NationStates Jolt Archive

Operation "Brunswick"
Fuhrer Directive No. 140



Austria/Slovenia border.

The night was quiet as usual. The occupied population of Austria was pacified, almost half being Nazi party members even before the occupation began seven years earlier. In an sense the Osterreich had almost been completely assimilated into the rest of the German population. They were living under many of the same laws and systems as the rest of Greater Deutschland, and some had even signed up to the army to fight for the Reich's security.

But more was needed. More was always needed. The Fuher had been comtemplating an invasion of Yugoslavia, but was unsure how to do it as there wasn't much to gauge the possible resistance. They knew some hard facts: that the Yugoslavian army was a million men strong, was almost entirely commanded by Serb generals, fielded roughly three hundred tanks mostly obsolete, and 450 planes, 200 of which were outmoded as well. They also knew that Slovenian and Croatian secession was likely in the event of German intervention, and that the country was politically and socially more unstable than even China.

This would have to be capitalized upon, and as quickly as possible. A weak nation could be turned into a strong ally. Hitler instructed the Fieldmarshalls that the goal was to gain an ally, not have to destroy it first. It was obvious. They were to just simply let the country dissolve into chaos and then install Nazi-oriented leaders from amidst the chaos, and gain themsleves an ally, if only a small one, also gaining German access to the Mediterranean.

With that, eighty divisions grouped into Army Groups A, B, and C and commanded by Fieldmarshalls Manstein, Rommel, and Meyer, respectively. The entire force was roughly a million and a half men, backed up by five thousand tanks, four thousand large guns, and a Luftwaffe of nearly three thousand combat aircraft.

Things happened quickly. At 0150 Hitler typed out a telegram and sent it, it was a declaration of war. The late time was deliberate, it would take much longer for the government to respond, probably not until after dawn, when the damage would be done. Simultaneously, hundreds of Stukas, Messerschmitt 110s and 262s, and Ju-87 medium bombers flew in a massive wave over Yugoslavia. The Stukas and Messerschmitts flew over known Yugoslavian airfields and military positions, with an average of fifty planes attacking each airfield with machine guns and bombs. Some of the Junkers bombers unloaded their cargo over Zagreb: leaflets calling for secession, appealing to the Croatian minority. The rest of the bombers [about three hundred] continued to Belgrade where their cargo was unloaded over factories and other industrial centers. Unfortunately for the citizens of Belgrade, the cargo was high explosives.

At 0230, as the first wave was returning, the second wave took off, coverign the assembled ground forces. All along the line hundreds of artillery pieces opened up on Yugoslavian border fortifications. Fifteen minutes later, the ground offensive started. Manstein's group was the first to attack, unloading ten infantry divisions and two Panzer groups towards the city of Ljublijana. Fieldmarshall Meyer attacked in the east with fifteen infantry divisions and three panzer groups toward the city of Maribor an hour later. And lastly, shortly before dawn, the main attack was unloaded. Fifty infantry divisions, twenty of which were motorised, and backed up by twelve Panzer divisions. All had hundreds of planes for cover, as they bombed and strafed at will.

It was only to see what the Yugoslavian's next move was.

[OOC: Get on AIM we'll work out the details, but I can pretty much say, from what I've researched, that you're screwed unless you sing my tune, chief. :mp5:]

When the night was over, the Germans had parts of Ljublijana, and some 5000 prisoners within their grasp. Ljublijana, was being shelled, and most of the major city's in Slovenia were being attacked. The Yugoslavian army was in a complete state of dissaray, however things were not all lost.

The current ruler of Yugoslavia, Alexander Molitov sat in a dark room reading Hitler's telegram. The sheer fact the Nazi's wanted to nail Yugoslavia's flag to the wall, ment that Yugoslavia was in for some hard fighting. Alexander felt he had no choice, his nation was in tatters because the Croat's hated him, the Slovenias hated him more, and the Bosnians were just there. He took a german made Luger (ironicly...) placed it to his temple and shot himself dead.

News didn't have to spread that Molitov was dead, his people knew he was a coward. The Croatians had a hard time believing this would be the end, nore did the Slovenians, however everyone had more important things to worry about, the Nazi's noose around their neck's.

The Germans were busy nailing the Yugoslavian army, whilst, everyone was scrambling to restore order. However, Alexander's successor rised to power about two hours after Alexander was dead. His name, was Dimitri Lucas. He was half Serbian, and half Croatian, he was a man of courage, a man who infact was a socialist, and believed in comrad Lenin's ideal, of an equal share for all, however, this was no time for the equal share. He himself, began the government with a new.

