A Leap of Faith

Chapter Seven: Frustrations and Fascists



1921. Novoarkhangelsk. The formation of the Republic of Alaska under Aleksander Kerensky as President and Andrei Shkuro as Prime Minister began in a soft footing, though the national economy was still shattered as a result of the War of National Survival. What surprised the Alaskan government is that they had not only liberated their own country, but expanded its borders at the expense of both Canada and the United Socialist States of America. Kerensky knew too well that both of those countries would try to regain their lost territories, so he could use the occupied territories as a bargaining chip.

In Russia-Mongolia, Bogd Khan had died of old age and Navaanneren soon took over the regency while Felix Yusupov became de jure ruler. Though a power struggle was in the works, it soon ended with the agreement between the Yusupov family and Navaanneren to unite the two families through the marriage of Irina Yusupova and Temujin Borjigin, which finally occured in 1936. As for the economy of the gigantic Eurasian state, Ungern von Sternberg declared his intention to reform and modernize the Russo-Mongolian military through combining ancient Mongolian military tactics and modern military technology.

Our new Mosin-Nagant rifles are the new composite bows that could fire faster than the arrows themselves, though we don't need to keep on grabbing new arrows to fire. The tachanka mobile machine gun should be the new Keshiks, for they can easily be mass produced, as supposed to allowing our young men to mount on horses and ride to their deaths. The tank, which was invented in the Great War to break out of the trenches, should be used as a mechanical horse and a chariot in one vehicle. Not only should our great civilization be the most sophisticated one, but also the most mechanized and most flexible, for our first Great Khan must be pleased with the legacy he has carved in stone.

Von Sternberg's industrialization policies went hand in hand with political and cultural reformation as the number of Russian Buddhists increased by 28%. Though Buddhism remained the most popular religion in the Russo-Mongolian Empire, Islam was becoming the fastest growing religion in the empire, with Sunni Islam as the dominant Muslim faith. To appease both Muslims and Buddhists, Von Sternberg and Navaanneren standardized the banking system on the Muslim banking system, which forbade interest rates, and a collection of management fees in place. Workplace safety was also emphasized, for the death of a worker in any industry would be interpreted by the Buddhist monks as a sign of bad karma. Oil was discovered in the Azeri region, allowing Von Sternberg to prioritize the oil industry's growth and to order oil prospectors to look for potential sources elsewhere. Though industrialization of major cities became the vocal point of the Russo-Mongolian Empire's modernization policies, it was not without problems. For one thing, the invention of the airplane and its uses in the Great War were opposed by the traditional minded Navaanneren, but Felix Yusupov backed von Sternberg's argument that their adversaries would use the airplane to attack targets on the ground from the air.

Industrialization of Russia-Mongolia also went along with helping its allies with modernization of the economy, ranging from helping the Ottoman Empire set up its own oil industry in the Middle East, to constructing oil refineries on Japanese territories in the South Pacific. While the unity between the three Vladivostok Pact members were maintained, inside the Japanese government distrusted Russia-Mongolia because of their position in Manchuria and the thorny issue of the Mongolians living in China under the Khanate of Mengjiang. Moreover, Japan resented and regretted supporting the Ottoman Empire's expansion into SE Asia, too close to Japanese New Guinea. Emperor Taisho contemplated switching their alliance to the Hamburg Pact and to contain Russia-Mongolia from the East, but radical Japanese factions such as the Tohokai and the Black Dragon Clique advocated replacing all of the monarchs of Asia with one-party rule with a dictator to rule. Ikki Kita also advocated limiting expansion in China and to redirect their energies to improving the Japanese economy so they can weather any economical recession that would come their way. Kita's works were gaining popularity in the rest of Asia except for China, whose leaders were rabidly anti-Japanese due to their enroachment of Chinese territory. Nevertheless, Statism or the Asiatic equivalent, Oriental Statism was on the rise in Asia primarily to counter the communist threat emitting from the United States. Here are the rundown on these anti-communist movements in Asia that became the focal point of the pseudo-fascist and rabidly radical movements:

1) Chinese Blue Shirts Society:
A fascist movement which began in China during the unstable period of the American Socialist Revolution, which was led by Chiang Kai Shek. There was a rival movement called the Jasmine Dragon Society led by Chiang's rival, Wang Jing Wei. The main differences between Chiang's movement and that of Wang Jing Wei's was that the Blue Shirts Society was tailored to be led by members of the Whampoa Military Academy. The Jasmine Dragon Society on the other hand, became more interested in salvaging what was left of China's territorial integrity in the face of Japanese and Russo-Mongolian enroachment. In 1928, Wang was nearly assassinated by a KMT agent while staying in Ottoman Singapore. His near encounter with death would prod the Jasmine Dragon Society leader to realign his movement with that of the Hamburg Pact, promising Germany some support and bases in return for much needed modernization. It is also worth noting that the JDS was originally a leftist movement but suffered a split among the pro-Wang 'social revolutionaries' and the radical Marxist faction led by Wang's former protege named Mao Tse Tung.

2) Iranian National Revivalist League:
Although Persia emerged as one of the victors in the Great War, it was not without problems. Owing its origins to the Persian Revolution of 1921, radical elements of the Persian Cossack Brigade staged a coup d'etat against the Qajari Shah and ushered in the new ruler of Persia, Reza Khan Pahlavi. Inspired by the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire and the Meiji Restoration, Reza Pahlavi sought advisors from the Japanese Empire in terms of modernization and political reformation. Under his leadership, far-right organization sprang up throughout Persia in response to the establishment of the socialist state in America. Thanks to Persia's association as a member of the Vladivostok Pact, Persia was guaranteed safety and aid from her allies. With the Oil Discovery Period going on in Russia-Mongolia and the Ottoman Empire, Persian technicians were trained in Baku on working in the oil industry by Ottoman workers. On the military arena, the Japanese Military Attache in Persia supervised the training of the new Persian Army and Navy while a new Persian High Command was being created from among the Persian officer cadets who went to the Imperial Military Academy in Tokyo. Most of these Persian cadets had been influenced by ultranationalist thinking, and with Japanese encouragement, the Iranian National Revivalist League was founded. Among the civilian students who were sent to Japanese universities, Davud Monshizadeh also founded the VEVAK, or the Persian Ministry of Intelligence that was supposed to police the Persian state through his training with the Japanese Kempeitai.

The main purpose of the Iranian National Revivalist League was to bring all classes of Persian society into one, single unit that would ensure the protection of the new Iranian nation. In 1925, Reza Shah changed the country's name to Iran, meaning the Land of the Aryans. Coincidentally, the new Iranian Shahdom was recognized by the German Empire on the same day it changed its name. Even more surprisingly, Iran was becoming the center of an archeological project. A group of German archeologists traveled to Iran/Persia as part of an effort to write a complete history of Iran from the Achaemenid period into the modern era, led by a charismatic intellectual named Alfred Rosenberg. Rosenberg's mission in Iran was to find and connect the Achaemenid and Parthian Empires' legacies and to bring his report back to another intellectual named Heinrich Himmler. Curiously, Anton Drexler went to Iran to witness the Iranian National Revivalist League's first rally.

3) Tohokai:
A Japanese fascist party which was officially founded in 1936, although the Black Dragon Society dominated Japanese far-right movements way before that. It subsequently split into two factions, the Daitohokai led by Ikki Kita and the Sakurakai led by Lieutenant Hashimoto. The writings of Kita soon influenced other statist movements, all of which would contribute to the formation of a single, Pan-Eurasian ultranationalist movement that will embrace Nationalism, Socialism, Authoritarianism, and Statism. Both the Daitohokai and the Sakurakai contributed to the formation of the Eurasian National Solidarists, which would be explained briefly.

4) Eurasian National Solidarists:
An organization founded by Russian and Mongolian nationalists with Japanese support. It was founded in 1933, with Marshals Choibalsan and Tukhachevsky as the co-founders, but the real ruler in power was in fact Ungern von Sternberg. Von Sternberg's guidance of the movement was appreciated and applauded by the majority of the population, mainly because of his guidance in the industrialization policies of the 1920s. Although the ENS could have taken the reactionary character, it was radical in nature. For instance, not only do the ENS members wished to replicate the Japanese style of government, but to incorporate militarist and statist elements in it.

It is worth noting that only a few fascist movements were ever successful in Europe, though the Rhomanoi Empire was facing a crisis as Greek separatists were eager to re-establish the Byzantine Empire, without any ties to Catholicism whatsover and reversing Bismarck's policy towards Russia. The Greeks knew too well that if the Alaskans were ever to liberate Old Russia from the Buddhists, they need a European supporter in Constantinople. The Italians did everything to crack down on the Greek separatists, labeling them as 'unrepentant schmismatics' and 'agents of Novoarkhangelsk.

As mentioned earlier, Japan couldn't trust the rest of the Vladivostok Pact members because of their plans for expansion towards their territories. The Sakurakai was actually pro-Hamburg Pact while the Daitohokai was pro-Bourbon Pact. Neither party was able to win the votes in the Diet, though most of the Japanese people feared the ascension of either one of the two parties. What's more, a few Japanese delegates were seen talking to British and German delegates in Tokyo, negotiating for the possible defection of Japan from the Vladivostok Pact to the Hamburg Pact. China on the other hand, was thinking of joining the Bourbon Pact to escape both Japanese and Russo-Mongolian enroachment.

