Managua, the American Passchendaele(Part 1).
After the fiasco of the Second Battle of San Jose, orders arrive to reduce the number of forces in Nicaragua and Panama to only the minimum necessary to hold out the enemy. The only good news were the finaly development of a practical turbojet, and now, all that was left to do was to develop airframes specifically tailored for this kind of propulsion.
With the Germans, lacking the necessary infrastructure to be ahead of the UDMS-KKK in the field of new turbojet fighters and interceptors, all that was available were some old sketches of a Soviet project, back when the Soviet Union was anything of relevance. Considering their situation, History will have to take a seat, because the LIM-1 will be written as a Polish project mass produced for the UDMS-KKK, and besides, PZL(now a private company in the free market as decreed by the Objectivist economic policies) would have to nearly design it from scratch, for the Soviet papers were very, very sketchy. In the meantime, the other units that were to to waste time defending the two regions from the pinned down aliens at Costa Rica were soon to depart.
One thing about desiring the minimum necessary to guard a place is that sometimes, the calculation of how many such minimum should have goes wrong:
Another Hans Zimmer music for a battle in a movie
The Battle of Nicaragua
At 18:00 hours, the tripods began to break through the defensive perimeter, alarms were raising, and a few minutes later a rain of artillery shells hides the sun from the horizon. The attack is perverse, methodical and deadly: the combined arms of infantry in power armor with tripods. The calculations were wrong, they would never hold out for much time. Transport fleets began to move quickly to solve such situation.
While the battle of Managua seems close to an end, the ships blockading Costa Rica are harrassed by a lone carrier and its only escort.
The reinforcements arrived in time, but they were failing to turn the tide of this bloody battle. It was to no avail. Managua was lost, and if the enemy managed to rebuild its fortresses, it would be completely impenetrable. There was only one good new about it: the enemy was spread out between two regions now, instead of locked in a single region. There was still a spirt of stubborness wishing for an attempt of an almost immediate offensive against Nicaragua. Such spirit would give rise to another great battle, the Battle of Nicaragua.
Managua is lost. The entire plan of holding them off goes down through the drain.This could be the end, if the enemy spreads out widely enough. Thus, to buy time, there are orders to bomb every piece of infrastructure Costa Rica.
A spirit that has driven millions to launch an offensive deemed hopeless and futile. At the start, the attackers seemingly had the odds is their favor. But it was only an illusion. The large quantities of caranage, death and horror would frighten and demoralize any army going through such massive ordeal
After Sikorsky, another General has found death, as a tripod broke through the lines and assaulted his mobile HQ, killing him and more dozens of people. Tadeusz Kutrzeba has been one of the few to survive through the pointless last stand of the Polish Army during 1941, the darkest year of humanity.
Slowly, the situation deteriorates. Yet blood will be shed for days to come. Despite intense shelling and use of anti-tank guns, the tripods, supported by POPAMOLES, become relentless. Anti-tank gun crews begin to die, one by one, and it becomes clear only a miracle could change the outcome of this battle.
But no miracle happened, and the enemy launches an immediate counter-attack after the disastrous offensive, which at least has managed to kill large amounts of enemy forces in power armor. Anders and Maczek had a plan, however. A tactic of defense-in-depth with several funnels that would lure the enemies into deadly barrages of artillery and ambushes by hundreds of 14TPs. Many were dying and would die in the defense of Guatemala, and when it seemed victory was so distant, when the enemy pushed through deep in the lines, the final hope was given, the last attempt to halt their advance:
For a moment, massive clouds of blackness and smoke arose. Like with the hyperbolic claims of Xerxes army regarding their barrage of arrows blotting out the sun in the Battle of Thermopylae, during the most critical moment the Battle of Tegucigalpa, so many artillery shells were fired at once that for a few seconds, the sun vanished from sight, and once they fell, the smoke covered and obscured everything for a while like a thick fog. Many soldiers were worried, as their visibility was affected. Tense moments until the dust settled down.
Through sheer force overcoming technological superiority, the enemies suffered tremendous losses. And unlike humanity, they would never recoup their losses, at least not regarding their most advanced armies. However, despite their immense casualties, they still insisted in trying to break through Guatemala.
Then, during the late night of 17th of March, the enemy has decided to retreat, giving finally a breathing space for the soldiers who gave their blood and sweat in defense of humanity. It was a tough fight, but the enemy was seriously damaged by the ingenious combination of the two greatest minds of the Polish Confederation of America, and perhaps, of the UDMS-KKK as well. This battle was considered almost as important as the battle of Panama, and now, the enemy has been successfully halted. But they would rebuild the forts in Nicaragua on their own, unless there could be a chance of attacking them now that they suffered serious losses in their failed attack. These questions vanished from the thought of WhiskeyWolf when the worst that could happen happened to the south of this bloody battlefield.
Four supersonic UFOs began to simply wipe out the bombers that were conducting bombings against the logistics infrastructure of San Jose. Immediately, the interceptors were called, but it was know there was nothing to be done. Four interceptor wings barely managed to defeat one of those aircrafts, with one of them losing a quarter of their aircrafts during the battle. It was unwise to keep doing this, after its utility was over, but now there was no turning back to correct such mistake.
The escort fighters and tactical bombers were swatted from the skies, and to make things worse, the number of enemy aircrafts suddenly seemed to have doubled.
