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Hummm... and this story goes on till 1919?? 
Maybe the Russian collapse is closer than we think!?!?
Nice update.. keep them coming
oh and btw... congrats on the showcase.
Maybe the Russian collapse is closer than we think!?!?
Nice update.. keep them coming
oh and btw... congrats on the showcase.
Russian collapse soon...? Well, you'll just have to wait and see
Thankyou all again for your kind words, especially relating to the unexpected showcaseo
EDIT: BTW Bulgaria makes another Central Powers combatent, so I've knocked out 1 of 4
Thankyou all again for your kind words, especially relating to the unexpected showcase
oEDIT: BTW Bulgaria makes another Central Powers combatent, so I've knocked out 1 of 4
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anti_strunt said:People still play HoI1?
Thanks a lot!
Only play HoI1 for TGW...
Chapter VIII: Is this the war that will never end?
January-June 1917
1917 had opened with a bang for the Entente, but still things looked in the balance, despite Austrian forces demobilising and being split along ethnic lines between the newly forming Republics of the area under Franco-Italian direction. The task ahead of the Entente was still a great one, and none of the Fronts looked ready to push forwards into Germany proper, especially with troops still tied down in the south fighting Bulgaria and the Ottomans. The first major fighting of the war took place in the obvious region- despite a shortage of troops for a full-scale invasion, French troops made a daring entrance into Bavaria in late-January and even occupied Munich and Nuremberg before a counter-attack was launched. The French command was staggered by the response Germany gave to the invasion of her homeland, as the German Army threw it's weight down upon them with odds of around 3:1. 32 German divisions smashed down in a forceful blow against only 9 French in the forests surrounding Nuremberg and as they beat a slow attritional retreat against these odds, another 60,000 Frenchmen had found their graves by late-April. Today, there is no memorial to commemorate these dead, it having been removed by the staunchly anti-French Nazi regime.
Seeing that they were being beaten back into the Alps the French Army decided that committing to any more major offensives into Germany would have to wait, and instead looked to three alternative courses to be used in conjunction. The first was to bring the war to Denmark, in an effort to secure the important port of Kiel, cutting lines of communication by water between east and western Germany, and forcing the Germans to spread their troops across another front (and also force them to seriously think about guarding their coastlines). Secondly, to send troops via the newly secured Baltic route to Russia, in order to reverse the 'Baltic Push' and inspire the Russians to keep fighting alongside the Entente (60,000 Frenchmen were already fighting in Russian Galicia, and the effect upon local morale there has been marked, not to mention the benefit of 6 divisions of quality troops deployed on that Front). Finally, and most significantly, to invade the Ottoman Empire and force them to surrender and split as the Austrians had done. The invasions were planned for April, codenamed the Gallipoli Landings, 6 Italian divisions under French command were to attempt a landing on the Gallipoli peninsular, and fight their way to Constantinople, supported by French cavalry attacking from Romanian-held parts of Bulgaria.
Before the invasion could pan out however, something of major significance happened. On the 16th of March the city of Riga fell to the German advance along the Baltic coastline. This, coupled with the finally successful German attacks in Poland, was a major catalyst in the fateful abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. On the 17th a Provisional government was declared and Russia entered her brief affair with Democracy. With the fall of the Romanovs in Russia a centuries old dynasty of the Old World was consigned to the past alongside the Habsburgs. With Russia looking increasingly unstable all eyes in the Entente turned to Turkey, where many believed the war would make or break...
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Great update, good work taking out the Ottomans, but the eastern front seems dangerous, soon maybe the Russians will have the revolution and leave the war. That is scary, but you are doing great, still it might be good to defeat the Germans before they can turn all their forces from the east to the west and push you hard on the west front. Looking forward to the next update
Good progress so far.
Now crush Bulgaria and the Germany will stand alone against the world!
Or maybe not against the world, Russia has a serious problems... as usual.
Now crush Bulgaria and the Germany will stand alone against the world!
Or maybe not against the world, Russia has a serious problems... as usual
.
