Chapter I- In the News
"There is a rumor that they are evacuating Moscow. There are people even leaving Kansas City because of the missile base. Now I ask you: To where does one go from Kansas City? The Yukon? Tahiti? We are not talking about Hiroshima anymore. Hiroshima was... was peanuts!"
"What's going on? Do you have any idea what's going on in this world?"
"Yeah. Stupidity... has a habit of getting its way."
-Dr. Landowska & Dr. Russell Oakes, The Day After (1983)
As the 21st century progresses, with the Cold War left in the past and the horrors of nuclear war no longer at the world's doorstep, people seem- as they so often do once major tensions or conflicts have passed- to accept that the problems once posed to them will never occur again, and that it's inevitable that things happened the way they did. Looking over the actions of nations, of the choices by presidents, chancellors and generals, the common man can flatter himself that he could have done it too, it seems so easy.
But history is not a long series of inevitable events. It cannot be understood through what people in modern times so often demand- five-minute sound bites, so they can hurry up and post something on Facebook. Civilian populations, especially in the regions of Western Europe and North America that most often flatter themselves with the title "the first world", have short and fickle memories. They do not much bother themselves with the memory of events long since past, and Americans in particular like to call themselves invulnerable and truly believe it.
People may have short memories, but nations do not. The history of England stretches back as far as that of civilization, as does that of Italy, China and Egypt. The way nations get along in the present times- or don't- is based off of alliances, conflicts, friends and enemies going back thousands of years.
The victors of a struggle tend not to remember it as well as the losers do. Irishmen descended from men who fought against Michael Collins' Irish Free State remember that conflict better than their Free State counterparts do, and the people of the Southern United States remember the American Civil War with far greater clarity than do the citizens of the North.
When the member nations of NATO emerged victorious over the Soviet Union in the decades-long struggle between the world superpowers the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, their peoples, rejoicing in the triumph of their political system and way of life, celebrated for a time and then forgot. Advancing from the final days of the 20th century into the second decade of the 21st, the people of the victorious side of the Cold War lived in a prosperous, secure world, forgetting that the causes of the Second World War were, without exception, all brought forward by the end of the first.
Choosing to ignore the chance for true justice, to leave the petty strife of humanity's common history behind them, the victorious Allies of World War One instead squandered their chance to truly make "the War to End All Wars" worthy of its name. Led in particular by Britain and France, the Allies kicked a German dog while it was down, happy and secure in the knowledge that it was weak- and would surely never recover the strength to rise again.
And so it was with the former members of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union. Gangsterism and corruption ran rampant throughout these countries in the 1990's and 2000's, chaos and uncontrolled consumerism replacing the rigid order of the communist one-party-states and their structured, state-governed economy. The East Germans, once a key ally of the USSR and with a military that boasted equipment just as good as the Russians- no downgraded export models for them- suddenly became the losers of Europe.
The last commander of the East German Volksmarine, a three-star admiral who was the youngest in Volksmarine history to hold the post, suddenly became an office clerk for a West German admiral two stars lower in rank. Mass demotions and firings happened all through the East German army, air force and navy, and the Volkspolizei- Vopos, as the West Germans called them- suffered similar decimations as the West German government took over their responsibilities. Retirement pensions- some already being enjoyed, some just a few years or even months away- vanished overnight. No explanation was ever given- they just weren't there anymore.
A Major of the Luftstreitkräfte der NVA, looking forward to a well-earned retirement in 1989, was out of a job in 1990 and with the new Luftwaffe none too interested in hiring him or keeping him on. Before long, this Major- and many like him- found that they could not even get their military service recognized as legitimate, let alone receive their retirement pay or post-service benefits from the new German government. As the Bonn government relocated to Berlin, a shocking change was discovered by those of East Germany who had dedicated their careers to police or military service.
A former Sturmbannführer of the Waffen-SS- an organization declared as a whole to be criminal and not worthy of any recognition, respect or honor- in the post-1990 Germany actually had a better chance of getting a pension from the state than a former Major of the East German air force. Much like the victorious Allies of World War One had done, the triumphant West Germans too did much to squander their chance to ensure true justice was done. They forgot that only through caring for one's neighbor- regardless of his politics or whether he had won or lost
your latest dispute with him- could the world truly hope to know peace.
