The American Monarchy

[Kevinstat]

Are you still planning on finishing this timeline in 2010 or so (in the timeline) by the end of the summer?

[Kevinstat]

It's two days before the beginning of autumn.  I'm sure we won't get to 2010 by then but seeing how the coming global broohaha turns out would be nice, if you are planning on finishing this timeline by the end of summer.  Or is it already finished?

[Captain Chaos]

BIG BUMP

[Kevinstat]

Leif told me a month and a half ago (I PMed him as I was getting impatient too) that he's been working on it, but that the background maps he's been using are at home and he won't be home from college until December.  I got the sense from his e-mail that he'll at least get us through the Anglo-Irish War (which I suspect will become another world war as America has a defense pact with Ireland and has some powerful allies (Germany and I believe Russia, it's been a while) and some potential enemies in the Soviet (Hungarian) and fascist blocs).  I suspect the thread will be finished by the time he starts the spring semester.  Leif could tell you better than I, though.

[Lief 🗽]

So, I have some updates written, and will be writing more. I'm not going to say when I'll finish the timeline, because I have no idea and I'm busy and it takes me a while to write an update, but this timeline is definitely not dead. Unfortunately, all my maps, notes and other background stuff is at home, making writing full updates here at college difficult. But, you'll get some new updates starting December 19th.

[Kevinstat]

Only 2 more days until the next update!

Is part of France still dimilitarized (at least without French troops)?  Did the German army occupy that territory after the treaty ending the last big war or did it become like the OTL Rhineland for much of inter-war Germany?  What is it's status now?

I hope these questions don't cause a delay in your timeline.  You've done a good job of tying things together on this thread so far, so I'm sure that will continue.  I've enjoyed this timeline very much and am looking forward to more.

[Lief 🗽]

There aren't any German troops left in French territory, though the French side of the border is still officially demilitarized. In reality, Prime Minister Maurras began moving French troops back into the border region in 1940.

And yes, I'll be updating soon. Possibly tomorrow if there's wireless in the airport that's free, but if not on Friday.

[Lief 🗽]

The American Monarchy: 1941 - 1942

Within a few weeks of the declaration of war, the British navy had surrounded Ireland and completely blockaded the Republic. The Irish government furiously denied any charges of wrongdoing, and the Irish Prime Minister, Éamon de Valera, immediately sent diplomats to Belfast pleading the British government to see reason and call off an invasion. The British Prime Minister Oswald Mosley responded on May 3rd that his government would only accept complete Irish surrender in exchange for the Easter Bombing. Unwilling to surrender independence, de Valera refused, and ordered General Michael Collins to ready the Irish army for a British invasion.

In the United States, an emergency cabinet meeting was held on May 4th, 1941, and urged King Henry I to ask the Royal Council for a declaration of war against the United Kingdom. The cabinet agreed unanimously that the United States needed to go to war with the British and honor its commitment to the Irish Republic. On May 10th, the Royal Council, by a vote of 42 to 12, with most SDP councilors and ANL councilors in favor, the ILP councilors wholly opposed and Liberal councilors split. Within three days, the Japanese and Americans would be at war as well. Despite increasing investments in the American military in the past few years, the United States was largely unprepared for what would be termed, in the Western world at least, the Third Anglo-American War. Prime Minister Villa held the first meeting of his war cabinet on May 14th, 1941; attending were the Prime Minister, the leaders of the other four major parties, King Henry I, Villa’s cabinet (including Secretary of State Norman Thomas and Secretary of War Robert Wagner), and military leaders. At the meeting, General Douglas MacArthur, the successful leader of American forces in Mexico, was appointed Commander of the Pacific. George Marshall, a protégée of the American Great War general Fred Funston, who had much experience fighting in Africa during the war, was sent to the Philippines to defend the island from the inevitable Japanese attack. At the meeting, a basic strategy was agreed on: American forces would, mostly importantly, gain control of the seas, after which point they would invade China and British Africa, while at the same time starving the Japanese and British into submission.
 
In early June, the Japanese began their invasion of the Philippines, an island chain of incredible strategic importance, as the United States had been using the islands as base from which to move supplies to the Chinese and bomb the British position. Despite General Marshall’s best efforts, Japanese forces pushed the remaining American units off the island by the end of 1941, leaving the Chinese without aerial and material support. 1941 also saw numerous small engagements in and around Canada. British bombers based in Alaska regularly bombed the cities of Vancouver and Seattle during the period, forcing the Americans to consider an invasion of Alaska. Meanwhile, American forces quickly took the British possessions of Labrador and Newfoundland in the west, and after a series of bloody landings, took Prince Edward Island, effectively quashing the British presence in the west. The British would respond in September of 1941 with an attempted naval invasion of PEI. The resulting First Battle of Prince Edward Island was the first major British-American naval engagement of the war, and the British navy proved to be better equipped for battle, as Mosley’s government had made major investments in military spending, and Villa’s government generally had not. The Americans lost a battleship, and retreated to Halifax. By October 4th, British forces had retaken Prince Edward Island. At year's end, British forces had subjugated Ireland, Éamon de Valera had been captured and executed, and the Japanese-British forces were slowly pushing back the Chinese.

