Here it is, the penultimate update. Sorry for the long wait. I think it will satisfy the bloodthirsty among you.
Slaying the Giant (Coalition)
With Britain being utterly dependant on us for their external security - due to our influence being the only thing from stopping the Irish from annexing all of Scotland and Wales - and the former British colonies now freed from their overlordship, it was time to face the final obstacle - the Grand Coalition. Led by the USA, France, Russia and Italy it also included a host of smaller countries like Australia, Liberia, Panama etc. But our industrial and military might was more than equal to theirs and it was time to knock all continental rivals out, to make sure German hegemony would never be challenged.
And so, on January 3rd, 1944, the guns once again were the ultima ratio regis in Europe.
We attacked all four nations of France, Italy and Russia at the same time. On the Italian Front we dedicated a total of 480k troops.
Less than 14 days into the war, the Italian Front had already collapsed underour assault.
The same was true for Russia, where our mechanized units executed a giant sicklecut, starting in Kursk and ending in Moscow, trapping the Russian Army in the biggest cauldron in history.
6 days later, the offensive into France started.
Here, we drove from Evraux to Orleans, trapping most of the French mobile Forces in Paris.
Back Home:
The Fascist Party decided to capitalize on the booming industrial production. We promptly outlawed their "union". Better red than brown, especially with so many "subhumans" and "non-Aryans" being German citizens now. We kindly suggested that if the Fascists felt patriotic there were open places in the
Sturmtruppen for them. Unsurprisingly, very few took up that offer.
Back to the Fronts:
On February 12th, the last organized Italian Army disintegrated. Italy now became a competition between our
Panzerdivisionen on who could reach Sicily first.
In France, the French made a bold strategic move. They essentially sacrificed Paris and pulled all troops from the south to contest the Caen-Le Mans line.
While this led to heavy fighting in the north, it exposed the south completely, a fact we quickly exploited by ordering our Italian and Southern Armies to drive deep into the French South.
On March the 2nd, the Russian Army made its last, glorious counterattack on
Heeresgruppe Mitte driving on Moscow.
It was easily thwarted.
On March 5th, Rome fell.
On March 10th, St. Petersburg fell to our Forces, while Moscow was close to surrendering. Our troops were penetrating deep into the Russian steppe alreaddy, with vanguards already reaching Omsk.
On March 19th, the French identified a perceived weakness in our lines and attacked with all their might at Rouen. 123.000 soldiers attacked 70.000 of ours. We promptly responded by....doing nothing. We knew the french forces were largely raw conscripts and old men and those few regiments that were professional ones were deeply lacking in modern equipment. It was decided to teach the French a lesson from which they would never recover.
The meatgrinder at Rouen crushed the French nation. Only 143 men survived it as our modern infantry easily held off their attack while our cavalry and armored brigades encircled and then crushed all before them.
5 days later, Moscow surrendered.
The entire Russian Navy attempted to cross over into neutral nations, but was caught and destroyed by our heavy cruisers.
On April 23 we began our offensive into Finland. At the same time, envoys from Italy and the USA arrived, begging for peace. It would not be granted to them, for we were determined to end all threats once and for all.
On June 6th, 1944, nearly all of France was under our control.
On June 10th, the last French soldier on continental soil surrendered.
As a training exercise, our massive High Seas Fleet, now encompassing 72 superdreadnoughts/fast battleships as well as 192 cruisers and destroyers, found and engaged the Italian Fleet.
The outcome let the USA know what was coming for them.
While war was raging, our research blossomed. Our scientists came up with new economic theories, perfect for a global empire like ours.
Hmm, better economies. Nice.
In October, the German-Russian seperate peace treaty was finalized.
It was the end of the Russian Empire, so to speak. While they were allowed to keep the title and the crown, the territorial changes rendered Russia irrelevant.
Russia had to cede the entire Kursk region, Smolensk, Novgorod etc. Moscow was now a frontier town, less than 20km from the German border. The most significant german conquest however was the former Russian Capital - and their most important port - St. Petersburg.
While the Russians were allowed to keep their nominal independence, they were now dependant on the goodwill of the German empire to be even able to feed their last two large cities, Moscow and Omsk. Now, there were three times as many ethnic Russians living in Germany than were living in Russia.
While Russia was de jure (but not de facto) independent, this was not the case for Italy and Finland. Both lost their sovereignty and had to swear fealty in exchange for not losing any (more) of their territory. In the case of Italy this mattered little for we already had the entire north in our realm.
For Finland, the former Russian Grand Duchy of Finland just became the German Großherzogtum Finnland. The German Emperor added "King of Italy" and "Grand Duke of Finland" to his (very) long list of titles.
Unsurprisingly, neither the French nor the USA were inclined to accept seperate terms and fought on.
So we simply re-formed the Afrikakorps.
While our troops were sweating in the desert, we focused on research.
Long live German commerce.
On May the 6th....
...we decided to practice our Naval invasion tactics.
Liberia fell quickly....
...and the German Emperor became "Protector of Liberia".
Our advance into the rest of Africa was not that quick, mostly due to the logistical and geographical constraints.
Thus, we made other technological advances.
Nevertheless, by October 22....
Colonial North Africa was nearly ours. With Africa nearly secure, we decided to test the reaction time of the US Fleet. We sent a force from Cassablanca to Uruguay (the only country in South America that opposed us).
Our ships were much faster than the US ships and in Montevideo harbour before the US Fleet had even cleared the caribbean. Uruguay was outright annexed, as we needed a base there and the country was ripe for German colonization. (On a side note, some of our footballers started biting people after that conquest. How strange.)
While we slogged another year through various colonial possessions...
...more tech enhanced our might.
Hehehehe.
Of course we shall put our splendour on display. After all, the Sun never sets on the German Empire.
