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Thanks for all of your work! It's been an extremely fun read as always and very excited for the next one.
Don't worry. It's not finished, I just don't have the possibility to update it right now
so the next chapter should come this weekend or next week.
Bulgarian Communist Revolution.
Communist Revolutions: Dear Bulgaria, Land of Heroes.
Communist take control of small parts of Bulgaria.
22nd of August of 1945, the world was still at peace. In a few hours the world would again be thrown into yet another humanitarian catastrophe. Farmers retreated to the countryside for the harvest and the urban centers slumbered in the August warmth. But during the early hours of the 22nd shots rang through the streets of Sofia. The "Vanguard" of the Bulgarian Communists rushed to the governmental buildings of Sofia, taking the head of government and the political leaders as hostage. Georgi Dimitrov and his Communist Party (BCP) were the only ones not taken hostage, and as the only remaining and functioning government party he declared a state of martial law, dissolved the monarchy and government alike making the BCP the sole ruling party. However Tsar Boris managed to rally the people to his side. The people took it to the streets, but unlike previous communist revolution they were not in support of Trotsky and the World Revolution, but they flocked to defend Bulgarian independence and democracy. On the outskirts of Sofia the Army units had been inflitrated by MGB agents and communist partisans and Dimitrov was assured these units would defect to the revolution. But they did not. Instead they moved into the capital and rooted out the Vanguard with sheer brutality and bloodlust. During the storming of the parliament all of the Vanguards perished - along with all of the members of the government and parliament. Boris Dimitrov was hastly evacuated out of Sofia toward Trotskygrad (Instanbul) barely escaping the clutches of the royalists.
Bulgarian partisans.
While the smoke rose above Sofia, and threatened to cover all of the world, the many communist partisan cells being active against the Nazis and the Tsarists alike rose up all around the countryside. Hoping to recruit new men at arms among the rural population and take control of vital population centers they took up arms and attacked police stations, military camps and occupied villages. But despite their Pact issued armament and training they failed to take control of the nation. The majority of the farmers and population as a whole was content with the current way of life and wanted peace above all - especially another horrifying world war. The partisans who had been so effective fighting against the Axis during the Second World War were now seriously outgunned, and they perished in the thousands. As with Sofia the revolution in the countryside failed. Army units and "white militias" fanned out and pacified the countryside with great brutality. The few remaining partisans fled to the mountains of western and southern Bulgaria, living as primitive humans. Their only notable achievements were to turn the rural communities against communism and to escort Dimitrov out of harm's way. The latter would have major impacts on Bulgaria and the world as a whole.
A push into Bulgaria, and then a push into Greece will keep the Allies away.
Where the communists failed in the west, they saw major advances in the east. Supported by the International Brigades the city of Varna and the vital port to the Black Sea was secured by the communists. It was noted that the majority of the "Vanguard of the People" in Varna and eastern Bulgaria were indeed not Bulgarian, but a mix of left wing volunteers and Pact special forces. As the Tsar seated in Sofia set up a military government, professional revolutionaries in Varna denounced the Tsar claiming that it was indeed he, and not the communists, who staged the coup while the communists became the scapegoat. Vasil Petrov Kolarov in Varna quickly announced Dimitrov as the Prime Minister and himself as President. Other representatives of the political parties in Varna was terrorized to submit to the new BCP led government, the Socialist Republic of Bulgaria was born. But their military was seriously outgunned and understrength. They turned to the Pact for protection, and they were admitted into the Paris Pact on the minute of their request - it was as if were all planned down to the very last detail. Soviet troops poured into Eastern Bulgaria from Trotskygrad, while Romanian and Balkan (mainly Hungarian) troops threatened Western Bulgaria on its northern flank. NATO soon admitted Western Bulgaria into its alliance, however they were for now reluctant to intervene on behalf of Bulgaria. Popov and the 2nd Ukranian Front took advantage of this moment of hesitation and ordered a full scale invasion of Bulgaria.
Mmmmm, oil.
The Soviets never believed the coup in Bulgaria would be a success. It was a "revolution" funded and planned by the Soviet Union, simply to secure Bulgaria through conquest. Bulgaria was the last piece on the map for total Soviet domination of the Balkans. A democratic Bulgaria was a major threat to the paranoid Trotsky for a number of reasons. First of all with its strategic positioning close to Greece and in the center of the Balkans it meant NATO troops could muster an invasion force directly into the oilfields of Romania and in turn the Ukraine. Secondly NATO troops in both Bulgaria and Greece meant that Trotskygrad was under threat of a land invasion. That in turn would lead to the Straits falling into the hands of NATO, which in turn meant a potential invasion of Ukraine and the Caucasus. In short NATO could use Bulgaria as a staging ground to deprive the Soviet Union of their bread basked and their oil supplies. Lastly from Bulgaria the 2nd Ukranian Front was better situated to invade and control Greece. All in all the Soviet Union and Trotsky cynically took control over the volatile political situation of Bulgaria to plunge the country into civil war. A civil war that would drag the rest of the globe into a world war.
The Bulgarian airforce were crippled.
As the first shots rang in Sofia the Soviet Airforce were not sitting idle by. Attack aircrafts of all types took off from Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Iraq and Trotskygrad and started their bombing campaign over Western Bulgaria without an official declaration of war. The time for diplomacy was over, the time for war had come. Taken by surprise the majority of the Bulgarian airforce was taken out as they were grounded. With the Bulgarian airforce swept aside along with many of the static defensive positions and command centers, the Soviet tanks and infantry rushed in. Western Bularian troops was crushed under the Soviet war machine and retreated to a better defensive position around Sofia. As Soviet tanks rushed in they were supported by attack aircrafts, the Bulgarian armed forces was simply outclassed and crushed in the first days.
Mountains, bullets or men won't stop us now.
26 of August. The Third World War had raged on for a few days and the first Soviet troops streamed in from France and Belgium into England. But the savage fighting of England would not be repeated in Bulgaria. The Western Bulgarian Army was constantly on the retreat, standing no chance against the might of the Red Army. It's important to remember that following WW2 Bulgaria was forced to demilitarize. Conscription was abolished, while the Bulgarian army was reduced to a state of managing border protection. This led the Bulgarian Army in 1945 to be in a sorry state, their only modus of operation was for to delay the Soviet overmight long enough for NATO forces to enter from Greece and push the Reds out of the Balkans. But as T-44s pushed ahead, Bulgarians retreated the Americans arrived. But not in the fashion as many expected. Operating from bases in Greece and the Mediterranean they launched an air offensive reminiscent of the offensives over Germany and Japan. It was hoped this would crush the Soviet infrastructure in Bulgaria and lead to the Eastern Bulgarians rising up against the illegitimate government, or simply stall the advance until American and British troops could arrive. The city of Varna recieved the bulk of the bombing. Instead it alienated the Bulgarian population from NATO and Soviets troops was quickly turning into their protectors - or at the very least the lesser evil. Anyway, the war in Bulgaria raged on.
Communism will bring an end to imperialism.
While the Tsar and his support of NATO became more and more unpopular due to the lack of NATO support and communist propaganda that the Tsar wanted to end democracy and the communists to defend it, the communists saw a surge of popularity. Blissful to the worldwide events the population believed in the promises of the BCP (or at least, wished them to be true) that following the conclusion of the civil war their would be peace in Bulgaria. This was in stark contrast to the royalists and democrats who promised a prolonged war against international communism. But as with many other nations the Soviets played the nationalism card. Knowing nationalism to be a potent force they promised the Bulgarians the restoration of Greater Bulgaria* if they chose to side with the BCP in their struggle against the Tsar. This led to some kind of renewed nationalist fervour, the very same that helped push the country to the side of the Axis during the Second World War, and the Central Powers during the First. Where the Tsar had failed the people now put their trust to Dimitrov and Trotsky.
Soviet tanks storm through Bulgaria.
The greatest Soviet fear was for a NATO intervention in Bulgaria. A major Anglo-American force in Bulgaria had the potential to halt the Soviet invasion, and even invading Pact countries. The Bulgarian Army itself was thoroughly beaten back, with most of the troops either deserting or outright defecting to the growing Army of the Socialist Republic. But NATO help never came. Britain was preoccupied with the invasion of their homeisland while the majority of US troops was still at home. Moreover the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), the militant group of the Greek Communist Party, being influenced by current events plunged the cradle of democracy into civil war independent of the directives from Moscow. The DSE was quickly put down by the Greek Army, but it nevertheless managed to block the landroad from Greece to Bulgaria. Bulgaria was in effect on its own.**
The decisive Battle of Sofia.
01:00 London fell. 02:00 (UTC) Soviet troops reached Sofia. Being pressed to a thin line the Bulgarians mounted a counteroffensive to the south of their capital, but their efforts were fruitless. The Bulgarians couldn't move without being targeted from rockets or cannons mounted on Soviet planes. All the while hundreds of artillery batteries bombarded the capital and Bulgarian lines every hour. Once the Bulgarian capital was reduced to the unrecognizable Soviet troops poured in. It turned out to be savage house to house fight. It was in the streets of Sofia and the mountains of Bulgaria the Soviets recieved the brunt of their casualties. Hundreds perished as the Bulgarians clenced in fighting it out to the last bullet. The first attack into Sofia itself (and not long range bombardement) claimed 265 Soviet casualties alone. The Soviets payed dearly for Sofia.
Bulgaria is dealt with.
One week into the war the Bulgarian government and monarchy fled to Macedonia or Greece. All of Bulgaria was now in effect under communist control. With Bulgaria secured the Soviets moved their eyes to the south, ready to invade Greece who had just recovered from the communist uprising. It was believed that if Greece fell the Soviets would achieve total control of the Balkans and the Mediterranean. Still the Royal Navy was present in the area. The Battle of the Mediterranean and the Balkans were far from over..
Nice KDO.
The Soviet Intervention in Bulgaria was a huge success taking "only" a little over 500 casualties, meanwhile the Bulgarians suffered over 3.300 casualties. Marshal Popov was back into the warmth after his many blunders in the Far East and China. Now he was to turn his focus to the south and invade Greece. Moreover he was to be reinforced by the Caucasian Front and their 18 elite mountaineer divisions - prime for the mountains of Greece - once the Netherlands fell to the Soviets later on in April. The first stage of Operation Neptune had concluded, the second stage was to begin. The Revolution in Bulgaria was ready to be exported to Macedonia and Greece...
Next into the fray: Greece.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*So I might, or I might not, reward Bulgaria with the Yugoslav state of Macedonia and/or the Greek states of Central Macedonia and Thrace if I win the war. We'll see.
**Okay so the bug led to the Greece being neutral for the first days. So that was still trying to explain why Greece didn't intervene.
So that was the first update as I am back. We'll see what topic the next update will be about
Communist take control of small parts of Bulgaria.
22nd of August of 1945, the world was still at peace. In a few hours the world would again be thrown into yet another humanitarian catastrophe. Farmers retreated to the countryside for the harvest and the urban centers slumbered in the August warmth. But during the early hours of the 22nd shots rang through the streets of Sofia. The "Vanguard" of the Bulgarian Communists rushed to the governmental buildings of Sofia, taking the head of government and the political leaders as hostage. Georgi Dimitrov and his Communist Party (BCP) were the only ones not taken hostage, and as the only remaining and functioning government party he declared a state of martial law, dissolved the monarchy and government alike making the BCP the sole ruling party. However Tsar Boris managed to rally the people to his side. The people took it to the streets, but unlike previous communist revolution they were not in support of Trotsky and the World Revolution, but they flocked to defend Bulgarian independence and democracy. On the outskirts of Sofia the Army units had been inflitrated by MGB agents and communist partisans and Dimitrov was assured these units would defect to the revolution. But they did not. Instead they moved into the capital and rooted out the Vanguard with sheer brutality and bloodlust. During the storming of the parliament all of the Vanguards perished - along with all of the members of the government and parliament. Boris Dimitrov was hastly evacuated out of Sofia toward Trotskygrad (Instanbul) barely escaping the clutches of the royalists.
Bulgarian partisans.
While the smoke rose above Sofia, and threatened to cover all of the world, the many communist partisan cells being active against the Nazis and the Tsarists alike rose up all around the countryside. Hoping to recruit new men at arms among the rural population and take control of vital population centers they took up arms and attacked police stations, military camps and occupied villages. But despite their Pact issued armament and training they failed to take control of the nation. The majority of the farmers and population as a whole was content with the current way of life and wanted peace above all - especially another horrifying world war. The partisans who had been so effective fighting against the Axis during the Second World War were now seriously outgunned, and they perished in the thousands. As with Sofia the revolution in the countryside failed. Army units and "white militias" fanned out and pacified the countryside with great brutality. The few remaining partisans fled to the mountains of western and southern Bulgaria, living as primitive humans. Their only notable achievements were to turn the rural communities against communism and to escort Dimitrov out of harm's way. The latter would have major impacts on Bulgaria and the world as a whole.
A push into Bulgaria, and then a push into Greece will keep the Allies away.
Where the communists failed in the west, they saw major advances in the east. Supported by the International Brigades the city of Varna and the vital port to the Black Sea was secured by the communists. It was noted that the majority of the "Vanguard of the People" in Varna and eastern Bulgaria were indeed not Bulgarian, but a mix of left wing volunteers and Pact special forces. As the Tsar seated in Sofia set up a military government, professional revolutionaries in Varna denounced the Tsar claiming that it was indeed he, and not the communists, who staged the coup while the communists became the scapegoat. Vasil Petrov Kolarov in Varna quickly announced Dimitrov as the Prime Minister and himself as President. Other representatives of the political parties in Varna was terrorized to submit to the new BCP led government, the Socialist Republic of Bulgaria was born. But their military was seriously outgunned and understrength. They turned to the Pact for protection, and they were admitted into the Paris Pact on the minute of their request - it was as if were all planned down to the very last detail. Soviet troops poured into Eastern Bulgaria from Trotskygrad, while Romanian and Balkan (mainly Hungarian) troops threatened Western Bulgaria on its northern flank. NATO soon admitted Western Bulgaria into its alliance, however they were for now reluctant to intervene on behalf of Bulgaria. Popov and the 2nd Ukranian Front took advantage of this moment of hesitation and ordered a full scale invasion of Bulgaria.
Mmmmm, oil.
The Soviets never believed the coup in Bulgaria would be a success. It was a "revolution" funded and planned by the Soviet Union, simply to secure Bulgaria through conquest. Bulgaria was the last piece on the map for total Soviet domination of the Balkans. A democratic Bulgaria was a major threat to the paranoid Trotsky for a number of reasons. First of all with its strategic positioning close to Greece and in the center of the Balkans it meant NATO troops could muster an invasion force directly into the oilfields of Romania and in turn the Ukraine. Secondly NATO troops in both Bulgaria and Greece meant that Trotskygrad was under threat of a land invasion. That in turn would lead to the Straits falling into the hands of NATO, which in turn meant a potential invasion of Ukraine and the Caucasus. In short NATO could use Bulgaria as a staging ground to deprive the Soviet Union of their bread basked and their oil supplies. Lastly from Bulgaria the 2nd Ukranian Front was better situated to invade and control Greece. All in all the Soviet Union and Trotsky cynically took control over the volatile political situation of Bulgaria to plunge the country into civil war. A civil war that would drag the rest of the globe into a world war.
The Bulgarian airforce were crippled.
As the first shots rang in Sofia the Soviet Airforce were not sitting idle by. Attack aircrafts of all types took off from Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Iraq and Trotskygrad and started their bombing campaign over Western Bulgaria without an official declaration of war. The time for diplomacy was over, the time for war had come. Taken by surprise the majority of the Bulgarian airforce was taken out as they were grounded. With the Bulgarian airforce swept aside along with many of the static defensive positions and command centers, the Soviet tanks and infantry rushed in. Western Bularian troops was crushed under the Soviet war machine and retreated to a better defensive position around Sofia. As Soviet tanks rushed in they were supported by attack aircrafts, the Bulgarian armed forces was simply outclassed and crushed in the first days.
Mountains, bullets or men won't stop us now.
26 of August. The Third World War had raged on for a few days and the first Soviet troops streamed in from France and Belgium into England. But the savage fighting of England would not be repeated in Bulgaria. The Western Bulgarian Army was constantly on the retreat, standing no chance against the might of the Red Army. It's important to remember that following WW2 Bulgaria was forced to demilitarize. Conscription was abolished, while the Bulgarian army was reduced to a state of managing border protection. This led the Bulgarian Army in 1945 to be in a sorry state, their only modus of operation was for to delay the Soviet overmight long enough for NATO forces to enter from Greece and push the Reds out of the Balkans. But as T-44s pushed ahead, Bulgarians retreated the Americans arrived. But not in the fashion as many expected. Operating from bases in Greece and the Mediterranean they launched an air offensive reminiscent of the offensives over Germany and Japan. It was hoped this would crush the Soviet infrastructure in Bulgaria and lead to the Eastern Bulgarians rising up against the illegitimate government, or simply stall the advance until American and British troops could arrive. The city of Varna recieved the bulk of the bombing. Instead it alienated the Bulgarian population from NATO and Soviets troops was quickly turning into their protectors - or at the very least the lesser evil. Anyway, the war in Bulgaria raged on.
Communism will bring an end to imperialism.
While the Tsar and his support of NATO became more and more unpopular due to the lack of NATO support and communist propaganda that the Tsar wanted to end democracy and the communists to defend it, the communists saw a surge of popularity. Blissful to the worldwide events the population believed in the promises of the BCP (or at least, wished them to be true) that following the conclusion of the civil war their would be peace in Bulgaria. This was in stark contrast to the royalists and democrats who promised a prolonged war against international communism. But as with many other nations the Soviets played the nationalism card. Knowing nationalism to be a potent force they promised the Bulgarians the restoration of Greater Bulgaria* if they chose to side with the BCP in their struggle against the Tsar. This led to some kind of renewed nationalist fervour, the very same that helped push the country to the side of the Axis during the Second World War, and the Central Powers during the First. Where the Tsar had failed the people now put their trust to Dimitrov and Trotsky.
Soviet tanks storm through Bulgaria.
The greatest Soviet fear was for a NATO intervention in Bulgaria. A major Anglo-American force in Bulgaria had the potential to halt the Soviet invasion, and even invading Pact countries. The Bulgarian Army itself was thoroughly beaten back, with most of the troops either deserting or outright defecting to the growing Army of the Socialist Republic. But NATO help never came. Britain was preoccupied with the invasion of their homeisland while the majority of US troops was still at home. Moreover the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), the militant group of the Greek Communist Party, being influenced by current events plunged the cradle of democracy into civil war independent of the directives from Moscow. The DSE was quickly put down by the Greek Army, but it nevertheless managed to block the landroad from Greece to Bulgaria. Bulgaria was in effect on its own.**
The decisive Battle of Sofia.
