Festung Europa

OK, I am not going to bore you with the mundane details of 1936-1939. I did everything pretty much as you would expect: IC-whoring for the first two years, slider moves, research of the same tired old techs, build up of the army and air force, etc etc etc. I am not researching any other naval ships except for subs, and am not building any ships except for them as well. Other than this, nothing I did would have surprised you.

I will take this opportunity, however, to introduce the hero of our story: a young man named Johann Richter. Born and raised in Mainz, he enlists in the Wehrmacht in 1936 at the age of 18 to satisfy his wanderlust. For the first three years of his enlistment his life is regular and unremarkable. He is assigned as an infantryman to the 20th Infantry Regiment, part of the 10th Infantry Division, with duty in Brandenburg. After three years, he is given an additional stripe to wear on his shoulder, and Obergefreiter Richter is assigned to a newly created unit: the 5th Motorized Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Motorized Infantry Division. The unit is stationed in Kustrin, near the Polish border.

In late summer of 1939, diplomacy fails to secure peace. Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Germany prepares to invade Poland to defend the interests of the German-speaking citizens of Silesia and Prussia.

Germany has 160 total divisions, of which 138 are leg infantry, 10 are motorized infantry, and 5 are armored. They are supported by 16 interceptor wings, 12 tactical bomber wings, and 8 close air support wings. Germany has 102 submarines at the Wilhelmshafen naval base.

On the eastern front, Poland's large but antiquated army was assembled on the German border. Meanwhile, on the western front, France continued its build-up in Alsace-Lorraine. OKW decides to launch two simultaneous attacks. Field Marshal von Rundstedt would lead the blitz into Poland, supported by CAS aircraft and a tactical bomber force. Field Marshal von Blomberg would lead an assault into Belgium, with intentions of flanking France's vaunted Maginot Line and seizing an early advantage against the western allies. Both attacks are launched in the early morning hours of 30 August 1939.


Johann was excited. In the past week his unit had been on alert for war. Late last night, the word had come. The company's NCOs had laid out an extensive operations plan for the soldiers to execute. Johann's squad was part of a screening force that would cross the border into Poland before anyone else. Now, he was seated in the back of a truck, being driven to the border to subdue the guardhouse and pave the way for follow-on armor. As the sun peeked over the horizon, Johann heard the thunderous crack of outgoing artillery.

Poland had concentrated its defenses along its border provinces. Rundstedt bypassed most of them. Armored columns struck hard at Bydgoszcz and routed the garrison. Hungarian infantry poured through the gap and exploited the envelopement by advancing through to Lodz and Torun. In the south, Lieutenant General Schorner led his corps of mountaineers in an intense assault across the Vistula River. Supported by over twenty infantry divisions, the assault succeeded and Cracow was occupied. By the second week of September, armored and motorized units were in Torun and Poland's capital was left virtually unguarded.

Tired... that was the only emotion Johann was capable of. His unit had been on the front line for two weeks without respite. The same battle drills were replayed over and over again. Johann had seen hundreds of dead Polish soldiers - most had died long before the infantry arrived, victims of artillery or bombs. In Bydgoszcz and later in Torun, Johann's squad was tasked for a combat assault. The Polish formations fought hard, but were outmatched by the German armor. Johann appreciated having the tanks nearby. He had heard stories of the grisly fighting that had been occuring in Southern Poland, where both Germany and Poland lacked armor. The First Sergeant of Johann's company had been wounded during the first week of fighting, and Johann's platoon sergeant had been promoted to fill the vacancy. That meant that Johann's squad leader was now serving as the platoon sergeant, and a junior corporal named Kuhnel had been leading the squad. Right up until yesterday, when a German artillery shell fell short and killed Kuhnel and wounded another man. Now Johann Richter and the remaining members of his squad rode in the back of their truck through the bleak streets of Warsaw. The Polish capital had been deserted by the government only hours before and a stream of refugees clogged the roadways out of town. There was nowhere for them to go. The Wehrmacht held Cracow, Danzig, and Lodz, and the Soviets were already moving to occupy eastern Poland. Johann was too tired to care.


Poland is annexed on the afternoon of 16 September - only slightly behind schedule.

As Rundstedt blitzed through Poland, Field Marshal von Blomberg was executing a craftier plan for the invasion of Belgium and France. A total of 36 infantry divisions were guarding the Westwall and an additional 82 divisions were poised along the Rhine River, across the border from Belgium. The majority of these divisions (and two armored corps) were positioned to strike toward the port and open plains of Antwerp. In Cologne, near the Ardennes Forest, was another armored corps and an army group of infantry.


