Difficulty, Disaster and Determination
In the short space of a month, the Soviet invasion of American soil turned from a classic example of Soviet units liberating the common man from the oppression of capitalism in a perfect military campaign into a general disaster. The Soviet units were a match for their American counterparts, if not more so, but the Russian's could not sustain the troops. While a Soviet tank was advanced to knock out four, five, or even six or seven American tanks, every loss required a replacement from a ocean away. Soon, it began to tell on the frontline effectiveness - the Americans made better headway against units down to 50% strength or less.
The American Navy, thought crushed, began to creep back into action, appearing like ants to feast on the bloated corpse of the logistical chain from Russia to America. Unwilling to be seen idle, the Soviet fleet, now based in Pearl Harbour, sallied out in a effort to protect the supply convoys into America. It was a unavoidable decision - the supplies had to get through, but the Soviet carriers would be exposed to strikes from the American Navy.
Soviet plans to secure the sealanes and ensure the steady flow of supply to America.
The supplies reached America, for a week or two. Then, the USN understood what was happening and began the cat-and-mouse game around the Western Seaboard. Over a series of engagements, the USN and Soviet Navy clashed. On the whole, the USN suffered more than their Russian counter-parts, losing the carrier Kearsarge along with its escorting crusiers and destroyers. The Soviet Navy was willing to take such exchanges.
Until the Saratov sank.
In a day-long carrier clash, the Saratov and the Kazan dueled it out with the American fleet centered around the USS Bennington. The jet fighters of both sides kept the bombers away from the ships, until a flight of American A-4 Skyhawks found themselves lost. Out of position, they had undershot the Soviet fighter screen, and appearing unexpected from the south, managed to catch the carrier with the southern fighter screen refueling on the deck. The flight of four aircraft made a run on the Saratov without losing any planes to the huge cloud of defensive fire from the fleet. Three missiles made it past the countermeasures, one exploding with little damage against the hull, another impacted on the carriers island with the third crashing into a AA position amidships.
Between the last two missile impacts, the flight deck was showered with fire and shrapnel, with exploding AA rounds going off for good measure. This, combined with the fueled and armed fighters on deck made for the perfect inferno. By the time the four Skyhawks had been torn apart by vengefull Soviet fighter pilots, the damage on the Saratov had went from a easily controled repair job to a unstoppable blaze. Attempts to fight the blaze proved worthless, and such was the intensity was the heat that the crusier Tallin had to remain well back of the carrier in order to take off the Saratov's crew.
Within an hour, the crew had been transfered to the Tallin, and shortly afterwards the inferno reached the center of the Saratov, breaking the ships back with a huge explosion.
The destruction of the Saratov.
The crusier Grozny was destroyed in a night action, stumbling upon the Oklahoma, damaged by Soviet aircraft attempting to return to an American port. The Soviet crusier destroyed the battleship and its escort, but was fataly damanged by a single 14 inch shell from the Oklahoma.
Unable to engage in such brutal attritional warfare with the USN, the Soviet Navy returned to Hawaii to repair and reorganize itself. With the Soviet carrier fleet a spent force, the USN's smaller crusiers and destroyers enforced a tight blockade around the Soviet troops in America.
The end was clear to see. In one last effort, the Soviet Navy pulled off a fantastic feat. With American troops pressing on San Deigo and Los Angeles both, the Soviet Navy pulled off a fantastic coup. On two consecutive nights, the Navy managed to transport a fanstasic number of soldiers out of San Deigo, leaving only a token garrison.
Three days later, they performed the same task in Los Angeles.
Towards the dying days of the American adventure, Soviet soldeirs still held out in Los Angeles. The last message before going silent was "The Americans are breaking into the building, we are the last. Do not forget us."
It was a huge turn of events, despite the lost equipment and ships, balancing out the abject failure of the American adventure. It enraged the American high command, finding a huge quanity of abandonded equipment, but few frontline soldiers to justify it.
Such a turn of events also saved the Soviet regime in Moscow, as no political figure, no matter how powerfull would have been as weak as a babe in the event of the surrender of the troops in America - regardless of who was made a scapegoat.