The Cancer Spreads: The Expansion of the Great Southern War
The European Front
Without a threat in the Soviet Union, the unipolar world which had become the new normal. But the West still had rivals to combat. The Great Southern War made it only more obvious that those heralding “The End of History” were wrong. The world wouldn’t slowly but surely transition to liberal democracy once and for all. Indeed, in a speech to the German Reichstag, the now retired Chancellor Gerhard Frey would make his final speech to the assembly about this topic. He spoke about what the new threats to global stability were in this day in age. There were now three rogue states which were disrupting the global peace and needed to be stopped for the sake of global stability. These were: The Inca Empire (their terrorist insurgency at the time he made the speech controlling a quarter of Peru and nearly half of Ecuador), Serbia, and Uganda (standing for the Entebbe Pact). These nations were a menace to the world, and needed to be dealt with by a coalition of global powers. For the interests of global security, they had to be stopped from spreading their rot to the rest of the world. His denouncing of the Incan insurgents brought him some praise from the United States, though Germany itself would end up doing little to fund rival groups against the Incans, for reasons which would soon become clear.
The Reichstag stayed quiet as Joschka Fischer took the stand to add his own remarks. To the assembly of representatives, he made the announcement that despite recent economic spats with the Concordat recently, the Freyist Pact would back them in the future conflict, to help in their fight to rid the world of these rogue states. It was given thunderous applause. The Freyist Pact would not end up bringing boots on the ground in Africa to fight the Entebbe Pact, instead opting to bring equipment and aid for Concordat troops in the area. Fisher preferred devoting resources towards completing the rebuilding of Germany, with a focus on environmental sustainability. However though, he did end up committing troops to fight in what would become the European front of the war.
---
A map hanging in the Presidential Palace in Belgrade
The Greater Serbian state had been looking hungrily to its borders for the opportunity to expand, mainly the former Yugoslav republics. It looked towards Tito’s postwar vision for the nation as an inspiration for the future, though it many parts of it could be considered fanciful, especially future plans towards Bulgaria. The more obvious targets, Croatia and Slovenia, had joined the Freyist bloc, and warnings came from both Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein that pulling the German-Polish-Italians even further into intervening militarily would not bode well for either the Serbs or their allies. It would be best to limit them to their current position of supplying arms and aid to the Concordat. A political crisis in Albania had been brewing after it was discovered that many major politicians had been involved in pyramid schemes, leading to growing unrest in the southern regions, which the expansionist government hoped they would later be able to exploit in the future to involve their main focus...With Milošević knowing that an invasion of Bulgaria was a pipedream, the only other reasonable target was to their south. They saw rightful land which had been stolen and needed to be returned. So the first item on the agenda was the port city of Thessaloniki in Greece, or Solun, as it was to be renamed. The second largest city in Greece, it was an irredentist claim by both Bulgarian and Macedonian nationalists for more than a century. Since Macedonia belonged to them, this claim had of course, extended to Serbia too. It would give the Serbs a port along the Aegean Sea, and lessen the pain dealt by an almost inevitable Italian blockade across the Adriatic, along the Straits of Otranto.
Serbian forces under the command of the Bosnian Serb Lt. Colonel Radovan Karadžić, famous for his role in the defence of Sarajevo at WWIII, advanced about twelve miles from the border to attack the Greek city of Kilkis, located in the Axios river valley, by mid-September, where they met a token Greek force defending the border region. The Greeks while not surprised by the attack, were not expecting an attack so soon and so boldly, and founded themselves swamped very quickly. While they fought bravely, the city fell within three hours. With most of the mobilized Greek troops already shipping out of the country fighting in North Africa against the Libyans, (as many troops from other Concordat nations did under the orders of the Concordat Supreme Command), there were not enough troops to properly protect the northern border from the Serbian aggression. The Greek government ordered a pull out to the region of Central Macedonia and Eastern Macedonia (in case the Turks thought of any funny business), focusing troops on the incoming Serbian advancement to the south. Knowing the likely Serbian goal in the invasion, reinforcements came to protect the city of Thessaloniki from the second foreign invasion in less than a decade. As the Entebbe Pact had hoped, a new front opened up in Europe itself.
War in South America
WWIII opened up the Pandora’s box of war and death in South America, and it had yet to close for the continent. Chile, fearful of both Iacocca and Bundy because of the IDFC and the intervention in Ecuador respectively, had moved closer towards France. Chile had remained a democracy, but the instability in South America following the Marburg Pandemic, especially the rise of the Incas in the countryside of Peru and Ecuador, made many Chileans feel that the should become the new axis of power on the continent, to ensure stability, but Argentina was having none of it. The ruling military junta of Argentina, headed by Leopoldo Galtieri, was already sending feelers to Kampala, Nairobi, and Baghdad in order to find allies that might be able to give them the backup needed to take on the Chileans.
Meanwhile, the Brazilians, though having ended their Civil War, was still in chaos. The left-wing Brazilian Republic in the north and the native led Amazonia, centered, of course, around the state of Amazonas, had met with the Entebbe Pact leadership in order to control the nation again, or at least achieve territorial continuity between the two nations. The Estado Novo government, centered around Brasilia and the country’s south, still trying to restore the country, mostly the infrastructure and the living standards, into decent conditions with funding from the Portuguese government in Lisbon (which they were bound by personal union of their monarch) while eliminating both communist sympathizers and warlords alike, were frightened by the military strengthening of the “rebel Brazils”, as called by the Supreme Commander of the military, Marshal Jair Bolsonaro.
