Sicily to Brenner Pass Revised

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what Messina looks like in T15. We're definately into the siege stage. I'm bringing up the arty to pound it and after a turn or two
of that then we'll try some probes to see what gives.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. Finally in T17 Messina fell and I have control of the city. Now I'm going to move some long range arty into a zone around the
Messina area and have it in range of several potential targets across the channel there. I plan to land there when I invade the boot.
I'm wanting to rest my troopers first to get them up to combat ready status again and then pull the trigger.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. I've landed on the mainland and have moved some units north to scout out good positions for the airborne to land. Then dropped
some paratroopers to protect the north flank and I've got some arty pre-positioned across the channel as well as on the boot. And I've
put the planes predominately on CS missions w/ all the fighters on AS and I'm just about to end the turn and watch the German reaction.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. It's a new turn and the 4th Free French Motorized Mountain Division spawned on Tunisia and I've moved them to the beach they are
to invade this turn. It took most of their MP's to reach the spot they are in so I have to leave their assault to the last thing to do in the
turn. I don't anticipate any problems getting ashore. This is all taking place on Corsica.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. I did some further landings somewhat north of Reggio and dropped some paratroopers and it's looking like I might be ahead of
schedule for a change. I haven't seen much in the way of Germans yet. Some roadblocks and assorted singletons. I'm pressing north
and the next movement via sea might need to include some RR engineers to get started on some supply rail.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the strategic situation now. I'm landing in various places along the coast and trying to get them connected so the LOC can
traverse them all. I'm wondering about the wisdom of landing further north yet. Maybe all the way to Napoli if I can find the troops.
And concentrate on the Eastern half of the island later. Just a thought.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm moving units during my half of T21 and the next thing to move was the 1st Canadian Division HQ unit and I don't intend to land it this
far north by itself or anything, I'm just floating past the next ports to the north that I don't have yet as a recon mission and I find the place
all stocked up by German defenders. So I'm going to have to mount a diversion somewhere to get these guys to move off the port
hexes. Or maybe I could attack that far north and add seaborne forces to a land assault or something. Sometimes you just need a
group of ships to provide some floating arty. Now that I've exposed them ( by floating nearby ) I could pound them by sea with my ships
if I had some ships. I guess I could straffe them w/ the P-40's now that I know where they are.

[larryfulkerson]

So here we are in T21 and there's a brand new partisan unit appearing in the OOB. It's already almost in the spot I need it to occupy
so I'm going to move it that one hex to where the railroads all intersect and I'm going to bust that bridge and then dig in and occupy
Rome. For all the good it might do. As long as I occupy the hex Elmer can't repair the bridge.

Note to Self: Ask Steve why partisans are still showing up. Not that I'm complaining about a way to bust the Rome roundhouse.

EDIT: The bridge was busted and the partisan unit dug in and went to three-dots but on the German turn the partisan unit was
forced to leave the hex and was RBC'd to death.

[larryfulkerson]

OK. I've done all my moves and here's the hot spots.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the strategic situation in T23:

[larryfulkerson]

In T25 I invaded Taranto and dropped some paratroopers on the airfields.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the view of the hot spot(s) in T25. I'm pounding those Germans by air and causing losses each turn.

[sPzAbt653]

... why partisans are still showing up.

I left the one Rome Partisan unit in, its the only one. It seems there was a bit of strife in the Rome area because there were actually several Italian divisions there when the Italians surrendered, and the Germans had to leave a couple divisions there also in case the Italians got feisty. In the end, the Italians didn't fight. So I think leaving that one guy in won't cause any harm. I've been wrong before. [:(]

[FrankieITA]

That was a shameful episode for the Italian Army, a complete lack of preparation of the top level generals.
Italy had more than two Corps around Rome and effectively put up resistance in the days of 9-10 september '43. They didn't resisted any longer because the Italian Army top levels were transferring to Brindisi in the South, leaving no precise orders and therefore no defence organization. Elements of italian units, partisans, civilians, retired officers and even women tried to put a stop to the german occupation, showing acts of extreme valour even if it resulted in a token resistance. The military history of the partisan italian units starts with few units commanded by politicians during this episode.

Speaking about the game, I've seen other scenario representing it with the deployement of the italian units around Rome in Reorganisation mode, maybe for a few turns. Far from saying that this is a better choice, I think is difficult to represent this in game. Maybe leaving that mere partisan unit could be the good thing to do, or maybe may I suggest to only bust a few bridges in Rome to represent partisan and regular logistic sabotage.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: frankieITA
... to ...bust a few bridges.....

Hey that's a good idea. I wonder if there's a way you can get an event to bust a bridge. If so you could get a lot of bridges
busted to represent partisan action by events. It'd take a lot of events though. There must be a better way.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T26 situation.

[larryfulkerson]

I dropped some of the 1st British Airborne Division to the rear of a German defender near Taranto. The search and destroy operations
based in Taranto has found some more Germans in the mountains north of Taranto. I'm looking around for some land combat unit(s) to
send into that AO to block him.

[larryfulkerson]

I dropped some of the 82nd Airborne Division in such a way to cut off and isolate the Germans that are acting as a roadblock on the
way to Paestum. I was moving some recon and found out how "naked" the HQ of the Germans was I decided to drop some paratroopers
to take advantage of that.

[larryfulkerson]

German counterattacks had opened a hole in my lines and I needed to drop the 1st British Airborne Division elements to plug the hole
and provide some backup. It's probably not going to hold any better than the American paratroopers. I'm going to need a regular land
combat unit there actually.

[larryfulkerson]

I've started clearing operations on the island of Sardinia and early on we've run into a fairly sizeable German paratrooper unit. Just as
a matter of luck I happened to have at hand lots of land combat troops to take care of the German unit. I've noticed too that the Axis
Interdiction strikes happen less often lately. I wonder what's happened to cause that?