Shipbucket

I can see how a friend of mine can fit into this AU.

FINLAND 1991-2008

Much of the post-cold war reforms in Finland constituted on the civil rights and liberty fields. These allowed creation of at least semi-democratic establishment on the politics when new parties independent from the Communist party were allowed to operate under the SKDL’s umbrella in the parliament and most importantly in the local communal elections and councils. Most important political forces were the Green movement and the lack of environmental conscience in the old regime’s economical policies grew lot of attention and allowed initiate lot of reforms in regarding the old pollution-prone industry and power supply. Much of this criticism was directed to the oil and gas industry, which had managed to retain their status in the power echelons of the “new” People’s Republic as the government trendily called itself.

The end of the Cold War opened markets from both Finnish energy supplies to Europe as well for Western investments inside Finland, though the most efforts to establish foreign companies were hampered by the still socialistic legislation about workers rights and self-management, the economy if Finland begun slowly rise after the mid 90’s.

In Foreign policy, Finland adopted lot of Soviet’s stand on non-interventionism, and the most important change was the normalization of relations to Chinese People’s Republic in early 90’s that effectively ended the hostile tensions among the Far-East. The border disputes were solved and mutual economical relationships were formed. The growing political power of Green Movement have also marked increasing stand on Finnish policies to address environmental issues in some extend.
After Cold War, the Soviet and NATO leadership agreed that the former East Germany would be allowed to join NATO, but no further enlargement of the organization would took place. This promise has since been broken periodically by the West, by first Poland joining the organization in 1999, following Lithuania in 2002. These moves were seen as extremely hostile towards Finnish security and thus had increased the power of the Finnish military inside the political decision making. Together with Putin’s military reforms in Soviet Union, Finland begun also investing its new wealth to arms production that had been kept in almost minimum after the end of the Cold War. The Anti-Finnish atmosphere had rooted quite largely in Lithuania since its independence, largely by its government’s failed attempts and anticipations to incorporate the local ethnic Finnish community to its society, creating lot of social problems and ethnic Fins making up largely the lower class of the population. These tensions often erupted into violent riots and criminality that gained lot of attention in Finnish media who by thus feed similar Anti-Baltic sentiment among the Finns on both sides of the border. Other provocations such as commemorating the former Lithuanian SS men and other Nazi collaborates further fueled the flames.
After Lithuanian and Polish NATO membership, the strategically situation of the Sirolankaupunki enclave became paramount military concern for the Finnish strategists and the whole position of the enclave a source of national pride, since it became favorite “fear mongering” among the Finnish sensationalist media to feed the paranoia of western revanchionist claims over the territory and keeping up the myth of besieged city that dates from the World war II days.

Despite these tensions, packed up with George W. Bush ambitions of establishing anti ballistic missile shield in the Baltic region, allegedly against Iran or similar states, but de-facto against Finnish and Soviet missiles, the Finno-EU relationships were slowly improving after 2000. The most prominent project between EU members and Finland has become the Nord-Stream gas-pipe project that would link European economies to the Finnish gas fields in Siberia via Baltic Sea, instead of traveling trough Soviet territory. This plan has also been strain in Finno-Soviet economical relationships and seen as a venture to drift the two nations apart, thus being actively promoted by Germany and Scandinavia.

The escalation of Soviet distrust with west over the situation in Iraq slowly begun get attention in Finland. In early 2008, a joint Finnish-Soviet military exercise took place first time globally in both Far East and in Europe as well in Mediterranean. During these maneuvers, which were secretly anticipating Soviet forces and command system for their forthcoming Iraqi expedition, the title Warsaw Pact was also resurrected and the military of both side braced each other from the “eternal brotherhood” of the two countries. According to the Shanghai Co-operation Pact, Chinese forces took first time part in these exercises and the whole event was seen in the west as big military show-off from Soviet bloc.

Covertly, the Finnish Communist Party’s secretary, Yrjö Hakanen and Vladimir Putin agreed joint military procedures in case of the situation in Iraq was to turn into military conflict involving NATO forces. It was agreed that Finnish Forces would liberate Lithuania and neutralize the threat of the NATO’s anti-ballistic missile shield, as well as put pressure upon Poland and Czechs to withdrawn from the NATO camp. Chinese premier Hu, was also present in these talks and the overall plan was to “solve the Taiwanese issue” permanently as well, in case the situation would require military solution. The plan generally was to retake the lost initiative back to the Moscow and Pietari hands as swiftly as possible using the Iraq as an Casus Belli to begun conflict with the West.

