America: My Third TL

herricks

The Pacific Campaigns

The Pacific Theater was expanding for the Allies. While the Chinese Navy had been thrashed at Fiji, the Java Sea, & Shandong direct attack on the Chinese mainland was a dangerous near impossible task due to China's control over the chain of islands such as the Palau, Caroline, & Marianas. Chinese control over the Caroline Islands held little threat to the Allies & could be bypassed relatively easily. The others however needed to be taken care of.

The Marianas Campaign began on June 15 with the invasion of the island of Saipan. Two Marine & one Army Infantry Divisions commanded by Marine Lieutenant General Thomas Watson landed along the beaches under heavy fire. The Battle of Saipan was a viscous fight lasting until July 9 & would result in nearly 30,000 military & 15,000 civilian casualties. The Battle of Guam would begin three days after the Battle of Saipan did. Guam would hold out for over a month before the final 1800 combat ready Chinese soldiers surrendered on July 21. Saipan & Guam would be the two major battles of the Marianas campaign while a lesser though no less significant Battle of Tinian would occur from July 24 to August 1. The conclusion of the Battle of Tinian would also conclude the Marianas Campaign that had finally returned to Allied hands.

On July 1 the Palau Campaign began with the invasion of Peleliu by the III Amphibious Force under Marine Lieutenant General Lewis “Chesty” Puller. The Battle of Peleliu was predicted to last less than a week. However, due to China's well-crafted fortifications & stiff resistance, the battle lasted over two months not ending until September 9. The US suffered 12,000 casualties out of the 45,000 Marines & soldiers that participated in the battle. This was against a force of only 14,000 Chinese soldiers who suffered more than 8,000 casualties themselves. Compared to the casualties Peleliu the Battle of Angaur, the only other significant battle in the Palau Campaign, was minor. From August 2-19 the Battle of Angaur saw only 1,500 US casualties total, less than the number of American dead on Peleliu.

Front line warning sign on Peleliu August 1947


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herricks

Don't forget to lock the Backdoor

By May India had been stuck on the western side of the Ganges for nearly 8 months. Now however, months of planning were finally going to come to a head. As dawn came about on May 24 the waters off Cox's Bazar Beach were filled with British, Commonwealth, & American warships. Operation Varuna began as dozens of the new American made Landing Vehicle Tracked or LVT's began transporting several thousand amphibious warfare trained Australian troops. The beach had few defenses & the initial landings went off without a hitch. However China had two divisions of troops within a days march of the beach & soon the Allies were in a fierce fight to maintain control of the beachhead. Over the next 6 days the heavy fighting around Cox's Bazar threatened to destroy the Allies toehold on several occasions. However Allied naval & air power would hold the Chinese at bay while additional Indian divisions were offloaded onto the beaches. Chinese forces would finally withdraw entirely after their defeat at the Batle of Chakaria on May 31.

The Allies would move out from their toehold on June 10 & move on the port city of Chittagong. The Allies needed Chittagong & its port to be able to offload more equipment & supplies. The importance of the port was known by China as well & several divisions were pulled from the Ganges to defend the city. The Battle of Chittagong would be fierce but relatively short lasting only a week & ending on June 29. Much of the docks had been destroyed however by the retreating Chinese & would have to be repaired by Allied engineers. Despite this however, the Allied army still expanded their hold & by August they had reached into Burma.

Operation Varuna would succeed in its goal of breaking the Ganges Line in July. With one Australian & five Indian divisions expanding in their rear China had to focus in two directions & on July 7 an Indian assault finally succeeded in crossing the Ganges. Over the next month the Ganges Line fell apart as Chinese forces withdrew. Dhaka would fall on August 4 & by the end of the month the front was in Tripura.


