INTELLGENCE REPORT ON WW2

[Anastasia]

Alterations in this timeline are noted below. I'm aiming for plausible Nazi win, not hard and fast alternate history to justify a Nazi victory in WW2. Yes, I know some of this stuff is a little thin, but that's okay. I'm sure our timeline would look thin to someone who came from a world where the Anglo-French beat Hitler back in '40, too.

This is also a purely military history by and large, focusing on grand battles and nations.

Late 1930s

Stalin has less paranoiac urges than in our timeline and thus the purges are much lighter. Several key figures survive as a result of this, such as Yezhov, Bukharin and others.

1941

Operation Barbarossa is launched as normal. As before Stalin falls into a shocked withdrawal, but this time there are several characters who see this as a chance. A coup attempt led by Yezhov is launched in the chaos of late June, resulting in a counter coup and general anarchy within the government and military. Stalin is liquidated in the struggles, as are Yezhov, Beria, Timoshenko, Bukharin and others. With leadership in disarray, Budyonny lucks into running much of the initial response against the Germans. The results are catastrophic, utterly crippling the Red Army. By the time real leadership is restored by Molotov, critical damage has been done. Despite valiant efforts from the Siberian reserves many important cities fall. Kiev, Smolensk, Leningrad, Moscow and Murmansk are all captured by the Wehrmacht and allied armies. Winter brings more misfortune, as is it an unusual mild and short winter.

1942

Critically wounded, the Soviet Union launches a vigorous defense of what's left of European Russia. Despite competent military leadership that has learned from the past year, too much damage has been done and the Wehrmacht is too strong. Stalingrad falls, followed by the Caucuses and eventually the provisional capital of the USSR, Kuibyshev. Beaten and with no hope of rescue, the USSR sues for peace. The Treaty of Kuibyshev is dictated by the Germans, who take everything to the Archangel-Astrakhan line.

1943

Africa is still lost according to schedule, the Axis unable to defeat the Allies there. The invasion of Sicily is a success as well, but with added German air and land assets freed up from Russia, the invasion of Italy is repelled. Meanwhile in the USSR, chaos erupts. The government of Molotov begins to crumble, with nationalist movements in the various Asian states competing with internal strife to take control of what's left from the central government. The Soviets enter a dark time, struggling to hold on long enough to heal.

Deep in Germany proper, scientists labor away with the resources of an entire continent and things best left forgotten in the far past...

1944

As the Manhattan project works away, a cataclysmic explosion engulfed Los Alamos. Officially, this was blamed on an ordinance failure. The President and other figures were forced to conclude that nuclear weapons are unsustainable or a critical mistake was made. Either way, the damage to the project is vast. Much of the project was incinerated, as well as the minds behind it. Nuclear weapon research is pushed back several years.

D-Day comes as normal, only augmented with all the might the Allies can throw at the Third Reich. June 6th is a day of massive bloodshed as the Allies pay in blood to carve out a foothold in Europe. All is going well at first, until the behemoths come. Vast tanks that dwarf even the Panther, these behemoths are known as the Ratte. With powerful propulsion systems that allow them to hover a few feet above the ground and seemingly impenetrable armor, they sweep into the Allied positions like the wrath of God. With this fearsome new technology D-Day is thrown back into the sea in one of the greatest military defeats in US-British history. With no way to immediately counter these tanks, the Allies consolidate and recover. Further invasion plans are shelved until the defeat of Japan, wherein the United States can turn it's full naval and industrial might onto the Axis. Further, it is to give the Allies time to counter the Ratte.

1945

In February of 1945, a new wave of bombing engulfs the United Kingdom. A variant of the V-2 missile, this self propelled rocket has a larger payload and greater accuracy. While the damage is manageable, the population of the United Kingdom is greatly rattled. With 6 years of grueling war exhaustion compounded by the terrifying Axis advances, public opinion begins to call for peace. Despite this the British hold on, as the Allies prepare to finish off Japan.

Meanwhile in Japan, all goes as normal. The Japanese are pushed to the brink, unable to withstand the industrial might of the USA. With the Manhattan Project's catastrophic failure, there is no choice but for an invasion of Japan. This bloody invasion is one of the bloodiest in United States history, costing millions of lives to subdue a beaten, fanatical people. Japan at last folds, in utter ruin and at the price of an ocean of western blood.

1946

With Japan at last quieted, the Allies turn to Germany anew. However, the British population has seen too much. Faith has eroded in the regime resulting in a general popular outcry. With the carnage of Japan fresh in everyone's mind, and the conviction that the liberation of Europe would cost ten times more, the breaking point has been reached. In a stormy session of Parliament a no confidence vote passes against Churchhill and the government collapses. A coalition for peace is formed, seeking terms with Germany.

In the United States, fury is intermingled with the same sense of war weariness in the general population. The United States paid dearly to conquer Japan, and the public has little energy for an extended European campaign. While the Soviets are recovering and subduing internal dissent - with the help of plentiful Lend-Lease aid - there is no hope of another Eastern front for a generation.  With the loss of the UK as an active partner in the European War, the United States ultimately decides that peace is the only option. The miraculous advances in German science are still a mystery, one the Western intelligence agencies are struggling to understand.

The Treaty of Bern establishes the new world order. Germany controls Europe from the tip of western France to the Russian frontier, to the northern boundary of Persia to the southern tip of Italy. While Africa and the Middle East are lost to the Axis, it is unquestionably a victory of unprecedented proportions.

1947

Research into counters for the German advances leads to the creation of the Bureau of Paranormal Activity. While scoffed at by all serious scientists, it is nonetheless approved in the desperate rush to find some way, any way to beat the Germans.  Imagine the surprise in Washington when pay dirt is hit! Several cases of the paranormal are found, proved and documented. With this surprise breakthrough, money pours into the project - doubly so when an intelligence breakthrough points at Himmler's occult studies at Castle Wewelsburg as the possible source of German scientific advances.

1948

Continued research yield more fruits. As a curiosity , it is found that largely women possess the gift of magic. Why this is so is unknown, but authorization to enlist magically gifted females is granted across the Allied states. The initial thrust is to provide soldiers against the Third Reich, but when a magical girl undercover in France manages to destroy a Ratte, the possibilities of internal damages and wet-work become apparent. The 1st Allied Special Ops unit is formed.

It is now January 1st, 1950. A new decade rises, one with the Nazi parasite still feasting on the Old World. While a peace has been reached, it fools neither side. It is a peace only lasting long enough recover enough for another confrontation. However, until that time, espionage, sabotage and intrigue run ripe. Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Persia and Turkey are hotbeds of espionage by both sides. It's time to start weakening the Nazi bastards, one victory at a time.