This is the timeline for Rediterranean.
1940s
1944
June
6th: The D-Day landings in Normandy.
August
11th: Philippe Pétain, Chief of State of Vichy France, along with Fernand de Brinon and Pierre Laval, along with other government officials and guards, are killed by a truck bomb.
13th: No successor to Petain has yet been nominated. With indecision from above, riots begin across France.
14th: Street fighting between Communist elements of the Free French and government forces in Vichy.
15th: Operation Dragoon is launched in the south of France. In Moscow, Andre Marty pleads with Stalin to support the Communist uprising.
16th: French Communists claim to have secured Vichy. The city soon falls under siege from French and German forces. Over 2,000 Communists are killed in Limoges in a Nazi execution.
17th: Following Marty's talks with Stalin and the news of the Limoges Massacre, Stalin gives tacit approval for French Communists to rise up. Operation Dragoon is given the new task of relieving Vichy.
Street fighting in Paris
19th: The general strike in Paris turns violent as Free French elements rise up. Morale amongst Communist fighters is high following their successful capture of Vichy and the securing of several other French towns.
21st: Eisenhower gives Charles de Gaulle the go-ahead to capture Paris. Eisenhower has been advised not to let any further territory fall into Communist hands and, as an anti-Communist, feels it is better to let the insistent De Gaulle satisfy both himself and the concern amongst the Western Allies.
22nd: The 2nd Armoured Division departs for Paris.
23rd: The 2nd Armoured Division arrives in Paris. A rushed preparation results in high casualties amongst the force (compared to OTL). Communist forces in the city are particularly strong south of the Seine.
24th: The 4th US Infantry Division enters Paris behind the 2nd Armoured Division. German resistance collapses with large numbers of Allied soldiers present.
25th: Von Cholitz surrenders Paris and the city is won. Communists seize Bordeaux after several days of fighting.
26th: Celebratory parades are performed in Paris.
28th: The heaviest day of fighting in Vichy, with 648 of the city's defenders killed in one day repelling an attack made by German forces retreating from Operation Dragoon.
September
6th: II Corps of France under Edgar de Larminat relieve Vichy.
7th: Stalin gives a speech congratulating Communist fighters across France, particularly in their defence of Vichy and the battle for Paris.
9th: Despite Eisenhower's protestations, Roosevelt praises the efforts of the French Resistance and is particularly supportive of the Communist fighters. In conference with Andre Marty, Stalin announces he plans to recognise Communist control over Vichy, France.
10th: Stalin declares support for the Communist French forces and declares his support for their control over Vichy France.
11th: Roosevelt delivers a public response to Stalin. He states that while suggesting independent control over Vichy France by the Communists is 'a step too far for now', he is not opposed to democratic representation of the Communists in the future.
14th: The US 7th Army, involved in Operation Dragoon, reaches Patton's Third Army.
20th: Nancy is liberated by the US First Army.
October
9th: Tolstoy Conference in Moscow. The USSR's entry into the war against Japan, along with the future of the Balkans, Poland, and France are to be discussed. Andre Marty is present.
11th: Stalin and Churchill come to the agreement that France as a whole will remain within the Western sphere of influence regardless of which party wins elections.
16th: The Red Army and Yugoslav partisans under Josef Broz Tito liberate Belgrade.
22nd: The Communists in Vichy establish a council of representatives from across Vichy and other Communist-controlled cities, including Bordeaux and Paris. It is based on selected principles of the Consiel National de la Resistance. Though a large amount of its number are Communists, there are also a reasonable amount of socialists and labour politicians present.
23rd: de Gaulle is recognised by the Allies as head of the provisional French government.
November
7th: The French Workers' Division is established out of Communist elements of the French army to guarantee the Communist government military power. It is commanded by Maurice Kriegel-Valrimont.
23rd: Strasbourg is liberated, in part by the French Worker's Division.
December
3rd: A protest over the disarmament of guerrilla fighters in Athens is shot at by local police, allegedly under British instruction. Fighting breaks out in the city, with high morale amongst leftist EAM/ELAS forces since they are determined to copy the successes of France and Yugoslavia.
