0100 November 25th 1948
Arakan, Burma
November was a uneventful month for the Axis forces as the Allies took no initiative anywhere; this gave Germany some breathing time that would be used to begin the cyclopic reconstruction of a war-torn empire, reeling from half a dozen nuclear attacks, and enduring a colossal bombing campaign that gave no rest to her industries.
Given the lack of any real ground threat, it was deemed fit to cut the now abundant supplies production for the Army in favor of a limited reconstruction program, aimed at offsetting, even if partially, the monthly industrial losses caused by the Allied bombers.
Finally, by the end of the month, the British deemed an attack against superior forces, in hostile terrain, favourable enough, and so fifteen British divisions bravely assaulted twenty-five of the Wehrmacht's divisions in Arakan.
The Axis generals foresaw a quick battle with little bloodshed on the Germans part. They were half right: it would be quick, but it also would be incredibly violent, with more than 4,500 deaths per day.
The battle, started by the end of November 24th, saw fifteen British divisions, mostly motorized, bravely charging against twenty-five German divisions led by Erwin Rommel, many of which armored. It was clear that both sides had such unfavorable equipment, that is, not suited for jungle warfare, therefore neither could make good use of their forces. British forces ditched their motorized equipment altogether seeing as it wasn't really suited to jungle warfare, and yet they would enjoy the unusual sight of German tanks desperately trying to maneuver amidst the thick and inhospitable vegetation.
Even if ill-equipped - at least in relation to this kind of terrain - both sides made extensive uses of their artillery equipment; this led to great losses on both sides, equally hampered by the terrain, as the German defenses lacked the mobility to retreat to more favorable positions, and were prone to concentrated artillery fire, and the British infantry bravely charged, in vain, multiple times against the thick German defenses, while inflicting and taking a large amount of casualties in retaliation.
Rommel showed his flexible acumen once more as he quickly adapted to jungle warfare, even with such equipment at his disposal; in the early hours of November 25th, his forces successfully executed a tactical retreat in the jungles of Arakan. The British were baffled as they couldn't pursue the retreaters - that is, tanks, retreating, in the jungle - as fast as they could retreat to a more solid defensive line, and nobody can yet explain how could Rommel tactically withdraw twenty-five divisions, mostly armored, bogged down in one of the most inhospitable areas of the world, while being chased by a dozen or more British divisions.
Even with Rommel's logistical feats, however, the battle was still a gruesome struggle between two sides completely unable to wage war in Burma, thus exposing themselves to their opponent's blows to a great, risky extent. The battle ended after two days, as the British commanders quickly realized the foolishness of blindly charging with motorized infantry in the jungle; and while their losses were high, amounting to 4,770, the German unpreparedness to jungle warfare also costed them more than 3,700 deaths, all in a two-day battle.
Away from the horrors of war, but dangerously close to Germany's food supplies, Hermann Göring was probably considered a liability more than an asset by everyone, maybe even by himself, seeing that his vaunted Luftwaffe held practically no role anymore after the demise of the Soviet Union, and he couldn't do more but silently attend the monthly cabinet meetings and contribute nothing to the war cause.
That was true until recently, when Göring was assigned an important task, that of improving the dismal state of German aerial tactics that didn't involve Stukas and dive bombing: in practice, he and his team had to build a German strategic bombardment manual from scratch. Whatever purpose this kind of research had, it was left to wild speculations: Germany had very few strategic bombers, and she sure wasn't in a position to launch a bombing campaign against anyone. Only the future would tell what the enigmatic planners of the Third Reich had in their mind.