Hey, you gotta start somewhere when you're dealing with an Old World controlling power bloc. In this case, Africa is probably the least fortressy of all the possibly landing points, so it makes sense to start there.
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Unternehmen Rote Adler
Marshal Erwin Jollasse, just returning to Berlin from his victory in Australia, was properly brought up to speed on the war's current situation. All of central Africa was under American control, and the Comintern was quickly losing the fight. The Arabs in the north and the South Africans in the south were able to hold the line for now. The offensive in Scotland was successful in pushing the Americans off the island, but the fact that they could come that close to mainland Europe was frightening. Top level strategists were hard at work over the past few years on a plan to defeat the United States and win the war. Marshal Jollasse met with these men to see what they had come up with. What they produced was called absolutely insane: a direct invasion of the United States. The Party and the Oberkommando shot it down, saying it just simply wasn't possible. Germany would be the only one undertaking the effort, and there weren't enough available units to even consider pulling off such a thing. Jollasse, however, disagreed. He predicted that for the gains made by the United States in Africa, the majority of the US Army was probably on the continent, and the US Navy was currently tied up in the Pacific fighting the Japanese. They would never expect a direct landing on their own soil. The Party still didn't buy it. Jollasse's record was flawless so far, but this was just ridiculous. So, he put forth a proposal: He would personally oversee the operation to insure success. If the operation failed, he would resign from his position in the government and from the army, and return his Hero of the German Democratic Republic and Soviet Union awards. This made many in the party stop and think. Jollasse was a dedicated and loyal soldier. He's fought for Germany since the Great War and everything since. He wouldn't put his entire career on the line if he wasn't one hundred percent sure of himself. So they finally relented, and gave him the go to perform the operation. If Germany was going to defeat the United States they'd have to take the war to it's shores, and they had to do it now.
After much planning and preparation, Unternehmen Rote Adler was launched in late September, with the minor change that the force would land at Canada instead, as it was closer and require a shorter trip. The Czechoslovak People's Army was brought in to substitute for the lack of available German manpower. The German and Czech units loaded onto the transport fleet in Toulon, France, and set off into the Atlantic. There was a very solemn mood on the fleet. Some held prayers, others wrote their final letters home. Everyone was frightened. The political commissars were told to let it slide. On September 20, after much expert maneuvering by Grand Admiral Bettenhäuser past the US Atlantic fleets, the force landed in Glace Bay.
The problems began immediately. The Czechs made up the majority of the landing force, and hence established the beachhead. Supplies weren't able to make it across the sea, leaving them already at a disadvantage. While a workaround was being worked on, they were told to advance. On the 28th, the Union of Mali fell to American forces, who were also quickly making their way north into Morocco. On October 8th, a panzer corps had reached the city of Boston, hoping to open up a supply line. Unfortunately, it didn't work. The United States at this point had long ago realized what was going on, and American and Canadian troops were spotted heading towards Boston. Marshal Jollasse called the retreat to Halifax, and all units turned around and headed back.
On October 26th, while the group up north was headed back, another was on it's way across the ocean and landed at the United States capital of Washington D.C., this time under German control. On the 29th, the units up north were still on their way to Halifax, with American tanks right behind them.
On November 11th, an American division retook the Canadian city of Fredericton, cutting off the Czechoslovakian division in Rimouski. Three corps were turned around to go rescue them, but as soon as the encirclement was formed, it was closed. The Czechs had to surrender, and the rest of the group had to go on without them. On the 14th, the reached the port and hurried onto the transports. The fleet set off for Washington D.C. to reinforce the group there. The Czechs in the south, meanwhile, had expanded into Virginia, South Carolina, and Maryland.
On the 18th, the American advance took Morocco, and was making it's way east into Algeria. On the 30th, the transport fleet spotted English and Soviet transports headed to the United States on it's way back to France to pick up more troops. This delighted the Party, as it showed that the other member nations of the Comintern might be starting to participate in the war, and not making Germany do everything.
On December 7th, the nations of Senegal and Angola were reinstated into the African Committee.
In January, 1953, a second group landed in Charleston and had advanced into Savannah and Colombia. On the 11th, an offensive was launched down the coast of Florida to seize the naval base in Miami, and into August and Greenville to expand the perimeter. On the 13th, German troops took back Mauritania and reinstated it into the African Committee.
On the 16th of February, French armor arrived in D.C., while an attack was launched south into Norfolk to establish a line to the southern group. By he 26th, the offensive into Florida was abandoned. American forces began to take advantage of the stretch and started to form encirclements. Much like Unternehmen Seelöwe back in '42, splitting the invasion force proved to be a bad idea. While the northern group secured Norfolk, the southern group launched an attack against American armored divisions in Raleigh.
