Until the bitter end - A German Third Reich Mod AAR

18th May - 30th May 1943

Germany's 1943 Great Offensive
Initially the offensive got off on a bad start, with Soviet forces in Poltava repulsing the German force through sheer weight of numbers. But the thought 'If at first you don't succeed...' came to the mind of the German leadership.



Once the attacks on Mogilev and Priluki succeeded, the Heer pushed on with its advance. Soviet counter-attacks only prolonged rather the inevitable encirclement. Approximately 47,600 Axis soldiers were lost in the campaign. 54,200 Red Army troops are believed to have been killed, but many more are bound to be lost now the encirclement has been completed. Military intelligence, and guesswork, believe there to be around 20-30 Soviet divisions trapped in the pocket. While this is a great success, it will not turn the tide of the war. Another offensive will be needed, but with the German Army needing a much desired rest after such an offensive and continued Soviet attacks along the front, it is hard to tell when this will be.













Other parts of the eastern front
The German Army was able to fully stabilise and thereby repulse the advanced units of the Red Army, gradually starting to close the encirclement. The few defeats could not prevent the inevitable closing of the pocket. An estimated 17,000 German soldiers were irrevocably lost, for 13,000 Soviet troops.








Leningrad siege lifted
A disaster beheld the German leadership, with many Heer divisions having being diverted from the northern part of the front in preparation for the offensive the Red Army decided to seize the opportunity. The Wehrmacht generals would not have taken the retreat too badly had they not been forced to launch an all-out offensive on Leningrad in order to capture the city. Losses for the city alone counted for over half of the Axis casualties. And now it is likely that Finland will eventually be over-run by the USSR, freeing up hundreds of thousands of Red Army troops to be used against the Wehrmacht. The German Army must strike quick to either prevent this from occuring or inflict such a loss so as to make a Finnish surrender strategically irrelevant. Around 60,000 Axis soldiers had been lost in this campaign, in less then two weeks. Only around 15,000 Soviet soldiers had perished in the same campaign. The war is increasingly taking its toll.










Air war in the west
The Luftwaffe managed to continue to repulse US bombing attempts on German soil, but this could not steal the limelight from the Heer and it's successful offensive against the Soviet bear.




Many ideas and concerns now beset the German leadership. How long will this war last? Where and how can another offensive be held? Can Finland stay in the fight? What will happen once Africa is lost? Can Japan hold its massive Pacific empire? And ultimately... can this war be won?

clist123abc said:

Great encirclement.

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Thankyou, I hope I can push forward with the success.

clist123abc said:

If you could take eastern Ukraine, especially Stalino and build it up it ought to help you with your rare situation and you can use the Mius river as a defense barrier.

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That's a good idea, plus the USSR has constantly declining energy stockpile, that would only speed it up (but then again, maybe the Lend-Lease will make sure it never runs out).

clist123abc said:

I still shaking my head at you losing 30,000 to 3,000 at Leningrad. Do you have any RR guns?

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Indeed, I should've pulled off the attack earlier. I have no RR guns, if I try again I will definitely invest in them! It is extremely costly to besiege Leningrad on this mod.

Herbert West said:

OTOH, now, its ridiculous. You have surrounded Leningrad, and the only thing being able to supply the city is the city itself, and air supply. Its should be starving and running out of men to fight.

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Indeed. I think it's because the Soviets were air supplying the city for most of the period, and since I only sent the Luftwaffe east in late-1942 and only over Leningrad by early/mid-1943 it had no opposition to that plan until then.

June 1943

Eastern front
Any hope of another offensive this month was shattered as the Red Army continued its offensive after repulsing German forces from the Leningrad area. The retreating units had to go through the marshes of Luga and Narva, crippling the speed of the retreat. The 3 divisions in Luga were ordered to fight to the death in order to ensure the majority of the German Army in the region could escape. The 3 divisions were eventually allowed to retreat once this was ensured.




However the Soviets also attacked German-Estonia in the south, creating a joint offensive that the German Army could not resist. The Soviets managed to push for the previous capital of Latvia, Riga. Once it was lost several German divisions had been encircled and were threatened with destruction. The construction of 2 mass land fortifications in Opochka had not even been completed by the time the Soviets attacked the territory, and the existing defences were not enough. The German generals vainly hope that these land forts will be over-used by the Red Army, potentially enabling the Heer to encircle many Soviet divisions in the territory sometime in the future. If this happens, the Luftwaffe will be ready to ensure that no Soviet transport planes will be able to air supply the encircled units, as was the case with Leningrad!








