How the Axis could have won II. Allied AAR

[warspite1]

I don't really understand what is going on in the desert. The engineer seems to have stopped building the fort. But I can't get him to re-start as the option is all greyed out [&:]

[warspite1]

15th September 1940

No words. Just no words.

[warspite1]

22nd September 1940

The British launched Operation Catapult to destroy French naval units in Mers-el-Kebir if the commander refused any one of four choices given to him. Sadly the French refused to take any of the options offered and the British opened fire, sinking the Bretagne and killing over 1,000 French sailors in the process. French naval units in Egypt and in the UK were seized while the battleship Richelieu was attacked in Dakar.

As per real life I agree to launch the operation here. In response the French bomb Gibraltar.

[warspite1]

22nd September 1940

The Free French fight back! I am asked if I want to launch Operation Menace - an attack on Dakar. I say yes as per historical. The attack was unsuccessful as the French authorities in Senegal were not interested in joining de Gaulle and fought back. However, here I seem to have had more success as I have received a chunk of MPP [:)]. Elsewhere de Gaulle's mission to convert Vichy territory has met with more success.

[warspite1]

22nd September 1940

Reinforcements

None

MPP Expenditure

UK - The CV's are upgraded to Advanced Aircraft 2, the RAF units in the UK are upgraded, the army corps in the UK are fully upgraded
USA - Nothing
USSR - Nothing

[warspite1]

22nd September 1940

United Kingdom

The 2nd British and 2nd Canadian Escort Flotillas find a wolf pack and inflict some losses on the U-boats. However the 1st Canadian is unable to get to the scene quickly enough.

The Canadian Corps heads alone for Egypt, while the Maritime bomber delivered to Canada has also been sent to North Africa.

[warspite1]

30th September 1940

Nothing much to report on the German/Italian front. I notice signs of a build up in the east, intelligence shows a possible Balkan incursion and that is about it. My gut feel about a Sea Lion operation was perhaps wrong? Still confused as to why the Kriegsmarine surface forces have been so quiet.

Anyway there has been a bit of a party going on chez Berlin - well not so much of a party, more of an intimate get together (Phineas and Ferb fans [;)]).

[warspite1]

14th October 1940

Reinforcements

None

MPP Expenditure

UK - Army, air force and navy units in both the UK and Egypt - just not enough points.
USA - Ground Attack and Command and Control are researched
USSR - Nothing

[warspite1]

14th October 1940

The Desert Rats get some tanks! Hussah.


Hello, my name is Arnold

[warspite1]

14th October 1940

United Kingdom

On the northern convoy route the German wolf pack is able to slink away undetected, but further south the newly upgraded British destroyers fall upon two wolf packs..... A bitter battle breaks out and both U-Boats and destroyers are mauled.

[warspite1]

14th October 1940

United Kingdom

That nonsense with the Engineer has blown a bit of a hole in my defensive plans. Sorry did I say plans? That makes it sound like I have the first freakin' idea that I know what the hell I'm doing....

I have the approaches to Alex fortified - and am working on something similar for Cairo. I just need some units to man them!

[warspite1]

25th October 1940

There are more signs of a German build up in the east. I think my Sea Lion hunch was, in hunch terms, a total pile of pig swill. [Note to self: keep your stupid hunches to yourself].

As for the Italians, well they obviously don't expect what happened in real life then? [;)]

[warspite1]

25th October 1940

This well known exchange probably didn't happen but it pretty much sums up Western politicians attempts to understand the eastern European countries - and why they were so damn difficult to understand!

FDR: What’s the King’s name?
Aide: Hungary doesn’t have a King.
FDR: Then who runs the kingdom?
Aide: A Regent by the name of Admiral Miklós Horthy.
FDR: Admiral? Then Hungary must have a powerful navy.
Aide: Hungary has no navy; it doesn’t even have access to the sea.
FDR: Wars are often fought for religious reasons. What’s the main religion there?
Aide: Catholicism, Mr. President. But Admiral Horthy is Protestant.
FDR: Did this admiral declare war on us because of territorial claims then?
Aide: Hungary’s territorial claims are against Romania.
FDR: In that case, did Hungary declare war on Romania?
Aide: No, Hungary and Romania are allies.
FDR: Let me get this straight. Hungary is a kingdom run by a Regent who’s an admiral without a navy, and it is allied with Romania against which it has territorial claims but it has declared war on the U.S. against which it doesn’t.
Aide: That’s right, Mr. President.


Hail the king, er Prince, er Regent...or whatever...

[warspite1]

25th October 1940

Or is Sea Lion back on? This is very different to the last game. The Italians appear to have attacked Greece on their own. Prime Minister Metaxas has delivered his famous Ochi! response to Italian demands and there is no German army that annihilates the Greeks before the war gets going.

No attack on Yugoslavia and no appearance, as yet, of the Afrika Korps. What is going on?


[Greek soldier]:Lets hope Capitano Scarlato is in North Afrika....

[warspite1]

5th November 1940

United Kingdom

Just as I ask where the troops are coming from, Egypt explodes!! Too many units remain understrength but it looks a whole lot better...

[warspite1]

5th November 1940

A unit arrives in the UK under the destroyers for bases agreement. This is understrength but its bodies on the ground so no one is complaining!

[warspite1]

5th November 1940

Reinforcement

Soviet Union

II Corps in Kaunas and IX Corps in Lvov

MPP Expenditure

UK - Every MPP point is spent building up the army in Egypt - and a few spare MPP are utilised by the Greeks.
USA - Nothing
USSR - Nothing

[warspite1]

5th November 1940

United Kingdom

The two British destroyers in the Western Approaches have a disappointing time against the one wolf pack that hung around - a 1:2 expected turned into a 2:1??? As a result the British destroyers have both abandoned the line and headed back to the UK for repair.

In Greece the Macedonian Army begins to head back toward Athens in order to shorten the line.

[warspite1]

16th November 1940

"Curiouser and curiouser!" Cried Alice

The attack on Greece appears to have stalled. It looks like Corfu may have been occupied but otherwise there was nothing that turn. Yugoslavia remains virgo intacta and there is no movement in North Africa. I now suspect that the Germans are going to pile everything into an early Barbarossa. That's my guess anyway.


Where have all the Italians gone,
Long time passing.....

[warspite1]

16th November 1940

Romania throws its lot in with the Axis. Frankly they would rather go to war with Hungary but Antonescu is playing the long game. He believes that by proving herself to Germany, Romania will make good her losses of territory and more.