World War II (The War That Came Early)

The Second World War was a paritial amalgamation of several desparate events into a global conflict. The ongoing Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War were eventually tied into a war in Europe that began in 1938 with the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, and quickly brought several countries into conflict across the continent. Discontent with the final out come of World War I helped feed the conflict, as various countries sought to regain lost territory and prestige. As often is the case in war, alliances proved fluid and temporary.

Pre-War Events
Italy had invaded Abyssinia in 1935 and successfully annexed it by 1936, without substantive opposition from the rest of the world.

In 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out when a Nationalist uprising under the command of Marshal José Sanjurjo sought to overthrow the leftist Republican government. Germany and Italy provided aid to Sanjurjo, and the Soviet Union aided the Republicans. Britain and France also provided some nominal support to the Republic, but not to the same extent as the USSR. In addition, various people from all over the world who sympathized with the Republican cause traveled to Spain to fight.

Under Adolf Hitler, Germany had successfully re-militarized with minimal protest from the rest of Europe. In the months before the outbreak of general war, Germany had annexed Austria in March, 1938, a violation of the Treaty of Versailles. As Britain and France were determined to avoid war at all cost, they did nothing to stop the annexation. This set the stage for Hitler's next demands: the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

In July, 1937, Japan launched an invasion of China. While it was able to establish the puppet Empire of Manchukuo, Japan found itself heavily opposed by Chinese forces from both the ruling Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. In July of the following year, Japan and the Soviet Union came to blows over where the border between Manchukuo and Mongolia lay, but the conflict had not escalated into full-fledged war between the two yet.

Munich: The War Begins
In response to Hitler's demands for the Sudetenland, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his French counter-part, Edouard Daladier, both determined to avoid war, entered into negotiations at Munich designed to grant Hitler's demands. Hitler was convinced to take part in these negotiations by his ostensible ally, Italian prime minister, Benito Mussolini. The Soviet Union was excluded, and representatives from the Czechoslovakia were not allowed to participate. Hitler didn't want peace, but his only reliable supporter was Marshal Sanjurjo. Even his military leaders and close advisers had convinced him to accept the concessions negotiated.

However, the planned treaty fell apart when word came that Konrad Henlein, the leader of the Sudeten German Party had been assassinated. Hitler announced his plan to attack Czechoslovakia. Chamerlain and Daladier, convinced Hitler had been behind Henlein's death, announced that they would declare war if Germany attacked. Hitler ignored them, and ordered Case Green.

The European War Against Hitler
The German invasion of Czechoslovakia began on October 1, 1938. When news came that Britain and France were declaring war, the Soviet Union joined in. Despite being rather unprepared overall, Germany was able to use its Panzer Is and Panzer IIs and its air power to great affect. The fact that neither Britian nor France were terribly aggressive in their opening moves, and that the USSR did not border Czechoslovakia, and so could only offer air-support, also helped Germany and hurt Czechoslovakia. Further, neighbors of Czechoslovakia which had territorial claims of their own, including Poland and Hungary, launched their own attacks, although not as formal allies of Germany. Finally, Slovak nationalists began an uprising in Czechoslovakia further wasted valuable resources. Prague fell before the month was out, the rest of the country falling shortly after.

In the west, France briefly and half-heartedly invaded Germany during the Czechslovakian attack, while the British began to mobilize into France. Both were wholly convinced of Germany's near invincibility as touted by Josef Goebbels's propaganda, did nothing to press their advantage. Had they done so, the truly weak state of the German military might have been revealed, and Germany might have been crushed by two fronts. Instead, Germany subdued Czechoslovakia, then wheeled around, pushing the French back out of Germany while at the same time initiating the Schlieffen Plan, launching an invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium. The Netherlands, completely surprised, fell within a week. Much to the disgust of Britain and France, Belgium's King Leopold III refused to mobilize or allow British and French forces within Belgium, even as it was clear the Germans would coming. When they did arrive, Leopold hastily asked for aid, and some Allied forces made their way into Belgium. However, that front proved short-lived: Leopold pursued a peace with Germany in a matter of weeks, and the British and the French began withdrawing in preparation of the German drive on France.

