1939, an alternate world

The year is 1938. Due to the recent Anchluss of Austria and the growing power and aggression of the Axis powers, France looks to its defences. While the Maginot line remains strong there are weaknesses along the north and southern border with Belgium and Italy, remembering the Schlieffen plan of WW1, France makes a proposition to Belgium.

The proposition is an offering of a deal, in return for protection Belgium will install a series of defences along its German border. Belgium, fearing the might of the 3rd Reich, accepted this deal, no longer trusting the Axis to respect its neutral status.

Following this in January 1939 Neville Chamberlain died in a hotel room, having been shot three times by a Communist revolutionary seeking to destabilize the government. With Chamberlain dead, a leadership election is held, between Alec Douglas-Home and Winston Churchill, with Churchill winning a majority of the votes. 

The following year Churchill set about arming the UK for war, ending appeasement and gathering war support amongst the Commonwealth and the British people. He sent the British Expeditionary Force  to garrison a new defensive line in Belgium, and set about switching factories to a war time economy. While this seemed like a strange and economically disastrous move to the Conservatives, to the people who now wanted a war, it was genius. 

Following these preparations, and those of Belgium and the French, the allies were ready for war, a fact Hitler overlooked when he started his invasion of Poland in August 1939. German Panzer divisions easily overran Polish defenses, Poland called for aid from the West however France and Belgium were unwilling to leave their defensive line. However Churchill saw the benefit of pushing Germany onto a 2 front war and so invited Norway, Denmark and Sweden into the allies. Together the UK and these 3 governments formed a volunteer force and sent it into Poland, guarded by the Royal Navy. Once this force arrived they went to the front and started constructing defenses along natural river lines. With the help of the Polish Aid Army, Germany's advance was halted just outside Warsaw. 

With the Germans being held outside of Poland, Churchill saw his chance and started drawing up invasion plans with the French, who had gathered around 2 million men on the front. However Churchill then received worrying news, the Soviet Union had invaded Poland. 

The PAA withdrew to the Polish coast, as the UK and France didn’t want to push the USSR into joining the Axis, at the same time Italy joined the war. With these new developments invasion plans were scrapped and the allies dug in, with the Royal Navy and PAA helping to evacuate Polish citizens while the Polish army bought them time. 

By January 1940 the PAA had withdrawn from Poland, with Warsaw and then the country falling a week later. While Poland had fallen the PAA had managed to evacuate 400,000 Polish people and 200,000 of the Polish armed forces, which had to leave everything except small arms behind to the Soviets and Germans. 

Germany then diverted its attention to the Western Front, which minus some small skirmishes on the French-Italian border, had seen little fighting. Rommel attempted to punch through the Ardennes, taking the risk that it would be undefended, however his gamble didn’t pay off, as his Panzers slugged through the dense forest they were met by heavy fortifications, and British, Belgium and French troops, who easily pushed back the Panzers, with Rommel himself being captured in the confusion. 

Hitler knew he couldn’t win a war of attrition, and so tried to find ways around the extended Maginot Line, and he found that way with his invasion of the Netherlands. On March 31st a diversionary attack was launched across the Western Front, distracting the Allies from the invasion of the Netherlands, it took 3 days for Panzers to sweep across the unprepared country which was scrambling to try and defend itself, the UK sent a small force of 30,000 men to help the Dutch by time for Belgium and France to dig in along the northern border. British and Dutch troops managed to hold on for a time allowing the government and 300,000 people to escape to the UK with the help of the PAA and Royal Navy. The PAA, now dubbed the EAA (European Aid Army), joined forces with retreating British troops to set up a fall back line across Rotterdam and Amsterdam, while at the same time the Dutch government destroyed dams, flooding the country, which helped in slowing down the advancing Germans. 

For 2 months the fall back line held, with the allies even considering sending men up there to hold, however a spearhead from a Panzer division eventually broke through the line, with the EAA and remaining British/Dutch forces initiating a fighting retreat back to Belgium, which had now had time to set up defences. 

