IMAGI-NATIONS. PART 39.

THE OPENING BATTLES WITH GERMANY AND RUSSIA.

During July and August 1888 the UNION army was fully mobilised. The 1st, 6th and 7th armies were moved towards the border with Ukraine to support 2nd army which had already crossed the border to protect the railway as it advanced towards Russia. The 4th and 8th armies were moved towards Germany to join with 9th army which had already deployed. The 3rd and 5th armies were also brought to battle readiness. Due to the severity of the threat to the UNION it was also decided to mobilise, for the first time, the 10th reserve army. Personnel of this army were ordered to assemble at Fort Reno and the vehicles, guns and other equipment held in store at Rock Island Arsenal was dispatched by train to that location. Initial thinking was that the Reserve army would be deployed on the border with China with one brigade in Mexico thereby releasing both 3rd and 5th armies for use against Germany and/or Russia as needed. In addition the first tranche of reservists for all armies were ordered to report at their respective Forts for refresher training.

With the decision having been made not to launch a pre-emptive strike against Germany, the UNION army group facing Germany was ordered to take up  flexible defensive positions while maintaining the ability to launch a  strong counter attack.  The 9th army took up positions in an arc southwest of of Seattle about 50 miles from the border while 4th army deployed, again in an arc, northwest of Chicago and 8th army stood roughly equidistant but further to the east of the other armies so as to be able to support the other armies or launch a counter attack as needed.

In Ukraine the army group was instructed to follow the 2nd army advancing towards Russia being ready to deploy into combat formation as soon as the main Russian forces were encountered. On 14th September the advance guards of both armies engaged in an encounter battle in central Ukraine. To the surprise of UNION commanders the Russians did not deploy for battle but instead sought out high ground and other strong defensive positions and started to entrench themselves very deeply. Over the next few weeks  both armies sought to outflank the other with the result that a battle line of almost 70 miles soon developed. This surprised the Russians who had thought their strength of 500,000 with 250,000 reserves still in Russia, would be sufficient to stretch the UNION very thinly. The intensity of UNION artillery fire all along the battle line soon caused the Russians to understand they must be facing the best part of 300,000 UNION troops. The Russian and German strategy had been for the Russians to stand on the defensive, inflict as many casualties on the UNION as possible and draw in as many UNION troops as possible so that the Germans could launch their hopefully surprise attack against limited opposition. At this time neither Germany or Russia realised the full strength of the UNION army and were certainly not aware of the existence of the 10th reserve army. By the end of September both sides in Ukraine were deeply entrenched.

On 2nd October German forces swept across the frontier into the old Federation territory. A force of about 100,000 moved northeast towards Seattle while the main body of 200,000 headed southeast towards Chicago. About 25,000 moved in a thin skirmish line due east to cover the gap between the two forces. An additional 150,000 troops were held in eastern Rhineland as reserves. Meeting no resistance in the first few days the Germans believed they had achieved strategic surprise. This idea was unpleasantly destroyed on 5th October when both German advances came up against powerful UNION resistance. The Germans deployed for battle only to come under very heavy UNION artillery fire. Clearly the UNION had not been surprised and in fact UNION forces were on the battlefield in substantial numbers. German assaults were thrown back with heavy casualties in both the north and south. The Germans made several more attacks over the next few days with nothing to show from them but more casualties. The great gamble had failed so German forces adopted the same strategy as their Russian allies and sought out strong defensive positions along the two fronts each of almost 50 miles and started to dig in.

The UNION had successfully stopped the attacks of both their enemies for the time being at least. Although UNION artillery endlessly bombarded the Russian and German positions, it seemed that both armies had invested in substantial supplies of entrenching materials which was enabling  their positions to remain viable. In addition it seemed both armies had learned that to preserve their artillery, batteries should not remain in the same location for any length of time. Although this reduced effectiveness, at least they remained more or less intact. It was also clear that both armies, especially the Russians, were feeding more and more troops into their defenses perhaps with an eye to renewal of their attack. UNION commanders were faced with  a difficult choice; counter attack with potentially high losses or wait for the renewal of the Russian-German attack. In either case the UNION armies needed immediate and substantial reinforcement.