Iron Storm: History of the world from 1903-2024

Chapter 6: The 2nd Weltkrieg

When the war began it came quick, in the early hours of April 12th 1939 French commandos dressed in German uniforms staged an attack on a French radio station, shortly after the French foreign ministry announced the declaration of war against the German empire. Later in the day thousands of French crossed the border into Germany and with each inch of ground they crossed they armed German workers. The German response was swift, Generals Rommel and Guderian were deployed to the frontline near Strasberg the combined German blitzkrieg was able to reverse the gains of the French advance, for all their preparations the French could not prepare for this.
After pushing the French out of Germany they began pushing deep into France, As German forces reached Nancy the Union of Britain officially declared war against Germany and had begun planning an amphibious offensive around Wilhelmshaven. Meanwhile in ulster the URF launched a series of terror attacks against various Irish cities and military targets along with a German cruiser docked in Dublin, the Irish government officially declared war on the URF and on April 16th 1939 Ireland joined the Reichspakt.

Down in the Middle East General Karim Al-Farsi, Queen Laylas chief of staff and most trusted military commander delivered a report to the Queen and Prim Minister. "Your majesty the report on the situation in Europe" General Karim said setting the file in the desk and standing at attention, "Thank you General" Layla looked over the detailed report, Mesopotamian spies had reported that the French had been building up an invasion force for some time now, and there was signs of massive industrial activity with one agent learning of workers strike in Hamburg. Layla and her Prime Minister Nadia looked over the documents before turning to General Karim. "General what do you suggest we do?" Layla asked curiously, the General fidgeted his shirt, "I would place the army high alert, in case the Turks try anything, secure the northern border" Layla nodded in agreement "very well, send a detachment north and send Major Amir south to make sure our Arabian friends are not planning anything, your dismissed".

General Karim would send a detachment north to watch the northern border and reinforce the garrison of Colonel Noura the famed Kurdish guerrilla fighter of the independence war.
As June of 1939 approached the Mesopotamian border guards around the Diyarbakir border crossing came under fire, at around 4:30 in the afternoon around 14 Turkish soldiers attacked the crossing point, all Mesopotamian soldiers but one were killed, the survivor made his way to nearby town of Diyarbakir where he was transported by the garrison commander in his field car to Mosul.
"Your majesty, the Turks have have officially crossed the border and we have reports of multiple attacks from other points" General Karim said delivering his report
Layla walked around the map table that showed her kingdom, "We are officially at war with the Turkish Socialist Republic".

Almost immediately after Queen Laylas announcement Mesopotamian newspapers quickly began printing the news with the headline WAR WITH TURKEY, The next day a Representative of the Reichspakt met with Mesopotamian diplomats to discuss their entry into the alliance, the same day the Kingdom of Phoenicia announced it would honor the mutual defense pact with Mesopotamia and formally joined the war against Turkey.

By early August most of northern Mesopotamia was under the occupation of Turkish forces with the Kurdish forces conducting partisan operations against Turkish forces, meanwhile Phoenician forces had begun advancing alone the coast capturing the coastal city of Mersin and beginning to plan for an ambitious push towards Ankara, around this time Turkish forces had begun receiving support from the 3rd International such as volunteers, equipment and Tanks from the Union of Britain.  The introduction of tanks on the battlefield completely changed everything about how Mesopotamia thought the war, their mainly military strategy relied on guerrilla warfare in the mountains and irregular warfare along the flat terrain but with the Turks fielding tanks it completely altered everything, by mid august Turkish forces had begun pushing into Raqqa on a spearhead towards Mosul, Queen Layla and her family were moved to Baghdad in the event Mosul fell.  But soon Mesopotamia would receive its own batch of foreign aid including the newly produced Panzerfaust, a one use anti tank launcher which would allow the Mesopotamian infantry to defeat the Turkish 5th army at the battle of Raqqa when they ambushed the tank column in the city and opened fire from the buildings, the captured tanks from this battle would help the Mesopotamian army develop its own tanks by 1944.