At dawn on 30 August, Lieutenant General Rommel lead the spearhead assault through the Ardennes Forest at Bastogne. Belgium promptly appealed to the Allies for assistance, and France dispatched several infantry divisions north into Belgium. The garrison at Bastogne was defeated and Rommel turned his tanks south, toward Arlon, as infantry marched from Cologne into Bastogne to protect Rommel's flank. Meanwhile, the formidable presence of German tanks and soldiers near Antwerp kept Belgian forces occupied. A series of raids were launched against Antwerp during the first week of the invasion. These shaping operations knocked the Belgium army off-balance enough to facilitate an assault on the fortifications at Liege. The attack on Liege quickly succeeded and the Belgian army fled Antwerp to avoid being pocketed. Panzer formations crossed the Rhine and sped toward the open fields of Ghent.

In the south, Rommel seized the deserted fortifications at Metz, but there his offensive lost momentum. Re-directed French infantry reinforced Reims and although Rommel won a series of battles at Reims, he could not consolidate his gains and was forced to withdraw to Metz to await support. War was declared against Luxembourg, and reserve infantry forces marched in and occupied the tiny duchy. A day later, Luxembourg was annexed into the Third Reich. Meanwhile, the French garrisons on the Maginot Line began to withdraw, sensing the possibility of encirclement, and left only a token presence.

As the Belgian army melted away, German armor columns drove through Ghent to seize Dunkerque, Lille, and Calais. Token French resistance was swept away and Lieutenant General Guderian led his armored corps into unprotected Paris. He did not stop there; he pivoted east and advanced toward Dijon. With the impending collapse of French defenses at Mulhouse, the majority of the French army was faced with the possibility of being completely pocketed.


As Poland was surrendering, France teetered on the brink of disaster.

"Johann Richter!" barked the company commander. Johann hurried over to the CO and saluted. "Obergefreiter Richter, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Stabsgefreiter. You will be in charge of a rifle team within your squad."

"But sir," Johann protested, "my squad only has five people in it. We do not even have a proper squad leader."

"You do now," the CO replied briskly. "We are being reinforced. Your rifle team will consist of yourself and three gefreiters. Take care of them, and your new squad leader will take care of you." Johann snapped to attention and saluted.

"And SG Richter? Please tell your platoon sergeant to prepare for movement. We are leaving Warsaw tomorrow and redeploying to Kiel."

Sheepguard said:

Nice series of updates!

I guess Johann will be the next squadleader?

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Thank you. Johann is still just a bit too young to be the squad leader yet. But I imagine he will eventually rise in the ranks... if he can stay alive.

KanaX said:

That's a tight schedule. So you're actually going to follow Hitler's historical plan for Barbarossa and beat the Soviets before winter? I can only wait and see how it shall go down.

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I will try. If I fail... well, we will see how strong of a fortress Europe can be.

Actually, on Normal difficulty I have beaten the Soviets before winter... but that is in vanilla DD (not DAIM), and in 1941 after invading and occupying the British Isles. It should be more difficult to protect my backside while advancing into USSR. I am looking forward to it!

After the Maginot Line is breached at Mulhouse and Guderian seizes Dijon, the western front turns into a rout. The bulk of the French army was pocketed in northeast France and soldiers were deserting en masse. The French government, which had fled to Vichy after the fall of Paris, elects to negotiate a settlement with Germany. Instead of surrendering, which Poland did after a noble fight, France cravenly switches sides and joins the Axis powers on 28 September 1939.


The following day, the United Kingdom declares war upon France, while at the same time harboring renegade French forces under General de Gaulle. Vichy France declares war upon the Allied powers, and their conversion to the dark side is complete.

After the fall of France, work is immediately started on a series of coastal fortresses in 17 provinces along the Atlantic that have beaches suitable for amphibious invasion. Almost immediately, the Allied powers start testing the beaches as forces from South Africa and Belgium land at Calais and Ghent. These are easily beaten back, but the lesson is learned - the beaches must always be guarded. Hungarian infantry divisions, bloodied but experienced after fighting in Poland, are redeployed to France for this duty.

Meanhwile, the submarines from the Kriegsmarine are rebased at Brest. Divided up into 18 wolfpacks of six subs each, they are dispatched to the central and southern reaches of the Atlantic with orders to evade the Royal Navy by day and destroy British convoys by night. These orders quickly bear fruit.


Meanwhile, veteran units from France are quickly dispatched north along the border with the Netherlands. On 12 October 1939, war is declared and German armor and infantry units, with scarcely a break since defeating France, roll into the Dutch lowlands.


In Poland, infantry corps are stationed all along the border with the Soviet Union. They are bound by a non-aggression pact, but one can never be too sure with these Bolsheviks.

