In 1935, to put an end to the civil struggle known as the Downy Days, the Labour Party and Liberal Party of The Republic of Great Britain made an unlikely political coalition which, regardless of their political opinions and differences, worked out in the end. The following five years were spent building up the British welfare state, rebuilding the Navy and Air Force, and making peace with both The German Empire and The United States of America. At this time, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its allies had grown emboldened by their continued successes in the continent, with nearly all of Europe turning towards some form of communism. While Labour wasn't particularly worried or violently opposed to a Soviet-style government, they were utterly horrified by the events unfolding the other side of the English Channel following the Fourth French Revolution. It was foreseen that, if the Fourth Eurasian Communist International (COMINTERN) were to win the next big war, France would result Western Europe's undisputed hegemon, forcing Britain into submission.
By mid-1939, the worst fears of British statesmen had come true, and Germany was on the backfoot. London did not act then, and halted trade with Germany, for fear of provoking the seemingly unstoppable red tide. That changed with Guderian's Counteroffensive. Suddenly, there was a hope that democracy could survive in Europe, against all odds. Forever cautious, Prime Minister Clement Attlee authorised trade with Germany once more, escorted by the brand-new warships of a small but capable and technologically advanced Republican Navy. So was the North Sea Commercial Treaty born. This, predictably, provoked the ire of the French and the Soviets, who bowed to sink British trade ships aiming to dock in German ports. This threat was found to be empty, at least for a while. An influx of British food, medicines, machinery and raw materials, often bought from abroad and resold in Germany to bypass the Comintern blockade, alleviated a number of chronic shortages across the Kaiserliche Eisenpakt.
From January to April of 1940, much of Germany's diplomatic resources were spent swaying Clement Attlee's government into selling arms and ammunition to Germany, as well granting German arms manufacturers permission to relocate to Britain. The scheme was simple but efficient: German colonies, such as The Imperial Domain of Mittelafrika and The Imperial Domain of Indochina, would allow British ships to dock, load up on critical raw materials for free, a large portion of which would remain in Britain to fuel its own rearmament and to produce war materiel for Germany, while another portion would be shipped to Germany, where the Kaiser's government would buy them from the British.
Before this deal was finalised, an incident occurred in the English Channel with the Torpedoing of the Gallant, where French submarines opened fire on a British civilian trade ship. While the situation was cooled down through diplomatic channels, it was made apparent that the Comintern would act soon to halt all trade with Germany, and potentially, to blockade Britain entirely. Behind the curtains, Berlin's deal was accepted.
Throughout May and June of 1940, the Deutsches Heer, Kaiserliche Marine and Luftwaffe were restocked with British war materiel, allowing them to stand their ground on both fronts with greater ease. Britain's diplomats promised twice over to both Paris and Moscow that such a thing had never and would never happen, making empty diplomatic gestures, even suggesting that perhaps Britain could join the Comintern, while British industry continued preparing to enter a war economy. Surprisingly, it worked for far longer than anyone expected, but as all plans do, it eventually failed. Soviet informants eventually revealed the scale of rearmament and its purpose: to enter the Kaiserliche Eisenpakt.
As a result of this, the French government hastily ordered that preparations be made for an attack on British soil. A naval invasion was out of the question, but the development of aeronautics over the 20th century had introduced a new domain of war where, perhaps, Britain could be made to reason: the aerial domain. On the 14th of July, 1940, coinciding with Bastille Day, Opération "Guillaume le Conquérant" begun, an event baptised in the English-speaking world as the Blitz, though in academia it is known as the Battle of Britain.