•Unknown - Few people are as driven as the religious. There’s a word for people so driven by faith – zealots.
The Da’at Yichud were zealots of science and engineering. Their origins believed to lie in a disenfranchised sect of ancient Hebrews, they’ve had millennia to solve every small and large problem, driven so because the act of discovery brings them closer to understanding God, and driven to build as the act of creation brings them closer to God. They don’t pray on their knees, they invent things. There have been many periods in history where humanity’s scientific understanding has had a reset button pressed – once famously when the Roman Empire crumbled, plunging the west into a dark age, where all the technology of the Roman age – including pumps, gearwork, Heron’s steam engines, all got wiped away and we had to start over. The round city of Baghdad was easily the global capital of science and culture before it was sacked and razed by the Mongols – setting physics, mathematics and chemistry back. The legendary stories about the gathered knowledge ahead of its time kept at the Great Library of Alexandria, snuffed out by fire.
All these setbacks have put us currently hundreds of years behind where we could be if they never happened – can you imagine what technology we’d have if we were several hundred years more advanced? Well – nobody ever gave such a setback to the Da’at Yichud. They weren’t just secretive about their technology – they would rather let the world go back to the Stone Age than let an outsider read a single word of their knowledge. As such, no one knew to sack it. They’re not just regular engineers – they’re fanatical engineers, complete zealots, and the past millennia they have been working like the clappers on scientific knowledge of the universe without setbacks. There was never any purpose or intent of use beyond the act of creation. They only create to commune with God.
•1400s - Castle Totenkopf which later becomes Wilhelm Strasse’s compound is built by the Teutonic Knights in an island of the Danish Straits.
•1860 - Wilhelm Strasse is born.
•February 24, 1920 - The National Socialist German Workers' Party is founded.
•30 January, 1933 - Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
•1936 - Karl Dönitz comes to command the U-boat arm. Dönitz advocates a return to unrestricted submarine warfare and the adoption of wolfpack tactics to overwhelm convoy defenses, arguing that attempting to match the Royal Navy’s surface strength of several decades in less than one was impractical. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder supports his stance against Hitler and naval Plan Z is revised on the assumption that the fleet should be centered on panzerschiffe, long-range cruisers, and U-boats to attack British commerce. These forces would tie down British naval power and allow a smaller number of battleships to operate in the North Sea. Only one Bismarck-class battleship is completed, the second is scrapped along with the two planned Scharnhorst-class battleships. Instead, almost 160 Type VII U-boats and other classes are completed and commissioned by the start of hostilities on September 1st, 1939. The British Admiralty is informed at the time but deems it inconsequential and refuses to cancel the battleship program so easily, as Italy and Japan were building 4 fast new battleships between them that the Admiralty didn’t want to just counter, but outnumber.
•1937 - Wilhelm Strasse begins researching Project Übersoldat as part of his work for the Ahnenerbe, the predecessor to both the SS Special Projects Division and the SS Paranormal Division.
•March 1937 - Recruitment for the Gestapo begins by taking officers from the Weimar republic, Austria, Sudetenland and other occupied states.
•September 1st, 1939 - German invasion of Poland, then France, then Scandinavia
•September 14, 1939 Battle of the Atlantic - From June until October 1940, over 370 Allied ships are sunk. The Royal Navy forms anti-submarine hunting groups centered on aircraft carriers to patrol the shipping lanes in the Western Approaches and hunt for German U-boats. This strategy is deeply flawed because a U-boat, with its tiny silhouette, is always likely to spot the surface warships and submerge long before it is sighted. Britain's most modern carrier, HMS Ark Royal, is sunk by three torpedoes from U-39. The British fail to learn the lesson from this encounter: another carrier, HMS Courageous, is sunk three days later by U-29. German success in sinking Courageous is surpassed a month later when Günther Prien in U-47 pierces the British base at Scapa Flow and sinks the old battleship HMS Royal Oak at anchor, making him a national hero in Germany. In response, the British and French form a series of hunting groups including three battlecruisers, two aircraft carriers, and 15 cruisers to seek the merchant raiding battlecruiser Admiral Graf Spee. These hunting groups have no success until Admiral Graf Spee is caught off the mouth of the River Plate between Argentina and Uruguay by an inferior British force. After suffering damage in the subsequent action, she takes shelter in neutral Montevideo harbour. The pursuing British heavy cruiser and two light cruisers wait off the coast for the Admiral Graf Spee to exit. A U-boat Wolfpack heeds the indirect calls for help of the German cruiser and surprised the British force, sinking all three ships. The Admiral Graf Spee finished repairs and returned to merchant raiding one month later. During the ambush, German submarine commanders had almost failed to sink a single British warship due to malfunctioning torpedo firing mechanisms. A complaint was filed to the director in charge of torpedo development and the problem fixed before the end of 1941. In December, the Home Fleet’s flagship HMS Nelson is sunk by two magnetic mines laid by U-39 at the entrance to Loch Ewe on the Scottish coast.