On March 6th, 1953, Joseph Stalin, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, was found dead in his residence at Kuntsevo. He appeared to have had a stroke the previous day and collapsed in his room. By the time he was discovered, he was unresponsive, and died shortly after. In his place, Nikita Khrushchev was appointed as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and Kliment Voroshilov was appointed as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin's Minister of Internal Affairs, was placed under arrest for alleged treason, terrorism, and counter-revolutionary activity. The reaction to Stalin's death was surprisingly somewhat positive. Very few had anything good to say about him, if anything at all. It would turn out that many in the Communist International secretly hated Stalin, but would never dare speak about it publicly. His body was place in Lenin's Mausoleum for the time being, right next to the old revolutionary himself.
On March 23rd, the remaining German troops in Somalia were extracted via a transport fleet and were taking south to Mozambique to reinforce the defensive line there. On the 28th, the two groups over on the American west coast met in Raleigh, forming a single defensive line from Baltimore all the way to Colombia.
By April, the advance in the United States was ground to a stalemate. The German-Czech forces couldn't advance much further without spreading too thin, and the Allied forces didn't have enough to push them out. At this point, all available German manpower was taken up. Every division was either in Africa, North America, or Australia. The Oberkommando's elite strategist team revealed that they had prepared a contingency for just such an occasion. The Communist Party of Germany called for the Executive Committee to meet. The contingency planned, dubbed Kriegsplan Götterdämmerung, called for the use of nuclear weapons to force the United States to surrender in the event that military conquest was no longer an option. The Executive Committee put to vote the use of nuclear weapons, and a unanimous vote for yes came through. As the plan and operation were both German, the Luftstreitkräfte was assigned by the Executive Committee to deliver the payload. Ten bombs were flown to the German-controlled Andrew's Air Force Base in Maryland. On the 13th, the Kriegsplan began, and a bomber carrying the first of the bombs set off for the industrial city of Philadelphia.
The amount of land you'll have to conquer is daunting. The other communists should stop being lazy and contribute to the struggle some more.
It's been infuriating me how the Soviet Union does very little to help if they don't have a direct land connection, despite the fact that they have over a thousand divisions. Maybe I should mess with the AI settings a little bit next time. If Kriegsplan Götterdämmerung works as intended, then I at least won't have to march all the way to the Pacific.
Vernichtungsgedanke
On the 18th of April, 1953, with Kriegsplan Götterdämmerung underway, a division of the French People's Army came ashore at the undefended city of New York. On May 8th, an anti-war demonstration turned violent when the Chicago Police Department was sent to disperse the "defeatist communist agitators." The protesters, many of them members of labor unions, instead attacked the officers, and an uprising began in the city.
On May 21st, Somalia fell to the American advance. Soviet troops that couldn't make it out had taken up defensive positions in Baidoa and would attempt to hold.
On the 13th of June, Kriegsplan Götterdämmerung had concluded. Over the course of the last two months, eight bombs were dropped onto American soil, focused on the heavily industrialized northeast. The United State's total industrial capacity was effectively halved. The American people decided that enough was enough. On the 15th, a large mob of communist and socialist militants stormed government buildings in Philadelphia and took several senators and even President Eisenhower hostage. The federal government was declared defunct, and Norman Thomas of the Socialist Party of America was chosen and sworn in as the president of the interim government. Thomas's first act as president was to withdraw the United States from the Allies and call for a peace conference with the Comintern. On the 19th, delegates of the Communist Party USA and Socialist Party of America arrived in Moscow to sign the treaty, and hostilities between the United States and the Comintern officially ended. During the conference, Khrushchev offered Thomas an official invitation to the Communist International, but he declined. The new American government was very cross with the annihilation of the northeast, and kept very minimal diplomatic contact with the Comintern afterwards. Germany tried to issue an official apology for the bombings, but they weren't having it. This resentment carried over towards the Japanese, who had launched an attack at Pearl Harbor without warning on back in 1941. While peace was achieved with the Comintern, President Thomas vowed to continue the war against Japan.
In the treaty, the United States relinquished any claims on the African territory they had taken during the war and had returned it to the African Committee of the Communist International. On the 29th, west, central, and north east Africa were all restored to their proper borders and reinstated into the African Committee. The Provisional Government of Equatorial Africa was dissolved, and the area was divided into the new nations of Chad, Central Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, and Congo-Brazzaville, as promised.
