OOC Thread
Map of the Venedean People's Republic, areas ceded to the Stoklomolvi Liaoist Federation marked in red. All of Venedea is currently under Stoklomolvi military occupation. Images made by Venedea, mirrored by Stoklomolvi.
Petrograd, Venedea
0000 hours, local time
278.22 Kelvin, heavy rain
27 July 2011
For the first time in months, temperatures in Petrograd dipped to low extremes, and rains began plaguing the city, turning all the ash and dust from the war into mud. The entire city was awash with mud, flooding the Red Square and staining the boots of the Stoklomolvi Military Police that now patrolled the city on a regular basis. There was essentially no housing left that Venedeans could use; almost all the buildings in Petrograd were now heaps of debris and ash, and the houses that were left standing by the end of the war were used by Stoklomolvi occupational forces. Petrograd had fallen only five days prior after being encircled and repeatedly assaulted by Stoklomolvi troops. Thousands upon thousands of artillery pieces were located in each direction, constantly flattening the city with devastating barrages that uprooted tunnel networks and destroyed whole city blocks. Now, with the Stoklomolvi People's Liberation Army launching more offensives to the east where a vast plain and desert awaited them and with Dyakov arrested following his surrender in Petrograd, Venedea was at its worst moment in decades.
Following the destruction of the Erjunhuf naval force stationed near Kerch, Stoklomolvi rapidly escalated its forces in Venedea. Securing a thousand kilometre long corridor of ocean in which convoys constantly passed each other on their way to Venedea or to Stoklomolvi, the Stoklomolvi People's Liberation Army Navy maintained naval superiority that was only occasionally threatened. For the most part, the navy played an entirely secondary role, as its only purpose was to secure a route to Venedea that could be used to transport supplies and troops to the front line.
In Venedea itself, the battle along the Ilyich River between the initial landing site and the city of Kerch took several days, far longer than Stoklomolvi expectations. Even with increasing fire from Stoklomolvi artillery barrages that ripped up the Venedean bridgehead, the People's Red Army continued to stay in tunnels and launch raids at Stoklomolvi infantry positions. However, morale suffered amongst Venedean troops due to the Stoklomolvi overland offensive in the east that quickly felled the city of Novosimferopol, a city with virtually no garrison due to the focus of troops in Khlynov and the impossibility of defending a city situated in a small depression surrounded by plains. As Venedean command under Mikhail Dyakov expected, the city fell to Stoklomolvi forces within hours of assault, and Stoklomolvi ground forces headed east towards Tobolsk to cut off Venedea from other countries. Partisan forces were faced with the newly implemented Stoklomolvi Venedean Expeditionary Military Police Force [卫尼迪亚派遣宪兵队, Венедиская отправить военной полиции], which was tasked with maintaining order in Venedea and preventing anti-Stoklomolvi activity.
By early April, Novosimferopol was under full military occupation, and a local Military Police headquarters was established in Novosimferopol. With the city under control, Stoklomolvi forces moved out eastward towards Tobolsk, a distant city with a strategic position behind a mountain range. Since the city of Novosimferopol was being thoroughly searched for any suspicious activity, the Venedenas suffered their first major operational defeat with the discovery of a tunnel network based inside a local café. This uncovering alerted Stoklomolvi command to the possibility of other tunnel networks, perhaps even underneath the temporary base set-up north of Kerch, which was by now more fortified with Quonset huts and watchtowers. Stoklomolvi scouts began scouring the countryside, placing the advances at a halt as troops began to stop and search for tunnel infiltration.
Map of Venedea by 4 April 2011, red hashed lines are extent of Stoklomolvi advance.
People's Red Army morale took a drastic hit as the Stoklomolvi discovery was leaked to Venedean troops by way of Venedean civilians, shaking them of their belief that tunnels could save their country. While it was true that the Venedean tunnel networks could not stop Stoklomolvi troops by themselves, they would continue to provide Stoklomolvi troops with constant frustration and fear that was unbeknownst to Venedean troops. The first unconditional surrender by Venedean combat personnel to Stoklomolvi forces took place at the bridgehead east of the Ilyich river, and the surrendering soldiers were shot by Venedean soldiers who were angry at the betrayal. Confusion within the Venedean ranks created a chaotic defence when the Stoklomolvi forces made an enormous infantry assault on the bridgehead. With the defensive effort at the bridgehead furthest from Kerch collapsing on all fronts, the Venedeans made a tactical withdrawal to the other end of the bridge, hoping to catch the Stoklomolvi as they crossed it.
