The Thousand Year Reich : Chapter 19, The Invasion of America

The Kriegsmarine yet again beats back the desperate attempts from the USN to resist Germany.

The redrawn plan for Operation Bismarck is a much smaller and concentrated attack. The key is seizing vital ports and cities to secure the infrastructure to support the invasion force and future reinforcements. For this task the coast from Norfolk to Boston is to be secured.

The initial landing quickly overwhelms the defenders in Norfolk and captures much of the infrastructure and port facilities intact. The invasion starts well.

The SH Panzer Division ‘Berater’ is quickly sent in along with Panzer Korps ‘Hermann Göring’. Their task is to secure the city in a quick assault. We are still unsure if it can be done but the landings zones must be secured.

The American navy pulls out one more time and is devastated in the battle of Delaware Bay.

The attack is clearly failing and focus is shifting to surround the city.

The Americans have clearly not prepared for our invasion! They are dying in their thousands and giving up major cities, the superiority of the German soldier is showing yet again.

Large dumps of supply are found alongside with huge port facilities. The Führer is shocked that the Abwehr did not know about these while our soldiers claim they “appeared out of thin air”. Goebbels is quick to say that god is supporting the Aryan invasion against Jewry. The Advisor continues to cite the by now much feared “game mechanics”.

The first sign that everything was not going well came at the battle of New York. As our troops entered the city civilians started opening fire from windows, parks and wherever else they could hide. Armed with the millions of M1 Garand rifles built by the US the population is proving tough to beat. 80.000 Germans died in the battle before we pulled out. American casualties are higher but unknown.

With more divisions supporting the attack D.C is starting to waver. The city was guarded by a large multi-national force including Poles, French, Haitians and Filipinos.

They were unable to prevent the Super Heavy Tanks from fighting their way to the evacuated White House. A final stand was held by an American infantry division and the building was left a burning husk. For the second and last time the White House burns, never to be rebuilt.

Our lines are nearly linked up but counterattacks on Philadelphia are keeping us divided.

The battle for Delaware Bay continues as more American ships are sent to the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile in New York the armed civilians attempt to breach out from New York into Bridgeport. Keppler and the Das Reich division now have to repel the horde of Americans. The comparisons to the battle in the east are clear, divisions coming out of nowhere and claiming German lives in the thousands.

Slowly American counterattacks are breaking our lines all over the front, the constant pressure is killing our troops faster than we can reinforce.

Yet with heavy loss of life the SS surround New York and all the soldiers within it. And so the work of rooting out the defenders can begin. The Fortress Buster Korps is being rushed to the city to aid Bock in breaking the defenders.

Meanwhile small attacks are undertaken to create a defensible line over the frontier. Losses are however high on both sides.

A huge wave of American divisions is hitting the southern part of our line and the path to D.C is only being held by a single division. Reinforcements are needed urgently!

Model arrives at New York and begins the task of clearing out the rabid wretches. These civilian soldiers will learn what we do to soldiers without uniform soon enough.

The Americans are closing in on D.C.

And reinforcements are finally on their way, Panzer Armee Manstein is now what everyone is pinning their hopes on. Manstein will save us is all the Heer divisions trapped between the American hordes talk about.

After a long battle New York is won. Not much remains of the bombed and burnt city. Men are dragged out of holes wherever they are found. If a rifle is found nearby they are shot on the spot, if they are young men they are often shot on the spot. Hundreds of thousands die in the orgy of violence that followed the second battle of New York. The battle itself claimed 70.000 German lives, American losses are unaccounted for.

Yet even with the capture of New York it is clear that the situation is most dire. German losses are skyrocketing beyond what even battles in Russia claimed. The two large holes in the line threaten both D.C and the link between Philadelphia and New York and with it the entire invasion.

Fighting in America is proving a whole different kind of warfare. Most divisions are currently sitting between 80-40% strength. Unable to reinforce during the heavy fighting, replacements are rare.

