History WorldWarII / WarInEuropeAndAfrica

Before they get the chance to do so, though, the British launch 'Operation Compass', intended to be a 5-day raid on the Italian positions. It succeeded far beyond their wildest expectations, due to the inferiority of Italian equipment [[note]]The heaviest tanks they had available at the time was the M11/39, which only had a hull-mounted 37mm gun. Even worse, most of their tanks were the even weaker L3/35 tankette, which only had machineguns[[/note]], their lack of motorized transports and the highly dispersed nature of their camps. The British [[CurbStompBattle capture all the camps, large amounts of stockpiled supplies and tens of thousands of Italian soldiers at the cost of less than 700 casualties]]. Following this, the Italians retreat to Libya and the British turn 'Operation Compass' into a full-blown counteroffensive.

What follows is a series of {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s as the British push into Libya, culminating in the encirclement of the Italian Tenth Army (about half of the Italian force in North Africa) near the town of Beda Fomm, where they were eventually destroyed despite increasingly desperate and fiercely fought breakthrough attempts using their new and improved M13/40 tanks. After all is said and done, the British have taken most of eastern Libya and captured ''130,000'' soldiers, several hundred vehicles and over a thousand artillery pieces. In addition, they have given the Allies their first major victory of the war, a major morale boost given the litany of defeats they've suffered beforehand.

The Axis also begins to have serious difficulties with supplies as they advance farther and farther east, the lengthening of the front as the Soviets withdraw into the interior serving to dissipate their forces and make their supply lines more vulnerable to attacks by irregular forces. [[LaResistance Survivors from crushed Soviet, Yugoslavian and Greek forces continue to cause serious problems]], and the Germans are forced to divert additional manpower to the Balkans to bring them back under control as the Soviets scramble to reconstitute their forces. The Red Army's reserves are at full strength by November, and the first Soviet citizens to enlist in The Army of the Proletariat start arriving just in time to help stabilise the front. The latter have only ''just'' completed their scratch-training with the units of the Soviet Far East, who themselves remain in position opposite Japan's Kwantung Army. (Even though they are bogged down in China and have a non-aggression pact, Stalin isn't entirely sure the Japanese aren't crazy enough to attack him anyway.) The newly-formed infantry divisions lack machine guns and light artillery, and more importantly virtually none of the men have seen combat before. Many of the officers haven't either, and don't have much experience in leadership positions to boot. This is really, really bad news for the newly-formed artillery and armored units, which require a high degree of training and experience to be properly effective. The entire Red Army has to watch its usage of ammunition; numerous factories produce nothing for weeks and months at a time as the Soviets are forced to move entire manufacturing plants and their specialist staff deep into the interior of the country to avoid losing them to the Axis. Many are eventually moved all the way to western Siberia, where they will be protected from the bombers of the German air force by their sheer distance from axis-controlled airfields. Even if the Germans somehow make it this far, it is reasoned, the Ural Mountains will allow the Soviets to hold out and still retain much of their industry.

The Soviets, emboldened by the winter offensive's success, launch a general offensive along the entire front with a particular focus in the Ukraine. Soviet commanders have forecast a renewal of the German assault on Moscow, so the offensive there is kept light. However, the Germans have already persuaded Hitler to launch an offensive in the Ukraine as well, having convinced him that the Soviets will be on the defensive and will deploy the bulk of their forces around Moscow. Consequently, the two forces trip over one another; the Soviet one is encircled and almost totally wiped out, having delayed the German offensive for about two days at the most and leaving the entire front significantly weaker as a result. Advancing towards the southern reaches of the Volga River and into the oil-rich Caucasus, the panzers are on the move again. The Germans take a lot of territory, but the Soviet armies in the sector managed to execute a fighting retreat to an industrial city called Stalingrad, on the banks of the Volga (originally named Tsaritsyn and currently called Volgograd, it was named Stalingrad at the time because Stalin commanded Red troops there during the [[RedOctober Russian Civil War]]). Hitler becomes increasingly convinced that taking the city directly by brute force will win the war - in all fairness, the city ''is'' a major transport hub through which both the products of Soviet industry and Allied Lend-Lease material make their way to Moscow - and so the Germans and Soviets fight a bloody, titanic battle in the streets and in buildings of the city. As the Spring grinds on, it becomes clear that Germany doesn't quite have the strength to take both Stalingrad ''and'' the Caucasus oil, and may end up with neither as a consequence of trying for both.

In November of 1942, the Soviets launch another massive offensive in an attempt to push the German Armies from Moscow. It fails miserably and 'Operation Mars', along with the Ukrainian offensive of the previous summer - Zhukov's only big defeat - is subsequently swept under the historical carpet, never to be mentioned in Soviet or Russian school textbooks. However, a secondary encirclement offensive meets with success. Striking behind the elite German units in the area around Stalingrad itself, the mechanized units of 'Operation Uranus' break through the virtually-anti-tank-weapon-less Romanian forces guarding the flanks of the Sixth Army - trapping the bulk of it in Stalingrad just as the Russian Winter falls in earnest. Despite repeated requests, Hitler refuses to allow the troops to withdraw. [[HonorBeforeReason He instead demands they fight to the last man and martyr themselves rather than shame him and his visions of Aryan superiority by retreating]]. He also promotes Sixth Army's commanding officer, Friedrich Paulus, to Field Marshal, with a reminder that [[DrivenToSuicide no German Field Marshal has ever surrendered alive]] - which only solidifies Paulus' decision to survive by surrendering.

