We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
The fact that the UK was able to land a small force in Germany and the Germans have not wiped it out the second it landed suggests a weakness in the German military. If the Allies decided to land a larger invasion or many small invasions could the Axis stop it?
The fact that the UK was able to land a small force in Germany and the Germans have not wiped it out the second it landed suggests a weakness in the German military. If the Allies decided to land a larger invasion or many small invasions could the Axis stop it?
Speaking from experience, Germany has the problem of needing to protect significant real estate, while also manning an impressive line against the Russians. It can be... taxing... to say the least.
Speaking from experience, Germany has the problem of needing to protect significant real estate, while also manning an impressive line against the Russians. It can be... taxing... to say the least.
Yeah if they keep doing this, I think they will succeed. They've not really been stopped in this first attempt yet...could always send reinforcements now and make a go of it.
How many times do the britsh have to do this for the amercian AI to trigger and send an invasion of their own?
I have no idea if or how the US being in the Comintern affects their chances of launching an invasion of their own. Though I do assume they won’t be backing up the British any time soon - other than with the ubiquitous lend lease.
There are many celebrations in Romania due to the liberation of Timisoara. Of course there will be more when the first Romanian troops will reach the city. And fingers crossed for closing and cleaning the north Serbian pocket.
Currently going through the forums with an unprecedented level of assiduity thanks to boneheadedly managing to delete all my watched threads again. (Don't do it kids, it's a pain.) As painstaking as going through and manually re-following all of my subscriptions is, it does mean that I've finally made it to the HoI3 forum for the first time in years. So while I have yet to attempt to catch up, and I have no clue what is currently going on, I'm going to take a leaf out of @El Pip's book and just wing it. Never to late to hop on board for the classics, right?
Anyway, this is all my very longwinded way of letting you know that I'm here, @Bullfilter. Will have something more interesting to say once I've done a bit of reading!
Currently going through the forums with an unprecedented level of assiduity thanks to boneheadedly managing to delete all my watched threads again. (Don't do it kids, it's a pain.) As painstaking as going through and manually re-following all of my subscriptions is, it does mean that I've finally made it to the HoI3 forum for the first time in years. So while I have yet to attempt to catch up, and I have no clue what is currently going on, I'm going to take a leaf out of @El Pip's book and just wing it. Never to late to hop on board for the classics, right?
Anyway, this is all my very longwinded way of letting you know that I'm here, @Bullfilter. Will have something more interesting to say once I've done a bit of reading!
And how very welcome you are Densley! Bear in mind the early chapters were my first attempt in AARLand, so hopefully it has matured a little since then. We’re currently in mid-1943, but anytime you feel like making an observation or comment on some earlier part please feel very free to, I’ll make any response separate so as to make it easier to avoid spoilers.
I know it's not strictly as god intended, but I've got up to speed on action up to ch. 38 thanks to the excellent book one summary. Astonishing stuff to this player, who could barely get HoI3 to open back in the day, never mind actually play the damn thing. (I tried harder to 'get' HoI4, but I'm still awful at it. Maybe one day…)
Book two I will take the scenic route, seeing as I've heard so much about all that charming narrative colour they have there at this time of year.
I know it's not strictly as god intended, but I've got up to speed on action up to ch. 38 thanks to the excellent book one summary. Astonishing stuff to this player, who could barely get HoI3 to open back in the day, never mind actually play the damn thing. (I tried harder to 'get' HoI4, but I'm still awful at it. Maybe one day…)
Book two I will take the scenic route, seeing as I've heard so much about all that charming narrative colour they have there at this time of year.
Half the fun of this AAR, epeecially earlier bits, are the intense strategy discussions and theorising about what Turkey can do and what they should do.
Half the fun of this AAR, epeecially earlier bits, are the intense strategy discussions and theorising about what Turkey can do and what they should do.
After doing mod work (btw it's coming along nicely: all countries done, map updated, a bit more than half-way through the new OOBs - revised for every country - next big task after that is the rewriting of all the tailored events), RL, and updating the other AARs, I have played through another session. If anything, it is even more intense than the last! We are in a real total war phase at the moment.
Before I write it up, some more comment feedback.
For @DensleyBlair , I'll continue to reply to your comment lines separately, to make it easier to avoid story spoilers - see next post for those, as there are spoilers below.
Excellent news and a massive smack in the face for german ambitions. They can't even hold Romania, having failed to get anywhere in Russia at all. The propganda ministry must be working over time. Not sure it'll work anymore though.
Now this is useful. Even if they just make small spoiling raids into Germany and France for the next two years, this will mess with the german psyche and mess up their strategic ai. They actually end up taking major german cities unopposed, which makes it very unlikely that, even if theybare utterly destroyed, Hitler can ever recover from this potlcially.
Well, that should be the end of the axis balkan army. Italy still can hit us whenever they like with airforce but the axis are now solidly on the defensive and won't ever return to the offensive now. Not against us anyway.
It will be a tough pocket to maintain and reduce, but the blow will be crushing one. And if finalised, will then release a large amount of divisions to strike north and allow a new offensive on Budapest, which is proving a tough nut to crack.
Hopefully, but the Germans have thrown troops into defend Budapest, and I need it to help enforce the surrender - though will also try to join the Soviet-Romanian breakout into the central plains. Closing out the pockets first is the key to that now, I think.
Twice! A smaller one on the finnish border and the old, looser big one on the baltic coast. Even one closing would be good news. Seems like the Finns are sitting out after all.
Excellent news all round, I think. Next year in Berlin! Or maybe...the year afterwards...
I say Bravo! First, the liberation of Timsoara by the Turkish Army, then the complementary Red Army push into Faget. It's beautiful, this level of Intra-Comintern cooperation brings a tear to my eye. The accompanying press articles are a veritable propaganda coup, and for once Pravda didn't even have to lie. (It still did by overstating the number of Axis troops trapped in the pocket, but still, that's tame by Pravda standards. The Soviet people have long learned to read between the lines and make a good guess as to the actual number, Pravda tending to inflate/deflate it's numbers by a similar factor every time. There were spontaneous celebrations in the streets, ostensibly to celebrate the Red Army's victory in Faget, but the smaller Turkish flags were definitely waved with more enthusiasm. Too bad there isn't a Turkish Army Division to come shut the door on the Northern Pocket in the Baltic SSR's. I'm sure it'll happen eventually, but how many Axis units will be able to slip the noose before then?
It's really working very well now with the Pact partners. Regaining Timisoara is a big symbolic and strategic milestone. But you will see the Axis is not keen to let it go without a fight ...
