Ghastly Victories: The United States in the World Wars
- Thread starter RamscoopRaider
- Start date
It's an improved pic, longer tail and redrawn cowling. Looks less like a Focke Wulf Fw-190 now.
BTW RamscoopRaider gave me permission to post this pic but did not give any details about this fictional aircraft, any faults with the design our mine alone and again this plane is just a product of my imagination.
Part 6-64 Fall of Europe, Genocides
RamscoopRaider
Donor
…The decision to attack Greece was made on March 30th, two weeks were allotted to move forces into position to deal with the Greeks, leaving the attack to start on April 14th. The Greeks had 24 divisions after their latest reorganization, 21 infantry and 3 cavalry. 12 Infantry divisions were located in Northern Greece, covering their borders with Italian Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria, 7 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry divisions were located in Ionia to face the Turks, a single reinforced infantry division was holding the detached part of Thrace, and a single infantry and cavalry division remained in reserve, with 200 aircraft to cover the skies.
Against this the Italians committed 2 mountain, 6 infantry, 2 bicycle infantry, 2 motorized stormtrooper and 2 cavalry divisions operating out of Albania, along with 300 aircraft and the heavy surface elements of the Italian navy. The Yugoslavs could only contribute 50 aircraft and a single infantry regiment. The Bulgarians would contribute 8 infantry and 4 cavalry divisions, along with 200 aircraft. The Turks would contribute about 100,000 irregulars, their regular forces having been effectively shattered by the Greeks. Germany would contribute a Panzer Corps, a Mountain Corps, and their Corps of Airmobile Infantry, with a second Panzer Corps, a Motorized Corps and their paratroopers in reserve if needed, supported by 900 aircraft.
The plan called for the Italians to attack out of Albania and fix the majority of Greek forces. The Bulgarians would take the detached portion of Greek Thrace and attack west from their portion of Thrace along the coast, fixing more Greek forces there. The German Mountain Corps would break the Greek frontier defenses north of Thessaloniki while the Panzer Corps would attack through the valley south of Monastir, break into the Thessalian plains and then into Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnese in that order. The Airmobile Corps would be airlifted into Turkey to start the attack on the Greeks in Ionia, to be reinforced by the Reserve Panzer Corps once the routes through Thrace were available. Follow on attacks would take the Greek islands in concert with the Italians…
…The movement of 40 divisions was impossible to hide and the British learned of the Pact deployments by April 3rd. Churchill initially wanted to take the reserves allocated to Egypt, one Australian and one New Zealand Infantry Division and an independent British Armored Brigade, and have them directly reinforce the Greeks on the mainland to try and hold a line north of Thessaly. This was very quickly determined to be impractical and by the end of the day Churchill was thinking of a deployment anchored on Thermopylae to protect southern Greece, Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnese, with most of the Greek islands protected by proxy.
The Imperial General Staff quickly determined that a forward deployment was inviable, as the Pact forces would have air supremacy and be able to deploy a corps of paratroopers behind their lines in the Peloponnese and render their position impossible. Furthermore such a forward deployment would require all seven proposed Brigades, Brigades that Pope in Egypt needed to stop the Italians. Many in the War Cabinet did not want to strip any reserves from Egypt at all, viewing defeating the Italians there as more important than holding a part of Greece and Churchill found himself having to justify holding Greece by providing the RAF with advanced bases to strike at the Romanian oil fields and to threaten the seaward Italian flank in North Africa.
A compromise was proposed, that only one Australian brigade and only the Infantry and Light Tanks of the armored brigade would be sent and that the plan would be to hold the Peloponnese, using the Isthmus of Corinth as a choke point. While possible, as a single division backed by an independent artillery regiment could hold the three and two thirds mile long Corinth Canal, it also relied on two brigades as well as any Greek remnants to hold 120 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Corinth and to provide rear area security against paratrooper landings. It was doable if the Greek forces fell back in good order, but that was something that the Imperial General Staff did not expect to occur against rapid German Panzer thrusts and massive air attacks. It was still possible if the Greeks were willing to redeploy their reserves and rapid reaction troops to the Peloponnese, however requests to do so were refused on April 5th as the Greeks still wanted to try and hold onto most of their mainland possessions
A revised plan was quickly made, the troops intended for Greece would move to secure Crete as a place for the Greek government to fall back to and rally resistance from and a forward airbase a hundred miles closer to the oilfields at Ploesti than Cyprus was and much better positioned to provide support to the Western Desert Theater…
…The British were confident that the Italian fleet would not be able to interfere with their operations on Crete and with good reason. Over the course of March no fewer than three Italian battleships had been disabled by British attacks, Duilio on March 13th by HMS U-14, Roma on March 26th in the ambush of an attempted bombardment raid on Egypt by Ghost torpedo bombers off of HMS Audacious and what was believed to be Vittorio by HMS U-19 on the 27th returning from the raid. None of the ships were destroyed or irreparably damaged but all of them were at least out of action until August.