01:00 London fell. 02:00 (UTC) Soviet troops reached Sofia. Being pressed to a thin line the Bulgarians mounted a counteroffensive to the south of their capital, but their efforts were fruitless. The Bulgarians couldn't move without being targeted from rockets or cannons mounted on Soviet planes. All the while hundreds of artillery batteries bombarded the capital and Bulgarian lines every hour. Once the Bulgarian capital was reduced to the unrecognizable Soviet troops poured in. It turned out to be savage house to house fight. It was in the streets of Sofia and the mountains of Bulgaria the Soviets recieved the brunt of their casualties. Hundreds perished as the Bulgarians clenced in fighting it out to the last bullet. The first attack into Sofia itself (and not long range bombardement) claimed 265 Soviet casualties alone. The Soviets payed dearly for Sofia.
Bulgaria is dealt with.
One week into the war the Bulgarian government and monarchy fled to Macedonia or Greece. All of Bulgaria was now in effect under communist control. With Bulgaria secured the Soviets moved their eyes to the south, ready to invade Greece who had just recovered from the communist uprising. It was believed that if Greece fell the Soviets would achieve total control of the Balkans and the Mediterranean. Still the Royal Navy was present in the area. The Battle of the Mediterranean and the Balkans were far from over..
Nice KDO.
The Soviet Intervention in Bulgaria was a huge success taking "only" a little over 500 casualties, meanwhile the Bulgarians suffered over 3.300 casualties. Marshal Popov was back into the warmth after his many blunders in the Far East and China. Now he was to turn his focus to the south and invade Greece. Moreover he was to be reinforced by the Caucasian Front and their 18 elite mountaineer divisions - prime for the mountains of Greece - once the Netherlands fell to the Soviets later on in April. The first stage of Operation Neptune had concluded, the second stage was to begin. The Revolution in Bulgaria was ready to be exported to Macedonia and Greece...
Next into the fray: Greece.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*So I might, or I might not, reward Bulgaria with the Yugoslav state of Macedonia and/or the Greek states of Central Macedonia and Thrace if I win the war. We'll see.
**Okay so the bug led to the Greece being neutral for the first days. So that was still trying to explain why Greece didn't intervene.
So that was the first update as I am back. We'll see what topic the next update will be about
Chapter 44.
Chapter 44: Plywood Cross.
The mushroom cloud above Odessa about one hour following the drop.
11 o'clock, noon of the 3rd of September of 1945. A 15 year old school student outside of the once bustling city of Odessa had just taken a well earned lunch break, far removed from the horrors of the war. A lone plane flew above her, certainly it was one of the many valiant patriots returning home from their bombing raids in Greece she thought to herself. Then a sudden flash illuminated the sky. In the moment of the impact most perished. The fireball was 370 metres in diameter, with a surface temperature of 6,000 °C. But the horrors had just begun, within 20 minutes a firestorm erupted that spread out in 3.2 km in diameter, with fallout causing instant deaths within 1.3 km in diameter. The blast itself had the power of 16,000 tons of TNT or 2.100 conventional bombs dropped from B-29s. Odessa would be the first city to be the victim of the new atomic age. Within minutes the port city of Sevastopol and the Ukranian capital of Kiev were also bombed, flattened under nuclear fires and waste. The war had taken a new gruesome turn, one it would never truly recover from.
Our industry is at its total capacity ready to produce wonder weapons.
Let's back up a little. Prior to the war the Soviets reaized the combined industries of the Pact nations in the long run wouldn't stand a chance against the potential industrial might of the British Empire and especially the United States of America. New economic laws were passed that placed the Soviet economy completely under control of the central state, with the Soviet Armed Forces having significant control over the economy. Moreover hundreds of thousands of men who were previously earmarked as recruits and reserves were instead shipped over to the factories to produce bullets and bayonets for the frontline troops. Women were also expected to leave their homes and take jobs in the industries, does who did not comply were forced. As London fell several documents and personell, American and British alike, were secured that confirmed the worst Soviet fear; the United States were in possession of unprecedented powers. The Soviets not wanting to fall behind expanded their nuclear program. Tomsk-7, Krasnoyarsk-26 and Krasnoyarsk-45 was ordered where the former would enrich uranium and the two latter would produce plutonium. Following the atomic bombings over Ukraine and Crimea another reactor who produced plutonium were ordered. Despite the massive increase in nuclear reactors the first Soviet atomic test wouldn't be concluded in over 200 days. For now NATO had the upperhand.
Knocked out Trotsky Tanks.
The Soviets made momentus gains that baffled contemporary commanders of both sides and historians to this for their rapid and effective gains. The Thames were reached in under seven days and despite London coming under a vicious fight it wasn't the death trap the Soviets feared. The atomic bombings were still in the future and the war was as "civilized" as a war can be. The British were just beginning to set up a functioning defense and the previous orders to not engage the Soviets were disregarded. Lord Halifax and his government was taken prisoner by the Soviets during the capture of the Parliament and Downing Street. It was said Churchill managed to escape as he were not one of the prisoners and hopes were high that he would continue the struggle. Alas he finally had to bow down as another heart attack struck. Only the King managed to escape (fearful of suffering the same faith as the Russian and Bulgarian royal families to mention a few), in the absence of an elected government technocrats and officers were given the task to form a national government. Their first order was to establish defensive lines behind the rivers of Thames and the Great Ouse, along with the woods Cornwall, Wales and the urban area of Bristol. A general directive was also given to retake as much land when possible and the first US and Canadian troops started to pour into Cornwall, Scotland and Ireland ready to cleanse Great Britain of the Red Menace. The British dug in and the Soviets plunged right into renewed defenses with moderate casualties, as a result Tukhachevsky ordered a day for rest and refit, much to the dismay of the more aggressive commanders - but to the relief of several Soviet soldiers.
All of Southern England will fall.
But the pause was not to last. The citizens of Bristol was woken up to artillery barrages that lasted for hours, the same were five British infantry brigades holding the forests to the west of London. This was the usual Soviet operation modus: devastating artillery barrages followed by massed infantry and armored assaults. The British forces who had barely managed to escape the Soviet onslaught during the first days of the invasion were caught off guard, despite this they put up a fight. But the Soviet overmight was too much. A British soldier detailed the attack on the forests "I couldn't move, I couldn't see, I couldn't hear. It was just flashes and noises all around me. The explosions rocked the ground making it hit me right into my chest sucking all the air out of me. Earth was cast up and hit men with blunt force, killing them. The trees splintered apart under the explosions and flinged splints all around us penetrating all in the path giving them a horrendous death. Others were tossed through the air as dolls from the blasts, smashing them into the trees breaking their bones, others again got their lungs blasted apart or filled with firewounds.. I laid there unable to do anything, shell shocked got an entirley new meaning. Following the hellish barrage Soviet infantrists rushed towards us in the thousands supported by several Trotsky tanks unleashing hell over us. They ran toward us screaming the dreadful 'ooorrah'. But we fought back, despite being pushed further and further back we fought back. When the Soviets realized they couldn't beat us back they sent forth the beasts of Trotsky tanks armed with flamethrowers to flush us out. It continued like this for several waves, we fell back to the next line, where another barrage followed with another assault. And it went on and on during the entire day".
British soldiers dig in outside of Plymouth.
The goal of taking the forest west of London was in order to secure the northern flank of the Thames, and prevent NATO from using it as a stronghold. Meanwhile Bristol was under siege as it were a vital crossroads into Wales and Central England as well as a potential port of reinforcements coming over from Ireland or across the Atlantic. The Soviet Paratrooper Army meanwhile were ordered to ready itself for another jump. This time they were to assault the major airfields south of the river of Trent (concentrated around Bristol and Birmingham) and to link up the Soviet frontlines and disrupt British frontlines. Capturing these airports would give the Soviets a significant operational advantage, no longer had they to travel all the way from across the Channel, but could instead operate from the heart of England and conduct air missions much more effectively. It had the same effect for the defenders, now they had to rely upon the airfields in northern England and even Scotland. As the artillery ravaged the city of Bristol and the woods west of London the Soviet Air Force launched an offensive toward these airfields void of compassion to batter the enemy before the Soviet landings. While Rokossovsky and Gorbatov was given the task of making a dash toward Central England, Kuznetsov was given the task to secure Cornwall. This peninsula was a literal torn in the side of the Soviet planners. Its rugged terrain would prove difficult to traverse in, meanwhile its narrow front would make for major battles. Then it was the port of Plymouth who was reported to take in thousands of Canadian and American troops. If NATO were allowed to use Plymouth and Cornwall as a base of operations, they might as well cut off the Soviet invasion force and encircle them. Heavy fighting was to come.
The VDV is again instrumental in the fall of England.
10 AM, the 30th of August the gliders of the Russian paratroopers came in to the landing fields the pathfinders and paratroopers of the Airborne Divisions had prepared. Most of the landings and air assaults went smoothly with the airfields north and east of Bristol and west of Birmingham being captured. Within hours Soviet and Pact fighter and CAS squadrons streamed in while engineers hastly repaired the airfields. Further to the east however the airfields around the mouth of the Great Ouse had a garrison of one infantry brigade led by Field Marhsal Alan Brooke, the 1st Viscount Alanbrooke. The Soviet paratroopers soon came under heavy fire all over the landing zones. It seemed as if the 3rd and 4th Paratrooper Divisions would only field patched resistance, but as they gained radio communications with the mainforce they managed to call in air support. This quickly dispersed the British counterattack, making the 1st Viscount unable to draw on their advantages in organization and higher firepower. From the east a Soviet Mechanized Corps was rushing in to reinforce the paratroopers and take the many airfields in the region. To the south of said airfields the British was barely holding off a Soviet mechanized assault and was expected to fall within the day and at the most the following day. This was a strategical nightmare for the British as the flat terrain there provided for a road toward Birmingham and Bristol, encircling the British forces holding the Soviets off in the forests west of London. Further to the west the defending forces of Bristol surrendered to the Soviet overmight as they became surrounded following the paratrooper drops to the north and east of the city. The paratroopers themself moved on to take on Birmingham. If the Soviets got hold of that city they would get a chance to control the industrial centers of Central England, as well as opening up the road to both Wales and Northern England. The operational prospects for the British general staff was grim, but bright for the Soviets. The Seven Days to the River Thames enviosioned that they would reach the Thames in sevem days, that was accomplished, but it also detailed they would reach the river Trent on the 9th day. The 31st of August would be the ninth day, would the Soviets look into Northern England by the 31st?
The Soviet airforce face hardship.
The Soviet Union and the Paris Pact enjoyed air superiority, but they didn't achieve air supremacy. The Soviets ace up its sleeve was sheer numbers and the surprise of the sudden offensive across the channel. But as battlehardened pilots and squadrons all over the Commonwealth and the United States poured into the British Isles the Soviets saw an increase in air losses. The Soviets enjoyed greater numbers, but they also suffered higher casualties. As the Battle of Britain progressed the Airforce reached the critical moment where the Soviet aviation industry couldn't match the production output with the loss of aircrafts over England. The Soviet high command hoped the new airfields conquered in England would lessen the burden of the Soviet Air Force and reduce their losses. Meanwhile NATO looked optimistic on the developing situation. Most of their defensives failed to be effectively carried out mostly due to attacks from the Soviets. There was several cases of armored columns who should only take two days from the reserves to the front would go up to over 2 weeks, and with the majority of the combat forces being reduced even before they got to the frontline. If the Soviet Air Force could be teared down slowly in Britain as its troops got bogged down as they progressed further north NATO might have a chance. In coordination with the air offensive the Royal Navy launched a major operation from Scapa Flow. Its goal was to make a dash toward the Channel and cut the Soviet invasion force from mainland Europe. Meanwhile the Soviet Air Force was being grinded down, while American and British forces engaged the Red Army. The fate of Britain laid upon the Royal Navy in what was to become known as the "Battle of the English Channel". But that is a topic for another day.
Cornwall a thorn in our side.
On the 31st of August the Battle of Plymouth still raged on. The two British Infantry Brigades and the sole Canadian Brigade was nowhere to be seen, instead two Dutch Infantry Brigades fresh from the fighting in their homeland - and with a desire for vengeance - held the port. Kuznetsov had the upperhand, but despite this his armored assaults into the city perimeters was stopped by Dutch anti-tank guns. As the majority of the 1st Belorussian Front attacked Plymouth head on, one light tank brigade and two motorized rifle divisions moved into the forests around Plymouth, both to secure the forests from NATO manuevers, forced recon and to surrender Plymouth.
The Soviet Army readies to push into Northern England.
On the 1st of September the river of Trent was reached, secured and crossed - just one day above the most optimistic predictions of 9 days. In Cornwall the full British force there revealed itself having a total of 25 Infantry Brigades, 8 Armored Brigades and one Canadian Brigade holding the peninsula and Plymouth. Suffice to say this resulted in a bloodbath. However the dash toward river Trent and the offensive into Central England made for a disorderly retreat by the British Army. The Soviets capitalized on their success and pushed their men relentlessly forward, the British were frightened by the Soviet advance and couldn't quite believe what happened. Gorbatov and the 3rd Belorussian Front was ordered to make a broad advance in the west to secure all of Wales. This was both to secure their flanks against NATO reinforcements, but also to prepare for a base of operations for the coming attack on Liverpool but also Ireland. Meanwhile Rokossovsky and the 2nd Belorussian Front would advance north to reach south of the rivers of Mersey and Wharfe and south of what was named the "Liverpool-Hull Line". This was a somewhat narrow defensive-line that stretched all the way from Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York and Hull. As the line was situated mostly in urban centers and behind rivers the Soviet commanders dreaded the prospect of the operations to break these lines. The British on the other hand managed to reorganize their forces and a British officer boasted "nothing can come past us". But they had one weak link, and that was the flat terrain north of the rier of Wharf and east of the river of Ouse, to the west of Hull. However to the south of this weaklink there was a dense forest that the British believed couldn't be traversed by armor. The Soviet High Command fearful of the Liverpool-Hull Line ordered the VDV to again make a very ambitious jump. This time they would secure the urban enter inbetween Manchester and Leeds to prevent it from becoming a British stronghold, moreover they were to make jumps into the forests north of Liverpool to block the road to the city and even a jump into Manchester itself. Most ambitous was the jumps far into northern England. The commander of the VDV in the field, Chibisov, noted in his diary "my men are tasked with repeating their great sacrifice during the first invasion of Nazi Germany".
Soviet forces face stiff resistance.
Rokossovsky moved north toward the Liverpool-Hull Line, but he faced severe resistance. The 2nd Belorussian Front had to move through dense forests and the British army and population was mobilizing after the initial shock. Gone were the days when the Soviet armor could just roll through England with little opposition. A Soviet tank gunner noted frustrated in his diary "we rolled through the forest full spead ahead, then as the lead tank rounded the corner he was hit in the side, and he soon took fire. We stopped and I aimed into the treeline, but no enemy was to be seen. The machine gunners fired suppressive fire on likely targets, while we were ordered to back out. But then another anti-tank round hit the T-34 in the back. We were boxed in, and we couldn't see the enemy. The infantrists riding in the APCs were ordering to get out and assault into the treelines, but as they disembarked they came under small arms fire and they fell like flies all around us. Our frontal armor faced the treelines, and just in the nick of time a round hit our front, but it bounced off. My commander told me to look for the enemy, but I couldn't the smoke obscured my vision who weren't the greatest to begin with as my sights didn't have any peripheral vision. Mortars started to slam down right upon us, it wasn't enough to damage our armor but it was enough to shake us and stress us - the infantrists suffered immensly. I'm glad I wasn't straight out of training as I didn't panick. I saw tanks who drove in all directions and fired their main guns into nothing. But I waited, I then saw a machine gun flash and fired upon it. After a while the infantrists managed to form a line and push into the woods, while observers gave us fire cordinates. After hours of bloody conflict the British disapperead again. We were called back and the entire area was to be leveled under artillery, rockets and bombers before we were allowed to enter again". The attacks Rokossovsky and his men faced persuaded the Soviet High Command to halt the attack. The attack towards the Liverpool-Hull Line was to wait until Cornwall and Wales was secured, then all three Fronts, once in position, would attack toward the outskirts of the line. The paratroopers were disappointed as they recieved the order "no jump today", but they would be needed and tested elsewhere. Trotsky himself had halted the operation, he knew that war support could falter if the Soviets took heavy losses. This, meanwhile, angered some Soviet commanders as they feared it would give the British and NATO a chance to further dig into the dreaded Liverpool-Hull Line. Still when all three Fronts attacked the Line head-on they would have a significant advantage in hardware.
But first it must secure Cornwall.
The first turned to the second, and during midnight the defenses of Plymouth was reinforced by several new Brigades, among them two American Armored Brigades. However the already battered troops stationed in Plymouth risked being overrun before the fresh troops could properly take part in the battle. The defenders suffered heavy casualties on the outskirts of Plymouth with the armored forces being picked down one by one. A single Canadian Brigade remained in the trenches outside of the port while the Soviet forces closed in to take the port and the streets.
None shall escape the Soviet wrath!
For a full day and the entire evening the battle raged on. The fighting was vicious and brutal. Despite throwing in everything they had the multinational defensive force was driven out from Plymouth. Tanks and mechanized infantry secured the outskirts and beaches of Plymouth, while legged infantry moved into the city itself. There was only pocketed cells of resistance inside the city. The remaining defenders hoped to pin down the Soviet infantrists in order for NATO troops to evacuate by sea, however the open area around Plymouth made for the Soviet soldiers to simply call in strikes from the air, rocket systems, howitzers or assault guns. The enemy strongholds was taken out, and only a few NATO brigades managed to evacuate by sea the remaining (27 infantry brigades and 9 armored brigades) was forced to retreat to the western most tip of Cornwall. With Soviet armored forces moving into the forests north of Plymouth they risked being boxed in, massively understrength. They were sitting ducks. While the port of Plymouth was secured it still couldn't be used as a supply port by the Soviets. There was still formidable coastal batteries who could fire upon any Soviet vessels. The Soviets sent out raiders and engineers to these fortifications, who were dubbed "the concrete battleship" and lashed phosphor smoke into the latches and holes of the fortifications. This was followed up by grenades, explosives and flamethrowers. None survived.
US Superfortresses set up bases in Cyprus and the Levant.
