1997 - Nuclear Twilight
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At the beginning of July Italian airborne and alpine forces advance into Tyrol through the mountain passes. The weak units of the Austrian Army offer only minimal resistance and are soon defeated. By the middle of July Italian mechanized forces are fighting German area defence forces in the suburbs of Munich.
The Italian Army's excellent success during the first months of its own war is largely due to supply reasons. Most of its opponents have already been at war for at least six months. Their peacetime ammunition and material reserves have already been spent and their industries haven't yet fully transferred into wartime production. The Italians have full peacetime reserves which they can utilize in the fighting. When autumn begins to approach the Italians too begin to feel the material crunch, and their situation is worsened by the ever larger amounts of material that their enemies are receiving from their own factories.
In Asia India and Pakistan drift into bigger and bigger border incidents, mobilization and finally war. The actual war begins in the spring and by the middle of the year the Indian Army is slowly advancing along the whole front despite the ferocious resistance of the Pakistani Army.
At the beginning of July NATO forces are approaching the border between Polish-occupied Belarus and Russian-occupied Belarus (which Russia considers to be Russian territory), while Warsaw remains besieged. The Polish government-in-exile makes Poznan into its temporary capital and declares that it is upholding the pre-1939 Polish eastern border. In the Far East Russian forces begin a strategic withdrawal along the entire front, and Chinese motorized forces begin a victorious pursuit.
With the territory of the Rodina itself under threat, and with defeat staring at them in the face, President Zhirinovsky and his cohorts turn to the last remaining trump card that they have. It is a veritable Pandora's Box...
On 9 July the vanguard of the German 1st Army enters Russian soil (actually Russian-occupied Belarus), and the Russian Army responds with tactical nuclear weapons, the first ones used in anger since Nagasaki in 9 August 1945. In the west the use of nuclear weapons is sparing at first, and during the first week they are only used against forces that are within 50 km of the Russian border. In the Far East, however, nuclear warfare is immediately begun at a large scale. The surprised Chinese mechanized units are vaporized onto the roads in the midst of the pursuit. Russian attack aircraft launch nuclear-tipped missiles against those population and industrial centers in northern China that are still in Chinese hands. The Chinese retaliation is immediate, but the Russians are prepared, having dispersed their forces over a wide area. The Chinese nuclear attacks against Russia's main population centers fail with regards to Moscow due to the efficient ABM system defending the city, and the country's massive air defence network slaughters the low-flying Chinese bombers. The nuclear imbalance between China and Russia proves fatal for the former, for within the week the Chinese nuclear arsenal has been spent. The Russians, on the other hand, still have a massive amount of nukes to spare, and they relentlessly continue to bomb China. The Chinese infrastructure and communication networks, already stretched to the breaking point, completely collapse under the Russian nuclear onslaught. The roads are filled to the brim with refugees abandoning the remaining cities. China starts its rapid descent towards chaos and anarchy.
On the Western Front the vanguards of both armies are hit hard as NATO retaliates nuclear warhead for nucler warhead. At the end of August the first Russian divisions freed up from the Far East arrived at the front. Though there are no clear frontlines, they start to gradually move west.
On 15 September the siege of Warsaw is lifted. A week later Italian and Czech forces begin their new offensive in southern Germany. The offensive proceeds and the NATO forces in Poland begin to accelerate their withdrawal, at the same time resorting to scorched earth tactics. At the same time the Warsaw Pact countries occupy Slovakia and merge it back with the Czech Republic by force.
In September the Russian and Bulgarian forces in Thrace also begin a large offensive against the Turks. The unilateral use of tactical nuclear weapons breaks the impasse and by the end of the month Bulgarian armoured brigades begin their steamroll towards Istanbul. At the same time Greek and Albanian forces begin their own offensive against southern Serbia, and the Serb army begins to crumble. The Serbian army units fighting in Romania are recalled, but before their return Belgrade fall into the hands of the rapidly advancing Italian tank columns. The Romanian front collapses under the weight of tactical nuclear weapons, growing numbers of Russian soldiers and the desertion of the Serbs. With Warsaw Pact columns rolling through both countries isolated military units withdraw to the mountains to continue the war as guerrillas. Those Ukrainians who have fought alongside the Romanians return home to defend their own borders.
Those countries who have stayed neutral who still have UN troops in the Balkans immediately recall their people from the midst of this colossal mess. This is too late for most of them, however, for aerial transport in the area is now suicidal.
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Next: full-scale nuclear war and the collapse of civilization
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