In Lithuania, the situation gained its own escalation in the summer of 2008 when the local city council in Vilnus decided to remove a Pronze cast monument commemorating the Finnish soldiers died in World War II and the local finnish youths rallying around the whole finnish community to defend the monument. These incidents lead into riots that were accused to have been organized by the Finnish secret Police as covert attempt to affect on Lithuanian politics. The Finnish politicians took harsh stand against Lithuanian government as seeing the whole plan to move the monument as provocation and sign of revival of Fascism in Europe. At the same time Finnish People’s army was slowly and gradually mobilized in excuse of “accessory” rehearsals. The Finnish army had been moving its units from Far East slowly to Europe after the strategic understanding with PRC had strengthened the security situation in the area. These moves included much of the Armor and mechanized units, and the move of the Ballistic SS-20 and SS-23 missiles that Soviets had sold to Finland in late Cold War years as act of reducing the intermediate range strategic weapons away from Europe as sign of Détente.

Albeit the Riots after the Bronze-soldier statue cooled down in the heat of the Summer and after the Beijing Olympics games (Both sides of the conflict waited the games to be over before anticipating any acts on the Middle-east.) the upheaval in Lithuanian towns remerged, after series of cyber-attacks from Finnish computers, run most likely by the secret police in disguise of dissident nationalists. In August, the Finnish People’s Delegation issued a Note to the Lithuania to end the “ethnic violence” among the Finnish people and issued a law that allowed Finnish People’s Army right to defend its citizens (most of the Lithuanian Finns still had the Finnish citizenship as their sole source of legitimacy) outside the country’s borders.
These were seen as provocations by both NATO, Lithuanian government and the EU and a joint summit was held in Stockholm regarding the situation, the tensions did not cooled, after the Finnish press begun accusing Lithuanians conducting ethnic cleanings on the Finnish habited areas. These were mostly propaganda, but were based on mass-arrest by the Lithuanian police in the Finnish slums in Riga that had bursted out into full riots and excessive use of Police brutality among the civilians that were not directly part of the rioting youths. These events took place at the middle of the Summit and gave the Finnish delegation an excuse to leave the summit in 20th of August. In 21st of August the Central Committee held secret meeting in Pietari and gave the People’s Army orders to begin preparations for military intervention. Units of the Finnish Special forces were infiltrated across the border into the Finnish youth organizations which were organizing the riots, and begun to smuggle small arms and demolitions for insurgent activities to take place against Lithuanian and NATO forces in the country.

These operators set up a “Finnish defense committee” that was to act as organ for the Finnish population and was immediately declared illegal by the Lithuanian government that at this point had seriously begun to fear of possible invasion. The NATO’s military intelligence was well aware of the buildup of Finnish forces, but the high echelon leadership tough Fins just trying to provoke diversion to the plans to invade Iraq in the middle-east by committing forces and material into central Europe instead. Soviets informed Finns about their Plans to enter Iraq to take place on 8-10th of September in the last days of August. Finnish leadership placed their military on highest alert on September first, and set up wartime echelons for the leadership. A High-deadquarter was formed under leadership of Marshall Valtonen and the forces in Pihkova and Estonia were organized into “Baltic Front” and its HQ was also established as to lead the military intervention to Lithuania.
In September 7th Finnish Parliament held published meeting to discuss the Lithuanian situation and the accused human right violations. The People’s Delegacy then held meeting trough 7th and 8th of September, being fully informed by Moscow over the situation in Iraq. When Soviets declared to the world about coup in Bagdad, the Finnish People’s delegation gave 24h ultimatum to Lithuania to cede all oppressive matters towards the ethnic fins and release all imprisoned people free.
After this ultimatum was over in evening of the 9th Finnish People Delegacy informed that it had imposed Martial Law and ordered full military mobilization.

During these days, the situation in Lithuania remained calm, as the finnish dissidents waited orders from Pietari and the local population had fully became aware of possible invasion. The Lithuanian officials did not engage or stop the small demonstrations and some of the rioters were actually released from police custody.

In September 10th, Finnish Airforce engaged in several airspace violations that were Intercepted by the Sole NATO air unit, a Scandinavian squadron of JAS-39 Gripens guarding the Baltic Airspace. The NATO fighters did not engage the Finnish planes in the first hours, but after the news had reached from Iraq about Soviet and US troops opening fire at each others, three JAS-39 engaged a Finnish MiG-23 reconnaissance plane and shoot it down over the Northern Latvian province in around 19:09 of local time. The finnish pilot ejected safely and was captured by local Lithuanian national guard unit and executed by the stand, without any orders from higher military installation.
The Finnish leadership learned about the shooting immediately and the information was passed on the Central Committee which was holding almost non-stop “crisis” meetings. It passed the information to all major Media by 20:00, and the incident was reported in Finnish TV as NATO shooting down a Finnish fighter over Finnish airspace, despite the place was actually about 50 Km deep into Lithuanian territory.
In 04:00 in next morning Finland declared war upon Lithuania. The Baltic Front was given orders to immediately neutralize all enemy activities in the Lithuanian soil. By end of the Day, the Massive Finnish airstrikes had neutralized the sole Scandinavic fighter squadron, and Finnish troops from Both Pihkova, Estonia and Sirolankaupunki had crossed the borders, as well as Finnish naval infantry landing together with airborne troops outside Riga and capturing it by the end of the day. By 21:00 hours, Vilnus, Riga and Daugvapils were occupied, with neglect resistance from Lithuanian forces, which were mostly destroyed by Air attacks into their barracks not even managing to move into operational areas.