The Germans advance into France in the closing months of 1938 was very successful, with their Blitzkrieg driving through the north. However, the Eastern Front, which had been remained an aerial war after the fall of Czechoslovakia, became a ground war in December, 1938, when Joseph Stalin, after alleging mistreatment of ethnic Byelorussians at the hand of the Rydz-Smigly "regime" of Poland, began an aerial assault on Polish territory. In response, Poland formally aligned itself with Germany, and on New Year's Eve, Germany announced that it would be entering Polish territory.

Germany had no choice but to shift forces in France to Poland, which slowly began to help the Allied cause. Germany sent most of their panzers over to Poland's frontier with the USSR, which had launched an onslaught against the Nazi ally. Trench lines formed in the western front, while the flat plains of Poland made ideal tank country. Concurrently, naval warfare favored the world-beating Royal Navy on the surface, and mainly the Kriegsmarine in submarine warfare. Supply convoys from the Americas to Britain were disrupted, but Britain remained well-fed, with Paris receiving the brunt of German bombing raids. In April, 1939, stiff resistance from French, British, colonial, and Czech troops finally halted the German advance at Beauvais. The Schlieffen Plan came closer to working in this war than it had in the last one, but it had still ultimately failed. A summer counteroffensive pushed the Germans back northeast.

Despite these set-backs, Germany did receive indirect aid from a nominal ally, when Japan attacked the Soviet Union in Siberia (see below) Germany used the pretext of the Royal Navy's capability to disrupt sea traffic between Sweden and Germany to justify the invasion of Denmark and Norway in the summer of 1939. Denmark, taken completely by surprise, fell in a matter of hours. Germany described Denmark as "protected", and left the Danish government more or less intact, and Danish life was only lightly disrupted. In the end, the invasion of Denmark was only a stepping stone to Norway, where fighting soon grew fiercer as Britain and France sent troops and weapons to help fight off Germany. That front raged throughout 1939 and into 1940, before Norway too was deemed lost and the Allies withdrew.

Spanish Civil War
As the Spanish Civil War was already a proxy war, supplies and arms began flowing freely to both sides,, just in time for the Republicans, who'd been fairing poorly against Sanjurjo's Nationalists.

Asia: The Sino-Japanese War and the Soviet Japanese War
On the First of April, 1939, the Japanese Empire attacked the Soviet Union on the Manchurian frontier, the culmination of disputes between the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and Mongolia and Russia (although Mongolia was to the USSR as Manchukuo was to Japan). The initial advance toward the Trans-Siberian Railway was successful, and Vladivostok was besieged from July onwards. Russian radio confirmed "heavy fighting", which meant they were losing.

In China, the Japanese halted southward advances while they invaded Soviet Siberia, but still occupied substantial areas (Shanghai, Peking) and were mentioned to have "gone loopy in Nanking." The United States, which remained neutral in all fronts, pulled its Marines out of Peking for fear of Japanese aggression, and moved most of them to Shanghai. Although the Japanese were cocky, they still enjoyed friendly relations with one or two US soldiers.

The European War Against Stalin
After the Japanese successfully captured Vladivostok and other strategic points in Siberia, the U.S.S.R made peace with Japan in the face of the pending "big switch". The Soviet tanks and planes gradually improved, putting more and more pressure on the Germans and their allies. The Soviets took some measure of revenge against the their former ally, the United Kingdom, by bombing Scapa Flow. By the end of 1940 the Western powers reached Smolensk. In the meantime Japan prepared its attack on the western nations.

The War Against Japan in the Far East
On January 12, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked U.S. naval positions in the Philippines and Hawaii, as well as British Malaya and Hong Kong, French Indochina, the Dutch East Indies and a few minor targets.