Yeap.
They had a hard time but they finally succeded. I won't complain about it : it saves me time and, more important, MP !!!
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They had a hard time but they finally succeded. I won't complain about it : it saves me time and, more important, MP !!!
Chapter 34 : Unternehmen 'Rheinübung'
AussenMinisterium (State Department), Berlin - 1941, April the 22nd - 1330
Meeting between Foreign Minister von Ribbentropp and Admiral Canaris, Abwehr Chef (Head of Intelligence).
- "Admiral Canaris. It's always a pleasure to see you but I have a lot to do and...
- Herr Reichsminister, we have a problem. I mean, a very serious one !
- ...............?
- Do you remember the conversation we had in october last year ?
- About Spain and France bsw. the French State ?
- Exactly. At that time, I told you it was obvious that General Franco didn't want to engage his country on our side. Well, my agents confirmed it.
Despite all our "seduction" efforts, the Spanish leader seems to distance himself from us. And it's getting worse as time goes by. If nothing is being done, we might have a serious problem over there in a year or two.
Political situation
Before Christmas, the USSR will be down and the whole european continent will be under our control. Spain won't be able to do much against it. Besides, spanish armed forces don't pose a threat of any kind to ours.
- Spain is a stepping board to continental Europe, Herr Reichsminister, and England isn't beaten yet. Don't forget it...
- The Brits are busy enough in Africa to make us troubles elsewhere and they also have to defend their homeland. Please stop seeing monsters in every closets, Admiral.
What did you want to tell me about France ? Are the French also plotting against us ?
- No, Herr Reichsminister. Our collaboration politic seems to pay off, at least for now, but our gains are very small.
- So what do you complain about ?
- It will take a lot of time before France could be considered "reliable", Herr Reichsminister. And I would like to remember you that this country do possess strong armed forces in some sensitive places overseas, not to mention on continental Europe too. How would the French react IF the Brits, or someone else, attempted a landing in France or in its african territories ?
Vichy forces in France
Vichy forces in North Africa
Vichy forces in Lebanon-Syria
What would you recommend, Admiral ?
- Considering the political evolution in western Europe, it wouldn't be a bad idea to reinforce our forces over there. May be to prepare a reaction force in case something "wrong" happen.
- Well... With Ansatz 'Barbarossa' about to be launched, I don't think that something could be done right now. But I will put your recommendations to the OKW. Thank you, Admiral."
Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition, Berlin - 1941, April the 25th - 0900
Reichsminister Fritz Todt meets and his Secretary of State Günther Schulze-Fielitz.
- "Günther... Did you read the last report of Großadmiral Raeder ?
- The one on convoy losses, Herr Reichsminister ?
- Yes, this one. Do you think it's an isolated case ?
- It's hard to tell, Herr Reichsminister, for I'm not a naval expert.
The Royal Navy is back... again.
- Well... If it's really the case, the chance are very high that our convoys will suffer more losses in the next months.
- That's a possibility we must take into account, Herr Reichsminister.
- Mhmmmm... It's not that simple, mein lieber Günther. We can't simply decide to produce more freighters.
Doing so, we must divert materials and production efforts, which could be more useful in other sectors of our economy... to face CONCRETE threat or needs.
Convoys to Norway under attack
We're really in need of new ships.
- That's also what Raeder is asking for in his report.
All right. We're going to change our production schedule. Please inform General Fromm that the ErsatzHeer will suffer some delivery delays because of "case of force majeure". Wrap it in the usual polite crap and add my sincere apologies.
- Jawohl, Herr Reichsminister."
Hauptquartier des Deutsches Afrika-Korps, Tobruk - April the 30th - 1630
General Rommel, CO DAK, meets Generalmajor Gause, his Chief of Staff.
- "Herr General ! That was, again, Governor-General of Libya Gariboldi on the phone. He sounded like a man pretty close to an heart attack.
- I would feel the same if I were him. The situation of our Italian friends doesn't look good.
- Two major defeats in a week... That's the least we can tell, Herr General. However, we have to admit that they offered a strong resistance at El Hammam : the Brits needed almost a month to push them back.
