Originally published at: http://timeghost.tv/french-killing-french-in-syria-ww2-095-june-20-1941/
The Allies continue advancing into Vichy French Syria, but they are halted and pushed back by Erwin Rommel at the Halfaya Pass in Libya. Meanwhile, the last preparations are being made for Operation Barbarossa. It will begin in two days. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv Check out…
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From the Italian newspaper La Domenica del Corriere: patrols on both sides clash in intense night fights during the siege of Tobruk.
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SIDES AT PRESENT:
World War Two
Allies: Albanian resistance, Andorra), Australia +, Bahrain-, Belgium*+, Canada, Chechnya-Ingushetia^, China^^, Costa Rica), Czechoslovakia*, Danish resistance, Estonian resistance’, Ethiopia, Free France+’’, Greece*, Iceland~’’’, Latvian resistance’, Luxembourg*, Nepal, Netherlands*+, New Zealand+, Norway*+, Oman-, Poland*, South Africa, United Kingdom+, Yugoslavia))
Axis: Bulgaria, Croatia~)), Germany+, Hungary, Italy+, Japan+^^^, Manchukuo~, Mengkukuo~, Ngolok Tibetans^^^^, Reorganized ROC~, Slovakia~, USSR’’’’, Vichy France+’’
3rd Parties: Denmark’’’’’, Lithuanian resistance’
Under United States occupation: Greenland)))
Italics: Non-state forces
~puppet
*occupied with a government-in-exile & resistance movement.
+Includes the country’s colonies, overseas territories, or reichskommissariats
-self-governing protectorate or territory
)Because both Andorra & Costa Rica were not present at the Treaty of Versailles, they were still technically at war with Germany. SPOILER WARNING: While Andorra will act as & be treated as a neutral country for the deration of the war, Costa Rica takes a more active role after Pearl Harbor by declaring war Italy & Japan.
))After Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis, the “Independent State of Croatia” was established as a puppet state made up of Croatians separatists opposed to the government’s centralization programs. In opposition to the invasion, SPOILER WARNING: resistance movements such as the Communist “National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia” & the Royalist “Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army” formed. Later, these movements would fight each other as well.
)))Under his own initiative, Danish ambassador to the United States Henrik Kauffmann allowed American forces to occupy Greenland to protect it from invasion by belligerents of the 2nd World War. As Denmark proper had already been invaded, its government was in no position to rule the island, so administration fell to the Sheriffs or Landsfogeder.
‘The official governments of the Baltic States reluctantly accepted the USSR’s ultimatums, resulting in their occupation & the installation of new Soviet friendly regimes. This led to the creation of irregular national resistance movements, though it would take time before they became formal organizations. As the Estonian & Latvian resistance forces are fighting the USSR—who is a co-belligerent of Germany at this time—they are listed with the Allies. Although the exact date that Polish & Lithuanian resistance forces began fighting each other for control of the land around Vilnius/Wilno is unknown, they do so throughout the war as well as fight Germany & the USSR. For this reason, I’m placing the Lithuanian resistance in the 3rd Parties list. SPOILER WARNING: After Operation Barbarossa, I will reassign them based on the new front between Germany & the USSR.
‘’When newly appointed Prime Minister Philippe Pétaind announced his intentions to seek an armistice with the Axis powers, General Charles de Gaulle established a government-in-exile that would continue the war on the Allied side. French colonies had to decide whether to remain loyal to the Vichy Regime or join the Free French. Chad under Governor Félix Éboué was the first to join De Gaulle & soon all of French Equatorial Africa was in Free French hands, with its capital Brazzaville serving as headquarters for the movement. SPOILER WARNING: By late 1943, all French oversea possessions except in Indochina were controlled by Free France. Although the French government in Vichy is officially neutral, I have placed them with the Axis. The main reason being that Allied forces would continue to attack & occupy the territory it claimed throughout the war. At the same time, the Vichy government collaborated with Germany by providing war materials, allowing them use of their territory for strategic operations, & in implementing the Holocaust.
‘’’Although the Icelandic government issued a formal protest, the British invasion was not contested because Iceland lacked a military to fight back with & so told its people to treat the occupiers as guests. Even to this day, the "Lovely War" is controversial. Many Icelanders view the Allied occupation very negatively for the loss of their country’s sovereignty & for foreign troops fraternizing with local women. Others point to economic & infrastructural benefits the happened during the war. SPOILER WARNING: Iceland’s occupation is transferred to the Neutral USA on July 7th, 1941. At that point, I will take Iceland off the overview until Pearl Harbor.
’’’’I have the USSR on the Axis side because both Germany & them are currently at war with Poland(The Soviets invaded on September 17, 1939), divided Poland between themselves pre-invasion, are working together to end the Polish resistance, & are trading war materials. This is all detailed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty, the German–Soviet Credit Agreement, & the German–Soviet Commercial Agreement. SPOILER WARNING: After Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, I will move them to the 3rd parties list(See my policy on country placement below) & then move them to the Allies after the signing of the Sikorski–Mayski agreement in July 1941 between the Polish government-in-exile & the USSR.