Of course, it would be unfair to say that the West Germans themselves were solely to blame. The French, while committed publicly to membership in NATO, made plans even in the midst of the Cold War to abandon the alliance if a war started between the USA and the USSR and getting involved in the conflict did not suit them.
The United States and its allies quickly forgot about the disgraced and defeated Soviets and the allies they had once had in the world, and the popular conception began to grow in the United States that Russia was a defeated nation and the Russians a broken people. They had lost, and it was inevitable that things had happened this way.
Ronald Reagan, a man not even half as great or exceptional as history has made him out to be, simply got lucky in "winning the Cold War", but he was exalted as a great man and President anyway. The Americans- save for a minority of exceptions- ignored the post-1990 Russia and made no attempt to bring her back into the fold of nations. Russia endured the mockery and laughter of millions, her once-great armed forces mocked and her people if anything worse off than before.
History is often said to repeat itself, but this statement is in truth inaccurate. A detailed, in-depth study of the course of history shows that while history itself is not repetitive, people certainly are. People like to shoot guns, wage war, and kill each other in large numbers over virtually every last excuse that can possibly come to mind. Political disputes of a million varieties, the religion of a people or the colour of a flag.
Mankind came to rule the world not through intelligence, or through its 'humanity', or even through the tools and weapons that, as technology advanced and grew, gave man immense power- mankind instead came to rule the world through a powerful desire to do so, and a willingness to kill anyone and anything that got in the way.
People- especially Americans- love winners, just as General Patton said. They have no interest in compassion or tolerance for losers. What people far too often willingly forget, though, is that losers hate being called such, and some of them will spend years preparing to fight back with everything they have. Sometimes the losers win, and almost always spend their time on the top doing the same thing the last bunch did. Then the new losers come back and everybody swaps titles- forgetting all the while that so long as the world and its many nations must have a constant, arbitrary contest of "winner" and "loser" there runs the chance of the day coming when everyone is the loser.
Hence, when Imran Zakhaev and his Ultranationalist Party began rebuilding and rearming Russia, the Western world reacted with only minimal concern. The evidence building up of Zakhaev trafficking arms- even nuclear ones- in regions of the former USSR, Asia and the Middle East was ignored. So what, some people said- so what if some old bastard who wants to bring back the glory of the Soviet days feels like selling some AK's and a couple nuclear weapons? It's no concern of ours. The Russians are beaten. They're losers.
The events going on in Russia began to become the world's concern, though- even the concern of the United States. The Ultranationalists, impatient and unwilling to let their enemies in the government and military remain in power, made a push that sparked the fire at last, starting the Second Russian Civil War. For a whole year war raged across the cities and farms-turned-battlefields of the Russian Federation, and for the first year afterwards, with the death of Imran Zakhaev and the survival of the Loyalist government, it looked like the good guys had won.
But people have fickle memories as well as short ones, and the public of Russia was divided and confused in the aftermath of their second Civil War. It left wounds and aftereffects as bitter as the first, and this time set consequences in motion that could in the end be far more damaging.
Before long Imran Zakhaev was a hero- statues were being made of him, and a newly-constructed airport was named in his honor, the biggest and most modern airport in Moscow. His own crimes and corruption were forgotten by the Russian people, and only his good deeds- the deeds of a patriot- remained permanent in the Russian memory.
One man in the higher echelons of American military power noticed all this. Lieutenant General Herschel von Shepherd, III became closely aware of the Ultranationalists' growing power, and attempted to warn his superiors of the bring-back-the-USSR movement's steady gains in political and military might. They got the trains running on time again, and even paid for some new ones. The Russian people adored them for this, and the American people could really have cared less. Embittered and shocked by the deaths of 30,000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in Wadiya when President Al-Assad detonated a nuclear weapon in the Middle Eastern nation's capital, the American people turned their backs on the concerns and issues that had gotten them involved in that country's problems in the first place.
General Shepherd's warnings about the Ultranationalists went ignored- he was sent to be second-in-command of US forces in Afghanistan to keep him busy. And to shut him up. But Shepherd, embittered and angry over the deaths of so many thousands- many of whom had been under his command- was not interested in being ignored. He began working behind the scenes to awaken the American people, to start a chain of events that would make them realise the folly of their current ways and retake their place as the sole world superpower. Shepherd's plans and engineered events ran a very good chance of outliving him, however- and of spiraling steadily outward and growing beyond his control.