The Luftwaffe ensured that the Red Air Force did not play a significant role in this Soviet offensive, but this could not turn the tide against the advancing Red Army.



However, once the Kriegsmarine got involved the situation became less tense. The encircled German units were transported out by sea, with the Red Navy hiding in Leningrad due to the likes of the Bismarck patrolling the Baltic seas.



With the loss of all of Estonia, and part of Latvia, the German leadership can only dream of besieging Leningrad again.



This situation in the north did nothing to undo the mass encirclement the German Army had performed in the south a month ago, with all Soviets attempts being repulsed. However a significant defeat was inflicted in the Battle of Zamosc, as a German garrison that fought to the death was completely destroyed before reinforcements could arrive.





Finland
As was realised last month, the fall of Finland is now inevitable. All the Finnish army has been placed in Helsinki for a last-ditch defence. Many of its divisions are around 20% strength, and have been for months, showing bravery of a country with such a small population that has faced a titan. Some of its troops have refused to leave Mikkeli throughout the war, maybe due to a strong emotional attachment to home.




Second Norwegian Campaign
The Royal Navy stepped up its attempts to invade German-Norway, with amphibious invasions of Alesund and Oslo being repulsed with the much needed help of the German Navy. However, the British managed to land in unoccupied-Bergen as German troops in the territory had been moved to Alesund for its defence. Many British transport ships were sunk, hopefully preventing any more multiple amphibious attacks by the Royal Navy.







Another bizarre attempt by British paratroopers to capture Argentan was defeated by German forces.



Air war in the west
The German Air Force encountered little trouble with defeating Allied bombers flying over Germany and German-Denmark. Vichy interceptor pilots had similar successes against US bombers. (I didn't include any screenshots as they'd just be the same as they have been for many months).

Italian Africa
As with Finland, the fall of Italian Africa is clearly inevitable. Many Italian divisions were encircled by overwhelming Allied forces.





The remaining German troops in Africa, just 2 motorised divisions tried to repulse American forces but were eventually forced on the retreat. They plan to be evacuated in order to strengthen the Atlantik Wall, something that has not been tested by the Allies yet. This German leadership does not consider Norway to be part of the Atlantik Wall.

Titan79 said:

One of the best updates ever.

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Thankyou very much

Titan79 said:

So, it seems like the "real" Bagration took place in the northern part of the Ostfront rather than in its centre, where the Wehrmacht has apparently managed to trap a fairly large amount of Soviet divisions (I wrote "apparently" as it's yet to see if they will be all eventually annihilated). Now I'd say you should strive to crush that huge pocket once and for all giving the highest priority to this task, which also means e.g. mustering all the air support you can afford (especially Tac and CAS squadrons).

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Luckily there was no total annihilation of any of my Army Groups though. However, all the divisions involved in the north will need weeks to re-organise. The pocket should not be too much of a problem to crush *fingers crossed*.

Titan79 said:

The good thing is that you seem to have gone through the manpower crisis which tormented you just a few months earlier.

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I might have disbanded a bit too many divisions, enabling the Red Army to increasingly go on the offensive. But we will never know that for sure, and I need to de-motorise anyway.

Titan79 said:

However, your oil and rares stockpiles are starting to reach worrying levels (the same goes for supplies, but at least you can produce them. I know you can also produce synthetic fuel & rubber, but while you can theoretically put all of your IC into supplies for some days, this does not apply to the other two resources. What's your current max output for synth. fuel and rubber, by the way?)

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Max output for Energy to Oil is -830.49 energy for 132.88 oil.
Max output for Metal+Oil to Rares is -107.8 metal, -321.8 oil for 68.54 rares.
This is obviously unsustainable for my oil, and will be in the longer run for my energy too. I'm not sure complete de-motorisation will completely solve the problem. :unsure:

BrHop156 said:

Im so glad this is back!

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Thankyou, I'm glad it's back too, the challenging mod is great fun to play.
Update to come.

July 1943

The total losses of the war so far are tallied up.




Eastern front
The closing of the large pocket of Red Army forces was completed.







However there were three unavoidable retreats from Priluki, Vyshgorod and Gomel as overwhelming Soviet forces attacked understrength and disorganised German forces. At Vyshgorod, the Soviets outnumbered the Germans over 3 to 1, with 25 divisions against the Germans' 8. No Red Army units have ever crossed the Dnieper river south of Kiev since the Germans have constructed significant land fortifications in the region and it is hoped this situation will never change.





Second Norwegian Campaign
The UK force that had landed in Bergen the previous month over-extended itself by capturing Stavanger and Kristiansand without reinforcements. German forces were able to put the British forces on the retreat.



