German III Corps?

[Legbreaker]

ARGH!!!!!
I'm a fool. Why didn't I look in the V1 Play Manual when I was working through the details of the 2000 offensive and counter offensive - would have saved myself some work!

In the spring of the year 2000, the German 3rd Army launched its final offensive against Poland. It was postponed due to late rains - the soldiers were delayed in getting their fields planted.

I always thought there was something odd about the late start to the offensive....
It's funny how the real world historical records seem to indicate there was no decent rain until about May 2000.

The objective was to clear the Baltic coast of Polish and Soviet forces and thus gain control of the plentiful Baltic fishing and the Vistula River barge traffic.

Part of what I postulated!
To recap earlier posts, I proposed the offensive may have had the additional aim of "hooking" behind the PACT front lines (the 5th's raid) to force the Pact forces to withdraw or face being encircled.

When the offensive finally got under way it was spearheaded by the US Eleventh Corps, because they were less tied to their garrison areas than were the Germans.

This could mean they were able to move on time and able to make significant headway into northern Poland before the Germans had even finished planting.
Perhaps XI Corps had the advantage of the US reorganising the excess naval and air force personnel into "farm brigades" reducing the combat units need to do double duty in the fields?

The initial drives were successful, with two US divisions breaking loose and conducting deep penetration raids into the enemy rear area.

As mentioned in other threads recently, the 5th ID "jumping off point" for their "raid" has always seemed too deep within enemy territory for them to have wintered there. This seems to lend weight to my theory that the "Death of a Division" scenario was simply an additional phase to an already under way general offensive.

While the 8th Division (Mechanised) headed for the port of Kalingrad and a link-up with the Free Latvian Army, the 5th Division (Mechanised) headed southeast towards Lodz.

Seems to answer a few questions about why the 8th ID is where it is...

Then everything started to come apart.
The last battle-worthy remnants of the Polish army counterattacked, and battered themselves to pieces against the NATO troops. When the dust had settled, though, the last heavy equipment of Eleventh Corps was burning junk.

So it seems the Poles had the strength to inflict serious damage on the "all powerful" US XI Corps. This quote seems to indicate the Polish army had a much greater strength prior to the offensive than we see in the various books as of 01JUL00. This lends weight in my opinion to an earlier start date for the XI Corps portion of the offensive than mid June.
The quote also seems to indicate that the XI Corps is in a bad way after the Poles are done with them, likely disorganised and with much of their surviving tanks and APC strength in serious need of repairs, artillery overrun and destroyed, and supporting units in disarray and possibly shot to pieces by the Polish cavalry.

The remnants of four Soviet armies went on the offensive against the base camp areas of 3rd German Army, and German troops began drifting west to bolster the defences of their homes.

It's interesting to note this seems to have only occurred after the Poles were done with the XI Corps up north. The German Third Army radio reports on the 11th of July (see previous post) would appear to confirm this.
It's also conclusive evidence of a general PACT offensive in region between the coast and Berlin (and possibly further south also). This would certainly have cut off the XI Corps from Germany given the likely destruction of bridges in that region either during the attacks, or in the earlier years of the war.

Finally, two additional Soviet armies, the 4th Guards Tank and 22nd Cavalry, rolled across the Polish frontier from Byelorussia and hit the US 5th Division. With a combined strength of 21,000 men and almost a hundred modern tanks, the two Soviet armies ploughed 5th Division under near the Polish city of Kalisz, 200 kilometres southwest of Warsaw.

That right there says a lot about the pre-offensive/counter offensive strengths on the European battlefield. Post Kalisz, there's only about 12,000 men left, 3,700 of which (the 22nd Cavalry) didn't even take part in destroying the 5th ID. As for tanks, the situation is absolutely catastrophic. From the 100 modern tanks that started out, according to the Soviet vehicle guides only 5 are left (in Polish hands)....