The earthwork fortifications and trenches dug on the Stoklomolvi side of the river provided great amounts of protection from Venedean counter-attack, even though the defences were intentionally oriented away from the river. While the river was too wide to cross on foot, Stoklomolvi troops placed a prefabricated bridge slightly further up the river, and began to cross it in small numbers to minimise casualties should the bridge be destroyed. Having established a beachhead on the river nearest to Kerch, the highest priority right now was to rendezvous with the scouting team that had more-or-less been forgotten since the capture of Novosimferopol. While the scouting team had since lost most of its members to ambushes by Venedean partisans, the remaining few had mapped out the region north of Kerch and had kept copies on hand with each member of the team. They had no access to the outside world.
Meanwhile, in the east, a salient had formed east of Verkhneudinsk, with the 1925th Motorised Division and the 5821st Rifle Division engaging in heavy close quarters combat with Venedean infiltration teams. Venedean forces, in a frustrated attempt to cut off the salient, concentrated their men and performed a massive human wave attack that locally outnumbered Stoklomolvi infantry by a factor of two. Pressured to the point of breaking, Stoklomolvi troops withdrew from the salient, leaving behind the motorised and rifle division; these divisions were now encircled and in danger of being annihilated, as constant and gruesome battle left the divisions at low strength and incredibly low morale. Relief never came, and the commissars in charge of both divisions surrendered to Venedean forces by mid-April. Stoklomolvi Front East, taking advantage of the time bought by the loss of these divisions, advanced east, taking some useless ground in exchange. For the most part, activity in the eastern front was limited to minor skirmishes from that point until the seizure of Kerch.
With the loss of the Ilyich Bridgehead, Venedean troops near the river were in danger of being encircled by Stoklomolvi troops that were slowly flowing across the river via several bridges. An ambush attempt on one of the bridges was overwhelmingly successful and destroyed two tanks and sent fifteen infantrymen to their deaths in the river below, but increased caution on part of Stoklomolvi infantrymen caught a few more ambush attempts before they could be carried out and also seized a Venedean anti-tank gun, which was then destroyed to prevent recapture. To the great disadvantage of the Venedeans, outside of Kerch was not jungle but a vast field; the farmlands outside Kerch proved to be ideal tank country, enabling Stoklomolvi forces to use their armoured vehicles for the first time in the Stoklo-Venedean War. Mikhail, at the counsel of his military staff, decided to retreat to Petrograd, and travelled by tunnel to Pinsk and from Pinsk to Petrograd by truck. From Petrograd, he could safely order troops and not fear for his life, something that Venedeans greatly desired.
Knowing that the defences of Kerch were formidable and highly imposing, the Stoklomolvi armies swiftly cut west across the countryside, bypassing the city and cutting off the city from supplies. With no infrastructure or factories in Kerch itself, the city had literally no options left after this action; coupled with the inability to supply Kerch by sea due to lack of suitable convoy vessels, Kerch was completely on its own. Mikhail called for a withdrawal from Kerch; the city was lost regardless of defensive efforts, and his primary concern was saving Venedean lives. Thus, the order came from Petrograd to begin a withdrawal from Kerch, leaving only a voluntary skeleton defence force. From Kerch came a refusal to carry out the order, as almost nobody was willing to withdraw from the city without putting up resistance. Mikhail grew increasingly worried, but with the Kerch defenders stubbornly refusing to leave, Mikhail could do nothing, and instead ordered men to garrison Pinsk and set up field fortifications outside Simbirsk. On the 25th of April, the Stoklomolvi forces launched their assault against Kerch from all directions in the north.
The scouting team from the initial landing met up with the main group, and they provided invaluable intelligence information about anti-aircraft positions, tunnel networks, and suspected ambush points; they had discovered the existence of tunnels long before the Stoklomolvi main forces did, though had no way of relaying this information. They were quickly extracted from the battlefield due to injuries and wounds sustained in action and would not return to the war.
