The United Kingdom has fallen, and the German Reich reigns over Europe. But underneath the ashes of her fallen Empire, Britain's people still live. As the choice of collaboration or resistance is given to tens of thousands, the fate of the United Kingdom and her institutions is still undecided. Can Britain survival the horrors of the Reich? Or has the sun finally set upon Albion?
What is TNO?
The New World Order, Last Days of Europe : Its a mod for the WW2 strategy game called Hearts of Iron 4, heavily narrative based and the story in short can be summed up as "Nazi's managed to win world war 2 but now the easy mode is turned off and the game starts from there" or at length can be summarised at
The New Order: Last Days of Europe is a Hearts of Iron IV Game Mod that is set in an alternate timeline where Nazi Germany utterly wins World War II, but quickly loses the peace. The New Order is a narrative-driven mod that focuses on the fallout …
tvtropes.org
if you want the lore. If you don't want to read all that, then all the context you need for this is that the Nazi's managed a sealion and took Britain during the course of this, negotiating a peace of sorts with the UK as it fell apart. Naturally some people took issue with this.
Who the hell are you?
Well basically I'm a writer for TNO and I made a lot of the England content, but we're unlikely to show all this cool backstory stuff I made in the game so I'm turning into a short story of the English Collaborators and Resistance whilst work on the mod is ongoing. To be clear this isn't 100% canon for TNO, things could change but this is mostly based around canon as it exists.
Obligatory Mentions
Many thanks to @EBR who inspired my writing style here (I loved their works and you should read them too) and my teammate @Teen Spirit who has also posted some work here before.
--- Prologue - The Prelude to Armistice
---
"In the long history of our Empire, never had I conceived a darker day dawning than that of June the 6th, 1943." - Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill
As the Second Battle of Cable Street drew to a close, so too did the United Kingdom. The odd collection of Home Guard, militia and elements of the Coldstream Guards (bereft of their tanks) which had been holding the north side of the Thames were broken in just eight hours by the German assault, and with the collapse of the defences on the Thames giving the Germans a foothold with which they might fight through the rest of London, it became apparent to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff Bernard Montgomery that the Battle of London was lost. Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament might not be in German hands officially, but that was only a matter of time.
Official Photograph of Bernard Montgomery - Last Chief of the Imperial General Staff
In truth Montgomery had only been given limited time to appraise the totality of his position's hopelessness. With Alan Brooke's unfortunate death some seven days prior, and Edmund Ironside being presumed captured with the fall of Devon he had simply been the man closest to London to whom the position could be given. In the week he had been in command of the remaining forces the United Kingdom possessed, nearly a full tenth of the country had been captured. Most of the professional elements of his command had been lost or were regrouping in the Midlands, and the Germans were about to capture London. In hindsight therefore, it can be hard to argue that a man who valued the lives of his troops so highly began to adopt a despondent attitude, no matter the adulations of his performance given by a government who were desperate for a victory, any victory. Perhaps this is why he ended up entertaining the mid-sized group of Parliamentarians and Military Officers who requested a meeting of greatest importance with him in his command bunker.
Though Parliament had by necessity headquartered themselves in Birmingham, many individual MP's had not yet had the chance to evacuate themselves and it was from that nucleus that the talk of offering a ceasefire to negotiate terms was broached. Centred largely around those members of the Conservative Party who had been aligned with Neville Chamberlain's faction, and supported by members of Churchill's Cabinet who were horrified at the idea of what happened in Poland occurring to England, or who simply wanted the endless tide of British deaths to stop, the meeting was allegedly just 45 minutes in length. The discussion it seems revolved primarily over A: Whether a ceasefire was possible compared to a surrender, and B: how much Britain could reasonably expect to keep from either. It was concluded swiftly by all involved that Britain keeping her Empire was an unlikely occurrence, and also likely was that Germany would impose indemnities and restrictions upon her military. Also considered, was the possibility that the Reich might impose the Duke of Windsor back into the position of King, and though that was deemed undesirable it was also deemed an acceptable compromise.
Although they did not know it, many of the men at that meeting would be of interest to the history of Britain in the decades that followed. Only a single member of the Churchill Cabinet had attended, (John Anderson, the Lord President of the Council), but a good number of Parliamentary Secretaries (Chief amongst which was Harold Macmillan) attended in addition to members of the civil service and Montgomery representing the British military apparatus. Thus, with the approval of a hastily done vote by those MP's present within London (for a total of 158, and the result of which was 132 in favour), the decision to propose a ceasefire to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, so as to begin negotiations for a general peace with the German Reich was undertaken.
Nominally this was of course ridiculous. A Field Marshall and slightly over one fourth of Parliament does not an official government make. But when the message was wired to the even more threadbare relocated Government in Birmingham, the results were catastrophic. Panic ensued as the news that Montgomery was officially recommending that the Government sue for peace with Germany. The uncertainty that London would even be held for another week compounded this, and within hours of its arrival, despite the support of the King, that one telegram had eroded any chance for a continued fight against the Reich. In the end it really was Montgomery's voice of support for the motion which collapsed Churchill's Wartime Government, as without his support and despite his best efforts in the 24 hours that followed Churchill could not gain that support, Britain was left without a means to continue the war effort. The Birmingham Parliament thus passed only a single resolution in its three weeks of existence. That of the formation of a Government in Exile, so that Britain might be liberated at some point in the future.
