History_Buff: Manpower as in in-game manpower, or actual manpower? In-game, the American army is limited, bizarrely enough, due to IC constraints (gotta keep the Navy and Air Corps happy!). The American army is much more resource-intensive than its Syndicalist counterparts, and as such is far smaller altogether. Worse, I have this annoying tendency to let my transports get blown out of the water when I'm not looking (fortunately never while transporting armies).
Enewald: Sending help to Hungary would be quite a feat, since they're landlocked.
trekaddict/
yourworstnightm: Sadly, that'll have to wait until 1946.
Viden: That might not be the best of signs to use, you know.
Andreios II: That may be precisely the problem. The Americans can land just about anywhere they please now, it's just that one wonders if it'll matter.
After all, with their hold of Spain tenuous at best, is it wise for the Americans to fritter away resources on secondary (now tertiary) landings?
Nathan Madien/
Zhuge Liang : I'm sure Truman's glad to know he's got
some friends!
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1945 - Part VII
The first month of the Truman administration had not been kind on the new President. Faced with a string of military reversals in Spain and confronted with a contentious and chaotic political situation back on the home front, a lesser politician might have despaired or panicked. Truman, entrusted with his country's highest responsibility and finally acclimatizing to the sudden elevation to the presidency, was determined to weather the storm. In spite of all the unfavorable news returning from Spain, the President refused to contemplate any change in the chain of command of the sort MacArthur had begun to speak more and more publicly about; the President was confident that Generals Eisenhower and Bradley would deliver a victory, if only given more time.
Truman’s continued faith in his generals paid immediate dividends. Although the United States had been forced to hastily evacuate Guadalajara in the face of a massive Syndicalist assault, General Guillaume had chosen to leave only a modest garrison behind as he continued onward to Madrid. Now reinforced, Bedell-Smith made another attempt on the city on August 12, enjoying significant success as he pushed north, essentially reestablishing the front lines as of the start of the month in that sector. But reinforcements continued to pour in from both France and Britain, with the Syndicalists choosing to continue stripping their defenses north of Burgos and sending them south. Well-aware of this, Bradley hoped that a renewed attack would enjoy greater success than it had on the 6th. On August 20, Bradley ordered a renewed offensive; though the Syndicalist defense had been reduced down to twenty-four divisions, such numbers were still more than enough to completely block the American attack.
Although it failed to make any appreciable tactical gains, Bradley's August 20 attack on Burgos bought Eisenhower several days of badly-needed time to bring II. Army, fresh off the boats, to the relatively empty front stretching for miles between the Guadalajara salient and Valencia. On August 23, Eisenhower unleashed II. Army on Castellon. The offensive appeared to take Guillaume off-guard, as only five divisions were in position to resist the American assault. Outnumbered almost five to one, the Syndicalist defenders retreated in short order, essentially transforming the all-important Guadalajara salient into a sharp right angle and putting greater pressure on Madrid.
Guillaume's fixation on keeping the Americans out of Madrid now began to play right into Eisenhower's hands. Already, the French commander-in-chief had ceded large amounts of New Castile and Aragon to the invaders to that end. Essentially pinned to the capital and with American reinforcements continuing to pour in from the south, the Syndicalists surrendered the initiative to Eisenhower and Bradley, who abandoned any hope of breaking through to Burgos and began shifting the bulk of his army eastward in secret. On September 3, the duo launched a simultaneous attack: in the south, Eisenhower made a surprising attack into the mountainous Sistema Ibérico, aiming to clear a corridor between Siguenza and Calatayud with II. Army and IV. and V. Armored Corps; meanwhile, in the north, Bradley delegated an even more massive attack on Bilbao and beyond to MacArthur. In the south, General Mast, commanding only six divisions to Eisenhower's nineteen, could do little to stem the American onslaught. But in the north, MacArthur was faced with a grueling slog through prepared defenses and seemingly endless streams of Syndicalist reinforcements. With the assistance of the Navy, he was able to advance as far as San Sebastian on the coast, but Bilbao held on with incredible tenacity.
The American offensives of September 3.
From the outside, it seemed as if Guillaume's position was rapidly falling to pieces. But the Syndicalist commander did not lose his head; Bilbao continued to hold on, earning what Thorez called 'the truest admiration of the working class,' and the war in the east would be over any day, freeing up dozens of divisions for service in Spain. Further, no sooner had American soldiers marched into Siguenza when they were set upon from seemingly every direction by as many as forty Syndicalist divisions under the direct command of Field Marshall Sanjurjo. Moreover, on September 11, MacArthur finally halted continued attacks on Bilbao, the city's defenses now filled to bursting with reinforcements.
Despite the twin failures at Siguenza and Bilbao, the United States continued to hold Calatayud and the roads south of Bilbao. Spending a week to reinforce and reorganize the battered American armies, Bradley ordered another two-pronged offensive, this time with Logrono and Zaragoza the respective targets for the northern and southern wings of the offensive. Capturing both cities would completely split the Syndicalist forces in half, and sever the lines of communication and supply between Madrid and France. Yet with so much of the Syndicalist army centered on Bilbao, Burgos, and Madrid-Siguenza, Guillaume could offer nothing but moral support to General Georges, who could spare only eleven divisions for the whole defense of the Aragon heartland that was being assaulted by five times that many American divisions. Realizing the peril, Spanish and French units alike fought with suicidal ferocity and the countryside swarmed with guerillas, but to no avail.
Fully aware that he was now faced with a massive encirclement, Guillaume ordered a desperate breakout from Madrid on September 20. Guadalajara was immediately swarmed by twenty-two divisions, the American defenders unable to hold the city for long. Now faced with the possibility of the French turning the entire American right flank, Eisenhower ordered IV. and V. Armored Corps to fall back on Valencia; but the advance on Zaragoza would not be halted, while Logrono had already fallen to MacArthur's pincer. American tanks and halftracks finally rolled into Zaragoza on the 22nd, cutting the Syndicalists in Spain in half. As with the fall of Siguenza, Sanjurjo immediately launched a counter-attack on Logrono. The defense of the city fell to General DeWitt, whose forces were badly outnumbered by those at the Spanish general's disposal and facing attack from two directions.
American forces battle desperately to hold onto the corridor now separating the Syndicalist armies.
But all of these attacks and counter-attacks had badly disrupted the cohesion of the Synidcalist defensive lines. Sensing a golden opportunity, MacArthur launched an all-out attack on Burgos with what forces were not pinned outside Bilbao or engaged at Logrono. Only eight divisions under the command of General Molero Lobo now defended a line that stretched hundreds of miles. While Bradley practically strolled out of Galicia, MacArthur's forces tore Lobo's defensive line to shreds and fell upon Burgos. The sudden fall of the Syndicalists chief redoubt in the north wrecked Sanjurjo's assault on Logrono. With the southern breakout at Logrono a failure, it was then the turn of General Blanco, hero of Bilbao, to make the attempt on September 25. Although throwing fifteen divisions against DeWitt, the American line held firm. Guillaume and the majority of the Syndicalist armies in Spain now faced disaster. Generals Eisenhower and Bradley had delivered the victory President Truman had been hoping for, but few could fully appreciate the sheer magnitude of the victory the United States had just scored against the Syndicalist coalition.
American intelligence estimates sixty or more divisions are trapped in central Spain, September 1945.