France Fights On (English Translation) - Thread II - To the continent!

[demolitiondan]

That's not making any sense. With all of Greece liberated why there is a mutiny in the first place? If nothing else the fleet has no need to heavily recruit from merchant marine crews that tended to have more than their share of communists. Post that what's the mutiny supposed to demend in the first place, with a government that has public legitimacy around? I also short of doubt it would be Voulgaris as CNO as opposed to some more influential Venizelist like Demestichas nut that's a different matter.

Well Lascaris It didn't escaped to you that the mutiny is far smaller than OTL, and even this without (with should I say less ?) merchant sailors. This event has no clear motives - it is some kind of burst of bad will. Some kind of warning also, to the fact that Greece stay very fragile, even if it is in far better shape than OTL.

 

[Wings]

May 19th, 1944

Yugoslavia torn apart
Checkmate?
White Palace (Dedinje Royal Estate, Belgrade) - Colonel Miodrag Rakić is officially appointed Chief of Staff of the Royal Yugoslav Armed Forces. A transitional solution, to be sure, and one that really fools no one. In fact, if everyone is willing to grant Rakić courage as well as loyalty*, this airman is only ever a zealous servant of the Karađođević dynasty. Therefore, no major operational or political revolution should be expected from him. Everyone has known since 1941 that he takes his orders from the palace, and nowhere else - indeed, during the invasion, it had taken a written instruction from the king to make him evacuate his regiment to Greece**!
But this does not make London any less happy, and it does not take long for London to "propose" a representative to Belgrade, as foreseen in its letter. It is General Robert Graham Stone, who is a little bored in Egypt these days... Before, of course, other inevitable governmental arrangements, with or without the Yugoslav conspirators.

A game that is not really funny anymore
Belgrade - After their first contacts with Brasic - always problematic, but everyone knows that, in the end, only the defense of Yugoslavia against the Bolshevik peril matters to the general - the group of conspirators issues a new declaration calling without delay all Yugoslavs of good will to unite behind the Army and its allies, "in the face of the new foreign intervention on [their] soil".
The Red Army is not specifically targeted, but it is all the same. And with regard to London, it is a clear warning: the Royal Army would not admit a presence of the Red Army on its territory, with or without the blessing of the United Nations. The risk is too great, and the prospect, in this case, of a dissolution of the Kingdom in the USSR because of the AVNOJ seems too certain.
So certainly, it is all the same a little to turn the back to his friends and to bite the hand which feeds them. But in fact, Dušan Simović is already considered by some to be one of the main culprits of the 1941 debacle, even though he was at the forefront of the coup against the regent Paul. It is understandable that he does not want to repeat the experience and be seen as a British puppet...

Emergency measures (reinforced)
Tirana - After a short interview with Sylvestre Audet, who did not teach him much - except that the Greeks do not intend to put their little finger in the Yugoslavian gear of their own free will (and even less now that the Soviets are there! ), that the means of the French 2nd Army are clearly insufficient to pretend to act alone, and that, in general, the leader of this army is close to depression due to the number of setbacks and massacres - Roland de Margerie is heading for his next appointment, with Ivan Šubašić. The latter took the initiative to leave Skopje to join him in the middle of the afternoon.
The Frenchman emerges from this meeting with the certainty that Ivan Šubašić is particularly competent, diplomatic (and even kind - not everyone in this part of the world is like that!) and above all, eager to do everything possible to peacefully resolve this "more or less open" civil war in Yugoslavia, by setting up a federal state. Based on his observations and personal convictions, Šubašić tends to think that only the AVNOJ proposes, at this time, a realistic project for the future of the Yugoslav Nation. "The problem is that this opinion is not shared by everyone!" he concludes with a sad smile.
On this point, Margerie will not contradict him! He already knew from his talks with Blum that imposing a takeover of power by the Titists, even if one avoided that Broz was de jure in charge, would constitute a casus belli for the Yugoslav royal forces (including those who, at this time, no longer supported Peter II), a call for insurrection by a large part of the Serbian-Montenegrin population, the best way to galvanize the Croat-Slovenian resistance... and, more generally, a dangerous precedent for the United Nations, not to mention the approval granted to the USSR for its own actions in Eastern Europe. It is therefore necessary to force the way for a median solution.
So far, nothing new under the sun. Except that, because of the events in progress, Operation Horn of Plenty, and the recent rallying of ministers Boris Furlan and Jovan Banjanin, the General Delegation for the Administration of the Liberated Yugoslav Territories has clearly left a simple role of transitional mess. It must still (according to Léon Blum's wishes) guarantee peace in the rear of the 2nd Army, but from now on it must also set an example and inspire others by becoming a third force that was supposedly supported by the Allied armies and generally respected by the other contenders - either because of a desire for what it could bring, or simply because of a lack of means.
Margerie therefore believes that this General Delegation should be relied upon more strongly to impose a political solution. It could even be the key... Even though, paradoxically, Šubašić has at this time absolutely no mandate or anything that allows him to claim to discuss as an equal with Peter or Tito! However, relations between France and the Belgrade government are at a standstill at this time... And as, simply because of the support of French arms, Šubašić has also lost his aura of neutral mediator supposed to negotiate for the common interest...
Oh, well! Before we even go any further, it remains to be seen whether the AVNOJ - which apparently imagines itself to be in a position of strength with the Soviet intervention underway - is willing to deign to negotiate in the slightest. Or if, in the end, the titists are ready, like the chetniks and other fierce royalists, to play the politics of the worst in order to impose themselves by arms after the war (or even during it), following the Albanian model. It is necessary to clarify this ambiguity as quickly as possible, to specify positions, to define a line... In fact, it is necessary above all to know what it will be possible to obtain from the AVNOJ, what it is possible to impose on it and what constitutes for it "red lines" (a smile comes to his face at this expression...). The basis of diplomacy!
Margerie plans to apply himself as of tomorrow - he has indeed obtained the assurance of Edvard Kardelj of his presence at the meeting planned in Podgorica. On this side, the Frenchman has not forgotten the oral (but very clear!) instruction given to him by a President of the Council visibly out of patience on this subject: "Succeed or fail, but in any case, do it quickly! And, in fact, the diplomat does not envisage anything else.
.........
Off the Pula Peninsula (Croatia) - The Greek-French convoy led by the RHS Ierax arrives off the large peninsula between Trieste and Fiume, which is virtually no longer controlled by anyone since the Italian turnaround of Christmas 1942. Here, sheltered by the weather (but also by Allied air cover) against an air raid or a maritime interception - although both seem highly unlikely - the small cargo ships will quickly transfer their cargoes to a crowd of small skiffs coming from everywhere, coordinated in some way, but all carrying the red pentagram. It is the fleet of the Partisans: coasters, trawlers, patrol boats and pleasure boats. An innumerable, fragile... and invaluable dust to distribute food, medical supplies and other necessities all along the coast, from Umag to Karlobag.

The way of reason
Surroundings of Višegrad - Before returning to the reactionaries at home, Milovan Đilas is going to give his leader a first report... surprisingly encouraging regarding the ongoing political dealings. Specifically, the Croatian Peasant Party - in the person of its leader Juraj Krnjević - and especially the much more powerful Democratic Party of Milan Grol agree to consider the possibility of a rapprochement in the form of a common program. In view of the situation, everyone suspects that this is more of a rallying than an equal merger... But no matter, the principle is no less promising. What Marshal Tito already calls the new Popular Front of Yugoslavia already includes three of the country's major political formations!***
So, of course, the details still have to be worked out: technical negotiations, political compromises, bones to be left to the reactionaries so that they can gnaw on something while claiming victory. All the same, it is astonishing to choose to rely on the relics of the old world to claim to build the new one. And that, by the way, is not what surprises Đilas most about the Chief's decisions these days...

Red Messiah
Around Višegrad - In the evening, taking advantage of all the means of communication in his possession (including the radios of the French 2nd Army, which did not object for obvious reasons), Marshal Josip Broz Tito addresses all Croats in the service of the NDH - soldiers, workers, technicians, officers and local officials - to inform them that the AVNOJ is offering them amnesty for all their actions, on the sole condition that they join the Partisan army from now on! Let's wipe the slate clean, as the song says - and to better support his point, Tito also announces the imminent creation of a new specifically Croatian unit, led by a leading official who has now repented!
In short, the Marshal is proposing his own version of the decree of forgiveness by arms - except that it concerns all Croats, whereas Peter II is mainly addressing the Panserbian nerves of the late Mihailovic. Tito is great, Tito is generous, Tito is magnanimous. The opposite of the King, therefore - and this is perhaps what a certain number of Ustasha were waiting for to take the plunge... It is therefore a new catastrophe for the Zagreb regime, which did not really need it.

Croatia brought to heel
Zagreb - Following the meeting of the 17th, Gruppenführer Konstantin Kammerhofer is officially promoted to Befehlshaber of all German and German-controlled police forces (i.e., Croatian police) on NDH territory. Having now full powers, he announces his intention to merge the units of the NDH with those of the 2. SS-GebirgsArmee, which would result in the dissolution of the last Ustasha troops!
This merger would obviously not be egalitarian - Kammerhofer foresees nothing other than a strictly German command, with the natives occupying only subordinate positions, under supervision. But we are not there yet - the SS's first concern is to fill the Croatian armed forces, Hrvatske Oruzane Snage or regulars, in order to be able to bring solid reinforcements to the Waffen SS. For this, he saw only one solution: forced conscription, as many as necessary. The Handschar and the Prinz-Eugen need people these days...
Ambassador Siegfried Kasche appeals in vain, if not for moderation, at least for a little... diplomacy. Konstantin Kammerhofer and his new power don't care: good German blood is flowing to defend Bosnia and Croatia. So from now on, for the Ustasha, it will be the row or the pack!
.........
Lepoglav prison (northern Croatia) - However, the Zagreb regime continues, at the same time, to give every sign of radicalism and extremism, forced by the Reich to demonstrate its loyalty as soon as possible. Thus, the trial of the May 7th conspirators begins today, by the special court that has already sentenced the Serbian airmen to death.
Obviously, the proceedings are rigged - it is unnecessary, however, the evidence is relentless, just look at the report of Ante Štitić, the alleged friend of Vokić! The exchanges do not continue, between hysterical speeches on the purity of the Croatian race and oaths of loyalty to the Poglavnik Ante Pavelic ... The result is predictable. In fact, and despite the efforts of Andrija Artuković to try to give the whole thing a bit of a hold, the trial is mostly marked by the resignation of the accused. Ante Vokić and Mladen Lorković do not even make the effort to defend themselves... Where is the show, under these conditions?
.........
The NDH, takes back control of this sector, although nominally, because of the close presence of the Karstjäger, and the links of total submission between the Hrvatske Oruzane Snage and the Reich, and more generally because of the limited confidence the latter gives to the Ustasha. The latter nevertheless had plenty of time to see the damage inflicted by their alleged allies: if the villages are not razed to the ground, there are still half a thousand dead or missing people everywhere around Karlovac - sometimes burned in their houses, sometimes thrown into hastily dug pits.
Obviously, in the minds of the Nazis, this was to show that it was not appropriate to follow the example of the inhabitants of the region. But since 1939, everyone has seen the relative effectiveness of reprisals in the fight against terrorism. And it is not certain that the Croats - who are known to be very resentful, like many inhabitants of the Balkans - have understood the meaning of the message that Hans Brandt wanted to convey...

Croatian Defection
Zagreb - The lightning that illuminates the Axis lines this morning naturally benefits the ZNDH. Thus, a Cant Z.1007bis of the Kroat. Ampstaffel 2 takes off in the morning for a training and reconnaissance flight, but lands... in Allied-controlled Italy, on the San Andrea airfield. On board are Sergeants Mehmedalija Lošic (pilot), Drago Sporer (radio operator), Marko Mešic, Ivan Novosel and Antun Kobedić and midshipman Hunsija Celemerović.
This is the beginning of a long series of defections of airmen. The ZNDH was already not too loyal in its first operations - the turn of the conflict, the events of May 7th, and then the subsequent trusteeship largely aggravated its infidelity. But the Ustasha leaders cannot do much about it, except to disband all the squadrons and transfer the airmen to the infantry...
This is what the Germans are thinking of doing - if Major Franjo Džal doesn't mind, they have never forgotten the multiple desertions of his own fighter group, nor those - repeated to the point of being annoying - of the ZNDH in general****. So, if they are willing to reinforce the Croatian anti-aircraft defense by repatriating the FlakLegion (about 120 cadets, currently deployed in northern France, and thus in the process of being "redeployed" to Germany), from now on, the fighter planes will be under Heer guard.
And in the evening, as a further vexation, Lieutenant Marijan Dolanski, Air Attaché in Berlin, who had come to complain about the deplorable condition of the last four Croatian Fiat BR.20s in flying condition, is told that the long-planned training of a fourth legionnaire squadron on Junker 88s is finally cancelled. The crews will go to Miroslavov, in Poland, for infantry training. People are needed on the Eastern Front, and since these ones have been volunteered for this destination*****...

* In May 1941 he commanded the 1st Bombardment Regiment (on Blenheims manufactured by Ikarus). He personally harangued this unit during the coup to encourage it to support the future royal government or, in case of failure, to flee to Greece with Peter II. Later, during the invasion, he himself flew a bomber to make particularly risky passes on the small roads of Macedonia, not hesitating to return to bomb the panzer columns despite the now alert Flak, because his navigator-bomber, Lieutenant Velizar Vučković, had... confused the switch of the 10 kg bombs with that of the 100 kg bombs during the first (and normally only) pass. However, it took a few solicitations, according to the testimony of the aforementioned Vučković... Understandably, this bold maneuver cost Miodrag Rakić his two wingers, who were shot down by the Flak.
** OTL, on April 12th, 1941 at Bijelina, Miodrag Rakić had assembled a good part of his unit, reinforced with survivors of the 11th Distant Reconnaissance Regiment (that is, at least thirty Blenheims), as well as a host of various aircraft, all ready to leave for Greece. Then it sank into indecision - time for about thirty Bf 110 of the 1/ZG.26 to come in and massacre most of the planes on the ground! Even today, Serbian historians claim that a clandestine radio station was set up in the nearby village, supposedly populated by German settlers. Nothing has ever been proven, but bad weather or not, these settlers have undoubtedly made very convenient scapegoats...
*** In reference to the first one, created in June 1935 in Split in reaction to the dictatorship of January 6th. It brought together mainly communist parties and trade unions as well as youth associations.
**** Desertions were always from the ZNDH to the AVNOJ or the United Nations. OTL, there was only one exception: the Croat Josip Volaric, who crossed with his Fieseler 156 from Eastern Bosnia (with the Partisans) to Banja Luka (controlled by the NDH) on November 2nd, 1943.
***** Thrown into the front line during the Oder offensive, this unit spontaneously retreated to the south. It managed to cross the Czech, Slovak and Hungarian territories to surrender to the British!

 

[Wings]

May 20th, 1944

Balkan Campaign
Vremya Tsvetov (Time of Flowers) - White corollas and poppies
Sarajevo Region - Since last night, the weather is more or less good again on the Soviet pocket. It is happy! The Sokolov squadron, in charge of the connections between the USSR and the territories controlled by the AVNOJ, takes advantage of it to carry out some parachuting of supplies - by warning the Westerners this time. But above all, the return of air operations allows the capitalist air force to carry out some missions to support the besieged paratroopers. Although they are not coordinated at all with the paratroopers and are made quite risky by the Flak (two Bucephalus were shot down; one of the pilots was killed), they significantly hamper the Axis forces, are were very slowed down in their sweeps as well as in their progression.
However, it is not because the Soviet paratroopers are now supported by air that their situation is much better - one can even say that it remains dramatic. In fact, what remains of the 1st Airborne Corps cannot even pretend to hold the ground in a pitched battle against the elements of the Polizei or the Nederland. It is therefore content to slide more or less painfully southward, avoiding the valley of the Mlava to remain at least a little sheltered from the relief, in the vicinity of Liješeva, unable for the time being to pass the Grabovac then the Orasački Potok and finally the Zimačnica. So many small rivers that, without forming real obstacles, nevertheless slow down the progress and expose the fighters.
It becomes decidedly urgent to consider a retreat - for example, in coordination with the Allies, which we finally managed to reach through an HF radio connected to the AVNOJ frequencies of the Sokolov squadron. However, at this time, Moscow still refuses to consider the possibility of a complete failure of Time of Flowers, preferring to seek the means to perpetuate the deployment of Glazkov's forces in the area, possibly by joining the Titists. That is to say, to maintain against all odds the foreseen plan... On the other hand, the allied staffs, who are willing to make an effort but cannot attempt the impossible, can only suggest the evacuation of the parachutists...

Operation Veritable - The Siege of Sarajevo and Operation Ratweek
Sarajevo area - The allied forces around the basin embark on a vast - but controlled - effort to support the AVNOJ attacks towards the north. This is Operation Ratweek, decided on during the night by Montgomery following his exchanges the previous day. It is therefore launched with a real sense of urgency, but not in a hurry, which would not be in keeping with the character of the recent Field Marshal.
In fact, for the time being, Ratweek comprises mainly an "air force reinforced with artillery" component. Ground operations will come later, once the most favorable local tactical configuration has been determined. As such, no assault is planned in the Sava valley - this would have been very possible for the Balkan Division Group of Camille Caldairou, who has virtually nothing in front of him but the Ustasha of the worst kind, loosely reinforced by a so-called elite Croatian division (the 1st Assault Division) and the SS Kama brigade. However, such a movement, although very threatening on the Axis flank, was considered too uncertain... and paradoxically too dangerous for the enemy: it could have triggered a large withdrawal of the 2. SS-GebirgArmee, which would not have favored future operations in Hungary. Thus, the Allies also seem to have an interest in prolonging the bloodbath in Bosnia - as long as it does not cost them too much and takes place far from the important thing.
And yet, it works! Oh, not so much in the south of the basin - in spite of the confusion still reigning around the mount Igman and the sources of Bosnia, the Titist forces here are too tired, their adversaries too strong and the Greeks still too far to be able to weigh: the bulk of the 13th ID of Charalambos Katsimitros is in Kijevo, 12 kilometers further east.
On the other hand, to the east of the basin, the line of the 14. SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgsjäger Rgt Reinhard-Heydrich, even reinforced with a good part of the 8. SS-Panzer-Grenadier Rgt, starts to suffer a lot. One could even say that it is threatened with encirclement between the 8th "Dalmatian" Corps, the 12th "Vojvodina" Corps, the two Greek mountain brigades and (also) the 1st ID which comes down from Olovo. August Schmidhuber begins to fear a real envelopment of his most advanced positions... However, it is impossible to withdraw, as this would mean opening the door of the valley to the plutocrats who are too happy to break through from the summits!
So, the SS has no choice: delegating to Walter Schimana the management of his entire right flank up to Sedrenik - that is, roughly the White Fortress - Schmidhuber postpones the bulk of his efforts to the south, in order to continue to hold against all odds the Goat Bridge, and especially the reliefs of Donje Međuše up to Lukavica, now firmly repelling all infiltrations. All in the hope that in the south, the Greeks do not wake up, there too, to threaten the district of Dobrinja. Because in such an eventuality, it is indeed the SS center - and therefore the unity of its device - that would be threatened! Finally, in the north, the Polizei holds... That's something!
.........
Mostar region - The 2nd "Proletarian" Division of Peko Dapcevic continues to try to go down towards the valley of the Neretva, without succeeding in anything but losing men (and women) while climbing in hostile rocks. Uncomfortable with the offensive, undermanned and in difficult terrain, the 2nd "Shock" Corps is not far from giving up. But they have to dare to do so...

Air warfare
Over the Balkans - Support missions over Dalmatia and central Bosnia continue. Most often within the framework of Ratweek, i.e. for the Partisans, they are essentially carried out by the French, Greek and Czechoslovak air forces.
In fact, if Monty is willing to authorize General Weiss' 2nd Air Force to act as a utility for others, he keeps the imperial squadrons under control, which are ordered to fill up with ammunition and fuel, to maintain their aircraft and to rest their pilots in anticipation of the days to come. Because the new Marshal intends to attack Hungary again very quickly - with everything that is happening further north, that is the minimum!

AVNOJ
The fight has resumed!
Croatia (west), Lika-Senj - The Croatian offensive against the 4th "Croatian" Corps (also!) of Ivan Gosnjak and Veeslav Holjevac is decidedly not getting anywhere.
From Otrić, the 3rd ID Osijek (Emil Radl) is curtly pushed back to the outskirts of Gračac - essentially by the 8th ID Kordun whose leader, Vlado Cetkovic, has sagaciously chosen to let his opponent come to him. The latter has dispersed by occupying the ground (well obliged, to secure its communications!) and now lends the flank to attacks from Glogovo. Nothing very serious, in short, for the Titists - they have seen worse, recently and in the same place, facing the SS of the Handschar. It is not a handful of unmotivated veterans accompanied by frightened recruits that will worry them ...
Same immobility on the side of the Krupa rise - there, all day, the Croats of colonel Mirko Greguric hide in the rocks, to take shelter from allied planes much more numerous than the previous days, and which fly very low... The 2nd ID Vrbaska is under the Veliki Crnopac. It still has two or three kilometers to make until the pass it aims for. It should thus normally emerge on the Gračac plateau... one day!

 

[Wings]

May 20th, 1944

Yugoslavia torn apart
Checkmate?
White Palace (Dedinje Royal Estate, Belgrade) - Colonel Miodrag Rakić takes office in an atmosphere of palpable resignation, albeit without hostility - proof, if any were needed, that the business of royalty is first and foremost a family affair, and a united family at that. Between Rakić and Lozić, there is probably only the thickness of the line, and the manners of an aviator a little more decorated and therefore a priori more respected than his brother.
The British do not care, no doubt. For them, the door is now open and it will soon be possible to impose their men in key positions - for example, the members of Borivoje Mirković's group, which is showing signs of agitation these days. Well, their leader has already indicated that he does not want a political post... But there are still a lot of military posts to be filled!
As for his colleagues... In London, many are starting to look suspiciously at Petar Živković or Momčilo Ninčić. They would be well rid of them, replacing them, for example, with Mirković or Simović, while waiting to change the Prime Minister altogether. The French will support, of course - as usual, they will be made to play nice, they love it and may even place some members of their General Delegation. But first, Graham Stone has to get to Belgrade...

A game that is no longer really funny
Belgrade - At the same time, the group of conspirators - who, together with Brasic and a good part of the military apparatus, are still looking for a way to get the Soviets out of the country as soon as possible - learns from the Palace the news of the reshuffle that is taking place. It had been announced the day before... This time, His Majesty did not want to back down and this is a good thing - a sign that She is finally taking control of the court of intriguers and vicious people who have blinded Her for so long. So, for sure, the circumstances are dark and the symbol hardly glorious... but times are hard and necessity is the law. Too bad, it's a setback, but at least not a humiliation. And then, no one among them will regret Miodrag Lozić!
Would the loyalist generals, however legalistic and pro-crown they may be, be so conciliatory if they knew that London is about to impose, at the head of their forces, a British officer from its colonies? He is going to come to them to tell them how to organize their armies, where to wage war and above all how to wage it! Their reaction is uncertain... well, for all those who, like Stone, do not know the Balkans! Because the others have no doubt.

Emergency measures (reinforced)
Podgorica - Roland de Margerie is definitely not at the end of his Yugoslav surprises. As soon as he arrives in the capital of Montenegro and is introduced to Edvard Kardelj in an atmosphere that is a little less tense than he had anticipated, he is informed that his host... had nothing special to tell him, other than that Marshal Tito wished to see him, for an urgent and special meeting! It will be however in his GHQ "for obvious security reasons" - adds with malice the Slovenian.
Certainly... but Višegrad is far, and the roads of the region are at least bad (when they exist !). It is not serious, answers Kardelj: it is enough to take the plane. A Fieseler Storch, smeared with red stars and obviously very tired, is already waiting outside. The Partisans didn't go so far as to propose a Soviet plane... although on reflection, Margerie might have preferred one.
.........
Off the Pula peninsula (Croatia) - The refuelling operations continue until early this morning - they last all night, despite the risks for the sailors as well as for the navigation. The RHS Ierax and its small herd are able to weigh anchor at dawn, to sail down to the Otranto Channel under the protection of the Allied air force.
If the Partisans have put so much ardor into their work, it is because they are in great need of what has just been delivered to them... In fact, in the sector administered by the SNOS on behalf of the AVNOJ, the war is expensive and the winter has been harsh. And yet, we are not in occupied Bosnia or in the "extended" Croatian territories, ravaged this winter by operation Brzo! The Franco-Greeks are now well aware of this - even the Slovenes need them. By the way, during the day, the field of Črnomelj will also receive some deliveries from DESTROMO.

The path of reason
Between Bosnia and Serbia - Milovan Đilas sets out again for Serbia, taking advantage of the "understanding" that the AVNOJ enjoyed at this time from the Allies as well as from the chaos reigning de facto among the "legal" Yugoslav authorities. The mandate of the one who is, in fact, one of the closest to the Old Man, is clear: to negotiate the rallying of the Croatian Peasant Party and the Democratic Party within a new Popular Front of Yugoslavia, which will be proclaimed as soon as it is formed... at any credible price.
It is only a short step from there to saying that the Titists attach little importance to their long-term promises - which no one will take at the moment, because, in the end, all those who are not already caught up in the shenanigans of the despot in Belgrade only want to believe it. "Yugoslavs of all ethnicities, unite!" Đilas suppresses the beginnings of a smile at this bad line.
Besides, it's not as if AVNOJ doesn't offer some guarantees, or proof of goodwill. First, there is the very generous (for the region and for the time...) social policy of the Partisan movement, although the Westerners contribute a lot to it. Secondly, there are its particularly flexible recruitment methods - we have recently seen an excellent and spectacular example of this, not to mention the presence of August Košutić at the Marshal's side, as a token of the consideration that the HSS is held in here.
And then, above all, there is Tito - the tutelary figure of the Marshal, worthy of the great Western leaders. His aura and successes already erase the pathetic attempts of some reactionary seditionists. Yes, today even more than yesterday (and yet already yesterday, his conviction was more than anchored!), Đilas is convinced that the Old Man is the key to everything. That's why the Chetniks wanted to kill him - today he is, in fact, the centerpiece, the decisive symbol, the soul of the entire South Slavic Nation - just as Stalin was able to unite the USSR in the face of the fascist hordes, in an eloquent example to be followed (at least on principle).
Milovan Đilas has full confidence in his leader - as a result, he has full confidence in victory. And so it is perfectly serene that he continues his journey in a convoy to the Serbian land.

Red Messiah
Around Višegrad - The news of the amnesty granted the day before surprised the ranks of the Partisans - to say the least. Not to the point, of course, of questioning the authority of the leader - in fact, everyone understood the purpose of this operation, which was certainly painful, but undoubtedly necessary. However, some people suddenly have doubts: those who were concerned about a strict alignment with the Soviet Union, a nation that had already been gloriously victorious, but which had never been seen recruiting in the German ranks. Well, among Slovaks, Poles, Romanians and other Bulgarians, it's true - but that's because they are the ones who came to throw themselves at the feet of the Red Army, begging it to allow them to fight at its side.
Nikolai Korneev is one of those who doubts. The head of the Soviet mission, charged with kindly advising the Partisans - and thus also with encouraging them to return to the right path if they deviated from it - came to see Marshal Broz. Although seduced by the character, whose successes he now greatly esteems, as well as the undeniable courage of his soldiers, the Soviet does not fully understand the meaning of this maneuver, by nature reactionary, divisive ... and especially offering too easy forgiveness to traitors, criminals, murderers, who will be tomorrow's seeds of misfortune if they are allowed today to sink into the ground where we plant the seeds of the future! This while, very close to there, the Red Army fights for the Yugoslavs!
Faced with this expected diatribe - which he suspects is only the first of a long salvo to come from Moscow - Tito takes the time to explain. To argue. To show pedagogy. Yugoslavia is a fractured nation, subject to narrow nationalisms - which have done much harm to the common project - without ever having had the chance to unite under a common banner. One cannot expect the same level of socialist perfection from the country as from the USSR, where the Party has been in charge for 35 years. Consequently, this amnesty - which is not an oblivion, but simply an offer of redemption, rather like the penal battalions of the Red Army - does not claim to erase or endorse the past. But simply to wipe the slate clean, according to the well-known expression, very Marxist and which - above all - will not prevent Justice from passing tomorrow. But in times of peace, and only if necessary.
This salvo of arguments is enough for Korneev to drop the case - but they are not strong enough to convince him, let alone convince Moscow. So, as soon as the general-major limps out, Tito comments to those close to him: "Obviously, not everything will be understood right away. All the more reason to go quickly, very quickly even. This is the condition for success."
In response, Aleksandar Ranković then risks: "Between the Soviets and the Ustasha, I would still prefer to have the Soviets as friends!"
- But so would I, Comrade Leka! Simply, this is not a choice between the USSR and Yugoslavia, but a decision that will allow the creation of a Yugoslavia on the model of the USSR. Look at dear Nikolai Vasilevich - he loves me and I love him too. But tomorrow I will also love all those of good will who will come to us to redeem their faults and shed their blood for the Revolution... And yet, if he only knew what I have in store for him!" concludes the Marshal, throwing an ironic smile towards the door through which Korneev exited.

Purged Slovenia
Ljubljana (Slovenia) - The purge in the Slovenian National Guard seems to be calming down. After the arrest of Ernest Peterlin - who was said to be on his way to Dachau, along with several of his fellow soldiers - the Reich considers that it has done away with traitors, opportunists and other seditious people who do not believe in the final victory.
Leon Rupnik can breathe easy - his other subordinates, Franc Krenner and Vuk Rupnik in the forefront, are therefore considered safe, in the opinion of the Germans themselves. And his fragile power, which owes everything to Berlin, has emerged from the ordeal not weakened but strengthened. We should not end up with a Croatian-style scenario here!
However, in reality, the rather violent cleansing that has just taken place has not escaped the attention of the locals, including those of the famous "Slovenian Pact" - which has now undoubtedly lost some of its strength. And in the ranks of the collaborationist Domobranci, some will soon wonder if Tito's generous offer to the Ustasha would not naturally extend to the Slovenes...

 

[Wings]

May 11th, 1944

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - Pavel Belov's 61st Army goes forward again and launches a new offensive towards Krempna, in order to pretend to threaten the Przełęcz pod Zajęczym pass (you never know, it might work...) and especially in the direction of Dukla, pressing especially on Zboiska. In front, the 125. ID of Helmut Friebe, as tired as his opponent, but outnumbered, surrenders the two localities one after the other to finally withdraw into the woods towards Lipowica. The Red Army can therefore claim to have taken Dukla after 11 days of effort... the little village, alas, not the pass.
On the Soviet left, Andrei Vlassov's 1st Shock Army continues to advance through the woods. In this way it made contact with the new Barwinek - Jaśliska - Komańcza line established by the 141. ID and the 132.ID. Well fortified, it is also camouflaged in the forests covering the foothills of the reliefs ... The frontovikis are never more than ten kilometers from their objective. But, as usual, we do not advance anywhere.

Cluj-Debrecen
Hungary, whatever the cost
2nd Ukrainian Front - The weather is still very good on the Carpathians - the Soviets take advantage of this to further increase their already intense pressure, with the support of all the available aviation.
In the region of Kolomyia, the collapse of the III. Luftwaffen-Feld-Korps leads Hans-Jürgen Von Arnim to reorganize his left wing, which was not requested - in any case, not enough to threaten the Yablonitsky Pass. In fact, the 5th Cavalry Corps remains in a strict support posture, aggressive, certainly, but measured, and ultimately does little damage. Mainly, moreover, at the expense of the 5. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Hans-Bruno Schulze-Heyn), which is still trying to liaise with its original corps, in Kouty, and with the rest of the 2. PanzerArmee, in Kossiv.
Von Arnim - who had realized a long time ago that he should not expect much from Göring's infantry - consequently orders the XLIX. ArmeeKorps (Rudolf Konrad) to assume the entire defense of the sector, withdrawing the 94. ID (Georg Pfeiffer) towards Kryvorivnya and improvising a defense along the entire 20 kilometers of the Rybnytsya valley. That's it! In any case, this improvised division with the remains of the KorpsAbteilung B (the defunct 68. ID and 86. ID, long since buried) is not going to last forever on its own. This, while waiting for other possible adjustments...
The 5. LFD is thus free to abandon Cheremosh and retreat to the Izvor Pass, making the grand tour through Borșa now that Halytsivka has already fallen. As much as to say that it is not close to get there. Everyone suspects that it will not be able to play any role in the next events. But its colleagues are not better off!
Indeed, further south, on the road to the Izvor Pass, the debris of the 9. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Anton-Carl Longin) are still trying to escape a sinister end - finally giving up to infiltrate towards the pass through Ploska. In fact, the 16th Army and the Soviet tanks are already in Seliatyn, and are approaching Shepit, thus the first lines of the 257. ID (Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim), which is very busy burying the StuG III of the 189. StuG Abt (Hauptmann Walter Dusche), while several mobile KampfGruppen gain time by delaying the Reds in the Suceava valley. Longin, who probably never believed much in the possibility of passing through Ploska, decides to march instead to the northwest, thus to the Cheremosh and the friendly lines through Usteriky. Before it was too late! This decision, as well as the disintegration of the remains of the 10. LFD lost towards the pass of Ciumârna completes to act the fact that the II. Luftwaffen-Feld-Korps (Job Odebrecht) is offside. It had held out for 48 hours in the face of the Soviet offensive - but that does not matter, we did not expect much more. Odebrecht has to gather the debris of his troops, before receiving a command more in line with his skills. And the Izvor Pass, where we gained a significant time to over-fortify ourselves, might resist much more than two days.
In Gura Humorului, the frontal, brutal and bloody fighting between the 333. ID (Harry Hoppe) and the 47th Army (Filipp Zhmachenko) continues... For the moment, the Heer is still holding, methodically retreating behind the confluence of the Humor and Moldova rivers. But the Red Army, which forced the enemy to withdraw by dint of overruns, is now again able to concentrate its fire on a limited sector. This even as at Găinești, the sickle blow from the south is still advancing! In short, the German position is becoming untenable. It is urgent for the L. ArmeeKorps (Wilhelm Wegener) to consider a withdrawal to a less exposed line - for example, from the Curmatura Boului Pass to the Prihodiște Pass via Prisaca Dornei. As for the Tarniţa and Stânișoara passes, directly to the south... let's be serious, these are impregnable mountain roads, never opening up anything but the Bistrița Valley, which by no means pierces the Carpathians! The Reds will not gain anything by going this way.
In this same valley, the 320. ID (Georg-Wilhelm Postel) - still rudely pressed at Piatra Neamț - begins to retreat foot by foot to the west, leaving behind only ruins, death and desolation. Postel is considering several new stopping lines: Vaduri, Pângărăcior, Tarcău... The Bistrița is wide and winding, so we might as well take advantage of it.
As for the 59th Army, the picture remains more or less the same as the day before. The 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler) is holding the Moinești bottleneck and the Comănești sector without any spirit of retreat to support the 321. ID (Wilhelm Thomas), still being pushed around and redeploying from Onești. For the Red Army, therefore, the exercise also remains painfully the same: hills, rivers, artillery to be redeployed constantly, shells that do not arrive ... and inevitably, losses of time as well as infantry. It is doubtful that this stopper can be broken today - and indeed, it will not.

