There was a crowd as far as the eye could see in the port of Eilat that morning, people from all across the nation coming in by train, by car, on caravans, on foot, some carrying several bags, others carrying nothing but their children. Rich, poor, in-between, it was a sea of people from different races from different nations who have all come with the desire to have a home, a hope that others would not suffer like they did. That is the same kind of hope that was making many come here and then take the journey back north in the midst of tears and suffering, it was a terrible sight and yet the worst part is that these families, maybe most of them, would never see one another again. They were taking their children and carrying them to the ships, some women would stay, those too old or too young, but the rest of those mothers would leave with the fathers of these children.
Yakob was looking at that while holding on to his daughter, she was still so young, so innocent, he had hoped that he and his wife Devorah could raise her together, the little Ruth, but that was a vain hope, the men were practically not allowed in the boats, the women allowed in were exceptions, his mother-in-law was with them to take Ruth with her for this reason, they would live, safe somewhere, without fear. The travel was quiet and it took days for them to arrive, at no moment did they ever turn off the radio, if there was silence they would be nervous, if there was a broadcast they knew it was too late. Today was the first day of the Hannukah, and more than in any day there was a crowd rushing in panic to the docks where all those ships awaited to take them across the Red Sea, Operation Exodus it was called, his father Benjamin told him so after the IPF prepared for this great evacuation, he even ensured that Yakob would have a place in the boat with his contacts and Yakob said he would go, but when he found out Devorah would be left behind, he could not bear to go.
Ruth would be safe with her grandmother, he was sure of that, the problem was getting both of them on the boat, there was supposed to be a line but as soon as the sun was up and the radio announced the start of Operation "Righteous Justice" the chaos began, there were children being tossed at the boats, some of them did not make it and hit the railing, falling on the water of the Red Sea with others trying their best to save them before they drowned. The little Ruth was crying in her mother's arms because of all the noise, Devorah calmed her down the best she could while Yakob was carving a way through the crowd to the nearest ship. There was nothing fancy in them, they were small and just meant to ferry the people to the larger vessels. He remembered the monumental effort it took to transport the entirety of the Israeli fleet by land across the Negev as the Suez was within the aim of the Egyptians, now they were meant to take these children somewhere, nobody was told where they would go, it was just by blind faith that they were meant to willingly give up their children. There was no pain as great to a parent bar one, the idea of seeing Ruth being taken by a German. If anyone else had been invading and threatening them, they would not have gone as far, he would have held on to Ruth for dear life, but that was Joseph Goebbels, that was the spirit of Hitler coming after them and he knew well in his family what would happen if they were taken alive.
There was a horn, the ship was about to sail out and that just made the people start to panic, they knew the Germans could appear any time soon, they could even hear from the distance the fight happening over the coast where the IPF was attempting to secure the Gulf from the UAR's presence in Al Dorra, from his experience that was the easy part, but Arab, Syrian and German planes could show up at any time. The IPF jets flew over heading south early on much to the crowd's cheering, but he knew the real fight of this war would be on the North against the Syrians and Germans, the Arabs had no taste in fighting this one. He would finally approach the soldier and show him the child and a ticket for his in-law, the soldier did not give more than a glance at the ticket for sake of formality, he was sure to pass them the moment he saw a baby and an older woman. "Wait!", Devorah cried and then held on to her daughter a last time, teardrops falling on the baby's cloth as she gently rocked her back and forth. He almost didn't realize how young both him and Devorah were, yet they were already parents and supposed to give away their child. He hoped in the depths of his soul this would not be the last time he saw his daughter, that taking her from Devorah's arms and giving Ruth to her grandmother was not going to be his touch, but then he remembered the Swastika and dreaded that it was true... if she even made it across the sea, no doubt the Arab air force would start to look all across the Sea, their last hope was to reach Port Sudan, it was the only place in the Red Sea which was still in the hands of people who would not sink their ships.
He held on to Devorah as they walked away just in time for the ship to depart, she was crying more than he had ever seen her cry before, he put an arm around her shoulder and guided her just as the ferry left, only to hear the screams as he looked above and saw the explosions, the trails of smoke, the battle being fought fiercely in the sky. He could not see the jets at this distance but everyone saw when one of them blew up. He hurried back to the car and turned it on as soon as he could, it jammed, then jammed again, and on the third time it worked. Now he would take the road and drive north, praying in his heart that his daughter would live, that Ruth would live even if he did not, that she would find a home and never suffer what they were suffering, but could anyone ever hope to escape from such a hateful enemy?
It is rare to ever find two Israelites agreeing with one thing, that was an old joke, even more so when it comes to the Israeli politics with the eternal rivalry of Prime Minister Begin's Right-Wing groups against the Labor Zionists of the late Ben-Gurion. But between 1959 and 1965, there was peace, there was unity, because between the 12-day war and the Nazi-Israeli War, the fear of an invasion grew like never before, the euphoria of the victory, both in the battlefield and morally with the news of Heydrich's assassination, which of course they publicly denied of doing, the State of Israel would suffer a terrible awakening with the Ultimatum and Goebbels' rise to power. Joseph Goebbels was the most public and outspoken enemy of the Jewish people, the rhetoric which was relatively contained during Hess' rule had gone back into the forefront of the Reich's agenda. The fall of Italy and the news of the purges just increased the fear of isolation, with even the Catholic Church returning to more Antisemitic rules under Pope Eugene.