He walked the streets of the Capital, Belgrade. He looked around at the carnage, death rained by the Germans. He saw alittle girl dead on the sidewalk, blood trickling down her face. She was a Croatian, he picked her up and carried her in his arms to the step's of a house with people in dissaray.

"My Yugoslavians!" He yelled at the top of his voice. They looked at him, some didn't care other's did, and looked at him. "You see this girl! You see her! She is dead! Before she could live! Does it matter what region she belonged to? No! She was an innocent child killed by the Nazi whore Adolf Hitler! He's attacking our nation hoping to devide us! He sees us as weak! He drops bombs over apartment buildings! He murders woman and childern! For what! So that his people can sleep soundly at night knowing their master-race can continue onwards over our dead bodies!" By then, more had gathered, and held up their dead aswell. "The bodies of our childern are all around us! They were sacrificed so that the Nazi's can have their way! They seek world conquest, but who will stand in their way? The French? The British? The Americans? We come from many backrounds, we may dispise one another! But would you rather be allowed to say what you wish, or live in a concentration camp!" They shouted back, "No!" Dimtri hoisted the girl up. "This child was a croatian, but she was also a Yugoslavian! Her only crime was being a child of our nation! Our only crime, is sitting idle while Hitler marches over our home's, rapes our woman, and burn our field's. Its death of life comrades! Its freedom or facism, DEATH TO THE GERMAN INVADER!" The crowd knew that their petty dislikes against one another mattered not, if they were all speaking German in a month, and against their latter jugdgement, killing childern in any religion was an act of sin. The crowd shouted "Die Germans! Die Germans! Die Germans! Die Germans!

Word of mouth was quicker than telegram, however telegram helped alot. Copy's of Dimtri's speach reached all over Yugoslavia, with discriptions of the fire in his eye's, and story of courage that was needed. In a sense, the minorities saw Dimitri's speach as an excuse to unite as one, and fight as one. They realized as many refugee's in Slovokia fled into the Croatian region, that the Germans were more vile than the Serbs, the Bosnians, or the Croatians. It was hating your neighbore, or hating someone who was known for brutality, and racist ideals. The choise was simple, living your way, or living the Ghestappo's way. Dimitri made no promise of a better life, he just spelled it out, live the way you live, or live under a nazi flag. It was simple.

Yugoslavia all over knew their discontent with each other could wait, they all knew who the common enemy was. However, united as they were it mattered little, if they couldn't fight. Yugoslavia was in a struggle for it's life. Recruiters went door to door in the city's bombed by the Germans, and spoke of honor, and duty, and recruited all they could. So far, economics were stable, as most were rushing to stock up on supplies, thus giving the econemy a large boost of funds, spent on weapons, and clothing. Rapid production orders were given,

The tank force of about 300 outdated tanks, were pushed to the front as soon as possible, losing easily to larger Panzer IV's. The airforce, lost a total of 110 airplanes alone. Making their outdated tactics of defending the airfields from the ground useless. However, the AT-01 "Stalker" had been in production for a year, and with this war, production of these planes, and the new MT-01 tanks came at top priority. With the factories left in Belgrade and lower Yugoslavia, pushing out as many as possible within the first hour's of the attack, and sending them north at a rapid pace, sometimes with large trains with six engines, and twelve! Anti-aircraft guns as soon as they could. Orders were given for designing newer anti-tank shoulder launched weapons, and a new rifle, which could fire without reloading the bolt.

Ljublijana

Reponse took some 5 hours, by then some 10,000 Yugoslavian soldiers, and 300 tanks, had made it to the south of Ljublijana from southern Slovenia, with the Germans controling the north of the city, and bombing it into submission. The Germans seemed to be comming from the north of the city, the Yugoslavians moved into the bombed out city, and started ambushing the Germans with their 11.0mm guns as soon as they were in range of hitting the Germans. About 50 guns were inside of the city, inside of the city, most deployed in camolfauged settings, the Germans would come around a blind corner and get nailed. Machineguns were deployed in apartment buildings, and also around blind corners. However, some 5000 soldiers were deployed into the city, to just hold off the Germans, untill airpower could come. The 300 tanks, moved into the south-east sector of the city, and begun to group. Snipers, about 100 were deployed all over the city, and started picking off German officer's ass soon as possible.

