The Red Orchestra or the Interwar Period

The Great Proletarian Revolution, the Rotsturm, or more commonly known in English-speaking circles as the Red Orchestra was a twenty year period of unrest, revolutions, coups and wars in Europe, either sponsored or completely carried out by the Soviet Union, which overlapped with the historical period between WW1 and WW2 known as the interwar period. Throughout the October Revolution, but especially following a Soviet victory in the Polish-Soviet War, Vladimir Lenin and his closest ally, Leon Trotsky, believed that the only way to defeat the German Empire was to chip away at its empire one nation at a time, creating a wide network of Soviet-sponsored communist parties and agents throughout Europe. This would greatly aid them in the inevitable Great War of European Liberation, what the Soviets expected would be World War II.

The following events are part of the interwar period, many of them also part of the Red Orchestra narrative:

January 1919. Michael Collins, leader of the Irish Republican Army, declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain, beginning the Irish War of Independence. This conflict would last until July of 1921, when all of Ireland achieved independence. Collins' IRA was supported by millions of Irish-Americans through bonds, donations, private arms collections, and tens of thousand of veterans from the Great War embarked to fight the UK, which received military support from the German Empire following the Treaty of Versailles. After finding victory in the Polish-Soviet War, the Soviet Union would support the IRA with loans, weapons, intelligence and military advisory.

January 1919. Ireland was burning. His Majesty's Royal Navy, as well as all of the British colonial empire, were now property of Germany. The British economy was in a sustained freefall, and German conditions within the Treaty of Versailled pointed towards enormous, almost unpayable reparations. Scottish workers in Glasgow began a protest, which evolved into a riot. The War Cabinet convened in London, deciding to send troops at once, lest the riot become an uprising like those in Germany, Russia, the Ottoman Empire or the Greater Habsburg Empire. On the 31st of January, before Army units had begun moving, the Battle of George Square broke out between protesters and the police; the latter opened fire with small arms, resulting in over 150 dead Scots. Robert Munro, Secretary of Scotland, phoned London describing the battle as a supposed "Bolshevik uprising", prompting the immediate deployment of 20,000 troops and two dozen tanks into the city. Expecting to face off against armed revolutionaries, British troops were quick to open fire on physical threats or attacks, prompting the protesters to begin bombing their positions using mining supplies. By the end of February, over 200 soldiers and 1,200 Scot workers had been killed. News of the event prompted similar uprisings throughout Great Britain, which authorities were unable to contain. Soon, the Royal Navy mutinied against London's government for it's "grave betrayal of the British spirit" by having promised to hand over most of its ships to the Kaiserliche Marine. The vast majority of the Royal Navy, now a rogue non-state actor, convened at HMNB Devonport; officially to negotiate terms with London, in reality stocking supplies for and coordinating a Grand Exile. In April, an armed communist group seized most of the capital metropolis' key infrastructure, battling out with the Brigade of Guards. Knowing full well of the Romanovs' execution, George V transported much of the House of Windsor towards Devonport to meet up with his Royal Navy; they sailed towards Canada on the 5th of May. When the British Army regained control of London, its prominent leaders declared the British monarchy as traitors (George V had ordered British troops to surrender in Britanny, and was heavily involved in negotiating the Treaty of Versailles) and forbid them from returning, thus creating the Republic of Great Britain. Violence would continue until early 1922 between monarchists, republicans, socialists and national seccesionists, a period known as the British Civil War.

February 1920. Amidst a series of small-scale insurrections and rebellions, the Hungarian Soviet Republic declares independence from the Greater Habsburg Empire. They are soon joined by a number of communist, Serbian, Italian, Romanian, Czech, Slovenian, Greek, Polish, Slovak, liberal-democratic and even ultra-monarchist groups, aiming towards the destruction of the Habsburg state or its total reformation. Thus begins the Austro-Hungarian Civil War. Over four years of bloody fighting, the Imperial Federal Party would result triumphant, forming a new and far more democratic Danubian Federation (though much of the former Empire's territory would be lost in the peace negotiations). Notably, Soviet intervention in this conflict was minimal, though its communist factions received limited funding and enormous political support following victory in the Polish-Soviet War.

