5
1st January 1940 - 1st August 1940
There was an unexpected surge in patriotic feeling among the young of Croatia with the growing tensions along the Nigerian border. Although too young to have experienced the full extent of the old regimes naive ways, the state schools cultivated a hate of the bourgouisie and a great many students were heading out into the world singing the parties praises. With the bar set quite high for entry into the state universities, former school students had to find other ways of entering and supporting the state system that they had been brought up to revere.
To the north a complicated war was developing. The source of the conflict was believed to have been a misunderstanding about the whereabouts of a young woman who was last seen at a border crossing along the Casamance-UAE border. She was taken into one of the buildings at the border and it was believed she was murdered by a Casamancian guard after shots were heard. Long after the war ended it was discovered that the gun had gone off accidently and wounded the woman. The slow reaction of the ambulances was misinterpretted that she was dead and a group of UAE soldiers stormed the border post in search of the woman resulting in the deaths of several Casamancian border guards. She was not found however blood streaks lead off into a cellar. Before they could investigate further they were forced out of Casamancian soil. In reality the guard who's weapon had discharged while he was "getting to know" the woman had dragged her down to the cellar where a medic had a basic set up to deal with most wounds. The woman survived but because the border had been closed and the UAE refused to speak to any representive of Casamance it was not known until after the war was over.
When the UAE tried to invade Casamance after rumours of further abuses by Casamancian border guards spread to the UAE's leadership, it was repulsed and with the help of their ally, Romania, they began a counter invasion. The ultimately successful of this invasion failed when Romania was attacked by Palau in defence of the UAE. The Union of Mali then invaded Palau seeing an advantage to regain land lost in the Ten Year War, thirty years earlier.
On the 26th March 1940, Poland invaded Casamance seeing an oppurtunity to regain land it also lost from Casamance. The claim was tenuous at best.
Elsewhere in the world another nation died.
To prevent Poland from becoming more powerful from any land it captured from Casamance and to prevent the spread of Facism. The party leadership convened in a secret meeting to discuss potential invasion plans and what terms they wished for Poland to surrender after the conclusion of a successful campaign. It was decided that it was better to "liberate" the Polish from Facism as well as liberate territory that was rightfully Croatian.
As soon as the party had come to an agreement it immediately enacted new laws to bring the industrial capabilities of Croatia to reach its full potential for the war effort.
The initial plan was to advance into Poland and react to any new threat that was encountered. Croatian Intelligence had put the total number of divisions that Poland controlled at around nine infantry divisions. This figure was revised after the war began to twenty. The advance was disorganised with many men and some key officers rushing from the other side of the country to catch up with their advancing units. Several mountain divisions had only come into being a month earlier and were not ready. In fact the entire army was not ready as the entire nation had few experienced men apart from those who had fought as partisans who now made up most of the officer corps, which was only able to effectively command around three-quarters of the army. Their abilities varied.
Because of the problems mentioned before, early engagements did not go well for the Croatian army and this gave the Polish the advantage. An advantage that, much to the General Staffs relief, was not pressed.
Dissappointed in their armys failure to be ready for any fighting, the 3rd Infantry Corps was sent east to prevent the advance from turning into a retreat. Their effect was immediate.
At the start of August, Croatia now controlled almost half of Poland. Some provinces fell into Casamancian hands however this was not considered an issue as they were a nation that had been attacked unjustly. The new Polish capital in the east is believed to be the last place that would needed to be captured in order to force Poland to surrender.