Scene of the 10th Gurkhas battling in Bangladesh


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herricks

Asal Uttar

At the start of the war the Indian Army had had less than 50 tanks in its whole army & the majority of those were relics. However since the wars beginning the US &, to a lesser extent, Britain had been sending India tanks to where by May 1947 their numbers were at more than 1000, mostly American M-4 Lee tanks. Despite the dramatic increase in numbers India still used their tanks only sparingly. Now finally a large scale armored offensive was ordered to be carried out. On June 2 91 Lee & 58 Matilda II tanks moved out from Multan as the point of a large scale offensive including nearly 100,000 infantry heading northeast in an effort to break China's grip on northern India.

For the first seven days the offensive moved forward with little more than skirmishes occurring. China was preparing however & was bringing its tanks together for a counterattack. On June 10 the Indian armored division came in contact with 200 Chinese tanks outside the town of Tarn Taran Sahib. The Battle of Tarn Taran lasted for three days not ending until June 13. Though they were outnumbered by the Chinese the Battle of Tarn Taran was a decisive victory for the Indians. At the cost of only 14 tanks of their own the Indians destroyed or incapacitated 103 Chinese tanks & routing their entire force. With their armor decimated the Chinese withdrew from the area & by late July both Lahore & Ludhiana were back under Indian control.

The offensive in Punjab offered a relief for the Indians in Meerut & would join in the offensive on July 7. The Battles of Panipat (July 11-17), & Muzaffarnagar (July 15-24) would briefly pause India's advance the Indians continued on. By August the Indians had reached Dehradun & were poised move into the Himalayas & to take the war into China.

Asian Theater August 1947

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The Uchronian

herricks said:
Asal Uttar

At the start of the war the Indian Army had had less than 50 tanks in its whole army & the majority of those were relics. However since the wars beginning the US &, to a lesser extent, Britain had been sending India tanks to where by May 1947 their numbers were at more than 1000, mostly American M-4 Lee tanks. Despite the dramatic increase in numbers India still used their tanks only sparingly. Now finally a large scale armored offensive was ordered to be carried out. On June 2 91 Lee & 58 Matilda II tanks moved out from Multan as the point of a large scale offensive including nearly 100,000 infantry heading northeast in an effort to break China's grip on northern India.

For the first seven days the offensive moved forward with little more than skirmishes occurring. China was preparing however & was bringing its tanks together for a counterattack. On June 10 the Indian armored division came in contact with 200 Chinese tanks outside the town of Tarn Taran Sahib. The Battle of Tarn Taran lasted for three days not ending until June 13. Though they were outnumbered by the Chinese the Battle of Tarn Taran was a decisive victory for the Indians. At the cost of only 14 tanks of their own the Indians destroyed or incapacitated 103 Chinese tanks & routing their entire force. With their armor decimated the Chinese withdrew from the area & by late July both Lahore & Ludhiana were back under Indian control.

The offensive in Punjab offered a relief for the Indians in Meerut & would join in the offensive on July 7. The Battles of Panipat (July 11-17), & Muzaffarnagar (July 15-24) would briefly pause India's advance the Indians continued on. By August the Indians had reached Dehradun & were poised move into the Himalayas & to take the war into China.

Asian Theater August 1947
Click to expand...

Here's hoping the war ends by 1949.....:cool:
 

herricks

The Drive East

Both the Allies & Russia knew that the war in the Lapland wouldn't decide the war either way. As winter approached both Russia & Britain withdrew much of their forces from Lapland to focus them elsewhere. British forces were also being replaced by Swedish troops who were finally able to fight for their homeland, in their homeland. This northern front would become further irrelevant when Swedish naval forces captured Murmansk on November 5 & depriving Russia of its last warm water port outside of the Black Sea.

Though now technically allies after the agreement with Germany none of the Allies really trusted France & Spain. There was evidence in this in the Netherlands where despite its liberation the country was still occupied & more or less in full control still of the country. To help ensure that the Communists didn't take more than they were allotted he Allies were taking some steps to limit the number of countries “liberated” by the Communists.

