Napoleon's Victory [LONG]
- Thread starter Zach
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Bump for new readers who may enjoy this.
College is wonderful
Glad to hear you're liking college!
Bump for new readers who may enjoy this.
College is wonderful
Good luck, and beware of girls or they'll keep you from completing this masterpiece TL!
Typo
I apologize for my inactivity...there has been just such a large transition in my life. I promise the end of the Second World War by the time 2009 comes around.
Please don't take a cheap shot and put the update up on December 31st.
Anyway, glad to hear that you're enjoying college. I had the idea of people writing guest posts to fill in the absence of the official timeline.
UPDATE!
Dear AHdotcommers,
Here is an update since it has been too long since I've posted one (two months or so?!)...as much as I hate to post an incompleted war, here is the first two years of Great War 2. Please, there are many twists and turns planned for the war so try not to speculate too much about where the war is headed! You might be right and all my thunder will be stolen.
Many apologies for the now infrequent and shorter updates...college is not only wonderful and fascinating but also BUSY. I haven't had much self time until now, as it is Fall Break. I guess the next update will have to happen during the next break...Thanksgiving.
You may want to re-read the last few parts to get caught up to speed on where the TL currently is.
Enjoy!
Second Great War (1935-1942)
1935: The Opening Battles
Simply put, the war began in an act of Russian aggression. On July 5th, 1935 the Empire of Russia and its mighty army numbering over 1.3 million men, swept into Romania with no notable pretext. The massive force was supported by the newest trucks and armored cars Russia could offer. Planes and airships dotted the sky and the Romanian military, for the second time in two years, melted away. Indeed it had been modernized with aid from France but the imperial Russian forces had also modernized exponentially. The invasion of Romania was unwarranted; Russia claimed the land for itself but two years before had tried the same act only to withdraw at the threat of war. In 1935, Morchenko and Czar Michael III agreed they would risk war for the conquest of Romania, Turkey and the liberation of millions of Slavs under the boot of the Ottoman oppressor. Morchenko realized that France would never stand for this but he was pleased he had a strong alliance with Prussia, for Prussia would be Russia’s buffer to the west. Newly powerful Poland would be forced to focus on Prussia, while Russian troops could focus on their long-desired goals: the Balkan liberation and the straits. The grand Russian strategy was extensively planned and rehearsed in the minds of capable generals. Morchenko gambled his strategy on the ability of Prussia to hold on long enough for Russia to achieve its goals.
The surprise attack on Romania on July 5th caused a shock and uproar in Napoleon IV’s court. War was immediately and unanimously declared the following day. The Russian ambassador in Paris was given such cold treatment that “I literally shook with glee as I flew away.” Europe was suddenly plunged into war. The Ottoman Empire, under the rule of the semi-progressive and corrupt Mustafa V, quickly mobilized its army with the inevitable Russian threat. The rough border in the Caucuses Mountains quickly became the scene of violent firefights, even though Russia and Turkey were technically not at war yet. The rocky terrain was the site of vicious fighting.
Europe was further engulfed into the dark mire of war when militant Prussia, itching for revenge and glory, attacked the Kingdom of Poland on July 9th. France immediately came to the aid of its loyal ally. The King of Poland, Augustus V, had not been on the throne for four full years when he found his country under attack from two powerful opponents, Russia and Prussia. Since 1905, Poland had industrialized quite heavily and was self-sufficient in the creation of much military equipment. Still, France supplied hundreds of artillery and trucks to Poland. The Polish military was large and after mobilization outnumbered the Prussia military. However, the majority of its military were conscripts. All men were called up to serve for one-year intervals, in order to ensure the greatest number of trained men available. This policy was created in 1907 as it became evident that Poland could no longer depend on France solely for aid. Postwar Poland was a wealthier, larger and prouder nation and many of its young men, with no memory of the last Great War, welcomed the chance to shoot at some Prussians. However, their large conscript army found a potent enemy in the smaller, yet highly-disciplined and advanced army invading it.
One enemy that had been overlooked in many French High Command planning sessions was Sweden. Though it possessed little direct threat to France itself, it remained a threat in that it provided a pool of warm bodies to its allies as its land force was a potent force. Indeed, a division had already been dispatched to Prussia by July 15th. On July 19th, exactly two weeks after Russia invaded Romania, Sweden launched a full-scale invasion of Norway, a Danish territory. And for the third time in two weeks, France issued a declaration of war on a member of the Quadruple League. Denmark, neutral for over one hundred years and possessing a small peacetime military, appealed to France for aid.
On July 22nd, under intense French pressure, the Empire of Germany formally declared war on Prussia. Finally, France had a land route to attack Prussia and in late July a series of Franco-German offensives were launched into Prussia. These offensives were stalled, however, with the surprising sturdiness of the Mueller Wall. The Mueller Wall had been built from 1928-1933 and was against the Congress of Copenhagen because they placed Prussia military units within 60 miles of its international borders. Ignored by the enforcers of the Congress until it was too late, the Mueller Wall was a defensive line of concrete placements, bunkers, artillery batteries, iron obstacles, and machine gun posts that stretched along the entire Prussian-German border. A secondary wall, the Elbe Wall, was placed on the Elbe River but was not as strong as the Mueller Wall. Millions had been put into these defensives and they played well with Prussian war goals: conquer Poland first and then focus on the western allies. When the Franco-German armies invaded Prussia, they did not expect the defensive line to be so strong or effective. Suddenly, the French and Germans seemed to halt on their brief advance. Poland was all alone.
