Memory of the Burning Years

Italian Socialist Republic

A Timeline of the Red Decades

1939: The French Offensive
As the diplomatic constraints between the two states Germany and France have not relaxed for one day since the Revolution of 1919. However the breaking point that would lead to the most devastating war on the European continent to date would come from the Alestian incident of 1939 where the Alestians under French support and mobilization erected into a massive general strike and protest that overwhelmed the police and forced the deployment of the German Army - which France responded in equal term with the deployment of French troops on the border. By the fifth day of this standoff, a platoon of German soldiers were found exchanging gunfire with French troops on their side of the border. The long awaited Ultimatum was issued soon after and in the face of mounting socialist threat, no possible negotiation was possible and thus war began with French artillery pounding across the Rhine on 7/5/1939, despite the fear of the General Staffs about the state of preparedness of the German Army and the German War Industry, both in considerable in chaos as a result of the Market Crash and German political violence.

The first phrase of the war, begun with two major French offensive, the direction of Belgium is known as the Belgian Liberation War or the First Lieges Offensive, saw the first action in the events of the Belgian National Revolt widespread confusion and chaos spread across Belgium as the head of government effectively ceased in the nationalist-socialist long planned coordinated efforts of the French Bureau sprung into action, massive partisan and paratroopers operation in the border delayed the 8th German Army in rush to reinforce the collapsing Flander-Wallonia army, in such at the same time as the costly First Battle of Alsace of the diversion offensive across the Siegfried Line as the French invaded Lorraine and Alasce in order to cut off and delay the German forces from Belgium with combat engineers and heavy artillery quickly overran a number of isolated forts of the German defenses, however heavy casualities were suffered despite considerable success in both objective in capturing Morhange and Dannemarie with nearly 100,000 deaths in the 4th and the 9th French Army, the exhausted French offensive ended after 32 days of fighting.

Meanwhile the main invasion forces annihilated Walloon border defenses in a combined Franco-British naval and infantry actions, using an modified battleplan developed prior to the war known as War Plan XXII, itself based on the failed WWI Plan XVII with mobile infantry sections and amoured columns under heavy artillery and air cover support (naturally put in place after the General Staff of the FRA was totally dominated by Generation 37' military leaders). Massive colonial debts and caught off guard in a state of demobilisation during the harsh austerity measures after the devastating 1937 Berlin Market Crash have made the mobilisation of the German Army reserve to meet with the total dark cloud that is the French Army of the interwar and the tendency to dismiss the capacity of modernisation of the French Army capacity to penentrate the Alasce-Lorraine defensee as proven in the disastrous early phrase of WWI. Within 12 days the French Army have reached Neuchatel and a week later the old National redout of Belgium is breached, as most fortified position went on disrepair as the economic and political crisis engulfed this client kingdom for many years. French Army linked up in Brussels a few days later before the first encounter with the elements of the German 8th Army attacked the French positions in Lieges. The disorganised situation in Belgium and the lacks of heavy artillery and armours on the part of the German Army in Belgium as most of the German heavy tanks were deployed in Rhineland against the 4th and 12th French Army, leaving only the 8th against the British 1st and French 2nd Army, reinforcement by the 5th effectively outnumbered and repealed its disastrous attacks while the mechanised sections of the French Army were able to exploit the fragmentation of the 8th Army leading to this formation suffering massive causality as it was pushed back from Lieges all the way to the old Belgian fortification in Eben-Emael.

