Fatherland - Deutschland über alles

20:00 June 8th 1940

According to the last intelligence report this is the entire Russian bomber force but I don’t believe it at all. Whatever fraction this is it is going to get smaller even exposed to a night battle.

21:00 June 8th 1940

Aldous is leading the western wing of the northern advance and has very little trouble with this scale of Russian defence. There are even a few aircraft on the ground here begging to be destroyed.

22:00 June 8th 1940

Another lossless skirmish of North Cape and the Murmansk army is still in place.

00:00 June 9th 1940

The Russians have selected the obvious answer to encirclement and declared war on Latvia and Estonia (they are allied). This doesn’t break them out but does give them some other options for things to do. Unfortunately I think they have left this too late to do them any good.



00:00 June 9th 1940 b

I have adopted the obvious response of declaring war on them myself. I have been maintaining a small reserve for just this eventuality including our power Fallschirmjäger force.

03:00 June 9th 1940

The Bryansk pocket is being rolled up and destroyed by my infantry armies. It doesn’t take much force as the Russian divisions are all rather depleted already and out of supply.

05:00 June 9th 1940

I have launched an immediate paradrop on Tallinn aimed at knocking Estonia out of the war in the first day of hostilities. Naval support is a key loss reducer for this battle with a –40% combat modifier. I have now found an enemy whose decryption/encryption levels are sufficiently inferior to give me a bonus. I’m not sure what the rules are for this but the 10% bonus is difficult to achieve against a major enemy.

14:00 June 9th 1940

Air support takes time to join in, as they cannot be allowed to take off until the paratroops have landed and started fighting or else they will attack the wrong target. By 14:00 events have taken their course and Tallinn is captured leading immediately to Estonia being annexed. This gives me the same position as a neutral Estonia except the Russians could now advance into “my” territory. There is little risk with Estonia as I already control half the border from the Leningrad enclave.

03:00 June 10th 1940

Operations begin against the northern provinces of the Minsk pocket. For the time being I will be concentrating on the weakly held parts of the pocket but as forces come forward and concentrate I will be shifting some of the more strongly held provinces. Other units continue the move north against minimal opposition.

07:00 June 10th 1940

With Estonia annexed the fleet has moved round to launch an amphibious landing against Riga so as to take out Latvia as well. This landing is quite strong and is going to have little difficulty. Mountain troops are a good second best to marines for amphibious landing and as usual an optimal force of 6 divisions is making the attack. Once Riga is taken I can annex Latvia and eliminate these two new combatants.

One of the objectives in the attacks on Estonia and Latvia is to do it quickly enough that the Russians do not occupy any provinces. This isn’t because of problems throwing them out again but because I would like to own them rather than have them as occupied Russian provinces. This is a bit of a nicety given the previous discussion about partisan levels (general discussion of the Baltics prior to the Barbarossa campaign)

08:00 June 10th 1940

In the south all remaining Russian forces are vaporising in a hail of high explosives and cannon fire. This leaves my units free to carry out deep exploitation to the north and east (others out of sight are going south). The eastern flank of the Russian forces around Moscow is visible and I am trying, rather pointlessly, to outflank them to the east. I would predict that both our flanks will extend eastwards and the Russians will begin to push south into territory I currently hold. This eastern flank is a useful distraction and may help to redirect and disperse Russian forces for the forthcoming battle of Moscow.

The real key steps are to hold Kaluga and provinces to the west to protect actions against the Minsk pocket and prevent a Russian strike all the way to Rostov and I guess we all know that isn’t going to happen. Apart from that they can do what they like and it will not interfere one bit with my plans.

11:00 June 10th 1940

As predicted the Russians are pushing in my poorly defended eastern flank. There is no point resisting any strong attack in this area so I have and will immediately retreat whenever one is launched. I would quite like to hold Tula so there are significant forces there but it is not especially important..

11:00 June 10th 1940 b

The landing at Riga is going well and we have almost won when this breakthrough occurs. My units have taken no discernible losses in strength or org. This is so easy no air support has been provided. All that really remains to be done is to wait for the units to actually get ashore.