By the end of July, 1935 Europe was thoroughly embroiled in war. Under French influence, Naples, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Southern Lusitania joined Denmark, the Ottoman Empire, Germany and Poland against Russia, Prussia and Sweden. Of all the traditional members of the Continental Alliance (the name the nations chose to use once again), only Greece declined to declare war on the Quadruple League. And of the four members of the Quadruple League, Japan declined to declare war on the European nations to the anger of Morchenko. Europe was at war and old battlegrounds were once again visited by violence: Poland, the Balkans, Prussia and the Caucuses. They were joined by a new front, the cold Norwegian front where Swedish invaders looked to conquer this part of Scandinavia.
The Polish theatre was by far shaping to be the most violent front. The Prussian invasion occurred on a wide front but the main thrust was aimed at the city of Gdansk, formerly Danzig. Prussia hoped to capture Poland’s sole major port to prevent any French supplies from reaching the country. Northwest Poland was the scene of major fighting in 1935 as Prussians and Poles battled. Prussian tracked armored cars (known as panzers) were effective against the largely infantry force of Poland, but the Poles did not possess any shortage of bravery. As a result, many panzers were taken out of action by the grenade of a courageous young soldier. Names such as Chojnice, Grudziadz, Bydgoszcz, Cieszyn and Starogard dominated international headlines as each town was the scene of a tremendous battle. At Starogard, the Poles were defeated and thus Prussians surrounded Danzig. The two largest battles in 1935 occurred at Poznan and Krakow. Prussians captured both cities in autumn and winter of 1935. To the east, Russian divisions made minor inroads into Poland but the front remained as Russia was focused on defeating Turkey. Nevertheless, the hostile border tied up dozens of desperately needed Polish divisions.
The Prussians were counting on a quick and speedy war, utilizing the combined arms doctrine that Russia had so efficiently used against Romania. They were unprepared for a fight against a courageous, modern enemy. Poland proved to be a worthy, prevailing enemy. Stubborn resistance offset years of Prussian planning. Poland was alone on the ground due to the presence of West Prussia blocking a passage for French and German troops (and because neutral Austria declined to allow the passage of any soldier in its territory). However, the Imperial French Air Force greatly aided Poland by initiating the aerial bombing of many Prussian military targets. The Polish air force was still a branch of the military in its infancy, comprised of many older French planes and inexperienced pilots. They were not match for the sleek Prussian planes. As France made deeper aerial attacks into Prussia, a few French soldiers were dropped into Poland via airship. In late 1935, over six hundred elite French troops were transported to Poland through the giants of the sky. These elite troops were highly trained specialists sometimes used behind Prussian lines in covert operations.
As the Polish theatre disintegrated somewhat into the gritty slog that characterized the Great War, the Russians were making huge advances via their combined arms strategy. Romania had been fully conquered by late August but a small enclave containing King John II still held it. He officially surrendered Romania on September 17th after he was captured by triumphant Russian soldiers. A month later he was dead, shot “while attempting escape” on his way to St. Petersburg. Instead of crying for revenge, most Romanians acquiesced to Russian submission.
Even before Romania had surrendered, to the horror of the Ottoman Empire the Russian juggernaut did not stop at the Romanian border. Without even a declaration of war, a massive Russian tide swept into Ottoman Empire while simultaneously a large Russian force attacked from the Caucuses. In all, about five million Russian soldiers – supported by thousands of armored cars, tracked armored cars, trucks, planes, horses and even limited naval support – invaded the Ottoman Empire, the largest force against a single nation ever used in warfare. The autumn of 1935 saw stunning Russian successes and Russia looked to an even successful New Year.
1936: Pan-Slavism Realized
Contrary to the high hopes of the leadership of the Allied countries, 1936 did not turn into the year of Allied victories. In fact, it was a dismal year for the Allied forces. Almost immediately, the year turned sour for the Allied at the Battle of Danube’s Mouth when an entire Ottoman army was surrounded and taken prisoner in mid-January. The Russian army continued its steady advance across the Balkans with spirited resistance from the Ottomans. The Russians largely outclassed their Turkish counterparts even though both militaries were heavily infantry. Sheer numbers overwhelmed the Ottoman army who could not sport more than a million men in the Balkans, and in many battles the Russians outnumbered the Turks two or three to one.
In addition, the local population began to embrace the advancing Russians. Long oppressed under the Turkish yoke, millions of Balkan Slavs were resigned to perpetual persecution from the Ottomans until Morchenko’s rhetoric became action. Buoyed by Russian victories and severe cuts in the number of local garrison troops, old Slavic nationalist groups were reformed or rekindled. They carried out acts of subversion on Turkish military targets across the Balkans, widely ranging from assassination of high-ranking officers to simple tasks such as slashing Ottoman tires. They were poorly armed and unorganized on a national level, but on a local level they were effective at riling the population against the Turks and to welcome the Russians as liberators.
