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Short notes of the commander Heeresgruppe West, Generaloberst Thelaskowitz:

After the initial defense of France showed overwhelming Allied forces, with the joint ITA and GER defenders hanging on to Paris only by a thin thread, it became clear that the Allies were on an all-out offensive driving straight for the Fatherland.



Troop-estimates after several weeks of heavy fighting came up to a force ratio of 3 to 1 in favor of the allies. Apparently all allied troops including strong British formations had been put under American command for a unified campaign on the European mainland.
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As the chains of command with the Italians were finally sorted out and the returning forces from the GER Afrika-Korps that had currently won the day at Suez had been returned to GER command, the small but capable 1. Panzer-Armee under the veteran General Ritter von Leeb was formed.

This army included essentially all the armored and mechanized forces GER could muster for a counter offensive. Only three mobile divisions with some punch would be guarding for a possible Allied breakthrough towards the Reich.

(All the GER Infantry and a few Mobile Divisions holding the line from The BeNeLux to Paris were sorted out and combined into the newly formed 5. Armee under General Ulex.)

The 1. Panzer Armee included twelve divisions:

1. Three regular Panzer Divisions from the former Afrika Korps, now refreshed with new Medium tanks.

2. The Kapitäns own “Leibstandarte Kapitän E.” that had been present in France for training. This elite Formation sported 2x Brigades of Tiger E Heavy Tanks and GERs first 2x Mechanized Brigades. As the “Kapitän” so loved his huge tanks they also sported the first hand full of “King”-Tiger variants for combat trials.
It had been made sure by the Kapitän that loads of propaganda pics of his new pets were published in his weekly propaganda updates.

3. The former Legion Condor (now a Division sized formation) tankers outfitted with state of the art Panther Medium Tanks augmented by three new Grenadier (mechanized) brigades.
Pic: Brand new Panthers for the armor brigade of the PzGrenDiv ‘Legion Condor’ being railed

4. Two freshly formed heavy armor divisions armed with capable Tiger tanks.

5. In addition to that 4 square Grenadier-Divisions of freshly deployed Mech Brigades were ready to go.
Pic: PzGrenadiere with their SdKfz 251 and 250 and an IFV cannon support variant

(Note: The freshly equipped Panzer-Grenadier units consisted of veteran Infantry Brigades now fully mounted on halftracks and supported by all kinds of organic IFVs. As they were rushed to the front with great hurry these Divisions didn’t receive their Medium Tank brigades and were thus still lacking some important combined arms options.)
All divisions were led by capable leaders, with Panzer-Ace Rommel in command of the over-strength 21. Panzer-Korps including all the “Tiger” tanks on the western front:



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With only this brave handful of divisions available, it was clear, that no widespread counterattack across the entire front could be mounted.
Instead the first Divisions reaching the front South of Paris were to bail out the beleaguered Italians who had little to counter the Allied tank-hordes.

After an initial and successful test-punch proving the GER “Panzertruppen” still had an edge over their Allied Counterparts, it was decided to keep the 1. Panzer Armee grouped tightly together as the “armored-fist” of the Axis counterattack.
They would advance west to the Atlantic, south of the river-line with the ITA infantry divisions following up to hold the flanks at the riverline.

It was deemed too dangerous to attack north of the river as the Allied numbers and armored units would certainly tell against the brave Italian riflemen without a river to defend behind.
Another reason was the current Allied air-superiority in northern France.

On a visit to the frontline Thelaskowitz overheard his soldiers joking: “If you see a brown plane, that’s the Brits, if you see a silver plane, that’s the Americans – and if you see no plane at all, well that’s the Luftwaffe.”



Pic: Tigers of the Leibstandarte ‘Kapitän’ passing their Panzer-Grenadiers on their way to the front in the completely destroyed Orleans area. Though they didn’t like that task, they were kept as a fire brigade southwest of Paris to prevent the ITA Infanterie from being crushed and the 1. Panzer-Armee from being cut off on its push to the West. Over the duration of what came to be known as the “first Battle of the Bulge” campaign this division singlehandedly drove off several attempts by numerous Allied armor divisions to gain a foothold in the Orleans region.

On the way to the coast south of Nantes a handful of Allied divisions were overrun and encircled. The cooperation of the GER Panzers with the ITA Mot.-Inf. proved to be excellent. A British landing of strong mechanized and armored units in the Bordeaux area was quickly ended though most of the Brits managed to escape back to their ships.
The tight force concentration of GER Panzer and Grenadier units broke every Allied resistance on an only two province wide strip south of the river – constantly forcing the numerically superior allied divisions to back up as they were in danger of losing their Divisions southward of the GER advance.

Though the German Heavy Armor essentially crushed every resistance by inferior Allied Shermans and their like, Thelaskowitz would gladly have given two of his Heavy divisions away for two or three much faster medium Armor divisions armed with ‘Panthers’.
The ITA Infantry kept up at a good pace, ensured a solid flank and mopped up the Allied stragglers.



Nantes was the preliminary target for this campaign, as it would gain a valuable frontline airbase and a defensible “hinge” for further operations.
What had initially started out as a limited campaign to deny the Allies southern France, access to the Med and ITA (Gibraltar is still open!), was starting to show realistic promise to drive the huge Allied force out of France.



