1944, January 16th, somewhere in the Germanian countryside:
Klaus Vogel was working on clearing the pavement of snow when he heard the crunch of snow from someone's footsteps behind him. He doubted it could be the Chancellor's unofficial henchmen that had disappeared the communists as he had been out of politics for years after realizing there was no point in going up against her, but he could never be fully sure.
He turned around. It wasn't just one person.
It was Johan Dressler and Andreas Becker.
He blinked his eyes in confusion.
"Klaus, I know you have some questions, but the long story short is that we are going to discuss the future of Germania." Andreas Becker said with a grin. "Did you hear about what happened yesterday?"
"No, I haven't been keeping up with the news." Klaus shrugged. "There's not much I could do even if I disliked what the Chancellor was doing."
Andreas continued. "The queer nightclub that the Chancellor and her deputy lover had been at had caught on fire overnight. The investigation is still ongoing. A pro-queer protest kicked off claiming that the nightclub fire was an act of arson, a counter protest started in response, and it didn't take long for a riot to occur between the two groups. When was the last time you heard about a riot in Germania?"
"I know what you're thinking. It's unprecedented under the Chancellor's rule." Klaus responded. "People who had been opposed to the Chancellor are coming back out into the streets. Anyways, what about the anti-queer protestors?"
"A suspected ringleader was arrested, but a contact within the München police force mentioned that there is a good possibility that they may let her go, due to a combination of those that support her crusade against queers, the difficulty with linking her to the actual cause of the riot, and there are others that strongly suspect she would use the trial as a way to raise publicity. We're still confirming her name, but she could be useful in our campaign against the Chancellor."
Dressler cleared his throat. "The Germanian Workers' Party might have been corrupted by the Chancellor, but we can start with a new political party and pick up those that believe she is losing her mind. A friend within the party had gotten a hold of the membership roster archive and identified those that had left the party over the years. Some of my associates are also identifying dissenters within the Germanian Democratic Union party as Conrad Adenaue and Georg Dertinge are stuck between either breaking away from the Chancellor or risk having unrest within their political party."
Andreas smiled. "We could help the GDU turn against the Chancellor, with or without Conrad Adenaue and Georg Dertinge. Or at least cause a split to cripple a major pro-Chancellor party and maybe pull some of their members away from them. I think the future for us is bright."
1944, January 17th, at Thatta:
Colonel Clark Puller knew the situation at Thatta was bad. He had no idea how desperate it was until seeing the destruction and dead bodies everywhere.
He was about to salute as he saw Brigadier Thomas Brodie walk up to his tank when the brigadier barked, "Stop that lad. We already have enough problems with mage snipers with their bloody anti-tank rifles. Do you want to also get blown to bits?"
"Are you in command here?" He asked as he got off the tank.
"Yes, or what's left of the 29th Infantry Brigade. And you?"
He thought to himself, 'How many men did he lose holding this town?...'
"A collection of whatever forces that could rally to Hyderabad before our retreat. A little over 7,000 men. What do you mean by having a fraction of your brigade?"
"The 29th Infantry Brigade's two depleted regiments were merged with the depleted Gloucestershire Regiment."
"And how many men do you have left?"
"Less than 800, out of the entire brigade."
He felt his heart sink. An entire brigade effectively sacrificed themselves so he could retreat from Hyderabad.
"When I asked how bad it was over the radio before arriving here, you said, 'A bit sticky, things are pretty sticky here'."
"Well yes, things are a bit sticky down here."
He sighed before saying, "We're ready to continue west to Gharo."
"I'm afraid that's not possible." Brigadier Brodie responded. "The rescue column from Gharo was stalled, and then was forced back to Gharo. They reported a massive number of CSR infantry had taken up positions next to the road, and I'm not sure if we have the ammunition to just shoot our way through."
"We have tanks. We can run them down like what we did earlier to get here."
