Post by lordroel on Nov 10, 2019 12:06:43 GMT
The Second Great War of 1940 to 1945
What if in November 1916, the freshly-reelected United states President Woodrow Wilson renewed his earlier attempts to mediate a peace between the warring European powers. On December 18th Wilson sent identical notes to the warring powers asking them to state their conditions for peace, and later offered to mediate a settlement. The warring sides rejected his offer.
Wilson’s failure marked the last chance for a negotiated peace to end the Great War before one side collapsed. What if he had succeeded? What if the First Great War had come to an end in December 1916, sparing the lives of millions and uncountable destruction?
Coming from the board game called The Second Great War comes a world of Wilson’s Peace, one in which the great empires of Eastern Europe - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire – survived for another generation. In this alternative reality, war returned to Europe in 1940 as the vengeful authoritarian regimes in France, Italy and Russia unleash aggressive war against the prosperous social democracies of Germany, Austria and Poland.
The Second Great War Timeline
August 1940: Russian armies invade Finland, the Baltic States, Poland and Austrian Ruthenia.
Autumn 1940: French and Russian surface raiders attack German convoys in the North Atlantic. German cruisers and submarines devastate French merchant traffic.
August 1940: Austrian occupation of Corfu.
August 1940: Montenegro declares war on the Central Powers.
September 1940: Naval battles in the Adriatic and Dalmatian archipelago.
September 1940: Russians capture Lviv.
September 1940: French, Belgian and Italian armies invade Germany and Austria.
September 1940: German officials evacuate the small colony of Togoland.
September 1940: The High Seas Fleet makes a daring raid against the French north coast.
September 1940: Local German forces fend off a French invasion of Kamerun.
September 1940: Serbia declares war on the Central Powers.
September 1940: Argentine surprise attack on the Brazilian fleet.
September 1940: Germany’s flotilla on Lake Tanganyika destroys much of the Belgian flotilla in an epic, though small, high-altitude naval battle.
October 1940: Franco-Belgian offensive halts, having captured Lorraine and Luxembourg but not reaching the Rhine.
October 1940: Major fleet battle in Brazilian waters.
October 1940: Sweden joins the Central Powers. Russians capture Talinn.
October 1940: Italian bombers conduct the war’s first strategic bombing mission.
October 1940: Russian minesweepers clear paths out of the Gulf of Finland.
November 1940: French attacks fail to capture Alsace.
November 1940: Naval action in the Otranto Strait.
November 1940: Russian landings in the Ӓland Islands. Many naval battles result.
November 1940: Russians capture Riga.
November 1940: Brazil turns back Argentine ground offensive over the Rio Uruguay.
November-December 1940: A renewed French invasion overruns much of Kamerun.
November-December 1940: Trieste falls to the Italians.
December 1940: Russians abandon attempts to storm Königsberg and Warsaw.
December 1940: Russians capture Mariehamn and island of Eckerö, the westernmost of the Ӓland Islands.
January 1941: German-Estonian troops repel Russian invasions of Saaremaa, Muhu and Hiiumaa.
January 1941: Russian and Romanian armies invade Bulgaria.
January 1941: Russian and Armenian armies invade Turkey.
January 1941: France, Italy declare war on the Ottoman Empire.
January 1941: Naval actions in the Black Sea.
January 1941: Central Powers declare food rationing.
February 1941: American-flagged merchant vessels allowed to enter belligerent ports, as long as they do not carry war materiel.
March 1941: Swedish ski troops seize the island of Eckerö and neutralize Russian batteries there.
March 1941: France, Italy declare food rationing.
March 1941: French spring offensive reaches the Rhine River near Mannheim. French deploy poison gas, its first use in this war.
April 1941: Britain declares war on Germany, Austria and the Ottoman Empire.
April 1941: Russian Baltic Fleet begins laying extensive minefields in Gulf of Finland.
April 1941: German convoys cease operating in the North Atlantic following British declaration of war. Merchant traffic now carried in American- or neutral-flagged shipping. German raiders begin attacks on British merchant traffic.
