While the Balkan crisis escalated, troubles were brewing elsewhere. The German forces in Norway were under threat, the British blockade setting in earnest, and although Germany had made some headway on the Eastern Front, it was not enough to change the war situation, much less knock the Russians out of the war. Pretty much everyone in Germany recognized they would have to do something, and fast if they wanted a chance at winning.
The German high command recognized several problems. In their haste to cobble up any solid defensive line outside of the measly amount divisions the Germans had along the east, massive logistical strides had to be taken. The German forces on the west had suddenly been deprived of severe air support, practically all of their panzer corps and massive amounts of men and reserves. Worse, reports were circling that the British and French were planning on undertaking a large scale pan-front offensive, and the harsh reality of the situation was that Germany lacked the strength to properly defend the line. Meanwhile, Soviet reinforcements were arriving by the day, and the coming winter would halt any future operations. The Soviets had nearly quadrupled their military strength along the border, constructing a series of defenses that would make any offensive into Bialystok or Ukraine end in disaster. All the while, Germany's allies were noticeably uncomfortable with the situation, and Polish, Czech and Danish resistance efforts were at an all-time high. And so, changes had to be made.
Convening in Berlin, nearly the entire German high command was focused on devising a strategy for the war. The first things that could be agreed upon were the organization of the armies. The German forces would be split in two, between Westkommand and Ostkommand. The division was, of course, unequal, Ostkommand necessitated a longer frontline, and therefore, more troops, more air support, and in general more war assets.
Westkommand was split further in two, between Nordkommand and Rheinkommand. Nordkommand would be responsible for the defense of the German North Sea coastline, occupation, and protection of Denmark, as well as control of Norway and responsibility for the Norwegian frontline. Nordkommand would be directed by Walter von Reichenau.
Rheinkommand would be responsible for the general Western front, from Rotterdam to Mulhouse, directed at the main Allied force in the area. Rheinkommand would be directed by Walter von Brauchwichtz.
on the East, Ostkommand would further be broken up into Baltkommand, directed by Ferdinand Schorner, dealing with Liepaja and the line from Riga and all around the Lithuanian line.
The central line would be under Centrekommand, designed on holding the line from Prussia and across most of the Soviet-Generalgovernment border, under Erich von Manstein.
And finally, Sudkommand, holding all areas south up until the Romanian line, under Friedrich Paulus. Due to German desperation, the Romanians would be expected to hold their line with Hungarian assistance.
Now, with their new reorganized army, military plans would have to be set. The western armies would focus mostly on holding their forward positions and wait for reinforcements on the East.
More of the German plan relied on the East. Diplomacy with the soviet union was key, and the German government was just hoping to throw Romania to the wolves, recognize their errors, and come off with as little concessions as possible, while Germany would attempt a second knockout blow against France However currently, Joseph Stalin's demands, which included the Germans backing out of the General government, Memel, Romania, and Hungary, was seen as too much for the Hitler, negotiating with Molotov via Ribbentrop in Sweden, as thus far, Germany was still winning. Thus, the Eastern armies were to prepare, for offensives via Sudkommand into West Ukraine, while Baltkommand would push to overrun Villnus and Greater Lithuania, to force a Soviet withdrawal from Bialystok. The Soviet response to the failed negotiations was swift.
Soviet forces amidst the Lublin Offensive on November 29th, 1940
While small scale raiding and probing had been undertaken by both sides across the entire front for months now, ever since the early German victories, the front had been mostly quiet. This led to the German high command falsely assuming the Russians lacked the forces necessary to launch a counter-attack, and moved their offensive forces south and north to prepare for their front-wide pincer maneuver.
The Russians had been using this time to rapidly develop the Red Army. Expanding from 260 divisions to nearly 400, the Red Army was continuing the titanic effort of mobilization, as hundreds of thousands either volunteered or were conscripted into the Red Army. Soviet forces in the center coalesced, preparing for an offensive towards Lublin. The East Polish oil and natural gas fields were vital to the German economy, and Stalin planned on blasting open into the Polish countryside, and then proceed to launch spearheads, liberating Warsaw, and capturing Przemsyl, pinning German forces to the Carpathians. While the Germans prepared for their spring offensive, the Soviets placed nearly 50 divisions under the command of Ivan Konev to the Lublin theatre, where the commander would launch the Lublin offensive, remarked by many as the beginning of the end of the Reich.
Penetrating deep, the overextended German line was completely obliterated, and within days a massive gap was opened up in the line. Despite the Red Air Force being comparatively small to the Luftwaffe, the overextension of the Luftwaffe, being stretched to fight against Western Allied aerial attacks as well as Soviet ones, the Red Air Force saw large success in bombing infrastructure, asserting air supremacy, and providing close air support for the Red Army's advance. While the line burned, the Germans had to cobble up a defense. Manstein moved dozens of forces from Prussia to contain the breakthrough, SS detachments moved from the Generalgovournment, and Baltkommand would have to deploy nearly all it's strategic reserves to Centrekommand, effectively dashing any hopes of taking Liepaja for the near future, and ironically placing Liepaja in a dangerous position to attempt a sortie. But the situation only got worse.
Vatutin provided Konev with a number of his forces, allowing a strike from both the east and the northeast. The German lines had no alternative but to snap completely and the chaos saw multiple German corps destroyed. The Germans tried plugging in the gap with local police and Gestapo officers, as that was about the only thing the Germans could call on. The Germans would be forced to relieve multiple divisions from the Western front in order to assist in stopping the Soviet advance. Soviet forces took the city of Lublin in mid-December, however, Manstein was able to slow down the Red Army. The Soviets weren't done, however, and just as the Germans were beginning to slow down the Lublin offensive, Zhukov unleashed a series of fast, hard-hitting assaults against the Romanian line, keeping the Romanians guessing until a large scale offensive was undertaken towards Chisinau, making the Romanians believe their target was the city, however, the Soviets struck into the south, hard, running through the mouth of the Danube, striking at Galati and Tulcea. By New Year's, Zhukov had 5 divisions across the Danube. To add insult to injury, the new line forced the Romanians to make a retreat across the Prut River in many areas, abandoning Chisinau and opening the gates for the Soviets into Moldova.
With the chaos along the front quieted, for now, the Germans quickly realized they lacked the men to hold the entire front line. While debating how to fix this, a popular thought emerged from many in the Wehrmacht. The plan would be to create a Polish collaborationist government, with more autonomy than the military occupation that was the General-government. While the SS howled and was an incredibly hard sell to Hitler and many in the Nazi elite, eventually pragmatism and the reality of the situation won out, and the Polish State was formed, headed by pro-German Wladyslaw Studnicki, where the Germans immediately instructed the new government to raise battalions for "National Defense against the Bolshevik threat." Although Wladyslaw accepted the position, almost no Polish soldiers volunteered, and throughout the war, the Polish State would rely on conscription to maintain Wehrmacht demands, and would still oversee the horrors of Nazi ethnic cleansing.