Chapter XVIIId
With the offensive continuing in leaps and bounds, something not even the most optimistic officers of the Wehrmacht could have predicted, a risk of overextending the army rears its ugly head once more. An example of that is Travnik, where the enveloped Soviets are mounting a counterattack against the English expeditionaries.
In response, another assault on Zagreb is authorized, to try and finally dislodge the determined defenders under Chuikov. Still, the forces required for a decisive victory cannot exactly be levied at the moment so the result of the battle lies in the hand of the creative German officers on the front.
Another English expeditionary army has reached northern Serbia and launched an attack on the disorganized divisions in Petrovgrad.
A lone Italian armored division reaches Mostar, and with that, the encirclement of the Soviet forces in Croatia is completed. Regrettably, the encirclement will likely be only transient, as the forces required to hold it won't be available, in the likely case that the defenders in Travnik are forced to retreat.
To try and capitalize on the situation, a renewed Italian assault on Karlovac begins, with the majority of the forces having migrated to defend Zagreb and attack from Bihac. The remainder under Shaposhnikov is rather disorganized too.
As the news of a resounding English victory in Petrovgrad arrives, the Portuguese are unleashed on token forces manning Ljubljana, soon to be renamed Laibach once more.
As expected, the defense of Travnik proves to be untenable, and the battered Axis divisions retreat back to Banja Luka. This leaves the Italian armor in Mostar in a rather acute danger of being destroyed, so they are instructed to hit the legs (or tracks) towards Tuzla.
Even a brief engagement with the Reds doesn't stop the Italians in their hasty retreat. The risk of getting overrun exists, but as the distance to Sarajevo is lesser for them than the troops from Sabac, as well as a fortunate placement of the local river lines, it is deemed acceptable. Quite frankly, it is the only option.
Yet another attack on Zagreb ends in failure, as the Soviets levy enough divisions to its defense. Zagreb is slowly turning into a Stalingrad-like meatgrinder, where the street fighting has the tired Germans out of their depth.
Meanwhile, the eastern push resumes, with Hausser's panzer army reaching the gates of Crimea, threatening to cut everyone and everything to the west off from the supply line stemming from the Soviet capital.
An attack into the marshes of Ruma is hastily organized to try and prevent the Soviets from exploiting the gap in our lines in Tuzla, which could prove fatal for the ambitious Italian tank crews. Italian aggression is not to be discouraged, as the OKW is quite pleased with the elevated utility of the Italian troops encountered during the recent years, as opposed to the distant years of early war.
As it turns out, Social Italy gets to keep her only armored division for now, as it reaches the relative safety of Tuzla.
Infantry advance into the Carpathians continues at a snail's pace, swatting token resistance by the Soviets away left and right.
On the contrary, a rather stiff resistance in Serbia didn't prevent a fairly rapid advance by the Axis coalition troops, threatening to take Belgrade.
A Spanish foray into maritime buildup is culled in its infancy, with the lone submarine flotilla meeting its doom in port, having been exposed to the wrath of American naval bombers. At least they aren't building battleships, and that gives Dönitz some peace of mind.
After replenishment and reorganization, the Romanian cavalry in Travnik is forced to rout, with the English returning in force.
Felmarschall Hoth reaches the Romanian capital with his armored horde, opposed by token forces. Another former ally is soon to be liberated from their communist overlords. More importantly, their oil fields will once more produce for the Reich.
The Soviet efforts to form some semblance of a frontline in Stryj are rapidly frustrated with trivial ease. Not like a frontline is possible at present, considering the sheer number of German infantry divisions currently advancing all along the front.
Welcome news of victory reached the OKW from both Bucharest and Travnik. The Axis push in the Balkans starts to look quite unstoppable since the only Soviet forces capable of mounting proper defense are currently pinned in Croatia.
As certain as the break of dawn, another infantry assault is ordered on Zagreb. This time around, it may actually work, considering the number of divisions peeled off to help defend Karlovac. Additionally, some quality Spaniards are asked to help the assault from Ljubljana, as well as the paratroopers from Banja Luka.
With the mounting pressure, the Soviets decide that Karlovac will not be the hill they choose to die on, so a general retreat is sounded. On the flip side, the temporary encirclement is indeed broken with the arrival of Soviet troops to Mostar.
Flemish infantry continues to march against overwhelming odds through the hardly ideal terrain of western Romania, inflicting heavy casualties in the process. The OKW is pleasantly surprised, having almost forgotten about the small corps' existence after the initial orders were given.
With the arrival of Hoth's panzers to Bucharest, the Romanian flag is torn down, and the Soviet puppet ceases to exist.
That also means that the entirety of the Balkan peninsula is now cut off from Soviet supplies, forcing the small Bulgarian economy to supply the entirety of the forces trapped.
Finally, the attack on the former Croatian capital succeeds, and the Soviet defenders are forced to retreat. This series of battles is used as proof in the German military academies that nothing can stop a determined infantry assault, as long as enough waves are sent!
Simultaneously, the English launch an attack to try and retake Mostar, in an effort to stop the Soviet retreat from the envelopment. They don't have much further to retreat to anyway, so it's just an attempt to cut their misery short.
More and more rapidly formed and half-trained infantry divisions start to decorate the eastern frontline and its gaping holes. The race to Moscow is on.
Indeed, the English quickly dispatch the Soviets in Mostar, only symbolic resistance having been encountered.
As Air Marshall Keller orders an interception above Berlin, one question is on everyone's mind: how the hell do the Soviet planes with a maximum range a little north of 500 km manage to fly over 1000 km from the nearest friendly airbase? Their combat performance notwithstanding, of course.
Some of the freshly deployed units, likely from the eastern swathes of the USSR, get encircled in the Belarussian marshes.
A French expeditionary fighter wing is destroyed on the ground in Zagreb, their combat contribution being nonexistent thus far.
Any semblance of organized Soviet resistance is lost as the entirety of the Croatian frontline descends into a chaotic retreat, low on both supplies and morale.
A similar scenario is unfolding in Belgrade, where the Axis coalition troops manage to wrestle a victory in the ruins of Belgrade, though the price in lives had been steep.
The Balkan front seems to be almost decided by now. The Soviet military capabilities are slowly being rebuilt, but too little and too slowly to stem the tide of Wehrmacht formations advancing all along the continental frontline. With the retrieval of Romanian oil production and the almost certain destruction of the remainder of the Soviet pre-operation troops, the final victory seems to be closer than ever before. The odds are, rapidly armed and fielded rabble will not be able to pose a threat to the crack veterans of the Wehrmacht soon to tread all over the irradiated rubble of the biggest Soviet cities this side of the Urals.
