Sudden Carnage
Chapter IX – The clash of Giants under the summer Sun part II
Countries played by humans: UK, France, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan
Recap: Germany is struggling through hard and costly battles in the East, pressing Soviet back, a step at the time, and bleeding heavily while doing it. So far, Wehrmacht have not been able to breach the Red Army’s defense. Denmark has fallen to Germany and the Baltic Sea is sealed up for the Allies. The Allies keep pressing from the West and neutral Belgium is a lingering threat as they are aligning very close to the Western Democracies. Still, Japan has started its march against Soviet Far East. What can they do? Axis is in dire need for good news.
August 13th, 1939
After a bloody battle in Skidel, where USSR was dealt a great blow, the German leadership felt a little more optimistic. The Russian forces had been taken heavy casualties and many of their divisions were in an awful state. Worse though, was that they found good defensive positions behind the river, in forests and swamps. It would be difficult to dislodge them by frontal attacks.
August 15th, 1939
Before the Russian declaration of war, the two nations had flowering trade deals. With those deals off, full production and an expensive two-front war, Germany’s stock of rare minerals was shrinking fast, threatening to be a major problem.
Author’s note: This was a pure black spot in my plan. Even though I knew it to be so, I had simply forgotten to calculate how long Germany will last without conquering other countries stockpiles. I started to realize now, it wasn’t long enough. Not long enough at all. I realized this was an even greater threat than the Allied forces… I immediately tried my best to counter this with trade deals, such as this one, but German funds only reach that far…
Traks (from last chapter): When German trade with SU is broken and sooner or later (sooner in fact) they will run out of Rares and Fuel.
Authors late response: Yeah, man. I think you’re bloody right…
August 16th, 1939
Japan is making steady progress. Vladivostok is captured and the Japanese claim to have annihilated as much as six Russian divisions. Good news from this sector was well needed to bolster the Axis hope.
August 27th,
Germany kept losing on the west front. They had reinforced it with fresh troops, but Allied forces seemed to grow as well – probably drawn from other less threatened fronts. Still, Germany had some fresh troops, soon ready for deployment and hoped they could make a change.
August 27th, 1939
During the second half of August, the German push in the north has drawn to a halt. Perfect defensive situation for the Russians made in unsuitable for any offensives. Instead, the forces there have restructured somewhat, creating a defensive line along the river while liberating about three army-corps to shift from the northern to the middle front. The Russians have a good defensive line here as well, but not a secure back. The Italians have been making a successful push and breached the Russian line here. As the Russian center is trembling, Germany hopes to overwhelm them from the north.
In the south, a small airfield has been re-captured, making it harder for the enemy’s planes to operate.
…..
Author’s note: Few things actually went as planned during this session. The diplomatic situation in Belgium had come as a surprise, the lack of suitable stockpiles was a complete lapse from my side and I was overall disappointed by the performance of my troops (or my skill with them). Russians defended better than expected and the Allies attacked better than expected. I felt truly pessimistic after this session.
I’m losing in the west and expect Belgium to join the Allies, at least within 3-4 months. I’ll put all my new troops there, and I actually have quite a lot coming up soon; a full army-corps and a panzer division within a weak. That should give me some opportunities. I must recapture the West Wall and consolidate a defensive line there. Then, in the best of worlds, I can do something about the Benelux threat.
This will mean that I wont put any new troops on the Russian front. It will mean little in the short term but eventually, if no Russian troops are captured, the advance will come to a stop. Italy might deploy new troops, but not in any decisive numbers. The Japs are doing well. Zid have some nice plans and can be expected to have good progress. But we all know how little Japanese victories will matter in the short run.
Soon, Japan must open a second front to UK and pull at their attention. We’ll see what happens then. Germany will need lesser British attention on the west front.
Still, in the game described in Wildfires, Axis won anyway. But at that time, Axis had both Hungary and Yugoslavia as allies, filling up the ranks. And cred to Daphne (USSR). He is a very skilled defensive player - smothering me like a wet heavy fur blanket...
August 27th, 1939
The joint French/Anglo forces continued to press on. To stop the Germans from reinforcing the critical battles, like Neunkirchen, they made stalling attacks elsewhere when they spied German movements. It succeeded in stopping the Germans, but at a high cost in men, as the allied troopers up north had to fight during terrible circumstances – attacking over a river into dug in defenders.
Luftwaffe now defended better than before. It had taken some time for the German leadership to work out a suitable strategy, hindered also by the attack on Denmark, but now they were on track. Here, they taught the French bomber pilots an important lesson in good manners…
Still, the German troops in Neunkirchen had to fight without any incoming reinforcements.
August 28th, 1939
The relation between Belgium and the Allies are getting warmer. A Belgium entry into the war right now would be devastating. The German leadership told their diplomats, in harsh language, to do better. They continued their defensive war on the western front with dogged determination.
August 28th, 1939
Good news. Japan has crushed the last remnant of China and her allies. Now they can focus wholehearted on Soviet Union and perhaps even UK in a not too distant future. The fatherland needs all available help right now.
August 28th, 1939
This is the rough plan for the autumn offensive in Russia, Operation Storm. Germany have left a defensive screen in the northern part of the front and drawn all free units to the center, just north of the river Narew. From here they would support Italy’s successful push and try to overwhelm the Russians while they had a lot of forces tied up north where it was stuck behind the great marshes (with infra 10).
::Johann Keller had busy days. His idea of supplying Wehrmacht with dairy products, mainly for the officers, had been a success. As war erupted on all sides, the troops needed an enormous amount of troops and there is few ways to motivate a soldier than giving him good food. Very quickly, Wehrmacht wanted more than he had but Johann quickly pulled together the local farmers, all old friends to his family, to a huge meeting. They couldn’t turn down the deals he offered them and soon he was the middleman, selling all their dairy products to the Wehrmacht.::
::It was like tossing a snowball from the top of a mountain. The army’s needs were endless and if you only could provide the goods, you could find really good deals. Money was pouring in. The problem, however, was lack of some specific materials. Every time his, or some of his farmers, factories need rubber, unusual spare parts or any rare materials, he had to go through hell and back to provide it. Was Germany this unprepared for a great war? Johann couldn’t really doubt the Führer. He had provided the country with so much since he took his office and Johann couldn’t really doubt him. In the Führer he would trust. What else were there…?::
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