September 1921. The Konratopian Civil War erupts as the federation's leader is assassinated by Soviet agents, framing Uzbek tribal seccesionists (Operation Traitorous Tengri). The Soviet-aligned, ultrasecular Konratopian Federal Army finally wins in 1930, setting up a left-wing military junta allied with the COMINTERN.

December 1921. Mahatma Gandhi's Indian National Congress declares a war of independence on the German Empire. His radicalisation began in the April of 1919, when British troops became responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in which 300 to 1000 Indians were killed for defying the British Raj's government, whose days were numbered by the Treaty of Versailles. In an aparent emotional breakdown, Gandhi abandoned his principles of non-violence and ordered a nationwide insurrection in which over 4,000 British troops and auxilliaries were killed, until large numbers of German troops arrived to stabilise the situation, formalising the creation of the Imperial Realm of Hindustan. Though initially more "laissez-faire" than the British, German rule soon tightened due to the perceived threat of communist infiltration within India. Furthermore, German was instated as the language of government, alienating India's large english-speaking bureaucratic class. The 19th of December of 1921, German troops accidentally release multiple tons of surplus chlorine gas upon a crowd of Indians protesting higher taxes within Delhi, initially believing it to be tear gas. Over 3,000 Indian nationals perished, pushing Gandhi's INC to declare independence by armed struggle. This would be the first conflict in which the Soviet Union would directly aid a side with large numbers of weapons, military advisory and intelligence, alongside the United States of America. In June of 1923, the Treaty of Calcutta is signed, in which the Federation of Indian Princedoms and States is formed. However, it would soon collapse from internal conflicts and exterior meddling, with India seeing its own little "warlord era". Gandhi would self-exile in 1927, never revealing his destination to anyone but his closest aides.

October 1922. Benito Mussolinni is appointed as Prime Minister of Italy following the March on Rome. With German capitalists now dominating the Italian economy, and the possibility of a communist revolution in said country or elsewhere in Europe a close possibility, his National Fascist Party begins a rapid and (comparatively) bloodless takeover of the Kingdom of Italy, transforming it into an ultranationalist totalitarian state. His foreign policy would be called, by himself and others, the "Third Position" (a rejection of German-American capitalism, and Soviet communism). Mussolinni's novel idea of "nationalist totalitarianism", coupled with the writings of men such as Spengler, Rosenberg and Evola, would influence the rise of National Socialism in Germany, led primarily by Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

September 1922. The factions of the British Civil War are either defeated, disarmed or agree to an armistice, all bested by the British Army. Under the Treaty of Birmingham, the Republic of Great Britain is recognised as the sole sovereign union of nations in Great Britain; England, Scotland and Wales are its constituents, all with their own parliaments and laws, but under a common constitution and the power of the British Parliament. The General Elections of 1922 are immediately organised, in which Labour results victorious by a large majority. Ramsay MacDonald, an avid and brazen democratic socialist, would consolidate Labour's hold over the British mind through nine years of arduous reconstruction, winning the elections of 1925 and 1929.

November 1923. With collaboration from some local Deutsches Heer units, Adolf Hitler and his Sturmabteilung take over the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall, thus beginning the Beer Hall Putsch in imitation of his contemporary Mussolinni's March on Rome. King Rupprecht of Bavaria agrees to their requests, instating Hitler as Prime Minister of Bavaria, a post he would hold until his death during the Kaisersäuberung, or the imperial government's purging of the NSDAP almost at the end of WW2. The NSDAP and their even more extremist, paramilitary wing called the Schutzstaffel would grow to become enormously influential within the entirety of the German Empire.

