Tag Archives: History

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of War (Special Mention) (20) S€xual Warfare

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Female (Venus) symbol and Male (Mars) symbol (public domain)

 

 

(20) S€XUAL WARFARE

 

I like to reserve my final or twentieth special mention for a light-hearted kinky entry, but sadly despite the name of this entry there’s nothing light-hearted or kinky about its primary connotation.

That connotation, including slavery or trafficking, has a history or indeed prehistory as long as warfare itself, despite being the aspect of war we find most viscerally disturbing in the modern period and have hence defined as a war crime.

Outside that connotation, it is perhaps not surprising that two professions proverbially described as the oldest, pr0stitute and soldier, should go hand in hand – often literally. The proverbial oldest profession has often been foremost among the “camp followers” of armed forces, putting another metaphorical tail in tooth to tail ratio. Of course, when military forces seek to enforce that camp following, then it takes us right back to that connotation defined as war crime.

Beyond that, there are the liaisons between civilian populations and military forces throughout history, perhaps best encapsulated by British description for American servicemen in their country during WW2 – “overpaid, overs€xed, and over here”. Australians expressed similar sentiments. The Japanese played upon something similar for propaganda pamphlets it spread to Americans in the Pacific War – what the wives of American servicemen were getting up to with civilian males back home. Amusingly, American servicemen collected these pamphlets with enthusiasm.

Finally, the term might be used for the metaphorical Battle of the S€xes – the cultural and social conflict between men and women throughout history, but particularly in the modern period that gave us the phrase.

Top Tens – History: Top Wars (Special Mention: Revised) (20) Star Wars

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An artist’s concept of a Space Laser Satellite Defense System.

 

 

(20) STAR WARS

 

Space – the final front of war.

Yes, I’ve gone with this wilder entry in lieu of my usual kinky or kinkier entry for my final special mention. You might be surprised by what kinky entries I can squeeze out of a given subject, but wars are simply not a subject for such an entry.

And yes – I’ve chosen this as my final special mention entry partly because of the segue to my Top 10 Wars of Fantasy with that titular franchise, itself inspired by historical wars, primarily the Second World War.

I’ve also chosen it as a matching entry for space warfare as special mention for my top types of war – the historical and contemporary use of space for military purposes, strategy, or war, something which will probably loom larger with any active colonisation or development of space.

The Cold War had its most dramatic front in space – firstly with the ballistic missiles, descendants of V-2 missiles typically designed for sub-orbital space flight as the primary means of delivery for nuclear weapons, and secondly with the so-called space race to achieve technological targets first in their aerospace programs.

In the space race, the Soviets had an early lead, symbolized by Sputnik in 1957, but were overtaken by the Americans, as symbolized by the moon landing in 1969. Ironically, satellites ultimately had more significance than moon landings, albeit again more by the Americans, for military surveillance and communications.

Space warfare in the Cold War reached its height with the American Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed Star Wars after the cinematic franchise and as such the direct source for the title of this entry. It was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States against ballistic missile attack by deploying anti-missile weapons in space. Much of it was more theoretical possibility than practical reality, even now, but it was a matter of grave concern to the Soviet Union, perhaps contributing to its decline as well as the end of the Cold War, although other factors seem more direct and immediate.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Warfare (Special Mention): (19) Animal Warfare

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Petty Officer 2nd Class Blake Soller, a Military Working Dog (MWD) handler petting the head of MWD Rico, at the War Dog Cemetery on Naval Base Guam. The cemetery honors the dogs—mostly Doberman Pinschers—that were killed in service with the USMC during the Second Battle of Guam in 1944. US Navy photo 27 October 2006 by Petty Officer 2nd Class John F. Looney (public domain image – Wikipedia “Military animal”)

 

 

(19) ANIMAL WARFARE

 

All warfare is animal warfare, as humans are animals after all.

But seriously, with animal warfare we come full circle to prehistoric or primal warfare, the origins of war itself. It is commonly argued that human warfare is fundamentally different from other animal intra-species violence. I’m not so sure, as this argument is persuasively challenged by Azar Gat’s War in Human Civilization among others – Edward O Wilson memorably wrote in his book On Human Nature “I suspect that if hamadryas baboons had nuclear weapons, they would destroy the world in a week.”

So, one theme for animal warfare is intra-species violence among animals approximating human warfare, or at least organized, territorial conflicts. As Wilson continued from the above quote – “and alongside ants, which conduct assassinations, skirmishes, and pitched battles as routine business, men are all but tranquilized pacifists.”

One of the most famous examples of animal warfare, perhaps not surprisingly fought by our closest living relatives, was the Gombe Chimpanzee War, in which one band of chimpanzees systematically  targeted the males of another band, wiping out that other band in a period of over four years. This wasn’t an isolated event either – at least one subsequent chimpanzee war has been observed, with the Ngogo Chimpanzee War.

Another theme for animal warfare is the military forces of humanity being humbled by the forces of nature in historical wars, such as weather, which has swept away what have otherwise seemed overwhelming military forces, particularly in war at sea. It also applies to terrain – John Keegan in A History of Warfare noted how terrain (and climate) has been a limiting factor in wars throughout history, such that the majority of battles occur in surprisingly small or narrow territories on a global scale.

