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MID WEEK Q&A

Sorry for the late uploads, guys. Lots of things happening, and I'd rather be late than upload something of poor quality. :) I'll try to be on time next sunday.

No, the game has been pretty stabile.

Thank you, sir. Hopefully you'll make it through the next 50 pages too. :)

Yes. It's one of the more fidgety things to consider and write. How would the more social parties handle this? Just look at post ww2 where Churchill lost the election in a landslide to the socialist government of Clement Attlee. The world does not want anymore Empires.

It's weird. I think he would be more for pulling together with Germany against Russia. But that is lost now that the war is back on.

Slowly.

You might get what you wish for. I am just hoping they'll handle their own in the Pacific against the Japanese. I'd love to protect India and Oceania and let the Yanks handle the invading.

That is a real possibility.

Politicaly that would be a nightmare. To be seen giving up Scandinavia, especially if we can hold the mountain terrains with specialised troops. However, with the Swedish entrance in the war it's hard to bottleneck the Red army anymore.

Also, yes, saving the French screwed us in the end.

Not a bad idea. I do believe we need to start a global Red Scare. Shouldn't be too hard with Stalin doing most of our work.

It was, until they decided to annihilate the Swedish fleet. I do not believe the German fleet can leave the Baltic though, with us in control of Copenhagen and the pass there.


The Balkan nations have to choose sides now, the wolves are at the door.

I know. :(. At least we got a month of catching our breath.

We should be able to take Berlin this spring. Then we'll squeeze the nazis right out of power.

Yes, the Russians walked right into the trap of thinking Germany was down and out.

On it's way to India. I believe we can take the Mediterranean Kriegsmarine with what we have there. It's time for us to pay attention to Asia.

Yes, we should have enough firepower, along with the naval bombers to handle it.

Yes, we'll see how many we can turn. But I believe we need to take Berlin first, or close to it. Then Bulgaria, and Hungary will see the light. But right now they need the German reinforcements and we are too far away to help.

Yay! Helping boost the paratrooper research. We need to finish researching paratroopers, and transport planes. and then make 1 division and 1 wing. We should have that ready by summer 1942.

It's interesting to see.

If they link up with Italy, we take Berlin, the Axis war should be over.

Haha!

We'll see what they do. They're holding the Maginot line, and Luxembourg, so that's something.

Hopefully Montgomery can push a hole from Denmark into Germany with 2 armoured divisions and Swedish infantry.


I kinda agree, and disagree. It certaintly feels like a clusterf*ck right now, and I had the same thought. But when you think about it so was WWII too. It's only in retrospect that we polish the events to make some sort of narrative. So a war that involved the phoney war, the allied plans to bomb soviet union, the fall of france the vichy government and a naval battle between Britain and France (WTF), The year where everyone thought the war was lost, the African mess, the lend lease help from the US, the slow build up of tention towards japan, the two times Italy had to fall, etc etc. it all gets boiled down to "Germany took over Europe and the US and the Soviet Union took over Germany".

Same with this war, I can certainly see us boiling down the war into "Soviet Union and Germany invaded Poland, the Allies declared war, and a long trench war begun."
I'm saying it will be more like Hitler and Stalin invade eastern Europe, allies intervene
 
America wouldn't agree to that. It might offer the Japanese Manchukuo.

An ultimatum delivered by Hull implied that Empire must leave entire China, so including Manchukuo. That's why both options so much seemed same impossible: but fighting America with marginal chances for victory still seemed as lesser evil.

Recognition of Manchukuo, oil shipments and stopped support to Nationalists (from Burma and Indochina) are absolute minimum to convince both the Emperor and Tojo.
 
Yes. It's one of the more fidgety things to consider and write. How would the more social parties handle this? Just look at post ww2 where Churchill lost the election in a landslide to the socialist government of Clement Attlee. The world does not want anymore Empires.

In all probability most of the party will stay on, Stalin haiving made himself pretty unpopuar even pre war (Tony Benn used to remark to his colleagues in the RAF that there was only a cigarette paper between Hitler and Stalin, and this was when Stalin was on their side). It is likely that the Labour Party in government would push for negotiation with Stalin, but if that fell through it seems unlikely that they'd be shy of using force, just look at Malaysia OTL. It's probable that they won't ever get back Maxton and his lot, but saying that that'll lead to them ending uponly slightly to the left of the Tories is ridiculous, to be frank.
 
An ultimatum delivered by Hull implied that Empire must leave entire China, so including Manchukuo. That's why both options so much seemed same impossible: but fighting America with marginal chances for victory still seemed as lesser evil.

