Snow Landian Imperial Armed Forces 1941-

After victory over the Bolshevik Republic of Snow Land in the 1939-1940 Third Snow War, Wardie land decided not to directly rule Snow land, but to reinstate the Snowlandian imperial family, who had been deposed after the Revolution of 1920, the first emperor of the Snow Landian Empire was Czar Aleksandr IV, who had fled to Wardland's Northern Colonies following his exile in 1920, and led the "Snow Landian Pro-Empire Front" which had fought on the side of Wardie land in the Third Snow War, Wardie land's Snowlandian puppet state is the "Empire of Snow Land".

On 18th May 1941 Wardie land decided to set up a small-scale military for the Empire of Snow Land, the Snow Landian Imperial Armed Forces (VSISZ - Vooruzhennyye Sily Imperii Sneg Zemlyu; LIT: Armed Forces of the Empire of Snow Land), the Imperial military of Snow Land was created partly in order to assist Wardie land in keeping control over Snow Land, but also to give the Empire of Snow Land the semblance of being an independent nation. The Imperial military was the successor to the military forces of the Snow Landian Pro-Empire Front, the SLIArF was trained by officers of the Wardie land Imperial military. The SLIArF had three branches: the Snow Landian Imperial Army, Snow Landian Imperial Air Force and the Snow Landian Imperial Navy. From late May 1942 to January 1943 the Snow Landian Imperial military helped repel a Japanese invasion of Winterland, taking heavy damage thanks to its largely obsolete weaponry.

The Snow Landian Imperial Air Force (IVSSZ - Imperatorskiy Vozdushnyye Sily Sneg Zemlyu) was formed as the successor of the Snow Land Pro-Empire Front Aviation Corps. It was equipped primarily with ex-Wardie land aircraft which had either been given to the SLPEFAC or assigned to the SLIAF, the SLIAF also used native aircraft which had been captured from the Bolshevik Republic of Snow Land, this resulted in an unusual mix of aircraft from across the world, much like the RIWAF had. Quite a number of the SLIAF's aircraft at its founding were considered obsolete by 1941. The following aircraft were in the SLIAF inventory at its founding: Bristol Blenheim, Caudron C.714, Fokker C.V, Fokker C.X, Fokker D-XXI, Gloster Gauntlet, Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Hurricane, Polikarpov I-15, Polikarpov I-153, Polikarpov I-16, Polikarpov U-2, Supermarine Spitfire Mk I, Tupolev SB, Tupolev TB-3.

A Fokker D-XXI of the Snow Landian Imperial Air Force, ca. 1941

In 1939 the Bolshevik Republic of Snow Land placed an order for 10 LaGG-1 fighters that were in development at the time for evaluation once the design was finished, this was because Snow Land was starting to look at modern cannon-armed fighters, when Snow Land was defeated in January 1940 and occupied by Wardie land LaGG cancelled the order, however Wardie land was also interested in cannon-armed fighters, especially for the Imperial Northern Air Force, which had a lack of fighters armed with cannons, so Wardie land asked LaGG to continue with the order, LaGG did, and by mid 1940 the 10 LaGG-1s had been delivered, Wardie land wasn't satisfied with the LaGG-1s, LaGG said they had an improved model in development, the LaGG-1s were sent to training squadrons.

The improved model that LaGG mentioned was the LaGG-3, the first version of LaGG-3 Wardie land received was the series 4, 100 of which were delivered in mid 1941, RIWAF squadrons in Snow Land operated the LaGG-3 series 4 for several months, until the end of 1941, the RIWAF didn't like the LaGG-3, the Klimov M-105 was relatively underpowered, and had trouble with the heavy LaGG-3, as a result the LaGG was slow, its weight also meant it reacted sluggishly to forces on the stick, the LaGG was also hard to pull out of a dive, and tended to spin when the stick was pulled too hard, making it hard to perform sharp turns. The LaGG was very unpopular with RIWAF pilots, by December 1941 all LaGG-3s had been withdrawn from combat squadrons and sent to training squadrons, and the SLIAF. The SLIAF operated the LaGG during the first half of the Winterland Campaign of May 1942-January 1943, and they took heavy damage from Japanese fighters. By August 1942 all LaGG-3s had been withdrawn from combat service, and by the start of 1943 were out of service.

An ex-Wardie land LaGG-3 of the Snow Landian Imperial Air Force, ca. late 1941

The navy of the Empire of Snow Land was the Snow Landian Imperial Navy (IFSZ - Imperskiy Flot Sneg Zemlyu), and at its founding in May 1941 consisted of only 30 gunboats and a few captured Boleshevik Republic of Snow Land ships, with the flagship being the SLIN Aleksandr I, an old WW1-era Goose-class destroyer which had been HMIWS Glory before being retired from the Imperial Navy in 1936, this was the strength of the SLIN until 1955. In 1955 the Aleksandr I was replaced by the SLIN Aleksandr II, an Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleship formerly the flagship of the BRSL Navy before being taken over by Wardie land after Snow Land's surrender and entering service with the RIWN as the HMIWS Imperial Glory, before being given to Snow Land for use as the Snow Land Imperial Navy's new flagship.

During 1942-1943 the SLIN helped the RIWN Imperial Northern Fleet during the fight against the Japanese invasion of the Northern colonies, the obsolete weaponry meant the SLIN took heavy damage, as the obsolete weaponry was destroyed new weaponry was brought in to replace it.

SLIN Aleksandr I, flagship of the Snow Landian Imperial Navy 1941-1955

SLIN Berkut (ex-HMIWS Horsa)

Beetle-class torpedo gunboat, 5 of the 30 gunboats of the early SLIN were of this class

Lily-class torpedo gunboat, 9 of the 30 gunboats were of this class

Mantis-class gunboat, 6 of the 30 gunboats were of this class

Pike-class river gunboat, 4 of the 30 gunboats were of this class

Fry-class gunboat, 2 of the 30 gunboats were of this class

Algae-class river gunboat, 4 of the 30 gunboats were of this class

A few Bolshevik Republic of Snow land ships were captured during the war and were used by both the Royal Imperial Wardie land Navy and the Snow land Imperial Navy, they were mostly Russian/Soviet ships bought from Russia/USSR during the 1900s-1920s, the CRSL didn't put as much importance on the CRSL Navy as the other branches of the CRSL military, like the CRSL Army and the CRSL Air Force

Karp-class submarine, used by the RIWN as the Carp-class submarine

Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleship, the flagship of the CRSL Navy, the Revolutsiya, surrendered to the RIWN when news of the Snow Landian surrender came through, the ship was later given to the RIWN, who renamed her HMIWS Imperial Glory, was made the new flagship of the SLIN in 1955 and renamed SLINS Aleksandr II.

Burnyi-class torpedo boat, 20 were captured after the war, used by the RIWN as the Spear-class torpedo boat, and by the SLIN as the Yaranov-class torpedo boat, after Captain Georgi Yaranov, who commanded the Pro-Empire Front Fleet No. 3 Torpedo Boat Squadron at the Battle of Tarnov Bank, 8th December 1939

In addition, the SLIN also operated aircraft, particularly older planes from the 1910s-1930s, a common torpedo bomber was the Cuckoo 2B(T)
Cuckoo 2B(T)