Boris Vorshevsky becoming President of the Russian Federation on August 11, 2016 was the culmination of years of painstaking preparation, hard work, and a long series of preceding events. It was the final victory the Ultranationalists needed- with one of their own elected President, there was no doubt now over who had won the Second Russian Civil War. If the Ultranationalists- a legitimate and recognized political party in Russia- had just won the election, they had also won the war. It didn't matter that they'd lost their figurehead and leader, or that they'd been defeated on the battlefield. They controlled the highest office in the land, and thus controlled the country. That was all that mattered.
By the time the United States began to notice Russia again it was already too late to stop them. The Ultranationalists were everywhere, driving the seemingly-victorious Loyalist veterans of the recent war from their posts in the government and military. They bribed some, threatened others- and killed any who tried to resist. The lucky ones fled the country- the rest never even got the chance or failed to recognize the danger in time.
The Ultranationalists took control of the Russian Federation, but they had already done much of what they had on the agenda years before Vorshevsky was elected. The military had been regaining its funding and strength for years since the civil war and was loyal- loyal beyond a doubt. So many soldiers and sailors were benefiting because of the Ultranationalists; they had their jobs back, actually getting paid and feeling proud of themselves for the first time in over a decade. It was every ex-Soviet general's dream come true, seeing the Motherland rise back to her rightful place among the nations. If there was one place the Ultranationalists had few if any real opponents, it was in the armed forces.
Boris Vorshevsky flattered himself head of the nation, but he was really just a figurehead. Softhearted enough to fool those dissidents still remaining among the Russian people, Vorshevsky was also enough of a Ultranationalist that you could be sure he'd do what the Party told him. He was smart enough to understand that plenty of men stood ready to replace him if it looked like he wasn't going to do what he was told.
So when a sweeping series of military, political and economic reforms was announced on August 12, 2016, and the Russian Federation was declared "the new Russia", the Russian Democratic Union, nobody was especially surprised. This had been coming for a while. Five long years, in fact, the amount of time that had elapsed since the Second Russian Civil War had ended.
Unknown to all but a select few in the Kremlin, infamous terrorist and Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov had not scaled back his attacks because the FSB had driven him into hiding; he was spending less time on bombings and airport massacres because he no longer needed them. By August 2016, Makarov was spending a lot more time living a life of luxury in the Kremlin, keeping out of sight but well within the loop of Russian affairs as he took time off from his usual terrorist activities. After all, what need was there when Makarov was now in the inner circle of the Russian Ultranationalist Party? It might be a while yet before he could be exonerated publicly, but Makarov could wait. Russia had a war to win first.
The Russian assault on the United States took that nation completely by surprise. The American people, quite used to thinking of themselves as invulnerable, had fully expected that their military would see such an attack coming and deal with it before it reached American shores. But since the creation of the electronic and radar-based surveillance systems that began to truly dominate American defense strategies in the 1980's, American defense planning has been increasingly based on the might of that nation's technology.
But the higher a structure climbs, the more unstable it becomes. The more it towers over others around it, the less push is required to send the whole thing crashing down. So it was with the American military. With visual contact having long since been replaced by reliance on electronic, radar and sonar detection systems as well as a wide variety of airborne surveillance and satellite networks, much greater emphasis was placed on detecting a threat through those means than through actually seeing it. If the electronic eye of the massive and elaborate American defensive network couldn't see a threat, it couldn't possibly be there.
The irony of it all was that while the American armed forces were indeed the premier military force anywhere in the world, the most powerful armed forces in the history of mankind, they were also the weakest. At the greatest height of American military power, the US Armed Forces were at their most vulnerable. Created, maintained and operated by humans, technology in all its wonders is nonetheless prone to error, just as its creators are. Forgetting this was possibly the greatest error of all made by the American people in the 21st century.
With this reliance on the infallible god of technology- in the 21st century a far more frequently-worshipped god for the American people than God Himself- it was surprisingly easy for a Russian invasion fleet, over 100,000 strong in its ground force alone, to sneak past the electronic eye that was supposed to see them coming and up to the Americans' shores.
