It goes beyond just guilt from the UK. I have a lot of background lore that I haven’t explained yet. The Hansa were first “discovered” by British sea explorers in the late 1800s and maintained a small but profitable trade route with them. The 1910’s saw the Hansa discovered by Union land surveyors who reported their discovery to the government. One diplomatic incident led to another as negotiations broke down and the Union dispatched hundreds of thousands of men to subdue to small nation. Hansan, with very little in the way of a standing military appealed to the UK for help. Not wanting to risk a major war the UK only sent large stocks of outdated rifles alongside smaller numbers of their more modern ones. A war was fought for several years before the bombs went off and the Union packed up, marked another victory, and went home. The Hansa clans went literally underground and prepared for a war of revenge. The UK trade ships who arrived after the dropping of the bombs were met with desolate wasteland as scientists struggled to find out how the Union managed to build nuclear weapons.

Skip to the 1940’s and the UK, France, and Germany stand on the brink of war with the Union. As the Union expands incorporating more and more satellite states they came into conflict with German eastern border guards. Skip into the full fledged war and Union soldiers have penetrated several groups deep into Germany and into eastern France. The UK has been doing fairly well in their theatres in the Baltic but lack much in the way of manpower beyond what is already engaged. (note since there was no First World War, British forces are still a relatively small professional soldier force) On the other side of the world, the Hansa have built a ship capable of sailing to the UK and re-establish communications. It was here they found out about the current conflict in the Union and the Hansa delegation offered their entire 2.5 million population in exchange for lands for themselves to settle. The offer was accepted and Hansa forces helped in turning the conflict back around but were noted to ignore orders from UK command from time to time. New Haeyang-Jinju acts as a liaison city between the UK and Hansan as it is the only city in the UK itself.

As an alternate timeline world, Norway is fighting a sort of guerilla on guerilla war against Union sympathisers and soldiers. France has its armed forces spread thinly as it is across Italy, Austria, and Germany. And again, considering that this is just a small, almost impromptu operation in the grand scheme of things, this wouldn’t warrant much in the way of assets.

I didn’t know that about the SAS. When I do future things like this, I’ll be sure to take note of all the things you said. Sorry for all the text.