- It was a lost battle from the very beginning, mein lieber Gause. I warned General Bettoni, CO 10a Armata, but he didn't want to listen. He even refuse to establish a defensive fallback position in El Alamein... just in case.
We see the result today.
British counter-offensive in the desert
- They haven't been stopped, Gause. They choose not to move forward, which is quite different. The infrastructure in this region must have suffered from the last battles ; it would have been dangerous for them to carry on an offensive if the supply cannot be forwarded to their troops on the frontline.
- I understand, Herr General, but what are we supposed to do now ?
- The Italians don't need us right now. As the Brits say : "wait and see..."
OKM Hauptquartier, Berlin - 1941, May the 1st - 1045
Großadmiral Erich Raeder, OBdM, meets Admiral Lütjens, CO Geschwader 'Bismarck'.
- "Aaaah... Lütjens, what a pleasure to see you. Are you satisfied with your news toys ?
- The 'Bismarck' and 'Prinz Eugen' can hardly be qualified as "toys", Admiral. But yes, I'm pretty much satisfied : they're great ships and I look forward to see them in combat.
- Well... your dream will become true very soon, mein lieber Lütjens.
Both you and I believe that the primary method to achieve the defeat of England is the blockade using traditional commerce raiding tactics, founded upon surface combatants...
- That's true, Admiral, but until now, only Dönitz and his submarines achieved some significant success... and the Luftwaffe too.
- Exactly. Press releases and official statements only mention the U-Boote and the Luftwaffe. The upcoming Ansatz 'Barbarossa' won't make things better with all eyes turned East.
- The Kriegsmarine won't be part of it ?
- We're only going to play a small and supporting role in this operation. Nothing significant.
Therefore, if we want to avoid budget cuts for capital ships, we need to score a major success with surface warships before 'Barbarossa'. A success that might impress upon the Führer !
- What do you intend to do ?
Hilfskreuzer on their way
In a second time, we will conduct two major operations in the North Atlantic, using both Geschwader 'Scharnhorst-Gneisenau' -Unternehmen 'Berlin II'- and your Geschwader with the 'Bismarck' and 'Prinz Eugen' -Unternehmen 'Rheinübung'-
The goal of these joint operations is to conduct an intensive anti-shipping campaign, within the range of the land-based aircrafts of the Luftwaffe.
Unternehmen 'Rheinübung'
The 2. U-Flotille will be patrolling in this zone too and will provide you some support. Aircrafts of the Fliegerführer 'Atlantik' will be on readiness.
- What kind of enemy forces are to be expected, Admiral ?
- They're some HK-Groups operating in this part of the Atlantic but they're no match for your ships. One CVL/BB-centered group has been sighted from time to time. We estimate he's conducting ASW operations from England to Gibraltar. The 7. U-Flotille has been attacked by this group two weeks ago...
British HK-Group in action
- Well... It looks good on paper, Admiral, but things rarely go as planned. What if problems occur ?
- In any case, your priority is to preserve your combat capacity as much as possible, mein lieber Lütjens. Bring back your ships !!!"
Hauptquartier der Luftflotte 3, Paris - 1941, May the 23rd - 0900
General Sperrle, CO Luftflotte 3, on the phone with General Coeler, CO IX. Fliegerkorps.
- "Na, Coeler ? Was the first stage of our operation 'Frühlingsreise' successful ?
- It depends on what you would call a success, Herr General...
- The OKL ordered us to launch series of air strikes against the british airbases and ports of the southern coast. This in order to keep our british "friends" busy while the Geschwader 'Bismarck' breaks into the Atlantic.
- Well... Herr General... You can tell the OKL that Operation 'Frühlingsreise' ends today !
- Explain !
Terrific reception in Dover !
- But... if Dover is neutralized, aren't you able to carry on ?
- Dover isn't the sole airfield with fighters in the area, Herr General. Both JagdFliegerFührer 2. and 3. really had a hard time trying to cover my bombers. May be I could continue the operation but the casualties are going to be murderous and our fighters won't no longer be able to participate to the defense of the Reich's air space, should a bombing raid occured.
With most of the Luftwaffe rebased in the East, we don't have enough fighters anymore, Herr General, nor enough bombers to conduct such operations. It's a pity : with a little more airplanes we could have been able to take care of the battleship 'Royal Sovereign'. She was in port at Dover when we attacked...
