Current Strategic Map

Noose closes on Berlin

Brussels, Amsterdam and Ruhr falls...

Current Strategic Map

East meets West

Russians and British meet in Germany. Southern Europe cut off from Berlin.

Current Strategic Map

Warsaw falls, Russians cross the Vistula

While the Red army was retreating in Rumania, the constant allied attacks in southern Germany finally forced the Germans to reduce their defence in the east. Russian intelligence reported that elite German units in Poland had been replaced by Rumanians who were understrength and badly motivated. The time had come for a massive Russian assault.

The attack, when it came, shattered the Rumanians in Poland. By the 4th of January Warsaw, now a pile of rubble, had fallen, the Red Army were over the Vistula in strength and heading west. Before them many of the Rumanian forces simply crumbled, and by the 13th of January a swathe of Poland west of the Vistula had fallen before the Russians exceeded their supply capability. German high command now had to decide upon their defence of the core of the Thirda Reich.

Red Army beaten out of Rumania

As 1945 began Stalin was frustrated by the progress of the Western allies. Bad weather and strong German defences in the east had prevented an all out Russian attack and the communist leader watched appalled as it appeared the western allies were about to defeat Germany single handed. Stalin made plans to avert this.

While the red army massed in Poland to mount an assault on Berlin - before the British and Americans got their, the Russians had unresolved issues in Rumania. On the 3rd of January they renewed their attack, but found the Germans too had been planning an assault. Many more German units, pulled from Yugoslavia and Hungary massed an armoured force against the Russians in the north of the country, taking the Russians by surprise. By the 15th of January the Germans had secured and armoured breakthrough and reached the Black Sea, trapping five Russian divisions who were forced to surrender.

The victory however was a pyhric one. Despite capturing or destroying seven Russian divisions, almost as many German divisions, especially tank divisions, had been destroyed or reduced to mere Batallion strength. The loss in Panthers was particularly severe, so that the gain of the north of Rumania, strategically unimportant, had cost Hitler badly needed troops and equipment which could have been used in the defence of the homeland.

Current Strategic Map

Southern Germany capitulates

As Christmas 1944 approached it seemed that the allies in Czechoslovakia were facing a long hard slog north to Berlin as the Wehrmacht withdrew division after division from other areas to block the road north to the German capital. Once again however, General Alexander out-thought and out fought his German opponents.

In a daring and co-ordinated move, British force started advancing north on the 17th of December, making slow progress against solid German resistance. then however, on the 19th, Alexander suddenly shifted course, swinging a large contingent west, led by British and German armoured units. Within five days these units had swept across the plains of central southern Germany, capturing Nurenberg and Wurzburg.

Too late the Germans realised what was going on and tried to redeploy, but these troop movements were easily spotted by the RAF and only hastened their demise from the air. Unable to respond with speed, the German army, stuck defending Berlin, was helpless to prevent the Anglo-American advance. By the end of the year the allies had reached the Rhine, from the East at Strasbourg, trapping some five German divisions in southern Germany and taking almost a third of Hitler's Germany in one fell swoop.

Paris retaken by Allies

With much of France now under allied control the Americans decided that the liberation of Paris by Christmas would be politically advantageous. With this in mind the Americans agreed that the crossing of the Rhine would be left to the British and Canadians, while Paris would be their responsibility.

Facing understrength and worn out German defenders, the fresh American units, supported by swarms of Sherman tanks, were able, after a few fierce battles, to retake the French capital on the 20th of December, allowing de Gaule to broadcast to his people from their capital on Christmas day. The collapse of Nazi Germany looked imminent.

Current Strategic Map

US Navy suffers reverse in Pacific

Report to follow...

France liberted

Following the setback of the loss of Paris in late November, the American army in France quickly got moving again, driving at the weakened German lines in three places. In the west, US armoured divisions found only sporadic resistance from the Third Reich and easily pushed over the Loire river, reaching Bordeaux by the 14th.

Meanwhile near Poitiers the US achieved another breakthrough, surrounding the Wehrmacht near Limoges as forces pushing up the Rhone Valley met up with those pushing down from Orleans on the 12th. Eight German divisions in France surrendered, but the majority of German forces in France were able to regroup after a hasty retreat to the low countries. The Germans had abandonned France south of a line Paris to Nancy, and on the 15th December 1944 the Americans reached the German border near Strasbourg.

British take Prague

While the Americans were in charge in France under Eisenhowere, General Alexander's large force of mainly British and Canadian troops made more good progress in central Europe in early December 1944. With the Russians bottled up in Rumania, tying down a huge number of German troops, the British force once again acheived a breakthrough in Austria, bypassing Vienna and driving straight for Prague.

Once again the German forces were caught off balance and while they pulled back to defend the Austrian capital, British infantry and armoured forces capitalised, reaching Prague on the 10th and taking Plzen on the 16th. They now occupied a large salient in central Europe, aiming straight for Berlin.

Current Strategic Map

German counter attack!

With the Germans retreating on all fronts in November Hitler gathered his generals to stop the rot. In an uncharacteristic moment of clarity, the Fuehrer listened intently to their suggestions and, even more amazingly, agreed to a retreat. The Balkans were evacuated, with Athens and Tirana razed to the ground, to the horror of the allies. South western France was abandonned and before the allies realised it, nearly one million garrison troops suddenly became available on the vital frontlines in Russia and France.

The effect was immediate. Five fresh divisions were allocated to Von Rundstedt in the west and very soon a furious battle developed around Paris. On the 17th Eisenhower realised that to avoid encirclement he would have to retreat from the city. De Gaulle was appalled and distraught, but even the French general understood the wisdom in Eisenhower's assessment of the situation. Reluctantly the Free French were evacuated from Paris, and on the 21st the French capital was retaken by the Nazis, while a division of US shermans fought an unequal battle against three German armoured divisions. The US casualties at the battle of Evry were some of the worst in US military history.

On the eastern front fresh troops from Greece, including heavy tank battalions, made their presence felt in Romania, forcing the Red Army back up the valley and retaking Bucharest on the 23rd November. The German army fulfilled their leader's wish to turn the Romanian countryside red with blood, burning Romanian settlements as a punishment for their disloyalty. By the end of November the Germans, against the odds, had stabilised the situation on both the eastern and western fronts, and all hopes of victory by Christmas had evapourated in the allies' leaders' minds.

