World War III (The Era of Relative Peace)

World War III, also called the Third World War, WWIII, or WW3, was a global conflict that lasted from 1989-1991. The war was fought between the capitalistic and democratic West like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, NATO, and their allies against the Communist states of the East such as the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, North Korea, Cuba, and the Warsaw Pact member states after the Cold War finally turned hot. Despite lasting only two years, the war was the deadliest conflict in human history, with over a 110-120 million dead, both soldiers and civilians alike.

Background
Following the end of World War II with the defeat of the Axis powers, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the world's superpowers. The world's major political powers began to consolidate their own powers in an effort to ensure that such a conflict of such a destructive scale would never repeat itself. Unfortunately, they also sought to increase their own influence in the world abroad, creating major political, military and social tensions that sowed the first seeds of a Third World War. Due to the large presence of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe, the U.S. and the Western Allies created NATO; in turn the USSR created the Warsaw Pact. Germany was divided into East and West, as the Berlin Wall was later built between the Allied-controlled West Berlin and the Soviet-controlled East Berlin, further increasing major tensions between the two powers.

Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the Premier of the Soviet Union in 1985. Under his leadership, he instated policies of glasnost and perestroika. Because of this, many things unknown to Soviet citizens such as the freedom of speech and economic reforms came. Gorbachev also sought out rapprochement with the West. However, not all viewed this positively, especially the hardliners at the communist party. Gorbachev was the President of CPSU for three years before being disposed and arrested in coup staged by Soviet hardliners. These hardliners then ordered massive deployments of the Soviet Army into the Iron Curtain, quelling riots and uprisings that occurred because of the coup. The West saw this as a threat, and conducted military exercises as well as putting NATO on high alert. Despite their preparations, NATO was not fully prepared of the Soviet's real intentions.

Invasion of West Germany and Battle of West Berlin
On June 3, 1989, while the world condemned the Chinese government's crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square, Soviet forces in East Berlin, aided by East German forces, came crashing down from the Berlin Wall. Although the U.S. and NATO forces were already prepared for the feared communist invasion, they were shocked at the number of Soviet forces that thrust into West Berlin. The resistance was heavy, as the NATO forces did what they could to halt the Soviet advance as NATO forces attempted a counterattack in East German territory. Tanks from both sides faced each other with each having a close to equal kill rate. When it became clear that the Soviets had indeed a much larger amount of armored vehicles, the U.S. then deployed their AH-64 Apache helicopters to deal with them. The Soviets, in turn, lost a lot of tanks and soldiers because of the American attack helicopters and it seemed that the Soviets would be pushed back. However, the Soviets by then deployed anti-aircraft vehicles that successfully attacked from their positions and quickly cleared the skies of American and NATO helicopters as the forces became more isolated. This caused a setback to the NATO forces, which retreated farther into West Berlin and past the West German border zone. After a while, a last desperate counterattack was conducted by the NATO forces. However, this ultimately failed breakthrough as the Soviets were able to crush it. Berlin was now effectively under Soviet control but scattered resistance continued for a few more days despite the NATO defeat. The rest of the NATO troops retreated out of Berlin and set up defense into the West German border all the way to the capital of Bonn. Meanwhile, the Soviet Invasion of Western Europe had just begun.