May 1924. The assassination of Joseph Stalin. In January of the same year, Vladimir Lenin died of a stroke, prompting the rise of Joseph Stalin against the former leader's wishes. He advocated for greater state control of the economy and political life, as well as no compromise with the other factions of the CPSU, attempting to exile his greatest political enemy, Leon Trotsky. However, with support from the Red Army (which Trotsky had practically created), Moscow's government facilities and key infrastructure was seized on May 1st, 1924 and Trotsky declared emergency party elections; he was chosen as the next General-Secretary and given emergency powers. Stalin, Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev attempted to escape to the United States, but were intercepted and executed by Cheka agents the 19th of May.

November 1924. Commemorating the 6th anniversary of the October Revolution, Trotsky announces the creation of the World Revolution Plan, which would officially designate the "protection and expansion of communism" as a the primary objective of the Soviet state from 1924 until 1946. For this purpose, the Cheka and Militsiya organisations present throughout the USSR, as well as the Union's network of spies and collaborators throughout Europe, would combine into a single All-Union NKVD. Notably, the German Empire condemned this act as "pushing Europe towards a second Great War", having just finished its own Velvet Revolution and in response, reformed its military intelligence service (Abwehr) to strengthen counter-intelligence actions across Europe.

December 1924. The Romanian Communist Party, with support of the Romanian Army, overthrows the German-imposed king and declared itself a socialist republic; the Romanian Revolution has taken the German-dominated European order by surprise. Soon after, communist insurgencies begin popping up throughout the Balkans, largely armed and trained by the Romanian government (which in turn was subsided by the Soviets).

January 1926. Bulgarian communist rebels march on the capital, but are besieged by the Bulgarian Army, loyal to its German-allied Tsar. In response, the Romanian Red Army invades, beginning the East Balkans War. Soviet innovations in mobile warfare and deep operations take the German-trained Bulgarians by surprise, and by April the king is forced to abdicate; the Bulgarian Revolution follows, setting up a second communist regime in the Balkans.

July 1926. Greek revolutionaries, inspired by success elsewhere, take up arms. They are initially unsuccessful, but a series of NKVD collaborators infiltrated within the Royal Hellenic Navy began a mutiny and took over Athens. Within two months, the Hohenzollern King of Greece had been forced into exile. Being the third success in Europe, the Greek Revolution begins to put the Germans into maximum alert, while the Americans begin to question whether supporting the Soviet Union is worth the risk of a communist takeover in Europe.

April 1927. Under Chiang Kai-Shek's orders, nationalist China's NRA begins the Shanghai Massacre, killing or detaining most left-wing KMT and Communist Party members. The 1st of August of the same year, reorganised communist forces with the backing of some NRA defectors begin the Nanchang Uprising, thus starting the Chinese Civil War. The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was pit against the numerically superior NRA in five encirclement campaigns, from 1927 until 1934. The intellectual author of said suppression campaigns was the German officer Hans von Seekt, accompanied by his contemporary Alexander von Falkenhausen, who helped train a number of NRA divisions into elite forces modelled after the Deutsches Heer. They received ample support from the German Empire in the form of funding, weapons, ammunition, uniforms, artillery, radios, vehicles, and other such equipment (much of it refurbished surplus from the Weltkrieg). This event marks the first serious German intervention in world affairs aimed at containing communism.

March 1928. Tensions had been brewing for almost two years between the allied kingdoms of Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Albania and Montenegro against the newly formed South European Pact, an alliance of Balkan communist states. The 11th of this month, an NKVD assassin unsuccessfully strikes at the Serbian king; with German backing, the kingdoms declare war intent on liberating southern Europe from the red menace. Unfortunately, the Danubian Socialist Party uses all of its influence within the Danubian Federation to prevent the Germans from moving military supplies through their country; thus, they are forced to rely on a slow trickle of naval supplies, and no reinforcements from the Deutsches Heer. The South European Pact finds victory in the Third Balkan War by July, the finest German military genius failing against avant-garde irregular warfare strategy and tactics, working in tandem with fully motorised and partially mechanised professional forces. Communist pan-slavists win most elections in the occupied area, and agree to form the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.

August 1928. In response to the complete takeover of the Balkan Peninsula by communist forces, the German Empire announces the creation of the Antikominternpakt, a defensive military alliance to contain Soviet expansionism. The American government slowly recedes its financial, technological and military support of the Soviet Union, unsure of who will come out on top of this tense situation, and beginning to warm up to a far more democratic, post-Velvet Revolution Germany.

