Shattered World - A Worse World War : Part 45

Fire in the East

June 11th 1948 to July 11th 1948

General Udentinsh sat wearily in his canvas chair and stared once more at the field map spread out across the tent wall in front of him. Crude hand drawn arrows showed his current thrusts into the German positions and all of them were shorter and narrower than he would have liked. More disturbing were the more recent arrows pushing back into his own lines! His planned offensive towards Kharkov was rapidly becoming more of a defensive campaign as the Germans bit into his flanks with sharp and nasty counter attacks. And now intelligence was talking about a sizeable buildup of German mechanized forces, possibly involving several panzer divisions. His latest orders from Beria left no doubt what the leader of the Soviet Union wanted. He must advance, casualties were irrelevant. Irrelevant they may be, but the losses were mounting and easily matching the worst campaigns of the Eurasian War.

German tactical fighter-bombers

General Udentinsh was about to begin gathering his staff when a familiar rumble caught his attention. The scream of jet engines was very distinctive and had become much too familiar in recent days. Air raid sirens arrayed around the headquarters complex began to wail even as the scream of the jet engines grew louder and anti-aircraft weapons of all calibers opened up. The German jet bombers were fast and maneuverable and could roam virtually at will over the Soviet countryside. This did not stop his fellow Russian countrymen from doing everything they could to stop them anyway. There was a lot of AAA massed around the headquarters and their roar was deafening.

Realizing that he wouldn't have time to reach the bomb shelter Oto Udentinsh, General of the Soviet Union, simply dove for the meager cover of his iron-framed cot as any common soldier would have done. Flattening himself as close to the floor of the tent as possible Marshall Udentinsh waited for the inevitable impact of falling bombs as the hammering of anti-aircraft guns filled the air and the scream of the approaching jet aircraft grew louder an then began to recede as what sounded like several jet bombers roared overhead and on to the east. Holding his breath, General Udentinsh waited for the bombs to impact and prayed to God that none impacted on him.

The impacts came as expected with thunderous explosions and a shaking of the earth. Dust filled his tent but luckily no shrapnel pierced his tent or his flesh. General Udentinsh was getting up and beginning to wipe the dust off his uniform when he noticed something was wrong. His hands began to tremble and he noticed an odd tightness in his chest. Screams began to drift into his attention apparently coming from men around his tent. Pain came then, swift and terrible, and he thought of nothing outside of his own agony. His vision began to dim and he felt himself begin to drool as he crouched on the ground wracked by convulsions. Mercifully, coma set in before the General's central nervous system failed altogether and he died where he lay along with his staff and most of the soldiers assigned to his head quarters unit.

June 11th 1948

Germany opens its counter-offensive towards Voronezh with a massive conventional barrage as well as the large-scale use of nerve gas against Soviet front line units, head quarters, and rear assembly areas. The nerve gas proves to be devastatingly effective against a Red Army that is equipped for the chemical battlefields of World War One. Initial German progress is startling rapid as panzer divisions leap forward into Soviet rear areas before Soviet front line units, reeling from the effects of nerve gas and massive conventional bombardments, can react. The Luftwaffe also launches a surge on this front using aircraft moved down from Scandinavia and the Baltic theatre to supplement their squadrons. The result at the end of the day is several gaping wholes in the Soviets lines and a near collapse in this section of the German front. By nightfall the German offensive has moved faster than even the High Command's optimistic first-day projections.

In the Baltic region, Valga has fallen to Soviet forces and the main Soviet thrust in this region is now smashing its way southwest through Latvia and has pocketed the north-central Latvian city of Valmierra. Further north Soviet forces advancing west in Estonia have surrounded Tapa where Estonian soldiers have chosen to fight to the death. In Scandinavia Soviet forces have not been able to make much headway against the Aurora defense line and that theatre is largely mired in a stalemate with both sides sending many aircraft south to the more critical fronts.