Only avoiding encirclement by the arrival of the 3rd German Army in the decisive battle in the vicinity of the fort in November 1939 and determinated defense of its rear guard divisions, sudden warm up made it untenable for the French as mud from melting snow slowed down its amoured and supply units, allowing the German precious time to reorganise and prepare the counter-offensive in the decisive battle of Eben-Emael, where 36% of French amoured capacity in the 5th Army was destroyed by heavy anti-tanks regiments of the 3rd Army and the bulk of the Treaty forces withdrawn to the fortress ring of Namur, however heavy British air cover detered the German from exploiting this. This shown well the limits of calvary tanks employed extensively in French amoured battalions at the time, its lacks of firepower and armour easily deterred by organised anti-tank resistance.
In September the German with reinforcements began the counter-offense to dislodge the French from Alasce-Lorraine and Belgium before they could fortify the positions, Operation Downfallor called up all available German forces on the front with the intention of forcing a Treaty withdrawn from Belgium by a German breakthrough in Lorraine to threaten the flank of the bulk of the French Army Group North, German forces for the operation includes the arriving reinforcement by the 1st, 4th and 2nd German Army as well as the mechanised 3rd Calvary Division and the railway gun Schwerer Gustav. Complications by the mobilisation and deploymen caused considerable troubles as miscommunicated starting time delayed the attack on the Lorraine direction by several hours, allowing the French to move the British 3rd Army into the reserve, meanwhile partisan irregular operations caused heavy damage to the railway system, delayed the railway gun by several days for engineers to repair the track, effective rendered it ineffective during most of the 14 days operation. As the operation begins, despite heavy resistance from the 9th Army, the steady German advanced recaptured Dannemarie, but muddy terrain and stiff French resistance made ground the Lorraine offense into a halt. 2 days after capture of Dannemarie, units of the 9th Groups of Reserve of 4 infantry divisions reinforced the front held by 9th Army launched a counter-offense and pushed the German out of Dannemarie, an organised withdrawn into the town of Mulhouse, exploiting the stagnation and a gap in the German advance created by the overextended 4th and 2nd German Army in the Alsace direction while Lorraine failed to advance, French Army Group Centre moved the 2nd Mechanised Calvary Corps to exploit this, unable to move reserve units to fill the gap, forcing the mass withdrawn of German troops back to a line between Colmar and the river Moselle avoid being outmaneuvered, however, exhausted and depleted, neither main French formation were able to exploit the breakthrought.
With the failed offense in Alasce-Lorraine, the German offense against Army Group North stalled and eventually ended with heavy causalities. 1939 concluded with the French plan for an offensive into Germany partially achieved but strategically failed to create significant damages to the German war industries, control the Rhine crossings or creating a major breakthrough in the north by reaching Rur river. However, a large part of German defensive positions in the first layer of the Sigfried line was lost after the capture of Mulhouse.

1940: Iron Fist
After Christmas the German Reichstag have been suspended by personal order of the Kaiser and the SPD party collapsed, German political crisis that have been hindering its economical and military mobilisation finally ended. On February, the mobilisation status of the Imperial German Army could be reported completed, amounting to 4 millions troops, with 2.5 millions deployed on the front opposing 1 millions French and another 200,000 British troops, the balance of troops on the front switched to favour Germany as opposed to the situation in 1939. However, after the stagnating war situation of the previous year, both side refrained from a complete deployment of reserve as precaution of a repeat of the devastating early battles of WW1, as well as the German deployment in Finland, Armenia and the Balkan War and on the other side, the last stage of the Italian Second War of Unification.
With extensive resources now available, German General Staffs prepared its Ardennes Counteroffensive or Operation Wacht am Rhein, for a strategic breakthought on the front via the heavily forested Ardennes region with a strategic mechanised calvary corps employed tanks and mechanised forces and combat engineers to cut the Treaty army in half and annihilated Army Group North. The operation began with a series of static warfare diversional attacks on the Robespierre II Line (captured first layer of the Siegfried Line, from Mulhouse to Morhange) and the reinforced western Namur fortress rings aimed at pinning down the bulk of troops. A few weeks later on March 4, recon planes from the Force Aerienne reported multiple columns of troops traveling without lights, however it was dismissed by Treaty High Command as confidence in the heavily fortified Northern Section (Murat IV line) of the Robespierre Line as well as doubts of effectiveness an armoured forces deployment in this region. Traffic jams caused by massive forces concentration was also visible in the air but once again dismissed, on the 7th day of the operation, massive German air deployement began bombardment of the Murat pillboxes and bunkers, in almost 24 hours, the forward positions were overran, German forces were delayed by heavy casuality as they entercounter the last layers of the fortified positions where French heavy artillery was based, however it was able to overcame this by the second day. After the fall of Sedan, German offensive already lost steam as many of their panzers were destroyed in the determinated defense. This allowed time for French high command, who realised the seriousness of the German columns, elements of the British 1st Army was deployed to plug the hole but fell victim to confusion and miscommunication, were unable to contain the developing German salient and themselves pushed back and many divisions fell to encirclements, the flank of the Army Group North now threatened, a total withdrawn order back to the Murat I line on the french frontier with the German army on their tail was called, French Reserve now have to be deployed to avoid a disaster. Exploiting the fragmentation of the British 1st Army, German mechanised corps were able to advance with rapid speed for an encirclement, however, concerns were raised as they have suffered many loses to its tank battalions, from Sedan and the British, as well as an expanding thin columns raises fear of counter-attacks and supply problems.

