The Sun Also Rises ( D21 )

[larryfulkerson]

I just HAD to take a quick peek at the aircraft losses and I'm finding more bad news.
I'm just about out of on-hand heavy bombers. Well, heavier bombers, I guess they are
medium bombers if the truth be told. Germany doesn't have any operational strategic
bombers to speak of as such. There was talk of the Fw-200 being a candidate and there
maybe were tests conducted but as far as I'm aware there's no German bomber that can
reach the United States east coast, say. And I notice that there's a lot of Axis minor
allies that aren't building any planes any longer. So pretty much, what I have is all
I'm going to get. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

I had gotten in the habit of thrusting units into the nearest position that needed
a fresh body and as a result my southern front lines have gotten mixed up and I'm
in need of getting organized and now that the Rumanians have arrived in the AO I can
stem the flow of the Soviet hordes and replace units in the lines and start to get
the various formations back together. The map will look better and I'll get a little
better performance from the formations. I feel better after I make up my bed too.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T54 front lines before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T55 front lines before I have moved anybody. Not much changed from last time.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T56 front lines before I have moved anybody. Not much change from last time again. I'm waiting out the SWO period before I trigger the advance again.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been sitting still for about 10 turns in a row now and my units are rested up
for the most part and ready for action. The Soviets have been attacking but they
usually lose more than I do because I've got all kinds of arty backing up the troops
and so far the line hasn't had many breaks and I've been able to plug the holes and
repair the damage and we're just about done with the SWO. I'm going to turn
on the advance in select places in the front lines. Mostly in places that have some
supply to spare.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T57 front lines before I have moved anybody.

[larryfulkerson]

The Rumanians have arrived at the AO but a lot of them are out of supplies and need
to loiter on the rails for a couple of turns. The rest of them are manning the front
lines and it's starting to turn the character of the battle. I've stopped the flow
of Soviet units streaming west but due to the SWO I hesitate to try to push
them back. Besides the supply lines are really poor in this area because the rails
aren't anywhere near this spot.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been loosing a lot of my medium bombers and the numbers of on-hand are low so I
thought maybe I should trim the range of the bombers from 100+ down to 40 so that they
cover just the immediate front lines and not much else. I can still assign INT missions
it's just that the INT missions won't fly deep down range.

[larryfulkerson]

There's a supply point near Oreal that I need very badly because the supply levels
are really poor in this AO. So I'm pressing for the supply point as a first priority.
I have no hope that the rail will be repaired to this area any time soon so the
supply point is the next best thing.

[larryfulkerson]

There's another supply point down south near Stalino that I need to get as a priority
and the soomer the better because this area is where the supply is the worst. I've
got multiple RR engineers working on it and they haven't moved in three turns. RR repair
is slow in the winter evidently.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the T59 front lines before I have moved anybody. There's been several breakthroughs that I'll have to address
and fixup and the rails are getting closer to the front lines in the south so the supply level is rising slowly.
I've been pounding the stacks of Soviet units near the Kerch Strait and I'm going to start attacking with the
Bulgarians soon. See if I can't force that crossing.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what the northern front lines look like right now. That one berserk Soviet
unit is surrounded but the weak spots can't really be counted as being contained in
any sense of the word. The unit is so large it can fight it's way to freedom and
my backfield. This is what happens when you don't have a reserve.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's how ferocious the Soviet attacks were this turn. There's been several holes
made in my lines and some serious breakthroughs and I may have to pull back in a
couple of places. My boys are really tired and worn down after all the fighting and
I get the "feeling" that the force isn't as strong as it was at the beginning. I'll have
to do a survey of the infantry divisions to get an accurate feel of the boys.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the front lines in T60 before I have moved anybody. I've marked the places
where the Soviets have broken through my lines making a hole and some of them are
serious. I don't have any reserves for these places so I may have to pull back in
a couple of places. I hope this doesn't start a trend.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a quick peek at the losses so far and it's a good thing I looked because I'm
below my limit on HRS's for the force. I wanted to stop attacking when the number
assiged reached 36K but it's way lower than that and this means the units are weaker
than desired so I'll stop attacking NOW except to plug the holes and so on. That
way it might not go much lower and I can give the units a chance to fill back up
with replacements and be a stronger unit because of it.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a look at the air losses so far. I've got a lot of Me-109's on hand and I'm
wondering if they aren't losing so many lately or if the units aren't getting their
reinforcements like they should or what. So I've moved them to three-dots and that
should increase the Soviet losses quite a bit, as well as mine of course.

I'm thinking of concentrating the bombers on CS and specifically for the breakthroughs
to help fix the front lines. Direct attacks on specific enemy units. HQ's and arty
and tanks. I'll move the Stukas to better positions and get the front lines covered
better.

The character of the game has changed again. At first I outgunned and outmanned the
Soviets and the going was a lot easier. Now, the Soviets have fortified front lines
backed up by arty and with rails and interior lines and I can't even get the rail to
connect north to south along the front lines. It's difficult to move troops to where
they need to go. Quickly.

My biggest problem is supply. It's cronically too low.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's one of the really bad spots for supply. I'm going to have to pull back all
these guys to better supply. Give up ground I've fought for just to be able to
stand my ground better.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the northern front lines right now. Lots of my unit are tired and worn down
and it's getting more difficult to hold back the Soviet hordes. The lines are fluid
and dynamic in this AO. I'm not comfortable with this situation. There's no reserves
up here and a breakthrough is serious.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the 269th Infantry Division and is one of the stronger units. It's well off
and not missing a whole lot of stuff yet. I'll see if I can find a division in
distress and show you that one.