LVIII - Furchtlos und treu
April - June 1929
As the progression of the months dissipated the icy weather across the southern front, the Italians focused on their latest target: Stuttgart. Home to over a quarter of a million people, this industrial city was vital to the war effort, and capture or destruction would be vital for the Italians to continue their advance. Its fall would be devastating to Germania. In late April the offensive began.
Renner was quick to realise that a new year with continued Germanian losses would be disastrous for morale and the war effort. In an effort to rally his people once more, the Kaiser spoke over the radio to issue his order:
"Kein Rückzug, keine Zugeständnisse, keine Kapitulation -" no retreat, no concessions, no surrender. Angered and saddened by the killing of his friend Franz Ferdinand, the Kaiser had taken an increasingly hard line on the nation's troops, and was determined to stop them retreating whatever the cost.
"It is now apparent," he said,
"that total victory requires total war."
On April the 3rd, total victory over Norway was achieved as the last bastion of the government, in Trondheim, finally surrendered. This freed up a relatively small, but well experienced number of troops who now were hurriedly transported south. Norway was, like Sweden, placed under military occupation, with all leaders imprisoned and a Germanian governor put in place. Norwegians who wished to were asked to serve in the armed forces.
Trondheim burned, but the end of war meant relief for Norway's citizens.
Suddenly and without warning, the Italian forces broke through defensive lines and pushed towards Stuttgart on April 29th. The Italians found themselves at a greatly reduced advantage, having lost any air superiority to the larger number of Germanian aeroplanes, as well as improved models - Messerschmitts were now a common sight and their recognisable drone became a source of fear for Italian soldiers. Von Blomberg was also careful not to waste the extra soldiers from the north who were now arriving.
The M.27 proved to be a ferocious fighter compared to weaker Italian planes.
But advance, they did, and by the fifth of May, Italian soldiers could make out the towers and spires of Stuttgart in their binoculars. Renner kept a level head. He ordered that every willing civilian - man or woman - would be given a rifle and ammunition. The time for cowardice had been and gone. Neither would the constraints of society hold back 50% of the population if they could fight.
Bombs and shells rained day and night. Fire-fighters bravely struggled to put out the flames despite the constant danger they placed themselves in. Even as Italian soldiers entered the suburbs, they were seen dousing fires as bullets and grenades shook the streets next to them, the suffocating smoke and ash filling their lungs. As Stuttgart burned, the Italian pincers closed in, bringing with them tanks and infantry into the densely populated city.
Residents hurriedly move a tram to assist fire-fighters putting out a blaze.
Small but significant advances were made, but within a few days the Germanians had stalled the attack to house by house fighting. On the 21st of May, a contingent of Italian forces under General Giardino attempted to further circle the city around the north, through the Cannstatt region and across the Neckar river. The first day yielded impressive results, reaching the river with minimal resistance - Germanian troops were caught mainly to the south. He looked poised to encircle the city and trap the Germanian soldiers fighting there. But Giardino was to find no peace in Cannstatt.
Attempting to cross the river, his troops were brutally cut down by machine gunners in the buildings across the river. Shelling the buildings in which they were hiding, Giardino again ordered his troops cross the river, and this time they were successful - until, yet again, they were held back by attackers now in the ruins, using the irregular piles of smouldering rubble as far better cover than any standard building could provide. Finally, by sunset, a small street had been established under the Italians across the river using sheer force of numbers. Aiming to push forwards in the early morning, the Italians set about rebuilding bridges across the Neckar. A subsequent night-time raid on the soldiers created chaos and forced most of the Italians back across the river, many falling in to their deaths. As far downstream as Besigheim, citizens noticed that the river ran red.
A bridge over the Neckar destroyed by Germanian troops.
Giardino recalled later:
"We were used to fighting civilians but not like this. Every step we took, another would fire at us until he was cut down, and then another would appear out of some window, behind a tree, even from the sewers. It was constant. To cross the river I needed greater manpower which, at that time, I did not have. My troops were confused and not used to urban warfare in such a manner. To be killed by women was simply shameful."
Von Blomberg, in private, willed that no street should be yielded to the enemy unless every soldier in the vicinity had fought and died for it. This was certainly coming true. The body count was mounting rapidly, both sides feeling the grinding effect of urban warfare, as it looked as though the Italian forces invading the city could be bled white. Their failure to take several important objectives, despite high casualties, was greatly frustrating. The railway station remained both largely intact and out of their control, despite being at times metres away from the Italian area of control. Communications to the city remained open as the telephone exchange limped on.
Danish soldiers run through a ruined street in the south of Stuttgart.
By dawn on the third day, large numbers of Germanian reinforcements finally arrived en mass in Cannstatt and pushed the Italians back, commencing the counter-attack. The heroes of Cannstatt had, in part, stalled the Italian advance.
The counter-attack was quick and unmerciful. Coming from three directions - the north, west and east - it overwhelmed the Italians in the north of the city, who had suffered heavy casualties - with superior numbers and fire-power. They were crushed again against the Neckar to the west, and against the hills to the south. Finally, on June the 2nd, Giardino ordered a retreat from the city - pride wounded, casualties and prisoners approaching the hundreds of thousands. The Italian 2nd Army was in disarray.
The Germanian counter-offsenive (click to enlarge)
Green - Furthest extent of Italian forces
Blue - Main lines of Germanian attack
To the east, Regensburg fell in mid May, but was quickly regained in another counter-attack with minimal damage or fighting. Germanian soldiers marching through the region found a great deal of abandoned armoured cars, tanks and other vehicles that presumably had been deemed useless by the Italians.
A pair of abandoned Italian Fiat 3000 tanks.
The reason was immediately apparent. Mussolini was running out of oil and coal. The problems the Turks were facing with revolts across their territories in Iraq and Syria meant it was hard for them to extract oil from the area, and imports from other countries were either too small to be of use, or sunk by the British in the Mediterranean. Transcaucasia, both in the middle of political problems and the enemy of Turkey, had no desire to lend any oil.
Germania's ally Japan also struggled with resource problems, but trade deals with Britain went some way to putting them in a better position. Their advance through the shattered states of China was steady but unstoppable to the point where the British were starting to become wary of their ambitions. Occasional skirmishes with Chinese troops entering India and Burma, however, dampened their desire to cut ties with Japan. Up to this point, Japan had captured Peking before going on to take much of the northern Chinese coast, and pushing deep in Shanxi. The warlords of China had no solution to stop them.
Japanese soldiers march through the occupied city of Tientsin.
Whilst the front in the United States was much larger, and arguably much more ferocious, it remained in stalemate throughout much of the late spring and early summer. The worst news was that the Confederate capital of Richmond fell to Union troops without much of a struggle, forcing the government to relocate further south. This was not unexpected, but showed the British and Germanians that their ally was nearing collapse.
An American counter-attack in eastern New England was repelled with huge casualties, whilst New York itself was slowly encircled. Storming the city, however, remained a risky process and High Command was determined to wait for a surrender from the city - something that was not forthcoming.
The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, calling the Battle of Stuttgart "a new experience in Europe - a victory - a remarkable and definite victory," had the following to say on the course of the war:
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
(although we have GroßBritannien so why not)
