The Silver Knight, a Lithuania Timeline

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Salvador79

Excellent posts lately!
Count me in on the yangist side!
Reading about it as being important in the later 20th century makes me think even more that India is going to lose this war.

Also, the KLF, they're justified and they're ancient... ;)
 
Chapter 105: Calm Before the Storm
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    • Augenis

    Augenis

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    Part 105: Calm Before the Storm (Jan-Jul 1958)
    ​
    The first half of 1958 marked a significant lull in military activity in the Great Asian War. Even the meat grinder which was the Southeast Asian Front consistently saw days with less than a thousand casualties. While this calm weirded out the people of the time, on a grand strategy level, the reason for its existence was obvious - all sides in the war needed to pull back and recuperate after the intense year which 1957 was. China technically won the Battle of Guangxi, but it was a Pyrrhic victory - three entire armies had to be rebuilt from scratch, hundreds of thousands had to be buried and replaced with fresh conscripts. For now, the Chinese morale held - the peoples of the Shun dynasty were well informed on just how nightmarish the Indians will be if they reach Nanjing or Beijing, many of them had lost families or relatives to their nuclear bombardment. However, how long this patriotic high could last before the people of China come to reality was a big question. India, on the other hand, had to consolidate their gains and divert some of their forces to a newly opened front in the south. Meanwhile, the West was still getting into war shape, their economies being slowly, but steadily mobilized for military production, and beginning preparations for a landing on the Indian mainland. Debates were taking place on the feasibility of such a campaign, and, if so, when should it be executed, where should the landing spots be and what should be the objectives of the campaign. Chinese delegates in the United States ardently campaigned for a landing on the Hindustani peninsula as soon as possible - for obvious reasons - but the other members of the coalition were obviously not as enthusiastic. Initial calculations of the manpower, resources and equipment needed for such a mission placed the necessary numbers in the range of millions, a number which would take the combined forces of the West years to achieve. A study of Indian and Western equipment, military preparedness and other factors, made in January of 1958 by Italian military scientists, estimated that an opening of a second front in Orissa (an early proposal for a landing position) and fighting until the occupation of Lucknow would cost the US two and a half million casualties, a similar number of casualties for the Indians, and one year of fighting.

    Obviously, no democratic government would ever wish to tell their people that they have thrown away two million citizens on an another continent, so debates on opening a second front continued. Regardless, preparations were already being made - French, Italian, Vespucian and British shipyards were rapidly constructing hundreds of landing craft, the navies of all seven of the constituent nations were being expanded and wartime conscription was starting to take place. Ceylon was designated as the "bridge to India" and administered accordingly. The first half of 1958 also saw new participants joining the war - activating the Common Defense Clause of the European Defense Commission, Germania brought much of Central and Southern Europe to the war as allied states. Most of them were not adequately prepared for what's about to come, however - they had small, underfunded militaries, and their governments weren't exactly enthusiastic about sending their boys to India.

    Although there may have been a lull in the war, fierce fighting took place in three separate fronts - the seas, the air and the covert front.

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    Vespucian KK-2 "Koertsen" strategic bombers over Nijasure
    ​
    The arrival of the United States shifted the balance in the war in the air. Before, the Indians outnumbered their Chinese rivals 2 to 1 - but now, they had to deal with not just the EASA, but also the air forces of the Western states, many of whom boasted superior fighter and bomber designs. Western air raids and bombing mostly took place from Ceylon, targeting Indian industries in the Deccan and Bengal, but many other air wings of theirs were assigned to China and Lusang to help their allies in the Southeast Asian Front. More often than not, there they would ditch their national insignia and put on the bright red striped markings of the Western Dragons, the Western volunteer forces in China. The Great Asian War would also leave its mark in history as the first combat appearance of jet fighters, in the form of Germania's "Bayern P-51 Supersonic". Research into turbojet technology first started in the years before the War of the Danube, starting out with theoretical designs of an engine based around jet propulsion floating around in European and Asian engineer circles, but it was only in 1946 that the fighter company Bayern first took interest in applying jet technology for aircraft propulsion, resulting in the P-51, which, at the time of its introduction, was the fastest aircraft design in history. Soon enough, other countries began copying the design for their own gain, as should be expected, but during its reign, few things could stop the P-51. Bayern and other German designers experimented with putting the turbojet on other flying objects - for example, on rockets. However, these experiments were not yet applicable in practice during the Great Asian War.

