World War III: The Cold War

Nordstream

Nordstream

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I am trying to write this in a more history textbook type format. Tell me if you like it or not.

Since the end of World War II tensions had been high between the two great blocs NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The tensions had increased when the Soviet Union had invaded Yugoslavia and overthrown Tito to replace him with a regime more friendly to Moscow. Yugoslavia had been completely overrun within two weeks alarming Western defense analysts who had feared the prospect of the USSR taking over Europe.

Tensions had also increased when Soviet subs and ships had been close to American, Canadian, British, and US occupied Japan's coastal waters. All that was needed was a spark to start the war. The spark came from an unexpected direction.

Spoiler :
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In a strange accident an Indian vessel visiting Hawaii to show India's newly independent naval power had collided with an American vessel. The Americans taking it as an act of aggression had opened fire and sunk the Indian ship. The Indian government under pressure from its public to assert its independence declared war on the United States activating its NATO commitments. India soon found itself at war with NATO and NATO ships began heading towards India.

Stalin watched these happenings with barely disguised glee. He had been waiting for an opportunity to expand Soviet power and now he found it. Soviet and NATO subs and ships engaged in a dangerous game of cat and mouse as Soviet subs shadowed NATO aircraft carriers in the Pacific and Atlantic.

Spoiler :

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In Europe the KGB and Statsi began launching far reaching operations of sabotage and assassination in West Germany, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands, Finland, Turkey, and Greece. Significant damage was done to NATO infrastructure and Soviet air and ground forces built up in Poland, Chezslovakia, Romania and East Germany.

Meanwhile Stalin personally visited Nehru providing Soviet financial assistance against the "Imperialist capatalist pig-dogs who wish to recolonize India. The Soviet Union and the eternity of the Warsaw Pact stand behind our Indian comrades."

Spoiler :

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Civ 3 FTW!
 
Historians often question who truly started the war. Some blame Britain for being the first to declare war on an espionage incident. However Stalin had clearly pre-planned the entire incident. He purposefully made it so that his spy in London would get captured in order to increase tensions to a breaking point. In this he was sucessfull. The British public then clamored for war which was promptly declared.

Spoiler :


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The Naval War


Stalin then put the next phase of his plan into operation. Using submarines he had secretly based off Britian's coastline he ambushed British carriers and destroyers succeeding in sinking a carrier in the English channel and a number of British destroyers dealing significant damage to the Royal Navy.

Spoiler :


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NATO of course promptly declared war on the Soviet Union. World War III had begun. The first operations of the war took place in the seas. Soviet submarines off the Canadian coastline and the US west coast and Pacific began sinking US cruisers, and destroyers and even targeted American carriers. The US and Canadian fleet was largely caught off guard by the stealthy Soviet subs. Thousands of sailors lost their lives in the most sucessfull submarine campaign in the history of naval warfare. The Canadian Atlantic fleet was decisively crippled as was the Canadian Pacific fleet losing both of their aircraft carriers and large numbers of destroyers and cruisers.

Spoiler :


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In engagements near Guam, Okinawa, and Hawaii American ships were repetadely defeated. Americans subs were easily sunk by Soviet destroyers. Brazilian ships were destroyed near Los Angles. The USS Tarawa was slightly damaged in the Mid Pacific by a Soviet whisky class sub. In a tremendous victory the USS Princeton carrier was sunk off the coast of Taiwan by whiskey subs.

Spoiler :


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The Soviet Baltic fleet heavily engaged the Swedish and Finnish navies and suffered heavy casualties before taking enemy ships out. A Soviet wolf pack hiding near the Azores ambushed a Spanish fleet escorting a convoy in Portuguese waters wiping it out to the last vessel. In the Black Sea the Soviets quickly established their dominance over the pitiful Turkish navy and Istanbul came under shelling doing heavy damage to ships docked in port and the nearby airfield. Northern Japan was shelled by the Soviet Pacific fleet heavily damaging infrastructure in the northern part of the country.

Spoiler :


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This brings us to the end of the naval campagin in the opening week of World War III. What is notable is the widespread use of submarine warfare by the Soviet Union and the incredible success it had against NATO forces badly damaging and in some cases even crippling(such as in the case of Canada) NATO fleets. The sinking of 4 NATO aircraft carriers in the opening week of war is not something to take lightly. Also notable is the amazing Soviet intelligence capability in hiding their submarines in NATO coastal waters and the deadly ambushes they preformed against a vastly superior surface fleet. Soviet spies were clearly pervasive in this time newly declassified documents inform us that Soviet spies were operating in 16 NATO countries including the USA, France, and Canada. This partially attributes their sucesss.

