Summary/Intro

How The War Began

A small UK task force, consisting of an older dreadnought and an antique armoured cruiser, were sunk while on routine patrol in the North Sea. The UK submarine force was sent to the Heligoland Bight. It was unclear diplomatically whether their mandate was solely to monitor German fleet movements, or to establish a blockade. The German High Seas Fleet left port in Wilhelmshaven for the North Sea.

WAR

Darkest Hour was chosen as the war game simulator for use in a course on war policy and strategy at the US Marine Corps War College.Students were split into groups and assigned countries: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, France, and Britain. The course instructors played as Italy and the Ottomans. Volunteer players from the DH community were sought to act as the controllers so that the students didn't need to trek up the steep learning curve of HOI.Two of the DH developers happen to live not far from the War College at Quantico, Virginia, and were able to join in the fun.The course first conducted a diplomacy exercise covering the July Crisis of 1914. Students role-played as their respective countries, negotiating their way via simulated diplomatic cables (using e-mail) and achieving their political gains while attempting to avoid war.Once war broke out, focus shifted to Darkest Hour. Diplomacy and coalition planning continued to occur via simulated cables, but now students crafted national wartime strategies concerning their economies, disposition of forces, etc. Their strategies, priorities, and goals were translated into game terms by the players.Negotiations between Austria-Hungary and Russia followed a relatively historical course and brought tensions to a high level. As a result, most of the great powers chose to partially or even fully mobilize fairly quickly. But, ahistorically, the war was actually started by Britain and Germany.Three major events precipitated the war, and they occurred in such rapid succession that they overwhelmed the decision making process of both teams.The director then precipitated the war by having the UK submarine force attack the German High Seas fleet.At the start of the war, German strategy was to abandon the Schlieffen Plan in favor of a Russian Gambit -- to knock Russia out of the war first. Germany's Russian strategy was a defensive offensive... to rapidly advance into Russian territory and then force Russian units to attack to reclaim it.Initial objectives were to secure Warsaw, and to take advantage of the salient provided by West Prussia to strike deep into Russian territory, toward the Pripet marshes and up the Baltic coast.Austro-Hungarian forces remained relatively static along their Serbian and Russian borders.The British and German fleets were both already at sea and within range of each other. This was replicated in-game to correspond to occurrences during the July Crisis diplomacy exercise. The opening naval battle of the war was joined on 2 September. Thirty German warships of the High Seas Fleet faced off against sixty ships of the British Grand Fleet.Germans were able to escape to port. They took losses of 4 battleships against Britain's loss of a battlecruiser and a light cruiser.By October, Germany had pushed through much of Poland, with little opposition from the Russian army.Germany held a strong line from Riga to Lwow, and occupied key forts at Kaunas, Wilno, and Brest-Litovsk.On 25 October, Romania entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente alliance. Austria-Hungary redeployed forces to counter the threat of the now extended front.Late October saw a strong French attack against the Siegfried Line. The First Battle of Colmar was a massive month-long fight that lasted until November 17. Fourteen German divisions fended off the attack, dealing almost 10-to-1 losses against the French, who suffered almost 200,000 casualties.Germany's rapid advance into key population centers was causing unrest and civil strife within the Russian nation. Noticing this, German High Command issued orders for Operation Thunder Run: a sweep by two cavalry divisions deep into Estonia to capture the city of Tallinn, but then to pull back. This operation was begun on 26 November; the timetable had the return of the corp on 26 December.Also on 26 November, the Ottomans entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. German High Command stressed via diplomatic cable to Constantinople the need for them to quickly press into the Caucasus.In mid-November, III. Armeekorps, an advance element of the German 8th Army, arrived unopposed in Brest-Litovsk. Over the next two weeks, the rest of the 8th Army consolidated in and around the town, as Russian forces built up nearby. On the 29 November, Russian forces began their attack. This Battle of Brest-Litovsk lasted into early January 1915. Russian units were vastly depleted in strength as a result of huge 4-to-1 losses and over 100,000 casualties.The Kingdom of Italy entered the war on the side of the Entente on 3 January 1915. Over the course of the next two months, French and British troops began redeploying to the Italo-Austrian border. In response to urgent requests, Germany began redeploying units to help bolster the defense.This was fortuitous, as Italy began an attack upon Bolzano on 29 February. Britain then followed with a nearby attack on Klagenfurt on 1 March. The Battle of Klagenfurt was fought on rough, mountainous terrain... ideal for defense. The Entente forces were forced to call off both their attacks after taking losses of over 90,000 men.A series of attacks along the Siegfried Line was timed to coincide with the Italian offensive. Despite being distraction actions, the Battle of Metz and the Second Battle of Colmar