The Soviet offensive towards Minsk has now nearly succeeded in surrounding that city. German panzergrenadiers have been able to keep open a corridor to the west preventing, so far, Minsk from being pocketed. German forces in and around Minsk have fallen back to the innermost ring of defenses in the outskirts of the city. The Germans are preventing civilians from fleeing west to prevent them from clogging the lone road to the west that they still hold - thus civilian casualties are mounting as the Soviets bombard Minsk with every form of conventional and chemical munition that they possess. The air war in the skies over Minsk and the surrounding region is as intense as any ever seen with both sides loosing large numbers of aircraft. Neither side has the upper hand in the air here although the Soviets are expending far more aircraft and pilots than the Germans.

On the southern front - Soviet forces have surrounded Rostov but not before the bulk of German forces fleeing northwest into the Ukraine successfully make their escape. Soviet forces have turned south and are now sweeping through the north-central Caucasus with little resistance to stall them. Further south Soviet forces are probing into the mountains of the central Caucasus where the third axis line of defense, and its well-entrenched German divisions, quickly repulses several hasty Soviet attacks. The Soviets have been forced to halt their advance as they consolidate their hold over the northern Caucuses and bring forward reserves for what they expect to be an exceptionally bloody effort to crack the mountain defenses of the Germans and Turks.

Hitler, now seeing Baku located precariously between Soviet forces to the North and British forces to the south, has ordered reinforcements sent to the southern Caucasus. The Germans hold the Black Sea so getting reinforcements there won't be a problem if the High Command can find the divisions to spare. Beria, for his part, commands his generals to continue the push forward across the entire front, �let the fascists catch their breath and they�ll be driving for Moscow before we can blink� he tells the assembled head quarters staff of the Red Army.

June 12th 1948

Italian forces launch a new offensive across a broad front into northern Tunisia. A surge of Italian and Luftwaffe aircraft manages to destroy many Free French aircraft on the ground and the rail line linking Tunis to Algeria is hit hard in several places. The Free French have been expecting this attack and are well entrenched in a strong defensive line with several belts of trenches and fortifications. The Free French have also managed to assemble an armored division, consisting of American Pershing I's and upgraded Shermans of various types, and intend to counter-attack once the Italians become bogged down in the defensive belts. One thing the Free French have a critical shortage of is reconnaissance aircraft and they have failed to notice the unusual buildup of armor in the Kasserine pass.

Argentina completes the first of 25 planned submarines. The Argentine submarine design is an upgraded version of a 1930's German submarine model. Argentina has decided to build submarines rather than attempting to bulk up their surface fleet because the British South Atlantic fleet is simply too powerful for them to openly challenge. A submarine fleet would allow Argentina to engage in commerce raiding in hopes of convincing the British to come to the peace table. The ongoing British blockade of Argentina and Uruguay has been devastating to the economies of those nations but it has also forced them to begin developing their own civilian and military industries.

Argentine Submarine "General Belgrano"

June 13th 1948

German forces have now captured Belgorod and have advanced 60 kilometers across a 100 kilometer front in their massive counter attack towards Voronezh. The Soviet forces which had been slowly inching towards Kiev have now been forced to begin moving back east to counter the German thrust. After enjoying two days of almost total air superiority the Luftwaffe in this region now finds itself again locked in an intense air war with massive numbers of Soviet aircraft. Despite the situation in the air improving for the Soviets the situation on the ground remains bleak. German nerve gas attacks, although now less of a surprise, remain extremely effective as the Soviets simply have no adequate equipment to wage war in a nerve gas environment. Their only means of response is to hit back with as much of their own chemical weapons as possible in an attempt to suppress German artillery.

The Luftwaffe has thrown nearly its entire force of Ural heavy bombers into a massive bombing campaign around the major hub of Kursk in an effort to stop or at least slow down the flow of supplies to the huge Soviet army in the northeast Ukraine. Some 550 Ural bombers, escorted by German, Ukrainian, and Romanian fighters of all types, hit Kursk's rail yards in a massive daylight raid that virtually wipes out the rail yards and much of the city of Kursk in the resulting firestorm. Devastatingly, the attack includes the use of both nerve and mustard gasses and kills much of the civilian population in the vicinity of the rail yards - tens of thousands of them.

Shocking News!

On German radio and television Goebbels excuses the chemical attack against Kursk by pointing out that the Soviets have been using their own chemical weapons against numerous cities in the Baltic States and the Ukraine. To which the Soviets respond that they only used chemical weapons against military targets and that , yes, collateral damaged did occur - but the German attack represents the first case of chemical weapons being used in a purely strategic bombardment. It is a fine distinction that could affect the future of many, many, European cities.