Occasionally, those forces of nature have included animals – with two of the most famous occurring in the Second World War, although unfortunately both are somewhat inflated and one almost so apocryphal as to be urban legend. The first involved sharks preying on the sailors from the cruiser Indianapolis when it was sunk by Japanese submarine in July 1945, made famous by iconic narration of it in the film Jaws.

The other involved crocodiles preying on Japanese soldiers trapped in mangroves by the British in the Battle of Ramree Island in Burma from January 1945 to February 1945. At one stage, they were reported to have killed all but twenty of a thousand Japanese soldiers, but sadly for fans of crocodile horror such as myself, this has been discounted to almost the reverse – at most they killed up to twenty soldiers, although they may also have scavenged on the bodies of Japanese soldiers killed by other causes.

Of course, in my special mention for biological warfare, I’ve already featured the true unsung champions of animal destruction of human forces at war – insect vectors and the diseases they carry, which have been as effective hostile weather in wiping out whole armies and even more effective in wiping out whole populations.

You have the theme of humanity’s use of animals in or for war or military operations. Of course, the horse is standout here as featured in my entry for cavalry warfare, but war has seen a whole range of animals used in it – from more commonplace ones such as elephants, camels, donkeys or mules, oxen or cattle, dogs and pigeons, to more exotic animals such as pigs, moose, rats, dolphins, sea lions and others.

And then you get to the truly bizarre, such as entomological warfare or animal-borne bombs – with my personal favorite example of the latter being the American bat bomb project against the Japanese, taking my quip that the Americans fight wars like Batman to a literal extreme

To that you can add wars named for animals, of which there are a surprising number, albeit including non-military conflicts such as the Cod Wars over fishing between the United Kingdom and Iceland, or border conflicts or near-war situations such as the Crab Wars or Pig War – with perhaps the Beaver Wars being the most intense actual wars named for animals.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Wars (Special Mention: Revised) (19) Emu War

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Sadly not an Australian choking an emu with his bare hands – but instead holding an emu killed by Australian solders published by the Land Newspaper on 25 November 1932

 

(19) EMU WAR

 

The “war” the Australian army lost to flocks of flightless birds, since immortalised in meme. Although groups of emus are more commonly known as herds – or mobs.

The Australian army was the best in the world, man for man, as it had demonstrated in the First World War, and would demonstrate by stopping the German army at Tobruk and the Japanese army at Kokoda in the Second World War, but it lost to emus in 1932.

Of course, it wasn’t an actual war – the Emu War or Great Emu War was just the humorous tag given to it by the media – but a nuisance wildlife management military operation to curb the population of emus, apparently as many as 20,000, damaging farmland in Western Australia.

And there’s the rub, as the Australian army undertook a task it was not designed for, despite taking to it with machine guns – having seen their effectiveness in the First World War. Unfortunately, the emus didn’t charge at guns like the human soldiers of that war, but evaded or fled from fire.

Calling it a defeat, however, is unfair – the army did kill and wound a substantial number of emus, particularly as their skill at hunting them improved, such that by the end they were killing approximately 100 emus a week, ultimately killing almost 1,000 emus at the rate of ten rounds per confirmed kill, while also claiming 2,500 emus as wounded.

It just wasn’t economic – the emus were difficult to locate in substantial numbers and keep within range as well as scattering and evading pursuit. Even mounting a gun on a truck wasn’t effective – it wasn’t able to gain on fleeing emus and the roughness of ground prevented the gunner from firing.

And so the state and federal governments resisted further calls for military culls (in 1934, 1943 and 1948), resorting instead to the far more effective means of bounties to professional hunters.

So why the special mention amidst actual wars in history?

Well, because it does illustrate a number of themes, some of which are of note or interest for historical wars.

One is humanity’s hubris in waging war on nature, albeit more metaphorically rather than literally, not least in pest or nuisance wildlife management. Interestingly, Australia wasn’t the only nation to be “defeated” waging war against birds. Famously, China waged war against sparrows as part of its Four Pests Campaign to much more disastrous results – as the loss of crops to insects spared from sparrow predation was a contributing factor to the catastrophic famine of the Great Leap Forward.

Other themes are reflected in my corresponding special mention entry for my Top 1o Types of War, animal warfare.

And finally you have the military approximations from the Emu War itself, particularly for guerrilla war.

As one ornithologist observed, “The machine-gunners’ dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month”

And the commander of the operation, Major Meredith, observed after their withdrawal – ” If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world … They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop”.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of War (Special Mention) (18) Culture War & Memetic Warfare

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The original culture war, Germany’s Kulturkampf between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Catholic Church (in Germany), depicted here by Otto von Bismarck and Pope Pius IX in a cartoon from the German satirical magazine Kladderadatsch, 1875 (public domain image – Wikipedia “Culture War”)

 

 

(18) CULTURE WAR & MEMETIC WARFARE

 

Metaphorical war essentially along the lines of psychological warfare, but with cultural or social conflict substituted for military conflict – as such, it can be wide-ranging (as in virtually anything can be culture war) as well as the subject of controversy.