When August of 1941 rolled around, it had become clear the Western Front was a stalemate, and so the 3rd Reich adjusted its strategy. It needed resources if it were to continue the war and so it turned its eyes to Denmark. Denmark had been expecting an attack for some time now from the Germans and so had been setting up defences along the border, it then called the EAA, Norway and Sweden to help defend the border, which proved to be a good idea when Germany attacked. The Danish held the initial fort line for 3 months, while setting up a second line just outside of Copenhagen, but the German army proved just too strong for the Allied forces in the North, pushing them back to the second line, however Germany yet again found themselves unable to push back the allied forces. 

With yet another invasion failed Italy and Germany conducted a final plan. They would attempt an invasion of Greece to draw away allied forces from the Western Front, and then invade the Swiss, cutting a hole in the middle of the Allied defences. So they set about the plan, launching attacks on the defences to distract the allies. 

By January 1942 the plans were ready. However the war had turned against the Axis. The preparations for a war in the UK had proved an essential advantage, as the UK was pumping out aircraft, weapons, armour and ships at an astonishing rate, the USA had been sending supplies and weapons to the UK, which German Submarines had attempted to stop but were crushed by the Royal Navy. Meanwhile Germany was starting to run out of resources, the UK had set up another blockade of Germany and was stopping a vast majority of their imports, this plan had to be a success if France was to fall. 

So on the 23rd of September 1942, Italian and German forces marched into Greece via Albania, at the same time Yugoslavia and Romania were given a choice, join the Axis or be destroyed by the Axis. Romania joined the Axis providing them with oil while Yugoslavia chose to instead join the allies. While the Italians invaded Greece from recently acquired Albania, the Germans sent forces to invade Yugoslavia. Any hope of holding off the Germans was destroyed when Croatia declared Independence and joined the Axis. So Yugoslavia elected to perform a delaying action, buying time for the Allies to send troops to help them, and they already were. The British Commonwealth had rallied with 2 million Volunteers in the UK to join the army, with 1 million being sent to the Western Front while 500,000 men were sent to help Greece. 

When British forces arrived the situation wasn’t good. Italian forces had made some headway into Greece, with the Greeks being unable to provide enough guns to their men. Meanwhile Yugoslavia was being slowly pushed back by Romanian and German forces. The British halved their forces and sent each half to the 2 fronts. With British supplies arriving to arm the Greek army. Combined with British armored and infantry forces the Greeks stalled the Italian advance, before launching a counter attack, pushing Italy out of Albania. 

As the last Italians evacuated home, Yugoslavia fell. The British reinforcements helped hold for a while but eventually the German and Romanians pushed them back. Defences were set up on the Greek border as Bulgaria joined the Axis, making an initial push into Greece, which was pushed back easily. 

Finally with allied forces bogged down in Greece, Germany and Italy launched a 2 pronged attack into Switzerland. However there is a reason nobody invades the Swiss. With a month every Swiss citizen was armed and sent to the front to man the endless forts in the Alps, Italian and German forces were easily held back until the British and French arrived to supplement them. 

With a stalemate confirmed in Western Europe the war looked like it was heading back to the way it was in WW1, however there would be more twists to come. First was the Allies winning the Africa Campaign. With German forces distracted in Europe, Italy was left alone to defend its colonies in Africa. Ethiopia fell quickly, and a puppet regime set up in Eritrea and Ethiopia. However Libya proved more difficult to take. 

The Italians had launched an invasion into Egypt hoping to secure Alexandria before Britain's African forces could return from Ethiopia, Italy easily overwhelmed the garrison force left to defend Egypt, however the successful attack wouldn’t last long. When British forces returned and took up positions in Egypt they were soon supplemented by Australians and South Africans, with these combined forces Italy was pushed all the way back to Tobruck. Italy held the town for the next 3 years, however with Italy being pushed out of Albania their line in Tobruck was broken, and Italy had been pushed out of Libya 3 weeks later. 

The second event that changed the war was the Pearl Harbour attack. While Japan initially planned the attack for 1941 they chose to stay their hand, being discouraged by the failure of Germany in Europe. However by 1942 they had no choice, with the Chinese front stalling due to a lack of oil, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, in the attack 1 Carrier, 3 battleships were lost. While the US fleet scrambled, the Japanese followed this attack with a ground attack, with Japanese transports landing on the beaches of Pearl Harbour while Japanese Battleships cut off the Fleet that remained intact. After a day of fighting Pearl Harbour was overrun and the garrison surrendered. The Japanese captured 4 battleships, 3 destroyers, 5 Submarines and a cruiser, as well as 1,000 American Aircraft. They also captured the key facilities within Pearl Harbour. 