French 1st Group of Reserves was deployed to slow down the tip of the offense, where German tank crews have not received map of their operation area came under attacks by a combined air attacks and fortified positions of Canon de 75 CA, during whats called the "Signy-l'Abbaye miracle", the fortified positions held by 97th and 82nd Infantry fought against a vastly superior forces of 3 mechanised Calvary Divisions and an independent tank brigade, extremely high casualties was inflicted on the German panzers while opposing a single tank battalion available to the 97th, after 2 days of fighting the German is forced to leave the battlefield, the position was captured 3 days later as infantry caught up and a combined assault pushed the French out. However, by this point the advance was exhausted with almost 90% tanks of the 1st Calvary Division lost or damaged, while inflicted heavy damage on the French 4th Army and the British 1st as well as the near destruction of the 1st Group of Reserves, the 5th Army undamaged from the reserve was deployed into the front to contained the stagnating advance and by the 14th day of the offensive into France, a contained salient formed. Army Group North reformed in the new defensive line Murat VII in eastern Belgium along a route into the French border (Murat I). Fighting continue and the French recaptured Sedan in May to heavy loses on German side. A repeat of World War I is a vision now foreseenable. No further major offensive would be called, as the rest of 1940 would be for the legendary Defense of the Republic air campaign and the North Sea naval and air war.

1941: Blood and Steel
No longer consider an offensive into Germany feasible as troops deployment report on the front now shows a 3.8 millions German to 2 millions Treaty forces, defense plan Gamelin which the disgraced general created was brought out again, with a new directive to hold the line, while the new victory would rely on choking out Germany with the air and naval war efforts. Control of Gibraltar have made it feasible to plug a majority of German naval routes, an attempt to seize the Rock from German-held Morroco was defeated with extreme causalities on the German and their emigres allies, while a stalemate over the North Sea means that German naval routes is still not opened. The battle of the Sedan salient was costly on the French. By March, its no longer possible to make an exploit manuever on the highly static and entrenched battlefront, German Command decided that massive offensives to break the French line is the only option, costly as it might be but a proven victory formula and German war arsenal in the 40s have much better equipments for offensive capacity. Operation Barbarossa called up almost all mechanised calvary divisions of Germany, on the main spearhead of the assault in Belgium to 6 German Armies opposing 4 Franco-British. First Battle of the Escaut lasted 15 days with the French position captured and pushed out of Belgium, ended the Belgian Republic government, severe losts suffered by both sides. The Battle of Condé and Maubege lasted 90 days with nearly 650,000 causalities on the French side and another 800,000 on German side, treaty forces now pushed in their own territory on a line from Dunkirk to Hirson, French morale is heavily damaged as they withdrawn deeper into French soil. 5 million French reserves now have been entire committed to combat. On June, news of the Russian invasion of Eastern Europe came as quiet happy cheering in the headquarter of the army in the fortified city of Paris as the city was preparing for the inevitable German offense, 6 millions Russian on its Eastern border forced Germany to redirect a large bulk of troops out of the West, effectively ended Operation Barbarossa on the wall of the Aisne.