Meanwhile, in South East Asia....
Our Asian forces started the long-planned invasion of Australia. Upon hearing of the mostly Malayan and Papa-guinean soldiers disembarking via landing boats, an Australian named T. Abbott promptly shot himself.
On 17 March, 1946, an important political event took place:
A new party alliance, a coalition between the socialist and the liberal party decided to form a new voting block, becoming the second-largest party in Parliament behind the Zentrumspartei (a socially liberal and fiscally conservative party).
The invasion of Australia continued successfully, if slowly due to the lack of railroad lines.
Meanwhile, in China....
The Japanese Puppet Qinghai expanded, leading us to believe a showdown between Japan and the German-sponsored Anhui clique was inevitable. With stories of the fall of Beijing and the following massacre circulating in our press, we decided to double our support for Anhui.
Nicaragua, the only country opposing us in Central America, was quickly overrun and annexed by our High Seas Fleet operating out of Jamaica.
It became a German province (and not a puppet) for we wanted to build a canal there.
On August 12th, 1946, a revolution (which we favorited) led to the end of French rule in Madagascar.
Still, the French colonies were fighting on.
By November 9th....
Australia turned a healthy shade of grey.
After succesfully researching the modern divisional structure...
...we researched Modern Army Doctrine next.
On April 3, 1947:
The last French possession, the fortress port of Dakar, fell to our Marines. With this, the French flag was no longer flying over a single place.
The total defeat allowed us to dictate the Treaty of
Versailles Paris to them.
In North Africa, we immediately took possession of Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt....
..and granted them their immediate independence. French Niger was to be handed over in a few months to us...but the real impact was in Europe.
From:
"Geschichte der Deutschen Hegemonialmacht seit 1944" by F. Fischer, Stutgart 2016:
"The treaty of Paris once and for all ended a nation that had existed in its current form more or less since the age of Charlemagne. The terms of the treaty were as follows:
- the surrender of what remained of the French Navy and Merchant Marine
- a prohibition on France, forbidding it to raise any forces and build any Naval vessels over the next five years
- the surrender of all their territories to Germany at Germany's pleasure.
- heavy war indemnities, forcing the French to hand over 25% of their tax income over the next five years
However, none of that measured up to the next German measure. France was to be eternally split, with the entire south becoming a German protectorate and the German Emperor being crowned King of Occitania. This ensured that there never again was a unified French nation able to threaten the German borders."
The war raged on.
By September, Australia surrendered....
...with the Emperor becoming Lord of Australia.
In October 1947, our ally Colombia took Panama...
Thus denying the USA the use of the Panama Canal. Unable to transfer ships quickly from east to west, the USA concentrated its fleet on the eastern seabord, thus leaving the west coast to the tender mercies of the German submarines.
Once again the USA tried to take Iceland...
...once again the entire invasion force perished.
Those experiences caused us to advance our Army technology....
...and modern Artillery was next.
From:
"Operation Delphin - Deutsche Unternehmungen gegen die USA, 1944-1948", by Flottenadmiral Rolf Hans Wilhelm Karl Carls, Bremen 1954.
"Much of our preparations up to this point had been limited to strikes against smaller nations like Australia and Nicaragua while our main force was building. Nearly every shipyard and factory in Germany was made ready for this task.
A total of 1.5 million men were assembled to be the first invasion wave, with triple that number being held ready to be assembled as soon as the first wave had left harbor.
385 new transport Geschwader were ordered in our shipyards, a total of over 12.000 new vessels built for the singular purpose of supplying that invasion force.
And yet, they were completely unnecessary. For our submarine forces spotted and shadowed the US battlefleet as it was conducting strikes against our Caribbean possessions. The submarine forces, as well as our air forces stationed in the caribbean, heroically delayed and shadowed the US force until our High Seas Fleet could arrive. I personally was in command of the 1st. Schlachtgeschwader, leading the action from the mighty SMS Bismarck. This was the last time the mighty Battleships proved to be decisive, for the next war with Japan was won by our carrier forces alone.
Yet it was a glorious sendoff. The Americans were equal in number, but outclassed in quality by our battleships and far outclassed in light forces and cruisers. Not a single ship of theirs made it back to port, whereas we did not lose a single ship ourselves.
The second, smaller US battlefleet was spotted and sunk in a demonstration of the power of our carrier forces.
Reactions in Berlin were split. Some advocated immediate invasion, others advocated a naval blockade. Eventually, the arguments brought forth by the Admiral in charge of the submarine command, Gr.Adm. Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière won the day and it was decided to first give our submarine force of 720 operational U-boats a chance.
And so, on July 7th, we instituted the unrestricted submarine blockade against the continental USA. From August 9th, no ship save a few brave blockade runners left port without being intercepted and sunk. And so we waited, until October, when the US industry had utterly collapsed and bread riots in the streets forced the Government to resign. When the new Government showed no immediate inclination of surrendering to our just demands, the invasion fleet was called in."
The starving and undersupplied US garrisons were no match for our forces.
On October 1948, the USA surrendered unconditionally.
With the victory Helmuth Cordemann became the first Naval commander in History to have overseen the destruction of all competing Naval forces of his time in battle, having triumphed over five grand powers.
Having no desire to break up the USA, the German Government instead decided to leave the USA both independent and territorially intact. However, the USA was forced to:
- surrender of what remained of the Navy and Merchant Marine
- complete demilitarisation
- destruction/transfer of all war industry, including but not limited to all shipyards, armament factories (Muh 2nd amendment) and aircraft factories
- An eternal prohibition on the USA, forbidding it to build any vessels larger than 8.000 tons and to raise any forces larger than 100k total. All heavy weapons, tanks, aircraft and submarines were forbidden.
