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The Second World War incinerated the old world. In its ashes now, marches a new order.
Documentary on WWII’s alternate history: Nazi Germany’s rise, Soviet collapse, Japan’s Pacific dominance, and the UK’s last stand with Irish betrayal.
Key Takeaways
- Nazi Germany achieves overwhelming early victories, reshaping Europe and the Soviet Union.
- The Soviet Union’s internal weakness leads to its collapse under Axis invasion.
- Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor shifts the Pacific balance, but the US industrial capacity remains a critical factor.
- The UK faces existential threats from Axis advances and betrayal by neutral Ireland.
- This alternate history highlights the fragility of alliances and the impact of leadership decisions in WWII.
Summary
- The documentary explores an alternate WWII timeline where Nazi Germany rises to dominance after swift victories in Europe.
- Germany invades Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, and captures Gibraltar, cutting off British Mediterranean access.
- Italy expands in North Africa, occupying the Suez Canal and disrupting British supply lines.
- The US initially remains isolationist under President Joseph P. Kennedy Senior, refusing aid to Britain.
- The Soviet Union, led by Nikolai Bukharin, faces economic collapse and disorganization, leading to its dissolution after German invasion.
- Japan launches a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, crippling the US Pacific Fleet and rapidly conquering Southeast Asia.
- The USSR collapses into fragmented warlord states after Moscow falls and Bukharin is overthrown.
- Japan wins key battles like Midway and occupies vast territories in the Pacific.
- The UK remains the last major European resistance, but Ireland betrays the Allies by aiding Germany and invading Northern Ireland.
- Germany launches Operation Sealion with Irish cooperation, threatening the UK’s survival.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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The Greater German Reich.
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A country once humbled in the First World War, Germany would once more rise to prominence under the leadership of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
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He promised a Reich that would last a thousand years. To achieve this, he would unleash total war upon Europe and the world.
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On September 1st, 1939, Hitler's army invades Poland, winning a swift and total victory.
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Britain and France, honoring their commitments to Poland, declared war on Germany.
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The Reich would then invade Denmark and Norway, securing their iron imports.
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The German army then turned west, overwhelming the French and British with a new form of warfare, Blitzkrieg.
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Invading France through the Ardennes.
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The Germans successfully surrounded and destroyed much of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk.
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And forced France to surrender.
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The absolute victory stunned the world.
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A now confident Italy joined the war on the side of the Axis Powers.
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A daring operation conducted by German paratroopers saw the capture of Gibraltar, closing off the mouth of the Mediterranean to British reinforcements.
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This trapped a bulk of the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean.
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The Kingdom of Italy, grasping the opportunity in North Africa, overran the poorly equipped Egyptian forces and the British defenders.
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Italian forces would manage to occupy the Suez Canal, consolidating their iron grip upon the Mediterranean.
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The British supply lines to and from Asia were now effectively cut.
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The United Kingdom could no longer use its overseas rubber and oil resources.
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The British forces present in the East African campaign had limited supplies to maintain their offensive.
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Britain was in desperate need of aid.
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Prime Minister Winston Churchill looked toward the United States for help.
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So far, America had sat idly by.
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The US President, Joseph P. Kennedy Senior.
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Elected in 1936 as the first Catholic President.
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Had no desire to help the British. He believed fully in American isolationism.
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And cared little if Europe fell to the Nazis.
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At the start of the war.
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President Kennedy made his position clear.
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Unless we are attacked, the American people do not have to go to war.
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They will not go to war if they will to stay out of war.
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There will be no American intervention.
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The national determination will be translated into effective action.
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And this country will not go to war.
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Prime Minister Churchill would continue to request any amount of aid, but Kennedy refused, citing the Neutrality Act.
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The following year, in 1941, the ideological war, the so-called crusade against Bolshevism.
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Began with Axis forces launching Operation Barbarossa.
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The Soviet Union at the time was in a dire state.
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Since the death of Vladimir Lenin in January 1924.
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Nikolai Bukharin had emerged as the new Soviet leader, beating out Joseph Stalin in a power struggle and narrowly avoiding a civil war in the process.
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Bukharin continued with Lenin's New Economic Policy, which had introduced more capitalist elements into the economy.
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This proved disastrous when coupled with the central government's plans to industrialize.
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Without collectivization, the small-scale peasant farms were unable to produce the grain supply needed for such large-scale industrialization, causing widespread famine.
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Lasting until 1932.
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Bukharin introduced a new five-year plan of forced collectivization, which caused further social unrest.