Most of the world had not anticipated the collapse of the entire economy on December 25th, 1926 as a result of reckless spending and laissez-faire policies that were in place on most of the world's economies. Luckily, the United Socialist States was immune from the world economy as they mostly relied on human capital for economical recovery. Unfortunately, Debs had died of heart failure in October of 1926, setting off a series of power struggles between Al Capone and Robert LaFolette Jr. LaFolette Jr's faction favored exporting revolutions to other countries around the New World and turning the Americas into a gigantic, socialist New Frontier while Capone's faction favored building a socialist state with American characteristics. In the end, Capone emerged as the victor of the power struggle and succeeded Debs. Debs however, had favored an unknown member as his successor, named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt's proposed New Deal would have helped weather the depression if it wasn't for his defection to Canada. Capone then began to create the National Security Bureau to eliminate dissidents, using some of his Mafia syndicates as secret police agents. Capone's economical plan, which was loosely based on von Sternberg's industrialization policies was enacted, with a Four Year Plan in its place. However, Capone had to be careful to maintain his reputation as a benevolent dictator who would cultivate the socialist botanical garden which will provide a bright future for mankind.

Europe During the Recession:

The Hamburg Pact emerged as the main victors of the war, the other being the Vladivostok Pact. With victories however, came problems at home. Although the Anglo-German political domination seemed to be unbeatable, there were significant fractures among the colonial subjects of the British Empire, who viewed the Teutonic German Empire as a serious rival, and indeed Bismarck became synonymous with anti-German sentiment. In Poland-Hungary however, only the Poles were anything but friendly to the Germans. There were divisions among the Poles and Hungarians over what went wrong in the Great War, particularly with the Rhomanoi Empire's relationship with them. Pilsudski blamed Admiral Horthy and the Hungarian king for needlessly appeasing the Italians over the Mediterrenean Sea and its colonies. (Of course, while the Italians wanted to fight the Polish-Hungarian Commonwealth over Croatia, the Greeks wished to crush the Uniate movement and bring Old Russia back into the European family. All of which seemed to be a bit appealing at first, until the Papacy reminded the Greeks of the Russian rejection of Orthodox Christianity. Furious at the Papacy and the Germans in particular, Prime Minister Venizelos and his eventual successor Metaxas had organized the Greek National Liberation Movement, aiming at bringing back Byzantine influence into the empire and to apologize to the Russians for not consulting them on Christian unification.

In 1929, the Polish-Hungarian Commonwealth collapsed without a whimper. Subject peoples of the Commonwealth declared themselves independent from the dominant Polish ruling elite. The Uniate Ukrainians and Belorussians formed a new union with Poland called Zapadoslavia, or the Land of the West Slavs in response to Hungary, Wallachia, Serbo-Bulgaria and Croatia's admission into the Rhomanoi Empire, which in itself was becoming more Byzantine than Latin in outlook. Benito Mussolini couldn't be more happier. He not only helped engineer the destruction of the hated Polish-Hungarian Commonwealth, but he even allowed the Hungarians to enter his union. Meanwhile, the United Baltic Duchy under Lithuania's control managed to remain independent by playing off the German Empire and the Kingdom of Sweden against each other.

Asia During the Depression:

By 1931, the Eurasian National Solidarists had gained popularity in Russia-Mongolia. The Ottoman Empire was also embracing the Eurasian ideology, as well as the Persians, and the Japanese. A Pan-Eurasian ideology was in the works, and von Sternberg called for a meeting of influential leaders of the entire Vladivostok Pact. Keep in mind, this happened five years before the Tohokai split apart into the pro-Bourbon Daitohokai and the pro-Hamburg Sakurakai. Ikki KIta was still interested with maintaining Japan's alliance with the two Eurasian giants of Russia-Mongolia and the Ottoman Empire.

To help ease up on the Japanese economy, Emperor Showa/Hirohito authorized a limited expansion of the Japanese Empire into Manchuria, where they hoped to carve out a rump Qing state that could serve as the forward base for Japan's eventual domination of China. Thus in 1932, the Kwangtung Army was established in Japanese occupied Korea and swiftly moved into Manchuria, amidst a cheering number of Japanese civilians and curious Manchua but they had also encountered a hostile Chinese crowd. The international community condemned Japan for her actions, though it fell short of calling for sanctions against the Land of the Rising Sun. There was another reason why the international community hesitated to condemn Japan. They needed her support in their containment of both Russia-Mongolia and Ottoman Southeast Asia.

Things got out of hand however, when the new Empire of Manchukuo was established in April of 1933. Manchukuo was basically a Japanese puppet state, but it was also turning into a colony, primarily designed to attract Japanese settlers. This time, the Bourbon Pact decisively called for an international committee to investigate and come up with a solution to counter Japanese expansion in Asia. France in particular, was eager to regain French Indochina back from Japan, which was lost in the Great War. The minor members of the Bourbon Pact however, were hesitant in admitting China as a new member.

Road to War, Once More:

Though the oil prices were quite stable, it wasn't quite useful yet. Not yet anyways, until war clouds were beginning to gather around Europe. Surprisingly, it would occur in Eastern Europe and the instigator would be the Polish-dominated Zapadoslav kingdom. With the official establishment of Zapadoslavia in 1929, Marshal Pilsudski and General Skoropadsky had to rule the fragile state together until in May of 1932 when it transitioned its government to a Federal Republic. By this time, Pilsudski had retired from politics due to his old age, allowing Skoropadsky to have a free reign. Under Skoropadsky's reign, the Uniate Christian faith had become so popular with the Ukrainians and Belarusians that any attempt by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (in communion with the Patriarch of Novoarkhangelsk in Alaska) to separate from the Uniate Church would receive harsh criticism. It also resulted in the emigration of Ukrainian Old Orthodox believers to Alaska and Canada, where they formed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Outside Ukraine in Ottawa.

Skoropadsky continued with Pilsudski's plan to utterly destroy Russia once and for all, and indeed, he proposed a new Pact that would replace the redundant Bourbon Pact, called the Lvov Pact, with Zapadoslavia, the Japanese Empire, Belgium, Spain and Portugal as the new members. The interesting fact about the proposed Lvov Pact was that Skoropadsky wanted to include France in it, thereby making the Lvov/Lviv Pact the successor to the Bourbon Pact, but because of France's desire to regain Indochina from Japan, the French government seriously thought about a possible entry into the Vladivostok Pact. The Hamburg Pact on the other hand, reacted in shock when Skoropadsky declared in his speech in Kiev that as long as the Anglo-German domination remain untouched, there will be more incentives for oppressed peoples to rise up. Luckily, all of the Pacts had excluded Communist USSA from any of its alliances, meaning that the Americans have a free hand to expand. In the end, Japan would eventually join the Hamburg Pact in 1937 as a result of the Sakurakai's rise to power, forcing France to join the Lviv Pact.

The Vladivostok Pact didn't certainly anticipate the loss of Japan as their member, and China had joined the Lviv Pact by 1937. Although Japan and China went to war with each other by March 29th, 1937 over a clash at the Chinese-Manchukuoan border, the Japanese government had also targeted the Russo-Mongolian territories as early as 1935. A border skirmish on the Amur River broke out in April of 1937, but the Russo-Mongolians emerged victorious, thanks to Von Sternberg's introduction of the tank in the Russo-Mongolian military arsenal. However, the real war was only a few years away from breaking out, and all it needed was a spark. The spark, as it turned out, was a border clash in the Suwalki triangle, when a Zapadoslav recon squad was ambushed by German border guards. The firefight also spread into the Baltic Duchy, forcing the government in Vilnius to deploy their troops.
 
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Chapter Eight: The War Once Again Part One




The Suwalki triangle border incident proved to be the catalyst for the beginning of the Second Great War. Like in the Great War, member states of the Hamburg and Lviv (formerly Bourbon) Pacts declared war on each other and the Vladivostok Pact remained neutral. Zapadoslavia under Skoropadsky had to take care of the western section of the country before taking care of Russia, and it was when he decided to launch a surprise attack on the German forces stationed in Silesia. On June 20th, 1938, Zapadoslav (mainly Polish and Belarusian) troops entered Silesia and besieged Breslau. The Germans were prepared for the battle, but what they were not prepared for was the tank onslaught of the new French built Zapadoslav Renault tanks. Within five weeks, Breslau fell to the Zapadoslav forces as the Germans retreated back to the Oder-Neisse Line. It was at this time that Zapadoslav agents orchestrated a mass uprising in Hungarian Slovakia, causing the Rhomanoi authorities there to attack Zapadoslavia, but they were defeated in the July 2nd, 1938 Battle of Cracow, and were thrown back.