Next comes a weird eight-month pause variously nicknamed the 'Phony War', the 'Sitzkrieg' (Sitting War), or the 'Bore War' (a pun on the [[SecondBoerWar Boer War]]), in which the British and French mobilise all their industries and quietly churn out all the armaments they can, mobilising and organising all their reserves for a defence of the Low Countries while they sit behind their naval blockade and the UsefulNotes/MaginotLine. Germany does much the same in this period, but unbeknownst to the Allies the blockade strategy is near-totally ineffective - the Allies were right to assume that Germany had been largely unprepared for a war with them, and that the Nazis' strategic-resource stockpiles were very small. However, the Soviet Union is now trading with Germany as per the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and so numerous types of {{Unobtanium}} like tungsten and gasoline are freely available to them. A brief spurt of excitement comes when Scandinavia gets involved - the Allies were [[GunboatDiplomacy considering getting involved there]] to stop Sweden supplying Germany with high-quality steel (a trade which was drastically less important than it appeared, as Germany was also able to get steel from the Soviets), but the Germans see this coming and attack Denmark and Norway to preempt them. While an Allied force (originally destined for Finland) manages to take the important Norwegian port of Narvik (through which Swedish iron ore is sent to Germany), they are in no position to hold it and are ordered to withdraw to France for a more important battle.

Mussolini feels left out of all this conquest, so the Italians promptly invade the Balkans and Greece, only to end up being pushed back, forcing the Nazis to divert troops to aid them. The Wehrmacht then proves their success in France was no fluke by blitzing through Greece and capturing most of the Mediterranean. Only the plucky island of Malta manages to hold on despite heavy casualties and near-starvation, an act that gets the entire island awarded the George Cross. Mussolini is humiliated, and Hitler is provided with a whole raft of snide remarks for future cocktail party conversations (It's worth noting that Italy suffered nearly as much as France in WorldWarOne, so the Allies weren't the only ones suffering from fatalism and defeatism). The battle shifts to North Africa, where the Axis and Allies wage battles for control over the vital Suez Canal and access to the priceless oil supplies of the Middle East.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the United States, still isolationist but not wanting a repeat of the conditions that pulled them into WorldWarOne, declares a state of "armed neutrality" and a resolution to defend neutral shipping on their side of the pond, which effectively results in a state of undeclared war between the U.S. Navy and the German Kreigsmarine. Deeply disturbing for the Imperial Japanese Navy is the announcement of a huge naval construction program to make that defence possible - the "Two Ocean Navy" act of 1940 would see it dwarf even the Royal Navy within ten years [[hottip:*: the official schedule is six years, but no-one thinks it'll get done on-time without a (massive) budget increase]]. This comes as a tremendous shock to the Japanese, who had long chafed under the hated 5-5-3 battleship ratio: the Two Ocean Navy act effectively set the new ratio at ''five to one'', with similar increases in other classes of warships and 10,000 additional aircraft; in all their fulminations against the hated treaties[[note]]Which they'd been ignoring for years, anyway. Although Italy and Germany both [[LoopholeAbuse circumvented the restrictions on their warships' weight and size by measures like welding instead of riveting, and 'weighing' their ships when they were only half-completed]], the Japanese just lied outright[[/note]] they'd never considered that they also served as a check on ''American'' behavior.

This rearming also allows the US an opportunity to "loan" 50 aging but still serviceable destroyers to the UK, in return for long-term leases on naval bases, a sale in all but name. The "loaning" continued with the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, which throws the government's support behind the production of massive quantities of armaments for sale to the embattled European powers. This isn't just mere war-profiteering though, [[WarOf1812 like that one time]] - this offer is open to the Allies only, and Great Britain in particular. It features decent prices and jaw-droppingly huge low- (and some ''no-'') interest loans so that the Allies can actually afford to keep fighting, and more importantly to buy the USA's armaments.[[note]]The UK, recipient of most of these, paid off the last of their lend-lease loans in 2006. From 1941 onwards the Soviets only ever received aid-in-kind, and the Republic of China (now just 'Taiwan') hasn't paid its (tiny, compared to the UK's) debts since its defeat in the Chinese Civil War.[[/note]] Meanwhile, the US starts subsidizing airfield construction across the South Pacific with gifts of cash and construction equipment to Australia and New Zealand, hoping to preserve a lifeline to the Philipines. Taken together, these measures mean that the United States' neutrality is now a mere pretense.

The Fall of France can be better understood if one remembers that Britain, Belgium and particularly France, really, really, ''[[RuleOfThree really]]'' didn't want to fight another war. They had seemingly lost an entire generation of young men on the battlefields of the First World War, and neither their soldiers nor their civilian population were at all eager to fight a second. This meant that not only did the Allies do little more than wait to be attacked (not strictly true, but it did look that way to many people at the time and since) as Hitler conquered Poland (one of the first actual Allies), Denmark and Norway, but when they were finally attacked themselves and suffered initial defeats (helped by their own strategic blundering), the French, unenthusiastic in the first place, were so stung by defeatism and fatalism that it decisively affected their ability and willingness to wage an effective defence.