Indeed, the Russian army was greeted as liberators in countless villages across the Balkans as its advance continued toward the Danube and Olt Rivers. At the confluence of these rivers and along the north-south stream of the Olt River, the Ottomans had built a series of formidable defenses they hoped the Russians would stop at. The Danube River was also heavily fortified and provided an excellent natural barrier against the Russian troops. Throughout spring of 1936, the Ottomans retreated slowly allowing time for the defenses along the Danube to be built and refined. A showdown was in the works.
Meanwhile, in the Caucuses, the Russians made serious gains once the winter snows had melted and spring weather allowed Russian trucks to move along the scant roads. Despite the occasional threat of roaming Ottoman guerrilla groups, the Caucuses front was a spectacular success for the Russians. Part of this can be attributed to their total artillery superiority in the sector; the best Turkish artillery units had been sent to the Balkan front and many Ottoman units on this front had no artillery support at all. The advance on this front was slower than in the Balkans simply because the terrain was rougher. Here, the numerical disparity between the two combatants was more pronounced leading to many Russian victories.
In March, the Empire of Germany suddenly erupted into violence as hundreds of Frommist activists launched terrorist attacks across the country. These men were undercover Prussians or Germans with strong pro-Prussian sentiments who embraced the Frommist ideology. Their aim was to cow the German government into separate peace with Prussia at the minimum and perhaps even turn Germany against France. Their targets were a mix between civilian and military. A lot of destruction ensued and over a thousand people died as dozens of bombs were set off in government buildings, public squares and even army barracks. The highest-ranking casualty was the German Minister of Transportation, a post quickly filled. As the attacks abated after two days of near constant bombing across the country, brutal crackdowns characterized Germany. Over half of the terrorists were caught within a month and all those caught were hanged or shot with no trial. Many more fled to Prussia but some remained in Germany to continue their work. Indeed, for the next six months there was at least one attack per week. They quickly ceased after the public hanging of six terrorists, though the last terrorist bomb would explode in September of 1937. Overall, over two thousand people were killed from the Frommist bombs and they were more or less a failed tactic. The imperial German government was not cowed into submitting to Prussia. Instead, with their population even more riled against an enemy that condoned the killing of innocents, Germany was even more united against Prussia. It was a tactic that backfired heavily.
However, the Frommist March coincided with dark days for Germany, France and especially Poland. Throughout the war so far, Russia had applied massive pressure on the Ottoman Empire and hardly any on Poland. After all, they thought the Prussians would take care of Poland on its own. When Polish resistance proved too strong for a quick campaign, Prussian leaders pressured the Russian military to act on Poland’s eastern border. Like Prussia’s western border with Germany, the eastern border of Poland was site of a powerful defensive wall, simply known as the Eastern Line. Russia started making forays into the defensive works in March and began light bombing runs into Poland, where brave pilots of the Polish Air Force engaged them in numerous dogfights. As summer came along, more Russian soldiers began to apply pressure on Poland’s Eastern Line. Manned by only a few divisions, the Poles were highly outnumbered but were successful in their efforts to defend Poland’s eastern border because of the powerful defenses and the half-heartedness of the Russian assaults. Russian movements coincided with concentrated efforts by the Prussians to make headway into Poland. Prussia was also fighting a two-front war and in May, 1936 it became obvious that the massive Franco-German armies could indeed breakthrough the Mueller Line at a great cost of life. Meanwhile, Prussia made serious gains in the early summer weeks against Poland. Prussian panzers moved smoothly through western and northern Poland against Polish armored cars and the occasional cavalry unit. Prussian panzer units were not very numerous, as Prussia stressed quality over quantity in its production. Consequently, each lost panzer was more costly than a French tracked armored car would be.
It was the summer of 1936 that Poland experienced its darkest days. In June, a Russia offensive broke through a thinly defended section of the Eastern Line and immediately began pouring armored cars and tracked armored cars into the hole. Staunch Polish resistance was unable to stem the Russian tide and soon the whole line for miles disintegrated. Two weeks later, Prussia neared Warsaw and the Battle of Warsaw began between the two countries, though the battle never raged within the city limits itself. Warsaw was surrounded by extremely elaborate defensives including concrete emplacements and thirteen ultra-modern fortresses. Indeed, Poland had spent a fortune on defensive measures. Those defenses were put to good use from June 28th to September 9th, when the Prussians in numerous attempts attempted to surround the city and conquer it. The Battle of Warsaw raged through the hot summer months as the Russians slogged through Eastern Poland against almost fanatical resistance. Even though they were losing clearly the war, Poland was putting up an excellent defense.
The purpose of the drawn-out war was to allow the French time to come to Poland’s aid. Hampered by the power of the ultra-modern Mueller Wall, France was stalled for most of 1935 and 1936. They fought a brittle, stagnant war that was described as “more trench-y than the trenchiest of all wars, the last war”. That sort of warfare ended in a titanic struggle known as the Battle of Silesia. It was comprised of dozens of individual battles that raged throughout the summer of 1936 in the Prussian province of Silesia. The carnage was collectively called the Battle of Silesia, a modern replica of the Great War. The Battle of Silesia was fought through most of the summer of 1936 as Poland’s situation became more acutely dangerous. It was a race to see if the League would conquer Poland before the French broke through the Mueller Wall. It put tremendous pressure on Prussia, who had to hold back millions of French and Germans on the Mueller Wall as well as subdue Poland with lukewarm Russian aid.