With breathing room at least, still the Somme defensives is already being overran in many areas and German forces have captured Compiegne, threatening to encircle the Treaty forces in north France still fighting on the Dunkirk line. Despite fears of a collapse of public and military morale, the French Army ordered a voluntary redeployment into a new line from the Somme across the Seinne and the Marne, turning Paris into a Fortress City, multiple defensive rings were formed around Paris, as well as preparation within the city itself, with large parts of Northern France under occupation, the government ordered the intensification of the irregular campaign, the National Headquarter of the Francs-tireurs was created to begins operation behind the front. The events of 1941 contributed much to the resentment of frontline military leaders, as most intact corps of the French Army in Northern France were ordered to abandon territories without a fight, it also boasted the militarisation of the Bureau as it comes to direct and execute the Francs-tireurs operations and the deployment of Bureau officers into the rank of the army to counteract its declining morale.

The largest battle of 1941 came in September in the Paris Strategic Defensive Operation, as the German Army wants to break French army, and encircle the large armoured concentration in northern France. Deployment of fresh British amoured corps and new reserves corps of the Paris region defeated the German combined arms offensive. The Christmas Counter-offensive with two pincer movements from north and south of French new reorganised armoured divisions threaten the encirclement of the Compiegne salient, a German retreat back to the Belgian border was the center of fighting across early 1942, with multiple pockets of German divisions forming although most withdrawn safely as German troops numerical superiority still presents on the Western Front. The strategic withdrawn to Paris pulled the German army along into a thin corridor and made the German General Staffs pressured by politics by the public and the emperor to take Paris and conclude the war, this unpopular move relieved much pressure on the flanks of the French Army and allowed it engage in the counter-offensive against the weakened German corridor,
Breathing room in the Atlantic for the French navy came as the Canadian fleet bogged down in the American Civil War, the capture of a majority of its surface ships by revolting sailors would spell the end of the Canadian involvement in the Atlantic Sea Campaign a year later.

1942: The Burning Sea

From September 1941 to May 1942 was marked by series of French offensives to destroy the large German salient in France and push them back to the frontiers, irregular operations by the Francs-tieurs contributed greatly to the encirclements of several German divisions but the the main German armies and especially valued panzer divisions escaped these attempts. Meanwhile the French took time to reorganise their armoured corps that have been greatly damaged during the fighting in France, by October, the frontiers battles resumed the status quo ante belle, except for limited French gains in Alasce and Lorraine, the motorised calvary corps were then completely disbanded to be replaced with the new "Armoured Division", and the general replacement of the French calvary tanks in its rank, whose number were depleted in the fighting in the thousands with the now in mass production AMR 40.

The war shift downward upon the stalemate along the frontiers, Franco-British forces now moved to counter the German pressure with their Austro-Hungarian allies across the Alps as well as the defense of the Mediterranean against German and exiles invasion. The Verdun of the Sea remained the principal Treaty operation from October 1942 to March 1943. The decisive battle of Malta that the Treaty forces, despite heavier casualities, permanently destroyed the German navy's capacity in the Mediterranean and fully sealed the Strait of Gibraltar, thus ensured that German colonial resources advantage was completely neutralised as its forced through the heavily defended Atlantic, while a decisive air and naval assault on the anchored exiles fleet in Mers-el-Kébir by maneuverable torpedo bombers and better equipped more modern battleships of the French Revolutionary Navy and British Republican Navy completely disabled and damaged beyond repair as well as sinking the majority of *"Darlan's fleet"*.

