THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT FOLLOW THE PLOTLINE OF THE AUTHOR'S OTHER ARTICLES.
World War Two. Known as the bloodiest, most costliest war in human history. With well over 20 million dead, humanity was taught the true price of war. In the end, the Atomic Bomb was developed- countries were shattered, and the great Cold War, which would last for almost forty years, was caused because of the last moves of WWII.
But that was the OTL.
After Rommel smashed French defenses and took the country in June of 1940, British officials began to fear greatly isolated with no major Allies for support, and the US struggling to send supplies to the island through the the Lend-Lease Act.
Rommel, having succeeded at the Battle of El Alamein, moves to smash British defenses in the Suez Canal and reach the oil fields in the Middle East. The tattered remains of the 8th British Army, desperate to deny the Germans their much needed resource, scramble all possible defenses including mines, booby traps, barbed wire and many other obstacles.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Front is going very well for the Germans. However, the Battle of Moscow is continuous, going on for over two years. Russian casualties are enormous, but continue to fight on.
Finland sends three extra Armored divisions to Leningrad, which completely shatters Russian resistance. The remaining Russian troops- roughly 20 understrength divisions- retreated back to a secured frontline, and planned to make a final defense- defeat would mean large amounts of Finnish and German reinforcements at Moscow, which would be devastating to Russia itself.
By February 1943 the English Mediterranean fleet, composed of several battleships, a dozen cruisers and nearly fifty destroyers, combat a flotilla of battle cruisers of the Regia Marina. The Italian fleet is destroyed, but only at the cost of all British capital ships. Victorious, they limp back to Gibraltar.