Recaps

Germany destroyed the Japanese armies attacking Borneo, forcing the Southern Army to reorganize and withdraw while Japan occupied the island. Oscar then approved a massive campaign against Buru, and the German air offensive began as Russian forces scrambled to respond.

• Wilhelm Adam ordered German armored divisions to pursue the retreating 18th Area Army, which was annihilated except for a few thousand soldiers who escaped through the Crocker Range.
• Hitoshi Anami sent four Japanese armies to Borneo, while William Adam drew the 14th and 7th Area Armies toward Brunei City and prepared a German counterattack.
• Masaharu Honma and Seiichi Tanaka attacked Brunei City, but German artillery, warships, aircraft, tanks, and mechanized divisions inflicted heavy losses and routed their forces.
• Honma died by suicide after the defeat, Anami resigned, and Terauchi Juichi took command as Japan approved major reinforcements for the Southern Army.
• William Adam withdrew the German 23rd Army Corps from Borneo, and Japanese forces occupied Borneo and the Dutch East Indies.
• Oscar approved Manstein’s plan for Army Groups A, B, and C to attack Moscow and Army Groups D and E to attack Yuzefgrad, with thousands of aircraft supporting the offensive.
• Joseph ordered Russian forces to defend Moscow and Yuzefgrad, while Germany concentrated troops and supplies for its attack on Buru.
• On April 15, Kesselring launched the German air operation, Russian radar detected the aircraft, and German fighters moved to engage Russian planes as they scrambled.

German forces gained air superiority and drove the Russian fronts into retreat, then used a feint toward Moscow to encircle the Western and Northwestern Fronts. With Moscow unable to send enough troops to rescue them, Joseph ordered both fronts to break out on their own.

• German FW-190s overwhelmed Russian fighters, and German bombers destroyed frontline airfields, prompting Joseph to dismiss Novikov and Gromov and appoint new Air Force leaders.
• On April 16, German Army Groups began their offensive, broke through Russian defenses, and defeated the 3rd and 4th Tank Army Corps with heavy tank losses.
• German and allied vassal-state forces encircled Russian troops across several fronts, while Joseph ordered the trapped forces to break out or fight to the death.
• As German forces advanced, Joseph blockaded Moscow, ordered civilians to build defenses, and appointed Zhukov to command the city’s garrison and reserve forces.
• Oscar approved Manstein’s Right Hook Plan, and Army Groups A, B, and C launched simultaneous offensives on April 25, with Army Group C feigning an advance toward Moscow.
• Army Group C nearly destroyed the Southwestern Front and approached Moscow, then turned north as German forces encircled the Western Front and pressured the Northwestern Front.
• Joseph and his commanders realized the German advance on Moscow had been a feint, but Zhukov warned that an attempt to rescue both fronts could leave the capital exposed.
• Joseph ordered the Western Front and Northwestern Front to break out with all their strength.

German forces destroyed the Russian armies defending the southern approaches, then encircled and bombed Moscow before launching a ground assault. As urban fighting began, Guderian prepared to bring puppet-state troops into the city.

• Voroshilov and Kilponos ordered their armies to break through German lines, but the Northwestern Front Army was destroyed and only a little over two hundred thousand Western Front Army soldiers escaped to Moscow.
• Joseph refused to leave Moscow and ordered Voroshilov to mobilize residents as German forces completed their encirclement, leaving the eastern route open to draw Russian reinforcements into the city.
• German Army Groups D and E defeated the Russian Southern and Caucasian Front Armies, then surrounded Yuzefgrad while leaving the Volga supply route open.
• Roosevelt decided the United States had to enter the war, ordered preparations for an attack on Germany within a month, and approved a surprise plan to strike the Azores.
• Oscar ordered Kesselring and Milch to bomb Moscow for a week before the German army attacked, and Joseph and Zhukov prepared the city’s defenses as the air raids began.
• German bombers devastated Moscow, inflicting heavy military and civilian losses, and German artillery and ground forces began their assault on May 14.
• German armored forces broke through Moscow’s suburban defenses and entered the city on May 15, where Russian troops and German units began fighting street by street.
• Guderian ordered Army Group B’s commanders to commit more troops to Moscow, and the puppet-force commanders agreed to begin entering the city on May 18.

As Russia’s front weakened, Oscar prepared Germany for America’s entry into the war, and the American fleet sailed to attack the German-held Azores. German forces trapped the American formations with submarines, torpedo boats, and capital ships, leaving Kimmel to choose which threatened force to rescue.

• As auxiliary forces took over much of the fighting in Moscow, Zhukov urged Joseph to retreat east, but Joseph rejected the proposal and kept him in command.
• Oscar shifted Germany’s preparations toward the United States, ordering more King Tiger tanks, strategic bombers, and naval readiness as Roosevelt ordered America into the war.
• Nimitz led the American fleet into the Atlantic, while Lütjens committed Germany’s Home, Atlantic, and Mediterranean Fleets to meet it near the Azores.
• Nimitz decided the Americans had to attack the Azores bases, and Kimmel led fifteen capital ships toward the islands under a plan to bombard the airfields and withdraw.
• German fleets and submarines prepared an ambush, and Kimmel’s formations began attacking the Azores airfields during the night of June 12.
• German torpedo boats and submarines struck the American formations, damaging the Ohio and other ships and sinking a destroyer and a light cruiser.
• As German capital ships closed on the damaged American 2nd and 3rd Formations, Kimmel ordered his fleet southeast to rescue the 2nd Formation, prioritizing its six Iowa-class battleships.