Chapter 17: The War.
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It cannot be stressed enough how much the appearance of Kaiju changed the world. Politics, economics, military doctrine, systems of belief. Nothing was left untouched. There was not a person on the planet who did not take pause to consider their place in the world.
In the United States, congress decided they needed better weapons to combat Kaiju. Conventional forces like tanks and planes simply were not enough. They wanted something more powerful, thus began numerous secret projects. One of the plans bore fruit in the form of the atom bomb.
The research and develop of The Manhattan Project began in 1939. Five years later, on July 16th 1945, the first atom bomb was tested in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It was known as the Trinity Test. The test was a resounding success, producing an explosion that had a yield of over 22 kilotons of TNT. It would change the world in ways no one could foresee.
While observing the test, the famous physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer was reminded of a verse from a Hindu holy book: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one."
Later, Oppenheimer would also explain another verse entered his head during the test. Quote: "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed; a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says: Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
A year later, on July 25, 1946, a second series of nuclear tests were carried out at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Codenamed Operation Crossroads, the explosions were twice as large as the first test in Los Alamos, with an explosive force of 42 kilotons. Decommissioned warships were used as the target, as well as installations on the surrounding islands. The second series of tests would have further reaching consequences than the first.
Another byproduct of the appearance of Kaiju was that battleship development continued. The tactical usefulness of battleships was in question in the 1940s and likely would have been eclipsed by the reach of aircraft carriers. That was true under normal combat conditions, but battleships had been proven to be at least somewhat effective again Kaiju at close quarters. Because of that, obsolete battleships had been given a new lease on life and a role to play in the fleet. The service lives of existing battleships were extended, and new designs were developed.
Countries that could afford it began to build and launch what would go on to be known as the super battleships. They were bigger, badder, and carried more firepower. The first examples were the Yamato and Musashi from Japan launched mid-1940. The sisters-ships both carried eighteen-inch guns, by far the largest naval cannons ever mounted to a warship up until that point.
The United States was close behind them with the launch of the Iowa class of battleships in 1942. Altogether, four of the ships of the class were build. They only carried sixteen-inch guns but were faster and their cannons fired more accurate than the Yamato class. They also had advanced radar, which would give them the advantage in a gun duel.
However, not to be outdone by the Japanese in terms of firepower, the United States launched two Montana class battleships the following year in 1943. The Montanas were similar to the Iowa class, but beefed up in almost every way. The main guns were upgraded to be on par with the Yamato but went an extra step further by adding a fourth turret, bringing the total amount of eighteen-inch guns to twelve as opposed to the nine guns the Yamato class boasted. The ships were longer, the armor was heavier, and they carried more firepower than their predecessors. The USS Montana, and her sister ship, USS Nebraska were two warships you would not want to see across from you on the aquatic battlefield.
The British built four battleships of the Lion class. While less powerful than the Yamato or Montana classes, they were still impressive in their own right. The Germans built the Friedrich der Grosse, which was essentially as enlarged and more powerful version Bismarck class of ship. The Soviets built the Sovetsky Soyuz, and the French built two Napoleon class battleships, which were basically slightly larger Richelieu class ships with an additional turret on the bow with for cannons.
In the air, several countries had begun to develop Jet aircraft, which were designed to be much faster than propeller aircraft, have further range, and would be capable of carrying heavier armaments. Bomber designs got bigger too, meant to carry heavier payloads over vaster distances.
On land, tanks were becoming more heavily armored and featured bigger guns. German designs in particular were superior to their competitors. Though, in general, they were more expensive and more difficult to produce in high numbers.
The effort of countries to produce better weapons to protect themselves lead to competition and eventually an arms race between the major powers. As the years went by, the threat of monsters returning began to fade into a memory and mankind did what it does best and began to fight among itself again.
New main threat for western powers was communism. The Soviets were desperate to recover economically from their losses and saw expansion as the way to do it. The Rodans were still a threat in the east, so they had to look west.
