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grayghost: yeah, Latvia consisted of one update. I just went wheeee rigt over them all. as for Kuznetsov and vodka, maybe...
VILenin: haha, yeah. about that...
Discomb: and how!
Erkki1: harsh harsh truth sometimes tends to be amusing, doesn't it?
GeneralHannibal: Discomb's already answered your question, but yeah. I'm up against the terrible Berlin-London Axis!
VILenin: awesome. I hope I won't disappoint you
Discomb: I remember that! Andreas came up with that, didn't he?
ColossusCrusher: there is always much rejoicing when sharp cheese is concerned
comment day again! and a note on Discomb's update: at one part it refers to something that I actually haven't posted yet, but will be posting tomorrow
VILenin: haha, yeah. about that...
Discomb: and how!
Erkki1: harsh harsh truth sometimes tends to be amusing, doesn't it?
GeneralHannibal: Discomb's already answered your question, but yeah. I'm up against the terrible Berlin-London Axis!
VILenin: awesome. I hope I won't disappoint you
Discomb: I remember that! Andreas came up with that, didn't he?
ColossusCrusher: there is always much rejoicing when sharp cheese is concerned
comment day again! and a note on Discomb's update: at one part it refers to something that I actually haven't posted yet, but will be posting tomorrow
My mistake. By the way, I'm wondering how many people got the joke in the title of my update? It's a uniquely paradoxian reference.
Discomb: grayghost will get it, at least, whenever he reads it
ColossusCrusher: uhhh...1000+ ms-1?
VILenin: I think Discomb and I will let grayghost explain it
update coming up!
ColossusCrusher: uhhh...1000+ ms-1?
VILenin: I think Discomb and I will let grayghost explain it
update coming up!
12 Kilometers south of Jekabpils
May 15, 1936
Vasilevskij strode back and forth, hands clenched behind his back. Stopping, he looked southward again toward the swamps and lakes barely gleaming in the distance. Five hours ago the Soviet Union had declared war on Lithuania and the 1st Tank Army was pushing forward as fast as it could. This was not, however, rapid enough for Vasilevskij as the terrain north of Kaunas was terrible for large mechanized forces. His spearheads were advancing at two kilometers an hours, resulting in an enormous backup behind the Soviet-Lithuanian border. Vasilevskij smiled to himself in satisfaction. Latvia had fallen quickly.
Vasilevskij’s 1st Tank Army racing a German infantry corps to Kaunas.
The Latvians had resisted at Gulbene until the morning of the 8th, which had surprised Vasilevskij. However, they had been thoroughly broken in the end and Vasilevskij threw his 1st Tank Corps forward as quickly as he could. Despite his haste, however, the Latvians had managed to reinforce Gulbene twice, forcing two more battles in the area before Vasilevskij’s armor finally occupied the area and pushed onward to Riga. At Riga his armor faced another battle on the 11th, but Latvian resistance was quickly brushed aside. The very next day, Vasilevskij had entered Riga and the Latvian government surrendered. The Latvian campaign had taken five days.
Vasilevskij chose to believe that it was a vindication of Tukhachevskij’s Deep Battle doctrine, which gave the Soviet Army a theoretical framework that allowed for complex coordinated operations between not only armor and infantry, but also airborne units and close air support. Not that the last two had been even remotely necessary, Vasilevskij quickly reminded himself, the theory merely allowed for it. Indeed, though STAVKA was planning to create not one but two Airborne Rifle Corps, they were barely into the planning stages yet and it would be many years before they would actually become operational. The situation was much the same with what STAVKA considered Front-integrated close and air superiority support; each front would have two groups of interceptors and two groups of shturmovik ground-attack craft yet these aircraft types were barely in evidence yet. Vasilevskij quickly reminded himself, again, that he did not doubt STAVKA’s objectives or abilities.
Vasilevskij shook his head and brought his mind back to the task at hand, the invasion of Lithuania. It had followed the German invasion by nine days. However, this was balanced by the assumption that the Germans could only rely upon an infantry corps, whereas Vasilevskij’s forces comprised two armored and one motorized division. Theoretically, his forces were far more mobile than the Germans’. However, Vasilevskij had the feeling that his corps would not fulfill its promise of mobility, given the difficult terrain they were pushing through. He could not forget, after all, that this pessimism was borne out by Zhukov’s experience.