As 1942 began, American morale was low, and Villa’s government was in dire straits. On the floor of the Senate in February, Senator Edward R. Burke (ANL-NE), demanded that Secretary of War Wagner resign, blaming the United States’ military defeats on poor planning. A week later, ANL leader Alvin York called for Villa’s resignation, demanding new elections, “so that the American people are given the choice of who shall lead us to victory in this struggle.” Villa flatly refused, and his party held a majority in the Senate, allowing him to defeat any pass any possible votes of confidence. Villa saw another setback in April of 1942 at the Battle of Midway. In the largest naval battle of the war to date, a Japanese force backed up by British ships defeated the American force defending the critical island. All three of the American carriers in the battle were sunk, while only two of Japanese and British’s 7 carriers were sunk. With Midway gone, the Japanese now had a staging area from which to invade Hawaii. The news hit Villa’s government hard in the United States, and a Gallup poll taken in April showed that his approval rating had slumped to 38%. On May 5th, 1942, with pressure from his own party, he resigned as Prime Minister, as did Secretary of War Wagner. Norman Thomas was quickly elected Prime Minister, and, in an effort to re-unify the Senate and nation, invited the Liberals and ILP into the government, forming a new cabinet:


Prime Minister Norman Thomas

The First Thomas Cabinet (May 1942):
Prime Minister: Norman Thomas (SDP-NY)
Deputy Prime Minister: Arthur H. Vandenberg (Lib-MI)
Majority Whip: Harry S Truman (SDP-MO)
Secretary of State: Henry A. Wallace (SDP-IA)
Secretary of the Treasury: Alf Landon (ILP-KS)
Secretary of War: Arthur H. Vandenberg (Lib-MI)
Attorney General: Seymour Stedman (SDP-IL)
Secretary of the Interior: Glen H. Taylor (SDP-LK)
Secretary of Agriculture: Sam Rayburn (SDP-TX)
Secretary of Commerce: Cordell Hull (Lib-TN)
Secretary of Labor: J. S. Woodsworth (SDP-ON)

In June, Prime Minister Thomas pushed through the National Industrial Production Act, which massively subsidized war-time production, shifting many federally employed citizens who had been working on public works into factories, and nationalizing factories that were not producing to their full capacity.  July also saw the beginning of the American invasion of Alaska, dubbed Operation Polar Bear, and led by General George S. Patton. At the same time, the Japanese-British alliance was preparing for an all out assault on Hawaii. Patton’s soldiers marched into Juneau on July 26th after some light fighting. He then regrouped, and moved north through Upper Columbia, swinging west and moving rapidly on Anchorage. The Battle of Kodiak took place between August 1st and 2nd, as the relatively small British fleet protecting Alaska was surrounded by American ships and destroyed. Following the Battle of Kodiak, British troops in Alaska were cut off from supplies, and Patton quickly moved on Anchorage. The Battle of Anchorage lasted for one week, but by its end, on September 2nd, Patton had completely pacified the British fortification and population center, and with it, most of Alaska. The remaining British forces quickly evacuated Alaska, moving to fortify the Aleutians with support from the Japanese.

The Japanese-British alliance responded in November with the beginning of their invasion of Hawaii. Douglas MacArthur had been put in charge of defending the Hawaiian island chain by Secretary of War Arthur Vandenberg, who was very much aware that an American loss in Hawaii would likely force the Americans to surrender. In a letter written by MacArthur to Vandenberg, he vowed that “for every foot of Hawaiian soil the enemy takes, my boys will make sure a Jap and a Brit are shot dead.” The Japanese-British and American navy fought a number of small engagements, but the Americans were content to allow the Japanese moderate control of the seas, fearing another Midway-style naval defeat. This American reluctance to commit to battle allowed the Japanese to initiate their landing on Kauai on November 18th, 1942. The Battle of Kauai pitted a landing force of 80,000 Japanese, British and ANZAC troops against 30,000 American defenders. MacArthur had decided to use the battle as the first test of his strategy to wear down the Japanese and British. His plan was to force them to take Hawaii island by island until the United States could successfully counter-attack sometime in 1943.

American troops had spent most of the year fortifying the Hawaiian Islands, and Kauai was no exception. The initial landing was bloody, with three thousand Japanese-Commonwealth soldiers dying on the first day of the battle. For the next two weeks, the Japanese and British would push east across the small, circular island, with the worst fighting occurring on the incredibly rainy eastern side of the island. The Americans made good use of the numerous valleys and canyons covering the mountainous island. On November 30th, MacArthur began the evacuation of the island, which over the next few days allowed most of the remaining 26,000 American troops to leave the island. By December 10th, 1942, the Union Jack was raised above the island of Kauai, but the Japanese and British had lost 15,000 soldiers pacifying the island, with countless more injured.

On the same day, December 10th, Alger Hiss, a State Department official whom Secretary of State Henry Wallace had personally picked, left with three other diplomats in a submarine from Vancouver, headed west.

[HappyWarrior]

U need maps.  They were my favorite part of this TL

[ottermax]

What's going to happen to Hawaii? Don't destroy paradise! (i don't care that much, but that would be very sad...)

[Kevinstat]

Horray!  The timeline is back!

Will Germany come to our (the United States's) aid?  Do they have a decent navy now?  I forget what other allies we have in Europe.  Is Russia on better terms with the U.S. or with Britain?  What about Russia's relations with Germany (which I know has great influence over several new states from the Great War that border Russia) and Japan?

