I'll relaunch here, for your reading pleasure and free comment, an old TL I started some 3 years ago and left to wither on the vine, before reworking it more in depth in the last days.
There do are, undoubtedly, "gaps" to be filled, but still...
POD: in October, 1918
Adolf Hitler gets killed in battle on the Western Front by an English sniper while stumbling around, blinded by a gas attack.
December 1918
Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known as comrade Stalin, is murdered in Tsarytsin (*OTL Stalingrad/Volgograd) by an enraged mother whose son he had shot as saboteur.
1919-1921
France and Britain default or repay only lately and partly the huge US loans received in wartime. In time America gets colder and colder towards the two European Powers, adopting an "anticolonial" stance and a strict interpretation of the Monroe doctrine.
In Russia Soviet forces win the civil war at a high price for the country and brilliantly repulse a Polish invasion, while having in the end to concede Poland vast territories (more or less as per OTL). Trotskij emerges as Lenin's natural right hand and “heir apparent”, alongside several other figures of importance.
1923-1924
In Germany the occupation of the Rhineland cements parts of the left and right; the social-democrats will later split, with a nationalist wing under a former veteran of the trenches, Rudolf Diercks, founder of the Sozialfront.
1924
Trotskij succeeds Lenin. Despite his will to diffuse the revolution westwards, he later understands, after the fizzle of the Saxony revolution in fall, that the moment is not mature and manages to preserve a very tense status quo with the European powers. The Twenties see Soviet meddling that detaches Sinkiang from China and provokes abortive communist revolutions in Iran and, of all places, Afghanistan. Eventually, however, Afghanistan turns into a Soviet satellite/ally because of a 1929 border war with the British.
1925
First unsuccessful communist revolution in China, in Shanghai and Canton, crushed by the Nationalists of Chang-Kai Shek. Mao's followers turn to long-lasting guerrilla.
1929
The Great Depression has devastating effect on the global economy, paralleled in Russia by Trotskij's total failure with his program of collectivizations (brought on with a bit less savagery than OTL).
1930-1931
Germany descends in a brief but nasty civil war: in the end a weird alliance of the Sozialfront (nationalist social democrats), catholics and Junker-conservatives wins the day, liquidating the divided Social-Communist forces who had taken control of the industrial areas of the Rhineland and Palatinate, of Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg, and some parts of Berlin itself. A surprising number of WWI veterans had sided with the losing radical Left, leading to long-lasting fighting. France and Britain, gravely hit by the Depression, look with bitter satisfaction the old enemies battling themselves. The US help the "anti-communist" coalition with money and weapons, while the Soviet Union's help proves half-hearted and ineffective, despite part of the German navy siding with the leftists.
Trotskij, humiliated by a string of failures, steps out from the economics and most governmental activities, retaining only his high role in the Party, personal ascendant and ultimate command on the Red Army, his favored creature. Bukharin takes the lead in economics and begins a saner reconstruction based on the NEP principles and a healthy dose of industrialisation, while a careful politics in matter of nationalities and robust repression quell local rebellions (Basmachi in Central Asia, Ukraine, Cossacks, Caucasus banditry, etc). Infighting prevents the political police, now led by the ailing Menzhinski, from becoming too powerful, and the GuLag system remains relatively marginal.
The rift between the US and the Anglo-French widens as a consequence of the crisis, with the failure of Paris and London to repay the war loans of WWI, the rise of trade barriers by the Americans and the Imperial Preference system put in effect by Britain, which is reorganizing the Crown's overseas Dominions in effectively independent states, if strongly integrated.
In Japan, the military begins to flex their muscles and to influence politics heavily; Japan occupies Manchuria to the protests of China (and, on a softer tone, of Russia).
1931-1935
The new German government, led by Diercks, ascendend during the civil war to the indisputed guide of the winners despite the supercilious objections of the Junker caste, sets up its capital at Nuremberg, a town that had been the headquarters of the Reichswehr during the civil war. Diercks and his "emergency" government (elections are congealed for the next years) recall from exile not the Kaiser, but his son and heir, provided he accepts a constitutional monarchy, which he does to the chagrin of most aristocrats. Wilhelm III is crowned officially, against the avowed wish of his father (which actually leads the Western powers to swallow the pill), on the 1st of August, 1934, at Potsdam, and will reside at Berlin, so, at a distance from the government. The Nuremberg regime, or Third Reich, enjoying consistent American and Dutch economic and industrial help, proves quite efficient in rebuilding the country, restoring social peace and beginning a military buildup after denouncing the Versailles Treaty.
Canada suffers from The Troubles, a phase of harsh multi-sided confrontation, particularly from 1933, between supporters of the conservative prime minister Bennett, the pro-American (mostly) Quebecois fascists of Adrien Arcand, admirers of Compton, Diercks and Mussolini, and the organized labour movement, hit hard by the crisis and by Bennett's anti-Communist measures. After several instances of sectarian violence that bring the body count in the hundreds, and the flight of Arcand to the US, a measure of order is newly found with the new liberal government of Mackenzie King.
1932
In the US crippled by the Depression a populist leader and discussed entrepreneur from Chicago, William Nathan Compton, is elected president on the Democratic ticket. He'll be reelected, and in a few years' space the vestiges of democracy will be severely trampled: a racist, bigot, hypocrite and business-oriented regime will take shape in the States, without even bothering to persecute its few opponents. The new president soon relaunches the military.
1932-1933
Japan fights a limited war with China, bombing Shanghai and wresting some provinces on the Manchurian border, and gets expelled from the League of Nations.
1934
Germany, in a cunning diplomatic move promjoted by Foreign Minister Franz von Papen, renounces claims over its former territories annexed by Poland (Warthegau, upper Silesia, the Corridor) in exchange for the recognition of language rights for the Germans living there, and, most of all, the reincorporation of Danzig to Germany (which brings the Franco-British dominated League of Nations to expel the Germans) and free rights of passage over the Corridor for the Germans.
In the Soviet Union Sergej Kirov emerges the victor in the power struggle with Zinoviev and Kamenev for the effective succession to Trotskij at the head of the government; next to him is Bukharin, head of the party.The struggle opens a space of free discussion in the Soviet hierarchy; there will be no purges whatsoever in the Stalinian sense, since also the losers in inner political battle are "recycled" into the several sectors of the mammoth Soviet party-state. A popular and pragmatic leader, Kirov gives impulse to industrialization in earnest, welcoming tens of thousands of sympathizers, workers and technicians from Europe and North America, and curbs the most distasteful aspects of OGPU repression. The GuLag system will never bloat up to the dimensions of OTL and the economy won't be based upon mass slavery, but on incentives, state industry and cooperative agriculture. As for Trotskij, "Comrade Number One, Right Hand of the Great Lenin, Founder of the Red Army and Living Monument of the Revolution", he remains in a sort of detached position, dedicating himself to writing memories and important political and sociological treatises. His contribution to political philosophy parallels that of his friend and correspondant, Antonio Gramsci, a fellow Communist who is prisoner of the Italian Fascist regime. "Persona non grata" throughout the Western world, Trotskij nonetheless enjoys several high-profile friendships and contacts outside the SU and remains esteemed for his analytical insight and sharp pen.
The US, always the "big stick" of the Western Emisphere, ends its direct intervention in Nicaragua after the death of Sandino, only to reoccupy Haiti.
1934-1936
Mexico sees the creeping battle between Jefe Màximo Plutarco Elìas Calles, a quasi-fascists and fierce anti-Catholic strongman, and his former subordinate Làzaro Càrdenas, a well-liked figure of socialist leanings. The latter, once became president wins the day and exiles Calles to the US, inheriting by him the new united ruling party but steering Mexico's politics left, while embarking on a policy of development of the oil industry with British help and trade with the Soviet Union that greatly bothers Washington.
1935
After Pilsudski's death, Germany, Poland, Hungary and the two Baltic countries of Latvia and Estonia sign a military pact of defense, the Treaty of Danzig, with great scandal of France, who screams at the Polish backstabbing and manoeuvers the League of Nations into expelling Poland upon pretexts, at which Germany too leaves the organization. The SU's foreign minister Maksim Litvinov, nicknamed “Lord Soviet”, on the contrary, greatly enhances in the meantime relationships between Kirov's Soviet Union and the Franco-British.
The Chinese Communists, discreetly supported by the Soviets, end their Long March consolidating control over NW China.
Japan establishes Manchuria as the Empire of Manchukuo, ruled by the puppet emperor Pu Yi, the last of the Qing sovereigns of China.
October 1935-April 1936
The Italian army led by Badoglio and Graziani invade and subjugate Ethiopia, whose emperor Hailé Selassié finds refuge in Britain. Germany and the United States ignore the sanctions imposed by the League of Nations. Despite the US' avowed anticolonialism, American protests over Italian aggression to a sovereign country are very bland as the Italian-American lobby, amply corrupted by the Mafia and complacent to Fascism, is powerful and has played a very important part in bringing Compton to power and silencing his enemies.
1936
Belgium and Czechoslovakia, worried by German rearmament, sign a treaty of common defense with France and Britain: the Bruxelles Pact, origin of the Western Alliance.
A fresh military coup in Austria, closing a very tense period which saw the Social Democrats lose power in 1932, in the wake of the German civil war, brings in power a German-friendly government, headed by the aged marshall von Boehm-Ermolli. Italy is less than pleased but, its forces hands full in Ethiopia and relations strained with both France and Britain, has to back down, being reassured of German friendly intentions and of no plans of annexation.
The Spanish Civil war at its beginnings sees the Nationalist side supported covertly by the US, Germany and Portugal and openly by Mussolini's Italy and Trujillo's Dominican "Republic". France, weakly supporting the Republicans, like Mexico, risks crumbling into civil war in its turn over the issue; Britain stays rigidly neutral. The Soviet Union tries its best to help the Republicans, trying to avoid the shameful failure of Germany five years before and reenter the international stage; she manages to stave off a quick defeat of the legitimate government with her modern tanks and planes and military consellors, acting discreetly in Spanish politics because of the very complex situation.
In the US Compton is reelected in a landslide against a discredited Republican ticket lynched by an ever less free press.
In Britain, the major scandal of the relationship between king Edward VIII and the American socialite Wallis Simpson, actually an agent of Compton's newly established Foreign Information Bureau as it came out several decades later, ends with the abdication of the king-emperor in favor of his brother Albert, who'll take the style of George VI, enlarging, if neeeded, what is by now known as the Atlantic Rift between Britain and the US.
The second naval conference in London fails to reach an agreement, leading to a renewed arms race on the seas.
When the Soviets annex Sinkiang as the federal socialist republic of Uighuristan, Nationalist China breaks diplomatic relationships with them, while instead heavily relying on the US and Germany.
March, 21st 1937
In Washington President Compton receives Reichskanzler Diercks: the two sign the Freedom Chart, a non-binding political accord on a “rights of nationalities” base. More importantly, Germany secures steady supply of precious resources and renewed investment in its now booming economy, while the US is still experiencing difficulties in the depressed agricultural Midwest and the poor South.
