Defiant Lithuania
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
August 2008

Our Defiant Russia game covers the military situation as it stood on 22 June 1941, when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. It’s a straight historical situation, though the designer has provided a few options elsewhere on this Web site.

The situation as it stood in 1941 was a direct result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement of 23 August 1939, which provided for the partition of Poland and Soviet occupation of Estonia and Latvia as well as parts of Finland. The original agreement, however, left Lithuania within the German sphere. The military situation of 1941 would have been slightly (though perhaps not substantially) different had the political situation of 1939 played out the way the diplomats designed it to. This Defiant Russia variant takes a look at this possibility; our Third Reich game has a very similar mechanism under which Lithuania can become a German ally.

In 1939, Lithuania had been ruled for a decade by the semi-fascist dictator Antanas Smetona, whose right-wing National Union had become the nation’s sole political party in 1936. Unrest within the military had been quelled fairly easily, and Lithuanians paid much more attention to their national team’s dominance in the European basketball championships.

Germany had taken the port of Memel from Lithuania in March 1939, and this seizure still rankled in September. But German leaders felt sure they could bring Smetona around to their way of thinking by giving the Lithuanians their ancient capital of Vilnius, taken by the Poles in 1919, and had done nothing to prepare the diplomatic groundwork lest the Lithuanians spill their secrets. In March 1938, Lithuania had backed down to Polish armed demands for a humiliating public apology over the death of a Polish soldier on Lithuanian territory; some of the army’s generals were eager for a clash with Poland and apparently the Germans counted on this hatred to bring Lithuania into the war. When German troops attacked Poland in September 1939, the Germans urged the Lithuanians to join in but made no overt promises of support.

Lithuanian foreign minister Juozas Urbsys
signs away his nation’s independence, 9 October 1939.

Caught by surprise, the Lithuanians refused to enter the war blindly. In response to their failure to bring Lithuania into open alliance, the Germans conducted a trade at the end of September. Lithuania was placed in the Soviet sphere of influence, while the German share of Poland was increased in compensation. The Soviets forced the Lithuanians to sign a treaty of friendship and cooperation on 9 October, sweetening the deal by giving them Vilnius.

In June 1940, the Red Army occupied the country. By August, Lithuania had been formally incorporated into the Soviet Union. It would remain in that status until 1991, when Lithuania’s secession helped bring down the entire Soviet state.

Hindsight, being much clearer than any other of the human senses, shows us that Lithuania likely would have joined the attack on Poland willingly. Lithuanian distrust of the Soviets probably would have kept the secret secure. The game variant here allows players to explore this different opening situation.

What price glory?
The Lithuanian Army enters
Vilnius, October 1939.

The Lithaunian army of 1939 counted 28,005 regulars, including 1,728 officers. They were organized into two infantry divisions; the troops were considered of good quality but their equipment was badly out of date, especially the artillery. After the Soviet takeover, about 12,000 Lithuanians were inducted into the Red Army. Of the officers, 414 were sent into the gulags and 195 of these men had been murdered by the time of the Nazi invasion one year later.

The two Lithuanian divisions became the Soviet 179th and 184th Rifle Divisions, grouped together as the 29th Special Rifle Corps. The 179th quickly melted away in combat, while the Red Army broke up the 184th rather than allow it to desert in mass. In game terms, they add nothing to the 11th Army and have no effect on Soviet strengths.

Lithuania consists of the area marked as the Baltic Military District, and is controlled by the German player. Soviet units that set up here instead set up in any hexes in the Soviet Union numbered 34XX or higher, within two hexes of the new Lithuanian border.

In return, hexes 3202, 3101, 3102, 3001 and 3002 are part of the Western Military District, and Soviet “W” units may set up here. The Soviet player controls these hexes.

German units of Army Group Center may set up in the remaining Center hexes or hexes 3300, 3200, 3100, 3000 or 2900 (these “half” hexes are part of the playing area).

German units of Army Group North may set up in Lithuania as well as their original set-up hexes. The Lithuanian army sets up here as well.

The Lithuanian army is a 1-3 infantry corps. It has only one step. Unlike the Spanish unit, the Lithuanian corps does count against stacking limits. It may not be replaced if lost.

It is removed from play if the Soviet player controls all hexes of Lithuania and somehow does not manage to eliminate the Lithuanian corps while doing so.

It is a corps-sized formation and thus does exert a zone of control. It is worth one casualty point for 13.0.

We’ve provided a free download of the Lithuanian corps, available here.

This piece originally appeared in May 2005.