•September 24, 1939 - After the mass recruitment of policemen only 3,000 of the 20,000 officers that were recruited became honorary SS members. Seeing this as a problem in the long run they had promised prominent students from Police Academies to prematurely graduate with a position in the Gestapo.
•First Happy Time at Dunkirk
•March 17, 1940 - Albert Speer is picked for the position of Reichsminister für Bewaffnung und Munition ("Minister for Armaments and Munitions") over Fritz Todt who suffered health complications from an inflamed knee.
•1941 - Set Roth, the last living member of the modern Da’at Yichud, is captured by the SD and sent to Dachau for “enhanced interrogation”.
•January 1941 Adolf Hitler forms the Afrikakorps, a German task force, to assist the Italians in conquering the Middle East. The Afrikakorps arrives in North Africa in February 1941 under the command of General Erwin Rommel.
• May 24, 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait - The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood fight the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping. The British escorting destroyers were ordered to the battle coordinates as part of the overall forces sent to intercept the German ships they were detached the evening before the battle. Fewer than 10 minutes after the British opened fire, a shell from Bismarck strikes Hood near her aft ammunition magazines. Soon afterwards, Hood explodes and sinks within three minutes, with the loss of all but three of her crew. Prince of Wales continues to exchange fire with Bismarck but suffers serious malfunctions in her main armament. The British battleship had only being completed in late March 1941, had not fully worked up and soon broke off the engagement. Vice-Admiral Holland's death led to responsibility for Prince of Wales falling to Rear-Admiral Wake-Walker in Norfolk. With this command came the responsibility of coping with Bismarck until enough British warships could concentrate and destroy her. His choice was either to renew the action with the Bismarck, or ensure that she be intercepted and brought to action by other heavy units. Wake-Walker chose the latter course, continuing to shadow the German ships. He ordered Prince of Wales to follow Norfolk at her best speed, so that Norfolk and Suffolk could fall back on her if attacked. Disregarding Lindemann's recommendation to return to Bergen, Admiral Lütjens orders Bismarck to head for the French port of Saint-Nazaire. Although the French coast was nearly 1000 km further away than Bergen, Saint-Nazaire held the potential of longer nights and wider seas in which to shake off Bismarck's shadowers. The possibility of luring the British across a line of U-boats became a reality, resulting in the sinking of the Prince of Wales by torpedoes and the cease of immediate British pursuit, allowing the Bismarck to dock in the closer port of Brest unfettered.
•May 28, 1941 - The British public is shocked that their most emblematic warship and more than 1,400 of her crew have been destroyed so suddenly. The British Admiralty mobilise every available warship in the Atlantic to hunt down and destroy the Bismarck. The lack of air power due to the loss of the HMS Ark Royal and HMS Courageous left the task up to the British battleships King George V and Rodney, the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire, the light cruiser Sheffield, the destroyers Cossack, Sikh, Zulu, Maori, Mashona, Tartar and the free-Polish destroyer ORP Piorun.
An RAF night bomb raid damages multiple residential quarters in central Berlin. The raid causes large fires, with some witnesses describing "a sea of flames" engulfing several houses. Early reports indicate that a dozen civilians are killed and scores more badly injured or reported as missing after seeking shelter from the bombs.
•Molotov-von Ribbentrop Pact remains unbroken.
•December 7th-9th, 1941 - The USS Lexington returns to Pearl Harbor after ferrying VMSB-231 to Midway Island, the USS Enterprise is in port after delivering VMF-211 to Wake Island, the USS Saratoga returns from San Diego after picking up VF-3, VB-3, VS-3 and VT-3 as well as ferrying VMF-221 with F2A Brewster fighters to Oahu.
•December 10th, 1941 “Day of Infamy” - A delayed Japanese task force of six aircraft carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku—reaches nearby Oahu. At 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time, Pearl Harbor is attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighters, level, dive, and torpedo bombers in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships are damaged, with four sunk. All three U.S. Navy aircraft carriers are sunk. Nevada attempted to exit the harbor but was targeted by many Japanese bombers as she got under way and sustained more hits from 113 kg bombs, which started further fires. In her sinking death throes, it blocked the harbor entrance and prevented exit for hours. A 3,000 strong Special Naval Landing Force assault the US Marine Corps Base at Kaneohe Bay under the cover of the second air wave. Distraught and surprised US forces pull back to Pearl Harbor and the SNLF attempts pursuit, yet are forced back after suffering heavy casualties in the landing alone and the exit of the second Japanese air wave. The Japanese Admiralty, critically low on fuel, abandon the entire Japanese landing force, resulting in their decisive defeat and capture. In the land battle for Pearl Harbor, much of Pearl Harbor's fuel and torpedo storage, maintenance, and dry dock facilities are damaged or destroyed. 238 U.S. aircraft are destroyed; 3,403 Americans are killed and 1,578 are wounded. IJN equipment loses are light at 39 aircraft, five midget submarines, and 10 medium tanks but also lose 3,000 captured or killed servicemen.
