The Third Snow War - 1939 - 1940

Overview
The Third Snow War was fought between the Empire of Wardie land and the Bolshevik Republic of Snowland between 24th November 1939 and 30th January 1940.

The war happened because of King Michael III's policy towards Snowland, Snow Land was a fairly small and pretty poor nation, Michael III wanted to conquer Snowland for the empire to modernise and enrich it. He also wanted to free Snowland from Communism.

The origins of the war can be traced back to the First Snow War of 1818 and the Second Snow War of 1867. The Snowlandian Empire in 1818 was twice as big as Snowland was in 1939, and covered quarter of the continent of Winterland (the nations of which would later become the Northern colonies), Snowland was a fairly powerful nation in the 1810s. The armies of Snowland encountered the Imperial Northern Army, which was expanding eastwards.

The Snowlandian armies attacked those of Wardie land, causing Queen Emily to declare war. Despite Snowland's military prowess, the Empire of Wardie land defeated the Snowlandian armies, and the much stronger Imperial Navy beat the Snowlandian Navy.

Wardie land was supported in the war by the "Ice Folk", Snowland's native population which lived in the far north of the country, particularly in Telmansk Oblast, Port Telmansk having grown from the Ice Folks' main fishing village. For the past 2 centuries Snowland had been trying to Snowlandianise them, and had banned the Ice Folk language, religion etc and imposed the language and religion of Snowland upon them. There were also massacres of captured Ice Folk rebels, the Ice Folk decided to help Wardie land, in the hope that they would crush the Snowlandians, however Wardie land didn't conquer Snowland, and Snowland enforced harsh punishments to the Ice Folk, which resulted in atrocities, however the Ice Folk continued to support Wardie land in their next wars with Snowland, the harsh treatment only strengthening their support of Wardie land.

Snowland was forced to sue to peace, Queen Emily was merciful, she allowed Snowland to remain independent, but had to give up all colonies to the Empire of Wardie land.

In 1867 a radical nationalist ousted Czar Aleksandr III of Snowland took over Snowland, and tried to restore the empire. The invasion began the Second Snow War, which was fairly quickly ended. Michael II decided to follow his mother's actions after the First Snow War and was merciful, due to assistance Snowlandian monarchists gave to Wardie land, he refused to conquer Snowland, rather he demanded the monarchy be given back their throne, but warned that if another such invasion happened he would conquer Snowland. Defeat for a second time stirred anti-government feelings in Snowland, in 1920 the Snowlandian Revolution forced Czar Aleksandr IV into exile and Snow Land became the "Republic of Snowland", the Republic fell during the 1922 "Red Revolution", and was replaced by the "Bolshevik Republic of Snowland".

Michael II died in 1899 and was succeeded by his son, King Michael III, Michael II's reign was remembered as a period of peace and prosperity. Michael III's policy was different than his father's, he wanted to conquer Snowland, to modernise and enrich the country, and after 1922 he also wanted to free Snowland from Bolshevism.

He decided to help the Ice Folk once more in their now two centuries long resistance movement against Snowland, this was the "Ice Folk Proxy War", and it ran from 1927 to the start of the Third Snow War in 1939, when Wardie land invaded and the Proxy War became a theatre of it, the war was intended to weaken Snowland and boost the confidence of the Ice Folk, the Ice Folk were supplied with modern arms, which were specially built without manufacturer markings to make sure that the source of the weapons couldn't be identified by Snowland should some weapons be captured. The proxy war meant that Snowland had to divert forces away from the border to deal with it, which weakened their defences, and made an invasion easier.

In early November 1939 he asked the Premier of Snowland to ally with the empire, to modernise Snowland, and free Snowland from the burden of Bolshevism, the Premier refused. Michael III decided to declare war on Snowland on the 24th of November if the premier again refused his request. He asked the premier again on the 22nd of November, the president once more refused. Wardie land claimed the invasion and occupation was to free Snowland from communism.