Current Strategic Map

Paris falls

In early November in northern France, Eisenhower was confident that with the build up of troops landing at Cherbourg and Brest, as well as the first British troops at St Malo, the advance on Germany could begin in earnest once again. Overwhelming force and total air supremacy allowed the Americans to get moving east once again and by the 8th they had retaken Orleans and crossed the Loire, although stubborn resistance around Le Mans kept the city in German hands. Further east the front was steadily forced back, and the destruction of two German Panzer divisions near Versailles ensured that Paris fell on the 12th. By the time Hitler had ordered the cities destruction, the French capital had been abandonned and the front moved on.

Yugoslavia breakout

Alarmed by the steady reduction of the Austrian salient, the British attempted to force a path to the Danube during early November 1944, conscious that the war in France may soon be pre-eminent in securing resources and men. The Germans did not expect this sudden move east, away from the German heartland, so at first the British encountered little resistance and reached Graz in just two days.

Then, on the 7thm encountering a Panzer force in the farmlands of Croatia, the British were helped massively by the high crops that blocked sightlines - a relief for the British infantry. Effective sniping by M10s knocked out a platoon of Stugs, while on the other flank a Panther and the Company CO were killed by 25pdr artillery fire.

The British advantage was blunted by German reinforcements, until the 25pdrs and some newly arrived Churchills were able to destroy these forces, despite the loss of the M10s as they went looking for flank shots on the Panthers. However, with casualties mounting and the survivors in danger of encirclement, the Germans retreated.

This kind of action was typical along the front, where German manoeuvring was confused and disorganised. By the 15th the British had taken Zagreb and were only stopped when their armoured units overreached their supply and the infantry had to be given time to catch up. Hitler meanwhile was oddly calm, deriding the move east and consulting with his generals. Events in Romania would make up his mind on his next move.

Bucharest taken. Romania surrenders

While the British made good gains in Yugoslavia, the Russians took the opportunity to consolidate their bridgehead and make their long awaited move into the Balkans. Stalin sold it as a liberation of Romania and a chance to knock one of the axis minor allies out of the war. Churchill saw it for the land grab it really was.

The advance began slowly, with the element of surprise long since lost. The Totenkopf SS division barred the red army, and their panther tanks wreaked havoc amongst the massed T34s which attempted to push into the plains to the south of the Carpathian mountains. For five days the battle raged with casualties mounting on both sides, and it seemed that a breakthrough would not be possible.

Then there was a change of the general staff, and a new plan was hastily organised. The Russians abandonned their cautious advance in favour of mad dash tactics. The ploy worked, Suddenly whole companies of German SS troops found their positions swarming with Russians who attacked headless of the casualties sustained. The close in fighting, entirely not what the Germans wanted, soon saw most of the SS panthers either destroyed or sent fleeing in panic. Seeing the SS units retreating the Romanians needed no encouragement and by the 14th the whole of the Romanian front had collapsed, and the Germans were trying desperately to extricate their remaining fighting units from the country before the inevitable happened.

With the fight knocked out of them the Romanian government, fearful of revolution, surrendered to the Red Army on the 15th, and the Russians occupied Bucharest on the next day, chasing the Germans all the way to the Ploesti oilfields, where a well executed German counter attack blunted the Russian advance. Angered by his ally's weakness, and determined not to lose the vital oil Romania provided, Hitler ordered the fields of Romania to be stained with the blood of Russian and Romanian alike...

October 31st 1944 - Comparison

A comparison of where we are and where history was... Russia is moderately behind, the western allies are slightly behind, the axis are well ahead.

In real history the fronts stood rather still after November 1944, so there is an opportunity for the allies to catch up!

Can the Russians make a breakout in November '44? Can the western allies link up in France?

Current Strategic Map

Germans retake Munich

In October 1944 the situation in Austria and Southern Germany was becoming grim. The high hopes which had abounded of a quick victory over the axis following the lightning fall of Austria in the summer had all but evaporated, and hard fighting against elite German formations was now forcing the allies back towards italy.

Both sides gave little ground in dogged, attritional fighting. On October 14th the British were attacked in the east by forces moving west along the Danube valley, and were forced to make a fighting withdrawl back to Salzburg. For now the Austrian capital was safe from allied assault.

Meanwhile further west a determined attack by German forces were forcing the allies back near Augsburg. Fighting on their own soil the Germans were highly motivated, and despite stubborn British resistance they reached Munich, by now a ruin, on the 19th October.

Street battles followed with the British making the Germans pay for every city block, but the British could not sustain the casualties the Russians had been able to accept in the battle for Stalingrad. Grudgingly the British infantry gave up the city on the 24th, allowing the Germans to re-occupy their shattered city.

By the end of the month the allies were back in the Austrian mountains, with the Germans too weak to mount an attack in the difficult terrain of the Alps, and the allies exhausted from repeated vicious battles in the foothills further north. Neither side was able to fight a battle of manoeuvre, and the front became locked in stalemate.

Disappointed, Churchill gave in to pressure from the French and Americans, endorsing a US led invasion of France. If nothing else this now met far less resistance thanks to the southern front, though opinions on the southern strategy remained divided.

Allies land in France

In October 1944, with the advance into southern Germany stalling and German defences in northern France depleted to meet the threat from the allied forces in Austria, the allies decided it was time to launch another front against Nazi Germany. Churchill however was less than enthusiastic at launching another invasion, and the British and Commonwealth forces were in any case committed to the war in the south. Roosevelt therefore agreed that the first landing would be carried out by American forces alone, with Royal Navy support.

The assault was aimed at western France, where German resistance was weakest. On the morning of the 4th October the US V and VI Corps, along with two airborne divisions, landed near St. Malo, taking the German defenders completely by surprise. The initial advance was therefore swift with Britanny, the Cotentin peninsular and the crucial port of Cherbourg all falling rapidly into allied hands.

By the 8th, the Americans had reached and taken Nantes in a lightning southern dash, while fierce fighting around Caen saw two German armoured divisions massacred before the axis troops withdrew towards a more defensible position on the Seinne.

