1938 The confrontation with Germany

[chris N]

Britain was debating what its role would be in the war. Britain's Prime Minister was not exactly eager to expand Britain's involvement. The RAF was becoming more involved in the war and the Royal Navy was beginning to play a greater role. Germany was eager to have Britain supply more trucks as it just could not meet the demand for vehicles.
Germany's opinion was that the French vehicles just could not stand the wear and tear involved in the Eastern Conflict. The Poles had received French equipment but was not happy.

 

[Johnrankins]

Indeed the Romanian Military is more prepared to fight World War Iall over again than to fight the modern war that will be taking place in this time line.
The battle between Germany and the Austro-Czech Alliance clearly showed the Romanians that a large power could be stalemated if opposed by a well equipped defender.

The Romanian leadership will find that the destruction of the Nazi's leave it with only the Italians to count on. Italy will pour in men and equipment to the country and the Austrians will turn over some of its military equipment to the Romanians.

If that is the case I would expect them to buy a lot of heavy machine guns, a lot of heavy artillery, fortifications and slow, heavy tanks with very thick armor and a big gun.

 

[chris N]

The Romanians did manage in OTL to develop their own 75mm ATG and the German Hertzer owes a lot to what the Romanians did. In this time line the Romanians have been allowed to buy some German equipment and have purchased Italian copies of German tank designs.. The War against the Soviets have seen the Italians sending several of their mobile divisions as well as a cavalry division. The Romanian army have deployed their most powerful divisions to the front but it is the two German armies that have been saddled with the task of insuring that things do not go wrong. Germany has recruited a regiment of Croatians to serve with the army and it has armed aand equipped them..
The Abwehr has learned that the Soviets may attempt to carry out attacks on key targets in the Reich and against French and British targets.

 

[chris N]

In Berlin Agents of the Abwehr with Heavily armed German Police conducted raids on several hourses in the city, In one there was a gun battle between some of the residents the the German agents resulting in death and wounds. The raids resulted in the arrest of German Communist Deep cover agents and of several Russian Special Operations personnel. Documents ,explosives and arms were captured.

 

[chris N]

Documents captured as well as interagition of the prisoners indicated that there would be attempts on the life of the German Chancellor, commander of the German Army and evidence that there was also a plot to kill the French Premier and British Prime Minister. The German authorities alerted the British and French security Services.

 

[chris N]

Both the French Premier and the British Prime Minister now had armed security details. MI-5 and Scotland yard received information had made a series of arrest. There was an attempt by a communist agent on Lord Halifax but Scotland Yard Detective John Smythe caught the movement by his eye and shot the assassin dead.

 

[chris N]

The British, French and Germans stepped up the Bombing campaign in Russia. The British and Germans struck Moscow and other targets with their bombers while the French stuck St Petersburg .

 

[chris N]

The Luftwaffe and the RAF were making it very difficult for the Red Army to move.Rail connections were being hit and the Long Range Bombers were hitting Soviet factories making replacement for loses all the more difficult. The Germans had now seen a growing amount of volunteers from the Ukrainian people and they were being screened to weed out communist spies. The British Army in Russia had now grown to 2 armored divisions,4 Motorized divisions and 2 Infantry divisions. The Germans had supplied the Poles with 36 Marder I Tank destroyers and had supplied the Hungarians with some PzIII and IV tanks and 36 trucks.

 

[chris N]

German Production of weapons , Vehicles and planes had increased considerably. It was able to meet the needs of the German Military and supply allies with weapons and vehicles for a reasonable price. The demand for fuel was rising at an incredible rate German engineers were adjusting the Russian rail system so that western European trains could use it to move critical goods to the troops.. St Petersburg finally fell to the allies in September . The Finns were limiting there military forces to volunteers to serve with the Germans for the War in the East.

 

[chris N]

The Germans were realizing that the time to win the campaign was rapidly drawing to a close. The allies were going to make a push on Moscow but were also being readied for the war to go into another year.

 

[chris N]

And so the Allied Military planning group decided to support the Moscow thrust. Four German armies plus one British would attempt to take Moscow to its right would be another German,2 Hungarian armies and 2 Polish Armies.

 

[chris N]

German forces had punched their way to within 13 miles of Moscow. Panzers belonging to the 5th Panzer division had breached the defenses of the Red Army. More armored engagements were taking place. September was the Month that things had to be completed.

 

[chris N]

Artillery and Aerial support hit the Red Army positions around the outskirts of Moscow. The Final offensive of the campaign season had begun. The British Expeditionary Force Russia 8 divisions held the northern Sector. The Germans Eight Army had 12 Divisiona and the Fifth Panzer Army had 12. Among those were an Estonian. Latvian and Lithuanian Division and a Spanish Volunteer Division ( which was the size of 1 1/2 divisions . South of the Army Group was the 18th German Army, 1st and 2nd Hungarian armies and the 1st Polish Army.

 

[chris N]

Germany brought up its heavy guns and proceeded to destroy the Moscow defenses. The Red Army launched a do or die offensive to drive the German and allied forces back. The British, German. Polish and allied Air forces flew a massive number of sorties in support of their ground forces and to drive the Red Air Force from the skies. for two weeks the meat grinder battle went on until the Germans brought up Heavy engineer assault troops to clear the way.

 

[chris N]

The Germans were the main driving force in the thrust on Moscow. They provided the bulk of the forces and the super Heavy artillery was awesome. Serving in the German Military were Allied forces-Spanish,Estonian, Latvian, Lituanian, Finnish and Croatian. Then there was the British, Hungarian and Poles who provided their own armies.

 

[chris N]

Rommel's 7th Panzer Division launched a thrust into an opening that had developed. He was supported by the 22nd Motorized Division and 2 Hungarian division.
He ripped into the Russian defenses and tore open a big hole for the four divisions to break through. He proceeded to make the opening bigger and kept the Soviets under Maxium pressure.

 

[chris N]

Rommel's division with the 22nd German Motorized Infantry division had reached the outskirts of Moscow and were joined by two Assault Pioneer Battalions as well as two Hungarian Infantry divisions. The Hungarian divisions had received some addition assault training. Rommel was determined to prevent the Russians from launching a coordinated counter attack.

 

[chris N]

The Battle began with the German allied forces having the upper hand. They had broken through the Soviet defenses and were making the most of it. However the Soviets threw 5 divisions into the battle in an attempt to hold the Germans in position. The German Panzers and infantry were hard pressed and were being forced back. The Hungarians stormed in and the allied forces began to gain enough to hold back the Red waves that were coming.. After 5 days of biter fighting the 4 divisions of Hungarians and Germans were relieved and replaced by fresh troops. The 7th Panzer division had only 45 operational tanks and the 22nd Motorized division was at 45% of its prebattle strength

 

[Johnrankins]

German Production of weapons , Vehicles and planes had increased considerably. It was able to meet the needs of the German Military and supply allies with weapons and vehicles for a reasonable price. The demand for fuel was rising at an incredible rate German engineers were adjusting the Russian rail system so that western European trains could use it to move critical goods to the troops.. St Petersburg finally fell to the allies in September . The Finns were limiting there military forces to volunteers to serve with the Germans for the War in the East.

I would expect that the brits would be the ones changing the system. German railroading sucked in WW2 as the Nazis skimped on railroad maintenance prior to the war to build more tanks and it really caught up with them.

 

[chris N]

German Production was expanding but Germany was also buying trucks and addition railroad equipment from Britain. Without a doubt this was an allied war effort. It helped greatly that Germany was fighting with Britain and France as aliies.