World in Flames via FB - 49

Some summer reading.

AUSGAME2021 LONG POST FULL DAY SESSION AND SOME.

M/J 1944 – ANOTHER EARLY EOT – THE AXIS GET A HELPING HAND!

Allied 3rd Impulse – USA, CW and Russia take land actions, China an air, and France a Comb. France’s naval move sees the Dunkerque sortie into the E Med to search for the Italian BS in the 2 box, the French/Allies fail to find (5) but the Italians roll a 2 and elect to fight the 0 box – the 2 x CW BS that had provided SB to CW land units in Egypt. In a very brief engagement between opposing BS and their escorts, the KGV saves an X and is sent to the damage pool whilst the Italian CA Pola is sunk. The Italians not wanting to risk another roll, abort to Syracuse.

PTO - the Chinese fly into the China Sea, to search for the Japanese Strike fleet and find rolling a 2, the Japanese a 3 – with no shifts it is a straight fight between the two fleets. The air war is chaos as mostly bounces are rolled with CVPs from both sides being destroyed in the complex bounce combat. The Japanese clear 2 bombers through and elect a Kamikaze attack against the US invading forces, they target the Tpt which still has MacArthur on board and succeed in getting through the AA – the tpt fails its save and blows up, taking GEN Mac and his staff to the bottom of the sea – he won’t be back! The US clears 3 bombers through and sink the CV Hirya and damage another, as the Japanese AA is superb, shooting down a US CVP. Both sides elect to stay, Japan hoping to find the inverted US Amph and BS in the 0 box. The US roll another 2 – startling everyone, including himself and the Jap a 5 – a shift to the US and the two, now depleted CVPs engage each other again. More acft are shot down in another bloody round of combat, the Japanese inflict a D on a BS but the US win this round as 3 CVPs are cleared through to sink the CV Kaga, Damage another and sink the CAs Atago and Maya. The Japanese CV capacity is smashed as they limp back home – their Midway by any other name. 8 Jap and 7 US CVPs have been destroyed in these combat rounds as well as several land based acft. Chinese acft GS the remaining two stacks in China and redeploy acft – no attacks as they had chosen an air action.

ETO – land actions by the Western Allies see further GS on the GERM defenders, little success other than further GERM interceptors are shot down – again all pilots survive, the GERM Pilot count is now an impressive 14. The Forrest hex on the Brest Peninsular is blitzed with a top of the table (TOTT) roll at ordinary odds of +9 destroying an Italian and GERM defender – the Allies advance ARM and MECH into the hex as they now have access to the open plans of Western France. In the South, the US led by Clarke and supported by ENG and FTRS assault the city of Lyon. The Axis contested this attack with massed air sending the last of their ETO bombers to support the defenders. The air battle favours the Allies as two Axis bombers and an Italian Ftr are destroyed – all pilots surviving. The city Assault is exactly a 23 with odds and a solid roll as the Lyon falls for the loss of two GERM Corps (GAR/INF).

Russia launches three attacks as Rokossovsky is reinverted using 4 Russian O-Points. The three-hex attack against Army Gp North sees a TOTT roll destroying two Axis Corps. In the South a blitz attack again takes the hex inflicting losses on a Corps and a Hvy AA Gun and overrunning an acft – no pilot for the GERM this time as they are captured in their mess hall drinking Ersatz coffee and vodka. The third attack is only a marginal roll against a single Rumanian Inf in a swamp – although it takes the hex, the 2/2 result cost the Russian two units but importantly the Axis also and the Russian gains the swamp hex, dislocating the Rumanian River defence. Stalin is pleased for the first time as mounting losses in both Axis land and air units bode well for the J/A turn.

The first EOT Roll for the M/J turn and yep – the Allies roll a 1 to end the turn, at the first opportunity – no long turn for a M/J with only 3 Allied impulses! Worse for the Allies, with them starting and ending the turn the initiative shifts to the +2 so the Axis, who will start the only guaranteed clear weather turn with a +2, winning ties and no Allied rerolls. As predicted some two gaming years earlier the Axis can still win this game if they get short and bad weather turns, more so if they get both – and in M/J this is another one!

Partisan roll sees little interest despite the 44 two dice roll, rebasing and production. Germany having 14 Pilots elects to retrain 7 of them for 7 BPs, helping to compensate for the loss caused by the Allied strat bombing. Still building at 34 BPs she is able to replace some of her losses from this turn - 72 BPs mostly MIL/GAR, a few Divs and low-grade INF – note no ARM/MECH were destroyed this turn.

Egypt is liberated as Cairo is now in Allied hands although the Suez is still blocked by Axis ‘stay behind’ forces, which will be eliminated next turn. In France, three French cites/factories (Toulouse, Lyon, Marseilles) and a French resource is handed back to the Free French – they now have some of their 39 homeland back and anxiously await the liberation of Paris to re-establish France – Politicians and Generals in the temporary capital of Brazzaville start to pack boxes and their families for the move back to Paris from the sweltering heat that has been their home in the Congo for the last three years.