Maribor

Maribor was being defended by about 30 MT-01's and some 620 soldiers, armed with Mosin Nagaunts and PPScH's, a few morters and a dozen machineguns, they were obviously encircled and under seige, however, they fought to hold off the Germans. The regiant commander, a Slovenian, was already think in the fight. His name was, Anton Valakov. A man with little interest in politics, however, his men were very loyal, it was them or the Germans. They were stuck in the center twelve blocks of the city, their tanks forming a ring in destroyed buildings, with the city hall being the command post. Anton's man set up machine-guns and their morters in piles of rubbel, and trenches in bomb craters. The twelve blocks were split into three. Three streets, one set of three on one side of the capital building. Each block, was nothing but apartment buildings. North, south, east, west. The tanks were all over these blocks. The city hall had four 110mm guns infront of it, one covered one of the four roads that lead to the building, and a three, 54mm AA guns covered the building. The Yugoslavian flag was raised high over the building, however it may be tattered and torn it may be.

Belgrade.

Whem Dimitri recieved word of the brave struggle of Comrade Captain Anton's men, he quickly used it as a propaganda tool, political officers went about all over Yugoslavia recruiting those speaking of Anton's men, posters went up "Heed not let him fall, produce more artillery shells!" In hours Anton went from a nobody to a hero of Yugoslavia. When word reached Anton, he knew he couldn't let the people down and give up.

So in a sense, Yugoslavia wasn't caught completly off guard, but they had expected an attack, its just using the touriqute to stop the bleeding per say, was what was hard.

(OOC: LB, I can't find maps of these city's, but in all honesty we can use maps of any city I can find, american or not, that alright with you? :sniper: )

http://www.nazi-lauck-nsdapao.com/pt-2211-warschau-75dpi.jpg

Ljublijana

The siege was going well, as German soldiers bravely faced the machine guns, took out the enemy gunners, and cleared building after building. However, Fieldmarshall Manstein could immediately tell that the invasion wasn't going as planned. While at first the locals had greeted the Germans with open arms now they were much cooler, and some even fought. So far, estimates indicated two thousand casualties, half of which were fatal.

The city itself was proving to be a pain in the ass for any commander, as the enemy decided to hunker down. So, Manstein did what the smart commander would do. He ordered an immediate pullout of all the units engaged in the city, and began to fortify his position. Since the enemy intended to be in the city, the Germans would make sure they stayed there. The soldiers pulled out to a line just around the city and began pulling up hundreds of 88s and other artillery pieces, and began bombing the hell out of the known enemy positions. Stukas were frequently called in, making dozens of sorties against main buildings such as the police department, the governor's house, and the city hall. Anywhere a sign of ground fire was noticed the next sortie would take it out. The same with return artillery fire, the enemy gun was pinpointed and then an airstrike called in. If the Germans couldn't take the city through force then it would be through starvation.


Maribor

The exact situation was happening here under Meyer's command as it was under Manstein's. He scratched his head thinking of an answer to the sniper problem. Nearly fifty officers, mostly lieutenants, had been KIA'd or WIA'd within two hours. The thought occurred to him as he was touring the frontlines. "Say, we have about five thousand captured prisoners, don't we?" he said to an aide. "Yes, sir." the aide responded. "And where are they?" he said, eyes lighting up a bit. "Just behind our line under guard by a reserve battalion, and we have fifty at the headquarters, sir.". he finished, looking at Meyer.

Meyer had one of them brought up, and looked the man over. He was a rather grubby looking person, unshaven, and not looking like a soldier, let alone a German. But it would have to do. "Put him one of our officer's uniforms." Meyer commanded to a few soldiers nearby. This they did, and then they gave him a field shave to make him look more like a soldier. When it was done there was no difference between a regular officer and the fake one. They commanded the unlucky man to walk out into the street with dozens of soldiers watching. After about three seconds a shot rang out, and the unlucky man fell, dead.

The German soldiers immediately pinpointed where the shot came from. A Panzer was called up and immediately blew the hell out of the apartment building. "Excellent." Meyer said to his aides. "I want this to be repeated all across town, and pass the word to the other commanders what to do in case this happens to them." he finished, turning and heading back toward his headquarter.




[TOP SECRET]

To: All Commanders, Operation Brunswick:

If snipers give you trouble dress up enemy prisoners in officer's uniforms.

-Fieldmarshall Meyer


Army Group B, advancing, currently 20 miles in

The group was moving quickly through the enemy's lands. They also had the same reaction. The enemy soldiers along the border surrendered with a whimper and had captured thousand's of them. The populance at first greeted them openly hailing them as liberators but eventually as the day wore on their expessions became more cold, and some villages began putting up fights, if only minor ones.


