Putting on the Reich: An Axis Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe AAR

[Drakken]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuxhaven

[Drakken]

Axis Turn 13: Paris is burning



After Goering has ordered the concentration of all flying bombers toward Paris to reduce the stiff resistance fron entrenched French defenders pinning 8th and 14th Armies, plus 3rd Panzer, Paris finally falls when its garrison is shattered. 5th Panzer is given the privilege to enter the capital.

In the North, the main core of the BEF is nigh-on surrounded by 4th and 17th Armies with 1st Panzer swerving around to attempt the pocket. Only 7th Army's heroic resistance saves the BEF from complete encirclement in the battle for Arras.

Our last Medium Bomber is now out of the industries. We lay it in Mainz, even though the war might be effectively over.

The question now is, do we propose terms to end the war now or we go for all-out annexation? Surrender is not assured: Even with Paris now in our hands, there is a chance France might win its roll and refuse to surrender. Each remaining French unit gives a few % boost to resist the roll to surrender.




In Africa, 10th Army cautiously advances toward Siri Barrani. Meanwhile the Ariete Tanks are forced to make a stop in Taranto because our transport's reach is too short to reach Tobruk in one turn - I do not want to risk it being sunk by a raid by the Royal Navy. So I tuck it safely amidst two Battleships.






Now that we have an available diplomatic chit, I send a diplomat to Stockholm to reassure King Gustaf V that this idea of annexing Sweden is total nonsense. 

[Valmy]

Ok now just move Renauld to Algeria to keep up the fight!

Or is Daladier still in charge

Whichever.

As per your question I think you should encourage Petain and Laval to do their treason. Vichy is not going to cause you much trouble. But hey France fighting on would make me happy so whatever 

[Drakken]

As per your question I think you should encourage Petain and Laval to do their treason. Vichy is not going to cause you much trouble. But hey France fighting on would make me happy so whatever 

Vichy France is officially neutral, it is not part of the Axis. Yet. 

Two good arguments in favour of Vichy France... is that I need the Saint-Nazaire pens for my u-boats, if I want to keep the pressure.  This port is special because it has all the advantages of a German port, right in the Atlantic. With Advanced Sub I can do a lot of damage to the British war effort.

Also, it significantly boots Spain's pro-Axis stance, which will open u-boat supply ports in the Atlantic. I will use those to springboard my u-boats to mine the Canadian straits near Halifax.

If I keep the war going on, it means that I will need to drive to Bordeaux or break their Morale to 0%. This can take a while, where my units can be better used elsewhere.

[Drakken]

Allies Turn 13: Merde!

Well fuck. Shit has just got real. I just got served the Word of Cambronne. 

Despite the fall of Paris, and to the Fuhrer's complete and utter dismay, Paul Reynaud and the French government refuses to surrender. 

Just like in 1870, the capital has moved to Bordeaux. Despite their abysmally low Nationale Morale (now at 18%) and the hit on British morale now that Paris is in German hands and the Battle of France is on the verge on being lost, Paul Reynaud assures Winston Churchill that France still has some willingness to fight it on.






The French units in front of Rouen retreat towards Normandy, while the BEF reinforces itself to serve as a blocker to stop me from pursuing. The RAF savages 1st Panzer on the estuary of the Somme River, while the elements of French Navy bombards 1st Fallschirmjäger resting in Dunkirk.

Furthermore, the Armies on the Maginot line stay put and fight fanatically, counterattacking at large on the front with mediocre results. While they are threatened to be pocketed, they fight fearlessly to defend the mère-patrie from being overwhelmed on their right wing.




In Egypt, a counterattack from the Desert Rats, supported by airplanes from a nearby Carrier, absolutely cripples the Italian 10th Army, which will be forced to retreat back behind Bardia. Further reinforcements are mobilized from deeper in Egypt, which does not sound good at all.






U-32 and U-35 are spotted by Royal Navy and French escorts, which sortie in mass to attempt to destroy the latter from all sides. U-35 is almost sunk by the Irish coast and will be forced to return to harbor ASAP.




In a bit of peripherical news, Franco seizes the opportunity from the chaos after the fall of Paris to invade and occupy the International Protectorate Zone of Tangiers.




And... in a wee bit of good news, we improve our Anti-Tank Weapons by 1 thanks to our German researchers at Krupp. Not that it will be useful for now... since the French have no real Tank Group facing us.

[Valmy]

Vive la France!!11

Maybe you beat France too quickly and they did not have the chance to recall Petain from Spain?

