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Title: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 31 Dec 2015, 01:20
This will be a play-through of Hearts of Iron 3, playing as Germany. Hearts of Iron 3 is a very detailed strategy game which places the player in control of a country during World War 2. This is not limited to the military, but also to intelligence operations, diplomacy, and economic activity. It's a lot of fun, and I suggest trying it if you enjoy "strategy games" that are less about tactics and more about logistics and actual strategic decisions.

A few notes: first, I probably don't have to say it, but it does need to be said: I do not, personally, think that the Nazis, Hitler, or German aims in World War 2 were good, right, or worthy of success, and I'm very glad that we live in a world in which they failed. I'm also not a fan, to say the least, of Marxism, in any of its forms, which managed to kill and torment far more people than even Nazism.

That said, if one is writing (or playing) alternate history in World War 2, one is largely limited to one of two options: either talking about how the "good guys" (largely Britain, France, and the United States) could have won even harder, or talking about how the bad guys (Hitler and Stalin) could have done better. The former tends to be boring. So yes, this is a story where the assholes win.

The character I'm inserting (Viktor Forst), is, indeed, an asshole too. However, he's an asshole more of the Prussian model, to wit, somewhat less of a thug. But make no mistake, he is an asshole. He's an anti-semite, if not an exterminationist one, a German ultra-nationalist and Nazi, and more than a little cold, ruthless, and bloodthirsty. Unfortunately for the world, he's also smart, quick, and very well read.

I'm placing him in the SS largely because it's the most plausible spot for such a takeover (spoilers) to take place. The SA was a gang of thugs, and largely defunct after the Night of the Long Knives, while the military was largely quiescent after same.

As much as is possible, I'm keeping to history and historical characters in the lead up to war, and even during it, although as with all chaotic situations, the timeline will rapidly diverge over time from the Original Timeline (OT). As such, I'm also keeping Hitler around. I've read a few biographies of the dictator, and I'll be trying to keep as true to his personality as possible, however, given coming events in the story, I think I'm justified in portraying a slightly less self-confident tyrant than actually existed.

All Nazi symbols and other paraphernalia in screenshots of the game are for artistic verisimilitude and no other reason. Also, I have not altered the game's country profiles or cheated, aside from minor modifications to represent the strength of the neutrality movement in the United States at the time.

Lastly, I've studied the Second World War quite extensively, and probably have greater knowledge of it than anyone with less than a Masters (or perhaps a Ph.D) in the subject. This sounds arrogant, but I don't mean it to be. I mean that I have read hundreds of books, listened to many lectures, and spent countless hours otherwise educating myself on this subject, largely for my own enjoyment. So I hope readers will forgive me if I occasionally lapse into an out-of-story dissertation on some subject.

-Vikarion
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 31 Dec 2015, 03:38
Prologue

1932
"Come in, Viktor, come in!" Reinhard Heydrich motioned, his long coat flapping in the winter breeze. It was cold outside, but Viktor Forst moved with a trace of nervousness as he followed Heydrich into the building. This was, after all, an interview.

"Ah," Heydrich said, leading him into a room off the hallway. "Here we are. Herr Himmler, this is my friend, Viktor Forst".

Heydrich was ahead of him, and it was a moment before Viktor caught up. When he did, he entered to see a rather plain looking man wearing pince-nex spectacles and a slightly pinched expression, sitting at a desk, a small lamp illuminating some papers.

"Good evening", Himmler replied, then, without preamble, turned to Viktor. "And you are Forst. Reinhardt has spoken well of you." He removed his glasses, wiped them with a handkerchief, then continued. "He says that you recently aided him with those recent...slanders".

Viktor nodded, unsure of how to respond. He had, indeed, managed the removal of some papers and the replacement of them with others. He didn't know if the rumors of there being a Jew somewhere back in Heydrich's family tree were true, but he did know that no one would now find out.

"And you were recently in America", Himmler went on, with a tone that suggested that the visit perhaps counterbalanced whatever service Viktor might have provided with the papers. "Tell me, what did you think"?

Viktor paused before speaking. He had considered this question. Neither Himmler nor Hitler were rumored to consider America a country worth respecting. He thought, therefore, that remarking on the industry, or the industriousness of the people, was probably not the wisest choice available to him at this exact moment.

"Herr Himmler, it seemed to me to be a very...chaotic place. Very messy. And I almost was hit by an automobile".

"Yes," Heydrich grinned. "And then where would we be now? You must bring him in, Herr Himmler. He will be a great asset."

Himmler stared at Forst for another long moment, and Viktor had the uncomfortable sense of being a fly that was under scrutiny by a frog. Then he nodded. "Well, you have been of service, and Reinhardt speaks well of you. I will make a spot for you in our internal intelligence department. Come in tomorrow."

And with that, the audience was at a close, and Viktor and Heydrich walked back out to their automobile. As they exited the building, Heydrich clouted Viktor on the back, and grinned again. "You and me, Viktor, we'll go far. You'll see!"

- - -

December, 1935

1.
Viktor stood at a window, looking out from his office in the Reich Main Security Office on the Niederkirchnerstraße, in Berlin. He was almost surprised, still, to be here. But Heydrich had been right, not that he'd very much enjoyed the man's company over the last three years. He'd started his efforts with Heydrich's intelligence office, accumulating blackmail material on enemies of the party. However, while Heydrich engaged in creating a police-like security force, especially after the rise of the party to power, Viktor had gone in a different direction: creating blackmail rather than discovering it, "convincing" dissenters to change their minds, and occasionally making someone simply disappear. And when the SA had been disposed of, the SS had stepped into its role of security force with coordinated grace.

He turned away from the window and back to his desk. Himmler and Heydrich were out, now, meeting with the Fuhrer over some architectural thing or another with that young architect...who was it? Speer, yes. He and the Fuhrer had such grand plans. Well, that was fine, but Viktor worried that they were outstripping the realm of the possible too quickly, and the plans of the Fuhrer seemed not to be being given enough attention by the various departments of the Reich. In fact, as far as Viktor could see, the various leaders of departments, from Goering to the SS's own Himmler, seemed more interested in empire building than in making the Reich strong. Worst of all, Hitler didn't seem to mind, rather, he even encouraged the rivalries.

And if it kept up, Viktor considered that the citizens of Germany had better learn how to speak English, or, more probably, Russian. Something needed to be done, and...but, no. If he ever had the chance, he would do something, but he didn't have it now. He sighed and returned to his work, looking at next slip of paper on his desk. Hmm. Apparently Heydrich had just missed snagging - again! - a communist agitator named Josef Romer. Hmm. Interesting. Opposed the communists with the Freikorps, and then joined them. Heydrich almost got him in 1934, just missed him, looked like. So... a slippery bastard...

2.
Josef "Beppo" Romer gasped deeply, shaking in the cold, damp, evening air. It was starting to rain again, and he had nowhere to stay. A fine situation for a forty-three-year-old man. But he'd spotted the police automobiles just in time to duck out of sight last evening, and he'd been on the run ever since.

He was out of options. He didn't wish to endanger his friends and contacts, but he had no choice. Of course, there was always...and he felt the bulge of the home-made grenade in his bag. But no. How would he ever get close? No, he needed to get to one of his friends in the underground communist cells he'd helped set up. Then they could figure out how to get him undercover again, or out of the country.

It was at that moment that fate decided to smile on Romer, at least in regards to his ability to return torment upon the heads of his tormentors. As he began to cross the street, two cars pulled up and stopped for a moment, side by side. Romer stared in surprise. He knew the further car - it was a Mercedes-Benz 770. And, yes, yes, that was the so-called Fuhrer, looking at a map with someone in the back seat.

He was already fumbling with his bag, looking for all the world like a vagrant, when his peripheral vision tracked to the nearer vehicle. He almost stopped arming the grenade. That, that was Heydrich, and Himmler! If there were a gracious god to grant such opportunities...

He pulled the armed grenade - more of an explosive charge, really, his brain noted, spinning out irrelevancies at a moment like this - out of the bag, and with conflict-born reflexes not entirely lost in his advancing years, slung it underhand towards the two cars. If he were lucky, he'd get it right in between them and...

Had it been an actual grenade, it might have worked perfectly, and history would have gone quite differently. But the members of the Marxist underground in the Third Reich were not explosives experts, and the improvised bomb exploded prematurely while barely under the first car, even as Heydrich, who had spotted Romer, was opening his automobile door.

The blaster turned the metal underside of the first car into a spray of fragments, killing everyone in it as hot metal shards tore upwards through their bodies. Other fragments peppered the Mercedes-Benz 770 of the Fuhrer, and Romer, closer to the blast, never saw the flying shard that nearly decapitated him.

Hitler, the leader of the Third Reich, stumbled out of his vehicle, barely conscious. Blood ran down his head, his arms, his right leg. Distantly, he heard the crackle of flames as petrol from the ruptured tank of the other car consumed its hollowed-out carcass. As he sank to the ground, and his vision began to grey out, he heard Speer screaming for help.

To be continued...
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 31 Dec 2015, 20:35
Prologue

3. The news came over the telephone, a few hurried words from an Untersturmführer, a very junior officer whose panicked tone told Viktor of the truth of the matter. The Fuhrer was gravely wounded. Heydrich and Himmler were dead. Speer, shielded by Hitler's body, had only been scratched.

And that made him...the head of the SS. Oh, probably not for long, not once the other Nazis started looking around for someone to blame. And since Heydrich and Himmler were dead, well...they would not care that Heydrich had been the one in charge of internal security. And then would come the rivalries, no longer with Hitler as referee, and everything they'd worked so hard for would fall apart. Then the Bolsheviks and the capitalists of France and England would descend upon the corpse of the still-born Third Reich to parcel out the spoils once again.

Or...perhaps not. Perhaps this was an opportunity, a golden opportunity. If he were quick, there was every chance he could turn this to his advantage. Hadn't he just been thinking of how things needed to change? And what did he have to lose?

So...first...he picked up his phone dialed. "Yes, Dietrich, this is Forst. First, place all forces on full alert. There's been an assassination attempt upon the Fuhrer. Second, arrest all of the senior leaders. We aren't sure who is involved yet. Third, seize the publishers of the newspapers and occupy the radio stations. Bring the publishers to SS HQ. I will be putting out a statement for both within the hour. Fourth, detain - but politely - all of our generals you can manage." He paused, waiting for an affirmative, and got it. "Good. Hurry."

He put the phone down. Now, to see to the Fuhrer. He owed his loyalty to Hitler, but he didn't have the fanatical sense of faith in the man that so many of his comrades seemed to enjoy. Therefore, he needed to ensure the Fuhrer's recovery, but not too soon. And as well, to restrict access to the man. To make this work, he needed to act in the Fuhrer's name, and with his authority, while ensuring that said authority could not undermine him. Well, Viktor had a small cadre who owed him much, as virtually every senior Nazi did, and he would use them. He placed two more calls, one to find what hospital the Fuhrer had been brought to, and the second to assemble his men.

- - -

4.
The hospital smelled of antiseptic and other, less pleasant effluvia, but Viktor was barely conscious of that. He'd arrived to find several SS milling about, and quickly replaced them with his carefully selected men, who established a multi-layered guarding force. Then, he had gone to seek out the surgeon, who was now eyeing him with a combination of fear and irritated competence.

"How is he?" Viktor asked, knowing that the subject of his inquiry was obvious.

"He is badly wounded, but probably not in danger of dying," the man responded. "Several shrapnel wounds, which I should be in there treating. A broken arm, broken rib or two if I guess correctly, and lacerations. Badly broken leg, which he exacerbated by walking on. It will be a long recovery, and he will need a cane, perhaps for life, perhaps only for a year or two."

Viktor nodded. "Good. I know you will do your best. And doctor, understand that no one but hospital staff  - and of those, only your most trustworthy - and myself are to see him. Is that clear?"

The doctor nodded, and Viktor turned on his heel. That was done. Now, to the papers and radio. If he established his legitimacy early, it would be all the more difficult to challenge him. Even for Hitler, he thought with an internal smile.

5.
The newspaper men were there, at SS HQ, when he arrived. Some were still in their night clothes, which, he judged, put them in the appropriate state of mind: cowed. Also there were the radio managers, which, however, were somewhat more presentable. Good. He walked to stand in front of them, faced them, and nodded.

"Good evening. As some of you may know, the Fuhrer has been attacked, and gravely wounded. Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich are dead. I am the head of the SS, and currently head of the Reich government. I have placed -"

There was an exclamation from the back of the group, and a balding man with a bulldog-like face pushed his way to the front. He glared at Viktor. "There is only one head of the Reich," he spat out, "and that is not you. it is..."

Viktor recognized him. It was Julius Streicher, publisher of Der Sturmer. If it had been anyone else, he would have simply had him immediately restrained and removed, but this man was one of Hitler's favorites, and published an anti-Semitic paper dear to the hearts of many Nazis, although, not to Viktor, and not to a few other senior leaders. Diplomacy, then.

"Herr Streicher," Viktor cut him off, "The Fuhrer is in surgery, and is unavailable. Besides myself, who should I put in charge? Goebbels? Goering?"

Streicher paused, and Viktor could see the wheels turning in the man's head. Goebbels lusted after complete control of the country's papers, which would, of course, include Der Sturmer. Goering hated Der Sturmer, and would shut it down if given the chance.

"Well," the man said, with the air of conceding a point, "I suppose you must. But I must see the Fuhrer at the first opportunity."

"Of course", Viktor lied, wishing he could shoot the man for his impertinence then and there. The man would not make it back to his disgusting little paper's office alive. A car accident. Yes. That would do nicely. And a fire at the publisher. Arson, perhaps, by...hmm, disgruntled SA members? Yes. That, too, would do nicely. And no one would suspect him, as Streicher had, of course, just agreed to support him. Excellent.

"Now", he continued, "As the Reich Security Office is unsure of the nature of the attack" - another lie, they'd already identified the culprit - "we have taken the other ministers of the Reich into custody". That last was not a lie. Dietrich had informed him just a few minutes before that all were in SS hands, from Goering to Goebbels. "As we ascertain their innocence...and please, understand, we believe that most are innocent...we will assemble a new cabinet until such time as the Fuhrer is able to return to his duties. Let us all pray that that will be soon".

He paused, and then smiled. "Now, let's not be too upset. Adolf Hitler is alive, and we will keep him that way. Stability will be maintained. Have faith in the Party. Have faith in the Reich. Have faith in your Fuhrer. As for me, I do not propose to take his place. For now, at least, I will function as Fuhrer, but you will refer to me as Unterfuhrer, for that is what I am. In an hour, I will have a statement for your stations and papers, to be read and printed as soon as you can. I must ask you as a fellow German to work with me, for I wish nothing more than for the will of the German people and their Fuhrer to be carried out. Until the statement is ready, we will see you liberally supplied with coffee, tea, and any pastries we can rustle up at this hour. Also, I have informed my staff to open my personal collection of schnapps to you, much as it pains me to do so."

There was a general chuckle. He continued. "Gentlemen, this is a trying hour. I am only third in command of the SS, but I am in command of State security. I wish only the health of the Reich. I will tell you more as I am able. Please, work with me." He smiled again, gave a small bow, and left for his office. There was much more to be done, but working late this evening had rewarded him beyond all expectation.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Havohej on 01 Jan 2016, 00:32
Haven't taken time to read it yet, just wanted to say "Iron and Flame" is a hell of a title.  Looking forward to posting later after I read all the things.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 01 Jan 2016, 15:18
Haven't taken time to read it yet, just wanted to say "Iron and Flame" is a hell of a title.  Looking forward to posting later after I read all the things.
Thanks!  :D
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germa
Post by: Utari Onzo on 01 Jan 2016, 15:19
Highly excited for the next chapter/s, writing style left me hungry for more.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germa
Post by: Vikarion on 01 Jan 2016, 18:06
Highly excited for the next chapter/s, writing style left me hungry for more.