    The brain behind the practical turbojet engine, Justin Petzold, was well aware of these ideas, and his worries resulted in a fairly interesting prediction: "Someday, not too distant from now, there will be a time when a some kind of gadget can come streaking out of another continent – we won't be able to hear it, it will come so fast – with an explosive so powerful that one projectile will be able to wipe out this city of Munchen. That will be a time when war will cease to be war."

    Throughout 1958, the war in the air shifted from Indian domination to Western domination. Divided between two fronts and overpowered by higher numbers both in quantity and in quality, the Indian Air Force faltered, and its numbers began to dwindle. Ceylon being an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the US turned into even more of a headache. Almost the entire war cabinet in Lucknow demanded a counter-invasion of the island, but despite extensive preparations during the summer and spring of 1958, the invasion had to be cancelled due to massive enemy concentrations and unfavorable weather. In this desperation, one of the biggest blunders of the entire war took place. Hoping to at least put a dent in US defenses on the island, the Indians resorted to the nuclear option, hoping to strike the city of Anuradhapura and destroy the extensive airports and military facilities constructed there. However, the Indian fighter and bomber mission was met with a strong Allied response, resulting in a dogfight, during which much of the attacking aircraft, including the bomber with the nuclear payload, were shot down. In what was almost a fit of luck, the nuclear bomb inside only suffered limited damage from the firefight and the crash landing, and was retrieved by Vespucian forces.

    The United States now had a nuclear bomb in their hands, and the five ton weapon was swiftly sent back to Europe to be carefully disassembled and studied. Back in India, General Abhi Dheer and five other air force commanders were fired and arrested for the botched mission, but it didn't change a thing - the US still had a nuclear weapon in their hands. And now, India could only fear the worst.

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    Indian super-magenta Unity in battle near the Maldives, April 1958
    ​
    The United States entered the war in the sea when both of the original combatants were already exhausted. The Battle for the South China Sea required the complete dedication of both the Indian and the Chinese navies, resulting in dozens of thousands getting a deep sea grave, so when the navies of Vespucia, Italy, France and Germany all arrived to the fray to the Indian Ocean, one of the two ended up very, very thin. And it wasn't China. To try to maintain naval domination over the Indian Ocean, the Unitarians sent their last two remaining super-magentas - Unity and Lucknow - from the east to the Arabian Sea, where they were joined by submarine packs and the Indian Ocean fleet to combat the rapidly mobilizing Western fleets. At the same time, the Indians ramped up their naval production - or, at least, ramped it up as much as they reasonably could, as the overwhelming majority of their industry still had to dedicated to arming and feeding their massive army. This focus on the army is what became the Indian fleet's downfall - throughout massive naval battles along the Maldives archipelago, Ceylon and the Indian coast, much of the Indian Ocean Fleet ended up sunk. The weaknesses of the super-magentas also started to show in full - without adequate aerial support, they were weak to aerial bombardment, their hulking size and slow speed made them an easy target for torpedo bombers and fighters. Both Unity and Lucknow ended up sent to the bottom of the ocean by concentrated air raids.

    With their naval effort in the open sea collapsing, the Indians eventually opted for a defensive strategy. If it's impossible to overwhelm the United States in the sea and retake Ceylon, then the best strategy then is to hole up, defend the coasts and turn this front into a stalemate while they take care of China. Coastal fortifications were being erected along the Western and Eastern Ghats, while the inhabitants of Indian and Burmese coastal cities were being pressed into training to serve as first-line militia defenses against potential enemy landings. 50 additional divisions were raised in a matter of months, almost a million personnel were staffed with guarding the long coast of the Indian Ocean. That might sound like a lot, sure, but don't forget that the Indian coast also extended for thousands of miles...