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Lief, could we get a list of Prime Ministers up to this point?  Thanks

[Lief 🗽]

List of American Prime Ministers:
Alexander Hamilton (R-NY): 1791-1803
James Madison (WR-VA): 1803-1811
Aaron Burr (WR-NY): 1811-1815
John Q. Adams (R-MA): 1815-1820
William H. Crawford (R-GA): 1820
James Monroe (WR-VA): 1820-1825
Daniel D. Tompkins (WR-NY): 1825-1826
Aaron Burr (WR-NY): 1826-1829
Henry Clay (N-KY): 1829-1836
Andrew Jackson (J-TN): 1836-1842
Henry Clay (N-KY): 1842-1850
Daniel Webster (N-MA): 1850-1851
James K. Polk (C-TN): 1851-1855
Abraham Lincoln (W-IL): 1855-1866
Charles Winthrop (W-MA): 1866-1869
Clement Vallandigham (N-OH): 1869-1872
John C. Breckenridge (C-KY): 1872- 1875
Jefferson Davis (C-AL): 1875-1879
Thomas F. Bayard (N-DE): 1879
Vacant: 1879-1881
John Bingham (L-OH): 1881-1886
James Garfield (L-OH): 1886-1889
Robert T. Lincoln (L-IL): 1889
Thomas E. Watson (P-GA): 1889-1898
Mark Hanna (L-OH): 1898-1908
William McKinley (L-OH): 1908
Elihu Root (L-NY): 1908-1909
Thomas E. Watson (P-GA):1909-1914
Robert M. La Follette (P-WI):1914- 1916
Theodore Roosevelt (L-NY): 1916-1926
Nicholas Longworth (L-OH): 1926-1934
Francisco Villa (SDP-HM): 1934-1942
Norman Thomas (SDP-NY): 1942- ??

List of Opposition Leaders:
Thomas Jefferson (WR-VA): 1791-1799
Aaron Burr (WR-NY): 1799-1803
George Clinton (R-NY): 1803-1805
John Q. Adams (R-MA): 1805-1811
DeWitt Clinton (R-NY): 1811-1812
Rufus King (R-NY): 1812-1815
James Monroe (WR-VA): 1815-1820
Henry Clay (N-KY): 1820-1829
Andrew Jackson (J-TN): 1829-1836
Henry Clay (N-KY): 1836-1842
Martin Van Buren (W-NY): 1842-1846
Abraham Lincoln (W-IL): 1846-1855
James K. Polk (C-TN): 1855-1862
Sam Houston (C-TN): 1862-1864
Clement Vallandigham (N-OH): 1864-1869
Charles Sumner (L-MA):1869-1874
Vacant: 1874- 1881
Augustus Garland (N-AR): 1881-1886
Thomas F. Bayard (N-DE): 1886-1894
Mark Hanna (L-OH): 1894-1898
Thomas E. Watson (P-GA): 1898-1909
Eugene V. Debs (SDP-IN): 1909-1912
Theodore Roosevelt (L-NY):1912-1916
John Nance Garner (P-TX): 1916-1920
Francisco Villa (SDP-HM): 1920-1931
Theodore G. Bilbo (P-MS): 1931-1934
R.B. Bennett (L-NB): 1934-1938
Arthur Vandenberg (L-MI): 1938-1942
Alvin C. York (ANL-TN): 1942- ??

List of American Monarchs:
King George I: 1791-1799
    Prince George: 1791-1799
King George II: 1799-1853
    No heir: 1799-1831
    Prince Robert: 1831-1853
King Robert I: 1853-1873
    Prince William: 1853- 1873
King William I: 1873-1879
    No heir: 1873-1879
    Prince William: 1879
King Robert II: 1879- 1922
    No heir: 1879-1883
    Prince George: 1883-1922
King Henry I: 1922- ??
    Prince Robert: 1922- ??

[Lief 🗽]

Horray!  The timeline is back!

Will Germany come to our (the United States's) aid?  Do they have a decent navy now?  I forget what other allies we have in Europe.  Is Russia on better terms with the U.S. or with Britain?  What about Russia's relations with Germany (which I know has great influence over several new states from the Great War that border Russia) and Japan?

Re: Germany, you'll see. Germany still has a navy, but has scaled back naval investment heavily, focusing on keeping order within its European client states and colonies and defending its borders with the Fascist Tripartite Pact.

Re: Russia
Russia and the United States are incredibly close allies. After the Great War, American companies invested heavily and Russia, and the United States led the international mission in Russia in the 1920s to protect the democratic government against the Bolshevik Uprising. Russo-German relations are strained, and more or less always have been; they ended the Great War on bad-terms, and Russia has been trying to extend its influence into German-controlled Eastern Europe ever since. There was basically no effort between the Germans and Russians to reach a detente following the war. With regards to Russo-Japanese relations, they are similarly icy, though they've mostly ignored each other in the last two decades.

[Lief 🗽]

The American Monarchy: 1943

By the end of January 1943, the British and Japanese had begun the attack on the next major Hawaiian island, Oahu. Oahu was the most populous island in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the critical American naval base at Pearl Harbor and the city of Honolulu were both located on it. Prime Minister Thomas made it clear to General MacArthur that losing Oahu would be unacceptable, and may force the United States to sue for peace.  Indeed, the British and Japanese reasoned that the conquest of Oahu would end the war, forcing the Americans to negotiate a favorable peace treaty. The Japanese would first have to break American naval control of the island, before they could land a landing force and take the island. On February 2nd, after the Japanese and British had spent a week bombing the island, the Battle of Oahu began. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was in command of the fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor and decided to seize the initiative and attack the Japanese-British fleet, catching them completely off guard. For the next three days, a vicious back and forth would rage in the skies above and the water around the island of Oahu. More than any other battle in the war to date, this was a battle of aircraft carriers, though battleships still played a significant part. By February 5th, the Japanese had lost four carriers and eight battleships, the British had lost one of their carriers and two of their battleships, and the Americans had also seen heavy losses, with three carriers and seven battleships sunk. No side was really able to claim victory, but strategically, the Americans had accomplished their objectives, and the British-Japanese invasion was prevented.

