the-smr

THE SECOND GREAT WAR, PART 3 The meeting of the German General Staff was turning rancorous, or at least as much so as the disciplined German officers would let it. The Battle for France and the Low Countries was won, but had taken a much longer time than anticipated, and German losses had been high. A large number of French officers, feeling less-than-beaten, had fled for Britain with their politicians and had declared a Free French Government-In-Exile, which most emphatically rejected the authority of the German-created puppet state centered on Vichy that was allowed nominal independence over the southwest of France and the colonies. The 1st French Air Force remained in the fight from their bases in southern England, and a naval battlegroup based around the Richlieu had joined on with the Royal Navy as well. Given this, the German generals were pushing the government and Hitler to go into full defensive mode and treat with Britain and France for a fair peace before the United States or, impossibly, the Soviet Union cast their considerable lots with the Allies. Germany was conqueror of six nations at this point, but had no allies at all, even among the other fascist governments of Europe. Yet Hitler was now demanding that they prepare a plan for the invasion of the USSR. Some generals were muttering that it was time to depose "The Little Corporal" and present a new government that the Brits may find it more palatable to find peace with. However, the ingrained habits of obedience to proper authority (and, regardless of how one felt about him, Hitler had gained power legitimately) held out, and, in the end, the General Staff prepared to follow their government's wishes and prepare for further battles. 14.March.1941-27.April.1941 The French government may have surrendered, but there is still fighting left in France. I BEF Armored was trapped inland on the surrender day (a big factor in Britain's rejection of the Vichy government and refusal to come to any terms with Germany), and had basically formed the nucleus of a Free French Army and shadow government that controlled a fair portion of inland Brittany. I BEF suffered greatly during the Battle of France, and is not in fantastic shape. However, it is a large body of trained, well-armed men and tanks that could be a considerable thorn in the German side. Upon the surrender of the French Government, Hitler had ordered the majority of the forces in France eastward, so, ironically, there aren't enough German forces on the ground to challenge this remnant. The Commander of the I BEF had received his orders from the British Government: The UK is unable to force a landing and evacuate the BEF against the Luftwaffe (which is still heavily concentrated in France); therefore, they are to assist the Free French shadow government in the area in making life hard for the Germans. Finally, on 15th April, the Germans get an ally: Hungary declares for the Axis in order to have German support against their longtime enemy, Romania. In response to heated German pressure and the Hungarian declaration, on April 17th, the Yugoslav Government, against the wishes of the military and the bulk of the populace, agrees to join the Axis. The Serb-led military immediately launches a coup and casts its lot in with the Allies. 27.April-15.June.1941 Mussolini, erstwhile dictator of Italy, had watched the Battle of France with much interest. Ideologically, he was obviously closer to Hitler than the Allies, but he knew Italy was not yet ready for war, and had therefore sat out the Battle. However, he now believes the Allies are a dead letter, and doesn't want to be left out of further spoils that will probably result from the increasingly heated situation in Italy's backyard and focus of Mussolini's annexationist desires: The Balkans. Therefore, to Hitler's muted but palpable joy, Italy declares for the Axis on May 25th. The Wermacht finally moves against I BEF Armored in their Free French operational area; The British have been sneaking enough supplies over, and the Free French resistance has been able to turn over more as well, to keep the I BEF Armored in fighting trim as basically a large mechanized division. There are considerable losses on both sides, but the BEF and the Free French hold, and therefore a small piece of France remains free. The German General Staff is less-than-pleased with Hitler for withdrawing so many troops that they do not feel they have enough in-theater to deal with this threat without incurring even more dreadful losses. The situation in the Balkans degrades further for the Allies as Hitler forces the Vienna Settlement on Romania (giving most of Transylvania to Hungary) and basically orders that nation into the Axis as well on May 6th. Reading the writing on the wall, Bulgaria follows into the Axis camp on the 16th. Hitler orders a quick invasion of Yugoslavia to secure his southern flank, to occur on the 1st of June. The forces that the German General Staff fervently wished to be in France finalizing the conquest of Brittany are instead in Hungary, and are sent south. Yugoslavia has a small but brave army, and though a good third of it is destroyed in the first two weeks of the invasion, two full corps fall back on Belgrade for a long defense. To the Wermacht's dismay, the Yugoslavs are speaking wistfully of "another Warsaw"; Guderian, commander of the invasion, having learned that particular lesson from the Poles, orders a massive concentration of forces to Belgrade in order to force a quick occupation of Belgrade before the Yugoslavs can dig in. Churchill and DeGaulle, leaders of Britain and Free France, respectively, watch the developing situation in Yugoslavia in mounting aggravation as they can do little to influence