Meanwhile, on the 1st of September President Truman delivered an ultimatum toward Trotsky: "Pull out the Paris Pact troops and restore the post-war borders or face the consequences". Naturally the Soviets shrugged off these threats, but they soon became concerned. There was increased bomber campaigns by both the Americans and British all over Europe and reports had it new and gigantic bombers was flown into Scotland, South Korea and the Middle-East. These bombers had been kept as a secret by the Americans, but they were the soon to be infamous Boeing B-29 Superfortress a four engined strategic bomber able to operate to lengths of over 9.000 km - in other words it could operate well into the USSR and Europe. The alarm bells rang all over the Pact territories. The Soviet plans did account for a total nuclear bombing of France and the Baltics to prevent reinforcements to the invaded Britain. Soviet intelligence officers expected the worst from the leaked "Operation Dropshot" which stated USA would drop 300 nuclear bombs and 29.000 high explosive bombs all over the Soviet Union, wiping out 85% of their territory. Other plans lowered the actual numbers to "only" 20-30 nuclear bombs. Still the Soviet Union was fearful of a nuclear strike, especially as reports ticked in that NATO was planning an amphibious invasion in the Baltic States close to the industrial and ideological heart of Leningrad. The Soviet Air Force was on full alert and covered France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltics from any American aggression.
The atomic bombings of Kiev, Sevastopol and Odessa - a true disaster.
But the Americans managed to decieve the Soviets. It was over the Ukranian cities of Kiev and Odessa and the Black Fleet homeport of Sevastopol that was leveled. Noon of the 3rd of September 1945 saw the three cities being attacked with atomic weapons with mere minutes seperating them. Mustangs and Thunderbolts escorted the Superfortresses over the Balkans and Black Sea, punching a hole through the Soviet air defenses, meanwhile other Flying Fortresses and Superfortresses bombed Hungary and the oilfields of Romania to divert Soviet attention. The fireballs themself claimed thousands of lives, with the shockwaves hundreds of thousands. Many more got 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns, but the true effects wouldn't be shown many months and even years later. Odessa was hit by the uranium based "Little Boy" having a blast effect of 15 kilotons of TNT. Kiev and Sevastopol was hit by the even more crippling plutonium based bombs of Fat Man and Uncle Leo (named mockingly after Trotsky) having yields of 21 kilotons and 20 kt respectively. The Americans devastated Ukraine and the Black Sea port of Sevastopol. The cities was targeted as Kiev was the capital of Ukraine, and Odessa being the thid most populus while Sevastopol housed the dreaded Black Seas Fleet. The Americans hoped to take out the Black Sea Fleet while in port before the British launched their major naval offensive in the Eastern Mediterranean. Ukraine was selected mostly as it was the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, but partly as the people there was the least loyal to Moscow. These events devastated the Soviet morale, Kremlin even tried to keep it secret from the public, however it was just too heartbreaking to be kept secret. Trotsky vowed that this was the reason why they fought against the capitalists and imperialists as "they would rather exterminate us than see true democracy and socialism". However many Soviets knew it was indeed Trotsky and the communists who started the war, so the loyalty to the regime fell drastically. Most of the Soviets wanted peace and for their loved ones to come home after millions never came back. Moreover as Ukraine was targeted during the harvest season the nation risked being plunged into an economic crisis at best, and a famine at worst. The Soviets needed a major victory to restore the faith of their population and rally all behind a common cause.
All of southern England is under the iron grip of Trotsky, surviving American and Dutch brigades evacuate.
Filled with hatred and sorrow the 1st Belorussian Front continued on their onslaught in Cornwall. Kuznetsov was reported to ask for a capitulation of the forces in the region, but as he heard of the news all he could say was "my heart is full of hate. What will I say to the families of the fallen in Ukraine, that we did not fight?" The Soviets stepped up their game. Cornwall came under a massive bombing campaign, and as with Rotterdam and Amsterdam Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York, Hull, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast came under terrible strategic bombing campaigns. Until now the Soviet strategy focused on sparing the workers of England hoping for them to rise up. The gloves were now off. In Cornwall the last man was killed in an offensive unmatched in brutality, meanwhile Truman gave Trotsky his old ultimatum.. Pull out, or face the consequences.
Firefighters fight bravely, under hail of bullets and bombs, to put out a fire in Liverpool.
As Cornwall was secured, the 1st Belorussian Front under Kuznetsov could focus on the north where Rokossovsky was bogged down. Meanwhile Gorbatov was making advances in Wales, albeit slowly due to the rugged terrain and Welsh and British partisan groups and combat brigades. Their eyes would turn toward the well defended and entrenched Liverpool-Hull Line. The war had lasted for 13 days, still millions perished and with the atomic bombings only new found barbarism would take place as the Red Army readied to take on northern England, street by street, house by house. And the British refused to give up to the Red Menace..
British infantry take up positions in Liverpool. Hell is to follow.
The mushroom cloud above Odessa about one hour following the drop.
11 o'clock, noon of the 3rd of September of 1945. A 15 year old school student outside of the once bustling city of Odessa had just taken a well earned lunch break, far removed from the horrors of the war. A lone plane flew above her, certainly it was one of the many valiant patriots returning home from their bombing raids in Greece she thought to herself. Then a sudden flash illuminated the sky. In the moment of the impact most perished. The fireball was 370 metres in diameter, with a surface temperature of 6,000 °C. But the horrors had just begun, within 20 minutes a firestorm erupted that spread out in 3.2 km in diameter, with fallout causing instant deaths within 1.3 km in diameter. The blast itself had the power of 16,000 tons of TNT or 2.100 conventional bombs dropped from B-29s. Odessa would be the first city to be the victim of the new atomic age. Within minutes the port city of Sevastopol and the Ukranian capital of Kiev were also bombed, flattened under nuclear fires and waste. The war had taken a new gruesome turn, one it would never truly recover from.
Our industry is at its total capacity ready to produce wonder weapons.
Let's back up a little. Prior to the war the Soviets reaized the combined industries of the Pact nations in the long run wouldn't stand a chance against the potential industrial might of the British Empire and especially the United States of America. New economic laws were passed that placed the Soviet economy completely under control of the central state, with the Soviet Armed Forces having significant control over the economy. Moreover hundreds of thousands of men who were previously earmarked as recruits and reserves were instead shipped over to the factories to produce bullets and bayonets for the frontline troops. Women were also expected to leave their homes and take jobs in the industries, does who did not comply were forced. As London fell several documents and personell, American and British alike, were secured that confirmed the worst Soviet fear; the United States were in possession of unprecedented powers. The Soviets not wanting to fall behind expanded their nuclear program. Tomsk-7, Krasnoyarsk-26 and Krasnoyarsk-45 was ordered where the former would enrich uranium and the two latter would produce plutonium. Following the atomic bombings over Ukraine and Crimea another reactor who produced plutonium were ordered. Despite the massive increase in nuclear reactors the first Soviet atomic test wouldn't be concluded in over 200 days. For now NATO had the upperhand.
Knocked out Trotsky Tanks.
The Soviets made momentus gains that baffled contemporary commanders of both sides and historians to this for their rapid and effective gains. The Thames were reached in under seven days and despite London coming under a vicious fight it wasn't the death trap the Soviets feared. The atomic bombings were still in the future and the war was as "civilized" as a war can be. The British were just beginning to set up a functioning defense and the previous orders to not engage the Soviets were disregarded. Lord Halifax and his government was taken prisoner by the Soviets during the capture of the Parliament and Downing Street. It was said Churchill managed to escape as he were not one of the prisoners and hopes were high that he would continue the struggle. Alas he finally had to bow down as another heart attack struck. Only the King managed to escape (fearful of suffering the same faith as the Russian and Bulgarian royal families to mention a few), in the absence of an elected government technocrats and officers were given the task to form a national government. Their first order was to establish defensive lines behind the rivers of Thames and the Great Ouse, along with the woods Cornwall, Wales and the urban area of Bristol. A general directive was also given to retake as much land when possible and the first US and Canadian troops started to pour into Cornwall, Scotland and Ireland ready to cleanse Great Britain of the Red Menace. The British dug in and the Soviets plunged right into renewed defenses with moderate casualties, as a result Tukhachevsky ordered a day for rest and refit, much to the dismay of the more aggressive commanders - but to the relief of several Soviet soldiers.
All of Southern England will fall.
But the pause was not to last. The citizens of Bristol was woken up to artillery barrages that lasted for hours, the same were five British infantry brigades holding the forests to the west of London. This was the usual Soviet operation modus: devastating artillery barrages followed by massed infantry and armored assaults. The British forces who had barely managed to escape the Soviet onslaught during the first days of the invasion were caught off guard, despite this they put up a fight. But the Soviet overmight was too much. A British soldier detailed the attack on the forests "I couldn't move, I couldn't see, I couldn't hear. It was just flashes and noises all around me. The explosions rocked the ground making it hit me right into my chest sucking all the air out of me. Earth was cast up and hit men with blunt force, killing them. The trees splintered apart under the explosions and flinged splints all around us penetrating all in the path giving them a horrendous death. Others were tossed through the air as dolls from the blasts, smashing them into the trees breaking their bones, others again got their lungs blasted apart or filled with firewounds.. I laid there unable to do anything, shell shocked got an entirley new meaning. Following the hellish barrage Soviet infantrists rushed towards us in the thousands supported by several Trotsky tanks unleashing hell over us. They ran toward us screaming the dreadful 'ooorrah'. But we fought back, despite being pushed further and further back we fought back. When the Soviets realized they couldn't beat us back they sent forth the beasts of Trotsky tanks armed with flamethrowers to flush us out. It continued like this for several waves, we fell back to the next line, where another barrage followed with another assault. And it went on and on during the entire day".
British soldiers dig in outside of Plymouth.
The goal of taking the forest west of London was in order to secure the northern flank of the Thames, and prevent NATO from using it as a stronghold. Meanwhile Bristol was under siege as it were a vital crossroads into Wales and Central England as well as a potential port of reinforcements coming over from Ireland or across the Atlantic. The Soviet Paratrooper Army meanwhile were ordered to ready itself for another jump. This time they were to assault the major airfields south of the river of Trent (concentrated around Bristol and Birmingham) and to link up the Soviet frontlines and disrupt British frontlines. Capturing these airports would give the Soviets a significant operational advantage, no longer had they to travel all the way from across the Channel, but could instead operate from the heart of England and conduct air missions much more effectively. It had the same effect for the defenders, now they had to rely upon the airfields in northern England and even Scotland. As the artillery ravaged the city of Bristol and the woods west of London the Soviet Air Force launched an offensive toward these airfields void of compassion to batter the enemy before the Soviet landings. While Rokossovsky and Gorbatov was given the task of making a dash toward Central England, Kuznetsov was given the task to secure Cornwall. This peninsula was a literal torn in the side of the Soviet planners. Its rugged terrain would prove difficult to traverse in, meanwhile its narrow front would make for major battles. Then it was the port of Plymouth who was reported to take in thousands of Canadian and American troops. If NATO were allowed to use Plymouth and Cornwall as a base of operations, they might as well cut off the Soviet invasion force and encircle them. Heavy fighting was to come.
The VDV is again instrumental in the fall of England.
10 AM, the 30th of August the gliders of the Russian paratroopers came in to the landing fields the pathfinders and paratroopers of the Airborne Divisions had prepared. Most of the landings and air assaults went smoothly with the airfields north and east of Bristol and west of Birmingham being captured. Within hours Soviet and Pact fighter and CAS squadrons streamed in while engineers hastly repaired the airfields. Further to the east however the airfields around the mouth of the Great Ouse had a garrison of one infantry brigade led by Field Marhsal Alan Brooke, the 1st Viscount Alanbrooke. The Soviet paratroopers soon came under heavy fire all over the landing zones. It seemed as if the 3rd and 4th Paratrooper Divisions would only field patched resistance, but as they gained radio communications with the mainforce they managed to call in air support. This quickly dispersed the British counterattack, making the 1st Viscount unable to draw on their advantages in organization and higher firepower. From the east a Soviet Mechanized Corps was rushing in to reinforce the paratroopers and take the many airfields in the region. To the south of said airfields the British was barely holding off a Soviet mechanized assault and was expected to fall within the day and at the most the following day. This was a strategical nightmare for the British as the flat terrain there provided for a road toward Birmingham and Bristol, encircling the British forces holding the Soviets off in the forests west of London. Further to the west the defending forces of Bristol surrendered to the Soviet overmight as they became surrounded following the paratrooper drops to the north and east of the city. The paratroopers themself moved on to take on Birmingham. If the Soviets got hold of that city they would get a chance to control the industrial centers of Central England, as well as opening up the road to both Wales and Northern England. The operational prospects for the British general staff was grim, but bright for the Soviets. The Seven Days to the River Thames enviosioned that they would reach the Thames in sevem days, that was accomplished, but it also detailed they would reach the river Trent on the 9th day. The 31st of August would be the ninth day, would the Soviets look into Northern England by the 31st?
The Soviet airforce face hardship.
The Soviet Union and the Paris Pact enjoyed air superiority, but they didn't achieve air supremacy. The Soviets ace up its sleeve was sheer numbers and the surprise of the sudden offensive across the channel. But as battlehardened pilots and squadrons all over the Commonwealth and the United States poured into the British Isles the Soviets saw an increase in air losses. The Soviets enjoyed greater numbers, but they also suffered higher casualties. As the Battle of Britain progressed the Airforce reached the critical moment where the Soviet aviation industry couldn't match the production output with the loss of aircrafts over England. The Soviet high command hoped the new airfields conquered in England would lessen the burden of the Soviet Air Force and reduce their losses. Meanwhile NATO looked optimistic on the developing situation. Most of their defensives failed to be effectively carried out mostly due to attacks from the Soviets. There was several cases of armored columns who should only take two days from the reserves to the front would go up to over 2 weeks, and with the majority of the combat forces being reduced even before they got to the frontline. If the Soviet Air Force could be teared down slowly in Britain as its troops got bogged down as they progressed further north NATO might have a chance. In coordination with the air offensive the Royal Navy launched a major operation from Scapa Flow. Its goal was to make a dash toward the Channel and cut the Soviet invasion force from mainland Europe. Meanwhile the Soviet Air Force was being grinded down, while American and British forces engaged the Red Army. The fate of Britain laid upon the Royal Navy in what was to become known as the "Battle of the English Channel". But that is a topic for another day.
Cornwall a thorn in our side.
On the 31st of August the Battle of Plymouth still raged on. The two British Infantry Brigades and the sole Canadian Brigade was nowhere to be seen, instead two Dutch Infantry Brigades fresh from the fighting in their homeland - and with a desire for vengeance - held the port. Kuznetsov had the upperhand, but despite this his armored assaults into the city perimeters was stopped by Dutch anti-tank guns. As the majority of the 1st Belorussian Front attacked Plymouth head on, one light tank brigade and two motorized rifle divisions moved into the forests around Plymouth, both to secure the forests from NATO manuevers, forced recon and to surrender Plymouth.
The Soviet Army readies to push into Northern England.
On the 1st of September the river of Trent was reached, secured and crossed - just one day above the most optimistic predictions of 9 days. In Cornwall the full British force there revealed itself having a total of 25 Infantry Brigades, 8 Armored Brigades and one Canadian Brigade holding the peninsula and Plymouth. Suffice to say this resulted in a bloodbath. However the dash toward river Trent and the offensive into Central England made for a disorderly retreat by the British Army. The Soviets capitalized on their success and pushed their men relentlessly forward, the British were frightened by the Soviet advance and couldn't quite believe what happened. Gorbatov and the 3rd Belorussian Front was ordered to make a broad advance in the west to secure all of Wales. This was both to secure their flanks against NATO reinforcements, but also to prepare for a base of operations for the coming attack on Liverpool but also Ireland. Meanwhile Rokossovsky and the 2nd Belorussian Front would advance north to reach south of the rivers of Mersey and Wharfe and south of what was named the "Liverpool-Hull Line". This was a somewhat narrow defensive-line that stretched all the way from Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York and Hull. As the line was situated mostly in urban centers and behind rivers the Soviet commanders dreaded the prospect of the operations to break these lines. The British on the other hand managed to reorganize their forces and a British officer boasted "nothing can come past us". But they had one weak link, and that was the flat terrain north of the rier of Wharf and east of the river of Ouse, to the west of Hull. However to the south of this weaklink there was a dense forest that the British believed couldn't be traversed by armor. The Soviet High Command fearful of the Liverpool-Hull Line ordered the VDV to again make a very ambitious jump. This time they would secure the urban enter inbetween Manchester and Leeds to prevent it from becoming a British stronghold, moreover they were to make jumps into the forests north of Liverpool to block the road to the city and even a jump into Manchester itself. Most ambitous was the jumps far into northern England. The commander of the VDV in the field, Chibisov, noted in his diary "my men are tasked with repeating their great sacrifice during the first invasion of Nazi Germany".
Soviet forces face stiff resistance.
Rokossovsky moved north toward the Liverpool-Hull Line, but he faced severe resistance. The 2nd Belorussian Front had to move through dense forests and the British army and population was mobilizing after the initial shock. Gone were the days when the Soviet armor could just roll through England with little opposition. A Soviet tank gunner noted frustrated in his diary "we rolled through the forest full spead ahead, then as the lead tank rounded the corner he was hit in the side, and he soon took fire. We stopped and I aimed into the treeline, but no enemy was to be seen. The machine gunners fired suppressive fire on likely targets, while we were ordered to back out. But then another anti-tank round hit the T-34 in the back. We were boxed in, and we couldn't see the enemy. The infantrists riding in the APCs were ordering to get out and assault into the treelines, but as they disembarked they came under small arms fire and they fell like flies all around us. Our frontal armor faced the treelines, and just in the nick of time a round hit our front, but it bounced off. My commander told me to look for the enemy, but I couldn't the smoke obscured my vision who weren't the greatest to begin with as my sights didn't have any peripheral vision. Mortars started to slam down right upon us, it wasn't enough to damage our armor but it was enough to shake us and stress us - the infantrists suffered immensly. I'm glad I wasn't straight out of training as I didn't panick. I saw tanks who drove in all directions and fired their main guns into nothing. But I waited, I then saw a machine gun flash and fired upon it. After a while the infantrists managed to form a line and push into the woods, while observers gave us fire cordinates. After hours of bloody conflict the British disapperead again. We were called back and the entire area was to be leveled under artillery, rockets and bombers before we were allowed to enter again". The attacks Rokossovsky and his men faced persuaded the Soviet High Command to halt the attack. The attack towards the Liverpool-Hull Line was to wait until Cornwall and Wales was secured, then all three Fronts, once in position, would attack toward the outskirts of the line. The paratroopers were disappointed as they recieved the order "no jump today", but they would be needed and tested elsewhere. Trotsky himself had halted the operation, he knew that war support could falter if the Soviets took heavy losses. This, meanwhile, angered some Soviet commanders as they feared it would give the British and NATO a chance to further dig into the dreaded Liverpool-Hull Line. Still when all three Fronts attacked the Line head-on they would have a significant advantage in hardware.
But first it must secure Cornwall.
The first turned to the second, and during midnight the defenses of Plymouth was reinforced by several new Brigades, among them two American Armored Brigades. However the already battered troops stationed in Plymouth risked being overrun before the fresh troops could properly take part in the battle. The defenders suffered heavy casualties on the outskirts of Plymouth with the armored forces being picked down one by one. A single Canadian Brigade remained in the trenches outside of the port while the Soviet forces closed in to take the port and the streets.
