Jolt
09-02-2009, 06:54
An update from my HoI 2 game with the Soviet Union. I sent the screenies in my first post after Germany was annexed (Those can be found here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=2299094&postcount=557)). However, Vichy France, Italy, Nationalist Spain and Portugal were still in the Axis. As was seen in those screenies, Germany came down in a mere 6 months, leaving little else to occupy. The rest of the Axis offered only token resistence before my armies overwhelming advance.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/a-1.jpg
European France fell quickly after occupied France collapsed. Italy and Sicily also were overrun with no resistence. Churchill couldn't sit in England and watch the entire European continent being swallowed by the Red Giant while Britain continued ever defensive and cautious. Churchill decided that it was time to act and make a dim display of power so that the UK couldn't be blamed for not helping defeat the Axis.
Speaking in the House of Lords, Churchill made a speech that the UK could no longer afford to be overly protective, but should imitate the heroes of the Napoleonic War where they stroke at the European giant through the Western Iberian Peninsula, and liberated Portugal, its ancestral ally from oppression, from where they progressed to ending the tyranny of Napoleon. He was greatly applauded and at once the expedition to save Portugal and as much as possible of Spain from the Communist onslaught begun.
Part of the Royal Navy was used to disembark forced in coastal key areas of lightly garrisonned Portugal, which had most of its troops deployed in the front fighting the Soviets. The disembark was a success, and after only weeks the entire country was occupied and the Allied troops were expanding into Galicia and Spain. The main objective of the Allied forces was now to ensure a land link between the enclave of Gibraltar, which effectively controlled the straits, and the rest of Allied occupied Iberia. Overall, it succeeded in conquering the Western half of peninsula. The invasion speeded the end of hostilities in continental Europe, with the final Spanish force surrendering in Malaga.
Thus, in mid-December, not even two months after Germany surrendered, the war in continental Europe was over. Stalin already began his plans for the total garrisonning of Europe to integrate it into the world revolution that he wanted to begin. In the Western Iberian Peninsula, people cheered as though they still were under a military occupation. Communist partizans however, were not content and acts of sabotage and propaganda began.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/b-1.jpg
Soon after the end of hostilities in Europe, Soviet troops start disembarking in Vichy French Africa, to give the final blow in the Axis North African forces. Armored forces disembarked in Casablanca, making their way through the coast unopposed all the way to Tunisia where they swiftly encircle and destroyed the Vichy French North African forces. With the fall of metropolitan Italy in earlier months, the Industrial base which supplied the Italian North African forces dwindled, and the months- old stalemate they had achieved at the outskirts of Alexandria was broken. Soon the British forces passed on the offensive for the first time in that theater and as the Soviet troops conquered Tunisia, so were the British North African forces pressing for Tripoli. The Soviet and British troops arrived roughly at the same time at the outskirts of the Italian colonial capital, and the Soviet forces tried to strike first, but the disorganization of the armored forces moving non-stop since Morroco, and the heavy concentration of Italian forces in Tripoli repelled the Soviet offensive.
The British forces however, much more numerous attacked a day later and took the capital in the last land battle of World War 2, after which the capitulation was signed. Most of Libya became part of the British Empire, only with the Saharan provinces and the coastal border with Tunisia falling to Soviet administration. By then, Vichy France had also collapsed, and when Soviet forces disembarked in French Guyana, did the last remnants of Vichy France sign the capitulation, awarding most of its colonial empire to the Soviet Union.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/c-1.jpg
Only Portugal remained, with capital in its Chinese colony of Macau. The Soviet Forces soon moved transportation to the Pacific, where it embarked forces from Vladivostok and disembarked them in Macau without any resistence, triggering the capitulation of the final member of the Axis, effectively ending World War 2 in the 6th of May, 1942. Soviet involvement shifted and ended swiftly the war which appeared to be the triumphant march of Germany for European domination. In the end, the Soviet Union took advantage of the German conquests, and absorbed them into its giant empire, with its very own colonial empire. Soviet Africa was the name the allies pejoratively gave to the African colonies administered by the Soviet Union.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/d-1.jpg
Peace however, lasted little more than one month. The Allies and USA, very fearful of communist hegemony in Europe, demanded that the Soviet Union give back the territories occupied by Germany to the legitimate Allied governments, demands that Stalin promptly refused, since they were now part of the Communist World Revolution. Since the Soviet Union refused to compromise and achieve some sort of balanced spheres of powers, Roosevelt persuaded the Congress of the USA that the Soviet Union was a threat of the American way of life that could not be ignored.
