Invasion: Colorado

-9- Phase II

From Military History: Past to Present, by Vance Holbrook:

Invasion of Midwestern America, Phase II, 2039-2040

By late October 2039, the Pan-Asian Alliance and the South American Federation troops had become mired down due to the uncommonly warm rainy season. (They were warm rains in a relative sense, as it was still cold weather to the troops on the ground.) The torrential showers turned the landscape into mud and added vast, shallow lakes throughout much of the Central Midwest.

During this time, Chairman Hong received several pieces of intelligence that caused him to alter the plans for Marshal Liang’s Third Front. The Chairman was only now becoming aware of the full extent of Chancellor Kleist’s offer to the Americans: the Canadian province of Quebec, in exchange for German Dominion neutrality.

Due to their battlefield supremacy during the Californian invasion, the Chairman loathed the Behemoth tanks. To that end, he demanded the capture of the Denver manufacturing plant. This would entail the subjection of the greater Denver metropolitan area. At the Chairman’s orders, Marshal Liang allocated the Tenth and Fifteenth Armies to the task. Because of the difficult terrain and circumstances, Liang removed their tank corps and added assault and Special Infantry divisions.

The PAA and SAF formations had taken substantial losses throughout the summer and autumn battles. Even after adding replacements, they were at seventy-five percent of the start-date strengths.

The Third Front’s objectives were now twofold: Denver with the accompanying capture of the Front Range Urban Corridor and a continuation of the northern assault. The Rocky Mountains would continue to be their western wall as they surged north. The SAF First Front would drive north in tandem with the two Chinese forces on either side of them. The PAA Fourth Front would mask St. Louis as it continued for the distant Canadian border, with the Mississippi River on its eastern side. The offense’s directives would take it through Iowa and Minnesota.

The Chinese and Brazilian strategists believed the drive, together with well-placed garrison troops, would divide the continental United States into two distinct halves. From such a position, they believed two more campaigns would complete the conquest of the United States.

Despite their victorious armies and the success of the earlier drives, the Aggressor powers had several critical problems. The first was the incredible wear on their vehicles. Too many had broken down and keeping the rest in operational condition took millions of precious man-hours.

The second problem was the constant human toll of war. Formations were depleted due to battle losses and extreme fatigue.

The third was the need for garrison formations along the Mississippi River and the even greater need for security troops in the vast American hinterland. In the growing Occupation Territory, the U.S. partisan and guerilla attacks were now beginning to intensify. Taken altogether, the cutting edge of the Aggressor armies had diminished considerably.

The Chinese strategists in particular understood the danger. They added a fourth problem. The plan to push their forces to the utmost would cause a substantial weakening everywhere else in a short span of time. The reason was obvious. A man couldn’t operate at his highest capacity for any extended length of time; neither could an army. Both a man and an army needed rest to recoup from exhaustion. The strategists believed several critical factors would offset the combined problems or risks.

One, the American Army had taken staggering losses, meaning it was much weaker in comparison to its beginning strength. The Chinese strategists understood the Americans mobilized new formations, but they didn’t appreciate the vast quantity about to be unleashed upon them. They believed these hastily-trained and equipped formations would lack the high standards as the veteran units. They also assured themselves these new formations would be composed of second and third-grade quality soldiers.

Two, the Chinese strategists assumed that American morale had been and would continue to be sapped by constant defeat and retreat. There would naturally come a point when the enemy folded.

Three, the loss of the American heartland meant less food production and industrial power for the United States. They believed this would slow the appearance of the new formations.

Finally, the Chinese strategists supposed that the waning strategic strength of the United States meant that any American offensive would lack power. In essence, that likely meant the U.S. could not inflict strategic-level defeats on either the PAA or the SAF armies.

The key ingredients on the American side were threefold. First, there was Chancellor Kleist’s offer and acceptance of neutrality. It gave the American’s more regular Army formations to put into the Midwest. Two, the Canadians were coming. The Americans would have allies again. Finally, the volume of the newly-raised Militia battalions together with the transfer of the bulk of the East Coast Militia surprised everyone. Most of these battalions lacked armored vehicles of any kind and also lacked artillery. The new Militia levies relied on heavy mortar teams for indirect support. Still, the majority of these battalions were brave and committed defenders of their homeland.

The historical campaign now entered Phase II of the assault. As an icy Alaskan cold descended over the land, the Chinese continued their original plan, with several seemingly minor alterations, the largest of which was the Denver assault.