May 1937
Germany and Italy, in a series of diplomatic meetings held at Rapallo and Konstanz, build the bases of a secret alliance, with strong economic and military exchanges, and divide the Balkans among them in matter of influence, with Italy being acknowledged as interested in the SW (Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece) and Germany in the NE (Hungary, Romania). Austria is to remain independent, at least formally, not to touch Italian susceptibility. Inconclusive talks are held regarding the South Tyrolean question.
Lithuania, under strong pressure from Germany to cede back the coastal town of Memel/Klaipeda, and in turn always bent on recovering Vilnius from Poland, signs its participation into the Bruxelles Pact, thinking it good guarantee against German strong-arming.
Thanks to the efforts of foreign minister Litvinov, the Soviet Union is eventually admitted to the League of Nations. Despite strong British objections the French found the move conducive to a cautious cooperation in the Spanish issue, on which the Soviets seem well disposed.
July, 7th 1937
Marco Polo Bridge Incident: the Japanese start a massive invasion of Nationalist China, at first with crushing success.
August 8th, 1937
Nippo-Soviet non-aggression pact and territory swap. The Soviet Union cedes some marginal disputed territory along the Amur river and in easternmost Mongolia in exchange for the two northernmost Kurile islands. The Chinese province of Inner Mongolia is acknowledged as "neutral" territory to be left to its own warlords. Furthermore, the Japanese and the Chinese Communists are supposed not to fight each other; a rule that will hold, save in local bloody “incidents” due to local reaction to the invaders' brutality. That will limit Japanese advance no further than the Huang He in NW China.
August-September, 1937
In the first battle for Saragossa the Spanish Nationalist rebels get a morale-boosting defensive victory.
The US grant formal independence to the Philippines, while at the same time building up there a military presence, mainly naval, to confront the aggressive expansionism of Japan and keep on helping the Chinese in their desperate struggle.
December, 12th 1937
The Panay incident irrevocably wounds Japanese-American relationships. Japan apologizes, but refuses to pay a high indemnity and to punish those involved as requested in strong terms by the US government. President Compton has by now characterized his foreign politics as aimed to stem the “yellow peril” (Japan), the “red menace” (the Soviets and Republican Spain) and the “imperialist warmongers” (Britain, France).
December 1937-January 1938
The fierce Battle of Teruel, fought in unusual winter frost, ends in another Nationalist success, albeit to a heavy cost. Soviet help to the Republican side of the Spanish conflict is hampered by Italian submarine "black operations" in the Mediterranean, quietly ignored by most countries involved.
The US enact an oil embargo against Japan. The Japanese react by concluding favorable trade accords with the Soviets, at the price of withdrawing part of their Kwangtung Army from Manchukuo and formally recognizing (Outer) Mongolia.
March-April 1938
The Spanish Nationalist army sweeps Aragon in a successful offensive, helped by American and German war materials and Italian "volunteer" (read: regular) troops and airplanes: they actually cut the surviving Republican territory in two, reaching the Mediterranean. The Italian air force (Regia Aeronautica) devastates Barcelona in wave after wave of purely terroristic attacks that kill hundreds. Worried, the conservative French government reopens the border to the influx of weapons for the Republican side and dispatches a small "surveillance" fleet to protect the Republican ports from Italian aggression.
About 4,000 American volunteers who are fighting for the Republicans are deprived of US citizenship by executive order of President Compton, only to be made Spanish citizens by the Republic – and for the first time in the US someone begins noticing how much the political climate has degraded, but it's way too late to counteract.
In China the Japanese, after taking and horrendously "raping" Nanking, are stopped cold in their advance: the Chinese receive help from a number of American volunteer pilots and are relatively better equipped then OTL, if always quite incompetent and corrupt. Public opinion in Europe and North America is shocked by the horrors of Nanking and Japan suffers diplomatic isolation.
May 14th, 1938
The Italian submarine Vettor Pisani doesn't return from a ("secret") mission in the waters off Valencia, supposedly attacked and sunk while surfacing as per the last radio message. A few hours after that, aircraft from the Italian bases at Maiorca hit the French cruiser Pluton, who is watching local shipping lanes for the Spanish Republicans. The ship burns fiercely for hours, then explodes and sinks with the loss of more than 200 men.
May-June 1938
France asks for immediate withdrawal of all Italian forces from Spain. Mussolini won't back down. Both countries, public opinions in flames, partially mobilize their armed forces, withdraw their ambassadors and close their common border, while remaining still short of war. The crisis is grave and remains on the first pages of the world's newspapers.
June 7th, 1938
Without consulting the British, French regular forces cross into Catalonia and the Basque Country "to protect French interests and Spanish sovereignity" and to fight the Italians. This is considered the beginning of the Second World War.
June-July, 1938
About 100,000 men are dispatched to Spain by France; the rest of the French Army vigilates on the Maginot Line and the Alps, as the Germans mobilize a screening force along the Karl der Grosse Stellung (*OTL Siegfrid Line) and mass their still limited tank forces around Czechoslovakia and the Italians hastily prepare for war behind their mountains. Actually the Germans calculate that the Western Allies won't attack before spring 1939, with Britain still largely at peacetime level – a correct assumption, compounded by the political thorn of the unilateral French intervention in Spain. The Soviets, sensing the dangers of the situation, extract their “military counsellors” from the country, leaving in place only the war materials and a few pilots; they also get part of the Spanish gold reserves in payment of their substantial help and take with them thousands of war orphans from several regions. Their ships now avoid the Med for the safer Atlantic route to and from Murmansk and Archangel'sk. The Italians don't budge, but withdraw their men well beyond the Ebro river.
June, 27th 1938
The US destroyer Gwin, while taking part in an aggressive sweep to chase Jap subs operating against traffic in the South China Sea, is gravely hit, with the loss of 36 lives, by the Japanese cruiser Tenryu. Once again the government of Tokyo refuse to compensate, and this time also refuse to apologize.
Diplomatic relationships are broken a few days later as America escalates military and economic help to China.
July 7th, 1938
After a full month of frantic negotiations, with good-faith efforts to mediate especially by Sweden and, discreetly, by the Netherlands, and an ignored three-day ultimatum to withdraw from Spain, Italy and Germany declare war on France. This implies war with all of France's allies in the Bruxelles Pact: a painfully surprised Britain, to the last desiring a peaceful resolution of the Spanish issue; a frightened Belgium; beleaguered Czechoslovakia and Lithuania. For the moment, Germany's other allies, including puppet Austria, won't enter the fray, at least formally.
By now in Spain the French have steamrolled in the Basque Country, crushing Nationalist positions there in conjunction with a partisan revolt, cleared the Aragon section of the Pyrenees from the enemy and crossed Catalonia to the Ebro. They had sometimes to fight with anarchist militias not too happy with their presence, and sporadically fought against Italian Blackshirt rearguards on the Saragossa front, where they still haven't pressed an offensive in a last hope to avoid open war.
July, 8th, 1938
The Spanish government (the legitimate Republican one, that is) declares war on Germany and Italy... automatically involving Germany's allies (Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia) as per the Danzig Treaty (which is defensive in nature). These countries, however, are NOT at war with the Franco-British Alliance, and have no men in Spain – or better, the only ones they have... are fighting with the International Brigades on the Republican side!
The US mobilize their fleet(s) and, partly, the National Guard. Mexico, friendly to the Soviets, declares armed neutrality but begins mobilization. So does Switzerland, its Parliament appointing Henri Guisan as General of the army.
July, 9-10th, 1938
Italy attacks the French fleet by air with two fierce, spectacular raids on Toulon, sinking two cruisers and three destroyers in port with the loss of more than 800 seaman and dozens of civilians. The French answer by swiftly bombing Genoa, Savona and other targets of opportunity in Liguria by air and sea: a slap in the face for Mussolini, whose troops begin an all-out attack along the rugged Alpine range, with little hope of decisive successes in front of the modern French fortifications and artillery. The Italian Alpine front is under the overall nominal command of Umberto, the heir to the throne, assisted by the aged and expert Marshall of Italy, Enrico Caviglia, and under the supervision of Chief of Staff Badoglio (whom Caviglia personally loathes after certain... misunderstandins at Caporetto and Fiume years before).
The French government issues orders for the internment of tens of thousands of alien residents and immigrants of Italian and German ethnicity, plus of thousands of French nationals suspected of sympathies for Italy and Germany in the Nice area and Alsace. In all, about 50,000 will be subject to several degrees of restriction of their freedom.
Prague is targeted by diving bombers in the first terror attacks of the war, with limited loss of life but great panic and widespread damage to its artistic heritage.
The Germans are having a hard time overcoming the Sudeten fortified area, but are helped by the armed insurgency of the ethnic Germans in the area and by the indirect menace maintained in the south by the Austrian army, technically still at peace but fully mobilized and ready.
The British, reluctantly, recognize the existence of a state of war, mobilize their forces and reintroduce conscription after a last pitiful diplomatic attempt to induce the Germans to withdraw from their invasion of Czechoslovakia. The government of sir Neville Chamberlain falls right after having declared the war to leave place to an emergency cabinet of national unity led by the conservative stalwart Lord Halifax, but for the first time including also noted Laburists, some of which are highly sympathetic to Soviet Russia.
July, 11th, 1938
The Italians enter the bilingual French border town of Mentone, but cannot secure the high ground to the west.
The French bomb Karlsruhe and Mannheim, to moderate damage and a handful of civilians killed, in revenge for the attacks upon Prague. The German Luftwaffe is therefore ordered from the HROK (Highest Imperial Oberkommando) to abstain, at least for now, from further attacks on cities, and the order is quietly passed to the enemy through neutral channels (Switzerland) in the following days.
The Luftwaffe and the Regia Aeronautica attack Gibraltar with dive and level bombers, causing relevant damage and the sinking of the cruiser Arethusa and the destroyer Faulknor.
In Italian Libya, Governor Balbo, foremost Fascist leader and noted Anglophile, orders the strictest defensive: forces are insufficient to mount any attack on French, or, for that, British positions, with any security.
The governments of Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany, Italy and their allies, while their possible contribution is limited due other, more pressing concerns in the Pacific. Canada and South Africa do not to follow suit, much to the wrath of Britain, due to local concerns - namely and respectively, fear of the US and of another round of civil disturbances after The Troubles, and concern over the possibile pro-German feelings of the Boers.
July, 14th, 1938
The French evacuate the border town of Sospel, but the Italians cannot occupy it, finding themselves under a veritable rain of artillery shells from the moutain forts.
A French naval division of destroyers sailed from Bizerte bombs the harbor and city of Tripoli, Libya, sinking a merchant ship and fishing vessels and killing 44.
French fighters reinforce the air wing of Malta, threatened by a possibile Italian landing and subject to daily bombing from Sicily.
