TimelineApril 4, 1940, the British begun mining Norwegian waters with the excuse that Norwegians could not prevent the Germans to use their waters for military operations. April 9, 1940, the Third Reich launch Operation Weserübung to invade Denmark and Norway, whose neutrality were suspictious. Seeing the Germans as the aggressors, the Norwegian government allies with the Allies and try to co-ordinate 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 in 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 German and the Allies trying to bring both Sweden and Finland to their respective sides. The Norwegian campaign proved the Nazis a few points, the main of them was British Naval Superiority. Which eventually lead Hitler to consider a peace agreement to Britain rather than invade through the Channel. This did not prevent, however, 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 pretended a negociated settlement with the United Kingdom rather than a probable invasion. Diplomatic channels were kept open in Portugal. The lack of direct military action between the United Kingdom and the Third Reich after the surrendering of France is considered a continuation of the earlier Phoney War. The Netherlands, Luxemburg and the Flemish part of Belgium was annexed to the Reich. French speaking Belgium was ceeded to Vichy France in exchange of Alsase-Lorraine. The focus was again centered on the Baltic. In June 1940, the Soviet Union attacked Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The Finish government secretly negociated with Norway and the United Kingdom to grant full ally support in a continuation war against the Soviet Union. And the continuation war started in March, 1941, just one year after ther armistice of the Winter War. Germany kept neutrality in the Finish-Soviet conflict. While simpathetic to the Finish, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact granted no aggretion between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich. On the other hand, they would not ally with the Bolcheviks to attack a nominal common enemy: the British. British-Japanese negotiations begun. Britain would provide oil to the Japanese in exchage of Japanese respect of British, Free French, and American interests in China, and the opening of a front against the Soviet Union. U.S. President Roostvelt was not happy with this British-Japanese agreement, but kept the nominal neutrality on the events and thanked the British to include American interests in the pact. In August, 1941, the Japanese attacked Soviet territory and declared war to the Soviet Union. The 25th December, 1941, the Germans and the British reached a secret agreement: a non-agression 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 anihilation of the Soviet regime, but understood that the allies would not concur with all those goals. In Octuber, 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 existance 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 propper", the Russian government did not included Poland or Ukraine, but included most of White Russia. In the followign months, the Russian nationalist government became very pro-nazi, commiting troops to fight the Soviets. Once the Finish situation was clear, and the Russian government granted pre 1939 finish borders plus East Karelia and Kola as part of Finland, the British focused on the Asian front of the Soviet War. Romania, a former allied for both the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, was also invaded by the Reich who partitioned Romania to 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 withraw from Russia proper and signed a traty 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 exeptions were allied Finland, Norway (northern), and Greece. Officially annexed to 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 Rusian 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 ammexed Slovenia to the Reich. 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 formarly retired from the Allies, but kept ties with Finland and the United Kingdom. In 1955, Charles de Gaul, former leader of Free France, was elected president of France, and withdrew France from the 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 lead to a civil war in the Third Reich, which ended in 1986 when the governors of Baviera, Lower Saxony, Netherlands and Prussia declared the end of the Third Reich and banned the National-Socialist party. Soon Denmark, Galicia, Moldavia, Poland, and Ukraine unopposedly declared their independence. The Netherlands, who declared her independence, also granted the independence of Luxemburg and Flemish Belgium. In January, 1987, the new government of Germany signed a peace treaty with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northen Ireland. This officially ended the Second Great War. |
List of nations
|
Advertisement
91,074
pages
Cold Phoney War
Advertisement