An intercept of an Italian communique on April 3rd confirmed that three battleships were out of action and thus in British minds meant that the available Italian modern units would be Littorio, Actium and Lepanto, a force outmatched by Queen Elizabeth, Warspite and Repulse, and possible the Greek Nika as well, given the demonstrated Italian unwillingness to risk their older battleships to even the odds. With Audacious to soften up attackers and provide overwatch Admiral Somerville was confident of handing the Italian Navy a major defeat if they attempted to interfere with the British around Crete.
What he and the rest of the Royal Navy were not yet aware of was that the Battleship Andrea Doria had struck an Italian defensive mine that had come loose on March 20th, and that it was the already damaged Roma that had been torpedoed on March 27th and not the Vittorio…
…Hitler made it clear to Demir that he was not happy about having to divert troops to a sideshow because of his border incident. If Demir wanted the full quantity of weapons and other assistance that had been promised he would have to do more for Hitler than simply allow transit rights for and take part in Otto. Hitler demanded that he use his connections with the Islamist movements in the British portions of the Middle East to foment revolt and otherwise stir up trouble for the British.
Demir agreed to this concession immediately, as it was something that he wanted to do on his own. What he did not tell Hitler was that he would also be doing his best to stir up trouble in French Syria and Lebanon as well…
-Excerpt From The Fall of Europe, Scholastic American Press, Philadelphia, 2005
…As Otto approached and the British blockade tightened Hitler was briefed that there was projected to be a serious shortfall in food from Fall of 1942 into Fall of 1943 in German controlled and allied Europe, unless the British would choose to end their blockade after the success of Otto. This was considered unlikely, as was the possibility that cereal production in the Ukraine would fully recover within a year after Otto, meaning that a food shortage would likely continue well into 1944.
This briefing, combined with the previous briefing from the same meeting about known difficulties with the proposed mass expulsions of the Jewish population led Hitler to make his famous remark of “You say we have too many Jews, you say we have too little food, the solution is obvious.” This remark is considered the beginning of the Volkist Population Reductions as distinct from the general racial oppression of the Volkist regime…
…Hitler had always intended to wipe out the Jews according to his private papers, however before and during the early phases of WWII this was always considered a problem for later, after the British and French had been humbled, the USSR had been destroyed, and potentially America had been humbled as well. The food crisis faced by the Reich simply gave Hitler an excuse to spend resources on one of his long term goals immediately rather than in the distant future…
…Senior Gestapo official Reinhard Heydrich was given the task of overseeing the Reduction of the Population of Jews and other undesirables. Heydrich quickly developed a system of priorities based on both an individuals perceived danger to the Reich and their value as a laborer. Jews, despite the virulent antisemitism of the Volkists, were actually middle ranked in terms of danger as while they possessed a racial threat in the long term Heydrich felt that the people of the Reich were well inoculated against Jewish propaganda and manipulations. Instead he was more concerned about political enemies of the Reich of ethnic German stock, socialists, communists and trade unionists, who might be listened to by the common people of the Reich. It was these who were first targeted in the so called Population Reductions…
…The Population Reductions did not officially start until December of 1942 after Heydrich had worked out a comprehensive plan and set of policy goals, but impromptu massacres had started by April of 1942, as well as a steady program of deliberate starvation in the ghettos of Europe…
-Excerpt From The Great Dying: the Volkist Genocides, Harper & Brothers, New York, 2012
Against this the Italians committed 2 mountain, 6 infantry, 2 bicycle infantry, 2 motorized stormtrooper and 2 cavalry divisions operating out of Albania, along with 300 aircraft and the heavy surface elements of the Italian navy. The Yugoslavs could only contribute 50 aircraft and a single infantry regiment. The Bulgarians would contribute 8 infantry and 4 cavalry divisions, along with 200 aircraft. The Turks would contribute about 100,000 irregulars, their regular forces having been effectively shattered by the Greeks. Germany would contribute a Panzer Corps, a Mountain Corps, and their Corps of Airmobile Infantry, with a second Panzer Corps, a Motorized Corps and their paratroopers in reserve if needed, supported by 900 aircraft.
The plan called for the Italians to attack out of Albania and fix the majority of Greek forces. The Bulgarians would take the detached portion of Greek Thrace and attack west from their portion of Thrace along the coast, fixing more Greek forces there. The German Mountain Corps would break the Greek frontier defenses north of Thessaloniki while the Panzer Corps would attack through the valley south of Monastir, break into the Thessalian plains and then into Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnese in that order. The Airmobile Corps would be airlifted into Turkey to start the attack on the Greeks in Ionia, to be reinforced by the Reserve Panzer Corps once the routes through Thrace were available. Follow on attacks would take the Greek islands in concert with the Italians…
…The movement of 40 divisions was impossible to hide and the British learned of the Pact deployments by April 3rd. Churchill initially wanted to take the reserves allocated to Egypt, one Australian and one New Zealand Infantry Division and an independent British Armored Brigade, and have them directly reinforce the Greeks on the mainland to try and hold a line north of Thessaly. This was very quickly determined to be impractical and by the end of the day Churchill was thinking of a deployment anchored on Thermopylae to protect southern Greece, Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnese, with most of the Greek islands protected by proxy.