events at this point. If nothing else, the seemingly pending fall of Yugoslavia will serve a good propaganda purpose for the Allied cause. EUROPE, 16.JUNE.1941 Lighter Green: Occupied by the Axis Lightest Green: Yugoslavian territory taken to date in the Axis invasion Blue: Allied Territory Light Blue: Free French Operational Area in France Red: USSR Grey: Neutral Nations 16.June-21.July.1941 The Yugoslavs try to hold onto Belgrade, but after a month's intense assault, the city falls and Yugoslavia formally surrenders. Unformally, large parts of the Yugoslav Army (mostly the Serb parts) take to the hills. Recognizing this, Hitler and the Axis carve up the country thusly: - A very enlarged Croatian state, theoretically an independent member of the Axis, is created in the north composed of the Croatian heartland and most of Bosnia as well. Italy takes some of the Dalmation coast and some of the offshore islands. The Croats are encouraged in their latent hatreds of the other Yugoslav ethnicities, and armed with enough small-arms to get rid of a good amount of them, which they proceed to doing, much to the detriment of future Yugoslavian history. - The three Little Axis states (Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria) each get chunks of Yugoslavia added to their territory. - Italy enlarges its Albanian province at the expense of Montenegro and Serb territories. - Serbia exists as a truncated territory under direct German occupation. Hitler's taste for conquest is not yet slaked; his terminal goal has always been the eradication of Judeo-Bolshevism, and therefore, immediately upon the end of the Yugoslav operation, he informs the General Staff that they are to prepare for the invasion of the Soviet Union immediately. The generals are aghast; none of the three major operations they have undertaken to date have been easy, and the Red Army is _huge_, if not quite the trained veteran fighting force that is the Wermacht (rumors of the horrible purges Stalin undertook of any officer with ability in the late 30's are known to the Germans). Hitler harrangues his generals for hours on the night of July 20th; they have stymied him and dragged their heels on his every move, and Germany has suffered as a result. Hitler is the leader of the German Volk, only he truly knows what is necessary for their salvation, and that is the conquest of the USSR to remove the Bolshevik threat and give Germany her needed Lebrensraum. This may be Hitler's finest speech in terms of sheer fury and persuasiveness, and, in the end, the Generals set about to putting into motion the plan they had already developed for the invasion: Operation Barbarossa. They are worried about the delay the unexpected invasion of Yugoslavia has caused in the launch date as the entire operation is predicated on defeating the Red Army by winter. But, they have no choice, do they? They are only following orders. The invasion is launched in the early morning hours of 22.July; Hitler has engineered another diplomatic shock to add to the effect: Finland, brutalized by the USSR in their recent Winter War, has thrown in with the Axis camp in order to reclaim her lost lands and remove the very real and very dangerous Soviet threat from her borders. 22.July.1941-23.August.1941 Unfortunately for Hitler and the Wermacht, the Axis' rampant agression in the Balkans greatly reduced Stalin's trust in the Non-Aggression Pact; the Red Army has been working under a very secret, but very real state of high alert since mid-June. Therefore, when the Axis comes crashing across the Soviet border, the Soviets are at least somewhat ready for it. The Axis invasion is based around three Army Groups: - ARMY GROUP NORTH heads out of East Prussia with the objectives of taking and clearing everything north of the Pripyet Marshes to Leningrad; they run headlong into two full Armies and a Corps unit, resulting in their barely pushing into central Lithuania. The northwest and southeast portions of the Soviet line on the Lithuanian-Prussian frontier hold strong, and after a month of battle, little progress is made towards the objectives. - ARMY GROUP CENTRAL under General Leeb is to drive straight east to Moscow; it runs into determined Soviet resistance at the border and, on the southern edge of their frontal area, the Red Army forces under Zhukov stage a spoiling attack that results in the Soviets taking _German_ territory in the General Government. AGC pushes to the western edge of the Pripyet Marshes and promptly stalls. - ARMY GROUP SOUTH is a polyglot of German, Romanian, Hungarian, and Italian forces; they are to drive on the Volga and cut the Caucasus off. Almost all of their strength is in transit from the Balkans when the invasion launches so their prong doesn't even strike until the invasion is two weeks old. Stalin originally believes that there will be no invasion from the south and demands that STAVKA move those forces to the other front areas; Zhukov, at great risk to his career and life, argues loudly with Stalin that there _will_ be an invasion from Romania and convinces the Great Leader to not withdraw forces for two more weeks. Luckily for Zhukov, his prediction is correct and the Red Army is able to stop AGS's advance not too deeply into Soviet territory. So, after a month of hard fighting, the Axis has barely penetrated the Soviet frontier. Hitler is, again, furious with what he considers the obstructionist nature of his generals, and seriously considers executing some for treason. Instead, he reinforces Rundstedt's French command with orders to quickly obliterate the naggling Free French/BEF resistance army that has tied up so many forces there, and then the Western territories will be stripped of forces beyond a bare garrison to support the Soviet invasion. The generals, who had been begging for reinforcements in France for months in order to eradicate the Free French-British threat, are angry that Hitler is now claiming this idea for his own, but at least they can terminate the partisans in France and get on with the big battle in Russia. 