Friday Food for Thought #3

Alternate History and Mecha
Month 4, Week 5, Episode #3

Damn, it's been awhile since I wrote one of these and I totally forgot about it... so, here we go.  Last time I made an oblique reference to a little project I'd invested a great deal of time and 169,000 words in.

Full Metal Panic: Sword and Shield

It's my most successful fanfiction project, in my opinion as... well, it's got a complete Volume that's long enough to make people cringe.  Go ahead and read it, I'll include a link on the right to the various projects I've got in progress so that those of you that are interested may go ahead and have a quick read.

But, that's not what this blog post is about... no, I want to talk about Alternate History. It's a storyline that's been growing in popularity thanks to books like The War That Came Early by Harry Turtledove.  While many of these things are interesting ideas for storylines, I often find that many people miss some obvious choices, two of which I'm either planning on playing with, or have played with a bit.

You see, all Alternate History focuses on some divergent point where the story breaks away from our history and plunges into a history separate from our own.  This breakpoint, if done right, focuses on the repercussions of a single change, be it the development of some technology, a different choice at a crucial time, or perhaps the accidental death of one singular historical figure can greatly change the path of history.

For example, what if the Weimar Republic (Germany after the fall of the Kaiser) refused to the sign the Versailles treaty in 1919?  It was after all an agreement that made the vast majority of Germans balk due to its assignment of blame for the war and massive reparations.

Would the Allies go to war to force Germany to comply?  Would Germany be able to fend off an allied attack in 1919? Would America go along with such an attack?

One singular choice changes the course of history.  I used the Germany refusing to sign the Versailles Agreement, leading to a long drawn out war between the allies in the 20s and 30s, that resulted in the expansion of military service to women and so forth.

I've also begun considering another choice that most haven't.  Consider the sequence of events in 1941...

• June - Germany and an alliance of many nations (Italy, Finland, Romania, and others) invade the Soviet Union.
• December - Germany reaches the outskirts of Moscow but is repulsed by Soviet reinforcements drawn from the Far East Theater (Siberia).  Japan invades the Philippines, bombs Pearl Harbor, and surges southward in order to obtain oil supplies.

Now, there is oil in Siberia, the largest Japanese Army deployed during World War II is in China, which shares a border with Russia.  The Far East Front is opposite this Japanese Army.

What if, instead of attacking the Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japan struck at Vladivostok, and struck north at the suddenly undefended border (thanks to the transfer of forces to face Germany before Moscow)?

There is no Declaration of War between the United States and the Axis Powers on December 8th.  Russia fights on two fronts, against Germany on one and against Japan on the other.

This is a much worse scenario for the Allies... I think I'll call it: The Hard War.