were serious engagements involving dozens of divisions. The German lines held, and the French called off their attacks on 7 April.Meanwhile, German forces continued to hold the line against Russian attempts to dislodge them. On March 2, German cavalry units rushed into Minsk. German High Command decided to reinforce them with several corps of infantry. Russian forces tried to retake the city, beginning an assault on 21 March. After a month of difficult urban fighting, the Battle of Minsk was another German victory.At the same time, Russian forces also attempted to make headway against Austro-Hungarian forces in western Ukraine. Germany provided two strong corps to help reinforce the province of Tarnopol. They arrived 11 March, just in time for Russia’s attack on the 14th. The Battle of Tarnopol lasted from 14 March to 16 April, as Russia poured over 40 divisions against the Austro-German defenses. But after a month of massively heavy Russian casualties, the battle was over.Russia's situation became perilous in April. Early in the month, various strikes and protests erupted in Petrograd. On 11 April, Nicolas II fled the city. The lack of leadership led to a provisional government being formed on the 24, and the Petrograd Soviet being declared on the 25th, with Alexander Kerensky as its chairman. The next day, Nicolas II abdicated his throne. This was to be a boon to the Russian war effort... as the provisional government quelled dissent, this was directly felt by army in the form of reduced partisanship and improved supply lines.A strong push by Russia near Minsk led to overstretch salient. German forces were able to cut off and route 2 weakened corps in the Grodno Pocket.Germany’s string of successes ended in May. Indeed, the entire tide of the war began to shift in favor of the Triple Entente alliance. In response the string of heavy losses along the Italian Front, and continued impregnability of the Siegfried Line, the leadership of Britain and France decided their only course of action was to open up a new front, and at any cost. The new theater was to be the Low Countries. When Belgium and the Netherlands refused to join against the Central Powers, the allies declared war, on 1 May. Despite the shock, Belgium and the Netherlands quickly joined with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Within two weeks, most of Belgium was overrun.German 3rd Army, which had formerly sat as a reserve element of the Siegfried Line theater, was rushed to Belgium's aid, and fended off a British attack on Maastricht from the 17th to the 19th.However, Entente forces continued pressing north toward the Netherlands. Belgian units retreated into the Netherlands. Even when combined with Dutch forces, they fell back at Eindhoven and Nijmegen. Germany had no choice but to begin strategically redeploying units from the Eastern Front to shore up defenses in the West. The holding actions at Eindhoven and Nijmegen bought time for new defenses to be established at Arnhem. Thirteen divisions of the combined armies of the Central Powers engaged against 23 Entente divisions at the Battle of Arnhem. Although they held the line for two weeks (25 June to 6 July), in the end the were forced to retreat into Germany.Forced to draw away units from the east, Germany began losing ground across the entire eastern front. The Second Battle of Minsk, fought between 2 May and 18 May, saw German 10th Army forced to withdraw to Vilejka. A month later, 10th Army was pushed back further, retreating to Wilno and Grodno. Elements of German 8th Army, still based around Brest-Litovsk, fought a holding action against advancing Russia forces at Nowogrodek. On 25 July, after a week of fighting, German forces were forced to withdraw further, to Slonim.Perhaps the only positive action for Germany on the Eastern Front came in mid-May. Noticing a gap in the Russian lines northwest of Smolensk, German High Command issued orders for Operation Thunder Run II. The objective this time was the city of Novgorod. The daring raid was successful; the II Cavalry Corps arrived on 21 May. German forces held the city for a week, which contributed to additional unrest among the Russian populace.The overall momentum, however, had shifted entirely in favor of the Entente alliance. As Germany continued covering and rear guard actions up and down the Eastern Front, the Western Front became dire. The Entente committed a large field army to again attack into Austria. The Second Battle of Klagenfurt began in late May, and lasted nearly two months… Germany and Austria-Hungary were forced to redeploy additional corps to the theater. When the attack was called off on 16 July, it had appeared to be a solid victory for the Central Powers. But it had had the effect of drawing yet more units. On 21 July, a large attack began against Wilhelmshaven. The first such attack on Germany proper. German High Command attempted to reposition units to strengthen the defenses in that theater, but there was little left upon which to draw. When the lines cracked, there were no units to defend Hannover, Bremen, or even Muenster.At this point (mid-way through the second day), it was decided by the course instructors to end the wargame. All that truly remained for the Central Powers was a defensive, tactical slogfest to see how long they could last. Instead, we broke and reviewed the course of the game as a group.Some of the analysis is captured in Frank's post: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?736522-MC-War-College-WWI-AAR&p=16473369&viewfull=1#post16473369 Additional analysis and background is provided in a post from Colonel Barrick: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?736522-MC-War-College-WWI-AAR&p=16489813&viewfull=1#post16489813