4th Ukrainian Front - As we said, the 321. ID evacuates Onești. Or more exactly, it withdraws from its eastern sector, considered (quite rightly!) too exposed. Wilhelm Thomas obtained from his superior Wolfgang Lange the right to withdraw behind the Cașin (east) and the Trotus (south). Vasily Glagolev's 9th Army thus finally records its first success. Soviet forces seize a field of ruins, once home to 10,000 inhabitants - all gone, of course - with devastated infrastructure and opening - very theoretically - the road to the Oituz Pass. But the latter is still far away... Even if, on the fascist side, Thomas has still not obtained his authorization to withdraw to a Târgu Ocna - Oituz line. This is very annoying for him, because his unit is beginning to suffer.
Further south, in the valleys of the Șușița and Putna, the frontovikis of the 9th Army also suffer. The Soviets do not advance, so to speak, blocked as they are at Varnița and Colacu facing the 50. ID and 339. ID. Here, the LIV. ArmeeKorps (Wolfgang Lange) has the situation well in hand. It only yields a few hundred meters under the bombardment, while Glagolev neglects the command of this sector, contenting himself with suggesting to his subordinates to force the passage by concentrating the fire as much as necessary. In any case, they have no choice!
In the Buzău Pass sector, the 62nd Army firmly contests the Măgura crossroads opposite the 83. ID. But Theodor Scherer still has a lot of margin. Fifty-five kilometers to the pass, at least, and as many bottlenecks! He does not cling to this area, which is still too wide for his liking (about 3 kilometers, which left room for maneuvering) and quite close to the Soviet starting lines. So he calmly withdraws his forces towards Bădila. Under the strafing, it is true, but towards a second line already fortified and even more favorable for defense.
On the side of the 6th Guards Army, we do not advance much better. Pavel Batov decides to suspend operations in the Prahova valley (Breaza, its bottleneck, its 342. ID of Heinrich Nickel ...) to press instead in the Teleajen. Here, with a little push, he could probably seize Bătrâni - in order to threaten Cislău, thus expose the back of the 83. ID, so help Vladimir Kolpakchi! In any case, this is what Fyodor Tolbukhin will suggest. The marshal may be kind, but he also knows that his forces are already stretched. They cannot pretend to run all the fascist hares at once... So head for Bătrâni and Măneciu, and trot! The 6th Guard manages to obey this virile injunction in part. In the evening, the eastern flank of the XI. AK (barely defended!) is indeed in the process of being cleared. But on the road to the Bratocea Pass, the Red Army does not advance at all, facing a particularly stubborn 95. ID (Gustav Gihr).
The 3rd Romanian Army of Petre Dumitrescu meets also - as it is surprising! - still and always the same difficulties. Poorly supported, poorly supplied, but still courageous, it tries today to attack towards Domneşti and Hârtiești, in order to pincer the bulk of the KorpsAbteilung E (Herman Frenking). Alas, in doing so, it presents its flank to the 225. ID (Ernst Riße), positioned around Curtea de Argeş and which does not hesitate to send several strong detachments in the direction of Pitești to nag the Romanian traitors! In response, Dumitrescu has to dispatch his "armored corps": two armored divisions that are hardly worth one from the previous year, under the command of David Popescu. And further into the mountains, Dumitru Dămăceanu's infantry skates to take villages such as Dârmănești, Racovita or even Cişmea.
In the Olt Valley, the 14th Army finally engages the 215. ID of Bruno Frankewitz at Băbeni. Without much result for the moment: the valley is certainly wide (which favors supply as well as progression), but the Heer has here multiple support positions well equipped with artillery and overlooking the valley, as for example at Cremenari. The 105 mm divisional guns, reinforced by a few Nebelwerfer, bludgeoned with impunity the advanced points of Valerian Frolov, which was unable to advance on its main axis. It will be necessary to cross the Olt and to reduce these positions one by one. It's going to be long...
There remains the case of the 18th Army. Andrei Gretchko has passed Broșteni. He is now going up to Târgu Jiu, stretching a little more with each valley - it is that he must keep his flank facing the 335. ID of Siegfried Rasp! When he finally reaches Ciuperceni, he meets the first positions of the 72. ID of Hermann Hohn, which is waiting for him since a long time.

Forcing the hand
HeeresGruppe B HQ (Széki Palace, Cluj-Napoca) - When the phone rings and his aide-de-camp - who answers - stands stiffly at attention before handing over the receiver, Gotthard Heinrici already knows who it is. This big fat von Kluge, who has come to get news and give him orders to deal with a Soviet offensive that he claims to be managing from 400 kilometers away. What better way to make him understand that the HG B is not his priority? Heinrici must nevertheless take the call...
- Heil Hitler, General. What is the situation with the enemy offensive in the Carpathians?
- Heil Hitler, Herr Feldmarshall. For the time being, it is under control. Our forces are resisting everywhere and counterattacking at the slightest opportunity, in accordance with the doctrine. Nevertheless, the lack of strong armored reserves, now deployed...
- Let me stop you right there. The two PanzerDivisions held in reserve at Lake Balaton remain where they are. For your information, it is on this condition alone that they are still under my command.
- Zum Befehl. In this case, I must inform you that my means of countering a possible breakthrough are dangerously weak.
- I know this perfectly well. But I don't know if you're aware, there are a few things happening on the Western Front. Things of importance, which require urgent reinforcements. The Eastern Front has to contribute, that's normal. On the Vistula, the HG Mitte will send a large number of formations. This is logical - the Russians were castrated there in March. But with you it is different. My question to you is simple: is HeeresGruppe B able to cope with the current state of operations?
- (Short silence...) You will understand that I want to give you a precise report.
- You will do so. But I need an answer of principle this evening. Otherwise, Berlin may draw the consequences, in terms of means, commands and posts. As you know, defeatism has been on the prowl since March.
And so have the hunters of defeatism, obviously always on the lookout for a trophy to add to their hunting list. Kluge, in disgrace after Zitadelle and having now taken the place of another great loser of the Eastern Front, naturally fears for his place. He knows that, if he was thought of, it was for lack of anything better... This is not particularly problematic in itself - except in terms of self-esteem, the Marshal is depressed! - but it does entail a certain risk with regard to the head of state. The head of the Oberbefehlshaber Donau will not be able to cover anyone. So it's not a threat, but a warning.
- I will make some calls and come back to you, Herr Feldmarshall.
- Know that you have the help of the Hungarians, Heinrici. Their army offers to extend its right wing to the Cheremosh, which will relieve the XLIX. ArmeeKorps of Konrad, which will be able to do more than support the III. LFK.
- See you later, Herr Feldmarshall. Heil Hitler!
- Heil Hitler.
.........
Contacted by Heinrici in Gyulafehérvár, Georg-Hans Reinhardt does not seem particularly worried about his 11. Armee - as long as the 13. Panzer stays in reserve and that he is allowed to maneuver as he pleased (which everyone agreed to, as it concerned the southern Carpathians). Reached in his turn at Târgu Mureş, Karl-Adolf Hollidt is even more relaxed about his 17. Armee: for the time being, none of his positions are threatened. So, for sure, there remains the case of Hans-Jurgen von Arnim, in Sighetu Marmaţiei. His 2. PanzerArmee is still suffering and the imminent arrival of the Hungarians does not reassure him at all. But he'll be fine, since he's given no choice.
Everything is therefore perfectly and indisputably under control. In any case, this is the information that will reach Berlin... where it will be welcomed all the better because it was precisely what they wanted to hear.

Romanians in the Soviets
The ball of the cursed - "The cannon thunders in the distance, and yet for our Vladimirescu it's dead calm. One could even say that we are at rest. For training purposes, our squad is regularly deployed to the sister divisions Oituz și Mărăști and Horia, Cloșca și Crișan. Sharing our hard-won experience (and against fellow countrymen!) will prevent more unnecessary Romanian deaths. As Lieutenant Hasdeu says: "The new Romanian army is being built now, on the native soil. And not in premature and expensive maneuvers in the middle of the mountains." We couldn't say it better - so let the Soviet comrades lead the way, for us and for history, until the new 4th Army is ready."
(Farewell my country ... once again, Vasil Gravil, Gallimard 1957)

Proletarians aviators of all countries, unite!
Routine
Vnukovo - "The battle resumes. Fights, victories... and incidents follow one another.
Lieutenant Mourier, taking off on the commander's plane, gives the spectators goose bumps on a simple field trip. Ten times, one expects to see him break his face. Ten times, he avoids a fatal accident. He finally lands. When he walks away from his plane, he is as pale as a dead man. Albert ran to him to yell at him, but Mourier said in a tone-deaf voice: "Captain, your plane had a close call and so did I. On takeoff, the tail wheel went down. It blocked the elevator control. I got hot. But I wanted to get your zinc back at all costs. I still made it."

Secret War
Poisoning
Over a forest near Hrodna, 02:00 - As the Heinkel 111s generously sent by the Reich prepare to fly over the Kessel Scherhorn before landing there, the said Scherhorn calls on the radio, visibly panicked. The field, illuminated by braziers, is under attack, landing would be suicide! It's true, from the air, we can see several explosions, a few fires, as well as tracer beams over the runway...
So what to do ? Turn back, abandoning to death these heroic defenders of the Reich? In spite of everything, one of the big twin-engine planes tries to align itself, takes out its gear and gets ready to land... Well, until the NKVD men, who were until then busy detonating grenades and shooting in the trees, run towards the braziers to knock them down and thus extinguish the signalling! The pilot does not insist and takes altitude again, to join his wingman and set out again towards the west. It was hot... And at noon, Victor Abakumov will announce that the runway is unusable, following the raid of the Reds.

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[Wings]

May 12th, 1944

Baltic
A U-boot to refloat
"Three days later, when Commander Ivan Vasilyevich Prokhvatilov gathered the group that had explored the U-276 again, it was to tell them some rather unexpected news.
- Comrades, the Party and the Rodina are proud of you! And so satisfied with what you have found down there that they have decided to send you back! Rest assured, you are not asked to enter the U-boat again. No - the hull is in good shape, so you'll be bailing it out instead! The Baltic Fleet Engineering Department here (behind him, a group of five NCOs clicked their heels) will provide you with a crash course in ballooning and dredging procedures. All you have to do is follow their instructions. And apply yourself! Remember, for your efforts to be worthwhile, we need to raise this wreck intact.
We had to hope that the submarine would not break up during the maneuver, as it would happen later on in similar operations."
(Commandos in the Baltic and Danube - Soviet Naval Spetsnaz in World War II, by Yuriy Strokhnin, Naval Institute Press, 1996)

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - The offensive decided by Ivan Konev on the cordial invitation of Joseph Stalin has definitely lost its momentum. It is true that it does not interest many people, as everyone looks elsewhere...
South of Dukla, the 125. ID of Helmut Friebe does not have much room to back up. Finally, he still has 15 kilometers of more or less straight road that follows the Jasiołka, and five villages (Lipowica, Nowa Wieś, Trzciana, Tylawa, Barwinek) to the main goal: the Dukla Pass, its small 500 meters of altitude and the former Polish-Slovak border. If it falls, we will be only 160 kilometers away from the insurgency. This is without taking into account several other heights and obligatory crossing points that abound in the Carpathian topography, such as the Branisko Pass.
The eventual capture of the Dukla Pass will not help Ján Golian and his men much. Unless, of course, it attracts other German troops in the area who will not go and do anything else - for example, repress the Slovaks. And so the 61st Army of Pavel Belov continues to sacrifice itself for the common good, with no gain today other than a handful of hectares of forest ravaged by shells, around Lipowica. At the end of the day, this village is contested.
On the left flank, Andrei Vlassov's 1st Shock Army encounters the same difficulties on the Barwinek - Komańcza - Jaśliska front, a line moreover shortened now that the 125. ID has also retreated to the peaks. The 141. ID and the 132. ID no longer retreat. The thin strip of open ground between Jaśliska and Komańcza (3 kilometers wide on average) becomes a field of fire for automatic weapons, snipers and artillery, with nothing coming out of it for the Soviets except insignificant gains. And hundreds of men who die, are wounded and still suffer today ... for not much in truth, in any case in the indifference of the rest of the world.

Cluj-Debrecen
Hungary, whatever the cost
2nd Ukrainian Front - As ordered the day before, the XLIX. ArmeeKorps of Rudolf Konrad starts to retreat towards the Yablonitsky pass, following the Schulze-Heyn creeps, on a new line Delyatin- Kryvorivnya, abandoning in fact Kossiv and Vyjnytsia to the Bolshevik enemy. While leaving, Georg Pfeiffer does not forget to sow on his way some mines, snipers, traps and destruction.
In the evening, the 5th Cavalry Corps liberates these localities, duly ravaged. Its leader, Kriushenkin, is able to announce to Ivan Bagramyan that the Fascist enemy is on the run - which does not mean that his troop was able to pursue it! In fact, in the narrow valley of the Rybnytsya (rarely more than one kilometer of open ground), light tanks and cavalrymen will probably have some difficulty in overrunning. For them, Cluj-Debrecen is probably already over - at least in its first phase. Of course, the mouths of the Cheremosh are clear... but the sector is about as open to the offensive as the gorges of the Ardèche. Anyway, this is not where the Red Army is planning to break through! The 5th Cavalry Corps therefore returns to its task of covering and guarding, while awaiting the outcome of events.
In fact, everywhere else, the attack continues, despite the changing weather of May.
The Izvor Pass, at an altitude of 1,100 meters, underwent its first assaults - Mikhail Lukin's 16th Army tries to force its way past a 257. ID which defends "according to the manual" with the support of most of the 189. StuG Abt (amputated of some machines destroyed by the air force or during the delaying fights in the Suceava valley). Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim and Walter Dusche cling fiercely to the field, without any spirit of retreat, like good National Socialists*. From Shepit, the frontovikis try to climb towards Izvoarele-Sucevei - the former advanced headquarters of the III. Luftwaffen-Feld-Korps, obviously withdrawn since then. They are curtly repulsed by a strong concentration of automatic weapons and buried guns, which are even supported by Hungarian Me 210s of the 103 Vadászrepülő-ezred József! Lukin, of course, expected these difficulties. And he has already decided to try again tomorrow, with more people, more artillery and more means in general!
In the sector of Gura Humorului, the 333. ID of Harry Hoppe is still trying to gain time - or even recover! - behind Humor and Moldova, facing a 47th Army that continues to hit very hard. Filipp Zhmachenko feels that his opponent is unbalanced. So he has to press again and again to destroy him before he retreats to the west! The Humor is not really an obstacle for the Red Army (50 meters wide, at most) and Moldova splits the fascist device in two... The ascent of the elements infiltrated to the south from Găinești gives the coup de grace to the defenders, who must retreat to the Mestecăniș pass before being annihilated. In the evening, Karl-Adolf Hollidt - who knew nothing of the difficulties of his subordinates, but considers himself stuck with orders from Berlin! - finally authorizes Wilhelm Wegener to withdraw his L. ArmeeKorps to a line from the Curmatura-Boului Pass to the Prihodiște Pass via Prisaca Dornei... which is precisely the route proposed since the beginning of the offensive. Centered around Câmpulung Moldovenesc, this arrangement has many topographical advantages. It also brings the 333. ID and the 370. ID (Fritz Becker), which will be able to support each other in case of a new red assault. This is good - we have only lost three days and a number of good Germans in the meantime...
The 320 ID (Georg-Wilhelm Postel) also retreats from Vaduri to Pângărăcior, facing the vanguards of a still powerful 38th Army but having to deal with the bottleneck of the Bistrița Valley. Kyril Moskalenko is entangled in the ruins of Piatra Neamț, which is being cleared with tractors to make room for future supply routes to the front. The Soviet is cautious - he is not unaware that the Red Army has already passed through there twice.
Finally, the 59th Army of Ivan Korovnikov logically takes advantage of the fall of Onești (which is attributed to the 9th Army, so the 4th Ukrainian Front, but so much the worse...) to shift the bulk of its efforts to Moinești, where the 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler) is beginning to show signs of weakness. In fact, now that the 321. ID (Wilhelm Thomas) is retreating, the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps (Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach) - on which the 321.ID does not depend! - no longer has much interest in holding Comănești. The 306. ID therefore prepares to retreat toward Ciobănuș and the Trotus Gorge. Before being flanked, while we are at it...
In the evening, Ivan Bagramyan is able to send an encouraging report to Moscow: the offensive has made undeniable progress. Some notable localities have fallen and the entrances to several valleys have been cleared. However, these results have been obtained at a notable cost (euphemism!) and the biggest part still remains to be done. However, in the Kremlin, the main thing to remember is that it only took four days to force the Heer to abandon its most advanced positions. This is encouraging - and the effort will have to continue over time.

4th Ukrainian Front - Now that Onești is secured (which is pretty fast, considering what's left of it), Vasily Glagolev logically turns the guns of his right wing to the southwest, Filipești, the road to the Oituz pass and... the 321. ID, which has just, fortunately for it, received permission to leave the plain to withdraw to Oituz - the scheduled withdrawal of the 306. ID making it unnecessary to hold Târgu Ocna. Karl-Adolf Hollidt shows consistency here: he is not going to refuse the LIV. ArmeeKorps what he granted to the L. ArmeeKorps! Moreover, "we" made him understand since yesterday that his sector is of interest to Berlin only insofar as we do not talk about it. So... The red assault falls into the void, and the spring showers do the rest to limit the damage. A 321. ID, damaged but not destroyed, falls back towards the pass, which it prepares to defend with determination the approach, both long (28 kilometers!) and narrow (only 500 meters on average!).
Glagolev can be happy with this success on his right. Because on the left, nothing goes. In fact, this wing, already weakened and split in two, for lack of having wanted (or been able!) to choose a main axis of attack, no longer advances at all in the valleys of the Șușița and Putna. The 9th Army is stuck by two very hard plugs, and impossible to break ... except by eroding them, like the ocean on a dike. However, for that, the Soviet general has neither the time nor the means! He therefore orders the equivalent of a division to climb the small road passing through Vizantea-Livezi and linking the two valleys between Vidra and Câmpuri. For sure, it will be defended and it will be painful... But by doing so, Vasily Glagolev can hope to break through to the flank of the 50. ID (Friedrich Sixt), spread out from Varnița to Fetești. We'll talk about it again in two to three days if all goes well.
Seventy-five kilometers further south, Vladimir Kolpakchi's 62nd Army continues the slow erosion of the 83. ID of Theodor Scherer in the Bădila sector - which allows absolutely no overrun. The German trenches are not moving today, despite the bombardment ... Nevertheless, by dint of losses, the Bavarian is still beginning to wonder whether his strategy is viable in the long term. All this reminds him of bad memories**...
Perhaps the answer will come from the west - from the Prahova Valley, the 6th Guards Army seizes Bătrâni and actually begins to be able to threaten the rear of the 83. ID through Cătina and Calvini (i.e., the Bâsca Chiojdului valley). This should probably start to be seen tomorrow... At the same time, the main assault on Măneciu stalls a bit. But Pavel Batov can not do everything! And anyway, in front, Gustav Gihr believes (rightly!) that his 95. ID has no more room to back out.
On the Romanian side, it is not much better: after the attempts of the 225. ID suffered the day before, the 3rd Army must make choices. Petre Dumitrescu cannot continue to pretend to hunt five hares at the same time... Well, as long as the 12th Mechanized Corps or the 4th Romanian Army of his dear friend Gheorghe Avramescu will not deign to take on part of the burden on the rear, as he has been asking them very courteously for the last two days! In the meantime, we are content with adjustments: Dârmănești is cleared, Cişmea becomes constested. We are still far from the pass of Rucăr-Bran! And Herman Frenking's KorpsAbteilung E takes advantage of this to breathe, at least a little.
In Băbeni, Valerian Frolov's 14th Army and the 215. ID of Bruno Frankewitz are now actively ferreting for the lower part of this lock of the Olt valley. The Soviets - who cannot do otherwise anyway - send forces across the water into the Topolog valley to attack the Fascist positions centered around the village of Cremenari. The exercise can only last so long. But Frolov is not in a hurry.
Nor is his comrade Andrei Gretchko, whose 18th Army is just beginning to test Hermann Hohn's 72. ID at Ciuperceni. Between the Germans, who are prepared but lonely and have to defend many axes, and the Soviets, who are far from their bases, the fighting lacks a bit of scope... but not violence: it is the Eastern Front. Frolov easily guesses the weakness in numbers of his opponent: so he strikes with vigor, without even bothering to try to bypass through Apa Neagră. And Hohn must already retreat several kilometers to Câlnic, on the other side of the Tismana.

OKW-OKH
Fire Brigade
Berghof (Berchtesgaden) - Noting the "problematic situation" of the WestHeer in France, Adolf Hitler orders the transfer of a large part of the armored units of HG Mitte to the Seine. These included the I. SS-PanzerKorps (Josef "Sepp" Dietrich), then the II. SS-PanzerKorps (Wilhelm Bittrich). Such formations, victorious at the time of Fredericus II, will obviously also know how to crush the enemies of the swastika on the Western Front!
However, given the difficulties of the German transport system and the increasing fuel shortage, it will take some time for the SS panzers to reach their destination - especially since they will have to leave the Eastern Front in good order, i.e. without creating an opportunity for the Slav.

Returning state
Consolidation
Insurgent Slovakia - The 1st Czechoslovak Army holds on! Well... mainly because the Wehrmacht only attacks on one axis: the road to the Bartoška spring, fiercely defended. In front of it, the 178. PanzerGrenadier Tatra - which has never been anything other than an agglomeration of KampfGruppen - is struggling. Moreover, it has to spread out on a wide front from Zemianske Kostoľany to Martin (thus facing the Slovak 1st and 4th Tactical Groups), as it has to make up for the failures of all the others. In fact, the Tatra probably remains - at this time and in spite of everything - the best Axis unit in the region, for its great misfortune! During the day, it progresses by only 2 kilometers... There are still 18 kilometers to go!
This is fortunate for the insurgency. Nevertheless, the insurgency is still caught in the throat and needs significant reinforcements in men and material to be able to hold out. In order to meet at least the first of these two conditions, the Slovak National Council orders a second wave of mobilization, involving five additional age groups...

Cured Homesickness
Brezno - In the night, no less than 40 Lisonov Li-2 of the 5th Oriol Long Range Corps land on the improvised runway of the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Air Rgt. A real noria, bringing 123 train personnel (under the command of Lt-Colonel Jiří Sehnal), as well as equipment, spare parts, fuel, ammunition (too!) and ... a few stragglers. There is enough here to last six days in fuel and three for ammunition. Add to that nine radio operators - the regiment is operational!
In the morning, the La-5s start patrolling over the airfield. Two pairs (František Štička, Stanislav Tocauer and František Loucký, Bohuslav Mráz), which circle for a while before quickly wandering off to the Prievidza - Handlová and Topoľčianky sectors respectively, at the cordial invitation of the Hajniky Central Service. The result is a blank slate. The Luftwaffe turns out to be absent. And even if the blue-white-red cockades do good on the ground, the airmen ambition more...
Responding to this noble wish, František Fajtl decides to send eight of his fighters to strafe the Piešťany airport - which is said to be swarming with German planes. At 18:10 , pilots Stehlík, Šrom, Vendl, Hlučka, Skopal, Valoušek, Mráz, and Dobrovodský take off under the command of Stehlík - who is familiar with the facility from his pre-war service in the 3rd Air Rgt General Milan Rastislav Štefánik. After a low-level flight in the rain over the Vtáčnik range, then the river valleys of Nitra, Šimonovany and Považský-Inovec, the fighters (without bombs, alas [A technical impossibility on this model]!) roll into Piešťany at schnapps time. They then strafe aircraft and installations in three passes, without any reaction from a flabbergasted Flak that sees the attackers massacre six Bf 109s, two Ju 87s, one Ju 88 and one Fw 189, plus six other Bf 109s, two Fw 189s, one Ju 87 and one Ju 88 damaged! At the end, two flak guns try to protest - but Stehlík uses his rudder to line them up and shut them down. Then the Lavochkins gather in an elegant formation over the village of Radošina, before heading back to their lair...

Catch-up Shoah
Bratislava (Slovakia) - Arrival of various SS elements: concentration camp supervisors or teams who had served (among others) in Poland. Alois Brunner obtains the reinforcements he needed. With these scattered groups, he forms his own unit of assassins: Einsatzkommando 29, which combines parts of Einsatzkommandos 13 and 14 and has the sole task of tracking down all the Jews in Slovakia. For those who remained, times looked bleak - even worse than before, if that's possible.

Hungary crushed
Diplomatic-military friendliness
Budavár Palace (Budapest) - Through the voice of its eminent representative, SS Edmund Veesenmayer, the Reich courteously thanks the Arrow Cross government for making its forces available "within the framework of the joint response to the ongoing Bolshevik offensive. It's true that it's always nice when the staff is considerate - you'll have to remember to give them a tip.
From then on, the 103rd Wing would support the German forces on a daily basis, according to the needs of HG B and without referring to Budapest. As for the 1st Hungarian Army, it is planned that it will take over from the XLIX. AK at the Yablonitsky Pass - which will remain covered by a German reserve, for all practical purposes, of course!
The Minister of Defense, Károly Beregfy, then takes the opportunity to awkwardly try to sound out his guest on German intentions concerning the revival of Magyar industry and the support that the Reich intends to give to local projects, such as the Turan III 40M. On the other hand, Veesenmayer has difficulty hiding his contempt for the Hungarian, a fool and an incompetent general. Nevertheless, he chooses to hide this feeling behind a good-natured hypocrisy: why don't we talk about it later, dear friend, maybe during a big meeting between statesmen? Who knows, maybe between Ferenc Szálasi and Adolf Hitler himself? Come on!

* Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim was one of the leaders of the Lithuanian Schuma, and consequently one of the organizers of the Shoah by bullets in Byelorussia.
** In 1942, Theodor Scherer was at the forefront of the Soviet counter-offensive in the Smolensk region. He led a KampfGruppe of Panzergrenadiers, Landsers and Luftwaffe infantrymen, which was surrounded by the enemy. Out of 7,500 men, only 1,200 managed to reach the friendly lines. To rest, the general was assigned for a while to the 281. Sicherung-Division, where he had the opportunity to regain his health at the expense of Soviet civilians...

 

[Wings]

May 13th, 1944

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - Another day of charges, counter-charges and other hateful melees between Pavel Belov's 61st Army and 125. ID of Helmut Friebe. This one is now supported by a second StuG Abteilung, after the 911. of Hauptmann Erich Hoffmann: the 909. of Major Rossi, from the HG reserve. Always very comfortable in defense in these sloping and wooded areas, the self-propelled guns with flat roof make bloody misery to the Soviet vehicles forced to advance on a single axis, before bludgeoning with their weapons the waves of infantry sent to flush them out...
Lipowica, a tiny village of a hundred souls lost in the foothills of the Carpathians, sees thousands of men, dozens of vehicles... and tens of thousands of projectiles collide throughout the day. In the evening, it is almost conquered by the Red Army - but a handful of buildings still stand in the south, on the road to the Dukla Pass.
Same punishment on the side of Andrei Vlassov's 1st Shock Army, which continues to attack on a broad front the Jaśliska - Komańcza line, facing two tired but close enough German divisions to support if the need arises. And it is often felt ... But unfortunately for the Soviets, Herbert Wagner and Heinz Hellmich are also competent generals, whose presence materializes in every point of the front as much as necessary. And the advance of the Red Army is now counted in tens of meters.

Returning state
Consolidation
Insurgent Slovakia - After its last setbacks on the road to the Bartoška spring, the 178. PanzerGrenadier Tatra of Lieutenant-General Friedrich-Wilhelm von Loeper starts to try to bypass the treacherous and stubborn Slovaks by passing through Kremnica. It thus concentrates its efforts against the 4th Battle Group Moray of Colonel Mikuláš Markus, with the timely support of the 548. VGD of Erich Sudau. Everyone solves his manpower problems as he can!
This maneuver is objectively dangerous for the forces of Markus: it risks indeed to take them in pincer with the 545. VDG of Otto Obenaus, which occupies the sector of Zvolen. However, it will probably take a little time to implement. Unfortunately, this risk does not appear immediately to the Slovak command. It is true that the Slovakian command is more concerned with an offensive from the south in the same area: KG Schill left Žarnovica and today hits the Banská Štiavnica sector, i.e. the back of the 3rd Battle Group Gerlach (Colonel Pavol Kuna), which contains the left flank of the German advance towards Zvolen. The attack hurts the insurgents: it takes all the (relative!) power of the Czechoslovak air force and the support of the armored train Štefánik (Captain F. Adam, Lieutenant A. Tököly) to slow down the SS. And still, it is not won! Especially since the Slovak National Council does not have any reserves to send to the site!

Cured Homesickness
Brezno - The 1st Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Air Regiment is now well in place, even more encouraged by its small exploit of the day before, which undoubtedly cooled the Nazi pilots' ardor somewhat. In fact, one does not see much Luftwaffe over the insurgent Slovakia today... The main activities of František Fajtl's men are divided between patrols and strafing on the ground, on request or according to the opportunities (in particular against the train of the German units!).
Counting twenty-one aircraft, the Czechoslovak aviators succeed in challenging the German air superiority in Slovakia, and even in forbidding the enemy to fly over the insurgent zone... except in escorted formations. A luxury to which the local JGs and KGs have absolutely no means to resort! In short, in the days to come, we will only see blue-white-red roundels over the front. This will do a lot of good to the fighters on the ground, in addition to the unfortunately very tepid news of the ongoing Soviet offensive. So it is not a small achievement!

Cluj-Debrecen
Hungary, whatever the cost
2nd Ukrainian Front - The Izvor Pass is now under attack by the 16th Army. Mikhail Lukin faces, like the day before, and in the same conditions, the 257. ID of Reichard von Mauchenheim, reinforced by the 189. StuG Abt. The two units maintained their positions north of Izvoarele-Sucevei, in a gap between two wooded hills that looks like a firing range. Trenches, redoubts, camouflaged pillboxes... not to mention the small ad hoc KGs - two or three StuG IIIs carrying infantrymen - which infiltrate and counter-attack at the first opportunity. The Heer has implemented everything "according to the manual" to defend the road to Transylvania and does not consider anything else than to stop the Bolshevik hordes here.
The Red Army is thus reduced to advancing behind a rolling fire of artillery and a deluge of bombs intended, not to eliminate the adversary - that would be too long and too expensive in ammunition - but to make him simply lower his head while waiting for one to approach to flush him out. Hand-to-hand combat, flamethrowers, magnetic mines laid by almost suicidal Landsers and other hideous confrontations continue all day long, without the first Fascist line being pierced by the 16th Army, which has not yet been able to give its full strength. Who will break first? For the time being, the pass held - as expected, and probably for a long time.
Further south-east, Wilhelm Wegener's L. ArmeeKorps continues to withdraw. The bulk of it has already reached the new line "Curmatura-Boului Pass - Prisaca Dornei - Prihodiște Pass", pursued by a 47th Army greatly hampered by the destruction at Gura Humorului and, as usual, by the general topography of the area. If the 333. ID of Harry Hoppe (on the left) could still worry a little about the possibility of recovering at Prisaca Dornei, the 370. ID of Fritz Becke has no difficulty in retreating in good order towards the Curmatura-Boului pass, where it would wait serenely for the enemy. The German position is unbalanced, it is true. But despite Filipp Zhmachenko's hopes, it is not in the process of being destroyed, nor even of being really broken through. His reconnaissance units will confirm this soon enough.
Kyril Moskalenko makes the same observation on his side. Past the ruins of Piatra Neamț, his 38th Army faces a new blockade of the 320. ID at Pângărăcior. For the moment, nothing moves, despite many losses on both sides. But Georg-Wilhelm Postel, whose unit has given much in recent days, nevertheless watches with concern the red tide that continues to come and methodically beat his dike. He begins, in hushed tones, to foresee having to retreat as far as Bicaz, or even as far as the Bicaz Pass if the Slavs continue to be so relentless. This would inevitably have an impact on the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow), which is still defending the approaches to the Petru-Vodă Pass at Lehgin. This one would then also have to withdraw to Ceahlău to avoid the risk of encirclement.
At this rate, we might as well concede the loss of the entire Bistrița Valley up to the Buzatu Pass! Such a decision, so heavy with consequences, is not the responsibility of Postel, but of his commander Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach (XLVIII. ArmeeKorps), or even of Karl-Adolf Hollidt, the boss of the 17. Armee himself. It is not certain that these gentlemen are willing to ratify such a retreat immediately. In the meantime, the 320. ID has to hold on, hoping that the rear would react... or that the enemy would get tired.
A little further south, the situation is not as complex for the Germans. The 306. ID of Karl-Erik Köhler withdraws without much incident from Comănești to Ciobănuș. The Trotus Gorge is a winding sector 6 kilometers long, not exceeding in width 300 meters of workable terrain. Here, the Heer believes (again) to have time to see it through. But Ivan Korovnikov is coming - his 59th Army is still relatively fresh, and needs to push only on one axis.
In summary, and notwithstanding his encouraging report of the day before, Ivan Bagramyan's 2nd Ukrainian Front has not settled anything. We are just getting into the heart of the matter: the fight for the crossing points.