The SAS might have been quick to raid that Kazakh airbase that had recovered the downed American military satellite that a Russian one had 'bumped into' a few days ago, but the FSB had been quicker. An operative sent by the Kremlin itself was already well off the base and on his way back to Moscow with the data extracted from the cracked ACS module by the time the two SAS men attacked.
They destroyed the module, the satellite it was taken from and damn near destroyed the base- but it none of it mattered. The immense power of the American electronic defense system had been compromised, and the invasion of the United States began as Russian aircraft, ships and tanks began hitting targets all over the East Coast. For the first time in just over 200 years, the American people found themselves fighting for their own home turf- a first-time experience for anyone who had not fought in the War of 1812.
The invasion of Europe began just one day later. On August 15, 2016, while American forces struggled desperately to retaliate and simultaneously evacuate not even thousands but millions of civilians from East Coast cities and towns suddenly turned into warzones, the Russian armed forces- also committing more than 100,000 in ground troops alone- assaulted Europe. Belarus and the Ukraine did not resist- they had been reabsorbed into the Russian Federation a year ago, and were not about to object to something the Kremlin did now.
Assaulting targets all over Europe with their air force, Eastern Europe with the ground forces and landing in Germany and Holland with their marines, the RDU began taking cities in Europe and the US East Coast, driving forward with a kind of offensive power few thought the Russians had left and making it clear within the first day that this was no mere idea, or experiment. This was all-out war, and the Russians planned not only on taking the countries they invaded, but they intended to stay there for quite a long time to come. All over Europe and the US East Coast soldiers, police and civilians fought back desperately, house-by-house and block-by-block. The media began using the term "World War III", and it certainly seemed to fit. From Warsaw to Washington, from Baltimore to Hamburg, it was now a fight for survival.
On August 16, 2016, while the Battle of Washington, D.C. continued in its second furious day, the German and American 1st Armored Divisions assaulted east towards Dresden and Berlin, breaking through the tentative lines the Russians had established along the old boundaries of the DDR and aiming to free both besieged cities from Russian assault. The fighting was brutal and desperate for both sides, with neither taking many prisoners. In Berlin, an American journalist traveling with a team of American infantry took a picture of a German and Russian paratrooper, dead in each other's arms- one from a Makarov pistol and the other a bayonet.
XX
The war turned truly global as North Korea assaulted south across the DMZ, taking advantage of the distraction of American forces in Europe and North America, and thus the near-total isolation of US forces stationed in South Korea and Japan. The navies of South Korea, Japan and the United States battled furiously against the surprisingly-large Korean People's Navy while the Russians- not allies of the North Koreans truly but supporting them nonetheless- sent two battle groups to keep American forces in Japan from trying to intervene. Seoul was in an uproar as batteries of North Korean artillery shelled the city, thousands being killed in just one day. The South Korean government vowed to never surrender to the Korean People's Army, and Kim Jong Un responded that was just fine- he planned on shooting those capitalist pigs anyway. The fighting in the Sea of Japan and along the Seoul Line in South Korea was some of the most furious of the war, with hundreds and then thousands dying on both sides.
Japan, whose armed forces had not fired a shot in anger since 1945, entered the war after twenty four hours of fierce internal debate among the highest officials of the Japanese government. Though the size and strength of its military was limited, Japanese combat units gave badly-needed assistance to the American and South Korean forces holding the road to Seoul; the Self Defense Forces' Air, Navy, and Army components all conducted themselves with courage and professionalism. The Japanese knew as well as anyone what a menace North Korea had become; they had lived under the threat of war from the DPRK for years, and now that day had come. Japan, like South Korea, had no intention of going quietly.
Though initial actions and gains of territory favoured the North Koreans, the despicable reputation Pyongyang had earned itself in the ROK soon began to show. No matter where the Korean People's Army went, no matter how far into the South they pushed, resistance was everywhere. An entire company of T-62 tanks was held up for an hour along a highway leading to Seoul, stopped by one platoon of ROK Marines with guided anti-tank weapons and small arms. An entire squadron of MiG-29 "Fulcrum" fighters, the irreplaceable elite of the Korean People's Air Force's fighter arm, was destroyed just after takeoff by a strike force of South Korean and American planes.
