If an US ship explodes in your harbour, you're attacking the USA. If your ship explodes in a US harbour, you're attacking the USA too.
If an US ship explodes in any harbour, he's attacking the USA, too.
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If an US ship explodes in any harbour, he's attacking the USA, too.
Strange Bedfellows and Crumbling Empires - 1942
Commune Renault G2 medium tank was without doubt the best AFV design in the world by the time it appearead to frontlines as a replacement to still batteworthy AMC 1935S. Taking the typical Commune tank design feature a logical step further from well-sloped, mainly cast armour of earlier types, the hull and turret of G2 were cast as single pieces. The G2-model was initially armed with new short-barreled APX 75mm, an improved main gun based on the earlier 75 mm ABS SA 35 howitzer used as a hull-mounted weapon in the early heavy tanks of Commune, thus making it a deadly opponent to all armor types used by Reichsheer - and the US Army.
Britain becomes involved
Meteorological requirements for the operation*
Navy:
Surface winds- not exceeding Force 3 (8-12mph) on shore, Force 4 (13-18mph) off shore during S-Day to S+2 (Force 5 bearable in open sea but for limited periods only.)
Visibility- not less than 3 miles.
USAAC:
Medium and Light Bombers. Cloud ceiling not less than 4,500ft over target, visibility at least 3 miles.
Fighters and Fighter Bombers. Cloud base not less than 1,000ft.
Bases. Cloud not below 1,000ft.
Airborne Landings. Surface wind over target area not to exceed 20mph and not gusty. Half moonlight at least.
Air Transport. Cloud ceiling at least 2,500ft to and over target. Visibility 3 miles at least.
*Part of the General Staff Risk assessment of implementing War Plan Ultramarine
New Year 1942 was a high watermark in the course of the Second Weltkrieg. Ever since his re-election, Huey Long had aggressive pursued confrontation with expansionist Syndicalist powers, and now the President finally had his war. During the first months of this eventful year it however seemed that little would change - Commune submarines and convoy raiders harassed American shipping just like before, and the first week of the new year seemed like this war would be fought out in the sea just like Quasi-War, the previous Franco-American conflict. The first major change of fortunes thus came from the Indian Theatre, where the unstoppable attack of victorious Japanese armies combined to relentless diplomatic pressure finally forced the leadership of Princerly Federation to comply with Japanese demands. The old nobility of Subcontinent once again accepted foreigners as their overlords in exchange of support, and after they had sworn loyalty to Emperor Hirohito, only Bengal and Burma opposed complete Japanese domination of territories former British India. And with Suez blocked and German naval blockade stranging their harbours, the Syndicalist powers of Europe were unable to send help to their struggling South Asian allies.
Bengalese troops posing for camera with French-supplied FM 26 LMG, the primary squad-level automatic weapon of Syndicalist Internationale.
A mere week later the situation changed dramatically. On January 22nd, in a middle of a yet another nation-wide strike in the US, the Congress of Trade Unions in London agreed to finally cast their lot to the side of Internationale and declare war on Mitteleuropa and Rio Pact. While the Autonomists had initially argued that Union of Britain would return to her traditional "splendid isolation" building socialism in the British Isles once the Monarchist threat would be crushed, the fact that Ireland had joined to the Rio Pact had forced them to reconsider. Correctly estimating that Long Administration was looking for an excuse to stage an intervention to Canada, General Staff of the Republican Army promoted a pre-emptive strike against key targets in northern US after Secret Service Bureau had ensured that the elements of CSA would rise to support such a move. And since the United States would attack sooner or later anyway once their re-armament program would be complete, it woud be best to bring the frontlines to American soil. As bombers and fighters took of from airfields in Ireland, Canada and northern US, the relatively peaceful time in the lives of common citizens of Britain and United States abruptly ended when they heard the air raid sirens for the first time. War had come to America.
Virtually all volunteers who had fought in Canada during previous winter had re-enlisted to the new Light Infantry Divisions that were guarding the Canadian border. Now were once again on the frontlines in the snowy forests, hills and plains of the US-Canadian border.
The British-Canadian war plans called for strategic forays to the southern side of the border father inland and mobile defence-in-depth in Great Lakes area. Meanwhile the quickly mobilizing US Army and National Guard units were preparing to implement War Plan Crimson by quickly invading and occupying Canada before Union of Britain could reinforce their forces and create defendable bridgeheads. The vulnerability of Atlantic and Caribbean coastlines forced the Army to initially divert large numbers of new recruits to defend key harbours and regions from Corpus Cristi to New England, while the armies standing on guard on the Mexican border were substantially reinforced as well. Meanwhile in the north the frontlines soon stabilized since the Syndicalist forces were content on preparing their own defences on the Canadian side of the border. Meanwhile Congress passed the National Emergency Act, allowing Secretary of Defence and Homeland Security to send National Guard to assist federal authorities in breaking illegal strikes and dispersing demonstrations. As the northern states were placed under martial law, the last vestiges of legality in dealings with CSA were brushed aside and the organization was ruthlessly crushed as National Guard units from the south filled with Minutemen volunteers were brought to the region to "maintain law and order."
From 1942 onwards the CSA was dispersed and paralyzed, it´s leaders either in jail or exile and it´s common supporters openly oppressed and harassed by the federal authorities.
With the "enemy within" now seemingly under control, the United States was hectically building up her armed forces to prepare for the struggles that lay ahead. While the USAAC and Navy were both up to date, the Army had still a lot to catch up. The quick expansion of Army and National Guard and flood of new volunteers after the declaration of war combined with the general lack of reserve storages of weapons and ammunition meant that at first the US Army was hard-pressed to provide the common GIs with anything heavier than small arms. There was, however, a bright side that few observers noticed at the time. When build from scratch and equipped with latest gear as the new weapon systems and combat vehicles developed in the interwar era entered mass-production, the new mobilized US Army became the most extensively mechanized armed force the world had ever seen.
The Armored Carrier, Personnel Tracked M6, better known as the nickname Conestoga was a success story born out of desperate stopgap measure. Initially designed as a self-propelled gun chassis, an experimental number of M6s were converted to tracked infantry carriers when it was discovered that the planned units of motorized infantry still lacked a high-mobility infantry vehicle that could keep up with advancing armor in combined arms teams while operating in poor terrain or outside road networks. Based on the findings and successes of Canadian forces with similar experimentation during the fighting of 1940, the Conestoga became highly successful vehicle that was well-liked due the fact that it enabled the infantry to accompany tanks while keeping the whole unit just as mobile and well protected. The mixture of older Entente-type Brodie helmets and the new M1 and various other headgear was typical to the Army units that invaded Canada in spring 1942, as the General Staff was trying to keep in schedule of the rearmament program while fighting a war on the same time.
As the first columns of US troops crossed the Canadian border, the same sense of urgency that electrified the Army was also taking hold on the State Department. Previously the demanding and self-confident tone of American diplomacy had been enough to keep Commune from interfering in Latin America. Now the diplomacy faced a lot more challenging tasks. During the critical months of 1942 American diplomatic missions were busily trying to uphold the traditional balance of power through the wartorn world: ensuring Japan that invasion of Australasian Confederation and Netherlands East Indies was still out of bounds and that US maintained credible defence in Pacific, luring Russia to put pressure on Japan in Asian mainland and determining the US reaction to hypothetical situation of a war between Mitteleuropa and Russian Empire. Meanwhile the OSS and General Staff were engaged with top-secret and peculiar project: US-German intelligence cooperation. It was a strange, informal alliance of convenience: despite their ideological differences and vastly different strategic goals, both sides were initially aiming towards similar goals: establishment of a second front against Commune in a form of a US bridgehead somewhere in continental Europe. To ensure that US could succeed in their attempt, Germans provided them with high-altitude photoreconnaissance data combined with the results of their field agents and radio intelligence. When pooled together with their own intelligence sources, the General Staff received accurate overall view of the organization of Commune coastal defences in Bretagne.
The peninsula itself was defended by heavily reinforced three-division corps, the 23. Corps d'Armée. It had three infantry divisions, the 9., 2. and 16. Division d´Infanterie, stationed on static defence at the potential invasion beaches with the motorized and heavier brigades of the 2. Division Légère Mécanique defending the tip of the peninsula and forces of 7. Légère Mécanique stationed to strategic reserve. Two motorized cavalry divisions were additionally within close vicinity on Tours and Argentan. On paper the Commune defence scheme was thus formidable and solid, but General Staff identified notable weakness in the gap between 23rd and 30th Army Corps in Avranches area at the southern part of the Contentin Peninsula. While the beaches and port facilities here were far from ideal targets for amphibious landings, the area was so lightly defended by few regional battalions that it was designated as the landing zone of Operation Sledgehammer.
"The Black Cat and the Rattlesnake"
General Marshall had made the American position on European grand strategy plain: An invasion of French Atlantic coast and subsequent ground campaign aimed at northern France, the industrial heartland of French Commune would be the surest and swiftest course to Pact victory in Europe, and the sooner this invasion would be launched, the faster the war would be won. And since the extensive research and construction investment to amphibious landings started years ago applying the lessons learned from the successfull Pot of Gold-operations in Brazil had by now born fruit, the US Army was prepared to the vaunting task ahead. Since Operation Magnet had witnessed the transportation of a sizeable continent of combat troops and supply stockpiles to northern Ireland, the beginning of hostilities with Commune and Union of Britain paradoxically came in a time when the most battle-ready US formations, including bulk of the USMC units were overseas in Ireland. These forces included a huge detachment of new type of specialized infantry units created after the news of the successes of brigade-sized operations of the legendary l'Infanterie de l'Air of Commune became widely known: The specifically selected and extensively trained paratroopers of 13th "Black Cat" and 15th "Rattlesnake" Airborne Divisions and the paramarines of the 1st Marine Parachute Regiment of I Marine Amphibious Corps. The ambitious US invasion plan of continental Europe tasked these elite formations to surprise the Commune defenders in Manche region of western Normandy from above by conducting the largest airborne operation the world had ever seen. As the skies between Seine and the designated invasion beaches between Régneville-sur-Mer in the north and and Huisnes-sur-Mer in the south would fill with parachutes, the General Staff hoped that the actual landings could be able to overwhelm the weak garrison units defending the beaches before Commune could send their mobile reserves to bear. It was risky, but as General Marshall stated to impatient President: "Essentially what we are here trying to do is to make an impossible situation reasonably possible for practical purposes..."
The extensive planning involved on Operation Sledgehammer showed the level of respect US military leadership had to the fighting spirit of L'Armée Populaire de la Commune de France.
The common French soldier had already seen much actual fighting by 1942. Being additionally well equipped and led by skilled officers, he was a formidable and determined opponent.
Soon the invasion plan itself was ready: To the overall invasion target zone was divided into smaller target areas that together formed the planned beachead codenamed LOUISIANA. The codenamed targets from north to south were TARE from Régneville-sur-Mer to Brehal, UNCLE from Donville-les-Bains to Granville, VICTOR from Jullouville and Varolles to saint-Jean-le-Thomas, GREEN from le Mont-Saint-Michel to Pontaubault and RED as a separate target area around Huisnes-sur-Mer. The first key targets of the invasion were the few small harbours in the area, Granville on the west coast of the Cotentin peninsula and St. Malo and Cancale in Brittany. All these ports were tidal, drying out at low water; even at high tide they could accommodate only small vessels. Therefore, their capacity to supply invasion forces was not expected to be great, and they were to be developed only as a stop-gap measure to provide some additional discharge facilities in addition to artificial MULBERRY harbours until the full potential of larger ports in Brittany could be realized. The planners concentrated their attentions on the Brittany ports because the peninsula was designated as the first target of Sledgehammer, to be quickly captured as a secure staging area for Pact forces and matériel before any other development on the Continent. The scheduled thrust into Brittany through land routes after initial landings was to be the prelude to the construction of a sturdy logistical base to support attacks to northern shores of the Seine that would come later. Brest, Lorient, Quiberon Bay, and St. Malo in Brittany were expected to provide 16,240 tons of daily port capacity once repaired; with the opening of Nantes, the Brittany ports were to receive more than 27,000 tons of supplies a day.