Meanwhile, Alger Hiss and his diplomatic attachment had secretly arrived in Russia, where he was quickly transported to Moscow to meet with Prime Minister Georgy Malenkov, the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party (a classical liberal party), who had taken power after defeating Alexander Kerensky’s center-left government in the 1941 elections. Hiss practically begged the Russians to join the conflict, pointing out that the Japanese position in Manchuria was weak and appealing to the twenty years of friendship and cooperation between the two nations. Malenkov, however, was wary of the Germans and Communist Hungarian bloc on his western border, and could not commit to an immediate intervention on the side of the Americans.

In March, with something of an unofficial ceasefire in the Pacific after both sides regrouped following the battle of Oahu, both the Americans and the British attempted to hit their enemies’ flanks. In early March, the Americans launched two campaigns, the first devised by King Henry I and the other by Secretary of War Arthur Vandenberg: the first, the Aleutian Islands Campaign aimed to take the remaining British-Japanese territory in the northern Pacific, by taking the small islands of the Aleutian island chain, while the second called for an invasion of British controlled Egypt, with the objective of taking the Suez Canal. General Omar Bradley was put in charge of the first campaign, while General George Patton was put in charge of the second. The Aleutian Islands campaign would be slow, owing to the harsh and remote climate of the islands, but the American forces would ultimately emerge victorious by the end of 1943, and cause the British and Japanese significant headache. 

In Africa, however, there was no border between the American colonies in West Africa and the British colonies in East Africa, separated by the German colony of Mittelafrika. Henry Wallace’s state department began negotiating with the Germans for the right of passage through their territory, but negotiations were cut off on April 3rd, 1943, when the tripartite fascist alliance of France, Italy and Spain declared war on Germany. The German government, weakened by years of budget crises and weak civilian and military leadership, was little match for the fascist assault. Soon after the conflict began, revolutionaries in German-controlled Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Livonia rose up, causing more problems for the Germans, as their soldiers recruited from these areas mutinied. The only remaining German ally was Austria, which was quickly over-run by the Italians. By August the German government had surrendered and Kaiser Wilhelm III had gone into exile. France annexed back Alsace-Lorraine, as well as Belgium, Luxembourg, Saarland, Westphalia and the Rhineland, while the Italians annexed significant chunks of Austrian territory, and much of eastern Germany was re-organized into the Polish state. What remained of Germany was re-organized into a confederacy controlled by the fascist puppet-government in Bavaria under Rudolf Hess.

As this was happening in Europe, the German colonial governments also collapsed, and American forces in Africa quickly took the opportunity to assume nominal control of these territories. In May of 1943, General Patton invaded British Sudan, with an initial force of 100,000 setting out from the American colony of Nigeria. The American forces won a number of initial skirmishes, helped in large part by the tribes in western and southern Sudan who had felt marginalized under British rule. The first major battle of the Africa campaign was the Battle of Khartoum, the capital of British Sudan. British forces defending the city were out-numbered and out-matched, as Patton’s army had plenty of tanks and aerial support, while the British defenders were largely Sudanese recruits. By the middle of June, Khartoum had fallen, and British forces by and large abandoned Sudan, fleeing north to regroup in Egypt. The American trek north was slow and difficult, hindered by the foreign desert climate of northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Once Patton entered Egypt, he split his forces in two; the larger force would be led by Patton north through the Nile River Valley, while the smaller force would be led by Dwight Eisenhower, and would move northwest through the Western Desert.

Patton’s forces met British troops again at the Battle of Aswan in August. The British were still concerned only with delaying the American advance, as the invasion had caught them completely unaware. Fortifying the critical Nile Delta and Suez Canal would take until early 1944 at the earliest, especially with the large number of British troops still in China. So, while the Americans easily took Aswan in August, and continued their march north, Patton was forced to continue to operate with extreme caution, his supply lines stretched across miles of desert. Following the Battle of Aswan, Patton continued his march north, meeting little resistance, until the siege of Aysut in September. In the Battle of Aysut, Americans saw the stiffest resistance yet, as the citizens of the relatively large city had been subject to a month-long British propaganda campaign, accusing the Americans (falsely) of slaughtering Egyptian civilians and looting and defacing the ancient monuments at Luxor and other sites on the Nile. As such, Aysut was the first city with a dedicated Egyptian resistance against the Americans, and Patton’s troops took heavy casualties before they were eventually able to subdue it. Nonetheless, American soldiers spent the rest of 1943 securing Aysut and readying to move north again in 1944. Eisenhower’s detachment, on the other hand, met much less resistance, and was within 150 miles of Cairo by year’s end.

The British were not to be outdone in extending the fronts of the war, however, and in September 1943, the British attacked Panama. The American territory of Panama had been reinforced at the start of the war, as the Panama Canal was absolutely critical to American efforts in the Pacific. On September 13th, 1943, the American fleet defending Panama was defeated, with most of it sunk, and by September 20th British troops had landed on Panama, quickly defeating the American colonial troops. By the end of September, the Panama Canal was under British control. The knowledge of this defeat, if it had reached St. Petersburg, may have dramatically changed the course of history, dooming the United States to defeat. Luckily for the United States, on September 8th, after months of negotiations, Russian Prime Minister Georgy Malenkov, had agreed to enter the war on the side of the United States. Prime Minister Norman Thomas received the news of the failure in Panama and the success in Russia within the same week.

[Хahar 🤔]

Another excellent update! Yours are always good.

[HappyWarrior]

What is Hitler doing in this TL?

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Glad to see this timeline running once more, likewise with another excellent update

What is ongoing in Australia currently? Is John Curtin still Prime Minister of Australia as of 1943?