June 14th 1948

With the Italians pressuring Free French forces in Tunisia along the entire front - Rommel's 8th panzer army launches a blitzkrieg attack from positions in and around the Kasserine pass. Free French forces in this region are small in number and ill-prepared as the Italian axis of advance has always been due north towards Tunis rather than west into Algeria. Rommel has achieved total surprise and by the end of the day his panzers have cut west some 40 kilometers into Algeria and are already beginning to wheel north towards Annaba on the Mediterranean coast of northeast Algeria. Rommel's intent is clear - he intends to drive northwest to the Algerian Mediterranean coast and cut off the 100,000 Free French soldiers in northern Tunisia. It is a bold gamble as supplies of fuel and ammunition are barely adequate for offensive operations.

Soviet bombers hit rail yards in Kiev and Poltava with a mixture of mustard gas and conventional weapons. The attacks are far smaller than the German attacks on Kursk, and cost the Red Airforce many downed bombers, but they were done more for reasons of propaganda and politics than as any serious effort to break up the German lines of supply through the central Ukraine.

June 15th 1948

The German offensive towards Voronezh continues to make excellent progress as the city of Staryy Oskol has now been surrounded and is in the process of being reduced by German artillery and infantry. The main armored spearheads of the 1st SS Panzer Army are now 50 kilometers southwest of Voronezh. Rear echelon and reserve Soviet units in the vicinity of Voronezh are now digging in to make a stand along the line of the river Don.

The last Japanese forces in Indo-China withdraw behind defensive works along the Chinese/Indo-China border. As U.S. and British forces consolidate their lines of communication in Indo-China, Ho Chi Minh declares the independent Republic of Vietnam, requests entry into the Alliance for Democracy, and declares war on Japan. The Free French immediately oppose the formation of an independent Vietnam and block Vietnam's entry into the Alliance.

Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh

June 16th 1948

German forces secure a bridgehead over the river Don to the south of Voronezh and begin to exploit the crossing immediately. By the end of the day half an armored division has crossed and the Germans are well into the process of breaking out across the Don. The Soviets have little to stop the Germans from taking Voronezh. German bombers are continuing to pound Soviet transportation hubs in and around Kursk and the effort is paying off as Red Army Units to the southwest of Kursk are becoming critically short of fuel and ammunition.

Germans crossing the River Don

The German forces in the Orel pocket, meanwhile, continue to hold despite constant pressure from all sides and near-constant chemical attacks. Beria and Stavka are beginning to realize the magnitude of the looming disaster in this sector. With Orel still holding out and German forces approaching Voronezh the entire million man Soviet army south and west of Kursk will be in danger of being caught in a massive pocket. Soviet reserves massed around Moscow, 30 fresh divisions in all(including armored divisions), begin to prepare to move south.

In eastern Algeria Free French holding actions have mostly failed to delay Rommel's lightning advance. German panzers have already bypassed the Free French strong point at Tebessa and are now driving head long for the Mediterranean coast and out-running their fuel supply lines. Free French forces in northern Tunisia are attempting to disengage from the Italians in order to turn west and block Rommel's advance but the Italians, desperate to take Tunisia now that they are getting the German support they have been asking for, are pushing forward with a new tenacity.

In the western and south-central Ukraine the seriousness of the virulent new wheat crop blight that emerged the previous weak is now beginning to draw the attention of officials in Germany. The blight is spreading rapidly and threatens to put the entire wheat crop of Eastern Europe in danger if it can not be contained. Suspicious of the timing of the appearance of the new blight, leading German agricultural experts and military intelligence officials are being dispatched to the areas where the blight was first reported. News of the blight is slowly moving up the chain of command in the Ukraine and in Germany.

June 17th 1948

In the Baltic region Soviet forces continue to advance at a steady rate despite the growing tenacity of resistance put up by the desperate soldiers of the Baltic states. They know what they have to look forward to at the hands of Beria if the Soviets regain control.��

German forces begin evacuating Minsk after Hitler finally relents and allows the city to be abandoned. However, Soviet forces continue to hammer the lone corridor out of the city and holding it open will be a very difficult task with hordes of Red Army tanks approaching from the north and south.