[Drakken]

Axis Turn 14: Caging the Lion of Belfort

At the meeting at the Berghof following the refusal of the French government, Hitler and his OKW staff has gathered to decide on what to do next following the success of Fall Gelb.

Rather than rush toward Bordeaux, which we expect to be strongly defended with all its retreating units, instead it was decided to go for the French's weakened jugular:

1. Veer to overtake NM Objectives of Lyon, then Marseille.
2. Thrust through Nancy, Epinal, and Belfort to cut off the supply lines in the undefended rear of the Maginot line. Finally, we will launch a final offensive to destroy the units holding the Maginot line and annihilate them.
3. Order Von Kuchler's Army to annihilate the BEF Army, then push towards Rouen and Orleans to create a secondary front along the Seine River.

With this, we hope that France's weak National Morale will fall down to zero, forcing a surrender through unwillingness to fight.




The Luftwaffe craps a shit load of bombs on the Corps holding Nancy, after which XII and I Frontier Corps weaken it enough to remove its Zone of Control and destroy it. This allow 4th Panzer to speed through Epinal and capture Belfort. The Maginot line is thus completely isolated from the French mainland. XIV Corps then moves from the Siegfried line to deny the Briey mine to the French.

Alongside, Von Rundstedt's 3rd, 5th, and 21st Panzers rush along the Auxerre railroad and captures Dijon, aiming to lunge towards Lyon supported by 8th Army. This keeps options to bring reinforcements to the Maginot pocket if they start to move back.

In the North, 1st Panzer finally completes the Amiens pocket. Von Kuchler's army completely and finally annihilates the trained, experienced English BEF army right there and then. Calais is overtaken, while we push towards Rouen intending to be a pinning front in the North, while we do the same in front of Orleans.




In Norway, a British Salmon sub is spotted in the Skaggerak. I send my Destroyers to attack it and push it away from my Norwegian convoy line, while blocking the path in case the British attempt a sortie.




On the African front, 10th Army retreats behind the line to recuperate. We also reinforce the African Army by transporting the Ariete tanks, 1st Army, and XXIV Corps through Tobruk.




Italian researchers also strive to improve our Aerial Warfare doctrine to contend with the RAF in Italy.

[Duque de Bragança]

Super Gamelin aurait-il gagné ?

La suite SVP !

[Drakken]

Allies Turn 14: Cheese-eating surrender monkeys

July 14th, 1940. The Bastille has fallen.

The Raynaud government is deposed, a new regime dissolving both the National Assembly and the IIIrd Republic. Seeing the writing is on the wall and that if things continue, France will utterly disappear from the face of the Earth, the new French government does no longer want to fight and sues for terms.




Magnanimously, we offer an armistice to the new Chef de l'État français, Maréchal Philippe Pétain, which he accepts to prevent the utter destruction of France. On my side, if I had said no I would have needed to invade all the way to Algiers, and this would have taken at least until Late 1940. So instead Vichy France is created in the game, which starts back officially neutral as a Minor with the remaining "temporarily" occupied until the war is over.






HOWEVER.. we annex back Alsace-Lorraine and destroy the Maginot line. Take that, Clemenceau.






Algeria, Tunisia, and Syria all declare their allegiance to the continued French State.






Britain recognizes the Free French while the so-called "De Gaulle" foolishly claims that France will continue to fight. Meanwhile, the fall of France drives Spain further in favour of the Axis and they open up channels to export wolfram ore to us for our war industries.








The war continues, however. The British send their Strategic Bomber to bomb Loos, which costs us 4 MP. However, our Fighter force is now completely free to concentrate on protecting the skies from the Royal Air Force.




In Egypt, it seems the British retreats and abandon Sidi Barrani. A British destroyer and an Escort Carrier spot the Leonardo da Vinci and attack it, causing serious damage. The Carrier also sends his airplanes to bomb Bardia and the Italian Corps resting there.




Finally, in the Skaggerak strait the British Home Fleet makes a small sortie of another Carrier and a Light Cruiser against our Destroyer fleet, nearly sinking the Z-2 fleet. The British sub escapes in the North Sea, but to what price?

[Drakken]

Don't ask me why, I always find that picture surreal.

[Duque de Bragança]

La suite !

[Drakken]

Axis Turn 15: Situation Assessment

Now that France has been dealt with time has come to make a decision on my strategic aims. It is certain that Britain will not sue for peace, and there certain situations I will have to deal with in short order.


a) Sealion

As the moment, Germany has no Research level in Amphibious Warfare or in Logistics. That means that, as per the rules, I can only field and troops in two amphibious transports at a time, which is the default for Germany.