On September 20 the Canadian led forces crossed out of Scania & invaded Denmark landing on Zeeland & Jutland. In the Battle of Copenhagen, the only major battle in Zeeland, a Yucatani division battled two brigades of Russian garrison troops from September 22- 29 before capturing the city. Jutland would see more major fighting. From September 27 to October 1 Allied & Russian forces would engage one another for control of northern Jutland in the bitter Battle of Lundby. Over the next two months a number of other engagements would occur at Liborg, Herning, Vejle, Tønder, & Schleswig before the Allies reached the Kiel Canal. On December 19 the canal was captured after the fierce Battle of the Kiel ended with the capture of Kiel. By the new year the Allies had returned control of Denmark to the Danes & were on the outskirts of Lübeck & were pushing on Hamburg. Hamburg however would be captured by the French on January 10 before the Canadians could secure control.

Franco-Spanish force were pushing deeper into Germany. By the end of October Oldenburg, Münster, Frankfurt, & Stuttgart had fallen to the Communists as they continued east. From November 6- December 21 the Battle of Hanover would hold up a whole French field army. With the fall of Hanover the road to Berlin would be opened for the Allies.

German forces would also continue to liberate more of their homeland. With the liberation of Nuremburg on October 22 most Russian forces in Bavaria would withdraw leaving it for the Germans. The front entered Saxony by December & by Christmas the Allies had retaken Prague & were moving to liberate Dresden. With Prague in Allied control the Bohemian government took over on January 1.
 

herricks

The Grapple in the Balkans & Caucasus

In the Balkan Front the Allies were attempting to gain as much ground as possible before winter set in. Italian & Serbian forces were moving on Budapest as quickly as possible. While the Serbians pushed straight ahead towards the Hungarian capital the Italians were moving from the west to take the city from the north. Italy's movement took them into Slovakia where the already crumbling Slovak Army offered little real resistance & on October 1 the Slovakian capital Bratislava. The loss of their capital was the final straw for the Slovakians who would ask the Allies for terms on October 10. The Allies demands were the same as with the rest of Russia's allies, unconditional surrender, which was agreed to the next day. The fall of Slovakia forces Russia to divert yet more troops to take over for a fallen ally. With the Serbs to their south & Italians to their north holding Budapest would prove an impossible task. On November 3 the Battle of Budapest came to an end with the city, & 75,000 Hungarian troops, surrendered.

Out of Bulgaria, Allied forces began crossing into occupied Romania on September 9. Despite fierce resistance along the Dunav the Russian Army had been stretched to the max & were unable to hold the Allies back. After a series of back & forth battles throughout southern Romania the Romanian capital Bucharest was evacuated by Russian forces on October 2. The next day two regiments of Romanian soldiers, who were part of the Romanian Army in exile that were fighting under the German Army, accompanied by King Michal I entered Bucharest.

In Anatolia Russian presence had nearly been destroyed. The two Russian armies remaining in Anatolia were now trapped in the ports of Samsun & Trabzon desperately trying to be rescued. For the moment Russian bombers from the Crimea & fighter aircraft from two carriers, one fleet & one light, that had been rapidly completed in Sevastopol. On September 25 that changed however when after the Allied fleet, consisting of American, Italian, & Turkish warships, entered the Black Sea & destroyed the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the two day Battle of the Black Sea that cost the Allies only 950 casualties & on Turkish battleship. With their navy destroyed Allied naval forces began pounding Russian ports & airfields in Crimea & the Ukraine. Russian ground forces in Anatolia just couldn't hold on anymore. On October 9 the 100,000 Russian troops at Trabzon surrendered to American forces & on October 14 Samsun & 91,000 Russian troops surrendered to the British.

As all this was occurring Turkish forces had pushed into Armenia & were attempting to capture Yerevan. Here however the Russians tried to halt the Allied advance & the Battle of Yerevan would rage for 42 days from September 29 to November 9 before the Russians were forced to withdraw once more. Following Yerevan another target was in the Allies cross-airs. On November 21 hundreds of Allied aircraft in the first of many waves dropped thousands of pounds of explosives on Baku & its oilfields. The Allies were looking to starve Russia of fuel & by he end of the year Baku's oilfields were almost completely destroyed.

