Slitherine

Generalfeldmarschall Stefan Gruber, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, 22 June 1941

Meine Herren! The current situation leaves us little choice but to continue with the planned invasion of the Soviet Union. In the coming weeks we will try to crush the Red Air Force and chase the Russian Bear back to its caves in the Ural mountains. If successful, we will secure the future of Germany for the next one thousand years. And even if not, we will just form a so-called Union of Europe, and then we will do it anyway. However, in that case it will take some more time.





Following last year's Battle of Britain, now it is clear that we have no chance to invade England. Since last year they have made their defenses even stronger. Now they have extensive naval minefields around the British isles and a network of bunkers and Funkmessgerät stations which can detect our movements from a distance. And they have a strong reformed ground army and of course the Royal Navy. Despite intelligence reports that the latter had been significantly weakened recently, it still posess a formidable force, outnumbering our own ships at least two to one. At the moment they have the battleship King George V ready for action at Scapa, and another new battleship is believed to be finished soon. They also have a number of cruisers and large numbers of destroyers defending their home waters. Intelligence reports they also have at least two more battleships at Gibraltar which can be transfered to the north fairly fast.

In contrast, with the loss of the Bismarck, currently we do not have any battleships (however, the Tirpitz will be comissioned by the end of the year) and our two damaged battlecruisers are awaiting repairs in the French ports where they are very vulnerable to enemy attacks. Our destroyers were decimated in the invasion of Norway, and our U-boot fleet is still not strong enough. Therefore, the admiral of the fleet suggested that we should try to transfer at least one of the battlecruisers (the Gneisenau) to the relative safety of the Baltic Sea before the British would realize our hopeless situation. For the same reason, the U-boot fleet is ordered to retreat to cover these valuable ships. The admiral of the U-boot fleet insisted though, that one U-boot unit should be left at the main convoy routes to draw the attention of the British navy by making some trouble, and will hopefully tie down a large enemy force there. The British Admirality will think that we intend to continue with the unrestricted submarine warfare and they will transfer significant forces to defend the convoy routes. Their destroyers will keep chasing our U-boots, which are not even there. The admiral's cunning suggestion was approved.


The Genisenau and the Prinz Eugen are like weak sitting ducks, waiting for the inevitable British attack. The Scharnhorst is not in a better shape at all.


In the east, the invasion will commence as planned: we will try to reach as far as possible and destroy as many enemy forces as we can. We can take it granted that they do not expect our attack and the first weeks will be just as easy as our earlier Blitzkrieg campaigns in the west were. However, having learned the misfortune of Napoleon, we will have to prepare for anything.

In the Mediterranean theater there are two goals: first, the capture of Malta, and second, the possible capture of Tobruk, but Rommel should not take unnecessary risks. In general, we do not expect too much from our Italian allies here. If we have the chance we will try to send them some help during the winter. Until then, Rommel has to fight his own war with no support, much to his despair.

While the invasion of England is out of question, we may try to cross the Mediterranean sea and land some of our forces in the Middle East, possibly at Palestine. However, it can only happen during or after the winter as before doing so the Italian Regia Marina has to locate and destroy most of the British ships in the area.

Generalfeldmarschall Stefan Gruber, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, 5 December 1941

Meine Herren! As it happens in war quite often, we had to revise our plans very soon. In June our spies in Tangier reported that the whole British Gibraltar fleet (Force H) was moved to the Mediterranean sea. This somewhat unexpected move forced us to postpone our planned landing in the Middle East. Rommel was also warned that the British will possibly use their naval assets to cut off any reinforcements and to bombard his army from a distance. To make things even worse, Rommel reported that after some initial successes near Tobruk his forces were attacked by superior British forces from the east. Although he expected it, the fact that his scouts spotted an outdated WWI-era Rolls Royce armoured car unit indicated that the British transfered significant forces from the Middle East as intelligence claimed that these armoured cars were only used in Palestine prior to this. Rommel was immediately ordered to stop any offensives and prepare for a fighting withdrawal towards El Agheila or even Tripoli, until we can send him some more reinforcements. But the presence of the British battleships prevented it so far.

