28th November 1944
28th November 1944
Tiso and Tuka have assembled the ruling elite for a cabinet meeting. The worst part is that the motley collection probably is the best that fascist Slovakia could scrape together. Trying not to think too hard about that, Tiso began the meeting.
"Lets get military matters out of the way." Tiso ordered.
"Should be fairly quick, nothing was happening yesterday so things should be fairly quiet." Tuka agreed.
"Nothing is happening right now." General Kubela agreed, almost succeeding in not looking shifty. Almost.
"But?" Tiso was long practised in the ways of the Slovak General Staff.
"Last night the 1st (Bloody Cold) Division was attacked in Savarsin." Kubela admitted, gesturing at the message.
3:2 odds aren't that bad for the defender. And Stalin has purged so much of the Red Army that none of the Soviet divisions have a commander. Plenty of straws for the Axis commanders to clutch at.
"That Hungarian division looks suspiciously pronounceable." Tuka queried.
"That's because they are actually Germans dressed up as Hungarians." General Malar joined the conversation.
"Why?" Tiso asked.
"To give them an excuse to run away?" Malar guessed.
"Which they did shortly after the second Soviet Tank division joined the attack early this morning." Kubela passed over the next message.
General Yeremenko has arrived with the 4th Tank Division to turn the tide for the Soviets. Even if the 72. Infantry division hadn't ran away, I think we can agree he was going to achieve that. Also of note is the 3 Fallschirmjäger division indulging the strangely popular pastime of "A parachute division dressing up in the uniform of a country that has no transport planes."
Tiso, like everyone else with eyes, could see where this was going and reached for his hipflask.
Kubela duly produced the final, entirely unsurprising, part of the triptych;
It is unknown how many of those Soviet casualties were caused by laughing too hard, but it is probably higher than anyone in Slovakia would be comfortable with.
"General Turanec messaged us just before the meeting that he is pulling back and intends to rally in the worryingly cultural city of Arad." Kubela completed his briefing.
Tiso forced himself to put the hipflask down as he knew he would need it later, the cabinet meeting hadn't even got to the Intelligence section yet.
--
Notes:
General Yeremenko was commander of the 2nd Baltic Front at this point, so he is very much slumming it by commanding a lowly tank division. The Soviets are massively short of generals and no-commander units are surprisingly common on the Easter Front (I have no doubt the units staring at Japan or guarding Siberia have all the best generals, as is required by the HOI3 AI).
On which note the AI approach to expeditionary forces remains baffling, the Axis countries do love swapping units between each other regardless of need or location.
Tiso and Tuka have assembled the ruling elite for a cabinet meeting. The worst part is that the motley collection probably is the best that fascist Slovakia could scrape together. Trying not to think too hard about that, Tiso began the meeting.
"Lets get military matters out of the way." Tiso ordered.
"Should be fairly quick, nothing was happening yesterday so things should be fairly quiet." Tuka agreed.
"Nothing is happening right now." General Kubela agreed, almost succeeding in not looking shifty. Almost.
"But?" Tiso was long practised in the ways of the Slovak General Staff.
"Last night the 1st (Bloody Cold) Division was attacked in Savarsin." Kubela admitted, gesturing at the message.
3:2 odds aren't that bad for the defender. And Stalin has purged so much of the Red Army that none of the Soviet divisions have a commander. Plenty of straws for the Axis commanders to clutch at.
"That Hungarian division looks suspiciously pronounceable." Tuka queried.
"That's because they are actually Germans dressed up as Hungarians." General Malar joined the conversation.
"Why?" Tiso asked.
"To give them an excuse to run away?" Malar guessed.
"Which they did shortly after the second Soviet Tank division joined the attack early this morning." Kubela passed over the next message.
General Yeremenko has arrived with the 4th Tank Division to turn the tide for the Soviets. Even if the 72. Infantry division hadn't ran away, I think we can agree he was going to achieve that. Also of note is the 3 Fallschirmjäger division indulging the strangely popular pastime of "A parachute division dressing up in the uniform of a country that has no transport planes."
Tiso, like everyone else with eyes, could see where this was going and reached for his hipflask.
Kubela duly produced the final, entirely unsurprising, part of the triptych;
It is unknown how many of those Soviet casualties were caused by laughing too hard, but it is probably higher than anyone in Slovakia would be comfortable with.
"General Turanec messaged us just before the meeting that he is pulling back and intends to rally in the worryingly cultural city of Arad." Kubela completed his briefing.
Tiso forced himself to put the hipflask down as he knew he would need it later, the cabinet meeting hadn't even got to the Intelligence section yet.
--
Notes:
General Yeremenko was commander of the 2nd Baltic Front at this point, so he is very much slumming it by commanding a lowly tank division. The Soviets are massively short of generals and no-commander units are surprisingly common on the Easter Front (I have no doubt the units staring at Japan or guarding Siberia have all the best generals, as is required by the HOI3 AI).
On which note the AI approach to expeditionary forces remains baffling, the Axis countries do love swapping units between each other regardless of need or location.