Sicily to Brenner Pass Revised

[larryfulkerson]

Um.....I've just discovered that TOAW considers the B-26 to be a high altitude bomber. I'm not sure why but that kind of grates
on my personal knowledge gained from watching movies and reading war books, etc. In other words, personal opinion. I was thinking
that the Medium and light bombers were put on the lower altitude missions ( 15K or less ) like airfield strikes and interdiction. I'm hoping
that the label high refers to the AA on this equipment and that as a high altitude bomber it wouldn't be susceptable. AA wouldn't
apply to them in combat. But it would to some lower altitude equipment like the P-40.

[larryfulkerson]

This guy was spotted from the end of the most recent German turn. I'm guessing that the theater recon value is a little bit higher than
normal due to the presence of the aircraft at the field there. I have no proof I'm just guessing but it makes the game a little more
realistic when I think things like that. Anyway, there's probably a lot more German units behind this one that aren't spotted yet.

[larryfulkerson]

I dropped an element of the 1st British Airborne Division ( the 2nd of the 1st or something ) and it split into three pieces when it landed
and this gave me the hex where there is supposed to be an Allied unit spawn in T27. I'm thinking that maybe I can reload the gun by
having the paratroopers reform into a unit and park themselves on the airfield ready to go out again OR I could run them down the road
and convert hexes as fast as they can go. I like both ideas but I'm leaning on the second usage of them.

[larryfulkerson]

I was going to see if I could cut off that German Mechanized unit and discovered a huge stack of German equipment. D'oh. I think my
recon dude is in trouble. I'm going to rain some pain from above and see if I can't even the playing ground somewhat. Lots of CS might
just save my recon dude. Probably not.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T27. I'm still pressing north on the east side and the German Panzers are still a major problem on the west
side and I'm going to try to outflank them and pound them w/ the planes and maybe after a while I can surround them.

[larryfulkerson]

I've surrounded some FJ boys. Paratroopers and boy are they mad. There's another FJ dude to the east and if their designations are
any good intel there's probably four of these units in the wild. So I'll be on the lookout for another two of these guys. I could be wrong.
Your mileage may vary.

[larryfulkerson]

I was able finally, to get a surround on one of the German mechanized units but if I attack then everybody will be low on supplies and
will have to head back to high supply areas. So I'm bombing him from the air.

[larryfulkerson]

There's one more hex to convert to friendly and then the entire island will be Allied. And Sardinia is almost 1/3 converted already.
So there's progress being made.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a view of what has been converted so far on the island of Sardinia. I'm going to ship in a bunch more people to help convert it.
We should be done in about 10 turns or so. Say turn 39.

[larryfulkerson]

I finally cleared out the German roadblocks and now the march is back on. I've made progress w/ the railroad and supply looks pretty
good so far.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the strategic situation in T30. I've dropped some paratroopers on the east coast road to grab a needed bridge and there just
happened to be a German unit nearby so they look like they are going to have to hold the bridge until I can get them some backup and
relieve them of their mission. On the west coast I'm shipping in more troops and more arty so as to be able to hold onto what I have up
there so far. Still no supply for them......maybe I should shift the RR engineers to the west coast road. Decisions, decisions.

[larryfulkerson]

The British Nr. 150 Squadron just went through a tight squeeze and lost a bunch of planes and so I've moved it to Corsica to rest out
the rest of the war. There's only 7 Wellingtons on hand ( in the pool ) and even if Nr. 150 got all 7 of them it still wouldn't be full
strength. And there's more than one unit that has the Welllington equipment so there's no way Nr 150 will get all 7.......more like 1 at
a time ( one per turn ). So it looks like Nr. 150 is going to be a training squadron for a bit. Maybe after a while it'll get enough planes
to send it outbound but not right now.

[larryfulkerson]

Um.....I have been racking my brain lately trying to find ways to bring supply to the West side faster and I've hit upon a clue. The clue is
that it's closer to where the action is going on at the West coast if you measure from Taranto. So I'm thinking I'll just construct a cross-
country rail from Big T and thereby win the war. Sounds good.

[larryfulkerson]

There's this airdrome north of Rome that I've been hitting w/ airfield attacks for the last 3 or 4 turns in a row and each time I somehow
seem to send insufficient numbers of attackers and the target survives each time. D'oh. So this time I'm sending the kitchen sink and
have my fingers crossed. Elmer has parked more and more of his squadrons on AA-equiped hexes and I'm avoiding those for the most
part. The B-25's and B-26's are classed as high-altitude bombers so theoretically I can use them on the air bases where there's an
AA unit with impunity but I seem to be getting a couple of losses each time. I guess some of the AA "power" leaks to the higher
altitudes or something.

[larryfulkerson]

I've recently learned that I've lost a squadron somehow. There's been furballs each turn for about 5 turns now, some I instigated, and
I'm guessing they were all shot down enmass sometime in the near past. I've loaded a previous turn to see what kind of planes they
were and it seems they were Spitfire V's and probably an early model of that. True to tell, I probably shouldn't have been using them
as AS missions. INT might seem more appropriate. They aren't going to respawn is my guess.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the typical use of my aircraft during the first combat round when I go after the Axis aircraft so they won't bother me on subsequent
rounds. It's been working pretty well. Those Axis aircraft that survive the airfield attacks are scheduled for follow up strikes and
continuing monitoring resumes. I actually take a look around the map looking for Axis airplanes and target them when possible if they
aren't sitting on some AA units. Those targets ( with AA units colocationally ) are saved for the B-25's and B-26's as the last round
executed before they get their end-of-turn missions, usually INT or CS for the P-40's and AS for the P-38's and Spitfires. In a previous
play of this game it seems like I started to get some P-47's and I've been looking for some of those but so far no joy.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the West coast in T31. I'm sailing in more and more troops and arty and of course, all of it is still out of supply but so far the
Germans haven't attacked me and I've been pounding them from the air but nothing on the ground. It's all been maneuvor so far.
I'm trying to get a surround on that German grouping and that's proving harder than in the past. But we're working on it.

[larryfulkerson]

Evidently I didn't clear enough of the terrain in the arch of the Italian boot because there's Axis units coming out of the woodwork. I've
spotted two of them but I'm sure there's more. D'oh. Now I have to peel off somebody to chase them down and restore the LOC.

[larryfulkerson]

But the good news is that the supply level on the east coast is conducive for sustained combat operations. I've got to switch the RR
engineers to a rail heading west now to supply the West coast.

[larryfulkerson]

I started off w/ a full partisan unit in the north busted that northmost bridge and then headed south until I got to the road junction and
then the partisan unit split into three smaller parts and went east, west, and south and the survivor of those three finally busted a
second bridge and has picked out his next target. If he gets there.