9/41-10/41
On Road to India, September 1941
The capture of the southern Iranian city of Shiraz by Chuikov’s 19th Army was one of the greatest victories won by either side in the war so far. The recently raised 5th Indian Army had outnumbered Chuikov’s force nearly 3:2 at more than 270,000 men, and had been tasked with pushing Chuikov back to Tehran. Owing to the limited number of roads in central Iran, Chuikov had suspected that the 5th Indian would simply try to push him north, and ordered his forces to retreat. He had left his tank divisions (equipped with a mix of T-34s and BT-5s) behind on another road, hoping to catch the Indians in a trap. The plan worked perfectly, and the 5th Indian was encircled and surrendered.
With the main Allied force in Iran destroyed as a fighting force, Chuikov seized the oil wells on the Persian Gulf coast, although British sabotage meant that they were of no use to the USSR. Chuikov had no intention of stopping there, and looked to Zhukov’s reinforced 2nd Caucasus Front to help. 2nd Caucasus was still based in northern Iraq, facing Wavell’s 4th Indian Army, and Chuikov wanted Wavell out of the picture so that 19th Army’s flank could be secure. At Chuikov’s request (and despite Zhukov being the superior officer), Zhukov launched a probing offensive in late August against the 4th Indian to ensure they would not move against Chuikov.
His flank secure, Chuikov turned the bulk of his forces east, threatening the crown jewel of the British Empire: India. Although he knew that 19th Army was nowhere near strong enough to actually conquer India, and much too far away from the USSR to be both expanded and fully supplied (even as things were, 19th Army’s logistics were terrible), he hoped to sufficiently spook the British into pulling forces from the Western Front by forcing them to defend India against either the Red Army or a communist revolt (despite the belief of the Soviet leadership, few Indians had communist sympathies and were prepared to support the British if it would keep them out of Stalin’s orbit). 19th Army would halt in November at the port city of Bandar-e-Abbas.
Fuhrerschlacht, September 1941
Hitler had been shocked into a two day near-silence when he heard of the American declaration of war against Germany. Having spent the time since 1936 preparing to fight a war that would not bog down like World War I, he had instead ended up in a conflict disturbingly similar to the one that he had personally fought in. The American entry into World War I had been a large part of the reason Germany had lost the last conflict, and if that war was anything to go by, Germany had at best twelve to eighteen months before the weight of American production fell on them like a 3000 pound hammer falling from the sky.
Turning to World War I for inspiration, Hitler directed OKW to develop a plan for an immediate breakthrough offensive to parallel the Kaiserschlacht of Spring 1918. Ludendorff’s greatest failure had lay in a lack of defined objectives, Hitler was determined not to make the same mistake twice. OKW eventually proposed three plans: one aimed at the British and the Channel Ports, and two aimed at Paris. The first of these, codenamed ‘Thor’, called on Army Group B to advance along a broad front to break through the Scheldt line wherever it was most lightly defended, with Hoth’s Panzers in reserve to be committed wherever the breakthrough was achieved to smash through the remaining Allied positions in Belgium and knock the British out of France. The second, codenamed ‘Heimdall’, involved a frontal assault on Paris supported by the Gustav cannon, but was quickly abandoned as it was mostly a repeat of the failed June offensive and called on too much of the already overstretched Army Group A’s reserves.
Instead, Operation ‘Ragnarok’ was chosen. Developed by General Erich von Manstein, Ragnarok called for the best divisions of Army Groups B and C to be concentrated under Army Group A south of Reims in a massive striking column. Striking southeast towards Troyes, Manstein hoped to confuse the Allies, who would be expecting an offensive towards the Channel Ports, Amiens or Paris. Instead, he would make the Allies believe that he was trying to surround the Maginot Line, intending to make them overcommit to that front, before turning to the west, outflanking the French on the Marne and opening the way for Paris to be taken. Hitler approved and ordered the offensive be ready for the 27th of September.
