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2nd December, 1943
The last Japanese at Kota Ibaru were cornered and destroyed to the last. Once again, except in some isolated cases, there were no surrenders, and no quarter given. Reynders was hailed the hero of Singapore, but he and his men did not have much time to celebrate. Declining, also out of despise he felt for the British, offers of grand balls in his honor at Singapore, he and his 30,000 men were ferried to Philippines, to prepare for the final offensive there. Before that, they stopped to capture the undefended Babuyan Island, leaving the north of the country the only place still defended by the Japanese.
End of Singapore campaign
18th December, 1943
Furstner examines the troops before the battle
Manila Bay naval battle, Philippines campaign underway.
The Soerabaia firing salvo near Manila
The army group commanders Voorst and Reynders discussed the final attack aboard the Soerabaia. If they would land the army at friendly Manila and move northwards, due to the difficult terrain it would take weeks, if not longer. The Japanese were reported to be somewhat undersupplied, and thus the time to strike was now. Also, if the Japanese would gain reinforcements from China, the odds against them would suddenly become too great.
Though the risks were great, a brave amphibious assault was decided to be the best course of action. All eight divisions were loaded into transports, and supported by the whole fleet, zipped to the sea
This was Jakob van Boudewijn’s second amphibious assault landing he took part in by now – did that make him an expert? Or was this now pushing his luck, considering he had cleared the first beautifully? Would he die on this foreign coast so far away from the windmills and low fields of polders of his now occupied homeland?
Jakob gritted his teeth. He was a squad leader now, and doubt and suspicion could not afford to cross his mind. It was not just his life, now, after all.. it was the life of a dozen of his direct subordinates as well.
From his time as a regular infantryman, Jakob well knew they all expected him to keep them alive through the coming storm. So had he depended upon his squadron leader then, too.
The landing craft creaked and closed the shore. Japanese machine gun fire whizzed over them, promising death to any who would lift their heads too high up. ”Stay down.”
Jakob waited and waited. The coast of Baguio approached swiftly. Supporting fire from Dutch cruisers far away in the sea streaked the sky above them like meteors of fire and death. With a creak, the landing craft hit the shore. The doors crashed open, and all the rest of the world fell into veil of oblivion as the men exploded to the coast, frozen in memory.
After a long battle the last of the Japanese pulled back to Ilagan on the other side of the island. Instead of following them, the weary men were ushered back to the landing craft, and giving no respite to them nor the Japanese they were ferried to the other side of Philippines, and with superhuman endurance and skill they stormed the coasts of Ilagan, meeting the retreating, surprised, disheartened Japanese. The battle was short, the harakiris many.
When the dust settled, it was the finest hour of Dutch military in the 1900’s. 14 Japanese divisions had been destroyed, captured or dispersed. The sons of polders had freed entire Philippines. Not a single free, fighting Japanese remained in the entire, huge island group.
Philippines Free!!!
The soldiers of the Netherlands, tired and bleeding, were treated as heroes by the native islanders. Banquets were held on their honor, people waved Dutch flags, many marriages were formed and so on.
Reynders, who had set up his command HQ in Manila, could barely move outside his house, lest he be ’assaulted’ by hundreds of cheering, liberated Filipinos. Amidst the terrors and endlessness of World War 2, for the Dutch soldiers who took part in the campaign and survived, as well as for the Filipino natives who had been liberated, it was a great, joyful occasion, too soon swallowed into the blood storm that still raged all around the Pacific.
14th February, 1944
In what was perhaps hubris and overconfidence in abilities, after the triumphant conquest of the Philippines, the Dutch command thought it might capture all other Japanese-held former European colonies of the area, and the invasion fleet was send towards French Indochine. However, big amounts of Japanese ships awaited near the coast, and they drove the transports away. The Dutch fleet moved in at a group damaged and somewhat disorganized, and in the resulting Saigon sea battle two Japanese cruisers were sunk, at the loss of the cruiser Java. It was made clear, that without sufficient naval power no invasion could be made. The main army was moved back to Sumatra to wait and see what the future would bring.
