Let them come if they dare! A Finland AAR (DiDay's I.C.E mod)

[Tomahawk771]

Let them come if they dare! - A Finland AAR

Welcome to Finland, a nation of a thousand lakes, dense and beatiful forests, prosperous countryside and free people. The nation was founded in the winter of 1917, when she detached herself from the Russian Empire and declared independence. The russians did not openly resist as they were busy with the home front. But some Finns did not rejoice, as the working class demanded things that the new goverment did not provide at the moment. This clamour resulted in the forming of the Red Guards who started a coup. They captured some of southern Finland and accepted aid in material, men and leadership from Russia. They thought they were fighting for better living conditions for the workers, but what they were really fighting for was bolshevism, the opposite of what they were trying to achieve. The aggression of the Red Guards was opposed by the White Guards, who wanted to smash the rebellion and maintain the recently achieved independence. The war was brutal as both sides had great hate for each other and knew nothing of mercy. The White Guards were soon joined by Finnish jaegers who were well trained in Germany and battle hardened in Russia and swedish voluteers, who were also well trained. The Whites also received aid in form of material and manpower from Germany and were lead by a former Czar Army officer, Mannerheim, who proved to be an excellent and loyal commander and rightfully earned the respect of the Finns.


German Jäger infantry in Finland during the civil war

With superiority in leadership and fighting capabilities, the Whites formed an assault force and charged the strategically important city of Tampere. Bloody fighting ensued. The Reds offered very tough and stubborn resistance, but the Whites offered even greater bravery. In the early phase of the battle, the Whites captured only a few buildings, but eventually fought their way all the way to the city's center. The Whites harassed the Red defenders, fortified in the buildings, with grenades for a while, until they surrendered. Due to this decisive defeat and the threat of a german ambhibious landing, the Reds retreated from Helsinki. There never was an official peace treaty, but the Reds were defeated and Finland remained independent and democratic.


The victory parade in Helsinki

Even after the war, hatred still remained for many years between the reds and whites. Former Red Guard members and others who believed in their ideals, hoped for another uprising, until something would unite the people of Finland.

The Finns signed a non aggression pact with the eastern russians, established excellent relations with the western allies and excersiced isolationalism. Although the future for Finland seemed peaceful and her independece secured, there will a tough, brutal road ahead of her before she can truly be at ease.

Settings

Startdate: 1936
Mod: Diday's I.C.E - Iron Cross Edition
Version: SF 2.01
Difficulty: A modified 'very easy' --> no penalties and no bonuses (normal), exept for tripled leadership

The primary goals will be to stay independent and keep Viipuri. Secondary goal is to become a major power in Europe through conquest.

The style is narrative, for now, atleast. I'm not sure how this will write itself out in the future.

A few of notes:
- Constructive criticism, advices and corrections of grammar and historical events are encouraged.
- The reason why I cheated a little bit by increasing the leadership points (now 3 times larger) is because I simply can't play with the 3 leadership points that Finland has in this game.
- First AAR
- This AAR is suppose to focus on foreign events almost as much as on events directly concerning Finland (Sinno-Japanse war, for example).
- I will try to include some RP and real life pictures.

[volksmarschall]

This should be interesting, I'm in. Good luck!

[soulking]

After the early phase of the battle, the Whites captured only a few buildings, but eventually fought their way all the way to the city's center.

It should be In. But other than that grammatical mistake, the AAR is excellent overall and I doubt people are going to bash you just because you cheated for a little bit more LP.

[Saintis]

Following.