Initially the Russians were successful in gobbling up several of their smaller neighbors, such as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. They even managed to do so "peacefully" in nations like Moldova by boosting communist values in the population and encouraging unrest. When communist revolts broke out in those countries the Russians would intervene on behalf of their communist brothers and sisters.
They would then annex the territory to "protect" them. This was their way of avoiding threats from France, England, and the United States who were quickly starting to fear the expansion of Soviet power. The western powers had to resort to guaranteeing the independence of eastern European nations. If the Russians invaded outright it would mean war.
The Germans were also growing very wary of the Soviets who were creeping ever closer to their border. Th Germans however were still recovering from the dam incident Varan had caused, which had damaged much of the country's infrastructure. Just the same, they were slowly and secretly preparing to counter Soviet aggression.
In the east, tensions were also growing. The Chinese Communist party shocked the world by toppling the legitimate Kuomintang Government in a civil war and taking over. After cementing their hold over China, they began to move to copy Russian successes by spreading their own brand of Communism throughout southeast Asia. This brought together the Japanese and United States, as both powers did not want to see the expansion of communism into their spheres of influence. They feared a domino effect of smaller Asian countries being toppled by communism one by one.
By 1945, the Russians were beginning to make aggressive moves towards Poland and the Chinese were trying to expand their influence into Korea. The situation was a powder keg waiting to go off, finally it did. The Russians gambled, thinking the western powers would not go to war over Poland, and so they invaded. It was a tragic miscalculation.
Not only did France and England declare war, but surprisingly, Germany also joined them a few days later, having their own interests in Poland. The United States was slower to action. They did not instantly declare war, but did begin to heavily supply the French, English, Germans, and Polish, becoming an the so-called Arsenal of the West.
The war began with the Russians making quick gains in Poland. The Poles were having a difficult time fighting them on their own. It was going to take time before their allies could mobilize and be able to support them. Until then, the Polish were fighting the Russians, who outnumbered them considerably, solo. Over half of Poland was occupied before the first German units began to arrive at the front lines. Warsaw, the Polish Capitol was overrun before they could make an impact.
However, when the Germans entered the fighting in force, they immediately brought the Russian onslaught to a halt. While still outnumbered by the Russians in the sky and on the ground, the Germans had much better equipment and training.
The Germans were the first country to mass produce jet fighters and the only country who had significant number of them available at the outbreak of the war. Their Messerschmitt Me 262 "Stormbird" lived up to its name. While the Soviets had begun to experiment with jet aircraft, they were still relying heavily on propeller driven aircraft at the time. Whenever the advanced German jet fighters found soviet planes, they dominated in air combat. The kill to loss ratio was 18:1 in favor of the Germans.
Very quickly the stormbirds chewed through soviet air power, reducing their numbers to a point where the Germans gained total air superior within mere weeks. Losses for the Soviet air force were extreme, estimated to be as high as 85% of their initial fighting force. What was left of their aircraft were quickly withdrawn out of range of the German jets.
On the ground, the German armored core was ripping into the Soviet lines. The main problem for the Russians was their own tanks could not penetrate the heavy armor of their German counterparts. The Germans had a vast number of powerful Tiger tanks leading their spearheads and Russian rounds would simply bounce off the front and side armor of Tigers.
Russian tanks could only kill Tigers if they managed to flank around and hit them from behind. However, by the time they managed to do so, their own forces would be so depleted that they could not sustain the attack anymore. Their losses were quickly stacking up. Because of this, the Soviets were quickly pushed out of Poland.
A month later, the Russians were fighting on their own soil and still losing ground. Soviet commanders were struggling to find a way to deal with the German's technological advantage. Each of their counter attacks were blunted by the German fighters who ruled the sky above them without opposition and would strafe their advancing columns.
However, the Russians did gain an advantage being pushed back so far. As they were driven out of Poland, the front expanded to include Lithuania, Belarus, and the Ukraine. The length of the front line more than doubled it original length. The Germans were still winning, but they were forced to stretch their resources thinner and thinner as they advanced. Eventually this led to the Germans slowing down, which gave the Russians a chance to regroup.