1943: The Eastern Beast
The Russian heavy pressures on the Eastern Front and the lost of Ukraine pulled a large majority of German resources eastward, as the remaining forces dug in on the frontier, the exhausted Treaty forces made few small attacks along the front during this time, taking the time to reorganise and resupply its forces. The most notable events of the war would be the June Events in Poland, the German invasion of this country and the successful breakthrough up in Ruthenia by the Russian a few months later in August that saved the Government of National Defense in Eastern Poland from complete destruction, the Lublin Republic as it was referred to, controlling only 2/5 of pre-war Poland, and reduced further during the course of the German Great Eastern Counteroffense from November 1943 to the beginning of 1944 to recapture Western Ruthenia and destroy the Baltic Front, which it failed to do after the decisive Białystok–Minsk defensive operation.
Meanwhile as the war shifted south for the Treaty, the failed Parenzo Raid by the British Republican Marine marked the beginning of the Adriatic series of operations against the Austro-Hungarian Navy, much outdated by the time of the war, although still formidable against the stretched out Treaty forces and the limited Italian navy despite reinforced by captured ships of the Bourbon Monarchy. Treaty forces made great use of commando raids and torpedo boat actions as well as torpedo biplane bomber, which was much effective against Austrian bases from the Italian coast, the situation was severe enough that most Austrian ships stay anchored in dock. Further cripped by the guerilla war is being waged by the Croatian National Movement disrupting the precious oil of the Empire, on June 1943, Operation Guardian arrived with the naval force of Britain ferrying Italian troops near Split on the east, the easy Treaty forces landing met with little resistance aside from pockets of small Austrian garrisons and Croatian Home Guards, especially made hard as the Croatian National Movement rose up in support of their benefactor, with the capture of Split, caught surprised, most coastal batteries were not able brought to bear in time and lacking ammunition, causing only minor damage to a French cruiser, while lightly defended to the east, its 700 strong garrison was surrended to Major Cino Moscatelli of the Italian Red Army. Thus begun the 6 months long Battle of the Dalmatia Coast.
In the background of the Levant War, as the Ottoman State fell into a state of civil war, a detachment of combined Bureau-RED forces was delployed later known as the Lawrence Force, Major General T.E Lawrence's return to the desert. German naval marine in Djibouti and East Africa deployed another forces to the desert to counter this development and to avoid the secure of the Ottoman oil, despite at that point impossible to supply to Germany, would better off not in the hand of their enemy, the I Marine-Infantry Regiment departed for Arabia and trek their way up north.

1944: Glory
While the Battle of Dalmatia rages on, as the Austro-German forces trying to push the Italo-British forces back to the sea, in January forces opposing the Treaty forces along the frontiers are now in an advantage to France, meanwhile failure to open the strait and secure victory in the Northsea Operations in combination with the lost of Romania and Ukraine means that German national economy, in a fragile state since the 1937 collapse which was brought to the war unwillingly started to disintergrate, food and fuel crises begun to plague german cities, several cases of riots despite martial laws occurred meanwhile the situation in Canada and the US provided the treaty forces with a new source of oil that now is arriving saving the Treaty forces from a completely starvation of fuel now as its pre-war reserve depleted. Supreme Command of the Treaty Military drafted up the offensive known as Operation Justice Deliverance, with the intention of a breakthrough in Lorraine to cut off the German Army in Northern Germany and Belgium, with two parts of the Operation:
* Justice: Massive airborne and naval operations to capture key bridge along the Meuse rivers to cut off German troops and secure the advance into Germany.
* Deliverance: A massive amoured offensive to punch through the German defenses in the Lorraine sector and link up with Justice to encircle German forces.

Another offensive, Operation Kellerman was also in place to capture Alsace as a diversion as to the intention of the Lorraine offensive.