Obviously, Roosevelt could not have broken the Splendid Isolation that started after World War 1 to start a war with a vaguely distant country, were it not for the gigantic massive support and lobbying by every and all American corporate and banking industries to bring down a threat to the American elite. Congressmen and the people were heavily pressured by the media to see the Soviets as the threat to world peace, heirs of Hitler and his destructive Germany. They quickly clinged on the policy that Stalin was enacting of Total Occupation, which involved garrisoning the whole of Europe and indoctrinating it in Communist ideology. The media cried out that if America remained oblivious to it, as did Britain and France before the German threat, America would soon face the same fate as the continental Europeans, and be subjected to totalitarian Communist oppression. Quickly public opinion shifted from isolation into active aggression and destruction of communism. Congress could only do so much, and on the 2nd of June, 1942.
Roosevelt managed to get Congress declare war on the Soviet Union, and called for the liberation of Europe from communism. Stalin had hoped for a period of peace as he integrated the occupied territories into his Empire. The problem for the Soviet Union was not so much of war, since the USA could do little to attack the new Soviet expansion in Europe. The problem was when diplomatic circles reported that Churchill, a known fierce hater of Communism, had signed a treaty of military access with the USA, effectively providing the means to the USA to launch amphibious attacks on the Soviet lands.
Only then, Stalin saw that war with the whole of the Allies was unavoidable, and started to make preparations such as redeploying his forces. The Soviet Union had no navy, so it could not contest the seas against Britain and once at war, it could not appropriately transport large amounts of troops to defend his African possessions and attack Britain in North Africa, where he wanted to bring the Empire to its knees. As such, the only land connection to the British African empire was through Turkey. Numerous coups on the government were attempted, and large ground forces were placed in all Soviet-Turkish borders.
Churchill too thought about avoiding a war with the Soviet Union which he thought was impossible to defeat so soon after Britain was overwhelmed by Germany. However, he saw through the Soviet intentions in deploying troops against Turkey. As such, British officials approached Turkey to join the Allies as a deterrence against Soviet aggression, but Turkey was afraid that the Soviet Union might utilize that pretext to invade the country, and it was basically agreed that there was little the Allies could do in such a case. As such, both parties concluded a secret agreement where if the Soviet Union attacked Turkey, Turkey would join the Allies, effectively placing Britain at war with a giant again. After another coup attempt failed, Stalin decided he could not wait any longer and ordered his troops to cross the border and seize the country to be integrated into the Soviet Union.
The formal cause of the invasion was the Turkish refusal to allow passage of Soviet merchant ships through the straits. Soon after the invasion Turkey joined the Allies and Britain was at war once again. Churchill knew it was innevitable for Western Allied Iberia to fall and therefore wouldn't commit didn't commit many troops to its defence, and according to his predictions the experienced Soviet soldiers quickly ploughed through the lightly defended Western Iberia. Gibraltar suffered a massive assault and was one of the first places to fall.
The Soviets quickly realligned the minefields in the straight and repaired the Sea Battery built there to destroy any ships that tried to cross the strait. With Gibraltar closed, the British merchant navy now had to take the longer route across Africa, though that had little benefits for the Soviet Union. In Turkey, the Turks struggled heroicly but there was only so much they could. The British then had what many called at that time, a stroke of genius and managed to convince the Iranian Shah to join the Allies. The arguments forwarded were many, and consisted mainly in that the Soviets had attacked Turkey for mere occupation and exploitation of the country, and that, if left unchecked, the Soviets would soon do the same to Turkey, seizing the oil fields and annexing the country.
