Anglo-Dutch Civil War (Dutch Superpower)

The Anglo-Dutch Civil War, also known as the War of Anglo-Dutch succession, the Third World War or the Civil War was a ten year conflict between supporters between the two rivals for the Anglo-Dutch throne, Prince Juhan and Princess Beatrix.

Class Differences
Since the end of the Second World War in 1940 there had been an increasing difference between the new generation born after the war and those who were either born before or during the war. The lower and middle classes came to exemplify the new revolutionary changes and ideas of equality that had been introduced during the war. These groups no longer believed in the divine supremacy of the Empire nor in the long held conviction that the upper classes held their power through divine right.

The tensions between the two groups were exaggerated by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of formerly middle and upper class groups from the empire. Groups that had previously enjoyed considerable prestige in their own countries now found themselves shoved massively down the social order. The Increase in Immigration and change in class views resulted in three victories for the Socialist Coalition in the late 50's, early 60's and mid 70's. After 1978 however the Religious Democrats won a massive victory and established the social order as they saw it to be appropriate with the Church and Whites at the top.

Naturally few within the racial minorities or left leaning middle classes agreed with the Religious Democrat viewpoint but they succeeded in winning the next several elections, albeit with a much reduced majority a fact that might well have been possible because a large part of the opposition to the religious democrats came from people under 21 who were unable to vote. By the late 80's the tensions between the UK's racial minorities and the liberals (Mostly concentrated in America) had grown to the point where only the unity behind the Queen was keeping the Union together and riots seemed like an almost daily occurrence on the streets of London and Philadelphia

Riots
The first major riot in recent Anglo-Dutch history was the Philadelphia Race Riots of summer 1989 where a group of Spanish and Native American youths attacked a group of police officers as a result of an abuse of the stop and search powers by the police. Two police officers were killed and then the night after there was a mass deployment of police on the streets. However the police soon found themselves protecting the Spanish area of Philadelphia from a mob of white construction workers. Despite some suggestions from the press on the scene and the mobs around them to abandon the line the police held their positions and prevented the mob entering the Spanish zone.

Despite this there were violent clashes throughout the city as the police clashed with both the Spanish and Native Americans and the white mobs and the two mobs clashed with each other. The rioting continued throughout the next few nights and by two weeks later the city authorities had 20,000 police on the streets. Although this helped to calm tensions the riots continued to escalate over the next months eventually causing the government in Ottawa to send in the American Militia. This did force the end of the riots but also the deployment of Militiamen caused riots in several university cities, including London.

The London Riots occurred in mid to late 1990, the earliest incidences had come with the end of the Philadelphia race riots in December 1989 when students from the London School of Economics had staged a peaceful protest against the deployment of American militiamen during the Philadelphia riots and the supposed harsh tactics used by the authorities. Initially there was little trouble and the cold winter nights prevented any major issues from arising overnight and all that occurred over the next few months were a few peaceful marches on weekends as the main body of the protests were students.

However in October 1990 an Indonesian student was stopped by a policeman on the return to his dorm. After refusing a search by the officer a standoff emerged between a local Indonesian gang and the police. After two hours spent staring down a shot was fired and an Indonesian was killed. This sparked a protest outside a police station which degenerated into a riot in the space of a few hours.

In the following weeks and months whole districts of London were set alight, even the city center was not immune, the palace of Westminster was in danger of catching alight at one point and the fires could be seen as far away as the south coast. The riots were not even resolved by the deployment of thirty thousand British Militiamen, that only came about when the PM released the extra twenty thousand soldiers of the Royal Guard divisions. The riots had an unfortunate effect on the health of Queen Juliana who was still recovering from treatment for lung cancer at Windsor castle.

Resignation of the Queen
The sight of her countries capitol burning badly upset the Queen and probably aggravated her condition. Upset by what she considered to be her failure in holding together the country and weakened by her chemotherapy treatment the Queen found herself unable to meet her public appointments and found herself delegating her duties to her son Prince Juhan and the public's favorite, her granddaughter Princess Beatrix.

