Sturm und Drang : Axis Perspective

[cpdeyoung]

19410216 : Quiet time.

[cpdeyoung]

19420301 : Preparing for the Spring offensive.

[cpdeyoung]

19420316 : Nearly Spring, and we are readying.

[cpdeyoung]

19420401 : Foiled! The Soviet command stopped my attacks in their tracks. His play was masterful, and leaves us with a lot of shifting to do.

[cpdeyoung]

19410416 : The question of Hungary is now interesting. The Soviets are not going to bring them in for "free". We grind away in the East, and are wondering if we are giving the West enough attention. We do not want trouble there, but there is no naval activity yet.

[cpdeyoung]

19420501 : We did capture those two corps. A few attacks, no naval activity. We are getting ready for some more activity.

[cpdeyoung]

19420509 : Big doings in the West.

[cpdeyoung]

19420516 : We go about our business, wondering about enemy intentions.

[cpdeyoung]

19420524 : This was a productive, if unspectacular turn.

[cpdeyoung]

19420601 : Lots of naval action, we try our hand at air defense, a few attacks, and some happy, refreshed Panzers.

[cpdeyoung]

19420609 : We added the expensive Tirpitz to our fleet. The naval battle is very crucial.

[cpdeyoung]

19420616 : Very quiet, but we caught up on some maintenance tasks.

[cpdeyoung]

19420624 : Back on the attack, with attrition a goal.

[cpdeyoung]

19420701 : More attrition, more building.

[cpdeyoung]

19420709 : Go for broke! We expend many SP for a couple of breakthroughs.

[cpdeyoung]

19420716 : Where does the enemy get all this stuff. To the west we see aircraft carriers everywhere. To the east we see tank corps. We push forward where we can, but rebuilding from the damage last time is so expensive. We do not see any chance of decisive, war winning gains this year, and unless we can find a way to beat the enemy in production we are going to have to go on the defensive very soon. The Soviets have even gone to sea and intercepted our Copenhagen convoy. The Allies are on the ascendancy, and our "spring" offensive is already faltering. We are nervous about extending our lines too far.

[cpdeyoung]

19420724 : The enemy is estimated to be receiving about 600 PP per turn now. We can certainly see it in the OOB we observe.

[cpdeyoung]

19420801 : We are faced with the limits of our unit density in the unlimited space of Russia.

[cpdeyoung]

A note on the campaign : Every bit of this campaign has been influenced by the war game the General Staff ran which is documented in "Road to Where".  It will be remembered that in this RtW the Axis advanced into the Soviet Union, only to run out of momentum, and the Axis was crushed by attacks from west and east.  We determined that we would have to avoid these consequences and so we paid careful attention to naval affairs and fought a large campaign in North Africa, and were giving serious thought to an invasion of England when the desert campaign was over.  Two factors prevented us from said attack.
 
The first factor was that the Soviet Union did not wait behind their borders, but invaded us.  We had to scramble to defend in the east.  We mounted a defense rather quickly and were able to finish the desert campaign, but when the units from the Med were available we could not turn to England, or at least we did not do so.  Rather we wintered in Poland and Romania, avoiding the consequences of the winter in Russia that year, and planned a limited offensive in the Spring.
 
The second factor was the vast resources of the USA,  which allowed the Allies to challenge our control of the North Atlantic.  Whatever window for a campaign against the British existed was slammed shut when we had to fight every other turn for sea control.  Gary has said he is at 600PP per turn with extensive lend lease.  After the beginning of 1942 he would have had to fight this lend lease through, but we have seen no sign of such convoys.
 
Now, in August 1942, we look back upon a spring and summer of campaigning in the East which gained us some ground, but which demonstrated the costs involved in attacking an enemy which has the level of troops enjoyed by the current Red Army.  We see signs of lower level divisions which indicate the Soviets are prepared to build a defense in depth where needed.  We did not have to see these to realize that we would not be pressing on any of the three great Soviet cities soon.  We must keep the initiative, and this means we need a new operational - strategic mode in the east.  This will be handicapped by a major committment in the west, where we will be fighting the allies in the war they are best equipped to win : production of naval forces.  Nothing here is encouraging, and we remember that in RtW the Axis only lasted till summer 1943.
 
Gary is such a good player.  He fought very well with the Axis in RtW, and he is proving masterful with the Allies and Soviets in SuD.  His strike with the Soviets into Poland and East Prussia came close to taking the initiative from us.  His extended campaign with the British was also impressive.  It is possible that both these campaigns were fueled by shipments from the USA.  This would be different from RtW where we assumed the USA would not be able to ship PP in quantity until after beligerency.  In any case we have our work cut out for us.  We hope that "Gott mit uns" applies here.

[cpdeyoung]

19420816 : Raiding in the Baltic, driving forward in Poland, and skirmishing in the South.