Just one small thing, the talk about 'reds' and 'whites' reminds me of colonial america

[Tomahawk771]

It's a dark, cold winter morning in northern Karelia. The sun won't show itself in atleast another hour. A man in his forties, named Hugo Österman is in a train transport from eastern Karelia to Lappeenranta, a major Finnish city. He is a world war one and civil war veteran, as he served in the eastern front from 1915 to 1917 on the german side and fought against russians. In 1917 he was sent home with his comrades, who were soon sent to some more fighting, as the Finnish civil war began soon after their return. After his promotion to major, he led his battle hardened men into combat one more time and came out victorous. Currently he is the Chief of Staff and the Chief of the Army. Yesterday he was inspecting the recently formed active service unit "Infantry regiment 1", until he was invited to a classified meeting, concerning improving the Defence Forces. He would be meeting the new commander of the Army of the Isthmus, - Mannerheim - the new Armament Minister, - Niukkanen - the new foreign minister, - Oksala - the new Head of Intelligence, - Kivimäki - and a few generals. The reason why most of these men are highly ranked enough to parcipate in that meeting today is because of the cabinet and army hiearchy reforms that took place around new year's eve.



10 am, new headquarters of the Army of the Isthmus

After disembarking from the train and beign escorted to the relocated headquarters of the Army of the Isthmus, Hugo is showed to the meeting room. He is walking through a hallway, with thoughts going through his mind: "Will this be just another cut of the military's budget?'" "Why all this secretivety?" "Are we preparing for war?". At the end of the hallway, there is a door leading to the meeting room and it is guarded by a tired looking unarmed soldier. As he reaches the door, the soldier recognizes him and opens the door for him. "Chief of Staff and Army reporting" Hugo says as he walks in through the doorway. "Now that everyone's here then I suppose we may begin. Have a seat Hugo." Field marshal Mannerheim says. In the center of the room there is a large wooden table with a map of Finland and some documents about the Finnish order of battle. The table is surrounded with a dozen chairs, some of which are occupied by important Finnish army and goverment personnel. After Hugo sat down on the chair nearest to him, Mannerheim decided it is time to explain the reason for this meeting in more detail. "By the request of the prime minister I've organized this meeting to discuss the future preparations for a possible war against Soviet Union. We are suppose discuss further fortifications in Karelia and enlargement of the army's wartime and active service size and weapon quantities. What we will come up with will be proposed to Svinhufvud. If the proposition passes, the military budjet will be raised to suit our needs." Mannerheim said. Everybody in the room is suprised about their assignment. "Isn't that a little... Extreme?" Oksala asked with a worried tone. "It's unlikely that we are to go to war with Soviet Union, but the prime minister and some goverment members have decided that 'unlikely' is enough for extensive preparations. And if we can stay quiet about this until atleast the public opinion has been swayed enough towards interventionism, this shouldn't be too harmful." Mannerheim said. "I'm not happy about this. Think of the scandal that would be the result if the existance of such plans would leak to the public knowledge." Oksala said after a short pause. "But how about if Stalin would launch a suprise attack right now? The russians would be here within weeks. Our independence is worth taking the risk for." Österman said in response to Oksala. "I think our diplomats and the non-aggression pact are more than enough for a defensive line." Oksala said with determination. "If the russians would truly want to reclaim what was once theirs, they wouldn't care about diplomatic barriers. They would attack without a declaration of war - non-aggression pact or not." One of the present generals, Talvela, said. "What do you think Carl?" Österman asked Mannerheim. After some though Mannerheim responded: "If Stalin would for some reason decide to invade Finland, he would find a way to undo the non-aggression pact or just completely ignore it and invade, as my collegue Talvela noted. I also believe that soviet aggression is unlikely to happen in the near future, but in the long run, almost inevitable. Further preparations are necessary." Everybody in the room have much trust in the greatest leader in the Defence Forces and takes his word for it. "Now if everybody is ready, let's start with the isthmus' fortifications..."