The Imperial General Staff quickly determined that a forward deployment was inviable, as the Pact forces would have air supremacy and be able to deploy a corps of paratroopers behind their lines in the Peloponnese and render their position impossible. Furthermore such a forward deployment would require all seven proposed Brigades, Brigades that Pope in Egypt needed to stop the Italians. Many in the War Cabinet did not want to strip any reserves from Egypt at all, viewing defeating the Italians there as more important than holding a part of Greece and Churchill found himself having to justify holding Greece by providing the RAF with advanced bases to strike at the Romanian oil fields and to threaten the seaward Italian flank in North Africa.
A compromise was proposed, that only one Australian brigade and only the Infantry and Light Tanks of the armored brigade would be sent and that the plan would be to hold the Peloponnese, using the Isthmus of Corinth as a choke point. While possible, as a single division backed by an independent artillery regiment could hold the three and two thirds mile long Corinth Canal, it also relied on two brigades as well as any Greek remnants to hold 120 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Corinth and to provide rear area security against paratrooper landings. It was doable if the Greek forces fell back in good order, but that was something that the Imperial General Staff did not expect to occur against rapid German Panzer thrusts and massive air attacks. It was still possible if the Greeks were willing to redeploy their reserves and rapid reaction troops to the Peloponnese, however requests to do so were refused on April 5th as the Greeks still wanted to try and hold onto most of their mainland possessions
A revised plan was quickly made, the troops intended for Greece would move to secure Crete as a place for the Greek government to fall back to and rally resistance from and a forward airbase a hundred miles closer to the oilfields at Ploesti than Cyprus was and much better positioned to provide support to the Western Desert Theater…
…The British were confident that the Italian fleet would not be able to interfere with their operations on Crete and with good reason. Over the course of March no fewer than three Italian battleships had been disabled by British attacks, Duilio on March 13th by HMS U-14, Roma on March 26th in the ambush of an attempted bombardment raid on Egypt by Ghost torpedo bombers off of HMS Audacious and what was believed to be Vittorio by HMS U-19 on the 27th returning from the raid. None of the ships were destroyed or irreparably damaged but all of them were at least out of action until August.
An intercept of an Italian communique on April 3rd confirmed that three battleships were out of action and thus in British minds meant that the available Italian modern units would be Littorio, Actium and Lepanto, a force outmatched by Queen Elizabeth, Warspite and Repulse, and possible the Greek Nika as well, given the demonstrated Italian unwillingness to risk their older battleships to even the odds. With Audacious to soften up attackers and provide overwatch Admiral Somerville was confident of handing the Italian Navy a major defeat if they attempted to interfere with the British around Crete.
What he and the rest of the Royal Navy were not yet aware of was that the Battleship Andrea Doria had struck an Italian defensive mine that had come loose on March 20th, and that it was the already damaged Roma that had been torpedoed on March 27th and not the Vittorio…
…Hitler made it clear to Demir that he was not happy about having to divert troops to a sideshow because of his border incident. If Demir wanted the full quantity of weapons and other assistance that had been promised he would have to do more for Hitler than simply allow transit rights for and take part in Otto. Hitler demanded that he use his connections with the Islamist movements in the British portions of the Middle East to foment revolt and otherwise stir up trouble for the British.
Demir agreed to this concession immediately, as it was something that he wanted to do on his own. What he did not tell Hitler was that he would also be doing his best to stir up trouble in French Syria and Lebanon as well…
-Excerpt From The Fall of Europe, Scholastic American Press, Philadelphia, 2005
…As Otto approached and the British blockade tightened Hitler was briefed that there was projected to be a serious shortfall in food from Fall of 1942 into Fall of 1943 in German controlled and allied Europe, unless the British would choose to end their blockade after the success of Otto. This was considered unlikely, as was the possibility that cereal production in the Ukraine would fully recover within a year after Otto, meaning that a food shortage would likely continue well into 1944.
