Thank you.That is clearly because you are a shrewd and insightful person.
Although I'll stay quiet not to spoil it for anyone else now.
Munich Shuffle: 1938-1942
- Thread starter Garrison
- Start date
Although I'll stay quiet not to spoil it for anyone else now.
Why would there be any panzer divisions in Greece at all? Terrain is terrible, making infantry a lot more useful, and the panzer divisions are desperately needed elsewhere. There might be one or two panzer divisions in the Balkans as a whole, but not Greece.
Well India as a Dominion means that if the SA whack jobs do manage to introduce their malign policies the UK will have to confront them earlier.
Look at the OTL use of the captured small french tanks by the Germans in the Balkans. Local partisans have almost no anti-tank weapons, They are immune to rifle/machinegun fire, small nimble and light enough to use the small mountain roads and bridges. They provided the mobile firesupport for the german infantry
India is probably going to gradually become more loyal to the empire, once they begin industrializing to take advantage of British Imperial Markets. We might see some people having a joke of calling the british empire "The Indian Empire", which in that case means if SA doesn't shape up, well...
Garrison
Donor
Yeah, I've edited that into something more sensible
Well I've changed that to be Balkans rather than just Greece, but there were indeed several Panzer Divisions in the region, and as @duckie pointed out several were equipped with obsolete and captured tanks, useful for suppressing partisans but not much use fighting other armour, look at the 22nd Panzer Division. Also bear in mind that with the Allies on Crete the Germans had to scrape up something to reinforce the area.
22nd Panzer Division (Wehrmacht) - Wikipedia
OTL the British supplied Tito with older M3 Stuarts and AEC Mk2 armoured carsYeah, I've edited that into something more sensible
Well I've changed that to be Balkans rather than just Greece, but there were indeed several Panzer Divisions in the region, and as @duckie pointed out several were equipped with obsolete and captured tanks, useful for suppressing partisans but not much use fighting other armour, look at the 22nd Panzer Division. Also bear in mind that with the Allies on Crete the Germans had to scrape up something to reinforce the area.
22nd Panzer Division (Wehrmacht) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The M3s where used to take on Infantry and the 6 pounder armed AEC to take on armour
The German 'SS' in Yugoslavia had a large number of BeutePanzers (captured tanks) including T34s and the AEC's dominated them!
Below mixed force of 'Titos' M3 stuarts and AEC II armoured cars
23rd February – 3rd May 1944 – Greece – Part II – Operation Musket
Garrison
Donor
23rd February – 3rd May 1944 – Greece – Part II – Operation Musket
In the weeks before the landings the German forces in Greece had as mentioned become aware that some sort of Allied attack was in the offing, though they couldn’t be certain whether it would fall on Greece or the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia, nor did they know the scale of the attack they would face. Far from galvanising the local commanders into taking action to shore up defences the response to the prospect of an invasion somewhere in the Balkans was met with fatalism, a sense that there was little for the Wehrmacht forces to do other than stand where they were and fight, regardless of how futile it might be. Such attitudes were hardly surprising, after all what was the point of holding Athens, Split, or Belgrade, when the Allies were advancing on the Rhine? The war was coming to an end and nothing that could be done in Greece would hold back the invasion of the Reich by even a single day and no amount of propaganda could counter this grim reality. Even the usual demands from Berlin to fight to the bitter end and not to take one step back seemed rote and weary, issued because Hitler insisted, they be issued. Some of the Wehrmacht officers in Greece finally had an inkling of what life had been like for their Italian counterparts, lacking supplies and equipment and faced with carrying out completely unrealistic orders issued by superiors jockeying for position who were in turn following the edicts of a delusional megalomaniac [1].
Despite the warnings of a possible attack the invasion flotilla remained undetected as it approached Glifádha in the predawn hours of the 23rd of February and the first the defenders knew of their presence was when the naval bombardment opened up as dawn broke, supported by air attacks both from the supporting carriers and launched from Crete. Taken by surprise and under heavy fire there was little chance for the defenders to prepare as the Greek troops boarded their landing craft and made for shore. This first wave included a number of tanks, including modified A22 Black Prince models carrying the same sort of beach clearing equipment that had been deployed in Normandy, as well as the Crocodile variant, which carried a flamethrower in addition to a 17pdr gun. The Crocodile had to tow a trailer carrying 400 gallons of jellied petroleum, which was an awkward arrangement, but the impact of the powerful jet of flame the Crocodile could spout was more than worth it for the impact it had on the enemy. The Crocodile not only inflicted devastating physical damage, but it could also destroy the will to fight of even seasoned troops for whom the prospect of being burned alive carried a particular horror [2].