Thanks! Working on it now.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 01 Jan 2016, 20:16
Prologue

December, 1935, one day later...

Washington D.C.
6.
Harry Hopkins entered the presidential study quietly. FDR collected stamps as a hobby, and often spent time here going through and examining specimens of the postal currency, as he mulled over the events of the world outside. It was so this morning, and Hopkins hoped that Roosevelt would discover some sort of inspiration in the activity, something to address the crisis in Germany.

Roosevelt looked up as Hopkins entered, and gave him the toothy grin he was famous for. "Hello Harry. More news about our jack-booted friends?"

Hopkins nodded, and set a thin folder down on a relatively uncluttered spot on the desk. "Yes. There's a bit more news, and they've made a few announcements on the radio. These -" he tapped the folder "- are the best guesses from the State Department, the War Department, and Navel Intelligence Office."

"What's the summary?"

"Well, the Germans are saying that it was an assassination attempt, and that Hitler was badly wounded, while Himmler was killed. Apparently some other bigwig - Reinhardt Heydrich - also bought a plot. The man in charge for the moment is named Viktor Forst, and some of our sources are saying that he's arrested many, if not all, of the other Nazi leaders, and most of their military leaders as well."

"Could not have happened to nicer people" FDR observed acerbically. "So what do we think?"

Hopkins shrugged, trying to ignore the twinge in his gut from the motion. His stomach, which had been a constant source of trouble for him, was restless this morning. "It's all over the board. State is optimistic, they think that this is a coup, and that more moderate elements will come to the fore. Some are arguing that this will see a fall of the Nazi government, or at least force them to return to a coalition government. War is less positive. This Viktor fellow is a member of their SS, the ones who took out the SA, and they're the more militant wing of the party. Their opinion is that this is a coup, but in the opposite direction: that Herr Hitler has been holding the Germans down, so to speak, and so someone's decided to get him out of the way and get on with things."

"Hitler is a moderate?" the President half-laughed. 

"I don't buy it either," Harry said, suppressing a chuckle of his own. "Remember, Mr. President, I just report it. Anyway, the Naval Intel people aren't predicting much, they say it's too soon to tell. But they're coming down on the side of it being a real assassination attempt, and that Viktor Forst is just an opportunist, or a true believer, taking advantage of the situation. If that's true, then he must have acted extremely fast."

"What do you think?" Roosevelt asked, popping a stamp into a book.

"I think it's a coup. Such a fast reaction probably means planning beforehand. As for this Forst man, he's apparently third in line in the SS. Conveniently, his two bosses were at the same spot as Hitler. I think that the Fuhrer will 'die of his wounds' within a short time, probably as long as it takes to organize a new government. When he does, or if we think he has, we can afford to declare Forst's government as illegitimate. After all, no one voted for him."

Roosevelt nodded. "We'll go with that. Now, why don't you get yourself some breakfast, Harry? You're looking a little peaked."

"Thank you, Mr. President", Harry said, and headed for the door, unaware that he and Roosevelt had just made the worst political mistake of their lives.


7.
December, 1935, four days later...

Berlin Hospital

Adolf Hitler opened his eyes slowly, and groaned. The light was bright, too bright, and his eyes hurt. His head hurt. He hurt all over. It was like the time back in the hospital, after he'd been gassed. Hospital. Yes, he was in a hospital, and this time he wasn't blind. And he was lucid, now. He'd almost-woken a few times, but there had been nothing but agony and shadows.

He was thirsty, too. He moved his head, an effort, and saw a black-garbed figure sitting beside the bed. He blinked, and his vision resolved itself into a man, He knew him, Viktor Forst. SS. Good. A pitcher of water and some glasses on a small table beside him. Even better.

"Water", he croaked, rasped, really. Yes, like after being gassed.

The man - Forst, yes, certainly - filled a glass, and brought it to him. Hitler tried to move his arm to grasp it, but the pain of the attempt made him gasp.

"Don't try to move," Forst spoke, and held the glass to the Fuhrer's mouth. Hitler noticed Forst's teeth when the man spoke. They were yellowed, not like those of a smoker - Hitler despised smokers - but probably a coffee drinker. For some reason, they made him want to shiver. He felt like a wounded stag, collapsed on the forest floor, with a dangerously hungry wolf leaning over him, with long, yellow fangs.

Of course, in this case, the wolf was offering him water. He drank, and began to feel slightly better. Very slightly. When he had drained the glass, Forster replaced it on the small table.

"Do you know what happened?" Forster asked, sitting back down next to the bed.

"An explosion. A bomb, I think." Hitler refocused on Forster. "Himmler? Heydrich?"

"Dead." Forster shook his head with a regret he felt not in the least. "Their car took the brunt of the explosion. If it hadn't, you would be dead too."

"Who? Who did it?"

"It looks like a man named Josef Romer. The bomb killed him, too."

"Jew?" Certainly, it had to be a Jew.

"No, definitely not. Munich German. Communist, we think. He slipped out of Heydrich's hands, twice." Forst shrugged. "I suppose Heydrich was responsible, if we want to blame anyone. But what's the point? The man is dead."

A German! A German tried to kill his own Fuhrer. The thought was shocking. But Forst had no reason to lie. A Jew would have looked better, but...well, never mind that. "Speer?"

"Alive. You shielded him with your body. Minor injuries. We found him carrying you to the nearest hospital. He's here as well, recovering."

"Bright boy", Hitler said, thinking about the young architect with all his life still ahead of him. An artist with lights and design. "And how badly am I wounded?"

"Badly," Forst said, bluntly, surprising Hitler. "Your right arm is broken, and your left arm is sprained. You have a broken rib, which fortunately did not puncture the lung. Your left leg is fine, but your right leg has multiple fractures, which you made worse by trying to walk on. The doctor states that you will be laid up for quite some time, probably a year.

Hitler stared at the offending leg in horror. A year. A year! A year in which his underlings would be fighting for power, a year in which everything could - no, would - dissolve. The Reich was new, and fragile, and it would all fall apart in six months without him, never mind a year.

Forst must have seen the expression on his face, and smiled with those yellowed teeth of his. "Do not worry, my Fuhrer. I have things under control. I have arrested the other leaders of the party. I have also placed the leaders of the army in SS custody. I have made the necessary announcements over the radio and in the papers, and the SS is maintaining order.

Anger flashed through Hitler like white lightning. "So this is a coup. You take all I have built and..." Forster cut him off with a hand upraised. "Please, my Fuhrer. Consider the fact that you are speaking to me."

Just as quickly, the anger died. Well, the anger at Forster, at any rate. The man had a point. One did not preserve the former leader's life if one intended his overthrow and destruction. And Hitler was sure that he was far too dangerous an opponent to leave alive.

"Besides," Forster went on, "what else could I have done? Himmler and Heydrich are dead. Goebbels is not a leader, and both you and I know it. Perhaps Goering should take over, if you don't mind the country becoming a giant Carinhall."

Hitler snorted, an action he immediately regretted due to his rib. Carinhall was Goering's personal palace, grand, pompous, extravagant, and perhaps a bit baroque, much like the man. It was not the image he would care to see replicated in Germany.

He sighed, and settled back on the bed as best he might. "Well, no, I suppose. What are your plans?"

"I have declared myself unterfuhrer," Forster said, which garnered a pained chuckle. "Yes, I know. I have this room and the hospital under continual guard. Either myself or a loyal SS man will be constantly with you. No one else but your doctors and my men - oh, and Eva, too - will be permitted access without my consent."

Hitler nodded, accepting the situation for the moment. The security was necessary, of course, but controlling access was also a means of control in itself. Hitler could not oppose Forster if he wanted to, so long as he could not speak to others without Forster's consent. More importantly, Forster could grant access to Hitler or deny it, determining who was and was not in the leader's favor. How...clever. Hitler admired it, even as it worried him.

"I suppose, then, that I am to be your Lenin, the sick man in the background you ascribe your authority to," he said, with a trace of bitterness.

"I hope not," Forst said, with apparent sincerity, surprising the Fuhrer. "We need you to recover. But I do intend to inflict a bit of...what the Americans call 'Teutonic efficiency'. With your misfortune, we cannot afford our ministers competing to build personal kingdoms for themselves."

Hitler considered that. He had allowed his followers to profit off of their power, partly to retain their loyalty, and partly because those who had supported him for so long deserved a reward. This new harshness was probably necessary, but it would be unpopular with the leadership. Probably a good thing. Forster should not be allowed to become popular in the leadership.

"You must assemble a government," he rasped after a moment. "It must include Goering and Goebbels. The rest I leave to you. Bring them here, together, and I will give my blessing. And get me out of this place as soon as you can. I would prefer to recuperate in Berchtesgaden."

Forster nodded, and rose. "Give me a year, my Fuhrer. You will not regret it."

Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 02 Jan 2016, 12:53
Chapter 1: A single flame alight
January 1st, 1936.

1.
Viktor Forst stared down the long table occupied by his ministers. The room was cold - Viktor had ordered the heat kept down - and formal. Hitler had generally preferred a somewhat more informal and individual method of communication, but Forst wanted things laid out in the open.

He had shuffled things around quite a bit, not entirely with the Fuhrer's approval, although Hitler had given his blessing to Forst and the assembled group in a very crowded hospital room the day before. Forst had assembled them there on the last day of the year for the psychological impact of starting their efforts on the New Year. If the Night of the Long Knives had indicated the transition of the NSDAP from a revolutionary party to a ruling one, this moment would mark the transition of its leaders from self-interested thugs to dedicated leaders.

He'd made quite a few changes. The Reich's Minister of Economics - Hjalmar Schacht - was now also minister of Armaments. He had been the man to drag the Weimar Republic out of the dismal hole of inflation and poverty that had been the post-war years, only to see the Great Depression hit. In Forst's view, the most important aim of the government had to be establishing the proper industrial base for war-making, and Schacht was the one to do it.

Joseph Goebbels, with his lean, skull-like face, now had purview over the Gestapo, the concentration camps, and maintained control over propaganda. All of these had been combined into a new "Ministry of Security", intended to watch over the internal integrity of the Reich, in any form it took. Forst had removed the SS from their role as internal police and camp guards - now they would function entirely as an elite force for the Fuhrer, watching both the Gestapo and the military, and working alongside both, and under Forst's personal control, of course. He had also spoken to Goebbels about the concentration camps: in Forst's view, they were wasteful. Either the unhappy residents should be rehabilitated, or else expelled from the country as being of no use to the Reich. He had no idea what Heydrich and Himmler had been thinking, simply penning people up and feeding their useless mouths. Not that they'd fed the all that much, of course. And to what end? After a few years, they were dead or released, probably even less disposed to serve the Reich. No. Reform them or get rid of them. And Goebbels had agreed, probably not least because control over some of the Reich's police forces was something he'd probably been lusting after.

That wasn't the only concession he'd wrung out of the man, either. Forst had wanted censorship, especially of books and films, loosed a bit. His biggest worry was that the Reich might be banning actual economic and scientific works, something Schacht had brought to his attention. Goebbels had balked, but control of the Gestapo was too large a prize to give up, and thus, a small announcement in the Völkischer Beobachter, the official party newpaper, would be going out today to declare that, after further review, the Ministry of Security would be releasing a few hundred more titles for publication.

Wilhelm Frick, sitting across from Goebbels, was less pleased. He had a long, cruel face, and had been essentially Minister of the Interior up until now. Forst, valuing his capabilities but distrusting his ambition inside the Reich, had appointed him to replace Canaris as head of the now-named "Ministry of Intelligence". In time, Forst thought, Frick would come to relish his new job, especially with the plans he had for the department. Frick's former responsibilities had been consolidated under Rudolf Hess, already essentially head of government, and a man, who, if psychologically odd, was respected by Forst for his dedication and work ethic - as well as his lack of ambition.

He'd also shuffled the Army leaders around a bit, appointing Fritz Bayerlein - a personal acquaintance - as interim Chief of Staff, and Werner von Blomberg as Chief of the Army. Raeder would stay on as head of the Navy, and Goering, of course, would stay on as leader of the Luftwaffe.


[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/8dYf65H.jpg)
I'm picking these choices to maximize economic bonuses at this point in the game.
A few notes: Leadership is used for training officers (more trained officers equals more elite forces), for training spies, for research, and for diplomacy.
Manpower is just that. You need manpower for units. Infantry in particular eats it like nothing else.
IC is Industrial Capability. You cannot build more things than you have factories to build them in. Fortunately, you can build more factories.
Resources are: Power (essentially coal, and later, nuclear), steel/iron, rare materials (everything from copper to molybdenum), and crude oil.
Supplies are: Supplies, fuel, and money. Pretty self explanatory. Units need the first two, you need the last to buy resources, enact laws, and a few other minor things.

Goebbels improves leadership in the security spot, where he apparently focuses (as he did in real life) in controlling information and inspiring loyalty, as opposed to Heydrich, who in this playthrough is dead, but if placed there actually increases activity against your forces. Schacht is a gem of a minister (as he was in real life, and the Nazis were fools to dump him), and a full 10% increase in IC is huge. Blomberg reduces unit supply consumption, which is wonderful, and Bayerlein means that less supplies are lost while being transported to those units. Fewer supplies needed = less IC needed for supplies, and units that need less resupply (and thus are more mobile).
[/spoiler]

"Now," Forst said, "I shall begin." An assistant rolled a large blackboard over and Forster rose and began to write on it. "First, we must plan for the next three years. The Fuhrer desires us to be ready for war within five years. We shall do it in three. To that end, I have been speaking to Herr Schacht" - at that, Goering scowled, as Schacht and he had long been at loggerheads over the economic direction of the Reich - "and I have assembled the following dictates. Make no mistake, gentlemen, there will be no deviation from these orders. Deviation or dissension will be met with disgrace, or death."

That quieted things down a bit. Good.

"To that end, I have been impressed with the need to economically revitalize our nation. To that end, we will be concentrating on research and the building of factories capable of producing both consumer goods and military goods. We will maintain this policy for two years, while assembling four to five divisions a year."

There were nods around the table, save for Goering, but even he seemed to accept the plan.

"Politically, we have several goals. The foremost is to keep American out of any future conflict".

There was a stir at that, and Forster decided to explain.

"Yes, America has a weak army, and yes, she is struggling with the same economic issues as the rest of the world. However, both Schacht and I have been to America. They possess immense productive capabilities. Those cannot be allowed to come in on the side of our enemies, as they did in the last war. To that end, we are establishing a full-on political offensive, both openly, through diplomatic channels, and covertly, through Herr Frick's department. The isolationist element in America is very strong, and President Roosevelt's New Deal program has not eliminated the economic misery in the country. To that end, we will be funding the German-American Bund party."

There was a stir at that. The German-American Bund party was a joke. Forster continued anyway. "We will revitalize the party by stripping it of its Nazi characteristics. We must be realistic: no Americans will vote in quantity for the Nazi party. Instead, it will re-position itself as an economic party - that is, one which wishes to replicate German successes in defeating the depression. As well, it will cooperate with other parties, such as the Republican Party and the American First Committee, to run combined tickets to defeat the current president. At the same time, we will make the United States our major trading partner for raw materials, which will make us essential to their economy."

"As well, we will be working within the United Kingdom to undermine their diplomatic efforts. We are also placing agents in the Soviet Union to stir up resentment against Stalin and his government. When war comes, they will be unprepared."
[spoiler]
Hearts of Iron 3 allows you two methods besides war to influence other countries. First is to diplomatically influence them. This covers everything from expensive state dinners, to national tours, etc. It is expensive, but moves the foreign policy alignment of that nation towards your own. Get them close enough, and they may join your faction, or ally with you. At the very least, they won't be attacking you. Other diplomatic actions, such as trade deals, will also encourage a nation to like you.