October 1929. The Wall Street Stock Market Crash, with its subsequent effects in the form of the Berlin Market Crash, the London Market Crash and the Tokyo Market Crash, would bring about a ten-year period of economic contraction and stagnation called the Great Depression. The Soviet Union, being largely autarkic and disconnected from the world market thanks to years of sanctions and embargos, was mostly unaffected by this event. However, rising unemployment and extremism in Germany and America would lead a number of technicians, scientists and engineers to migrate to the Soviet Union; for a decade, Fordism and Taylorism had mesmerised the minds of Soviet leaders and intelligentsia, who welcomed them with open arms. As many as 170,000 western experts and labourers would wind up in Leon Trotsky's grand industrial project. While the Soviet Union's treasury began to reap the rewards of Lenin's New Economic Policy, international exports and American-style industrialisation, both Germany and America were brought to the edge of collapse. This begins the second era of the Red Orchestra, in which the Soviet Union began to interfere directly in Europe using military force.

May 1930. Despite a collapsing economy and growingly authoritarian laws, Prince Oskar of Prussia as King of France authorises higher taxes against his parliament's wishes, in order to pay for the war reparations proscribed by the Treaty of Versailles. With growing unrest, France's left-wing parties convene during Labour Day (May 1st) in the Second Tours Congress to discuss the situation and create a strategy for peaceful de-germanisation. The Kingdom's security services arrive at the scene, and either through a misunderstandment or deliberate orders from the King, massacre most of the intelligentsia and representatives present. This sparks mass riots and revolts throughout France. When the Army is ordered to open fire, many units begin to mutiny against "the Hun parasite". By the end of the day, enraged and bloodied mobs had broken into Prince Oskar's palace, massacring the King and his family. The Fourth French Revolution began. Within a year of bloody fighting, one faction would come out on top of the rest; the Neosocialists, led by Marcel Déat. France's government, initially simply believing in statist, patriotic socialism, would develop morph President Jacques Doriot towards utter, deranged radicalism. The Germans were powerless to stop these developments, caught up in their own economic catastrophe, catatonic at the stories of sheer revolutionary brutality emerging from the unrecognisable beast that France became.

November 1930. Despite internal conflicts in France not even being over, the newly formed French Red Army crosses the occupation zone into Dauphine and Provence, while a planned uprising erupts in the island of Corsica. The Royal Italian Army does not cede, beginning the short Franco-Italian War. Germany, crippled economically and seeing its own resurgence of extremism, does not intervene. Soviet military advisors, having fought across the Balkans for a decade, help bring a swift victory to the ultra-zealous and almost suicidal French forces. Italian forces surrender by February of 1931 and cede all contested regions. Benito Mussolinni blames defeat on the nation's remaining democratic institutions, and strengthens the grip of fascism over the nation, replacing its armed forces' commanders with ones loyal to fascism. Furthermore, this war acts as a complete break with Germany, whom the Italians perceive as having betrayed them.

September 1931. Japanese forces stage a false-flag operation, beginning the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria. By February of 1932, they had complete control of the region, and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. While Japan was poor in industrial resources such as coal or steel, both Korea and Manchuria were extremely rich; as such, believing that subsequent wars with China, the Soviet Union, Britain, Japan, Germany or the United States of America were inevitable, Japan began to rapidly industrialise Manchuria. The Japanese public overwhelmingly approved of this war, seeing it as a way out of the Great Depression. However, to make this a reality, the Japanese state required funding, resources and technical expertise which the west was no longer gleeful to provide. Emperor Hirohito's ally of convenience turned out to be the most unlikely of all; Leon Trotsky, with whom he met over two weeks in the capital of Manchukuo, Harbin. A satisfactory trade and technological exchange agreement was signed.

