to a lack of fresh water and ammunition. This was one of the first times that the Australiens successfully used naval forces to take an area. Australien troops landed under both enemy and covering fire from Cygnian artillery and the pocket battleship RMS Zuid-Papeo.

1940 saw the opening of the North American theater. The fascist Louisianan state with supplies coming in from France and some minor support from the Integralist regime in Brazil struck in winter at the Dutch dominion in New Netherland and the Empire of Mexico. Louisiana mainly struck hard at New Netherland in the first stages of the conflict. LSAF bombers hit New Amsterdam, Detroit, Adrianberg, and Burgh. The industrial cities and factories of Iroquoisa were heavily damaged by Louisianan Amiot bombers. Troops from the 1st Quebec volunteers where quickly thrown into the fray in the battle of Mohawkville against Indian militia and soldiers with the occasional New Netherland armored group. However the problem wasn't with the LS leadership but with the amount of men they could field. Their plan was to dominate the continent with the materials they had. Louisiana compared to Mexico and New Netherland was vasty underpopulated almost by 30 million.

Europe in 1940 was a interesting place to say the least. Fighting was stalled across the continent. In January a joint Anglo-French marine force landing in Norway. German troops couldn't save the country in time.