In southern Europe, the era of 'Vichy France' is over as the Germans annex the state in the wake of their defeat in North Africa. Part of this plan includes the seizure of the French Fleet moored at Toulon, which includes three battleships and seven cruisers - nowhere near enough to turn the tide of the war, but enough to give the Allies grief. However, the French are ready for them and the ''entire fleet'' promptly scuttles itself at anchor, right down to the cargo cranes and the tugboats. The crews of three destroyers and a few motorboats are overpowered by the Wehrmacht's motorcycle-based combat squads, but it's a hollow victory for Hitler.

The Allies follow up on their victory in North Africa by landing in Italy after feeding the Germans false information that the invasion will happen on the Balkan coast. [[hottip:*: The most famous part of the deception being the British 'Operation Mincemeat', wherein a corpse was floated ashore in neutral but Axis-friendly Spain with convincing fake invasion plans in his pockets.]] The Germans swallow this, diverting a significant force from Italy to Yugoslavia. With the Allies at the gates of Rome, the Italian government execute what appears to be a quick HeelFaceTurn, abandoning Germany, deposing Mussolini and signing a peace treaty with the Allies. In reality, this move has been coming for a long time now. German forces are unfazed by this and quickly occupy the remainder of the Italian boot, setting up a puppet regime to rule in their stead; the Allied forces in Italy will take another two years to conquer the rest of the narrow, hilly and easily-defensible peninsula. Mussolini is later liberated from house arrest by a German commando raid and installed as the figurehead of the puppet government in northern Italy. At the very end of the war, on 28 April 1945, he and [[TheMistress his mistress]] are caught by partisans while attempting to flee to Switzerland. [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized They are summarily shot and their bodies are hung upside down in the local town square.]]

Britain therefore quietly seizes the French ships that had taken refuge from the Fall of France in Plymouth and Portsmouth, and issues ultimatums to the French flotillas in Alexandria and Mers-el-Kébir - surrender, or be destroyed. The Alexandrian flotilla of one battleship and four cruisers does not surrender but promises to sit out the war, which the Royal Navy reckons is good enough. But Admiral Darlan's flotilla of four battleships and six destroyers refuses either to surrender or make any promises to their former allies, and so the Royal Navy reluctantly uses carrier-based aircraft and the guns of three capital ships to try to sink the fleet at its moorings. The attack on Mers-el-Kébir doesn't do much damage, but it sends a powerful message to The Axis and The Commonwealth that Britain will fight the war to the end, no matter what. More importantly, the Germans keep their word to the new 'Vichy' French regime under Marshall Pétain and let him keep what remains of the French Navy - three (damaged) battleships, and a handful of destroyers. Much of the captured French fleet goes on to be used by the 'Free French' forces under General Charles de Gaulle, the Alexandrian flotilla rejoining the war in 1943.

The true degree of local support for the Axis is hard to determine and varied from place to place and over time. Suffice to say that the contemporary and later Soviet Union liked it to be thought that the Germans and the Axis [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating were instantly and completely reviled by the Peoples of the Soviet Union.]] At least in the beginning, this was untrue. The sheer ''hatred'' for Stalin and the Russians in some areas of the Ukraine, which had suffered a man-made famine in the '30s (the Holodomor), made many Ukrainians from those areas which had been hardest-hit stout supporters of the Axis right up to the end of the war. Soviet propaganda of the time appeals to pan-Slavic and particularly Russian national pride, presenting the conflict as a Great Patriotic War in the defence of Mother Russia. Conscious of the fact that many Soviet citizens, such as those in the Ukraine, dislike or hate Stalin and his cronies, they decline to mention the fact that fighting for the Motherland also means fighting to save his regime.

After efforts to resupply the trapped army by air or punch through the strengthening Soviet lines fail, the starving and frostbitten remnants of the Sixth Army defy Hitler's orders and surrender on February 2, 1943. It's the largest and costliest defeat the Germans have suffered to that point, and even Nazi politicians publicly admit the battle is an enormous loss. Over 100,000 German soldiers are taken into Soviet captivity and the rest of Hitler's troops in southern Russia hastily retreat. For now, the Red Army continues to learn how to best launch an offensive the hard way, taking the process in much smaller steps this time and [[MightyGlacier giving themselves time to bring their material and manpower advantages to bear properly.]] Meanwhile, the battles between the Axis and the Allies in North Africa - while far smaller in scale than the titanic conflict in the East - also end with more decisive Allied victories. A defeat at Kharkov sees the series of Soviet advances halted, but there is no doubting now that the tide in Europe has turned. This is showcased in a February 1943 speech by Joseph Goebbels, the "Sportpalast Speech" or "Total War Speech", which is the first acknowledgement by the Nazi government that the war is beginning to go badly and that they must prepare for total war.

In 1943, the German forces on the Eastern Front are relentlessly pushed back. The last German offensive at Kursk, 'Operation Citadel', leads to the biggest tank battle in history and a crushing tactical and strategic defeat for Hitler, as the Soviets anticipate the manoeuvre before launching a devastating counter-offensive which destroys the Wehrmacht as an offensive force. As is typical of the East-European front, the Soviets casualties are larger (at a million men dead or wounded), [[WeHaveReserves but they have already taken and can continue to afford far worse losses.]] What's more, now that they are on the offense the Soviets are able to treat their wounded and recover damaged vehicles in large numbers now - and the Germans (who have taken 250 000 casualties) cannot. Stalin sees the success of the operation, together with that of 'Operation Uranus', as a vindication of his growing trust in his Generals and their Staffs. Increasingly, he settles for directing overall strategy and letting the military organise and execute their own operations. Hitler [[SurroundedByIdiots sees the outcome as proof of his own generals' incompetence]] - [[NeverMyFault though the offensive was his idea]] - and [[WhatAnIdiot moves to micromanage the entire German war effort in ever-greater detail]]. With morale skyrocketing, the Soviets spend the rest of the year inexorably pushing the Germans further and further back - a process helped by [[HonourBeforeReason Hitler's continued refusal to allow his forces to make strategic withdrawals]]. [[GeneralFailure The cumulative effect of this is to leave his forces spread thin defending bad positions.]] The Soviets' burgeoning advantage in tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery and air-support allows them to take advantage of this strategic blunder and crush pocket after pocket of increasingly-easily-encircled Axis forces.

