History WorldWarII / WarInEuropeAndAfrica

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union's greatest success of 1942 has been keeping their armies from being encircled and annihilated like in 1941- a good lesson learned, but not a war winning strategy. The Ural factories are coming online and American Lend-Lease continues to flow into the USSR, but they need time to build up forces for a counteroffensive ''somewhere''. As the Axis focuses in on Stalingrad, Georgy Zhukov realizes argues to Stalin that this isn't just a disaster if the city falls- but there is an opportunity for victory depending on ''when'' it falls. Stalingrad's factories are not just assembly plants- they are heavy concrete structures- the worker apartments used so much concrete in construction that they can survive heavy attacks by air and artillery. Zhukov argues that they only need to funnel in ''just'' enough troops to hold onto the city. The plan is to keep fighting long enough that the Germans will impale themselves on the city's defenders, and then surround the "victorious" Germans when the counterattack is ready. It will take roughly 8 to 12 weeks to gather enough forces to destroy the German army, but the city must not fall before the men are ready. They just need the right commander to keep the men fighting long enough for the counterattack to be prepared.\\\

When news of the unfolding disasters in Belarus and then western Ukraine reach Army Group South, they are not at all surprised at being forced to give up their Panzer divisions (with about 400 working tanks) in an attempt to salvage the situation. Nor are they surprised when the Soviets attack them the next month, nor when the Soviets again take advantage of the Romanians' inferiority in artillery strength and doctrine to punch through the Romanian-defended sections of the front lines, nor when the Romanians' lone tank division (100 tanks on a good day) is not enough to stop the Soviet Tank Army (600 tanks on a good day) which is used to exploit the gap created. What they ''are'' surprised and more than a little annoyed by is the coup which takes place in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. Even the German forces ''not'' already trapped in pockets are suddenly taken into custody by their former allies as the country switches sides and signs an alliance with the Soviet Union--the beginnings of what will later become the Warsaw Pact. This is a domino that leads to a nightmare scenario for the Germans. Germany has not just lost the bulk of her oil supply, but Army Group South and a great deal of international prestige. This is quickly followed up with the defection of Bulgaria to the Allied side- causing German forces to evacuate the country, as well as their forces on the Greek mainland and the Balkans to prevent them from being cut off. Suddenly, all of the southern front is completely undefended. The roads into Central Europe are open, and the only defense is whatever the Germans and their nervous Hungarian allies can put together on a very short notice. That, and the delays cause by the [[SurrenderBackfire widespread looting of Bucharest by Soviet troops when they enter the capitol.]]\\\

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union's greatest success of 1942 has been keeping their armies from being encircled and annihilated like in 1941- a good lesson learned, but not a war winning strategy. The Ural factories are coming online and American Lend-Lease continues to flow into the USSR, but they need time to build up forces for a counteroffensive ''somewhere''. As the Axis focuses in on Stalingrad, Georgy Zhukov realizes that there is an opportunity. Stalingrad's factories are not just assembly plants- they are heavy concrete structures. The German troops closing in on the city are formidable, but the allies on their flanks are decidedly NOT similar in strength. The city itself is also inherently fortified- the worker apartments used so much concrete in construction that they can survive heavy attacks by air and artillery. Zhukov argues that they only need to funnel in ''just'' enough troops to hold onto the city. The plan is to keep fighting long enough that the Germans will impale themselves on the city's defenders, and then surround the "victorious" Germans when the counterattack is ready. Nikita Kruschev appoints Vasily Chuikov as commander of the defense of the city- and the two of them get to work.\\\

Even though Army Group A reaches the similarly-productive facilities of Grozny within the week, which also guards the route to the oilfields of Baku and the passes through the Caucasian Mountains, their logistical situation is too fragile for them to actually take it or advance any further. The Donbass–Grozny railway line is still damaged and it's ''500km'' from Grozny to the Donbass, a gap which once again has to be bridged by the diminishing truck-fleet while Army Group B struggles to do likewise given heavy ammunition expenditure around and within the city of Stalingrad. Not helping either Army Group's troubles is Hitler's insistance on giving direct orders to army elements when their timetables start to slip, going over the heads of the Wehrmacht's local and theater commanders- at one point, his orders create a traffic jam of combat units that takes ''one week'' to untangle. The Donbass itself is only supplied by one east-west railway line and a constant stream of barge traffic through the Black Sea. Even when Army Group A repairs its railway line it's still not enough, as the line can only really supply 100,000 troops and constant counterattacks by the Soviet Caucasian Front once again keep them from building up stockpiles. The fighting is threadbare, with Army Group A suffering from critical fuel and ammunition (and eventually food, once the locals' last foodstuffs have been confiscated) shortages and the Caucasian Front suffering from great training and equipment shortages. For instance one of the Caucasian Front's divisions (10,000 men) began the defense of Grozny halfway through its training with fewer than 3000 foreign-model rifles captured from ''Entente Cordiale'' troops in the Russian Civil War (which were only supposed to be used for marksmanship training, pending the arrival of standard-issue rifles and heavy weapons). They were only saved by the fact that the Panzer division (nominally 14,000 men and 200 tanks) attacking them had fewer than 20 working tanks and just a few thousand rounds of ammo between their 10,000 surviving men.\\\