- You took a wise decision, Coeler. I don't blame you. I'm afraid the Kriegsmarine will have to do without us.
- At least, my boys gave some work to do to the british repair teams ; It's going to take a while before Dover can be fully operational again..."
OKL Hauptquartier, Berlin - Same day - 2300
General Hans Jeschonnek, Luftwaffen Chief of Staff, on the phone with General Kammhuber, CO NachtJagdDivision.
- "Ja... My aircrafts just finished landing, Herr General.
- It seems you had a tough night, doesn't it Josef ?
- Actually, the night has been tough for the british bombers. Over 80 of them won't come back.
- Air control told me they went after Aachen this time, right ?
Retaliation strike over the Reich
If I may interject, Herr General, Sperrle did the right thing when he stopped the operation 'Frühlingsreise'. Without the fighters of Jagdfliegerführer 2, the damages on Aachen would have been much more important.
- That's my opinion too. We really need more fighters to defend the Reich's air space !
- And a good air defense organization too, Herr General.
- You seem to know the drill, mein lieber Kammhuber. Think about it and write me a report with your suggestions for a better air defense organization."
Schlachtschiff 'Bismarck', North Atlantic - 1941, May the 25th - 1130
Admiral Lütjens, CO Geschwader 'Bismarck' speaking to Kapitän-zur-See Lindemann, CO 'Bismarck'.
- "I'm sorry Admiral but it's not possible to increase our speed. 20 knots, that's all we can do and it's already a miracle we're still able to move after all the damages we sustained.
- Kapitän : we have the entire Royal Navy chasing us and we're too far from the French coast to get air support. If we can't put some distance between the Brits and us, we're dead !!!
- This entire operation was doomed from the very beginning, Admiral. Actually, we should be dead already. The Brits perfectly knew we were at sea and where to catch us !
- We could have dealt with the british squadron we met last night, Kapitän. The HMS 'Royal Sovereign', even with a carrier escort, was no match for the 'Bismarck'.
Sink the Bismarck !
Besides, it's well known that british battleship squadrons don't operate alone. The reinforcements they received this morning had to be expected. We may have had a chance if we could have joined the Geschwader 'Scharnhorst-Gneisenau' but it was to far away in the south.
- And now ?
A long way to go...
- Lots of things could happen during this time.
- In 6 hours, we will be in range of our land-based aircrafts of the FliegerFührer 'Atlantik'. If no further breakdown occurs, and with a little bit luck, we should make it, Admiral..."
Panzerschiff 'Scharnhorst', Brest - 1941, May the 31st - 1330
Kapitän-zur-see Hoffmann, CO 'Scharnhorst', meets Generaladmiral Saalwächter, CO MarineGruppenKommando West.
- "Hoffmann ! You don't know how happy I'm to see you back in one piece.
- Verflucht, Admiral ! We had them ! WE HAD THEM !!! And you know the worse ?
- Go ahead.
- It was the same british group that Lütjens met a week ago... to one exception : apparently, the HMS 'Royal Sovereign' stays in port for repairs and we had the HMS 'Rodney' instead.
- Not the best exchange I can dream of... with her 406mm guns.
Hard time for 'Scharnhorst-Gneisenau'
- Well... I heard the Luftwaffe helped you a lot, right ?
- You're right, Admiral. The guys from Fliegerführer 'Atlantik' and KG 40 performed pretty well. I really don't understand how the Brits managed to flee...
- May be it was the wrong week for the Kriegsmarine, mein lieber Hoffmann. I feel confident it will be better the next time.
- We're going to wait for a while, Admiral. The 'Scharnhorst' has been heavily damaged : it will require some time before she can take the sea again."
Panzerschiff 'Scharnhorst', Brest - 1941, June the 7th - 0700
Kapitän-zur-see Hoffmann, CO 'Scharnhorst', meets Kapitän-zur-See Fein, CO 'Gneisenau'.
- "Fein ! Is it just me or are we really cursed at the moment ?
- I must say we lack of luck really bad.
May be you should have wait until your ship was fully repaired before trying to engage naval combat again.
