What Elser Wrought

[SteveW]

I've been away for rather a long time and rediscovered an old idea I once put up on here. The original was not well thought-out and I think I can do much better now.

The basic POD is that, on 8th November 1939, Hitler sticks to his timetable and is still speaking at Munich's Buergerbraeukeller at 9:20pm, when Georg Elser's bomb explodes. Had the original plan been stuck to, much of the Nazi top brass would have been annihilated.

 

[SteveW]

The Explosion

The 8th November 1939 is now regarded as the moment which changed the War, and probably changed Europe forever. Flush from its conquest of much of Poland, the Nazi top brass was decimated in an instant.

Adolf Hitler was addressing a meeting of Alte Kaempfer (veterans of the Beer Hall Putsch) in Munich's Buergerbraeukeller that evening. Unbeknownst to all in attendance, a bomb had been placed underneath by one Georg Elser, a Protestant carpenter opposed to war and Nazism. The bomb would go off at 9:20pm. Ironically, Hitler had nearly planned to leave early due to the fog forcing him onto a train instead of a plane to Berlin, but the fog's lifting made sure he was there at the time Elser expected.

The explosion caused instant chaos. The entire rostrum was blown apart and a stampede to escape the destruction crushed dozens. The entire casualty number of 29 killed and 342 wounded was not fully established until 2 weeks later, when the last wounded person to die, Josef Goebbels, succumbed to his wounds after a fortnight in a coma.

When the dust literally and metaphorically settled, the cost to the Nazi high ranks was astounding. Hitler, Rosenberg, Himmler and Bouhler had been killed outright; Himmler and Dietrich both died of their wounds within days; Goebbels, as mentioned above, lingered on for two weeks. Hans Frank was critically wounded and would lose a leg.

There was initial confusion as to who was in charge with so many senior officials dead. It was a shambles. Frantic calls to Berlin were made. General Walther von Brauchitsch was initially informed as Commander-in-Chief, but made it clear that he could not take charge: the most senior living official was Hermann Goering.

Goering was duly informed and called a meeting of all of the surviving Cabinet members (i.e. those who had not gone to Nuremberg) at 1am on 9th November. Most were in attendance. Goering was sworn in as Fuehrer und Kanzler by Franz Guertner, the Minister of Justice, an hour later. All field generals were informed, but the public was not.

 

[SteveW]

Consolidation

"In some ways, it was a blessing for the Wehrmacht that Hitler and the most rabid Nazis were gone. Goering and his allies were more of the old-fashioned Wilhelmine imperialist type. Within days, certain plans of invasion had been set aside" (Marc Bloch, "La Guerre de Goering", 1952, Universite de Laval).

Goering was master now, and plans were indeed soon to be scrapped. He had not been a fan of invading Poland, but that was done now. With Brauchitsch's support, he now immediately blocked all suggestions that Denmark and Norway be invaded, telling the new cabinet that France was his more immediate concern.

For now, as the dust from the beer cellar was settling, the new regime (if you could call it that) needed to consolidate. It had France to deal with on one side, and Polish resistance on the other. Internally, the loss of the regime's figurehead and a host of the top-rank would have to be dealt with.

On the 11th November 1939, Hitler's death was finally announced in a controlled manner. It was declared that he had been killed by a rogue element, the rogue element not being specified. Over the next few days, a variety of enemies of Goering and the new cabinet were taken in and it was intimated that they were connected to the bombing (the real perpetrator, one Georg Elser, had escaped to Switzerland).

And so, as the days went by, familiar and unfamiliar faces were brought in: Julius Streicher, who had spread false rumours about Goering on several occasions, was taken in purely out of revenge; Ribbentrop's crony Martin Luther; and a variety of minor allies of Himmler. Streicher would later be accused of killing Hitler as part of a power grab and would be hanged after a show trial.

