[size=+1]It is the latter half of 1944.[/size] After their stunning victories up until 1942, Germany is in retreat everywhere. Field Marshal Paulus' 6th Army has been obliterated at Stalingrad, Afrika Korp has been hurtled out of Africa, and despite his best efforts, the celebrated Erwin Rommel has failed to repel Operation Overlord. From the west and south, the Western Allies march steadily towards Germany; from the east, the Red Army drives the Wehrmacht before them. The Third Reich is in its death throes but in its thrashings, it is taking thousands with it, many of them starving and exhausted German soldiers. Through it all, Adolf Hitler refuses to surrender or even let his generals fall back to a defensible line, seeming utterly insane and incapable of recognizing the reality that is marching swiftly towards him. Fearing the wholesale destruction of German, especially by a vengeful Red Army, a partially crippled Catholic aristocrat, Oberstleutnant i.G. Claus von Stauffenberg, colludes with others to permanently solve the problem of the nation's maddened leader...
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First Faint Glimmer
[size=+1]June 20th, 1944[/size]
It is a grim dawn for the mighty Wehrmacht. Their combat divisions are scattered throughout France and ill-prepared to seriously contest the breakout from the Normandy beacheads while in the east, their lines are paper-thin and the Red Army is much more numerous. The generals that won the west for Hitler in the beginning return from headquarters in disgust with orders for the German Army to stand and fight... which, in this context, is a demand that they die for strategically useless land because Hitler doesn't believe that the situation is dire. There are rumors that an attempt is being formulated to permanently deal with the delusional German leader but by the time anything can be done, the generals are sure, nothing can save Germany but a desperate appeal to the Western Allies. But the generals know their history: the last time Germany asked the West for peace during widespread reverses, the Treaty of Versailles was the result and the hated treaty eventually vaulted Hitler and his Nazi Party to power. Moreover, it seems to them, the Allied positions might yet be vulnerable if they cease to be shackled by headquarters. Accordingly, a second plot is conceived of, one in which the army reports that it is obeying Hitler while completely ignoring him, reasoning that he cannot possibly know otherwise as long as those loyal to him are kept in the dark.
While Hitler goes on believing that he is being studiously obeyed, Field Marshals Gerd Von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel lay out a bold plan to take advantage of the fact that in pushing forward so rapidly from their landing grounds, the Allies have left their positions at Caen and Carentan critically weakened for a short time; capture of these locations would allow the Wehrmacht to cut off the vast armies from their supply base and smash them. At the same time, a gradual withdrawal to a line extending down from Danzig was initiated to give the harried eastern armies time to dig in and replenish their numbers. Rommel and Rundstedt had no immediate idea how to accomplish this but they were convinced that withdrawing to the narrowest possible position to the east of Berlin would help salvage the situation and much of Poland, in their minds was useless strategically anyway. In the south, Albert Kesselring was instructed to simply hold on as long as he could--but not to hesitate to stage a tactical withdrawal to keep his position strong. Routed through a minor functionary who was sympathetic to the generals, Kesselring was surprised by the order but, conditioned to obey the Fuehrer's strange orders, he did not ask any hard questions.
By June 25, all was ready in the west. The lines trying to stop the eastward movement of the American, Commonwealth, and British soldiers were stripped to the bone because, frankly, it didn't matter if they went east if they found themselves cut off and starving. The weaker garrisons in Carentan and Caen were surprised by the sudden and massive assaults although they fought with reckless courage despite being totally cut off. The Germans didn't cut communication links from the further-east armies to the beachheads until their success was a fait accompli... and they began to roll up the shocked Allied armies. The massive Allied air supremacy did them little good because they couldn't find targets in the daylight and soon, summer storms began to roll in, making resupply impossible. The Germans didn't waste the opportunity; by July 15th, the Allied position was hopeless and mass surrenders began. It was in this context that the conspiracies became formally aware of one another and Claus von Stauffenberg's plot goes forward under radically different circumstances. By July 20th, Adolf Hitler is dead and a faint bit of light is visible at the end of the tunnel as the veterans of the western campaign dash to reinforce Kesselring and the Danzig Line.