On August 5th, with the Pacific Ocean now safe for Comintern fleets, an amphibious assault was launched by the SK at Dunedin, New Zealand. On the 18th, a force was sent north into Papua New Guinea to bring the area under control.
The SK force came ashore at Dunedin on the 18th, while the second force arrived at Port Moresby on the 27th.
On October 5th, a division was taken from Dunedin to land north at Auckland. On November 22nd, the government of New Zealand surrendered after German troops entered Wellington.
On the 22nd, the Communist Party of New Zealand was granted control of the nation. Like Australia, the New Zealand flag represented colonialism, and they couldn't be admitted until an acceptable flag was introduced. A flag was introduced that replaced the Union Jack with a silver fern, a plant commonly associated with New Zealand, and the color red, to represent the indigenous Maori people. It was accepted by the Executive Committee, and New Zealand was welcomed into the Communist International. On the 30th, now without the United States on their side, the Soviet Union began the invasion of Canada. On December 12th, Germany sent two divisions to assist.
On December 15th, German troops began arriving in the Executive Committee-governed Panjim Commune for unspecified reasons. On February 3rd, 1954, Soviet troops entered the Canadian capital of Ottawa. The Canadian government under George VI refused to surrender, still determined to fight.
On the 8th, with the African war now over, troops began to head to Lobito, Angola, to begin the process of returning troops to Germany. On the 17th, German troops launched an attack against Canadian troops trapped in Quebec City. In the United States, troops loyal to the old federal government launched a mutiny at army bases in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Is this event actually in the game, or did you have to do a bit of modding?
I am referring, of course, to the USA Revolution.
I am referring, of course, to the USA Revolution.
The revolution event is so old, I believe it was actually in Hearts of Iron 2, even before the expansion packs. You can choose between Norman Thomas and some other communist, and it triggers at - I believe - 65 dissent. It is another question that the even may have been tweaked in the mod.
Yep, that's a vanilla event right there. It's either Norman Thomas or the full-fledged Communist Earl Browder, with the latter reducing dissent by quite a bit more if he's chosen. (Suppose it's best not to ask how.) Anyway, Thomas is probably the most sensible American leftie in the cast since Eugene Debs died, owing to his quiet religiosity and history in the relatively-benign Socialist Party.
(Always neat seeing the Kaiserreich cast show up, anyway.)
I think you can expect relations to be exceedingly frosty for a while. Nuclear weapons are harsh enough to cause ridiculous mood hits even if they're used on territory under enemy occupation (so no area-denial attacks on your allies!).
(Always neat seeing the Kaiserreich cast show up, anyway.)
I think you can expect relations to be exceedingly frosty for a while. Nuclear weapons are harsh enough to cause ridiculous mood hits even if they're used on territory under enemy occupation (so no area-denial attacks on your allies!).
Everything in this AAR is the vanilla Day of Decision scenario. The only alterations made are flags of commonwealth nations that contain the Union Jack.
Canada's Last Legs
Quebec City fell to German armor on March 1st, 1954. Whatever Canadian troops remained eventually decided to lay down their arms and give up the futile fight. On May 2nd, the first phases of incorporating the Philippines into the Communist International began, with control of the northern parts of Luzon being transferred to the Communist Party of the Philippines.
On May 13, German Foreign Minister Georg Derlinger issued an ultimatum to his Lithuanian counterpart: return Germany's rightful territory of Klaipėda, or face the overwhelming might of the Communist International. With nobody left in the world to go to, the Lithuanians ceded the region, preferring to not be forcibly integrated into the Soviet Union. By the 21st, eastern Canada was firmly under Soviet control.
On July 1st, a small force secured Canadian held West Island in the Indian Ocean. By the 18th, the United States had taken the Kuril Islands and Toyohara from the Japanese.
They had also secured the majority of Taiwan, with the remainder of the island garrison cornered at Gaoxiong. On September 7th, the Dutch government-in-exile had been tracked to an island chain of the coast of Venezuela. Eight divisions were sent to land on the island, disarm what remained of the army, and secure government officials.
The operation was completed, and on the 9th the Kingdom of the Netherlands surrendered to the Comintern, leaving the Dutch Socialist Union the sole legal entity. Queen Wilhelmina had fled to the Dutch East Indies. They would be dealt with in time, but for the moment there were bigger issues to deal with. By February 6th, 1955, the entirety of mainland Canada was under Soviet control.
On March 17th, 4 fallschirmjäger divisions were dropped onto Charlottetown. In late April, Papua New Guinea and most of the Bismarck Archipelago were put back under the control of Australia.