After a few hours of discussion, they decided that the following improvements and additions are necessary:

The active service units, "Seperate batallions" in south-eastern, central and northern Finland, which have been recently reformed into four active service regiments, should be formed into two divisions. The 3rd division and 7th division. They should be reinforced with two new active service infantry regiments. The new divisions should be deployed in eastern Karelia and central Finland. Northern Lappland should be defended by mountainjaeger and skijaeger infantry units. These units should be raised within the following two years, one by one. Their numbers and efficiency should be large enough for a succesful counteroffensive against a well equipped army corps. The garrison brigades in southern Finland should be disbanded and replaced with reserve infantry regiments which should be raised within two years one by one. This would give our rear guard more flexibility. A few more reserve infantry divisions should be raised within 3 years. They should be deployed where-ever manpower is required the most. (the colour of the text is suppose to show which part of the screenshot I'm talking about)


We should focus most on improving the equipment of our infantry, because regular infantry will be our army's backbone. We should also raise pioneer units to repair our equipment and help our infantry charge against barricades that are relatively difficult to overcome. Warmer clothing and white camouflage, among other equipment, should be improved to increase our infantry's efficiency in winter combat.


The research and production required to build efficient tanks is too much for Finland to handle. We will ignore armoured warfare completely. Anti-tank and anti-infantry artillery should be a high priority. Both will be great against the kind of warfare the Red Army is expected to wage. Anti-aircraft research should be ignored. We will use AA guns to defend our cities, but we will not send anti-aircraft regiments to the front.


The research and building costs of naval military units any bigger than submarines would be too much for Finland to handle, just like the production of tanks. Our navy shall rely on submarines, so we should focus on making better equipment for our subs and nothing else.


The Red Airforce bombers would be a great threat for our factories and citizens and our AA weapons are not enough to prevent them from bombing our population centers. We must develop atleast basic improvements to the equipment of the Finnish airforce. Further improvements will be added for our fighters later, but not until atleast 1940.


We should increase our knowledge about construction engineering to allow our workers to build more factories which we will need in the near future. And we should increase the production capabilities of our factories so that they would be able to supply our pioneers with the tools they need for combat situations as well as for repairing. And to allow better communication between our land forces and increase the efficiency of our forward observers, we should do extensive research on electronics and fine mechanics. After we have become capable to supply our units with communication equipment, we shall further increase the quality of their signal equipment, therefore allowing good communication between our military units.



Tactics of our ground forces would clearly play a key role in victory if we would go to war. Our enemy should face many uncomfortable situations. They should have to deal with tactical withrawal, delaying actions, motti tactics, infantry experteese, counterattacks, jaeger tactics, skilled artillery forces and ambushes.


The Red Airforce has great strenght in numbers, but it can be countered with skill. We should focus only in fighter tactics and ignore bombing tactics, because the Finnish economy cannot build and train bomber plane squadrons without giving great penalty to the production and research of other military units.


Before we can even hope to defeat the Red Army in land battles, we must explore the possibility of using asymmetric warfare against them. By finding weaknesses in their tactics and exploiting them, we will achieve a significant superioirity over their troops.


If we are to increase the amount of manpower which our army can use, we will first have start shifting the country towards interventionism. Our politics and Valvontaosasto's agents will be busy.


The meeting has come to an end as the leaders have decided upon what the proposition would be like. "...Now, is everybody pleased with the plans we have come up with?" Mannerheim asks. Everybody nods as a sign of approval. "Very well, then we may end this meeting. We will discuss unit deployment and possibly other issues later." Mannerheim said, concluding their meeting. Now Österman will go to his office in the parliament house in Helsinki and wonders about what the future will hold. He feels suprised about the stance the country is taking. The Finnish goverment used to be so isolationalist, that they were too scared to even make Mannerheim the field marshal, just because it seemed like a too 'war-like' decision.

A couple of days later, the proposition passed and reforming of the army began.

[Saintis]

Oh, details!

If you are so low on leadership, why dont you research Education? and if you need manpower, why dont you research agriculture?

[soulking]

It must suck to have 100% neutrality. Also, how much leadership points do you have now?

[Arowana]

Looking forward to this AAR!

Engineers works very good for defending the forests in finland
I used INF + INF + ENG + ENG in my latest game and it worked good.

Be sure to mod the "winter war" effect so that you don't have to be in a faction.

