A young man’s war at a desk - Germany 1936

[Animum24]

As 1937 is a very uneventful year for Germany, I will just skip the year and begin with a summary of 1937 in January of 1938.
The year wasn't to eventful internally but throughout the world, many things happened.
One thing I forgot to mention earlier: I originally didn't plan to publish this AAR and I have already played until 1939.
Because of that, the game in the screenshots is in german and I will most likely not change it because I don't know how. I will always try to translate the more important info on them, but since there is not such a big difference between german and english and most readers know the game by heart, this shouldn't pose much of a problem

 

[guillec87]

when you say artillery to the AK, you mean the Art brigades for the Divisions or Artillery-Division as the Soviets had?

 

[Animum24]

when you say artillery to the AK, you mean the Art brigades for the Divisions or Artillery-Division as the Soviets had?

At this point I'm still in the progress of adding artillery brigades to my divisions. I'm doing this by waiting for enough brigades to be finished to fill out all 5 divisions of my standard infantry corps.

 

[Animum24]

Berlin, 1.1.1938


The past year had been a busy one but not very interesting.

Some things have been accomplished over the year. First and for all, the basis of the Heer is finally done. Every Infantry division in the army has been equipped with artillery. Additionally, the Transportflotte that had been laid down at the end of 1936 has been completed in April. This now increases the ability of the high command to provide enough troops for Ostpreussen to defend it from the poles.

A tragic accident happened in May. The Hindenburg, a passenger airship capable of crossing the Atlantic, crashed whilst landing near New York. Many passengers died during the tragedy and it would be one of the last times that passenger airships would cross the big pond.

In August, after one year of development and production, all the light tanks in the army had been replaced by our heavier and more modern tanks, called the Panzer III.

The Panzer IIIa, a lot more capable of killing enemy tanks​

Around the world some things had happened. In October the Japanese annexed some minor neighbor. I had already forgotten the name of this small and insignificant country.

An event of far bigger significance was the Spanish Civil War. At the beginning of the war we had sent many supplies to the Nationalists under Franco and even some voluntaries had been fighting on their side. As a result the war had been going fairly well for Franco and in May his army had almost encircled the Republican capital of Madrid.

But then a not explainable collapse happened to the nationalist forces. During the battle of Madrid, the filthy communists on the side of the Republic launched a counter offensive that managed to split Franco’s forces in half. Prior to that, he also hadn’t been able to finish off the forces in Galicia so he lacked the reserves to rejoin his armies via a strong counterattack.

Over the summer, the Nationalists were pushed back from Madrid and the men remaining in Catalonia were crushed in the Pyrenees along the french border.

The rest of the nationalist army held on bravely over the fall but on the 4th of November they were forced to surrender after having lost their major cities.

The Spanish Civil War in 1937, what was Franco doing?​

Not many of the volunteers that had gone to support Franco’s side "on their holidays" had come back and those who did were mostly maimed from the fighting.

With this devastating loss the communists now have a foothold in the south of Europe. This fact worries the staff and the political leadership. Some time in the future, something will need to be done about that.

As for me, the year was a very good one. I had become more and more used to the work and had improved my way of handling the different tasks that were given to me by my superiors.

And as that happened the significance and complexity of the tasks rose.

Today I was sitting in a very important and secret meeting. For weeks there had been rumors in the air about our small southern neighbor Austria. Once a mighty nation it had suffered greatly from the great war. They had been degraded from Empire to a minor nation in the Alps. And to make matters worse, they had not been allowed to join the German Empire by the treaty of Versailles.

But since this treaty was more or less not longer in place, voices in Austria were rising that they should join the Reich.

Today we talked about that matter with the rest of the government. One thing that had stood in our way was the position of Italy. Especially Mussolini had seen Austria as a barrier to Germany. A barrier not needed anymore, as seen by the Führer. Several agreements had some out of a series of diplomatic meetings between the two leaders. One of those was the guarantee by the Italians that we would be given every freedom we needed with Austria.
During those diplomatic meetings, it was even considered to sign an alliance between the two fascist nations but talks broke down over the many differences the two rulers still had.