On April 25, 1945, Soviet and American troops famously link up at a German village called Torgau on the river Elbe. The job of taking Berlin is left to the Soviets, who are far closer and have claimed the city as part of their sphere anyway. Indeed, Stalin is eager for the Red Army to have the honor of taking the very heart of Nazi Germany, which Hitler has refused to leave. Germany drives the pensioners, the ''Volkssturm'', and the boys of the Hitler Youth to defend her from "the Depredations of the Jewish Communist Hordes", mustering a force of 800,000 "men" and a thousand armored vehicles in the city's defense.[[labelnote:*]]And by "men" they essentially mean any human being who can still hold a weapon; there are infamous stories from the Battle of Berlin where German Panzers are combat-ineffective, not because of any battle damage or malfunction, but because their crews are '''children''' who are literally '''''too small to reach the controls.'''''[[/labelnote]] For their part the Soviets bring 2.5 million of their best veterans—supported by tens of thousands of tanks, airplanes and artillery pieces—to take it from them. After some of the most brutal and bloody urban combat in history, the Red Flag waves above the ''Reichstag'' on May Day, 1945. Hitler attempts to spur the last defenders on, but after several officers refuse his orders to mount a (incredibly futile) counterattack, he unleashes a vicious tirade against his surviving subordinates and, finally admitting that the war is lost, [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled kills himself]] in his bunker alongside his newly-married wife Eva Braun and his dog Blondie.[[labelnote:*]]In the aftermath, Hitler's surviving subordinates knew that Soviet soldiers would waste no time desecrating and parading Hitler's and Eva Braun's corpses through the streets as the Italians had done with Mussolini. As a result, they attempted to make sure that the Soviets [[NeverFoundTheBody wouldn't find the bodies]] by wrapping both bodies, along with the corpses of their pet dogs, in a rug and setting it alight. It worked to questionable success; the bodies were not completely incinerated due to the fire being open and therefore unable to reach a very high temperature, but it was enough to render them unrecognizable, enough that Stalin was not completely able to confirm their identities until a month later. Even after identifying them, however, the bodies were kept in SMERSH custody, who first buried them in a forest in Brandenburg, then had them relocated to unmarked graves in Eastern Germany in 1946. Finally, in 1970, to prevent Neo-Nazi elements from finding and/or enshrining the bodies, they were exhumed again, thoroughly crushed and burned, and the ashes scattered in the Biederitz River[[/labelnote]] One of the most infamous figures in history is dead, but the war does not end right away.\\\

As the Western Allies push out into the interior of France, it becomes clear to the German people that they are going to lose the war. Even as Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer gives regular briefings to the ''Fuhrer'' showing that he is using every draconian measure in his power and the Reich is producing more tanks, trucks, rifles, bullets, more of ''everything'' they need to fight the Allies in 1944 than at any other point in the war, high command at the Wehrmacht cannot find enough recruits to fight, enough experienced soldiers to train the recruits how to use the weapons effectively, or enough fuel to power the war machines. The mighty juggernaut of the Red Army is approaching from the east, and the British and Americans, with their superior weapons and air power,[[labelnote:*]]Bear in mind that, yes, Germany did develop several weapons that were considered superior to Allied technology, such as the Sturmgewehr-44 Assault Rifle, "Tiger" heavy tanks and the Me-262 jet fighter, these weapons were only superior ''on paper''; in application, they had their own flaws that made them more AwesomeButImpractical, and were deployed in very sparse numbers compared to their more standard equipment, like the Kar-98 bolt-action rifle, the Panzer IV medium tank, and the Bf-109 respectively, all three of which were considered equal or inferior to Allied technology of the time.[[/labelnote]] are rapidly approaching from the west. The devastation of cities like Hamburg, Mainz, Düsseldorf and in early 1945, Dresden, forces millions into refugee camps. On the Eastern Front, the fighting becomes more desperate as the German soldiers become convinced that their families and their friends really will be exterminated (just as the official propaganda claims) after three years of atrocities and a dozen million dead Soviet civilians. ''Reichsminister'' Goebbels starts to up the rhetoric in his broadcasts, using the idea of the new "wonder weapons" (such as the Me 262, the world's first operational jet fighter, and the V-2 rocket, the world's first ballistic missile) to say that the final victory will still be theirs. However, only the most delusional or fanatical Germans continue to believe him. Ever since Stalingrad, the news has gotten progressively worse; many Germans start behaving as though they have nothing to lose, recognizing that they only face total destruction.\\\

