Second Front will have many exciting dimensions, and among these one of the most interesting is Germany's final defense. This article recounts how this Europa segment got incorporated into the design work for Second Front in the first place, and then how Germany's defenses were engineered to give a playable basis for some of the simulation's most dynamic turns.

In 1973, the initial sequence of Europa historical products presented the Soviet-German conflict in two massive games, Drang Nach Osten and Unentschieden. These sentinel games featured hexes that spanned less than twenty miles each, and an elaborate array of individualized sub-divisional units. These titles set the scope and tempo of the Europa series. Other European campaigns followed with the release of Narvik (Norway) the following year, Their Finest Hour (Britain) in 1976, and Case White (Poland) during 1977. Just before the end of the decade Marita-Merkur was published for the 1941 Balkans front.

By 1980, the foundation for a definitive World War II series covering the European war at a grand scale was firmly in place. The impact of these games was profound because of the detailed combat they permitted over entire fronts. Europa simulations enabled the players to compose supported, combined-arms forces in the true fashion of mechanized warfare and to maneuver them across countries.

One of the most fascinating aspects of World War II was that it produced the first diverse specialization of the military that is the hallmark of modern armies. Before the Second World War, a regime's ground armed forces were basically different categories of infantry, cavalry, and artillery with a few skilled elements for tasks such as fortress reduction.

Although air and armor were already introduced, they remained basically outside the integrated arena of the battlefield. The support arms were even less glamorous. For instance, most engineers were primarily pick-andshovel laborers prior to the advent of mechanization.

Just before and during World War II, a wide range of units were raised to render special support to new tank and mobile infantry armies. Armored and mechanized units delivered the degree of shock and mobile firepower necessary to punch and exploit holes in enemy defensive lines. In the wake of the mechanized onslaughts, infantry units demonstrated their continuing mastery at seizing and holding ground objectives. A complex range of supporting assets was now imperative. For example, armor columns required screening and reconnaissance elements, vehicular flak guns to ward off enemy air attacks, and motorized artillery to shell forward targets. Even the formerly drab engineers and construction crews were differentiated by new types of power machinery.

Much of this specialization was concentrated at battalion level in Word War II armies. Battalions averaged around 300 - 500 soldiers and were thus of excellent organizational size for all kinds of equipment.

In World War II, there was not enough automation and manpower-saving devices to utilize a lower basic structure. Whatever the job was, a couple of hundred men had to do it. In today's military, small companies and squad-sized teams can use modern technical apparatus and computers to achieve desired results, but in the 1940s a large number of people were required to move and operate most machinery and heavy weapons systems.

Battalions as Heartbeats

Battalions became the essential heartbeat of World War II combat. Divisions, and regiments the massed giants of yesteryear - were now sophisticated combinations of battalions. In addition, a new range of independent battalions gave field commanders the degree of flexibility required for specific assignments, and proved ultimately useful for channelizing special resources. Even the latest Europa ruling reflects the crucial place of the World War II battalion: railroad engineers are now (quite properly) being broken out of their regiments and into battalions!

Because Europa is the only continentalscale simulation to depict combat down to battalion level, it is also the most valid operational-level game of World War 11 in existence. By interconnecting the Europa series of games, it also becomes the essential strategic-level game of World War II.

This interlocking of the Europa games, and the steadily improving refinement of the rules and historical counters, became more apparent as Fall of France was issued in 1981 and Western Desert saw production in 1982. By this time, the design team of John M. Astell, Paul R. Banner, Frank Chadwick, and Marc W. Miller decided to overhaul the first two wargames, Drang Nach Osten and Unentschieden, completely.

Of course, at this stage both Drang Nach Osten and Unentschieden were hopelessly outclassed by later Europa products. Much more than a simple fix-up was required to keep these games within the Europa framework. The rules needed extensive redressing. The historical research had to start practically from scratch. And some very basic questions about Europa direction had to be considered.