April 1941: Fast-moving Turkish cavalry seize the Suez Canal intact.
April 1941: German forces capture the British Lake Victoria Flotilla intact.
April 1941: Italian offensive fails to capture Rijeka and Pola.
April 1941: At British urging, Chile declares war on Brazil.
May 1941: A German invasion of Kenya bogs down in the monsoon.
May 1941: Turkish forces overrun Kuwait and Oman, but cannot capture Aden.
May 1941: Iran invades Turkish Mesopotamia.
May 1941: Turkish battle cruisers raid the coast of Italian-ruled Eritrea.
May 1941: American merchant vessels barred from ports of belligerent nations.
May 1941: The Japanese attack the Russian Far East without a declaration of war.
May 1941: Italian landing operations in the Adriatic end in unmitigated disaster.
May 1941: Britain declares food rationing.
Summer 1941: Heavy fighting in the mountains of Yemen as Turks advance on Aden. Naval battles in the Gulf of Aden.
May – June 1941: A large-scale Central Powers offensive in central Poland fails to gain much ground and is turned back to its original lines.
June 1941: Surface battle in the North Sea.
June 1941: Austrian armies overrun Serbia and Montenegro.
June 1941: Turkish forces invading northern Iran link up with others pressing south from Azerbaijan. Ottoman forces liberate all of Iranian Azerbaijan.
June 1941: Russian amphibious landing in Viipuri Bay outflanks Finnish defenses.
June 1941: Unrest in Hungary. Troops deployed in major cities.
June 1941: Turkish warships turn back an Iranian attempt to invade Qatar.
June-July 1941: Convoy battles in the waters between India and East Africa.
July 1941: Naval battles on the Caspian Sea.
July 1941: Turkish defenders turn back a large-scale British assault on the Suez Canal.
July 1941: Turkish landings on the island of Crete spark a series of destructive naval battles known as the “Night of the Battleships.”
July 1941: Naval battle between Chilean and Brazilian fleets.
July 1941: Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II dies, succeeded by his son as Wilhelm III.
July 1941: Massive surface battle in the North Sea.
July 1941: Vladivostok falls to the Japanese.
August 1941: German cruisers devastate a British troop convoy in the Gulf of Aden.
August 1941: Unprovoked British attack on the neutral Greek fleet.
August 1941: British invasion of Iceland fails due to poor planning and preparation.
August 1941: British carrier-based torpedo bombers sink two Brazilian battleships and two cruisers.
August – September 1941: The Russians capture Warsaw.
September 1941: Sea battle off Helsinki.
September 1941: British-Dutch live-fire incident in English Channel.
September 1941: The Russian Maritime Province is secured by the Japanese.
September 1941: “Beef Convoy Beef” brings the Netherlands into the war on the side of the Central Powers.
September 1941: The Russians capture Helsinki.
September 1941: British Royal Marines land at Walvis Bay in German South-West Africa.
September 1941: Austrian Caporetto offensive recaptures Trieste, destroys Italian First and Second Armies.
September 1941: Daring Dutch destroyer attack on Scapa Flow sinks two battleships and two cruisers.
September 1941: Anglo-Belgian offensive overruns Netherlands south of Maas River.
October 1941: Heavy fighting as German colonial troops advance on Mombasa.
October 1941: Russians occupy Georgia.
October 1941: Turkish forces turn back Russian offensive at Edirne in European Turkey.
November 1941: German armies push the Russians out of East Prussia.
November 1941: Dutch Colonial troops land in northern Australia.
November 1941: German and Australian naval squadrons battle in the Coral Sea.
November 1941: Finland sues for peace.
November 1941: British troops invade Kamerun.
November 1941: Turkish fleet supports drive on Aden.
November 1941: Naval battle off the coast of Uruguay.
November-December 1941: French winter offensive widens hold on Rhineland at massive cost in casualties.
December 1941: Organized resistance ends in Kamerun. The German West African Squadron steams to Brazil without loss.
