American Historical Commentaries: Operation Blue Eagle

[Signa]

--- Peaceful Beginnings ---

It was a time of war. But wait… I’m getting far to ahead of myself there, let’s set the stage. The world rose from dark ages of imperialism and the dim ages of feudalism with four powers controlling the majority of the money, land, and resources: England and France tied at third and a close race for first between America and Russia. This picture did not last long. A great French conqueror rose from the ashes of aborted democracy to wage wars of aggression over the small powers and the greater powers alike. However, the giants came to the aid of the helpless states and eventually defeated France, installing a noble and peaceful government and balancing the power of the states at the Congress of York in 1814.

The next two hundred years of world history is a blur to anyone who would wish to study them, alliances built and strengthened between the behemoths and their various client states. Geography also contributed to the stability. The Americans and Russians shared opposite ends of a massive hourglass shaped continent, with the American’s client the Romans and Greeks on a pair of small islands to the west and the Russian’s Chinese underlings to the east. The English controlled the Egyptians, Indians, Zulu on their large continent to the north and the French went a consort in Germany on its land to the south. A few unattached powers inhabited the lands to the far -east or -west (depending how to you look at it) but their constant strife and war left them so far behind in technology that the great powers did not even extend a token of friendship in integration. The wheels of diplomacy and trade flowed freely over an increasingly united world. But it was not to be forever…

The 20th Century shall be remembered as the Great Century. Not a shot was fired in the known world of anger. But as the ball dropped on the new millennium, evil forces worked to corrupt the shining towers of the present world. On August 28th, 2000, Czarina Catherine II of the Russian Federation announced a policy of open friendship and aid to the backwards nations over the sea. The other powers led by American leaders President Abraham Lincoln took these plans with hostility. Lincoln commented on the hopelessness of the Dark Continents and the catastrophic failures at previous attempts to pacify them. England and France fully supported his thesis. None the less Russia proceeded to begin economic and military aid to the tribe known as the Japanese, rumored to be the strongest of the other nations and closest to Russo-Sino lands.

America, knowing this unprecedented action could tip the balance of the Old World began to do the same with another tribe, called the Iroquois. England and France was rumored to take the same steps with their own consorts, but nothing was ever confirmed by any sides about that. Despite the smaller powers attempts at assistance their new clients the American and Russian dependencies rose to glory. A virtual arms race in sued, with both sides equipping to deter each other from commencing hostilities. Japan was spurred and equipped by Russian, forcing America to strain her economy to keep the ever more hopeless Iroquois equal and preserve a balance of power. After thirteen years of tension the Russians finally backed down to American demands to pull out of Japan in signing a treaty at Archangel.

In exchange the Americans would also have to abandon the Iroquois to their fate, which would be clear. A Japanese-Iroquois conflict would eventually end in a Japanese victory in one form or another. Lincoln hated to abandon a client in that manner, casting them out to a doomed fate with modern weapons, but the return to the balance of power of the Great Century was more attractive. Lincoln hoped that the New World would soon become a bad memory. He also regretted ever getting involved over there again, knowing from the outset that war in the Dark Continent was a constant and all he was doing was giving the sides modern weapons instead of the spears and swords of the past.

This situation seemed to be the beginnings of another golden age, but some did not desire it, the Iroquois. For the most part the Iroquois accepted the American pull out, thinking a war would be winnable. The next seven years would prove them deadly wrong. A war began in good time, and soon the Japanese had captured almost a half of the Iroquois small amount of land. The Iroquois managed to surrender outside of Oil Springs, just miles from Salamanca. Every ounce of gold and new technologies that the Americans gave to them was the price of a respite. The powers in the Old World hoped this would be the end of the conflicts over there, that peace would finally take hold. They hoped for an end, but what they got was a beginning.

