Role Reversal: WWII

On June 16th, 1917, Germany sent the Zimmermman Telegram to Mexico. Germany's plan was to help Mexico invade the United States, to keep the Americans from intervening in Europe. Germany would then unleash total submarine warfare upon the British Navy, blockade Britain, and negotiate a peace with the UK and France. British agents intercepted the telegram, informed the other Allies, and then it was impossible for Mexico to invade under so much pressure?

What if Britain never intercepted the telegram? In this timeline, Britain never does, and Mexico invades the United States, claiming it had "no connections with the German Empire."

Attack: Mexico invades the United States
On March 3rd, 1917, Mexico invaded the United States. It was bleak times. The war in Europe between Germany, Britain, France, and Russia was at its peak, and the United States was leaning towards the side of the allies. The US was supported by the Allies (Britain, France, and Russia) and Mexico was supported by the Central Powers (Germany, Turkey, and Bulgaria).

The war kicked off when Mexican artillery began a massive shelling of American military installations in San Diego and El Paso, both near the border. San Diego and southern California was not the objective for Mexican troops. But the first battle began their as Mexico tried to quickly surprise-attack and knock out America’s largest military base in the southwest.

Mexico declared war shortly after. US-president Woodrow Wilson ordered 200,000 American soldiers to be mobilized and sent to the boundary to fight Mexico. As conflict heated up in the new “North American Front”, other Central Powers used the clash as a distraction for other plans they had in mind.

 

Over the Top: Central Powers Advance
Mexico and the United States are actively engaged in southwestern USA. Mexican forces penetrate as far as Phoenix and San Antonio without meeting larger reserves of formal American soldiers.

Meanwhile, other Central Powers deemed the North American Front a distraction. A week after the Mexican attack, Germany renewed unrestricted submarine warfare, violating the Sussex Pledge. German U-boats were unleashed upon Great Britain in full force. German troops went “over the top” in Reims, a city sitting right on the front lines and involved in a vicious stalemate. Soon after, Germany took Reims, broke through the Trenches, and began a drive southwest towards Paris.

Also in 1917, Russia exited the war in the Eastern Front. A communist revolution was taking place. Germany took advantage of the chaos and refused to accept Russia’s cry for peace in the east. German forces continued their advance into East Prussia and Ukraine. Both the Provisional Government and Bolshevik revolutionaries fell quickly to the coming German attackers.

Japan took advantage as well and launched a campaign on the other side of the world- the Pacific. Japan, a formal ally, declared war on Great Britain, France, the United States, and Russia’s provisional government. Imperial Japan attacked enemy spheres of influence in China, occupied the disputed Manchuria region, and attack Russian Siberia from Manchuria and Korea. The United States then counter-attacked from the Philippines.

Back in North America, the Mexican advance into the United States was halted. Mexican soldiers were beginning to be beaten back by America. The entire North American Front was seen in Europe as a distraction to keep American soldiers away from intervening in Europe. By the fall, the British blockade of German ports was crushed, and German U-boats dominated the English Channel. The tide had turned for the Central Powers.

German Victory
Germany’s advance continued. By March of 1918, German general Erich Ludendorff was rolling unopposed through Russia en route to Moscow. As German soldiers closed in on Paris, the battered French and British armies lost hope for every yard they retreated.

On April 7th, 1918, Paris fell to German forces. It had taken four years of trench warfare, but France finally surrendered. Three weeks later, Moscow fell to Germany. The last battle in Europe took place in Moscow, the final Russian resistance. For the first time since 1914, the guns in Europe fell silent. Germany would not only rule occupied Russia, but also crush the communist rebellion.

Britain, the United States, and remaining allies were scared. Germany’s victory on both fronts could possibly mean a seaborne invasion of Great Britain. Germany emperor Wilhelm II offered to the United Kingdom a peace treaty.

Meanwhile, the Americans pushed back the Mexican army into Mexico. Mexico City surrendered in late 1817; and temporarily the whole country came under American occupation. The North American Front was the only allied victory in the war.

Japan won in the pacific- in the late winter and early spring of 1918, Japanese forces captured Midway and Hawaii. The United States and Japan signed a peace treaty after the Battle of Hawaii. After Japan captured the strategic naval base at Pearl Harbor, US president Woodrow Wilson feared invasion.

Britain had little options. On November 11th, 1918, all British forces remaining in Europe surrendered. The war was over, but the officially treaty declaring it’s end was the Treaty of the Reichstag. World War I, the War to End all Wars, was over.

Germany as a Superpower
Germany prospered. Massive territory was added to the German Empire. All the former British territories were now part of the German. The cession of France, Europe’s third most industrialized country, greatly benefited the German economy. Germany established puppet regimes in France, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. All of Britain’s former colonies were absorbed into the German Empire. Austria-Hungary also Serbia and Albania. The Ottoman Empire took back Arabia, Egypt, Greece, and Bulgaria. Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary enjoyed political and military control over Europe and the World.