Three bomber wings totally lost, and the one who wasn't had only two bombers left after it was wrecked by those interceptors. One of the interceptor wings were also lost in this hopeless battle for air superiority. It was clearer than ever, that without the PZL. LIM-1 and potential improvements over it, the UDMS-KKK would never stand a chance in the air.
Specially because the enemy decided to keep near a hundred of wings in San Jose, according from the crude intelligence data gathered from the seas. A decision was also made. No pussying out, the chance was there. With horrible infrastructure, San Jose would be a severe drain of organization and make the enemy take ages to send reinforcements to Managua, thus, maybe the losses of all those aircrafts and pilots in the massacre of San Jose were not totally in vain. But to wait was a luxury. For every day, the forts were slowly expanded. If an attack was not launched as soon as the survivors reorganized and prepared themselves for the next assault, the enemy could end having a near impenetrable fortress in their hands. And thus they prepared themselves logistically and in morale for weeks, until the time was finally ripe for one more attempt, that hopefully would permanently make several enemy divisions even more understrength than they already ended after their failure in Guatemala.
But first, a completely diversionary attack was launched against Costa Rica to draw the enemies away from Nicaragua and towards the perceived threat.
While two ASW destroyers learn they are not supposed to dive. Most of the divisions that participated of the diversionary attack against San Jose were transported to Guatemala by sea to quickly join the coming real offensive.
Supported by heavy naval bombardment and hundreds of tanks, the assault on Nicaragua, featured by its tank-friendly topography(according to HoI2), begins.
After four days of battle, the offensive begins to lose momentum, as casualties accumulate, but the goal of weaking the enemy forces has been accomplished, somewhat. It is unlikely this is the end, however. More people will have to die if Amerikwa is to ever be fully free again.
Even the infamous Necrons have taken significant losses, proving that although demanding in immense sacrifices of human life and resembling the brutality of the Great War, this method of attrition warfare works.
And another bloody, almost one-week long offensive is thus halted. Some began to distrust and question these methods due to the heavy death tolls they were provoking, for the weapons the enemies had turned any type of assault into a particularly gruesome one. For now though, the men would have more two weeks of rest to prepare for the next nightmare.
These offensives have almost certained costed the lives of more than two hundred thousand soldiers. However, no matter the price, theirs was a sacrifice willingly paid. Soldiers of Amerikwa, Canada, Mexico, Central Amerikwa, Brazil, Argentina, the rest of South Amerikwa, Poles, Finns, Norwegians, Brits, Hungarians, Italians, Jews, Romas, Yugoslavs and Germans. They respected their cultures, but lived in separated communities and language-defined nations to avoid the taint of multikulturalism. It was perhaps an unique occasion despite the tragic circumstances and losses of life, to see so many different people, who in many cases fought against each other in the past, united for a greater common goal.
Meanwhile, more nuisance. But this nuisance carrier begins to become dangerous, sinking a transport and two heavy cruisers. Immediately, the Main Battlefleet is sent there to finish it off.
Weather forecast was cautiously observed during all the time. The difference between rain and clear skies was the difference between fifty less or more pages in the list of dead soldiers after an offensive. This now nearly a month long battle was truly reminding the brutal trench warfare of the Great War in scale and number of casualties.
It seems that this time, the new divisions shipped off from South America were tipping the balance in favor of humanity. Slowly, in a grueling advance, the attack succeeded, while the enemies were taking significant losses.
Until the reinforcements arrived. But still, several divisions of power armor were under the risk of being completely annihilated as their strength went below 25%. Such opportunity could not be lost.
But, like before, the offensive had to be halted before a greater disaster could occur, and thus, after three days of nonstop fighting, things once again went into the same ennui of a World War One trench. More waiting, more reorganizing, and WhiskeyWolf persisted that these attacks, even if failing, were seriously crippling the enemy, while soon the Battle of Nicaragua would now become 2 months old, with a fitting number of casualties.
And thus, once again they attacked, and once again, the focus was on the combination of armored advances and elastic defense with artillery saturation, and soldiers using RPGs to ambush enemy infantry in power armor. This time, the starting situation was far more favorable, maybe, maybe this would be the time things would turn and after so many deaths and months of fighting, a long dreamed V-A (Victory in Amerikwa) Day could finally happen.
Against all odds, the attackers managed to coordinate and synchronize their actions, and succeed at enough advances, to completely surround many of the enemies, while some of their divisions were even closer to extermination.
However, their technological supremacy made the encirclement quite short-lasted, unfortunately. Still, they seemed to be about to break down. Perhaps now victory would be assured, perhaps now was really the time.
So close from victory, yet so distant. The enemies were pushed into the far sotuh of Nicaragua until additional reinforcements arrived and gave them a little push northwards, forcing the attackers to do a tactical retreat and continue falling back and dealing as much damage as possible through artillery barrages and armored ambushes.
With another defeat, the pressures began to increase exponentially for a purely defensive approach with construction of fortifications at Guatemala while now, this battle alone was soon to provoke more casualties than those during the entire length German offensive against Poland. The French Esprit de Défaitisme was strong among some people.
This battle would have to end in a victorious outcome soon, or WhiskeyWolf reputation would be forever tarnished by the vain deaths of hundreds of thousands in Central America.