France on the other hand, had taken the opportunity to attack the German defenses in the West through the Moltke Line in Elsace-Lothringen alongside the Belgian forces. Spain, which suffered greatly in the Great War, had opted to sit this conflict out but Rhomanoi troops were deployed to fight off a French invasion of Monaco by July 29th. French Renault tanks knocked out the German bunkers and allowed Charles De Gaulle's forces to occupy the Ruhr Valley. Faced with a two front war, Germany called on the members of the Hamburg Pact to help her out. Only Great Britain and Japan were capable to fight and were willing to join the war. On August 13th, British forces crossed the Channel and landed on the Normandy beaches, just as they did in the Great War. British troops helped German forces retake the Ruhr valley and drove the French back into their home country. A French Legion was created in Zapadoslavia, composed of French troops which escaped Anglo-German captivity in August 26th after all of France fell to a combined Anglo-German-Rhomanoi coalition force.

The Baltic Duchy entered the war on the same day France fell on the Hamburg Pact's side, invading northern Belorussia and linking up with anti-Zapadoslav Belarusian nationalists in Minsk. Though the Belarusians had declared their independence on September 8th, 1938, they were mostly relegated to joining the Baltic Duchy, coming under Lithuania's control. Belarusians operating under the Central Rada eagerly helped round up Polish civilians and routinely expelled them into Poland itself. Radaslau Astrouski hoped to incite the Ukrainian Orthodox Christians left in Ukraine to rebel against the Zapadoslav government in Lviv and to detach a part of Ukrainian territory and to join it with Belorussia. To his dismay, the Ukrainian Orthodox Christians distrusted him because of his Belarusian policies.

In Asia, the Japanese Army had advanced deeper into China, most often taking advantage of the Chinese disunity by bribing officials of each province that came under Japanese control. Chinese civilians formed guerrilla units, encouraged by the Lviv Pact in order to sap Japan's fighting strength so France would be able to launch an invasion of Indochina. There was still a major problem with the plan: the ever menacing Russo-Mongolian Empire. However, the Zapadoslav government knew too well that they would need more troops in order to carry out the successful invasion. Secret plans were made in Warsaw, calling for the conversion of the Russian Buddhist population to Uniate Christianity and if possible, Roman Catholicism. The original invasion date was slated for the spring of 1939 (the earliest) or the spring of 1941 (the latest). Another problem was the danger the Baltic Duchy posed to Zapadoslavia, so on October 24th, 1938, Marshal Smigly led the Zapadoslav forces into Lithuania, occupying a half of Lithuanian territory. Anti-Polish sentiment rose after the Lithuanian parliament called on the Lithuanian people to resist the invasion. The invasion of the Baltic Duchy proved to be a catastrophic mistake, as the diversion into Lithuania had distracted them from their main goal of knocking Germany out of the war. With German supremacy on land and British naval supremacy in the sea, there was no way the Lviv Pact would counter the Anglo-German power bloc.

The weaker Baltic forces were swept aside by the Zapadoslav Army by the time the campaign was over on December 2nd, 1938. With the Baltic Duchy occupied by Zapadoslavia, Smigly then proceeded to reincorporate the rebellious Belarusians back into Zapadoslavia but with a looming insurrection, the Zapadoslav military helped overthrow the pro-Hamburg government in Vilnius and installed a puppet ruler in its place, the new Prime Minister Kazys Skirpa. Lithuanian resistance forces opposing the Skirpa government organized themselves into partisan cells and sabotaged enemy garrisons and infrastructures. Now it was Zapadoslavia's turn to face a two front war, with their war against Germany in the west, and the pacification of the Baltic Duchy in the north.

British and German naval forces collaborated in the Baltic Sea Campaign against the Zapadoslav Navy, which fared rather poorly compared to the two naval giants. Lithuanian naval vessels operating under the Free Baltic Forces joined in the attacks on Zapadoslav warships, and indeed Lithuanian warships defended Memel against Zapadoslav coastal defense forces on January 9th, 1939. Unlike what happened in the Great War, Zapadoslavia even drew up a plan to occupy Sweden and Finland should they side with either the Hamburg or Vladivostok Pacts. Fortunately, Swedish neutrality was more important to all sides, meaning that the Zapadoslav government could be a bit more flexible in their objectives. Events in the Mediterrenean Sea however, would raise alarms in Lviv, Paris, Berlin and London alike.

In what became known as the Balkan Revolt, Uniate Croats and Serbs who resented the domination of Italy broke out in a revolt that resulted in the Rhomanoi counter insurgency against the Yugoslav Movement. Notable leaders such as Josip Broz organized the movement along ideological lines while his deputy Milovan Djilas helped form a provisional government that would seize power in the event that the Rhomanoi Empire would collapse. Secularism was driving the Yugoslav movement into prominence, shoving aside Serbian and Croatian nationalists who opposed the Yugoslav Movement and preferred to stick to their original religions (Serbian Orthodoxy and Croatian Catholicism). AS a result of the Balkan Revolt, German and British troops were deployed to help the Rhomanoi Empire suppress the uprising, but their presence had only made it worse, as the Serbian Orthodox Old Rite Church invoked the Serbian resistance against the former Austrian and Ottoman Empires before being forced to unite with Catholic Croatia and fellow Orthodox Bulgaria. More Serbs fighting under the Yugoslav Movement eagerly blamed the German Empire for banishing Russia from the European home, causing the Russians to abandon their Orthodox Christian faith and to mingle with the Asiatic nations a lot more often.

The first few months of fighting in the Balkans occured when the Yugoslav Movement linked up with Albanian resistance groups fighting the German forces deployed there, and in the Battle of Shkoder of January 21st, 1939, the Germans won a decisive victory against the joint Yugoslav-Albanian resistance fighters. However, the guerrilla movement was just in its infancy and the soon to be called Illyrian National Coalition had been formed three days after Shkoder fell to the Germans. British troops helped the Rhomanoi battle insurgents in the mountains of Bosnia-Hercegovina, but another crisis would soon break out, and curiously enough, the Irish Republican Army would be deployed to help the Yugoslavs and Albanians.

In the West, French resistance groups were formed to fight off Rhomanoi, German and British occupation authorities. With the rebellion in the Balkans, French resistance fighters quickly occupied the Rhomanoi occupation zone of France, and thereby creating a temporary power base from which they can launch guerrilla attacks on British and German troops. In February of 1939, Denmark entered the war on the Lviv Pact's side and raided German border posts in an anticipation of a Danish invasion. German troops under a rising star named Erwin Rommel retaliated by invading Denmark on March 13th, 1939. Yet Rommel's forces were dwindling as a result of another Zapadoslav offensive, this time the target was Stettin.

Two days after the German invasion of Denmark, a Zapadoslav Army force under Aleksander Krzyzanowski had controlled the territories of Pommerania and were poised to take Stettin, but back in January of 1939, another Zapadoslav Army led by Andriy Melnyk besieged and captured the important city of Danzig, close to East Prussia. With East Prussia cut off from the rest of Germany, Krzyzanowski proceeded to besiege Stettin on the Baltic coast, and indeed the German defense was so strong that the Zapadoslav Navy was deployed to batter the port from the sea. Yet despite the fierce attack on Stettin for more than six weeks, the German Army under Heinz Guderian managed to hold on to Stettin, culminating to the first defeat of the Zapadoslav Army in the Western Theater. With Germany's first successful defensive operation against the Lviv Pact's main Great Power, it was free to turn its attention to suppressing the rebellions in France and the Balkans, though heavy handed tactics would only fuel the fire in the rebellion.

The Yugoslav Movement suffered setback after setback when they were constantly defeated by British and German troops in most engagements. Their allegiance was unknown since they had no intention to obey the Lviv Pact's dictates and they're not going to seek membership status in the Hamburg Pact. Thus the Yugoslavs and Albanians had only two options left: to seek an alliance with the Vladivostok Pact (rejected by the western minded Croats on grounds that they don't wish to deal with Orientalist Russians) or to form a fourth Pact with Yugoslavia, Albania, Wallachia (they were in the middle of the invasion of Hungary, with the intention to regain Transylvania back), Alaska and the United States. However, the plan to create a fourth Pact soon fell apart due to logistical concerns. (An alliance between Yugoslavia and Alaska would be difficult to maintain because of Alaska's neutrality) It was not until April 10th, 1939 when Josip Broz call on every single Yugoslav leaders to a meeting in Skopje. Representing the Slovenian side was Boris Kdric, while Josip Subasic represented the Croatian side, Georgy Dmitrov represented Bulgaria, Ivan Mihailov represented Macedonia, Balli Kombëtar on behalf of Albania, Kosta Pecanac for Serbia, Blazo Djukanovic on behalf of Montenegro and Mustafa Mulalic for Bosnia. In the secret meeting in Skopje, the Yugoslav and Albanian movements merged to form the Illyrian National Coalition to coordinate the new federation's resistance movements. Secularism was the main driving force behind the newly forged unity between Yugoslavs and Albanians despite their long history as bitter rivals. It was agreed that the new country in which they would liberate and rebuild will be named Illyria and the capital city would be in Skopje. However, the war still had to be won, and the Illyrian coalition of Yugoslavs and Albanians entered into a secret agreement with their Zapadoslav counterparts in the north. With Stettin off limits for a while until the Zapadoslavs could replenish their numbers for the offensive into Russia-Mongolia, they pursued the temporary alliance with the Illyrian National Coalition. However, two main key points prevented them from ever establishing a friendly and eternal relationship.