As the war waged back and forth in the Middle East the Entente saw this as their opportunity and launched Operation Swordfish, the official declaration of war against the International.  The French National State would conduct the biggest naval landing known to man in southern France around Marseilles leading to a massive entente beachhead, Spain in November of 1939 would officially join Germany in the war after seeing a massive beachhead, at this point the French commune military high command would begin scrambling to manage both fronts.

On December 15th, 1939 representatives from the Reichspakt and Entente would meet in Halifax to discuss joint military planning of the 2nd Weltkrieg and after several days of discussions they would come to an agreement, though no major offensives would happen in 1939.

January 1st, 1940, the new years offensive would begin when a 12,000 strong communard army of the French would reverse the National states gains and trap them in Marseille and if it wasn't for the countless civilian ships ready to cross the Mediterranean Sea many of the French forces would be killed, the failure of the Marseille operation would lead to DeGaull and French high command to find a new strategy to prevent a repeat of the disastrous defeat at marseille. 
Meanwhile on the German front Rommels 7th Panzer division would continue gaining ground such as the capture of Calais but on the Alsace front things were beginning to look like a repeat from last war with both sides resorting to trench warfare, the war would be brutal on both sides.

Back in Mesopotamia the Mesopotamian forces would manage to recapture most of their northern territories and would soon be ready for the offensive into Turkey proper, instead nothing happened. 
From February 1940 to August 1940 no major offensives would take place as both sides made small skirmishes along the front but nothing happened.  The first sign of an offensive would come in November when a combined attack from Mesopotamia and Phoenicia of a combined force of 30,000 troops would begin to advance into turkey from the west around Diyarbakir and the south around Mersin, by the end of November they would reach Kayseri and Sivas, Queen Layla would visit the frontline where she would help tend to the wounded, she would even give a speech in the recently liberated city of Kayseri where an attempt on her life would see her sent back to Mosul for her safety.

February 3rd, 1943.  Over in the halls of the winter palace Tsar Sergei I and his heir Tsarevich Alexander had begun discussing Operation Bagration the planned Russian invasion of Germany.  The next day Russian troops stormed across the border in a massive wave, many of the German defenses were mostly garrison troops as most proper soldiers were on the western front, Russian forces would reach the Dnieper River where they would be stopped, General Erich Von Manstien would be deployed with 22,000 German forces to man the Ukrainian front and though he would clash with Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky they would manage to hold the Dneiper River with Ukrainian partisans conducting operations in occupied territories. North of the Ukrainian front over in the Baltics, Russian forces would sweep through capturing Estonia and Latvia. Tsarevich Alexander would be promoted to commander and chief of the entire Army of the West, he would be killed in a German artillery attack on Riga and succumb to his injuries a day later, The Tsar upon learning of this incident was furious and ordered the Russian Air Force to intensify bombing operations against Germany proper with the German chancellor being wounded in a bombing raid, Sergei would name his second son Sergei jr known by his family as the new Tsarevich.

As war raged throughout Europe over in a small town in Arkansas sat what was effectively royalty former Tsar Nicholas II and his family lived out their lives in peace even being viewed as town royalty as they would help fund schools and hospitals with Nicholas and his wife starting a charity for hemophilia research because their son Aleksei, their daughters Olga and Anastasia would go on to receive private school education and would attend Columbia university with Anastasia campaigning for an amendment allowing naturalized citizens to become President which in 1944 would be signed into law by President Quentin Roosevelt.

The war in Europe would continue to escalate with the Germans beginning to show cracks and with the death of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1944 it would seem like all hope was lost but a spark of good news when a deserter from the French communes special projects division would leak information to Abwehr Director Wilhelm Canarias, the information would detail something known as Project Damocles, this next day German high command and the science department would begin work on their own nuclear program which would be kept secret from the British and French in the entente until the day it was ready.