More of the civilian divisions are racing at our troops. Led by whoever seems most capable they seem more like hordes than a military force. Yet backed up by American artillery and anti-tank guns they are a capable force. The enormous stockpile of American arms is being put to good use.

Supply is another issue as ports and roads are slowly cleared of the debris. Civilians are forced to aid in the task yet some, primarily the German Americans seeing the way the wind is blowing being to collaborate. The German American minority will be played up to divide American society. German heritage puts one far above the lesser Americans.

Finally as supply begins to catch up the Luftwaffe is deployed in force from Bermuda to Boston.

Yet they cannot prevent the horrendous losses inflicted on the ground.

The SS Division Nordland, primarily Scandinavians fight on to the bitter end outside of Boston. Men recovering in hospitals are reformed and reinforcements are being sent to the division. A force of 17150 down to 516, fighting in America is a whole new beast.

Retreat, retreat and more retreat.

Yet sometimes we hold.

And the SS even manages to force the Americans back from north of Newark.

Marines, Fallschirmjäger and Panzer divisions alike stand ready to hold the southern flank. Out in the open plains they dig trenches to prepare to fight to hold the invasion together.

The Berater division is rushed to D.C while the Fallschirmjäger Panzergrenadier Division tries to pull back from the pocket closing around them, beset on all sides by American troops.

Battered down to nothing the SS pulls back in the north.

And in Harrisonburg Walther and his division prepare for their final fate. One of the best equipped divisions in the entire Heer their loss will be felt in the defense of D.C.

The first German division to surrender since Russia, they fight to the last bullet yet 12.000 are taken prisoner. Göring is outraged and the Advisor is desperate to secure D.C and the entire line. Collapse is imminent.

Yet on the 24. Of July it happens, Manstein arrives. In an instant the situation shifts the morale of the troops peak back up as Manstein delivers a speech to all forces of the Heeresgruppe Amerika.

“Soldiers of Army Group America, the situation is desperate, losses are high, the enemy outnumbers us 7-1 and as such the time for great deeds are at hand. Case Blue is hailed as the greatest German battle ever fought, yet a year from now all they will remember is the great deeds of Operation Bismarck and the heroes who fought there. Make sure you have stories to tell for your grandchildren my soldiers!”

The calm of a Prussian officer is shown as Manstein gets caught up fully on the situation. The fighting spirit of the SS cannot make up for experience, knowledge and Prussian discipline.

The reinforcements are divided between D.C and New London.

Outside of Boston the SS are forced back yet again. Fear not for Manstein will save you all!

In Petersburg the heroic marines and the Fallschirm Panzer Divison repel an enormous American assault. Heaps of bodies, some uniformed some not lie in hills in front of the trenches of the German Marines.

Manstien begins his counteroffensive and begins work on securing the line between New York and Philadelphia.

The Americans meanwhile reclaim Hawaii for the 4th time from the Japanese. Our diplomats in Japan inform us that Hirohito has demanded their immediate recapture.

The ruins of a city with a ruined population, German Americans will rebuild the city in a whole new light. New Germania will be the greatest city in America.

Manstein has made it clear that with his current forces the important task is not a great pocket but rather securing a line that can be defended. We must get out of the plains and into the woods and mountains.

The Frewilligen Armee Europa is next up in the reinforcement wave.

Hohenstaufen is shattered trying to defend Boston.

The ruins of a city never to return.

Another nuclear bomb is ready, a target is being selected and planes allocated for the task. The Americans are sure to try to intercept any lone plane they spot by now. If we have to kill every single American we will do so with pleasure.

Truman announces to the cheers of Americans across the country that Boston has been retaken from the “vile Nazis”. Yet all across the front Manstein is winning, and winning big.

The favorable terrain is being secured which will free up divisions for counter offensives.

Yet Hitler cannot be pleased and he goes on a long rant about how Mansteins lacking spirit will lead to the downfall of the invasion. He orders an immediate attack all across the front. Safe to say the order is ignored, in a few days he will have calmed down and the Advisor can convince him that he was right again.