Finally, on the 22nd of June 1941—exactly one year after the fall of France—Hitler launches Operation '''Barbarossa'''. The day before, the German Army sends its secret codewords to confirm its imminent commencement, and at 3:15 in the morning, German artillery begins firing at Red Army positions along the entirety of the new Eastern Front. It is the largest offensive in the history of warfare, one so massive that ''three'' dedicated headquarters are needed to coordinate it. All three HQ manage an army group of more than a million men each (including logistics personnel) for a total of about 2.7 million combat troops (of whom half are "first-rate"/can be used for offensive actions and the rest only "second-rate"/only useful for defensive actions and policing stuff), 624k horses, c.500k troop-transport and scout vehicles, 120k supply trucks, 3k tanks, and 3k airplanes. This force constitutes about 3/4 of the German Army, 19/20ths of the German Army's mobile forces, and half the German Air Force. In this initial period of the war the Germans make up the majoriy of this force while being supplemented by the Romanian and Finnish armies on the southern and northern flanks respectively[[note]] Although in 1942 so many Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, Italians, Croats and Finns integrate into their ranks (chiefly in the rear areas where they're just fighting partisans, "fighting" partisans, and fighting "partisans") that the force is as little as 2/3 German[[/note]]. In the westernmost districts of the Soviet Union the Red Army has three HQ and about 2 million combat troops (all of them 'first-rate' on a good day), as many as 5k working tanks (depending on how many make it out of the repair shop on any given day), and up to 5k working aeroplanes. Together these forces about 1/3 of the Red Army, 1/4 of the Red Army's mobile forces, and 1/3 of the Red Army Air Force. On the 22nd of June the front stretches from the lower Baltic, across the Polish plains and Carpathian mountains to the Black Sea and is 1000km long—lengthening rapidly as the Germans make their way out of 'the Eurasian funnel'.\\\

Meanwhile, Churchill's French friend, Charles de Gaulle, iss not sitting idle. French North Africa submitted to Vichy control and many French troops that escaped with the British at Dunkirk opted to return to Vichy France in exchange for amnesty as the war got worse for the Allies. But the General is able to find financial support, weapons, and recruits in the colonies of Central Africa. After the thrashing of the Italians in Operation Compass, Félix Éboué, governor of Chad, writes to de Gaulle expressing his desire to align with the general and the Allied powers. [[GatheringSteam Within a month and a half of exchanging notes, Chad joins de Gaulle's struggle, Cameroon's colonial government is toppled by de Gaulle's number two general Philip Leclerc, and the French Congo and Ubangi-Shari (present day Central African Republic) join this movement.]] Together, these colonies formed Free French Africa and suddenly the Nazis can't so easily portray Charles and his Free French Army as toothless to their Vichy subjects. Félix uses his power to enact colonial reforms whereby African traditions will be respected and working conditions will be improved, but French law will continue to be the basis of government. The British use their colonial assets to expand the roads, ports and airports for the war effort.[[note]] Most of the planes used by the RAF in the African theater would actually be shipped to Free French Africa in pieces, assembled by local workers, then flown to bases in Egypt and Libya.[[/note]] By 1943, Free French Africa raises and trains 7,000 colonial soldiers- many of whom will distinguish themselves in the North Africa theater. They will contribute 20,000 troops by the war's end. The colonial governments also contribute financially to the Free French war effort through taxation, loans and trade, allowing Britain and de Gaulle to finance the still nascent French Resistance.\\\

