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With millions of men captured or killed in Poland, and their three largest cities turned into rubble, it's hard to imagine the Soviets recovering from this in time to stop Barbarossa 2.0. I'd be interested to see where your intelligence estimate puts the Red Army's division count after you finish destroying the those 230+ trapped in the pocket.
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This chapter was about a week ingame. In the next one, i'll show one month timepoint since the beginning of the operation.
Yeah, the Soviets are pretty much dead meat if I'm quick enough. There will be an overview of the situation in the next chapter.
The Soviets do seem close to falling. I wonder how Germany intends to partition their land...
Why is Stalin just mute instead of purging his officer corps for incompetence (real or imagined)?
Why is Stalin just mute instead of purging his officer corps for incompetence (real or imagined)?
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Going by Germany's pattern in the rest of Europe, releasing national states and probably not implementing Lebensraum for the sake of manpower efficiency
Because this is what he actually did in the initial phase of Barbarossa IRL
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I underestimated just how bad a state the Red Army was in at the completion of the pocket - they seem completely done now. Surely time to shifting production to the Navy in preparation for Operation Hamburger!
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I guess it's a DH-in-joke (due to the filename) but just to make sure, the corect term is, of course:
Gebirgsjäger (en)
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The partitions will likely include releasing any
Yep, and even if we were larping with the whole Generalplan Ost thing, there probably aren't enough fertile men left in Germany to colonize even a minor Ukrainian village, let alone the whole of Eastern Europe.
After tanking the three nukes, they are basically a wet rag now. Had I not done that, it would have been a very close call.
Yeah lol, it's the file name. Always found it funny that they screwed it up. 'Hunter of Mountains' does sound metal as fuck though.
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Good Gosh! What a masterstroke!
I'd been meaning to come check this out one day, but the Weekly Showcase brought me over to check it out. I've read your first couple of updates and skimmed through the screenshots on the last two pages. Truly amazing!
I'll have to read through the whole thing, taking more time.
Great work!
Rensslaer
I'd been meaning to come check this out one day, but the Weekly Showcase brought me over to check it out. I've read your first couple of updates and skimmed through the screenshots on the last two pages. Truly amazing!
I'll have to read through the whole thing, taking more time.
Great work!
Rensslaer
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Thank you!
You are too kind! I'm hoping to continue this on a high note too. Nothing quite as stimulating as seeing that peace event fire after this sort of run.
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Chapter XVIIIc
The morning air was chilly in Moscow despite it being summer, according to the date printed in the day's Pravda edition. Unless one were an official of some standing, or privy to the comings and goings of the ancient Kremlin, one could mistake the general atmosphere as triumphant. After more than a decade of total war, the country was weary, but hopefully victorious and poised to assume its earned place as the European continental hegemon, hoisting the red banner of the worker revolution from Vladivostok to Madrid. Except that's not what happened. Despite a curious lack of any extraordinary news in the newspaper or the daily radio broadcasts, word was reaching the streets, little by little. The mighty Red Army has stopped on the Oder. The Western imperialists were crushed in France. There is no front in Italy anymore. Once proud archnemesis in Britain is defeated, their famed navy sunk. America is powerless to drive the final bullet through the head of the fascist menace. Germany is rearming. It was all concerning, but surely no one could have imagined that a war-weary Reich could muster another continent-sized offensive into the Motherland, having given more than ten million souls into the meatgrinder since the 1st of September 1939. And so the mantra was repeated ordinarily since the end of 1944, Germany was about to fall any moment now, there was no way for them to maintain this situation. It was uttered slightly less confidently once the news started coming of the German breakthroughs in Austria and Prussia. It was finally silenced as the chilly Muscovite summer was finally heated up to the temperature of the Sun itself for a brief moment, silencing eternally the Bolsheviks and their critics alike. The country was caught standing firmly, as the coup de grace happened. As the Soviet Union found itself devoid of an army and any sort of clear leadership, Germany indeed mounted a continent-wide offensive.
One of the few Red Army fronts not disintegrated by nuclear blasts and relentless offensives finds itself in former Yugoslavia, and now that situation is brought into question, as the Axis coalition forces, having captured the major part of Slovenia and entered the Pannonian basin, clash with the Soviet defenders in Zagreb. The combat in the difficult terrain of Karlovac also keeps raging, denying the stretched Soviets reinforcements despite the mounting cost in lives and equipment.
English General Roberts reaches the outskirts of Budapest and immediately launches an assault on the lone Hungarian division defending their capital, the majority of their army on the retreat or engaged elsewhere.
The bulk of the Soviet encircled forces suffers yet another defeat in Opava, their fate sealed. As they arrive to Ostrava, they will all be apprehended and processed by the well-oiled (pardon the pun) German PoW machine.