"That's what they want you to do, and then their mages that are pretending to be some regular infantry will open fire with armor piercing magic bullets at your side armor, turret rings, tracks and barrels. They have shot through the bulletproof glass in vision slots as well. Then they run off while the rest of their infantry swarm your disabled tanks. Or if you get close enough, they can penetrate your frontal armor using magic ammunition with their anti-tank rifles."
"Then what do we do?"
"Sit tight and wait for an opportunity to escape. We have some air drops of supplies and equipment coming in about half an hour from Karachi's airfield. Maybe they included some tea and coffee this time. Bloody yanks dropped crates of 'Tootsie Roll' candies when we asked for mortar rounds the other day. At least we were able to repair the broken fuel lines in a few of our vehicles with those melted candies and get them moved to more defensible locations."
"Oh, that's actually good. We were running a bit low on food."
"Your lads should get settled in soon. It'll be night time soon, and that is when most of the fighting happens."
1944, January 18th, south of Sukkur, high up in the sky:
Yang Huimin was manning the aerial DShK heavy machine gun with the rest of her three crew members holding up the tripod legs. One crew member would provide a target tracking display for the gunner to use so they could focus on casting a small timed explosive spell on each bullet. While they could stay afloat with the weapon by themselves, they would have to sacrifice their rate of fire with magic ammunition to avoid overloading their single core orbs. To try to perform any high speed maneuvers while firing the heavy weapons was out of the question. It was her turn after loading in a new belt of ammunition, while the previous gunner was scarfing down hardtack. They had learned to use body reinforcement spells for them to actually consume the hardtacks without needing to soften it first, as otherwise their teeth and jaws would have shattered.
Normally they would have never been in such a dense formation with multiple mage battalions, especially with them being relatively static, but it was determined to be the most efficient way of denying airspace to enemy aircraft.
She watched one formation of planes launch their rockets from a long distance. The enemy mage battalion had been holding their position just outside of the 14.5 millimeter anti-tank rifle crews' effective range, but they still didn't move.
The company commander called out using voice spells, "Timed explosive spells, 8 o'clock!"
The DShK crews opened fire and explosions dotted the sky, knocking the rockets out one by one with the help of the target tracking mages communicating which targets their gunners were assigned to. A few remaining rockets were finished off by the light machine gun crews. Meanwhile the anti-tank rifle crews opened up on another formation of planes that dared to try to launch their rockets at a closer range.
"Does anyone hear that?" Another crew called in. "That's not a propeller sound."
The three other men in her crew activated their optical spell to try to search for the source of the new noise.
The previous gunner spat out a chunk of the hardtack and screamed, "From behind and above us! 5 o'clock!"
She spun the gun around and looked up into the sky to see a large formation of planes that were diving down.
"Is it me, or are those moving very fast?" She asked out loud, but soon got her answer.
When the planes launched their rockets, the rockets were also moving much faster, and in a greater volume than what the propeller plane formations had launched. It seemed as if they had designed the new planes specifically to carry large amounts of rockets. Once again the machine gun crews opened up, but this time a few rockets got through and some of the mages came falling out of the sky from the explosions.
It didn't take long for an argument to break out via the voice spells. Some mages were arguing that they needed to spread out, and others insisted on staying in the dense formations as the looser formations would make it harder for them to concentrate fire on incoming rockets. The anti-tank rifle crews also reported greater difficulty in engaging the faster targets as they couldn't fire as many rounds before the fast-moving planes had flown out of range.
Another formation of the fast moving planes appeared in the sky, along with two formations of the propeller planes. That was when the enemy mage battalion moved in as well.
"All crew members not manning the weapons, split up and use your personal arms to engage! Lower your altitudes to stay with the gunners!" the company commander ordered as the planes approached.
As soon as the three men let go of the tripod to switch to their semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns, she and other gunners rapidly fell through the sky. She ignored the falling sensation and held down on the trigger to try to knock down as many rockets as possible without the other mage's target tracking assistance, but quickly had to switch to engage the incoming enemy mages. The rest of her crew were also preoccupied with other threats, but two other gunners propelled over using bursts of flight spells to form up with her. One enemy mage was hit with a few heavy rounds and disintegrated, but the rest scattered to perform evasive actions and throw decoys while circling around them.