There has been intense fighting for Malta. The Italian bombers managed to cause some light damage, and we are in control of the air, next year this bastion has to be destroyed. Therefore our most experienced Ju-87 Stuka unit was ordered to move there from the east.

In the east, our brave soldiers made their way to the gates of Moskau and managed to encircle and destroy large pockets of enemy forces. However, after the initial confusion, Soviet defense became more and more organized. They successfully slowed down our advance and we were unable to get close to Leningrad or the Don basin. The biggest achievement was the encirclement of several Soviet armies at Kiev which all surrendered. But it required us to commit significant forces for this maneuver and as a result we had no chance to support the attack on Moskau. Just as the first snow came the Soviets started a counter offensive with fresh troops which smashed our units in the front. Unfortunately, the logistical needs of such a grand operation were underestimated and we were unable to equip our soldiers with winter clothing as the supply columns were ordered to give priority to the delivery of ammunitions and food. For the rest of the winter our exhausted and freezing troops were ordered to stop the advance and to start to dig in.



On the Finnish front, the situation had become desperate. Even though our Finnish allies were preparing to retake all the territories that they lost in the Winter War, they were defeated and thrown back even further. Now they are in retreat towards Helsinki and the center of Finland. Some German units were shipped there to stabilize the situation. However, as cruel as it may sound, the failure of the Finns might benefit us in general. The more Soviet forces are commited to defeat them, the less we have to face at Moskau. Therefore the Finns should continue to withdraw to the forested center of their country dragging the Soviets behind them. The more Soviets continue to chase them in the dense forests, the better for us.

In the west, there were some even more interesting events. While the weak Gneisenau managed to escape to Germany across the British Channel unharmed, her sister ship the battlecruiser Scharnhorst and the heavy cruiser unit led by the Prinz Eugen could not do the same. Instead, some repairs were made on them to make sure they will be back in action as soon as possible. At the same time, British air units conducted some reconnaissance and attack missions over the French ports and detected the presence of our weak capital ships. Then came the sudden intrusion of two full strength and very experienced British heavy cruiser units to the Bay of Biscay. These were undoubtedly looking for an easy prey and to sink our damaged ships but fortunately, as planned, our U-boots stayed in the area and the British vessels were detected and attacked successfully. A very intense air and naval battle ensued during which we managed trap and sink both enemy units, despite the bad weather which prevented our aircraft to take part in the final stage of the operation. Unfortunately though, they managed to sink our still weak heavy cruiser unit in the process. Nevertheless, the exchange ratio favoured the Kriegsmarine as we sank two highly experienced and strong heavy cruiser units at the cost of one of ours. On top of that, we also managed to destroy the best Spitfire Geschwader which came to support their attack. This particular fighter unit wandered too far to the Bay of Biscay and on its way back home the aircraft of the Luftwaffe successfully surprised it and as they tried to avoid them the Spitfires simply ran out of fuel and ended up in the sea. In the end, the members of the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine showed great courage and skill. The U-boot-Waffe was especially useful to achieve this important early victory and several officers were rewarded for their feats.



Meanwhile, in the North Sea off Norway, our withdrawing U-boot unit spotted the lone King George V at periscope depth and skillfully attacked it, causing significant damage. After that the British battleship disappeared, presumably returned to a home port for repairs. Also, a Britsh submarine unit was picked up off Denmark by our Funkmessgerät station on the coast. Surprisingly, the enemy unit was travelling on the surface making it very vulnerable. Therefore all nearby S-boots and the light cruiser flotilla were ordered to sink it, which they did duly.