The last Japanese at Kota Ibaru were cornered and destroyed to the last. Once again, except in some isolated cases, there were no surrenders, and no quarter given. Reynders was hailed the hero of Singapore, but he and his men did not have much time to celebrate. Declining, also out of despise he felt for the British, offers of grand balls in his honor at Singapore, he and his 30,000 men were ferried to Philippines, to prepare for the final offensive there. Before that, they stopped to capture the undefended Babuyan Island, leaving the north of the country the only place still defended by the Japanese.
End of Singapore campaign
18th December, 1943
Furstner examines the troops before the battle
Manila Bay naval battle, Philippines campaign underway.
The Soerabaia firing salvo near Manila
The army group commanders Voorst and Reynders discussed the final attack aboard the Soerabaia. If they would land the army at friendly Manila and move northwards, due to the difficult terrain it would take weeks, if not longer. The Japanese were reported to be somewhat undersupplied, and thus the time to strike was now. Also, if the Japanese would gain reinforcements from China, the odds against them would suddenly become too great.
Though the risks were great, a brave amphibious assault was decided to be the best course of action. All eight divisions were loaded into transports, and supported by the whole fleet, zipped to the sea
This was Jakob van Boudewijn’s second amphibious assault landing he took part in by now – did that make him an expert? Or was this now pushing his luck, considering he had cleared the first beautifully? Would he die on this foreign coast so far away from the windmills and low fields of polders of his now occupied homeland?
Jakob gritted his teeth. He was a squad leader now, and doubt and suspicion could not afford to cross his mind. It was not just his life, now, after all.. it was the life of a dozen of his direct subordinates as well.
From his time as a regular infantryman, Jakob well knew they all expected him to keep them alive through the coming storm. So had he depended upon his squadron leader then, too.
The landing craft creaked and closed the shore. Japanese machine gun fire whizzed over them, promising death to any who would lift their heads too high up. ”Stay down.”
Jakob waited and waited. The coast of Baguio approached swiftly. Supporting fire from Dutch cruisers far away in the sea streaked the sky above them like meteors of fire and death. With a creak, the landing craft hit the shore. The doors crashed open, and all the rest of the world fell into veil of oblivion as the men exploded to the coast, frozen in memory.
After a long battle the last of the Japanese pulled back to Ilagan on the other side of the island. Instead of following them, the weary men were ushered back to the landing craft, and giving no respite to them nor the Japanese they were ferried to the other side of Philippines, and with superhuman endurance and skill they stormed the coasts of Ilagan, meeting the retreating, surprised, disheartened Japanese. The battle was short, the harakiris many.
When the dust settled, it was the finest hour of Dutch military in the 1900’s. 14 Japanese divisions had been destroyed, captured or dispersed. The sons of polders had freed entire Philippines. Not a single free, fighting Japanese remained in the entire, huge island group.
Philippines Free!!!
The soldiers of the Netherlands, tired and bleeding, were treated as heroes by the native islanders. Banquets were held on their honor, people waved Dutch flags, many marriages were formed and so on.
Reynders, who had set up his command HQ in Manila, could barely move outside his house, lest he be ’assaulted’ by hundreds of cheering, liberated Filipinos. Amidst the terrors and endlessness of World War 2, for the Dutch soldiers who took part in the campaign and survived, as well as for the Filipino natives who had been liberated, it was a great, joyful occasion, too soon swallowed into the blood storm that still raged all around the Pacific.
14th February, 1944
In what was perhaps hubris and overconfidence in abilities, after the triumphant conquest of the Philippines, the Dutch command thought it might capture all other Japanese-held former European colonies of the area, and the invasion fleet was send towards French Indochine. However, big amounts of Japanese ships awaited near the coast, and they drove the transports away. The Dutch fleet moved in at a group damaged and somewhat disorganized, and in the resulting Saigon sea battle two Japanese cruisers were sunk, at the loss of the cruiser Java. It was made clear, that without sufficient naval power no invasion could be made. The main army was moved back to Sumatra to wait and see what the future would bring.
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Ahh, this story makes my Dutch hart proud! Nice AAR... great update. 
I'll be following this!
I'll be following this!
