Godzilla: War Stories

by Locutus6

A gritty, mature, and serious take on Godzilla with horror elements. Written in the form of an ongoing television series. The military wages a desperate war to defend humanity against monsters who begin to appear around the globe. (FYI: If you liked 'Godzilla: Minus one', the plot to this story is actually pretty similar.) Latest Chapter: (The Demonstration).

17. Chapter 17: The War

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 atomic bomb.

The research and development 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 explain that another impactful verse entered his thoughts 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 combat effective against Kaiju at close quarters. They were one of the very few weapons that were. Because of that, obsolete battleships had been given a new lease on life and a role to play in most countries' fleets. The service lives of existing battleships were extended, and new designs were developed.

Countries that could afford it began to build 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, which launched mid-1940. The sister-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 battleships in 1942. Altogether, four ships of the class were built. They only carried sixteen-inch guns but were faster and their cannons fired more accurately than the Yamato class. They also had advanced radar, which would give them the advantage in a head-to-head gun duel.

However, not wishing to be outdone by the Japanese in terms of sheer firepower, the United States launched two Montana class battleships a year later 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 opposing you on the high seas.

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 an enlarged and more powerful version of the 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 warships with an additional turret on the bow sporting four cannons.

In the air, several countries had begun to develop jet aircraft, which were designed to be much faster than propeller airplanes, have further ranges, and would be capable of carrying heavier armaments. Bomber designs got bigger too, which were meant to carry heavier payloads over much 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. Maintenance issues were also an ongoing problem.

The effort of countries to produce better weapons to protect themselves led 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 distant memory, and mankind did what it does best, and began to fight among themselves again.

Instead of focusing on and preparing for the inevitable return of Kaiju, the new main threat for western countries was the creeping and corrupting power of communism. The Soviets were desperate to recover economically from their losses and saw expansion as the best 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 without attracting too much interference from the west. They even managed to occupy some nations 'peacefully', such as Moldova, by boosting communist values in the population and encouraging unrest against the legitimate governments. When communist revolts broke out in those countries, the Russians would intervene on behalf of their communist brothers and sisters as benevolent liberators.

The Soviets would then annex the territory to "protect" those citizens. This was their sly 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 them outright, it would mean war.

The Germans were also growing very wary of the Soviets, who were creeping ever closer to their border. The Germans, however, were still recovering from the dam incident Varan had caused, which damaged much of the country's infrastructure. Just the same, they were slowly and secretly preparing, drawing up plans to counter Soviet aggression.

In the East, tensions were also growing. The Chinese Communist Party shocked the world by toppling over the legitimate Kuomintang Government in a bloody civil war and took over the whole country. They did not achieve this on their own, however. The Russians had been secretly supplying them weapons for years and training their forces. At the same time, communist agents had infiltrated every level of the Kuomintang Government to weaken them and bring them down from the inside. When the communists finally acted openly, the Kuomintang fell alarmingly fast. Province by province, the communists took control until the whole of the country was within their grasp. The rapid fall of China stunned the western allies and made them realize they needed to start actively involving themselves in the affairs of Southeast Asia.

After cementing their hold over China, the Communist Party began to move to emulate Soviet successes by spreading their own brand of communism throughout Southeast Asia. This threat brought together the Japanese and United States, as both powers did not want to see the expansion of communism into their own spheres of influence. They feared a domino effect of smaller Asian countries being toppled over by communism one by one.

By 1945, the Soviets were beginning to make aggressive moves towards Poland and Finland. They were emboldened by the West's lackluster response to their earlier invasions. They had learned a lesson from the Germans in the thirties. If they moved slowly and only took small bits of territory at a time, they could avoid open war with the West. Meanwhile, the Chinese were also trying to expand their influence into Korea. The situation was a powder keg waiting to go off, and it finally 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 territorial 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 with weapons, ammo, and supplies. Eventually, they were given the moniker of: The Arsenal of the West.

The war began with the Soviets 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 fully support them. Until then, the Polish were fighting the Russians, who outnumbered them considerably, all alone. Over half of Poland was occupied before the first German divisions began to arrive at the front lines. Warsaw, the Polish Capitol, was overrun and captured before they could have any 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 far better equipment and training. The Germans were the first country to mass produce jet fighters and were the only country to have a significant number of them immediately available for combat 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 fighters at the time. Whenever the advanced German jet fighters found soviet planes, they dominated in dogfights. The kill to loss ratio in the first two months of the war was 18:1 in favor of the Luftwaffe. The Soviets were totally unprepared and lost thousands of aircraft.

Very quickly, the stormbirds chewed through Russian air power, reducing their numbers to a point where the Germans gained total air superiority within mere weeks. Losses for the Soviet Airforce was 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.

Meanwhile on the ground, the German armored core was ripping through 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. Soviet tank rounds would simply bounce off the front and side armor of Tigers, meaning 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 rapidly pushed out of Poland.

