Bombs, Battles and Beaches
With the Phillipines secured as a springboard, the Soviet Navy began its spring forwards to reduce the remaining American held strongholds in the Pacific. With Hawaii being built into a unsinkable aircraft carrier with fortifications and gun emplacements for good measure, it presented the US Navy with its best chance to seriously damage the Soviet Fleet Carriers in actions away from land based aircraft.
As the Soviet landings rolled eastwards, the resistance increased. Most islands left under American control were grossly undermanned. A hundred men at most, enough to keep the air and naval bases running, not enough to hold the islands against determined Soviet marines.
The first island where serious resistance was encountered was at Guam. The USN had been able to hide the fact that Guam was the main submarine base for the Pacific from the Soviet Navy, and there was a great deal of concern from both sides when Soviet carrier recon flights observed dozens of American submarines tied up at dock.
The Soviet Navy took the risky decision to carry on with the planned landings, even at the risk of lossing carrier aircraft to the USN Fleet submarines. The risk paid off. As Soviet marines landed on the island, hundreds of Soviet jets filled the sky. Submarine after submarine was sunk, some at dock, more at sea, and even more still by the dedicated ASW ships and aircraft of the carrier fleet.
The Fall of Guam dealt a serious, but not mortal, blow to the USN submarine service.
The USN response came two weeks later. A carrier force, sweeping northwards around Hawaii to avoid Russian long-range patrol aircraft, attempted to ambush the Soviet carriers around Marcus. The ambush failed, and the two sides began to send sorties of bombers after ships, while overhead, jet fighters danced and whirled. At length, a wave of Soviet bombers made it through, releasing their anti-ship missiles at the American fleet.
This opened the floodgates for further attacks. Wave after wave poured through, throwing more missiles into the American formations. Even from high altitude, the Soviet fighter pilots could see the work of their fellow airmen, while their American counterparts could see their fleet masked in smoke.
Foreground, the USS Guam afire. Far top right, unknown USN carrier. Below, USS Tennessee burning slightly from two missile hits. The huge battleship would take another seven missiles before her maganzine detonated, blowing the ship apart.
The results. The unknown US carrier was a concern - it suggested that America had carriers that the GRU did not know about and that America had more than expected...
Perhaps in a effort to divert Soviet attention from the Pacific theater, the US staged another invasion in Europe. Correctly taking the view that the Red Army would under-garrison Britain and over-depend on the Soviet Atlantic Fleet to keep the British Isles secure, several American divisions were able to take Cardiff, pushing local units out.
Another American toehold on Europe.
It was testament to the Red Army that the American troops had hardly been able to march far from the beaches before Soviet units were moving to meet them. By the same time next month, a nearly continous frontline had developed, sealing off the invasion from the sweeping war of movement and encirclement that the American planners had hoped for.
In response, Moscow ordered the Pacific front to step up it's efforts. By the end of 1955, Soviet troops should be in a position to attack New Zealand. In a effort to redress the image caused by the American misadventure, the Soviet admirals and captains redoubled their efforts. The last few months of 1955 saw a one-sided defeat of the last American ships defending the South Pacific and New Zealand, as well as 150,000 men deployed on Fiji for a landing come the New Year.
The sortie of American heavy cruisers was brave and foolish. The day of big guns was long past, even those mounted on fast, modern and well armoured ships.
The two full corps worth marked for New Zealand. In the event that the goverment and people of the islands proved un-cooperative, the 9th Corps would remain to garrison and support a collaberation government.