Bad luck for Hoffman...
All these british ships... Once for all, they should stop prancing around just under our nose.
- At least, those ones won't be able to cause any trouble before a long time. And may be their buddies will think twice before sailing so close from the coast.
- I still wonder why the Luftwaffe wasn't able to find them...
- Night operations aren't their strong point. The new radars are coming though ; it sure will help in a near future...
- May be we should consider improving our naval tactics. That wouldn't hurt either, Fein."
Hauptquartier des Deutsches Afrika-Korps, Tobruk - June the 20th - 1000
General Rommel, CO DAK, on the phone with General Fröhlich, CO Italuft.
- "Na Rommel, still sunbathing in Tobruk ?
- There's nothing much else to do here, Herr General.
- What's going on with our Italian friends ? Their new offensive is progressing well ?
- Mhmmmm... hard to say, Herr General. They have made some progress, that's true but for how long, that's the question.
Road engineers have a lot to do
- One month to make 50km ?!! Was the british resistance that harsh ?
- They fought well, that's for sure but the main problem is the logistic. El Alamein and El Hammam have been taken and retaken three times already. The main coastal road no longer exist and the numerous minefields don't help either.
I advise them to stop but General Bettoni insisted to move further to Abu Keifu.
- And ?
- And I just got the confirmation that the italian vanguards at Abu Keifu have been attacked by the Brits and that they're retreating to El Hammam.
Wer nicht hören will... muss fühlen.
- Do you have some problems with the british aircrafts in Malta, Herr General ?
- They bombed the harbour of Naples last week with the result that the transports lent to us by the Regia Marina have rebased in La Spezzia. Very useful over there...
- You just experienced the joys of the German-Italian cooperation, Herr General.
- I'm tired of this crap. I'll ask Reichsmarschall Göring to authorize an operation against Malta."
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Bismarck and Prinz Eugen limping back to the safety of French ports? Let's just hope they are spared their RL fate.
I got lucky... once again !
Interesting to see that using the historical deployment/movement in the game, I ended up with a battle at the (roughly) same place and came up with the same result (well... almost).
The 'Bismarck' finally made it but she will need a lot of painting before being able to take the sea again. The historical path experienced another slight hitch but at least, I now have 4 powerful naval units in the french ports.
You might be right. I don't have enough intel about Malta so I assume it's like a hornest nest...
Right now, the X. Fliegerkorps is performing a massacre in the Gulf of Tunis (over 30 freighters sunk each month since the beginning of the year) but I have absolutly no idea how much it affects Malta's supply situation and I don't have the fighter cover to perform bombing missions on Malta.
In a perfect world, Italy would take care of the island but they don't have the transport ships for an amphibious assault nor the airplanes for an airborne operation. So I guess I'll have to do it by myself.
The fact remains that the situation in under control so I'm not in a hurry to launch Unternehmen 'Herkules'. General Student and his boys are currently sightseeing in Athens...
It's not historically correct, but in ICE, you can rebase transport planes in Vichy Morocco. From there, it's a short jump to Gibraltar. It can be somewhat risky, depending on how many troops the UK have there.
Nice work with Rheinübung, I honestly didn't expect it to play out so close to actual history as it did.
I think Unternehmen Felix is no realisitc option without support from Spain.
It would probably be more accurate to support the Italians in Libya/Egypt in order to lock the Suez Canal.
Keep it up, I can't wait to see your take on Barbarossa!
I think Unternehmen Felix is no realisitc option without support from Spain.
It would probably be more accurate to support the Italians in Libya/Egypt in order to lock the Suez Canal.
Keep it up, I can't wait to see your take on Barbarossa!
You're right. IRL, according to the agreements signed by Admiral Darlan, only three bases have been (or should have been) "given" to the German authorities : Alep (Syria), Bizerte (Tunisia) and Dakar (Senegal). (Un)fortunatly, the Vichy gouvernment didn't ratify these agreements. Only Alep was used (very briefly) by the Luftwaffe. Bizerte was intensively used later on by the Germans but that was from November '42 onwards and Vichy France was already fully occupied.
That remembers me that the "Iraq uprising" event didn't fire. Odd...
