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[biosthetique]

[biosthetique]

[Oberon]

Back to something I've been neglecting...the Second Great War!

1944


British forces push into Communist Congo

At the dawn of 1944, the war against Hejaz was heading into its climax, with British and French forces pushing into the Arabian peninsula. The Soviet forces had overrun most of eastern Europe, Japan and Italy had fallen to Allied forces and the only enemy left untouched so far was the Peoples Republic of Belgium which continued its struggle from the Congo after the fall of Brussels itself.



The Hejaz forces fought well, but were completely outnumbered and overpowered by the combined weight of the British, French and in some cases American attackers.

In Italy, around the same time, a new government was formed as the state was released from occupation by France:



The new government almost immediately pledged to join the war against Hejaz and Belgium, although it was clear after their major defeat that they wouldn't be in a position to do so for a while, and France would keep the African colonies that it had taken from Italy, which would help create a springboard for operations against Communist Belgium.

In March an unexpected and for many in the UK a saddening event occurred in the war in Hejaz, when during a major battle in El Mukalla, British forces found themselves fighting a familiar face.



It was unknown what had prompted General Lawrence to side with Hejaz against his native kingdom, many in the high command theorised that he had gone native. However we shall never know for he kept his thoughts to himself and died at the end of the battle, leading a cavalry charge whilst riding his motorcycle. His body was returned to the United Kingdom where it was buried with full military honours.


General T.E. Lawrence on his beloved motorcycle.

Meanwhile in Europe, more changes to the political system were underway as the Soviet occupation forces began to leave Germany, setting up a new government under a German who had surrendered to the Soviet Union during the battle of Voroshilovgrad. Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach was scorned by many in Germany who considered him a traitor to the Third Reich...but Germany was a different country now, the German Democratic Republic would need a firm and hard hand to continue to exist, and soon the borders of French, Holland and Belgium would find themselves under assault by dozens of refugees seeking asylum from an authoritarian Soviet puppet.



Lebanon also emerged from underneath the shadow of French dominance of the Middle East.



Then in April, with its guiding figure of General Lawrence dead and most of the peninsula under Allied control, Hejaz fell.



British forces were stood down and the situation assessed. The colonies in the East Indies were still underneath anarchist control, and this could not be continued, likewise the communist Belgian forces needed to be contained before the Soviets took even more territory.

However, the biggest thing of note in mid-1944 for the United Kingdom was the political and global scandal which drove Prime Minister Mosley from power and saw Britain take a turn to the left away from right wing authoritarianism.
It was the release of footage of the conditions inside German labour camps for Jewish prisoners, and the discovery in a vault in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee of the minutes of a meeting in which the systematic extermination of the Jews was discussed by high ranking Nazi officials.


Reinhard Heydrich, the leader of the meeting at Wannsee, and high ranking officer in the Nazi Schutzstaffel or SS.

Following the release of these documents to the world by Secretary von-Seydlitz-Kurbach, most likely done so in an effort to draw a line under his Nazi service and help de-nazify Germany, the far-right became even more estranged from the general public than it had before, and the viewpoints of Prime Minister Mosley came under increasing scrutiny. Finally he was forced to resign and call a snap election in June 1944 in which Labour candidate Clement Attlee was swept to power.





(Authors note, let that be a lesson to people, you turn your back on politics for five minutes and Mosley takes over)

Following that brief political crisis, Brtiish forces returned to the Caribbean, which had been neglected since the social upheaval of the 1920s and 1930s. The scene was not pretty, although also not universal. In some areas the native populace had faired well for themselves, in others there had been savage brutality and infighting. Many new 'warlords' refused to surrender their power when British forces arrived and so scattered fighting spread throughout the area before it could be pacifyed.





Then, in October came the final push to end the war, a drive deep into Communist Belgium in the Congo. However the Soviet forces were also there, moving fast, faster than anyone had expected as they too sought their pound of flesh.



On the 5th of November, despite stern warnings from London, the Australian government decided that it had no dog in the fight in Africa and so sort a seperate peace with the communist state. Needless to say the UK government was unimpressed but they respected Australias right of self-determination in this issue.



Later that same month, the forces that Secretary von-Seydlitz-Kurzbach had put into motion became his undoing, as his Soviet masters decided that it would be hard to denazify a country whilst having a member of its armed forces in power. So it looked around for a safer pair of hands and found them in the quiet and unassuming Johannes Dieckmann, who had spent the war in a quiet job in oil and fuel companies. Better still, his brother had been executed for plotting to kill Hitler. He was perfect for the job, and even more perfect for the Soviets was the final annexation of Tannu Tuva into the Soviet Union after months of political and economic pressure.



