Saigon, Free Indochina, 31 December 1921
This was a clusterfuck. There was no way around it.
How else could he describe the sheer web of alliances and plots that led to what was basically becoming World War I in this world?
It all started with France. Apparently, the French government knew that the OAS was infiltrating the government and military to plan a coup, so they actively encouraged it on their own terms.
Once this was done, OAS forces rose up in rebellion, only to be either gunned down or detained by the forces that they thought were on their side.
This would all be well and good if they were able to suppress every single rebellion. In fact, they almost did that, except the city of Nice fell to the rebels and served as a de-facto capital for the rebels.
There were colonial revolts as well, with both Morocco and Tunis declaring for the rebels in Africa, while the Indochinese monarchs did the same in Indochina.
This in turn dragged the Indochinese rebels into the conflict, and they quickly tore through the country on the Chinese vehicles they had "acquired."
However, this still remained a French civil conflict with the OAS and the colonial monarchies on one side, while Paris and the Indochinese rebels were on the other side.
At least it would have been, had the Italians not intervened to claim Tunis in France's moment of weakness.
Now, this alone would have led to a limited engagement, but Paris' confidence in crushing the Nice Mutiny led to a condemnation of Italy's actions and an invocation of Nanjing Accord Article 1:
"An attack on one is an attack on all."
As per Article 1, the Republic of France declared war on the Kingdom of Italy, who quickly called their own allies into the conflict.
Germany, and the Benelux all mobilized to support the Italians by massing on the French border, which in turn led to the Russians mobilizing.
With the European Alliance now intervening in the French Civil War, the rest dominos began to fall into place.
The Russians mobilizing caused the Austro-Hungarians to mobilize, along with the Balkaners.
The Balkaners mobilizing led to the Ottomans mobilizing, which led to the British giving their order.
And the British mobilizing led to the behemoth that was China mobilizing.
Advances in communications and infrastructure meant the Chinese were the fastest to mobilize, and their air force began bombing the Europeans with impunity after a few short days only served to hamper the EA's mobilization efforts and buy time for the Russians to ready their own steamroller.
This in turn forced the EA to divert manpower away from the Western Front, allowing the French some breathing room while Chinese long-range strike groups bombed key OAS and EA positions.
Britain, for their part, had already given the order to begin the blockade of France and Russia, though Kuwait was quick to fall without much of a fight, soon followed by the Trucial States.
But it was China, unsurprisingly, that had been the first to the front. The 6th Marines' landing at Hue on December 1st had caught the Royalists by surprise, along with the Siamese-Indochinese conquest of Vientiane.
Acter that, it was little more than a rout as the Indochinese-Chinese-Siamese force performed what had to be the first time a European was happy to see Asians invade their country.
It wasn't much of a surprise when one side was entirely motorized and the other was almost entirely made of foot infantry.
Which was how they ended up in Saigon in less than two months since the war broke out. Indochina was the first Alliance "nation" to fall, and it was little more than a curbstomp.
And unlike Iraq, they truly were welcomed as heroes by the locals. Propaganda had its uses, after all, and if it meant painting the various royals as backwards, then so be it.
Sinai Peninsula, Ottoman-Occupied Egypt, 5 January 1922
As far as campaigns went, this one was fairly one-sided.
How could it not be, then the Ottomans had a modern air force, while the British had little more than biplanes?
Anything that flew up would get shot down in record time. Not by planes, however, but by anti-air emplacements.
They were remarkable weapons, though it was hard to say otherwise when they could shoot down planes long before they came into range.
No, planes were saved for another, more-important task: Bombing the British fleet as they approached the Suez.
If they couldn't take it, then the least they could do is ensure that the British couldn't use it.
Calcutta, Free India, 31 January 1921
There was an old joke that the French national pastime was rioting and protesting.
Vikram knew that his people could claim that title when all was said and done. After all, the French had never managed to bring forth a general strike across the continent.
It wasn't that surprising, if he was being honest.
Britain needed manpower, and it wasn't as if many Indians were lining up to join after so many were gunned down in the street.
Between what few men had enlisted and the various Indian monarchs' armies, the British had a decently-sized expeditionary force.
It wasn't enough to fight a Chinese army that, if rumours were to be believed, numbered over ten million in size.
Hence the wave of conscription in India, which made up the vast majority of the British Empire's population.
After all, if Indians were such a large part of the population, surely a similarly-large number of his people would be willing to serve, yes?
That was the British's second mistake.
The first mistake was shooting hundreds in the streets of Calcutta and getting thousands trampled to death.
That said, it was their third mistake that got them into this mess of mutinies and mad rioting across the subcontinent.
For Britain had, whether out of delusion or desperation, thought that the same people they had gunned down a few years ago would be more than willing to take up arms for them.
By force.
This was how they ended up in their current predicament, where cities would riot, soldiers would be sent to quell them, and those soldiers would either refuse to open fire or outright mutiny.
It wasn't everyone, of course. Besides the Princes and their armies, there were those who maintained their loyalty to the British, whether it be out of honor, idealism, or sheer opportunism.
