9th October.
The Slovak cabinet are meeting bright and early on Monday morning, sort of. Well it's actually 10:30 and they've only just stared, but Tiso and Tuka strongly believe it would be dangerous for the country's leadership to burn the candle at both ends. And that's not just because Slovakia has run out of candles and lacks the knowledge, resources and technology to make any more.
"Kubela can you give us the general overview?" Tiso asked.
Kublea got up and reached for a selection of photographs.
"And we don't mean pictures of our generals from above." Tuka warned.
Kubela sat down looking disappointed.
"We want to know how the war is going and what is happening in the Race to Bratislava." Tiso clairifed.
Kubela got up and started to unroll a very large map.
"Firtz!" Tiso yelled.
"I'm sorry every Chief of Staff is allowed at least one Map of Many Things." Fritz explained.
"At least?!" Tuka yelled. Louder.
"Theoretically if the first one isn't terrible then he is allowed another, and so on until he does produce a terrible one."
Relieved that this would almost certainly be the only map from Kubela, Tiso left his hipflask in place.
The Slovak General Staff's Map of Many Things - October 1944 Edition.
Tiso and Tuka took a moment to try and comprehend the map. Tiso liberally used his supply of liquid inspiration to try and help.
"So what is happening in Italy." Tuka decided to start with the easiest bit.
"The British have accepted the surrender of the Italian Social Republic, so all the Italian troops have changed side, but the rest of the Axis holds firm. This makes the actual front line a bit confused at present." Malar explained.
"Why did the British only liberate half of Italy?" Tiso asked.
"They didn't liberate any of Italy, the just made the Italian Social Republic a puppet state." Kubela said.
"But they now have a democratic" *spit* "government?" Tuka asked.
"Not really." Fritz handed over the latest intelligence briefing.
The new Italian Social Republic in all it's... Glory? It's a Totalitarian Constitutional Monarchy that holds elections, all under Not-King Eduardo Moroni, Mussolini's former minister for Agriculture. The PFR are the Partito Fascista Repubblicano (Republican Fascist Party), which was Mussolini's old party, hence why the entire government is Fascist.
Deciding that was a can of worms best left to fester, Tiso moved on.
"Down in the Balkans, any news from the French invasion?"
"The Foreign Legion is firmly encamped and staring at the Croatian Army." Kubela said.
"And the Croatian Army?" Tuka prompted.
"Is staring back."
"Not attacking?" Tuka ventured.
"No." Malar pointed at the latest intelligence map from the Independent State of Croatia
It could be the British carrier aircraft that are keeping the Croatians from attacking the encamped Foreign Legion. That's the generous interpretation anyway. The French have no real excuse for their inaction.
"We think they are waiting for the 74th Unpronounceable Division of Bulgarians-wearing-German-hats to come down and do the job." Kubela explained.
"And the British invasion of Finland?" Tiso gestured at the top of the map."
"German Intelligence believes they were heading for the German industrial centre of Mannheim and got lost so ended up in the Finnish islands of Mariehamn by mistake." Baron von Killinger offered.
"So they invaded Copenhagen, forced the Oresund, fought through the narrows of the Baltic Sea, invaded a small pointless island, went back through the Baltics, de-liberated Copenhagen and did all that by
accident?" Tuka screamed.
"Well how else do you explain it?" von Killinger growled.
Tuka's yowl died in his throat, how did he explain it? As his colleague grappled with the question, Tiso reached for his faithful friend and comforter, long ago having realised it was better not to enquire too deeply about such things.
--
Notes:
I thought this would be a quick one, then I loaded up as Italy. Edoardo Moroni to give him his correct name was Mussolini's Minister for Forest and Agriculture. Obviously he looks nothing like his Paradox picture and in the game files he is Foreign Minister, hence the error message under his name. Not a nice chap, he ended up in Argentina post-war fairly high up in Peron's government. Of the rest of those ministers three were already dead by the summer of 1944, not least Head of State Achille Starace, and two of the others are fictional, or at least didn't serve in the actual RSI government and don't show up on a quick google search.
The Western Allies are massively behind OTL schedule, no Dragoon landings in the South of France and no invasion of Greece will do that, they should have liberated Belgium and France by now, however they are at least ahead of the game in Italy. The Soviets meanwhile should be rampaging through the Baltics, occupied Romania and Hungary, forced Finland to surrender and be up to Warsaw and the Vistula.
It is hard to say who is doing worse, apart from Paradox obviously as they have done a terrible job on this scenario.
Map of the OTL European fronts for 1st October 1944 as a comparison -
Linky
And I have no idea why, or even how, the British AI invaded a small island of Finland that contains a Lev1 port, no VPs and nothing of any interest, value or use.