One of the most basic questions was the time-frame for a new Soviet-German east front game. The early historical research verified the probable need for over a thousand new counters for a Drang Nach Osten rendition. Additionally, the rules rewriting already suggested more complexities following the winter stage of this campaign. These circumstances combined to keep the revision within the same timetable as the original version: inclusive of the 1941 campaign to include the 1941-1942 winter fighting.

The work on this revision project was so comprehensive that it resulted in a completely new simulation, Fire in the East. The game was released in the spring of 1984, and covered the German invasion of the Soviet Union from June 1941 through March 1942. Any Europa game covering the 1. second half" of the Soviet-German war would have to start from there. (In fact, some German and Soviet reinforcements arriving in March and earlier for the 1942 campaign and thus not specifically engaged in the 19411942 winter battle - were deleted from Fire in the East) .

In the meantime, Torch was published in 1985 and brought the Americans into the "Second Front" of Europe. Even as Torch was published, design work on a revised Unentschieden, the second Soviet-German campaign game, was already underway. The termination date of the game was now a central design question. At one time, it was expected that such a revised game might proceed until Germany's ultimate collapse during 1945. While it appeared feasible to play out the Soviet-German war through 1945, the introduction of Torch brought forcible recognition of the Second Front's effects on late-war German defensive developments. Allied gains or failures on the West Front would be critical in determining Germany's 1945 military posture against the Soviets.

The revision title of Scorched Earth and its playtest kit were announced at the end of April 1986. From the outset, the playtest materials stated that the Axis and Soviet orders of appearance would cover the war only through December II, 1944. During play testing, the amount of counters required and the patterns of combat verified the wisdom of this termination date.

During mid-1987, with the publication of Scorched Earth, the schedule for future Europa simulations was again discussed. One of the most favored tentative ideas was to harmonize the termination date of the Western Front game (Second Front) with the conclusion of the German-Soviet campaign in Scorched Earth. This concept would end Second Front on December II 1944. Another limitation was that the game would encompass only the Italian-Franco theaters. The other theaters where the Germans also stationed troops (Greater Germany, Norway, Balkans, and Denmark) were excluded from the proposed game.

This limited Second Front approach presented increasing difficulties during 1988 developmental work.

First, the German player did not have all his forces for reaction purposes. Units were "stuck" in many side-theaters. How to work such assets into the general retreat of the German Army became a nightmare. For instance, the situation in Hungary (where the Germans faced the possibility of an uprising) was out of the picture, but affected troop movements.

Even worse, no units were in Germany to counter either advancing Soviet or AngloFrench-American armies in case of breakthroughs. The problem on the Allied side was equally unsatisfactory, especially regarding the choices of alternative invasion sites.

Finally, there was almost certain knowledge that any sole 1945 "doomsday game" (once upon a time tentatively slated as Gotterdamerung) would not be much of a game at all.

John Astell put this debate to rest by deciding that Second Front would properly cover all of Germany's military forces not displayed in Scorched Earth (i.e. on the Eastern Front) from April 1943 until Germany's destruction. The Allied Western Front forces would also appear in their respective areas from April 1943 until the end of the war. The Soviet forces would continue their operations from January I 1945 until the end of the war. The partisan war was deferred for a future simulation, as it was not central to Germany's defense. The only area where partisans actually threatened German lifelines was in Yugoslavia, but not before Tito's forces had become a regular conventional army in their own right.

Final Defensive Arrangements

The next problem was how to present Germany's final defensive arrangements, especially when game-play would probably not follow the exact course of the war. In addition, Germany's last mobilization was extremely hasty and poorly documented. Germany's collapse in 1945 was not only sudden but, for her military leaders and planners, rather unexpected.

After all, Germany's organizational and lineage staff was probably only slightly better informed on the true situation than the general German public. The war seemed to be going well in the last weeks of 1944; there were crushing victories that cut through American lines in the Ardennes sector, and powerful panzer counterattacks that recovered hundreds of square miles of East Prussian territory.

