Swinging of the Executioners Sword
In the wake of Operation Downfall Russia began withdrawing units from central Europe to defend the Motherland. Allied & Communist forces would bridge the Oder on June 27 & moved into eastern Germany. Communist forces were moving through Pomerania towards Danzig while German led troops pushed on to Posen. Though the withdrawal of forces back into Russia had given numerical superiority to the Allies Russia was still fighting a fierce defensive war. Almost a month would go by before Posen would be liberated not returning to German hands until July 21. Danzig wouldn't come into range of Communist guns until August. Out of Bohemia & Slovakia Italian & other Allied forces moved into Poland & Silisea. On the same day as the start of Operation Downfall Italian forces bean the Battle of Krakow. For 16 days Italian forces fought to break Russia's grip over the city & finally liberating it on July 8. Bohemian led allied forces moved on Wroclaw, battling for the city from July 2-19, & finally pulling it as well from Russia's grasp. As August began while the Communists battled for Danzig the Allies moved towards Łódź where a Russian army numbering around 300,000 readied for a counterattack.
On June 30 Allied forces Crossed into Bessarabia & Bukovina. German led force would quickly capture Kishinev on July 7 & cross into the Ukraine driving towards Odessa. To the north the Battle of Bukovina was fought until July 14 before the Russians retreated in defeat. By then the Allies in Transylvania & Slovakia had taken advantage of the absence of sufficient Russian troops to push the front into Polish Galicia. On July 21 the Battle of Odessa began as 220,000 Allied troops began to assault the exhausted Russian defenders.
In Scandinavia British & Swedish forces launched a fresh offensive just 6 days after the start of Operation Downfall. By now the Russians here outnumbered nearly 3-1 by the Allies who captured the Kola Peninsula & nearly all of Lapland in just three weeks. As the Allies thrusted forward an uprising in southern Finland began on July 18 with Finnish militias capturing Helsinki on August 1 & declaring their independence.
The Allies were advancing everywhere. Turkeys Operation Attila was continuing despite fierce resistance by Russian forces. Here it was the Ottomans turn for revenge especially in Georgia. Villages were completely sacked as Turkish troops pillaged, raped, & murdered nearly every Georgian they could. On July 12 Gori, birthplace of Ioseb Jugashvili who had orchestrated the mass extermination programs in Turkey, was captured & not a single person was left alive or structure left standing. After two weeks of fighting Georgia's capital Tbilisi fell into Ottoman hands & was largely ravaged like the rest. In Azerbaijan Turkey's mass revenge killings were nowhere near as bad as in Georgia. On August 6 the Azerbaijani capital Baku would fall into Turkish hands.
The Crimean Campaign saw bitter bitter fighting. From July 1-12 the Battle of Simferopol left much of the city in ruins & thousands of British soldiers dead or wounded. Ten days later Sevastopol, where 85,000 Russian troops were hemmed in, came under fire as well from British artillery & the Siege of Sevastopol began. With Novorossiysk in Allied control American supplies & reinforcements began to flow in. Against the Americans both here & in the Baltic the Russians were throwing everything they could at them. That was expected however & with the Strait of Kerch in Allied hands the third invasion of Operation Poseidon began on July 15 east of Mariupol. Though significantly smaller than the first two landings there were almost no Russians in the present area the Americans could rapidly expand & assist in the capture of Rostov-on-Don on July 28. The two forces now combined General Patton, who commanded the Americans in this theater prepared to assault Donetsk.
The Battle for Riga would last until July 16 & causing General Bradley's army to be severely behind schedule. While advances into Lithuania & to a lesser extent Belorussia were being achieved the army was nowhere near where it was supposed to be by this time. Pskov, which was predicted to have fallen by July 10, still held nearly 275,000 Russian forces & by August the Americans were still 35 miles away. It was appearing that the war in Russia itself would turn out to be as long & bloody as it had been in the rest of Europe. Then on August 5 Bradley, Patton, & Rommel were given the order to halt their advances by their higher ups. They soon saw why when the next day at 0809, 0815, & 0821 Allied forces near Łódź, Donetsk, & Pskov were blinded by what looked like a new sun.