The new cabinet was mainly made up of the more faceless members of the Nazi top brass:

Justice- Franz Guertner
Foreign- Julius Dorpmueller
Economics- Walther Funk
War- Wilhelm Keitel
Without Portfolio- Erich Raeder
Food- Richard Darre
Interior- Wilhelm Frick
SS Leader- Reinhard Heydrich
Finance- Schwerin von Krosigk
Propaganda- Wilhelm Stuckart

They mostly owed their positions to Goering's favour.

Goering meanwhile had more foreign affairs to deal with. With all plans for an invasion of Scandinavia shelved, he began to revisit Hitler's plans for the invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Whilst the plans for the invasion remained much the same, his plans for the occupation were radically different. To this end, he summoned the Dutch Fascist Anton Mussert and the Flemish Fascist Staf de Clerq to Berlin.

 

[SteveW]

The Army's Say

The problem for the new regime was popular support. Goering was not exactly the most popular figure amongst the public, with his tendency towards luxury and showboating. Plus, for many, the 'spell' of Hitler was over and there was almost a void. Goering was not an orator in Hitler's mould, but was less vicious, which was a blessing for some. Within weeks, there was a noticeable increase in the numbers of youths involved in groups such as the Swing Youth in the western urban centres.

Conversely, the demise of so many high-ranking fellow Nazis had made Goering more secure for a different reason: the support of the army. With his general caution and his desire not to expand the war beyond dealing with France and the Low Countries, Goering had the backing of Franz Halder, the Chief of Staff. Wilhelm Canaris, the plotting head of the Abwehr, stepped back to see how the land would now lie.

On November 17th, however, the new regime carried on behaving like the old one, and massacred Czech students and shut their universities.

 

[SteveW]

Finland and France

Meanwhile, the Soviets were gathering for their as-yet undeclared war on Finland. But there were unusual goings-on. Whilst Hungary had been sending surreptitious donations of weaponry to their Finno-Ugric brothers, there was suddenly a huge increase in activity, with nearly 10,000 Hungarian-manufactured MG30 machine guns flown over, accompanied by a number of Fiat CR32 fighters which ironically had been gifted to Hungary itself by Germany after Austria's airforce had been liquidated. These were joined secretly by a number of anti-communist volunteer pilots from around Europe, mainly from ostensibly non-aligned countries such as Portugal, Belgium and Greece. These men were primarily fascists with a few idealistic democrats.

But the money was the issue. The money was German, funnelled to Hungary. There may have been a Nazi-Soviet Pact, but that didn't mean that Goering wasn't going to indulge in some underhand tactics, and Admiral Horthy was happy to take the money- which he primarily used to upgrade his own airforce.

The plans to invade the Low Countries and France were beginning to take shape under the auspices of von Manstein and Halder. They foresaw an attack at the beginning of spring, but Goering had other plans beforehand. Obsessed as ever by his Luftwaffe, he rushed forward a plan mimicking some of their actions in Spain a few years earlier.

For this reason, he decided that a huge blow against France was needed to shock and humiliate them.

For that reason, on 29th November 1939 at around 4 in the morning, there were huge explosions at a number of France's eastern military airfields. Saint-Dizier, the eastern command base at Ochey near Nancy, Metz-Frescaty, Strasbourg airfield, and Luxueil were all destroyed by 5 o'clock that morning, and suddenly France's eastern air defences were in ruins. To add even more problems for French morale, flattened the iconic town of Verdun-sur-Meuse.

The news hit Paris within hours. Protestors gathered around Matignon, demanding that Daladier strike back instantly (they were at this point unaware that so much of France's eastern air forces had been wiped out). Daladier was suddenly under serious pressure from the street and the National Assembly. The pacifist and neo-socialist Marcel Deat, who had achieved fame wondering why Frenchmen should 'die for Danzig', re-emerged to claim that this was needless bloodshed caused by Daladier following Britain's lead. This was somewhat ironic, as Deat would have blood on his own hands in a few years time.