Operation Exodus was drafted for that in 1961, then it began to be put into action in 1964 after years of planning and intense negotiations with the British Empire. There were roughly 2 million Jews in Israel and a substantial amount was made up of children, the first generation born in the country was not even 18 at it's eldest yet. Yet the agreement was made: Those younger than 12 would leave accompanied by at most one member of the family who is over 50 to watch over them, an enormous task which began in subtle ways, the refugees heading to Port Sudan and then taken by train to Kenya or the French Empire, following the start of the siege of Aden in early 1965, the maritime route was deemed too dangerous and only the route through Sudan was still open, even if said route was constantly under the danger of raid by Pan-Arabist forces fighting in the Sudan War. A small fortune had to be paid to British coffers, but that was an insurance for Israel's survival which they had to afford. The Majority of the refugees would be settled in communities in Sudan or Kenya, meant to be temporary until the Israeli government deemed the situation at home safe for return.
There were attempts at peace, the Israeli government offered to return the Sinai, Gaza and all territories east of the Jordan river to the UAR in return for recognition, an offer which Nasser did not consider equitable, despite the instability and the crippling of his army in the 12-day war, he could not afford to show weakness by conceding to Israel. Nasser also was being deliberately bribed to refuse any agreements, with the weapons provided by the Pakt by the renewed German support being crucial for the Arab efforts to control the Red Sea, with the wars in Sudan and Yemen fought by Pan-Arabists sponsored by Cairo. Although the alliance with Germania was becoming far more of a detriment than a boon to Nasser, the Algerian refugees who fled with the Nationalists would come to Egypt and speak of the horrors unleashed by the Franco-German authorities, and the fall of Italy also led to the arrest of the Algerian political groups from Egypt at the request of Germania, which made many Arabs see Pan-Arabism as a tool for foreign domination.
Of course Goebbels was busy repairing the damage of Hess' reputation. Johann von Leers, the Propaganda Minister and later Foreign Minister of the Reich, would work heavily in increasing the German influence over Arab groups in the region between 1962 and 1965. From Anti-semitic conspiracies to the treatment of Arabs in Israel and even Begin's own past were used as a weapon to sway the opinions of locals to a war, those being more effective overall in Syria where Saadeh's regime has ran with a platform of Anti-Zionism since it's inception and grew more and more anti-jewish as the German influence grew. Adib Shishakli, the Commander of the Syrian Armed Forces, became the de facto leader of the nation while the Al-Zaim, Antoun Saadeh, lost control of the movement he himself created and was restrained as practically a figurehead that spent most of time in house arrest in Damascus, left to regret ever allying with the Pakt and inviting German officers to train his own staff.
The decision to strike first was tactically one of the better hopes for the IPF, which was completely outmatched by the Pakt forces in every aspect from air to under the sea, even from Space there were German satellites which were used to identify the positions of the IPF in December. The Israeli Protection Force by the time of Operation "Righteous Justice", was running a tight ship in it's information channels. Once the United Government (formed in October after the Germans began fly-by missions over the country) gave the authorization, it was just 6 hours for the men to be briefed and launch the assault on the 18th. The IPF, despite being outnumbered around 3:1 and in some places 4:1, lacking the necessary aerial superiority and facing an enemy with perhaps the most powerful army in the world, attacked because they had no other choice. The Wehrmacht could never be given an initiative, otherwise the Panzer divisions would be able to open the way into Israel, the Moshavs and Kibbutzims across the country were alerted for all citizens to seek shelter in the local bunkers and the ones in the northern border have long since been evacuated.
The IPF counted with a force of between 270 and 300 thousand men in a country with a population of 2.5 million residents, the remaining reservists being all summoned to active duty while the refugees taken in during the previous years would be armed into their own units to face the enemy. Israel sheltered around 200 thousand refugees who fled from Europe between 1960 and 1965, the majority of them being the so-called "Mixed Race", which Goebbels had reclassified as Jews and began to persecute, people with as little as a single Jewish grandparent were allowed into Israel and given citizenship in return for service in the armed forces, a public denunciation of National Socialism and knowledge of basic Hebrew. Those refugees, both men and women, would be armed and called up while children were offered a way out through Operation Exodus. By December of 1965, Israel was a country with no children, where both men and women were enlisted, where men up to the age of 80 volunteered into the military and 60-year old grandmothers were enlisted into the armed forces, that gave the IPF a pool of almost a million reservists.
The Economy was fully placed under a command system and a military mobilization was declared in October as the Unity government was made in the Knesset. Prime Minister Begin would call for all parties to form a single united government under the threat of Invasion, the stragglers left would quickly fall in line once news reached of the Luftwaffe airdropping the uniforms of those killed in the camps in the city of Haifa. For the first time there was a single leadership in the State of Israel and an oath was made on the Knesset in the morning of the 18th, all members swearing to oppose the threat of Nazism to their very last breath and to not accept any peace which would lead to the end of the Jewish State. Following that, the building of the Knesset was evacuated as the answer arrived from the Reich. There was no declaration of war, there was no warning or ultimatum, Goebbels refused to even engage in any sense of negotiation with a people which he considered little more than animals and deceivers (naturally he claimed the Reich to be a victim of Jewish treachery due to the IPF launching the first strike).