I'm actually impressed, the British even managed to execute an amphibious landing with Motorised and Armoured forces, as by the look of things, Bremerhaven was guarded by a Garrison. I can't imagine the losses as the Lorries and Tanks get bogged down on the beaches with no Naval Infantry support. Of course, those brave souls that survived the assault will soon find they'll be spending the rest of the war in captivity. It's also quite funny that the Commander of the German Garrison is more skilled and experienced than the British commander of the 3rd Indian Division. A pointless exercise, but one which may cause the German Army to pull some forces from other fronts just in case the Brits reinforce their beachhead, much to our benefit. I have to say the uprisings behind Japanese lines seem to be having a similar impact for a fraction of the cost in heavy equipment and trained soldiers.
I think this current op is more of a Dieppe-type raid than a legitimate invasion, but so long as it's British soldiers doing that fighting, in the hard calculus of this war ... <shrugs>
Turkish advances in land doctrines are great. Grand Battle Plan will definitely help a lot. The next level of Operational Level Organisation will likely be ready sooner than the forecast date, so not to worry, the war may not be over by then.
Perse's escape is terrible news. If she talks to Callan, who knows what details she will be revealing about Turkey's governmental structures? If we cannot sway her to be a double agent by the time of that meeting, we may need to assassinate, or better, abduct her and Callan. I know, I was all for clemency in captivity, but we can't have her spilling all she knows. Or maybe, we can find a way for Callan to die before she gets to meet him? What a disaster. The clean-up will take months.
The news of course depends on perspective. And we must assume she's already been passing along insights all this time. If so, it means these efforts are now at an end - so its really still a neutralisation, and the British spy ring in Turkey took a big (in-game) hit last month, with three agents taken out. Revenge aside, it's still good news for the Comintern.
In the bigger scheme, both are doing pretty well: Turkey seems to have been cleared out, the mission in Italy is untroubled for now and on the ground, things do power on.
Many more twists and turns to come there, I'm sure. I genuinely don't know what, though. I try to take cues from the game espionage events and the characters seem to have a life of their own.
Great episode! Even as the air force is still recovering thus not around, the losses are equal. The territory gains are something, and the amount of bagged divisions is staggering. The future is brighter by the episode!
Thanks! The Air Force remains under-strength generally, but the (license) building program should help that in due course. And this latest bagging, if closed out, should prove a terrific blow for the Axis, especially the Germans.
On January 1st it'll get recalculated and since it's a 1944 tech the ahead-of-time penalty will become zero, so it'll probably be complete a few months before May.
The problem is the Germans keep reinforcing, and I just can't get the combat odds (best I can manage at the moment is a 1% battle progress, which does little and is costly in men, which I'm a little short of). And later, even if I surround it, all units in Hungarian colours will still be in supply. It could be epic - and I hope it doesn't become a bit of a Stalingrad for my shoe-string army.
What a speech! Temeşvar'ı Unutmadık! Not so long ago, we were discussing leaving Romania and withdrawing to deeper lines. Now we're liberating all that we had to leave behind.
It is a homage to the earlier reference made to MacArthur returning to the Philippines. This is a paraphrased version of his speech on that occasion, so I can't lay claim to all the soaring rhetoric.
I must admit to some outrageous confusion at the map here, as the TFH vanilla map looks quite different than I remember it. Is there no port in the Italian lands? How do they supply their troops at the start of the Abyssinian war? I must be forgetting something here...
Ah, that would be it, then. HPP moves that port to Asmara, probably because the Ethiopians take Edd in the first week of the game and of course that could wreak all sorts of havoc on an unsuspecting Italian AI, much like the British, a stiff breeze, or even the French can, in fairness.
I do feel like this attack would be a bridge too far, at some point all of our foolish exploitation attacks are going to come back to bite us, we really don't have the critical mass of forces to support these even if our RAW doctrine demands that we pursue them anyways.
It's a series of calculated risks Inonu is prepared to take in this phase of the war. They'll be so much harder to break if allowed to solidify new defensive lines in favourable territory. We're also relying on the Soviets and Romania to keep applying that complimentary pressure, in Romania and Russia. If that looks like waning, things will switch to a more cautious posture. For now, we're prepared to take a few local reverses if the net game is still clearly positive.
Wilhelmshaven is right there, you stupid--agh!! Stupid AI can't even figure out that it needs to take a port to land the reinforcements at and supply the offensive. They could totally pull this off if they could take their pants off their heads for two damn seconds!
Technically, I think they did the right thing (for the computer), which is going after Hamburg. I can't recall about what level the original port is in vanilla, but Hamburg is (I'm fairly certain) a level-10 port, of course, in reality, nothing would be able to get that far down the Elbe without getting absolutely demolished by coastal artillery.
The fact that the UK was able to land a small force in Germany and the Germans have not wiped it out the second it landed suggests a weakness in the German military. If the Allies decided to land a larger invasion or many small invasions could the Axis stop it?
Speaking from experience, Germany has the problem of needing to protect significant real estate, while also manning an impressive line against the Russians. It can be... taxing... to say the least.
Yeah if they keep doing this, I think they will succeed. They've not really been stopped in this first attempt yet...could always send reinforcements now and make a go of it.
Per above, I think of it more like a raid and doubt they will reinforce. But it had no doubt caused the Germans some consternation, just as they're fighting for their lives in the Balkans and Russia. All to the greater good, despite the typically poor AI execution of these things.
Admittedly, this is one that Paradox did get right. Kind of. Within the constraints of the game. Budapest is of course split into two cities, Buda and Pest, by the river running between them, thus it is technically correct that they should have a river defense from any angle as no matter which side an attacker is coming from, half the city is behind a river and the Pest side in particular, if I remember correctly, has some impressive entrenchments overlooking. Of course, when attacked from every side simultaneously you would think that there should be no river defense bonus, and geographically you would be correct, but given that HoI3 doesn't really have any way to make the province geography dynamic in that way I think we have to give Paradox a pass here.
And then take that pass away on account of the absolutely piss-poor naval invasion AI currently on display. Of course.
A bit, I suppose. My point being, once the whole city is surrounded, a notional enclave on either bank, if attacked purely by units from the same side of the river, should not get a river bonus from those. Each half, assaulted from their own side of the river, should be treated accordingly.
They weren't going to do it, but the most realistic depiction of Buda&Pest would be to make it two separate city provinces, one on either side of the river. But for this game, it is what it is. I'm hoping the Stalingrad experience here ends up being foisted on the Germans, and not us.
The next phase of Perse's life will inevitably prove 'interesting', in all senses of the word. And yes, it's gratifying to see all the effort and electronic blood spilt has brpough some hard-won advances, after a long period on the defensive before that.
There are many celebrations in Romania due to the liberation of Timisoara. Of course there will be more when the first Romanian troops will reach the city. And fingers crossed for closing and cleaning the north Serbian pocket.
Indeed, and Inonu was careful to bring Bratianu along for the photo ops! The Soviet-Romanian forces in Romania have made an excellent comeback from a difficult position a few months back.
