Theme Song

Moscow

Russian Army: 15,000 NRPR on March 4th; 136,500 by March 13th; 181,500 by March 18th DARR: 10,000 under General Vatutin

Moscow, the second capital of the Russian state and home to important industrial, communication and transport lines, stands in crisis. To the east, Nizhny Novgorod has been ripped from the Russian and currently lies under rebel control. To the southeast lies the Volga which has turned from one of the more stable parts of the Russian state to a hotbed of insurrection and dissent. To make matters worse, the DARR, emboldened by the capture of Wrangel has sent an army to subjugate fair Moscow! While paramilitaries have kept the Moscow-Yaroslavl railroad segment open, the threat of the DARR breaking through the hastily crafted defenses on the outskirts still looms at large on the Moscovite populace.

However, this fear would not come to fruition, unable to break through the ever stronger garrisoning force in the eastern suburbs, General Vatutin of the DARR would instead elect to erect his own fortifications, the eastern districts of Moscow quickly turning into a scene from the Weltkrieg, with trenches and barbed wire crisscrossing vital intersections, artillery guns set behind apartment complexes, ready to begin their deadly barrage should the order be given. Coming into the battle Vatutin had no qualms fighting a numerically superior foe, sure the Russians outnumbered the DARR forces at least 10 to 1, but the best he could do would be to thrash the Russian forces, buying the forces at Nizhny Novgorod time to establish a stronger position. So, Vatutin waited, eying the road map that was scavenged in a local gas station, waiting to make his move.

While his offensives between March 4th to 13rd failed in routing the enemy, they did give Vatutin a small hint of what was to come for the enemy has turned their hasty barricades into a truly impregnable fortress of wire, pillboxes and machine guns. Seeing this, Vatutin gave the order to start the shelling of the Russian positions on the 14th, eager to see all of their time and effort wasted as their defenses crumbled around them. But either by divine miracle or more likely due to bad maps of the Moscow suburbs, the Russian army would be affected only a little, the DARR artillery being more of a nuisance rather than having the desired impact that Vatutin had wished. Continuing the artillery barrage into the night, Vatutin decided to do a final inspection of the lines in person before heading to sleep.

This action would almost kill Vatutin, the Russian air force having armed themselves to the teeth as they assembled themselves air bases around Moscow. The high pitched drones of the Russian fighters would be foreign to most of the DARR’s shoulders, having never encountered an airplane - either civil or military - in their lives. Standing out of their trenches to look for the source of the high pitched noise, machine gun fire would ring out, tracers illuminating the dusk sky as hot metal would begin to mow down the helpless men below. Like Death himself, the Russian fighters went up and down the line, flying dangerously close to the ground as they shot at anything that even dared to twitch. During these strafing runs, Vatutin would be wounded, a bullet missing his heart, getting partially stuck in a pocket watch that he carried above his breast.

The fighters would leave the decimated scene below, letting the bombers have some of the fun as they too began to rain their deadly loads from the sky, flattening positions and the earth below in their relentless march forward. With the night quickly approaching, long shadows were drawn over the DARR’s positions, causing some unintended civilian casualties in their wake as the bombers did their runs before turning back to their home airports for the night. The end result? The DARR’s would be trashed, diligent preparation turned into smoldering craters and piles of dead bodies stacked high, there not being enough time to dig enough graves for the lot of them.

As morning dawned on March 15th, a few hymns would break the eerily silence that had formed during the night, before the sharp cry of a whistle would sound out in Moscow, the sign for the offensive. Dashing through craters and trampling over the dead bodies of their fellow Russians, Kappel’s forces would quickly break through, killing or elicit the surrender of the DARR’s frontline, quickly dashing into their rear to cut off their retreat. As they continued to go further and further into the DARR’s rear, they would soon reach the makeshift field hospital that was assembled in Izmailovsky Park. Unable to withdraw in time, General Vatutin would be captured on his bed cot, surrendering his pistol to the private. The man who gave the DARR the Miracle on the Volga, would now be imprisoned.

