Royal Carnage
Chapter X, The Battle of France - Part VI
Human Players: Germany, Italy, Japan, UK,
USA, Soviet
Recap: It is peaceful in the world - except in the Western Europe where Germany is cutting into Belgium and France. The Allies are desperately scrambling to hold them back - but now USA is backing them. USA is, however, largely unprepared for war. There are other great powers lusting for war, however...
March 6th, 1940
The Red Army has taken the majority of Bulgaria (with a surrender process of some 95%). Italy have taken the two main cities of Greece (the only VPs) but failed to protect the southern part of former Yugoslavia (including a VP) and that victory gave the Greeks the boost of confidence they needed to keep on fighting. The Greeks even managed to take some lands from the Turks.
………………………………………………
Authors note: Now this was a tricky situation. No doubt, the Axis would attack Soviet Union when they felt they were in a suitable position. It might take a few months and maybe even half a year. With USA already in the Allies, any delays would surely be costly. Probably, Germany would attack as soon as they had mopped up in France (which would go a lot quicker now when the French player had switched to USA, meaning France was run by the AI). It that was true, wasn’t it better for Soviet to attack right away, while bother Italy and Germany had their hands more or less full? “Threat” is out of the equation with USA in the war. Only problem was to give Japan a war sooner than they’d otherwise get.
Should Soviet declare war on Axis or should they wait. Allies/Commies had discussed this at length.
…………………………………………..
March 6th, 1939
Authors note: We went for war. Germany had no troops on the border to Soviet which led to a negative value on the chances for Soviet to break the Mol-Rib pact. As we agreed this was a bug, Soviet had to DoW Italy instead, but without moving against Germany the first week.
Now hell would break lose in the world. We hoped this would capture at least Germany and Italy off guard – giving Soviet some initial land gains.
March 11th-12th, 1940
The anti-Axis had hoped that Soviet would beat Bulgaria long before Italy could take out Greece, thus giving Italy a two front war. They only got 1 day on the Italians, and both aggressors installed puppet regimes, thus keeping their respective armies intact. The stakes just popped up a few notches.
March 17th, 1940
With the Red Army attacking from the east, the Germans started to push even harder in France. The section of the front west of Paris had been fairly calm since before New Year, with Wehrmacht focusing on eastern France. Now, however, they had dared an attack on the city of Rouen. It became a terrible battle with over 10000 casualties, not included wounded and civilians. Rouen had been a corner-stone in the British front for a long time and sorrow spread across the British Isles when people read about it in the morning papers. Still, the British forces had the River Seine to retreat behind, so there was no point of getting panic.
March 20th, 1940
The Red Army blitzed right into Germany and even captured German heart-land in Preussia; land that had already be captured both by the Brits and the Poles previously. When they reached this line, however, the Red Army reported they had met and got stuck in a German defensive line. A few probing attacks, including of the city of Königsberg, proved the futility in such ventures. The Red Army settled down, dug-in and waited while their leadership focused on the Japanese and Italian frontlines.
Still, the Soviet leadership was far from content. The Germans had more troops waiting than expected and the Italians and Japanese answered with immediate pressure. Already from the start, the Soviets cried for a “third front” against Axis.
April 20st, 1940
The Brits were reluctant to open more fronts. They had invested heavily in France and wanted to keep the pressure up there - because as long the Germans had to fight in France, they could not push the Red Army back.
Now, however, Paris was cut off. Since the unexpected shift of leadership in France (from player to AI) their army had done a series of strange maneuvers ending up with huge garrison formations now being stuck in Paris and not guarding specific cities and places of strategic interest as intended. Surely, Paris would not fall quickly, but on the other hand, the effectiveness of the garrisons would be far from optimal.
The British leadership started to think about the retreat from France. Still, they really did want to keep Jerry in France as long as possible.
……
Still, hearing Soviet plea for help did affect the British leadership. They did want to attack especially Italy rather than giving that initiative over to them. Secondly, it would be good if the French navy would have the chance to bare down on Regia Marina before Germany conquered the entire country. Plans were forming and some troop formation, not active in France, were made ready for new missions.
April 21st, 1940
United Kingdom declared war on Italy after putting strong naval taskforces outside the ports were Regia Marina had big fleet concentrations. Then, an army corps made an amphibious landing north of Rome. The plan was to surround and conquer Rome and take their stockpile.
Hardly surprising, the Regia Marina sailed out in force to throw back the Royal Navy and keep their coasts free of enemy ships. Two huge sea battles were initiated and they were followed by several smaller clashes.
Authors note: Worth mentioning is that Japan was not affected by the British DoW on Italy – which was good for me but unexpected. I thought a British DoW on an Axis member would affect them all.
Late April, 1940
United Kingdom had prepared a lot for this naval confrontation. They had made costly investments in training of crews the design of modern doctrines. Clearly, the Italians more old school maritime doctrines caused them to be fooled and outmaneuvered by the Royal Navy at every turn and while the Brits lost no ship, the Italians lost 9 ships within a few days, of which two was heavy cruisers. This was a good start.
Still, the Brits heavy investment in fleet doctrines would surely be felt on other arenas…
April 26th, 1940
Rom got surrounded when half an Army Corps landed south of the city and linked up with the first landing. Also, the battle of the port would soon be over in favor to the Brits. That would force a damaged Italian task force out in the ocean where the Royal Navy awaited. Also, that would give the invasion force a well needed supply hub. So far so good.
A little bitter quicker than anticipated, the Italian managed to get three infantry divisions to the encirclement. The 7th Indian Infantry got the suicidal task of tying the Italians down and initiated a demanding offensive against Montalcino.
Still, surveillance told the Brits Italian divisions were inbound from the south and they realized that time for conquering Rome was slim. They had not even been able to maneuver in position for a powerful attack yet.
April 26th, 1940
It seemed, however, that the Axis was badly shaken by the fact that Rome was surrounded and under attack. Japan, not being satisfied with the war against the Rus, declared war on the Allies – including the USA. The entire world was now on fire.
.............................................