24.August.1941-5.Oct.1941 The world is shocked at the performance of the Red Army in the face of the invasion; three months after the launch of Barbarossa, and the Germans are still, for the most part, pinned up hard against the Soviet border. In the north, the Red Army has clearly learned the lessons of the Winter War and have slowly ground the Finns back to the suburbs of Finland. Mannerheim has been pleading with Hitler for German troops to stiffen the lines, but Hitler has his own problems at the moment. Army Group Center finds itself defending the Reich rather than invading the USSR; losses have been tremendous on both sides, but the end result is that the Red Army has penetrated East Prussia in the Memel region, and also slightly along the frontier northeast of Warsaw. A small Axis penetration into Byelorussia remains. In the south, the Romanians, with help from an Italian Army and a German Panzer Group, have retaken Besarrabia from the Russians but have stalled outside of Odessa. In France, the I BEF and the Free French underground state in Brittany are finally destroyed by the Germans in early September. The reprisals Hitler orders the SS to undertake in Brittany are frightful, and most of the captured British troops are executed as Franc-tireurs, to the absolute fury of the British populace. Britain launches a limited bombing campaign against German targets in the occupied countries and west of the Rhine. Churchill has mixed feelings about the Soviet success to date; he fears that Britain will be trading one deadly dictator in Europe for another. Soviet propaganda is trumpeting the success of the Red Army where all of the armies of the decadent, capitalist West failed, and is not willing to talk to the Western Allies about coordinating their plans. Stalin knows that the British will not be able to stage an invasion of Western Europe for at least two years, and therefore does not want any interference with his plans to push as far West as the Red Army can take him. 5.Oct.1941-5.March.1942 The stalemate continues; Hitler and the Nazi Party in general have lost much of their hold over the Armed Forces and the populace as it becomes generally known that he forced an invasion of the Soviet Union that the Wermacht was against. The General Staff has taken over command of the war, which they now see as a defensive war against the Soviet Union. Their job is to bleed the Red Army at the frontier until such time as the West can be convinced that the great danger is not Germany, but Russian hordes swarming over civilization in Europe. The Germans are not quite realistic in their assessment of western attitudes; America remains isolationist and far away, and the British and Free French, after the massacres in Brittany, are rather more inclined to treat with a Russian-dominated Germany than the other way around. They have stepped up their bombing campaign over Western Europe and continue to build up their ground forces for a return to the continent, and the few quiet peace feelers certain segments of the German government and armed forces send west are ignored. In February, the Red Army launches a final offensive in Finland. After a brief but bloody battle, Helsinki is taken and Mannerheim himself is captured. The Finnish government is forced to capitulate and Finland becomes the 16th Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR. The retribution taken against the Finnish officer class is horrible, but they dared to side with Germany, and therefore are deserving of nothing better. The surrender of Finland will also free up two armies and two corps for service on the Main Front. The Germans, in January, launch a series of devastating assault all along the frontline. The fighting is fierce, and the German goal (bleeding the Red Army) is admirably served, but the frontline does not move much either way in the end. In London, Churchill, DeGaulle, and the various heads of the various services hold a grand strategic council in late February. Churchill is pleased that the Red Army is in the fight, but very concerned, as is DeGaulle, at their success after the Allies had so much trouble with the Germans and were unable to stop them. The complete Soviet indifference to coordinating or even speaking with the Western Allies is also a point of concern. All of continental Europe faces the very real prospect of Communist conquest in the next few years. It is decided that British, French, and, eventually (it is still fervently hoped) American resources shall be dedicated to an invasion of northern Germany by sea in 1943. DeGaulle is not pleased, as he was in favor of immediate action to liberate some of the French colonies, all of which are firmly in Vichy's hands. Churchill convinces him that those colonies will be meaningless under a Europe dominated by either the Axis or the Comintern. _Some_ of Europe must be saved for the free democracies., and the continuing bloody stalemate on the eastern front looks set to continue indefinitely at this point. SITUATION IN EUROPE, 5.MARCH,1942 Green: Axis Held Blue: Allies Red: Communist Held Grey: Neutral Yellow: Frontline