 

[SteveW]

Winter War

On the 30th November 1939, after much contrived hostility, the Soviets finally attacked Finland. The Finns were ready for the assault, even if they expected to be destroyed, mainly because a still-unnamed German source had passed on Russian troop details to a Finnish fascist, Elias Simojoki.

The Soviets immediately bombed Helsinki, but were taken aback when their bombers were harried by an unexpected force of Finnish fighters of which the miliary command had not been previously fully aware (these were the repainted Hungarian planes). Indeed, the Soviets lost several key bombers, although the exact number remains undisclosed. At any rate, it is known that enough were lost to force bombing to be scaled back from the initial plan. A number of fighters also strafed the Soviet Seventh Amry as it advanced towards Viipuri, which sowed confusion as minimal air attack had been expected.

The border fighting immediately went unexpectedly as the Finns had not been believed to possess anti-tank weaponry. However, the Soviet tanks were greeted with fire. Several captured anti-tank weapons were recovered by the Soviets, and to their bemusement some were found to have Russian inscriptions- they were believed to have been captured in Spain and sold on (as we now know, via Hungary). The Soviet advance on the border zones, especially around the Karelian Isthmus, was going far slower than the rush to Helsinki they had expected. But for the Finns, this was a blessing- they were buying time, and the breathing space (if you could call it that) was buying valuable time to strengthen the Mannerheim Line in anticipation of the main assault, as well as to plant mines in the ice of Lake Ladoga to inconvenience any assault there.

The Strange Defeat

"Some of our leaders, convinced of our defeat, made noises after the bombings began which could have been straight from the editorials of Deat. Some called for us to reach an accomodation with the Germans; others said sue for peace; others bemoaned our luck, and said this was the fault of others for following the British. 'On mort pour Danzig', was a common refrain" (Marc Bloch, "Strange Defeat", Universite de Laval, 1954).

In France, the situation was getting ever worse from a political point of view. Daladier's government was under serious pressure from the street, and now was flailing in order to hold support. There were calls for retaliatory bombs on Germany, but this required planes which simply were not ready for action, especially after the disastrous attack on the Eastern airfields. He ordered General Gamelin to advance towards the Rhine, but didn't really have any plan of action. It was show- in reality, he was waiting on the British Expeditionary Force to finally assist.

 

[MrP]

Enthralling stuff, Steve!

 

[simonbp]

I'll second that! Very good!

 

[SteveW]

Mrp, Simonbp- thanks very much! Apologies for the sporadic updates, I keep being sent away on work- I shall hopefully update later today.

 

[SteveW]

Daladier's Fall

"I wish to be the saviour of my nation in the time of her need, but I have no desire to be a French Erzberger" (Philippe Petain, letter to Bernard Menetrel, 2nd December 1939)

Petain's pointed reference to the man who had signed the Armistice and taken the blame for the real guilty parties told a real story. Daladier's government was falling apart, mainly due to the dithering reaction to the crisis. The public and the rightwing and left wing alike were demanding action in the face of German bombing, which although sporadic and symbolic was causing havoc and fear.

On the same day as Petain's letter, an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly was held. Daladier was worse the wear for drink [NB: This actually happened IOTL, but later] and was so crude and offensive that large passages of his speeches were struck from the official transcripts. He was destroyed by a parade of enemies on all sides, who almost queued up to denounce him. And thus did Daladier's government fall.

President Albert Lebrun now had a problem on his hands. The premiership had been a revolving door for years- almost everyone of note, and many who were not of note, had had a go at Matignon. He needed someone firm and respected, or failing that, someone with a fresher face who might be able to form a stable government.

Lebrun initially made overtures to Petain, but Petain had no interest. Lebrun considered a variety of technocrats and non-political figures, but none were suitable.

In the end, on
6th December, he called upon Daladier's Radical colleague Paul Marchandeau, the minister of Justice and formerly of Finance. Marchandeau had never run the whole country as Prime Minister and was relatively well-respected.