Russian Army Casualties: 400 Defense Army of the Russian Republic Casualties: 10,000 General Vatutin is Captured, DARR forces near Moscow eliminated

Nizhny Novgorod

Russian Army: 54,000 under the Army of North Russia DARR: 15,000 under the Nizhny Novgorod Garrison

While the fight for Moscow rages on, a new threat for the newly liberated city of Nizhny Novgorod has arisen. Russia, not wanting to leave the DARR so close to one of their major cities would quickly draw in forces from the northern military distracts, leaving Karelia and Kola Peninsula lightly defended. While able to assemble easily in Yaroslavl by March 10th, their travel down south to Nizhny Novgorod was plagued with problems. First, a bridge on the Trans-Siberian railroad collapsed, causing a train worth of goods and materials to fall and break through the icy river below, its goods permanently unusable. A second attempt at fording the frozen over river using trucks also failed, most trucks breaking the fragile ice and spilling their cargo and passengers into icy depths below. With the railroad and most of their motorized support either disabled or sunk, the Army of the North would find itself having to march primarily using either hand-carts or horse-drawn carts. While it served in getting the Army of the North to Nizhny Novgorod, the use of hand-carts and horse-drawn carts after their arrival would be limited by the men required to take the city as well as the general attitudes of the peasantry who they have “temporarily” commandeered from.

Despite all the troubles, the Army of North Russia did in fact make it to Nizhny Novgorod all in one piece. Deciding to put a supply line so terrible that it would make OTL Rommel blush behind them, the leader of the ANR one Alexander Kutepov, would do as all Russian military leaders who visit Nizhny Novgorod do… and demand their surrender. The DARR would do as it had done for Wrangel, telling the Russians to essentially fuck off, taking the messangers who would become hostages right beside a facepalming Wrangel. Kutepov, perhaps learning from the failures of Wrangel, would take advantage of the fact that there is literally the otherside of the Volga to flank, and would send a fair amount of his men while the DARR would continue to set up their defenses while the Russian Army prepared for a siege, the Russian encirclement preventing the foraging of suitable building material, the defenders having to tear down and loot buildings to find enough materials to suit up a suitable defensive line.

The standoff would be broken on March 17th by the sounds of artillery shooting across each other from the opposite banks of the Volga, doing their best to break the enemies willpower and defenses, with limited effect. However, the opportunity created by the suppression of the enemies frontline by the artillery barrage would be too great of an opportunity to waste as the Petrograd divisions would be ordered to assault the northern parts of Nizhny Novgorod. Rowing across the Volga with artillery shells and Maxim machine guns strapped to the front of row boats and river barges, the 2nd Petrograd division would be able to establish a bridgehead on the right bank of the Volga by midday, Nizhny’s Kremlin easily visible and towering over the town that lay ahead. To the northwest however, the 1st and 3rd Petrograd divisions would have not as much success, the artillery barrage cutting off too soon, allowing the DARR time to set up a deathtrap for the unsuspecting Russian forces.

The 2nd Novgorod division would control to erect fortifications, only making several night time raids against the enemy’s positions, leaving the Petrograd forces to conduct the bloody offensives that would come. The 2nd Petrograd would soon begin to feel the effects of being a river too far, currently saved only by the fact that the DARR’s artillery was focused primarily on attacking the enemy, as they dug in over the course of the next few days. On the night of March 22nd, DARR forces dressed in Russian uniforms would infiltrate the Russian defenders near the Church of St. Alexis, lying in wait until the morning. 2nd Petrograd’s right flank would be thrown into chaos the next morning, the regiment commander calling their forces to retreat, believing that a much larger force was arrayed against them. This action was followed by a general retreat of the Russian forces in the region, but they were able to regroup at the marinas further down the banks of the Volga, even more isolated from the rest of the Russian army.