October 1931. The 1931 general elections in the Republic of Great Britain are inconclusive. Neither the previously ruling Labour, nor the pro-Soviet Democratic-Leninists are able to form a majority government, as the third and fourth largest parties (the pro-American Social Liberals and the pro-German British Union of Fascists) are not willing to collaborate. The British Parliament is brought to a halt; Oswald Mosley's BUF steps up with the support of key British Army and Navy figures, most importantly Winston Churchill, overriding parliament in favour of a working government. They use this opportunity to consolidate power. Fearing a fascist takeover like Mussolinni's or Hitler's, the D-Ls declare the British government to be null, void and illegitimate. The Social Liberals and Labourites would follow soon after, beginning four years of political violence known as the Downy Days.

February 1932. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, father of the Republic of Turkey, is assassinated by NKVD agents, framing the event on Ottoman restorationists groups, which were largely funded by Germany. In the 12 years prior, him and Vladimir Lenin had sustained a close relationship, which was also true for his successor Trotsky. So much so that following his death, a good portion of the Kemalist Republican People's Party begun to see Trotskyism as the only alternative to being ensnared once more by the German giant, and integration into the greater South European Pact the road towards the future. This diagreement provoked what seemed like the beginning of a civil war. However, the situation was bleak for the Left-Kemalists, as most of the Turkish Army was favourable to the RPP's right wing. Unexpectedly, on the 28th of February, Soviet naval forces disembarked on Istambul, while ground forces in the Caucasus mountains began advancing using mountain warfare tactics and strategies developed over a decade of proxy conflicts in the Balkans, thus began the Turkish-Soviet War. Despite initial setbacks, by May of the same year Soviet forces had reached the outskirts of Ankara. Preparing for a valiant, conventional last stand, Turkish forces were caught completely by surprise by the first combat drop in history; over 5,000 Soviet paratroopers, in close coordination with supporting fighter-bombers, captured key positions and infrastructure, trashing the defensive side's plan and forcing them to surrender. In response to this invasion, the neighbouring Hashemite United Arab Kingdoms sought an alliance with the German Empire. Negotiations with the Imperial State of Iran, however, suffered from unexpected setbacks...

May 1932. Following the Turkish-Soviet War, both the United Arab Kingdoms and the Imperial State of Iran sought an alliance with Germany to protect their independece. The Germans, reliant on middle-eastern oil for their economy and armed forces, agreed to rapidly discuss the terms of such an alliance, hoping to extract oil concessions. While the Arab delegation arrived on time, the Iranian one never did; it was intercepted by Soviet fighters close to the Turkish border and shot down, its itinerary likely known by NKVD infiltrators. The Imperial State of Iran protested upon the League of Nations, arguing that such a massacre was an act of war; Leon Trotsky's response agreed with their conclusions, declaring war. So began the short-lived Soviet-Iranian War The Germans declared that they would send an armed expedition to push the Soviet Army back across the Caucasus, though this force could not arrive in time. By June, when it did, most of rural Iran was controlled by NKVD-sponsored communist guerillas, Tehran had seen an armoured column parade through its centre, and Soviet paratroopers had seized all major urban centres. The vast majority of the monarchist government had been either killed or detained. Humilliated, the Deutsches Heer embarked once more and went home. As a result of this war, both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Egypt joined the German alliance.

December 1933. The Danubian Federation, now for three years under the rule of the Danubian Socialist Party, agrees to maintain it's alliance with Germany, committed to the values of democracy and self-determination. However, since their victorious election in 1930 a growing number of NKVD infiltrators and collaborators had been slowly seeping into the Danubian government, academia, media and public life. This would later result in a complete 180-degree foreign policy shift.

October 1934. The Chinese Communist Party receives intelligence from its spy network within the NRA that Chiang Kai-Shek is planning for one last battle of annihilation, forcing them to break out of their encirclement in a mad dash towards the north, later known as the Long March. It was during this great retreat that Mao Zedong took control of the CCP and further developed his irregular warfare strategies. They reached their destination almost exactly one year later; the northern province of Shaanxi.

