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| The Kremlin on Fire |
“Some say that Joseph Stalin, the mastermind behind
some of the greatest atrocities to beset mankind, never died. They believe that somehow the evil former
leader of the Soviet people, the man who murdered millions of his own, managed
to survive the siege of Moscow and the purging fires of the Kremlin to escape
justice somewhere in the vast expanses of Siberia.
My father was there, at the gates of Moscow, fighting
alongside his fellow Englishmen, part of the Britannia regiment of the 32nd ϞϞ
Division. He told me of the pride they
felt as they marched towards St. Peters Square, part of that first victory
parade on 6th June 1942. Seeing the
smoke still rising from the ruins of the building where the one time dictator
had issued the orders that led to the starvation and deaths of so many, he
sensed that in some small way he had been a part of freeing Europe from the
tyranny of communism and the overbearing yolk of American financial
dependence.”
The above passage is the opening statement of a news
report given in 1952 by a young British journalist following the trail of
rumours that the ex-soviet leader, Stalin, was still alive. The report was set to coincide with the 10th
anniversary celebrations marking the end of the Great War of Unification. This was a big opportunity for the journalist
to make a name for himself after the relaxation of laws surrounding the freedom
of the press were instituted by the then Chancellor of Europe, Adolf
Hitler. The leader of the Thousand Year
Reich had seemed to mellow a little in recent years, maybe it was because his
vision for a better world for the more civilised states of Europe was finally
taking shape or maybe it was just old age.
Although all that has been written so far is mainly
fictional it really isn’t hard to see what might have been if, on the 3rd
September 1940, a single decision had gone the other way. The 3rd September was the 56th day of the
Battle of Britain, the German attempt to gain air supremacy over the skies of
Britain and the English Channel. The
concept was simple, a pure battle of attrition for the Germans, attack the
airfields, attack the factories and keep shooting down the fighters of the
Royal Air Force. Despite the claims of
Herman Goering, head of the Luftwaffe (the German air force) the RAF was coping
quite well with the pressure. Britain’s
aircraft production was just about keeping pace with RAF losses; of the 300 or
so aircraft destroyed in the last month the RAF managed to replace 260. However the battle was coming to a critical
point, losses of trained pilots was rising within the RAF and the constant
attacks were causing growing fatigue amongst those that remained.
On the 3rd September a meeting of the German high
command took place to decide the best way forward. A heated discussion broke out between
Kesselring and Sperrle the commanders of the two main air fleets involved in
the battle over the British countryside regarding the strength of the RAF. Kesselring believed that the RAF was on its
knees and advised that one last big battle would be enough to draw the
remaining British planes into the sky, Sperrle was more realistic and
recognised that the RAF was not a spent force.
Call it arrogance, overconfidence or a chance for Goering to show off
his prowess yet again, but he agreed with Kesselring’s view of the situation
and a plan was devised to switch targets from the airfields to London. The first raid on the British capital would
be set for just a few days later on the 7th. All that was needed was the final approval for
the change in policy from Adolf Hitler, just a formality surely considering
Hitler’s growing irritation with the air raids that the RAF’s bomber command
were conducting over Berlin. In an
unusual moment of caution Hitler didn’t agree immediately, he picked up the
phone and talked directly to Sperrle, listening to his concerns and overruling
the policy change. This turned out to be
the biggest decision of Hitler’s life without him knowing it, if he’d agreed to
the change in policy he would have given the RAF breathing room to recover.
So on the 7th September 1940 the attacks on the
airfields and factories continued as they had done for the last eight and a
half weeks. At that point the RAF had
just 700 fighters left with the Luftwaffe able to put almost 1900 fighters and
bombers into the air. By the 10th
September the toll was starting to tell on the RAF and the losses of planes
and, more importantly, experienced pilots were accelerating almost out of
control. As a precaution, to ensure
certain victory Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain, Operation Sea Lion,
from the 15th to the 24th September.
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| Operation Sea Lion - The Early Stages |
On the 24th the invasion began. Without the protection
offered by the fighters of the RAF the Royal Navy found itself powerless to
stop the German armada, losing ship after ship to aerial attack from the
Luftwaffe. On land things didn’t go any
better with little resistance offered in the first few days by the British
until the German forces reached the Thames Line where they were delayed for
almost two months. This allowed the
British parliament time to relocate to the northern city of York. The King and his family decided to stay in London
to show support to the millions of ordinary people who had no choice but to
stay and endure the constant German attacks.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic, the U.S.
presidential election campaign takes a sudden swing after the invasion of
Britain and on the 5th November 1940 the Republican Party candidate Wendell Willkie
becomes the 33rd President of the U.S.A.