A major Soviet push towards Grozny is repelled with heavy losses in the northern foothills of the Caucasus mountains. The Germans intend to hold the oil fields around Grozny and have been preparing the defenses in the region for years. Along the coast of the Black Sea Soviet troops have taken possession of the ports of Novorossik and Tuapse forcing Germany to rely on the southern port of Batum to ship supplies and reinforcements to the southern Caucasus - and to ship oil from Baku back to Germany.

There is a pipeline running from Baku across to Batum and then freighters transport the oil across the Black Sea to Odessa or Istanbul. The oil from the Grozny fields used to move by pipeline to Rostov but now that the Soviets control the northern Caucasus this oil must move via rail and truck down to Baku and then by pipeline to Batum.

Japanese forces complete their evacuation from coastal Siberia as the last troop transports disembark with Soviet troops not far behind. In the final phase of their scorched earth operation the Japanese have thoroughly destroyed all the significant harbor facilities and contaminated them with anthrax and bubonic plague as well. In addition to this civilian residential districts were shelled with chemical weapons in order to clog Soviet medical logistics in the region. Coastal Siberia has largely been rendered into a wasteland and some 25% of the region's civilian population will be dead of starvation and disease(natural and man made), within the next several months. Vladivostok is the only city in coastal Siberia that the Japanese intend to defend and they have left a garrison of 10,000 soldiers there to fight to the death.

In Manchuria the Japanese are in full retreat towards Korea and China as the puppet state of Manchuria falls apart around them. Soviet forces are already approaching the Manchurian capital of Changchun.

June 18th 1948

Baghdad falls into British hands after the last Iraqi defenders in the city surrender. British mechanized columns are already racing north towards Mosul and the northern oil fields as the Iraqi government and army are now in full collapse.

Rommel's leading panzer spearheads reach the Algerian Mediterranean coast near Annaba and have only a day's worth of fuel remaining. The Free French are still holding out at the transportation hub of Souk Ahras and this is disrupting Rommel's tenuous supply lines.

June 19th 1948

Two German armored pincers link up north of Voronezh putting that city under siege. Another German pincer is already cutting northwest towards Orel in hopes of relieving the Orel pocket and trapping Soviet forces around Kursk. Soviet reserve forces are massing in Tula for a push south to blunt the German counter-offensive.

German and Italian infantry, with massive air support now that air superiority has been achieved in the region, capture the Free French stronghold of Souk Ahras, allowing fuel supplies to flow freely north to the leading elements of the 8th panzer army at the coast.

The U.S. Navy's powerful 5th fleet, with its taskforce of 7 Essex class carriers and numerous smaller escort carriers, enters the South China Sea. The Japanese, seeing this as the best possible chance for a "decisive naval victory", begin moving their remaining carriers from the central Pacific and the Home Islands towards the vicinity of Formosa.

The Manchurian capitol of Changchun and the strategic city of Mukden have both fallen into Soviet hands as Manchurian forces are now mostly laying down their arms and returning home. The Japanese are hastily attempting to establish lines of defense along the Yalu in northern Korea and along the Manchurian-Chinese border.

June 21st 1948

Cougar I's counter-attacking the Free French

The Free French attack into Rommel's eastern flank with all of their available reserves, including the single armored division they have carefully assembled, in an effort to re-open lines of supply into Algeria. The Free French attack is a disaster from the beginning. German and Italian aircraft dominate the skies and hammer Free French mechanized columns disrupting the timing of the offensive. Rommel's superior Cougar I's and II's have had two days to rest and take up strong positions and wherever they come into contact with Free French armor they tear them to shreds.

June 22nd 1948

The Soviets capture the Estonian capitol of Tallinn and are approaching within artillery range of Riga. In Lithuania Vilnius has come under siege and is coming under massive chemical bombardment to root out the fanatic German and Lithuanian defenders. German forces are now moving into prepared defensive positions on the border between East Prussia and Lithuania in a signal that the German High Command has abandoned the hope of holding the Baltic States.