According to STAVKA’s maps, Zhukov had yet to leave the Polotsk area. The lakes of eastern Latvia were consistently stymieing his efforts at moving quickly even without any Latvian resistance, which had ceased three days earlier and, unlike Gulbene, the Latvians did not contest Dvinsk nearly as fiercely after the initial battle—they sent no reinforcements there. They knew better, Vasilevskij realized. They knew to trust the terrain to preclude any chance of any of the forces under Zhukov’s command, the armor or the infantry, of being operationally significant. Vasilevskij sighed; even the infantry under his command had done better as at least they were at that moment advancing on Riga, having reached Gulbene sometime in the past days.
Pulling his map case out of his greatcoat pocket, Vasilevskij popped the lid off and pulled out a map of Lithuania; on it were markings showing the most recent intelligence of the German advance. They had decided upon isolating and bypassing Memel in favor of occupying Siauliau and pushing directly on Kaunas. According to intelligence, the Germans had broken the Lithuanian resistance at Siauliau only on the 12th, mere hours before Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union. They were at the moment, however, pushing south-eastward toward Kaunas, driving the remnants of the Lithuanian unit that had fought at Siauliau before them.
Looking at the map, Vasilevskij suddenly got a fantastical idea and had to suppress a burst of mirth as he thought of it. He could well imagine that the Germans would not appreciate the move he had just thought of, though he was also aware that the Soviet Union was not in a position to make such a move. He smiled, that was quite fortunate for the Germans. He was sure that such a move would have given Hitler an apoplexy. If only Vasilevskij had a single transport squadron at his disposal, he could land a single infantry division at Memel and claim it for the Soviet Union. Though it would not get his armor to Kaunas faster, it would drastically change the strategic situation in the Baltic if the Germans reached Kaunas before he did.
Vasilevskij was engrossed in his highly entertaining thought, thinking the consequences through as completely as he could. Presumably, the Germans were attacking Lithuania for two reasons. First, he assumed that one of their objectives was to create a buffer of maneuver space between the territories of East Prussia and the actual German-Soviet border. The second objective he believed the Germans to have was to turn Lithuania into a bridgehead in which they could mass considerable forces and from whence they could launch a strong assault toward Leningrad. Vasilevskij was convinced that the conquest of Memel by Soviet forces would crush both objectives in one simple step. Firstly, Memel was essentially adjacent to Konigsberg, being but a single road journey away. Secondly, with Memel in Soviet hands they themselves would have a critical, if small and vulnerable, bridgehead from which to cut off and isolate any German forces in Lithuania, by driving southward into Konigsberg and westward from eastern Poland.
Vasilevskij sighed in resignation. It was too bad that the Soviet Union had no transport ships, that he knew of, at Kronstadt. Such a landing would have been brilliant in transforming all of the Germans’ present efforts in Lithuania into naught. Vasilevskij rolled the map up and put it back in his map case before returning that to his greatcoat pocket. He had greatly amused himself with that little exercise but it was time to return to the matters at hand, the slow advance toward Kaunas.
May 15, 1936
Vasilevskij strode back and forth, hands clenched behind his back. Stopping, he looked southward again toward the swamps and lakes barely gleaming in the distance. Five hours ago the Soviet Union had declared war on Lithuania and the 1st Tank Army was pushing forward as fast as it could. This was not, however, rapid enough for Vasilevskij as the terrain north of Kaunas was terrible for large mechanized forces. His spearheads were advancing at two kilometers an hours, resulting in an enormous backup behind the Soviet-Lithuanian border. Vasilevskij smiled to himself in satisfaction. Latvia had fallen quickly.
Vasilevskij’s 1st Tank Army racing a German infantry corps to Kaunas.
The Latvians had resisted at Gulbene until the morning of the 8th, which had surprised Vasilevskij. However, they had been thoroughly broken in the end and Vasilevskij threw his 1st Tank Corps forward as quickly as he could. Despite his haste, however, the Latvians had managed to reinforce Gulbene twice, forcing two more battles in the area before Vasilevskij’s armor finally occupied the area and pushed onward to Riga. At Riga his armor faced another battle on the 11th, but Latvian resistance was quickly brushed aside. The very next day, Vasilevskij had entered Riga and the Latvian government surrendered. The Latvian campaign had taken five days.
Vasilevskij chose to believe that it was a vindication of Tukhachevskij’s Deep Battle doctrine, which gave the Soviet Army a theoretical framework that allowed for complex coordinated operations between not only armor and infantry, but also airborne units and close air support. Not that the last two had been even remotely necessary, Vasilevskij quickly reminded himself, the theory merely allowed for it. Indeed, though STAVKA was planning to create not one but two Airborne Rifle Corps, they were barely into the planning stages yet and it would be many years before they would actually become operational. The situation was much the same with what STAVKA considered Front-integrated close and air superiority support; each front would have two groups of interceptors and two groups of shturmovik ground-attack craft yet these aircraft types were barely in evidence yet. Vasilevskij quickly reminded himself, again, that he did not doubt STAVKA’s objectives or abilities.