The Duce and the Führer together in Rome,
sharing the same ideology but not the same ambitions​

After the meeting today, General Beck came up to me with a new task, a special one. I was to help him with sketching a plan to force a Anschluss, if the Austrian government won’t fold to internal and external pressure.

The matter is very difficult. If the peaceful way would fail, we would have to act swiftly. Our actions mustn’t under any circumstances look like an aggressive invasion to the French or British nor to the Austrians themselves.

I’m now sitting at my desk and am still thinking about this even though it is already half past eleven.

But now I’m going to finish this entry and go to bed to be well rested for tomorrow. I will need the sleep if I’m going to complete this task successfully.

 

[guillec87]

a good update! what were the others technologies researched?

 

[Animum24]

a good update! what were the others technologies researched?

Thanks!
Since I've played this 2 weeks ago, I don't really remember. But I can tell what I'm focussing on:

First of all, I'm teching all things but cav and mp in the infantry section.
Concerning the tanks, I focus on light and medium and won't touch heavies or super-heavies. Artillery and AT are researched as well.

I go for everything in fighters or bombers apart from the strategic stuff. They are too expansive for my taste and aren't worth it as Germany.

Shipwise, I'm going all for Cruisers and Battleships.

Industry wise, I research everything apart from the AA tech. I have a strong fighter coverage, so I won't need it.

I haven't gone for anything in the secret tab, maybe will, but now I lack the LS to do so.

Doctrine wise I'm going for pretty much everything in land and air apart from the stuff concerning CAS/CAG since I don't use them/need them.

Sea stuff, I've gone for the battleship things and the cruiser thing, but only level one.

Ahh, it is just so relaxing to return to this forum after having spent a considerable amount of time today to participate on the HOI4 shitstorm that is happening right now.
This is just way more fun!

 

[weresloth]

Damn, the nationalists actually won?! Looks like Barbarossa might be a two-front war.

 

[Animum24]

Damn, the nationalists actually won?! Looks like Barbarossa might be a two-front war.

Yes, maybe. Maybe something unexpectedly bad happens to Spain in late 1940.
In general though, this is very interesting since the Republicans never won when I played Germany in the past.

 

[Animum24]

Wien, 9.1.1938


And in the end everything came differently and especially a lot faster than expected.
My phone rang in the night from the 7th to the 8th at 3am. It was Marie who informed me that the Abwehr, our secret service, had obtained information that the austrian national-socialist would begin to seize power in the morning with the help of their paramilitary forces and the few agents we had sent over there to support them. Quickly I arrived at the office and was informed that we would take a special military train to the austrian border. The mountain division stationed in the Alps near the border, several SA-units and the police forces in the border regions were mobilized and quickly redeployed on the austrian border.

The train left the station at 5am with every member of staff and especially the Führer with his most important men. The train we were on was specially developed to function as a mobile HQ. As a result we were always up to date on the current situation on the border. Our units were told to be on stand by until new commands would be issued, but they were also told to be fully equipped and ready for combat.

At 6am, the train was going through Eastern Germany at full speed, messages from our agents in Austria reached us that the paramilitary units had begun to move on governmental and administrative buildings. So far no resistance was taken up against them and the police force stood down or even helped them.

At 7am, we cruised along through Saxony and were nearing the border to Bavaria, where we would then decide how to move on depending on the situation, we received the first messages noting that austrian paramilitaries had begun to open the borders. This opportunity was at once taken and the Führer ordered every SA- and police unit to cross the border if not opposed. General Beck followed this and tasked me to spread the order for the available army units to cross the border as well.

Border guards removing a turnpike to let our units through.​

Not even half an hour later, we received messages that stated that the units were not only unopposed but were even greeted by cheering Austrians filling the sides of the roads. With this result, a lot of pressure fell of the traveling officers and politicians and shortly after, it was quickly decided to cross the border at Braunau, the Führer’s birth place.