Breaking the Mueller Wall, to no ones surprise, proved to be a most difficult and violent affair. Rather than assault the whole line, the French decided to focus exclusively on the Silesian section of the wall, the least developed and weakest of the wall because of its distance from Berlin. It was still a formidable system of defenses and since the war began thousands lay dead from failed assaults on it. June 30th was the first assault on the Mueller Wall and the first battle of the Battle of Silesia, known as the Battle of Festung Wilhelm II. A terrible and bloody assault that involved thousands of rounds of artillery, hundreds of bombers from the sky (most of whom were novices) and over four hundred thousand French and Germans, the battle ended a week later with the tricolor over the ruins of the great fortress. The cost was an appalling number of casualties that did not stop at Festung Wilhelm II. The Battles of Festung von Schueller, Scheidnitz, Brieg, Zitadelle Breslau, and Festung Oppeln all carried the horrifying note that each battle cost the combatants over one hundred thousand lives. In most battles, the Allies carried the burden of casualties by margins of 2:1. In each battle, the fortresses were pounded by long-range and short-range artillery as well as bombed and strafed by airwagons. Then the infantry was sent into the rubble to engage the surviving enemy, a long and bloody process that could not be expedited by modern weapons such as armored cars or French chars. Through July and August, the Battle of Silesia was fought among French and Germans, a violent and costly slog through a once beautiful countryside dotted with quaint towns. Instead, the quaint country churches were converted into items of war, the villages into objectives, the farmhouses into aerial targets and beautiful cities into smoldering ruins. Breslau, for example, became a city of rubble during the Battles of Zitadelle Breslau and Breslau from August 14 to September 3rd.
With the fall of Breslau came the fall of Silesia. The remaining Prussians between the victorious French and Poles were rounded up and taken prisoner. France and Germany had battered its way through the Mueller Wall successfully, but at a very heavy cost. French aid began to pour into Poland. However, Poland was not entirely saved and before French aid began to take affect, the Polish situation took a turn for worse. In late September, a Polish division on the Eastern Line was surrounded by Russian forces and surrounded. It was forced to surrender after three days of constant bombardment. The sudden loss of almost 25,000 experienced combat troops would be a tough obstacle to overcome for the beleaguered Poles.
The large battles raging in Silesia and Warsaw were briefly overshadowed in international headlines by a major League victory on June 14th. On that day, the Swedish military captured Oslo from Denmark after a vicious weeklong battle. All across the long border between Sweden and Norway, Swedish troops made significant headway in the summer months of 1936. Danish troops in Norway were numerically inferior to the Swedes although both were on par regarding fighting ability. It was a tough battle for the Swedes in the relatively rough terrain of Norway. However, the fall of Oslo proved a boon to the Swedish regime. In addition to the land war, the Swedish aggressively attacked Danish vessels on the sea, making it more difficult to reinforce the Norwegian garrisons. As such, the situation for Denmark was looking increasingly bleak and the Danish King Christian XI appealed to France for a division to help defend Denmark against a potential Swedish invasion.
Meanwhile in the Balkans, Morchenko himself visited the front to inspect the Ottoman defenses on the Danube River. His presence on the front was a tremendous morale booster to the Russian troops in the theatre who had fought a tiring campaign for nearly a year. He ordered a general assault to begin on the Danube on July 1st. When July 1st came, the front erupted almost simultaneously into flame along hundreds of miles of riverfront as Russian cannons belched death from their barrels. The Ottoman line was the recipient of shells from some three thousand cannon, as well as the target of the bombs of some 1,200 planes. The night before, dozens of great brave engineers under cover of smoke, artificial fog or just sheer courageousness had created pontoon bridges. In addition to these bridges, thousands of small boats had been collected across the area and sent to the front where they were used to transport Russian soldiers across the wide Danube in the early hours of July 1st. Under heavy fire, the Russians moved against the Ottoman lines in a well-orchestrated offensive. The Danube Offensive was a bloody battle for the Russians because the Ottoman lines were well placed and well defended. They were crippled severely by the aerial and artillery attacks but remained defiant.
It seemed inconceivable that the mighty Russian juggernaut could be stalled but for seven days, it seemed as if the massive army, that had acted so much like a broom when it swept away Ottoman resistance, was halted by a powerful Ottoman defense. But after seven days, Russia broke through the lines and once again swept south and west, though much slower than before because Ottoman resistance was much thicker and more concentrated. The Ottomans refused to be intimidated and began to build, or improve on, other defenses across the Balkans and near Constantinople. Ottoman engineers and builders dotted the countryside, hoping to emulate the Polish Eastern Line and Prussian Mueller Wall, conveniently overlooking the failure of both defensive lines.
In late November, Russian troops reached the Adriatic Sea. This effectively cut Ottoman resistance on the Balkans in half; the northern contingent was smaller and more battered while the southern contingent was large, defiant and still well armed. It was symbolic, however, because Russian soldiers had cut a swath through the Balkans. In the process, millions of Slavs had been liberated from the Ottoman yoke. Pan-Slavism was almost realized.
