May 1937-September 1938: The Pomeranian Bay on Fire
1937
The annexation of Finland was probably Lithuania's most useful conquest. The factories in Helsinki, Turku, Vaasa and other cities were quickly repaired by Lithuanian troops and were soon working for Greater Lithuania. By May of 1937, the country had duplicated it's industrial capacity, and could embark on more and challenging quests.
The first one was to upgrade again the military. The Germans had genereously agreed to provide the lacklustre Lithuanian industries with blueprints and tools some months before the war, and now the Lithuanian Army was ready to implement them. It would take a long time, tough, to replace all the old equipment. With each upgrade the Lithuanian army looked more similar to it's German counterpart. They would end up using the same weapons and uniforms some years later.
However the neighboors of the rising superpower were beginning to notice it's quick growth. Lithunia took a greater share of the newspaper bulliying not only in most of the West, but in the East too.
Hatred was boiling inside it's own borders, too. In fact, the partisan situation that was so problematic in Latvia and Estonia was several times worse in Finland. The Lithuanian Army was so overextended that the country was only Lithuanian in paper- in fact, only the coastline was under Lithuanian control. Every night a Finnish man or woman would dissapear into the inner forests over which the Lithuanians had no control at all. The entire vastness of the Finnish forest was boiling with guerilla movements.
Over the following weeks, these movements improved their organization, effectively coordinating movements via radio with the resistance in Latvia and Estonia. They would eventually unify in one single organization, the Baltic Liberation Army. Finnish military mastermind Marnheirm, hiding in Karelia, would become the head of it. He would, against his principles, shake hands with Stalin and recieve weapons and supplies from him with which to fight the Lithuanians. His first famous move was in November, when he openly rised in arms, securing the region of Sortavala with one of his divisions.
The objective was to draw the fight with the Lithuanians close enough to the Soviet border to give Stalin a good excuse to intervene in Finland. The Lithuanian troops were severly mauled when they tried to retake the region and Marnheirm held them at bay for more than a week, but failed to provide Stalin with his excuse. Eventually massive Lithuanian reinforcements dispersed his troops back into the forests, but the damage had been done- hundreds of Lithuanian soldiers had died, taking too few Finnish partisans with them.
1938
Still Lithuania needed to go on with her world conquest. It was either Denmark or Sweden now. While finding an undefended spot in the long Swedish coastline was easy, the country had greatly improved her military allarmed by the fall of Finland- her army consisted of more than 110,000 soldiers, while the Lithuanians had over 60,000. Sweden was discarded. Denmark was the only choice. However, the beaches there were too few and could easily be guarded the Danish Navy. Everybody knew it: It was time Lithuania got a fleet of it's own.
The Germans gave the Lithuanian industries old blueprints of Great War submarines. The newer ones were much more complex to build, and Lithuania was completely new in the subject of Naval Warfare. However, the objective of the Lithuanian Navy would be to work as an escort for the Army transports, not to engage enemy fleets. Carriers and battleships were not necesary, yet.
By July, the Lithuanian fleet consisted of 9 submarine flotilas and three transport flotilas. It was enough to rule the Baltic Sea.
The first day of August was the beginning of the end for Denmark. Lithuanian submarines patrolled the waters between Copenhagen and Odense, while transport ships sneaked into the undefended port and unloaded three Lithuanian divisions with ease.
Just when the Lithuanian generals in Memel, carefully listening to the radio transmissions from those same transports, thought that the invasion would be a complete cakewalk, the transports were hit by naval artillery- the Danish had not been surprised! However, they did ignore the existance of the U-Lose (Lithuanian version of the U-Boat), that sneaked towards their enemies, using the transports as cannon fodder, and sunk several light cruisers in a matter of minutes. The Danish had to sail away from Odense, which was captured easily, threatening Copenhaguen itself.
The next target was Arhus, West of Odense. The transports went back to Memel to pick up the 2nd Lithuanian army, but had to unload them in Odense in a rush as they were ambushed by the remaining Danish Navy. The Lithuans in Odense tried to reach Arhus several times, from both West via the transports and East, with rowboats, but the Danish Navy blockaded them each time they tried. However, a week later, both armies attempted it again at the same time. The Danish Navy couldn't be in two places at the same time and Arhus was captured on the 18th.
There was a massive troop buildup in Odense in preparation for the assault on Copenhagen. The result was obvious and the improvised garrison of the capital surrendered after a short day of fighting.
The Danish goverment threatened to flee to England, who had stayed neutral, and continue the fight from there. The Lithuanian army inmediately threatened with the burning down of every single trace of civilization in Denmark, and the Danish signed the capitulation without hesitation on the 1st of September. As part of this, an order was issued to the surviving Danish ships to head to the nearest Lithuanian-controlled port to surrender, but the sailors refused to do so and headed to Finland, where they dinamited their ships after disembarking to join he Baltic Liberation Army.
Greater Lithuania now extended from Karelia to Greenland.
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