[Lief 🗽]

Rocky,
James Scullin's Labor Party won the 1932 elections fairly comfortably, though he was almost immediately faced with the worldwide economic slump. The left-wing of his party, led by Jack Lang (the Premier of New South Wales) urged him to dramatically increase government spending and finance new public works projects; Prime Minister Scullin did the opposite, cutting spending and scaling back public works projects, and Lang and his supporters were marginalized in the party. By the time of the 1935 elections, the economy was no better, and Scullin was defeated in a landslide by Joseph Lyons' United Australia Party. Lyon's policies weren't particularly effective (especially compared to the widespread public works programs in Mosleyite Britain), and during Lyons' term, Lang seized control of the Labor Party, portraying himself as an Australian Mosley. Labor narrowly defeated the AUP in 1938, and again in 1941.

Happy,
Hitler was an unknown member 1925 Munich Putsch, which was crushed, some might say brutally, by General Erich Ludendorff under orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Following his capture, he was tried and executed in 1927 for treason, along with most of his comrades.

[Lief 🗽]

The American Monarchy: 1944

Russia would not officially declare war until the spring, as beginning an offensive into Manchuria was impossible during the winter. From late 1943 into early 1944, Russian troops amassed on the border, as the American fleet moved from the Aleutians to the Sea of Okhotsk. As Russia secretly prepared to invade Japan, American forces prepared to retake Panama. In February, as American shipping from the east coast to west coast was transferred fully to land, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the Railroad Nationalization Act of 1944, nationalizing most of the remaining private rail-lines, allowing more efficient transfer of industrial goods and soldiers from the east coast to the west coast. A handful of Liberal senators opposed the act, but Secretary of War Arthur Vandenberg, the highest-ranking Liberal cabinet member, spoke strongly in the bill’s favor, reassuring Liberals that it was a temporary measure to be repealed once the enemy had been defeated. In March, King Henry, Secretary Vandenberg and top military leaders finalized Operation Ulysses, and American forces began preparing to retake Panama.

In Egypt, General Patton pressed on from Aysut on December 27th, 1943, quickly moving north, with the knowledge that Eisenhower was already in position to attack Cairo from the southwest. By the end of January he had reached the village of Beni Suef, about fifty miles south of Cairo. Operation Pyramid began on February 7th, and involved a combined attack from the South and the Southwest by Patton and Eisenhower’s forces. At five in the morning on February 7th bombs and artillery shells began falling on the Anglo-Egyptian fortifications in Cairo. The bulk of the city’s area and population lay east of the Nile, but Eisenhower’s troops had ended up on the western side of the Nile during their advance, a fact that the Anglo-Egyptians would use to their advantage. At first American planes, based out of Fayum eighty miles south of Cario, had clear air superiority, as the Egyptian air force was outdated and outnumbered. But as the Battle of Cairo stretched into March, the British were finally able to start transporting sufficient numbers of troops, ammunition, airplanes and tanks into Egypt. Cairo became the focal point of the British war effort; losing the city would open up path to the Suez, deal a dramatic blow to Egyptian morale, and give the Americans arguably their first major conquest of the war.

By March, bombardment of Cairo had left it largely in ruin, but the Anglo-Egyptian forces were still well entrenched, and thousands of British soldiers were landing in northern Egypt by the day. In late March, a major British aerial counter-attack begun, and for a few days the American air forces were caught completely off guard, before air superiority was reestablished on April 1st. In mid-April, Patton ordered an attack on the city. Eisenhower’s troops moved north, and swung east, attacking British positions on the Nile’s west bank, while Patton’s troops moved directly into the city from the south. Eisenhower’s advance was slow and bloody, though both the British and the Americans knew that any British operations on the western bank would only be delaying actions. In the city center, just east of the Nile, British forces began amassing artillery and fortifying the eastern Nile shore heavily. Patton’s advance was hindered by the destruction his two-month bombardment had caused, as his tanks moved slowly through the rubble-covered streets. By mid-May, Eisenhower’s troops had taken very little ground, even as American bombing escalated.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, the American Atlantic fleet won a number of small victories against the British fleet, eventually forcing them out of the area. In May, American troops easily took Jamaica, and were in position to retake Panama by the end of the month. The American attack on Panama was rapid, owing to an American concern that a long battle may give the British time to destroy the canal or scuttle boats in it. On May 17th, in the largest paratrooper assault in history, Americans retook the Panama Canal, and within the next few weeks they would eliminate the British presence in Panama territory. The re-conquest of Panama was met with jubilation in the United States, and Thomas and his cabinet were, for the first time in a long time, able to celebrate a victory. On June 1st, 1944, Prime Minister Norman Thomas, King Henry I and Secretaries Henry Wallace and Arthur Vandenberg were briefed on the top secret Manhattan Project, a U.S. program with the goal of manufacturing an atomic bomb. In the June 1st briefing, they were told that a working atomic bomb would not be ready before 1948 at the earliest, and were told the startling news that American intelligence showed that the British program was nearly a year and a half ahead of the American program. King Henry demanded that efforts be redoubled, and Prime Minister Thomas arranged for the funding to the project to be doubled.

As all this was going on, Russia had begun its invasion of Manchuria in late March. The Russian army had been expanded dramatically in the thirties and forties, and military production had increased even more as the economy worsened and unemployed Russians were put to work in factories, producing ammunition, tanks and airplanes. Indeed, by 1944, the Russian army, a weak, obsolete and poorly trained mess during the Great War, had become arguably the strongest in the world. Japanese troops were quickly out-numbered, and their tanks and planes were slightly technologically inferior to their Russian counterparts. Meanwhile, American and Russian bombers were in range of the Japanese home islands, and began heavily bombing Japanese population and industrial centers. The Japanese scrambled to hold back the Russian assault, diverting forces from southern China, and quietly removing garrisons in the Philippines and other Pacific Islands. By the end of April, Russian forces had taken the city of Harbin, and preparations were being made for an invasion of Korea.   

