Nathan - Didn't break the TC limit until well into Barbarossa, due to two things. First, the mod in question can be a little over-powered on IC, therefore TC, and second, knowing that I was going east, I took every TC-maximizing tech available. Well, that, and Greater Germany has the greatest highway system
ever.
Hannibal - Sorry, you're SOL on this one...
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2. The Drive to the East
The year 1943 saw the introduction of the weapons that would conquer the Sowjets. Early in the year, the Reichsheer finished arbitration of the Krupp-Porsche dispute over construction of the most modern armored fighting vehicle in the world, the PzKpfW VG "Panther" (PzKpfW being
Panzerkampfwagen, literally "armored fighting vehicle" - trans). The Panther was defined by its heavily sloped armor and its long-barreled 75mm gun, ideal for the destruction of the light tanks which made up the majority of the Sowjet armored force. Simultaneously, the Reichsheer adopted a replacement for the MP37, the stamped-metal MP43. The MP43 was revolutionary for a number of reasons, not least of which was that its ease of production made it possible to issue every infantryman, over the next several years, with a fully-automatic weapon. It was a program with the Fuehrer's personal blessing, based on his experiences at the tail end of the Great War.
Figure 60: The German soldier on the eve of the Sowjet war was the most superbly equipped and trained infantryman in the world
As of the middle of 1942, the Fuehrer had already made clear that Germany's next move would be to the East, against the Sowjets. A Reichswehr staff study originating in October made the following points:
1. The Sowjet army numbered more than a thousand official divisions. Including garrison forces, Germany could muster 750 divisions.
2. Sowjet military thinking had been stunted by the lack of practical experience since Germany had withdrawn from cooperation. The conclusions Germany had reached in Poland and the April Wars had been largely neglected east of the Bug in favor of Premier Stalin's insistence on a static defensive line.
3. Years of close exposure had shown that the Sowjet frontier was impenetrable during the first four months of the year, first because of cold systems, second because of mud. The ideal invasion period began with the first firming of the ground.
4. In reference to the third, firming occurred south-to-north; as a result, any offensive Germany wished to launch would probably trigger in the Ukraine before in Byelorussia and the Baltic.
Based on these four points, the High Command devised a plan focused on a rapid, stunning blow in the Ukraine, designed to fragment the Sowjet defensive line in that region before the weather conditions changed in the north. It was expected that muddy conditions would hamper Sowjet attempts at reinforcing the Kievan front badly enough that a deeper penetration could occur. The Fuehrer approved the operational concept, with the addition of an airborne assault meant to secure the banks of the Dnieper and speed the armored thrust. It was expected that this Ukrainian operation would result in the destruction of as many as a hundred of the Sowjet divisions facing the Reich.
For the first months of 1943, units moved into position near the Reich-Sowjet border and Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop carefully extracted Germany from the existing non-aggression pact between the two countries, which the Fuehrer had maintained so long as it was convenient. By May, all was ready save for the weather. On May 10, intelligence agents on the Sowjet side of the border reported that the border roads were sufficiently firm to allow rapid movement of the armored forces.
Figure 61: Fallschirmjaeger landing along the Dnieper Bend, May 1943
Just after midnight on May 11, 1943, the Reichswehr in Berlin transmitted a single word to all units along the Sowjet frontier:
Barbarossa. Simultaneously, Arado transports rumbled off the runways in Romania and Hungary and the guns opened along the Sowjet border. Incredulously, commanders along the border continued reporting the following exchange between front units and STAVKA in Moscow, transmitted in the clear:
FRONT: We are being fired on; what shall we do?
STAVKA: You must be insane. And why is your signal not in code?
The breakthrough was shattering; early results were sufficiently surprising to both sides that the Fuehrer approved the release of von Blomberg and Hausser in the north with massive Luftwaffe support. Despite muddy conditions, they achieved their objectives more than a month ahead of schedule. A week into the invasion, Kiev had fallen in the south, von Manstein was driving for Kharkov, Guderian was driving for Baku, and Hausser was wheeling to cut Leningrad (modern Flottenburg) from Moscow. Along the Don bend, SS general Dietrich engaged in a series of cut-and-thrust battles with Sowjet forces mustering vast numerical superiority, but no backbone. In the Crimea, Lieutenant-General Walter Model had bottled the Sowjets up in Sevastopol (modern Augustendorf). Intelligence sources indicated that rather than the modest hundred-odd divisions that the Reichswehr had expected to eliminate, the German army had achieved numerical parity, if garrison forces were included. It only remained to cleanse the pocket formed in the Pripet Marshes, a task Field Marshal von Blomberg arrogated to himself as the front outraced his relatively static headquarters.