With Canada quickly falling under the iron grip of communism, the question arose of what to do about the final two resistors: Bhutan and Nepal, safely tucked away in the Himalayas. A land invasion wasn't going to happen any time soon. The only way to it was through the British Raj. Over the past several months, German troops were quietly being moved into the Panjim Commune. The invasion plan from 1941 was located and given the proper alterations to fit German changes in tactics over the last decade. After consulting with the Executive Committee, and the other communist nations, the plan was formalized, and on June 10th, 1955, war was declared on the final piece of British imperialism.
The Raj Liberation War
Indian SK volunteers
Indian SK volunteers
The Invasion of the British Raj began on the 10th of June, 1955. After the success of the British Free Corps during the Great Britain campaign, collaboration with local populations was hardwired into NVA strategy. After it's acquisition from Portugal's surrender, propaganda had began circulating throughout the Panjim Commune for volunteers to come forward for the inevitable liberation of India from the colonial British government. During the build up of German troops, these volunteers were personally trained by Spartakuskorps officers and formed into the Indische-SK-Freiwilligen-Division 'Manabendra Nath Roy', and being outfitted with the newest model gear, like the MPi-K, the German produced version of the Soviet Union's AK-47, which still has yet to make it to the hands of every German soldier.
With everything in it's proper place, the invasion began. Ninety divisions of the NVA began the march out of Panjim and into mainland India. Two groups of 45 divisions split up north and east, and had made some sizable advances by the 16th before being met with miniscule Raj resistance.
Reinforcements arrived in Panjim on the 27th. While the panzers pushed through Mangalore in the south, several divisions held up the Raj troops in Hyderabad while a second group moved around the city to the north and south to encircle both the city and the entire southern half of the subcontinent. On the 29th, the motorized troops of the XLVII. Armeekorps took the city of Bezawada on the coast, cutting off the supply lines to southern India, while the garrison in Hyderabad was forced to retreat into Nalgonda.
On July 6th, German troops reached Nalgona first, and closed the pocket around Hyderabad to eliminate the remaining divisions in the city. On the 18th a Raj division was able to sneak past the contingent into Nalgona. They were quickly dealt with, however, and were convinced to stand down by their SK brethren. Attempts were made to coerce surrendering Indian soldiers to join with the communist forces for a free and independent India. Any who accepted were sent to Panjim to be trained, outfitted, and sent to the front. Their British officers, however, were not extended the same offer, and were instead sent to holding areas in England, and left to the whim of the English government.
By August 5th, German forces entered Khulna in Bengal. In the south, the SK Panzers continued to storm down the path to the southern tip of the subcontinent. In the northwest the front continued it's steady advance towards the capital of Delhi. On the 12th, a French division arrived at Bombay to assist in the fighting.
On the 27th, all of southern India was secure, save for the city of Trivandrum, which had been recently cleared of Raj troops by the panzer divisions. On the 28th, troops of the English Army launched an amphibious assault at Rangoon in Burma. The Raj garrison there was swiftly defeated and forced to retreat.
To ensure that the second front remained stable, the NVA sent a large force to join the English at Rangoon on September 9th. The eastern group quickly advanced inland and along the coast, while the offensive in Bengal continued to make it's way east on the 30th. Soviet and Laotian troops began attacking Raj positions along the Laos-Burma border at the same time.
In the far east, the United States liberated the Korean peninsula on October 7th, and installed a friendly government in Seoul under Pak Hon-yong of the Communist Party of Korea. The next day, on the 8th, the Korean government allied itself with the United States and joined the war against Japan.
Pak Hon-yong, chairman of the Communist Party of Korea
On October 16th, divisions of the Italian People's Army came ashore at Rangoon, while the advance continued north into Burma and south along the coast of the Andaman Sea. On the 21st, Manchukuo surrendered to Kuomintang forces, now leaving the Japanese alone and isolated on their archipelago. On November 4th, a land connection to Burma was secured through Bengal, leaving the Raj troops in the east without supply, while in the west, German troops had reached the outskirts of the capital of Delhi and begin the advance in.
On the 12th, the battle for Delhi concluded, with German troops and French armor entering the city. On the 30th, German troops began the siege of Kathmandu, Nepal. The Ghurkas put up a valiant fight, but ultimately fell to the German attack, fighting fiercely down to the last man.
India fell fast. I guess the Raj couldn't handle itself well with loads of Indians wanting out from under its dominion.