Europen warfront end of 1947

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herricks

The war in the Greater Sunda's

The new year, 1948, was bringing the war closer to China. With Java in Allied hands new plans were being put into action to eat more away at China's buffers & open up China itself to attack. On January 18,1948 Operation Oboe with American & Australian forces invading Borneo. The invasion of Borneo had been widely debated among the Allies who believed that bypassing Borneo, as well as the Philippines, & invading mainland Indochina to be a more viable option. General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific, would have none of it. Borneo held thousands of Allied soldiers, mostly American, in its prison camps that were living in horrid conditions as well as major oilfields. MacArthur's will finally won over & Operation Oboe was approved. 100,000 American landed near Balikpapan & in North Borneo outside Jonesboro while 50,000 Australian troops landed on & around Tarakan Island.

Though only defended by 2,700 soldiers the Battle of Tarakan would prove especially fierce & in the two weeks it took to capture would cost the Australians over a thousand casualties. On Borneo itself the Australians initially were having it slightly easier. Much of the Chinese force that had invaded Borneo had been withdrawn to fight on Java & now only 55,000 troops. The majority of these troops had moved to counter the American invasions & so the Australians moved quickly capturing a significant piece of Borneo & reaching the Sarawak border before they were finally attacked in force & forcing them to hunker down & fight.

The American invasion of North Borneo faced fierce resistance despite overwhelming numerical superiority. American forces were had been raked by machine gun fire & pounded by artillery as they came ashore & were then forced in a fierce street by street fight through Jonesboro that lasted for four days & cost the Americans 3,500 casualties. Though the Americans advanced, Chinese forces used the terrain to their advantage to kill as many Allied troops as possible. From March 2-18 barely a thousand Chinese troops held up most of a division in the Battle of Mount Kinabalu killing over 500 Americans & wounding thousands more before the mountain fell to Allied hands.

The Americans in southern Borneo were facing similar difficulties. Though they had landed without incident, soon however they were being attacked on all sides. All across Borneo Chinese force were making life hell for the invading Allied forces. However with the numbers to their advantage & reinforcements arriving the Allies slowly trudged forward. By June the Allies had pushed the Chinese to holding just a few square miles of Brunei & the city of Bandar. The POW's had finally been liberated & were receiving the attention that they needed. On July 4,1948 organized Chinese resistance on Borneo would end with the surrender of Bandar. Chinese holdouts however would lead a guerrilla campaign against the Allies however that would tie down troops & continue to cause casualties for the remainder of the war.

Australian infantry advancing through wrecked oil storage tanks at Tank Hill, Tarakan

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herricks

Dark Waters

While taking war making material like iron ore, rubber, & oil from the Allies Japan had refused to ally with the Allied powers. That changed on February 9 when Japanese, American, German, British, & the Commonwealth delegates met at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii aboard Japan's mightiest battleship the Yamato to sign the Treaty of Oahu officially making Japan part of the Allied powers & pledging to enter the war against Russia within the year. The first joint operation would come a month later with the Japanese & American fleets.

Allied plans were to capture key islands in the first island chain & open up the Chinese mainland to attack. However despite defeating them at Fiji, the Java Sea, & off Shandong the Allies still needed to take the Chinese Navy out of the equation to make capturing these islands feasible. On March 17 three Allied fleets, two American & one Japanese, sailed into the Philippine Sea. The the American fleets commanded by Admiral Chester Nimitz, who also commanded the entire Allied fleet, consisted of 6 fleet carriers, 5 light carriers, 10 escort carriers, 9 battleships, 18 cruisers, & 140 destroyers and destroyer escorts. The Japanese fleet commanded by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Nimitz's second in command, consisted of 4 fleet carriers, 4 light carriers, 12 battleships, 20 cruisers, 120 destroyers, & 22 submarines.

