How is the public interest in this? I lack the motivation to continue this when no one is interested....
Chapter 11
The Period the Soviet Union found itself in after the end of the Eastern European War was one of preparation for the next war that was widely regarded as inevitable and diplomatic reaaproachement with the west. As much as Trotsky despised the ‘imperialist west’ he also knew that the Union needed good relations with them, both for economic and military reasons before making the next moves in the spring. The 1st Guards Front was in place, but the Weather, the lack of a Casus Belli and the fact that the target of Operation Polar Glory, Finnland, was allied with Britain and France prevented any immediate moves, and so Blücher, Commander of the 1st Guards Front ( a shaky chair, Trotsky was ready to immediately replace him with Zhukov should he screw up in any way ) had stricktest orders from the Kremlin to prevent any hostile or provokative moods that might spark an outbreak of hostilities prematurely.
BT-7M during winter maneuvers
The fact that most of the Red Army still used outdated Equipment (AN: I have researched 1941INF but upgrading is soooo slow ) and doctrines did not help to improve Trotskys belief in the readiness of the Red Army to fight a major world Power. ( The Soviet Military attacheé in Paris had reported that the French Army was in a state almost as bad as the one the Red Army was in ) The branch of the Armed Forces that was in the worst state was the Red Air Forces’ Interceptor branch, today more commonly known as PVO Strany, consisted of eight meager Interceptor Squadrons. (AN: I neglected the Air Force. I pumped everything into upgrading and reinforcements, along with constructing tanks. ) They were organized into two groups of four Squadrons, with one attached to the 1st Guards Front, and the other one assigned to the Air Defence of Moscow and the rest of its vital Industries. The rest of the countrys Air Defence depended on massive batteries of Anti-Aircraft Guns. New Squadrons were to be formed soon, but for the moment the Soviet Industry was geared towards upgrading the existing formations of the Red Army, building a single run of Battleships and outfitting several Armoured Divisions. Blücher considered the Air Dupport as adequate, but Zhukov, amongst others, considered the current state of things as not good as the power of the Royal Air Force and the Armeé de l’Air was not to be underestimated as the single group could not possibly cover the whole of the theatre. Blücher also understimated the possible damage enemy bombers could do to formations in the field. This would later come back to haunt him, but at the moment there was no evidence to the contrary of Blüchers believes. Zhukov was one of Blüchers most outsopen critics. Under Stalin such behaviour would have earned Zhukov a 9mm Brain hemorreage only earned him Blüchers misstrust, and that of Blüchers supporters, that grew fewer and fewer, and Trotsky, who was long since looking for a reason to sack the Field Marshal held his protective hand over Zhukov and that allowed the General to show more of a dissident leaning than normally possible. On the whole Blüchers plan for Operation Polar Glory was sound however, even Zhukov had to admit that. Polar Glory was sound, especially now that the “Red Banner 1st Battlefleet” had received the first of three planned Novorossiysk -class Battleships and was ready for supportive operations, i.e. taking care of the small Finnish Navy and preventing the transfer of any large Allied Expeditionary forces through the Baltic Sea. Personally Trotsky doubted that the Allies would actually commit large numbers of troops, as the entry of Finnland into the Allies was meant to deterr not only the Soviet Union and the Finns who were starting to make noise about their claims around Murmansk and on Karelia to launch any hostilities. The Finns claimed these Regions since Finnland had previously occupied them for a short time during the Russian Civil War, and said that they had been ceded to Finnland by the pre-bolshevik provisionary Gouvernment
despite having handed them over to the Soviet Union under international pressure. Trotsky, allthough not exactly looking forward to fight the worlds largest remaining Imperialist power and its allies was intent on defending the territorial and political souvereignity of the Soviet Union with the force of Arms if neccesary. The Finns on the other hand were sure that the Allies would back them up in their claims if the worst came to the worst and that the Soviets would not risk an open confrontation with the allied powers, foremost England, which had bases from which to strike just about everywhere on the coast of the Rodina, and the Red Navy could not hope to openly challenge the Royal Navy, it would even have trouble to fight off the German Kriegsmarine.
The Soviet Battleship Novorossiysk duriing her Sea Trials.*
The forces in the coastal Regions started practicing anti-Invasion maneuvers, but guarding every inch of the Soviet Coastline simply could not be done with the existing forces, but containing the Bridgeheas until more forces became avaible was something the Soviet Commanders in the far east were sure they could do. The potential British Invaders, if they actually landed would land so far from any significant Soviet cities and industrial areas that the Beacheads would have no chance of achieveing anything, because they would have to march through all of Siberia to reach the actual Soviet Heartland, and if they were contained by the Far Eastern Front they would turn itno the worls largest self-guarding and self supplying Prison camps.
*The actual Soviet BB of that name was a former Italian Conte di Cavour - class Battleship ceded to the SU in 1949 as war reparations, and lost to a misterious explosion in 1955. The picture here is showing the Conte di Cavour in the Med shortly before WW2.