On the Czech front, after the first days of slow grinding in the north by the Army Group A (von Leeb) with combined operaton by mountain troops, regulars and dive bombers, the true German attack led by Army Group B (von Rundstedt), Unternehmen Eisenhammer, unleashes from Bavaria heading into the Klattau-Strakonitz area, south of Pilsen, with two armored spearheads (Guderian and Kleist), advancing fast despite the difficult woody and hilly terrain and catching the Czech defenders by surprise.
Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart is named as the overall commander of the British expedition corps on the continent (more on political than military reasons): he'll set up command at Ypres, Belgium, arriving with the first British troops. The Belgian army still hasn't fired as shot against Germany, apart some minor patrol skirmishes at the border. An attack against Aachen was considered, and rejected out of hand as suicidal.
July, 14th-August, 2nd, 1938
The hard-fought Battle of Castillon Pass ends in a French defensive success: the Italian advance in the south is stalled on the mountains just a few miles inside France.
The French occupy Spanish Morocco in a short fierce campaign. On the 31 st of July, a battalion of US Marines occupies the international city of Tangiers before the French can reach it, moving the surviving Spanish "African" units to the mainland; a tense Franco-American standoff ensues.
The British reinforce their Gibraltar garrison, put under the command of sir Edmund Ironside; while keeping in port a squadron of destroyers, major units are redirected to Malta, Haifa and Alexandria to avoid the worst from the frequent attacks of the Italian and German planes stationed in rebel Spain. The Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Lord Gort, and First Sea Lord Alfred Chatfield, together with their French counerparts generalissmo Gamelin and admiral Darlan, hurriedly plan an operation against Nationalist-held Andalusia to secure the Rock once and for all: it's a run against time as the Italians, partly tied by the French in the north, try to redeploy assets south for a joint assault together with Franco's crack troops.
French forces repeatedly bomb Nationalist Maiorca (an Italian base) by air and sea, losing a couple destroyers to sub and air attacks in the process.
July, 16-19th, 1938
The battle of Horaschdowitz sees the functional destruction of the Third Czech army by the armored and motorized German units, with the capture of over 20,000 prisoner and great amounts of precious war materiel.
A squadron of the British Home Fleet reaches San Sebastiàn in Spain.
Repeated Italian air attack target the port of Bizerte, damaging the city and killing dozens of civilians but with little result on the ships.
July, 17th-30th, 1938
The French army, now almost fully mobilized, tries an abortive limited invasion of the Saarland, only to renounce it and retreat after marginal gains and considerable casualties against the German fortified positions.
Italian colonial forces advance in a pincher movement against the French port of Djibouti, from Assab along the coast, and from the Harar region. The column on the coast is hampered by the joint effort of British and French vessels, who in a series of sharp engagements deny the Italians control over the all-important Bab el Mandeb strait, key to the Red Sea and the Suez canal. The Italians lose to accidents and to fighting four "oceanic" submarines, a couple destroyers and a handful of their few and precious airplanes; the British lament the sinking of a destroyer, the French the loss of some minor craft. Djibouti comes however under close menace by the inland column led by general Maletti.
July 18th, 1938
The Italians take the important position of the col de Brouis in the Maritime Alps, de facto isolating from easy access the powerful enemy fortifications in Val Roya. The French, trying to preserve their forces for the true battle against Germany, cannot but contain the Fascist advance, aimed to control the Sospel basin in the Bevera valley and cut Nice from the Roya valley. The French command, under general Olry, tries to stop the Italians along a line from Roquebrune/Roccabruna to Sospel/Sospello and Breil/Breglio.
July-August 1938
The Franco-British establish a renewed naval blockade around Germany, in the hope it will starve once again the country into defeat in the long run.
Poor tiny Lithuania finds herself in a terrible quagmire, surrounded by formal (Germany) or theoretical (Poland, Latvia) enemies and carefully avoiding any provocation. Neither Germany, its hands full in Czechoslovakia and shoulders dangerously exposed in the West, nor her allies bother to attack Lithuania, hoping instead to undermine her government and replace it with a pro-German one. In the meantime German naval units blockade the ports of Libau and Memel.
In Spain the second battle of Saragossa proves a carnage, razing the city: the French give artillery, air and tank support, the Spanish Republicans the greater part of the cannon fodder, mostly from the disposable International Brigades. The same happens with Italians and Nationalists on the other side, only this time it's almost always Spaniards who go over the top first, and six feet under later.
The Republicans try to get back Cantabria and Santander, but their attempt, despite the support of the French navy and of partisans in the mountains, is defeated.
Generalissimo Franco flatly refuses to detach his crack troops to assault Gibraltar, fearing direct confrontation with the British and decrying, to the rage of his German and Italian allies, involvement into a wider war to the expense of his feud with the "red" Spaniards, not to say the devastating loss of his beloved Spanish Morocco as a consequence.
Portugal is intimidated by Franco-British naval "demonstrations" into reducing its help to the Nationalists. Salazar's government begin secret negotiations with the United States.
In the Mediterranean Mussolini's admirals do not dare for the moment being to confront the French, let alone the British: for all purposes the Italian forces in Spain, numbering some 50,000 men, are isolated, but well protected American convoys now regularly ship fuel, food and small weapons to the Nationalist side.
On the Italo-French front, hamhanded Italian attempts to break out in the highest sectors of the Western Alps, often from very high passes, cost good men among the elite Alpini mountain infantry and bring little result. Patrol fights happen even on the high glaciers of Mont Blanc. Overall, the Italians manage to descend into the upper Arc valley from the Mont Cenise, taking Lanslebourg and menacing Modane, which holds, and to occupy the highest Isère valley, while the Piccolo San Bernardo pass and nearby Bourg-Saint Maurice remain impregnable. They also manage to occupy the upper Vésubie, with the little town of Saint-Martin. The French in their turn manage to occupy the upper Varaita and Maira valleys, only to be soon chased beyond the crest; they also, after a prolonged hard contest, wrench control over the easy Maddalena/Larche col and plateau, securing the upper Ubaye, and of the Vallone d'Orgials and the sanctuary of Sant'Anna, indirectly menacing the Stura di Demonte valley.
In Lybia a war of fast patrols, both meharists and motorized, is fought on the Franco-Italian colonial border, with the French menacing to cut the Tripoli-Nalut road. Along the Egyptian border, the Italians lose, to heavy casualties, the border post of Fort Capuzzo, but successfully repel a raid against Giarabub (al-Jaghbub). Repeated Italian air attacks on Alexandria force the British to move part of the fleet in safer waters, to Suez and Haifa. Both parts refrain fro major operations, apparently impossibile in the unsufferable climate and harsh Saharan environment without special logistic preparation.
In China, Japan (with its army) and the US (with its volunteer pilots and hundreds of "counsellors" attached to fighting units from regiment to army group) fight by now an undeclared war, with a “no prisoners” policy on both parts. The facade of diplomatic relations is however strangely maintained, despite the recall of the respective ambassadors for neverending “consultations”. In their mainland, the Americans prepare a small expedition corps to directly bolster Chiang's forces in the south.
July 22th, 1938
The fall of Pribram signals the unhingement of the Czech southern front and sparks a panic in Prague, where the government begins making preparations to abandon the city, while desperately appealing to the Allies for any move which may relieve the situation. But neither the cautious French, the frightened Belgians or the titubating British can really help Czechoslovakia. The French have sent some fifty fighters in nightly flights through the gauntlet of the Luftwaffe, and a handful have been sent by the English, but it's a drop in the ocean against the 2,000 modern airplanes of the Luftwaffe dominating the skies and terrorizing soldiers and civilians alike.
July 23th, 1938
The old marshall von Boehm-Ermolli, who has tried to avoid involvement in the conflict for Austria, on pressure from Diercks is replaced by Engelbert Dollfuss, a rightist Catholic and admirer of Mussolini, more pliant to the desires of Germany and Italy.
July, 24th, 1938
The first German units reach the defensive perimeter of Prague from the south. The Fitst Czech army is hurriedly recalled back from its commitment in the north, where its fighting withdrawal has bloodied the nose of two german armies; several forts in the Sudeten are still successfully defying the invaders and have to be abandoned to their doom. The Czech government and president Benes relocate in chaos to Brno.
The Italian forces manage, with heavy losses, to surround the French mountain fortress of Monte Grosso between Sospel and the Brouis col.
After a short, bloody fight and a convincing demonstrative bombardment by a couple cruisers, a landing party of the French Navy receives the surrender of the Italian island of Lampedusa, in the center of the Mediterranean.
July 27th, 1938
The Royal Air Force Spanish Squadron, about 60 fighter and bomber plane strong, is formed in northern France, whence it will quickly reach first the area of Bilbao, then that of Valencia, on the Mediterranean.
July 28th-August 1st, 1938
The battle of Mlada Boleslav sees the crushing of the corridor around Prague, which is now under siege, and made the target of long-range artillery.
The Italians manage to take Monte Grosso.
July 29th, 1938
Austria and Hungary enter the fray, sealing the agony of Czechoslovakia with a simultaneous invasion Moravia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia which cost them a declaration of war from the Bruxelles Alliance, and politically moves neutral Romania closer to the Franco-British field – also to counter Soviet designs over Bessarabia. The Austrian launch their spearhead towards Brno, in conjunction with a German paratroop operation that nearly fails the objective of capturing the Czech government, once again forced to flee, this time to Olomouc. The Hungarians drive towards Bratislava, Kassa/Kosice, Munkacs/Mukachevo. While the Austrians do not encounter much resistance, the Hungarians do; they'll commit some brutal reprisals against captured prisoners and hostages in several Slovak towns.
July 30th, 1938
British Swordfish torpedo bombers sink the Italian anti-aircraft cruiser San Giorgio off Tobruk, Libya, to the loss of a couple airplanes.
July 31st, 1938
In Spain, the Republican and French forces unleash the Ebro offensive in a surprise attack without any artillery preparation, and supported with tanks.
In Africa, Italian colonial forces from Ethiopia occupy the Sudanese border town of Kassala and Gallabat against light resistance, but get no further, being too weak and cumbersome for major operations.
August 1st, 1938
Polish forces in turn occupy part of Czech Silesia, entering in force the towns of Cieszyn and Ostrava. After repulsing the German paratrooper units, Brno falls to the 1st Austrian motorized division.
Austrian forces occupy Bratislava without a fight, anticipating the Hungarians: a thorny issue for the signatories of the Treaty of Danzig.
In the Horn of Africa, the British decide to evacuate their possession of British Somalia just as the Italians seem ready to attack through it, joining their small colonial force, mostly Indian, to the beleaguered French garrison of Djibouti.
August 3rd, 1938
France and Great Britain break diplomatic relations with Poland, declining to declare war on yet another enemy. Especially for France this is a humiliation, in the light of the long and close relationship between the French and Polish armies from 1920 to 1934.