_________________
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New AU project "Aravala"

World War III – phase one

(disclaimer: remember this is purely alternative universe scenario, it doesen't represent OTL what-if US vs. Soviet conflict. It is in a sense, a wank but I try to keep it plausible as possible.)

September 10th
Fightings break up in the Majnood oilfields. US 1st marine division launches attack on the VDV units. Soviet Union immediately demands US to cease fire but US administration does not reply. It's believed that USA intentionally refuses to make contact with the soviets and tries to gain better position in the battlefield before starting negotiations with the Soviets. VDV units are badly underdog but manages to keep their positions in the Oil field. Around 20:00 in the evening US begins massive air campaign to hammer down the soviet VDV units.

For the soviets the situation is difficult. Although Soviets did anticipate confrontation with the US and were building up quite deep going operation in the Middle East they were surprised that USA opened hostilities so easily. Putin was faced with either answer with full strength and bring the world in the eve of Nuclear holocaust or pull back and face humiliation. The indecisiveness of the Soviets just brought more determination to US to try and push hard on capturing the Oil field.

In around 20:45 Putin orders Soviets to answer on US hostilities in Iraq and Soviet Union moves into full mobilisation and into state of war. Soviets begun their own air operation above Iraq to relief the VDV units. First air battles took place in 21:15 and continues trough out the night with significant losses on both sides. Neither side manages to gain air superiority but Soviets offensive manages to put the bombings of the VDV units into bay.

Soviet plan is to keep the USA troops in Iraq engaged until the main forces of the Middle-East theatre arrives. Those consist from the Southern Group of Soviet Forces, created in early 2008 and located first in Syria and Armenian SSR. The units are mostly from the old Group of Soviet forces in Germany. The order of battle was:

1st Iraq Front (moving from Armenia into Baghdad and from there to south-east along Tigris)

1st Guards Tank Army
4th Tank Division
11th Tank Division
20th Motorised rifle Division
2nd Combined Arms Army
16th Tank Division
21st Motorised rifle Division
94th Motorised rifle Division
207th Motorised rifle Division

20th Combined Arms Army
25th Tank Division
32nd Tank Division
35th Motorised rifle Division
90th Motorised rifle Division

2nd Iraq Front (Moving from Syria to Nasiriyah and from there to east)

3rd Shock Army
10th Tank Division
12th Tank Division
47th Tank Division
7th Motorised rifle Division

8th Guards Combined Arms Army
79th Tank Division
27th Motorised rifle Division
39th Motorised rifle Division
57th Motorised rifle Division

Major part of the Soviet plan was to neutralise US air power in the area by taking out the three carriers operating in Persian Gulf. Soviets were able to distract and trick USA to believe that their own carrier force was divided into smaller patches and USA knew only the 3 Soviet carriers, Kiev, Tbilisi and Baku present in Arabian sea. USA counted that the three Soviet Carriers would not try to engage the USA fleet as it had inferior numbers of aircraft. USA believed that 5 Soviet carriers were in the Atlantic to tie US fleet there but was following a radio traffic of group of soviet merchant vessels. Instead 2 more carriers, Ulyanovsk and Filip Oktobryansky had moved into Arabian sea and were in position in September 10th.

September 11th
Soviet Fleet in Arabian sea moves into position. Plan is to launch simultaneous attack with submarines and air units from the five carriers and from land. In 6:30 in the morning Soviet Su-33M fighters attacks US navy E-2C AWACS plane covering the US carrier forces southern flank and immediately after that 6 Oscar class SSGN's and 2 pr. 881 SSGNs launches a salvo of 48 SS-N-24 Scorpion missiles and 48 3M15 Bolid missiles. The first missile salvo is followed by some 20 Onix and 12 Bolid missiles fired from surface ships. Attacking from the north, 12 Tu-22M3 armed with air launched Onix fires another 120 missiles against the US fleet. While the missiles are flying, 3 squadrons of Su-32 Strike fighters, 2 squadrons of Kor-74 attack planes and 4 Squadron of MiG-29K multi-role fighters, total of 112 planes attacks from the Soviet Carriers.

The missile saturation manages to wipe out USN air defence. Of the 248 missiles fired in the first salvo around 150 hits their targets sinking 7 US warships including 4 Alreigh Burke class DDGs, 2 Ticonderoga class cruisers and one Spruance class DDG. All 3 US carriers, Enterprise, Abraham Lincoln and Constellation are hit but they remain partially operational.