•December 11th, 1941 - The day after, Roosevelt delivers his famous Infamy Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, and the United States declares war on Japan and Germany. Great Britain declares war on Japan nine hours before the U.S. does, due to concurrent Japanese invasions of Malaya, Singapore, British Borneo, Wake Island, the Philippines and Hong Kong that resulted in the sinking of Royal Navy battleships HMS Rodney and HMS Repulse. Thailand, with its territory already serving as a springboard for the Malayan campaign, surrenders and joins the Axis within 24 hours of the Japanese invasion. President Roosevelt decides to divert two carriers, USS Wasp and USS Hornet from the Atlantic Fleet, without which the Pacific Fleet's ability to conduct offensive operations was believed would have been crippled for a year or more. In the meantime, the elimination of the aircraft carriers left the U.S. Navy to defend with only submarines and half the original battleship strength. Their relatively low speed and high fuel consumption limited their deployment to coastal defense, heightened by the lack of working logistical infrastructure at Pearl Harbor.
•February 1942 - As Japanese forces tighten their grip on the Philippines after the capitulation of Manila, MacArthur is ordered by President Roosevelt to relocate to Australia. On the night of
February 26, 1942, MacArthur and a select group that included his wife Jean, son Arthur, and Arthur's Cantonese amah, Ah Cheu, flee Corregidor on PT boats. Only PT-41, which carried MacArthur and his family, departed from Corregidor's North Dock. PT-41 departed at 19:45 on February 26 and joined the other three 15 minutes later. A navy minelayer led the PT boats through the protective minefield in single file. The boats then assumed a diamond formation, with PT-41 in the lead and PT-34 bringing up the rear. If attacked by the Japanese, PT-41 was to flee while the other three boats engaged the enemy. During the night, the four boats became separated right before the arrival of a tropical storm. The minelayer spent time looking for the other three boats, but was unable to find them in the darkness. Instead, it encountered a patrolling Japanese destroyer which promptly captured the minelayer. The Japanese denied having captured or even spotted a PT boat in the night. PT-41 with its military passenger invaluable to the American war effort was never seen again. Filipino and U.S. forces resisted in the Philippines until March 8th 1942, when the news reached the more than 80,000 soldiers, breaking their morale and forced to surrender by the Japanese.
•Caribbean Happy Time February 7th, 1942 - After helping in the delivery of American raw materials and troops across the Atlantic, the USS Wasp and USS Hornet set sail for transit through the Panama Canal. By this point, U-boat production under Speer reaches 20 boats a month with a total of 270 commissioned and in service. German Wolfpacks anticipate the transition of American carriers from the Atlantic to the Pacific after Pearl Harbor, and an ambush is planned at the Panamanian Coast. When Hitler is informed, he directly intervenes and modifies the plan into Operation Pelican, as he did not want U-boats reassigned from attacking Allied merchants in the Atlantic for too long. The Wehrmacht completes preparations to haul two Ju-87 Stukas with folding wings on two U-boats to an unnamed Colombian island near the coast of Panama, reassemble the planes, arm them with ”bouncing" bombs, and then send them to attack the Gatun Dam. Despite the crash of one of the aircraft into the ocean due to the unknown importance of backspin for the bombs’ deployment, the second Stuka crash lands in neutral Ecuador. The surviving crew is returned to Germany.
•March 1942 - The news of the incapacitation of the Panama Canal guarantees the US Pacific Fleet is isolated. Commander Minoru Genda suggests immediately following up the attack on Pearl Harbor with full fledged amphibious invasion of the islands. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and his Combined Fleet is chosen to deliver this staggering blow to the Americans. The Island of Midway is captured after a light bombardment by Japanese battleships and then destruction of the outnumbered and outclassed land based American aircraft. After less than three months, the Imperial Japanese Navy returns to Pearl Harbor, which still licked its wounds and was not going to be relieved. This time, the IJA was willing to contribute General Yamashita's 25th Army for the task, although only the 5th and 18th Infantry Divisions were to take part in the upcoming invasion. Despite anticipated by the Americans, there was little they could do to prepare except wait. The second attack of Pearl Harbor began with the complete destruction of the USS Arizona as it was being salvaged. US aircraft had been bolstered since the attack but with nowhere near enough to defend against 4 of the best fleet carriers in the world. The second strike hit more military targets and sank 4 cruisers trying to fight back. The third wave from the two Japanese light carriers then attack the sub pens, destroying them, while keeping the oil farms intact. Only a few more American fighters had gotten up into the air, and were easily knocked down. Although the Japanese had destroyed the base, the US battleships were nowhere to be found. Instead having been relocated to San Diego and Australia’s defense. Indisputable air cover and the firepower from five battleships allowed the Japanese to land, and also allowed them to quickly push off the beach. Despite having some aircraft available to contest the beach head, the overwhelming air superiority of the Japanese forced the Americans to withdraw. Not pausing to regroup, the Japanese pushed on. The 41st Tank Company sent its tanks into action in an attempt to stop the Japanese, but although the Japanese tanks weren't a match, they concentrated theirs in strength at their thrusts, while the US spread theirs out over the whole front. The Japanese broke through, forcing the US to withdraw again. Time after time, the US is forced to withdraw. Losing Haleiwa airfield, giving the Japanese Navy an air field. The US then withdrew to a defensive position along the Kolekole Pass, but failed to reinforce the Waianae Mountains, believing them to be impossible to move through. A preceding barrage from the Yamato and her sister battleships onto the American positions