Artillery barrages continually rained down upon the city of Kerch, with Stoklomolvi Front West suffering enormous casualties as Venedean defenders sprayed down the killing field in front of the defences with heavy machine gun fire. While every Venedean casualty was an enormous loss, as the defenders of Kerch had virtually no reserves whatsoever, Stoklomolvi riflemen simply pushed against the outer defences until Stoklomolvi command under Admiral Li realised what the ground troops were doing. He immediately called for the Stoklomolvi troops to withdraw, reorganise, and lay siege to the city. Other troops went south and secured the peninsula, as a piercing manoeuvre against the remaining Venedean defenders pushed them out of the peninsula and forced them into the city proper; the port was now disconnected from Kerch.
Map of Venedea by 27 April 2011, red hashed lines are extent of Stoklomolvi advance.
Kerch was now held under siege. No persons were allowed in or out of the city and the tunnel network connecting Kerch to Pinsk was discovered after a captured Venedean partisan was severely tortured using harsh psychological means until he revealed the location of an entrance. This tunnel network, as it turned out, was the only one that directly connected Kerch to a safe location; all others were under constant patrol by Stoklomolvi Military Police, and with Stoklomolvi troops blocking the tunnel to prevent its use, Kerch was completely isolated. In the meantime, while Kerch was being starved, Stoklomolvi Front Centre began advancing along both banks of the river towards Petrograd, and Stoklomolvi Front East advanced east towards Tobolsk.
Stoklomolvi Front West continued to push towards Simbirsk, and the field between the current Stoklomolvi positions outside of Kerch and the Venedean-controlled city of Kerch provided an ideal battleground for Stoklomolvi armoured divisions. With infantry following up armoured columns as they rolled towards Simbirsk, the armour pierced Venedean lines at several points and enabled infantry to flow through the breakpoints. Mobile artillery fired from positions both behind enemy lines and in front, crushing the Venedean lines with heavy weight and mobile warfare. Venedean lines, though set up in a deep defensive format, were broken sequentially and in close succession, causing a mass rout as Venedean People's Red Army regulars and partisans alike were thrown into utter disarray as they attempted to retreat towards Simbirsk. Stoklomolvi infantry and Venedean regulars constantly engaged in close quarters combat as Venedeans, armed with bolt-action rifles and bayonets, refused to fire their weapons until they could practically touch the Stoklomolvi soldiers.
Stoklomolvi motorised infantry travelled in the fields, ferrying troops to and from the front line back to temporary field headquarters set up in abandoned houses elsewhere. Mined roads were cleared by both exploding infantry and by mine-clearing vehicles, though the concentration of mines in these areas was far more sparse than in the initial landing beaches due to lack of time. Venedeans were being pushed back at a harrowing pace with the renewed Stoklomolvi offensive across open ground. Simbirsk fell literally within hours, as armoured units from the Stoklomolvi Front West easily annihilated soft targets that had no way of retaliating. Anti-armour was short and Venedeans completely lacked armour, meaning that Stoklomolvi armoured units were essentially invulnerable from long ranges. Stoklomolvi forces used this to great effect as highly mobile artillery, and crushed Venedean morale before Stoklomolvi PLA troops entered the city and rounded up surrendered soldiers. These soldiers were taken to internment camps set up east of Kerch, where they were provided standard amenities that far surpassed current conditions for Venedean people.
The politically prudent action provided pressure against Venedean morale, as Venedea as a whole was too poor to support anything beyond impoverished lifestyles. However, for many areas, Venedean morale actually was better, as soldiers decided to steel themselves against temptation and fight tooth-and-nail for their homeland. Thus, an offensive against Pinsk was thoroughly crushed, with an entire Stoklomolvi infantry division encircled and crushed by a Venedean ambush. Since Pinsk was situated atop a series of hills, armour could not be used, reducing the Stoklomolvi technological advantage strictly to the possession of better artillery. Local Stoklomolvi Front West command decided to entrench and wait for commands from Admiral Li; he concurred with their decision to stop. Meanwhile, Stoklomolvi Front Centre had pierced deep into Venedean territory. Well on the approach to Khlynov and advancing quickly, the force had covered many kilometres within days, pushing Venedean defenders further and further towards Petrograd.
