Part 13: Chapter XIII The Second War: Russia's Revenge. January 1914-February 1916

Chapter XIII The Second War: Russia's Revenge. January 1914-February 1916


Crippled veterans board streetcars and the new autobuses that crowd the streets of Munich, paying their reduced fares as women and children back away in horror from the man with half a face and the man with only a stump where his right leg should be. The hospitals are still filled with those trying to recover from the effects of chlorine gas and mustard gas, of unexploded ordinance and of starvation. The fields look like moonscape as the corpses of South Germany's finest dissolve into the soil. Rebels beat on the walls of Munich while the government desperately tries to remind people that even now, SGF is still at war with its Italian neighbor, to no avail.

St John wrote,


How did this happen? It shouldn't have been this way. Two years ago we were prosperous and fat off of our victory over the Russians and French. Today...oh, today...the arrogance of our leaders in not even admitting their own fault and treating the cataclysm as if it were some sort of natural disaster is the worst part of all.





I remember two years ago when we celebrated Japan's recognition that its writ no longer held sway over its mainland Korean provinces, though it kept the island of Jeju. Of course, the Japanese never truly accepted this loss, and, as everyone knows, have since tried to reinvade Korea, but so far Korea's odd decision to keep its 351,000 men in arms have kept the Japanese at bay.



Japan is even struggling to keep control of its Manchu puppet as China has taken the turmoil in the east to reannex one of its most persistent breakaway warlords.




While it looked like China was on the verge of joining the Great Power club, their decision to put an anti-military party in charge of the government has led the world to value its military at a far lower level. Editor's Note: your mil score in V2 is about 20% your army, 40% your ruling party's attitude, and 40% the capital ships in your navy. It's a ridiculous index that has little to nothing to do with how strong your military is. China's military was suddenly valued at about half as much because it changed ruling parties. We could also double our Mil score overnight by putting Jingoists in power, but for the last 30 years we've have Anti-Military Socialists and Liberals running the show.



The rebellions were frequent. Everyone has a starry-eyed idealist friend who died in those days.



I do not care to remember them.



It hits too close to home.



So many innocent dead.




Young blood spilt for nothing.




Not content with losing wars for Yemen every decade, the Spaniards had Britain beat up Morocco for them and took a large chunk for themselves. Meanwhile, other Maghrebi Arabs reverted to a more traditional way of life.




Nothing changes in India, does it?



For once, it wasn't our sailors who pulled off the impressive voyage of exploration. Hats off to the Swedes, I suppose.



If the government was so intent on putting planes into the military, why don't they have a single brigade of air support yet? Editor's note: Aeronautics just unlocks the possibility I can discover Military Aviation, which is taking its time.



The government, at the time, seemed intent on joining the Dreadnought race, despite the navy already being above its supply limit. If nothing else, the war put an end to that foolishness.



Nor have the army been foolish enough to adapt to tank warfare yet, despite the permanent standing order to build tanks.



Arrogance. What concern had we over whether the Poles were freed? The government said that the Russians were cowards and were still licking their wounds from the previous war, and that they'd certainly give in.



When people protested the coming of another great war, they just instituted more pensions to buy the dissidents off.



Russian lies that SGF was somehow out to grab Poland for itself scared SGF's allies. Editor's note: you are absolutely not supposed to get that modifier for your first wargoal as an attacker. Though Britain eventually does sign up, the Dutch don't, and totally would have if this were fixed.



The mobs that roam the street demand radical change, change the state is not prepared to give them.




In the height of decadent pre-war frivolity, the 1915 World's Fair took place in Munich mere weeks before the war.



Our North German adversaries not only don't have a king, they have a full-fledged modern democracy, putting SGF egalitarianism to the lie.



The Dutch told us, in the days in the runup to the war, that they would remain neutral, and didn't take sides in the crisis.




Their neutrality proved a lie. Despite their truce with us, France joined the fray as well, while none of our allies would join in the war. Editor's note: Great Wars sparked by crises are supposed to automatically call all of the two sides' allies. Russia's were called, ours...weren't, and couldn't be manually called because they all had truces with Russia. The Dutch, who liked us more than the Russians and would have probably joined on our side if they got the automatic call from both, chose Russia after stupidly sitting out the diplomatic negotiations in the crisis and taking a huge prestige hit.



Even Switzerland refused to join, citing that it had troops in hostile soil and couldn't join the war. Why the Swiss army was vacationing in Silesia in peacetime was a mystery the government didn't have time to ponder.




In a welcome distraction, the USA launched its own war against the Russian alliance.




Gas filled the streets of the border towns while Field Marshal Haig landed an expeditionary force in Dunkirk. Within months Haig's forces would be completely obliterated, knocking Britain out of the war.





Victories were costly, and the NGF and Russians outnumbered us far too much.




Though there is no fighting force on earth that can match the SGF in quality man for man, it is difficult to replace professional soldiers of that caliber.




Even the switch to wartime economics and incentives proposed by Lord Keynes didn't ease the burden.




Italians decided that now would be an opportune time to take Tyrol. Our allies are willing to fight that war, and will have to win it for us, we have no forces to dispatch to the Alpine front.



Attrition, attrition. We could not replace our losses in victorious battles, and the sheer numerical advantage of France + Netherlands + NGF + Russia eventually told.





Whole armies were wiped out.



The French and North Germans marched into battle wearing their gas masks. All of the sudden, our chemical weapons were useless and theirs were as effective as ever. Our soldiers died like flies.



Pensions weren't going to buy anyone off at a time when the NGF was haughtily demanding Franconia and the dismantling of the Federation.




Russia was more forgiving, demanding the entirety of Galicia. The loss of SGF's thriving oil industry was a brutal loss, but the disarmament and indemnities bit even harder. Not only was Poland not free, even more of it was under the grip of the Tsar.





Now Bavarian nationalists siege the capital, Italians pour over the Alps (though Rome itself is held by Two Sicilies), and revolution seems imminent. How the mighty have fallen. What is next for the SGF? How can it reemerge from the ashes? The National Socialist Worker's Party has an answer, to blame those Liberals and Socialists who have backstabbed us with their weak acceptance of the vipers, the minorities within us. The Communists have another answer, to nationalize the property of the capitalists who led us into this unsuccessful war. The Nationalists have yet another answer, to secede from this failing federation. I know not what the right answer is. I just know this. Change is coming to South Germany, and if liberal democracy can't give it that change, it will be swept away.

Demographics:



Map (unlabeled because the last map was only two years ago)