on Kolekole Pass distracted the US Forces, making them expect a frontal Japanese attack. Instead the Japanese moved fast, sending an entire division through the Waianae ranges and into the rear of the US Army. Caught off guard, the US withdrew again, surrendering Schofield Barracks and Wahiawa to the Japanese just before the end of February. The US Army was having difficulty trying to form a defensive line like the one they had at the Kolekole Pass. The IJA charged time and time again, spearheading their attacks with tanks or aircraft support and preceding them with battleship barrages. As the US Army continued to withdraw, Honolulu came under air attack. Desperate to stop the Japanese, the US Army started padding out their ranks with Navy men, whose results were usually poor, even if many were quick to adapt. As the IJA was preparing for a move against Honolulu, the High Command of Hawaii agreed that they would be unable to hold Honolulu against a Japanese attack and thought it best to surrender in order to spare the inhabitants and the city itself. The commanders of both sides meet in the Iolani Palace. General Yamashita and Admiral Yamamoto led the Japanese delegation, while the US side was led by Admiral Husband Kimmel, General Walter Short, and Governor Joseph Poindexter. Despite the US trying to win favourable terms, they had no choice but to sign and leave themselves at the mercy of the Japanese whom they knew had not signed the Geneva Convention. The signing was filmed for prosperity, and with that, the Stars and Stripes were hauled down from the Palace flagpole and the Rising Sun hauled up in its place at the cost of 6,821 Japanese killed, 3,217 wounded to the American defenders’ 17,847 dead and missing.
•Japanese cryptanalysis breaks the Typex code
•The Battle of Java Sea and Raid in Indian Ocean March through June 1942 - Japanese Forces consolidate advances on every front, invade the Dutch East Indies and Borneo, capture Singapore. Japanese aircraft all but eliminate Allied air power in Southeast Asia and start making attacks on northern Australia, beginning with a psychologically devastating but militarily insignificant attack on the city of Darwin, which killed at least 243 people. At the Battle of the Java Sea in early-April, the Imperial Japanese Navy inflicts a defeat on the main ABDA naval force, under Admiral Karel Doorman. The Dutch East Indies campaign subsequently ends with the surrender of Allied forces on Java and Sumatra, capturing key oil production zones. In April and May, a powerful IJN carrier force uses intelligence from the breaking of the Typex to launch a surprise raid into the Indian Ocean. British Royal Navy bases in Ceylon are destroyed and the aircraft carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Indomitable are sunk along with the modernized battleship HMS Warspite. The crushing defeat forced the Royal Navy to withdraw to the western part of the Indian Ocean. This paves the way for a Japanese assault on British Burma and emboldens Indian independence. Most importantly, it knocks out the Royal Navy’s offensive capabilities in the Pacific, their remaining R-class battleships and HMS Hermes light carrier being relegated to coastal defense. ABDA is reduced to just Australia.
•June 1942 - Curious to see on why the kriegsmarine did not find a British convoy after the alleged reports of Juan Pujol García agents of the gestapo were sent fearing that British intelligence have found him and his network, had set up two radios, a one way radio to hear “GARBO’s” intermission and another radio to confirm to high command. Investigating the V1 rocket locations it was soon clear that GARBO was lying as the rockets landed either too far from their intended location but sent the attended messages with the real locations to command.
•November 1942 - Operation:TORCH is a failure with 107,000 allied troops coloring the seas of Africa red as a division of gestapo agents had relayed GARBO’s message to the German High Command. As the news of the failed invasion had reached London Juan Pujol García with his connections of double agents is arrested for treason and hanged as the Gestapo had taken their positions, relaying valuable information back to Germany and the actual precise locations of where the V1 rockets had striked.
•1943 - Juan Perón becomes the president of Argentina in the middle of the war, in 1941. The country was in a period of political conservatism and economic crisis known as the Infamous Decade. The Argentine military was highly Germanophile; this influence had grown since 1904 and predated both world wars. It did not involve a rejection of democracy but rather an admiration of German military history. This admiration, combined with an intense Argentine nationalism, influenced the main stance of the army towards the war: to stay neutral. However, a handful of military leaders and the newspaper El Pampero, financed by the German embassy, supported Hitler. actually supported Adolf Hitler. The army and some nationalists supported industrialization and promoted neutrality as a way to oppose the United Kingdom. Plans were made to invade the British-held Falkland Islands, after promises and negotiation with the German embassy. On 2 April 1943, Argentine forces mounted amphibious landings off the Falkland Islands. The invasion was met with a nominal defence organised by the Falkland Islands' Governor, giving command to Major Mike Norman of the Royal Marines. The events of the invasion included the landing of Lieutenant Commander Guillermo Sanchez-Sabarots' Amphibious Commandos Group, the attack on Moody Brook barracks, the engagement between the troops of Hugo Santillan and Bill Trollope at Stanley, and the final engagement and surrender at Government House. Argentina then invades the Republic of Chile, leading to the country’s surrender in two weeks on April 26. Argentina formally joined the Axis that same day. Argentina’s entry into the war changes the entire equation of control of the South Atlantic by providing safe harbour and replenishment for Germany's U-boat raiders in the South Atlantic, as well as a place for the commerce raiders to operate from. The British Navy could no longer operate with impunity near the Argentine coast because the Argentine Navy had two dreadnoughts, Rivadavia and Moreno, that, while of World War I vintage, outgunned nearly anything the British had available to send away from the "hot war" in Europe.