On the day of September 1st, 2020, the Japanese celebrated their vast winnings and victory in the street of all their major cities, but the largest party was of course in their capital Kyoto. The Japanese Shogun Tokugawa took an unexpected and unprecedented step. He invited Catherine to sit as his equal over the coming triumph throughout Japan, citing the Russians importance in the ascension of Japanese greatness. Lincoln’s embassy sent a letter to the Russians telling them to dismiss this potential major treaty violation.

Catherine proceeded without a mention of American protest. She rode alongside the Japanese Shogun over the next few months in a historic but rather uneventful tour of the old and newly conquered lands of the empire of Japan. She planned to depart on the lone pair of Russian aircraft carriers Yaryag and Kuznetsov. The first in a chain of terrible events takes place. A group of terrorists based in the woods around the Iroquois city of Grand River attempts to kill the Russian leader and her contributions to the embarrassment and dissection of their state. The attempt was made by three of the “Braves of the Warrior Society”, armed not with modern weapons but with ancient throwback bows and arrows. All three shots hit people close to Catherine, the only thing saving her the fact that she bent over to pick up a coin with Lincoln’s likeness upon it, a touch of irony and this tale.


--- Beginnings Of Strife---

The storm clouds had gathered on the horizon for the last twenty years, and the assassination attempt was the first strike of lightning and crack of thunder. The Russian Federation issued an ultimatum soon after the attempt on their beloved leader’s life to the Iroquois government, due to “their support to commit such a act,” which the Iroquois soon rejected, saying that the actions of a few extremist that have already been punished should not affect the fate of nations. The Russian, frustrated by there lack of ability to project a military power across the large ocean, attempts to force Japan to fight a war for it. Japan rejected their demands, citing a Russian abandonment of their one time ally at Archangel. Catherine, enraged in feeling, demands military actions to stop this embarrassment to herself and the Federation as a whole.

She blames not the Iroquois, but their neighbors the Americans. She takes a militaristic approach to the nation that supported the “rogue state” on the assassination attempt. The Americans, however diplomatic and insistent that they condemn the attacks and have a neutral relationship the Iroquois, the Russians would not hear of it and plan to solve this with a war. The stage is set for the most devastating conflict this world will ever know, even worse that the French war of aggression almost two hundred years ago.

The Americans and Russians technically shared a single continent, but in actuality it was two massive landmasses connected by an isthmus only a mile wide at its narrowest point and about fifty miles long. During the ancient conflicts the Americans had secured this zone with the city of St. Louis that had in front of it numerous defenses know collectively as the Gateway Line. The original fortifications were a series of feudal castles of both American and Russian designs (and some even of combination, due to the speed at which the area changed hands before the Enlightenment of the civilized world). Some of which still exist as a historical reference.

Alongside those ancient structures exists a complex of modern defenses. They consist of a collection of concrete bunkers, pillboxes, and artillery positions arranged in a way to blunt, bog down, and then smash any enemy offensive. The whole of the line can be divided into ten major lines, each having a total of five minor lines. Each position includes a concrete set-up to protect a Tank, Artillery, or Infantry detachment from enemy fire, a mini-Phalanx system to stop enemy counter-battery missiles, and an escape route involving tunnels and camouflaged roads to make withdraws more orderly. To garrison the line the Americans had a total of ten elite and veteran divisions of M-2 Bradley’s to do actually fighting, fifteen Crusader artillery divisions for fire support, and a lone division of M-1 Abrams to back it all up as a reserve. Supporting the whole of the line was a collection of five hundred helicopters including the Apache, Kiowa, and the new Comanche.

In the ocean surrounding the line two carrier battle groups moved to support the line with the incoming American air force to also help. All in all, the Gateway would be a tough nut to crack. The Russian hope in a Russo-American war was to quickly hand the Americans a major military defeat, and force them to sue for peace on the Federations terms very early. The actually nature of that victory was unspecified, but it was clear to anyone with a sense of military operations that the only place that the American were vulnerable was indeed the line. If the Russians could dislodge the Americans from the it and not lose almost all of there armored force they would have a very easy time driving through the Great Planes and the majority of the American agricultural economy all the way to the Mississippi river, the first piece of geography the America could possibly use to stop the Russian push. A third the way to Washington and a huge amount of territory, a loss of that land would cripple American power and influence and make the Russian Federation the world’s greatest power.