Johann Richter stepped off the train and into the blustery wind of northern Germany. He gazed back along the length of the train, at the anti-aircraft gun cars interspersed with the freight cars, and at the trucks and tanks that were on the flatbed cars. Transportation by railroad was much more agreeable than the alternative - the soldiers driving their equipment along the Reichautobahnen to get to Kiel. They were being told that they would be in Kiel through the winter - that no offensive actions were to be undertaken until springtime. Johann was looking forward to sampling the beer, and women, of Schleswig-Holstein. He hoped that it would be a long winter.

dublish said:

Hmmm... Your timetable might be overly ambitious, so good luck.

It looks like you'll be taking on Scandinavia and the Balkans at the same time... How do you plan on dealing with Soviet involvement in Finland?

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Overly ambitious? Maybe. But I will shoot for those goals, and if I fall behind I can readjust. I am not worried too much about Scandinavia - I won't try to get into Finland until USSR is done, and the other countries are just a race for the VP provinces (I hope).

Baseball99_rule said:

Good Luck, hope you have read Emu's thread!

Nice start also.

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You mean the "Are subs worthless" thread? That was my inspiration for building a submarine-intensive navy.

The Dutch fought fiercely, but they were clearly overmatched. German units attacked from all sides, and Panzer formations penetrated deep through Eindhoven and into Amsterdam. Cut off and surrounded, the Dutch ground forces surrendered less than a week after the campaign started.


Naval and air forces were able to escape to Great Britain, and bombers from the Netherlands air force immediately started flying sorties through the thick Luftwaffe fighter screen. The Luftwaffe put up a solid defense, but there was just too much area to cover and a few bombers got through to pound factories at Mons. Fortunately, a few weeks later several anti-aircraft artillery batteries were commissioned along the French coast.


Meanwhile, Germany's Foreign Ministry kept busy. On 22 October 1939, Yugoslavia shocked the world when it abruptly left the Axis alliance. It settled a separate peace with the Allies and relations with Germany soured immensely. There was even talk of war between these two formerly devout allies; however, neither country was prepared for war with the other at present.


War was the only option for Germany. If Yugoslavia were to remain sovereign, they may eventually join the Allies and provide an easy entry into Festung Europa. It was a chink in the armor girding the Third Reich, and it must be repaired. The German foreign minister, Konstantin von Neurath, immediately worked hard to rally support against Yugoslavia. A few days after Yugoslavia left the Pact of Steel, Mussolini's Italy, another fascist dictatorship, joined the Axis. Italy had designs of their own on Yugoslavia and were quick to seize the opportunity to take back provinces which they considered rightly their's.


The staff car drove slowly through downtown Kiel with its loudspeaker blaring: "Attention all soldiers of the 2nd Motorized Infantry Division! Please return to your unit at once! All passes are cancelled! Division is on high alert!" Johann, engaged in a card game at a biergarten, bitterly threw down his hand, cashed in his winnings and started walking back to his unit's assembly area. As he walked, he passed by many other soldiers, and all were saying the same thing: the unit would be sent to the Balkans to fight the Yugoslavians.

Johann finally arrived at his barracks. Most of the rest of his company was already inside, and the executive officer was addressing the soldiers: "Men, we were alerted for possible deployment to a southern region. We are now being told to stand down - other units will be providing armored and motorized support. OKW wants us to remain here - apparently we also will have an important role to play in the near future." There was a palpable sigh of relief. The XO continued speaking. "Men, as you know our company commander, Hauptmann Froelich, is being promoted to regimental staff. His replacement will be here tomorrow. His name is Hauptmann Strauss."

By the end of the first week of November, nearly forty divisions had been rushed to the Austrian Alps to prepare for war with Yugoslavia. With supporting forces from their new Italian allies, Germany delcared war on 6 November 1939. Almost immediately, assaults were launched on Yugoslavia's northern border. Armored columns hit hard toward the plains of Maribor, while German and Italian infantry closed in on Ljubljana. German tactical bombers provided air support. Yugoslavia could only get four divisions to the front in time, and these were overrun by early afternoon.


They would soon regret stabbing their former German allies in the back.

"Do you know anything about our new commander?" Johann asked his platoon sergeant. The platoon sergeant, who was Johann's squad leader during the initial invasion of Poland, nodded his head forlornly.

"SG Richter, you and I have been in this unit since its inception. We have been through hell together. I know I can trust you to watch out for me, and you know I will watch out for you. But I do not think Hauptmann Strauss will watch out for us. He has no combat experience, but he has plenty of ambition. Mark my words - he will sacrifice our lives if he has to in order to further his career."

Johann was stunned. "How does a man like that become an officer in today's Wehrmacht?" he asked in disbelief. "How does he receive a command?"

The platoon sergeant shrugged. "He must have important friends in the Nazi party."