Then, in December it finally happened...


The I Armoured Corps pushes into Luluabourg, Communist Belgium.

With British tanks pushing deep into the capital of the Peoples Republic of Belgium, and French forces sweeping in from the west. The General Secretary shot himself, and his deputy sought terms of peace with France. Soon the ink on the paper was dry, and what was once the Peoples Republic of Belgium was annexed by France.



The war which had ravaged the whole world was over, and on Christmas day 1944, the church bells all over Britain rang out in celebration, not only of the birth of Christ but also of the end of war and of the de-mobilisation of the armed forces and general public. Thousands of men would soon be returning home to their families, and whilst political shenanigans continued on the world stage, with Communist and Nationalist China at war with each other, and the Republic of Korea leaving the alliance it had with the Allied forces...



but now was the time for peace, and for rejoicing. The world was safe once again...


Un-noticed by those partying in the streets were the absense of several ministers, who had been ferried out to a remote island in the Pacific where the natives had been unceremoniously evicted a few months prior.
These men were sat down in a rather spartan bunker and handed welding masks to wear as a man sat nearby counting down in a monotone voice.
On the 25th December 1944, at 02:00 GMT, the countdown reached zero...



...and the world changed forever.

[Oberon]

THE SECOND WORLD WAR
And the effect it had on the world


German forces pushing deep into the Soviet Union in 1941

The war that lasted from 1941 until 1944 (although many scholars point at the Japanese skirmishes in China which began even earlier in the 1930s as being the true beginning of the Second World War) changed the world forever, two titanic entities clashed in the fields of eastern Europe and by the time was over many millions lay dead and the geography of Europe had changed forever.
But it was not just in Europe that the war changed matters, in the Middle East, in Africa and in Asia the war changed things, and with the cracking of the atom the future would be changed forever.
The war also saw new brutality unleashed upon the planet, with the German persecution of the Jews and other undesirables, the Soviet purges of anything viewed as a threat against communism and the unexpected fanaticism of the Japanese bushido.
However, as much as it was a clash of armies, it was also a clash of ideologies, Communism vs Fascism vs Capitalism, and at the end only Communism and Capitalism would stand triumphant, however Fascism did not die away, but instead went to ground in some unexpected places. Yugoslavia, Namibia, Persia, Tibet all regained fascist or National Socialist governments post-war, however they had witnessed the folly of attempting to spread such ideas beyond their borders and as such had been left alone.
Communism on the other hand, under Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, had spread far across the globe, and deep into Europe. As the US and the western allies took stock of the damage done during the war, they looked upon the increasing hostility from Soviet ambassadors and knew that with Fascism defeated, Communism would be a new potential threat upon the world stage.







The death toll of the war has been estimated by post-war historians to be in the many millions, but here is a brief breakdown by nation:

AXIS:
Nazi Germany - 3,600,000
Japan - 1,500,000
Italy - 400,000

ALLIES:
France - 300,000
Britain - 300,000
USA - 300,000

COMMUNISTS:
Soviet Union: 3,100,000

As it can be seen, the collossal weight of the casualties and indeed the greatest ferocity of the war was between Germany and the Soviet Union, and once again, within a lifetime, Germany had been destroyed by war.
The western allies knew that they had been fortunate for the war had not come to their lands, but instead was fought far away in colonial holdings, but for the people of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the war was very up close and personal, and the civilian cost is still being counted. We may never truly know the scale of the torment that Eastern Europe suffered in these four short years.
Now, with the war over, the potential for a new form of war appeared on the horizon, as the United States of America detonated its own nuclear bomb scant days after the United Kingdom made its first nuclear test...the Soviet Union must have seen this news through the spy network which had penetrated Europe deeply at this point, and a shudder of fear must have gone through Stalins mind, for this was a new era of warfare and the potential for even greater destruction had arrived.


'The Gadget', the worlds second nuclear explosive device.

The Red Army prepares to eat Minsk.

[agathosdaimon]

Originally Posted by Oubaas

Does anyone know the name of the game from which CCIP posted these screenshots? I tried to PM him to ask, but he doesn't seem to be around lately.

This looks almost like a Civil War version of the Total War series. I'd really like to give it a try if I can find out what it is.

Thanks!

Oubaas

The Scourge of War series is exceptional! This looks like something from Scourge of War Gettysburg (maybe one its expansions) you can get from Matrix Games. Take Command is the same style and a precursor to Scourge fo War. you can get Take Command 2nd Manassas on Steam now too


On Steam also and at Matrix is Scourge of War Waterloo and its expansions of Quatre Bras and Ligny

Fighting in Berlin, the Germans actually sent a Maus against my IS-2s.


