Sicily to Brenner Pass Revised

[larryfulkerson]

Here in T40 I've got this situation that's come up and I thought I'd share it with you. As an experiment I thought I'd shoot an entire
artillery park worth of tubes at two German HQ units. Just to see what happens. I expect to experience counterbattery fire so I'm
going to do a save game just before the combat round just in case I think the result taints the playtest results, which is probably not very
probable. Probably. Anyway, I'll post the results of the bombardment.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a shot of a situation on the West coast. I've moved some Rangers by submarine just offshore of the beach and the Rangers
are going to infiltrate ashore during the dark of the moonless night. They intend to link up w/ the units adjacent to the front lines and
thereby surround a German unit more better. That's the theory.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the rail I'm repairing headed south right now but there's a horizontal section headed west further south of this shot. You can see
how I've got the regular engineers strung out along the rail. This is so I can get a gauge on how reliable they are at repairing rail and I
estimate that they work about 1/4 of the time when you go to repair a rail w/ them. Approximately. So to go somewhere fast you need a
lot of them. I've left two of them on Sicily to repair the rail from Gala to Messina just so the expected reinforcements that might come in
on Sicily can ride the train to Messina. Other than that it's a waste of time by two of the engineers. I figure I can afford it.

[larryfulkerson]

Oh My ! A situation has come up on the East coast. The New Zealand Division was split into two uneven task groups because of the
surprise presence of some German Armour. The position on the west was supposed to be occupied by the Free French but they were
last seen heading north on the south edge of the left side of this picture. They will be another three or four days before they arrive. So
I need to dig up another formation ASAP to help out the NZ's and stabilize the situation.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a small-arms action going on in northern Italy. The third part of a three-part firegroup party was in dire need to skeddadle
because they were being pressed by the Germans. So they blew the bridge before leaving and left some boobytraps to slow down
the Jerry's and it looks like they may have escaped to the NE. We'll know for sure if we got away if the German pursues or not.

[larryfulkerson]

There's this one engineer unit on Sicily repairing rail from Gala to Messina and he finally repaired one hex of rail. This is T40 and
this is the first time since the teens I think. It happens so rairly I thought I'd document when it happens so we all can get some idea
how often it happens. For the playtest.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the combat result of that artillery bombarding those two German HQ's. As you can see I sent several gaggles of planes to help
out the arty and according to my careful analysis of the results it appears that I lost 1 ( one ) P-47 and the Germans lost a bunch of
stuff. Not too bad for Government work. I think I'll do that again real soon.

[larryfulkerson]

That one Ranger unit came ashore and cut off a couple of German units from their supply. Now to bomb them silly and they will give up.

[larryfulkerson]

It just occured to me that somebody reading this AAR might want to download the scenario and load it up in TOAW to look around
some, maybe push some units around. I've attached it to this post. Just delete the dot text off the end of the file name and unzip it.

[larryfulkerson]

In T41 on the East Coast....I finally captured an intact bridge over the creek north of an active resistance site. And the Free French have
finally started to show up. I'm trying to use them to get the New Zealand Division back together again. And then press north along the
east coast road while sending a formation to Foggia to get the airfields there.

[larryfulkerson]

I may have bitten off more than I can chew by driving onto that bridge. The German reaction has been swift. Two interlocters already
and surely more to follow. There's not enough units nearby to come to the aid of a lonely recon unit so it's not looking so good right
now. There's this picture of a hole in the front lines through which German units pour.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the strategic situation in T42 where I've pressed north on the east side and in the middle somewhat but I'm lagging behind on the
West coast. I'm thinking it's time for another invasion. Anzio looks to be open or largely open and with the use of two or three divisions
I could probably take that place. And that would catch us up on the schedule.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. Here's the West coast now. I've gotten a surround on some of the Germans and I'm forming a sort of front line and I'm planning
an invasion for behind the German line and it worked in rehearsal so I'm optimistic.

[larryfulkerson]

I sailed some British Royal Engineers up to the potential invasion beaches and found Napoli to be the weakest spot w/ the highest
immediate payoff. I'm going to storm the place in the second combat round and see how much equipment I can stack in that one hex
until I can expand the beachead and get a toehold. That's the theory.

[larryfulkerson]

Okay I did the first round, which was mainly the planes flying strikes against specific targets. And now that it's the second round I've
set up the 1st wave for the invasion of Napoli and everything is ready, set, go.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how the invasion went. Of the four units that attacked two made it ashore and I've moved some arty and an HQ from the
second wave stack to Napoli and that's just about all the units I can get into that hex without making it red dense. So that's what we'll
go with for this turn. I hope it goes off okay because I need this to work out.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the invasion beach in T43. I'm using three-dot attacks to try to widen the toehold and make room for more troops. I'm bringing
all the arty I have in the inventory, almost, to this party. and I'm hoping that it'll make the difference in my attacks and enable me to
hold onto what I've gained. Thus far.

[larryfulkerson]

We cleared out the German resistance on the East side and now we're resting up for the push to Foggia. I've got fresh units headed
this way and the supply rail is getting closer so things are looking up for once.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the West side in T44. I've pushed out somewhat and the German units showing up are starting to be the hefty variety. But the
supply situation is excellent so far.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the West side in T46. I've made some more landings near Salerno and I'm pushing from each from in all directions trying to
expand out of the toehold and north from the south front and so on. It's a busy place. Units all over the place moving here and there.