The mood in Summer, 1936 was somewhat lightened, both by the Berlin Olympics (Though Hitler took the opportunity to show off the might of the Reich) and by the hiring of well known reformer Ernest Bevin as Labour Minister. But by Autumn Britain was facing something of a domestic crisis.
It all started when King Edward VIII wanted to marry an American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Prime Minister Baldwin believed that the still fairly conservative British people would be outraged at the very idea of their King marrying a divorced woman, and urged Edward not to go through with it, but he insisted. When the matter was leaked to the public, it caused a huge scandal, with much controversy over weather the King should marry Simpson or not. The matter was made even more complicated by Edward's suspected fascist sympathies, with Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists being particularly fervent supporters of the King. Some felt that the country was nearly on the brink of civil war. Things finally came to a head on December 9, 1936...
Village of Norchester*, Lancashire, England, December 9, 1936
"Time to close up the mill boys!" The cotton mill boss said, and all the workers immediately set about closing up shop for the day, including one George Bennett.
"Well George," his friend Frank piped up, "care to join me and me mates at the pub?"
"I don't drink Frank, remember?" George reminded Frank in his thick Northern accent.
"Aw, right, you're a Baptist. Oh well, see you tomorrow then!"
"Right. Cheerio then." George said as he wondered off. With his dusty blonde hair, wiry frame, his Protestant morals, and his Country accent, he was everyone's idea of a good old honest English worker, the type who had fought for King and Country in so many wars over the centuries. In the old days he would have been a country farmer like his Grandad had been, but things had changed a good deal since then, and these days Norchester was a factory town.
He whistled happily on his way home through the snow, looking forward to kissing his wife Vicky (she, like many women in their early thirties, was named after the late, beloved Queen) and seeing his children. And there they were when he opened the door to his cottage: Vicky listening to the radio, his little daughter Anne drawing scribbles, and his older son Edmund playing with his toy train. They both greeted him cheerfully, but Vicky seemed more wound up than anything.
"George!" She said, "Come in and listen to the radio, they just said the King's about to give a speech!"
Well, she didn't need to say that twice! It wasn't everyday you got to hear the voice of the King of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, Emperor of India... George was fairly certain he'd forgotten a few titles, but that hardly mattered at the moment, as he scattered inside, closing the door behind him.
"My loyal subjects..." The King said through the radio in his refined accent.
"Mum, is that the King?" Edmund asked.
"Yes luv, now quiet down for a moment so we can hear."
"...I have decided," The King resumed, as if he'd been waiting for the Bennetts to hush up before continuing, "that I cannot hope to rule this vast empire without Ms. Simpson by my side. Therefore, I henceforth abdicate my throne..."
Vicky switched off the radio in shock, and the room went silent. It had only been earlier that year that King George V had died, and now Britain had lost yet another king.
"Dad," Edmund said, "what's abdicate mean?"
"It means that... That the King's stepping down."
"From his throne?" Anne asked.
"No Anne. It means he's going to stop being the King." George corrected her.
"Then who will be King?" Vicky asked.
"I'm not sure. The King's not got any children,,, None that he admits to anyway..."
"GEORGE!" Vicky scolded in mock outrage.
-
A few days later, Edward VIII's brother was crowned as King George VI, and the matter was at last settled, although more than a few fascists never quite accepted Edward's abdication.
On December 16, the Germans officially announced the "Anticomintern Pact" which was an agreement between Germany and Japan to oppose communism in every way possible. While this pact was not yet a formal alliance, many saw it as a first step towards closer relations between the two fascist regimes...
In early 1937, Baldwin appointed Labour Party leader Clement Atlee as his political adviser, something most commentators saw as an attempt to reach across the aisle after the divisive Royal Crisis. In August another crisis, this one much farther away, broke out. After a border incident that many foreign observers saw as little more than a trumped up pretext for war, the Japanese invaded China. The Chinese, who had been embroiled in a civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists for years, responded to this by agreeing to a truce in their civil war, and forming a united front against the foreign invaders.
Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin announced that he had just purged several "disloyal" officials and officers. Communist fellow travelers in the West insisted that the guilty men had been given a fair trial, but most more honest observers suspected it had just been an excuse for Stalin to get rid of his political rivals.
At around the same time, Stanley Baldwin, who had dominated British politics for nearly 20 years, retired as Prime Minister, and was succeeded by his political protege Neville Chamberlain, a man who was known for his determination to prevent a second Great War from ever occurring. Nonetheless, he chose to remain neutral as Asia burst into war. He also chose to stand by in December of that year, as Mussolini made claims on Yugoslavian territory, and as Spain broke out into civil war between the Republicans (supported by Stalin) and the Nationalists (supported by Hitler and Mussolini.) Increasingly, the aggressive fascist and communist powers began to see Chamberlain as a weak leader, who would not act to prevent or punish their aggression, and this only encouraged them to act out even more.
In February of 1938, German troops marched into Austria. The Austrian troops did not resist this invasion, and many Austrians (except the Jewish ones of course) greeted the German troops with cheers. The next day Hitler announced that Austria was now officially part of the Greater German Reich. Once again, Chamberlain failed to condemn this outrageous violation of the Treaty of Versailles. As Chamberlain tried to justify it "Austria is after all, a German speaking land." Behind the scenes though, he promised President Edvard Benes of Czechoslovakia that Britain would go to war with Hitler if he attacked Czechoslovakia. Little did he know that this was just the country Hitler was eyeing up as his next target.
The stage was now set for a crisis that would make the Summer \of 1914 look like child's play...
...DUN DUN DUN!!!...
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