THE SECOND GREAT WAR; PART TWO SOUTHWEST OF PARIS, FRANCE FEBRUARY 3rd, 1940 General Maxim Weygand looked across the staging grounds and was pleased. Since the fall of Poland, the war had settled into what the press was derisively calling "The Sitzkrieg"; sure, there were still the occasional furious air battles over the Franco-German frontier, and squad-sized ground battles as forward patrols from both sides blundered into each other, but, in general, the war was stalemated. Weygand was pleased at this; it gave him time to debut the latest French formation: I French Armored. Arrayed on the field before him were rows of Char B1 bis and Renault R.35 tanks, and they would serve as the mobile reserve of the French Army holding the Maginot Line. Weygand was slightly concerned that these tanks were not going to be assigned to the existing infantry formations as support groups, as many of his more senior commanders had recommended. But the younger general, DeGaulle, had been persuasive. He had shown what the Germans had done to the fixed Polish positions with their concentrated tank forces, and, given that they had the time to reorganize thanks to the Poles fanatical resistance, Weygand had decided that the Maginot Line may not be the perfect defense they once thought. It would remain fully manned and armed, but a mobile reserve, centered around I French Armored, 1st Army, and XXI Corps, would be held just behind the Belgian frontier (at least until those damnably blind Belgians realized that Hitler would come through their precious country, and that they had precious little with which to stop him) to meet any German thrusts that came that way. The first units of the British Expeditionary Force were due to land any day now, and would be used to anchor the line from the French portion to the Channel Coast. The French High Command and their British counterparts had been aghast at the speed with which the Germans had ground the Poles under their feet. Sure, 60,000 insanely brave Poles had held Warsaw against the Germans for two bloody months, but the Germans had effectively finished the Polish Army within three weeks. The Polish refugees and their government-in-exile back in Paris were loudly bitter at the lack of action taken by the Western Allies to date, but Weygand had taken the time to privately tell General Sikorski (Cmdr, Polish Exile Army) how much the Poles resistance had meant to the Western Allies, and how better prepared France and Britain were to resist Germany now. Sikorski had agreed to try and quiet his co-nationals' disdain. It couldn't be long now; Hitler had been moving his forces westward since before Warsaw fell. God willing, Weygand thought, France would be ready. 4.Feb.1940-31.March.1940 The British High Command, under the advice of Lord of the Admirality Winston Churchill, stations the two carrier battlegroups of the Home Fleet nearer the Channel so that their Air Wings can provide support over France. The Allied governments try to exert pressure on the USSR to distance itself from the Reich. The I BEF Army arrives in France. 1.April.1940-14.April.1940 The German Wermacht and Luftwaffe begin a blitzkrieg into the Low Countries. Belgium and Holland immediately declare for the Allies, to no one's surprise. The Strategic Allied Reserve is ordered into southern Belgium to try and form a line to hold the Germans. By April 14th, the Germans have pushed through most of Holland and have taken the eastern half of Belgium. The Battle of Brussels begins. On April 13th, the first major tank battle between the Allies and Germans occurs when the newly-formed I French Armored meets the XIX Panzer Group southeast of Brussels; it is a huge battle, and I French Armored loses 40% of its strength in one day. However, the Germans take an ever bigger beating, and XIX Panzer is down to 30% effectives by nightfall. It is removed from the line by the German High Command to prevent its complete destruction. The Allies have established a line from Brussels (held by I Belgian Corps) due south to the Ardennes (held by I French Armored) and into the forest itself (held by 2nd French Army). The I BEF Army forms a reserve behind this line. Allied Air Forces, operating in support of the I French Armored in Belgium, take severe casualties in massive air battles over the frontline. 15.April.1940-12.May.1940 The Germans begin heavy air raids on Belgian positions in Belgium; Allied Air Forces successfully interdict much of this, but are exhausted in the process. The German Luftwaffe turns to the French Armored division plugging up the German advance in Belgium. The Allied Air Forces are unable to stop the assault. After two days intense bombardment. the German VIII Corps and 8th Army launch against the French, and in the ensuing battle the I French Armored is destroyed and a hole in the Allied line opened up. On May 3rd, Brussels finally falls to the Germans. Holland and Belgium surrender. 1st French Army, part of the strategic reserve, is committed to plug the hole in the Allied line. On May 5th, the I BEF Army enters its first engagement when XVI Panzer drives on it from Brussels; I BEF holds, but takes moderate casualties. 12.May.1940-23.June.1940 Stalemate: The Germans pound hard at the entire Allied line from Switzerland to the Belgian coast southwest of Brussels, but are unable to force the Allies back. The Allies prove to be quite adept at managing reinforcements in such a way to keep all units functioning at at least 70-80% effectiveness. The respective Air Forces are both taking a tremendous beating in the skies, but Germany is slowly able to force air superiority over the Allies when the two British Carrier Air Groups are forced to withdraw to their home ports for replinishment and repair. Unfortunately for the Allies, Britain does not have the pilots or airframes to make good those losses just yet. On June 20th, the British commission I BEF Armor, a complete new tank army that is to be shipped over to France ASAP. 24.June.1940-21.July.1940 Hitler is furious at the delay; the frontline