The following day Japan launched a quick surprise attack against the Allies and US, capturing the rest of Hawaii, also attacking Guam, the Wake Islands, Singapore, Malaya and Hong Kong. While most of these areas fell within the day, Malaya and Hong Kong managed to resist, with Hong Kong becoming besieged by Japanese forces.

Unsurprisingly the USA declared war on Japan, as well as the Allies, and Hitler then declared war on the USA, wanting to show support to his allies in Japan. 

Countries on both sides of the war were filled with a new resolve and new dread. The US pacific fleet had been crippled by the attack on Pearl Harbor however Japan hadn’t won the war. In Hong Kong the garrison of 3000 British troops dug in, while in Malaya the Garrison held off the initial attack, quickly being supported by Indian, Australian and Kiwi troops, the USA set about converting their economy to that of a war time economy while the British and the Dutch, operating from the colony of the Dutch East Indies, started to create a force to respond to the Japanese, who were now advancing through French Indochina, and making massive headway on a Chinese offensive. 

Hitler, having been unable to get around the maginot, tried to get through it with Brute force, launching several attacks on Belgium, France and Switzerland while Italy pushed in the south, these attacks however failed miserably. Hitler then attempted another push into Copenhagen but was yet again held back. 

Until now Hitler had ordered the Luftwaffe to try and damage the British Industry and Naval forces, however the RAF ensured little damage was done, with hundreds of German Aircraft being shot down. Realizing the futility of his attack on the UK he recalled his planes and instead ordered them to focus on Denmark, ordering the Kreigsmarine to focus on cutting off supplies to that front. 

This plan met initial success with the Danish defenses being pummeled and several convoys heading from the UK being sunk, but eventually the Royal Navy fought off the German U-Boats, sinking around 30 of them. 

However the Luftwaffe had performed their job well, with defences being pummelled Germany launched another attack, pushing into and taking Copenhagen. They then set up defences along the coast but with the Royal Navy holding the Danish straits any invasion of Sweden and Norway had to be called off for now. 

By the time January of 1943 rolled around the Allies decided they had been on the defense for too long and so the British and French drew up plans for an invasion of Italy and southern Germany. Churchill tried to convince Roosevelt to send men to help however the USA was occupied with the Pacific war and rebuilding the Pacific fleet so they could challenge the Japanese navy again. 

After several months of planning and discreetly moving around troops and resources, successfully hidden due to the skill of the British Secret Service, the UK and France were ready to launch Operation happyfields. First an attack into Bulgaria and Occupied Yugoslavia would be launched from Greece and Albania to divert German resources. Then a naval invasion of Sicily would be launched from Malta. Finally a diversionary attack would be launched on the Western Front and naval invasions into Northern Denmark to further split German resources.  Once these attacks had commenced a final naval landing would be launched into Southern Denmark to cut off the German forces in the north.  

July 1943 and the attacks were launched. On the Western Front allied forces marched into the German line, even making some unexpected advances into Germany and the Occupied Netherlands. The attacks in Northern Denmark were also successful, as the German garrison in Denmark was vastly overestimated in strength, and finally the Southern Naval invasion met success, taking over Southern Denmark and cutting off the German forces occupying the country. 

At the same time the naval invasion into Sicily met initial success, with Sicily falling in a week. However the attack would be halted, with heavy Italian defences stopping an assault into the mainland of the country. 

With the allies successfully cutting off Germans in Denmark and gaining significant ground in the invasions of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Western Germany, Hitler panicked, ordering the withdrawal of all forces back to Germany to set up a last defense. 

This withdrawal gave France and the Swiss an opportunity. They launched a 2 pronged attack North from the Maginot line and the Northern Alps, cutting off half of the now retreating German army, encircling them on the Western Wall Hitler had constructed. 