•Brazil feared that a more powerful Argentine Army would launch a surprise attack on the weaker Brazilian Army. To counter this threat, President Getúlio Vargas forged closer links with the United States.
•1943 - Japan solidifies Southeast Asian and Chinese gains and invades Ceylon.
•British Retreat from Mediterranean Theatre - The Spanish-German invasion of Gibraltar ends in a phyrric Axis victory and capture of the Rock. British shipping through the straits are exposed to u-boat attacks.
Turning Point
•January 6, 1943 “Totenkopf” - The SS Special Projects Division under the command of Obergruppenführer Dr. Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strasse stumbles upon a Da'at Yichud knowledge repository in Cairo, where he steals and reverse-engineers the advanced technology to produce advanced robots, weapons, construction equipment, and infrastructure for the Third Reich’s war effort. The Gotha Go 229 German prototype fighter/bomber, is then obtained for extensive re-design work done by Gotha on the orders of Speer to prepare the aircraft for mass production. It becomes the first flying wing to be powered by jet engines. The Go 229 design is modified and upgraded greatly by Strasse to serve as both bomber and fighter. After being promoted to the official position of Reich Minister for Advanced Research, Strasse’s following designs enter mass production under Speer’s direction: Sturmgewehr 1944/45 assault rifle, electric rotary cannon MG-44 to replace the MG-42, the Hammergewehr hand-held multiple shot grenade launcher, the Leopard main battle tank, Kevlar body armor, Panzerhund 1944 robotic hounds, heavily-armored biomechanical Supersoldaten, Wasserfall anti-aircraft rocket, and the Type XXI Elektroboot; the first submarine to operate primarily submerged. At some point in 1943, the lines between the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS begin to blur, with the Waffen-SS emerging on top.
•14 June 1943 “Pointblank” - The code name for the primary portion of the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive intended to cripple or destroy the German aircraft fighter strength, thus drawing it away from frontline operations and ensuring it would not be an obstacle to the invasion of Northwest Europe. Not intending for German jet aircraft designs to become known to the Allies yet, development of the Wasserfall anti-aircraft rocket was completed and fielded, leading to loss rates of up 60% for Allied bombers. All bombing campaigns over Germany are delayed indefinitely after a week in July of almost back to back bombing runs with almost 100% loss rates. Despite this, Allied commanders insist to the media on plans to continue for an invasion of Western France and a drive on Berlin.
•July, 1943 - Original Plan Z ships begin construction, enough infrastructure and construction sites and drydocks are built using Überconcrete and forced labor.
•June 6, 1944 “Overlord” - The amphibious landings are preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. New Luftwaffe-SS Go 229 all weather capable jet fighter-bombers, whose exact details were unknown to the Allies, destroy hundreds of C47s and transport gliders with ease with help of ground based anti-aircraft rockets. It is estimated that less than 3,000 paratroopers make it to the ground, unable to resist against the technologically advanced 7th SS Army. 2,716 captured airborne troops are handed over to the Gestapo and executed throughout the month under the pseudo-authority of Hitler’s Second Commando Order. On the beaches, strong winds blow the landing craft east of their intended positions, particularly at Utah and Omaha. Allied soldiers land under heavy fire from electric rotary cannon emplacements overlooking the beaches, on shores heavily mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire that prevent the landing and movement of tanks. The now legendary Panzerhunden are unleashed for the first time and the giant stomper robot called the Baltic Eye makes its combat debut at Omaha, turning the shores into bloody killing grounds. Almost 1,200 Luftwaffe-SS jet aircraft attack the combined Allied naval force of 6,939 vessels supporting the landing, using advanced guided bombs and autocannons to sink 5,000+ naval combat ships including all 10 battleships and 4,126 landing ships and landing craft. Two Elektroboot and E-boat wolf packs joined late in the battle, picking off hundreds of merchant and ancillary vessels. D-Day landings are a miserable failure that leads to the annihilation of the Allied forces. 351,700 Allied troops and sailors are killed or captured for the loss of only 899 German servicemen. This begins an erosion of trust between the US and UK governments. Captured Allied servicemen are later ordered to build the Normandy Defense Museum before being forced into the German war effort’s hard labor. Joseph Stalin halts his planned invasion of Germany upon confirmation by the Western Allies of the casualty reports, goes into isolation and drinks heavily. General Dwight D. Eisenhower steps down as Supreme Allied Commander in shame.