Meanwhile, Churchill's French friend, Charles de Gaulle, was not sitting idle. French North Africa had submitted to Vichy control and many French troops that escaped with the British at Dunkirk opted to return to Vichy France in exchange for amnesty as the war got worse for the Allies. But the General was able to find financial support, weapons, and recruits in the colonies of Central Africa. After the thrashing of the Italians in Operation Compass, Félix Éboué, governor of Chad, wrote to de Gaulle and expressed his desire to align with the general and the Allied powers. [[GatheringSteam Within a month and a half, Chad joined de Gaulle's struggle, Cameroon's colonial government was toppled by de Gaulle's number two general Philip Leclerc, the French Congo and Ubangi-Shari (present day Central African Republic) joined this movement.]] Suddenly the Nazis couldn't so easily portray Charles and his Free French Army as British propaganda to their Vichy subjects. Together, these colonies formed Free French Africa. Félix used his power to enact colonial reforms whereby African traditions would be respected, working conditions would be improved, but French law would continue to be the basis of government. The British used their colonial assets to expand the roads, ports and airports for the war effort. Most of the planes used by the RAF in the African theater would actually be shipped to Free French Africa in pieces, assembled by local workers, then flown to bases in Egypt and Libya. By 1943, Free French Africa raised and trained 7,000 colonial soldiers- many of whom would distinguish themselves in the North Africa theater. They would contribute 20,000 troops by the war's end. The colonial governments also contributed financially to the war effort through taxation, loans and trade, allowing Britain and the Free French to finance the still nascent French Resistance.\\\

Meanwhile, Churchill's French friend, Charles de Gaulle, was not sitting idle. French North Africa had submitted to Vichy control. But the General was able to find financial support, weapons, and recruits in the colonies of Central Africa. After the thrashing of the Italians in Operation Compass, Félix Éboué, governor of Chad, wrote to de Gaulle and expressed his desire to align with the general and the Allied powers. [[GatheringSteam Within a month and a half, Chad joined de Gaulle's struggle, Cameroon's colonial government was toppled by de Gaulle's number two general Philip Leclerc, the French Congo and Ubangi-Shari (present day Central African Republic) joined this movement.]] Suddenly the Nazis couldn't so easily portray Charles and his Free French Army as British propaganda to their Vichy subjects. Together, these colonies formed Free French Africa. Félix used his power to enact colonial reforms whereby African traditions would be respected, working conditions would be improved, but French law would continue to be the basis of government. By 1943, Free French Africa raised and trained 7,000 soldiers- many of whom would distinguish themselves in the North Africa theater. They would contribute 20,000 troops by the war's end. The colonial governments also contributed financially to the war effort through taxation and trade, allowing Britain and the Free French to finance the still nascent French Resistance.\\\

Meanwhile, Churchill's French friend, Charles de Gaulle, was not sitting idle. French North Africa had submitted to Vichy control. But the General was able to find financial support, weapons, and recruits in the colonies of Central Africa. After the thrashing of the Italians in Operation Compass, Félix Éboué, governor of Chad, wrote to de Gaulle and expressed his desire to align with the general and the Allied powers. Within a month and a half, Chad joined de Gaulle's struggle, Cameroon's colonial government was toppled by de Gaulle's number two general Philip Leclerc, the French Congo and Ubangi-Shari (present day Central African Republic) joined this movement. Suddenly the Nazis couldn't so easily portray Charles and his Free French Army as British propaganda to their Vichy subjects. Together, these colonies formed Free French Africa. Félix used his power to enact colonial reforms whereby African traditions would be respected, working conditions would be improved, but French law would continue to be the basis of government. By 1943, Free French Africa raised and trained 7,000 soldiers- many of whom would distinguish themselves in the North Africa theater. They would contribute 20,000 troops by the war's end. The colonial governments also contributed financially to the war effort through taxation and trade, allowing Britain and the Free French to finance the still nascent French Resistance.\\\

World War II combat operations begin with the Nazi invasion of Poland, preceded by a series of {{False Flag Operation}}s[[note]]most notably the Gleiwitz incident, where German troops dress up as Poles and attack a German radio station near their shared border[[/note]]. Britain and France declare war on Germany, beginning the Western Front, but they don't actually do anything to help beyond imposing a blockade and the latter initiating a limited offensive into the Saar region. Initially, their Western Allies and Germany are shocked by the Polish armed forces' capabilities. While they are losing to the Germans, they are losing slowly. Weapons like the Model 35 Anti-tank rifle are able to do horrific damage to the early panzer models when combined with Polish cavalry's mobility. But a one-on-one fight will end with defeat without significant Western intervention. Poland's odds get even grimmer as [[{{UsefulNotes/PolishSovietWar}} their old enemy, the Soviet Union,]] invades from the east to make good on their part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Poland's regular forces are [[CurbStompBattle crushed within five weeks.]] While they only last a week and a half less than France will, the Poles damage or destroy no fewer than 11,000 enemy vehicles, achieve a 2:1 armored kill ratio in tank-on-tank battles, and inflict 40,000 casualties on the Nazis. While the Fuhrer is elated with the victory, the Wehrmacht is concerned at the fact these Polish ''Untermenschen'' managed to inflict so much damage.\\\