In the Rear

Immediately the Oberkommando des Wehrmacht relized what was happening. The Yugoslavs, instead of falling apart, were showing some unity. The bombing raid, by many estimates had caused up to ten thousand military and civlian casualties, destroying five hundred tanks and three hundred planes at the cost of 10 Stukas and three Junkers bombers. Of course, the Luftwaffe estimates were always exaggerated, so the OKW cut the numbers in half for real numbers, and figured thirty planes lost.

The second raid over Yugoslavia was now actually meant to have some intent. Nearly fifteen hundred planes were launched from airfields all over Austria, many of them rearmed and refueled from the first attack. Stukas and Messerschmitts began sorties, destroying railway tracks, bridges, factories, ports and military convoys in the south, while some of the Junkers bombers again took on a raid on Belgrade, targetting the remainder of the factories. The guy who really got the shit end of this stick, however, was Sarajevo. Nearly five hundred Junkers bombers, or most of the entire bombing force, flew in high over the city unloading tons upon tons of high explosive when they were greeted with flak. The city could visibly be seen burning.

From strategic reserves, Army Group D was being formed under the command of Fieldmarshall Kleist, consisting of a further fifty infantry divisions and ten panzer groups, and fifteen motorized divisions. Realizing that this enemy was not going to fold like a bad hand of cards, Albert Speer [with Hitler's consent] ordered the increase of output of military weapons, vehicals, and a new array of weapons. Indeed, this reserve army would be the first to field the new Leinwand tank, supposedly the tank to end all tanks. This army was being assembled and being put into place on the Austrian border incase of a crisis.


Berlin

To: Alexander Molitov

This war is pointless, and your people are pointlessly suffering because of war you continue to propogate. Must we continue this hell, or can we agree to terms?

[signed] Der Fuhrer

Yugoslavia wasn't about to become the Luftwaffe's whipping boy. AT-01 "Stalkers" took to the air as soon as ground soldiers had started hearing the Luftwaffe. Child-aged ground spotters next to a telephone called local militias and military officers, to order the airforce into the air. This was a crude system but effective none-the-less. Some 400 AT-01s were in survice right now. With double that number ordered. After the first nights attack, AA guns were placed all over the place. Anything from a light machinegun to a 110mm FLAK gun was placed around railroad bridges, powerstations, oil refinerys, factories, capital buildings, hospitals. The majority of these guns were placed around vital production facilitys.

The Luftwaffe's new attack was met with some heavy resistance, defense's were ready and filled the sky's over Yugoslavia with exploding shells. Granted if the Luftwaffe managed to get by the some 350 AT-01's defending the area's the luftwaffe was hitting, and production areas. Serejavo was lightly defended by some 30 110mm AA guns, all of which were trying to fend off the Luftwaffe when the raid came.

Flak traps were deployed along dummy railroad lines, wooden fake trains were placed on the tracks moving by old engines, and in reality, all along the line were alot of AA guns.

The remaining AT-01's armed with 37mm cannons and 80mm ground rockets. Deployed over Slovenia, providing airsupport to the soldiers at Ljublijana, attacking Panzer groups, and 88mm artillery on the group, also striking at railway lines moving troops into Slovenia.

Ljublijana

"STUKA!" shouted a soldier on the ground. He heard the siren and saw the plane come down, and within seconds was straifed by the 7.92mm guns it had. However, the Stuka when it pulled up, would be attacked by ambush laiden 54mm AA gun's hidden in bombed out buildings, then quickly relocated. The regient commander in Ljublijana, Ragene Alentin, had ordered the city to be held. It was held out in the south of the city, by the main road, in a huge fortification of AA guns, and trenches. This is where most of the troops entered the city, and this is where their counter-attack was planned.