This briefing, combined with the previous briefing from the same meeting about known difficulties with the proposed mass expulsions of the Jewish population led Hitler to make his famous remark of “You say we have too many Jews, you say we have too little food, the solution is obvious.” This remark is considered the beginning of the Volkist Population Reductions as distinct from the general racial oppression of the Volkist regime…
…Hitler had always intended to wipe out the Jews according to his private papers, however before and during the early phases of WWII this was always considered a problem for later, after the British and French had been humbled, the USSR had been destroyed, and potentially America had been humbled as well. The food crisis faced by the Reich simply gave Hitler an excuse to spend resources on one of his long term goals immediately rather than in the distant future…
…Senior Gestapo official Reinhard Heydrich was given the task of overseeing the Reduction of the Population of Jews and other undesirables. Heydrich quickly developed a system of priorities based on both an individuals perceived danger to the Reich and their value as a laborer. Jews, despite the virulent antisemitism of the Volkists, were actually middle ranked in terms of danger as while they possessed a racial threat in the long term Heydrich felt that the people of the Reich were well inoculated against Jewish propaganda and manipulations. Instead he was more concerned about political enemies of the Reich of ethnic German stock, socialists, communists and trade unionists, who might be listened to by the common people of the Reich. It was these who were first targeted in the so called Population Reductions…
…The Population Reductions did not officially start until December of 1942 after Heydrich had worked out a comprehensive plan and set of policy goals, but impromptu massacres had started by April of 1942, as well as a steady program of deliberate starvation in the ghettos of Europe…
-Excerpt From The Great Dying: the Volkist Genocides, Harper & Brothers, New York, 2012
This is fascinating, a much more rebellious middle east in WW2! Question is, when did Demir develop these extensive connections, and how extensive are these islamist movement across the middle east? I don't recall them being mentioned earlier and I don't think they are OTL.
Is Hitler starting the holocaust during the war actually spur of the moment in TTL, or does the destruction of records mean TTL historians are unable to learn the truth of how deeply it was baked into their ideology?
It did say that he always planned on doing so. Just that the food shortages provided a cconvenient way to push the timetable forwards.
So uh, wow that was like 2 weeks of staying up til 2 am reading. This is such amazing work @RamscoopRaider , thanks for sharing. I'm really glad I stumbled on this while looking for HMS Tiger AH refit drawings.
I really look forward to seeing this continue.
I really look forward to seeing this continue.
Part 6-65 Fall of Europe
RamscoopRaider
Donor
…The invasion of Greece began as expected at Dawn on April 14th. German and Italian aircraft crossed the border first and managed to catch almost a hundred Greek aircraft on the ground thanks to a Greek lack of radar coverage. This was followed up by invasions all along both the Greek mainland border and the northern portion of the Thracian and Ionian borders.
The heaviest attack came out of Albania, despite the fact that 4 Italian divisions were not in place for H-Hour the Italian force was still the largest and had access to large preplaced stockpiles. The Italians however faced a full half of the forces in northern Greece and the majority of the Greek border fortifications. To avoid taking excessive losses for what was ultimately a diversion they moved slowly and methodically, advancing 10 miles at the most on the first day.
The German forces to their immediate east moved faster, with the panzers of the XIVth Corps moving south from Monastir advancing over 50 miles on the first day and completely annihilating the single Greek division defending the section of the border facing them. The German XXX mountain Corps and Bulgarians made little advance into their parts of Greece, as they like the Italians were merely fixing forces. In Thrace the Bulgarians managed a 20 mile advance against the understrength Greek division tasked with holding the area, taking few losses thanks to a 5 to 1 superiority in numbers. In Ionia the German airlanding Corps did well to make a five mile advance as the Greeks were both expecting trouble from the Turks and as well armed as they.
On the 15th the Greeks realized the threat the German Panzers posed and a nighttime withdrawal was ordered. This did not stop the German Panzers from advancing another 25 miles into the country, reaching the edge of the Thessalian plains, while the Italians, Bulgarians and mountain troops made more limited advances of a few miles. In Thrace the Bulgarians pushed forward another twenty miles, with the Greek 19th division only continuing to fight to buy time for Ionia, where evacuation of civilians was already underway. In Ionia the Germans made no advances on their own, needing to wait until the Bulgarians cleared the routes for the Panzers to have sufficient firepower for more than token advances.
On the 16th the Greek withdrawal had already started and Pact forces moved to make it into a full rout, hitting the fleeing forces with airpower and trying to race ahead. The Greek reserves were deployed just north of the town of Lamia to serve as a barrier behind which their forces could flee and reconstitute. The forces facing Albania found themselves diverting south as the German Panzers had begun advancing through the Thessalonian plains and cut off a more northerly route. To the east three divisions attempted to make a stand at Thessalonica and the Chaldice Peninsula, or at least to evacuate by sea. Two more attempted to withdraw along the coast and try to race ahead of the Panzers. The 19th division in Thrace found itself forced to retreat to Arcadiopolis and made a stand there to deny the railway route to Constantinople to the Germans as long as possible. Once again only token progress was made in Ionia as the Greeks fought hard to keep the Turks out. Small landing parties from the Bulgarians seized Thasos and Samothrace while the Italians seized Corfu, Paxos and Lefkas.
