Die Volksarmee - A Militia-Only German AAR

[TehDarkMiner]

"The army is not just a body of soldiers, it is the expression of the will of our people."

A militia-only Germany? Almost. I will have artillery, anti-tank, armour, engineers, etc., but I will not have a single infantry, motorised, or mechanised brigade in my army.

Since the interesting part of the AAR is the war against the USSR, I will not go into any great detail regarding the operations in Poland, France, Yugoslavia, Denmark or Greece.

 

[sebas379]

An interesting concept, count me in!

 

[TehDarkMiner]

Cool

 

[HIMDogson]

Well, looks like Roehm got his wish.

 

[germandjinn]

interesting, will be following

 

[TehDarkMiner]

Well, looks like Roehm got his wish.

It seems so

interesting, will be following

Great

 

[TehDarkMiner]

1st of January, 1936

Infantry was a relic of the past. A relic of the Great War. Hitler, of course, knew better. Over the past few weeks, the German army had entirely dismantled itself, leaving nothing. Its tanks and infantry alike were destroyed. Germany would have to start from scratch, it seemed.

Of course, militia had their inherent drawbacks. Their inferior offensive capabilities means that corps wouldn't be so versatile, and Germany would probably have to create specialised units in order to maximise efficiency. The plan was drawn up to general approval.

A general infantry corps would consist of troops optimised for offensive actions. Generals with skills in offensive maneouvres would be chosen for these important corps, and they would be the bulk of Germany's army.

A defensive corps optimised for the east would have to fight against the Soviet Union's massive tank armies, often fighting behind rivers or around cities.

A defensive corps optimised for the west would be fighting against any landings in France. Since resistance is expected to be high, miltiary police are included in these corps.

Armoured corps would form the bulk of the offensive armies, along with the more numerous general infantry corps. Whilst they lack the speed advantage of their traditional motorised/mechanised counterparts, they nonetheless would constitute a large threat for the Soviet Union and France.

The expeditionary forces would be sent to locations such as Yugoslavia, Greece, and to intervene in any Allied intervention in Europe outside of France/Belgium/the Netherlands, such as a landing in Italy. They have the fastest divisions available to Germay, the armoured car divisions, which allow them to more quickly reach their destinations.

12th of May, 1936

The first militia divisions had arrived.

Their cheapness would only grow with the advancement of industrial technologies, but Hitler was already pleased with the speed of their production.

9th of June, 1937

The first armoured militia divisions had arrived today, as Germany exceeds the 150 brigade mark.

1st of July, 1937

Japan declared war on Nationalist China today, and Hitler immediately seized this as an opportunity to bring this aggressive Japan under the Axis banner - a suggestion which Japan agreed to with little delay.

 

[sebas379]

The first hordes of militia arrive.
It'll be interesting to see how the tanks perform with such slow backup units dragging them down.
Is the Inf component of the Armoured division mk 2 a typo or will you upgrade those units for the extra punch infantry gives?

 

[Hallongren]

It'll be interesting to see how the tanks perform with such slow backup units dragging them down.

On the bright side, SH Tanks might for once (in an AAR) come in handy. Since to their speed more or less matches Militia & the low manpower required to create them.

 

[Yearzero]

Is the Inf component of the Armoured division mk 2 a typo or will you upgrade those units for the extra punch infantry gives?

I wonder if in this case adding Cavalry to the Armor divisions would be a good idea while still fitting in with the Volksarmee theme of this AAR, as they do get slower as you upgrade them (But still inferior to Infantry in general IIRC)

Subbed BTW

 

[TehDarkMiner]

Is the Inf component of the Armoured division mk 2 a typo or will you upgrade those units for the extra punch infantry gives?

Whoops that was a typo, thanks for spotting that
I'll have to fix that.

On the bright side, SH Tanks might for once (in an AAR) come in handy. Since to their speed more or less matches Militia & the low manpower required to create them.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. I won't be pressed for IC either, and hopefully I'll still have aerial dominance in the east so they can actually do something. I might look into that

I wonder if in this case adding Cavalry to the Armor divisions would be a good idea while still fitting in with the Volksarmee theme of this AAR, as they do get slower as you upgrade them (But still inferior to Infantry in general IIRC)

Subbed BTW

Only problem with cavalry is that they actually have decent stats compared to militia
And thanks

 

[TehDarkMiner]

1st of February, 1938

Nationalist China, spending the latter half of last year under devastating bombings and relentless Japanese assaults, finally ceded their eastern coast to Japan. But while Japan had gotten gains early in the year, it would soon be Germany expanding its borders.