March 1935. The United Baltic Duchies of Terranihil's parliament is stormed by NKVD agents and local collaborators dressed as the "Baltic Ultrarepublican Party", which abolishes the monarchy and sets up the Republic of Terranihil. Germany intervenes. An infantry corps of 23,000 men in total crosses the Memel River, intent on restoring order, and stopping the "Rotsturm" once and for all. However, over six months of hard fighting, they are ultimately defeated by the Republic's Soviet-trained forces, with the expeditionary corps being annihilated in the Battle of Riga. Seeing the failures in their wartime doctrine, equipment, strategy, tactics and industry, the German government orders the creation and implementation of Generalkriegsplan IV, which contains a total reformation of every branch of its armed forces, alongside an industrial plan for total war. This event signals a realisation within the German government that World War II is inevitable.

November 1935. The British General Elections of 1935 are inconclusive. The BUF and the Democratic-Leninists agree to form an unlikely coalition, to bring them legitimacy. In response, so does Labour and the Social-Liberals, alongside many of Britain's minor parties; by a small margin, they are victorious. Britain's dire economic and political situation is turned around by the ruling "Democratic Coalition", repealing the few authoritarian acts that the BUF was able to pass through, and conducting investigations into their members and collaborators. It is this government which foresees a great war in Europe is approaching, and begins an armaments program disguised as a jobs and public works one.

February 1936. Shortly after reaching Shaanxi, Leon Trotsky had met in person with Mao Zedong. In February of 1936 the result is made evident; 30 divisions of the Soviet Army cross the Chinese border to establish a "security cordon" in the provinces of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and the western half of Inner Mongolia. Chiang's NRA counter-attacks, but their defensive efforts are futile and the Gobi Desert Campaign results in a total Soviet-Communist victory. The captured regions are turned over to Mao Zedong's control, while his Red Army begins receiving military advisory, weapons and training en-masse from the Soviet Union. These efforts are cut short the following year when the Second Sino-Japanese War breaks out, and the Japanese politely ask the Soviets to stop supporting their wartime enemy (the Chinese Communist Party).

July 1936. A number of Spanish generals attempt a coup by force of arms, but are unsuccessful, transforming years of bottled up political tensions into the Spanish Civil War. Both sides of WW2 intervened in this conflict, testing out their newest tactics and weapons against each other with Spanish blood. The conflict ended in March of 1939 with a nationalist victory, bringing about the rule of Caudillo Francisco Franco.

July 1937. The genie is out of the bottle, and no one would be able to put it back in. With yet another false-flag attack, the Second Sino-Japanese War begins; one of enormous proportions and unthinkable massacres. The worst of these would perhaps be the Rape of Nanjing, which ocurred on December of 1937. To sustain their war effort, the Japanese began importing oil, iron, coal and even weapons from the Soviet Union, solidifying their alliance. However, a point of conflict between the two nations would be Mao Zedong's CCP, which controlled a significant region of China thanks to Soviet intervention. To resolve this issue a treaty is signed by Mao's and Japan's representatives in Moscow; the Japanese Empire would abstain from any decisive offensive actions against CCP-controlled regions, concentrating their efforts on destroying Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalist government. In return, Mao would refuse Chiang's offer to form a united front, and the Chinese Civil War would continue, thus putting the KMT in a two-front war.

February 1938. As the Oceanykan Council declares its intent to condemn fascist Italy, the Japanese Empire and Germany's NSDAP as a show of will to gain favour with Oceanyka's three major ethnicities, supporters of the Natalist Home Front begin to protest in the streets of Cestlep. They are chased out through gunfire by the Federal Army's Military Police, declaring war on Cestlep to reverse globalisation and destroy foreign influence within the nation. Soon, seeing a Soviet victory as inevitable in a new Great War, the supposedly allied Revolutionary Party also declares war, formally beginning the Oceanykan Civil War.

