The German Reich and the Second World War

That had not occurred to me (I had joking suggested I would do so to Lithuania, due to Ilaruum‎'s amazing progress in 'All Alone: A Lithuanian AAR'). But, wouldn't I lose the IC of those provinces if I was to do that? At the moment, that would be a major kick in the butt due the IC required to replace losses and upgrade a big chunk of my air force.

Oh, it sure will be bloody. I deleted my notes by mistake, but the fighting and the following month cost the AI about 50,000 men.

Now, the concluding part of the last update

The Soviet counterstrike (27 April – 17 May)

On 27 April, a day after von Kleist's offensive was called off, the Red Army breached the frontline at Kramatorsk. The following day, Matveev Kurgan – recently occupied without a fight by two infantry divisions following the Soviet withdrawal – was also attacked. The Panzer Group, depleted but not defeated, moved out from Stalino to counter both of these Soviet moves. Its attack against the Soviet spearhead was a complete disaster, but the mobile reinforcements to the front at Matveev Kurgan resulted in a defensive victory.

The Red Army carried on their attacks east requiring numerous divisions to be diverted to man the new frontline and parry the incoming blows. It was theorized that the Soviet intention was to surround Stalino. The victory at Matveev Kurgan appeared to put a dent in the Soviet plans and opened up the opportunity, which von Kleist envisioned several days earlier, to strike north to cut off the Soviet spearhead and inflict a sizeable defeat upon the Red Army. As the troops struck north, the Red Army launched an attack on Tagnarog threatening to breakthrough. This forced the limited reserves that were remaining, which had been allotted to support the attack north, to be moved south to counter this latest Soviet move. While the Soviets had diverted attention, they had not succeeded in stopping the attack. On 6 May, Horlivka fell to our troops leaving the Soviet spearhead – estimated to be four or five divisions – looking extremely vulnerable. The Soviet capture of Tagnarog caused a major problem. The retreating troops had not yet been able to take up new defensive positions and there was not enough reserves available. The Red Army had created a hole in the frontline, and one that could not be filled.


Due to the strategic situation, the possible collapse of the southern front, an argument erupted between the various army group commanders. Blaskowitz demanded the panzer group halt its attacks and focus on stabilizing the line by plugging the gap and reinforcing all sectors with the mobile troops. On the other hand, von Kleist argued to allow the Soviets to savor their victory and gain ground as it would only be a temporary measure. By continuing the attack north, his men could cut off and defeat the Red Army's northern spearhead inflicting a heavy loss. Then, his troops could be concentrated to deal with the southern Soviet force. Such moves would inflict a heavy defeat upon the Red Army, per the original orders issued to him, and retake the ground that had just been lost. The argument reached an impasse, with neither party willing to concede defeat or comprise. As a result, no new orders being issued to the troops and the northern attack carried on. Rather, the Soviets provided the answer to the conundrum: they withdrew their forward troops, north of Stalino. With nothing to attempt to cut off, von Kleist halted his attack and unleashed his troops south. By 9 May, the Red Army southern attack had been defeated and their troops pushed back to Tagnarog. The Soviet offensive had been repulsed leaving the frontline standing where it had on 6 April.


The battered panzer group was now pulled off the frontline, with the intention of allowing it time to rebuild and reorganize. However, the Red Army had not finished in its attempts to break the southern – and weakest – section of the entire line on the Eastern Front. On 11 May, two attacks were launched in the south. These attacks caught the infantry out of the well-prepared defensive positions that had crafted before the offensive began on 6 April, and not yet re-manned. Elements of the panzer group – exhausted from the near constant fighting from April – were rushed into the area to help repel the Soviets. The next day, obviously aware of the redeployment of reserves, the Soviets struck to the north of Stalino. Further reserves were dispatched to counter this latest blow. As the troops moved out, a further Soviet attack was launched; a direct assault upon Stalino. For the next week, the entire southern frontline, between the Don River, was ablaze with activity and fighting. When one battle ended, the mobile reserves were rushed to the next emergency. One by one, the Red Army attacks were halted. On 17 May, the fighting finally ended. The front had barely been held. The troops were completely exhausted from the fighting, but it appeared so was the Red Army. Had they unleashed fresh reserves, the line surely would have cracked. As it was, tens of thousands – on both sides – had been killed for no gain. The frontline remained as it had been on 6 April before either the German or Soviet attacks.

I could spin that into an argument about attritional warfare ... except I have less than 600,000 manpower left and the Soviet AI as something like 8 million. Hmmm that spin failed fast

Well I just took a quick peek, the Soviet AI currently has 6.5 million manpower. However, prior to organizing the Soviet-Japanese war, the Soviet AI had 8.3 million manpower. But for the most part, that decrease in manpower is due to the increase in the AI's army. Why they have such a huge manpower pool I have no idea, considering they start will less than one million at the beginning of the game and I inflicted over 5 million casualties during the 1941-45 war. Even during that period of the war, while my manpower was decreasing rapidly, the AI never seem to have a problem.

Surt said:

I think the Soviets gets events that give them some manpower each year or multiple times each year.

Click to expand...

I think it was when I was writing up the updates for the end of the war on the Eastern Front in 1945, and discovered just how much manpower they had I reached about the same conclusion especially after finding out they only start with less than 1 million manpower.