The Russian army used this time wisely, developing tactics to fight against the more advanced German tanks and beginning to field tank designs that could at least compete with the Tigers. As the German's momentum was checked, the fighting became a stalemate and casualties on both sides began to climb sharply. Each side was hoping to wear the other down. The Soviets still had a crushing numbers advantage and were threating to envelope the Germans on their flanks as they brought up reinforcements.
Finally, after two months of fighting had passed, the British and French armies begin to arrive on the battlefield. The British reinforced the northern frontier while the French came in through the south. The Soviet attacks on the flanks found much sturdier resistance than expected and was repelled. With that, the front was once again stabilized for a time. The British and French collected their strength and launched a counterattack. The Soviet defenses buckled and the advance into Russia resumed once again.
On the high seas, the French, English, and Germans commanded a vastly superior navy to the Soviets, but Russia was too big to effectively blockade the whole country. Instead, the allied powers chose to target several key ports to focus on them. Submarines and surface ships patrolled just outside the range of Soviet aircraft and would seize or destroy any shipping attempting to enter or exit the ports.
The overwhelming naval superiority of the Allied powers for the most part was not able to prove decisive in what was mainly a land war. However, there were three notable exceptions:
First, the Russians wished to gain naval superiority over the Germans in the Baltic so they would have the option to navally invade around the front lines if they wanted to. They also wanted to ensure that the Germans would not be able to mine the sea lanes of their home port of Leningrad. If they did so, the Russian Baltic fleet would be effectively trapped for the rest of the war.
Such as it was, the Russian fleet sailed out aggressively, attacking shipping in the Baltic to force the German navy out to engage them. Seeing little other choice, the commanders of the Kriegsmarine obliged, readying their own fleet for combat. It took a little time, but eventually the opposing fleets made contact in the Western Baltic.
The ensuing confrontation saw the bulk of both surface fleets face off in a gunnery duel. The pride of both fleets was present. On the German side, it was the battleship Friedrich der Grosse, supported by the Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Molke. On the Soviet side, it was the battleship Sovetsky Soyuz supported by Kronshtadt, Izmail, and Kirov.
The Germans won the engagement, but not without taking significant losses. The duel resulted in both fleets decimated. Numerous ships were either heavily damaged or sunk. The German flagship, Friedrich der Grosse, survived but was heavily damaged. She would sit out the rest of the war while being repaired. The Tirpitz and Scharnhorst were both sunk along with a lot of other smaller support ships.
The Russians meanwhile limped back to port in Leningrad. Their flagship Sovetsky had also survived but was battered. Kronshtadt, Izmail, Kirov were all sunk. Tactically it was a drawn, but strategically, it was a win for the Germans. The Russian Baltic fleet was weakened to the point where it did not venture out again during the war.
The second occasion was the French naval invasion of Ukraine. The first few months of the war for the French saw slow gains along their front line. The Germans and British were making better gains in their sectors. French command thought an attack from the south could help break things open. They negotiated with Turkey to allow French warships to pass though the Bosporus Strait and into the Black Sea.
The Turks had been longtime rivals of the Russians and had fought them on numerous occasions in the past. They too saw the expanding power of the Soviets as a threat and so it took very little effort on the part of the French to strike a deal with them. The Turks would remain neutral in the war but would allow French ships pass for a reasonable toll.
With an understanding reached, the French secretly sent the bulk of their fleet into the Black Sea and crushed all the Russian warships they found there. The Black Sea Fleet was neutralized but unfortunately the French had underestimated the remaining strength of the soviet air-force, which was still strong to be a threat to their invasion fleet.
Before the French fleet could make landfall, they were accosted by Soviet fighters and bombers. After a few hours of fighting the French fleet withdrew, losing several ships along the way. The majority of the French fleet suffered damage of some type. However, they very narrowly avoided a disaster. While losses had been taken, the majority of their capitol ships survived the encounter as well as their troop transports. It was a tactical loss, and yet, they could still claim a strategic victory.
