Harry Kellogg III: The Red Sky: The Second Battle of Britain

As King Haakon and his family make their way to the armored trucks, they are joined by King Christian X of Denmark and his family. They hurriedly exchange pleasantries and board the trucks, then surrounded by a sea of their combined Royal Lifeguardsmen, begin the hard trip to the harbor, to the American submarine that had been docked there for the past week, training the Norwegian crew that would be replacing it, once the submarine was transferred to Norwegian command. There were a ring of flak trucks surrounding the Kings’ convoy to the harbor, all mounting 20mm Oerlikon cannon, elevations fully depressed and hammering away at the Soviet paratroopers. As the two monarchs were now fully able to see Soviet paratroopers running and shooting through the streets of Øslo, out the back of their trucks, Haakon and Christian drew their sidearms and began participating in their own defense, along with the Royal Guardsmen who readily lay their lives down for them.

As the convoy fought its way to the harbor, the way became clearer, as the Soviets hadn’t fought their way to this location yet, but Soviet aircraft flying out of Denmark, most notably the Ilyushin Il-2 “Sturmovik” kept strafing, raking each and every wharf, while every ship that was still in harbor and still capable, raked the Soviet attack formations with withering ack-ack and machine gun fire, keeping the Soviets at bay long enough for both Royal families to board the submarine, from which the combined American and Norwegian crew members kept firing their Bofors guns and machine guns, until all were safely aboard. Then, the submarine slid out of the harbor, rapidly diving deep to avoid the Soviet aerial onslaught, taking the Royal families of Norway and Denmark into further exile in Great Britain.

Scandinavia in WWIII, 1946

In a bold and completely unexpected airborne attack, the Soviet Union knocked the nations of the Scandinavian Alliance momentarily out of the fight. In cities large and small all across Finland, Sweden and Norway, special Soviet NKVD and GRU airborne troops search for civilian and military leaders, to either capture and send back east, or to “liquidate” on the spot, as an example of what happens to those who defy the will of the Soviet “people”, meaning Iosef Stalin.

What the Soviets had not counted on was the lessons of earlier in the decade having not been lost on the people still left behind in occupied territory, and armed resistance springing up anew. The skill and fortitude of the Scandinavian peoples to resist and incapacitate their Soviet enemy wherever they were encountered was not lost on their occupiers’ psyche either, where lone or small groups of Soviet soldiers were murdered, scalped or mutilated in some other unimaginable way, and hung up for display, where they would be visible to the Soviets in control of those areas. The reprisals were terrible and finally a stalemate was achieved. And during this stalemate, both sides made their plans and sought ways to gain the upper hand over the other. There is a cold hard winter coming ahead, but the warmth and light of spring is never far behind the coldest darkest night of winter…

Mediterranean Theater in WWIII 1946

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Private Apartments of Pope Pius XII

The Papal Residence

Vatican City, inside Rome, Social Republic of Italy

“This is simply an outrage! How could this have happened?” asked The Pope. He was just handed a message from the speaker of the Italian Parliament demanding the return of the Vatican to its rightful owners, the Italian people, and the renunciation of the Vatican’s claim of independence from the Italian state, by midnight. He had read the reports over the past few days of Italian troops massing at the demarcation line, according to his intelligence officers of the Swiss Guard, these were troops that were deemed “politically reliable” by their Soviet puppet masters. Pope Pius XII calls into his office the commander of his Swiss Guard.

A few moments later, the commander of the Swiss Guard enters the room, kneels and kisses the Pope’s Sigil ring, and arises to give his report. As he concludes his report, he adds a personal note, “Your Excellency, I will stand and fight for you, and our faith, to the very last. It will be my honor to serve you to the very end. I have polled every last man under my command and informed them that there is no shame in them leaving to tend their families back in Switzerland. They have all decided to stay and fight, to the last man, to the last bullet, to the last pike, if need be.

We are at your disposal.” The leader of God’s church on earth was left momentarily speechless, but quickly regained his composure “ Comandante, I will not allow it to come to that. We are going to utilize the “Odessa” network that the German Nazi SS put together to escape Europe. No, comandante, we are headed for Jerusalem, the true seat of the Roman Church. We have been in secret talks with our Greek Orthodox brethren for quite some time now and are close to merging our sects again, for the first time in nearly a thousand years, and we will have unfettered access to all of the Katolikos of Jerusalem’s facilities. That, I believe, comandante, is worth the loss of our seat in Rome” the leader of the Pope’s personal body guard looks stunned, appalled at the naked lust for power as depicted by a man he thought he knew, then composed himself and excused himself from the Pope.

Not much going on today. Rumors of a major battle over the skies of Britain. Wish them well. Apparently we can’t be of much help for some reason. Production problems, political ministrations by those Southern Senators, who knows. Imagine purposefully not helping an old friend and ally just so a sitting president won’t get re-elected. Just to make him look bad. It’s nothing but treasonous in time of war if you ask me.

Maxine is becoming a wife again. Before she was just a mother but now she is cooking and cleaning again. We made love for the first time after the birth of Ede. Very nice to hold the women you love in your arms once again. She seems to enjoy herself. I know I do.

Read an article in the NY Times about a tiger in India. Killed 17 villagers before someone shot it. As if they don’t have enough trouble there with the rebellion or quest to be free depending on who you talk to. I’m glad the US never really had any empire outside of Philippines and Cuba anyway.

What a mess the Philippines was. That Smedly Butler [7] War Is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier By Smedley Darlington Butler made a great case in the 30s that while he was a Marine he was nothing but an enforcer for American business concerns who acted like gangsters, businesses like the American Fruit Company and Standard Oil. When every time something didn’t go their way they called in the Marines just like they were their own special police force or gang enforcers. We’ve made a lot of enemies all over the world including many countries in Central and South America. I know the leaders are on our side but what about the people. Communism might seem mighty tempting to a peasant working 16 hour days in some rich guys silver mine while his family starves thanks to the company store. Come to think of it that is mighty close to our own coal mines.

There were a large number of strikes before this war. It could happen again if we don’t win it soon. I don’t think the American public is going to stand for another long drawn out war like the last one. I guess we have to use the atomic bomb on them. I wonder why we haven’t done so already. Well I guess they have their reasons.