Mechanized Warfare
With the US forces in Europe firmly over-extended, the pressure was on STAVKA to commit to the counter-offensive to drive the American units out of mainland Europe. In a high level conference beneath the Kremlin, war weary generals were called back to consider various options. Despite the protest of a significant number of Soviet commanders (incidently, the majority happened to be officers too young to have been affected by Stalin's purges) over the lack of reserve formations to exploit any breakthrough, plans were developed, and designed to be put into motion by the end of March.
When the plans were put into motion, feilds in France and Spain were changed from a state of non-existant warfare to a landscape scarred by tanks and APC's and littered with war materials. The Soviet plan would exploit the fact that American units were spread too thin to react to more than one serious advance. As a result, there was a slow, broad front advance into Western France, while in Catalonia, the Soviet armoured and mechanized divisions were released to tear into the US supply lines. Despite chronic supply shortages of Soviet troops in Spain, such was the importance of the Spanish phase that for a month all non-essential supplies arriving in Spain were earmarked for the armoured attack.
The broad advance across the French front suceeded in bogging down the American units in combat, leaving them unable to redeploy without risk of being over-run.
While the fighting in France was across the whole front, in Catalonia the advance was to be a stabbing thrust to drive a wedge between the US units in France and Spain, with the Pyrenees as the wedge.
At the appointed time, and after a breif but heavy bombardment by rocket and cannon fire, the Soviet mechanized advance started. American units, already dazed by the fall of shell and rocket were awe struck by the huge numbers of Soviet AFV's. Despite this, they fought hard. Dug in anti-tank groups had to be cleared out by dismounted infantry fighting from position to position. Eventualy overwhelmed by numbers, the American commander in Spain ordered a general retreat, and for units to reform and dig in behind the Ebro River. As they retreated across the river, every possible bridge was destroyed, with none being spared, not even the historic Puente de Piedra bridge in Zaragoza.
The initial stages of the Spanish part of the counter-offensive began south for Zaragoza with a swift and heavy bombardment.
Soviet tank units moving through the French countryside. While not all of the area was suited to armoured warfare, the pace of the advance was kept high.
The crossing of the Ebro River would become standard reading as a part of Soviet officer training. Within two days of the offensive starting, Soviet armoured units had reached the river. Infantry in assault boats had already crossed into Zaragoza and continued the advance while engineer units constructed crossings for the armour. Another day after this, tanks were crossing the Ebro and the town was secure. A further three days after this Soviet units were deep in the American rear, and every commander involved was screaming for reinforcements to help consolodate the huge gains.
The downside to exceeding expectations was that STAVKA had not detailed enough units to defending the territory gained. By luck, this was limited by the American's lack of supply, pressing concerns in France and lack of units in reserve to be commited against the breakthrough.
By the start of April, the Americans were facing near total defeat in France and Spain. The front was broken in two and less supplies than ever were reaching the front line. There was talk of withdrawal or surrender, but that was drowned out by the calls for more; more troops, more supplies, more everything. There was debate in the US over the worth of this; many were concerned that the entire front was doomed, and that troops would be better off defending places like Panama, or assisting in the re-capture of Britain or landing in Ireland to throw out the Soviets for good. A compromise was reached, where three cutting edge divisions would be sent to stem the tide, with more to follow if results developed.
What happened next would extract a mixture of admiration and concern from Soviet commanders. Instead of being landed directly in Spain, the divisons were put ashore just north of Nantes in a stunning move. The Soviet Atlantic Fleet was based just up the coast. In a remarkable fluke so common in war, Soviet radar would mis-identify the unguarded transport boats as a Spanish destroyer squadron, and as a result go un-noticed until the very concerned party leader in Nantes phoned to report American tanks in the streets.
The suprise landing was attributed to MacArthur, who's rashness was known to STAVKA. However, a landing troops with no air or naval cover was rash even for him, despite the fact that it threw the Soviet plans into chaos.
STAVKA had little to nothing around Nantes to contain the invasion. There was a Rifle division garrisoned in Brest, but it would be sore pressed to contain three American divisions. It left STAVKA with the odd sensation of hoping that the Nantes landing would not become problematic until the situation in Spain had cleared up.
