Chapter 320: Pyrrhic Victories
June continued with more and more setbacks for the Provisional Government. While the legions had started winning a few battles and Nimitz's fleet continued tearing through enemy ships as always, the Reich continued to lose territory at rapid rates.
On the 14th, Ludendorff ordered General Konrad von Brudermann to pull off an encirclement of Imperium tagmata in southern Dacia and Bulgaria. While there were only a few tagmata in the area to be encircled, closing off this pocket would significantly boost morale and push back the front significantly. Ludendorff also ordered General Gustav von Anhalt to execute a simultaneous attack in northern Illyria from Trieste to take the city of Gortz, which would be the first step towards liberating Italia and putting pressure on Germania. The carriers SMS
Friedrich the Great and SMS
Saint Wilhelmina were brought in to provide air support and bombard Venice.
Nimitz continued sinking transports, as usual, but his ships began to feel the strain of being under constant combat.
Over in South Eimerica, things weren't looking so good. While the UPM managed to hold its own against its neighbor to the south, western and southern Neurhomania had fallen under Tawantinsuyuan occupation. Ludendorff had sacrificed the western themes to buy the eastern cities more time to prepare. All legions were withdrawn to defend these cities, especially New Berlin.
In a surprising twist, the disorganized soldiers in charge of defending Breslau successfully pushed back an attacking Imperium tagmata despite being outnumbered almost five to one. However, almost three hundred soldiers were killed, and the rest were running low on ammunition and supplies. It was clear that Breslau couldn't hold out for that much longer.
On the 16th, Raeder finally sent a fleet after Nimitz. However, it took just a couple hours for Nimitz's fleet to sink six Imperium ships and force the rest to flee. This time, though, Raeder immediately ordered another fleet dispatched, with similar results. This continued over the next two days, during which Nimitz handily won each battle, but his ships continued to fall apart.
A little over a month after the civil war began, the Reich was still in a very bad shape. The Alpine regions were firmly under Imperium control. Breslau and Vienna held out against the enemy onslaught, bright lights in a sea of enemies. Imperium tagmata overran northern Hispania and were pushing into Illyria. A large offensive had pushed its way into Bulgaria, coming dangerously close to reaching Greece and cutting off all of Illyria from Constantinople. In the east, the Iranians had seized the last of the concessions and had turned to invading Mesopotamia, while the Imperium advanced south from the Caucasus into Anatolia. The Abyssinians had seized large parts of Aegyptus, but the province's legions, led by Otto's cousin Ludwig von Hohenzollern, had started a counterattack, striking the Abyssinian armies simultaneously in a bid to push them into the Red Sea. Indochina was firmly under Reich control; the last Imperium stronghold in Ayutthaya would fall in several weeks, its garrison having been destroyed already.
Meanwhile, Nimitz continued to destroy enemy fleets with relative ease, but his ships were coming close to giving out.
On the 21st of June, an Imperium battle fleet consisting almost solely of destroyers and cruisers sailed out to dislodge Nimitz from his positions in the Western Britannian Channel. The battle lasted a couple hours, during which one Imperium destroyer was sunk. Ultimately Nimitz came out on top, but not before an enemy shell hit the SMS
Pommern. The shell penetrated the weakened hull of the battleship and detonated near its engine. The resulting explosion tore the ship apart, with all hands onboard lost. It was Nimitz's first loss. Despite the destruction of the
Pommern, Nimitz refused to withdraw from the Channel, instead ordering the rest of his ships to hold their ground. The next day, the Imperium onslaught resumed, with another fleet engaging Nimitz's fleet.
Back on land, Ludendorff ordered several dozen legions to march on the strategically important city of Bucharest. The fall of the Dacian provincial capital would not only boost morale but also aid the Reich in closing the Bulgarian pocket and putting pressure on Provincia Taurica.
At around 8:00 in the evening on the 22nd, the Imperium launched its second assault on Breslau, this time sending only six thousand troops. The garrison of the city, which had taken heavy casualties from almost constant air raids, put up a brief fight, but their morale quickly collapsed. Three hours later, all six thousand Reich soldiers surrendered to the Imperium and were then taken away as prisoners of war. The city itself was now defenseless against the Imperium, but the citizens fiercely resisted the tagmatas' advance. Imperium soldiers would not get near the city center for at least another week.
Bucharest was liberated on the 24th of June, and Ludendorff issued orders to march on Targoviste, the seat of the Slavic High Priesthood.
