Letter from Salvatore Graniti to Gianni Rossatti (USEAAR, #23.1)

This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) and therefore entirely fictitious.

Letter from Salvatore Graniti, Counsellor of Legation in the Italian diplomatic service, formerly posted as a liaison with the British Army in Germany, to Gianni Rossatti, Counsellor of Embassy, posted at the Italian embassy in London

Milan, August 13, 1942

Most esteemed Gianni!
You will have heard what has befallen the forces under the command of General Montgomery – and by extension, to our Italian division, and to me as liaison with the British Army in Germany. I am happy to tell you that I am alive, unwounded, and, unlike most others who served with that unit, not in captivity.
When General Montgomery’s headquarters came under attack by German forces, I happened to be on an errand to the 1^st Italian division in Alsace. A stray artillery shell hit my jeep, and we crashed into the ditch. My driver was dead immediately. Poor Paolo! He’d been with my all this time since Sicily. Frankly, I write this letter to you so I can postpone writing the one to his parents. What am I to tell them that will not just give them grief?

Bulletin of the Soviet 50th Army (USEAAR, #22)

This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) and therefore entirely fictitious.
Comrades of the Soviet Fatherland!
Under the direction of our generalissimo Stalin, we have waited in the Pripet marshes until the fascists made their dastardly move into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. While our comrades-in-arms have stopped their attack, we have come out of the bog and struck against their flanks. The 2^nd Shock Army has conducted a preparatory attack for us which has given us the maneuvering space to annihilate a Hungarian formation tasked with guarding their supply lines. As our front in the south holds firm, we will encircle and annihilate the German Army Group Ukraine before the summer is over. From then on, our battle-cry will be: To Berlin!

You can see the current state of affairs in the game in the Twitter thread:

And in the center, the Soviets take back Brest and threaten a breakthrough into Poland. A slugfest is to be expected there. #USEAAR @gmtgames pic.twitter.com/CWgSUpYHzL

— Clio's Board Games (@cliosboardgames) March 13, 2020

Declaration of the Stavanger chapter of the (Norwegian) Labor Party (USEAAR, #21)

This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) and therefore entirely fictitious.
Norwegians!
We have not come to war, and yet war has come to us. For the forthcoming fight, the Stavanger chapter of the Labor Party declares:

Letter of Congratulation on the Italian Campaign (USEAAR, #20)

This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) and therefore entirely fictitious.
Written by Gianni Rossatti, Counsellor of Embassy in the Italian diplomatic service, posted at the Italian embassy in London

London, February 24, 1942

To Salvatore Graniti, currently posted as a liaison with the British Army in Italy
My dear Salvatore,
I have no idea where this letter will reach you. In November, you had just crossed into Calabria, in December, you were in Apulia already, just to embark again, and land in Trieste in January. Having just taken Venice, as I hear, I assume you will be half the way to the Reich Chancellery by now.

Minutes of the Wannsee Conference on the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” (USEAAR, #19)

 

This post is part of a mostly fictitious after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) . The document in question, however, is authentic. Government and SS officials met on January 20, 1942 to coordinate the implementation of the genocide of the Jewish people of Europe. The translation from the German original is mine.

Classified Reich Matter!

Minutes of the Meeting

I. Attendees of the meeting held in Berlin, Am Großen Wannsee no. 56/58 on January 20, 1942, on the final solution to the Jewish question:

Report on the crossing to Italy (USEAAR, #18)

This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) and therefore entirely fictitious.

Written by Salvatore Graniti, Secretary of Legation in the Italian diplomatic service, assigned as liaison officer to the staff of the British Army in Italy

Palmi, November 1, 1941

To his Excellency the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Italy
Sir,
the following report on the military progress of the forces of the Kingdom of Italy and those of our esteemed ally, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in the Italian theater of war is most humbly submitted to you.
I am pleased to report that we have taken the initiative and crossed an entire army into Calabria. The German forces have been forced to retreat. The commander of the British Army in Italy, Lt. Gen. Bernard Montgomery, is confident that we can hold the bridgehead over the winter and threaten flanking attacks either into Lazio or into Apulia early in 1942.

Commissar Order (USEAAR, #17)

This post is part of a mostly fictitious after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) . The document in question, however, is authentic. The Commissar Order detailing the execution of Soviet prisoners of war was given to the Wehrmacht in preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The translation from the German original is mine. The emphases in the original (underlined) have been preserved.

Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars

In the struggle against Bolshevism, it is not to be expected that the enemy conforms to the principles of humanity or international law. Especially the political commissars of all kinds as the real agents of resistance are to be expected to treat our prisoners hatefully, cruelly, and inhumanely.

Letter from Rebeka Kwitecka to her sister Chana Rosen (USEAAR, #16)

This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) and therefore entirely fictitious.

Warsaw, August 13, 1941

My dear Chana!
I will be very brief: I hope you, Meir, and the children are well. Myself, I am unharmed. There was not so much fighting in the Old Town, and things have calmed down over the last few days. However, I have a request, if it is not too much to be asked:

Roosevelt’s Address to Congress after the Attack on Pearl Harbor (USEAAR, #15)

This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) . However, the text is not fictitious – Franklin D. Roosevelt gave this speech after the historical Japanese attack. All I changed is the date.

June 8, 1941

Mr. Vice President, and Mr. Speaker, and Members of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Yesterday, June 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Diary entry of Erzsébet Trócsanyi (USEAAR, #14)

 

This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) and therefore entirely fictitious.

Budapest, April 10, 1941

The minister has met with the ambassador of Germany again. Once more, the ambassador has encouraged the minister to make the full claims to regain the parts of Greater Hungary which are under Romanian administration since the end of the Great War. The ambassador assures us that Germany will back Hungary against the Soviets and the likely Romanian puppet regime they will install once they have taken Constanţa. Of course, the minister has noted that Germany has supported the Romanians and Latvians with some old tanks and the Estonians and Lithuanians with nothing but empty words. „None of those“, said the ambassador, „had a direct connection to mainland Germany“. He does have a point. If Germany wants to fight, they certainly can, especially as France is defeated and Italy on the ropes.