Sorry for double posting, kind of on a roll.
January - March 1934:
With the arrival of British, French and even some Italian forces in the region, the war again began to shift. The British (& Italian ground divisions) would divide their forces between Burma for their land divisions and link up their naval forces with Australia's own; while the French and Italians conferred and pushed into the islands proper. This relative lack of unity between allies served them poorly, for while they would succeed in pushing the Thai-Japanese forces back in Burma.
The naval campaigns proved comparatively disastrous. Not wholly aware of just how much the situation had shifted within the span of a few weeks, several ports thought safe would turn out to be hostile, territories expected to have small divisions were greeted with thousands of former insurgents and the Japanese Navy successfully pulled off multiple ambushes.
This would not last however, as reinforcements from the Netherlands would arrive and ultimately, if grudgingly, link with British and Australian naval forces. Together they were able to out all Japanese forces from the island of Papua, and establish dominance in much of the waters running across the Northern coast of Australia. The allied forces would go on to use this position to begin a string of surprise ocean raids and ambushes before retreating. This has often been criticized for not distinguishing effectively between civilian and military forces.
As this was happening, Russia was drawn into China proper, leading to the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang in order to protect their investments in the Chinese Communist Part who faced potential destruction at the hands of the Chinese Republic. However, with forces already heavily invested in Poland, they needed to take some away from their Eastern Border and while the campaign had a promising beginning it was quickly proving a bloody grind. Made worse with greater German intervention, intent on using the battleground as a testing field for recently manufactured weapons.
The war in Ethiopia continued to grind on, with some degree of despair setting in as food rationing was becoming common and more territory was lost, nearly a third of the country now conquered, though these claims were pyric given the use of scorched earth tactics, leading to increased brutality and fervor on all sides.
April - June 1934:
Frustrated by the Europeans strategies and their slow progress, as well as impressed by the effectiveness of their 'native allies' across the islands, the Japanese government began recruiting from their colonies more freely. This led to the folding in the Taiwan Army of Japan into the regular forces, as well as easing recruitment standards in Korea by several margins, and the creation of training camps in the Southern Island territories.
The ultimate goal was to bolster the Imperial Army, by at least one hundred and thirty thousand. There was a quite understanding among many commander that soldiers drawn from the colonies would generally be put in the most dangerous areas first, though even this would be staggered, with Koreans and Taiwanese being in safer position than the 'islanders'.
On a more political level, Japan and Thailand began reorganizing their new territories/'allies' to legitimize their claims and the defeat of the Europeans in these theaters of war. French Indochina was divided into various territorial 'states' based on pre colonial territories and given the choice of joining Thailand or striking out on their own. However, the validity of these elections was questioned and several territories in lands 'previously ruled' by Thailand were not given a choice. This also led to a bolster in their military thanks to heavy conscription, though it was countered by increasingly volatile Communist resistance.
So the South, things would be both more overt and more subtle, with Japan cheerfully propping up local rebel leaders and politicians, provided they stuck to Japan's part line; and promised to restore the lands to their pre colonial territories. In truth, much of the resulting division was what suited Japan's needs, both in terms of governance, and trying to manufacture or enhance divisions between the territories to minimize the possibility of large-scale rebellion.
Sumatra was officially established as its own country, as was Java under the domain of Timor; so too was Sulawesi, while Borneo/Kalimantan was divided into three nations, with Brunei taking the North, Malaysia the West & the South-East falling 'temporarily' under Japanese control. Much like with Thailand, there were local elections and conferences with pre-existing leaders, but how much agency was granted the people varied wildly based on what was convenient for Japan and what they could comfortably get away with.
July - September 1934:
Russia would finally see its invasion of Xinjiang and the Kumul Rebellion would come to an end, though no side was terribly satisfied with the result as it was mostly a return to business as usual as the Xinjiang Wars would press on. Though ironically, due to their focus on the South, Japan had little to do with the affair and as a result did not attempt to create a puppet state and as a result avoided offending Turkey.
