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History: This world is an alternate history scenario
in which the general tendency of isolationism, along with several historical
twists, kept the US from entering World War Two until it was, effectively,
too late. All history proceeds "normally" in this world until early
1941. By this time, Germany had lost the Battle of Britain and was
turning its attention towards Russia. In both this world and our
own, at this time Rudolf Hess, second in the German government only to
Hitler himself, launched a plan to regain favor in his Fuhrer's eyes.
He would fly to England, where he would meet with underground dissidents
in the British government, plot the overthrow of Churchill, and replace
the Prime Minister with a new one more amiable to the idea of a "separate
peace" between the Germans and British, thus leaving Hitler free to fight
the Russians. On our world, Hess was captured as he abandoned his
plane over England and would spend the remainder of his extremely long
life imprisoned by the Allies, never
revealing the true motivation behind his trek. On this world,
however, Hess slips through the cracks of the British intelligence agencies
and reaches the dissidents. In mid-March, 1941, Churchill is killed
and replaced by a conservative young representative named Clement Atlee,
who promptly opens peace talks with the German government. On May
1, 1941, the Brussels Accord is signed, in which Britain and many of her
colonies formally renounce previous declarations of war against Germany
and Italy, and remove all embargoes on Japan. In June, 1941, Germany
invades Russia, avoiding a two-front war.
In America, many people
praise the Brussels Accord as the greatest peace initiative since the Versailles
Treaty. While many members of the government are skeptical of the
results, the general public is happy to have avoided the horrible struggle.
Lend-Lease plans are scrapped, but Roosevelt continues to fortify the Western
Hemisphere. Embargoes against Japan, now held up by the US alone,
are dropped to avoid the possibility of a Pacific War. Thus, Pearl
Harbor and the Japanese expansion in the Pacific don't occur. As
Germany advances into Russia, the general public becomes divided on which
enemy of democracy to side with, instead choosing to let Communism and
Fascism burn each other to the ground. Japan enters the war against
Russia in July, 1942. In 1944, Roosevelt, running on an interventionist
platform, lost re-election to Thomas Dewey, an
isolationist. In October, 1945, Russia ceased to exist as anything
more than German and Japanese farmland as well as a few roaming tribes
of nomads. At that point, the Axis powers began to consolidate there
gains, Japan began to look southward and eastward towards untouched territory
and the Germans began to look towards to last great antifascist behemoth,
the United States.
The storm of war that the
military had been predicting for years finally broke in June, 1947. With
the recruited aid of many Latin American nations, the Germans positioned
a large landing force in secret within striking range of the U.S. east
coast. On June 15, 1947, the Day of Disaster, the German fleet and
bomber forces decimated the U.S. Atlantic fleet at the same time as Japan
began a blitzkrieg across the Pacific. Three days later, the German
landing fleet emerged from hiding, and along with intense air and naval
support, began landing troops on Long Island. The Americans, not
caught off guard by this invasion, through everything they had at stopping
the troops. Only 2 out of every three transports every got within
sight of the New England coast, and only half of the survivors ever made
landfall. But the US had been lax in its military, and most resistance
was in the form of merchant marines ramming the transports. They
never ran out of courage, but in the end, they ran out
of time. What remained of the US fleet fled to ports in Africa
and Brazil to regroup, while the Army fought the invaders for every inch
of New York City. It is now July 10, 1947. The Germans are
in the countryside surrounding New York, and the Germans keep shipping
troops to the New World by convoy.
Government: As mentioned above, the only major governments
are the US, Great Britain, Greater Germany, and the East Asian Co-prosperity
Sphere. Germany and Japan are at war with the US. Britain is forbidden
by the Brussel Accord from formally interfering in this conflict, but her
rebel colonies of Australia and Canada are allied with the US. The
US government has fled Washington DC and is now operating from parts unknown.
Within New York City, the German military governors have total control,
SS patrol the streets, concentration camps have been set up on Rykers island,
and street thugs are employed as cheap guards and ruffians by the Nazis.
Within the city, a few citizens managed to escape into obscurity and take
on the role of partisans. They are supported by and occasionally
receive orders from the US military and the Mafia.
Technology: While both sides are working on developing
the atomic bomb, neither side has achieved a working model yet. The
Germans have the lead, but have not devoted many resources to funding.
The Axis powers have jets, rockets, and the most powerful active navy in
the world. The US has been idle in weapons development in recent
years and really has no
greater technology than they had in 1939. The only advantage
they have in the war is numbers.