On the 17th the German panzers swung east and destroyed the two Greek infantry divisions attempting to flee along the coast. The Italians attempted to do the same with one of their motorized divisions and catch the northernmost trio of Greek divisions in their sector but only succeeded in destroying one. The Bulgarians and German mountain troops began a siege of Thessalonica and the Chaldice while the Greeks began an evacuation. The 19th division continued to make its stand at Arcadiopolis while the Greeks continued to hold in Ionia. The Italians took control of the remainder of the Ionian Islands and the Germans dropped a single Paratrooper regiment near Pyrgos to seize the nearby fishing villages to gain a foothold in the Peloponnese.
On the 18th the Germans paused to reorient the XIV Panzer, while the Italians continued their pursuit of the Greek Albanian forces with some success, the constant pursuit and air attacks reducing coordination to a minimum. Italian forces furthermore made a regimental level landing near Pyrgos and started fortifying a beachhead while the remainder of the German forces continued the siege of the Chaldice. The Bulgarians made regimental landings on Imbros and Tenedos, capturing the two small islands, but took relatively high losses in the process as the islands were garrisoned against the potential of Turkish attack.
On the 19th the German Panzers launched an assault on the Greek defense line north of Lamia while a division scale paradrop was made in Boeotia to cut off the Greek retreat. The Panzers very quickly broke through the Greek lines, despite the limited approaches from the rough terrain limiting their options the Greeks had no AT guns for the Germans to fear. The Paratroopers, while lightly armed, were able to hold the northernmost roads in Boeotia, forcing remnants of a half dozen Greek divisions to funnel through much more narrow roads in the rougher southern part of the region while under hot pursuit, while others attempted to withdraw across the Gulf of Corinth by boat.
By the 20th there was no effective Greek resistance on the mainland outside of Thessalonica and Arcadiopolis and the Germans were at the gates of Attica and the Italians preparing to expand their foothold in the Peloponnese. Ionia was still holding out, but only because of the difficulty in getting heavy German forces into position to attack it. Similarly most of the islands of the Aegean remained untouched, but were undefended and ripe for the taking once the opportunity presented. The Greek government made the decision to flee Athens and withdraw to Heraklion on Crete, which was strongly held by British Commonwealth forces and would be a rallying point for resistance.
The Germans however had a plan for that and Sanna was willing to cooperate and do the heavy lifting for it…
…Thessalonica fell on the 22nd, leaving Arcadiopolis as the last bastion of Greek resistance on the mainland. It fell on the 24th and the Germans had restored the railroad by the 26th, allowing the Panzers of the XXIInd Corps to enter position to attack the lines in Ionia on May 2nd…
-Excerpt From The Fall of Europe, Scholastic American Press, Philadelphia, 2005
The heaviest attack came out of Albania, despite the fact that 4 Italian divisions were not in place for H-Hour the Italian force was still the largest and had access to large preplaced stockpiles. The Italians however faced a full half of the forces in northern Greece and the majority of the Greek border fortifications. To avoid taking excessive losses for what was ultimately a diversion they moved slowly and methodically, advancing 10 miles at the most on the first day.
The German forces to their immediate east moved faster, with the panzers of the XIVth Corps moving south from Monastir advancing over 50 miles on the first day and completely annihilating the single Greek division defending the section of the border facing them. The German XXX mountain Corps and Bulgarians made little advance into their parts of Greece, as they like the Italians were merely fixing forces. In Thrace the Bulgarians managed a 20 mile advance against the understrength Greek division tasked with holding the area, taking few losses thanks to a 5 to 1 superiority in numbers. In Ionia the German airlanding Corps did well to make a five mile advance as the Greeks were both expecting trouble from the Turks and as well armed as they.
On the 15th the Greeks realized the threat the German Panzers posed and a nighttime withdrawal was ordered. This did not stop the German Panzers from advancing another 25 miles into the country, reaching the edge of the Thessalian plains, while the Italians, Bulgarians and mountain troops made more limited advances of a few miles. In Thrace the Bulgarians pushed forward another twenty miles, with the Greek 19th division only continuing to fight to buy time for Ionia, where evacuation of civilians was already underway. In Ionia the Germans made no advances on their own, needing to wait until the Bulgarians cleared the routes for the Panzers to have sufficient firepower for more than token advances.
On the 16th the Greek withdrawal had already started and Pact forces moved to make it into a full rout, hitting the fleeing forces with airpower and trying to race ahead. The Greek reserves were deployed just north of the town of Lamia to serve as a barrier behind which their forces could flee and reconstitute. The forces facing Albania found themselves diverting south as the German Panzers had begun advancing through the Thessalonian plains and cut off a more northerly route. To the east three divisions attempted to make a stand at Thessalonica and the Chaldice Peninsula, or at least to evacuate by sea. Two more attempted to withdraw along the coast and try to race ahead of the Panzers. The 19th division in Thrace found itself forced to retreat to Arcadiopolis and made a stand there to deny the railway route to Constantinople to the Germans as long as possible. Once again only token progress was made in Ionia as the Greeks fought hard to keep the Turks out. Small landing parties from the Bulgarians seized Thasos and Samothrace while the Italians seized Corfu, Paxos and Lefkas.