Given the circumstances it was all but inevitable that the thin beach defence rapidly collapsed, and the Anglo-Greek forces began to swiftly push inland, clearing the space needed to land and deploy waves of follow troops. Under the urgings of the German plenipotentiary to the Greek puppet government, and facing a total military disaster at Glifádha, The commander of the German forces in southern Greece, General Hellmuth Felmy, had little choice except to organize a hasty counterattack, not in the hopes of throwing the invaders back into the sea but simply to check their advance while he tried to pull together the rest of his forces to form a defensive line south of Athens. The weight of this fell on to the 26th Panzer Division, which had been scattered in support of counter insurgency operations and with little time to regroup was forced to mount the attack with barely half its strength and only limited infantry support. Matters were made worse for 26th Panzer by poor communications and a lack of reconnaissance, meaning that its leading regiment was unaware that elements of the 4th Independent (Greek) Armoured Regiment was now on its eastern flank until the 75mm guns of the Black Prince’s belong to Delta company opened up on the 93. Panzerjäger Battalion which had been sent out ahead of the rest of 26th Panzer to scout for the enemy. Given this regiment largely consisted of assault guns, supported by single company of Pz 38(t), this was not a task to which it was well suited. The superior position and firepower of Delta company more than offset the numerical advantage of 93rd Panzerjäger and it turned into an extremely one-sided engagement, with the crews of Delta company being far more experienced than their counterparts in 26th Panzer as well as being better equipped. 93rd Panzerjäger had been relegated to second line duties since the creation of 26th Panzer and even in a division that had never received a high priority for high calibre men and equipment it was regarded as second rate [3].
The engagement descended into a brawl as further elements of 26th Panzer and 4th Independent joined the battle and became entangled but by night fall on the 23rd the 26th Panzer was in retreat and had taken such heavy losses that the remnants were dispersed to reinforce defensive position closer to Athens, and this marked the effective disbandment of the division. In terms of holding up the advance the losses incurred by 26th Panzer was simply not worth the modest delay inflicted on the Allies, who continued to move towards Athens and successfully seized several small coastal harbours that helped to speed up the flow of men and supplies. Nonetheless by the 28th the advance was halted in the face of stiffening German resistance and the need for the Allied forces to reorganize their armour and artillery to soften up the defensive positions prior to an all-out assault. The British forces also began to move out to the east, looking to protect the flanks of the Anglo-Greek position and to impede the movement of German forces trying to further reinforce the defences. There was also the rather optimistic prospect that given the obviously hopeless position of the German forces they might yet choose to abandon Athens without the need for any street battles [4].
The Allies had good reason to be concerned about the consequences of a direct assault on Athens as the orders had come down from Berlin that both demanded that the garrison not withdraw and insisted that if the German forces did have to give ground that they should lay waste to the city, including the destruction of its historic monuments. This horrified some German officers, who still liked to think of themselves as cultured and civilized men despite everything they had done in the name of the Reich, who among them wanted to go down in history as the man who destroyed the Parthenon? Naturally there were also more pragmatic considerations at work. For one thing the means to carry out such large-scale destruction were simply unavailable. The troops fighting to hold the city had decidedly limited supplies of munitions, there certainly weren’t enough to spare to raze Athens, or even inflict large scale damage. Another consideration was what would happen to the men who carried out such acts if they fell into the hands of the Allies afterwards? The defenders chose instead to prepare a series of limited demolition actions aimed at slowing down the Allies and preventing them from pursuing if the Wehrmacht had to withdraw, something that could be justified as a legitimate military act. What threw this plan into disarray by the decision of the Communist Partisans, EAM - ELAS to take to the streets and seek to seize control of the city. This attempt was tragically misguided and generated huge bitterness in Greece over the reaction of the Anglo-Greek forces to this battle for Athens [5].