Thanks. Neither did I.
Actually, I'm quite happy it didn't end exactly the same way too...
These two strong SAGs now in French ports can be major assets to support my U-boats in the Atlantic.
I support this idea. I had the opportunity to have Spain (and Portugal) into the Axis in 1940 but it seemed too ahistorical so I let them in peace.
Besides, I'd rather have a neutral Spain instead of an ally that I can't defend because of a lack of troops.
However, 'Felix' might be dead but 'Gisela' stays in my mind...
Accurate, that's for sure but considering the state of the infrastructures, the DAK is better where it is right now.
It comes... it comes...
Just be patient : it will be a very BIIIIIG update.
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A word of the author.
Historical 'Ansatz Barbarossa'... What does it really mean (for me) ?
Of course, it has something to do with the Order of Battle, the right armies, corps, divisions. The right units with proper materials (no Tiger tanks in 1941 obviously) and the generals assigned accordingly to their ranks at that time of the war.
I also played all Axis Minors until Spring '41 and copy/paste their historical OoB and techs (low AT capabilities !!!) into the current game.
Although tedious, that's the easy part...
Another issue is to make sure that the "Bear" will have enough to fight otherwise, past experiences showed that Barbarossa will merely turn into a Panzer race towards Moscow and be as exciting as watching grass growing. No risks, no fun.
Therefore, as I wrote in my introduction, I went several times a year (from 1936 to 1941) into the save.txt and I gave a time boost to all units in theSoviet production queue. Right now, from the Arctic to the Black Sea, the Soviet Army has over 2.5 million men. Half a million more can be added counting the troops from the Far Eastern and Caucasus Theaters plus some ten thousands "magically" appearing (ICE events) in different big cities when the Wehrmacht approaches.
On the Eastern front, there's now a troop ratio of roughly 2 against 3 in favour of the Soviet side (and almost unlimited manpower : 3000+).
But playing "historical" means also trying to follow the organization and doctrines. It is particularly true with the manpower and IC allocation.
Some MP issues...
German organization, IRL, tended to favour the creation of new divisions rather than to fully reinforce the depleted ones. In game, that means I will follow the list of units to build for the year to come (see excerpt below), put them in the production queue and ONLY THEN I will consider to reinforce the damaged units more than at the actual rate (ca. 8-10%). Priority will be given, obviously, to the armoured/motorized (and SS !) units.
My own, however historical, production list
IC allocation will follow the same pattern :
First consumer goods (a priority in Germany till 1943), then the IC points needed to keep the production schedule of the "historically-required" units (I made a time-table for that -see above-), then supply, then minimum reinforcements (10 pts max until all units are in the production queue, this mainly to cover naval and air casualties).
After that, Upgrades and other productions/reinforcements will share the remaining IC points (if enough are available, which is very doubtful).
Divisions having their TO&E drastically modified and/or the very mauled ones will be sent to the rear to be re-equiped/reconstituted. I will then be forced to a kind of rotation, as it was IRL.
This way, I hope to have a faithful reflection of the historical situation of the German army during the war, particularly on the eastern front. I strongly expect that these restrictions will turn the Russian Campaign into a real challenge.
Since the evolution of the game is very likely to be different from the History (I seriously hope !!!), divisions and corps will be assigned differently as time goes by. To a much lesser extend, this will also apply to armies and army groups but I'll try to stay "historical", or at least coherent, as much as possible.
I will divide the 1941 German OoB into several parts (6, so far I can figure) to make it easier for the reader and to comply with the forum rules.
Map and battle plan for the first stage of 'Barbarossa' will be on a separate update/post so you can open it in a new tab and still be able to consult the OoBs and armies objectives without having to scroll up and down all the time.
Thanks for following this AAR and have fun ! Serious things will begin very soon...
Historical 'Ansatz Barbarossa'... What does it really mean (for me) ?
Of course, it has something to do with the Order of Battle, the right armies, corps, divisions. The right units with proper materials (no Tiger tanks in 1941 obviously) and the generals assigned accordingly to their ranks at that time of the war.
I also played all Axis Minors until Spring '41 and copy/paste their historical OoB and techs (low AT capabilities !!!) into the current game.