The other method is espionage. This allows you to alter the internal politics of a nation. It's most effective in democracies, as a dictatorship may not even care. The important thing is that certain elected leaders, such as FDR, are disposed against certain factions, and by removing them, or making them less popular, you can alter the likelihood that they'll manage to bring their nation into the fight against you.

It's very important to keep the U.S. out of the war. Unless you think you can beat the Soviet Union and the British Empire by the end of 1942, you should make every effort to befriend the U.S. The U.S. has a HUGE IC and Leadership advantage on everyone else (which is true to life), and can easily stomp half the world if left alone through 1942. It's also almost impossible to attack before then anyway, because it possesses a huge navy, even if some of it is obsolete. It also has a huge reserve of raw materials, and will quickly acquire a great air force. Its only real difficulty is that it starts out highly neutral, which means that it won't be attacking anyone soon.
[/spoiler]

"Lastly, the military. Along with our divisions, we will be producing two or three hundred aircraft a year. We will also be standardizing all of our equipment, so that we will not face supply problems. A mix of the new fighters and tactical bombers should put our air force in fine shape. On the land, we will concentrate on medium and light armor, combined with infantry and artillery. On the sea, I have decided, after talking with Goering and Raeder, that we will not be producing a submarine fleet. Instead, we will concentrate on a small fleet of battleships and destroyers, with the Luftwaffe providing air cover."

That did earn an objection, from Goebbels. "Unterfuhrer, we can hardly expect to challenge the Royal Navy on the high seas with that."

Viktor smiled. "Indeed. But we do not intend to. It is merely intended to challenge their control of the channel."

"To what purpose?" Schacht asked. "Blocking the channel is merely an annoyance. And they'll wear us down eventually, while raiding every convoy we send to America."

This time, Viktor had to grin. "My dear Schacht," he said, "how are they going to raid our convoys if they have no ports to raid from?"
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 02 Jan 2016, 16:04
Chapter 1: A single flame alight
April, 1936

The Berghof was dark and pleasantly cool in the early evening. Viktor sat in one of the armchairs, wishing he could pace the room. But the Fuhrer, sitting in his own chair, still could not walk without crutches, and so he sat as well.

"What do you have to report? Hitler asked, sipping on a cup of tea. Near his elbow was the remains of a small piece of cake. The Fuhrer's surgeon had enforced, by means of an obdurate stubbornness compounded by an air of competence, a few dietary changes. Hitler grumbled about them, especially including the introduction of a small amount of meat into his diet, but had acquiesced to even that when the surgeon claimed that he needed the protein to rebuild his muscles. He had also reduced the Fuhrer's consumption of sweets, which had irritated the man further. But the results were impressive. His right arm was full functional, and his leg was healing well, according to the doctor. This put Hitler in a fairly good mood, which was a blessing to more than the Fuhrer.

[spoiler]
Historical note:
Around 1936, Hitler was introduced to Dr. Theodor Morrell, a quack who probably did more to poison the man than anything else. Hitler ascribed to him a reduction in his stomach troubles (which were probably brought on in part by his vegetarianism and love of sweets), and trusted him as few others. It's notable that many of the drugs administered to Hitler possess psychoactive properties, and how much Hitler was influenced by these drugs is impossible to answer, but probably a non-zero amount.

A listing of most of the injections and pills Morrell administered to Hitler (from wikipedia):
amphetamines (in Pervitin and Vitamultin form)
Atropa belladonna (in Koster's Antigaspills, compound containing strychnine, subject of investigation)
Atropine (extract of seminal vesicles)
Brom-Nervacit (barbiturate, since August 1941 a spoonful almost every night)
bromides (to bring him down from amphetamine highs before sleep)
caffeine
chamolile
cocaine (via eyedrops)
E. coli
enzymes
Eukodol, or Eukodal (a trade name for oxycodone)
Eupaverinum (synthetic alcaloid)
Glyconorm (metabolic ferments)
Mutaflor (pills prescribed to Hitler for flatulence in 1936, the first unorthodox drug treatment from Morell; bacteria extracted from human faeces, see: E. coli)
methamphetamine (crystal meth)
morphine
strychnine
Oxedrine Tartrate
potassium bromide
Prophenazone
proteins and lipids derived from animal tissues and fats
sodium barbitone
sulfonamide
testosterone
vitamins

Quite a list. In this timeline, though, Hitler never meets Morrell, due to the assassination attempt. Instead, he latches onto his surgeon as his personal physician.
[/spoiler]

"Well," Viktor said, sipping his own coffee. "Things are proceeding apace. We have reorganized the military to create more established divisions with four brigades each, instead of three. We are producing two battleships at the moment, Tirpitz and Bismarck, as well as destroyers. Around 200 planes are in production."

Hitler nodded. "Good. And that trade you were so insistent on?"

"Several convoys from the Americas. The United States in particular has been delighted to trade us steel and oil. Apparently they have re-opened one steel mill just for us. We, to fund this, are exporting our own coal and goods, mostly to the USSR, our neighbors, and back to the U.S. We still have a deficit of certain materials, but that should be less of a problem once we are finished with the intensive work of setting up new factories."

Hitler considered that for a moment. "Very well. And what of this civil war in Spain?"

This was a sore spot. Hitler had wanted very much to intervene in the war between the Nationalists and the Republicans, but Forst had argued against it, vociferously and continually. Spain had nothing to offer the Reich, he'd pointed out. No major resources of note, and no military of note. Hitler had pointed out that it would hardly be advantageous to have a Bolshevik outpost controlling access to the Mediterranean, and that communism must be opposed wherever it sprang up. What had won Forst the argument, which had mostly consisted of Hitler lecturing him, was pointing out that he had neither the forces nor the supplies to send, since he was reorganizing the army and building up the Reich.

He sighed. "It looks like the Nationalists are losing. Stalin is probably contributing to the Republicans."

"We should have intervened," Hitler growled. "Now there will be another Bolshevik state to destroy."

Forst shrugged. "A Bolshevik state on someone else's borders, and one without an army worth a damn. And a sinkhole for Soviet aid. When we deal with the Soviets, they will have no one to save them."

Hitler nodded. "True." One thing he liked about this Forst fellow was the way the man simply assumed that they were going to have a war, and against the eastern foe at that. And he was just preparing for it. Competently, it seemed. Well, too bad for Spain, then. He changed the subject, instead. "I think it will be time for me to make a speech to the Reich, this January." That would give him time to finish healing. Hitler was very sensitive to his public image, and continued to remain in the Berghof, isolated from all but his closest associates.

"That, I think, would be well." Forst replied.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 02 Jan 2016, 18:24
Chapter 1: A single flame alight
June, 1936, The White House

"Well, Harry, I think it's time for that declaration, don't you think?" Roosevelt inquired.

Harry Hopkins thought about that. If they were going to call for new elections in Germany, it was well past time. In retrospect, it would have been wiser to have done this immediately. Now Forst was well and truly ensconced in power, and calling for elections - essentially declaring his government illegitimate - might not mean a thing. If the Nazis were as in as much control of the country as it appeared, they could just fake the results. Hell, they might not even need to: from all reports, Forst had rationalized much of the economic experimentation that had been going on, and with Schacht's free-trade policy, Germany was rapidly developing an even larger industrial base than the one she already possessed, much to the delight of the newly-employed German labor it was sucking up like a vacuum.

"I'm not sure," Hopkins temporized. "We really should have done it sooner. And we still don't know if Hitler is dead. Their papers say that he is recuperating."

"He's dead, Harry" the president said. "If I were injured, I'd still put on a public appearance within six months. And we need to do it now, if we're going to. With the way the Bund party is sucking up the labor vote and pointing out all the work the Nazis are giving our steel workers and miners, not to mention the oilmen, well, we have to do something to remind the voters what the Nazis are really all about."

"Very well, Mr. President. A formal diplomatic note, then?"

"Yes, have State write it up, and I'll sign it. Oh, and a small speech tomorrow afternoon, just the papers I think."

- - -

June, 1936, one day later, The Berghof

"He calls for elections, does he? Calls this government an un-elected dictatorship, does he?" Hitler hobbled across the room, having graduated to a plain, brown wood cane. "Well! I'll show that schwein a thing or two! Forget January." He turned to Victor. "I will make a speech tomorrow. Tomorrow, do you understand me? In Berlin! Get me my automobile!"

Viktor Forst tried not to laugh. "Calm down, my Fuhrer. Are you sure this is wise? You are still -"

Hitler cut him off. "I can still walk, damn it. And I can still speak." He considered that, shaking slightly from the effort. "At least, a little. A short speech, then." He stopped, considered. "I suppose I need a new automobile, too."

"That," Forst chuckled, "is taken care of. I would like to have you out in public again, but we must watch your health. But I think I have a solution. Let this not be one of your more...fiery speeches. Perhaps, more of an air of aggrieved offense. After all, you were injured, and no sooner were you than the president tries to take advantage of it. And after all the business we've brought them, too."

- - -

June, 1936, one day later, Berlin

The setting was excellent. It was only a medium-sized crowd, told that there would be an important speech by a high party official. The reason for the deception was two-fold: first, Forst wanted to surprise them - several foreign journalists were in attendance, and this would have all the more impact for that. Second, he didn't want too large a crowd, and if word got around that Hitler was back, every Berliner would try to be here.

The stage was dark, just enough for a silhouette. A man being pushed up to the stage in a wheelchair. Slowly, the figure rose, and, slowly, painfully, made his way to the podium, the only sound in the suddenly quiet auditorium being the "tap-tap" of the cane. The man made it to the podium, rested his cane on it, and then the lights came up. There was another moment of shocked silence, and then a wave of sound that resolved itself into waves of "Sieg Heil".

Good, Viktor thought. Very good.

- - -

June, 1936, two days later, The White House

"Well, Harry," the President said a bit acidly, "we sure bollixed that one up."

"Yes, Mr. President," Hopkins said, looking through the sheet of Hitler's speech. "And he played it perfectly."

"Oh?"

"Yes. First, how glad he was to be back in the saddle - my words, not his - and what a good job Forst has been doing for the people. Then he moved on to our declaration, and played it pretty well. No shouting, just offended and hurt. Pointed out that they'd had elections more recently then we had. Then went on to speculate that perhaps you were worried that the Germans might be doing a better job of pulling American workers out of unemployment than the New Deal. Read a list of all of the things the Germans are buying from us, and asked why the American president, as opposed to the American people, was so against free trade and free exchange" - that got a snort from Roosevelt - and then stated that, in the spirit of Christian forgiveness and charity, the Reich would put in an order for steel."

Roosevelt actually chuckled. "Let me guess..."

"Yes, Bethlehem Steel has already bid on the order. But this has hurt us, more domestically than abroad. You have a lot of concerned unions and businessmen out there who are writing to the editor, wondering if you've 'gone quite mad', to quote one of them."

Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 02 Jan 2016, 18:38
September, 1936, From The Post, editorial

Despite the worries of the world, it appears that the German government is just as good at organizing the Olympics as it is in organizing rallies. But as much as this event was a celebration of the Olympic spirit and friendly competition, it must also be acknowledged that it was a victory for the Nazi regime on the world stage.

Allowing the Olympics to be held in Berlin has helped the Nazi government in its quest to appear a legitimate choice of its citizens, even as they speak quite openly of demanding obedience, loyalty, and sacrifice. How much of this is talk, and how much is coercion, it is hard to say. You'd never guess the darker side of Nazi propaganda from Hitler and Forst, however.

It must be said, in their favor, that the games were mostly free of the specter of anti-Jewish propaganda or Nazi hooliganism. The two leaders made every effort to greet winners from all countries, and Hitler is reportedly going to be naming a street in Berlin after Khadr El Touni, the Egyptian weightlifter who beat out two Germans to set a new world record.

Time will tell if this event will lead the Germans onto a more moderate course, or if the Olympics will only function as a low hurdle on the track to tyranny.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 02 Jan 2016, 18:46
OOC

Well, I've made it to about the end of the first year. There's not much more that happens through 1936 and 1937. Mostly I'll continue to build up Germany's convoys, Industrial Capability, and raw materials reserves. In regards to research, the tech focus is on infantry and light/medium armor improvements, land doctrines, tactical bomber and fighter improvements, naval improvements, naval doctrine, air doctrine, and miscellaneous projects, in that order. If I manage the leadership, I'll invest some time into researching nuclear weapons, but that takes about 7 years.

Intelligence-wise, Germany is still influencing American, trying to wreck the United Kingdom's image abroad, and trying to destabilize the Soviets. Not much more to post until 1938, which will be chapter 2.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 02 Jan 2016, 19:16
Interlude
July, 1937 Berghof

"Well," Hitler said, examining the newspaper. "It looks like Franco has forced the Bolshevik Republicans in Spain to surrender. And without our help." He eyed Forst.

Forst shrugged. "It could not be helped. We still have only 48 divisions. I want to have 80."
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 02 Jan 2016, 21:56
Chapter 2: Rising sparks
June, 1938, The White House

President Roosevelt put the phone down and sighed. The news was bad, as it seemed a lot of the news lately was. The Chinese had just informed him that they were signing a truce with Japan. For the last year and change, Japan had been essentially overrunning the Chinese coast, and now the Nationalists had had enough. It looked like Japan, too, had been somewhat exhausted, though they'd extracted a rather large chunk of Northern China. He'd hope to forestall this, but the domestic political situation, combined with the ever-rising tide of the isolationist movement, had made providing aid to the Chinese, or, alternatively, embargoing the Japanese, politically impossible. And now Japan, along with its two puppet states, would be building up their forces for...what? He didn't know.

Map:
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/3Zs1oNA.jpg)[/spoiler]

- - -
Anschluss
July, 1938, Berlin

Viktor sat back in his office chair, considering a map on the wall. Austria was now part of the German Reich. Right now, Hitler was doing a tour through the country, by all accounts - even those of foreign journalists - a overwhelmingly positive one. Well, probably not the Jews there. The Nuremberg laws would be extended to the new territory, doubtlessly discomfiting them. Eventually, all Jews would have to leave Europe. Some, like Goring, seemed to favor Madagascar, but Forst was considering Palestine. That was where they had come from, and just as the Germans were connected to their soil, Forst figured that the problem of the Jew ultimately stemmed from their exile from their soil. Until then, however, Forst had shot down ideas for additional persecutions, less because he cared about the people than the fact that it would appear crass and thuggish on the world stage. On one occasion, he had completely lost his temper, demanding of one Gestapo man whether he supposed a Jewish shopkeeper was keeping a few hundred tons of iron ore in his cupboards. "He had better be," he had said - no, shouted, "because that's how much we'll lose when Sweden and America hear of your stupid little enthusiasms!"

On the other hand, there was nothing wrong with encouraging emigration, was there? And he had done that, and even profitably for the Reich, with the emigration tax. Some wanted that higher, too, but the Jews had to be able to pay the ticket. Perhaps the Reich could evacuate their Jews via ocean liners, after the war.

But that was in the future. Right now, he was effectively Fuhrer, keeping things together while Hitler visited his old homeland. He had been surprised at the success of the Anschluss, having personally expected to have to use at least a little force. Perhaps it would have been harder had Hitler got his way, and forced the issue earlier. But probably not. Schuschnigg had folded easily, almost too easily, as if he suspected that his proposed referendum would have the same result in any event.

Soon, it would be Czechoslovakia's turn. Hitler wanted the Sudetenland. Forst wanted all of Czechoslovakia. And Poland. Eventually, Romania, for the oil. And then, perhaps, the Soviet Union. In the mean time...