Recognition of Manchukuo, oil shipments and stopped support to Nationalists (from Burma and Indochina) are absolute minimum to convince both the Emperor and Tojo.

Faced with either resolving ambiguity or TOTAL WAR, the Japanese choice was probably correct! Sadly, the real life not being Darkest Hour, the American AI showed them the error of their ways.

By the way, one reason I like this AAR; it's nice to see someone play a game from the good guys perspectives. The Axis Victorious ones are impressive tactically sometimes, but...
 
Can't you have control over the french armies ?
No, twice. Because France leads the alliance, she will never accept. From a roleplayingperspective, the French and British never had a common high-command.
 
No, twice. Because France leads the alliance, she will never accept. From a roleplayingperspective, the French and British never had a common high-command.

Britain is alliance leader, and as far as having a common high-command goes, I can't recall that ever really happening in the Second World War. Closest you get is something like SHAEF, but even that wasn't a case of the overall command of a nation's armies being given away.
 
For new readers:
- Japan never joined the Axis
- France invaded and captured Italy
- Hitler and Mussolini are dead
- Sweden joined the Allies
- Soviet union is at war with the Axis, as well as the Allies




19 - 26 March '41 - The destruction of the 68e Division d'Infanterie


"Count the towering dead
Lay down the iron helm of war
bring forth the lamb of sorrow
why rage, why rage at all?"

- Dylan Thomas, 26 March. 1941 -



Intro.jpg


London.jpg

(Enemies of the Axis. Spring, 1941)
The war rages on. Churchill and his staff went to Paris a few days ago to personally offer their condolences to the President and Prime minister. General Montgomery took Hamburg this week, and The Germans must be close to a revolution now. It's late March. 1941. And the war with the Germans is almost over.


HAMBURG IS CAPTURED:
Hamburg.jpg
On 18:00 24. March. The Battle of Hamburg is over. It took only a day as the German army is still in disarray. General Montgomery has done what seemed to be impossible only a year ago. He landed in Denmark and pushed 500 miles with the support of the Swedish, and now Canadian reinforcements. The soldiers call him "The Spartan General". He linked up with the British army on 26 March in Luneburg as the Battle of Hannover kicked off early this week. This is an immense victory. The end of the war is in sight.


FRENCH REINFORCE COPENHAGEN:
Reinf.jpg
The moment that changed France begun on 21 March when the French in their infinite blunder began shipping troops to Copenhagen using their own auxiliary fleet. A few weeks ago the French government had told Churchill they would continue fighting the war, but hoped to do so in a manner that would see them take as few casualties as possible. The British government reluctantly agreed. This agreement saw them reinforce the Maginot line, Stockholm, Italy, and Copenhagen. The French rejected any help from the British in moving the troops and naval support. The only forces close by was a few Norwegian destroyers.


AMBUSH:
Battle.jpg
06:00 23 March. The large submarine fleet backed up by the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe from last week assault ambushes the French Auxiliary fleet in the Copenhagen straits and begins to open fire on the weaker fleet. The French main fleet is hours away. Admiral Karl Dönitz is in charge of the operation. The man who sunk the Swedish fleet, and the creator of the Red Wolves tactic. Now he has another notch on his belt...


THE SINKING OF THE FRENCH AUXILIARY FLEET:
Sinking.jpg
The rest of the French fleet arrives on 24 March, but it is too late, the majority of the transport ships have been sunk and the survivors barely make it to the Danish islands, or on civilian ships in the vicinity. 15 000 soldiers are believed drown in the disaster. That is the entire French 68th Infantry division. The Royal navy is still hours away, and we refuse to enter Baltic water as it is too dangerous. We do however send the RAF to Denmark in an agreement with the French government, bringing air support to the brave French fleet there.


PUBLIC OUTRAGE:
Outrage.jpg
If the Germans believed this would be the final nail in the coffin for the French support of the war they were gravely mistaking. In a surprising turn of events the horrible catastrophe only served to rile up the French anger against the terrible huns. And for the first time since the before the outbreak of the war, support is at an all time high. Prime minister Paul Reynaud doesn't know how for how much longer this patriotic support will last, but he took immediate action to use it.


THE SIEGFRIED LINE BREAKS:
Line.jpg
The assault on the Siegfried line begun yesterday. The generals there have been waiting for this day for years and they know how and where to strike. The Germans on their side are vastly outnumbered and retreat is called. The fall of Germany is within grasp.​


AT THE GATES OF MUNICH:
Munich.jpg
General Ironside on the other side has not been faffing about either. His men crossed the Alps last week and by pushing through undefended German territory now finds himself at the gates of Munich. The Germans have been pushing hard against Yugoslavia, but realised their foolish mistake, and are now diverting efforts back. We believe Munich will be reinforced within a few days. That should give Ironside all the time he needs. With all of these evens happening we have a real opportunity to link up Ironside with Montgomery and Gort in the north and in doing so, cutting off 14 German divisions to the west.


JAPAN OR USA:
JapanUSA.jpg
With all of these great strategical victories it's easy to forget our war with the Soviets. But when Germany falls we are in dire need of a plan. Program Sidney has come up with two different solutions, both with their own massive problems. One would be Japan: A fascist nation that is on the war path, and might as well be our enemy. But they used to be our friend, back before we sold them out for a friendship with the Yanks. And they hate the Soviets as much as we do. We could use their help on the east, forcing Staling to remobilise. But an alliance would bring us in direct opposition to the US. Not to mention that the Japanese army has suffered several embarrassing defeats against the Russians the last few years.
Then we have the USA: A natural friend of ours, and for the last year President Roosevelt has done all in his power, save declaring war on the Germans to help us out. But they have no real army, and bringing them into the conflict against the Russians would take time, a lot of time. Not to mention it would bring us into direct opposition to the Japanese empire, and there's no doubt in my mind they would hesitate in declaring war on the British empire. But we need powerful friends... And soon....

England Expects.



End.jpg









 
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A very nice AAR! I've been following it for a while now - it's one of my all-time favourites.

I think we should tread carefully with Japan. It would be nice if they joined our war with the Soviets, but if this means difficulties with the US then it's definitely not worth it. (Unless... the USSR launches an all-out invasion after the inevitable German collapse)
 
Excellent update @MacGowan

Souvenez-vous de la Soixante-Huitième!
Hopefully this cry will rally the french people against the nazis and the soviets.

Be careful with Japan, yes in the short term they will be more useful against Russia than America would but in a year or two after an hypotetical US entry into war, the yanks will grow stronger that Japan could ever dream of.
Not to mention the wild card of Pearl Harbour, how would the United States react if a country allied of Great Britain come to attack Hawaii? Do you want to end up in a situation where you have to garrison —or worst, defend— Canada? You might as well surrender Europe to the Soviets already.
 
The Tyrants in Germany fall for good. May the Germans get a better government this time.

Also lets hope that we discover the camps so we can try most of the nazi leadership and hang them high!

The Wannsee conference was in January 1942. It's possible the holocaust never began in earnest.

Not that there won't be enough to hang Goering anyway.
 
What about balkanize Germany into Rhenish Republic (fr puppet), Kingdom of Hannover (br puppet), Bavaria and Prussia, and of course free Austria?

Versailles was a mistake...but only because Entente was too soft on a beast :p this time, you shouldn't make this mistake again. Especially when French revanche rages now and you need their regained élan to fight Soviets afterwards.
 
Don't balkanize Germany, nor go too harsh on it. Otherwise we'll get another war in 20 years.
Just make a democratic government, de-nazify the nation and support their entry into a friendly democratic state.

Also, US is far stronger and a better long-term ally then Japan.
 
Don't balkanize Germany, nor go too harsh on it. Otherwise we'll get another war in 20 years.

It's not harsh. If I wanted to be harsh, I would propose dismantling of entire German industry and complete collapse of it's economy and society to irreparable degree.

Partition of Germany, without reparation or long occupation, seems elegant and justifiable to me: and you can still use Krauts from these smaller states as cannon fodder to save your own boys :)

de_hann3.gif
 
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I would suggest against a partition of Germany. We need all Europe behind us against the Soviets, and should make this our goal.

Germany should be occupied by the Allies, and a volunteer force allowed to form to aid us in the fight. For now the Polish question can be kept under wraps by limiting this German republic to the West of the Oder-Neisse line, and declaring the area beyond that the Zone of Battle.

Across the rest of Europe Germany's allies should be encouraged to join us, and her conquered territories liberated. This means Czechoslovakia, along with Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. In some cases, revisions of Versailles may be necessary. The Istrian Peninsula should certainly be given at least in part to the Yugoslav's, and further corrections may be necessary to redress outstanding territorial concerns. It is however advisable that, for the moment, we let these lie, save with the obvious promises of the return of Polish and Romanian lands lost to the Soviets.

We should also pursue an alliance with Greece (to complete the European goal and give us an added stop against a Soviet move Southwards into the Mediterranean), and the United States, who will surely prove useful in the wider conflict. An alliance with Japan is an interesting prospect, but I do not think they could be convinced to pursue such a war.