Dear AHdotcommers,
Here is an update since it has been too long since I've posted one (two months or so?!)...as much as I hate to post an incompleted war, here is the first two years of Great War 2. Please, there are many twists and turns planned for the war so try not to speculate too much about where the war is headed! You might be right and all my thunder will be stolen.
Many apologies for the now infrequent and shorter updates...college is not only wonderful and fascinating but also BUSY. I haven't had much self time until now, as it is Fall Break. I guess the next update will have to happen during the next break...Thanksgiving.
You may want to re-read the last few parts to get caught up to speed on where the TL currently is.
Enjoy!
Second Great War (1935-1942)
1935: The Opening Battles
Simply put, the war began in an act of Russian aggression. On July 5th, 1935 the Empire of Russia and its mighty army numbering over 1.3 million men, swept into Romania with no notable pretext. The massive force was supported by the newest trucks and armored cars Russia could offer. Planes and airships dotted the sky and the Romanian military, for the second time in two years, melted away. Indeed it had been modernized with aid from France but the imperial Russian forces had also modernized exponentially. The invasion of Romania was unwarranted; Russia claimed the land for itself but two years before had tried the same act only to withdraw at the threat of war. In 1935, Morchenko and Czar Michael III agreed they would risk war for the conquest of Romania, Turkey and the liberation of millions of Slavs under the boot of the Ottoman oppressor. Morchenko realized that France would never stand for this but he was pleased he had a strong alliance with Prussia, for Prussia would be Russia’s buffer to the west. Newly powerful Poland would be forced to focus on Prussia, while Russian troops could focus on their long-desired goals: the Balkan liberation and the straits. The grand Russian strategy was extensively planned and rehearsed in the minds of capable generals. Morchenko gambled his strategy on the ability of Prussia to hold on long enough for Russia to achieve its goals.
The surprise attack on Romania on July 5th caused a shock and uproar in Napoleon IV’s court. War was immediately and unanimously declared the following day. The Russian ambassador in Paris was given such cold treatment that “I literally shook with glee as I flew away.” Europe was suddenly plunged into war. The Ottoman Empire, under the rule of the semi-progressive and corrupt Mustafa V, quickly mobilized its army with the inevitable Russian threat. The rough border in the Caucuses Mountains quickly became the scene of violent firefights, even though Russia and Turkey were technically not at war yet. The rocky terrain was the site of vicious fighting.
Europe was further engulfed into the dark mire of war when militant Prussia, itching for revenge and glory, attacked the Kingdom of Poland on July 9th. France immediately came to the aid of its loyal ally. The King of Poland, Augustus V, had not been on the throne for four full years when he found his country under attack from two powerful opponents, Russia and Prussia. Since 1905, Poland had industrialized quite heavily and was self-sufficient in the creation of much military equipment. Still, France supplied hundreds of artillery and trucks to Poland. The Polish military was large and after mobilization outnumbered the Prussia military. However, the majority of its military were conscripts. All men were called up to serve for one-year intervals, in order to ensure the greatest number of trained men available. This policy was created in 1907 as it became evident that Poland could no longer depend on France solely for aid. Postwar Poland was a wealthier, larger and prouder nation and many of its young men, with no memory of the last Great War, welcomed the chance to shoot at some Prussians. However, their large conscript army found a potent enemy in the smaller, yet highly-disciplined and advanced army invading it.
One enemy that had been overlooked in many French High Command planning sessions was Sweden. Though it possessed little direct threat to France itself, it remained a threat in that it provided a pool of warm bodies to its allies as its land force was a potent force. Indeed, a division had already been dispatched to Prussia by July 15th. On July 19th, exactly two weeks after Russia invaded Romania, Sweden launched a full-scale invasion of Norway, a Danish territory. And for the third time in two weeks, France issued a declaration of war on a member of the Quadruple League. Denmark, neutral for over one hundred years and possessing a small peacetime military, appealed to France for aid.
On July 22nd, under intense French pressure, the Empire of Germany formally declared war on Prussia. Finally, France had a land route to attack Prussia and in late July a series of Franco-German offensives were launched into Prussia. These offensives were stalled, however, with the surprising sturdiness of the Mueller Wall. The Mueller Wall had been built from 1928-1933 and was against the Congress of Copenhagen because they placed Prussia military units within 60 miles of its international borders. Ignored by the enforcers of the Congress until it was too late, the Mueller Wall was a defensive line of concrete placements, bunkers, artillery batteries, iron obstacles, and machine gun posts that stretched along the entire Prussian-German border. A secondary wall, the Elbe Wall, was placed on the Elbe River but was not as strong as the Mueller Wall. Millions had been put into these defensives and they played well with Prussian war goals: conquer Poland first and then focus on the western allies. When the Franco-German armies invaded Prussia, they did not expect the defensive line to be so strong or effective. Suddenly, the French and Germans seemed to halt on their brief advance. Poland was all alone.
By the end of July, 1935 Europe was thoroughly embroiled in war. Under French influence, Naples, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Southern Lusitania joined Denmark, the Ottoman Empire, Germany and Poland against Russia, Prussia and Sweden. Of all the traditional members of the Continental Alliance (the name the nations chose to use once again), only Greece declined to declare war on the Quadruple League. And of the four members of the Quadruple League, Japan declined to declare war on the European nations to the anger of Morchenko. Europe was at war and old battlegrounds were once again visited by violence: Poland, the Balkans, Prussia and the Caucuses. They were joined by a new front, the cold Norwegian front where Swedish invaders looked to conquer this part of Scandinavia.