Now our next chapter will be discussing the Atomic War
 
Here we have maps of the Soviet Union at the time of war released by the Soviet Ministry of Information

Spoiler :


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From our research we have pieced together the locations of major fleets in the Pacific and Atlantic following the Soviet offensive.

Spoiler :


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The Mind of Stalin

Before we turn to the Atomic War I feel it is relevant to spend a few moments on Stalin decision to resort to atomic warfare. Many historians are willing to dismiss Stalin as an agining madman, psychopath in his dying days eager to see death and destruction.

This however is not the case. Stalin's use of atomic weapons was in fact a carefully reasoned and coldly calculate decision. Stalin observed the USA's vast superiority in naval forces and his response was to use submarines. Similarly Stalin saw the massive American air force and their numerous NATO allies and sought to equalize the playing field by using the Soviet Union's greatest advantage. Atomic weapons and ground forces.

The Soviet Union had 37 atom bombs while the United States had only 18. Some of which Stalin reasoned were most likely on the American mainland and out of reach of Soviet territory. Furthermore Soviet spies informed Stalin that France had no atomic weapons at all. There were no spies in Britain but Stalin reasoned if they had any atomic weapons it would be a mere handful.

The USSR had more tanks, more infantry, and more artillery than the NATO forces, and so Stalin developed a plan which involved a massive atomic strike along the entire European front and in the Far East designed to cripple NATO forces followed by a Soviet ground invasion that would bring NATO to its knees in a matter of weeks. By striking first with atom bombs and striking quickly he could neutralize the American bases in Germany and Japan and cripple Britain and France. Any atomic retaliation would be greatly reduced and the Soviet Union was capable and willing to absorb a few cities lost here and there.

A great blow would be struck for World Commounisim and the Western allies crippled. Stalin was confident in the Soviet Union's abality to prevent and largely absorb any atomic retaliation.

We will now turn to the developments of the Atomic war.

 
TCW Medium v 2.0 Warsaw Pact
 
The Atomic War

The Atomic War began with the dropping of the atom bomb on the Japanese city of Sapporo from bombers based in Valdivostok. When asked why he chose to drop the bomb first on Japan Stalin is said to have replied "It is only fitting that Japan be the only country to have an atomic bomb dropped on it not just by the United States but by the Soviet Union as well." reflecting his dark sense of humor.

Spoiler :


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Other Japanese cities were also struck including Akita, Osaka and Misawah. Another atomic bomb was dropped on Seoul. The death toll in the far east numbered in the millions. American forces based in Japan and South Korea were badly damaged.

Spoiler :


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Stalin then decided to deliver a devastating blow. Soviet naval infantry shipped in from the Transiberian railroad embarked on transports and landed in Northern Japan seizing the entire island of Hokkaido which was devoid of American forces.

Spoiler :


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Soviet focus then shifted south toward the Middle East where the Arab League, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan had aligned themselves with NATO following the Soviet nuclear strikes on Japan. As an example to the upstarts Stalin ordered a nuclear strike on each of their capitals. Soviet bombers based in Dunshanbe bombed the Pakistani capital of Islambad, the Afghani capital of Kabul, the Iranian capital of Tehran and the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. In addition the strategic Turkish Black Sea port city of Trabzon was bombed as well from bombers based in Tblisi.

Spoiler :


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Stalin assumed that such strikes would cripple the ability of the nations on the southern borders of the Soviet union to coordinate any sort of meaningful offensive at the same time as helping his Indian allies. In this calculation he was correct.

 
The Atomic War-Europe

The Atomic war in Europe was quite distinct from the war in Asia. In Asia Stalin chose not to follow up the atomic strikes with ground attacks with the exception of Sapporo. In Europe however Stalin utilized atomic weapons to smash NATO lines and launch a massive ground offensive to exploit it.

It is intreasting to note the reckless disregard Stalin showed for his own forces sending to fight in radioactive wastelands and often such as in the case of Istanbul forces were stationed within range of atomic blasts. There can be no doubt Stalin was a ruthless man but he was clearly an effective commander as Soviet forces had unprecedented sucess in the Western offensive.

Cities all across Europe were struck by Soviet atomic bombs. The following historical photographs reveal the devastating aftermath on the European continent. It is interesting to note one of the Soviet targets was an English aircraft carrier the HMS Indominatable in the English Channel. The HMS Indominatable living up to its name miraculously survived the Soviet atomic strike. Clearly Soviet military doctrine placed a high premium on NATO carriers that they were willing to expend atomic weapons to destroy them. Switzerland was the only European nation other than Portugal which was too far away to escape Soviet atomic attack.