He suddenly realized that he was thinking of Hitler as an equal. That was odd, but strangely appropriate. And he could see how it had happened. Forst had proven his loyalty in a way no other Nazi had: he'd had the life of the Fuhrer in one hand, and the entire power of the Reich in the other. And yet, Hitler was alive, and now mostly recovered from his wounds, although he occasionally still complained of stomach pains. And since, the Fuhrer had more and more evolved a policy of setting the direction and vision of the Reich, and then handing off the particulars to Forst. And Forst divvied up the responsibilities among the Ministers and governors of the Reich.

There was trouble on the economic front, finally. Supplies of steel and various rare metals were not coming in as fast as German industry consumed them to produce consumer goods, supplies, and armaments. The armaments were the largest consumer of materials now, most of the factories Schacht had planned had been built, and the German merchant marine was perhaps the strongest it had ever been. Schacht had brought over some American engineers to help with that - embarrassing, but useful. Now some of the steel from the American mills was arriving in pre-shaped sections, for nearly the same cost. The Anschluss would help, too. Austria had - no, had had, he corrected himself - steel and other industries.

He looked down at the newest note presented to him. Apparently someone named Heisenberg wanted to meet with him. Right now. What could a professor of physics want with him? He knew of the man, and the man was well-regarded enough to have made it into the building. Well, one way to find out.

He shouted to his secretary to send the man in. He had a phone for that purpose, but was of the opinion that shouting was easier. In a few minutes, the man was in his office, hands clasped behind his back, obviously nervous.

"Doctor Heisenberg," Viktor said, nodding to him. "How can I help you today?" The politeness was pro forma, both men knew that the physicist had better have a good reason for asking for an audience.

"It's...it has to do with my field, Unterfuhrer, Heisenberg replied. He paused, then went on. "Some of your officers have been criticizing out work, saying that it is 'Jewish physics', and that I am acting like a Jew."

"Are you?" Forst asked bluntly.

"Herr Forst, the problem is that there is no such thing as 'Jewish physics', or 'German physics', or any other kind. It's just physics, which is just mathematics. Two plus two is still four, whether you are Jewish, Aryan, or something else. Isaac Newton set down the first principles of calculus as an Englishman. Leibniz, a German, discovered them at the same time."

Forst considered that. "So what is the issue?"

"The difficulty is that I teach my students of the discoveries of people like Einstein, and that is apparently an act of Jewishness, according to your SS."

"Are Einstein's theories correct?"

"Undoubtedly so. They were proven experimentally."

Forst shrugged. "Give the names of those bothering you to my secretary on the way out. I will have them reprimanded and reassigned."

Heisenberg sighed in relief, and then, instead of leaving, spoke again. "Pardon me, but there is one more thing."

"Yes?" Forst looked up again.

"There are consequences of Einstein's theories, and of radioactivity. Theoretically, one might be able to use them to produce a weapon. Or to produce nearly limitless energy."

Forst considered that. "Can you write up a paper with the necessary information? I will read it, and get back to you." He smiled. "Also, keep in mind that I am not a physicist."

Heisenberg nodded. "Thank you, Unterfuhrer. You will be not be sorry you read it."

And a few days later, when the paper came in, Forst realized exactly how right Heisenberg was.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 03 Jan 2016, 00:16
Chapter 2: Rising sparks - continued
September, 1938, Berlin

The day was gray. Viktor was, again, holed up in Berlin while his Fuhrer conducted business. This time, it was in Munich.

It had not been a pleasant experience. Hitler was becoming anxious, aggressive, and when the Sudetenland Germans had begun clamoring for acceptance into the Reich, he had latched onto it with the tenacity of a bulldog. When the Czechs had begun suppressing the native Germans, Hitler had gone white-hot with rage. At the same time, France and Britain seemed set on ensuring Czech sovereignty.

Forst had been seriously worried. As time went on, he was beginning to think that he might not be able to restrain Hitler until the country was ready for war. But then the British had intervened, and proposed a mediation. And it had worked. Oh, the Czechs weren't very happy, and Hitler seemed miffed to have missed his war, if Forst had heard his tone right over the telephone, but at least there were no hostilities. And they had all the Sudetenland forts, which the Czechs had erected all along the border with Germany.

He looked at the map on his wall, newly edited:
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/zs9MIPT.jpg)[/spoiler]

They had come so close, and he wasn't done with the army by any means. He needed to finish the reorganization, he needed more troops.

And he had to deal with the traitorous sons of bitches in the Army and the Abwehr. The Abwehr was Germany's official counter-intelligence arm, and Viktor had taken the time to infiltrate it with SS operatives, along with recruiting informants in the Wehrmacht. That had now borne fruit. Hans Oster, deputy head of the Abwehr, had been planning Hitler's overthrow during the Munich crisis, along with Canaris, who Viktor had dismissed, and a few others, including some diplomats and leading Army officers. Interrogations were ongoing, but it appeared that most of the traitors were in the bag, aside from a couple of diplomats in London who had smelled a rat and defected when ordered to return home. A pity, that.

More worrisome was what this group might have conveyed to the English. Germany relied upon a machine called Enigma for its cipher traffic - all of the encoded messages sent between its leaders and military commanders. But that also relied on - at least in Viktor's opinion - no one else getting a model or drawing of a German enigma machine. And it would have been the work of moments to pass that to an English spy.

So, all enigma machines in the Reich were effectively useless. Even as he spoke, Wilhelm Frick was setting up a new system with one-time pads, which were supposed to be unbreakable. But damn those bastards - he and Hitler had pulled Germany out of a depression, reunified it, and were making it great again, and all they could do was worry about the risk. Forst worried about the risk too, but at least he knew what loyalty was.

He would have to tell Hitler about it. And the Fuhrer would probably want something dramatic done, like a firing squad. No. This needed a deft touch, and no publicity. He picked up the phone.

"Frick? Forst here. When you are finished with the traitors, kill them. Something that doesn't show. They all had heart attacks, maybe an automobile crash, an accidental gun discharge. Not at the same time. Keep it quiet. Good. Thank you."

There. That would do nicely.

Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 03 Jan 2016, 01:25
Chapter 2: Rising sparks - continued
January, 1939, The Berghof

"We cannot."

"We must!" Hitler had his hands clenched, his face red with fury. "We need allies! And Mussolini is a fellow fascist. All he asks is that we finish dismantling Czechoslovakia in his and Hungary's favor!"

Viktor took a breath, and sighed. This had been going on for some time. But he had to win this one. "My Fuhrer," he said, rolling his shoulders like a man going back into the ring, "I would not make an ally of that self-important fool if he dropped down on his knees and offered to suck my cock."

The unusual display of obscenity had its effect. Hitler blinked, started to speak, stopped.

"I went down there," Viktor continued. "Last fall. As you sent me, to ascertain the strength of Italy. I will give you the same answer I gave on the matter of Japan: any alliance would be worth less than the difficulties it would inflict."

"How can you say that?" Hitler demanded. "Italy has a sizable army."

"Italy has a sizable army, yes. In the mind of Il Duce, at least. My Fuhrer, how many brigades does one of our divisions have?"

"Four. You are always happy to remind me, too!"

"Italy seems to believe that two is sufficient. Two brigades. Half the strength of ours, and fewer, to boot. And poorly trained, poorly equipped, and poorly led. And this Mussolini speaks of establishing a new Roman Empire. I wish him luck, I do, but not with our armies. Think! The British have a strong presence in the Mediterranean. Why should we open another front? If he stays neutral, he already safeguards our southern border. If he joins the British, he loses his ambitions. If he attacks them, a good distraction, yes?"

"And what of that bastard little nation, Czechslovakia?"

"We will deal with it when we deal with Poland. We have their entire defensive line, it would take two years to rebuild a new one."

Hitler sighed, and deflated, plopping himself into a chair, although still favoring his right leg, Viktor noticed. "Very well. I never knew a man as stubborn as you. Tell me again why we should not sign a pact with the Japanese?"

"First, because they would drive the Americans into the arms of the English, and -"

"Bah!" Hitler exploded, but tiredly. "A nation of mutts and mongrels, run by Jews. I do not understand your perverse affection for them." It was an old line, but Viktor had impressed Hitler with the new American-style factories, and in so doing, acquired the Fuhrer's permission to continue his foreign policy. Still, he had to remind the man.

"I do not love them," Viktor explained again. "I worry about them. By Schacht's estimates, they possess more manufacturing power than anyone else in the world. And he should know - we've been buying their products."

"Yes," Hitler grumped. "Good German money running away to Jewish bankers and capitalists."

"Better that than it going to Bolsheviks!" Viktor exclaimed. "I hardly want to be buying Stalin's tanks for him!"

"I suppose," Hitler said, chuckling at Viktor's statement. The attack on him had refocused him on the Bolsheviks, with the Jews becoming less of a figure in his analysis of the world. They weren't gone, of course, they were simply not an immediate priority.

"Besides the effect it would have on the Americans," Victor continued more evenly, "There's the fact that they are stretched thin in Asia. Yes, they hold most of the Chinese northwest. And are facing constant rebellions and partisan activity. They could offer us virtually no help, and probably wouldn't anyway. There's the fact that we have maintained a historic policy of friendship with the Chinese, as have the Americans, which is another diplomatic avenue. And then there's the fact that they're barbarians."

The Japanese, early in the conflict, had taken Nanking, and turned the city into a slaughterhouse. The German diplomat John Rabe had worked with several other diplomats from other countries to protect somewhere around 200,000 Chinese civilians from marauding Japanese troops. The German press had not been quiet about that, either here or in the United States, and Forst had quickly ensured that pictures and descriptions of the violence had made their way into press hands. Even Hitler, with his usual private acceptance of "hard actions" found the pictures disgusting, and had said so in a speech, which had largely ensured that Forst was going to get his way about the Japanese whether Hitler was questioning it or not. After all, once you called a nation's military a "band of monkey-like sub-human savages", it was likely the diplomatic relations would be "correct" at best. In private, Hitler had remarked that the Germans didn't even treat the Jews like that, although Forst personally thought that Heydrich and Himmler might have.

"Yes, there is that", Hitler said. "Well, you must forgive me, Viktor. I have a fiery spirit, and impatient to see the vision Providence has granted me carried out, before I die."

Ah, that worry again. "My Fuhrer, if Providence has saved you from assassination attempts that killed others a few feet away, and taken you to the heights of power, which it has, I assure you that it will safeguard you for another twelve months."

"Yes, you are right. Good. Well, sit down, and I'll tell you of my plans for Linz..."
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 03 Jan 2016, 15:58
OOC

Well, it's 1939 and it's time to go to war. I'd like to have more divisions, but I have over a hundred, which isn't bad. The Kriegsmarine is still somewhat small, but it has a decent amount of cruisers, a couple battleships with more on the way, and lots of torpedo-armed destroyers, which are great for the close in fighting in the English channel.

In the west, I have Oberkommando West, commanded by Von Rundstedt, under which are two Army Groups, commanded by Von Manstein and Rommel. Under them are 4 Army Corps each, and each corp contains 5 divisions.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/3QVCkvS.jpg)[/spoiler]

In the east I have Oberkammando Ost, commanded by Guderian, under which are three Army Groups, commanded by von Kluge, Schorner, and Dietrich. Kluge's Army contains five Army Corps, the other two Army Groups contain 4. Each Army Corp, as on the west front, contains 5 divisions.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/nP4lZc4.jpg)[/spoiler]

Every division contains 4 brigades.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Utari Onzo on 03 Jan 2016, 16:12
Loving this so far, mind pming me some deets on the game itself and how hard it is to get into as a complete beginner?
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 03 Jan 2016, 16:52
Chapter 2: Rising sparks - continued
October 1st, 1939, Berlin

"We are ready," Viktor said. And they were. Over a hundred divisions were perched on the borders of the Reich, in the west for defense, in the East, to strike.

"I still think you are being too cautious," Hitler said, examining the map. "The English and French will not attack us, they are too weak. Munich showed that."

"Whether they will or not, we cannot afford to have the western front unguarded. We will be prepared. And the forces on the Eastern Front are more than sufficient to the task."

There was also the fact that Hitler and Forst had agreed not to give the English and French an opportunity to develop a response to the Polish situation. Aside from in-country propaganda, virtually nothing had been mentioned about the Danzig corridor until Hitler had presented a demand for the return of the corridor yesterday. The ultimatum expired soon, and then they would have the war they'd prepared for.

"And America?" Hitler asked.

"Going quite well. The Bund and its associated parties are at roughly fifty percent popularity, helped along by the stupidity of their opponents."

"Oh? Tell me."

"Well, first the Bund started praising certain of their Presiden't prospective proposals as "good fascist economic measures". Probably wouldn't have meant much, but that inspired several of the Republicans to try to filibuster them, successfully in some cases. And that made the Bund a lot more attractive than the Republicans for some."

Viktor paused, then continued. "Then there were the July 4th bombings." Those had been international news, when several bombs had been set off by communist and socialist provocateurs at several major parade routes. Viktor was very aware that some of the explosives had been provided to the radicals by SS agents in disguise, but those agents had excellent covers and had been deployed to other nations since.

"And then there was the march." That had been the crushing blow for the Democratic Party's popularity. The America First Committee and the Bund had organized a large rally through Washington D.C., headed by "Mothers against War" in one column, and a general protest for more government economic projects in the other. The police had been called out by Roosevelt, and then been ordered to barricade the march. As the women's column came into contact with the police line, a policeman had fallen and a shot had rung out. It had later turned out that the fall had jarred the policeman's service revolver, which he had left cocked.

But the shot had instigated a violent response from the police line, which opened fire into the column of protesters. When that had happened, the other column of men, women, and a few children had stalled, broken up, and then started moving towards the noise, at which point the other line of police, believing that their fellow officers were under attack, started firing as well.

By the time the "Washington Massacre" as the papers had put it, was over, at least 20 men, 57 women, and 4 children had been killed. One policeman - the idiot with the cocked revolver, had been injured. And at least 2 of the injured had been reporters, at least one of whom was well enough to write, based on the scathing article the day after.

As for Roosevelt, informed by the chief of police that firing had broken out and that the police had had to defend themselves, he had gone on national radio to defend their actions, and the "stand behind them fully", along with the Speaker of the House. That had lasted until approximately the next afternoon, by which time the entire country had seen pictures of bullet-riddled mothers in lying in the streets and a famous photo of a mother clutching an injured child.

Forst had to admire the propaganda effect, and if the event had been bad luck for the marchers, it had been great luck for the Bund as a whole. With their new, more moderate line, lack of reference to antisemitism, and their appeal to a "third way" between communism and capitalism, they now appeared to be the underdogs, and the victims. It was still unlikely that they could win a major election themselves, but with luck they would manage a coalition ticket with the America First Committee and some disgruntled Republicans.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 03 Jan 2016, 17:50
Chapter 3: Ablaze
October 14th, 1939, Berlin

Hitler put the phone down, then walked to the large picture window. He felt strangely unsure. In the dimness of the evening Berghof, staring out at the Austrian Alps, he considered his course. He had made it so far. And now, in far away Prussia, Forst and his generals - and, by now, Hitler considered privately, they were probably Forst's generals as well - waited for the word. This would cast Germany into war. If Forst was right, not just against two weak neighbors, but also against the French and English. It would make Germany great, or it would destroy her.

He would have felt better if they could have managed that non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. But that had fallen through with the Soviet demands. Half of Poland, after the Germans took it? And the Baltic states? And Romania? No. That was too much. But Forst had a plan for that, too. Forst always had plans.

He sighed, and returned to the phone. He could not turn back now. It was time to act. He made the call.

