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Hashasheen

Banned
:( PLEASE!
POD:1914. Germany decides to focus on knocking out Russia out of the war first, and accordingly deploys most of its military there. 1915. Russia collapses and civil war begins, the peace plan between the Orthodox Church (which has taken power) gives Russian Poland and the Ukraine to Germany. Germany forms them as client states. They support the German Empire in building armaments and supplying food, as well as troops. 1919: war is over; Germany is divided into 2 countries: Bavaria and Prussia. AH empire is divided into new states as OTL .1920: The Orthodox Church takes power in the Russian Empire, making wide sweeping reforms, the Orthodox church steadily improves the economic conditions of the Empire, as well as forming similiar organisations in eastern and centeral europe. 1921: Russia and Japan strike a military alliance, agreeing to divide china into spheres of influence, Japanese goverment realises its small population would not be useful in mainataing the large empire they want, issue a proclomation, giving grants to people who would move to formosa, korea and manchuria, as well as goverment aid and reduced taxes, for people who have large families. Japanese population booms. 1922 to 1930: Russia increasingly swallows up East and central european states. Japanese populations steadily grows in manchuria, formosa and Korea, and these colonies are recognised as parts of Japan, local populations are sold to the Russians, where they labor as slaves in the massive industry building. despite the depression, Russia and Japan do not take heavy hits due to isolated economies. Russian Army begans to expand, and they cast their eyes on Finland. 1930 to 1939: Rosevelt takes the presidency. Bavaria, France, Spain become more and more communist. Spanish Civil war breaks out France, Bavaria send troops to aid the communist goverment, while britain, italy and russia aid the nationalist. Mussolini attempts to invade ethiopia at the same time, to expand his "new roman empire", emperor haile selassie sends out a general call for aid. King Ali of Arabia, King Abdullah of Syria, and finally King Faisal of iraq respond, and sending their british trained armies to aid him, with Ali invading Somalia and Abudullah and Faisal in Ethopia proper. Italy is defeated and Mussolini is embaressed and vows revenge. Somalia becomes yet another country ruled by the hashimites 1939 to continued:....
Russian SS: Knights Hospitallers of Russia
the ME in general:
Ottomans last longer then OTL, with the wahabi al saud backing them, and several German Divisions helping him, and but from before they focus mainly on the Suez Canal, focused on knocking Britain out of the war early. the hashemites are a bigger part of the british allies in the campaign, and with a british trained army, quickly conquer Arabia, wiping out wahabism and then focus on liberating the rest of the ME, with his forces liberating jeursalam and helping to push the turks back to the anatolian mountains, after that they surrender, and 3 nations are formed: kingdom of arabia, kingdom of Syria, and the Kingdom of Iraq. the jews are incensed over this and complain, the british respond that while the arabs had fought against the turks, and tied up much of the central powers, and save the defeat of the British Empire, the jews had paid money, but since they had promised a "national homeland in ottoman territory" they offered them cyprus, while at first they refused, demanding palestine, after several pogroms in the russian civil war, they hastily agree, moving into cyprus, while the local greeks and turks where expelled to 3 places: rhodes, mainland greece and turkey.
so tell me what you think, and what can be improved on.

 

Hashasheen

Banned
Battles of 1914:
OOC: so anyway i'll think i'll do this year by year and divided up by fronts.
Western Front:
Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo. (June 28th)Austria-Hungary sends Serbia an ultimatum. (July 23rd)The Russians decides to defend Serbia against Austria-Hungary. (July 24th)Austria-Hungary assures Russia that no Serbian land would be annexed; Austria-Hungary does not accept the Serbian reply to its ultimatum and orders mobilization against Serbia. (July 25th)Germany and Austria-Hungary rejects Grey's suggestion for an international conference to settle the Austro-Serbian dispute. (July 26th)Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. (July 28th)Russia begins a general mobilization. (July 30th)Germany sends an ultimatum to Russia that Russia should stop movement of all military on the Russian-German border. Germany realizes it must take Russia out of the equation before invading France, and accordingly moves the bulk of its forces to the eastern front (July 31st)Germany declares war on Russia having received no reply from Russia regarding her ultimatum. A modified Schlieffen plan is used to wipe out much of the Russian Army (August 1st)Germany declares war on France and decides to remain on the defensive in Alsace-Lorraine. Italy announced that she would remain neutral. (August 4th)Britain declares war on Germany. (August 5th)Montenegro declares war on Germany. (August 8th)The Battle of Alsace Lorraine:The French and the British had thought that the Germans would go on the offensive against France, while holding off Germany. What they got was a complete surprise. After massive preparations on the Belgium border and the deployment of the BEF, the allies were stunned. The Krauts hadn’t moved one step beyond their border. But one day after, they found out why: the Germans had massed their troops on the Russian-German Border and launched a full scaled attack on the mobilizing Russians, whatever cohesive units there were had been slaughtered; even now the Tsar was frantically mobilizing men to defend the Ukraine from the advancing Germans, as well as fortifying the city of St. Petersburg. The Tsar begged the British and the French to invade Germany, in order to buy time for his troops to organize. And so the BEF and the French Fifth army had moved to the province of Lorraine. And so began the war on the Western Front… Attacking the entrenched German forces, the BEF and the 5th French Army suffers massive losses, and are forced to call in more troops, the Defense of Alasce-Lorraine has begun.
 