Of course the problem with trying to use a Maus, is that you inevitably attract the attention of aircraft. Like my IL-10s.



Now off to the Elbe, we have business to conclude with the Americans.

[Oberon]

Technology and the Second World War


The Gloster Meteor, the worlds first jet fighter.

The most startling advance in technology during the course of events of the Second World War was no doubt the entry into the atomic age undertaken by Britain and America. However, many great strides were also made in the areas of warfare, particularly in mechanised armour, but also in aerial and naval warfare. The era of the big gun battleship was swiftly being eclipsed by the coming of the aircraft carrier, with Japanese land based air power bloodying the nose of the Royal Navy during the Pacific War and British Fleet Air Arm aircraft providing decisive in several battles during the campaigns for Formosa and Okinawa.


A Fairey Gannet overflying an Audacious class aircraft carrier.

No doubt the most innovation in armoured technology was seen in the Soviet/Nazi theatre, with the initial large gains and breakthroughs made by the organisational superiority of the Wehrmacht which eventually became offset by the sheer numbers and technology of the Soviet T-34 series.


T-34/76s pushing into Germany

However, Germany was quick to recover and began production on the Panzer V Ausf A 'Panther' which was designed and created to counter the dreaded T-34, however German industry struggled to produce the numbers of superior tanks needed. As the Soviet forces approached Berlin, plans were afoot to build an advanced heavy tank called the 'Tiger' but it never made it off the drawing board. Many historians have speculated that if the Tiger had come into service earlier it may have been able to have swung the war into Germanys favour due to its vastly superior 88mm KwK 36 L/56. However Germany did produce many Panzer IV and III tanks which drove deep into the Soviet Union, and some 17,000 of these tanks were destroyed during the advance to, and retreat from Russia.


A Soviet T-70 drives past a knocked out German Panzer IV

Of course, much is owed to what the Soviets named 'General Winter', the bitter cold for which the might of the German armed forces were completely unprepared for, and while Hitler had hoped to capture Moscow and end the war before winter, the failure of the Soviets to capitulate, and the Wehrmacht to capitalise on several early successes meant that soon the wagers of war were firmly in Moscows favour.


German technology at the end of their war.

One thing that did catch the Soviets by surprise was the rocket interceptor 'Komet', something which no other nation had worked on until that point although some countries were experimenting with jet engine technology.
The Me-163 was, however, as equally dangerous to its pilots as the enemy, and most Komet pilots were killed due to engine accidents or crash landings rather than by enemy action.


The Me163 shown with its disposable undercarriage. The lack of a proper wheeled undercarriage would cause many pilot deaths.

Following the introduction of the 163, the Soviets replied with the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1, although only a handful of test flights were undertaken before wars end. Instead research was pushed towards the jet fighter MiG-9, and by wars end all of the major powers in the war would possess jet fighters, the RAF had the Gloster Meteor, the USAAF had the P-80 Shooting Star, and the Soviets the MiG-9.


The Soviet military technology at the end of the war.

One thing that we now know that the Soviet Union did lag behind in was atomic technology, while America and Britain were both testing nuclear explosives, the Soviet Union was still working on very rudimentary reactors, with two under construction on the outskirts of Moscow.



However, both sides of the new political order were experimenting heavily with missiles, with the Americans and British working on the PGM-17 'Thor' ballistic missile, and the Soviets on the R1 missile. Both weapons were capable of taking a conventional explosive payload many hundreds of miles to a target. Guidance systems were invented and improved constantly, bringing down the 'Circular Error Probable' of the warheads impact down to a smaller and smaller area, however these inaccuracies were soon to be rendered moot as scientists worked on making the giant nuclear devices which had been tested by the Americans and British from room sized contraptions down to something small enough to fit on a missile warhead.
Soon bombers would not have to risk pushing through heavy anti-air defences when a missile could arc overhead into space and then down onto the defenceless target below to deliver its payload of death and destruction.


A PGM-17 'Thor' missile being elevated into firing position.


British technology at the end of the war


American technology at the end of the war

As the world entered the new atomic age, and technology gleaned through the struggle in battle began to make its appearance on the world stage, no-one could predict the outcome of the years ahead.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Technology and the Second World War

Nice info,

[PL_Andrev]

[NeonSamurai]

The Gloster Meteor was not the world's first fighter jet (except for maybe in your game).

The Me 262 beat it in all categories, it was the first experimental jet fighter to fly and the first armed experimental, it was the first production jet fighter (with the first production jet engines), and it was the first jet fighter that went into combat.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

[ille]

[Delanski]

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]