All: Thanks for all your support and patience. Hope to get the next action-packed episode posted in the next couple of days.
I know it's not strictly as god intended, but I've got up to speed on action up to ch. 38 thanks to the excellent book one summary. Astonishing stuff to this player, who could barely get HoI3 to open back in the day, never mind actually play the damn thing. (I tried harder to 'get' HoI4, but I'm still awful at it. Maybe one day…)
Book two I will take the scenic route, seeing as I've heard so much about all that charming narrative colour they have there at this time of year.
I'm glad the summary helped you get into the story - it's just what it was intended for. As you get into the subsequent chapters, at your discretion you may wish to pick and choose a few previous chapters for a little scene-setting background on Luca Brasi and the saga of the musical extravaganza/escapade! And for a one-off, the 'Apotheosis of Sukru Ali Ogel' gives some important back-story on him, and is a non-gameplay narrative digression.
Half the fun of this AAR, epeecially earlier bits, are the intense strategy discussions and theorising about what Turkey can do and what they should do.
Chapter 204: A Tightening Grip (8 to 15 June 1943)
AuthAAR’s Note: This chapter focuses on combat action over another period of very intense fighting as the Turkish Spring Offensive continues while German-led Axis forces try to fight back and rescue their (mainly German) forces trapped in the Zrenjanin Pocket. For ease of continuity, the combat reporting will be broken into northern (the Adriatic to Budapest) and southern (from north of Timisoara to the Zrenjanin Pocket) areas of operation.
---xxx---
Recap
Turkish and Soviet intelligence had lost track of Perse after her dramatic escape from Izmir. An unconfirmed sighting in Alexandria had yet to be verified. It was possible she remained in Egypt or had been spirited to Baghdad, London or even the US. No one in Turkey was sure …
… while at the front, the intense fighting of the last week showed no signs of letting up, while the Soviets attempted their own grand encirclement of Army Group North, defending the former Baltic States and Leningrad.
---xxx---
1. Northern Sector: 8-15 Jun 43
8 Jun 43
The morning started with MAJGEN Selisek’s 1 Mar Div outflanking move running into the recently arrived 8 Pz Div in Nagykanizsa. The Turkish marines’ reckless quick assault was deftly counter-attacked and was called off after the first contact. But with Nagytád now vacated to the south, Comintern forces began an unopposed march to consolidate the line. 6 Militia (Mil) Div was ordered up to reinforce 1 US Mar Div in Zagreb, which was still under heavy attack from the north, while the Turkish attack on Novo Mesto continued further to the west.
As the fighting in both locations continued during the day, the situation slowly deteriorated for the US Marines in Zagreb, where the Italians began air strikes, but progressed well for the Turks in Novo Mesto, where victory came at 11pm despite enemy Italian air attacks on 19 Inf Div in Delnice.
With growing concern about the situation in Zagreb, a spoiling attack was launched on Ormoz from Cakovec at 11pm, with immediate results: the enemy attack on Zagreb was called off straight away, but the Turks and the US Marines persisted with their attack on Ormoz, looking to better secure their hold on the Croatian GNR capital.
Air Damage Report. Four Italian raids on Delnice killed 793 Turkish soldiers, while a single raid on Zagreb caused just 67 US casualties.
---xxx---
9-10 Jun 43
The fighting in Ormoz continued throughout 9 June, finishing at midnight with a Turkish victory which saw 250 Comintern and 556 Axis troops killed. 1 Inf Div continued on, while 6 US Mar Div held in place to keep Cakovec secure.
176 SD was the first into Nagyatád at 6am on 10 June, with the rest following up during the day. To the west, 19 Inf Div occupied Novo Mesto at 11am and soon came under a serious enemy attack [-85% progress]by the Italian 6a Mtn Div in Ribnica. In response, 1 Mtn Div launched a flanking attack on Ribnica, which drew off the Italians from Novo Mesto by 2pm (nine Turk v 24 Italian casualties). Their job done, Muzir’s Mountaineers ceased their attack at the same time (15 Turk v 28 Italian casualties).
The same scenario was replayed in Novo Mesto and Ribnica between 7 and 9pm that night, this time with 3a Inf Div attacking from Ribnica[-48%], 1 Mtn Div hitting them again by 8pm (not having been disorganised by the previous quick attack). The Italians broke off the assault on Novo Mesto by 9pm (13 Turk v 27 Italian casualties) and 1 Mtn Div also halted its spoiling attack on Ribnica (18 Turk v 28 Italian casualties). The exposed and leaderless 19 Inf Div would continue to try to dig in and secure its precarious foothold, even as it remained under Italian air attack.
Air Damage Report. Air raids on Cakovec throughout 9 and 10 June killed 1,074 Comintern troops, but could not prevent the attack on Ormoz from succeeding. The Italian raids on Novo Mesto would continue into 11 June.
---xxx---
11 Jun 43
In the event, 19 Inf Div was given little time to strengthen its defences. Yet another attack went in on Novo Mesto at 2am – a quickly reorganised Italian 6a Mtn Div [-64% progress]. 1 Mtn Div in Delnice still had four hours before it too would complete its reorganisation after its last spoiling attack.
But soon there was another Axis attack to worry about, this time south of Budapest. And it would prove difficult to deal with, despite the Soviet commander MAJGEN Panov executing an effective ambush on the attacking German paratroopers and Hungarian infantry.
The pattern of Axis attacks continued, with a Hungarian probe on Cakovec, also at 7am. This cross-river assault from Lenti was heavily defeated after three hours, MAJGEN Orbay’s elastic defence killing 186 attackers for only four Comintern casualties. The fight for Dunaújváros would not prove so easy, however.
That evening, 1 Mtn Div was ordered once more to attack Ribnica when the enemy attack on Novo Mesto began making more serious progress. The latest spoiling attack got off to a good start and once again the Italian attack on Novo Mesto was called off. But this time, with Zagreb also now secure, 1 Mtn Div continued their attack even though outnumbered, hoping to ensure 19 Inf Div got some breathing space.
That evening, 1 Inf Div arrived in Ormoz at 7pm and brushed off an enemy probe by the German 82nd Infanterie an hour later (two Turk v 20 German casualties). The fighting in Ribnica continued.
Air Damage Report. The air attacks on Novo Mesto that had begun the day before finished on the night of 11 June after killing 848 men of 19 Inf Div. Meanwhile, the Italians began hitting Dunaújváros hard late that night, and would do so until midday on 13 June.
---xxx---
12-13 Jun 43
As the battle for Ribnica went on, the situation in Dunaújváros worsened, prompting a difficult spoiling attack on Budapest from two of Turkey’s most powerful armoured divisions, led by the dashing MAJGEN Toüdemür. The hope was it might provide enough distraction to halt the main attack on Dunaújváros, but the Hungarian capital was heavily garrisoned by other units. Meanwhile, the Comintern units south of Székesfehérvár were either weaker or still recovering from previous combat damage and not in a good position to launch a spoiling attack on the Hungarian division attacking Dunaújváros.