Meanwhile, to the east, the Venedean city of Verkhneudinsk was quickly assaulted by infantry divisions from Stoklomolvi Front Centre, with armour held on reserve due to the city's jungle position. Artillery ripped the city to pieces, and whatever fighting was left was brutal house-to-house urban combat between a technologically superior force and one forced to fight with bolt-action rifles and bayonets. However, technology did not help very much, as Stoklomolvi forces also were forced to use shotguns and close combat weaponry to counter bayonet charges from around corners. Grenades, used liberally by Venedean forces, devastated the ranks of Stoklomolvi infantry in the city, since the entire city was completely foreign and they had little real intelligence. In fact, neither side had any real intelligence on the other, and both were fighting rather blindly against each other whenever the other side was spotted. Stoklomolvi attempts to scout were rebuffed by seasoned partisans and Venedean scouts met deep lines of innumerable infantry.
The assault of Verkhneudinsk, unlike the assault on Simbirsk, was a costly one and cost the lives of tens of thousands of Stoklomolvi infantry. Every hour, several hundred soldiers on both sides were killed or wounded by close quarters combat or artillery barrages. Fierce street fighting over small squares or cafés turned the city into a grinder, running down manpower from both Venedea and Stoklomolvi. Eventually, Venedean morale gave out first and the People's Red Army was forced to withdraw from Verkhneudinsk. It was, however, a minor gain at great cost, since the city was both militarily and politically worthless. It did occupy a strategic position in that the buildings could be fortified, but otherwise it was of little use.
Stoklomolvi Front East made great progress across the open field west of Tobolsk. Avoiding the desert to the north, the force pressed towards Tobolsk and quickly encircled the city, where the tiny garrison considered surrender on the second day. On the third day, motorised infantry assaulted the city, shattering Venedean morale and securing the city of Tobolsk with fewer than a thousand casualties. Foot infantry were reassigned to Stoklomolvi Front Centre, as Stoklomolvi Front East was to cover too large an area for foot infantry to effectively keep up. Armoured spearheads and motorised infantry often encountered absolutely nothing as they travelled across many kilometres of open field.
Map of Venedea by 9 May 2011, red hashed lines are extent of Stoklomolvi advance.
A counter-attack from Khlynov caused disaster for the ill-timed offensive by Stoklomolvi Front Centre. Many trucks were being sent west to ferry supplies to Stoklomolvi Front West, as were many escorts, and the escort groups for Stoklomolvi Front Centre were running thin just as the Venedeans launched their own offensive, cutting off the Stoklomolvi salient and encircling three armoured divisions and six infantry divisions, in addition to a pair of motorised divisions and a mechanised division. With the assault rapidly losing momentum and too far from the main force to perform a breakout, the encircled units began entrenching with whatever limited supplies they had, but being split by the river were at a very, very strong disadvantage. Dyakov knew this and continually raided Stoklomolvi efforts to fortify, severely disrupting their efforts and wreaking havoc on the morale of the encircled soldiers. Armour, with no fuel, was abandoned in the fields and used as cover for infantry, as were trucks and armoured cars. A pincer manoeuvre on both banks of the river pressed the Stoklomolvi force further and further towards the river, and soon the entirety of the force was now pinned at the riverbanks.
A relief effort from the southern portion of Stoklomolvi Front Centre attempted to breakout the encircled divisions but failed due to heavy Venedean resistance. With all hope lost, all of the soldiers in the encircled divisions began to surrender en masse, and the force was lost. Stoklomolvi Front Centre withdrew to a more defensible position and began to establish earthwork defences to defend against any counter-attack. The PRA refused to perform any large-scale offensive due to the infeasibility of breaking through the Stoklomolvi defensive lines. A probing attack east of Verkhneudinsk was repulsed so fiercely that the PLA launched an offensive of its own, securing some more jungle that was constantly raided by Venedean partisans. For the most part, the front lines were silent for the time being.
