I’ve recently played a highly interesting and enjoyable Main Event with the devoted USE player Gumers. For me, it was the first time I saw the Axis invade first France and then the USSR in the long summer of 1940.
Was this a wise strategy?
The game started, as so often, with Poland relying on the Western powers and being overrun within a month. After having conquered Hungary and Denmark as well, the Axis woke up to Fair weather in the Mild Zone in April 1940. As a consequence, they promptly decided to invade Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
Except for permanently losing the German Airdrop above Oslo, operations went smoothly, and France could be conquered in June 1940 without the need of activating all German Field Units in France that month. So, by marching the remainder of the German armies into the country-to-be of Vichy before the fall of France, they could instantly be repatriated to East Prussia!
However, the Axis had maximised their air cover over France by circulating the five German Luftflotten between the Western and Eastern fronts of Germany’s Home Defence. Therefore, launching Barbarossa already in July 1940, also the Luftwaffe in the East was in urgent need of extensive repairs, lending the Red Air Force a degree of air superiority at start.
Furthermore, invading the USSR in July 1940 meant bringing forward the entry of the USA in the war (by up to a full year), including its Units and Events. Equally important, however, was that the date from which it would be impossible to collapse the USSR would not be brought forward from 1943 to 1942, despite the fact that the maximum duration of the war would be brought forward to July 1944!
Another factor in the grand strategy of the Axis was the neutrality of both Finland and Romania. Interestingly, the Allies sought to take, on behalf of the USSR, neither Karelia from Finland nor Bessarabia from Romania. Similarly, the Axis weren’t especially interested in aligning curtailed countries with a halved production.
Neither the Axis nor the Allies made any major mistake, except when the advancing Western Desert Force was caught up in-between two roughed-up Italian armies, and was eliminated. With Turkey on its side, the Axis could then overrun the entire Middle East, including the British possessions from Egypt to Kuwait, as well as Syria and Iraq, with hardly any help from Germany.
With assistance from Yugoslavia, the Axis had a good and long summer in the USSR in both 1940 and 1941. By delaying the death-blow, to a USSR with only one National Will left, until January 1942, hostilities were halted in the USSR until June 1943, when the Axis hit again with a Surprise Attack. Despite taking as hard casualties as the Red Army in the once again long summer of 1943, the Axis held a straightened but not retracted line in the East, except for Turkey, which was on the retreat.
During the Moscow Treaty, the Axis had aligned Finland, Sweden, and Spain, taking Gibraltar on the go and effectively creating a modern Mare Nostrum. In 1943, the British Commonwealth and United States made successful landings in Kuwait, Norway, and especially Brittany, but made no true breakthrough during the last Fair summer months.
So, was invading both France and the USSR in 1940 a wise strategy? In this case, with weather going the Axis way, undoubtedly: Yes!
Was this a wise strategy?
The game started, as so often, with Poland relying on the Western powers and being overrun within a month. After having conquered Hungary and Denmark as well, the Axis woke up to Fair weather in the Mild Zone in April 1940. As a consequence, they promptly decided to invade Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
Except for permanently losing the German Airdrop above Oslo, operations went smoothly, and France could be conquered in June 1940 without the need of activating all German Field Units in France that month. So, by marching the remainder of the German armies into the country-to-be of Vichy before the fall of France, they could instantly be repatriated to East Prussia!
However, the Axis had maximised their air cover over France by circulating the five German Luftflotten between the Western and Eastern fronts of Germany’s Home Defence. Therefore, launching Barbarossa already in July 1940, also the Luftwaffe in the East was in urgent need of extensive repairs, lending the Red Air Force a degree of air superiority at start.
Furthermore, invading the USSR in July 1940 meant bringing forward the entry of the USA in the war (by up to a full year), including its Units and Events. Equally important, however, was that the date from which it would be impossible to collapse the USSR would not be brought forward from 1943 to 1942, despite the fact that the maximum duration of the war would be brought forward to July 1944!
Another factor in the grand strategy of the Axis was the neutrality of both Finland and Romania. Interestingly, the Allies sought to take, on behalf of the USSR, neither Karelia from Finland nor Bessarabia from Romania. Similarly, the Axis weren’t especially interested in aligning curtailed countries with a halved production.
Neither the Axis nor the Allies made any major mistake, except when the advancing Western Desert Force was caught up in-between two roughed-up Italian armies, and was eliminated. With Turkey on its side, the Axis could then overrun the entire Middle East, including the British possessions from Egypt to Kuwait, as well as Syria and Iraq, with hardly any help from Germany.
With assistance from Yugoslavia, the Axis had a good and long summer in the USSR in both 1940 and 1941. By delaying the death-blow, to a USSR with only one National Will left, until January 1942, hostilities were halted in the USSR until June 1943, when the Axis hit again with a Surprise Attack. Despite taking as hard casualties as the Red Army in the once again long summer of 1943, the Axis held a straightened but not retracted line in the East, except for Turkey, which was on the retreat.
During the Moscow Treaty, the Axis had aligned Finland, Sweden, and Spain, taking Gibraltar on the go and effectively creating a modern Mare Nostrum. In 1943, the British Commonwealth and United States made successful landings in Kuwait, Norway, and especially Brittany, but made no true breakthrough during the last Fair summer months.
So, was invading both France and the USSR in 1940 a wise strategy? In this case, with weather going the Axis way, undoubtedly: Yes!