4th Ukrainian Front - Despite its fatigue, the 321. ID frantically dug in west of Oituz, organizing in haste and with the support of many auxiliary Osttruppen a series of barriers to stop the pass. In front of it, the right wing of the 9th Army understands that it has eaten its white bread and that the worst is yet to come: 28 kilometers of bad road at the bottom of the valley, before finally reaching its objective. Consequently, as the fascist opponent has the intelligence - alas! - to withdraw before being annihilated, there is only to gather his forces before continuing to push. Heavily, painfully and always with heavy losses and a great expenditure of ammunition. This is worth a day or two of rallying.
Especially since at the same time Vasily Glagolev has to shift his attention to his left wing. Not that he is particularly interested in the sector - it is rather the opposite, the chances of breakthroughs as well as rapid advance are almost nil there... But the only thing missing is that the two fascist divisions defending the Șușița and Putna valleys should withdraw westward, for example between Lepșa and Târgu Secuiesc (a line easily defensible by a single division), and that one should go to reinforce the Oituz pass, which it could make definitively impregnable! Glagolev therefore relaunches his troops against the Varnița and Colacu plugs, in order to discourage any maneuver. Time also for the 84th Rifle Division of Lieutenant General Stepan Kalininz to pass the roadblocks on the Vidra - Câmpuri "road", under the cover of the Sturmovik but also inevitably attracting the attention of the Germans.
In the evening, Kalinin reports that Vizantea-Livezi is secured - only 8 kilometers of mountain road remain (not too narrow, fortunately!) before being able to claim to threaten Câmpuri and force the 50. ID to withdraw. The 9th Army accumulates losses - could it be otherwise?
On the side of the 62nd Army, however, things are getting easier... a little. The infiltration of the 6th Guards Army from the Prahova valley has created disorder in the 83. ID, now threatened with encirclement from the west. As a result, Theodor Scherer was forced to withdraw his unit to Pătârlagele (an unfortunately relatively large sector!) and especially, behind, to Valea Lupului and then Păltineni. The German general silences his worries from the day before: after all, the Reds still have almost 50 kilometers to go before crossing the Buzău pass. That's good! But he also notes, with regret, that he is alone within 30 kilometers to defend this crossing point, as in the past in Russia. It's not so good... and it's not 95. ID of Gustav Gihr - although the closest German unit - will be able to help him.
In fact, now that Pavel Batov believes he has fulfilled his duty to Kolpakchi, as courteously requested by Tolbukhin, he must return to his main mission: Măneciu and the Bratocea Pass, with its twenty kilometers (approximately...) of ascent to Cheia. For now, the 95. ID is still holding on, clinging against all odds to what seems to be, according to its leader, the final bulwark before a climb and woods where its troop could be systematically overrun until the pass. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, at least for the moment, given the wear and tear of the Soviet units. But in the end, Gihr's fears are not unjustified... Especially since the only significant reinforcement unit in the sector, the 20. Panzergrenadier of Georg Jauer, remains for the moment the weapon at the foot towards Bran: and for reason, it belongs to the 11. Armee !
At the same time, north of Pitești, the Romanian 3rd Army receives good news: Dimitri Ryabyshev's 12th Mechanized Corps would finally come to support it, in order to cover its left flank opposite Curtea de Argeș, i.e., at 225 ID. It will thus be able to relaunch its attack towards Câmpulung as soon as possible in order to finally seize the villages of Cişmea and Racovita for good. This, of course, before a new and dazzling advance at the expense of that mediocre fascist marching unit, Herman Frenking's KorpsAbteilung E. In short, Petre Dumitrescu and his men are asked to continue to demonstrate their new loyalty - as soon as possible and with vigor, while doing so.
A little further west, in the Olt valley, the 14th Army and the 215. ID continue their fierce melee. Neither Valerian Frolov nor Bruno Frankewitz can or will concede possession of Băbeni - thus the crossroads of Râmnicu Vâlcea and more generally the western foothills of the Carpathians, towards the Iron Gates. As expected by all, the heights around the village of Cremenari are the object of a fierce struggle. Waves of infantrymen crashed into redoubts bristling with automatic weapons. However, the Germans had no armored support... And no air force either. Between Cocoru and Bratia din Deal, the Romanian peasants have been clearing the forest for a long time in order to exploit this unequal land. And today, obviously, their pastures are as many fields of fire for the Sturmoviks, then boulevards for the attackers, who spray hedges and ditches under the smoke and the shells of small calibers. The fight goes on, violent and hideous - without perspective.
Especially since at the same time, in Câlnic, the 18th Army of comrade Andrei Gretchko is still pushing back the 72. ID of Hermann Hohn by a handful of kilometers to Cornesti, thereby clearing an additional axis of tilt towards Peștișani and especially threatening more with each hour to envelop Târgu Jiu. The German understands the enemy's strategy well - but he can hardly count on the support of 330 ID, on his left (which had to guard "its" passes), or 335 ID, on his right (torn between Bolsheviks and Allies, from Oravița to Baia de Aramă). Therefore, he does not insist. In agreement with his leaders and the "unofficial" doctrine of the 11. Armee, Hohn begins to withdraw to his Grosskampflinie, north of Turcinești, in order to defend the Surduc Pass from any risk of a breakthrough.

 

[Wings]

May 14th, 1944

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - As kindly proposed by the Arrow Cross government in Budapest, the Hungarian 8th Corps of Major-General Jenö Halmaji Bor starts to extend its right wing, in order to replace the XLIX. AK of Rudolf Konrad in the defense of the Yablonitsky Pass. This task will be entrusted to the 8th ID of Major-General Árpád Maltary, for at least two excellent reasons. First, this unit did not waver during the events of April 13th: it immediately chose the right side! Second, it is the closest geographically. Its previous position in the Svicha Gorge, towards Myslivka, below the Torun Pass, is entrusted to the 2nd Mountain Brigade of Géza Fehér - a little less numerous, it is true, and moreover having shown a little less enthusiasm to serve the cause. But then, it's not as if Farkas has a choice!
All the same... German liaison officers are somewhat dubious about the "new portable anti-tank means" deployed by the Hungarian army in an attempt to make up for its lack of manpower. For example the Szálasi-röppentyű*, a kind of double 215 mm rocket launcher on a tripod (of captured Soviet machine gun!) that the Magyars are mounting just about everywhere: on trucks, on Toldi II tanks or even outright on Nimrod! All this is courageous, but smells a bit like DIY. So we have to hope that the Bolshevik cavalry will remain quiet on the other side.
.........
At the Izvor Pass, the melee continues. The 257. ID is favored today by a deterioration (probably temporary) of the weather conditions, which significantly hinders the action of the 17th Air Force of Comrade Vladmir Sudets. The first Fascist trench, located a little less than 2 kilometers from the intermediate objective and leaning on the hills, is the object of bloody hand-to-hand combat. It is eventually taken... only partially and only on the northern flank, in a sector that is in any case unsuitable for a breakthrough. Thus, despite all the efforts of Mikhail Lukin's 16th Army, Izvoarele-Sucevei is still not reached. And yet, this poor locality is still 5 kilometers from the pass!
Everyone seems to have lost their initial illusions - despite the triumphs of the last few days, we will not go through there. In any case, not immediately. Ivan Bagramyan himself is willing to agree. Consequently, in the afternoon, he orders Andrei Kravchenko's 5th Tank Army to withdraw to reposition itself in the Fălticeni sector - ready to exploit any opportunity that might materialize... elsewhere. But where exactly?
In any case, it probably won't be on the side of the 47th Army. In fact, now that it has escaped from Gura Humorului and finally has the support of the 370. ID, the 333. ID suddenly rears up after Prisaca Dornei, to inflict a harsh rebuff on the Soviet vanguards that are already probing for an opportunity. Filipp Zhmachenko already knows that he has missed his pursuit - he logically just misses his breakthrough. It is therefore a new siege that is to come, as his troop naturally deploys in front of the L. ArmeeKorps on a new line, Curmatura Boului Pass - Prisaca Dornei - Prihodiște Pass. Line which strictly follows the topography.
The solution will probably not come from the 38th Army either. In Pângărăcior, Kyril Moskalenko's frontovikis continue to methodically and stubbornly confront Wilhelm Postel's 320. ID - which resists enemy attempts to advance with equal method and stubbornness. It succeeds ... in general. In the night that falls, the two adversaries fight for possession of the village of Pângărați and its monastery dedicated to St. Dimitri the Great Martyr, founded in the fifteenth century and unfortunately on the road of the Soviet overrun maneuver** ... The confrontation will end up ratifying a gain of barely 3 kilometers for the Red Army. Postel knows it - he will have to retreat, to avoid being incinerated. And in the fragile silence of the night, his Landsers begin to withdraw to a new loop of the Bistrița, south of Straja. Soviet reconnaissance squads continue to press them - unlike Zhmachenko, Moskalenko is keen not to let go of his prey.
Finally, on the far left of the 2nd UF, Ivan Korovnikov's 59th Army is just beginning to discover the new entrenchments of the 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler) in the Trotus Gorge, towards Ciobănuș. An almost impregnable area... but also easy to hammer. Fortunately it's overcast today, if not raining - that always bothers the observers a bit!

4th Ukrainian Front - The left wing of the 9th Army continues to rally and concentrate in the area of Oituz and Marginea, facing the new barrage of the 321. ID. Vasily Glagolev understands that it is necessary to cut - he does not have the luxury of forever pushing back the Fascist stopper, and the terrain does not really allow for a bypass, except (very theoretically and very partially) through the Slănic Valley. For the time being, however, the Soviet is happy to multiply artillery bombardments and smoke barrages, in order to cover its rallies as well as its reconnaissance, in anticipation of the inevitable and next charge. On the other side, the Germans lower their heads into their trenches, determined and fatalistic: the wave is coming.
On the right wing of the 9th Army, on the other hand, they are advancing! The 84th Rifle Division has indeed finally managed to break out of its way to Câmpuri - causing a good half of the 50th ID to fall back in disarray from Varnița to Fetești, at least at first. Seriously pushed around by the Reds, the German division struggles alone, unbalanced because it could not anticipate the Soviet maneuver - it is applying the doctrine of static defense which is now the rule in the 17. Armee. Even though the Bolsheviks are fortunately too few in number (or on axes too constrained) to overrun, the effect is felt... And when Friedrich Sixt himself falls, seriously wounded by a shrapnel, his entire division begins to falter and finally withdraws to the north of Soveja, under cover of the woods and under enemy fire.
This catastrophic failure in the Șușița Valley reverberates on the defense of the Putna Valley! Indeed, the 339 ID (Wolfgang Lange) now fears being surrounded at Colacu. It must therefore retreat in a hurry to the Tulnici Pass in order to be able to support its teammate by Negrilești, or even, if necessary, to defend outright the crossroads of Lepșa! Obviously, the 9th Army pursues very quickly, in order to prevent it. In the evening, the Tulnici Pass is already contested, at the cost of very severe losses, by very aggressive Soviet points that do not hesitate to pass through the south, and in particular through Păulești. Stepan Kalinin, at the head of his 84th Division, managed to break the deadlock. In the process, he will win the Order of Lenin as well as the Red Banner.
Further south, the 83. ID reaches its new stopper, at Pătârlagele, without much difficulty. But the site soon finds itself contested by a 62nd Army eager to avenge its dead, and Theodor Scherer's division has to retreat another 3 kilometers to Valea Lupului. Scherer - who never had much faith in the Pătârlagele position, except for a transitional halt - sees himself far more willing to resist here, along the winding Buzau. In any case, he has no choice now, except to run ahead of the Soviets to the pass. And in fact, this new line holds all day, as it surely will tomorrow.
At the same time, in Măneciu, the grinding continues between the 95. ID of Gustav Gihr and the 6th Guards Army of Pavel Batov - which is concentrating more fire every hour on this so difficult terrain to push back or, better, destroy on the spot the Nazi soldiery. Little by little, the line of fire progressed. We have been fighting for this unfortunate village for three days already! In vain - in the evening, the Soviet soldiers are just beginning to overrun their objective, after spending another day assaulting the trenches on the right flank, above Schiulești***. On the left, in the Telejenel valley, Plăiețu (among other places!) still holds, despite the fires and especially without reinforcements, which Gihr now desperately requests. It is that the request for transfer of the 20. PzrGr has to go up very high before any good news can eventually come down to him!
The Soviets are (perhaps) more generous to their (humble) Romanian allies. And now that the Red Army is willing to send its tanks to secure its rear, the Romanian 3rd Army relaunches its assault with energy against Herman Frenking's KorpsAbteilung E, always so mediocre and without perspective. This time, it is the right one! The first targets fall: Cişmea and Racovita, followed by Livezeni and Davidești. Petre Dumitrescu can be satisfied with this beginning of success - his opponent is visibly no longer a match. So much so, in fact, that Horst von Mellenthin, in the XVI. ArmeeKorps, has just ordered the 383. ID of Edmund Hoffmeister (positioned at Malu cu Flori, in the valley of the Dâmbovița), to send some of its recruits to support the exhausted veterans of the Korps Abt E...
In Băbeni, too, the carnage continues, here between the 14th Army and the 215. ID. Like the day before, the bulk of the fighting is concentrated on the heights of Cremenari, literally crushed by shells and smoke. The passing showers hinders the attackers a little... but only a little. By dint of assaults and envelopment from the east (and in particular through the Gâltofani forest), they made Frankewitz's left flank untenable - and thus, in the long term, his entire position. Frankewitz (no less pragmatic than the others!) begins to prepare his withdrawal to his second line, an arc around the critical crossroads of Râmnicu Vâlcea, a good 15 kilometers to the north. Hoping to have gained enough time, or even weakened the Reds enough by then!
Finally, at the western end of the fighting, the 72. ID of Hermann Hohn abandons the crossroads town of Târgu Jiu - objectively indefensible, except for dangerously weakening other positions - to withdraw to its Grosskampflinie in front of the Surduc pass. On Hohn's left, Georg Zwade's 330. ID does the same towards Novaci, in order to hold the road to the Urdele Pass. The lower Jiu basin and, in general, the region of the southern Carpathian foothills, are now free of German occupation.

Back on line
OKH - While the Soviet offensive in the Carpathians is stalling and the situation in France continues to evolve at high speed, the Nazi high command is phosphoric. It is that the decided departure of the I. and II. SS-PanzerKorps (taken from the HG Mitte), as well as the costly fighting in Hungary, creates a vacuum between the Vistula and the Carpathians.
However, at this time, if there is one thing that obsesses Guderian and his staff, it is a kind of specter: that of a vast sickle blow carried by the Soviets from Galicia to the Baltic, like the "Yellow Plan", to encircle the entire left wing of the Ostheer in one go. Germany cannot afford to risk such a Vernichtungsschlacht! It missed a similar blow just two months ago in eastern Poland, not to let its despicable opponent succeed.
In short, it is necessary to give depth to the Heeresgruppe A's position in the Tarnów sector, on the road to Krakow. Weiss' 8. Armee must be able to reconcentrate, or even reconstitute part of its forces in the second echelon, while leaving the Hungarians, on its right, the possibility of supporting HG B even more. This is why, after a (not too) long moment of reflection, the OKH decides to put the 6. Armee of Erhard Raus back in line. This troop represents nine divisions and four Armeekorps! No doubt, six of these divisions are still being reconstituted, three of them as VolksGrenadier-Division... but this reconstitution will be hastened, that is all!
The 6. Armee will thus go to position itself on the left bank of the Vistula, from Sandomierz to the Dukla pass, while transferring the XVII. AK to the 8. Armee. This one will be able to move towards the east, as soon as the fighting in this sector calms down... but without the III. PzK, sent back to the Vistula in favor of the 1. SS-PanzerArmee. No matter: there is no need for panzers in the Carpathians and, on paper, we will arrive at a density of one division every 30 kilometers - which almost corresponds to the manual. So, no reason to doubt!

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - The rain that falls on the battlefield on the road to the Dukla Pass puts a new stop to the Soviet offensive in this area. Pavel Bekov has exhausted his forces and ammunition. Certainly, after having launched an assault on his last reserves at the beginning of the night, he ended up taking Lipowica by the skin of his teeth, taking advantage of the fact that his right wing tried to envelop the fascists through Chyrowa. But overall, the 61st Army cannot advance any further. Fortunately, things are not much better on the other side. The 125. ID lost two-thirds of its potential, incinerated on static defense lines. Helmut Friebe would like to have reinforcements, if by any chance the Bolshevik action should continue.
The problem is that, on his right, the 132. ID and 141. ID are still very busy... The 1st Shock Army has a little less headlong than its neighbor at the beginning of Dukla-Carpathian. So it still has something to press where it hurts. In this case, on Jaśliska, in order to threaten the pass of Czeremcha, which is 8 kilometers east of the Dukla Pass - it is less practicable... but it also counts! By doing so, Vlassov forces the 132. ID to shift constantly to the left, dragging with it the center of the 141. ID. Herbert Wagner commands a very tired unit - so he has to constantly ask his colleague Heinz Hellmich to hold the line... even if it means that the latter has to neglect Komańcza a bit.

Returning state
Worry
Insurgent Slovakia - Kremnica is taken by KG Schill, who seems decidedly unstoppable now that he is properly supported by a mass of Volksgrenadiers. The treasury of the Slovak National Council was evacuated at the last moment by the rearguard of the 4th Battle Group Moray (Colonel Mikuláš Markus) - obviously unable to hold the line due to lack of manpower and support. In addition, it is raining and the Lavotchin 5 of commander František Fajtl are grounded... However, it is necessary to react - to lose the initiative completely is to condemn oneself to defeat!
Understandably, the Slovaks are worried: after having secured the situation in the north (at Ostré, against KG Schäfer), in the west (the road to the Bartoška spring, still well held by the 1st Battle Group Kriván), and in the east (the counter-offensive at Telgárt, celebrated as victorious), everyone has to admit that the most direct route, the south, had been somewhat neglected. However, if the Wehrmacht is to make a decisive breakthrough here, it could well decapitate the insurgency in one fell swoop by seizing all its decision-making centers, thus obtaining a victory by KO.
Faced with this serious problem, the solution is obvious - which does not mean that it was easy: Zvolen has to be wrested from the clutches of the Nazis and the Hron Valley (the critical Zvolen-Banská Bystrica-Brezno triangle) has to be closed off from the enemy. This meant pushing back the equivalent of a Nazi brigade at least as far as Dobrá Niva and Stožok, for a good ten kilometers... An ambitious objective to say the least! But Ján Golian and his 1st Czechoslovak Army are not far from their ambition... They start to gather troops to launch this new counter-attack, which is bound to be decisive.

Catch-up Shoah
Bratislava (occupied Slovakia) - During the night, Einsatzkommando 29, assisted by about 600 collaborators from the emergency divisions of the Hlinka Guard or the SS-Heimatschutz, soon takes up its new hunting ground. Thanks to the kindness of a Luftwaffe ground unit, which is willing to keep order in the streets while the work is being done, the assassination unit begins a large-scale round-up that nets 1,500 unfortunate people. A few are briefly interrogated in a local office... But most are immediately transferred by train to the transit camp in Sereď - personally managed by Alois Brunner, who doesn't trust the Slovaks too much on this point. From there, they will be shipped to another destination. Final, this time.

Crushed Hungary
Shoah to catch up
Wevelsburg - Stiff as a board in his black uniform, Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann salutes with a raised arm before reporting on the current operations in Hungary to his master in person - a sign of the importance of the matter! The work progresses. Not as fast as it should be, unfortunately, because in this field as in many others, the Hungarians show a staggering stupidity and incompetence. Not to mention, of course, the incessant foreign interference. On this subject, Eichmann does not fail to slip in the suggestion of his colleague Veesenmayer as to an accident that could happen to the troublesome Swiss, Lutz. To his great astonishment, Himmler promptly dismisses it with a wave of his hand! Would the ReichsFührer-SS have plans for Switzerland? Impossible to know - his face remains marbled behind the round glasses that surround dead eyes... Well, too bad for Lutz. But still, the deportations to Hungary must be carried out more efficiently, and as soon as possible!
Himmler is much more interested in this subject. He understands that the problem is technical? Of expertise? How to express, exactly, the fact that these little arrow-crossers lack exceptional criminals? Finally, after a short moment of meditation, he says to his guest with a satisfied look: "My dear Eichmann, I have the man we need!"

* Literally "Szálasi Butterflies" - formerly Buzogányvető (Mass Thrower), but the events of April 13th have come and gone...
** The 36 monks still present in the building during the fighting will survive, hidden in the crypt with the monastery's treasure!
*** Towards the hermitage of Crasna, founded in the XVth century but abandoned at this date.

 

[Wings]

May 15th, 1944

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - The bad weather continues (and even worsens!) in the sector of Ivan Bagramyan, whose right wing has to deal with rain, in addition to a thousand other difficulties.
The Izvor Pass undergoes new attacks. The first line of the 257. ID - already contested since the day before - is finally swept away in the late morning by the violent assaults of the 16th Army. The division withdraws without further losses to its second line, this time centered on Izvoarele-Sucevei. Mikhail Lukin can allow himself to smile: the Fascists are beginning to bend and the pass is in sight. Of course... but there is still a long way to go before we cross it. And in fact, the fighting for the second line continues all day, always furious, always bloody, but above all without any breakthrough.
During this time, on the side of the 47th Army, Filipp Zhmachenko begins to test the device set up by the L. ArmeeKorps of Wilhelm Wegener. This one seems, to say the least, complex to break through!
On the German left, the 370. ID (Fritz Becker) only has to defend a handful of roads and crossing points - the Curmatura Boului Pass in particular - all along a ridge line that runs at an average of 1,150 meters, up to the small Paşcanu Pass. Which gives, after multiple small paths through wooded massifs, on Breaza, either behind the Izvor Pass. It is tempting... in theory, because in reality, there would be a good 20 kilometers to go without any road before being able to claim to emerge behind the 257. ID. We won't go through there.
Similarly, on the German right, the 333. ID of Harry Hoppe has little to hold, except the Prihodiște Pass and a host of steep forest trails, unsuitable for a breakthrough. That leaves the center, where the two German units meet or even combine: Prisaca-Dornei and the loops of the Moldova, on a narrow strip of 300 meters wide that it will be necessary to try to overrun. Such a task is unfortunately out of reach of the 47th Army, at least for the time being. The 47th Army therefore pauses and begins to bring up its howitzers, while searching for good observation points and sending out scouting patrols to try to take prisoners.
The 38th Army, for its part, tries to gain some speed by taking advantage of the withdrawal initiated the day before by the 320th ID - only an initial one, because in reality, the Fascists have only ever moved 4 kilometers to the southwest. Taking advantage of the fact that Wilhelm Postel's troops are as tired as his own, but still have to take their marks in defense, Kyril Moskalenko sends a large part of his right wing through woods and reliefs, in the direction of Tarcău, or even outright Bicaz by Podoci for the most daring. Here, the valleys pierce the massifs marking the loops of the Bistrița, while the altitude does not exceed 700 meters. So it will be fine, the monks will show the way! As a result, the entire German division begins to be unbalanced, due to the lack of support from the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow), still posted in defense at the Petru-Vodă Pass in Lehgin. At the head of the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps, Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach does not yet dare to admit it to himself... but it is quite possible that this division will soon have to give up 12 kilometers of good ground in order to go and hold the crossroads of Poiana-Largului facing east and south - that is, the road to Vatra-Dornei and that of the Tulghes Pass! And still, it will not solve the business of the 320. ID: in the long run, it could well be pushed back to the Bicaz Pass. It is thus probable that the 17. Armee will soon have to engage here the 14. Panzergrenadier (Erich Schneider), although it was presumed to be required... elsewhere, at least until recently.
Fortunately for the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps, on the side of the Trotus Gorge on the other hand, everything remains relatively manageable: no assault, nor overrun for the 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler), which is content to suffer the bombardments of Ivan Korovnikov's 59th Army in the beautiful landscapes of what will much later become the natural park of the Tarcăului Mountains. Under his high cap, proud and bravado at his command post, Köhler is not the most worried: he has seen worse in 14-18*!

4th Ukrainian Front - First assault on the positions of the 321. ID west of Oituz - assault roughly repulsed by a German unit in turn suffering from the syndrome of a rat stuck in a blocked pipe. Vasily Glagolev perhaps expected that his success of the day before would unbalance the entire LIV. ArmeeKorps in its sector of the front... but it is a failure! It is necessary to start all over again, as since Onești... and in worse conditions, at that.
Although on reflection, the constraints generated by the mountains may still serve the attackers... In fact, in the valleys of the Șușița and Putna, the successful infiltration of the previous day puts a 50. ID now without a leader, insecure but fighting foot to foot to hold Soveja, every hour more in difficulty. The locality falls after being burned and razed to the ground by Red Army mortars**... And the whole division retreats again under the blows in the direction of Lepșa, through woods and on bad roads - it should hold at least for the night on this route.
The 339. ID (Wolfgang Lange) is also heading towards Lepșa at this time. It gives up what is left of its positions at Tulnic Pass before it is really too late. Leading what looks more and more - a little prematurely perhaps - like a breakthrough, Comrade Glagolev is at the maneuver, steadily climbing to the front line. At the risk, perhaps, of exposing himself a little too much...
Further south, in Valea Lupului, the 62nd Army faces yet another barrage set up by the 83. ID, whose leader, Theodor Scherer, continues to wonder about his prospects in this lose-lose battle... On the other side, Vladimir Kolpakchi - who has seen well the successful maneuvers of his comrades Pavel Batov and Vasily Glagolev, begins to consider passing through the mountains once again, but this time in the direction of the Curmătura valley, and taking advantage of the fact that his neighboring 6th Guards already holds the Chiojdu sector. In fact, between Chiojdu and Curmătura, it is only 8 kilometers of trails, passing through Poenițele! The fascists are not stupid: they will have planned it, of course. So what? The game is certainly worth the risk!
Especially that at the same time, on the side of the 6th Army of the Guard precisely, the fight continues without spirit of retreat (according to the formula of the propaganda) between a 95. ID in agony for lack of being able to maneuver and the waves of assault sent blow after blow by a Pavel Batov who begins, him, to lack ammunition! According to the infernal logic of the static defense, the total obliteration of the German defense line is not far off... Until good news finally falls in the night at the advanced headquarters of Gustav Gihr, at the Mănăstirea Suzana***: his division has to withdraw to the Bratocea Pass, towards which the 20. Panzergrenadier (Georg Jauer) is currently moving, in order to form a collection line. His pleas have been heard! Even if the men could find it strange to see a unit formed for half of Beutenpanzer-34 coming to their rescue... Well, apparently, it is not needed towards Bran - that's something!
In fact, in this sector, the Romanian 3rd Army still has a lot to do until its objective. Petre Dumitrescu, Dumitru Dămăceanu and David Popescu can certainly be satisfied with a long litany of localities liberated today by the combined efforts of the infantry and TACAM - Coșești, Bălilești, Ogrezea, Bărzeşti... - but the Cobelligerent Army has not settled anything. If Herman Frenking's KorpsAbteilung E is at a disadvantage in the middle of the multiple valleys of the sector, it is nowhere in rout. Worse, it could soon count on the reinforcement of the 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister) which has just arrived at Mihăești and Hârtiești... as well as, perhaps, on the support of a 225. ID (Ernst Riße) always on the lookout for a bad move from the Curtea de Argeș sector.
Although Riße must also provide from Blidari the link with the 215. ID of Bruno Frankewitz. The latter is in full recovery around Râmnicu Vâlcea, but its right wing is already threatened by a sudden motorized push of the 14th Army along the banks of the Olt. The fighting is quickly concentrated in the outskirts of the city, in front of the hermitage of Troianu****. For the moment, the Heer holds out, with blows of magnetic mines and Pak 40... Hoping, however, that the Slavs coming from Cremenari do not manage to bypass through Racovița!
To complete the picture, Andrei Gretchko's 18th Army takes Târgu Jiu and begins to spread through the valleys of the Jiu and Gilort to the new Fascist positions - those of XLII. AK. Many other localities pass under the red flag: Tismana, Dobrița, Târgu Cărbunești... But the Ukrainian already knows that the road to the Surduc and Urdele Passes remain closed to his forces, which are far too dispersed at this time.

Lvov (rear of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Ukrainian SSR) - In the series of psychological warfare operations underway on the entire front, the Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland (National Committee for a Free Germany) sends several Hungarian defectors in the direction of the lines of the 1st Magyar Army for the purpose of spying and demoralization. Few of them succeed - most of them are unmasked as soon as they try to approach their compatriots and are immediately shot. Such a failure is not a surprise: everyone could suspect that, in the end, the unfortunate ones had never had a chance. They are among the first to know this - otherwise, there would have been no need to "encourage" more than one to return to risk his life for the future new Hungary!
These agents are thus sacrificed, without any serious perspective, in full knowledge of the facts - and especially in the complete indifference of the Germans of the NKFD, now reputedly pro-communist, such as Lieutenant-General Alexander von Daniels. For if there is one thing that does not change, regardless of the colors, it is the contempt that the military across the Rhine have for the Magyars.

Waffen-SS
A fixed idea
Wewelsburg - While bloody fighting continues in the Carpathians, the Waffen-SS takes stock of the forces it would soon be able to (have to?) send to the rescue of the Heer in Hungary, as is customary. These are unpleasantly modest! Because of the current events in France and Yugoslavia, and once the Dirlewanger and Osttürkisher sent to Slovakia have been counted, the Rune Bearers must agree that their weapon has absolutely nothing under the glove, except the 17. SS-Freiwilligen Kavallerie-Division Maria-Theresa (SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen SS August Zehender), which is in the process of being expanded, and the 19. SS-Grenadier-Division (ungarisch) Hunyadi (SS-Standartenführer Thomas Müller), whose formation has only just begun.
Yet a solution has to be prepared... It is not as if the SS-Reichsführer could afford to pass. Not now, on the eve of the decisive moment! It is then that Obergruppenführer-SS Maximilian von Herff, Himmler's damned soul in all military matters, puts the Horst-Wessel file of SS-Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik on his chief's desk. It is true that this file did not end up working in Croatia... But in Hungary? Himmler looks at the documents with an interested look... He likes the name! This is probably the most important thing.

OKW-OKH
Fire Brigade
Vistula Front - Departure of the I. SS-PanzerKorps to the Western Front. Commanded by SS-OberstGruppenführer Joseph Dietrich, it includes two powerful armored divisions, the 1. SS-Panzer Leibstandarte Adolf-Hitler (Theodor Wisch) and the 2. SS-Panzer Das Reich (Heinz Lammerding), reinforced by the 101. SS-schw. Pz Abt (Heinrich Kling). This heavy formation leaves Poland with a sense of duty accomplished... as well as a very clear feeling of superiority. What, after having inflicted a bloody defeat on the Red Army (Fredericus II is a great German victory, no one will ever say otherwise), the valiant Waffen-SS would be afraid of a bunch of plutocrats, of their barely armored cans and their legions of jewish negroes?
The long journey ahead will surely lead them to victory... if the Westheer holds out long enough. And if the trains arrive on time, too! The departure of the II. SS-PanzerKorps (Walter Krüger), because of the lack of available convoys!

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - After its final push the day before, the 61st Army throws in the towel. At least for the moment. Pavel Belov did not manage to take the Dukla Pass. Well, not alone, without aviation, without a new break and without supplies. The Soviet front thus stops at the steps of Nowa Wieś, having advanced less than a kilometer since its conquest of Lipowica the day before! It's infuriating... but after 15 days of effort, this 3rd UF formation, non-priority (need I remind you!) and engaged without preparation in an offensive that many don't care about, is decidedly in great need of a respite before, perhaps, once again moving forward.
Meanwhile, between Jaśliska and Komańcza, the couple 132. ID and 141. ID continue to hold up well against the 1st Shock Army, which strikes again and again at 132. ID to at least keep the initiative. In his headquarters lost in the middle of the woods, and not so far from the front, Heinz Hellmich takes stock. The man from Baden has learned to... consider his Soviet opponents - without esteeming them, let alone respecting them, of course. He who was, like many, convinced that the USSR was only ever a rotten house with no one to defend it, is surprised by the strength and relative competence of the troops facing him. It seems that they are commanded by a certain Vlassov...
At this mention, Hellmich lets out a sigh of spite, mentioning to his aide-de-camp a project he had the year before: wasn't it possible to enlist a greater number of Slavic prisoners, or even to convince anti-Soviet elements to join the Reich? If they are able to fight so well, then they should know that their cause is lost in advance [OTL, Heinz Hellmich was one of the "godfathers" of Andrei Vlassov, until he became General der Osttruppen] ... It is at this moment that a 122 mm shell hits the CP, killing the general on the spot as well as a good part of his staff - the aide-de-camp, wounded, will survive.

Returning state
Preparations
Insurgent Slovakia - A day of rain and transition.
On the German side, troops are reorganized and stocks are replenished in anticipation of an offensive from the south towards Banská Bystrica, which is definitely intended to be a no-holds-barred one - it must finish off the traitors! With this in mind, KG Schill leaves Kremnica, leaving it to 548. VGD of Erich Sudau. The equivalent of a battalion will then reinforce the 178. PanzerGrenadier Tatra, the rest of the battalion went to rest in Žarnovica.
On the other side, the insurgency frantically gathers conscripts and weapons and concentrates its shock troops (the LT vz. 35***** and paratroopers) in preparation for its offensive on Zvolen. Ján Golian reports on the second wave of mobilization. This one is still positive: one speaks from now on about 60 000 people under the arms!
This is good. If all these people had weapons, supervision and time to train them, it would be even better...

Cluj-Debrecen and Dukla-Carpathian Offensives, May 15th, 1944

* Iron Cross 2nd class and 1st class, Badge of the Wounded in Black, Knight's Cross of the Order of the Lion of Zaeringens 2nd class with swords, Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg.
** Three quarters of the village were destroyed and 20 inhabitants were killed. In memory of this terrible day, the municipality will decide in the 21st century to... restore the hermitage of Soveja, a place of Orthodox worship abandoned since the 19th century, as well as the hermitage of Babele. Romanians are superstitious, especially in Transylvania - it was claimed that Soveja was a cursed village since the arson of the hermitage of Babele in the Middle Ages. The imprecations of the nuns of that time would have called down the divine wrath on the locality! In addition, two serious fires that occurred in quick succession in 1998 contributed to this belief. Since then, there have been no more fires in the village... As for the dead of 1944, they have joined the mausoleum built in 1927 on the territory of the town, which houses the bones of 2,000 soldiers who fell here between 1916 and 1918.
*** 18th century community, 19th century church.
**** It was the headquarters of General Gheorghe Magheru in 1848.
***** Original version of the Panzer 35t.

