Doublecross: Allied Perspective

[Chocolino]

December 1st, 1941

Comrade Stalin finally made long promised reinforcements from Siberia available to the Western front. It is urgently needed and after deploying the troops it looks still way to little to cause any major changes in the situation. The Germans are still happily expanding in Russian territory and our only hope is the the coming winter. The effect should be noticeable starting next turn.

[Chocolino]

January 1st, 1942

Winter and its effect on the Axis forces has started and ew can retake Pskov. The Axis seems to have abandoned the attack on Tallinn for the moment. The situation in Romania is very sad indeed.

[Chocolino]

February 1st, 1942

The USA has joined the Western Allies in their effort to thwart Axis expansionism. We court Portugal and if successful can use it as a base for an attack on the Iberian Peninsula. (So far and according to our rules, the USA was computer controlled as long as they remained neutral which lead to them buying a somewhat unbalanced force mix which we found in the deployment screen. No research has been conducted so far.)

[Chocolino]

February 16th, 1942

The Russian winter offensive has not been successful yet despite a serious attempt to encircle a large group of Axis units. News from Bulgaria and Romania is depressing. Eventually we will have to deal with the southern front as well.

[Chocolino]

March 1st, 1941

The chance to damage the Wehrmacht in Russia has passed after a German retreat to a tighter front line. But our diplomats have finally succeeded to sign up the Portuguese. We will use Lisbon harbor as a base for a US lead Iberian campaign. Attacking Spain has pros and cons of course. For example there are no major PP centers in Spain and it may be later difficult to cross the Pyrennean mountains into France. But the fact that we don't have to conduct an amphibious landing in hostile territory when shipping units to Lisbon is a huge advantage. We can also threaten Gibraltar and, if successful, open up the Med. again with many new options.

[Chocolino]

March 16th, 1942

We stop our winter advance in Russia and prepare for a long hard summer '42. We can only hope that the US attack on Spain diverts some Axis resources in addition to the destruction of the strategic bombing campaign. But we are not sure if we can do enough to save Russia.

[Chocolino]

April 1st, 1942

The Axis forces renew their terrible drive into the Russian heartland. The Russian leadership is very concerned but their strongest ally has already started a relief offensive in Portugal and cannot do much more to help them further.

[Chocolino]

April 16th, 1942

The attack on Spain draws some first serious units away from the East Front. So far the effect is still small, though. The Axis also tries to interrupt supply convoys to Lisbon and some naval battles occur of which we know only our own losses which are not very meaningful by themselves.

[Chocolino]

May 1st, 1942

So far our progress in Spain is satisfactory. We hope that our latest move on Madrid will finally catch some more Axis attention. But the situation in Russia is as depressing as it has been before the winter 41/42 while at the Romanian Russian border an Axis breakthrough can probably not been prevented any more because of lack of new units necessary to fill the huge gap there.

[Chocolino]

May 9th, 1942

The German army is very successful in Russia so far. We don't have the resources to stop it head on. Hence we try our luck by fighting local battles against the German screen. But opportunities are few and far in between. We are happy to see also that the German had to deploy a tank corps in Spain. Every unit not active in Russia is a blessing.

[Chocolino]

May 16th, 1942

The invasion of Spain gets now Axis attention to a much higher degree. While we would have like the Iberian campaign to be easier, it is overall much better these Axis units are in Spain rather than in the Soviet Union.

The Germans in Russia continue their unstoppable drive towards Leningrad but we are still holding Pskov. The Red Army has also a small tactical success in surrounding a German tank corps with a surprise attack out of the depth of Russia with their own remaining armored force.

[Chocolino]

May 24th, 1942

The Red Army is helpless against the strong German forces moving on towards Leningrad. We try to distract the German lines elsewhere so that (hopefully) many potential attackers must screen the remainder of the long front. Together with the necessity of German troops in Spain and the still ongoing UK strategic bombing of the Reich, we hope to bring the German advance to a halt eventually. But we have miscalculated already on several occasions in this game.

[Chocolino]

June 1st, 1942

We continue to suffer in Russia and get increasingly worried if and when it will be stopped. In Spain, the US brings in more aircraft and further land units but makes no additional attacks this turn.

[Chocolino]

June 9th, 1942

The Axis and US exchange blows in Spain with the Axis successful in the north and the US in the south. Desperation sets in in Russia as one city after the next surrenders.

[Chocolino]

June 16th, 1942

Nothing new in Russia. The Red Army gets pushed around as usual and looses ground. And the summer is still young. In Spain the US tries to keep the Germans in the western half to protect its aircraft.

[Chocolino]

June 24th, 1942

A calm turn in Romania and Portugal. The Red Army still relies on local diversionary strikes to slow down the German advance. We hope that Western Allied attacks will eventually cause the Axis to run out of resources. But we are not nearly there yet. We abandon Lend Lease in order to strengthen the attacks in the West.

[Chocolino]

July 1st, 1942

The Axis can at the moment afford to hold the front in Spain and advance still speedily in Russia even though their income is curbed by British bombing. We hope that once the US air force is complete in Portugal, we can win this campaign. For the moment the north Portugal airbases are safe again.

[Chocolino]

July 9th, 1942

The Russian relies still on fast mobile action into the inevitable German line gaps. We have to admit that aside from a few local victories, this has not been very successful so far since Axis units can very flexibly adjust to these incursions. In Portugal, the US has now enough forces to fan out and stretch the Axis line as well.

[Chocolino]

July 16th, 1942

The Americans have to deal with much more resistance than anticipated. In a sense this is good as it draws strength from Russia. (The Germans are still very successful there, though). As we step up our air attacks, the Axis suffers proportional losses here which are expensive. Germany and Italy have each two air armies deployed for a total of four. The Italians are L3 and the Germans L2. In order to not loose too much in air to air battles, we need now go through time consuming air upgrades first for all air units arriving in Portugal.

The front in the desert is still stable and in Russia we loose more cities.

[Chocolino]

July 24th, 1942

Even though the Germans are a bit thin in Russia now, they have still enough to push forward in areas where they concentrate and can hold everywhere else.