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OK, so here's my attempt at a TL which eventually leads to a three way Cold War between fascism, communism and western democracy and eventually renewed conflict. The POD is a Soviet-Romanian War in 1940. Enjoy :).


Small Country, Big Consequences


Chapter I: Soviet-Romanian War, June-September 1940.


It was June 1940 and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had subdued Europe. The dictator controlled Germany by 1939 after having used demagoguery and propaganda to arouse popular sentiment against the Jews and the hated Treaty of Versailles which Hitler had relegated to the dustbin by rebuilding Germany’s armies. Austria and Czechoslovakia had been annexed without French or British responses, same for the remilitarization of the Rhineland. The invasion of Poland, however, had crossed a line. Poland had been crushed in weeks and as per the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact the Soviet Union had occupied the eastern part of Poland. Denmark and Norway had then fallen in swift paratrooper and naval action. France had been subjected to the so-called Sickelschnitt plan in which a brilliant move through the Ardennes had cut Allied forces in half. The legendary panzers with massive air support had then crushed the French army, destroying its image as the strongest army in the world. Britain stood alone.

By June 1940, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin aimed to capitalize on his end of the bargain of the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact. He started to pressure Romania diplomatically to give up Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia which prior to 1918 had belonged to Russia. In 1918, Romania had occupied them to prevent them from falling into Bolshevik hands which had been recognised in the 1920 Treaty of Paris. Romania had afterwards become part of the cordon sanitaire against the Soviet Union and hadn’t had good relations with said country. Now, Stalin wanted back this territory that he saw as rightfully belonging to the USSR. Over the course of June Soviet pressure built up to make Romania hand them what they desired, stating incorrectly that Bessarabia was mainly inhabited by Ukrainians and should therefore be part of the Ukrainian SSR. Germany implicitly stated it wouldn’t support the Romanians in the event of a war with the Soviet Union since it recognised its claim in the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact; Mussolini criticized this and made anti-communist statements, but likely wouldn’t act without Hitler unless something really outrageous happened. The government of prime minister Tatarescu seemed to buckle, but in short order general Ion Antonescu orchestrated a military coup d’état since he wasn’t as impressed with Soviet demands after their poor performance against Finland a few months ago. An ultimatum was issued on June 26th 1940, but Antonescu chose to ignore it and to fight, hoping that Italy and Germany would help anyway since he knew Romanian oil was vital to their war effort. Antonescu ordered a general mobilization in the night of June 26-27 against the advice of the German ambassador and the German military liaison to Romania. The ultimatum went by and for some time foreign commissar Vyacheslav Molotov was bewildered as was Stalin with Romanian obstinacy and a response took a few days to formulate.

Romania’s army mobilized fully for a total of 32 infantry divisions, four cavalry divisions and one cavalry brigade, two tank regiments, six pioneer brigades, one mechanized brigade, three communication brigades, one frontier guard division, one fortification brigade, 22 artillery brigades, four horse artillery regiments, six mountain gun groups and three mountain howitzer groups, eight army corps motorized artillery regiments, and one fortification artillery regiment. Romanian troops moved into casemates and other defences along the Dniester river and artillery units took up positions in the hilly hinterland on positions from where they could shell the valleys and thus advancing Red Army troops. The Romanian army, however, was equipped with obsolescent equipment, much of it dating back to WW I although it had some relatively modern equipment like French R35 tanks, Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters and MG38 machine guns in small quantities. The Red Army had 32 infantry divisions, two motorized infantry divisions, six cavalry brigades, 11 tank brigades, three paratrooper brigades and 30 artillery regiments earmarked for initial operations against the Romanian army. These troops of the Kiev and Odessa military districts had been grouped into the Southern Front under general Zhukov for better coordination. The Red Army also had its shortcomings since the problems revealed in Finland hadn’t been fully addressed yet although some much needed key personnel changes had been made with generals Budyonny and Kulik being relegated to desk jobs to be replaced by the likes of Zhukov, Konev and so on.

On July 1st 1940, after additional complicating logistical headaches, the Soviet Union invaded Bessarabia which strongly irritated Hitler. While it was part of the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact, he saw it was Soviet interference in his backyard and as a threat. The plan was for the 12th Army to advance southward to Iasi across the Prut river; the 9th Army would strike westwards south of Chisinau an Husi to surround Romanian troops in the Balti-Iasi area in conjunction with the 12th Army. Almost immediately, Red Army forces ran into trouble with fierce Romanian resistance.

In the north, Red Army troops commenced their offensive with a massive artillery bombardment against the border town of Soroca on the Dniester river against heavily fortified Romanian positions. The bombardment didn’t have the desired effect as advancing tanks of the eleventh tank division – consisting mainly of the thinly armoured and weakly armed T-26s, BT-5s, BT-7s and T-28s – experienced when they encountered heavy fire from 37 and 47 mm anti-tank guns. In four days, the defenders knocked out sixteen tanks with their own artillery, mortars and pre-prepared minefields which caused heavy casualties. The Romanians had dug into trenches, bunkers, pillboxes and evacuated civilian buildings turned into fortified positions. Troops of the 9th Army trying to take the border town of Tighina met with similar resistance, but in both cases overwhelming numerical superiority enforced a breakthrough. Soviet troops advanced only slowly to Stalin’s dismay since Romanian artillery on the forested hills in Bessarabia bombarded them as they advanced through the valleys while soldiers behind enemy lines conducted guerrilla warfare from the forests. Stalin responded with terror bombings of several cities in Bessarabia and Zhukov used air superiority against the Romanians. Overwhelming numbers of aircraft forced Romanian troops to move around at night and engage in guerrilla warfare, raiding advancing columns and supply lines. By the end of the month the Red Army had advanced less than 100 kilometres and was a few kilometres outside Chisinau, the largest city in Bessarabia, and had occupied Tiraspol. Frontlines ran from Moghilau to Chisinau and then to the Bessarabian coastline. 23.000 men, 653 tanks and 88 aircraft had been lost so far which made Stalin decide for an all out offensive.

One million men, 6.000 tanks and 4.400 aircraft were gathered and the small Romanian armed forces couldn’t handle this kind of brute force. Romanian lines were broken and the frontlines moved again with Soviet troops advancing quickly to the Prut river against atrocious opposition, exposing their weaknesses, although they took Chisinau and Balti, the two largest cities. The fight of brave little Romania provoked waves of sympathy for the Romanian plight and struggle against barbaric communism. Newspapers across the world condemned Soviet aggression. The British government heavily condemned this Soviet aggression in public statements repeatedly and the media exalted Romania’s bravery against the horrors of faceless Stalinism. Images of hordes of millions of identical murdering, looting and raping Asians loomed in the collective conscience of Europe stimulated by propaganda from Germany and Italy.

The war finally escalated when a straying Soviet bomber chased by Romanian fighters dropped his bombs on Ploiesti in September, lighting an oil refinery on fire and threatening the Axis oil supply. Italian Duce Benito Mussolini immediately promised support to protect the oil though he didn’t immediately declare war. He pressured Yugoslavia to let his troops pass through and they feared Soviet interference in the Balkans enough to do so. He postponed his planned invasion of Greece and sent 300.000 of the troops designated to be used in Greece to Romania as “military advisors”, including 500 aircraft and 150 tanks, bolstering the Romanians. Germany declared war on September 4th, seeing its hand forced by the threat to its oil and Mussolini presenting Hitler with a fait accompli and as casus belli they cited the violation of the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact. A clash of titans had begun, the clash between fascism and communism much to the astonishment and horror of Stalin.
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