The Czech president Benes, the government (save the prime minister) and part of the higher command abandon the country by plane, taking refuge at first in Romania whence they'll reach first Egypt, then France.
The Italians manage to take the town of Sospel/Sospello, controlling the middle Bevera valley, and the Mangiabo mountain; the French resist in the Agaisen fort of their Alpine line, directly overlooking the town, and south of the city at the Castillon forts.
August 6th, 1938
By employing their air wing to keep the dominant Franco-British ships' artillery at bay, and pounding with light camel-trained guns, the Italians manage to force the surrender of Djibouti, in what is now their most notable success. The Duce is elated.
The British, after easily repulsing Italian patrols, confirm their decision to evacuate Somaliland, this time directly to Aden.
August 8th, 1938
The Italians overrun the Roccabruna fort west of Mentone, putting their gun sights on neutral French-occupied Monaco; but they remain under the enemy guns of Sainte-Agnés and Mont Agel, unable to advance further.
German Fall Gelb, the plan to invade Belgium, Luxemburg and northern France, is given the green light by the HROK. It is scheduled for the 1st of April, 1939, barring bad weather or other intervening factors. The higher German command, while elated by the brilliant success against Czechoslovakia, is however still daunted at the idea of tackling France. The plan of the General Staff aims to attract north the mobile part of the Anglo-French armies to smash them through a battle of movement with active and superior air support and tank tactics, gaining the leverage to impose a favorable peace. The option of invading the Netherlands to gain air bases against England has been evaluated, and rejected out of political, rather than military, considerations. The Dutch have strong economic connections with both Britain and the US, and could be more useful as neutral ground, buffer and provider of colonial goods; they were invaluable, furthermore, in the years following the civil war.
August 10th, 1938
The French withdraw their units from Val Roya (Breglio and Saorgio), after destroying their border forts, to the strong Alpine Line fortress network of the Authion massif, with an advanced strongpoint at Colla Bassa.
In Spain, after some of the hardest fighting of the civil war, the French and Republicans manage to chase the Nationalists from the coast between Valencia and Barcelona, in a brilliant if costly success that gives new hope to the Republic. The real losers are however, strategically and politically, the Italians, almost absent from the battlefield, apart as air support.
Marshall of Czechoslovakia Jan Syrovy, the war cabinet's prime minister and only member of the government to remain, surrenders Prague and its 100,000 defenders to the German besiegers, seeing no hope whatsover in the continuation of the struggle.
August 12th-23rd, 1938
A harsh battle is fought on the Mangiabo mountain, soon rebaptized "Mangiauomini" (Maneater) by the Italians, and around Fort Agaisen, as the French Chasseur des Alpes counterattack to deny the enemy control over the Sospel basin, key position to menace the Nice hinterland. The Italians lament important losses and have to end any offensive operation.
August 12th-13th, 1938
A pro-German coup attempt, led by the brothers Ignas and Edvardas Adamkavicius, fails spectacularly at Kaunas, Lithuania. They manage to free from jail Augustinas Voldemaras, leader of the fascist Iron Wolves movement and author of another failed coup in 1934, but president Antanas Smetona manages to flee to safety and a general strike proclaimed by the (undergound) socialist trade unions paralizes the capital's services. When loyal army units march upon Kaunas and the populace takes up arms against the coup plotters, the brothers are captured and summarily shot. Voldemaras instead manges to flee to Sweden, and later to Germany, by boat, together with a handful of followers. The German army, uninformed of the details of the coup attempt despite it being organized under the auspices of the RND (the German secret service, headed by Rudolf Diels), doesn't move immediately from its border positions along the Niemen river; frantic consultations are held with Poland for a common action.
August 14th, 1938
German and Polish troops cross the Lithuanian border at dawn against strong resistance. The Germans lack armor, employing an infantry and cavalry army corps, and very little air cover; the Poles send their two best divisions of the army, and almost no aviation. German cruisers shell the port of Libau, which is then occupied by a detachment of marine infantry after a sharp engagement with the coastal forts.
A desperate treaty of military assistance is signed between the reshuffled Lithuanian government of president Smetona, now including socialist elements, and the Soviet Union. The accord explicitly recognized and confirms Lithuania's independence. Lithuania, while till now vehemently anti-Communist, is literally surrounded: now invaded by both Germany and Poland, it cannot even count on its sister nation Latvia, strictly allied to the Germans. In the evening, hundreds of lightly armed Soviet paratroopers are dropped around Kaunas military airport, in what is the first instance of use of such troops, and from the night several Soviet transports fly in to bolster the defences of the capital.
August 15th, 1938
The second battle of Saragossa ends, after some 30,000 fatalities between military and civilian, the ruined city falling to the French-Republican assailants. For the elated Republicans this is another major success, still, hardly the decisive one.
The Italians, after receiving some bombers from Germany, under air coverage land troops on the eastern shore of Corsica in three points, namely around Aleria, Solenzara and Porto-Vecchio. The last attempt is a bloody failure and is recalled with losses of men and material, whereas the first two are easy successes. Fascist propaganda roars appeals for the Corsicans, Italian-speakers, to rebel against the secular oppressor, but to little avail. Italian bombers hammer Bastia and Toulon as Italian subs draw a “ring of death” around the Isle of Beauty who gave birth to the genius of Napoleon.
The last fighting units of the Czechoslovakian army surrender to the Hungarians at Banska Bystrica. In little more than a month, to the cost of less than 15,000 fallen soldiers for the enemy, Czechoslovakia is no more. About 20,000 men from its army and some dozen planes from the air force managed to take refuge in neutral Romania, whence they'll be readily dispatched to France by ship to avoid further embarrassment.
August 16th, 1938
Great Britain, France and Belgium, plus the exiled Czechoslovakian government, declare war on Poland, thus involving all the Danzig Treaty signatories.
August 20th, 1938
The Conference of Nuremberg, attended by Diercks, Mussolini, Dollfuss, Horthy and by the Polish foreign minister Beck, carves Czechoslovakia among its victors. Germany and Austria annex the Sudetenland, the areas (mostly) inhabited by ethnic Germans; Poland takes Cieszyn and Ostrava; Hungary, still bitter over the Austrian occupation of Bratislava, receives Subcarpathian Ruthenia in its entirety and several border districts of Slovakia inhabited by the numerous Magyar minority. Slovakia is erected into an "independent" national state, for the first time in history; it is actually a German puppet. Central and eastern Bohemia and most of Moravia remain occupied by the German and Austrian armies, under an administration based at Prague. The invaders' rule is severe, if tolerable. Mussolini takes note of the Hungarians' bitterness to take them to his own side, and requests for more German assistance in natural resources, aviation motors, more of the effective Stuka dive bombers and, to the insistence of marshal Badoglio, the army Chief of Staff, present with his German colleague Ludwig Beck, also a small motorized colonial expedition corps to help defend Lybia from the Franco-British and eventually attack either Tunisia or Egypt.
In Corsica, the Italian force landed at Solenzara has slowly worked its way to defensive positions at Bavella pass in the mountain, while adavancing south to Port-Vecchio; the Aleria-based one, reinforced steadily as per the logistical possibilities of the Italian navy, is advacing on the route to Corte, the island's ancient capital in the mountainous interior. French resistance is strong but episodic; reinforcements are being sent piecemeal from Marseille and Toulon to Ajaccio and Calvi to counter the invasion, while submarines are charged with hampering the Italians' sea lanes.
August 24th, 1938
British Royal Marines land on Maiorca; French landing on the island of Minorca, with two battalions of marine infantry. The effort is supported by a Franco-British fleet of four cruisers and six destroyers with land-based air support from the continent. The Italian air wing, having been much reduced in fighting and little supported because of other needs elsewhere, can't prevent the enemy from closing in.
Italian troops occupy Corte in the center of Corsica; another improvised and unexpected landing in the south ends in the surrender of the ancient fortress town of Bonifacio.
The British leave Berbera, the capital of Somaliland, in an impeccable, uncontrasted evacuation towards Aden. The Italians receive the keys of the city and a note of the British commander with a sarcastic request to preserve his house's furniture in good order for when he's back.
August 26th-27th, 1938
The naval battle of Cape Biglione, Corsica. A French squadron coming from Calvi and an Italian one take part in the close encounter, which ends with the sinking of two French ships, the cruiser La Motte-Picquet, the destroyer Volta and a (void) troop transport by the big guns of the old and still incompletely restructured Italian battleship Caio Duilio, with the loss of more than 400 lives and hundreds of prisoners. Later, the Italian destroyer Espero is torn to shreds by a French submarine's torpedo in the waters off Livorno, with the loss of all hands.
August 31st, 1938
After an honorable fight, the Spanish Nationalist and Italian garrison of Maiorca surrenders to the British. The Balearic islands are thus secured, in a clear strategic success for the Bruxelles Pact.
A French submarine sinks a US tanker off Cadice, in Nationalist-held Andalusia, with the loss of a dozen lives in the subsequent explosion.
September 1st, 1938
In Washington DC, President Compton fumes at the news: the US break diplomatic relationships with France loudly denouncing French “meddling” in Spain (Italian and German meddling had been conveniently forgotten/forgiven). Compton also orders a small task force to be sent to southern Spain by convoy. The command of the land force, calculated to about 6,000 strong and made up of a cavalry and a motorized regiment, will be entrusted to a recently promoted gung-ho brigade general, a veteran of WWI, George Patton.
The French higher command authorizes the planning of an autumn operation, Plan D14, to chase back the Italians from the few high valleys and headwaters they occupied in the summer, being then mostly incapable of advancing. The objective of this move, to be made profiting from the coming of the bad season, is not so much the liberation of little populated border areas of limited importance in the rugged Alpine sector, but the capture of some of the best Italian mountain troops and a blow to the enemy's self-confidence.
September 6th, 1938
In a meeting at Guadalajara, Spanish Republican generalissimo Miaja and his right hand Vicente Rojo work out with the French commander of the Spanish front, general Doumenc, the plan for a limited joint offensive against Navarre. The objective is to completely clear the Pyrenees of Nationalists, deny air bases to Germans and Italians and most of all reestablish territorial continuity between the the rest of the Republic and the Basque Lands, where "lehendakari" Aguirre, back from exile, has established an independence de facto which is unnerving to both Paris and Madrid.
September 16th, 1938
An unescorted Mexican tanker is stopped and sunk by the Italian submarine Alagi while heading for Valencia to refuel Republican forces. Mexico's government, having received no answer to its strong protest, breaks diplomatic relations with Italy.
September-October, 1938
Lord Gort and generalissimo Gamelin work out the details of the operational plan for a limited invasion of Germany aimed to the Ruhr from Belgium and Luxembourg, Operation Sword. It is planned not to be enacted before March, 1939.
September 23rd-24th, 1938
A colonial French column of camels and "autochenilles" with recon airplanes support advances from Chad in a daring raid, attacking and conquering the capital of Italian Fezzan, Murzuk, and capturing about 500 enemy troops to the loss of some 30 men.