The British and US both revealed their plans to invade German-France, with their 'D-Day' plans being shown to the world (via events). The German Navy managed to sink several Allied convoys in the month, hopefully delaying these plans of invasion.

Air war in the west
The Luftwaffe had a typical month against the Allied bombers, repulsing all that attempted to destroy German industry. However, one or two US bomber wings managed to sneak through and bomb Berlin!!! The leadership was infuriated, but also pleased that the damage was minimal. A significant part of the German Air Force was ordered to patrol the Hannover region, which is where the US bombers had flown though, in order to stop any further attack on Berlin. So far this has been successful. The generals were also pleased to see the toll the attacks were taking on the US bomber forces, with some of their bomber strengths reaching critical lows. It was a wonder why the Americans were even sending this critically understrength wings into battle.







There was cause for concern in air battles over Denmark, with US fighter squadrons defeating several German sorties in the region. However, this will soon be counter-acted with further re-organisation of the Luftwaffe.



Situation of the Italian Empire
As Italian forces had been completely encircled in west Africa and had lost control of south and east Africa, the German leadership decided to take control of the Italian Army. It could not stop the annihilation of several Italian divisions trapped in west Africa, and US naval forces prevented the retreat of 3 Italian divisions still in Persia. However 6 Italian divisions were successfully evacuated from India and Somalia and transported to Suez in order to defend the canal, which are aided by 2 Syrian divisions. 5 Vichy divisions have been transported to Libya to help repulse or at least delay US forces from taking the territory.

Failed retreat in Persia after repelling several attacks.





Battles in North Africa.

Titan79 said:

I see your IC is slowly but steadily dropping (you went from a peak of above 400 to the current 379). I guess this is due to the Allied bombing campaign, right? If so, you definitely need to take drastic measures to stop these raids...!

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Indeed, looking back at previous screenshots, my effective IC peaked at around 440IC (during 1941 to mid-42). The Allied air forces, especially the US, have been bombing Germany endlessly. I am trying, and successfully attacking most if not all US bombers that fly over Germany, but they still inflict some damage nonetheless. Plus since I'm playing 1.07 land units, especially in France, are suffering attrition just because planes are flying over them.

Titan79 said:

I see. Yeah, that air attrition bug was nasty, wasn't it? Good that gunman got rid of it.

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Yeah, I really like all the improvements in 1.08, it's great!

Titan79 said:

Now, have you ever managed to shoot an US/UK bomber squadron totally down, i.e. to 0% strength? Maybe you should ambush them with your INTs and strive to score such results. If you managed to knock out some 4 or 5 of them for good, the situation might start to improve significantly. Or not...?

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I'm not sure as I don't really watch the aftermath of the air battles to see if the Allied units retreat or are shot out of the sky. But seeing the strength of some of the air units, they must be.

Titan79 said:

Anyway, keep updating please, for this AAR is reaching its high point!

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Will do, I am really enjoying it now!

Titan79 said:

Well, it's rather easy - you can see if they've lost a squadron during the course of the battle itself. However, it doesn't matter very much; what's important is that you limit the damage delivered to your factories by those pesky aircraft.

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Ah, saying that, I have certainly seen Soviet air divisions disappear during the battle itself, their air force appears to be really easy to defeat, around 12 German interceptor units (4 for each part) and they barely attack my units anymore, even with (according to intelligence) 37 fighter and interceptor units, and 37 bomber squadrons.

Titan79 said:

Good thing about the updates, go on!

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One or two coming up soon.

August 1943

The German leadership decided to try and keep records of losses and inflicted losses on a monthly basis, to keep a close eye on how the war is going manpower wise.





Eastern front
The Heer failed to capture Priluki. But the German Army eventually managed to encircle several Red Army troops that had attacked through Vyshgorod, it seems the Soviet generals never learn. An attack on Smolensk by the Soviets was launched, to the bemusement of the Wehrmacht it ended in a failure for the Soviets on all accounts.









Fall of Finland
The Finnish army put up a gallant defence of Helsinki, with nearly 40,000 Finnish men giving up their lives in their final fight against the Soviet bear. The German people will never forgot 12th August 1943, when Finland was annexed as it refused to surrender to the Soviet Union. However the leadership cannot also stop worrying about the potentially large amount of Soviet troops that will now be used against Germany.