Those partisans who leaned towards the government in exile concentrated their efforts on disrupting German lines of communication in support of the Allied advance, having been firmly discouraged from co-operating with the Communists, and were in turn aided by the SOE and detachments from the Greek army in doing so. Given the apparent disarray in German ranks the Communist partisans elected to order their supporters in Athens to prepare for an uprising and began to infiltrate the city with as many men as they could muster. Their plan was to take advantage the disorder and seize control of key areas in the city, holding them until the Allies advanced to relieve them, effectively claiming credit for liberating the city. This plan was flawed in several respects, most of which were nothing to do with the refusal of the Anglo-Greek forces to rush the city when the uprising began on the 28th [6].
The Communist uprising did not take the Germans by surprise, as their plan had been leaked, either deliberately as some historians have alleged or owing to the capture of several people involved in the planning who cracked under torture. The result either way was that as the insurgents moved to break out stashes of arms that had been built up over the preceding months, they found themselves ambushed by the Wehrmacht, who were not interested in taking prisoners. Even worse, German reinforcements that had reached Athens were ordered into the city rather than being deployed to hold open the eastern perimeter, heavily weighting the odds against the partisans. This resulted in their efforts to seize key administrative buildings and a radio station turning into costly failures. The partisans were soon scattered and forced to ground, reduced to hoping that their action would inspire the Anglo-Greek forces to move swiftly on the city and it was the fact that besieging forces refused to abandon their methodical plan for taking the city that provoked so much acrimony in later years [7].
The Greek forces sat to the south of Athens did launch several probing attacks on the 1st of March, but these were intended to clear away obstacles to a full assault, there was no intention drive on the city, which the Anglo-Greek forces were still concerned could see the city reduced to ruins unless they could overrun it quickly. They were far from happy with what they saw as the reckless action of the partisans, and it would be fair to say that the fact that it was the Communists leading the uprising coloured their views. There were indeed some in the senior ranks of the Greek forces who were not unhappy to see the Communists being driven back and defeated, though equally there were those calling for action to support the uprising. The British were by this point heavily engaged with reinforcing their positions east of the city and engaging in sporadic fighting with German troops trying to break through their lines to reach the city. The fact that the Germans had directed their reinforcements to the city allowed the British to extend and reinforce their perimeter to the east with only moderate resistance. Choosing to do so was cold-blooded but strategically sound as it increased the pressure on the Germans to withdraw from the city before they were completely isolated [8].
To the Germans the situation seemed crystal clear, the Greeks had deliberately sacrificed the Communist partisans to weaken the defences of Athens and eliminate a group who would oppose them once the government in exile tried to reassert control over the country, and on this one matter the Communists would wholeheartedly agree with the Wehrmacht, which led to the rather odd situation of former Nazi officers being used as sources by distinctly left leaning historians in an attempt to prove that the Greek government had actively betrayed the partisans rather than simply being indifferent to their fate [9].
Whether it was for political or pragmatic reasons the uprising certainly did disrupt the German efforts to defend the city and hold open their lines of retreat. By the 3rd the partisans in the city had been crushed and the survivors scattered and snuck out of the city in complete disarray. This was a pyrrhic victory for the Germans as the Anglo-Greeks launched their attack on Athens on the 4th. At first this seemed as if were simply a continuation of the previous probes and it was not until well into the afternoon that General Felmy realized this was indeed a major assault. At the same time, he was in receiving reports that made it clear the British were succeeding in extending their position to the east of the city and it was only a matter of time before elements of the British Corps pivoted to push into Athens and cut off the lines of retreat. The British were in fact deliberately leaving a line of withdrawal open to the Germans, not only to avoid bloody street fighting but also to expose the German forces to the full weight of Allied airpower and armour [10].
The Germans were certainly aware that this might be the British intention; however they had no good options at this point, only selecting the lesser of the evils facing them. With the rapidly worsening situation in Eastern Europe and in the Reich itself the choices open to the German forces in Athens narrowed considerably. On the 5th of April the orders went out for the defenders of the city to prepare for a phased withdrawal, one that noticeably did not include the destruction of the great cultural icons of Western civilization. While the Germans had resigned themselves to abandoning the city, they had no intention of simply handing it over without a fight and a series of fallback positions were laid out to slow the Greek advance and allow troops to be redeployed toward the northeast of the city. Effectively the larger German plan called for the creation of the inverse of the Metaxas Line in 1941, this time intending to maintain lines of communication with Bulgaria and Yugoslavia rather than defending against attacks from those countries, though as the Reich’s situation continued to deteriorate even this could not be ruled out and the Wehrmacht forces in Greece falling back towards Thessalonica certainly could not expect any reinforcement from those directions [11].