She stopped using mana for the bullets, poured it into reflex and target tracking spells, and then laid down bursts of suppressive fire to keep them at bay. Even without using magic, the 12.7 millimeter rounds can still wear down magic shields. Occasionally she would briefly activate flight spells to dodge the enemy mages' fire or cast a lone magic bullet to remind the enemy mages that even a single hit could be dangerous. The enemy mages eventually gave up pursuing them and climbed altitude to engage other targets.
Upon seeing the ground rapidly approaching, she poured her last remaining mana into her flight spell to slow her fall and landed on the ground. The two other gunners that were with her had to abandon their weapons in order to slow their fall to avoid running out of mana.
That was when dead mages, pieces of weapons and occasionally a downed aircraft came raining down around them. And most of those falling mages they could recognize were their comrades.
East of Sukkur:
Miss Caldwell never expected the reversal to happen so suddenly, and it was obvious that many people around her were equally shocked.
She looked back at the direction of Sukkur and watched dark smoke rise in the air. Their originally planned retreat down south was cancelled when news came in reporting that Hyderabad had been surrounded, and there was fear of the city falling long before they could reach it. Especially after the initial counterattack of retaking Sehwān had failed and those forces ran west instead of trying again.
She was there when the coalition forces scuttled their boats and barges before retreating, such as hydrolocking the engines by dumping water into the intakes and destroying whatever weapons they couldn't take with them before sinking the vessels. One commander had their vessels set out for a last stand against the communists to buy time for the rest of the army to retreat. It was a sobering sight for everyone. During her filming, she picked up someone loudly joking "Well they never specified which Christmas we'll be home by."
The only good news that helped prevent total panic was that air support was still continuing with its routine bombing and supply drops as Karachi was still holding along with its airfield, and if they could get far enough west, they would be in range of the eastern Rajasthan airfields.
There was a sudden crack and a magic anti-tank rifle round flew by in front of her, and struck a tank in the side armor. She dove for cover as the tank burst into flames with its burning crew members bailing out.
Another tank rotated and fired a purple smoke round at a shrub line as a second anti-tank rifle round came in, this time leaving a large dent in its frontal turret armor. Soon, a bomb fell out of the sky and exploded over the marked position with the usual bright burning droplets. She could see a shield light up in the inferno, which revealed the enemy mage's exact position to the tank for it to fire directly at the mage, thus ending the skirmish.
"Where's the relief army to help us escape?!" she heard someone yell.
Pithoragarh, directly west of Nepal, about 500 kilometers northeast of Delhi:
General Poulin nervously looked through his binoculars, with the same sinking feeling he had when the Germanians turned the table on him in that disastrous invasion of Germania. Just about a week ago, he had been chasing down routing CSR and North Bharati forces, and only paused when the last of them scurried into "neutral" Nepal or somewhere further north.
Now he was watching Rus tanks emerge in the mountain valley from Nepal to run down his forces. Normally an armored assault through the mountains was a bad idea, but he had very few anti-tank options, limited time to build any anti-tank barricades, and there were many CSR infantry screening ahead of the tanks or riding on them. The few tanks he did have didn't have much anti-tank ammunition. He wasn't sure if the CSR army was intentionally having so much infantry around the Rus tanks that any anti-tank rounds would have to go through multiple bodies first. Ground attack and dive bomber planes couldn't get anywhere close after the heavy weapons CSR mages fortified on top of the mountains to provide anti-air defense instead of fighting in the air. There were also reports of skirmishes in his rear area. The photographs from the jet planes fitted with photography equipment had shown that what he was looking at was just the tip of the communists' spear.
"Major Drake, where are our anti-tank rockets?"
"They'll be here next week." Major Drake looked up from reading a telegram.
"They were supposed to be here today!" General Poulin yelled as one of the Rus tanks fired a shell. Some of the coalition soldiers were already beginning to run.