Figure 62: The front after one week of fighting
Recognizing the danger, the Sowjet government fled Moscow to Gorky; in the meantime, Reichsheer forces encircled Kursk and Kharkov before cutting the thirty to forty divisions trapped therein to ribbons. It was here that General von Manstein invented the technique that led to his reputation as an expert streetfighter; he paired units of assault guns and
Sturmpioniere (asault engineers - trans) at platoon level. In cases where the infantry bogged down, the assault guns were used to level buildings and allow the infantry to continue to advance. The technique was rapidly disseminated, and von Manstein received his Knight's Cross for the stunningly fast reduction of Kharkov.
Figure 63: "Manstein's Hammer:" Sturmpioniere advance as a StuG III creates a breach in Kharkov
In a gamble, General Fedor von Bock gathered every division available in the center and thrust into the partially-encircled city of Moscow. On June 4, three weeks after crossing the frontier, he accepted the surrender of the last remaining defenders of the forty-one divisions which the Sowjets had mustered to defend the city. General von Bock established his working headquarters in the Kremlin Arsenal, which was badly damaged by room-to-room fighting, but at least provided a roof for his reception of the Fuehrer, who arrived within days leading a high-ranking Party delegation. The Fuehrer presented him with a field marshal's baton and the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross on the spot before receiving a delegation from the Metropolitan of Moscow, Sergius, who hailed the Fuehrer as liberating Russia from the yoke of Bolshevism.
The Metropolitan, an aging man who had led the Russian church for the past decade, requested the Chancellor and Fuehrer's permission to call a conclave of Russian church leaders and nominate a new Patriarch. The Fuehrer, according to the diary of his military aide, Otto Gunsche, replied to the delegation, "So long as Russia stays quiet, the old man can call his circus." Publicly, of course, the Fuehrer hailed the liberation of the Orthodox Church from Bolshevism as one more step in the elimination of Communism. It was hardly surprising, given Sergius's decisive influence within the Russian church, his long opposition to Sowjet policies, and the Reich's unique historical status as Russia's conqueror, either that Sergius became Sergius I, Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russians, or that he was, for his nine living months as Patriarch, a vociferous supporter of the Reich against the Bolsheviks.
Figure 64: German "tourist" officers, including Air Marshal Goering, inspect the wreckage of the STAVKA command center during occupation period
During this period, thirty divisions, including the six paratrooper divisions which had been allocated to the Dnieper landings, encircled Stalingrad (modern Ostkampfsburg) in the south. On June 13, 1943, the Reichsbanner was raised over the Barrikadi tractor factory, at the same time that General von Manstein dislodged the Sowjets from their makeshift capital at Gorky. A week later, SS General Hausser set up his headquarters in the Hermitage in Leningrad. Germany now faced a decision regarding forming an occupation government; the Fuehrer was absolutely explicit: no negotiation, no puppet governments, no liberation until the Sowjets were utterly destroyed, at which time the German government would negotiate only east of the Urals. Reichskommisariats were established in short order in the Ukraine, in Moscow, and in the Caucasus, setting up local government as the Reichswehr advanced further east. By July 1, 1943, General Guderian had occupied the critical oil fields in the Caucasus. The Sowjet Black Sea fleet was forced from its anchorages and fueling yards, and the Reich sortied its own Black Sea fleet, led by the battlecruiser
Niederdonau. In one afternoon,
Niederdonau single-handedly sank the Sowjet battleship
Parishkaya Kommuna, the cruiser
Krazni Kavkhaz, and four destroyers, the first fleet victory for the Reichsmarine since the Great War.