has been locked since the mid-May, and pundits on both sides of the war are remarking on how similiar the situation is to Nov. 1918, when Germany last surrendered. Of course, the pundits are unawares of how different this situation is; Germany holds the whiphand in terms of resources. The Allies are spreading increasingly thin along the entire front. The French are not producing enough new soldiers and equipment to replace their losses at the front anymore. The 3rd French Army, anchoring the northern end of the Maginot Line against the southern wall of the Ardennes Forest, is down to 10% effectiveness after Hitler ordered all-out attacks on this segment. The Wermacht, for its part, is less than fond of Hitler for ordering the invasion at all, which they argued Germany could not prosecute. The Allies showed surprising strategic flexibility (learned from the Germans) in their response to the invasion, and the Wermacht has lost large numbers of troops. Hitler blames the Generals' cowardice on the failure of the original invasion plan, and has taken over strategic planning for the Western Front. He orders the attacks on both Maginot and the Allied Line north to the Channel to continue. It may no longer be Blitzkrieg, but Hitler _will_ break the Allies in France. STALEMATE IN FRANCE Dark Green: Axis, 1.April 1940 Dark Blue and Light Green: Allies, 1.April.1940 Light Green: Occupied by Axis to 12.May.1940 Light Blue Line: Stalemated Frontline, 13.May.-14.Oct.1940 22.July.1940-21.Sept.1940 None of Hitler nor the German High Command's plans have born fruit as of yet. The only tangible result of the offensives against the northern edge of the Maginot Line and against the I BEF on the Belgian coast has been the retiring of 3rd French Army to re-equip as the I BEF Armored takes its place in the line. The Allied High Command, under Supreme Commander Weygand, is very concerned about the state of the Allied Air Forces. The Germans are destroying more Allied planes and pilots than the Allies can replace, and this is already having negative effects on the ground war. 21.Sept.1940-5.January.1941 Finally, on Oct 13th, Hitler gets the breakthrough he so desperately needs; French 4th Army, holding the southernmost point of the Maginot Line, collapses under heavy attack from the German 4th Army; the Germans have punched their hole through the Maginot Line. Hitler immediately orders all available reserves to plunge through the gap, while the frontline units are to continue their pressure against the Allied Line to lock those forces in place. It is a good plan, as the Allies have only the XXI French Corps in reserve, and these are committed immediately to plug the gap in the line. The Allies react and hold admirably, but over the next two months the Axis relentlessly if slowly pushes the Allies back along the Channel Coast and at the southern edge of the Maginot Line, at heavy cost to both sides, but costs that Germany is better prepared to suffer. On December 7th, I BEF Army is utterly destroyed by concentrated attack on the coast of Belgium. 1st French Army is also almost completely ruined in this battle. By December 20th, the German 14th Army is racing towards Paris, and the Allies have nothing in place to stop them. The German High Command orders that all units spend the winter preparing for the final assault on the Allied Line, to be launched 12.February. 6.January.1941-1.March.1941 The situation continues to degenerate for the Allies; XXI French Corps in Alsace crumbles under Axis assault, as does the remnants of 2nd Army in the North. Churchill, now Prime Minister of Great Britain, privately concedes that the Battle of France is most likely lost, and orders I BEF Air Fleet back to England when the Germans reach a mere 40km away. Reluctantly, Weygand gets President Reynaud of France to allow I French Air Fleet to also relocate to southern England. Churchill also orders that I BEF Armor prepare to retreat to the coast for evacuation. It is the only Allied unit left in the north of France outside of the static units holding the Maginot Line. On February 14th, with German units within 20km of Paris and the first shells beginning to fall, and only a militia garrison to defend it, the Mayor of France asks and receives from President Reynaud permission to declare Paris an open city rather than have it destroyed for no purpose. The Channel Coast is increasingly threatened, so I BEF Armor decides to strike out east for the Brittany ports rather than get caught by the advancing German wave. On February 27th, President Reynaud, in conference with Marshal Weygand, agree that the situation is irretrievable and surrender France to the Germans. German Breakthrough and the Fall of France Green: Held by the Axis 12.Oct.1940 Blue: Allied Territory 12.Oct.1940 Yellow Line: Frontline 1.Dec.1940 Light Blue Line: Frontline at the time of the French Surrender, 27.February.1940 Hitler forces the French to sign a humiliating armistace on March 12th, utilizing the very railroad car where France received Germany's surrender in The Great War for the ceremony. A famous picture of Hitler dancing a jig after the instrument is signed is distributed across the globe. Across the Channel, in England, the British and a large number of Polish and French refugees set about the grim task of coming up with a way to return to the continent and gird Hitler in his own lair. They know that they still face a long, road, maybe an impossible one unless the sleeping American giant is somehow woken and joined to their cause. As of yet, however, the Americans show no willingness to come back to Europe for more slaughter. Meanwhile, far to the east, a certain different fanatical murderous dictator contemplates the New Order in Europe...