On the 17th the German panzers swung east and destroyed the two Greek infantry divisions attempting to flee along the coast. The Italians attempted to do the same with one of their motorized divisions and catch the northernmost trio of Greek divisions in their sector but only succeeded in destroying one. The Bulgarians and German mountain troops began a siege of Thessalonica and the Chaldice while the Greeks began an evacuation. The 19th division continued to make its stand at Arcadiopolis while the Greeks continued to hold in Ionia. The Italians took control of the remainder of the Ionian Islands and the Germans dropped a single Paratrooper regiment near Pyrgos to seize the nearby fishing villages to gain a foothold in the Peloponnese.
On the 18th the Germans paused to reorient the XIV Panzer, while the Italians continued their pursuit of the Greek Albanian forces with some success, the constant pursuit and air attacks reducing coordination to a minimum. Italian forces furthermore made a regimental level landing near Pyrgos and started fortifying a beachhead while the remainder of the German forces continued the siege of the Chaldice. The Bulgarians made regimental landings on Imbros and Tenedos, capturing the two small islands, but took relatively high losses in the process as the islands were garrisoned against the potential of Turkish attack.
On the 19th the German Panzers launched an assault on the Greek defense line north of Lamia while a division scale paradrop was made in Boeotia to cut off the Greek retreat. The Panzers very quickly broke through the Greek lines, despite the limited approaches from the rough terrain limiting their options the Greeks had no AT guns for the Germans to fear. The Paratroopers, while lightly armed, were able to hold the northernmost roads in Boeotia, forcing remnants of a half dozen Greek divisions to funnel through much more narrow roads in the rougher southern part of the region while under hot pursuit, while others attempted to withdraw across the Gulf of Corinth by boat.
By the 20th there was no effective Greek resistance on the mainland outside of Thessalonica and Arcadiopolis and the Germans were at the gates of Attica and the Italians preparing to expand their foothold in the Peloponnese. Ionia was still holding out, but only because of the difficulty in getting heavy German forces into position to attack it. Similarly most of the islands of the Aegean remained untouched, but were undefended and ripe for the taking once the opportunity presented. The Greek government made the decision to flee Athens and withdraw to Heraklion on Crete, which was strongly held by British Commonwealth forces and would be a rallying point for resistance.
The Germans however had a plan for that and Sanna was willing to cooperate and do the heavy lifting for it…
…Thessalonica fell on the 22nd, leaving Arcadiopolis as the last bastion of Greek resistance on the mainland. It fell on the 24th and the Germans had restored the railroad by the 26th, allowing the Panzers of the XXIInd Corps to enter position to attack the lines in Ionia on May 2nd…
-Excerpt From The Fall of Europe, Scholastic American Press, Philadelphia, 2005
A curb-stomp much as OTL sadly. I fear for the people of Ionia once that finally falls.
I wonder if we will see a large scale amphibious landing or maybe a failure in Crete with some good news to the allies.
Speaking of which if The Fall of Europe book covers the initial Nazi/Soviet conquests what else is there by this point to cover? Absent the micronations, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Romania, and bits of Turkey nothing seems to be left. Does that mean we will be switching to another book as the primary focus?
LinkedTortoise
Monthly Donor
Turkey seems to be onside though Hitler is not happy about this tail wagging dog incident.
Spain is happy making tons of money and Hitler would probably be worried about Spain being his Peninsular War moment.
Portugal is irrelevant and on the other side of Spain.
Romania is onside or at least is against the Soviets and for making tons of money selling oil.
Sweden is basically irrelevant as well and attacking would cause a shortage of iron.
So basically just Switzerland. It would definitely be a ghastly victory.
Yeah probably like OTL unless the larger amount of Wallied troops turn it into a bloodbath.
Spain may be making money and Hitler may not want to send troops there but I’m working under the assumption that ALL the country bios listed from the Eve of War sections are ones that WILL take a direct part in the conflict. Mainly because only the most excessively comprehensive historians would write a book listing EVERY SINGLE nation’s situation at the outbreak of hostilities regardless of their involvement.
And Portugal wouldn’t be irrelevant if Spain joined the Pact while Portugal was with the Allies.
Speaking of Sweden was there a passage in a previous post that indicated the Soviets might try to invade them? Possibly to hurt the Germans or just in the general counterattack to take over Europe?
Come to think of it how old is this conflict? Has it even been a year in setting?
Part 6-66 Fall of Europe
RamscoopRaider
Donor
…After the fall of Arcadiopolis on the 24th the British began urging the Greeks to evacuate their forces in Ionia to Crete to defend the island and to be preserved for future campaigns. The Greek Navy had already fled to the island, as had the remnants of the Greek Air Force and about 5,000 Greek army personnel from the mainland had been ferried over before the minor ports were overrun. The Greeks however were not willing to abandon Ionia and prioritized the evacuation of civilians as they were quite worried about just what the Turks would do to Ionia’s civilian population when it fell. This was a quite rational fear and one that would be vindicated in a matter of weeks, but it was a great source of frustration to the British.