Citroën-Kégresse haftracks of the 29e Régiment de Dragons based around Brest. These sturdy and reliable vehicles had excellent off-road mobility and they were a mainstay in mechanized formations of Commune of France in all theatres from Africa to Western Front.
As the war swept through Canada for a second time and Turkenstani and Mongolian forces finally subdued Persia and Afghanistan and brought end the long and bitter conflict in Central Asia, few took notice to the grand buildup that was underway in Ireland. Convoy after another brought in new troops from the US and South America, as La Plata, Chile, Peru and Brazil sented forth their own expeditionary forces to bolster the ranks of the growing power of Pact forces in the Emerald Isle. On February 3rd the war in Europe received a momentary boost in press coverage, as Admiral Nimitz skillfully lured a sizeable task force of the Republican Navy into a trap in a battle of Solway Firth. As planes of USAAC were able to wrestle air superiourity from the Republican Air Force and strike freely against the British battleline of obsolete old battleships and escorting vessels while they were out in the sea with no way to disengage, the torpedo bombers of USS Ranger were able to score several hits before the American battleships closed the range and moved in to finish the job. The devastating loss of battleships RNS Godwin, RNS Hyndeman, RNS Tyler and heavy cruiser RNS Edinburgh and light cruisers RNS Comus, RNS Conquest and RNS Castor was a disaster for Union naval strategy, as their modern units were currently stationed far away from the Home Isles. With the threat of enemy naval activity thus largely neutralized, the General Staff decided to utilize the five-day period of calm weather in Channel and Atlantic and clear skies in Normandy. On 5th of February, Operation Sledgehammer shook the world.
The paratroopers and paramarines dropped behind Louisiana Beach were firmly aware of the historical importance of their mission as they loaded to the Dacotas that took off from the new airfields of southern Ireland on 23rd of February 1942.
After the operation had been given a green light, General Staff could only hope and pray. Before the divisional HQs of the 13th and 15th Airborne Divisions could establish their radio communications and gain control of the situation in designated dropzones, no one had a clear picture what was happening in the chaotic French countryside where local militias were either surprised or were only able to offer brief moments of desperate resistance before being overwhelmed by the invaders from the sky. As General Rol-Tanguy received news of the invasion, he reacted quickly despite the fact that he also immediately realized that the Americans had managed to achieve a devastating tactical surprise by their choise of invasion area. Unable to free significant reserves from the Western Front, L'Armée Populaire forces within the area were nevertheless tasked to immediately counterattack against the forming beachead during the same day. As the battlegroups of the Commune light mechanized divisions struck forward, disembarged their dragoons and fiercely counterattacked, the US offensive was still going according as planned. On Febuary 29th eleven divisions moved forwards towards Nantes, and six days later the remrants of the mobile reserves 23. Corps d'Armée were driven off from the area. Lorient followed on 15th of March, after the Americans were able to dislodge the two defending Commune divisions that held their ground against superiour numbers for roughly a week as well by mounting local tactical counterattacks against the first breaches on their lines. As the offensive to Bretagne widened the front, attack on Angers was fought in as situation where six American divisions supported by La Platan armored division struck against one fresh French division and remrants of previous two. Here these forces offered only a momentary resistance before being withdrawn to the western edge of Bretagne. Here the defenders were tasked to stand fast and deny the Americans the usage of Brest harbour at any cost.
Operation Sledgehammer was the largest airborne operation in the history of the second Weltkrieg, although other nations, namely Germany, soon proved that they too were capable for division-sized airborne assaults.
By this time the Germans were convinced that United States had managed to both tie down the majority of Republican Army in Canada and render the Commune of France unable to interfere with their strategic goals for summer 1942. In secrecy the Großer Generalstab had decided to go ahead with a bold strategic offensive plan that was quite understandable when considering the overall geopolitical position of Mitteleuropa: Despite of the earlier and current setbacks and defeats, the German Empire and her allies were still standing tall. With a long war ahead of them in West, Japan growing restless and more demanding in the Far East while Russia focused forces to eastern borders of Mitteleuropa, the Germans correctly decided to strike first, and go against what they saw a fatal weakness in the overall strategic position of their enemies. On 21st of March Operation Beowulf, the German invasion of Union of Britain, begun as an utter surprise to Syndicalist leadership. As a pretext of the operation Irish and American operatives had conducted an extensive intelligence gathering operation, rewarding the earlier German information regarding Commune coastal defences by providing information that indicated that most of the standing armies of British Union had been indeed shipped to Canadian front and were currently being soundly defeated there, leaving the Home Isles dangerously exposed. What originally begun as a invasion of Scotland aimed to deny the remaining heavy units of Republican Navy the usage of Scapa Flow and other northern naval bases soon expanded into general attack towards southern England as it became apparent that veteran German Alpenkorps were indeed facing only old men and children from the local militias and garrison units. While German invasion soon turned the Republican defence into a rout towards southern England, fighting in Bretagne became a desperate struggle.
Rol-Tanguy and his comrades soon came to realize that they had underestimated the American capacity to reinforce the supply situation of the bridgehead by means of air transportation and artificial harbours while simultaneously bringing more "boots on the ground." As more and more Commune formations joined to the counterattack on Avranches area, the US General Staff was able to reinforce the bridgehead so that what originally begun as highly unfavourable battle ultimately ended in a situation where 15 Commune divisions were facing 25 American divisions when the First Battle of Avranches ended on March 25th. At this point the old veteran of the Revolution informed the Comité de Salut Public that the best he could achieve in these circumstances with the forces at his disposal was a temporary containment of the Bretagne bridgehead, and that Commune was thus effectively fighting a two-front war. This sense of impeding doom and disastrous news from Britain caused visible panic among the leaders of the International, forcing them to enact a series of last-ditch measures aimed to create confusion among Rio Pact ranks. Failed assasination attempts staged against key officials of Long Administration and a botched coup attempt in Brazil ultimately caused more harm and good, and in the end had no strategic effect whatsoever. Meanwhile the plans to further step up the total mobilization of French society turned Commune into an armed camp, with local militias and the L'Armée Populaire expanded even further in order to save the Revolution from the grave danger it was facing.
The fighting in Bretagne deteriorated to urban combat in the ruins of Brest as the Americans slowly dislodged the defenders from their positions.
Meanwhile the 14 US divisions struggled their way towards Brest and the tip of Bretagne peninsula, squeezing the shattered formations of 23. Corps d'Armée slowly to tighter and tighter space around the old harbour city. The final assault towards the central and harbour facilities begun on March 15th right after the fall of Lorient, and on 7th of April the garrison of the besieged and ruined city could no longer offer organized resistance. While the port facilities had suffered considerable damage during the fighting, all-out demolitions had not been carried out since Commune leadership had initially hoped that the landings could be contained away from Bretagne, and later on hoped that swift counterattacks could still relieve the important naval base in time. But while the fighting in French mainland had initially taken the form of Commune counterattacks in the outer ring of Bretagne bridgehead and American attack towards Brest behind it, combat in North America had followed much more direct course.
Supply column moving from ship to shore. The Pact Engineers worked wonders to keep the expanding expeditionary forces fighting in European continent supplied through the critical spring months.
War Plan Crimson had proven to be a sound operational guideline, and following it the US Army formations had stormed to eastern Canada from New England, capturing the Atlantic coast and trapping the remaining Republican Army formations further inland after severe fighting in isolated enemy strongholds had left Halifax, Québec City and other key locations utterly desolated as modern conventional armies struggled among their ruins for a second time. On April 19th President Long declared that territories of Canada had now been fully liberated from Republican troops, and that the authorities of People´s Congress had agreed to sign unconditional surrender. It was the beginning of the end for Union of Britain, as Glasgow had fallen to Germans on 1st of April and the frontlines were steadily pushing southwards despite the mounting resistance of local militias. From now on the global attention was once again focused on Europe, where the buildup of troops in Bretagne bridgehead continued as Commune and United States and their Rio Pact allies were both sending steadly flow of new units to the front. But while the reinforcements of the L'Armée Populaire were tired and experienced veterans of reservist divisions rotated from the Western Front, ships from America brought in green recruits who were nevertheless organized into modern mechanized units. Both sides knew that sooner or later the quality and quantity of heavier American weaponry would outweight the French experience and better tactical and doctrinal approach that had so far kept the fighting in the region evenly contested.
A licenced, improved version of Canadian Muskox, the M3 Sheridan was a battle-proven design that became a prime example of the fast pace of the war-time arms development. Reliable and easy to maintain and clearly superiour to all Republican AFVs in Canada in 1940, the design was futher updated in the US by improving armor protection and upgrading the main gun to 57mm M1. Despite this the Sheridans were nevertheless outgunned and rendered obsolete by the appearance of by Commune Renault G2s and suffered heavy losses in the tank battles fought in the Brittany Bridgehead during 1942.
But as spring turned towards summer, a new storm was brewing in Europe. Czar Vladimir I had greedily eyed the easternmost puppet states of German Mitteleuropa despite the fact that he had earlier promised "eternal peace and friendship between German and Russian Empires" after the Peace of Kiev two years earlier. As Faith and Nation demanded the Czar to finish the "liberation of our rightful historical territories", the local peasant uprising near Minsk soon escalated as Russian special forces infiltrated the region and provided the pro-Russian rebels with weapons and equipment. Following a pattern that was already all too familiar to the neighbours of Russia, Czar Vladimir pledged to defend his fellow Orthodox through the means of a military campaign. On 5th of June 1942 Russian Empire started an all-out offensive against Mitteleuropa along a huge new Eastern Front that streched from Serbia to new eastern borders of Germany in Hungerburg in Estland. The betrayal of the secret treaty agreed upon between Moscow and Berlin over ownership of Ukraine two years earlier was diplomatically a backstab of the worst order - but Germans could do little but curse the treacherous Czar as Russian tank columns once again spearheaded the swift offensives of whole Cavalry Armies where Cossack cavalry and motorized formations rushed towards their objectives far behind the initial frontlines A month later Czar Vladimir publicly stated that the future of "Holy Russia" lay in central Europe, and that the war aim of Russian Empire would be to create a new global alliance of Slavic and Orthodox nations. For German Empire this was a grim time. Widespread desertion from Ruthenian formations and hopelessly long frontline that they aimed to defend everywhere had left them exposed and short of reserves, and Russians exploited this vulnerability by striking through the frontlines by focused offensives one time after another, keeping the whole front between Baltic and Black Sea moving steadily westwards. Yet all was not lost, as the Germans hastily pushed forward through the crumbling Republican lines and entered to ruined central of London after two weeks of vicious street battles on 1st of June, accepting the surrender of last of the official Republican formations in Portsmouth on 15th of June. Once the British resistance was reduced to widespread partisan warfare against the new occupation authorities, Großer Generalstab hastily begun to withdraw all available troops back to the continent and rushed them to the Eastern Front.
Russian Невский-cavalry tanks massing for an attack. General Markov´s theories of fast-paced "operational art" proved their worth during summer 1942, when Russians used their tanks on a division-sized formations in a narrow front to clear the way for cavalry and motorized infantry that exploited the breakthrough. By this time it was becoming increasingly clear that such tactics were able to outmanouvre armies using German doctrine that aimed on fighting a carefully planned combined arms-battle where heavily armed Stoßtruppen supported by separate battalions of Sturmpanzerwagens would tactically flank the enemy and overwhelm him with superiour firepower.
Upon hearing the news of Russian attack in the West, the religious leaders of Turkenstan decided strike first as well. When they and von Sternberg declared war upon Russia on July 12th, the newfound strength of Czar´s regime was soon displayed in a remarkable feat of military improvisation as Russian reserves were rushed to Central Asia from borders of Transamur and Ottoman Empire allowing them to quickly contain and then push back the disorganized cavalry hordes of Central Asian warlord states. As the hot summer of 1942 continued, it became increasingly clear that the new Weltkrieg had met a global turning point. After subjucation of Bengal and Burma the Japanese saw little need to continue hostilities with Internationale, and the besieged and hard-pressed Syndicalist powers were equally willing to accept the loss of Subcontinent by signing a separate peace with Japan on August 12th. Japanese domination of Chinese mainland was further extented as the last free warlord state of Yunnan Clique was attacked and occupied during the course of autumn despite the vocal protests of Germany. Meanwhile the initial Russian invasion had finally begun to meet organized resistance, as the auxiliary forces of Mitteleuropa were finally supported by necessary amounts of German divisions moved in from Western Front and Britain. After the loss of Lithuania and White Rhutenia on July, the frontlines had at first stabilized and then virtually stagnated into trench warfare in a new line that streched from Baltic to Mediterranean.