None shall escape the Soviet wrath!
For a full day and the entire evening the battle raged on. The fighting was vicious and brutal. Despite throwing in everything they had the multinational defensive force was driven out from Plymouth. Tanks and mechanized infantry secured the outskirts and beaches of Plymouth, while legged infantry moved into the city itself. There was only pocketed cells of resistance inside the city. The remaining defenders hoped to pin down the Soviet infantrists in order for NATO troops to evacuate by sea, however the open area around Plymouth made for the Soviet soldiers to simply call in strikes from the air, rocket systems, howitzers or assault guns. The enemy strongholds was taken out, and only a few NATO brigades managed to evacuate by sea the remaining (27 infantry brigades and 9 armored brigades) was forced to retreat to the western most tip of Cornwall. With Soviet armored forces moving into the forests north of Plymouth they risked being boxed in, massively understrength. They were sitting ducks. While the port of Plymouth was secured it still couldn't be used as a supply port by the Soviets. There was still formidable coastal batteries who could fire upon any Soviet vessels. The Soviets sent out raiders and engineers to these fortifications, who were dubbed "the concrete battleship" and lashed phosphor smoke into the latches and holes of the fortifications. This was followed up by grenades, explosives and flamethrowers. None survived.
US Superfortresses set up bases in Cyprus and the Levant.
Meanwhile, on the 1st of September President Truman delivered an ultimatum toward Trotsky: "Pull out the Paris Pact troops and restore the post-war borders or face the consequences". Naturally the Soviets shrugged off these threats, but they soon became concerned. There was increased bomber campaigns by both the Americans and British all over Europe and reports had it new and gigantic bombers was flown into Scotland, South Korea and the Middle-East. These bombers had been kept as a secret by the Americans, but they were the soon to be infamous Boeing B-29 Superfortress a four engined strategic bomber able to operate to lengths of over 9.000 km - in other words it could operate well into the USSR and Europe. The alarm bells rang all over the Pact territories. The Soviet plans did account for a total nuclear bombing of France and the Baltics to prevent reinforcements to the invaded Britain. Soviet intelligence officers expected the worst from the leaked "Operation Dropshot" which stated USA would drop 300 nuclear bombs and 29.000 high explosive bombs all over the Soviet Union, wiping out 85% of their territory. Other plans lowered the actual numbers to "only" 20-30 nuclear bombs. Still the Soviet Union was fearful of a nuclear strike, especially as reports ticked in that NATO was planning an amphibious invasion in the Baltic States close to the industrial and ideological heart of Leningrad. The Soviet Air Force was on full alert and covered France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltics from any American aggression.
The atomic bombings of Kiev, Sevastopol and Odessa - a true disaster.
But the Americans managed to decieve the Soviets. It was over the Ukranian cities of Kiev and Odessa and the Black Fleet homeport of Sevastopol that was leveled. Noon of the 3rd of September 1945 saw the three cities being attacked with atomic weapons with mere minutes seperating them. Mustangs and Thunderbolts escorted the Superfortresses over the Balkans and Black Sea, punching a hole through the Soviet air defenses, meanwhile other Flying Fortresses and Superfortresses bombed Hungary and the oilfields of Romania to divert Soviet attention. The fireballs themself claimed thousands of lives, with the shockwaves hundreds of thousands. Many more got 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns, but the true effects wouldn't be shown many months and even years later. Odessa was hit by the uranium based "Little Boy" having a blast effect of 15 kilotons of TNT. Kiev and Sevastopol was hit by the even more crippling plutonium based bombs of Fat Man and Uncle Leo (named mockingly after Trotsky) having yields of 21 kilotons and 20 kt respectively. The Americans devastated Ukraine and the Black Sea port of Sevastopol. The cities was targeted as Kiev was the capital of Ukraine, and Odessa being the thid most populus while Sevastopol housed the dreaded Black Seas Fleet. The Americans hoped to take out the Black Sea Fleet while in port before the British launched their major naval offensive in the Eastern Mediterranean. Ukraine was selected mostly as it was the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, but partly as the people there was the least loyal to Moscow. These events devastated the Soviet morale, Kremlin even tried to keep it secret from the public, however it was just too heartbreaking to be kept secret. Trotsky vowed that this was the reason why they fought against the capitalists and imperialists as "they would rather exterminate us than see true democracy and socialism". However many Soviets knew it was indeed Trotsky and the communists who started the war, so the loyalty to the regime fell drastically. Most of the Soviets wanted peace and for their loved ones to come home after millions never came back. Moreover as Ukraine was targeted during the harvest season the nation risked being plunged into an economic crisis at best, and a famine at worst. The Soviets needed a major victory to restore the faith of their population and rally all behind a common cause.
All of southern England is under the iron grip of Trotsky, surviving American and Dutch brigades evacuate.
Filled with hatred and sorrow the 1st Belorussian Front continued on their onslaught in Cornwall. Kuznetsov was reported to ask for a capitulation of the forces in the region, but as he heard of the news all he could say was "my heart is full of hate. What will I say to the families of the fallen in Ukraine, that we did not fight?" The Soviets stepped up their game. Cornwall came under a massive bombing campaign, and as with Rotterdam and Amsterdam Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York, Hull, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast came under terrible strategic bombing campaigns. Until now the Soviet strategy focused on sparing the workers of England hoping for them to rise up. The gloves were now off. In Cornwall the last man was killed in an offensive unmatched in brutality, meanwhile Truman gave Trotsky his old ultimatum.. Pull out, or face the consequences.
Firefighters fight bravely, under hail of bullets and bombs, to put out a fire in Liverpool.
As Cornwall was secured, the 1st Belorussian Front under Kuznetsov could focus on the north where Rokossovsky was bogged down. Meanwhile Gorbatov was making advances in Wales, albeit slowly due to the rugged terrain and Welsh and British partisan groups and combat brigades. Their eyes would turn toward the well defended and entrenched Liverpool-Hull Line. The war had lasted for 13 days, still millions perished and with the atomic bombings only new found barbarism would take place as the Red Army readied to take on northern England, street by street, house by house. And the British refused to give up to the Red Menace..
British infantry take up positions in Liverpool. Hell is to follow.
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It's getting nasty and interesting indeed. We'll see what happen next and if this become the norm, or if it turns out even worse..
Chapter 45.
Chapter 45: Fortress Copenhagen.
NATO plan to turn Copenhagen into a "fortress".
Denmark the tiny Scandinavian nation on the northern periphery of continental Europe were the target under Operation Mercury. The 1st Baltic Front was tasked with striking in from the south into Jutland (Jylland in Danish), make a lightning offensive sweeping away any resistance and take control over Aarhus in less than five days. Aarhus was the vital point in the NATO defenses in Denmark, taking out the port city would effectively stop NATO reinforcement into the small peninsula. Meanwhile the 2nd Baltic Front under Marshal Vladsov was to land on the beaches of Zealand (Sjælland) - the island holding the Danish capital - securing all of western and central Zealand, while PACT troops attacked directly into Copenhagen from the east. The Soviets looked toward the German invasion (in fact taking advice from several former German officers) and expected Denmark to fold within hours when met with an overwhelming force, and if they resisted that the defenses would falter in a matter of days. Securing Denmark was vital for several reasons, but they could all be summarized into one thing: Baltic Approaches. The Soviets, or rather the PACT as a whole, feared that if NATO were given enough time to hold Denmark they would seize the oppurtunity to make a significant buildup and in turn threaten to either contain the PACT fleets within the Baltics, begin on a strategic bombing offensive well into the Soviet Union, but they feared mostly an invasion right into Poland and the USSR itself, threatening to cut off the western forces. Great care was taken to conquer the until now mostly geo-politically insignificant nation, but NATO were as well aware of the importance of Denmark. For months Americans and British advisors had trained and outfitted the Danish defensive forces to prevent a repetition of the Danish nation during WW2. Moreover several British and American brigades were earmarked to go to Denmark in case of war under a unified "Allied Forces Baltic Approaches" or simply BALTAP. Field Marshal Henry Wilson, the British commander of BALTAP and former commander of the middle eastern forces, naturally keen on revenge on the Soviets, took great care to inflict maximal casualties on the Soviet invaders. He even announced to the Danish Army "we've turned Copenhagen into a Fortress, that will shield all of Europe from the communist hordes". It remained to be seen if the Soviets got the Blitz they dreamt of, or if Copenhagen truly had been turned into the Copenhagen some claimed.
Hopefully Mercury won't become a quagmire.
Artillery preparations comparable to the battle of Berlin were being mounted, Pact troops moved into positions only waiting for the word. A massive artillery barrage and air bombings were being mounted as hostilities opened all over Europe 17:00 local time. It was not until 02:37 the first Soviet and Spanish troops crossed into Jutland. After such a massive and purely violent opening barrage and bombings PACT generals hoped it would completely break the Danish defenses. The Soviet morale was high, one Soviet sergeant even captured the speech of his commander before they ran over the Danish-German border: "The colonel came toward us in full battle gear (unusual for a man of his position) and stood atop of a BTR while he ordered us all to pay attention. He then began his rousing speech "Comrades, it's good to see you here tonight! And it will be even better when I see you all soon storm over those trenches! Then we'll teach those capitalist hounds how to fight. They thought they could bully us into submission, they thought we would give way and fold, but today we'll show them that the Red Army bows to no one! Today we'll show them the might of the Soviet Union! Get to your positions, we go to war!" he shouted out to the cheers and applause of thousands. Flares were shot up all around us, and we rushed into the Danish defensives.." The morale was high and an easy victory was taken for granted, but it would be anything but that.
Volunteers in Denmark.
The Danish section would soon put up a surprisingly stiff resistance. Much of it can be contributed to political refugees and exiled soldiers. Following the Soviet and communist takeovers in Germany, Sweden, Finland and Norway many chose to leave their countries (either on their own accord, or to save their skin) and Denmark became a natural hub of said exiles. These men bolstered the ranks of the Danish Army and the NATO troops being ready to fight fanatically against communism to stop the spread of the hated ideology or liberate their homecountry. Many would provide invaluable expertise on how to conduct defensive wars, and in the case of the Germans on how to fight against the Soviets. With the latter several German weaponary would come into the hands of the troops defending the Danish borders giving them a better chance of facing the Soviet invaders. As the ill-equipped Danish homeguard and reservists forces were decisively beaten back in southern Jutland, these hardened, and often fanatic, foreign troops rushed to the frontline at their own peril. Said forces didn't stop the Soviet advance, however they managed to put up enough resistance to slow down the Soviet advance and allow for Danish and NATO troops to enter the area and take up defensive positions.
Pact troops fail to cross into the fortress.
In the east a mix of Czech, Swedish, Polish and Hungarian troops crossed Öresund strait from the Swedish cities of Malmö and Helsingfors. Their plan was simple, land to the north of Copenhagen itself and to the south of Helsingør, establish a beachhead and attack into Copenhagen, then another landing party would land into Copenhagen by the seaside.. While the PACT coalition attacked Copenhagen from the north and east the 2nd Baltic Front would take control over western and central Zealand and then move into Copenhagen from the south. However Kowalski and his multi-national invasion force now got a first taste of the fortrtress that Copenhagen had been turned into. The strait was littered with mines being placed out by the Royal Navy and the Royal Airforce. More over coastal fortifications were set up that covered the sea. The first landing waves were bombarded and sunk to the bottom of the sea. After several gruleing hours where the PACT troops had to clear the beaches and straits of mines under heavy artillery fire, the naval troops could land on the beaches. However these beaches were again being set up in pre-detirmined artillery killboxes. The PACT troops was under extreme fire and immense pressure, but that was not all. Directly behind the beaches the Danish defenses had set up bunkers and trenches that covered the landing zones, with mobile units and elite Royal Guards in reserve to counterattack and hold vital road junctions. However the ace up in the Danish sleeve was naval and close air support bombers provided by the British and Americans. Tempests and Helldivers took off from several airports within Copenhagen or just outside of it. These war planes provided direct fire support or attacked the landing crafts coming over the strait. The airfields were so close by that PACT and Soviet airplanes in the area had little to no chance to react. Once fighters came in, the NATO air force had already dropped their load. Wave after wave hit the beaches of Zealand, but each wave was either repelled or pinned down. The once white beaches of Zealand was turned into red beaches, in the midst of a carnage. The beaches were littered with corpses or men laying beneat the shingle unable to move forward. A USMC advisor to the Danish observed "so this is how it was from the otherside during Downfall". But the crossing of this strait wouldn't be successfull as Downfall turned out to be. The men that crossed over on the 22nd, and didn't perish, continued to fight on on the beaches throughout the night. Several relief forces was sent, not to push forward but to evacuate. However the Danish counterattacked with their Dragoons, and the PACT had to give up their offensive. Marshal Vladsov listened nervously to the ticking reports, as he were to make on Zealand aswell.
We've less progress here than in England..
The 28th of August, the sixth day into the war. The prospects of a swift lightning strike into Aarhus in five days were put to shame. The Soviets had the clear upperhand in numbers, quality of troops and equipment, yet they struggled to break through the multiple layers of Danish defenses. The defending Danish never truly believed they could hold off the united Pact war machine, but their entire strategy was based upon one thing. To delay the invaders. Each crossroad and each town into Denmark was defended by several layers of trenches and artillery killzones, while each block was heaviley fortified. Once the Soviets broke through the Danish fell back to the next line and gave up a fight. As mentioned their strategy was not to defeat the Soviets in open battle, but to delay them for long enough for their NATO allies to relieve them. However in the end the Soviet pressure became too much. Along the eastern section of Jutland the Soviet forces were finally managing to push to Danish up north. Still it was a grim reminder for the Soviets of what was to come. They believed the flat terrain of Denmark and their overwhelming force would bring about a rapid victory. Instead the flat terrain would make it easier for NATO forces to pick out Soviet tanks in the open, while the heavy concentration of Pact troops made for huge logistical problems.
Typhoons sweeps in.
The Soviet difficulties to advance could perhaps be best described in their effort to gain control over a critical road junction to secure Aabenraa. Soviet T-60 tanks scouted ahead driving down the road leading up to the junction. As they passed into a residential area they soon came under heavy anti-tank fire. Danish troops had taken up positions equipped with American M3 Grease Guns and Super Bazookas. The lightly armored scout tanks stood little chance to the Danish and had to retreat. The T-60s pulled out and requested fire support. Sturmoviks flew in at a low altitude ready to unleash their full fury, however the sky were soon filled by shrapnel and flaks. The Danish had set up mobile anti-air units in the rear. The Soviets replied with sending out a mechanized assault. After an intense bombardement from Katyusha rocket launchers T-44s and BTRs rushed in to seize the area. However the infantrists came under heavy German captured MG34 and 42 fire while the tanks were pounded with M20s. The Soviet infantrists managed to break out under heavy fire and wicked close quarter fights ensued lasting the entire night. Over the next morning the Danish pulled back into the treelines by the cover of the darkness inflicting major casualties on the Soviets. Heavy artillery then pounded the Soviet positions in the newly conquered town, once again Sturmoviks were sent out to deal with them, but they again fell under anti-air fire. The fighting continued like this for several days with the Soviets taking one small village at the time. On the 5th day the critical junction was under view, however it was dominated by an industrial complex that had lines of sight and fire in all directions. This time around American and British fighter-bombers were used to great effect when attacking the Soviet advancing columns. Soviet fighters were just out of reach, while Soviet AA guns came under heavy fire from the complex if they were within reach. For a full day the Soviet armored advance had to push forward while under attack from the air, claiming several tanks in a matter of hours. Once the industrial complex was reached the tanks and infantry again came under heavy fire, however as the buildings were cleared the Danish pulled out again and retreated to the next line of defenses overlooking the junction. And so it continued for days until the entire axis of advance was cleared. The Danish managed to inflict high casualties upon their enemies. Despite this the Soviets pressed on and eventually broke out, however with the slow advance STAVKA was worried the entire Danish enterprise would turn into a quagmire.
The fight for the beaches have begun.
Despite the seemingly lack of progress in Jutland, by night of the 28th the Soviets were making progress in Zealand. While the Pact offensive into Copenhagen failed, it opened up eastern Zealand as Danish and NATO troops had to pull into Copenhagen and the surrounding areas to protect it. As such 11 Rifle Divisions and one Light Tank Brigade landed with little opposition on the 27th of August pacifying most of central Zealand. To the west, however, the Soviets assaulted the beaches of western Zealand. Despite having overwhelming numbers the beaches of Denmark took hours to tame. Early in the morning the first Soviet landingcrafts hit shore, but came under heavy fire along the beachhead. The 26th Rifle Division, the first division to hit the beaches, even came under so heavy fire that they had to retreat back to safety in Sweden. Still as the day turned night the Soviets managed to establish a beachhead a few kilometers inland, however they still had to deal with major Danish resistance. All the same it was of vital importance to capture the beaches here. Both to prevent furthern reinforcements of Zealand and Copenhagen, but also to capture the major airfields of Zealand, effectively crippling the NATO air defensives over not only Denmark, but the Baltic Approaches as a whole.
High casualties are needed to secure the beachhead.
On the evening the next day the Soviets and Danish had battled eachother for days on the beaches and the farmlands of Zealand. The beautiful Danish countryside was turned to a moon like enviorment, only gray mass and craters. The divisions that secured central and eastern Zealand fanned out probing the defenses of Copenhagen and using their light tank brigade to secure the lesser islands of Møn, Falster and Lolland to the south of Zealand. It became appereant that Copenhagen indeed had become some sort of fortress and Vlasov called off the attack into the city itself, instead they were to hit the remaining Danish units in western Zealand in their vulnerable flank. Doing so would cut off the Danish capital who would eventually fall under a massive siege. More over the Soviet troops got the news of the fall of London giving them a much needed morale boost, while the Danish got an equal fall in their morale. If even London, the center of the British Empire and a superpower, couldn't hold off against the Soviet invaders how can tiny Denmark do so then? Despite this the battles in the beachhead stiffened. During the night and the day the Danish made a coordinated effort, bolstered by NATO carriers, to counterattack to reclaim the beaches. The fighting was savage. And while they didn't manage to completely throw out the Soviet invaders, two more Rifle Divisions had to break off their attacks and return to Sweden to not face defeat. Emboldened by this tactical victory and the failed Soviet attempt to claim Copenhagen a lone Danish Brigade stationed in Copenhagen was ordered to launch a campaign to breakout. It was a fool's attempt, and it became clear that the Soviets were here to stay. Thousands of Danish troops fell to the Soviet bullets, shells and rockets in an attack that did nothing to alleviate the desperate situation in Zealand - and Denmark as a whole.
Take away one card and the house of cards implodes.