When news of the unfolding disasters in Belarus and then western Ukraine reach Army Group South, they are not at all surprised at being forced to give up their Panzer divisions (with about 400 working tanks) in an attempt to salvage the situation. Nor are they surprised when the Soviets attack them the next month, nor when the Soviets again take advantage of the Romanians' inferiority in artillery strength and doctrine to punch through the Romanian-defended sections of the front lines, nor when the Romanians' lone tank division (100 tanks on a good day) is not enough to stop the Soviet Tank Army (600 tanks on a good day) which is used to exploit the gap created. What they ''are'' surprised and more than a little annoyed by is the coup which takes place in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. Even the German forces ''not'' already trapped in pockets are suddenly taken into custody by their former allies as the country switches sides and signs an alliance with the Soviet Union—the beginnings of what will later become the Warsaw Pact. This is a domino that leads to a nightmare scenario for the Germans. Germany has not just lost the bulk of her oil supply, but Army Group South and a great deal of international prestige. This is quickly followed up with the defection of Bulgaria to the Allied side- causing German forces to evacuate the country, as well as their forces on the Greek mainland and the Balkans to prevent them from being cut off. Suddenly, all of the southern front is completely undefended. The roads into Central Europe are open, and the only defense is whatever the Germans and their nervous Hungarian allies can put together on a very short notice.\\\

For their part the Soviets don't have any substantive information on German capabilities or intentions, which makes them very wary. They counsel Stalin upon caution. The Soviets know that the Germans will have repaired the thousand tanks that were disabled during '''Barbarossa''', making the German tank force at least 1.5k or so, but they have no how many new tanks have been produced and have no clue how big the German truck fleet is this year. The fleet could easily be replenished by stripping German infantry units of their motor transport. To conserve trucks 1/3 of the infantry divisions used in '''Barbarossa''' had no motor vehicles, there being fewer than 150k trucks within infantry and mobile divisions versus 120k in the truck fleet. This year there might still be as many as 100k trucks in the divisions, versus the mere 20k in the fleet—making this kind of stripping a real cause for concern. With a big tank force and truck fleet the Germans could well have the strength and logistical capability to sustain an advance on all three fronts this summer—but the Soviets don't know this and have no way of finding out until they make their move.\\\

The offensive in Ukraine didn't just fail, it was a ''catastrophe'' rivaled only by Stalin's colossal blunder at Kiev the previous September (Stalin had refused to allow Red Army forces to withdraw from the Kiev salient before the German offensive to cut it off, and only authorized a withdrawal once the forces there had already been encircled). It delayed the German offensive for two days at the most and left the entire front significantly weaker as a result. Although Soviet forces in the Donbass and Don bend lack the strength to counterattack they are ordered to do so anyway, '''Barbarossa'''-style—marking the last time the Red Army tolerates this kind of incompetence. With already-weaker Soviet forces helping wipe themselves out, even the poorly organized Germans are able to advance at a decent pace and secure the inner bend of the Don by the beginning of August—cutting the Soviet Union's supply of coal and iron by a fifth, and potentially resulting in production shortfalls if the region is not retaken within a year. Army Group South is split into Army Group A and Army Group B as they proceed onward, but with the taking of the Donbass the length of their front lines balloons from 500km to 1000km. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Axis troop density on the southernmost part of the Eastern Theater reaches its lowest point in the war so far.]]\\\