Typically, it is portrayed more in terms of civil warfare within nations, although often as occurring in a similar form across nations (such as the West in general), usually by design. Not coincidentally, culture war is often reported as involving or at least alleging disinformation by foreign agents or other nations, consistent with psychological warfare for other conflicts involving those agents or nations.

It has come to particular prominence with the internet, especially with memes – hence my term memetic warfare, in turn often adapted or used in memes, for example online declarations of being veterans of meme war.

However, culture war as a term has a surprisingly long history of usage – surprising to me at least, looking up the use of the term, which apparently dated back to the Kulturkampf or cultural struggle in 1871-1878 between the Prussian state and Catholic Church in Germany. The term has then been adapted from the twentieth century onwards, in the United States and elsewhere.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Wars (Special Mention: Revised) (18) Paraguayan War

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Brazilian steamers ramming Paraguayan ships in the Battle of Riachuelo, painted by Eduardo de Martino 1882-1883 (public domain image – Wikipedia “Paraguayan War”)

 

 

(18) PARAGUAYAN WAR (1864-1870)

 

Ever since reading about it, I’ve been fascinated by the Paraguayan War – also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, although let’s face it, Brazil did the heavy lifting.

It’s a war that seems like a meme or something out of a cartoon, at least as traditionally attributed to the “mad dictator” of Paraguay, President Francisco Solano Lopez – “the infinite ambitions of a supposedly megalomaniac and bloodthirsty Solano López who had the intention to create the “Greater Paraguay” through the conquest of territories of the neighboring countries.”

By neighboring countries, that means Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. In fairness, he might have had a shot against one of them, even the larger and more populous Brazil – Paraguay was not styled as the Prussia of Latin America for nothing – but not all three at the same time.

I suppose that’s the part that appeals to me. It’s like Paraguay as the “Prussia of Latin America”, was having a dress rehearsal in the jungles of South America, for the same basic script of the actual Prussian state in Europe, Germany, for the world wars – and defeated by the same basic lack of understanding of war or understanding the limits of military and national power. In other words, encirclement and attrition by a coalition of enemies with superior resources – a coalition brought about by their own actions, “a foolish attempt to fight an unwinnable war that almost destroyed the nation”.

It’s almost like that adage by Karl Marx about history repeating itself except in reverse – with history happening first as farce and then as tragedy.

Although in the case of the Paraguayan War, it involved both farce and tragedy, the latter particularly for Paraguay itself, as it was ground down in attrition by its three opponents first in conventional warfare, then in its drawn-out guerilla resistance until Lopez was killed in action.

In the end, Paraguay was defeated and lost almost 40% of its territory, but it was Paraguay’s casualties and losses of population that are truly staggering. We don’t really know what they were because of a lack of reliable census figures before the war but they’re usually reckoned as at least half the population or even 60% or so, making it proportionately one of the most destructive wars in modern history – with the worst figures estimating the loss of 90% of the male population

Whatever the case, there was an 1871 census with about a 4:1 ratio for adult female population to adult male population – such that there was an informal acceptance, even by the Catholic Church, of polygamy afterwards to help repopulation.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 WW2 Combatant Alternate History Rankings (Special Mention)

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Consistent with my running theme, it’s yet another cover for The Man in the High Castle, in this case the Penguin Modern Classics edition (fair use)

 

But wait – there’s more!

I ranked my Top 10 WW2 combatants by their alternate history scenarios, in terms of historical plausibility, or even more so, in terms of fantasy and SF – because alternate history scenarios for WW2 itself are more prolific or thematic in fantasy or SF than in historical plausibility.

 

Wait – WW2 alternate history is all German victory scenarios?

Always has been.

 

Well not quite but Germany took the top spot or god tier, because WW2 alternate history is almost all German victory scenarios, with the other combatants as footnotes – albeit with Britain and the US in top tier, if only because that’s where most WW2 alternate history fiction is written (and set).

So yes – I ranked all the major WW2 combatants, even including France, Italy and China, as well as Poland and Australia thrown in to round out the top ten.

But as I said, there’s more – enough for my usual twenty special mentions per top ten. There’s more WW2 combatants – although to be honest most individual minor WW2 combatants don’t rank highly enough in alternate history for separate special mention, hence this list might be regarded more as WW2 participants.

So there’s combatants but also neutral nations and collective continental or regional entries – as well as my usual weirder and wilder special mentions towards the end, although to be honest all these entries would rank in my wild tier.

 

(1) VATICAN CITY

 

“The Pope! How many divisions has he got?”

Quite a few it seems, at least in alternate, counterfactual or speculative history.

Yes, I’m as surprised as you are that the Vatican should rank as highly as my top special mention but there you have it. I was tempted to put it in god-tier because, you know, it’s the Vatican, but I’m afraid I can’t rank it in Germany’s god-tier for WW2 alternate history.

The answer to Stalin’s rhetorical question, if he said it, is of course none, as is intended by the rhetorical question, but the Vatican had the metaphorical divisions of its moral authority which is the focus of alternate, counterfactual or speculative history.