[Tomahawk771]

Saintis: Why not agriculture? DiDay's mod grants Finland 150 extra manpower so I won't be needing any more manpower soon. In the long run, probably, but I'll fix that by reintroducing conscription. Why not education? I dunno I'll try to pursuade the Supreme Command to change their plans a bit

soulking: If I remember right from the last time I played, I have 9 points.

everyone: thanks for showing intrest to my AAR, I really appreaciate it

On a sidenote, I won't have much time to write this, because of real life (damn you reality!) but I found enough time for myself to reply to the replies. I think I could write another report by tommorow or the day after that, though.

[Devildread]

Don't hesitate to report what you think about the Winter War bonus and penalties introduced with I.C.E.

[Tomahawk771]

3rd of January, 1936:
Ever since the year 1927, a lot of guerrilla fighting as well as open heavy fighting has been fought between the Communist China and the Nationalist China. Those struggles were known by the name of "Encirclement campaigns". During the encirclement campaigns, a lot of epic fire fights took place and tales of extreme bravery were born. In early 1936, the chinese civil war fired up in full scale once again, as the Nationalists began an offensive campaign against the communist Red Army in northern China. The communists have established heavy fortifications in the areas they hold, they are eager to fight and their spirits are lifted by the success of the legendary Long March, but the Nationalists have superiority in numbers and posses a very large ammount of land in comparison to the Communists. The war is expected to end in either a Nationalist victory or a stalemate.



4th of May, 1936:
Mussolini has long dreamt about an Italian empire, compareable to the Roman empire. In October of 1935, he put the first phase of his plan into motion and invaded Ethiopia, partially to avenge the Italian defeat against Ethiopia in 1895. The Italian land forces had hundreds of tanks and their air forces had hundreds of planes. Both of these forces were equipped with modern equipment. Ethiopian equipment was nothing in comparison, some even fought with spears. After some easy victories and horrible bombardments against the very poorly equipped Ethiopian army, the italians annexed the country that once prevailed against them. Mussolini established the Italian Eastern Africa which he was eager to found. The ethiopians never officially surrendered though.



Meanwhile back in Finland:

28th of May, 1936: In February, by Supreme Command's request, Hugo has been visiting every suspected place for a major soviet offensive and inspecting the local military forces. He was told that he will report his observations in the next meeting. He was dissapointed with the estimated combat efficiency of the forces in the borders, but was pleased with the excellent natural barriers that Finnish terrain has. In early May he was invited to another classified meeting, this time about the deployment of forces, taking place in 27th of May. The meeting took a long time as the parcipating ten commanders, including Mannerheim and Österman had a hard time reaching a compromise. But eventually they agreed on the following deployment locations:

In the Isthmus we should deploy two army corps and one seperate regiment: The fourth and second army corps, seven divisions and one regiment in total. They will form the Mannerheim Line. Their task will be to hold Viipuri, our second largest city, at all costs. If Viipuri is lost, we will lose a lot of factories and hundreds of thousands of people will have to abandon their homes. It would also allow the soviets to access the highways to Helsinki, which would be a disaster. IV Army corps will be deployed in Koivisto and they will have a division in Viipuri serving as a rear guard unit and will be the first efficient response if the Mannerheim line is breached. Their fall back position is the outskirst of Viipuri and they shouldn't withraw any further than the center of the city. The II army corps will be deployed in the Isthmus' northern flank and are tasked to hold it. They are deployed entirely in Käkisalmi. Their fall back position will be Enso and Hiitola. If they find themselves having no choice but to retreat further than that, they should fall back to Ylämaa and Lappeenranta and hold their ground at all cost. The seperate infantry regiment will deployed in Viipuri as soon as it has been raised. If Viipuri is lost, it should redeploy to Lappeenranta.



In eastern Finnish Karelia, should be deployed two army corps and one seperate regiment: the third and fifth army corps, seven divisions and one regiment in total. The III Army corp will be in charge of defending the southern flank. They should, - just like V army corps - tactically withraw to Sortavala where they are suppose to stop the expected soviet advance complitely. They should always have one division as rear guard, until they reach Sortavala, when all forces will be deployed to the front. If they somehow fail to stop the soviets in Sortavala, they should fall back to Lappeenranta, but not any further.