In southern Europe, the Allies follow up on their victory in North Africa by landing in Italy after feeding the Germans false information that the invasion will happen on the Balkan coast. [[hottip:*: The most famous part of the deception being the British 'Operation Mincemeat', wherein a corpse was floated ashore in neutral but Axis-friendly Spain with convincing fake invasion plans in his pockets.]] The Germans swallow this, diverting a significant force from Italy to Yugoslavia. With the Allies at the gates of Rome, the Italian government execute what appears to be a quick HeelFaceTurn, abandoning Germany, deposing Mussolini and signing a peace treaty with the Allies. In reality, this move has been coming for a long time now. German forces are unfazed by this and quickly occupy the remainder of the Italian boot, setting up a puppet regime to rule in their stead; the Allied forces in Italy will take another two years to conquer the rest of the narrow, hilly and easily-defensible peninsula. Mussolini is later liberated from house arrest by a German commando raid and installed as the figurehead of the puppet government in northern Italy. At the very end of the war, on 28 April 1945, he and [[TheMistress his mistress]] are caught by partisans while attempting to flee to Switzerland. [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized They are summarily shot and their bodies are hung upside down in the local town square.]]

When France surrenders, the result is the most bitter chapter of the Franco-Anglophone war effort. France's fleet is only a fraction the size of Britain's, with just eight battleships and battlecruisers to Britain's fifteen, and just twenty cruisers to Britain's sixty-six. Before the Fall of France, the Allies' fleet was able to quite handily contain that of Germany and Italy and impose a relatively effective sea-blockade upon them both - Germany had just three capital ships and eight cruisers, and Italy six capital ships and nineteen cruisers. However, if Germany were to demand the services or even just claim the vessels of the French Navy for the Kriegsmarine and/or Regia Marina - by effectively (or quite literally) holding the families of its leaders and servicemen to ransom - then the Axis could have enough ships to threaten allied shipping in the Mediterranean and/or, worse, escort an invasion force across the English channel with the aid of the Luftwaffe.

Britain therefore quietly seizes the French ships that had taken refuge from the Fall of France in Plymouth and Portsmouth, and issues ultimatums to the French flotillas in Alexandria and Mers-el-Kébir - surrender, or be destroyed. The Alexandrian flotilla of one battleship and four cruisers pleads to sit out the war, but Admiral Darlan's flotilla of four battleships and six destroyers refuses; the Royal Navy then uses carrier-launched aircraft and the guns of three capital ships to try to sink the fleet at its moorings. The attack on Mers-el-Kébir doesn't do much damage, but it sends a powerful message to The Axis and The Commonwealth that Britain will fight the war to the end, no matter what. More importantly, the Germans keep their word to the new 'Vichy' French regime under Marshall Pétain and let him keep what remains of the French Navy - three (damaged) battleships, and a handful of destroyers.

Britain therefore quietly seizes the French ships that had taken refuge from the Fall of France in Plymouth and Portsmouth, and issues ultimats to the French flotillas in Alexandria and Mers-el-Kébir - surrender, or be destroyed. The Alexandrian flotilla of one battleship and four cruisers pleads to sit out the war, but Admiral Darlan's flotilla of four battleships and six destroyers refuses; the Royal Navy then uses carrier-launched aircraft and the guns of three capital ships to try to sink the fleet at its moorings. The attack on Mers-el-Kébir doesn't do much damage, but it sends a powerful message to The Axis and The Commonwealth that Britain will fight the war to the end, no matter what. More importantly, the Germans keep their word to the new 'Vichy' French regime under Marshall Pétain and let him keep what remains of the French Navy - three (damaged) battleships, and a handful of destroyers.

French High Command decides that this time, the Allies will hold the line in Belgium at a series of major rivers while making good on their industrial-commercial advantage by further building up their forces, before (when the Germans are virtually out of fuel because of the blockade) pushing the Germans back across the border. They haven't, however, ironed out the details. Politicking within High Command (careers and reputations were at stake when the Allies' plans were devised) meant that only one plan (holding the line in Belgium, building up their forces) was fleshed-out in detail. Even so, it's a good idea (despite the whole 'blockade not actually working' thing). German High Command is all too aware of their forces' inadequacies, and how the Allies' advantages will only increase with time - not to mention an awareness of just how untenable their alliance with the Soviets is in the long term. With all this in mind, Hitler has chosen to launch an offensive against the Allies through Belgium. Germany's small and out-classed force of panzers and motorised units will use their superior speed and communications to punch a tiny opening in the Allied front and force their way through it so they can wreak havoc behind Allied lines - and the rest of the German army will follow, on foot, to encircle ''half'' the entire French Army in one fell swoop by attacking where they least expect it! Those of Hitler's Generals [[WorldWarOne who have actually seen combat]] realise that this is ''monumentally'' stupid. France's reserves will stop the Wehrmacht's panzer forces dead in their tracks or worse, lure them into a huge trap and destroy them at their leisure. The only thing stopping the French Army's massive, albeit non-motorised, regular forces from doing much the same would be speed. And no modern army could survive for long with such constricted lines of supply.