"What the hell is he doing? Why is he just walking down the street?" Said a young sniper. He then looked at the smaller details of the officer. He turned to his older comrade. "This one doesn't have the P38 at the hip like the one's we've shot yesterday." The older sniper looked at the man more. "He's not a kraut, his a Croat. His eye's are too dark...that and he doesn't have the pistol at the hip. We've been seeing alot of those today. Let him keep going, see where he's heading...." The younger sniper kept him in his scope, untill the man in the officer uniform started running, out of no-where the young sniper heard a MP-40 go off seeing the man get killed. "You were right, the Krauts wont kill their own officers....this is a trick." The older sniper had an idea. "Second squad told me about this, their youngins started greasing officers dressed like this, then a Panzer IV put a shell in their face's. Makes sense...how bout we set our own trap. Doesn't that odd fellow with the bazooka stay around here. Go find him." He nodded, and the younger sniper moved off. He moved down the staircase, and then stayed at the side door. He clenched his rifle tightly. "One...two...three!" He ran and dodged an MG-42 spraying rounds at him. "Son of a bitch!" He turned and saw a hole in his pants, no hit however. He moved onwards, into a pipe, and saw a Russian looking fellow holding an M9 bazooka with swastika's painted all over it. The man pulled out a small pistol and pointed it at the young sniper. "Who goes there?" The young sniper stopped. "Fear not comrade, I'm not nazi. Lexi Boletov needs that bazooka, would you like to kill a Panzer IV maybe a Tiger?" The odd man thought it over, and picked up his bazooka, and it's amunition. "Show me where, and we will kill some Germans." In about twenty minutes the two returned to the building, however stayed on the lower floor, the Bazooka-man set up a position around a blind corner. And again, another fake Kraut appeared. The old sniper shot the man, then quickly fled his position behind the building. A Panzer IV appeared, and shot the building, however two seconds after it shot, the Bazooka-man returned fire, and nailed it in the side of the rear compartment. Most likly setting off the fuel and torching the tank. This tactic was an act of bravery, and at the end of the day, all three were put in for "Hero of Yugoslvia" award. This tactic was also mandatory for snipers and bazooka-men who would now work in pairs.

AA guns would now enter the city, and start blasting Stuka's when they made their runs.....yet mistakes made in the first hours cost the Yugoslavians plenty of soldiers, atleast 300 were lost to Stukas.

Maribor

Anton started getting reports of German officer's just stupidly walking down a street, then a panzer showing up five minutes after the officer was shot, this disturbed him, at this point every one of his men counted, and he himself resorted to using 80mm morters as grenades (saving privite ryan...) he told his men to start throwing their morter shells at German tanks and places where these officer's were comming from, however this was a big mistake, for one, it depleted their artillery, two, it allowed enemy snipers to pick off the throwers, reducing the number down to 540. Yet, the 30 MT-01 tanks, made a mad dash around the city. Three tank platoons, ten tanks each. The 1st was commanded by Comrade Alexander Richinov. Alexander ordered his tanks to make a counter attack with thirty soldiers to push the Germans back, and perhaps capture some weapons.

His tanks moved 2 two a street, five streets he covered. He was the first to run into a tank. "KING TIGER!" That wasn't the best thing he heard from his driver. Those monsters could knock out a MT-01 from ranges unheard of, and their armor was so tough, it would be impossible to take them out from the front. "Driver, move us forward!" He ordered "But sir!" The driver cried. "Do it now!" Alexander took the gunner's post, and fired the cannon, the shell reflected off the King Tiger, the King Tiger fired, causing the dust around it to come up in a hail storm, the shell wizzed by Alexander's tank, but hit his rear tank, shattering it. Alexander fired again, hit the turret, but it to reflected off. "Ram the bastard!" Moments later, the MT-01 hit the King Tiger straight on, and knocked it back. Alexander got out with his PPScH, jumpped onto the roof of the King Tiger, and forced open the hatch, hearing German he emptyed the whole clip into the tank hearing rounds spray around. However he was unlucky, and made the mistake of sitting in the open, a sniper shot him straight in the face and killed him dead. The MT-01's turret turned, and blew away the sniper. Yet the MT-01 couldn't move...the crew abandoned the tank, and took the King Tiger, drawing the black star, in Alexander's blood on the side's and top, and returned with the failed attack to the command post.

Bexlon-line (Ironicly infront of Army group B.)

Whilst the two city's were fighting for their live's, the Army Group B was being dispatched to (I assume) flank the the supplys comming into Ljublijana. However, the Region commander, Viktor Galugavich, was keen on preventing this. He himself, and some 60 tanks, 44 110mm cannons, 14 38mm Pak guns, and 12 20mm AA guns 64, 120mm morters. His forces consited of 230,000 soldiers, battle harderned, that and he also had about 50 truck mounted 120mm rockets, from their retreat from the Austrian line's. They fell back into the Bexlon-line. Right infront of Celje, along the river. Viktor set his line up on both sides of the river, about 20 miles infront of the city, in pockets of resistance. Army Group B was sited. Moments after the tanks came into view, the first counter-attack of the war was displayed. Viktor's men, unleashed a massive assault, every shell weapon, rocket, morter fired and rained down upon the Germans moving rapidly. The 20mm cannons themselves were able to shread most of the German halftracks, and the 110mm guns could easily wipe out the Tiger's and Panthers. Viktor's only concern was ammunition, which he used sparingly. As supply was terribly ineffective in this region.

