John Schettler - Second Front

Dear Readers,

Karpov started it, beginning his own Second front against Japan when he first began stalking the Kido Butai . Now, with the arrival of the United States military in our tale, the real Second Front in the West is about to be opened. But first, we have unfinished business off Sakhalin Island. The battle that has been looming on our radar screens for some time is about to begin. That and other naval action in the Norwegian Sea will start us off, and then we will move to Operation Torch, which will cause dramatic changes in the West as the allies finally go on the offensive.

As 1942 proceeds, our intrepid Mister Fedorov realizes that the history they once lived through is being re-written, and he has concerns as they approach the time when Orlov made his fateful jump from that KA-226. After much deliberation, he thinks he sees another possible paradox looming, but realizes that he must have the cooperation of Karpov to do anything about it. The two of them put their heads together on this as we reach the final segments of this installment, and Fedorov has a plan. Yet he does not count on the whims of the Siberian, and things take a most unexpected turn that, among other things, will be complicated by a most unwelcome visitor in the skies over Siberia. Finally, we get to hear from a couple characters that have been missing from our tale since Paradox Hour —Pavel Kamenski and Ivan Gromyko.

There’s a lot more action to come in Season 4. Should this line of history continue, the Allies must now fight their way into Algiers and Tunisia, while O’Connor and the British 8th Army must push Rommel from the other side. In the east, Manstein’s offensive pushes to reach the Volga and link up with Volkov’s Orenburg Federation, while Sergei Kirov, his very life at stake now, struggles to regroup and reequip the weary Soviet Army. That season will take us deep into 1943, and all the great military action as both sides finally match one another, and the outcome of the entire war rides in the balance.

For now, I hope you enjoy opening up that Second Front.

Nowthey reap the whirlwind, thought Fedorov. He had seen this all before, just after they manifested in this very year in the Pacific, when the Japanese raid on Darwin had first looked down to see a lone Allied cruiser running out to sea. Down they came, thinking to quickly dispatch the ship and get on with their mission. For Kirov, it was a sudden and unexpected shock, and they were fortunate that Karpov was on the bridge at that time, knowing exactly what defensive system to activate, and how to use it.

This time they get the surprise, he thought, but he was very wrong. The Japanese knew exactly what they were doing now. The pilots had been briefed, and told they would be looking for the mysterious ship that had been attacking the navy, Mizuchi . They were more than willing to try and find it, and also headstrong enough to think they could take hold of it like a cat by the tail and kill it. Yes, they expected a few scratches, knew that planes and men might be lost in any combat sortie they flew, but this was no ordinary cat.

Kirov was a lethal beast that was entirely beyond their comprehension, a tiger with claws that would soon rend their way through the sky with their slashing anger. They really had no idea what was about to hit them, thought Fedorov, feeling a spasm of guilt. Then he remembered how they came at the ship, engines wailing, the cold whistle of deadly bombs falling, the hiss of the defensive fire and the rattle of the 30mm chain guns on defense—and he remembered the battle bridge. One man had been so driven in a later attack, that he put his plane right into the ship. Had he aimed for the open deck, smashing into the missile armed vertical silos beneath it, the results could have been catastrophic.

“S-300 system ready sir,” said Samsonov.

Grilikov was sitting right next to him, his eyes narrowed as he watched the other man work on a bank of equipment that seemed entirely confounding. One thing caught his eye, the winking red lights, a bank of eight, and Samsonov had told him they each corresponded to a missile ready for launch. The ship could have carried as many as 96 S-300s at one time, the missile the West called the SA-N-20 Gargoyle. It was an older system by 2021, replaced on most ships with the new S-400F system. In its second coming, this Kirov had a mix of missiles, some old, some new. There were 36 S-300s, as the Navy still had them and wanted to use them for the live fire exercises Kirov was to have conducted in the Norwegian Sea. A second bank carried the ship’s current long range defense system, the S-400F.

Behind those, the ship possessed another formidable inner air defense shield, a missile of many names. It was the Kinzhal, or dagger, a variant of the land based Tor system that the West now called the SA-N-9 Gauntlet. The Russians also called it the Klinok—blade—and it was very sharp indeed. They were stored in clusters of 8, on rotary VLS modules. First introduced in 1989, this was a much improved version of that missile, with updated electronics and a much longer range, out to about 80 kilometers to move it from its roots as a short range missile to medium range defense. There were 128 of those missiles hidden beneath the decks.

The innermost defensive ring was the province of the Kashtan system, a short range missile that fired in conjunction with two 30mm Gatling guns that sat like the heavy black arms of a robot mounted beneath the missile tubes. This deadly combination could produce kill probabilities of over 95%, and it was further assisted by several single 30mm gun mounts elsewhere on the ship.

For anything to get through those three concentric circles of fighting steel would be a very daunting prospect, particularly a slow, easily tracked aircraft like those in the skies now. The 15 contacts to the west were Nakajima Ki-43 Fighter bombers, the Peregrine Falcon to the Japanese, but dubbed by the far less complimentary name of “Oscar” by the Americans. They were each carrying two 250kg bombs, a heavy payload of over 1100 pounds.

“Target speed at 230 knots,” said Rodenko. “These nine contacts to the south are slower, about 175 knots.”

“Most likely G4M medium bombers,” said Fedorov. “That’s a plane the Americans called the Betty, a level bomber, and not much of a threat in terms of accuracy. The others are probably land based fighter bombers. They’ll be the main threat here.”

“If you can call that a threat,” said Karpov.

Fedorov gave him a quick look, as if to remind him of what had happened to them before. They were the only two men on the bridge that remembered that, as Orlov was below decks on his rounds that morning.

“Do we have the battle bridge manned?” he asked.

“Of course,” said Karpov, but that is no more than a formality for Air Alert One.

“Nice to know it’s there,” said Fedorov, again with a knowing glance the Admiral’s way.

Karpov gave him a flat grin. “Mister Samsonov, salvo of four S-300s. Target the group of fifteen planes and begin firing.”

“Aye sir.” Samsonov was only too eager to comply.

“Sir,” said Otani. “Sierra One has detected missile fire, bearing west towards Sakhalin. They must be firing at our land based aircraft.”