14:00 June 10th 1940

I did have troops moving forward here so I now have two retreats. At least I get to keep a continuous if barely defended flank. It is likely that any Russian divisions advancing here will receive punitive bombing as a reward providing me with an additional air zone to bomb in.

16:00 June 10th 1940

The advance north has advanced by a single pair of provinces revealing a few more enemies but all indications are that there is nothing significant in this area. The largest enemy force is at Luga and they look to be escaping. I suspect far larger forces are present east of the swamps but they remain out of my reach.

18:00 June 10th 1940

I have launched paradrops against the three swamp provinces so as to provide an eastern wall to my advance. The logic is similar to the previous paradrops in the Pripyat marshes. I have no particular desire to defend the provinces but it is useful to forestall enemy presence there and to be able to clean up west of the marshes without Russian forces escaping into that highly defensible terrain. The landings are phased so that I can make sure that I only drop if the provinces are empty. As a result the Novgorod drop is still in the air but will occur shortly.

Notice the Russian troops in Polotsk. They have managed to retake the province through my forces vacating it. This doesn’t really help them but if does make the Minsk pocket slightly bigger. I’m not worried by it as there is no way they can hold it.

03:00 June 11th 1940

The Fallschirmjäger are immediately counter-attacked by significant Russian forces east of the marshes. This is not unexpected but the scale is still rather annoying. Unfortunately my troops cannot be given new orders for 24 hours after dropping and therefore I cannot immediately retreat.

03:00 June 11th 1940 b

The main strike north continues and Russian forces remain within the capabilities of my forces. Five 1939 infantry divisions pose little challenge for a full 12 division panzer group under a skill 7 offensive doctrine panzer leader.

04:00 June 11th 1940

The Fallschirmjäger division in Velikiye Luki is the first to be defeated and chooses to retreat northwards. The battle took less than 24 hours so I have no control over it. They have lost a full 16% strength which is somewhat more concerning. This makes the drop relatively expensive in manpower –
16% of 15 x .34 (difference between reinforcement rate and wounded return rate) = .816

Assuming this occurs for all three drops that will be a full 2.45 manpower from this operation making it rather expensive by my standards. Oddly, if I did it again I would load the Fallschirmjäger divisions onto naval transports and then unload a couple of times so they dropped with relatively low org. This would massively reduce the casualties taken. It is a pity that this is the only way to achieve this effect. I have always thought that the 24 hour command limit should not apply to retreats and that they should be allowed at any time.

This also seems to be the place to discuss airborne tactics. This campaign has been distinctive for me in that the Fallschirmjäger have only been used for this flank protection role. In a more typical Barbarossa I would have linear drops behind the Russian frontline to block retreats from my overrun assault. This never happened because of the Geography of the initial attacks. Very little of the border that I overran could be isolated from safe retreat provinces as they could mostly retreat along the Romanian border. I suspect this lack of paradrop had very little effect on the outcome. The only thing that would have been prevented was the series of battles with the Russian mobile group retreating from Kowel back to Mozyr where they were finally cornered. As it is the flank protection effect made sure that no defeated forces escaped in the marshes and this therefore left my advance well protected on the north side.

This latest drop has similar consequences. The marsh provinces will be mostly left vacant after capture. By the time the Russians recapture them this will simply have been another opportunity to put their heads in a noose (I hope).

Currently the ‘drop in the rear’ approach is completely impossible as the Russian troops are not well concentrated into a frontline. If they manage to cluster forward into a linear deployment then the drop in the second line tactic may get used. I doubt the front will be stationary long enough for this to happen.

08:00 June 11th 1940

The third drop has taken place and the second division has been defeated. Unfortunately Kasakka is a slightly superior commander so he has managed to lose 17% before retreating. Who ever thought we would be saying those words, what a phrase to have to come out with. Notice the line of retreat, watching these attacks suggests that the default direction of retreat is towards the most recently captured friendly province. This seems like a rather odd algorithm for default retreat directions and I can’t say I’m all that happy with it but I shall just have to accept it.