The French had destroyed the majority of the Soviet Black Sea fleet, ensuring they would not be a threat to shipping in the Mediterranean. In addition, they had shot down a significant number of Soviet fighters in what was an already depleted air force. Most importantly, they had forced the Russians to divert more troops into the area to protect against any future attempts by the French to land there, troops who might have been better used at the front.
In the third case, the British successfully convinced Finland it was in their best interest to join the war before the Soviets once again turned their eyes towards them. Norway and Sweden remained neutral, but allowed the British military access through their territory, which lead to thousands of British troops landing there to supporting the Finish offensive. When the Fins finally declared war, their attack from the north caught the Soviets completely off guard.
The front in the North surged as British and Fin forces gained ground. The Russians were in trouble. Leningrad was surrounded and put under siege within weeks. The situation only changed when the Russian winter started to descend upon the battlefield. The Allies had to suspend their offense as heavy snows congested the fields and roads. Things slowly settled back into a stalemate.
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In the east, about two months after the war in Europe began, the Chinese made their own move into Korea, forming a formal alliance with the Russians. Simultaneously, they began to move in on the interests of the French and English in southeast Asia. Also under threat was the Philippines, which was still a protectorate of the United States.
The situation had finally deteriorated beyond the point of what the United States was willing to just sit back and watch. They declared war on both Russia and China. In the months leading up to the declaration, the United States had secretly been moving men and materials into the Philippines, seeing the writing on the wall.
The United States continued to support the allies in the west against the Russians with war materials, but they focused their military efforts on the east. The full might of American industry began to churn out ships, planes, and tanks while the U.S. Navy was deployed to their forward bases.
With the United States on the move, the Japanese government decided to throw their lot in with them. They declared war on China two weeks later. It was a move of enlightened self-interest rather than morality. If the Japanese did not take a stand and oppose the Chinese in Korea, the communists would be knocking at their own door in time. Korea was too close to the Japanese home islands for them to ignore it.
The Japanese began moving troops into the southern portion of Korea while dispatching their fleet to the Chinese coast to begin raiding shipping and hitting infrastructure in the port cities. It would be a while before they could put boots on the ground on the mainland, but they wanted to soften up China's industry as much as possible.
The Japanese had a technological advantage but did not have the numbers necessary to invade China. They needed to wait out support from the United States. The best they could do in the meantime was hold as much of Korea as possible and slow down the Chinese advance there. It was a narrow front, where having better artillery, tanks, aircraft, and a strong navy would trump any numerical advantage of ground troops. The strategy proved quite effective. The Chinese threw wave after wave of massed infantry assaults at the Japanese defensive line, but each time were repelled with heavy losses.
As the weeks rolled on, more and more support began to roll in from the United states. They had an entire ocean to cross but they also had the largest navy in the world to handle the task. The Philippines was once again used as a staging ground to build up men and materials. The first thing the Americans did was establish large scale bases for their new heavy bombers to conduct air raids from. The bombers could fly thousands of feet higher than Chinese fighters could climb and thus could attack targets far into southeast China unopposed.
The British meanwhile mobilized their forces in India and Australia. The French did the same in Indochina. The Japanese were still holding strong in Korea while the Western allies began to invade from the southwest, forcing the Chinese to split their resources fighting a war on two fronts. It was slow going at first in the south. The western allies had more material to work with but getting enough of it into place was simply a slow process.
The United States had a force of twenty-four Essex class carriers. Each carrier could carry well over a hundred attack aircraft. Once they reached the Chinese coastline, they were a game changer. Their fleet admiral developed a simple yet effective tactic. They would pick a designated area, usually a city center, sail into strike range of their aircraft, and then quickly launch more planes than the local Chinese air defense units could possibly match, overwhelming them.
