THE HOUR HAS COME!
REICHFUEHRER ADOLF HITLER'S PROCLAMATION ON WAR WITH SOVIET UNION
July 1, 1940
GERMAN PEOPLE!
NATIONAL SOCIALISTS
Weighted down with heavy cares, condemned to months-long silence,
the hour has now come when at last I can speak frankly.
A fresh war by Russia against the small Finnish people could not be regarded any longer by the German Government as tolerable, all the more so as we could never believe Russia to be threatened by Finland.
Today something like 160 Russian divisions are standing at our frontiers. For weeks constant violations of this frontier have taken place, not only affecting us but from the far north down to Rumania. Russian airmen consider it sport nonchalantly to overlook these frontiers, presumably to prove to us that they already feel themselves masters of these territories.
German people! At this moment a march is taking place that, as regards extent, compares with the greatest the world hitherto has seen. United with their Finnish comrades, the fighters of the victory of Narvik are standing in the Northern Arctic. German divisions commanded by the conqueror of Norway, in cooperation with the heroes of Finnish freedom, under their marshal, are protecting Finnish soil.
Formations of the German Eastern Front extend from East Prussia to the Carpathians. German and Rumanian soldiers are united under Chief of State Antonescu from the banks of the Pruth along the lower reaches of the Danube to the shores of the Black Sea. The task of this front, therefore, no longer is the protection of single countries, but the safeguarding of Europe and thereby the salvation of all.
I therefore decided today again to lay the fate and future of the German Reich and our people in the hands of our soldiers.
May God help us especially in this fight!
For months now Axis were keeping a watchful eye on Russia. German intelligence community was tasked with 2 strategic goals: outspend Russia in espionage effort by the margin allowing to investigate every single Russian city and absolutely deny Soviets the creation of Defense Ministry in Leningrad (which grants extra 20% to ALL the cities). Both of those goals were accomplished spectacularly, while Russia was wasting her spies and points in mosquito bites like well poisoning or Factory destruction in inconsequential city of Poznan.
The exhaustive and detailed reports emerging from Abwehr were simply too good to be true. And yet they are July 1 1940 reality: severely impaired by the Great Purge Soviet military command failed to come up with any meaningful strategic defense plans. All the available units of Soviet army, safe for city garrisons in interior cities, were all assembled in newly acquired absolutely indefensible, 0-5% culture defense ex-Polish cities -- with a big sign: Destroy Us! All the genuine Russian cities possessing intrinsic 40-60% cultural defense bonus were left virtually empty, including objective cities, like Kiev*, simply begging for Blitz attacks. There is no first line, second line and screening force defensive deployment. There is no strategic reserve. Troops in places like Lvov were placed in the vulnerable pockets, surrounded by hostile culture on three sides. To make matters worse great number of potentially defensive troops got stuck in Finland, lots of Machine gunners in Viipuri protecting I don't know what. By the time they get back to defensive positions it will take them 5 turns to acquire maximum 25% fortified bonus. Hopefully our newly developed
23 Panzerkampfwagen IV medium Tanks will get there first.
Timing is everything in war planning. Order of battle (which will be released after this game is over) shows that by July 1, 1940 Soviets still enjoyed considerable advantage in numbers (but not in quality). Disparity was especially profound in number of planes and infantry divisions, slight disadvantage in Armor numbers, balanced numbers of surface warships. Given that German economy is now second in the World (after America) Axis were not planning to attack until they catch in their numbers and discover few critical techs. However Summer War in Finland was too good of a present to be wasted. Finland acts as a seductive poisoned carrot for Russian Bear -- if anything Helsinki had to be captured as early as possible to attack Germany when she was busy with France. Diverting resources from her core cities to gain useless Finnish land at the time when Germany just finished her Western campaigns was the worst timing possible. So lean mean German War machine has swung into action even before our troops could be fully deployed. All the 3 Baltic States were liberated during this turn:
Tallinn
German Losses: None
Soviet Losses: almost entire Baltic Fleet (1 BB, 2 CL, 2 DD, 2 TT)
4 Air force Wings (B-25, SB-2, I-6, MiG-3)
2 Inf.II, 1 MG.I, 1 MG.II
In real life Tallinn was pre-war main naval base for Russian Red-Banner Baltic Fleet, but there was no famous Soviet evacuation of Tallinn this time. The War in Russia started when German destroyer Z-1 crossed into Russian waters and reduced Tallinn defenses from 5% to 0%. German Pocket Battleship Lutzow appeared next, but failed to inflict any damage to the garrison of 4 units, guarding 7 ships and 4 planes. Most of the Tallinn 's defenders were trapped in Finland, with no transports to sail back. Out of no where came German transport with 2 Armored divisions, 1 Waffen SS and 1 Cavalry and destroyed Russians in the victory that will be forever remembered as Russian Pearl Harbor: almost entire Russian Fleet (safe from couple of submarines) was scuttled by Soviet Sailors trapped in Tallinn's harbor. What a disaster!