The V Army corp haven't been formed yet, but they should be deployed the northern flank and are tasked with tactically withrawing to the northern flank of Sortavala and hold it. They should have always have one division in the rear guard until they reach Jänisjärvi. If they manage to fail, they should withraw to the areas north of Lappeenranta and hold at all cost.


The I Army corps and VI Army corps should be in charge of central Finland's defence and a counter offensive. I Army corps will be deployed in the northern sector (Salla and Alakurtti) and tasked with preventing the soviets from reaching Kemijärvi. If they find themselves having to give a little ground, they shouldn't fall back any further than to Isokylä. If they find themselves in a position where a succesful counterattack is possible, they should attack towards Zelenoborskij, cutting off soviet forces in Kalastajansaarento region from the rest of their forces and making Murmansk their only supply route.

The VI Army corps haven't been formed yet, but it will be deployed in the southern sector (ämmänsaari). Their objective will be hold Ämmänsaari and they don't have a second defensive line. If they somehow lose Ämmänsaari, they should retreat to Ristijärvi and defend it to the last man. If they get into a position where they can perform a counterattack, they should attack in the direction of the VI corps to divert the soviet attention away from the VI corps.


Northern Lappland should be defended by the VII Army corps, which haven't been formed yet. Once formed, they will be deployed in Nautsi, Vaalesjoki and Petsamo. Their job will be to prevent the soviets from taking Paatsjoki and the port of Petsamo. If they have to retreat from Nautsi, they should fall back to Paatsjoki and shouldn't retreat further. If they have to retreat from Vaalesjoki, they should fall back to Petsamo. In the event that Petsamo gets sieged by hostile forces, the defenders will be supplied by sea and the supply routes will be guarded by the Coastal Fleet. Giving Petsamo to the soviets is unaceptable, because if they are forced to fall back from Petsamo to Kalastajansaarento, they will be completely cut off and can be easily defeated, which would result in the destruction of the VII Army corps. If they find themselves in a position to counterattack, they should attack to Murmansk. If Murmansk gets captured by the seveth and Zelenoborskij captured by the first Army corps, the soviet forces in Kalastajansaarento region will be completely cut off from supply and reinforcements.


The generals are pleased with the plans they made, although a few of them wanted to deploy more forces in the south. The Armament Minister Niukkanen will be busy getting the required amount of weapons avaivable for the units that need to be raised.


Sidenote: I couldn't gather enough effort and/or imagination to write some RP :/

[XHR]

Very nice start so far!

I added your AAR to the list of ICE-AARs, just wanted to let you know!

[Tomahawk771]

16th of July, 1936:
After many riots and general strikes, a civil war has fired up in Spain as Nationalist spanish revolters have claimed ground for themselves and engaged the Republican goverment of Spain. The Republicans claimed to be fighting for democracy and the Nationalists claimed to bring order to a lawless society. The Republicans, after over two weeks of fighting, received aid in material and manpower from Soviet Union while the Nationalists received similiar support from Germany. Historiocally, The german "Legion Condor" played a large role in the war, which was compromised of as many as 12,000 men, 600 planes, 200 tanks and 1,000 artillery pieces. So far the fighting has been brutal and fierce, and both sides seem to be willing to fight to the last breath. Spain is now not only the battlefield for a civil war, but also the playground of two greatest ideological enemies, Soviet Union and Germany, as they test which one has better toys.





11th of August, 1936:
Meawhile back in Finland, the forming of the new 1. Mountain Jaeger Division allowed us to form the VII Army corps, a unit vital to the defence of Lappland. Linder has been appointed to command the unit. For now, it is greatly understrenght, but we will reinforce it with some more mountain jaegers and some ski jaegers in the near future.