The full scope of WWII is only covered in the full version, but they do have a 1942 and 1930 map available here: http://www.historicalatlas.com/clockwk2/shomap1.asp -- smr

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement. Pt. II has been played out and written and will be posted probably tonight. AS FOR THE MAPS: Back in like '95 I dropped $90 on what my map-geek self considered the greatest software since Solitaire: Centennia. It's a great little map program that basically displays a map of Europe (big, though; from the North Pole - All of Northern Africa through the Sahara and Sudan - All of Middle East to about the Indian border - The Urals, roughly. They divided every year since 1000 into 10 parts and then mapped Europe for each of those time periods. You can view the changing borders in movie form or step-by-step for 1000-1994. You can zoom in on any part of the map, get a historical text accompanying what's going on; I still love this software and wish the devs would release a new version covering all of human history You can export any map as a bitmap, which is good 'cuz it avoids the blurryness of jpgs when modifying due to per-pixel color-matching, and I then load the closest appropriate map into Paint Shop Pro and modify the borders, colors, as needed to reflect the game situation. In Centennia, each country is a different color, but with PSP's color-replace tool, I can quickly change the colors to what I need them to be to show alliances and such. They have a website with a free standalone demo of the Napolean Era availabe, as well as a variety of online maps from various years to sample. They happily allow people to use their maps for school, websites, and AARs http://www.clockwk.com/ Great program, works fine on XP even though it ships on two floppies with a DOS, Win3.1, and Macintosh version only on 'em -- smr

Hi all, I'm a lifetime COS fan who's currently greatly enjoying SC as well. I'm not a super-fantastic player, even against the AI, but I don't mind losing so long as the game is fun and not too insanely unbelievable, an experience SC provides quite nicely. I decided to AAR in timeline format (with interspersed narrative) my current game, which I'm playing as the Allies, no advantage either side, all rules left at default with the exception of Fog of War being turned on. Instead of screenshots, I've been creating my own maps of the war progress, mostly because the map in SC is a bit generalized and also because, well, I like geeking on maps. Hope you enjoy it: Prologue From the west... a low, buzzing hum that steadily grew larger. Boleslaw Czarniecki was a mere farmer working his fields as he had every day of his life so far, and would until he died, but something inherent in his human nature, something primordial and basic, made his body realize that that sound was the sound of impending danger and, possibly, harm. Looking up from a partially-harvested row of wheat, he scanned the sky to the west. The German border lay a mere 20 kilometers away in that direction, and on his last trip into town he had heard the rumors of how badly relations with the Germans had deteriorated. He didn't understand it; his farm used to be in Germany, and while he didn't hold any great love for Germany as a whole, he had gotten along fine with the few Prussians who had lived in town and to whom he had sold his harvest. Having little use for anything bigger than the village he occasionally travelled to in order to shop for what he couldn't make, grow, or build himself, he would've happily turned Danzig over to the Germans if it would've kept the Germans peaceful. The sound was louder now; Boleslaw could make out black shapes in the sky, travelling fast. Planes. Out of Germany. Boleslaw had been a mere teen when The Great War churned its way through his family's farm, and no fighting had actually occured in his region. The Red Hordes of 1920 had been stopped on the other side of the Wisla, many kilometers east of the farm, as well. Still, the traditions of wartime were handed down through the generations, and Boleslaw knew enough to turn towards his house to gather his wife and children and prepare for the storm that had obviously broke over his country. He made it a few dozen steps before the bombs dropped by Luftflotte Ju-82 Tactical Bombers on the convoy of Polish trucks and wagons heading westwards on the road alongside his farm exploded, sending fire and shards of metal for hundreds of meters through the Polish convoy, Boleslaw's wheat field, and Boleslaw himself. Introduction The mid and late 1930's were a bad time for the Western democracies that considered themselves the best form of government as yet devised. First, the Great Depression had ruined their economies, bringing a rapid and complete halt to the unchecked expansion and optimism that had defined the post-war 20's. Shortly thereafter, they had proven to be unable to cope with the task of righting those economies and bringing prosperity and well-being back to their populaces. Very shortly after that, the people of formerly democratic states such as Germany, Italy and Spain, among many others, turned away from the rule of the majority and instead invested their rights and future well-being into various strongmen and nationalist parties that all seemed to have a convenient and rousing "other" to blame for their countries' problems. As Great Britain, France, and the United States muddled through the Great Depression helmed by a series of well-meaning but ineffectual career politicians who seemed unable to effect any positive change in the national