The Last Offensive
The month of December was the beginning of the end for whatever remained of the Allied Nations. With the Royal Nepalese Army having been defeated, German forces began the advance into Kathmandu and neighboring Gangtok on the 1st. On the 3rd, the force of panzers entered the capital city and accepted the surrender of the king.
The following week, the Royal Bhutan Army was defeated at Punakha and the King of Nepal issued his surrender to the Soviet Union on December 22nd.
On January 6th, 1956, with most of the Raj's territory occupied by Communist International forces, the colonial government was called upon to surrender and put an end to the fighting. With the population and armed forces now working against them, the Governor-General ordered all remaining loyal forces to stand down, and met with Comintern delegation in Delhi to sign the surrender and annexation of the British Raj. The Raj was partitioned into four new nations: India, Pakistan, Burma, and Kashmir. The area of Pakistan was split off from India to give Indian muslims a state of their own, to prevent any discontent between them and the Hindu majority, and with it went the muslim portion of the Communist Party of India to form the Communist Party of Pakistan. After much heated debate between the Indian and Pakistan communists on who gets the region of Kashmir, the Executive Committee decided that neither would and it would become an independent nation of it's own. The Communist Party of Burma in the eastern part was put at the head of the former British Burma. The Communist Party of Nepal was put in charge in Kathmandu, and the Communist Party of Bhutan was formed to rule from Punakha.
With the Indian war now over, all focus was put into finishing off the last remaining belligerent: Canada. The final offensive to find King George VI began on February 2nd, when the German paratroopers at Charlettetown were retrieved by a transport fleet and sent to assault Saint-Pierre. On February 10th, construction began on Rodos Naval Base in the Mediterranean Sea. The KPD decided that the island of Rodos, acquired during the war with Italy in 1939, would make a perfect base of operations for the Volksmarine in the area. Work begin immediately on base facilities and coastal defensive fortifications.
With no sign of the Canadian government on Saint-Pierre, the force was sent north to Lake Harbor in February 24th. On March 22nd, an uprising occurred in Whitehorse, Canada, along the border with Alaska. Soviet forces were put en route to deal with the situation. Being so close to American soil, some became wary of the possibility of the United States smuggling weapons into Canada to sabotage the war effort. However, no evidence pointed to the possibility. For now they would assume not, as nobody wanted to further irritate an already angry United States with such damning accusations. Agents would be put on watch to quietly confirm or deny these suspicions.
The paratroopers in Lake Harbor discovered nothing during their incursion. On April 8th, they were sent to the far side of Canada to the Queen Charlotte Islands to investigate. On April 9th, all forces in India were ordered to report to Karachi, Pakistan to be taken home. All available transport fleets were sent to shuttle all ninety divisions to Toulon, France. The Indian SK volunteers were given thanks by the Comintern for their assistance in the war, and turned over to their respective governments.
On May 17th, the English began a campaign in the Pacific to locate the hiding Canadian government. An army group landed at Guadalcanal to begin along the Canadian-held islands. On the 30th, a group of German troops was sent to Port Louis, were German intelligence has believed to have tracked them down.
On June 24th, the nation of Togo raised an issue with the African Committee. They had complained that the region of Kara, currently held by Ghana since the conclusion of the African Campaign of 1953, was rightfully Togolese territory, and demanded it returned. As Togo did not adhere to communism and was not a member of the African Committee, Ghana feared that turning the region over would land them in trouble with the Executive Committee, and decided to hold onto it. Officials of Ghana and Togo appeared before the African Committee at Malta to decide the fate of the contested region. On July 9th, the African Committee concluded that the area was rightfully Togolese, and ordered it back. A treaty solidifying the African Committee's recognition of the border was signed, and Ghanaian troops withdrew from the region, settling the issue. The treaty was passed up to the Executive Committee for ratification among all member states and went through as Communist International Executive Committee Resolution 192.
On July 18th, the incursion into Port Louis proved to be successful. The men of the 2. Fallschirmjäger-Division were able to locate the Canadian government and their king. They were taken heavily guarded back to the Canadian capital of Ottawa and on the 19th signed the surrender and annexation of Canada. The Communist Party of Canada was given control in Ottawa to head a friendly Canadian state. Canada could not be fully allowed into the Communist International just yet, as the current flag violated Resolution 109. A design was brought forth containing Canada's national colors, red and white, and the maple leaf, one of Canada's national symbols. The flag vote passed, and the Socialist Republic of Canada was formally welcomed into the Communist International. Finally, after fifteen long years, the war was over, ushering the world into a new era of peace, led by the Communist International.
