The Third World War - Softening up the Soviets
December 22, 1945
The Third World War had begun! And just a few months after the end of the last one, although it could be said that the last one had never become a world war in the first place thanks to Poland, defeating Germany even before Japan attacked. Surprisingly, the Americans had declared war first, not the Soviets. Nevertheless, Poland was the only Allied nation that bordered the Soviet Union, and on two fronts at that.
In the European theater, the Kościuszko line was mostly complete, except at a few provinces where construction was still ongoing. These provinces were deemed less important and could only be attacked from one or two provinces at most. They could also be used to funnel the enemy into attacking there and then surrounding them.
However, in the Asian theater, the line of forts on the Korean peninsula was still very rudimentary. It had been decided before to abandon the defense along the Pyongyan-Wonsan-Hyesan-Chongyin axis, and then falling back to a narrower defense line along Pyongyang-Wonsan. This meant giving up the defensive advantage provided by the Yalu River, but since the Soviets already had a beachhead across the Yalu in Sinuiju in any case, this was not considered important. The forts in Korea were still at only Level 1 or Level 2, though, and considering the visible Soviet forces in this theater amounted to almost 100 divisions, losing the entire Korean peninsula was considered quite likely. If that happened, hopefully all the Polish forces in Korea could be evacuated to Japan.
The limited Polish forces in Asia were heavily outnumbered by the Soviets in the region. These were the same troops used for the invasion of Japan, moved to Korea after Japan surrendered.
However, at this moment, something fortunate happened. The moment the war started, the massive Soviet forces opposite the Poles were greatly reduced. It appeared that the Soviets had not been expecting the war declaration either, and the moment the US declared war, they immediately redeployed forces. The same thing was happening in Europe, suggesting that the Soviets were deploying troops from west to east and from east to west. That made no sense, but Poland took full advantage of it.
Polish war strategy aimed to reduce the vast Soviet numbers through completely unrestricted use of air power. Poland's tactical bomber wings were already experienced from the war against Japan and would become more so. Close air support wings were also being built and trained for the war with the USSR. The winter of 1945-46 would be used to lower the Soviet numbers, and perhaps a ground offensive could begin in spring of '46.
Note the outdated nature of the Soviet divisions being bombed, especially the 1918 cavalry.
The Soviet forces facing the Poles in Korea were greatly reduced, entrained for strategic redeployment, and many of those that were left were also on the move for whatever reason (but not to attack the Polish forces). This made bombing them a lot more effective.
Another priority was to destroy the Soviet Navy. The Red Navy was certainly nowhere near as much of a threat as the Red Army, but by annihilating it, the Allies could focus solely on the ground war. The Red Navy was believed to be made up mainly of submarines. The Polish Navy, which included several modern destroyers, was set to patrol outside Vladivostok to find and sink the Soviet Pacific Fleet. Part of this fleet was found on December 26.
The submarines in this fleet were pretty outdated as well.
On the other hand, Polish naval bombers also set to patrol around Japan found a much larger Soviet sub fleet that had entered the Inland Sea.
This fleet was more modern than the previous one.
Poland's subs and destroyers were set to work searching for that large Soviet submarine fleet, while the naval bombers were ordered to perform port strikes on Vladivostok. Vladivostok's thick AA net could be expected to take its toll on the brave Polish bombardiers.
While Soviet subs were abroad, a lot of Soviet surface ships were holed up in Vladivostok. Polish naval bombers would send this fleet to the bottom of the sea.
The Polish subs and destroyers found the Soviet sub fleet in the ocean to the east of Japan.
No less than 7 Soviet submarine flotillas were destroyed in this battle.
Two days later, Poland's fleet of carriers and heavy cruisers found the smaller and more obsolete Soviet sub fleet, although nighttime and winter weather limited the amount of damage they could do.
Poland's fighter wings were initially kept in Asia to defend the bombers there, but since Soviet fighters seemed to be more active in the European theater than the Asian theater, they were rebased in a daring flight across the Soviet Union, which took more than a day to complete.
Intelligence provided by this flight showed scattered Soviet divisions moving both east and west throughout the interior of the USSR.
Some Soviet equipment was quite outdated. Just one example among many was this lone Soviet 1918-era infantry division, soon eradicated by Polish bombers.
What exactly were Poland's allies up to during this time? Well, France had captured the southern half of Sakhalin from the Soviets and was resolutely building up a huge army there.
80 French divisions just camped in the southern half of Sakhalin. They showed no intention of moving from there.
On March 1, 1946, both India and Pakistan achieved independence from the United Kingdom. Although this was a step forward for the decolonization process, since India and Pakistan were not part of the Allies, this move would only weaken the UK at a time when it was still at war with the Soviets.
Meanwhile, something interesting was happening in China. Because Japan had conquered a large part of China when the Soviets declared war on them, the Soviets took that territory from Japan and ended up with a large amount of Chinese territory. Since China was not at war with the Soviets, they could not take it back, or so everyone thought. In fact, somehow they
were taking it back just by moving into it, possibly cutting off Soviet troops there, where they would starve to death.
(A/N: This is a weird glitch that also happened to me in a previous game. I was Nat Chi and joined the Allies. I waited for the German invasion of the Soviet Union to reach the China-USSR border and then attacked the Germans. While I was pushing the Germans back, the Soviet remnants, who were not at war with me, somehow started taking back their territory that I was holding by marching into it, cutting off my troops fighting the Germans. Pretty annoying. Does anyone know how this happens?)
In addition, Nationalist China finally annexed Tibet in April of 1946.
Polish spies were able to steal blueprints from the Soviets.
And the number of French troops (plus some American troops) camping out in southern Sakhalin continued to increase to absurd levels. With that many troops there, you'd think they would start doing something with them.
And that's now 316 Allied infantry divisions crammed into the southern half of that island.
Lastly, intelligence reports to gauge the effectiveness of Polish bombing. This one from March 22, 1946, showing that the Soviets had 437 land divisions, including 259 infantry, 52 motorized infantry, 29 armored, and 13 HQs.
Note also that the French army was almost as large, and had more armored and HQ divisions.
And then, this one from May 9, 1946. The Soviets were down to just 401 divisions, including 229 infantry, indicating a loss of 30 infantry divisions over the past one-and-a-half months.
Interestingly, the French army has swollen to 507 divisions and the British and American armies have shrunk. The British and Americans seem to be lending their forces to the French for that superstack in Sakhalin, so much of the troops there might not be French at all.
A/N: I forgot to take a screenshot of Soviet forces right at the start of the war, but I'm pretty sure that they had upwards of 450 and maybe closer to 500 divisions. So almost 100 Soviet divisions have been destroyed since the war started.
Unfortunately, it took a couple of months for me to see your reply, my gosh.
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