There do are, undoubtedly, "gaps" to be filled, but still...
POD: in October, 1918
Adolf Hitler gets killed in battle on the Western Front by an English sniper while stumbling around, blinded by a gas attack.
December 1918
Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, better known as comrade Stalin, is murdered in Tsarytsin (*OTL Stalingrad/Volgograd) by an enraged mother whose son he had shot as saboteur.
1919-1921
France and Britain default or repay only lately and partly the huge US loans received in wartime. In time America gets colder and colder towards the two European Powers, adopting an "anticolonial" stance and a strict interpretation of the Monroe doctrine.
In Russia Soviet forces win the civil war at a high price for the country and brilliantly repulse a Polish invasion, while having in the end to concede Poland vast territories (more or less as per OTL). Trotskij emerges as Lenin's natural right hand and “heir apparent”, alongside several other figures of importance.
1923-1924
In Germany the occupation of the Rhineland cements parts of the left and right; the social-democrats will later split, with a nationalist wing under a former veteran of the trenches, Rudolf Diercks, founder of the Sozialfront.
1924
Trotskij succeeds Lenin. Despite his will to diffuse the revolution westwards, he later understands, after the fizzle of the Saxony revolution in fall, that the moment is not mature and manages to preserve a very tense status quo with the European powers. The Twenties see Soviet meddling that detaches Sinkiang from China and provokes abortive communist revolutions in Iran and, of all places, Afghanistan. Eventually, however, Afghanistan turns into a Soviet satellite/ally because of a 1929 border war with the British.
1925
First unsuccessful communist revolution in China, in Shanghai and Canton, crushed by the Nationalists of Chang-Kai Shek. Mao's followers turn to long-lasting guerrilla.
1929
The Great Depression has devastating effect on the global economy, paralleled in Russia by Trotskij's total failure with his program of collectivizations (brought on with a bit less savagery than OTL).
1930-1931
Germany descends in a brief but nasty civil war: in the end a weird alliance of the Sozialfront (nationalist social democrats), catholics and Junker-conservatives wins the day, liquidating the divided Social-Communist forces who had taken control of the industrial areas of the Rhineland and Palatinate, of Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg, and some parts of Berlin itself. A surprising number of WWI veterans had sided with the losing radical Left, leading to long-lasting fighting. France and Britain, gravely hit by the Depression, look with bitter satisfaction the old enemies battling themselves. The US help the "anti-communist" coalition with money and weapons, while the Soviet Union's help proves half-hearted and ineffective, despite part of the German navy siding with the leftists.
Trotskij, humiliated by a string of failures, steps out from the economics and most governmental activities, retaining only his high role in the Party, personal ascendant and ultimate command on the Red Army, his favored creature. Bukharin takes the lead in economics and begins a saner reconstruction based on the NEP principles and a healthy dose of industrialisation, while a careful politics in matter of nationalities and robust repression quell local rebellions (Basmachi in Central Asia, Ukraine, Cossacks, Caucasus banditry, etc). Infighting prevents the political police, now led by the ailing Menzhinski, from becoming too powerful, and the GuLag system remains relatively marginal.
The rift between the US and the Anglo-French widens as a consequence of the crisis, with the failure of Paris and London to repay the war loans of WWI, the rise of trade barriers by the Americans and the Imperial Preference system put in effect by Britain, which is reorganizing the Crown's overseas Dominions in effectively independent states, if strongly integrated.
In Japan, the military begins to flex their muscles and to influence politics heavily; Japan occupies Manchuria to the protests of China (and, on a softer tone, of Russia).
1931-1935
The new German government, led by Diercks, ascendend during the civil war to the indisputed guide of the winners despite the supercilious objections of the Junker caste, sets up its capital at Nuremberg, a town that had been the headquarters of the Reichswehr during the civil war. Diercks and his "emergency" government (elections are congealed for the next years) recall from exile not the Kaiser, but his son and heir, provided he accepts a constitutional monarchy, which he does to the chagrin of most aristocrats. Wilhelm III is crowned officially, against the avowed wish of his father (which actually leads the Western powers to swallow the pill), on the 1st of August, 1934, at Potsdam, and will reside at Berlin, so, at a distance from the government. The Nuremberg regime, or Third Reich, enjoying consistent American and Dutch economic and industrial help, proves quite efficient in rebuilding the country, restoring social peace and beginning a military buildup after denouncing the Versailles Treaty.
Canada suffers from The Troubles, a phase of harsh multi-sided confrontation, particularly from 1933, between supporters of the conservative prime minister Bennett, the pro-American (mostly) Quebecois fascists of Adrien Arcand, admirers of Compton, Diercks and Mussolini, and the organized labour movement, hit hard by the crisis and by Bennett's anti-Communist measures. After several instances of sectarian violence that bring the body count in the hundreds, and the flight of Arcand to the US, a measure of order is newly found with the new liberal government of Mackenzie King.
1932
In the US crippled by the Depression a populist leader and discussed entrepreneur from Chicago, William Nathan Compton, is elected president on the Democratic ticket. He'll be reelected, and in a few years' space the vestiges of democracy will be severely trampled: a racist, bigot, hypocrite and business-oriented regime will take shape in the States, without even bothering to persecute its few opponents. The new president soon relaunches the military.
1932-1933
Japan fights a limited war with China, bombing Shanghai and wresting some provinces on the Manchurian border, and gets expelled from the League of Nations.
1934
Germany, in a cunning diplomatic move promjoted by Foreign Minister Franz von Papen, renounces claims over its former territories annexed by Poland (Warthegau, upper Silesia, the Corridor) in exchange for the recognition of language rights for the Germans living there, and, most of all, the reincorporation of Danzig to Germany (which brings the Franco-British dominated League of Nations to expel the Germans) and free rights of passage over the Corridor for the Germans.
In the Soviet Union Sergej Kirov emerges the victor in the power struggle with Zinoviev and Kamenev for the effective succession to Trotskij at the head of the government; next to him is Bukharin, head of the party.The struggle opens a space of free discussion in the Soviet hierarchy; there will be no purges whatsoever in the Stalinian sense, since also the losers in inner political battle are "recycled" into the several sectors of the mammoth Soviet party-state. A popular and pragmatic leader, Kirov gives impulse to industrialization in earnest, welcoming tens of thousands of sympathizers, workers and technicians from Europe and North America, and curbs the most distasteful aspects of OGPU repression. The GuLag system will never bloat up to the dimensions of OTL and the economy won't be based upon mass slavery, but on incentives, state industry and cooperative agriculture. As for Trotskij, "Comrade Number One, Right Hand of the Great Lenin, Founder of the Red Army and Living Monument of the Revolution", he remains in a sort of detached position, dedicating himself to writing memories and important political and sociological treatises. His contribution to political philosophy parallels that of his friend and correspondant, Antonio Gramsci, a fellow Communist who is prisoner of the Italian Fascist regime. "Persona non grata" throughout the Western world, Trotskij nonetheless enjoys several high-profile friendships and contacts outside the SU and remains esteemed for his analytical insight and sharp pen.
The US, always the "big stick" of the Western Emisphere, ends its direct intervention in Nicaragua after the death of Sandino, only to reoccupy Haiti.
1934-1936
Mexico sees the creeping battle between Jefe Màximo Plutarco Elìas Calles, a quasi-fascists and fierce anti-Catholic strongman, and his former subordinate Làzaro Càrdenas, a well-liked figure of socialist leanings. The latter, once became president wins the day and exiles Calles to the US, inheriting by him the new united ruling party but steering Mexico's politics left, while embarking on a policy of development of the oil industry with British help and trade with the Soviet Union that greatly bothers Washington.
1935
After Pilsudski's death, Germany, Poland, Hungary and the two Baltic countries of Latvia and Estonia sign a military pact of defense, the Treaty of Danzig, with great scandal of France, who screams at the Polish backstabbing and manoeuvers the League of Nations into expelling Poland upon pretexts, at which Germany too leaves the organization. The SU's foreign minister Maksim Litvinov, nicknamed “Lord Soviet”, on the contrary, greatly enhances in the meantime relationships between Kirov's Soviet Union and the Franco-British.
The Chinese Communists, discreetly supported by the Soviets, end their Long March consolidating control over NW China.
Japan establishes Manchuria as the Empire of Manchukuo, ruled by the puppet emperor Pu Yi, the last of the Qing sovereigns of China.
October 1935-April 1936
The Italian army led by Badoglio and Graziani invade and subjugate Ethiopia, whose emperor Hailé Selassié finds refuge in Britain. Germany and the United States ignore the sanctions imposed by the League of Nations. Despite the US' avowed anticolonialism, American protests over Italian aggression to a sovereign country are very bland as the Italian-American lobby, amply corrupted by the Mafia and complacent to Fascism, is powerful and has played a very important part in bringing Compton to power and silencing his enemies.
1936
Belgium and Czechoslovakia, worried by German rearmament, sign a treaty of common defense with France and Britain: the Bruxelles Pact, origin of the Western Alliance.
A fresh military coup in Austria, closing a very tense period which saw the Social Democrats lose power in 1932, in the wake of the German civil war, brings in power a German-friendly government, headed by the aged marshall von Boehm-Ermolli. Italy is less than pleased but, its forces hands full in Ethiopia and relations strained with both France and Britain, has to back down, being reassured of German friendly intentions and of no plans of annexation.
The Spanish Civil war at its beginnings sees the Nationalist side supported covertly by the US, Germany and Portugal and openly by Mussolini's Italy and Trujillo's Dominican "Republic". France, weakly supporting the Republicans, like Mexico, risks crumbling into civil war in its turn over the issue; Britain stays rigidly neutral. The Soviet Union tries its best to help the Republicans, trying to avoid the shameful failure of Germany five years before and reenter the international stage; she manages to stave off a quick defeat of the legitimate government with her modern tanks and planes and military consellors, acting discreetly in Spanish politics because of the very complex situation.
In the US Compton is reelected in a landslide against a discredited Republican ticket lynched by an ever less free press.
In Britain, the major scandal of the relationship between king Edward VIII and the American socialite Wallis Simpson, actually an agent of Compton's newly established Foreign Information Bureau as it came out several decades later, ends with the abdication of the king-emperor in favor of his brother Albert, who'll take the style of George VI, enlarging, if neeeded, what is by now known as the Atlantic Rift between Britain and the US.
The second naval conference in London fails to reach an agreement, leading to a renewed arms race on the seas.
When the Soviets annex Sinkiang as the federal socialist republic of Uighuristan, Nationalist China breaks diplomatic relationships with them, while instead heavily relying on the US and Germany.
March, 21st 1937
In Washington President Compton receives Reichskanzler Diercks: the two sign the Freedom Chart, a non-binding political accord on a “rights of nationalities” base. More importantly, Germany secures steady supply of precious resources and renewed investment in its now booming economy, while the US is still experiencing difficulties in the depressed agricultural Midwest and the poor South.