King George VI, his children, PM Winston Churchill and the majority of his cabinet, alongside perhaps one third of the members of Parliament began preparations to depart the United Kingdom less than two days after word of the unsanctioned ceasefire negotiations beginning in earnest reached them. It was official, Britain had fallen, and the German Reich reigned supreme over Europe.
If Germany expends resources and men to invade the Island, the Soviet Union wins the Battle of Kursk with minimal cost and the front collapses as in 1944. Although the butterfly is even earlier - if Germany spends fleet officers and barges to invade the Island, the Germans do not have time to evacuate soldiers by sea from the Caucasus and Crimea after Stalingrad. If additional German troops are in the west, General Zhukov can break through the front during Operation Mars at the same time as Stalingrad (in real life, a failure) , or General Meretskov lifts the siege of Leningrad and the USSR fully uses 25% of its military industry, which is located in the besieged city. This is plus hundreds and thousands of pieces of military equipment and thousands of tons of equipment. There is a huge hole in the Eastern Front and the Soviet army in the offensive passes an extra 1000 km from the real story. During the storming of London, General Zhukov stormed Berlin, and the Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, Hungarians, Finns, Bulgarians, Croats changed their flags and ran to the camp of the victors.
If Germany expends resources and men to invade the Island, the Soviet Union wins the Battle of Kursk with minimal cost and the front collapses as in 1944. Although the butterfly is even earlier - if Germany spends fleet officers and barges to invade the Island, the Germans do not have time to evacuate soldiers by sea from the Caucasus and Crimea after Stalingrad. If additional German troops are in the west, General Zhukov can break through the front during Operation Mars at the same time as Stalingrad (in real life, a failure) , or General Meretskov lifts the siege of Leningrad and the USSR fully uses 25% of its military industry, which is located in the besieged city. This is plus hundreds and thousands of pieces of military equipment and thousands of tons of equipment. There is a huge hole in the Eastern Front and the Soviet army in the offensive passes an extra 1000 km from the real story. During the storming of London, General Zhukov stormed Berlin, and the Czechs, Slovaks, Romanians, Hungarians, Finns, Bulgarians, Croats changed their flags and ran to the camp of the victors.
If this is Bukharin's USSR, then without dumping raw materials and purchasing industrial equipment that Stalin carried out, Germany is objectively poorer and weaker. There is no orthodox communism, but individual peasant farms and the accumulation of private capital and the commercialization of agriculture. The USSR inspires less of a threat and is more willing to make agreements with it. For example, Poland enters into a trade agreement not in 1939, but earlier, the Poles have more money, more weapons and raw materials, fortifications are built on the western border, not on the eastern one. There is no war in Spain, there is no test of German weapons, there is no need in Munich. I think the developers of the world approached their work carelessly.
If this is Bukharin's USSR, then without dumping raw materials and purchasing industrial equipment that Stalin carried out, Germany is objectively poorer and weaker. There is no orthodox communism, but individual peasant farms and the accumulation of private capital and the commercialization of agriculture. The USSR inspires less of a threat and is more willing to make agreements with it. For example, Poland enters into a trade agreement not in 1939, but earlier, the Poles have more money, more weapons and raw materials, fortifications are built on the western border, not on the eastern one. There is no war in Spain, there is no test of German weapons, there is no need in Munich. I think the developers of the world approached their work carelessly.
As someone else who's worked on the mod. I can assure you they have not. Does it have plausibility issues? Hell yes, Atlantropa exists for starters. But that doesn't mean this mod is anything approaching careless.
As someone else who's worked on the mod. I can assure you they have not. Does it have plausibility issues? Hell yes, Atlantropa exists for starters. But that doesn't mean this mod is anything approaching careless.
After the election victory of the Republicans (the alliance of Socialists and anarchists), the Spanish fascists (clerics and officers) raised a military revolt. On the side of the Republicans were the USSR and the so-called international brigades (volunteers went to fight for democracy even from the United States, although then they were put on trial). The USSR supplied military equipment, ammunition, and military specialists. Italian fascists and German Nazis fought on the side of the Spanish fascists. Without help from the USSR, the Republicans will lose very quickly and the Germans will not have time to test military equipment. Bukharin's USSR does not have such a powerful industry to supply weapons, and so much money to buy weapons and charter ships (the Italians boasted of hundreds of ships sunk only). The Germans without experience of heavy fighting with Soviet tanks do not carry out the modernization of aircraft, tanks and anti-tank artillery.
If this is Bukharin's USSR, then without dumping raw materials and purchasing industrial equipment that Stalin carried out, Germany is objectively poorer and weaker. There is no orthodox communism, but individual peasant farms and the accumulation of private capital and the commercialization of agriculture. The USSR inspires less of a threat and is more willing to make agreements with it. For example, Poland enters into a trade agreement not in 1939, but earlier, the Poles have more money, more weapons and raw materials, fortifications are built on the western border, not on the eastern one. There is no war in Spain, there is no test of German weapons, there is no need in Munich. I think the developers of the world approached their work carelessly.
![The Lion Subdued [ TNO England Prequel ]](/data/threadmark-index-icons/l/53/53985.jpg?1611057633){kind=icon}