The operation began with an artillery barrage that included the use of 40 Katyusha rocket launchers (given by Stalin in exchange for prototypes and plans to the Fw 190 fighter), immediately panicking the French troops who were only aware of this weapon from news reports about the war in Manchukuo and Korea. The German infantry assault tore through a shell-shocked enemy line, and within a day most of the French trenches in front of Troyes had been taken. Panzers swarmed into the gap left behind, while French General Conde (commander of the 3rd Army) was forced to call a retreat.
The Germans made it to Troyes without major loss, only to find that General Huntziger of the French 2nd Army had transferred forces from the Marne to protect Paris from the east. Bock ordered his forces to attempt another breakthrough, which initially showed signs of promise but fell apart near Sens, but the transfer of more French tanks and increasing Allied air superiority caused Hitler to call an end to the attack. Another substantial chunk had been torn out of France, but with Paris fortified to become a great citadel and the arrival of winter not far off, Germany’s prospects for victory looked to be growing slimmer by the day.
Allies Meet in Washington, October 1941
No less than twelve hours after the Americans entered the war, Winston Churchill was already planning on meeting with Roosevelt to discuss the future of the war. Although he had intended it as a meeting between just those two and possibly Daladier, Roosevelt believed that the Allies’ interests would be best served if all five major Allied nations were present, and invitations were extended to the leadership of Nationalist China and Japan.
From the beginning of the conference, Churchill was stressing the need to send as many men and as much equipment as possible to the Western Front, to ensure that the Allies maintained their position on the continent (a cross-Channel invasion against the entire German Army was deemed to be impossible if France was knocked out of the fight).
The Chinese, who were not actively fighting either Germany or the USSR, instead sought military advisors from the US to better train and lead Nationalist forces against Mao. Roosevelt agreed, sending Joe Stilwell, a distinguished officer who was fluent in Chinese and was known for his concern about the average soldier – a trait that would make him popular among the Chinese peasants that served Chiang Kai-Shek.
Japan’s priority at the conference was securing an agreement from the other Allies to ensure that they could recover Manchukuo at the end of the war, rather than see it returned to China. Churchill and Daladier were determined to keep the goodwill of the Japanese that they so painstakingly recovered in the last two years, but Roosevelt did not want to be seen betraying his Chinese allies, while Chiang Kai-Shek fiercely resisted any handovers to Japan.
Technology Exchange, October 1941
Towards the end of the conference, Churchill suggested that the British and American scientific research into “Tube Alloys” be combined. Although little progress had been made on either project so far, owing to scientists debating about the feasibility, much less the construction, of a possible uranium-based weapon, there was considerable concern that either the Germans (despite Hitler’s dislike of “Jewish physics”) or Soviets would create such a weapon first. Roosevelt, having already been reminded how precarious the situation in Europe remained, was quick to agree, forming the Allied Committee of Exploration into Tube Alloy Research, the British misnomer being kept as intelligence reports suggested that the Germans believed it to mean something about naval guns.
But the Allies were not the only ones sharing their technological secrets. Although Hitler had been hesitant to support his Soviet ally in the early stages of the war, by 1941 he had decided that the only way Germany could win the war was if the Soviets were also doing the maximum possible damage to the Allied cause, even if that meant exchanging technological secrets. In July 1941, he had offered Stalin plans to the Fw 190 fighter (which was just entering production) in exchange for some Katyusha rocket launchers, which had acquired a fearsome reputation from their use in Korea and the Middle East. Most of these were then used on the Western Front, although some were retained by German industry to be reverse engineered and then mass-produced by Krupp, with the German variant entering front-line use in early 1942.
A much more significant exchange occurred in November, when Germany offered Stalin plans for both the Jumo 004 jet engine and the A4 missile. Hitler had cancelled the A4 project in previous months after deciding that it was “nothing more than an expensive artillery shell” that couldn’t hit any major European targets other than those already in artillery range (the front lines being too far from London for launch sites to be established). The Jumo 004 on the other hand, was still in development and testing, but looked to be Germany’s most promising turbojet engine, which Messerschmitt was planning on incorporating into an advanced fighter design once the engineering difficulties were worked out. Stalin, who did not have any major breakthrough technologies to match the turbojet, offered Hitler plans to the best Soviet tanks currently in service and information about the planned successor to the T-34. Some of these would eventually be used in the creation of the ‘Wolf’ tank.