In an effort to try and save the encircled division, who by this time were too pinned by enemy artillery to attempt a withdrawal back across the Volga, the 3rd Petrograd division would launch an assault along the frozen-over Oka in a similar station to Baron Wrangel, just without the armored cars. The DARR wouldn’t expect this, remembering what happened the last time the exact same strategy was attempted… but this time, it worked. Able to break through the DARR lines and split their forces into two, the DARR soon launched a counterattack, realizing their folly only to be pushed back by the Russian forces who set up a one-hundred meter perimeter around the Oka to prevent any breakout attempts. Despite this, the 2nd Petrograd would be forced further and further onto the peninsula before disintegrating entirely as good portions of the division straight up surrender on the 26th, some braving their luck in getting past the DARR while others would make the treacherous journey across the Volga, dodging sniper fire all the while.

With all of these developments, it would be fair to say the DARR still had a chance of winning, roughly ¼ of the enemy forces were decisively crushed, the others having been badly bruised. DARR’s morale would be further bolstered by an accidental explosion of an artillery piece caused by a faulty breach, causing a chain reaction that took out several functioning artillery pieces in the area. During the such to continue the same levels of fire, even more accidents occured, with barrels fouling and metal warping due to the extreme heat caused by constant barrages. This however would not continue, plunging dramatically as the bodies started to fill the streets and parks, the commander of the garrison - Alexander Antonov - would order the remaining forces in the town to surrender, not wanting to cause further suffering among his men to try and win a losing battle.

Russian Army Casualties: 25,000 killed or wounded, chaos makes full accounting impossible, 40 artillery pieces Defense Army of the Russian Republic Casualties: 6,742 dead, 2475 wounded DARR Forces in Nizhny Novgorod Surrender

Omsk

Russian Army: 39.7k under Sergey Markov DARR: 35k under Chernyavsky

In the city of Omsk, a sense that the tide has turned against them has sprung up among the defenders. The Russians currently are in the same position that the DARR was just weeks ago, even occupying some of the same trenches as the rebels before them as Chernyavsky threatens to cut off the Trans-Siberian railroad to their rear. Being the last governmental forces in the region, a defeat here would mean a great victory for the DARR, further revolts among the Russian military and the loss of everything east of the Urals to the rebel forces. It was a battle that Sergey Markov could ill-afford to lose.

The first days of March were marked by small raids and reconnaissance by the Russian Army and DARR against each other, both deciding to settle in for what would seem to be a long siege in the frozen depths of the Siberian wastes. On March 7th, Chernyavsky would launch an artillery barrage against Omsk, completely wrecking the Russian defenses. Content, Chernyavsky arrogantly waited, expecting the Russians to retreat further back towards the Urals to rebuild their defenses, and as such elected to not press the advantage. The Russians would send a reply, quite violently in an ineffectual artillery barrage against the DARR that caused little damage among the attackers who retorted with another, but perhaps less effective artillery barrage of their own. Chernyavsky, realizing that Markov was willing to fight, would soon rush in with his forces towards dusk on March 7th, failing to dislodge the Russian positions as the DARR were repulsed back to their own lines. The next morning, March 8th, as Chernyavsky began to dig in for a prolonged siege and while preparing to encircle the city of Omsk, would suffer heavy losses by very accurate and heavy artillery barrages against his rear, causing many casualties and further showing off Markov’s resolve.

With supply issues from Novosibirsk having not yet been resolved and fearing an assault by Markov if he stayed with his now weaker army, Chernyavsky would slowly retreat back to Novosibirsk, buying time for further reinforcements from Siberia to march west and link up with him, destroying the Trans-Siberian railroad behind him as a substantial rearguard would cover the workers as they tore up rails, burnt railroad ties and stole fasteners in their march from Omsk to Novosibirsk.

Russian Army Casualties: 2,300 Defense Army of the Russian Republic Casualties: 8,000

Total Casualties: Russian Army: 27,700 DARR: 24,742 killed; 2,475 wounded

• Moscow is successfully defended from the DARR

• Nizhny Novgorod is liberated from the DARR

• Omsk is successfully defended from the DARR

• The Trans-Siberian railroad from Omsk to Novosibirsk is badly damaged/destroyed

• Russian garrisons in the Pacific defect to the DARR

• Russian Pacific Navy deflects to Kolchak

• Alash Autonomy breaks free and becomes the Alash Orda

• Rebellion in Kazan, Samara and Saratov has been prevented