May 1938. Labour day celebrations are in full swing within Paris, with the usual public executions of Germans, ex-collaborators and capitalists. Consul Jacques Doriot announces the French government's refusal to recognise the Lorraine Sanitary Cordon, and French Red Army units move in. German garrisons in the region are taken by surprise and are mostly disarmed without bloodshed. Germany begins to mobilise and prepare for war, but they are informed by the Danubian government that as the French had not violated Germany's territorial integrity, they would not intervene in an offensive war. This confirms German suspicions that the Danubians would not be a reliable ally following their 1930 elections; soon after, a damning Abwehr report detailing the true extent of NKVD infiltration within the Danubian government reaches the Kaiser's desk. In response, the Deutsches Heer drafts the Totalerkriegsplan "Endsieg", which envisions Germany not fighting a two-front war, but on every metre of its frontier with its surrounding neighbours.

December 1938. The Danubian Federation's government, in a bloodless self-coup, announces the abolition of the Habsburg throne and the creation of the Danubian Workers' Federation. Soon after, they are admitted into the COMINTERN as an independent ally of the Soviet Union. The German government enters a period of uncertainty and a political crisis erupts, as it finds itself surrounded on all fronts by communist states. Overtures towards the United States of America and the Republic of Great Britain are unsuccessful; their remaining allies (the Kingdoms of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Yurislanzia, Demark and Poland) are formalised into a single military command structure; the Stahltpakt, or the Steel Pact. As part of Totalerkriegsplan "Endsieg", Germany activates the Bürgerarmee (made up of reservist Freikorps units including the SS) and a new organisation, the Volksturm, which would draft non-essential personnel to form part of the Luftwaffe's air defence corps or as last-stand combat formations. The German arms industry begins to produce a new line of last-ditch hypersimplified firearms to arm its Volksturm units, which would prove vital in the defence of the Reich.

April 1939. German diplomats finally convince their American and British counterparts of the gravity of the situation. They organise the London Trans-Atlantic Conference, which is disguised as a trade agreement for the reporters. The Republic of Great Britain agrees to enter a defensive alliance with the German Empire, believing a Franco-Soviet dominated Neosocialist/Trotskyist Europe to be a real possibility. The United States of America's delegation, aware of its population's dominant anti-war sentiment, promises neutrality and continued access to American resources, products, arms, fuel, technology and munitions to both participants. Leon Trotsky correctly assesses that a trans-atlantic alliance is imminent; Soviet and French naval commanders are instructed to warn American convoys to turn back, and open fire if they refuse.

February 1939. Mahatma Gandhi returns from his political exile, landing in the port of Vadodara. From here he proclaims the formation of a new Indian Federation, embarking on military campaigns throughout central and northern India, opposed by nearly every independent princely state within the subcontinent. Eventually, two blocs emerge to oppose him; the German-supported, Muslim-majority Union of Tradition and Order and the southern American-supported Congress of Princes, which would both later develop into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Princely Confederation respectively.

July 1939. The Eight World Congress of the COMINTERN is convened in none other than Vienna. During this meeting, Leon Trotsky announces that the world revolution is near, decrying Germany as the "last remaining bastion of reactionary thought in Europe". The German leadership correctly interprets this as signalling that the COMINTERN is ready to pursue a war to annihilate the Hohenzollern throne. Partial mobilisation is ordered.

August 1939. Against all odds, on the 25th of August a citizen of the Soviet Union assassinates Genrikh Yagoda, who at the time was director of the NKVD. The culprit: an NKVD agent from the Volga region, who in reality was a double agent working with the Abwehr. Furthermore, letters and interrogations pointed towards him being compromised by SS agents, directly under Himmler's orders, making him a triple agent. Conflicting evidence signalled towards the American Military Intelligence Division and even towards the Japanese Kempeitai. For the exterior observer, this seemed like yet another diplomatic crisis between the two titans of Europe; field armies were called to the frontier, sabers were rattled, and interceptors sortied out. In secret, the Abwehr and the NKVD began to pursue communication through underground channels to exchange information, and figure out who exactly this man worked for. However, none of their allies had been told about the escalating threats being a show while negotiations and talks proceeded in the shadows, not the prelude to actual war. A critical mistake.

September 1939. The 1st day of said month, the French Red Army invades Germany. World War II begins.