- - -

Forst and the generals - Blomberg, Guderian, Rundstedt, Rommel, von Manstein, Kluge, Dietrich, and Schorner - sat quietly at a table, awaiting the call. They knew it would come, but when the phone rang, they all nearly jumped. Forst took it.

"Yes? I expected so. We will move within three days. Thank you, my Fuhrer."

He turned to the group. "We are to execute Fall Weiss, with all contingencies save the Denmark option. I will reiterate the leadership's thinking quickly, just to remind you of our overall strategy."

There were nods around the table. All had individually seen the operational plan, but a quick summation would make sure they were all on the same page.

"First, we are attacking Poland. This is largely the responsibility of Kluge and Schorner. They will strike, breakthrough, and overwhelm the Polish forces. Dietrich will assist if necessary. We outnumber and outgun our opponents. There will be no failure."

"Second, if a response from the English and French materializes, we will move upon the remains of Czechoslovakia."

"Third, once the conquest of Poland is complete, Kluge's forces will be detailed west, to assail the French. Dietrich will garrison the new border. Schorner will move to Wilhelmshaven to prepare for Seelowe." There was a stir at that from all but Guderian and Schorner. "Yes, to assault Britain. We have constructed a large transport fleet, and a large surface fleet, which, under air cover, will strike the English coastline as soon as the battle for France is concluded."

He paused, then continued. "We are hoping to breach the Maginot Line through air power coordinated with our assaults. If that is not successful, we shall strike through Belgium. If the English invade Norway, we will ignore it. Most pressing is speed."

"Fourth, once we neutralize the English homeland as a base for the Royal Navy, we expect that the Soviet Union will declare war on us. If they do, we will not strike. Rather, you will note that your garrison deployment place you far back from the line. This is intentional. If the Soviets attack, they will rush into an empty gap, which we will seal behind them, trapping the cream of their army."

"And if they do not attack?" This was from von Manstein.

"Then we will attack them in our own good time. But that is for another day."

"What about Norway and Denmark?" asked Rommel.

"The foreign office believes that both will remain neutral unless attacked. Unless they are, our policy will be one of neutrality as well, at least for the moment."

There was quiet around the table. This was it. Finally, Viktor spoke "Well, gentlemen, let us get to it."
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 03 Jan 2016, 19:07
Chapter 3: Ablaze
November 28th, 1939, Berlin
Viktor hung up the phone. The invasion of Poland and Czechoslovakia had been swift - in 28 days, all resistance had ceased. The Czech government had fled into exile, and the Polish government, trying to do the same, had been captured when Romania refused to allow them entry.

He took a look at his map...
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/kuO9Fom.jpg)[/spoiler]
...and smiled. His forces had arrived west. His tactical bombers were concentrating on the northernmost section of the Maginot line, and the French were still disorganized.

Of course, the damned English were sinking about four cargo ships a day in the Atlantic. That pace couldn't be kept up for long. He would have to do something about that, and soon.

- - -
December 11th, 1939, Berlin

"We have it, sir! A breakthrough, in Metz! We're beyond the line."

Viktor thanked the man, and hung up. It had taken ten days to breach the line. German planes were unable to damage the deep concrete bunkers of the line, but their bombs blasted dirt over entrances and hit anyone in the open, while German infantry and tanks crept close and then rushed them. And now an entire army group was behind French lines.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/7CJKvMR.jpg)
[/spoiler]
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 03 Jan 2016, 20:16
Chapter 4: Wildfire
January 24th, 1940, Outskirts of Paris

Hans Acker could see it, in the distance. Towering over the city, its black metalwork gleaming in the winter noon. In the distance, lower and closer, he could see the french poilus scrambling out of their holes, back west towards the city center. To the north, he saw the dust of another approaching division, although he wasn't sure which one. He didn't have time to find out, either - the German infantry were not so much marching or assaulting as running, a fierce joy in their hearts. In less than two months, they'd made it further than the entire German army from 1914 to 1918. And ahead, Paris!

The German army had struck at the northern joint of the Maginot in practically a human wave, a bloody struggle that had almost broken Hans' spirit. But worth it. Oh, so worth it. His father had told him of Verdun, of the bloody warfare, of the charges over the top, of the frustration and futility. He had told Hans not to join the Wehrmacht, that he did not want to lose a son to this.

But the German army had swept through the Metz, and smashed through the ineffective reinforcements. Then it had sent three offensive forces through, one to the North, to seize Paris, one south-west to push the misplaced French army back, and one down along the spine of the Maginot line, cutting off the French army stationed there.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/oGGbpBE.jpg)[/spoiler]

A bullet whipped by him, and he spotted a French soldier working his rifle. Carefully, he stopped, aimed, and fired. The French poilu spun, dropped his rifle, and grabbed his arm. Well, he'd missed his chest. The man would live. No matter. On to Paris!
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 03 Jan 2016, 22:33
Chapter 4: Wildfire
February 1st, 1940
10 Downing street, London


Chamberlain sat down heavily in his chair. The call had just come in. France was seeking a armistice. It was a blow, but not unexpected. Paris had fallen, the Maginot line isolated and then crushed, with French forces falling on every front. The attack had been so swift that central France was practically undefended, and the Germans were well on their way to the Atlantic.

He sighed. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep together a government. Churchill had been nipping at his heels again, and the only blessing of the circumstances was that Britain hadn't managed to get an expeditionary force over to France just in time to be lost. On the other hand, British re-armament was just tooling up to full speed, and already France was lost.

France was lost! In little more than a month and a half, France had fallen. No one could have predicted this. But it would not be seen that way. No, the leader was supposed to know. Now Britain truly was an island, truly isolated from the mainland since 1815.

At least Churchill was supporting the war. More than a bit, really. What was that he had said in Parliament? Chamberlain shuffled through his desk to find the text of the speech. Ah, yes, there:

"We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle."

Nothing about America, whose President offered aid but whose population was for peace. And down at the bottom, ah, yes. Apparently Churchill had made the speech, and then muttered to a colleague: "And we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that's bloody well all we've got!"

Too true.

- - -

February 3rd, 1940
Compiègne, France


Viktor stood, watching the representatives file out of the railroad care. Hitler had insisted that the armistice must be signed in the same railroad car used in 1918, and like Foch had done then, had left his generals to finish negotiations. Then he had gone off to tour Paris.

Treaty terms had been harsh, which Viktor had insisted upon. Germany would permanently occupy and control the north and west of France. Vichy would become the new capitol of France, and she would be permitted her navy and soldiers. As well, France would be required to accept several million "undesirables" from both Germany and France, including Jews and those incapable of working. When the French delegation had balked, Viktor had offered to simply occupy the entire country. And they had acceded to his demands. 
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/tq7eCFv.jpg)[/spoiler]

Forst, even more so than Hitler, was determined that France would never rise again to threaten Germany.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Ulphus on 03 Jan 2016, 23:33
Logging in for the first time in three years to say I'm enjoying the writing and the story.

Good stuff Vik
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 04 Jan 2016, 00:39
Logging in for the first time in three years to say I'm enjoying the writing and the story.

Good stuff Vik
Thanks!
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 04 Jan 2016, 01:08
Chapter 4: Wildfire
February 12th, 1940
Lowestoft, England


The boy stood on the beach, staring into the low fog that covered the sandy beach. It was slowly clearing in the morning air. He thought he heard a sound, wondered if it might be one of the seemingly endless numbers of fighters the Germans had overhead all the time these days. But no, it was something else. And a...shape, looming out of the fog?

Then a breeze sprang up, and the fog rolled back, and he could see. Ships, dark gray and deadly, on the horizon, heading in.

- - -

Wilhelmshaven, Germany

"The landings are successful," Raeder reported over the radio, and Viktor relaxed. The beach, not on the channel, and thus, not expected as an avenue of attack, was both close enough for easy transport, and far enough the the English hadn't guarded it at all. And now most of an Army Group was ashore, and with a harbor to boot.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/IS3eRxI.jpg)[/spoiler]

- - -

Churchill hunched his shoulders in dismay at the report. German soldiers had just landed in Edinburgh, again, with it nearly completely unguarded, and were now working to cut England of from Scotland completely. Damn whoever had come up with that intelligence estimate claiming that the Germans were massing in Calais! Of course they were, they had the men to spare for a diversion.

Not that the boys in Ultra were doing any better. No sooner had the Poles managed to get the code-breaking information to Britain than the Germans stopped sending anything important by it. Apparently they were now probably using something called a "one-time-pad". Churchill idly wondered how much paper that must be using up.

But the bigger problem was that the Germans were now effectively cutting the country in two. He couldn't have that, but they were also on the outskirts of London.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/RRpThiJ.jpg)[/spoiler]
And besides that, the Germans had complete air superiority. Oh, sure, the Spitfires could battle the 109s on equal terms, but there just weren't enough of them. In the meantime, German bombers roamed over the hills and harbors of England, sinking and bombing both land and sea with impunity.

Perhaps he could hit Edinburgh hard, deprive the Germans of the port they needed to resupply? Then push back in London? Yes, he would try that...
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 04 Jan 2016, 01:42
Chapter 4: Wildfire
April 30th, 1940
Moscow, USSR


"London has fallen," the messenger said. "Word's just gone out on the airwaves, unless the Americans and Germans are both lying." The man saluted and left at a dismissive wave of the hand from the dictator.

Staling sat, puffing his pipe, and thinking. He had expected, and wanted a longer war. Much longer. Long enough that he could walk in and pick up the pieces. That had not happened. Yes, the conquest of England was taking the fascists troops a bit longer than France, but it would happen. The English were having progress against Edinburgh, they claimed, but they'd been claiming that for the past month. The Germans were claiming that they were nearly to Liverpool. Stalin trusted neither, but he expected that he should put more stock in the latter than the former.

Still, he needed to attack, and soon, before the Germans could redeploy. That might be his best chance. He decided. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would go on the offensive. He called for Zhukov.

- - -

Churchill took a final puff on his cigar and then tossed it down onto the wet Belfast street and stamped on it. The day was wet and gloomy, which was about right for his tastes. No, that wasn't true. To fit his mood, fire and brimstone would have been more to the point.

It had taken time, more time, he knew, than the Germans had preferred or planned for. And now that the Soviet Union had declared war, perhaps that would cost them. But too late for his country. Too late for his war. The Germans held England and Scotland from the Cliffs of Dover to Scapa Flow.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/1toL0Tp.jpg)[/spoiler]

And damn the Royal Navy, too. So overconfident and sure of themselves. Yes, they'd sunk a lot of cargo ships, some transports, and a lot of destroyers. So what? Their ships were still vulnerable to air power. They'd lost eight battleships in a matter of days around the coast of Scotland, and only succeeded in sinking one enemy capital ship, the Bismarck, in a melee of ships, shells, torpedoes and planes that left two more Royal Navy battleships on the bottom.

The Germans would be landing here, soon. He'd probably be heading to India. The Empire still held strong, there. The Dominions were still out of the fight. Perhaps the Empire could get their aid, and make a comeback in the Mediterranean. But for the first time since the Norman invasion, England was lost.

- - -

"Well, Forst, how are we doing in the east?"

It was the Fuhrer again, from the Berghof. He was worried, as was Forster, although Forster was less so.

"Our troops are mostly holding, my Fuhrer," Forst replied. Well, they mostly were, although there was trouble in the North. He hadn't expected such a strong attack there. Nonetheless..."They are entering our trap."

"We need to get our troops back from England," Hitler worried. He'd never been much of a fan of Seelowe, and though it had succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of Rundstedt, Forst had been upset at the delay and difficulties in Scotland. When it came to Ireland, he'd simply informed his generals to cross the strait and take all of the island, and get their troops to Konigsberg to fight the Russians. They needed them.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 04 Jan 2016, 03:58
Chapter 5: Inferno
April 30th, 1940
Breslau, The Reich


Hitler paced back and forth, stopping now and then to stare at the map. Russian forces had pushed deep into Poland, almost without resistance from the Germans, and a great salient bulged into the interior of the Reich like a dull blade:
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/zLFunp8.jpg)[/spoiler]

And there had been nothing they could do about it. Not without the troops from Ireland and England. Yes, the conquest of England had taken far too long. But at least the convoys were able to run without interference. Not that that mattered now, of course, since that schwein Roosevelt had embargoed the Reich.

Hitler stopped, then chuckled. When he'd informed Viktor of that, the man had just shrugged. "I doubt Mr. Roosevelt will be around all that long" was all he had said. Probably, Hitler thought, the man was right. Popular opinion in the United States had turned against the man and the increasingly rebellious congress. In any case, the mines and factories of now-occupied England were serving the Reich.

Hitler didn't understand why the English simply hadn't made peace. It had been obvious that they couldn't win, that once France had fallen, defeat was inevitable. All they had to show for a year of conflict was...what was it that Churchill had said? "Blood, toil, tears and sweat"? Well, they had plenty of that. When the war was over, perhaps Germany would install a more pleasant government and return to her own shores. Hitler had always admired the British for their empire, and he'd probably let them have that, too. He could afford to be generous, then. He'd have won.

Provided Viktor could pull off his plan for this encirclement, and then defeat the Soviets. He was pretty sure of himself in that regard. He'd even set up vast, pre-build prison-camps with gardens - more like farms, the Fuhrer had noted -  for the prisoners to tend, and small factories. The man was, perhaps, a bit soft. But he'd pointed out that he'd rather the prisoners fed themselves and work for the Reich, than be fed by the Reich or starve and spread disease.

Well, the troops were almost back and the attack would be going in soon. Relatively. The Fuhrer clasped his hands in front of the map and worried.

- - -

November 1th, 1940
Konigsberg, The Reich


"You must move faster!" Viktor shouted into the phone, then slammed it down. He stared at the map, and scowled. The cutting off of Soviet forces was going well...
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/VHOQhlI.jpg)[/spoiler]
...but this was an encirclement on a truly strategic level. The Soviets were rushing to try to break the encircling forces, while the Germans tried to widen the corridor. Worse, their commanders had seen the danger, late, but they had seen it, and were starting to try to rush their forces out. This could not be allowed. He would have the forces in the south start pushing north, and all of the forces surrounding the pocket make a general advance, immediately.

- - -
Chapter 5: Inferno
November 1th, 1940
Breslau, The Reich


Hans dodged left and right, dropped into a depression in the ground, and waited for the Panzer 4 to catch up with him. It did, snorting and growling, and he rose, fired a few shots from his rifle at a retreating Russian, then ran ahead to the next piece of cover - a Soviet tank, still smoking. The smell of burned meat filled his nostrils, and he gagged, spat, then stopped to catch his breath. Ever since the encirclement...
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/CvfgdaE.jpg)[/spoiler]
...the Germans had been contracting around the Soviet forces like a noose around a hanged man's neck. The Russians - and they were nearly all Russians - were fighting desperately, but badly. Hans heard the freight-train roar of artillery and started to duck, then realized that he didn't need to. The Russians were out of artillery. They were almost out of fuel. They were out of time.

The Panzer 4 growled by, its commander tossing him a jaunty wave as he passed, then the commander ducked down inside and the tank stopped and swiveled its turret as it spotted a Soviet tank coming over a rise about one hundred meters away. The cannon fired, nearly deafening Hans, and a gout of dirt blasted into the air ahead of the Soviet machine. That machine fired back, and managed a hit on the first shot, the projectile ricocheting off of the frontal armor with a loud "PANG". A curse came from the open turret, loud enough for Hans to hear even over the ringing in his ears, and then the Panzer fired again. There was a bright flash, a sudden, brilliant gout of flame, and the turret of the enemy vehicle flew into the air as the body of the tank burned with savage intensity.