These unexpected successes, coupled with the redeployment of the British Gibraltar fleet to the Mediterranean, mean that our position in the west had improved greatly. The Tirpitz had been comissioned to the Kriegsmarine and we also have two battlecruisers (although both under repair), and one heavy and one light cruiser unit. Our smaller vessels are all intact, with the exception of the lone U-boot unit which was located and destroyed near the North Atlantic convoy routes. Hopefully, it did its job though, by convincing the British Admirality that we intend to attack their convoy routes.

According to our intelligence, the British now only have two battleships (one of them damaged), one heavy and one light cruiser unit and an unknown number of destroyers left for the defense of the British isles. Thereby the force ratio at sea became more or less even. The decision was quicky made that we have to make use of the current situation and attempt to invade England. Another factor supporting this decision was the Fw-190 fighter which had entered service. This new fighter plane is much better than the dreaded Spitfire V and might be able to provide us air superiority in the area. But our biggest advantage should be the surprise factor and the hope that as a result of it the enemy high command will make some mistakes.

Headquarters of the Brandenburger Regiment, Stendal, Germany

Oberst von Hippel, the commander of the Brandenburger Regiment, was listening Generalfeldmarschall Gruber's briefing, "...and as the rest of the invasion force lands on the beach your unit will be parachuted deep within the enemy territory. You will need to keep your heads down as I want you to stay hidden for a while. The Brandenburgers need to take cover, report enemy activity, and get ready for action."
"Is there any information on the strength of the British forces in the area?" asked the inevitable question von Hippel.
"As a result of the bad weather we are unable to conduct recon flights since the beginning of the winter. But the inactivity of the Royal Navy indicates that they are totally unprepared for our invasion. And if so, I believe most British soldiers will be in their garrisons drinking cream tea."
"Unless they are about to set up a trap..."
Gruber took a deep breath before he answered. "There is always a possbility. But, we are at war and sometimes we need to take risks."
The Oberst did not look convinced. After all, this time the OKW was risking his life and his unit. But he did not say anything.
The Generalfeldmarschall continued. "I know that the stakes are high, but I am convinced that following our recent successes, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe will be able to provide enough support for this operation. If we can secure and extend the beach head they cannot stop us. And the Brandenburgers will be there to provide assistance, if needed."
"Jawohl, Herr General! We will be there for sure!" replied von Hippel.
"There is one more thing. Due to the importance of this operation, once there, I expect you to contact the OKW before doing anything. No suicide attacks, no unnecessary heroism, just cool head and smart thinking."
"Jawohl, Herr General!"
"By the way, this British uniform really suits you. Now you really look like some damned Tommy officer!"

Near Glasgow, Scotland, 19 March 1942

Oberst von Hippel was looking through his binoculars and he could not believe what he saw. He was in a concealed position on the top of a small hill overlooking Glasgow and the Glasgow-Edinburgh main road. His adjutant, Hauptmann Puchner was next to him, carefully aiming through the scope of his Mauser sniper rifle. Puchner was equally stunned which left him speechless, too. Although at the moment they wore camouflaged German uniforms to help concealment, during the last couple of days, like most other men of the Brandenburger regiment, they sported British colours. The paradrop was smoother than expected. Despite von Hippel's fears, Generalfeldmarschall Gruber was right. The British did not expect them here at all. Every time they met a local farmer they just said they were from 1st Para and training for the coming invasion of France. Some of his men, who spoke fluent English with no accent thanks to their British roots or pre-war education, even went to a pub for a pint and to exchange some news and jokes with the local folks. English humor... Bahh...

But now this was no joke. For some time, the radio frequencies were filled with desperate cries for help from their fellow German soldiers who were stranded on the East England coastline. It looks that the amphibiouos landing did not went so smooth. Although the first wave reached the coast unnoticed, the sudden change in weather allowed the British to react. They immediately attacked the invaders with everything they had: bombers, fighters, battleships, destroyers, infantry, tanks, you name it. And the Luftwaffe proved to be unable to defend everyone. The British managed to sink or severly damage most naval transports of the second and third waves and as a result the invasion was called off. Only a single Panzer division could be landed in the second wave to join the other one, which arrived with the first. And that's it. Some of the infantry could also land, but these could not hold out for long. The British swarmed the area between Newcastle and Leeds, isolating and outnumbering the ill-fated Germans at least three to one.