This section deals with events in Europe and Africa. In (inaccurate) summary, it started off with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying Poland, the Soviet Union launching an inconclusive invasion of Finland and Germany launching a crazed but amazingly effective offensive against France, with Germany occupying The Low Countries and northern France. Germany and Italy then turned on Yugoslavia when the latter backed out of their alliance, and went on to conquer Greece. The United Kingdom and The Commonwealth faced the Axis down over the skies of Britain and the deserts of North Africa, with The Axis of Steel (then including Germany, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Finland) launching Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in the summer of the following year (1941). Following Japan's declaration of war - upon Britain, The Netherlands, and the USA - Germany also declared war on the United States. The titanic struggle raging in the east proved too much for Germany and the Axis, who also had to deal with a massive Allied strategic-bombing campaign and (two-to-four years later, in 1943 and 1944 respectively) relatively small-scale allied invasions of Italy and then France. These served to distract Germany from their epic showdown with the Soviets, who - despite numerous and catastrophic setbacks and failures which cost millions of lives - advanced inexorably upon Berlin until the final downfall of the NSDAP regime in April 1945.

When the Germans do declare war on Belgium on May 10, 1940, the Allies are ready for them. The Allies have an advantage in numbers of troops, artillery and tanks, and though the Royal Air Force and Armée de l'Air have less bombers than the Luftwaffe, they have more fighters. Almost all their troops have modern weapons with sufficient ammunition and the training to use them properly - France has had conscription for years, meaning that virtually all of the troops in their army have completed at least a year or two of military training. The Wehrmacht, on the other hand, is largely inexperienced and ill-equipped, though the veterans of the 'Condor Legion' have disseminated their experiences from the SpanishCivilWar, and they have also been blooded in the Invasion of Poland and the battles in Scandinavia. The Allies' forces also have far more horses, and more 'motorised' troops (infantry units that use trucks to get around). Few Allied troops or commanders have seen actual combat, though, and the bulk of France's troops are trained to man static positions, rather than engage in mobile warfare. Many of the deployed French units are also second-line reserves, lacking the equipment of their regular forces.

But, fool's mission though it should have been, it ''[[CrazyEnoughToWork works]]''. This a result of the way France has designed, organised, and deployed her forces in general terms and with regards to the plan they are implementing (moving into Belgium to defend it with a few solid lines of defence). The French forces engaged there have held far too few units back as a strategic reserve, which would be fine if they were facing an enemy offensive on a (relatively) broad front - but not one that so insanely narrow and concentrated. The organization of France's military also did not help - France has more tanks than Germany, but very few dedicated tank units. Instead, France's large number of well-armoured tanks are dispersed throughout their regular infantry divisions and [[MightyGlacier move at speeds to match]], all part of their strategy of defending and advancing on broad fronts. Most of the Armée de l'Air's planes are either obsolete or unserviceable, meaning they are outnumbered and outclassed by the Luftwaffe despite their numerical superiority on paper. The French armed forces also have too little communications equipment, with most of the stuff they have being of poor-quality, and having too few operators to match - meaning that it takes French officers longer than their German counterparts to receive, pass on, and implement new information and new orders.[[note]]This is at least partly because the Ministry of Defence hadn't seen the need for spending large sums on things like radios and switchboard operators, when machine guns and riflemen were seen as more important (and were easier to justify to a government keen to cut defence expenditure in the middle of TheGreatDepression).[[/note]] But perhaps more importantly, the French don't have a plan to counter the German one and have a very hard time improvising a solution. Politicking has led to a critical failure of strategic planning - a failure to devise contingency plans for the overall 'Battle of France' - and not-universally-competent leadership lower down the chain of command means that its harder than it should be for France's forces to respond on-the-fly. Essentially, German planning and organisation has France's factious, ponderous brawn outmatched.

The Fall of France can be better understood if one remembers that Britain, Belgium and particularly France, really, really, ''[[RuleOfThree really]]'' didn't want to fight another war. They had seemingly lost an entire generation of young men on the battlefields of the First World War, and neither their soldiers nor their civilian population were at all eager to fight a second. This meant that not only did the Allies do little more than wait to be attacked (not true, but it did look that way to many people at the time and since) as Hitler conquered Poland (one of the first actual Allies), Denmark and Norway, but when they were finally attacked themselves and suffered initial defeats (helped by their own strategic blundering), the French, unenthusiastic in the first place, were so stung by defeatism and fatalism that it decisively affected their ability and willingness to wage an effective defence.

Mussolini feels left out of all this conquest, so the Italians promptly invade the Balkans and Greece only to end up being pushed back, forcing the Nazis to divert troops to aid them. The Wehrmacht then proves their success in France was no fluke by blitzing through Greece and capturing most of the Mediterranean. Only the plucky island of Malta manages to hold on despite near-starvation, an act that gets the entire island awarded the George Cross. Mussolini is humiliated, and Hitler is provided with a whole raft of snide remarks for future cocktail party conversations (It's worth noting that Italy suffered nearly as much as France in WorldWarOne, so the Allies weren't the only ones suffering from fatalism and defeatism). The battle shifts to North Africa, where the British, the Italians and the Germans wage battles for control over the vital Suez Canal and access to the priceless oil supplies of the Middle East.