Then in January 1991 there was a federal election and for the first time in nearly fifty years there was hung parliament. Although the Socialists were the largest party they could not govern alone and failed to secure an agreement with the Conservatives allowing the religious democrats to remain in power. However a concession for the conservatives support for the democrats was that the Queen resigned. Regardless of the Conservatives demands the democrats were reluctant to push the issue on the queen, but she then offered her resignation in May that year.

This opened a terrible problem for the Religious Democrats, they announced their intention to offer the crown to Prince Juhan as the oldest in line to the throne. When they did however the House of Commons erupted into anger, even their supposed allies in the Conservative Union refused the idea. They withdrew from the coalition and formed a new Government with the Socialist Coalition who agreed to offer the crown to Princess Beatrix.

The Princess was initially reluctant to accept the crown ahead off her father until her longtime friend and Deputy Leader of the Dutch Labour Party Albert Beukelman convinced her otherwise finally accepting the offer in September. The Princess knew all too well that her father wouldn't accept her own ascendance to the Throne and sought to build up her own power base to rival her fathers. Unlike Prince Juhan who had served as a Colonel in the Union Army and had even fought in the Italian war (Earning him the respect of much of the Union Army's high command) the Princess had never served in any aspect of the Anglo-Dutch military, her only aspect of public service coming from her short time as a party researcher for the Labour Party in the British Parliament.

While she could obviously count on the support of the Socialist Coalition and its members Princess Beatrix could also count on the support of the Union Navies charismatic and brilliant commander Admiral Matthias Van Till. Having risen to the top based entirely on the merits of his skill the Admiral commanded the loyalty and admiration of almost the entire naval establishment from the Admiralty on down.

The Prince quietly built up his support amongst the Union Army as well as finding allies in other countries which would deny aid to his daughter. By early November Juhan had all the military support he needed to overthrew his daughter and the socialists and replace them with himself and the Religious democrats, however respect for his elderly and increasingly sickly mother.

The Queens Death
Then on the night of the 25th November Queen Juliana passed away due to complications relating to her Lung Cancer. While Princess Beatrix mourned for her lost grandmother, Admiral Van Till met with his allies in the Socialist Coalition for the preparations to protect the Princess should her father act to overthrow her. While his Daughter mourned and her advisors plotted, Prince Juhan met with the Army high command, Then at 4:00 on the 26th when the Princess returned to her country home in the south coast General Ian Abbott gave the orders to his troops, Arrest the Princess, Kill the Admiral and burn the Dockyards

The Coup
Army troops loyal to the Prince captured Princess Beatrix without much trouble, the other aspects of the Generals orders were much harder to complete. The attempt by the soldiers to kill Admiral Van Till failed magnificently as they were intercepted by the men of the Admirals own personal staff who died to protect their superior until the 1st marine division arrived to rescue him.

The attempt to stop the Union Navy from leaving the dockyards also ended in failure. The soldiers sent to capture the ships were stopped by the simple fact that the gangplanks had been pulled up the night before based on the fact of a simple code word from the Admiral, When they tried to bring up heavy ordnance the Union Navy blew up their own dockyard, weighed anchor and set off to East Anglia.

Admiral Van Till was picked up at 10:00 by a Sea King helicopter that carried him out to the fleet off the coast of East Anglia where he met with the Admiralty Staff and the now former PM Neil Kinnock. Together they came up with an audacious plan to rescue the princess from right under her fathers nose.

Flight to Canada
The Admiral and the PM agreed to send the bulk of the Union Navy up the Thames and rescue the princess from where her father was holding her. They planned to destroy much of the Princes loyal palace guard from afar to enable a team of SBS troops to land and make their way up to Windsor castle. FAA aircraft would then blow a hole in the castle wall's distracting the guards and allowing the SBS to rescue her Royal Highness and go on to call for a Sea King to extract them. However the loyalties of the Union Air Force had yet to be decided, If they supported the king their plan would fail before it even started.

The Union Navies battleships easily dispatched the limited opposition they faced upon entering the Thames before their long range guns and the accompanying bombardment ships began shelling the palace barracks. Much of the Palace Guard were destroyed in the opening bombardment and three squads of SBS soldiers landed. These squads then moved through the roads to get to Windsor Castle where aa FAA Buccaneer blew up the walls allowing the SBS men to enter the castle. They then broke into the cells were the Princess was being held, busting her out and then calling in a Sea King to extract her.