Reinforcements are placed with the GERM again prioritising the Western Front as Hitler is very concerned that if the Western Allies win the initiative, a large part of the GERM Army will be trapped and eliminated on the Brest peninsular. Italy places 5 x Ftrs in Italy from her previous built up reserve of acft – hoping to influence the air war and defend the skies over Italy and if demanded, France.

The losses for the Axis have been large, the Japanese CV fleet has ceased to exist as they lost 8 CVPs and three CVs – the Imperial Japanese Navy now a shadow of its former self will now be relegated to opportunity targets, especially in bad weather impulses. The Axis air losses – 25 acft is enormously significant and is probably a turning point in the game as it will create opportunities for the Allied air-forces, especially the Russian as there is now only a single Axis land bomber on the Russian Front, with only a handful of fighter and naval bombers. The Axis ability to GS and provide ground support will be minimal. In contrast the Russian air-force has increased rapidly and will now dominate air actions on their front.

J/A 1944 – Lady Luck gives the Axis an early if not well wrapped Christmas gift

Initiative roll – another important one, and the Axis fail to win their first roll and immediately demand a reroll and win the J/A initiative. Weather roll is a 6 – fine weather – storm in N Monsoon. The Allies groan as the GERM Army on the Brest peninsular could have been isolated and eliminated, costing the Axis 10 Corps and 3 Divs – these will now escape and form a defensive line as GERM ARM/MECH also arrive from German reinforcement cities. Russia had multiple Blitz attack opportunities from several four-hex attacks which had little or no Axis air-cover. Again, these units will now withdraw in good order and form another defensive line behind rivers and in mountains and forests of Eastern Europe. The Axis breath a huge sigh of relief as they escape to fight another day, they redeploy reinforcing aircraft, and prepare for the last guaranteed clear weather turn of 44, knowing they have the initiative and the knowledge that both Japan and Italy will be happy to pass in J/A to help end the turn early.

GERM and Italy take a land with Japan taking a combined. Japan sails its submarines into four sea areas hunting unescorted Allied convoys – typically for Japan they fail to find any, one is found and sunk. Their second naval move seas acft and shipping sail to the Sea of Japan to protect the supply to Korea. In the East the GERM line steps back several single hexes taking full advantage of the freedom of action afforded by winning the initiative. They triple stack where they can and defend the Vistula River and a defensive line hinged on Lvov. With few bombers there are no GS and the 6 factor rail gun is packed up and railed to Warsaw Poland as the defensive line in East Prussia stiffens as the line is shortened. In the West the Axis start an orderly withdrawal and form a line on the Loire, Saone and Rhone Rivers as reinforcing MECH and ARM arrive from GERM. Several MIL are pushed forward to act as rear guards to absorb the Allies first impulse attacks Reinforcing Ftrs are rebased from both Germany and Italy.

Allied 1st impulse – Super Combined for the US and the CW, Russia a Land/Air and France a Comb. In a long and complex impulse, the bulk of the Western Navy’s sail, the US TF17 sails of the Italian coast under the cover of several long rng Ftrs, the British Force Z sail into the W Med, the MED Fleet into the E Med and the Home fleet and TF11 return to the North Sea embarking Marines and MOT Inf on Amphs to invade Western Europe. Transports from the US and the UK arrive in France disgorging ARM, INF and landing ACFT, both Ftrs and Land bombers. Some 15 GS are conducted by the Allies with mixed results but enough that a number of HQs and ARM/MECH become flipped. Allied attacks by US and CW land units are conservative as they ‘clean up’ three of the MIL/GAR rear-guard units with mostly automatic odds for no loss and no inversions, with ARM/MECH advance hard up against the GERM defensive line.

The invasion of Sicily occurs just south of the minor port of Trapani by US Marines and CW Paras supported by Acft and SB from US BS off the coast of Italy. The Amph and supporting BS are forced down to the zero box. In Greece the OOS port of Kerkyrais is invaded by US Mot Inf threatening Albania and the Islands of Lemnos and Euboe are secured by CW Divs from the E Med. The Suez is cleared of Axis units and now open for Allied naval movement. A US Marine Div takes Diego Suarez to secure the port. On the ETO, Russia air land was disappointing with only a few of the Axis corps inverted from the massed GS – and a 6 factor Sturmorvik was shot down despite being well escorted. Not much return for a Russian Air action, although it allowed all Russian acft to rebase forward. This is important as the Ground Atk and Ftrs are mostly short range and will be well positioned for the next impulse. A Strat bombing of the Rumanian oil sees 2 facilities production halted. Russia launched four attacks with average rolls 7, 11, 10 and 10 resulting in losses on both sides but the majority of Axis units being retreated or Blitz’d back to Germany for the loss of a Russian Div and mostly half inverts. The worst attack was in the Baltic with a poor 7 on a +7.3 Blitz for a final 14 for 1 loss each, and the best was in central Poland against Guderian on a +12.3 Blitz for a final 22 which saw Guderian sent back to Berlin with a please explain session with Hitler. Despite only moderate rolls, the Axis line is struggling with losses and units sent to the spiral opening up holes in the line which will be difficult to plug, especially as many of the quality reinforcements went to the Western Front.