 

[Wings]

May 16th, 1944

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - Ivan Bagramyan's forces trample heavily under the rain.
At the Izvor Pass, little is moving. Mikhail Lukin's 16th Army gave a lot to break through the first defense line of the 257. ID - and the men of Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim as much to try to hold it! The Soviets have to regain momentum before claiming to force the second line at Izvoarele-Sucevei. In the meantime, the Red Army is content to keep the pressure on - and in front, the last machines of a 189. StuG Abt, very thinned out, are doing their best to avoid Soviet probes. They run from one point to another loaded with infantrymen, fire a few shells in the rain in order to gain the time needed for the infantry to deploy... Then, ideally, they withdraw before the retaliation arrives. It is during one of these non-glamorous battles that Hauptmann Walter Dusche is killed, a 76 mm shell piercing the armor of his StuG III. As a result, his unit, reduced to barely a dozen vehicles, finds itself without a commander. Fortunately, the Russians are visibly tired!
The 47th Army continues to try to force the L. ArmeeKorps - with no more results than before. Wilhelm Wegener has done his job well and his troops are now fighting in the most favorable circumstances: rain, difficult terrain, constrained axes of attack. The Red Army does not stand a chance in its (small) assaults of the day, mainly directed on Prisaca-Dornei. For the Curmatura-Boului Pass and the Prihodiște Pass, it is too early: the frontovikis are still climbing the hills, looking for observation points and overcoming the multiple delaying elements left in the woods by the 370. ID (Fritz Becker) and the 333. ID (Harry Hoppe). We'll see tomorrow...
Meanwhile, the 38th Army continues to press the 320. ID between Straja and Podoci, taking advantage of the slightest opportunity offered by the terrain to try to envelop it from the north. In the face of this vast effort, which forced it to deploy for almost 10 kilometers, Wilhelm Postel's formation, already anemic from the past fighting for Piatra Neamț, simply failed to recover. A breakthrough threatens in the vicinity of Dodeni - it would cut the division squarely in half!
In the evening, acting on the situation of his XLVIII. ArmeeKorps in this sector is no longer tenable, Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach finally obtains from the command of the 17. Armee the authorization to withdraw: Karl-Adolf Hollidt orders the retreat of the 320. ID towards Bicaz and the redeployment of the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow) to Poiana-Largului. But this is exactly what Seydlitz-Kurzbach feared! In fact, due to the lack of support and the constant pressure exerted by the enemy at a precise point, his corps, already spread out over a series of compartmentalized valleys and a sector that is much too large for him, begins to fragment. And his leader could do nothing about it... This is enough to make him seriously worried for the future, especially if one of his colleagues of the HG B has to give in.
Finally, in the Trotus gorges, the situation remains unpleasantly normal for the 306. ID of Karl-Erik Köhler. Bombardments and infiltrations follow one another, without much result. On the other side of the front, Ivan Korovnikov is probably waiting for the right moment to launch his 59th Army in the right place...
In summary, seen from the outside (for example from the HQ of Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, in Székesfehérvár), the 2. PanzerArmee like the 17. Armee seem to have succeeded, one in redressing the situation, the other in containing the assaults of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. However, the latter still has infinitely more resources than the HG B...

4th Ukrainian Front - It is not a good day for the right of the 9th Army, still stuck in front of the positions of the 321. ID in the Oituz sector. Wilhelm Thomas holds his line well, which no frontoviki manages to bypass - especially in the absence of Stalin's Falcons, pinned down by rain, and while the hammers of the same marshal are just beginning to pound the fascist positions. With time and technical means, the Reds can consider overrunning through the reliefs by Cireșoaia. That would perhaps gain them four kilometers, come on - if, of course, the enemy did not think to garrison this approach. In reality, the situation here is well and truly blocked - until further notice at least.
But for Glagolev, this is not serious - the left wing of his 9th Army, it is a success story, advancing 30 kilometers in three days! Facing it, the 50. ID - still without a commander, nor the possibility of taking in a new one - loses more men and cohesion every hour, in a dead-end delaying battle on the road to Lepșa. It has little chance of recovering any time soon... On the other hand, by doing so, the survivors still allow the 339. ID to reach this same locality without fear of encirclement - which would, for the time being, have truly catastrophic consequences! The rain, the harshness of the terrain and German stubbornness thus limit the disaster: in the evening, when the two Soviet corps going up the valleys of the Șușița and Putna resume contact with the enemy in front of Lepșa, it is only to find that, in front of them, the remnants of the 50. ID narrowly join the collection line formed by the 339. ID until Greșu. Sixt's division has lost almost two-thirds of its potential... but thanks to Wolfgang Lange's division, the Heer still has ample means of blocking the Putna valley towards Târgu Secuiesc - thus denying the assailants the exit from the Carpathians! The 17. Armee escaped the worst...
However, even if he was not yet a total winner, Vasily Glagolev could not resist giving himself a satisfaction: he is the first Soviet general to start descending from the summits, while all the others are still pretending to climb them. It is enough to forget the day he has spent crabbing in his GAZ-67...
On the side of the 62nd Army (Vladimir Kolpakchi), the fighting calms down... a little, at the height of Valea Lupului, between rain, artillery bombardments and violent probe blasts - all repulsed, but which also make the trees burn and the rocks jump. Theodor Scherer, as a good professional, prepares a second line towards Păltineni, just in case... That is, precisely to the north of the Curmătura valley, towards which a strong detachment of the 87th Rifle Division is heading, making its way through rocky terrain via Poenițele. He is very quickly spotted, of course - Scherer will deduce that he was right to be cautious!
Further west, in the Teleajen valley, it is the release. The 95. ID, exhausted, decimated, charred even by five days of 1916-worthy fighting for control of tiny Măneciu, disappears on the road to the Bratocea Pass, toward the tracks of the 20. Panzergrenadier of Georg Jauer. It is an understatement to say that in front, Pavel Batov is surprised by this sudden withdrawal - which, moreover, comes at the worst time (for him), when neither the air force, nor the artillery can give. Obviously, the Red Horde - according to Nazi propaganda, it is rather the 6th Guards Army for the Soviets - does not take long to launch itself in pursuit of the opponent. In vain: in the evening, a succession of small detachments, sometimes motorized, sometimes on foot, sometimes horse-drawn, marched past the monastery of Cheia. Decimated, exhausted, but valiant, not really defeated and in any case with the feeling of duty accomplished. At their head, in his Steyr 1500, Gustav Gihr is proud of it - on the other hand, he probably regrets the strategy that ordered his division to hold on until the end. To hold on, yes, but why here and especially for what purpose? But it is too late to have any doubts - and behind him, the Soviets will not recover anything, except for the dead, the wounded and a few stragglers.
On the road to the Rucăr-Bran Pass, the Romanian 3rd Army continues to accelerate, now that its opponent, KorpsAbteilung E (Herman Frenking), seems to have given up holding. Always guaranteed on its rear by the 12th Mechanized Corps (Dimitri Ryabyshev), and benefiting - fortunately - of the exclusive support of all that can fly in the Romanian aviation (that is to say not much, today), Petre Dumitrescu goes forward, TACAM in front. Until arriving at the level of Mihăești and Hârtiești, facing the first lines of the 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister). The advance then suddenly stalls against this new opponent. Nothing to worry the Romanians: they are the "children" of the Rheingold levy, while they themselves have already been fighting for three years. They have the advantage of experience! Certainly... but on the right, the 225. ID of Ernst Riße, of the XXX. ArmeeKorps, was charged by a personal order of Georg-Hans Reinhardt to guarantee the linkwith the XVI. ArmeeKorps. It therefore undertook to extend its right wing as far as Domnești and Aninoasa - that is, directly on the flank of the Romanians, in the valleys of the Râul Doamnei and the Bratia. This could soon pose a problem for the Romanians! In fact, Reinhardt never forgets that Bran is the natural gateway to the Transylvanian basin. A door that he wants to keep closed, it goes without saying.
At the same time, around Râmnicu Vâlcea, the Grosskampflinie of the 215. ID undergoes new assaults by the 14th Army, always as frontal, brutal and effective, for the control of the ancient Castrum Buridava - already a strong point, in Roman times! For the time being, the German infantry holds. At least on the main road, along the Olt - but on the left, Valerian Frolov's wing has finished descending from the Cremenari hills, despite multiple roadblocks. It begins to advance toward Barza and Aldești through the Sâmnic valley, in a movement that eventually threatened to envelop Racovița, thus flanking Bruno Frankewitz's positions at Râmnicu Vâlcea - the extremity of the Soviet offensive as long as Andrei Gretchko's Eighteenth Army does not mount an assault on the Surduc or Urdele passes.

The shadow of a doubt
Hotel Magyar Király (Székesfehérvár) - Field Marshal Günther von Kluge senses that something is wrong: the Bolshevik offensive that was inflicted on him, completely uncoordinated (it seems!) with the plutocrat operations in Yugoslavia or Hungary, does not seem to stop, or even to weaken, in spite of the most difficult circumstances and the enormous losses that are announced.
Although Kluge has not commanded on the Eastern Front since Zitadelle last summer, he knows that one could only form a good opinion of Slavic projects by observing from the field. Problem: he is stuck in Hungary, guarding this province that is so precious to the Reich, and the situation of the British troops do not allow him to move. He knows that he would never be forgiven for being absent at a critical moment!
The Marshal therefore needs a qualified envoy who could represent him on the front and report back to him. Yes, but who? The officers available at the Oberbefehlshaber Donau are unfortunately not so numerous, without even mentioning the problems of competence. So Kluge will look for someone, even if it means going quite low in the hierarchy. Ideally, he would need an expert in mountain combat. Late at night, he finally finds a name...

Partisans... and others
For the form
Krakow - Departure to the "occupied" Ukraine (by the Reds!) of the section of the Abwehr-Kommando 202 which must make contact with the warlord Shukhevych, in order to try to rally him - and the debris of the UPA - to the cause of the Reich. Well, on second thought, it's more a question of getting him back, since he is a former member of the Nachtigall battalion. No matter... So, off to Ostgalizien and the woods in the Biłgoraj area. Hoping not to make a bad encounter along the way, like many others before!

Secret war
Poisoning
A forest near Hrodna - After the painful failure of the 11th of May, Lieutenant-Colonel Heinrich Scherhorn, head of the so-called Kessel Scherhorn, wants to reassure his friendly Nazi correspondents. He also wants to re-establish trust, which has been somewhat dented by the many failures and other setbacks that have marked the history of the relationship between the German army and these lost children of the Reich, trapped on the borders of Ostland.
Fortunately, this time, the lieutenant-colonel brings excellent news: he has on hand a certain Colonel Ivan Fyodorov. This famous VVS fighter pilot (perhaps a bit of an affabulator), a former well-known Abwehr correspondent and recipient of the Iron Cross*, would like to change sides and flee to the Reich in a plane that can be lent to him. One detail however: if the colonel, ace on Yak 3 in the 269th Fighter Aviation Division (8 victories, 8,700 flying hours), recently lost the command of this division (he is now only deputy), at this time, he is not aware of his intention to betray...

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathians
3rd Ukrainian Front - Flat calm in front of the Dukla Pass. The 61st Army - out of breath against a 125. ID, itself exhausted - needs a short break before what Pavel Belov announces as the last push before the objective. On the other side, the Landsers of Helmut Friebe and the Stug IIIs of the 909. and 911. StuG Abt (Major Rossi and Hauptmann Erich Hoffmann) dig in and entrench themselves again under the woods and in the mud, waiting for the inevitable new assault.
On the German right wing, on the other hand, the violence of the confrontations does not decrease. The brutal and unexpected death - although these are the risks of the job! - of General Heinz Hellmich, commander of the 141. ID, creates a kind of weakness in the German position in the Komańcza sector. On the other side, Andrei Vlassov duly notes this beginning of failure. He has long planned his strategy of imbalance - to press sometimes in the east, sometimes in the west to better weaken the opponent. It suddenly seems to succeed ... The Soviet does not delay to launch a new violent assault towards the Radoszyce Pass, betting this time squarely on a break in the front.
Against a more centralized army, such as the Red Army of the first months of the war, it might have worked. Unfortunately for Vlassov, the Wehrmacht always trains its cadres one rank above their assignment and the 141. ID does not falter. It even gains enough time for the 132. ID to arrive to the rescue. The latter dispatches reinforcements from Wola Niżna, and most importantly... it counterattacks from Jaśliska in the direction of Kulaszne. This flanking maneuver completely destabilizes the Soviets! Who can be sure that the diabolical fascists did not send here Panzers capable of going all the way back to Sanok, to encircle the entire 1st Shock? The attack towards the Radoszyce Pass, although promising, hesitates, slows down... stalls.
The threat is very exaggerated, of course. But by the time Vlassov understands the feint and readjusts his own device, it is too late. Herbert Wagner, at the head of a formation that is however depleted and without perspective, has already rallied everyone. And regained control of the situation.

Returned state
Preparations
Occupied Slovakia - While the Germans are preparing for the next round of fighting in the area around the Czechoslovak First Army, Bishop Tiso's small mountainous country welcomes a new and illustrious guest: Obergruppenführer Hermann Höfle, who has been sent personally by the Waffen-SS headquarters to ensure the liquidation of the insurrection.
It had been a month since the parody army of the traitor Ján Golian had dared to raise its head under the boot. The Wehrmacht had planned to crush it within a week. Today, everyone can see that it was not enough! And in this regard, it is clear to everyone that the last victory in the Kremnica sector was achieved by KG Schill. So the Black Order, and not those Heer punks. Proof, if any were needed, that the SS was able to recruit and regroup the most competent.
Höfle is undoubtedly one of them. A former pilot during the Other War, Freikorps against the Poles and then a major in the Reichswehr, he only joined the Nazi party in 1937. And the Waffen-SS only in 1943, at the request of Himmler himself. It is therefore a brilliant opportunist who takes the reins in Slovakia, with the double title of Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer and Deutscher Befehlshaber in der Slowakei. He is in charge of organizing and coordinating the jumble of troops in the region, so that a final assault would settle the matter once and for all. For that, he has full powers... within reason of course. For the Axis, it is a transitional period, while Herr Obergruppenführer Höfle takes up his quarters in the Grasalkovičov Palác, waiting to go on a tour of the front, looking for a plan.

Insurgent Slovakia - On the other side, the Slovaks take advantage of this unexpected respite to try to arm themselves... and their efforts do not seem to be in vain. The tables of the 1st Czechoslovak Army now show a truly plethoric strength: 44 infantry battalions, 6 artillery regiments and 32 independent batteries, in addition to various specific formations, including an air group. Impressive - at least on paper. However, over time...


* Within the framework of the excellent (although very ambiguous) relations established between the Luftwaffe and the VVS from 1939 to 1942... and very carefully followed by the NKVD!

 

[Wings]

May 17th, 1944

Baltic
A U-boot to refloat
"The rigorous - and technically impeccable - lessons of the Baltic Fleet soon paid off. Within four days, the unit of N.S. Kadurin was ready to operate. The Soviet commandos even had the opportunity to conduct a full-scale test on the old D-3 Krasnogvardyeyets (Dekabrist class), built in 1928, out of service and deliberately sunk in a basin to serve for such an experiment ... It was successful. And when the old kiosk, starred in red, was raised from the basin under the cheers of the audience, it brought back from the bottom to the commandos the satisfaction - more discreet but not less proud! - of the leaders of the ROSNAZ-KBF.
It remained only to program the mission, in the most favorable tidal, climatic and lunar circumstances. After a fast conciliation, the date was quickly decided: it would be May 20th."
(Commandos in the Baltic and Danube: Soviet Naval Spetsnaz in World War II, Yuriy Strokhnine, Naval Institute Press, 1996)

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - Another day of rain. The conditions are definitely very unfavorable for Ivan Bagramyan's forces. The latter seems to have decided to take his side - if he can't do anything about it... Obviously, the bad weather is not going to go away any time soon. So, even if it means attacking in the worst conditions, it might as well be at full strength - and also with a clear vision of what the 5th Tank Army (which has just arrived towards Fălticeni) can do. One day, this one will have to bring its steel to the fire again - but this time, it will have to be in a decisive way. In the end, therefore, the 2nd Ukrainian Front does not go on the defensive. And even less on the reserve, no! It maintained pressure wherever its leader thought it would be useful, while waiting for the inevitable break.
This is especially the case at the Izvor Pass - as has been the custom for the past five days. Here, the fascist opponent is clearly out of breath, and any further retreat would be extremely unfavorable. Indeed, after Izvoarele-Sucevei, the exploitable terrain widens, forming a quasi agricultural plateau that can quickly reach up to 6 kilometers wide. More importantly, it also opens towards the two secondary passes of Pohaniste and Cârlibaba - it would then be very easy for the Red Army to claim to overrun here, to make the defense of the 257. ID - already particularly costly - ineffective, if not impossible.
However, for the time being, Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim and his handful of StuG III are still holding on by the skin of their teeth, in what is beginning to look like a never-ending day of pain for everyone (but especially for the Soviets): shooting, counter-battery, assaults, counter-attacks... These are each time less supplied and vigorous, and yet the opponent is still there.
Against these stubborn people, Mikhail Lukin strides along the front, a handful of kilometers behind the line of fire, accompanied by some staff officers and two imposing bodyguards. The general inspects, harangues, harangues, with the legitimacy that his seniority gives him - was he not a red guard, and among the first to join the Workers' and Peasants' Army*? And then, he is also a talented officer, who likes to dabble in technique and artillery... It is then that a Hungarian Me 210 appears defying the clouds, the mountains and the flak. Its 20 mm guns strafe the position where Lukin is - a shell tears the general's right leg and a piece of shrapnel is lodged in his shoulder. The general is evacuated on a stretcher, seriously wounded - among so many others wounded during this day which obviously did not yield anything.
In the valley of the Moldova, the events are not so... spectacular. Confronted with an L. ArmeeKorps still very comfortable in defense and uncertain of its support, the 47th Army continues to test with energy the positions of Prisaca-Dornei and also begins to probe the pass of Curmatura-Boului. Without result, it is true. But the work of Filipp Zhmachenko is not useless: by immobilizing two fascist divisions and 190. Stug Abt (in reserve at the Mestecăniș Pass) - the equivalent of an army corps - the Soviet allows his comrades to advance a little faster in sectors more prone to breakthrough...
Further east, the 38th Army took Dodeni, Podoci and Tarcău - thus confirming the Red Army's gain of the downstream sector of the Bistrița. Kyril Moskalenko now faces two axes of advance. To the northwest, following the waters toward Poiana-Largului, and against the 328. ID of Joachim von Tresckow - which takes position in a hurry to block the road to the Buzatu Pass, while trying to hold the Petru Vodă Pass. And to the southeast, towards the Bicaz Pass and Gheorgheni, where Wilhelm Postel's 320. ID - already anemic from the fighting and beginning to be known by dint of assaults. So, for sure, the Nazis are now defending in Tașca (west of Bicaz) a very unfavorable sector. So what? The opportunity is too good and what has already been defeated once can be defeated a second time: forward comrades! In the evening, the 38th Army is already pressing hard on the unfortunate 320 ID, which is becoming increasingly isolated. This one however holds firmly the gorges of the Bicaz under fire and attacks ... but is exhausted every hour a little more. All of this is very worrying for von Seydlitz-Kurzbach. Especially since the 14. Panzergrenadier of Erich Schneider, the only available reserve for the 17. Armee... is no longer available, and has not been for some time. In fact, it has just arrived at Vatra Dornei, in order to reinforce the Izvor Pass for the benefit of the 2. PanzerArmee ! This undermines the feeling of security that the Germans were beginning to feel for their northern flank - especially with the events still underway at the Izvor Pass.
Further east, in the Trotus Gorge, the 59th Army launches a first assault in the form of a test on the 306. ID of Karl-Erik Köhler, taking advantage of the fact that it is a little less ugly here than elsewhere. The attack, obviously particularly constrained along the Ciobănuș road, meets with a bloody failure. The Ghimeș-Palanca Pass remains closed, to one division against a whole army. But Ivan Korovnikov, like all his colleagues, is patient. And he continues to gradually increase the pressure.

4th Ukrainian Front - Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin does not feel the same difficulties as his comrade Bagramyan in terms of time and progress. One only has to look at the advances of his 9th Army and 6th Guards, which seem close to breaking through. The Soviets are now re-launching all their assaults, with the support of the heavy artillery that we had time to mobilize, of Comrade Verchinin's 4th Air Force (unfortunately a bit parasitized by this airborne operation in Yugoslavia, which was imposed on him at the last moment), or even of the Romanian air forces - despicable but still useful.
And it seems to work - at least for the moment. Faced with the static but dead-end defense of the 17. Armee (which is beginning to crack) or the Schlittenfahrt mock defense of the 11. Armee (whose principle is precisely to give up a little ground), Tolbukhin sees himself undoubtedly the first to cross the great barrier of the Carpathians, or even to reach the Danube. Well, the first after the capitalists - but the average Soviet will never know about that...
But there is still a long way to go. In the Oituz sector, the right wing of the 9th Army continues to bump into the 321. ID - which prevents this division from retreating south. In addition, Wilhelm Thomas' men begin to suffer significant losses under artillery bombardment. The 210 mm shells rain down and even when they do not hit anyone, they shatter the rocks into numerous and deadly pieces - obviously, the number of wounded is also affected.
However, those who know recent local history are not surprised by the strength of the German position. It was already here in 1917, on the now famous hill 789, that the Romanian army had stopped the Kaiser's troops on the Marasesti line, in a battle that was unfortunately later rendered futile by the Bolshevik revolution. A certain Lieutenant Erwin Rommel was even to experience failure there... And today, Hill 789 is once again the scene of a bloody struggle, with the Soviets having begun to send their reconnaissance squads from Cireșoaia towards the plateau, in a sketchy overrun... The whole thing has a bitter taste of historical déjà vu: the positions of the belligerents have simply reversed, 27 years later!
On Glagolev's left wing, in front of Lepșa, Wolfgang Lange's 339. ID, not yet too exhausted, inflicts a new - but costly - blow to the 9th Army, retreating only 2 or 3 kilometers from its first lines (deliberately sacrificed) to Greșu. That is, the heart of the German device. Here, once again, according to the traditional formula of the Wehrmacht in the Carpathians, it will be possible to stop an opponent unable to any bypass, waiting for him to exhaust and crack. In any case, this is what the OKH foresees... It is therefore enough to have confidence! Especially that in front, the masses of the 9th Army, already disorganized by the pursuit of the last few days, are still organizing their assault waves and their rolling fires, before they can claim to resume their progression.
So, that's fine! And, taking advantage of this respite, the 50th ID welcomed its new commander, sent in an emergency: Generalleutnant Paul Betz, a Hamburg man previously assigned to staff duties, then to garrison duty on the Romanian coast. He had the heavy task of rallying and reorganizing his new division, in anticipation of a return to the line - inevitable, given that the only available reserve, the Hetzer of the 228. StuG Abt (Hauptman Wilhelm von Markowitz) is still kept under wraps at Târgu Secuiesc by Karl-Adolf Hollidt. He was until yesterday quite worried about the future: in fact, the Reds are only 20 kilometers away from an open field!
All the more reason not to give in, of course. The 83. ID of Theodor Scher, who had the excellent idea to retreat six kilometers from Valea Lupului to Păltineni, in order to dodge an attempt to bypass the 62nd Army through the Curmătura valley, is thus slapped on the wrist by Hollidt, via Joachim von Kortzfleisch (XI. AK). Hasn't it been said enough and repeated to the Heer leaders in the Carpathians - hold without spirit of retreat! And Scher - yet still has 30 kilometers of margin along the Buzău Pass - can only see that he is now stuck in place by his orders...
A static and fanatical defense is also expected at the Bratocea Pass, where Georg Jauer has his StuG III, Hetzer and Beutenpanzer 34 positioned. This unexpected menagerie has to defend a crossing point a few hundred meters wide, lost between two wooded slopes at an altitude of 1,263 meters...
On the other side, it is not certain that the 6th Guards Army of Pavel Batov really presses the pace. Already embarrassed by the terrain and by its logistical constraints, its advance already so difficult is also effectively slowed down by the host of traps, roadblocks and other obstacles left there by the fascists. As a result, when the Red Army arrives at the monastery of Cheia, it takes some revenge on the community**. However, as night falls, the Soviets are barely able to close in on the defenses of the pass - behind it, the 95. ID of Gustav Gihr forms again, obviously...
Sixty-five kilometers to the west, the Romanian 3rd Army also suffers a setback: while it is attacking the positions of KorpsAbteilung E (Herman Frenking) and 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister) at Mihăești and Hârtiești, the Cobelligerent army has the unpleasant surprise of finding itself flanked by a new point of Ernst Riße's 225. ID, which comes down the valley of the Râul Doamnei from Domnești. This one was not parried by the Soviet 12th Mechanized Corps: Dimitri Ryabyshev estimated that he had a lot to hold until Târgoviște... Combined with the threat presented by the fresh German forces at Hârtiești, this action forces the Romanians to caution, to reserve... and then finally to the defensive, in order to limit losses. Decidedly, the road to Rucăr-Bran is not about to be seized. It even seems that the Soviets never really believed in it...
Finally, in Râmnicu Vâlcea, the 14th Army is still pressing the 215. ID - Valerian Frolov's men clash head-on with the positions of those of Bruno Frankewitz. It is that the capture of this lock of the Olt valley would make the position of the 225.ID untenable, and much more difficult the defense of Bran against the Romanians ... Not to mention, of course, the threat that the Red Army would then weigh on the pass of Turnu Roșu! For the time being, the German infantry, true to its reputation, fiercely defends in a fight worthy of another age. However, Frankewitz is informed that, on his left, Racovița is now challenged by advanced elements of the Bolshevik right... And he really has no reinforcements to dispatch to the place. It smells bad...

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - The break is prolonged between the 61st Army and the 125. ID reinforced, both still positioned near the Dukla Pass for which we have already fought so hard. One might think it is a truce... But no one here is fooled: the Soviets are already sending reinforced reconnaissance patrols toward Nowa Wieś and Chyrowa, on the left. The next round is coming soon.
On the right, between the 1st Shock Army and the duo 132. ID and 141. ID - reduced to the size of a division and now commanded, conveniently, by Herbert Wagner alone - there is also a lull. Or rather, frustrated trampling. The brilliant recovery of the previous day has literally disgusted Andrei Vlassov, who no longer knows how to deal with this obstinate opponent. The attacks that he launches today, inevitably confused because uncertain, will not give much... which reassures the Germans on the continuation.

Returned state
Preparations
Occupied Slovakia - A day of transition around this insignificant and unpleasant area occupied by the 1st Czechoslovak Army. Obergruppenführer Hermann Höfle strides along the front, his leather-gloved hands firmly crossed behind his back, looking for a coherent strategy (for once!) in this story. And he doesn't forget, by the way, to go and decorate the Ukrainians of the Galizien, heroic (once again) in Martin.
In addition, it seems that they are now lending a hand, without necessarily having received orders, to the operations of repression of the opposing elements trapped behind the lines. Dark stories of revenge, where the SS would take their revenge against the families of those who had come yesterday to take their wives and children hostage. It's a good (small) war! And then, the Galizien is here at rest, because not enough to pretend to go back in line, even against the insurgents, while it enjoys itself. It will probably leave soon for Bohemia-Moravia, when everything will be settled!
.........
Insurgent Slovakia - On the other side, the Slovaks of Ján Golian, perfectly aware that this pause is only temporary, continue to try to accumulate weapons, troops and ammunition with the help of their Soviet, American and British friends. Unfortunately, time is not on their side... like in the past with some of their northern neighbors.

Crushed Hungary
Operation Bowery - Who tries nothing...
Soviet lines, near Krosno - The spring night is already cold when the young Maria Gulovich (former teacher and assistant to Major Studensky) falls asleep at her typewriter... A hand on her shoulder wakes her up - that of her colleague Tamara: "The Major wants to see you."
- At this hour? And why in the name of God?
- There are three Americans here and the Major needs you to translate.
Three Americans? This unexpected announcement electrifies Maria, who soon shakes off the remnants of her sleep to follow her colleague - this will get her out of her routine of reports and supply lists... even though she doesn't speak English!
.........
The three Americans are actually two: OSS agents James Gaul and James Holt, who had been guided by their Hungarian contact named Keszthelyi to the advanced Soviet positions in the sector, for lack of anything better. It is late, the road has been long from their drop-off point - they are just as tired as Maria.
When she arrives at the Major's office, he is already visibly annoyed. Isn't this going to get him into trouble? What do these strangers want? And in particular the named Gaul, whose size and imposing appearance already annoy her? Maria immediately begins to demonstrate her polyglot skills.
- Parlez-vous francaise?
- No.
- Sprechen sie Deutsch?
- Ja!
Apparently, it is Keszthelyi (who, until then, the Russians take for an American) who makes the conversation. Feeling that it is necessary to discuss with him, Maria tries Hungarian: "Maganak szaksege van Felvilogostos?" - Are you a professional? - which irritates Studensky even more, who feels sidelined.
Good point! The answer comes in Magyar, and the conversation quickly develops into a baroque quintet: in Russian between Studensky and Maria, in Hungarian between the latter and Keszthelyi, then in German between the Hungarian and Gaul, and finally in English to reach poor James Holt, who has not had the chance to study foreign languages ***. And in the middle of this mess, Major Studensky tries to see a little more clearly, while hiding the fact that he also speaks German! An aggravating circumstance: Keszthelyi is obviously very interested in Maria Gulovich - and it seems to be reciprocal: with his rebellious dark hair, his deep brown eyes and his advantageous physique, the Hungarian turns out to be very seductive...
Finally, by dint of negotiation and persuasion, the trio of foreigners obtains from Studensky, out of sheer exhaustion, the mediocre promise of a vehicle and a map of the lines that will perhaps allow them to pass into the Slovak sector, and then (again perhaps) into Hungarian territory, in order to join the agents Francis Moly and Stephen Kora...
As she watches them leave, Maria feels herself smile and blush. Not her boss, who growls through his teeth, "These Amerikanski are not soldiers, they are bourgeois cowboys!" It is true that to come and ask for the support of the Red Army for a mission intended to outdo it, without speaking a word of Russian and in very bad coordination with contacts already themselves on their way to the Carpathians... it does not look very serious!


* This may have allowed him to get out of the 1937 purges alive, by being "simply" dismissed with a severe reprimand.
** The community had already been very badly treated in 1916 by the German army, which had partly burned the monastery. It was not until 1950 that Cheia was mentioned again: the communist authorities sent there the bishop of Oradea, Nicolae Popoviciu, into exile so that he could end his life among the ruins. Today it has been rebuilt and is a place of meditation and a well-known tourist site, notably for its frescoes by Gheorghe Tattarescu (19th century), which are miraculously preserved.
*** Later, Tamara will talk about a real comic opera choir...

