yvesp
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The thaw did not last long. After a period of rain in the end of December, January saw extreme weather settle. Blizzard blew wide and large, storms plagued the oceans, snow was even seen in Egypt... This was a rather good thing for the axis which used the cover that nature offered from the now vastly superior air force to move their forces into better places. It was also expected that at least in the west, things would calm down a little and give some well earned respite to tired troops. In the East, things were not so sure. In Manchuria and Korea, the war with Russia was over, and Japan could now concentrate on salvaging whatever it could in China.
That winter was peculiarly severe. Storms were followed by snow or blizzard, and this occurred up to the end of February. Russians mostly stayed put after failing an attack near Minsk, while British and Americans were sheltering themselves. The planned invasions on Tripoli had to be aborted, so bad was the weather. The only significant military action occurred in Rumania, were the Russians advanced significantly, breaking Antonescu and threatening Bucarest which would likely soon be captured. Overall, this was a welcome relief for the axis powers. However, the bad weather did not prevent long range bombers from bypassing the air defense based in the Ruhr and go bombing cities in the core of Germany. With American, British and Russian bombers coming from all sides, the loss was significant. In addition, Hitler ordered fuel to be stored for future weeks: all the reserves had gone by now, eaten up by the heavy fighting of the previous months. And Ploesti would probably soon be captured. These events and decisions had severe consequences on the German production,which fell by about 40%. On the other hand,there had been so few losses that most would go again into increasing the army size to better resist the oncoming onslaught.
In China, the Japanese continued to retreat, while the Chinese took their place and tried to cut supplies wherever they could. And despite the presence of both Japanese and American fleets in the China sea, once more no naval combat occurred, and Japanese merchant shipping was not affected. Such luck could not hold long! The Americans landed on Iwo Jima, which was capture despite the involvement of the Imerial Navy both with battleships and air units on carriers. This advance was seen with some wariness, as the Bonin island were in range of Japan and there were sore memories about the bombing raids by the Russians. These were now leaving the far East, having signed an uneasy peace with the Japanese: there was little more to gain, and the Chinese would care for themselves,or so thought Stalin, who needed the troops in Europe now.
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