There was a moment of near silence, and then the Panzer started moving forwards again, and Hans followed it.

- - -

December 4th, 1940
Stavka HQ, USSR


Zhukov fingered the pistol, sitting alone in his office, then placed it back in his holster. He stared at the map on his wall for a few minutes.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/yhNVb7V.jpg)[/spoiler]

The Germans had been clever. Concealing their forces until it was too late for the Soviets - wasn't maskirovka supposed to be a Russian trick? - and then striking with their light and medium armor, driving in, down, and annihilating his forces.

The last transmission had gone out today, the last unit, out of gas, out of food, out of bullets, and out of hope. All of the relief efforts had been in vain. Stalin had been informed. They would be coming for him, and soon.

He pulled out his service pistol again and examined it. It would do. He wasn't sure what he might have done better, and that was what was most damning. Perhaps a more even front line - but then you never had breakthroughs. And it had looked like a breakthrough, looked like the Germans were just stretched thing. Perhaps they even had been, until those damned transports of theirs simply moved troops around many times faster than the Soviets could.

There was noise, at the door. Time then. He would not go with the NKVD. He placed the pistol against his temple, and pulled the trigger.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 04 Jan 2016, 16:39
OOC note:

So, that went well. I really hadn't figured I'd get that many Soviet units. However, what I'm calling the "Polish pocket" was a pretty big risk. Usually the AI (perhaps more so than people) tends to be real suspicious about salients in the line. In this case, though, I had some units retreating here and there, and the line was relatively weak until I got my troops in from England and Ireland. I almost couldn't keep the cut-off corridor open to German forces, either, but managed to widen it in time.

The game models supply and fuel for units (unless you turn that off, which I did not), which means that once you cut off a unit, there's a limited amount of time before it runs out of fuel, ammunition, etc. Once they do, smashing them is much, much easier. As well, they can't retreat, so those men and material are permanently lost to your opponent: they can't be re-formed or reinforced.

How many did they lose? I had to make a rough count, but probably around 70 divisions or so, and since it's mostly infantry, probably between 600,000 to 800,000 men.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 04 Jan 2016, 17:51
Chapter 5: Inferno
September 7th, 1941
Eastern Front, near Minsk

Forst stood behind the sandbags and held the glasses to his face as he examined the enemy lines. The line was obviously thin, held by a few infantrymen. Soviet manpower reserves were still high, but they - as far as the Germans could tell - were running out of guns, tanks, uniforms, and shells faster than they could be produced.

Since the "Polish Pocket", as it had been called, had collapsed, Soviet forces had reeled back under a series of German assaults designed more to crush destroy their armies than to take ground. First, in March, a German offensive to the north had pinned Soviet forces against the Lithuanian border, surrounding and crushing them, costing the Red Army 17 more divisions on top of the 70 in the "Polish Pocket".
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/dLhY6Z9.jpg)[/spoiler]

In May, the Germans had done the same thing to the south, rolling down and trapping 14 divisions against the Romanian border, in the Romanian Pocket.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/GlngOhK.jpg)[/spoiler]

And then, in August, the Germans had thrown out three columns, advancing miles deeper into the Soviet Union and trapping 24 divisions between them:
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/l8Rj4Tw.jpg)[/spoiler]

Forst examined a map, and considered the Reich's options:
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/zeZePYq.jpg)[/spoiler]

Hitler had wanted the Wehrmacht to swing north, and take Leningrad, or swing south and occupy most of the Ukraine, which was the Soviet Union's bread basket. There was merit to both approaches: Leningrad was an important port, industrial and commercial center, while depriving the USSR of the Ukraine would badly damage their ability to feed their armies.

On the other hand, despite the election of Charles Lindbergh as president of the United States on a peace ticket, the embargo against Germany continued. On the other hand, the United States might well be shipping food and supplies to Russia - FDR had certainly been shipping to Britain. For that matter, perhaps India was still receiving convoys. After all, the English had made two nuisance raids on the German and French coasts. The raids had gone badly, but they tied up forces that could be better used on the front.

Forst sighed, then decided. The Reich would strike south. There were a large amount of Soviet divisions there, and the opportunity was too much to pass up. Or perhaps...he considered carefully...yes, perhaps, for once, they could do both. Well, not quite. But an attack, moderately, in the north? Yes, that could be done.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 04 Jan 2016, 20:31
Chapter 5: Inferno
October 30th, 1941
Bombay, India


Churchill wiped his head with a damp handkerchief as he stepped off the plane. The heat of the subcontinent did not agree with him, and he had not looked forward to returning from negotiations in Australia and Canada. Both Dominions seemed to be leaning towards joining the allied cause, but there was real doubt as to what good that might do. Perhaps if troops could be brought to the Middle East, some effort might be made northward, provided pressure could be brought to bear upon Turkey. The difficulty was that there was so little to pressure with.

A landing - a distraction, and mostly for propaganda value - had been made at Kiel, actually in Germany, but had been cut off by the German fleet before it could be evacuated, contained by quickly called-up garrison forces, and then stomped flat by air power and a German panzer division. A second attempted raid at Brest had found no ships at harbor, but had discovered a pair of German battleships preparing at a nearby port for a post-shakedown cruise, who had been only too happy to annoy the landing fleet. That had led to the loss of even more Royal Marines, as a newly commissioned panzer group had rolled over the lightly armed infantry exceedingly quickly.

The simple fact of the matter was that it was up to the Russians now. England still had a fleet, still had her aircraft carriers, which meant that the Germans dared not venture far from land-based air cover. But they had no need to. The belly of Germany was protected by neutral countries who had no intention of offending the giant to their north, and the Alps. The coast of France and Germany were protected by the German Navy, Luftwaffe, and garrisons of infantry and tanks.

And the Russians were not doing well.

- - -

October 30th, 1941
Moscow, USSR


Stalin swore and threw the teacup across the room, where it shattered against the wall. Couldn't his generals do anything right? He'd had to have another five or so shot. Briefly, he wondered if he really should have purged all of those officers. Possibly Tukhachevsky...

He glared at the map, biting into his pipe stem. Six more divisions had been encircled in the north, a loss, but replaceable:
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/h4ZyRzP.jpg)[/spoiler]
 
In the south, though...
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/S8haXnj.jpg)[/spoiler]
Nineteen divisions! Nineteen! In little more than a year, about 150 divisions had been captured or destroyed by the fascisti. Only too late was he coming to realize how crushing the loss of the first 70 divisions had been. The destruction of the cream of the Russian military in that idiotic charge towards Berlin - he tried not to think about the fact that he had ordered it - had meant that every attack by the Germans afterwards had met less and less resistance, had fewer and fewer fast forces to interdict the German columns.

He had attacked too soon, he admitted that to himself. If Russian industry had had another year to gear up, if the new T-34 tanks which started coming off the line in September 1940 had been present in quantity...perhaps things might have been different. But now, his glorious advance in the name of international Marxism had turned into a sometimes grinding, sometimes frantic retreat. And he didn't have enough troops to even garrison the entire front, and the Germans showed no sign of stopping.

- - -

November 15th, 1941
Wolfsschanze, near Rastenburg, Prussia


Hitler pointed to the map...
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/MRFeG2P.jpg)[/spoiler]
...and smiled as he turned to Forst.

"There, and there," the dictator said, pointing again. Can you see it? A giant square, pointing towards Moscow. And Bolshevik supplies must go around it. It will finish the annihilation of the Red Army."

"The center of it, perhaps. It's a very ambitious operation during winter."

"Bah! You worry too much," Hitler chuckled. "They all have winter coats, do they not? And the tanks are winterized. You saw to that for the campaign in France."

Forst had, that was true. In fact, Hitler knew that Forst wasn't worried so much about the cold as the supply situation. It had been easy to get supplies to the troops in Poland and France. In Russia, though, the railways were substandard much of the time, and sometimes waylaid by partisans. And it took supplies and fuel just to get supplies and fuel to the front. But they had to fight. The war had not come as Hitler intended, but the drive for lebensraum would now be carried forth.

"Very well," Forst agreed. Better now than in the spring mud.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 04 Jan 2016, 23:50
Chapter 5: Inferno
February 19th, 1942
Wolfsschanze, near Rastenburg, Prussia


"I see. Yes, thank you. Good work."

Forst set the phone down. It was early morning, and Hitler, as he tended to do, was sleeping late, and few people were around, save for a few aides, the bunker and buildings were quiet.

He looked at the massive map table and moved some of the unit designations to match what he'd just heard:
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/NjWwcIL.jpg)[/spoiler]

The call he had just received had been the news that he'd been waiting for. The two pincers of Operation Taifun had linked up. Inside were at least 24 Soviet divisions, including armor divisions - and, if intelligence was correct, Stalin's latest general and his entire staff. Soon, as soon as the pocket was cleaned up, the Germans would launch Operation Taifun II, the capture of Moscow.

He hoped the rains wouldn't be as bad this spring. Once they were done, his troops could move faster. He had few worries about Moscow - there were few troops with guns and almost no tanks left to defend it. But the Soviet Union would not fall with Moscow. No, they would need to be pushed back, perhaps as far as beyond the Urals. Yet he could feel it now. The Russians were broken. They had attacked too soon, many of their industries still not beyond the Urals, and now the Germans had them. The Soviets would sue for peace or Germany would push them beyond the Urals and use the new bombers coming online to smash everything they built to so much rubble.

- - -
April 3rd, 1942
Near Wexford, Ireland


Conrad Beck watched as the press-ganged Irish laborers nudged the body, flipping it over and watching for a grenade or other booby trap. Nothing. The Irishmen picked the body up and tossed it into the waiting truck for later burial.

They should have known better, Conrad thought. A few militia, probably armed by the English, taking on four divisions, and one of them a panzer division...
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/uoEeE42.jpg)[/spoiler]

...No, that hadn't been smart at all. These Irish were like that - braver than they were smart. Well, now they were brave and dead.

One of the Irishmen doing the detail suddenly straightened, coming up with a gun that had been under one of the bodies. He swung it to bear on Conrad, but the German already had his MP40 up and pointed with combat reflexes that had been honed against well-trained British troopers. The man barely had the submachine gun - ugly model, Conrad thought irrelevantly - turned in his general direction before Conrad hit him with a long, chattering burst. The Irishman gave a burbling scream and fell, twitching a few times before Conrad put another burst into him.

"Dummkopf!" he snorted, then motioned to the other workers with his gun. "Work," he growled, and they grabbed the new body and tossed it on top of the old. Brave, but stupid.

- - -

May 7th, 1942
Leningrad, USSR


Stalin sat gloomily in the dark room. Moscow had fallen. He'd almost waited to long - he'd sworn to stay in the last, and in the end, had had to be flown out, his small two-seater plane hugging the ground as closely as it could at night, trying to avoid the buzzing 109s that sometimes even prowled at night.

He was tired, and he wasn't sure the others with him - most of whom had left before he had, he had noted with morose pride and anger combined - realized how much of a blow the loss of Moscow had been. In the Soviet Union, all roads, specifically, all railroads, led to Moscow. And now it was in German hands. They would be here soon, he thought. Probably. Or perhaps they would swing south and capture what remained of his southern forces.

He couldn't even shoot the idiot general who had managed to get himself and almost the entirety of the center of the Red Army captured. Privately, and for once, Stalin admitted that it probably wouldn't have been fair to. The man had maybe a third of the numbers of the Wehrmacht facing him, and almost no air cover.

Stalin, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, sat in a darkened room and wondered what he should do.

- - -

May 8th, 1942
Bombay, India

Churchill sank into a chair, feeling faint. "Are you sure?" he asked the young intelligence officer who had brought him the message.

"Yes. Quite sure, sir. The report is coming from Leningrad now, as well as Berlin."

"I see. Thank you." He paused for a moment, then said quietly "You may go."

The young man - Churchill didn't know his name, left, and Churchill turned back to his visitor, the former president.

"Are you going to be alright?" FDR asked, wheeling his chair closer to the table they had been sitting at.

"It's this heat," Churchill said. "Well, this heat and bad news like that. I had placed too much hope in the Russians."

"Not the only ones who let you down," Roosevelt said, his voice tinged with bitterness. "I had hoped that the people of the United States were wiser."

"I suppose they considered that it wasn't their fight," Churchill shrugged. Roosevelt had done what he could for Great Britain, had sold them destroyers and weaponry for leases on bases, had done as much as he could, in fact, right up to the day Charles Lindbergh had moved into the White House. And now he had come to India, to commiserate with a friend. But Roosevelt still had his home to go back to.

"It will be their fight," Roosevelt said. "That's how I see it."

Churchill shrugged. "Probably not. Probably not. I read his book, you know."

"That piece of rubbish?"

"Well, yes, it is that. But he wants Russia. Lebensraum, they call it. I must admit, I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't have perhaps let them have it."

Roosevelt was silent at that, and there was silence at the table, until Churchill thought to bring up the considerably more cheerful subject of what a difficult time the Japanese were having keeping China pacified.

- - -

May 8th, 1942
Moscow, Occupied USSR


Hitler scuffed at the ashes in the street, still falling from the sky as buildings burned. The Soviets had tried to blow up most of the administrative buildings, but the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral had been mostly spared. Perhaps they thought they would get them back. Hardly.

"The city will have to be torn down," he said, speaking to his entourage. Forst wasn't there, instead back at the Wolfsschanze planning the next two operations. "But not completely."

That caused some raised eyebrows, but the Fuhrer's thinking on the matter had changed over time, and with conversations he'd had with both Forst and Speer. Speer had wanted to preserve the architecture, and now that he was here, Hitler had to agree that some of the buildings - the old Czarist ones, of course - had some grandeur. Forst, on the other hand, had just stared at him in disbelief when he had mentioned the idea of leveling the city.

"That is not funny," the man had said, in apparent horror. "Not even as a joke. Do you know that every railroad in the whole damn country goes through Moscow? Am I to have our troops laying rail as they go? Perhaps I should have our panzers pulled by sled dogs through the snow?"

And that had been that. So the Germans would pull down the buildings the Russians had burned or demolished, which was most of them, and they would occupy the rest for administration and as a depot. The population was mostly gone - fleeing through German lines or already fled. That was good, too.

"They are weak." Hitler said, almost to himself. "Just one more good kick and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 05 Jan 2016, 02:02
Chapter 6: Götterdämmerung
June 19th, 1942
West of Kharkov, Occupied USSR


Hans faced forward, keeping his Panther slowly creeping forward. Operation Hammer, as it was called, was now in full swing. And for once, he was going into it with style. He hadn't been a tanker, hadn't wanted to be one, but he'd been fighting beside one when the Panzer commander was decapitated by an anti-tank round, and without thinking, Hans had climbed on top of the tank, pulled the body out, and managed to direct fire well enough to knock out the enemy AT gun, and proceeded to lead a successful local attack.

That had apparently impressed HQ enough to the point that a hauptmann had told him that the Panzers needed a Leutnant with such natural talent more than the infantry did, seeing as there was such a training crunch for new officers and tankers, so he had just volunteered for the panzers. At the time, remembering the Russian tank that had gone sky high, he had been less than thrilled. But the job had grown on him, especially once he'd received a Panther. He'd heard that the Fuhrer had wanted to build a heavy breakthrough tank, to be named "tiger", but that the Unterfuhrer had canceled all plans for anything but extensive design, testing, and production of a new medium model.

As far as Hans was concerned, he couldn't imagine anything better than this monster under him. It was responsive, reliable, and even had water-jackets around the ammunition storage to prevent fires if hit. The gun was accurate, if slightly overpowered and possessing a lackluster high explosive shell. And the armor was excellent. It was also much more comfortable than the Panzer 4. And it was all his.

