Eastern Pivot and Barbarossa Preparations

With France taken care of and only the British currently remaining to threaten us in the west, we turn our attention once again eastward. During Case Yellow, we maintained a thin defensive line on the eastern border with about 22 divisions; in a moment of panic, we temporarily withdrew them to deal with a British sea invasion (leaving nothing in the east). How did the Soviets respond? By abrogating our non-aggression pact! Clearly they have evil intentions in Eastern Europe, and they have tried to provoke us by stationing a large force on the border.

For now, we try and keep things quiet in the east by deterring the Russians. We need to buy ourselves another year, as OKH would like at least another panzer group and fifty new infantry divisions with which to start the invasion of Russia. We station 113 divisions on or near the eastern border, with 1st Panzer Group and its 17 divisions soon to join:

This is the northern half of the front, covering East Prussia, Poland, and Belarus.

Here's the southern half:

This section is a more complicated beast, both because the Carpathian Mountains are basically off-limits for mobile units, and most of the border is not within the Reich proper. We are allied with all three nations (Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania), and all three have territorial-dispute beef with the Soviets that they would like resolved. We will take advantage of this in enlisting their help. (You can see that the Hungarians have even already formalized their plans for retaking Bessarabia.)