•June 10, 1944 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies from massive cerebral hemorrhage on live radio while delivering his 31st fireside chat to the nation meant to address the failed Normandy Landings. On the same day, Vice President Harry S. Truman is sworn in as President. Truman immediately makes it clear he intends to end the war as fast as he can.
• January 24, 1945 “Operation Zitadelle” - The Office of Strategic Services manage to pinpoint the location of Wilhelm Strasse’s compound in Denmark. The Royal Air Force, the United States Army Air Corps, the USS Hornet, USS Wasp, USS Ranger under the command of the newly promoted Supreme Allied Commander Sir Arthur Tedder launch an assault on Castle Totenkopf in a desperate attempt to kill the man behind the Third Reich’s military technological leap. The bottom of the barrel is scraped for 1,879 aircraft as every last serviceable Allied military bomber and civilian plane participates in transporting 25,000 Allied troops of every possible nationality flanked by 400 fighters for the assault. Allied forces that survive the onslaught of Go 229s (crash)land at Baker Shore, where it is heavily defended by Kampfhunden, Panzerhunden, Supersoldaten, and a second prototype stomper robot armed with a laser weapon called the Monitor, all straight out of Strasse’s workshop. An elite commando battalion from the OSS arrive from the north, using the battle to distract as many defenders as possible for them to infiltrate the compound and find Deathshead. Ultimately, the team is captured, the USS Hornet sunk, the attacking force destroyed on the beaches, failing to kill Wilhelm Strasse and his abhorrent technological recreations. Trust between Britain and US plummets, with President Roosevelt recalling half of the nearly 1.5 million American troops originally stationed in Britain for the failed Battle of Normandy. Elektroboots manage to sink 152 troop transport ships returning to the US, killing 117,000 US servicemen of every branch in a three month period.
•May 4, 1945 “Hadrian and Sealion”- Hitler presses his generals for an invasion of Great Britain before June. Being forced by logistics to pick between finishing the Western Front or opening up a new one against the Soviet Union, he chooses the former. Original Plan Z ships near completion, Vichy French fleet captured by German forces, Italian and Spanish Fleets pressured to place themselves at command of Supreme Axis Operational Commander Erich von Manstein, who would report to the Oberkommando der Achsenmächte(High Command for the Axis Powers) for UK Invasion. German forces invade Scotland as part of Operation Hadrian, while a secondary landing(Operation Sealion) in England proper is scheduled 1 week after Hadrian.
Winston Churchill is killed in his office next to bottles of whisky, a half empty box of cigars, after spraying a German soldier with a Tommy gun. His last words, according to his credited killer Standartenführer Hans von Luck, being “If you're going through hell, keep going!”
•April 30, 1945 - Victory in Europe Day
•2nd Condor Legion aids Japanese subjugation of China by completely disregarding rules of war
•German Invasion of Canada and Japanese Invasion of Alaska, in preparation of Axis Invasion of the contiguous United States,
•July 4, 1945 - Der Bestrafer is dropped on New York City, President Truman forced to sign US instrument of surrender, Nazis parade down Washington DC, Axis forces occupy the country and fight rogue American soldiers that refuse to obey the order to stand down.
The last order Truman gives before being forced to surrender is for the National Guard records be destroyed or hidden, and that their last mission: “Hide and train an army underneath the Nazis’ nose, build your strength while they grow lazy, and strike them! Avenge the Union, then the world!”
•July 7th, 1945 - “Operation Slaughterhouse”- Upon learning of the “Avenge the Union” Order, SS soldiers gun down every member of the former US Federal government they can find, including both chambers of the US Congress and President Truman. General Eisenhower escapes to Europe, presumably the Soviet Union, McArthur is suspected to be hiding somewhere in Asia.
•July 29th 1945 - General Thomas Donnelly defiantly leads an entire division of US soldiers in an attack of the Washington D.C. German Garrison.
•August 19th, 1945 - SS units are able to capture General Donnelly after a fierce siege at the US capitol where Donnelly and a group of his men stayed behind to cover the retreat of their fellow rebels. Donnelly is beaten, interrogated, but refuses to disclose the location of his remaining forces, he is eventually sent to Fort Goering in 1947 and awaits trial for treason and sedition.
The New Order
•1945 -The Germans begin their transformation of America as soon as they arrived in the country, with Nazi officials dead-set on suppressing insurgent activity. American soldiers were ordered to stand down; those that did were issued work cards and directed to helping build infrastructure in occupied America that would best suit the interests of the Regime. Despite the Germans claiming they were there to "liberate" America, the reality was far from so; resisting units of the National Guard and the OSS help relocate all Jewish citizens to places where they would be deemed safe, away from the large cities of America. Of course this usually meant in a remote mountain range, deep in a thick forest. Many had managed to make it to America with the help of the British Government-in-exile upon their retreat to Canada. Mini-towns would are established in abandoned mineshafts, converted into a stable living environment from pure ingenuity.