The Shah knew very well the difficulties his army would face before a Soviet offensive, but he was quickly promised high support from Middle Eastern and Indian troops to repel any offensives on his country. The Shah also knew very well that Communists hated monarchic countries and that in case of a coup against him, he would surely be murdered. As such, he gave his approval and joined the Allies against the Soviet Union, broadening the front size and forcing the Soviets to divert men and resources from the Turkish offensive, which would proceed then against Iraq and British-occupied Syria and through to Suez.
Now instead of a single thrust, the Soviet Union had to attack West and East and hopefully it would be enough to halt the Soviet advance and protect Suez, which with the fall of Gibraltar, was then crucial for the British domination in the Mediterranean. Only that the British underestimated the Soviet resources, and soon enough, the Soviet Union deployed further divisions to attack Iran on both sides of the Caspian Sea, while not decreasing any force on its Turkish offensive.
The Sub-Saharan African War Theater was unarguably the one which was most favourable for the Allies. With a vast number of divisions compared to the three divisions the Soviet Union could deploy in Dakar, the Allied forces advanced all the way to Dakar where they were then stopped by the well dug-in Soviet army.
The North African theater also suffered from severe lack of Soviet power especially when compared to the British forces which defeated the Italians. Numerous times did the Soviet forces had to retreat to prevent from being encircled, but they always managed to beat back the larger British forces until they were reinforced. With the deployment of Soviet transport ships in Soviet Marseilles, which brought experienced Soviet troops to the North African theater. After the capture of Tripoli, thousands upon thousands of Soviet Sukhois, which soon enough obliterated the British North African troops, effectively collapsing the North African front for the British, and enabling a practical unopposed Soviet advance towards Egypt.
Meanwhile in the Middle East and Persia, after the fall of Turkey, the Allied forces were struggling to halt the Soviet advance. Successes were achieved in halting the Soviet advance for several weeks in Coastal Iraq, around Basorah and in the Palestinian mandate. However, it was clear that both Iraq and Persia would soon capitulate as well. After some days of successful defence in Palestine, the Soviet forces finally broke through and advanced all the way to Suez, encircling some of the British forces in the meantime. By that time, the North African forces had occupied Alexandria, which was the always successfully defended against the Italians in World War 2. Both the North African and the Middle Eastern fronts encountered each other in Cairo.
While 30 divisions remained in Egypt to push the British South, some 15 divisions began redeployment for the Sub-Saharan African front, which had already been reinforced with several other divisions, but which remained on the defensive. Around 20 divisions began redeployment for the Persian-Indian border, which was being heavily contested between Allied and Soviet forces for a month. Needless to say, the USA had finally began deploying land divisions on masse in India, at the request of Churchill, so much that American forces made up most of the Allied strength in India. The arrival of the experienced Middle Eastern troops, manage to create a large numeric superiority for the Soviet forces, which after 5 offensives manage to break through Karachi and used its Armored forces to launch two spearheads into India.
In the Sub-Saharan African theater, the reinforcement has been equally important. On the insistent request of British officials, the Americans requested that Liberia enter the war to support the Allies. A bad move was Liberia suffered the first offensive by the newly reinforced Sub-Saharan Corps, which began pushing the Allies on all sides, and effectively occupied and annexed Liberia to Soviet colonies. Thus we arrive at where I am. Close to being two years from the date that Germany declared war of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union already dominated most of the Old World.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/e-1.jpg
Europe and the Iberian and Mediterreanean fronts, already settled.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/f-1.jpg
Africa with the Sub-Saharan front in the West and the continual of the Egyptian campaign in the East.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/g-1.jpg
The Middle East and Asia, completely overrun despite some resistance. Also showing is the beginning of the Soviet breakthrough into India.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/h.jpg
The comparison of Armies. The Soviet Union has the greatest most numerous army by far.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/j.jpg
As you can see, the Soviet navy is practical to non-existent, now serving the purpose of transportation inside the Soviet lake that is called the Mediterranean.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/k.jpg
And the Air Force comparison. Likewise Soviet surpremacy is unfathomable. Dozens of Air Force Close Air Support squadrons quickly wiped out most of the British North African forces (Numbering some 20 divisions, including many armored divisions) in a week.
