alternatehistory.com

While it was pretty obvious that the Baltic-Adriatic Coalition had no option but to decline the Final Ultimatum and thus enter a state of war with France, a foreign observer would view this chain of events as madness. Did the Germans lose their minds? Sure, Visegrad, South Germania and Spain all had competent militaries, but they were set to fight against France AND Lithuania, the two most powerful nations in Europe. Lithuania was the most populous country in the continent and could thus field a powerful army, while the French military was fully modernized and no joke, either. They also had more magenta ships than the rest of the world combined. On economic terms, the situation didn't seem to favor the Coalition, either - France was the undisputed powerhouse in Europe, first in industrial output, and while Visegrad was second, Lithuania was a close third.

But what the Coalition had as an undisputed advantage was superior morale. Especially among German troops, who were ready to die for their Fatherland and it's inevitable unification, even if it meant fighting the juggernaut next door. France and Lithuania, meanwhile, suffered from internal problems - many in the former were opposed to the government's imperialistic ambitions, while the latter was composed of dozens of nationalities which sought to separate from this "prison of nations".

The Western Front, composed of the borders of France and the Netherlands on one side and the two Germanias on another, was the most lively field of operations in the first months of the war. The North German army was rapidly mobilized and sent to deal with the stationed French troops within the country, which at the time were mostly limited to their bases on the coast, near major cities and along the Elbe. Even if they were presented as a major threat to North German sovereignty, when the time came for them to fight, the results were abysmal - most French garrisons were undersupplied, disorganized and manned by barely trained troops, and most of them surrendered within weeks, if not days. The major exception was the French station in Berlin, a minor town in eastern parts of the country that was turned into a French fort, which was manned by the elite 11th Chasseur Battalion and managed to endure superior German assaults until May 30th, when it finally raised the white flag after leaving over 5 000 German attackers dead in the outskirts of the fortress.

Meanwhile, the main French forces attacked German-controlled Rhineland, rolling over the light defenses in the region, capturing most of the coal-producing regions at the Ruhr Valley and surrounding areas, and finally reached the river Rhine by March 20th. The French high command, led by Field Marshal Jérôme Lazard, was confident that it could break into Germania proper and end this war as soon as it began, but this is where they were met with a surprising turn of events. Knowing that the French army which was stationed at the border could overrun Germania if sufficient preparations are not done, South Germania made contingency plans for such a conflict in advance, and one of them, dubbed Operation Faust, was enacted in the last third of March. Within about a week, almost all bridges, barges and other means of transport across the Rhine were demolished, destroyed or pulled out of the river, cutting Germania off from France with a wall of water.

Both the Germans and the French knew that this was only a temporary measure - pontoon bridges, barges and ships existed and could be used to transport soldiers across the Rhine, but preparing and manufacturing the means to move an entire army would take a long time, and time is what the Germans needed the most. For now, however, the eyes were turned towards the Alps and the Netherlands, both of whom were unaffected by Operation Faust for obvious reasons, while the rest of the front turned into a stalemate, only livened up by artillery firing at each other from across the river and garrisoned troops overlooking their opponents.


A similar stalemate developed in the Pyrenean Front between Spain and France. Within the first weeks of the war, French forces rolled over Roussillon, inflicting heavy casualties upon the Spanish defenses there and destroying a few divisions through encirclements - however, behind it stood a natural wall, the mountain range known as the Pyrenees. Much like South Germania, Spain made plans for a potential future conflict with France, and it included using the mountain range to it's full defensive capacity. Expert, specialized and acclimated mountain infantry, supported by strategically placed artillery divisions and having the advantage of knowing the land through prepared detailed maps of the region, helped to halt the French advance. One of the earliest major battles in this front happened in the county of Andorra - formerly a tiny principality which was annexed into Spain after the Twenty Years' War - where the French 11th Army attempted to make a breakthrough. The Battle of Andorra la Vella lasted from April 21st to May 19th, and even though both sides suffered great losses, the French troops eventually pulled back after leaving over 26 000 of their own dead on the field, in comparison to 19 000 Spanish losses. The French troops dug in and fortified on the outskirts of the mountain range, and much like in the West, the front became stationary for the time being.

A front where natural barriers did not pose a problem, however, was the Eastern Front. The Lithuanians marched into war with joy and pride, ready to roll over Visegrad and raise their flag above Buda and Prague by 1912, but their dreams faced a harsh reality. Much like the other members of the Baltic-Adriatic Coalition, Visegrad had been preparing for this war for some time, and the Imperial forces faced a harsh and stiff resistance. Within the wide front, the Visegradians dug in and employed modern technology like machine guns, indirect artillery fire and reconnaissance aircraft to hold back enemy charges and leave thousands dead in their wake. However, it would be incorrect to say that Lithuania did not achieve any success in the first months, though - the Imperial forces managed to advance a few dozen kilometers across Poland, and while it may sound like little, the Lithuanians were only preparing for the actual offensive, which was set to take place in late June. The Battle of Lutsk was the most notable battle in the first months of the war - there, the Lithuanians besieged a major Visegradian salient within their territory, attacking it from three sides, with over three times the manpower of their opponent. After a month of grueling skirmishes, mass charges and trench warfare, the General Staff finally gave the order to evacuate the salient, although some defenders remained on principle alone. Meanwhile, Visegrad went on the offensive in the Duchy of Wallachia-Moldavia, a Lithuanian client state. Despite being supplied with equipment from their overlord, the Wallachians and Moldavians lacked the training and the expertise necessary to make use of it. By June, the Visegradian forces had broken through the Carpathians and began approaching the city of Craiova.


Lithuanians did not achieve great success in the Northern Front, either. Here, their front lines with Sweden went through the Karelian Isthmus and the frozen depths of Northern Europe. The Swedish military was perhaps the smallest out of the entire Coalition, only numbering 50 000 men at the start of the war, but it was a professional volunteer army, trained to fight in the boreal forest and tundra. Lithuania, meanwhile, assigned the 4th Imperial Army under the wing of General Nikolaj Blagochevsky, and the High Command drew up orders to take the Isthmus and most of Karelia by the end of the year. This proved to be nearly impossible, as the tough weather in the region and strong Swedish resistance pushed back all Lithuanian advances. The permafrost made it tough to dig in, too, so the Lithuanians were disadvantaged. In some places in Karelia, the Swedes even managed to advance into their adversary's territory, taking over a few villages, but otherwise, the front remained static.

Despite being called the "Great European War", the Great European War was not limited to Europe - fighting took place in Africa, too, where the French protectorate, Egypt, faced off against Visegradian Tripolitania. The garrisons in Tripolitania were small and far from home, mostly composed of soldiers from the mainland who knew little about the land or it's intricacies, and the majority of the population disliked Visegradian rule - thus, it comes off as no surprise that Egypt was successful in this front, despite heavy losses on both sides. On May, the Egyptians captured Tobruk and continued advancing beyond, towards Benghazi. Skirmishes between French and Spanish protectorates in Central Africa also took place, although with no long-term results.

The first months of the war came to an end. Many, many more were left to go. No new nations joined the war in this period of time, but many were standing at crossroads, forced to pick a side sooner or later. The Ottomans were one of those nations, pressured and courted both by Visegrad and by Lithuania to join their respective sides - and the latter was ready to take up on some... unconventional methods. The VFS, Portugal, Britannia and Volga Russia also had their own dilemmas to solve.