A familiar report reaches the OKW once more, with the Reich's manpower reserves being completely and utterly depleted. It is received stoically, as is customary, and the importance of this gamble is reaffirmed in everyone's mind. If the Soviet leadership, or what remains of it, cannot be brought to the negotiating table at the end of this operation, there will surely be no Germany left on the map to speak of.
With the arrival of fresh reinforcements in Zagreb, the infantry assault on the city is called off until additional forces can be brought to bear.
Evidently traumatized by the nuclear retribution suffered, the confused Soviet army goes on a pilgrimage to some mythical and hopefully peaceful place in Poland, unbothered by the trivialities of stopping their retreat and perhaps taking territory. (Quite a unique bug, I haven't seen this happen before. Using the fullcontrol cheat, I determined they were attempting to retreat all the way to Siedlce for some reason, having lost the battle in Chust. The quirks of this game keep amusing me even after such a long time.)
The battle of Pecs is concluded in a quick victory for the Wallonia's finest, taking another step towards broadening the gap between the southern Soviet front and the wide-open country in the north.
Some rapidly assembled formations are sent to try and establish some sort of frontline in the north by the now openly panicking Soviets, but to no avail. Germany enjoys a vast numerical and technical superiority in the region for now.
The battle for the Hungarian capital ends in an Axis victory. The extensive fortifications in the city didn't allow the demoralized defenders to prevail after all.
The faithful of the Red Army finally reached their promised destination, it being the Polish city of Siedlce. To their immense disappointment, the peace and quiet will be only temporary, as 24 panzer divisions advance on them rapidly.
With the fall of Budapest, Soviet Hungary ceased to exist. They are welcomed back into the loving Axis fold.
Axis troops, with some aid from Ringel's Fallschirmjäger, capture a foothold in Banja Luka, threatening the stubborn Soviet defenders of western Yugoslavia with encirclement. The front in Hungary also descends into a chaotic general retreat.
The pilgrims in Siedlce are forced to relocate once more by the force of arms. The offensive in Bosnia also keeps yielding positive results with minimal effort, the Soviet stubborn defence in Karlovac allowing for a relatively rapid envelopment through Travnik.
Sadly, the pinning attack in Karlovac finally fails, as the exhausted Italian troops fail to maintain the pressure. A general reorganization of the front is evidently underway, and the advance must be maintained in a timely fashion if the envelopment is to be exploited.
In an effort to capture as much territory as possible, the lone headquarters division finds itself under attack by a full infantry division. Such is the state that the war on the Eastern front has devolved to.
Helicopter airborne assault having been completed, Hugo Sperrle continues his work in ground support doctrine research.
The battle of Osijek ended in a resounding victory, a pathway to Romania and their oil fields now lying wide open in front of the Axis troops.
Regrettably, a bunch of Luger-armed officers of the Wehrmacht cannot stand up to a full infantry division. Shocking.
On the 7th of June, one full month after the beginning of the offensive, the OKW are rubbing their chins with satisfaction, as they observe the current situation. The Red Army, a mind-bogglingly powerful adversary a mere month ago, was reduced to its skeletal remains, unable to form anything resembling a frontline along the whole border with the Reich. The way to the birthplace of the revolution, as well as all its seats of power now lie wide open.
In terms of casualties, the Soviets lost virtually the entirety of their active servicemen at the beginning of the offensive. Germany itself has offered a couple dozen thousand men short of half a million in comparison. A good part of the effort was also carried by minor Axis powers of Italy, Spain and England, though the Spanish casualties don't distinguish their current casualties from the ones sustained fighting the Germans.
The Abwehr estimate of the Soviet reserves does seem slightly generous, but better to err on the side of caution is the motto of the OKW ever since the D-Day, or I rather hope it is. At any rate, the USSR likely has just south of 200 divisions left and about six million men to reinforce them, with a pronounced effort to rebuild the divisions lost in the Bohemian encirclement. Humorously enough, their oil stockpiles seem to be even more dire than the German ones, as Germany still has about 30 thousand barrels in comparison.
In terms of inflicted casualties, Germany dwarfs all the other nations with respect to the magnitude of suffering caused, with over 15 million military deaths chalked to its war machine (and liberal usage of nuclear ordnance). In comparison, the runner-ups in the US have a little short of two million inflicted casualties. The Soviet contribution is laughably low at about one million sacrificial offerings.
The civil unrest in the Soviet Union also seems to be on the rise, with the necessity of suppressing dissidents even in the irradiated rubble of their former capital.
Thus concludes the larger part of the offensive, as the German units scramble to capture as much territory as possible and to bring the Soviet leadership to the negotiating table. The giant on the legs of clay has proven to be vastly more resilient than expected ten years ago, but even this giant on the legs of steel will have no choice but to bend in a solemn prostration before the might of the battle-hardened Wehrmacht, as the world observes in awe.
