Turns out, a million Czech and Polish immigrants made for an excellent emigration program to our new colonies. Adding various Ukrainians, Bulgarians and even Serbs made the whole thing look like a paid vacation, including lots of corrupt functionaries and state employees that now I could send away as a promotion.
Having exotic islands meant that amazing fruits and animals were being sent back by our merchant marine, although the Navy officers were less pleased. They were hoping for the 100 destroyer program to be delivered, but we would have to suffer with 80 destroyers, 35 subs and 11 cruisers instead, plus the 5 carriers. Some people could never be happy, even if buying a single of those islands at market price would have been far more expensive.
As for Trinidad, they also had amazing oil deposits, basically making the deal a 1000 to 1 investment. Even better, the islands were just near Venezuela, meaning that I could indeed corner 1/4 of the total oil on the planet with this move. Well, it would take more time and effort, but after the war was over.
Using my other side of the coin, I began making tentative pushes with Franco, not for an alliance like everyone else, but to give him some money for a Spanish strip of land in Africa.
The Spanish_Guinea wasn't very big or rich, but it was located quite well and included a few islands.
As expected, Franco refused to give up the larger African bit of land, and only sold me the useless islands, which was exactly what I wanted. More tropical islands! While Annobón wasn't a rich place, it would make for good tourist destination, as well as submarine base and an airport.
Sure 5 million dollars in 1939 were a pretty penny, but I also made that in one week simply selling oil.
Denmark refused to sell me Greenland though, but I did get Jan_Mayen near Iceland and Bouvet_Island south of South Africa from Norway, both for my support of Finland and for 200 Wolves which had proven extremely effective in the Winter War.
The French were not desperate yet, and they could produce both the 65mm guns and the Wolves, although they stopped doing that. I mean, build enough of those and they could eventually drain the Germans of vehicles, but whatever. History does try to correct itself, despite my efforts.
Benito was getting a bit aggressive too, now that Croatia was a proper mass grave. It seems he really wanted Albania for some reason, but I didn't want to share.
I did point him at Egypt though, since the British colony separated his lands in Libya and Ethiopia.
Then as 1940 came about, Adolf decided Denmark was proper German clay and took it, taking only a few hours. I mean, it was a bit early, but he also didn't have Slovakia, Hungary or Romania in the Axis. I guess Sweden was fucked now, because of me. Maybe they should have given Adolf the Nobel Prize for Peace like I asked them to, from Vienna.
Just as the Soviets began to push again into Finland, Germany struck at Norway and lost some 200 Panzer IIIs to my Wolves, like 10 times more than in the other timeline. Only a 1 to 1 ratio, but then Norway wasn't really a HOI 4 player, like say: Finland.
Soon after, the Skoda factories in Cehia began producing the Hetzer tank destroyer, but using an even larger 105 mm gun. And because the Skoda tanks were not crap, they could actually use 60 mm of armor on the front plate, making them about equal to the English Matilda and Valentine tanks.
In Finland, my 100 Grey Wolves were unleashed for the first time, crushing the Soviet advance In Karelia by destroying 600 and capturing some 300 tanks, before they ran out of ammo and had to return behind the fort line. I was quite pleased with my bad boys. A 9 to 1 ratio was nothing to laugh about, although the Germans could to do it too, sometimes.
A secondary Soviet thrust towards Murmansk was cut off by the SeaLions armored divisions and then destroyed in detail, as the Soviets ran out of fuel and then ammo and food. They could eat snow though, so it wasn't completely bad. Would have been much worse in a desert. Sand gets everywhere and it's coarse...
Anyways, my snipers reached around 50 kills and a few became Aces with 100 kills. The Aces were promptly recalled home, as their experience would be greatly needed to train more like them. And it also hurt me in my gamer heart if I lost an Ace.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Stalin shot a thousand more officers and then called for a white peace. Finland had done the impossible and beat the red giant, albeit with some Romanian cheating involved.
Meanwhile, our research institute in Craiova had managed to create a proper anti-air shell, meaning the proximity fuse worked.
Now, we only had to link the anti-air system to the radar, to establish altitude and speed for the incoming planes, and we could shoot accurately into the sky.
I hesitated for a minute, then decided to share the thing with America. They would discover it on their own, but they also gave me an intact Romania to work with, after World War 1.
The Romanian Empire always paid its debts.
Other stuff like nuclear energy and reactors was not on the table though. The American research system was still full with communists and sympathizers, and several of them inside the atomic program itself. I didn't want Papa Stalin to get nukes, not even after I had them first.
In April 1940, the Low Countries were attacked by the German Blitzkrieg, while the Baltic states were over-run by Soviet armies.
Benito managed to obtain the Balearic_Islands from Spain, something I rarely saw in my HOI 4 games, but possible even so.
France was even more fucked now, as its fleet was split in two by the Italian Navy, even though no war was declared yet.
As I expected, the British Expeditionary Force rushed towards Belgium to secure the border, followed by a rapid French armored brigade. They were both cut off by the German Panzers slicing through the Ardennes forest, who still managed to push through the Polish troops I sent to guard the route. What can I do?
The French or the British would not listen to me, America was sleeping, the Soviets were trying to kill me and China was dying by a million cuts.
The same day that Paris fell, the Soviet Ultimatum arrived, asking for Bukovina, Bassarabia and war reparations.
I considered my reply for a minute, then shrugged and sipped more champagne. Fuck you, Stalin! I will give you a bloody reply.
Raising the phone, I contacted General Antonescu and gave him the good news. He will probably die, along with 10000 soldiers from every member nation of the Empire, plus some Polish volunteers who actually begged to help stick it to the Soviets for their backstab.
The carrier fleet launched the torpedo bombers, the land-based bombers departed from their airfield as well, while 25 Archangels said their prayers as they prepared to sacrifice for God, King and Country.
An hour later, Sevastopol was struck by the largest airstrike in their history, sinking 3 cruisers and damaging their battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna , then losing 12 destroyers and 4 submarines. As the torpedo bombers ran away, the next wave arrived as each Archangel chose a target to take down or up into Heaven. The religious subtlety escaped me, but the Soviet battleship exploded in a ball of fire, followed by 3 more cruisers, 6 destroyers and 10 submarines.
Jet fighters flew over the Black Sea and destroyed the Crimean fighters that tried to chase our bombers, while the fleet arrived in range to start shelling the port from maximum range, guided by radar and observation planes. Destroyers moved in at speed to strike some 24 more Soviet submarines before they could escape towards Georgia, and massacred dozens of torpedo boats still in port.
The naval and aerial bombardment continued for 3 days, until the marine invasion force arrived and began to land. After securing the Perikop isthmus, and leaving the Polish to guard it, the Crimean front advanced inward and conquered the entire Crimea in a single week.
Hundreds of transport ships carried more ammo and artillery to reinforce the thin isthmus, while locally captured POWs were politely asked to start digging and cutting stone. A new Crimean Wall needed to be raised, while the population was being evacuated on the return trip. I mean Soviet Commissars, Party Secretaries and that sort never reached Constanta, since swimming 200 kilometers would have been a world record.
The fleet then passed in front of Odessa to give them a fiery salute from 21 guns, repeated 100 times, and then returned to Constantinople laden with glory.
I think Stalin received my own message loud and clear.