January 1, 1945 Big Picture

Germany's propaganda ministry summed up the "big picture" at the beginning of 1945 in this manner: Germany's enemies, while acknowledged to be strong and ruthless, were not unstoppable. The Americans, British, and Soviets were in divided camps and could be set against each other while fighting a strong, determined German home defense force. Just over the horizon were scores of secret wonder weapons that could turn the tide of battle, and deliver the miracle guaranteeing the thousand-year survival of the Third Reich. At least that was the glassy portrait being painted by the Nazi government on January 1, 1945.

In actual fact, Germany's glass was shattering. But to what extent? Historical research showed that fighting was bitter and heavy in many areas during 1945. In many regions, U.S. divisions suffered heavy losses storming German river crossings and strongpoints, and Soviets were blasting their way house-by-house through Silesian and Pomeranian towns. The German units in those areas were tough and well-armed.

In other places, Germans were throwing down their weapons and streaming into prison compounds by the thousands. Those were obviousIy paper-flag organizations. Yet military installations and NCO schools were forming some of the best units ever raised in Germany's behalf, led and manned by battlehardened veterans. Many of these units had only temporary kampfgruppen names and were difficult to appraise. Unexpectedly staunch resistance came other quarters. Hitler Youth defended Breslau with such savagery that the district at the corner of Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse and Augustas Strasse became known as "Hitler Youth Corner" (Hitlerjugenddeck). Except for iso!ated circumstances, those kind of units were completely unknown.

After much consideration, John Astell and this researcher decided that the German player's continuing ability to offer effective military resistance should be grounded on retention of key home territory, using the actual Wehrkreise system of military districts. Each district was given a mix of assets proportionate to its capability to form combatant units. Mobilization would depend on allied proximity. This concept frees the game from a straight-jacketed historical approach and permits players to respond realistically to their actual progress. Viewed from another angle, the amount of German units available for battle depends directly on allied success in overrunning German homeland objectives.

Final German OOB

The final German 1945 order of battle has two sources. The first is the regular order of appearance. Although slim, the order of appearance continues to produce a number of units raised in the last few months of the war. Most "panzer" or "panzergrenadier" divisions newly formed at this point were, in game terms, "mixed" divisions or brigades,

They may have possessed all the components of true panzer and panzergrenadier formations, but they were not fully integrated because of lack of training and haste of assembly. Many Hitler Youth combat units also deploy through the regular order of appearance. The main source of German's final defensive forces, however, rests with the fixed garrisons of the military districts. Their appearance is contingent on game circumstances. Seven types of military organizations constitute these fixed garrisons:

1) Emergency Divisions (Divisions z.b. V.)

These represent formations present within each military district that were actually mobilized in defense of the German homeland. The strength of these emergency divisions varied wildly and fluctuated on a weekly basis. The divisions included Volkssturm, reserve components, youth groups, technical personnel, flak helpers, fire fighters, policemen, fragments of regular units, and so forth. For game purposes, standardization was introduced and all are assigned consistent strengths. Designations are historical.

2) Maneuver Divisions.

These represent the assets of major maneuver areas (military training grounds) within Germany and territory directly incorporated into the German empire. For simplicity, a maneuver area can be thought of like a big post in the United States, such as Fort Bragg or Fort Polk.

The maneuver division not only includes all the maneuver area schools, off icer and NCO courses, refresher facilities, recruits, and cadres, but many battle groups in the same region. Each maneuver area was classified by importance and rated as producing either a

(a) Reinforced Maneuver Division,
(b) First-Class Maneuver Division, and
(c) Second-Class Maneuver Division, or
(d) Other Maneuver Division.

Each division carries its actual maneuver area name. For the game these divisions are numbered according to their German KStN (TOE, Organization). For example the Arys maneuver division will be the 11053 Maneuver Div.

Most maneuver divisions represent a general mixture of artillery and infantrymen, and are symbolized by crossed rifles over a cannonball (or face-on artillery round) based on this fact.

Specialist maneuver areas were not counted, except for two large and wellstocked engineer training grounds at Gilge and Dessau-Rosslau. The game includes regular, engineer, mountain, cavalry, and SSmaneuver divisions. Germany's final war effort was too frantic to produce specialized battalions, although some already in existence do show up in 1945 through the regular German order of appearance.

