A Trial of Time- India/US Transference.

Chapter 4.5: Sheershah V2

As of October 31, 2021, this chapter has been rewritten.

Author Note: Nothing much, just don't forget to read the V2 chapters as there are parts where the plot is different.

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4 PM IST, 26th March 2025 (1942),

India

As expected by the Indian Military High Command the "Cold start Doctrine" or Proactive strategy was a monumental success.

Cold start was fuelled after the failures of "Operation Parakram" which was launched back in 2001 in response to a Pakistan backed terror outfit attacking the Indian Parliament in broad daylight.

The Indian mobilisation against its neighbour took a total of three weeks to deploy necessary forces. This delay helped the Pakistani military to move its forces faster to the borders. Lacking strategic surprise the Indian military held itself from launching any kind of punitive operations at the border unless it led to open war. Though the fear of Conventional warfare turning into a nuclear exchange remained as both the nation militaries continued to mobilize, intense artillery duels continued until 2002 when the deadly standoff ended under international diplomatic mediation when the both the nations finally withdrew from the border.

The standoff exposed the operational gaps in the Indian offensive power including slow mobilization and thus after years of work the "Cold Start" came into existence.

Under this Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs) were raised those meant to be lethal, brigade-sized, agile and self-sufficient combat formations and has a varying mix of infantry, artillery, armoured, air defence, engineers, signals and other units permanently deployed together.

Their objectives were to launch a limited offensive and force its nuclear armed neighbour to either hold talks or continue a conventional war on its land and across the nuclear red lines forcing them to stand down their nuclear weapons or use it on their own soil.

When the transition occurred, "Cold start" was activated in anticipation of some kind of attack from either the Chinese or the Pakistanis.

As such the Pivot forces meant to defend the borders were rushed in and initial incursions were made by BSF units at the Western (Pakistan) border. Reports of India going back to 1942 soon reached Delhi and after some discussions it was decided to continue with the doctrine

Within 72 hours the 9th Corp now mobilized deployed its Integrated Battle groups and went ahead with a limited offensive all across the border pushing the British colonial forces deeper into the Punjab province and capturing large swaths of bordering territories before halting their advance and waited for the strike Corps to arrive for the main thrust towards Karachi.

The colonial forces caught completely off guard and against such ferocious attack provided token resistance before either surrendering or withdrawing towards the larger cities to fortify them.

Few RIAF (Royal Indian Air Force) airbases in the region were bombed by IAF Jaguars, cratering them and making them unusable. For the time being and in order to not cause any unnecessary civilian casualties the Karachi harbor under the Royal navy was not bombed back to stone age.

Nothing changed at the Kashmir front as the Indian forces consolidated their position with martial law reimposed on the region and efforts on cracking down on any seperatist elements were redoubled.

The Jammu and Kashmir State forces from the downtime were equally in disarray after their capital and with the entirety of their central command now gone, vanished out of existence. They were brought under the command of British forces in the region, still not in Indian control. The civilian population from the 1942 were also confused as their usual routes towards Srinagar were now blocked by Barbed Wire fences which were not there just a few days ago.