Comments? :)
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/a-1.jpg
European France fell quickly after occupied France collapsed. Italy and Sicily also were overrun with no resistence. Churchill couldn't sit in England and watch the entire European continent being swallowed by the Red Giant while Britain continued ever defensive and cautious. Churchill decided that it was time to act and make a dim display of power so that the UK couldn't be blamed for not helping defeat the Axis.
Speaking in the House of Lords, Churchill made a speech that the UK could no longer afford to be overly protective, but should imitate the heroes of the Napoleonic War where they stroke at the European giant through the Western Iberian Peninsula, and liberated Portugal, its ancestral ally from oppression, from where they progressed to ending the tyranny of Napoleon. He was greatly applauded and at once the expedition to save Portugal and as much as possible of Spain from the Communist onslaught begun.
Part of the Royal Navy was used to disembark forced in coastal key areas of lightly garrisonned Portugal, which had most of its troops deployed in the front fighting the Soviets. The disembark was a success, and after only weeks the entire country was occupied and the Allied troops were expanding into Galicia and Spain. The main objective of the Allied forces was now to ensure a land link between the enclave of Gibraltar, which effectively controlled the straits, and the rest of Allied occupied Iberia. Overall, it succeeded in conquering the Western half of peninsula. The invasion speeded the end of hostilities in continental Europe, with the final Spanish force surrendering in Malaga.
Thus, in mid-December, not even two months after Germany surrendered, the war in continental Europe was over. Stalin already began his plans for the total garrisonning of Europe to integrate it into the world revolution that he wanted to begin. In the Western Iberian Peninsula, people cheered as though they still were under a military occupation. Communist partizans however, were not content and acts of sabotage and propaganda began.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/b-1.jpg
Soon after the end of hostilities in Europe, Soviet troops start disembarking in Vichy French Africa, to give the final blow in the Axis North African forces. Armored forces disembarked in Casablanca, making their way through the coast unopposed all the way to Tunisia where they swiftly encircle and destroyed the Vichy French North African forces. With the fall of metropolitan Italy in earlier months, the Industrial base which supplied the Italian North African forces dwindled, and the months- old stalemate they had achieved at the outskirts of Alexandria was broken. Soon the British forces passed on the offensive for the first time in that theater and as the Soviet troops conquered Tunisia, so were the British North African forces pressing for Tripoli. The Soviet and British troops arrived roughly at the same time at the outskirts of the Italian colonial capital, and the Soviet forces tried to strike first, but the disorganization of the armored forces moving non-stop since Morroco, and the heavy concentration of Italian forces in Tripoli repelled the Soviet offensive.
The British forces however, much more numerous attacked a day later and took the capital in the last land battle of World War 2, after which the capitulation was signed. Most of Libya became part of the British Empire, only with the Saharan provinces and the coastal border with Tunisia falling to Soviet administration. By then, Vichy France had also collapsed, and when Soviet forces disembarked in French Guyana, did the last remnants of Vichy France sign the capitulation, awarding most of its colonial empire to the Soviet Union.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/c-1.jpg
Only Portugal remained, with capital in its Chinese colony of Macau. The Soviet Forces soon moved transportation to the Pacific, where it embarked forces from Vladivostok and disembarked them in Macau without any resistence, triggering the capitulation of the final member of the Axis, effectively ending World War 2 in the 6th of May, 1942. Soviet involvement shifted and ended swiftly the war which appeared to be the triumphant march of Germany for European domination. In the end, the Soviet Union took advantage of the German conquests, and absorbed them into its giant empire, with its very own colonial empire. Soviet Africa was the name the allies pejoratively gave to the African colonies administered by the Soviet Union.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/d-1.jpg
Peace however, lasted little more than one month. The Allies and USA, very fearful of communist hegemony in Europe, demanded that the Soviet Union give back the territories occupied by Germany to the legitimate Allied governments, demands that Stalin promptly refused, since they were now part of the Communist World Revolution. Since the Soviet Union refused to compromise and achieve some sort of balanced spheres of powers, Roosevelt persuaded the Congress of the USA that the Soviet Union was a threat of the American way of life that could not be ignored.
