Battlefields and Politics: USSR

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1939 July-1939 December

The Royal New Zealand Air Force

The German Kriegsmarine

1939: The year the world went to war
On June 9th Germany declared war on Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg and Belgium. As it was already at war with France, Britain, South Africa, Ireland, New Zeeland and Poland the war had truly become global.
Denmark and Luxembourg fell fast, being annexed and puppeted respectively. The Netherlands and Belgium however put up a good fight and invaded Germany. They made progress because Hitler had declared war to soon and the troops were still redeploying from Poland to the Western boarder. As The Dutch and Belgians got pushed back disaster struck Germany.
The Kriegsmarine North Sea battlefleet encoutred the Home Fleet and was severely mauled. KMS Schliesen and KMS Schlesweg Holstein were destroyed by HMS Hood and HMS King George V. The biggest disaster was KMS Tirpitz, which was struck in the magazine by a shell from HMS Royal Oak
The German Baltic battlefleet met the Swedish Navy the next day and was suprisingly mauled. The Bismark was sunk and four more Heavy Cruisers also were sent to the bottom. This dashed any hope for Germany to invade Scandinavia.
The same story was not unfolding on land. The Dutch and Belgians were pushed back and soon the Germans were in France. The war turned very ugely from there on, in a repetition of World War One there were huge battles fought on the river Marne. By September 20th Paris fell, the French however fought on and on and on......
It was only on December 26th that France surrendered.
In the mean while the Red Army had been developing docterines; Mechanised offensive, Tactical Command Structure, and Assaukt consentration to name a few.
After the development of these new docterines and by studiing the campaign in France the Red Army noticed the importance of combined arms operations and for that reason 40 new light armoured brigades hgad been ordered to upgrade the Motor Rifle divisions. Also 12 new Inantry divisions were beying formed.

Diplomatic Developments

July 22nd

October 28th​

 

[unmerged(171833)]

@Forster: I was hoping that Germany would DOW me. And yes I did do the MR-pact, because I want as much land between the Germans and Moscow.

 

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1940

1940: The Arsenal of Democracy
The year of 1940 was quite uneventfull for Mother Russia. Most of the fighting was being done on the continent were a massive air war war raging between Nazi Germany and Great Britain, and between german annexed Denmark and Sweden. The Swedes were holding out because the British had stationed over 350,000 troops in Sweden. And because of thier naval superiorety.
However technically some major improvements were made to the Red Army. The first was the development and producing of the T-34. This medium tank would provide the backbone for the Red Army armoured Corps troughout the war. The second one was the development of more modern planes, notable the Iluschin Il-2 Sturmovik.
Because of these technical development the Red Air Force was greatly expanded to 1900 interceptors, 400 tactical and 600 close support aircraft.
The Red Army had also expanded with several rocket brigades being produced and a additional 30 infantry divisions. The Light Armoured brigades had also been produced and now almost all of the army's armoured or moterised divisions were combined arms.
The most important news was that the USA declared war on Germany, this tipped the scale in the favour of the allies, ecpecially because Germany had not yet called its supstantial allies to arms.

The new Il-2

Red Army Doctorine was under steady development

Diplomatic Developments​

 

[volksmarschall]

Lots more Axis and Allied Nations this time around it looks. I wonder how that will play out for you?

Btw, the French are finished yet again. Should we be surprised?

 

[Forster]

@Forster: I was hoping that Germany would DOW me. And yes I did do the MR-pact, because I want as much land between the Germans and Moscow.

Well, I guess you will have two years from the date of the pact before you ask your partner to dance.

 

[unmerged(171833)]

Guys, just a notice to you all who are reading. I am changing the difficulty level back to normal, because I had a little look at the German AI (summer 1941) and it has 6 Million men under arms. 1300 inf brigades 260 arm and whole load of marine and paratrooper, it also has a IC of 529 (12 Bismark class BB almost done). And it has 23 MP left.
At this time I have all of 2 million men under arms. So if i contineu like this I have no chance in hell. :wacko:

 

