The Sun Rises Yet Again: The British Lion Roars Once More!

The World of The Sun Rises Yet Again (TSRYA) diverges from ours in September 1914, during the Battle of the Marne. The Germans have charged through Northern France and are just under 200 km from the City of Lights. Maréchal Joffre knew he must do something and so began preparation for a counterattack to drive back the Germans. He needed the assistance of the British Expeditionary Force in order to achieve this. However, the British failed to effectively communicate with the French and Field Marshal John French had no faith in the Armée de Terre and began a withdrawal of the BEF to Channel ports for an evacuation to Britain. Joffre knew victory was unlikely but had no choice, Paris had to be defended, and so began the battle. It was fierce and much closer than either side anticipated. The news of the French success in holding off the Germans despite the odds convinced PM Henry Asquith to order French to turn around and assist. With pressure from the civilian government and military officials, French reversed his withdraw and entered the battle. Although British help was welcomed, it had come too late and the Germans would win the battle.

Paris would be soon taken but the French Government did not surrender, with Clemenceau saying in front of a crowd of reporters and civilians,

"44 years ago, the Allemands laid siege to this beautiful city and the government had no choice but to surrender. I am here to dispel any notions that this will happen again. We will lose Paris, but fear not my fellow Français, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, in the houses and the rivers, we will defend our dear Marianne, whatever the cost may be. We shall go on to the end. We shall never surrender."

Clemenceau and his government used the defeat of the War of 1870 and several other events to further spread revanchism to the French people. With the conquest of Paris, Germany expected France to fall soon and Italy's entry into the war against them as unlikely and negotiations fell apart.

The Entente, desperate to get the momentum back on their side, began to become far more generous to Italy during the talks, although whether they would've actually given Italy all the land promised or in fact renege and strip the actual gains down to a minimum is unknown as they lost the war. Italy enters early February 1915. The Russian army sees renewed success after such disasters like Tannenberg and gain a temporary advantage over the Austrians and Germans, these victories would not be adequate to quiet civil unrest and the winds of change still approached Russia. This new found pressure from the East allows Italy to carry several successful offensives into Austrian territory and leads to the decisive captures of Trentino, Trieste, South Tyrol, and Istria. Their attempts to advance into the Balkans and Austria are stopped quickly and the front stalemates. In the Middle East, the British and Arab forces are less successful due to a lack of troops due to European demands, they still advance however and achieve substantial success under Claude Auchinleck and others. In the Dark Continent, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck harasses the British with guerrilla tactics, however Jan Christiaan Smuts manages to achieve several victories, in the end, however, he is defeated not by Vorbeck, as skilled and proficient as the Lion of Africa was, but by the European front, with so many troops siphoned from Africa that Smuts and his successors could no longer take any meaningful action, resigned to defending an ever shrinking front line.

Britain maintained the naval blockade of Germany until 1916, when the battle of Jutland happened. The Royal Navy is spread across the French coast, due to German occupation, and thus lacks several lesser ships. As the battle was nearing it's start, Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe forebodingly said, "Something is amiss today." He would never know how right he was when less than an hour later his ship suffered a critical malfunction and his ship exploded, killing him. Several other British ships suffered this fate and this meant Britain was on Her back foot at the outset. It seemed as though Germany would achieve a decisive victory and shatter the blockade. This was not to be however due to the bravery of the British seamen and the decisive action of Vice Admiral David Richard Beatty, who turned what would've been a decisive British defeat into draw. A yrrhic draw, but a draw none the less. Although the blockade could be maintained, the Admiralty decided losing their fleet is too dangerous as they need it to transport the troops back to Britain if France were to fall. Germany manages to increase their imports of supplies however this is not enough to overcome the demands and shortages and even low level starvation continue, especially in 1918, as the British do stop any American ship headed to Germany that they can. 3 days after the Battle of Jutalnd ends, The Brusilov Offensive, headed by Alexei Brusilov, begins, turning 1916 into a net negative year for Germany, being pushed back even harder now by the Russian Army. The offensive is largely successful into late 1916 and even very early 1917 but stalls out due to stalwart German resistance. Come 1918, Russia falls to first a Democratic revolution, the government under Kerensky, although viewing the state of the War in the West as dire, senses blood in the water with the Brusilov Offensive's successes and decides to continue the war. This decision was a fatal one however as Germany makes them pay dearly for it and in 1918, a Communist revolution occurs, with the country divided into Civil War. The new Soviet Union signs a peace treaty with Germany, called the treaty of Brest-Litvosk. The losses in the West are staggering, total loss of Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic, and Belorussia. It is however peace, and Russia turns inward to unify itself.

