High Operational Command of Second Republic of Spain
June 1936
Operation Morningwood, part 1
In early hours of 1st of June 1936 the atmosphere in Madrid was electric. News had recently reached the capital that Bilbao was finally lost, and garrison was on the run. Republican advance had stopped near Zaragoza and Zamora as Nationalist traitors fought bitterly against our righteous arms!
A black day for Second Republic. Italian fascists enter Bilbao despite our heroic (but hungry) resistance! But it's not ever yet...
'Well, we still have 584000 men in reserves.' Commented Chief of Staff happily. 'It's good to have some more room in barracks anyway! HAR HAR HAR...!'
'We must recapture Bilbao!' Boomed President Manuel Azaña. It's not important now since it does not even have a dock in 1.9.2 version but we cannot win without it!'
Our Uncle Azaña gives practical advice how to deal with fascist; use the trigger finger...
'Easy to say! Our reports say that they have that bloody Legion Condor up there, and our militias have no hard attack at all! They can't even scratch it.' Protested Chief of Staff.
'Nonsense, regroup our forces in north and deal with this! I'll go and buy a dog, I think I'll call him Lenin'
Major Morningwood, a British volunteer who died heroically after holding Bilbao for 51 minutes. Here seen with soldiers of 12a Division in Bilbao. Operation Morningwood was named to honor his outstanding example. For reasons that never became clear the name of this operation amused our British allies.
Unfortunately, the Legion Condor was still near Bilbao and against all the orders Republican infantry retreated into mountainous region near Guipúzcoa. Traitors! To everybody's surprise Teutons followed only shortly, then turned their panzers south wards and headed toward the Zaragoza pocket! They were going to rescue their comrades who were pressed hard in Soria! Or so we thought...
June 4- Chief of Staff himself (Martinez Cabrera aka 'the Walrus') lead elements of Columna Rico into stubborn attack against fascist lines in Fermoselle plains! Here a furious battle emerged between Columna Rico and 8/4 Division and 12/6 Divisions! Luckily both divisions were in poor condition, and low in morale.
Commander reported the battle; "Since we had no ammunition whatsoever we made a bayonet charge. Even Napoleon would have been proud! HAR HAR HAR...!"
Nonetheless enemy run away without observing if our troops had ammunition or not. Our experts suspected that this meant that enemy morale was rather low.
Brave Republican troops of Columna Rico attack fascists in Fermoselle!
Victory could pocket fascist against Portuguese border. Unfortunately, not many divisions were left inside the pocket. We suspect that Portuguese borders guards threw sandwiches to Nationalist traitors!
June 5 - Elite Republican Division Brigados Soviéticos had made bold push over the Ebro river and mounted a fierce attack toward Tardajos, encountering Nationalist 1/1a Division. This was confused battle and many prisoners were captured. In fact many enemy soldiers were so surprised that they were facing the wrong direction without weapons! Or maybe they were just fed up and wanted to surrender.
Battle of Tardajos. "José are you sure this is the right direction? I think somebody is creeping behind us!"
José: "STFU, I know what I'm doing!"
June 6 - In northern front feared Legion Condor attacked against elements of 10/5a Division, the only unit of Spanish army that stayed loyal. This bloody skirmish broke out in literally breathtakingly beautiful area of San Sebastián and lasted 14.5 minutes before 10/5a Division broke and headed for the nearby mountain. It seemed that Operation Morningwood would be postponed indefinetely...
Legion Condor is already most feared and hated Nationalist Division in Spanish Civil War. We have very few pictures of them since they usually shoot all cameras and never pose! In fact, they usually shoot everything they see.
However, Republican Intelligence Platoon (RIP) managed to secure this extraordinary photo where Führer saluted infamous Legion Condor before their departure to wreak havoc in Spain. Offensive Nazi symbolism has been replaced by other religious symbolism.
Unstoppable Legion Condor in action. Note that this is Division Without Name, the ground forces of Legion Condor. Intelligence services are busy arguing why they do not have a proper name, but incompetence of Hitler is usually blamed.