The Luftflotte V would take flight in Air bases on Cyprus and Syria, despite the IPF's strikes on the Damascus Air Base, the Homs Air Base was protected from much of the enemy assault due to it's advanced radar system, installed in 1964, by the time the Israelites arrived, several interceptors were deployed, overwhelming the outmatched Jewish planes. The German pilots flew incensed with fury, many of them were involved with the Volkssturm or at least fell into the new wave of Antisemitism unleashed by Goebbels, it is no wonder that the majority had no qualms in saying they were fighting a war for the survival of the Aryan race against their eternal enemy. A retaliatory attack was launched in the morning as over 300 bombers would take flight with at least the double of planes serving as escorts, including the Syrian and Italian Air Force. The raid was deemed necessary to cripple the enemy infrastructure and morale, with the mission divided two-fold, first would be a group of tactical bombers striking into the Israeli Airbases, with help from intelligence gathered by the SD, mainly via Palestinean Arab cells within the State of Israel. The Second group was responsible for the morale strike.
The assault on Tel Aviv was the first time that the forces of the Pakt employed the mass use of Nerve gas against a large civilian center, which was deemed an acceptable weapon by the Führer who had to be talked out by his staff from launching atomic weapons. The city had already been attacked by the time the bombers arrived as Ballistic missiles would be launched from several locations in the East Mediterranean to strike major Israeli cities, furthermore the Kriegsmarine was set to start a long-term campaign of shore bombardment of the densely populated strip of land which went from Gaza to Tyre, a land particularly vulnerable to the long range shots of the German and Italian battleships and with practically no defenses other than meager shore artillery batteries.
Tel Aviv would be struck by the Luftflotte V at the 0932 hours of the 18th of December of 1965, the evacuation was still underway with a large part of the population yet to head to the underground, gas masks had been distributed, however much of the protection given to the civilians were concerning anti-radiation protection, an attack with the supplies of Tabun and Sarin gases was not the expected strike. The Israeli Airforce, many planes returning from their mission in Egypt, would intercept the bombers and that would start the largest aerial battle in the history of the Middle East up until that moment, where roughly 190 Israeli planes faced almost four times that number in the skies over Tel Aviv, while the Luftwaffe launched similar strikes across the coast. Several bombers would be downed in the city, however the IPF was forced to withdraw it's jets to conserve it's strength, many hoped to use them to better effect at the Syrian front. Despite the inferiority in numbers, the surprise of the assault and the use of new British and American fighter models would give the IPF a tally of 2:1 in victories, which unfortunately still meant that the Pakt had been victorious in that battle.
The campaign of gas bombardment would proceed, however first the Kriegsmarine would showcase it's power by launching a barrage of shore bombardment, led by the two main prides of the German fleet: The H-44 class ships "Frederick the Great" and "Karl the Great" (not to be confused with the French ship Charlemagne), two enormous ships with a 131.000 ton displacement, measuring 350 meters in length and sporting 8 20-inch guns, serving more as a floating fortress, a show of strength rather than practicality which started construction in the Hitler era and were finished in the Goebbels era, altered with new radar systems and SAM batteries. The two ships, alongside other Battleships and Italian vessels would launch a campaign of terror during the rest of the year, with Aircraft Carriers such as the Italian "Risorgimiento" and the German "Adler" providing escort against attacks from the Israeli Air Force. Added with the conventional bombing which included from rockets to conventional bombers, with the Luftflotte V even rotating planes with other Air groups as part of a "training experience", the majority of the Israeli cities in the coast of the Mediterranean was turned to little more than rubble during the war, although Goebbels would give express orders to not bomb Jerusalem due to the risk of alienating his Islamic allies.
On land, the situation was not as favorable for the Pakt, the surprise assault by the IPF had caught the Wehrmacht and the Syrians by surprise with both forces losing precious ground on the first day, the destruction of the Wotan Gun and an act of sabotage by Mossad Operatives against German "Atomtruppen" (Literally atomic soldiers) depots also prevented the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the ground until ammunition arrived from Europe. Joachim Peiper, Chief of Staff of the OKW and commander of the German forces in this theater, would forbid, under Goebbels' orders, any attempt to retreat after the first day and immediately pushed Shishakli and the Syrians into an auxiliary role. The Wehrmacht possessed roughly 200 thousand soldiers on the ground, with the Syrians possessing almost the double, yet they were pushed back to the gates of Damascus and Beirut by the IPF with the surprise assault. The plan of the Israeli troops was to try to shatter the Syrian resolve to remain in the war by quickly seizing Damascus and Beirut, two of the most important cities in the country, as well as inflict the heaviest possible casualties in the Persian and Turkish forces in an attempt to force them out of the war. Following that, they would withdraw back to the Golan Heights and use a defense in depth along the coast in an attempt to keep the Wehrmacht split and attrition it into a ceasefire. It was a very far-fetched plan driven by desperation and it hinged on the response of three men: Louis Mountbatten, Gerald Smith and Gamal Abdel Nasser.
