December, 1946, Hoi4 - Italy.
The Soviets fell in the first half of July. Our May offensive, meant to save their front, had been a disaster. We picked up some useless desert in the Middle East, but were easily repulsed everywhere else. Even with half their troops in the middle of Eurasia, Germany was too strong. Many predicted having to face the full force of Germany ourselves would result in a swift collapse.
They were only somewhat right. Our front in Greece was hit hard in August. Il Duce made an effort to reinforce our fortification lines in north-central Greece, but they were smashed through along the Aegean coast before we even had a proper chance to fall back. From there, it was disaster - our fort near Thermopylae was not even manned due to the botched fallback. Our army retreated to Corfu, and was promptly smashed - a good 35 or so divisions lost over the course of about five weeks.
But elsewhere, we fared better. The Middle East has held steady, and with it our supply of oil. And for months, the Alpine front stood strong, with the Germans gaining perhaps one tile per month. Lately, the Hungarians have made a breakthrough, and taken Venice, but by and large the front has held, and the price the Germans have paid for what they have taken has been astronomical.
Now, it's a battle against time. Germany's manpower is rapidly depleting as they struggle to take the Alps, with losses of over 10 million against Italy alone. By spring, they will likely be entirely out of reserves - the bottom of the barrel scraped - while we will still have somewhere around 2 million in reserves, and another couple million not yet mobilized. But the Hungarian advance is a warning that Germany, too, is not defeated. A breach in the line can still mean quick losses, and we have little industrial capacity to spare.
With that in mind, an additional defensive line, behind the Po, is being constructed, and reservists trained to defend it. It's a line we hope we never need, but the worst would be a repetition of Greece, and that cannot be allowed to happen.
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OOS: I'm almost certain I can't win this war; a stalemate is my goal. Germany has somewhere around 550 divisions, or about 3.5 times what I have, and has 5+ times as much industrial capacity. My air force is hopelessly outnumbered now that Germany has reallocated all their planes from the Soviet front to my front, and is falling away month by month. Even if Germany exhausts itself against the Alps, I would almost surely do the same when trying to counterattack.
There's also the weirdness that I've been at war with Britain since 1938, though it's been phony for several years. Due to HoI rules, we're essentially in a permanent cold war. But realistically in such a situation, it seems almost inevitable that differences would have been put aside in light of the greater threat. Italy agrees to hand over the Middle East and Egypt; in exchange Britain provides as much oil as the Italian armed forces needs, and reinforces the Italian fronts to help the last real resistance to German hegemony. Alas, it is not to be, and instead we'll be at war until the end of time.