Soviet carrier planes strike at 6:36 targeting the US carriers. Of those, USS Constellation is nearest towards the soviet carriers and is being hit most. Taking around 7 hits of Onixs and 3-4 KAB-1500 and KAB-500 bombs it collapses and begins to sunk at 6:40. USS Enterprise and Abraham Lincoln are both being hit too but manages to remain afloat. USA manages to get some 40 aircraft flying before the first salvo hits them and furious air battles takes place. Of the 112 Soviet attack planes, 12 are being shot down by F/A-18s and another 7 are downed by the remaining US air defence ships. Some 14 Su-33M and MiG-29K are lost in the air battles from the air units supporting the attack planes. Of the 40 US planes, 32 are eventually shot down and 8 manages to flee into Bahrain.

US navy in the Persian Gulf is defeated. Second wave of the Soviet air attacks begun in 7:00 mainly by Tu-22M3s and Tu-160 attacking US airfields and military installations in Kuwait and Bahrain and Frontal aviation units attacking the US troops in Iraq. Throughout the morning of September 11th the Soviet carrier forces begins to attack Bahrain and in around 9-10:00 Soviets have air superiority in Middle East. USA is paralysed. None in the Bush administration really believed that Soviets would strike with the sheer power they had done and none anticipated that the effects would be as severe. US troops in the Middle East are now completely trapped as Soviets controls the sea entrance to Persian Gulf. The disbelieve and the uncertainty in the decision making is clearly evident when Bush orders the US troops in Iraq to stand their ground and not to retreat into Kuwait nor Saudi-Arabia.

While US is hesitating, Soviets are aggressively exploiting their momentum and the 1st Iraq Front is closing in the enemy. Between 18-19:00 the 1st Front gets contact to the VDV units in Majnoor and the 1st Guards Tank army is preparing to attack. Throughout the evening Soviet frontal aviation and carrier planes are mauling the US troops and around midnight the 1st Iraqi front launches attack southwards the Highway 6. Heavy fighting took place and Soviets are pushing the US troops towards Bashra. In the night between September 11th and 12th one of the biggest tank battles since World war II takes place some 10 kilometres north of Bashra.

September 12-13th
Soviet main offensive continues trough the night into the morning of September 12th. US troops are being retreating into Bashra. While the 1st Iraqi Front had engaged the US troops and set them on retreat, the 2nd Iraqi Front was moving fast from Nassiriyah towards east and reaches the city of Zubayr in the evening of September 12th. The 3rd shock army attacks British units South of Bashra. Heavy fighting continues trough out the night and the next day but the US and UK troops are unable to prevent the soviet advance. The 2nd Iraq front moves trough Zubayr into Abu-Al Khabid and cut the coalition troops from the last major route to south.

Meanwhile Finland have invaded Lithuania and China has claimed fully supporting their partners in the Shanghai co-operation pact. The intial US aggression towards Iraq and the attacks on Soviet troops were largely condemned around the globe but the escalation of the war and Finish occupation of Lithuania has turned the tide in favour of USA in public opinions. Soviets announces that they wont cede military actions until USA is agreeing on the “Lavrov thesis”, terms proclaimed by the Soviet foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, mainly demanding complete US withdrawal from Middle-East.

September 14th
Coalition troops are completely surrounded in Bashra, despite fierce attempts to break out the encirclement Soviet lines stands firm. Soviets are unwilling to negotiate until the Lavrov thetis are being accepted.

September 16th
China launches invasion into Taiwan and the conflict comes global. Chinese and Taiwanese airforces clashes above the skies of Taiwan Straight and the Chinese numerical superiority is overwhelming for the Taiwanese.

September 17th
After strong lobby, Saudi-Arabia, Oman and United Arab Emirates joins the US led coalition. Saudi troops attacks the soviet 2nd Iraq front's rear against Karbala and Samawah. This forces the Soviet 2nd Iraq front to detach units from the Bashra siege to counter the Arab troops.

September 16th - 19th
Heavy fighting is taking place in Bashra, Karbala and in Samawah. Coalition troops are putting their all efforts to break out from the Soviet siege. Soviets tries to put pressure on the encircled US troops but are unable to break their defences. The 2nd Iraq front is stretched out into too large area and the Coalition plan works. The southern side of the siege falls and Soviets are forced to pull back from Zubayr and opening a corridor for US troops to Kuwait. In mid-day September 19th US and UK troops starts to evacuate into Kuwait. Soviet 2nd Iraq front regroups near Nassiriyah and puts the Arab units advance into halt. The first phase of the battles in Middle East is over.

In Asia, Chinese troops are have landed in Taiwan and are facing relatively small and effortless resistance from the ROC troops.