At 10am, Braunau was reached and the border-crossing was publicly celebrated. After that, we were on our way to Wien, whilst the Führer enjoyed presenting himself to the public. Once the staff arrived there, it was our mission to meet with the austrian chief of staff and the supreme commander to plan the next steps of this Anschluss.

It was quickly decided to merge the existing austrian air force with the Luftwaffe. The newly acquired fighters and pilots would form the basis of 2. Jagdgeschwader.
The existing paramilitary groups were recruited into SS-units and would be equipped to form a new fighting division. The two mountaineer-divisions were integrated into the Heer and would form the I. Gebirgsjäger-Korps together with the already existing division.
The motorized regiments of the austrian army would be the basis of a completely new motorized corps in the Heer. The rest of the austrian army was for now either tasked to do administrative work or were put into reserve as we couldn’t afford to equip them properly with heavy weaponry.
Those orders were put together yesterday and finalized today in the early morning. Now they are carried out and the affected units are already preparing to be redeployed to other parts of the Reich.

Whilst all this is happening, the other western nations are weary of us but haven’t raised any voices against this annexation. In their mind, as well as in ours, Austria belongs to the Reich and as a result they won’t have anything against us, especially since this operation took place so peacefully. Additionally the Austrians have expressed their will to join the Reich multiple times.

Now I will have to finish this entry. It is rather a short one for such a big event. But my duty as an officer of the Wehrmacht calls and I’m expected to join the rest of the staff in a diner to celebrate the unplanned and unexpected success of this operation. Later on the Führer will also hold a speech to honor every participant of this operation.

 

[guillec87]

Den Eintritt meiner Heimat in das deutsche Reich...

 

[Animum24]

Sorry for the lack of updates over the weekend. But as a football fanatic, I've been busy with watching one game after another. Additionally, uni is very busy at the moment as well and as a result there is barely any time left to write this AAR or play.
But I think there will be an update later on!

EDIT: decided to finish the update and post it now

 

[Animum24]

Berlin, 3.7.1938


The 6 months following the integration of Austria were busy ones at the staff.

A bit more than a month after the Anschluss, on the 23rd of February, the heads of the governments of the big powers in Europe had assembled over yet another territorial dispute.

In Munich the Führer argued with Britain, France ,and Italy about the Sudetenland. My family originates from this former Austrian territory now held by the Czechs, not invited to the round table, so this conference was particularly interesting for me. The Sudetenland is primarily inhabited by the german-speaking Sudetendeutsche. But after the Great War, even though the population voted for joining the Reich, the province was given to the newly formed Czechoslovakia. Since the Führer has been successful by integrating Austria, also this time he had high hopes for a favorable agreement towards Germany.

A postcard of the historical event in Munich, they've messed up the date!​

After some days, this agreement was reached and the Wehrmacht occupied the territory under cheers from the german speaking population of the area. If the agreement would not have been set, we were even prepared to go to war over this thin stretch of land. Even though we didn’t have enough troops in place at the time, there were already plans for moving the required divisions into their positions.

And now that tension had risen considerably and the Czechs are more and more hostile towards us, the Heer had called for the formation of the 5. Armee. This new army to defend our borders to the south in case of war, would be led by one of the most capable men in the Wehrmacht, Walter Model, until recently employed at the staff of the Heer.

OOB of 5. Armee​

This army is considered to be the most capable strike force of the whole Wehrmacht. Consisting of VI. and XI. A.K., I. and II. Panzerkorps and I. Gebirgskorps.

XI. A.K. had been redeployed from the BeNeLux borders, whilst the rest of the units have been mobilized from the area in the south of Poland or Lower Bavaria, where they have been stationed for the past years.

In case of war this army would have the task to overwhelm the not to weak Czechoslovakian forces and afterwards move on the border with Poland. I still however hope that it won’t come to war within 2 years because I doubt that our military would be ready to face the full force of the western powers, whilst split in a 2 front war.