The Polish theatre was by far shaping to be the most violent front. The Prussian invasion occurred on a wide front but the main thrust was aimed at the city of Gdansk, formerly Danzig. Prussia hoped to capture Poland’s sole major port to prevent any French supplies from reaching the country. Northwest Poland was the scene of major fighting in 1935 as Prussians and Poles battled. Prussian tracked armored cars (known as panzers) were effective against the largely infantry force of Poland, but the Poles did not possess any shortage of bravery. As a result, many panzers were taken out of action by the grenade of a courageous young soldier. Names such as Chojnice, Grudziadz, Bydgoszcz, Cieszyn and Starogard dominated international headlines as each town was the scene of a tremendous battle. At Starogard, the Poles were defeated and thus Prussians surrounded Danzig. The two largest battles in 1935 occurred at Poznan and Krakow. Prussians captured both cities in autumn and winter of 1935. To the east, Russian divisions made minor inroads into Poland but the front remained as Russia was focused on defeating Turkey. Nevertheless, the hostile border tied up dozens of desperately needed Polish divisions.
The Prussians were counting on a quick and speedy war, utilizing the combined arms doctrine that Russia had so efficiently used against Romania. They were unprepared for a fight against a courageous, modern enemy. Poland proved to be a worthy, prevailing enemy. Stubborn resistance offset years of Prussian planning. Poland was alone on the ground due to the presence of West Prussia blocking a passage for French and German troops (and because neutral Austria declined to allow the passage of any soldier in its territory). However, the Imperial French Air Force greatly aided Poland by initiating the aerial bombing of many Prussian military targets. The Polish air force was still a branch of the military in its infancy, comprised of many older French planes and inexperienced pilots. They were not match for the sleek Prussian planes. As France made deeper aerial attacks into Prussia, a few French soldiers were dropped into Poland via airship. In late 1935, over six hundred elite French troops were transported to Poland through the giants of the sky. These elite troops were highly trained specialists sometimes used behind Prussian lines in covert operations.
As the Polish theatre disintegrated somewhat into the gritty slog that characterized the Great War, the Russians were making huge advances via their combined arms strategy. Romania had been fully conquered by late August but a small enclave containing King John II still held it. He officially surrendered Romania on September 17th after he was captured by triumphant Russian soldiers. A month later he was dead, shot “while attempting escape” on his way to St. Petersburg. Instead of crying for revenge, most Romanians acquiesced to Russian submission.
Even before Romania had surrendered, to the horror of the Ottoman Empire the Russian juggernaut did not stop at the Romanian border. Without even a declaration of war, a massive Russian tide swept into Ottoman Empire while simultaneously a large Russian force attacked from the Caucuses. In all, about five million Russian soldiers – supported by thousands of armored cars, tracked armored cars, trucks, planes, horses and even limited naval support – invaded the Ottoman Empire, the largest force against a single nation ever used in warfare. The autumn of 1935 saw stunning Russian successes and Russia looked to an even successful New Year.
1936: Pan-Slavism Realized
Contrary to the high hopes of the leadership of the Allied countries, 1936 did not turn into the year of Allied victories. In fact, it was a dismal year for the Allied forces. Almost immediately, the year turned sour for the Allied at the Battle of Danube’s Mouth when an entire Ottoman army was surrounded and taken prisoner in mid-January. The Russian army continued its steady advance across the Balkans with spirited resistance from the Ottomans. The Russians largely outclassed their Turkish counterparts even though both militaries were heavily infantry. Sheer numbers overwhelmed the Ottoman army who could not sport more than a million men in the Balkans, and in many battles the Russians outnumbered the Turks two or three to one.
In addition, the local population began to embrace the advancing Russians. Long oppressed under the Turkish yoke, millions of Balkan Slavs were resigned to perpetual persecution from the Ottomans until Morchenko’s rhetoric became action. Buoyed by Russian victories and severe cuts in the number of local garrison troops, old Slavic nationalist groups were reformed or rekindled. They carried out acts of subversion on Turkish military targets across the Balkans, widely ranging from assassination of high-ranking officers to simple tasks such as slashing Ottoman tires. They were poorly armed and unorganized on a national level, but on a local level they were effective at riling the population against the Turks and to welcome the Russians as liberators.
Indeed, the Russian army was greeted as liberators in countless villages across the Balkans as its advance continued toward the Danube and Olt Rivers. At the confluence of these rivers and along the north-south stream of the Olt River, the Ottomans had built a series of formidable defenses they hoped the Russians would stop at. The Danube River was also heavily fortified and provided an excellent natural barrier against the Russian troops. Throughout spring of 1936, the Ottomans retreated slowly allowing time for the defenses along the Danube to be built and refined. A showdown was in the works.
Meanwhile, in the Caucuses, the Russians made serious gains once the winter snows had melted and spring weather allowed Russian trucks to move along the scant roads. Despite the occasional threat of roaming Ottoman guerrilla groups, the Caucuses front was a spectacular success for the Russians. Part of this can be attributed to their total artillery superiority in the sector; the best Turkish artillery units had been sent to the Balkan front and many Ottoman units on this front had no artillery support at all. The advance on this front was slower than in the Balkans simply because the terrain was rougher. Here, the numerical disparity between the two combatants was more pronounced leading to many Russian victories.