To compensate for damage done to their navy, Japan would see itself striking quiet deals with several US businesses, essentially leasing large portions of land in 'their' new territories for resource extraction, and in exchange were able to acquire several powerful battleships, planes and gun stock for their own use. This was despite the US also acting to sell military equipment to Europe on the cheap.
As the war dragged on, Burma became an increasingly blood and brutal battleground, the Europeans utilizing no shortage of Indian and Burmese soldiers in the most dangerous positions and Thailand beginning to quietly ignore several loosely agreed rules of war with the use of punji pits and other methods.
This reality was shared by the people of Papua as their homeland became the main land based battleground between Japanese-Thai and European forces, neither side showing much if any consideration for them and leading to increasing rebel movements striking at all sides.
Thanks their joint forces being bolstered somewhat and the Europeans largely maintaining harassment campaigns in the South and being locked tot he land in the North, the Western Sea was relatively safe to travel, if one had the ships for it. Japan would ultimately launch their reinforcement campaign for Ethiopia in Late June, relying on their own and their allied forces being enough to make the difference and to hold onto their new Southern Gains via the Southern Expeditionary Army.
The Japanese forces consisted of, 4 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruiser, 10 destroyers, 7 tankers, 24 fleet submarines, 7 midget submarines, 212 aircraft (353 took part in the raid) and were also carrying with them thirty thousand soldiers gathered primarily from Sumatra, as well as Artillery and Vehicles contributed by the Thai army.
October - December 1934
The USA signs an agreement with the Philippines promising to essentially release them from Americans territorial holdings within ten years. This decision is met with some celebration from the increasingly jingoistic America-Isolationist factions and seen in Europe as the US essentially signing territory over tot he Japanese. The decision itself is overall met with celebration in the Philippines, though as they look out across the battlefield their neighbors nations have become, some anxiety is understandable.
The Soviet Union, now able to focus all their efforts on Poland would come to victory in early October, leading to a mass evacuation of civilian and government officials dispersing across Europe, as well as another wave of popularity for one Adolf Hitler, who was among the loudest voices condemning the annexation, though be it for his own political gain.
European forces in the South grew more aggressive in the wake of so many Japanese forces leaving the area, growing confident enough to fully re-occupy Papua and force their way into Timor and the sounding islands, pushing as far as the capital of Dili before the combined forces of Captain Sadatoshi Tomioka, the army and a large swathe of new recruits, volunteers and former freedom fighters stopped their advance and began pushing them back.
Japan's invasion of Italian Somalia did not go to plan, their initial assumptions were that the Italians would congregate their forces at the Port of Mogadishu, which itself had a relatively new trainline. This ended up being inaccurate, as the Italians had dispersed their fleet across much of the coastline and so only a smaller portion of their fleet was lost in the initial attack; while this would seem like a victory at first, especially with the seeming retreat of Italian's it quickly turned against the new arrivals.
First and foremost they had not been able to utilize all their planes as intended, and with the Italian retreat, so too did they destroy several areas of train track and start numerous fires, seemingly adopting a scorched earth policy. This was followed by the Italian navy slowly closing in on their position, denying the army potential reinforcements and forcing them to either push forward or surrender. The second wave of troubles came from 'seeming' allies among the native population, only for several to be saboteurs largely acting because their families were being held hostage.
These actions bloodied, isolated and staggered the counter invasion force, and led to months of stress and terror, however, all was not lost.
In British Somalia Land, Sheikh Bashir Sheikh Yusuf Sheikh Hassan was using the chaos to stir up active revolts. What's more, there were genuine local allies, many coming from the Somali Bantus and from as far afield as the Dhulbahante. They would not be the last to join the Imperial Army as several more minor clans would throw their hat into the ring. This was further aided with direct recruiting and in many cases forcefully conscripting local allies as they force marched their way through the land, fighting off ambushes, scorched earth, and frantic bombings
These forces ended up being given the title of Yasuke Army, to honor the historical black Samurai of Oda Nobunaga.
NOTES:
Next time, things get worse, for everyone.
