Part 3 (July 15th to September 1st, 1941)

Hideki Tojo overlooked the factory from a nearby hill. From the outside, he thought, it seems to be nothing. The Japanese General made his way inside. The factory was hot and uncomfortable, with metal devices strewn everywhere and sparks flying from nearby machines. One of the engineers met Tojo and showed the soldier the blueprints. Tojo raised his eyeglasses as he examined the designs. I had no idea it was possible so soon, Tojo thought. The paper he held seemed to demand respect, as if it itself was aware of its own importance. With a weapon like this, Tojo thought, we can capture the entire Chinese coastline. The Type 101 Heavy Battle tank seemed impossible to conceive but, the blueprints showed that the empire's best engineers were not idiots. Deep inside the cramped room, Tojo could see the first Type 101 prototype being built from the chassis of one of the captured T-34s. Once it was built, the tank would be tested and then commissioned into Imperial Army service. After that, victory. Tojo grinned as a 76 mm cannon was welded to the prototype tank's turret. July 15th, 1941 Japanese engineers start secret programs for building the Type 101 Heavy Battle Tank based off of captured T-34s. Hideki Tojo visits and endorses the program, winning the allegiance of many other military commanders. The new tank is planned to be done by late August and should enter army service in significant numbers by October. Aging and outdated planes and warships are scuttled and cannibalized for extra material for the tank project. The tank is planned to have the same primary armament as the T-34 and to have four more powerful machine guns. The engine is planned to be much more powerful than the T-34, capable of going almost forty five miles and hour. Meanwhile, in North Africa, Rommel and his Axis army is bolstered by two more panzer divisions arriving from ports in eastern Libya. The new divisions have the newest equipment that is commandeered by veterans from the Invasion of Poland and France. Rommel decides for a renewed push into Tobruk. July 17th, 1941

Hitler and other Axis leaders meet with Ismet Inonu, the president of Turkey. Hitler showed Inonu gains Turkey could make in the Middle East if they joined the Axis. Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq were all under British occupation and are ample targets for Turkey if it chose to accept German assistance. Also Cyprus would be given to Turkey after the invasion. Hitler also secretly promised Turkey the Baku oil fields and territory in the Caucasus after the invasion of the USSR in 1944. Inonu stated that he would take a while to decide, but soon after the meeting he ordered a handful of divisions to assemble on the Syrian border.

July 20th, 1941

After a period of extremely rapid work, Graf Zeppelin is completed. Sailors and naval engineers begin testing and crewing the aircraft carrier. It should be ready for service by mid to late 1942. Meanwhile, in East Asia, a very large Russian army has assembled in western Mongolia. The Japanese bombardments and waves of invasion have prevented the army from arriving in occupied West Mongolia, but they were planning to take a second route anyway. It's on this day that the Russian army begins mobilizing into Northern China. Chinese Communist guerrillas join the passing Soviet army. Nationalist forces stay far away.

July 22nd, 1941

First major clash between Nationalist forces and Soviet forces in western Inner Mongolia, about twenty miles northwest of Ningsia (the city) about fifty miles west of the border with Mengjiang (Japanese puppet state). The battle takes place between a 200,000 soldier arm of the Soviet army and a 40,000 infantry Chinese army. Both sides are poorly trained, and the Soviet army wins by numbers. The battle attracts Japanese spy planes, who learn about the Soviet army. The news is sent to the Japanese commanders immediately.

July 25th, 1941

Ulaanbaatar falls to Japanese troops after a week of house to house fighting. Towards the south, Japanese artillery and armor set up in the foothills of the Mongolian plateau in northern Mengjiang, ready to fire on the huge Soviet army coming from the west. At about 1300, the first Soviet infantry begin arriving, followed by air support. AAA guns take out the biplanes by the dozen. Almost a thousand Soviet foot soldiers die in the initial wave. Two artillery are taken out and three tanks are destroyed in the crossfire. The battle cools down by 2300, but Japanese intelligence grimly reports that the worst is yet to come.