The worsening situation led to 1 Armd Div being ordered at 1am on 13 June from its position guarding the line north-west of Timisoara up to Kiskunhalas, directly south of Dunaújváros, in anticipation of having to plug a potential gap and being called on to counter-attack if it fell.
There was better news to the west, with 1 Mtn Div victorious in Ribnica at 6am after a tough fight. 3 Mtn Div was ordered to move up to Karlovac, which had been abandoned by the Germans, while two divisions began shuffling east to help strengthen the line around Dunaújváros.
This was required because the forlorn spoiling attack on Budapest was failing to make any appreciable impact, being called off at 7am before the divisions involved became any more disorganised and lost more men than they had already (307 Turk v 66 Axis casualties).
By 7pm, 12 SD had broken and was routing south to Baja. Under incessant air attack and now more heavily outnumbered, 3 Mot Div was ordered to make a controlled withdrawal to Kiskunhalas, to preserve its fighting strength and establish a reserve line south of the river. Casualties had been heavy on both sides, but the battle for Dunaújváros was lost and the gap in the line would have to be closed up before the Axis high command could exploit it.
Air Damage Report. Three days of air attacks on Dunaújváros added another 860 Comintern casualties to those inflicted in the ground fighting and had made it that much harder to hold on. 583 troops from 1 Mtn Div were killed in a day of Italian raids on Delnice, as they advanced north to occupy Ribnica.
---xxx---
14 Jun 43
With the retreat from Dunaújváros, the Hatvan salient had become even more precarious, with no prospect of an encirclement of Budapest looking likely until more forces could be freed up from the fighting in the south, which still raged around the Zrenjanin Pocket at that stage. Just as an enemy probe hit Monor at 1pm (brushed off with heavy enemy casualties), 2 Mot and 3 Cav Divs were ordered to pull out to safety in Monor.
And as that was happening, Novo Mesto was struck yet again, this time by 3a Inf Div again, which had by then relocated to Ljubljana – out of range of any immediate Turkish spoiling attack, as 1 Mtn Div advanced on Ribnica.
The enemy reoccupied Dunaújváros at 5pm, but that left Székesfehérvár undefended. 156 SD made an opportunistic march to see if it could be taken before the enemy garrisoned it again. 176 SD occupied Nagykanizsa at 7pm, shortening the line and covering other units were being shuffled east. And then 1 Armd Div pulled into Kiskunhalas at midnight to provide a strong defence of the river line there.
Air Damage Report. A single raid on Monor killed just 38 Turkish defenders before the attack was called off. Fighting continued in Novo Mesto, where 19 Inf Div had also come under heavy air attack again that morning.
---xxx---
15 Jun 43
At 3am, 1 Mtn Div secured Ribnica at the same time 3 Mtn Div marched into Karlovac. With 1 Mtn Div still over two days away from being able to attack again and Zagreb’s flanks now secured, MAJGEN Diskoerekto was ordered to lead an attack with 1 US Mar Div on Krsko, from which the Germans were already moving north. They chose not to fight after the initial engagement, with victory coming an hour later, as Novo Mesto continued to take a hammering.
With things getting worse, 3 Mtn Div was ordered to head to Novo Mesto at 9am, and 19 Inf Div was pulled out two hours later to avoid further damage in a losing fight. 1 US Mar Div would keep pushing on to take Krsko. A battlefield rendezvous between MAJGEN Diskoerekto and US Marine LO MAJ Kenny 'Wraith' Loggins would have to wait for another opportunity.
By 7pm that afternoon, 3 Cav Div had already made it to Monor, but 2 Mot Div was still in Hatvan when it was struck by four enemy divisions from two different directions. Toüdemür wasted no time in disengaging and continuing the withdrawal south (28 Turk v 25 Axis casualties).
As the day drew to a close, 156 SD encountered the newly arrived 4. Leichte Div in Székesfehérvár, frustrating their hopes of an unopposed ‘end-run’. But the intrepid MAJGEN Shvydkoi put in a shock attack, hoping to sweep away the fully organised but under-strength motorised division anyway. He would be given some time to see if the ploy worked.
Air Damage Report. Two days of raids on Novo Mesto killed another 796 soldiers from 19 Inf Div, while a couple on 3 Mtn Div in Karlovac caused 168 casualties.
---xxx---
2. Southern Sector: 8-15 Jun 43
8-9 Jun 43
Torrid and back-and-forth as the fighting was in the northern sector, the ‘main game’ remained in the south. In the early morning of 8 June, fighting continued in Timisoara, where Axis units from Kikinda and Lugoj had been attempting to break for the last two days. The very active SS-Totenkopf Division probed Senta at 4am. The composite 1 TAG bombing group, then raiding Lugoj, was ordered to finish there and strike the SS in Ada instead, though the SS gave up after just two hours. In Zrenjanin, Turkish and Soviet divisions plus the reinforced HQ 4th Corps made a concerted assault against the German 23rd Infanterie.
The heavily outnumbered enemy fled Zrenjanin at 8am (19 Comintern v 57 German casualties).
The fighting in Timisoara remained intense on 9 June, where by 4am the organisation of both the defending Turkish divisions (10 and 14 Inf Divs) was down to about 50%. By then, only the German divisions (2nd and 75th Infanterie) in Kikinda maintained the assault, but both were still fresh, close to full strength and not showing any signs of supply shortages, despite having been cut off for some time now. Given this, 1 TAG was switched to Kikinda as its next target – where it would concentrate its efforts around the clock for next five days.
At 7am, the Hungarian 8th Div ‘bounced’ into Zrenjanin but was soon defeated by the advancing Comintern forces after a two hour encounter battle (16 Comintern v 136 Hungarian casualties). By that afternoon, the HQ of the ‘Fighting Fourth Corps’ was the first to occupy Zrenjanin, beating all the accompanying infantry units into the mountain stronghold – and narrowing the pocket further. Another short probe on Senta was called off by the SS that afternoon as 1 TAG struck Ada in the morning then Kikinda in the afternoon. Further east, 177 SD arrived in Resita at midday and was sent straight into an attack on Lugoj.
HQ 4th Corps had only been in Zrenjanin for an hour when they were attacked by the 28th Infanterie from Kikinda [-45%]. The reinforced HQ would have to hold out until the rest of the advancing Comintern forces arrived.
Air Damage Report. The last Turkish raid on Lugoj on 8 June killed 80 Axis defenders, before switching attention to Ada, where ground attacks continued into 9 June, killing a total of 343 SS fanatics. Raids then began on Kikinda on the afternoon of 9 June. The Italian Air Force also put in a brief appearance in the south, raiding Timisoara twice to cause 336 casualties.