[size=+1]June 20th, 1944[/size]
It is a grim dawn for the mighty Wehrmacht. Their combat divisions are scattered throughout France and ill-prepared to seriously contest the breakout from the Normandy beacheads while in the east, their lines are paper-thin and the Red Army is much more numerous. The generals that won the west for Hitler in the beginning return from headquarters in disgust with orders for the German Army to stand and fight... which, in this context, is a demand that they die for strategically useless land because Hitler doesn't believe that the situation is dire. There are rumors that an attempt is being formulated to permanently deal with the delusional German leader but by the time anything can be done, the generals are sure, nothing can save Germany but a desperate appeal to the Western Allies. But the generals know their history: the last time Germany asked the West for peace during widespread reverses, the Treaty of Versailles was the result and the hated treaty eventually vaulted Hitler and his Nazi Party to power. Moreover, it seems to them, the Allied positions might yet be vulnerable if they cease to be shackled by headquarters. Accordingly, a second plot is conceived of, one in which the army reports that it is obeying Hitler while completely ignoring him, reasoning that he cannot possibly know otherwise as long as those loyal to him are kept in the dark.
While Hitler goes on believing that he is being studiously obeyed, Field Marshals Gerd Von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel lay out a bold plan to take advantage of the fact that in pushing forward so rapidly from their landing grounds, the Allies have left their positions at Caen and Carentan critically weakened for a short time; capture of these locations would allow the Wehrmacht to cut off the vast armies from their supply base and smash them. At the same time, a gradual withdrawal to a line extending down from Danzig was initiated to give the harried eastern armies time to dig in and replenish their numbers. Rommel and Rundstedt had no immediate idea how to accomplish this but they were convinced that withdrawing to the narrowest possible position to the east of Berlin would help salvage the situation and much of Poland, in their minds was useless strategically anyway. In the south, Albert Kesselring was instructed to simply hold on as long as he could--but not to hesitate to stage a tactical withdrawal to keep his position strong. Routed through a minor functionary who was sympathetic to the generals, Kesselring was surprised by the order but, conditioned to obey the Fuehrer's strange orders, he did not ask any hard questions.
By June 25, all was ready in the west. The lines trying to stop the eastward movement of the American, Commonwealth, and British soldiers were stripped to the bone because, frankly, it didn't matter if they went east if they found themselves cut off and starving. The weaker garrisons in Carentan and Caen were surprised by the sudden and massive assaults although they fought with reckless courage despite being totally cut off. The Germans didn't cut communication links from the further-east armies to the beachheads until their success was a fait accompli... and they began to roll up the shocked Allied armies. The massive Allied air supremacy did them little good because they couldn't find targets in the daylight and soon, summer storms began to roll in, making resupply impossible. The Germans didn't waste the opportunity; by July 15th, the Allied position was hopeless and mass surrenders began. It was in this context that the conspiracies became formally aware of one another and Claus von Stauffenberg's plot goes forward under radically different circumstances. By July 20th, Adolf Hitler is dead and a faint bit of light is visible at the end of the tunnel as the veterans of the western campaign dash to reinforce Kesselring and the Danzig Line.
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So far, so good... Nice job bloodying the Allies' nose. Now let's see what you can do against the steamroller in the East. 
Are you conducting your forces manually, or is there any level of AI involvement?
Finally, what are your longterm goals? Do you think defeat of any of the major adversaries is possible, or are you content to survive with a good portion of Europe under your control?
Are you conducting your forces manually, or is there any level of AI involvement?
Finally, what are your longterm goals? Do you think defeat of any of the major adversaries is possible, or are you content to survive with a good portion of Europe under your control?
Excellent. Without a Wagner loving drama queen ruling Germany, the fatherland has a glimmer of a hope. Good job, kicking allied ass in France.
So far, so good... Nice job bloodying the Allies' nose. Now let's see what you can do against the steamroller in the East.
Why, thank you.
It helped that HoI3 doesn't appear to lock forces down until a certain event happens like sometimes occurred in HoI2.All manual; it is my position that an AI is too stupid to fight an AI or even manage the resource aspect of a fight against an AI. Plus, I'm a micromanager.