However, as the Americans pushed further inland they outstripped their supplies, astonished at the speed of their advance. On the 17th they were approaching La Rochelle and reached Le Mans and Tours. It was then that Von Runstedt unleashed his counter attack, utilising Panxer Group West in an assault Hitler had been demanding since the invasion began.

Due to allied air power however the counter attack was a fitful affair, with heavy panzer units often arriving late into the fray. At first it seemed that the counter attack would not bear any fruit, and US airborne divisions looked like taking Tours and continuing their advance. On the 21st however a rapid counter attack by Panthers and, belatedly, Tiger heavy tanks shattered American morale.

While one force moved up from the south near Poitiers another advanced west, retaking Le Mans and surrounding a significant force of Americans near Angers. Here a desperate last defence saw the US forces just able to effect a fighting withdrawal, but the lightning allied advance had come to an end, and the Germans now prepared to drive the allies back towards the coast, aiming to cut their army in France in two. What had started so promisingly now looked in danger of turning into a fiasco.

Red Army breaks into Romania

October on the eastern front was mostly quiet. The red army attempted a full scale breakout into Romania but strong German defences and a well timed counter attack stabilised the defences on the 16th.

The motorcycle messengers carried the information with all speed to the High Command that the situation was a stalemate. Fearing more of the now feared Russian hordes, due to the losses in the north during September, the German army withdrew to a more defensible position on the other side of the river Dnestre, carelessly leaving an area big enough for the red army to establish bridgehead without defence.

Current Strategic Map

Allies stall in the south

September 1944 was not a good month for the American and British forces in Austria and southern Germany. The allies were unable to retake their port in Trieste, though significant effort by the engineer corps saw Innsbruck become a major supply route, with mountain passes seeing an almost endless stream of trucks travelling north.

The Americans suffered the worst as a determined German counter attack in the west saw a large force, led by three panzer divisions, strike south from Stuttgart into the foothills of the Alps. Savage fighting badly mauled the American divisions stationed there and by the 18th Ulm and Reutlingen had been retaken by the Germans. Realising their positions were becoming difficult Eisenhower agreed to a withdrawal to the Austrian alps on the 27th, which saw much of western southern Germany back in German hands.

Further east the British and Canadian forces also faced a determined counter attack near Regensberg and Ingolstadt, moving south towards Salzburg. After initial good progress the Germans were stopped on the Danube, with the allied forces putting up fierce resistance. Following the American defeat on the Western flank of the Austro-German salient, the British threw their reserves forward in an attempt to stabilise the situation on the 27th.

A meeting engagement between a British infantry force and a Stug battery intensified as more troops were fed into the fight. Many probing attacks saw British recon units reach the German rear, and run wild through German supply and artillery columns, before their own destruction by a hastily diverted force of Stugs.

Elsewhere, the British reached rifle range of the German artillery, but were driven back by a pioneer counterattack. Casualties among the German artillerymen were heavy, but they refused to break. Despite Goering's promises, the Luftwaffe rarely reached the field, and were easy prey for the British Bofors.

Unstoppable Russian advance

September 1944 saw the continuation of the Russian advance in the northern sector of the front. On the 4th, Vasilevsky led a huge Soviet formation against Riga, which held out for less than five days. Then his army swept west to the Baltic coast, while a substantial portion, led by armoured units, charged south, reaching the Vistula as early as the 20th.

A key factor in this advance was the Russian air force. German reserves were slow to react, harassed daily from the air and this prevented Field Marshall Model from transferring the much needed divisions from the quieter southern sector of the front.

While Vasilevsky was making good gains in the north, Zhukov’s forces were making their attack on Vilnius. Success here would see the German forces in Latvia hopelessly surrounded, and a link up with an attack on Pinsk in the south would liberate all of Byelorussia and reach the border with Poland.

Initially the Russian commander faced some grim resistance, with German forces, led by the formidable Jagdpanzers and highly trained and motivated units from the Fallschirmjaeger, launched a series of aggressive counter attacks which badly mauled the Russian tank formations. However the brave attacks of a few units were to no avail. So overwhelming were the forces arrayed against army group centre, that reserves simply replaced the losses incurred by the Russians.

By the end of September the Russians had linked up with each other on the banks of the Vistula, having taken the Baltic states and Byelorussia. Stalin was pleased with his gains and now had to make a decision. Continue the lightning advance in the east while the western allies floundered in the south, or pause to spread the seed of communism elsewhere before the war ended.

August 1944 - a comparison

So how is our version of events going? Here's a comparison at the end of August.

Light Green - history and GIMPs history both US/UK controlled.
Light Red - history and GIMPs history both Russian controlled.

Dark Red - Russian gains over history
Dark Green - Allied gains over history

Dark Grey - Axis gains over history

Current Strategic Map

German counter attack - Trieste retaken

In the south of Germany the presence of allied soldiers on the soil of the Third Reich caused consternation amongst the Nazi high command. Rommel had however identified the port of Trieste as key to the allied supply lines and was allowed to marshall a large German force to attack this important objective. The allies had difficulties maintaining air support in this region and faced problems supplying their armies across the Alps. They knew Trieste was vital and the American army was deployed in force when the German attack came.

At the same time that Rommel’s massed tank formations, some taken from the garrisons of Greece and Yugoslavia, began their attack towards Graz, six German divisions in Bavaria launched an assault on the British army holding Munich. Here the Germans fared badly, though losses were high on both sides. After two weeks of hard fighting the attack petered out before reaching the German city, a great disappointment for the German high command.

Further east Rommel’s armoured push was much more successful. The allies, with the US Airborne divisions in the front line, fought valiantly, but were unable to halt the massed panzer forces arrayed against them. While tenaciously conducting the defence of Graz, a second force barrelled into the American flanks further south. Trieste was surrounded then evacuated on the 21st, and on the 28th Graz fell to the Germans. By the end of the month the German attack had been halted at Udine, but the allies could see that their foothold in Germany now lay in immediate peril.

While the Germans were counter attacking in Austria and Italy, the French still waited for their liberation, disappointed at the allied strategy to go straight for the heart of the Axis. Fed up with De Gaulle's complaints, the Imperial General Staff ordered an attack towards Marseilles. Shortly into the operation, a German force was encountered, apparently testing the British defences.