The Russian invasion of Manchuria reinvigorated the Chinese, who had fought the British and Japanese to a stalemate in 1943. Chinese forces under General Chiang Kai-Shek regrouped throughout 1944, and in July they attacked Changsa, a critical city about 400 miles inland, that the Japanese had taken in November of 1943. The Japanese garrison in the city had shrunk significantly, and after a month of street-to-street warfare, the Chinese retook the city. In the north, communist Chinese forces were able to advance rapidly, retaking Lanzhou in May, Xi’an in June, and beginning the assault on Taiyuan in July. The British, though stretched, with forces in Egypt, the Pacific, and the Atlantic, attempted to relieve their Japanese allies, and in June 1944 began an offensive against Chongqing, the effective capital of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist forces. As had become a common theme in the war in China, both sides soon became bogged down in urban warfare, though the British troops far out-classed the Chinese in training and equipment. General Chiang was forced to redirect his offensive forces west to defend the city, in a last-ditch attempt to save the city from the British. The battle dragged on into July, before the British broke off the attack and retreated south. Though they failed to take the city, the British suffered a fifth of the casualties suffered by Chiang’s forces, and effectively stalled Chinese efforts for the rest of the year. Two months earlier, it had looked like the Japanese would be out of the war by the fall, but the Battle of Chongqing assured the Anglo-British alliance continued control of China, at least in the short term. 

Meanwhile, in Egypt, the Battle of Cairo dragged on into July, as the temperatures soared into the 90s and 100s. On June 16th, Eisenhower’s army began its invasion of Cairo across the Nile, after pacifying the western portion of the city. The attack was a complete disaster, with thousands of American soldiers dying on the first day of the crossing alone. By this point in the battle, it was no longer safe for American bombers to go on bombing runs, and American and British fighters waged deadly battles above the city. On June 24th, Eisenhower’s troops attempted a second crossing, after a week of heavy bombardment of the Nile’s eastern shore. This one was more successful, and after a day of fighting, Americans had a tenuous hold on the eastern shore, and Eisenhower began rapidly ferrying troops across the river. Patton’s army meanwhile continued its slow push north, reaching the center of city. On July 5th, 1944, Patton and Eisenhower’s forces met in central Cairo. Eisenhower was told to move north, while Patton moved east. On July 13th, Patton’s troops reached the Saladin Citadel, the largest mosque in the city, and the headquarters of the remnants of the Egyptian army in the city. Patton surrounded the citadel, and threatened to demolish it if the Egyptians did not surrender. On July 17th, Egyptian generals within the citadel met with Patton to negotiate surrender. The negotiations were short lived, however, as on July 18th, a massive British counter-attack began, led by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Lang seized control of the Labor Party, portraying himself as an Australian Mosley. Labor narrowly defeated the AUP in 1938, and again in 1941.

May God, if he indeed does exist, have mercy on us all. Here's to Mr. Flynn hoping for the Lang Government to be dismissed by Governor-General, Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie . An excellent update nonetheless.

[paul718]

Seriously well done, Lief.  This is easily the best alternate TL I've ever read.  I've been spoiled though as I only began reading it over the past week.  It's gonna be tough waiting for updates.  Keep up the good work!

[Lief 🗽]

The American Monarchy: 1944-1945

On July 18th, the largest offensive in the history of the African continent began, as a 180,000-man force commanded by British field marshal Bernard Montgomery moved into northern Cairo. Eisenhower’s forces, which had made little progress in moving north and had already largely stalled their advance, fell back quickly. Meanwhile, his flank, on the western shore of the Nile, was lightly defended and bridges across the river had still not been rebuilt. A British detachment of 60,000 under the command of General Christopher Dempsey attacked Eisenhower’s headquarters in west Cairo, quickly over-running it, and cutting Eisenhower off from his own reinforcements and supplies, forcing him to rely on Patton’s. At the same time, the British staged a massive aerial offensive, crushing the American air presence, which had been badly depleted after months of battle, in two weeks. British air supremacy allowed a bombing of American positions. Patton scrambled to reinforce his and Eisenhower’s positions, but to little avail. On August 3rd, General Dempsey crossed the Nile from western Cairo, as Montgomery pushed into the city from the north and east. Eisenhower’s army was encircled and cut-off, with Patton’s army, distracted in eastern Cairo, unable to come to his aid.

Patton was pushed back, further from Eisenhower’s encircled forces, and when news reached Patton on August 17th that Eisenhower, and the remnants of his army, had surrendered, Patton ordered his forces to regroup in the south of the city. Patton urgently called for American reinforcements, but the logistics of transporting troops across the Atlantic (made difficult by the fact that neither the Americans or British had managed to decisively gain control of the seas) and then from the western coast, across Africa, and into Egypt, meant that reinforcing his position was incredibly difficult. On August 28th, Montgomery retook central Cairo, while British forces advanced rapidly south along the Nile’s western bank, moving towards Fayum. Patton, wary of being outflanked, abandoned Cairo, except for a small force left behind in the southern suburb of Maadi. By September 5th, Maadi had fallen, and the Battle of Cairo had come to a close.

