The Relic

Chapter 6

The US wanted to get the Japanese relic as well, but they fear dropping the atomic bomb would destroy Japan's relic. Well, why didn't they just blow up the city where the relic wasn't at? US had broken the Japanese codes, hadn't they? Apparently, Japan changed the location of relic frequently, and the relic's location is not informed to many people, resulting in no communication regarding the relic's location. Hence the US could never tell the location of the relic.

Ultimately, it was decided to just give up on the relic. After all, they could probably get the relic from China and Germany. Why bother trying to take the relic from Japan? So it was decided to just wait for the Manhattan project to finish. The bombing of Japanese home islands continued, so pretty much only the US air force still have jobs to do. The Japanese navy was already crippled, and no invasion is underway, so nothing to do for the navy or marines.

So, what about the situation in Indonesia? Did the Dutch retakes control of Indonesia? Nope. Several Indonesian figures said the allies were just going to use Indonesia just like how Japan did. Their solution? Proclaim independence. The Dutch objected, but the US interfered. The US hoped that although Indonesia became independent, they still favor the allies, so it's better to let the Indonesians manage their own country.

Japan saw no combat until May of 1946. Japanese navy was too crippled to go to combat. The army was stranded in China, and without the navy, supplied could not be delivered. I don't think the navy would be too sad about the stranding of the IJA soldiers though. In case you don't know, Japan have a serious case of interservice rivalry, and the rivalry never ended until the end of the war.

Now we return to Germany. Germany's resurrection of dead soldiers, brought about mass panic and problem for the allies. Hitler's order of hastening the resurrection of dead soldiers were met with critics. The haste in the process made it easier for the allies to find out about what was happening. Hitler wouldn't listen to any of it though. By this point, he considered himself the only competent person in the German high command.

The allies indeed realized what Germany was doing. Ultra informed the British and the British in turn told all the allied nations about it. This was very troubling, especially for the Soviets. The Soviets favourite tactic is to send soldier waves at the enemy. With the resurrection of dead soldiers, this would mean defeating the Germans in an attritional war would be difficult, if not impossible.

The US was also worried, but not as bad as the Soviets did. The US thought that artillery fire and some air support could obliterate the resurrected soldiers anyway, so the resurrected soldiers would be troublesome, but not too much of a problem. Bombing of Germany was ramped to destroy soldier resurrection facilities, but that was cancelled. German anti-air was so intense, bombers were usually shot down before reaching their target.

The advances of the Soviets and western allies were stalled. They couldn't get effective countermeasures in place before Germany's resurrected soldiers start appearing and taking the battlefield by surprise. The western allies had to take a defensive stance, while the Soviets have to retreat. Their military doctrine of wave attacks were biting themselves in their ass.

The western allies scrambled to get weaponry and men to the front while they still have the situation under their control. The Soviets chose to retreat to a point where German soldiers won't be able to reach, courtesy of stretched supply lines. A sad atmosphere could be felt when visiting the allied soldiers. I had a firsthand experience. The soldiers were greatly demoralized.

The allied generals had to discuss what to do next, while Germany needed to produce more weapons and resurrect more soldiers, so the front was quiet, just like how Japan's front was. The prospect of ending the war seemed quite far then. Western allies made miserably failed attempts at increasing morale, whilst the Soviets somehow manage to increase morale by revealing Germany's source of soldiers.