My longterm goals is to beat the two opposing factions until they accept peace and the German dominance of Europe. Whether this requires systematically knocking them out of the war by invasion (although that seems relatively insane considering how far-flung the Allies are) or some other method, Germany desires peace on its own terms. The long murderous shadow of Stalin or the "benevolent" military occupation (and subsequent war crimes trials) by the Allies are equally unacceptable.
As to defeat, I believe it to be highly possible to defeat both the USSR and Britain given enough time. I even have a plan to defeat the USSR, taking full advantage of the fact that when you concentrate all your soldiers in frontal battlelines, you become frightfully vulnerable to some enterprising fellow with lots of fast tanks running through a corridor that the army opens in your lines and starting to grab strategically invaluable territory (coincidentally, this is how blitzkrieg is meant to work). However, as I say above, being left alone dominant in Europe would cause Germany (translation: me) happiness.
To be utterly frank, without a Wagner-loving drama queen yanking his gifted generals back by their coattails, they would never have needed to quake in fear of a vengeful Red Army or a busybody England.
Thank you.
I was fortunate: the Allied forces in Caen were weak enough that I didn't need to fret about stacking penalties.
Yanking them back when and where? During Barbarossa? Imo, that campaign couldn't have ended in anything but disaster for the Germans. They didn't stand a chance in the long run. BUt spectacular opening, very shock and awe.
Yanking them back when and where? During Barbarossa? Imo, that campaign couldn't have ended in anything but disaster for the Germans. They didn't stand a chance in the long run. BUt spectacular opening, very shock and awe.
No, at many points. First, as the advance elements of the blitzkrieg closed in on Dunkirk, preparing to cut the British Expeditionary Force and much of the French Army off and make them long-term guests of the Reich, Hitler pulled them back although losing tens of thousands of soldiers would certainly have been a body blow to British morale.
The next point was when the generals were arguing that British Malta, vital to British Mediterranean operations, needed to be invaded instead of the relatively useless Crete; Hitler thought Crete would be a better place to invade and ignored them.
Next, Admiral Raeder approached Hitler and excitedly talked up the possibility of giving Rommel all the tanks and supplies he could ask for to support a drive through North Africa, capture the Suez Canal (cutting off the only British supply route that didn't go through the Strait of Gibralter, capture British Palestine, secure the Persian oil wells (the main source of oil for England), and have a dagger pointed at the Caucuses where almost all of the Soviet oil production was located. Hitler thought it'd be really swell to go through the front door and try to smash a numerically gargantuan Red Army with his smaller forces.
As they advanced into the USSR, the German soldiers were initially greeted with joy and provisions because it seemed for a time that they were coming east to free the people from Stalin; if this belief had been maintained (instead of shunting the peasants to the grisly Eintzengruppen) the German army would have had vast ancillary forces marching east with them eager to get rid of the "Red Czar".
Against the advice of the generals that had won his victories in the west (Erich von Manstein and Heinz Guderian), Hitler thought it'd be great if the smaller German army split into three forces and went after objectives hundreds of miles apart, preventing any one force from moving to support the other if needed.
Finally, Hitler told his generals to essentially stand and die instead of withdrawing to superior positions and bleeding the Red Army out as it attempted to force them. In my game, the generals ignore him and drive the Allies back into the English Channel; in real history, the generals meekly obeyed and vengeance was divided between Stalin and the Nuremberg Tribunal.
Nothing of what you wrote is new to me. When the far eastern forces arrived on the scene to stop the Germans outside Moscow it was game over. Hitler's much ridiculed 'stand and die' order was probably what saved the central front from collapse due to counter attacks and the winter and the heer's lack of equipment for that season. Unfortunately for the Germans, Hitler stood by that strategy for the rest of the war, due to its initial success.