While most of the Russian AFVs were fast and light cavalry tanks, their army did include separate Tank Regiments equipped with heavier боярин-class medium tanks. Originally intented to act as the "antitank" element of the Cavalry Army, the new standard offensive operational unit of Russiandoctrine, these vehicles were soon deemed too cumbersome and lightly armed with their 40mm main guns to effectively fulfill their planned operational role and a committee was tasked to develop a replacement.
Back in the Western Front the Rio Pact positions in the Bretagne Bridgehead were strong and solid, with over a million men, mostly Americans, facing roughly equally-sized force of Commune troops. As antiwar demonstrations in the US continued and flow of new volunteers to the armed forced had slowed to a trincle after the initial ethusiasm, President Long desperately needed a victory that would enable him to sell his warlike foreign policy to increasingly sceptical US public. Thus was born, Operation Roundup, one of the most curious diplomatic schemes in the history of the second Weltkrieg. In essense Roundup was nothing more than a modified implementation of War Plan Red. After informants and reconnaissance flights had estimated that the German garrison in Britain consisted of nine combat divisions all stationed to southern coast of the country, with rest of Britain being extremely lightly garrisoned with local separate battalions of Feldgendarmerie. The decision to cross the Irish Sea and move in practically unopposed around a quickly expanded bridgehead around Liverpool was accompanied by a radio speech aimed to citizens of Britain. Here Long promised that as the US troops were now "taking over the necessary maintenance of public order in the interim period and escorting the Germans out of the country in a civilized and cooperative manner", new elections would soon take place and a British interim government would take over from the US authorities as soon as possible. Upon hearing these news Kaiser Wilhelm III was surprisingly mild, pointing to his enraged generals and admirals that in the speech President Long had precisely stated that United States had no quarrel with German Empire and and only wanted to secure the political future and well-being of their Anglo-Saxon brethen in Britain in a situation where Germany was clearly unable to restore order in the island. "We can ill afford new enemies no matter what our true feelings about this betrayal are", he bluntly stated and accepted to publicly state that the German withdrawal from British Isles was pre-arranged and that the common struggle against Commune of France would continue as before. As the two major co-belligerents thus shifted their spheres of interest in Europe accordingly, similar events occurred in other side of the world. In the middle of the fierce Siberian winter in October the Russians in Transamur begun wide demonstrations, demanding an open plebiscite about their future and right to rejoin Russia, starting a crisis that was ill-timed for Russian Empire that was waging war on two fronts in Europe and Asia. As the Japanese Empire reacted in a similar fashion than earlier in Korea and send in the troops, Department of General-Quartermaster convinced the infuriated Czar Vladimir that the best course of action would be to stand on guard on the northern bank of the Amur River while the Japanese put down the open revolt in the region, dispanding the puppet regime of Aleksandr Kolchak and replacing it with a direct Japanese administration. As neither Empire wanted to fight a second Russo-Japanese War, the fighting in the region never became a formal conflict and was only briefly mentioned as a "border skirmish" in Russian newspapers as the remrants of the Transamur rebel forces withdrew to Russian side of Amur by 28th of November. Since Mongolia had submitted to Russia a month earlier and Turkenstan was also on the ropes, it seemed likely that Russia would be able to transfer much of her forces currently stationed to Central Asia against Mitteleuropa during the winter.
German infantry of Infanterie-Regiment Herzog Karl von Mecklenburg (6. Ostpreuß.) Nr. 43 with MG-M36 and 37mm PaK 30 in positions near Kaunas in Eastern Front, August 1942.
Despite this threat in the horizon, the German Empire was still "very much in the game" and the mood in the home front was far from desperate. After all they had pulled it through the last time, so why not now? Colonized Baltic regions may have been cut off from rest of the country but were still holding their own in Lettland, Kurland and Estland, while the Russian advance in central part of the front had also been stopped to western Lithuania, Poland and Galitzia well before the border of Germany itself. Austria-Hungary had also held the line in the Balkans, largely because Russian offensives here were limited to local offensive into Serb-majority regions of Bosnia. Meanwhile the static trench warfare in Western Front had continued due the growing pressure of US bridgehead in Bretagne, allowing Germany to shift forces from strategic reserves to East to stop the Russians from achieving new breakthroughs. Same strategic stalemate continued in Ottoman Empire, as reinforcements tranferred from northern Africa were able to maintain the frontlines in Caucasus and keep the Russo-Bulgarian forces away from Istambul as well. By New Years Eve 1943 active fighting in all frontlines was thus for the time being stagnated, and millions of soldiers in the trenches and civilians at home all over the world prepared for the uncertain future that lay ahead.
Commune Renault G2 medium tank was without doubt the best AFV design in the world by the time it appearead to frontlines as a replacement to still batteworthy AMC 1935S. Taking the typical Commune tank design feature a logical step further from well-sloped, mainly cast armour of earlier types, the hull and turret of G2 were cast as single pieces. The G2-model was initially armed with new short-barreled APX 75mm, an improved main gun based on the earlier 75 mm ABS SA 35 howitzer used as a hull-mounted weapon in the early heavy tanks of Commune, thus making it a deadly opponent to all armor types used by Reichsheer - and the US Army.
Britain becomes involved
Meteorological requirements for the operation*
Navy:
Surface winds- not exceeding Force 3 (8-12mph) on shore, Force 4 (13-18mph) off shore during S-Day to S+2 (Force 5 bearable in open sea but for limited periods only.)
Visibility- not less than 3 miles.
USAAC:
Medium and Light Bombers. Cloud ceiling not less than 4,500ft over target, visibility at least 3 miles.
Fighters and Fighter Bombers. Cloud base not less than 1,000ft.
Bases. Cloud not below 1,000ft.
Airborne Landings. Surface wind over target area not to exceed 20mph and not gusty. Half moonlight at least.
Air Transport. Cloud ceiling at least 2,500ft to and over target. Visibility 3 miles at least.
*Part of the General Staff Risk assessment of implementing War Plan Ultramarine
New Year 1942 was a high watermark in the course of the Second Weltkrieg. Ever since his re-election, Huey Long had aggressive pursued confrontation with expansionist Syndicalist powers, and now the President finally had his war. During the first months of this eventful year it however seemed that little would change - Commune submarines and convoy raiders harassed American shipping just like before, and the first week of the new year seemed like this war would be fought out in the sea just like Quasi-War, the previous Franco-American conflict. The first major change of fortunes thus came from the Indian Theatre, where the unstoppable attack of victorious Japanese armies combined to relentless diplomatic pressure finally forced the leadership of Princerly Federation to comply with Japanese demands. The old nobility of Subcontinent once again accepted foreigners as their overlords in exchange of support, and after they had sworn loyalty to Emperor Hirohito, only Bengal and Burma opposed complete Japanese domination of territories former British India. And with Suez blocked and German naval blockade stranging their harbours, the Syndicalist powers of Europe were unable to send help to their struggling South Asian allies.
Bengalese troops posing for camera with French-supplied FM 26 LMG, the primary squad-level automatic weapon of Syndicalist Internationale.
A mere week later the situation changed dramatically. On January 22nd, in a middle of a yet another nation-wide strike in the US, the Congress of Trade Unions in London agreed to finally cast their lot to the side of Internationale and declare war on Mitteleuropa and Rio Pact. While the Autonomists had initially argued that Union of Britain would return to her traditional "splendid isolation" building socialism in the British Isles once the Monarchist threat would be crushed, the fact that Ireland had joined to the Rio Pact had forced them to reconsider. Correctly estimating that Long Administration was looking for an excuse to stage an intervention to Canada, General Staff of the Republican Army promoted a pre-emptive strike against key targets in northern US after Secret Service Bureau had ensured that the elements of CSA would rise to support such a move. And since the United States would attack sooner or later anyway once their re-armament program would be complete, it woud be best to bring the frontlines to American soil. As bombers and fighters took of from airfields in Ireland, Canada and northern US, the relatively peaceful time in the lives of common citizens of Britain and United States abruptly ended when they heard the air raid sirens for the first time. War had come to America.
Virtually all volunteers who had fought in Canada during previous winter had re-enlisted to the new Light Infantry Divisions that were guarding the Canadian border. Now were once again on the frontlines in the snowy forests, hills and plains of the US-Canadian border.
The British-Canadian war plans called for strategic forays to the southern side of the border father inland and mobile defence-in-depth in Great Lakes area. Meanwhile the quickly mobilizing US Army and National Guard units were preparing to implement War Plan Crimson by quickly invading and occupying Canada before Union of Britain could reinforce their forces and create defendable bridgeheads. The vulnerability of Atlantic and Caribbean coastlines forced the Army to initially divert large numbers of new recruits to defend key harbours and regions from Corpus Cristi to New England, while the armies standing on guard on the Mexican border were substantially reinforced as well. Meanwhile in the north the frontlines soon stabilized since the Syndicalist forces were content on preparing their own defences on the Canadian side of the border. Meanwhile Congress passed the National Emergency Act, allowing Secretary of Defence and Homeland Security to send National Guard to assist federal authorities in breaking illegal strikes and dispersing demonstrations. As the northern states were placed under martial law, the last vestiges of legality in dealings with CSA were brushed aside and the organization was ruthlessly crushed as National Guard units from the south filled with Minutemen volunteers were brought to the region to "maintain law and order."
From 1942 onwards the CSA was dispersed and paralyzed, it´s leaders either in jail or exile and it´s common supporters openly oppressed and harassed by the federal authorities.
With the "enemy within" now seemingly under control, the United States was hectically building up her armed forces to prepare for the struggles that lay ahead. While the USAAC and Navy were both up to date, the Army had still a lot to catch up. The quick expansion of Army and National Guard and flood of new volunteers after the declaration of war combined with the general lack of reserve storages of weapons and ammunition meant that at first the US Army was hard-pressed to provide the common GIs with anything heavier than small arms. There was, however, a bright side that few observers noticed at the time. When build from scratch and equipped with latest gear as the new weapon systems and combat vehicles developed in the interwar era entered mass-production, the new mobilized US Army became the most extensively mechanized armed force the world had ever seen.
The Armored Carrier, Personnel Tracked M6, better known as the nickname Conestoga was a success story born out of desperate stopgap measure. Initially designed as a self-propelled gun chassis, an experimental number of M6s were converted to tracked infantry carriers when it was discovered that the planned units of motorized infantry still lacked a high-mobility infantry vehicle that could keep up with advancing armor in combined arms teams while operating in poor terrain or outside road networks. Based on the findings and successes of Canadian forces with similar experimentation during the fighting of 1940, the Conestoga became highly successful vehicle that was well-liked due the fact that it enabled the infantry to accompany tanks while keeping the whole unit just as mobile and well protected. The mixture of older Entente-type Brodie helmets and the new M1 and various other headgear was typical to the Army units that invaded Canada in spring 1942, as the General Staff was trying to keep in schedule of the rearmament program while fighting a war on the same time.
As the first columns of US troops crossed the Canadian border, the same sense of urgency that electrified the Army was also taking hold on the State Department. Previously the demanding and self-confident tone of American diplomacy had been enough to keep Commune from interfering in Latin America. Now the diplomacy faced a lot more challenging tasks. During the critical months of 1942 American diplomatic missions were busily trying to uphold the traditional balance of power through the wartorn world: ensuring Japan that invasion of Australasian Confederation and Netherlands East Indies was still out of bounds and that US maintained credible defence in Pacific, luring Russia to put pressure on Japan in Asian mainland and determining the US reaction to hypothetical situation of a war between Mitteleuropa and Russian Empire. Meanwhile the OSS and General Staff were engaged with top-secret and peculiar project: US-German intelligence cooperation. It was a strange, informal alliance of convenience: despite their ideological differences and vastly different strategic goals, both sides were initially aiming towards similar goals: establishment of a second front against Commune in a form of a US bridgehead somewhere in continental Europe. To ensure that US could succeed in their attempt, Germans provided them with high-altitude photoreconnaissance data combined with the results of their field agents and radio intelligence. When pooled together with their own intelligence sources, the General Staff received accurate overall view of the organization of Commune coastal defences in Bretagne.
