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April 9th, 1941

The Red Army gets an eerie feeling in Romania. Progress in Persia is slow and it can only be described as grinding.

April 24th, 1941

The German counterattack in Romania starts.

May 9th, 1941

After a long break, the Germans are again their former selves and are attacking vigorously in Romania while the Red Army runs a bit out of steam in Persia.

May 24th, 1941

At this point it is hard to find anything redeeming in both the Romanian and Persian campaigns. The German tanks rule the battlefield and the tenacious Persian mountain fighters halt our advance. What were we thinking?

June 9th, 1941

The Persian campaign becomes more and more of an embarrassment to the Red Army while the situation in Romania could even become outright dangerous.

June 24th, 1941

We bomb Berlin for the first time. The economic pressure on Germany increases.

July 9th, 1941

German tanks drive deep into our lines in Romania.

July 24th, 1941

The Russian commander, yours truly, deserves to be court marshalled. Not so much for the retreat in Romania but for the handling of the Persian campaign. Only paying lip-service to the defensive resources of Persia, we did not take them seriously enough to use all of our attacking options. Yes, we did send in a good sized force across the border from Azerbaijan. But we should have opened up a second front east of the Caspian as well, using Krasnovodsk as a basis of operations. We should have also used strategic bombing of Persia to prevent repairs as we did on Finland. Should have ... would have ... Now the Persians have out-foxed us and taken Krasnovodsk first - which was completely undefended. Since the next nearest city east of the Caspian is quite a bit further north, it is unclear if we can ever retake it without supply. What a mess.

August 24th, 1941

It looks as if the Red Army has weathered the storm in Romania.

September 9th, 1941

Persia, initially intended as a training exercise for the Red Army to bide time until our research catches up with Germany, turned out to be a tenacious defender. The Red Army HQ has an anxious week ahead of them before knowing if they can open up a second front on Persia at Krasnovodsk.

September 16th, 1941

Krasnovodsk falls and with a second front in north-eastern Persia, we should overwhelm the Persian defenses now in relatively short time.

The Soviet Leadership authorizes attrition battles against Germany even if the overall outcome of the fight is likely a net loss. We take anything starting from 2-1 odds along the East Front and there are quite a few spots. This takes advantage of the strained German resources while Russia can afford it.

New L3 British bombers increase this strain further, penetrating ever deeper into the Reich, attacking industry and production.

October 1st, 1941

As the summer comes to a close, the German armor has left the East Front and is held in reserve again. Attrition battles steadily inflict damage across the entire length of the front.

October 9th, 1941

It almost looks as if the Persian HQ is not aware of our eastern approach yet.

French infantry is soon strong enough to also join in the attrition battles. But even if the Germans cannot repair all units, they can just fall back to an area with a shorter front line.

British intelligence also intercepted the following communique by the German minister for war economy, Gardner, that deserves to be cited: "The finances are predicated on a radical new economic theory, that if the allies will do their job and destroy German units, then upkeep will go down."

We are here to help....

October 16th, 1941

We get lucky and take Teheran without resistance.

At the East Front we need to find a way to bring our numerical superiority to bear. A thin front of very strong German infantry builds a dam that holds off the Russian human wave. German armored reserves behind the line would contain any breakthrough if we were able to create one - which we cannot for the moment.

November 9th, 1941

After Persia finally falls, the Soviet forces will go into a longer planning, preparing and redeploying phase for a fresh campaign starting sometime next year.

December 9th, 1941

Still in the planning /redeploying stage with the USSR. But the Russians started some diversionary activities south of Minsk.

January 16th, 1942

Turkey shows clear non-Bolshevik political tendencies and will have to pay the price for their refusal of adopting Soviet ways.

Not listed in the official Soviet press statement is that the USSR also wants to open yet another path to the Axis held Balkans but thought it unwise to confront the huge German tank corps right away after landing in Varna. By landing in Istanbul we keep the Bulgarians as a buffer until we are ready.

January 24th, 1942

The resulting political constellation after the Soviet attack on Turkey poses some awkward questions. As all three, the USA, the Western Allies (now including Turkey) and the Soviets are consulting with the same military adviser (yours truly), the Turkish are afraid of a conflict of interest. Despite their Western Allied alignment they will employ G. Gardner, the well known mastermind of the Axis moves, as the Chief of their General Staff.

It is also somewhat expected that the US will employ a "phony war" strategy on the USSR even though the Axis is clamoring for an all out attack.

(Player note: The political alignment changes happen by event. We have decided that Gary will play the Turkish. Otherwise it does not make much sense. It may be worth considering to have Turkey join the Axis in a 2 player PBEM if attacked by the Soviets, otherwise the W. Allies alignment is ok, e.g. if attacked by the Axis.)

I don't think I ever saw that before.
 
Chuck

February 1st, 1942

(Chuck, the Soviet command was equally surprised)

I would like express my admiration for the German command, especially for how they are able to manage and juggle the various demands and shortages on all fronts while their PP base dwindles. There is hardly any crack in their defense yet.

From the Soviet point of view it looks as if current developments go our way. It is unlikely that Turkey can put up a defense on its own now that their new partners UK and France have set different priorities in Western Europe and honor previous commitments of a joined attack with Russia on Germany for the spring of 1942. But it is still a very long road to Berlin. Those who expect the German capital to fall by the end of the year underestimate probably its remaining defensive resources. Once Germany falls back on a shorter front line, they will be able to afford their upkeep again and fight back vigorously.