Chapter XXXXVI - The Allies are making a new move
Players: 2xSOV, USA, UK, 2xGER, JAP, ITA
Recap: As of now, thanks to the Japanese reinforcements, the German East Front is fairly ok. There’s even a chance an offensive can be pulled off in Slovakia with a panzer offensive. But the German leadership has no great illusion. If a couple of divisions can be destroyed it is good enough. It would be good though. The Yanks will do something soon enough and this time, if Germany move away all their tanks from the East, the Soviets will reach Berlin.
The question is where the Yanks will attack. Perhaps Spain. If they manage to open up Gibraltar we are lost. They could do France again, but perhaps they have learnt the lesson by now. It is a dangerous place to be. Perhaps they will try the northern entry. That will be awesome in many ways. A sudden death of sorts. But Spain is most likely.
……………………………..
March 3rd, 1944
By the North Eastern front, the Germans had built a fairly stabile front. Along the majority of the front line they have strong defensive positions (blue line) and the mass assaults by the Red Army all ended up with a lot of dead Russkies. But the front line had a weak point (yellow line) and the Red Army focused a lot of its attacks here – and the Wehrmacht continuously counter-attacked.
March 4th, 1944
Wronki was a critical province. It was the province that, if it was held by the Red Army, threatened the entire Danzig-bulge. Everytime the Red Army took it, and reinforced it, the Wehrmacht attacked. The Soviets did what they could to soften up the entire frontline and a lot of men died here during the cold early spring weeks.
They Japanese infantry played a crucial part here, merely to tie down Soviet formations until the elite German units could arrive and deliver the serious damage.
March 6th, 1944
The Red Army was thrown back with severe casualties while the majority of the Axis losses were Jap infantry, which were easily replaced by the hordes of Jap replacements.
March 27th, 1944
Through entire Mars, the Red Army attacked time and time again and even fired V1 rockets on the Germans lines – but the defense held. The superior Luftwaffe, equipped with jet engines, brand new air frame models and air-to-air missiles managed to do a little bit better against the numerously superior enemy and the ground troops had an easier time concerning enemy bombing runs.
February 27th, 1944
In the South East, the Red Army had reached as far as to take Bratislava. Now, however, it was time for the Panzers of Legends to strike back. The initial part of the attack went well and rather big formations of Soviets were on the retreat. By now, Ztalin knew to fear the German offensives, no matter how beaten they seemed to be.
March 4th, 1944
Bratislava was retaken and although it was difficult to dislodge the Rus from the woods, there were a great battle in Nove Zamky (yellow circle) where the Red Army took a serious beating. Out in the open, the German panzers simply cut the Soviet infantry to pieces.
It seemed the major part of the Soviets in Nove Zamky retreated southwards towards Komarno were a battle already had been commenced.
March 5th, 1944
The battle of Komarno was won pretty fast and the Soviets fleeing out of Nove Zamky were surrounded and threw their weapons (blue cross). It is uncertain how many divisions were crushed here but probably as much as 4 or 5 where one could have been an HQ. Although not much, these victories were important for Germany as their army shrank rather than grew.
March 12th, 1944
The German, or actually mainly Japanese, onslaught continued and numerous but weakened Soviet divisions fought desperately to hold their relentless enemy at bay. But they could just not withstand the fury of the Axis assault.
The German Commander of the West, and now also Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe, won the air space over the offensive area. He could report a massive bombing success. When the German bombers, with their high tech radar guided bombs could work without fear from Soviet fighters – they gave the Soviet troopers hell. The Stukas picked of T34s with great effectiveness.
March 10th, 1944
And then, just when life yet again seemed bright for the Axis, came the Allied attack. Spain was the target, as was rather expected. Although quite expected, the Axis had not had the recourses to put here. Their lines were already stretched rather thin.
This would become painful…