•Late 1945 - In the months following the disastrous Normandy Landings and Raid on Castle Totenkopf, the OSS investigate the origin of the Nazis’ technological edge. Their espionage leads them to a organize a rescue of an individual known as Seth Roth from Dachau concentration camp, who provides them with information on various advanced technologies in a desperate effort to halt Nazi advances. It’s too little too late, and ultimately fails to save the United States, but will prove instrumental in saving the Soviet Union. After rushed negotiations between the US and Soviet governments, Operation Skrepka is approved and the Manhattan Project flees to Canada, taking with it as much technology possible, along with large amounts of fissile material. They later relocate to Anchorage, where they are greeted by Soviet NKVD agents and escorted to a small cargo ship, which sets sail for Vladivostok. The whole arrangement happens in utter secrecy, although Stalin himself is not informed until later ( Edward Stettinius Jr. and Molotov held the negotiations with the approval of Beria and Truman). While understandably angry, Stalin is too preoccupied drinking, leaving the rest of the Soviet government to temporarily take over.
•Spring of 1946 - After victory over the West, Adolf Hitler decides to proceed with Operation Barbarossa, believing that the Reich’s incredible technological superiority will enable quick victory against the “subhuman bolshevik slavs” to the East. Army Group Centre’s German 6th Army (supported by the 4th Panzer Army) is the first to cross the Soviet border, and quickly captures the city of Brest. That is, until a Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 drops the USSR’s first atomic weapon: the 21-kiloton “RDS-1” upon German positions. Nearly 30,000 Germans are killed in the blast, and thousands more are wounded. In the confusion that ensues, a surprisingly well organized Soviet counterattack manages to push the disoriented 6th Army back into German-occupied Poland. Hitler is outraged at this, and demands that the Luftwaffen-SS atomize Moscow. However, the costly occupation of the Americas, low German military presence in the East, and Stalin’s claims in having more atomic weapons eventually forces him to sign a ceasefire at the insistence of his generals. The two-day long Soviet-German war comes to a quick conclusion, and both sides agree to back down. After this particular incident, Stalin’s paranoia overcomes him, and Stalin shuts himself away from the rest of the world.
•1946 - The Reich Main Security Office orders the creation of Einsatzgruppen to operate in every remaining independent country other than the Soviet Union to find and kill Jews and fugitive Allied leaders and figures.
•1946 - As the final fragments of British resistance within the Indian subcontinent collapse, independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose manages to finalize the creation of a new “Bharatiyan Union” with the support of the Japanese Empire. Negotiations with the Empire, however, yield some particularly agreeable compromises. In exchange for its support of the new Indian Government, the Japanese government demands that India opens itself to Japanese corporations, lease a number of major ports to the Empire (indefinitely), and cede Cylon along with Burma. While Bose accepts, his actions are incredibly unpopular, and many within India believe the state should begin looking for new allies.
•Mid 1946 - After a particularly heavy day of drinking, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin trips and falls down the stairs of his Dacha, breaking his backbone and cracking his skull in the fall. He’s pronounced dead just minutes after his broken wreck of a body is discovered by his guards.
•1947 - Senator George Stevenson declares himself the leader of the Free American Forces and urges all Americans to fight on via underground radio, leaflets, and other forms of media. He declares a United States Government in dispersion and calls himself President. “Fight on! Resist! Avenge the Union!” he says.
•June 1947 - Fort Goering concentration camp is established in Pennsylvania. Donnelly and other political prisoners are sent here for forced labor.
•1947 -“The Grasshopper Lies Heavy” interrupts a theatre at the first annual celebration of Victorious Liberation Day in Amerika’s Führer District. The social and Nazi party elite attendees are horrified as the propaganda film “Nation’s Pride” is replaced onscreen by images showing the Yalta Conference, a siege and fall of Berlin in an alternate 1945, and an Allied victory in WWII. The film roll is destroyed by the SS but snippets continue to surface in different forms and places to this day. The film reel’s origins are said to be the work of a mysterious figure known as the Man in Castle Wolfenstein and has become an object of conspiracies, myth, and legends.
•1948 - Nearly two million Jews deported to the city of Jerusalem by the Germans since the implementation of the Final Solution are vaporized by a 10-megaton nuclear test codenamed “Endlösung”.
•1948 - General Thomas Donnelly is the last high ranking captured US military commander awaiting trial and eventual execution. The trial is set to occur in 1949 at the military high court in Washington D.C. resistance cells plan his eventual rescue.
•1949 - During the first hearing at the military high court in Washington D.C. for Donnelly’s trial members of the American resistance raid the court and rescue Donnelly, despite high casualties they manage to get him to resistance headquarters. Donnelly is hailed as a hero and a symbol for the American Free Forces. Stevenson personally greets him and host him on the radio, he is declared as the new secretary of defense and begins to plan new operations of resistance across the US, as well as ways to unite all rebels cells.