December 1941: British troops land in Sumatra.
December 1941: The Japanese attack French Indo-China, landing troops at Haiphong and battling the French Far Eastern Fleet.
December 1941: The British Tiger Convoy successfully crosses the Mediterranean Sea to Alexandria, Egypt.
December 1941: Turkish forces capture Aden in southern Yemen.
December 1941: Nairobi falls to the Germans.
December 1941: Germany deploys new “super submarines” of great speed and stealth.
December 1941: Naval battle off the German Baltic coast.
January 1942: Russians capture Estonian islands of Saaremaa, Muhu and Hiiumaa.
January 1942: Fast convoy brings artillery and other supplies to German East Africa.
January 1942: Darwin and Broome in northern Australia fall to the Dutch.
January 1942: A German-Dutch squadron devastates a large British troop convoy in the Bay of Bengal.
January 1942: British and South African troops capture Windhoek, capital of German South-West Africa.
January 1942: Argentine forces occupy Uruguay.
January 1942: German squadron raids Rio de la Plata estuary.
January 1942: Tsar Alexei orders killing of Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish prisoners, relents after threats of retaliation.
February 1942: The Russian Pacific Squadron breaks out of Petropavlovsk, reaching French Indochina by way of Davao in March.
February 1942: A major British assault on the Suez Canal fails.
February 1942: Mombasa falls to the Germans.
March 1942: Naval battles between the French and Japanese in the South China Sea.
March 1942: Organized resistance ends in German South-West Africa.
March 1942: British amphibious assault captures the German-held Faroe Islands. Naval battles result.
March 1942: German Rhineland offensive fails to gain much ground.
March 1942: Unrest in Hungary. Kaiser Karl dissolves Hungarian Diet and declares martial law.
April 1942: British troops land in Iceland, beginning a lengthy land and naval campaign.
April 1942: The British capture Sumatra.
April 1942: Greek troops capture the Italian-held Dodecanese Islands.
April 1942: German colonial troops occupy Kismayu and Mogadishu in Italian Somaliland.
April – May 1942: German, Polish and Austrian mechanized forces re-gain Warsaw and much of eastern Poland and western Ukraine.
April-May 1942: Major Iranian offensives fail to capture Basra.
May 1942: Naval battle between British and Turkish-German squadrons in the northern Arabian Sea.
May 1942: Renewed Russian offensive in European Turkey is turned back.
May 1942: Turkish troops capture British-held Cyprus.
May 1942: The Japanese begin a major offensive in Indochina.
May – July 1942: French Rhineland offensive captures all German territory on the Rhine’s left bank except isolated bridgeheads in Alsace.
June 1942: Turkish forces capture Pahlavi, the major Iranian port and naval base on the Caspian Sea.
June 1942: High seas naval battle in the South Atlantic.
June 1942: The British Eastern Fleet attacks the Japanese without a declaration of war and wins an overwhelming victory in the South China Sea, thanks to concentrated deployment of aircraft carriers with torpedo bombers.
June 1942: Russian destroyer raid against the German coastline.
June 1942: Russian destroyers raid German coastline
July 1942: Major naval battle in the southern Baltic Sea.
July 1942: The British capture Java from the Dutch.
July 1942: In the so-called “Night of the Zeppelins,” a German-led airship invasion of Malta fails to conquer the island.
July 1942: Austrians capture Kiev.
July 1942: Reykjavik falls to the British. Germans abandon Iceland.
July 1942: Brazilian offensive overruns most of Argentine-occupied Uruguay.
August 1942: Austrians capture Odessa, interrupting Russian overland communications with Romania.
August 1942: A large British convoy arrives safely in Alexandria, Egypt.
August 1942: Major naval battle in the southern Baltic Sea.
August 1942: Brutal house-to-house fighting in the last Alsatian cities held by Germany.
August 1942: British attempts to turn back an American convoy bound for Norway result in a three-day series of surface battles.
August 1942: The United States declares war on Britain, France, Italy and Russia. The United States and Japan officially ally with the Central Powers. Spain declares war on the Central Powers.
