Cold Phoney War

Timeline April 4, 1940, the British began mining Norwegian waters on the grounds that Norwegians could not prevent the Germans from using their waters for military operations. April 9, 1940, the Third Reich launches Operation Weserübung to invade Denmark and Norway, whose neutrality was suspicious. Seeing the Germans as the aggressors, the Norwegian government allies itself with the Allies and tries to coordinate the Norwegian resistance with the British. In the following days, the Allies manage to prevent the German attacks on Trondheim and Narvik and recapture Bergen from the Germans. The Germans manage to control Oslo, Stavanger and the southern coast of Norway. The Norwegian government relocates to Trondheim. With Central and Northern Norway under Allied control (and ruled by an allied Norwegian government), and southern Norway plus Denmark in German hands, Sweden's neutrality was tested. The Swedish government knew, however, that they would very likely become a new battleground. The battleground was, however, diplomatic, with both Nazi Germany and the Allies trying to bring both Sweden and Finland to their respective sides. The Norwegian campaign proved a few facts to the Nazis, one of the main ones being British naval superiority. This eventually leads Hitler to consider a peace agreement with Britain rather than an invasion across the Channel. This did not, however, stop German plans to invade the Netherlands, Belgium and France, plans that lead to the French surrendering in June 22, 1940. The British evacuation of Dunkirk tested Chamberlain's leadership. There was no Battle of Britain as Hitler pursued a negotiated settlement with the United Kingdom rather than a costly invasion. Diplomatic channels were kept open in Portugal. The lack of direct military action between the United Kingdom and the Third Reich after the surrender of France is considered a continuation of the earlier Phoney War. The Netherlands, Luxemburg and the Flemish part of Belgium was annexed by the Reich. French speaking Belgium was ceded to Vichy France in exchange for Alsase-Lorraine. The focus was again centered on the Baltic. In June 1940, the Soviet Union attacked Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Finnish government secretly negotiated with Norway and the United Kingdom to grant full Allied support in a continuation war against the Soviet Union. The continuation war started in March, 1941, just one year after the armistice of the Winter War. Germany kept neutrality in the Finnish-Soviet conflict. While sympathetic to the Finnish cause, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact permitted no aggression between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich. On the other hand, they would not ally with the Bolsheviks to attack a nominal common enemy: the British. British-Japanese negotiations begin. Britain would provide oil to the Japanese in exchage for Japanese respect of British, Free French, and American interests in China, and the opening of a front against the Soviet Union. U.S. President Roosevelt was not happy with this British-Japanese agreement, but kept their nominal neutrality and thanked the British for including American interests in the pact. In August, 1941, the Japanese attacked Soviet territory and declared war on the Soviet Union. A massive Soviet air strike left Japan crippled. The 25th December, 1941, the Germans and the British reached a secret agreement: a non-aggression pact between Great Britain and Germany, provided that Germany would attack the Soviet Union in the spring of 1942. This was not a peace agreement, just a suspension of hostilities. Any peace agreement for the British would require Germany to return to 1938 borders. At war against Finland and Japan, both parties supported by Britain, the Soviet Union is attacked by the Third Reich on April 12, 1942. This attack takes Stalin by surprise and, by late June, the Germans have reached Moscow and the Soviet government has moved to the Urals. Britain supported a nationalistic government for Russia. Finland and Japan pretended territorial claims. The Third Reich wanted to submit the Slavs into slavery and the annihilation of the Soviet regime, but understood that the allies would not concur with all those goals. In October, 1942, a pro-allied nationalistic regime was set in St Petersburg (who dropped the name Leningrad) and this new regime reached agreements with Finland, Britain and Germany to grant their existence and fight the Soviets. The new Russian regime would allow the Germans to occupy most of the russian territory provided that they would retire of Russia proper once the Soviets were defeated. With "Russia proper", the Russian government did not included Poland or Ukraine, but included most of White Russia. In the following months, the Russian nationalist government became very pro-Nazi, committing troops to fight the Soviets. Once the Finnish situation was clear, and the Russian government granted pre 1939 Finnish borders plus East Karelia and Kola as part of Finland, the British focused on the Asian front of the Soviet War. Romania, a former ally for both the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, was also invaded by the Reich, which partitioned Romania between Reich allies Hungary and Bulgaria. Hungary took most of Transylvania, Bulgaria took central and western Wallachia and the Reich took control of Moldavia, eastern Wallachia and northern Transylvania. By August, 1943, all Russians west of the Urals, plus several Russian provinces in the East had recognized the nationalistic Russian government. Germany kept their promise to withdraw from Russia proper and signed a treaty with nationalistic Russia. This was to be known as the Treaty of St Petersburg. By this time, most of continental Europe was under direct Nazi control (v.g. Poland), controlled by a Nazi ally (v.g. France, Italy, Russia) or Neutral (v.g. Sweden, Switzerland, Spain). The only three exceptions were allied Finland, Norway (northern), and Greece. Officially annexed by the Reich were Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine. In July 1944, the Soviet Union surrendered to the Russian nationalists and the Japanese. Unwillingly the Russian nationalists recognized several Japanese claims on Asian Russia, but kept Vladivostok. A rebellion in Yugoslavia threatened to overturn Yugoslavian Nazi-friendly government in August. The Reich invaded Yugoslavia in support to the government and annexed Slovenia. By this time the Reich had access to the North Sea, the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In 1946, the United Kingdom recognized the pro-German governments of France (Vichy), Yugoslavia and Slovakia. (Russia, Hungary, and Italy had been previously recognized.) Britain did not recognized the annexation of Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark or Ukraine. Negotiations began for Germany to withdraw from southern Norway. In 1948, the capital of France returned to Paris and the French government began negotiations with Free France. In 1950, the Third Reich returned southern Norway to the Kingdom of Norway in exchange of a non-aggression pact. Norway formally left the Allies, but kept ties with Finland and the United Kingdom. In 1955, Charles de Gaulle, former leader of Free France, was elected president of France, and withdrew France from its alliance with Germany. De Gaul and Hitler signed a peace and cooperation agreement. De Gaul also recognized the independence of Belgium. In 1963, the German Führer, Adolf Hitler died. In 1979, internal conflicts led to a civil war in the Third Reich, which ended in 1986 when the governors of Bavaria, Lower Saxony, the Netherlands and Prussia declared the end of the Third Reich and banned the National-Socialist party. Soon Denmark, Galicia, Moldavia, Poland, and Ukraine declared their independence, with no opposition. The Netherlands, which declared its independence, also granted the independence of Luxembourg and Flemish Belgium. In January, 1987, the new government of Germany signed a peace treaty with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This officially ended the Second Great War.

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