- BNC
The capture of the southern Iranian city of Shiraz by Chuikov’s 19th Army was one of the greatest victories won by either side in the war so far. The recently raised 5th Indian Army had outnumbered Chuikov’s force nearly 3:2 at more than 270,000 men, and had been tasked with pushing Chuikov back to Tehran. Owing to the limited number of roads in central Iran, Chuikov had suspected that the 5th Indian would simply try to push him north, and ordered his forces to retreat. He had left his tank divisions (equipped with a mix of T-34s and BT-5s) behind on another road, hoping to catch the Indians in a trap. The plan worked perfectly, and the 5th Indian was encircled and surrendered.
With the main Allied force in Iran destroyed as a fighting force, Chuikov seized the oil wells on the Persian Gulf coast, although British sabotage meant that they were of no use to the USSR. Chuikov had no intention of stopping there, and looked to Zhukov’s reinforced 2nd Caucasus Front to help. 2nd Caucasus was still based in northern Iraq, facing Wavell’s 4th Indian Army, and Chuikov wanted Wavell out of the picture so that 19th Army’s flank could be secure. At Chuikov’s request (and despite Zhukov being the superior officer), Zhukov launched a probing offensive in late August against the 4th Indian to ensure they would not move against Chuikov.
His flank secure, Chuikov turned the bulk of his forces east, threatening the crown jewel of the British Empire: India. Although he knew that 19th Army was nowhere near strong enough to actually conquer India, and much too far away from the USSR to be both expanded and fully supplied (even as things were, 19th Army’s logistics were terrible), he hoped to sufficiently spook the British into pulling forces from the Western Front by forcing them to defend India against either the Red Army or a communist revolt (despite the belief of the Soviet leadership, few Indians had communist sympathies and were prepared to support the British if it would keep them out of Stalin’s orbit). 19th Army would halt in November at the port city of Bandar-e-Abbas.
Fuhrerschlacht, September 1941
Hitler had been shocked into a two day near-silence when he heard of the American declaration of war against Germany. Having spent the time since 1936 preparing to fight a war that would not bog down like World War I, he had instead ended up in a conflict disturbingly similar to the one that he had personally fought in. The American entry into World War I had been a large part of the reason Germany had lost the last conflict, and if that war was anything to go by, Germany had at best twelve to eighteen months before the weight of American production fell on them like a 3000 pound hammer falling from the sky.
Turning to World War I for inspiration, Hitler directed OKW to develop a plan for an immediate breakthrough offensive to parallel the Kaiserschlacht of Spring 1918. Ludendorff’s greatest failure had lay in a lack of defined objectives, Hitler was determined not to make the same mistake twice. OKW eventually proposed three plans: one aimed at the British and the Channel Ports, and two aimed at Paris. The first of these, codenamed ‘Thor’, called on Army Group B to advance along a broad front to break through the Scheldt line wherever it was most lightly defended, with Hoth’s Panzers in reserve to be committed wherever the breakthrough was achieved to smash through the remaining Allied positions in Belgium and knock the British out of France. The second, codenamed ‘Heimdall’, involved a frontal assault on Paris supported by the Gustav cannon, but was quickly abandoned as it was mostly a repeat of the failed June offensive and called on too much of the already overstretched Army Group A’s reserves.
Instead, Operation ‘Ragnarok’ was chosen. Developed by General Erich von Manstein, Ragnarok called for the best divisions of Army Groups B and C to be concentrated under Army Group A south of Reims in a massive striking column. Striking southeast towards Troyes, Manstein hoped to confuse the Allies, who would be expecting an offensive towards the Channel Ports, Amiens or Paris. Instead, he would make the Allies believe that he was trying to surround the Maginot Line, intending to make them overcommit to that front, before turning to the west, outflanking the French on the Marne and opening the way for Paris to be taken. Hitler approved and ordered the offensive be ready for the 27th of September.
The operation began with an artillery barrage that included the use of 40 Katyusha rocket launchers (given by Stalin in exchange for prototypes and plans to the Fw 190 fighter), immediately panicking the French troops who were only aware of this weapon from news reports about the war in Manchukuo and Korea. The German infantry assault tore through a shell-shocked enemy line, and within a day most of the French trenches in front of Troyes had been taken. Panzers swarmed into the gap left behind, while French General Conde (commander of the 3rd Army) was forced to call a retreat.