On April 27th it was agreed that if the British would provide transport that half of it would be used to evacuate rear line troops and recoverable wounded from Ionia, while the rest would ferry refugees from Ionia to nearby Lesbos, Chios and Samos. The Greeks already knew from backchannels with Bulgaria that those islands would be occupied by them and thus the population would be relatively safe as the Bulgarians were fellow Orthodox Christians and had no interest in long term ownership of those islands.
By the time that the XXIInd Panzer Corps broke the Greek lines on May 4th, the British had evacuated 10,000 Greek troops to Crete to join the 5,000 from the mainland and the 5,000 already there…
…The XXIInd Panzer Corps attacked Greek lines in Ionia near Sardis at dawn on May 2nd, attacking down the Hermus valley. The Greeks, lacking AT guns or tanks of their own, could not deal with the Panzers save with obstacles, of which they had emplaced a great deal protected by artillery, machine guns and mortars. The Germans took until the afternoon of the 3rd to deal with this obstacle belt, before breaking out on the 4th. By the 6th they had reached the coast, cutting the Greek position in half and were besieging Smyrna.
Mountainous terrain prevented the Panzers from immediately being able to unravel the Greek lines, however the Greeks began falling back to protect the evacuation ports of New Ephesus, Aivali and Adramiti as long as possible. This was not particularly long, as Adramiti fell to German infantry on the 9th, Aivali on the 14th once more to German infantry, Smyrna to German motorized infantry on the 16th and New Ephesus to Motorized troops on the 17th. This stand had mostly become irrelevant with the end of evacuation on the 12th due to naval actions…
…The German advance in Ionia was slowed by the appalling behavior of their Turkish cobelligerents. The German troops were horrified by what the Turkish irregulars, and even regulars were doing to the Greek civilian population and in many cases slowed their attacks to intervene between their so called allies and the civilian population of their enemies. So prevalent was this behavior at all levels that it reached Hitler’s ears and he told Demir to keep his troops in hand for the sake of the German troops morale. Hitler was not seriously concerned about the matter, and it Demir only played lip service to trying to keep his men in hand, but the fact that it reached the highest levels showed how much friction there was.
This friction would presage ill for the Caucasian front of Otto…
…By the start of May reports were beginning to come in on the conditions of the roads and ground in the western Soviet Union, little of them good. The roads were still very muddy and outside of the few main thoroughfares would be passable only with great difficulty. The ground itself would be even worse than the roads and that spelled big trouble for the Panzer centric encirclements that were planned to destroy the Red Army.
These reports did not change the overall Wehrmacht prognosis, that they would destroy the Soviet Army and overrun the country by the end of the year, simply that there would be an increased loss in men and equipment projected as instead of taking most of the Red Army off the board in the first weeks of the war with grand encirclements, they would have to be destroyed piecemeal with frontal assaults. Rather than have this occur OKW requested that Hitler delay Otto for a month so that the ground could dry, there was enough slack in their timetable that this would not prevent the destruction of the Red Army and the arrival at the Archangelsk-Astrakhan stop line by the end of November.
Hitler was at first skeptical of the decision to delay, but he was soon convinced by his economic planners to accept the delay. They felt that they could continue to string along the USSR for another month, receiving strategic materials in exchange for promises of technical aid and capital goods that could be delayed until after the invasion. Another month they felt would provide a larger buffer until the resources captured in Otto could be properly made use of. With both his primary military and economic advisers agreeing on the matter he decided on May 4th to delay Otto until June 20th.
He did not, contrary to the popular view, delay Otto because of the Greek adventure. XIV Panzer Corps would have had 18 days and the XXX Mountain Corps 21 days to rest and reposition for their parts in Otto assuming the original May 15th deadline, sufficient for their needs. XXII Panzer Corps would not have had sufficient time to do so, but was intended as part of the strategic reserve and would not have been deployed in the initial actions in any case…
…German deception operations regarding Otto were extensive, as they did not want the Soviets realizing that they were the target of the invasion. Extensive preparations occurred in the Atlantic ports of the continent that pointed to work for an amphibious invasion of Britain and propaganda emphasized continued work on the surface ships of the Kriegsmarine. How successful this was remains a matter of debate…
-Excerpt From The Fall of Europe, Scholastic American Press, Philadelphia, 2005
A/N update posted, any fixes will need to wait until after 6pm EST due to Ghibli-fest
On April 27th it was agreed that if the British would provide transport that half of it would be used to evacuate rear line troops and recoverable wounded from Ionia, while the rest would ferry refugees from Ionia to nearby Lesbos, Chios and Samos. The Greeks already knew from backchannels with Bulgaria that those islands would be occupied by them and thus the population would be relatively safe as the Bulgarians were fellow Orthodox Christians and had no interest in long term ownership of those islands.