During the actual war, only a few maneuver area divisions were raised and retained their own identity. An example was the Gross-Born Infantry Division. Most maneuver area assets were incorporated into divisions retreating through their area or split into innumerable battle groups and various field contingents. The use of maneuver divisions provides an excellent simulation device that avoids the pitfalls of replacing or rebuilding cadres and tracking fragmentary elements.

3) SS Emergency Brigades

The quantity and quality of the SS can only be estimated beyond those Waffen-SS units already established. Enough separate Waffen-SS battle groups were encountered historically, however, to justify one SS emergency brigade per district (in addition to the SS-Maneuver Divisions).

It is important to remember that these are SS infantry-type soldiers in combat outfits, and not officials or SS personnel engaged in non-military and criminal activities. The brigade titles correspond to the SS military districts of Germany (SSOberabschnitte) which, by 1945, corresponded closely to the geographical proximity of the regular Wehrkreise boundaries.

4) Political Police

These represent Nazi police units deployed to insure the "continuing combat will" of the front-line troops. Eachdistrict receives one brigade, named after the senior SS-Police commanders of each district during 1945. For the game these are numbered according to their districts.

5) SA-Sturm Divisions

SA-Sturm Divisions were added to raise five disproporlionately weak military districts to acceptable manpower levels, and to reflect the SA's strengthened power in the last months of the war. There are five of these divisions in the game (one light rifle or jaeger, one mountain, one motorized, one infantry, and one cavalry). They are named after SA-Gruppen appropriate to the military districts. None of these existed as division formations in the actual war.

6) Miscellaneous Forces

These represent historical organizations that were raised from assets permanently stationed or available in some districts. They include elements such as the Reichsprotektor Infantry Brigade under HighCommand (OHW) control, the Combat Command of the Fuhrees Headquarters (Kampfkommandant des Fuhrerhauptquartiers) , reserve panzer divisions, and replacement (Mixed) brigades for the Grossdeutschland and Feldherrnhalle Corps.

Fortress divisions are shown on the maps, but in actuality represent combinations of other units already in the game.

7) Hitler Jugend Werwolf Partisans

These are only available for certain eastern military districts and represent the ability of German teenagers to engage in sabotage, sniping, and sabotage activities against occupation troops.

Wehrkrise Military Districts: Illustrations (monstously slow: 488K)

Mea Culpa Corrections from Issue 9

Several informational errors and omissions appear in the Wehrkreis graphics which accompany Shelby Stanton's "Facts Behind the Counters" in TEN#8. These occurred during the conversion of Mr. Stanton's hand-drawn maps into graphical form and unfortunately were not detected until after publication. We apologize to Mr. Stanton and our readers and submit this listing of corrections:

Wehrkreis I: The Schuberth brigade should be political police, while Nordost is an emergency brigade.

Wehrkreis IV: The Elbe and Oberheldacher brigades are both SS.

Wehrkreis V: The southernmost city on the map is Konstanz. The maneuver divisions are misnamed. The one shown as Konigsbruck should be Heuberg and the one shown as Zeithain should be Munsingen. The emergency divisions are misnumbered. The 404 and 464 should be the 405 and 465 respectively.

Wehrkreis VII: The Bayernwald SA division should be noted as Jaeger instead of political police.

Wehrkrels VIII: The Breslau fortress unit should be a division instead of a brigade.

Wehrkreis X: The Munster, MunsterNord, and Putlos divisions are maneuver divisions.

Wehrkreis XI: The western city should be Hannover and the eastern one Magdeburg. The maneuver divisions are misidentified. The 401 should be Altengrabow and the 461 should be Bergen.

Wehrkreis XVII: The southernmost city is Wiener Neustadt.

Wehrkreis XVIII: Note the correct spelling of Innsbruck.

Wehrkreis XX: The Westpreussen and Weischel SS units are maneuver units.