The peninsula itself was defended by heavily reinforced three-division corps, the 23. Corps d'Armée. It had three infantry divisions, the 9., 2. and 16. Division d´Infanterie, stationed on static defence at the potential invasion beaches with the motorized and heavier brigades of the 2. Division Légère Mécanique defending the tip of the peninsula and forces of 7. Légère Mécanique stationed to strategic reserve. Two motorized cavalry divisions were additionally within close vicinity on Tours and Argentan. On paper the Commune defence scheme was thus formidable and solid, but General Staff identified notable weakness in the gap between 23rd and 30th Army Corps in Avranches area at the southern part of the Contentin Peninsula. While the beaches and port facilities here were far from ideal targets for amphibious landings, the area was so lightly defended by few regional battalions that it was designated as the landing zone of Operation Sledgehammer.
"The Black Cat and the Rattlesnake"
General Marshall had made the American position on European grand strategy plain: An invasion of French Atlantic coast and subsequent ground campaign aimed at northern France, the industrial heartland of French Commune would be the surest and swiftest course to Pact victory in Europe, and the sooner this invasion would be launched, the faster the war would be won. And since the extensive research and construction investment to amphibious landings started years ago applying the lessons learned from the successfull Pot of Gold-operations in Brazil had by now born fruit, the US Army was prepared to the vaunting task ahead. Since Operation Magnet had witnessed the transportation of a sizeable continent of combat troops and supply stockpiles to northern Ireland, the beginning of hostilities with Commune and Union of Britain paradoxically came in a time when the most battle-ready US formations, including bulk of the USMC units were overseas in Ireland. These forces included a huge detachment of new type of specialized infantry units created after the news of the successes of brigade-sized operations of the legendary l'Infanterie de l'Air of Commune became widely known: The specifically selected and extensively trained paratroopers of 13th "Black Cat" and 15th "Rattlesnake" Airborne Divisions and the paramarines of the 1st Marine Parachute Regiment of I Marine Amphibious Corps. The ambitious US invasion plan of continental Europe tasked these elite formations to surprise the Commune defenders in Manche region of western Normandy from above by conducting the largest airborne operation the world had ever seen. As the skies between Seine and the designated invasion beaches between Régneville-sur-Mer in the north and and Huisnes-sur-Mer in the south would fill with parachutes, the General Staff hoped that the actual landings could be able to overwhelm the weak garrison units defending the beaches before Commune could send their mobile reserves to bear. It was risky, but as General Marshall stated to impatient President: "Essentially what we are here trying to do is to make an impossible situation reasonably possible for practical purposes..."
The extensive planning involved on Operation Sledgehammer showed the level of respect US military leadership had to the fighting spirit of L'Armée Populaire de la Commune de France.
The common French soldier had already seen much actual fighting by 1942. Being additionally well equipped and led by skilled officers, he was a formidable and determined opponent.
Soon the invasion plan itself was ready: To the overall invasion target zone was divided into smaller target areas that together formed the planned beachead codenamed LOUISIANA. The codenamed targets from north to south were TARE from Régneville-sur-Mer to Brehal, UNCLE from Donville-les-Bains to Granville, VICTOR from Jullouville and Varolles to saint-Jean-le-Thomas, GREEN from le Mont-Saint-Michel to Pontaubault and RED as a separate target area around Huisnes-sur-Mer. The first key targets of the invasion were the few small harbours in the area, Granville on the west coast of the Cotentin peninsula and St. Malo and Cancale in Brittany. All these ports were tidal, drying out at low water; even at high tide they could accommodate only small vessels. Therefore, their capacity to supply invasion forces was not expected to be great, and they were to be developed only as a stop-gap measure to provide some additional discharge facilities in addition to artificial MULBERRY harbours until the full potential of larger ports in Brittany could be realized. The planners concentrated their attentions on the Brittany ports because the peninsula was designated as the first target of Sledgehammer, to be quickly captured as a secure staging area for Pact forces and matériel before any other development on the Continent. The scheduled thrust into Brittany through land routes after initial landings was to be the prelude to the construction of a sturdy logistical base to support attacks to northern shores of the Seine that would come later. Brest, Lorient, Quiberon Bay, and St. Malo in Brittany were expected to provide 16,240 tons of daily port capacity once repaired; with the opening of Nantes, the Brittany ports were to receive more than 27,000 tons of supplies a day.
Citroën-Kégresse haftracks of the 29e Régiment de Dragons based around Brest. These sturdy and reliable vehicles had excellent off-road mobility and they were a mainstay in mechanized formations of Commune of France in all theatres from Africa to Western Front.
As the war swept through Canada for a second time and Turkenstani and Mongolian forces finally subdued Persia and Afghanistan and brought end the long and bitter conflict in Central Asia, few took notice to the grand buildup that was underway in Ireland. Convoy after another brought in new troops from the US and South America, as La Plata, Chile, Peru and Brazil sented forth their own expeditionary forces to bolster the ranks of the growing power of Pact forces in the Emerald Isle. On February 3rd the war in Europe received a momentary boost in press coverage, as Admiral Nimitz skillfully lured a sizeable task force of the Republican Navy into a trap in a battle of Solway Firth. As planes of USAAC were able to wrestle air superiourity from the Republican Air Force and strike freely against the British battleline of obsolete old battleships and escorting vessels while they were out in the sea with no way to disengage, the torpedo bombers of USS Ranger were able to score several hits before the American battleships closed the range and moved in to finish the job. The devastating loss of battleships RNS Godwin, RNS Hyndeman, RNS Tyler and heavy cruiser RNS Edinburgh and light cruisers RNS Comus, RNS Conquest and RNS Castor was a disaster for Union naval strategy, as their modern units were currently stationed far away from the Home Isles. With the threat of enemy naval activity thus largely neutralized, the General Staff decided to utilize the five-day period of calm weather in Channel and Atlantic and clear skies in Normandy. On 5th of February, Operation Sledgehammer shook the world.
The paratroopers and paramarines dropped behind Louisiana Beach were firmly aware of the historical importance of their mission as they loaded to the Dacotas that took off from the new airfields of southern Ireland on 23rd of February 1942.
After the operation had been given a green light, General Staff could only hope and pray. Before the divisional HQs of the 13th and 15th Airborne Divisions could establish their radio communications and gain control of the situation in designated dropzones, no one had a clear picture what was happening in the chaotic French countryside where local militias were either surprised or were only able to offer brief moments of desperate resistance before being overwhelmed by the invaders from the sky. As General Rol-Tanguy received news of the invasion, he reacted quickly despite the fact that he also immediately realized that the Americans had managed to achieve a devastating tactical surprise by their choise of invasion area. Unable to free significant reserves from the Western Front, L'Armée Populaire forces within the area were nevertheless tasked to immediately counterattack against the forming beachead during the same day. As the battlegroups of the Commune light mechanized divisions struck forward, disembarged their dragoons and fiercely counterattacked, the US offensive was still going according as planned. On Febuary 29th eleven divisions moved forwards towards Nantes, and six days later the remrants of the mobile reserves 23. Corps d'Armée were driven off from the area. Lorient followed on 15th of March, after the Americans were able to dislodge the two defending Commune divisions that held their ground against superiour numbers for roughly a week as well by mounting local tactical counterattacks against the first breaches on their lines. As the offensive to Bretagne widened the front, attack on Angers was fought in as situation where six American divisions supported by La Platan armored division struck against one fresh French division and remrants of previous two. Here these forces offered only a momentary resistance before being withdrawn to the western edge of Bretagne. Here the defenders were tasked to stand fast and deny the Americans the usage of Brest harbour at any cost.
Operation Sledgehammer was the largest airborne operation in the history of the second Weltkrieg, although other nations, namely Germany, soon proved that they too were capable for division-sized airborne assaults.
By this time the Germans were convinced that United States had managed to both tie down the majority of Republican Army in Canada and render the Commune of France unable to interfere with their strategic goals for summer 1942. In secrecy the Großer Generalstab had decided to go ahead with a bold strategic offensive plan that was quite understandable when considering the overall geopolitical position of Mitteleuropa: Despite of the earlier and current setbacks and defeats, the German Empire and her allies were still standing tall. With a long war ahead of them in West, Japan growing restless and more demanding in the Far East while Russia focused forces to eastern borders of Mitteleuropa, the Germans correctly decided to strike first, and go against what they saw a fatal weakness in the overall strategic position of their enemies. On 21st of March Operation Beowulf, the German invasion of Union of Britain, begun as an utter surprise to Syndicalist leadership. As a pretext of the operation Irish and American operatives had conducted an extensive intelligence gathering operation, rewarding the earlier German information regarding Commune coastal defences by providing information that indicated that most of the standing armies of British Union had been indeed shipped to Canadian front and were currently being soundly defeated there, leaving the Home Isles dangerously exposed. What originally begun as a invasion of Scotland aimed to deny the remaining heavy units of Republican Navy the usage of Scapa Flow and other northern naval bases soon expanded into general attack towards southern England as it became apparent that veteran German Alpenkorps were indeed facing only old men and children from the local militias and garrison units. While German invasion soon turned the Republican defence into a rout towards southern England, fighting in Bretagne became a desperate struggle.
Rol-Tanguy and his comrades soon came to realize that they had underestimated the American capacity to reinforce the supply situation of the bridgehead by means of air transportation and artificial harbours while simultaneously bringing more "boots on the ground." As more and more Commune formations joined to the counterattack on Avranches area, the US General Staff was able to reinforce the bridgehead so that what originally begun as highly unfavourable battle ultimately ended in a situation where 15 Commune divisions were facing 25 American divisions when the First Battle of Avranches ended on March 25th. At this point the old veteran of the Revolution informed the Comité de Salut Public that the best he could achieve in these circumstances with the forces at his disposal was a temporary containment of the Bretagne bridgehead, and that Commune was thus effectively fighting a two-front war. This sense of impeding doom and disastrous news from Britain caused visible panic among the leaders of the International, forcing them to enact a series of last-ditch measures aimed to create confusion among Rio Pact ranks. Failed assasination attempts staged against key officials of Long Administration and a botched coup attempt in Brazil ultimately caused more harm and good, and in the end had no strategic effect whatsoever. Meanwhile the plans to further step up the total mobilization of French society turned Commune into an armed camp, with local militias and the L'Armée Populaire expanded even further in order to save the Revolution from the grave danger it was facing.
The fighting in Bretagne deteriorated to urban combat in the ruins of Brest as the Americans slowly dislodged the defenders from their positions.
Meanwhile the 14 US divisions struggled their way towards Brest and the tip of Bretagne peninsula, squeezing the shattered formations of 23. Corps d'Armée slowly to tighter and tighter space around the old harbour city. The final assault towards the central and harbour facilities begun on March 15th right after the fall of Lorient, and on 7th of April the garrison of the besieged and ruined city could no longer offer organized resistance. While the port facilities had suffered considerable damage during the fighting, all-out demolitions had not been carried out since Commune leadership had initially hoped that the landings could be contained away from Bretagne, and later on hoped that swift counterattacks could still relieve the important naval base in time. But while the fighting in French mainland had initially taken the form of Commune counterattacks in the outer ring of Bretagne bridgehead and American attack towards Brest behind it, combat in North America had followed much more direct course.
Supply column moving from ship to shore. The Pact Engineers worked wonders to keep the expanding expeditionary forces fighting in European continent supplied through the critical spring months.