Come June 6, 1944: '''Operation Overlord''' commences. Over northern France, in the wee hours of morning before sunrise, an aerial fleet of 1,200 cargo planes carry out a massive aerial invasion, dropping American and British paratroopers by parachute and glider to secure strategic points and undermine German defenses. As the sun starts to rise, the Germans are greeted to the sight of more than '''5,000''' vessels across the horizon, who proceed to begin ferrying hundreds of thousands of Allied troops ashore, in what would become the largest invasion by sea in modern history. The landing operation is divided among 5 codenamed beaches: The [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks Americans]] land upon "Utah" and "Omaha", the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships British]] attack "Sword" and "Gold", and finally the [[UsefulNotes/CanucksWithChinooks Canadians]] get "Juno" beach. To say the Germans are caught flat-footed is a massive understatement; an Allied deception campaign made German Command think that they were not going to land anywhere ''near'' Normandy and the fact that the dreary weather had whipped the Channel up to the point that conducting an invasion in the middle of that mess was just downright ''insane,'' yet here the Allies were.[[note]] The allied deception is so succesful, Hitler and members of the German high command don't realize that the Normandy landings ARE the real invasion until August- two whole months later.[[/note]] To make things even worse, UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel, the general in charge of the Western Front defenses, was away at home celebrating his wife's birthday, and a breakdown in communications made him ''vastly'' underestimate the size of the Allied invasion fleet, to the point that he was convinced that it was simply a diversionary attack before the main invasion would commence elsewhere. By the time he realized it was not a diversion, it was too late as the defensive forces were in disarray while the Allies continued to pour ashore. Despite their surprise, however, the Germans[[note]]In many cases, the "Germans" who resisted the landings were actually conscripts from the Poland and other occupied eastern territories[[/note]] fought doggedly, and the day quickly turned bloody for both sides. By the end of it, though, the Allies had gained a tenuous toehold, and over the next few days the hold strengthened until it became a solid foothold. After four years, Fortress Europe's walls in the west are finally toppled. But the fight was far from over, as Allies and Axis began a deadly reenactment of the Great War in the northern French countryside.\\\

In response, Germany sends a hundred thousand combat troops, including two Panzer divisions, to conquer Greece and Yugoslavia [[note]]The Wehrmacht judged the Yugoslavian railway lines as critical for the success of ''Barbarossa'' and predicted a quick victory and bloodless occupation. The conquest would be quick. Marshal Tito ensured it would NOT be bloodless.[[/note] and one division to North Africa to shore up the Italian defences there. At the time a 'corps'/'Korps' is generally understood to consist of two-to-three 'divisions' (c.15k combat troops each), so designating the German expeditionary force to North Africa the ''Deutsches Afrikakorps'' is a bit of a grandiose gesture. However, it is a deliberate gesture to help foster the impression that Germany has actually dispatched far more troops and tanks (45k and 600) to north Africa than it really has (15k and 200). The 'Korps' is led by the newly promoted Major General UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel [[note]] formerly commander of the 7th Panzer Division, notable for its stunning maneuvers in the Battle of France, which earned it the [[SquadNickname nickname]] "The Ghost Division" [[/note]].\\\

While this is going on, Mussolini decides to divert even more troops to his Albanian protectorate and issues an ultimatum to General Metaxas' (quasi-Fascist!) Greek government: renounce the British guarantee of their neutrality and allow Italian and German soldiers to occupy undisclosed points of the country. When this is unsurprisingly refused, Mussolini [[InsaneTrollLogic claims that Greece holds an un-neutral attitude against the Axis]]. The Italians promptly invade Greece across the mountainous border with Albania during late 1940, forcing [[EnemyMine General Metaxas' somewhat brutal military dictatorship into the Western Allied camp]].\\\

In East Africa, the British take charge of an Allied force—consisting of themselves, much of the Commonwealth, the 'Free French' rebels and Belgians—and begin to push back into Italian East Africa. Resistance is considerably sterner than in the North; the overextended Italian positions crumble but don't go down without a fight. However, even with their superior numbers, the poorer quality of their troops and Command&Control links slowly tell out while Ethiopia erupts beneath their feet. The Italians turn and fight numerous hard actions[[note]]the Italian soldiers at the Battle of Keren were reckoned to be among the best opponents any Western Allied unit fought [[/note]], but the clock is ticking and they are running out of room and ammunition.\\\

Nonetheless, while the Western Allies have won a series of victories they have not even come close to driving the Italians out of anywhere yet. This gives the Italians time to regroup, rearm, and reinforce. The Germans, who had for until now been content to let the Italians get with on their own foolish endeavors, fear that Mussolini's domestic support is not so firm that he can weather the loss of north Africa and hear that British reinforcements are being sent to Greece. The German military had already advised Hitler of the wisdom of ensuring Greece's neutrality (if not outright befriending them) at all costs, since Greece's proximity to Romania means that the Commonwealth can use Greek airfields to bomb Romania's oilfields—German's primary source of petrol. Germany's only alternatives are mind-bogglingly expensive coal-derived synethetic petrol, highway-robbery-priced Soviet petrol, and minuscule amounts of Hungarian petrol. Driven by military necessity, and with a ''great'' deal of annoyance at Mussolini's ''utter'' lack of strategic thinking, Hitler accepts that Germany must intervene on both fronts.