13th: The royalist government, along with many members of the national unity government, are evacuated to Cyprus.
14th: The EAM/ELAS partisans in Greece manage to defeat British garrisons in and around Athens.
16th: Fighting breaks out in the countryside of Greece between leftists and British forces throughout the rest of Greece.
21st: Members of the former left-wing Political Committee of National Liberation establish themselves as the National Political Committee in Athens.
1945
- Large-scale immigration of French workers and Communists begins, from northern France and the cities to southern France. They often travel via the Second Parisian Commune.
January
1st: Operation Nordwind is launched by the Germans with the intent of recapturing Strasbourg. Communist French troops fight alongside American and northern French troops.
3rd: All of mainland Greece falls under the control of the National Political Committee.
4th: Yugoslavia recognises the National Political Committee as the legitimate Greek government.
10th: The ELAN (partisan Greek navy) launches a raid on Crete that is fought off by RAF forces.
February
The Yalta Conference. Here, several key decisions relating to Southern France's future were made.
4th: The Yalta Conference begins. The issue of Southern France presents a difficult problem for the three leaders. Stalin agrees to honour having free elections in Poland but only on the agreement that Churchill recognises Southern France. Stalin is also more happy to entertain a French Zone of Occupation in Germany but demands that half of it be controlled by Communist French 'until re-integration'.
May
8th: Indochina returns to French control. Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh are granted administration of Vietnam thanks to manoeuvring by French Communists.
July
17th: The Potsdam Conference begins. Communist-held France again comes under some debate. However, while the new US President Harry Truman tries to weaken the Communists, he finds himself running into opposition from both Stalin and Clement Attlee, who is somewhat supportive of the Communists, due to the presence of labour politicians in the provisional council.
October
21st: The French Communist Party (PCF) wins 183 deputies out of 586 seats in elections for the Constitutional National Assembly.
1946
June
2nd: Legislative elections in France The PCF wins 26.55% of the vote, and the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) wins 22.31%.
November
10th: Legislative elections in France. The PCF's share of the votes drops sharply to just 21.62%. The Communists soon realise that mass migration from the north to the south has lost them their majorities in the north but consolidated their hold in the south, leading to a polarised France.
11th: Protests and riots begin across the country.
14th: The PCF begins to organise strikes in the north to protest the lack of recognition of the Communists by George Bidault's government.
26th: Pierre Villon, deputy for Allier, delivers a speech calling for the declaration of an independent Communist France.
27th: Daniel Mayer supports Villon's calls for separatism.
December
3rd: Over 40,000 protesters gather in Marseille, calling for separatism.
7th: Government agents in the Second Paris Commune are thrown into the River Seine by an angered mob.
15th: Maurice Thorez, leader of the PCF, declares to Communist deputies from the south of France that they no longer belong to the National Assembly and organises them to be flown out of the Commune.
16th: Thorez declares the secession of southern France. Communists set up roadblocks across the new border and elements of the French Worker's Division are stationed at key points. The southern French council establishes the People's Republic of France and declares itself to be 'the Provisional Council of the People's Republic'.
17th: The Soviet Union and its East European satellites recognise the new nation.
18th: Enver Hoxha of Albania suffers a stroke after spending a late night toasting the success of Southern France with close party members.
19th: Koci Xoxe, Defence and Interior Minister of Albania, is made Prime Minister of Albania.
1947
June
5th: The Marshall Plan for reconstruction is established. Yugoslavia, Southern France, and Greece all express an interest to some degree, to the irritation of Soviet Union.
September:
- Cominform is established.
1948
March
27th: The Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) sends a letter of warning to the Central Committee of the KPJ.
May
4th: The CC of the CPSU sends a new letter to the KPJ with additional allegations.
9th: The KPJ replies to the letter.
20th: The KPJ states that it will not send a delegation to the next Cominform meeting.
June
28th: The KPJ is formally expelled from Cominform.
October
25th: The USSR expels the Yugoslav ambassador, as do other pro-Soviet governments. However, Greece, Albania and Southern France do not.
November
8th: Albania is admitted into Yugoslav as the seventh federal republic. Plans to unify at a later date were accelerated in the face of the Soviet threat.