Axis 2nd impulse – fortune favours the bold – the Italians strike back GERM and Italy take land actions and decide to defend forward of the River Seine as Von Bock had been flipped on the wrong side and with only 6 O-points left using 5 points to flip an Inf HQ is not value. With that decision made – GERM reinforcements drive forward to support the far bank defence and face off against the Western Allies. The inverted Italian ARM HQ Graziani is stacked with a SS MECH and ATG. The GERM line is ‘firmed up’ as most stacks are double stacked with many triple stacked with Divs. In Russia, having lost several units both to combat and ‘blitzed to spiral’ units are railed to the front from Germany and minor countries as desperate for any unit the GERM strips away garrison units from Greece and Berlin. Stepping back to straighten the line, some hexes are now only double or single stacked as the loss of Divs have made triple stacking the front line impossible except in critical sectors. Reports from the Russian front are becoming ominous and demands for replacements more strident. Additional low value units are sent to Italy to slow the Allies advance up the toe of Italy. The last Axis unit in Sicily heads for the mountains in the North to block access to the Messines Strait and mainland Italy

In the Med the Italian take a Comb and fly acft to the 2 box and sails 3 BS and a CA to search for the US Amph in the zero box. Italian success as they roll a 1 and the US a 6 – the Italian Naval Squadron converts from air and sink the Amph in a hail of 14 inch gunfire. Electing to stay rather than abort, the round continues with the US rolling a 1! The Atlantic Fleet finds the Italians select air, but even with a +4 in the A2A the French 8 Ftr only aborts an Italian Nav – the 4 x CVPs press their attack but superb Italian AA – lowest of 2 sees an 8 and a 10 destroying a US CVP and its Pil – for the cost of the BS Impero and a D on the BS Guilio Cesare. The Italian stays – and the US rolls another 1 – the US find the CA Trento and sink it but not before the Italian Ftr shoots down another US CVP and its Pil – rolled 19 again on the -4 A2A table – the French 8 Ftr rolled another abort. Again the 3rd round and the Italian stays – and the US rolls a 3rd 1 in a row – unheard of for the US. The French Ftr again fails on the +4 A2A table again, aborting the last Italian Ftr – rolled 2 x 8’s and a 13. Summary the Italian lost a BS, CA and 2 x Dam BS for the loss of an Amph, and 2 x Red CVPs and their pilots – an interesting round of combat.

Allied 2nd Imp CW, US and China take land actions. Multiple GS by US Acft inflict inversions on a number of GERM ARM and MECH units limiting the Axis counterattacks and adding +2 to several attacks. A single Strat bombing raid gets badly lost rolling 1 – dumping their bomb load in farmlands of Germany. The British heavy Arm/MECH attack an Axis hex and roll TOTT destroying a The US forces led by Eisenhower similarly blitz another Axis stack South of Paris advancing to the S Bank of the city and in E France another forest hex is taken with a TOTT roll destroying two Corps. In Sicily the last defender, an OOS 3.1 is eliminated as the US advance to the Straits of Messines – Sicily is cleared of Axis units to become an Allied airbase

On the Russian Front, two attacks, the first led by GEN Zhukov's in central E Poland was a +7.6 Blitz for a final 20 and the second a +6.9 Blitz for a final 17. Although they are not TOTT rolls the exchanges are hurting the Axis ability to withdraw in good order and reform a line. China attacks the now inverted central hex eliminating the second last stack of Japanese units in China.

Axis 3rd Imp – GERM Land Italy Combined – Italy sails the BS Roma and Littorio and search for the US fleet of the coast of Italy – rolls a 3 and another find, surprising the US (9) – targeting the CA New Orleans and recently arrived Iowa they sink the CA New Orleans and abort the Iowa class BS Illinois BB-65 back to Marseilles to touch up its paint. – the Italian BS Squadron not wanting to push their luck abort to Trieste joining the rest of the Italian fleet. Japanese sails the Strike fleet into the Sea of Japan to secure the Air-Sea gap to Korea – it also removes the threat to their ships from US port attack. GERM takes a land as he vacates Athens as its defence is untenable now that the Allies have landed on the Greek peninsular. The GERM and Italian land units start to occupy and rail to double stack Italian factory cities as this is now the last objective for the Allies and they must be defended. On the western front GERM land units abort the forward defence and seek sanctuary on the Eastern banks of the River Seine leaving the inverted Italian ARM HQ Graziani to its fate, in Southern France the GERM step back a hex to reinforce its line as Divs are redistributed along its length. In the East on the Russian front the lack of reinforcements (all sent to the Western Front) and high casualties is starting to tell as the GERM struggles to form a cohesive line. He elects to risk manage the Central E Poland sector leaving holes in the line and its defence by single units to absorb attacks in complex terrain. With two HQs bounced back to Berlin supply is starting to become an issue and vulnerability.

