Very nice progress in Europe. Time to rid of Italy once and for all.
Soon, very soon. They are already on their last leg and they cannot hold for much longer without nonexistant German aid.
It's always good to see liberated countries.
By the way, I fully understand your reasons in regards to your reply to my last post. I just wanted to toss out those ideas and see what your reaction to them would be. You are doing a good job and keep up the fine work.
It is indeed good to see a country liberated. And thanks for the compliment.
Very good stuff having freed both Poland and Romania, Germany truly is weakened now. Hopefully you can push on before Germany has a chance to build up any defences as they are really struggling at present.
Love the imagery!
That will be the question. I highly doubt they can stop me at this point though. They do not have the manpower and the terrain does not favor them. The terrain in Russia is flatland, which does not confer a defensive advantage. They were able to keep me out of France because of the Pyrenees. The only mountain ranges of note they could whole up in in Russia are the Urals and the Caucauses, and if they get driven back to those, they are in deep trouble already.
Most of Europe had now been liberated from the grip of facism. The only place in Europe that remained to the Germans was Russia, once home to their worst ideological enemies, the communist USSR. Now, they were to be forced to defend that land. The terrain itself tended to defeat most of Russia's enemies. Numerous armies had tried, and only the Mongols and Germans had ever succeeded in conquering it. The allies were not stupid and knew better then to confront Russia's best general: General Winter. They therefore postponed all offensives into Russia until the snow's had melted and the resulting Rasputisa had cleared. They planned to use the time to plan their invasion.
While this planning was going on, all eyes were drawn to another harsh northern land: Scandinavia. This was owed to the announcement of the liberation of Norway from German control.
However, Scandinavia as a whole was a really a sideshow, with no appreciable resistance anywhere in the region. The real fighting was happening in Turkey. In Turkey, the Americans had succeeded in gaining a foothold. They had seized Bursa, Izmit, and Izmir and where preparing to advance ever deeper into the region.
Not wanting to lose momentum, Montgomery ordered a general offensive all along the line in Western Turkey. Antalya, Afryonkarahisar,Ankara, and Karabuk were all targeted in this offensive.
All of them fell to American attacks.
Not wanting to waste any time, Clark immediately ordered an attack on Mersin, and he ordered Montgomery to attack the region from the West while he attacked from the East. He felt certain that this two pronged attack would finally break the back of the stubborn resistance in the region.
The attack succeeded and the two fronts would join hands soon after.
In addition, a successful attack was also made on Samsun
Sivas was also attacked soon after Ankara fell.
the attack was a success and the region fell soon after, thus tightening the allied noose in Turkey.
However, while the Turkish campaign was going smoothly, a rather unexpected event occurred in Scandinavia. the Germans had managed to sneak a force into Stockholm overland from Finland and Aland.
The Germans quickly took the city, driving the surrounding region into panic, as there were no forces anywhere in the vicinity that could stop them. This presented a very big problem, as these Germans now threatened to cut off the American forces in the North from resupply, and potentially take back huge swathes of territory. However,the problem was solved by the shipping in of a force of Canadians that succeeded in driving back the Germans in the area. The German force was driven from Sweden and the Canadians remained in Stockholm to guard against similar occurences.
Meanwhile, back in Turkey, Konya and Kayseri had fallen and further attacks were in the process of being planned.
However, these occurences were mightily overshadowed by the beginning of the long awaited offensive into Russia.
An offensive was launched by Patton all along the line and one by one, reports of success began to filter in. The Americans had broken through and were now beginning to push deep further in. So far, the answer to the question of whether the Germans had managed to build up sufficient defenses during the winter was no.
The German collapse in Russia was being paralleled by a similar Italian collapse in Turkey, as Elazig, Erzerum, and Sivas all fell or, in the case of the later, were about to fall. This gave Truman and Clark enough territory to do something they had been planning since the liberation of Iraq: They proclaimed the liberation of the new nation of Kurdistan.
He also announced two more liberation soon after that, that of the nations of Iraq
and Syria.
The liberation of Kurdistan, however, was by far the most momentous and the most controversial. After centuries of being ruled over by other peoples, the Kurds were finally being given their own state. This was met with great celebration throughout the new nation, but grumbles began to rise from the regions of Iraq, Syria, and even Turkey, after that nation was given its independence. All three nations had lost territory to the new nation and all three were not happy about it. They demanded an explanation form Truman. Truman stated that what he wanted to do was give the right of self determination to as many ethnic groups as possible. He stated that if they really felt that strongly about the loss of territory, he would be more then happy to request Kurdistan to hold a plebisicite, overseen by representatives of all three states and the Americans. Knowing full well that they would lose in such a plebiscite, all three nations dropped the issue.
This announcement was parelleled with the announcement of the liberation of Sweden.
Thus, all three of the great Scandinavian nations had been liberated. However, one major obstacle still remained in the allies path. That obstacle was the state of Finland. Finland had allied itself with Germany, and had been well rewarded by being given all Russian territories north of Leningrad, including the port city of Murmansk. The Fins had beaten the Russians twice and were not going to be a pushover. plans were immediately drawn up for the defeat of Finland.
However, all of this was mightily overshadowed by another, much more momentous announcement. on July 18, 1958, Italy officially surrendered to the Allies when King Victor Emanuel II and Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio signed a document of unconditional surrender.
This was a major breakthrough. After 12 long years of, Italy, one of the three main partners in the Axis alliance, had surrendered. This announcement was met with massive celebration both among the allied soldiers and on the homefront. To the Germans, however, it represented a complete disaster. Italy and its forces had been one of the main bulwarks against Clark. With them defeated and massive new forces now arriving in the region, their now remained little stopping Clark from forcing his way into Persia and the Caucuses. If he could break into the Caucuses, he could advance into Russia from the south, and possibly strike north, cutting off the Germans line of retreat into Siberia. At the very least, the opening of this second front would mean the total collapse of German forces fighting in Russia. If Persia fell, then India and the Japanese territories in China and Southeast Asia would be open to him. Thus, the Germans now began to feel the walls closing in on them.