War Plan Crimson had proven to be a sound operational guideline, and following it the US Army formations had stormed to eastern Canada from New England, capturing the Atlantic coast and trapping the remaining Republican Army formations further inland after severe fighting in isolated enemy strongholds had left Halifax, Québec City and other key locations utterly desolated as modern conventional armies struggled among their ruins for a second time. On April 19th President Long declared that territories of Canada had now been fully liberated from Republican troops, and that the authorities of People´s Congress had agreed to sign unconditional surrender. It was the beginning of the end for Union of Britain, as Glasgow had fallen to Germans on 1st of April and the frontlines were steadily pushing southwards despite the mounting resistance of local militias. From now on the global attention was once again focused on Europe, where the buildup of troops in Bretagne bridgehead continued as Commune and United States and their Rio Pact allies were both sending steadly flow of new units to the front. But while the reinforcements of the L'Armée Populaire were tired and experienced veterans of reservist divisions rotated from the Western Front, ships from America brought in green recruits who were nevertheless organized into modern mechanized units. Both sides knew that sooner or later the quality and quantity of heavier American weaponry would outweight the French experience and better tactical and doctrinal approach that had so far kept the fighting in the region evenly contested.
A licenced, improved version of Canadian Muskox, the M3 Sheridan was a battle-proven design that became a prime example of the fast pace of the war-time arms development. Reliable and easy to maintain and clearly superiour to all Republican AFVs in Canada in 1940, the design was futher updated in the US by improving armor protection and upgrading the main gun to 57mm M1. Despite this the Sheridans were nevertheless outgunned and rendered obsolete by the appearance of by Commune Renault G2s and suffered heavy losses in the tank battles fought in the Brittany Bridgehead during 1942.
But as spring turned towards summer, a new storm was brewing in Europe. Czar Vladimir I had greedily eyed the easternmost puppet states of German Mitteleuropa despite the fact that he had earlier promised "eternal peace and friendship between German and Russian Empires" after the Peace of Kiev two years earlier. As Faith and Nation demanded the Czar to finish the "liberation of our rightful historical territories", the local peasant uprising near Minsk soon escalated as Russian special forces infiltrated the region and provided the pro-Russian rebels with weapons and equipment. Following a pattern that was already all too familiar to the neighbours of Russia, Czar Vladimir pledged to defend his fellow Orthodox through the means of a military campaign. On 5th of June 1942 Russian Empire started an all-out offensive against Mitteleuropa along a huge new Eastern Front that streched from Serbia to new eastern borders of Germany in Hungerburg in Estland. The betrayal of the secret treaty agreed upon between Moscow and Berlin over ownership of Ukraine two years earlier was diplomatically a backstab of the worst order - but Germans could do little but curse the treacherous Czar as Russian tank columns once again spearheaded the swift offensives of whole Cavalry Armies where Cossack cavalry and motorized formations rushed towards their objectives far behind the initial frontlines A month later Czar Vladimir publicly stated that the future of "Holy Russia" lay in central Europe, and that the war aim of Russian Empire would be to create a new global alliance of Slavic and Orthodox nations. For German Empire this was a grim time. Widespread desertion from Ruthenian formations and hopelessly long frontline that they aimed to defend everywhere had left them exposed and short of reserves, and Russians exploited this vulnerability by striking through the frontlines by focused offensives one time after another, keeping the whole front between Baltic and Black Sea moving steadily westwards. Yet all was not lost, as the Germans hastily pushed forward through the crumbling Republican lines and entered to ruined central of London after two weeks of vicious street battles on 1st of June, accepting the surrender of last of the official Republican formations in Portsmouth on 15th of June. Once the British resistance was reduced to widespread partisan warfare against the new occupation authorities, Großer Generalstab hastily begun to withdraw all available troops back to the continent and rushed them to the Eastern Front.
Russian Невский-cavalry tanks massing for an attack. General Markov´s theories of fast-paced "operational art" proved their worth during summer 1942, when Russians used their tanks on a division-sized formations in a narrow front to clear the way for cavalry and motorized infantry that exploited the breakthrough. By this time it was becoming increasingly clear that such tactics were able to outmanouvre armies using German doctrine that aimed on fighting a carefully planned combined arms-battle where heavily armed Stoßtruppen supported by separate battalions of Sturmpanzerwagens would tactically flank the enemy and overwhelm him with superiour firepower.
Upon hearing the news of Russian attack in the West, the religious leaders of Turkenstan decided strike first as well. When they and von Sternberg declared war upon Russia on July 12th, the newfound strength of Czar´s regime was soon displayed in a remarkable feat of military improvisation as Russian reserves were rushed to Central Asia from borders of Transamur and Ottoman Empire allowing them to quickly contain and then push back the disorganized cavalry hordes of Central Asian warlord states. As the hot summer of 1942 continued, it became increasingly clear that the new Weltkrieg had met a global turning point. After subjucation of Bengal and Burma the Japanese saw little need to continue hostilities with Internationale, and the besieged and hard-pressed Syndicalist powers were equally willing to accept the loss of Subcontinent by signing a separate peace with Japan on August 12th. Japanese domination of Chinese mainland was further extented as the last free warlord state of Yunnan Clique was attacked and occupied during the course of autumn despite the vocal protests of Germany. Meanwhile the initial Russian invasion had finally begun to meet organized resistance, as the auxiliary forces of Mitteleuropa were finally supported by necessary amounts of German divisions moved in from Western Front and Britain. After the loss of Lithuania and White Rhutenia on July, the frontlines had at first stabilized and then virtually stagnated into trench warfare in a new line that streched from Baltic to Mediterranean.
While most of the Russian AFVs were fast and light cavalry tanks, their army did include separate Tank Regiments equipped with heavier боярин-class medium tanks. Originally intented to act as the "antitank" element of the Cavalry Army, the new standard offensive operational unit of Russiandoctrine, these vehicles were soon deemed too cumbersome and lightly armed with their 40mm main guns to effectively fulfill their planned operational role and a committee was tasked to develop a replacement.
Back in the Western Front the Rio Pact positions in the Bretagne Bridgehead were strong and solid, with over a million men, mostly Americans, facing roughly equally-sized force of Commune troops. As antiwar demonstrations in the US continued and flow of new volunteers to the armed forced had slowed to a trincle after the initial ethusiasm, President Long desperately needed a victory that would enable him to sell his warlike foreign policy to increasingly sceptical US public. Thus was born, Operation Roundup, one of the most curious diplomatic schemes in the history of the second Weltkrieg. In essense Roundup was nothing more than a modified implementation of War Plan Red. After informants and reconnaissance flights had estimated that the German garrison in Britain consisted of nine combat divisions all stationed to southern coast of the country, with rest of Britain being extremely lightly garrisoned with local separate battalions of Feldgendarmerie. The decision to cross the Irish Sea and move in practically unopposed around a quickly expanded bridgehead around Liverpool was accompanied by a radio speech aimed to citizens of Britain. Here Long promised that as the US troops were now "taking over the necessary maintenance of public order in the interim period and escorting the Germans out of the country in a civilized and cooperative manner", new elections would soon take place and a British interim government would take over from the US authorities as soon as possible. Upon hearing these news Kaiser Wilhelm III was surprisingly mild, pointing to his enraged generals and admirals that in the speech President Long had precisely stated that United States had no quarrel with German Empire and and only wanted to secure the political future and well-being of their Anglo-Saxon brethen in Britain in a situation where Germany was clearly unable to restore order in the island. "We can ill afford new enemies no matter what our true feelings about this betrayal are", he bluntly stated and accepted to publicly state that the German withdrawal from British Isles was pre-arranged and that the common struggle against Commune of France would continue as before. As the two major co-belligerents thus shifted their spheres of interest in Europe accordingly, similar events occurred in other side of the world. In the middle of the fierce Siberian winter in October the Russians in Transamur begun wide demonstrations, demanding an open plebiscite about their future and right to rejoin Russia, starting a crisis that was ill-timed for Russian Empire that was waging war on two fronts in Europe and Asia. As the Japanese Empire reacted in a similar fashion than earlier in Korea and send in the troops, Department of General-Quartermaster convinced the infuriated Czar Vladimir that the best course of action would be to stand on guard on the northern bank of the Amur River while the Japanese put down the open revolt in the region, dispanding the puppet regime of Aleksandr Kolchak and replacing it with a direct Japanese administration. As neither Empire wanted to fight a second Russo-Japanese War, the fighting in the region never became a formal conflict and was only briefly mentioned as a "border skirmish" in Russian newspapers as the remrants of the Transamur rebel forces withdrew to Russian side of Amur by 28th of November. Since Mongolia had submitted to Russia a month earlier and Turkenstan was also on the ropes, it seemed likely that Russia would be able to transfer much of her forces currently stationed to Central Asia against Mitteleuropa during the winter.
German infantry of Infanterie-Regiment Herzog Karl von Mecklenburg (6. Ostpreuß.) Nr. 43 with MG-M36 and 37mm PaK 30 in positions near Kaunas in Eastern Front, August 1942.
Despite this threat in the horizon, the German Empire was still "very much in the game" and the mood in the home front was far from desperate. After all they had pulled it through the last time, so why not now? Colonized Baltic regions may have been cut off from rest of the country but were still holding their own in Lettland, Kurland and Estland, while the Russian advance in central part of the front had also been stopped to western Lithuania, Poland and Galitzia well before the border of Germany itself. Austria-Hungary had also held the line in the Balkans, largely because Russian offensives here were limited to local offensive into Serb-majority regions of Bosnia. Meanwhile the static trench warfare in Western Front had continued due the growing pressure of US bridgehead in Bretagne, allowing Germany to shift forces from strategic reserves to East to stop the Russians from achieving new breakthroughs. Same strategic stalemate continued in Ottoman Empire, as reinforcements tranferred from northern Africa were able to maintain the frontlines in Caucasus and keep the Russo-Bulgarian forces away from Istambul as well. By New Years Eve 1943 active fighting in all frontlines was thus for the time being stagnated, and millions of soldiers in the trenches and civilians at home all over the world prepared for the uncertain future that lay ahead.
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Promising as it was, it seems that the Britanny bridgehead is nothing but another stalemate a là WW1...
Thus it´s obviously time for a new bridgehead
Effective experienced French army?
As one would expect from a country that learned the lessons from the previous Weltkrieg through the hard way, went through a revolution that opened way for radical military reforms and had a solid and proud military tradition to build upon to.
Oh, the grand Ango-Saxon traditions of French-bashing
The lack of save games from the period stopped me from including maps to the last update, but I´ll provide them for next one. For now these two maps shall suffice.
http://mapsof.net/france/static-maps/jpg/europe-map-1500/full-size
http://www.geographicguide.net/europe/maps-europe/maps/europe-political.jpg
Oh, the grand Ango-Saxon traditions of French-bashing
The lack of save games from the period stopped me from including maps to the last update, but I´ll provide them for next one. For now these two maps shall suffice.
http://mapsof.net/france/static-maps/jpg/europe-map-1500/full-size
http://www.geographicguide.net/europe/maps-europe/maps/europe-political.jpg
Anglo-Saxon? No. It's the Spanish traditions of French-bashing.
Oh, the grand Ango-Saxon traditions of French-bashing
Beware, there are delicate souls that are against this charming sport...
Anglo-Saxon? No. It's the Spanish traditions of French-bashing.
At least you have understandable reasons for that. The American attitude to this subject puzzles me the most.
A good old-fashioned pro/anti-French military flame war might be quite difficult to avoid during the later updates of this AAR
A good old-fashioned pro/anti-French military flame war might be quite difficult to avoid during the later updates of this AAR
Oh. We'll suffer it with our all charming upper and lower lipper stiff.
Strangling the Internationale -
End of the Second Weltkrieg 1943-1944
German officers viewing the Western Front from a distance in Febuary 1943. By this time the armored units equipped with obsolete Sturmpanzerwagens begun to receive new type of panzers as seen in the picture. Their replacement, Oldenburg-class AFV was turretless assault gun designed to act in a twin role of a tank destroyer and infantry support vehicle. Because they were easier and cheaper to manufacture and surprisingly effective in combat despite their initial role as an emergency stopgap replacement,Sturmgeschütz-type AFVs became widely used "workhorses" of the Reichsheer.