Air Battle

As planned, Yugoslav aircraft rose to meet the attackers. And as practiced before, dozens of Messerschmitts peeled off to intercept. Simply put the Messerschmitts were superior, being faster, better armed, with better performance. The only possible result was within a matter of minutes the skies were clear of Yugoslav defenders, either shot down or scattered. It was not without loss as the fighter wings were down to three-quarters strength in some squadrons, and more had to return.

The rest of the planes returned without incident, and it was a generally bad move to raid. They had lost almost a hundred planes with another hundred damaged. The Fuhrer was furious. He ordered that no more daylight raids would be waged without his consent for the remainder of this war.


Bexon Line

Rommel was overseeing the advance of his troops when out of the blue shots rang out and the vehical just in front of his was blown to hell by a large-caliber round. "Wir sind unter Feuer! Angriff!" shouted Rommel over the comm. A large number of the German tanks rounded the corner and say what was arrayed before them; a defensive line with a couple hundred guns, resembling the trenches of WWI a bit.

Immediately, the tanks and artillery pieces began returning fire. Despite the Yugoslav defense advantage, it was clearny an uneven struggle from the getgo, with five thousand German guns versus two hundred Yugoslav ones. One tank battalion was reduced almost entirely, another was cut in half, but the third did quite well as the superior German gunnery began to prove itself. The familiar smell of smoke, flaming debris, and death reached the German tanks from the Yugoslav lines. To further fix this situation, some of the Stukas who remained to cover the attacking force moved in. The enemy couldn't attack the ground and the air at the same time, something gave, it was difficult to immediately tell. With that, and most of the enemy's guns silent, the tank advance was ordered.

The tanks opened up with everything that had, and was quite an impressive show of firepower as Panzer mark IVs, Panthers, and Tigers opened up with not one boom, but a constant roar, as each explosion was indistinguishable from the others. They machine gunned enemy troops at will and upon sight, no mercy could be spared in such a situation where the enemy, short on numbers but long on low-ness...


Ljublijana

Unfortunately for Tank 104 which had problems moving and was left behind, it was never heard from again.

The assault guns, artillery pieces, and tanks continued to fire upon the city from afar, and the smell of death and destruction was evident from even this range. Manstein made it clear to his soldiers: they would be has hard as their tanks, and it would be the enemy who folded on this day, not the Wehrmacht soldier.


Maribor

Here, the siege wasn't going as well as Meyer would've liked. The Germans were forced to resort to clearing out the city building by building with grenades, bullets, tank rounds, and bayonets. They were getting bogged down in the city, a commander's worst nightmare.

"Here's what I want you to do." he said, pointing at a map for all his commanders to see. "I want the fourth, third Panzer, and fifteenth divisions pulled back out of the fighting. Move them here. And then I want them to swing around the back of the city, and crush the enemy, coordinated by us attacking through here. Now go. We'll crush them and be over with it." Quietly the groups were pulled out and replaced by others so the difference was neligible to the enemy, while the group secrelty moved around the city, to attack it from the south side. This would be over before the sun rose, Meyer was to make sure of that.


In the rear

Army Group D, hearing of the embattled Army Group B, began to move south. This was a further fifty divisions, backed up by a further five thousand tanks and six thousand guns. In all, the Germans now deployed twice the number of soldiers, seven times the number of tanks, ten tiems the number of guns, and fifteen times the number of aircraft. Overall the war was going quite well but was forcing more mobilization than originally predicted. A small amount of money which was originally being put for savings was diverted to the military, nothing major.

[OOC: I'm RP'd out tonight....another post tomorrow.]

(OOC: I'd like to know how my defensive line fell so fast when you were the one ambushed, I'd also like to know how Stuka's could bomb me without any sort of response, when I said I had 20mm AA guns, Yeah, and lets not get ahead of ourselves, we need to play this out, one part at a time. And where the hell are you getting all these men from? You said you had 1,400,000 yet you keep saying you have 1,000,000 in both the major city's and on this line.)

Air Battle.

So far, Yugoslavia's force of 350 planes was almost cut in half with 180 planes left. Pilots were in very short supply at the moment, and as more planes were being produced, anyone who could fly a plane was put into service. (Similar to the battle of britian.) ANY German plane that was shot down, or crashed without exploding was quickly captured in Yugoslavian territory, seeing how the Yugoslavians still controled 80% of their land. The planes were taken south and studied and reverse engineering was being preformed as soon as possible, this included German Jet engines, the Mk-108 Cannon, and Panzer glass. These were going to be incorperated into the next wave of Yugoslavian fighters. At this point, Dimitri knew the AT-01 couldn't hold of Jet fighters and bombers, he needed them himself, and he poured quite a bit of funds into the R&D of jet frames and engines. The pilots that were captured alive, were interrogated, tortured, whatever, they were used as a propaganda tool, to make the population hate the Germans more than they did at presnet. The Yugoslavian pilots who came back, started writing down German tactics, and best ways to defeat them, and used such booklets to train their younger pilot's.