The IPF would manage to reach the gates of Damascus in the afternoon as the Syrians lost more and more ground, the district of Yaffour was taken, cutting off the Beirut-Damascus Highway, one of the most important routes in Syria and dividing the Syrian Army in two, furthermore, the Persian Legion, a force of around 20 thousand men sent by the Shah to honor his alliance with Saadeh, lost roughly half of it's strength during that day. The success of the first day was mostly in routing the Syrian-Persian-Turkish troops, with the Turks and Persians already being reluctant allies of the Reich, these losses would essentially neuter them during the war. Saadeh was evacuated from Damascus to Aleppo, a harsh blow to the Syrian morale, which coupled with the loss of Jireh in the west, made many in the Syrian army panic fearing another crushing defeat in the first day, never before had the Israelis attacked in such a ferocious way, the troops of the IPF had practically no rest from dusk to dawn in an attempt to use their tactical initative in crushing the Syrian Army. However, the Wehrmacht would stop the advances of the Israeli troops in several locations, an attempt to capture the town of Nawa to the west of the Golan Heights was frustrated by the defense of the 87th Infantry division during the whole day. This was the first time the Israeli forces fought the army which once conquered Europe, despite the morale being as zealous as it could be, it could only go so far against an enemy which possessed superiority in most of the aspects in combat.
The 19th continued the Israeli advances, but the loss of the element of surprise could be felt, the push to Rashaya, located between Beirut and Damascus, would be decisive as roughly 30 thousand IPF troops fought an equal force of Syrians which at first lost more and more terrain, including the town itself, but soon Peiper would order the 8th Panzer Division to launch a counter attack in the town. This was but the first of many strategic counter attacks launched by the Pakt in an attempt to steal the momentum and initiative from the Israeli troops. Furthermore, in the skies, the Luftwaffe contested the aerial superiority held during the first day, the start of the bombing campaign forcing many Israeli jets to be diverted towards the coastline to intercept the bombers. The few bombers at the IPF's disposal were kept in reserve, some being hit when the Airfields were struck, others were shot down on the way to Homs. As the IPF was pinned down in Rashaya, the same would happen in the attempt to encircle Damascus on the 21st when the fight over the recently-built Damascus airport evolved into a large-scale tank duel between the 8th Panzer Division and the 36th Armored division of the IPF. The Germans used the longer range of it's MBT's to weaken the Israeli forces as the IPF attempted to use fast tanks to close in the distance and strike the Germans from where their superior range would not provide an advantage. In the end the IPF suffered a terrible loss, mostly of it's most outdated models from the 1940s, the Germans held control over the destroyed Airport and thus ended the offensive.
General Israel Talik, commander of the Armored Division, would lose his life during the battle for Damascus, he would not see the effectiveness of one of his prototypes. Since 1954, the IPF had started to search for ways to counter German tank forces and in 1961 the result was the so-called "Merkava" tank. It lacked the armor and speed of the German tanks due to it's smaller engine, however it would be used successfully as a defensive gun in the Golan Heights. A general order of withdrawal was given on the night of the 21st and by the morning of the 22nd, most of the Israeli forces retreated to their pre-war fortifications, attempting to cut the heavy losses of experienced troops of the campaign. In the 3 days of offensive of Operation Righteous Justice, the Syrian-Iranian-Turkish-German forces would suffer around 70 thousand casualties to the Israeli 30 thousand, but that was hardly an adequate ratio, especially as the great majority of the losses of the enemy was made up of non-German forces. Now with further reservists being called up to the point the Israeli Economy was put into a breaking point, the only hope for the Government was of a foreign intervention.
And soon the answers came to a secret negotiation between the UAR and the State of Israel, the desperate Israeli leadership offered all the lands conquered during the 12-day war back to the UAR in return of simple neutrality, not even a recognition. Nasser was inclined to refuse until the Israeli victory at Al Dorra and news of unrest in the Jordanian territories led to his acquescence, but the determinant factor was the British support for Israel on the 18th. Mountbatten and his cabinet would agree to lend all support afforded by the Commonwealth to the State of Israel with similar declarations from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even from India, which fiercely condemned the German assault on the Jewish people and declared support. The declarations from the Commonwealth and from the Indian Republic were also determinant due to the control of both these nations in the Persian gulf, forcing the Iranians and Syrians to dedicate forces to protect the region in the case of a direct invasion, the border with Kuwait was particularly tense as many Syrians saw it as a rightful province of Greater Syria, although Shishakli would continuously deny the requests for an offensive there due to the risk of escalation, even with the buildup of British forces.
The Red Sea would soon become a battlefield in the war as the UAR-aligned militias and the British Empire finally came to a decisive clash over Yemen and Sudan, with a combined offensive by both, orchestrated by Nasser's headquarters in Cairo, planned to capture both Port Sudan and the straits of Aden. In East Africa, despite the Italian army losing control of much of the Ethiopian highlands since the closing of the Suez Canal, the control over Somalia and the Eritreian coast, as well as major urban centers such as Addis Ababa, was still in the hands of Farinacci who planned to use Djibouti as a launching base for the Italian and German Air Forces to close down the Red Sea, the only route of access of the Jewish State to the rest of the world. Despite it's official neutrality and anti-zionist stance, the Saudi Arabian control of Hedjaz was also vital for the strategy to ensure the Red Sea was shut under control of the Pakt. Both German and Italian overtures to Riyadh had failed, as the Saudi Family refused to collaborate with Nasser's revolutionaries in Yemen even if they expressed some sympathy for the Arab cause in the war.
