Neo Nes Mmvi : Grand Campaign

VI
1927

"The man was not older than twenty, he ran as fast as he could from the front door to the large room upstairs. He was already wearing his uniform this early in the morning, altough apparently he didnt have enough time to iron it and get it just right. He knocked at the door a few times, stoped and then tried again. "Sir!, a message for you!, sir!. Behind the heavy wood door a voice could be barely heard "i said i did not wanted to be woken up... i drank and smoked all night long!". There was silence for a few minutes. Then the man started knocking at the door again. "Damn it!, i dont want to be awoken!". The soldier replied, "but sir, is urgent!". There was some noise inside the room and the door finally opened. "What? dont you speak my language?, i said i was not going to be awaken.... well unless the russians attacked!". The door was then shut in the face of the soldier. "but sir!, the russians ARE attacking!". There was again silence for a few seconds, followed by much noice. The door opened and the minister came out of the room as he was putting his pants on. "Why didnt you said this earlier?.... the russians picked a hell of a day to invade, get me some coffee, ill be ready in a few minutes!". He was the minister of war and quickly set out to meet with the highest government officials of the SSS in Stockholm. Chairman Sundin was there, among the other generals. But noone was surprised at all, in fact their paranoia of a russian invasion was well known. The SSS had spent much of their money growing their small armed forces to fight primarily the russian bear. Not Germany, or France or Great Britain, but Russia. The meeting ended early, the Russian fleet was heading to Stockholm and they werent exacly safe within reach from the guns of "Glory of the Baltic". They left to a more secure location, hearing on the back the first shells bombarding the city. As they drove away, uncheerful singing could be heard in the streets. It was the anthem of the revolution written by Claus Måine. A specific part of the song echoed in the city...

The world is closing in,
did you ever think
that we could be so close,
like brothers?"


JULY

St. Petersburg~
The Czar is Dead, Long live the Czar
Nicholas II of Russia (18 May, 1868 / July 2, 1927) ~
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov, emperor of all russians died on July 2, 1927. He had recently returned from a long vacation from around the world. Upon arriving at Russia, he was ready to continue his economic reforms (russian economy was among the fastest growing and second only to that of UK). However on the way to the Summer palace, his car was stoped by a revolutionary ambush. The assassins were shot, but the imperial guards failed to protect the Czar from a hand-thrown explosive. Nicholas II died almost instantly and the news shocked every level of russian society. The monarchy had to replace Nicholas, and that was not an easy task. The Czar had five children, but no real heirs to the throne. Alexei (the only male) had died from haemophilia which not even a siberian monk could save in the end. Since Paul I had passed laws forbidding women to succeed to the throne, (possibly in revenge for what he considered the immoral behavior of his mother, Catherine II ('the Great')) none of Nichola's daughters were acceptable as rulers.
After searching on records and a family tree, the name Михаил Александрович Романов (Mikhail Aleksandrovich Romanov) appeared. He was a son of Alexander III of Russia and Dagmar of Denmark (something that would play a huge significance in regards to the SSS) . His paternal grandparents were Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (meaning continued friendship w. Germany). Mikhail took the crown and officially became "Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russians"in July 7th, 1927.



Czar Mikhail quickly set up ways to get revenge. A day after his coronation, he moved 50,000 men from the army to the Czarist secret police with the mission to find, arrest and destroy the communist forces. House after house was searched and many guilty (and many innocents) were found, given a quick trial, and executed. Up to 20,000 died in the July Purge after messages from an unknown source arrived w/ information on Russian Socialists and the YRK.
Mikhail was rather paranoid, but he was no stranger to the military as he had served as a General. And the military.... that was something he was not affraid of using...



Lapland, Russo-Scandinavian Border~
WAR!
Mikhail called for action nobody but Gustaf Mannerheim himself. Mannerheim had a long history with the Imperial Army (ranked by now Lieutenant General). He was chosen for his knowledge of scandinavian terrain, extensive experience in the field and being well known as a determined opponent of communism.
The russian army amassed a total of 150,000 men, all of them trained regulars in the Lapland border with the SSS. And so, in the 27th of July of 1927, 'Talvisota' or the winter war started.

Seattle~
International Air Racers Association World Championship took place in Seattle. There was a huge price for whoever could make it to Hawaii and back. German teams however were encouraged not to attend. As expected a UCC pilot won.

AUGUST

Lulea~
THE SUMMER CAMPAIGN
It was believed that there would be some surprise, but it was limited. Sympathizing Finns and small spy rings saw the huge number of material and soldiers moving north. The Scandinavians had also been waiting for such invasion when they were still fighting against Denmark. They had the Lapland areas in the north prepared to fight a slow defensive war against the Russian armies. The SSS had a total of 80,000 trained regulars and almost 200,000 conscripts. From the start, all of the conscript divisions were left in the south, defending the capital. This left their 8 regular divisions fighitng in the north. The Russians at first had an advantage of 2 to 1, but the Lapland was prepared with several lines of trenches. The SSS armies were well drilled and would fight from their trenches and then retreat. As they retreated they always had another trench ready one or two houdred miles away. This meant that the SSS was giving up territory in exchange for time and allowed them to bleed the enemy w/ small casualties.



