A musical global war AAR...

[Centuur]

Finally, Mamoru Shigemitsu can meet his counterparts Baron Raffaele Guariglia and von Ribbentrop in person. In Sverdlovsk, new trade agreements are signed. They announce that all Axis powers will confer at the Kremlin in Moscow end of september.

[Centuur]

The Axis win the initiative and elects to move first. Here's the weather for the next couple of impulses:

[Centuur]

September 1943:

First, some statistics. The Axis are now fixed on 114 build points every turn. The Allies produce 113 build points, which will increase to 124 from march/april 1944 and to 135 build points from march/april 1945.

September 5th. Reykjavik:

Churchill and Roosevelt meet again. They review the possibilities of the war economy. That doesn't look good at all. Sure, the generals and admirals always want more guns, planes, ships and men, but the facts are staggering. The Allies need at least 4 years of production, before they can get the upper hand against the Axis. And there's the rapid exhaustion of the oil reserves to be taken into account too. Soon, the US will need to divert oil resources from factories to the military itself. Sure, one can try to capture South America, at a tremendous loss of political influence in the world, thus adding oil and non oil resources to the US war effort, But that alone will take at least two years to be succesfull. Public opinion in the US isn't exactly positive about the war too, with the toll of death rising and no gain against the Axis in return. The people in the United Kingdom are still having a good morale, but the lack of military success means that Churchill isn't as popular anymore as compared to 1941...
Roosevelt comments: “we need a way out of this war”. Churchill reluctantly agrees. As a result, they send a message to the US ambassador at the Holy See, Mr. Myron C. Taylor. The message is clear: “The President of the United States and the Priime Minister of the United Kingdom, on behalf of the Commonwealth Natiosn, ask if His Holyness is willing to negotiate a peace between the Allied and Axis Nations”.

September 5th, Sverdlovsk:

In a meeting of the most important Axis generals, the current situation is discussed. They conclude that the Axis armies are almost at the extend of their positions, where they might be used in good order. Von Manstein puts it bluntly: “where the railroad ends and there isn't a road, we can only march a little further”. The generals look at possibilities to attack and weaken Allied positions. The first positions where the Axis and the Allies are capable of fighting each other is northern Norway. An desolate place, where the Axis have more units available than the Allies. However, they need more German units there, to be able to get the British out of Narvik. And with an Allied fleet present, that will not be easy at all:

[Centuur]

Next: southern Norway: Here, the Axis are also facing the problem of the Allied fleet. Added shore bombardment to defense will mean that the Allies will be difficult to defeat in this area. However, the North Sea is not a save place for the Allied ships to operate in. But the Allied Fleet can take a lot of damage, before it has to abort...

[Centuur]

Across the Channel, large forces are sitting and watching eachother. The airforces on both sides are quite formidable, however, the Allies lack sufficient FTR's. The Axis think that the Allies might be able to pull of an invasion somewhere, but will not be able to exploit such an operation, because large German forces have now become availble for transfer from the USSR to France and the Low countries.

[Centuur]

In Spain and Portugal, there is where the possible weakness of Fortress Europe is visible. But again, returning forces from the USSR will be enough to ensure that no Allied attack will succeed in such a way, that a major frontline can be held by the Allies.

[Centuur]

In Morocco, it's the Axis airforce which calls the shots. With quality aircraft present in the area, the general staff believe that, even with the increasing pressure on the Axis position by Allied land units, the front will hold. Perhaps somewhere in the future, a tactical retreat might have to done, but that isn't to be expected until 1944.

[Centuur]

A strange war is happening in the Niger Colony. Here, the Lybian Camel Corps holds the capital against overwhelming British forces. However, those forces are out of ammunition and fuel, so they can't attack. But the generals agree on one thing: if the Allies free an HQ, there is no chance the Lybians can survive.

[Centuur]

There isn't any Axis present left outside of the Mediterranean area in Afrika, except from the Lybians in Niger:

[Centuur]

Guderian reports that everything is very quiet at the Egyptian – Sudanese border. Being at the end of his supply lines, he states that he totally agrees with von Manstein. But, he believes that perhaps the capture of Saudi-Arabia might change things, if the Luftwaffe can put planes on the coast of the Red Sea, making it a dangerous place for the Allied Fleet in Aden to operate in. Due to the mountains in Egypt, the airforce can't be used effectively in the Red Sea at the moment:

[Centuur]

Badoglio, who's headquarters is currently in Bandar Shapur agrees with Guderian: an attack on Saudi-Arabia might be a wise decision if one looks on things which are possible to do. But if one can move further southwards then Riyadh is questionable, since the ever present Allied navy can cut supply for any moving attack force. It's difficult to maintain supply through the endless Arabian desert:

[Centuur]

The forces under the command of von Rundstedt, could elect to attack Afghanistan. But if he than presses forward into India, he can probably get as fat as Lahore before his supply lines are stretched to the maximum limit. And that's only if the weather stays nice. If it deteriorates, than there is no supply to German forces in that area. Von Leeb comments: “we need at least a road through the Persian desert towards the raillink at Zahedan, before an attack on India can be made from the west”:

[Centuur]

Yamamoto comments on the frontlines at the Indian-Birmese border: “again, there is no road into India. Sure, the Japanese navy is very strong at the moment, but we cannot guarantee that Axis units will be in supply in India itself. However, if we would have more land units available in Birma, we could probably try to attack the British there. But currently, we are lacking enough troops in the area to advance”.

