Chapter XII: The Beginning of the End
Some Bulgarian partisans managed to take control over Pleven. Garrison from Sofiya is dispatched to take care of them!
On 6th December, two important infantry technologies are developed further.
Nine infantry divisions from Italian front are sent back to help with containing the German breakthrough.
The RYA in Hungary is a mess at this point. Units are either retreating or are completely out of position.
A defensive line is consolidated on the former Yugoslavian-Hungarian border, using Drava as the essential obstacle for the Germans. Meanwhile units in Hungary scramble to get to this defensive line.
A massive counterattack is consolidated on a German tank division that dared to venture too far from its comrades.
In Italy, an attack is staged on the contemporary Italian capital – Napoli. Italians are doomed to fail, as the assault is directed by Montgomery himself!
The city is taken three days later, but it’s still not enough to break the Italian will to fight. Meanwhile several divisions are in precarious situation near the Romanian border...
The stream of bad news doesn’t seem to end. Norway didn’t manage to survive to the year of 1942.
On 29th, a successful attack is carried out to free seven infantry divisions.
At midnight on 30th, our fleet is engaged by one of the Italian battleships. Our destroyers, submarines and light cruiser Dalmacija are supported by a British light cruiser Pluton. Italians are forced to retreat. Neither side lost any ships that couldn’t be repaired though.
Tough retreat fights are needed to preserve our army from taking even higher losses. None true Yugoslavian wants to end up in a German prisoner camp!
The Yugoslavian High Command was shocked to see that the heavily fortified positions in Ptuj are completely abandoned without any German garrison. Several divisions were sent out to investigate the situation immediately. But it turned to be a well thought-out trap to inflict heavy casualties to RYA later on.
The retreat of our forces from Hungary is completed on 12th January. Only by a stroke of luck, no more than three divisions have been lost in the process.
Despite this success, the situation is actually worse than ever. Germans are trying to break through in almost every province and almost every of these fights are going their way. It seems there is only a little hope for Yugoslavia to survive...