DQ2004's AAR #2 - "Ouch. ...that hurt"

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The US dive bombers hit Zuikaku, which narrowly escapes destruction

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I forgot to take a screenshot of global control at the start of the turn, but here's Axis control at the end of the movement phase in their first impulse of May-Jun 1943. As you can see the Germans (and Turks) are using the Kuibyshev-Tashkent railway to head into central Asia. They have to cross mile after mile of desert. But with no mountains and no HQ's there is nothing the Russians can do to stop them.

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Both sides have now moved significant forces into French North Africa.

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Guderian moves to finally finish off the 'Hero City' of Perm. He destroys the two corps on the flanks first.
Because they cannot retreat, the shatter result is all he needs.

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The US carrier groups in the Marshall Islands launch a carrier strike at Eniwetok, to destroy the pesky Japanese subs based there. But Japanese carrier groups in the Marianas sea intercept them and give them a bloody nose.

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In North Africa, the US decides its time to attack, despite lacking much air power. There was a turn earlier for the US in which I forgot to build pilots, and have been paying for the mistake ever since.

[DQ2004]

The Thunderbolts shoot down the Italian Stukas, but are aborted by the crack Veltro pilots.
The US attack fails.

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In the Bay of Bengal, the Japanese drop Paras on to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, and land marines at Trincomalee. That was a mistake; it's raining after all! The Marines die, but Port Blair falls.

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Cavallero has finally arrived to ensure supply so that Riyadh can be taken. What a pain in the #$$. But seeing Saudi Arabia blue was even more annoying to Mussolini, so it had to happen.

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On the Urals front, Guderian finally siezes Perm. HOwever they have done enough to halt the German advance in the area for the remainder of the turn.

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The pesky surviving army near Ashqabad is also finally destroyed.

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The constant air battles across the Channel continue to take their toll on both sides. The RAF sends bombers to Hamburg, with an escort for the first time. The Mosquitoes take a heavy toll of the intercepting fighters, but they still lose a bomber.

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The Lancasters hit their targets

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The very next Axis impulse sees the Germans attacking England again, another port attack at Liverpool docks.
Again the defending Spitfires are blasted from the sky.

[DQ2004]

This time the Dorniers are more effective, and Courageous and Valiant are sent to the repair pool.

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With just one fighter wing now left (two others are disorganized) to defend all of England, the Germans (doing an air impulse) send bombers to no less than five separate cities. They cannot escort all of the bomber wings, but figure at the worst case they will lose just one unit, and four attacks will have a +1 bonus for not being intercepted.
It is the RAF's worst nightmare; almost complete Luftwaffe air supremacy over England!

[DQ2004]

The RAF decide they will indeed take out one enemy bomber unit, and they elect to save Birmingham from destruction.
The new Typhoons maul the vulnerable He-111 squadrons.

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However, despite the multiple bombing raids, the Luftwaffe pilots, perhaps nervous without an escort, fail to hit anything! Only the two Heinkel units over London (which did have an escort) achieve anything at all. Goering is furious.

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Meanwhile, in Central Asia, von Bock and Balbo decide not to use the Trans-Caspian railway to get to Tashkent. After all they will only have to force a crossing over the defended Amu Darya river, plus because of some strange supply bug they can't use the railway from Krasnovodsk anyway (there is indeed an Italian Convoy in the Caspian Sea, but it doesn't seem to be any help).
So they head across the Kara-Kum and Kyzl-Kum deserts. It will be a tough crossing but on the other side will be Inonu and his Turks coming from the other direction. With no HQ's and no defensible terrain anyway, there's not much that Stavka can do about this.

[DQ2004]

The turn ends. It has been a bloody one for just about everyone.