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Götterdämmerung

Part 1: Bringing Democracy to Fascist France

A Hearts of Iron III Japanese continuation game from Europa Universalis III


Brought by a thirst for revenge against national injustices, fascism spreads like wildfire throughout the world


Once again, my habit of not taking screenshots bites me.

Over the last several intervening years, World politics had changed drastically. A combination of Victorian era wars over spheres of influence, and incredulity at the decline of the great "civilized" European powers over the last 100 years at the hands of a now clearly dominant Empire of Japan had sparked waves of revanchist fervor throughout the world. The pendulum of politics swung far to the Right after decades of swinging left, as reactionary parties gained power in the world's preeminent democracies with promises of correcting past national injustices and restoring lost glories ... and where such parties *weren't* elected, fascist paramilitaries seized power with force.

Even the old great powers weren't immune. Following the decisive defeat and loss of the British Raj in the wars for Indian Independence, the Worker's Party of Great Britain, which once rose to power by overthrowing Queen Victoria and enacting a coup of Westminster, was itself overthrown by a right-wing coalition of rebels formed by fascist paramilitaries and old imperial sympathizers. With the queen restored, they looked to regain the lost glory of the British Empire, first securing the Isles by entering in union with a monarchist Ireland. Attempting to escape notice, they quietly gathered like-minded governments together into a kind of Axis Coalition; whatever their varied reasons for joining the group, all held the same purpose and aim: to cut the Empire of Japan down to size, and end its dominating influence over the world.

But Japan knew exactly what was coming.

France, exhausted by endless war with its neighbors, elected a fascist leader which quickly dissolved all democratic institutions and enacted military rule. With promises of retaking the lost territories on the Franco-German border, this new leadership entered into supposedly secret negotiations to enter the Axis coalition. However, the French security and government services were notoriously porous with information and riddled with all manner of informants and spies, and word soon reached the ("democratically elected") National-Socialist government in the German Empire of a new threat. With no intention of allowing France to find new allies (and likely secretly hoping to secure German claims held by France), word was sent to Japan of the development shortly before war was declared, to "finally put an end to the French menace."


It was May, 1937.

Japan wasn't led by fools and the ministers in Kyoto knew very well of German imperial ambitions, yet they felt a sort of kinship with the upstart continental power, which, much like themselves, had risen above the predations of the ancient regimes. Still, even as the Japanese navy raised anchor and made to defend the seas from any French aggression as it had for generations, debate ensued in Kyoto over whether to lend aid to the Empire's recent ally; approval was eventually given to only "defend the home seas" from possible threat, and the Australia Corps of the army was mobilized to pacify the few remaining French possessions in the Indian and Pacific oceans.


Japanese air units reinforce German units in Koln and Stuttgart

The German army saw early success on the first several days, driving through an unprepared French border, however the lines soon stalled from Liege to Metz. Japan met no French resistance in the Pacific, and watched news from the fighting in earnest; both sides were clearly tired and unprepared for war, and the hasty decision to attack began to bite the Germans as the line had to retreat from Liege and it looked that the French might force a gap in the German Alps. It was clear that Germany could not convincingly win alone despite material and technical assistance from the Japanese, and so plans were drawn to create a new "European Command" under which select units would "gain valuable practical combat training experience" by winning Germany's war for them.

The fact that it would give Japan greater sway at the post-war negotiations was purely a coincidence.

Several wings of Japanese bombers and fighter interceptors were flown en masse to air bases near the front, and their presence was immediately felt as they began to provide relief to German soldiers on the ground by securing the skies and disrupting French operations. While this relief was only intended to buy time for Japan to organize an expeditionary force, the effect of constant and reliable air power was so great that the front lines began to shift again in the favor of Germany as they pushed as far as Antwerp and Nancy.


Japan provides relief to the German lines as Syria Corps lands in Nice.

Several obstacles sat in the way of Japanese troops landing in Europe.

First, Japan had little command experience in the European theatre and no command structure ready to support such an invasion. Syria Corps was selected as the basis for the new "European Command," but at the time it was a small occupational force consisting of mostly infantry supported by a few light tanks and armored cars, whose purpose was to defend the Suez Canal and support local allies. Units could be pulled as needed from elsewhere in the empire to constitute the new force, but it could take several months to transport men and materials to grow Syria Corps into a proper theatre command, and then train them into a cohesive fighting force; Japanese command, however, would only allow three weeks, for want of relieving the still shaky alpine front. The army proved up to the task and did what they could, growing Syria Corps to three times its original size in men and armor in two weeks, and using the remainder of the time to reorganize and train the units for the amphibious landings in southern France.

The second obstacle was the French navy. While not large, it was still powerful enough to pose a threat to landing forces. The Japanese navy was far and away the largest navy in the world, but it also had a massive area to patrol; while not nearly as impressive, the French navy was still the third largest in the world with many powerful modern battleships, and the French Mediterranean fleet had local parity with the Japanese fleet based in Suez. Initial orders had been to await reinforcement from the 1st and 2nd Imperial Indian Fleets and the transport fleet escorts that were on their way with the new invasion forces, but Admiral Enomoto was forced to answer the French challenge to prevent an attack on the canal.