On April 1944, not accompanied by usual weeks long artillery bombardment that usually denote an offensive, the 1943 Spring Offensive begins, more than 4 French Armies was designated Army Group Lorraine with the objective of advancing from the Thionville (Diedenhofen)-Neufchateau salient toward the river Sauer and the Army Group Center remaining forces to conduct Operation Kellerman advancing toward the Rhine, bypassing German defensives and encircle Strasbourg. Caught off-guard by underestimation of remaining French strengh to mountain an offensive across the border while the Battle of Dalmatia is still going on, as well as handicapped by facing the Third Belarus Offense by the Eastern Alliance, as well as overwhelmed by French armoured forces,      the German defensives in Alsace-Lorraine completely overran after 3 days of the operation, completely bypassed German fortified fortress cities, in the case of Metz, a local infiltration operation by the Bureau led to this city capture with barely any fighting as British and French commando neutralised the military headquarters and communications. Operation conducted by the First Airborne Army launched on Saarland tricked the German military into thinking it objectives was to capture the Rhinland bridges, by 7th day of operation, Aachen is reached and the sickle curve back into the Belgium toward the Dutch border, still unaware of this development, a German counter-offensive to relief the besieged Strasbourg was ordered, which despite intial successes, was grounded to a halt as its forces were withdrawn in a hurry to move north to hold the positions threatened by Lorraine Army Group.
With a fast developing salient now threaten the encirclement of entire German Army Group, forces were quickly dashed into battles including many nearby Landwehr divisions that was still on leave, the most controversial action during the war was the decision to fire bomb german railway hubs along the way, creating massive population displacement into the roads and trains that delayed several days the German responses. Disorganised, underequipped and ill-prepared divisions were easily pushed back and divided and encircled in battle of destructions along an ever expanding French salient while an attempt to retake Aachen and break the column was defeated due to a situation best described as total breakdown in the General Staff and hospitalised Kaiser Wilhelm II by a fit of anxiety and rage. The severed German supply line quickly show its effect as German infantry divisions attempting to breakthrough was pushed back and nearly 450,000 German troops was now trapped in the Belgium pocket. German Navy began right away a series of convoy operations to re-establish supplies but was quickly threatened by both a lacks of fuel and British air forces.

After the failed counter-attack in Aachen and Saarland, French forces ultise the disorganisation of German troops in the West to launch the Operation East Wind or later known as the Advance to the Rhine, from their positions on the Maar river. Once again, French amoured divisions was able to push back German divisions across the front, however, with a determinated defense in Saarland made untentable the advance as the French spreadhead toward Cologne overextended and forced to delay as well as the stretched out French supply line ground the offensive down several days, allowing German engineers to demoblish the bridges in Rhineland and reinforce their positions, effectively failed in its objective to secure a bridgehead across the rhine, but at the same time, German forces are pushed back beyond the rhine on the entire Franco-German front.
With the ever critical situation in the Belgium pocket, relief offensives for the encircled Alasce-Lorraine pockets became a small priority as German forces attempt many time to break the French salient from Saarland. However, despite this, German forces still managed to resist effectively for a certain time in the Fortress city of Nancy and Strasbourg, with a small corridor reinforcing it, the defender of Nancy was able to hold the city until the status quo with half the Marne–Rhine Canal dividing German area and French control area. Strasbourg fell after 14 days fighting with massive bombardment by arriving divisions of the British Army, the liberation of Alsace is completed.

1945: Advance to the East
After the annihilation of the Brabant Pocket, German forces rallied to a defensive line around the Wesser River in the North, while the front in the south is still stable around the eastern side of the Rhine despite the French forces salient of Freiburg. The Wesser Line was breached completely on Ferburary as German reserves was not able to reinforce it in time. Army Group Bavaria is formed from the combined 5 Armies in Army Group Center and North to break out from the salient and develop toward Austria and encircle the German Army in Wurttemberg. Intense pressure from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Army after the Hungarian Plain Offensive pushed the German forces in Austria into South German to avoid an encirclement by French forces from the North who have reached Passau and the Russian to the East. The Battle of Brandenburg started as the combined forces of the Treaty Armies conveyed on the Elbe, attempting to advance on Berlin in two major spearheads at Dresden and Tangernmunde. On October, French forces reached the city of Berlin, which have been turned into a fortress city. The secret treaty was signed shortly after, Russian troops arrived on the Western front in time for Rommel's attempt to push the Treaty back via a counter-offensive from the Wittenberge direction. The offensive successfully advanced the line but was forced to halt due to a lack of fuel as, a few days later Berlin capitulated. German troops withdrawn toward the Oder after the Russian line. A ceasefire occured at the front due to uncertainty between the two co-belligences.

After the War
The 1948 Oslo Agreement provided the framework for european diplomatic relationships.