Once the first Danish defenses had been penetrated there would be little that resemebled an orderly defense. Gone were the initial days of brilliant defenses the full might of the Soviet Union and the PACT had been estbalished. All vital junctions had been taken and along with them the major cities of Aabenraa, Esbjerg, Ribe and Velje. Aarhus was within striking distance. And so were the last remaining major airports in Jutland and Denmark as a whole. If the last airfields were taken by the PACT then the NATO situation would be dire indeed. NATO had relied upon excellent work from their carriers air groups earlier, however with the Battle of the English Channel in full swing these airplanes were naturally focused on the English Channel rather than the Baltic Approaches. If the last airfields fell, then Denmark and the Baltics would be left virtually withut aircover of any kind. However there was hope among NATO troops. Despite taking horrible losses, with even a British Armored Brigade being beaten back into Fun, Aarhus showed its importance to the fullest. Several Canadian, American and British brigades - infantry and armored alike - anded on Aarhus and spread out over Jutland ready to push the advancing Soviets out. However it was not be an easy battle, a Danish conscript warned his newly arrived Allies "death came in like a whirlwind. No matter what we put up they would keep going on and on and on, stopping at nothing but complete victory".
Most of Zealand and Jutland are secured.. Time to secure our flank in Funen.
Funen, or Fyn in Danish, was the strategic linkup point Jutland and Zealand. Although the island only contained one battered Canadian brigade and a near crippled British Armored Brigade and two Columbian Divisions the small island could become a major future threat. By Odense there was a port that was currently being expanded to house NATO naval squadrons and as a reinforcement point. If Funen was reinforced by sea it could very well threaten the flanks in both Jutland and Zealand putting the gains over the last days in jeopardy. While the Danish made another futile attempt to break out of their fortress in Copenhagen, Vlasov gave large amounts of his Front orders to spread out over western Zealand and be ready to engage their enemy. By 21:00 the units were in position accounting for one Mechanized Corps, one Heavy Tank Brigade and seven Rifle Divisions. After an intense bombardement from air, land and sea Odense was captured within minutes as the first Soviet troops landed on the city 1:43 local time. With the port and major city of Funen firmly under Soviet control Vlasov ordered his troops southward. They thrusted toward the NATO troops there after a typical artillery shelling. "The entire area was ablaze from our Katyushas. We pushed forward relentlessly as our fighters and bombers swooped in from above and took them out one by one. The capitalists put up a good fight, especially the British tanks. However their Shermans, Comets and Cromwells were no match to our T-44s and Trotskys! As their inferior tanks bowed to the might of the Soviet Union we called their armor mockingly for 'Tommy Cookers'. The fighting lasted for the entire night, but by nightfall we linked up with our Magyar brothers and we'd broken the pigs". The NATO troops were cut off from any point of reinforcements, supplies and even cut off from any point of retreat. As night descended upon southern Funen so did the Soviet troops. To make matters worse as the battle raged on three Hungarian divisions landed on southern Funen. The already encircled NATO brigades were sandwhiched and had to surrender as the sun rose.
We need to close the Baltic Approaches lest we risk a NATO invasion - or things even worse.*
While the Red Army made major gains on Danish soil and being bogged down in the dense forests of Jutland another pressing issue came about. Intelligence had it a major NATO naval landing would take place in Kaliningrad (former East Prussia) and the Baltic States. However to make such an invasion NATO needed the Baltic Approaches to remain open and so the Soviet gambit to close the approaches only intensified. The majority of the NATO fleets in the area were tied up in the English Channel in the battle that enveloped over there so the task of keeping the approach to the Baltic Sea ironically fell upon land based forces. By now, the 3rd of September, the Soviets understood the scope of NATO atomic power and to what lengths they would go to end the war. James F. Byrnes and Harry S. Truman warned the Soviet Union that USA would bomb the Soviet Union and her allies again and again until they ceased hostilities. The situation were precarious. Strategic bombing haven't really worked and it had been showed that people couldn't be "bombed into submission". However the atomic bombs brought about a destruction on a scale never seen before. Several top Soviet diplomats, politicians and even generals advised Trotsky to accept a status quo ante bellum arguing that if the Soviet Union kept on fighting there would be nothling left to fight for. However as the airfields in Jutland and Zealand was taken USA had little chance to actually escort their bombers into the Baltics. Still STAVKA feared that the United States would launch an invasion of the Baltic States and Kaliningrad with atomic bombings of Kalingrad, the Baltic States, Leningrad and even atomic strikes all along the Vistula river in Poland. Taking out Denmark was now given the highest priority, lest the Soviet Union face total destruction.
Pe-3 light bombers strike into Copenhagen.
However things repeated itself in Denmark as it did in the Netherlands and England. The gloves were off, the Soviet Union had no longer any ideological constrains of sparing the proletariat of Europe. Copenhagen had for days held out against Soviet an PACT offensives. As a prelude to greater offensives the Soviet Air Force was tasked to weaken te self proclaimed fortress. As the mushroom clouds died over Ukraine Pe-3 night fighters took off from their bases in Zealand and swooped over Copenhagen. What they did was to drop down flares on strategic points in the Danish capital. Soon thereafter hundreds of Soviet tactical, medium and strategic bombers flew lowly over Copenhagen dropping incendiary over the Danish capital with major firestorms following. Still it wasn't enough to tame the Soviet anger and lust for revenge. For the next days the Danish capital was bombed day and night by Soviet bombers of all kinds with their official pretexes being to immobilize critical infrastructure and the NATO defenses.
The fortress of Copenagen withstand any attacker..
Still Copenhagen proved to be a tough nut to crack. After the night attack upon the capital the last democratic Scandinavian stronghold would not falter. The fortress of Copenhagen became a deathrap for the Soviet forces and even the mighty Trotsky tanks fell to the defender's anti-tank weapons. For now the fighting revolved around the outskirts of Copenhagen and mostly the crossroads around Roskilde. As in southern Jutland the defending NATO forces put up several layers of defenses all the way into Copenhagen itself who in the meantime had been turned into a fortress. PACT troops had suffered dearly when they tried to break these lines. Soviet troops were bogged down, yet again, as they approached toward Copenhagen and readied to enter the city itself. It was a frightening premenition of what was to come during the Battle for the Liverpool-Hull Line. Wave after wave of Soviet tanks and infantry was sent toward an unbreakable wall. But as each attack failed, yet another one was sent in. This was a war of attrition - a war the Soviets had prevailed at before to a shocking cost.
Intense battles in the silk fortress.
But where the Soviets were stalled in Copenhagen in Jutland they progressed facing only pocketed resistance. Aarhus was taken at noon of the 4th after fierce artillery duels. The forests around Aarhus and central Jutland, one being called Silkeborg or silk fortress, saw the brunt of the fighting as American, Danish, Canadian and British troops took up their positions in the dense forests hoping it would obstruct the Soviet juggernaut. The forests became riddled with minefields, killzones, trenches and anti-tank emplacements. However the Soviets were ruthless. As they were bogged down in the forests or stopped by minefields they didn't bother to send in the infantry. Instead they launched several smoke and phosphour rounds from artillery and by air into the forests. After that incendiary and high explosive shells and bombs riddled the forests turning it into a place fit for the worst scenes in Dantes Inferno. The forests that was intended to halt the Soviet advance and trap it was instead turned to a death trap for the NATO forces, who in turn had to retreat to the next line of defense.
A cornered rat.
Following the Battle of Aarhus and the horrors of these surrounding forests Govorov ordered his men to halt and rest. After intense weeks of fighting his men were worn out and needed a breather. More importantly the major NATO contigent was confined to the northern most tip of Jutland being unable to get their sufficient supplies and reinforcements. The 1st Baltic Front could afford to rest, resupply and plan their next move - BALTAP could not.
American forces under heavy fire.
Early in the morning of the 7th the Soviets probed the defenses in the forests south of Ålborg. As these forests contained vital roads and junctions into Skagen and the majority of NATO troops they couldn't simply burn it down as they did before. Instead Soviet riflemen ran into Canadian troops who barely held their ground against the Soviets. After hours of fighting the Canadians pulled out, however NATO was quick to send in reinforcements. The US sent in elements of the 4th Infantry Division and 2nd Ranger Battalion. Their task was to hold the line long enough for the other NATO troops to recover and counterattack. The Americans fought on valiantly inflicting heavy casualties upon the Soviets, using the terrain to take out several Soviet tanks and establishing crippling artillery barrages, however in the end the sheer might of the Soviet Union and the complete lack of NATO air forces in the region defeated the Americans who was forced to retreat toward Skagen after two days of battle in woodland and urban areas alike. NATO was pushed back to a last stance.
Soviet troops engaged in Copenhagen.
But it wasn't only in Jutland the Soviets fought it out. Copenhagen the last true NATO stronghold in the region had been under siege for nearly nine days by now, with daily and nightly air bombings, artillery barrages and Soviet advances into the suburbs and cities. The Soviets took Roskilde and encircled Copenhagen after fierce battles. However as they entered into Copenhagen itself the true brutality of the war unfolded itself. Soviet troops came under heavy fire in every block they moved into. A Soviet rifleman noted in his diary "we could take one building with several of my comrades falling. Then we battled on an on in the other houses, but then we came under fire from houses that we had cleared before and entire areas we'd taken were no longer secure. We called in air support and everything else we had and watched as our rockets and cannons leveled the western strongholds to rubble to the hurrahs of our troops. Believing we were safe we moved in, but again came under heavy fire. It was a total mess and a nightmare, my nerves are getting worn out. The enemy is everywhere and nowhere. Too many have died in these ruins and I am not sure have many more of us will fall until the Danish surrender so that the suffering on all sides can come to an end". The battle for Copenhagen was turning against the Soviets, and on the 8th of September they were forced to pull out of the city itself. However the Battle of Copenhagen was not over. The Soviets completed their control over the surrounding areas and shelled the city with artillery flattening entire neighbourhoods with Katyusha rockets. The harship the Soviets faced outside of Copenhagen poetically mirrored the Soviet struggle all along the Liverpool-Hull Line - but more on that later.
Make it or break it.
But the war went on. On the 9th of September the NATO troops in Jutland was confined to the northernmost tip and the port of Hirtshals. Mustering an impressive force there the Soviets feared NATO would evacuate and pull their troops away from the sinking ship and so they prepared for an assault to finish off the NATO troops. But NATO was too aware of this oppurtunity and Lieutenant General Fredenhall ordered his remaining men to make a last ditched attempt to retake Ålborg or at the very least buy his allies time to evacuate. However the Soviet power was too much to put it simply, and the Americans were quickly losing the battle as they ran into well entrenched Soviet soldiers and elite Mountaineers. To the east near Copenhagen the fortress began to crumble. After thousands of dead on both sides the Soviets started to push into the city being reinforced with fresh Spanish, French and Czech troops. The Soviets began to take control over the city as the 14 brigades that had once defended the capital was reduced to a mere three brigades. Henry Wilson, the British commander of BALTAP, was taken out in an aistrike and things went south from there on. Most of the British, Canadian and even Danish brigades then surrendered and some even took it to the seas only to being sunk by Soviet submarines or naval bombers. A miracle was needed for NATO to turn the tide of the battle of Denmark.
The games are concluded.
The American counterattack was beaten back. The forests and landscape south of Ålborg was firmly under Soviet control. The dense woods would become the bane of the Americans who retreated to the north where the remainder of NATO troops prepared to hold Hirtshals, evacuate or die in the attempt. The Soviets on the otherhand would have none of it and launched an offensive from Ålborg 3 in the morning, on the 11th of September. The Soviets were fueled by their rage and hatred for the Americans and Govorov capitalized on this by sending mainly Ukranian units into the first assaults. The attack continued on through the night and by early morning all major crossroads leading into Hirtshals, Skagen and Fredrikshavn was secured. But the Soviet onslaught did not end. Out from the forests a Soviet mechanized corps sprung out and quickly encircled and split off the various NATO forces. The commander of the corps noted in his hour of triumph "so this is the fear Americans we heard so much about. I'm not impressed". By noon the following day most of the Danish and NATO troops had surrendered or fought to the last bullet. There only remained one American brigade, one Canadian and three British armored brigades. By the end of the day they would be rounded up and all of its soldiers surrendering. The Battle of Jutland had come to a conclusion, a battle that was expected to last for five days ended after 20 days of battle.**
The final push into the fortress.
All of Jutland had fallen to the PACT forces, all that remained were Copenhagen that had a battle raging on for weeks by now. As opposed to northern England the urban battle here was no longer a stalemate. The last Danish troops had fallen back into the very heart of Copenhagen, but their morale plummeted as Soviet leaflets began dropping in saying that Jutland had fallen, the Danish government had fled into exile and the NATO troops had left Denmark for good encouraging the Danish troops to surrender rather than fight a pointless battle. Some leaflets even went as far as saying "Workers of Denmark, you have nothing to fear but freedom". Despite this Thomas Bonde and his remaining men (many foreign exiles) fought to the bitter end in Copenhagen. The fight was bitter, but it was to end soon.
The Baltic Approaches have been secured.
After midnight of the 12th of September the Soviet flag could be seen hanging from both the Danish Royal Palace and the Parliament. After weeks of intense battles the Danish capital finally surrendered with Danish soldiers being literally dragged out from their final hiding place; the sewers. For such a small nation they had inflicted considerable damage upon the Soviet aggressors who lost nearly 22.000 men in the battle of Denmark. Denmark on the other hand lost over 230.000 men, a considerable loss for a nation having around 4 million people (Around 5.78%). The greatest loss would be during the claustrophobic Battle of Copenhagen where NATO lost over 175.000 men in a single engagement - and that well before the final battle for the city center where nearly 30.000 Danish troops lost their lives. The Battle of Denmark had come to a conclusion with a major strategic victory for the Paris Pact. While the 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts had performed well there was concerns about the pace of the operations and that NATO troops could deal so much damage despite their limited numbers, and STAVKA worried about the ongoing battles in England. Despite all of this the two Baltic Fronts were ordered to Wales where they would prepare for Operation Pluto; the Invasion of Ireland.
A small country occupied at the cost of high casualties.
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*Screenshot of the map taking on the 28th of August.
**The Allied troops on map were later "overrun".
NATO plan to turn Copenhagen into a "fortress".
Denmark the tiny Scandinavian nation on the northern periphery of continental Europe were the target under Operation Mercury. The 1st Baltic Front was tasked with striking in from the south into Jutland (Jylland in Danish), make a lightning offensive sweeping away any resistance and take control over Aarhus in less than five days. Aarhus was the vital point in the NATO defenses in Denmark, taking out the port city would effectively stop NATO reinforcement into the small peninsula. Meanwhile the 2nd Baltic Front under Marshal Vladsov was to land on the beaches of Zealand (Sjælland) - the island holding the Danish capital - securing all of western and central Zealand, while PACT troops attacked directly into Copenhagen from the east. The Soviets looked toward the German invasion (in fact taking advice from several former German officers) and expected Denmark to fold within hours when met with an overwhelming force, and if they resisted that the defenses would falter in a matter of days. Securing Denmark was vital for several reasons, but they could all be summarized into one thing: Baltic Approaches. The Soviets, or rather the PACT as a whole, feared that if NATO were given enough time to hold Denmark they would seize the oppurtunity to make a significant buildup and in turn threaten to either contain the PACT fleets within the Baltics, begin on a strategic bombing offensive well into the Soviet Union, but they feared mostly an invasion right into Poland and the USSR itself, threatening to cut off the western forces. Great care was taken to conquer the until now mostly geo-politically insignificant nation, but NATO were as well aware of the importance of Denmark. For months Americans and British advisors had trained and outfitted the Danish defensive forces to prevent a repetition of the Danish nation during WW2. Moreover several British and American brigades were earmarked to go to Denmark in case of war under a unified "Allied Forces Baltic Approaches" or simply BALTAP. Field Marshal Henry Wilson, the British commander of BALTAP and former commander of the middle eastern forces, naturally keen on revenge on the Soviets, took great care to inflict maximal casualties on the Soviet invaders. He even announced to the Danish Army "we've turned Copenhagen into a Fortress, that will shield all of Europe from the communist hordes". It remained to be seen if the Soviets got the Blitz they dreamt of, or if Copenhagen truly had been turned into the Copenhagen some claimed.
Hopefully Mercury won't become a quagmire.
Artillery preparations comparable to the battle of Berlin were being mounted, Pact troops moved into positions only waiting for the word. A massive artillery barrage and air bombings were being mounted as hostilities opened all over Europe 17:00 local time. It was not until 02:37 the first Soviet and Spanish troops crossed into Jutland. After such a massive and purely violent opening barrage and bombings PACT generals hoped it would completely break the Danish defenses. The Soviet morale was high, one Soviet sergeant even captured the speech of his commander before they ran over the Danish-German border: "The colonel came toward us in full battle gear (unusual for a man of his position) and stood atop of a BTR while he ordered us all to pay attention. He then began his rousing speech "Comrades, it's good to see you here tonight! And it will be even better when I see you all soon storm over those trenches! Then we'll teach those capitalist hounds how to fight. They thought they could bully us into submission, they thought we would give way and fold, but today we'll show them that the Red Army bows to no one! Today we'll show them the might of the Soviet Union! Get to your positions, we go to war!" he shouted out to the cheers and applause of thousands. Flares were shot up all around us, and we rushed into the Danish defensives.." The morale was high and an easy victory was taken for granted, but it would be anything but that.
Volunteers in Denmark.
The Danish section would soon put up a surprisingly stiff resistance. Much of it can be contributed to political refugees and exiled soldiers. Following the Soviet and communist takeovers in Germany, Sweden, Finland and Norway many chose to leave their countries (either on their own accord, or to save their skin) and Denmark became a natural hub of said exiles. These men bolstered the ranks of the Danish Army and the NATO troops being ready to fight fanatically against communism to stop the spread of the hated ideology or liberate their homecountry. Many would provide invaluable expertise on how to conduct defensive wars, and in the case of the Germans on how to fight against the Soviets. With the latter several German weaponary would come into the hands of the troops defending the Danish borders giving them a better chance of facing the Soviet invaders. As the ill-equipped Danish homeguard and reservists forces were decisively beaten back in southern Jutland, these hardened, and often fanatic, foreign troops rushed to the frontline at their own peril. Said forces didn't stop the Soviet advance, however they managed to put up enough resistance to slow down the Soviet advance and allow for Danish and NATO troops to enter the area and take up defensive positions.
Pact troops fail to cross into the fortress.