The Free French push against Rommel's eastern flank has come to a ragged, bloody, end as scattered Free French units withdraw back into the northern Tunisian pocket in chaos. An entire Free French army is now pocketed in northern Tunisia with little hope of relief.

With British forces within 20km of Mosul the Kurds of northern Iraq launch an uprising against the remnants of Iraqi authority in the region. Kurdish militia groups enter Mosul and other cities across northern Iraq. The Kurds have been planning this uprising for some time and the approach of British forces has forced them to move up the time table.

The remnants of the Luftwaffe in Iraq have already evacuated and are now establishing logistics to operate from Turkey.

June 23rd 1948

With Vilnius and Minsk now secured the Red Army intends to drive southwest towards Brest and the Polish border. The plains of western Belarus make excellent take country and the Soviets maintain a large numerical advantage in armor. Taking back the rest of Belarus would complete one of Beria's main war aims and allow him to focus on blunting the German counter-offensive to the south.

Soviet troops enter Riga where brutal house-to-house fighting begins. German and Latvian infantry have dug into the port district of the city and intend to fight for as long as possible before being evacuated by the Kriegsmarine. Several German cruisers off the coast of Riga are providing direct- fire support to the garrison in the city and the Luftwaffe continues to provide some air support from air bases in East Prussia and northeast Poland.

KMS "Tirpitz" supporting the defenders of Riga

De Gaulle has been forced to mass his remaining forces in North Africa to defend Algeria. A Free French plan to supply the northern Tunisian pocket by air is rejected by the British as impractical given Axis air superiority over Tunisia. Supply by sea is also virtually impossible since the Axis dominate the central Mediterranean. The Italians, meanwhile, continue to push slowly north towards Tunis as Free French forces are forced to pull back and consolidate their positions as supplies of ammunition and fuel dwindle.

June 24th 1948

British forces enter Mosul without a shot being fired as the Kurdish militia which recently captured the city allows them free entry. In secret negotiations between the British and several Kurdish factions the British have agreed to allow Kurdish autonomy in exchange for Kurdish assurances that they will not side with the Axis.

Adolf Hitler with Generals

Turkey has begun to mass troops and construct defensive lines along its borders with Free-French-Syria and Iraq as the possibility of the Alliance opening a new front into Turkey is now very real. Germany begins sending shipments of advanced weaponry and teams of military advisors and special forces soldiers to bolster Turkish defenses. In addition, several Luftwaffe squadrons will be sent to join the existing Luftwaffe elements in Turkey. Hitler and the high command are looking at maps and worrying about a British thrust towards the vital Baku oil fields.

June 25th 1948

Voronezh falls to German forces and leading elements of the 1st SS Panzer Army have approached to within 20 kilometers of the Orel Pocket. The Germans have become aware of a large Soviet buildup south of Tula and are intent on blocking this force so that the larger Soviet army around Kursk can be pocketed.

In an effort to stop the spread of the 'Ukrainian Wheat Blight' the Ukraine, under orders from Germany, has begun the wholesale burning and destruction of the wheat crop in the affected regions. German scientists and intelligence officials have now traced the Blight back to an odd series of Soviet bombing attacks on Ukrainian farmland in the opening days of the fighting on the eastern front.

In a high level meeting of Axis Powers Hitler decides, with the full support of the Axis member nations, to initiate a massive retaliation against the Soviet Union. German scientists and military engineers have been working for years on methods to arm their ballistic missiles with chemical weapons and now they are going to get a chance to put their methods to the test. Hitler orders that the retaliation must begin "before August" and that it must be "massive in scale to convince the Bolsheviks of their error in attempting genocide-by-famine against European civilization".

June 27th 1948

30 kilometers north of Voronezh several German and Soviet armored divisions run head long into each other on the open plains west of the river Don. The battle rages all day and by nightfall no clear victor has emerged. However, a stalemate north of Voronezh works to the advantage of the Germans since they have bought more time to link up with their forces inside the Orel pocket.

� On a broad front stretching from Vilnius to Minsk 40 battle-hardened but weary Soviet divisions lurch forward in hopes of sweeping across Belarus before the Germans can prepare for a defensive stand east of Poland - in this they are to be disappointed. The earlier German pullout from Minsk saved them a lot of men and material and they still have a good sized reserve of panzers as well to engage in fluid fighting on the open plains. In addition, sizeable quantities of nerve gas have begun to arrive on this portion of the front and the Germans are already beginning to use the nerve gas to disrupt Soviet troop concentrations wherever they attempt to mass at the point of attack. The Soviets still manage to drive forward in places but German resistance is stiff along the entire Soviet axis of advance.

