IMAGI-NATIONS. PART 40.

 THE UNION COUNTERATTACKS.

The situation by the middle of October 1888 was that the UNION had halted both the German and Russian assaults. However on both fronts the UNION forces urgently needed reinforcement. The 10th Reserve army was therefore deployed with one infantry brigade to Mexico and another to the border with China. In addition the cavalry brigade was also sent to China to maintain patrols in the south of that country. The other two infantry brigades were to be held in strategic reserve. With this deployment 3rd and 5th armies were now available and it was decided to use them to counter attack. The question was where. As German forces were better equipped than the Russians and were already on UNION territory threatening Boston and Chicago while the Russians were still in Ukraine 1000 miles from the UNION it was decided to attack the Germans.

In order to ensure the Russians would find it difficult to assist their allies by increasing pressure on the UNION lines, the four UNION cavalry brigades already in Ukraine were formed into an ad hoc army and ordered to launch long range attacks on the Russian supply railway far behind the front lines. At this time the Russian and UNION armies were concentrated in the north of Ukraine leaving the central and southern regions totally unoccupied for hundreds of square miles. Having already been offered support by the Ukrainian government, it was decided the cavalry force would be based a few hundred miles north of Kiev and supplied by the Ukrainians direct with food and fodder. That would enable UNION Quartermaster transport companies to concentrate on shipping only ammunition and other military hardware  to support the Cavalry operations. The expectation was that if the Cavalry could exert sufficient pressure on the Russian supply lines, the Russians would have to use large numbers of troops to defend those lines thus making them unable to muster the strength to launch another assault on the main UNION lines.

On 3rd November 1888 the UNION cavalry army moved quickly south east towards Kiev. By 27th November they were at their new base camp and were ready to launch four separate raids on the Russian supply lines.  On 7th December the cavalry raids took place at various points on the railway. Trains were destroyed by horse artillery fire, tracks ripped up and several Russian patrols and working parties wiped out. The effect was immediate in that the Russians were both surprised that UNION forces could reach so far behind their lines and dismayed at the level of damage caused. By the time Russian relief trains could get to the most eastern and western raid sites the UNION troops had long disappeared. 

Over the following months the Russians were forced to deploy more and more troops from their reserves in Russia and even some from their front line to patrol the railway while constructing block houses at various points as patrol bases. However the UNION cavalry raids continued and by years end , despite having allocated over 50,000 troops to protect the railway, the Russian front line was suffering increasing shortages of food, ammunition and other essential supplies.

Meantime back in the west, two infantry brigades of the UNION 3rd army together with that armies heavy artillery and heavy weapons battalions had been placed under command of 4th army covering Chicago and the other two brigades had been given to 9th army covering Seattle. The  5th army had joined up with 8th army in the centre of the front and both armies were now prepared to attack the weakly held German centre. The command battalion of 3rd army was allocated control of all five cavalry brigades on the front and this force was massed behind 5th and 8th armies.

On 7th December the German army came under heavy artillery bombardment all along the front while the UNION army launched a massive attack on the centre of the German positions.