July 27th

Heavy panzer surge in Spain forces the British out of Madrid and pushes into occupied territory. Constant harassment by Luftwaffe has the British operating on extremely weak supply lines, worsened by the fact that Gibraltar is cut off by a massive artillery attack force stationed around the city. German U-boats swarmed around Lisbon and other major Portuguese ports prevent large amounts of supplies from entering Iberia from sea, either. Meanwhile, in Mengjiang, the Soviets storm Japanese defenses with numbers on their side. The Japanese and Kwantung puppet forces kill one Soviet soldier for every ten Japanese or Kwantung killed, but the Soviets have numbers on their side. Over one and a half million Soviets begin arriving through northwest China. Chinese communists accompany them.

July 31st, 1941

In an attempt to cut off the flow of troops and supplies from Europe, Japanese bombers attack and destroy large portions of the Trans-Siberian railway north of Mongolia and Manchuria. Most of these bombers are based out of airbases in Mengjiang and Manchuria, but some are using recently captured airstrips in Western Mongolia. Meanwhile, in Sakhalin, three infantry divisions capture the north half of the island. A blockade by the IJN from the mainland spelled death to what few Russian defenders were on the island. In Tobruk, Libya, the British defenders retreat by sea after attack after attack from German panzers killed most of the soldiers in the city.

August 2nd, 1941

Three panzer divisions assemble in eastern Libya, bringing the number of divisions under Rommel to ten. Four Italian armor divisions bring the number to fourteen, more than twice the amount of British troops in North Africa. The numbers and superior leadership come in handy in the Battle of Gazala, an ambush on the Allied Western Desert army.

August 4th, 1941

40,000 Japanese marines and 100,000 Japanese soldiers land on the southern end of the Kamchatka peninsula, several dozen miles south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Resistance is thin to non-existent and the army reaches the outskirts of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky soon after the landing. Meanwhile in Mengjiang, the Japanese army pulls back into the eastern half of the puppet state. Mines and demolition sites are set up in all of the mountain passes and roads. Armor and artillery continue to hammer Soviet positions, which combined with the scorched earth tactic takes out another 40,000 infantry troops. In the north, the Japanese soldiers continue to chew through Mongolia, cutting off badly needed Soviet supply lines stemming from the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

August 5th, 1941

At 0300, Japanese planes bombard Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky as marines and soldiers enter the inner core of the city. Terrified civilians flee by the thousand towards the docks, but any hope of escape is locked in by winter ice creeping in from the north. The garrison had been moved from the city towards Manchuria several weeks before, with the commanders nearby assuming the city was safe from attack. Japanese aircraft carriers near the city continue to send out bombers to flatten what's left of the city. Meanwhile, in Iberia, German panzers break through Allied fortifications and enter the outskirts of Portugal. Luftwaffe bombers attack Lisbon daily, destroying ships and docks alike.

August 8th, 1941

Rommel's army begins entering Egypt. The bulk of the British army was fighting in Iberia, and there was little resistance. Rommel has heavy air assistance operating out of cities in Libya, and plans to push all the way to Alexandria. Meanwhile in Finland, Stalin orders a second major push into the country, after over 100,000 soldiers had died in the first push. The Soviets controlled a chunk of Finland ranging from about twenty miles east of Helsinki north to Lake Nasijarv, east to Jyvaskyla, and northeast to Lake Pielinen and to the border. Finnish guerrillas in occupied Finland numbered to about 200,000. The forests and lake lands hide hundreds of guerrilla bases and and arsenals.

August 11th, 1941

The Northern Region of Portugal is almost completely under Axis occupation. Several troop transports land in captured ports to bolster the Spanish/German army in Portugal. The Algarve region and the southern quarter of the Alentejo region is occupied by the Axis as well. In the south of Spain surrounding Gibraltar, artillery continues to besiege the city. A convoy of Allied submarines sneaks past the Axis blockade and resupplies the city with supplies, food, and soldiers.