Once the Princess was aboard the HMS Ark Royal the Union navy made its way across the Atlantic and docked in Nova Scotia where the American PM Bill Clinton had already pledged the support of his country to the Princess. She then traveled to New Archangel where she met with Governor Aleksandr Demichev who promised the support of North Russia and Alaska to her forces.

Alliance with the USA
While the Union Navy and its Commanders as well as the Princess made their alliance with Clinton Prince Juhan made his own deal with President George W Bush of the USA to deal with his errant daughter. The USA would invade Canada and New England and capture the Princess thus preventing her from challenging his rule and establishing the USA as the only remaining American power.

Operation Tchin'dih
The USA's operation to invade Canada and the other Union territories, Operation Tchin'dih (Ghost) began a scarce month after Prince Juhan had seized the throne, The USA assembled a large military force to launch their invasion. Four hundred thousand infantry and thirty thousand tanks and IFV's were assembled but in an unusual plan from General Dennis Reimer the vast majority of the USA's forces would not be employed in a frontal assault.

Instead US special forces would cross the border and capture major road's allowing the USA's tank forces to advance with lighter opposition. In addition to this Marine units would seize Alaska and would then be joined by infantry for a march across Canada, meeting up with the Armoured forces for a final push on Ottawa. Initially the USA's forces advanced with little opposition, easily dispatching the American militiamen dispatched to stop them. The Alaskan front went less well however, as the USA's marine forces were met by massive resistance from Russian forces under the command of Major General Alexi Zhukov. With better winter equipment and larger numbers Zhukov's men were easily able to hold up the Americans for the winter season.

As the USA's tank divisions crept closer to Ottawa and smashed their way through the outdated Union forces facing them the Princesses rebellion looked like it might end without achieving anything meaningful. Then Zuhkov received massive reinforcements from North Russian President Petyr Andropov, He left his infantry behind under the command of the Colonel Katrina Sherikov and took a force of twelve thousand tanks and IFV's East towards the advancing US forces.

Despite Zuhkov's new reinforcements the Union forces were still badly outnumbered and lacked air superiority. Then on the 29th of February a deputation from India and Australia headed by Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne and Prime Minister Julia Gillard provided the ultimate key to the defense of Ottawa and the Princess. A combined air fleet from India and Australia under the Air Marshals command provided Zuhkov with air superiority, allowing him to meet the USA's forces in battle and defeat them barely ten miles from Ottawa.

German Rebellion
"Gentlemen it is with my deepest regrets that I must inform you that Prussia has announced it is leaving the German Empire, Our Time as a nation state is over"

- Chancellor Helmut Kohl addresses the Reichstag

While the the USA had been defeated outside Ottawa there were still major challenges to the Princess's rule in America and to her allies in Europe. The Anglo-Dutch army, alongside those Naval Forces loyal to the prince and those of his allies were marshaling in the Atlantic and the Princesses old friend King Friedrich IV now faced a major challenge from the Catholics in Bavaria and other parts of Germany that were now getting funding and equipment from Austria and Prince Juhan.

Far more serious than the continual Bavarian independence movement however was the decision of the Emperor's uncle Prince Sigismund to declare himself, with the full backing of the Prussian Assembly King in Prussia. This was due to an increasing displeasure amongst the conservative establishment in Prussia with the decision by the Emperor to first extend his personal support to the SDP, rather than the more conservative parties and then to support someone who they viewed as unfit to inherit the throne of the most powerful country on earth and risk the rage of her father. Likewise the Catholic Bavarian King had decided to declare himself the rightful King of Germany and had a large amount of support due to their catholic allies.

In any country other than Germany this would not have been a major issue, the Emperor would have marshaled the German Army and used it to restore public order and force Prussia and Bavaria back into the empire. However in the aftermath of Germany's catastrophic defeat in the Second World War and the growing divisions in German society Chancellor Erwin Rommel and Chief of Staff Erich Raeder had reformed the German military by dividing the federal armed forces into Armies, Navies and Air Forces for each state. This was an attempt to both break the Junkers hold on the German military and to ensure that soldiers would have a vested interest when they were deployed. This had been proven by the sheer tenacity and belief in their cause that the troops from Alsace-Lorraine, Bavaria and Baden had displayed during the Italian War.