 

[Wings]

May 18th, 1944

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - General Mikhail Lukin has not yet been replaced, although his successor has already been announced*. In the meantime, his removal from the battlefield has obviously influenced the progress of the Soviet forces attacking the Izvor Pass. The 16th Army, already exhausted by past operations and still confronted with changing weather conditions, takes a day to reorganize before considering moving forward. On the other side, the Heer also does its accounting... The 14. Panzergrenadier of Erich Schneider takes over from the 257. ID of Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim - definitely exhausted - and the remains of the 189. StuG Abt. The latter welcomes its new commander, Major Wilhelm Kutscher, who has arrived here in a hurry after having been extracted from Yugoslavia with the hope of a more important position. But, as he has been told before: losses must be replaced! Today, the front line will not move, so to speak, on the Izvor Pass. Not more than in the valley of the Moldova, moreover, where the L. ArmeeKorps of Wilhelm Wegener continues to hold its positions very firmly against the 47th Army of Filipp Zhmachenko.
In his HQ in Târgu Mureş, Karl-Adolf Hollidt can undoubtedly consider himself satisfied: the situation in these two sectors seems definitively stabilized... With one detail: the Reds still occupy thus four of his divisions, no less, with in addition two (or even three) armored battalions fixed in line or held in reserve! So much manpower that is missing, further down, in the valleys of the Bistrița or Bicaz.
Problem: since the German forces are victorious here, and at a high price to boot, there can be no question of Berlin granting Hollidt the slightest withdrawal! The Rhineland native knows that he would not be forgiven for a "non-necessary and non-validated" retreat - which could undoubtedly be seen as a dangerous crisis of defeatism. It's a pity... by retreating 40 kilometers (even if it means abandoning the Izvor Pass and the positions of the L. AK), it would be possible to reconcentrate his forces at the Mestecăniș Pass. A single crossing point, at an altitude of 1,096 meters, easy to defend, which would undoubtedly clear a lot of people! Alas, the fear of the reactions of the Führer and his entourage once again paralyze the German command, which can only hope that things would work out elsewhere as they did here...
This seems to be on the right track. In the Bicaz Valley, Wilhelm Postel's 320. ID continues to resist victoriously the assaults of Kyril Moskalenko's 38th Army - which advances only 2 kilometers, to the outskirts of Tașca, where the terrain widens ... a little. So Postel hastily prepares a new stopper at the level of Ticoş-Floarea, and once again he calls for help.
To answer him, the 328. ID of Joachim von Tresckow receives the order to... counterattack from Poiana-Largului towards Bicaz, to relieve the 320. ID by threatening the Soviet flank! This is in accordance with the doctrine - and it is also the only solution, since the 17. Armee has nothing left to send here! Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach is of course catastrophized by this - he who has been asking for days, discreetly but vigorously, the right to redeploy his XLVIII. AK to the west, is instead forced to run after the enemy, to the east and without additional means. The Hamburger protests... Then he has to click his heels and obey. Informed of his objections and judging them to be partly justified, Karl-Adolf Hollidt nevertheless takes it upon himself, not without some reluctance, to ask Gotthard Heinrici to make the HG reserve available in the sector: the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division of Hans Korte. Which is located... in Bistriţa, 135 kilometers from the battle!
Finally, as usual, in the Trotus Valley, in the face-off between the 59th Army (Ivan Korovnikov) and the 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler) - that everyone in his camp seems to have forgotten - nothing moves, except the number of losses. But it keeps rising...
However, the most worrying thing in the whole Cluj-Debrecen affair is probably the fact that at this time, none of the Soviet mechanized formations have really given yet!
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - After the previous day's paratroop fiasco in Yugoslavia - which everyone prefers to cautiously call an "operational difficulty" - Fyodor Tolbukhin feels that it is urgent to speak well of him in Moscow. And while we're at it, on something other than Yugoslavia. So the order is given to re-launch the attacks of the 4th Ukrainian Front on the whole front. So much for the rain that comes in the early afternoon - and also for the frontovikis who once again go on the attack.
In Oituz, Vasily Glagolev comes back to give his orders: to storm hill 789, at any cost! Since the way to the bottom of the valley seems to be closed... Thus, it will be possible to force the Fascist to spread out on open ground (if not flat), thus thinning out his position while forcing him to accumulate losses. So be it... The 9th Army storms the plateau from Cireșoaia and Oituz, pincering the left wing of the 321. ID (Wilhelm Thomas). The defenders must well begin to retreat, at least a little ... and in the evening the reliefs are on fire. We are already fighting at the level of Ferestrău-Oituz - a little further west than the German defense line in the valley, which therefore seems to be on the way to being overtaken.
At Greșu, the left wing of the Ninth Army continues to give head to Wolfgang Lange's 339. ID, which is unwilling to give anything up but already sees itself threatened with envelopment by the plateaus on its left - just 5 kilometers through the woods, and the Reds can outright bypass the German battle line to encircle it while driving straight out of the Carpathians. Undoubtedly, under the present circumstances, the Soviet 9th Army does not seem to be capable of doing this, at least for the time being. On the other hand, in order to ensure this while continuing to resist to the pressure, it is advisable to put back in line immediately the 50. ID of Paul Betz, which will thus have to cover the flank of its colleague without even pretending to be restored! This is why, in the afternoon, Wolfgang Lange (LIV. ArmeeKorps) finally obtains from his chief the emergency dispatch of 228. StuG Abt (Hauptman Wilhelm von Markowitz) to support Betz - since it is claimed that the resistance is here!
Further west, in the Buzău Valley, the 83. ID of Theodor Scher plants its irons in the ground at Păltineni: it has been ordered to hold from now on without any more maneuvers against the 62nd Army of Vladimir Kolpakchi. The latter notes with disappointment that his little attempt of the previous day did not completely work (although a little anyway). He therefore decides to resume his bludgeoning and assaults, while waiting to find a new way of overrunning through Nehoiu.
On the Bratocea Pass, the 20. PzGr of Georg Jauer is now well in place - this poor formation, rather mistreated by history as well as by the stewardship, seems however to be more than a match for the head of the 6th Guard Army. Pavel Batov fights at high altitude, on a front of 2 kilometers of bad ground! One might as well say that he is not close to passing... The Soviet himself is undoubtedly aware of this. But this is not a reason not to break a panzer or a grenadier: the fighter who falls here will not hinder the action of comrades elsewhere. And in the evening, Jauer notices that some of his tanks were destroyed today - not many, of course, but it is already too many... So he is looking forward to the 95. ID of Gustav Gihr to get back to its line quickly, so that he can go elsewhere.
On the side of the 3rd Romanian Army, a painful melee begins: confronted with the 383. ID, the 225. ID and the KorpsAbteilung E, that is to say the equivalent of two infantry divisions intact, the cobelligerents can not advance anywhere! And this all the more so as their numbers are reduced, their equipment is poor and their supplies limited, while the weather deprives them of reconnaissance and air support. Machine-gunning and bombing nevertheless continue between Rumänische Verräter and ticăloșii Germani - a little less dense than elsewhere, perhaps, but hatred and rancor more than make up for the lack of ammunition. Petre Dumitrescu would very much like the Soviet forces in the area - 12th Mechanized Corps, even 6th Armored Guards Corps (in reserve between Ploiești and Târgoviște) - to come and give him a hand. But the Red Army is decidedly reluctant. And also prefers, perhaps, to consider other solutions ...
There remains the case of Râmnicu Vâlcea. Here, the 14th Army of Valerian Frolov continues to press the positions of the 215. ID - which must recover more and more men from its left to be able to defend Racovița against the risk of envelopment. The Soviets therefore attack concentrically on a broad front, facing an opponent who can only crouch to parry the blows ... The situation of the 215. ID seemed to be on the verge of becoming untenable. Then, in Sibiu, the 13. Panzer of Helmut von der Chevallerie is put on alert by Georg-Hans Reinhardt, worried about a possible sudden break in the front in the Olt valley. In an attempt to counter this, he sends reinforcements as quickly as possible - in this case, the 12. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Herbert Kettner). Not very good, and it will take a long time to arrive... But this is all he has on hand to sacrifice.

The shadow of a doubt
HQ of the 11. Armee (Gyulafehérvár Palace) - Gustav Fehn, special envoy of the Oberbefehlshaber Donau - that is, of Field Marshal Kluge - arrives at Georg-Hans Reinhardt's office late in the afternoon. The latter, rather annoyed that this distant marshal had the bad taste to address him a so-called expert to look over his shoulder - and a failure of the HG E, on top of that! - quickly gets rid of the nuisance by sending him to the front. In a fixed sector, while doing so, so that one cannot criticize the flexible defense he has set up elsewhere. On the side of the Bran Pass, for example. That's good: the Romanians are opposite, and what's more, it is the most strategic point on the southern flank of the Carpathians. It is as much to say that nothing will happen there, although we can't blame Reinhardt for sending this Fehn to the bottom of Transylvania!

Secret war
Intoxication
East Prussia - After three weeks of trudging through the forests between Lithuania and Belarus, the three men of Einsatz N finally reach the Axis lines, on foot, having managed to escape from the NKVD squads, the local armed gangs and... the numerous Red Army deserters who are prowling around the area! The three commandos will not hesitate to tell in detail the multiple horrors committed by the Bolshevik army all along their way...
Obviously, Nazi propaganda - notably in Der Schwarze Korps - will not fail to make headlines on the true epic of the heroes of the 502. SS-Jäger-Bataillon... even if it means exaggerating it a bit. In fact, these men never saw Kessel Scherhorn, from near or far. Too bad, it would have been useful !

Proletarians aviators of all countries, unite!
It came close...
Rzeszow, in the morning - "Another day, another incident. Jeannel is on patrol with Béguin, Risso and Bon. At 2,500 meters, our four pilots saw a group of Soviet P2s who seemed to have a lot to do with more than half a dozen FWs harassing them.
- Shall we clear them?
- Let's get them out of the way.
Béguin takes his patrolmen at full speed and they dive into the fray. The P2s took advantage of the opportunity to break off the fight and run towards the Russian lines. But the battle continued. The French were desperate for it. The FWs feinted, twirled and evaded, except for one who fired at Jeannel and hit him. The Yak starts to burn. Jeannel jumps with a parachute. Disaster ! His parachute was torn by the bullets.
The descent is very fast. Jeannel sees the ground growing at full speed. He bends his legs. He tries to put himself as well as possible, in a ball, relaxed. Patatras! A landing to knock out an ox. He woke up in a Russian tank that took him to the Sokolniki hospital, where he recovered from a compressed vertebra."
(Captain François de Geoffre, Escadre Franche-Comté/Vistule, Charles Corlet ed. 1952, reed. J'ai Lu, 1996)

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - The 61st Army is already trying to break through the Dukla Pass - in small concentric assaults, it is trying to threaten the villages of Chyrowa in the west and Trzciana in the east. Everyone gave up on Nowa Wieś... In front, once again, the 125. ID holds the shock, supported by the 909. and 911. StuG Abt. But Helmut Friebe is really starting to run out of infantry...
On Belov's left, on the side of Andrei Vlassov's 1st Shock, the confused melee continues. Incredulous in front of the capacity of recovery of the fascist - which has neither reserve, nor energy, it is however obvious! - the Red Army bombs and attacks everywhere in search of a weak point. It does not find any... well, none that is obvious. Indeed, Herbert Wagner's forces only have 10 or 15 kilometers of ground to hold. They can therefore run all day from one end of this short front to the other, worn out, exhausted but also galvanized by their recent victories.
For the Russians, it is frustrating... And in the evening, Ivan Konev - who begins to get annoyed with this painful diversion that does not end - calls his two subordinates from Rzeszów, to give them new instructions as dry as without appeal. "Your two armies are obviously not collaborating anymore! They are stubbornly advancing on their own without a common plan. I order you to work together for the capture of a single objective, defined long ago: the Dukla Pass. If not, I will come and tell you how to do it!" Message perfectly received by Pavel Belov as well as by Andrei Vlassov... They will soon meet again in order to define the way forward!

Returned state
Preparations
Occupied Slovakia - Strangely quiet situation on the small Slovakian redoubt - which today is drowned in rain, which at least keeps the Luftwaffe away but also nails the La-5s of the 1st Czechoslovakian Independent Fighter Air Regiment to the ground. These bad weather conditions do not seem to affect Hermann Höfle too much, who is still busy going through the line of fire, and whose face, always as closed as cold, probably hides who knows what mysterious plan is being developed...
.........
Insurgent Slovakia - In the ranks of the insurgency, a dull anxiety is brewing. Any day now, the Germans will strike! Ján Golian and the clandestine Slovak National Council therefore call on the Soviets... and the Westerners too, while we're at it.

Crushed Hungary
Self-satisfaction
Budavár Palace (Budapest) - While the right wing of the 1st Hungarian Army completes the takeover of the XLIX. ArmeeKorps at the Yablonitsky Pass, the palace of Nemzetvezető Ferenc Szálasi issues a new and rousing communiqué to its population. This new and now frank collaboration between the armies of the two countries is a clear sign of consideration, if not recovery of Hungary.
The government of the Arrow Crosses has many reasons to be satisfied: not only is its army respected again, but its territory is defended, while its air force is being re-equipped (the famous Bf 110 G6 promised by Berlin). An additional treat: Edmund Veesenmayer announced yesterday that a special envoy of the ReichsFührer-SS would arrive tomorrow in the capital to ensure the organization of the next anti-Jewish operations.

Operation Bowery - Who doesn't try anything...
Soviet lines, near Krosno - The handsome Keszthelyi returns to the headquarters of Major Studensky. Studensky has been called to the front because of his duties - but it's a good thing, because the aim of the Hungarian is to invite the pretty Maria Gulovich to dinner. She gladly accepts - all the more so since the invitation is gallantly presented, and very honest, since he proposes to spend the evening in the company of the Americans from the previous evening.
The latter are spontaneously sympathetic to Maria, past the physical shyness she felt the day before. In fact, as capitalists as they are, they are perfect foreigners who have come here to risk their lives for Central European countries of which they probably know little - that's brave!
Besides, Maria is of Slovak origin - that's why the Russians never invite her to their table. So, one thing leading to another, she directs the conversation to the current events in the Carpathians. The Slovaks are brave, not like the Hungarians, who are so cowardly - well, except for Keszthelyi of course. Besides, Banská Bystrica is close, while Budapest is far away. So, in the end, wouldn't James Gaul and James Holt have better things to do than to try to reach hypothetical Magyar Resistance fighters?

* Lukin will lose his leg and will almost lose his arm. Left disabled, the glorious veteran, particularly appreciated by Ivan Konev (who was to guarantee his friendship, and therefore his protection) could never return to service - even in an office - the wound in his leg reopening at the slightest effort... Made Hero of the Soviet Union among many other decorations (Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner, Order of Kutusov 2nd class), the general will remain quietly at home, at the disposal of the Red Army until his retirement - which came quickly, because of his wounds. Lukin did not suffer the fate of so many Soviet cripples, condemned to misery for lack of care...

 

[Wings]

May 19th, 1944

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - The carnage continues under a rain that becomes more and more torrential. At the Izvor Pass, the 16th Army - which never completely stopped its pressure, on the direct order of Ivan Bagramyan - welcomes its new commander: Leonty Georgyevich Cheremisov. A man from far away: that is, from the 15th Army, from the Far East district. An infantry officer without any flashes of brilliance, but reasonably competent - he has worn out his pants on the benches of all Soviet military schools since the 1930s - everyone expects Cheremisov to do the job, as the capitalists say. He should not find it very difficult to get used to the Carpathian theater, as there is not much maneuvering in this region at the moment. And the 16th Army welcomes the arrival of its new leader - as well as its new opponent, the 14th. Panzergrenadier of Erich Schneider - with an artillery salvo followed by a series of bloody assaults.
Further east, in the valley of the Moldova, it is still the pat between the L. AK and the 47th Army - neither one nor the other wants to give up, for however very different reasons! Here too, it is not a good day for the Soviet infantry - apart from a few infiltrations without much prospect in the area of Lake Iezerul Sadovei (west of the Curmatura Boului Pass), one could even say that nothing is progressing. And the frontoviki continues to claw back meter by meter of muddy ground, under an incessant rain.
Meanwhile, in the Bicaz sector, the counter-offensive of the 328. ID - ordered the day before from Poiana-Largului and in the direction of Bicaz - quite naturally surprises the 38th Army, which did not expect such a maneuver. However, it would be a lot to say that this last one is crowned with success and opens many prospects! In fact, after a few good advances to the height of Buhalnița (north of Potoci), the German infantry vanguards, almost completely deprived of artillery support or armor, are stopped by a deluge ... of Soviet shells. Kyril Moskalenko simply has to ease the pressure a little on the 320. ID at Tașca - and yet, not totally: Wilhelm Postel is pushed back to Ticoş-Floarea (without being routed, that's something!) - to dispatch reinforcements and ammunition to his right flank... Which is absolutely not threatened with envelopment, it should be noted.
The same causes produce the same effects, whether the assailant is a Nazi or a Bolshevik. Who would have thought it? In the end, the counter-offensive of the 328. ID cost the Heer some people, gained - it is true - some time... but solved absolutely nothing. Exactly what Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach feared, in his XLVIII. ArmeeKorps in Gheorgheni.
And finally, in the Trotus Valley, Ivan Korovnikov's 59th Army once again launches costly attacks in the direction of the Ghimeș-Palanca Pass - attacks countered by the 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler), which is still holding its own at Ciobănuș... but is starting to feel really lonely.
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - Hill 789 in the valley of the Oituz is taken (or almost) by the 59th Army, spurred on by its leader Vasily Glagolev - who feels that, after all, the victory on his left wing is not yet assured. The 321. ID of Wilhelm Thomas will have fought until the end... but it cannot pretend to hold indefinitely alone against a whole Soviet army, even in difficult terrain. The division therefore retreats past Ferestrău-Oituz - an objectively indefensible crossroads, with the Reds on the heights - for another 4 kilometers to a new natural bottleneck, at the village of Cerdac. Which is unfortunately in the adjoining valley of the Slănic, from which it is still possible to reach through a plateau at 680 meters above sea level. Some tough fights are definitely in store for the latter!
Further south, in the sector of Greșu, the Soviet moreover continues to attempt this kind of maneuver of envelopment, launching its points through the mountains of Vrancea and in the direction of Ojdula ... that is, right on the positions of the unfortunate 50. ID of Paul Betz, which is still trying to reconstitute itself. The latter can however count on the reinforcement of the Hetzer of 228. StuG Abt (Hauptman Wilhelm von Markowitz) and on the support of the left wing of the 339. ID (Wolfgang Lange). Thus, with the help of all these units and above all the bad weather, the road out of the Carpathians remained in the hands of the Heer - for the moment, and all the more so as Soviet reinforcements are slowly arriving. But who can say whether it will remain so for much longer, with the Reds seeping in from all sides, like water seeping through the wall of a rusty pipe? In truth, and even if at this hour, no one in the 17. Armee would not dare to admit it, the only solution would probably be to withdraw the whole LIV. ArmeeKorps on a line cutting due south from the Oituz pass, in order to be able to hold only two converging roads on a sector of only 15 kilometers... This, of course, before it is really too late!
In the Buzău valley, the 83. ID still does not move from Păltineni, despite the bombardments and the first waves of assault of a 62nd Army obviously still looking for the key to bypass or break (or even both, while we are at it...) in the face of this static defense with no way out. Vladimir Kolpakchi could see himself making another leap towards Nehoiu, passing through the western plateaus... But this will obviously not happen soon.
As for Pavel Batov, on the side of the Bratocea Pass, he doesn't see any way - especially in the rain! - the way to break through the barrier set up by the 20. PzGr. This one would undoubtedly be very inferior to him on the plain... but on the other hand, it is more than adequate in a frontal fight at 1 263 meters of altitude, where one can see the opponent coming from quite far along a single winding road. Once again, the exercise is very difficult: artillery, nibbling, and so on... Nothing to be satisfied about for the Soviet! But this is also the case for his opponent. Georg Jauer is indeed forced to disperse his machines on a host of small and dangerous positions, where even his (very rare) RSO (Radschlepper Ost - light four-wheel drive tractors) have difficulty passing. Deploying a mechanized unit in the mountains, what a misery, frankly...
More in the west, the troops of Petre Dumitrescu seem also well and truly blocked: always confronted to a complete army corps which overflows it on the right, the 3rd Romanian Army is forced to the defensive and absolutely out of state to progress. In truth, it would almost have trouble defending its most recent captures, in front of Mihăești and Hârtiești, in the face of an adversary who is, however, pushing only slightly, between lack of numbers and inexperience. This does not escape the Romanians, who once again calls for reinforcements ... without result. In Bucharest, Fyodor Tolbukhin is not deaf - but the Bran sector is not a priority and the subject of the "repentant" army is eminently political. The Marshal will not do anything without Moscow's agreement. Which indeed takes time to arrive...
Finally, in Râmnicu Vâlcea, the situation becomes increasingly difficult for the 215. ID of Bruno Frankewitz - which now holds Racovița only by the tips of its fingernails (and taking advantage of the rain!) in the face of a 14th Army that advances like a steamroller of fire and blood. The reinforcements are still far away... It is already almost certain that they will arrive too late. In the evening, Georg-Hans Reinhardt begins to consider the evacuation of the 215. ID upstream from the Olt, to the Călimănești sector, in order to defend the Brezoi crossroads. It would cost him - it amounts to abandoning Curtea de Argeș, thus any offensive action against the Romanians in the Bran sector! But we have to get the 225. ID out of there and save his men before it is really too late.

Secret war
Intoxication
A lost forest in Belarus, 21:00 - Colonel Ivan Fyodorov, who was driving on a little-used road, is ambushed by a band of local nationalists and other renegade tsarists, unknown until then but strangely well informed. They stop the GAZ, beat up the colonel and lock him in a bag and send him to an unknown destination...

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - It rains and the 61st Army once again launches its attack towards the Dukla Pass, against the 125. ID of Helmut Friebe. However, this time Pavel Belov has the support of the right wing of the 1st Shock Army, which puts all its weight on the junction between the 125. ID and the agglomerate 132. ID and 141. ID commanded by Herbert Wagner - whose forces are still running all along the front line to Komańcza. It may pass, who knows...
However, notwithstanding Marshal Ivan Konev and his unpleasant instructions of the previous day, it takes a little more to bend the fascist opponent. Certainly, the 125. ID begins to see its right wing painfully threatened with envelopment, west of Nowa Wieś... But it still holds on and prepares to make a full frontal assault on Tylawa, with all available help. Since the opposing objective is obvious!

Returning state
Preparations
Occupied Slovakia - Nothing to report in this sector - except that, while everyone is accumulating men and ammunition, Obergruppenführer Hermann Höfle takes the train to the Heimat. He heads for Westphalia and Wewelsburg to present his brilliant plan to the Reichsführer-SS himself. The latter is certainly looking forward to the right method of crushing the Slovak traitors once and for all...
This trip and this audience are certainly additional signs of the importance that the Black Order still gives to the small contingencies of Central Europe. A region, it is true, where it is always possible to shine at low cost, at the expense of weaker than oneself...

Crushed Hungary
Shoah: a real professional
Budapest - The central station is cluttered with debris left by the various bombings, like a symbol in Magyar land of the turn of the war. But that does not prevent a special train from bringing another kind of symbol to the Hungarian capital today: the special envoy of the Reich (in general) and the Waffen-SS (in particular), sent there to settle the Jewish Question in Hungary... Obersturmbannführer-SS Rudolf Höss.
This 43 year old Baden native, deeply Catholic, loving husband, devoted father of five children, engaged since the age of 16 in the Other War, veteran of the Army of the East, former corps-franc and then steward of agricultural estates (where he met Heinrich Himmler), a Nazi from the very beginning (he joined the NSDAP in 1922! ), convicted under the Weimar Republic for the murder of a communist militant (that was before...), is not an ambitious (and fickle) politician like Himmler, much less one of those flamboyant generals.
No, he is a technician. His father - a soldier in the colonial army, who intended him for a career in the church - instilled in him from his earliest childhood the principle of blind obedience and total submission to his leaders.
He was therefore perfectly at home in the Nazi Party. To the point of becoming - naturally one might say, because of his great capacity to never ask questions - "the" professional of the concentration and extermination camps. And after having held various positions in Dachau and Sachsenhausen, his master entrusted him in 1940 with his life's work: the construction and management of the Auschwitz camp - an institution in which he ensured order and work (which, as everyone knows, makes you free...) by the most brutal means. Incidentally, he was also the one who installed the first gas chambers, in a small farmhouse a little away from the site, on the basis of experiments carried out in 1942 following the post-Wansee technical meetings. And it was also he who organized, on his own initiative this time, the sorting of deportees as they got off the trains, which enabled him to obtain a very good peak output, of the order of 1,440 killed and incinerated per day (excluding epidemics, famine and other small contingencies that blurred the statistics).
Today, the SS-Obersturmbannführer is indeed the master mechanic of the Nazi death machine, the expert in annihilation, with probably a little more than 2 million victims on his roll. Herr Höss, who today takes up residence in the Majestic Hotel with the full powers and blessing of the Reich, will have to finally set in motion the great Nazi extermination enterprise in Hungary. He is expected to be punctual, precise and efficient - all the fine qualities of German engineering. To do this, he will have the support of all the local goodwill: mainly the Arrow Crosses and the Csendőrség (gendarmerie). And above all, above all, he will not have a shadow of remorse.

Operation Bowery - Nothing ventured...
Soviet lines, near Krosno - The OSS group leaves that night, leaving the Soviet camp quite empty in the eyes of Maria Gulovich dreaming of her beautiful Hungarian... At dusk, she hears airplanes passing by - imagining them to be American (or English, why not, Maria is not stingy!), the young woman falls on her knees and prays that all these brave aviators will return home safely. She doubts that her speeches at the dinner the night before would have changed anything in the Americans' opinion of her country - let alone their mission. And yet...

 

[Wings]

May 20th, 1944

Baltic
A refloated U-boot
"The sea boils, like an infernal cauldron, with the lapping of the waves and the rattle of the diesels in the distance. Then, the metal form, deformed, rusted, badly handled, covered with mud but always so recognizable, springs from the waves under the hurrahs and the horns of the fleet. The U-276 was dead, the U-276 was resurrected from the bottom of the sea - thanks to the combat swimmers of the Kadurin section. Towed to Kronstadt, it was obviously the center of attention - including that of its commander, Rolf Borchers, who obtained the right to go back on board, for intelligence purposes... and as a souvenir.
The booty was even more copious: the complete technical characteristics of the ship, with all the figures, and especially two intact T-5 acoustic torpedoes! The British would later spend a lot of time asking for a copy, without getting anything but schematics... to be seen on site!
As for the ship's dead, they were returned to the sea with military honors - in contradiction with the Party's instructions as well as with the rough customs of the army. It is true that, whether it is the Great Patriotic War or not, sailors of all nationalities remain a large community - and the closed circle of submariners even more so.
But this is no longer the problem of the ROSNAZ-KBF. After these difficult but necessary tasks, the ROSNAZ-KBF is already on its way to new missions on the Baltic coast, facing the enemy."
(Commandos in the Baltic and Danube - Soviet Naval Spetsnaz in World War II, by Yuriy Strokhnin, Naval Institute Press, 1996)

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - The 16th Army already resumes its attack on the Izvor Pass - for this famous line centered on Izvoarele Sucevei, held by the 14. Panzergrenadier of Erich Schneider and with which General Leonty Cheremisov is just beginning to familiarize himself. Obviously, facing this powerful opponent and still relatively fresh, we should not expect much progress today, even with the support of the Sturmovik of the 17th Air Force ... but it is not serious, at least according to the point of view of the Red Army. Indeed, it is not lost on anyone that the fascists have sent here one of their large reserve units. And once again, according to the rule, keeping it occupied here prevents it from going to fight elsewhere - so there is no reason to ease the pressure, quite the contrary! Especially since it also allows to inflict losses on the opponent's StuG III and JagdPanzer IV.
On the side of the 47th Army, nothing moves either - of course. The effective defense led by the L. AK still firmly closes the Mestecăniș pass road, so the upper Moldova valley. The Soviet attempts to infiltrate, as costly as long, will therefore once again not yield much today. The situation on the right flank of Cluj-Debrecen seems to be blocked.
In the Bistrița Valley, after its virile counter attempt the day before, the 328. ID of Joachim von Tresckow suffers, on the other hand, the reaction of the 38th Army of Kyril Moskalenko - which seems to have decided that the best way to solve the problem is to press his opponent to push him back to his previous position of Poiana-Largului, at least! The gallant German division, stuck on lines too recently seized to have been fortified, thus has to retreat toward Chirițeni, dropping almost half of its advance of the previous day.
Certainly, Tresckow and his men are not routed - on the other hand, their position already dangerously advances on the road to the Tulghes Pass (and impossible to evacuate, except to discover the rear of the L. AK!) really begins to smell the scent. Especially that, at the same time, the 320. ID of Wilhelm Postel continues to retreat on the road to the Bicaz Pass - it is already at Bicazu Ardelean and it does not even seem certain that it is able to defend the passage... Now, the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps (or even the entire 17. Armee!) has nothing left to help the brave defenders of the Reich, except the poor 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division of Hans Korte, which will arrive tomorrow - at best! Needless to say, it is not the one that would reassure Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, who is still hanging on the phone in his CP in Gheorgheni trying to reach Karl-Adolf Hollidt. The latter does not always take it, and for good reason: he does not know what to answer him! By dint of pleas, Seydlitz-Kurzbach finally obtains the dispatch of the 560. s. PzJ. Abt (Major Rudolf Markowz), previously in reserve at Prislop Pass. This is not much, and it is... moderately relevant: Nashorns in the mountains against infantry?! But that's all that's left for the 17. Armee. And anyway, the 560. Abt will not be on the spot immediately - to say the least, because of the Calimani Mountains, which it will have to bypass! By then, hopefully, the situation will have improved.
Finally, as far as the 306. ID is concerned, the days follow one another and are similar. Karl-Erik Köhler's unit has been losing steam since May 15th - and its leader with it. In fact, his division is now reduced to 45% of its initial potential, with dead, wounded and, above all, abundant ammunition expenditure to keep the 59th Army's tide at bay. And this Ivan Korovnikov who still does not give up...
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - After the fall of hill 789, the action continues every hour to move - heavily, painfully, even painfully - further up the valley of the Oituz, despite a terrain still unfavorable to the attackers and the rain that returns in the afternoon. The plateau overlooking the valley at Cerdac is the object of fierce fighting - with their backs to the hills and the forest, the German infantry once again holds on magnificently, with no spirit of retreat, no support and no perspective... In the evening, despite all these sacrifices, the plateau is already contested by the right wing of the 9th Army - which does not mean that it was secure.
A setback, certainly, for Vasily Glagolev. But not a big one, given that in the Putna Valley (which a part of the road from Greșu to Lespa follows), Wolfgang Lange's 339.ID begins, for its part, to be really threatened with envelopment. The 9th Army thus passes in increasing force through the woods and mountains, trampling a 50. ID (Paul Betz) decidedly unable to hold its line, even with the late reinforcement of the Hetzer of Hauptman Wilhelm von Markowitz. It is time to admit that the current position of the Heer is hopeless here and that any delay in its withdrawal can only lead to more losses and chaos, especially since tomorrow, the weather conditions will surely be more favorable to the Red Falcons... Nevertheless, Wolfgang Lange, who also commands the LIV. AK, can only ask his commander Karl-Adolf Hollidt for authorization - and Hollidt, of course, can only ask Berlin in the same tone. In the evening, Lange, having run out of patience, starts - on his own initiative - to withdraw his troop to the salient of the front that the 50. ID is losing. To support it, of course!
Further south, in the sector of Păltineni, the 83. ID of Theodor Scherer continues to suffer, motionless and silent, to hold the Buzău Valley against the 62nd Army of Vladimir Kolpakchi, as ordered. The Soviet, for his part, launches a new bypass from the left, following the road to Curmătura. This has worked for him before, and for once he will take advantage of the fact that it is raining.
At the Bratocea Pass on the other hand, it is obviously still a dead end. The 6th Guards Army - which has finally managed to get some batteries up the slopes of the Ciucas Mountains [White mountain range rising to 1,954 meters. Today it offers beautiful sites for hiking or climbing] - begins to send shells on the positions of the 20. PzGr. Positions, obviously, that have to be located one by one, by spacing the shots! But the Fascists do not have any real means of counter-battery fire. And Georg Jauer, who wonders every day a little more when this bad joke will end (and also what will happen when the red air force will be able to play in full!), is definitely anxious that the 95. ID will come back here to finally take over. Alas, it will probably not be before a day or two - at best!
On the road to the Bran Pass, the obvious withdrawal of Ernst Riße's 225. ID relieves some of the pressure on the Romanian 3rd Army. In fact, the German unit withdraws towards the Olt valley, passing through Paltenu... And the road to Transylvania was now only held by the KorpsAbteilung E (Herman Frenking), poorly supported by part of the 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister) - which must always, moreover, hold the flank towards Târgoviște in the face of a possible Bolshevik mechanized offensive! So this is undoubtedly the end of the Heer's attempts at a counteroffensive in the sector. The Landsers prepare to withdraw to the Rucăr sector, abandoning the Câmpulung area to the enemy. In any case, the latter is far too exposed - the 11. Armee had pulled the rope around here quite enough, and fortunately it was only the Romanians in front. Romanians, by the way, to whom the sending of reinforcements was finally confirmed. Not a moment too soon!
There remains the case of the Olt valley. Here, Georg-Hans Reinhardt made his choice. Uncertain as to the date of arrival of the reinforcements dispatched to the area (and even as to their quality - the 13. Panzer, with all that is happening on the front of HG B), the head of the 11. Armee ordered the evacuation of Râmnicu Vâlcea by the 215. ID, in coordination with the withdrawal of the 225. ID to Brezoi. So it's sure, the first one will have to hold on a little longer and retreat foot by foot the time necessary for the second one to evacuate... but neither one nor the other is that close. During the night, Frankewitz's division therefore begins to withdraw northward in an orderly and discreet manner, with the Călimănești bottleneck - towards which Riße's division was also heading - as its objective. Philipp Kleffel is in fact eventually planning to rotate the two units, dispatching the more worn of the two to the mountainous (and therefore not very exposed) sector of Sălătrucu, under the distant gaze of Mount Moldoveanu.

The shadow of a doubt
Kronstadt - General Gustav Fehn arrives in the former Brașov with a bad mood due as much to the lack of consideration of the local hierarchy as to the very nature of his mission. Here, from the headquarters of the XI. AK of Joachim von Kortzfleisch, Fehn can nevertheless observe many things: the stopper of the 83. ID in the Buzău Valley, the fighting going on at the Bratocea Pass and even the junction with the 11. Armee, at the level of the Bran Pass (where, incidentally, the HQ of the XVI. AK is located). So much to say that there is work to do. And the Bavarian begins to work, inspecting the defenses in this famous strategic pass.

Proletarians aviators of all countries, unite!
Springtime
Rzeszow - "It is the end of May. Winter is trying to make a last complaint. Just as we thought spring was already well underway, it starts to snow, but like the German counter-attacks, General Winter's counter-attack is only a short illusion. We once again experienced the thaw that surprised us so much last year. And we admire, with the snow barely cleared, the glorious exuberance of Nature. In two days, in three nights the birches have their leaves, the grass has grown, thick as an English lawn, the flowers run along the hedges. I remember that it was on one of those magnificent evenings of the magical Polish spring that I wrote to my wife this letter, which I found on my return:
"My wife and daughter, Antoinette and Claude,
It is spring... This is the joyful cry that I utter. Spring, a fairy name that makes you dream. Everything, nature, animals, beings feel alive again. The future is already closer, more beautiful, with the flowers that smell good, with the leaves that gently sway on the branches, the wheat that comes out of the earth, the sky that shines with sun.
For you, Antoinette, it is the link that brings us together. It is the joy and happiness of being loved and of loving, it is our love, it is us, it is the burning kisses we have given each other and those we will give each other.
For me, spring is the fight that I will soon wage in concert with nature which, like men, is waking up from its nightmare. It is the dawn, the dawn of the beautiful and radiant victory, the completion of the return home, the revenge, the flaming sword that will bring down the Nazi invader."
(Captain François de Geoffre, Escadre Franche-Comté/Vistule, Charles Corlet ed. 1952, republished J'ai Lu, 1996)

Regrettable error
Craiova Region (Romania) - As part of the strategic bombing of German mining resources, a raid is launched against the bauxite mines of Târnăveni, in Transylvania. In very poor weather, three P-38 flights of the 82nd FG arriving from Italy lose the bombers they were escorting. Passing below the clouds, they stumble upon an airbase from which a column of vehicles is departing. The latter is mercilessly strafed - then, in the absence of any flak reaction, the twin-engine planes begin to spray the aircraft lined up on the runway, several of which are set on fire.
The Americans then observe that several Fw 190s took off to intercept them. They charge at them, immediately shoot down one of them, and then form a defensive circle to resist the onslaught of a veritable cloud of adversaries. A P-38 falls, closely followed by another Fw 190, while a second group of defenders rallies at the sound of the gun and joins the party. The engagement lasts another 15 minutes before the P-38s pack up and head back to Italy, having lost two of their number to four Huns.
All this would have been quite trivial if the Lightning had not been over the cobelligerent Romania. They actually strafed a Red Army convoy, killing 31 and wounding 37, including General Grigory Petrovich Kotov, head of the 6th Guards Rifle Corps! And, instead of Fw 190, it was Yak 3 of the 569th Regiment, taking off on the direct order of Vladimir Sudets, the head of the 17th Air Force, who was mad and took it upon himself to react offensively. Captain Alexander Koldunov, already holder of 15 victories at this date, will claim the two P-38...
One suspects that the incident will go up the Soviet hierarchy to Moscow and then, by the diplomatic way, will reach Washington - where one really did not need this kind of failure at this moment, if not never!