They weren't the majority, of course. Then again, neither was the Indian United Front of Ghadar, the INC, and various other groups.
But the Loyalists had the backing of the British Empire.
Vikram looked to see the men driving through the streets. Most of them were different from the British, with their heavier green uniforms and heavy body armor.
The British weren't the only ones with a dog in this fight, though. Not when there were thousands armed with Chinese weapons and wearing the Ghadar tricolor.
The Indian Liberation Army had arrived, flown in by the Chinese and their massive fleet of airplanes a few evenings ago once the British abandoned Calcutta.
And unlike the Loyalists, people actually wanted to join the ILA.
Chinese-Occupied Singapore, 3 March 1922
Colonel Kenneth Ma never thought he would see his home again. Not after he and his men were sent back in time with the Chinese.
Sure, he had Chinese citizenship, but he was still Singaporean in his heart.
And when the 6th Marines were tasked with freeing his hometown from British rule, he and his men had jumped at the offer.
As in, they quite literally jumped off a plane in the middle of the night and began wreaking havoc on the British defenses with their NVGs and suppressed weapons.
It was almost unfair, now that he thought about it. But war was unfair, and he used every dirty trick within the Rules of War.
When morning came, the Marines arrived on a softened beach and a British city that was absolutely unprepared for just what was coming.
How could they, when the defense plans were oriented against a Siamese attack from the land?
The attack did come, though. And like most attacks, the Siamese-Chinese assault had overrun the British in record time, and all of that was before the landings.
Now, the ROC Marines were literally trained for this job. And with their new ships and equipment, they wouldn't have to rely on jury-rigged barges this time.
But at the same time, landing on a beach is very hard. Or at least it should have, if there was anyone left to man the coastal defenses besides a skeleton crew.
He didn't blame the British. After all, any cadet could tell you that a land attack is much lower-risk than a naval invasion.
Assuming there was anyone to fight, that is.
Instead, the 6th had landed, moved in, and set up refugee camps once they heard the news that the city was running out of water.
The city surrendered by the end of the week.
There would be more battles to fight, of course. Not to mention the whole issue of what Singapore would be after the war.
Yet the fact remained that he had liberated his home, even if it looked nothing like the place he'd left behind.
Paris, France, 29 April 1922
"Captain" didn't seem like the right title for him. Sure, he wasn't a libertarian who believed in electing officers, but the fact remained that he was a journalist, not a soldier, damn it!
Everyone has to play their part, Jean. Even you.
Jaures' words rang through his head once more, and Jean knew what he had meant. When fighting a war on all fronts, morale was of the utmost importance.
And, as far as morale went, it seemed like France was doing alright, for a place that was surrounded on every front. While yes, they had nearly been pushed back slightly in the low countries and the Germans were still probing the frontier, the fact remained that the French line held firm, bolstered by the sheer amounts of Chinese equipment that had been delivered in the previous years.
It wasn't too much of a surprise. After all, the rest of their alliance was on the other side of the planet. Come war, resupply would be almost impossible, if one didn't count the jets that would fly every night.
Brave men that they were, it was only possible due to the Anglo-German air forces having a lower service ceiling than a 747.
Still, France held. And if the rumors of an upcoming Russian counter-offensive was anything to go by, then they wouldn't have too much to worry about.
German-Occupied Congress Poland, 7 May 1922
Lieutenant Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov did not think he'd end up here.
He had gone from having the Russian government preemptively try to murder him, to trying to preemptively murder Adolf Hitler, to receiving a pardon and amnesty, to outright joining the military as an officer.
He knew what he wanted to do once the Chinese began their cooperation with Petrograd. Those vehicles simply amazed him.
So when the generals asked for volunteers to form the First Mechanized Corps of the Russian Army, he practically leapt at the call.
The training was intensive to the point that it seemed like they were preparing a war that could happen in the next six months. The planners were wrong. It took nine months for war to break out.
He had his own tank by the end of it all, an M-60 originally built for the Chinese Armed forces, only to be replaced with their new Leopard tanks and handed over to the Russians.
Not that he minded, of course. A tank was a tank, and the Chinese still had the basic decency to equip this one with modern optics and as much additional armor as they could slap onto the thing so he could charge the enemy trenchline with impunity.
That was what he was doing right now, along with a good number of Chinese tanks as they slammed through the German line and shrugged off machine gun fire.
It was simple enough, now that he thought about it. Ram through the trenchline so the armored personnel carriers and infantry can flood in, then encircle them into tiny pockets.
It worked so far, after they encircled the Austrians and Germans at Brest-Litovsk. The same could be said of Moldova, where another Sino-Russian offensive had encircled the largely-infantry force.
"The hell is that?!" Ivanov shouted, "Twelve o'clock!"
The Lieutenant looked through his turret to see what, from the looks of it, was a German tank.
It was smaller than his own, of course, but the fact remained that their enemies had managed to create something, and in large enough numbers to be fielded.
"Loaded!"
"Firing!"