[Centuur]

The southernwestern perimeter is defended only in important places, like the oil fields, capital cities and ports. The only port which the Japanese would like to have a unit present, is Saigon. But one can't have everything:

[Centuur]

Yamashita, however, is not happy at all. It appears that the United States have decided to break into the perimeter by taking Rabaul. Sure, the main forces of the Imperial Japanese Fleet are currently in the area, and the place is heavily defended, but he is't convinced that this is enough to prevent the US from taking this important port. A lucky die roll might give the place to the United States:

[Centuur]

Japan itself is quite good defended. There are no US bases close enough to allow a good invasion. Still, it's important to be prepared for an emergency:

[Centuur]

Allied fleets are reported in Portsmouth, Scapa Flow, Belfast, Liverpool, Aden and Brisbane. German naval taskforces are in Kiel and Gibraltar and the main Italian fleet is based at Port Saïd. The Japanese have fleets based at Singapore, Fukuoka and Truk.

At the end of the meeting, the generals and admirals are in agreement. They report: “Looking at things with a military point of view, the politicians need to adress the situation at sea. Any military gains possible, cannot be made without the capture of Saudi-Arabia. After that, we can probably launch an attack on Aden. But it isn't certain at all that that port will be taken in such an attack, considering the very large Allied fleet. We conclude that we need far more naval assets to guard the supply lines, since there are no roads or railroads available to the Axis with a direct link to Europe or Japan in Afrika, near Aden or India. Supply lines at sea are already under attack by the Allied fleet”. They send this message to the foreign ministers of Japan, Italy and Germany, who are still confering in the city.

[Centuur]

When they receive this message, they read between the lines: “can't you get favourable terms to end this war?”

September 6th: Vatican City:

His Holyness, Pius XII grants an audience to mr. Taylor. This audience lasts only a couple of minutes. Half an hour later: Radio Vaticana interrupts all programs. The voice of the Pope comes on air:

“The United States and the Commonwealth have asked me, if I'm willing to negotiate a peace between the Allied and Axis nations currently at war. In the name of peace, I have agreed to do so, if, and only if, all sides agree to cease fire, until such time as one side declares the negations for failed. This is my only condition, since the Holy Church cannot have hostilities continued and lives wasted in a sinful war when the representative of Christ on earth is trying to negotiate a peace”.

This message shocks all warring nations. In Reykjavik, Roosevelt and Churchill acknowledge that they have asked his Holyness to negotiate, but that things are going very fast.

September 8th: Tokyo, 10.00 hours, local time

On the Japanese radio, all programs are halted. For the first time in history, the Emperor speaks to the world. The message is short: “If the Alied nations agree on the honorable demand of His Holyness, the Japanese weapons will be silent, starting the 10th of september on 0.00 hours, Tokyo time. It is the wish of your Emperor, that this chance for peace will at least be explored, now our victorious army and navy have given the Japanese Empire the breathing space it needs”.

September 8th: Bolzano/Bozen, Italy:

In the early morning, Mussolini and Hitler have a meeting near the Brenner Pass. It doesn't last long. After the meeting Mussolini returns in haste to Rome.

September 8th: Vatican City, 13.00 hours:

A few hours later, Victor Emmanuel III of Italy together with the German ambassador at the Holy See, Freiherr Ernst von Weizsecker are seen entering the Vatican, where they are immediately received by Pius XII. They carry with them official documents, signed by Hitler and Mussolini that same morning.

Half an hour later, Mr. Taylor is ordered to an audience with his Holyness and receives the documents. A radio transmission is send to Reykjavik, where the meeting of Roosevelt and Churchill was planeed to end that day.

September 8th: Reykjavik: 18.00 hours

Churchill and Roosevelt adress the press: “We did ask his Holyness for his intervention. Now that the major Axis nations have agreed to a ceasefire, we have to abide to the wish of his Holyness, so that he can start negations on behalf of the world. The weapons of the forces of the Commonwealth and the United States will be silent from 0.00 hour Tokyo time on september 10th.”

September 10th: Rabaul 0.00 hours:

It's silent in the frontlines near the port of Rabaul. Ceasefire. Peace? Who knows. The peace negotiations might still collapse due to Axis or Allied demands...

[Centuur]

This AAR contains a lot of links to music and video's attached to it. It is amazing to see how many music one can find for some nations, and how few there is to be found for other nations which participated in the war.
Generally speaking, one can conclude that in Europe and the United States, the early 1940's were rich on music (if it was used for propaganda or not, that doesn't matter). For the Soviet Union, China and Japan it is very difficult to find music out of the era, aside from military music. To me, the search of music out of the era gave me some very nice surprises and also some very questionable items, which are full of propaganda, racism and other disgusting things. However, you cannot give a good review of music of that area if you leave out the propaganda, how disturbing that sometimes is. That's the reason why it is in here. If you are silent about things which have happened in the past, you cannot give a just and full impression of that timeframe.

Fortunately, there are a lot of people around the world dedicated to this music and if you are willing to search the internet, there are a lot of treasures to be found, Those people probably won't visit this forum, but I thank them for keeping that side of the history of the war alive.

The last post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Pz5KsyfN0

I've had fun doing this. But, the end has come. This game is an Axis victory and it's no use to keep shifting counters on the map in an attrition type of warfare, since one side lacks naval power and the other side lacks land and air power to make a difference. Even when the Allies can build up their full airpower, the Axis will still match the Allied airforce, if not outnumber them.

To anyone who wants to do a detailed inspection of the troops, here is the gamesave where I've ended this AAR.

[Klydon]

Peter, thank you so much for staying with this AAR to the end and for all the hard work you put in researching and finding music to post along with taking input from the community on some strategy decisions at times. Certainly one of the best ever AAR's not only here but anywhere within the forums, no matter the game.

The Last Post is a fitting musical end to this from the description it had.

/salute!