In the east a mix of Czech, Swedish, Polish and Hungarian troops crossed Öresund strait from the Swedish cities of Malmö and Helsingfors. Their plan was simple, land to the north of Copenhagen itself and to the south of Helsingør, establish a beachhead and attack into Copenhagen, then another landing party would land into Copenhagen by the seaside.. While the PACT coalition attacked Copenhagen from the north and east the 2nd Baltic Front would take control over western and central Zealand and then move into Copenhagen from the south. However Kowalski and his multi-national invasion force now got a first taste of the fortrtress that Copenhagen had been turned into. The strait was littered with mines being placed out by the Royal Navy and the Royal Airforce. More over coastal fortifications were set up that covered the sea. The first landing waves were bombarded and sunk to the bottom of the sea. After several gruleing hours where the PACT troops had to clear the beaches and straits of mines under heavy artillery fire, the naval troops could land on the beaches. However these beaches were again being set up in pre-detirmined artillery killboxes. The PACT troops was under extreme fire and immense pressure, but that was not all. Directly behind the beaches the Danish defenses had set up bunkers and trenches that covered the landing zones, with mobile units and elite Royal Guards in reserve to counterattack and hold vital road junctions. However the ace up in the Danish sleeve was naval and close air support bombers provided by the British and Americans. Tempests and Helldivers took off from several airports within Copenhagen or just outside of it. These war planes provided direct fire support or attacked the landing crafts coming over the strait. The airfields were so close by that PACT and Soviet airplanes in the area had little to no chance to react. Once fighters came in, the NATO air force had already dropped their load. Wave after wave hit the beaches of Zealand, but each wave was either repelled or pinned down. The once white beaches of Zealand was turned into red beaches, in the midst of a carnage. The beaches were littered with corpses or men laying beneat the shingle unable to move forward. A USMC advisor to the Danish observed "so this is how it was from the otherside during Downfall". But the crossing of this strait wouldn't be successfull as Downfall turned out to be. The men that crossed over on the 22nd, and didn't perish, continued to fight on on the beaches throughout the night. Several relief forces was sent, not to push forward but to evacuate. However the Danish counterattacked with their Dragoons, and the PACT had to give up their offensive. Marshal Vladsov listened nervously to the ticking reports, as he were to make on Zealand aswell.
We've less progress here than in England..
The 28th of August, the sixth day into the war. The prospects of a swift lightning strike into Aarhus in five days were put to shame. The Soviets had the clear upperhand in numbers, quality of troops and equipment, yet they struggled to break through the multiple layers of Danish defenses. The defending Danish never truly believed they could hold off the united Pact war machine, but their entire strategy was based upon one thing. To delay the invaders. Each crossroad and each town into Denmark was defended by several layers of trenches and artillery killzones, while each block was heaviley fortified. Once the Soviets broke through the Danish fell back to the next line and gave up a fight. As mentioned their strategy was not to defeat the Soviets in open battle, but to delay them for long enough for their NATO allies to relieve them. However in the end the Soviet pressure became too much. Along the eastern section of Jutland the Soviet forces were finally managing to push to Danish up north. Still it was a grim reminder for the Soviets of what was to come. They believed the flat terrain of Denmark and their overwhelming force would bring about a rapid victory. Instead the flat terrain would make it easier for NATO forces to pick out Soviet tanks in the open, while the heavy concentration of Pact troops made for huge logistical problems.
Typhoons sweeps in.
The Soviet difficulties to advance could perhaps be best described in their effort to gain control over a critical road junction to secure Aabenraa. Soviet T-60 tanks scouted ahead driving down the road leading up to the junction. As they passed into a residential area they soon came under heavy anti-tank fire. Danish troops had taken up positions equipped with American M3 Grease Guns and Super Bazookas. The lightly armored scout tanks stood little chance to the Danish and had to retreat. The T-60s pulled out and requested fire support. Sturmoviks flew in at a low altitude ready to unleash their full fury, however the sky were soon filled by shrapnel and flaks. The Danish had set up mobile anti-air units in the rear. The Soviets replied with sending out a mechanized assault. After an intense bombardement from Katyusha rocket launchers T-44s and BTRs rushed in to seize the area. However the infantrists came under heavy German captured MG34 and 42 fire while the tanks were pounded with M20s. The Soviet infantrists managed to break out under heavy fire and wicked close quarter fights ensued lasting the entire night. Over the next morning the Danish pulled back into the treelines by the cover of the darkness inflicting major casualties on the Soviets. Heavy artillery then pounded the Soviet positions in the newly conquered town, once again Sturmoviks were sent out to deal with them, but they again fell under anti-air fire. The fighting continued like this for several days with the Soviets taking one small village at the time. On the 5th day the critical junction was under view, however it was dominated by an industrial complex that had lines of sight and fire in all directions. This time around American and British fighter-bombers were used to great effect when attacking the Soviet advancing columns. Soviet fighters were just out of reach, while Soviet AA guns came under heavy fire from the complex if they were within reach. For a full day the Soviet armored advance had to push forward while under attack from the air, claiming several tanks in a matter of hours. Once the industrial complex was reached the tanks and infantry again came under heavy fire, however as the buildings were cleared the Danish pulled out again and retreated to the next line of defenses overlooking the junction. And so it continued for days until the entire axis of advance was cleared. The Danish managed to inflict high casualties upon their enemies. Despite this the Soviets pressed on and eventually broke out, however with the slow advance STAVKA was worried the entire Danish enterprise would turn into a quagmire.
The fight for the beaches have begun.
Despite the seemingly lack of progress in Jutland, by night of the 28th the Soviets were making progress in Zealand. While the Pact offensive into Copenhagen failed, it opened up eastern Zealand as Danish and NATO troops had to pull into Copenhagen and the surrounding areas to protect it. As such 11 Rifle Divisions and one Light Tank Brigade landed with little opposition on the 27th of August pacifying most of central Zealand. To the west, however, the Soviets assaulted the beaches of western Zealand. Despite having overwhelming numbers the beaches of Denmark took hours to tame. Early in the morning the first Soviet landingcrafts hit shore, but came under heavy fire along the beachhead. The 26th Rifle Division, the first division to hit the beaches, even came under so heavy fire that they had to retreat back to safety in Sweden. Still as the day turned night the Soviets managed to establish a beachhead a few kilometers inland, however they still had to deal with major Danish resistance. All the same it was of vital importance to capture the beaches here. Both to prevent furthern reinforcements of Zealand and Copenhagen, but also to capture the major airfields of Zealand, effectively crippling the NATO air defensives over not only Denmark, but the Baltic Approaches as a whole.
High casualties are needed to secure the beachhead.
On the evening the next day the Soviets and Danish had battled eachother for days on the beaches and the farmlands of Zealand. The beautiful Danish countryside was turned to a moon like enviorment, only gray mass and craters. The divisions that secured central and eastern Zealand fanned out probing the defenses of Copenhagen and using their light tank brigade to secure the lesser islands of Møn, Falster and Lolland to the south of Zealand. It became appereant that Copenhagen indeed had become some sort of fortress and Vlasov called off the attack into the city itself, instead they were to hit the remaining Danish units in western Zealand in their vulnerable flank. Doing so would cut off the Danish capital who would eventually fall under a massive siege. More over the Soviet troops got the news of the fall of London giving them a much needed morale boost, while the Danish got an equal fall in their morale. If even London, the center of the British Empire and a superpower, couldn't hold off against the Soviet invaders how can tiny Denmark do so then? Despite this the battles in the beachhead stiffened. During the night and the day the Danish made a coordinated effort, bolstered by NATO carriers, to counterattack to reclaim the beaches. The fighting was savage. And while they didn't manage to completely throw out the Soviet invaders, two more Rifle Divisions had to break off their attacks and return to Sweden to not face defeat. Emboldened by this tactical victory and the failed Soviet attempt to claim Copenhagen a lone Danish Brigade stationed in Copenhagen was ordered to launch a campaign to breakout. It was a fool's attempt, and it became clear that the Soviets were here to stay. Thousands of Danish troops fell to the Soviet bullets, shells and rockets in an attack that did nothing to alleviate the desperate situation in Zealand - and Denmark as a whole.
Take away one card and the house of cards implodes.
Once the first Danish defenses had been penetrated there would be little that resemebled an orderly defense. Gone were the initial days of brilliant defenses the full might of the Soviet Union and the PACT had been estbalished. All vital junctions had been taken and along with them the major cities of Aabenraa, Esbjerg, Ribe and Velje. Aarhus was within striking distance. And so were the last remaining major airports in Jutland and Denmark as a whole. If the last airfields were taken by the PACT then the NATO situation would be dire indeed. NATO had relied upon excellent work from their carriers air groups earlier, however with the Battle of the English Channel in full swing these airplanes were naturally focused on the English Channel rather than the Baltic Approaches. If the last airfields fell, then Denmark and the Baltics would be left virtually withut aircover of any kind. However there was hope among NATO troops. Despite taking horrible losses, with even a British Armored Brigade being beaten back into Fun, Aarhus showed its importance to the fullest. Several Canadian, American and British brigades - infantry and armored alike - anded on Aarhus and spread out over Jutland ready to push the advancing Soviets out. However it was not be an easy battle, a Danish conscript warned his newly arrived Allies "death came in like a whirlwind. No matter what we put up they would keep going on and on and on, stopping at nothing but complete victory".
Most of Zealand and Jutland are secured.. Time to secure our flank in Funen.
Funen, or Fyn in Danish, was the strategic linkup point Jutland and Zealand. Although the island only contained one battered Canadian brigade and a near crippled British Armored Brigade and two Columbian Divisions the small island could become a major future threat. By Odense there was a port that was currently being expanded to house NATO naval squadrons and as a reinforcement point. If Funen was reinforced by sea it could very well threaten the flanks in both Jutland and Zealand putting the gains over the last days in jeopardy. While the Danish made another futile attempt to break out of their fortress in Copenhagen, Vlasov gave large amounts of his Front orders to spread out over western Zealand and be ready to engage their enemy. By 21:00 the units were in position accounting for one Mechanized Corps, one Heavy Tank Brigade and seven Rifle Divisions. After an intense bombardement from air, land and sea Odense was captured within minutes as the first Soviet troops landed on the city 1:43 local time. With the port and major city of Funen firmly under Soviet control Vlasov ordered his troops southward. They thrusted toward the NATO troops there after a typical artillery shelling. "The entire area was ablaze from our Katyushas. We pushed forward relentlessly as our fighters and bombers swooped in from above and took them out one by one. The capitalists put up a good fight, especially the British tanks. However their Shermans, Comets and Cromwells were no match to our T-44s and Trotskys! As their inferior tanks bowed to the might of the Soviet Union we called their armor mockingly for 'Tommy Cookers'. The fighting lasted for the entire night, but by nightfall we linked up with our Magyar brothers and we'd broken the pigs". The NATO troops were cut off from any point of reinforcements, supplies and even cut off from any point of retreat. As night descended upon southern Funen so did the Soviet troops. To make matters worse as the battle raged on three Hungarian divisions landed on southern Funen. The already encircled NATO brigades were sandwhiched and had to surrender as the sun rose.
We need to close the Baltic Approaches lest we risk a NATO invasion - or things even worse.*
While the Red Army made major gains on Danish soil and being bogged down in the dense forests of Jutland another pressing issue came about. Intelligence had it a major NATO naval landing would take place in Kaliningrad (former East Prussia) and the Baltic States. However to make such an invasion NATO needed the Baltic Approaches to remain open and so the Soviet gambit to close the approaches only intensified. The majority of the NATO fleets in the area were tied up in the English Channel in the battle that enveloped over there so the task of keeping the approach to the Baltic Sea ironically fell upon land based forces. By now, the 3rd of September, the Soviets understood the scope of NATO atomic power and to what lengths they would go to end the war. James F. Byrnes and Harry S. Truman warned the Soviet Union that USA would bomb the Soviet Union and her allies again and again until they ceased hostilities. The situation were precarious. Strategic bombing haven't really worked and it had been showed that people couldn't be "bombed into submission". However the atomic bombs brought about a destruction on a scale never seen before. Several top Soviet diplomats, politicians and even generals advised Trotsky to accept a status quo ante bellum arguing that if the Soviet Union kept on fighting there would be nothling left to fight for. However as the airfields in Jutland and Zealand was taken USA had little chance to actually escort their bombers into the Baltics. Still STAVKA feared that the United States would launch an invasion of the Baltic States and Kaliningrad with atomic bombings of Kalingrad, the Baltic States, Leningrad and even atomic strikes all along the Vistula river in Poland. Taking out Denmark was now given the highest priority, lest the Soviet Union face total destruction.
Pe-3 light bombers strike into Copenhagen.
However things repeated itself in Denmark as it did in the Netherlands and England. The gloves were off, the Soviet Union had no longer any ideological constrains of sparing the proletariat of Europe. Copenhagen had for days held out against Soviet an PACT offensives. As a prelude to greater offensives the Soviet Air Force was tasked to weaken te self proclaimed fortress. As the mushroom clouds died over Ukraine Pe-3 night fighters took off from their bases in Zealand and swooped over Copenhagen. What they did was to drop down flares on strategic points in the Danish capital. Soon thereafter hundreds of Soviet tactical, medium and strategic bombers flew lowly over Copenhagen dropping incendiary over the Danish capital with major firestorms following. Still it wasn't enough to tame the Soviet anger and lust for revenge. For the next days the Danish capital was bombed day and night by Soviet bombers of all kinds with their official pretexes being to immobilize critical infrastructure and the NATO defenses.
The fortress of Copenagen withstand any attacker..
Still Copenhagen proved to be a tough nut to crack. After the night attack upon the capital the last democratic Scandinavian stronghold would not falter. The fortress of Copenhagen became a deathrap for the Soviet forces and even the mighty Trotsky tanks fell to the defender's anti-tank weapons. For now the fighting revolved around the outskirts of Copenhagen and mostly the crossroads around Roskilde. As in southern Jutland the defending NATO forces put up several layers of defenses all the way into Copenhagen itself who in the meantime had been turned into a fortress. PACT troops had suffered dearly when they tried to break these lines. Soviet troops were bogged down, yet again, as they approached toward Copenhagen and readied to enter the city itself. It was a frightening premenition of what was to come during the Battle for the Liverpool-Hull Line. Wave after wave of Soviet tanks and infantry was sent toward an unbreakable wall. But as each attack failed, yet another one was sent in. This was a war of attrition - a war the Soviets had prevailed at before to a shocking cost.
Intense battles in the silk fortress.
But where the Soviets were stalled in Copenhagen in Jutland they progressed facing only pocketed resistance. Aarhus was taken at noon of the 4th after fierce artillery duels. The forests around Aarhus and central Jutland, one being called Silkeborg or silk fortress, saw the brunt of the fighting as American, Danish, Canadian and British troops took up their positions in the dense forests hoping it would obstruct the Soviet juggernaut. The forests became riddled with minefields, killzones, trenches and anti-tank emplacements. However the Soviets were ruthless. As they were bogged down in the forests or stopped by minefields they didn't bother to send in the infantry. Instead they launched several smoke and phosphour rounds from artillery and by air into the forests. After that incendiary and high explosive shells and bombs riddled the forests turning it into a place fit for the worst scenes in Dantes Inferno. The forests that was intended to halt the Soviet advance and trap it was instead turned to a death trap for the NATO forces, who in turn had to retreat to the next line of defense.
A cornered rat.
Following the Battle of Aarhus and the horrors of these surrounding forests Govorov ordered his men to halt and rest. After intense weeks of fighting his men were worn out and needed a breather. More importantly the major NATO contigent was confined to the northern most tip of Jutland being unable to get their sufficient supplies and reinforcements. The 1st Baltic Front could afford to rest, resupply and plan their next move - BALTAP could not.
American forces under heavy fire.
Early in the morning of the 7th the Soviets probed the defenses in the forests south of Ålborg. As these forests contained vital roads and junctions into Skagen and the majority of NATO troops they couldn't simply burn it down as they did before. Instead Soviet riflemen ran into Canadian troops who barely held their ground against the Soviets. After hours of fighting the Canadians pulled out, however NATO was quick to send in reinforcements. The US sent in elements of the 4th Infantry Division and 2nd Ranger Battalion. Their task was to hold the line long enough for the other NATO troops to recover and counterattack. The Americans fought on valiantly inflicting heavy casualties upon the Soviets, using the terrain to take out several Soviet tanks and establishing crippling artillery barrages, however in the end the sheer might of the Soviet Union and the complete lack of NATO air forces in the region defeated the Americans who was forced to retreat toward Skagen after two days of battle in woodland and urban areas alike. NATO was pushed back to a last stance.
Soviet troops engaged in Copenhagen.
But it wasn't only in Jutland the Soviets fought it out. Copenhagen the last true NATO stronghold in the region had been under siege for nearly nine days by now, with daily and nightly air bombings, artillery barrages and Soviet advances into the suburbs and cities. The Soviets took Roskilde and encircled Copenhagen after fierce battles. However as they entered into Copenhagen itself the true brutality of the war unfolded itself. Soviet troops came under heavy fire in every block they moved into. A Soviet rifleman noted in his diary "we could take one building with several of my comrades falling. Then we battled on an on in the other houses, but then we came under fire from houses that we had cleared before and entire areas we'd taken were no longer secure. We called in air support and everything else we had and watched as our rockets and cannons leveled the western strongholds to rubble to the hurrahs of our troops. Believing we were safe we moved in, but again came under heavy fire. It was a total mess and a nightmare, my nerves are getting worn out. The enemy is everywhere and nowhere. Too many have died in these ruins and I am not sure have many more of us will fall until the Danish surrender so that the suffering on all sides can come to an end". The battle for Copenhagen was turning against the Soviets, and on the 8th of September they were forced to pull out of the city itself. However the Battle of Copenhagen was not over. The Soviets completed their control over the surrounding areas and shelled the city with artillery flattening entire neighbourhoods with Katyusha rockets. The harship the Soviets faced outside of Copenhagen poetically mirrored the Soviet struggle all along the Liverpool-Hull Line - but more on that later.
Make it or break it.
But the war went on. On the 9th of September the NATO troops in Jutland was confined to the northernmost tip and the port of Hirtshals. Mustering an impressive force there the Soviets feared NATO would evacuate and pull their troops away from the sinking ship and so they prepared for an assault to finish off the NATO troops. But NATO was too aware of this oppurtunity and Lieutenant General Fredenhall ordered his remaining men to make a last ditched attempt to retake Ålborg or at the very least buy his allies time to evacuate. However the Soviet power was too much to put it simply, and the Americans were quickly losing the battle as they ran into well entrenched Soviet soldiers and elite Mountaineers. To the east near Copenhagen the fortress began to crumble. After thousands of dead on both sides the Soviets started to push into the city being reinforced with fresh Spanish, French and Czech troops. The Soviets began to take control over the city as the 14 brigades that had once defended the capital was reduced to a mere three brigades. Henry Wilson, the British commander of BALTAP, was taken out in an aistrike and things went south from there on. Most of the British, Canadian and even Danish brigades then surrendered and some even took it to the seas only to being sunk by Soviet submarines or naval bombers. A miracle was needed for NATO to turn the tide of the battle of Denmark.