In September, Patton raced south, all but abandoning Egypt with the goal of regrouping in northern Sudan. In the United States, there was frustration, as the Americans had suffered heavy casualties and lost many tanks, planes and artillery pieces in the battle. Cairo had been perhaps the most catastrophic defeat in American military history. Some ILP and SDP Senators began floating the idea of beginning peace negotiations, with a push for a return to the status quo ante bellum. The King flat out rejected the idea, arguing that Cairo was a temporary setback, and that Russian and American forces were making considerable progress in the Pacific theater. No one dared mention that Ireland, the cause of the war, was still firmly under British control. Instead, the cabinet, along with military leaders and the king, began preparing for an American invasion of southern China.

First, however, American forces would retake Oahu. In September, after an American victory at sea, American soldiers landed on the island, defeating the Japanese garrison after a week of fighting. The Second Battle of Oahu was over relatively quickly, with few American losses, and the naval battle in the run-up to the land invasion had resulted in the sinking of a Japanese carrier and a battleship. During 1943 and 1944, American shipyards had been dramatically out-producing their Japanese counterparts, and the British fleet’s presence in the Pacific had shrunk, as more and more ships were moved to the Atlantic to fight in a war of attrition over Atlantic shipping lanes. The Second Battle of Midway, from October 13th to 15th resulted in a decisive American naval victory, and the island was quickly retaken. By this point, the Japanese had all but abandoned any notion of holding on to the Pacific, shifting their focus completely to Manchuria. Throughout winter and spring 1944-45, American forces moved quickly across the Pacific, in an island-hopping campaign. Between February and June 1945, American forces under the command of Chester Nimitz, took the Marshall Islands, Caroline Islands, and Marianas Islands, liberating Guam and taking Palau by mid-June. The capture of Palau put the United States in position to liberate the Philippines and to attack British New Guinea¹.

In China, the Japanese had managed to stall the Russian advance at the Battle of Changchun, in central Manchuria, which dragged on through the winter of 1944-1945. In March, after suffering heavy casualties, Field Marshal Alexander Yegorov ordered Russian forces to pull back and regroup. In April, the Russian and American fleet met the Japanese at the Battle of Vladivostok, which resulted in a decisive Japanese defeat. In the next month, Russian and American ships quickly gained control of the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, dramatically restricting the ability of the Japanese to send reinforcements to the mainland. Field Marshal Yegorov began a renewed offensive in mid-May, attacking the city of Jilin, about eighty miles east of Changchun. The battle was costly and long. The Japanese were running out of supplies and troops, but they largely fought to the last man. By July, Jilin and Changchun were under Russian control.

The Anglo-Japanese alliance saw few victories in the first half of 1945, except for in Africa. Sudan had been recaptured in March, and Americans were actually beginning to evacuate their West Africa colonies, as Field Marshal Montgomery prepared to invade. In the British Parliament, some MPs began calling for peace negotiations, arguing that the war had gone on long enough with little permanent success to show for it. Prime Minister Oswald Moseley refused to even consider peace, and in the spring of 1945, he and his cabinet began planning for a renewed offensive in China. The offensive, to be led by Field Marshal Montgomery, was planned to begin in the fall of 1945, and would aim to crush the Chinese Nationalist and Communist forces, before reinforcing the Japanese position in the north.

Meanwhile, Americans were rapidly preparing for their own invasion of China, in an attempt to dislodge the British from the south.  First, however, both countries would meet in the Philippines. The Japanese had largely pulled out of the Philippines in late 1944, as troops and supplies were badly needed in Manchuria. The British had moved into the islands at the same time, primarily with troops from Australia, New Zealand and India. American troops began landing in the Philippines in July 1945, and they faced stiff opposition. Americans first landed in Luzon, the northernmost island. American forces were able to advance fairly quickly south, until they met British troops on the south of the island around Manila. American general Douglas MacArthur ordered a naval attack on the city, but the Commonwealth fleet protecting Manila Bay were able to defeat the American fleet. Finally, in October, American forces took the city, establishing control over Luzon. But attempts at moving south were beaten back, and by the year’s end, American soldiers were stuck in a bloody stalemate in the jungles of the central islands.

In Manchuria, Russian troops had reached the Yalu River (forming Korea’s northern border) and the Liao River in southern Manchuria by the end of 1945. The Japanese scrambled to fortify these rivers, aware that if the Russians managed to cross either river, Japanese control of the mainland would be quickly and finally lost. The Russians, for their part, prepared and rested their soldiers throughout the winter of 1945-46.

¹Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, the German territory comprising northeastern New Guinea, had been quietly annexed by British forces following the fall of Germany in 1943.

[Lief 🗽]

The American Monarchy: 1946-1947

On April 3rd, 1946, the Russians moved against the Japanese forces on three fronts. Mongolia, an independent state under heavy Russian influence, allowed Russian troops to move through its territory, surprising the far western Japanese flank. In the center, Russian forces crossed the Liao River, while in the east, Russians entered Korea, by crossing the Yalu River and moving south from Vladivostok. The Japanese, though outnumbered and with fewer supplies, air support and tanks, fought to the last man across the entire front, dramatically slowing the Russian advance. Russian hopes for a Chinese northern thrust had been dashed when, in February, the British began their offensive (delayed due to the battle in the Philippines) commanded by Field Marshal Montgomery. British forces moved first north, easily bringing Tibet under control.