---xxx---
10-11 Jun 43
North of Timisoara, 13 Inf Div liberated Beius early on 10 June and were then directed south-east towards Cimpeni, where the Romanians had ejected an Italian division and were also advancing on the province from the south-east. 2 Armd Div would secure Beius behind 13 Inf Div. Both allies wanted to ensure this smaller pocket was closed to the north of the main Zrenjanin Pocket, where heavy fighting continued in three different battles.
But the Romanians had it all in hand, taking Cimpeni three hours later and sealing off a second pocket with at least two more Italian divisions trapped – who then struck the Soviets and Romanians in Faget: but that key province had been reinforced, so should have no trouble holding, even as 4 Inf Div still made its slow way north, just to make sure of it. Timisoara still hung on grimly, with stories of MAJ Tyler Durden’s ‘urban terrorists’ raiding Axis positions at night to cut throats as they huddled down to try get a minute or two of sleep in the ruined streets.
North of this, German forces probed Arad between 8 and 11 am, but withdrew after losing 104 attackers to the well-set Turkish defence, which lost 39 men. At the same time, another German probe had hit MAJGEN Bözer’s 13 Inf Div which had begun to dig in at Beius: this would prove a more persistent assault [-38 progress at the start].
All these battles continued into 11 June without respite, as 1 TAG kept plugging away at the large Axis troop concentration in Kikinda. Things were getting quite tense in Timisoara, where troops on both sides were beginning to tire in fighting that had started back on 6 June, with an Italian division now trying to join in. 10 Inf Div in particular was nearing the end of its willpower. This triggered a two-pronged spoiling attack to be launched from Senta and Jasa Tomic, closing on the enemy front line at 6am.
Later that morning, the aptly named MAJGEN Hammer launched yet another attack at 10am on Senta with his SS-Totenkopf Division. A third level of spoiling was initiated in response to that, with the three Comintern divisions and the reinforced HQ 2nd Corps positioned from Srboban down to Ruma now recovered from previous post-attack reorganisation. Hammer called off his own attack at midday to concentrate on the defence of Ada, allowing 3 Inf Div to continue its own spoiling attack on Senta. At the same time, 177 SD triumphed in Lugoj after a sharp fight which had begun two days before. The attack on Ada was persisted with, as the screw was tightened another turn on the enemy trapped in the pocket - who still seemed to suffer any supply shortages yet.
Air Damage Report. Two Italian ground attacks on Arad had killed 245 defenders on 10 June in support of the brief attack there. Continuous Turkish strikes on Kikinda went on.
---xxx---
12 Jun 43
The Axis had not given up trying to find a way through the screen to the north of Timisoara while their comrades tried desperately to break out. A longer attack on Arad, again by the German 25th Infanterie and with air support, lasted from 2 to 8 am, but was repelled (117 Turk v 124 German casualties), while the attack on nearby Beius still dragged on, now also with Italian air support.
But the Axis suffered twin blows early that afternoon: at 1pm, the long enemy attack on Zrenjanin was finally defeated, with heavy losses. This freed up the five formations there (including HQ 4th Corps) to reinforce the attacks on both Arad and Kikinda. Now attacked from the same side of the river, the SS retreated towards Kikinda just an hour later, while the assault on Kikinda itself strengthened and the enemy's on Timisoara weakened.
By 4pm, two of the enemy divisions defending Kikinda were retreating to Lugoj (which had still not been reoccupied) and two of the three left were significantly disorganised. But they still would not give up their desperate attack on Timisoara.
At 8pm that night, 10 Inf Div routed from Timisoara towards Sannicolau Mare, but one of the Axis divisions had also pulled out. 75th Infanterie was almost out of organisation, and MAJGEN Seven’s 14 Inf Div was not far behind, but looking stronger at this point. The same time, a new battle broke out in Lugoj as one of the German divisions that had retreated from Kikinda arrived: they had regained just enough organisation to not flee on first contact. 177 SD – fresh and at full strength - renewed its assault.
In the smaller ‘Lipova Pocket’, north-east of Timisoara, the Soviets and Romanians had forced two enemy divisions to surrender, while a third was still retreating to Lipova from the north-east. Comintern cooperation and coordination was reaching new heights.
Fighting continued in Beius and Timisoara (Axis attacks) and Lugoj and Kikinda (Comintern attacks) into the next day.
Air Damage Report. One Italian ground attack on Arad killed 165 defenders, while Beius was under Italian air attack and Kikinda remained under Turkish aerial assault.
---xxx---
13 Jun 43
The latest skirmish for Lugoj was won at 2am. But the more momentous news was that the week-long battle for Timisoara was finally over: more than 4,000 troops from both sides had perished, but the Turkish flag still flew over the battered city. It was rumoured that Durden and his rag-tag band of raiders went searching for loot and trophies among the enemy dead and wounded left behind. No one wanted to ask too many questions.
Not long after this, a major defensive victory was won in Beius, again resulting in especially heavy casualties for the Axis.
Another heavy loss for the enemy came in Kikinda at 1pm, while retreating enemy division was defeated by 177 SD in Lugoj in a brief skirmish two hours after that. At that point, all the Axis units in the pocket were in retreat, while the Turks tried to secure the provinces and thus stop the to-and-fro of these ‘bouncing’ Axis units.
With these successes and after suffering a fair degree of organisational fatigue (though only around an average of 5% losses) over recent days, 1 TAG was finally told to rest and reorganise at 5pm. The German 31st Infanterie slipped into Lipova at 6pm that evening: their destruction would be left to Turkey’s partners. Ada was occupied by Comintern forces at 11pm, squeezing the scurrying enemy units into an even smaller space.
Air Damage Report. Italian attacks on Beius on 12 and 13 June killed 337 Turkish defenders, while the five days of Turkish raids on Kikinda killed a total of 1,330 Axis troops.
---xxx---
14-15 Jun 43
The day was taken up with advances into the last two provinces of the pocket and encounter battles with Axis divisions retreating from one to the other from previous defeats. The first was a quick encounter battle with five Comintern divisions attacking the Hungarian 8th Div – which still retained quite high organisation - in Kikinda from 1 to 6 am. But their hasty defence was overwhelmed (11 Turk v 406 Hungarian casualties).
At 7am, yet another probe with air support on Arad to the north began by German mountain troops on Gürzlin’s 7 Inf Div – and it got off to a powerful start [-53% progress]. The Axis was still trying a rescue, no matter the lengthening odds. Odds which worsened when the Romanians liquidated the last Axis remnants in Lipova a few hours later. Comintern formations were closing in on the last two provinces in the pocket as all Axis troops remained in retreat.
But midday brought more frustrations, as the relatively intact – and very determined – SS-Totenkopf lodged in Kikinda before it could be occupied and started a new scratch defence there.