On February 14, 1941, the newly promoted Major General ErwinRommel (formerly commander of the 7th Panzer Division, notable for its stunning manoeuvres in the Battle of France, which earned it the [[SquadNickname nickname]] "The Ghost Division".) arrives in Tripoli to begin supervising the offloading of his new command. Leading what is dubbed the "Deutsches Afrikakorps", Rommel finds himself both undermanned and under-equipped. But does that stop him? Nope. He orders his troops to begin moving as quickly as possible, [[CurbStompBattle plowing through British positions in Egypt]]. Only a desperate counterattack drives Rommel back, showcasing how the war in Africa will be fought for the next year. Nevertheless, the African Front will come to be known as the most humane and romanticized combat zone of the war, where Rommel becomes a well-respected commander ([[WorthyOpponent earning praise from Winston Churchill himself]]). However, the war in Africa is only seen as a sideshow for the true campaign, where the bulk of German troops and equipment will be used (depriving Rommel of much-needed reinforcements and supplies for his offensives).

This rearming also allows the US an opportunity to "loan" 50 aging but still serviceable destroyers to the UK, in return for long-term leases on naval bases, a sale in all but name. The "loaning" continued with the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, which throws the government's support behind the production of massive quantities of armaments for sale to the embattled European powers. This isn't just mere war-profiteering though, [[WarOf1812 like that one time]] - this offer is open to the Allies only, and Great Britain in particular. It features decent prices and jaw-droppingly huge low- (and some ''no-'') interest loans so that the Allies can actually afford to keep fighting, and more importantly to buy the USA's armaments.[[note]]The UK, recipient of most of these, paid off the last of their lend-lease loans in 2006. From 1941 onwards the Soviets only ever received aid-in-kind, and the Republic of China (now just 'Taiwan') hasn't paid its (tiny, compared to the UK's) debts since its defeat in the Chinese Civil War.[[/note]] Taken together, these measures mean that the United States' neutrality is now a mere pretense.

In April of 1945, Soviet and American troops famously link-up at a German village called Torgau on the Elbe river. The job of taking Berlin is left to the Soviets, who are far closer and have claimed the city as part of their sphere anyway. Indeed, Stalin is eager for the Red Army to have the honor of taking the very heart of Nazi Germany, which Hitler has refused to leave. Germany drives the pensioners of the Volkssturm and the boys of the Hitler Youth to defend her from The Depredations of the Jewish Communist Hordes, mustering a force of 800 000 men and a thousand armoured vehicles in the city's defence. For their part the Soviets manage to bring some 2.5 million of their best veterans - supported by tens of thousands of tanks, aeroplanes, and artillery pieces - to take it from them. After a spot of some of history's most brutal and bloody urban combat ever, on the 1st of May the Red Flag waves above the Reichstag. Finally admitting that the war is lost, Hitler [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled kills himself]] in his bunker. On the 8th of May (9th in Moscow), 1945, his successor - Admiral Doenitz - approves the surrender of Nazi Germany. The war in Europe is over.

It must be said that at this point, Hitler and his fellow-minded Nazis continually fail to understand or admit that the Allies will ''not'' settle for anything less than their unconditional surrender. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they still see their western enemies as fundamentally decadent, weak-willed, and likely to sue for peace if only they can be drawn into open battles that will inflict heavy casualties and drain their morale. A few of the more deluded even believe that it would be possible to "bury the hatchet" with just the US and convince them to instead ''join'' Germany in fighting their "true" common enemy, the oncoming Soviets. (Such a separate peace is their only 'realistic' option[[hottip:*: 'Realistic', as there's no way the Allies' ground forces can win a fight with the Red Army, even with Germany's help. The Red Army outnumbers them both by more than two-to-one in all meaningful categories, and is (drastically) more experienced and better-organised to boot.]] to turn them back at this point, and that speaks volumes.)

It must be said that at this point, Hitler and his fellow-minded Nazis continually fail to understand or admit that the Allies will ''not'' settle for anything less than their unconditional surrender. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they still see their western enemies as fundamentally decadent, weak-willed, and likely to sue for peace if only they can be drawn into open battles that will inflict heavy casualties and drain their morale. A few of the more deluded even believe that it would be possible to "bury the hatchet" with just the US and convince them to instead ''join'' Germany in fighting their "true" common enemy, the oncoming Soviets. (Such a separate peace is their only realistic option to turn them back at this point, and that speaks volumes.)