Lead by assault guns and a single King Tiger, the Germans made early progress towards the British lines. However, the arrival of British reserves forced them back, and when a recon patrol found a way into the German rear (destroying a battery of Panzerwerfers in the process), the Germans were forced to retreat.

3 days after the start of the operation saw both forces back in their original positions, with even casualties. The British had failed to break into France from the south and the Free French leader protested in vain that the liberation of his country be given top priority, dismissing the attempted British attack as a “sideshow”.

August 1944 - Russian offensive

Early August saw OKW transferring a large number of divisions to face the new threat in the south. The western allies had crossed the Austrian alps and now had a foothold in southern Germany. The effect of this was marked. Hitler was furious that the hated enemy were now on German soil and removing them became a priority. However for once Hitler listened to his generals and Field Marshall Rommel convinced the Fuehrer that Trieste, the main supply base for the allied attack in the south was key to removing the allied presence from the Third Reich.

This meant fewer forces in the East. The red army wasted no time in capitalising and launched a two pronged attack. Vasilevsky and Yeremenko moved south from Leningrad, attacking army group north, while Zhukov launched a major offensive towards the Vistula.

The initial advances were swift and decisive. In the north, Friessner’s Army Group North took a terrible battering as Vasilevsky conducted a successful breakthrough near Pskov, annihilating most of the panthers of the eighteenth army and encircling much of the German forces in Estonia. These would fight on in pockets for months, but Estonia had been lost. Yeremenko’s attack in the centre faced lesser opposition, but reached northern Latvia by the 15th. Leningrad was now safe, and the Germans had been pushed back well into the Baltic States.

Meanwhile further south Zhukov’s armies ploughed through the weakened Germen defences, and made short work of the schwere-SS-Panzer-Abteilung 502 and severely weakened the 9th army. Though the heavy tanks were more than a match for the Russian tanks, the Soviet infantry found them vulnerable when they were not supported by Grenadiers, and were easily destroyed by the rockets of the Shturmovik flying tank.

By the 17th of August the Russian armies had reached the Vistula in eastern Poland after a great deal of bitter fighting. Model however now chose to commit his reserves in a devastating counter attack launched in two prongs. One from the south near the Pripyat marshes and one from the north near the recently recaptured cities of Vilnius and Brest.

The exhausted Russian armies were not expecting such a furious counter assault and soon found their lines in disarray. The fighting continued until the end of the month and the Russian’s lost some of their recent gains. Brest was retaken by the Fourth Army, which devastated the massed formations of T-34 tanks which were still no match for well organised German panzer forces. The infantry fared little better, German grenadiers supported by Tiger heavy tanks making short work of the massed Russian infantry formation.

By the beginning of September the Russian offensive had been checked, just, with the red army on the border with Poland. Model’s Army Group Centre had been severely mauled but managed to hold the line against the Russian juggernaut. With the western allies now in southern Germany however, many began to wonder how long the Russian hordes could be kept at bay.

Current Strategic Map

Surprise attack sees Austrian collapse

By the 20th June the German assault on the British positions around Trieste had pushed the British back to the city, cutting them off from all but seaborne resupply. However, naval artillery support had forced the Germans to reduce their forward positions to a thin screen of infantry and obersevers. Intending to destroy the British forces in Trieste, the Germans planned a massive assault on the city, lead by the Tigers of several Schwerepanzerabteilung.

Ultra intercepts alerted the Allies to this move, and the RAF and USAF were unleashed on the roads leading to Trieste, littering the German line of march with scores of wrecked soft skinned vehicles, and forcing the Tigers to make long marches 'on track', where their notorious unreliability slowed them even further. Meanwhile, the allies had landed a division of US armour. Striking before the Germans could react, the Shermans overran the German forward positions and reached the Tigers' start lines before the Tigers themselves.

Thrown into disorder by this, the German army was forced to retreat, away from the pocket that closed as the US armour linked up with the British to the west. By the end of June the allied forces of Britain and the US had reached the mountain passes of the Austrian alps, and in the east, had reached Yugoslavia. Then the Russians had attacked in strength in the east.

The result of this was a major redeployment of forces. Thousands of Germans were transferred east to shore up the defences in Russia, while the southern front was stripped bare of resources and elite troops. Only a few schwere abteilung divisions remained to bolster the defences, which now mostly consisted of a few German grenadier divisions, Croats, Rumanians and Austrians, as well as a mixture of other second or third rate outfits.
Fearing invasion across the channel, an operation Hitler was convinced would eventually occur, the Atlantic wall was kept at strength, further reducing the defenders in Austria and southern Germany. Even so, German high command considered an all out attack in Austria as almost impossible, given the mountainous and forested terrain, forgetting their own lessons from the attack in the Ardennes back in 1940.

And so on 1st July 1944 the British and American forces attacked. British Infantry and American armour was flung at the defenders of the Austrian passes, but the lightly armed defenders had little trouble in holding the allies at bay. Three days later the main attack came, with five armoured divisions spearheading an advance in the direction of Graz and Vienna.

At the same time an overwhelming air armada bombed the supply routes into Austria, causing chaos behind the German lines. Still the German generals failed to understand the objective of the allied advance and poured more and more of their defensive forces into the mountains near Innsbruck and south of Salzburg, not realising that just as the British and French had walked into the Belgian trap in 1940, so they were doing in Austria, in 1944.

On the 10th July the British and American forces finally reached Graz, facing little resistance, while the holding actions in the alps tied down as many axis defenders as they could. Then the main thrust turned north towards Vienna, and as the allies had hoped more forces were sent to the Austrian capital to defend it. This was also not the allied objective.

When the allied armoured thrust was reported at Linz on the 12th, the Germans finally saw the intention, and the danger. Hitler was contacted, but refused to entertain such “ridiculous” notions and denied the army’s requests for more troops. The Wehrmacht would have to stop the allies with the forces at its disposal. As the allies travelled along the Danube the German army desperately tried to withdraw their forces from the closing trap, while sending in heavy tank divisions to halt the allied advance towards Munich.

Pulling back to avoid the US armoured spearheads, the tankers of the 502nd Schwerepanzerabteilung were surprised by the sight of a fleet of allied transport aircraft. In a daring assault, the US airborne dropped directly on several strategic mountain passes, fragmenting the German defences even further. The Germans immediately attacked, but with the paratroops dug into good defensive terrain the counterattacks failed with heavy losses.