On the 25th of June, Raeder sent an even larger fleet after Nimitz, attempting to use numerical superiority to overwhelm the Reich ships. Nimitz's ships were by now extremely weakened and could barely operate. Yet they managed to sink two destroyers and one cruiser. However, the
Hindenburg was destroyed in the battle, forcing Nimitz to relocate to the SMS
Hamburg, the least damaged of the four remaining battleships. The loss of his flagship made him realize that he couldn't hold his position for that much longer, and he ordered his ships to retreat to Hispania, sinking several transport fleets along the way. In a battle just off the coast of northern Hispania, the
Ostpruessen's engine gave out, rendering it incapable of moving. Its crew subsequently sacrificed themselves to hold off the pursuing enemy fleet.
Last known photograph of the SMS Ostpreussen
before its destruction
On land, the Imperium marched into the city of Zaragoza, a severe blow for the Reich in Hispania. Barcelona was next, and Ludendorff moved as many troops as he could into the city to defend it.
The few troops that remained loyal to Otto started the civil war as relatively inexperienced, overstretched, and outnumbered by a superior enemy. However, frequent battles, aided by a constant stream of reinforcements and factories producing equipment and ammunition at record speeds, quickly gave them the necessary experience to stand up to the Imperium, and in a speech in Augustaion Square Otto commended the bravery of the "veterans" who defended the Reich against the traitors in Berlin.
Veterans weren't enough to save Aegyptus, though. While Ludwig von Hohenzollern's offensive had bought some time, that time had now run out. Abyssinian troops arrived on the shores of the Mediterranean, cutting off Alexandria from the rest of the Reich. The defenders of the city were already under siege.
Meanwhile, Nimitz continued sailing south towards friendly waters. Imperium ships frequently harassed his fleet, dealing severe damage to the three remaining battleships and convincing Otto to send a backup fleet of four battleships to escort Nimitz to safe territory.
The SMS Hamburg
in Lisboa harbor
But the situation in Hispania wasn't stable anymore. Barcelona fell on the 1st of July.
On the 1st of July, 1939, a border incident was reported near the town of Viipuri, Kingdom of Finland. A Soviet border guard post had been shelled by an unknown party, resulting, according to Soviet reports, in the deaths of four and injuries of nine border guards. Research conducted by several Finnish and Russian historians later concluded that the shelling was carried out from the Soviet side of the border by an NKVD unit with the purpose of providing the Soviet Commune with a
casus belli and a pretext to withdraw from a non-aggression pact with Finland.
Chairman Molotov immediately claimed that it was a Finnish artillery attack and demanded that Finland apologize for the incident and move its forces beyond a line 20–25 km (12–16 mi) away from the border. Finland denied responsibility for the attack, rejected the demands, and called for a joint Finnish–Soviet commission to examine the incident. The Soviet Commune then claimed that the Finnish response was hostile, renounced the non-aggression pact and severed diplomatic relations with Finland a few hours later.
Soviet bombing of Helsinki
On 2 July 1939, Soviet forces invaded Finland with 21 divisions, totaling some 450,000 men, and bombed Helsinki. Later the Finnish statesman J. K. Paasikivi commented that the Soviet attack without a declaration of war violated three different non-aggression pacts: the Treaty of Vaasa signed in 1836 (between the Scandinavian Empire and the Tsardom of Russia, but the treaty was inherited by Finland and the Soviet Commune), the non-aggression pact between Finland and the Soviet Union signed in 1932 and again in 1934, and also the Covenant of the Council of Nations, which the Soviet Commune signed in 1934 in exchange for "recognition" as a sovereign state (which did not include recognition as the legitimate Russian government). Tsar-King Temur III Toghorilid of Finland appointed Chancellor C.G.E. Mannerheim as Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Finnish Defense Forces after the Soviet attack. In further reshuffling, Temur III named Risto Ryti as his new chancellor and Väinö Tanner as foreign minister.
On 3 July 1939, a great sympathy meeting for Finland was arranged in Tiananmen Square, Nanjing, China, which otherwise did nothing to help out.
On 4 July 1939, the Soviet Commune formed a puppet government called the Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, which was headed by O. W. Kuusinen. The government was also called "The Viipuri Government," after Viipuri, which was the first settlement captured by the advancing Soviet army. From the very outset of the war, working-class Finns stood behind the legal government in Helsinki. Finnish national unity against the Soviet invasion was later called the spirit of the Summer War, as the war became known as.
At the start of the Summer War, Finland brought up the matter of the Soviet invasion before the Council of Nations. The Council promptly expelled the Soviet Commune and exhorted its members to aid Finland.
With the declaration of a state of war between the Soviets and Finland, the war continued its spread worldwide. It was clear that this conflict was no longer localized to just a skirmish in Central Asia or a civil war in the Reich. Now it was truly a world war.