What if in November 1916, the freshly-reelected United states President Woodrow Wilson renewed his earlier attempts to mediate a peace between the warring European powers. On December 18th Wilson sent identical notes to the warring powers asking them to state their conditions for peace, and later offered to mediate a settlement. The warring sides rejected his offer.
Wilson’s failure marked the last chance for a negotiated peace to end the Great War before one side collapsed. What if he had succeeded? What if the First Great War had come to an end in December 1916, sparing the lives of millions and uncountable destruction?
Coming from the board game called The Second Great War comes a world of Wilson’s Peace, one in which the great empires of Eastern Europe - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire – survived for another generation. In this alternative reality, war returned to Europe in 1940 as the vengeful authoritarian regimes in France, Italy and Russia unleash aggressive war against the prosperous social democracies of Germany, Austria and Poland.
The Second Great War Timeline
August 1940: Russian armies invade Finland, the Baltic States, Poland and Austrian Ruthenia.
Autumn 1940: French and Russian surface raiders attack German convoys in the North Atlantic. German cruisers and submarines devastate French merchant traffic.
August 1940: Austrian occupation of Corfu.
August 1940: Montenegro declares war on the Central Powers.
September 1940: Naval battles in the Adriatic and Dalmatian archipelago.
September 1940: Russians capture Lviv.
September 1940: French, Belgian and Italian armies invade Germany and Austria.
September 1940: German officials evacuate the small colony of Togoland.
September 1940: The High Seas Fleet makes a daring raid against the French north coast.
September 1940: Local German forces fend off a French invasion of Kamerun.
September 1940: Serbia declares war on the Central Powers.
September 1940: Argentine surprise attack on the Brazilian fleet.
September 1940: Germany’s flotilla on Lake Tanganyika destroys much of the Belgian flotilla in an epic, though small, high-altitude naval battle.
October 1940: Franco-Belgian offensive halts, having captured Lorraine and Luxembourg but not reaching the Rhine.
October 1940: Major fleet battle in Brazilian waters.
October 1940: Sweden joins the Central Powers. Russians capture Talinn.
October 1940: Italian bombers conduct the war’s first strategic bombing mission.
October 1940: Russian minesweepers clear paths out of the Gulf of Finland.
November 1940: French attacks fail to capture Alsace.
November 1940: Naval action in the Otranto Strait.
November 1940: Russian landings in the Ӓland Islands. Many naval battles result.
November 1940: Russians capture Riga.
November 1940: Brazil turns back Argentine ground offensive over the Rio Uruguay.
November-December 1940: A renewed French invasion overruns much of Kamerun.
November-December 1940: Trieste falls to the Italians.
December 1940: Russians abandon attempts to storm Königsberg and Warsaw.
December 1940: Russians capture Mariehamn and island of Eckerö, the westernmost of the Ӓland Islands.
January 1941: German-Estonian troops repel Russian invasions of Saaremaa, Muhu and Hiiumaa.
January 1941: Russian and Romanian armies invade Bulgaria.
January 1941: Russian and Armenian armies invade Turkey.
January 1941: France, Italy declare war on the Ottoman Empire.
January 1941: Naval actions in the Black Sea.
January 1941: Central Powers declare food rationing.
February 1941: American-flagged merchant vessels allowed to enter belligerent ports, as long as they do not carry war materiel.
March 1941: Swedish ski troops seize the island of Eckerö and neutralize Russian batteries there.
March 1941: France, Italy declare food rationing.
March 1941: French spring offensive reaches the Rhine River near Mannheim. French deploy poison gas, its first use in this war.
April 1941: Britain declares war on Germany, Austria and the Ottoman Empire.
April 1941: Russian Baltic Fleet begins laying extensive minefields in Gulf of Finland.
April 1941: German convoys cease operating in the North Atlantic following British declaration of war. Merchant traffic now carried in American- or neutral-flagged shipping. German raiders begin attacks on British merchant traffic.
