Sudden Carnage
Chapter XXVIV – Operation Wedge Part V
Countries played by humans: UK, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan.
Due to French player being absent, AI is on hard.
Recap: Japan is slowly pushing Soviet back in the Far East. In South East Asia, they have captured Rangoon from the Brits who seem to be weak in the region. The Brits has, however, shown some muscles in the Med where they have taken Sardinia and Rhodos from the Italians and successfully attack Axis Greek holdings. In Europe, Operation Wedge is unfolding, if not fast, then at least steady. The attack on France is on its ninth week and continuing. Now, Wehrmacht attacked the Paris Corridor.
May 29th, 1940
The Paris corridor is now attacked in all three provinces. Even Paris itself is under attack. That was a losing battle, but the German leadership did not want the troops there to able to reorganize or dig in after earlier battles. Even if some men would die here, it would make it much easier when the main attack against Paris was launched – or at least that was the idea.
Etampes was the staging post for the attack on Paris. Before the fall of Etampes, Paris would be safe.
June 4th, 1940
Étampes has finally fallen to the German onslaught. With yet another victory south of Paris and the French capital is finally surrounded. The city itself had already been under attack for a week, but that attack had been extremely week. Soon, however, they would have to deal with at least an army corps of revengeful German troops. It is pay-back time.
June 5th, 1940
The final Battle of Paris has commenced. The defenders have already been into battle for several days and show signs of energy being drained. Also, hope cannot be too high among these men. Surely, they must realize doom is upon them. Germans tactical bombers flying unchecked above the capital dropping their deadly payload will not be a boost either.
June 2nd, 1940
Axis had been quite worried about a British intervention against Italy and they discussed if the Italian defense was strong enough. Like an early Christmas present, the Greeks gave the Italians a numerous expeditionary force. Now, Italy felt a lot safer.
June 8th, 1940
The Brits clearly focused at nipple at a piece of Italy at a time. With the aid of the French, they made a new go at the last Italian stronghold in Africa – Tarabulus. Would Italy manage to defend this mountain city once again?
June 9th-12th, 1940
The brunt of the German attack came from the south were no river stopped them. They still attacked from a few other directions to tie down the defenders at various locations around the city. The surrender of the city was inevitable. The high death toll on the German side came as a slight shock to the German leadership but most of these were due to the week-long battle before the main blow. Still, about 50 000 French soldiers surrendered when the city fell.
Authors note: Oups. It was probably a mistake to “ware Paris down” with small attacks and bombings before the big attacks came. It would probably have been “cheaper” to just do one major attack.
France was now more or less broken. They would not surrender yet, as a country, but nothing could stop that from happening. It was clear now, that the Brits had been given up on the French entirely. With the loss at Paris, the remaining French division would not be able to hold the Germans at bay.
This, of course, led to huge celebrations in the Third Reich. Half a year ago, the German leadership had been stumbling about, barely coping with the situation. Now they held Paris. It was truly grand.
In the end of May, the 1st Panzer Division was pulled back to reorganize. This section of the front had been quiet for a while and the three Soviet provinces still in German hands. The Red Army, however, was strong in the area and renewed attacks could be expected at any point.
::It was true bliss to be moved back far behind the front, away from the Valley of Death, and rest and repair at Równe. This province had also seen some intense fighting the last 6 month but to the extent as Shepetivka – by far. The wet muddy part of spring was over too. This was the first time in a long long time when Heinrich, Bobby and the other guys in the crew could really kick back and relax. Firstly, they went through the tanks carefully and replaced all old battered parts with new ones. They found about 200 bullet marks and three places were some kind of AT-ammo had hit them without effect. Heinrich just loved his tank and spent an enormous amount of hours fixing it up.::
::But they had time for leisure as well. Some clever Pole had quickly extended his small tavern with an outdoor beer garden and it was full with all kinds of troopers. Here, the soldiers could drink, eat, tell their stories, barter for trophies and gamble. Tank crews on average had fewer trophies than infantry as their more seldom got out looting – but it happened. There were a few whores around but very few nice, proper girls. It was all a quite dirty man-dominated place with hard language and quite a few fights – but after long hard month of fighting – the beer garden in Rowne was paradise. Bobby was more successful with the cards but also very generous with his fellow crew mates. Heinrich traded away his Russian winter boots for a brand new Luger pistol, taken from a dead German officer… or so it was said. It had a beautifully crafted ivory grip and he thought it might come in handy and one point or another if he got problem when outside the tank. He didn’t say it, but if he was to return to the Valley of Death, f*****g Shepetivka, then he needed a reliable handgun to keep the ghouls away.::
June 10th, 1940
After almost two weeks of peace, the Red Army launched a massive operation against Shepetivka, the Valley of Death. The Germans had attacked it and won five times in the latest months and the Soviets had retaken it after very short battles every time – except this last time. This time, however, Wehrmacht decided to stay and fight. This was the sixth battle of Shepetivka. Already, the Valley of Death had claimed 11 000 Germans and 26 000 Soviets. Almost 40 000 dead. And the battle was not over.
Wehrmacht moved in to support and counter-attack.
June 11th, 1940
While the battle of the Valley of Death continues, Germany launch a strong attack into Korets, north east of Shepetivka hoping to weaken up the Soviets.
June 16th, 1940
Korets fell to the strong German attack force. With Korets as a base, 1st panzer attacked into Polonne. Many of the Soviet Divisions here were involved into the attack on Shepetivka and they had problems dealing with this new threat. The defenders in Shepetivka got a slight break due to this and with the reinforcements they had received the situation became slightly more stable, if not by any means safe.
In the south, the Italians moved forwards and put the Red Army under pressure here as well. The whole front line was boiling with violence.
::Heinrich was so happy he was not stuck in defensive combat in Shepetivka. It had lasted for several weeks. He was quite sure living conditions there were awful. Instead, 1st panzer was part of a fast, violent and victorious attack of Korets and, without any break, they were thrown into Polonne. The 1st and the 82nd infantry were facing 8 enemy divisions. The enemy had been on the move and most of them were still worn down from previous battle. It was a chaotic battle. With about 4 Russians for every German it was not easy making any well-coordinated break-throughs. On the other hand, unlike before, the opponent was not dug-in and not very well organized. Bobby’s accurate shooting killed a lot of men. Still, Heinrich had to fight hard with his levers. Ambushed popped up from all directions and Michael Wittman, the tank commander, demanded almost impossible maneuvers from him.::
- It’s not a friggin’ sports car!
This was one of the few times Heinrich lost his temper and after the battle Michael gave him a tremendous lecture about what was expected of him.
- I only demand things I know you can do. For you, Rooster, a Panzerkampfwagen IS a sportscar.
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