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Chapter Nine- WWIII
World War III- Part 3

When the smoke cleared from the ruined cities, the situation had profoundly changed. Before this, it had been acceptable to use nuclear weapons in a tactical setting. The bombings of Beijing, Fulda, and Kessel had infuriated the Chinese and West Germans but had not come as a great moral offence to the rest of the world. Going back further, while the world was shocked by the ruthlessness of Truman as he nuked three Asian cities to get his way, and while some had been horrified by Eisenhower's destruction of Sapporo, these were all seen as within the accepted rules of modern war. But indiscriminately destroying city after city as a means of blackmailing the enemy into submission, without any clear purpose save to create terror... that was something else again. Of course, the brutal new strategy had its defenders. People pointed to the Allied strategic bombing of Germany in World War II, and especially to the destruction of Dresden, as examples of a precedent for this sort of action. The Americans, furthermore, were able to say, "well, Brezhnev started it." Yet, there was a moral red line which, in the eyes of the world, both Brezhnev and Johnson had crossed. Lastly, on January 6 and 7, 1965, a new meaning was given to the phrase "playing with fire." On those two days, the human race had come perilously close to extinction, in a day which made the Cuban Missile Crisis seem pale by comparison. (1) Everyone was conscious that, unlike all of the other times when nuclear weapons had been deployed, the human race had truly been brought to the brink. That was no doubt one of the reasons why World War III remained the last nuclear conflict on Earth- everyone became aware of the deadly potential of the weapons they held in their hands in a way they had not been for the past 20 years.

However, little of this was obvious on January 8, 1965. All throughout Europe, China, and the Soviet Union, people lived in fear that they would be obliterated in a nuclear strike. Not just civilians, but soldiers in the field were fair game. Yet... hours lengthened into days, and nuclear death didn't come. Although Brezhnev and Johnson kept their fingers on the nuclear buttons, they didn't push them again. This was because Brezhnev, rage-filled though he was, had figured out what the Americans were doing. Five Allied cities had been indiscriminately targeted for long-range destruction simply for terror purposes, in retaliation, five Soviet cities had met the same fate. Johnson's plan was to deter Brezhnev from destroying any more cities by destroying a Soviet city with ICBMs for every Allied one to fall: Stalingrad was next on the list, followed by Alma-Ata. The reason for not placing Moscow on the list for destruction was that, although it would've slaked the Western thirst for revenge to wipe out the Soviet government, to do so might send the USSR collapsing into warlordism, and no-one in the West was too keen on the notion of warlords going around indiscriminately with nuclear weapons and the ICBM capacity to hit anywhere east of the Prime Meridian with them...

Nonetheless, although the tide was rapidly turning, the war would continue until the Soviets gave in...

January 9- 16, 1965: Allied intelligence tricks the Soviets into thinking that an offensive aimed against Frankfurt is coming, through the newly reopened (albeit tenuous) corridor between southern and northern West Germany. Allied radio communications allowed to fall into Soviet hands discuss a concentration of troops in Saarbrucken and Heidelberg, for an offensive presumably targeted at Frankfurt. The Stavka also picks up the name "Operation Gettysburg"...

January 13, 1965: Sun Lijen's troops commence a siege of Tianjin. Fearful of what the Chinese will do to them, most of the Soviet troops fight to the death. However, many of the Manchurian troops (at least, the Mandarin-speaking ones), are all too eager to discard their Communist uniforms for Nationalist ones and cross over to the enemy lines. General Sun is aided by a timely uprising amongst the city's populace.

January 16, 1965: Operation Gettysburg commences. Contrary to the expectations of the Stavka, it is located nowhere near Frankfurt. Instead, it is a powerful thrust towards Gottingen, in central Germany. Gettysburg is accompanied by massive Allied air support to prevent a Soviet tactical nuclear weapon being used, however, the Stavka do not utilise the ultimate weapon here. Gottingen is liberated on the twenty-fifth by the West German Second Panzergrenadier Division. The Soviet positions in Wolfsburg and Brunswick are now increasingly vulnerable...