fortunes, the new fascist regimes of Europe set about to various degrees of economic nationalization, which not only provided much-needed jobs to the jobless, but also allowed those governments to channel the economic expansion into, mostly, armaments and the supporting tools of war. Russia itself, a great if eventually fallen ally of the West in the Great War, turned towards the new ideology of Communism, and, having issued her clarion calls to the workers of the world to rise up against their leaders, found itself isolated and alone in a world that would rather it didn't exist. So the USSR turned in on itself, undergoing massive internal upheaval as a century of bad economic expansion and backwardness were undone in a violent decade and a half of nation-building. A pariah among nations, the USSR quietly turned to the other pariah, Germany, realizing that, even if eventually their two mutually-opposed mindsets would have to clash, they could, for now, put those differences aside in favor of ramping up to deal with the wretched democracies. Italy, emboldened by the apparent weakness of the West and its designated organ of international security, the League of Nations, set about rebuilding a New Roman Empire via a vicious but successful war in Africa resulting in the annexation of Ethiopia, as well as the peaceful addition of Albania. Germany followed the Italian example by marching back into the Rhineland in a bold repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles, that German national talisman for all that had gone wrong since 1918. The West wrote stern memos, issued strong declarations from the League, and, in the end, did nothing to stop the new march of conquest. Not long after, Hitler's Germany further tore the fabric of Versailles with the Anschluss, returning Austria to the rightful German fold. Still, the West did nothing. Next up on the test platter was Czeckoslovakia; arguably the most succesful of the post-Great War successor states, and eastern nation most deserving of a strong Western defense. The new pattern repeated; unreasonable demands were made, major concessions cast aside as too little, and war threatened over the non-existent plight of the unbothered minority. This was the West's last, best chance to say to the new bullies of Europe: Enough. Instead, the tired old men treated irrational demands with unsavory rewards, and the most defensible part of Czeckoslovakia was sacrificed to the Germans. Finally, the regimes nouvelle went too far; casting aside yet another set of promises, the still-bleeding remnants of Czeckoslovakia were set upon yet again within months, and that august nation went entirely under the boot of fascism. The West finally found its spine, and when German threats and ill-founded anger were directed against Poland, the West finally declared that they would fight if another gross violation were to occur. Hitler, realizing that the nations that had cheated Germany out of its rightful victory in 1918 were in no shape to back up even such belated and thin threats, called the bluff. On September 1st, 1939, Germany issued a declaration of war against Poland, citing a number of falsified insults against German honor as the cassus belli. Great Britain and France followed with, much to Hitler's honest surprise, declarations of war against Germany. The Second Great War had begun. OPERATION FALL WEISS The German Operational Plan for the Invasion of Poland (Fall Weiss) was initiated on Sept. 1st, 1939, and envisioned a combined arms offensive against the Polish Army and Air Force aimed at piercing the Polish forward defenses, surrounding and defeating the Polish Army in the field, and driving hard on Warsaw. The operation was not to end short of the complete unconditional surrender of the Polish Government. The Germans unleashed a form of warfare that would quickly come to be known as "Blitzkrieg": tactical air support and panzer groups would concentrate on a small segment of the enemy lines, forcing a breech through which follow-on forces would pour through. While the fastest mobile formation raced forth to wreak havoc in the enemy rear and seize further objectives, the slower units would surround the bypassed enemy formations and defeat them in detail. The Allies received their education in Blitzkrieg beginning in Poland: 1-17.Sept.1939 The Polish Pomorze Army Group is situated in the Corridor, and therefore is the problem of Army Group Bock. German 3rd, 4th, and 8th Armies, with heavy air support, promptly crash over the Polish frontier, liberate Danzig, and execute a perfect pincers movement, trapping the forward-deployed Pomorze Army Group against the frontier. Suffering 90% casualties by the 17th, PAG is surrounded and not expected to hold out much longer. In the south, the Poles have Krakow Corps deployed forward. Here the concept of Blitzkrieg is shown at its purest as XIX and XVI Panzer Groups smash through the Krakow Corps and drive towards Warsaw, leaving 14th Army to finish the defenders off. Luftflotte IV is detailed to provide overall air support, and sweeps most of the Polish Air Force from the skies (actually, destroys it on the ground) in the first few days. The severely depleted 1st PAF Fleet is all that remains, based just west of Warsaw, and it proves ineffective at either providing ground support for Polish troops or moving the Luftwaffe out of the sky. Axis Offensive Against Poland to 17.Sept.1939 Dark Green: Independent Axis Nations Medium Green: Axis Proctectorates Light Green: Axis penetration into Poland Light Blue: Polish-held Territory Grey: Neutral Nations The Polish government begins pleading with France and Germany to do _something_. However, Chamberlain and Renault are painfully aware how little they can do at this point. The British, of course, sortie the Royal Navy to hunt and kill submarines in the Atlantic and keep the trade from America flowing. The French and British both begin a general call-up of reserves. The French intend to do nothing but man the Maginot Line with as many troops as possible, as they are confident that this can hold against any German assault until the British deliver enough troops to the Continent to make a joint offensive against Germany feasible. 