Adventures in Italy

[larryfulkerson]

I'm finding it rather difficult to get the right units to the north end of the line
without it turning yellow and having MP's left to attack. So, I had some British
units at Messina that I needed to move anyway so I thought maybe it's time for an
amphibious assault...maybe that will break the logjam and get the parade moving
again. Not that supply will allow it. The rails are getting repaired glacially
slowly so it's going to have to be invasions that accellerates the takeover of Italy.

I'm thinking I need to find a place that has a supply point nearby, not like this.

[larryfulkerson]

I was checking out the 82nd Airborne Division and found them all parked at airfields
but one regiment is at an airfield on southern Sardinia. I guess he helped wtih the
conversion of the airfields or something. I don't remember now....I've got too many
games going to remember everything. I need to document it here so I can refer to it
later and refresh my memory with the highlights.

[devoncop]

I now have some serious problems building up. Larry has ferocious interdiction set up and unfortunately the Axis air capability is totally outclassed so I can only rest them when I can and try and be a nuisance maybe one turn in five. To give you an example a single train journey through northern Italy to reinforce Taranto and Foggia was hit six times...the units made it but it hurts their proficiency.

Secondly the 16th Panzer Division was unhelpfully withdrawn last turn (Cheers Jodl[:@] .....) This unit was one of my best in my backfield so another imminent invasion along with likely parachute drops is going to cause big problems.

On the front lines things are a little better and Axis artillery did some damage to lead British elements on the coast road but it is of little comfort...

With some dread I await Larry's next turn...

[larryfulkerson]

I got rid of the German roadblock on the east side just to have two broken bridges to
deal with. I'm thinking that since I'm going to run into a broken bridge like this
from time to time, I'll keep a regular bridges engineer unit up near the front of the
column to fix the bridges and when he's not working on a bridge I'll have him fix the
rail he's sitting on. The rest of the engineers will work near the end of the line to
try to extend it. There's about five British engineers to work with and the Americans
have about a dozen or so. Once the railhead reaches the American front lines I'll switch
them to work on the British line.

There's three ports just north of the German roadblock on the west side and if I knew
what was there I'd know whether or not to try an amphibious landing or not. I can
attack that hex with a bomber at a one-dot setting, just to get a list of all the German
equipment in that hex. And from that one can estimate the size of the defenders in the
hex. That's the theory.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a full report on the ports north of the German roadblock on the west side.
There's some tanks parked there and I'm thinking the 1st Armored Division should
have a crack at these folks. So I'll go move the 1st Armored Div to the nearest
port and get them ready.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T39 and I'm not out of southern Italy yet. I'm falling way behind schedule.

[MikeJ19]

Larry and Devoncop,

This is great stuff. I'm learning lots of things - I keep forgetting to really use my Air Force, well plan it better.

It is also interesting to see both sides of the battle.

Thanks!

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry and Devoncop,

This is great stuff. I'm learning lots of things - I keep forgetting to really use my Air Force, well plan it better.

I've been giving my INT bombers direct targets to attack during the turn just to be more useful and
I've busted a couple of his bridges with them. Also, I've noticed that when I use my CS bombers
on a direct strike I have fewer losses overall because the bombers are dedicated to that one attack
instead of all of them within it's range. Also, I feel like I get better performance from my
bombers when I trim the range to fit the area I need it to fly. The range of my B-25's is off the
north end of Italy and I didn't need all that so I trimmed it back to the range I want, short enough
to be more helpful and include at least Rome. Some of my bombers can reach northern Italy and
those I'm using to bust his bridges.

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
It is also interesting to see both sides of the battle.

Thanks!

I'm playing Brian as the Axis and Ian as the Allies and I'm using my insights from each game to
affect the other game. It's making for better games overall. I'm looking forward to getting out
of Southern Italy.

[devoncop]

Hi Mike

Glad you are enjoying the AAR. It is quite novel adding thoughts as the game progresses and it really doesn't take away much from the FOW as there are lots of options and half considered plans that are scrapped before they are implemented but are nonetheless useful in seeing a thought process.

I was lucky in that the interdiction eased a bit this turn (possibly because as Larry described above he has reallocated some bombers to direct bridge and unit strikes). as a result, the delayed 10th Army infantry regiments managed to arrive at the port hexes I desperately needed them at with the withdrawl of 16th Panzer a couple of turns back. If Larry attacks with a full armoured Div amphibiously I doubt the shore defences will hold but at least there will be decent resistance.

There are also strange sea movements detected by the Allied Free French Colonial Division that seems to have been sailing back and forth up the East coast for a couple of turns. Making shore defences very nervous.