Marchandeau called in all the non-Communist (and non-pacifist) party leaders and pleaded eloquently for a government of national unity to get France through the crisis. The Radicals, SFIO, right-wing Democratic Alliance and the misnamed Radical Left all acquiesced to this demand, joined by a number of small groups and independents. The new cabinet was therefore:

Prime Minister: Paul Marchandeau (Radical)
Vice President of the Council: Charles Spinasse (SFIO)
Foreign Affairs: Paul Reynaud (independent)
Interior: Albert Sarraut (Radical)
Finance: Pierre Etienne Flandin (Alliance Democratique)
War: Edouard Daladier (Radical)
Labour: Vincent Auriol (SFIO)
Marine: Cesar Campinchi (Radical)
Agriculture: Henri Queille (Radical)

The Cabinet was deliberately low-key: there were few big names. The priority now was to react to the Germans, and if possible help the Finns to fend off the Soviets.

And The War Goes On
The Finns were springing a real surprise on the Soviets, helped not inconsiderably by the free aircraft and other materiel sent by the Hungarians on others' behalf. They were also helped in early December by around 40 Spanish 'volunteer' pilots (it is known that Franco was happy to help out, but only when Goering leaned on him) and another huge shipment of arms. The latter was not picked up by Soviet spies at all- it was shipped at night to the Aland Islands by some Swedes who were in the mysterious pay of Hungary.

The Finns had still not retreated to the Mannerheim Line, to most people's surprise, by 7th December. The anti-tank weaponry had helped, and the aircraft had been holding relatively firm against the Soviet air force, in the sense that the Soviets had still not obtained dominance over the skies. Indeed, the Soviet Navy had been surprised to find itself harassed in the Baltic. The Finns had also, as stated earlier, made great use of their time and this was no clearer than on the 9th December, when the Soviets attacked near Taipale by Lake Ladoga.

The Finns had withdrawn behind Taipale, which had been abandoned. All surrounding country areas had been left as scorched earth, with nothing left standing except for a few shelters. All of which had been booby-trapped. The Soviets entered Taipale in the middle of appalling weather, and the order was given to take shelter until clearer weather allowed an attack on the Finnish forces north of the ruined town, and the Finns waiting across the river.

It was carnage. Many of the troops had not faced warfare like this before. Several hundred died taking essentially a ruined town. Because not only had all the remaining homes been heavily booby-trapped, but so had the town gasworks, which exploded with an incredible force. Into the carnage came a Finnish raiding party, who exploited the charnel-house situation and gunned down more troops in skirmishes.

By the end of the day, the Soviet officers were left with around 400 dead, and the troops were in no fit state to advance for the next few days. The Finns responded by mining the landscape north of Taipale, and the river bank.

 

[SteveW]

Marchandeau Takes Control

Paul Marchandeau's first few days as Prime Minister coincided with a lull in German activity on the Rhine. Under advice from his generals, Goering had ordered that the advent of a new prime minister was to be greeted thus, in order to encourage the new man to sue for peace rather than rally the nation.

Marchandeau did not sue for peace. And nor would he ever get the chance. The factional behaviour of the National Assembly in the face of the enemy was incredible, and ruined all attempts at cohesive government. It was also not helped by the quarrels between General Gamelin and his fellow generals, but eventually, by late December, Daladier (the new Minister of War since his government collapsed) was happily acquiescing to Gamelin's request to plan for an offensive movement on Germany.

Finland
The Winter War was being fought in savage cold and was grinding down all sides, but the Soviets were feeling it more than others. The Finnish tactic of shelling field kitchens was slowing down advances and destroying morale.

It was the 16th December 1939 by the time that the Soviets secured the river banks on both sides of the river at Taipale. Nearly 3,000 Soviet troops had died securing the area, many in the gas explosion early on, but also over 1,000 in the assault on the opposite bank- the river bed and banks had been heavily mined, and Finnish positions kept up a steady rate of harassing fire before being destroyed.