The cut off German army prepared to dig in, knowing their only chance was to be liberated by the other half of the German army, however no such liberation would arrive and the Germans were besieged, after 3 months with no sign of help they attempted a breakout, however they were easily pushed back and then surrendered. 

This mass surrender should’ve spelled the end for Germany, with forces in Denmark also surrendering and the Front collapsing on all sides, with the allies pushing to retake Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and Vienna falling to the oncoming British and Greek forces, but Italy had a plan.

For the past 2 years Italy had been trying to convince Spain to enter the war, promising that they would face little resistance from the French and win the war for the Axis, and finally Spain joined the war to help them. 

In November of 1943 100,000 Spanish troops marched into the Southern French border, easily overwhelming the meagre French defenders. Britain rushed to reinforcer the Gibraltar Garrison and arrived just in time to fend off the small Spanish attack. Now that the Axis had finally gotten around the Maginot line Italy ordered a push on the Southern Front, pushing back the French forces, they also launched attacks into Austria and Switzerland but these were stalled and eventually pushed back. 

France was forced to pull back men from the German front to stop the Spanish, allowing the Germans to launch a counter attack, pushing back to the Rhine and Danish borders, in the South the Allies halted their advance, instead fortifying and holding the Austrian border until they could regroup. 

As 1944 rolled around the Axis appeared to have made a comeback, Southern France had been occupied by Spain and Italy and most of Germany remained unoccupied. However the Allies also had an ace up their sleeve. 

The UK invoked the alliance of 1313, calling Portugal into the war, British troops rushed in to support the Portugese, launching 2 invasions into Spain, 1 from Portugal and the other from Gibraltar, Spain wasn’t prepared for an invasion or elongated war and the country fell quickly, with Spanish forces being pulled back from the French front, Italy was also pushed back to the Alps, however without time to dig in they were pushed back further, with Venice, Milan and Genoa being occupied. 

The forces in Sicily also made a breakthrough in Southern Italy. With Italy being pushed back on 2 sides they looked like they would soo capitulate, and they did when King Emmenual 3rd gathered supporters of the monarchy and democracy and marched on Rome, after a brief Skirmish Mussolini and his bodyguards were killed, the new government quickly sued for peace with the allies as the war front collapsed. 

With Italy and Spain out of the war, confidence wasn’t high in Germany. In the following weeks Bulgaria would be occupied by Greek and British forces, and a democratic coup in Romania sent the country into civil war, with the facist dictators being overthrown. 

Germany soon found itself alone, without resources, and with industry being endlessly bombarded by the RAF. Hitler tried his best to rally the nation to defend itself, to rally the German people to defend the motherland, but it was to no avail.

In February of 1944 the Allies launched a final offense, the German front line saw heavy and brutal fighting but was barely holding on, and finally collapsed after a month, with the German army in full retreat, a selection of German people, democrats, monarchists, anarchists, all gathered in Weimar to pronounce a new government, they gathered around 400,000 men and declared war on the 3rd Reich, a majority of the German army flocked to their cause, even a few NAZI leaders hoping to avoid punishment, however, those leaders were soon executed. 

By March 10th of 1944 Berlin was surrounded, the rest of Germany was either occupied or had abandoned the NAZI regime, Berlins only defenders were the SS and a few German divisions that remained loyal until the end, even old men and children living in the city were drafted to fight for the fatherland, but this would not help.

British, French, Greek, Swedish, Norewgian, Danish, Romanian, Yugoslavian, Dutch and finally Belgian troops marched into Berlin, the defenders lasted 10 days but on March 20th British troops launched the final offensive, storming the Reichstag and capturing Hitler and Himmler (the other leaders had already been executed or killed while attempting to flee the city).

And so it was that on the 20th March 1944, the Union Jack was raised over the Reichstag, followed shortly by the flags of all the countries that participated in the attack on Berlin. However the war wasn’t over. 

The USA took a long time to recover from the loss of the Pacific Fleet. By the time their fleet was rebuilt and operational again the Japanese had already taken most of the pacific islands, the Chinese United Front had finally fallen and Japan was now making use of its vast resources to build up its own fleet to challenge the allies. 

Japan had watched the collapse of the Axis and prepared to face off against the Allies alone, it launched attacks into Tibet and the British Raj, occupied French Indochina and had finally overwhelmed the defenders of Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaya. 