Also I cover stuff like this worlds version of the Bandung Conference/Greater East Asia Conference
Ethiopia-Japanese Alliance
Revised Timeline 4
Revised Timeline 4
January - March 1934:
With the arrival of British, French and even some Italian forces in the region, the war again began to shift. The British (& Italian ground divisions) would divide their forces between Burma for their land divisions and link up their naval forces with Australia's own; while the French and Italians conferred and pushed into the islands proper. This relative lack of unity between allies served them poorly, for while they would succeed in pushing the Thai-Japanese forces back in Burma.
The naval campaigns proved comparatively disastrous. Not wholly aware of just how much the situation had shifted within the span of a few weeks, several ports thought safe would turn out to be hostile, territories expected to have small divisions were greeted with thousands of former insurgents and the Japanese Navy successfully pulled off multiple ambushes.
This would not last however, as reinforcements from the Netherlands would arrive and ultimately, if grudgingly, link with British and Australian naval forces. Together they were able to out all Japanese forces from the island of Papua, and establish dominance in much of the waters running across the Northern coast of Australia. The allied forces would go on to use this position to begin a string of surprise ocean raids and ambushes before retreating. This has often been criticized for not distinguishing effectively between civilian and military forces.
As this was happening, Russia was drawn into China proper, leading to the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang in order to protect their investments in the Chinese Communist Part who faced potential destruction at the hands of the Chinese Republic. However, with forces already heavily invested in Poland, they needed to take some away from their Eastern Border and while the campaign had a promising beginning it was quickly proving a bloody grind. Made worse with greater German intervention, intent on using the battleground as a testing field for recently manufactured weapons.
The war in Ethiopia continued to grind on, with some degree of despair setting in as food rationing was becoming common and more territory was lost, nearly a third of the country now conquered, though these claims were pyric given the use of scorched earth tactics, leading to increased brutality and fervor on all sides.
April - June 1934:
Frustrated by the Europeans strategies and their slow progress, as well as impressed by the effectiveness of their 'native allies' across the islands, the Japanese government began recruiting from their colonies more freely. This led to the folding in the Taiwan Army of Japan into the regular forces, as well as easing recruitment standards in Korea by several margins, and the creation of training camps in the Southern Island territories.
The ultimate goal was to bolster the Imperial Army, by at least one hundred and thirty thousand. There was a quite understanding among many commander that soldiers drawn from the colonies would generally be put in the most dangerous areas first, though even this would be staggered, with Koreans and Taiwanese being in safer position than the 'islanders'.
On a more political level, Japan and Thailand began reorganizing their new territories/'allies' to legitimize their claims and the defeat of the Europeans in these theaters of war. French Indochina was divided into various territorial 'states' based on pre colonial territories and given the choice of joining Thailand or striking out on their own. However, the validity of these elections was questioned and several territories in lands 'previously ruled' by Thailand were not given a choice. This also led to a bolster in their military thanks to heavy conscription, though it was countered by increasingly volatile Communist resistance.
So the South, things would be both more overt and more subtle, with Japan cheerfully propping up local rebel leaders and politicians, provided they stuck to Japan's part line; and promised to restore the lands to their pre colonial territories. In truth, much of the resulting division was what suited Japan's needs, both in terms of governance, and trying to manufacture or enhance divisions between the territories to minimize the possibility of large-scale rebellion.
Sumatra was officially established as its own country, as was Java under the domain of Timor; so too was Sulawesi, while Borneo/Kalimantan was divided into three nations, with Brunei taking the North, Malaysia the West & the South-East falling 'temporarily' under Japanese control. Much like with Thailand, there were local elections and conferences with pre-existing leaders, but how much agency was granted the people varied wildly based on what was convenient for Japan and what they could comfortably get away with.
July - September 1934:
Russia would finally see its invasion of Xinjiang and the Kumul Rebellion would come to an end, though no side was terribly satisfied with the result as it was mostly a return to business as usual as the Xinjiang Wars would press on. Though ironically, due to their focus on the South, Japan had little to do with the affair and as a result did not attempt to create a puppet state and as a result avoided offending Turkey.