8th May, 1944
The D-Day
Whole Sinabang erupted in joy as the other front was finally opened, British and US divisions flooding northern France in five places, defeating the defenders and speeding inland, expanding their bridgehead day by day. It seemed probable, that the most powerful of Europe's fascist nations would fall, as the steamroller of the Red Army moved through Poland leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. Front after front of men thrown from the deepest reaches of the Soviet Union pushed the Wehrmacht and it's weaker allies back on all fronts.
Considering that, the invasion was seen as a blessing by the Dutch. If their homeland would fall under the Red Army occupation, it might never be free or remain under a dark, red cover for a century. If the British reached Amsterdam first, however, they had little reason, political or moral, to not return Dutch rule to their european core land. Besides, both US and the British owed a lot to the small but feisty Dutch army in the Pacific area. Those who believed the Dutch regime in the Pacific area should grow even larger than it currently is were not few.
14th July, 1944
Allied attack halted and driven back
As the spring turned to fifth hot summer of war and death, the optimism of the Dutch had faded to down nothing. The Third Reich had still plenty of strength left, it seemed, and whatever gains the Allied had made in the Northern France were all lost by summer, Allied holding only isolated pockets which swiftly faded to nothingness with enormous loss of men and material. "The British have betrayed us again!" was, condensed, the common sentiment around the government and the people. Now nothing seemed to stop the advance of the Soviets towards the Low Countries. "Oh our poor people.." de Graaf wept, fearing for devastating battles to be fought on their home land.
Dawn of nuclear age
It was a normal morning in Berlin, as far as normal meant anything during war time. Allied bombardments had been strangely silent this morning, and lots of people dared to walk the streets. Even many children followed their teachers on careful outside treks, seeing fresh air for the first time in many days, little knowing it would be their last morning, very last for millions of people. After a ghostly, eery silence a bell exploded in warning. Many ran to their air shelters immediately, in weary, tired panic, the expected air warning feeling so much more wrong now after such a peaceful morning. The teacher of the children scanned the skies, and noticed a swarm of bombers flying very high over the city far to the east of their location. No other planes were on the sky anywhere. The children saw the black smoke of the anti-air guns, but no black swarms of bombs fell.
Then, after a painful wait, the teacher thought he saw a huge bomb drop down. A flash, brighter then the sun, a fireball, greater than nightmare spread high. Their last few seconds of life were filled with dumb amazement, before a pyroclastic wind reduced them all to cinders.
"Good God!" de Graaf exclaimed, dropping the magazine down in the far-away safety of Sinabang. He read the headlines again. A new type of 'atomical' bomb dropped. Entire city destroyed to dust. Nearly a million civilians killed with one weapon. This weapon would bring the final victory swiftly.
Or would it? Hitler's attitude, monstrous towards Germans and enemies alike, was victory or death. This would only increase his sick resolve, de Graaf feared. There would be no surrendering to the city-destroying Allied now. Farsighted, de Graaf wondered what would happen if ten such bombs would be dropped. What if ten thousand? Would the entire world turn to dust? The good foreign minister shivered. The next morning, there was a letter on his table, from Reynders. Inside it was a telegram message
CAN NETHERLANDS ACQUIRE SUCH BOMB STOP
OR PRODUCE ONE STOP THEY ARE NICE STOP
GOOD DAY STOP
24th October, 1944
Perhaps spurred by the image of Berlin in ashes, dust to dust, the Allied, in a much more concerted and prepared effort than the devastating D-Day landings at Normandy, Allied armies flooded southern France, quickly establishing multiple beachheads and advancing towards the former Vichy France territory.
Every inch was still won with blood, every objective shrouded in torment. It was estimated, that the Western Allies had so far lost at least two million men as casualties, exceeding horrific numbers of the First World War. How long would the horror continue?
Operation Torch, South France.
The D-Day
Whole Sinabang erupted in joy as the other front was finally opened, British and US divisions flooding northern France in five places, defeating the defenders and speeding inland, expanding their bridgehead day by day. It seemed probable, that the most powerful of Europe's fascist nations would fall, as the steamroller of the Red Army moved through Poland leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. Front after front of men thrown from the deepest reaches of the Soviet Union pushed the Wehrmacht and it's weaker allies back on all fronts.