But the prospect of breaking past those defenses was the first priority, for that would be the moral defeat needed. American ingenuity and technology crushed by the might of the Russian conscript solider. Perfect propaganda. And the long-term strategic of holding the isthmus and forcing the American’s to react to Russian defenses would be a great asset. Russian forces would stop once through the line for two reasons: one; according to Russian commanders the line could be beaten but the troop cost would make more offensive moves a risk to gain already held and two; while Czarina Catherine wanted nothing more to crush the Americans, the Russian people by far wanted peace, not a long drawn out war of conquest, but they were willing to accept a quick tactical war with minimal risks and major gains to be had. So Russia would stop at the gates of St. Louis.

The first Russian attacks commenced on December 7th, 2020, at a few hours before sunrise, hoping to deal American a morale blow on a day of great patriotism from a embarrassing but martyr-forming battle of in the harbor of Chicago versus the French fleet over two-hundred years to the previous. The first attack were textbook, as the American retreated from their first line of entrenchments with almost no reprisal due to the speed of the Russian probe attack that slipped through a design flaw in the line. The Russian attack moved so fast that the American had not enough time to organize and regroup at the second line and were forced to go all the way back to the third line before air strikes and artillery forced the Russians to slow down and re-group.

The Russian plan for “Red Bear” called for those first two lines to be broken in almost thirty hours of fighting (they needed to crush the line in one hundred and seventy hours, before their supply situation ran critical). They did it in just fourteen. By nightfall, the Americans were tired, whipped, and de-moralized by Russian attacks. Russia planned a very similar attack for the same time the next day. The Americans did not give them their way. Using the reserve of the division of Tanks, the Americans attacked and seriously disrupted the coming attack planned at dawn. The Russians did not panic, knowing they were way ahead of their schedule and used the time to re-arm and re-enforce. By a little after midday, the Russians were again ready to strike.


--- Hold That Line ---

The first Russian attempt at a breakthrough was almost successful, as the whole of the right flank was forced back to the fifth and final mini-line. But American tactical integration was getting better, and a series of indirect combat strikes stopped the Russian attacks. Heavy fighting continued on that side of the line for the rest of the day and well into the night, with the Americans finally breaking at 0200 on 12/9/20. The Americans, using the well-constructed lines of retreat managed an orderly and quick retreat to the next line of defenses. The momentum of the fight was starting to turn. The Russians had paid a high price in troops and logistics to break the third. It was not until noon that day that the Russians could mount another attack.

But it was worth the wait. As with the first line, geography made the line naturally weak. Two separate probes by the Russian tanks on the left American flank (breaking their own doctrine for the first time by not attacking the right flank) broke the line, and again the Americans retreated, but they got to the fifth line in much quicker fashion than before and soon they were set. Russia, with long supply lines and weary men decided not to press the advantage and did not commence offensive operations, but instead gave their men a night off and readied for a strike early that morning. The Americans were very tempted to attack themselves as on the first night, but decided to rest for the same reasons as the Russians. Both sides were badly strained.

But neither side was ready to quit quite yet. Russia had about sixty percent of its troops remaining, and American the same in territory. A new battle was to begin out of the relative tie so far. The start did not go so good for America. Russia attacked upon the whole of the front, and American troops were forced back to the very ends of the fifth line in the last line of fortifications. A few hours later and another general line length offensive the Americans crumbled and found themselves with half of their space gone and no end to Russian aggression in sight. The Russians, well rested and supplied attacked immediately at the sixth line and busted a hole in the center before the American truly got fortified. Again the division of Abrams was deployed. The Russian attack was blunted and contained, but another break through was achieved to the north and the Americans had to abandon yet another defenses system and retreat further. Things were looking worse every time.

