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Hardin

First Lieutenant
50 Badges
Jul 29, 2005
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Hello fellow players.

I have only had this game a week and am totally hooked. I am not sure if this is the right place to post this as it is not as detailed (or as awesome) as some of the AAR's on here but as it is an AAR I thought this is where it should be - I will happily move it if this is in the wrong place.

==================================================

Belgium 1936

The Belgian leader knows war is coming. He can sense it. He knows that his country is merely a pawn in a much larger game. He knows that the pitiful Belgian defence forces have no chance of stopping a German attack if it comes. At worst his country will be overrun at worst and at best turned into a stalemated battleground.

It is time for radical action. The nine Belgian colonies in the Congo have some of the poorest infrastructure in Africa and lack even the most basic industrial capacity.

The Belgian leader knows that in order to play any part in the inevitable war it will be necessary to develop an industrial capacity in Africa.

He initiates a six year indutrial development programme in Africa. The entire country is dedicated to this one goal. Resources are stripped from the military - both units and research and ploughed into the project.

It is slow going but with all the industrial might of Belgium being put behind it gradually their African holdings start to develop.

The international picture becomes bleaker as the Belgian leader had predicted - first Austria, then Slovakia and now Poland have been annexed by the aggressive German Chancellor. The country stands upon the edge of a precipice.

Then the day arrives. The first German panzers cross into Belgium. The country is quickly occupied. At a stroke two thirds of its industrial capacity is removed but thanks to the efforts of the previous years Belgium has a foothold in Africa and some capacity to work with its allies for the liberation of its homeland.

---------------------------------------------

So that sets the background and where this story really diverges from 'real' history.

As my nine African provinces were located in the heart of Africa, surrounded by the colonies of its ally the United Kingdom I decided to continue the industrialisation programme through till 1942 before switching to military production.

However this is where things started to get interesting.

The Italians did not declare war as they normally do when the Germans are steamrollering across France and Belgium. Good news it would seem. However tied into this was the fact that the Japanese went to war on the allies earlier.

So why should this effect me?

Well the UK started moving units out of Africa (where there was no threat at this time) and shipping them out to the Far East. The Brits able to focus (at least initially) on the Far Eastern front and able to reinforce it from Africa/Middle East did a lot better than historically against the Japanese - seizing Thailand and Vietnam which the Japanese had taken early on.

But then when the British were engrossed there the sneak Italians entered the war... This caused major problems for me. The Italians had colonies in Libya and Ethiopia. Historically they had been overrun by British colonial forces in Africa - losing Ethiopia and only holding on to Libya (initially) thanks to Rommel's intervention.

In my reality however the Italians were faced with no opposition. I, expecting a free run to concentrate on industry, due to British protection was suddenly faced with a hostile enemy a mere two provinces away and with no defences.

The Italians swept out of Libya overwhelming the token British forces in Egypt and pushing into Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq - They eventually took Baghdad but the British and an Iraqi force managed to hold onto to southern Iraq and kuwait - maintaining their foothold in the region.

Meanwhile the Italians in Ethiopia had also been busy. They struck out west and South heading straight at me. I was hurriedly building some defence forces. Due to time limitations I had to opt for '1936 quality militia and garrison units. I started getting these to the borders but they ran straight into multi-division Italian forces of a 1941 calibre. As you can imagine things didnt go well.

I was pushed back from 9 to 7 to 5 then to 3 and finally to 1 province. Belgium was on the point of extinction!

Fortunately, as my division retreated their supply lines were getting shorter, they were also gaining experience and they were coming together. Eventually I was forced into a single enclave on the West African cost in which I had 9 garrision/militia units. Fortunately my remaining province was one of those I had concentrated on developing industrially so I had the capacity to maintain my 9 divisions - but no capacity to develop any more defence/offence forces.

A three year siege then began which will go down in the annals of my alternate history as the equivalent of the siege of Stalingrad. The Italians built up forces in the surrounding three provinces and launched a wave of attacks on 'Banana'. They had better numbers and quality units - but I had jungle territory and no supply problems. The attacks failed and my heroic militia gained experience.

Meanwhile in the rest of Africa Italy had gone on a complete rampage. Nationalist Spain had joined the war on the Axis side and with the Italians had pretty much driven the British & Free French out of West Africa apart from some toe holds they maintained in Nigeria & Ghana.

In the South too the Italian divisions had driven in to the northern province of South Africa before finally being halted very tenously by British/South African forces.

I believe the fact that the defence of my lone Belgian province tied down around 18 Italian divisions throughout 1941 - 1942 period and prevented the Axis from gaining a clean sweep of the entire continent.

Elsewhere the Americans had entered the war and were taking some of the pressure off the British who along with the Nationalist Chinese had fought the Japanese to a deadlock in western China.

The Russians had entered the war in late 1941 (they initiated the agression). The Germans made some initial progress vs the Russkies but the frontline stalemated around the west of Moscow close to the original Polish border. This frontline from the Baltic to the Black Sea stayed pretty much static throughout 1942 and 1943.

