Episode 5 - Prussian Peril

TURN 60 (2/14/45)

AIR: 26 for 54. As is demonstrated, and has been before, Soviet air power makes counterattack a foolhardy proposition.

BERLIN: 2 ID in reinforcements, though one is battalion-strength.

ZAKOPANE: Recaptured. Bagged some partisans.

NETHERLANDS: The SS Lettische there is finished. Quite a shame. It's a significant blow. However, 3 IDs, hundreds of arty pieces and some armored elements are en route. That should be enough to stabilize the area south of Essen. As for the north, in the British sector...

Oddly, the Amis seem not to have noticed those redeployments taking place. As a result, my divisions slunk away quite peacefully.

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WEST 3: Now I've been blown wide open. He did indeed commit 2 fresh IDs just now. I'm not sure whence he got them, though. The southern Siegfried line is now in extreme danger of being rolled down. The Colmar bulge will inevitably be surrounded. I could evacuate it, but a corps would have to be left behind, and the not-inconsiderable French [B]1re Armee will quickly pour over the Rhine and just generally screw me. My best ID must be redeployed from Berlin to this place immediately, for all the good it will do.

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YUGOSLAVIA: This Bulgarian ID has been sitting here for a while. Well, I don't want to let them build up overwhelmingly (I know that there are yet more Bulgarian divisions out there, not to mention a full Titoist army), so I'll try to take them piecemeal where they try it. That's why I'm moving to encircle this thing. At worst, I lose some supply temporarily. I seriously doubt he has corps in place to move in force to support this shrimp. Opportunism is all the Germans have to uplift them at this point.

My Cetniks, while driving out the Bulgarian command, discover that:

1. They have the army level artillery attached.

2. There's a Tito-corps in the area.

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HUNGARY: Budapest looks OK. A frail division tried to bridge the Danube at a weak point north of the city. I'll try to lure it in. Then again, maybe it will have the same result as the two bridgeheads.

The SS partisan-hunters pushed the Slovak fighters all the way back to the Soviet front - though losing a company for a platoon - and the relieving divisions finaly moved into -

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POLAND 1: They easily pushed a Soviet IC and tank bde away from the road. Twice that has happened. It indicates that the Soviets here are exhausted. It also indicates that those corps are experiencing a critical shortage of infantry. They're mostly MGs, AT rifles, and organic artillery now. The Hungarian ID's attack on a lone tank brigade stalled with serious losses due to air support.

Quiet elsewhere.

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POLAND 2: Bulge evacuated. Penetration by 2 Heavy-tank Regs and an SP Reg. Only a Heavy Pz Abt. survived, so I'll counterattack with it. Obviously, even if it miraculously succeeds it will never hold back the adjacent Mech Corps. But why not? It's not like it matters at this stage. Over 50km of front are flimsier than clapwood and will fall apart momentarily. The hex in question is a little cloudy, so maybe the Sturmoviks will keep away. Maybe 22 Tigers can figure something out. In the end, the battle is an ill-advised failure: 8 Tigers for 2 IS-2. Air support did show up.

This is it, I think. This is the schwerpunkt. This is where I will break first.

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POLAND 3: Warsaw is Erebus, but I'm cannibalizing other parts of the line to reinforce it.

Walter Girg lives, but is still trapped.

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POLAND 4: Nothing left in that hex, but no Soviet advance.

PRUSSIA: Breakthrough. Subsequent measure.

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