The last German rear guards in Athens were forced to surrender on the 17th of April, at which point the Greek troops largely came to halt, with the British taking most of the weight of harrying the retreating Germans, though it was not the most vigorous pursuit. The British were equally aware that the war in Europe was drawing to a close and no one wanted to take excessive casualties when the main strategic objectives of Operation Musket had been achieved, Nonetheless the fighting last for several more weeks and the campaign officially ended on the 3rd of May 1944 [12].
The Greek government moved quickly to re-establish itself in Athens, with the first contingent of ministers an bureaucrats arriving only a week after the official liberation of the city. Any hopes that this would bring peace and order to liberated Greece would be swiftly dashed as the government demanded that all partisan groups accept their authority or agree to be disarmed. These orders were couched in language intended to provoke the Communists into refusing and the partisans who were willing to align themselves with the government soon turned their attention to attacking the Communist forces. The government in Athens tried to pretend this was simply infighting among the partisan groups at first, fearful of alienating the Allies, but as the political attitude to the USSR became increasingly hostile during the latter part of 1944 the Greek government became ever more overt in supporting what many historians have characterised as death squads and with the Communists receiving support from Yugoslavia Greece was facing a civil war that would drag on into 1946, and also led to their support for the Croatian independence movement.
[1] This is karma at work.
[2] A lot of this hardware is available because its considered surplus to requirements in northern Europe.
[3] Sending out Tank Destroyers to block an advance makes sense, if they get into position first and don’t get caught on the move.
[4] The Germans are just too dispersed to mount a proper defence and feeding in units piecemeal is just making their position worse.
[5] IOTL the various Greek partisan groups agreed to work together and even to serve under British direction. ITTL the rather stronger position of the Greek government in exile and the swifter progress of the war has undermined those efforts and the EAM – ELAS has decided to go it alone.
[6] Think of the Athens uprising being thought of in the same terms as the OTL Warsaw uprising by some people, with the British in place of the Soviets.
[7] Acrimony here covering everything from rather suspect history books to the occasional bomb being thrown.
[8] They are leaving the Germans an escape route, believing its unlikely they will be able to regroup to counterattack.
[9] the full quote seems appropriate, ‘Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows’.
[10] The British are definitely not doing the Germans any favours by leaving that door open.
[11] They aren’t just pulling out of Athens; they are giving up big chunk of Greece to buy themselves some breathing room.
[12] The job is done and no one wants to die fighting German troops who will probably be surrendering in a few weeks/couple of months.
[13] It’s a different flavour of bad post-war in the Balkans, but still pretty bad, unless you are the Croats.
Great update! While Greece is in for a rough postwar, the former government in exile should be in a stronger position to come out on top than in OTL. As the Anglo-Greek forces are going to keep rolling up Greece, I imagine the Bulgarians will be looking a chance to ditch Germany and I wouldn't be surprised if ole Admiral Horthy was right behind them.
Well I guess Croatia would be a winner and Yugoslavia a loser from this. I suppose Solvenia would probably also get independence if Croatia gets out which remove the two most prosperous parts of Yugoslavia. That could get Tito displaced by someone more deferential to the Soviets or prevent a Tito-Stalin split altogether. Of course it could just cause the two to fallout faster which would be kind of funny. Definately that would make the Soviets moreso losers ITTL. I'll need to see more events in the Balkans and the East before I predict anymore losers though.
So, seeing how the western allies are advancing far faster and the soviets a bit slower, will we see the balkan axis surrender to the Western allies rather than the Soviets? As i have a feeling they'll prefer the western allies over "The red horde"
Garrison
Donor
Well as I say if you are a Croat, or a Slovene for that matter things will be different/better. If you are Serb, Albanian, or indeed Italian, not so much.
I don't really see the USSR lasting to the 90's ITTL, the only advantage they get compared to otl is having (probably) a unified communist korea.