We may win but our losses are heavy. Hundreds of thousands of dead Germans litter the East Coast.

The Frewilligen Armee Europa, completely made out of volunteers from all over Europe arrive to do their part in the crusade against American Jewry.

Veterans from Barbarossa join the fray.

They are needed to replace the battered SS formations in the north.

At 59% strength Nordland has more troops than most SS divisions and is sent back to the front.

The Luftwaffe is also taking heavy damage in the fighting over America. Yet they fight on however tired or battered their planes. They do everything they can to make it easier for the man on the ground and take pride in it.

The heavily equipped Freiwilligen Korps Frankreich and the Skandianvien Korps arrive to help secure the solid defense line in the mountains. D.C must be safeguarded at all cost.

Supply floods into the ports in America yet the roads cannot carry the supply out fast enough. The heavy fighting that took place here continues to claim German lives for every bullet not delivered to the front.

The volunteers prove their worth in securing Gettysburg with low loss of life.

Not even the veteran panzer divisions are safe from the battles on the front. Thousands of Germans die every day.

Yet the push towards Boston has opened up a breach in American lines which Manstein is quick to exploit. The first trap begins to close on the Americans. As the 39. Panzer Korps rushes into the opening.

The SS, primarily Scandinavians hold onto Gettysburg in a heroic battle as they crush the American assault. The legendary battle from the American civil war will now he tainted by our victory.

Manstein makes his first trap.

The Assault on Boston begins; we will take the city back from the civilian divisions.

Finally Jet bombers are prepared and take off for Chicago, the third target for the Wunderwaffe.

Million dead, yet the struggle goes on.

We have dented the previously fanatical spirit of the Americans. Yet we have a long way to go before the Americans will be subdued.

Boston is retaken in a relatively low cost battle. The Freiwilligen Armee is proving itself in the battles all over the front, European spirit trumps all!

Yet the cost for holding the trap closed is felt by the panzer divisions at the tip of the spearhead. Brutal battles claim even more lives.

With the pockets in the north dealt with the front has started to stabilize. The heroic defense in the south by the Marines and Fallschirmjäger have freed up reserves for the center of the line. We will strike out and trap the American troops. We will divide and conquer the American and Canadian troops.

In the Carribean revolts and American troops start freeing various Islands. No reserves are available for the task of dealing with them. Manstein gives a simple line in response “We’ll be back.”

The mauling of our troops has begun to show in the lack of officers and NCO’s for our troops. Replacement programs begin immediately back in Germany and troops stationed in Russia are stripped of their officers and sent to America.

The two Fallschirmjäger divisions dropped in Hamilton are all but doomed. Their task is simple, buy time and hold no matter the cost.

And fight they do, against hundreds of thousands of American troops trying to save their comrades now trapped between the “Green devils” and the rapidly approaching panzer formations. Hold on Fallschirmjäger!

On the 26th of September the 1. Luftlande division surrenders having taken a brutal 67% casualty rate. The remaining troops surrender without food or ammonution and carry their wounded comrades to the enemy’s line in desperation. The 2. Luftlande division now stands alone.

But a mere day later they face the same fate. The 37.000 lost troops will not have given their lives in vain however. The Americans troops are in complete disarray.

More SS troops arrive to shore up the line. The tide is starting to turn.

Manstein’s great miracle has achieved a miraculous turnaround on the American front. The center of the American line has been demolished and as such Operation Herbsterwachen (Autumn Awakening) is set to launch a soon as possible, before the first snows hit. The goal is again defensible terrain for the future resting period expected during the winter.

Yet the Abwehr gives dangerous news, a new recruitment program has called up all able to serve, ages 16-50 to the front. Armed with whatever is at hand and filled with the American spirit another wave of Yankees approach our weak and battered line. Will the German spirit prevail? Or will the American dream continue on?