The Darkest hour of the Russian Empire 2

The Darkest hour of the Russian Empire 2​

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Chapter Five: 1941
Part XXX: Three fronts in action​

On 21 of March offensive in Manchuria entered the new phase - Russian 34th and 41st Corps attacked Mudanjiang - military key point of Manchukuo.


A day later Russian soldiers officially occupied Deutsh-Krone, a native German town. The Emperor sent a personal telegram to all participants of the counter-offensive, where he thanked them for a brilliant action (which could be very useful to prevent massive German offensives).


But this didn't help the Russians to save Czestochowa. Scherbachev was desperately defending, but 13 German divisions under command of brilliant specialist Hans von Kluge were simply stronger...


In Africa Allies were just weak. South African Union (which inherited all British colonies in Africa after the capitulation of England) didn't have enough troops to fight well. Italians were going deeper into the jungles day by day.


Stalemates in Manchuria and Poland forced the Russian high command to create new war plans. "We have to attack somewhere else!" - said Wrangel. So, Iraq, probably the weakest member of the Axis, became a new target. Russian armed forces had enough troops in Middle East to launch an invasion. Corps of Turkestan Military District were going to fight against weak Iraqi army, not fanatical Japanese or tough-trained Germans.


In Iraq it was easy to fight, but in Poland situation wasn't the same. By 25 of October the battle of Czestochowa was totally lost.


General Markov, an innovative tactician (he was unofficially known as "the father" of Russian tank troops) and high commander of Galitzian Military District, decided to launch one more offensive operation in Carpathian mountains. German southern flank, secured by easy-to-beat Slovak army, was a good opportunity to change the situation...


In the Far East Russian army was improving the situation gradually - Russian army corps took Hegang and pushed the enemies from Jiamusi.


By 27 of October Arkhangelsky was winning 2nd battle of Huma. For him it was quite easy to defeat 4 Japanese divisions without any suitable command (previous commander was killed in one of suicide-looking Japanese attacks).


But the Japanese were as skillful as their Russian opponents, and they did everything to prevent Russian offensives - for example, Japanese prime minister Tojo Hideki arrived in Manchuria and personally led one of IJA corps which was defending Mudanjiang from Kalmykov.


On 29 of October Chinese army used the moment of Japanese weakness (best troops of Kwantung army were sent to the Russian front) and took Sili-yin-Qota (Inner Mongolia). One more good strike in the Japanese dragon was made.


In the Middle East the progress was most visible - by 3 of November resistance of all Iraqi forces was broken.

@chepaeff: I ask - why?

Do you mean German positions and amount of divisions?

Wow, looks like you are really disappointed with AI's behavior I can please you telling that very soon the situation will change dramatically, just wait and read updates

The Darkest hour of the Russian Empire 2​

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Chapter Five: 1941
Part XXXI: Battles, endless and bloody​

Day by day German corps were redeploying to the Russian border. Imperial Army had to separate its might fighting on four directions - Northern (against Norway), Western (against Germany and its allies), Southern (against Iraq) and Eastern (against Japan and Manchukuo). Current situation wasn't catastrophical, but it was hard.


In Slovakia Russian offensive firstly met serious opponent near Presov - von Kluge with his 3 motorized divisions faced the advancing Markov.


On 3 of November Russian forces in Thrace (12 divisions) attacked badly-defended Bulgarian provinces. Tsardom of Bulgaria was an easy opponent, and this operation was planned to attack the weakest Axis flank (same with Iraq).


Situation in Bydgoszcz changed radically when field marshal Model led the attacks against general Pavlovsky. Russian troops were retreating.


In Manchuria successes became steady - 4 Japanese divisions were locked in Jiamusi and nearly destroyed by Semenov's men. Far Eastern operations showed Japanese weakness in the land battles. Legendary admiral Kolchak, commander of Pacific fleet, was wise enough to keep his vessels in the ports. Nobody needed a second Tsushima.


On 5 of November general Kappel had to leave Krakow. He couldn't defend the city from rushing Wehrmacht armies anymore.


Iraqi campaign didn't stop. Russian soldiers were capturing enemy towns, led by promising commanders and fighting against Iraqi "paper army". Because of that Iraqi front was the most successful front for Russia.


In Poland victories of Middle East looked like a dream. Wehrmacht divisions were advancing everywhere. Their casualties were terrible (Russians didn't forget how to fight for their Empire), but for Imperial army these battles were even more exhausting and bloody.


Polish front ugly transformed. Harzhevsky (Russian Chief of Staff) informed Wrangel that he was going to order general Adamov to leave captured German town of Deutsch Krone, because it was dangerous for the 5th Corps to stay there. Main Russian forces concentrated in Gdynia.


Battles in Manchuria became endless. In spite of the fact that Russians were successfully outnumbering Japanese forces, Japanese General Staff was redeploying more and more fresh troops to Manchuria. For example, almost won battle of Huma began once again - with 3 new Japanese divisions.


By 17 of November Iraqi campaign was finishing. Russian corps had to make just a few steps to capture all German and Italian oil facilities in the Middle East.


In the Balkans Russian 46th corps was defeated at Adrianople. The plot to beat Bulgaria was spoiled - it taught the Russian strategists that there are no weak participants in the Axis, because all of them are defended by the Wehrmacht...