Considering that, the invasion was seen as a blessing by the Dutch. If their homeland would fall under the Red Army occupation, it might never be free or remain under a dark, red cover for a century. If the British reached Amsterdam first, however, they had little reason, political or moral, to not return Dutch rule to their european core land. Besides, both US and the British owed a lot to the small but feisty Dutch army in the Pacific area. Those who believed the Dutch regime in the Pacific area should grow even larger than it currently is were not few.
14th July, 1944
Allied attack halted and driven back
As the spring turned to fifth hot summer of war and death, the optimism of the Dutch had faded to down nothing. The Third Reich had still plenty of strength left, it seemed, and whatever gains the Allied had made in the Northern France were all lost by summer, Allied holding only isolated pockets which swiftly faded to nothingness with enormous loss of men and material. "The British have betrayed us again!" was, condensed, the common sentiment around the government and the people. Now nothing seemed to stop the advance of the Soviets towards the Low Countries. "Oh our poor people.." de Graaf wept, fearing for devastating battles to be fought on their home land.
Dawn of nuclear age
It was a normal morning in Berlin, as far as normal meant anything during war time. Allied bombardments had been strangely silent this morning, and lots of people dared to walk the streets. Even many children followed their teachers on careful outside treks, seeing fresh air for the first time in many days, little knowing it would be their last morning, very last for millions of people. After a ghostly, eery silence a bell exploded in warning. Many ran to their air shelters immediately, in weary, tired panic, the expected air warning feeling so much more wrong now after such a peaceful morning. The teacher of the children scanned the skies, and noticed a swarm of bombers flying very high over the city far to the east of their location. No other planes were on the sky anywhere. The children saw the black smoke of the anti-air guns, but no black swarms of bombs fell.
Then, after a painful wait, the teacher thought he saw a huge bomb drop down. A flash, brighter then the sun, a fireball, greater than nightmare spread high. Their last few seconds of life were filled with dumb amazement, before a pyroclastic wind reduced them all to cinders.
"Good God!" de Graaf exclaimed, dropping the magazine down in the far-away safety of Sinabang. He read the headlines again. A new type of 'atomical' bomb dropped. Entire city destroyed to dust. Nearly a million civilians killed with one weapon. This weapon would bring the final victory swiftly.
Or would it? Hitler's attitude, monstrous towards Germans and enemies alike, was victory or death. This would only increase his sick resolve, de Graaf feared. There would be no surrendering to the city-destroying Allied now. Farsighted, de Graaf wondered what would happen if ten such bombs would be dropped. What if ten thousand? Would the entire world turn to dust? The good foreign minister shivered. The next morning, there was a letter on his table, from Reynders. Inside it was a telegram message
CAN NETHERLANDS ACQUIRE SUCH BOMB STOP
OR PRODUCE ONE STOP THEY ARE NICE STOP
GOOD DAY STOP
24th October, 1944
Perhaps spurred by the image of Berlin in ashes, dust to dust, the Allied, in a much more concerted and prepared effort than the devastating D-Day landings at Normandy, Allied armies flooded southern France, quickly establishing multiple beachheads and advancing towards the former Vichy France territory.
Every inch was still won with blood, every objective shrouded in torment. It was estimated, that the Western Allies had so far lost at least two million men as casualties, exceeding horrific numbers of the First World War. How long would the horror continue?
Operation Torch, South France.
Well done!
I see Groningen is liberated, are you building vessels to carry the war to the Japanese mainland?
I see Groningen is liberated, are you building vessels to carry the war to the Japanese mainland?
Awesome set of updates!
I am quite surprised that the A.I. had Berlin get nuked. I bet that set of quite a bit of angst, eh?
What's next on the Dutch Agenda?
I am quite surprised that the A.I. had Berlin get nuked. I bet that set of quite a bit of angst, eh?
What's next on the Dutch Agenda?
Very good - brave to carry on after the mainland was overrun..
Look forward to the conclusion!
Heretic
Look forward to the conclusion!