Hashasheen

Banned
OCC: next up, since the entrenchment has begun in germany and France, its going to be very quiet in the WF
1914 Eastern Front:
The Battle of Gumbinnen, 1914:signaling the first major offensive on the Eastern Front, the Battle of Gumbinnen was initiated by Field Marshal von Prittwitz, Commander of the Eastern Front, during the early hours of 20 August.Aware that General Samsonov's Russian Army Group was slowly winding its way northwards from the south, Prittwitz decided to engage Rennenkampf's forces, advancing across a 55 km front, at the first available opportunity. Army Group’s strength was estimated at approximately 500,000, set against Rennenkampf's 300,000.After assigning a corps to guard the 3 Armies rear, he dispatched three corps plus a further division to the line south of Gumbinnen, around 40 km inside the East Prussian border.The German offensive was launched somewhat in haste, certainly before two of his corps were in readiness. Karl von Bülow – in charge of the 2nd Army was sited in the centre - and Max von Hausen- commander of the 3rd Army to the south - did not achieve a full state of readiness until some four to eight hours after Francois had commenced the attack in the north with the 8th Army at 4 am on the morning of 20 August. As for the additional division dispatched by Prittwitz, it arrived too late to see any action whatsoever.Although Rennenkampf's forces defended with vigor, his right crumpled during mid-afternoon after running short of shells, with Francois forcing a Russian 8km retreat. This encouraged Hausen to conduct an advance when his own forces were ready to attack at 8am, Below following at midday.Alerted however by Francois's earlier attack, effective Russian deployment of heavy artillery wreaked havoc among Bulow’s troops; forcing him to withdraw some 24km, in disorder. Francois, aware that the German centre and right were in disarray, was similarly obliged to authorize a retreat; in the process the Russians managed to capture 6,000 prisoners during the German retreat.Prittwitz, though stunned by the effectiveness of the Russian counter-attack, and concerned that Samsonov's advancing southern Army Group would combine to form an effect defensive line, ordered the army group to hold their position. Helmuth von Moltke, the German Chief of Staff in Berlin, was furious at Prittwitz's capitulation. Promptly recalling Prittwitz and his deputy von Waldersee to Berlin - an effective dismissal - he brought the imperturbable Paul von Hindenburg out of retirement and gave him command of Army Group, assigning as his Chief of Staff the bold, aggressive Erich Ludendorff, who had latterly impressed during the German defense of Alsace Lorraine.Fortunately for Hindenburg, the retreat to the Vistula had not been fully executed when he arrived in the east on 23 August. Consulting with Ludendorff and Colonel Hoffmann, Prittwitz's deputy chief of operations, he resolved to reverse Prittwitz's strategy of withdrawal, choosing instead to launch an offensive against Samsonov's approaching Second Army.
 

