Return to Glory: A Germania AAR

trekaddict(1): True. But the elections sometimes come too late for a lot of people.

Nostra: You are probably right. I'm sure Helmut would take some honest work(no matter where it is) over the sort that Himmler and Heydrich would have him do.

dublish(1): You could always just cheer for Helmut I suppose.

HKslan(1): Both really

trekaddict(2): Oh? I will be eagerly awaiting their fates then.

von Landorf: Thanks. No, that wouldn't upset the ambassador very much at all seeing as how Spain is going to end up that way anyway(despite what dublish and HKslan would tell you).

Kurt Steiner: It indeed could be that Helmut finds himself going places after all this. As you say though, it could either be to a nice big office or to a firing squad.

dublish(2): Wow...I,uh,.. never thought I would see such enthusiastic support for Himmler.

trekaddict(3): Still haven't seen that damn movie. I recorded it on my DVR once, but something happened when I played it back and the movie stopped running. The last scene I saw was where Duvall and Caine meet in a big hangar.

Metroid17: Indeed he must. There are quite a few people who want to either use him or kill him. Or use him and then kill him.

HKslan(2): Thank you very much for your support throughout.

TheHyphenated1: Thank you.

dublish: Well, they were rather snappy dressers.

HKslan: Perhaps. Of course, he would still be with the army at this point so he has not yet risen high enough for that consideration.

KLorberau: You'd almost think that Helmut has a little Irish in him, eh? All of the major players in the Nazi hierarchy were in a constant struggle against one another for both more power and for Hitler's favor. Heydrich does indeed need to watch his back, but then so does Himmler and the rest.

Brad1: Thanks. I don't know how much longer this AAR is going to be, but I hope everyone hangs in there. I'm pretty confident about Spain, though I'm sure that several of my readers would say that I need all the luck I can get.

Next update will be tomorrow. It will feature a certain German officer and his adventures with a certain new panzer.

trekaddict said:

Hooray!


Maybe you can use this at some point:

Click to expand...

Nice! I think I will indeed use it.

HKslan: I think that I'll just just to my Irish heritage and avoid any animal sacrifices.... for now.

dublish: From what I saw of the movie, Pleasence was pretty good.

Update in a few

General von Manstein- Commander of German forces in Greece


Following his defeat of Greek forces in southern Bulgaria, General von Manstein crossed into Greece and captured the city of Salonika in mid- May. The fall of the city effectively opened up the rest of the country to German forces and cut off a mixed Greek and Bulgarian force numbering some 40,000 men that were holding heavily fortified positions around the seaport of Kavala.

General von Manstein's force was small and he needed to choose the next move in his campaign carefully. He was facing three separate Greek forces which, put together, outnumbered his own force. On his left was the force holding Kavala. On his right was the largest of the Greek formations which was holding the border between Greece and Italian Yugoslavia. The last of the three Greek formations was arrayed in front of him near the city of Larisa to prevent any further advance into the country.

Von Manstein decided to attack straight ahead and leave only small forces to guard his flanks. His reasoning was that each of the Greek formations on his flanks would be held down by other forces- the Italians and Generalfeldmarschall von Kleist's troops in Bulgaria- and would not be able to launch operations against him.

Leaving XII. Armee behind in Salonika, General von Manstein hit the Greek line in Larisa with the II. Panzerarmee and II. Motorisiert Armee. Greek resistance crumbled quickly and the city fell after only three days of fighting. Realizing that speed was of the essence, Manstein pushed his panzer forces onward toward the coast and was able to secure the city of Agrinio by May 21. This swift attack cut Greece in two and trapped 140,000 Greek soldiers between Manstein's forces in central Greece, and the Italians in Yugoslavia.

Manstein knew that he needed to keep up the attack before the Greeks could put together any kind of coordinated effort to break through his rather thin line. He divided his forces further, leaving elements of the II. Motorisiert Armee to hold the line against the Greek forces that were regrouping in the south near Athens, and attacked north toward the city of Ioannina. The trapped and desperate Greek defenders put up a fierce resistance, but were compelled to withdraw toward Edessa by the end of the month.

Not wanting to give his foes a moment to rest, Manstein pushed his own increasingly more exhausted men forward and was able to break the Greek line around Edessa by June 5. The next day, the remnants of all Greek forces in northern Greece surrendered. Manstein was now faced with a formidable defensive line in front of the capital city of Athens as well as the holdout in Kavala, which included a large number of Bulgarian troops who had refused to abide by their governments surrender in late May. While he gave his II. Panzerarmee a much needed rest, Manstein ordered XII. Armee to assault and destroy the Greek holdouts in Kavala.

Initial attempts to advance against the formidable Greek defensive line quickly bogged down and XII. Armee requested panzer support for their attack. Manstein, concerned about the formidable Greek force opposite his thinly stretched southern front, was unwilling to send II. Panzerarmee to Kavala and instead requested additional panzer forces from Generalfeldmarschall von Kleist in Bulgaria.


Generalfeldmarschall Ewald von Kleist

Von Kleist agreed to the request and ordered Rommel's I. Panzerarmee to move south to the aid of XII. Armee. The attack was continued on June 12 and Rommel's panzers, attacking from the north while XII. Armee attacked from the west, smashed through the Greek defenses on June 12 and General Rommel accepted the surrender of Greek forces in Kavala on June 14.


Greek and Bulgarian troops under guard after the surrender in Kavala


German forces now began to concentrate themselves in the south for the assault on Athens. With the I. Panzerarmee now added to his command, Manstein was confident that the enemy capital would fall quickly and with little trouble. The attack was scheduled to begin on June 21, but the Greek army upset Manstein's plan by launching an attack on Larissa on June 20. The attack was quickly repulsed with the Greeks slinking back to their defensive positions on the 22nd, but it had served to show Manstein that there was still some fight left in the Greeks. He decided to delay the attack until the Luftwaffe had a chance to soften the Greek positions up some more and in order to give a new weapon a chance to make it's debut on the battlefield.



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Major Otto Wolf and crew readying their new Tiger for it's first battle

June 27, 1940
Agia Paraskevi, Greece

It was finally time. After the long period of training, the men and vehicles of Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 501 had received the order to engage the enemy. That familiar mix of fear and excitement swirled inside Major Otto Wolf as the massive panzer began lumbering toward the Greek line. Otto, riding upright in the turret as always, swiveled to look behind him as the rest of the 501 followed him into battle. He was proud to be in command of this formation. It was the only one of it's kind in the whole Wehrmacht, and it was his.

He looked back forward toward where the Greeks were waiting for him across a wide expanse of farmland. They were dug in heavily and were sure to have all manner of anti-tank weapons at their disposal. During what he and the rest of the men had dubbed "Tiger School", he had been assured that there was no anti-tank artillery piece that could breach the Tiger's armor which was up to 110mm thick in places. Otto didn't know if that was true, but he couldn't imagine something being able to punch through that much armor. Well, he supposed he was about to find out.

Once the Greek line had come within range of the 8.8cm guns of his panzers, Otto gave the call to halt the advance. The big guns were trained on Greek targets and the whole battalion began pounding away at the enemy line. By the time that the Tigers had fired several rounds each, Greek artillery began to send fountains of dirt into the air in front of Otto's panzer. He ordered the advance to continue. The barrage should have greatly softened the Greek line and now Otto needed only to make sure that it was breached. It would not be his job to exploit the breach, however. His Tigers were too slow to be effective at that task. No, that would be up to the Panzer IVs that trailed behind him. He and his men would punch a hole in the enemy line and then the smaller panzers would rush in and run amok from there.

As Otto drew closer to Agia Paraskevi, anti-tank pieces began firing away from concealed or fortified positions along the Greek line. Round after round struck the hull of Otto's panzer as he and his men engaged the enemy positions at closer range, only to bounce harmlessly off. Otto calmly called in target after target to Hoff who continued to fire the gun with deadly effect. As Otto observed the battle from his open turret, he was struck by the thought that this was more a slaughter than a battle. The enemy had nothing with which they could halt his panzers. It was as if he and his men were striking down their foes from a position of invulnerability.

The Greeks could only take so much of the one-sided horror that was this battle and quickly began to abandon their positions. Otto watched them flee and felt the same desire to charge after them that the hussars of old must have felt. Instead, he ordered his formation to halt and let the Panzer IVs pass him by to do their part.

By nightfall, the entire Greek line had collapsed and the enemy was in full retreat toward Athens. All in all, the Tiger had been a rousing success in it's debut performance. Otto had lost only a few vehicles(all of which had suffered broken transmissions) and had suffered casualties of only a few wounded which had been the result of tank commanders fighting from an open turret in the style of their commanding officer.
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Following the complete route of Greek forces north of Athens on June 27, German forces closed in on the ancient city. Recognizing that the military situation was hopeless and wishing to spare the city the destructive effects of a siege, Greece's leaders signed articles of surrender on June 29.


Greece surrenders

The long, bloody Balkan Campaign had finally ended in complete victory for the Axis forces. Their celebration over the triumph was marred somewhat by news that British forces had pushed the Italians to the gates of Tripoli and had occupied the island of Crete immediately upon the Greek capitulation.