Cabinet Meeting Mid-August 1944
0000 August 16th 1944
Reichstag Building, Berlin, Germany
"Gentlemen, we couldn't call a cabinet meeting in early August as everyone was pretty much busy. Not that now it's that much different, but with the West front almost closed we can afford a cabinet meeting. Julius, let's start with you."
"Thanks Martin. Things are indeed rather busy, and I'd start with the busiest one: the Eastern front. Von Rundstedt and von Manstein have provided me with detailed, up-to-date information about the front, as there are some new, interesting facts."
"What was a thrice-divided front - led by Heeresgruppen Nord, Mitte and Sud - has now become 'Nord' and 'Sud', with Heeresgruppe Mitte helping both, especially the latter. von Rundstedt leads the calmer Nord, Guderian is in charge of Mitte and von Manstein's Heeresgruppe Sud has most of his troops in Romania. We can clearly see, however, that most of our troops are concentrated in the southern region. We have recently abandoned Brest Litovsk and the marshes of Bielsk are soon going to be occupied by Soviet troops, further threatening not only the outskirts of Warsaw, but also another serious breaktrhough - after that of Stryj.
Talking about Stryj, von Manstein and von von Rundstedt have authorized to divert a large quantity of divisions to the South to launch a counter-offensive in Stryj. The aim is to close the gap made by the Soviet thrust in the region, so to free troops that can be used to close the hole left by Heeresgruppe Mitte that is currently, almost all of it, attacking Stryj."
"What do we fear, Julius? A Soviet breakthrough?"
"The matter is that we have no more space to trade for time. We've shortened the line at its maximum without threatening any important site - say, the oilfields of Ploesti - but our numerical and qualitative inferiority is still noticeable. Heeresgruppe Nord can hold his theatre for now, but with the loss of Stryj things in the South are deteriorating. That is why Heeresgruppe Mitte is aiding Heeresgruppe Sud, even if it means taking the risk of yet another Soviet breakthrough in Lublin-Warsaw."
"Alas, that's too clear. Western front, please."
"Here comes the good news."
"What once was the glorious Operation Overlord has turned to a disaster for the Allies. Simply put, we've captured eight of their divisions, though nine have escaped their fate. We're capturing nine more divisions in the Le Mans pocket, and we're soon capturing Brest and Lorient guarded by five divisions. We can expect this front to be closed in a week."
"Things start to be slightly brighter again, then."
"That's not all. Hausser's forty-seven divisions can be redeployed in the Eastern front - leaving five-six for coastal defense - but most importantly perhaps, the whole Luftwaffe can be used once again against the Soviets. This will help us immensely in Heeresgruppen Sud and Mitte combined thrust in Stryj."
"When can we expect the Luftwaffe to be operational again?"
"The Luftwaffe did not pay its duel with the US Airforce lightly. We had to divert every plane to the West to achieve air superiority, and our Luftwaffe did suffer a certain degree of damage. I think, however, that we still have a fairly good amount of strenght to achieve local air superiority - at least that's what we need in Stryj."
"Italian theatre"
"Things are worsening a bit. No breakthrough, but the British did bolster their lines with some more divisions. Perhaps we'll want to transfer some divisions from the victorious ones in France to Italy, just to be sure."
"Good enough, I'm sure Hausser wouldn't mind if we ferry some of his divisions to your command in Italy. Now on with production and supplies. Albert?"
"Yes, indeed. I have a few good news here. First it's a report from von Ribbentrop, who has recently acquired enough funding to arrange a new deal, this time with the Romanians."
"It is not much, but it will keep the Luftwaffe running at full speed for some days."
"Our Industrial base has dropped by forty-seven factories since July 20th. That's mostly because of territory losses in France and Russia. Recent gains in France however make me expect this number to grow a bit soon. Our stockpiles look fairly good, with Oil being the biggest problem. Our manpower pool has dropped a lot as a consequence of the huge production percentage allocated to reinforcements. The numbers shown here are wrong, as it doesn't count the fact many of our divisions are in combat. We still expect to use another 200,000 of our reservists to reinforce our divisions. Dissent is being slowly reduced and it will stay that way. Talking about Transport Capacity, there's little we can do about it at present. It's over the top even with the loss of many partisan-riddled territories to the Soviets, but our limited industrial capacity cannot do wonders at the moment. "
"When can we expect to start upgrading our units, Albert?"
"Alas we'll still need time. It's still August and we need to wait until October before Winter starts giving us some relief and time. If we can hold our current lines till October-November, I think it's safe to assume that we'll be able to mount a decent counter-offensive for the next year, now that we've almost closed the French front."
"Good to hear that things are going better and we can even expect to react against the Soviets! Now Joachim, I hear you have a handful of reports to show us."
"You are right Martin. I have some handed by our Finnish allies too." Von Ribbentrop had several reports concerning the status of Germany's allies.
"As you can see, they are surprisingly holding ground against the far superior Soviets. They did lose some ground but their situation does not look critical at the moment. We have seven divisions helping them and we'll use them in case their situation starts to become dire."
"Our Japanese ally is seeing no progress in China, but no loss either. We can see however that their forces are spread too thin and it is unlikely that they'll ever make a breakthrough."
"Well, at least they're not losing."
"No, not for now Julius. Not much has changed, and that's a positive thing for us, in such times. But there's another interesting event."
"The Japanese have attempted to secure a beachead in Australia. Now, we don't know how long they'll manage to hold that divisions alive there, but it's still a pleasure to see the IJN alive and kicking... or perhaps it's just the Americans who haven't pursued their hunting too hard. Either way, such events can only make us smile with hope. Elsewhere, the Japanese haven't lost so much ground to the Americans either, so that can be seen as a good thing too. The more they hold the Allies, the more we can concentrate against the Bear the next year."
"I agree Joachim. Our allies are doing a great job and we'll show our gratitude one day by defeating the Soviets. Julius, I know you have some other things to say."
"Indeed, Martin. It's still of the 'no news, good news' mood, and I personally like it too.
"As you can see, the Japanese did lose some ships but fortunately it's mainly transport ships and only one Carrier. We've managed to keep the Kriegsmarine almost intact with the loss of two Destroyer flotillas and some submarines damaged. The USN and the British Royal Navy lost only transport flotillas, but with the few means at our disposal that can be considered a success. Let me remember that they were trying to establish another beachead in France, and our U-boote had been immensely important to prevent this."
"Gentlemen, that's all good to hear. Even if the Eastern front isn't, to say the least, in a really good shape, we can clearly see it's still possible to turn the tide. Now let's see if it's possible to do the same against the Soviets. I will see you all in September, and let's hope this Winter comes early." Martin Bormann ended the meeting.