Spring thaw - towards a second truce in the East
Ever since the Japanese Empire had occupied Transamur and crushed the Russian revolt in the region in November 1942, the tensions between Moscow and Tokyo had remained high. Despite their restored sphere of influence in Central Asia, the Czar´s military advisors were still weary of the fact that the Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere now streched from India to Manchuria and had a huge common border with Russian Empire and her client states. As all fronts against Mitteleuropa had stagnated, Czar Vladimir reviewed his overall strategic situation: Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine were once again part of Russia, while the Central Asian warlords had also been subdued. Japan was clearly hostile in the East but unwilling to extend the fighting of regional supremacy over the vast land masses of Siberia and Central Asia, while the United States was still officially supporting modified 1914-borders in Eastern Europe and sternly warned Russians from knocking Austria-Hungary out from the war by pressing forward in the Balkans. From the Russian point of view, the humiliation of Brest-Litovsk had been avenged and the historical goal of driving Austria and Ottomans out from the Balkans had also been achieved. Peace now would ease the growing internal dissent of Russia and allow Czar to negotiate with his foes from a position of power.
The mood in Berlin was far more grim. German auxiliary troops of AOG stood alone in southern China, and the democratic and anti-imperialistic Pan-Asian propaganda Japanese spread through the region was alarmingly effective - Japan could always point to India and show how the Princerly Federation had been saved from European meddling and allowed to run the affairs of the Subcontinent as they wanted. The Russian betrayal and following desperate struggle in the East seemed to promise only further bloodshed without visible chances of ending the war in terms dictated by Berlin. And even if Germany could turn the tide and push Czarist forces back, it was quite clear that the populations of White Rhutenia and Ukraine would not welcome their old masters back with open arms. As for Lithuania, the local nationalist agitation that had caused so much trouble for Berlin had made many Germans to think that the country had always been more trouble than it´s worth. And as the vital sea routes to Atlantic were once again open and relatively free from the menace of Syndicalist raiders and U-boats, the eastern half of Mitteleuropa no longer had it´s previous economical value in German strategic planning. The Reichstag remained divided on the issue of Eastern Front: While SDP, FVP, Zentrum and majority of NLP favored a negotiated peace, GDV, IHK and Städischer Verbund argued for continuation of the war and bitterly ranted about the previous backstab Russians had made after the Peace of Kiev. Yet the fact that the country was at war ensured that the ruling wartime cabinet of Wilhelm III had pretty much free hand in the issue, and these key individuals had much more practical approach to the matter.
Winter 1942-1943 was extremely cold, and soldiers and civilians alike suffered tremendously in many areas where see-sawing frontlines had left whole regions in ruins and with most of the villages torched to deny them from the enemy.
They wanted to follow the traditional Prussian foreign policy by securing peace with one opponent in order to focus the military effort against another. "The good times we had the priviledge to enjoy during the last decades are over, and the international situation is descending towards chaos where predicting the final outcome of the current wars is almost impossibe. Thus we must first and foremost ensure that our vital interests in Western Europe are secured, and that organized revolutionary regimes are removed from power in the continent", as Wilhelm III himself summarized his view on the subject. As both sides were now willing to negotiate, United States eagerly offered good offices and urged both sides to find a lasting solution to their spheres of interest in Eastern Europe. While President Long hoped to gain some goodwill among the US home front, his critics asked what Mr. President was planning to do to end the war in France? As the Bretagne peninsula had turned into a network of trenches where Commune and Rio Pact forces faced one another, General Staff was busily planning new operations that would break the stalemate. Creating diplomatic conditions that would finally allow Germans and Austrians to "go over the top" and attack in Flanders and Western Front in general was seen as a necessary step in achieving a breakthrough out from Bretagne.
The veterans of Ostfront were a lot alike their predecessors from 1918: experienced soldiers who were nevertheless tired and bitter of the war, holding little esteem to their political leadership who had used them as mere paws in their geopolitical games of diplomacy.
The Second Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on 24th of March 1943, was therefore many things: a humiliation for Germany, a triumph for Czar Vladimir and Russian nationalists, a diplomatic success for United States, a major geopolitical event for Japan - and a disaster for Commune of France. Berlin and Vienna officially acknowledged Russian annexation of White Rhutenia, Lithuania and Ukraine, as well as guaranteed the borders of Romania and Bulgaria, where Czar Ferdinand I was proclaimed as the new king of Serbia and Greece as these states were annexed by the Bulgarian Empire as new autonomous regions through a personal union. In the end Poland, Galitzia and the officially German Baltic territories of Lettland, Kurland and Estland remained on German sphere of interest, and official propaganda sought to emphasize the fact that "not an inch of German territory has been lost or traded away." To the soldiers who had fought and bled through the harsh winter to save the German eastern sphere of influence there was little time to mourn and wonder had their struggle been in vain: as a repetition of the previous war trains full of troops begun their voyage towards Western Front as soon as the guns in the Eastern Front fell silent. The prize for peace in the East had been heavy, but now the veterans of Ostfront were told that it was a necessary sacrifice so that the real enemy in Paris could be struck down for good.
After the concept of medium "anti-tank tank" had been unsuccesfully tested with the боярин-class, the Russian designers and operational planners noted that the light cavarly tank regiments were lacking punch in the face of growing power of German antitank weapons and improving defensive tactics. In their attempt of creating a vehicle that would be able to keep up with the fast Невский- and Князь-class cavalry tanks despite retaining the armor protection of боярин and adding additional anti-tank capability they finally came up with a vehicle that would most likely have encouraged the Russians to fight on for better terms had it been in wider usage and mass production a year earlier. Великий князь was truly worthy of it´s royal name: with a long-barreled 75mm main gun, sloped armor and excellent speed and off-road capabilities it was the best tank in the Eastern Front and arguelably in the whole world by the time it entered service in first months of 1943. Ironically it never saw widespread usage, as the Russian manufacturing capabilities were geared up on churning out lighter cavalry tanks and the overall production of new tanks was toned down considerably after the Second Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
By now it was increasingly clear that despite their troubled political relationship, Mitteleuropa and Rio Pact would have to coordinate and plan their upcoming summer offensive against Commune together in order to find success. While both sides officially maintained distance from another for domestic policy reasons, General Staff and Großer Generalstab together with their Austrian and La Platan colleaques had studied the overall situation in France since the New Year. It was ultimately agreed that operations would start on 1st of May due promising weather forecasts and partially because of the symbolical importance. The Rio Pact plan was simple: Argentan would be seized by a huge armored offensive, while reformed and reinforced 13th "Black Cat" and 15th "Rattlesnake" Airborne Divisions would make their second combat drop to Le Havre and Argentan to prepare the way for amphibious landing to Le Havre. If successful, the Operation Anvil would encircle the northern part of the Commune armies facing Bretagne to Contentin Peninsula.
After Germany had followed the proven consept of signing a truce in the East in order to win on the West, the preparations for a new strategic offensive were detailed and meticolous, and the lessons from Russian campaigns were studied in detail to learn well from the previous mistakes.
Mitteleuropa had similar aims. Oberste Heeresleitung wanted to drive the Commune troops out from Flanders and repeat the success of 1919 offensives by Fall Matthäus, that aimed to push the front all the way to Marne by a single well-coordinated strike modelled after the Russian operational art that had taught the German military leaders many hard-bought lessons. A joint Austro-Hungarian and German offensive was to be launched simultaneously in southern Italy against the Republic of the Sicilies under the codename "Fall Andreas." In other fronts an eerie calm was slowly descending upon the war-torn world after years of strife and death: Africa was mostly silent, as Ottoman and Egyptian troops slowly pushed the delaying Commune forces towards Tunisia along the Mediterranean coast. In Asia the Japanese watched and waited, while Russian troops were once again transferred back to Far East. All sides knew that the events of the Western Front would have major impact elsewhere, and thus they were followed with keen interest.
The formidable fortresses of French border were often bypassed by advancing Germans or completely destroyed and abandoned by the Commune troops that were rushed to other front to contain the Rio Pact forces.
Without clear knowledge of the German and Rio Pact plans, the Japanese HQ decided to make their next move in Asia on 27th of April, when the reclusive millerianians of Shanqing Tianquo became the next target to be included to the Great Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. As Japanese bombers filled the skies above the mountainous strongholds of the revolutionary movement, their lack of airforce and adequate AA defences soon doomed the otherwise formidable defence into a quick defeat. Now only autonomous colonial subdivision of Allgemeine Ostasiatische Gesellschaft remained out of Japanese reach - for now...Firmly aware that they would be next the Board of Directors of AOG urgently requested reinforcements, but after abandoning Qing Empire and all other warlord states to their fate without firing a shot, the OHL was unwilling to ship men to fight in Asia when the "war is being decided on the West as we speak."
Upgunned M3 Sheridans were still a mainstay in the US armored forces in early 1943. Produced en masse and being easy to maintain, they were gradually phased out as heavier AFV designs became available but nevertheless remained in field service through the end of the conflict.
And then came 1st of May, and the normal calm of the trenches through the Western Front and Bretagne erupted into a storm of steel. As the skies above Le Havre and Argentan filled with parachutes, the reformed mechanized formations of US Army stormed towards Argentan and Caen. They met the best veteran formations of the L'Armée Populaire, and during the following weeks no quarter was asked and nor given. The largest tank battle in world history had begun on the sunny spring of French countryside around Argentan, and it´s course and outcome tell much of the nature and realities of industrial warfare of the second Weltkrieg.
M4 Lee was the long-awaited replacement of M3 Sheridan: as the picture shows, the old design was simply enlarged a little from the hull, slapped full of additional armor with a new 76mm main gun fitted into a new enlarged turret, and powered with a new larger engine that allowed the vehicle to retain at least some of the excellent manouverability of M3. Lees became the new medium tanks of American armored divisions, with Sheridans redesignated into light tank role.
The road and railroad track from St. Pois and Vire through Flers to Argentan itself became a focal point of the armored offensive of Operation Anvil. With heavy and at this point virtually unconstested air superiourity on their side the US forces made steady progress during the first two days against dug-in Commune infantry that could do little but to maintain static defence in a highly unfavourable terrain. Meanwhile the I Marine Amphibious Corps and 15th AB had secured a new beachhead on Le Havre, and increasingly desperate Commune leadership ordered the Admiralty Committee of the Marine de Libération du Peuple to send the Flotte de la Patrie to Channel to disturb the amphibious landings. But as soon as the four battleships, two heavy cruisers, light cruisers and destroyers of the Commune fleet left their harbours, Rio Pact airforces found them and squadrons of CAS planes and torpedo bombers from American carriers dived to attack against the fleet that was caught in a deadtrap in the narrow Channel. Only the light units of the fleet got away, and from now on the Commune no longer had naval power to speak of.
Appearance of Renault G1 was a nasty surprise to US military during the first year of fighting in France. By 1943 the earlier demands for a heavier tank to support the US Army armored formations was succesfully fulfilled when the first Heavy Tank Battalions equipped with new M5 Sherman-type heavy tanks arrived to the front. Armed with a 90mm main gun, the Shermans were slow, cumbersome and heavily armored vehicles that nevertheless proved themselves handy when the US Army met the new French AFV types in open battle around Argentan during the summer.
On the ground the situation was different. Even though the Rio Pact had the command of the air, the soldiers of the L'Armée Populaire were fighting on their home soil and were anxious to get out from the trap they were being pushed into. As the defending infantry formations begun to wear down during the first week of the operation and the southern part of the US pincer movement approached Argentan, Rol-Tanguy decided that he had attritioned the Americans enough and moved in his armored reserves to cover the orderly evaquation of Contentin Peninsula. These forces met the American mechanized corps in a head-on clash on 14th of May 1943.
While the Allied armored cars drove around with 37mm main guns and HMGs as their main weapons, the Commune Panhard Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance was armed with a 75mm L/48 main gun that could take out M3 Sheridan with ease and was also able to penetrate the sides of M4 Lee or M5 Sherman. The scarcity of the available guns dropped even more ambitious design plan that would have mounted this successful armored car with a 90mm main gun.
The Commune armor doctrine had been initially based around the consept of a large combined-arms formation, Division Cuirassée. By 1943 the fortunes of war of the Commune had however turned into a situation where the former well-trained and professional formations of L'Armée Populaire were urgently needed in all sectors of the wavering frontlines to act as firebrigades and local reserves. Thus the Commune leadership was forced to improvise, and the result was a new ad-hoc formation type known as Groupe de Combat. By dividing the large Division Cuirassée into smaller elements while still retaining the original distribution of mechanized infantry, tanks and self-propelled artillery and motorized supply elements the French came up with an organization that was surprisingly similar than the American Combat Command system created after the Brazilian campaign. As small-scale commanders were know given strong authority to use their own tactical initiative on both sides, the battlefield soon fragmented into a series of smaller engagements between battalion- and regimental-size units as a part of the larger struggle for Argentan.