Only a month after the Germans entered the war, 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 counterattacks were blunted by German fighters, who now ruled the sky above them without Russian opposition and were free to routinely strafe advancing Soviet columns.

However, the Russians did gain an advantage being pushed back so far. As they were driven out of Poland, the front lines expanded to include Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. The length of the front line had more than doubled its original length. The Germans were still winning, but they were forced to stretch their resources thinner and thinner as they advanced. Their supply lines were also being stretched. These two factors combined eventually 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 three months of fighting had passed, the British and French armies began 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 repulsed. With that, the front was once again stabilized for a time. The British and French collected their strength and then launched a massive counterattack. The Soviet defenses buckled and the allied 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 for the whole country to be effectively blockaded. Instead, the allied powers chose to target several key ports and focused entirely 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.

For the most part, the overwhelming naval superiority of the allies was not decisive in what proved to be primarily a land war. However, there were three notable exceptions: First, the Russians wished to gain naval superiority over the Germans in the Baltic Sea so they would have the option to navally invade around the front lines and land troops 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 the Germans managed to do 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 Sea to force the German Navy to come out and 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 armadas made contact in the Western Baltic.

The ensuing confrontation saw the bulk of both surface navies 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 the Kronshtadt, Izmail, and Kirov.

The Germans won the engagement, but not without taking significant losses. The duel resulted in both fleets being 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 smaller support ships.

The Russians meanwhile limped back to the port in Leningrad. Their flagship Sovetsky had also survived but was battered. However, Kronshtadt, Izmail, and Kirov were all sunk. Tactically it was a draw, but strategically, it was a win for the Germans. The Russian Baltic Fleet had been weakened to the point where it could no longer venture out.

The second occasion were naval power was a factor in the war was the French's amphibious invasion of Ukraine. The first few months of the war for the French saw slow gains along their frontline. The Germans and British were making better advances in their sectors and were outperforming the French in a very conspicuous way. French Command thought an attack from the south could help break things open. They negotiated with Turkey to allow French warships to pass through the Bosporus Strait 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 passage 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 enough to be a threat to their invasion forces.

Before the French Navy could make landfall, they were accosted by Soviet fighters and bombers. After a few hours of intense fighting, the French Fleet withdrew, losing several ships along the way. The majority of the French flotilla suffered damage in one way or another. However, they did manage to avoid 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.

While the French had failed to achieve their primary objectives, they could still hang their hats on the fact that they had destroyed the overwhelming majority of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. That ensured those vessels would not be a threat to shipping in the Mediterranean for the remainder of the war. In addition, the French armada 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 around the Ukrainian coast to safeguard against any future naval landings the French might attempt, troops who might have been better used at the front.

In the third and most consequential 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 they both allowed the British military access through their territory, which led to thousands of English troops landing there to support the Finish offensive. When the Fins ultimately declared war, their attack from the North caught the Soviets completely off guard. Russian intelligence had failed in a big way.

The front in the North surged as British and Finish forces gained ground. The Russians were in trouble. Leningrad was surrounded and put under siege within weeks. The situation only changed when the famous Russian winter started to descend upon the battlefield. The Allies had to suspend their offensive as heavy snows congested the fields and roads. Things slowly settled back into a stalemate.

...

In the East, about five months after the war in Europe began, the Chinese made their own move into Korea, establishing a formal alliance with the Russians. Simultaneously, they began to move in on French and English colonies in southeast Asia. The Chinese calculated that the Europeans would be so busy with the war in Europe that they wouldn't be able to respond to a threat to their far-flung colonies on the other side of the world. They miscalculated though. A declaration of war from France and England quickly followed the invasion.

Also under threat, though not actually attacked, was the Philippines. They were still a protectorate of the United States. Filipino ships were being stopped and seized in international waters by the Chinese, who were now claiming it as their own. The outright invasion of Korea had already put the American Government on edge, but the situation on the high seas finally pushed a peaceful solution out of reach. The breaking point came when an unmarked American ship was attacked. That was the casus belli the administration needed to get involved. Public opinion about the Chinese quickly deteriorated to the point where the average citizen of the United States was now clamoring for war.

The United States declared war on both the Chinese and Russians. 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. Some even believed that the ship that had been captured by the Chinese was a plant put there to swing public opinion against them and give the Government the perfect excuse to enter the war.

The United States continued to support the Allies in the West against the Russians with war materials, but they focused their own military efforts on the East. The full might of American industry began to churn out warships, planes, and tanks, while the U.S. Navy was deployed to their forward operating bases in preparation for combat.

With the lumbering juggernaut of the United States finally on the move, the Japanese Government decided to throw their lot in with them. They declared war on China five 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 front door given 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 key infrastructure within their port cities. It would still be awhile before they could put boots on the ground in mainland China, but they wanted to soften up their industry as much as possible first.

The Japanese had a technological advantage, but they simply did not have the numbers necessary to invade China. They needed to wait for 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 naval presence, 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, they were repelled with heavy losses.

As the weeks went by, 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 focused on doing was establishing large scale bases for their newest 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 in southeast China entirely unopposed.