Great Brittan, as well as her allies Russia, Italy, and Spain, suffered. The economy got worse and worse. The 1920s were the worst decade in British history. Although the US, Spain, and Italy were neutral during World War I, the collapse of the American and British economies led to the others failing. As a result of loosing the Great War, Great Brittan faced countless hardships.

Hardships in Great Brittan were at their peak in 1924. The United Kingdom government was weak, and soon the army was drastically reduced in size. Soon, mobs broke out on the streets. England was in chaos. Right-wing mobs and left-wing mobs battled for control and stability in Brittan. From 1924 to 1928, these years were known as the “Years of Crisis”.

Restoring Glory: Rise of Fascism in Britain
But soon, a new, right wing political party came to power in Great Britain called the National Anglo’s Socialist Party (NASP), or “the Nazis.”, as they were called. They grew in power in the parliament throughout the 1920s, and in 1932 controlled 70% of the British Government.

This radical group, formed from a similar one in Germany itself, wanted “revival” and “revenge” against Germany. The Nazis wanted to rebuild the British Empire, take back all her colonies, and defeat Germany and crush her sovereignty. Similar fascist groups were forming in Italy and Spain.

In 1931, the United Kingdom was renamed the Socialist British Empire, with the Nazis as the only political party permitted. Parliament was shut down, and a man named Colin Jordan was now the “Master of Britain”. Jordan was the leader of the Nazis, and he promised a “restoration of the British Empire.” He promised to restore glory.

Road to War
The Nazis built up the British army, navy, and air force. Millions of Anglos were sent into the factories or drafted into the military. Soon, it become obvious war between Germany and Great Britain would occur.

In 1937, the British Empire annexed Wales without permission from Germany. When Colin Jordan ordered troops and tanks to fill the towns in the region, the Wales Dominion backed down. A year later, Britain formed a similar act with Scotland. British troops were sent into the country, occupied it, and annexed it, all without German permission.

In 1939, Great Britain declared war on the Republic of Ireland and invaded. The country fell quickly to British armies. But Jordan knew that this time, Germany and her allies wouldn’t back down. And on September 1st, 1939, Germany declared war on Great Britain. World War II had begun in Europe.

War Overview
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World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict between 1939 and 1944, which involved most of the world’s nations, including all great powers, organized into two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history. In a state of “total war”, the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort. This erased the distinction between civilian and military resources. Over seventy million people, the majority civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.

The start of the war is generally held to be September 1st, 1939, with the invasion of Ireland by Nazi Britain and subsequent declarations of war on Great Britain by most of the countries in the German Empire and Grand Alliance. Many countries were already at war before this date, such as Ethiopia and Italy in the Italian-Ethiopian War. Many who were not initially involved joined the war later, as a result of events such as the Russian invasion of Germany and Austria, the United States attack on Japanese Oahu.

In 1945, the war ended in a victory for the Allies. Great Britain and the United States subsequently emerged as the world’s superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War. This lasted for 46 years. The United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another world conflict. The acceptance of decolonization movements accelerated and the popularity of imperialism declined. Central Europe itself began moving towards integration.

The Road to World War II
A variety of events led to the escalation of hostilities between the Axis and Allied powers prior to the start of the war. In the aftermath of World War I, a defeated Great Britain signed the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty caused Germany to loose about 35% of its home territory and all of its overseas colonies. With one treaty, the entire British Empire disappeared. The treaty also prohibited British annexation of other territory, imposed massive reparations, and limited the size and makeup of Germany’s armed forces.

After the Russian Independence War in 1927, Russia gained independence from Germany and caused tensions. In France, Napoleon IV seized power as a fascist dictator promising to create a “Restore glory to the French.” In the United States, the radical socialist party gained popularity, which was actually considered far right wing rather then left wing.

After World War I, Japan became the dominating power in the Pacific, and established an empire “from the Himalayas to Hawaii.” The Kuomintang rebellion in China launched a unification campaign against Japan and declared independence in 1924, but Japanese forces were sent to China to quash the revolt. A guerilla war in China continued into the 1930s. In 1931, the United States socialist party sought to regain lost territory in the Pacific and defeat Japan, now a total enemy.

Winston Churingham, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the British government in 1923, became the Prime Minister ten years later, in 1933. He abolished democracy and established the Socialist British Empire in England. Churingham spoke of restoring glory to Britain, re-establish the British colonies, and defeat Germany. Churingham soon began a massive rearmament campaign. He blamed Britain’s defeat in the Great War on the Irish who revolted in 1916, quoting “the damn Irish stabbed us in the back. It is our god given right to rule Ireland.”