Some Snowlandians volunteered to serve in the Wardie land forces, they were the "Snowlandian Pro-Empire Front", most volunteers were supporters of the imperial family or the 1920-1922 Republic of Snow Land, who had been exiled following the revolution of 1922, who considered being a puppet state to be better than being a communist country, so they fought for Wardie land, they used the pre-1922 black flag of Snowland as their banner. Their leader was Aleksandr IV, the former Czar who had taken refuge in Wardie land's Northern Colonies following his exile in 1920.

War was declared at 12:00 on 24th of November, 5 minutes after the declaration of war Hurricanes of No. 77 (Fighter) squadron RIWAF (the "Snow Sharks") crossed the border and destroyed 9 Mule recon planes which were travelling to a front-line base in order to check reports of mobilising Wardie land forces. Since the Snowlandian Mules weren't equipped with radios, and the only radar stations were found well within Snowland. So the Mules had no idea war had been declared, and the frontline Snowlandian bases also didn't know war had been declared, to the airbase which was expecting the Mules the flight had just disappeared, the airbase commander was considering sending out a convoy to try and find out what had happened to the Mules, but were unable to as Wardie land fighters, led by 77 (Fighter) Squadron, strafed targets at the airbase during the invasion which began at 13:00, they also provided cover for RIWAF bombers against enemy fighters and destroyed enemy bombers trying to bomb the invasion force.

A 77 Sqn Hurricane 1F.I* in flight over the Sjakav Vale during the Third Snow War

Wardie land won the war and made Snowland into a puppet state, the "Empire of Snow Land", reinstating Czar Aleksandr IV to the throne of Snowland, which had lost 20 years before. Telmansk Oblast was made de facto independent from the rest of Snowland, given back to the Ice Folk, who created the "Republic of Telmansk", the Republic of Telmansk was still de jure part of Snowland, which allowed Wardie land to station forces in Telmansk Oblast without bother, but it was the Ice Folk which decided what happened in Telmansk. The Republic of Telmansk had its own military, which was made up of the Republic of Telmansk Army (ROTA), Republic of Telmansk Air Corps (ROTAC) and the Republic of Telmansk Navy (ROTN), all of which were supplied and assisted by Wardie land.

Within a year of winning the war Wardie land had gone about creating a military for the Empire of Snow Land, the three branches were the Snowlandian Imperial Army, Snowlandian Imperial Air Force and the Snowlandian Imperial Navy. Initially, they used mainly obsolete or surplus weaponry, however in 1942 the obsolete weaponry of the Snowlandian Imperial forces meant that they took heavy damage during the Japanese invasion of Winterland, resulting in the Imperial forces received more advanced weaponry from Wardie land.

Fronts
The war was divided into two overall fronts, the Western Front and the Eastern Front, the Western Front was the first front, and began on the Wardie Land-Snow Land border, before pushing the Snow Landian Western Forces eastwards towards Snow Land City, the capital of Snow Land, the Eastern Front began on the 1st of December, 8 days after the war began, with the East Island Campaign, following which, on the 8th December, landings along Snow Land's eastern coastline occurred, pushing the inadequate Snow Landian Eastern Forces westwards towards the capital. The two fronts were then divided into smaller fronts - Northern, Central and Southern.

Of the two fronts the Western Front saw the heaviest fighting, as Snow Land concentrated its military forces on this region, meaning the Eastern Front saw relatively little fighting, and was fought largely by a second-rate Snow Landian army, with obsolete or inadequate weapons, vehicles etc, such as the 1920s MS-1 tank. By the time the Snow Landian leadership saw the danger the Eastern Front posed it was too late, the Wardie land forces had broken out from the beaches and were pushing back the inferior Snow Landian Eastern Front. The two fronts joined at Snow Land City, as the Western Front on the western side of the city, and the Eastern Front on the eastern side of the city, met as they took Snow Land City.

Some say there were two additional fronts, the "Northern Front", and the "Southern Front", which were begun by Wardie land amphibious landings on Snowland's northern and southern coast, respectively, the Northern Front began in the region of Telmansk Oblast, and pushed south, this front saw most of the action of the Ice Folk rebels, whilst the Southern Front began on the coastline of Gorgorski Bay, and pushed northwards, eventually meeting with the South-Western Front, which was pushing on Keshusarsk Castle from the South-West.