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And peasant uprising across the country.
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As Bukharin tried to hold on to power, the Soviet Presidium would continue to bicker among themselves.
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The Red Army, now ignored by the government, would fall into further disorganization.
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Given at best the poor state of the domestic and economic situation, the total collapse of the Soviet Union was all but a foregone conclusion.
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On the 22nd of June, 1941, Axis forces, without a declaration of war, tore across the German-Soviet border.
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Overwhelming the under-equipped and ill-prepared defense forces.
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The Red Army could only look on in terror as Soviet troops crumbled in the face of the fierce German invasion.
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Soviet forces had become accustomed to crushing peasant rebellions and lacked real combat experience.
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The fledgling Soviet industrial base also meant that many soldiers did not have guns or the required ammunition for proper fighting.
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By December 1st, barely six months following the initial attack, Axis forces had reached the Soviet capital of Moscow.
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As the German invasion of the USSR plowed on.
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The Empire of Japan prepared its own operations.
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Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, the Japanese had launched a full-scale invasion of China.
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By now, the war had stalemated.
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The Japanese were now hurting for oil and resources.
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Therefore, Japan decided to launch a gamble of its own against the United States of America.
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On December 7th, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack against the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor.
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The World War had finally come to the US.
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The Japanese wanted to preemptively topple the US and European presence in the Pacific and ensured Japanese dominance in East Asia.
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Attacking in two waves, the Japanese Navy Air Service bombed the US Pacific Fleet, destroying a bulk of the US battleships, including all aircraft carriers in the area.
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Miraculously, the Japanese even destroyed the United States oil reserves in the Pacific theater.
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US Naval dominance was now crippled.
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America had found itself in the worst possible position.
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It would have to prepare for war on short notice and rebuild a portion of its Navy.
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Meanwhile, the Japanese would invade the British, Dutch, and French territories unopposed.
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Despite Japan's rapid success, the US was far from vanquished, sending men to fight in the Pacific and overseas.
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And reinforcing the eroding European front.
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Back in Russia, after fierce fighting, Moscow had fallen. The swastika was hoisted above the towers of a shelled and gutted Kremlin.
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In a last-ditch attempt to save the USSR, Bukharin was overthrown and a provisional State Council was installed into power as an emergency government in 1941.
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By this point, however, it was too late, and the coup only succeeded in destroying what little cohesion the Soviet Union had left, with what remained of the country shattering into an anarchic mess of many different smaller warlord states as regional leaders took control.
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The USSR was officially dissolved on the 24th of January that year, the 18th anniversary of Lenin's death.
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The Germans took territory up to the eponymously named AA line, consolidating their new holdings into four areas of control, creating the Reichskommissariat of Ostland, Ukraine, Moscow, and the Caucasus.
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In the Pacific, the Imperial Japanese Navy moved from victory to victory, surprisingly defeating the US Navy in the 1942 Battle of Midway.
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Further Japanese offensives saw the taking of the Philippines, Burma, Malaya, Indonesia, Singapore.
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And some key Pacific islands.
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And yet all these victories could only blunt America. The United States still retained the industrial advantage.
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And would soon be churning US ships out of its harbors continuously.
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Faster and faster.
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By 1943, there remained one last focal point against the Axis powers of Europe.
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The defiant United Kingdom.
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Entrenched on their island, surrounded by the remnants of Norwegian, Danish, French, Polish, and Dutch armies, now being joined by the United States and her full-throated backing.
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The chances of crushing the island nation seemed nigh impossible.
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Yet all it took was a knife in the back from a neutral country.
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The Republic of Ireland.
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The Irish had accepted the inevitability of the Reich's victory and chose to help the Nazis, agreeing to invade and occupy Northern Ireland.
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Ensuring the loss of the Irish Sea and granting the Germans the ability to choke Atlantic convoys.
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Simultaneously, Germany commenced Operation Sealion. Now with Irish compliance and the logistics to ensure a nominal chance for success.
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Hitler gambled on invading the UK.
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With the Royal Navy spread thin in different theaters, the Kriegsmarine smashed their way through the British Home Fleet.
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Overhead, the Luftwaffe engaged the Royal Air Force.
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While German Marines landed on the south coast of England. Gradually, the invaders achieved air superiority, allowing for additional paratroopers to descend.
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Despite a spirited resistance, the Wehrmacht fiercely advanced through the country as German forces approached London.
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The immediate evacuation of senior government officials and the Royal Family itself was enacted, despite significant reluctance.