Secret war
Intoxication
A (really) lost forest in Belarus - Since his kidnapping the day before, poor Colonel Ivan Fyodorov has not had much opportunity to recover his senses. Confronted night and day with the continuous violence of a group of fascists, the Soviet soldier is ordered to desert to the Reich, "in order to inform Berlin of the reality of what is happening here" - an order accompanied by slaps. Obviously, in 1944, this proposal does not seem very attractive. And the valiant Communist airman held out. To the great displeasure of his hosts, it must be said!

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - Last line of resistance in Tylawa for the 125. ID of Helmut Friebe. In the rain and with the help of part of the 132. ID of Herbert Wagner, it faces the assaults of a 61st Army for the thousandth time, definitely exhausted by this hellish succession of attacks on the same sector. Nowa Wieś and Chyrowa fall, already more or less abandoned by the Germans. But on the main front, the Heer still holds, despite the feints of Andrei Vlassov's 1st Shock Army at Komańcza. The woods are in flames, the shell-spattered roads are covered with craters, wrecks and corpses - especially the crossroads immediately north, on the road to Trzciana. The result seems inevitable... Considering the price paid, it cannot be otherwise.

Returned state
Preparations
Insurgent Slovakia - The situation in the insurgent area is still surprisingly calm, probably due to the absence of Obergruppenführer Hermann Höfle, who has not yet arrived in Wewelsburg (the rain has prevented him from flying!). However, something new disconcerted the forces of the 1st Czechoslovak Army: in the area of the Bartoška spring road and even more so in the area of Kremnica, the Germans seem to have given up on massive attacks. No, - they are now content with raids, or even simple probes. Their goal here is obviously to cause a maximum of losses by taking advantage of their superior firepower. The mechanized troops appear, fire a salvo of shells or two, take a few positions, then withdraw without giving the insurgents time to really react - but forcing the Slovaks to consume ammunition too! Such a tactic, if it were to be perpetuated, could be devastating for the morale of the conscripts - there is already a lack of anti-tank weapons, so...
All this can only incite the Slovak National Council once again to call on its foreign partners - who have once again shown a suspicious reserve, bordering on impotence. Since the day before yesterday, the insurgents have not received much... They have just been informed that important envoys will arrive by plane tomorrow. In the meantime, marching battalions are being improvised, for example with the personnel of the air bases that no longer have planes, due to a lack of pilots or spare parts. Everything for the future counter-attack on Zvolen, during which the future of the liberated Slovakia will be decided!

Settling of scores
Kiev - Between two offensives or sweeps of local nationalists, the NKVD in Ukraine takes the time to transfer its two most important Slovak prisoners - Generals Ferdinand Čatloš and Jozef Turanec - to Butyr prison (Pskov Oblast), via Moscow. They would emerge only in 1945, to be sent back to Czechoslovakia and sentenced to surprisingly merciful (considering the times!) prison terms: 10 and 30 years respectively.
However, Turanec died of illness in detention in 1957 - his "reactionary profile", some crimes committed by his unit in the USSR during the 1942 campaign, and a certain popularity within the army undoubtedly worked against him, prompting the new government to refuse all his requests for pardon. On the contrary, the very versatile Čatloš would be released after barely 2 years. Probably judged to be completely harmless, he would end his life as a simple clerk in Martin - the town where so much had begun in April 1944.

 

[Wings]

May 11th, 1944

Operation Overlord
Caen will not be (entirely) destroyed...
Normandy - As US armored divisions and artillery begin to land en masse on the beaches, the 711. ID has further narrowed its perimeter under the pressure of the American divisions. It is now isolated, but General Reichert would not surrender until he has fired his last round! He is determined to turn Cherbourg into a fortress - which would be easier if the port had a real garrison, in addition to the Kriegsmarine elements that man the twelve batteries around the harbor*.
Further south, the 12th Infantry Regiment of the Ivy Division starts a turning movement along the coast, which forces the infantrymen of the 706. Festung Rgt of the 716. ID to abandon La Haye du Puits. The device established by the German division still holds, but perhaps not for long. The 8th IR of the 2nd US-ID arrives on its wing while the 506th PIR of the Screaming Eagles forces its 726. Festung Rgt to retreat south of Saint-Jean de Daye. This means it is coming out of the Cotentin marshes, very favorable terrain for defense (and flooded by the Occupier), and will be on dry land.
.........
Further on, the 15. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division has a lot to do. If, north of Saint-Lô, its 30. Jäger Rgt holds out, the 394. StuG Abt, now reinforced by grenadiers of the 914. Festung Rgt, has difficulty in defending the Cerisy wood, especially as the first batteries of the 79th Art Group (of the 155 mm) come into play. The assaults of the 23rd and 116th IR are however repelled several times. A little to the east, the men of the 914. Festung Rgt still hold hill 160 solidly against the 115th IR, preventing any advance. The only positive point for the Americans in this sector is the progression of the Shermans of the 741st Tk Btn until Cerisy-la-Forêt where they break through the German defense.
.........
In the English sector, the pressure becomes too strong for the 29. Jäger Rgt which faces the whole 43rd ID and two armoured brigades. The contribution of the heavy of the 653. schw. Panzer Abt is not enough and the German regiment is forced to retreat towards Villers-Bocage. It must be said that Jagdpanther's battalion must also try to hold the line against the British 3rd ID and the Canadians of the 2nd Armored Brigade - and it must also, on its right, support the men of the 709. ID, in full retreat.
Indeed, the 709. ID is expelled from Caen after an early morning bombardment (which unfortunately left the south bank of the city in ruins). The 9th IR is threatening to surround the city from the south, while the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade has secured a bridgehead north of the city - the arrival of the 79th Armored "specials" completes the decision. The Landsers cannot stand the prospect of being burned to death by a Crocodile or disappearing into the remains of a building disintegrated by a Petard. So the Funnies participate in a... vacuum cleaning of the city**.
A little to the north, the naval artillery allows the rest of the 2nd Canadian Division and the paratroopers of the 6th Airborne to hold their bridgehead in front of the 739. Festung Rgt, of the 709. ID.
.........
German reinforcements are on the way... Thus, the 26. Panzer (Generalleutnant Smilo von Lüttwitz) reaches Rouen in the night of the 10th to the 11th. It is planned that it will make its way to the surroundings of Caen in the night of the 11th to the 12th, before launching a counter-attack necessarily lightning on the 13th - since it will still be necessary to wait for the panzergrenadiers of the 36. PzGr (Egon von Neinsdorff) - what dawdlers! - and the paratroopers of the 4. Fallschirmjäger (Heinrich Trettner) - they have an excuse: they are not motorized.

The Way of the Cross (swastika) of the 36. PzGr
Air interdiction
Pas-de-Calais and Somme - During the whole day, Typhoon or Thunderbolt squadrons make excursions along the railroads between Arras and Rouen, in search of the convoys of the 36. PzGr. Without finding anything - about half of the division had already arrived in Amiens by train without too much trouble, the rest reached its destination by road, but in a terrible mess.
Of course, the British and Americans are not going to return with their pockets full of ammunition! These are generously spent on any suspicious vehicle, moving or not. The BBC always broadcasts messages inciting the French population to stay at home, especially for anything that moves, motorized or horse-drawn***.

Towards Normandy
Amiens, 13:00 - Having arrived in the night, von Neinsdorff receives a cable from Rundstedt ordering him to set out for Rouen "by the fastest means possible". It is therefore a question of getting the vehicles and men who had disembarked during the night onto a train (well, onto one of those that were still running!), at least according to the available convoys. Indeed, after the departure towards the front of the 26. Panzer, there are not enough trains available to transport everyone to Rouen.
The decision is made to start moving at the beginning of the night of the 11th to the 12th - some by road, others by train. Just the usual routine.

Black Order versus Overlord
The great disappointment of the SS submariners
Dunkirk - Some young Kriegsmarine officers, highly indoctrinated by their time in the Hitlerjugend, singled themselves out from the other officers by arguing that the Allies' alleged material advance would be swept away by the unique abilities of the National Socialist German sailor! The Japanese pocket submarines appeared to them as an ideal weapon to assert the intrinsic superiority of Aryan sailors. Supported by Reichsführer-SS Himmler, they obtained the creation of a pocket submarine unit under the operational aegis of the SS. Eager to avoid the Nazi apparatus taking over the navy, Konteradmiral Godt favoured their transfer to this unit under SS command, but above all quite distinct from the U-bootwaffe.
The plans for the Japanese pocket submarines of the HA-40 type had been brought by a Japanese submarine with an example of a mini-submarine, but it had been destroyed by an RAF raid during its transfer by train to Germany. It is thus by being inspired by the only plans that the engineers of the SS conceived the "klein U.boot Typ-AH", AH like... Adolf Hitler. After many difficulties due mainly to problems of Japanese-German translation made more difficult to solve because one could not rely on the study of the original model, a dozen copies were manufactured and delivered. Four remained in Germany for evaluation, testing and training, while the other eight were pre-positioned at Dunkirk to intervene against the future landing in the Pas-de-Calais.
Unfamiliar with the arcana of shipbuilding, the Nazi engineers designed a machine whose performance would have been described as mediocre by an impartial observer. With a displacement of 11 tons on the surface and 8.4 tons underwater, the Typ-AH is 10.78 meters long and 1.82 meters wide. A 13 HP electric motor powered by batteries gives it a speed of 4.3 knots on the surface and 5 knots underwater, with a range of 60 nautical miles at 3 knots on the surface or 40 nautical miles at 5 knots underwater. Served by two crewmen, it carries two 533 mm torpedoes fixed on either side of the hull, on the outside.
With these characteristics, the Typ-AH could, from Dunkirk, attack an Allied fleet deployed between Calais and Cap Gris-Nez, but the beaches of Normandy, 150 nautical miles from their base, are out of reach.
The only way to engage them against the Allied ships would be to transport them by train from Dunkirk to Le Havre. However, the French rail network is clogged with the tanks of PanzerGruppe West. And above all, Typhoon, Thunderbolt and Lightning, as degenerate as their pilots are, make the trip simply impossible.
The small Typ-AH will remain unused at Dunkirk. They were scuttled before the fall of the city, while their crews, still as fanatical as ever, played the role of infantrymen in improvised entrenchments.

After Lüttich
Heading north
East of the Saône-Rhône axis - This time, the HitlerJugend and the Panzer Lehr receive a clear order to withdraw. It stipulates that, as soon as they are disengaged, the two divisions must head for Normandy. However, if the thing is (relatively) easy for the Panzer Lehr, it is not the same for the 16. SS-Panzer. Indeed, the HitlerJugend is much more advances south of the Rhone: about half of its forces have crossed, and it is difficult for them to get back to the north bank. Especially as it does not have to face anymore only the 2nd RSA and 2nd RCA : rid of the Panzer Lehr, the 5th DB comes to strike the left flank of the SS division.
All day long, the fighting is violent, all the more so as the SS are furious when they see that the allied air force is attacking the bridges over the Rhone, at the level of Jonage or Villette-d'Anthon - like in 40 on the Meuse, yes, but with much more success! In the evening, a large part of the HitlerJugend is in a critical position...
Moreover, if the panzers have to head for Normandy, the infantry would have to modify its dispositions to hold the front. Thus, the 2. Fallschirmjäger stretches towards the south-west, while the 39. ID has to redeploy towards the Rhône-Saône confluence. But above all, the 91. Luftwaffen has to reposition itself between the two. But the French will have to let it do so...
.........
West of the Saône-Rhône axis - Most of the Götz von Berlichingen finds itself stuck in what the Germans like to call a Kessel - but it is much less comfortable to be in the pocket than to lock up the opponent! Between the legionnaires of the Massada-Valmy in the north-west, the Belgians of the Tancrémont in the north-east and the 3rd French DB in the south-west, the 14. SS-PanzerGrenadier struggles around the hills of Limonest. It tried to follow the 16. Panzer, which has escaped to the north-east, along the river, but the Ardennes Chasseurs closed the door before noon, a dozen kilometers south of Villefranche-sur-Saône. And the air force, especially the two Belgian squadrons, hammer the pocket non-stop.
During this time, the 86. AK orders its three divisions, which covered the eastern part of the Massif Central, to extend further, until the Saône. In particular, the 182. ID has to try not only to reach the river, but also to reach out to the SS. In any case, it will not be able to accomplish today the second of its missions.
.........
HQ of the 16. Panzer (Château de Flachère, Saint-Vérand) - General Hans-Ulrich Back had been expecting this since the announcement of an Allied landing on the Channel coast. This role suits him much better than the attempt to push back the French to retake Lyon. The day before, on his own initiative, he has begun to disengage from his part of the front. At least now he is covered by his superiors. Two months after Valkyrie, this is a detail not to be overlooked.
The whole 16. Panzer has to make its way to Macon via Villefranche-sur-Saône. From Mâcon, it will then be transported by train through Dijon, Auxerre and the Paris region, to Normandy. This means a journey of about three days, according to the most pessimistic forecasts of the OKW's logistics services. It would then be able to rescue the German troops currently holding the forces of Auchinleck.
However, following the recent fights during which the French, for as jewified and negrified that they are, did not really retreat, its 16. Panzer has already lost 20 to 25 percent of its fighting capacity. And when Hans-Ulrich Back counts again the following night, he realizes that after a day of reorganization under air and ground bombardment, his losses are more like 25 to 30 percent. He nevertheless hurries the movement, not wanting to be ordered to clear the Götz von Berlichingen... and risk being surrounded as well.

Dordogne Linie
7th US Army HQ - General Omar Bradley was expecting it, and had been nagging his logistic services for several days: as the Germans should not be able to clear their troops from the south of France to send them to face Overlord, the GHQ orders him to prevent them by all means! From today on, the 7th Army will harass the Germans on the Dordogne Linie, by multiplying artillery bombardments and aggressive reconnaissance missions, to keep them in uncertainty and to fix their troops.
Meanwhile, Bradley's army continues its reorganization: supply, consolidation of logistic lines and reallocation of units. The infantry divisions still south of Bordeaux have to finish moving up the Dordogne and the armored divisions, which are too far west, have to be distributed along the front line. In practice, the 1st Armored should be transferred from the 8th Corps to the 6th Corps (the 8th Corps keeps the 2nd Armored and the 4th Corps the 3rd Armored).

For Paris
Infiltration
French-Swiss border (occupied France) - On several occasions, Ribbentrop's services refused Cardinal Maglione's authorization to let the delegation led by Tisserant enter the territory of the New French State. Malignity? A latent diplomatic crisis? Bad will? Other things to worry about, while the vast majority of the world is at war with the Thousand Year Reich?
However, true to his impetuous character and supported by a few highly placed accomplices, Cardinal Eugène Tisserant manages to penetrate the soil of occupied France. To do so, he uses the papers of a French bishop who had come to Switzerland for medical reasons and who declared that he had to join his flock as a matter of urgency. Of course, the passive complicity of the Swiss authorities was a certainty, but neither the Vatican nor Bern would ever admit it.
Once in France, the cardinal and his small escort will go to Paris with their diplomatic documents for Ausweis.
As a symbol of the diplomatic ambiguities that would animate the post-war period, on the same evening, in the vicinity, Joseph Avenol, former Secretary General of the League of Nations and the last Doriotist Foreign Minister, takes the opposite route, speeding up the German order to evacuate the main French collaborator leaders to Germany.

* Fortification work had indeed been undertaken since the summer of 1940, but no unit was really assigned to the defense of the port.
** These destructions were the subject of strong post-war criticism. The British defended themselves by arguing that only a part of Caen had been demolished, and that the whole city would have suffered if they had been slower! In fact, the historic district, around the fortress of William the Conqueror, was generally preserved from the fury of the fighting. Today, it is a popular tourist attraction.
*** The British airmen will tell much later their regret to have had to execute the order to strafe without mercy anything that pretended to follow a road... According to one of the pilots: "Sometimes it exploded, revealing a transport of ammunition which obviously justified our action. But sometimes the vehicle would simply swerve and end up in the ditch, burning sadly."

 

[Wings]

May 21st, 1944

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - At Tylawa, the 61st Army of Pavel Belov still cannot force the decision, even with the support of the 1st Shock Army, in front of an IX. ArmeeKorps (Heinrich Clößner) which has become skeletal, but which nevertheless decides to resist until the end, at all costs. The Red Army will have paid dearly to seize this cursed pass - without success for the moment, but it insists!
The action gradually shifts to Barvinek and Lipowiek, the Soviets trying to avoid these cursed woods where they have already lost too many people ... to fall immediately in the fields of fire prepared for days, although fortunately rather thinly populated. The fall of the Dukla Pass is imminent - as the reports of the services of Vasily Sokolovsky say this morning, on the order of Ivan Konev. As they have been announcing it for a week already.

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - The 5. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Hans-Bruno Schulze-Heyn), which everyone had almost forgotten, arrives at the Izvor Pass after an interminable journey of 230 km. Defeated at the beginning of the Soviet offensive (already 12 days ago), exhausted by its journey, this returnee commanded by a... former bomber pilot (at KG 51) is not really a choice reinforcement. But the 14. Panzergrenadier - and in general the whole Army Group B - really needs the 257. ID to get back in line as soon as possible!
So, the decision is quickly taken: the debris of the Heer division and the remains of the 5. LFD are agglomerated in a Kampfgruppe reinforced by the last StuG III of the 189. StuG Abt. The whole will be commanded by Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim (257. ID), of course. In the air, the Luftwaffe is already not much - so, on the ground! And while this chimera tries to take shape in the rear, towards Breaza de Sus, Erich Schneider's troops must continue to hold the line, facing a 16th Army that its new leader, Leonty Cheremisov, is already relaunching...
In the Moldova valley, once again, not much happens. Still trying to bypass the Curmatura Boului Pass from the west, the 47th Army is trying to gradually shift the center of gravity of the 370. ID (Fritz Becker) toward the Paşcanu Pass - no doubt in order to stretch its position and leave the 333. ID (Harry Hoppe) a little more isolated towards Prisaca Dornei. The maneuver is met with limited success. In fact, the L. AK of Wilhelm Wegener lacks support. On the other hand, he still has the manpower. Not to mention the lack of an obvious axis of progression south from Vatra Moldoviței or Paltinu.
Further east, in the valley of the Bistrița, the 328. ID of Joachim von Tresckow continued to bear the brunt of the Soviet counteroffensive in the direction of Poiana-Largului - which, however, skids a bit (to each his own!) in the rain. The 38th Army does not have the means to do everything ... And certainly not to push back the Fascist division, which has already recovered well, further than Ceahlău, that is, an advance of about 4 kilometers, obtained moreover at a fairly high price. But it does not matter! For in the south, on the other hand, on the road to the Bicaz Pass, up the small river of the same name, Kyril Moskalenko's troops push back ever further the 320. ID of Wilhelm Postel. In fact, the latter has given up holding all the intermediate positions up to the pass - so it abandons them one after the other to withdraw towards the famous pass, praying for reinforcements and a miracle. A small one, already: it is raining very hard today, which delays the pursuit and makes it easier for the few snipers and other mobile anti-tank teams left on the road as lost children. The latter leave a few scars in the Soviet ranks from Ticoș to Bicaz-Chei, gaining for their comrades a very valuable time, often at the cost of their own lives...
Still it is necessary that this delay is useful. In fact, since the old days, panic began to seize the services of Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, whose XLVIII. ArmeeKorps is in an untenable situation, with one division routed and two others blocked in isolated defensive positions. The reinforcements promised by Karl-Adolf Hollidt seem very thin... and very far away ! In fact, the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Hans Korte) barely arrived at Gheorgheni - it still has to climb 25 kilometers to reach Postel before it is too late to make a difference. The prospect of a breakthrough, probably not decisive but nevertheless very worrying, in one of the sectors of the front where it was least expected, seems to materialize. In the evening, the 14. PzGr receives the order to leave the Izvor Pass as soon as possible, where the situation seems to be stabilized, to go down south, a few days ahead of what was expected. The whole KG 257. ID, 5. LFD and 189. StuG will be enough !
There remains the case of the Trotus gorges. Here, the face to face between the 306. ID and the 59th Army continues, always costly, always not decisive. Given the weather of the day - the famous "Russian weather" of the veterans - it was certain that Ivan Korovnikov would still try something, but that he would not pass. And it is indeed the case: he attacks and does not pass! But the German ranks are certainly beginning to thin out...
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - The fighting for the heights overlooking the Oituz valley continues painfully. The right wing of the 9th Army continues to push again and again to the southwest, despite the rain and the terrain, forcing the 321. ID (Wilhelm Thomas) a hellish pace that gradually suffocates it. The action gradually moves from the plateau contested since the day before* to the eminences between Slănic-Moldova and Hârja - the culmination therefore of the neighboring valley, which obviously hinders all the more the Soviet points, less and less able to flank their opponent. But the Red Army has seen worse since 1942 and the fierce melee continues in the rain, like a fire refusing to be extinguished.
Another sector, another concern for the Heer: that of the LIV. AK. Yet, the unexpected... withdrawal of Wolfgang Lange's 339. ID from Greșu to the disintegrating lines of the 50. ID probably saved the situation. In fact, Vasily Glagolev's Soviets still have to clear the ground in order to advance their left wing, while their right - still passing through difficult terrain - is not able to force the decision alone. Thus, with two divisions (let's say one and a half...) reinforced by the 228. StuG Abt (Hauptman Wilhelm von Markowitz), the LIV. AK can hope to make a front on the road to Ojdula, and eventually to Târgu Secuiesc. If the 9th Army would like to catch its breath, the infantry can hold on for 4 or 5 days - the time for reinforcements to arrive.
Static situation still, in the rain, in the Buzău Valley. Like his colleague Karl-Erik Köhler, Theodor Scherer holds on by gritting his teeth at the height of Păltineni, facing a still aggressive 62nd Army, despite the losses, the rain, the terrain... And indeed, Vladimir Kolpakchy's infantry begins to infiltrate seriously from the south in the direction of the small village of Albinari, quite poorly defended.
Static fighting also at the Bratocea Pass, between the 20. PzGr of Georg Jauer - which continues to take losses, although relative, but still too heavy for the task it has been given - and the 6th Guards Army of Pavel Batov - which plays the hammer, the sickle and patience. Obviously, given the terrain and the weather, the front line is not moving much today. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the staff tables. On the 95.ID side, Gustav Gihr announces that his division will be able to resume its post on May 23rd... at best! Until then, please suffer in silence.
Surprisingly, it is in the valley of the Râul Târgului and in the sector of the 3rd Romanian Army that everything seems to accelerate - as more north, in the sector where we least expected a breakthrough, so the least supported, what a surprise! Taking advantage of the untimely withdrawal of the KorpsAbteilung E (Herman Frenking) and the 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister) - both on their way to Rucăr, if they are not already fortifying themselves there - Petre Dumitrescu's infantrymen thus make a great leap forward. They liberate a host of small towns: Lăzărești, Drăghici, Domnești... until they enter Câmpulung in the evening, a rather large locality (12,000 inhabitants), abandoned by the enemy. A brilliant success for the cobelligerent army, which sees its efforts rewarded, which gives it credibility (from its point of view) and will certainly help the kingdom of Romania to regain tomorrow, by the blood shed, the concert of civilized nations. Speaking of bloodshed... it must be noted that the German army has taken its habits in occupied Romania, as unfortunately everywhere else in Europe, giving up pretending to be loved by the locals to better resort to its four habits: requisitions, raids, reprisals, destruction. The first to pay the price for these observations are of course the prisoners of the Romanians - although with some malice, the victors quickly take the step of handing them over to the Soviets, to the great despair of the captives. The harshness of the Red Army's morals is well known... and so, Romania does not get its hands dirty, then!
In short, the 3rd Romanian Army believes that the horizon is finally clearing up. Especially since, taking note of the surprising fascist retreat as well as of some instructions received from Moscow, Fyodor Tolboukhin finally decides to support it. First, by sending behind it the 12th Soviet Mechanized Corps of Dimitri Ryabyshev. The latter has nothing left to defend toward Pitești, so it can advance toward Curtea de Argeș, free to carry the iron toward the Olt Valley or the Brasov Pass, depending on where the opponent cracks first - even if the leader of the 4th UF doubts the possibility of exploiting in the 14th Army sector. Then, Tolbukhin solicits the 6th Guards Army to re-launch its attack in the Prahova Valley, at the level of Breaza and facing the 342. ID of Heinrich Nickel. Since everything is blocked on the Bratocea Pass and the Fascists seem to be exhausted - who knows, a brutal breakthrough towards the Predeal Pass will perhaps allow the 6th Guards Armored Corps (Alexander Shamshin), on the rear, to finally weigh in, or even exploit. Finally, Tolboukhin sent to his dear Romanian friends something to fill their lines: the 4th Romanian Army of Gheorghe Avramescu, devoted as everyone knows to the new friendship between peoples. Of course, this "army" does not weigh more than three or four divisions. But it is enough to want to do its part... and to collect without any doubt a part of the glory to come.
Finally, in the Olt valley, the 14th Army (Valerian Frolov) logically seizes Râmnicu Vâlcea - which unfortunately does not open the way for exploitation by the 3rd Guards Armored Corps (Mikhail Panov). This one follows the 14th but neither the weather nor the terrain allow it to do its job! And opposite, in Brezoi and Sălătrucu, the 225. ID (Ernst Riße) and 215. ID (Bruno Frankewitz) begin to rock, without suffering too sharp pursuit and watching for the arrival of reinforcements - in this case, the 12. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Herbert Kettner). This, while the 13. Panzer (Helmutt von der Chevallerie) continues to prowl around Sibiu...

Romanians in the Soviets
"Rise to the bugle, salute the flag, form the ranks and leave in trucks for the Carpathian front. Once again, we could thank the Workers' and Peasants' Army for its motorization. Our 4th Army - undoubtedly ready, and in any case already quite valiant for the task ahead - was called to the rescue to force the barrier of the Bran Pass, in support of the repentants of the previous day and alongside the tanks bearing the red star. What better symbol of the newfound understanding between our peoples!
And then - it is Lieutenant Lucian Hasdeu who affirms it between two passages of comrade Palariar - it seems that there is a lot of shooting in the mountains. It was inevitable - but this time we are prepared. And we are fighting to free our lands from the fascists. Not to invade a peaceful neighbor."
(Farewell my country... once again, Vasil Gravil, Gallimard 1957)

USSR-USA
Regrettable mistake
U.S. Embassy in the USSR (Moscow) - Following the very regrettable, very bloody and above all very unwelcome (inappropriate, according to the delicate euphemistic language of diplomats) incident of the previous day, His Excellency William Averell Harriman is instructed by Washington with the highest priority to bring an apologetic missive to Minister Molotov as soon as possible and to let him know that the U.S.A. is at his disposal to study "any procedure that will ensure that such a tragic mistake does not happen again.
.........
USSR Embassy in the United States (Washington) - At the same time, the services of Cordell Hull literally besiege the offices of Maxim Litvinov in order to arrange an appointment ... but the person concerned is obviously very busy, if he has not already been "called back for consultation". A real fever of concern seems to have seized the Roosevelt administration about U.S.-Soviet relations. There is talk of particularly harsh sanctions for all pilots involved, despite the USAAF's strongest reservations on the subject: airmen (like other military personnel) can make mistakes in wartime, and the best way to avoid making them would probably be to stay in bed.
Alas, everyone knows that the President is above all keen to maintain excellent relations with Moscow, first in the context of the war, then in that of a future world order to be built once peace has returned - between victors, of course, but above all between the Great Winners... A sincere, if not candid, policy of openness, the objectives and means of which are perhaps not shared by everyone in his government. Nevertheless, for the time being, he is the one who is keeping the upper hand on this small but cumbersome file.
.........
Kremlin (Moscow) - In agreement with Stalin - obviously aware of this, as with everything that has any importance in the USSR - Molotov is taking his time to follow up these requests. After all, for once the powerful United States of America is coming to beg forgiveness from the Fatherland of the Workers, the opportunity is too good not to show his anger while making the proud capitalists wait a little.

Returned state
Preparations
Insurgent Slovakia - Nothing to report, except for the usual clashes with the German army, which continues to launch raids aimed at securing the Slovak forces. Do the Axis know about Ján Golian's plan for Zvolen? If so, the chances of survival of the insurgency would be reduced to zero.
Nevertheless, the 1st Czechoslovak Army continues its preparations - for lack of any other possibility, it is ready to commit all its forces to a final assault. Golian is now convinced - it is necessary to launch this assault as soon as possible, as long as the enemy remains perhaps uncertain of his means as of his strategy. Moreover, the general is really exasperated by the lack of support from the outside world, which he attributes to the indifference of the Allies more than to technical difficulties, however real.
If he is to hold on, he would need more than a parachute brigade, two or three military missions and a few planes too often grounded by the weather! Especially since it is already certain that the liberation of Zvolen will be costly, unfortunately. Golian can only hope that a success will make a beautiful symbol that will be talked about far from here... As for the envoys from London, so much announced and expected here, they are late - apparently held up at home by the bad weather.

Dark plans
Wewelsburg - It's raining and dark in the small Westphalian town - in unison with the badges and flags that adorn its streets. In the castle overlooking the town, sitting comfortably in one of the armchairs facing his master's office, Obergruppenführer Hermann Höfle calmly explains his views to an attentive and complacent audience.
- The mistake that was made was to believe that it was possible to obtain a break in the mountains that would break the enemy's position in one fell swoop before encircling his troops. This was a mistake. The enemy is not looking for an outright victory over our forces, but simply to survive by extending his territory, even if it means evading us and then infiltrating our rear. This hybrid form of combat - half defensive, half terrorist - cannot be defeated by high-style attacks. A systematic destruction of the region is beyond our means - alas! - but it would only ever drive a population that is just beginning to realize its mistake further into the arms of the enemy.
This speech is reminiscent of others, and of other strategies developed in the past on the Eastern Front. Some people frown, and Hans Frank is one of them. Indeed, after the loss - obviously temporary! - of a part of Poland, the General Government is expected to provide technical support and resources to the fight against Slovak subversion: did he not have experience in fighting an uprising? His leader was kindly summoned to Wewelsburg for this purpose. However, even though the governor general was very happy to leave Krakow for a while (the air there was very bad for his health, who knows why!), everyone understood that Höfle's last sentence is a dig at this minion of evil and his army of assassins. The Reichsführer, on the other hand, sees no malice in it.
- So what are you planning, Herr Obergruppenführer?
- We must use up the potential of the terrorists, exhaust their resources, destroy their will to fight by making them lose all hope. At this time, every tiny victory they win - even the most insignificant - means that they have a chance of survival. This is obviously not true!
Höfle stands up and points with a broad gesture to the map of Slovakia on a trestle, before pointing to the active sectors of the front, one after another.
- We have more resources, more weapons and probably more men than they do. We have to maintain and amplify this imbalance. In the days to come, we will therefore, if you allow me, Herr Reichsführer, multiply small-scale attacks, intended to wear down their best troops and exhaust their ammunition. At the same time, we will carefully clear our flanks and our rear of any residue that may be there. The enemy will not be able to react - and if he tries, he will be crushed. Gradually deprived of all possibility of action, stuck in his stinking hole and condemned to rot in the middle of the mountains, he will be overcome by fear and then by despair at our uninterrupted succession of successes. Finally, when we have completed our preparations, when he has seen all possibility of escape or rescue disappear, we will strike and scatter his remains like a flock of sparrows.
Höfle's hand falls on the center of the Slovakian redoubt, somewhere between Banská Bystrica and Brezno. A silence, then he concludes: "I have already started, on my own authority, to implement this strategy. It will take some time, and probably some reinforcements - but not much more than what has already been planned. The result, however, is certain. I therefore propose to follow this plan, with your authorization and that of the Waffen-SS headquarters, which has priority over that of the Heer, of course."
With his hands crossed on his desk, Heinrich Himmler listens and approves, nodding his head from time to time. A very satisfied smile lights up his face

Crushed Hungary
Shoah: a true professional
Hotel Majestic (Budapest) - Having arrived in the city two days earlier, and after many inspections and exchanges with his colleague Edmund Veesenmayer, Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss believes he has understood the cause of the problem in Hungary. It was simply the Hungarians! The Arrow Crosses of course, as stupid as they are incompetent, but above all the insignificant weakness of the available manpower as well as their crass inefficiency in urban areas.
As Herr Eichmann said, they would have to hold their hands... Of course, Höss was reluctant to stoop to the level of mediocre arrests normally carried out by the Einsatztruppen of Brunner, Nebe and others. But the SS is forced to organize, with the help of the Hungarians - alas! - and at the lowest level, the deportation of the Hebrew ghetto block by block. His scientific method should enable him to reach the optimal output, set at four trains per week, or 12,000 people, very quickly. At that rate, we can hope to finish in 25 days. Because there were probably 250,000 Jews now grouped together or in the process of being grouped together in Budapest, coming from the countryside by train or road convoy, framed by the clubs of Ferenc Szálasi's militiamen! We cannot let the problem get any worse!
There remains the case of the foreign diplomats - Rudolf Höss has not received clear instructions on this, nor had Veesenmayer previously. It seems that the problem must go back quite far. In any case, the cleaning of the ghetto should begin in a week. After that it may be too late.

Fixed idea
Wewelsburg - After his meeting with Obergruppenführer Hermann Höfle, Heinrich Himmler is looking forward to the (future) success of his weapon. It is now clear to him that Central Europe is the future of the Waffen-SS! And his thoughts naturally turn from Slovakia to Hungary, where he hopes to find enough to strengthen the ranks of his Order.
First of all, he orders the acceleration of the two Hungarian divisions already being formed: 17. SS-Freiwilligen Kavallerie-Division Maria-Theresa, of course, but especially the 19. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (ungarisch) Hunyadi - whose quality of recruitment was a cause for concern. No matter...
In the aftermath, the Horst-Wessel project comes back to the mind of the ReichsFührer-SS. In order to make this dream come true, orders were given to the local police authorities to organize a census of all the Volksdeutsche present in Hungary who had not yet had the great pleasure of donning the uniform to defend the German race. The division of Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik will thus become reality... a little further north than expected, that's all.
All of this is still a bit far off, however. In the meantime, and in order to guarantee the success of the repressive operations in Slovakia, Himmler asks (imposes) the OKW to make available what remained of the Heimatschutz not yet under his command. He already knows that Berlin is not likely to say no to him, given the little value that is attached to this remnant of reservists...