And now he was using it to drive the encircled Bolshevik hordes out of Kharkov. His commanding officer had showed him a map of the current situation...
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/pxSARji.jpg)[/spoiler]
...and while Hans was probably too junior for the information, the word was passed to him that even now plans were being made for the taking of Sevastopol, then Leningrad and perhaps Stalingrad.

He paused, stared ahead, and ordered his gunner to fire at a particularly suspicious bush. He was rewarded with secondary explosions blowing dirt, fragments, and other things through the air. Then the tank snuffled forward again, pushing towards Kharkov

- - -

September 25th, 1942
Small village, Ireland


Conrad watched the town burn. There had been a second, major uprising. Again, arms smuggled in by the English. The Wehrmacht had withdrawn to Northern Ireland to regroup and wait for reinforcements: an entire Panzer Corp from Northern France. Then they had come down on the newly liberated state with a bloody fury.

Their orders had been clear: the previous occupation had been light, with troops building their own barracks and generally trying to stay out of the local's way. And they had been rewarded by two bloody revolts. Now there would be suffering. The cities would be garrisoned. Any town that offered resistance would be leveled. As this one had. While he watched, a Panther backed over a stone house, crumbling its walls to rubble, while a nearby pub burned fiercely. Not that Conrad and the other soldats hadn't liberated some of the more palatable booze.

Twenty or so bodies hung from nearby trees, each one with a placard reading "IRA" around its neck. Conrad didn't know if they were IRA. He just knew that they had had guns, and they had used them, and that was enough. No one would be allowed to bury them.

He knew something else. This island would be pacified, if it took killing every Irish man, woman, and child on it. The Irish were used to the English, who could be cruel, but were also weak. We Germans, Conrad thought, are not. The Irish would learn that, or they would cease to be able to learn anything.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 05 Jan 2016, 03:07
(This is best read while listening to Mozart's Lacrymosa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1-TrAvp_xs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1-TrAvp_xs) )

Chapter 6: Götterdämmerung
October 1st, 1942
Moscow, Occupied USSR

"This is the final battle, isn't it?

They stood together, in Red Square, amidst the command centers and communications equipment. The Fuhrer of the Third Reich, staring out into the distance, as if he could see surrounded Leningrad, the Russians falling back, back towards the historic capitol of Tsarist Russia.

"I am not sure," Forst said. It was not a lie. Yet the Russians were broken. Over the last two years of war, the Wehrmacht had surrounded and entirely destroyed over 189 divisions, almost two million men, not to speak of the casualties of front-line fighting. The Soviet Union could no longer man the whole line. Their last major concentration was bottled up and being separated from Leningrad by a ferocious German assault.

"Yes," He amended softly, "Yes, I do not think they will persist."

"Eastern Europe will be ours." Hitler spoke softly, as if the words might shatter something.

"Yes."

The Fuhrer turned to face him. "I could not have done this without you."

"Danke, mein Fuhrer."

- - -

October 18th, 1942
Leningrad, USSR

They stood around the table, looking down at the map,
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/6knRHmq.jpg)[/spoiler]
as if staring at it hard enough would change something.

The relief forces were not coming. The few remaining radios that that force had were themselves transmitting frantic calls for help as the encircling German forces battered them. Everything else was...too little, too far away.

The building shook, the crump-crump of incoming artillery more felt than heard. A cup fell off the table and shattered on the floor.

Stalin felt a sudden up-welling of frustration and rage. "Lenin gave us this State and we pissed it all away!" he shouted. No one responded. They stood silently, staring at the floor, clasping their hands, not daring to look at him.

In a sudden moment of clarity, Stalin saw who they were, who he had surrounded himself with. In his drive for power, he had cleverly outmaneuvered everyone, purged anyone who could threaten his leadership. Necessarily so, he had thought, to safeguard his leadership to a new order, a preservation of Lenin's legacy.

But in his determination to destroy all challengers to himself, he had destroyed anyone with the will or the ability to challenge others. And all his generals and subordinates waited on him now, waited for him to provide solutions that he didn't have, a miracle, a way to stand against the foe. And far too late, he realized that he had destroyed all those who could have offered solutions.

He felt suddenly weary, more weary than he had ever felt. In his bones, he felt tired of power, of life.

"I am going out to fight," he said. "Does anyone here have a pistol?" Of course they did not. He had forbidden anyone to carry a firearm in his presence. He left without another word. On the street outside, a militiaman, a boy, really, lay dead, robbed of life by some stray bomb or shell fragment. Stalin stripped him of his ancient rifle and the few cartridges he had carried. Overhead somewhere, one of the fascist's damnable bombers was dropping a stick of bombs, the sound hushed by the intervening buildings and rubble, but loud nonetheless. He walked on.

He passed the Philharmonia, and the sound of Mozart's Requiem came to him through broken windows as the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra played one last time. Stalin, failed priest, revolutionary, and General Secretary of the Soviet Union, smiled and walked towards the sound of the guns.

- - -

October 20th, 1942
Leningrad, USSR

Guderian approached the man holding the white flag. He was standing in the courtyard of the shattered Winter Palace, the massive structure afire or demolished in several places. Smoke and soot swirled around the courtyard, thick enough to be a near-fog.

"Yes?" Guderian inquired peremptorily. The man was balding, with glasses and hollowed cheeks and eyes that spoke of not enough to eat for some time.

"My name - " The man choked on the smoke for a moment, coughed, then went on. "My name is Lavrentiy Beria. I represent the Soviet Union. I have come to request...terms."
 

Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 05 Jan 2016, 21:31
Chapter 7: Embers
November 1st, 1942
Moscow, The Third Reich

They called it "The Bitter Peace", and signed the document in Moscow, in the battered and bullet-riddled Kremlin. Mikhail Kalinin, Lavrentiy Beria, and Maxim Litvinov signed for the Soviets. Hitler signed for the Germans. And in Germany, bells rang in churches and towns from Prussia to Bavaria, as news of the ceasefire echoed around Europe.

The terms were harsh. In terms of territory, the Reich acquired all Soviet lands on an uneven line from Arkhangelsk in the north to Astrahan in the south.
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/2bvrfkW.jpg)[/spoiler]
The Soviet Union would also be required to accept population deportations from the Reich, as the Reich intended to remove non-Aryans from its soil over time.

The Soviets had protested, of course. To that, Forst had simply remarked that they could accept the treaty, or the Germans would simply take the land, and that in such a case, they had no use for a captured Soviet government.

The Germans were under no illusions, of course. They knew that the Soviets humiliated, beaten and crushed, would nonetheless burn with a desire for vengeance. But the Urals would impede any offensive, and the Germans were already planning a vast, in-depth wall of fortifications from north to the south of the line, to be permanently garrisoned by German troops serving their three years of compulsive military service. New railroads would be routed along the fronts, and later, industrial plants would be put in.

Truthfully, Forst had wished that they could push through to the Pacific Ocean. But that was pure fantasy. German supply lines were already badly stretched, and even with the induction of Georgians and Ukrainians - the latter of whom had proved to have little love for Stalin or the Soviets - manpower was short. French laborers and POWs helped in the factories, but Germany couldn't afford to move east past the Urals.

But that was probably just his innate tendency to worry. In fact, it was. The Soviets would be far too busy trying to resettle incoming populations and feed them, as well as rebuilding, to threaten the Reich seriously for perhaps forty years. Yes, this was victory.

- - -

In Canada, Churchill sat, clothed in a thick coat, at the train station. The fall of the Soviet Union had set back his efforts to bring the Dominions into the war. The Germans had made no secret of their success, and even now Soviet forces were evacuating from land west of the Ural Line, as some were calling it. That had been the story, hadn't it, since those first hopeful days when Stalin had declared war, and Churchill remembered being so sure that he would soon see England again, that Hitler would be forced back, that Nazism would die in Berlin by Soviet hands, if not English ones.

Now he was heading to America, to try to wheedle more war supplies from President Lindbergh, as German diplomats would try to wheedle an elimination of the embargo. Perhaps he would go and visit Roosevelt. Public opinion towards the man had softened, but he remained, if not overly bitter about his loss, at least disillusioned with his presidency and the United States.

Churchill sat on the train bench, watching snow fall while he waited, and wondered if he would ever see England again.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 05 Jan 2016, 22:09
Chapter 7: Embers
July 30th, 1943
Berlin, The Third Reich

Eight months. It had been eight months. Who knew that cleaning up after a war could be so time consuming? Forst stepped out of his office and made for his automobile, the first step in his trip to the new command center being set up near the Balkans. The Reich was going to war again.

This endeavor was entirely Forst's initiative. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Hitler had seemed strangely unfocused, perhaps a bit lost. "I have accomplished my life's purpose" he had stated at one point, with the unspoken addition of "now what?" Soon, though, he had been energized in a new direction - the development of the new territory and of the Third Reich as a whole. He had mentioned that something more must be done about the Jews, as well, but his malice seemed to have been somewhat muted by victory, or perhaps by Forst's somewhat annoyed comments to the effect that the SS had things well in hand.

"Well in hand," Forst considered, might not have been an entirely truthful way of putting things. It might have been more accurate that he had taken the problem in hand and tossed it over his shoulder. It wasn't just that setting up new concentration camps, as Goebbels had suggested, would eat up additional manpower. Rather, Forst after reading Dr. Heisenberg's paper, and the setting up of Special Project 24, had made a quiet inquiry into just how many scientists and technicians had left the Reich because of the "Jewish Question".

The results had both shocked and worried him - both in how many scientists and engineers had been Jewish, and how many of them were now in other countries. And the nagging doubt had grown: for sub-humans - "if", he dared think now - they were rather smart, rather gifted. He had spoken to some of the men and women wearing the yellow star, who still occasionally walked the streets of Germany, and despite his adherence and loyalty to the Nazi Party and the German state, he had begun to find himself trapped between a a moral unwillingness to treat the Jew harshly, and the demands of his position and government.

He thought he had a solution, though. Deportation would solve everything. For those near enough to the new border with the Soviet Union, well, Marxism claimed to apply to everyone without discrimination. Those Jews would be shipped east, and the Russians could give them homesteads in Siberia or whatever they did to farm there. As for European Jews, well the Romans had - and he was beginning to feel a certain personal annoyance with them just for this reason - created the problem by driving the Jew out of his ancestral home. He would rectify that. He would "liberate" Judea from the English, and fill it full of factories and homes. Then he would simply unload every last Jew he could get his hands on in the Reich into the homeland they claimed to yearn for. That was fair, right?

Yes, that would be best. That would solve the Reich's problem, and his own concerns, as well.

In the meantime, he had to plan the attack into the Balkans. The Balkans possessed necessary resources for the Reich, most importantly, oil. In addition, their geographic location rendered them an annoying obstacle to access to English and Free French holdings in the Middle East. And a conquest of the Balkans and Turkey would also give potential access to Iran and India. Access to India would be necessary to defeat the English.

Forst had considered a naval strike, but Britain had brought its carriers up, and though the Reich was rapidly trying to construct its own aircraft carriers, Forst had no illusion that it would be any time soon, and he expected that trying to confront English carriers out of the range of land-based air cover would be just as fatal for the German fleet as engaging within that envelope had been for the English battleships.

So, Guderian held the Eastern Wall with its forts, and two reasonably sized armies under Manstein and Rommel would handle the Balkans.

Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 07 Jan 2016, 00:36
OOC: sorry about the big break in game-time between entries, but my game crashed a few times, I had to revert to a save (not one before what I'd posted, though, so no continuity loss), and thus I lost some screenshots.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 07 Jan 2016, 01:41
Chapter 7: Embers
August 26th, 1944
Jerusalem, The Third Reich

Forst stood near the Temple Mount and looked over the city. For the life of him, he couldn't see what was worthwhile about owning this place. It looked tattered, trashed, even a bit seedy to his European eye. No matter.

The SS had already begun clearance operations, deporting the local population. Most of them were destined for what was formerly Turkey and Yugoslavia. Those countries had room, and most of all, a foreign element would destabilize partisan elements. Soon all of Palestine would be empty, ready for the Jews of Europe.

The war against the Balkans had taken most of a year. In September Rommel and Manstein had swarmed through Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary: [spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/dvGQVpv.jpg)[/spoiler] and then had started into Greece in December of 1943: [spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/vxFqPsz.jpg)[/spoiler]

The Greeks had fought fiercely, and the assault into Turkey had had to be delayed until the new year, with serious inroads only being made by March 1944: [spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/7sYsrIF.jpg)[/spoiler]

The success, however, had actually stymied him a bit. He had originally intended to attack down through Iraq, but his troops had reported atrocious roads and great difficulty getting supplies and fuel over the mountainous and desert terrain. In retrospect, he had admitted to himself and to the OKW, the invasion of Turkey had been largely pointless from a strategic viewpoint.

Thus, he had decided upon a rather ambitious gambit: the invasion of Gibraltar. The Reich now a bomber force of around 2,500 planes, and two fast-battleship/destroyer fleets. With air and sea cover, and with desperate fighting, Gibraltar could be taken.

In actuality, the event was anti-climactic. Gibraltar had been stripped of the majority of its garrison, probably for the Middle East. The demoralized few who remained had been over-awed almost to the point of non-resistance by the massive semi-amphibious panzer-group that landed to subdue the "impenetrable redoubt", as Churchill had called it in a speech from India.

The capture of Gibraltar had bottled up a large portion of the British fleet in the Mediterranean. Then the battle fleets had swept in, covered by roughly bombers based in the Balkans, while Germany landed on and occupied Crete and Malta. And then, covered by the swarming Luftwaffe, German troops had landed in British Palestine:
[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/xkD7XXz.jpg)[/spoiler]

And, now he stood in the Holy City, sacred to three religions. He could see the Dome of the Rock, shattered into rubble by a fully loaded English Halifax bomber that had gone down into it. As he watched, gray-clothed figures used machinery to scrape away the rubble, loading it into trucks, as others set up anti-aircraft batteries.

- - -

Rangoon, British Empire

Churchill sat alone, staring out the window as he held a half-full glass of gin. It was a rainy, cool day, for once. The King remained in Bombay. He had just returned from another trip to the Dominions, to the United States, even to Japan. It was essentially official now: no help would be forthcoming. He wanted to be angry - all of the time, all of the wealth that Britain had put into her colonies, and when the mother country was in need, her children abandoned her. He knew that that wasn't fair, that none of the colonies, save the United States - and if the United States was a child, it was a long-rebellious one - had the ability to take on the Reich. Indeed, the Empire itself had tried three minor raids on Europe, only to have them crushed with a speed and viciousness that had discouraged any real invasion plans.

But now the Reich was striking into the heart of remaining imperial power. The capture of Gibraltar had been a deep and physically painful shock. The Royal Navy had assured Churchill that the fleets of the Reich were too short-legged to cover the invasion. Whether or not that had been the case, the speed of the capture had made that moot. And then the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe had gone utterly wild in the Mediterranean, with the bombers seeking out and harrying the hapless Royal Navy day and night, while the battleships and destroyers of the Kriegsmarine developed a fine art of lurking in fogs and around coastlines to race out and torpedo and shell anything the bombers spotted.

He smiled a bitter smile, sipping his gin. The Germans still were ambush predators, still were submariners at heart. But it had worked. They'd even ambushed a carrier off of Malta and sunk it, racing up on it out of a rain squall after a high-flying Luftwaffe pilot had spotted it. The Germans had even been courteous about it - after putting two shells into the flight deck, they'd waited to finish it off until the crew had largely abandoned ship. They could afford to - that had been the last major threat to their fleet in the Mediterranean.