A step in being able to do so was when we were finally able to lift the costs of ordering and building an additional naval squadron. During the past months, 2 new battleships, 4 new heavy cruisers and 6 more light cruisers were laid down in the dry-docks on the costs of Germany.

Additionally we were able to substantially increase the size of the Luftwaffe as well. The air force now consists of 3 Luftflotten of tactical bombers. But the more important thing is that we commissioned 3 new fighter units to form our 3. Jagdgeschwader.

And those numbers are by far not final. Currently we are still increasing the Luftwaffe and a lot of the military's budget goes into increasing the numbers of our fighters. Goering isn’t to delighted since he’d prefer more tactical bombers, but some of the other officer at the Luftwaffe consider us on a good way to be able to achieve air superiority over Germany and eventually over the whole of Europe in case of war.

Personally, the last months were really stressful. But now I have time to rest. For the next weeks, I’m going on a small vacation to the Baltic Sea together with some friends from Munich. We have rented a small house on the coast and are going to enjoy two weeks of sun and freedom. After that I will be back in Berlin and resume my hard work.

 

[guillec87]

don't you have all of your Panzer forces under one command? besides, while I understand your reasons for 2xInf + 2xArt Divisions, your Panzer Units are really underpowered...

 

[Animum24]

don't you have all of your Panzer forces under one command? besides, while I understand your reasons for 2xInf + 2xArt Divisions, your Panzer Units are really underpowered...

No I don't. I prefer it this way. Normally I assign my armies to some sort of tactical goal they will need to achieve and if I need more tanks but also Infantry for that, I group them together. In addition, I try to go for positioning of the units when I group them into an army. You will see this in use when the war starts.
On the tanks: Yes they are understrength, but not any time longer. I forgot when exactly because it is some time between me writing this and me playing the campaign, but I didn't unlock SpArt until late 1938. I will add those on my tank division and then they will pack some punch.
Additionally, as soon as I get the reduction in width for tanks and Superior Firepower, I will add extra tank battalions to the divs to increase their hardness and hard attack.

 

[Animum24]

Berlin, 31.12.1938


It is the first time that I didn’t spend Christmas and New Year at home with my family. But this year I couldn’t manage to go home over the holidays. So I’m spending the time together with the other young officers and secretaries of the staff and the ministry. Tonight we will all be going out together to the most famous dancing hall in the city. Klaus, a senior officer, had managed to get free entrance to the New Year’s party there. As a result, I have asked Mrs. Albrecht, my landlady, to clean my official uniform. Normally, I would go out to such occasions in a smoking or normal suit, but Klaus had set the dress code to our parade uniforms since "we were proud representatives of the Wehrmacht". I personally don’t know what to think about that, but in the end I just went with it. Additionally our best uniforms really look pretty nice and are rather comfy.

Going out together, we could also celebrate our very successful work of the past months. It was actually a miracle that we are celebrating still in peace this year. The Führer and especially the Hungarians had really stretched the possibilities of peaceful annexations in the last months.

After the Sudetenland, the western powers had already been quite weary of our expansion. And in October, the Hungarians started a dispute over parts of Slovakia.

Germany, November 1938​

I had already sent out the orders to the Heer and Luftwaffe to prepare for the execution of our preemptive strike and had the attacking order already in my hands, ready to be sent to the troops at the front, but in the last possible order the Czechs conceded to our demands and Czechoslovakia was no more. The Hungarians occupied there claims and we did so with the rest. In Slovakia, a collaborative regime was established, which governed the country semi-independent.

After the occupation, the british and french quickly signed a pact with Poland. In case of aggression, the two western powers would guarantee Poland’s independence. Additionally they all together signed an alliance. The members, consisting of France, Poland, and the British Commonwealth, quickly got the name „Allies“ in the press.

