World War II (Mink’s World)

World War II is and was the greatest and deadliest war the world has ever seen in this timeline. This war involved two sides: the Rising Axis powers and the Allied Powers. The Axis powers contained Germany, Japan (and minor puppets) Italy and Finland pitched in as well on the Axis side. The Allied powers were Britain (and puppets), the Soviet Union and China.

Pre-War Events
There were many Pre-War events that have led up to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Italian Ethiopian War
On October 2nd 1935, Benito Mussolini prepared troops along the Somalian-Ethiopian Border. The troops were told to cross the border the next day. On October 3rd the troops crossed into Ethiopia. The first attempt were to take major cities along the border. The Italians did just that taking all major cities along the border withing the week. German troops couldn't make it to Italian Somaliland in time as they Italians were expected to make it to the capital of Ethiopia by Christmas.

Over the month of October Italy would make large gains. Germany gave them air support effectively whipping out the small Ethiopian air force. Meanwhile, the League of Nations stomped their feet saying this was uncalled for and violated Article X of the League of Nations. On November 14th the Shire Offensive was ordered leading to many Ethiopian casualties but little Italian gains. The last offensive of the war was ordered on the 2nd of December. With supplies dwindling and the Italians rapidly approaching the Ethiopian Capital Haile Selassie called for a ceasefire and would accept any Italian Demands.

Soviet Coup in the Russian Empire
The Communist part in Russia has been around since the 20s after many controversial policies the tsar brought up after the First World War. Russia was in much debt and many citizens were not liking the tsar's regime. A group of Communists came together in 1933 and planned to stage a coup in the Russian Empire in about a year. They planned to storm St. Petersburg on the 22nd of October toppling the tsarist regime in Russia they planned to implement a Communist Regime (not as Communist in our timeline). There were many people involved in the coup. These people included Georgy Zhukov (a high ranking official in the tsarist army) Joseph Stalin (a Russian who was full Communist) and many more Pro-Communists. They planned to storm St. Petersburg with about 10,000 men.

On October 22nd, 1933, 10,000 Pro-Soviets stormed St. Petersburg. Within minutes, the Royal family was evacuated to Finland as in an agreement made after the Finnish Civil war. (In the event of a coup or any military action from the people of Russia Finland would accept any Royal Family Member as a refugee and they would continue their operations in Helsinki) With the Royal Family fleeing and the St. Petersburg Guard trying to get organized the citizens of St. Petersburg started to flee abroad and for some time the Finns had to deny entry of the Russians. By the late hours of the 22nd the St. Petersburg Guard were forced to the Royal palace and the grounds surrounding it. At about 1:00 in the morning the tsar got hold of the Guard and told them and called for a ceasefire. Georgy Zhukov was put into power the next day.

Lebensraum and Agreements
After Hitler's rise to power in 1933 he began to denounce the Treaty of Versailles. First he militarized the Rhineland in early March of 1936. France at this time rioted and almost came close to all out war. Next in 1938 two years after the militarizing of the Rhineland Hitler decided to invade Austria in 1938 (This tactic was called Lebensraum). Throughout the world this was seen as something good that Hitler reunited two German-speaking lands. Next Hitler looked to Czechoslovakia. Seeing an opportunity he sent an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia and negotiated for the Sudetenland with a lot of ethnic Germans. After that Hitler looked to seizing all of Czechoslovakia later the same year.

During Hitler's seizure of power he looked for other partners to join him. First he looked at Italy recently winning the Italo-Ethiopian War in 1936. Hitler established relations with Benito Mussolini in 1937 signing a non-aggression pact between the two nations in August of 1937. Hitler also knew he needed the Japanese partner Hirohito and in 1937 they also established a non-aggression pact. About a year after the non-aggression pacts Hitler formed the Tripartite Pact or the Axis in late 1938. Note: Finland attended all of the meetings of the Axis but never fully signed the Pact. After the formation he knew that if he was to take down Poland he would need to sign a pact with Georgy Zhukov of the USSR in March 1939 - signing what would be called the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

Japanese invasion of China
The Japanese invasion of China also known as the Second Sino-Japanese War was initiated on July 7th 1937 by the Marco Polo Bridge incident. The Marco Polo Bridge incident was a incident likely staged by the Japanese where the Japanese opened fire on the Chinese Nationalists currently in a civil war. This started the Second Sino-Japanese War. Over the next two years the Japanese will battle the Chinese and would be a stalemate when the Second World War Started.

Course of the War
This will go over the course of the war.

Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg or German word for Lightning warfare was the tactic that Germany used during the Second World War and proved quite successful.

Invasion of Poland
The Invasion of Poland was first on the agenda. The German troops crossed the border into Poland on September 1st, 1939, marking the beginning of World War 2, Two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Invasion of Poland was swift, the polish army had very little time for general mobilization. On September 17th 1939 Russian troops crossed into Poland. By the 17th German Panzers were able to make it some 150 Miles into Poland. The Polish army wanted to regroup at Warsaw. The German Panzers were too much and with the Soviets invading from the East all hope war lost. The Polish Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły called for all Polish soldiers to make it through any neighbor country to hopefully make it to France. Some will make it in time to France for the Invasion.

Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the invasion of Denmark and Norway. After the end of the Invasion of Poland Hitler ordered for no invasion and waited for the Spring of 1940 to invade the Low Countries and France. This invasion was made quickly. The Invasion of Denmark war the quickest in the war. German paratroopers flew over the Danish Capital Copenhagen on January 9th, 1940. About four hours later, Denmark surrendered.

Norway was a bit tricky for the Germans because Hitler had to somehow land troops into Norway - preferably Oslo. The Germans who were supposed to land in Norway disembarked from Rostok on January 18th 1940. They were expected to land in Oslo on the 30th of January. Meanwhile, the German ambassador to Norway wrote to the Prime Minister of Norway Johan Nygaardsvold a declaration of war. He did not see this until after German troops landed in Oslo. German troops landed in Oslo on the 30th of January starting the battle of Oslo. This was only one-half of the task force as the other one-half spread out across Norway. Most notable, some landed in Bergen and others landed in Narvik. These both started two-week long battles which the German ultimately won. Oslo fell within three days of the Invasion. There was not enough time for a general mobilization. Notable Brian and France started to send troops Norway's way.

The Norwegians planned to evacuate to Finmark recently given back to Norway in 1922 under a peace agreement dissolving the Swedish Empire. The Norwegians planned to fight back -the Germans holding them at Narvik. The Luftwaffe ruled the skies as the Norwegian air force was effectively eliminated on February 3. Meanwhile, the Germans in Bergen were making swift progress. It was expected for Oslo group and Bergen group to meet up within a day. That happened as planned on February 7th. Now the Germans planned to catch the British and French off guard in southern Narvik. Once the French and British learned of the plan they immediately evacuated. The Battle of Narvik continued for two more days as the Norwegians in the south were caught off guard and were forced to surrender. The main Norwegian army evacuated to Finmark effectively ending the Battle of Narvik. A British fleet of ships met them there and were sent to Britain to fight when the time came. They would be known as the Norwegian legion.

The Low Countries Campaign
The low counties campaign in World War 2 was the German invasion on the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Luxembourg put up little of a fight against the Germans as their army was little to effective against the German war machine and fell in March 3rd, 1940. Next was the invasion of the Netherlands the Netherlands had only one day to mobilize their military and little under one-quarter was mobilized. The Germans invaded on the 4th of March. A bloody battle ensued in the Netherlands while they put up a large effort to stop the Germans. The Germans overran all Dutch defenses on the 10th and proceeded to Amsterdam and on the 10th the Dutch surrendered.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[9428,10131,0,0]}">By now UK was urging Belgium to join the Allies. The Belgians refused witch proved to be a fatal mistake. On the 15th of March 1940, German troops crossed into Belgium. Now Belgium joined the Allies but it was to late British and french troops could not arrive to the front line in time and the German Panzers in the south surrounded the main British and French armies. This was an encirclement and the British tried to defend Brussels. The Germans immediately crossed into and forced the city to surrender. The rest of the British and French task forces were stuck in Antwerp and surrounded on all sides. There was no chance of escaping, forcing about 750,000 troops to surrender on the 18th of March.

Invasion of France
<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[10162,10697,0,0]}">The invasion of France commenced on the 20th of March 1940. It consisted or a forward thrust through northern Belgium into northern France. Britain was only able to put few troops into France by the time of the offensive. Once German troops crossed into France it was already over. France thought they would invade through the Maginot line - a series of fortifications on the border of France and Germany. When German troops crossed into France the men in the Maginot line were forced to stay put and not retreat to a better position.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[10699,11412,0,0]}">By March 25th 1940 German troops have already crossed into France and by then were already 50 miles in. British troops were given the order to evacuate if the situation became dire. On April 1st 1940 Italy was called into the war. Italy became a diversionary force forcing France to pull troops from the main front. This was the final nail in the coffin for France. By April 10th German Panzers could see the Suburbs of Paris. A four-day battle ensued in the end leaving the Germans victorious. British operation code named Operation: Red was the evacuation of all British troops from France. The operation proceeded and German troops swept through France and France finally surrendered on the 20th of April 1940.

The Blitz
<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[11432,12027,0,0]}">The Blitz proceeded the fall of France. This Blitz was just trying to gain air superiority of the English Channel and Britain as an invasion of Britain would be suicide for the German Navy. The Germans tried to gain air superiority as early as May 2nd. Britain conditioned to be bombed for days, weeks and months on end. No peace was tossed around as the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not want to surrender. British Cities were bombed to the ground and the factories were rendered useless due to how much they were bombed. Many British citizens lived underground during the Blitz.

North African Campaign
<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[12060,12438,0,0]}">The North Africa Campaign was the largest front of the war during the Summer of 1940. the Front was mainly composed of Italian troops as Germany would have to move troops to North Africa. Italian troops only had to focus on a small sliver of land as most of the Desert was nearly impassible. Worth a mention during the summer of 1940 temperatures in 1940 drooped below freezing.