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Sorry for the lack of updates guys... I'm really keen on showing you the progress I've made but my notebook's hard drive broke down a month ago. I managed to recover most of the saves though... So I'm hoping to pick this up again soon. 
Nah - I've had longer hiatuses (hiati?) from my AARs in the past. It just means he's got lots of Real Life Stuff (TM) to be getting on with.
Chapter 6: The first glimpse of victory?
The epic struggle for survival fought by The Netherlands and this very AAR
Good news for the general
It was already pretty dark when officer van Hoorn walked to Winkelman's office, located under a seemingly ruined compound somewhere in Utrecht. He could hear artillery firing just 20 kilometers away, the Germans had launched an attack in the early morning and although the defences held the krauts just did not seem to give up. Van Hoorn was not worried. After all, the Dutch and allied troops defending the Netherlands had held out for a while now.
Van Hoorn entered Winkelman's office. He noticed beer bottles littering the floor around Winkelman's desk. It was no surprise, really. Winkelman usually intoxicated himself in the evening: Sleeping while sober was impossible considering the huge responsibility this man had to endure. Winkelman looked up. Van Hoorn did not waste time - he had good news for once.
"General, Germany declared war on the Soviet Union. We just got this message relayed from Britain!"
Hitler initiated operation Barbarossa, which finally brought some relief to the defenders of the Netherlands.
Van Hoorn saw the general smiling for the first time in a long, long time.
"Van Hoorn, this is great news! Make sure that all of our soldiers and staff will hear the news this very evening. It will still be a long, bloody struggle - but today, we catched our first glimpse of victory."
The Royal Netherlands Army Air Wing gains new aircraft
Petrus Willem Best, one of the highest officers in the Royal Netherlands Army Air Wing, had not been very busy. Until now. The planes at his disposal at the start of the war were so inadequate in numbers and quality they had practically no effect on the war. However, this day saw the first Dutch interceptor wing formed. The brand new, licence-built hurricanes were ready for action - and so were the superbly trained Dutch pilots.
The first Dutch interceptor squadron
The formation of the 1e Jachtvliegtuiggroep was of huge importance to the ground troops, who had been harassed by the German bombers for over a year now. After reviewing this new fighter unit at a military airstrip near Amsterdam, Petrus shouted cheerfully to the lined up pilots; "Finally, we can fight back!". Loud cheers erupted among the crowds of young airmen.
Danger looms for the East Indies
At the beginning of the year Winkelman was brought good news: The declaration of war by Germany upon the Soviet Union had boosted Dutch morale, especially because the Germans were stalled in the very first month of their campaign in Poland. However, Winkelman had known for a long time that the Japanese were up to something.
Officer van Hoorn rushed into Winkelman's office.
"General, the Japanese just mobilized"
The mobilization of the Japanese
Winkelman did not seem shocked.
"That took a while. They will try to attack our East Indian posessions soon, but we got a rather strong presence there. Just order admiral Chömpff to rebase his squadron to Batavia."
Van Hoorn saluted, and replied "I will immediately send him the order, general."
Winkelman dismissed the officer, and opened up another beer. It didn't taste that good: His office was located deep underground, and the beer tended to get very warm when in his drinking cabinet.
"Tommorow I'll ask van Hoorn to get someone to install an icebox in my office."
The icebox was eventually installed, and it seemed general Winkelman began to enjoy his beers even more. It might have been one of the reasons why he merely shrugged when van Hoorn brought him some very bad news. However, that could also have been because the Netherlands gained a powerful new ally.
The Japanese declare war on the United States of America, which join the allies.
Upon walking back to his quarters, Van Hoorn was beginning to doubt whether installing the icebox was a good thing. The general had been able to function normally and adequately under enormous pressure for almost 2 years now, but it seemed he needed more beers to cope with it by the day. Before he went to bed in the evening, he prayed Winkelman would stay clear. He had been instrumental to the war, and the soldiers defending The Netherlands admired him. Losing him because of alcoholism would be very, very bad.
Fortune in the East
The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army had been well prepared for the Japanese attack. Almost the entire Dutch fleet was based at Batavia, ready to intercept any Japanese invasion force. At least three divisions were available to general Seyffardt, who was in command of the Asian theatre of war.
Meanwhile, Bussemaker was doing great work as always. After wreaking havoc to Italian shipping, he was rebased to the Phillipines where he destroyed enormous amounts of convoys in the period of 1941 - 1943.
Soon his flotilla would be joined by a new squadron of submarines, newly built in the Dutch shipyards.
1942 had been relatively quiet, apart from the enormous amounts of enemy shipping sunk. The Japanese were stalled in the Phillipines. However, in the early days of 1943 general Seyffardt got interesting intelligence: The Japanese occupied island of Hainan was undefended. An invasion fleet shipped a corps there to invade the strategically important island.
General Cox who was in charge of the corps took the island without much difficulty. However, Japanese-allied troops were moving in on the narrow gap of water separating the island from the Chinese mainland. The Royal Dutch East Indies troops managed to hold the initial attacks, yet it was not known how much longer they would be able to repel the waves of enemies that tried to retake the island.
Hope you enjoyed this very belated update. I will get a new update up soon - somewhere in the coming week. A lot of stuff happened in 1944
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This AAR won't die. Not for now, at least
. Yeah, hard drive failure and a busy time at college did not do much good to my updates. Luckily I managed to recover all my data, and college got a bit less busy for a few weeks.
It's alive! Alive!
Glad to see it's still going strong. Could we see a map of the world? I'm curious how well the Allies as a whole are doing.
Glad to see it's still going strong. Could we see a map of the world? I'm curious how well the Allies as a whole are doing.
Glad to see this AAR continuing. You've covered quite a long period of time - how have things been going between Germany and the USSR?
I'll incorporate a world update in my next chapter.It's alive! Alive!
Glad to see it's still going strong. Could we see a map of the world? I'm curious how well the Allies as a whole are doing.
Yes, the reason I covered 2 years was mainly because not much happened. The Netherlands itself suffered occasional attacks by the Germans, but all were held with mounting German casualties. I did not do much offensively with my ground troops because I had to save up a manpower reserve for a major operation - I will show that too in my next update.
Germany did not get far in barbarossa: They moved very slowly trough Poland and are now stalled along the pre-war Soviet border. Seems the Netherlands are a pretty substantial manpower drain to them.
Absolutely love the AAR. What would be really great for me is to see overall casualities for both sides during the conflict, if that's possible, of course.
I don't see the sense in what the Axis are doing. It's almost as if Hitler had given up in the West and decided to try his luck in the East. Hopefully you can take advantage of this and lay some good Dutch smackdown! As the writer of an Afrikaans AAR you have my full support