"Rus planes shot down the cargo plane carrying those weapons and ammunition before fleeing back to their mountain valleys."
"Wasn't there supposed to be more than one cargo plane?"
"The telegram I'm reading reported that two were shot down by what appeared to be 23 millimeter anti-aircraft cannons on top of mountains. The remaining cargo planes had turned back. Our only option is to use trucks to get the anti-tank weapons and ammo in, or we clear out the anti-aircraft guns."
"How did they avoid our magic detectors? And those guns are in our rear area?"
"Magic detectors can't see through mountains." The major tsks in sheathed frustration as he realizes the implications of that fact, "I think there are a lot more communists in our rear area than what we had expected if they're dragging anti-air cannons behind our lines."
In Ludhiana, northwest of Delhi:
Han Xianchu smiled to himself as he read the reports. The replacement general that took Hong Xuezhi's spot for handling the Indus River Valley counteroffensive said that the coalition forces were on a full retreat to Karachi, eastern Rajasthan or Delhi. And the ones retreating to Karachi can't break through his forces to get into the city. Now he could focus his full attention on the battles raging across the Himalaya front..
An aide slid him a new report. "Our tanks have overran Pithoragarh. The infantry's night time flanking around and into their rear prompted a full rout once they revealed themselves. Most of the coalition forces escaped the trap, but they did abandon large quantities of material and some vehicles. The mages that were operating the 23 millimeter anti-aircraft guns requested magic ammunition to improve their lethality against jet fighters and high altitude bombers."
"That's acceptable, we'll just use their abandoned inventory against them. As for the magic anti-aircraft shells, forward the report to the high command. Minister of National Defense Peng Dehuai will finally have an answer to the coalition's impunity with their bombing operations. I can't wait to see what the KS-19 100 millimeter air defense guns are capable of when the mages are operating them. Also, what's the status of the airfield at Pithoragarh?"
"Mostly intact. They set some of the fuel on fire and got all of their planes out, but the runways are usable."
"If the runways are intact, then that's good. We can have the converted Rus transport planes fly in." Han Xianchu said. "Running the modern divisions through the mountains consumed more fuel and replacement parts than I had expected."
He looked at the map again and then frowned.
"Were there any reports of the Germanian ground force or their Bharati army moving?" he asked.
"None at all."
"But the rest of the coalition have been moving their reserves north to counter us?"
"Yes, we're expecting to run into their tanks in a few days."
"What are the Germanians and their local soldiers up to?..."
1944, January 30th, on board USS Texas:
"Captain, we have finished flooding the starboard torpedo blister and ballast tanks." an officer called out.
"Not enough listing. Our shells will still fall short." Captain Charle Baker responded.
"Sir, I'm not sure what else we can do."
"Flood some of our starboard compartments then. Find which ones we don't need and use those."
"Sir…"
"Did I stutter?"
Another officer entered the bridge. "Admiral Cunningham of the Royal Navy asked us if we're sinking."
"Tell him that Rear Admiral Bryan of the US Bharati fleet lost a bet over if I can find a solution to support the boys trapped at Thatta." The captain answered with just a hit of smugness, "And if he doesn't want to flood his compartments to deliver the shells onto the unsuspecting communists, I'll do it myself. Oh, and give Thatta and Gharo a heads up about the incoming fire support."
1944, January 31st, at Thatta:
Clark Puller was told to have his forces ready for a breakout to get to Gharo. The message never mentioned how that would be accomplished with so many CSR infantry blocking his way. He had gotten used to sleeping during the day, and then being awake at night for the usual communists' night time infiltration attempts. The attacks significantly decreased after an airdrop delivered crates full of flares and flamethrowers to his forces which did an excellent job of lighting up the night sky, and the communists. Now the communists were busy building trenches and other fortifications for an extended siege.
He was suddenly awoken by the ground shaking. Confused, he stepped out of his dugout and saw the CSR's positions being pulverized by the naval bombardment and the massive clouds of dust that followed. And the masses of the CSR infantry running around when they realized their trenches meant to withstand tank fire, mortar shelling and aerial bombing were completely useless against sustained naval fire. He could have sworn seeing some of those communists go flying in the air from the blasts.