Stoklomolvi Front West secured some ground outside Simbirsk, stopping at the hills and securing most of the flatlands around Simbirsk before moving to prepare for an offensive against Pinsk. Military police had already arrived in Simbirsk and other cities in the area to prevent heavy disruption of supply lines by partisans. Kerch was quiet, as starvation was setting in as food supplies were running out. The first death by starvation was that of a young partisan soldier. A number of others followed suit, and the first white flag was thrown up in western Kerch. Stoklomolvi motorised infantry from Front West quickly moved in and took over this sector of the city, exposing the flanks of the Venedean defences. Before a shot could be fired, the remainder of the city surrendered. Kerch was finally taken after over a month at great human cost on both sides; almost a hundred thousand casualties were taken on both sides.
Near Vladizapad, Stoklomolvi naval superiority over Venedea enabled a coastal landing, taking the Venedeans completely by surprise due to their lack of naval intelligence. The city fell in two days after the initial encirclement and assault of the city, where the defence by a single brigade was no enough to stop a relentless assault by seven infantry divisions. By the third day, armoured divisions and motorised divisions had landed and began pushing north, driving back PRA forces that were attempting to hold the lines steady against rapidly advancing PLA forces. Dyakov, from Petrograd, transferred a number of divisions from the front lines near Khlynov to Riga and Novgorod, suspecting that further amphibious assaults would be attempted. In doing so, he spread his forces more thinly than command had hoped, making most of the officers highly nervous.
Map of Venedea by 2 June 2011, red hashed lines are extent of Stoklomolvi advance.
By this point in the war, the PLA had escalated its forces to include almost twenty million ground troops, almost ten times the initial expectation. Troops were flowing in through the open hole near Vladizapad, and met up with Stoklomolvi Front West; these new troops formed a new Stoklomolvi Front West, and the old Stoklomolvi Front West was combined with Stoklomolvi Front South. Stoklomolvi Front East remained the same. For Mikhail, he could only see two ends for Venedea: either a ruin under Stoklomolvi occupation, or a puppet state under Stoklomolvi occupation. He knew that the latter was far more beneficial for the Venedean people, but vowed to fight as hard as he could and never willingly surrender an inch of ground.
All across the western coast of Venedea, hundreds of thousands of troops simultaneously landed in the country, with Riga and Novgorod holding out as fortresses as the countryside was quickly occupied by Stoklomolvi forces. Arkhangelsk, with its small garrison, fell to PLA as Stoklomolvi forces approached the city. Forces met up all across the coast and began reorganising for further offensives inland. Stoklomolvi Front West launched a singular assault on Pinsk, a city situated amidst jungle, and the attack formed a hundred-kilometre long salient into PRA-controlled territory. However, the PRA, exhausted from constant probing attacks by the PLA, could not exploit this weakness again, and was forced to regroup and reorganise to defend against further attacks. There was one trade-off; the PLA, which left a small section more thinly-defended than others, allowed the PRA to form a salient into Stoklomolvi-controlled territory, while advancing into other regions with no PRA-presence.
The front shifted considerably near Khylnov. A spearhead consisting almost solely of motorised divisions punctured through the Venedean lines near the river and again charged northward, encountering an armoured division that the Venedeans had scrounged out of the abandoned Stoklomolvi tanks. This new threat proved to be a challenge until Stoklomolvi armoured divisions also pulled towards the front, and the ensuing tank battle resulted in the refitted Venedean armour division being annihilated by superior numbers and some hundred or so Stoklomolvi tanks disabled or destroyed. Stoklomolvi Front South elements east of Khlynov took advantage of this new breakthrough to move to encircle Khlynov, crushing withered Venedean resistance in the area.
In the east, Stoklomolvi Front East was rapidly advancing towards Udskoe, though a counter-attack by partisans seized a portion of the territory under occupation. A number of motorised divisions attempted to enter the Vostokaya Desert, where there was literally nothing of interest, before withdrawing. It was decided that this area could be dealt with at a later date, since at the moment all fuel was concentrated at the offensive by Stoklomolvi Front South. At around the same time, the PRA performed a counter-attack against PLA forces west of Petrograd, where a number of motorised divisions had made it north past a bridge and had almost completely surrounded Petrograd. Breaking out from within the city, the PRA snapped the offensive line, cutting off nine motorised divisions and three armoured divisions from the rest of the offensive force. Still advancing, the remainder of the divisions continued as planned and met up with the divisions to the east, though did not stay in their current positions and instead continued to the east.