Meanwhile, the British 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 ponderous process.

The United States Navy had a force of twenty-four Essex class carriers. Each of those carriers could hold well-over a hundred attack aircraft. It took time for them to sail across the Pacific, but once they reached the Chinese coastline, they were a game-changer. The officer in charge of this force, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, was a very aggressive commander. He developed a simple yet effective tactic. He would pick a designated area, usually a city center, sail into striking range of the target with the fleet's aircraft, and then quickly launch more planes than the local Chinese air defense units could possibly counter, overwhelming them. Halsey's philosophy was simple. "Hit hard, hit fast, and hit often."

When all twenty-five hundred American warplanes of the carrier-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 their path, 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 carrier's fighters managed to miss. By the time the United States' naval invasion started in the southeast, there was no meaningful opposition to resist them. The coastline had been picked clean of hard targets. Any significant defenses had been annihilated.

With a foothold established, the American Army landed thousands upon thousands of troops. They fought their way north, eventually linking up with the French and English divisions coming from the southwest. Together, they began to fight their way north. Much like the war in 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 flown deep into Chinese territory and put rockets into specific targets with an accuracy that high-level bombers simply 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 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 back into spring, Soviet jet fighters began to appear in the skies over the battlefield. 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 actually produced and found their way into combat.

After a year of war in the East, the United States and Japan had captured the entire Chinese coast due to their overwhelming naval and aerial superiority. The Chinese had also been pushed completely out of Korea and Southeast Asia. They were being pressed in from 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 it was 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 fully 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. They had gambled and they had lost.

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 six conditions. First, they would not mettle in the affairs of their neighbors and respect their sovereignty. Second, they had to cede some land to Korea for starting the war. 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 to 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 to their European opponents.

The Americans wanted to open up a second front in the Soviet Far East, but there was one major problem. The Rodans were still living in the Kamchatka Peninsula and would attack anything that came too close to their territory. The Japanese strongly 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 a nuclear weapon of their own since the start of the conflict 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 were aware of the impending attack. They allowed intelligence to leak out which outlined their entire battleplan. The Germans exaggerated their numbers, because they wanted to draw in as many Russian units as possible into the battle.

As it turned out, it was the perfect plan. The Russians could not ignore the massive German assault as it was outlined. If the Wehrmacht 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. Soviet troops were packed inside 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 were some of the best units the Red Army had to offer. German recon planes were watching the area very closely, seeing the Soviet's 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 were no longer the only country with nuclear power at their disposal.

In the end, the United States agreed to deploy the weapon for the same reasons as the French and British. The Soviets started the war, but the Allies 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 front 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 things were, until it was already far too late. Frontline soldiers reported back to Russian HQ in the city of Kursk, and Soviet 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 Red Army Headquarters in Moscow. They did not get a chance though.

Russian soldiers within the city could hear German aircraft approaching. Soon, the enemy planes were flying overhead. The Russians looked up to see dozens of fighters escorting a huge bomber. Just one though. That was odd, very odd. Why would so many fighters be needed to escort just one plane? The common Russian soldiers simply 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.

Before long, there was the familiar sound of a bomb being dropped, but it 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.

Suddenly, there was an intense 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 of Kursk disappeared in an enormous ball of fire. It vaporized them into oblivion. The heat of it was hotter than the center of the sun.

Within seconds, a thermal pulse of intense heat shot out, and everything within eight miles of the gigantic ball of fire burst into flames. Anyone who happened to be in the 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 in a thirteen-mile radius. Building after building collapsed, while steel 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 zone 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 were either badly burnt or blinded by the explosion.

Minutes later, the area was covered in radioactive dust falling from the titanic mushroom cloud that had formed at the center of the explosion. 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 starting to show signs of severe radiation contamination. Two days after that, most of them had died.

Meanwhile, about a hundred miles north, the Wehrmacht were just starting to launch their big push towards Moscow, breaking through Soviet 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, German High Command radioed Moscow, informing them what had happened.

Following the bombing and subsequent success of the German offensive towards Moscow, the Allies requested that the Russians' surrender. Stalin, true to form, refused to capitulate. He assured the Allies that they would fight to the last man. In response, the Germans threatened 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 a coup against Joseph Stalin. It was led by other high-ranking Soviet officials who seized the capitol and arrested the dictator. Once he was secured, the Soviets made contact with the Allies 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 they were easily crushed.

Despite the coup, the Russians did not get off as easily as China had. In the end, the Soviet Union was forced to disband and carved up into pieces. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan were all granted their independence from Mother Russia.

Joseph Stalin was handed over to the Allies and put on trial. It was the ultimate humiliation for him. Stalin was found guilty of war crimes against several eastern European countries, and even 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 ended up taking 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 of the residual radiation for the rest of their lives. Birth defects and cancer killed so many people 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 Second Great War, notably over a million just from the use of the single atomic 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 uphold international law. It quickly grew to become the most powerful intergovernmental organization in the world.

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