After several days of chase and positioning, the 10 ships of the Suez Fleet were led by the "battleships" Kongo and Kashima, and comprised mostly of some of the Japanese navy's older cruisers, paired against 8 ships from the French Mediterranean fleet, led by the new and modern battleship Dunkerque. Volume of fire was more or less equal between the fleets, but after exchanging fire for several minutes a lucky shot from the older Bretagne-class battleship Louis XIV found its way into the forward magazine spaces of the Kashima before detonating spectacularly, depriving the Japanese fleet of half its heavy 14" guns, then turned its attention to the enemy cruisers before attentions from the heavy cruiser Kasuga exacted revenge. Kongo and Dunkerque dueled, and the latter was saved from torpedoes when a French destroyer accidentally ran in front of them and lost its nose for the trouble. The fighting lasted 30 minutes more before it became apparent to Admiral Enomoto that he could not guarantee that he could win this fight; with 4 ships lost and the Kongo slowly losing seaworthiness, he ordered a general withdrawal from the battle back to harbor in Suez.

The French fleet had technically won the field, and it's unknown why they didn't press the matter further; likely they suffered enough of a bloody nose from the engagement that further operation, especially within range of land-based bombers, was deemed unwise.

Eventually Admiral Yashiro brought to Suez a greater force of warships and the invasion transports. Taking command from Adm. Enomoto, he led two fleets out into the Mediterranean to force a decisive battle, eventually finding it and sending three French capital ships to the bottom for the loss of the battleship Yashima and sending the remains of the French Mediterranean fleet into port in Montpellier, where they remained for the rest of the war, hemmed in by Yashiro's navy.

With the way open, the army began its landings near Nice; within days, they had fanned out and captured the ports of Nice and Genoa with almost no resistance, finally being stopped by a rushed defense near Marseille. With a beachhead secure, heavier equipment was unloaded and supply lines were opened, spelling the end coming end of the war.


With Germany closing in from the north and Japan coming from the south, France surrenders.

The ploy to relieve the German lines worked; slowly, Germany began to gain more momentum as the French defense was forced to draw resources south to meet the Japanese army. Despite their exhaustion, the French troops held strong in the Alps despite the long salient, and a counter-push down the Rhone river threatened to split the Japanese line as they jockeyed for position along the river to cross troops and supplies. After a couple weeks of jockeying, Japanese armor finally broke through at Le Puy, though the breakthrough was under constant threat of repeated attempts to close it. Unable to contain the ever-lengthening front, however, meant the French lines everywhere were forced to fall back.

Eventually, Japanese troops reached the Atlantic and wheeled north. With their forces split and the enemy approaching Paris from both sides, the France finally surrendered on the 24th of September, 1937. The war lasted 4 months.

Sitting at the table as the largest combatant in the war, Japan used its clout to force both Germany and France to accept that the only outcome of the war would be the dissolution of the French fascist government, and reinstatement of a democratic government with free and fair elections.

Loyal to the Japanese and the cause of Liberty, of course.

- - -
Though victorious, the valuable experience in modern war provided several lessons in the failures of Japanese naval doctrine:

First, the war at sea was much more spread out and warfare was non longer decided by one or two decisive battles. Though forcing the French Mediterranean into port had been a critical victory, other French fleets harassed Japanese merchant shipping to allied and neutral countries. If Japan were to go to defend its trade in a much larger war, it was evident that it could not maintain its sole reliance on fast capital ships and cruisers, which were much too expensive to maintain as convoy escorts across the globe. Instead, Japan would concentrate on expanding its meager destroyer force to cruise the seas as convoy escorts and to hunt the convoy hunters.

Second, Japan had emphasized speed in its ships to patrol and reinforce its vast oceanic domain, with its aging Kongo-class battleships receiving upgrades of speed, and building a vast fleet of Amagi-class battlecruisers. While fast and powerful, speed could never fully protect a ship like proper protection could, and Japanese naval command never should have assumed that such ships could replace battleships in the conventional line of battle. While the new and unnamed B-64-class battlecruisers under construction were allowed to complete, plans for further battlecruiser hulls were scrapped, with current designs being revised and uptiered into possible - and proper - fast battleships.

Third, a few air wings were shown to demonstrably swing land battles, and it was assumed the same could happen with navies. With the new Shokaku-class fleet carriers entering trials, and learning from operating and training aboard the Hosho and its sister ships, the decision was made to form new fleets centered around these new "fleet carriers," instead of traditional heavy-gun capital ships.

Aside from minor tactical errors, no issues were found in greater Japanese land strategy.
- - -

All these lessons were taken in and acted upon rather quickly...which was just as well, as only a month after the armistice was signed, Germany declared its intention to "annex Austria and form a Greater Germany," triggering guarantees from Russia and Spain to come to Austria's aid. The Japanese government agreed that Austria's borders were "ugly" and "deserved to be removed from the map," but battling with two of the largest powers in the world was going to be such a pain...