Heretic
HJ Tulp said:
It just might be a remote possibility... You'll see.. the AAR is almost over, but there still was/will be plenty of stuff for you to see where we participate in..
This AAR is completed, game-wise, long ago.
And Groningen's "liberation" lasted for one and a half day. Probably no one had time to celebrate.
At this point, whatever I had written of the AAR since 1948 was lost since an electric shock had in its mind, a month or so ago, to reboot my computer as I was writing. Due to lost data, the quality of the writing might be more piecemeal and guesswork about what really did happen as I had to piece it together from screenshots only, not my notes.
Don't worry. I'll finish this AAR. And to rephrase, the game save was not destroyed, I finished that long, long time ago. What went was just my notes about what I would write on each segment. I naturally remember and see in the screenshots what roughly happened, but since it was so long ago, detail might be missed a bit.
I'll have an update soon.
I'll have an update soon.
Southern France, early 1945
Theathre overview (aar 47)
At this point no one was really surprised that the whatever gains the Allied had made in the recent months in Southern France were mostly lost. The front had stabilized and straightened out its curves at the Bordeaux-Grenoble line, however, as the Allied withdrew to defensive positions on the hilly ground. Capturing Paris, however, only lived on in the dreams of de Gaulle anymore, if not even with that ”i’m fighting to become France’s leader” semi-democrat anymore. Even the British media, before so loudly patriotic and unflinching in their belief of their final victory was strangely silent and careful in its statements. None was surprising, as the Allied advance was slow and measured in meters each day, just like it was on those beautiful summer days at Somme 1917.
19th April, 1945
Only in the Balkans, where Romania had been annexed some 1½ years earlier did British weapons have any success. Locked off of their allies in Germany by the Soviet Belorussian Front, the Hungarian army had been encircled and cut off of support and supplies, but left alone by the Soviets who were rushing towards Berlin to the exclusion of all other fronts, after they had taken all of the country west of the river Danube. Thus the British had free reign to advance and secure whatever influence on the Balkans they might have left after the war.
After a two-pronged attack from the east and form the south by Jugoslavia, the defence of Hungary finally fell and the country surrendered to the Allied forces, the people there seemingly happy that at least part of the country would remain free of Soviet jurisdiction after the war.
Fall of Hungary
22nd April, 1945
To Philippines for the second time
The Japanese proved to be incapable to learn from their mistakes and to contribute their forces to where they actually were needed, and launched the second invasion of the Philippines with perhaps seven divisions, overrunning the beaches at Davao and Baguio, thus splitting their meager force in half. As a show of trust, no one informed the underperformers at Britain and US anything, and the Philippines government directly asked help from the Dutch military command.
The armies at Sumatra were shipped to the transports and sent again to fight on familiar ground, on the same places where they had fought before, the invasion force striking the side of the Japanese as they were marching towards Ilagan in the north. Caught between no chance of retreating, the divisions in the north were destroyed without mercy they never asked for. The people of northern Philippines began erecting statues for the ’Unknown Dutch Soldier’, praising their sacrifices and readiness, a welcome respite from the relations of time before. (At the earlier colonial ages, a few hundred years back, the Dutch had a reputation, even among other europeans, to be excessively cruel and godless, though part of it might have been catholic propaganda)
Nuke #2, when will they stop
Even Dutch newspapers front page was not filled about stories of their continuous military successes at the Pacific. Allied bombers had flown across Germany, and for the second time dropped the new atomic weapon over the Ruhr industrial area at Frankfurt am Main. The destruction was again complete, the factories lost many, the human lives a legion. Endless amount of values were destroyed, but the Axis command still chose to fight their doomed battle, as a side effect of the nuclear bombardments the people feeling they had no other chance but to fight to the end. Victory or death.
Theathre overview (aar 47)
At this point no one was really surprised that the whatever gains the Allied had made in the recent months in Southern France were mostly lost. The front had stabilized and straightened out its curves at the Bordeaux-Grenoble line, however, as the Allied withdrew to defensive positions on the hilly ground. Capturing Paris, however, only lived on in the dreams of de Gaulle anymore, if not even with that ”i’m fighting to become France’s leader” semi-democrat anymore. Even the British media, before so loudly patriotic and unflinching in their belief of their final victory was strangely silent and careful in its statements. None was surprising, as the Allied advance was slow and measured in meters each day, just like it was on those beautiful summer days at Somme 1917.