January 22, 1965: Although this will not be revealed until the brief Occupation of Moscow later in the year, on this date Leonid Brezhnev orders state premier Alexsei Kosygin executed. With Kosygin dead, there is now no-one left to oppose Brezhnev's will, which will make for a dangerous situation once the Soviet leader's already fragile mental health begins to tumble further...

February 1, 1965: Sino-American troops liberate the city of Langfang, placing them within range of a strike against Beijing.

February 5-17, 1965: Another Indian offensive into Tibet bogs down, causing nothing more than higher piles of bodies on both sides. Some within India begin to consider removing Prime Minister Kandispal Vispoot and the Communist Party from power, although no-one presently has the means for such a coup.

February 12, 1965: The largest Allied attack of the German war thus far- Operation Skeleton- opens with all armies attacking the perimeter of the great Soviet salient from Bayreuth to Frankfurt to just south of Kassel created by the Scorpion and Gettysburg operations. Many are quick to compare this attack to Operation Citadel of 1943, especially those West Germans and Soviets whose fathers fought in that battle, or indeed, those officers who were mere infantrymen at Kursk.

The going is long, slow, and hard, with the Russians giving ground very slowly and inflicting the highest casualties of any battle in WWIII- for that matter, since day one of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (if nuclear attacks are discounted, that is.) An astounding 63,000 Warsaw Pact troops alone are killed on day one alone, while the Allies lose approximately 38,000 dead. One reason for the (comparatively) lower Allied casualties, from an army of only slightly larger size, is the fact that their tactics place less emphasis on human wave attacks. It need not be said that prisoners are not being taken here. Every day, the weakened Soviets retreat just enough that the Allies retain the will to keep going, but do not for one moment fold. Both sides commit huge numbers of fighters to ward off enemy nuclear bombers, and dogfights become common sights in the skies above. Perilously, Russian resistance is weakest (although that is very much a relative term here) at the base of the salient.

February 21, 1965: The Second Battle of Beijing commences. It's the largest action in either theatre of WWIII so far, with 1.2 million Chinese troops and nine American divisions taking part. Weakened by the conventional bombing of supply lines (as well as the near-constant carpet-bombing runs by both Chinese and US bombers), conditions rapidly become hellish for the Soviet defenders. Over the course of three weeks, the city is combed of Warsaw Pact troops in a battle every bit as vicious as Stalingrad. The radiation in Beijing only makes things worse, and an astounding 90% of soldiers who survived the battle will develop cancer at some point in the next five years. By the time Beijing is liberated, it will be in complete ruins, with quite literally not one building left fully intact. Almost all of the city's residents are dead, with only a handful having been able to get away before the Soviet occupation, after which there was no escape.

February 27, 1965: After fifteen days of fierce fighting, the Allies and Soviets have a climactic clash at the Second Battle of Jena, which will put its Napoleonic counterpart in the shade. For much of the day, it seems to be simply one of the largest land battles in history, however, the Allies retreat from their pincer assault unexpectedly at four PM, seemingly ceding the whole base of the salient to the Soviets. The Warsaw Pact commanders should have realised the danger and dispersed their force into several packets. Instead, they attempt to switch over to the offensive, thinking that the Allied retreat was conducted out of weakness. However, only fifteen minutes after their "victory", the first mushroom cloud goes up...

The loss to attrition and nuclear fire at Jena of such a huge chunk of the Red Army- to say nothing of the Warsaw Pact cannon fodder so necessary to provide a buffer- sends Brezhnev into a rage, and he quite literally "shoots the messenger"- that is, he orders the execution of the man who tells him. However, a lick of sense remains in his brain, as he does not order more strategic nuclear strikes against Allied cities, as he knows that Soviet ones will be destroyed in retaliation. Nonetheless, more than ever, Brezhnev remains determined to win the war, even as the odds lengthen...

The next post will conclude World War III

Comments? Suggestions?

(1) Indeed, TTL's view of the Cuban Missile Crisis will be far less extreme than in our world
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