Overall, in a little over a month, little land changed hands in the south, though much intact industry that was being used to manufacture ammunition in the west was now under Stoklomolvi control. Riga and Novgorod, major industrial centres due to their not having been demolished by Stoklomolvi assaults, bombings, and recent civil war, were cut off from the rest of the country. Mikhail knew that the end was near; it was plainly obvious, with ammunition shortages, food shortages, and supply shortages being reported by PRA troops across the country. Coupled with the fact that almost every Venedean infantry division was heavily understrength, resistance could last for not even a month at most. Dyakov considered suicide as punishment for his failure to keep his country safe, but instead decided that a strong defence to the bitter end was more important than his humiliating defeat.
Map of Venedea by 3 July 2011, red hashed lines are extent of Stoklomolvi advance.
Highly severe ammunition shortages forced Venedean troops to use close quarters combat whenever possible, and against an enemy armed with assault rifles and artillery, this strategy was simply infeasible. Khlynov, now encircled by Stoklomolvi infantry divisions, was on the verge of surrender; all the Venedean divisions in the city were highly understaffed and no longer had food or any supplies, with surrenders taking place en masse across the city. Stoklomolvi military police quickly took up garrison duties as the PLA moved north and surrounded Petrograd, where Dyakov had no route of escape. Artillery was set up around the city, and the barrages began on the 7th of July.
To the west and east, Stoklomolvi troops swept across the countryside, mopping up Venedean resistance fighters and forcing thousands upon thousands of PRA regulars to surrender. PRA troops were scattered across the country, disorganised and completely in disarray. Every assault by Stoklomolvi troops outside Petrograd was met with surrender or rout; the last of the will to fight had finally vanished, but Petrograd remained. The defenders of Petrograd, stationed in apartments and bombed out husks of buildings, watched over the fields of dirt outside the city, waiting for the inevitable Stoklomolvi assault. Ammunition was still short, each bolt-action rifleman sometimes carrying only four clips of ammunition to load into his rifle. Assault riflemen often carried only one extra magazine, with several others standing around carrying a magazine each to pick up the assault rifle should the rifleman be incapacitated.
However, the assault never came. Stoklomolvi troops stood in wait, seemingly gloating at the Venedeans, as heavy artillery continuously pounded the city of Petrograd. For days on end, artillery ravaged the city, killing soldiers and collapsing defensive positions. As southern Petrograd crumbled and resistance forces moved to the west and east, Stoklomolvi troops marched through the gates of Petrograd and encountered a vast field of nothing. Once again, troops on both sides began to resort to close quarters combat as the Stoklomolvi troops approached intact city blocks. Artillery went silent due to Stoklomolvi presence within the city, and the assault began from all directions. Millions of Stoklomolvi soldiers performed the largest human wave attack in Venedean history, as armour could not feasibly be used in this urban environment. Fighting within the city was horribly messy, since no "line" of battle could be established; soldiers simply shot at each other and went back and forth.
The fighting persisted for days. Even a week went by, and no relief was in sight; morale was suffering on both sides. Finally, Dyakov had seen enough. He and his entire general staff marched into the Red Square and raised an enormous white flag where the statue of Nikolai Makarov once stood. When Stoklomolvi troops saw the flag, they marched into the square and arrested him and his entire staff and paraded him out of the city via the roads in the south. Admiral Li himself met Dyakov, shook his hand, and invited the Venedean chief of staff to an official surrender meeting off-shore aboard his carrier. When the other Venedean resistance fighters saw this action, this action of weakness and surrender, they increased their ferocity in their attacks, but it was in vain, as even their government had surrendered. With the shocking realisation that People's Republic of Venedea had surrendered to the Stoklomolvi Liaoist Federation, Venedean soldiers unconditionally surrendered across Petrograd and across the rest of the country, where the Stoklomolvi armoured spearheads continued to push the PRA deeper inland.
With Dyakov meeting Li aboard a carrier, the war was finally over. Venedea had lost.
Map of Venedea by 27 July 2011, red hashed lines are extent of Stoklomolvi advance.
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