When all twenty-five hundred American warplanes of the fleet were in the air at once, they looked like a swarm of locusts approaching on the horizon. Chinese defenses were quickly swept aside and annihilated. The carrier fleet moved up the coast, pulverizing everything in a given area, and then moved on to the next target.
The U.S. surface fleet also got involved. The new Iowa and Montana class ships could fire their sixteen- and eighteen-inch guns twenty-five miles inland. They came in to mop up anything the fighters managed to miss. By the time the United States' naval invasion started in the southeast, there was no meaningful opposition to it. The countryside had been picked clean of targets.
With a foothold established, the American army landed thousands upon thousands of troops. They fought their way north, eventually the linking up with the French and English troops coming from the southwest. Together they began to fight their way north. Much like the war in the Europe, the further they advanced into Chinese territory the more bogged down they got in hard fighting.
The Americans had been developing a jet fighter of their own and introduced it into service in the east to help keep up their momentum as they got further away from the coast and naval support. The jets could be flow deep into Chinese territory on put rockets into specific targets with accuracy that high-level bombers lacked. They were used to strike military headquarters and government buildings to disrupt the Chinese command structure. They also flew close air support missions for the ground troops to great effect. Suddenly, tough Chinese defensive positions began to crack one by one.
In the west, the Russians had managed to capture and reverse engineer a German Messerschmitt. It gave their own jet program a great leap forward. As the war dragged on through winter and into spring, Soviet jet fighters began to appear in the skies. They managed to make a more even fight against the Germans, though they were still lagging behind in numbers, quality, and pilot skill. The Germans had grown quite used to their machines over the course of the war while the Russians were trying to narrow the learning curve.
The Russians sold blueprints of their jet design to the Chinese who began to mass produce fighters of their own. However, by that point in the war, Chinese industry was getting hammered daily by United States air raids. Key fighter components were very hard to come by and so only a couple handfuls of Chinese Jets were produced and found their way into combat.
After a year of war in the east, the United States and Japanese had captured the entire Chinese coast due to their overwhelming naval and air superiority. The Chinese had also been pushed completely out of Korea and southeast Asia. They were being pressed in on three sides on their home turf.
The Chinese had the manpower to fight on for years if they wanted to, but their industry was already in shambles and getting pounded into the dust more and more with each passing day by air attacks they could not defend against. They did not have enough rifles, ammo, or support equipment to supply their armies. They realized that it was only a matter of time before they would be defeated. They opted to make a separate peace with the western powers rather than fight to the death.
Because the war in the west was still ongoing with the Russians, and it would save countless lives, the western allies were willing to come to relatively lenient terms with the Chinese. The Communist government would be allowed to stay in power so long as they agreed to four conditions.
First, they would not to mettle in the affairs of their neighbors and respect their sovereignty. Second, they had to cede some land to Korea. Third, they would return Hong Kong to British control. Fourth, they would cede three other trade cities to the United States, Japan, and France for thirty years. Fifth, they would pay war reparations. Sixth, they would not develop nuclear technology.
The treaty was agreed to by all parties and signed. It was a hammer stroke for the Russians. It had all but sealed their fate and was regarded as a betrayal by their communist brothers. With China out of the war, it was certain that the United States would focus all their efforts on Russia and tip the balance of power. The soviets were already fighting tooth and nail for every inch of their territory and were slowly giving up ground.
The Americans wanted to open on a second front in the Soviet far east, but there was one major problem. The Rodans were still the Kamchatka peninsula and would attack anything than came too close to their territory. The Japanese opposed the idea, fearing the Rodans might relocate if disturbed. It was deemed too risky to go that route but as it turned out a new invasion was not necessary.
The Germans already had a plan to bring the war to a swift end. They had been working on nuclear weapon of their own since the start of the war and had finally come to the point where they were preparing to test fire the weapon. Once that was done, they intended to deploy it in combat against the Russians.