The Commune engineers used the success of G1 as a basis, and quickly updated the original design with a new long-barreled 75mm L/48 main gun that was also used in the new Panhard EBR. This was the last Commune AFV to enter mass production and widespread combat use, and it remained competitive with equivalent German and American designs through the end of the war.
In the end the battle proved many things: Commune tank designs were still good, but the American models had closed the earlier gap of combat effectiveness into so narrow that their superiour numbers were now beginning to dictate the events of the battlefield, especially since the struggling military industry and lack of reserves of Commune made them unable to sustain prolonged battles of attrition. Additionally the fact that Cherbourg and Caen fell proved that Rio Pact had managed to break out from Bretagne for good, by early June the Commune counterattacks ended in failure like during the previous year. The Channel coast was in US hands, even though the armies of Commune had been able to withdraw through the Argentan Gap before the ground forces and Marines in Le Havre could link up.
The most legendary Commune tank, the AMC 42 with it´s 90mm main gun and thick sloped armor was a dreaded opponent of all enemies of the Revolution. The vaguely similar appearance with late-war Renault G1A caused confusion during the Battle of Argentan when many Renault G2s were initially misidentified as "42s" by inexperienced replacement US crews. In reality AMC 42s were rushed to mass production, prone to mechanical breakdowns and used in relatively small numbers through the last phase of the war.
Meanwhile in Italy the armies of the Republic of the Sicilies collapsed under the weight of Austro-German offensive, and Naples fell by 2nd of June. The war was turning into a race to Paris, and the constant allied bombarnment of Commune industrial centers begun to take their toll to Commune capability to resupply their armies. On 21st of June Rio Pact started the final allied offensive, Operation Totalize, by seizing the harbour of Bordeaux and quickly exploiting the offensive by a quick push towards Mediterranean coast. By July the Commune had lost the control of all major French ports.
"Over there" - the volunteer Army of the United States was by 1942 meeting severe manpower shortage due the lack of conscription, and the young appearance of this mortar crew is a telling sign of the ways recruiters begun to look past their fingers to fill their quotas of fresh recruits. Note the Johnson LMG, by 1943 the firepower of US infantry units had grown into new heights due the steadily increasing number of automatic and support weapons.
As the war in Europe was clearly beginning to end, Japan decided to act while Germany was still distracted and invaded AOG territories without formal declaration of war on 4th of July. The move received stern verbal protest from the United States, but privately President Long stated to his closest advisors that "as long as Philippines and Dutch East Indies are left alone and we have an open door to Chinese markets through the Legation Cities, what goes on in China might actually benefit the course of democracy in the region." The German strategy in Chinese theater was initially highly defensive: they opted to fortify key harbours and sought to hold out there until reinforcements could be rushed to the area.
On ne passe pas! A French infantryman near Argentan on summer 1943. The total mobilization of Commune war effort hauled huge percentage of the adult male population of the country to arms - and as a result the heavy battles of 1943 left the L'Armée Populaire into a situation where the only way to reinforce the army was by cannibalizing most battle-worn units as replacement for other formations.
The strategy utilized proved to be a failure due the slow reactions of OHL and the general willigness to commit troops to China. The Second Siege of Tsingtao ended like the first, and the Chinese auxiliary troops who fought remarkably well where once again overwhelmed by superiour Japanese airpower like their brethen in the warlord states. On November 18th the Chinese mainland was free from European influence outside the Legation Cities, and in a surprise move Japan declared that the historical territories of Qing Empire would be able to vote themselves a new Parliament and formulate a unified Federal Republic of China as a part of the Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. As Japan agreed to keep their hands off from Indochina under US insistence, the second Weltkrieg in Asia ended to Peace of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1943. Meanwhile German heavy artillery was within the reach of Paris, and the fate of the surrounded Commune of France was clear even though the Comité de Salut Public refused to surrender. The war was practically over.
Coming up next: maps of the postwar world.
End of the Second Weltkrieg 1943-1944
German officers viewing the Western Front from a distance in Febuary 1943. By this time the armored units equipped with obsolete Sturmpanzerwagens begun to receive new type of panzers as seen in the picture. Their replacement, Oldenburg-class AFV was turretless assault gun designed to act in a twin role of a tank destroyer and infantry support vehicle. Because they were easier and cheaper to manufacture and surprisingly effective in combat despite their initial role as an emergency stopgap replacement,Sturmgeschütz-type AFVs became widely used "workhorses" of the Reichsheer.
Spring thaw - towards a second truce in the East
Ever since the Japanese Empire had occupied Transamur and crushed the Russian revolt in the region in November 1942, the tensions between Moscow and Tokyo had remained high. Despite their restored sphere of influence in Central Asia, the Czar´s military advisors were still weary of the fact that the Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere now streched from India to Manchuria and had a huge common border with Russian Empire and her client states. As all fronts against Mitteleuropa had stagnated, Czar Vladimir reviewed his overall strategic situation: Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine were once again part of Russia, while the Central Asian warlords had also been subdued. Japan was clearly hostile in the East but unwilling to extend the fighting of regional supremacy over the vast land masses of Siberia and Central Asia, while the United States was still officially supporting modified 1914-borders in Eastern Europe and sternly warned Russians from knocking Austria-Hungary out from the war by pressing forward in the Balkans. From the Russian point of view, the humiliation of Brest-Litovsk had been avenged and the historical goal of driving Austria and Ottomans out from the Balkans had also been achieved. Peace now would ease the growing internal dissent of Russia and allow Czar to negotiate with his foes from a position of power.
The mood in Berlin was far more grim. German auxiliary troops of AOG stood alone in southern China, and the democratic and anti-imperialistic Pan-Asian propaganda Japanese spread through the region was alarmingly effective - Japan could always point to India and show how the Princerly Federation had been saved from European meddling and allowed to run the affairs of the Subcontinent as they wanted. The Russian betrayal and following desperate struggle in the East seemed to promise only further bloodshed without visible chances of ending the war in terms dictated by Berlin. And even if Germany could turn the tide and push Czarist forces back, it was quite clear that the populations of White Rhutenia and Ukraine would not welcome their old masters back with open arms. As for Lithuania, the local nationalist agitation that had caused so much trouble for Berlin had made many Germans to think that the country had always been more trouble than it´s worth. And as the vital sea routes to Atlantic were once again open and relatively free from the menace of Syndicalist raiders and U-boats, the eastern half of Mitteleuropa no longer had it´s previous economical value in German strategic planning. The Reichstag remained divided on the issue of Eastern Front: While SDP, FVP, Zentrum and majority of NLP favored a negotiated peace, GDV, IHK and Städischer Verbund argued for continuation of the war and bitterly ranted about the previous backstab Russians had made after the Peace of Kiev. Yet the fact that the country was at war ensured that the ruling wartime cabinet of Wilhelm III had pretty much free hand in the issue, and these key individuals had much more practical approach to the matter.
Winter 1942-1943 was extremely cold, and soldiers and civilians alike suffered tremendously in many areas where see-sawing frontlines had left whole regions in ruins and with most of the villages torched to deny them from the enemy.
They wanted to follow the traditional Prussian foreign policy by securing peace with one opponent in order to focus the military effort against another. "The good times we had the priviledge to enjoy during the last decades are over, and the international situation is descending towards chaos where predicting the final outcome of the current wars is almost impossibe. Thus we must first and foremost ensure that our vital interests in Western Europe are secured, and that organized revolutionary regimes are removed from power in the continent", as Wilhelm III himself summarized his view on the subject. As both sides were now willing to negotiate, United States eagerly offered good offices and urged both sides to find a lasting solution to their spheres of interest in Eastern Europe. While President Long hoped to gain some goodwill among the US home front, his critics asked what Mr. President was planning to do to end the war in France? As the Bretagne peninsula had turned into a network of trenches where Commune and Rio Pact forces faced one another, General Staff was busily planning new operations that would break the stalemate. Creating diplomatic conditions that would finally allow Germans and Austrians to "go over the top" and attack in Flanders and Western Front in general was seen as a necessary step in achieving a breakthrough out from Bretagne.
The veterans of Ostfront were a lot alike their predecessors from 1918: experienced soldiers who were nevertheless tired and bitter of the war, holding little esteem to their political leadership who had used them as mere paws in their geopolitical games of diplomacy.
The Second Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on 24th of March 1943, was therefore many things: a humiliation for Germany, a triumph for Czar Vladimir and Russian nationalists, a diplomatic success for United States, a major geopolitical event for Japan - and a disaster for Commune of France. Berlin and Vienna officially acknowledged Russian annexation of White Rhutenia, Lithuania and Ukraine, as well as guaranteed the borders of Romania and Bulgaria, where Czar Ferdinand I was proclaimed as the new king of Serbia and Greece as these states were annexed by the Bulgarian Empire as new autonomous regions through a personal union. In the end Poland, Galitzia and the officially German Baltic territories of Lettland, Kurland and Estland remained on German sphere of interest, and official propaganda sought to emphasize the fact that "not an inch of German territory has been lost or traded away." To the soldiers who had fought and bled through the harsh winter to save the German eastern sphere of influence there was little time to mourn and wonder had their struggle been in vain: as a repetition of the previous war trains full of troops begun their voyage towards Western Front as soon as the guns in the Eastern Front fell silent. The prize for peace in the East had been heavy, but now the veterans of Ostfront were told that it was a necessary sacrifice so that the real enemy in Paris could be struck down for good.
After the concept of medium "anti-tank tank" had been unsuccesfully tested with the боярин-class, the Russian designers and operational planners noted that the light cavarly tank regiments were lacking punch in the face of growing power of German antitank weapons and improving defensive tactics. In their attempt of creating a vehicle that would be able to keep up with the fast Невский- and Князь-class cavalry tanks despite retaining the armor protection of боярин and adding additional anti-tank capability they finally came up with a vehicle that would most likely have encouraged the Russians to fight on for better terms had it been in wider usage and mass production a year earlier. Великий князь was truly worthy of it´s royal name: with a long-barreled 75mm main gun, sloped armor and excellent speed and off-road capabilities it was the best tank in the Eastern Front and arguelably in the whole world by the time it entered service in first months of 1943. Ironically it never saw widespread usage, as the Russian manufacturing capabilities were geared up on churning out lighter cavalry tanks and the overall production of new tanks was toned down considerably after the Second Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
By now it was increasingly clear that despite their troubled political relationship, Mitteleuropa and Rio Pact would have to coordinate and plan their upcoming summer offensive against Commune together in order to find success. While both sides officially maintained distance from another for domestic policy reasons, General Staff and Großer Generalstab together with their Austrian and La Platan colleaques had studied the overall situation in France since the New Year. It was ultimately agreed that operations would start on 1st of May due promising weather forecasts and partially because of the symbolical importance. The Rio Pact plan was simple: Argentan would be seized by a huge armored offensive, while reformed and reinforced 13th "Black Cat" and 15th "Rattlesnake" Airborne Divisions would make their second combat drop to Le Havre and Argentan to prepare the way for amphibious landing to Le Havre. If successful, the Operation Anvil would encircle the northern part of the Commune armies facing Bretagne to Contentin Peninsula.
After Germany had followed the proven consept of signing a truce in the East in order to win on the West, the preparations for a new strategic offensive were detailed and meticolous, and the lessons from Russian campaigns were studied in detail to learn well from the previous mistakes.
Mitteleuropa had similar aims. Oberste Heeresleitung wanted to drive the Commune troops out from Flanders and repeat the success of 1919 offensives by Fall Matthäus, that aimed to push the front all the way to Marne by a single well-coordinated strike modelled after the Russian operational art that had taught the German military leaders many hard-bought lessons. A joint Austro-Hungarian and German offensive was to be launched simultaneously in southern Italy against the Republic of the Sicilies under the codename "Fall Andreas." In other fronts an eerie calm was slowly descending upon the war-torn world after years of strife and death: Africa was mostly silent, as Ottoman and Egyptian troops slowly pushed the delaying Commune forces towards Tunisia along the Mediterranean coast. In Asia the Japanese watched and waited, while Russian troops were once again transferred back to Far East. All sides knew that the events of the Western Front would have major impact elsewhere, and thus they were followed with keen interest.