In the same time, Heeresgruppe I was reorganized and 5. Armee was redeployed to Silesia on the polish border to the south. It was also begun to plan a possible strike on Poland in case of aggression by either side. The principle of this strike was speed to not give the allies, if they decided to honour their pact, a possibility to strike against us in the west whilst our forces were occupied with Poland. Our available Panzer-Korps should give us the ultimate advantage in speed over our enemy. To further ensure this advantage, IV. Panzer-Korps had been created and the equipment for the needed tank divisions was ordered. Additionally it had been decided to equip our tanks with regiments of artillery mounted on top of our old Panzer I chassis. Those units would pack quite a punch against fortified positions, would be able to keep up with our tanks, and go closer to the front for more accuracy and support.

A Sturmpanzer I "Bison", a bit more "bang" than the Panzer I
​

In addition, we estimated that the poles would only field a small army equipped with outdated weapons. Our advantage here would be too significant to be countered by them. The polish air force would also be no match against the modern and well equipped Luftwaffe, which should be able to destroy the polish airplanes on the first few days of a possible attack and then rain hell on fortified positions after that. It was estimated that the conquest of Poland would take about 2 months, only one moth at best estimate. A set plan would have to be worked on and our best planners were already tasked with such.

Tonight, I won’t be able to really drink much and celebrate to long. Tomorrow, I’m expected to be at the office very early. There had been talks with Lithuania over the former german territory around the river Memel, that had been ceded to the newly established country after the Great war.

Yesterday the Führer had demanded this territory to be returned to the Reich. Since then the ambassadors of the countries and the foreign ministers had been in talks about the return. On the 2nd, an ultimatum would end, after which 1. Armee would be ordered to take our claims forcefully from the Lithuanians. Let’s see how this is going to develop.

I’m sure that this is the last New Year’s party in peace that we will enjoy in the next years. I feel like a war is drawing ever closer and I don’t know if I like it or not. Of course my job is to help wage war on the enemies of Germany, but from the accounts of my father and other veterans I think another big war in Europe or even the World could be the downfall of us all.

 

[guillec87]

it seems Peace is almost over now....

 

[Animum24]

Hello readers,
I'm back and no, this AAR is not dead. After some stressful months in my life in general, I'm starting to have more free-time from day to day.
And I hope to be able able to write an update in the course of this week.
I'm terribly sorry for not having written one in almost 2 months. But now I'm back at it again. I hope to start the war by the end of this week and then I will experiment how I'm going to tell you about the events of the war. I'm still not quite sure how.
Either I will write a summary of the several operations and campaigns that would vary in length and detail or I will try to regularly summarize weeks/months of fighting chronologically and ignoring the coherence of the events in operations/campaigns much like Uriah does in his excellent "Doppelgänger" series. (Though I hope to be done with it in less than 4 years.)
Which form would you prefer/enjoy more? Let me know.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Animum24]

Berlin, 30. 8. 1939


I'm writing this as I'm not able to close my eyes. I’m feeling pretty nervous right now. It is coming ever closer. And this year had been always under the premise of this big bang at the end of it. It is not avoidable anymore and our superiors are not willing to do so. We are ready to draw our swords and march of into war.

Tomorrow in the morning I will board a secret train to the polish border. It will bring me and the rest of the OKW to our field HQ. From there we will observe how the Wehrmacht will unleash its power onto the polish.

It will be the hours after however that will be much more important for me and especially for the generality to see if our plans have worked that we had developed over the past year.

At the beginning of the year, the Führer had managed to win another conflict without spilling of any blood. But everyone knew that it would have been the last one to end like that. On the first day of the new year Germany claimed back the Memelland. A small strip of land on the river Memel that was populated by ethnic germans. The whole deal wasn’t to important.

Much more important however was the fact that we had been able to field another Panzerkorps, the fourth to be exact. Its command had been given to Erwin Rommel, a war-hero from the Great War, who had excelled in quick moving and attacking Infantry formations, and was suited for the job of Korps commander. We still lacked mobile units however and the next Korps of motorized infantry was still in training. Additionally we were still lacking several hundred fighter aircraft to be able to fully equip our 6. Jagdgeschwader. Even though this isn’t really the best position we’re in, the Wehrmacht is stronger than ever.

