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A yearly timeline of events from the extended WW2 onwards

1945


As the occupation of Germany began in earnest, already the Red Army was looking towards the Western Allies with anxiety. The American and British rush towards Berlin, narrowly beaten by the Soviets, had caused some in the Kremlin to fear that Washington and London were preparing for war on the Red Army. The new U.S. President, Harry Truman, had been persuaded by an increasingly bellicose Red Army to keep Allied forces mobilised even following the German surrender especially as Soviet aircraft routinely strayed into Western Allied airspace. Both sides were being drawn into a whirlpool from which it was increasingly becoming clear that they had no escape. In the Kremlin, Stalin was gradually becoming more and more convinced that an attack by the West was coming with the intention of securing control of Poland, an attitude especially reinforced by information coming from Soviet spies in the British government who reported Churchill’s deep anger over the Polish situation. What was more, some Polish partisans supported by British intelligence were refusing to disarm. So it was that Stalin approved Operation Andromeda; an attack to extend the Soviet sphere and prevent Western interference.

The attack came on July 2nd, when eleven Soviet armies swept into Allied-occupied Germany and set themselves upon the much smaller Western Allied force. Unprepared for the onslaught, retreat soon became a rout. Within a week, U.S. First Army was surrounded in Zwickau and soon General Courtney Hodges had no option but to surrender. Meanwhile the rest of the Allied forces were in full retreat to the Rhine, where a desperate defensive line was assembled. Soviet forces in northern Iran also struck south against the British, reaching the Strait of Hormuz within just two weeks amid a desperate evacuation from Bandar Abbas. But the Allies had a trick up their sleeve.

A week after the first Red Army units crossed the Rhine under a hurricane of rockets and artillery, the Trinity test took place in New Mexico which held the potential to bring victory very, very suddenly. Stalin was well aware of the Manhattan Project, and the successful test convinced him to escalate his goals until the Allies were expelled from Europe altogether. It was not to be; on September 2nd a B-29 bomber, Little One, dropped a twenty kiloton bomb on Baku in Azerbaijan, destroying the city and killing 310,000 people. On September 7th a second atomic bomb fell on Odessa in Ukraine, killing 100,000 people. But the Soviet Union had weathered intense destruction since 1941, and two atomic bombs would not be enough to stop their ruthless advance. Even as Odessa still burned, the first Red Army units gained sight of the Pyrenees.

Heavy fighting continued in the Middle East as Commonwealth and American forces fought in the Iraqi desert, with Baghdad falling in early October. No new atomic weapons would be available until late that month, but there were signs that other problems were emerging for the Soviets. The end of Lend-Lease was biting, with major shortages in certain vital equipment leading to a net loss in aircraft as they could not be replaced fast enough, while a lack of aluminium and rubber in particular was cited as the cause of the degradation of industry. The war consumed too many resources for the Soviets to sustain without Lend-Lease. But it could be a long war before this alone led to victory. While U.S. bombers devastated Vladivostok and the Royal Navy combed the Barents Sea for Soviet submarines, the Red Army began to push into Syria. Now the Suez Canal was threatened, and the fall of Greece two weeks earlier ensured the Mediterranean could become a Soviet playground. Only in northern Italy was the Red Army being held at bay, for now, while chemical weapons began to fall on Britain in retaliation for the nuclear strikes which the Royal Air Force met with equal ferocity each time.

In early November, the Allies initiated Operation Keychain; a major counterattack against the Red Army in the Middle East. Using the atomic bomb as a battlefield weapon for the first time with five dropped on D-Day, they began to make progress especially amid Red Army mutinies in reserve formations out of fear of the bomb. By November 15th, Baghdad was retaken. Two days later a surgical atomic strike in Iran killed Aleksandr Vasilevsky, commander of Soviet forces in the Middle East, and his terrified deputy surrendered against Stalin’s orders. The Allies began rolling unopposed into Iran, while a Soviet effort to invade Scandinavia stalled and gave the Allies the opportunity to station hundreds of heavy bombers in Sweden, from which they began battering Leningrad and the cities along the Baltic. On December 2nd, amid continued devastating firebombing, Japan surrendered, its government hoping that reward might be offered for freeing up U.S. forces to fight the Soviets. It certainly freed up a substantial amount of manpower, and the Pacific Fleet moved to destroy their Soviet counterpart which was wiped out in a series of engagements, though its dozens of submarines proved more than a handful especially with the sinking of the Iowa battleship.

By the middle of December, the Soviets were in trouble. Even with Europe under their thumb, more nuclear strikes were threatened and the war was seeming unsustainable. Open mutiny had erupted in Italy among some formations, but as long as the line held then so too could Stalin. But on December 10th, Operation Blackhawk saw Allied forces break through Soviet lines and retake Milan, causing crisis for the Soviets. The next day, an atomic bomb landed on Murmansk which was followed on December 12th by Sevastopol as Turkey joined the war. But Stalin saw no reason to seek peace; after all, the only option the Allies offered was unconditional surrender. His own government would find a reason; just before Christmas, Stalin ordered a series of purges on the NKVD, terrified that they were plotting against him. They simply said no. On December 22nd its chief, Lavrenty Beria, entered Stalin’s private office and shot him in the head.

Hoping he might save himself, and in the process become the hero who led Russia through its most difficult period, Beria flew to Geneva on December 24th and signed the Instrument of Surrender. For once, war really was over by Christmas. Days later the first Allied troops returned to the beaches of Normandy, but no fire was exchanged. Occupation began once more, and this time it would include the entire Soviet Union. How this could be achieved, no-one was entirely sure.
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