The Red Sea had become a contested zone for the British forces, which gave support to the Ethiopian guerrillas in the fight against Farinacci's regime, the military buildup had ensured that both Port Sudan and Aden became heavily fortified regions with crucial naval bases protected by the Royal Navy. The UAR and the Italians launched an offensive on the 18th as soon as news of the war's outbreak began, with the de facto siege of both cities by the rebel groups growing into full scale assaults supported by the Italian Air Force. Nasser did not strike from the Suez, rather he was hesitant to join the war against Israel unless victory was assured by cutting off the Jewish lifeline in the Red Sea. The IPF's navy would continue Operation Exodus during those days even with Italian, Arab and German planes scouting the sea for ships to be sunk. The pressure grew in both British territories as the renewed assault reignited what was a slow conflict in the years prior, with urgent requests of assistance leading to the dispatch of the British Naval Squadron in Zanzibar, which became the new base of operations in British Africa after the fall of South Africa.
Admiral Robert Hichens, a flotilla commander during the Second World War who became highly decorated in the Pacific conflict, would take command of the East Africa Squadron sent to relieve Aden and Port Sudan with a force of Marines, joining with them was the British Gulf Squadron and the Indian 3rd fleet which included the Aircraft Carrier INS Vinkrat, all leading to a total of four carriers being involved in the taskforce. The Battle for the Red Sea began on the Christmas of 1965 as Djibouti became the first battleground, the Ethiopian rebels, with support from the Combined Air Force and the British Marines would launch an assault into Djibouti City, in order to destroy the Italian Air Field and neutralize the threat of the Red Sea being isolated from both sides. The Battle was short with the overwhelming air and naval superiority of the Coalition of Nations being able to break the Italian hold over the city which was captured by the Ethiopians. That would be a short-lived victory as later the italians would reclaim the territory, but this would only happen after the war in Israel was over.
The relief force was too much against the Yemenites, who had fought the war for years and employed the majority of their own resources in armaments and manpower in an attempt to seize the straits. Perim Island was briefly occupied on the 19th until the relief came on the 26th, leading to the capture of roughly a thousand Pan-Arabists, the battle in the city of Aden itself would end on the 27th with the withdrawal of the Pan-Arabist troops. With the mouth of the Red Sea ensured, the Coalition would also be joined by the US Navy after an unlikely chain of events in Washington. The traditional isolationism of President Smith, who even boldly withdrew the United States from the United Nations, had completely reversed as the crisis in Israel began to escalate in December, leading to an agreement where the US 6th Fleet would be put in Gabon. After the start of the war, without notifying Congress, Smith ordered the 6th fleet to move into the Red Sea and publicly denounced the attack on Israel in the most apocalyptic of terms.
President Smith, perhaps one of the most fierce anti-semites to ever become President of the United States, had ironically become the foremost crusader in favor of the defense of Israel. Smith would go to Congress on the 18th and speak of the "Attack of the enemies of God into the Holy Land", in a language that would more fit a medieval Pope than a President, Smith called for America to fulfill a sacred duty to protect the land of Israel from the hordes of the Reich, reiterating Goebbels' infamous moniker of "Antichrist" and claiming that allowing the Swastika to be raised on the most sacred land on earth would be akin to spitting on the blood of Jesus. In more pragmatic terms, he would demand that Congress set aside it's differences to support the immediate intervention to stop the full control of the Reich over the Mediterranean and the expansion of Germania's power over the Indian Ocean. He did not mention the Jewish people at no point in his speech or to protect them from massacres although many Republicans, above all Goldwater himself, would call for support of the Presidential call to intervene in the Israeli War. Huey Long, a lifelong isolationist except when it benefitted him, claimed that it would be better to send material and financial help to avoid rising tensions by involving American blood. To everyone's shock, Smith called Huey Long a coward, claiming that failing to defend the holy land from the forces of Satan in the most fierce way possible was nothing less than an act of collaboration with the Devil himself. This was the first time Gerald Smith had ever publicly opposed Long, nevermind in such heated terms, this was a signal that this, just like his morality campaign, was a personal crusade of Smith for sake of what he saw as his Christian duty that no political pressure or force would ever talk him out of. With the exception of several populist figures who backed Long, Congress did overwhelmingly approve Smith's declaration of Intervention.
Declarations were given around the world in support of Israel, Pope Stephen X, going against the declaration of Antipope Eugene, would call upon Christians to "Pray and support the Jewish people in their struggle against extermination", in response the Brazilian State would dispatch it's own force of roughly 3 thousand volunteers to Israel, the majority of them being members of the Catholic Action, inspired by the crusading orders of the past. In China, Mao denounced the Imperialist spirit of the Linz Pakt, although he did not give support to Israel, he would dispatch the shipment of armaments to the Ethiopian rebels following the fall of Djibouti. In Russia, the Tsar denounced the Reich but did little more than rhetoric, the Empire claimed it could not spare help towards the Israeli struggle. In the Free French Empire, Emperor Napoleon dispatched a force of 9 thousand men, including many Jewish refugees, to join the Coalition of Nations in their expedition. As the New Year arrived, the Assault on Port Sudan was halted by the forces of the Coalition after 13 days of intense struggle by the British forces to combat the Pan-Arabist forces saving the lives of tens of thousands of Jewish refugees, the majority of them being children. The Raids on the Red Sea stopped, despite the loss of thousands of refugees during the month from air and naval raids by Arab and Pakt forces, the waters and the air were secured, with Nasser publicly announcing the UAR's "Neutrality" in the conflict on the 31st, a treason of the highest order to Joseph Goebbels.
