With the breach in the southern portion of the Maria Line posing a significant problem as forces from the Communard 5th Armored Corp pushed a significantly large hole in the line that the Portuguese were struggling to plug, things were about to get even worse for the Royal Portuguese Army and the Entente. In the north in Galicia, the Iberian 3rd Army which had been repeatedly attacking the defenses of the line there, finally broke through and encircled half a dozen divisions in the city of La Coruña. Said divisions were unable to be evacuated as the Portuguese ships that were supposed to be escorting the ships out of there, were caught and sunk by a fleet belonging to the Commune, sinking the entire Portuguese Fleet in one swift and decisive battle that wasn't even a fair fight. 

With the line now breached and the situation turning for the worse on May 24th, 1940, Maria III and her military staff met in São Jorge Castle to discuss what the hell they were going to do now. The meeting inside the castle lasted from 8 in the morning to 9 in the evening, with the generals shouting at one another while Maria listened to each argument made, the situation was pretty much going to get worse if they did nothing after this meeting and they needed to act fast. But after much debating, the decision was finally made. 

"Order the evacuation of the Maria Line, have them fall back to a line stretching from Viana do Castelo to Guarda then follow through to Castelo Branco, Evora and then end the line in the city of Sines. We will be fighting every step of the way and I will be damned if I allow these Totalist bastards any more ground. Include a scorched earth order, any factories, and facilities we have beyond the line that we cannot transport within the next week, destroy them. We will make them pay for every step they take" Maria ordered as she looked upon the general staff around 11:45 that night

With the orders from their monarch, the remnants of the Royal Portuguese Army began their fierce fighting withdrawal. With the battered remnants of infantry divisions being chased by the Iberian and Commundard soldiers eager to run them down. When the initial attacks on the line began again on May 26th, the Iberian and Commundard forces were surprised to see them empty and booby-trapped, with many Iberian conscripts dying in trench explosions. But passing those fortifications allowed the Internationale forces to make rapid progress, in the north, the entire region of Galicia had been recaptured, and in the south, the Commundard armor was only held back thanks to air raids on their supply convoys bringing ammunition and fuel to the front, while also being harried by the remnants of the Portuguese 1st Blindada Divizia which had split up its remaining 72 A6 Rams into small battalions that would act like quick fireteams to stop any armored push but paid dearly for each successful attempt at stopping the Commundard forces. 

By June 7th, 1940, the retreat to the new defensive line had been complete despite heavy casualties and most of the army being reduced in combat capabilities. The original Portuguese Army of yesteryear comprising 72 fully equipped and trained infantry divisions numbering 8,500 soldiers per division, was now reduced to two full armies, with 46 consolidated divisions and over 300,000 casualties in dead, captured or missing. 32% of their equipment in terms of rifles, artillery pieces and support equipment had been lost throughout the retreat and most likely fell into the hands of the Iberian or Commundard forces. 

But not everything was bleak at least. Around June 1st, the 1st Corp of the reborn Grandee Armee of the reborn French Empire in Africa had arrived, 12 Infantry Divisions and 2 Tank Divisions had arrived in force, comprising of men, women and black soldiers from the colonies who had been granted status as true french citizens under the new regime, something that surprisingly quelled the uprising spirits of the nationals and gave a lot of them a reason to fight for the empire. 

The French soldiers were armed with Fusil Berthier Model 1936 rifles which were modernized versions of the older model introduced in 1929 that was made to share the same cartridge size with the Canadian Lee-Enfield rifles, alongside this, they also used the Madsen LMG as their standard machine gun same as the rest of the Entente. For tanks, the French Empire was able to produce their own vehicles thanks to the factories built in Chad and Niger, Algeria and Tunisia. The tanks fielded by the French came in the form of 3 models, for light tanks, the CMER-35 was utilized as it was a fast tank and decently armed with a 37mm main gun that could knock out the communard light tanks and served as a great replacement to the CMER-30. For medium tanks, the CBP-39 was there. The CBP-39 had the same 57mm main gun as the A6 Ram but it was more potent in killing power while also being faster and having better armor. Then there was the crown jewel of the Grande Armee's armored vehicles in the form of the CRP-37S which was a heavy tank with a similar silhouette and design as the Communard Brabant Bis-1 heavy tank so prevalent on the Western Front. 

A/N: Here is a picture for them 

Despite the reinforcements from the French Empire, things were still bleak as the Entente on the continent had their backs to the sea and looked like a single offensive was going to be enough to finally crack the shell that was their defense line, and that offensive was to come sooner than they thought.

August 1st, 1940. Operation Fourche. Was Launched. 

On the morning of August 1st, 1940. With weeks of planning and getting things ready, the Internationale launched their major offensive on the newly named the "Clement Line" began. With 72 Iberian Infantry Divisions and 12 Communard Tank Divisions, the offensive began with a thundering artillery barrage at 4 in the morning, with the barrage landing with terrifying effect as Portuguese and French infantry in the first and second lines of defense were caught completely by surprise and most of them were killed in opening shots of the barrage. 

Around an hour later at 5, the assault across the line began, with Communard tanks leading the charge while Iberian infantry fell behind them as cover. 

In the port town of Sines, Captain Maria Alponisa was one of the few lucky bastards who were not in the defensive positions during the initial artillery bombardment. She was in one of the many bombed-out restaurants in town and she was lucky to have survived a 105mm shell landing right outside the ruins, with the shockwave knocking her out of her chair and onto the floor. 

