The Commissar's first month back at his office wasn't a particularly eventful one.
The Navy's main operation of the moment was half-successful, with the liberation of Copenhagen and the opening of path between the Baltic and the North Sea. The second half of the operation, intended to take control of all of Jutland, and especially the Kiel Channel, was however halted, by a combination of quick German response and more aggressive than expected weather.
There was little else for the Navy men to do but to finish cleaning the area of German sea mines, making it increasingly safe for Soviet ships to operate, and opening a path for the collocation red mines.
In the Southern Front, a request for the Naval Infantry to reinforce the Kiev defences was answered favourably, has pressure built up on the city.
Limited by weather and relieved of any urgent Army assistance duties by the same reason, the following weeks didn't see much explicit action.
On the 12th, new transports were ready, but there were no troops for them to transport at the time.
The German merchant marine apparently implemented different routes or convoy schemes, which combined with the bad weather, meant targets were scarce for Soviet submarines.
Now that the Red Fleet itself was responsible for a supply convoy to Copenhagen, and mindful that submarine warfare works both ways, old destroyers were given a duty again, hunting for anything the Kriegsmarine might send sneaking.
The old
Dekabrist class submarines rebased to a now working Köenigsberg port, from where they could - barely - be ordered to operate past Copenhagen.
Unfortunately, anti-submarine warfare also works both ways, and by the end of December an obvious German task-force managed surprise the Soviet submarines, and in 5 hours sunk enough to force an withdrawal from the area.
The
Dekabrists had to be sent in their place, least the chance of starving Winter-suffering Germans in Norway be lost.
But all this exterior December passiveness of the Red Fleet was hiding hard work, going on in Leningrad.
The result of that work started in the New Year's, when in a surprise move, all important surface fleets of the Soviet Union were ordered back to their bases.
Official explanation was the urgent re-training of officers in Kuznetsov's recently developed doctrines of carrier-supported operations, ship maintenance, and New Year celebrations for sailors.
As a minor side-note, some of the Motherland's Glorious Battleships had their names, damaged by the weather, repainted as
exactly equal names, which the crew members that happened to be Party Members were quick to remind everyone else had
always been the same and would, obviously, henceforth always be.
The
Sovyetskiy Soyuz class was all named after Soviet Republics, as the symbols of their Invincible Strength, an with the blessing of the Father of the People.
As this happened in Vladivostok, the city sent an urgent radio message to Moscow... the Japanese had cracked the final stronghold of our Chinese allies, and although Mao himself had been safely flown to Mongolia with his closest Party Members, they were no longer a meaningful faction in China.
Japan was completely free to make it's next move, whatever that might be...