The British then moved in a pincer, north from Kunming across the Yangtze and northeast from Kunming, parallel with the Yangtze. The first force faced little opposition after it had crossed the Yangtze, and moved east into Sichuan. The second force faced much tougher opposition. The Battle of Guiyang began in early March, as the second British army struggled to take the city from the Chinese. Guiyang would give the British control of the railroad lines heading into the heavily populated eastern part of the country, while also opening up the path to Chongqing. The Chinese redirected soldiers from across the country to Guiyang, unwilling to let it fall to the British. The battle in the city continued for months, slowing down the British advance but tying up most of the Chinese army. In the north, British forces advanced to the outskirts of Chongqing and Chengdu (about 100 miles northeast of Chongqing) and prepared to lay siege to the crucial Chinese Nationalist cities.

In the Pacific, the American advance had slowed dramatically, as the British recommitted to the theater. Finally, in June of 1946, after nearly a year of fighting, the last British garrisons in the Philippines surrendered. The news that the Philippines had been liberated resulted in celebration in the United States, but the populace had also begun to become weary of the war. With the fall of the Philippines, the United States had re-conquered all of its lost territory, and had gained Alaska and a handful of Pacific islands. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were dead, and Ireland and China were no closer to being freed after over five years of bloodshed. In cabinet meetings during the summer, Secretary of State Henry Wallace floated the suggestion of peace negotiations. Prime Minister Norman Thomas countered that peace negotiations would mean abandoning China and Ireland. Secretary of War Arthur Vandenberg glumly replied that even with another five years of war, the chances that China or Ireland would be liberated were slim.

In July, American troops landed on the island of Formosa, defeating a dispirited and relatively small Japanese force after a month of warfare. With Formosa and the Philippines captured, the Americans now had a strong staging location for an invasion of China, and the American navy began shuttling soldiers to the island. American planes based in Formosa were able to give the Chinese air support, but the British offensive pushed forward. By September, Chinese forces in Guiyang surrendered, opening the way for a British assault on Chongqing from the west and south. Chinese troops from across the country moved into Chongqing; General Chiang Kai-Shek and his advisors planned to make their final stand in the city, hoping that it would end for them as the Battle of Cairo had ended for the British.

Meanwhile, in the north, the Russians, after months of bloody warfare, had taken control of Manchuria, pushing out the last Japanese troops in June. In May, Seoul had fallen, and Russian troops had reached the south of the Korean peninsula by the end of July. During the summer of 1946, Russian troops began preparing for an assault on Beijing, and the Americans landed 60,000 troops under Omar Bradley at Port Arthur in southern Manchuria, in preparation to aid the Russians liberate Beijing. This was the first significant American military force to land on Mainland China since the start of the war.

In August, the Second Battle of Chongqing began, as a massive British force assaulted the Chinese defenders of Chongqing from the south and west. Throughout the spring and summer, American expeditionary forces had been moved to Chongqing, but they numbered less than 10,000 when the battle began. These American forces were nonetheless veterans of the Battle of Cairo, and were well trained in urban warfare. American and Russian planes in Chengdu were able to keep the skies over the city in contention, preventing British bombers from flattening the city. Chongqing was a massive city, and the British advance through the city was slow. As the British tried to take Chongqing, the Americans, Russians and Communist Chinese tried to take Beijing, beginning their attack on the city in September. The fighting in both cities was bloody and slow. As both battles dragged into the winter, making conditions even worse, the American military was forced to scrap its planned naval invasion of eastern China, and instead began landing thousands of troops in Manchuria to aid in the attack on Beijing.

On New Year’s Day 1947 the Russians in Beijing made a final push through the snow-covered city, which, combined with a Communist Chinese offensive from the south, resulted in the destruction of the remaining Japanese forces in Beijing. By February, Beijing had been completely liberated. The Russians and Americans quickly regrouped, ready to push south into China. This never occurred; a coup took place in Japan on February 5th, and the Japanese military dictatorship was overthrown. The populace of Japan was living in bombed out cities, starved by a Russian and American blockade of basic necessities, and the Emperor was ready to sue for peace. Moderates in the government overthrew the conservative faction who wanted to keep fighting to the last, and on February 6th, Japanese diplomats called for a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, fighting continued to rage in Chongqing, until, on March 16th, British troops were suddenly ordered to withdraw from the city. The Chinese soldiers spontaneously broke into celebration when they found this out, and the British retreated to the outer perimeter of the city to regroup. Chinese celebrations ended on March 19th, however, when the British dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Chongqing. The Chinese army in the city was decimated, General Chiang Kai-Shek was killed, and “after waiting for the atomic dust to settle”, the British moved into the city, taking it easily. On March 27th, a second British bomb was dropped, on the city of Chongdu. On April 2nd, the shaken, disorganized remnants of the Nationalist Chinese government surrendered. Finally, on April 8th, a third British atomic bomb was dropped on Beijing, killing thousands of Chinese civilians and Russian and American soldiers¹. Both sides by this point were exhausted; the specter of another five or six or seven years of warfare across the Chinese continent, as well continued use of atomic bombs, caused both sides to seek peace. On April 9th, Prime Minister Oswald Moseley, confident that he’d be able to negotiate peace from an advantageous position, approached the United States with a ceasefire. King Henry and Norman Thomas, both exhausted and in poor health², relented, and both sides agreed to a ceasefire on April 11th, 1947.  Peace negotiations would be difficult and complicated, as neither side could really claim victory, but for the moment, all that mattered was that the world was at peace.

¹ Unbeknownst to both the Russians and Americans, the British had successfully detonated an atomic bomb in the deserts of western Australia in October 1946, and the government had quickly ordered three more bombs be produced.
²King Henry had suffered a mild stroke in late 1946, and his wife, Queen Consort Alice, had urged him to step down and let their son become king once the war had ended, though he refused, promising to serve until his death.

[CultureKing]

Great updates