In March, the Empire of Germany suddenly erupted into violence as hundreds of Frommist activists launched terrorist attacks across the country. These men were undercover Prussians or Germans with strong pro-Prussian sentiments who embraced the Frommist ideology. Their aim was to cow the German government into separate peace with Prussia at the minimum and perhaps even turn Germany against France. Their targets were a mix between civilian and military. A lot of destruction ensued and over a thousand people died as dozens of bombs were set off in government buildings, public squares and even army barracks. The highest-ranking casualty was the German Minister of Transportation, a post quickly filled. As the attacks abated after two days of near constant bombing across the country, brutal crackdowns characterized Germany. Over half of the terrorists were caught within a month and all those caught were hanged or shot with no trial. Many more fled to Prussia but some remained in Germany to continue their work. Indeed, for the next six months there was at least one attack per week. They quickly ceased after the public hanging of six terrorists, though the last terrorist bomb would explode in September of 1937. Overall, over two thousand people were killed from the Frommist bombs and they were more or less a failed tactic. The imperial German government was not cowed into submitting to Prussia. Instead, with their population even more riled against an enemy that condoned the killing of innocents, Germany was even more united against Prussia. It was a tactic that backfired heavily.
However, the Frommist March coincided with dark days for Germany, France and especially Poland. Throughout the war so far, Russia had applied massive pressure on the Ottoman Empire and hardly any on Poland. After all, they thought the Prussians would take care of Poland on its own. When Polish resistance proved too strong for a quick campaign, Prussian leaders pressured the Russian military to act on Poland’s eastern border. Like Prussia’s western border with Germany, the eastern border of Poland was site of a powerful defensive wall, simply known as the Eastern Line. Russia started making forays into the defensive works in March and began light bombing runs into Poland, where brave pilots of the Polish Air Force engaged them in numerous dogfights. As summer came along, more Russian soldiers began to apply pressure on Poland’s Eastern Line. Manned by only a few divisions, the Poles were highly outnumbered but were successful in their efforts to defend Poland’s eastern border because of the powerful defenses and the half-heartedness of the Russian assaults. Russian movements coincided with concentrated efforts by the Prussians to make headway into Poland. Prussia was also fighting a two-front war and in May, 1936 it became obvious that the massive Franco-German armies could indeed breakthrough the Mueller Line at a great cost of life. Meanwhile, Prussia made serious gains in the early summer weeks against Poland. Prussian panzers moved smoothly through western and northern Poland against Polish armored cars and the occasional cavalry unit. Prussian panzer units were not very numerous, as Prussia stressed quality over quantity in its production. Consequently, each lost panzer was more costly than a French tracked armored car would be.
It was the summer of 1936 that Poland experienced its darkest days. In June, a Russia offensive broke through a thinly defended section of the Eastern Line and immediately began pouring armored cars and tracked armored cars into the hole. Staunch Polish resistance was unable to stem the Russian tide and soon the whole line for miles disintegrated. Two weeks later, Prussia neared Warsaw and the Battle of Warsaw began between the two countries, though the battle never raged within the city limits itself. Warsaw was surrounded by extremely elaborate defensives including concrete emplacements and thirteen ultra-modern fortresses. Indeed, Poland had spent a fortune on defensive measures. Those defenses were put to good use from June 28th to September 9th, when the Prussians in numerous attempts attempted to surround the city and conquer it. The Battle of Warsaw raged through the hot summer months as the Russians slogged through Eastern Poland against almost fanatical resistance. Even though they were losing clearly the war, Poland was putting up an excellent defense.
The purpose of the drawn-out war was to allow the French time to come to Poland’s aid. Hampered by the power of the ultra-modern Mueller Wall, France was stalled for most of 1935 and 1936. They fought a brittle, stagnant war that was described as “more trench-y than the trenchiest of all wars, the last war”. That sort of warfare ended in a titanic struggle known as the Battle of Silesia. It was comprised of dozens of individual battles that raged throughout the summer of 1936 in the Prussian province of Silesia. The carnage was collectively called the Battle of Silesia, a modern replica of the Great War. The Battle of Silesia was fought through most of the summer of 1936 as Poland’s situation became more acutely dangerous. It was a race to see if the League would conquer Poland before the French broke through the Mueller Wall. It put tremendous pressure on Prussia, who had to hold back millions of French and Germans on the Mueller Wall as well as subdue Poland with lukewarm Russian aid.