September 20th
Soviet troops in Egypt cross the Gulf of Aqaba and invades Saudi-Arabia from the west after ensuring via diplomatic channels that Israel is not planning to join USA in the war. Soviets announces that they are not planning to invade Mecca nor Medina in order not to upset the muslim world. In Iraq Soviet troops are pushing the Arab intrusion back from Iraq and the 2nd and 1st Iraq front are reorganising for moving into Kuwait and Saudi-Arabia.

September 21st -22nd
Two additional Soviet combined arms armies from the Siberian and Central Asian MD's arrives into Iraq. Attempts for peace-negotiations fails again.

September 23rd
Soviet Troops starts to invade Saudi-Arabia from Iraq. The 1st and 2nd Iraq Front are renamed 1st and 2nd Middle-East fronts respectively and the Egyptian units into 3rd Middle East Front. Soviet troops main goal is Riad and the Persian Gulf coastline into United Arab Emirates. Coalition troops are retreating in all fronts towards south and South-East.

USA and NATO are accepting that the Middle East is lost unless the Soviets can be distracted into elsewhere and most notably forcing them to pull out their fleet from the Arabian Sea. NATO have been planning second front in Europe. Finish invasion of Lithuania is offering legitimate Casus Belli for starting war against Finland.

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New AU project "Aravala"

Baltic War

The government and president of Lithuania was captured by almost intact and forced to sign a Peace treaty which made Lithuania withdrawn from NATO, and instead sign a Defense pact with Finland and Soviet Union, allowing Finnish military to station troops in the country and offering full citizenship to the Finnish population. Despite the Lithuanian government signed the treaty, the parliament was not able to be gathered to legitimate it.
In the following week the situation remained tense and the main fighting focused on Middle East. The western governments were taken by shock of these escalations, despite German and French policies had almost been hostile towards the US plans in Iraq. The “Lithuanian” situation however gained sympathizes from the European population and the governments begun to swing towards Bushs Administrations stand.

During Cold War, part of the NATO strategy had always been to exploit the “soft backside” of the Soviets in Finnish hinterlands that would put pressure on Finnish troops that were always regarded as sole trustworthy allies to Soviet goals away from the Baltic theater and to considerably tie Soviet presence, especially naval one away from its traditional support areas.

As the war in Middle east dragged on for much of American’s misfortunes, NATO became fully committed to turn the tide by “rescuing” Lithuania in a plan to launch divertive landings in Lapland near the Kola Peninsula’s port of Muurmanni, that was Finland’s only ice-free port in Europe and considerable Naval Base for Soviet Nuclear Submarines. This action, supported by Scandinavic forces and Conducted by the US Marine II Marine Expedition Force together with 3rd commando Brigade from Royal Marines and various battalion sized units from other NATO nations were based in Northern Norway coast in order to attack Muurmanni.

The Finnish army OOB after the Invasion of Lithuania was following:

1. PIETARI MD – Pietari The Finnish Proper and North-Western Finland:
6th Combined Arms Army – Pietari (Operarional Reserve)
37th Guards Motorized Rifle Division– Turku-Pori Region
54th Motorized Rifle Division - Pietari
63rd Motorized Rifle Division – Kantalahti
68th Motorized Rifle Division– Pihkova
Archangel Corps – Archangel: (In Defence of the Norther border)
45th Motorized Rifle Division - Muurmanni
69th Motorized Rifle Division - Rovaniemi
77th Guards Motorized Rifle Division Archangel
36th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade– Petsamo
76th Guards Airborne Brigade - Nominally in Utti, but several battalions located in Baltics
26th Artillery Division – In Niinisalo
145th Artillery Division – In Kainuu

2. BALTIC FRONT – in Sirolankaupunki and in Occupied Lithuania (Nominally Baltic MD with reinforcements)
11th Guards Shock Army – Sirolankaupunki
15th Guards Tank Division – In Sirolankaupunki
40th Guards Tank Division – In Suomela, near Lithuanian Border in Sirolankaupunki district
1st Guards Motorized Rifle Division - Sirolankaupunki
3rd Guards Motorized Rifle Division - Klaipeda, Lithuania:
Vyborg Corps – In Lithuania-Polish Border. Corpses were wartime echelons created for the invasion operation: (these units were from Pietari MD from peace time structure)
a. 45th Guards Motorized Rifle Division – Around Lake Vistytis
b. 64th Motorized Rifle Division – Around Lake Vistytis
c. 111th Motorized Rifle Division – Kuusela
14th Combined Arms Army – Marjanpole, Lithuania (later send to North)
24th Tank Division – Marjanpole (Oulu)
26th Motorized Rifle Division – Marjanpole (One MR and one Tank regiments to Oulu, two regiments to Rovaniemi)
88th Motorized Rifle Division – Kalvarija (Kantalahti)
107th s Motorized Rifle Division – Kalvarija (Kantalahti)
65th Motorized Rifle Division - Riga, Latvia (Internal Security, from 6th Army)
163rd Guards Baltic Naval Infantry Brigade – Deployed in Kaunas
129th Artillery Division - Sirolankaupunki
344th Artillery Division - Kaunas