China had sent the bulk of its navy, which consisted of 3 fleet carriers, 5 light carriers, 15 battleships, 21 cruisers, & 70 destroyers under Admiral Xian into the Philippine Sea to attempt & defeat these three fleets before they could join up & overwhelm them. On March 18 220 miles west of the Japanese island of Iwo Jima the Chinese & Japanese fleets aircraft came across one another & began to fight. The first day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea was a one on one fight between China & Japan. While their American allies sailed full steam to assist the waters were filled with oil, fire, & blood from both sides. At the end of the first day China was faring slightly better having sent a Japanese light carrier & a battleship. At 0300 on the econd day however the Americans entered the battle. For the next 32 hours the Battle of the Philippine Sea turned rapidly against China. By the end of the battle on March 20 nearly all of the Chinese fleet had been destroyed & nearly 15,000 sailors were dead. Only 6 battleships, 8 cruisers, & 11 destroyers had escaped the carnage & sailed quickly back towards Okinawa. 60 miles from their destination however these ships ran directly into the Japanese submarine picket line & 3 more battleships & 2 more cruisers would be lost along with Admiral Xian at the loss of 4 subs.

The Allies losses were also staggering. Japan had lost 3 fleet carriers, 2 battleships, 550–645 aircraft destroyed, & 6 other ships damaged with 2,987 dead. The Americans had suffered 1 fleet carrier, 1 light carrier, 2 escort carriers, 2 cruisers, a destroyer, & 200 planes with almost 2,800 dead. The Battle of the Philippine Sea was considered by many to be the largest naval battle in history with over 450 ships participating & over 20,000 dead. The Chinese surface fleet was now confined to China's maritime borders & the path to the first island chain was now cleared for the Allies.


The light carrier USS Princeton on fire


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herricks

The Islands

With the Chinese Navy out of the picture thanks to the Battle of the Philippine Sea Allied forces began making preparations for their ground assaults. On April 1 more than a hundred Allied warships opened up on Formosa's eastern coast as hundreds more aircraft began pounding from the sky. The next day the first of more than 350,000 American Marines & soldiers would begin landing on several beaches beginning Operation Iceberg. Formosa would have a garrison of 100,000 Chinese troops who despite the Allied bombardment were more than capable of putting up a stiff resistance. To China Formosa was part of the homeland & they were determined to defeat the American invaders. The Battle of Formosa was fierce with the Allies forced to fight over nearly every foot of the island. For 82 days the island was a killing field as thousands were killed on both sides. For the first time during the war in the Pacific Allied casualties outnumbered the Chinese. By the time the battle finally ended after the fall of Kaohsiung on June 22 over 13,000 Americans had died & nearly 40,000 had been wounded. The Chinese had suffered around 10,000 dead & 31,000 wounded while the remaining became prisoners of war. From Formosan airfields Allied air forces began launching raids against the Chinese mainland.

Nearly two months after the Battle of Formosa began Japanese aircraft & warships began to blanket the Chinese occupied island of Okinawa. Since the islands capture of the island chain nearly three years before the liberation of the Ryuku's had been on the top of Japans priority list. The Second Battle of Okinawa began as 300,000 Japanese forces landed on the island. For 35 days Japanese forces ferociously attacked Chinese positions slaughtering many of them. When the battle finally came to an end on July 3 only 14,000 Chinese were taken prisoners of the 70,000 troops that had remained on Okinawa. Many of these would never see China again.