But, fool's mission though it should have been, it ''[[CrazyEnoughToWork works]]''. This a result of the way France has designed, organised, and deployed her forces in general terms and with regards to the plan they are implementing (moving into Belgium to defend it with a few solid lines of defence). The French forces engaged there have held far too few units back as a strategic reserve, which would be fine if they were facing an enemy offensive on a (relatively) broad front - but not one that so insanely narrow and concentrated. The organization of France's military also did not help - France has more tanks than Germany, but very few dedicated tank units. Instead, France's large number of well-armoured tanks are dispersed throughout their regular infantry divisions and [[MightyGlacier move at speeds to match]], all part of their strategy of defending and advancing on broad fronts. Most of the Armée de l'Air's planes are either obsolete or unserviceable, meaning they are outnumbered and outclassed by the Luftwaffe despite their numerical superiority on paper. The French armed forces also have too little communications equipment, with most of the stuff they do have is poor-quality, and has too few operators to match - meaning that it takes French officers longer than their German counterparts to receive, pass on, and implement new information and new orders.[[note]]This is at least partly because the Ministry of Defence hadn't seen the need for spending large sums on things like radios and switchboard operators, when machine guns and riflemen were seen as more important (and were easier to justify to a government keen to cut defence expenditure in the middle of TheGreatDepression).[[/note]] But perhaps more importantly, the French don't have a plan to counter the German one and have a very hard time improvising a solution. Politicking has led to a critical failure of strategic planning - a failure to devise contingency plans for the overall 'Battle of France' - and not-universally-competent leadership lower down the chain of command means that its harder than it should be for France's forces to respond on-the-fly. Essentially, German planning and organisation has France's factious, ponderous brawn outmatched.

But, fool's mission though it should have been, it ''[[CrazyEnoughToWork works]]''. This a result of the way France has designed, organised, and deployed her forces in general terms and with regards to the plan they are implementing (moving into Belgium to defend it with a few solid lines of defence). The French forces engaged there have held far too few units back as a strategic reserve, which would be fine if they were facing an enemy offensive on a (relatively) broad front - but not one that so insanely narrow and concentrated. The organization of France's military also did not help - France has more tanks than Germany, but very few dedicated tank units. Instead, France's large number of well-armoured tanks are dispersed throughout their regular infantry divisions and [[MightyGlacier move at speeds to match]], all part of their strategy of defending and advancing on broad fronts. Most of the Armée de l'Air's planes are either obsolete or unserviceable, meaning they are outnumbered and outclassed by the Luftwaffe despite their numerical superiority on paper. The French armed forces also have too little communications equipment, with most of the ones they do have being poor-quality, and too few operators to match - meaning that it takes French officers longer than their German counterparts to receive, pass on, and implement new information and new orders.[[note]]This is at least partly because the Ministry of Defence hadn't seen the need for spending large sums on things like radios and switchboard operators, when machine guns and riflemen were seen as more important (and were easier to justify to a government keen to cut defence expenditure in the middle of TheGreatDepression).[[/note]] But perhaps more importantly, the French don't have a plan to counter the German one and have a very hard time improvising a solution. Politicking has led to a critical failure of strategic planning - a failure to devise contingency plans for the overall 'Battle of France' - and not-universally-competent leadership lower down the chain of command means that its harder than it should be for France's forces to respond on-the-fly. Essentially, German planning and organisation has France's factious, ponderous brawn outmatched.

This section deals with events in Europe and Africa. In (inaccurate) summary, it started off with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying Poland, the Soviet Union launching an inconclusive invasion of Finland and Germany launching a crazed but amazingly effective offensive against France, with Germany occupying The Low Countries and northern France. Germany and Italy then turned on Yugoslavia when the latter backed out of their alliance, and went on to conquer Greece. The United Kingdom and The Commonwealth faced the Axis down over the skies of Britain and the deserts of North Africa, with The Axis of Steel (then including Germany, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Finland) launching Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in the summer of the following year (1941). Following Japan's declaration of war - upon Britain, The Netherlands, and the USA - Germany also declared war on the United States. The titanic struggle raging in the east proved too much for Germany and the Axis, who also had to deal with a massive Allied strategic-bombing campaign and (two-to-four years later, in 1943 and 1944 respectively) relatively small-scale allied invasions of Italy and then France. These served to distract Germany's from their epic war against the Soviets, who - despite numerous and catastrophic setbacks and failures which cost millions of lives - advanced inexorably upon Berlin until the final downfall of the NSDAP regime in April 1945.

This section deals with events in Europe and Africa. In (inaccurate) summary, it started off with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying Poland, the Soviet Union launching an inconclusive invasion of Finland and Germany launching a crazed but amazingly effective offensive against France, with Germany occupying The Low Countries and northern France. Germany and Italy then turned on Yugoslavia when the latter backed out of their alliance, and went on to conquer Greece. The United Kingdom and The Commonwealth faced the Axis down over the skies of Britain and the deserts of North Africa, with The Axis of Steel (then including Germany, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Finland) launching Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in the summer of the following year (1941). Following Japan's declaration of war upon Britain, The Netherlands, and the USA Germany also declared war on the United States. The titanic struggle raging in the east proved too much for Germany and the Axis, who also had to deal with a massive Allied strategic-bombing campaign and (two-to-four years later, in 1943 and 1944 respectively) relatively small-scale allied invasions of Italy and then France. These served to distract Germany's from their epic war against the Soviets, who - despite numerous and catastrophic setbacks and failures which cost millions of lives - advanced inexorably upon Berlin until the final downfall of the NSDAP regime in April 1945.

This section deals with events in Europe and Africa. In (inaccurate) summary, it started off with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying Poland, the Soviet Union launching an inconclusive invasion of Finland and Germany launching a crazed but amazingly effective offensive against France, with Germany occupying The Low Countries and northern France. Germany and Italy then turned on Yugoslavia when the latter backed out of their alliance, and went on to conquer Greece. The United Kingdom and The Commonwealth faced the Axis down over the skies of Britain and the deserts of North Africa, with The Axis of Steel launching Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in the summer of the following year (1941). Following Japan's declaration of war upon Britain, The Netherlands, and the USA Germany also declared war on the United States. The titanic struggle raging in the east proved too much for Germany and the Axis, who also had to deal with a massive Allied strategic-bombing campaign and (two-to-four years later, in 1943 and 1944 respectively) relatively small-scale allied invasions of Italy and then France. These served to distract Germany's from their epic war against the Soviets, who - despite numerous and catastrophic setbacks and failures which cost millions of lives - advanced inexorably upon Berlin until the final downfall of the NSDAP regime in April 1945.