Breaking the Mueller Wall, to no ones surprise, proved to be a most difficult and violent affair. Rather than assault the whole line, the French decided to focus exclusively on the Silesian section of the wall, the least developed and weakest of the wall because of its distance from Berlin. It was still a formidable system of defenses and since the war began thousands lay dead from failed assaults on it. June 30th was the first assault on the Mueller Wall and the first battle of the Battle of Silesia, known as the Battle of Festung Wilhelm II. A terrible and bloody assault that involved thousands of rounds of artillery, hundreds of bombers from the sky (most of whom were novices) and over four hundred thousand French and Germans, the battle ended a week later with the tricolor over the ruins of the great fortress. The cost was an appalling number of casualties that did not stop at Festung Wilhelm II. The Battles of Festung von Schueller, Scheidnitz, Brieg, Zitadelle Breslau, and Festung Oppeln all carried the horrifying note that each battle cost the combatants over one hundred thousand lives. In most battles, the Allies carried the burden of casualties by margins of 2:1. In each battle, the fortresses were pounded by long-range and short-range artillery as well as bombed and strafed by airwagons. Then the infantry was sent into the rubble to engage the surviving enemy, a long and bloody process that could not be expedited by modern weapons such as armored cars or French chars. Through July and August, the Battle of Silesia was fought among French and Germans, a violent and costly slog through a once beautiful countryside dotted with quaint towns. Instead, the quaint country churches were converted into items of war, the villages into objectives, the farmhouses into aerial targets and beautiful cities into smoldering ruins. Breslau, for example, became a city of rubble during the Battles of Zitadelle Breslau and Breslau from August 14 to September 3rd.
With the fall of Breslau came the fall of Silesia. The remaining Prussians between the victorious French and Poles were rounded up and taken prisoner. France and Germany had battered its way through the Mueller Wall successfully, but at a very heavy cost. French aid began to pour into Poland. However, Poland was not entirely saved and before French aid began to take affect, the Polish situation took a turn for worse. In late September, a Polish division on the Eastern Line was surrounded by Russian forces and surrounded. It was forced to surrender after three days of constant bombardment. The sudden loss of almost 25,000 experienced combat troops would be a tough obstacle to overcome for the beleaguered Poles.
The large battles raging in Silesia and Warsaw were briefly overshadowed in international headlines by a major League victory on June 14th. On that day, the Swedish military captured Oslo from Denmark after a vicious weeklong battle. All across the long border between Sweden and Norway, Swedish troops made significant headway in the summer months of 1936. Danish troops in Norway were numerically inferior to the Swedes although both were on par regarding fighting ability. It was a tough battle for the Swedes in the relatively rough terrain of Norway. However, the fall of Oslo proved a boon to the Swedish regime. In addition to the land war, the Swedish aggressively attacked Danish vessels on the sea, making it more difficult to reinforce the Norwegian garrisons. As such, the situation for Denmark was looking increasingly bleak and the Danish King Christian XI appealed to France for a division to help defend Denmark against a potential Swedish invasion.
Meanwhile in the Balkans, Morchenko himself visited the front to inspect the Ottoman defenses on the Danube River. His presence on the front was a tremendous morale booster to the Russian troops in the theatre who had fought a tiring campaign for nearly a year. He ordered a general assault to begin on the Danube on July 1st. When July 1st came, the front erupted almost simultaneously into flame along hundreds of miles of riverfront as Russian cannons belched death from their barrels. The Ottoman line was the recipient of shells from some three thousand cannon, as well as the target of the bombs of some 1,200 planes. The night before, dozens of great brave engineers under cover of smoke, artificial fog or just sheer courageousness had created pontoon bridges. In addition to these bridges, thousands of small boats had been collected across the area and sent to the front where they were used to transport Russian soldiers across the wide Danube in the early hours of July 1st. Under heavy fire, the Russians moved against the Ottoman lines in a well-orchestrated offensive. The Danube Offensive was a bloody battle for the Russians because the Ottoman lines were well placed and well defended. They were crippled severely by the aerial and artillery attacks but remained defiant.
It seemed inconceivable that the mighty Russian juggernaut could be stalled but for seven days, it seemed as if the massive army, that had acted so much like a broom when it swept away Ottoman resistance, was halted by a powerful Ottoman defense. But after seven days, Russia broke through the lines and once again swept south and west, though much slower than before because Ottoman resistance was much thicker and more concentrated. The Ottomans refused to be intimidated and began to build, or improve on, other defenses across the Balkans and near Constantinople. Ottoman engineers and builders dotted the countryside, hoping to emulate the Polish Eastern Line and Prussian Mueller Wall, conveniently overlooking the failure of both defensive lines.
In late November, Russian troops reached the Adriatic Sea. This effectively cut Ottoman resistance on the Balkans in half; the northern contingent was smaller and more battered while the southern contingent was large, defiant and still well armed. It was symbolic, however, because Russian soldiers had cut a swath through the Balkans. In the process, millions of Slavs had been liberated from the Ottoman yoke. Pan-Slavism was almost realized.
It's hard to be Polish in AH... we get invaded almost every time, usually from two directions...
Hurrah, Zach's back!
Great update, Zach. I can't wait to see how the Japanese get involved.
By the way, why'd the Frommists have so much German support? Weren't the Prussians trying to seperate themselves from the other Germans?
Keep 'em coming whenever convinient...
Great update, Zach. I can't wait to see how the Japanese get involved.
By the way, why'd the Frommists have so much German support? Weren't the Prussians trying to seperate themselves from the other Germans?
Keep 'em coming whenever convinient...
Nietzsche
Banned
Thanks for the kind words, as always!
1. Sorry for the lack of visuals; a huge block of words is intimidating
2. I will inevitably disappoint someone with the outcome of the war
3. The next update will take awhile, there is a lot of war yet to be fought!
Hey, if you have any of the national flags and symbols of the respective countries available, I'd like to make some propaganda posters for you.