Wulf looked at the video image being relayed to his screen from the small aerial drone a thousand meters above them. The drone was giving him a wide top-down view of the battle happening around them. He could see several of his vehicles had been destroyed, while many others were heavily engaged with an unseen enemy at the edges of their flanks. Seeing them fighting off to the side meant they were doing their job, keeping the Russian infantry from getting too close to the tanks and firing off their RPGs and other antitank weapons.
Scanning further ahead of where the Panzers were headed, he saw several strong points that might prove challenging for the tanks to overcome. He signaled to the Air Force LNO traveling with him to see if they could get some air support to hit those units.
“Move the drone higher, I want to get us a better overview of the battle,” he said to the young soldier manning the battalion’s eye in the sky.
Boom!
Another explosion rocked their vehicle, slapping it with shrapnel as they continued to keep up with the tanks. The gunner let loose a series of short bursts from their main gun at a target Wulf couldn’t see.
When the drone reached one thousand meters, he saw a cluster of Russian tanks forming up on the opposite side of a small village they were approaching. Spotting the unit, Wulf looked up the frequency to the Panzer unit closest to them, then sent them a quick message, alerting to what he had found. The Panzer unit adjusted their approach to the village while an artillery strike was ordered in.
Looking at the scene unfolding around them was almost like watching a video game or movie; yet this was very real. Groups of tanks and soldiers on the ground were moving into positions to attack and kill each other, and here he sat, in his armored vehicle, observing it. In minutes, he saw a series of elongated tubes slam into the ground, hitting some of the buildings in the small village, blowing them apart as the rocket artillery pummeled the combatants. Minutes turned to hours, and the day turned to night before the battle was finally over, leaving behind a trail of burnt-out wrecks of armored vehicles and torn and twisted bodies.
The tank battle between the German 21st Panzer Brigade and the Russian 3rd Motor Rifle Division and 1st Separate Guards Tank Brigade raged on for nearly six hours as both sides fought viciously before the Russians were forced to withdraw. Once the US 1st Armored Division punched through the Russian lines at Tillola, the Russians had to pull their armor group back to the Russian border and the positions their engineers had been busy building the past several months.
Operation Nordic Thunder would continue for another two months as the Allies fought hard in northern Finland and Norway to push the Russians’ northern operation back to the Russian border. While the fighting had been fierce, it had accomplished its goal of removing the Russians from the Nordic countries and forcing the Russians to divert forces from Western Europe to strengthen their northern border or face the likelihood of a possible threat to St. Petersburg. While the number of troops involved in Nordic Thunder paled in comparison to the armies being assembled on the Continent, it kept the Russians from being able to commit to a large summer offensive as they had to divert significant numbers of reinforcements to keep the Allies from pressing into Russia proper and potentially threatening their second-most-important city.
Russian Resolve
President Petrov was fuming after the defeat of the Russian forces in Finland and Norway. He was furious that, despite months of reprieve and additional reinforcements, General Yury Bukreyev, the commander in charge of Russian forces on the northern front, had failed to hold his ground. His forces should have held for longer than a couple of days.
A short but fiery debate erupted amongst Petrov’s top leadership over what to do about this “problem.” Alexei Semenov, the Minister of Defense, had argued that Bukreyev should be publicly executed, to make an example of him. Colonel General Boris Egorkin explained that he felt this would erode confidence among the leadership with the army, that they might fear that if they retreated, even if it were for a tactical advantage, they would be executed too. Of course, there was also the legal aspect; capital punishment was technically outlawed in Russia. The last public execution was in 1996.
Ultimately, Petrov’s ire overruled any objections by General Egorkin. The law banning executions was speedily overturned after a little arm-twisting from the president, and within a few days, Petrov and his senior cabinet members were seated to watch General Bukreyev’s execution by firing squad.
Before the official presentation began and the cameras were turned on, Minister of Defense Semenov dared to protest one last time. “Mr. President, I must caution you that I feel this is a very bad precedent for us to set. The Soviet Army did this during World War II, and we lost far too many officers at a time when every competent leader was needed to defeat the Nazis.”
“You’ve made your point, General, and I have made mine,” said Petrov, half-surprised that Semenov had spoken at all. “We’re not going to win this war if we don’t hold our military leaders accountable for their failures. We have achieved an enormous success in getting the British to withdraw from the war. We won’t squander that victory by having generals squander their time and resources. I don’t want to discuss this matter any further, is that understood?”
“Yes, Mr. President,” answered Semenov dutifully.
“Good, now smile for the cameras,” said Petrov. “We will have our briefing after this.”
A few hours later, Petrov was seated in a room with the same senior leadership members. He turned to his General of the Army first. “What I want is an update from you. First off — when is our summer offensive is going to start?” he asked, not quite yelling, but clearly irritated. “We’re more than halfway through the summer, and it still hasn’t started.”
“If he doesn’t deliver, Bukreyev won’t be the only officer I make an example of,” Petrov thought.
“I know we’ve had a longer delay than we’d like,” conceded General Egorkin, “and I’m afraid we’re going to have to delay the start of our offensive by at least two more months, but please allow me to finish my brief so I can let you know why this delay is imperative.”
Seeing that he wasn’t immediately removed from the room, Egorkin continued. “At the start of the war, we had roughly 3,000 T-80 tanks and roughly 6,400 T-72 tanks in cold storage across the country. When the conflict started, we immediately brought these tanks out of storage and began a rapid modernization program. While the T-14 Armatas have been a game changer for us, we’re still only able to produce roughly 100 of these tanks a month. The T-80s and older T-72s may not be nearly as capable, but their sheer numbers will overwhelm the Allies, especially now that the British armored forces have been ordered home.”
“In two months, I will have the necessary number of tanks and new soldiers to launch Operation Armored Fist. Our offensive will start with a massive cruise and ballistic missile attack of the Allied front lines, and then a Spetsnaz attack of several dozen military airfields in Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. The Indian manufacturers are now delivering us thousands of missiles a month, and we intend to hit the Allies with such force that it will throw them off balance for our ground offensive.”
He pulled up a visual on the screen in the room, which showed the plan of attack and the timeline for achieving each objective. “General Chayko’s army group will hit the Allies at Ternopil with an armored fist of nearly 10,000 tanks and over 40,000 armored vehicles. Once his force breaks a hole in the Allies’ line, they will drive on Lviv, the provisional capital of Ukraine, and then head straight for Krakow. As his forces advance toward Krakow, two prongs are going to branch off. One will head toward Warsaw and threaten to cut the entire Allied lines off in Belarus and Lithuania. The other arm will drive down to Kosice, Slovenia.”