In Washington, a very nervous Lincoln was already considering a solution to this problem diplomatically, not a good prospect. The seventh line would perhaps be the most important of the war. It was the best constructed of the Gateway Line, with some major geographical advantages over any of the other lines. If any of them was going to hold, this one is it. America entrenched down hard. The Russians thanks to superb military intelligence in the KGB and GRU knew that the seventh would be the toughest rock to break. The Russian armored spearhead met the beginnings of the line at about midnight on the eleventh but held back to set-up for an attack a few hours before dawn just as with the extraordinarily successful attacks of the first days of the war. “Red Bear” was working so far, and now it must jump its greatest hurdle.

At 0500, the first Russian T-10’s assaulted the American right flank, pushing the defenders back to their third and even fourth rows, but the tanks soon retreated knowing that only a clean break would do for their objective. The Americans soon re-occupied the second rank. Not giving up on a break at a critical point, the Tanks used the whole of the day to move to the other side and attack while the sunset. The flank over there was weaker, but an emergency use of the remaining Abrams to re-enforce kept the edge from turning. The Americans found themselves in trouble with no reserve left. The Russians knew about the same and attack upon the whole of the line. While at any other time it would of worked, the pure quality of the earthworks held. The day was wasted and the line had held.

Russia was forced to play a trump card. That night (well, really the early morning of the twelfth), a huge amount of elite Spetznaz commandos attacked the supply, artillery, and mobile air defense positions of the Americans, ensuing chaos in their lines. The Russians attacked with the rising sun, and drove the Americans all the way back to the ninth column of defenses. While almost all of the commandos were killed, their job was successful. “Red Bear” was moving once again with a day and a half left of supplies, and just two American lines left. The ninth was another weak line, and a very simple and strait-forward series of Russian outflanking movements in the middle of the night forced an American retreat. One American line remained and one day remained for the Russians to fight before their supplies ran out. A final stand is to come. Both sides’ troops were nearly exhausted, more dead than alive after almost a weak of fast paced, high casualty and low sleep conditions. Yet they would again fight on.

The Russians considered all of this, and decided to wait through the rest of the night and all of daylight on the thirteen with only a small series of skirmishes and half-hearted probes to keep the American awake and tense. At 2045 that night, the hammer fell. American, outnumbered still almost seven to one battled valiantly versus a determined foe and was forced to leave behind the first two sets of entrapments and buy themselves three hours. The Russians came again with another attack of reckless abandonment upon the American lines. Again, they held, but now the Americans were down to the final set of trenches and concrete holes. But time worked against the Russians. They had only enough fuel, troops, and ammo to attack once. They did so. For an hour the battle raged. But when the dust settled, the Americans had won. The line had held.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Brilliant start, phew its exciting stuff!!


Very much looking forward to more.

[Finarfin]

I started to read it but the single, gigantic paragraph just made it too difficult on my eyes.

[unscratchedfoot]

Good story. War is good.

Like the dude says, some spacing would be nice.

[Kaos XIII]

Very nice description of the battlefield. I can almost feel the WAR!!!

[Centauri18]

Paragraphs, dude.

[Jaguar]

Excellent, but I will add a fourth request for paragraphs.


good start.

[SKILORD]

Paragraphs.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Well like most people have said paragraphs would be a welcome addition but so would some more goods.

[johncmcleod]

Paragraphs and please continue the story. It was started on my 16th birthday so it's sentimental to me.

The problem with it is that if there was an hourglass continent and there was that tiny isthmus separating the two nations you'd think there'd be more guys defending it and that the Russians wouldn't get through so easily. Are there going to be any nukes in this story?

[unscratchedfoot]

Signa dude, c'mon continue the story!!!
I don't care - one big paragraph is okay if you must, just keep the supply of goods coming!

[johncmcleod]

If everyone wants me to I'll PM him and tell him to continue it.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Might be worth a try John.

[Signa]

Ok I'll finish it...