The Vatican was of course neutral in WW2, but its role has been the subject of historical debate – from virtual accusations of alignment with the Axis, through inaction or silence, to aiding the Allied cause or at least opposing the Axis. Alternate or counterfactual history tends to lean into that last one.

Alternate or speculative history kicks into overload with the German occupation of Italy in 1943, with contemporary rumors of a German plot to kidnap the pope. John Grigg approached 1943 from the other side in his book 1943: The Victory That Never Was. Grigg’s thesis is that the Allies should have substituted an invasion of France in 1943 for the one in Italy but also has other criticisms of the latter – including not using Vatican City as a neutral venue to negotiate the Italian surrender.

But the Vatican isn’t winning the war in any alternate history…or is it?

Despite the title of Frederic Mullally’s alternate history H!tler Has Won, it’s the Vatican that wins in the end. Well, to be accurate, it’s more what is in effect a rogue Vatican agent playing his own psyops – which the Vatican officially disowns but secretly applauds.

And that psyops is essentially driving H!tler crazy – feeding his megalomania, already high on the victory of the title from Operation Barbarossa launched early, all the way to heaven with the ultimate hubris of crowning himself pope. His nemesis follows shortly after that – with civil war in Germany and a recovery of Allied fortune. It’s not too plausible but it is a ripping yarn and an absolute hoot to boot.

 

(2) CANADA

 

Canada plays a similar role in alternate or counterfactual history as it did in Britain’s contingency plans for the event of German invasion or occupation in actual history – the potential seat of the British government or royalty in exile, aligned with the United States.

Canada is also worth mentioning as a planned front for War Plan Red, one of the US color-coded war plans in the interwar period – in this case for a hypothetical war against the British Empire.

 

(3) INDIA

 

India’s position in any alternate or counterfactual history where Germany defeats Britain is more precarious than that of Canada. India was potentially within reach for invasion and occupation, most plausibly by Japan, but potentially Germany in less plausible scenarios – or even the Soviet Union, which is where Germany sought to divert Soviet attention away from Europe during their pact.

A German occupation of India was used by Harry Turtledove in “The Last Article”, essentially as a pretext for the alternate history of how Gandhi’s non-violent resistance would have fared against the Naz!s instead of Britain. Spoiler alert – not well.

 

(4) FINLAND

 

While Finland doesn’t pop up often in WW2 alternate history fiction, I still rank it as special mention here.

Firstly, because I’d like to see an alternate history scenario in which Finland somehow emerges as the supreme victor of the war.

Secondly, because Finland meets my usual criteria for alternate history rankings – that the actual outcome seems more unlikely than the alternatives. Not so much Finland being defeated, but Finland being defeated and avoiding Soviet occupation – twice.

Thirdly, Finland was the subject of an alternate history scenario during the war itself – the Anglo-French plans for intervention in the Winter War, via the transit of forces through Norway and Sweden, with the latter often seeming the bigger goal than actually helping Finland. Fortunately but not surprisingly, those plans came to nothing, as Britain and France would have found themselves fighting Germany and the Soviet Union at the same time.

 

(5) ICELAND

 

While officially neutral and using the opportunity of the war to declare its independence from Denmark, Iceland was occupied first by British forces and then by American forces. However, Iceland was another subject of an alternate history scenario during the war itself – Operation Ikarus, the planned German invasion of Iceland after the British occupied it in the wake of the German occupation of Denmark. Not surprisingly, they wrote it off as having little prospect of success.

As H.P. Willmott opines, the better option might have been for Germany to plan it at the same time as invading Denmark and Norway. Willmott ranks Germany as having good prospects for taking it, but not so much holding on to it.

 

(6) IRELAND

 

Ireland was effectively buffered by Britain as long as the latter held out, so leant towards helping the Allies on the sly while remaining neutral.

Hence Ireland doesn’t pop up too often of itself in alternate history but is obviously in a precarious position in any scenario where Germany defeats Britain, unless perhaps it somehow allied with Germany while avoiding British pre-emptive or retaliatory action prior to Britain’s defeat.

As it was, Ireland was the subject of both German and British planned invasions.

 

In fairness, the German plans – aptly called Operation Green – was essentially hypothetical, even more so than Operation Sea Lion for the invasion of Britain, such that it is usually thought to have been deception to mislead the British.

The British planned more thoroughly for their Plan W as a response to any German invasion of Ireland and in cooperation with the Irish government rather than an invasion as such – although one wonders if the British would have gone in anyway with or without Irish cooperation.

In fairness to the British, they did propose another alternate history scenario to Ireland, albeit probably something of a poisoned chalice for the Irish government – ending the partition of Ireland and hence a united Ireland if Ireland abandoned its neutrality and joined Britain in the war against Germany and Italy.

 

(7) SPAIN

 

The neutral nation of WW2 that arguably had the biggest and most concrete alternate history scenario during the actual war – a key role in the proposed German “Mediterranean Strategy” against Britain, obviously in the western Mediterranean.