And now German forces were pushing down, down into the oil country that the British Empire needed so desperately to maintain anything like a war effort. In Palestine, German arms were exploding out of Tel Aviv. The British Empire was being dismantled, slowly, methodically, but surely. German forces were at the border of Persia. After they finished in the Middle East, they would assuredly push down into Africa and east through Persia into India. And they would take India, and Singapore, and the Empire and English people would fade into memory under a gray tide.

A single tear, as cool as the rain outside, began to course down his cheek.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 07 Jan 2016, 01:53
Chapter 7: Embers
August 28th, 1944
East of El Alamein, Egypt

[spoiler](http://i.imgur.com/iSnQt9L.jpg)[/spoiler]

"What's this place, Hans?"

"That's Oberleutnant Hans to you, Unteroffizier", Hans said absentmindedly, scanning the small town in the distance. He and his tank, along with a squad, had been sent west to search out any enemy activity. So far, there had been no sign of any English. "Anyway, I believe Rommel called it 'El Alamein'. We are east of El Alamein."

He and others of a Panzer Corp had been delivered to this place by ship after fighting their way through Turkey. It was less that he had hoped for. The sand got everywhere, and it was always hot, except when it was too cold at night. He had heard that German troops had entered Alexandria, and he hoped it was true. The sooner Rommel and Manstein got them out of this sandpit, the better.

The Balkans had been much more fun. Rommel and Manstein's troops had raced each other to the next objective, cutting off enemy forces with ease, often not even inflicting casualties of note, just encircling, bypassing, and moving on. After the eastern front, what troops the Balkan countries could put up were not even a challenge. His Panther had just chugged on, eating up the kilometers.

And, honestly, Hilda the Panther didn't seem to mind the sand, either. So perhaps he shouldn't. Well, in any case, no English were left here, at El Alamein. On to Cairo, then!
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 07 Jan 2016, 03:56
Chapter 8: Ashes
September 2nd, 1944
Bombay, India

"It's time, Winston."

The King looked tired. The war had taken its toll, though not too badly. He had stopped smoking, in sympathy with the citizens of Occupied England, who could not get tobacco, and Winston thought that in that, the Germans might have done the English sovereign a very little good. But...still...

"No," Winston said. "We cannot. We cannot. How can we...just give in?"

"Winston, is there any chance, any chance at all that we can prevail?"

Churchill stared, looking off into the distance. They both knew the answer. Despite trading with the Americans and the Dominions, despite the American embargo on trading with Germany, the Germans were well-fed, well-equipped, and adequately supplied, while British troops were out of fuel, low on ammunition, badly clothed, barely fed enough to fight, and demoralized. There was no chance. The Germans would cut through the defenses of India, and the terrain would give them more problems than the Empire's troops.

"No." He whispered. "No, my King, there is no chance. I do not think that there was a chance since Moscow fell."

The King nodded. "Then I had best go and speak over the radio. I will announce a unilateral ceasefire and appeal for terms. Perhaps we can keep Great Britain together."

- - -

East of Cairo, Egypt

Hans peered over the edge of the hatch, barely showing his head as his Panther crept forward. It was dark, well into the night. They were heading through the eastern vicinity of Cairo, having taken the city a few days before. English forces had pulled back, but Hans wanted to take no chances with some Englishman lurking with a PIAT or that damnable American rocket launcher. Hans had heard that they were so effective and useful that the Reich was copying them, not that it did a tanker any good.

Hilda the Panther shuddered to a stop as the driver spotted something. "Hey," he shouted, "more soldiers!"

Hans saw them too. "No shooting, Franz," he said to his gunner. "They've got their hands up."

"There's a damned lot of them," Franz noted, and the gunner was right. More of the Englishmen were filtering out of the darkness and into the open, walking towards the Panzers with bitter but relieved faces.

Hans had learned a little English and Russian, and understood more than a little of each by this point. When the leader of the soldiers came close enough, he leaned further out of the turret and looked at the man - a colonel, he thought. Probably had been preparing an ambush. The man had tears running down his cheeks.

He approached the Panther and looked up at Hans. "Well, you goddamn kraut," he choked out. "You did it. You beat us. You beat the whole goddamn Empire, Winnie and the goddamn King." Then the colonel put his hand against the gently rumbling Panther and began to sob, openly and unashamed.

Behind the Panther, in the distance over Cairo and the ancient pyramids, fireworks began to light the sky.

- - -

Chapter 8: Ashes
September 3rd, 1944
Berlin, The Third Reich

Churchill arrived at the Chancellery in the afternoon, having flown through the night. He had slept fitfully on the plane, when he had slept at all. Now he, Bernard Montgomery, and the rest of the English delegation were saluted by an SS officer and escorted inside.

He approached the conference room reluctantly, feeling like a man being led to the gallows. Inside, the Field Marshals and leaders of the Reich waited. He entered slowly, and scanned the room as Montgomery followed him. He'd been briefed on whom to expect to see. There was Manstein, Rundstedt, Rommel, and even Guderian, who must have flown in from Moscow. Goebbels, with that vicious tongue of his, fat Goering with his skies of bombers and 109s, and standing at the head of the table, like a dark star drawing all attention inwards, the Fuhrer. His presence almost caused Churchill to miss Forst, standing in a corner, his black uniform a contrast with the grey of the Wehrmacht and khaki of the English delegation.

All waited for the British delegation to be seated before seating themselves. Hitler motioned, and a dark-haired woman, also in an SS uniform, appeared and distributed a few sheets of paper to each delegate. "These are the terms," Hitler announced peremptorily. "We trust that you will find them acceptable."

Churchill almost snapped back at that, but held himself in check. He began to read the terms, with an increasing sense of disbelief. Compared to what he had expected, the terms were astonishingly mild. England would cede no land, even that already taken by the Germans, save for a large portion of Palestine. The British Empire would join the axis and the Reich would not interfere with internal Empire politics, but would receive favorable trade deals for raw resources and would have the right to station troops or ships on English territory. The British Empire would be granted transit rights across German territories - practically a requirement at this point.

Churchill reread the document, looking for anything he might have missed, and then signed. He saw others of the English delegation signing as well, perhaps with the same sneaking desire to agree before the Germans changed their minds. They weren't even asking for their colonies in Africa back.

He looked up to see the Fuhrer smiling. "I never had any desire to destroy the Empire," Hitler said. "You see?"

Churchill nodded, grudgingly. "Thank you," he managed. He even meant it, a very, very little bit.

The rest of the meeting was brief. The Empire could hardly refuse any terms, and its delegation wanted these badly once it had seen them. They moved to a larger room with a buffet and drinks, which the English delegation, with a revived appetite, laid into.

"You know," Montgomery said, he and Churchill, with an interpreter, having buttonholed the Fuhrer and Goering, "we did not expect such favorable terms."

"Yes," Hitler said, holding, but barely touching, a small glass of champagne. "Forst was very much against it. It took quite a bit of work to argue him down."

Montgomery looked around. "Where is he, by the way? He seems to have disappeared."

"Oh," Goering said, shrugging. "He is still irritated by that we didn't at least demand Egypt. He will come around. Right now he is probably off with that dark-haired assistant of his, drinking a beer. He's unmarried, you know, but probably not for long, the way the two of them are eyeing each other."

"What are you going to do with Palestine?" Churchill inquired.

"For the Jews," Hitler said sourly. "Forst will be getting them out of our hair for all time to come. He says he is fixing the mistake the Romans made."

Churchill tried not to grimace. Sometimes you could almost forget they were uncivilized Nazis, and then...

Goering saw his expression, and shrugged. "It's not so bad. They've all been wanting to go back to Jerusalem anyway, and they'll have homes and industries. Forst insists on allowing them to bring personal belongings. It's a solution, it's not perfect, but it's a solution."

"And what of the Palestinians?" Montgomery demanded. "You've been shipping them off to god-knows-where."

Hitler's face darkened. "Yes. We thought to Turkey, at first, but now mostly to Ukraine. That fool Stalin let his Bolsheviks starve three million of his own people. There are barely enough to work the fields. There are empty houses and farms for more than we are are bringing there, and it is better land. Can you believe that? Three million, just like that." He waved a hand. "Bolshevism. It destroys its people."

"Surely that is an exaggeration," Montgomery said, speaking Churchill's thoughts.

"Yes, I thought so too," Hitler replied through the interpreter. "But you can go and see for yourself. We are just moving people, we are not killing them. What sort of civilized person could just kill millions for being in the way?"

- - -

Chapter 8: Ashes
September 10th, 1944
London, England

He had put it off as long as he could. But it was time, now, and he had flown in from India, where he had been putting governmental affairs in order, at last.

His cab took him to 10 Downing Street, where he paid the fare and bid the woman farewell. A woman, driving a taxicab. How...different. So much was different, and yet the same, and as he stared at the entrance to his former place of work, he found that he couldn't bear to go in. Not yet.

He began to walk down the streets of London, eyeing the scars of bomb damage from the war. He remembered walking these streets, more than four years ago. A lifetime ago, when he'd still had hope, when he hadn't realized that he'd condemned his nation to four years of occupation and hardship. What must they think of him? Of how he had failed them, failed the Empire. Let it all fall apart?

"Hey, is that Winnie?" The voice startled him. It was a soldier, still in uniform, back probably from Africa or India, and one of many on the street who had turned to look, Churchill realized, at him. Churchill turned, nodded to the man, and started to turn back to his walk. But another soldier, closer, seeing his face, reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Don't be like that, sir," the youthful soldier said, staring at him with a face that had been scarred but was still handsome and very young. "You did your best. We all did our best."

"It's not your fault," an elderly matron said, clustering with others around him, as he found himself swarmed, people trying to shake his hand, pat him on the back, all English reserve broken in the moment. "They knew they'd been in a fight," another man in a khaki uniform said. There was more, and more of that, as Churchill was swept up, bewildered, in an outpouring of affection.

"You can't win them all," an especially loud voice sang out. "But you can have a drink afterwards!" This brought a general cheer of agreement, and Churchill found himself propelled towards a pub, his eyes sparkling with sudden tears, but a genuine smile on his face for the first time in months.

The pub was a whirlwind of activity, and the Prime Minister found himself bounced from table to table as new patrons met him, clasped his hands, tried to buy him a drink - he quickly ended up with three before he started refusing - and encouraging him. It was quite a while before he could manage a seat at the bar for a moment. On the next stool over, a German in a grey uniform, trim slightly different from the infantry uniform of the Wehrmacht, was busily downing a beer.

"Who are you?" Churchill asked, not entirely pleased to see a German, even if the man was causing no harm.

The man turned, nodded to Churchill, then removed a foam mustache from the underlying stubble on his face with a napkin. "I am Hauptmann Hans Acker," he said in in guttural English. "Flew up here on leave. Wanted to get somewhere away from damned sand, maybe cold, wet. Remind myself what that is. And this place has good beer. He smiled, and Churchill noticed a long, jagged scar down the man's face, and thought of the young man who had stopped him outside, and how the scars looked very much the same.

"And who you?" the man continued. "I buy you one. Good fighters. Good country. Good to not be at krieg...war now." He held out a hand.

Churchill stared at the hand, then, slowly, took it. "Well," he said with a small smile, "since you're offering a drink, my friends call me 'Winnie'.



THE END
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Utari Onzo on 07 Jan 2016, 06:21
Brilliant read.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 07 Jan 2016, 11:03
Brilliant read.

Thanks.  :) Not quite done, still an epilogue.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Pieter Tuulinen on 07 Jan 2016, 13:36
Gah. I've owned this game for a year and not started in on it. That'll be changing tonight.

You're a very talented writer Vikarion - I've paid good money for some absolute shite on Amazon this year and you've just made that look like a VERY bad investment. Moreover I've read some Historical 'What If' fiction by very qualified historians and this sits right up there with that.

Thank you very much for this Christmas present.
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 09 Jan 2016, 12:49
Gah. I've owned this game for a year and not started in on it. That'll be changing tonight.

You're a very talented writer Vikarion - I've paid good money for some absolute shite on Amazon this year and you've just made that look like a VERY bad investment. Moreover I've read some Historical 'What If' fiction by very qualified historians and this sits right up there with that.

Thank you very much for this Christmas present.

Thanks, man, that means a lot.  :)
Title: Re: Iron and Flame: an alternate history play-through of Hearts of Iron 3: Germany
Post by: Vikarion on 18 Jan 2016, 19:37
Chapter 9: Epilogues

From: Cliffsnotes: The Second World War
Historians are divided on when World War 2 ended. Some place the end as early as November 1944, when the U.K. sued for peace. Others place it as late as June 1951, when Chiang Kai-Shek unified all of China and Tibet not ceded to Japan. We've provided students a timeline below, a credible argument can be made for several points.

1944, November: The United Kingdom sues for peace, receives generous terms.

1945, February - March: Germany takes Switzerland. The Japanese issue a private ultimatum to a weakened U.K., demanding all Pacific colonies. The United Kingdom appeals to Germany, which issues a public guarantee of all British possessions. Japan backs down, and decides to move north, declaring war against the Soviet Union. The hidden price for guaranteeing the U.K. becomes quickly evident: British agreement to not interfere in the future German annexation of Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Nordic countries.

1945, April: The Soviet Union agrees to cede a large portion of Eastern Siberia, but not Vladivostock or the Kamchatka Peninsula, to Japan, leading to peace. This quick victory emboldens Japan.

1945, July: Japan declares war on the United States, and on the newly-independent Philippines, expecting a quick victory. Japan quickly takes the Philippines and most American outposts in the Pacific, including Wake and Midway, but soon discovers that the United States, despite a lack of war preparations, is a much more tenacious opponent. Germany annexes the Netherlands and Belgium. Belgium surrenders, but the Dutch move a government in exile to Java.

1945, December: The Netherlands surrender after Germany invades Java and detonates the world's first atomic bomb on an empty plain as a demonstration.

1946 to 1948: Japan and the United States fight to a standstill in the Pacific, with the Japanese being slowly driven back.

1947, January: Seeking to improve relations with the United States, Germany begins offering industrial support for the war effort, similar to lend-lease. The United States accepts.

1947, April: After almost three years of war, the United States, occupying several Japanese islands, offers a return to pre-war borders (not including the Philippines), which an exhausted Japan quickly accepts. Historians largely consider this a Japanese defeat, and the immense costs of the war inflicted a five year economic depression on Japan. In China, Chiang Kai-Shek begins his successful campaign to unite all of China under his rule.

1947, April - June: The Third Reich annexes the Nordic countries and the Baltics. This marks the first, and only, use of nuclear weapons against civilians, as the Germans use nuclear weapons when Sweden and Finland reject ultimatums. The horrifying nature of radiation is soon discovered, and Germany faces widespread condemnation. Hitler issues a rare formal apology, and announces a ban on any future use of nuclear weapons by the Reich. Despite this, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the Empire of Japan all begin developmental work on similar weapons.

1949, November: After the fall of Cuba to communism, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom announce the formation of "The Axis" - a "defensive alliance against both Imperial and Soviet aggression". Both Japan and the Soviet Union denounce the Pact as an attempt by colonialist powers to rule the world.

1951, June: Chiang Kai-Shek crushes the last resistance in Tibet, reuniting and expanding China.

After the end of the war in China, an uneasy peace fell over the World. This, of course, turned into the three-way Cold War that continues to this day. The re-election of FDR to replace Lindbergh (who was blamed for American unpreparedness when they were attacked by Japan) in 1952 threatened to shatter the Axis, but strengthened economic ties and the fall of several South American countries (Argentina, Chile, and Brazil) to the Comintern/Soviet bloc more than counteracted FDR's personal dislike of the Reich. Most historians agree that FDR's decision to pursue a more realistic, less idealistic foreign policy was the wisest choice available to him, and it ushered in a continuing relationship between the Reich, the British Empire, and the United States, making these three countries the most powerful in the world.