Brigadier Thomas Brodie walked up to him. "Beautiful isn't it? I thought it was impossible for them to get the shells all the way out here, but it looks like we can finally go home. I was just told that the garrison at Gharo is driving towards us right now as the enemy forces around them are in full rout."
In Berun:
I had just come back to my office after an extended lunch with Visha and some shopping in the local market when I saw General Lergen waiting for me next to my door with an envelope.
Strange, we had just met this morning to discuss the upgrade of our jet fighters with new engines and other improvements. What could he be here for this time?
"Good afternoon General, I wasn't expecting you."
"We need to have a talk about General Romel, and the situation in Bharat." he responded.
When we stepped into my office, I put up my privacy spell and said, "What's the matter? I thought the enemy was still far away from the fortification constructions?"
"That's exactly the problem, Chancellor. General Romel requested authorization for him to conduct a counter offensive to rescue the retreating coalition forces. There is a mass rout of coalition forces all along the Himalayas and the border areas with Nepal and Bhutan, and we weren't told by the coalition command of how severe the routing was until after our morning meeting. The coalition command is torn between either making a stand at Lucknow or leaving it for the communists to take it. The coalition forces retreating east from Sukkur are still being constantly harassed."
I listened to the General as I sat behind the table in the room, "Didn't the coalition send their reserves up north?" I asked after he's done.
Lergen nodded, "They have the tanks but are short on anti-tank ammunition and anti-tank infantry weapons. This is the first time we're seeing Rus tanks appear. It would be entirely dependent on our air power to deal with them."
"Once they're out of the mountains, the Rus aircraft won't have the mountain valleys to retreat through to bait our planes into their anti-air kill zones."
General Lergen pulled two photographs from the envelope and showed it to me. It was a plane parked at an airfield in the mountain valley with a heavy anti-air gun on the mountain top overlooking the airfield. The other photo showed a few anti-air or howitzer guns being towed by tanks. "This was from our jet fighters that were converted into photo reconnaissance planes. It appears the Rus have started using their bombers as transport planes to airlift supplies over the mountains. Our analysts determined that the CSR now has a few Rus M1938 76 millimeter or M1939 85 millimeter air defense guns to protect their Pithoragarh airfield and tanks. It seems that they are using their tanks that aren't in combat to tow the anti-air guns instead of using their trucks. We know they have been using mages as human calculators because of the greatly increased accuracy compared to when the Rus were using those anti-air guns in the Second Europan War. The heavy weapon mages have also been seen on the mountain tops, likely for short range anti-air protection."
"Has the CSR been using any aerial combat mages?"
"Not after our jet fighters showed up."
"If they're using mages for anti-air guns, that means they're trying to make every shell count and have given up on offensive aerial mage combat. You've seen the CSR's mountain road networks, how much can those and the captured mountain airfields support their modernized divisions?"
"Anti-air guns use a lot of ammunition, so that will force them to decide how to allocate their trucks, pack animals and human porters. Which means less fuel, ammunition and replacement parts for their tanks. They can't sustain their offensive for very long."
"I want our air force to force them to decide where to allocate their anti-air guns and their ammunition. They can't protect all of their forces at the same time, not unless they somehow get a railroad through the mountains to drastically increase their logistics capability. And I think it's time we accelerate the prototyping of high altitude jet bombers to get them out to Bharat as soon as possible. Also, what about General Romel? He knows he has orders to stay put."
"We have been exchanging telegram messages and it's getting increasingly heated. He's especially upset with us not doing anything about the coalition forces retreating eastward from Sukkur. He has threatened to resign in protest if you won't allow him to push forward."
