Well, I've had a couple major problems which might spoil this post, so I'll put them at the end... I'm going to try to keep this short, sorry, I guess I'm just frustrated that it's sort of ruined now.
Polish OOB January 1945:
The original Polish army of 1939, to which no new Polish units have been added, is contained within the 1st and 2nd Army of the 1st Army Group under Rydz-Śmigły’s Warszawa Command, the defensive line HQ. Both Armies consist of five Corps of five divisions with some sprinkling of Allied divisions. Mostly, they are three brigade divisions of future tech’d Polish infantry.
The four brigade Polish divisions of ‘39 which were under Anders’ Prussian command, were placed into four Corps under the “Reserve Army” of the “Reserve Army Group” which is now under Rydz-Śmigły’s Warszawa Command. After the ‘39 offensive into Prussia the divisions were used to fill in gaps of the Polish defensive line.
As the Allies brought expeditionary forces to Danzig, Rydz-Śmigły distributed them along the front until all the gaps were filled. This was achieved with seven Corps of allied divisions of mostly infantry, some marines and engineers, and even fewer artillery and armored cars.
Once the gaps were filled, new arrivals to the Polish front were placed under Ander’s Command, the offensive arm of the Polish forces to be used as a counter-attacking or exploitive asset. As well as a Lithuanian watch dog, since Lithuania gives Germany military access. Ander’s command consists of five full Corps of all Allied forces.
1945-1947
Now his fourth year in office, Wadyslaw Sikorski understood the pressure Rydz-Śmigły had been under to do something. Poland had bought her allies time. Nearly six years they had to prepare, but now was the time to act.
Sikorski’s foreign minister, Paderewski, made the trip to London to meet with the allied heads of state. He came with an ultimatum. Sikorski had tried repeatedly to parley with Stalin, offering transit rights that were flatly refused. Since occupying Finland, which had joined the Axis after conceding territory in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1940, Stalin had made no moves against Hitler. It was clear that Stalin had no intention of assisting the allies, and only preferred to wait for Hitler to crush Poland before invading Europe himself.
Sikorski’s plan was a bluff, but he had made Paderewski believe it, and he hoped his allies would too. It was time for an open declaration of war on the Soviet Union. Since Japan’s surrender, things had been quiet in Asia, and Sikorski believed if the British were to begin operations there against the Soviets, that Stalin might be prompted to defeat Hitler before the Allies and Hitler defeated Stalin.
Paderewski issued Churchill Sikorski’s ultimatum. If he did not declare war on the Soviet Union, Sikorski would surrender Poland and all of the allied forces stationed there to Hitler.
Sikorski’s bluff was not called, and just before the Chinese new year, British forces began pushing out of Pusan. Within weeks they had gained Korea and had begun occupying Russian Manchuria. The Red Army responded by furiously pouring into German occupied Poland. Just weeks before there had been a strong concentration of Wehrmacht forces there that were now on their way to assist Italy. France had blitzed into Genoa on New Years Day and were driving towards Venice.
Once again the German high command showed it could not handle so many fronts at once. The Wehrmacht seemed to disappear overnight, tied up in redeployment somewhere, but nowhere on the front lines. French divisions of the Maginot Line pushed north in hopes of liberating Holland, and for just a moment the world held its breath while it looked as if Hitler’s thousand year Reich were about to collapse. Instead, it had only stumbled.
Slowly the Red Army’s drive was brought to a halt, while France’s offensive in Germany was beat back to the Maginot Line. Italy, however, was left alone to deal with France. By the end of February France had severed Northern Italy from Rome. A British task force lead by Eisenhower, the veteran of the invasion of Japan, had landed in Italian Albania in order to tie down Italian forces in the Balkans, which enabled France to quickly occupy the lightly defended Italian peninsula.
Poland had survived on its own for nearly six years. Italy didn’t even last six months. On 27 May, 1945, the fascist Italian government surrendered, agreeing to stand down and make way for new democratic elections. Italy severed ties with the Axis, and Hitler could not spare the forces to keep Italy from going.
By July, things were once again at a stand still. Britain’s Manchurian offensive had ground to a halt, while Stalin’s had done the same in central Poland. The Red Army seemed as reluctant to take on the Polish fortifications as the Wehrmacht had been.
The sleeping giant, however, was showing signs of waking earlier that year, as an American task force had arrived in Britain. All through August the allies debated what should be done with this task force. Churchill wanted another amphibious assault, while Roosevelt was apprehensive after Eisenhower had been interned with the failed balkans invasion during the Italian campaign.
Instead, it was Hitler who would decide where the GI’s would go. In September he launched a winter offensive deep into the Ukraine towards Crimea. In three short months the Wehrmacht had occupied more territory than it had all through the war. By December the Soviet’s had lost their Black Sea Naval Base, Sevastopol.
Berlin was only 329 Km from Danzig, where the American task force arrived on 4 December 1945. An early Christmas gift. It was Poland’s turn to play Stalin’s game. The Allies would use the Red Army as their hammer to destroy the Wehrmacht. Once the Red Army occupied Germany, Poland would drive south with Anders’ Army until it once again shared borders with neutral Romania. Trapped, the Red Army would then be destroyed. Or, at least that was the plan.
But right now, the Red Army needed help. Anders’ pleaded for a drive to Berlin. With the American Task Force, his army group had grown twice its size and now contained ten corps. Rydz-Śmigły gave him the green light, and the bloodiest phase of the war for Poland began on December 6th, 1945.
It was clear that Poland had a local numerical superiority near Danzig, but it still took nearly a month for German defenses to crack. By the end of February Rydz-Śmigły knew Anders offensive had been a success. The Red Army had cut the Wehrmacht’s line of retreat and trapped them in Crimea. France made a few sorties along the Maginot Line to keep German honest. March 10th, Allied forces were only miles from Berlin, but by then Germany had redeployed its force and halted Anders offensive. On 15 April, with the Red Army approaching Warsaw, Rydz-Śmigły ordered a full retreat to Poland’s fortified line.
The Red Army would not step foot onto German soil until July, 1946. The Wehrmacht made the Red Army bleed for every foot of Germany until on 7 February, 1947, Hitler surrendered to Stalin.
Hopefully to be continued.
Problems
1st: Everything that happened in 1947 I have lost the screenshots of. Can you only hold 120 screen shots in your HoI III screenshots folder? For some reason it just stopped recording them after the 120th.
2nd: And I should have seen this coming, but since I've never made it this far its never been a problem. The game ends in 1948. But I'm not dead yet! Is there any way to extend a savegame after the end date?
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