May 1937
Germany and Italy, in a series of diplomatic meetings held at Rapallo and Konstanz, build the bases of a secret alliance, with strong economic and military exchanges, and divide the Balkans among them in matter of influence, with Italy being acknowledged as interested in the SW (Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece) and Germany in the NE (Hungary, Romania). Austria is to remain independent, at least formally, not to touch Italian susceptibility. Inconclusive talks are held regarding the South Tyrolean question.
Lithuania, under strong pressure from Germany to cede back the coastal town of Memel/Klaipeda, and in turn always bent on recovering Vilnius from Poland, signs its participation into the Bruxelles Pact, thinking it good guarantee against German strong-arming.
Thanks to the efforts of foreign minister Litvinov, the Soviet Union is eventually admitted to the League of Nations. Despite strong British objections the French found the move conducive to a cautious cooperation in the Spanish issue, on which the Soviets seem well disposed.
July, 7th 1937
Marco Polo Bridge Incident: the Japanese start a massive invasion of Nationalist China, at first with crushing success.
August 8th, 1937
Nippo-Soviet non-aggression pact and territory swap. The Soviet Union cedes some marginal disputed territory along the Amur river and in easternmost Mongolia in exchange for the two northernmost Kurile islands. The Chinese province of Inner Mongolia is acknowledged as "neutral" territory to be left to its own warlords. Furthermore, the Japanese and the Chinese Communists are supposed not to fight each other; a rule that will hold, save in local bloody “incidents” due to local reaction to the invaders' brutality. That will limit Japanese advance no further than the Huang He in NW China.
August-September, 1937
In the first battle for Saragossa the Spanish Nationalist rebels get a morale-boosting defensive victory.
The US grant formal independence to the Philippines, while at the same time building up there a military presence, mainly naval, to confront the aggressive expansionism of Japan and keep on helping the Chinese in their desperate struggle.
December, 12th 1937
The Panay incident irrevocably wounds Japanese-American relationships. Japan apologizes, but refuses to pay a high indemnity and to punish those involved as requested in strong terms by the US government. President Compton has by now characterized his foreign politics as aimed to stem the “yellow peril” (Japan), the “red menace” (the Soviets and Republican Spain) and the “imperialist warmongers” (Britain, France).
December 1937-January 1938
The fierce Battle of Teruel, fought in unusual winter frost, ends in another Nationalist success, albeit to a heavy cost. Soviet help to the Republican side of the Spanish conflict is hampered by Italian submarine "black operations" in the Mediterranean, quietly ignored by most countries involved.
The US enact an oil embargo against Japan. The Japanese react by concluding favorable trade accords with the Soviets, at the price of withdrawing part of their Kwangtung Army from Manchukuo and formally recognizing (Outer) Mongolia.
March-April 1938
The Spanish Nationalist army sweeps Aragon in a successful offensive, helped by American and German war materials and Italian "volunteer" (read: regular) troops and airplanes: they actually cut the surviving Republican territory in two, reaching the Mediterranean. The Italian air force (Regia Aeronautica) devastates Barcelona in wave after wave of purely terroristic attacks that kill hundreds. Worried, the conservative French government reopens the border to the influx of weapons for the Republican side and dispatches a small "surveillance" fleet to protect the Republican ports from Italian aggression.
About 4,000 American volunteers who are fighting for the Republicans are deprived of US citizenship by executive order of President Compton, only to be made Spanish citizens by the Republic – and for the first time in the US someone begins noticing how much the political climate has degraded, but it's way too late to counteract.
In China the Japanese, after taking and horrendously "raping" Nanking, are stopped cold in their advance: the Chinese receive help from a number of American volunteer pilots and are relatively better equipped then OTL, if always quite incompetent and corrupt. Public opinion in Europe and North America is shocked by the horrors of Nanking and Japan suffers diplomatic isolation.
May 14th, 1938
The Italian submarine Vettor Pisani doesn't return from a ("secret") mission in the waters off Valencia, supposedly attacked and sunk while surfacing as per the last radio message. A few hours after that, aircraft from the Italian bases at Maiorca hit the French cruiser Pluton, who is watching local shipping lanes for the Spanish Republicans. The ship burns fiercely for hours, then explodes and sinks with the loss of more than 200 men.
May-June 1938
France asks for immediate withdrawal of all Italian forces from Spain. Mussolini won't back down. Both countries, public opinions in flames, partially mobilize their armed forces, withdraw their ambassadors and close their common border, while remaining still short of war. The crisis is grave and remains on the first pages of the world's newspapers.
June 7th, 1938
Without consulting the British, French regular forces cross into Catalonia and the Basque Country "to protect French interests and Spanish sovereignity" and to fight the Italians. This is considered the beginning of the Second World War.
June-July, 1938
About 100,000 men are dispatched to Spain by France; the rest of the French Army vigilates on the Maginot Line and the Alps, as the Germans mobilize a screening force along the Karl der Grosse Stellung (*OTL Siegfrid Line) and mass their still limited tank forces around Czechoslovakia and the Italians hastily prepare for war behind their mountains. Actually the Germans calculate that the Western Allies won't attack before spring 1939, with Britain still largely at peacetime level – a correct assumption, compounded by the political thorn of the unilateral French intervention in Spain. The Soviets, sensing the dangers of the situation, extract their “military counsellors” from the country, leaving in place only the war materials and a few pilots; they also get part of the Spanish gold reserves in payment of their substantial help and take with them thousands of war orphans from several regions. Their ships now avoid the Med for the safer Atlantic route to and from Murmansk and Archangel'sk. The Italians don't budge, but withdraw their men well beyond the Ebro river.
June, 27th 1938
The US destroyer Gwin, while taking part in an aggressive sweep to chase Jap subs operating against traffic in the South China Sea, is gravely hit, with the loss of 36 lives, by the Japanese cruiser Tenryu. Once again the government of Tokyo refuse to compensate, and this time also refuse to apologize.
Diplomatic relationships are broken a few days later as America escalates military and economic help to China.
July 7th, 1938
After a full month of frantic negotiations, with good-faith efforts to mediate especially by Sweden and, discreetly, by the Netherlands, and an ignored three-day ultimatum to withdraw from Spain, Italy and Germany declare war on France. This implies war with all of France's allies in the Bruxelles Pact: a painfully surprised Britain, to the last desiring a peaceful resolution of the Spanish issue; a frightened Belgium; beleaguered Czechoslovakia and Lithuania. For the moment, Germany's other allies, including puppet Austria, won't enter the fray, at least formally.
By now in Spain the French have steamrolled in the Basque Country, crushing Nationalist positions there in conjunction with a partisan revolt, cleared the Aragon section of the Pyrenees from the enemy and crossed Catalonia to the Ebro. They had sometimes to fight with anarchist militias not too happy with their presence, and sporadically fought against Italian Blackshirt rearguards on the Saragossa front, where they still haven't pressed an offensive in a last hope to avoid open war.
July, 8th, 1938
The Spanish government (the legitimate Republican one, that is) declares war on Germany and Italy... automatically involving Germany's allies (Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia) as per the Danzig Treaty (which is defensive in nature). These countries, however, are NOT at war with the Franco-British Alliance, and have no men in Spain – or better, the only ones they have... are fighting with the International Brigades on the Republican side!
The US mobilize their fleet(s) and, partly, the National Guard. Mexico, friendly to the Soviets, declares armed neutrality but begins mobilization. So does Switzerland, its Parliament appointing Henri Guisan as General of the army.
July, 9-10th, 1938
Italy attacks the French fleet by air with two fierce, spectacular raids on Toulon, sinking two cruisers and three destroyers in port with the loss of more than 800 seaman and dozens of civilians. The French answer by swiftly bombing Genoa, Savona and other targets of opportunity in Liguria by air and sea: a slap in the face for Mussolini, whose troops begin an all-out attack along the rugged Alpine range, with little hope of decisive successes in front of the modern French fortifications and artillery. The Italian Alpine front is under the overall nominal command of Umberto, the heir to the throne, assisted by the aged and expert Marshall of Italy, Enrico Caviglia, and under the supervision of Chief of Staff Badoglio (whom Caviglia personally loathes after certain... misunderstandins at Caporetto and Fiume years before).
The French government issues orders for the internment of tens of thousands of alien residents and immigrants of Italian and German ethnicity, plus of thousands of French nationals suspected of sympathies for Italy and Germany in the Nice area and Alsace. In all, about 50,000 will be subject to several degrees of restriction of their freedom.
Prague is targeted by diving bombers in the first terror attacks of the war, with limited loss of life but great panic and widespread damage to its artistic heritage.
The Germans are having a hard time overcoming the Sudeten fortified area, but are helped by the armed insurgency of the ethnic Germans in the area and by the indirect menace maintained in the south by the Austrian army, technically still at peace but fully mobilized and ready.
The British, reluctantly, recognize the existence of a state of war, mobilize their forces and reintroduce conscription after a last pitiful diplomatic attempt to induce the Germans to withdraw from their invasion of Czechoslovakia. The government of sir Neville Chamberlain falls right after having declared the war to leave place to an emergency cabinet of national unity led by the conservative stalwart Lord Halifax, but for the first time including also noted Laburists, some of which are highly sympathetic to Soviet Russia.
July, 11th, 1938
The Italians enter the bilingual French border town of Mentone, but cannot secure the high ground to the west.
The French bomb Karlsruhe and Mannheim, to moderate damage and a handful of civilians killed, in revenge for the attacks upon Prague. The German Luftwaffe is therefore ordered from the HROK (Highest Imperial Oberkommando) to abstain, at least for now, from further attacks on cities, and the order is quietly passed to the enemy through neutral channels (Switzerland) in the following days.
The Luftwaffe and the Regia Aeronautica attack Gibraltar with dive and level bombers, causing relevant damage and the sinking of the cruiser Arethusa and the destroyer Faulknor.
In Italian Libya, Governor Balbo, foremost Fascist leader and noted Anglophile, orders the strictest defensive: forces are insufficient to mount any attack on French, or, for that, British positions, with any security.
The governments of Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany, Italy and their allies, while their possible contribution is limited due other, more pressing concerns in the Pacific. Canada and South Africa do not to follow suit, much to the wrath of Britain, due to local concerns - namely and respectively, fear of the US and of another round of civil disturbances after The Troubles, and concern over the possibile pro-German feelings of the Boers.
July, 14th, 1938
The French evacuate the border town of Sospel, but the Italians cannot occupy it, finding themselves under a veritable rain of artillery shells from the moutain forts.
A French naval division of destroyers sailed from Bizerte bombs the harbor and city of Tripoli, Libya, sinking a merchant ship and fishing vessels and killing 44.
French fighters reinforce the air wing of Malta, threatened by a possibile Italian landing and subject to daily bombing from Sicily.