What it also meant that was now a large military immediately made available to any state that could gain enough support for an independence campaign or a rebellion. When Prussia finally declared independence on April the 28th 1993 it had a massive army ready to support it and when Bavaria and its allies lent their support to the Prussian cause they already had an Army that nearly outnumbered that of all the other Federal States combined. Fearful of what might happen if Germany was dragged into a civil war Emperor Fredreich IV ordered the signing of an immediate peace treaty with the Prussians, allowing them to peacefully leave the empire and immediately switch his attention to the Bavarians. A short blitzkrieg campaign followed and by the end of June that year the Bavarian kingdom had been defeated.

Landings on Nova Scotia
"Your Majesty, I have failed you, Your fathers forces have landed on Nova Scotia, Its over. I must hereby tender my resignation as First Sea Lord and urge you to negotiate while you still can." "Stand up Matthias, As long as breath still resides in my body I will never negotiate with my father. If need be we will fight on from Russia and the Commonwealth and if I order you to fight I expect you to do so" - First Sea Lord Matthias Van Till and Princess Beatrix discuss the landings on Nova Scotia.

Following the defeat of his allies in Germany Prince Juhan felt, for the first time, nervous about his campaign. Already North Russia, America and Germany were allied in a coalition together against him, At this point they didn't have the ability to defeat him especially while the Russians and Americans were tied up in a war with the USA, If However their conflict were to end it would place his campaign in great danger.

Thus for Prince Juhan to be sure of a total victory he would have to ensure that the America's remained in the conflict and to be sure of that he had to invade his daughters stronghold in Canada. Juhan maintained a massive army and controlled the vast majority of the Anglo-Dutch Air Force neither would allow him to easily intervene in the American conflict. Even through he could take his forces to the USA with his transport planes the mighty defenses that Zukov and General Walter Natynczyk had built up to defend Canada from attack would probably hold off anything he could muster and the arrival of the Indian and Australian air forces prevented any hopes of a large scale paratroop operation. Therefore the only possibility for him prolonging the war would be to land his forces on the Canadian shore.

However the vast majority of the Anglo-Dutch Navy had defected to the Princess and it would take decades for him to build up a force to rival it. Neither were his allies naval powers by nature, he was able to gain enough troops ships by confiscating all the merchant ships in Dutch harbors but this would not deal with the mighty Anglo-Dutch Navy, Combined all of his naval forces could not even equal those of his daughter, let alone the number of her fleet combined with that of her allies. He needed therefore to either sneak past the fleet or disable it in harbor.

He was able to this through a stroke of great luck, Ottoman scientists provided him with two cold war developments they had not continued with due to lack of funds. During the height of the cold war the Ottomans had developed Radar Absorbing Technology and Electromagnetic Countermeasures to slip bombers behind the advance Anglo-Dutch radar systems and they had also developed a weapon to deal with the advanced Anglo-Dutch technology. By using a EPFCG and specialized Marx generator they had created a weapon capable of disabling all electrical equipment within a short radius. However this would only be a temporary affect and the invasion fleet would still need the protection of the American fleet. In addition to this if they waited much past November the Canadian winter would stop any advance.

Juhan assembled a mighty fleet of the coast of Nova Scotia, out of range of the Anglo-Dutch radar and surveillance and then when the Ottomans were ready used stealth ships to slip into Halifax harbor where Beatrix's navy was docked. Then on the 12th of November, just before the deadline that General Abbott had set for the invasion the assault on Nova Scotia began with the detonation of several EMP devices and the crippling off the Anglo-Dutch Navy. Fifty thousand Anglo-Dutch infantrymen were landed on the first day alone and around two hundred thousand more were stationed offshore in Juhan's fleet alongside enough tanks and APC's to make up six armored divisions. Combined with the previous forces from the USA this would enable Juhan's forces to break out of Nova Scotia and capture Ottawa and hopefully capture the Princess with it.