Spoiler :


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The atomic strike was followed by Soviet missile attack against British infantry units out in the field in Germany, against Greek infantry on the border of Albania, and against the Turkish defenders of Istanbul annihilating them completely leaving them open to Soviet ground attack. Three units of Soviet VDV Airborn Troopers landed in on the French naval base of Bonifacio. Soviet forces hoped to gain control of the island allowing them to base Mig-17 fighters and the long range Tu-4 bombers there in order to destroy NATO naval forces in the Mediterrenan.

Spoiler :


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The next chapter will observe the Soviet ground-air offensive.

 
The Air Offensive-Far East

The air war began in the Far East. The Soviet air force based in Valdivostok struck targets in northern Japan. The results were largely inconclusive as as a Mig-9 was shot down over Misawah and minor damage done to radar installations by Mig-15 and Mig-17 fighters.

Spoiler :


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Further out to sea the US aircraft carrier Tarawa was targeted by Tu-4 bombers. The bombers were unable to get close enough to the carrier to drop their payloads. Each time they were driven off by fighters present on the carrier. One Tu-4 was shot down the rest made it back to safety and inflicted heavy losses on pursuing American fighters. In total 6 American fighters were shot down in the battle.

Spoiler :


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Further south near Formosa the bombers targeted an American submarine a ROC warplane managed to drive off the Tu-4 in the first engagement but was shot down, in the next engagement the American submarine was sunk.

Spoiler :


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From these incidents the main shortfall of Soviet airpower was the range of its fighters, Soviet bombers were excellent clearly well armed with long range and effective power. The Mig-15's and Mig-17's while powerful planes were unable to escort the bombers and establish Soviet air power further out leaving the bombers defenseless. This shortfall would haunt the Soviet Union in the coming years.

Out West in a strange incident the city of Istanbul fell to Statsi operatives who seized te undefended city in a covert operation. With Istanbul now in Soviet hands the realization of centuries of Russian foreign policy desires had finally occurred, the city was promptly rechristened Constantinople by Stalin. The gateway to the Mediterrenan was now open. The Black Sea fleet had a warm water port and was now able to surge into the Mediterrenan. Russia's dream and Britain and France's nightmare was now at hand.

Spoiler :


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Hm why do some of my screenshots cut off like that? Odd.
 


The Offensive-Western Europe

The offensive began with a massive bombardment of the German city of Munchen by M-30 howitzers. After reducing the defenders Soviet SU-100 tank destroyers surged forward attacking in echelon. The American forces made up mostly of weakened infantry and a few motorized divisions were smashed by the massive Soviet armored offensive. Despite this the Americans were able to put up strong resistance fighting in the streets of the city. Wave after wave of Su-100, Su-125 tank destroyers interspeaced with infantry ultimately broke American lines in a bloody battle and the city fell to Soviet hands.

The next target was the British occupied city of Bonn. The attack began much the same with bombardment of the city with howitzers. This time BM-14 rocket launchers were also used which destroyed the radar tower north of the city and pounded enemy armored forces. The tank destroyers once again spearheaded the offensive. The casualties were heavier here as the dug in British forces at the Fulda gap destroyed a number of tanks and the British Centurions were more than a match for the tank destroyers. Ultimately the British broke after a last T-34 offensive and the city fell.

The Red Army pushed north to Hamburg placing the city under massive rocket bombardment followed by T-34 and T-44 offensive. The British were pushed into the sea.

Spoiler :


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The attack on Vienna went far easier. The Austrian army was weak and broke with no Soviet casualties.



In the south Soviet infantry broke through Greek lines and approached the outskirts of Kerkira. Like Austria, Greek forces found themselves hopelessly outmatched by the Red Army and did not bother to resist.

Spoiler :


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In the north the Soviets sought a recoknoing with their old Winter War nemesis of Finland. M-30 howitzers pounded Helsinki which was followed by a large armored offensive by T-34 tanks. The Finns had softened over time as the Soviets soon found themselves occupying Helsinki.

Spoiler :


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In the south a Soviet offensive toward Trabzon was blunted by Turkish forces. The First Shock Corps was deployed south to break Turkish lines. It succeded as Turkish lines broke and Trabzon too fell.

Spoiler :


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The Soviet Union now controlled vast swathes of NATO territory. All that remained of Germany was American occupied Frankfurt and the French occupied Saarland. Soviet forces were poised to sweep through the Netherlands into France. Soviet armor was preparing to push into Northern Italy, the interior of Finland and the heart of Turkey. Stalin assumed that NATO was on the verge of collapse. That it could offer no resistance and soon all of Europe would be in Soviet hands.

He was mistaken.

 
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