The Americans, meanwhile, gathered strength in the north. The rains had given them time and now they were beginning to regain numbers.

The brutal contest was nearing the critical clutch. The powers involved were like giant wrestlers exhausted by their previous efforts. A short breathing spell meant they would now throw everything into the final grapple.

2039, November 7-18. Renewed Offensive. As the fierce American winter descended on the Midwest, turning the mud and miles-long shallow lakes into a tundra-like landscape, the PAA and the South American Federation renewed their stalled offensives.

Army Group A of Third Front gained several miles in the initial Greater Denver assault. After a week of battle, and with constant American reinforcements, the U.S. positions stiffened. After several attempts, the Chinese cut the key I-70 supply route, completing Greater Denver’s isolation.

Elsewhere in the West, Chinese and Brazilian armies fought their way to the South Platte and Platte River Defenses. In the East, the Chinese Fourth Front broke through the Missouri River Defenses. American High Command decided on a fighting withdrawal as workers feverishly constructed the Des Moines Line in Iowa four hundred kilometers to the north.

The differences from the earlier summer and autumn battles were distinct. This time there was no vast haul of American prisoners. The PAA Third Front grained bitterly-contested ground, while far to the east, the PAA Fourth Front matched some of its earlier tank drives, but the Americans retreated in good order.

The South American offensive showed the greatest difference. They stalled sharply against the Platte River Line.

2039, November 18-December 2. Battle of Denver. Over the course of a month, increasing Chinese reinforcements entered the grinding siege battle. Urged on by Hong, Liang unleashed the Grand Assault against the city’s 28-mile perimeter. In a tremendous battle of attrition, the Americans defenders resisted stubbornly from house to house as the Chinese gradually closed in. Grueling winter weather now descended upon attacker and defender alike.

Army Group B of Third Front neared Cheyenne, Wyoming and the North Platte Defense Line. Stubborn American resistance and a constant drain of Chinese units sent south and fed into the Denver meat grinder made sweeping PAA advances here impossible. SAF assaults against the Platte River Defense decreased over the course of a month until the Brazilian generals were content with daily artillery duels. Their soldiers hated the bitter North American winter and morale sank accordingly. In the East, Fourth Front’s advances slowed as they neared the Des Moines Line.

By now, Chinese and Brazilian commanders were all too aware that the Americans had changed since the summer and autumn battles. The U.S. Army was stronger in a quantitative sense and was more robust in quality. The majority of the soldiers exhibited high morale, characterized by a desire for revenge.

The U.S. strengthening came from three sources of new soldiers: The Canadians had arrived, along with the East Coast regulars and the new Militia battalions. In Iowa, the Americans often employed cunning tank tactics. The favored ploy was feigned flight, as the Americans lured overeager Chinese attackers into TOW ambushes.

Chairman Hong decreed that one more push would shatter the built-up American defenses. His rage at German perfidy caused him to demand a brutal end to the campaign, before the Americans could take advantage of the German Dominion removal of their formerly Cuban-based amphibious army.

On the American sides, commanders worked feverishly to integrate their forces and unleash their long-awaited strategic surprise.

From Tank Wars, by B.K. Laumer III:

It is interesting to note that both the U.S. and the Chinese armies used an abundance of cheap and expendable weapon systems on the American battleground. To field such an amazing number of soldiers with more expensive equipment, the various economies would have beggared themselves into penury. Even so, the more elite formations of each side used the most sophisticated weapon systems possible.

The Behemoth tank represented a giant leap forward in battlefield armored vehicle technology, but it wasn’t the last word on the subject. The Behemoth had trumped the tri-turreted T-66 tank. Now the Chinese would attempt to trump the Americans with a newer marvel.

Yet with all deadly weapons of war, one needed enough of them to gain victory. Eighteen Behemoth tanks would face the challenge of an era. In contrast, the T-66 tanks roamed the American landscape in their thousands. The Chinese secret weapon—the MC ABM—few knew existed, and even fewer knew how to exploit properly.

The Battle of Denver saw the MC ABMs first unleashed as a ground-combat unit, reminiscent of the WWII Germans’ field-expedient employment of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun. Rommel in particular in the North African deserts had used them as superior anti-tank guns. Liang’s Chinese learned to use the MC ABMs in a similar manner. It therefore became a contest of king dinosaurs—the Behemoth tank and the MC ABM fought among the scrambling lesser creatures.

This bitter and interesting contest is the next topic in the panorama of our study of modern tank warfare.