In every town, it seemed, in every door and window of every village, an ambush waited. Soldiers of three nations and South Korean civilians of every description resisted fiercely. Hardly any South Koreans did anything but flee or fight the invaders, and many civilians and soldiers alike fought to the death rather than turn themselves over to North Korean hands, a sharp contrast to the joyful, liberation-style welcome many North Korean soldiers had been told to expect.
Japanese Type 90 tanks, South Korean K1's, and American M1 Abrams tanks, some of the most cutting-edge, modern tanks in the world, were everywhere, destroying a dozen KPA tanks for every one of their own lost. With the Japanese, South Korean, and American air forces all fielding some of the best-trained pilots and most modern aircraft in the world, the KPAF had no chance. The Korean People's Navy was out of the fight within one week, their ancient East and West Coast fleets of Cold War-vintage submarines and surface ships blown to pieces by American torpedoes and cruise missiles. Most of them never even made it out to sea, and those that did were soon found and dealt with.
As North Korean casualties climbed swiftly into the thousands, the US Air Force began systematically destroying aircraft hangars, fuel depots, bridges and key supply and headquarters points in the DPRK's territory. Numerous division and brigade commanders were incapacitated or killed, and with any form of air superiority swiftly evaporating even over their own skies, the North Koreans began to lose ground in a hurry. For the first time in over fifty years, people began to have real hope that Korean reunification was at hand. And for the first time since World War III started, in at least one part of the world, the news was actually good.
XX
When it became clear that the Russian forces landed in Holland would soon reach the Rhine River, cutting Germany off from France and effectively splitting NATO in two, President Mark Bennett made an open television address to the Russian government, vowing to carry on the conflict as long as was necessary- and that Russian forces would not be allowed to take Germany, France, or any part of the United States. There was no response from the Russian government beyond a continuance of the invasions begun two days ago.
In many NATO countries, there were riots by frightened and angry civilians against RDU embassy and consulate locations. In the ultimate irony, police and SWAT teams battled furious crowds at the gates of the Russian embassies of nearly every nation in Europe while their countrymen fought against the Russians at the front. The Russian embassy in Paris was stormed before police could regain control of the situation, and the ambassador was fatally shot. In Spain the Russian ambassador was arrested, and in London the ambassador was summoned to Whitehall and coldly informed that his services would no longer be needed.
When two flights of Russian Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" heavy bombers attacked the docks of Belfast, starting massive fires when a munitions ship exploded and set off a nearby oil refinery, the Republic of Ireland rushed soldiers, EMT's, and firefighters into Northern Ireland. Dublin soon signed an agreement of "mutual defense and cooperation" with the Lord Mayor of Northern Ireland, by default entering the war as an ally of Belfast, and thus, NATO and the United Kingdom.
At 1615 on August 16, fighter jets of the Russian Air Force bombed a German Army munitions storage facility in Berlin. Some of the bombs missed their targets, and a follow-up strike by Russian artillery leveled a school and inflicted severe damage on a hospital.
At 1700, ZNN came on the air with the startling announcement that Moscow was suddenly being evacuated. The effort was apparently begun by civilians in the city, fearful of an American nuclear strike that was sure to be swift in coming. The Russian government did little to contradict this, however, and by 1730 it was confirmed that President Vorshevsky had evacuated his staff from the Kremlin and was on a Presidential airliner- a similarly-unique aircraft designed very much to be a mimic of Air Force One- headed to an unknown location in Russia.
The same news was repeated for the United States, oddly enough. On the East Coast this meant nothing, as the major cities- Baltimore, Washington, Charleston, Jacksonville, New York and others- were already under attack and already being evacuated. As the panicked rumor of imminent nuclear attack as well as the already-present conventional threat appeared and began to spread, more and more news agencies came on the air, each with a confused and conflicting version of what was going on. The United States government attempted to calm the populace but could not halt the massive panic-buyouts of stores in Kansas City and Omaha, or the huge lines of traffic fleeing their homes in San Francisco and San Diego. Finally, much like in Russia, the effort was given up and official evacuations of virtually every major city in the United States began.