With the vast majority of the Russian and American forces stationed along the border with the USA the Anglo-Dutch forces quickly advanced through Nova Scotia with only minimal resistance, The exception to this was Halifax where with the Anglo-Dutch navy still needing repairs the 12th, 16th and 20th Marine divisions exhausted thirteen thousand lives preventing any further attempt to capture the port. They help up Prince Juhan's forces until November the 20th when the repairs were relatively complete. Admiral Van Till knew that to remain in Halifax would be pointless and that without a port his forces would be crippled. Not only that but the fleet could not be transferred to the only other friendly port in North America because to do so would have involved crossing the Panama Canal which remained firmly under US control. Regardless the fleet would have to leave Halifax and hope that a friendly South American nation might take them in.

Once Halifax had been taken the rest of eastern Canada quickly fell to the Princes forces, However the time that the Marines had held Halifax for allowed the Princess and her government to escape to Thunder Bay. Regardless if the advance continued at its current rate Juhan's forces would reach Thunder Bay before the winter held them up or defenses could be built up. General Natynczyk therefore suggested a plan to hold them up, one that was counter intuitive to everything he had ever believed, He launched wave after wave of human wave attacks simply to buy his engineers time to build up defenses around Thunder Bay. Eventually and at a great cost Natynczyk had his defenses built up and Juhan was forced to stop without achieving his goal of total victory.

Invasion of Germany
With America and Russia still locked in a war with the USA and some of Juhan's troops the Prince was able to turn his attention to his enemies in Europe, chiefly Germany and its mighty army. Even fractured into the various state armies the German Army was the only army in Europe that could even dream of fighting the Anglo-Dutch army in an even fight. Especially with the deployment of two hundred thousand men to the North American continent Juhan now feared that unless he struck first the Germans might invade the Netherlands and hand it to his daughter.

Therefore Juhan organized an alliance with the current German states two greatest enemies, He signed an alliance with the breakaway German state of Prussia promising them their own claimant on the throne and with the Polish republic in exchange for German territory that had previously been Polish. With the addition of these allies to his coalition he now had the forces he needed to tackle the Germans and on the 5th of February 1994, Polish, Prussian, Austrian and Anglo-Dutch troops crossed the border into Germany.

Berlin quickly fell to the Prussian army and Munich quickly followed into Austrian hands, The war in the west went better but even there the Germans were forced to withdraw from Alsace-Lorraine and the new capital of Kiel looked like it might soon fall to the Dutch. However external factors saved them from this humiliation, The North Russians took their revenge on the Poles and the Prussians by invading Poland with the largest Army the war had so far seen.

In addition to this, Inspired by the Ottoman Rebellions the long oppressed minorities under Austrian rule rose up and united with the Hungarians to launch a campaign that soon distracted the Austrians from their campaign against the Germans.

African Civil Wars
While the Civil War continued to wage in Europe and the Americas a great number of grievances that were held by various African peoples and ideologies were now made clear. In the vast majority of the former Anglo-Dutch colonies their were early victories for the conservative factions but in Ethiopia and South Africa there was a much larger leftist wing.

In Ethiopia the oppressive actions of the governing Kingdom and their long protracted war with the Somali's had encouraged a large leftist republican movement that was in opposition to them. Initially this movement was centered around the far left communists but they were quickly replaced by moderate republicans that did not seek to replace the dictatorship of the monarchy with one of the proletariat. They established an alliance with the Somali people in the Ogden and established a republican army that made quick gains against the Kingdom.

The key moment in the Ethiopian conflict came when the Kingdom marshaled its armies and marched them on the rebel stronghold of Dire Dawa. It hoped for an easy victory but a combined Rebel and Somali army defeated them outside the city, With this the Ethiopian civil war came to a close and the rebels established a republic.

The other major African war had been going on for around a decade before the civil war. Although the racist apartheid government of South Africa had been replaced with a moderate white government supported by the Anglo-Dutch, the African National Congress under Nelson Mandela had continued their campaign against the government.

Juhan saw this as a chance to distract his daughter and therefore helped supply the ANC against the South African Government, however the South Africans had been fighting each other for decades and even with the extra support from Prince Juhan the ANC was not going to be wining the South African civil war any time soon.