3. FAR-EAST MD – In Idänlinna ( Several Divisions were in ready to be deployed into Europe)

11th Combined Arms Army - Idänlinna
3rd Tank Division - Tynda
9th Guards Motorized Rifle Division - Ussuri
39th Motorized Rifle Division – Haaparanta
46th Motorized Rifle Division – Amurinpori
265th Motorized Rifle Division - Valkomäki
15th Combined Arms Army – Etelä-Sahaali
3rd Motorized Rifle Division - Kuril Islands
22nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division – Pietaripaavali-Kamkatska
79th Motorized Rifle Division - Leijonanlinna-Sahaali
127th Motorized Rifle Division - Marjamäki
342nd Motorized Rifle Division – Etelä-Sahaali
6th Guards Airborne Regiment - Valkomäki
55th Naval Infantry Division– Idänlinna
33rd Artillery Division - Toini
128th Artillery Division - Ussuri
67th Motorized Rifle Brigade – Jakuutti
68th Motorized Rifle Brigade – Anadyr

NATO countries set up an ultimatum for Finnish retreat from Lithuania for 26th September, but Finnish response was defiant and there were numerous incursions of both side’s air forces to the others respective airspace, as well as constant Submarine alerts in the Baltic and Northern waters. In 17th day, Finnish Submarine attacked against German Frigate Koln near to the entrance to the Gulf of Riga, partially setting it on fire with severe hull damage from the torpedo hit that ultimately caused its keel to break and the ship was sunk after 24h of rescue attempts.
On 19th day, Scandinavian and German attack planes attacked against Finnish corvettes escorting supply ships to the Sirolankaupunki, sinking one and damaging three warships and transports. Air raids were renewed on trough the following days, this time facing the Finnish MiG-29s and Su-27s interceptors over the Baltic and after fierce air battles, the NATO air activity didn’t manage to score any other strikes against Finnish ships.
In 22nd of September, one day ahead of the given ultimatum, NATO launched major air strikes against Murmanni and other Military Installations in Finnish Lapland and Kola Penisula. These were conducted mainly by Scandinavian Air Forces and USAF units from Northern Norway and abroad three USN carries, USS Dwight D Eisenhower, USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Harry S. Truman that had been scrambled to the Atlantic, instead trying to enter to the Soviet dominated Persian Gulf. Conducting their operations well away from the range of Finnish Coastal SSMs, and having exclusive air superiority preventing surface ships to attack against the USN formations, Finns set up all their four Kilo class submarines deployed in the Norther Waters, together with Soviet Nuclear Submarine Leopard. Other Soviet Submarines, including the strategic boats had left the port already at August and were deployed in their operational Bastions, with slight mistake of not been able to trail the USN Carriers that were now striking at their base.

Since the NATO air dominance, the Finnish Air defenses couldn’t prevent NATO ASW aircrafts to watch the adjacent sea zones with intense vigilance, and the Finnish submarines were soon detected and attacked multiple times by almost all available assets when they tried to move against the USN Carriers. Despite the ferocity of these attacks, only one boat was damaged and forced to seek shelter from Petsamo, near Scandinavian border, and the three other boats were forced to break their formation and disperse themselves into Barents Sea. Meanwhile their focus allowed Leopard to slip through all the barriers and to be encountered with USN nuclear attack submarines USS Hawai and USS North Carolina. After hours of underwater struggle, the USN boats were able to displace so much damage to Leopard that it had to break away from the area without being able to conduct any damage to the US carriers.

After Three days of hard air attacks, the Finnish fleet in Muurmanni was severely dismantled with only few units able to flee toward the White Sea. Finnish Air Defenses were pressed hard against the NATO forces, and despite scoring 60 aircrafts downed, their own losses were 74 planes and most flights begun to be too under strength to conduct proper responses on the nightly attacks. The Anti-aircraft forces around Muurmanni counted 24 downed aircrafts to the S-300 and Buk M-1 SAMs. In 25th day, the US Marine troops made their landings in Fjord of Viida, west to the Murmanni Fjord. At same four Scandinavian Mechanized Divisions crossed the border in Tornio, as well as several arctic brigades further along the Northern border.