With peace in the East achieved, around 4 dozen German divisions head to France while the Austrians head off to fight the Italians. This counteroffensive pushes back the Italians to their fallback lines and the French front collapses. Britain's army in France is separated in half. Those in the west head to the coast and evacuate to Britain while those in the east retreat into Italy and help them hold of the Germans at Savoy, which is now occupied by Italy. The Germans send armies to the Middle East and Africa to crush the Arab Revolt, forcing Lawrence to retreat to Egypt, where the British hold the canal barely. The war ends on November 11th, at 11th Hour, in 1918. The Germans impose harsh reparations on the French and the British cede some East African and East Asian territory in the treaty. Belgium, untouched territorially in Europe, cedes the Congo to Germany and sees themselves slowly fall into the German sphere influence, as does the massive group of newly independent Eastern European states. With Kenya, German East Africa, the Belgian Congo, and French Cameroon in Germany's hands, the colony of Deutsche Mittelafrika is formed as prestige project for the Kaiser.

In 1919, France falls to communism. Seeking to show strength, the new government decides to quickly default on the loans it owed to America. The Soviet Union does so afterwards in solidarity. Italy, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, China, and several other nations smaller nations do so to try and get out of paying any loans they owed the United States, who had grown wealthy off of the war. Seeing everyone defaulting on their loans and afraid that America will soon prevent them from doing so, Britain and Germany default on their loans to the U.S. later that month. The loss of billions of dollars causes America to enter into a state of economic downturn and loss more extreme than any other in history. This phenomena is called the Great Depression. America seemed on its way to enjoy the 20s' and 30s' in peace and prosperity, coming out of the Great War richer and healthier than it had entered, but it was not to be. The age of American prosperity, with some predicting unparalleled growth in the 20s', was never to be. America suffers greatly and the failure of Wilson, Harding, and now Coolidge to fix it causes radicalisation in America.

Seeing the weakened financial, military, diplomatic, and spiritual strength of the Empire, the many far away subjects begin to flee the Ship of State. The first is India, seeing their chance they revolt in a speedy matter, managing to overpower the British in India and, in a strange twist of fate, managing to keep deaths on both sides at a minimum with their readiness to use violence. Australia, disillusioned due to Gallipoli and many other events, leaves next. They are followed quickly by New Zealand. Canada moves next, cutting off ties and aligning itself to America, they do not move to seize Newfoundland however as they do not want war. South Africa is the last to jump ship, with Boer Nationals being the decisive faction in cutting off South Africa. Britain is effected by the collapse of most of the Empire and the Great Depression and Spain falls into a civil war between the Falangist Nationalists and the Big-Tent Republicans. Seeing the collapse of British, French, and Italian influence over the Eastern Mediterranean, the Ottomans move to subguate Greece and reintegrate it peacefully, causing schism in the Greek Royal family between Alexander and George. Japan, the only Entente power to come out of the war better across the board than it started, increases its wealth and enjoys a healthy democracy but is wary of the German and Soviet threats to the North and the South and still has ambitions in China.

The Year is 1924, the Sun has Set on the British Empire. But, The Sun Rises Yet Again.

Well, this looks promising. Since Great Britain is on the road to fascism ITTL, I wonder how WW2 will play out and which countries align into which blocs.

Further, unless America somehow joins the UK's club, then I imagine that there will be quite the wedge between the two Anglospheric powers for a good while.

Indeed, a major trend in the story is the conflict between the Father and the First Born of the Anglosphere throughout the decades and how their relationship develops

There is also a lot of development between Britain and other European nations, leading to them forming an equivalent to the EU

Mm'kay. I'd ask whether TTL's version of the EU is like the democratic, albeit heavily contested one from our ~2019, or a more authoritarian bloc in line with British fascism, but then that'd spoil events that I presume take place further in your story.

That said, I look forward to what comes next.

It is definitely the latter, authoritarian, reactionary bloc however British Fascism is just one of the many Fascistic ideologies in it, you'll see

Those Who Have Helped
Although this story is my creation and most of the work is mine, I cannot understate the help of two people in particular. Panzerlied and Confederate Liberal who provided help with several things. Panzerlied gave many good ideas including the idea to introduce Garand to the British and the structuring of the Home Guard into a more refined version (coming soon) while Confederate Liberal provided and continues to provide valuable assistance in forming an OOB and formulating an idea on the naval strength of the great powers and the path of British naval developments. Unfortunately the full breadth of Confederate Liberal's help is locked away as it is in private conversations on AH.com that I can no longer access so I must wait for him to reestablish contact with me.

If anyone has any ideas they wish to see implemented into the TL feel free to post them whenever. I'm usually open to them and I'll be sure to provide visible credit as well as updating this post as time goes on

Current and Past Contributors
.Panzerlied
.Old1812
.Confederate Liberal
.Nikas