April 1941: Fast-moving Turkish cavalry seize the Suez Canal intact.
April 1941: German forces capture the British Lake Victoria Flotilla intact.
April 1941: Italian offensive fails to capture Rijeka and Pola.
April 1941: At British urging, Chile declares war on Brazil.
May 1941: A German invasion of Kenya bogs down in the monsoon.
May 1941: Turkish forces overrun Kuwait and Oman, but cannot capture Aden.
May 1941: Iran invades Turkish Mesopotamia.
May 1941: Turkish battle cruisers raid the coast of Italian-ruled Eritrea.
May 1941: American merchant vessels barred from ports of belligerent nations.
May 1941: The Japanese attack the Russian Far East without a declaration of war.
May 1941: Italian landing operations in the Adriatic end in unmitigated disaster.
May 1941: Britain declares food rationing.
Summer 1941: Heavy fighting in the mountains of Yemen as Turks advance on Aden. Naval battles in the Gulf of Aden.
May – June 1941: A large-scale Central Powers offensive in central Poland fails to gain much ground and is turned back to its original lines.
June 1941: Surface battle in the North Sea.
June 1941: Austrian armies overrun Serbia and Montenegro.
June 1941: Turkish forces invading northern Iran link up with others pressing south from Azerbaijan. Ottoman forces liberate all of Iranian Azerbaijan.
June 1941: Russian amphibious landing in Viipuri Bay outflanks Finnish defenses.
June 1941: Unrest in Hungary. Troops deployed in major cities.
June 1941: Turkish warships turn back an Iranian attempt to invade Qatar.
June-July 1941: Convoy battles in the waters between India and East Africa.
July 1941: Naval battles on the Caspian Sea.
July 1941: Turkish defenders turn back a large-scale British assault on the Suez Canal.
July 1941: Turkish landings on the island of Crete spark a series of destructive naval battles known as the “Night of the Battleships.”
July 1941: Naval battle between Chilean and Brazilian fleets.
July 1941: Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II dies, succeeded by his son as Wilhelm III.
July 1941: Massive surface battle in the North Sea.
July 1941: Vladivostok falls to the Japanese.
August 1941: German cruisers devastate a British troop convoy in the Gulf of Aden.
August 1941: Unprovoked British attack on the neutral Greek fleet.
August 1941: British invasion of Iceland fails due to poor planning and preparation.
August 1941: British carrier-based torpedo bombers sink two Brazilian battleships and two cruisers.
August – September 1941: The Russians capture Warsaw.
September 1941: Sea battle off Helsinki.
September 1941: British-Dutch live-fire incident in English Channel.
September 1941: The Russian Maritime Province is secured by the Japanese.
September 1941: “Beef Convoy Beef” brings the Netherlands into the war on the side of the Central Powers.
September 1941: The Russians capture Helsinki.
September 1941: British Royal Marines land at Walvis Bay in German South-West Africa.
September 1941: Austrian Caporetto offensive recaptures Trieste, destroys Italian First and Second Armies.
September 1941: Daring Dutch destroyer attack on Scapa Flow sinks two battleships and two cruisers.
September 1941: Anglo-Belgian offensive overruns Netherlands south of Maas River.
October 1941: Heavy fighting as German colonial troops advance on Mombasa.
October 1941: Russians occupy Georgia.
October 1941: Turkish forces turn back Russian offensive at Edirne in European Turkey.
November 1941: German armies push the Russians out of East Prussia.
November 1941: Dutch Colonial troops land in northern Australia.
November 1941: German and Australian naval squadrons battle in the Coral Sea.
November 1941: Finland sues for peace.
November 1941: British troops invade Kamerun.
November 1941: Turkish fleet supports drive on Aden.
November 1941: Naval battle off the coast of Uruguay.
November-December 1941: French winter offensive widens hold on Rhineland at massive cost in casualties.
December 1941: Organized resistance ends in Kamerun. The German West African Squadron steams to Brazil without loss.
December 1941: British troops land in Sumatra.