The German plan was to lure in the Soviet's newest and strongest armored corps into a predetermined location and use their weapon against them in a grand show of force. The next German offensive was to be against the city of Kursk, and so they used the existing plan to their advantage. The Germans did everything they could to ensure the Soviets aware of the attack. They allowed intelligence leak out which outlined their entire battleplan. The Germans exaggerated the numbers because they wanted to draw in as many Russians units as possible into the area.
As it turned out, it was the perfect plan. The Russians could not ignore the planned assault. If the Germans managed to break their lines at Kursk, they would be within striking distance of Moscow itself and the Soviets could not allow that. The Russians fortified the area around Kursk as much as possible and rushed in as many reinforcements as they could in and around the city.
In all, over three-thousand tanks and nearly two million fighting men were in place to repel the expected German assault. Among them, some of the best units the Red army had to offer. German recon planes were watching the area very closely, seeing their every move. The Russians had fallen for the trap, and now it just needed to be sprung.
The French and British governments agreed to the plan. The war in the west had grown into a meat grinder, eating up men, materials, and money. They just wanted it to end. The United States was horrified to learn that the Germans had developed a nuclear bomb of their own. It was well known to British and U.S. spies that German scientists had been studying fission for years and even developed nuclear reactors, but they had not discovered they'd managed to weaponize it yet. It meant that the United States no longer were the only ones with nuclear power at their disposal.
In the end, United States agreed to deploy the weapon for the same reasons as the French and British. The Russians started the war, but they intended to finish it. With that, word was given to proceed with Operation Fornax. The first thing the Germans did was pull out all of their forces along the Kursk Line overnight.
In the morning, Russian defenders were shocked to see miles and miles of abandoned German positions along the front. They sensed something wasn't right but did not realize just how wrong the situation was until it was already too late. Front line soldiers reported back to HQ in the city and the Russian commanders didn't know what to make of it. They were just about to send scouts into the German lines to investigate and report the strange situation to army headquarters in Moscow. They did not get a chance though.
Russian soldiers within the city could hear German fighters approaching. Soon they were flying overhead. The Russians looked up to see the fighters escorting a huge bomber. Just one though. That was very odd. However, they could not understand the significance of it. Some of them took cover, having been bombed by the Luftwaffe plenty of times in the past. This time however it would not matter.
There was the familiar sound of a bomb being dropped but was not the same as before. Usually there were so many bombs falling all at once that there was no way to distinguish one from another. This time it was a singular sound. For forty-five seconds it got closer and louder, louder and closer.
There was a flash of light. It was brighter than the sun. Anyone looking at it was instantly blinded. A moment later, all of the buildings, all of the soldiers, all of the tanks, and all of the citizens within a mile and a half of the city center disappeared in an enormous ball of fire. It vaporized them into oblivion. The heat of it was equal to that of the center of the sun.
Within seconds, a thermal pulse of intense heat shot out and everything within eight miles of the ball of fire burst into flames. Anyone who happened to be in streets directly exposed to it fell over and began to cook on the pavement. The outline of their shadows were burnt into the cement. Trees were on fire, houses were burning, ponds evaporated, vehicle tires and paint melted away.
Next, the blast wave from the explosion came down like a hammer and mowed down everything in its path for thirteen miles. Building after building collapsed while tanks melted into place or were sent toppling away like tinker toys in the wind.
The blast radius was large enough to cover the entire city and a portion of the surrounding area. Soldiers in defensive positions outside of the blast radius were still burnt by the initial flash and pelted by debris from the city. The majority of Russian forces in the area were annihilated in a few short moments. Those that were left where either badly burnt or blinded by the explosion.
Minutes later, the area was covered in radioactive dust falling from the mushroom cloud. Those Russians who were still fit to fight in the surrounding area came out from their hiding places to witness the aftermath and unknowingly exposed themselves to the fallout. Within a day, many of them were started to show signs of severe radiation contamination. Two days later most of them had died.
Meanwhile, about a hundred miles north, the Germans were just starting to launch their big push towards Moscow, breaking through the Russian lines. Russian high command could not understand what was happening. They had lost all communication with Kursk. They sent a reconnaissance flight to see what the situation was there and found the smoldering crater and the remnants of the city.