North African Campaign
Vichy and Italian forces put up valiant defence against overwhelming US forces in the region, but their bravery could not over-come the superior numbers and by-far technologically advanced forces that consisted of armoured, motorised and mechanised units against the predominantly 'leg' infantry divisions of Vichy and Italy. The remaining 3 Italian divisions in west Africa were annihilated, with the Italian Army clearly suffering from the war more then any other Axis nation, maybe because of it's resistance to handing over command to Germany.







Suez was successfully defended on the first attack, inflicting nearly a 2 to 1 casualty ratio on the US Army. However once US reinforcements arrived, even with the Italian surface fleet supporting the defence, the Suez canal was lost as Syria was left to fend off US forces with just 2 divisions as the 6 battered and demoralised Italian forces were sent to Crete and Malta for some rest.




The Italian Air Force was starting to realise the strength of the US Air Force, but was still able to up a strong defence with surprisingly modern units, it seems Italy has paid more attention to its air force then to its army or navy.



Second Norwegian Campaign
This month was filled with success for the German army in these region, with the UK planning poorly organised and unsupported attacks that ended in disaster for the British army. Several ships of the Royal Navy were sunk by the Kriegsmarine. It is believed, and hoped, that the German Navy will be the main defence for Norway against further attacks, but this requires at least one division on every coastal province of Norway to allow notification of a potential amphibious invasion.






Air war in the west
The German Air Force continued its persistent and unrelenting defence of the Fatherland, with some of its generals being fool-hardy enough to order flights over Aachen, initially experiencing victory before an embarrassing major defeat.

August 1943: Japan's situation

A small update on Japan's situation:
New Zealand was eventually annexed as Tinian was liberated by Japanese forces.



Singapore was invaded by American forces, with the rest of Japanese-Malaysia being lost thereafter. Siam, for whatever reason, had never allied itself with Japan.




Japanese-Korea was also being taken by the US Army.



Japan had surprisingly launched an attack into American-held Persia, (hopefully) after it had taken a naval base in British-Ceylon.

September 1943

Composition of Axis forces
Italy has really taken massive losses in the war, with its army being the same size as Bulgaria's.




Eastern front
In the north German forces were able to capture Dagaupulis, then take Riga. With the help of the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, the Heer was able to encircle 9 Soviet divisions in Parnu, as well as out-run several more retreating Soviet divisions. Kluge was able to complete the encirclement with an unopposed amphibious landing in Narva. It seems that the re-captured Baltic region can be held due to the small amount of Soviet divisions. It seems many of them are tied down in Finland fighting the Finns who are trying to reclaim their freedom.







Soviet troops again attacked Vyshgorod, with another potential encirclement of Soviet units that might pour into the region.



Two motorised divisions were moved from the eastern front to Italy in order to bolster defences there now Africa is lost.

Second Norwegian Campaign
British troops were pushed back and encircled in Hamar. A German victory was achieved in Norway after months of failure. It seems the second Norwegian campaign is nearly over.





The Royal Navy intercepted German ships and sunk the two German transports that were destined for Gibraltar as the Wehrmacht planned to move the 1 German division there to Italy, in preparation for the upcoming Allied plans to invade Italy. It is hoped Vichy forces will retain Gibraltar, but now Suez is lost its strategic value has dropped dramatically, but it is still of some worth. British ships were sunk off the coast of Portugal. Tens of Soviet, American and British convoys were sunk, with U-boats patrolling from the Icelandic coast to Denmark's.




North African Campaign
The few victories at the start were eventually lost on the Axis generals as Vichy, Italian and German troops had to retreat from Italian-Libya. At first it was hoped that they could mount a defence in Gabès and Gafsa in Vichy-Tunisia, but this was given up after it was clear the US army vastly outnumbered the Axis armies, plus many of their troops were disorganised and demoralised after a relentless pursuit by the Americans in their retreat. The Italian and Vichy navies played an essential role in this retreat, as their armies would have been over-run by the completely-motorised US army in a long retreat to Tunisia.









Syria's fall was inevitable the second the Suez canal was lost. It was divided between the US and France, hopefully causing some friction between the two countries as France previously owned the territory in its entirety.




The Italian Air Force looked promising, hopefully it will be able to repulse the potential Allied bombers that will be soon attacking its homeland after the fall of Africa.



Air war in the west
The Vichy and German Air Forces repulsed the many attempts of Allied bombers to destroy their homelands. Some out-dated German interceptors did suffer some defeats, but not without inflicting heavy casualties on the Allied bombers.





The US Army Air Force was also worryingly seen over Romania and Italian territory, showing the growing strength and capability of the USAAF. However Romanian interceptors were able to counter-act the threat, as were Italian planes. The air war in the east was filled with more victories for the German Air Force.