December 1941: The Japanese attack French Indo-China, landing troops at Haiphong and battling the French Far Eastern Fleet.
December 1941: The British Tiger Convoy successfully crosses the Mediterranean Sea to Alexandria, Egypt.
December 1941: Turkish forces capture Aden in southern Yemen.
December 1941: Nairobi falls to the Germans.
December 1941: Germany deploys new “super submarines” of great speed and stealth.
December 1941: Naval battle off the German Baltic coast.
January 1942: Russians capture Estonian islands of Saaremaa, Muhu and Hiiumaa.
January 1942: Fast convoy brings artillery and other supplies to German East Africa.
January 1942: Darwin and Broome in northern Australia fall to the Dutch.
January 1942: A German-Dutch squadron devastates a large British troop convoy in the Bay of Bengal.
January 1942: British and South African troops capture Windhoek, capital of German South-West Africa.
January 1942: Argentine forces occupy Uruguay.
January 1942: German squadron raids Rio de la Plata estuary.
January 1942: Tsar Alexei orders killing of Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish prisoners, relents after threats of retaliation.
February 1942: The Russian Pacific Squadron breaks out of Petropavlovsk, reaching French Indochina by way of Davao in March.
February 1942: A major British assault on the Suez Canal fails.
February 1942: Mombasa falls to the Germans.
March 1942: Naval battles between the French and Japanese in the South China Sea.
March 1942: Organized resistance ends in German South-West Africa.
March 1942: British amphibious assault captures the German-held Faroe Islands. Naval battles result.
March 1942: German Rhineland offensive fails to gain much ground.
March 1942: Unrest in Hungary. Kaiser Karl dissolves Hungarian Diet and declares martial law.
April 1942: British troops land in Iceland, beginning a lengthy land and naval campaign.
April 1942: The British capture Sumatra.
April 1942: Greek troops capture the Italian-held Dodecanese Islands.
April 1942: German colonial troops occupy Kismayu and Mogadishu in Italian Somaliland.
April – May 1942: German, Polish and Austrian mechanized forces re-gain Warsaw and much of eastern Poland and western Ukraine.
April-May 1942: Major Iranian offensives fail to capture Basra.
May 1942: Naval battle between British and Turkish-German squadrons in the northern Arabian Sea.
May 1942: Renewed Russian offensive in European Turkey is turned back.
May 1942: Turkish troops capture British-held Cyprus.
May 1942: The Japanese begin a major offensive in Indochina.
May – July 1942: French Rhineland offensive captures all German territory on the Rhine’s left bank except isolated bridgeheads in Alsace.
June 1942: Turkish forces capture Pahlavi, the major Iranian port and naval base on the Caspian Sea.
June 1942: High seas naval battle in the South Atlantic.
June 1942: The British Eastern Fleet attacks the Japanese without a declaration of war and wins an overwhelming victory in the South China Sea, thanks to concentrated deployment of aircraft carriers with torpedo bombers.
June 1942: Russian destroyer raid against the German coastline.
June 1942: Russian destroyers raid German coastline
July 1942: Major naval battle in the southern Baltic Sea.
July 1942: The British capture Java from the Dutch.
July 1942: In the so-called “Night of the Zeppelins,” a German-led airship invasion of Malta fails to conquer the island.
July 1942: Austrians capture Kiev.
July 1942: Reykjavik falls to the British. Germans abandon Iceland.
July 1942: Brazilian offensive overruns most of Argentine-occupied Uruguay.
August 1942: Austrians capture Odessa, interrupting Russian overland communications with Romania.
August 1942: A large British convoy arrives safely in Alexandria, Egypt.
August 1942: Major naval battle in the southern Baltic Sea.
August 1942: Brutal house-to-house fighting in the last Alsatian cities held by Germany.
August 1942: British attempts to turn back an American convoy bound for Norway result in a three-day series of surface battles.
August 1942: The United States declares war on Britain, France, Italy and Russia. The United States and Japan officially ally with the Central Powers. Spain declares war on the Central Powers.