The US armour, fresh from their victories north of Trieste, passed through the airborne positions and onto the plains north of the alps, OKW had no reserves in position to block an offensive so deep in their rear, and the Shermans reached the Swiss border in record time, cutting off an entire German army group in the Austrian Alps. OKW had reckoned on needing 3 divisions to hold the alps in a war with the Italians. Faced with a far stronger defence, the Allies had simply gone around it.

Meanwhile in the mountains the German grenadiers had fought tenaciously, desperately calling for reinforcement while they attempted to keep the US and British tanks at bay. Hundreds of US tanks were destroyed as the Americans tried to batter their way up the passes, while overall command knew that their sacrifice was a necessary diversion, one which, in the end, nearly succeeded on its own.

Near Innsbruck the German infantry held out until they found themselves with no anti-tank weapons left, such was the scarcity of resources in the southern theatre. Only Marder IIIs and Sturmgeschutz assault guns were available for the defence which faced literally thousands of Shermans. By the 20th July the outflanking manoeuvre had been completed, and the entirety of Army Group C, some 300,000 men under Heinrich von Vietinghoff had been surrounded. Less than 20% were able to escape the pocket and form a defence on the Danube, and most surrendered or headed for Switzerland, who was obliged to close her border. The Swiss made a formal protest to the allies over this incident, which was ignored.

Hitler sacked von Vietinghoff, despite the fact he’d already surrendered to the allies, and ordered that the allies be thrown out of Austria and southern Germany. Realising, finally, that the Italian offensive was the main event, Hitler transferred several divisions from the atlantic wall to face the British and Americans in the south, and began planning a counter attack to trap them in Austria.

Current Strategic Map

Battle in the skies

While the battle for northern Italy raged, a fierce engagement between the Luftwaffe and the British Royal Air Force played out in the skies above. Notably, the Germans were now resorting to the use of their allies planes, the Japanese. An eye witness described what he saw.

“The vapour trails criss crossing the sky looked very dramatic as the air was filled with the graceful, sweeping arcs of those magnificent men in their flying machines. But the reality was a very gruelling, twisting battle for supremacy, which the Luftwaffe JUST managed to retain.

Outnumbered the gallant (some would say foolish) RAF pilots flew in against the odds trying to stem the tide and it started well for them. Two german pilots collided in mid air, but miraculously survived. Their Japanese ally chased one unfortunate Spitfire into their flightpath where he suffered a great deal of damage. This much was obvious by the way the aircraft behaved keeping his speed low and manoeuvres simple.

It wasn't long before the Japanese pilot finished him off. In his elation, however, he had forgotten about the enemy wingman who avenged his chum's death sending the Zero crashing down. While all this was going on the two German pilots, having kept in close formation (Too close actually, as they almost collided another two times), separated to try and trap their foe. One of those pilots, obviously a new recruit, lost his bearings and returned to base. The battle raged on.

To the onlookers below, it looked like a dance, but it soon changed to a fearsome display as fire and smoke filled the sky. Both aircraft burned fiercely and plummeted to the ground, the Spitfire disintegrated first, whilst the burning Messerschmitt streaked homeward, but would not make it back. The brave pilot had seen off his foe but it had cost him his life.”

Battle at sea

While the Italian front made steady gains for the allies and the Russians began their much awaited offensive in the east, the Kriegsmarine once again sought to destroy the much needed Russian convoys to the north of Norway.

The weather in June had been inclement, with a great deal of fog, which allowed the Scharnhorst, which had avoided being sunk in the winter of ’43, to slip her moorings and once again sail to destroy the merchant ships supplying Stalin’s war effort.

The Royal Navy knew the Scharnhorst was at sea and soon she was being trailed by the cruisers Belfast, Sheffield and Norfolk in rough conditions. The german ship turned on her pursuers, but found their gunfire to be accurate, especially that of the Norfolk, who’s 8 inch shells managed to do some serious superficial damage to the German battlecruiser. All the while the battleship Duke of York was closing as fast as she could, but just as the vessel got in range, she was detected by the German surface raider and the Scharnhorst managed to escape into a fog bank.

Later on the 12th June, the weather cleared and Scharnhorst was once again picked up by the three cruisers who closed with her, trying to keep her occupied before the Duke of York arrived again. However the battleship was many miles away and the three cruisers soon got more than they bargained for when the Scharhorst turned on her pursuers, quickly damaging all three vessels.

The Norfolk suffered terribly at the hands of the German 11 inch guns. Soon the flooding from several below the waterline hits became unmanageable and the Norfolk sank. Worse was to follow for the British as Sheffield met a similar fate. She put up a brave fight but was also lost. H.M.S. Belfast, seeing that she was now alone, fled.

Although the Scharnhorst had sunk two ships, she had been severely damaged and only just managed to make it back to port before being intercepted by H.M.S. Duke of York. The Royal Navy wanted revenge, but the vital convoys reached their destination unmolested by the Kriegsmarine surface raider.

Current Strategic Map

Trieste captured, Germans counter-attack

During June the allies in Italy pushed forward. Roosevelt had been convinced by Churchill that the main thrust should come from the south, and the invasion of France was put off, while the allies watched their progress out of Italy. General De Gaulle was appalled and lobbied furiously for a landing on his homeland, but he was over-ruled, creating a mood of bitterness in the leader of the free French. Stalin too, telegraphed the western allies asking for them to concentrate on the western portion of the Third Reich, warning them not to “meddle” in the Balkans. This was an alarming diplomatic development.

Nevertheless, the advance continued, and by the 14th the Allies had reached Austria and Slovenia, taking the much needed port of Trieste and reaching Ljubliana. However on the 17th a German counter attack, led by SS Panzer divisions mauled the British near Udine, and the German forces reached the sea, cutting off the defenders in the port. Supplied from the sea the British in Trieste held out, and the world watched and waited for the next development.

Leningrad liberated, Minsk pocket rescued

After weeks of reversals and several false starts, June saw the start of the much awaited “operation Bagration”, the overwhelming Russian offensive designed to liberate mother Russia and push the Germans all the way back to Berlin.

