Chapter 30 – August 1946
Foreword
By the end of July 1946, the last small vestige of WW2 was being fought between the Comintern and Afghanistan, the most recent country to join the Axis – and its last member. The Allies were now at peace.
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1 August
Early August saw stasis on the Afghan front, while Soviet units withdrew to pre-war borders in the Far East after Manchukuo was forced into the Allies as a French puppet. The Soviets had completed about 30% of their second atomic bomb. For now, two of these was considered the absolute minimum they would need to try to knock Germany and Japan out of the Allied United Nations in a possible WW3. But an incentive for peace for now was the massive lend-lease aid the US was sending, allowing a significant build-up of the Soviet armed forces, coupled with rapidly reducing supply demand.
The latest surplus IC was used to create another ‘heavy’ infantry division.
A change of missions was ordered for the Soviet agents still in (Allied) Manchukuo and Japan, where the latter in particular was now awash with Allied agents, who were doing most of the counter-espionage work for the Japanese.
3 August
In a development that bemused Stalin, Nationalist China decided to liberate Communist China as a free state.
No doubt as both were Allied governments, but in RL? Never!
That afternoon, more surplus IC was invested in new STRAT and CAS wings.
5 August
A new heavy infantry division, with a guards brigade and heavy tanks, was deployed to the Afghan border. Most of these went to the Western border, but the Caucasus Theatre was deemed to need a little more punch. It may be required later, if not against Afghanistan, then against Allied puppet governments in Pakistan of the Middle East.
6 August
The loss of agents in Manchukuo and the pointlessness of sending more, as the Allied governments began to swamp the Soviet mission there too, led to the reinforcement priority being zeroed. The efforts of the remaining agents were diverted to developing covert operations cells.
That night, Afghan militia seized the unoccupied Mukry. To say Stalin was getting a bit impatient at these affronts and lack of action to take the fight into Afghanistan was a
significant understatement. He began readying a cohort of political commissars to put a bit of
steel into the commanders there.
7 August
Two Soviet agents were neutralised in Japan by Allied operatives in a single day, making four in the first week of the month. This loss rate was deemed unsustainable, so the remaining agents ordered to solely focus on stealing more Japanese technology before they were eliminated. No more would be sent.
8 August
Finland announced it had begun to mobilise: old Field Marshal Mannerheim set up a new Theatre HQ as the first step.
9 August
New bombs were developed for the STRAT force, with air research efforts switched next to medium navigation radars.
10 August
At 1100hr, the 1st Guards Division launched an attack to retake Mukry. This would succeed by 12 August, with the Soviets taking 70 casualties, the Afghan militia suffering 397.
11 August
Another development for the VVS saw training improved for TAC ground crew, with the doctrine writers moving onto NAV pilot training.
By that time, supply production had been cut back to zero, and the stockpile was still at 100% and producing a small surplus most days. There were now eight V1 flying bombs awaiting deployment, but they remained held in reserve.
[Question: Is there any point deploying them before they are used – I presume they just fly and then destroy themselves when they hit the target: or can they be shot down along the way? Would lack of organisation make any difference to that?]
13 August
Submarine hull development took another step forward and was now almost up to contemporary standards. Research would nonetheless continue to the next level.
18 August
Just when Stalin was reaching boiling point at the tardiness of the Theatre Commander to take any positive action against Afghanistan, a three-division attack (one INF and two GAR divs) was launched on the Afghan border province of Feyzabad (two provinces north-west of Kabul) against the regular Afghan Faizabad Infantry Division at 2000 hr. This battle would be the largest and longest of the month, taking a week to resolve.
19 August
The Soviet border province of Mukry was liberated at 0300hr, redressing its earlier brief seizure by the Afghan Fascists. This was followed two hours later by an attack on Afghan militia positions in Mardian. At last, the Soviets commanders were getting into gear. The battle went for three days, ending in Soviet victory early on 22 August (101 Soviet, 424 Afghan casualties).
21-24 August
The three Western border radar stations were upgraded again and the works continued to the next.
More spare IC became available over the next few days as the unit upgrade bill reduced significantly, allowing four new projects to be commenced.
25 August
As the Soviet overseas espionage footprint was reduced, spy training was halved and the freed leadership effort shifted to officer training (capacity currently at 119%, but with many new divisions in production).
Victory was won in Feyzabad at 1000 hr after a tough seven day fight (Soviets 779/24,989 troops killed, Afghanistan 1,023/7,996).
26 August
Invasion tactics were once again advanced; there was a good chance they may still come in handy in the Far East, should war with Japan once again break out. But radars for the Soviets’ small ships would be developed next – an area that had been ignored until now. At least this equipment could be retrofitted to the older small ship classes of the primitive Soviet Navy.
