Episode 22
Alternative Fall Rot via the Back Door
July 2 - August 10, 1938
After the fall of Poland, the 3. Armee took up station on the new German-Soviet border while most elements of the 5. Armee and 4. Panzerarmee were raced by strategic redeployment to the Italian border. For some reason it is not possible to redeploy strategically via an ally's territory. You have to stop at the border, cross it manually and then start redeploying again. The problem is that units that finish strategically redeploying automatically suffer from the attack delay penalty when they arrive - costing precious time.
Deployment on the Eastern border
Von Kluge's HQ of the 5. Armee is the first unit to arrive on the Italian border - on July 7. By this time, Italy is close to encircling Toulon and Marseilles as well. The last units of 5. Armee and 4. Panzerarmee don't arrive until July 13 and it won't be until July 15 that I can start moving them slowly into the Italian Alps.
At this point I learn that I probably should have moved my units into Italy gradually as soon as they arrived on the border because the minute they start to arrive en-masse in Italy there is a supply and fuel problem and the German troop movements grind to a halt while the Italians happily continue to waltz into France almost unopposed. I had not taken into account that having my troops on Italian soil would mean that Roma is obliged to supply them - and because of the new trade system I cannot give Italy supplies nor trade them to them at a favourable price. I am simply stuck trying to survive on whatever the Italian supply system can manage to send me.
To avoid another attack delay penalty I decide to let my troops drive to the front in France rather than move by strategic redeployment. I had hoped that my mobile forces could catch up with the Italians, who are mainly on foot. What I forgot to take into account was the terrain in Northern Italy - mountains and hills. My units move at a snail's pace - sometimes they don't move at all because of poor supply levels - and all the while Italy grabs more and more of Southern France for themselves.
I had been worried that Italy would get to keep all the territories they were taking from the French until I read in the forum that the Vichy event would automatically reward Germany with the north and west of France, while Vichy would get the southern and eastern parts - effectively negating all Italian conquests. Although that hardly seemed fair, this is not a game that I am going to mod to achieve "fair" or "pleasing" results - I am just playing to see how things turn out.
On July 15, my first three Fallschirmjäger-Divisions are at long last ready and I deploy them at the airfield in Stuttgart. In Hoi3 paratroopers cannot perform airborne drops unless they are very near full organisation, so it will be quite a few days before the three new airborne divisions become operational.
On July 14, Nice and Toulon fell to the Italians and for a spell the French actually looked like they might crumble all together. They started abandoning several of the provinces in the Maginot Line - leaving them totally undefended :wacko: - and moving more troops to the south. I decided that I did not want to take advantage of such a weak and incompetent AI, so I just kept my forces back and waited.
By July 18 the French had moved different units into the undefended areas and although the Maginot Line was now more thinly manned, it was manned nonetheless. But it was a little disappointing to see how the AI reacted to the threat.
By July 19 I am getting some sense of what a mess I have created for Mussolini by moving the 4. Panzerarmee into Italy. Even though I am not getting the fuel I need to move forward, Italy is losing 114 units of fuel per day - out of a stockpile of a mere 6400 units of fuel. By this rate, I will have depleted Italy's fuel reserves in just about two months. I am beginning to see, why Italy has so few mobile units. Still, I am not about to let Mussolini capture Paris with all its treasures.
Slugging my way across Northern Italy - July 30
The Fighting Can Finally Begin!
On August 3 - a bloody month after the fall of Poland - the 7. Panzer-Division is the first German unit to finally reach the Italian-French front that is rapidly moving west and north. I order the armoured division to wait a short while for some motorised infantry to catch up before the attack on the enemy across the river.
On August 5, Busch's 77. Infanterie-Division (mot.) arrives at the front. I immediately send him across the river to establish a bridgehead for my panzers to cross to in Nuits-St-Georges.
The first attack
It takes him 15 hours to get there and at 5 pm the motorised infantry captures the province, has a short skirmish with a French division moving in from the north and is victorious. Immediately after I start moving the 7. Panzer-Division across the river! Because Busch captured the province without attacking, the troops are still fresh, so I move them on to Epinac beyond! It will take them 22 hours.
At 7 am on August 6, the 7. Panzer-Division arrives in Nuits-St-Georges and I send it into Epinac as well. I have more motorised infantry and tanks moving up in the rear area - also towards the airfield in Besancon. It is now time to break out into the open French countryside.
At 4 pm, the 77. Infanterie-Division (mot.) captures Epinac and I send them onwards towards Dijon. Just after midnight, at 2 am on August 7, the 7. Panzer-Division arrives in Epinac and advances into Saulieu. An hour later, two German motorised infantry divisions arrive in Chaussin. I order Höpner to continue to the bridgehead while von Kortzfleish is ordered to attack across the river into Genlis and cut off French infantry headed for Dijon.
At mid day Busch captures Dijon, sending the French back towards Genlis. At the same time Guderian's 2. Panzer-Division is close behind Nehring's 7. Panzers. At 5 pm the province of Saulieu falls to the 7. Panzer-Division, which continues to Corbigny. All in all things are going well; my motorised infantry has reached Chalon-sur-Saone and begun a new attack across the river to widen the bridgehead to the north. But just before midnight I learn that von Manstein's 1. Panzer-Division is once again out of fuel. I hate the Italian supply system!
All day long on August 8 the 7. Panzer-Division, now the spearhead of the entire 4. Panzerarmee, races into France heedless of the dangers of losing support or the supply line, always in danger of being cut off, always out of range of the HQ.
At 4 pm the division captures the French province of Corbigny and races on towards La Charite!
Just before midnight, at 11 pm, Guderian’s 2. Panzer-Division arrives in Saulieu. I decide to send the division north towards Troyes.
The early hours of August 9
On August 9 at 9 am the 7. Panzer-Division arrives in La Charite. I blitz them on towards Cosne Cours and as I see Paris in the distance, a plan begins to form in my head…
August 9 at 7 in the evening
The 7. Panzer-Division completes an astonishing blitz with the capture of Cosne Cours on August 10 at 3 in the morning. There they rest while I complete the next phase of the invasion of France: Operation Adler!
Up Next: Operation Adler