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1941

Every year brings us closer to victory! Panzers, your arm! Never was so much owed by so many to so few.
1941: The Year of Re-Armement
The Red Army docterine had developed so far into armoured and combined operations that when Rokossovsky came with a revolutionairy proposal it was accepted without mutch hesitation. Rokossovsky proposed to make a army composed of only armoured units. This army would exploit a gap made by itself in the enemy front line, and then without heed for resupply charge trough the gap and sow mayhem in the rear of the enemy line.
The creation of this new army had quite a effect on the production of war materiels in the USSR, first of all the light tanks which had been the core of the Red Army were replaced with the more modern T-34. Also new armoured divisions with the new tanks were produced. The artillery of these new divisions was also new, self proppeled katusha rocket launchers.
As this grand program was underway Stalin recieved some bad new, the Wehrmacht had a active stregnth of over 6,000,000 men. Compered to the USSR's 2,000,000 to fix this problem 40 new rifle divisions were called up. Diplomaticly 1941 was a slow year, to slow for Stalin he gave his army the job to secure his southern flank by ordering a invasion of Yugoslavia for early 1942.

On other fronts there was a great stalemate. In Sweden the German breaktrough had been brought to a standstill and then driven back over the Denmark straights. The Luftwaffe and Royal Air Force struggeled for suprmacy over the air, while a violent battle raged on for the channel Islands. On the sea the Royal Navy had taken a battering by several new Bismark class Batlleships.​

The new T-34

Rokossovsky in action​

 

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1942

1942: The Balkan Situation
STAVKA came with a very straight forward plan for the invasion of Yugoslavia. As in Romania and Finland big infantry attacks would pin the Yugoslavian army in place while the tanks of the 4th Kharkov Armoured Corps and Rokossovsky's two armoured Corps broke trough in the south. The operation was run by Rokossovsky, toghether with Kharkov Army. Southern Front would assist if neccesairy with two more armoured corps. In total 30 Infantry and 17 armoured divisions would be deployed in a lightening campaign.
On March 19th the Red Army struck. In the south they found that some sectors of the front were not defended, and the light armour of the 4th Kharkow Corps charged going straight for Beograd. In the North attacks were mounted all along the front. The Yugoslavian army had been taken by surprise and it was soon falling back with appaling losses to its troops. By the 26th of March the armoured attack by Rokossovsky's I corps had been only lightly contested. But 4th Krakov advance was blocked by hastely assembled Yugoslav units. This was the crusial moment. Rokossovsky II corps made a direct assault and soon they were trough. Now in the North, to seal the fate of Yugoslavia Southern Front 12th and 13th corps with 10 armoured divisions between them attacked. Yugoslavia surrendered on the 7th of April.
Stalin was very pleased by the performance of his Red Army, for minimal losses Yugoslavia had been conquered and turned into a puppet. This however brought other problems. Greece and Italian occupied albania and Italy itself now surrounded a vunreble Yugoslavia.

 

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The Motherland calls YOU!

A sniper shoots from afar, but never misses his target!
1942: For the Motherland!
The USSR's Diplomaticc overtures had not made alot of progres getting Bulgaria and Turkey to join the Comintern, so as to make sure that this would happen the NKVD was asked to help a hand. Soon enough Bulgaria and the Turkish communist parties were gaining ground. In fact, it was such a succes that soon there were russians spies operating in Switserland as wel. None of this however was truly important news. The main news came from Vichy France. Having been lured to join the allies Vichy declared war on Germany. The Germans started weakening the eastern front, to fight this new threat.
STAVKA was called to a meeting and there and then it was decided that the USSR would go to war with the axis. The Russian western front was devided into three 'fronts' or army groups. "Baltic Front" was commanded by Chuikov and had the objective of surrounding East Prussia. "Western Front" was commanded by Sokolovskij. Its job was to liberate Warschaw and push back the germans along the entire front. "Southern Front" was commanded by Voroshilov, its job was to kick Hungary out of the was as quickly as possible. The last, but not least was the "Yugoslavia Front" it was commanded by Christyakov. It was also supported by Rokkosovsky's tank army. Thier job was to protect Yugoslavia and sieze any oppertunities. The only problem was that to the south, Yugoslavia's boarder was ungarded exept for 3 under strength Yugoslav divisions. So STAVKA had to scrape the last reserves toghether and send seven divisions there.