16th of August, 1936:
Olympic games were held in Berlin just recently. As expected, Jews and Gypsies weren't allowed to parcipate in the games, because of the Nazi party's ideological beliefs. Unfortunately, our great athletes failed return home with a golden trophy and instead had to settle for fifth place. The host nation, Germany, won the Olympics. The councellor of Germany, A. Hitler commented the following about the Olympics: "The sportive, knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn't separate, but unites the combatants in understanding and respect. It also helps to connect the countries in the spirit of peace. That's why the Olympic Flame should never die."

[volksmarschall]

So Europe is boiling over like normal... what a surprise! (I do however think, defending the Lapland isn't as important as Karelia and Savonia... but that's just me).

[RangerPL]

Saintis: Why not agriculture? DiDay's mod grants Finland 150 extra manpower so I won't be needing any more manpower soon. In the long run, probably, but I'll fix that by reintroducing conscription. Why not education? I dunno I'll try to pursuade the Supreme Command to change their plans a bit

soulking: If I remember right from the last time I played, I have 9 points.

everyone: thanks for showing intrest to my AAR, I really appreaciate it

On a sidenote, I won't have much time to write this, because of real life (damn you reality!) but I found enough time for myself to reply to the replies. I think I could write another report by tommorow or the day after that, though.

Elite Mobilization also gives you a +10% to Education, well worth it IMO.

[henkalv]

if you manage to take Cupa and Murmansk, then everyone above Cupa is going to be out of supply

good luck, I will be following

[Tomahawk771]

4th of October, 1936:
The allies are worried as their ally in the last war against Germany, - Italy - has decided to side with Germany in the war that is likely to start and engulf Europe. The germans, who have taken an aggressive stance, now have access to Africa. Fortunately our country is far away from the likely battlefields, so we can ignore events like this.



10th of November, 1936:
Good news from Finland; the karelian V Army corps has been formed and an infantry regiment has been deployed in Sortavala as a rear guard unit. Furthermore, the VI Army corps has been formed north of Karelia and has reached full strenght. Our defences are now good, but not good enough.




12th of December, 1936:
After heavy fighting in the fortified Communist held areas, Kuomintang forces have managed to capture two heavily fortified provinces near the Communist capital, but before the Kuomintang could capture that too, the Kuomintang leader was captured, and forced to sign a peace agreement and start preparing for the Japanese threat together with the Chinese Communist Party. They were only less than a month from putting an end to the chinese communists...


Right, now that I have covered the events of 1936, I can proceed with my latest save game

[Tomahawk771]

So Europe is boiling over like normal... what a surprise! (I do however think, defending the Lapland isn't as important as Karelia and Savonia... but that's just me).

I agree, but if I manage to capture Zeleborskij and Murmansk, which are both in the border of Lappland, a large ammount of soviets will be cut off from supply and the rest of the Red Army in Kalastajansaarento region. If I succeed in cutting them off and then destroying them, I can redeploy those troops in Karelia or where-ever they are needed the most.

[Tomahawk771]

3rd of February, 1937:
Stalin's paranoya knows no boundaries. It has reached our attention that thousands of experienced Red Army officers are beign executed in Soviet Union for beign suspected of sabotage or planning of an uprising. Although this is a terrible event, this may prove useful for us if Soviet Union decides to invade us some day.


4th of March, 1937:
Germany has started even more intense co-operation with the Nationlist goverment of China in exchange for a stable supply of raw materials. Historiocally, even as many as 80,000 chinese troops were trained with german standarts and they formed the elite of the Nationlist army. It was because of the german trained troops that the Nationalist were confident about engaging Japan in a war, but 1/3 of those troops were lost in one single battle against Japan, the battle of Shanghai.



For nine years, volunteer civilians have been building fortifications in southern Finland in preparation for a russian invasion, but still, the efficiency of those fortifications is small. We have decided to increase the ammount of workers and materials for the people building the Mannerheim-line and decrease the deadline.


5th of April, 1937:
The spanish civil war has come to an end, with the Nationalists victorious and many republicans have been executed. Spain is expected to ally herself with Germany in the near future because of ideological similiarity and extensive german help during the war.