In October, a Estado Novo Airliner, flight 799 from Sao Paulo to Santiago, Chile was destroyed in a fireball, early investigations proved that a SAM missile in the Brazilian Republic’s Airspace had been responsible. Bolsonaro and Aylwin immediately declared war on the Brazilian Republic, setting off a chain of events. The remnants of Communist Brazil, and the Argentinian Junta immediately replied to defend the Republic against common enemies. However, it was the Chileans who were the most prepared.
Chilean forces advanced through the plains of Southern Argentina. Since the Third World War had moved Chile’s borders into the lowlands of the Southern Pampas instead of the Andes, the new borders made for great tank country. Chile’s German-bought Leopard tanks proved up for the task for the blitz. Climbing the coast, the Chileans captured Las Grutas, home of a half abandoned military base. Enemy morale was very low, and the remaining forces were perpetually under-equipped.
The Military Junta in Argentina was incredibly corrupt, and this corruption had a strong effect on the viability of the country’s armed forces. Spare parts, small arms, and uniforms, already in short supply post-WWIII, were sold on the black market. Tanks were often emptied of machine guns and crews often gave their pistols and rations to their families. Radios also had a good going price in the black market, and a makeshift community of HAM operators developed in the north to communicate with each other, with most roads in disrepair. While Argentinians were a proud lot and fought hard, they had seriously hampered any coordination or ability to handle more advanced Chilean tactics. Advanced, meaning more advanced than WWI level maneuvers, were impossible.
Even the best in the Argentinian Army was just holding on
While the Entebbe Pact seemed to have the lead in the Old World, in South America their forces were in chaos. Argentinian forces finally managed to hold the line on the Colorado River, as Chilean forces tried to connect to Novo Ordo forces. Disorganized as they were, the Argentinian army, now augmented with irregulars, could hold out for a short while as Spanish forces in Spanish Uruguay remained inactive.
In October, the Spanish Overseas Army launched an amphibious assault across the Rio del Plata that shook the Junta to its core. [A/N: More Soon]
Moreover, Bolivian forces mopped up the small remaining pockets in Northwestern Argentina and eliminating any hope of escape to neutral Paraguay (much to the relief of the Paraguayans), and the Argentinian people, war weary as ever, began protesting in the streets and leaving the barricades. Without the irregulars, Argentina was nearly hopeless.
Backup came in the form of the Amazonians. In Brazil, the jungle was the Entebbe Pact’s best friend. Novo Ordo forces were not ready to make major advances without French or Chilean help, which was not yet coming with attention being given to the main fronts in Africa and to a lesser extent the Argentinean front. Helicopter missions into the center of the jungle would lead to temporary advances, only for the land to change hands when the Novo Ordo forces had to inevitably retreat to the cities or plains to redirect forces. Every time they regrouped they seemed to have more people coming to join them. With the covert help of Incan rebels operating in neutral Peru, Amazonians were able to find themselves operating in Northern Chile and Argentina, and harassing supply lines in the region, giving Argentina a chance to consolidate their defenses.
---
New Babylon emerges
Within a week of the battle of the Sabi River Bridge, war had come to Asia as the borders of French Syria and of Iraq came to roar. Iraqi troops crossed the border, rushing the French-Mandate era’s “Line in the desert”, a “Relic of the Colonial Past” as President Saddam Hussein portrayed it. Beneath these calls of nationalism, Saddam desired to build on the conquests of WWIII and make his nation the “New Babylon” under Islam and his own rule. He wanted a shiny port on the Mediterranean to herald this, and thus made good on his alliance with the Entebbe Pact.
The 1st Army Group, commanded by the young Lt. General and WWIII hero Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri attacked the main traffic artery of the region, the historic Euphrates River Valley. He got the order to advance across the river and capture the vital city of Deir Ez-zor, a hub of the country’s east. Al-Badri, a devout Sunni, was born after the takeover of the Ba’ath party and grew under the massive indoctrination campaign that the Ba’ath party implemented and the even-more massive cult of personality for Hussein. He believed that it’s Iraq’s destiny to unite the muslims under one flag of the Sunni faith, the Ba’ath ideology and the Hussein family. His troops were composed mainly of veterans highly loyal to him and Iraq, and would lead the brunt of the charge against the city. The 2nd Army Group, commanded by Hussein’s eldest son, Uday was ordered to conquer the northern province of Al-Hasakah, close to the Turkish border. A secondary objective, it was composed of a mix of Sunni and Shia soldiers, and had a higher percentage of green troops and conscripts from conquered land from Khuzestan and Kuwait. The relatively small 3rd Army Group, a group made up of mostly new troops and commanded by Hussein’s second son, Qusay, was ordered to take control of the region around the Jordanian border in order to deter the Jordanian moderate, pro-British government from joining the war. It would not do much fighting though it would help to serve as an occupation force in captured Syrian territory.
Flag used by al-Badri’s 1st army group
Président Michel Roquejeoffre, having in the Third World War been the leader of the Mediterranean Front, paid personal attention towards the events in Syria. He hoped to ensure the gains that he had made for France would not be reversed under his watch. The first main battle of the Syrian front came to life with the battle of Deir-ez-Zor.
These 30,000 troops attacked the city in a two-pronged attack along the west bank of the Euphrates River, trapping the French-Syrian soldiers for the most part. With the help a concerted propaganda campaign in the city, the city was crippled by pro-Iraqi revolts. Eventually the French-Iraqi pocket surrendered to the Iraqi army, allowing them to continue on their advance across Syria to al-Raqqa, almost unimpeded. The Dutch Desert Corps would perform admirably during this period, conducting a fighting withdrawal against a force almost four times its size between the border and Raqqa. Maj. Gen Peter van Uhm, the commander of this force, would be dubbed the “New Desert Fox” by the world press. His nation would see more of him.