When the far eastern forces arrived on the scene to stop the Germans outside Moscow it was game over. Hitler's much ridiculed 'stand and die' order was probably what saved the central front from collapse due to counter attacks and the winter and the heer's lack of equipment for that season. Unfortunately for the Germans, Hitler stood by that strategy for the rest of the war, due to its initial success.The Southern Frontier
[size=+1]July 20th, 1944[/size]
Despite the breaking of the Western Allies by Rommel's cobbled-together forces, the crisis is still only slightly abated in the east as the Wehrmacht runs pell-mell towards the Danzig Line, just being hurriedly assembled by the resourceful Albert Speer, his industriousness and efficiency turned to the desperate defense of German territory against the onslaught of the Russians. Lacking the time to build heavy concrete fortifications, Speer reaches back to the Great War, turning out as many civilians as he can manage with picks and shovels to begin digging defensive works. While not as effective as rebar-enforced concrete, the series of trenches give the advance elements of the fleeing soldiers cover from Soviet aircraft harrying their retreat. But Speer is still also the Minister of Armaments as he was under Hitler and he immediately embarks on an around-the-clock effort to retool tank factories to produce the deadly ME-262 and attempt to perfect and put into production the Heinkel 162A-8 (a cheap but effective jet fighter that could be made of wood), seeking to relieve the pressure of constant Allied strategic bombing and Soviet close-air harassment.
In Italy, the Allies have managed to shove through the middle of Kesselring's defensive lines and he is preparing to undertake a tactical withdrawal to prepared fortifications when Rommel and Rundsteadt arrived from the west with their mix of veterans and recently-blooded recruits. While Rommel works with Kesselring on a plan to break through the Allied lines and encircle them, similar to the operation he had conducted near Normandy, Rundsteadt returns to his previous command in the east to see what might be done. With Hitler dead, a small oligarchy of field generals has replaced the dictatorship, a council of sorts composed of Alfred Jodl, Rommel, and Rundsteadt with the publicly-acclaimed Rommel used as the visible face of the government (although Jodl, without a field command and already well-acquainted with central command, is the effective head of both the government and the armed forces). Assured of maximum tactical flexibility, Rommel conceives of a daring plan to attack all along the line but put the heaviest weight of his forces at Anzio to stage a deep infiltration. On July 26, the assault begins and it goes Rommel's way: the line at Anzio is broken and the far right flank of the Allies is forced into a fishhook formation to protect the rear of the other lines... but there is nothing between the breakthrough and the rest of Italy where the Allies are receiving their supplies.
In an attempt to distract Rommel from breaking out into Italy and threatening their supply lines, the British stage a landing at Wilhelmshaven and start rolling unopposed into northern Germany. But distance works against them and they cannot move nearly as fast as Rommel whose rail lines, due to the steady influx of fighter-interceptors from Speer, are increasingly secure. The British thrust is parried at Antwerp and Hamberg by several divisions of panzers rushed north and then a detachment of mechanized forces (which would be useless in the mountainous Italy anyway) slices their supply lines and the Reich has 10,000 more prisoners of war. No longer distracted by the diversionary attack to his extreme north, Rommel sends motorized infantry rushing along the mountain roads to cut Allied supply lines. Their only opposition is the headquarters divisions of the Allies and by pure happenstance, Rommel has effectively decapitated Allied leadership in Italy. It is with a certain amount of satisfaction that Rommel entertains the colorful Bernard L. Montgomery, his old adversary from North Africa, for dinner before putting him on a train to central Germany to wait out the war. As the time slips into August, the Wehrmacht slowly closes the vise on the trapped Allies. Taking full advantage of very close harbors, Admiral Donitz' submarines control the only route of sea escape and no amount of desperate bombing by Allied aircraft based in Corsica can change what is becoming starkly clear: the Allied offensive in Italy has failed as dramatically as their landing at Normandy. With Italy becoming steadily more secure, an enticing possibility beckons: a rush through Egypt and into the belly of the Soviet Union. Before this daring plan can be put into action, however, one great and terrible obstacle remains: Marshal Zhukov's hardened combat divisions marching unabated towards Berlin.