1) The Yugoslav and Albanian cause for secularism didn't go well with the predominantly Polish dominated Zapadoslav government in Lviv, as Zapadoslavia was mainly a Uniate Christian nation, though leaning towards the Holy See. In fact, secularism is condemned by the Zapadoslav clergy as a dangerous ideology, which should not be encouraged.

2) Zapadoslavs distrusted the motives of the Yugoslavs in particular, since the Serbs had actually planned to create a counterpart to the Greek Catholic Uniate Church by forming a Croato-Serbian Orthodox Western Rite Church, with an Alaskan educated Patriarch as the leader. The official establishment of said Church did occur in May 27th, 1939 with a few Croat Catholics who were resentful of the Vatican's menacing position on their lives and were on the verge of accepting secularism, as well as Croats who were pro-Alaskan. (Meaning pan-Slavic, but with an exiled Alaskan Republic)

To solve the problem of a growing Yugoslav insurgency, Kaiser Wilhelm III (Wilhelm of Prussia, as Wilhelm II had died in 1938 of a health complication) ordered Wilhelm List to invade and subdue the Yugoslavs, together with the Rhomanoi forces of Marshal Badoglio and British General Montgomery. The invasion did kick off on June 12th, with 750,000 German troops, 428,000 Rhomanoi soldiers and 600,000 British and Commonwealth forces against a skeleton crew-led Yugoslav and Albanian armies of 957,500 soldiers. The invasion went rather well for the Hamburg Pact, as the Germans and Hungarians carved out an occupational zone in Croatia and Slovenia, while the Rhomanoi Empire would receive Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria and finally, the British would occupy Serbia and Montenegro. The campaign was over in just eight days, but the Hamburg Pact was now bogged in the Balkans. History showed that most conquerors that occupy the Balkans wouldn't actually be able to win the war anymore, due to the ever growing number of resistance troops and the hostile terrain.

In the German and Hungarian zone of Croatia, they invited a Croat nationalist named Ante Pavelic in ruling the new Croatian state, though Bosnia-Hercegovina was declared a buffer zone by the Hamburg Pact to deter ethnic clashes between Croats and Serbs, as well as Christians and Muslims. Luckily, a solution was founded regarding Bosnian Muslims: they could opt to stay in Bosnia or migrate to Ottoman territories, which incidentally enough, included Sapastan's Sabah territories. The Muslims chose to stay, resulting in creating a Muslim majority in Bosnia, much to the frustration of the Serbs, which wanted to link up Bosnia with Serbia, giving the British a leverage in the Balkans, while the Croats wanted to include most of Bosnia within their sphere of influence, giving Gemany a leverage. Once again, the Yugoslav and Albanian resistance movements made life miserable for the occupiers, though the Germans also interfered in the British zone of Serbia by shooting a hundred civilians for ever German soldier dead. As most of the Hamburg Pact member states would learn the hard way, the Serbs and Bulgarians have no intention to give up that easily. The British recalled their experience in Afghanistan during the Great War and were determined to apply the lessons they learned in Afghanistan to Serbia. There was only one problem: applying the Afghan lesson was only doable since the British were able to fall back to India when they failed to conquer Afghanistan, but applying the Afghan lesson in Serbia was improbable because the British were far away from their nearest territories. In fact, the Afghan lesson was yet another one of British tactical mistakes made when fighting the Serbian Chetniks. An even more undesirable side effect of the Hamburg Pact's intervention in Yugoslavia and Albania is that Zapadoslavia would now be in prime position to attack German targets in the Reich and allow Wallachia to enter the war on the Lviv Pact's side, as well as dragging the Vladivostok Pact into the war by virtue of the Ottoman Empire's proximity to the British and Rhomanoi occupation zones of Yugoslavia.

In response to the Hamburg Pact's invasion of Yugoslavia, Zapadoslavia besieged East Prussia and came within striking range of Koenigsberg on June 19th. Zapadoslav forces blockaded Koenigsberg from both land and sea, starving the inhabitants in the area, allowing the invaders to attack the outnumbered German defenders while Zapadoslav Air Force bombers attacked Stettin from the air. So far in this Second Great War, there were only a few minor atrocities committed by both sides against each other's civilians, though the Zapadoslav codename for the invasion of Russia-Mongolia, Operation: Sigismund, after Sigismund III Vasa, the Polish King who opted to Catholicize Russia instead of allowing his son Wladyslaw IV Vasa to take the Monomakh crown. Like the Battle of Stettin, the Siege of Koenigsberg was a difficult mission to undertake, and by far the most difficult so far. The original start for Operation: Sigismund was slated for the spring of 1939, but because of concerns that the Zapadoslav weaponry were not sufficient enough to match that of the Russo-Mongolian Vezdekhod class tanks or the German Panzer series. So the 7TP tank was first rolled out by the Zapadoslav tank factories in Cracow and Warsaw and its test performance was impressive, though there were calls to improve the tank's capabilities, mainly with speed efficiency. On other Zapadoslav fronts, the offensives grew more more desperate as Silesia was finally pacified by Polish divisions of the Zapadoslav Army. Stettin was now blockaded from the sea by the Zapadoslav Navy, forcing the civilians there to scavenge for any edible food left. As the Zapadoslavs grew more desperate to knock out any member of the Hamburg Pact, it soon became clear that a two front war against the Germans would have to come from another front, as France remained under Hamburg Pact occupation. What the Zapadoslavs have forgotten though, was that the Hamburg Pact's counter insurgency in Yugoslavia counts as a second front agianst the Hamburg Pact.

Marshal Krzyzanowski's Zapadoslav forces attacked Stettin again on August 4th, 1939 with 459,000 troops against a shrunken German garrison of 120,000 soldiers. Though the Zapadoslavs had trouble attacking Stettin for the second time, the Germans were able to put up a much fierce resistance and finally catipulated on November 17th after a frightful three and a half months of fighting. The difference between the February 1939 Battle of Stettin and that of November 1939 was the German and British diversion into Yugoslavia, sapping their fighting strength on other fronts. With Stettin secured by the Lviv Pact, Zapadoslavia was in position to liberate Denmark from German occupation. Time was running out for the Zapadoslavs, with the decision to strike against Russia-Mongolia already delayed, there was no telling when are they going to launch Operation: Sigsimund. Finally on december 9th, the Zapadoslav Central Rada in Lviv agreed that the operation would be launched on late March or early April of 1940.

From December of 1939 until March of 1940, the Zapadoslavs also invaded the Grand Duchy of Bohemia so they could annex the Czech lands as part of Zapadoslavia. However, the invasion had failed mainly because German troops were able to catch the Zapadoslavs off guard and more importantly, the German Army under Rommel had actually retaken Silesia from Krzyzanowski's forces. However, with Pommerania still under Zapadoslav occupation, the British had to supply their German ally through the Netherlands, or through Hamburg itself. Danish resistance forces sabotaged the German controlled infrastructure throughout the country, and there were talks of Swedish participation in the war on the Lviv Pact's side. Though the Swedes preferred to maintain their neutrality, the Norweigans planned to support the Danish resistance. However, on January 6th, 1940, Spain had entered the war on the Lviv Pact's side and sent in an army under Marshal Sanjurjo to southern France to help relieve the French resistance. Spanish troops helped French resistance fighters retake Vichy from the British Army, though the Anglo-German coalition force had quickly retaken the sleepy town soon after that. Spanish troops also participated in the anti-Hamburg Italian partisan operations throughout southern Italy and Sicily on January 21st, 1940, and indeed all of Sicily had actually fell to the Free Italian Forces and the Spanish Army by February 26th. From there, Free Italian and Free French Forces cooperated in the liberation of Italy from the Hamburg Pact's influence and indeed, they besieged Rome and Ortona on March 9th. Though the Rhomanoi troops had held the city since the siege began, German reinforcements had helped stem the tide of the battle. British and German naval vessels had launched a joint operation to destroy the Spanish Navy from the British base in Gibraltar, forcing Francisco Franco to recall most of the Spanish fleet deployed in Sicily. Finally, on March 19th, 1940, after four months of preparation and planning, Zapadoslavia finally launched Operation: Sigismund, the long awaited invasion of Russia-Mongolia and by far, one of the most bloodiest battles in the world.
 
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Chapter Nine: The War Once Again Part Two



Operation: Sigismund in Action:

On March 19th, 1940, three Zapadoslav Army formations under Marshals Krzyzanowski (leading the Army Formation Neva, their objective is to seize Novgorod, Petrograd, Pskov and Smolensk), Andriy Melnyk (leading the Army Formation Zaporozhia, their objective is to seize the Caucasus) and Wladyslaw Sikorski (leading the Army Formation Volga, their objective is the capture of the old capital Moscow and to form a puppet Russian state that is pro-Western and Uniatized or Catholicized) attacked Russia-Mongolia. Immediately, the new Russo-Mongolian leader Choibalsan ordered the general mobilization of the entire country's military. Russian Buddhists who enlisted in the army were lectured by Choibalsan and Ungern Von Sternberg, with Choibalsan giving the speech.

