Chapter XX: Waiting for the Sun
The Russian assault had been a complete surprise to the German diplomacy and even to the allied one, but that did not mean that Germany was going to give up easily. Once recovered from the initial shock, most military commanders corrected his mistakes by doing everything possible for the forces under his charge to be quickly transported to the Eastern Front. According to Manstein, Germany should resign to the fact that part of the Polish-dominated areas would be quickly occupied by the Russians, and it would be better to lose such zones temporarily rather than sending troops to those provinces with an elevated risk of getting attacked on the road. Thus, most of the Heer was redeployed evenly through the Gdynia-Krakow line, which would give them enough time to organize and prepare an adequate defense against the unlawful invader.
OKH´s plan for halting the initial Soviet Offensive
As the troops arrived at their designated locations, the news could not be worse. Apparently, the Soviet Union itself had achieved some modernization of the Red Army, and in just four days Russian armored units entered Warsaw. Some local leaders contacted the Kremlin to achieve the formation of a Polish Provisional Government, but without any contemplation the dreaded NKVD arrested them as "enemies of communism." Further south, Soviet troops continued advancing and a new type of heavy armored tank was sighted, and despite the seizure of Tarnow the corageous Romanian resistance slowed the advance of the Reds.
A Romanian officers smiles after stopping another Russian assault
However, OKH was correct with the Soviet movements predictions, and by mid-February the Russian advance had not yet reached the Gdynia-Krakow line, which provided the Wehrmacht enough time to be ready for any event. The Russians, confident that they would find no opposition, had to withdraw when they met German Army, and in most cases they just run away without barely engaging any enemy unit. This would not be the case of Krakow, where Soviet commanders decided to launch a massive attack on the German positions. Fortunately, the German divisions clearly defeated the Red Army, to the extent that just one day later von Rundstedt led a counterattack that reconquered Tarnow with just one thousand casualties against 10,000 Russian soldiers lost in action. The fact that for every fallen German soldier ten Russians died was a good prognosis for the future, and hope gradually grew within the German High Command.
The Red Army took a serious blow in the Tarnow battle
Meanwhile, the Western Allies met with Stalin in Moscow and promised him a tremendous amount of logistical support and military equipment to fight the Germans. Apparently, those that Churchill described as "league of failures, the criminals, the morbid, the deranged and the distraught" were now his allies against Germany, and the hypocritical British leader began to plan the post-war Europe with the Soviet dictator. The majority of the German people would realize the danger they faced when an American newspaper published the so called "Morgenthau Plan", which sought to divide Germany into five different states; skillfully, the German propaganda agency used this plan as further evidence of the willingness of allies to annihilate the German people, and all across the country thousands of soldiers excluded from the mobilization enlisted in the Wehrmacht.
Churchill with Stalin, who was depicted by the Prime Minister as "the vampire which sucks the blood from his victims"
In Africa, a number of French officers led by Charles de Gaulle proclaimed the "Free France" state in the territory of Guinea. Apparently, these officers felt that only the settlers deserved such freedom, as by no means the natives were consulted about such a decision. In America, the Mexican government decided to enter the allies and joined the war against Germany, while Brazilheroically defended from the British assaults in the north of the country.
Mexico and "Free France" entered the war against Germany
Unfortunately, the Moscow Conference was also used by Stalin to ensure that the allies would compromise to destroy the German industry by a massive campaign of strategic bombings, and while the industrial basin of the Rhine was protected by the interceptors deployed in the French coast, the need to withdraw some aircrafts in order to protect troops in the eastern front from the Soviet bombers allowed the allies to bomb several cities in northern Germany. However, most attacks failed in their objectives due to lack of precision, and soon the Allies started bombing civilian targets with total disregard for the lives of innocent Germans; according to a senior British officer, such actions “were strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the war and preserve the lives of Allied soldiers”, but much of the world would behold with horror such crimes.
Hamburg after an Allied bombing
Meanwhile, Albert Einstein reported that the draft design of a nuclear reactor had been completed and that once its construction was finalized the Uranverein could devote into building the "ultimate weapon". However, some Abwehr alarming reports claimed that the Americans were also close to completing a similar project codenamed "Manhattan"... Fortunately, the installation of the giantic Flakturmes was completed, and much of the German industrial centers were now protected from Allied bombing.
Berlin´s skies are safe once more
In the east, the Soviets refused to accept that they could not penetrate the German defenses and continually lost thousands of soldiers in meaningless skirmishes. Meanwhile, plans for "Operation Hindenburg" continued with a huge concentration of armored and motorized divisions near Lodz and Sonowiec. Once the winter passed, the German spearhead would begin the greatest military adventure ever told.
Thousands of armored units were ready to invade the USSR