Even if I invest MPPs to increase my Logistics, Amphibious Warfare, and Long Range Aircraft to cover a large span of the British mainland, this would take me weeks, even months to wait here on the coast. Because of this, we are not prepared at all for going Sealion unless I discover that a port is left completely empty. Unfortunately, the current range and position of my fighters does not allow me to recon further than the Channel and London, and that area seems pretty much covered. It would also need significant investment of my Luftwaffe there, instead of being useful elsewhere.




Which leads me to go for... the Soviet Union. So the great drive East begins... 




b) Malta

That spot of rock land right between Libya and Sicily is a constant harassment for my supply lines in Africa. Any serious operation in North Africa requires the reduction of Malta.

Trouble is, a British AA force is planted right there. Regia Aeronautica is far too weak to handle this all by itself, and the presence of that AA would kill any paratroopers immediately dropping there.

So either I leave my Luftwaffe in France for something uncertain - and even foolhardy against Britain, or I deal with Malta. I choose the latter, so I relocate all my Medium and Tactical Bombers to Sicily, plus 7th Fallschirmjäger near Catanzano.

Even then, it will take me quite a while to reduce Malta. Easily until late Fall 1940. I will need the help of the Regia Marina for this.




c) Yugoslavia and Greece

In time, Mussolini will declare war on Greece. This is pretty much inescapable, but since I have hindsight I will come in prepared. Terrain in Greece is harsh, and even with German troops it will be a long drawn slog due to bad terrain. Thus, I reserve 2 Armies, 3 Corps, and 1 Panzer Unit to go toward Trieste first, then Albania.

Plus, Yugoslavia willl most probably fall under the Allies' spell sooner or later in early 1941. So while all troops will go eastward toward the Soviet Union about a quarter of them will place themselves on the Yugoslavian border to invade it as soon as they start acting weird.


d) North Africa

Toe-to-toe, the Italian Army alone is nowhere strong enough to deal one-on-one with the British Desert Force. Plus, with the fall of France I was dealt shitty hand diplomacy-wise: Vichy and its territories are all VERY neutral towards the Axis. They will be very hard to drive to our side to flank the British in North Africa, even in Syria.

I expect them to be very-well entrenched. Nonetheless I send the Ariete tanks to probe as far as possible, but they stumble on the Desert Reconnaissance force and O'Connor's HQ by surprise. I bring in the rest of my Italian Army and deal significant damage to the HQ but not enough to destroy it. Meanwhile the Ariete division captures Sidi Barrani and inflicts some good damage to their Recon, making it to our advantage for now, while IV Corps threatens a flanking maneuver south of Mersa Matruh.

Leonardo da Vinci retreats to Syracuse while Regia Aeronautica retreats in the rear to refit. I also move Graziani's HQ from Albania to Egypt. I plan instead to send in Von Rundstedt to assist operations in Greece.




I also decide, when Rommel arrives to bring in 2 more Armies, 1 Fighter, and 1st Fallschirmjäger from Germany to North Africa with DAK and Rommel later. 1st Fallschirmjäger is relocated in Brindisi to first refit, then help out in Greece when it'll start.


e) Kriegsmarine

While returning to Cuxhaven to refit, U-30 spots the British Carrier Glorious escorted with a lone Destroyer Squadron. I order the Kriegsmarine to sortie and destroy that Carrier at once. The battle was fierce but unfortunately Glorious escapes destruction by a hair. 

Deustchland docks in Bergen for resupplying, while U-47 moves through the Channel to dock at Brest before going to the Atlantic. Meanwhile, U-37 is drydock for improvement to Advanced Subs.




The remaining U-boats are in disarray, only 1 u-boat is left in the Atlantic to raid the British lifelines. U-35 escapes in Silent mode to go for the French coast to refit in Saint-Nazaire.


f) Spending

After Strategic Reallocation of my Bombers, Germany has a dizzying 1366 MPPs left to spend after plundering France. The vast, vast majority will go to raise Infantry for Russia. Armies first, then Corps second.

I buy this a whooping 5 Armies, then 1 Corps to go East. 

[alfred russel]

It has been like two weeks and all we get is a "situation assessment".

History will record the Axis failed because leadership got distracted and did other stuff like surf the internet and post on languish.

[Drakken]

It has been like two weeks and all we get is a "situation assessment".

History will record the Axis failed because leadership got distracted and did other stuff like surf the internet and post on languish.

I got distracted both by real-life stuff, two PBEM games of SCWWII and retaking learning to play WITE by PBEM as the Soviets. Gave myself a little break 

[crazy canuck]

Eagerly awaiting your next update