Fellow Russians! Fellow Mongolians! Fellow peoples of Eurasia! Our long awaited enemy has arrived on our western doorstep, and they intend to force us to embrace their heretical faith once again! Let us not forget how in 1854 the ruthless bastards of Otto von Bismarck had unleashed a terrible cancer upon our Motherland, knocking our status as the Third Rome. They've trampled on our sacred Russian pride, so are we going to let them destroy our very identity? We will never allow this monstrous crime to go unpunished! As your mentors in the Golden Horde have ravaged Europe to shield Old Russia, so the Russian, Mongolian, Caucasian, Turkic and Uralic peoples of Eurasia shall take up the old battle cry. Ura! When we are done with these 'crusaders', we will unleash our retribution far worse than Tamerlane's destruction. For the sake of the Eurasian nation and to protect the legacy of your spiritual Khan, Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, arise ye Rus' people! Ye Rus' people, march hand in hand with your comrades of different backgrounds and complete the unfinished mission the Great Khan has started: unite Europe and Asia under the banner of the Khan!

The speech was given in Krasnoyarsk on March 22nd, three days after the Zapadoslav invasion. Caucasian tribesmen received a message from their fellow Muslim Russians in the Russo-Mongolian Army to launch jihad the moment the Zapadoslav 'infidels' occupy sacred Caucasian soil. Special Muslim battalions were created in the Russo-Mongolian military and were led by Muslim officers. Now that most of the Lviv Pact had joined Zapadoslavia's war on Russia-Mongolia, the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Lviv Pact in support of its giant neighbor in the north. The Hamburg Pact then declared war on the Vladivostok Pact but were still in the state of war with the Lviv Pact.

Krzyzanowski's Army Formation Neva attacked Petrograd from their bases in the Baltics, forcing the Russo-Mongolian defenders to undertake bombing missions from their bases further east in Arkhangelsk. The Siege of Petrograd, as it was known, started on April 6th, 1940 and would go on for the duration of Operation: Sigismund. Pskov and Novgorod later fell to the Zapadoslav Army, allowing Krzyzanowski to establish the long awaited puppet Uniate Russian state called the Pomorye Republic. Most of the policies set in place was straight forward: to convert the apostate Russians to Uniate Christianity or Roman Catholicism and to re-Westernize these 'Oriental-minded' Russians. However, the Catholicization had gone disastrously wrong, as not only the Russians living under Zapadoslav rule refused to convert, but they even beat up priests who were there to convert them. From then on, the Zapadoslav government's new policy for the occupied Russian territory was conversion by force, or rather: one third of the Russians Catholicized, one third of the Russians deported and one third of the Russians to be killed. It is worth noting that this policy was actually inspired by Ante Pavelic's hidden plan for the Serbs living in Croatia. It was this kind of policy that began the infamous Zapadoslav atrocities against the Russian population, committed by Polish and Ukrainian soldiers of the Zapadoslav Army.

As for Andriy Melnyk's incursion into Russia, the Ukrainian Cossack division had encountered their Don Russian Cossack counterpart on April 17th, 1940 and indeed, Melnyk had scored a victory in the Battle of Novorossiysk five days later. Unfortunately, Melnyk's Army Formation Don would be the first invader to encounter a determined and fearless Muslim regiments of the Russo-Mongolian Army. The moment Melnyk's troops were spotted, Muslim troops began to harrass the enemy, forcing them to go deeper into Caucasian territory. There was another, nasty surprise for Melnyk's forces: the sight of their long lost Russian brothers praying in the direction of Mecca and were fighting alongside these Chechen guerrillas. A hidden fact was that their ancestors in the Imperial Russian Army had fought against these men, and a hundred plus years later, the Russians have joined the 'enemy'. Infuriated, Melnyk gave orders to a rising star under his command named Bronislaw Kaminsky to subdue these guerrillas. This was certainly easier said than done, for the guerrillas who dominated the Caucasian mountains knew the country like it was in their second nature.

Finally, Sikorski's offensive into the old Russian capital of Moscow had hit certain snags. For one thing, most of the Russo-Mongolian defenders who retreated had burned everything down to deny its uses to the invaders. Before the invasion had started, Choibalsan had authorized the construction of defensive obstacles on the western side of the Russo-Mongolian Empire, as well as moving all of the industries into Siberia. Though the Zapadoslavs have claimed to liberate the Russian people from their Mongol overlords, it was vastly different from the Middle Ages when the Russians were under the rule of the Golden Horde. Zapadoslavia had been aware that the Russians had saw themselves as the chief guardians and bearers of Genghis Khan's legacy, and intended to destroy that legacy for good. Choibalsan's speech in Krasnoyarsk had apparently grabbed the attention of all members of the Lviv Pact and Hamburg Pact alike.

Ottoman Front:

British and German naval fleets were certainly not busy in the Mediterrenean Sea, as they launched the same operation as they did in the Great War: seize the Bosphorus and knock the Ottoman Empire so they can open up a front against the Russo-Mongolians. Izmir was besieged by the Anglo-German combined fleet and was captured by May 12th. This time, the Rhomanoi joined the Anglo-German combined forces in besieging Istanbul from British occupied Bulgaria. What they didn't anticipate however, was that the Yugoslavs and Albanians of the Illyrian National Coalition had finally decided to side with the Vladivostok Pact, supporting Russia-Mongolia's war against the Lviv Pact. As a result, certain chain reactions had been triggered. Here are the events as a result of the Yugoslav-Albanian switch:

1) Zapadoslavia was now vulnerable from the south as Wallachia/Romania also switched to the Vladivostok Pact. As a result, some of the Zapadoslav forces were redeployed to the Romanian border to deter the Romanians and the Illyrian National Coalition from attacking them.

2) The Hamburg Pact's main powers, Great Britain and Germany, were forced to beg for the Dutch to replace them in the Balkan theater and for the Japanese to attack Russia-Mongolia from the east. Japan politely declined the suggestion, citing the war in China as the main reason.

3) With the Yugoslavs and Albanians making life miserable for the Anglo-German and Dutch occupiers, more troops were actually deployed to put down the rebellion, which spiralled out of control.

4) The Siege of Constantinople of 1940 would be a very costly battle, since Ottoman forces were in position to liberate Greater Yugoslavia and Albania, as well as Greece from the Hamburg Pact. Ironically, the Ottomans coming to the Balkans as liberators would go down in history as the weirdest moments in the Second Great War. Of course, with Josip Broz as the commander of the INC, the war in the Balkans could go very messy indeed.

5) Finally, the Greeks have an incentive to revolt against the Rhomanoi Empire and were in a position to undo or even take charge of nearly all of the Rhomanoi Empire, leaving the Italians as the junior partner instead.

Ismet Inonu, who succeeded Ataturk in 1938, had negotiated with the Ottoman sultan on the war effort in Anatolia and agreed that they should create a Joint Chiefs of Staff and Operations, comprising of Russo-Mongolian and Ottoman generals. Not to be outdone, the British Navy had even undertaken the invasion of Egypt from their base in Sudan, which proved to be a successful, but nearly disastrous gambit. With the help of the German forces from German Mittleafrika, British troops under Montgomery (who also had to juggle his responsibility as the commander of the Serbo-Bulgarian occupation zone) pushed the Ottomans back into the Levant, from which the Anglo-Germans could set up a plan to divide the Jews and Arab Muslims to fight each other, and to engineer other sectarian violence throughout the Ottoman Empire. It did succeed, though the sectarian violence grew worse than they had anticipated. Ottoman troops found themselves suppressing rebellions launched by fellow Muslims. In an uprising in the Ottoman town of Homs, the Arab rebels fighting under British leadership had attacked the Ottoman garrison, forcing them to bombard Homs with artillery in order to stamp out the rebellion.

From Izmir, the Anglo-German-Rhomanoi coalition troops continued to besiege Istanbul until its eventual capture on May 31st. Hagia Sophia was taken over by the Rhomanoi troops as the Patriarch of Constantinople had called for his congregation to gather for a mass once again. As in the Balkans and Afghanistan, Anatolia was a mountainous terrain, making guerrila warfare all the easier. Turkish guerrillas went into the hills and carried out raids on enemy infrastructure while British troops also had to contend with Kurdish guerrillas who aren't kind to any occupier of any kind. Frustrated by the slow advance in Anatolia, the British launched the invasion of Afghanistan and Persia in order to open up a front in Russo-Mongolian Central Asia. However, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain had advised the Japanese High Command not to attack Russia-Mongolia or the United Socialist States of America yet until Afghanistan and Persia fell under their control. Like what happened in the Great War, the British Army could not capture most of Afghanistan, and with Persia invaded, there was going to be more British casualties in the South Asia theater. Unlike the last Central Asian front of the Great War, Afghan guerrillas only fought against the British invaders.