That said, will china go red? I highly doubt it given no Ichi-Go, and with Nationalist china soon to be making advances, it might tip the balance decidedly in favor of the Nationalists. Though we might see a Communist Manchurian holdout being propped up by the soviets.
With colonialism being a lot stronger than OTL, i doubt the middle east will be able to break free so easily, so the soviet union going into the cold war has far less options, and far more enemies.
That said, will china go red? I highly doubt it given no Ichi-Go, and with Nationalist china soon to be making advances, it might tip the balance decidedly in favor of the Nationalists. Though we might see a Communist Manchurian holdout being propped up by the soviets.
With colonialism being a lot stronger than OTL, i doubt the middle east will be able to break free so easily, so the soviet union going into the cold war has far less options, and far more enemies.
4th - 10th March 1944 – Germany – Crossing the Rhine - Part I – The Last Barrier
Garrison
Donor
4th - 10th March 1944 – Germany – Crossing the Rhine - Part I – The Last Barrier
The battle in the Ardennes had derailed Allied plans for advancing into Germany, and alongside the weather, terrain, and the increasing length of Anglo-American supply lines the fact that optimistic projections that the Western Allies could enter Germany before the New Year had fallen by the wayside and it wasn’t until the beginning of march that they were ready to advance, which was in the circumstances a considerable achievement. Neither General O’Connor nor General Patton saw things in this light, instead they were deeply unhappy about the delay. Patton in particular had been especially vociferous in his complaints and there were suggestions that he might have been replaced by General Omar Bradley, had Bradley not been left to carry the blame for the lacklustre pursuit of the German forces after they were repulsed at Antwerp. Setting aside his rather blunt way of stating them there was some validity in Patton’s complaints, giving the Germans the opportunity to recover after the catastrophe of the Battle of the Ardennes could have had serious consequences, assuming the Third Reich had possessed the means to regroup and shore up their defences [1].
Matters were made more complicated for the Allies by the inevitable competition between the British and Americans over who would successfully cross the Rhine first, with US Army officers complaining that the British plan, Operation Privateer, was well named as they had shown no qualms about plundering supplies intended for Patton’s forces. Naturally there were an equal number of accusations made in the opposite direction and with the disputes about who had made the greatest contribution to victory in the Ardennes already fulminating it was hardly surprising that relations were less than cordial between Patton and O’Connor’s HQs. Overall Eisenhower managed to rein in his subordinates, though a few egos were bruised along the way. One area where Eisenhower had to give way to keep the peace was on his preference for a broad front approach to advancing into Germany. Both O’Connor and Patton had argued in favour of narrower thrusts designed to cut off the industrial heartland of the Ruhr and to envelop Berlin as quickly as possible Eisenhower had been reluctant to consider this, fearing exposing the flanks of the advancing forces. Set against this the heavy German losses in the Ardennes and the intelligence estimates that the Soviets might not be able to advance into Germany until May or June saw considerable political pressure coming from London and Washington to achieve a swift end to the war without waiting for the Red Army and the swiftest way to end the war in Europe was to decapitate the Third Reich by taking Berlin. There were also some concerns voiced about the possibility that the Germans were planning to construct some sort of last redoubt in Southern Germany or Austria and the more time they were given the harder it would be to reduce such a redoubt. Intelligence reports from prisoners and aerial reconnaissance indicated this plan was little more than a pipedream, which did little to dispel the anxieties or alleviate the pressure on Eisenhower [2].
Given the disposition of the Allied forces the British would naturally form the northern spearhead and drive towards Hannover, where the British had long historical associations, and then onwards towards Hamburg. Beyond that the British had seemingly optimistic plans for a push towards the Baltic coast, with Peenemunde on the target list and several options being considered for the liberation of Poland, though at this point many in the Imperial Staff were dubious that this was a plausible objective, a view that would change considerably in the spring of 1944. The liberation of Poland was considered a highly desirable goal in Downing Street, after all the defence of that nation’s sovereignty had been the casus belli that had precipitated war with Germany in the first place. Exactly what could be done to aid Poland in some ways depended on the Poles themselves, the Polish government in exile were warning the British that Warsaw was on the brink of open revolt and that there was little that could be done to restrain the Polish Home Army, indeed if the Allies did successfully cross the Rhine an uprising would likely follow within days or weeks and the government in exile was not taking account of the grave situation in the Warsaw ghetto, with the Polish officials still being rather dismissive of the idea that the Jews would choose to fight. Such considerations were entirely contingent on the British successfully crossing the Rhine, without a firm bridgehead on the eastern side of the river all their other plans and ambitions were irrelevant [3].