Despite his own personal beliefs that America should continue the
provision of aid to Britain his party stands for isolationism. The very next day the decision was made that
all supplies to Britain, both military and non-military should be suspended
until further notice. The Selective
Training and Service Act calling for military conscription of all men between
21 and 35 in force from mid-September is quietly forgotten about and eventually
overturned. Looking for other sources of
revenue to replace those gained from Britain the Americans reopen negotiations
with Imperial Japan to supply the resources it needs to continue Japan’s war
against China. This results in an uneasy
but relatively stable peace between the two countries that had previously
appeared to be drifting inevitably towards open conflict.
Despite valiant resistance the Thames Line is bypassed
in late October and London falls into enemy hands just a few days later. The final surrender of the British government
takes place on 4th February 1941, the prime minister, Winston Churchill, is not
present as he is drifting between life and death in a hospital bed after an
assassination attempt almost two weeks earlier.
As part of the peace terms the Italian government is forced to return
all British territories in Africa including those in Egypt and British
Somaliland in return for Britain’s support in nullifying Britain’s Commonwealth
allies. The unfortunate Churchill died
just a few days later never knowing of his countries final downfall and the
rest, as they say, is history.
The Germans choose The Viscount Halifax to head up the
new government under occupation in Britain.
Halifax was the natural choice as he was already a senior political
figure within the British government and in the past had shown some sympathy
towards the Nazi regime. In 1937 he had
visited Germany and had written a letter to one of his colleagues about the
German nation in which he stated "Nationalism and Racialism is a powerful
force but I can't feel that it's either unnatural or immoral. I cannot myself doubt that these fellows are
genuine haters of Communism, etc. and I daresay if we were in their position we
might feel the same”.
Following Italy’s invasion of Greece in October 1940
things were not going well for Germany’s Axis partners. The Greeks had pushed Mussolini’s troops back
over the border. Fortunately as a result
of the repatriation of the British African territories the Italian forces in
North Africa were now free to reinforce those in Greece. Slowly the Italians began to overcome their
Greek foes. This came as a relief to
Hitler as any intervention may have resulted in a delay to the planned invasion
and conquest of the Soviet Union.
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|
The Heroes of Barbarossa
(Top Left to Bottom Right)
Von Leeb, Von Bock, Von Rundstedt and Rommel
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The Germans launched their assault on the Soviet Union,
Operation Barbarossa, on 15th May 1941.
Following the military coup in Iraq that left the country governed by
the pro-German leader Rashid Ali the detailed plan was not finalised until
April. Originally a three pronged invasion,
it was now possible to add a fourth smaller battle group to attack the soft
underbelly of the Soviet Union. Army
Group North under Von Leeb had the objective of Leningrad, Army Group Centre
Under Von Bock was to drive on to Moscow, Army Group South under Von Rundstedt
was tasked with capturing the resource rich areas of the Ukraine and Caucasus
and the Middle Eastern Expeditionary force commanded by Rommel was to invade
Northern Iran, cutting the vital oil supplies and then push northwards into Georgia. Within a matter of weeks the Germans had laid
siege to Leningrad and reached the suburbs of Moscow. Large parts of the Ukraine were captured and
the advance on the Caucasus continued.
In the extreme south Rommel achieved his objectives and using his own
initiative continued northwards causing major disruption to the Soviet lines of
supply and communication. Hitler
determined to put an end to the fight before the harsh Russian winter set in
diverted troops from both Army Groups North and South to assist in the
encirclement of the Russian capital. The
fighting ground to a near halt through the winter until finally the spring
thaws began. The Soviet forces in Moscow
were trapped and fighting for their very existence, many ordinary citizens
urged to take up arms. The Russians
fought for every house, every street, every factory and warehouse until the
Germans finally broke the backbone of the Soviet defense and, following reports
of Joseph Stalin’s death in an air raid on the Kremlin, the battle was finally
over. On the 6th June 1942 the remaining
Soviet commanders met with the German High Command, Hitler sitting silently at
the head of the table and the unconditional surrender of all Soviet states was
signed.
While this sequence of events is purely fictitious it
doesn’t take a lot to imagine what might have been. Who is to say that if this had happened the
world would be a worse place than it is now?
Just imagine what might have been once Hitler’s objective had been
achieved, all he called for was extra living space for the German nation. Who knows whether Hitler’s plan for the
“undesirable” peoples of Europe would have ended in death or simply deportation
to Siberia and other former Soviet eastern provinces? There would certainly have been no need for
the development of the Atom bomb, no Cold War and the escalation of arms that
followed. The deaths of millions and the
destruction of property in Europe would have been averted through an early end
to the war. The war funding could have
been used for construction not destruction.
The isolationist Americans may have felt less need to act as the world
police in the following decades and trade between a German dominated Europe, a
Japanese/Chinese empire and the U.S.A. may have benefitted all. But then we will never know …
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