Russo-Mongolian and Ottoman Coordination:

When Melnyk's Army Formation Don finally occupied most of the Caucasus, they still had to deal with Muslim guerrillas who made life miserable for them. Though the Ottomans kept the supply lines running to Russia-Mongolia through Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the deep fear of a British link up with Zapadoslav troops, which recently captured Moscow on June 12th, had almost become a reality. Luckily, the Lviv and Hamburg Pacts were still at war with each other. Thus the Russo-Mongolian forces of General Pyotr Gavrilov's 9th Siberian Division were able to help stem the tide of the battle, and indeed the Russo-Mongolian Army had defeated the Zapadoslav Army in the Battle of Nizhny Novgorod on June 20th. With the Russo-Mongolian victory in Nizhny Novgorod, the Zapadoslav troops were pushed back into Moscow, where Choibalsan promised to deliver the biggest blow to the Zapadoslav Army occupying Moscow and commiting the worst kinds of atrocities against the Muscovites.

Preparations were painstaking as the Russo-Mongolians had to gather around 2,930,000 soldiers in order to retake the ancient capital of Russia. The new T-26 tank was rolled out of the Siberian factories along with the new rocket launchers, codenamed "Timur" which could fire more rockets than artillery. Using Kazan as a forward base, the Sturmovik bombers were deployed to soften the Zapadoslav defenses around Moscow, while a special detachment within the Russo-Mongolian Army was dropped behind enemy lines to sabotage the fuel dumps and weapons cache around the Kremlin. Zapadoslav retaliations often range from German-style reprisals to razing of entire villages, often with much tragic results. Those tragedies only continued to bring ordinary Russian civilians into joining guerrilla formations, participating in attacks on Zapadoslav military targets.

In the beginning of July of 1940, Moscow was besieged from the ground and the air with Pyotr Gavrilov's army of 2,930,000 men and 300 T-26 tanks entering the ancient capital. The summer heat of the Russian former capital allowed the defending Zapadoslav forces to raze more buildings in order to slow down the Russo-Mongolian advance. Gavrilov's response was to request for more bombings into heavily fortified positions, while the "Timur" rocket launchers pounded enemy bunkers. Ottoman Air Force bombers stationed in central and eastern Anatolia bombed Zapadoslav industrial centers in the Ukraine and eastern Poland while Ottoman fighter planes in cooperation with the Persian and Russo-Mongolian Air Force stationed along the Persian border with Russia-Mongolia straffed at retreating British tropps from Afghanistan. British bombers attacked the Russo-Mongolian cities in Central Asia, Samarqand being the most hit, followed by Kabul and Tashkent.

As the British and Zapadoslav bombers pulverize Russo-Mongolian factories in Central Asia, Marshal Choibalsan had contemplated on negotiating with the Chinese government on a possible ceasefire, armistice, or a combination of both. By now, the Japanese Empire had started to mobilize on the border with Russian Siberia, as well as the Manchukuoan border with Mongolia. Ottoman forces in Sapastan were mobilized as well, with Artemio Ricarte appointed as the Sapastani Armed Forces commander in chief, second only to Inonu, the current Ottoman Prime Minister and the Ottoman Sultan. The Japanese Navy was ordered to sail southwards from Taiwan and wait for further orders. Though the hard pressed Russo-Mongolian armies were narrowly winning the offensive against the Zapadoslavs in Moscow, it was not until September 11th, 1940 when Japan had finally declared war on the Russo-Mongolian Empire and shelled Vladivostok with another naval fleet under Admiral Nagumo Chuichi (Nagumo being the last name, as I would actually like to write Chinese, Korean and Japanese names in the traditional last names first and given names last). The 20th Japanese Army Division under General Kuribayashi crossed the Amur and attacked Blagoveshchensk on September 19th. The main Japanese objective was to capture Blagoveshchensk so they could cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, starving Vladivostok, Okhotsk and Khabarovsk into submission. Under Choibalsan's orders, the Russo-Mongolian defenders led by Andrei Vlasov were to slow down the Japanese invaders long enough for the winter climate to kick in. For two months, most of the ruined buildings provided excellent defensive positions for Vlasov's armies while Kuribayashi was pressured by Tokyo to capture Blagoveshchensk within six weeks. Additionally, the T-26 tanks the Russo-Mongolians had fielded were able to take out most of the Japanese tanks and tankettes, which were utterly useless.

By December of 1940, Blagoveshchensk finally fell to Kuribayashi's army as he linked up with another Japanese army under General Yamashita Tomoyuki as his 29th Japanese Army Division captured Okhotsk and were descending down into Khabarovsk. Unfortunately, the Japanese forces were not prepared for the onslaught of the nasty Siberian winter as they were issued inadequate winter clothing. Seeing the trouble in the Russian Far East, Japanese Prime Minister Tojo Hideki ordered Yamashita and Kuribayashi to hold on to those two cities and to defend it well until the spring offensive could be carried out. As for the Russo-Mongolian forces retreating from Blagoveshchensk, Choibalsan ordered more reinforcements to besiege the two occupied cities and he specifically chose Damdin Sukhbataar to lead the attack. Sukhbataar, whose experience in the battlefield was during the Great War as an infantry soldier under Ungern Von Sternberg's command. Additionally, Sukhbataar knew when to attack an enemy position during winter time, in part because of his participation in the border skirmishes with the Japanese Army. Even more so, the Japanese High Command have other matters to attend, mainly with the conquest of China and attacking SE Asia.

Sukhbataar's artillery formation bombarded the Japanese position in Blagoveshchensk on January of 1941, even as some Japanese battalions were being redeployed southwards in a planned invasion of the Ottoman East Indies. On February 8th, 1941, Choibalsan and Chiang Kai Shek met in a historical summit in the Mongolian capital, though Wang Jing Wei was also invited to the summit as well despite his pro-Hamburg Pact stance. The dialogue between these leaders were kept in a written diary written by Chiang Ching Kuo:

Choibalsan: We have come here to negotiate on a possible truce and a cession of hostilites between our two nations. I know that your country has some hard feelings towards us because of the Yuan Dynasty and soon after that, but that is in the past.

Chiang: That may be so, but why did you invite us into the summit? We have no interest whatsoever in negotiation with you barbarians in the north. We honestly don't care what happens to your reconstructed empire.

Wang: I agree with Chiang here, but now that Japan has sided with the Hamburg Pact, I have no choice but to change my mind on allowing another set of negotiations. We also detest the French for what happened in the Opium Wars, and these people from west of the Russian state have showed their true colors as rapacious brutes. What is it that we should agree on, Your Excellency?

Chiang: Wang, I can't believe you'd side with the Mongol here! Have you lost your mind?

Choibalsan: I'm beginning to understand what Wang has said, Mr. Chiang. We both have a common enemy now, so I'd care about what happens to the Russo-Mongolian Empire, if I were you. We're attacked by the same enemy, the Empire of Japan.

Wang: There is something else that we wished to tell you. In the event that the United Socialist States of America enters the war, I may have to seek the aid and friendship of my former protege, Mao.

Chiang: That lunatic Marxist?

Wang: He may be a Marxist, but he's fighting off the Japanese invaders. If you hadn't sent assassins after me, I would still have supported you.

Choibalsan: Enough. We're getting off topic here. Now, should we agree on a permanent truce and a possible negotiation of the Chinese state into the Vladivostok Pact? Our terms of the deal for allowing the entry of China into our Pact is that we'll relinquish our claims on your territory, except for the Uyghurs as they certainly are not comfortable dealing with your government. Finally, once we coordinate our efforts to throw off the Japanese, then we can launch a planned offensive into India. How would you like to plant the Kuomintang flag into the Agra fort? Or alternatively, you can fly the old Qing dragon flag.

Chiang: We'd gotten rid of the Qing, but the deal seems to be tempting. We also have a condition for our possible entry: you have to help us reconstruct our economy and pay us compensation for what you've done to our nation. When we're going to fight alongside you, we'd also pay the white foreign devils for the Opium War as well, with interest.

Choibalsan: Done. So, shall we sign the treaty then?

It soon became official to the entire world that the Republic of China had entered the war as a member of the Vladivostok Pact. A certain change of pace for the Chinese leaders, whose apparent outrage at the Hamburg Pact's act of allowing Japan into their alliance and the Lviv Pact's unwillingness to negotiate some more had resulted in the Chinese change of heart. As for the Hamburg Pact themselves, not only have they made a mistake of allowing Japan to join them, but they would soon pay the price for alienating China. With the attack on India from China, the Hamburg Pact was soon going to receive another rude awakening.

On a clear, sunny day in March 10th, 1940, it was another day at the USS naval base in the Cuban Autonomous Socialist Territory at Guantanamo Bay as the sailors took it easy since it was on a Sunday. Without warning a British carrier fleet and some destroyers had arrived at the naval base from British Guyana and began to attack the anchored ships. Alarms rang out while American sailors scrambled to their battle stations, confused at the situation. By 0900 hrs, a smaller German U-Boat wolfpack arrived on the northside of Guantanamo Bay and torpedoed one of the American battleships. The words, "this is not a drill" soon became clear to these American sailors: the Hamburg Pact was going to launch its war of ideological extermination against the United Socialist States of America.