19th April, 1945
Only in the Balkans, where Romania had been annexed some 1½ years earlier did British weapons have any success. Locked off of their allies in Germany by the Soviet Belorussian Front, the Hungarian army had been encircled and cut off of support and supplies, but left alone by the Soviets who were rushing towards Berlin to the exclusion of all other fronts, after they had taken all of the country west of the river Danube. Thus the British had free reign to advance and secure whatever influence on the Balkans they might have left after the war.
After a two-pronged attack from the east and form the south by Jugoslavia, the defence of Hungary finally fell and the country surrendered to the Allied forces, the people there seemingly happy that at least part of the country would remain free of Soviet jurisdiction after the war.
Fall of Hungary
22nd April, 1945
To Philippines for the second time
The Japanese proved to be incapable to learn from their mistakes and to contribute their forces to where they actually were needed, and launched the second invasion of the Philippines with perhaps seven divisions, overrunning the beaches at Davao and Baguio, thus splitting their meager force in half. As a show of trust, no one informed the underperformers at Britain and US anything, and the Philippines government directly asked help from the Dutch military command.
The armies at Sumatra were shipped to the transports and sent again to fight on familiar ground, on the same places where they had fought before, the invasion force striking the side of the Japanese as they were marching towards Ilagan in the north. Caught between no chance of retreating, the divisions in the north were destroyed without mercy they never asked for. The people of northern Philippines began erecting statues for the ’Unknown Dutch Soldier’, praising their sacrifices and readiness, a welcome respite from the relations of time before. (At the earlier colonial ages, a few hundred years back, the Dutch had a reputation, even among other europeans, to be excessively cruel and godless, though part of it might have been catholic propaganda)
Nuke #2, when will they stop
Even Dutch newspapers front page was not filled about stories of their continuous military successes at the Pacific. Allied bombers had flown across Germany, and for the second time dropped the new atomic weapon over the Ruhr industrial area at Frankfurt am Main. The destruction was again complete, the factories lost many, the human lives a legion. Endless amount of values were destroyed, but the Axis command still chose to fight their doomed battle, as a side effect of the nuclear bombardments the people feeling they had no other chance but to fight to the end. Victory or death.
Dawnfire,
Are there any indications that the nukes are slowing the Germans down? Giving them a mild headache?
Anything?
Also, do you plan to try & take more off the Japanese? Or do you still have a problem with their navy?
Heretic
Are there any indications that the nukes are slowing the Germans down? Giving them a mild headache?
Anything?
Also, do you plan to try & take more off the Japanese? Or do you still have a problem with their navy?
Heretic
With the Russians as far as they are, as you'll see in the next update, it doesn't really matter.
And about my future plans, well, you'll see those as well.
And about my future plans, well, you'll see those as well.
Tired of the constant Japanese threat to the Filippines, the Dutch command drew plans to capture all the remaining Japanese island bases at the Pacific, leaving the unsupplied and weak Japanese on the Southern part of Philippines free for now. Philippine militia would certainly be able to hold them off from advancing in the mean time. The undefended Carolines and Truk were easily taken, but Bonin had a garrison of Japanese of unknown combat capability and supply situation.
Buildup before last Japanese pacific island stronghold
Luckily, it was found that the Japanese had little fight left in them, and the Dutch army supported by the guns of their cruisers managed to defeat the garrison handily, giving the Dutch a port very close to the Japanese main islands already.
De Ruyter at Bonin port
1945 Autumn
Soviet Advance on all fronts
Meanwhile, nothing seemed to stop the Soviet steamroller on the east. The river Oder had been breached, and the soviets advanced to Austria and the heartlands of the Reich. The cruelty of the war unmatched anywhere in the world cost thousands of lives each day as the German leaders continued to fight their doomed battle, dooming their people as well. Spurred on by their satanic leader, the Red Army moved to do his bidding – to crush the fascist beast underneath for all time. And the wide tracks of powerful russian tanks crushed underneath children and elderly alike, everyone who had been caught on the streets. It was return to the Middle Ages and its cruel ways, with technology they then could not have dreamt of.