OOB 1939​

In May a treaty was signed that would hopefully reinforce our position in the world. Currently the allies, namely Great Britain controlled the sea. Even though we would manage to finish the construction of the Battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz by the 8th of May, our Schlachtflotte would only be able to field 12 ships by the end of August. All modern ships but still not enough to battle the Brits and French. So we signed an alliance with Italy, our fascist neighbor to the south, and Japan, a mighty Empire with a fierce navy and a battle tested Army that had the ambition to establish their own empire in Asia.

Shortly after the treaty a new officer program had been started to improve the capabilities of our units in the field. The goal of the program was to increase the number and quality of officers in the Heer. In order to achieve this we had to decrease funds for our research teams at least for now.

A day later a meeting was scheduled in the headquarters in Berlin similar to the one I had witnessed on my first day over 3 years ago. Every officer of higher rank in the armed forces of the Wehrmacht participated. When everyone had assembled in the giant meeting hall, the Führer entered. He was clad in a highly decorated Wehrmacht uniform, even though everyone in the room knew that the only medal he had received during the Great War was for his light injury.

In a 3 hour long speech he rambled on about the destiny of our fatherland and about the evil west and the filthy bolscheviks in Russia that would threaten our country. The only solution of this precarious situation would be a decisive war against all those powers. He reassured us that with the power of the Wehrmacht and the german people we would be able to win in the end.

During all this I could see the glooming eyes of those completely loyal to him and those who were just longing for a war and I could glance the skepticism in the eyes of the realists. Such a war would be near impossible to win. Even though we had gathered a bunch of good allies to our cause, a two front war against the Allies would lead to the ultimate downfall.

Still, the best planners sat down and began to work on solutions to this. From the beginning it was quite obvious that we would need to focus our forces on one front while stalling the other. Opposed to the Great War, this time we would choose the east front to quickly win. Poland was not thought to be a strong opponent and if we would be able to be quick about it, the Allies wouldn’t even be able to help them. There could even be the possibility that they wouldn’t serve their promise and leave them to their fait. Whilst this possibility was deemed quite likely by the Politicians around Hitler, the OKW planned with the worst possible outcome in mind, a two-front war, smaller than 20 years ago, which gave us hope.

Fall Weiss, hopefully a quick victory in the east​

The campaign would be planned under the codename Fall Weiss.

The goal of the operation against Poland would be to overwhelm their defenses and cut their armies of. This would be best achieved by breaking through with our tanks and motorized elements and then racing for their biggest cities to break their military's back.

By the beginning of August the plan was forwarded to the divisional commanders. They were ordered to move into their positions and begin field exercises for the troops. The attack was scheduled for the 1st of September in the morning and would be carried out with out a official declaration of war.

By the time the planning had officially been finished, the reserves were called in. Due to a quite complex way of service during the times of the treaty of Versaille, we still could access a vast amount of trained reserves even though our standing army had been limited quite drastically. by the time our divisions were at full strength, the Heer fielded more than 700.000 men.

A week ago very good news had reached the rooms of the OKW.
I had received a top secret file for General Beck. When I delivered it to him he was in a short briefing with some men of the staff. He opened it and proclaimed its content in our presence: Our minister of foreign affairs, Konstantin von Neurath, had managed to strike an agreement with his soviet colleague in Moscow. There would be now consequence for our attack on Poland under the premise that we would give them parts of former russian territory if we would succeed in the war. Additionally a non-aggression pact was agreed upon. This was extremely surprising and good news for us as it meant that we would be able to fully concentrate on fighting the Allies for now and not have to worry about the Russians as well.

I'm finishing this entry and will be leaving this diary in Berlin while I'm being at the front. I fear I wouldn't have any time left to write when the war begins. I hope to gather my thoughts after my hopefully safe return to Berlin and write them down as soon as I can.

 

[weresloth]

Oh baby.

Also, welcome back!

 

[guillec87]

welcome back! I was missing your AAR