It doesn’t get much bigger than H!tler himself meeting with Franco at Hendaye (on the French side of the Spanish-French border) on 23 October 1940 to enlist Spain on Germany’s side – particularly for Germany’s planned Operation Felix to capture Gibraltar, sealing off the western Mediterranean from the British as an “Axis lake”.

While Franco was obviously supportive of the Axis that had effectively won his civil war for him, Spain was still exhausted from that same civil war and lacked the ability to, you know, actually fight in the world war (but for the volunteer “Blue” Division it provided for Barbarossa).

Franco was so obstructive, making such extortionate demands for Spanish participation, that H!tler complained afterwards he’d rather have teeth pulled than speak to Franco again.

 

(8) MALTA

 

Independent from 1964 onwards, Malta was a British Crown Colony in WW2. Although it was and remains small, both in area and population – yet curiously exporting a disproportionate number of hot girls to my acquaintance – it punches well above its weight for WW2 alternate history thanks to yet another planned scenario during the actual war.

And that is of course Operation Herkules – the German (and Italian) plans to capture Malta, both to deprive Britain of one of its most significant bases in the Mediterranean and to improve the supply lines to their own forces in north Africa (as those supply lines were diminished by British forces operating from Malta).

 

(9) TURKEY

 

From Spain at the western end of the Mediterranean, we go to the other significant neutral nation in the Mediterranean at its eastern end – Turkey. Despite Turkey being an ally of Germany in WW1, it didn’t have the same alternate history scenarios during the actual war as Spain.

It was courted as an ally by both sides, but they and Turkey itself ultimately preferred Turkish neutrality (until Turkey finally declared war on Germany in February 1945). Ironically, Britain’s Churchill was the most enthusiastic in courting Turkey as an ally – which one might infer as a recurring fixation with the Balkans as the road to victory in both world wars, going all the way back to his ill-fated Gallipoli campaign in WW1.

There was also Germany’s planned Operation Gertrude for an invasion of Turkey in 1942 – probably pie in the sky but abandoned in any event

 

(10) SWITZERLAND

 

Yeah, Switzerland is not looking too safe in any alternate history German victory scenario, despite its proverbial neutrality. A neighboring nation with German speakers? Germany’s having none of that!

In the actual war, Germany had Operation Tannenbaum, the planned invasion of Switzerland (also with Italy?!) – apparently from France’s surrender onwards, albeit repeatedly putting it on the backburner until it was abandoned altogether.

Interestingly, Switzerland was the neutral nation to escape German occupation in Europe in Robert Harris’ alternate history novel Fatherland – because when the time came round, it was more convenient for Germany and the US in their cold war with each other to exploit Switzerland’s neutrality.

 

(11) PHILIPPINES

 

“We’re the battling bastards of Bataan,

No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam,

No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,

No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces,

And nobody gives a damn.”

 

But could things have turned out differently for Bataan or the rest of the Philippines? That’s essentially the whole reason for this special mention, as I’ve always felt for the American and Filippino defenders, dogged and doomed as they were.

 

And yeah – probably not too much. They could certainly have done better for a more prolonged defence but that’s about it. War Plan Orange, the American plan for war against Japan (which became part of the larger Rainbow Five Plan as the basis for American strategy in WW2) always anticipated the defenders in the Philippines as a holding force – one likely to fall before the American navy slowly mobilized and fought its way across the Pacific to relieve them (or more likely liberate them), even without the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

(12) VIETNAM

 

This alternate history special mention for Vietnam is not so much for WW2 – where it is difficult to see things going any other way for Vietnam as part of French Indochina taken over by Japan – but for avoiding the Vietnam War afterwards, particularly for the Americans.

What if the Americans had opposed the restoration of French colonialism or supported Vietnamese independence a la OSS officer Archimedes Patti?

What if the United States followed through on FDR offering French Indochina as a territory to Chiang Kai-Shek? It probably would have ended up with China fighting against the Vietnamese – and possibly accelerating the Nationalist defeat in the civil war against the communists – which is why Chiang Kai-Shek declined it. As it was, Chinese forces occupied the northern Vietnam above the 16th parallel (while British forces occupied the southern part below the parallel) as agreed by the Allies.

 

 

(13) NORWAY & BALKANS

 

Look, there’s probably a few WW2 alternate history scenarios for Norway and the Balkans, but this special mention is entirely for them in the actual war as possible substitutes proposed for the Allied landings in France.

Of course, those proposals mostly came from Churchill, while everyone else ignored them or adapted them to deception in Operation Bodyguard for virtually every part of the European coastline except Normandy to mask the true target of Allied landings.

No, seriously, as part of Operation Bodyguard you had Operation Fortitude with the deception of Allied landings in Norway and the Pas-de-Calais, Operation Ironside with the deception of Allied landings in the Bay of Biscay (particularly near Bordeaux), Operation Graffham not really doing much to pretend to target Sweden, Operation Royal Flush pretending to target Spain and Turkey, and Operation Zeppelin doing the same for Greece and southern France.

However, the deception for Allied landings in Norway reflected various genuine proposals by Churchill, of which the most concrete was Operation Jupiter, but consistently rejected by military leaders as a hiding to nothing – with Alan Brooke commenting that they never found out why Churchill “wanted to go back (to Norway) and what he was going to do there”.