On the Czech front, after the first days of slow grinding in the north by the Army Group A (von Leeb) with combined operaton by mountain troops, regulars and dive bombers, the true German attack led by Army Group B (von Rundstedt), Unternehmen Eisenhammer, unleashes from Bavaria heading into the Klattau-Strakonitz area, south of Pilsen, with two armored spearheads (Guderian and Kleist), advancing fast despite the difficult woody and hilly terrain and catching the Czech defenders by surprise.
Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart is named as the overall commander of the British expedition corps on the continent (more on political than military reasons): he'll set up command at Ypres, Belgium, arriving with the first British troops. The Belgian army still hasn't fired as shot against Germany, apart some minor patrol skirmishes at the border. An attack against Aachen was considered, and rejected out of hand as suicidal.
July, 14th-August, 2nd, 1938
The hard-fought Battle of Castillon Pass ends in a French defensive success: the Italian advance in the south is stalled on the mountains just a few miles inside France.
The French occupy Spanish Morocco in a short fierce campaign. On the 31 st of July, a battalion of US Marines occupies the international city of Tangiers before the French can reach it, moving the surviving Spanish "African" units to the mainland; a tense Franco-American standoff ensues.
The British reinforce their Gibraltar garrison, put under the command of sir Edmund Ironside; while keeping in port a squadron of destroyers, major units are redirected to Malta, Haifa and Alexandria to avoid the worst from the frequent attacks of the Italian and German planes stationed in rebel Spain. The Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Lord Gort, and First Sea Lord Alfred Chatfield, together with their French counerparts generalissmo Gamelin and admiral Darlan, hurriedly plan an operation against Nationalist-held Andalusia to secure the Rock once and for all: it's a run against time as the Italians, partly tied by the French in the north, try to redeploy assets south for a joint assault together with Franco's crack troops.
French forces repeatedly bomb Nationalist Maiorca (an Italian base) by air and sea, losing a couple destroyers to sub and air attacks in the process.
July, 16-19th, 1938
The battle of Horaschdowitz sees the functional destruction of the Third Czech army by the armored and motorized German units, with the capture of over 20,000 prisoner and great amounts of precious war materiel.
A squadron of the British Home Fleet reaches San Sebastiàn in Spain.
Repeated Italian air attack target the port of Bizerte, damaging the city and killing dozens of civilians but with little result on the ships.
July, 17th-30th, 1938
The French army, now almost fully mobilized, tries an abortive limited invasion of the Saarland, only to renounce it and retreat after marginal gains and considerable casualties against the German fortified positions.
Italian colonial forces advance in a pincher movement against the French port of Djibouti, from Assab along the coast, and from the Harar region. The column on the coast is hampered by the joint effort of British and French vessels, who in a series of sharp engagements deny the Italians control over the all-important Bab el Mandeb strait, key to the Red Sea and the Suez canal. The Italians lose to accidents and to fighting four "oceanic" submarines, a couple destroyers and a handful of their few and precious airplanes; the British lament the sinking of a destroyer, the French the loss of some minor craft. Djibouti comes however under close menace by the inland column led by general Maletti.
July 18th, 1938
The Italians take the important position of the col de Brouis in the Maritime Alps, de facto isolating from easy access the powerful enemy fortifications in Val Roya. The French, trying to preserve their forces for the true battle against Germany, cannot but contain the Fascist advance, aimed to control the Sospel basin in the Bevera valley and cut Nice from the Roya valley. The French command, under general Olry, tries to stop the Italians along a line from Roquebrune/Roccabruna to Sospel/Sospello and Breil/Breglio.
July-August 1938
The Franco-British establish a renewed naval blockade around Germany, in the hope it will starve once again the country into defeat in the long run.
Poor tiny Lithuania finds herself in a terrible quagmire, surrounded by formal (Germany) or theoretical (Poland, Latvia) enemies and carefully avoiding any provocation. Neither Germany, its hands full in Czechoslovakia and shoulders dangerously exposed in the West, nor her allies bother to attack Lithuania, hoping instead to undermine her government and replace it with a pro-German one. In the meantime German naval units blockade the ports of Libau and Memel.
In Spain the second battle of Saragossa proves a carnage, razing the city: the French give artillery, air and tank support, the Spanish Republicans the greater part of the cannon fodder, mostly from the disposable International Brigades. The same happens with Italians and Nationalists on the other side, only this time it's almost always Spaniards who go over the top first, and six feet under later.
The Republicans try to get back Cantabria and Santander, but their attempt, despite the support of the French navy and of partisans in the mountains, is defeated.
Generalissimo Franco flatly refuses to detach his crack troops to assault Gibraltar, fearing direct confrontation with the British and decrying, to the rage of his German and Italian allies, involvement into a wider war to the expense of his feud with the "red" Spaniards, not to say the devastating loss of his beloved Spanish Morocco as a consequence.
Portugal is intimidated by Franco-British naval "demonstrations" into reducing its help to the Nationalists. Salazar's government begin secret negotiations with the United States.
In the Mediterranean Mussolini's admirals do not dare for the moment being to confront the French, let alone the British: for all purposes the Italian forces in Spain, numbering some 50,000 men, are isolated, but well protected American convoys now regularly ship fuel, food and small weapons to the Nationalist side.
On the Italo-French front, hamhanded Italian attempts to break out in the highest sectors of the Western Alps, often from very high passes, cost good men among the elite Alpini mountain infantry and bring little result. Patrol fights happen even on the high glaciers of Mont Blanc. Overall, the Italians manage to descend into the upper Arc valley from the Mont Cenise, taking Lanslebourg and menacing Modane, which holds, and to occupy the highest Isère valley, while the Piccolo San Bernardo pass and nearby Bourg-Saint Maurice remain impregnable. They also manage to occupy the upper Vésubie, with the little town of Saint-Martin. The French in their turn manage to occupy the upper Varaita and Maira valleys, only to be soon chased beyond the crest; they also, after a prolonged hard contest, wrench control over the easy Maddalena/Larche col and plateau, securing the upper Ubaye, and of the Vallone d'Orgials and the sanctuary of Sant'Anna, indirectly menacing the Stura di Demonte valley.
In Lybia a war of fast patrols, both meharists and motorized, is fought on the Franco-Italian colonial border, with the French menacing to cut the Tripoli-Nalut road. Along the Egyptian border, the Italians lose, to heavy casualties, the border post of Fort Capuzzo, but successfully repel a raid against Giarabub (al-Jaghbub). Repeated Italian air attacks on Alexandria force the British to move part of the fleet in safer waters, to Suez and Haifa. Both parts refrain fro major operations, apparently impossibile in the unsufferable climate and harsh Saharan environment without special logistic preparation.
In China, Japan (with its army) and the US (with its volunteer pilots and hundreds of "counsellors" attached to fighting units from regiment to army group) fight by now an undeclared war, with a “no prisoners” policy on both parts. The facade of diplomatic relations is however strangely maintained, despite the recall of the respective ambassadors for neverending “consultations”. In their mainland, the Americans prepare a small expedition corps to directly bolster Chiang's forces in the south.
July 22th, 1938
The fall of Pribram signals the unhingement of the Czech southern front and sparks a panic in Prague, where the government begins making preparations to abandon the city, while desperately appealing to the Allies for any move which may relieve the situation. But neither the cautious French, the frightened Belgians or the titubating British can really help Czechoslovakia. The French have sent some fifty fighters in nightly flights through the gauntlet of the Luftwaffe, and a handful have been sent by the English, but it's a drop in the ocean against the 2,000 modern airplanes of the Luftwaffe dominating the skies and terrorizing soldiers and civilians alike.
July 23th, 1938
The old marshall von Boehm-Ermolli, who has tried to avoid involvement in the conflict for Austria, on pressure from Diercks is replaced by Engelbert Dollfuss, a rightist Catholic and admirer of Mussolini, more pliant to the desires of Germany and Italy.
July, 24th, 1938
The first German units reach the defensive perimeter of Prague from the south. The Fitst Czech army is hurriedly recalled back from its commitment in the north, where its fighting withdrawal has bloodied the nose of two german armies; several forts in the Sudeten are still successfully defying the invaders and have to be abandoned to their doom. The Czech government and president Benes relocate in chaos to Brno.
The Italian forces manage, with heavy losses, to surround the French mountain fortress of Monte Grosso between Sospel and the Brouis col.
After a short, bloody fight and a convincing demonstrative bombardment by a couple cruisers, a landing party of the French Navy receives the surrender of the Italian island of Lampedusa, in the center of the Mediterranean.
July 27th, 1938
The Royal Air Force Spanish Squadron, about 60 fighter and bomber plane strong, is formed in northern France, whence it will quickly reach first the area of Bilbao, then that of Valencia, on the Mediterranean.
July 28th-August 1st, 1938
The battle of Mlada Boleslav sees the crushing of the corridor around Prague, which is now under siege, and made the target of long-range artillery.
The Italians manage to take Monte Grosso.
July 29th, 1938
Austria and Hungary enter the fray, sealing the agony of Czechoslovakia with a simultaneous invasion Moravia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia which cost them a declaration of war from the Bruxelles Alliance, and politically moves neutral Romania closer to the Franco-British field – also to counter Soviet designs over Bessarabia. The Austrian launch their spearhead towards Brno, in conjunction with a German paratroop operation that nearly fails the objective of capturing the Czech government, once again forced to flee, this time to Olomouc. The Hungarians drive towards Bratislava, Kassa/Kosice, Munkacs/Mukachevo. While the Austrians do not encounter much resistance, the Hungarians do; they'll commit some brutal reprisals against captured prisoners and hostages in several Slovak towns.
July 30th, 1938
British Swordfish torpedo bombers sink the Italian anti-aircraft cruiser San Giorgio off Tobruk, Libya, to the loss of a couple airplanes.
July 31st, 1938
In Spain, the Republican and French forces unleash the Ebro offensive in a surprise attack without any artillery preparation, and supported with tanks.
In Africa, Italian colonial forces from Ethiopia occupy the Sudanese border town of Kassala and Gallabat against light resistance, but get no further, being too weak and cumbersome for major operations.
August 1st, 1938
Polish forces in turn occupy part of Czech Silesia, entering in force the towns of Cieszyn and Ostrava. After repulsing the German paratrooper units, Brno falls to the 1st Austrian motorized division.
Austrian forces occupy Bratislava without a fight, anticipating the Hungarians: a thorny issue for the signatories of the Treaty of Danzig.
In the Horn of Africa, the British decide to evacuate their possession of British Somalia just as the Italians seem ready to attack through it, joining their small colonial force, mostly Indian, to the beleaguered French garrison of Djibouti.
August 3rd, 1938
France and Great Britain break diplomatic relations with Poland, declining to declare war on yet another enemy. Especially for France this is a humiliation, in the light of the long and close relationship between the French and Polish armies from 1920 to 1934.
The Czech president Benes, the government (save the prime minister) and part of the higher command abandon the country by plane, taking refuge at first in Romania whence they'll reach first Egypt, then France.