June 9 - Elements of 3a Division di Militia and 10a Division are finally over Ebro river and now proceed to launch an extraordinary assault against Nationalist troops in Briviesca, encountering only a confused cavalry Division and Legion Condor HQ that was clearly in very wrong place. This assault was bravely carried out despite reports that Legion Condor was heading into this direction, probably because reports never reached the local commander.
Captured German HQ material during battle of Briviesca. Unfortunately these were little use for war effort since nobody could read German.
Brave push toward Bilbao might end in complete ruin. Noose is tightening but Nationalist forces stand their ground.
June 11 - A stray cavalry division escaped Republican encirclement and now threatens Barcelona! It is unthinkable to lose Barcelona now that Bilbao has fallen. Columna Mangdata turns toward Barcelona under the command of Castelló Pantoja. Fortunately feared Legion Condor was seen in defensive positions around San Sebastián, and had not taken offensive. Thinking about it, it seems a rather ineffective way to use a motorized division. Hitler is blamed once again.Viva la Libertad!
The desperate defense of Barcelona. June 12 1936.
June 12 - Intelligence officer brings tremendous new to Madrid; 3rd, 10th and 2nd militia divisions have managed to accomplish breakthrough near Tardajos!
'What about Morningwood?' Asks the President.
'Still postponed, Sir. But these are great news, four enemy divisions have been pocketed...'
'I want my Morningwood! Get out of here, you fool!' And so President threw the poor officer out of his office, before he could hear that 3rd Militia Division was in Mirande de Ebro, now only few provinces away from Bilbao. But their position was still precarious, and feared Legion Condor was not far away.
Soldiers of 3rd Militia Division brace themselves in Belorado, south of Bilbao. Unfortunately weapons were so scarce that some men had to be armed with saxophones.
Strategic situation in the area had allowed Republican troops to pocket in significant (and rather stupid) Nationalist forces. Note that Nationalist Spain is offering truce. After careful consideration of 4.3 seconds the offer was turned down. No truce with fascists!
June 14 - Good news in middle of all the mindless fighting! President Azaña has finally bough a lovely puppy and named him Lenin. Our soviet allies were rather upset for reasons that never became clear. Our intelligence agencies suspect that they are just jealous.
Also minor news; 800 casualties in today's fighting. We finally invented Education that will give us +5% LS.
The secret weapon of democracy; a cute puppy named Lenin. Now we cannot lose!
June 16 - Today eight full Militia divisions engaged enemy pockets in fiercest fighting in known history! Offensives and counter-offensives raged from morning till evening around Soria pocket. Five enemy division were pocketed in, including armored division. It was not known why dreaded Legion Condor did not try to assist its comrades, but it was suspected that Germans simply could not be bothered about their Spanish "comrades". Our bombers worked overtime, dropping large stones mercilessly yet ineffectively on enemy combatants.
"It would really help if somebody could invent bombs! It's so damn difficult to hit somebody with a rock from such distance!" Commented Republican pilot.
Our brave but obsolete bombers were overworked through June. Since Spain has not invented explosives yet bombs seen on foreground are actually full of pebbles and insulting writings.
Soviet T-26 that never arrived to assist us. Well, we did not need your bloody tanks anyway, Stalin!
The blood curling Battle of Soria Pocket that would live in legends for centuries. Germans are not impressed...
Even though Nationalist side has crushing superiority in mobility, firepower and armored units against my numerical superiority they have been thus far incapable of exploiting their strengths properly. Usually my militias can keep Nationalist lines out of balance by attacking from multiple direction at same time, usually ending in enemy retreat. Also Strategic Redeployment proved invaluable with militia army. I still cannot understand why AI does not use air power at all. My bombers attack them 24/7 without slightest interruption even though they must have at least 4 wings of fighters somewhere.
That's all for today!
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Originally Posted by Khazorath
Anyway I took same game few weeks earlier but this time SCW happened two weeks before that last picture. I'll replace the picture and let's pretend those two weeks never happened! Anyway, I got almost the same units so no big deal except that I feel amazingly clever.
Keep it up!