Secret Reporting: Washington, DC, US. An American scientist, given the code name "Quantum" by the Soviet KGB, met with officials at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, DC, on 14 June and turned over classified scientific information about separating the isotope Uranium-235 from uranium, part of the American atomic bomb project. The American FBI and NSA intercepted news of the meeting from a cable sent on June 21 from the KGB's New York office, but were never able to learn the identity of "Quantum".
This is an OTL event. More than sixty years later, "Quantum" was discovered from declassified files from the former Soviet Union to have most likely been Boris Podolsky, (29 June 1896 – 28 November 1966) was a Russian-American physicist noted for his work with Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen on entangled wave functions and the ‘EPR paradox’.
Kikinda became the last Axis centre of resistance in the pocket when Lugoj was taken at 6am on 15 June. The SS were still resisting by 9am, providing shelter for exhausted comrades who had retreated tried to retreat to Lugoj previously, but were now ‘bounced back’ to Kikinda after a brief skirmish at 7am, even as more of their compatriots retreated from Lugoj after previous defeats.
The latest German attempt on Arad failed at 1pm (186 Turk v 425 German casualties) as the last death throes of Axis resistance in the pocket were eked out. That night, even though the SS still clung on, when 11 Inf Div arrived in Ada at 9pm, they did not join in the attack on Kikinda, but were put on trucks and sent north to help plug the enemy advance south of Budapest. But as night fell, the SS – by now almost completely disorganised – showed their prodigious fanaticism by still providing shelter to their Axis comrades in Kikinda [89% progress].
---xxx---
3. Espionage
10 Jun 43
As night fell in London on 10 June 1943, two men in cheap suits lurked outside an expensive Mayfair hotel. On a soundless nod from the man in charge, they both moved forward, glancing suspiciously as they made their way to a side entrance. One stayed at the door, keeping it open and clearly acting as a sentry, trying to appear nonchalant but with one hand straying nervously every so often to the revolver he had in a shoulder holster. The other man took out a silenced automatic pistol, checked it was loaded and the safety was off, and started climbing the stairs.
David Callan cursed under his breath and prepared for action. He was back in London to confer with the recently returned ‘Rose’, Persephonee Fotheringay-Phipps, and had arranged to meet her in her room on the fourth floor of the hotel. MI6 HQ had not been aware of his movements or plans, but had known of Perse’s whereabouts. How this information had come into the hands of these thugs was all too obvious: it showed MacLean was surely not the only Soviet ‘mole’ in the agency.
Callan, incognito, getting ready to attempt the disruption of what could only be a mission to kidnap or assassinate ‘the Rose’.
Seeing the door guard was a left-hander, Callan used one of the oldest tricks in the book: he threw a glass bottle down the laneway to the man’s left, meaning he would be momentarily distracted as he reached for the gun on his right side. Callan walked calmly forward, took aim and shot the man with a double-tap, two bullets drilling him through the heart. All the would-be assassin was able to manage was one misdirected shot before he collapsed, dead before he hit the ground.
Callan bounded past him and up the stairs as quickly as he could, but was almost certain he would be too late to intervene, given the head-start the other ‘wet worker’ had. His fears were reinforced when he saw a room service waiter slumped against a wall on the first floor, a neat hole between his eyes. And then confirmed when he heard a door slamming and gunfire as he bounded up the last flight of stairs to the fourth floor. Too late, he cursed again.
The assassin had indeed taken a master key from the dead waiter. He had quietly inserted it into the lock, opening the door with a sudden flourish to storm in and surprise this helpless woman he had been sent to ‘terminate, with extreme prejudice’. And there she was!
Perse, on the alert for her planned meeting with Callan, had heard the shots out in the laneway, recognising the muffled sounds for what they must be. As the key turned in the lock, she was ready. The last thing the assassin saw and heard was a bright muzzle flash and the sharp report of a gunshot.
Seconds later, Callan warily approached the door, but stopped short and introduced himself, giving their agreed password and waiting, out of sight.
“Do come in, David, but would you be so kind as to keep your hands in the air? And not filled with iron?”
“Naturally, Perse. Glad to hear your voice again, after all these years.”
As he rounded the door, he saw Perse standing perfectly still and quite unharmed, a cloud of cordite floating in the air around her.
Perse, a picture of tranquillity, the cordite still drifting around her in the hotel room, a dead would-be assassin a few feet in front of her.
“But this place will be crawling with Agency types soon. We’d best be out of here: you’re not safe, even in London. And especially from our ‘own’ people. Come with me – quickly, please.”
“Of course, David,” she replied, summing up the situation rapidly. “Where there is one, there may be many. Do you recognise this goon?”
“No, nor his former colleague downstairs. Could be either Turkish or Russian – but they certainly don’t look German to me. I think our ‘allies’ have taken a very particular interest in you, my dear.”
“Quite so, dear boy, quite so. I’ll just grab my coat and we’ll be off.”
---xxx---
15 Jun 43
By mid-June, Cennet was in Zurich to make a report to Ambassador ‘Mike’ Ceylan.
“Things have been quiet of late. Anything new from Vito Corleone? Or the Resistance?”
“All running smoothly, nothing unusual to report. The Resistance is, ah, going at it hard, Ambassador.”
Despite Cennet’s attempt to disguise it, Ceylan couldn’t help but detect a slight almost-smile.
He remained deadpan, but slightly raised one eyebrow. “So I hear, Cennet, so I hear.”
That was enough to elicit a slight blush, but no admission. What happened in the field stayed in the field – but he also wanted her to know nothing was really secret from him. They’re both so young, he thought to himself, and unlikely to survive this war anyway. Let them have their brief interludes – so long as it doesn’t compromise the mission.
Cennet handed over her report – no ‘neutralisations’ on either side, and the disruption mission continued without any real interference.
---xxx---
4. Mid-month Theatre SITREPs
At the end of May, Turkish manpower reserves had stood at 55,000 men. By the end of 7 June they were at 49,000 and fallen further to 41,000 by the end of 15 June, only partly offset by recruiting gains (currently at 14,200 per month).
In the whole of May, Turkish (including EFs) ground combat losses had been 15,672 with another 7,388 lost from enemy air attacks, for a total of 23,060 combat losses. Axis losses in the previous month had been 28,657 in ground combat and another 5,059 killed by Turkish air raids, for a total of 33,716.
So far, in the first half of Junealone, during the intensifying fighting (and not counting any prisoners taken by the Romanians in Lipova) Turkey had suffered 12,756 ground and 10,975 air combat casualties, for a total of 23,731. The Axis had lost 20,028 to ground fighting but only 3,498 to air raids, giving an almost identical total of 23,526, slightly less than the cumulative Turkish losses.
---xxx---
In theFar East, 4 Cav Div had caught up with their comrades in Chindagatuy early on 10 June and together they resumed the slow advance against the Japanese invaders.