Although tedious, that's the easy part...
Another issue is to make sure that the "Bear" will have enough to fight otherwise, past experiences showed that Barbarossa will merely turn into a Panzer race towards Moscow and be as exciting as watching grass growing. No risks, no fun.
Therefore, as I wrote in my introduction, I went several times a year (from 1936 to 1941) into the save.txt and I gave a time boost to all units in theSoviet production queue. Right now, from the Arctic to the Black Sea, the Soviet Army has over 2.5 million men. Half a million more can be added counting the troops from the Far Eastern and Caucasus Theaters plus some ten thousands "magically" appearing (ICE events) in different big cities when the Wehrmacht approaches.
On the Eastern front, there's now a troop ratio of roughly 2 against 3 in favour of the Soviet side (and almost unlimited manpower : 3000+).
But playing "historical" means also trying to follow the organization and doctrines. It is particularly true with the manpower and IC allocation.
Some MP issues...
German organization, IRL, tended to favour the creation of new divisions rather than to fully reinforce the depleted ones. In game, that means I will follow the list of units to build for the year to come (see excerpt below), put them in the production queue and ONLY THEN I will consider to reinforce the damaged units more than at the actual rate (ca. 8-10%). Priority will be given, obviously, to the armoured/motorized (and SS !) units.
My own, however historical, production list
IC allocation will follow the same pattern :
First consumer goods (a priority in Germany till 1943), then the IC points needed to keep the production schedule of the "historically-required" units (I made a time-table for that -see above-), then supply, then minimum reinforcements (10 pts max until all units are in the production queue, this mainly to cover naval and air casualties).
After that, Upgrades and other productions/reinforcements will share the remaining IC points (if enough are available, which is very doubtful).
Divisions having their TO&E drastically modified and/or the very mauled ones will be sent to the rear to be re-equiped/reconstituted. I will then be forced to a kind of rotation, as it was IRL.
This way, I hope to have a faithful reflection of the historical situation of the German army during the war, particularly on the eastern front. I strongly expect that these restrictions will turn the Russian Campaign into a real challenge.
Since the evolution of the game is very likely to be different from the History (I seriously hope !!!), divisions and corps will be assigned differently as time goes by. To a much lesser extend, this will also apply to armies and army groups but I'll try to stay "historical", or at least coherent, as much as possible.
I will divide the 1941 German OoB into several parts (6, so far I can figure) to make it easier for the reader and to comply with the forum rules.
Map and battle plan for the first stage of 'Barbarossa' will be on a separate update/post so you can open it in a new tab and still be able to consult the OoBs and armies objectives without having to scroll up and down all the time.
Thanks for following this AAR and have fun ! Serious things will begin very soon...
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I must say I have never seen someone attempt something like that. Sounds insane. You are adding your extra mechanics to an already complex invasion in a complex game, just to make it even more challenging.
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If I wanted a real challenge, I would have played the Soviet side too and added it to this game save.txt. I even considered it for a while but it would have required too much time, alone for the OoB research, so I gave up. I must getting old...
However, I confess that I've never made it that much in HOI3 but since the game allows it, why not ?
I guess I did too...No, I just underestimated the effects of your chosen strategy
Manpower speaking, on the eve of 'Barbarossa', I'm exactly in the same situation Germany was 70 years ago and the future doesn't look particularly bright either. If something goes wrong during the first stage of 'Barby', my divisions will be out of steam before reaching Moscow.
Thrilling... Love that !
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You need some extra MP other wise you won't hold that much... not as much as the Wehrmacht did in Rl
Unfortunatly, I have to live with what I have... That's the purpose of playing historical.
Units management, rotations between East and West will be the key if the Russian campaign had to drag on.
Nope.
I have a slight to moderate superiority in land doctrines (and in all navy-related techs as well as industry).
All in one, Land and Air techs (and air doctrines) are very close, though in different fields.
The Soviets still use mainly the BT-7 tank as Arm. The main problem will be the JSII (!) they already have as HArm.
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good luck indeed! but RL, Germany had a lot of free MP when Barbarossa started... problem is the game when starting '36 there is no way to build all the units and still have some guys to call later