Carnage al Dente
Chapter XIII - Operation Barbarossa part II
Players: UK, USA/USSR, USSR, GER, ITA, JAP
Recap: Barbarossa has just begun. As a result, UK started several offensives and managed to sink the major part of Kriegsmarine and later conquer Italian North Africa. In the meantime, the Wehrmacht strike at the Red Army with the help of Finland, Hungary, Romania, Italy and Japan.
December 29th, 1940
On the German East Front, things were much more glorious. The Red Army was retreating fast, shattered by a powerful panzer blitz. The freezing winter did not stop the Axis.
January 1st, 1941
The New Year held good news for the Germans. 7 enemy divisions, of which 3 was only garrisons, was trapped in a pocket. It would take some time to make them surrender, but 7 divisions were still a price to reckon with. This would weaken the Red Army, albeit not too much.
January 6th, 1941
The battle of Illichivs’k was one month old. All the initial three divisions of the Italian attack had been pulled back, except the battered 23rd division. Other divisions had been sent in to take their places on the chattered landscape. The Red Army had also continuously sent in replacements but they had melted away faster than the Italians – mostly because they always ended up numerously inferior.
Once again, the Soviet navy shelled the Italians with a powerful barrage (25%) which made the freezing life even more awful. Fighting there in the frosty, blood soaked mud, the average soldiers illusion of a heroic and quick war faded away into utter despair.
January 7th-10th, 1941
Finally, the Red Army was beaten and fled Illichivs’k. The Italian did not even get a full day to celebrate the victory before the Soviets attacked them. The terrifying naval bombardment commenced but at least the river was no longer an obstacle troubling the Italians and now it was the Red Army who had to charge the Italians who could find some shelter from the hostile weather in the ruins of the townships.
After three days of fighting, the Red Army pulled back and the Italians, and their Romanian allies who showed up only once the province was taken, could get some well deserved rest. Finally they had the provincial bridge head they had been fighting for all these weeks. Odessa was right in front of them!
January, 1941
The Brits had finally realized the strength of the Spanish ports and took one after the other along the African coast, ending it with the Canaries. This would severely hinder the spread of the Italian submarines. Still, acting from mainland Spain they were still very effective. Germany had reinforced their battered u-boat fleet and they searched and found some convoys between UK and USA.
It was obvious UK tried to find new convoy routes, hoping to find a safe route. It was a moot operation. The southern and Eastern routes were hit at a tremendous rate and as Japan extended their range to the southern tip of Africa, their ratio of sunk tonnage increased.
During a random week in January, Axis sunk more than 50 convoys from the Allies. As the Allies mainly consisted of UK and Canada, and Canada had no colonies, it meant that the dominating majority of the convoys originated from the United Kingdom. They paid a gruesome price.
A few of the convoys belonged to the Soviet Union, and the Great Bear answered in kind, sinking a few Italian convoys and some Jap. The Jap sunk several Soviet submarines, but the Italians had no such luck.
January 15th-20th, 1941
In mid January, the Brits launched a powerful three pronged attack on Spain. Within days, it was clear to the Axis that they did not have the strength present to stop the fast, motorized Brits. Instead of really trying to stop then invaders, it was all about saving as many units as possible. The Italian chose a similar strategy as in North Africa -sacrifice a few hoping to save the majority.
Authors note: I must confess - I am surprised the Brits could throw in so much. But as they have defeated the bulk of the Kriegsmarine as well as the Italian Africa Corps, and supposedly having a few Canadian troops in UK and some French expeditionary forces in Iraq, they could pretty much throw in EVERYTHING. This was a nice, decisive move by Zid.
January 21st, 1941
It was bleak days for the Italians. The Soviet leadership had mustered a strong attack on Illichivs’k and supported it with relentless naval gun fire. The Italians held the freezing ground for a few days but realized this would turn out to be a pointless slaughter and pulled back in good order. It was bitter to retreat over the River Dniester it had taken them more than a month to conquer.
January 25th, 1941
The German steamroller fared better. The Red Army stumbled backwards and another four divisions, one being only garrison, was surrounded and later crushed. This small but continuous bleeding of the Red Army was important for the future outcome of this great war.
February 7th, 1941
A little more than 2 months into Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis had done some clear advances, mainly in the plains in the center. In the far north and on the Romanian border, little had happened. Soon, the weather would become better and the pace could perhaps be even better.
A branch of the southern German panzer-front shot southwards east of the River Dniester. The Red Army would have to either retreat or be captured.
February 7th, 1941
The Finns had done some small advances but also lost land. Clearly, It was not here the war would be decided, but at least it gave Soviet one more front to worry about.
February 7th, 1941
Japan had some big troop movement to do, reorganizing in their rather big chunk of the world, as they also took on the Great Bear. They had captured the majority of India now without any resistance.
As the Red Army retreated orderly in the Far East, no significant battles or losses had taken place here.
January 30th, 1941
The Brits could not be stopped and they efficiently cut Spain in pieces. Germany had managed to retreat the majority of its forces while Italy, having the majority of their troops based in the south, was in worse positions.
In the first days of February, the Spanish government gave up, as the Brits offered them peace of they installed a new pro-Anglo government. The Brits wanted the Spaniards to turn on the former Allies, but they refused this and a truce was negotiated between Allied Spain and Axis. This meant ALL Axis units could retread out from Spain to occupied France.
This was a great relief for especially Italy who would have lost a majority of its Spanish Army otherwise. On the other hand, sooner or later, the Spaniards would turn on Axis.
Authors note: I guess this was some kind of miscalculation from the Allied side. It would have been devastating for me if they had conquered instead, but then they had been forced to leave more troops in Spain afterwards – so both gains and losses for both. But all over, this was a fast and furious campaign by UK. Cred. I was taken with my pants so far down my ankles I did not even bother to try to pull them up
February 7th, 1941
USA have a quite low neutrality already, but they don’t seem to be ready to jump the battle anytime really soon. But they won’t obviously wait forever either. It’s Important to have some successes in Soviet during the spring and summer.
UKs only Allies with some kind of bite is Canada and Spain. The rest is beaten or midget nations.
Soviet still has all their puppets intact, including Turkey and Persia.
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