With the pressure off in the Far East the British began moving troops back to their toeholds in Africa and the Middle East throughout 1942 and 1943. They made very slow progress against the Italians who by now were very entrenched. They did however regain Iraq and then cleared the entire Middle East of Italian forces before being stopped by the Italians at the Suez canal

As in the real war 1944 was the big year. The Russians made a major breaktrough on the Eastern front and once they had cracked the German frontlines swept into a relatively undefended European interior even reaching as far as Northern Italy. In the Far East the American staged an amphibious assault on Japan itself and had gained two provinces (including Tokyo).

In Africa Italian resistance started to crumble as the Brits, Free, French, Canadians and New Zealand forces had finally reached sufficient critical mass to overcome their resistance and break out of South Africa and their pockets in West Africa.

The Mediterranean was by now under the complete control of allied navies and the British broke across the Suez canal and into Egypt. As a result Italian forces throughout the continent suddenly faced major supply issues.

In mid-1944 a combined Belgian/UK assault broke the three year seige of my lone surviving province and once the Italians started fleeing there was no turning back. By the end of 1944 Belgium had regained its African possessions and thanks to the Soviet assault I regained my Belgian homeland in 1945. The allies also conquered the Japanese in 1945.

By the end of 1945 the Italians and Nationalist Spanish had been pushed into their homelands. The Soviets had liberated Austria and France and gave them back their freedom - as a result they had no direct access to Spain and Italy. The Brits and the American also proved amazingly reticent to launch an amphibious invasion and I simply did not have the capacity on my own. As a result by the end of the 'war' in 1948 Italy and Spain were still independent.

This resulted in a Soviet win over the allies by 50 Victory Points. If the allies had got their act together and conquered either Italy or Spain it would have tipped the balance in the allies favour.

So what did I get out of this scenario -

Well I achieved what I had set out to do which was actually give Belgium a place in the World War II story.

If I had not concentrated on developing an industrial base in Africa I would have been completely overrun first by the Germans in Belgium and then by the Italians in Africa.

My intervention in the African was was I believe the turning point. The heroic siege tied up enough Italian forces at a critical time to prevent a complete wipe out of allied forces in Africa. If their 18 divisions had been freed up to assist elswhere then the Axis would have completely cleared Africa in 1941/42 and could have redeployed forces to assist the Germans on the Eastern front. That front was stalemated right through till early 1944 and could have gone the Axis way if with Italian help they had managed to tip the balance against the Soviets.

Anyway I really had fun :rolleyes:
 
Jolly good stuff Hardin, it's always nice to see smaller countries make something of the war! That was an entertaining read, the notion of the Belgian militia holding back the Italian Campaign is a massive achievement for little Belgium :D Good job and i hope to see more AAR's from you in the future ;)
 
Nice alernative history there. :)

Also, the Congo in rl today would be alot better off if the Belgians had industrialised it as you did in game. Hope to see another such aar from you soon.
 
Very good and interesting read, only a three-year siege is not "The African Stalingrad" - but rather "The African Leningrad".
 
das said:
Very good and interesting read, only a three-year siege is not "The African Stalingrad" - but rather "The African Leningrad".

True :D

I guess it felt like Stalingrad to me though when in 1941 I was trapped in one single province facing extinction. I almost gave up but glad I saw it through to the end.

I imagine that King George would have given the 'Belgians' the equivalent of the George Cross for their stout efforts and for their eventual assitance in reclaiming the African colonies for the Empire...

I have started a similar scenario only this time for the Netherlands industrialising their Far East domains with a view to fighting off the Japaese invasion. They actually have some advantages over the Belgians in that they have an AWESOME supply of raw materials and they actually have a modest industrial capacity in the colonies already - so will have to see how it turns out.

Out of interest can anyone tell me how when you losse your homeland you can chose the capital (central stockpile)? The AI automatically assigned it to me in the Province closest to the original capital which in the Netherlands case was Parimbor in South America - not exactly handy when most of its fighting/production is in the Far East - can you manually change Capitals?

Anyway thanks for the comments above. I really enjoyed writing it... More shall follow I am sure...
 
Great read, Hardin. Quick, concise and entertaining. And it seems some good choices made with an interesting and seldom written about country from this time.

And make sure to head over to the main AAR section. Elias has passed the AAR writAAR of the week to you. Congrats.
 
Congragulations Hardin! You are most worthy of WritAAR of the Week!
 
Congratulations on the award. :)
 
Congrats!

Hope to see the Dutch AAR soon.
 
Nice game and report! :)
 
You deserve the award, that was awesome. I really hope the forums will be blessed with more of your work.
 
The game must have been fun.You really showed the italians how to fight.


edit:Just saw how old this thread was.Good game still.
 
You can hold the Germans and keep your homeland. If you don't build any industry and build level 6-7 forts in your border provinces plus AA and put your whole army there the German attack on France, and you falls apart. The only problem is you get outflanked from the North after Holland falls but I stole the some UK and French troops and held the line.