 

Famously, Churchill also proposed allied landings in the Balkans instead of Normandy, again sensibly rejected by everyone else as only marginally more realistic than Norway and likely to be a slog as bad as or worse than in Italy – even if more politically astute to the problems posed by Soviet occupation in eastern Europe.

 

 

(14) AFRICA – MADAGASCAR

 

Special WW2 alternate history mention for Africa in general and Madagascar in particular.

Firstly, Africa.

Africa was of course a battlefield in the actual war – famously in north Africa but also in east Africa which everyone forgets. Africans were also combatants within British forces and perhaps even more so the Free French, with France’s African colonies providing the first rallying point for and nucleus of Free French forces.

Africa’s prospects are usually dire in alternate history scenarios of German victory, typically with Germany (and Italy) taking over European colonies to radically reshape Africa with a vengeance, including the same policies of population extermination as they did in Europe. Again, The Man in the High Castle is the classic example.

Secondly, the Vichy French colony of Madagascar – as it was the subject of two hypothetical plans or scenarios in the actual war.

The most famous is the Madagascar Plan by Germany to relocate the European Jewish population to Madagascar – a plan so obviously ludicrous, even in terms of its own logistics (let alone continued British opposition to Germany) that it is difficult to see it as anything other than a flimsy pretext for the plan they ultimately pursued.

The other was the scenario that prompted Britain to capture Madagascar from Vichy France in 1942 – the Japanese capture of Madagascar or its ports to turn the Indian Ocean into a “Japanese lake”, a scenario that one can’t help but feel was a missed opportunity for Japan.

 

(15) LATIN AMERICA – PANAMA & URUGUAY

 

Yeah…Latin America tends to turn out not too differently in WW2 alternate history, except perhaps with more regimes aligned or trading with Germany, but I thought I’d better give it special mention since I’ve mentioned virtually everywhere else.

This reflects that Latin America was on the periphery of the war (except for one naval battle between Britain and Germany fought off the coast of Uruguay), or indeed the interests of any combatant in the war except the United States.

Sure, the nations of Latin America aligned with the United States to declare war against the Axis – with Argentina and Chile coming in last in March and April 1945 – but the only one that actually did anything of substance was Brazil, sending an expeditionary force that fought in Italy (and Mexico sending an air squadron that fought in the Philippines).

That also reflects the lack of any German plans in Latin America beyond intelligence – with the exceptions of its cancelled Operation Pelikan to bomb the Panama Canal and a weird foiled invasion plan to colonize Uruguay before the war.

 

(16) H0L0CAUST

 

Yes, we’re no longer looking at combatants as such, but let’s face it – this is the elephant in the room for any WW2 alternate history German victory scenario.

Essentially, such scenarios tend to involve it extending beyond the limits, such as they were, imposed by German defeat in actual history – typically to the extent of German invasion or occupation, potentially even to a global extent. That includes the United States as occupied by Germany in The Man in the High Castle.

In Fatherland, it is largely to the same geographic extent in Europe as it was in actual history, except that they were able to complete it – with the plot revolving around it as a secret hidden afterwards so it doesn’t jeopardize détente in the cold war between Germany and the United States.

It also plays its part in counterfactual alternate history. Probably the biggest question in alternate history is whether it had any impact on the war’s outcome, particularly whether Germany would have won without it. While it is tempting to think that it cost Germany logistics and resources that might been committed elsewhere – as indeed has been argued in books such as H0l0caust vs Wehrmacht by Yaron Pasher – it sadly does not seem clear whether it made a substantial difference. On the other hand, the next biggest question is whether the Allies could have done anything for any substantial difference or impact on its outcome, apart of course from defeating Germany quicker.

 

(17) ATOMIC BOMB

 

The mushroom cloud in the room of WW2 alternate history. Typically, any WW2 alternate history German victory scenario involves Germany getting it, if only as a cold war standoff against the United States.

Not as typically but often enough in WW2 alternate history, the nukes start flying. The Big One by Stuart Slade is perhaps the classic example, but Harry Turtledove’s Worldwar series also sees the nukes start flying, just not as much (or as literally). And it’s perhaps an exaggeration to say that the nukes start flying in John Birmingham’s Axis of Time trilogy, but they certainly pop up – as they do in other alternate history.

 

(18) COLD WAR

 

The other elephant in the room of WW2 alternate history. Typically, WW2 alternate history substitutes a different cold war involving a victorious Germany – such as the cold war between Germany and Japan in The Man in the High Castle, or the cold war between Germany and the US in Fatherland.

It’s a recurring question in counterfactual alternate history whether the western Allies could have done anything to diminish Soviet occupation in Europe (or Asia) and hence diminish the Cold War – with perhaps the most extreme being planned by the British Chiefs of Staff under Churchill as Operation Unthinkable for war against the Soviets in 1945.

 

(19) FOURTH REICH

 

And now we get weird, with the wilder WW2 alternate history German victory scenarios – except not Germany but its successor state in exile or underground (sometimes literally), the proverbial Fourth Reich.

