Sicily to Brenner Pass Revised

[larryfulkerson]

OK. I'm at a decision point and I thought I might as well solicit your input on this one. I have the 505th of the 82nd and I've thought to
maybe drop it somewhere where it will turn the war around and really accelerate progress. I thought maybe I could drop it in such a
way as to help cut off the supply to the German units on the road north. I have proposed drop zones Able and Baker and I'm wondering
which one would be best. Able has the advantage that after the drop we could destroy one or more bridges and then move into the
mountain hexes for better defensive positions. There to await rescue by the ground forces which could be a dozen turns or more.

Or at drop zone Baker where the advantage is the mountainous terrain and much closer to friendly lines. The bad news is that the two
German units there in that semistack is only 2 of the six that constitutes the formation so there's at least 4 more German units that aren't
visible to me yet.

All things considered it might be best to drop bridges using the bombers and forget about this risky dangerous dropping of troops
behind enemy lines. For now.

[sPzAbt653]

... now in T19 I'm seeing a news item about me invading the mainland. I haven't
yet. so Hm.......

I checked the events and it really looks like you have to 'occupy' a hex on the mainland, as opposed to 'attacking' a hex on the mainland. There are possible events for both, but I don't see any 'attacks' events in the event list. So I think you must have a unit somewhere on the mainland for this to happen, or somehow converted a hex at least. It wouldn't be tiggered by partisans as they are not triggered until the mainland is invaded. If you have a save from turn 18 or 19 I can take a look and see if I can figure it out.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's T19's save file. just take the dot txt off the end and you have your sal file.

[larryfulkerson]

So this is what Taranto looks like now. I'm pushing north along the East coast and I'm intending to drop paratroopers along the edge
where there's an airbase and then connect up locations w/ the land combat troops. Maybe it'll go faster that way.

[larryfulkerson]

@Steve: I've been thinking about that "Allies invade the mainland...." thingie. Maybe it's that partisan unit that spawns in Rome?

EDIT: Here's what it looks like on the West coast now. Just a skeleton force and some fresh troops are marching north and the
tired ones are headed south to the nearest port to be sailed to a port w/ lots of supply to refit. Then back into the fray.

I think I've decided to split the peninsula in the middle and put the British stuff on the East side and the American stuff on the West
side and see how that works out. There won't be any British arty trying to defend American troops etc. That doesn't work all that
well. I'd rather see British arty helping British troops and so on w/ the Americans. I wonder how many troops of each nation there
are in the scenario so far. And how much arty do the mutual sides possess? Enquiring minds want to know.

[larryfulkerson]

I guess it's a good idea to clear Sardinia and Corsica because on the latter we spotted a German unit. It's got two lines for the unit
designation so I'm guessing it's a company or a platoon or something small. I can probably take care of it w/o any arty this time.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the strategic situation in T27. I'm advancing w/ the British along the East edge and I intend to turn SW at Foggia so as to run
almost horizontally across the peninsula and trap all the German units in the mountainous middle to be mopped up later. That's the
theory.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what the West coast looks like now. There's more boots on the ground and most all of them are fresh and ready for combat and
they are moving to surround that German group if they can. The 504th of the 82nd was dropped in DZ Able and has the mission to
hold that position pending German reaction. They may have to make their way to the east to get out of trouble. There's troops headed
their way. They just have to hold for another 6 turns or so.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in T29:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the West side in T30. I've dropped some paratroopers ( 82nd ) to the north of the front lines and their mission is to block the
enemy units from advancing from the north. They are just a light screen and aren't to get seriously engaged in combat. They might
need to hold for about 6 turns or so. It'll take at least that long to get some ground troops up there to their positions.

[sPzAbt653]

I've been thinking about that "Allies invade the mainland...." thingie. Maybe it's that partisan unit that spawns in Rome?

Good guess, but not as far as I can tell by looking at the events. I hate to give too much away, but ... the Italians will only surrender if the Allies Invade where they reasonably should. In other words, there is no Italian Surrender tied to occupation of Rome or its immediate environs. I think its an anit-paratroop thing (dropping a unit on the mainland on turn 3 won't make the Italians Surrender, get it ?).

[larryfulkerson]

The East edge is seeing British units moving north at a slow but steady pace. Everybody is trying to maintain about 60% supplies and
60% readiness. Those that aren't are rested.

[larryfulkerson]

I failed to clear the terrain completely and some German units have wandered into my base camps and is nosing around. I've moved
a unit into the base to try to hold it plus some arty and there's planes there too. They ought to be able to hold it until I can get a fresh
unit there to dispatch the Germans.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. The East side is starting to get into the single-digit supply levels and that means that they have to start thinking about moving
horizontally and mostly to the west. The rail is advancing and it will only take five or six turns to get the supply levels higher, high
enough to conduct operations again.

[larryfulkerson]

There's been an unfortunate thing happen just now. I intended to drop some paratroops on a bridge over a river so they could grab it
and hold it until the ground column got there and relieved them of their mission. Well, they dropped adjacent to several German
mechanized units. And of course they split up when they landed so they aren't in the best combat posture. I'm pretty sure they are
going to be chewed up and spit out by the Germans. D'oh.

EDIT: It was important to grab the bridge because Elmer might try to break it and (1) engineers are prescious few and (2) all the
engineers are busy repairing rail and can't be bothered. So to speak.

[larryfulkerson]

The West side is deep in the single-digit areas ( supply-wise ) and it's looking like we've bit off more than we can chew here. Those
paratroopers are having a hard time because of the German arty. I need to see if I can get some arty up there to them and maybe
do some counterbattery stuff.

[larryfulkerson]

So um.....I have a rule of thumb that I follow that says that you don't put your HQ units on the front lines. And that's because they
sometimes contain either command groups ( officers ) or support squads or both and you don't want to lose those. Those things
are important. So here we have a case of an HQ unit that doesn't have any of either so there's no need to exclude it from the front
lines. It's got some good equipment in there that can support defense and I'm thinking I need it on the line right about now.

[larryfulkerson]

And for those of you that are still unconvinced that the HQ unit should go on the front lines allow me to direct your attention to the M9
Bazooka equipment contained in the HQ unit. It's got an AT value of 14 which is higher than a Stuka so I'm pretty sure it will come in
handy to have if the Germans start attacking again.

[larryfulkerson]

I began to doubt the wisdom of having some paratroopers on the front lines next. I wondered how long they might be able to hold the
line there w/ what they are confronted w/ ( mechanized ) so I took a look at one of the regiments and the next and the third and it seems
that they are all similar to this one. It's got bou cou bazookas and pack arty and some AT guns so I'm thinking they might be able to
give a good account of themselves and unless the opposition got any rougher they might be able to hold there for a turn or two. But not
much longer than that I should imagine.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the newest situation on the West side. I need to get some regular combat troops up to the positions of the paratroopers and
there's some really rough terrain on the way to get there creating a bottleneck that I could really do without so I'm thinking that my
next goal should be to see if I can't push those two German units back a little to give me room to move some units through that narrow
path and onto the road north. I've been shuttling units north and south to refuel them or else they wouldn't be able to be here at all. So
this will mean another trip south for some of the attacking units because they aren't in the best of health as it is. Attacking will push them
under 50% supply and then it'll be time to send them south. I'm hoping I don't run out of fresh units too quickly. Those paratroopers
really need the help and this is important.