Fins have only one Division immediately around Muurmanni, along with local defense battalions and Naval personnel, while the Northern Fleet naval infantry regiment is engaged by the Royal Marines and Scandinavian naval infantry trying to land at Kalastajansaarento. The impact of these assaults in severe to the Finnish military leadership, and many would have already ready to use nuclear weapons against the invasion troops. Well aware of the Corresponding build ups among the Baltic border, only the 14th Army is ordered to be immediately deployed to North, along with the divisions from Finnish Proper and four divisions from Far East are set to the long train travel across the Asian land masses.
US Marines initially succeed to out maneuver the Finnish defenses, advancing in two echelons toward the Murmanni’s Fjord towards east, and to the Highway 138 in South which is the main east-west road in the Kola Peninsula that connects Petsamo and Muurmanni together. Americans manages to capture this Highway as their initial goal, and advance to the western bank of the Fjord, but the badly mauled 45th Motorized division holds its line and the enemy cannot cross the fjord. the 63rd Motorised Division from Kantalahti manages arrive at the little village of Kola that serves and the highway junction between the Highway 138 and the Highway 5 that connects Muurmanni to the south. The American tank battalion is defeated in the village and pushed back while the Naval Infantry Regiment in Petsamo is forced to retreat in face of getting completely cut from all supply roads.

In the night of 26-27th of September, Scandinavic troops manages to capture Kemi and reach the outskirts of Rovaniemi, while the first elements of the 14th Army begins to arrive in to the north, and the Reinforced 24th tank Division manages to halt the Scandinavian breakthrough to Oulu, in the Battle of Simo in the morning of the 26th day, with over 500 Finnish tanks engage a force of 130-150 Scandinavian tanks of the Norrabottens Regiment. Despite losing over 100 tanks, the combined haul from the Finnish tanks and artillery manages to wipe out similar number of Scandinavian leopard 2s, creating a dangerous cap to the Scandinavian flanks, and the still battle-strength 24th Tank divisions is able to exploit this and rally towards Kemi.
In meanwhile, as the reinforcements to the both sides drives the Battle of Muurmanni to near turning point and concentrates all available Air assets of both side into series of large air battles, this time supported by two fresh Soviet Su-27 regiments over Muurmanni. This allows considerable freedom for the air units to operate in the Botnian frontline, so the 76th Airborne Brigade, that has been assembled to Oulu, conduct a dare Air Attack against Tornio, cutting the Scandinavic supply lines. At early hours of 28th of September, the remaining of the Norrabottens regiment is trapped and encircled by the Finnish Tanks and the regiments’ survivors’ surrenders in the following morning.

Despite a decisive victory for the Fins, as it forces much of the Other Scandinavian troops to retreat towards Kemi, the 28th day marks the beginning of the Land war in Baltic, as 20 NATO divisions, mostly from Germany, Poland and United States Attacks against the Finnish 7 Finnish divisions left to guard the Frontline. The NATO Planners had counted their diversion right, and confronts the main force of their attack against the Lithuanian-Polish Border, where only three motorized divisions guarded the 50 km long border. (The 14th Army was originally around here as well before being deployed to North)

After fierce battles, the Vyborg Corps is forced to retreat in the 30th day, and it manages to escape only slightly the US mechanized units encirclements plans, but all its divisions and regiments are badly damaged and over 10 000 Finnish soldiers had lost their lives within two days of battle. The Vyborg Corps takes new positions around Kaunas while Soviet Troops enters into Vilnius before the Americans, marking engagements between the super powers starting in Europe as well. The 11th Shock Army, considered as the most elite formation of the Finnish army has its eastern flank dangerously Exposed, as meanwhile the Lithuanian population, welcoming the NATO troops as liberators initiate series of uprisings and insurgent activities, supported by NATOs special forces. This hampers the moving of reinforcements across the occupied territory, and the Pihkovian 68th Motorised Division Is met by huge mass of unarmed protestors in the streets of Daugvapils, and is forced to halt down and engage in the frustrating interior security missions.

The American forces are able to bypass the defenses around Kaunas and capture little village of Kryzkalnis, where the main Klaipeida-Vilnus highway crosses with the Sirolankaupunki-Riga highway. Despite these successes, the NATO forces (consisting ominously only German divisions) face of the Sirolankaupunki and the 11th Shock Army don’t manage to duplicate the American success in the east, and their Attacks are all halted before reaching into any considerable depth.

In the sea front in Baltic, the NATO forces, despite almost 10 Finnish submarines operating in the area, manages to bring partial naval blockade to the Southern Baltics, effectively preventing any naval evacuation of Sirolankaupunki.
In 1st of October, the US forces manages to Invade Kaunas, pushing the remains of the Vyborg Corps back about 20 km in alarmingly disorientated fashion. Exposing the entire Baltic front now dangerously, the Finnish high Command gives the 68th division orders to push through the rioters in Daugvapils at any cost possible, and after bloody and unnecessarily brutal artillery concentration to the streets of the city, the main elements of the 68th division begins to advance in order to patch the frontline gaps.
Having the 11th Shock Army’s regiments stretched to defend the eastern Sirolankaupunki region borders as well as the main front in the south, the German 7th and 8th Panzer brigades manages to break in from Praatina, and push towards North. In the night of 2nd and 3rd of October, the 40th Guards Tank Division, reinforced with the surviving battalions of the 163rd Baltic Naval infantry Regiment, which had retreated in somewhat unorthodox fashion towards Sirolankaupunki after the defeat in Kaunas, engages the two German Panzer brigades around the badly shattered Valmet’s tractor factories and manages to halt their advance. In the following day A US armored brigade and mechanized infantry brigade arrives to reinforce this German bridgehead, but despite their vast numerical superiority, the Finnish defenses manages to force them into fierce battles around the ruins of the factory sites, and they cannot crush the defenses.