STAVKA's plan, light blue cirkles are apporoximate range of air cover.
The eastern Front STAVKA was not sure about, Machukuo seemed to have a formidable army. But STAVKA was not very keen to believe that information.
The Russian Far East thearter was quite strong. And there where 15 additional mountain divisions which could be deployed -in one and a half months time- in Yugoslavia if things turned out bad. Or in the far east.​

 

[loki100]

brutally effective plan ... going back to your earlier post re army size, presume theres still more than enough Germans on your borders to put up a stiff resistance?

 

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brutally effective plan ... going back to your earlier post re army size, presume theres still more than enough Germans on your borders to put up a stiff resistance?

wel I assume they have at least one or two divisions in each boarder province, for Hungary probably three. But they have the superstack fight going on which costs them like 700 brigades, plus a huge battle near copenhagen. This combined with the fighting around Vichy should make it manegeble
Im glad you like my plan!

 

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Chrush the enemy under a avalansh of Steel!

1942: For the Motherland!
On the 6th of September 1942 the USSR declared war on the Axis powers. Planes roared overhead as thousands of interceptors swept in to clear the sky of any german war planes that might be around. Il-2's attacked road junctions and railway stations. The three fronts also launched thier attacks.
Baltic Front
Chuikov left the big hook which was to encircle East-Prussia in the capeble hands of Konev and his tanks corps. However before Konev attacked the way was to be cleared by infantry. As this was happening on the Southern flank of the Baltic Front a other armoured corps was supposed to cut off the salient of Memel. However half of the armoured troops were out of supplies, so the attack turned into a real fight between German motorised troops, and Russian cavelry and light tanks.

German troops however fell for a clever russian ruse. Chuikov had left one sector of the front ungarded in the hope that the Germans would attack into it, once inside the Germans would be attacked from all sides and destroyed. The plan worked to well and the germans attacked in such strength that reserves had to be called in. Once resupplied two more armoured divisions joined the attack on Memel. Also two hundred Sturmoviks were called in to pummel the German positions with machine gun and cannon fire.

Western Front
On the western front the germans were woken to a symphony of Stalin's Organs. After that Russian infantry attacked the german positions in strength to open up a hole trough which the tanks could advance. Some of the provinces boardering Hungary were lefrt ungarded because it was thought that it would be to perilous to protect those provinces. Also, if the germans attacked them they would have to abandon them quite quickly lest they be out-flanked.

Southern Front
The Southern Front would see the invasion of Hungary. Hungary would be attacked from the south, because it was concidered to dangerous to attack trough the mountains to the east. Also most of Hungary's important sectors were in the south. The russian attack was once again led by infantry, but supported in some places by tanks. The Hungarians fought a lot less well than the germans. They were not trained as wel or as wel armed, they also badly led. This ensured that within six days the whole of the Hungarian southern defence line was destroyed. Soon there had been two major breaktroughs and tanks were heading for Budapest and for the important sector to the North.

Yugoslav Front
Out of the Adriatic morning fog came twelve of the best Soviet armoured divisions to show the Italians who was the boss. In no way can the series of engagements that the Yugoslav Front fought in the early days of the war be called battles. Within six days about eight Italian Divisions would be dastroyed and a other six would find themselves cut off and surrouned. The italians did launch a half harted attack in the north but it was stopped dead in its tracks by entrenched russian infantry. There were however problems in the South. the italians were advancing over the greek boarder into Yugoslavia. So a armoured corps was diverted to slow them down while other reenforcements arrived.

Overvieuw
By September 12th the russian armies were doing very wel, Hungary was almost finished and some pockets had been made. Or were in the make. Also a armoured divisions was advancing on Warschaw and the memel saliant had collapsed. The combat value of the Russian soldier was proven, a russian and a german were almost equal fighters. But because the germans were heavely outnumbered they had the worst of the initial engagements. Between them Hungary and germany lost about 40,000 men. With Italy losing another 40,000. Russian losses had been light, some 20,000.