...Great, a warmonger trying to play the hero. If I let General Romel have his way, General Lergen and other bloodhounds will also start disobeying me to unleash their aspirations of conquest. I had generals and admirals resign for not accepting the civilian government's ultimate authority over military matters, and to go back on my policy would paint me as a weak hypocrite. I need to deal with this problem before it escalates. But, he's also been doing a very good job with the defensive works constructions, and that was after leading the amphibious assaults in the early stage of the war. This might be a situation where I need to make a subordinate feel his opinion is valued, even as I order him to do the exact opposite.
"What were General Romel's plans? I would like to see what he planned."
General Lergen pulled a set of maps from the envelope and smoothed them out on the table. "While the map information is about two days out of date, his plan was to send in rescue columns to link up with the retreating forces that are still combat effective, and then push to rescue the ones that had lagged behind and were encircled."
I looked at the maps placed onto the table. It had annotations on enemy positions, but not really that much detail. "What do the CSR forces look like and how fast are they moving?"
"Aerial reconnaissance had trouble determining the exact number, but one of the reports described it as 'ants pouring out of a disturbed anthill.'" General Lergen sighed. "They're mainly going on foot, but the retreating coalition forces also have a shortage of vehicles as they had previously relied on the boats and barges for transportation, and it's very clear that the CSR forces can cover more distance than the coalition forces in a given day. The CSR infantry don't have to win every engagement, they just have to bog down the slower coalition infantry, and then encircle them."
I wasn't surprised at all. They did get plenty of hiking practice in Sibyria and Afghanistan, and are probably using supplies from captured coalition supply depots to help them keep marching instead of pausing to wait for their logistics to catch up. "How is General Romel going to break through? If he just charges in with tanks, we all know the CSR infantry will swarm them or have their mages snipe them with anti-tank rifles."
"He was told by the Americans that they recently received a large shipment of prototype mines that can be quickly planted in large numbers, and other shipments of conventional mines including those that date back to the first Europan War. He intends on using those mines to create a barrier on both sides of his columns so their firepower can be mainly focused forward."
"Where did the Unified States get all of those mines?"
"General Romel said they were originally intended to be used in the mountainous area after they crush North Bharat so the CSR won't try to come over." He shrugged his shoulders. "Clearly that intended use isn't going to be happening for a long time."
Damn, those mines would be useful for our defensive lines though. I think on their other applications for a moment before my brows furrow as I remember post-war minefields being a major issue in my first life. Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan and other countries were stuck with acres of unusable land after their wars because of the mines that would maim or kill any farmers or their children that wandered into the uncleared area. I wouldn't want this war to be remembered ten years in the future because a bunch of children played on the wrong open field… but perhaps I could use that to our advantage?
"Did the Americans mention anything about warning the communists of where the landmines will be located?"
"Not at all." he shook his head.
"If they are going to be using massive minefields, they will also have to drop flyers showing a map of the mined area and plant warning indicators so that civilians know to avoid the landmines, and for them to later remove the landmines when the war is over. And they better not be the tamper resistant mines."
It's not the best solution, but the alternative is letting the coalition forces be wiped out and General Romel holding a grudge against me, or we take far greater casualties from trying to rescue them.
Genera Lergen looks surprised at my suggestion, probably not seeing the wisdom of why we should tell our enemies where our landmines are, and so I smiled at him before continuing on: "General Lergen, tell General Romel that his rescue operation will also need to have the dual purpose of slowing down the CSR forces so we have more time to build the defensive fortifications, such as having the mines laid in a way where the CSR would have to clear many of them in order keep advancing or operate their logistics. Make sure that they are visibly marked." Lergen nods as he listens to my words, but then I see his eyes widen minutely in realization as he sees my ideas and already plans are being formulated in his head.
Ah, well, better to feed him devious but helpful ideas than allowing him to formulate his own. We all benefit in the long-run anyway. "He will also be primarily using the volunteer South Bharati army for the rescue operations so that I'm not sending more coffins back to Germania and our OZEV members." I say, and that snaps him out of his thoughts, "And remind him to not overextend his forces to avoid being encircled as well. Can't save someone if you're also in trouble."
