1922 (Great Global War)

1922

The European Front

After the major defeat in Weiden, Stalin's remaining troops retreated back across the border to Vienna, where he was faced with an insurgency. Since the departure from Vienna, the remaining defenders had abused the local population. Forced to put down a rebellion and prepare the defense against the EA forces, which are still on his trail. On January 2nd, 1922, EA forces approached Vienna. General Stalin rounded up all of the population, armed them and ordered them to defend the city. To make sure the civilians would not desert, he took the mayor as his hostage. However, as soon as the German troops surrounded the city, the Austrian civilians deserted and joined the German army. Unable to raise a good defense, General Stalin retreated back to Budapest, where he hoped he would have time to fortify and offer stiff resistance. When he arrived in Budapest, Secretary Trotsky had sent more troops to the front, raising Stalin's morale. In March, after reorganizing the fortifications and his troops, he was prepared to face the EA troops, now joined by the Austro-Hungarian Army. The EA troops arrived early April 1922, and the battle began. Using their aviation, the EA inflicted severe defeats upon the Soviets, who were forced to abandon Budapest and retreat towards Kolozsvar, a small university city in southern Hungary. The EA troops closely followed Stalin and by late May, they found him again. Stalin was decided to stand ground. His artillery bombarded EA positions, damaging their artillery. By July, the battle and siege was still going on, and Stalin had the upper hand for once. His troops were unable, though, to stop the arrival of more Austrian soldiers from the mountains. By November, the siege finally ended in a EA minor victory. Stalin retreated back again to Belgrade, thus giving up Austria-Hungary. EA troops stopped for the winter in newly-conquered Kolozsvar.

The Asian Front

The Japanese High Command devised a new technique for the conquest of Batavia: The Japanese troops would strike in a joint ground-naval-aerial attack. Japanese Fokkers took off, whole Japanese pocket battleships opened fire on the Dutch ships in the harbor. The ground troops launched a large attack, surmounting the protective fences and Dutch machine gunners. The Dutch general, van der Gross was surpassed. He had his city being bombarded by air and sea, and his troops being massacred by ground forces. He decided to strike a final time, using his two remaining ships and a few reserve troops. His cruisers were quickly sunk and his reserve troops fought bravely, but they were no match for the Japanese. Finally, on April 2nd 1922, Batavia surrendered, along with its General, Carl van der Gross. Meanwhile, in India, British troops attacked Japanese and Maoist troops in West Pakistan, destroying many strategic installations. While Sumatra fell in June 1922, West Pakistan fell to the British, forcing the Japanese back to Burma. The British troops chassed the retreating Japanese troops across Burma. Rangoon fell in November to the British, and by December 31st, Japanese troops finally crossed back in Thailand, where the pro-Japanese government was being weakened by pro-EA rebels. The British stopped at the Thai border, positive that the government of Thailand would fall very soon and that the remaining Japanese would be chassed out by the Thais.