Riga
German Losses: None
Soviet Losses: 4 Air force Wings (4 La-7)
1 AT.I
Perhaps Soviet command thought that Riga is well out of reach of German units protected by 2 tiles of Russian culture. So just a petty garrison of 1 Anti-Tank brigade was left to guard 4 wings of
Lavochkin La-7 fighters, best fighters presently available to Russia (
12 vs.
14 German FWs). Positional trench-heavy WWI era is over. This is the time of motorized warfare where light vehicles have 4
, Trucks and armored land transports have 3
(+1 for troops they carry), while combat results can flip the culture of border tiles from one side to her enemy. 1 Armored Vehicle is all that took to capture Riga.
Wilno
German Losses: 1 Inf.II
Soviet Losses: 3 Air force Wings (2 La-7, 1 MiG-3)
4 Armored Units (BT-7, 2 BT-2, BA-67)
2 Inf.II, 2 RedGrd.I, 2 MG.II, 1 AA, 1 Communist Militant
The last Baltic Republic was delivered from the hands of Bolsheviks thanks to the very effective self-propelled StuG III assault gun (Germany's most produced armored fighting vehicle during the real World War II). Luftwaffe did not participate in this battle, which involved all the highly promoted veterans of hastily redeployed from the West.
Unfortunately Germans were not as lucky in their quest for Objective City
Kiev. The capital of Ukraine was protected by a single MG.II unit. German command made a great use of Tarnopol salient, owned by our Balkan satellites. 2 light vehicles (4
) and 3 armored land transports (3
). were confident they will capture Kiev, but city still holds
. One light vehicle withdrew, 1 Sdkfz-222 died with highly favorable odds. When Russian Machine Gunners were finally silenced -- City Militia emerged from size 9 city (making it size 8), when they were killed another Militia emerged and got killed, but now the third one emerged in the size 6 city. So capture of Kiev must be delayed for the next turn.
All the effort was made to encircle tremendous amount of Russian units traped in the salient BrestLitovsk-Lvov. Nazi Paratroopers came from the skies to destroy escape routes, Luftwaffe and StuGs pounded defenders in
Brest-Litovsk, German Tanks killed 1 AT.I and 1 Cav Div. there. Our aim is to recreate the real life disaster suffered by Soviets in Kiev and Minks pockets, lets see how it will go.
Luftwaffe carried many raids in the opening hours of the War, destroying 3 Air Force wings in
Brest-Litovsk (2 La-7, 1 I-16), 2 in
Lvov (Yak-9, I-16), 2 in
Novgorod ( SB-2, B-25), and 1 in
Kishinev (I-16). Together with the land forces Germans were able to annihilate 19 Soviet Air units vs. 3 damaged German Air Wings
After learning, that in the first hours of war of the air raids of enemy twenty six airfields of region (Western Front), and aviation, which were under his command have lost seven hundred thirty eight aircraft, of them five hundred twenty eight on the ground whereby the aircrafts were mostly of new types, the Major General of the aviation Ivan Ivanovich Kopets elected to commit suicide in his office. Thus he avoided not less tragic fate of his command mates of the Western Front General of the Army Pavlov and Major Generals Klimov, who will be sentenced to death by firing squad by the order of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union during academia's turn, we expect
.
. Did someone pay them to declare, I wonder...
Germans lost 1 fighter and 2 Infantries with favorable odds.
production outpacing closest rival by more than 2 times 