In response, Germany sends a hundred thousand combat troops, including two Panzer divisions, to conquer Greece and one division to North Africa to shore up the Italian defences there. At the time a 'corps'/'Korps' is generally understood to consist of two-to-three 'divisions' (c.15k combat troops each), so designating the German expeditionary force to North Africa the ''Deutsches Afrikakorps'' is a bit of a grandiose gesture. However, it is a deliberate gesture to help foster the impression that Germany has actually dispatched far more troops and tanks (45k and 600) to north Africa than it really has (15k and 200). The 'Korps' is led by the newly promoted Major General UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel [[note]] formerly commander of the 7th Panzer Division, notable for its stunning maneuvers in the Battle of France, which earned it the [[SquadNickname nickname]] "The Ghost Division" [[/note]].\\\

World War II combat operations begin with the Nazi invasion of Poland, preceded by a series of {{False Flag Operation}}s[[note]]most notably the Gleiwitz incident, where German troops dress up as Poles and attack a German radio station near their shared border[[/note]]. Britain and France declare war on Germany, beginning the Western Front, but they don't actually do anything to help beyond imposing a blockade and the latter initiating a limited offensive into the Saar region. Initially, their Western Allies and Germany are shocked by the Polish armed forces' capabilities. While they are losing to the Germans, they are losing slowly. Weapons like the Model 35 Anti-tank rifle are able to do horrific damage to the early panzer models when combined with Polish cavalry's mobility. But a one-on-one fight will end with defeat without significant Western intervention. Poland's odds get that much grimmer as [[{{UsefulNotes/PolishSovietWar}} their old enemy, the Soviet Union,]] invades from the east to make good on their part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Poland's regular forces are [[CurbStompBattle crushed within five weeks.]] While they only last a week and a half less than France will, the Poles damage or destroy no less than 11,000 enemy vehicles, achieve 2:1 armored kill ratio in tank on tank battles, and inflict 40,000 casualties on the Nazis. While the Fuhrer is elated with the victory, the Wehrmacht is concerned that these Polish ''untermensch'' could do so much damage.\\\

-->-- 29th Septembet 1939 announcement of the surrendur of Warsaw by Polish General Juliusz Rómmel

World War II combat operations begin with the Nazi invasion of Poland, preceded by a series of {{False Flag Operation}}s[[note]]most notably the Gleiwitz incident, where German troops dress up as Poles and attack a German radio station near their shared border[[/note]]. Britain and France declare war on Germany, beginning the Western Front, but they don't actually do anything to help beyond imposing a blockade and the latter initiating a limited offensive into the Saar region. Initially, their Western Allies and Germany are shocked by the Polish armed forces' capabilities. While they are losing to the Germans, they are losing slowly. Weapons like the Model 35 Anti-tank rifle are able to do horrific damage to the early panzer models when combined with Polish cavalry's mobility. But a one-on-one fight will end with defeat without significant Western intervention. Poland's odds get that much grimmer as [[{{UsefulNotes/PolishSovietWar}} their old enemy, the Soviet Union,]] invades from the east to make good on their part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Poland's regular forces are [[CurbStompBattle crushed within five weeks]], having dealt far less casualties than anyone had anticipated on account of their overwhelming numerical, material and organisational disadvantage. That said, neither the Germans nor the Soviets manage to round up all of the now-former country's military personnel, and these living loose ends will cause trouble later. Some, like the Polish air force—many former pilots of which join the Royal Air Force—flee the country and fight alongside the Allies, and others form [[LaResistance resistance groups]] and await the time to strike. Polish intelligence forces are also able to share all their decryption information on the German enigme machine with their Western Allies.[[note]] Poland actually cracked the enigma in ''1932'' and kept up to date on the German intercepts until 1938 when the Germans added two more rotors to the standard Enigma code cylinders, increasing the computational power beyond what they had developed to crack the intercepts. The codebreakers were smuggled into Romania during the invasion and eventually trasferred all of their knowledge to British Intelligence to help develop ULTRA at Bletchley Park.[[/note]] The Soviet Union follows up its acquisition with the quiet annexation of the Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and even Lithuania; althought the latter was supposed to be a German-dominated state in the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement, the Soviets want it as it had been part of the Russian Empire and the ''Lingua Franca'' there is actually Russian (the Soviet Union's official language). The Germans hastily revise the treaty so Lithuania's in the 'Soviet Sphere' and the Germans aren't legally obligated to go to war with the USSR over it.\\\

