Czechoslovakia

The Czechoslovakian Socialist Republic was, along with East Germany and Poland, a frontline state during World War II. Although there was significant anti-Soviet activism in Czechoslovakia, the movement was less organised than its Polish counterpart, largely due to an extremely efficient Czech police state that had been put in place following the Soviet suppression of the Prague Spring. Although the main Soviet offensive took place through East Germany, Soviet forces inside Czechoslovakia also took part in the attack on West Germany and Austria. The Czech military was mobilised but was not generally involved in frontline offensives, although they did provide garrison forces and air defenses in occupied territory. Since Soviet logistics and command lines passed through Czechoslovakia, the country came under heavy attack from NATO air power. When the NATO counter offensive began in early 1985, NATO forces entered Czechoslovak territory to protect the flank of the main West German-American offensive into East Germany. NATO forces captured Prague and Brno but eventually came to a stop outside Bratislava. Although the country avoided complete occupation, there was considerable hardship among the civilian population who were displaced by violence, looting and food shortages.

When the NATO advance into Poland triggered Soviet nuclear retaliation, Czechoslovakia was hit just as hard as Poland. In addition to tactical attacks on Soviet and Czechoslovak combat formations, several cities were destroyed by nuclear strikes, as were critical industrial and logistical facilities such as the steel works in Trinec. In the wake of the nuclear exchange the already tenuous civil order broke down completely. The Czech civilian government faded away entirely and what order there was left was imposed by military forces in the field.

With the Czechoslovak civilian government no longer functioning beyond the township level, the surviving Czechoslovak military units are the only remainder of the state. While many soldiers have deserted to become Marauders or to defend their hometowns, some forces still remain in the field and consider themselves loyal to the Czechoslovak state, even if the state is more of an idea than a reality at this point. These units have no clear overall leader but remain in sporadic contact with one another and mostly concentrate on trying to protect the areas they occupy from the omnipresent Marauders. They do not generally try to directly confront the remaining NATO or Soviet forces in the country, although there have been some conflicts they have largely been due to local disagreements.