Obviously, Roosevelt could not have broken the Splendid Isolation that started after World War 1 to start a war with a vaguely distant country, were it not for the gigantic massive support and lobbying by every and all American corporate and banking industries to bring down a threat to the American elite. Congressmen and the people were heavily pressured by the media to see the Soviets as the threat to world peace, heirs of Hitler and his destructive Germany. They quickly clinged on the policy that Stalin was enacting of Total Occupation, which involved garrisoning the whole of Europe and indoctrinating it in Communist ideology. The media cried out that if America remained oblivious to it, as did Britain and France before the German threat, America would soon face the same fate as the continental Europeans, and be subjected to totalitarian Communist oppression. Quickly public opinion shifted from isolation into active aggression and destruction of communism. Congress could only do so much, and on the 2nd of June, 1942.
Roosevelt managed to get Congress declare war on the Soviet Union, and called for the liberation of Europe from communism. Stalin had hoped for a period of peace as he integrated the occupied territories into his Empire. The problem for the Soviet Union was not so much of war, since the USA could do little to attack the new Soviet expansion in Europe. The problem was when diplomatic circles reported that Churchill, a known fierce hater of Communism, had signed a treaty of military access with the USA, effectively providing the means to the USA to launch amphibious attacks on the Soviet lands.
Only then, Stalin saw that war with the whole of the Allies was unavoidable, and started to make preparations such as redeploying his forces. The Soviet Union had no navy, so it could not contest the seas against Britain and once at war, it could not appropriately transport large amounts of troops to defend his African possessions and attack Britain in North Africa, where he wanted to bring the Empire to its knees. As such, the only land connection to the British African empire was through Turkey. Numerous coups on the government were attempted, and large ground forces were placed in all Soviet-Turkish borders.
Churchill too thought about avoiding a war with the Soviet Union which he thought was impossible to defeat so soon after Britain was overwhelmed by Germany. However, he saw through the Soviet intentions in deploying troops against Turkey. As such, British officials approached Turkey to join the Allies as a deterrence against Soviet aggression, but Turkey was afraid that the Soviet Union might utilize that pretext to invade the country, and it was basically agreed that there was little the Allies could do in such a case. As such, both parties concluded a secret agreement where if the Soviet Union attacked Turkey, Turkey would join the Allies, effectively placing Britain at war with a giant again. After another coup attempt failed, Stalin decided he could not wait any longer and ordered his troops to cross the border and seize the country to be integrated into the Soviet Union.
The formal cause of the invasion was the Turkish refusal to allow passage of Soviet merchant ships through the straits. Soon after the invasion Turkey joined the Allies and Britain was at war once again. Churchill knew it was innevitable for Western Allied Iberia to fall and therefore wouldn't commit didn't commit many troops to its defence, and according to his predictions the experienced Soviet soldiers quickly ploughed through the lightly defended Western Iberia. Gibraltar suffered a massive assault and was one of the first places to fall.
The Soviets quickly realligned the minefields in the straight and repaired the Sea Battery built there to destroy any ships that tried to cross the strait. With Gibraltar closed, the British merchant navy now had to take the longer route across Africa, though that had little benefits for the Soviet Union. In Turkey, the Turks struggled heroicly but there was only so much they could. The British then had what many called at that time, a stroke of genius and managed to convince the Iranian Shah to join the Allies. The arguments forwarded were many, and consisted mainly in that the Soviets had attacked Turkey for mere occupation and exploitation of the country, and that, if left unchecked, the Soviets would soon do the same to Turkey, seizing the oil fields and annexing the country.
The Shah knew very well the difficulties his army would face before a Soviet offensive, but he was quickly promised high support from Middle Eastern and Indian troops to repel any offensives on his country. The Shah also knew very well that Communists hated monarchic countries and that in case of a coup against him, he would surely be murdered. As such, he gave his approval and joined the Allies against the Soviet Union, broadening the front size and forcing the Soviets to divert men and resources from the Turkish offensive, which would proceed then against Iraq and British-occupied Syria and through to Suez.