The formidable fortresses of French border were often bypassed by advancing Germans or completely destroyed and abandoned by the Commune troops that were rushed to other front to contain the Rio Pact forces.
Without clear knowledge of the German and Rio Pact plans, the Japanese HQ decided to make their next move in Asia on 27th of April, when the reclusive millerianians of Shanqing Tianquo became the next target to be included to the Great Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. As Japanese bombers filled the skies above the mountainous strongholds of the revolutionary movement, their lack of airforce and adequate AA defences soon doomed the otherwise formidable defence into a quick defeat. Now only autonomous colonial subdivision of Allgemeine Ostasiatische Gesellschaft remained out of Japanese reach - for now...Firmly aware that they would be next the Board of Directors of AOG urgently requested reinforcements, but after abandoning Qing Empire and all other warlord states to their fate without firing a shot, the OHL was unwilling to ship men to fight in Asia when the "war is being decided on the West as we speak."
Upgunned M3 Sheridans were still a mainstay in the US armored forces in early 1943. Produced en masse and being easy to maintain, they were gradually phased out as heavier AFV designs became available but nevertheless remained in field service through the end of the conflict.
And then came 1st of May, and the normal calm of the trenches through the Western Front and Bretagne erupted into a storm of steel. As the skies above Le Havre and Argentan filled with parachutes, the reformed mechanized formations of US Army stormed towards Argentan and Caen. They met the best veteran formations of the L'Armée Populaire, and during the following weeks no quarter was asked and nor given. The largest tank battle in world history had begun on the sunny spring of French countryside around Argentan, and it´s course and outcome tell much of the nature and realities of industrial warfare of the second Weltkrieg.
M4 Lee was the long-awaited replacement of M3 Sheridan: as the picture shows, the old design was simply enlarged a little from the hull, slapped full of additional armor with a new 76mm main gun fitted into a new enlarged turret, and powered with a new larger engine that allowed the vehicle to retain at least some of the excellent manouverability of M3. Lees became the new medium tanks of American armored divisions, with Sheridans redesignated into light tank role.
The road and railroad track from St. Pois and Vire through Flers to Argentan itself became a focal point of the armored offensive of Operation Anvil. With heavy and at this point virtually unconstested air superiourity on their side the US forces made steady progress during the first two days against dug-in Commune infantry that could do little but to maintain static defence in a highly unfavourable terrain. Meanwhile the I Marine Amphibious Corps and 15th AB had secured a new beachhead on Le Havre, and increasingly desperate Commune leadership ordered the Admiralty Committee of the Marine de Libération du Peuple to send the Flotte de la Patrie to Channel to disturb the amphibious landings. But as soon as the four battleships, two heavy cruisers, light cruisers and destroyers of the Commune fleet left their harbours, Rio Pact airforces found them and squadrons of CAS planes and torpedo bombers from American carriers dived to attack against the fleet that was caught in a deadtrap in the narrow Channel. Only the light units of the fleet got away, and from now on the Commune no longer had naval power to speak of.
Appearance of Renault G1 was a nasty surprise to US military during the first year of fighting in France. By 1943 the earlier demands for a heavier tank to support the US Army armored formations was succesfully fulfilled when the first Heavy Tank Battalions equipped with new M5 Sherman-type heavy tanks arrived to the front. Armed with a 90mm main gun, the Shermans were slow, cumbersome and heavily armored vehicles that nevertheless proved themselves handy when the US Army met the new French AFV types in open battle around Argentan during the summer.
On the ground the situation was different. Even though the Rio Pact had the command of the air, the soldiers of the L'Armée Populaire were fighting on their home soil and were anxious to get out from the trap they were being pushed into. As the defending infantry formations begun to wear down during the first week of the operation and the southern part of the US pincer movement approached Argentan, Rol-Tanguy decided that he had attritioned the Americans enough and moved in his armored reserves to cover the orderly evaquation of Contentin Peninsula. These forces met the American mechanized corps in a head-on clash on 14th of May 1943.
While the Allied armored cars drove around with 37mm main guns and HMGs as their main weapons, the Commune Panhard Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance was armed with a 75mm L/48 main gun that could take out M3 Sheridan with ease and was also able to penetrate the sides of M4 Lee or M5 Sherman. The scarcity of the available guns dropped even more ambitious design plan that would have mounted this successful armored car with a 90mm main gun.
The Commune armor doctrine had been initially based around the consept of a large combined-arms formation, Division Cuirassée. By 1943 the fortunes of war of the Commune had however turned into a situation where the former well-trained and professional formations of L'Armée Populaire were urgently needed in all sectors of the wavering frontlines to act as firebrigades and local reserves. Thus the Commune leadership was forced to improvise, and the result was a new ad-hoc formation type known as Groupe de Combat. By dividing the large Division Cuirassée into smaller elements while still retaining the original distribution of mechanized infantry, tanks and self-propelled artillery and motorized supply elements the French came up with an organization that was surprisingly similar than the American Combat Command system created after the Brazilian campaign. As small-scale commanders were know given strong authority to use their own tactical initiative on both sides, the battlefield soon fragmented into a series of smaller engagements between battalion- and regimental-size units as a part of the larger struggle for Argentan.
The Commune engineers used the success of G1 as a basis, and quickly updated the original design with a new long-barreled 75mm L/48 main gun that was also used in the new Panhard EBR. This was the last Commune AFV to enter mass production and widespread combat use, and it remained competitive with equivalent German and American designs through the end of the war.
In the end the battle proved many things: Commune tank designs were still good, but the American models had closed the earlier gap of combat effectiveness into so narrow that their superiour numbers were now beginning to dictate the events of the battlefield, especially since the struggling military industry and lack of reserves of Commune made them unable to sustain prolonged battles of attrition. Additionally the fact that Cherbourg and Caen fell proved that Rio Pact had managed to break out from Bretagne for good, by early June the Commune counterattacks ended in failure like during the previous year. The Channel coast was in US hands, even though the armies of Commune had been able to withdraw through the Argentan Gap before the ground forces and Marines in Le Havre could link up.
The most legendary Commune tank, the AMC 42 with it´s 90mm main gun and thick sloped armor was a dreaded opponent of all enemies of the Revolution. The vaguely similar appearance with late-war Renault G1A caused confusion during the Battle of Argentan when many Renault G2s were initially misidentified as "42s" by inexperienced replacement US crews. In reality AMC 42s were rushed to mass production, prone to mechanical breakdowns and used in relatively small numbers through the last phase of the war.
Meanwhile in Italy the armies of the Republic of the Sicilies collapsed under the weight of Austro-German offensive, and Naples fell by 2nd of June. The war was turning into a race to Paris, and the constant allied bombarnment of Commune industrial centers begun to take their toll to Commune capability to resupply their armies. On 21st of June Rio Pact started the final allied offensive, Operation Totalize, by seizing the harbour of Bordeaux and quickly exploiting the offensive by a quick push towards Mediterranean coast. By July the Commune had lost the control of all major French ports.
"Over there" - the volunteer Army of the United States was by 1942 meeting severe manpower shortage due the lack of conscription, and the young appearance of this mortar crew is a telling sign of the ways recruiters begun to look past their fingers to fill their quotas of fresh recruits. Note the Johnson LMG, by 1943 the firepower of US infantry units had grown into new heights due the steadily increasing number of automatic and support weapons.
As the war in Europe was clearly beginning to end, Japan decided to act while Germany was still distracted and invaded AOG territories without formal declaration of war on 4th of July. The move received stern verbal protest from the United States, but privately President Long stated to his closest advisors that "as long as Philippines and Dutch East Indies are left alone and we have an open door to Chinese markets through the Legation Cities, what goes on in China might actually benefit the course of democracy in the region." The German strategy in Chinese theater was initially highly defensive: they opted to fortify key harbours and sought to hold out there until reinforcements could be rushed to the area.
On ne passe pas! A French infantryman near Argentan on summer 1943. The total mobilization of Commune war effort hauled huge percentage of the adult male population of the country to arms - and as a result the heavy battles of 1943 left the L'Armée Populaire into a situation where the only way to reinforce the army was by cannibalizing most battle-worn units as replacement for other formations.
The strategy utilized proved to be a failure due the slow reactions of OHL and the general willigness to commit troops to China. The Second Siege of Tsingtao ended like the first, and the Chinese auxiliary troops who fought remarkably well where once again overwhelmed by superiour Japanese airpower like their brethen in the warlord states. On November 18th the Chinese mainland was free from European influence outside the Legation Cities, and in a surprise move Japan declared that the historical territories of Qing Empire would be able to vote themselves a new Parliament and formulate a unified Federal Republic of China as a part of the Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. As Japan agreed to keep their hands off from Indochina under US insistence, the second Weltkrieg in Asia ended to Peace of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1943. Meanwhile German heavy artillery was within the reach of Paris, and the fate of the surrounded Commune of France was clear even though the Comité de Salut Public refused to surrender. The war was practically over.
Coming up next: maps of the postwar world.
Postwar Situation - The World on January 1944
"That´s all, folks"
The game is done, and this AAR is complete. Feel free to ask any questions and comment and thanks for following.
Manpower next to nil (many divisions disbanded to reach even that figure), surrounded and out of luck - Commune of France fought to the last but suffered defeat nevertheless.
German armies are poised to drive to Paris.
The volunteer army of United States kept the frontlines in Europe relatively narrow with a total of 114 Rio Pact divisions fighting in the continent.
Postwar Europe - Bretagne and Normandie have already declared their independence, and Long stated that all territories liberated by Rio Pact and willing to declare independence shall be free to do so.
Guinea, the lucky survivor of the turmoil of Weltkrieg.
Japan is still looking for suitable cabinet for Burma, but otherwise Southeastern Asia looks relatively stable.
(IMO Fengtien Republic should inherit China through event if Japan wins like this, but divide and rule has always been a good policy)
A position in the Pacific was a holiday ticket for American forces during the Second Weltkrieg.
Rio Pact unified against the Bolivian threat.
Canada will regain her independence once the war in Europe is over.
Long-MacArthur jun...the government of the United States of America, leader of the Rio Pact.
Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, the democratic community of Asian nations opposed to European imperialism.
The notorious court of Czar Vladimir.
The last hope of free workers of the world - Comité de Salut Public
German Empire - after suffering one crushing defeat after another they are still the most prominent global superpower (points-wise, that is, they would have "won" had they been able to retain Britain)
"That´s all, folks"
The game is done, and this AAR is complete. Feel free to ask any questions and comment and thanks for following.
Manpower next to nil (many divisions disbanded to reach even that figure), surrounded and out of luck - Commune of France fought to the last but suffered defeat nevertheless.
German armies are poised to drive to Paris.
The volunteer army of United States kept the frontlines in Europe relatively narrow with a total of 114 Rio Pact divisions fighting in the continent.
Postwar Europe - Bretagne and Normandie have already declared their independence, and Long stated that all territories liberated by Rio Pact and willing to declare independence shall be free to do so.
Guinea, the lucky survivor of the turmoil of Weltkrieg.
Japan is still looking for suitable cabinet for Burma, but otherwise Southeastern Asia looks relatively stable.
(IMO Fengtien Republic should inherit China through event if Japan wins like this, but divide and rule has always been a good policy)
A position in the Pacific was a holiday ticket for American forces during the Second Weltkrieg.
Rio Pact unified against the Bolivian threat.
Canada will regain her independence once the war in Europe is over.
Long-MacArthur jun...the government of the United States of America, leader of the Rio Pact.
Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, the democratic community of Asian nations opposed to European imperialism.
The notorious court of Czar Vladimir.
The last hope of free workers of the world - Comité de Salut Public
German Empire - after suffering one crushing defeat after another they are still the most prominent global superpower (points-wise, that is, they would have "won" had they been able to retain Britain)