* Plateau on which the Mânăstirea Sfântul Ștefan cel Mare will be opened in 2001. The construction of this Orthodox monastery will have taken two years of delay due to the necessary preliminary demining - and it had to be supplemented with that of an ossuary for the many human remains discovered during the earthworks.

 

[Wings]

May 22nd, 1944

OKW-OKH
Fire Brigade
Vistula Front - After the I. SS-PanzerKorps, it is the turn of the II. SS-PanzerKorps (Walter Krüger) to leave Poland for France - with a certain haste resulting from the events on the Western Front, it must be said. The 9. SS-Panzer Hohenstaufen (Sylvester Stadler), the 10. SS-Panzer Frundsberg (Heinz Harmel) and the 103. SS-schw. Pz Abt (Karl Leiner) - all of whom had shone at Fredericus II, although not all with the same leaders - load their Panzer IVs, JagdPanzer IVs, Panthers and other Tigers onto railroad convoys headed for the Rhine. They are eagerly awaited in Franc
With this second departure in less than two weeks, Paul Hausser's 1 SS-PanzerArmee is quite weakened. It has just lost a good third of its armored personnel - and the best one at that. But with the 6. Armee coming back into line, on the northern wing of HeeresGruppe A, which mechanically allowed Hausser to reduce his front, this would pass. Of course.

The art of using the Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - We finally fight at the Dukla Pass - we have been fighting for this strategic point for only three weeks, but we are finally there! The 61st Army and the 1st Shock Army finish pushing back the IX. AK on the other side of the northern foothills of the Carpathians, so they seem to be able to finally seize their objective. In the evening, the Heer abandons the remaining positions, such as the Czeremcha pass, and withdraws to a new Svidník- Staškovce-Krásny Brod line.
Neither Heinrich Clößner nor any of his subordinates have enough people to continue defending in a static way. And then, one can give oneself a bit of space: the Red is bled without having gained much - no need to be as stupid as he was by wearing oneself down to the point of creating the conditions for a global break in the front. In any case, there are still plenty of potential stopping barriers up to the Ondava or Hornád watersheds - if the Reds ever get that far. Moreover, the redeployment of the rest of the 8. Armee from the Tarnów sector should not take long: a week or two, depending on circumstances. Perhaps only Clößner knows that "the rest of the 8. Armee" is barely two or three infantry divisions and three already worn-out StuG Abt, because the transfer of the III. PanzerKorps (Rudolf von Waldenfels) to Paul Hausser's 1. SS-PanzerArmee seems to have been done already.

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - The rain never ends in Transylvania - historical Hungary or occupied Romania, depending on how you look at it. At the Izvor Pass, the Heer tries to take advantage of what it considers to be a tentative lull - the 16th Army is still pressing, but less and less effectively for several days - to organize the relief of the 14. Panzergrenadier of Erich Schneider by the chimera formed by the 5. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division and the debris of the 257. ID. All this under the command of Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim, since Schulze-Heyn is already on his way to a place where he will be used for something, for example an airfield...
The problem is that the maneuver does not go as smoothly as expected. In fact, Leonty Cheremisov doesn't see why he would let his adversary rock quietly, especially since he understood that he has mechanized troops in front of him, whose withdrawal can only mean a forthcoming redeployment to counter a comrade. As a result, the day is very difficult for the panzers and especially the grenadiers of the 14. PzGr, who have to maneuver under enemy fire to be able to leave their trenches around Izvoarele Sucevei, sometimes after having to go and find their replacements! In the evening, the operation is still not completed. Worse, the Wehrmacht even has to concede a corner of its position, on the left, in the direction of Bobeica, in the midst of wooded terrain very favorable to infiltration, especially during a reshuffle of lines.
It is in this context that the XLIX. AK of Rudolf Konrad - which had come all the way from the Yablonitsky Pass - arrives. This formation, which is part of Hans-Jürgen Von Arnim's 2. PanzerArmee, is not intended to go immediately to the line, but to serve as an army reserve in the Vatra Dornei sector ... Today, however, it seems much more useful that this corps urgently takes over the L. AK in the Moldova valley, where nothing dangerous should happen, despite small red attempts. Thus, the 17. Armee of Karl-Adolf Hollidt would be free to move 70 kilometers to the south, in order to be able to (for example!) reinforce the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps of Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, which shows serious signs of weakness.
No sooner said than done: on the direct order of Gotthard Heinrici - his HG B must find a way to release troops for Hollidt, in the south! - the 2. PanzerArmee brings up to the line all its remaining fresh troops. And as a result, all that remained immediately available to the Wehrmacht in the whole north of the Carpathians.
It is that indeed, between Bistrița and Bicaz, things continue to get worse. And there, only the rain that falls very hard now seems able to come to the rescue of the Germans. Pushed back little by little towards Poiana-Largului, the 328. ID continues to pay dearly for its bravado of three days ago. Not in positions - the offensive of the 38th Army did not really progress today: less than a kilometer, from Ceahlău to the reliefs west of Bistricioara. On the other hand, Joachim von Tresckow's division has lost many men and its immediate future is darkening: dangerously advanced, it seems every hour more sidelined and would run a great risk of encirclement if by any chance, tomorrow, the Bicaz Pass gave way. For the time being, the pass still seems to be in German hands: the remains of Wilhelm Postel's 320. ID would have arrived on the spot while the vanguard of the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division of Hans Korte (alas, not motorized, what a downfall!) is said to be at Lacu Roșu - still a ravaged site, but one that has the good taste of reminding the Germans of a victory and is never more than 4 or 5 kilometers from the pass.
With a little luck, and thanks to the traditional Slavic laziness, it will be okay. In fact, at the same time, Kyril Moskalenko is busy pushing forward in the rain with his motorized spikes, against the numerous German delaying elements and in spite of a host of obstacles (sometimes armored carcasses dating from last fall's offensive!), obstacles that the infantry has to clear by hand, with the risks that this entails.
Nevertheless, von Tresckow is worried. One understands him... In fact, if the Bicaz Pass falls, there will be nothing left to stop the adversary until Toplița and his only chance of salvation will then be to flee through the Buzatu Pass to Vatra Dornei, hoping that the L. AK will want to wait for him. And even if the Reds are effectively countered here*, his position is still precarious. He can only hope that his leader, Karl-Adolf Hollidt (17. Armee), is right when he repeats as if to ward off bad luck, to all those who will listen to him: "Es wird wieder gut!" It's okay, it's okay...
It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay... Like in the Trotus sector, for example, where everyone knows that nothing important is happening anymore.
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - The fight for the woods between Slănic-Moldova and Hârja continues in the rain, with bitter violence. For the time being, Vasily Glagolev's 9th Army fails to wrest these reliefs from the clutches of the 321. ID (Wilhelm Thomas). It is however the key to advance towards the Oituz Pass. Glagolev therefore multiplies the infiltrations and attacks from all sides, taking advantage of the fact that the falling waters, if they deprive him of air support, also somewhat masked his movements to German observers. His troops advance from Slănic-Moldova, Ferestrău-Oituz and the Leșunțul Mare massif**. By dint of advancing through the woods, the Soviet believes that he will eventually pass - it is the law of numbers! But for the time being, the opponent still holds on, desperately.
Between Greșu and Ojdula, the rest of LIV. ArmeeKorps of Wolfgang Lange - 339. ID and 50. ID, essentially - seems to have succeeded for the moment in stabilizing the situation. The left wing of the 9th Army, which has given a lot and made a lot of progress, has to reconcentrate before being able to continue, and is still only doing reconnaissance and probing through the woods, or on the road to Târgu Secuiesc. Vasily Glagolev knows that he has missed his chance and that the enemy had reconstituted itself. If he still has the same orders - to advance! - he considers on the other hand that he has no more reason to rush forward headlong - tomorrow, or later, he will hit harder. And for good, this time, he says to himself.
Meanwhile, in the face-off between 62nd Army and 83. ID, it is also the stalemate ... apparently, however, because by dint of efforts and reconnaissance, the Soviet infantry manages to gain a foothold in Albinari - very unpleasant action for Theodor Scherer, which does not have the means or time to prevent it. Thus, the German formation is significantly exposed on its right flank - not fatal, it is true. On the other hand, it certainly weakens its defense in the Buzău Valley.
On the side of the 6th Guards Army (Pavel Belov), the situation becomes more contrasted. Obviously, on the right, on the Bratocea Pass, nothing is moving - the 20. PzGr of Georg Jauer still firmly holds the western gate of Brașov. On the other hand, in the Prahova Valley, the Soviet left wing suddenly, and very unexpectedly, attacked the forward positions of the 342. ID of Heinrich Nickel in Breaza. The latter, relatively untouched since the start of the offensive, makes a front and holds overall the shock - but this does not mean that the experience is very pleasant for the Landsers. The Red Army had plenty of time here to concentrate its fire hydrants, to prepare lines of fire, to calculate its coordinates, to clear axes of progression ... In the evening, the first line of defense is well underway, and Nickel has the positions of the second line to Poiana prepared - without any defeatism of course - as a prerequisite for a locking of the gorges in Sinaia, a little before Bușteni.
Further west, on the road to the Bran Pass, the Romanian 3rd Army continued to advance rapidly, without waiting too long for the arrival of its compatriots - go figure - because it knew it was finally assured of its flanks by the Soviet 12th Mechanized Corps at Curtea de Argeș. From Câmpulung (essentially), it soon seized Dragoslavele - in sight of Rucăr then, and the new positions of KorpsAbteilung E (Herman Frenking) as well as 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister). The first reconnaissances, executed of course under the rain in rather unfavorable conditions, do not show any obvious weak points. This was expected...
Remains the case of the Olt Valley, where Valerian Frolov's 14th Army progresses with difficulty and completes its pursuit, barely entering Călimănești - thus facing Căciulata, in the sector where the 225. ID (Ernst Riße) has organized its defense. Two hundred meters of exploitable land barely, split into two banks and surrounded moreover by steep reliefs covered with forests, which we will probably have to go and remove one after another. Except of course to go through Sălătrucu, perhaps with the support of the tanks of the 12th Mechanized Corps... but in any case, it will be long.

The shadow of a doubt
Front of the 11. Armee - General Gustav Fehn has already been scouring the southern Carpathian lines for two days in search of good news to bring back to his commander, von Kluge. The problem was that he cannot find any - a man of the art of mountain warfare, Fehn knows that two things have to be kept in mind at all times when defending on such terrain: control of the pace of operations (to tire out the enemy) and the possession of reserves (to keep the most exposed units moving). The 11. Armee already has difficulty imposing its rhythm on the Reds - it had already exhausted the ground it could concede up to the crossing points it had to defend at all costs. And above all, it has no reserves left, except for the 13. Panzer - a single-shot rifle that will only be used in case of disaster.
However, Fehn has to agree that the situation here and for the time being remains under control. Worried in spite of everything, he sent his chief, still in Székesfehérvár, a half-hearted factual report: the local problems should not be aggravated. The best response would probably be to detach troops from Hungary in advance, to form a second line. This is of course what he proposes - but with the certainty that this suggestion would be rejected.
Now, direction the northern front, Târgu Mureș and the 17. Armee. Apparently, they do not play the same music there.

Partisans... and others
Back home
Front of the 8. Armee (Gromnik area) - A mixed Ukrainian-German commando group, led by Yuriy Demyanovich Lopatinsky and Lieutenant Dietrich Witzel Kirn, crosses the front line and heads for the UPA-held lands in the forests west of Rivne. The mission given by the Reich and Bandera has not changed - to convince Shukhevych to rally (again) to the Nazi cause against the Soviets. To encourage him, the group does not leave empty-handed: in addition to the promises of the Reich, it has in its bags five million rubles in small bills, with which it will certainly be possible to finance many things ...

Secret war
Intoxication
A (really) lost forest in Belarus - For two days now, "real fake fascists" from the NKVD have been beating (or grilling, depending on their mood) Colonel Ivan Fyodorov in order to force him to go to the West - well, to the West of the Vistula: to Berlin. The problem is that they get nowhere, the airman stubbornly holding on!
Undoubtedly terrorized by his captors, Fyodorov seems to be even more afraid of the possible consequences of a desertion - on this point, one cannot completely prove him wrong... It is thus the disappointment for the agents responsible for this small operation, who can only note the failure of their maneuver. This raises a delicate question: what to do with Fyodorov now? Major Kopirovsky, in charge here, has his own idea on the question... He asks the agreement of his hierarchy for a pure and simple liquidation of the useless character. After all, it would not be the first time that reactionary agents kidnap and bury a fool in the woods.

USSR-USA
Regrettable mistake
USSR Embassy in the United States (Washington) - The State Department finally manages to reach His Excellency Maxim Litvinov, at the cost of a thousand contortions and humiliating little steps, as only the Soviets know how to impose. The ambassador finally agrees to receive the American emissary with a look of circumstance, in order to listen to his explanations about the incident of the day before, taking the outraged posture of the ally who has just been stabbed in the back.
Obviously, faced with such an act, the Americans - not fooled, but without many other cards in hand - can only make their mea culpa (or perhaps their self-criticism, in front of professional atheists!) and provide a thousand technical explanations, asking that they be deigned to admit them at the highest level in order to settle the matter, for the present as well as for the future. To this, the USSR is willing to agree. But it will be on the 27th - not before. Minister Molotov is very busy, you see...

Returning state
Preparations
Insurgent Slovakia - Under the rain and despite the scattered shootings, the preparations of the 1st Czechoslovak Army continue. The new German strategy - attrition and demoralization - become very clear to Ján Golian. He understood its extreme danger for his mass of conscripts - certainly courageous, but poorly equipped and even more poorly trained, and therefore vulnerable to doubt - as well as for his hard core of paratroopers, professionals and ex-French prisoners, whose numbers are inexorably shrinking. Consequently, Golian makes his decision: the assault on Zvolen will take place tomorrow! Waiting won't do any good, and every hour offered to the German is an hour he can use to reinforce himself.
Alea jacta est... Small tanks, paratroopers and shock troops move to their positions south of Banská Bystrica. Opposite is the center of Otto Obenaus' 545. VDG, whose young recruits have no idea what is going on.

Operation Bowery - Nothing ventured...
Somewhere between Dobšiná and Telgárt - Taking advantage of the weather conditions as well as the ongoing reorganization of the German forces - which has obviously given up on any major action in the area for the time being - the OSS agents James Gaul and James Holt enter the territory controlled by the insurgency, still accompanied by the loyal Hungarian Keszthelyi. They are soon taken over by the Slovaks and taken to Rohozná airfield. There, they will contact their colleagues from the Green mission - who have a lot of work, and even more needs.

Desolate Poland
The beginning of a civil war?
Brest-Litovsk - Always eager to gather the debris of its Secret Army as well as its State, the government of the Polish Republic tries to rally all the fighters able to weigh against Germany... Then probably tomorrow to face the USSR. Or in any case, to counter somewhat the deleterious influence of the communist nucleus that the 1st Army, which is supposed to be commanded by Lt-Colonel Jan Mazurkiewicz "Radoslaw", is undergoing. With this in mind, and obviously a little behind the back of the President of the Council, Edward Bolesław Osóbka-Morawski, contact is made with the multitude of elements from the AK or having collaborated with it, now scattered throughout the national territory.
The process, which is obviously long and complex to implement, has had various fortunes - it is likely that it will not be possible to draw the balance in a good month. But one group in particular is already causing great concern: the National Armed Forces of Colonel Spirydion Koiszewski "Topor". The latter, who managed to flee Warsaw in the last few days before the collapse, is now leading an autonomous policy of fighting against all foreign forces - at least politically. Such a maneuver, "Ukrainian style" one might say, could have serious consequences if the USSR decided tomorrow to use it to impeach the Polish government and thus wrest from it what remained of its independence.
Koiszewski had to be forced to fall in line, and as soon as possible. The problem is that he already does not recognize the authority of the government in exile in London, and this is not helped by the installation of the friendly Soviet godfather on Polish soil. And it would be even worse if one day he managed to gather around him all the discontented members of the Secret Army, whom some people already call "cursed soldiers". In that case, the situation can well get out of hand.


* Since then, the entire Bicaz area has been drowned by the construction of a dam in the 1960s, forming the Izvorul Muntelui lake, the largest artificial body of water in Romania. It is very common for boaters and other fishermen to bring up in their nets debris of war torn from the mud. The TV show Calypso's Odyssey even devoted an episode to the region in which Captain Cousteau visited the local biological research station before descending in a diving saucer to the bottom, only to find himself face to face with a T-34 unveiled by the currents...
** The waterfall is now a famous hiking destination.

 

[Wings]

May 23rd, 1944

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - In the early morning, after an umpteenth night of clearing the roads leading to it of booby traps, mines and other snipers that might still be there, Pavel Belov's 61st Army officially plants the red flag on the Dukla Pass. A handful of kilometers to the east, Andrei Vlassov's troop ostensibly does the same on the Czeremcha Pass, and in the woods between Radoszyce and Palota. With a bit of irony, one can probably write that these armies were among the first to break through the Karpatenfestung... It took a little more than three weeks, furious fighting, blood, sweat and many tears - as well as about 20,000 dead, wounded and missing, to achieve this majestic result.
The Red Army is now in a position to help the Slovak insurgency... within 140 kilometers, with at least two rocky barriers, a river (the Torysa) and a major town (Prešov) still located between the rescue and the insurgents. The junction is therefore not for tomorrow. Especially since in front, the IX. AK (Heinrich Clößner), objectively in tatters but still stubbornly fighting, is already preparing for yet another round, hoping for the probably imminent arrival of reinforcements from Poland.
In order to continue towards Slovakia, so that all these sacrifices are not in vain, the 61st Army and the 1st Shock would need rest, supplies... and even - let's be crazy - support. So many things that will have to be explained to Ivan Konev, who is much less preoccupied by these matters than by his future glorious campaign on the Vistula, towards the heart of the Reich and facing Georgi Zhukov - sorry, besides him.

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - On the Izvor Pass, the 14. Panzergrenadier finally completes its redeployment to make room for Anton-Reichard von Mauchenheim's troop. Erich Schneider is therefore free to go back to the rear, for example in the direction of Gheorgheni, where reinforcements are apparently badly needed. And all this without fear of being strafed or bombed: the weather today is really nasty - what does the German soldier want? The division nevertheless has four or five days of travel ahead of it, on... perfectible roads and passing, moreover, through the Păltiniş Pass. It leaves behind a position significantly unbalanced since the day before and with, opposite, a 16th Army whose leader, Leonty Cheremisov, is already planning to strike a blow from tomorrow in the direction of Bobeica... to begin with.
A little further east, now descending from the Mestecăniș Pass, the XLIX. AK of Rudolf Konrad arrives in Pozoritta (Pojorâta in Latin sub-language). This locality has much to please the soldiery - in fact, it is overwhelmingly populated by German settlers, Zipsers from Bukovina, survivors of the settlers invited here in the twelfth century by King Géza II of Hungary*. One might as well say that the Landsers are well received there, because of the anxiety born of the obvious approach of the Bolshevik tide, from which the Wehrmacht comes to protect the inhabitants - that changes, in the region! And it is also a habit that the German army would gain to take, considering the general turn of the conflict... Anyway, the two divisions of Konrad - 88. ID (Georg von Rittberg) and 94. ID (Georg Pfeiffer) - undertakes to relieve respectively the 370. ID (Fritz Becker) and the 333. ID (Harry Hoppe), without the 47th Army being able to do anything to stop them.
In fact, by dint of maneuvers, reconnaissance and infiltration attempts, elements of Filipp Zhmachenko's troop reach the top of the Ezer valley, as far as Iezerul Sadovei, a small natural reservoir located barely 6 kilometers from Sadova - thus from the back of the Curmatura Boului Pass. Of course, they were spotted, but in the confusion of the relay, the 370. ID is not really able to stop them. So it is a corner that is driven into the German defense from the west... Georg von Rittberg plans to put things in order, and as soon as possible. But can he really afford it? Especially since, as is only natural, the 190. StuG Abt of Hauptmann Dieter Bender breaks camp with the other units of the 17. Armee !
Finally, if the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps (Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach) is still very weakened by the Soviet assaults, the situation remains stable. Especially, once again, because of the weather - which strongly hinders the Soviet assaults, hinders the artillery bombardments and prohibits any air support. This is fortunate for the 320. ID (Wilhelm Postel) - reinforced later (but reinforced all the same!) by the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Hans Korte). The two divisions thus take the shock of the head of the 38th Army, in the climb from Bicaz-Chei, but nevertheless hold the pass closed. It is true that the latter had the good taste to be particularly defensible: barely 120 meters wide, split by the Bicaz and dominated, to the north, by the Surduc-Munticelu massif** and, to the south, by the relief surrounding the Surduc valley***. It is in this last sector that Kyril Moskalenko plans to push - harder and harder, until the break. This, without the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow), stuck south of Poiana-Largului in a fight without stake, or that the 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler), still lost in the Trotus gorges, can do anything about it...
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - Rain, but also blood and explosives, continue to flood the heights surrounding Hârja, in an atmosphere of the end of the world - unless one prefers to think of the worst moments of the Other War. Faced with this red horde coming from everywhere, attacking from the north, the east and the northeast (to begin with) without seeming to care about its losses or its ammunition, the 321. ID (Wilhelm Thomas) really starts to find the time long... In fact, nobody, at this time, seems willing to support it, so much the situation would be worse around it! Vasily Glagolev is not a butcher - on the other hand, he is a ruthless leader. The hardest part is passing, so let's go, comrades!
Same thing on the road from Greșu to Târgu Secuiesc, where the left wing of the 9th Army begins to push very hard against the LIV. AK. Valiant as they are, the 339. ID and the 50. ID gradually lose their coherence, despite the support of the 228. StuG Abt. They thus give up three kilometers, by holding on nevertheless to each position of value. At the head of a dying corps, Wolfgang Lange is constantly stuck on the line of fire, commanding his 339. ID, without being able to turn to his other formations - which are gradually left to themselves. In the long run, a dangerous hesitation sets in throughout his sector, as when an engineer, by dint of constantly stifling imminent disasters, is no longer able to control the general functioning of a machine that is nevertheless ready to explode.
Once again, Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach - already worried about the condition of his XLVIII. AK, not to mention that of the neighboring corps - takes it upon himself to urgently request reinforcements. Having reached his superior Karl-Adolf Hollidt, he even dares to mention - in barely concealed words - the necessity of an evacuation, failing imminent support. He and Lange could, for example, withdraw to the Brețcu Mountains, leaving the Târgu Secuiesc region to the enemy: taking advantage of the shortening of his lines, they could thus effectively defend the gap to Sfântu Gheorghe, without fearing a new overrun by the reliefs. But Hollidt, always paralyzed by his convictions - and even more by the fear of a bad reaction of Berlin! - sweeps aside this suggestion with a wave of the glove: the reinforcements arrive, and any concession to the Reds in the mountains would inevitably result in a tide in the plain, impossible to stop with the available means. On this precise point, one cannot totally prove the chief of the 17. Armee - but it is not because he has no alternative strategy that he can deny the fact that the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps as well as the LIV. ArmeeKorps are close to breaking apart. But his only response to Seydlitz-Kurzbach's plea is no less: "Hold on three days, and the motorized divisions will be there."
It is in this context that the 95. ID of Gustav Gihr goes back in line at the Bratocea Pass, on the virile injunctions of a Georg Jauer literally at the end of his nerves, so much he continues to lose for nothing his men as his vehicles, facing a 6th Guards Army (Pavel Belov) apparently forced to wait ... Yet the 95. ID, bled by the fighting for the Teleajen valley, is only a shadow of its former self... But no choice! The so rare German motorized divisions are absolutely necessary to serve as firemen, and with the weather as with the obvious tiredness of the Russians, the equivalent of a regiment will be quite sufficient to defend a single point of passage at high altitude.
The 20. PzGr thus turns its tracks to the northwest and begins to descend toward Brașov. At the head of the column, under the tarp of his Steyr 1500, Jauer is furious. We understand him: he leaves in this deplorable affair, which has no other purpose than to repair a failure (from his point of view ...), about 750 men and especially about thirty machines, half of which can never be repaired, for lack of access for the tugboats supposed to go get them, in these awful mountains**** abandoned by the gods! Moreover, he is not even out of the woods - Gotthard Heinrici has just ordered the transfer of his unit to the 17. Armee "until further notice". So he heads for Târgu Secuiesc, to the rescue (once again) of an infantry unit in distress. On the way, the 20. PanzerGrenadier will not stop, of course, in the Buzău Valley - where the 83. ID continues to suffer flanking and assault from the 62nd Army. Nor will it go to help the 342. ID, pushed back little by little by the 6th Guards Army - still it - from Breaza to Poiana. The 342. ID retreats with control, certainly... But once again, it is thanks to time that it avoids the rout. With a bit of luck, the retreat towards Sinaia, inevitable for lack of reinforcements, will nevertheless allow Heinrich Nickel to hold on to the ground.
Further west, in front of Rucăr, Petre Dumitrescu has to admit that the door seems quite closed. Since the... events of last December, the Romanian army no longer has a mountain division. It is a pity: the terrain does not offer here any possibility of bypassing, even by the small valley of Târgului, just west of Dragoslavele, seized without fighting. So we will have to win by attrition - with the help, all the same, of Soviet tanks, aviation and... promised reinforcements, probably by a succession of massive attacks.
In Călimănești, Valerian Frolov makes the same observation. His first assaults towards Căciulata are violently repulsed in the rain. His 14th Army does not have the means to quickly force the decision - especially since (and even if he does not know it at the moment) the 12. LFD of Herbert Kettner has just arrived at Brezoi, securing the XXX. ArmeeKorps of Philipp Kleffel against any risk of a brutal breakthrough. This means that the direct route to the south of Transylvania seems to be well and truly closed. Georg-Hans Reinhardt succeeded in his bet - for the moment at least! But Frolov is nonetheless sliding his right wing all the way to Stoenești. He is obviously preparing a bypass through the sector held by his old opponent, the 215. ID by Bruno Frankewitz.

The shadow of a doubt
Târgu Mureș - Gustav Fehn arrives at General Karl-Adolf Hollidt's headquarters, whose premises are rustling with a dull agitation, amidst an atmosphere of fever. Fehn knows this smell since Greece: it is that of the announced catastrophe. So, without taking the time to introduce himself to the head of the 17. Armee, he leaves at full speed towards the region of Târgu Secuiesc - the sector of the LIV. AK, which he understood has some problems. The Bavarian can't get rid of a darker and darker prognosis in his mind...

Secret war
Failed Intoxication
A (really) lost forest in Belarus - All things considered, Colonel Ivan Fyodorov will not disappear in a wood... Informed of his subordinate's project, Alexander Demyanov "Heyne" puts a categorical veto to this fatal proposal: one does not kill comrades because they refuse to betray! Fyodorov will be content to "escape" the same night, thanks to his immense talent, to better run through the woods to regain the friendly lines. Of course, he will soon tell everything to the NKVD - which will be surprisingly understanding, leading several battues through the woods to find the fascists and even authorizing the colonel to return to the VVS! So, who said that the Workers' Fatherland was not magnanimous towards its children?

Returning state
The charge of the 1st Czechoslovak Army
Insurgent Slovakia - This morning, as if encouraged by fate, it stopped raining in Slovakia. From its trenches north of Badin and Vlkanová, the insurgent army runs over the sleeping enemy.
Later, communist, then nationalist, then finally more or less impartial historiography gave various readings of the event: a symbol of concord between peoples and classes - despite a command of uncertain quality - a magnificent burst of pride of a people refusing to bow down, and finally a beautiful (though somewhat improvised) military reaction to save a cause in peril. All these assessments have undoubtedly a part of truth, more or less great - but even today, all are unanimous to say it: on May 23rd, 1944, the 1st Czechoslovak Army inflicted a defeat on the powerful Wehrmacht.
.........
Ján Golian, as a skilled tactician, personally participated in the design of this decisive assault. He planned three waves.
The first wave of about 2,000 men, consisted mostly of the soldiers of the 2nd Airborne Brigade of Lieutenant Colonel Vladimír Přikryl, reinforced with a few selected elements of the 1st Battle Group Kriván (although not very many - it was necessary to prevent any reaction from the Tatra! ), several sections of light infantry from the most reliable partisan units (including ... Bulgarians of the Captain Ján Nálepka Brigade*****), as well as several light vehicles: self-guns of taking or BA-10 delivered by air in parts! The mission of this force was to make its way through the positions identified long before, to take the first line by surprise - ideally - and above all to move the action as far south as possible before the inevitable counterattack.
This one will be the business of the second wave, destined to break. About 4,000 men, mostly extracted from the 4th Battle Group Moray (Colonel Mikuláš Markus), with among them some 500 ex-French prisoners, from those who had worked wonders in the Strečnianska Gorge. The Slovaks had time to sort out the situation, and found, among others, several complete sections of Moroccan tabors or Alpine hunters, captured respectively in Greece in 1941 and in France in 1940. Of course, these exiles are no longer in the best of shape, after 3 or 4 years of captivity... but they are still more competent than an average conscript, and at least as thirsty for revenge. Supported by a good part of the "armoured brigade" of the 1st Army - 5 LT-38, 3 LT-40, but also 2 Panzer III N and 3 Marder II - the second wave will advance once the main line of resistance is identified and bludgeoned by the artillery. Of course, these tanks are not expected to exploit - not on the valley floor, in semi-urban terrain. However, they will have to support the infantrymen, eliminate fortified positions and destroy any machine that the Nazis might oppose to the assault, including those panzers that so terrify non-professional fighters. In short, it is the work of an infantry tank - the influence of the French army of 1940, always! The skies finally clear, the La-5s of the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Air Regiment appear - ground support is unfortunately limited to strafing, due to a lack of bombs, but they still provide air cover... and improve morale. It will be good for everyone to see roundels over their heads, and not black crosses.
Finally, the third wave will follow: 6,000 men, to occupy the ground. Most of them are conscripts, surrounded by convalescent wounded and reservists too old to take part in the assault. Ideally, they will only have to reduce the fortified points and collect the weapons, the dead and the wounded. Golian does not consider these troops, barely trained and not even fully equipped, capable of holding any line in a pitched battle. Nobody will contradict him on this subject. At the same time, the 3rd Battle Group Gerlach (Colonel Pavol Kuna) strikes the enemy flank from Banská Štiavnica, not for the purpose of encirclement (no one believed it!), but as a diversion.
Faced with this motley armada, the Heer fields only one real unit: the 545. Volkgrenadier-Division of Otto Obenaus. The rest was made up of battalions of reservists and Slovakian elements of the Hlinka Guard, which were suitable for "maintaining order" - but for nothing else. The People's Grenadier unit is not at full strength: three regiments, it is true (the 1082., 1083. and 1084. Grenadier Rgt), but each one has only two battalions. Moreover, this formation is dispersed over a wide arc from Hontianske Nemce to Detva - this, of course, in order to secure the communication routes. Its organic battalion of Hetzer tank hunters is not even complete: only 17 units. This is because repressive operations in Slovakia were deemed less urgent than the complementing of certain other units, on their way to, say, France. The only good point is the presence in reserve of the 544th Rifle Company, a professional unit added to the 545. VGD for training purposes and, for it, for rest (well, until the uprising...).
.........
The attack starts before sunrise. Around 05:30, the elements of the first wave slip towards the German positions - less than a battalion of the 1083. Grenadier Rgt, which was in charge of the defense of the city. The Slovaco-Bulgarians are quickly spotted, but with significant momentum, and they tear apart the defenders of several trenches and overrun the village of Badin from the west. On the other hand, on the side of Vlkanová (a sector that was significantly more open...), they are stopped by a fairly heavy barrage of automatic weapons that forces them to wait for the artillery.
Informed in his HQ in the castle of Zvolen*****, Otto Obenaus quickly understood what he is dealing with. The Hessian is anything but a fool: he is a particularly competent pioneer who is respected by his superiors - such as Wilhelm Falley, of the 246. ID, who said of him in 1943: "Colonel Obenaus always imposed himself on the command of the troops under his command. His calmness, elegance, and clear will did not fail to impress the regiments he led." It is undeniable that the man knew how to be obeyed and appreciated. However, Hans Jordan, at the late VI. AK, had for his part this appreciation: "Has ensured with great diligence and prudence the command of a regiment of grenadiers. As the operations were reduced to static trench warfare, his tactical abilities and crisis resistance could not be tested."
Obenaus certainly strengthened a lot - but he may have lacked experience and a sense of adaptation to what he saw as a major attack. He therefore orders to hold on to his two lines at all costs, centered respectively on Badin-Vlkanová and Sielnica-Sliač - with Hron naturally bordering the opposing advance, this was the most logical choice.
At 09:00, his services report intense shelling on Vlkanová, as well as the presence of several motorized elements on the road from Badin to Sielnica. The left of the first line seems to be close to being turned and surrounded. Obenaus then orders the withdrawal of the latter, as well as the sending of the 544th Rifle Company and half a dozen Hetzer to Sielnica to restore the situation. The German retreat is carried out under catastrophic conditions. In fact, Ján Golian launches the second wave in order to push the nail in the coffin on his right while trying to force the fate on the left - with his handful of tanks for example. Badin falls to the stragglers of the 1st Battle Group Kriván, who raises the Czechoslovak flag over the small village hall. In front of them, the Partisans and paratroopers ride on. Even if, on the left, the infantry tramples a little, barely approaching a Vlkanová that the grenadiers have just abandoned.
Nevertheless, the latter has the bad surprise of being caught up in the middle of the field (or almost)*******, by Slovakian armored elements, mounted "Soviet style" by Franco-Slovakian sections, which prove to be particularly aggressive. Stuck by the river Hron, half a battalion is soon in great difficulty... Despite the abundant and effective use of Panzerfaust - which takes out one LT-38 and one LT-40, which makes all the others cautious... - the specter of collapse looms. Isolated elements spontaneously surrender to small groups of Alpine fighters, who do not hesitate to strip them of their weapons and ammunition.
At 10:10, the second wave makes contact with the Sielnica - Sliač line, which had been reinforced on its left by reinforcements sent by Otto Obenaus as well as by the survivors of Badin. At this point, the Axis is (perhaps) in a position to attempt a sickle blow to the east, which could draw down the Slovak point between Sliač and the Hron, and then annihilate it. However, the 545. VGD is not a classic infantry division: they are People's Grenadiers, a troop specially trained (and even designed!) to defend. It lacks the skill and means to attack, and so can only give up an initiative, which it could have taken back for a (perhaps) devastating result. Especially since the Slovak infantry, tired of these 6 kilometers swallowed early in the morning, progresses heavily behind the tanks, offering nice targets during its approach in the plain.
During a good half-hour, we witness then curious duels, between an assortment of various machines dating from at least four or five years and Hetzer of 1944 (themselves on LT-38 chassis!), whose Pak 39 75 mm/L48 gun do not leave any chance to the hit opponents. On the other hand, the lateral armor of these machines (barely 20 mm!) also proves to be very vulnerable... No wonder: ideally, the Hetzer - an armored defense vehicle par excellence - should face all threats head-on and quietly align its targets from a prepared position. But here, outnumbered, with little or no infantry support, and subjected to a barrage of small arms fire (including strafing by marauding La-5s!) that forced its crew to batten down the hatches, it proves to be a bit clumsy, vulnerable to envelopment... and moreover completely blind on its right side, due to the eccentric position of its gun! Defects that the Slovaks notice quickly enough: at the cost of five of theirs (including two Marder and a Panzer III), they destroy two Hetzer and put a third out of combat. The other tanks then reach the outskirts of Sielnica, which they undertake to bypass by the right, leaving to what remains of the first wave the task of reducing the redoubt...
At midday, the 545. VGD must find that its position has been irreparably broken through. There is a fight in Kováčová (where the 544th Rifle Company withdrew) and for the crossing of the Hron River in Tepličky - that is, for the city gates. Which is only ever held by marching battalions and collaborators in full doubt. No reinforcements are available - the other regiments are either too far away or kept busy by enemy action from Banská Štiavnica. As for Hermann Höfle, he has not yet returned from Germany. Worse - large columns of infantry are reported on the horizon, obviously coming for the kill. It is the third wave, sent by Golian to complete the seizure of the first line (and also to recover as many weapons as possible!). His fighting skills are limited, but Obenaus doesn't know that. So, before it is too late, he orders the retreat. His left wing, cut off from the rest, runs towards Hronská Breznica in order to hold the road to Žiar nad Hronom, while his right wing crosses the Slatina to continue to threaten Zvolen from the south - a town with no intrinsic value: Obenaus does not see any point in holding on to it. The German division is not routed - it has simply lost half of one of its regiments, and it had withdrawn at the right moment from an unfavorable position in a fight that was not going well, in order to better recover on stronger lines, while waiting to see.
On the other side, the Slovaks are exultant, of course. We understand them. And while the head of the 1st Battle Group enters Zvolen to seize all the official buildings as well as the castle under the acclamations of a part of the inhabitants, Ján Golian already has to do his accounts. His army won, it is true... but the enemy is far from being pushed back to Dobrá Niva and Stožok as hoped, it is still ten kilometers short! So we have to start again as soon as possible, and especially before the opponent gets back on track. The night will be long, between rallying, re-equipping and reforming, not to mention the repair of some of the tanks left on the ground.
In this context, the arrival at the Rohozná airfield of General Rudolf Viest and Minister František Němec, both from London, obviously do not receive as enthusiastic a welcome as anticipated. The National Council is very busy, we will discuss tomorrow at noon at best, not before!