[size=+1]July 20th, 1944[/size]
Despite the breaking of the Western Allies by Rommel's cobbled-together forces, the crisis is still only slightly abated in the east as the Wehrmacht runs pell-mell towards the Danzig Line, just being hurriedly assembled by the resourceful Albert Speer, his industriousness and efficiency turned to the desperate defense of German territory against the onslaught of the Russians. Lacking the time to build heavy concrete fortifications, Speer reaches back to the Great War, turning out as many civilians as he can manage with picks and shovels to begin digging defensive works. While not as effective as rebar-enforced concrete, the series of trenches give the advance elements of the fleeing soldiers cover from Soviet aircraft harrying their retreat. But Speer is still also the Minister of Armaments as he was under Hitler and he immediately embarks on an around-the-clock effort to retool tank factories to produce the deadly ME-262 and attempt to perfect and put into production the Heinkel 162A-8 (a cheap but effective jet fighter that could be made of wood), seeking to relieve the pressure of constant Allied strategic bombing and Soviet close-air harassment.
In Italy, the Allies have managed to shove through the middle of Kesselring's defensive lines and he is preparing to undertake a tactical withdrawal to prepared fortifications when Rommel and Rundsteadt arrived from the west with their mix of veterans and recently-blooded recruits. While Rommel works with Kesselring on a plan to break through the Allied lines and encircle them, similar to the operation he had conducted near Normandy, Rundsteadt returns to his previous command in the east to see what might be done. With Hitler dead, a small oligarchy of field generals has replaced the dictatorship, a council of sorts composed of Alfred Jodl, Rommel, and Rundsteadt with the publicly-acclaimed Rommel used as the visible face of the government (although Jodl, without a field command and already well-acquainted with central command, is the effective head of both the government and the armed forces). Assured of maximum tactical flexibility, Rommel conceives of a daring plan to attack all along the line but put the heaviest weight of his forces at Anzio to stage a deep infiltration. On July 26, the assault begins and it goes Rommel's way: the line at Anzio is broken and the far right flank of the Allies is forced into a fishhook formation to protect the rear of the other lines... but there is nothing between the breakthrough and the rest of Italy where the Allies are receiving their supplies.
In an attempt to distract Rommel from breaking out into Italy and threatening their supply lines, the British stage a landing at Wilhelmshaven and start rolling unopposed into northern Germany. But distance works against them and they cannot move nearly as fast as Rommel whose rail lines, due to the steady influx of fighter-interceptors from Speer, are increasingly secure. The British thrust is parried at Antwerp and Hamberg by several divisions of panzers rushed north and then a detachment of mechanized forces (which would be useless in the mountainous Italy anyway) slices their supply lines and the Reich has 10,000 more prisoners of war. No longer distracted by the diversionary attack to his extreme north, Rommel sends motorized infantry rushing along the mountain roads to cut Allied supply lines. Their only opposition is the headquarters divisions of the Allies and by pure happenstance, Rommel has effectively decapitated Allied leadership in Italy. It is with a certain amount of satisfaction that Rommel entertains the colorful Bernard L. Montgomery, his old adversary from North Africa, for dinner before putting him on a train to central Germany to wait out the war. As the time slips into August, the Wehrmacht slowly closes the vise on the trapped Allies. Taking full advantage of very close harbors, Admiral Donitz' submarines control the only route of sea escape and no amount of desperate bombing by Allied aircraft based in Corsica can change what is becoming starkly clear: the Allied offensive in Italy has failed as dramatically as their landing at Normandy. With Italy becoming steadily more secure, an enticing possibility beckons: a rush through Egypt and into the belly of the Soviet Union. Before this daring plan can be put into action, however, one great and terrible obstacle remains: Marshal Zhukov's hardened combat divisions marching unabated towards Berlin.
Nothing of what you wrote is new to me.
The situation was close to beyond help when the Far Eastern forces arrived--but not quite. Germany could still have escaped a war of attrition, which was impossible to win, if they didn't have an anchor tied to their feet by Hitler. But Hitler demanded that they stand and fight (the Red Army's strength) instead of dodge and sucker-punch (the Wehrmacht's strength). Moreover, when the generals suggested that they prepare deep defensive fortifications behind them with the 88's and mines, wishing to draw the Red Army into a bloodbath, Hitler said no. He is rightly mocked for his foolish notions of strategy: demanding that his armies play to their enemies' strengths was madness.