Raising the First Flag on Formosa

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herricks

well just moved to a new place and except for next weekend I won't have Internet for a while so there won't be many if any new updates till I get it
 

herricks

A dragon withdraws

Chinese forces in northern India were faltering. By the spring Indians had captured most territory outside of the Himalayas. Neither side was real fond of fighting a war though the mountains & this front stabilized with both sides diverting many troops & resources elsewhere. One area that began to receive a slight increase in resources was Afghanistan. Allied forces here slowly trudged forward against Russian & Chinese forces. From March 1- April 2 South African & Indian forces battled the Russians in the Battle of Herat. Russian military presence in Afghanistan had been decreasing significantly due to the events in Europe & so in the Battle of Herat the Allies outnumbered them more than 2-1. The defeat at Herat had Russia also lose nearly 1/3 of its Afghan force & over the next 5 weeks withdrew to the border. In the eastern portion of the country the Allied armies assaulted Kabul on March 23. The Battle of Kabul was much more fierce than Herat with the Afghan capital not being pulled from Chinese control until May 7.

The real fighting for India was now in Bengal & Burma. Indian reinforcements from northern India were arriving sooner than the Chinese & the Allies were determined to take advantage of that small window. Fighting in Tripura had grown more intense with each passing month since the new year. On May 15 the Tripura Offensive began with the Indians using their superiority in numbers to attempt & drive the eastern front fully into Burma. Overwhelmed everywhere the Chinese were forced to retreat. By the end of June most of the eastern front was out of India & into Burma.

Asian Warfront June 1948

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herricks

Shaky Ground

German & Communist forces were moving to liberate Berlin from Russian control. The Battle of Dresden from February 19-March 10 was a bloody one. The Allies, mostly German & some Polish troops, suffered over 60,000 casualties. Russian casualties however would surpass 100,000. By April the German army was within 100 miles & the French army within 30 miles of Berlin. Field Marshal Rommel of the German Army called to Frances Field Marshal Charles de Gaulle to halt his army's advance on Berlin & allow the Germans to liberate their own capital. de Gaulle however had other ideas. Despite fighting on the same side now there was still close to a century of bad blood between France & Germany & de Gaulle ordered his forces to steam forward & quickly capture the German capital first. After eight days of bloody fighting which would destroy much of the city Berlin fell into French hands.

Liberating Berlin before Germany could reach it was a big enough embarrassment to the Germans. However once the French entered Berlin they didn't leave it. For almost a month Berlin was occupied by the French who would treat the Berliners not as fellow allies but more as subjects & would even go as far as raising the French flag above the Reichstag. It wouldn't be until June 10 after Rommel gave de Gaulle more or less an ultimatum to leave the capital or be evicted by force did the French withdraw. By the end of June the front in Germany stretch along the Oder & the Allies were poised to cross.

In Bohemia & Slovakia Bohemian & Italian forces continued to gain ground against Russia. The Battle of Brno, from February 7-27, Italian forces battled the dug in Russians & suffering over 12,000 casualties before capturing the city. However when they finally took Brno they would also succeed in the capture of almost an entire division of Russian soldiers. Allied forces would complete the liberation of Bohemia on April 10 after the fall of Ostrava. In Slovakia the Battle of Zilina would be the last in the western portion of the country which ended on April 21. In May Italian forces would enter Poland.

While Hungary had remained in the war after the fall of their capital their will to continue was faltering. More & more often Hungarian soldiers would surrender rather than die battling the Allies. On May 2 the Hungarian Army had had enough. All across the front nearly 300,000 soldiers got out of their foxholes & surrendered to the Allies. The next day in Debrecen, where the Hungarian government had fled to, Hungarian soldiers captured the nations leader Miklós Horthy & execute him. On May 10 the Hungarian Provisional Government agreed to an unconditional surrender. While some Russian units would move into Hungary following its surrender they just didn't have the men to fully take over for Hungary & by June only a small portion of Hungary wasn't in Allied control.

In Romania Allied forces captured large swathes of territory. Despite Russian resistance town after town fell to the Allies from April 24 to May 2 Russia managed to hold the Allies at the Battle of the Siret but these lines too fell to the Allies by June the Allies were along the Dunai River & poised to invade Russia itself.
 
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