Los Angeles, California
Socialist Republic of Columbia
By this time the city population had mostly evacuated, and only about four-hundred and fifty thousand civilians and/or military personnel were left in the city; which worked out well, the NKVD could cover up those four-hundred and fifty thousand easily. The fact that approximately 2 1/2 million others were evacuated in time would help with that. However, as he was ordered, Zubek and the NKVD evac forces he had been given, had ensured that all Party officials were evacuated well-before the weapon was launched. Stahl and others would need to address the public in the immediate aftermath so as to assure them of why this happened and how it helped the Socialist Republic of Columbia. No one would very much be able to understand why the SRC's closest ally, and global big brother nation of Communism, the World Union had launched a nuclear weapon at the capital of the SRC. However, it was imperative that they know this was a means of holding up the capitalist advance.
The other advantage of destroying Los Angeles rather than allowing for a protracted siege was that it would deprive the enemy of a valuable staging ground. Stahl had neither the men nor the resources to hold off the enemy on two fronts for more than a couple days. If the Loyalists captured a mostly intact Los Angeles, they had a prime staging ground for further ground operations into either Mexico or farther up the West Coast. The Capilean's still couldn't land troops by the hundreds of thousands because their fleets had to do a dance with those of Russia, China, and Japan in the Pacific. With neither the World Union nor Capile officially at war with the other, fleets couldn't attack each other outside of Columbian waters, but that didn't mean they couldn't threaten others away. However, given increasing German support for the Loyalists, many in Red Forces High Command feared that soon the Union would to worry about not just the Capilean Navy, a formidable force in its own right, in the Pacific but also the Kaiser's fleets. Though the World Union had bloodied the Capilean's at Kingman Reef, preventing them from supporting their forces at Hawaii, the Germans wouldn't have the same problem.
If Germany sent a fleet to Hawaii, they had a multitude of bases in the Pacific to launch from, satellite reconnaissance and orbiting ballistic missile equipped upper stages, as well as Italian support. The World Union couldn't do anything to hurt them until they got to Hawaii itself, and by then it could be too late. Well, it could act....if formal war broke out between the World Union and the German Empire, but that was a less than desirable situation. Both sides were technologically advanced, with large, capable militaries, and a plethora of nuclear weapons. Even if such a war remained entirely conventional, MAD was still the most likely outcome.
The blast was so loud that it could be heard as far away as San Francisco and San Diego but for miles all anyone could hear was blank noise and for miles the land was scorched. The impact site was the Workers Hall in the center of the city, but it was not limited to there. Thirty kilotons, twice as powerful as the bombs the United States used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that was what was unleashed upon Los Angeles. Of those ~450,000 remaining in the city before detonation, more than half simply burned to shadows against the ground in the moment of impact. Every building within a kilometer radius (The city of Los Angeles has an area of 1.3 Kilometers for the metropolitan city) was simply either burned away or essentially shattered beneath the shock waves. For the rest of the city, naught was left but ash and ruin, worse even than the destruction visited upon Berlin in 1945.
(Berlin was left in even greater ruin by the Battle of Berlin in 1945 than either Hiroshima and Nagasaki were by the atom bombs during the same year)
San Francisco
Zubek watched as Stahl visibly paled at the news of the New Unionist assaults. Though he could not understand why. This worked to their advantage. "Comrade General Secretary, this is excellent news. The German's and their European Community will see the fascist dogs in the East as the greater threat, and so will be less likely to focus on what happens here out West. By the same notion, the murderous fascists will be too caught up with their fight against the Germans." Zubek, as a man of the NKVD, was able to give his true opinion of the Germans here. "Much as we are loathe to acknowledge and which the Union cares not mention to the public, the Germans are rather good soldiers with very good equipment. At the moment only France, Britain, Russia, Japan, China, or India can match them for technological capability. Both the Germans and NU will bleed each other in the East, allowing us to concentrate on the Loyalist forces encroaching on us here." He turned to the General for that. "On that situation then?"
There had been a number of candidates for the post of military governor for 'liberated' California, however Red Forces High Command had chosen Brigadier General Martin Homes of the British People's Army, as the commander in the area. Homes was a veteran of several decades, having served in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, and Japan, thus he knew what he was talking about.