In that very same new year, the Israeli defenses were broken with the first nuclear detonation of the war.
The German offensive operations began on the 24th of December with a planned assault from two directions, to the North, a force of 5 infantry divisions and the 7th Panzerdivision would drive southwards to Tyre and attempt to invade Israel through the more flat terrain along the coast, counting with the support of naval and air forces in the Mediterranean. To the East in the Golan Heights, the Germans, with the 8th Panzer Division and 2 infantry divisions, would act as a spearhead in collaboration with the Syrian army to break the Israeli defenses, the overall goal of the two attacks was to push the IPF back to the pre-1959 borders and repeat the Syrian invasion in 1947, Operation Whirlwind, by driving down towards Tel-Aviv along the coast and towards Jerusalem alongside the Jordan Valley.
Aware of that venue of attack, the IPF concentrated it's defenses in Southern Lebanon, with the Golan Heights being able to be defended by a smaller force, the heights were also stripped of all their armored units in favor of the forces in the Lebanese front. Between the 24th and the 31st, a fighting withdrawal was fought over the territory with the IPF attempting to inflict heavy casualties while the Germans were surprised by the tenacity of the IPF. The local arabs in many places such as Tyre itself would greet the Germans and Syrians as liberators, thankfully for the Jews, the local jewish population had long since been evacuated due to the fears of capture under the Germans or of Pogroms. In some incidents, the Volkssturm units would strike against Palestinians, mistaking them as Jews, which eroded further the support for the war in the UAR and within Palestinian rebel groups within Israel, one such cases being the massacre of Mansouri where the Volkssturm seized 29 suspected "Jews" and attempted to incide the crowd into a mass lynching, when the local Arabs protested in horror, the suspects were executed and the Volkssturm would disperse the crowd with live ammunition, earning credence to the Israeli propaganda towards the Arabs that the Germans were an enemy of all the descendants of Abraham.
Still, the IPF showed results by achieving a 1:1, sometimes a 2:1 ratio of killings on the Wehrmacht despite the latter's advantages which included the control of the skies, the support from the Navy, and the more advanced armaments possessed by the Germans. Still, that was a loss that Germania could replenish, the Israelis could not. As Jabal Balat was taken following a vicious fight over the hill, the Israelis were back at their borders, with the Moshav of Shomera being under artillery range. The Germans would begin to indiscriminately shell the town with chemical weapons, from Phosgene to Sarin gas, routing out the IPF defenders from there while the remaining inhabitants were taken to the south. But this paled to the breakthrough forced in the Golan Heights on the 31st, after three different failed attempts to capture the enemy defenses, Peiper even complained about the quality of the Syrian officers who ordered withdrawals far too early and the lack of motivation of many Syrian troops and that led to him taking matters in his own hands. The Atomtruppen group was deployed in the heights with new ammunition delivered from Trieste. On the New Year, the 8th Panzer Division struck hard into the Golan Heights using tactical atomic weapons as a creeping barrage to break the enemy bunkers and defenses, chaos would break out in the Israeli formations and soon by the first of January, the Heights were under German control, with artillery beginning to shell the villages in the Northern Israeli Plain.
In January, the Germans continued their offensive in the form of three main attacks to overwhelm the Northern districts of Israel: An attack from Southern Lebanon aiming at Acre and Haifa, another from the Golan heights to Zefat and the North of the Galilee Sea where much of the IPF was located, and one from Irbid, repeating the previous Syrian operation by striking across the Jordan through the South of the Galilee Sea, aiming at Nazareth to cut off the IPF from Jerusalem. The goal of the operation was to encircle the majority of the Israeli armed forces in the North to clear the way to conquer the South. As Nasser announced his neutrality, a furious Goebbels would demand the invasion of Jordan to Peiper, who was much obliged in doing so at an "opportune" time in order to flank the Israeli forces and strike south at the Negev. For now he would order Shishakli, as one orders a subordinate rather than an ally, to start gathering the Syrian army to invade Jordan.
The Offensive began on the 4th of January after 3 days of rest for the German troops, the Israeli forces near the Golan heights would withdraw immediately, fearing an encirclement and heading south in order to conserve the Israeli Protection Force from being wiped out, General Sharon was caught between the pressure to defend the Kibbutzims and Moshavs in Northern Israel and the pragmatic realities of the field, opting for the later even if it cost the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis in the coming weeks. As the retreat began, the Germans attempted to accelerate the offensive while the Israelis abandoned the North of the Galilee Sea and the city of Acre, instead there would be a new defensive line going from Haifa to Nazareth, then going down along the Jordan river. The Germans quickly occupied the land by the 9th and met the Israelis in their defensive line, starting an intense battle across the entire front which devolved into trenches, barbed wire and chemical weapons. On the 11th, Peiper would launch a full assault against the city of Haifa where Israel unveiled Operation Samson.