Overall, by 15 June there had again been minor but uniform advances from the 1 June starting point.
Dotted arrows are advances made in 1-7 June 1943, the rest of the changes happening since.
---xxx---
In good news from Russia, the ‘Destruction of Army Group North’ operation had made small but significant inroads since the beginning of the month, with the Baltic Sea again reached in the last day or so, with another drive approaching Leningrad and Axis forces being pushed back north of Lake Ladoga.
The Patriotic Front more generally had shown the biggest Comintern gains were in the Balkans (all advances since 1 June shown by the arrows below).
---xxx---
British reporting indicated that there had been little or no progress by either side since 1 June. This was good news in eastern India, Singaporeand the top of the North Island in New Zealand. But it was disappointing news in Libya, where no British advances had been made, even tough intelligence reported only Italian HQs remained between them and Tripoli.
While in northern Germany, the British raid appeared not to have been reinforced and only 7 Armd Div remained, holed up in Bremen and without a port to sustain it.
---xxx---
Coming Up: How quickly can the Turks close out the last resistance in the pocket around Kikinda, and how many prisoners will they put in the bag? Can the line be kept stable in the northern sector and how will the forces released from the elimination of the pocket be used? Can Turkey maintain this level of operational tempo with the heavy drain on scarce manpower reserves? And when will the Air Force be able to start contesting the Italian air raids that have been striking Turkish forces with impunity for some weeks now, to such severe effect?
Will the Soviets be able to maintain their hold on Army Group North and slowly grind the massive pocket into dust? Or will the Germans mount a successful rescue mission? Will the British ever get off their bone-idle lazy butts in Libya and finish the Italians off there? Should a lightning Turkish naval landing raid on Tripoli be considered, after all?
What will become of Perse and Callan as they try to combat Soviet double-agents in MI6? And whose assassins were they really?
The Balkans are looking great. This was another masterclass in Turkish rapid agressive warfare. Of course, we shouldn't forget the impact of Romanian and Soviet forces, but if we're being fair, the Turkish Army is running the show in the Balkans. Not only is the first pocket around Kinkinda all but digested, a second pocket in Lipova was also eliminated. And on top of that, the UGNR still finds the troops and leadership to conduct an offensive in the Zagreb area, and mostly hold the line in the Budapest area. Impressive.
Of course the manpower cost of these operations has proven to be unsustainable, but so are the Axis losses, especially if you take the number of POW's into account. I hope that Turkey keeps it's Generals in check as to allow some respite on the home front. It would be quite a bad thing if Turkey's Army were spent before the war in Europe is over. Of course, for the Soviet Union it could allow the Red Army to get hold of more of post-war Europe, but it would also mean more Soviet casualties, and an unflattering end to the rise of the UGNR.
Finally, the Baltic Front and the Leningrad Front seem to have now sealed the Leningrad pocket for good. Once the German Army Group North is out of the picture, the road to Berlin will be wide open. I'm becoming positively euphoric at how well the war is now going, especially when contrasted with the desperate times of a few months ago. I just hope the Red Army will manage to press home their advantage now. If anything the liberation of Leningrad will surely be a major symbolic turning point in the North, just as the liberation of Timisoara signalled a symbolic turning point in the Balkans.
As for the spy business. I would say that those hitmen likely weren't GRU, as that level of incompetence is filtered out early on in the selection process. Too bad, maybe a real GRU squad could have grabbed Perse before Callan could intervene, and we could be taking our time interviewing her in some undisclosed location. Just imagine the secrets she must know.
On the other hand, 'Quantum' has proven most useful, alerting us to the existence of a US nuclear programme. One would expect one's wartime allies to share such a potentially warwinning development with us. I get that they wouldn't share the technical details, but a simple confidential communiqué stating the yield and development timeline for these new weapons would have been adequate. I'm sensing that the US won't want to stay in the Comintern for too long after the war, either that or it's going to be hollowed out from the inside. A sad state of affairs, but let us first finish this war before we start talking about a trans-Atlantic rivalry.
As promised, an intense update! Certainly a lot going on here, but excellent progress on all fronts on the whole, a few isolated setbacks in the north are of little concern considering that not only has the north been broadly in our favor, but a new mass of troops will be incoming to reinforce a second-wave summer offensive! Vur ha!
With the retreat from Dunaújváros, the Hatvan salient had become even more precarious, with no prospect of an encirclement of Budapest looking likely until more forces could be freed up from the fighting in the south, which still raged around the Zrenjanin Pocket at that stage. Just as an enemy probe hit Monor at 1pm (brushed off with heavy enemy casualties), 2 Mot and 3 Cav Divs were ordered to pull out to safety in Monor.
Looks like my prediction that we would stretch our forces too thin and too far was partly correct, though we have managed to hold more ground than I initially expected. A slower, steadier approach will win the race when we resume the offensive here.
And as that was happening, Novo Mesto was struck yet again, this time by 3a Inf Div again, which had by then relocated to Ljubljana – out of range of any immediate Turkish spoiling attack, as 1 Mtn Div advanced on Ribnica.
The enemy reoccupied Dunaújváros at 5pm, but that left Székesfehérvár undefended. 156 SD made an opportunistic march to see if it could be taken before the enemy garrisoned it again.
Once again an opportunistic land-grab with consequences of overreach. I do think that our forces are getting away with more than they should be able to thanks to the disorganized state of the Axis armies, frankly.
The fighting in Timisoara remained intense on 9 June, where by 4am the organisation of both the defending Turkish divisions (10 and 14 Inf Divs) was down to about 50%. By then, only the German divisions (2nd and 75th Infanterie) in Kikinda maintained the assault, but both were still fresh, close to full strength and not showing any signs of supply shortages, despite having been cut off for some time now.
But the Romanians had it all in hand, taking Cimpeni three hours later and sealing off a second pocket with at least two more Italian divisions trapped – who then struck the Soviets and Romanians in Faget: but that key province had been reinforced, so should have no trouble holding, even as 4 Inf Div still made its slow way north, just to make sure of it. Timisoara still hung on grimly, with stories of MAJ Tyler Durden’s ‘urban terrorists’ raiding Axis positions at night to cut throats as they huddled down to try get a minute or two of sleep in the ruined streets.
This is simply brilliant and an unexpected bonus after everything else so far. The Axis in this sector is completely collapsing and total victory cannot be too far off.
The latest skirmish for Lugoj was won at 2am. But the more momentous news was that the week-long battle for Timisoara was finally over: more than 4,000 troops from both sides had perished, but the Turkish flag still flew over the battered city.
The latest German attempt on Arad failed at 1pm (186 Turk v 425 German casualties) as the last death throes of Axis resistance in the pocket were eked out. That night, even though the SS still clung on, when 11 Inf Div arrived in Ada at 9pm, they did not join in the attack on Kikinda, but were put on trucks and sent north to help plug the enemy advance south of Budapest. But as night fell, the SS – by now almost completely disorganised – showed their prodigious fanaticism by still providing shelter to their Axis comrades in Kikinda [89% progress].
