1939 N/D
The Allies begin delivering resources, with both France and the CMWLTH lending China a resource each, the US generously declares 4 oil resources to help the French war effort, asking the CMWLTH to ship them. Having won the initiative and rolled snow for weather the French took a no cost Land to bolster their line in the snow. A speculative strat bombing was rewarded with a 10 against Nuremburg costing the GERM a valuable build point. The CMWLTH took a Naval to ship additional troops to reinforce the BEF in Belgium, escort their convoys and fly a FTR and a NAV into the North Sea to deter German Naval intervention. A long rng search for the Baltic convs fails to find them – they are there somewhere! The Netherlands Ftr is shipped to Gibraltar as the only Allied ftr in the Med. Russia moved units to Finland building up its forces on the border lands and Zhukov continues to co-ord training exercises on the borders of Persia prompting complaints from Tehran and letters requesting support to the CMWLTH Govt, which are promptly ignored. China moves a few land units, somewhat relieved that the Allies won the initiative and rebased their solitary Ftr ‘down south’ where the action is likely to be.
Axis impulse sees GERM take a naval sailing his fleet, tpts and Amph into the Baltic Sea and loading troops for the anticipated and predicted invasion of Norway – their troops on board having stocked up on sea sick pills are desperately hoping that the weather clears. A coastal U-Boat sails into the N Atlantic on a speculative search for the Allied convoys, no luck for the commander other than not being found by the escorting CAs. Japan takes a combined to throw multiple acft at the Chinese line, in a string of average dice rolls the bi-wing Chinese air force slips through the defensive Jap Ftrs and bounce a bomber shooting it down with its pilot – nice start to the air war in China, it is rumoured that these are pilots from the US. No success in their GS the Japs make do with a 10:1 attack on a Chinese partisan claiming victory.
The Allies 2nd Impulse sees a clear weather roll of 1, “that is not supposed to happen” say the French player shaking his head – Clear everywhere – GERM smiles and Norway flinches. Since their front line is already triple stacked, France takes a naval and sails it ships on escort duties and its subs into Italian waters to deter the Italians. The British take a Combined and successfully GS the GERM in Belgium to shut down offensive action, Belgium and Antwerp are now triple stacked, and the Belgium Mil (Res) arrives as rear area security to garrison British airfields. Russia and China do little – China did concede one hex and stepped further into the mountains leaving a rear guard in the mountain hex, with the US doing even less.
Axis 2nd Impulse and GERM DOW v Norway with no interest from the US Senate who are in winter recession. With the previous poor British dice roll for mining Norwegian waters and the 39 DOW – NO Norwegian units set up and GERM lands their forces without firing a shot, they land directly on Oslo capturing the city – just as well it was empty (1 point) as they rolled a 5! So far, the Germ Army is not performing well against European Minor country armies with rolls of 6 v Amsterdam, 4 v Brussels and 5 v Oslo – not an auspicious start to their European venture. No action in France as their GS acft were both shot down with their pilots by the French air-force for no loss, the GERMs lost a Ftr and Ftr Bomber, with no inversions and triple stacked stacks facing them, they declined to attack. Japan attempted further GS against the Chinese line, and with little success waited for the reinforcements to arrive - they attack the Chinese rear guard in the Mountains on a +8 and roll top of the table - their lucky high rolls must on average run out soon. Italy, remained inactive, although they have redeployed a land unit into Sardinia and sent more acft, North to the French border.
Allied 3rd impulse and another low weather roll 3 - Clear in the Temperate – that is now 7 clear weather impulse in 1939, 5 in S/O and 2 in N/D. CMWLTH takes a Naval and sails Corps into Narvik and Trondheim, in a nice trap sprung by the GERM one of the loaded tpts is intercepted by a patrolling U-boat in the North sea, and in the subsequent search the Germ reacts a Nav and finds on a 4 with a CMWTH roll of 9 – with only a 1 factor CVP protecting the loaded tpt – things looked very untidy for the Brit, the GERM had a 6 factor Ftr, a Nav and a U-boat in the 2 box with 6 points of surprise! It was looking very bleak, especially when the 1 factor CVP was shot down with double 1, 'snake eyes', there goes the aircover for what it was, but the lady luck intervened with the British return fire being another double 1, 'snake eyes' again as the GERM Nav is shot down as well – two double 1’s in the same round of combat, saving the British from a potential embarrassing multi round naval combat. Aggrieved the GERM player was, and not unreasonably so. Pushing his bad luck, the GERM searched again with his patrolling U-boat which was found by the British fleet and promptly sunk with all hands. Norwegian Tpts and 13 conv points arrive in the UK to help the allied war effort. Russia strats a further unit to the Finnish border and China awaited the Japanese assault that was sure to come with the clear weather of N/D and the Jap build up.
However, the Allies having had enough of this clear weather, roll a 1 to end the turn, just as well there was no Oslo garrison as the Germ would not have conquered Norway! The US senate busily enacts a Christmas sitting and gifts 50 old destroyers to the British – oh happy days, and a welcome Christmas present to Churchill. They also pass acft builds for the Chinese and send Ed Murrow to London. None of these actions seem to annoy the Axis governments or the people of the US with no tension is generated. Rebases, builds and a partisan roll of 1 generates no partisans although, in India there were murmurings of resentment and discontent in the outer regions. Japan as its last act of the night demands the closure of the Burma road which incenses the US Senate as it interrupted their Christmas celebration, the Jap pool gets a chit.
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