Haifa would be the determinant factor in showing the world just how far the Jewish people was willing to go in order to not be subject of the rule of the NSDAP. The Israeli State, alongside the Russian Empire, the Indian Republic and the Free French Empire would collaborate in a secret nuclear program throughout a decade and a half, the main goal for Israel, France and Russia was to seek a deterrent against the continued German expansion, for India it was about asserting itself as power in the international stage. The program yielded few results for a lot of time, but on the 11th of January of 1966, the State of Israel unveiled their first nuclear bomb. Due to the loss of proper delivery methods by the destruction of the meager bomber fleet of the IPF and the lack of Missile launching sites following the German bombing campaign. Haifa had been reduced to rubble by the German navy and air force, and this pile of rubble was now being fiercely contested by the Germans and Israelis alike as Peiper concentrated his efforts to secure a breakthrough by advancing along the coast rather than pressing the Nazareth line.
A group of Jewish troops was left behind in the encircled city as the German infantry advanced, by nightfall the majority of the city was taken and the Germans prepared for a final assault on the 12th to capture the costal area. That is when an explosion shattered what was left of the city, a nuclear detonation measuring 60 kilotons would explode at one of the tallest remaining buildings inside a collapsed attic. The IPF units in the city would be wiped out, bringing along the majority of the German troops in the urban terrain, as well injuring and rendering inoperative at least the same amount. In total, the detonation of Haifa was the deathliest explosion by a nuclear weapon since the bombing of Sendai, in fact it was even more lethal with as many as 60 thousand deaths and 70 thousand wounded to varying degrees, including civilians left in the city and nearby German and Israeli troops affected by the detonation, it was also a bomb estimated to be three times stronger than the bomb detonated in Sendai.
The shocking destruction of Haifa coincided with the arrival of the first Coalition troops at Eilat, a combined force which ranged from 19 thousand Americans and 15 thousand British troops to a symbolic 50 men force from Korea had arrived with a total of up to 50 thousand men. The Carriers at the Red Sea, now totaling round 6, would start launching strikes against the German Air Force as the skies over Israel grew more and more contested, causing the Luftwaffe to suspend the bombing campaign on the 15th after spreading terror and destruction for almost a month all across Israel. Operation Exodus continued with the Coalition of Nations now escorting refugees into Port Sudan or Aden, with American and British destroyers being converted into transport vessels for the refugees which now began to include an increasing flow of Arabs from Palestine after the news of the Volkssturm's massacres began to spread. All across Northern Israel, Kibbutz and Moshav communities were wiped out, despite the attempts at minimizing civilian casualties, the Volkssturm would still be able to capture and massacre thousands of civilians, and if captured by the Wehrmacht instead, the likely fate was to be sent north into Syria where the Germans set up the Homs Industrial Facility, a concentration camp where over 30 thousand Jews would be taken to work for the Syrian War machine during that month, although few were prisoners of war, as a general rule the Germans did not take Jewish prisoners and those who did surrender tried to surrender to Syrian authorities instead.
Peiper launched his Jordanian offensive on the 14th in junction with the Syrian army and overran the territory at an impressive speed, the superior armaments and numbers, aerial superiority, the surprise and demoralization of the UAR troops and the instability Nasser faced at home following the defeats of his allies in Yemen and Sudan were pushing the nation into a breaking point. Many of the Arab troops would desert, a decade and a half of unity with Egypt only left Jordan sidelined and losing half of it's territory if not more. The loss of Al-Dorra and the last connection to Cairo was just the last straw. The Jordanian assembly attempted to declare independence in Amman with General Nuwar, the man who overthrew the Hashemites and joined Jordan with the unpopular Pan-Arab cause, would be arrested and executed by the popular assembly. That did not save Jordan from Syria and instead only caused further chaos. The IPF would quickly occupy the south of the country, with even Jordanian troops joining them in the confusion to avoid being captured by the Syrians, others joined with the Syrians, the few who fought for the assembly in Aman fought against the Pan-Arab loyalists while the Syrians and Germans closed into the city. The chaotic fall of Jordan was swift and Nasser could do little to stop it even if many urged him to invade the Sinai in response, but seeing as the Syrians and Germans alike announced Jordan's incorporation into the Greater Syria and the Coalition still had forces within striking distance of Cairo, neutrality became the only answer as the formerly firebrand leader of Arab liberation fell into a moribond inaction which doomed what was left of his prestige.
With the fall of Aman and Haifa, the Nazareth Line became impossible to hold in any practicality and the IPF began to withdraw back to Samaria to cities such as Jenin and Netanya, the danger grew as the Germans pushed south more and more while the IPF worked to hold back the enemy advances in order to prevent the civilian population from being captured. Peiper, fearing a repeat of the first war where a foreign intervention was able to drive the Syrians back, decided to unleash a relentless offensive across the front in order to break the IPF before further reinforcements arrived. He feared that the Jews could have traps similar to the one in Haifa, which caused more German losses than open battles, the urban terrain became treacherous after the devastation of the month-long campaign of bombardments. But he knew one place where the Jews would not detonate: Jerusalem.