Axis attempt an EOT roll, 3 needed, but a 9 definitively hands the Allies another impulse.

Allies’ 3rd Impulse, Russia, the US and CW continue to take lands to keep up the pressure on the Axis fronts. Allied GS are average with some inversions on both fronts. The US declare a +15 Blitz against a mixed Italian/GERM stack North of Vichy rolling TOTT, likewise the CW ARM/MECH launch a +13 Blitz against the inverted Italian ARM HQ Graziani and roll 12 for a TOTT result – both advance as the GERM losses 2 Corps (7 MECH & INF) and two Div ATK Guns – expensive losses, and a short rng 7 Ftr is overrun. The Allies now have two hexes against Paris as they face off against the Axis digging in on the Northern bank of the River Seine in a line that hinges on Switzerland

In the Med US marines cross the Messines Straight and start advancing North up the ‘Italian Boot’. The British occupy the now vacant Greek capital to the welcome of cheering crowds and the 2.4 CW Marine crosses into Bulgaria. The Russian launches three attacks as the turn is likely to end and rolls a TOTT (23) on a +7.8 assault (in woods border Poland Lithuania area) converted to blitz destroying a Corps and ATG. Its second attack at +8.6 Blitz for final 21 sees the units bounced to the spiral creating another hole to be filled, and in a speculative +5.3 Assault in the mountains of Rumania sees another Axis unit eliminated on a final 16 result – Stalin is happy with the Russian progress. This last impulse has seen major successes in Central E Poland as the Axis line has now become porous creating multi hex opportunities, often against Axis minor-Allied units.

In the Pacific little action as the naval war takes a pause to allow Land Ops in Europe the precedence it requires. China takes a land and rails more units into Vietnam as they prepare an attack against Siam. The CW attacks the Siam 1.3 TER in Rangoon, finally liberating Burma. No reprieve for the hard-pressed Axis as the EOT roll is a 5 – the turn goes on.

Axis 4th Impulse weather a 7. The GERM take a land action and Italy and Japan declare a combined. Italian subs attempt to plunder four sea areas and find on all four rolls, rolling 1,1,3 and a 4. However, in a startling round of a searches the RN finally get their act together and find the subs in three of the sea areas, rolling similar dice. The subs pay the penalty of being found in fine weather by Naval air as three are destroyed, the fourth sub attacking a squadron of British BS in the zero box sinks HMS Resolution but is destroyed by 15inch rounds in response. The GERM land sees their army in the West retreat behind the Seine River, leaving behind a sole 7 INF in the mountains North of Lyon – their defence is now set as they await the Allied response. In the East with their front line bending and holes appearing they form a hedgehog defence in Central E Poland using the empty hex defence and defend the Vistula River in the North as Warsaw is now in the front line.

Japan takes a Comb and attempts a massed port strike against four US BS in the minor port of Yakushima, 7 Japanese acft fly but with a 9 rolled the mission is aborted – got lost on the way?

Axis End of Turn roll with a 1! The Axis end the turn Axis little dances and cheers – mutterings from the Allies as the only guaranteed clear weather turn disappears in a dice roll. Partisan roll is a double 6 – partisans turn up in Greece just in time to share in the liberation celebrations – typical, and one in Finland on one of its islands. Rebase, production and reinforcement. The GERM under resource pressure stops shipping resources (2) to Italy, declaring it is on its own although it will ship 1 oil per turn to keep Italy’s air-force active. GERM reinforcements are split equally between the Eastern and Western fronts with each receiving both acft and ARM/MECH reinforcements and a single Stuka each.

* ETO and PTO European Theatre of Operations and Pacific Theatre of Operations

HUGE LOSSES EOT MAY JUNE 1944 AXIS ACFT

Russian Front - hex by hex each exchange and high attack roll by the Russian hurts the Axis significantly - air superiority shifts to the Russian

Army Group North next objective Warsaw

Army Group South and the Rumanian front in dire straits as the line breaks under relentless Russian pressure

Denmark liberated well almost

Sicily cleared of Axis units - next stop Italy

Western Front

France - two hexes on Paris and US and CW pressure mounts.

The forgotten War as the PTO is regulated to a secondary effort as Europe First now takes precedence

Losses JUL AUG 1944 Axis losses mounting