Istanbul~
A little more than a year ago, the ottoman government allowed and even encouraged immigration from all over Europe. Zionist Jews started to immigrate and settle into palestine and Lebanese Christians were allowed to practice their religion freely. Jews did not come alone, most were highly educated and brought w/ them their families and capital. Soon the Jewish settlements grew and the wealth distribution between them and the native arabs grew out of proportion. In Fact problems also started in Iraq and Syria, as Ottomans started to move in with the help of the government.
Eventually the Arabs had enough and started forming and joining Pan Arab underground networks. The largest of them rallied the rest and by August there was fighting on the streets. From Baghdad to Beirut arabs rose against their Ottoman rulers. And it would have been succesful to a point if they hadnt been suddenly betrayed from the inside. The Ottoman army had 60,000 men distributed in the major areas of conflict. In fact the Ottomans started arming Lebanese christians and Jews to help them crush the rebellion. The hardest of battles took place in Lebanon, where Jewish militias fought an increasingly smarter guerrilla.
Eventually however, with Ottoman supplied weapons and ammo the Arabs lost.
Tehran did not see these actions very well, most of the Arab rebels were simply shot or dissapeared. The Persians were not big fans of Arabs, but were growing increasingly nervous of something like that spreading to their territory. Eventually Tehran broke relations with the Ottoman Empire (and would have surely too left the Allience headed by Germany if the Kaiser had not helped crushed the rebellion months ago.). The Iranian/Ottoman relations had been deteriorating like the health of Sultan Mehmed VI. The Sultan was by now only seen as a symbol. He was on his deathbed and whoever was in charge of the country remained unknown. The Sultan, who has ruled for almost 50 years was lastly reported to having some sort of emergency surgury.
However this was not the last of the Pan arab rebellions, another series of confrontations would start on and off throughout the Year, but they all had the same result. The Pan Arabian liberation movement was crushed and it vanished (or at least for a decade or so).

SEPTEMBER

Stockholm~
The War did not only took place in the laplands and central scandinavia, it also took to the air. The Russians did not have that many zeppelins, but had some of the largest ones. The Airship 'Czar of the Sky'
and its sister 'Skylord of the Motherland' were among the most advanced and largest ones ever built. The russians knew very well of the recent great french victory in panama. They were in fact using the war to finally test their grand zeppelins. It was an awesome sight as the airships and smaller zeppelins around them flew towards the enemy. They had nothing to worry about as the SSS had started the war with no air force whatsoever. There were some Zeppelins now being produced, but their construction would not be complete at least till January of next year. For first time in their history, it was realised that grand Zeppelin airships were a powerful weapon, but strangely enough it was due to its command and control potential. The Airships were large enough that a General could view the entire battlefield from the air and know what was needed to bring victory. However the methods of communicating w/ the ground troops proved unreliable at this stage. Town after town was bombed by these massive zeppelins, softing up the Scandinavian defenses. In fact, the russians pushed such great distances thanks to their Grand Zeppelins, which took away much surprise from SSS attacks.





OCTOBER

Managua~
The french quickly sent nothing less but half of their army to crush the rebellion. With such a high numbers, the rebellion evaporated. Rebels withdrew to the jungles or simply went into hiding to civilian life. The french did find however huge ammounts of Spanish currency.

Sao Paulo~
Vargas declares himself dicator of Brazil after a short coup.

Budapest~
Working together with the greeks, a new port was stablished to help the Hungarians trade. From this enterprise, two cities grew. Each dependent of the others existance. One a greek port and the other a city nearby in Hungarian land that makes transportation and trade simpler.

NOVEMBER

Jakarta~
To be true, the world really didnt cared much for what was happening in Java. The newspapers almost immediately left to Europe to cover that war. However several nations did what they said they would. There was no bloodshed as the locals hoped that elections could bring them independence. However after the elections, it seemed that 52% wanted to be spanish. But the Leaders of the leftist independence movement wanted there to be a full re count of the votes. And after several weeks, it was granted. Currently Java is at peace, and under spanish control. But the recounting of votes follows suspicion of rigged elections as Spain had spent lots of money in media and propaganda alone. Some shipments were caught smuggling weapons full of Ottoman made rifles. Who knows how many actually made it to the rebels, who wait for the recounting of the votes to end. Ofcourse the Spanish word can be taken back and Java could be forced to accept Spanish rule any moment.


Reykjavik~
The Russians also made use of their GrandShips "Glory oF the Baltic" & "Russia's Wrath". The Glory was sent to bombard the city of Stockholm. While its sister was sent with the rest of the navy to blockade the SSS and land forces in the largest city in Iceland. By taking Raykjavik, the russians had pretty much control of Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard islands north of the Barentian sea (altough this is considered a tactical waste of resources as those regular divisions could have been used somewhere else and there is really nothing much of those places...). Again the russians spent into quality rather than quantity, but this was to such extreme that a blockade of the SSS was imposible to be made. Grandships were like giants, but could only cover the same ammount of water as a simple frigate. Things moved in and out of the SSS in disregard the Russian "blockade".

DECEMBER

Oslo~
Heavy Snow had starting to fall in the laplands since the second week of november, and by now winter had arrived. The Russians now faced even more problems, their army had run out of steam. Their supply line was long and morale was low. The russians had made a great distance in such few months, but such was really heavy and expensive when it came to lives. Of the 150,000 men that started the campaign, 80,000 were either dead, injured or missing. The Scandinavians had only lost 20,000 men in the defense of their country.
And what was worst is that with heavy snow, the SSS regular divisions could be used to their full potential. They spent years training as ski troopers and rumors ran of a comming winter counter offensive. The russians had made several military blunders, but at least they had started their campaign in the Summer. The war was not over, russian industrial might was still there.

~O~​