Japan had attempted to invade New Zealand however Kiwi and Australian forces were able to hold off the Japanese, with Canada defeating the Japanese attack on Alaska.

With the Ais defeated however the Allies turned their full attention to the Japanese. French and British forces assembled in the USA, which had seen heavy Japanese bombing in an attempt to slow down the rebuilding of their fleet, and assembled in India. 

They created a plan to defeat the Japanese, British, French and other allied forces would launch attacks into Occupied China via India, then the Royal Navy and the newly rebuilt US pacficic fleet would draw the Japanese into 1 decisive battle, once the Japanese fleet was defeated at the planned location of Midway, a campaign of Island Hopping would commence, leading up to the eventually occupation of Japan. 

When the plan was enacted it met success, at the battle of Midway in April of 1944 the Royal Navy and US Pacific Fleet crushed the Japanese fleet, with Bruce Fraser taking away his battleships and then leading them around the Japanese fleet, sinking the undefended carriers. 

With a majority of their fleet destroyed, Japan adopted a defensive stance, however the UK,France and the USA had fully mobilised, with the UK remaining largely undamaged, along with most of the commonwealth. 

After a year of Island Hopping and heavy fighting Japan was pushed back, with Chinese Resistance forces popping up all over the country Japan was unable to protect its supply chain, forcing them out of the country.

Japan fared better on each Island however, mainly on Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Philippines, digging in and holding those islands for several months before eventually being starved into submission. By January of 1945 Japan had been pushed out of Mainland Asia and began preparations for a defense of their homeland, however the UK invented a new weapon, with the Birmingham Project being combined with the Manhattan project, the UK and USA developed the Nuclear Bomb. Demanding a Japanese surrender, which was quickly denied, the USA dropped 3 of these bombs on Japan, 1 on Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo. 

Millions of people died along with most of the Japanese government, luckily for Japan the Emperor wasn’t in Tokyo at the time, however seeing the power the Allies now possessed surrendered, bringing an end to the second world war, with the Treaty of Cardiff being signed on the 18th of November 1945. 

The aftermath of the war saw a very different world. Germany was divided, with the UK taking North Germany and France taking Southern Germany, Greece annexed Bulgaria, Democrartic governments were installed in Italy and Romania. Portugal annexed all of Spain’s remaining colonies, as well as Northern Galacia, setting up a puppet government in Spain after that. 

Finally the Poloish government was reinstated after the war, however the Soviets were unwilling to the relinquish their occupied zone, instead setting up a second Poland, loyal to the USSR. 

The UK was the country that benefited most from the war, maintaining its status of the world number one superpower, its industry had been largely untouched by the war due to the efforts of the RAF and Royal Navy. 

The UK annexed Libya while Eritrea and Ethiopia were welcomed into the Commonwealth, each becoming puppets of the British government. 

After pressure from the UK, and due to the fact that Canada had defended Alaska throughout the war, the USA was forced to concede Alaska to Canada, meanwhile all of the USA’s Islands were given back to it, along with most of the Japanese fleet being gifted to the USA as a way of rebuilding their losses in the war, while still an economic power the West Coast had been ravaged in the war and much had to be rebuilt, leaving the USA as a secondary world power in the foremost years of the war.

Meanwhile China was given its freedom, however a democraric regime was set up and Communism was largely wiped out by occupying forces. Vietnam and French Indochina attempted to break free however Britain and France easily crushed these rebellions.

With Britain being more powerful than ever, and with pressure from the USA meaning little, the Commonwealth were unable to break free from the UK, instead remaining Dominions. However conditions were improved and as a thank you for their help during the war they were granted greater autonomy.  

With the 3rd Reich and Germany destroyed, British and French power secured and Japan disarmed the world entered a new age, the Allies renamed themselves into NATO, a defensive alliance against the new enemy, the USSR, which had been quietly building up after their invasion of Poland. The USSR has been spared the bloodshed of WW2. However, they would now race to build this new powerful weapons created by the British and Americans, so that they could also harness its power. NATO realised this and as France started its own programme to build nuclear weapons, the USA and UK drew up plans for war, hoping to take out the USSR while they still held the advantage.