Bonus points if it involves Adolf H!tler somehow escaping Berlin at the end of the war – or cloned (or resurrected, but that’s getting to the next entry as my wildest entry of all).

It has some basis in actual history, in plans for ongoing German resistance, or even more, members of the regime escaping from Germany, most notoriously to South America. Hence South America is a common venue for the Fourth Reich.

Then we get the more exotic venues. Antarctica is commonly proposed and surprisingly mundane compared to others, such as the Hollow Earth or some other subterranean location (often accessed through Antarctica). Perhaps the most amusing are those off Earth entirely, involving Naz! UFOs – such as the far side of the moon in the Iron Sky film.

 

 

(20) ALIEN SPACE BATS & TIME TRAVELLERS

 

The alien space bats always win!

“Alien space bats” (or “ASB”) is the term coined “for plot devices in alternate history to mean an implausible point of divergence” (from our own history)

Not literally alien space bats – well, not usually anyway – but similarly implausible SF or fantasy plot devices. And yes, needless to say, if they’re powerful enough to change history, they usually win.

Not always, however, contrary to my opening quip – sometimes we manage to pull a fast one on them, even when they intend to use us as pawns.

As they pop up surprisingly often in alternate history in general, they also pop up surprisingly often in WW2 alternate history. Indeed, the term was originally coined (by Usenet user Alison Brooks in 1998) as a joke about the implausibility of Germany pulling off Operation Sea Lion, its planned cross-channel invasion of Britain – that Germany could have done it “only if they had the help of alien space bats”.

Time travellers also recur surprisingly often as the alien space bats in alternate WW2 history, albeit not as often as they recur to assassinate or target H!tler.

But hang on, I hear you say, don’t I normally reserve my twentieth and final special mention for whatever kinky entry I can squeeze out of a subject? Even with alien space bats, this doesn’t seem too kinky an entry.

Or is it?

Well, no – but perhaps it might have been with some Naz!sploitation, a short-lived subgenre of exploitation films, of which the most influential and famous was Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS, a 1974 film about the titular depraved female camp commandant. Of course, such films were usually set against the backdrop of history rather than changing it – I don’t see Ilsa winning the war, as amusing as that might be as an alternate history scenario. Perhaps if she led a whole army of depraved she-wolves…?

 

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of War (Special Mention) (17) Pharmacological Warfare

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Cover SF Masterworks edition of Barefoot in the Head by Brian Aldiss (fair use)

 

 

(17) PHARMACOLOGICAL WARFARE

 

Sadly not a special mention entry for the psychedelic warfare in Barefoot in the Head, the classic SF novel by Brian Aldiss where a drugged out post-apocalyptic Europe is devastated by the Acid Head Wars, in which hallucinogenic “psycho-chemical” aerosols were the primary weapon.

I suppose that would be a form of ehemical warfare, only a lot more fun.

Instead, this is a special mention entry for my fascination with the interconnection between drugs and war, as also reflected in my corresponding special mention (to my top ten wars) for the Opium Wars. The Opium Wars are the closest thing to a war fought over drugs like the modern stereotype of wars fought for oil – in this case, a war fought over Britain smuggling opium into China. Beyond that, it is fascinating to think how much of European colonialism (and slavery) was born from the plantation production of drugs – tobacco, coffee and tea. Even more so if you count sugar as a drug.

Of course, modern drug smugglers or cartels tend not to have the force of the world’s largest maritime empire behind them, but often play a role in more low-level war or insurgency as in Colombia. And notoriously, drug smuggling – particularly in cocaine and opium – has often laid beneath the surface of larger modern conflicts, particularly for financing them.

There is also the use of drugs in war. I’ve read that narcotics have been as much a part of war as bullets and bombs. While that appears to be an overstatement, historically drug use was often sanctioned and encouraged by militaries including alcohol and tobacco in troop rations. Of course, alcohol is something of a law of diminishing returns – what it adds in ‘Dutch courage’, it can often take away in effectiveness, famously as in the Russo-Japanese War on the Russian side.

Germany was also notorious for drug use in the Second World War, notably for amphetamine use by its armed forces, but also drug use by its leadership. However, stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamine were widely used by belligerents in both World Wars to increase alertness and suppress appetite. Drug use was also notorious in American forces in Vietnam – and has been a feature of other conflicts

And then you have the more trippy use of drugs – the Viking berserkers possibly as a result of agaric “magic” mushrooms, the Assassins named for hashish, even MK-Ultra by the CIA in the Cold War.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Wars (Special Mention: Revised) (17) Opium Wars

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The East India Company iron steam ship Nemesis, commanded by Lieutenant W. H. Hall, with boats from the Sulphur, Calliope, Larne and Starling, destroying the Chinese war junks in Anson’s Bay, on 7 January 1841 (First Opium War) – painted by Edward Duncan (public domain image – Wikipedia “Opium Wars”)

 

 

(17) OPIUM WARS (1839-1842 & 1859-1860)

 

Two wars in which China got pawned by European powers – the first Opium War in 1839-1842 saw China defeated by Britain (resulting in Hong Kong being ceded to Britain among other things) and the second Opium War in 1859-1860 was slightly less humiliating for China as at least it got defeated by Britain and France rather than a solo British effort.