The Germans made it to Troyes without major loss, only to find that General Huntziger of the French 2nd Army had transferred forces from the Marne to protect Paris from the east. Bock ordered his forces to attempt another breakthrough, which initially showed signs of promise but fell apart near Sens, but the transfer of more French tanks and increasing Allied air superiority caused Hitler to call an end to the attack. Another substantial chunk had been torn out of France, but with Paris fortified to become a great citadel and the arrival of winter not far off, Germany’s prospects for victory looked to be growing slimmer by the day.
Allies Meet in Washington, October 1941
No less than twelve hours after the Americans entered the war, Winston Churchill was already planning on meeting with Roosevelt to discuss the future of the war. Although he had intended it as a meeting between just those two and possibly Daladier, Roosevelt believed that the Allies’ interests would be best served if all five major Allied nations were present, and invitations were extended to the leadership of Nationalist China and Japan.
From the beginning of the conference, Churchill was stressing the need to send as many men and as much equipment as possible to the Western Front, to ensure that the Allies maintained their position on the continent (a cross-Channel invasion against the entire German Army was deemed to be impossible if France was knocked out of the fight).
The Chinese, who were not actively fighting either Germany or the USSR, instead sought military advisors from the US to better train and lead Nationalist forces against Mao. Roosevelt agreed, sending Joe Stilwell, a distinguished officer who was fluent in Chinese and was known for his concern about the average soldier – a trait that would make him popular among the Chinese peasants that served Chiang Kai-Shek.
Japan’s priority at the conference was securing an agreement from the other Allies to ensure that they could recover Manchukuo at the end of the war, rather than see it returned to China. Churchill and Daladier were determined to keep the goodwill of the Japanese that they so painstakingly recovered in the last two years, but Roosevelt did not want to be seen betraying his Chinese allies, while Chiang Kai-Shek fiercely resisted any handovers to Japan.
Technology Exchange, October 1941
Towards the end of the conference, Churchill suggested that the British and American scientific research into “Tube Alloys” be combined. Although little progress had been made on either project so far, owing to scientists debating about the feasibility, much less the construction, of a possible uranium-based weapon, there was considerable concern that either the Germans (despite Hitler’s dislike of “Jewish physics”) or Soviets would create such a weapon first. Roosevelt, having already been reminded how precarious the situation in Europe remained, was quick to agree, forming the Allied Committee of Exploration into Tube Alloy Research, the British misnomer being kept as intelligence reports suggested that the Germans believed it to mean something about naval guns.
But the Allies were not the only ones sharing their technological secrets. Although Hitler had been hesitant to support his Soviet ally in the early stages of the war, by 1941 he had decided that the only way Germany could win the war was if the Soviets were also doing the maximum possible damage to the Allied cause, even if that meant exchanging technological secrets. In July 1941, he had offered Stalin plans to the Fw 190 fighter (which was just entering production) in exchange for some Katyusha rocket launchers, which had acquired a fearsome reputation from their use in Korea and the Middle East. Most of these were then used on the Western Front, although some were retained by German industry to be reverse engineered and then mass-produced by Krupp, with the German variant entering front-line use in early 1942.
A much more significant exchange occurred in November, when Germany offered Stalin plans for both the Jumo 004 jet engine and the A4 missile. Hitler had cancelled the A4 project in previous months after deciding that it was “nothing more than an expensive artillery shell” that couldn’t hit any major European targets other than those already in artillery range (the front lines being too far from London for launch sites to be established). The Jumo 004 on the other hand, was still in development and testing, but looked to be Germany’s most promising turbojet engine, which Messerschmitt was planning on incorporating into an advanced fighter design once the engineering difficulties were worked out. Stalin, who did not have any major breakthrough technologies to match the turbojet, offered Hitler plans to the best Soviet tanks currently in service and information about the planned successor to the T-34. Some of these would eventually be used in the creation of the ‘Wolf’ tank.
- BNC