In the North, the Scandinavian divisions are able to Retreat to Kemi, where their defense holds against the Attacks of the torn down 24th Tank Division. The US Marine force in the Murmanni have not been able to cross the Fjord, despite their artillery and Air assets have spread lot of havoc to the city and its port facilities.

On the night of the 3rd, 45 Soviet Divisions cross the Border from Belarus to Poland, crushing effectively the Polish divisions guarding the frontline and begun to Advance in two Fronts, one reaching towards Warsawa, and another along the Northern Poland to cut down the US forces in Lithuania and meet with the Finnish 11st Shock Army in Sirolankaupunki. The sheer force of the this invasion and surprisingly ineffective resistance from Polish, French and Dutch units guarding the flank of the American-German invasion troops puts NATO into another difficult situation that effectively begun to mean loosing of the war. Since the defeats in Middle east had already brought lot of US warfigthing ability down, the threat of losing over 200,000 soldiers trapped into Lithuania was too big risk, and therefore President Bush gave the USAF orders to conduct tactical Nuclear strike against the Advancing Soviet tank forces. In 12.30 of October 4th, Two American B-2 bombers conducts a mission where they drop one B61 mod10 tactical nuclear bomb of some 1.7 kilotons In Augostow, Poland Above the Soviet 75th Guards Tank Division.

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Shipbucket mainsite, aka "The Archive"
New AU project "Aravala"

Ok maybe I'm just biased but the initial Soviet attack on the American Fleet in the Middle East seems very optimistic to me sorry to say i could be completely wrong
I really like the detail of this background though, it is quiet fantastic

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Hum..i would like to know what countries are in the US side and in Soviet side

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Verusea Alternative Universe is starting to build up.

Of course I don't like when reds invade my homeland ... again. And my knowlage about real life poor capabilities of all parts of former red army scream ... I admire complex and well thought-out scheme. As golly said, this is purely alternative universe, and I love to see more.

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!

Aftermath

Not much is known exactly what took place after the US nuking of Augustow but rumours tells that Putin made one phonecall to George W. Bush lasting about 1 hour and after that both sides agreed on ceasefire. USA and NATO agreed on slightly modified "Lavrov Thetis" basicly leaving Taiwan to Chinese, Lithuania as a "neutral" country and US troops withdrawing from Middle East completely. Soviets agreed to pull out from Saudi-Arabia and Poland respectively. Ceasefire was issued on all fighting units in October 3rd 20:00.

Alot of speculations of the sudden peace has been floating around. Many belive that Putin threatened to launch full scale nuclear retaliation on US troops in europe and Middle-East, some are saying that Putin threatened to Nuke US mainland. Regardless Bush's decicion to launch the tactical nuking made his allies extremely reluctant to continue the war as the Pandoras box had been opened. Anonyme sources from the NATO command centre tells that the athmosphere was like a realisation of game being gone too far. A Game that had already cost over 100 000 casualities on the battlefield as well as tens of thousand civilian casualities. A Game that nearly brought the whole human civilisation into end.

George W. Bush's neoconservative administration lost the elections in USA and Barack Obama took power. US internal politics however started to derail into somehwat chaotic state as the so called "Tea Party" movememt begun to gain alot of support from the people that felt being betrailed by the government. Spirit of US population was quite shattered and isolatism instead of imperialism became to be paramount on US thinking for years to come.

In Soviet Union altough Putin was considered as a Hero among the population, many in the party and in the soviet administration felt that the Putin was as guilty for starting the war as was George W. Bush. In next following months Putins position in the Soviet leadership was becoming more and more difficoult. Putin aknowlidged the situation and stepped down as chairman of the Supreme Soviet. He was followed by Dimitry Medvedev.

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Shipbucket mainsite, aka "The Archive"
New AU project "Aravala"

An excellent read Golly. Well written and and very engaging. An unsual WWIII scenario but one that's woven in nicely with recent political events and personalities.

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Implausible, and, regarding the last, concluding part, I'm wondering if you even know what the so-called Tea Party movement is all about. It certainly wouldn't have materialized after such a conclusion of a global event...

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen