CHAPTER EIGHT - 'THE PREVENTIVE WAR'
Senatspräsident of Freie Stadt Danzig Arthur Greiser cursed once again the moment when his arch-rival Albert Maria Forster learnt about the new orders from Berlin... This f**** coward how did he learn about the message ? Rather rhetorical question he reminded himself - he after all created NSDAP structures in Danzig so the whole city is swarming with his spies... even here. Or rather ESPECIALLY here.
Ehh the joys of leadership in the Third Reich - everyone tries to backstabb everyone. Nevertheless Forster knows and tried to stop him. Of course he will not succeed - that would be a horrible humilation and Himmler certainly wouldn't like this... NO delays this time, it is his chance to prove his worth to Fuhrer himself ! Greiser may mumbel about poles getting a pretext for war, but it means only one thing - he still is the same coward he was in 1932* - these filthy sub-humans will not even see it coming - he smiled to himself.
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So called Bydgoszcz incident meant rapid decline of already unfriendly relationship between Poland and Germany. Both states exchanged diplomatic notes, but still only some people could predict what was coming...
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So I decided to DOW Germany. The main issue was how strong is the enemy and if my 18 infantry and cavalry can beat him. Another question was how soon/if I can join the Allies - their tasty blueprints would give me much necessary help in improving my army, industry, airforce and navy which I will need ultimately.
First I moved to the intelligence activities. I had to expand my network to get more or less reliable information how large is the German army...
Fortuanatelly the news were quite... optimistic. The problem was if that was reliable enough and if those divisions are capable enough to stop my forces.
'Almost sure' - so I can count on enemy using at least 12 infantry divisions. Fair enough, we can deal with it.
Third war in time of less than 12 months since I have started, not bad.
Of course some progress in technology was made too
At that time even a single division was not upgraded to '36' level so every single technology researched before mattered even more - this one increases attack and defence of most of my divisions.
At that time I also militarised my economy giving me noticable growth of IC, though slowing down research speed...
See I am researching for Chemical industry - it is basically the essential part of all oil-related researches and is very important to rise serious airforce, mechanised force, navy and build more advanced industry - so basically it is a must to get as soon as possible.
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Before the war was started terrible news stunned the whole country. ON the 12th May 1935 Józef
Pilsudski - the father of the Second Republic died from liver cancer. The whole country mourned - without any doubts one of the greatest Poles ever left this world.
Untill the death of John Paul II Poland never seen so much tribute given to anyone.
At least his plans of preventive war against Hitler will come true.
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It took a while before I was able to redeploy my army and even more to join the allies - the British refused 3 times before I succeeded, bloody hypocrites.
The moment I joined the alliance I went to the war as well. Excellent !
First moves were quite obvious.
With eastern border exposed the main issue was to capture most important areas before enemy counterattacks could be launched. Cavalry units moved ahead to encirle defenceless Berlin and to destroy the lone infantry division in Eastern Prussia.
Main attacks were launched against Nuremberg and Leipzig - both regions were closer to expected enemy units so large forces were used in both cases to ensure success.
Not everything went according to the plan - enemy stopped my offensive on Konigsberg and managed to capture Memel... Well... historical books will not mention it anyway.
At least primary targets in 'core' Germany were achived, though not without heavy fighting in Nuremberg. Those '39' infantry divisions were tough...
Worry not, though soon the situation changed, except... eastern Prussia. Ehh soon they will pay for violating my territory.
Doesn't matter. Most of strategic areas were conquered anyway. Mountain divisions were sent to Munich, cavalry occupied most of northern Germany. Time to destroy some of those divisions.
As you see below the French managed to cross the border. I guess the German HQ helped them a lot moving all their infantry against me... Even the Belgians started a promising offensive and even captured Cologne. Come on guys !
* In June 1931 Danzig authorities tried (again) to test how far Polish government will react to Danzig's nationalists undermining its authority. The question was about so called port d'attache i.e. the right to use a port as a naval base as well as to greet arriving foreign warships. In June 1932 British DDs were arriving to Danzig (HMS Campbell, Walpole, Westminster, Windsor, Vidette ) and Polish destroyer ORP '
Wicher ' was sent to Danzig to greet them. Second issue was the growing pressure to limit or remove polish rights in the Free City and apparent lack of activity of the League of the Nations despite polish protests.
The destroyer arrived as planned and greeted British DDs 'escorting' them to the port.The next day (15th June ) the Polish comander was ordered to respond with its artillery in case of Danzig's SA trying to desecrate the Polish banner. In fact the destroyer even targeted the Danzig's Senate building with its main artillery while the crisis reached its peak.
The next day the DDs left the port and the incident continued in the League of Nations. It had two results - one Poland was generally criticised for 'warmongering', two - Danzig's authorities decided to sign far more favourable deal with Poland extending certain rights. Together with the Westerplatte incident in 1933 and other smaller conflicts it scared off German authorities which were not ready for a conflict with Poland and decided to quell anti-polish attacks in Danzig and other areas. For a number of years relations with Germany were better than before NSDAP took power...quite tense, but better.