Panama Conflict
The USA had built the Panama Canal in the late 19th century but since the middle of the 20th had been involved in a long and protracted struggle with the inhabitants of the area over control of the land. The USA's invasion of Canada had drawn American forces away from the Canal and the locals had used this as a chance to establish their own state. The Deployment of Anglo-Dutch troops in North America had however alleviated the drain on the USA's resources and the USA returned with a vengeance in December 1993.

The Panama rebels were saved however by the arrival of the Anglo-Dutch navy in late December, The might of the Anglo-Dutch navy quickly destroyed the docked American ships and the FAA established aerial supremacy. With the aid of the Anglo-Dutch forces the Panamanian rebels quickly took control of the canal and destroyed the American naval base, With this victory the long Panama conflict had effectively come to an end. The Anglo-Dutch demanded access to the canal but other than that were willing to leave the land to the Panamanians, something they were more than willing to agree to.

The South American Front
Much as it did for other theaters of the war the Anglo-Dutch civil war allowed many South American nations that had grievances with each other to use the ongoing conflict as a chance to achieve goals that had long been out of their reach. In addition to the previously mentioned conflict between the Americans and the Natives in Panama the old enemies of Argentina and Brazil had been at each others throats for decades. Brazil had covertly supported Beatrix during the opening stage of civil war and after the initial conflict on the USA's border had supplied her forces with much needed supplies of rubber and oil.

Likewise Argentina supplied the vast supplies of food needed to supply the Anglo-Dutch army that supported Prince Juhan. For either side to lose the backing of their south American compatriots would therefore be a major blow to their opponents. However despite the major prospect for a victory for either side the leaderships of Argentina and Brazil were in fact greatly opposed to a conflict between the two of them and realized all to well that a conflict would probably end in a massive loss in life that neither side wanted. Both General Abbot of the Juhanites and Admiral Van Till of the Beatrixians sought to ignite the conflict and for once the Beatrixians struck first from their base in the Falklands at the Argentines. This encouraged the Brazilians to act and on the 3rd of March 1994 the long simmering tensions in South America exploded into total war.

Ottoman Rebellion
Despite the reforms of Turgut Özal and the granting of independence to the most vocal opponents to Ottoman rule there was still a large opposition to the Empire's oppressive policies, especially within the Arab and Jewish areas of the Empire. In addition to this Ottoman Russia had a massive population of Orthodox Christians who were opposed to the dominance of the Muslim Chechens and Secular Georgians. Despite pleas from Juhan to join his alliance Ozal had not brought the Ottomans into the growing global conflict, This was because despite claiming to support the old regimes around the world Juhan was more than willing to exploit rebellions if it benefited him.

However events forced Ozal's hand, the advance of the North Russian army into the traditionally Russian dominated Ukraine and Poland had led to an upsurge in Slavic nationalism with the increasingly nationalistic National Assembly demanding a reunion with North Russia. The Georgian and Chechen elites found this unacceptable and sent in the Ottoman army to shut down the assembly and crush the rebellion. However the increasingly liberal Ottoman Parliament was infuriated by this and demanded that the empire withdraw all support for the Russian state and the Ozal should resign.

Faced with the specter of resignation and of the destruction of much of what he had worked towards Ozal reluctantly shut down parliament with the aid of the army. This was the spark for a series of rebellions throughout the Arab world and the Middle East. Uniting behind the Israeli rebel leader Benjamin Netanyahu the combined Israeli and Arab forces drove out the local Ottoman garrisons and Ozal was forced to look for foreign aid. After seeking aid from both his old allies in Spain and the Germans under King Fredrick Ozal was at last forced to turn to Prince Juhan. After doing so it is rumored that he attempted to take his own life claiming that he knew it to be the end of his country. In exchange for Ottoman troops a large Anglo-Dutch force was deployed in the middle east to restore order.

Invasion of Manchuria
In the far east the war had mostly consisted of minor skirmishes between the Japanese and the Chinese. However with the war elsewhere beginning to stagnate the Japanese came under pressure to launch an attack on the Chinese and deny the Juhanites a base in Asia. Therefore in October 1994 the Japanese army crossed the border in Korea and began its advance towards Beijing. Initially they made great success destroying much of the Chinese army and destroying much of china's heavy industry.