•Mid 1949 - With aid from the original Manhattan project scientists who escaped from America, the Soviet Union creates and tests its first two-stage hydrogen bomb, dubbed the “RDS-5”. Yielding an estimated 2.6 megatons, the RDS-5 is one of the world’s first thermonuclear weapons, and symbolizes the growing arms race between the Axis and USSR. The same year, the USSR begins production of its new T-50 MBT (closer to the RL T-64 than anything else).
•Late 1949 - Free American Forces with the military leadership of Donnelly begin conducting sabotage on Occupation forces, guerrilla attacks, and smuggling become widespread in the Italian Midwest more than the German and Japanese occupation zones.
•1950 - The the Soviet Union’s testing of nuclear weapons and start of the Cold War persuades Wilhelm Strasse to relocate his technological workshop from Castle Totenkopf to a new compound in the Congo. For his critical contributions to the victorious war effort, he is awarded ownership of much of the former Belgian Congo through his position at the NSDAP Office of Colonial Policy.
•1950 - First human, Luftwaffen-SS trained Kosmonaut Jähn Sigmund, reaches orbit on board the A-9 rocket. In celebration, Führer Adolf Hitler gives his Address to the 14th Party Congress at Nuremberg, where he announces the Reich’s goal to land an Aryan on the moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the half decade. He famously proclaims “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win!”
•First woman, Soviet, reaches space.
•The Gestapo splits into three separate divisions. Gestapo des Ost, Gestapo des Westens, and Gestapo des Amerika. Each and every one of them stationed at their own territories with some being worse off than the others and more undersupplied than the others, all of them are connected through Oberkommando Der Gestapo located back in Germany.
•1951 Launch of first reusable Space Shuttle "Friede" A-13. Wilhelm Strasse authorizes construction on a toroidal Swastika-shape Space Station “Götterdämmerung" with a crew of 18. It will serve as mediator between the Moon and the Earth at the time of its completion in 1956.
•September 17, 1951 - The August Uprising in London is brutally crushed by the London Monitor. The last remnants of the London freedom fighters are systematically wiped out.
•1952 - Donnelly, upset with the lack of commitment and largely reactive policy of Stevenson stages an impeachment, Stevenson is overthrown and Donnelly calls for an election throughout the American Resistance cells to elect a leader. Donnelly wins the election in a landslide and begins reform of the American Resistance, naming it the American Liberation Army and basing it more into an actual military force than an underground government.
•1953 - The ALA opens smuggling to Europe and Latin America, communicating with Resistance groups in Europe and opening a secret collaboration with the Mexican government. Scattered resistance groups of varying motives and beliefs begin to rise.
-The Eisenpfeil high-speed railway line from Warsaw to Zagreb, Annexed Croatia opens.
•1954 - Werner von Braun, heading the Hugin Mond Program based out of Hermann Oberth Space Center in Suriname, builds the reusable space launcher A-13 that takes the first human to the moon. Mission commander Hans Amstark and pilot Otto Emmerich, both pureblood German Aryans, land the lunar module Adler in the “Glimmer Bowl” on April 20, 1954, at 20:18 UTC. Amstark becomes the first to step onto the lunar surface with his now famous declaration of “Ein kleiner Schritt für die Volk, ein anderer für das Reich, ein großer Sprung für den Führer!” The Swastika flag in clear view of the TV camera for millions back on Earth, claiming the Moon for the Third Reich on the Führer’s 65th birthday.
•1957 - Three years after sending a man to space, the Soviet Union makes its first moon landing. While 3 years late of the Nazis, it is nevertheless hailed as a great accomplishment of the Ivanov-government (despite most work having been done prior to Ivanov taking power). This is seen as insult to the Reich’s proclaimed ownership of the moon, but the Nazi state propaganda ministry prevents the Soviet Moon Landing from being known or believed in the Reich.
-October 2, 1957 - The Gibraltar Bridge is open to the public.
•1958 - John Murphy, one of the commanders of the ALA manages to deal with the Italian Administration and manages a settlement with the Administrator. The Italians promise to not interfere on a large scale with ALA operations as long as they are not targeted by the ALA. This allows the ALA to open up effective smuggling and Guerrilla operations back and forth between Occupation zones.
-Taking it as a major insult the Gestapo operating on the German occupied East Coast prepare themselves for counterintelligence tactics, equipment and training with the many HQ’s around the states employing telecommunicators and retired Panzer operators to operate and wiretap phone calls, radios and more
•1959 - SS Moon Base "Útgarðr" is completed. It is located in the ancient impact crater known as the Glimmer Bowl where the first Aryans landed. An ever evolving complex populated by military personnel, miners, industrial workers and scientists, the lunar base is projected to reach the size of a small city within five years. The base serves as the second most important centre of research for the Third Reich, bested only by Deathshead’s Congo Compound.
•September 2, 1960 - Dr. Ernst Brandt, one of Germany's key figures in computational science and inventor of the first A.I. system to be use in the Panzerhund, publicly announces his plans to create the smartest non-human intelligence.
-German bioengineers at the London Nautica announce a breakthrough in animal hybridization research.
Peace for Our Time
-January 1, 1963