MIG's Over England
The outbreak of the Third World War came as a suprise for the Soviet Union, though this was little known, meerly because the Soviet had units near where constructive action could be taken.
Soviet troops in Spain had been on a high level of readiness ever since the deployment of rockets on the Rock. Following the announcement of hostilies, the local commander immediatly ordered all nearby units into a attack. It took twelve days of hard fighting, and near constant bombing from the VVS to allow Soviet troops to clear out the British resistance.
The Rock took the best part of twelve days to clear. For what the British garrison divisions lacked in equipment, they made up for in tenacity.
The world was shocked, less than a day after the outbreak of hostilites, to the sudden destruction of a Chinese city. Hefei, one of the most populus cities in China, had been destoryed by a unknown weapon. Mao, scared that the threat of this weapon could topple his regime, appealed to the Soviets for assitance. After stuides by a team from the Soviet nuclear program, the nations worst fear was confirmed. America had the bomb.
One of the scenes of destruction in Hefei. It was a sobering thought that it could have easily been Vladivostock.
The response in the Soviet Union was the total mobilzation of the nation for war. The second time in twenty years.
The Soviet Navy, faced with the unwelcome prospect of a two ocean war with limited resources, decided to bet that the Americans would throw everything into Europe, and rely on Japan as a breakwater against the USN. It was to be a well-thought out decision. As a result, all of the Soviet Navy's transport shipping was relocated to Leningrad, prompting a around-the-world journey from Vladivostock.
Picture of the transport ships of the Naval Transport Force
In order to reach Leningrad, the Naval Transport Force had to brave the English Channel. What followed was a severe embarrasment to the Royal Navy, as over the sapce of three days, the Soviet ships manged to break through the RN pickets, and reach the open security of the North Sea. Even wrose, they had for the loss of two destroyer groups and a light crusier, sunk a pair of crusiers and two destoryer groups, as well as damage the HMS Resoultion.
In South-East Asia, Siam was on the verge of folding, and the Imperial forces in India were under pressure from two sides. Combied Soviet/Persian troops were pushing from the west, while the troops of the Far East Military District, as well as Mao's Red Army, where applying the pressure from Indochina.
Soviet infantry and armoured troops advancing in Siam. The logistic problems of these units were huge, but the combat abilites more than made up for the problems.
The first three months of the war went well for the Soviet Navy. With submarine wolfpacks spread all across the world, the toll on Allied convoys was impressive. At least fifty convoys had been sunk, and the upper estimate was nearing two hundred. However, as time progress, the Royal Navy, and especialy the USN began to become more adept at hunting down the submarine wolfpacks. After three months, half of the Soviet submarine strength in the Atlantic had been destroyed by anti-submarine groups.
In Norway, the enitre Norweigan Army had been soundly defeated in a stunning operation in northern Finland. Using Murmansk as bait, the Soviet Northern Army had trapped nearly every combat ready unit of the Nowegian Army, prompting hopes that the Norwegian ports could be used to conudct the war against Britain.
Cheered by the sucess of the naval victory in the Atlantic, the Soviet Naval Staff developed a quick operation to extend the war against Britain. A high risk operation, it was designed to knock Ireland out of the war, and enable Soviet air units to use Irish airports to bomb Britain into submission. By this point, the RAF had outnumbered the VVS in terms of fighter craft, but the VVS more than made up for this with superior equipment, leadership and far more advanced aircraft.
One of the many Mig-9s which was engaged in brutal fighting with the RAF.
Operational Plan 13 was ill-fated as its number. The inital landings of a infantry corps equiped for a quick naval landing went off with little problem. Within a week, the southern ports of Ireland had been secured, and Dublin was being shelled.
After a renewed attack to the north, Dublin fell. One small setback was the escape of the Irish government on a British crusier across the Irish Sea, which prevented a subversion of Ireland to support the USSR against Britain. From that point on, the situation deteriotated.
The plan called for the Naval Landin Unit to march into Ulster and prevent the Royal Navy from ferrying units into Ireland, and to force British units to garrison more coastline to prevent a landing.
The Soviet troops, lightly equiped so as to be able to disembark quickly did not have enough firepower to punch above thier weight, and lacked the motorized transport to advance quickly. As they advanced into Ulster, they found British units already deployed.
The underequiped infantry stood little chance against fully mechanized British units, shipped across the Irish Sea by the Royal Navy. Unable to establish a strong line of defense, the Soviet units were tumbling to distaster...
Note the lack of heavy weapons. It was to prove a critical flaw in Operational Plan 13
Paint the world red!