2nd of July, 1937:
Tension between Japan and China has rapidly increased since the invasion to Manchuria in 1931. Tensions kept rising as the Japanese military has repeatedly demanded the withrawal of Kuomingtan forces from the areas nearby Marco-Polo bridge. The chinese refused, because if it would be captured by the japanese, it would completely isolate the city of Beijing from the rest of Nationalist China. The rising tensions soon resulted in the inevitable. As japanese soldiers were having a nightime shooting exercise near the Marco-Polo bridge, the chinese believed they were under attack and started firing their rifles to the believed direction of japanese forces and shots were exchanged between the chinese and japanese. Some time later, a unit of japanese infantry later attacked Wanping and were repulsed. Two hours later, an ultimatum was made by the Empire of Japan. The second Sinno-Japanese war began.


As japanese forces landed in the coast of China, the largest and bloodiest battle of the entire war began. The battle of Shanghai involved as many as one million troops, was fought in an urban enviroment and involved heavy bombardment, making it compareable to the battle of Stalingrad. The japanese had a tactical victory against the chinese, which suffered heavy damage to the forces they deployed in the battle.

[Tomahawk771]

11th of March, 1938:
After years of pressure from both, nazi goverment of Germany and austrian nazis within the goverment, Austria became annexed by Germany. Members of the Wehrmacht had entered Austria after a well executed coup d'état and the country was taken by the germans without a single shot beign fired. The allies protested this event, but took no further action. If Germany continues to make such demands, war will indeed be inevitable.


3rd of April, 1938:
We have made the training of pioneers possible for the Defence Forces. The training of the first pioneer batallion has begun.



19th of May, 1938:
As war engulfed eastern Asia, the goverment of Guanxi Cligue has folded to the Nationalist pressure, decided to abandon their independence and join the Nationlist goverment of China. The japanese will now be forced to fight even more desperately than before if they wish break through the Nationalist lines.


3rd of June, 1938:
As the japanese land forces in Manchuria threatened Soviet Union, the russians decided to send aid to Nationalist goverment of China, therefore indirectly defending their important ports in the east such as Vladivostok.


11th of July, 1938:
The japanese had intercepted a message sent to the soviet headquarters in Khabarovsk, recommending to secure previously unoccupied high ground near Lake Khasan. Soviet troops then moved into the area, violating the borders, secured the mountain and began making fortifications. Initially the japanese Korean Army that was assigned to defend the area, disregarded the soviet advance. But after pressure from the japanese Kwantung army, the event was reported to Tokyo. The imperial goverment of Japan demanded the withrawal of soviet troops from their new positions, but Soviet Union declined. The short tempered Japan is expected to retaliate in the near future.


2nd of August, 1938:
After the calm before the storm, japanese infantry eagerly charged the soviet forces in Bezymyannaya hills to retaliate the outragous disrespect toward the Empire of Japan. The initial attack was repulsed, but the increasing pressure from stubborn japanese attackers forced the soviets to retreat from their positions. The japanese 19th Division with some Manchurian units, continued hostilities with the soviet forces but after additional soviet forces entered the conflict, the japanese were pushed back from soviet territory. The battle ended after a peace treaty proposed by the japanese goverment.



30th of September, 1938:
Recently, Hitler has demanded the ceding of Sudetenland into Germany. The zhech goverment could not accept it, as the area contained their best defences, but suprisingly, after a meeting, in which a zhech representative wasn't allowed to parcipate, the allies of the zhechs, Britain and France pressured the Zhechoslovakian goverment to fold to the german demands. After realizing that they stood alone against Germany, they had no choice but to accept. After the Treaty of Munich, the zhechs believed the allies to be spineless traitors.


8th of November, 1938:
After huge tension and some open fighting between Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan, Soviet Union initiated a secret operation to help the chinese to fight the japanese. Under the name of volunteers, russian aerial and land forces entered China to help the Kuomintang to push back the japanese aggressors.