I managed to do 22% and 14% damage to two US infantry units just south of San Marco by use of the Nebelwerfer artillery and some HQ support but again there is a lot more stuff behind them....

Taken in isolation, Axis territory still held in November 1943 is satisfying but there is a sense of a pressure cooker about to blow..........

This turn I had to ground all my planes and found a lot of strikes on flak units by Allied air both on and off airbases but at least at the minute blown bridges are minimal.

[larryfulkerson]

I've discovered that some of the Infantry Regiments have a small engineering contingent
and I can use that to try to repair the bridge. The 8th Army HQ unit successfully
repaired one of the bridges, not so much luck on the other bridge. I'm gathering the
British 57th Division at a port on the east side to get ready for some adventures further
north. Several ports to try for.

The 82nd Airborne is still stacked up at airfields ready to go at a moment's notice. When
the 504th Regiment flew into Reggio from Corsica it split into pieces and I need to put
those pieces back together...other than that they are ready.

I've been moving the Free French mountain units toward the east side disturbance to see if
I can't get them into the mountains above the German position and provoke a retreat without
having to fire a shot.

[larryfulkerson]

I've discovered that it's difficult to try to push over a German position when it's
stacked with all kinds of units even with air power. I'm doing one-dot attacks with
my regiments, a fresh one each combat round, with all the planes that will fly and
I've worn them out bashing my head against the German wall there. I'm going to have
to try to go around or something.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the kinds of results that my attacks are getting.

[devoncop]

Unfortunately all the "beating of head against a brick wall" tactic has worn the brick wall out a bit so my guys fail a proficiency test after another Nebelwerfer attack causing 11% casualties to the lead US infantry regiment[:(]

In truth I really do need that position to hold for a while yet as this is a long scenario and Larry has lots of time to make up time and get to the Brenner Pass.I did get a tired but well equipped Panzer Grenadier Regiment as a reserve in San Marco this turn which was nice as for once it doesn't need railing through all the interdiction from Northern Italy. I noticed it was due to pop up there so it was another reason to hold the line south of San Marco.

[devoncop]

So Larry forced a couple of coastal road hexes this turn and is now pressing against 10th most southern of the three ports. The newly arrived Panzer Grenadiers are thrown into the fray and this time the Nebelwerfer manages three decent bombardments of the adjoining infantry regiment forming the most northern of the US push.

Larry has gone quiet on second invasions by sea but I simply can't risk stripping troops from the northern ports to reinforce the defence down near San Marco as a successful landing would be catastrophic. All Axis air units are now back to full health having been rested under an AA cover as much as possible. They will need to earn their corn soon .....

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd try an amphibous assault to get behind the Germans and cut off their
supply lines. It may not work. I may get stuck out in the water with them.

[larryfulkerson]

And as an after thought I decided to drop some paratroopers as well just to see how
it helps. I may not get to rescue them for a couple of turns so they will have to
defend themselves all that time. I've got my fingers crossed that they are up to it.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the results of the amphibous assault. Just as I thought the units are stuck
in the water and will have to remain there during the interturn stuff and Ian's full
turn and then another interturn period and next turn if there are any survivors I can
bring them back to a port or assault again depending on their condition.

[700851McCall]

Bold moves indeed. Great stuff. Looks like those paras are going to give the German some serious issues. I'm guessing you have piled aircraft on interdiction to keep him away from them?

[devoncop]

4th December 1943...

Well Larry is throwing the kitchen sink at the West coast around San Marco this turn !

I wake up to find multiple paratroop drops an a big invasion fleet offshore. Troops from 211th Coastal Division and 1st Fallschirmjager Division fight off the first wave and the overworked Nebelwerfer battalion gets involved too.

I really have big problems here.... I have suffered from the "Calais" problem that the German defenders of France had in 1944. Just like Calais, Salerno and Taranto have sizeable garrisons because of their huge strategic value but these troops really could do with being a reserve line behind those at San Marco and their absence is keenly felt now.

I demand support from Goering and every available plane is put up in the air......Dorniers and JU88's from across Italy escorted by all fighters that can fly, (though no JU87's are left sadly) are pressed into service to try and hurt US 3rd Division as they sit offshore.

The results are barely adequate with around 10% losses in total. I am expecting the US troops ashore next turn.

Attacks are made to clear US Paras off my rear supply lines north which succeed on the West coast but elsewhere the Paras are just pushed back...

This is likely to turn ugly now.........

Great move Larry.

[larryfulkerson]

The division that attempted an amphibious assault last turn is going to try it again
because they just happened to be there already. I found some more troops to add to the
assault and I'm using all the American aircraft as support. The British aircraft are
supporting the British attack. This assault might not work and then the units will
spend the rest of the turn in the water again.