August 15th, 1941

Rommel's army reaches El Alamein. Over 200,000 Axis troops storm the British fortification spanning the desert between the port town of El Alamein and the Quatarra oasis. Heavy Luftwaffe assistance from occupied Greece and Libya pounds the British encampments while Rommel continuously reminds why he's called the Desert Fox. In the seas north of Egypt, Axis U-boats fight a bloody battle with the Royal Navy Mediterranean fleet. Malta is besieged and continually bombed. Meanwhile, in Kamchatka, the Japanese army marches on through the Siberian wilderness. Supplies arrive through Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky as the Japanese forces on the peninsula continue to mop up remnant Soviet forces. Japanese fishermen move into major ports on captured Kamchatka to harvest the waters around the peninsula's bountiful array of marine catches.

August 17th, 1941

The first oil refinery on Sakhalin is readily usable for the Japanese. Several others are very close to being up. On the mainland, Soviet forces push the Japanese out of Inner Mongolia, but at an extremely heavy cost. Tens of thousands of Soviets lie dead in the mud spanning Mengjiang. The Red Army tide is at its latest extending to the center of the former Chahar province. The kill ratio is over ten-to-one in Japanese favor.

August 20th, 1941

In Iberia, the Axis have pushed the Allies back to the westernmost fringes of Spain and have footholds in northern and southern Portugal. In the south, British naval transports capture the Canary Islands. Five German U-boats cause tremendous casualties during the raid, but the islands can't hold, especially with all of the Spanish army currently fighting in Iberia. In Spain, all but tiny footholds in the westernmost center of the country has been recaptured. The German panzer divisions in Iberia are split between rolling through Portugal and bombarding Gibraltar. The line of combat cuts the Region of the Centro in half. The Region of Alentejo is also cut in half, with Axis soldiers almost reaching the southern half of Lisboa. Meanwhile, Axis planes bomb Lisbon daily and some even reach the Madeiras and the Azores to attack Allied shipping lanes there.

August 23d, 1941

The Japanese army pushes south from captured Mongolia into the half of Mengjiang captured by the Soviets. The battle has been bogged down lately, but the Japanese counter-attack has changed troop movements. In Kamchatka, almost the entire peninsula has been captured. The ports in the south are used for bringing in supplies and troops. Raids in other coastal ports and regions in the Far East continue.

August 25th, 1941

The Type 101 Samurai tank is commissioned and released. The first models are shipped out to the front on the mainland. The IJA plans to build two thousand of these tanks in the next several months.

August 28th, 1941

The first Japanese Type 101 Samurai tanks arrive in northern Manchuria. The Japanese commanders there begin preparing for a blitzkrieg-like attack. Meanwhile in Mengjiang, the Japanese counter-attack pushes the Soviets back to about the pre-war boundary between China and the Japanese puppet state. In North Africa, Rommel finally pushes through the Allied lines in El Alamein. The Allied force is pocketed deep in the desert, locked in behind trenches and fortifications. Rommel stations spare artillery around the pocket, effectively destroying all hopes of the besieged division from escaping.

August 31st, 1941

5o Japanese Type 101 Samurai tanks fight their first battle in Mengjiang. The slaughter is unbelievable, and over twenty thousand Soviet infantry men lose their lives. Only one tank is hurt at all, but only mildly damaged. Zhukov almost has a conniption fit when he finds out, and begins deploying thousands more T-34s. The war on the Far Eastern front has reached a new level of bloodshed as the massive army of Type 101s shows no intent of stopping the massacre. In Iberia, the last Allied toeholds in Spain are pryed loose. The Axis army has pushed the Allies and Portuguese back to a coastal enclave based around Lisbon, but daily and nightly air raids and constant attacks by U-boats threaten this last hold in western Europe. In Gibraltar, the bombardment reaches a new level as long range artillery stationed in Morrocco begins firing at the Rock as well. The war in North Africa peaks as Rommel continues his warpath onto the outskirts of Alexandria and two more each of Panzer and infantry divisions arrive in Libya. The newly captured territories in Sweden and Finland are incorporated into the Greater German Reich as German currency is being printed out for the first time in mints in Scandinavia. The war is reaching new levels, and both sides are digging in (in the metaphorical sense), determined to show the other that they are determined not to lose the war.