Stalin was fuming. This was a disaster. Troops were ordered to move from the Turkish border to the Finnish front to bolster the assault. But by Christmas, the Finns were still holding out in front of the Mannerheim Line, which by now was being transformed into a fearsome defensive position.

The Soviets were having more luck in the far North, but only in the sense that they were losing very few men. They had however taken the port of Petsamo.

But as the Finns continued to hold out, volunteers began to arrive to assist. From Norway, Sweden and Britian came anti-communist volunteers; from Hungary came Finno-Ugric obsessives; from many other nations came small contributions of men. This was underlined on Christmas Day 1939 when a Hungarian pilot, running out of fuel on a sortie and having already suffered serious damage, ploughed his fighter plane into the main railway spur leaving Saint Petersburg. Although almost accidental, the incident crippled the line for several weeks and forced more supplies onto the roads. The supply lines were thinly stretched.

Germany
Goering was settling comfortably into his new role, comfort being his major goal. Russia's difficulties and France's trials amused him. Now he wanted to finish the French off.

The French had until New Year's Day 1940 to sue for peace. If they did not, preparations for an assault on Belgium and France would begin.

 

[SteveW]

December ground on much the same, with Finland holding on doggedly. The cold was such that hostilities nearly ceased around Christmas as the Soviets did not want to risk their troops too much (an unusual position for them). Elsewhere, the German warship 'Graf Spee' had scuttled itself in the estuary of the River Plate.

But late December saw a strange development in Finland. In the terrible cold, the Finns acually assaulted the Soviet positions for the first time. Again around the Taipale area, the Finns managed to break a number of Soviet camps and send their opponents flying. The Soviet formations in that area were thrown back to Taipale town, which of course was almost totally wrecked and devoid of supplies. The Finns had bought more time. But Stalin was furious, and called in Marshal Timoshenko to 'fix' the situation on 27th December 1939.

But 1st January 1940 was the key date. France had not sued for peace. Goering therefore ordered the planning of 'Fall Gelb'. Under this plan, Belgium and the Netherlands would both be occupied in order to occupy France. But the Wilhelmines in Goering's retinue had no desire to commit to an endless occupation. This was the exact reason why the leading Fascists of the Low Countries had visited Goering just a few months earlier- Germany intended to take what it wanted and leave friendly puppet states in its wake.

 

[Lord Insane]

But as the Finns continued to hold out, volunteers began to arrive to assist. From Norway, Sweden and Britian came anti-communist volunteers; from Hungary came Finno-Ugric obsessives; from many other nations came small contributions of men.

I suspect Sweden, at least, might be a source of volunteers that are not so much anti-communist as pro-Finnish (helping the ''Brother People'' out, Nordicists, etc).

 

[SteveW]

I suspect Sweden, at least, might be a source of volunteers that are not so much anti-communist as pro-Finnish (helping the ''Brother People'' out, Nordicists, etc).

That's true, I think that IOTL, Sweden did provide the most volunteers. I did want to bring out the unusual relationship with Hungary at the time- a lot of Hungarian intellectuals saw Finns as a kindred people to emulate.

 

[Lord Insane]

That's true, I think that IOTL, Sweden did provide the most volunteers. I did want to bring out the unusual relationship with Hungary at the time- a lot of Hungarian intellectuals saw Finns as a kindred people to emulate.

Sweden might still provide the most volunteers in TTL, but that might be more a matter of logistics than anything else, Sweden being a bit closer to Finland and the frontline.

 

[SteveW]

Holland Under Attack

By late January 1940, Finnish resistance was finally beginning to wilt under concerted Soviet attack. In the south, troops had been thrown back as far as the Mannerheim Line, which was by now reinforced by several thousand foreign volunteers, including not just Swedes, Norwegians, and Hungarians but a strange mix of anti-communists, democrats and outright fascists. Eoin O'Duffy even reappeared with a tiny number of enthusiastic veterans of his miserable, failed adventure in Spain, as did members of the British Union of Fascists and a few French far-right types. But also came White Russian emigres, French centre-right and the occasional anti-communist socialist. Most decisive would be the arrival on 17th January of the re-armed Polish exile groups which had been lurking in Paris.