The Italians manage to take the town of Sospel/Sospello, controlling the middle Bevera valley, and the Mangiabo mountain; the French resist in the Agaisen fort of their Alpine line, directly overlooking the town, and south of the city at the Castillon forts.
August 6th, 1938
By employing their air wing to keep the dominant Franco-British ships' artillery at bay, and pounding with light camel-trained guns, the Italians manage to force the surrender of Djibouti, in what is now their most notable success. The Duce is elated.
The British, after easily repulsing Italian patrols, confirm their decision to evacuate Somaliland, this time directly to Aden.
August 8th, 1938
The Italians overrun the Roccabruna fort west of Mentone, putting their gun sights on neutral French-occupied Monaco; but they remain under the enemy guns of Sainte-Agnés and Mont Agel, unable to advance further.
German Fall Gelb, the plan to invade Belgium, Luxemburg and northern France, is given the green light by the HROK. It is scheduled for the 1st of April, 1939, barring bad weather or other intervening factors. The higher German command, while elated by the brilliant success against Czechoslovakia, is however still daunted at the idea of tackling France. The plan of the General Staff aims to attract north the mobile part of the Anglo-French armies to smash them through a battle of movement with active and superior air support and tank tactics, gaining the leverage to impose a favorable peace. The option of invading the Netherlands to gain air bases against England has been evaluated, and rejected out of political, rather than military, considerations. The Dutch have strong economic connections with both Britain and the US, and could be more useful as neutral ground, buffer and provider of colonial goods; they were invaluable, furthermore, in the years following the civil war.
August 10th, 1938
The French withdraw their units from Val Roya (Breglio and Saorgio), after destroying their border forts, to the strong Alpine Line fortress network of the Authion massif, with an advanced strongpoint at Colla Bassa.
In Spain, after some of the hardest fighting of the civil war, the French and Republicans manage to chase the Nationalists from the coast between Valencia and Barcelona, in a brilliant if costly success that gives new hope to the Republic. The real losers are however, strategically and politically, the Italians, almost absent from the battlefield, apart as air support.
Marshall of Czechoslovakia Jan Syrovy, the war cabinet's prime minister and only member of the government to remain, surrenders Prague and its 100,000 defenders to the German besiegers, seeing no hope whatsover in the continuation of the struggle.
August 12th-23rd, 1938
A harsh battle is fought on the Mangiabo mountain, soon rebaptized "Mangiauomini" (Maneater) by the Italians, and around Fort Agaisen, as the French Chasseur des Alpes counterattack to deny the enemy control over the Sospel basin, key position to menace the Nice hinterland. The Italians lament important losses and have to end any offensive operation.
August 12th-13th, 1938
A pro-German coup attempt, led by the brothers Ignas and Edvardas Adamkavicius, fails spectacularly at Kaunas, Lithuania. They manage to free from jail Augustinas Voldemaras, leader of the fascist Iron Wolves movement and author of another failed coup in 1934, but president Antanas Smetona manages to flee to safety and a general strike proclaimed by the (undergound) socialist trade unions paralizes the capital's services. When loyal army units march upon Kaunas and the populace takes up arms against the coup plotters, the brothers are captured and summarily shot. Voldemaras instead manges to flee to Sweden, and later to Germany, by boat, together with a handful of followers. The German army, uninformed of the details of the coup attempt despite it being organized under the auspices of the RND (the German secret service, headed by Rudolf Diels), doesn't move immediately from its border positions along the Niemen river; frantic consultations are held with Poland for a common action.
August 14th, 1938
German and Polish troops cross the Lithuanian border at dawn against strong resistance. The Germans lack armor, employing an infantry and cavalry army corps, and very little air cover; the Poles send their two best divisions of the army, and almost no aviation. German cruisers shell the port of Libau, which is then occupied by a detachment of marine infantry after a sharp engagement with the coastal forts.
A desperate treaty of military assistance is signed between the reshuffled Lithuanian government of president Smetona, now including socialist elements, and the Soviet Union. The accord explicitly recognized and confirms Lithuania's independence. Lithuania, while till now vehemently anti-Communist, is literally surrounded: now invaded by both Germany and Poland, it cannot even count on its sister nation Latvia, strictly allied to the Germans. In the evening, hundreds of lightly armed Soviet paratroopers are dropped around Kaunas military airport, in what is the first instance of use of such troops, and from the night several Soviet transports fly in to bolster the defences of the capital.
August 15th, 1938
The second battle of Saragossa ends, after some 30,000 fatalities between military and civilian, the ruined city falling to the French-Republican assailants. For the elated Republicans this is another major success, still, hardly the decisive one.
The Italians, after receiving some bombers from Germany, under air coverage land troops on the eastern shore of Corsica in three points, namely around Aleria, Solenzara and Porto-Vecchio. The last attempt is a bloody failure and is recalled with losses of men and material, whereas the first two are easy successes. Fascist propaganda roars appeals for the Corsicans, Italian-speakers, to rebel against the secular oppressor, but to little avail. Italian bombers hammer Bastia and Toulon as Italian subs draw a “ring of death” around the Isle of Beauty who gave birth to the genius of Napoleon.
The last fighting units of the Czechoslovakian army surrender to the Hungarians at Banska Bystrica. In little more than a month, to the cost of less than 15,000 fallen soldiers for the enemy, Czechoslovakia is no more. About 20,000 men from its army and some dozen planes from the air force managed to take refuge in neutral Romania, whence they'll be readily dispatched to France by ship to avoid further embarrassment.
August 16th, 1938
Great Britain, France and Belgium, plus the exiled Czechoslovakian government, declare war on Poland, thus involving all the Danzig Treaty signatories.
August 20th, 1938
The Conference of Nuremberg, attended by Diercks, Mussolini, Dollfuss, Horthy and by the Polish foreign minister Beck, carves Czechoslovakia among its victors. Germany and Austria annex the Sudetenland, the areas (mostly) inhabited by ethnic Germans; Poland takes Cieszyn and Ostrava; Hungary, still bitter over the Austrian occupation of Bratislava, receives Subcarpathian Ruthenia in its entirety and several border districts of Slovakia inhabited by the numerous Magyar minority. Slovakia is erected into an "independent" national state, for the first time in history; it is actually a German puppet. Central and eastern Bohemia and most of Moravia remain occupied by the German and Austrian armies, under an administration based at Prague. The invaders' rule is severe, if tolerable. Mussolini takes note of the Hungarians' bitterness to take them to his own side, and requests for more German assistance in natural resources, aviation motors, more of the effective Stuka dive bombers and, to the insistence of marshal Badoglio, the army Chief of Staff, present with his German colleague Ludwig Beck, also a small motorized colonial expedition corps to help defend Lybia from the Franco-British and eventually attack either Tunisia or Egypt.
In Corsica, the Italian force landed at Solenzara has slowly worked its way to defensive positions at Bavella pass in the mountain, while adavancing south to Port-Vecchio; the Aleria-based one, reinforced steadily as per the logistical possibilities of the Italian navy, is advacing on the route to Corte, the island's ancient capital in the mountainous interior. French resistance is strong but episodic; reinforcements are being sent piecemeal from Marseille and Toulon to Ajaccio and Calvi to counter the invasion, while submarines are charged with hampering the Italians' sea lanes.
August 24th, 1938
British Royal Marines land on Maiorca; French landing on the island of Minorca, with two battalions of marine infantry. The effort is supported by a Franco-British fleet of four cruisers and six destroyers with land-based air support from the continent. The Italian air wing, having been much reduced in fighting and little supported because of other needs elsewhere, can't prevent the enemy from closing in.
Italian troops occupy Corte in the center of Corsica; another improvised and unexpected landing in the south ends in the surrender of the ancient fortress town of Bonifacio.
The British leave Berbera, the capital of Somaliland, in an impeccable, uncontrasted evacuation towards Aden. The Italians receive the keys of the city and a note of the British commander with a sarcastic request to preserve his house's furniture in good order for when he's back.
August 26th-27th, 1938
The naval battle of Cape Biglione, Corsica. A French squadron coming from Calvi and an Italian one take part in the close encounter, which ends with the sinking of two French ships, the cruiser La Motte-Picquet, the destroyer Volta and a (void) troop transport by the big guns of the old and still incompletely restructured Italian battleship Caio Duilio, with the loss of more than 400 lives and hundreds of prisoners. Later, the Italian destroyer Espero is torn to shreds by a French submarine's torpedo in the waters off Livorno, with the loss of all hands.
August 31st, 1938
After an honorable fight, the Spanish Nationalist and Italian garrison of Maiorca surrenders to the British. The Balearic islands are thus secured, in a clear strategic success for the Bruxelles Pact.
A French submarine sinks a US tanker off Cadice, in Nationalist-held Andalusia, with the loss of a dozen lives in the subsequent explosion.
September 1st, 1938
In Washington DC, President Compton fumes at the news: the US break diplomatic relationships with France loudly denouncing French “meddling” in Spain (Italian and German meddling had been conveniently forgotten/forgiven). Compton also orders a small task force to be sent to southern Spain by convoy. The command of the land force, calculated to about 6,000 strong and made up of a cavalry and a motorized regiment, will be entrusted to a recently promoted gung-ho brigade general, a veteran of WWI, George Patton.
The French higher command authorizes the planning of an autumn operation, Plan D14, to chase back the Italians from the few high valleys and headwaters they occupied in the summer, being then mostly incapable of advancing. The objective of this move, to be made profiting from the coming of the bad season, is not so much the liberation of little populated border areas of limited importance in the rugged Alpine sector, but the capture of some of the best Italian mountain troops and a blow to the enemy's self-confidence.
September 6th, 1938
In a meeting at Guadalajara, Spanish Republican generalissimo Miaja and his right hand Vicente Rojo work out with the French commander of the Spanish front, general Doumenc, the plan for a limited joint offensive against Navarre. The objective is to completely clear the Pyrenees of Nationalists, deny air bases to Germans and Italians and most of all reestablish territorial continuity between the the rest of the Republic and the Basque Lands, where "lehendakari" Aguirre, back from exile, has established an independence de facto which is unnerving to both Paris and Madrid.
September 16th, 1938
An unescorted Mexican tanker is stopped and sunk by the Italian submarine Alagi while heading for Valencia to refuel Republican forces. Mexico's government, having received no answer to its strong protest, breaks diplomatic relations with Italy.
September-October, 1938
Lord Gort and generalissimo Gamelin work out the details of the operational plan for a limited invasion of Germany aimed to the Ruhr from Belgium and Luxembourg, Operation Sword. It is planned not to be enacted before March, 1939.
September 23rd-24th, 1938
A colonial French column of camels and "autochenilles" with recon airplanes support advances from Chad in a daring raid, attacking and conquering the capital of Italian Fezzan, Murzuk, and capturing about 500 enemy troops to the loss of some 30 men.