Early June went well for the red army, as the German forces in northern Russia were exhausted from their recent exertions to take Leningrad and to cut off Minsk. As the Russians attacked, Generaloberst Georg Lindemann was unable to respond, and he wept when his most prized gain, the city of Leningrad, was taken in less than a week by Zhukov’s unstoppable forces. The Russians poured into the city, while their tanks bypassed it, driving a salient into the German lines and reaching the Gulf of Finland.

Further south an overwhelming force slammed into army group centre, takinf Polotsk and driving south towards the beleaguered city of Minsk. Another offensive from Zhlobin pinned the defenders, and Model was obliged to withdraw east of the city to avoid encirclement. By the 15th of June the city was reached and the Russians had retaken a vast swathe of territory, infuriating the Fuehrer, who ordered its immediate recapture. His army however, was unable to immediately comply.

Current Strategic Map

Minsk liberated but surrounded!

During May 1944 the soviet offensive in the east finally gathered some momentum. In the north, Model’s Army Group North found themselves unable to press on from the confines of Leningrad, while further south the massive resources of the red army were poured into a narrow offensive aimed at capturing the strategically vital city of Minsk.

With overwhelming air support, the Russians soon found themselves gaining ground against the wehrmacht, who threw everything they had at the advancing Russians. A great number of Panthers were lost in a hastily organised counter attack, which saw the Russians skilfully withdrawing, enticing the German armour into well placed traps.

By the 8th of May the Russians had retaken Zhlobin, and had punched a hole fifty miles wide in the German lines. By the 14th the rapidly moving Russian offensive had retaken Minsk, to the jubilation of the citizens and Stalin himself.

The situation looked bad for Germany, but crucially the Russian offensives had failed to take, or even deliberately bypassed, the cities of Orsha, Mogilev and Bobruisk. This allowed the 20th Panzer division, in tandem with strong forces from Mogilev in the north, to mount a ferocious counter attack from the south. The fighting was particularly brutal and at times it looked like the attempted pincer movement would grind to a halt, but eventually, despite severe losses, the pincers closed and Minsk, still in Russian hands, had been cut off by the end of the month.

Hitler was furious, but his generals were concerned. How long could they continue to sustain such casualties and keep the red army at bay?

Milan falls, allies reach France

Following the dramatic victory in Italy in the previous month, May saw the allies keep up the pressure on the Italian front. Churchill had finally seen his Mediterranean strategy bear fruit and forced Roosevelt to admit he had been wrong. Now the British army was the senior partner on the second front, with British units in the forefront of the fighting in Northern Italy.

May 14th saw two vitally important actions north of the Po river, when most of the 7th Armoured division came into contact with a well equipped Panzer division which had been sent to stop the advace towards the Yugoslav border. Overnight however a confused action left parts of the Panther equipped army surrounded in tight "cauldrons". This allowed the faster, lighter British tanks to encircle the Panthers and destroy them one by one. Amazingly the British Crusader tank had been deployed successfully for the first time since 1942, where mechanical problems had dogged the cruiser tanks. Upgunned and back in favour thanks to the pressure of General Stubbings, the Crusader was now having a major impact in the Italian theatre.

Later on in the month the 7th Armoured division faced another German Panzer division attempting to stop their move east. The result was similar and the border was reached on 28th May.

Meanwhile in the west of Northern Italy, Milan fell on the 7th, and the British infantry, supported by Churchill tanks and artillery in abundance, soon overwhelmed the numerically inferior German force defending the border with France. outgunned, the German grenadiers were harrassed all the way to the French border, and by the 17th May the British had reached Monaco and the French Alps. Here they paused, waiting orders for their next move.

Current Strategic Map

Leningrad falls to the Third Reich!

In April, Model concentrated his army group north on the outskirts of Leningrad, digging in their troops elsewhere. While the Red Army probed their flanks with overwhelming numbers, they found that they could not shift the dogged German defence, and swift armoured counter attacks caused carnage in the Russian lines, preventing the Soviets from breaking through the German defences.

While Model’s flanks successfully fended off the Russian onslaught, his veteran Grenadier formations pushed forward into the city of Leningrad itself. Learning the lessons well from the debacle at Stalingrad over a year before, the Germans pursued a “bite and hold” strategy, taking parts of the city where they could then digging in for the inevitable Russian counter-attack.

Despite barely any air cover, the German tactics worked. Over and over the Russians threw divisions of men at a time against mere battalions, supported by hundreds of vehicles and Sturmovich aircraft with rockets and bombs. It was no use. The Germans had dug in well and had set up their defences with great thought. The accuracy of the dreaded MG42 was particularly notable, and a large portion of Russian casualties were caused by the inexperienced Russian soldiers running into carefully prepared killing zones.

After a month of heavy fighting along the front, Yeremenko reluctantly called off the counter-offensives. The Germans had held, and Leningrad had fallen. A great day of shame for the Red Army. Yeremenko was given little choice, he committed suicide on the 3rd May, rather than face the wrath of Stalin.

Model meanwhile prepared for the Russian counter-assault, which he knew must come, while accepting the praise of an overjoyed fuehrer. At the same time he struggled desperately behind the scenes to secure some air cover. Goering however had nothing to offer, the constant bombing of Germany had taken its toll.

Italy liberated!

While the Russians fell back in the east, the western allies came under significant pressure to do something to distract Hitler. The overall allied commanders already had plans to invade northern Europe at some point in 1944, but they knew the recent German offensive in Russia meant a more dramatic effort would be needed sooner.

With this in mind the British and Americans planned a ambitious operation to encircle Kesselring’s army in Italy, simultaneously taking Rome and cutting the German army off by landing near Livorno and Genoa, crossing the mountains and taking the Po valley before the Germans realised what was going on.

Surprise and speed would crucial. If the Germans found out what was happening and deployed on the mountains which overlooked the landing sites, there would be carnage on the beaches. The invasion would be an utter failure. To counter this the Americans would drop behind the landing zones, in the Po valley, during the night. At the same time the allies released “secret” plans for an invasion of Denmark.

The ruse was spectacularly successful, as the Germans immediately went into planning the defence of Denmark. When the landings in Italy took place, they were taken completely off guard.