"Right then. As expected, Loyalist and Capilean forces alike have stopped in their tracks, they did so almost as soon as the warhead detonated. We estimate a small number of enemy units acting as forward assault troops or reconnaissance, were wiped out in the blast. In any case, we still have close to a million, possibly more than, enemy troops in our area, poised to resume their advance." He typed in some commands on his desk computer and then spun it around, showing a map of California on the monitor. "Now, to our advantage is that most of the highways have been clogged by the civilians who evacuated from Los Angeles before detonation, not simply highways leading into Communist territory, but also those leading into occupied areas as well. This will make it harder for the enemy to move his forces more efficiently by road, possibly forcing them to hike it through open country. In the South where the main enemy forces are present, much of the terrain is desert, and that will not be favorable for troops forced to move through open country. Better still, about twenty thousand of the evacuees are either military personnel or state security officials. This should help us in gathering intelligence on the enemy." He now turned to the idea of a counterattack.
"We've been busy up here. Since liberating the city, troops have been flown and shipped in from World Union members on the other side of the Pacific." The monitor began scrolling down through a list of units that had arrived recently. "I've received three Japanese divisions, about 30,000 troops, and since Japanese divisions are combined arms formations, I'm holding them as any-role replacements. If another division needs to be recalled from fighting, one of these will take over until that division can return to action."
"Next, the Russians have sent me quite a large quantity of troops to work with. Two Guards Tank division's, four Motorized Rifle division's, one Mechanized division, one Guard's Artillery division, an Air Defense division, and even a Spetsnatz brigade. This totals at about 135,000 troops and these forces will form the bulk of our available units. I plan on having them form the center of our thrust to the South. As for the Spetsnatz units, they offer about 1,600 commandoes, which will be a useful asset. They will be exceptionally good for hitting the enemy where he least suspects it."
"The remainder of our ground troops consist mostly of a mix between Chinese and Vietnamese troops. Two Infantry divisions and one Artillery division from Vietnam which is about 30,000 troops, plus an Armored division and an Air Defense division from China giving us another 18,000 or so. All in all our total forces count out at a cap of about 213,000, whereas we are looking at an enemy more than twice that number as our opponent. Intelligence reports that the Capilean's alone put close to half-a million troops ashore at San Diego. No telling how many Loyalist troops marched in from the East, best guess puts it at past three hundred thousand."
When questioned by Stahl as to how he intended to win this fight, Homes had an answer ready for him. "Well Comrade General Secretary, our equipment is, across the board, better than most of what the Loyalist forces have got. It seems that the fascists snatching most of Columbia's more modern equipment is actually helping us out here. Don't get too happy, they've still got quite a bit of their latest power armor models and combat vehicles with them, but not enough to outweigh us." He wasn't wrong; at the moment, the Russian SSR, Chinese PR, and Japanese SSR possessed among the worlds most technologically advanced militaries. The Vietnamese were armed with Chinese equipment since their own would not have been up to snuff. "However, only our Russian forces are to the same level as the Capileans on most fields. The Chinese might have better fixed artillery, but that won't do much for our counterattack. Not to mention our opponent is Field Marshal Walther Nemetz, one of, if not, the best commanders in the Capilean military. This will be no easy fight." The Brigadier General had to return to his work as the aircraft tally began to come in.
Zubek produced from a folder on the desk, a document that was in speech format. Which fit as it was indeed a speech. "Comrade General Secretary, though you will certainly have your own words to say when you address the nation concerning Los Angeles, we would like you to include this statement when announcing the nuclear strike."
Mere hours ago, the city of Los Angeles, was consumed by nuclear fire from a missile launched by our gallant allies in the World Union. This was not an act of betrayal, no. This was an attack on the capitalist dogs and fascist pigs who intended to storm the city and rape it to their pleasure! The enemy would have desecrated shops and homes, dragged women of all ages out onto the street to be raped and children to be molested, rounded up brave soldiers of the Revolution to be executed for fighting for the freedom of the peasants and workers! We evacuated the city most thoroughly before detonation, and those citizens now make their way back to Red lands where the imperialist monsters cannot touch them. However, one hundred thousand perished with the city, to the great regret of both myself and all free people of the world. Some were simply too late in being evacuated, while others, brave heroes, were members of a volunteer militia which attempted to hold up the enemy near the city outskirts. When the mushroom cloud went up, these courageous men and women smiled, for they knew they had done their duty to further our Socialist cause! Now, the capitalists are deprived of their festival of horrors they intended to visit upon the city, as they visited horror upon San Diego and San Francisco, yet, they are also deprived of a valuable staging area from which they could have attacked North.
"You can add in the rest of your speech but please don't forget this part."
OOC: I'll add in Cabo soon to this post
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