5th of March, 1938

Germany annexes Austria, and many Austrian divisions now come under the control of the German army. Naturally, being infantry and mountaineers, these divisions were disbanded and the Austrian manpower was added to the ranks of the Germans.

Bolstered by new manpower and industry, Hitler could begin a full-scale expansion of his army.

30th of November, 1938

It was Czechoslovakia who was being annexed now. After suffering the loss of the Sudetenland earlier in the year, Germany's rapidly expanding army was able to pressure the Czechoslovakian government into joining the new German empire.

14th of January, 1939

Suddenly realising that Poland might be next in the firing line, Britain was not so ready to let Germany take such a resource rich country for themselves, and assured Poland that the Allies would come to their aid if need be.

But of great danger to France and Britain was Italy, who presented a major threat to them both. Italy, under the rule of fascist Mussolini, had aligned itself with Germany over the last few years and had finally decided to only declare an alliance. The coming war was taking shape, but the last piece of Hitler's plan had to be put into place.

20th of March, 1939

Of great shock to the world was Hitler's neutrality pact with the Soviet Union that was signed today. This meant he wouldn't have to station many soldiers on the border with the Soviets when the time would come to invade France - a fact that may well lead to a German victory over the west. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, fresh from the Polish front, would be able to bolster the lines against France, giving Germany the edge it desperately would need.

Only one more update and we can get straight to the war!

 

[sebas379]

How far have you managed to expand the Wehrmacht? With the cheaper militia as backbone I assume your force is larger than useual, taking up more manpower in the process.
I can't wait to see how a horde of militia fares against well armed and armoured armies like France, Britain and the Soviet Union^^

 

[TehDarkMiner]

How far have you managed to expand the Wehrmacht? With the cheaper militia as backbone I assume your force is larger than useual, taking up more manpower in the process.
I can't wait to see how a horde of militia fares against well armed and armoured armies like France, Britain and the Soviet Union^^

I'll show you the state of the army navy and airforce in the next update. I doubt my militia will do so much as scratch the armour of the soviet and French tanks
Militia actually aren't too bad manpower-wise, so my manpower is fairly decent at the moment. Naturally when the war begins I will need to massively expand my forces if I want to compete with the soviets, which will hurt my manpower a lot.

 

[TehDarkMiner]

1st of September, 1939

With the war rapidly approaching, Germany's army had been in full preparatory mode for the last few months. In the war against Poland, 532,000 soldiers would be fighting on Germany's side. Slovakia was left unattended as it was hoped that a concentration of German forces on the western border would be sufficient to quickly overcome the Poles before Slovakia was in trouble.

For this, many bombing squadrons were assembled along airbases near the Polish border.

The army in the west was somewhat more sizeable. Covering the entirety of the border, including Belgium and the Netherlands, this army was hoped to stall the Allied forces until they could be bolstered with troops from the east after Poland falls.

The aerial forces here had a distinctly different nature. The British and French had strong enough airforces that they presented a threat to German ground troops, so this front was dominated with interceptors, once again, to stall the French until bombers from the east could arrive.

By this point, the German army had 41 air units and 450 brigades, most certainly a decent airforce and army.

In contrast, very little had been done navally. The navy had not been expanded with surface ships since before 1936, whilst 8 new submarine flotillas had been added over the last three years. Britain could not be challenged with such a weak navy, and invasions of Britain were not even being considered at this point by German commanders due to this.

But Germany held a strong enough continental force that this would not be a problem. And now, it was time to release this force upon Poland and the west. It was time for the militia to fight.

 

[sebas379]

inb4 the French steamroll the Westwall and carve your puny militia apart. Good luck Hopefully that Luftwaffe can keep the enemy's heads down.

 

[DKM]

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[GameKiller67]

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[Coombes]

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[Enewald]

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