That the Soviets would eventually breach the line was without doubt. But Molotov was increasingly concerned that the exertions of the past few months had depleted Soviet forces. When the Finnish Communist playwright Hella Wuojoki came as a contact for peace, he encouraged Stalin to meet her. Stalin too was concerned by now- his expected simple victory had hacked a huge hole in an army already reeling from the Great Purge. Wuojoki arrived in Moscow on 29th January 1940.

France
Marchandeau's government was unnerved by the continuing lack of German activity. And so it reverted to the pattern of all of its predecessors: in-fighting. Marchandeau was eventually forced to sanction an air attack on Germany.

The attack, on the 30th January, was a miserable failure. The Germans had been made aware of what was afoot and were waiting. The exact figures have never been released, but France lost a significant part of its eastern air power in the assault.

The Germans were, however, ignoring that front. They were happy to leave the French tied up in the Maginot Line. The prize in their sights was the Netherlands: and on the 3rd February, Goering ordered all required divisions to be moved to the Dutch border.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands had declared itself neutral, but knew that Germany would probably try to invade. They also had another problem: fifth columnists.

On 14th February 1940, German forces under Erich von Manstein swept into the Netherlands. It was all too fast for the Dutch Army, who had been expecting a later date, thanks to information passed on by the German general Hans Oster. The Dutch Water Line was only flooded in parts as the line had not been fully recommissioned yet, and because the troops had been taken by surprise. Maastricht fell on the first day, as did Venlo; Nijmegen and Gronigen took a matter of days.

Within days, the Dutch Army had fallen far back, but offered surprising resistance at the Afsluitdijk and around Eindhoven.

 

[SteveW]

By 22nd February 1940, the Netherlands were on their knees. The royal family had been flown out of The Hague by the RAF, followed by much of the nation's gold and senior politicians. Prime Minister de Geer, however, remained behind, much to the consternation of Queen Wilhelmina, and met with the occupiers.

Von Manstein met de Geer at the Hague to inform him of Goering's plans for the nation. The Netherlands would be allowed a high degree of autonomy in time, provided that 'the right people' were involved. When de Geer asked for clarification, Manstein stated coldly that de Geer was to remain as a figurehead (with the title of Governor-General) but that power would be split between the incoming Nazi governor (Arthur Seyss-Inquart) and the new Cabinet and Prime Minister. De Geer,unnerved, asked who would be in this new setup, and was handed a list including Cornelis van Geelkerken as Minister of the Interior, Henk Feldmeijer as Foreign Minister, Robert van Genechten and Folkert Posthuma, all of whom would be answerable to the new Prime Minister.

According to eyewitness evidence, de Geer's jaw literally dropped when he was informed that the new Prime Minister was the Dutch Nazi leader, Anton Mussert.

Finland
In Finland, peace had broken out. The Soviets had finally breached the Mannerheim line, but at horrendous cost. An armistice came into place at midnight on the 18th February. The Finns were relieved, but so were the Soviets, who had expended a great deal of men and armaments on the war. A formal treaty would come soon, and Finland would lose out, but at least they had survived and not ended up as the Finnish SSR.

 

[archaeogeek]

That's true, I think that IOTL, Sweden did provide the most volunteers. I did want to bring out the unusual relationship with Hungary at the time- a lot of Hungarian intellectuals saw Finns as a kindred people to emulate.

Sort of like a Fire Cross volunteer "legion"? As far as I can tell they were the most rabidly pan-Turanist group in Hungary, were there many others? I could see Horthy losing sleep over the political cachet this might give the fire cross and how this could play out for His Tinpotness.