Quickly steeling herself, Alponisa managed to get up to the bombed-out church tower and activate the radio that was supposed to be manned by one of her soldiers, a soldier she found dead at the floor of the church, with his eyes closed and his clothes soaked in his blood as a shape piece of rebar from the church's construction impaled him through the chest. Activating the radio, she was greeted by the sounds of desperate fellow soldiers currently requesting for reinforcements amidst the gunfire heard in their messages, the larger picture was quickly painted as she switched from station to station along the line and heard either static or calls for reinforcements. 

"Oh fuck" She muttered as she turned her gaze onto the hills to the south and saw the flashes of artillery in the distance. 

{!} 

Suddenly, the screams of shells filled the air before they were quickly followed by explosions that rocked the port town, the explosions were bright as well, with the town illuminated by the bright flashes and the fires that quickly followed. The barrage then stopped after a few minutes, 

{!} 

Her eyes then turned to the skies as she heard the rumblings of engines and before she could tell who they were, bright red flares were dropped over the town which caused her eyes to go wide. 

"Oh no" 

She quickly bolted her way back down the tower and ran into the burning town, calling out to any surviving allies who weathered the barrage. Luckily finding at least 20 to 30 surviving allies who were either lightly wounded or still unharmed, but there were a few who were already on their last legs and died before they could do anything else. While they scoured the town and took up any defensive positions they could, Maria saw a large group comprising several platoons coming in from the south, with several of them being soldiers carrying radio backpacks. 

"Who's the commanding officer here?" The lead soldier of the group asked with ragged breathing, his face covered with ash and his uniform ragged 

"I am Captain Maria, and you are?" She asked 

"Corporal Santinima Ma'am, orders from the division are that we make a hasty retreat out of Sines and make it to a rallying point a few miles north of here, the line has been breached everywhere" The corporal answered as he gave a weak salute 

"I see, are there more soldiers still retreating from the direction you came from?" Maria asked 

"I believe so, but the Communard and Iberian forces are also rapidly closing in, they have H35s and S35s with trucks following behind. The road they are taking leads here" The corporal answered 

"Then we shall stop them here for as long as we can and then do a fighting retreat" The female captain stated as she chambered her Lee-Enfield rifle 

The Portuguese soldiers around her said nothing as they did the same, a determined gaze on their faces to make the invaders pay for every step of the way. The soldiers were quickly organized into several groups spread across the town, setting up makeshift pillboxes with the Madsen LMGs they had and placing the QF 2-pounder guns in the rubble near the mouth and the center of the town. Maria herself took up position alongside some of her surviving squadmates on the second floor of a bombed-out inn in the center of town, lighting a pipe and taking a quick puff before the sounds of tank engines and trucks became louder and louder. 

Peering from her cover, she saw several soldiers run into town and quickly hide behind the rubble. The morning light was slowly coming in and provided good visibility so far, then, the sights of headlights on the road to the south and a column came into view, the rumblings of tanks and trucks getting louder and louder as they approached Sines. 

Once the first group of the column, comprising of a pair of H35 tanks and a few trucks entered the town square, the trap was sprung. The QF 2-pounder hidden on the ground floor of the building next to the inn opened fire and struck the first and then the second H35 in quick succession, followed by Maria and the rest of the soldiers in hiding popping out and opening up as well, with the first volley of fire tearing apart the trucks and killing all of the Iberian soldiers riding in them. 

This began the fight in earnest and the next hour was filled with intense firefights as the Portuguese infantry cut down droves of Iberian and Communard forces. The Madsen pillboxes doing their duty as they fired bursts of rounds that cut down squad after squad of Iberian conscripts trying to maneuver in the town while riflemen peered down from windows and shot at those hiding behind cover. 

Maria herself was in the thick of it as when several Iberian infantry squads made it back into the town square, she popped up from her position and downed two conscripts in quick succession before she was struck in the head with a bullet, one that thankfully did not kill her though as the bullet glanced off the top of her helmet. This brush with death angered the Portuguese captain who then cycled her rifle and then peered up quickly, seeing the Iberian rifleman responsible for the shot since he fired first but the bullet grazed her right cheek before replying with her own shot that struck him in the throat which killed him as he spewed out blood. 

For a whole hour, the advance was held up but it was not meant to be forever as when reports came in that a brigades worth of tanks and infantry were coming their way, Maria ordered her forces to withdraw. But during that order, she looked up and saw a formation of Br. 460 bombers about to drop their payloads were it not for the timely intervention of a squadron of Vickers Hunters swooping in and gunning down 4 of the 7 bombers in the first run and scattering the rest. 

With ammunition low and the enemy temporarily retreating, Maria ordered an artillery barrage on their position and withdrew her men, meeting up at the rallying point two hours later and then boarding a truck convoy bound for Lisbon. Her division was evacuated from the mainland and was transported to the island of Jamaica for rest and refit before they were to be sent down to Brazil to help Canadian forces fighting syndicalists there. 

On August 18th, after two and a half of bitter weeks of fighting, Lisbon fell and the Entente was pushed off the European continent once more. The fight for the exiles was still beginning, however, and despite this grim defeat, there was still hope to come back home and reclaim their land. No matter the cost.