The war has been raging for 5 long years already. Started by a rapid invasion of Poland, it was followed by a lightning campaign thru France, Low Countries abd Britain, where all of its fleet was oblitarated. A Landing in Canada was next in line and it took the german forces a long while to finish off the brits in Ottawa. Then followed a long, slow and meat ginding campaing thru the Eastern US seaboard. again the german army was victorious.
But all of that came at a price. The german forces, over-extended and overtaxed, are now in a state of dissaray, with no decent man to replace the 8 million casuality that were inflicted on the brave Wermarcht so far.
The Luftwaffe, constantly overmatched since the campaign in France, has suffered heavily. The Kriegsmarine was totally oblitarated in the North American campaign.
So it is now 1944, and one last great offensive has been planed by the german high-command. The storyline isnt written on that one yet, but all hopes remains into destroying the southern army group of the Soviets in a wide stroke. In order to do this, the german reich has mustered all his remaining ressources into makign sure that local superiority will me maintained early on in the campaign, where it has to break the Russian offensive power. Only this way can the Nazi forces can stabilize the front for good and negociate a peace settlement with Russia where they can divide the wolrd. Already, the german leadership has put feeler to Soviet Russia into a potential peace, but Stalin isnt ready to look into the possibility, not while he thinks he can break the german forces.
So here is the beginning story of operation "Der Sieg", the last ditch offensive of Adolf Hitler

German forces are hard-pressed to defend against the Soviets in the Kiev River Line. They need to hold as long as possible for Manstein forces and grand plan to be ready

The Soviet airforce being the dominant player that it is on the Ostfront, the german forces have deployed as many Flak units as possible in the theater. Not much hope, but at least a little bit of comfort for the troops seeing that at least the germans are firing back at the ennemy

The german army is still busy building defensive positions all over northern Russia, where the wermarcht needs to play a holding action against the soviets
Hard fighting in the wooded area of the North, were many allied-axis units have been obliterated. Now the line is almost exclusively manned by poorly equipped italians or brave german forces... The Russian are pushing as hard as they can, but the soldiers are holding...
Defensive line north of Kiev. These positions have been prepared and manned since 1941, so they are formidable and have never been retaken by the russians
The Vinitssa tank repair shops have been very busy since the fall 1943. Tanks need to be refitted and repaired. Here a picture of a tank getting an overhaul. The panzer forces are almost back at full strenght
Another pic of brave mech working at the Vinitsa location to repair the panzerdivisionen
Forces are being assembled in the southern part of Russia, Major armored forces. Manstein think he can overmatch the russians in armor by concentrating all of the reich panzer forces in one offensive. A classic knockout blow. The offensive will need to be shard, strong and fast since if its too long the Soviet airforce will deplete it too much. One pic of a damned tough tank: The Tiger 1. Hitler is putting a lot of hopes on this new tank for the upcoming offensive...
More Tigers in repair-maintenance shops
Another Tiger
Tiger in combat practice south of Vinitsa
Tanks moving thru mud and snow
Another tank moving thru the endless white steppe
And least but not least, the Luftwaffe... Greatly overtaxed since the days of the french campaign, it is now only a shadow of itself. Losses have been so numerous... All the grat aces are gone... Only new pilots with outdated machines to face better soviet planes... Here is a highly confidential pic of a prototype jet plane supposed to change all that. German scientist expect it to be a reality in 1945 only...
BF-109k at the Lvov airbase... The german Luftwaffe has been concentrated in one major area to be refitted and repaired for the last-ditch offensive in the south.
BF-109k training over the skies at Lvov
German Stukas flying in formation over the polish skies waiting to face the Soviets
One more Bf-109 that will be sent to the meatgrinder soon...
Now is April, german soldiers are using the little time left before the onslaught to relax...
HOPE, as they say, come in different shapes and sizes. Luck, as stated many times in this ARR, favors the bold. We will again see if this is yet again true...