The Americans were less concerned about Poland and far more focused on Berlin, which as far as Patton was concerned was the single greatest prize of the war and once it was taken everything else was a matter of tidying up. As mentioned, Eisenhower and others in SHAEF were decidedly less enthusiastic about Patton’s ideas for charging to Berlin, indeed some had gone so far as to suggest delaying the assault on the Rhine to further build up American forces regardless of the pressure from Washington. The argument put forward was that the parlous state of the Wehrmacht meant that the US Army would benefit far more from the delay than the Germans would and that any time lost by delaying would be more than made up for by the sheer overwhelming power of the assault when it was finally launched. Patton utterly rejected this idea and given than on this occasion his thinking was fully supported by his own subordinates and the British he got his way [4].
This did not mean that the British camp were happy that the honour of being first to Berlin would most likely fall to the Americans, but the fact was the balance of Allied forces in Europe had steadily been swinging towards the Americans since D-Day and they were now able to assert their dominance in the Alliance, whether the British liked it or not. The political jockeying in Washington to succeed Roosevelt had exacerbated matters, as Truman and Dewey wholeheartedly agreed with Patton about the importance of Berlin. It was inevitable that the Soviets would have to be granted a sphere of influence in Europe and their own zone of control in Germany itself according to the plans being drafted, but anti-communist sentiments were now in the ascendant in Washington and those sentiments wanted the edge of that sphere set as far east as possible and even hoped that Stalin might be forced to ‘settle for a few crumbs instead of a whole piece of the pie’ where Germany was concerned. The latter goal was wildly unlikely but that it was voiced does reflect the changing priorities in Washington [5].
For much the same reasons the other strategic goal under consideration by SHAEF was a thrust towards what had been Czechoslovakia, in particular the liberation of Prague. The fate of Czechoslovakia had even by 1944 become a byword for the worst kind of cold-blooded realpolitik, a nation dismembered and abandoned to its fate in the name of buying time and the fact that this decisions had reaped dividends for the British in in the years since simply made it seem all the more shameful in certain quarters. As their army prepared to cross the Rhine the USA was obviously less interested in righting a past wrong that they had no part in than in ensuring that Prague stayed out of the hands of the Soviets. Given his openly acknowledged distaste for the USSR Patton was perhaps surprisingly less than enthusiastic about making plans for an attack in the direction of Prague. His view, as recounted by subordinates later, was that once Berlin fell and the Germans surrendered then the US Army could stroll into Prague before the Red Army could organize an advance. Indeed, Patton went as far as suggesting that the Ostheer might be co-opted to fight the Soviets while US forces secured the rest of Europe. Fortunately, this outrageous idea was circulated in public only after the war was long over, especially as Patton did nothing to deny its authenticity [6].
The Luftwaffe had suffered badly while trying to support Winter Watch, this after all their losses during Operation Grundlinie, and the retreat to the Rhine had offered them no respite. The USAAF had resumed daylight bombing in full force. Thanks to forward airfields and the arrival of the P-51 Mustang in significant numbers the bombers of what was now 8th Airforce could be escorted all the way to their targets and back, allowing them to rain destruction on the very industries the Luftwaffe was so dependent on, fuel supplies in particular declined sharply for the Luftwaffe from the beginning of 1944. It was not simply the strategic bombing campaign destroying their supply lines that the Luftwaffe had to contend with. While the heavy bombers focused on German industry Allied light bombers and fighter bombers targeted Luftwaffe airfields and the rest of the air defence system, radar, radio transmitters, and telephone hubs [7].