Vasilevskij shook his head and brought his mind back to the task at hand, the invasion of Lithuania. It had followed the German invasion by nine days. However, this was balanced by the assumption that the Germans could only rely upon an infantry corps, whereas Vasilevskij’s forces comprised two armored and one motorized division. Theoretically, his forces were far more mobile than the Germans’. However, Vasilevskij had the feeling that his corps would not fulfill its promise of mobility, given the difficult terrain they were pushing through. He could not forget, after all, that this pessimism was borne out by Zhukov’s experience.
According to STAVKA’s maps, Zhukov had yet to leave the Polotsk area. The lakes of eastern Latvia were consistently stymieing his efforts at moving quickly even without any Latvian resistance, which had ceased three days earlier and, unlike Gulbene, the Latvians did not contest Dvinsk nearly as fiercely after the initial battle—they sent no reinforcements there. They knew better, Vasilevskij realized. They knew to trust the terrain to preclude any chance of any of the forces under Zhukov’s command, the armor or the infantry, of being operationally significant. Vasilevskij sighed; even the infantry under his command had done better as at least they were at that moment advancing on Riga, having reached Gulbene sometime in the past days.
Pulling his map case out of his greatcoat pocket, Vasilevskij popped the lid off and pulled out a map of Lithuania; on it were markings showing the most recent intelligence of the German advance. They had decided upon isolating and bypassing Memel in favor of occupying Siauliau and pushing directly on Kaunas. According to intelligence, the Germans had broken the Lithuanian resistance at Siauliau only on the 12th, mere hours before Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union. They were at the moment, however, pushing south-eastward toward Kaunas, driving the remnants of the Lithuanian unit that had fought at Siauliau before them.
Looking at the map, Vasilevskij suddenly got a fantastical idea and had to suppress a burst of mirth as he thought of it. He could well imagine that the Germans would not appreciate the move he had just thought of, though he was also aware that the Soviet Union was not in a position to make such a move. He smiled, that was quite fortunate for the Germans. He was sure that such a move would have given Hitler an apoplexy. If only Vasilevskij had a single transport squadron at his disposal, he could land a single infantry division at Memel and claim it for the Soviet Union. Though it would not get his armor to Kaunas faster, it would drastically change the strategic situation in the Baltic if the Germans reached Kaunas before he did.
Vasilevskij was engrossed in his highly entertaining thought, thinking the consequences through as completely as he could. Presumably, the Germans were attacking Lithuania for two reasons. First, he assumed that one of their objectives was to create a buffer of maneuver space between the territories of East Prussia and the actual German-Soviet border. The second objective he believed the Germans to have was to turn Lithuania into a bridgehead in which they could mass considerable forces and from whence they could launch a strong assault toward Leningrad. Vasilevskij was convinced that the conquest of Memel by Soviet forces would crush both objectives in one simple step. Firstly, Memel was essentially adjacent to Konigsberg, being but a single road journey away. Secondly, with Memel in Soviet hands they themselves would have a critical, if small and vulnerable, bridgehead from which to cut off and isolate any German forces in Lithuania, by driving southward into Konigsberg and westward from eastern Poland.
Vasilevskij sighed in resignation. It was too bad that the Soviet Union had no transport ships, that he knew of, at Kronstadt. Such a landing would have been brilliant in transforming all of the Germans’ present efforts in Lithuania into naught. Vasilevskij rolled the map up and put it back in his map case before returning that to his greatcoat pocket. He had greatly amused himself with that little exercise but it was time to return to the matters at hand, the slow advance toward Kaunas.
Actually, as to the "Cruiser" comment by discomb, I fell out of my seat laughing.
It is too bad that you had no transports, otherwise that would have been a brilliant maneuver. Guess it's back to the slow way. "March you dogs!"
Ok, for those of you who don't get the "Myth Sucks- and I dont mean the cruiser" comment.
Awhile back, Myth was writing his epic "Great Ambitions" saga about the Guangxi Cliques conquest of China. Along comes an Australian miscreant named Tribolute who decides to write a satiracal AAR called "Risky Ambitions- A Guangxi risk AAR to piss of Myth". Yes, that was the title.