Figure 65: The Russian Front after six weeks, July 1943
The Reichswehr continued its eastward thrust unabated, chasing the Sowjets out of makeshift capitals until finally, in December of 1943, the "Union of Sowjet Socialist Republics" was reduced to a final pocket around Vladivostok. Mountainous terrain slowed the relentless armored advance that had pursued this far; however, Lieutenant-General Ringel of the paratroopers was ready to assist. Ringel's troops had a superb fighting record, having reduced the few allies the Sowjets had by daring jumps into Ulan-Bator, Kyzyl, and Irkutsk, often weeks ahead of resupply efforts. The paratroopers loaded into their transports once more, and in the last freezing days of 1943, dropped near, then assaulted into, Vladivostok.
Figure 66: Arado Ar 232 transport aircraft, the backbone of air transports during the Sowjet War
The paratroopers held Vladivostok, but the Sowjet government fled one last time, barely outrunning Ringel's troops and escaping to Sakhalin by fishing boat. From Sakhalin, Premier Stalin exhorted the last remnants of the Red Army to resist, calling on the name of "Holy Russia" despite the fact that the Patriarch of All the Russians had deserted him when Moscow fell, calling on all Russian Christians to resist the Bolshevik menace. It was not until February 1944 that armored forces broke through the Sowjet defenses north of Vladivostok and linked up with Ringel's troops, who had been resupplied continuously by air; it is for this reason that today's airborne warfare school's graduation exercise is the Ringeldrill.
Figure 67: General Julius Ringel, conqueror of Vladivostok
Ringel and his troops, with no rest or re-equipping, made one last jump during the Sowjet War. On March 6, 1944, the exhausted paratroopers boarded their transports one more time, checked their equipment one last time, and landed in Russian Sakhalin. Premier Stalin was captured during the predawn assault, along with Ministers Kalinin, Beria, and Molotov, among the few survivors of the Politburo. For the horrifying conditions that German troops had found throughout Sowjet Siberia, Stalin, Beria, and Molotov were placed on trial for crimes against humanity; their generals followed for lesser crimes. Among the prime witnesses against them - for their criminal handling of Sowjet armies thrown headlong into the teeth of German armor - was General Andrei Vlassov. General Vlassov was a former Sowjet officer, known for his relative competence and compassion for his men. He was recalled by General Guderian, who had encountered him during the Reichswehr's pre-Hitler Rapallo phase, and offered the possibility of assisting in the pacification of post-war Russia. Seeing that Reich government was better than Sowjet government, Vlassov accepted.
Figure 68: On March 6, 1944, the final cease-fire order was issued from Sowjet Sakhalin
During the closing days of 1943, General Guderian, momentarily military governor of the Caucasus, had proposed a radical plan to cement the Reich's position and ready the future was against the Western powers. His plan, in brief, was to overrun Turkey and Iran in a rapid campaign, giving the Reich a border with French Syria and British India in addition to securing the vast oil reserves of Persia. Not to be outdone, Obergruppenfuehrer Hausser proposed a similar plan for Finland, citing the need for Germany to establish absolute dominion in the Baltic. The Fuehrer approved both operations; by Christmas of 1943, Guderian's field headquarters were established in Bandar Abbas, and SS-Gruppenfuehrer Krueger and Lieutenant-General Dietl had made their famous handshake in Ankara. In Finland, Hausser established an occupation government and began the extension of the Reich's superb rail and road network.
In nine months of constant, brutal fighting, the Reich had reached the Pacific; however, the Fuehrer believed that the vast Sowjet hinterland was ungovernable from Berlin, and asked Minister Rosenberg, the Minister for Eastern Affairs, to head up an Economic Cabinet subcommittee to draw up plans for self-government east of the Urals. It would be a full year before his task was complete and the Reich's eastern border was more or less permanently fixed.
Figure 69: The Reich's finalized eastern border, 1945
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Yes. It was
that fast. I really expected the Soviets to put up more fight.
EDIT - Stole another Bundesarchiv pic that shows how Manstein got "Urban Specialist." Because two sentences about von Bock's capture of Moscow didn't really do it justice, I expanded a bit there; he did in fact get promoted to field marshal at this point, the first field marshal of mobile troops (mech/mot. army). Figured I'd throw in Sergius's elevation to Patriarch, which is in essence the Reich's one act of conciliation and explains why Reichskommissariat Moskau had such low partisan numbers.