Luftwaffe losses to accidents also rose sharply as the inexperienced pilots were forced to fly far too many sorties in badly maintained aircraft, adding the combat losses on top of this and it was no wonder that by March the Allies had achieved air superiority over Germany. Naturally this had consequences for the Heer troops on the ground, facing their own dire shortages of fuel, equipment, and food, exacerbated by the continued insistence of sending much of what was available to the Eastern Front. The inability of the Luftwaffe to protect the ground forces from Allied reconnaissance and air strikes compounded their misery, the only small comfort for these troops was that they could at least expect their opponents to comply with the Geneva Convention, whereas the troops facing the Red Army received no such consideration when they were forced to surrender. The ranks of some units had been replenished and on paper a few had even been brought back to their full establishment strength, but the raw numbers were meaningless. Many of these new men were nothing of the sort, the Wehrmacht was filling the holes in its ranks with old men and Hitler Youth, with the presence of so many young boys in the frontlines appearing almost comical if it had not been so tragic. In addition, these units were short on all manner of equipment, with the exception of the Panzerfaust which were handed out in large numbers in lieu of other supporting weapons [8].
The Wehrmacht that faced the British and American forces as they gathered to launch themselves across the Rhine was a shadow of the force it had once been. Pulled in too many directions and subjected to the increasingly deluded whims of Adolf Hitler it was left with nothing but the fanaticism of the Hitler Youth and the fatalistic determination of the remaining veterans to keep them fighting, neither quality was much of a help in the face of the forces the Allies would bring to bear [9].
[1] Bradley’s career has taken a hit, but don’t expect Patton to be made chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff either.
[2] And of course the pressure has absolutely nothing to do with the Roosevelt administration wanting the war in Europe won before the election in November.
[3] There will be an Iron Curtain, but which side of the Vistula will it fall?
[4] The longer they wait they bigger the risk that Hitler wheels out some new wonder weapon, possibly something radiological, though that is not a subject that is being discussed outside of very limited circles in Washington and London.
[5] The political calculation is that even if the Soviets decided they weren’t going to advance another metre as of January/February 1944 the Western Allies could still finish off the Nazis and keep the Soviets out of Eastern Europe. Stalin knows this as well, so complain all he might the Red Czar is still going to insist on driving his armies forward.
[6] Patton is also not going to have a career in politics.
[7] The Luftwaffe is running out of everything except planes, as IOTL German industry was able to keep producing airframes when there was neither the fuel nor crews to fly them.
[8] Expendable weapons in the hands of expendable soldiers.
[9] Fighting spirit is only worth so much when your enemy has the numbers and the firepower on their side.
Ah and the endgame for Nazi Germany begins. The Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe are shells of their former selves so there's only so long that they will be able to hold out and judging by the comment on Imperial war plans for liberating Poland, the wheels are going to fall of the German wagon by the end of Spring.
Patton as always is Patton for better or worse. I imagine he'll be a thorn in the side of the Dewey administration if he avoid his OTL fate. He'll get the job done at least.
Well I'll place my bets. Patton gets to take Berlin and the Allies make it to Prague before the Soviets but they don't beat the Reds to Slovakia so its an early divorce for Czechoslovakia. I think its a blursed outcome for Poland because while the I think the Polish Home Army will be successful in their uprising; the Soviets are going to be inclined to screw them over when it comes to how Germany gets cut up. I'll bet the Soviets will want to make sure they get a large enough piece to make a German puppet state and it will probably require most of the German territory that the went to Poland post war. As I've said before I think the Bulgarians can flip sides and avoid harsh treatment and Soviet occupations and the Hungarians will try that too though I think more heads will have to roll there. Romanian is probably screwed which really caps off a shitty decade they've had. There's going to be some weird borders in Europe.
Patton as always is Patton for better or worse. I imagine he'll be a thorn in the side of the Dewey administration if he avoid his OTL fate. He'll get the job done at least.
Well I'll place my bets. Patton gets to take Berlin and the Allies make it to Prague before the Soviets but they don't beat the Reds to Slovakia so its an early divorce for Czechoslovakia. I think its a blursed outcome for Poland because while the I think the Polish Home Army will be successful in their uprising; the Soviets are going to be inclined to screw them over when it comes to how Germany gets cut up. I'll bet the Soviets will want to make sure they get a large enough piece to make a German puppet state and it will probably require most of the German territory that the went to Poland post war. As I've said before I think the Bulgarians can flip sides and avoid harsh treatment and Soviet occupations and the Hungarians will try that too though I think more heads will have to roll there. Romanian is probably screwed which really caps off a shitty decade they've had. There's going to be some weird borders in Europe.
Garrison
Donor
Their causalities in the west were considerably heavier than OTL during the Battle of the Ardennes and they haven't been able to recover from it.