World War II combat operations begin with the Nazi invasion of Poland, preceded by a series of {{False Flag Operation}}s[[note]]most notably the Gleiwitz incident, where German troops dress up as Poles and attack a German radio station near their shared border[[/note]]. Britain and France declare war on Germany, beginning the Western Front, but they don't actually do anything to help beyond imposing a blockade and the latter initiating a limited offensive into the Saar region. Initially, their Western Allies and Germany are shocked by the Polish armed forces' capabilities. While they are losing to the Germans, they are losing slowly. Weapons like the Model 35 Anti-tank rifle are able to do horrific damage to the early panzer models when combined with Polish cavalry's mobility. But a one-on-one fight will end with defeat without significant Western intervention. Poland's odds get that much grimmer as [[{{UsefulNotes/PolishSovietWar}} their old enemy, the Soviet Union,]] invades from the east to make good on their part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Poland's regular forces are [[CurbStompBattle crushed within five weeks]], having dealt far less casualties than anyone had anticipated on account of their overwhelming numerical, material and organisational disadvantage. That said, neither the Germans nor the Soviets manage to round up all of the now-former country's military personnel, and these living loose ends will cause trouble later. Some, like the Polish air force—many former pilots of which join the Royal Air Force—flee the country and fight alongside the Allies, and others form [[LaResistance resistance groups]] and await the time to strike. Polish intelligence forces are also able to share all their decryption information on the German enigme machine with their Western Allies.[[note]] Poland actually cracked the enigma in ''1932'' and kept up to date on the German intercepts.[[/note]] The Soviet Union follows up its acquisition with the quiet annexation of the Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and even Lithuania; althought the latter was supposed to be a German-dominated state in the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement, the Soviets want it as it had been part of the Russian Empire and the ''Lingua Franca'' there is actually Russian (the Soviet Union's official language). The Germans hastily revise the treaty so Lithuania's in the 'Soviet Sphere' and the Germans aren't legally obligated to go to war with the USSR over it.\\\

World War II combat operations begin with the Nazi invasion of Poland, preceded by a series of {{False Flag Operation}}s[[note]]most notably the Gleiwitz incident, where German troops dress up as Poles and attack a German radio station near their shared border[[/note]]. Britain and France declare war on Germany, beginning the Western Front, but they don't actually do anything to help beyond imposing a blockade and the latter initiating a limited offensive into the Saar region. Poland's odds get that much grimmer as [[{{UsefulNotes/PolishSovietWar}} their old enemy, the Soviet Union,]] invades from the east to make good on their part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Poland's regular forces are [[CurbStompBattle crushed in just five weeks]], having dealt far less casualties than anyone had anticipated on account of their overwhelming numerical, material and organisational disadvantage. That said, neither the Germans nor the Soviets manage to round up all of the now-former country's military personnel, and these living loose ends will cause trouble later. Some, like the Polish air force—many former pilots of which join the Royal Air Force—flee the country and fight alongside the Allies, and others form [[LaResistance resistance groups]] and await the time to strike. The Soviet Union follows up its acquisition with the quiet annexation of the Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and even Lithuania; althought the latter was supposed to be a German-dominated state in the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement, the Soviets want it as it had been part of the Russian Empire and the ''Lingua Franca'' there is actually Russian (the Soviet Union's official language). The Germans hastily revise the treaty so Lithuania's in the 'Soviet Sphere' and the Germans aren't legally obligated to go to war with the USSR over it.\\\

The so-called "'''Battle of the Bulge'''" results in German gains for a few days under the cover of bad weather, followed by inevitable defeat as dogged American resistance delays Hitler's tight operational timetable just long enough for his Panzer formations to run out of fuel, sometimes literally within sight of their objectives. Even when the Germans achieve battlefield success, they lack the fuel to capitalize on their victories- their vehicles were provided with enough fuel to begin the offensive, but all plans for refueling required that they capture gasoline and diesel from allied supply dumps. Without these captured fuel supplies, there is no ability to engage in prolonged vehicular combat. For the Allies, General Eisenhower soon realized this attack is fact a prime opportunity to destroy the German forces since an attacking force is easier to do so. Meanwhile and most famously, American troops—primarily the 101st Airborne Division—manage to hold on to the critical road junctions in the Belgian town of Bastogne despite being surrounded, outnumbered nearly five to one, and severely lacking in cold-weather gear, medical supplies and ammunition, even as General Patton was racing to relieve them on Eisenhower's orders. Delaying actions such as these prove invaluable as the attack bogs down long enough for the streak of cloudy days to run out, allowing Montgomery to organize the various delaying actions into a concerted battle. Every hour that Bastogne held, the German vehicles had to burn the last of their fuel trying to capture it. Then the Allied air forces resume resupply and tactical operations, sending devastatingly powerful and accurate airstrikes that slow German forces even further and make their advances all the more hopeless.\\\