Southern France Theathre
Gains and losses in Southern France averaged out as the Allied troops under Free French command had to withdraw from Bordeaux, but managed to advance in the east, and the Americans managed to drive a wedge between the last two Italian army groups capturing Milan. But despite the Reich being in its last terminal phase the German resistance was fierce and the bogged down allies, especially those soldiers from northern France and even Great Britain were extremely frustrated by their feeble advance, fearful of the Soviets ever closer to the west.
1945 Winter
Soviets already near Netherlands borders
Whatever Hitler in his madness might have thought, whatever propaganda Göbbels and his ministrum could ever make, the battle for Berlin was lost, lost for ever. The Ukrainian Front had captured Prague but their accomplishments paled in comparison to the 3rd Shock Army, who had taken nuclear wasteland that was Berlin today in battles of unprecedented savagery and furiousness, driving a strong wedge along the Baltic Sea coast all the way to Kiel.
Army Statistics early 1946
5th March, 1946
Deciding the time was here to remove the Japanese from the Philippines, the army, by now quite used to being shifted around, was moved to Davao and taken ashore, meeting only battle-weary, hungry Japanese who were routed quickly and their survivors disappeared to the jungles, often never emerging.
Through the bravery of the Dutch, the entire Pacific region had been liberated, the Japanese, except in China, being pushed back to the positions from whence they started. Time had come for the Dutch to take the battle to them, for the first time.
And the Philippines hail us as Heroes again, re-liberated the island
Buildup before last Japanese pacific island stronghold
Luckily, it was found that the Japanese had little fight left in them, and the Dutch army supported by the guns of their cruisers managed to defeat the garrison handily, giving the Dutch a port very close to the Japanese main islands already.
De Ruyter at Bonin port
1945 Autumn
Soviet Advance on all fronts
Meanwhile, nothing seemed to stop the Soviet steamroller on the east. The river Oder had been breached, and the soviets advanced to Austria and the heartlands of the Reich. The cruelty of the war unmatched anywhere in the world cost thousands of lives each day as the German leaders continued to fight their doomed battle, dooming their people as well. Spurred on by their satanic leader, the Red Army moved to do his bidding – to crush the fascist beast underneath for all time. And the wide tracks of powerful russian tanks crushed underneath children and elderly alike, everyone who had been caught on the streets. It was return to the Middle Ages and its cruel ways, with technology they then could not have dreamt of.
Southern France Theathre
Gains and losses in Southern France averaged out as the Allied troops under Free French command had to withdraw from Bordeaux, but managed to advance in the east, and the Americans managed to drive a wedge between the last two Italian army groups capturing Milan. But despite the Reich being in its last terminal phase the German resistance was fierce and the bogged down allies, especially those soldiers from northern France and even Great Britain were extremely frustrated by their feeble advance, fearful of the Soviets ever closer to the west.
1945 Winter
Soviets already near Netherlands borders
Whatever Hitler in his madness might have thought, whatever propaganda Göbbels and his ministrum could ever make, the battle for Berlin was lost, lost for ever. The Ukrainian Front had captured Prague but their accomplishments paled in comparison to the 3rd Shock Army, who had taken nuclear wasteland that was Berlin today in battles of unprecedented savagery and furiousness, driving a strong wedge along the Baltic Sea coast all the way to Kiel.
Army Statistics early 1946
5th March, 1946
Deciding the time was here to remove the Japanese from the Philippines, the army, by now quite used to being shifted around, was moved to Davao and taken ashore, meeting only battle-weary, hungry Japanese who were routed quickly and their survivors disappeared to the jungles, often never emerging.
Through the bravery of the Dutch, the entire Pacific region had been liberated, the Japanese, except in China, being pushed back to the positions from whence they started. Time had come for the Dutch to take the battle to them, for the first time.
And the Philippines hail us as Heroes again, re-liberated the island