Sudden Carnage
Chapter XIX – Operation Hammer Sickle Part VII
Countries played by humans: UK, France, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan
Recap: The “Hammer” in Operation Hammer Sickle was a stunning success. Now it is time for “Sickle” – making the Netherlands an Axis puppet.
January 6th, 1940
::Lucas Bauer couldn’t be more happy about how life had turned out. The life as a fallschirmjäger was a lot better than regular infantry. When the paras had done their job, they were pulled back to some civilized place for reorganization and preparation for next jump. And that was not all of it. After the successful battle of St Wendel which opened up for the quick recapture of the West Wall, they were heroes. ::
::Instead of freezing their butts off, they were now camped in decent barracks at an airfield outside Frankfurt am Main. Even though secrecy-level were quite high they got one night off and had a party in the city. Lucas platoon found a nice beer-house and they dedicated the feast to Kleine Tobias who had got his head shot off in St Wendel by a French sniper. Martin still limped a little from the mortar shrapnel he took in the leg and Hans had a crutch as he tried to not put pressure on his sprained ankle. Hans had missed their counter-attack on the French bridge-head when they threw back the frog-eaters and captured the little village on the other side. He was hugely disappointed by this and had promised to run first at their next charge.::
::Lucas, as usually, made the party great by singing songs, kissing the owners daughter who blushed happily and he later got a nose-bleed when her father lost his temper over the issue. Lucas didn’t fight back though, and when the platoon tipped the next round of beer most generously, the owner’s frosty mood melted away and he started to drink with the soldiers himself, buying them the next round. He got so drunk he didn’t notice when the blond paratrooper sneaked away with his daughter.::
::It was good days. But they knew missions were coming up soon and after one lazy day with a hangover, training started again.::
January 10th, 1940
Even though the European theatres took a break in the killing, the Japanese onslaught continued. On the ground, the Brits lost ground and retreaded to Singapore. The surrounded motorized infantry division further north tried to retreat, but had nowhere to go. The Royal Navy challenged Yamamoto – maybe trying to save the doomed ground troops. It was a fierce fight which ended with two sunken Japanese light cruisers and some British destroyers. A small British victory.
It happened as Japan was preparing to do their part of Operation Hammer Sickle. Luckily, the British breach of the Japanese blockade did not affect this advance.
Authors note: I hope the Brit/Jap players can shed some additional light on these events
January 12th, 1940
The Regia Marina had taken some beating by the Royal Navy, also when it came to submarines. Still, the convoy raiding against Allied convoys continued with great success.
January 14th, 1940
The German u-boats in the English Channel covered a smaller area but have a much higher hit-ratio than their Italian colleges. In the Channel Approach they scored a new high-score when they managed to sink 10 convoys during a week. The British convoy losses must be truly mind boggling during this period. Still, as Italy had taken some losses, it was doubtful how long they would be able to keep this level of attention up.
For the German side, they had only lost one of the older packs. Moreover, they had researched a brand new hull type (1941) and the first Wolf-pack with this technology had just entered production and would be finished after the summer. They would be far superior to anything the Brits had, it was believed.
January 17th, 1940
The German forces which are supposed to take part of “Sickle” have assembled out of sight from the Dutch border. It is perceived that the Dutch (and possibly also the Allies) do not expect the storm which is about to hit them. Even as the troops were on the way to the assembly area, Germany agreed on yet another deal on rare materials with the Dutch. Germany also made a similar deal with the Italians, even though they as well had problems with the Rares. As all the important deals with the Dutch (importing about 25 Rares a day) would be broken when Germany declared war on them, it was important that the stockpile was not all gone when it happened. Still, Germany did not manage to reach zero loss of Rares.
January 19th, 1940
Just as Germany was ready to declare war on the Netherlands and initiate the second phase of Operation Hammer Sickle, their scientists made a breakthrough on the research on small planes. With this upgrade in place, all fighters and dive bombers would be technological superior to their enemies. Good!
January 20th, 1940
It was time to attack Netherlands and by doing so, harvesting their stockpile (with the sickle) and to make them Axis puppets before Belgium becomes Allies. There are several tricky issues and risks with this plan.
• If Allies ship in troops very quickly, they can delay the conquest quite a lot – thus emptying Germany’s quickly decreasing stockpile on Rare Material and causing the important production to drop.