From Aman, a force of 4 Infantry divisions as well as the 8th Panzer division, supported by roughly 40 thousand Syrians, totalizing roughly 140 thousand men, would launch an attack on Jerusalem from the East through Jericho. The assault pushed back the IPF as the concentration of troops and the use of Atomtruppen tactics would force a breakthrough, the Luftwaffe would begin a campaign over the city by dropping chemical weapons which, Peiper argued, would leave the holy sites intact and only eliminate "the festering vermin within the city", the attacks also avoided striking the old city, however the wind could not be controlled. An image which became popularized at the time and widely publicized showcased the Al-Aqsa mosque's golden dome, from the perspective from the Mount of Olives, standing above a cloud of phosgene gas which was blown into the old city. On the 26th of January of 1966, following a furious assault by the Wehrmacht and the use of Fallschirmjägers, the Germans would finally seize the city of Jerusalem and the Hooked Cross was raised in the holiest site of Judaism.
The fall of Jerusalem brought with it shocking images to all the world, the members of the Knesset who refused to leave would be taken captive by the Volkssturm who took them into the Old City to the Wailing Wall, there, summary executions by firing squad would be carried out by specialized groups of the Volkssturm. The German Army took a ghost city, the majority of the population having fled as soon as the gas attacks had started. The Wall of the temple would be stained in red from the blood of the victims of the Reich, the Syrians would secure the Al-Aqsa mosque with Saadeh being declared as it's protector. It was the darkest hour of the Jewish State, but the fighting was not over, in less than a week the Germans would be forced to withdraw as a joint IPF-Coalition offensive cut off the road of Jaffa, forcing the majority of the Wehrmacht to withdraw with a token force being left behind to remain a garrison in the city. The Battle for Jericho would then start as the 8th Panzer Division fought a combined Anglo-American force of tanks in the road, the infantry from both sides fought in a brutal fashion which showcased the level of fanaticism of the Volkssturm, the units many times lost discipline and charged in blindly against the Coalition to seize supposed opportunities. In the West, the fight was fought in Nablus and the Northern Districts of Tel Aviv, however the devastation the Germans themselves inflicted would delay the push to Tel Aviv and as time passed, more enemies arrived, with the refugees from the Northern Districts volunteering en masse to the IPF and thousands of troops from the Coalition arriving at the Sinai and Eilat every day. Furthermore, a joint force of Israeli and Jordanian troops began to press from the south towards Aman along the shores of the dead sea.
During the War, there were no German prisoners captured by Israel, the IPF was able to capture Syrians, Persians, Turks, Arabs, Palestineans, however never were Germans captured. The brutality in the conflict between Jews and Germans gave no quarter among either of the two peoples, the soldiers of the IPF gave no mercy to German captives just as German soldiers gave none to Israelis. One example was the capture and execution of 600 German prisoners in Zicron Jaacov on the 17th of January, which was widely propagandized by the Germans as a proof of Jewish barbarity, ignoring their own brutality if not praising it as an example of Justice. Operation Hadrian had so far proceeded as expected, even with some delay, but now the conflict was becoming more and more similar to a stalemate. The North of Israel, under German occupation, began to see preparations for a more permanent occupation as Goebbels would make plans for a Reichskommissariat over Palestine in order to "Cleanse it from the Jewish Influences", engineering crews began the construction of a camp near the Jordan river east of Beit Shehan which was meant to work as an agricultural camp. There were also plans to start settling Germans in the region but those still had to take in consideration the Syrians and the long-term goals of the Reich in the region such as the control of the Suez Canal.
However, the loss at Jericho would be followed by a counter attack by the Coalition which cut off and encircled Jerusalem, a short and intense battle for the city would follow and by the first of February, the city was freed from the German-Syrian occupation. American Jets soared through the skies at growing numbers and the forces of the coalition would soon number at roughly a hundred thousand and growing. The recapture of Jerusalem would be the beginning of a general counter offensive on the front, the IPF, supplied by the arrival of armaments from across the world, would launch an offensive into Netanya and retake the city while a major blow was delivered against the Reich. The Behemoth Battleship Frederick der Grosse would be struck on the 1th of February by a joint Anglo-American-Israeli force that assaulted the floating fortress, until eventually a tactical nuclear missile was shot, detonating the ammunition cache in the largest explosion ever seen in Naval history, breaking in half the 130-ton battleship within the sight of the coastline which was terrorized by it's guns for over a month with ceaseless bombardment. This caused the Kriegsmarine to retreat it's twin ship, the Karl der Grosse, from the field while the enormous Ship sunk beneath the waves, the largest ship wreckage in the world.
Using the higher ground at Judea and Samaria and by successfully holding Nablus despite repeated offensives, the IPF was able to use the terrain to it's advantage and trap the Germans between the coast and the hills, a narrow plain of roughly 15 miles of width which became a killing field with vast extensions of scorched earth contaminated by chemical weapons and even of low-yield nuclear bombs from the Atomtruppen groups. Peiper himself would become a victim on the 6th of February, just as he received news of the interception of an attempt of amphibious forces in Ascalon and their failure to establish a bridgehead, his headquarters in Jenin would be struck by a bombing run, he would not resist the wounds as the shrapnel pierced his lungs, dying in the medical hospital and proving once again why it was a terrible idea to command your troops near the frontline. But overall, the German advance had failed, but displacing them was the hard part, with the Wehrmacht and the Syrians alike digging in a line stretching from Aman, going to Jenin and the ruins of Haifa.
And on the 7th of February of 1966, Joseph Goebbels' patience ran out.