The games are concluded.
The American counterattack was beaten back. The forests and landscape south of Ålborg was firmly under Soviet control. The dense woods would become the bane of the Americans who retreated to the north where the remainder of NATO troops prepared to hold Hirtshals, evacuate or die in the attempt. The Soviets on the otherhand would have none of it and launched an offensive from Ålborg 3 in the morning, on the 11th of September. The Soviets were fueled by their rage and hatred for the Americans and Govorov capitalized on this by sending mainly Ukranian units into the first assaults. The attack continued on through the night and by early morning all major crossroads leading into Hirtshals, Skagen and Fredrikshavn was secured. But the Soviet onslaught did not end. Out from the forests a Soviet mechanized corps sprung out and quickly encircled and split off the various NATO forces. The commander of the corps noted in his hour of triumph "so this is the fear Americans we heard so much about. I'm not impressed". By noon the following day most of the Danish and NATO troops had surrendered or fought to the last bullet. There only remained one American brigade, one Canadian and three British armored brigades. By the end of the day they would be rounded up and all of its soldiers surrendering. The Battle of Jutland had come to a conclusion, a battle that was expected to last for five days ended after 20 days of battle.**
The final push into the fortress.
All of Jutland had fallen to the PACT forces, all that remained were Copenhagen that had a battle raging on for weeks by now. As opposed to northern England the urban battle here was no longer a stalemate. The last Danish troops had fallen back into the very heart of Copenhagen, but their morale plummeted as Soviet leaflets began dropping in saying that Jutland had fallen, the Danish government had fled into exile and the NATO troops had left Denmark for good encouraging the Danish troops to surrender rather than fight a pointless battle. Some leaflets even went as far as saying "Workers of Denmark, you have nothing to fear but freedom". Despite this Thomas Bonde and his remaining men (many foreign exiles) fought to the bitter end in Copenhagen. The fight was bitter, but it was to end soon.
The Baltic Approaches have been secured.
After midnight of the 12th of September the Soviet flag could be seen hanging from both the Danish Royal Palace and the Parliament. After weeks of intense battles the Danish capital finally surrendered with Danish soldiers being literally dragged out from their final hiding place; the sewers. For such a small nation they had inflicted considerable damage upon the Soviet aggressors who lost nearly 22.000 men in the battle of Denmark. Denmark on the other hand lost over 230.000 men, a considerable loss for a nation having around 4 million people (Around 5.78%). The greatest loss would be during the claustrophobic Battle of Copenhagen where NATO lost over 175.000 men in a single engagement - and that well before the final battle for the city center where nearly 30.000 Danish troops lost their lives. The Battle of Denmark had come to a conclusion with a major strategic victory for the Paris Pact. While the 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts had performed well there was concerns about the pace of the operations and that NATO troops could deal so much damage despite their limited numbers, and STAVKA worried about the ongoing battles in England. Despite all of this the two Baltic Fronts were ordered to Wales where they would prepare for Operation Pluto; the Invasion of Ireland.
A small country occupied at the cost of high casualties.
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*Screenshot of the map taking on the 28th of August.
**The Allied troops on map were later "overrun".
And the stakes have been raised!
Well, considering that tens of thousands died in the last battles, I would say it were so.. Now we'll see how the war is going on the rest of the fronts.
Good question. I'm not so sure yet, we gotta see how things wrap up in England and **hint** the Middle East first. And then there's the whole thing on how is an invasion of the US going to pulled off so far away from any airbases and having a much stronger navy than us? But again I was very surprised that the landings of England went as smooth as it did, I was afterall concerned that the Royal Navy would prevent an invasion or intercept most of the transports, perhaps one of USA will be just as successfull? If I get the chance there will be a Red Dawn, and that would be very interesting.
Chapter 46.
Chapter 46: If you wish for peace, prepare for war.
The Mighty Hood moves into position.
London had fallen. The country was in crisis. The Royal Navy had made it their solemn honor to protect the British Isles from foreign aggression as they in the Napoleonic Wars, the Great War and against Hitler. However with London fallen and most of southern England under Soviet occupation the people, politicians and generals alike were furious on the Royal Navy for their inability to do anything about the Red Menace. In fact they had been outmanuevered by the Soviets who positioned their superheavy battleships across the narrow straits of the Channel to deny the Royal Navy entry. Several skirmishes, patrols and incursions to break the Soviet blockade was tried, but they all fell short of the massive Soviet battleships, the lone Béarn carrier but most importantly the massive presence of the Soviet Air Force. However now the Admiralty spotted a chance. The Soviet battleships was taken for repair and refuel along the French and English coast, while several air wings were diverted away from the Channel to instead support the fighting inland. HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, steamed out from Scapa Flow and headed for the English Channel. Behind her lead was the five battleships of King George V., Malaya, Royal Sovereign, Rodney and Resolution, followed by the seven aircraft carriers of Glorious, Ark Royal, Furious, Illustrious, Formidable, Indomitabe and Victoious. Names that were sure to strike fear into the heart of Soviet sailors. Their goal: to crush the Soviet Navy.
Clash of titans.
A little after 1100 the first British ships headed into the English Channel, while the Soviet fleet was in being and caught off guard. The greatest naval clash since the Battle of Jutland was about to begin. At first it was but a minor raid with the Mighty Hood leading five fast battleships into battle, but supported by seven aircraft carriers. The Soviets, on the otherhand, had solely conventional warships, save for the single French carrier, and relied upon their massive firepower and landbased aircrafts. The British's plan was simple, evidence from the last world war made it clear to all the superiority of the aircraft carriers. They relied upon that the Hood and the battleships would raid into Soviet lines and keep them engaged while torpedo and dive bombers swooped in and took down the Soviet beasts one by one. It was said to be a clash between pre-World War and post-World War doctrines. Trotsky would pay dearly for his affinity to big guns, or so the British claimed. The British capital ships and screens moved into position to raid the Soviet bases waiting for the aircrafts to launch a surprise attack against the ships in base. The Soviet Navy would be sunk or forced to retreat and the Brittania would once more rule the waves, preventing any reinforcements and supplies reaching the Soviet invasion force. However the weather soon turned sour and the clouds gathered as the winds picked up and the rain poured down. The British aircrafts was grounded on their ships due to foul weather and poor planning; the limited air space was simply too crowded. Things went worse. The Soviet Air Force mounted a counterattack with a total of 435 fighter bombers and 107 torpedo bombers being ready to attack from the coast of France, Belgium and England. They all headed straight toward the raiding party. First to be attacked was HMS Resolution taking a critical torpedo hit to her stern. The Battleships continued to be under attack with all of the five battleships taking major or minor damage. But most shockingly a lone Il-2 came out of course, as it came out of the clouds it was positioned over HMS Furious and launched all of its rockets right onto the carrier. Several of the aircrafts on deck were caught in the explosions, however a fuel pipe was broken and all of the deck was consumed in fire. The aircraft carrier didn't receive any significant damage, however it was enough to prevent the deck from being used for a while. Other smaller raids were conducted on the aircraft carriers, however the Soviet airmen were wary of the British fighters and only minor damage were dealt with. The Royal Navy failed to deliver a crippling first strike and the Battle of the English Channel had just begun.
OOB: 4x superheavy (Soviet Belarus, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok) BB3: Lenin. BB1: Marat, October Revolution. BC2: Sevastopol. FRA BC=Dunkerque and Strasbourg.
The Royal Navy is getting boxed in..
The battle dragged on and several British warships were scrambled all over the Atlantic to partake in the ongoing clash. Among them were the heavy cruisers of HMS York and HMS Norfolk out on escort duty in the atlantic, with them they brought a trio of destroyers. Things went well for the new attachement, however by the evening they were spotted by a squadron of Soviet naval reconnaissance planes. The planes quickly reported back to a group of submarines operating in the area. And so the hunt began. The naval bombers came in on an attack vector dropping their torpedos, however they were quickly turned around under a hail of shells. However they managed to correct the course of the British cruiser duo who sailed straight into one of the Soviet submarines waiting for them. The sub alerted to the rest of the group the area the warships came in through and fired its torpedos. Sub-130 who waited for the capital missed its first shot and submerged out of the area. However two of the destroyers were falling in behind it, being equipped with state of the art sonars. However the destroyers were intercepted by another pair of submarines. While HMS Vesper diverted to deal with Sub-206, Sub-130 turned around. Vesper managed to deal damage to Sub-206, however 130 hit a direct hit on Vesper, forcing it to turn around. Barely managing keep afloat, with several of its crew already dead Vesper were non functioning. HMS Blanche steamed forward to retreat rescue covering her retreat. After dropping several depth charges and other countermeasures Sub-130 were wrecked and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. However Blanche decided not to follow Vesper back and remained to fight. Another sub, number 301, fell victim to the destroyer, however as Blanche was isolated she soon became the victim of several torpedo and cannon shots. The final killing blow came from Sub-118. As they were still in battle they couldn't afford to rescue the survivors. Now with only one remaining escort the two cruisers came under fire from all directions. They navigated out of harm's way from most torpedos, but the massive swarm of Soviet subs and bombers were too much for the cruisers. Submarine-402 sunk HMS Norfolk while 422 sunk HMS York. The Western Approaches was in effect shut off as a point of reinforcement for the English Channel.
Soviet Belarus block the Channel.
Gunshots, torpedos and bombs echoed through the entire night. Explosions and fires were no longer isolated to the English coast, but the entire channel was lit up. Both sides watched by and cheered for their own ships. Still little had been done under the hours of the contact. However the British managed to get in more reinforcements, primarly the aging battlecruiser of HMS Repulse leading in four new heavy cruisers and several screens. They rammed right through the Soviet lines with one French destroyer being sunk. However as the night battle came to a conclusion the Royal Navy had to face the harsh reality. Under the guise of the night the Soviets had moved their dreadful ships of Soviet Belarus and Vladivostok to block the channel and keep the British in. These enormous ships had in the day only been matched by the Yamato class battleships. With them gone the Soviet Republic class "superheavy" battleships were the largest ships in the world. With their dreadful 460mm cannons they could fire upon their enemies well before they could, and they were designed to withstand severe punishment. Moreover there were two more of them. The British sent Hood, four heavy cruisers and several destroyers being supported by two carriers to break the blockade. But under the ravaging fire all four of the heavy cruisers were sunk by the two superheavy battleships, and while they functioned as bait the many torpedo and fighter-bombers dived in and delivered most of the punishment. In all four heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and one destroyer sunk. The Royal Navy had sailed into a trap. It became clear only one side could get out of the carnage alive.
Soviet submarines surge deep into American seas.
Meanwhile further to the east the Soviet submarine fleet moved further and further out of Vladivostok. While trying to find American merchant convoys they were instead taken up by an American detachment patrolling the Philippine Sea hoping to end the submarine threat. The Americans sunk one Soviet submarine, however at the cost of three of its own destroyers. It became clear that the Soviets had learned well from the Germans, and an invasion of the Soviet Far East was simply too dangerous with the submarines hunting for prey all over the Far East.
HMS Formidable on fire after a critical hit.
The battle raged on for days. A Soviet sailor later sai "it was a nightmare that never ended. We were trapped in this constant state of alert. Sometimes we envied the dead as they had peace". Battleships longed to engage in head on battles however the warplanes on both sides prevented any noteworthy advances. Meanwhile the battlecruisers of both sides raided the heavy and lesser cruisers. In a final attempt to push the two superheavy battleships aside the aircrafts carriers of HMS Formidable and HMS Illustrious steamed ahead with their CAGs bombarding the Soviet Republic ships. The destroyers that escorted them were sunk as they came into the range of the monstrous battleships. The two aircraft carriers came under heavy fire and were only saved by their own CAGs keeping the battleships occupied while a pair of fast battleships came in from the North Sea to relieve the aircraft carriers. Formidable and Illustrious made the.. formidable task of managing to escape through the blockade. Instead of taking up the chase the Soviets maintained their blockade and the two British carriers was severly damaged. The Soviets responded by taking in the wrecks of scuttled and damaged warships from the Second World War and provide obstacles in the waters to prevent a future escape.
Mare Nostrum.
Meanwhile in the Mediterranean the Royal Navy launched another major operation. Their goal to sink the Black Sea Fleet and open up the road to Trotskygrad and then Ukraine and Russia. However the British underestimated the Soviet battlefleet again. It was nothing but a disaster for the British. Operating against the Arkhangelask class and Karl Marx of the Lenin class (both having 406mm cannons) and the Kronstadt battlecruisers the British soon walked into a deathtrap. By three in the morning the battle that lasted through the night came to an end. Only one battlecruiser remained and the brunt of the British fleet in the Mediterranean was gone. It became clear that the Admiralty didn't quite understand the scope of things as the Soviets managed to open up the straits and they paid dearly. The Mediterranean was in dire need of reinforcements, however the Pact was in the process of closing Gibraltar and the Suez. The Pact was close to achieving total dominance in the region.
The Far East Fleet remain contained..
Even further to the east the Soviet Far East Fleet stationed in Vladivostok was emboldened by the success of their comrades in the west. So they shipped out of their waters and headed toward the Philippines. However by the coast of Korea they were stopped by USS Canberra and her escorts. USS Canberra and two destroyers were sunk, however USS Helena remained. Still for that price four Soviet destroyers were sunk and they were forced to retreat. On paper it might look as if the Soviets would win, however American tactical grasp won the day and the Soviets were outmanuevered. Moreover the Soviets feared that an American carrier task force or battleship squadron would appear and finish of the Far East Fleet, as such they retreated and licked their wounds in Vladivostok.
The Mighty Hood is no more!
A disaster rarely comes alone. After the defeat in the Mediterranean the British suffered a crippling blow to their morale. Something happened that shouldn't happen, the Mighty Hood was defeated. Hood and HMS King George V. wanted to end the raids by the Soviet battlecruiser of Sevastopol and the two French dunkerque class battlecruisers. The trio used their excellent speed and armament in a cruiser and destroyer killer role scoring several victories. The British of course wanted this to come to an end. Hood, King George and CAGs set out to hunt them down. They came under a duel and it became clear the Hood and King George overpowered the battlecruisers. Their armor was weaker. Instead they pulled out and directed several air strikes upon the battleship and Hood. This obscured their vision, and the communications of Hood went down. King George got reports of approaching battleships and that the escorting carriers were under fire, making the CAGs retreat. Hood pushed ahead and they soon came under fire from the approaching Murmansk and Lenin battleships dealing significant damage to the once mighty ship. Soon Novorossiysk led on the aging Matar and October Revolution battleships to cut off the axis of retreat for Hood and King George. Both warships came under heavy fire from both sea and air. King George was in full flames after several direct shots from the battleships as well as torpedo hits and made a last ditched retreat under a screen of smoke. However Strasbourg caught up with King George and struck the killing blow into the ship carrying the name of the former king. Hood on the other hand managed to use her mighty speed to outrun the battleships, albeit at a severly reduced state, and even sunk several destroyers and a cruiser. The Mighty Hood prevailed where King George did not, but fate had it a French light cruiser managed to destroy it. HMS Hood was at the breaking point, however the light cruiser that came into its path managed to lodge out shot that went right through the weakened (and already weak) roof of the Hood. Soon the many flames and explosions spread to the magazine aft which exploded. Eyewitnesses told of the ship expanding and retracting like an accordion before it exploded right in the middle. Reports had it green fires blew straight up to the skies. The Mighty Hood was no more, and it was a profound shock to the British morale. As it was not enough with London haven fallen and a fullscale invasion of England well underway, the pride of the Royal Navy was no more. Many saw it as an omen for what was to come.
The British Mediterranean Fleet are no match.
Outside of the coast of the British Mandate of Palestine the Royal Navy conducted several smaller raids, primarly the remaining Battlecruiser leading submarines into raiding parties. Several smaller skirmishes like that resulted in loss of British submarines, but no Soviet ships. The battlecruiser, on the other hand, remained afloat and became some sort of symbol. A symbol of persistence over the Soviet war machine and for the Soviets a symbol of defiance that needed to be ended.
The new kingpin of the seas are no more.
For days both sides continued their battles and skirmishes all over the English Channel. The air forces of both sides prevented any real gains for both sides. There was no decisive battle that admirals all over the world had longed for after the inconclusive Battle of Jutland. The Soviets made a radical plan. Sevastopol, Lenin, Marat and the October Revolution would engage the British battle squadron. While they drew fire and most of the CAGs were tied up in this risky battle, the Soviet superheavy battleships of Soviet Belarus, Novorossiysk, Murmansk and Vladivostok moved in with the two French battlecruisers and the carrier of Béarn. Their goal was not the battleships, but rather to hunt down the carriers. Through the Second World War there had been poor results in battleships engaging carriers head on, resulting in the former king of the seas escorting merchant ships or carriers. However the Soviets had a major airfleet of their own, and most of the British planes were engaging in the battlefleet skirmish. Wave after wave of Il-2s and Il-4s opened up the assault crippling the British carriers. Il-4s flew in with torpedos before breaking off, followed by Il-2s unleashing a volley of rockets, with the next wave coming in with 20mm cannons. The fourth wave came in high above the clouds diving and dropping their payloads. It was such tactics that managed to sink HMS Glorious. The torpedo gunner of the Il-4 that brought down the ship said "the smoke was a thick wall from all the oil that was aflame under us from the last days of battle and especially the previous waves hitting the carriers. I was told to get ready as the pilot descended. Our bomber was much larger than most airplanes and we were a sitting duck for the anti-air guns from the many destroyers and cruisers around us. Plane after plane dropped down or burst into flames around us. I yelled at the pilot to pull out, but he refused even as our left engine took a solid hit. I aimed and dropped the torpedo. I didn't get to see the results as we had to crashland in the water. But we were welcomed as heroes once we got home. We had sunk it!" The British were shocked and in disbelief. HMS Glorious were breaking apart right in front of them, explosion after explosion. The dreadful superheavy battleships then closed in and opened up their cannons after several destroyers sent in their torpedos. All of the five remaining carriers were sunk. Glorious by the war planes, Victorious by Dunkerque , Furious by Murmansk, Ark Royal by Novorossiysk and Indomitable by Soviet Belarus. The British battleships disengaged from their current battle to come to the aid of the carriers, but it was too late. It was a crucial victory for the Red Fleet. With the British carriers out of the way they gained air supremacy. Nothing could stop them now.
Soviet battleships open up.