In the South

The southern advance by the allies was still meeting stiff resistance. On the 7th April the British army fought a furious battle on the road to Rome, which drew in more and more of Kesselring’s reserves. The British advanced quickly, hoping to push back the Panzers' infantry support and secure their objectives whilst their artillery and air support occupied the tanks. However, the Panzer firepower began to tell and both the British Recon detachments and their support Churchills were soon ablaze, what's more their air superiority and bombardments were failing to impact on the German lines.

With the British advance stalled and the Germans unwilling to advance out of the cover of the city into such aerial strength, the forces settled down into a protracted and ultimately inconclusisive firefight.

By the 16th, the allies estimated nearly half of the German army, including all its panthers, were now engaged. The time for the landing had come.

The American para-drop

On the night of the 20th the Americans dropped their airborne units over the mountains between Piacenza and Verona, meeting little in the way of resistance initially. As the Americans secured their landing site and gathered supplies, the Germans reacted, sending in at least on unit of shwere abteilung, with King Tigers. In the hours before dawn a furious battle ended with the Americans holding the initiative and much of the German heavy equipment destroyed.

The beach landings

On the Italian coast the critical beach landings took place as the 21st dawned. Near Genoa, the British landed some 40,000 troops, with hardly a shot fired. They then moved inland, infantry supported by heavy artillery and Churchill tanks. Landed at night, the British swiftly cleared the German forward observers and MG positions, but German reserves were positioned close at hand and arrived almost as soon as the advance inland began. Initially driven off, the Germans returned and stalled the crucial British advance for some time.

With major British attack developing on one flank, the German reserves were forced to counter it, leaving the other flank open to the the British infantry with a little help from Churchill Crocodiles.

Further south the Americans were less fortunate. Near Livorno the Germans had created and manned a set of beach defences, ever since the fall of Corsica, and the Germans ran straight into them.

Unaware at this time of the British landing further north, Kesselring surmised that the Americans near Livorno were the main assault, along with the paratroops in the Po valley. Immediately Kesselring committed his strategic reserves and two days later the Americans were still bogged down on the beaches and taking horrendous casualties. Once this beachhead was destroyed Kesselring would turn north and concentrate on the now isolated airborne units.

On the 25th the German commander was informed that a large British army had taken Piacenza and linked up with the American airhead after a furious battle for the town which had lasted two days. At one point the British commander considered calling off the entire operation, condemning the Americans to certain destruction, but the British kept on going. By the 28th the German resistance in northern Italy had fallen apart. Kesselring made one last desperate gamble.

Knowing he needed to break the allied northern bridgehead, the German high commander in Italy, against Hitler’s express orders, abandoned the defence of Rome and moved his forces northward. Rome fell on the 30th April. However as April came to an end the allied air force smashed 40% of Kesselring’s tanks and heavy equipment as they moved, and by the 1st May it was obvious to Kesselring that he did not have sufficient force to throw the allies into the sea, nor could he expect rescue from the German armies further north.

Without asking Hitler, which would have been pointless, Kesselring surrendered his forces in Italy on the 2nd May. Italy had been taken, thanks to an audacious amphibious landing which for several days looked in doubt. The battle for Italy had been won, but only just. “A close run thing”, was how Field Marshall Alexander put it.

Germany had paid the price for keeping so much of its army in Russia, but now the allies faced a dilemma. Italy had fallen, but what now? The alps were easily defended, and there was no easy route into Germany from here. Moreover, the strategic locations of the Ruhr, the Balkans and the low countries were nowhere near the massive allied army which now sat, perhaps ineffectively, bottled up in the Italian peninsula.

Current Strategic Map

Note the air modifier reduction to the allies only applies in Italy and only for next week...

Leningrad surrounded as Russia crumbles

In March bad weather in the east grounded the Russian air force, and much needed supplies reached Model’s exhausted armies in the east. Further south Russian forces were massing, but Model gambled that the best form of defence was attack, and sent his armies on the offensive once again. Thanks to some provident weather and good luck, the offensive in the east gained its own momentum and the Russian armies were sent reeling.

In the north around the city of Leningrad German grenadiers were able to tighten the noose on the city, linking up with the Fins on the Finnish-Russian border, despite the attentions of the Russian air force, which pounded the German lines incessantly once the weather improved. Their action near lake Ladoga however had severe implications when Model released his panzers further south.

While Leningrad was besieged, the Russians belatedly launching an armoured counter offensive which had little impact on the dug in Germans, the Panzers of Army group north caught the Russians unawares, smashing a huge hole in their lines to the north of Novgorod. Model’s experienced veteran Generals pounced, pinning the Russian defenders on the front lines while the Panzers expertly moved around to the rear. By the 19th March the trap was sprung and two Russian divisions were surrounded and annihilated in the north. Stalin, enraged, ordered the execution of several Generals, and Marshall Yeremenko narrowly escaped with his life.

By the end of March the German offensive had run out of steam half way between Novgorod and Borovichi, but Hitler was none-the-less delighted. Model meanwhile knew that his lines were thin and his supply lines overextended. He considered asking the fuehrer for permission to dig in and go on the defensive, but then decided against it.

Rome recaptured on see-saw Italian front

March 1944 was a month of mixed fortunes for the allies in Italy. Bad weather, bad luck and bad co-operation between the various allied forces meant that although the advance up the Italian peninsular continued, Rome was lost to the Axis once again.

With the British army having suffered serious casualties in February, the bulk of the fighting fell to the Americans in March, who planned a braod offensive, chiefly in the east, to straighten the line and shorten the front. With this in mind the US forces, led by the Airborne elements and armoured units, began moving slowly up the east coast of Italy. Kesselring fought a brilliant fighting withdrawal, making use of the boggy conditions of the Italian spring and forcing the Americans to take each town, village and farm at a heavy cost. Never-the-less the US forces advanced some fifty miles in March with "acceptable" losses.

In the west however the advance had stalled. Noticing this, and realising the main allied advance was occurring in the east, Kesselring sent in his Panzers on the plains of western Italy in a headlong dash for Rome. He didn't expect to take the city, but a series of events ensured the Italian capital was back in axis hands by the 27th of the month.