    The lull in the war was also marked by both sides attempting to gain an advantage over the other in espionage. Scientists and engineers in both sides were pressed into working on advanced computers and cryptographers to save their side's information and crack the codes of the enemy. Inserting spies and forming spy circles in opponent states were also a main priority of the combatants. In this field, however, the Indians had an edge - the Aankhein surpassed their Western and Chinese rivals in experience and funding, especially excelling in political espionage, which, as even their enemies had to admit, was their best horse. Meanwhile, US intelligence operations were conducted by eight or more organizations, many of whom used to be opponents, and, in some cases, still were - the US espionage effort lacked cohesion and multi-state discipline, thus many of their spies in the Commonwealth would end up captured and executed. For the duration of the war, the US was in the dark on Indian nuclear construction and military research, only able to guess the former from nuclear bombing frequency and the latter only when the new weaponry was first used in battle. The Aankhein, meanwhile, successfully stole parts of the blueprints for the P-51 in July 1958, and maintained a small, but effective ring of spies in the US civilian high command, employing blackmail and honeypot tactics to squeeze out information from politicians and generals alike. Of course, over time, the US started to adapt to enemy espionage tactics, but Indian edge in covert warfare remained throughout the war.

    Political shifts and negotiations took place throughout this time, too. In their search for a possible base for their invasion of mainland India, German and French spies began secretly contacting underground resistance movements within India - even though the UIS claimed to be a single, monolithic Unitarian state where such antiquated concepts as nations and religions have faded away, in reality, the situation was much different. Downtrodden, oppressed nations such as the Persians, the Tamils, the Sikhs, the Marathi, the Baluchi and others proved to be amiable to the possibility of cooperating with a hypothetical US occupation of India, in exchange for self-determination. The US was wary of simply handing out promises of independence, however - that's German influence right there. They were burned fairly well by miscalculating their chances and promising freedom to anyone on sight back in the War of the Danube... In addition, the US was still not sure on what their plans on postwar India were. Sure, the countries India occupied during the war would have to be restored, independence would probably have to also be restored to Persia, Baluchistan and Afghanistan, three states which were annexed by India during the War of the Danube, but besides that... the US didn't really have a good, obvious plan. Were the people of India more supportive of being in one state, or were they actually composed of many different nationalities which could make separate nation-states? Should India be dismantled for the sake of preventing a repeat of the Great Asian War, or would that be too harsh of a move? Headaches, headaches, headaches.

    The Indians made plans and negotiations of their own, too. Although reaching out to the Zhuang minority of Guangxi with a proposal to create an "independent" Zhuang state in Guangxi resulted in failure, as the Zhuang representatives saw no desire to be puppets to the Indians, negotiations with the Unitarian elements in occupied Borneo found more success. As a counter to the Nusantara Federation, Amrit Ahuya proposed the so-called "Union of Nusantaran Peoples" between Aceh and a Unitarian state in Borneo, and the proposal was applauded both by the power-hungry Islamo-Unitarian government of Aceh as well as the Unitarians in Brunei. The Union of Nusantaran Peoples claimed all of the territory of the archipelago, including Lusang, but in reality, it only expressed control over territory occupied by Indian and Acehi forces.

    The first half of the year is over, and the war is still growing.

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    The world in July of 1958​
     
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    • KarneeKarnay

    KarneeKarnay

    If the Indians are losing the air battle, then I could see India Reaping a Whirlwind of Destruction. ;)

    In all seriousness we probably need to look at the tactics that saw Germany fall in OTL, to how the Indian state needs to be tackled.

    The key points to target will be almost certainly the following:

    - Oil Refineries
    - Synthetic Oil Refineries
    - Electricity stations
    - Infrastructure in Bengal and Persia.

    Oil makes the whole world go round. While India has a very healthy coal supply, Tanks, Trucks, Jets and Airplanes are going to need petrol. Also Oil is a lot easier to transport than coal. Shifting Indian Manufacturing from Oil power to Coal is also going to be problematic.

    Synthetic Oil for the same reasons, but it is harder to target. It's also much harder to build up in sufficient quantities, so any dmg to them is going to hurt.

    Electricity Stations for obvious reasons.

    Infrastructure for the same. With no other way to get supplies to the Front lines, except by land. Blowing up bridges, roads or railways is going to have a massive impact overtime at the Front. Persia for the disruption of oil.


    Another great thing about the removal of Indian Air Force, is that the India has now no way to delivery nuclear weapons via traditional means. China for the first time since the start of the war, is now free to mass troops and defenses, without fear of losing them all to nuclear fire.


    I really like the espionage stuff and I think it does reflect the British, USSR situation during the Cold War. What I do think is going to have to happen is more support and arms to the Persian insurrectionists. The Oil Refineries in Persia are going to be critical to the Indian war effort.