The year after the Ottoman collapse was fairly uneventful, so following is pretty much a summary
Chapter IX: Death, taxes and now the war…?
July-December 1917
With the Ottoman Empire forced out of the war, dismantled, humiliated, destroyed and recast as the tiny Anatolian state of Turkey, attentions could be turned firmly north, and the French navy could safely relocate to Lille. France was finally in a position to try and support Russia more directly in the north, as both transports and men were finally available for the task. The number of foreign troops serving in France and Belgium was increasing with every month, with sizable British, Japanese and Italian forces available. Many more too were bound to follow- the United States had joined the war on the side of the Entente, ostensibly as a result of Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare. Either way, popular sentiment in France was that the tide must surely turn against Germany soon, and frustration that Germany seemed to be thriving rather than buckling under the strain of the three-front war, pushing deeper into Russia, and sitting safely against Entente attacks in complicated fortifications stretching from the Netherlands to Bavaria to Silesia. Either way, the United States glorious and grand announcements of entrance to the war sounded very hollow indeed to the combatants of 3 years brutal and bloody warfare. But the men they would send would help, and the American Expeditionary Force served with distinction throughout their time in France.
By August the French were ready, and Denmark joined the war against Germany hoping to gain sway over the ethnically Danish Slesvig-Holstein and possibly expand their influence one more over northern Germany. French troops landed in Aarlborg and other major ports on the 1st of the month, and moved immediately on the attack against Kiel. The fighting lasted a whole month focused around the vital port and canal systems, but the French emerged victorious by the 1st of September. With the access to the Baltic all but secured two weeks before the final victory in Kiel the French transport navy also managed to successfully land the first expeditionary troops in northern Russia on that day. These landings had an extraordinary affect on Russian morale, and their co-incidence and intervention in the ill-fated 'Kornilov coup' is believed to have given the Provisional government a new lease of life. Inspired by the arrival of new re-enforcements and with the aid of veteran French military staff advising them the Russian army prepared for a counter-offensive to push the Germans out of Estonia and Latvia- winter was coming fast however, so it was agreed the offensive would have to be postponed if attritional losses grew too high.
January-July 1918
New Year in 1918 came and went without much happening in Europe, the war dragged on, but no major offensives were attempted and no developments emerged. Just the continued drudge of the war, the ever-growing population of war wounded, shell shocked, mutilated and dead. In a ring around Germany was a huge scarred battlefield, separated only by Switzerland and the sea. People felt that for generations after there would be left a charred, twisted, warped and tortured landscape, a permanent wasteland addition to Europe's once green fields, rolling hills and lush forests. The lack of news was finally and somewhat surprisingly delivered on the 12th of April, 1918, as French, Italian and Romanian forces finally smashed a hole in the Bulgarian defences. Faced with vengeful French and Italian troops so far from home and fearful of what their occupiers might do an exhausted Bulgaria finally gave up the fight on the 19th. Germany now stood alone, but she still stood strong.
Nice work taking out Bulgaria also, now you have managed to take out all of Germany’s allies, but as you write Germany might be alone, but Germany is still strong, so to defeat them as well might be hard, but I have confidence that the French army and its allies shall be victorious in the end. Great update
Well, now that Germany has one less front to worry about, troops are commitable to homeland defense, meaning the Germans can shorten the lines a bit.
Not like the AI will
Not like the AI will
kenneththegreat said:Well, now that Germany has one less front to worry about, troops are commitable to homeland defense, meaning the Germans can shorten the lines a bit.