Bexlon Line

Viktor heard about the Stuka attack, and ordered his 20mm Guns skyward, loading them with exploding ammunition (flak shells) he used his AA guns to make a deadly flak trap, and used it to great use on the slow Stuka's. Aiming at the spot they would be a few seconds before they would get their, in other words, leading the target. That and not all of his Guns were silent. He had lost some 12 guns, and about 3000 soldiers. This was, because his forces were spread out, not clustered in one big group. That way he could cover the entire line more easily. He ordered his remaining 110mm's(that the stukas seemed the favor) to start picking off the Tigers and Panthers. 110mm tungsten cored shells could destroy anything the Germans could use against them. Also, and contengment of M9 Bazooka's were called front, and used against the lesser-armored Panzer IV's.

What Rommel didn't expect was for Viktor's forces to regroup so quickly. Viktor used the Stuka attack to regroup his forces, whilst the Stukas went for the larger guns, he reinforced his troops on his flanks, and made the open field they covered into a no-mans land, with machineguns, and morters. 120mm morters were, as you would say, very effective against German infantry, because two men would reload the morter, one loads, then it shoots up, then as soon as the shot leaves another is loaded. Making a rapid rate of fire. Viktor's some 230,000 men, were dug in with some heavy firepower. Meanwhile, Viktor's MT-01s waited...as Viktor's copy "Stalin's Orgins" made their presence known. 50 of these rocket trucks lined up behind the lines, obvious not seen by the Stuka's due to camoflauge. About 18 120mm rockets a truck, so multiplied by 50...equals 900 rockets, launched within the span of 10 minutes. These rockets could shred anything the Germans had, and rained down on the German advance, then on the German lines. Considering this, air support was also called in. Four AT-01's two with a pair of 37mm cannons, and two with 8 120mm rockets. These planes would be met unopposed, due to the recent air-raid brought on by the Germans, that, and this was the Yugoslavian's home turf, they need not travel an hour and ahalf like the Germans. One plane met an end when a Flakpanzer landed a shot with it's 37mm AA gun, the plane crashed and the pilot was killed. The remaining planes chased off, or shot down the Stuka's in the area, and then returned to their base not far away.

Viktor waited for Rommel's next move, as Viktor's rocket trucks were being reloaded, and his forces ready to make a counter-attack with the Tiger killing MT-01's. Viktor waited in the command post, on the front line, he was dug in deep, he sat with three officers around a table of the lines. "The Nazi's tried to blitz us with their larger tanks, however, our rockets are hammering them. This has given us a chance to regroup our forces. Take the MT-01's and strike their flanks while the majority of their troops are at our forward line!" Viktor slammed his fist on the swastika in the table. "Bring me viktory!"

"Comrades charge!" Shouted the tank commander of MT-01 Black-1. His force of 60 tanks, fallowed by some 50,000 soldiers made their break on the German's weakened flanks. (I have this idea, sience Rommel pressed his tanks forward, this would leave the flanks open to attack, the rockets would tangle up our just fuck up the tanks, then the airstrike would force them into shock, because 900 rockets and an airstrike will do that to you, reguardless.I just now realised that I never said where my tanks were from the start, but I'm just going to say they were in the rear, where the artillery couldn't reach guarding the Rockets. So now, with this, they'd be called up, and with an average speed of 55mph, could reach your flank in about 30-40 minutes, just when the rocket strike would end.) The MT-01's went for the German's right flank, it seemed that Rommel's force was comming from the north. If his right flank (east) was pressed, it put him in grave danger of being encircled, thus being lost. The 50,000 soldiers that went along with the tanks carried machineguns, anti-tank bazookas, sub-machineguns 120mm morters, 37mm pak guns. These were what you'd consider storm-troopers, who were battle-hardened and fought for their familes. The Yugoslavian's were on their home turf, they knew the terrain, and the Germans had only a few hours to dig in, however, this would leave most of them exposed to the heavy-machineguns on the tanks. The Pak-guns were pulled along with the tanks, and used on infantry, they were small, but packed a huge punch. This was about a quarter of the force at Viktor's disposal. He want to encircle rommel, and then cut him off, and kill him....