    Great Update, but I still think the other shoe is about to drop on the US nations.
     
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    Augenis

    Augenis

    LostInNewDelhi said:
    I found this article, with-- among other things-- the tale of the intrepid Latin-script book-smugglers (did this inspire the part about Circassian book-smuggling in your Circassia post, @Sigismund Augustus?) and some real-life examples of Lithuanian Cyrillic. Thought y'all would be interested.
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    It definitely did - book smuggling is one of the most famous symbols of Lithuanian resistance against foreign oppression, and @Sigismund Augustus is Lithuanian.

    Lithuanian graždanka (Cyrillic) is also an interesting subject. Here's, for example, a chapter from a book distributed to imperial Lithuanian bureaucrats serving in Russian provinces, detailing common Russian expressions and their translations to Lithuanian ;):

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    Dragon Warriors
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    • Whiteshore

    Whiteshore

    Dragon Warriors: China’s Elite Troops


    During the Great Asian War, the Shun Military fought bravely against the forces of the Unified Indian State but three elite Chinese formations which especially distinguished themselves during the war were elite formations formed during the military expansion and modernization of the 1930s. Those were the 3rd and 6th Landship Divisions, the 1st and 3rd Motor-Infantry Divisions and the 2nd Air Infantry Divisions and they also had played a major role in Operation Shenfang as well.


    The 3rd and 6th Landship Divisions and the 1st and 3rd Motor-Infantry Divisions had all been formed in Sun Xinyi’s initial foundation of the Zhuangjia Budui (Armored Force) in the late 1920s and were the core of the famous 2nd Landship Corp, arguably the best Landship formation in the world, both in it’s equipment and it’s tactics as the Chinese Imperial General Headquarters ensured that they recieved the newest and most powerful military equipment and as the Chinese military, under the direction of Marshal Sun Xinyi, had perfected tactics for armored warfare and how to coordinate armored warfare operations with artilery, infantry, and aerial forces. By the start of the Great Asian War, the four divisions comprising the 2nd Landship Corps all were exclusively using Rhino Main Battle Landships and Apocalypse Heavy Landships. The Apocalypse was introduced in 1951 and while weighing 68 tons, proved to be fast and heavilly manueverable as well. It was also heavilly armored and armed with a 130mm cannon as well with the innovative feature of an autoloader . The Rhino was the culmination of development of Landships in the late 1940s and entered service in 1950. It had a new 100mm cannon with a stabilizer and was arguably the best landship when it was introduced as well. While the 2nd Landship Corps was entirely equipped with these two landships by the start of the Great Asian War, many Chinese formations were still armed with Improved Battlemaster and Overlord landships.

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    The Apocalypse and Rhino Landships, the workhorses of the Chinese Army for much of the Great Asian War​


    During the Great Asian War’s first half, the 2nd Landship Corps was commanded by General Dong Zhenya, a master tactician and genius at combined arms tactics. Under him, the 2nd Landship Corps fought heroically at the Battle of Guangxi where the Apocalypse was a rude shock to Indian landship crews with it’s firepower unmatched by anything they had and it’s armor being near-impossible to penetrate. However, the 2nd Landship Corps, despite the firepower of both the Apocalypse and the Rhino, were unable to hold back the Indian forces due to air superiority being with the Indians along with the nuclear strikes on the Chinese forces and were forced to retreat to the defensive line established after the Battle of Guangxi. At the end of the battle, the four divisions of the 2nd Landship Corps only had 16 Apocalypse Landships and 102 Rhino Landships while they started the Battle of Guangxi with 130 Apocalypse Landships and 476 Rhino Landships. One major hero of the Battle of Guangxi was the 23-year old Crown Prince Li Bao, who commanded a platoon of Rhino Landships which destroyed a battalion of Indian Landships in an ambush in October 1957. In the aftermath of the Battle of Guangxi, Li Bao was promoted to command a battalion of Landships and went on a tour of the Empire of the Great Shun with his Italian-born wife, Princess Marcella de Medici to promote the sale of war bonds. In addition, Western military observers in China, especially one Jean du Lys, Baron de Arc, who in the future would gain the nickname “Le Jaune”as well, would be impressed by the 2nd Landship Corps’ performance in the Battle of Guangxi as well.