Hashasheen

Banned
The Battle of Tannenburg:
Russia's incursion into German territory had been two-pronged. General Samsonov had begun to take his Army Group into the south-western corner of East Prussia whilst General Rennenkampf advanced into its north-east with the First Army. The two armies planned to combine in assaulting General Prittwitz's German 1st Army Group, Rennenkampf in a frontal attack while Samsonov engulfed Prittwitz from the rear.Such was the Russians' initial plan. Rennenkampf brought about a modification however following a scrappy victory against the 1st Army Group at the Battle of Gumbinnen, after which he paused to reconsolidate his forces.Upon his arrival in East Prussia on 23 August Hindenburg immediately reversed Prittwitz's decision to withdraw, choosing instead to authorise a plan of action prepared by Colonel Maximilian Hoffmann, Prittwitz's deputy chief of operations. While Hindenburg and Ludendorff received much credit for the subsequent action at Tannenberg, the actual plan of attack was devised in detail by Hoffmann.Hoffmann proposed a ploy whereby cavalry troops would be employed as a screen at Vistula, the intention being to confuse Rennenkampf who, he knew, held a deep personal vendetta with Samsonov (who had complained of Rennenkampf's conduct at the Battle of Mukden in 1905) and so would be disinclined to come to his aid if he had justifiable cause not to.Meanwhile, General Hermann von Francois's Eight Army was transported by rail to the far southwest to meet the left wing of Samsonov's Army Group. Hindenburg's remaining two armies, under Hausen and Below, were to await orders to move south by foot so as to confront Samsonov's opposite right wing. Finally, 3 corps was ordered to remain at Vistula to meet Samsonov as his army moved north. The trap was being set.Samsonov meanwhile, bedevilled by supply and communication problems, was entirely unaware that Rennenkampf had chosen to pause and lick his wounds at Gumbinnen, instead assuming that his forces were continuing their movement south-west.Samsonov was similarly unaware of Hoffmann's plan or of its execution. Assured that his Army Group was en route to pursue and destroy the supposedly retreating 1st Army Group (and supported in doing so by overall commander Yakov Zhilinksi, who was subsequently dismissed for his part in the following debacle), he continued to direct his army of twelve corps - in a north-westerly direction towards the Vistula. The remaining VI Corps he directed north towards his original objective, Seeburg-Rastenburg.On 22 August the bulk of Samsonov's forces reached the extremities of the German line, fighting (and winning) small actions as it continued to advance into the German trap of encirclement.Ludendorff issued an order to General Francois to initiate the attack on Samsonov's left wing at Usdau on 25 August. Francois asked to wait until his artillery support was in readiness on 27 August. Ludendorff - along with Hoffmann - travelled to see Francois and to repeat the order. Reluctantly, Francois agreed to commence the attack. Whilst returning from their meeting with Francois, Hoffmann was passed two intelligence intercepts that had been transmitted by Rennenkampf and Samsonov, respectively, in the clear, i.e. unciphered. Their contents were explosive.The first, sent by Rennenkampf, revealed the distance between his and Samsonov's armies. It further detailed his First Army's imminent marching plans, and these were not towards Samsonov's Army Group.The import of the message was clear: the Germans need not fear intervention from the Russian First Army during their assault upon Samsonov's forces. The second intercepted message, from Samsonov, was similarly remarkable.Having engaged - unsuccessfully - the heavily entrenched German XX Corps the previous day, 24 August, at the Battle of Orlau-Frankenau, Samsonov had noted what he took to be a general German withdrawal to Tannenberg and beyond. Consequently, his message provided detailed plans for his intended route of pursuit of the German forces.With both messages in hand, Hoffmann promptly hurried after Ludendorff and Hindenburg and handed them the intercepts. While Ludendorff was sceptical as to their authenticity, Hindenburg, having heard Hoffmann tell of the personal quarrel between Rennenkampf and Samsonov, was inclined to alter the German Army Group’s plans accordingly.It was argued by Hindenburg and Hoffmann that Francois could, after all, await the arrival of sufficient artillery supplies before beginning his attack at Usdau, which in the event came two days later, on 27 August. Ludendorff, keen to assert his authority over Francois, insisted that the attack begin as originally scheduled.Francois however had no intention of attacking without artillery support. Buying time he fell to bickering with Ludendorff and, as he intended, began his attack, by I Corps, on 27 August - and rapidly enjoyed marked success. Rapidly taking Soldau on the Russian border, and so cutting communication with Samsonov's centre, his forces confined Samsonov's left to the frontier.At this stage Ludendorff, fearful that Rennenkampf's forces might yet suddenly join the fray, ordered Francois to move back north, another order ignored by Francois, who chose instead to take his corps east so as to prevent Samsonov's centre from retreating over the border. Although executed in disobedience of Ludendorff's clear order, his bold action contributed to the sweeping success that followed.Helmuth von Moltke, the German Army Chief of Staff in Berlin, was similarly nervous of the German Army's prospects in the east. He astonished Ludendorff by telephoning him with notification that he was dispatching a cavalry division and three corps from the west to bolster the Eastern Front. Aware that the troops could be ill-afforded by the weakened German defense in the Alsace-Lorraine; Ludendorff protested that the reinforcements were unnecessary. Nevertheless they were sent.Having decided on 25 August - the day he was passed the Russian radio intercepts - that Rennenkampf's forces were unlikely to attempt to join Samsonov; Ludendorff sent the two corps stationed at Gumbinnen south where on the following day they met and brought into action Samsonov's VI Corps moving northwards at Bischofsburg. Surprised and disorganised, both divisions retreated separately for the Russian border.Ignoring warnings of a massed German advance moving south, Zhilinksi directed Rennenkampf's First Army to the west to Konigsberg on 26 August, a considerable distance from Samsonov's plight. Given the degree of personal enmity between Rennenkampf and Samsonov - they had physically come to blows on at least one occasion - the former had no particular inclination to come to Samsonov's assistance.Disastrously for Samsonov, Hoffmann and Ludendorff intercepted Zhilinksi's enciphered order to Rennenkampf. He promptly dispatched Below from Bischofsburg to rejoin the German centre, and sent Mackensen south to meet up with General Francois, where they joined in Willenberg, south of Bischofsburg, on 29 August. Samsonov was by now surrounded.At last, on 28 August, Samsonov finally became aware of the peril he faced. Critically short of supplies and with his communications system in tatters, his forces were dispersed, and VI corps had already been defeated. Consequently he ordered a general withdrawal on the evening of 28 August.It was too late for Samsonov's forces, as they scattered - many throwing down their weapons and running - directly into the encircling German forces. Relief from the Russian border in the form of counter-attacks was weak and insufficient.35,000 Russians troops were captured in the action; an estimated 90,000 were killed or wounded, and of his original 150,000 total, only around 10,000 of Samsonov's men escaped. The Germans suffered fewer than 10,000 casualties and, in addition to prisoners captured over 500 guns. Sixty trains were required to transport captured equipment to Germany.Samsonov, lost in the surrounding forests with his aides, shot himself, unable to face reporting the scale of the disaster to the Tsar, Nicholas II. His body was subsequently found by German search parties and accorded a military burial.Hindenburg and Ludendorff were feted as heroes at home in Germany. Such was the lustre of the victory - combined with later albeit lesser successes at the First and Second Battles of the Masurian Lakes, that Hindenburg later replaced Erich von Falkenhayn as German Chief of Staff, bringing with him to Berlin Ludendorff as his quartermaster general.A great propaganda victory, the scale of the Russian defeat had shocked Russia's allies, who wondered whether it signaled the defeat of the Russian army. Such became the case, as was demonstrated by the scale of German victories at the Masurian Lakes. Despite its sheer weight, the Russian army was too slow and inefficient to fight back effectively.
 