‘’’’’In the 2nd week of April, both Germany & the United Kingdom invaded & occupied parts of Danish territory(Germany occupied Denmark proper & the United Kingdom occupied the Faroe Islands) to “guarantee their independence & neutrality.” Everyday life went on mostly as before with Local authorities in both areas cooperating with the occupiers. Hitler hoped that Denmark would be “a model protectorate” that would aide his larger goals. Despite this, the Danish national government resisted calls by Germany for legal discrimination against Jewish Danes, the death penalty, & German military courts to have jurisdiction over Danish citizens. The Danish colony of Greenland(being de facto independent at the time) asked the neutral USA to protect them from invasion by the warring powers. Throughout this time, Denmark remained officially neutral despite having Axis & Allied forces on its soil. SPOILER WARNING: On August 29, 1943, after refusing to submit to any further German demands, the Danish government was dissolved & the German military took direct control of the country. At that point, I’ll take Denmark off the 3rd parties list & replace the Danish resistance with Denmark(with an occupied disclaimer).
^The Provisional Popular Revolutionary Government of Chechnya-Ingushetia is currently engaged in a guerrilla war against the USSR for independence. Since I have the Soviets in the Axis for reasons stated above, I‘m placing Chechnya-Ingushetia with the Allies SPOILER WARNING: until Operation Barbarossa, when I will move them to the Axis.
^^The Kuomintang & Communist Parties have signed a truce to fight the Japanese as part of the Second United Front lead by Chiang Kai-shek, but coordination is minimal & both deeply mistrust the other.
^^^I’ve combined the European & Asian wars at this point because Japan has now officially joined a military alliance with Germany & Italy in the form of the Tripartite Pact & is occupying Northern French Indochina, which is land the Free French government recognizes as its own. Despite the government in Vichy agreeing to the occupation after months of pressure, impatient Japanese forces rushed across the border & clashed with their Vichy French counterparts in the first few days. Since the fighting stopped before this week’s post, Vichy France & Japan are listed together as part of the Axis.
^^^^The Ngolok rebellions were a brutal ethnic conflict fought in Qinghai/Amdo between Ngolok Tibetans & the Hui dominated Ma clique who were loyal to the Kuomintang government of China. Despite having a common enemy in the Kuomintang, the Ngolok Tibetans & Japan were only co-belligerents as they didn’t have a formal alliance & didn’t coordinate in military planning.
MY POLICY ON COUNTRY PLACEMENT
If a country declares war on or attacks another country & at least one of them is already involved in World War II, I’ll list the other as a part of the opposing faction. That is why the events of the Winter War are included in the main World War II list & the events of the War of ‘41(Ecuador vs. Peru) will not be. The countries listed in the factions above are comprised of both official members & co-belligerents. The terms “Allies” & “Axis” are used for both kinds of belligerents as a convenient way to distill the world war & it’s adjoining conflicts, with disclaimers used to elaborate on some of the more complicated situations. If a country or resistance movement is at war with at least one country form both factions, I’ll add them to the 3rd parties list with a disclaimer. The 3rd Parties list is not a faction, but a collection of warring parties who act independently of one another. I have to consolidate factions along co-belligerency or else the number of factions will balloon out of control. Finally, each post only represents the factions as they were 79 years ago to the day. Many countries will join, leave, or switch sides before the war ends for various reasons & I strongly encourage you to look into the situation of each country for yourself.
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I don’t believe the codewords “Dortmund” and “Altona” were chosen by chance.
Although in hindsight and with a bit of superstition the correlation of “Dortmund” with starting Operation Barbarossa und “Altona” with aborting the whole idea (for the time being), is foreboding.
Altona became 1937 a part of Hamburg, but in 1932 it was an independent town in Schleswig-Holstein.
On the 17th of July 1932 the “Altonaer Blutsonntag” (Altonaer Bloody Sunday) happened, where a show of force by the SA was permitted by the local Gouverneur in a part of the town called “Klein Moskau” (little Moscow). Because it was the area where the communists and socialist parties had a lot of followers. So you got 6.000 (in words: six thousand) SA men marching right under the nose of several thousand communists and the predictable thing happened:
Violent clashes. At the end of the day 18 people lied dead in the streets of Altona. 2 SA men and 16 people living in the area, shot by police bullets. Because after the first shots and initial 2 deaths, the SA had asked for and got full police support. And in the aftermath only communists were prosecuted (and sentenced to death) by special tribunals. The whole thing was in hindsight a setup for something far bigger: The Preußenschlag. I talk about here a bit more in length
So in conclusion, Altona was a big success for the Nazis and an important event leading up to the power grab in 1933. And it is the codeword to stop the big B.
Dortmund on the other hand was a different kind of struggle for the NSDAP. They never managed to even get relative majority in the city. Only in the rigged March 1933 elections, the NSDAP got it, with a meager 27% of the vote, while the KPD got 23,1 % and the SPD 20,8 % putting them -theoretically- in a position to form a city government against the NSDAP. Even the catholic Zentrum party got 18,4 % putting them into a position to theoretically renew the Weimar Republican democratic “Iron Front” with SPD and DVP and DDP (liberal and national-liberal, pro-republican parties). So the failure of successful “Machtergreifung” was often credited for a special eagerness with which SA, SS and NSDAP tried to bring the city to do its bidding. For example the old Synagoge was already gone, when the Reichspogromnacht struck. The Dortmund area was so problematic, that the local SS prison got a particularly gruesome reputation and small resistance movements were active the whole time.
So Dortmund was a place of struggle and in some ways failure for the Nazis. But it was the codeword to start a very ambitious invasion.
In my opinion, poor choice of codeword and now you know why.
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