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From both King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill to abscond from the capital given the dire circumstances.
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British and Free forces continued to fight bravely.
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But were pushed back to the Scottish border.
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American forces, coupled with arriving Canadian forces, were rushed alongside British regiments to the front.
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The Allied commanders, such as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, led Commonwealth, American, and various Free forces in exile against the oncoming Wehrmacht.
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Organizing a defensive line.
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Together, Allied forces held the Scottish border.
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With England under occupation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland capitulated and shortly thereafter surrendered entirely to the German Reich.
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With this, the Isle fragmented into the independent states of Wales and Scotland, seizing the opportunity to declare independence and spare themselves the fate of a now fallen England.
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What was left of the Free governments, those that had been in exile since 1939 onwards, fled again to the United States, or to the distant and relatively safe shores of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
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Joined now by the latest government in exile, the United Kingdom's government in exile, even as they defiantly roared to fight on from these.
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The last of the Empire's domains.
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In truth, this marked the end of much of the Commonwealth's participation in the war in any tangible and material manner.
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With Australia declaring herself a republic to spare herself in the Pacific, whilst Canada and New Zealand now assumed defensive postures with what was left of the British Commonwealth forces.
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The Empire itself collapsing in short order, the British Raj of India, already in turmoil as of 1943, fragmenting into ever unruly and desperate forces.
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While its African possessions were swallowed by Italian, German, and even native populations, as the resentment of years of colonial rule saw the collapse of even the Free French.
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Bar their last meager hold in West Africa.
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And across other smaller island territories.
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With the evacuation of the Allied troops in Scotland, the war in Europe came to an end.
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The battle had been lost.
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But the World War hadn't.
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President Kennedy had won re-election in 1940 but opted to obey the unwritten two-term rule.
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His Vice President, Harry S. Truman, won the 1944 election, promising the American people that they could still win.
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In the hope of forcing Japan out of the war, the United States had adopted a strategy of leapfrogging.
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The war in the Pacific had turned against the Japanese.
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The Imperial Navy was now avoiding any pitched battles until they could guarantee an absolute naval victory.
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That time would finally come in 1945 during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
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The Japanese Navy lured the US into over-committing their forces, which were subsequently exploited by the combined fleet in a brilliant maneuver.
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The US fleet was decimated.
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But the Japanese suffered casualties so enormous they could never be replaced.
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Iwo Jima proved to be the largest naval battle in history.
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Despite the loss, the US still believed they would win.
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But that's when it happened.
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On July 4th, 1945, the people of Hawaii were forever blinded by a second sun.
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That suddenly rose in the early morning sky.
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An atomic bomb had been dropped on the island, carried by a long-range German bomber.
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Every clock on the island of Hawaii had stopped at exactly 8:39 AM.
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50,000 people were killed in an instant.
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The remnants of the mighty Pacific Fleet, stationed in the harbor, were annihilated.
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And now America knew the war was truly lost.
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President Truman announced that the United States would be seeking a conditional surrender with Japan and Germany.
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In late August 1945, aboard the Akagi, Truman signed the official peace accords ending the Second World War.
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Now known as the Akagi Accords.
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The United States was forced to surrender the territory of Hawaii to Japan, along with almost all of its Pacific possessions.
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In addition, large ports and naval bases in Los Angeles and San Francisco were to be leased to Japan in perpetuity.
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The US had lost its first ever war in history and was left humiliated.
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All that remained was the war between China and Japan.
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The Chinese United Front had continued to resist the invader, but now, with the sudden withdrawal of US supplies and air units.
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The last lifeline to the United Front was gone.
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The remaining free Chinese territory was dealing with widespread famine and lack of arms.
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The Japanese, in a ruthless advance, managed to finally reach Chongqing, resulting in the last battle of the Second World War.
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China had fallen.
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The triumphant Japanese proclaimed peace in Asia and peace in the world.
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It was finally over.
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The Greater Germanic Reich had risen from the World War as the unquestioned hegemon of Europe. The Endsieg, the ultimate victory, was at the cost of innumerable innocent lives achieved.
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Now, the new order marches, burying millions under its brutal reign as the last lights of freedom threatened to be extinguished.
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As the curtain descends upon the world, the Cold War begins.
Topics:World War IIalternate historyNazi GermanySoviet Union collapsePearl HarborJapan Pacific WarOperation BarbarossaOperation SealionWinston ChurchillJoseph P. Kennedy Senior