The next day, the current USSA leader Al Capone was livid at the surprise attack on Guantanamo Bay and had smashed a couple of empty beer bottles to take his frustration out. Of course, since Capone came to power in 1929, he rebuilt the American economy with the backbreaking labor of the American people, most of whom were pleased to see law and order restored, though there were few American skilled workers who managed to defect into British Canada and explained to the Canadian authorities of what was going on. Several of the most famous defectors from the USSA into Canada were Douglas MacArthur, who then took up a post in the Canadian military, Franklin Roosevelt, who retired from politics and wrote a memoir from his quiet home in Churchill, Manitoba, and finally, Joseph MacCarthy, who would become the most outspoken critic of the Capone regime and had organized an anti-Capone transitional government with himself and another defector, Harry Truman as his deputy. Capone's government in Debs, DC (renamed from Washington, DC after the revolution) declared war on the Hamburg Pact but choosing to side with the Vladivostok Pact and not fighting against the Lviv Pact, yet.

Operation: Tecumseh Begins:

As mentioned on the title, Operation: Tecumseh was the mission laid out by the British government to help topple the Socialist American government and to replace it with their original government. However, the planning was done back in 1936 and had some several flaws after inspecting the plans with the German government. For one thing, German Admiral Wilhelm Canaris pointed out that even if the socialists were overthrown, they'd still be fighting against the Hamburg Pact due to historical reasons. For one thing, the American public never forgave France for treating their soldiers like second rate troops (though in fact, America had gone to war too prematurely in the Great War) and they were not going to let it slide.

General McNaughton's Canadian Army increased to 600,000 men as a result of the start of Tecumseh, though the British Army had to redeploy their exhausted soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, France and the Balkans to Canada so they could bolster the fighting strength of Canada's forces. Moreover, the Canadian Army had gained extensive experience from fighting the Alaskan Army back in the War of National Survival. A couple of targets were hit on the first few days of Tecumseh:

1) Seattle: Main target was the shipyards and the important Boeing airplane factories that produced the fighter and bomber planes for the USS Air Force, although several new factories were built in Colorado and in Kansas.

2) Los Angeles: Other shipyards were targeted, as well as the San Diego naval base. It was where the bulk of the Pacific Command was stationed, owing to Hawaii falling under Alaskan control in 1931 while Canada regained Yukon, parts of NWT and British Columbia.

3) Chicago: The main financial and industrial sector of the USSA, and also the nearest target to Canadian troops.

4) New York: Another financial center of the United Socialist States, though it was at the Big Apple where the main siege would occur.

5) Detroit: The main manufacturing center for all ground based weaponry, ranging from tanks to artillery cannons and munitions.

The northern territories were rapidly captured by McNaughton's forces by April of 1940, with Joe Vinegar's USS Army falling back to their main defensive line in the Oregon-California interstate border. Capone had ordered the USS Army forces to counterattack McNaughton's forces, but it ended in disaster. Indeed, an American invasion of Canada and the attempted capture of both Windsor and Ottawa were repulsed with heavy casualties. By May 23rd, Capone had changed his stance and began to pay more attention to details on the battle front. He also ordered the American civilians to engage in guerrilla warfare should their lands fall under enemy occupation. to invigorate the patriotic spirit of the American people, Capone had began to show propaganda of George Washington's struggle against the British Army in 1776, the War of 1812 and played on the Founding Fathers' ideals. Though Capone had never bothered to care for the liberties of the American people in general, he now had to consider more of their sacrifices.

Several events happend on July 4th, 1940: first, the Anglo-Canadian forces besieged New York, culminating in the longest siege of the entire war and the mass enlistment of men into the USS Army. Second, the Chinese Army had attacked the Japanese in Shanghai and inflicted some serious casualties, but not before facing a disastrous defeat themselves, resulting in an even bigger Japanese reprisal against the Chinese civilians. Third, the Russo-Mongolian Army of Pyotr Gavrilov have finally retaken Moscow, Ryazan, Tver', and Petrograd as the Zapadoslavs were recoiling from the news of the American entry into the war. Fourth, the Yugoslav-Albanian coalition resistance forces have liberated Bulgaria and Serbia before turning their attention towards Montenegro and Albania. Fifth and finally, Japanese and Ottoman Turkish forces were now battling each other in the beaches of Laoag, Ilocos region.

Liberation of Old Russia Offensive:

From July 4th onwards, Pyotr Gavrilov's forces did capture Moscow. However, it was not enough as the other territories remained under Zapadoslav occupation. In an effort at softening up the enemy forces in occupied territories, Caucasian guerrillas were used to infiltrate and sabotage Zapadoslav defensive positions before Gavrilov's troops could storm them. Ryazan was besieged for three weeks until the Zapadoslav High Command ordered Pilsudski and Melnyk to pull out of Russia in an anticipation of a Russo-Mongolian invasion of their homeland. Krzyzanowski's Army Formation Neva was also forced to pull back, but not before suffering a defeat at the hands of another Russo-Mongol force attacking Novgorod.

When the Russo-Mongolian forces liberated most of their territories, they were shocked and traumatized by the Zapadoslav atrocities, and how it was committed. Old Orthodox churches were blown up, while mass graves were uncovered. Any captured Zapadoslav soldier falling into Russo-Mongolian captivity was marched off into Siberia for prison labor and Buddhist temples were desecrated, as well as mosques, angering the Caucasian and Central Asian soldiers taking part in the liberation. It was now clear to Choibalsan that these crimes were not to go unpunished as he and the newly created Eurasian Joint Command organized a plan to invade and occupy Europe in retaliation. Tver' and Pskov were liberated by July 31st as more evidence of the atrocities were uncovered. In Ulan Bataar, Choibalsan took notes on which officers of the Zapadoslav Army were to be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Hamburg Pact's response to the atrocities were horrifying at the least, though the Germans were perplexed at how their enemy to the east had entered Old Russia and ravaged her like it was 1612. It was widely assumed that the Hamburg and Lviv Pacts would unite in opposition to Old Russia and destroy her as a nation forever, but this assumption was wrong, to the Vladivostok Pact's relief. By September of 1940, most of Old Russia was liberated from the Zapadoslav occupation and Choibalsan gave out the order to start planning another operation, codenamed Kutuzov, or the Russo-Mongolian invasion of Europe.

Siege of New York:

The Anglo-Canadian forces who invaded the United Socialist States from Nova Scotia had bombarded New York with artillery cannons, destroying much of the famous neighborhoods in the area. Canadian troops led by J.H. Roberts battled USS soldiers led by Jonathan Wainright for the control of the Queens neighborhood while British forces under Mallory had taken Brooklyn in an urban warfare. American civilians were already evacuated from New York before the siege began, but British naval warships bombarded the city from the Atlantic Ocean. USS Navy ships sailed from the Florida keys to join in the battle at New York.

Many more Americans died during the Siege of New York than all of the other battles within the North American theater of the war. While the Anglo-German Joint Command agreed to surround New York and to starve it into submission, New Jersey fell to the British 23rd Division. Chicago and Detroit also fell to the Canadian troops led by McNaughton three weeks after New York was bombarded. The resulting in the capture of those two cities forced Capone to relocate the factories to the Deep South in Atlanta, Nashville and Baton Rouge. Conscription drives were widespread throughout the unoccupied American territories, though Capone's FBI had arrested a couple of draft dodgers and suspected deserters.

Because of the war with the United Socialist States, most of the British forces in Asia and Africa had to be sent to Canada to bolster their forces in Operation: Tecumseh. Douglas MacArthur, who received a commission in the Canadian Army as a Brigadier General, had helped McNaughton reorganize the Canadian military in the German and Alaskan model by concentrating on producing tanks for major offensives against the USS Army, while another American naval admiral who defected to Canada named Husband Kimmel took charge of Canada's small navy and helped develop tactics which worked against Socialist American submarines lurking in the area. With MacArthur's expertise in American military tactics (of course, he served in the former Free US Army before defecting), the Anglo-Canadian joint command knew where to strike the Americans next.

Debs, DC was besieged by October 10th, 1940 with Arthur Percival leading the attack. Like in New York, Debs, DC was surrounded by Percival's forces, but this time the resistance there was much stronger. Capone responded by ordering General Dwight Eisenhower to relieve the defenders at Debs, DC, while at the same time, he moved the capital to Dallas, Texas for the remainder of the war. To forestall the possible uprising in the southern states, Capone sent the FBI to round up the Ku Klux Klan and its sympathizers and deported them to Cuba, where they served as forced laborers for the agricultural sector, much to the Southern sympathizers' outrage. Ironically, Capone's deportation of the KKK had actually triggered the Dixie Uprising of November 6th, 1940 and would not be suppressed until January of 1941. With the uprising in the Deep South and the Anglo-Canadian occupation in the north, Capone's regime looked bleak, and it was only a matter of time before it would collapse. Luckily, Mexico's entry into the war against the Hamburg Pact as part of the Vladivostok Pact had allowed Mexican and American cooperation against the Hamburg Pact in the north. Mexican weapons reached American guerrillas operating behind Canadian occupied territory while Cuban volunteers relayed information on British and German naval movements in the Carribean, allowing William Halsey to attack those fleets with his submarines and escort carriers.