The following day the Germans radioed Moscow, informing them what had happened.
Following the bombing and subsequent success of the German offensive towards Moscow, the Allies requested the Russians' surrender. Stalin, true to form, refused to capitulate. He assured them that they would fight to the last man. In response, the Germans threated to use a second nuclear bomb against Moscow itself. It was a bluff though. In truth, they had not yet constructed a second bomb. The bluff worked however.
In the days that followed, there was coup against Stalin. It was led by other high-ranking soviet officials who seized the capitol and arrested Stalin. Once he was secured, the Soviets made contact and surrendered unconditionally. Orders were issued for all their forces to lay down arms. Within days, only isolated pockets of diehard Stalin loyalists continued to resist but were easily crushed.
Despite the coup, the Russians did not get off as easily as China. In the end, the Soviet Union was forced to disband. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan were all granted their independence from Mother Russia.
Stalin was handed over to the allies and put on trial. He was found guilty of war crimes against several eastern European countries and against his own people, having been responsible for the deaths of twenty-million Russians during his reign. He was publicly executed in Red Square.
The Russians were required to pay war reparations and the western portion of Russia was occupied by Allied troops to ensure the peace was protected and a new government could be elected. Interestingly, a communist leader managed to prevail at the polls, though it was a more moderate communist government that took power.
The new Russian government agreed not to develop nuclear technology, but secretly went back on their promise as soon as allied troops had left their borders. They recognized it as being essential for the future of their country and could not afford to ignore it.
The Allies were prepared for the destructive potential of the A-bomb but did not fully appreciate the lingering effects of the weapon. The survivors of Kursk and those living in the surrounding area would feel the effects for the rest of their lives. Birth defects and cancer killed so many long after the war was over. Did using the bomb potentially save more lives in the long run? Perhaps, but the use of the weapon was argued for decades to come. Strong cases could be made from both perspectives.
Seventeen Million people had died as a direct result of the war, notably over a million just from the use of the single A-bomb at Kursk, including those who died from the later effects. The war had been one of the shortest and yet deadliest conflicts in human history.
In the hopes of preventing another war like it in the future, the great powers came together and formed the United Nations. Its aim was to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relationships among nations, achieve international cooperation, protect human rights, deliver humanitarian aid, and upholding international law. It quickly grew to become the most powerful intergovernmental organization in the world.
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-(A few notes from the author:)-
First, special thanks to Trebott. Your most recent support was the final thing that made me decide to resume posting Tactical Assault here. It gave me the final push and motivation I needed, so I wanted you to know that.
I also wanted to take the time to give big shout outs to The seven forgotten kings, Scarease, Chris, and Bob. Without your voices, I honestly would have just let the story end where it did here and continued on elsewhere. So you guys also deserve special recognition. I thank you all whole heartily.
Second, I still highly recommend checking out this chapter over on Tokyo Kingdom's website. There are some major visual cues in this chapter that really change the experience. It simply does not come across if you don't see the pictures. Not having the ability to post pictures at key parts of the story really holds this particular chapter back, even more than most.
That being said, this is a transitional chapter that is meant to help move the timeline along faster and set things up for the plot of the second act of the story. So, if it doesn't feel like a typical chapter for this story there are good reasons for that.
Finally, I'm considering this re-start of the story as a trial run. It's only going to be worth while for me if I'm seeing semi-regular reader interaction. I generally prefer that in the form of a review. Even if it's something as simple as 'good job', a little appreciation goes a very long way with me.
I'm also fine with criticism, if it is constructive in nature and has a fair basis. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a perfect writer. I'm not and English Major and I'm certain it shows. I'm also open to suggestions if anyone has something they think would be helpful. I have lots of my own ideas as to where things are going, but sometimes an outside point of view is a good source of inspiration. I like to know where my reader's heads are at.
Anyways, Merry Christmas to everyone out there and be safe this holiday season.