SS division aside, this is textbook pocket reduction here and my strategic correspondent hat is very much tipped to our bold and efficient generals in the field. Truly a campaign for the annals of the Ataturk institute, for decades to come!
At the end of May, Turkish manpower reserves had stood at 55,000 men. By the end of 7 June they were at 49,000 and fallen further to 41,000 by the end of 15 June, only partly offset by recruiting gains (currently at 14,200 per month).
That 41,000 plus the monthly recruitment should be sufficient to carry us through Hungary. Once they have surrendered the intensity should reduce and the front lines shorten, at which point we can recuperate from the losses and perhaps disband a few of the militia formations and distribute their support battalions amongst our remaining 4-brigade infantry divisions to recover manpower for our better units.
In good news from Russia, the ‘Destruction of Army Group North’ operation had made small but significant inroads since the beginning of the month, with the Baltic Sea again reached in the last day or so, with another drive approaching Leningrad and Axis forces being pushed back north of Lake Ladoga.
This is also excellent news, hopefully the Russians can hold the pocket closed this time. Ideally they'll expand the seal and then post minimal defenses along the pocket line while sending the bulk of their offensive forces south for the march on Berlin, letting HG Nord stew in their own bratwurst juices for a few months or a year.
----
And let me just say, it's nice to have TT back again. I've missed the proper long-form works on this forum in recent months, particularly with Lord El Pip wrapping up another AAR in the HoI2 forum and my reading material dropping off proportionally.
Referring to these fronts as north and south is for me a bit confusing, given the line seems to stretch more west-east. Anyway that is by-the-by.
It strikes me that when the pocket is finally cleared that will free up considerable forces for a new push, after a little re-organisation. One has to wonder at the chance of a further, albeit most likely smaller, pocket continuing up the boundary between the Romanian and Turkish forces. All in all though it looks to have been a major operational success.
I am not convinced Budapest is worth concentrating on right now - there are so many better opportunties elsewhere it seems.
A quick one: haha, fair enough! The most accurate by the compass might be west-north-west and east-south-east, but that would a bit of a mouthful! I might come up with a different descriptor next time, as I do tend to vary them as the front shifts.
In a vacuum, there are certainly other opportunities particularly in the Adriatic and in Romanian core territories. However, in HoI3 terms taking the Hungarian capital is likely enough to force a surrender, or at least to get very close, which would cause the entire Hungarian army to lay down arms and suddenly leave a lot of gaps in the front for an Axis already starved of MP and divisions. I'm not entirely sure what happens to all the expeditionary forces being tossed about from one country to another, but certainly the loss of native Hungarian divisions if nothing else will be more substantial than what we usually catch in a pocket (the Timisoara campaign being quite exceptional for us).
If my eyes don't deceive me--and I don't think that they do--that's a fairly significant chunk of German Steel that is (once again) caught up north near Leningrad. This time, they might yet not be able to extricate those forces as easily as they did before. As I count it, I think that there's two armored (could be light, unless scale prevents presentation of medium), three mechanized and motorized infantry divisions each and an SS as well as a Mountain infantry division. Not to mention the seven (or eight) infantry divisions. 17 or 18 divisions, plus all of the headquarters in the area.
Did we ever get a count for how many krauts we bagged courtesy of our Romanian and Soviet allies? Or compositions?
Our own return to strategic mobility will be enhanced when we can close the pocket and get those forces back at things on the front line!
The same scenario was replayed in Novo Mesto and Ribnica between 7 and 9pm that night, this time with 3a Inf Div attacking from Ribnica[-48%], 1 Mtn Div hitting them again by 8pm (not having been disorganised by the previous quick attack). The Italians broke off the assault on Novo Mesto by 9pm (13 Turk v 27 Italian casualties) and 1 Mtn Div also halted its spoiling attack on Ribnica (18 Turk v 28 Italian casualties). The exposed and leaderless 19 Inf Div would continue to try to dig in and secure its precarious foothold, even as it remained under Italian air attack.
But soon there was another Axis attack to worry about, this time south of Budapest. And it would prove difficult to deal with, despite the Soviet commander MAJGEN Panov executing an effective ambush on the attacking German paratroopers and Hungarian infantry.
Meanwhile, the Comintern units south of Székesfehérvár were either weaker or still recovering from previous combat damage and not in a good position to launch a spoiling attack on the Hungarian division attacking Dunaújváros.
There was better news to the west, with 1 Mtn Div victorious in Ribnica at 6am after a tough fight. 3 Mtn Div was ordered to move up to Karlovac, which had been abandoned by the Germans, while two divisions began shuffling east to help strengthen the line around Dunaújváros.
At 3am, 1 Mtn Div secured Ribnica at the same time 3 Mtn Div marched into Karlovac. With 1 Mtn Div still over two days away from being able to attack again and Zagreb’s flanks now secured, MAJGEN Diskoerekto was ordered to lead an attack with 1 US Mar Div on Krsko, from which the Germans were already moving north. They chose not to fight after the initial engagement, with victory coming an hour later, as Novo Mesto continued to take a hammering.
In the smaller ‘Lipova Pocket’, north-east of Timisoara, the Soviets and Romanians had forced two enemy divisions to surrender, while a third was still retreating to Lipova from the north-east. Comintern cooperation and coordination was reaching new heights.
ut as night fell, the SS – by now almost completely disorganised – showed their prodigious fanaticism by still providing shelter to their Axis comrades in Kikinda [89% progress].
The juicy details of how many divisions were captured and how are they paraded and how it's in the newspapers are left for the next episode. All Totenkopf's fault!
In good news from Russia, the ‘Destruction of Army Group North’ operation had made small but significant inroads since the beginning of the month, with the Baltic Sea again reached in the last day or so, with another drive approaching Leningrad and Axis forces being pushed back north of Lake Ladoga.
Getting closer by the day to liberate all lost territory (plus some more already). I also see another huge pocket opportunity between where the current one is closed and roughly Lviv.
In a vacuum, there are certainly other opportunities particularly in the Adriatic and in Romanian core territories. However, in HoI3 terms taking the Hungarian capital is likely enough to force a surrender, or at least to get very close, which would cause the entire Hungarian army to lay down arms and suddenly leave a lot of gaps in the front for an Axis already starved of MP and divisions. I'm not entirely sure what happens to all the expeditionary forces being tossed about from one country to another, but certainly the loss of native Hungarian divisions if nothing else will be more substantial than what we usually catch in a pocket (the Timisoara campaign being quite exceptional for us).
As far as I remember we need one more VP city. Maybe we should take that first and better encircle the capital? As it stands being urban + a river crossing on all sides it's a nightmare to take Budapest.