By the by, Cthulhu... I am enjoying the minor debate but we need to keep in mind the AAR Rule #3 which states "AARs will not become a source of Off-Topic discussions." I don't want this fun story to get shut down because we wander away from the topic at hand... so just be careful for my sake, kay?
Seems you solved the problem of the Western Front fairly easily. Now let's see if the Eastern Front presents more of a problem. And I can hardly believe that you've chosen to control every unit. Managing everything thru all those provinces must be a huge headache!
It will. No matter how clever I am, quantity has its own quality. Even if all the Russian divisions were militia, this would be challenging.
And I can hardly believe that you've chosen to control every unit. Managing everything thru all those provinces must be a huge headache!
Not at all, really. AI control is a headache for me because the computer does not obey so well. The AI isn't sophisticated enough to be opportunistic, to fake itself out, or grab large armies in a tight embrace while fast movers run for the gold. If I can cut them off from Moscow faster than they can break through heavily-reinforced dug-in fortified lines, I win. But an AI isn't smart enough to think of that and I wouldn't trust it to even if it was able.
serafine666 said:
Sure, and if we really wanted to discuss this we start a thread in the history department. But we're not THAT into discussing it are we?
serafine666 said:
Very dramatic! Let's hope you can stem the tide. Btw, I'm surprised that the NSDAP and the party big wigs have allowed the army taking over without a fight...
Well, I might have included a segment of a "Night of the Long Knives" against the SS/Nazis in the official portions of the AAR but I'm wary of going in that direction because of forum rules. Suffice it to say, however, if you've seen the movie "Valkyrie", you know what would have happened to the Nazi leadership if Operation Valkyrie had succeeded. Beyond that, however, power in a dictatorship emerges from the barrel of a gun and one side has more guns--lots more guns.
Once More Into the Breech
[size=+1]August 5, 1944[/size]
The offensives by the Western Allies are all but over. To a shocked American public, General Eisenhower says “Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops..." before tendering his resignation, opening a serious gap at the top of Western military leadership that will need to be filled somehow before further land actions can be considered. The remaining Allies fight desperately against the closing German ring but it is clear that their efforts are futile and by August 8th, they formally surrender and Rommel travels back to Berlin to consult with Rundsteadt about the Red Army.
Despite victories in the west, the situation in the east is still perilous. The Red Army has captured almost all of Finland, held back from Helsinki only by the hazardous emergency transport of almost all of the Norwegian garrisons across a Russian-ruled Baltic. In the far north, a recently-transferred Kesselring decides to dig in near Hammerfest to block any attempt by the Russians to move into Norway. In the far south, Romania has been overrun, seriously complicated the German fuel situation and the southern hook of the Red Army continues to swing upward to attempt to outflank the Danzig Line through Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Slovakia, seemingly ignorant of the German garrison remaining in Greece which is preparing to move into the Russian flanks if they attempt to swing wide. The greatest difficulty confronting the informal oligarchy, however, is the question of manpower. Thousands, even millions, of lives have been spent over the last 5 years of war and the onrushing Red Army has managed to enclose and capture tens of thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers at a time, especially in the disaster around Stalingrad.
It is about this point that Jodl brings up an operation that the Nazis had been running in Poland. For various reasons and at various times, the Nazi regime had collected staggering numbers of political prisoners; the estimate by Jodl is that millions are being kept under lock and key, especially after the SS appropriated the remaining rail out of Poland to whisk the prisoners there into more secure temporary facilities in central Germany. Whatever the generals might have felt about the political objectives of the Nazis (and most were more concerned with winning the war than domestic politics) pragmatism imposed itself on their thinking: here were thousands, perhaps millions, of able-bodied men with a generous mixing of combat veterans from the Great War. Jodl was somewhat ambivalent, having been part of Hitler's inner circle for some time due to remaining at central command, but both Rundsteadt and Rommel were insistent; "I would rather he sent me divisions" than worry about how politically inconvenient the previous regime had considered certain people, Rommel tells Rundsteadt as the meeting with Jodl ends. At first, the program of giving prisoners freedom in return for service with the Wehrmact was limited but when Rundsteadt, who was given general command of the eastern forces, sees the number of potential soldiers who are being wasted guarding the prisoners, he orders that the entire system be dismantled and every man wasted guarding civilians be handed a gun and rushed to the front lines.
