European Tide Shifts
By the fall of 2041, the Russians had been fighting the American and European armies for nearly five straight months. The Germans had managed to produce their new Leopard IV tanks, leveraging the same railgun technology that the Americans used in their Pershings. The British were also catching up, completing their Challenge IV tanks. Just as the Allies had finally gained the upper hand, the Russians unveiled the first tank to make use of a pulse beam laser. The laser on the new tank had an effective range of nearly 60 miles, which was 20 miles farther than the Allies railgun could reach, and it could also be used in air defense mode. As Josh Schafer had learned, the weakness in the T41 was its energy consumption. Despite this, the emergence of this new tank made an immediate impact on the battlefield as the tank could sit back behind the attacking force and snipe at Allied tanks while the Russian T14 Armatas and T38s moved forward to engage and overwhelm the Allies.
October 1st proved to be a bloody day for the Allies; the Russians had launched a full frontal assault against the entire Allied line. They made use of over 12,000 tanks and 50,000 infantry fighting vehicles, backed up by nearly 200 of their new T41 pulse beam tanks. Despite a valiant effort by General Wade’s 5th and 6th Armies, they were forced to withdraw back to the Rhine River, sacrificing most of Germany. The Allies managed to hold southern Germany and the areas around the Fulda Gap and Frankfurt, but they had lost Hamburg and most of the northern territory in the country to the Russians. With a large bulge in their lines, the Allies were having to make some tough decisions. They could continue to fight and defend southern Germany, but they might lose the Netherlands and Belgium in the process.
The British, for their part, had moved most of their ground forces to join with the French in defending the low countries, in order to help relieve the Americans from having to defend most of Europe on their own. With the war turning into a bloody slugfest in Alaska, the US was just not training soldiers fast enough in order to send reinforcements to Europe to stop the Russian advance and also effectively deal with the invasion of Alaska. General Branson had argued with the President to shorten the basic combat training for new recruits from twelve weeks back down to eight so that they would have additional soldiers to send to Europe as well as to Alaska, but the President had insisted upon keeping it at twelve weeks, arguing that a better trained soldier would kill more enemy soldiers than just sending them to the front right away.
The 2nd Armored Division (otherwise known as the “Hell on Wheels division”) was given the task of launching a counter-offensive with Field Marshal Schoen’s Panzer divisions. The Germans had produced one full armored division’s worth of the new Leopard IV tanks, 280 in total. They would be complimented with the 2nd AD and their 520 Pershings. They would be supported by two mechanized infantry divisions as they attempted to break through the Russian lines and tear in to their rear positions, which would stop their continual advance.
The divisions had maneuvered around Frankfurt under heavy air cover to the German city of Fulda. For decades, NATO Forces had trained to fight the Soviet army at the Fulda gap; now they would put those plans into action as they moved their divisions to attack position. The initial assault would be supported by nearly 600 F38A fighter drones, 350 A10 Warthog ground attack aircraft, and 400 F38B ground attack drones. The goal of the air force was to hammer the Russian tanks and create a hole for the 2nd AD to punch through for their attack. At approximately 2a.m., the aircraft began to engage the Russian positions. As this was happening, the armored divisions began to spool up, getting ready to launch their attack.
Despite advancements in technology and the modernization of the Russian army, the Americans still owned the night. Nearly every major American operation started between 0100 and 0400 in the morning. Generally speaking, it is significantly harder to coordinate a massive movement of troops and vehicles in the dead of night than it is in the day; however, the Americans trained extensively in night operations to the point that they almost functioned better as a unit in the dark of night than during the daylight.
As the ground attack planes began to wreak havoc on the Russian armored units near Hofbieber and Hunfeld (10 kilometers north of Fulda), the 2nd AD launched into action like a coiled spring. They hit the Russian lines at nearly 50mph, blowing right past the first line of defense, and swiftly moving directly in to the reserve units, who were still recovering from the air attacks. Field Marshal Schoen’s divisions followed the 2nd AD’s advance and began to roll the Russian lines up across a 15-kilometer front. They continued to move rapidly along Route 84, heading straight for the Russian supply depot at Eisenach. By 0500 hours, four hours in to the attack, 2AD had captured Eisenach and was pushing past it towards Erfurt, with their ultimate target of capturing Leipzig. Once they had pierced their way through the Russian garrison at Eisenach, there was little in the way of resistance as they headed along Route 4 to Route 9, which would lead them right to Leipzig.
The Air Force was providing near-constant air cover over the advance, minimizing the effects of the Russian Air Force as they attempted to attack the American armored units. The 230 Razorback helicopters were supporting 2AD, dropping Army Rangers all along the route at critical junction points in advance of the armored units. As the Razorbacks found enemy armor units, they engaged them relentlessly.
The German divisions split off from the Americans and headed to Kassel Gottingen along Route 7 to block a Russian counter-attack, while 2AD continued their advance towards Leipzig. The challenge for 2AD was as that they advanced, their supply lines would continue to stretch, and since they were not stopping to engage every Russian unit they came across, they needed to bring a lot of their supplies, fuel, tank munitions and the like with them as they advanced. As the Razorbacks dropped off their loads of Army Rangers and expended their munitions, they would return to pick up another group of infantrymen and head back out to their next drop points. The Americans were going to try and saturate the area with platoon size elements from Fulda to Leipzig, mostly along the major supply lines.
While this was taking place, the rest of NATO launched their own counter-attack all across the Russian lines. If their plan worked, the Russians would be forced to withdraw from most of Germany or face the possibility of one of their Shock Army’s becoming cut off and surrounded. It would be tough for NATO to keep an 800,000-man army group contained for long, but they could inflict significant casualties. They key to getting the Russians to withdraw was to leave the Russians an exit path for their forces to escape, and hope they would take it.
During the following twenty-four hours, the Russian 1st Shock Army, which had led the invasion of Germany, suddenly found themselves with one American armored division situated in Leipzig, and three German divisions between them and Leipzig. Faced with this reality, General Putin made the decision to order a full withdrawal of Russian Forces, just as NATO was launching their counter-attack across the lines. Now it was incumbent upon his field commanders to conduct a fighting retreat and hold some semblance of order as they fell back to the Elbe River, where they would make their stand. As units continued to withdraw, General Putin did order the destruction of as much critical infrastructure as possible in the major cities. This included dropping bridges, and imploding subways, rail hubs and factories. If they were going to have to yield most of Germany back to the Allies, then they would do their best to leave them with rubble.