This section deals with events in Europe and Africa. In summary, it started off with Germany and Italy launching invasions that allowed them to overrun much of Europe and North Africa. Only the United Kingdom was able to defeat German attempts at invasion. Germany then attacked the Soviet Union, which previously had been their partner in the invasion of Poland. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany also declared war on the United States. Eventually, the combination of fighting Soviet forces on the Eastern Front, and American, British, and other Allied nations on the Western and Mediterranean fronts proved to be too much for the Axis nations, leading to their defeat.

It must be said that at this point, Hitler and his eastern allies continually fail to understand or admit that the Allies will ''not'' settle for anything less than unconditional surrender. Both continue to believe their enemies are fundamentally decadent, weak-willed, and likely to sue for peace if only they can be drawn into open battles that will inflict heavy casualties and drain their morale. Towards this end, Hitler gathers what offensive strength he has left and hurls it all at the Allies in a surprise attack in December of 1944, while Allied supply problems remain constant and their air forces are grounded by bad weather. His legions attack through the Ardennes - the same route by which they snuck into France four and a half years before - in a desperate and ill-advised attempt to cut a wedge between the American and British forces. The attack catches the Allies completely by surprise and initially looks like it may, against all odds, succeed. However, there is a huge difference between the Ardennes of 1939 - when the forests were picketed by only a few detached cavalry vedettes - and 1944, when the lines are manned by three full (but green) US Army Groups, under the command of Patton, Bradley, and Hodges, backed by Allied tactical airpower and the world's best artillery.

The so-called 'Battle of the Bulge' results in German gains for a few days under the cover of bad weather, followed by inevitable defeat as dogged American resistance delays Hitler's tight operational timetable just long enough for his panzer formations to run out of fuel, sometimes literally within sight of their objectives. Those that aren't destroyed are abandoned as the Germans are pushed back by American counter-attacks, especially when the streak of cloudy days runs out and the Allies' air forces can resume operations. This defeat essentially breaks the back of Germany's power to resist in the West. With the last reserves of their professional army now depleted, every loss of man and machine from this point forward becomes literally irreplaceable. Casualties from the battle are high, with the Americans and British losing nearly 100,000 men killed, wounded or captured with German losses about even. But, as was the case in the Soviet Union, the Allied losses are great but ''survivable''. With Allied industry safely beyond the reach of the Germans, and their own industrial centers under constant air bombardment, it's now only a question of how long before Germany will be forced to surrender for lack of ammunition and fuel, if nothing else.

Germany is now a country void of teen- and middle-aged males, who have virtually all been drafted into [[HomeGuard citizen militias to defend the Fatherland to the last]]. Even those who see the futility of continuing the war cannot escape it. Fanatical Nazis in the ranks ensure anyone who doesn't fight risks summary execution for cowardice. Civilians too are threatened with reprisal if they try and surrender their towns to save them from being steamrolled by overwhelming Allied numerical superiority. By 1945, the war in Europe has entered its endgame. The last major German army on the Western Front has surrendered to the Americans and British after being outmanoeuvred and the Ruhr, the primary steelmaking and manufacturing center of the country, is captured. Meanwhile, the Soviets clear Poland of German forces and push all the way to the Oder river, 56 miles from Berlin, taking the time to advance through the Balkans, Hungary, and Romania before advancing into Germany proper - ensuring that the 'Soviet Sphere of Influence' Stalin has negotiated with the Allies will answer directly to Moscow in future. In April of 1945, Soviet and American troops famously link-up at a German village called Torgau on the Elbe river. The job of taking Berlin is left to the Soviets, who are far closer and have claimed the city as part of their sphere anyway. Indeed, Stalin is eager for the Red Army to have the honour of taking the very heart of Nazi Germany, which Hitler has refused to leave. Germany drives the pensioners of the Volkssturm and the boys of the Hitler Youth to defend her from The Depredations of the Jewish Communist Hordes, mustering a force of 800 000 men and a thousand armoured vehicles in the city's defence. For their part the Soviets manage to bring some 2.5 million of their best veterans - supported by tens of thousands of tanks, aeroplanes, and artillery pieces - to take it from them. After a spot of some of history's most brutal and bloody urban combat ever, on the 1st of May the Red Flag waves above the Reichstag. Finally admitting that the war is lost, Hitler [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled kills himself]] in his bunker. On the 8th of May (9th in Moscow), 1945, his successor - Admiral Doenitz - approves the surrender of Nazi Germany. The war in Europe is over.

This section deals with events in Europe and Africa. In summary, it started off with Germany and Italy launching invasions that allowed them to overrun much of Europe and North Africa. Only the United Kingdom was defeat German attempts at invasion. Germany then attacked the Soviet Union, which previously had been their partner in the invasion of Poland. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany also declared war on the United States. Eventually, the combination of fighting Soviet forces on the Eastern Front, and American, British, and other Allied nations on the Western and Mediterranean fronts proved to be too much for the Axis nations, and they were defeated.