While this is going on, Alfred Speer's acceleration of interceptor construction is beginning to bear fruit and even bombing runs escorted by the Allies' most cutting edge plane, the P51D Mustang, are beginning to suffer severely in their attempts to get at the remaining concentrations of German industry. Moreover, these interceptors are becoming faster, their engines more reliable as Speer, with the approval of the generals, pulls Werner Von Braun's highly capable team off of development of "vengeance weapons" and directs them to work on perfecting engine designs for fighters and rocket interceptors. The improvised defenses he is overseeing take full advantage of the mild understanding of structural engineering inherent to a trained architect, divided into sections and reinforced by pulverized concrete from bombed-out cities. Speer's designs prove themselves as advance elements of the Red Army begin to reach the outer edges of the defensive lines and find them too solid to force without armored support, especially as Speer diverts his remaining tank manufacturing capabilities to producing the more agile (and less fuel-hungry) Panther tanks instead of the intimidating Tigers, presenting the Russians with tanks that cannot be so easily outflanked and killed by their superior T34s. The armament minister's success fully vindicates the decision of the victorious generals to keep him at hand after their coup.
August 15th brings the first major element of the German counteroffensive: landings at the undefended port of Tallinn and a thrust towards Leningrad which Rundsteadt doesn't bother to conceal. The first element of the offensive is a success: not wanting to be brought before an angry Stalin to explain how he lost Russian territory after putting the Germans on the run, Zuhkov diverts a portion of his soldiers from the recently-captured Konigsberg to head off the invasion. The number diverted is small in comparison to the entire Red Army but now, a part of the flank is much weaker than other parts. Rundsteadt waits until high-altitude jet reconnaissance indicates that the soldiers are too out of position to rush back in time and then unleashes a heavy thrust from a very built-up northern force. The Germans going on the offensive stuns the commander of the northern wing and Zhukov doesn't learn of it until it is too late: his line has been bent back slightly and that part of his line is now outflanked and vulnerable to envelopment. Judging German forces to be weakest near Lodz, Zhukov strips his lines there of some of their men and reinforces the northern edge, curiously unopposed by German close-air support bombers.
When he receives the photographs from a recon plane, Rundsteadt permits himself a smile: Zhukov did precisely what he was supposed to do and the next paper the old German field marshal picks up is a report from Rommel: significant mechanized forces are assembled and awaiting his word. It was time to see if the "lightning war" could deliver victory one last time.
[size=+1]August 5, 1944[/size]
The offensives by the Western Allies are all but over. To a shocked American public, General Eisenhower says “Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops..." before tendering his resignation, opening a serious gap at the top of Western military leadership that will need to be filled somehow before further land actions can be considered. The remaining Allies fight desperately against the closing German ring but it is clear that their efforts are futile and by August 8th, they formally surrender and Rommel travels back to Berlin to consult with Rundsteadt about the Red Army.
Despite victories in the west, the situation in the east is still perilous. The Red Army has captured almost all of Finland, held back from Helsinki only by the hazardous emergency transport of almost all of the Norwegian garrisons across a Russian-ruled Baltic. In the far north, a recently-transferred Kesselring decides to dig in near Hammerfest to block any attempt by the Russians to move into Norway. In the far south, Romania has been overrun, seriously complicated the German fuel situation and the southern hook of the Red Army continues to swing upward to attempt to outflank the Danzig Line through Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Slovakia, seemingly ignorant of the German garrison remaining in Greece which is preparing to move into the Russian flanks if they attempt to swing wide. The greatest difficulty confronting the informal oligarchy, however, is the question of manpower. Thousands, even millions, of lives have been spent over the last 5 years of war and the onrushing Red Army has managed to enclose and capture tens of thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers at a time, especially in the disaster around Stalingrad.