June 28th 1948

In a second day of massive and sharp armored engages north of Voronezh, nightfall once again comes with relative stalemate. Hundreds of German and Soviet tanks lie burning on the rolling plains leaving countless fires to blaze through the dark of night as both sides bring up more forces to continue the fight the next day. A Soviet pilot would later recall that "the points of light from fires on the plain below seemed more numerous and certainly more fierce than the lights of the stars above".

Soviet Reconnaissance Plane

The provisional government of Iraq, established by the British, joins the Alliance for Democracy and declares war on the Axis powers. The Kurdish northern region of Iraq is granted almost total autonomy but formally remains a part of Iraq.

June 29th 1948

Elements of the German 1st SS Panzer Army link up with German units inside of the Orel pocket. Over one million Soviet troops are now surrounded in a pocket around Kursk. The news is met with jubilation by the High Command and the party leadership in Berlin - but springing the trap and keep the bear trapped are two different things. The Soviet force in the Kursk pocket remains large and well equipped and is certainly not ready to call it quits. To underscore this, the Soviets launch two separate attacks from out the Kursk pocket in the late-afternoon. One strikes directly east towards Voronezh while the other cuts northeast in a bid to break out of the Kursk pocket and link up with the Soviet force fighting south of Tula; which would in turn pocket German troops in and around Orel once again.�

The massive German bombing campaign around Kursk has now shifted to pummel Tula and a nerve gas attack once again kills tens of thousands of civilians. A mixture of nerve and mustard gas proves particularly damaging to infrastructure since nerve gas kills any un-sheltered people in the vicinity of the target while the mustard gas leaves targets contaminated requiring costly and time-consuming decontamination efforts.

July 1st 1948

The Soviet attack from out of the Kursk pocket and towards Voronezh stalls under the combined pressure of massive nerve gas attacks, German air support, and several fierce thrusts by German armor and panzergrenadiers into the flanks of the Soviet thrust. The other attack towards the northwest is turned aside after German panzergrenadiers make spectacular use of the latest guided anti-tank rockets to destroy large numbers of Soviet tanks. However, this Soviet attack draws away enough German strength to allow the Soviet thrust down from Tula to finally break past German armor putting German forces around Orel in danger of being pocketed again.

USAAF B-31 and medium bombers strike targets all around the Gilbert Islands in the opening strike of a major new campaign in the central Pacific. The U.S. navy has been probing the island chain's defenses and has discovered that the Japanese navy has largely abandoned the islands leaving the garrisons to fend for themselves.

USAAF B-31 "Memphis Belle"

Persia begins mobilizing for an offensive as the Shah prepares to re-unite his splintered kingdom. The British have been arming and training the Persians since the Persian Civil War of 1943 and have finally convinced the Shah to use his new army to crush fascist Iran.

July 3rd 1948

The 8th panzer army attacks east into northern Tunisia. Now faced with a second front the Free French in northern Tunisia are on the brink of collapse.

July 5th 1948

After a week of confused fighting on the plains between Orel and Voronezh the Red Army has managed to turn the tables on the Germans. Soviet forces advancing south from Tula have established a strong corridor into Kursk linking the reserve force from Moscow with the million man Soviet Army which had been temporarily trapped around Kursk - and in establishing this link up the Soviets have managed to once again pocket German forces around Orel and this time 200,000 German troops, including an entire SS panzer division and its supporting panzergrenadiers, have been trapped there where only 95,000 had been trapped previously. The German high command immediately orders the forces trapped around Orel to make a break out attempt before Hitler can order them to fight in place. German forces attack west from Voronezh and east from Orel in an attempt to link up and once again trap Soviet forces around Kursk.

