Ober-Ost . . .

[stockwellpete]

I came across this while watching the excellent Channel 4 series on the Great War. After the Germans had pushed the Russians back they organised the Baltic region into what seems to have been a gigantic labour camp, with everyone needing identity papers with photographs etc. One of the aims was to offset the effect of the blockade and to grow extra food for consumption in Germany. The scale of this policy seems to have been huge but I am not sure how successful it was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ober_Ost

I am not sure if this could be added to the game. Maybe if the Germans captured some key cities in the region (e.g. Kovno, Riga etc) then an "Ober-Ost" event might be triggered that would bring in some extra PP's (maybe 5 PP's a turn) while they continued to hold the region - or something like that anyway.

Does anyone know how effective Ober-Ost was in producing extra food for the Central Powers?

[Aryaman]

Even more important that the Baltic region was the conquest of Romania, that in the following next 18 months until the end of the war delivered 2 million tons of wheat and several millions tons of oil that made possible the continuation of the war into 1918 (Keegan pg. 308)

[stockwellpete]

Bump.

[Douaumont]

Germany's conquests in the East were not as productive as Ludendorff (and others) had hoped. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was not finalized until spring 1918, so there ended up not being much time. The rail system in the former Russian Empire was limited, and had been badly damaged. There was a shortage of labor in the territories due to the war and the political chaos, and of course the Germans were also strapped for manpower. So the conquered Baltic States, Ukraine, Poland, etc. had tremendous potential to assist the German war effort, and especially provide food, but the Germans were unable to get it under control and organized efficiently before the roof fell in on them. The great "what-if" was if the Germans had either A: stood on the defensive in the West through 1918 while they consolidated their Eastern conquests or B: Had attempted a compromise peace by surrendering territory in the West to maintain their Empire in the East. In the end, they chose C: Go for total victory with a massive offensive in the West while they held the upper hand.