17.Sept.-15.Oct.1939 Pomorze Army Group is completely destroyed and Army Group Bock drives on Warsaw. XVI Panzer Group and 10th Army swing up on Warsaw from the south, meeting Army Group Bock and preparing the encirclement of Warsaw, which is defended by the full-strength Warsaw and Modlin Corps, with the Krakow Corps at about 80% strength defending the southern approaches. The remainder of the Polish Air Force is wiped out when the German 3rd Army descends on its last operational base west of Warsaw. German 10th Army makes a probing assault against the French 3rd Army on the Maginot Line; it is repulsed with moderate casualties to both attacker and defender. 1st French Air Fleet makes supporting attacks against the German 10th Army and takes heavy casualties from defending Luftwaffe units. Axis Progress In Poland, 17.Sept.1939-15.Oct.1939 Dark Green: Held by Axis as of 17.Sept Light Green: Taken by Axis, 17.Sept-15.Oct 15.Oct-12.Nov.1939 The Defense of Warsaw will go down in the annals of military history as one of the bravest defenses ever by a completely outnumbered, outclassed army. With no air support or modern mechanized or armored units, the Polish Army has defended Warsaw against direct attack for over five weeks. The Krakow Corps disintegrated on October 28th, but its surviving straggelers were merged into the Warsaw Corps, keeping that unit at 100% of its rated strength. The Modlin Corps, holding the northeastern line, is down to about 20% but has yet to crack completely under the relentless German assault. Hitler is less-than-pleased that the Wermacht is taking this long to reduce Warsaw and gain the Polish surrender. He has already withdrawn a Panzer Group and two Armies from the Polish front for service in the west, and is pushing Bock to complete the conquest immediately. For its part, the Luftwaffe pounds Warsaw from the air day and night, introducing the world to the concept of modern air warfare against civilians. The heart of Warsaw is gutted, and thousands of civilians lie dead in the streets. Britain agrees to deploy a bomber fleet, redesignated I BEF Bomber, to France to provide closer support to the air war, which is greatly increasing in intensity as time goes on. The Kriegsmarine is the one branch of the German military not covering itself in glory. The Royal Navy catches the bulk of the raider fleet north of Ireland, and in a two-week running battle, sends the vast majority of it to the bottom of the sea. 13.Nov.1939-10.Feb.1940 The defenders of Warsaw hold out until January 27th, when the last surviving unit of the Warsaw Corps surrenders from the basement of a ruined shopping district in the burnt-out heart of Warsaw. Germany increases the pace of moving units from Poland west to the French border, leaving only a small garrison to hold down a thoroughly-beaten Poland. In December, the USSR, not wanting to be left out of the spoils grab of the dictatorships, issues an ultimatum to Finland to surrender certain territories of strategic importance. Finland refuses, and the Winter War is on. The Finns hold their own with amazing vigor, and the Soviet assault is blunted at the border. Stalin, furious (and apparently not realizing that the massive and thorough purge of almost every officer with any ability he ordered in the late 30's may have something to do with his army's dismal performance), orders a tremendous number of reinforcements northwards. If he cannot beat the Finns with ability, he will overwhelm them with sheer numbers. I BEF Bomber takes heavy casualties operating from French soil, as the strength of the Luftwaffe on the Western Front increases as units are freed up from duty in Poland. On January 30th, Finland finally asks the USSR for peace terms as the Red Army begins to breach the Mannerheim Line that has held since the first day of the war. The Finns have hurt the Soviets badly, taking approximately 1 casualty for every 15 they inflicted (though these numbers won't be known for many decades). Accordingly, Stalin does not demand a total surrender (which would inspire the Finns to fight to the death), but rather settles for the territories he originally demanded. The I BEF Inf, an Army-sized force, sets sail from England and is due to arrive in France in mid-February. The world is shocked to learn of the Non-Agression Pact between Germany and the USSR when the Soviet Union sends in troops to occupy the eastern third of Poland. British and French opinion is aghast at the prospect of having to fight both the USSR and Germany, as this division of spoils seems to spell out an intention to operate together again in the future. On February 7th, additional portions of the German-Soviet Pact are revealed when the Red Army marches into the Baltic States with no protest from the German government. Europe after the Fall of Poland and the Winter War Dark Green: Axis Nations Light Green: Occupied by the Axis Blue: The Allies Red: Communist Nations Grey: Neutral Nations