Now instead of a single thrust, the Soviet Union had to attack West and East and hopefully it would be enough to halt the Soviet advance and protect Suez, which with the fall of Gibraltar, was then crucial for the British domination in the Mediterranean. Only that the British underestimated the Soviet resources, and soon enough, the Soviet Union deployed further divisions to attack Iran on both sides of the Caspian Sea, while not decreasing any force on its Turkish offensive.
The Sub-Saharan African War Theater was unarguably the one which was most favourable for the Allies. With a vast number of divisions compared to the three divisions the Soviet Union could deploy in Dakar, the Allied forces advanced all the way to Dakar where they were then stopped by the well dug-in Soviet army.
The North African theater also suffered from severe lack of Soviet power especially when compared to the British forces which defeated the Italians. Numerous times did the Soviet forces had to retreat to prevent from being encircled, but they always managed to beat back the larger British forces until they were reinforced. With the deployment of Soviet transport ships in Soviet Marseilles, which brought experienced Soviet troops to the North African theater. After the capture of Tripoli, thousands upon thousands of Soviet Sukhois, which soon enough obliterated the British North African troops, effectively collapsing the North African front for the British, and enabling a practical unopposed Soviet advance towards Egypt.
Meanwhile in the Middle East and Persia, after the fall of Turkey, the Allied forces were struggling to halt the Soviet advance. Successes were achieved in halting the Soviet advance for several weeks in Coastal Iraq, around Basorah and in the Palestinian mandate. However, it was clear that both Iraq and Persia would soon capitulate as well. After some days of successful defence in Palestine, the Soviet forces finally broke through and advanced all the way to Suez, encircling some of the British forces in the meantime. By that time, the North African forces had occupied Alexandria, which was the always successfully defended against the Italians in World War 2. Both the North African and the Middle Eastern fronts encountered each other in Cairo.
While 30 divisions remained in Egypt to push the British South, some 15 divisions began redeployment for the Sub-Saharan African front, which had already been reinforced with several other divisions, but which remained on the defensive. Around 20 divisions began redeployment for the Persian-Indian border, which was being heavily contested between Allied and Soviet forces for a month. Needless to say, the USA had finally began deploying land divisions on masse in India, at the request of Churchill, so much that American forces made up most of the Allied strength in India. The arrival of the experienced Middle Eastern troops, manage to create a large numeric superiority for the Soviet forces, which after 5 offensives manage to break through Karachi and used its Armored forces to launch two spearheads into India.
In the Sub-Saharan African theater, the reinforcement has been equally important. On the insistent request of British officials, the Americans requested that Liberia enter the war to support the Allies. A bad move was Liberia suffered the first offensive by the newly reinforced Sub-Saharan Corps, which began pushing the Allies on all sides, and effectively occupied and annexed Liberia to Soviet colonies. Thus we arrive at where I am. Close to being two years from the date that Germany declared war of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union already dominated most of the Old World.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/e-1.jpg
Europe and the Iberian and Mediterreanean fronts, already settled.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/f-1.jpg
Africa with the Sub-Saharan front in the West and the continual of the Egyptian campaign in the East.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/g-1.jpg
The Middle East and Asia, completely overrun despite some resistance. Also showing is the beginning of the Soviet breakthrough into India.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/h.jpg
The comparison of Armies. The Soviet Union has the greatest most numerous army by far.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/j.jpg
As you can see, the Soviet navy is practical to non-existent, now serving the purpose of transportation inside the Soviet lake that is called the Mediterranean.
https://i642.photobucket.com/albums/uu150/Joltie/k.jpg
And the Air Force comparison. Likewise Soviet surpremacy is unfathomable. Dozens of Air Force Close Air Support squadrons quickly wiped out most of the British North African forces (Numbering some 20 divisions, including many armored divisions) in a week.
Comments? :)