Hashasheen

Banned
Battle of Masurian Lakes:Conducted in 10-16 September 1914, the Battle of the Masurian Lakes was the second victory of the war by the Germans over the Russian army, the first occurring at Tannenberg in late August.Having successfully dealt with the Russian 1st Army Group, commanded by Samsonov, at Tannenberg, Paul von Hindenburg's Army Group turned their attention to the Russian First Army, commanded by Rennenkampf. These two forces had been deployed as two arms of a pincer movement intended to snap up Hindenburg's forces in East Prussia. With one arm of the pincer broken, Hindenburg determined to neutralise the other in short order.Hindenburg aimed to encircle Rennenkampf by breaking through a weak flank of the latter's southern corps who had belatedly moved south to support the Army Group at Tannenberg and who had become somewhat separated from the main body in the west (who had remained passive during the earlier battle).Rennenkampf's army was presently moving through the Insterburg Gap between Konigsberg and the Masurian Lakes. However, upon receiving news of the Army Group’s defeat, Rennenkampf ordered his forces to retreat to a firmer position extending from the Baltic south-east to Angerburg.A preliminary German attack began on 7 September, lasting two days, launched from either side of the southern lakes, its aim being to push the Russians up towards the coast. Heavily outnumbered 3-to-1, the Russian forces dispersed, and the German advance continued northwards in pursuit of the main body of the Russian army.Rennenkampf, who feared being outflanked, consequently authorised a further orderly withdrawal on 9 September, simultaneously ordering a counter-strike at the Germans by two divisions so as to hold up the German advance whilst his men pulled back.In this Rennenkampf was successful, although with the retreat of his forces East Prussia had been cleared of all Russian troops by 13 September. Furthermore, Russian casualties during the battle were high: 150,000 compared to the German figure of at most 30,000, although the Germans could ill-afford such losses in the east.
Yakov Zhilinksi
, the army group commander responsible for the Russian plan of invasion, was dismissed as a consequence of the Russian army's perceived poor performance.The action had resulted in two defeats of the Russian army, and largely removed any threat to German forces stationed in East Prussia, As a consequence of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes - although the former battle was a much clearer cut victory than the second - Hindenburg was hailed as a hero in Germany, subsequently succeeding Falkenhayn as Chief of the German Staff in late summer 1916.Despite Hindenburg's fame at home, his Chief of Staff, Erich Ludendorff, was the chief architect of these, and future, Hindenburg victories. He followed Hindenburg to Berlin as his quartermaster general upon Hindenburg's promotion to Army Chief of Staff.
 
Use paragraphs. It is a big block of text which is hard to read. I think the board causes it if you cut 'n paste from another source.
 
Use paragraphs. It is a big block of text which is hard to read. I think the board causes it if you cut 'n paste from another source.

Just to clarify, when people here ask for paragraphs they mean double-space them :) It took me a long time to realise that because I DID use paragraphs, just not double-spaced between them

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
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