As the Panzers advanced they encountered an inexperienced American tank division, mauling it severely. General Mark Clark ordered in a second force of tanks, but these too faired poorly. The allied air support apparently got lost, despite receiving the correct co-ordinates, and singularly failed to intercept the Luftwaffe aircraft who dealt blow after blow to the American tanks. The weather played a part too. HEavy rain turned the roads into mud, but while the US Sherman tanks frequently found themselves becoming bogged down in the soft mud, the German Panthers, with their wide tracks and experienced crews, faired much better, and the Shermans paid the price.

Before long the second armoured division also had to retreat, unfortunately running into a cauldron of German fire, and those who escaped had to abandon their vehicles. Suddenly a German scout group found that the way to Rome lay undefended, and German Panzergrenadiers swept in to recapture the city. Hitler was delighted and the German propaganda machine made much of the city's recapture, awarding the Knights Cross to the commander of the Panzer Division which destroyed the Americans so utterly.

Current Strategic Map

Army Group North surrounds Leningrad

While the battles around Rome raged, the eastern front remained relatively quiet. As yet the Russians, who by now had overwhelming numbers along the length of the front, had not launched their latest offensive. This allowed German Army Group North, commanded by Walter Model, to capitalise on the failure thus far of the Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive, which had faltered unexpectedly in January.

Model, having seen off the Russian offensive, now pushed his Panzer Divisions further east, facing determined resistance from the Red Army. Hundreds of modern T-34/85 and KV-85 tanks were destroyed as Model’s Panthers and Panzer IVs swept eastward. The Russians were hampered by unexpectedly mild weather, which caused extensive fog and low cloud – the reason cited for the Russian Air force’s complete failure to have a decisive impact on the crucial battles.

By the end of the month the Germans had once again surrounded Leningrad, restarting the siege which had been lifted by the Russians in 1943. However, the Wehrmacht had almost run out of fuel and their supplies were unable to keep up with the advance, thanks to the ongoing bombing campaign being kept up by the allies. Even German generals were now wondering how long this success in the east could continue.

Italian Front, Feb 1944

February 1944 began with the expected counter-attack by German forces on the Italian capital. The allies expected this, so planned an operation of their own to continue their advance north across the country. The British, with their heavy artillery now dug in and concealed in the rubble of the ancient city, would repulse any German attack while the Americans drove north along the coast, while simultaneously dropping airborne troops near Rieti and north of Viterbo. This, the allies hoped, would surround the Germans and allow a swift advance to the Gothic Line.

The Germans began their drive on the city, with Kesselring employing his best troops, including two Panzer Divisions. Hampered by the rubble strewn narrow streets, the British found it difficult to commit their reserves where they were most needed, and the troops on the front line suffered badly as the Panzer divisions rolled towards Rome. Casualties soon mounted, with the British 53rd division suffering particularly badly. Facing an all out attack on Rome the Americans hastily began their operation to salvage the situation.

The American forces driving along the coast found the going relatively easy, with Tarquinia and Viterbo falling relatively easily, before a German counter attack checked their advance on the 18th of February, forcing the Americans to dig in along a line from the coast to Lake Bolsena. Meanwhile the airborne troops dropping inland soon found themselves in difficulty. They initially met with success, cutting the supply lines serving the German attack on Rome. However this was to lead to their demise.

With the British having been seriously mauled and Kesselring unwilling to commit Panzers to the streets of Rome itself, he turned the attack around and, with troops also advancing from the north, annihilated the airborne units near Rieta in just three days. The allies had made small gains, but Rome was still in danger and the casualties, particularly among the US airborne units, had been cripplingly high.

Current Strategic Map

Axis stop Russians in the east

While the western allies made a critical gain in the Mediterranean, despite heavy losses in the shambles at Corsica, the red army found things tougher in the east. Stalin was still discussing the best plan to advance into Germany with his top generals, allowing German Army Group North to take advantage, making modest advances towards Leningrad. The costs were high on both sides however, and the German generals were still bracing themselves for the inevitable onslaught of Mother Russia.

Italy, January 1944

Gustav Line broken – Rome falls

In late January 1944 a daring set of attacks by the allies in Italy began. In the mountains, in the Liri Valley, the British, led by the 49th (West Riding) division, made good use of foggy weather and some appalling German gunnery near Casino, to make a determined push right, over the mountain passes and down into the Sangro valley. The British, supported by Churchill Crocodiles and overwhelming superiority in artillery, found the going much easier than expected. A full breakthrough was only checked when Kesselring redirected forces from the Adolf Hitler line east to defend Ortona. The British had been stopped.

However, at the same time the allies landed a significant force, numbering some three divisions, on Corsica, in an attempt to establish a launchpad for the invasion of Northern Italy. This, it was argued would prevent a long bloody slog up the spine of the country. The plan received luke warm support from the Americans, but went ahead. Unfortunately two SS panzer divisions were refitting in the comparative quiet of the Corsican vineyards and the landing force, after several intense battles, were forced to abandon the assault.

Hitler was pleased by the allied failure on Corsica, but had little time to enjoy the victory. While Kesselring had been distracted by the “Corsican affair” and the British push towards Ortona, the American force in Italy, with the Airborne in the vanguard, made a daring rush past the now weakened German positions at Casino. The rush tool the Germans completely by surprise, and suddenly, on the 21st January, Rome lay undefended. Before Kesselring could react, the Americans stormed into the ancient city.

In Berlin Hitler flew into a rage and ordered that the ancient Roman city must be reduced to rubble and every allied soldier removed from its boundaries, at any cost.

Starting positions, 1st Jan 1944

Click to enlarge.

New Blog launched!

Welcome to the GIMPS WWII campaign. Starting in ealry 1944, the Axis powers are on the defensive, fighting a bitter battle in Italy, while the red army rolls in from the east. Can the Germans overturn massive odds to save the Thousand Year Reich?

The way the campaign works is downloadable from the right hand side, though watch the pop-ups! Maps, write-ups and campaign notes will be posted here.

The campaign is open to ANY WWII wargame whatsoever on ANY scale. The only proviso to that is applying common sense to what you can do with different games. A raid type commando game should be aimed at strategic modifiers or temporary destruction of assets - for example the allies might conduct a raid which reduces a supply base or city to just 2 for the next game instead of the 3 or 4 usually required, and taking land with a naval wargame is not allowed!

Campaign due for launch 6th August.