It is about this point that Jodl brings up an operation that the Nazis had been running in Poland. For various reasons and at various times, the Nazi regime had collected staggering numbers of political prisoners; the estimate by Jodl is that millions are being kept under lock and key, especially after the SS appropriated the remaining rail out of Poland to whisk the prisoners there into more secure temporary facilities in central Germany. Whatever the generals might have felt about the political objectives of the Nazis (and most were more concerned with winning the war than domestic politics) pragmatism imposed itself on their thinking: here were thousands, perhaps millions, of able-bodied men with a generous mixing of combat veterans from the Great War. Jodl was somewhat ambivalent, having been part of Hitler's inner circle for some time due to remaining at central command, but both Rundsteadt and Rommel were insistent; "I would rather he sent me divisions" than worry about how politically inconvenient the previous regime had considered certain people, Rommel tells Rundsteadt as the meeting with Jodl ends. At first, the program of giving prisoners freedom in return for service with the Wehrmact was limited but when Rundsteadt, who was given general command of the eastern forces, sees the number of potential soldiers who are being wasted guarding the prisoners, he orders that the entire system be dismantled and every man wasted guarding civilians be handed a gun and rushed to the front lines.
While this is going on, Alfred Speer's acceleration of interceptor construction is beginning to bear fruit and even bombing runs escorted by the Allies' most cutting edge plane, the P51D Mustang, are beginning to suffer severely in their attempts to get at the remaining concentrations of German industry. Moreover, these interceptors are becoming faster, their engines more reliable as Speer, with the approval of the generals, pulls Werner Von Braun's highly capable team off of development of "vengeance weapons" and directs them to work on perfecting engine designs for fighters and rocket interceptors. The improvised defenses he is overseeing take full advantage of the mild understanding of structural engineering inherent to a trained architect, divided into sections and reinforced by pulverized concrete from bombed-out cities. Speer's designs prove themselves as advance elements of the Red Army begin to reach the outer edges of the defensive lines and find them too solid to force without armored support, especially as Speer diverts his remaining tank manufacturing capabilities to producing the more agile (and less fuel-hungry) Panther tanks instead of the intimidating Tigers, presenting the Russians with tanks that cannot be so easily outflanked and killed by their superior T34s. The armament minister's success fully vindicates the decision of the victorious generals to keep him at hand after their coup.
August 15th brings the first major element of the German counteroffensive: landings at the undefended port of Tallinn and a thrust towards Leningrad which Rundsteadt doesn't bother to conceal. The first element of the offensive is a success: not wanting to be brought before an angry Stalin to explain how he lost Russian territory after putting the Germans on the run, Zuhkov diverts a portion of his soldiers from the recently-captured Konigsberg to head off the invasion. The number diverted is small in comparison to the entire Red Army but now, a part of the flank is much weaker than other parts. Rundsteadt waits until high-altitude jet reconnaissance indicates that the soldiers are too out of position to rush back in time and then unleashes a heavy thrust from a very built-up northern force. The Germans going on the offensive stuns the commander of the northern wing and Zhukov doesn't learn of it until it is too late: his line has been bent back slightly and that part of his line is now outflanked and vulnerable to envelopment. Judging German forces to be weakest near Lodz, Zhukov strips his lines there of some of their men and reinforces the northern edge, curiously unopposed by German close-air support bombers.
When he receives the photographs from a recon plane, Rundsteadt permits himself a smile: Zhukov did precisely what he was supposed to do and the next paper the old German field marshal picks up is a report from Rommel: significant mechanized forces are assembled and awaiting his word. It was time to see if the "lightning war" could deliver victory one last time.
Wow! This is getting exciting! Will the new Regime restore the German Empire? Can the Russsian bear be beaten?
Are you having to deal with the bomber offensive at all? In the '44 start the UK has as many STRATs as Germany has INTs; with the Americans, it's like 1.5:1 (based on what they have in Europe, the US AI could go ahead and rebase them to Montana or something.). It's a tough position to be in for air defense.