A similar situation was occurring in Russia, with neither side's civilians really having any idea where they were running to or indeed what they were running from. Yes, the idea was that they were running from nuclear attack, but where? Where did one go from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baltimore, Kansas City? A few dozen miles away would no longer be anything close to adequate. Weapons of the blast yield seen at Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been rendered "tactical scale" nuclear warheads. Modern ICBM's, each containing up to six individual warheads, could do more. A lot more. Escaping them completely was nearly impossible, unless one lived near Siberia, the Yukon, or Antarctica- or if you could get there very fast.
The casualties of US and Russian forces were climbing into the thousands- the German and American 1st Armored Divisions had really gotten their asses kicked at the Battle of Fulda, as well as a stalemate at Dresden and Berlin- and ship sinkings on both sides in Europe, the Sea of Japan and on the East Coast, the people of both the US and the RDU became increasingly convinced that all hell was about to break loose. They had no idea where they were trying to go- only that they wanted to get away from the major cities, as far away as possible.
At 1800 on August 16, 2016, ZNN came on the air, announcing the first of a series of unconfirmed reports that General Brian Moreland had- after receiving permission from the President- in turn authorized General David Clark, commander of US Air Forces in Europe, to use tactical nuclear weapons in order to halt the Russian advance down the Rhine. Germany and France were in danger of being cut off from each other- NATO itself was in danger of being cut in half. Thousands were being killed on both sides and the Russian Air Force had just destroyed a Royal Air Force radar station in Dover, also bombing airfields elsewhere in Southern England.
At 1900 on August 20, Russian forces took the Rhine River, forcing their way down its shores and completely cutting off France from Germany. General Moreland- who could not be reached for comment as the ZNN reporter traveling with his force had been killed, decapitated by shrapnel from Russian artillery- then ordered the use of three low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons against the advancing Russian troops. The Rhine could not be allowed to fall, Moreland declared to his officers, and nothing was too much if it meant halting the Russian advance now.
At 1915, three US Air Force tactical nuclear weapons were detonated over the Rhine River as the Russian Army and Naval Infantry attempted to cross. More than an entire division of Russian forces- a total of nearly 10,000 men- was obliterated in one instant, along with one of the three B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers that had delivered the weapons. Like the Russians on the ground beneath them, they couldn't get away in time.
At 1930 the Russian Air Force launched a tactical nuclear strike against NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, destroying everything not underground and along with it a considerable amount of the city of Brussels. Though tactical nuclear weapons of the modern age are indeed low in blast yield, this term is relative- the strongest tactical weapons of the 21st century are capable of doing extreme damage to even a major city and causing deaths in the hundreds of thousands. In response to the Russian strike against Brussels, Air Force Global Strike Command- the successor to famed Strategic Air Command- issued a scramble call to B-52, B-1 and B-2 bombers, getting every last one that could be mobilized in the air within ten minutes. The missile units controlling the Air Force's ICBM's were ordered to stand by to launch.
President Mark Bennett ordered the enacting of the United States' "launch on warning" policy, ordering all Air Force and Navy nuclear assets to stand by for launch- he would give the authorization codes the moment it was confirmed that the Russians were preparing to do the same.
The Russian Air Force struck Britain again at 1945, destroying a BMEWS in RAF Flyingdales, England. Simultaneously a group of Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" strategic bombers, famed for being the only prop-powered four-engined bombers still in service and some of the loudest aircraft anywhere in the world, hit another BMEWS station, this one at Beale Air Force Base in California.
At 1800 US Air Force bombers initiated a massive strike against targets on US soil; Hammerdown Protocol was activated for Washington, D.C. In spite of gallant resistance and a fierce effort at counterattacking by American forces in the city, too many key points in Washington had been lost. Trillions of dollars of damage had been done, and over a hundred high-value, highly sensitive strategic and tactical targets were in danger of being compromised. The White House, the Smithsonian, and all of Andrews Air Force Base were obliterated by a massive carpet-bombing.
Thousands were killed, soldiers and civilians- but the Russian advance was halted. The city stood in utter ruins but many hundreds of thousands yet lived as what was left of Russian and American ground forces struggled over the city. In Berlin the German Army battled fiercely to stop the Russians from taking the capital of their country, and the US Army committed all it had available to assisting them in the effort. Despite this, however, the casualty list continued to climb. By a few hours after nightfall US forces were losing far more than they could afford to in cities like Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin, and there position there was even then becoming precarious.