 

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A German soldier of the 3rd motorised divsions runs toward a destroyed Russian T-34.
For the Motherland!
STAVKA was very pleased with the war results so far, the only true setbacks had been suffred in Asia. The Machukuo army was a lot better trained and much larger than expected. So STAVKA decided that the new mountain divisions would be deployed in Asia. This could be afforded because Hungary fell faster then expected, and because consumer demand dropped seriously allowing 10 more Infantry divisions to be built.
Baltic Front
Chuikov was very pleased with Vatutin, and Konev. They had made a good start to encirceling East-Prussia. Also the Memel saliant had been dealt with bagging three German divisions. The fighting had been hard. Escpiecially a german motorised division had caused Konev major problems. This was the 3rd Motorized infatry division. However one division could do very little against the four Red Army Armoured divisions facing it and within three days it had been completely destroyed. Soon Warschaw was under attack from one of the leading Motor-Rifle divisions. It was defended by a joint infantry-marine division who held out until two more Russian infantry divisions arrived.
Western Front
The Western front was very succesful from 12-16 September. It managed to break trough the German defence line and soon -according to the principles of Deep Battle- Motor Rifle units were speeding forward to take key airfields.
Southern Front
Southern Front was the star player. It managed to force Hungary to its kneas in just ten days. The Hungarian army was less powerfull than anticipated tough and thus it seemed that the amount of troops the Southern Front had was slightly out of proportion. Hungary was puppeted because its army was considered usefull for any further attacks on Germany, and Slovakia. It was also Southern Front that now started a major Strategic redeployment into Yugoslavia to deal with the Italian forces there. And to liberate Greece from the fascists.
Yugoslav Front
On the sectors assigned to the Yugoslav front all was relatively quiet. Exept for Rokkosovsky finishing off the Italians near the Adriatic, who were now all surrounded on a Island off shore.

SitRep 16 September. The blow up is a few days prior to the rest of the map.​

 

[Darth Moose]

AI Germany has 6 million men in the summer of 1941? My Germany has a lot less, I have ~ 100 combat divisions IIRC, and 500 MP, for ony 1.5M men...

 

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AI Germany has 6 million men in the summer of 1941? My Germany has a lot less, I have ~ 100 combat divisions IIRC, and 500 MP, for ony 1.5M men...

Thats strange, the German AI is out of manpower tough (37 left). But with most its army tied down fighting in the West I should be able to deal with Greece and liberate most of Poland before it comes and gives me a hard time .

 

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Forward to the West!
For the Motherland!
On the 17th of September Hungary broke down Chaos. After being liberated by the Red Army it declared war on the Axis, only to surrender to Germany and be annexed. The Hungarian Railways however were full of Red Army troops moving by rail towards the Slovakian boarder. Sometimes forcefully but mostly co-operating the Railway services decided to let the trains run as there were no German troops in Hungary yet.

Baltic Front
In the north Baltic Front had almost managed to close the encirclement of the Germans defending East-Prussia. Warschaw was also now totally surrounded, and being assaulted from three sides by combined arms forces. Light Armoured units were meanwhile racing toward strategically important points such as Danzig, and major Luftwaffe airbases.

Warschaw was captured on the 20th of September. The German mixed division defending it had been mauled by Red Army forces, and by local partisan forces. And had been forced to surrender as soon as supplies ran out.

Southern Front[/U]
As Red Army troops started assembeling at thier jump-off points near the Slovakian boarder, the rest of Hungary was once again liberated by the Russians. Also, the 1st Southern Front Army had been re-located from Hungary to the Yugoslavian boarder to take part in the liberation of Greece toghether with a Tank Corps. In General German resistance had been very light. And STAVKA was thinking it would be able to reach the German boarder before a reorginisation would be neccesairy, to let supply trains and the infantry to catch up. Once the offensive would be reassumed the Red army would be stronger than ever, the line of advance was shorter -From the Baltic coast to the Italian boarder- which ment that the amount of troops per kilometer of frontage went up.[/FONT]

 

[unmerged(171833)]

If there is anyone who wants, I could continue this AAR. I stopped because I forgot to save a game, so I would have to start one or two months prior to last post.

 

[unmerged(55774)]

I would continue if you think the Germans even have a chance or till you at least take Berlin.

Do the Germans even have a chance or are they tied up in the West?

 

[loki100]

I'd take it to Berlin, thats always a good end point for a Soviet AAR , also with the shift to 1.4, probably no longer such an idea to go on for a World Conquest?

 

[Nikolai]

Please continue, this is a good aar.