Fall of West Germany
Remaining U.S. and NATO forces did what they could to stall the Soviet advance. Despite their best efforts, the Soviets, at the time being, were superior in numbers, often coming with heavy armor. This posed a problem to the NATO forces, which despite the better quality of their weaponry, were poorly prepared to fight an enemy of greatly larger numbers. A day and a half after the Fall of Berlin, the Soviets captured Hannover,then bypassed and encircling of Hamburg and were on their way to Frankfurt. NATO forces were dug in at Frankfurt and Hamburg. After about two and three days of heavy fighting, Both of the cities fell. The Soviets continued pushing farther into West Germany, with U.S. and allied air strikes only delaying the inevitable. By the 6th of June, most of West Germany up to the westernmost region had fallen to the Red Armies. They closed in to the front line along the river Rhine, By June 10, the Soviets captured Rammstein AB but the U.S. Air Force already retreated and scuttled the equipment that could not be salvaged. The Soviets then set their sights on the West German capital of Bonn. The allied forces were dug in, setting up sandbags, tank emplacements, anti-tank defenses, anti-aircraft weapons, mines, and whatever defense to halt the Soviets. The Soviets entered the city on June 12, as heavy urban fighting occurred on both sides. Tanks exploded, many crippled, as aircraft of either Blue Allied or Red Enemy air units fought in a desperate struggle of air supremacy above the skies. In the streets, fierce house-to-house fighting happened as the West German soldiers and armed citizens who chose to stay, aided by policemen and NATO forces, fought the Soviets. The city was also rigged with booby traps such as IEDs, shotgun-door traps, and trip mines. These would take their toll on the Soviets, as many of their soldiers would fall to these traps. Additionally, some of their vehicles were either crippled or destroyed by IEDs. While the Soviets suffered heavy casualties, the Allies were slowly losing the city to the numerically superior enemy forces. After two weeks of heavy fighting, the city finally fell to the Soviets as they closed in on and took it as planted the Hammer and Sickle flag on the city hall. Remaining NATO forces continued sporadic fighting in pockets on the occupied city.

Over one million West German citizens evacuated right before the Soviet Army entered the city, these would be relocated to nearby nations such as France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The West German government had relocated to Munich in Bavaria, which the terrain had proved difficult for the Soviets to enter though they kept going towards and try to breakthrough the defensive line to the southern region onto the Alps nevertheless despite of it. With the capture of Bonn, the Soviet Union then prepared for the invasion of Western Europe.

Western and Central European Front
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Baltic and Mediterranean Seas/Atlantic Ocean Theater
See: First Battle of the Mediterranean and First Battle of the Baltic Sea The Soviet Union had a major tactical victory in both the Mediterranean Sea where it nearly completely decimated the majority of the U.S. 6th Fleet and its allied counterparts along with a more minor but still important strategic victory in the Baltic Sea. The remaining allied ships retreated to the British territory of Gibraltar where they effectively formed a blockade preventing any Soviet ship from entering the Straits. The success of the Soviet Navy paved way for Soviet invasions of Corsica, Sardinia, Malta, and the southern and northern coastlines of France and Italy each respectfully.

American Intervention
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War expands into the Atlantic
See: Caribbean Front

Raids on the Soviet Union
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Invasion of America
The Soviets decided to launch an attack on the North American mainland as a ploy for U.S. forces to be distracted. First, it came with several air strikes on major targets like Naval Shipyards and Docks near the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and the White House itself in a failed assault by a 30 men special paratrooper team laying siege to it. This was followed by Soviet naval raids on US Navy bases in the East Coast. While the U.S. was moderately damaged following losing some naval assets, the damage was not as big as it was predicted. The Americans counterattacked the naval squadron and got their fair share of Soviet navy ships sunk off the East Coast before they tactically retreated. The Soviet Union had by then already inserted GRU special forces and KGB intelligence spies into New York City. These operatives were to seize important American landmarks and key points in the city to hold it hostage. When the signal to attack was given, they proceeded to seize the Statue of Liberty, Governor's Island, Ellis Island, the World Trade Center, and the New York Stock Exchange. They demanded that America must pull out its forces in Europe or they will blow up the landmarks and start executing civilians. Naturally, the U.S. never gave in to their demands. Units from the New York and New Jersey National Guard were deployed to the city. U.S. Army Rangers were also deployed where they retook the Statue of Liberty and the islands in New York Harbor, at cost of few civilian casualties and slightly moderate military casualties. In Manhattan, the state support terrorist sleeper agents still holding on to the WTC and NYSE were surrounded by National Guard units, armor, NYPD ESU operators, and PAPD. They refused to surrender and were eventfully all killed by the military in a final stand. Nonetheless, the Soviets decide to invade Alaska less then week later serving as the principle staging area and a central foothold to directly attack the rest of the mainland United States.

China Enters the War
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