By the time that the XXIInd Panzer Corps broke the Greek lines on May 4th, the British had evacuated 10,000 Greek troops to Crete to join the 5,000 from the mainland and the 5,000 already there…
…The XXIInd Panzer Corps attacked Greek lines in Ionia near Sardis at dawn on May 2nd, attacking down the Hermus valley. The Greeks, lacking AT guns or tanks of their own, could not deal with the Panzers save with obstacles, of which they had emplaced a great deal protected by artillery, machine guns and mortars. The Germans took until the afternoon of the 3rd to deal with this obstacle belt, before breaking out on the 4th. By the 6th they had reached the coast, cutting the Greek position in half and were besieging Smyrna.
Mountainous terrain prevented the Panzers from immediately being able to unravel the Greek lines, however the Greeks began falling back to protect the evacuation ports of New Ephesus, Aivali and Adramiti as long as possible. This was not particularly long, as Adramiti fell to German infantry on the 9th, Aivali on the 14th once more to German infantry, Smyrna to German motorized infantry on the 16th and New Ephesus to Motorized troops on the 17th. This stand had mostly become irrelevant with the end of evacuation on the 12th due to naval actions…
…The German advance in Ionia was slowed by the appalling behavior of their Turkish cobelligerents. The German troops were horrified by what the Turkish irregulars, and even regulars were doing to the Greek civilian population and in many cases slowed their attacks to intervene between their so called allies and the civilian population of their enemies. So prevalent was this behavior at all levels that it reached Hitler’s ears and he told Demir to keep his troops in hand for the sake of the German troops morale. Hitler was not seriously concerned about the matter, and it Demir only played lip service to trying to keep his men in hand, but the fact that it reached the highest levels showed how much friction there was.
This friction would presage ill for the Caucasian front of Otto…
…By the start of May reports were beginning to come in on the conditions of the roads and ground in the western Soviet Union, little of them good. The roads were still very muddy and outside of the few main thoroughfares would be passable only with great difficulty. The ground itself would be even worse than the roads and that spelled big trouble for the Panzer centric encirclements that were planned to destroy the Red Army.
These reports did not change the overall Wehrmacht prognosis, that they would destroy the Soviet Army and overrun the country by the end of the year, simply that there would be an increased loss in men and equipment projected as instead of taking most of the Red Army off the board in the first weeks of the war with grand encirclements, they would have to be destroyed piecemeal with frontal assaults. Rather than have this occur OKW requested that Hitler delay Otto for a month so that the ground could dry, there was enough slack in their timetable that this would not prevent the destruction of the Red Army and the arrival at the Archangelsk-Astrakhan stop line by the end of November.
Hitler was at first skeptical of the decision to delay, but he was soon convinced by his economic planners to accept the delay. They felt that they could continue to string along the USSR for another month, receiving strategic materials in exchange for promises of technical aid and capital goods that could be delayed until after the invasion. Another month they felt would provide a larger buffer until the resources captured in Otto could be properly made use of. With both his primary military and economic advisers agreeing on the matter he decided on May 4th to delay Otto until June 20th.
He did not, contrary to the popular view, delay Otto because of the Greek adventure. XIV Panzer Corps would have had 18 days and the XXX Mountain Corps 21 days to rest and reposition for their parts in Otto assuming the original May 15th deadline, sufficient for their needs. XXII Panzer Corps would not have had sufficient time to do so, but was intended as part of the strategic reserve and would not have been deployed in the initial actions in any case…
…German deception operations regarding Otto were extensive, as they did not want the Soviets realizing that they were the target of the invasion. Extensive preparations occurred in the Atlantic ports of the continent that pointed to work for an amphibious invasion of Britain and propaganda emphasized continued work on the surface ships of the Kriegsmarine. How successful this was remains a matter of debate…
-Excerpt From The Fall of Europe, Scholastic American Press, Philadelphia, 2005
A/N update posted, any fixes will need to wait until after 6pm EST due to Ghibli-fest
The Turks have said the quiet part out loud, and rattled the German soldiers. On the dark side, this may encourage the German command to consider active measures to prevent news of massacres in Russia from spreading, and contribute to a Clean Wehrmacht myth.
So any chance we can get an Order of Battle for both sides of the Eastern Front right before Otto launches?
And does the start date mean Germany has more time before winter sets in or about the same?
Also was I the only one who watched a D-Day related movie on the 80th Anniversary of the Landings? (For me it was The Longest Day film)
And does the start date mean Germany has more time before winter sets in or about the same?
Also was I the only one who watched a D-Day related movie on the 80th Anniversary of the Landings? (For me it was The Longest Day film)
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Anyways I just came back from an interview and have a new job, so this probably is not updating for a few weeks and will likely end up on another day of the week when it does