Crushed Hungary
Back to zero
Budapest - At what is nevertheless only one of its first meetings, the Hungarian Committee for the National Liberation Uprising (Magyar Nemzeti Felkelés Felszabadító Bizottsága) is arrested on denunciation by the Royal Gendarmerie. All its members are incarcerated in Sopronkőhída (Sopron) prison, before their trial by the special Arrow Cross court, the Nemzeti Számonkérő Szék (the National Audit Council). Most of them were later sentenced to death and executed at the end of June, before the arrival of the Allied troops...
Thus ends the very short history of the only Hungarian Resistance organization - from now on, the Arrow Crosses have no political opponents in the country, even underground.

* In 1944, many of these Zipsers had already emigrated to the lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially during the First World War. The following year, the survivors were cordially invited to join Germany with their suitcases.
** Where one will discover in 1973 the small cave of Munticelu, appreciated by the speleologists, as well as several via-ferrata (course of obstacles on cliff along a life line) for climbers...
*** Massifs whose limestone is nowadays exploited by a quarry.
****Jauer is a Prussian from the Lebus region - the great plain in the north of Silesia.
***** Mainly students of the Faculty of Brastislava, who had decided to follow their courses in Slovakia rather than in Berlin following the events of the summer of 1943 (even May 1942 for some!). Naturally integrated into the local Bulgarian community - which included many agricultural workers working around the capital - the impossibility of returning home as well as the enthusiasm of youth did the rest.
****** Built in the 14th century by Louis I of Hungary and extensively renovated over the centuries.
******* At least on open ground: today the Letisko Sliač airport is located there.

 

[Wings]

May 24th, 1944

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathians
3rd Ukrainian Front - Relatively calm situation on the new and important positions conquered by the Red Army: Dukla Pass and Czeremcha Pass. The 61st Army and the 1st Shock Army are absolutely unable to act today! Officially, it is the consequence of the weather conditions and the difficulties of provisioning... In fact, the explanation can be rather sought on the side of the 15 000 dead, wounded and missing that these two armies lost in 24 days of operations: 625 per day, a score worthy of the greatest hours of the conflict! It will therefore take at least a few days before claiming to move forward again towards Prešov - the probable next stage of this long, painful and very bloody journey. Time for Marshal Konev to send some reinforcements!
Not that the German opponent is in much better shape, mind you... The IX. AK of Heinrich Clößner has only 12 000 men in line for three divisions. Not even the equivalent of a division, out of the three of early May! But those who remain are the best, the most motivated... and the most eager to avenge their comrades, so that they did not fall in vain. But it is true that on the Soviet side, the selection also played, and the desire of revenge is certainly not less.

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - Today, after almost ten days of bad weather, the sky is finally clearing a little over the eastern Carpathians. It is a pity for the Heer... Even if it is not yet visible everywhere on the front.
In the sector of the Izvor Pass (still under the rain, like all the German right), the 16th Army continues to push with vigor - and, this time, with a concentration of resources. Its leader, Leonty Cheremisov, gave up forcing the Izvoarele Sucevei barrier directly. He considers it preferable to advance due south towards Bobeica, in order to split the KampfGruppe commanded by von Mauchenheim even further. The maneuver is costly, as always... But it succeeds: in the evening, the village is seized and the 257. ID and 5. LFD are forced to manage at least ten kilometers of additional lines, with the addition of a salient pointing to the Cârlibaba Pass. If the latter falls, the entire Bistrița valley would be threatened by a red spike - a spike that could even reach Cârlibaba Nouă and make the position of the entire 2. PanzerArmee (well, what is left of it!) dangerous if not downright untenable. It is therefore necessary to defend this pass at all costs...it too!
Meanwhile, in the valley of Moldova, the XLIX. AK of Rudolf Konrad has just finished positioning itself as a relay of the L. ArmeeKorps of Wilhelm Wegener - this last one does not take long to pack its bags towards Târgu Secuiesc, in the south-east, to go and hold a line that the mechanized divisions will not fail to preserve by straightening the situation in this sector.
This departure certainly weakens the Axis position on its right flank... Thus, Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's 2. PanzerArmee, increasingly thinned out - it represents little more than the equivalent of a large army corps - has to manage a bald flank of HeeresGruppe B alone, for lack of any other available troops. Precisely what had not worked on May 9th, and almost cost him dearly the following days...
Obviously, in these conditions, the 88. ID (Georg von Rittberg) is happy at this time to stake out the red incursion in the valley of the Ezer - it prevents it from advancing further towards Sadova and pushes back - without excess although with determination - its probing in the direction of the southeast. It is that Rudolf Konrad, in XLIX. AK, would like to see a little more clearly before spending men and ammunition! So much for the possibilities of hitting Filipp Zhmachenko's 47th Army - which is still strengthening its right flank, until it now threatens the Paşcanu Pass. In itself, it is doubtful that this will result in anything for the Reds for a long time - on the other hand, it forces the Heer to stretch (and therefore to unclutter) ever more, facing an opponent yet paradoxically quite weak in several places and that a determined counterattack on its left could have (perhaps!) brought back to prudence.
Further east, on the other side of the rainy front, it is another music... Here, the skies are lenient and the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps (Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach) is now undergoing the wrath of the VVS. It is the 17th Air Army (Vladimir Sudets), frustrated by its inaction of these last days... Unless it is the losses recently inflicted by capitalist aviators that put it in a bad mood! The consequences are not long in coming: the debris of the 320.ID (Wilhelm Postel), very imperfectly reinforced by the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Hans Korte), find themselves in great difficulty and have to give way little by little in the ascent of the Bicaz Pass. Without reinforcements to hope for - the mechanized divisions are far away - the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow) and the 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler) reduced to impotence by the bombardments - the two divisions can only hang on and let themselves be incinerated on the spot, raising their fists to the heavens in rage. Up there, Stalin's Falcons are not bothered at all by the Luftwaffe, which is grounded by the bad weather that drowns the fields on its side of the Carpathians. The sector of Bicaz-Chei, then the pass fall - the 38th Army (Kyril Moskalenko) is gradually approaching Lacul Roșu. We are barely four kilometers from the red lake! There the Bolsheviks had been stopped, last time. Yes, but last time there were many more people ready to flank them.
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - The weight of the Soviet air force is also felt in the valley of the Oituz. The 321. ID was already struggling to defend the sector of Hârja in the rain, in conditions deemed unfavorable to the attacker. Under the bombs, it also finds itself in great difficulty, facing the right wing of the 9th Army of Vasily Glagolev - which feels that its time has come, facing this opponent certainly intractable ... but now totally exhausted! Wilhelm Thomas has to concede defeat, after nine days of almost uninterrupted fighting. His division's back is broken - so it withdraws towards Poiana Sărată, to give itself some room and avoid a flanking capture always possible from the Slănic valley, to the north. Four kilometers of retreat upstream... It is still ten kilometers from a pass to which it can hardly hope to delay the enemy, unless unexpected reinforcements!
Same punishment for the trio of misfortune: 50. ID, 339. ID and 228. StuG - which were already fighting in less and less mountainous terrain and have to deal with the air force, which identifies their positions and silences their few batteries still active one after the other. Moreover, the Sturmoviks cost Hauptman Wilhelm von Markowitz a lot of money - it seems that the hunt for the Hetzer is on! These tanks are flushed out and shot like ducks in a row... Losing more and more its coherence, Wolfgang Lange's troop concedes another 5 kilometers, to avoid a dislocation and a complete destruction. Only 8 more before finding themselves in a clear zone...
In Georgheni, Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach - who already asked to evacuate his HQ towards the west, so much he is worried about what is happening on his flank - goes over Lange's head to propose to Hollidt a coordinated withdrawal of his forces and the LIV. AK. The latter could withdraw, for example, to Sfântu Gheorghe, on the line of defense that he has proposed the day before... But the suggestion is violently rejected by the leader of the 17. Armee, who has only one order: to hold! Because the 14. and 20. Panzergrenadier arrive, driving day and night! Seydlitz-Kurzbach wants to believe it... but he doubts more and more that they arrive in time, or even that they are enough to stop the enemy.
In this atmosphere of ever-increasing panic, so much the worse for the others. For example, for the 83. ID (Theodor Scherer), increasingly crushed at Nehoiu by shells and flanking attacks of the 62nd Army (Vladimir Kolpakchi). For the 95. ID of Gustav Gihr, too - barely back in line on the Bratocea Pass and already undergoing the first assaults of the 6th Guards Army. Pavel Belov sees that his opponent has changed in scope! Moreover, the reports of the Polikarpov Po-2s which pass by, strutting over the mountains (while throwing grenades or 50 kg bombs on the most advanced positions!) help him to see it much more clearly. And so much the worse for the 342. ID of Heinrich Nickel, which passes from Poiana to Posada - still with Sinaia in sight, but still without any perspective.
In truth, the entire center of the 17. Armee is cracking.
Further west, on the other hand, complicit showers continue to favor Georg-Hans Reinhardt's troops. Thus, in Rucăr, the 3rd Romanian Army is still trampling in front of the positions of KorpsAbteilung E (Herman Frenking) and the 383. ID (Edmund Hoffmeister). Petre Dumitrescu is also waiting for reinforcements! And since they were promised to him, why rush headlong for nothing?
As for Valerian Frolov's 14th Army, it continues to border the positions of the 225. ID (Ernst Riße) at Căciulata, on the banks of the Olt, and begins to advance towards Dângești, against the 215. ID (Bruno Frankewitz), in more or less good coordination with the 12th Mechanized Corps (Dimitri Ryabyshev). The latter is currently moving up a deserted (though mined) road at Șuici from Bujoreni and Curtea de Argeș.

Oder Offensive
Nothung*
Lvov - In the discretion of a rainy day, Marshal Alexandr Vassilievsky takes the train for Moscow, leaving once again his 1st Ukrainian Front in the care of General Ivan Petrov - but for good this time. Indeed, the breakthrough seems imminent in the Carpathians, which naturally leads to accelerate the preparation of Oder - the spring offensive that should lead the Red Army on the Reich's lands. That is why General Antonov managed to get his former superior reassigned to the STAVKA. There is no shortage of work - but his services can not do everything, and the marshal is a very good Chtabist.
Stalin insisted that Vasilyevsky be allowed to return to staff duties ... Some whisper that it was perhaps the fact of leaving Petrov alone in command of a front that bothered the Vojd. Who knows - finally, as if to give reason to the rumors of a nagging grudge against Stalin, the appointment of Petrov will not be publicized.

Returned state
The day after the party
Insurgent Slovakia - After the capture of Zvolen, the 1st Czechoslovak Army has a bit of a hangover... After having celebrated all night (without much libation, but with enthusiasm!) its victory against the 545. VDG of Otto Obenaus, the insurgent forces notice that they are now stuck in front of an adversary that has already recovered. On the right, the 544th Rifle Company is now holding Hronská Breznica, with part of the 1082. Grenadier Rgt remounted from Hontianske Nemce and the half-dozen still operational Hetzer. In other words, it will be difficult to pass... And in fact, the few probes launched by paratroopers or Partisans through the woods towards Železná Breznica will not give anything here.
To the south and east, the remains of the 1083. Grenadier Rgt and 1084. Grenadier Rgt, reinforced by territorial units considered reliable (they are rare) and the more or less solid elements of the Hlinka Guard (there are even less!) are more spread out, but also well entrenched behind the Slatina barrier. The first attempts of passage on the southern bank of the Slatina thus meet only a very limited success - the fault to the tiredness accumulated the day before, it is true, but also with the lack of means of crossing, with the absence of true air support and especially with a local numerical inferiority. The first and second waves have lost around 750 dead or wounded since the previous day out of 6,000 men engaged, a loss rate approaching 12.5%! In the end, they simply clear a salient to the east, as far as Zvolenská Slatina - following the river that does not need to be crossed - as well as an embryonic bridgehead towards the snowdrifts of the village of Slatinka.
It is not much! Nevertheless, the offensive still seems feasible here - at least as far as Stožok and the wooded areas north of Dobrá Niva, which would partly meet Golian's objectives. However, in order to do so, it is necessary to repair, rally, and reconcentrate... so the conscripts of the third wave are entrusted with holding a good part of the flanks. Among them, the enthusiasm of the day before seems to have given way to a certain anxiety... It is that while crossing the fields of Sliač, the young recruits were able to contemplate the results of the battle of the day before: blackened craters, charred wrecks, shredded corpses, bloody wounds. Of course, the cleanup is underway - in fact, Ján Golian's men managed to get two Hetzers and a small half of their vehicles lost the day before back in working order, bringing them up to 11 tanks. But even for that, it was necessary to get the bodies out of the machines and clean them up.
In addition, elsewhere on the front, skirmishes and flanking attacks increase - Hermann Höfle has returned from the Vaterland yesterday. He did not blame Obenaus: the latter commanded a mediocre troop placed in an inferior position. The result was therefore... logical, and the Waffen-SS is much more willing to transform this very minor setback into a real opportunity - especially now that the best enemy iron is concentrated in the south, far from the other sectors of the reduction! The latter are therefore quickly experiencing an activity as costly as unpleasant for the Slovaks - and it is unfortunately expected that these problems will intensify in the days to come.
In short, it is not a happy time. And for General Rudolf Viest and Minister František Němec, the two exiles who arrived from London via the USSR the day before, this is not a good day to claim to be imposing the decisions of the Edvard Beneš government, which sent them here to take control of the insurgent institutions in the name of legal authority! This is obviously out of the question. If Golian is willing to integrate Viest into his staff, both for his competence and for his political knowledge**, the (no longer really) clandestine Slovak National Council, on the other hand, categorically refuses to allow the Czech Němec to take any responsibility... He even asks to send a delegation to London to discuss the Czech intentions!
It is in this already sticky atmosphere that, supreme misfortune, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimír Přikryl - head of the 2nd Airborne Brigade - jumps on an anti-tank mine laid on a road near Kováčová. He is killed on the spot***. The command immediately falls to Lieutenant-Colonel Jaroslav Vedral-Sázavský, who had arrived by plane at the same time as the envoys from London and is promoted to general for the occasion. At least, he makes himself really useful, in harmony and good understanding...

Operation Bowery - Who tries nothing...
Insurgent Slovakia - Since arriving in liberated territory - the insurgency's heartland - James Gaul and James Holt have learned a lot. First, they realized that their mission to Hungary is probably a dangerous pipe dream: with the fighting going on, crossing into Magyar territory is unlikely, and the Hungarians obviously have no desire to change sides. Then, they discover that the Slovak insurrection - about which one hears little in the United States, who knows why - is fighting, and fighting rather well! As the events in Zvolen show.
Finally (and most importantly, from their point of view...), there are a number of American nationals on Czechoslovak soil: in this case, about fifty airmen, evacuated from the Griňava camp and hastily transferred to Banská Bystrica at the beginning of the uprising. They joined other liberated prisoners: for example, the French of Georges Barazer de Lannurien, a lieutenant who commands a battalion of ex-prisoners and ex-STO (?), wearing beret and white scarf as a uniform...
In short, all this should be put to good use - by organizing the repatriation of the compatriots, first of all. And then by trying to see if the solidarity between United Nations could not give something useful here: the Slovaks seem to be the right horse... unless the memory of the pretty Maria Gulovich influences the judgment of Keszthelyi, and consequently that of his two American guests.

* Name of the broken sword that Siegfried reforges in the first act of the third part of The Ring of Niebelung.
** And then, he is a Slovak, supporter of the union, anti-fascist, notorious Germanophobe... who escaped from the country in 1939 through Romania, thanks to the territorial negotiations following the war with Hungary!
*** He will be buried on the spot by the sappers Antonín Houda and Vítězslav Moravec. They will make an ornament for his grave from a shell casing, engraved with the text: "Lt. Colonel of the 1st Czech Army Vladimír Přikryl. Died on May 24th, 1944 in the fighting for the liberation of Czechoslovakia. Honor to his memory." The object is kept in the military museum in Svidník. In 1945, Vladimír Přikryl, the only Czechoslovak senior officer killed in action, would be promoted in memoriam to the rank of major general.

 

[Wings]

April 25th, 1944

The art of using Slovaks
Dukla-Carpathian
3rd Ukrainian Front - Nothing serious today in this sector of the front - the Germans remain in a strict defensive posture, while the Soviets are content to border on 4 or 5 kilometers the enemy positions facing their new captures. In fact, the future of this Soviet offensive, although supposed to support the Slovak insurgency, seems to be on hold ... Ivan Konev has not yet deigned to respond to requests for reinforcements expressed by his subordinates - well informed of what is brewing in Moscow, he prefers to wait for the results of the important arbitrations to come regarding the campaign of this summer. As far as the Dukla Pass is concerned, he is happy for the moment with insignificant adjustments to the lines.

Hungary, whatever the cost
Cluj-Debrecen
2nd Ukrainian Front - The sky over the Carpathians is clear - enough, at least, to allow the machines bearing the red star to fly at dawn. This is a catastrophe for the German army!
At the Izvor Pass, the 257. ID was more or less completed with "ground staff" wearing blue helmets. Under the rain, Reichard von Mauchenheim could still have some illusions... but before dawn, as if to mark the beginning of a beautiful day (in terms of weather), his troop is attacked very hard on its left, in the direction of the Cârlibaba Pass. However, Leonty Cheremisov is not aiming at this small crossing point at all. No... From Bobeica, he instead undertakes to immediately fall back to the east and Moldova-Sulița. He thus bypasses the road to the Izvor Pass... and with it, the bulk of the German defensive lines! The agglomeration of units that still held towards Izvoarele Sucevei must retreat before being surrounded.
One thus withdraws in the greatest disorder towards Benia, under the bombs and the aerial strafing - the rare surviving machines of 189. StuG are overloaded with wounded or uninjured infantrymen clinging to the slightest projection of the armor. Before noon, Cheremisov can send to Ivan Bagramyan (still in Kamenets-Podilskyï), a most enthusiastic report: the Izvor Pass has fallen, the fascists are routed - already 12 kilometers, until Breaza de Sus, and this is only the beginning. Cheremisov has been here for only six days - so he will not forget to play together and praise the efforts of his predecessor Lukin, at least in form.
In any case, almost the entire 2. PanzerArmee is now in serious danger - exactly as Hans-Jürgen von Arnim has feared. Another twenty kilometers and the Reds could well seize Pozoritta, encircling in the Moldova valley the XLIX. AK of Rudolf Konrad and thus condemning it to destruction at very short notice. Not to mention the always possible overflows to Cârlibaba Nouă! After a most tense conversation with Gotthard Heinrici - who can only agree that the situation is untenable - all that remains of the Heer troops downstream of the Mestecăniș Pass receives the order to flee southwest, to defend this passage, the Bistrița valley and Vatra Dornei.
This retreat, obviously not anticipated (and why not? At the Curmatura Boului Pass and at Prisaca-Dornei, everything is holding up well!), takes place in catastrophic conditions. The first remnants of the defenders of the Izvor Pass are already entangled with the services of the rear and with the German-speaking settlers of Pozoritta - all try to flee in great panic. The XLIX. AK has to wait to pass, as it cannot force its way... and it also has to face the backstabbing of Filipp Zhmachenko's 47th Army, which, obviously informed of what is happening on its right, tries to join the party. Nevertheless, the 94. ID (Georg Pfeiffer) ensures the rear guard... Until, in front, it is announced that the heads of the retreating columns have just collided with the rear of the L. ArmeeKorps (Wilhelm Wegener), still in the process of redeployment since the day before, and unfortunately not more motorized than its colleague!
Thus, a sort of huge traffic jam is gradually formed in the bottleneck between Pozoritta and Valea Putnei, while the German infantry burns the villages and tries to keep the Soviet masses at bay. Then the 17th Air Force intervenes for the kill... All morning and until early afternoon, the waves of Sturmovik machine-gun and bomb the only escape route of the Germans, in defiance of the losses inflicted by the Flak. Only the return of the rain allows to limit the massacre. In front, the L. AK progresses at a forced march, pushed by all those who come behind him - he arrives at Vatra Dornei in the middle of the afternoon, to see that most of the roads have already been ravaged by marauding Tupolev Tu-2s.
Obviously, in this situation, everyone has already forgotten the survivors of the 257. ID and their unfortunate partners of the 5. LFD, condemned to death or capture except for the few lucky ones who have a vehicle and who are able to overtake Pozoritta at the end of the afternoon, before its fall. Among them is Reichard von Mauchenheim, of course. But not Hauptmann Walter Dusche, who fell in his StuG III while trying to repel a column of T-34s...
For the rest of the 17. Armee, things are not much better either. In the Bicaz Pass sector, Wilhelm Postel's 320. ID and the 13. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division of Hans Korte are also holding out - but not with much more success - against the tide of the 38th Army. Kyril Moskalenko gives his orders: advance at all costs, advance, advance, advance! On the way, ask the artillery, tanks or air force to annihilate the slightest bush or rock from which enemy fire starts, then advance again!
So the Germans find themselves in trouble here too. Lacul Roșu, already martyred, soon finds itself back in the line of fire. The retreating infantry there is reinforced, late, by the Nashorn of 560 s. PzJ. Abt (Major Rudolf Markowz) - who had to travel five days of bad road to get here, passing through the Păltiniş Pass... and also losing a number of machines on the way due to mechanical difficulties. The Rhinoceroses allow the Landsers to reform for a while - it must be said that their 88 mm Pak 43 have everything it takes to calm the T-34s that are surging up from the Bicaz valley, no doubt believing the battle had already been won. Unfortunately for the Nashorns, if the skies are willing to cover with their clouds these large tracked pillboxes in this ravaged landscape, they have nothing to defend themselves against the infantry. As a result, the 560. schw PzJ Abt finds itself like everyone else, having to retreat slowly but steadily, without ceasing to face the enemy... In the evening, the red lake has almost already fallen.
The situation of the XLVIII. ArmeeKorps continues to deteriorate. Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach - who had already taken it upon himself to urgently withdraw the 328. ID (Joachim von Tresckow) towards the Tulghes Pass (since everything is lost around him!) is now very worried about the 306. ID (Karl-Erik Köhler), abandoned to its fate in front of the 59th Army in the Trotus Gorge. So he asks his commander for the hundredth time for permission to evacuate his troop on a Toplița-Bucin Pass-Miercurea Ciuc line leaning on the Gurghiu Mountains. But Karl-Adolf Hollidt still fails, at this time, to admit the seriousness of the situation - especially with everything that is happening further south, on the side of LIV. ArmeeKorps (Wolfgang Lange). Once again, he is happy to order the acceleration of the redeployments in progress, clinging to the wild hope that the 20. PzGr and then the 14. PzGr will allow him to stabilize his center, then his left, by going up from Târgu Secuiesc towards Gheorgheni... a bit like last autumn, when reserves falling from the north had reversed the course of the battle.
Yes, but this time what reserves, in addition to the two mechanized divisions? And what support for von Seydlitz-Kurzbach in the meantime? For lack of anything better, the chief of the 17. Armee must rely... on the Hungarians, and more particularly on the planes of the 103 vadászrepülő-ezred József, whose liaison officer sent to HG B - Colonel Sándor Makray - guarantees efficiency and competence. It is better. Otherwise, tomorrow, it is indeed their country that may be invaded by the red leprosy!
.........
4th Ukrainian Front - The 321. ID of Wilhelm Thomas continues to lose ground in the Oituz valley. Ruthlessly pinned down and strafed in its bottleneck, it passes from Poiana Sărată to the mouth of the Oituz, just a couple of kilometers south, taking advantage of the return of the showers as well as the fact that the 9th Army has to reorganize well before pretending to advance. In this wooded sector (once again), where the open ground does not exceed ten meters, it should be possible to hold on for a day or two, by means of ambushes and hand-to-hand combat... At least the woods will limit the air force strikes*.
However, the most serious problem for the Heer is undoubtedly the situation of the right wing and the center of the LIV. ArmeeKorps - the road to the Tulnici Pass, where Wolfgang Lange's position is held together with only bits of string (or flesh, as the case may be). The 9th Army logically continues to push for the kill - Vasily Glagolev is going to have his glory of breaking through first in Transylvania! - and the Heer loses several more kilometers until the foot of the hills... and until the 20. PanzerGrenadier of George Jauer appears from the west, at nightfall.
The arrival of this armored force, quite numerous, relatively fresh and whose endowment is partly composed of Beutepanzer causes trouble in the Soviet ranks. In extremis, it manages to stabilize the situation at the beginning of the climb east of Ojdula, where the StuG IIIs, the Hetzers and the prize T-34s form a vast ambush, aligning the Soviet vehicles that advanced in columns. Behind them, the mechanized infantry collects their unlucky comrades. The defense of Lange lived - but it is no longer necessary for the moment. However, this narrow respite does not reassure the neighbor, Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, to whom the problems now seem to be shifting...
Elsewhere along the lines of the 17. Armee, the butchery continues. In Nehoiu, the 83. ID of Theodor Scherer - who senses well the feverishness of his superiors - begins on its own initiative to shift a handful of kilometers north, to Lunca Priporului, further up the Buzău. Thus, he will ward off the attempt to take the flank by the 62nd Army, complicate the life of the Bolshevik Vladimir Kolpakchy, continue to defend the pass, limit his own losses ... and also get closer to the exit, for all practical purposes.
And even if, on the Bratocea Pass, nothing moves - if not the number of losses of the 95. ID of Gustav Gihr, the 342. ID of Heinrich Nickel goes up the valley of the Prahova de Posada to the gorges leading to Sinaia (a little north of the Cascada Posada). As usual, a difficult terrain, where we have good hopes of... slowing down the enemy.
There remains the case of the 11. Armee, still ostensibly less in difficulty than its sister unit, the 17. Armee. Opposite, in front of the Bran Gap, the 3rd Romanian Army receives its much-heralded reinforcement today: the 4th Romanian Army of Gheorghe Avramescu. This one has limited manpower, but its training (although it is still to be perfected) and its equipment are Soviet. It will go for the time being to position itself on the flank, in the sector of Valea lui Andreiaş**. Meanwhile, the 4th Army Corps of Dumitru Dămăceanu begins to try to soften the Teutonic defenses, at Rucăr.
Finally, east of the Olt Valley (still defended by the 215. ID), Valerian Frolov's 14th Army arrives opposite Sălătrucu and Poiana. Thus, it can now claim the support of the 12th Mechanized Corps (Dmitry Ryabyshev), coming from the southeast. This maneuver is objectively very dangerous for the XXX. ArmeeKorps of Philipp Kleffel, which is threatened to be bypassed in moderately difficult terrain until Câineni... Georg-Hans Reinhardt is well aware of this. In response, he orders the 12. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division (Herbert Kettner) to deport from Brezoi to Băiașu, all the way to Sălătrucu, in support of 225.ID. Most importantly, he ordered Helmutt von der Chevallerie's 13. Panzer (still held on a leash towards Sibiu) to move down towards Tălmaciu, ready to charge along the Olt in case of a blow...

The shadow of a doubt
Târgu Secuiesc - Gustav Fehn arrives in the LIV. AK at the sound of the cannon - literally. Indeed, from the early morning, he noticed with his eyes the ongoing collapse of Wolfang Lange's device, which is very close to being pierced to the plain. All day long, the general tries to put his hand to the grindstone and to assist with his expertise the local leaders who are visibly overwhelmed and lacking in means (at least!). In the evening, the arrival of the 20. PanzerGrenadier allows everyone to breathe...
Fehn takes advantage of this to rush to the communications room and send a heartfelt report: to Hollidt (in Târgu Mureș), first of all, of course and for form's sake. But above all to Kluge (in Székesfehérvár) and to Gotthard Heinrici (in Cluj-Napoca). For it is obvious that in the rear, one is not entirely aware of what is really happening here, on the frontline...

Proletarians aviators of all countries, unite!
Raoub
Rzeszow - "The colonel called us together. He announces that he will return to Moscow to settle some urgent matters. To save time, he will hitchhike to Lublin. From there he will take the train. According to serious information, Minister Tillon, and even General De Gaulle himself, would be in Moscow soon. Major De Pange will replace Valin at the head of the regiment, Albert having declined because he considered himself too busy. We were told that we were going to change the terrain. This attracts a disillusioned reflection: "The Franche-Comté, I tell you, it's a real moving company!"
More interesting: we're going to receive some pre-production MiG 11s, this new plane is to replace our MiG 9s in a month! And I'm going to get a cab all to myself. I won't have to be a beggar anymore. That's what's good!"
(Captain François de Geoffre, Escadre Franche-Comté/Vistule, Charles Corlet ed. 1952, reed. J'ai Lu, 1996)

Returned state
The day after the party
Insurgent Slovakia - In the end, the insurgency did not cross the Slatina River to continue towards Stožok or Dobrá Niva. Faced with the new tactics of his adversary, Ján Golian decides to suspend his offensive plans in order to send his best troops (including the paratroopers of the 2nd Brigade) to defend the critical sectors - the road to the Bartoška spring in particular - or better still, if possible, to keep them as a reserve to be deployed in case of a hard blow. The clashes inflicted by the Nazis were costly - there is no point in sacrificing the best steel of one's army in order to respect a plan that is already out of date.
The positions south of the river are thus evacuated and the 545. VGD recovers without a fight these few positions around the Slatina - which now forms the demarcation line between free and occupied territory. As a result, the 4th Battle Group Moray (Colonel Mikuláš Markus) and the French battalion, renamed Maréchal Foch, inherit the defense of this new southern front, along with a mass of conscripts who were not necessarily well trained or well armed, but who nevertheless have to be managed.
Meanwhile, in the rear, the dissensions continue. František Němec, who still claims to represent the legal authority in London in the face of "a temporary regional representation" wishes to organize the gradual transfer of the powers of the clandestine Slovak National Council to his own services... yet to be created. A claim that all Slovaks unanimously reject as "outdated" - in fact, for the National Council, Němec is an emissary, no more. Therefore, the matter can only be settled at a next meeting to be organized, undoubtedly in the premises of the exiles.

Occupied Slovakia - At the same time, in the Ostré sector of the Low Tatra foothills (where the now-defunct KG Schäffer had failed against the 6th Battle Group Zobor of Lt. Col. Černek), the population unaware enough to have stayed behind sees two units arrive that are all too familiar in other regions: the SS-Osttürkisher-Freiwilligen Kavalerie-Brigade of Standartenführer Arved Theuermann and the SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger of Oskar Dirlewanger. Two bands of murderers whose reputation is unfortunately well established, although they seem to have lost some of their bite lately - one because of Herr Billig's stupidly obtuse attitude, the other because of the bloodletting inflicted on it by Polish paratroopers in the Pilica swamps.
Alas, if the dregs of the Waffen-SS have undoubtedly lost power since Warsaw, they are still strong enough for the Slovak insurgents. And the two units do not fail to apply their predatory tactics - at the expense of the civilian population and then of insurgents who are not very professional... or in any case quite helpless in the face of such adversaries.


* It is in these woods that the fifteen sources of the Brezaia stream, a tributary of the Oituz, are located.
** A tributary of the Râușor, which itself flows into the Dâmbovița.