Throughout all this time the Brandenburgers remained hidden, and now von Hippel had a bad feeling. "I should have been there with them." he thought. "While my comrades were fighting for their life, we were just drinking ale." But his orders were clear and he could not do anything about it. The invasion was doomed to fail and only a miracle could save the dire situation.

And now, right in front of him, a miracle was happening. He and Puchner were watching as the last British soldiers marched out of Glasgow on the main road towards Edinburgh, and over, presumably to the south, to join their comrades. The long column of the British infantry marched as if they were on a military parade.

"It must be a trap," he thought. "They cannot be such fools to leave all their cities in Scotland undefended in the middle of an invasion when they already have more than enough forces near the cost to isolate and destroy the attackers." But it looks like it is exactly like that. The forward observers of the regiment reported the same from the Aberdeen-Edinburgh road in the east. Long columns of British forces marching south towards Newcastle, the site of the landings. The Oberst decided to come to this position to see it with his own eyes. It looks like the three to one force ratio is still not enough. The British High Command wants to outnumber the invading Germans at least five to one, or more, even if it means that the rest of the country will be empty.

"Shall I contact the OKW for further orders?", Hauptmann Puchner asked quietly.
"There is no time. Prepare the men. We move in to capture Glasgow."

Generalfeldmarschall Stefan Gruber, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, 1 August 1942

Meine Herren! As you already know, after the intial failure of the amphibious landings in East England, the carufully positioned Brandenburgers saved us from the disaster. The British were so keen to overwhelm our forces on the coastline that they transfered all available soldiers there from the Midlands and Scotland. Fortunately for us, the Brandenburger Regiment was at the right place and its commander showed great initiative and took advantage of the situation. With his soldiers dressed up with British uniforms, he entered the abandoned city of Glasgow without a problem. The few British sentries that were left behind were quickly disarmed and taken prisoner. The Brandenburgers successfully secured the area, and the formation of the Independent Republic of Scotland was announced officially. However, needless to say, until the conclusion of this war Scotland would be under the protection of the German Reich. Heated by their hundreds of years long hatred of the English, many Scotish people volunteered to join the ranks of the Wehrmacht and we even captured huge stocks of British weapons and ammunition. Together with the reinforcements that we successfully lifted in, we soon had a fully equipped army at the southern border of Scotland. Although it looked like we are in control of the situation, Churchill acted quickly. He replaced his incompetent commander with a more capable one, who instantly reformed the British ground forces.

This new commander is very stubborn and a real pain for us. He transfered most of the British artillery to the border to support their relentless attacks against our defenses. We were unable to match the sheer power of the British guns and our losses started to rise. The Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe were still busy clearing the the last remaining ships of the Royal Navy in North Sea. Although they were successful, and we took full control of the sea and almost full control of the air, we lost the initiative on the land. As our losses reached record high, the number of Scotish volunteers plummeted. And so we had to introduce conscription. At the moment, all men in Scotland between the age of 18 and 60 has to join our army under the penalty of death. Even then, we also need to send reinfocements from Germany continuously because the moral of the conscripted local forces is so low that they surrender in masses. The situation on the English-Scotish border resembles the trench warfare of the previous Great War and this struggle has turned to a real bloodbath.

In North Africa, the numerical superiority of the enemy proved to be lethal: instead of the expected two to one ratio, Rommel had to face three or four times more enemy units. Even though he was able to cause some losses to the attackers, eventually his forces were overwhelmed, encircled, and totally destroyed halfway between El Agheila and Tripoli. Our intelligence reports that the British are now preparing to the enter French Tunisia which is only lightly defended by the Vichy forces. The only question is, how long they will respect the neutrality of the Vichy French government.