• Belgium might go Allies before Amsterdam falls which could give us problem.
• If their stockpile on Rare Materials in the Netherlands is very low, Germany will very soon be in trouble again.
January 21st, 1940
One day into the new war and the Sickle have lashed out. Panzer spear-heads have entered Maastricht and Venlo without battle, opening up for the infantry. German and Japanese paradrops have sealed of Amsterdam from the main bulk of the Dutch army. It appears there are no Dutch troops in the southern part of the country and thus, the road to Amsterdam is more or less open. It is a good start on the offensive.
Authors note: This is pure AI stupidity. Can’t understand the AI-programming behind this set up of the Dutch troops… The most defensible provinces are undefended. Makes it easy for me, but it feels stupid.
The German stockpile on rare materials is now quickly running (see top corner) out as the precious deals with Netherlands is cancelled. If no aid is coming to the Dutch defense, it might just work within the very tight time-frame.
January 22nd, 1940
::Falling through the air in late January was far from pleasant. It was as cold as if he’d jumped into the water. Lucas was rattling his teeth and tried to flex his muscles to keep the joints from freezing before the landing. The landscape looked well tended, nobody shot at them and he didn’t see any foreign troops. The landing in Hertogenbosch went smooth. Intel had claimed no Dutch troops were even close, and it seemed to be true. Just as in St Wendel, the German fallskirmjägers landed first and then Japanese paradrops followed suit a few hours later, in neighboring provinces. It was good knowing the Japs secured at least one flank. Nobody wanted to repeat the fate of the 1st paratroop division…::
:: Hertogenbosch was a nice, well tended province with plenty of villages, farms, woods and streams. The hard landing on the semi-frozen ground caused a few broken ankles but none in Lucas platoon were lost. Hans was mighty happy about his heavily bandaged ankle had taken the impact well, and he claimed he was now eager to run first in an attack. The problem was just that there were no enemies around to charge. Moreover, the orders were to be careful with the killing and instead try to be as nice as possible to “the brothers” of Netherland.::
::They had been dropped in the west and soon work began to dig in along the provincial border to Rotterdam and also to some patrolling across the border to find out whether any hostile troops came from this direction. The leadership was apparently worried about Brits or French coming from the coast. Well, no such thing was visible yet and as they grilled fresh beef over the fireplace in the evening (their company leader were not too strict with light restrictions as long as they were well behind the lines) they all felt it seemed to be a nice jump. They argued, however, if it really could be called a combat jump. Martin said it was, but Hans talked against it, claiming that if no shots were fired from either side, it was not a combat-jump. Martin argued that a shot certainly had been fired. Hans, who had shot the cow they were now grilling, said that shooting animals didn’t count. Lucas, as usually, didn’t really have an opinion. He laughed at his friends and enjoyed the grilled meat and the heat of the bonfire – chasing the winter chill away. A thin snowfall had just started adding to the cozy feeling.::
January 23rd, 1940
Japan did their part of Operation Hammer Sickle flawlessly and quickly captured important ports, cities and recourses. It must have been a shock for the Dutch to lose so much in so short time. Their war was only three days old.
January 26th, 1940
Six days into "Sickle" and Amsterdam is under attack. A German Panzer division, supported by two Japanese paratroop divisions, is facing mostly Dutch staff personnel and a few regular infantry of inferior standard. Still, fighting in the middle of a city is chaotic and difficult. The Axis forces had air superiority, with Stukas making precision-strikes, but were shelled from the ocean by Allied war ships. Still, the Dutch could not hold on very long by themselves.
Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, in charge of the attack on Amsterdam was already a veteran from the campaign. He’d been in charge of a three-brigade infantry division during the attack on Krakov. He’d been one of the first who clashed with the Red Army, in the army corps south of the Italian positions on the east front. When Operation Hammer Sickle was under preparation and march-up, von Arnim was transferred to a brand new panzer division which was deployed close to the occupying French troops. Now, he was in the forefront of the German advance.
Hans-Jürgen von Arnim, CO 6th Panzer Division
The Allied response so far was weak – or did they have plans that could thwart the success of the operation? Axis feared an Allied landing of strong forces right into Amsterdam. It would delay the victory substantially and the German on rare materials would only last less than a week. As the German forces were spread fairly thin, they were very vulnurable for surprices...