Tribolute wrote his comedic piece for some time and finally got around to building himself a navy. In honor of his nemesis, namely Myth, he decided to name one of his cruisers "Myth Sucks". Since I had a cruiser named after myself as well, with no "Sucks" attached, I had no problems with this except to find it quite hilarious.
So, there is the story of the reference to "Myth Sucks" and a Guangxi cruiser.
It is too bad that you had no transports, otherwise that would have been a brilliant maneuver. Guess it's back to the slow way. "March you dogs!"
Ok, for those of you who don't get the "Myth Sucks- and I dont mean the cruiser" comment.
Awhile back, Myth was writing his epic "Great Ambitions" saga about the Guangxi Cliques conquest of China. Along comes an Australian miscreant named Tribolute who decides to write a satiracal AAR called "Risky Ambitions- A Guangxi risk AAR to piss of Myth". Yes, that was the title.
Tribolute wrote his comedic piece for some time and finally got around to building himself a navy. In honor of his nemesis, namely Myth, he decided to name one of his cruisers "Myth Sucks". Since I had a cruiser named after myself as well, with no "Sucks" attached, I had no problems with this except to find it quite hilarious.
So, there is the story of the reference to "Myth Sucks" and a Guangxi cruiser.
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Erkki1 said:save Lithuania from German's reign of terror
And implent the soviet reign of terror instead!
Yes it's always for betterGeneral Jac said:And implent the soviet reign of terror instead!
Thanks for the explanation grayghost. Now that you mention I think I do remember that happening (or my mind's going :wacko: ).
The Soviet Union can't allow the German takeover of Lithuania to go unanswered. Annex Switzerland to get a foot hold in Germany! How will I get there? you ask. Simple; paratroopers. Lots and lots of paratroopers using long range TP planes you certainly haven't invented yet. Hey, if Vassilevskij can make plans with imaginary transport ships then I can do it with imaginary planes!
The Soviet Union can't allow the German takeover of Lithuania to go unanswered. Annex Switzerland to get a foot hold in Germany! How will I get there? you ask. Simple; paratroopers. Lots and lots of paratroopers using long range TP planes you certainly haven't invented yet. Hey, if Vassilevskij can make plans with imaginary transport ships then I can do it with imaginary planes!
Way too costly comrade. Why don't we simply catapult couple of millions of troops using catapults to Switzerland. It's cheaper.VILenin said:Thanks for the explanation grayghost. Now that you mention I think I do remember that happening (or my mind's going :wacko: ).
The Soviet Union can't allow the German takeover of Lithuania to go unanswered. Annex Switzerland to get a foot hold in Germany! How will I get there? you ask. Simple; paratroopers. Lots and lots of paratroopers using long range TP planes you certainly haven't invented yet. Hey, if Vassilevskij can make plans with imaginary transport ships then I can do it with imaginary planes!
Good idea comrade. Let's catapult all those unciviliced Siberians and Ukraineans who nobody needs to conquer Switzerland4th Dimension said:
I have an alternative solution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0gDRKLTu00
Combined with
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/12/07/bc-bunnyexplosion.html?ref=rss
Shit them to death!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0gDRKLTu00
Combined with
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/12/07/bc-bunnyexplosion.html?ref=rss
Shit them to death!
goodness, so many posts! this thread has probably had more posts in the past two days than in the past rest of the month combined!
grayghost: fell out of your seat? goodness, discomb's created a weapon!
Erkki1: I'll do my best
General Jac: yarr!
Erkki1: of course, since I'm playing the Soviet Union!
Discomb: you certainly showed me the error of my ways, didn't you?
VILenin: that would be quite funny actually, except that they'd starve to death because no supplies would reach them...
4th Dimension: that would be awesome. *fling* "NEXT!" *fling* "NEXT!" *fling*
Erkki1: hey, we need the Siberians to run Magnitogorsk and the Ukrainians to farm for us! I suggest Kazakhs instead, spearheaded by the mighty Borat
Discomb: oh dear
comment day again (and what a day of comments!)
grayghost: fell out of your seat? goodness, discomb's created a weapon!
Erkki1: I'll do my best
General Jac: yarr!
Erkki1: of course, since I'm playing the Soviet Union!
Discomb: you certainly showed me the error of my ways, didn't you?
VILenin: that would be quite funny actually, except that they'd starve to death because no supplies would reach them...
4th Dimension: that would be awesome. *fling* "NEXT!" *fling* "NEXT!" *fling*
Erkki1: hey, we need the Siberians to run Magnitogorsk and the Ukrainians to farm for us! I suggest Kazakhs instead, spearheaded by the mighty Borat
Discomb: oh dear
comment day again (and what a day of comments!)