The final clash came early morning of the 12th. The remaining battlecruiser HMS Repulse and the four remaining battleships of Malaya, Resolution, Royal Sovereign and Rodney prepared for a final strike. To escape by to Scapa Flow and sink as many Soviet warships as possible. Battleship went toe to toe with other battleships and a terrible exchange of fire followed. The battle lasted for hours with rough seas obstructing the sights and aims and each capital ship managing to withstand severe punishment. The screen ships, on the other hand, were being picked down as flies. Their fates were left to the water gods as the two fleets were busy exchanging fire and death. The fires could be seen and heard miles away and for a moment it seemed that British would manage to break the Soviets. However as the skies cleared the Soviet Air Force started to come in and unleash hell. More significant this meant the dreadful Soviet 406mm main guns could open up with great accuracy. One by one the British battleships, battlecruiser and heavy cruisers exploded. The thunderous sound of their explosions could be heard miles away. A surviving British sailor only remember "so much fire, screams. It was death everywhere. And the water, was thick from oil and cold as ice". The Battle of the English Channel was over.
A national disaster for Britain, an omen for the future?
The long theorized decisive battle between battleship finally came. And with it the confidence and morale of an otherwise stubborn people withered away. The Royal Navy was brutally crushed in two engagements, losing most of their carriers and several battleships and even the national pride of HMS Hood. The Royal Navy was supposed to be the insurnance from a naval invasion, the offensive into the English Channel was supposed to cut the Soviet forces off the mainland and slowly starve them out. But it was not to be, instead the Royal Navy faced a harsh defeat. It was a crippling blow and Trotsky celebrated in the capital and putting his naval adversaries to shame. The Battleship was still King, and the massive resources put into the new battleships was well worth it - or so it seemed. Still the Royal Navy consisted of the two surviving carriers, four battleships, five battlecruisers and nine heavy cruisers. The US Navy had a further 15 carriers, 12 battleships, 12 battlecruisers and 28 heavy cruisers. If the US Navy would challenge the Soviet Navy it would massively outnumber it. Yet one had to ask, where was the US Navy in this moment of need? The PACT won a decisive victory, still the war hadn't lasted for a full month yet and nothing was set in stone..
The Mighty Hood moves into position.
London had fallen. The country was in crisis. The Royal Navy had made it their solemn honor to protect the British Isles from foreign aggression as they in the Napoleonic Wars, the Great War and against Hitler. However with London fallen and most of southern England under Soviet occupation the people, politicians and generals alike were furious on the Royal Navy for their inability to do anything about the Red Menace. In fact they had been outmanuevered by the Soviets who positioned their superheavy battleships across the narrow straits of the Channel to deny the Royal Navy entry. Several skirmishes, patrols and incursions to break the Soviet blockade was tried, but they all fell short of the massive Soviet battleships, the lone Béarn carrier but most importantly the massive presence of the Soviet Air Force. However now the Admiralty spotted a chance. The Soviet battleships was taken for repair and refuel along the French and English coast, while several air wings were diverted away from the Channel to instead support the fighting inland. HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, steamed out from Scapa Flow and headed for the English Channel. Behind her lead was the five battleships of King George V., Malaya, Royal Sovereign, Rodney and Resolution, followed by the seven aircraft carriers of Glorious, Ark Royal, Furious, Illustrious, Formidable, Indomitabe and Victoious. Names that were sure to strike fear into the heart of Soviet sailors. Their goal: to crush the Soviet Navy.
Clash of titans.
A little after 1100 the first British ships headed into the English Channel, while the Soviet fleet was in being and caught off guard. The greatest naval clash since the Battle of Jutland was about to begin. At first it was but a minor raid with the Mighty Hood leading five fast battleships into battle, but supported by seven aircraft carriers. The Soviets, on the otherhand, had solely conventional warships, save for the single French carrier, and relied upon their massive firepower and landbased aircrafts. The British's plan was simple, evidence from the last world war made it clear to all the superiority of the aircraft carriers. They relied upon that the Hood and the battleships would raid into Soviet lines and keep them engaged while torpedo and dive bombers swooped in and took down the Soviet beasts one by one. It was said to be a clash between pre-World War and post-World War doctrines. Trotsky would pay dearly for his affinity to big guns, or so the British claimed. The British capital ships and screens moved into position to raid the Soviet bases waiting for the aircrafts to launch a surprise attack against the ships in base. The Soviet Navy would be sunk or forced to retreat and the Brittania would once more rule the waves, preventing any reinforcements and supplies reaching the Soviet invasion force. However the weather soon turned sour and the clouds gathered as the winds picked up and the rain poured down. The British aircrafts was grounded on their ships due to foul weather and poor planning; the limited air space was simply too crowded. Things went worse. The Soviet Air Force mounted a counterattack with a total of 435 fighter bombers and 107 torpedo bombers being ready to attack from the coast of France, Belgium and England. They all headed straight toward the raiding party. First to be attacked was HMS Resolution taking a critical torpedo hit to her stern. The Battleships continued to be under attack with all of the five battleships taking major or minor damage. But most shockingly a lone Il-2 came out of course, as it came out of the clouds it was positioned over HMS Furious and launched all of its rockets right onto the carrier. Several of the aircrafts on deck were caught in the explosions, however a fuel pipe was broken and all of the deck was consumed in fire. The aircraft carrier didn't receive any significant damage, however it was enough to prevent the deck from being used for a while. Other smaller raids were conducted on the aircraft carriers, however the Soviet airmen were wary of the British fighters and only minor damage were dealt with. The Royal Navy failed to deliver a crippling first strike and the Battle of the English Channel had just begun.
OOB: 4x superheavy (Soviet Belarus, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok) BB3: Lenin. BB1: Marat, October Revolution. BC2: Sevastopol. FRA BC=Dunkerque and Strasbourg.
The Royal Navy is getting boxed in..
The battle dragged on and several British warships were scrambled all over the Atlantic to partake in the ongoing clash. Among them were the heavy cruisers of HMS York and HMS Norfolk out on escort duty in the atlantic, with them they brought a trio of destroyers. Things went well for the new attachement, however by the evening they were spotted by a squadron of Soviet naval reconnaissance planes. The planes quickly reported back to a group of submarines operating in the area. And so the hunt began. The naval bombers came in on an attack vector dropping their torpedos, however they were quickly turned around under a hail of shells. However they managed to correct the course of the British cruiser duo who sailed straight into one of the Soviet submarines waiting for them. The sub alerted to the rest of the group the area the warships came in through and fired its torpedos. Sub-130 who waited for the capital missed its first shot and submerged out of the area. However two of the destroyers were falling in behind it, being equipped with state of the art sonars. However the destroyers were intercepted by another pair of submarines. While HMS Vesper diverted to deal with Sub-206, Sub-130 turned around. Vesper managed to deal damage to Sub-206, however 130 hit a direct hit on Vesper, forcing it to turn around. Barely managing keep afloat, with several of its crew already dead Vesper were non functioning. HMS Blanche steamed forward to retreat rescue covering her retreat. After dropping several depth charges and other countermeasures Sub-130 were wrecked and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. However Blanche decided not to follow Vesper back and remained to fight. Another sub, number 301, fell victim to the destroyer, however as Blanche was isolated she soon became the victim of several torpedo and cannon shots. The final killing blow came from Sub-118. As they were still in battle they couldn't afford to rescue the survivors. Now with only one remaining escort the two cruisers came under fire from all directions. They navigated out of harm's way from most torpedos, but the massive swarm of Soviet subs and bombers were too much for the cruisers. Submarine-402 sunk HMS Norfolk while 422 sunk HMS York. The Western Approaches was in effect shut off as a point of reinforcement for the English Channel.
Soviet Belarus block the Channel.
Gunshots, torpedos and bombs echoed through the entire night. Explosions and fires were no longer isolated to the English coast, but the entire channel was lit up. Both sides watched by and cheered for their own ships. Still little had been done under the hours of the contact. However the British managed to get in more reinforcements, primarly the aging battlecruiser of HMS Repulse leading in four new heavy cruisers and several screens. They rammed right through the Soviet lines with one French destroyer being sunk. However as the night battle came to a conclusion the Royal Navy had to face the harsh reality. Under the guise of the night the Soviets had moved their dreadful ships of Soviet Belarus and Vladivostok to block the channel and keep the British in. These enormous ships had in the day only been matched by the Yamato class battleships. With them gone the Soviet Republic class "superheavy" battleships were the largest ships in the world. With their dreadful 460mm cannons they could fire upon their enemies well before they could, and they were designed to withstand severe punishment. Moreover there were two more of them. The British sent Hood, four heavy cruisers and several destroyers being supported by two carriers to break the blockade. But under the ravaging fire all four of the heavy cruisers were sunk by the two superheavy battleships, and while they functioned as bait the many torpedo and fighter-bombers dived in and delivered most of the punishment. In all four heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and one destroyer sunk. The Royal Navy had sailed into a trap. It became clear only one side could get out of the carnage alive.
Soviet submarines surge deep into American seas.
Meanwhile further to the east the Soviet submarine fleet moved further and further out of Vladivostok. While trying to find American merchant convoys they were instead taken up by an American detachment patrolling the Philippine Sea hoping to end the submarine threat. The Americans sunk one Soviet submarine, however at the cost of three of its own destroyers. It became clear that the Soviets had learned well from the Germans, and an invasion of the Soviet Far East was simply too dangerous with the submarines hunting for prey all over the Far East.
HMS Formidable on fire after a critical hit.
The battle raged on for days. A Soviet sailor later sai "it was a nightmare that never ended. We were trapped in this constant state of alert. Sometimes we envied the dead as they had peace". Battleships longed to engage in head on battles however the warplanes on both sides prevented any noteworthy advances. Meanwhile the battlecruisers of both sides raided the heavy and lesser cruisers. In a final attempt to push the two superheavy battleships aside the aircrafts carriers of HMS Formidable and HMS Illustrious steamed ahead with their CAGs bombarding the Soviet Republic ships. The destroyers that escorted them were sunk as they came into the range of the monstrous battleships. The two aircraft carriers came under heavy fire and were only saved by their own CAGs keeping the battleships occupied while a pair of fast battleships came in from the North Sea to relieve the aircraft carriers. Formidable and Illustrious made the.. formidable task of managing to escape through the blockade. Instead of taking up the chase the Soviets maintained their blockade and the two British carriers was severly damaged. The Soviets responded by taking in the wrecks of scuttled and damaged warships from the Second World War and provide obstacles in the waters to prevent a future escape.
Mare Nostrum.
Meanwhile in the Mediterranean the Royal Navy launched another major operation. Their goal to sink the Black Sea Fleet and open up the road to Trotskygrad and then Ukraine and Russia. However the British underestimated the Soviet battlefleet again. It was nothing but a disaster for the British. Operating against the Arkhangelask class and Karl Marx of the Lenin class (both having 406mm cannons) and the Kronstadt battlecruisers the British soon walked into a deathtrap. By three in the morning the battle that lasted through the night came to an end. Only one battlecruiser remained and the brunt of the British fleet in the Mediterranean was gone. It became clear that the Admiralty didn't quite understand the scope of things as the Soviets managed to open up the straits and they paid dearly. The Mediterranean was in dire need of reinforcements, however the Pact was in the process of closing Gibraltar and the Suez. The Pact was close to achieving total dominance in the region.
The Far East Fleet remain contained..
Even further to the east the Soviet Far East Fleet stationed in Vladivostok was emboldened by the success of their comrades in the west. So they shipped out of their waters and headed toward the Philippines. However by the coast of Korea they were stopped by USS Canberra and her escorts. USS Canberra and two destroyers were sunk, however USS Helena remained. Still for that price four Soviet destroyers were sunk and they were forced to retreat. On paper it might look as if the Soviets would win, however American tactical grasp won the day and the Soviets were outmanuevered. Moreover the Soviets feared that an American carrier task force or battleship squadron would appear and finish of the Far East Fleet, as such they retreated and licked their wounds in Vladivostok.
The Mighty Hood is no more!
A disaster rarely comes alone. After the defeat in the Mediterranean the British suffered a crippling blow to their morale. Something happened that shouldn't happen, the Mighty Hood was defeated. Hood and HMS King George V. wanted to end the raids by the Soviet battlecruiser of Sevastopol and the two French dunkerque class battlecruisers. The trio used their excellent speed and armament in a cruiser and destroyer killer role scoring several victories. The British of course wanted this to come to an end. Hood, King George and CAGs set out to hunt them down. They came under a duel and it became clear the Hood and King George overpowered the battlecruisers. Their armor was weaker. Instead they pulled out and directed several air strikes upon the battleship and Hood. This obscured their vision, and the communications of Hood went down. King George got reports of approaching battleships and that the escorting carriers were under fire, making the CAGs retreat. Hood pushed ahead and they soon came under fire from the approaching Murmansk and Lenin battleships dealing significant damage to the once mighty ship. Soon Novorossiysk led on the aging Matar and October Revolution battleships to cut off the axis of retreat for Hood and King George. Both warships came under heavy fire from both sea and air. King George was in full flames after several direct shots from the battleships as well as torpedo hits and made a last ditched retreat under a screen of smoke. However Strasbourg caught up with King George and struck the killing blow into the ship carrying the name of the former king. Hood on the other hand managed to use her mighty speed to outrun the battleships, albeit at a severly reduced state, and even sunk several destroyers and a cruiser. The Mighty Hood prevailed where King George did not, but fate had it a French light cruiser managed to destroy it. HMS Hood was at the breaking point, however the light cruiser that came into its path managed to lodge out shot that went right through the weakened (and already weak) roof of the Hood. Soon the many flames and explosions spread to the magazine aft which exploded. Eyewitnesses told of the ship expanding and retracting like an accordion before it exploded right in the middle. Reports had it green fires blew straight up to the skies. The Mighty Hood was no more, and it was a profound shock to the British morale. As it was not enough with London haven fallen and a fullscale invasion of England well underway, the pride of the Royal Navy was no more. Many saw it as an omen for what was to come.
The British Mediterranean Fleet are no match.
Outside of the coast of the British Mandate of Palestine the Royal Navy conducted several smaller raids, primarly the remaining Battlecruiser leading submarines into raiding parties. Several smaller skirmishes like that resulted in loss of British submarines, but no Soviet ships. The battlecruiser, on the other hand, remained afloat and became some sort of symbol. A symbol of persistence over the Soviet war machine and for the Soviets a symbol of defiance that needed to be ended.
The new kingpin of the seas are no more.
For days both sides continued their battles and skirmishes all over the English Channel. The air forces of both sides prevented any real gains for both sides. There was no decisive battle that admirals all over the world had longed for after the inconclusive Battle of Jutland. The Soviets made a radical plan. Sevastopol, Lenin, Marat and the October Revolution would engage the British battle squadron. While they drew fire and most of the CAGs were tied up in this risky battle, the Soviet superheavy battleships of Soviet Belarus, Novorossiysk, Murmansk and Vladivostok moved in with the two French battlecruisers and the carrier of Béarn. Their goal was not the battleships, but rather to hunt down the carriers. Through the Second World War there had been poor results in battleships engaging carriers head on, resulting in the former king of the seas escorting merchant ships or carriers. However the Soviets had a major airfleet of their own, and most of the British planes were engaging in the battlefleet skirmish. Wave after wave of Il-2s and Il-4s opened up the assault crippling the British carriers. Il-4s flew in with torpedos before breaking off, followed by Il-2s unleashing a volley of rockets, with the next wave coming in with 20mm cannons. The fourth wave came in high above the clouds diving and dropping their payloads. It was such tactics that managed to sink HMS Glorious. The torpedo gunner of the Il-4 that brought down the ship said "the smoke was a thick wall from all the oil that was aflame under us from the last days of battle and especially the previous waves hitting the carriers. I was told to get ready as the pilot descended. Our bomber was much larger than most airplanes and we were a sitting duck for the anti-air guns from the many destroyers and cruisers around us. Plane after plane dropped down or burst into flames around us. I yelled at the pilot to pull out, but he refused even as our left engine took a solid hit. I aimed and dropped the torpedo. I didn't get to see the results as we had to crashland in the water. But we were welcomed as heroes once we got home. We had sunk it!" The British were shocked and in disbelief. HMS Glorious were breaking apart right in front of them, explosion after explosion. The dreadful superheavy battleships then closed in and opened up their cannons after several destroyers sent in their torpedos. All of the five remaining carriers were sunk. Glorious by the war planes, Victorious by Dunkerque , Furious by Murmansk, Ark Royal by Novorossiysk and Indomitable by Soviet Belarus. The British battleships disengaged from their current battle to come to the aid of the carriers, but it was too late. It was a crucial victory for the Red Fleet. With the British carriers out of the way they gained air supremacy. Nothing could stop them now.
Soviet battleships open up.
The final clash came early morning of the 12th. The remaining battlecruiser HMS Repulse and the four remaining battleships of Malaya, Resolution, Royal Sovereign and Rodney prepared for a final strike. To escape by to Scapa Flow and sink as many Soviet warships as possible. Battleship went toe to toe with other battleships and a terrible exchange of fire followed. The battle lasted for hours with rough seas obstructing the sights and aims and each capital ship managing to withstand severe punishment. The screen ships, on the other hand, were being picked down as flies. Their fates were left to the water gods as the two fleets were busy exchanging fire and death. The fires could be seen and heard miles away and for a moment it seemed that British would manage to break the Soviets. However as the skies cleared the Soviet Air Force started to come in and unleash hell. More significant this meant the dreadful Soviet 406mm main guns could open up with great accuracy. One by one the British battleships, battlecruiser and heavy cruisers exploded. The thunderous sound of their explosions could be heard miles away. A surviving British sailor only remember "so much fire, screams. It was death everywhere. And the water, was thick from oil and cold as ice". The Battle of the English Channel was over.
A national disaster for Britain, an omen for the future?
The long theorized decisive battle between battleship finally came. And with it the confidence and morale of an otherwise stubborn people withered away. The Royal Navy was brutally crushed in two engagements, losing most of their carriers and several battleships and even the national pride of HMS Hood. The Royal Navy was supposed to be the insurnance from a naval invasion, the offensive into the English Channel was supposed to cut the Soviet forces off the mainland and slowly starve them out. But it was not to be, instead the Royal Navy faced a harsh defeat. It was a crippling blow and Trotsky celebrated in the capital and putting his naval adversaries to shame. The Battleship was still King, and the massive resources put into the new battleships was well worth it - or so it seemed. Still the Royal Navy consisted of the two surviving carriers, four battleships, five battlecruisers and nine heavy cruisers. The US Navy had a further 15 carriers, 12 battleships, 12 battlecruisers and 28 heavy cruisers. If the US Navy would challenge the Soviet Navy it would massively outnumber it. Yet one had to ask, where was the US Navy in this moment of need? The PACT won a decisive victory, still the war hadn't lasted for a full month yet and nothing was set in stone..
Well, that's Europe gone. Nothing but the US Fleet, all of it, showing up would save the British isles now. Everywhere else is definetly going to fall. And with the Med swept clear, North Africa probably isn't going to last long either.
The Royal Navy when it was needed the most. Hopefully Gibraltar and Suez falls soon so that the oil and our southern flank is secured. But then where to next? Massive battles in India or China?