The Lieutenant watched as the round soared through the air, straight towards the tank, and prayed to God that it would hit.
Sure enough, it hit its mark, and the explosion launched the turret in the air.
"Target down!" He'd be lying if he wasn't at least a little excited. "Another tank. At two o'clock!"
"Loaded!"
"On target!"
"Fire when ready!"
"Firing!"
Two shots, and then two kills. Followed by three, four, and then five while their own tank was largely unscratched, besides a dent in the additional armor.
Zhukov swore. That would be a whole hassle to fix, even if it was just requisitioning parts and switching them out.
But that was for the future. Right now, he and the rest of the First Mechanized had a German Army to encircle, just as Second mechanized had done to the Austrians.
Excerpt From The Road From Pondicherry: The Chinese Marines in India, by Dr. Martin Li (Shanghai Publishing, 1930)
June 1922
"The British Raj was a mess" was, quite possibly, the biggest understatement by this point. One third of the Raj was rioting, while another third was busy fighting the Princes who made up the last third.
Pondicherry, however, was not the British Raj, and it had been a sort of haven for the United Front ever since the Radical-Socialists in Paris turned a blind eye. It was a port in the storm for activists, protesters, and revolutionaries who would otherwise be prosecuted by the British.
So it was no surprise that the city sided with the United Front. Ghadarite militias would soon reinforce the city as they withstood assault after assault from land and sea so that the British could not attack the Burmese front.
Their prayers would be answered six months later, when the 6th Marine Division arrived to relieve the city and open a second front against the Kingdom of Mysore.
As men and materiel flowed through Pondicherry, the Loyalists were forced to fight a three front war with the Sino-Siamese force being welcomed into Burma as liberators in the east, the 6th led the charge i to Mysore, and the partisans attacked from the rear.
Despite their overwhelming firepower, it was the Nanjing Accord's (and by extension the United Front's) use of communications and mobile warfare that turned the Indian Theater from a Civil War into an absolute rout.
That isn't to discredit the Indians' efforts, of course.
Their efforts as partisans provided the intelligence, manpower, and interference necessary for the 6th Marines and the 2nd Indian Foreign Legion to reach Chennai on the 7th, Bangalore on the 17th, and Hubballi on the 28th while the 2nd Indian captured Madurai the next day.
June saw the conflict become a mad dash on three axes, with the Sino-Siamese pushing on Lucknow, the Marines and Foreign Legion racing on Mumbai, and the United Front marching on Delhi after the Fall of Lahore.
For their part, the British could only watch helplessly as the crown jewel of the Empire was wrested from them, as the Sino-Ottoman attacks on the Suez forced them to travel the long way around Africa.
Nusantara Post, August 1922
Japanese-Chinese-Korean Forces Liberate Jayakarta!
Today, the Chinese Ministry of Defense, along with their Japanese and Korean counterparts, have issued a joint statement confirming the capture of the capital city of our homeland.
While the joint force was able to defeat the bulk of the Anglo-Dutch-German forces at the start of the April invasion, the European Alliance had made their stand in the capital.
While some analysts had expected the capital to fall as quickly as Singapore, the larger stockpile had allowed the defenders to hold out until 3 August.
Per Nanjing Accord regulations, prisoners will be treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and transferred to Hainan.
As for the locals, it is clear that the our people welcome our liberating brothers and are ready to embrace the future, rather than the past.
The future of Indonesia is bright, and we cannot wait to walk forward with our fellow peoples, hand in hand as equals!
Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, New York, United States of America, 29 September 1922
The former President looked at his morning papers. Though men like Hearst were flawed as could be, their papers could still give kernels of truth.
For example, the he could see that the French continued to hold firm, while the Russians pushed the Germans into Silesia and Pomerania with Prussia all-but-conquered.
The Balkans were little better for the Europeans, what with the Ottomans holding firm and beating back the Serbs, Bulgarians, Austrians, and Greeks with the help of their superior firepower.
Rumor had it that Admiral Horthy's own flagship had even been annihilated by these "drone" attacks.
And, what was this? The Chinese had made it to Mumbai, of all places?!
This, like the rest of the war, tore him up inside.
On one hand, he had been a firm believer in the civilizing mission of America (and by extension, Europe). Progressive though he may have been, he still had his own prejudices.
Yet the Chinese surpassed them in almost every metric, be it education, technology, trade, healthcare, or even military might, if the sinking of the British task force was anything to go by.
Not to mention that he'd personally met many of these "New Chinese," as the academics called them. It was a phrase to differentiate them from the Qing and all that backwardness.
While yes, they had only gotten to where they were through the embracing of Western ideas and technology, the fact remained that these same people were beating the Europeans at their own game.
For their part, America was divided on the issue.
On one hand, you had socialists and progressives siding with the Chinese out of ideology, while the business interests and the conservatives sided with the Europeans out of economic interests and racial solidarity, respectively.
It was times like these that made him shake his head, look at the sheer lopsided casualties the Europeans were facing, and thank the Lord that America was steadfast in their neutrality.