However as they approached Beijing the sheer strength of Chinese numbers began to show. While it took on average three Chinese soldiers to kill one Japanese soldier there were around six Chinese soldiers for every Japanese one. Therefore despite inflicting extremely heavy loses on the Chinese the Japanese advance began to slow eventually grinding to a halt just outside Beijing.

There the Chinese unleashed their massive tank divisions and hordes of mechanized infantry. While the Japanese put up a good fight and inflicted far heavier loses than they revived it was not enough to hold the Chinese off and by the end of November that year the Chinese counterattack had rolled the Japanese all the way back to Korea.

Battle of Toronto
For a year there had been little progress on the North American front as it stagnated into a stalemate. With neither side willing to expend many more men to make gains. As 1995 began however General Natynczyk was becoming impatient, while his opposite number enjoyed limitless resources provided by the USA and was getting stronger all the time his own forces had grown so weak that he believed that he would not be able to resist more than one more attack from the USA's forces. Even the twenty thousand marines promised to him as reinforcements by Admiral van till had done little to convince the General otherwise.

Natynczyk decided to brake the deadlock himself, With the assistance of North Russian forces supplied by General Zuhkov and Admiral Van Till's twenty thousand marines, Natynczyk marshalled his forces behind a spearhead of tanks and marines and in March 1995 Natynczyk ordered a bombing campaign against the American and Anglo-Dutch forces besieging Thunder bay despite the protests of the local government. Once he was convinced that the necessary damage had been done he ordered his Russian Tanks and marines to force there way through the weakened American forces.

Spearheaded by Russian tanks Natynczyk's forces destroyed most of the American opposition and made their way to Toronto. There a meager defense force was commanded by the United States Armies greatest general Major General William Konstantine. Made up of Konstantines personally selected Sioux and Cherokee divisions as well as Iroquois insurrectionists dedicated to reforming the long dead Iroquois Confederaecy these ninty thousand men were all that stood between Natynczyk's armies of 200,000 and the road to Washington and from their the USA's capitol in Richmond.

Natynczyk's Russian tanks attempted to breach through Konstantine's meager defences but IED's as well as anti-tank mines and RPG teams inflicted such heavy losses on the tankers that Zuhkov withdrew his forces from the assualt, redirecting them to his planned assault on California and the west coast claiming that any further attempts to take Toronto back with tanks would be a wasted effort. Natynczyk was therefore forced to send in the far less well trained American militia to defeat Konstantines far better trained and skilled Infantry. Despite outnumbering Konstantines men nearly two to one the militiamen were slaughtered by Konstantines men. Facing defeat and with a brewing political crisis back in Thunder Bay Natynczyk swallowed his pride and asked for reinforcements from Admiral van Till, Van Till sent sixty thousand marines withdrawn from supporting Zuhkov's californian adventure up lake Ontario, landing them just outside the city. In contrast to Natynczyk's ill trained Militiamen the Marines were some of the best trained infantry the Beatrixian side could offer with the exception of the princesses royal bodyguard and van Till's own 1st Marine Division. Facing a American force now whittled down by successive if ineffective attacks van Till's elite marines now had an easy task in taking on the Americans and on October the 6th 1995 Konstantines battered 1st Indian Army finally withdrew from the city at the cost of sixty three thousand of his own troops and five hundred thousand citizens making it the second most costly battle of the war in terms of civilian casualties. Natynczyk's forces had also suffered catastrophic losses losing nearly a hundred and fifty thousand troops and almost all of their heavy vehicles.

This contributed to a shift of plans in the government with political favour shifting away from Natynczyk's plan to invade the USA by recapturing New England and continuing from there and towards Admiral van Till and General Zuhkovs plan to capture the highly populated west coast and drive though the plains towards Richmond.

Invasion of California
With the failure of General Natynczyk's plan to recapture New England General Zuhkov could finally get the authorisation he needed for his audacious plan to invade California, In cooperation with Admiral van Till's marines Zuhkovs tanks would break through the heavily fortified American border and meet up with one hundred and forty thousand Marines that the Royal Navy would land along the Oregon coastline.