To compensate for damage done to their navy, Japan would see itself striking quiet deals with several US businesses, essentially leasing large portions of land in 'their' new territories for resource extraction, and in exchange were able to acquire several powerful battleships, planes and gun stock for their own use. This was despite the US also acting to sell military equipment to Europe on the cheap.
As the war dragged on, Burma became an increasingly blood and brutal battleground, the Europeans utilizing no shortage of Indian and Burmese soldiers in the most dangerous positions and Thailand beginning to quietly ignore several loosely agreed rules of war with the use of punji pits and other methods.
This reality was shared by the people of Papua as their homeland became the main land based battleground between Japanese-Thai and European forces, neither side showing much if any consideration for them and leading to increasing rebel movements striking at all sides.
Thanks their joint forces being bolstered somewhat and the Europeans largely maintaining harassment campaigns in the South and being locked tot he land in the North, the Western Sea was relatively safe to travel, if one had the ships for it. Japan would ultimately launch their reinforcement campaign for Ethiopia in Late June, relying on their own and their allied forces being enough to make the difference and to hold onto their new Southern Gains via the Southern Expeditionary Army.
The Japanese forces consisted of, 4 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruiser, 10 destroyers, 7 tankers, 24 fleet submarines, 7 midget submarines, 212 aircraft (353 took part in the raid) and were also carrying with them thirty thousand soldiers gathered primarily from Sumatra, as well as Artillery and Vehicles contributed by the Thai army.
October - December 1934
The USA signs an agreement with the Philippines promising to essentially release them from Americans territorial holdings within ten years. This decision is met with some celebration from the increasingly jingoistic America-Isolationist factions and seen in Europe as the US essentially signing territory over tot he Japanese. The decision itself is overall met with celebration in the Philippines, though as they look out across the battlefield their neighbors nations have become, some anxiety is understandable.
The Soviet Union, now able to focus all their efforts on Poland would come to victory in early October, leading to a mass evacuation of civilian and government officials dispersing across Europe, as well as another wave of popularity for one Adolf Hitler, who was among the loudest voices condemning the annexation, though be it for his own political gain.
European forces in the South grew more aggressive in the wake of so many Japanese forces leaving the area, growing confident enough to fully re-occupy Papua and force their way into Timor and the sounding islands, pushing as far as the capital of Dili before the combined forces of Captain Sadatoshi Tomioka, the army and a large swathe of new recruits, volunteers and former freedom fighters stopped their advance and began pushing them back.
Japan's invasion of Italian Somalia did not go to plan, their initial assumptions were that the Italians would congregate their forces at the Port of Mogadishu, which itself had a relatively new trainline. This ended up being inaccurate, as the Italians had dispersed their fleet across much of the coastline and so only a smaller portion of their fleet was lost in the initial attack; while this would seem like a victory at first, especially with the seeming retreat of Italian's it quickly turned against the new arrivals.
First and foremost they had not been able to utilize all their planes as intended, and with the Italian retreat, so too did they destroy several areas of train track and start numerous fires, seemingly adopting a scorched earth policy. This was followed by the Italian navy slowly closing in on their position, denying the army potential reinforcements and forcing them to either push forward or surrender. The second wave of troubles came from 'seeming' allies among the native population, only for several to be saboteurs largely acting because their families were being held hostage.
These actions bloodied, isolated and staggered the counter invasion force, and led to months of stress and terror, however, all was not lost.
In British Somalia Land, Sheikh Bashir Sheikh Yusuf Sheikh Hassan was using the chaos to stir up active revolts. What's more, there were genuine local allies, many coming from the Somali Bantus and from as far afield as the Dhulbahante. They would not be the last to join the Imperial Army as several more minor clans would throw their hat into the ring. This was further aided with direct recruiting and in many cases forcefully conscripting local allies as they force marched their way through the land, fighting off ambushes, scorched earth, and frantic bombings
These forces ended up being given the title of Yasuke Army, to honor the historical black Samurai of Oda Nobunaga.
NOTES:
Next time, things get worse, for everyone.
Also I cover stuff like this worlds version of the Bandung Conference/Greater East Asia Conference