Nice catch Garfunkel! I hadn't even noticed that the lead soldier was equipped with a SMG, I passed it off as a rifle at first glance. Your too right about pics of Finnish troops being passed off as Germans, there was a similar situation earlier in the thread. Finnish troops were unique markings of their helmets (skull and crossbones if I recall correctly, without hunting it down). If those chaps had only recently translated the training manual, I believe they did a very good job at it!

Interesting stuff.

As for the game, I shall attempt to get an update done this week. It has been a boring couple of months, with little fighting. Not much to write about.

All quiet on the Western Front (and in the east too) (June – September)

Following the end of fighting in May, a period of peace descended upon both fronts. The lull in fighting was used to rectify numerous problems facing the Reich. While Germany was an industrial powerhouse, the situation it currently found itself in was too much to handle. The Luftwaffe was outclassed in the air and in dire need of overhauling, new men and military equipment were needed to replace losses, and the stockpile of military supplies was rapidly dwindling. For the moment, the industrial power of the Reich was unable to meet these demands.

Over the course of June, the latter problem was addressed. Extensive diplomatic efforts were made to broker deals with foreign businesses resulting in the production of ammunition, uniforms, and other military supplies was largely outsourced to other countries. Within weeks, convoys of trucks, ships, and trains were arriving loaded down with the supplies needed to keep our men fed, clothed, and fighting. Switzerland, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary became the Reich's largest suppliers. These trade deals represented 40 per cent of the supply needs of our forces, a desperate move to free up domestic factory space and workers for other vital duties. However, such dependency – while a major positive move in the short term – was unsustainable over the long term. Until present, Germany had been an exporter of goods rather than an importer. German coal, steel, and oil were sold throughout Europe and, for those who dared the United Nation’s convoy raiders, overseas especially in South America. This trade had amassed an extensive gold reserve for the Reich, but this reserve would disappear within a year and a half if these latest deals for military supplies lasted that long.


Up until this point, the rollout of new jetfighters had been a slow process. With factory space freed up, they were retooled and fighter production was rapidly increased. By September, over 2,200 HE 280 light jets had been produced. The rate of production had allowed for all fighter squadrons to begin training on the new jets, and on 7 September the final FW 190 fighters were retired from service leaving all squadrons equipped with jets. Over the coming months, new designs – incorporating the latest weapons, newer and faster engines, and larger fuel tanks – were sent for production, began rolling off the assembly lines and dispatched to frontline squadrons. While light fighter production had been ramped up, the same had happened for the production of heavy jet fighters. 17 October marked the retirement of the final twin-engine piston driven fighter plane, from this point all fighter wings – both light and heavy – were equipped with various jet aircraft. The Luftwaffe was now the world’s premier air force. The bomber arm of the Luftwaffe faced a different situation. Light bombers had shown themselves to be incredibly vulnerable over the modern battlefield, and their job could now easily be carried out by the fighter squadrons. As a result of recent experience, on 8 September the decision was made to decommission all 64 close air support squadrons (four wings). Their personnel were dispatched to other squadrons or transferred to the army for retraining. Likewise, the naval bomber squadrons were disbanded due to their role having become obsolete, and their personnel retrained on the latest jet bombers that had been produced. Several medium bomber squadrons were similarly retrained on jet bombers, but the decision was made not to retire all medium bombers. This way, a balance between the strengths and weaknesses of the newest jets and the current medium bombers could be maintained.


While there had been no action on the frontlines, in the air it was another story. United Nation bomber streams were running bombing missions over Alsace-Lorraine on a nearly daily basis. While interceptors were dispatched to put a dent in the Allied effort, the United Nations had caught the Luftwaffe during its period of rebuilding. Twenty-eight DO 635 fighters were shot down before the effort to stop the Allied attacks were halted. Once enough interceptor squadrons had been reequipped and trained on the new jet interceptor, the Ho 299, the effort to halt the bomber attacks began once again. Within weeks, 780 United Nation bombers had been shot down along with over 100 fighters. Most curiously, C-47 transport aircraft were identified flying within the bomber streams and with fighter escort. Our pilots were unable to identify what their mission was and no paratroopers were reported by ground forces. However, forty of these planes were destroyed. In total, only 80 Ho299 jets were lost during the aerial battles. On the ground, in Denmark, the period of peace allowed reinforcements to be dispatched and to finally crush the partisan uprising that had been ongoing for over half a year.


In international news, on 13 August Portugal announced that they had begun to mobilize their military. Considering the century's long alliance and co-operation between the two countries, it seemed that despite the like-minded government in power that Portugal would soon join the ranks of the United Nations. Little more was heard from the country during this period, and the Portuguese mobilization was overshadowed by information coming in from Asia. On 11 June, the first reports arrived indicating that Soviet infantry had landed on the Japanese home islands. While shocking, it was not immediately detrimental to our own war effort as, after all, the Japanese had already fought off two Chinese invasions of the home islands and an American invasion of Taiwan. In the final week of August, it was believed Soviet infantry had landed on Honshu. By 19 September, it had been confirmed that the Soviets had not only landed on the main island but were rapidly pushing towards the capital. This news, coupled with the ongoing and successful American island-hopping campaign in the Pacific and the Anglo-Chinese-Soviet advances in China pushing the Japanese into the southern regions, resulted in the final decision to order the withdrawal of forces on the Eastern Front to better defensive positions before the Japanese surrendered giving the Soviets the opportunity to deploy millions of reserves into our theater.