The Cascade
As the armies of the Vatican and the Bourbon Empire fought to hold their ground againt the elite soldiers of the German Army, it became increasingly clear that the Holy Roman Empire was the key to winning the war. Nearly all of the major progress made in Europe had been primarily the result of the Imperial army's incredible strength, and this trend continued into the summer of 1948 with a pair of major victories.
In May, Imperial troops fully occupied the former Baltic lands, eliminating Germany's presence in the far north and allowing Imperial soldiers to begin moving south toward Germany proper. June brought the annexation of Poland into the Holy Roman Empire, closing the final front of the Empire's centrally-located wars, leaving the only active fronts against Germany in the west and the Ottoman Empire in the east.
As Imperial forces gain victories Poland and the German far north, forces move southward to crush German resistence
Operation Blue Ring
Field Mashal Bergonzoli cursed his talent for being assiged far from home. As a General, he had been sent to Bourbon Sudan to lead the armored invasion of Imperial Abyssinia. Now, while most of the Holy Army was in Italy fighting against the Germans on the home front, the promoted Field Marshall was in Holy Roman Imperial territory preparing for yet another foreign invasion.
Still, though, Bergonzoli would take Germany over Africa any day. The Field Marshall, easily of retirement age and beyond for a man in his line of work, sat in an improvised command center within Imperial-controlled German territory, situated south of Berlin. With reinforcements from Poland and the northern Baltic regions streaming southward in increasingly large numbers, Bergonzoli had been ordered to orchestrate the final, decisive capture of Berlin and end the back-and-forth fighting over the German capitol.
By this point the aging leader hardly looked composed. His jacket hung wide open to reveal a sweat-stained undershirt, and he spent more time seated in his chair than doing anything else. But the fact remained that Bergonzoli was the Holy Army's most brilliant commander of armored and mobile forces, which was why he had been entrusted with 20 divisions for the capture of Berlin.
With 8 tank divisions and 12 mechanized divisions at his disposal, Bergonzoli broke Operation Blue Ring into three stages.
First, a large-scale assault into Cottbus would isolate German forces penetrating into Imperial territory, allowing all available forces to be committed to Berlin. Second, armored divisions would move north to encircle Berlin, meeting with Imperial troops on the northern coast, before beginning the final siege of the German capitol city. With that completed, Bergonzoli would be free to move westward and link up with the rest of the Holy Army near France.
The proposed plan of General Bergonzoli's mission to capture Berlin, codenamed Blue Ring
From his command room, fully furnished with a small prayer chapel and several large bottles of expensive aged wine, Bergonzoli received daily radio updates on the progress of his operation.
The initial thrust into Cottbus went smoothly, and within a week the German forces caught behind ALCN lines were annihlated, their entire forces killed or captured. The second stage of the opertion likewise proceeded without a hitch, resulting in the complete encirclement of Berlin by the end of July. The final phase, however, was the most challenging: a massive bombardment of Berlin to soften the city up for the final assault.
The European front, as the ALCN gains dramatic ground against Germany
===
I'm really pumped!! One because I finally got an update done, and two because the HRE is just facerolling Germany! Berlin will be a tough nut to crack, but the downfall f Germany is now almost completely assured