Hoping to contain Britain, the nations of the Grand Alliance, chiefly Germany and Italy, formed the Stresa Front against Britain. Germany was also concerned about Eastern Europe, when Russian leaders were boasting about capturing vast areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and Romania.

In June 1935, Germany made an independent naval agreement with Great Britain, easing prior restrictions. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August. In October, France invaded Algeria, with Britain the only major European nation supporting her invasion.

Churingham defied the Versailles treaty by remilitarizing the area around Liverpool, on the border with Wales and Ireland across the Irish Channel. He received little response from other European powers. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, Churingham and Mussolini supported fascist Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s nationalist forces in his civil war against the US-supported Spanish Republic. Both sides used the conflict to test new weapons and methods of warfare.

Mounting tensions led to several efforts to strengthen or consolidate power. In October 1936, Britain and France signed the London-Paris Axis. A month later, Britain and Japan signed the British-Pacific Pact, which France would join the following year. In China, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire in order to establish a united front to oppose Japanese aggression.

Britain invades Ireland: The War Begins

On September 1st, 1939, Britain and Scotland (a client state in 1939) attacked Ireland. Germany, Italy, and the countries of the Grand Alliance declared war on Britain but provided little military support to Poland, other then a small French bombing of Southampton, a British port.

Following the invasion of Ireland, the United States forced the Canadian provinces to allow it to station American troops in their countries under pacts of mutual assistance. The United States then demanded Canada hand over southeast Ontario, the Toronto Peninsula, to the United States. Canada rejected territorial demands and was invaded by the United States in November 1939.

The resulting conflict ended in March 1940 with Canadian concessions. Italy and Germany, treating the American attack on Canada as an undeclared entry into the war supporting the British, responded with the United State’s by it’s expulsion from the Union of Nations.

In Europe, British troops were deployed to the continent, but in a phrase nicknamed the Phony War by the British and “Sitzkrieg” (sitting war) by the Germans, neither side launched major operations against each other until April 1940.

The United States and Britain entered a trade pact in February of 1940, pursuant to which the Americans received British military and industrial equipment in exchange for supplying raw materials to Britian to help circumvent a German blockade.

In April, Britain invaded Denmark and Norway to secure shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Germans tried to disrupt. Denmark immediately capitulated, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months. Throughout March and April, the British prepared for an invasion of mainland Europe, which was set to occur in May.

British Invasion of Europe:

On May 10th, 1940, Britain and France invaded Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, from the air and sea primarily. The Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks respectively. The German fortified Baden Line was circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly wooded Ardennes region, mistakenly perceived by the Germans as an impenetrable natural barrier against armored vehicles.

German armies were unprepared and never would have thought of an Anglo-French invasion. German troops were forced to flee through Austria into Italy, abandoning their heavy equipment by the end of the month.

On June 10th, Russia invaded, declaring war on both Italy and Germany. Twelve days later, Germany surrendered, and was soon divided into Russian, British, and French occupation zones. A small rump state was established in the areas of Bohemia, Bavaria, and western Austria. This was called the German Federation.

With Germany neutralized, Britain began an air superiority campaign over Italy to prepare for an invasion. With British and French troops over-stretched occupying Germany, the invasion plans were cancelled in September. The Italians succeeded in shooting down British plains, and on the ground mobilized for an attack on the German Federation, which it bordered.

With using newly captured German and Dutch ports, the British navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Italian navy, using U-boats against Italian shipping in the Mediterranean. France began operations in the Mediterranean, invading Sardinia in June, conquering Tunisia in August, and making an incursion into Italian-held Libya in September 1940. The United States increased its blockade of Mexico by seizing several bases in French Guiana. These actions, again, were largely ignored by European powers.

Throughout this period, the neutral Japan took measures to assist Mexico and the Grand Alliance. In November 1939, the Japanese Prosperity Act was amended to allow ‘Cash and Carry’ purchases by the Grand Alliance.

In 1940, following the British/French capture of Berlin, the size of the Japanese Navy significantly increased, and, after the American incursion into Central America, Japan embargoed iron, steel, and mechanical parts against the United States. Still, a large majority of Japanese continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941.

At the end of September 1940, the Axis Pact united Britain, France, and Russia to formalize the Axis Powers. The pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the United States, not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go into war against all three.

During this time, Japan continued to support Mexico and Italy by lending war materials and other items to the Grand Alliance. Japanese battleships escorted these supplies to her allies, and Japan established a convoy system. If any enemy submarine attacked a trading vessel, the Japanese would open fire.

As a result, Britain and Japan found themselves engaged in sustained, if undeclared, naval warfare in the North and Central Atlantic by October 1941, even though Japan remained officially neutral.