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    General Dong Zhenya, commander of the 2nd Landship Corps during the early part of the Great Asian War.​


    The 2nd Air Infantry Division was the most elite of all Jinyiwei “Air Infantry” formations and was amongst the first of the “Air Infantry” formed. During the Sino-Japanese War, the 2nd Air Infantry Division took part in airborne landings during Operation Shenfang and distinguished themselves in said airborne assault, earning them a reputation as an elite airborne force during said battle with their ferocity in battle. By the start of the Great Asian War, the 2nd Air Infantry Division was already moving on from gliders by conducting exercises on small-scale helicopter usage. In addition, the 2nd Air Infantry Division was also taking on a special forces role as well as the 16th Special Battalion was set up in 1955 as a special forces unit under the command of the 2nd Air Infantry Division and comprised of the best troops of said division, which was largely recruited from the Jurchen ethnic minority, which had been used to supply elite troops for the Chinese military ever since the Ming and Shun had conquered the Jurchens in the 17th Century. During the first part of the Great Asian War, the 2nd Air Infantry Division, with the exception of the 16th Special Battalion, spent most of their time training and preparing for airborne operations. However, the 16th Special Battalion was busy with special force raids against Indian forces in which they distinguished themselves in their raids, which were designed to disrupt the Indian military’s supply lines and command apparatus by blowing up bridges, railways, and telephone lines with said raids being marked by the first combat usage of helicopters as they were used to discreetly transport said special force units at night for said raids, which saw mixed results as Indian AA weaponry and fighters frequently shot down said helicopters and said helicopters were also not immune to Indian ground forces as well. However, these operations could be seen as the first predecessors to modern helicopter warfare as well.

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    The Dragon (l) and the Super Rhino (r) landships, which would be used in the latter half of the Great Asian War​


    During the lull in fighting during early 1958, the 2nd Armored Corps and the 2nd Air Infantry Division were prepared for the impending battle which the Chinese High Command were preparing for as the landships lost at the Battle of Guangxi were quickly replaced and new crews prepared for any impending battle. During this period, the first Dragon landships, which would be the last and most powerful Heavy Landship the Chinese Imperial Army would field, and Super Rhino landships, which would be the first landship with a smoothbore cannon were being built and introduced during this period with the 2nd Armored Corps getting 12 Dragon heavy landships and 53 Super Rhino landships for this period. In addition, the Rhino landships which were brought in were of an improved variety to the Rhinos used early on in the Great Asian War. If the Chinese Imperial High Command would plan a counter-offensive, the 2nd Armored Corps would be the spearhead of such an attack. It was also in this period that the 2nd Air Infantry Divison’s HQ and the majority of it’s forces, which had been practicing at Xiboliya and Mongolia, were moved to Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province and a major logistics hub ever since Changsha got nuked by the Indians.
     
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    • Sigismund Augustus

    Sigismund Augustus

    LostInNewDelhi said:
    I found this article, with-- among other things-- the tale of the intrepid Latin-script book-smugglers (did this inspire the part about Circassian book-smuggling in your Circassia post, @Sigismund Augustus?) and some real-life examples of Lithuanian Cyrillic. Thought y'all would be interested.
    Click to expand...

    Yes, the Txilh ša-n was inspired by Lithuanian book smuggling. It's actually one of the few remanants of an idea that I had while writing the chapter. At one point Augenis compared Circassian struggle against Lithuanians to the Lithuanian conflicts with the Livonian and Teutonic orders in OTL. So at first I wanted to make Circassia into a "Lithuania of the Caucasus". This didn't work due to several reasons so I scrapped the chapter completely and rewrote it, only leaving the book smuggling part and the conflict with the Volgaks. This conflict was originally supposed to be a copy of the Polish-Lithuanian war and it's aftermath. But due to how different Circassian history was from the Lithuanian one I changed it a lot and now it's nothing like the original version.
     
    LostInNewDelhi

    LostInNewDelhi

    Whiteshore said:
    So, any thoughts on my guest update?
    Click to expand...

    I find the role played by China's Jurchen and Mongol minorities in the Shun war effort to be interesting. Loyal wartime service now, after all, could possibly lead to political concessions from Beijing later.

    Also, the personal and larger-scale stories of the Great Asian War should make for some very interesting movies down the line. Maybe TTL's Ip Man features Muay Thai instead of Wing Chun?
     
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