A few days later, in Ludhiana, northwest of Delhi:
Han Xianchu threw his cup of tea at the ground upon receiving the latest reports. The divisions that were blocking the coalition forces at Thatta had ceased to exist from the surprise naval bombardment and would need to be completely rebuilt. The coalition forces had even captured some prisoners in their retreat to Karachi. The replacement general was killed when a stray shrapnel struck him while he was in a moving vehicle, it just had to be the day he had decided to visit the Karachi encirclement in person to congratulate a local commander. Perhaps he should look into the possibility of intel being leaked...
Elsewhere, rescue columns being sent towards the north and west from South Bharat's main positions have been making a mess of his encirclements of the retreating coalition forces. The South Bharatian army was taking heavy casualties, but so was his army, and that could allow many of the trapped coalition forces to escape. He was already getting reports of the trapped forces' resolve being hardened now that they knew rescue was coming, which was further complicating his encirclements.
Then there were the damn landmines that his men on the field had yet to figure out how to safely disarm them. And while he was willing to look the other way with how North Bharat's military used South Bharatian civilians for "manual mine field clearing", he was not going to allow his army to use North Bhartian civilians as disposable tools. That would be the definition of "winning the battle and losing the war" if North Bharat's own citizens launch an anti-communist revolution.
Speaking of the coalition air forces, now his scarce anti-air guns and equally scarce ammunition in the Himalayas front were being stretched thin by the coalition air forces concentrating their bombing attacks to overwhelm local anti-air defenses, especially as his forces began to break out of the mountains where the Rus aircraft would take increased attrition. If he tried to protect his tanks, they would bomb the bridges. If he protected his bridges, they would bomb his supply depots or exposed infantry. If he tried to protect them all equally, they would just destroy his anti-air guns and leave his forces completely exposed. Instead of continuing to improve the infrastructure to keep the war machine fed, now his construction crews would have to rebuild as fast as things are being bombed.
"Should we continue holding the encirclement around Karachi?" an officer who is looking at the maps with him asked.
He shakes his head, "There's no point. They got their men out of Thatta, already started their evacuation of Karachi, and the retreating coalition forces west of Sukkur are likely too far away to be supported by Karachi's airfield. Begin redeploying forces to march east towards Gujarat and Rajasthan provinces."
A few weeks later, in Rajasthan, at the outskirts of Jodhpur:
Yang Huimin and the rest of the reconnaissance mages had their binoculars out, staring in confusion at the Luni River. "I think we figured out what the Germanians have been doing the whole time when the coalition was trying to push up the Indus River." she said. "They want us to fight on their terms, trench warfare style."
"That's a lot of fortifications…" a North Bharatian mage spoke with just a hint of awe and fear as he takes in the bristling fortifications. "...They were trading South Bharatian lives to have more time to build their fortifications and to rescue many of the encircled coalition forces." He then points at the running water that is yet another obstacle to the advance . "That river turns dry during the summer, but that wouldn't do us any good as they would probably already know that."
"We have no artillery other than the ones that we captured from the retreating coalition forces." another mage said. "How are we supposed to punch through that defensive line with only light infantry?"
They've heard of how the Great War went, even if it's only scraps and pieces. They know that that's the war Germania fought it, was beaten in, but it doesn't change the fact that they're now facing the possibility of fighting the enemy on their own familiar terms.
They could only hope that their superiors have a plan to overcome this.
AN:
wiki/USS_Texas_(BB-35)#D-Day
By 15 June, the troops had advanced to the edge of Texas's gun range; her last fire support mission was so far inland that to get the needed range, the starboard torpedo blister was flooded with water to provide a list of two degrees which gave the guns enough elevation to complete the fire mission. With combat operations beyond the range of her guns on 16 June, Texas left Normandy for England on 18 June.[47][54]
As for the CSR's "rebuild ASAP strategy, there is a photo from the Korean War that showed six bridges in the same area, and the photo had the description: "Superfortresses bomb bridges across the Chongchon River north of Pyongyang in October 1952. The communists built multiple spans hoping to keep at least one open. (U.S. Air Force photo)"