Battle of Stuttgart
On the morning of 6th of March the Chinese artillery opened up on the German positions. For two hours the artillery shelling went on turning the German positions into rubble. Though the artillery barrage was colossal the German machinegunners and other troops were well fortified and received not as much damage as Chinese thought. When Liu, the commander of the first Chinese Army, ordered his troops to assaul the first defence lines they were confronted with a huge counter artillery barrage from the German rear positions. The First day of the Battle of Stuttgart saw bloody fighting as the Chinese soldiers tried to take German positions. Losses on both sides were huge.
In the East, Xiaoping finally reached Nidaros on 10th of March but soon realised that his reduced size army was not enough strong to take the city. He then started to lay siege on the city to weaken the defenders. Mao had promised that Xiaoping would have his army back in full numbers after the Stuttgart had been dealt with. So all that frustrated Xiaoping could now do was to keep his positions and wait for the reinforcements. At the same time Hindenbrau was regrouping his forces in the sieged city and he also was waiting for reinforcements.
After a week of fighting in Stuttgart Chinese had made some progress but the Germans didn’t give anything for free. Houses had to be taken one by one and the German artillery shelling was relentless. On the third week of March the death toll of Chinese troops reached staggering 100 000 men but Mao kept the offensive going, there would be no retreat. On the German side the reserves were running low too, over half of the initial defence force lay dead or wounded. The City had become a grave for tens of thousands of men.
The attention of the whole world was now fixed on Stuttgart. Everyone sensed that this battle would decide the faith of the Central Eurasia. In London leaders of England were carefully waiting the news from the Stuttgart as it was agreed that as soon as the Germans were beaten England would launch another offensive to North in the Western front. Mao had tried to persuade England and Russia to launch the offensive at the same time as the Chinese but England was so keen to keep a good denfensive force in Moscow that they didn’t want to risk it in an offensive. Although Germans had concentrated every available division in Stuttgart, the defensive force in Smolensk was left untouched. The threat that the English forces would launch an offensive was so great that even Bismarck was not willing to take it.
In the end of March as the battles still raged on in Stuttgart more bad news for Germans came from the far West. France had fought the war against America for almost two years now but not too much progress had been made. But during the March, Americans had started to gain the desive advantage to turn the war against the French. On 26th of March French lost the city of Avignon and Napoleon sent an urgent message to Bismarck that France was losing the war and that he would be forced to make a cease fire if no help would be gained from the Germans. Bismarck replied that it was impossible to send any German troops at the moment but if only could he fight for a month or two then there would be help. Bismarck himself knew that it was an empty promise. If the battle of Stuttgart was lost there would be no help for France. Losing France as an ally would lead even faster to the downfall of the German Empire as the vast Western front would then be exposed to the American forces.
On the 6th of April, after a month of fighting, Chinese were on the edge of breaking the German defences in Stuttgart. They now held over 80 % of the city but the cost had been terrible. Chinese first and second armies were exhausted and running low on suplies. The Vikings had not provided the nessesary suplies and help that the Chinese had asked for because the war had already ruined towns and vast areas of the Viking countryside. Suplies then had to be sent all the way from China and England, lines stretching over 1500 km. This shortage of food and especially the shortage of ammunition was starting to slow down the huge Chinese forces more than the opposing German soldiers.
Situation in the beginning of April
Mao’s determination to take Stuttgart and completely destroy the German Army Group Centre was now widely critisized by Chinese generals. General Liu strongly stated that it would be best to leave Stuttgart behind, regroup the forces, and then continue the offensive North towards Hamburg and Essen. He was sure that if a little break was given to his men to gather strenght and supplies he could penetrate the German lines on both sides of Stuttgart. This change in plan how ever didn’t suit Mao’s own plans and he was sure that if the city was already 80% taken it wouldn’t take too much effort to take it completely.
In Berlin German High Command was still very concerned about the situation, the whole situation hang on its balance. This far the battle had gone better than the Germans had expected. They had expected to hold the city for maximum of two weeks but the men had shown extra ordinary skills and courage to fight in the ruined city. The artillery had also proved to be more efective than had been hoped. Eventhough the city was still partly in German hands it was not known how much more forces the Chinese could throw in the battle. Some new troops could be moved to the city but at given rate the Chinese would take the whole city in a week. In Nidaros the cituation was not better, Hindenbrau was still surrounded and eventhough he had formidable defence positions it was not known how strong the Chinese third army was. The German High Command was unaware about the Chinese movement of troops from Nidaros front to Stuttgart.
On the 8th of April Field Marshall Weinkell sensed that the Chinese forces were beginning to slow down considerably. In many sectors the enemy was stopped and in some sectors succesful counter attacks were mounted. Supply situation among Chinese divisions had reached the critical point and in some units only one clip of ammunition for one day was given to the soldiers. The Chinese artillery had also lost its power to pound German positions and was now firing only few times in a day. In a contrary the ever present German artillery was grinding the already low morale of the Chinese soldiers. The turning point of the battle was getting nearer.
Mao was furious that the battle was turning against him and demanded counter attacks but the army high command had to answer that there was no way of continuing the offensive without supplies and reinforcements. Generals suggested that a tactical withdraw and regrouping would give a chance to launch a new better planned offensive in the beginning of May. Mao had nothing of that and ordered that every unit had to fight for the last man. No withdrawal was issued. The battles continued through March and the already weak Chinese took heavy losses during their slow retreat from Stuttgart. German forces had also taken considerable damage but they now sensed that the Chinese were on the run and the morale was boosted. They also benefited from fresh troops which were arriving nearly every day.
In the East Xiaoping had learned that the battle for Stuttgart had turned against the Chinese and he knew that there would be no reinforcements. He made some attacks to South and expanded the bulge he had made, but after the Germans had survived the critical moments in Stuttgart they were able to concentrate more forces to East and Xiaoping was pushed back. The encirclement of Nidaros was broken on 20th of April.
On 2nd of May the Stuttgart was once again back on German hands. This was an enormous plow to Mao and he finally yielded to agree with the generals, and the exhausted armies were withdrawn across the Seelow Plateau back in Viking territory. Xiaopings left flank was now exposed and he also had to withdraw to Skagerak forest.
The battle of Stuttgart was the biggest battle the whole war had seen, nearly a million men took part in the fighting and the casulties on both sides were huge. Chinese had lost more than 150 000 men and Germans some 90 000. The city of Stuttgart and it’s near by towns were almost completely destroyd, Nidaros area had also taken considerable damage. Eventhough the Germans ultimately won the battle of Stuttgart, the Chinese were still left with a large army (The remnants of Chinese first, second and third armies were put together to form the Chinese Expeditionary Army) in Lödöse area. If this Army was reinforced in the coming months it could well launch a new offensive against Stuttgart or Nidaros.
Anyway, the next part is on it's way so don't worry, there will be more to come 