The morning air was chilly in Moscow despite it being summer, according to the date printed in the day's Pravda edition. Unless one were an official of some standing, or privy to the comings and goings of the ancient Kremlin, one could mistake the general atmosphere as triumphant. After more than a decade of total war, the country was weary, but hopefully victorious and poised to assume its earned place as the European continental hegemon, hoisting the red banner of the worker revolution from Vladivostok to Madrid. Except that's not what happened. Despite a curious lack of any extraordinary news in the newspaper or the daily radio broadcasts, word was reaching the streets, little by little. The mighty Red Army has stopped on the Oder. The Western imperialists were crushed in France. There is no front in Italy anymore. Once proud archnemesis in Britain is defeated, their famed navy sunk. America is powerless to drive the final bullet through the head of the fascist menace. Germany is rearming. It was all concerning, but surely no one could have imagined that a war-weary Reich could muster another continent-sized offensive into the Motherland, having given more than ten million souls into the meatgrinder since the 1st of September 1939. And so the mantra was repeated ordinarily since the end of 1944, Germany was about to fall any moment now, there was no way for them to maintain this situation. It was uttered slightly less confidently once the news started coming of the German breakthroughs in Austria and Prussia. It was finally silenced as the chilly Muscovite summer was finally heated up to the temperature of the Sun itself for a brief moment, silencing eternally the Bolsheviks and their critics alike. The country was caught standing firmly, as the coup de grace happened. As the Soviet Union found itself devoid of an army and any sort of clear leadership, Germany indeed mounted a continent-wide offensive.
One of the few Red Army fronts not disintegrated by nuclear blasts and relentless offensives finds itself in former Yugoslavia, and now that situation is brought into question, as the Axis coalition forces, having captured the major part of Slovenia and entered the Pannonian basin, clash with the Soviet defenders in Zagreb. The combat in the difficult terrain of Karlovac also keeps raging, denying the stretched Soviets reinforcements despite the mounting cost in lives and equipment.
English General Roberts reaches the outskirts of Budapest and immediately launches an assault on the lone Hungarian division defending their capital, the majority of their army on the retreat or engaged elsewhere.
The bulk of the Soviet encircled forces suffers yet another defeat in Opava, their fate sealed. As they arrive to Ostrava, they will all be apprehended and processed by the well-oiled (pardon the pun) German PoW machine.
A familiar report reaches the OKW once more, with the Reich's manpower reserves being completely and utterly depleted. It is received stoically, as is customary, and the importance of this gamble is reaffirmed in everyone's mind. If the Soviet leadership, or what remains of it, cannot be brought to the negotiating table at the end of this operation, there will surely be no Germany left on the map to speak of.
With the arrival of fresh reinforcements in Zagreb, the infantry assault on the city is called off until additional forces can be brought to bear.
Evidently traumatized by the nuclear retribution suffered, the confused Soviet army goes on a pilgrimage to some mythical and hopefully peaceful place in Poland, unbothered by the trivialities of stopping their retreat and perhaps taking territory. (Quite a unique bug, I haven't seen this happen before. Using the fullcontrol cheat, I determined they were attempting to retreat all the way to Siedlce for some reason, having lost the battle in Chust. The quirks of this game keep amusing me even after such a long time.)
The battle of Pecs is concluded in a quick victory for the Wallonia's finest, taking another step towards broadening the gap between the southern Soviet front and the wide-open country in the north.
Some rapidly assembled formations are sent to try and establish some sort of frontline in the north by the now openly panicking Soviets, but to no avail. Germany enjoys a vast numerical and technical superiority in the region for now.
The battle for the Hungarian capital ends in an Axis victory. The extensive fortifications in the city didn't allow the demoralized defenders to prevail after all.
The faithful of the Red Army finally reached their promised destination, it being the Polish city of Siedlce. To their immense disappointment, the peace and quiet will be only temporary, as 24 panzer divisions advance on them rapidly.
With the fall of Budapest, Soviet Hungary ceased to exist. They are welcomed back into the loving Axis fold.
Axis troops, with some aid from Ringel's Fallschirmjäger, capture a foothold in Banja Luka, threatening the stubborn Soviet defenders of western Yugoslavia with encirclement. The front in Hungary also descends into a chaotic general retreat.
The pilgrims in Siedlce are forced to relocate once more by the force of arms. The offensive in Bosnia also keeps yielding positive results with minimal effort, the Soviet stubborn defence in Karlovac allowing for a relatively rapid envelopment through Travnik.
Sadly, the pinning attack in Karlovac finally fails, as the exhausted Italian troops fail to maintain the pressure. A general reorganization of the front is evidently underway, and the advance must be maintained in a timely fashion if the envelopment is to be exploited.
In an effort to capture as much territory as possible, the lone headquarters division finds itself under attack by a full infantry division. Such is the state that the war on the Eastern front has devolved to.