The nineteenth century was…not a good century for China, as the commencement of what later became known as the Century of Humiliation by foreign powers. The Qing dynasty, formerly one of the most powerful states in the world and used to styling itself as the Middle Kingdom of the world, now became the punching bag of the new European world powers. Qing China was humbled and humiliated as it was easily defeated by European modern military technology and techniques. Ultimately that dealt the death knell to the Qing dynasty, which crumbled amidst a revolution and civil war that spanned decades.

And it was all pretty sordid by the European powers as well, with the Opium Wars being fought by Britain for free trade – its free trade of opium to China, that is. The Opium Wars saw the first of the so-called Unequal Treaties between China and Western powers – as an impotent China was forced to concede territory, privileges, concessions and reparations to one European power after another in a form of de facto colonization.

De facto colonization, that is, because China was too big for actual colonization by any one European power, particularly as rival European powers were concerned with maintaining a balance between themselves in China. Indeed, the European powers were remarkably cooperative between themselves when it came to their common purpose of pawning China.

Ironically, it was a newly admitted Asian power to the European circle of world power that upset this balance and came closest to colonizing China in the twentieth century – Japan. Although of course this was the final straw of humiliation for China. It was one thing to be humbled by European powers with their new industrial and military technology. It was quite another to be humbled by an upstart smaller Asian neighbor, particularly a former tributary state.

The Opium Wars earn their special mention particularly for my fascination with the interconnection between drugs and war, also reflected in my slightly tongue-in-cheek special mention for pharmacological warfare for types of war. The Opium Wars are the closest thing to wars fought over drugs like the modern stereotype of wars fought for oil – in this case, wars fought over Britain smuggling opium into China.

Of course, modern drug smugglers or cartels tend not to have the force of the world’s largest maritime empire behind them, but often play a role in more low-level war or insurgency as in Colombia. And notoriously, drug smuggling – particularly in cocaine and opium – has often laid beneath the surface of larger modern conflicts.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of War (Special Mention) (16) Space Warfare

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(16) SPACE WARFARE

 

Less Star Wars, more Sputnik – that is, space warfare is more about ballistic missiles and satellites, for now at least.

And yes, Star Wars is essentially WW2 dogfights, bomber runs, and naval battles in space, where they wouldn’t work or make no sense as depicted.

But seriously, while we tend to think of space warfare as SF “space opera” battles between spaceships, we’ve been fighting space warfare in various degrees since WW2, just in more mundane forms (to the extent that you count ballistic missiles and satellites as mundane).

While the usual flightpath of German V-2 rockets to their targets in WW2 was not through space, they could on vertical launch traverse the edge of space when that was defined as 100 kilometers – hence the vertical launch of V-2 rocket MW18014 on 20 June 1944 retroactively became the first artificial object to travel into space by that definition.

After that, ballistic missiles have routinely had flight paths which transit the upper atmosphere or space. As such, nuclear warfare is space warfare, at least as represented by ballistic missiles, so not surprisingly defensive measures for nuclear warfare have also been planned to operate in space – most famously the Strategic Defense Initiative or SDI by the US, dubbed Star Wars.

However, ballistic missiles used in combat with conventional warheads have also operated in space, mostly in conflicts in the Middle East, along with the defensive measures against them. “In November 2023, Israel claimed an interception of a Houthi ballistic missile as the the first combat in space”.

It’s in the deployment of (or against) satellites, originating in the Cold War, that space warfare really comes into its own.

“The Cold War prompted the start of the militarization of space. Military satellites have been launched since the later 1950s for communications, navigation, reconnaissance, and munitions guidance. The Gulf War is sometimes called the “first space war” because of the use of these capabilities by the US.”

Intriguingly (to me at least), space warfare is occasionally broken down into components of ground-to-space warfare (such as targeting satellites from Earth), space-to-space warfare (such as satellites targeting other satellites), and space-to-ground warfare (such as satellites attacking targets on Earth).

Even more intriguingly, there is ground-to-space warfare that involves weapons capable of being deployed by a single soldier for satellites or other targets in space – with the amusing acronym of MANPASTA. I’m feeling the urge to take out the International Space Station with one of those babies – it blocks my view of Venus.

There have even been nukes in space, although international treaties prohibit the permanent basing of weapons of mass destruction in space or the military use of celestial bodies – but do not prohibit the military use of orbital space or military space spaces. I suppose there goes my dreams of moon buggy battles (or where opposing forces lob asteroids at each other). However, back to the nukes, “the US and Soviet Union carried out nine nuclear explosions in space from 1958 to 1962, which damaged satellites”.

Even without nuclear weapons in space, the logic of mutually assured destruction in space – as the accumulation or creation of space debris can endanger your own satellites or spacecraft, particularly in the scenario of Kessler Syndrome in which we effectively paint ourselves into a planetary corner with our own space junk. It’s a pity that the term, coined at almost the same time as the first Star Wars film, was not adapted by the latter – it would have put a whole new spin on it as the Kessler Run instead of the Kessel Run.