Recaps

Germany’s surprise air strikes and advancing armies shattered Buru’s defenses, while Joseph rejected retreat and ordered new fronts and a winter reorganization. The arc leaves Buru seeking American aid as Molotov prepares to meet Roosevelt.

• German aircraft destroyed more than thirty Buru airfields and over two thousand aircraft, prompting Joseph to order Novikov and Golovanov to prevent further attacks and accelerate aircraft development.
• German artillery, aircraft, and armored forces broke through Buru’s western defenses, defeating Russian tank corps and driving toward Smolensk, Vitebsk, and Ulyanovsk.
• Voroshilov and Shaposhnikov urged Joseph to withdraw and preserve the army, but Joseph ordered the troops to hold their positions and sent reinforcements to the threatened Southern Front Army.
• German and Ukrainian forces encircled and destroyed the Southern Front Army, while Budyonny committed suicide and Zaporozhets surrendered.
• Joseph approved plans to rebuild and enlarge the Western, Southwestern, and Northwestern Fronts over winter, appointed Voroshilov to command the Western Front, and set a spring counterattack as their goal.
• Joseph ordered Kozlov to form the Caucasian Front Army and march toward the Persian Gulf to threaten Germany’s oil supplies.
• Joseph sent Molotov to the United States to seek military aid, and Roosevelt and General George Marshall discussed Buru’s defeats and the need for allied forces to make Germany disperse its troops.

As the United States prepared to aid Buru and pressured the Island Nation to attack Germany, German forces captured Smolensk and Ulyanovsk and turned the war against Russia. The Island Nation explored aligning with Germany, but Germany rejected its demands, leaving Konoe leaning toward the United States and Joseph preparing for a threat in the Far East.

• Roosevelt ordered efforts to obtain Buru’s artillery technology and develop heavy tanks and aircraft, while Molotov secured American supplies and a promise that the United States would enter the war before the first half of 1941.
• Guderian ordered the assault on Smolensk, where German and allied forces battered the Russian defenders until Timoshenko, Korobkov, and Golubev arranged their surrender and formed a Russian Liberation Army.
• Joseph condemned Timoshenko’s surrender and ordered the families of the rebel generals executed, while Kuznetsov urged his besieged Northwestern Front Army to resist in Ulyanovsk.
• German forces captured Ulyanovsk and killed Kuznetsov, then shifted to defensive operations as Qin Tian ordered winter preparations and held a ceremony promoting senior commanders to marshals.
• Konoe’s cabinet debated whether to attack German-held territories or join Germany, and Konoe sent an envoy to ask Stresemann for resources and control of the South Seas and Australia.
• Oscar rejected the Island Nation’s territorial demands and ordered German forces in the South Seas and Far East to prepare for war, while Stresemann proposed using leaked talks to turn the Island Nation and the United States against each other.
• After Germany offered captured Buru territory instead of the South Seas and Australia, Konoe leaned toward cooperating with the United States, while Joseph ordered a new Far Eastern Front Army and asked the United States to warn the Island Nation.

Buru’s drive toward the Persian Gulf oil fields ended in the destruction of its Caucasian Front Army and the loss of Baku’s oil facilities. As the United States worried about Buru’s prospects and its own naval strength, Germany prepared to challenge the Bolshevik Navy and expand its carrier fleet.

• Roosevelt pressured the Island Nation to promise an attack on the South Seas and Australia, restoring US trade while Joseph warned Buru to remain wary of it.
• Joseph ordered the Caucasian Front Army to seize the Persian Gulf oil fields, and Russian forces swept through Turkish and Iranian defenses toward Iraq.
• Germany deployed Army Group E and the 7th Air Fleet to the Middle East, while the depleted Russian advance continued toward Baghdad under Joseph’s no-retreat order.
• Rundstedt’s German forces encircled and destroyed the Russian 47th and 51st Army Corps, while Turkish forces defeated other Russian corps and advanced into Georgia and Armenia.
• Joseph ordered Baku reinforced and its oil workers and equipment evacuated, and Russian troops destroyed the oil facilities as Turkish forces approached.
• Germany halted its advance for winter, while Joseph claimed victory and American officials feared Buru could fall before US aid arrived.
• Roosevelt’s advisers planned stronger battleships and hoped the Island Nation’s promised attack would draw German fleets east, while Stark proposed an American campaign against the Azores.
• Raeder and Lütjens urged action against the Bolshevik Navy, and Oscar approved their operation while discussing Germany’s expanding carrier construction.

Germany destroyed the Bolshevik Navy, then repelled Joseph’s costly winter counteroffensive with Polish and Belarusian forces. Joseph ended the offensive, shifted Zhukov to the Reserve Front Army, and prepared Buru for Germany’s expected attack as German confidence grew.

• Marshal Lütjens led the German fleet to Murmansk, where its aircraft destroyed the naval base and its battleships later sank Admiral Isakov’s fleet, leaving only a few Russian ships to escape.
• Joseph ordered Voroshilov to launch a winter counteroffensive, and Zhukov assembled twelve army corps to attack German and allied positions near Velikiye Luki.
• Guderian learned of the Russian buildup and strengthened the Polish, Belarusian, and German defenses ahead of the assault.
• Zhukov’s forces attacked on December 25, but Polish and Belarusian troops, German aircraft, and the bitter cold inflicted heavy losses on the Russians.
• Zhukov ordered a night assault, but mines and prepared defenses exposed the attack, and the Russians failed to break through before daylight.
• Zhukov continued the offensive despite Konev’s warnings, but after five days the Russians had suffered more than three hundred thousand casualties with little damage to German forces.
• Zhukov told Joseph that the counterattack had been launched too hastily, and Joseph halted the Winter Offensive and ordered Buru to train and prepare for a defensive war.
• Joseph transferred Zhukov to command the Reserve Front Army, while Germans celebrated the defeat of the Russian offensive and expected Germany might defeat Russia in 1940.