27 August
At 2300 hr, Stalin finally got some news he felt showed the start of material progress, with the fall of Mardian to Soviet troops.
A series of Soviet probes would be launched on the Herat Cavalry Division in Khanabad over the next few days –
none of which would succeed. The first saw garrison troops attacking that night, losing seven men to zero before it was called off after three hours.
To the west of Mardian, the 28th Mountain Division began an attack on Afghan militia in Seberghan, also at 2300 hr. The fight would be won by 1400hr the following day (Soviets 30 killed, Afghans 175).
As no air power had been able to be fielded yet due to a lack of airfields in range, one was built in Stalinabad. Apart from the name, this province was at the end of the best line of infrastructure in the region.
Maybe the Theatre Commander would choose to relocate some wings there to help with a tough fight on difficult terrain. If not, at least the region now had an airfield.
28 August
The radar station that had been held in reserve was deployed to the restored naval base of Vladivostok.
The flurry of Soviet attacks continued at 0200hr, with a blitzing assault on the Afghan regular Herat Infantry Division in Qal 'eh ye Now (east of Herat) by 9 Tank and 19 Rifle Divisions. This battle would be won that afternoon at 1400 hr (44 Soviet, 201 Afghan troops killed), just as victory was being declared in Sheberghan.
But another probe on Khanabad was quickly lost at 1800 hr with the same troops involved (three Soviet, no Afghan casualties).
29 August
More free IC was used to begin building a new radar station and merchantmen at midday.
At 1900 hr, 152 Garrison Div attacked the Herat Cavalry in Khanabad for a third time in as many days – and once again failed to cause any Afghan casualties (Soviets 15 killed). This clearly wasn’t going to work – how long would it take the local Soviet commander to realise this?
30 August
Another NAV wing was queued that morning.
At 1700 hr, 9 Tank Division turned its attention to Herat itself, attacking the Jalalabad Militia Division. They would be no push-overs though, with the battle still going at the end of the month.
31 August
152 Garrison Div attacked Khanabad for a fourth time at 1400 hr – they were nothing if not persistent. This time they lasted for five hours, losing 22 men but finally drawing blood against the Afghans, killing five of them before breaking off their attack yet again.
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Monthly Afghanistan Campaign Summary
In August, after a slow start the Soviets had begun attacks across the northern border of Afghanistan from Herat to Feyzabad and had begun making some inroads towards the two key Afghan cities. Compared to the Far East, casualties were very light, of course, though the battle for Feyzabad had been a serious one. No air units had yet been deployed to support ground operations.
Peacetime Theatre Summaries
In the Far East, many Soviet divisions were still making their way back to home territory after the Manchurian surrender the month before. Some Japanese units were travelling to southern Sakhalin via Okha – all allowed under the surrender terms. To great Soviet frustration.
In the West, it was doom-stacks at ten paces along the most heavily militarised border in the world.
The Polish border was far less solidly manned by the Allies – with most of the ‘Polish’ forces being (rather ironically) German expeditionary forces. Including a former SS division!
In Slovakia and Hungary, their own and a mixture of many other Allied EFs (including an Australian division) could be seen.
And Romania was a truly dystopian patchwork of French occupation zones and many Allied EFs, with a big Hungarian wedge in the middle and a seemingly large Yugoslavian Army lurking to the rear. If it ever came to blows here, it would be madness.
And in the far north, the Norwegians had massed a large force on the northern border of Finland. Sweden remained neutral, but the border was still guarded.
Other Monthly Reports
On the diplomatic front, the Soviet influence program continued in Spain and Turkey, while the three remaining unaligned Chinese warlord states were gradually drifting towards the Comintern sphere at Soviet urging.
It was also noticed that Persia had not joined the war with Afghanistan – they hadn’t been asked! Calls to arms were also sent to Romania and recent Comintern entrant Finland, to encourage wartime efforts in those countries - not because any contribution was expected.
As ever, the biggest threat to the Soviet Union was assessed to come from Germany – the eternal enemy!
Foreign spy efforts in the Soviet Union were either easing – or not as many were being caught, with 27 neutralised during the month (including those by their overseas missions in Japan, Turkey and Spain). The Japanese mission was now over, with all the spies lost during the month - taken by Allied (not Japanese) agents, as had been the six lost in Manchukuo. The two former Axis nations had become a graveyard for Soviet spies. The political support missions in Spain and Turkey still made no headway at all – in fact Spain had regressed again.
The Soviet quest for strategic weapons continued at a slow but steady pace. As at midnight on 1 September, the second Soviet nuclear weapon was 60% complete. There were eight V1s in the stockpile waiting to be deployed, while October would bring the development of the first strategic rocket prototype.