Helicopter airborne assault having been completed, Hugo Sperrle continues his work in ground support doctrine research.
The battle of Osijek ended in a resounding victory, a pathway to Romania and their oil fields now lying wide open in front of the Axis troops.
Regrettably, a bunch of Luger-armed officers of the Wehrmacht cannot stand up to a full infantry division. Shocking.
On the 7th of June, one full month after the beginning of the offensive, the OKW are rubbing their chins with satisfaction, as they observe the current situation. The Red Army, a mind-bogglingly powerful adversary a mere month ago, was reduced to its skeletal remains, unable to form anything resembling a frontline along the whole border with the Reich. The way to the birthplace of the revolution, as well as all its seats of power now lie wide open.
In terms of casualties, the Soviets lost virtually the entirety of their active servicemen at the beginning of the offensive. Germany itself has offered a couple dozen thousand men short of half a million in comparison. A good part of the effort was also carried by minor Axis powers of Italy, Spain and England, though the Spanish casualties don't distinguish their current casualties from the ones sustained fighting the Germans.
The Abwehr estimate of the Soviet reserves does seem slightly generous, but better to err on the side of caution is the motto of the OKW ever since the D-Day, or I rather hope it is. At any rate, the USSR likely has just south of 200 divisions left and about six million men to reinforce them, with a pronounced effort to rebuild the divisions lost in the Bohemian encirclement. Humorously enough, their oil stockpiles seem to be even more dire than the German ones, as Germany still has about 30 thousand barrels in comparison.
In terms of inflicted casualties, Germany dwarfs all the other nations with respect to the magnitude of suffering caused, with over 15 million military deaths chalked to its war machine (and liberal usage of nuclear ordnance). In comparison, the runner-ups in the US have a little short of two million inflicted casualties. The Soviet contribution is laughably low at about one million sacrificial offerings.
The civil unrest in the Soviet Union also seems to be on the rise, with the necessity of suppressing dissidents even in the irradiated rubble of their former capital.
Thus concludes the larger part of the offensive, as the German units scramble to capture as much territory as possible and to bring the Soviet leadership to the negotiating table. The giant on the legs of clay has proven to be vastly more resilient than expected ten years ago, but even this giant on the legs of steel will have no choice but to bend in a solemn prostration before the might of the battle-hardened Wehrmacht, as the world observes in awe.
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I also apologize for the long delay, real life got in the way of me playing anything. Will try to make the updates more regular in the future if possible
No matter the wait, it is still fascinating to come in and read a new update of yours.
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Completely aside from the actual content of this chapter, but I will have to say that these names absolutely slap, didn't know the devs put in such effort.
That's the Wallonians, the lads in Croatia are Flemmings.The battle of Pecs is concluded in a quick victory for the Flanders' finest, taking another step towards broadening the gap between the southern Soviet front and the wide-open country in the north.
This means one thing already, Moscow will not be taken on the march...The civil unrest in the Soviet Union also seems to be on the rise, with the necessity of suppressing dissidents even in the irradiated rubble of their former capital.
Thank you for the patience!No matter the wait, it is still fascinating to come in and read a new update of yours.
All the European puppets have decent naming, you'll have to go to Africa to find the default div names and ghost ministers lol
My heartfelt apologies, the Belgian lore truly is lacking on my part. I keep forgetting whom the rooster flag belongs to.
As long as it ends up our side of the border!
The onward March continues. It seems the only factor that could possibly derail you now is manpower. The Soviets still have a lot of it left, you are down to nothing. If your advance can be halted for any serious length of time then you could potentially meet some trouble. If they can’t organise a defence, then the games up for good.
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1st division has the name used by the actual Flemish SS volunteer division, Langemarck, a important battlefield between them and the Germans in WWI. Same for Ieper and the 2nd division. 3, 5 & 6 are all named for important figures of the 1297-1305 Flemish Revolt of Battle of the Golden Spurs fame. Gwijde and Robrecht are father and son counts of Flanders. Jan Breydel was one of the leaders of the revolt of the city of Brugge, which makes me have a educated guess that the 4th division carries Pieter de Coninck's name who also was one of the leaders of that revolt
I can honestly reccomend Bruno Cheyns' biography on Leon Degrelle if available in English or your language, a unbelievably amusing life story. A fair bit in there about his time as a volunteer with and the propaganda face of the Wallonian SS and his/their escape from the Cherkasy pocket
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Thanks for the context, I had assumed they took some of their medieval heroes for the names, but know very little about the area in the said period. Pieter is indeed there in the same corps!
Also thanks for the book recommendation, I'll look for a copy in a language I can understand.
Yep, getting bogged down now would be quite bad, even though I have recovered most of my core manpower growth, so these losses aren't irreplaceable, given time.
No worries... well, ok, I checked the forum for updates daily... but no pressure *grin
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