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As he entered the Axis HQ to make his personal report to the Kapitän, Thelaskowitz had plans prepared to convince the ‘Kapitän’ that a hard push via Nantes towards Caen, splitting up the Allied forces and cutting them off from their largest supply port (Brest) was possible and necessary.

He had come to the conclusion that only driving the Allies out of France entirely would allow for the 1. Panzer-Armee to be sent to the East in order to stop the Russian avalanche. If the Allies would be allowed to stay in France with these huge amounts of troops it was clear to him, that the thin picket of Axis defenders would be overrun on the very moment the Panzers had left to the eastern front.
Gruesome reports of the eastern front being next to buckle entirely, especially on the Romanian and Ukrainian front, where the Heeresgruppe-South was defending with understrength infantry divisions against what appeared to be unlimited hordes of Russian tanks had been coming in for weeks though.

When Field-Marshal Keitel, aptly nicknamed “La-Keitel” (Lickspittel) finaly admitted Thelaskowitz to a short audience with the Kapitän he sternly reminded him to keep it short and not say anything aggravating. Apparently the Kapitän who had the personal command of the eastern front was very stressed and worried with the recent failure of his faltering troops to follow his grand plans. This was so serious that his usual medications had to be upped significantly.

The Kapitän looked haggard and pale and his eyes glowered at him after Thelaskowitz had made his report (of successes against the odds he was actually rather proud of).

“No more enjoying yourself in the west with my Panzers”. They (the 1. Panzer-Armee) will be sent to the eastern front immediately, where they realy are needed. The Italians will have to hold the West.

Thelaskowitz explained why he thought that this would lead to a rather quick defeat by the Allies in the West, but the Kapitän was adamant. “Our priorities are in the east. I will not be humiliated by Jo-Zid Ztalin, that communist pig”.

As the Kapitän mentioned Jo-Zid Ztalin, his pale face showed some color for the first time and his tired eyes started to glow for once.

Thelaskowitz was dismissed.

On his way out he met the Supreme commanders of ITA and JAP, “Il Duce” di Roseni and Grand Admiral Maximoto, they were both currently in Germany to discuss further Axis operations in Europe – which had become the focus of the war effort.
Thelaskowitz knew and respected both of them from the successful Suez-campaign. He had been working in the Axis Joint HQ in Naples back then. They were currently both personally overlooking the war effort in France that saw JAP troops holding the line in the BeNeLux, JAP paras and transports and of course significant ITA forces that had done a tremendous job to win the first Battle of the Bulge. Each of course had a copy of Thelaskowitz’s proposed plan.

When he got back to the guestquarters at the HQ and had just started to acquaint himself with the possible prospect of the command of an understrength Garrison Division in some unpleasant backwater, he was urgently recalled to the meeting room by a runner.

There he found the ‘Kapitän’, Duce di Roseni and Maximoto in a lively discussion.
The two foreign leaders had intervened on his behalf (or rather on the necessity to rinse France of the Allies). And the Kapitän was finally willing to play ball.

The Kapitän somehow appeared to be revived when he started the meeting with the sentence that had opened every full Axis meeting over the past one-and-a-half years: “Gentlemen, the situation is desperate, we better come up with something drastic!”




The gigantic operation – officially named “total annihilation” - actually consisted of two major elements:

1. The air operation “Bodenplatte” to regain air-superiority in northern France and over the English Channel, by focusing all available Axis air assets in this region in a well-coordinated pattern.
2. An all-out naval operation by the combined Axis fleets, to shut down the channel to any retreating Allied forces and to cut them off from supply.

This would require the JAP and ITA navy to sail all around Afrika, as all attempts to take Gibraltar had failed. Only time would tell if these fleets could actually get there quick enough – or at all…

On his way back to the French frontline Thelaskowitz had to smile. Operation 'total annihilation' (he had dubbed it “operation desperate gamble”) would rather have to become a success or there wouldn’t even be a Garrison Division for him to command. The ‘Kapitän’ of Germany didn’t take too kindly to failures.
 
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Absolutely fantastic work everyone, this is without doubt the best of the series. While I can't help but root for the axis, as they are the ones doing the propaganda work, whoever wins will have my congratulations.
 
Fantastic update Thelamon, can't wait to see the plan being executed.

Having played quite a lot of HOI3 MP myself, I understand Kapitän's cries for more troops on the Eastern Front. Defending against a human player with a ragtag army is no easy feat...
 
Well it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I will admit, if you can pull it off and crush what amounts to essentially the entire UK and US army then that will definitely change the balance of things.
 
If you can handle the defense with these forces sent west, the immediate shift of these assets to the east should let you concentrate the force and create a break through, which really does give you the capacity to push in and defeat the Soviets. You could even move south before redeployment and take out Gibraltar with finality first, making this a triple threat operation; crush the allied threat in the west for months, close off the med, and give you enough time and push to potentially shift the balance in the East. We'll have to see but I am excited.
 
through the Suez Canal and around Africa. Now that the US has joined the war, Axis restrictions about fleet placements are null and void.
 
I just want you to know that I arrived at my fingerbones, as my nails were already gone after the update before made me nailbiting...

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Thanks Thelamon for a fantastic update about the future in the West. Hopefully you get to be named the phantom menace in France in the next update.
It's funny how I keep logging on to the forum every weekend like a junkie to get my next fix, I'm really looking forward to the continuation of this saga. :)