Not like the AI will
How is there one less front to worry about, the Bulgarians were isolated
Evans said:How is there one less front to worry about, the Bulgarians were isolated
Good point
o
Bah, soon the Bolsheviks will start a Chaos never been seen before in Russia, then the germans will only have one front. Bulgaria, A-H and the Turks were nothing, the German Eagle won't fall easily, but on the other hand the yanks will appear soon...
yourworstnightm said:
Hehe we'll see how accurate that interpretation is soon
The US presence is quite large, but certainly not war-winningly big
Chapter X: Guillotine and the Summer Offensive
May & June 1918
Nearly four years had passed since war had first broken out over the independence of Serbia, three of the four Central Powers nations had fallen to the Entente and the remaining one faced war on three fronts. At yet still she tried to push into Russia and provoke a further, violent, revolution and subsequent collapse into civil war. Russia buckled under the strain, suffering crippling losses to her manpower. But she held, and not only did she hold, she fought back twice as hard. Together with her French Allies (who were landing in bigger force) the Baltic Push was finally halted, and pushed back into modern-day Lithuania. The Germans committed more troops to their offensive drive on Leningrad, but it was to no avail. With the Baltic route now open, France had been taking the opportunity to ship large quantities of howitzers and machineguns to her ally, and these were now beginning to reach the Front in real numbers. The USA too was shipping ammunition and rifles from east and west coast in huge convoys bound for Russia. With German confidence shaken and Russian morale improving the deadly manpower flux was finally stabilising- the Russian Army was gaining experience in it's lower ranks by virtue of them staying alive. The Germans however were starting to feel the strain, and had lost countless men in their continued offensives in the theatre, which had gone on regardless of season.
With the German attacks petering out, but still with a large concentration of units ready to try and push forwards again French war-hero Field Marshal Joffre spied an opportunity. The man who had commanded and effectively engineered the downfall of both Austria and the Ottoman Empire, and the Danish campaign, was given a free reign in his operation, codenamed Guillotine and known by the press called as 'le Décapitation'. The plan was simple, but designed to be a deadly and shattering blow against the German Army, both materially and in morale. Under the plan Joffre's French corps would redeploy to Wilno, from where they would begin an offensive westwards, pushing through Lithuania to Memel and thus trapping the Germans north of there in a pocket in modern-day Latvia. The offensive commenced in mid-May during a confused and muddled German attack, and met startling success. In the meantime, the Russians began a furious attack further north, pushing the Germans down into the rapidly forming pocket area. The Germans were successfully encircled by the 12 of June, and held out under constant naval and land bombardment before surrendering on the 24th, and it is believed that at least 9 divisions were annihilated in the battle (the German records were subsequently destroyed by the Nazi regime in 1934). The German commander Conrad van Hotzendorf committed suicide rather than face the dishonour of surrendering to the French army. The attack had proved an unparalleled success, and Joffre was catapulted firmly into the minds of the French people as the great hero who was unstoppable as he lead them to victory. The Napoleon of his day. With the German forces suddenly being pushed back and large numbers of soldiers now in captivity the Germans were fearful that the eastern front would collapse, and so ordered a withdrawal to shorten their lines. It was to no avail, and French troops moved quickly to exploit their opportunity, occupying East Prussia by the middle of autumn.
Joffre leads the encirclement of a large portion of the German army in the east.
However, the besieged Germans were not idle in this period of the war, in fact, they launched into their most vigorous offensive since 1914. The Summer Offensive began on the 26th of August and it's aims were to try and force open the Western Front and bring the devastation of the war to the heart of France- it was not to be however. The German 'Summer Offensive' centred on Metz and Verdun was the beginning of the end for a tiring German Army. At the height of the attacks elements of some 39 Divisions were pounding themselves to pieces against the French lines. But it was to no avail, material and manpower losses were catastrophic and Germany was forced to replace these forces with the badly trained and ill-equipped Landswehr. Casualty estimates for the German forces vary greatly, but it is likely no degree of accuracy will ever be attained- once again, the official records were destroyed in 1934 by the ashamed Nazi regime before they could be declassified in 1938. Most historians' estimates however place the German losses at somewhere around a quarter of a million. Considering that the Offensive was halted on the 1st of September, less than a week after it started, these figures are staggering even within the context of this most brutal and bloody war. In the face of these casualties the common view was that Germany must surely have bled herself white, and once more political pressure mounted for a great offensive to end the war...
German soldiers on the attack in the disastrous 'Summer Offensive'
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