Chinese Offensive into Japanese Territory:

Zhou Enlai's 37th Shock Trooper Corps attacked the Japanese occupied city of Shanghai on July 4th in an effort to dislodge the Japanese Army out of the city. Though the attack did lure the main bulk of the Japanese Army from the city, the Chinese attackers were not prepared for the counter offensive operations of the IJA. The Chinese defeat only reinvigorated the Japanese forces to launch another offensive into the deeper parts of China. Zhou Enlai then ordered the remaining soldiers of his army to retreat into the mountains where they can harrass the Japanese troops as Mao Tse Tung's army would make a diversionary attack into northern China.

In Tianjin, Mao's forces and Japanese soldiers clashed inside the city, though the IJA also managed to repel those guerrillas as well. The aftermath of the disastrous Chinese offensive forced Zhou and Mao to send some of their remaining troops to Russia-Mongolia to be retrained and rearmed with modern weaponry. While the Chinese Army were being trained, numerous other guerrillas continued to attack Japanese bases with mild results.

Russo-Mongolian Gavrilov Offensive:

As the end of 1940 approaches, the Russo-Mongolian Army had finally thrown off the Zapadoslav occupation troops in Old Russia. Choibalsan and Ma Bufang, the new Chinese commander of the retrained Chinese Army, had spent a considerable amount of time planning on taking out Japan before the Anglo-German naval force could protect the Japanese Empire. With that in mind, Manchuria was the first target of Operation: Kublai, the planned offensive against Japan. As for the Gavrilov Offensive, the main plan of said offensive was to destroy Zapadoslavia as a sovereign nation and in its place, a weakened Poland, Ukraine, Belorussia and the Baltic states would fall under Russo-Mongolian control. However, this might mean that Russia-Mongolia would have to accomodate the Hamburg Pact nations in the division of Europe, which was something Choibalsan was not willing to do. Instead, Choibalsan assigned Capone a fair share of Western Europe, including Great Britain. The offensive would be slated for February of 1941.

On Valentine's Day of 1941, the Vladivostok Pact had launched their so-called Valentine Offensives. These Valentine Offensives would strike at both the Hamburg and Lviv Pacts in their intended targets: the Lviv Pact at Zapadoslavia, the Baltic states, Romania and Hungary, while attacking the Hamburg Pact in Manchuria, Western Europe and in Africa as well. Russo-Mongolian troops crossed the Old Russian border with Zapadoslav Ukraine and Belorussia and bombarded Vitebsk and Donetsk with the Timur rocket launchers. In retaliation for the Zapadoslav atrocities against the Russian population of Old Russia, Gavrilov's forces routinely burnt down village after village as refugees flooded Kiev, Chernihiv and Dnieperpetrovsk in panic. Russo-Mongolian bombers pulverized Zapadoslav targets in Minsk and Kiev while squadrons stationed in Xinjiang and Central Asia pulverized British targets in India and a Mongol squadron based in Mongolia helped bomb Japanese factories in the Home Islands.

In the first few weeks of the Valentine Offensive's European Theater, most of Belorussia had already fallen to the Russo-Mongolian forces, who proceeded to create a puppet regime, composed of pro-Russian figures like Panteleimon Ponomarenko who became its first President. The Ukraine on the other hand, continued to bog down the other Russo-Mongolian Army led by Georgy Zhukov against the Zapadoslav Army divison led by Stepan Bandera. Indeed, Russo-Mongolian troops besieged Chernihiv by March 13th while Gavrilov's forces made their way into Lithuania, creating three more puppet regimes in the Baltic states as they conquered them, rather brutally. The Russo-Mongolian soldiers were briefed by their officers on how Old Russia was humiliated by Bismarck's manipulation and that their entry back into Europe would mark the final chapter of Russia's revenge. Even as Tallinn and Riga fell by May of 1941, Lithuanian forces were fighting both Zapadoslav and Russo-Mongolian occupational troops.

Another Russo-Mongol force led by Rodion Malinovsky had broken through Japanese lines and recaptured Blagoveshchensk by May 18th. Japanese troops were being recalled by the Tokyo government for the planned invasion of Sapastan but the invasion never materialized, mainly because of Tojo's decision to focus their efforts northwards, or the Hokushin policy. In Manchuria however, Manchu partisans were being aided by Mongolian soldiers who often crossed the Mongol-Manchu-Chinese borders and attacked Japanese military bases in the area. Finally on May 23rd, the retrained Chinese Army crossed the Mongolian border and accompanied by Manchu partisans, they launched the invasion of Japanese occupied China and besieged Beijing by the 27th. They were also joined by the Russo-Mongolian forces under Malinovsky, who was ordered to send some extra soldiers to Manchuria to help Ma Bufang's forces in Beijing and to help Zhang Tsolin's partisans. As the Japanese Army pulled out of Vladivostok and other parts of Japanese occupied Russian Far East, local civilians rose up and attacked them from behind. Enraged, the Japanese soldiers under the command of Iwabuchi Sanji launched a ruthless reprisal against the Vladivostok population that would later result in his conviction on the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in what was to become the Vladivostok Massacre. In the Japanese Home Islands, the planned invasion of Sapastan was cancelled officially and Homma Masaharu's army was ordered into Manchuria to reinforce the Japanese defense of that colony, hindering the Russo-Mongol-Chinese coalition efforts to throw the invaders out.

Back in Europe, Chernihiv fell on June 2nd as Kiev was regularly bombed from the occupied airfields within Russo-Mongolian occupied Zapadoslavia. Four days later, the Americans had lured the Anglo-Canadian coalition forces into a major urban battle in Chattanooga. Led by Eisenhower, the USS Army had whittled down the Anglo-Canadian forces and inflicted a huge defeat on them once St. Louis and Detroit were raided by American partisans. At the same time as the American counteroffensive, the Zapadoslav forces in their occupied Germany were being pushed back by Erwin Rommel's forces in conjunction with Hans Krebs' offensive into Silesia. Now that the Hamburg Pact has regained the momentum, the British Army in India also faced the fear of an Indian uprising led by rouge elements like Ali Jinnah and Bose. Britain also planned an invasion of Ottoman Sapastan from both India and Australia, but the main problem would be capturing all of Indonesia as well, which would be very problematic in the long run. All in all, the Valentine Offensives would prove to be the turning point of the entire Second Great War.
 
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Chapter Ten: The War Once Again Part Three and Conclusion




Since June of 1941, the Vladivostok Pact see sawed with the Hamburg Pact for the momentum of the entire war. Most of the Baltic states and Belorussia had already fallen under Russo-Mongolian occupation, and the Chinese offensive into Japanese Manchuria had began to pay off in dividends, thanks to the retrained Chinese divisions. six of these retrained Chinese divisions were deployed into the Tibetan border in an ambitious plan to raid and eventually invade India in conjuction with Persian and Russo-Mongolian forces from Central Asia. However, the USS Army had bigger things to worry about, for Nashville had fallen to the Anglo-Canadian coalition forces just a few weeks after Chatanooga had fallen. Eisenhower gave Capone an alarming report, stating that unless there was a solution to driving the Anglo-Canadians out of the northern United States, the socialist garden would burn down in fury. Capone also received reports of MacArthur and Kimmel's collaboration with the combined coalition forces despite their status as defected officers.

The Deep South became more important as an industrial base after much of the North had been occupied by Anglo-Canadian troops and were bringing in anti-communist American Transitional Committee led by Truman and MacCarthy. As cities in the Deep South like Atlanta, Miami and Baton Rouge grew with the influx of refugees from the north, most of the Southerners grumbled at the way these damnyankees were going to make their beloved Dixieland less Confederate in character. Most notably, these resentments were often toned down by the Capone government, though much of the KKK's influence had already waned as a result of their deportation to Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Factories churned out tanks like the M4 Sherman and the Forrest M5 tank in Baton Rouge, while bombers were being built en masse in Mississipi. The wartime industrialization of the Deep South would enable the Southerners to compete with the Northerners in terms of the American post-war economic reconstruction.

The Ankara Conference:

On July 4th, 1941, leaders of the Vladivostok Pact gathered around in the Turkish capital for a conference that would decide the postwar fate of the entire world. Their only call in the entire meeting was the unconditional surrender of both the Hamburg and Lviv Pacts, though there were a few members of those Pacts who contemplated about changing sides. Capone was invited to the conference, despite his mistrust of the Eurasian superpowers, while the French and Spanish delegates wanted to go to the Vladivostok Pact and wished to change sides. The news of the French and Spanish desire to leave the Lviv Pact enraged the Zapadoslav government, who felt that such a move would leave them as the only sole member of the Lviv Pact, unless if Belgium and Denmark were counted as members, though the Lviv Pact itself was collapsing. As for the Hamburg Pact themselves, only Great Britain, Germany and Japan remained the most active members. Neutral states like Sweden and Norway still didn't change their stance, although they were glad that they didn't have to face the possibility of a Russo-Mongolian imposed puppet regime in Scandinavia.

Even as the Russo-Mongolian Army were busy thrashing the Ukraine and Belarus, Choibalsan met up with Ma Bufang and Mao Tse Tung in Ulan Ude and planned the eventual operation to liberate India from British control. Choibalsan also invited Nehru to the Ankara Conference since Russia-Mongolia wanted more than just China as a potential ally, and the Ottoman Empire was in the middle of a transition into a republic, although they would still retain Sapastan until 1952 when a referendum was proposed on the status of the country.
 
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