(OOC: To sum it up, I shot AA guns at your Stukas, used my rocket-trucks against your advancing panzers, 900 of em, so you're gonna feel the heat,) then I used 60 fast as tanks, which do go faster than anything but a Panther, then with 50,000 shock-troops, are attempting to flank your exposed right flank. So believe it or not, Your air support wont make it intime, if their still in bases in Austria, and your tanks are charging my front, so it's infantry in not well defended positions, expecting an attack from their front.)

(OOC: Are you ever going to reply LB?)

Bexon Line

The sudden appearance of Yugoslavian "Stalin organs" on the battle line unnerved Rommel somewhat, as it was obvious that the Slavs were working with each other on this. But Russia would have to wait. The nine hundred rockets hit various places along the lines, causing some pretty serious casualties. Fifty tanks were destroyed, and another fifty damaged by the fire, and a thousand infantrymen met their unpleasent death's at the hands of the Stalin organs.

However, the tank advance, despite the damage it had taken, pressed the attack home. The tanks rushed up into the battle lines over-running the trenches and barricades, machine gunning any enemy infantry and blasting any large ordanance to hell with their main guns. Infantry immediately followed to mop up the line, and hopefully be done with it.


Flank

The German's had some advance warning of the flanking attack by some over-flying Stuka's and other planes returning from their attacks. As such some of the reserves turned to meet this threat, consisting of fifty thousand infantry and five hundred tanks with a hundred self-propelled pieces. As soon as the enemy was within range the tanks [mostly Mark IVs and Panthers, some Tiger's] opened fire with their deadly 88s, and the artillery let loose with everything they had. The flank had caught the German's somewhat off guard but time, numbers, and weapons were on their side. They had to win.


[OOC: I'll pull another post outta my ass tomorrow...can't do this weekend because I finally got a new job, so meh.]

Viktor knew about the ever-so-advancing German forces. His first thought was to cut his losses and go to Zegreb, but then he got a bright idea. The German's air support was long gone, and would take them awhile to refuel, and rearm to get back into the area. An airbase was not far off, he could have total air support within minutes if he could hold back the panzers. He ordered a total airstike, anything he could get onto Rommel force. He managed to get about 35 AT-01s into the air, armed with whatever they could find. Mostly anti-tank rockets, napalm, and 37mm cannons. They would arrive shortly.

Viktor ordered his men to attack the German tanks with whatever they had, the 110's focused their fire upon the Tigers and Panthers. This would keep them at bay for a few moments, whilst the air support would approach. That and his rockets would be set up for another assault, this gave him 900 rockets to use. The German tanks couldn't fire their machineguns into the trenches, thats impossible in itself, they could go over the trenches, and when they did, soldiers with balls, attached sticky bombs (TNT in a tar-ridden sock) right under the tank, these were lit by the way...and watched the tanks blow up. However this wasn't a war winner, some soldiers waited too long and blew up themselves. The Morter teams fell back into a second line position, near the rockets, and provided close artillery upon the Germans near the trenches, and kept this fire up rapidly. When the German troops entered the trenches, they were met with bayonets and submachinegun fire.

Flank.

The Germans were clever bastards, they had their artillery in place, but however, they had to set up, and reaim, which would take a minute, but rather wouldn't matter. The infantry and tanks charged forward, taking some losses. The tanks kept up a zig-zag formation, and fired at the tanks approaching them, anti-tank bazooka's also took on the tanks, and exchanged some 60-70 shots at the oncomming force. The Germans, not dug in, were met head on by 50,000 pissed off Yugoslavians, and the tanks attacked at point blank range, mixing it up with the Germans to make their artillery worthless to them. Bayonet's were used, and morters rained down on them all, with massive affect, it was do or die now.

Air support.

The morters had bought time for the planes to arrive from their close by airfields. It was some 35 planes, 15 of these were armed for tank busting, and made rapid runs, on the Yugoslavian trenches swarming with German tanks, they flew fast enough to avoid the AA fire, some met their fate due to the AA fire, but most focused on the tanks, with some 60 rounds per gun, and a 37mm able to knock out a Tiger II in some 6 shots per gun.

The rest of the planes, made their move on the German supply and command lines. Rommel led from the front, this meaning he would be in the largest concentration of supplys, and such. Making him an easy target. Rommel wasn't the focus, it was the German's Fuel and ammunition trucks that were helping the force continue. That and their communications tents/trucks, were attacked with NAPALM making anything flamable turn into a fireball rather fast. Granted this was droped in a rapid order, with some 12 planes lost to the AA ground fire. When the planes that survived dropped their payloads, they turned and straifed the Germans on open field, comming at the trenches with 20mm exploding shells. And tore apart light vehicals with their 20mm cannon. Airsupport rulez!