The aereal bombardment of Malta had to be abandoned. Supported by their Gibraltar fleet, the British were able to deploy large numbers of fighter planes for the defense of the island. These new fighter planes outclassed the Italian ones. Only our experienced JG 27 was equal with them, but it could not reverse the odds on its own. As a result the decision was made to redeploy most of our air units to France and Scotland to help our struggle for the control of the British mainland. Although the Italian fleet managed to achieve some successes, like sinking a British battleship and several enemy submarines, without air cover it had to withdraw to its home ports.

In the east, our armies also came to a near standstill. While we were able to stop the Soviet counter-offensive at Smolensk, they managed to gain considerable ground and concentrated their artillery behind their frontline. In fact, it is believed to be the biggest artillery concentration in history, with an estimated strenght of 13.000 Soviet artillery guns on the Moskau frontline. Despite the heavy opposition, since the beginning of the spring we took back the initiative and started to regain some of the lost ground, but our advance is too slow. Therefore we approached our allies to provide more forces for our struggle. The new units will be used to increase the pressure on the Soviets in the Ukraine. We must capture the "bread basket" of Russia or we will run out of food. Also, this shift of the attack might force the Soviets to redeploy some of their forces and thus reduce their strength at Moskau.

Finland was evacuated and taken over by the Soviets. The Finnish ground forces refused to leave their beloved country, but the Finnish Air Force continues to fight on our side. The Soviets put the captured Finnish airfields to good use: long range Soviet bombers continue to harass the big cities of Germany causing significant loss of life and reducing our prestige in the eyes of the world. As the Luftwaffe is already overstreched, we find it difficult to repel these attacks.

Although the future of the Reich looks grim, nothing has been decided yet. With the introduction of a range of new and more effective Panzers and Panzerabwehrkanonen we will gain back the initiative on all fronts. I have also ordered the weapon's department to develop a more effective U-boot and to continue to work on the revolutionary rocket-powered aircraft prototype. However, these developments will take quite some time.

Great AAR. I can’t see how it is possible to win as the Axis unless the Allied player is new to this mod or makes serious mistakes. Or did you modify it to give Axis some bonuses?

Well, after some initial successes this campaign came to a deadlock and that's why I stopped this AAR
The Axis side was largely defeated by turn 40 and in turn 50 I only have like 100 core units which is clearly not enough even for a draw. But it has been a very useful test play as I made several changes to make it better balanced. Intenso82 has proved to be a formidable opponent and his tactics helped me to learn what adjustments are needed.

And yes, obviously, the Axis side will get even more bonuses like more prestige, more unit replacements and stuff like that. But the Allies get even more penalties mainly less units here and there and less unit experience by default and only limited unit upgrade options. And yet still, the core units force ratio on the map remains something like 3:1 in favour of the Allies which makes it much harder for the Axis player. But it should be like that in my opinion to reflect the historical situation.

In this test play the Axis achieved a roughly 2:1 kill to loss ratio, but if there is three times more enemy units, even this ratio is not enough for victory. That's why I further reduced the experience of the Allied units and added some more experience to the Axis. And this result was further distorted by the fact that my opponent could upgrade several artillery units to the best long range heavy ones (what the AI cannot do) and could transfere some important experienced British units from the Middle East to the Eastern Front (something that the AI also cannot do on its own). These will no longer be possible in the next version and we will see how it effects the balance.

The aim would be to create a more or less balanced scenario in which both players have a chance to achieve a draw and the better one should be able to achieve a minor victory playing either side. I know it is difficult, mainly because of the game mechanics which favours the side with more units especially through artillery concentrations and the mass attack initiative bonus. For which the generally better quality of the German units might not be enough as a compensation. But I think it is possible to do so it just needs a lot of testing and thinking.