July 6th 1948

5th Marines on their way to Tarawa

After several hours of massive off-shore and air bombardment U.S. marines land on Tarawa and Nauru in the Gilbert Islands and secure beach heads in the face of fierce Japanese resistance. The Japanese attempt to use mustard and phosgene gas to disrupt the establishment of beach heads but winds rapidly dissipate the chemicals and in some cases blow the gasses back over Japanese positions. The U.S. for its part makes massive use of napalm and mustard gas mixes to reduce Japanese fortifications and trench lines.

Riga falls to Soviet forces as the last German forces in the city are evacuated by the Kreigsmarine under the cover of massive off-shore bombardment. To the south the Soviet push towards the East Prussian and Polish border has bogged down in the face of German counter-attacks and the first massive use of nerve gas on this portion of the front.

July 7th 1948

Free French forces have been squeezed into a small pocket consisting of Tunis and the immediate surrounding area. Italian and German bombers and artillery hammer the pocket continuously.

July 8th 1948

Luftwaffe air base in eastern Turkey

With Iraq now firmly in British hands the RAF has begun to establish large airbases in both northern Iraq and Free French-Syria in preparation for offensive bombing operations in Turkey, fascist Iran, and the Caucasus. The Germans, well aware of these British preparations, have begun establishing a network of powerful air defenses stretching from southeast Turkey all the way to the Baku oil fields.

Radar guided 88mm AA

This air defense network will include large numbers of Turkish and German interceptors along with the latest radar guided AAA and anti-aircraft missiles around likely targets. Baku, critically important to the German war effort, will be defended by the largest and most advanced integrated air defense system the world has yet seen. The scene is being set for a great air war over Turkey and the southern Caucasus.

German SAM site near Baku

July 9th 1948

The German attempt to relive the Orel pocket for a second time fails after a strong Soviet push north from Kursk forces German forces around Orel to shift south. Stavka has been flooding all available reserves into the corridor from Tula to Kursk. With German forces in this area now clearly over-extended the Soviets are massing to re-capture Voronezh and pocket another 300,000 German soldiers.

A German submarine converted for use as an underwater freighter delivers samples and instructions for producing nerve gases to a Japanese warship off the East Indies. The Japanese will need at least six months to produce any significant quantities of nerve gas even with German samples and instructions to work with.

July 10th 1948

The Gilbert islands are securely in U.S. hands as both Tarawa and Nauru have been taken by the marines. In the battle for the two islands some 5000 Japanese are killed and only several dozen remain alive to surrender. U.S. casualties are also extremely heavy with roughly 3500 marines killed or wounded. U.S. engineers are already working on repairing and upgrading the naval and air facilities of the islands for use as a staging area to move against the Marshall Islands.

LVT(A) 1st Marines

Chiang Kai-shek, fearful that the Soviets will grab much of northern China once they have finished swallowing Manchuria, decides to launch a general offensive to coincide with the expected American push into southern China.

July 11th 1948

With a Soviet buildup now clearly occurring west of Voronezh, German forces begin evacuating southwest back towards Kharkov as their position has clearly become untenable. Goering has promised Hitler that the Orel pocket can be supplied from the air until it can be relieved.

After two weeks of trying and failing to draw the Japanese navy into battle away from their land-based air cover the U.S. 5th fleet turns north and steams directly towards Formosa. The Japanese South China Sea naval task force and its four heavy carriers and several escort carriers are due east of Formosa and their reconnaissance aircraft quickly spot the U.S. fleet headed towards the island. The moment has arrived and the scene is set for a huge clash of naval arms in the South China Sea.

In Naval harbors all around the Philippines tens of thousands of U.S. marines and army soldiers wait in the cramped confines of troop transports for final orders to hit the beaches on Formosa.

Judging that further resistance would result in needless death and suffering the commander of Free French forces in Tunis surrenders after his engineers destroy the harbor facilities there. After years of bloody stalemate Italy finally holds all of Tunisia.

Next Stop: Algiers?

The British have begun preparations for a large new offensive in Libya now that Iraq has been taken. Rommel, who is becoming known as the 'Desert Viper', has been lobbying to be allowed to drive west towards Algiers. Guderian is against this due to the large British threat to the east in Libya but Hitler sees an opportunity to knock out the Free French once and for all and he doesn't want to give Charles de Gaulle a chance to regain his breath. The 'Desert Viper' gets his permission to strike west.

To Be Continued...

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