Adventures in Italy

[devoncop]

22nd March 1944

Well amazingly the 1st FJ Regiment fortified in Salerno Port and supported only by some Divisional artillery held on and another 200+ Rifle squads were despatched.

This was a high point of the turn as the Allies pushed back the creaking lines in both East and West. Apart from a good showing against the Free French Senegalese in the Mountains the consequences of the outgunning of the German units in the lines became painfully clear. Until turn 87 (another 10 turns or so I am only getting very weak battalion sized units so I expect Larry to make good progress before then.

The Rangers have been pushed out of harms way into the mountains but only suffered another 1% loss from desultory artillery fire.

Bridges have been repaired in the West but Larry has blown all the bridges south of Foggia airbase with bombers and I won't be repairing those for him !

My air assets amount to precisely 4 suadrons so losing Foggia is not really a concern as far as losing planes is concerned but I am just trying to delay giving the Allies a monster base close to the front.

There really are a heck of a lot of strategic options for both sides in this scenario. I am wondering with hindsight whether an immediate pullback to the Salerno/Taranto line may be more sensible as all the troops engaged in defending rear ports would be hugely welcome in an MLR but then again the mountainous country in the deep south does delay the Allies a long time....will be interesting to see which approach Larry chooses when we reverse roles after this game

[larryfulkerson]

....will be interesting to see which approach Larry chooses when we reverse roles after this game

I think I'll pull everybody back to the Alps and defend from there.

[larryfulkerson]

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Here's what it looks like right now. I'm having severe supply problems in the
mountain roads and the only progress is on the coasts where the supply is better
and there's only progress because I'm making three-dot attacks. I'm hoping to
breakthrough somewhere and get the advance moving again.

I'm going to find some divisions to move to a port to get ready for the next
amphibious assault near Salerno because that fight needs to be settled and soon.

I'm thinking of moving all the INT planes to CS during the turn and then change
them back to INT at the last round at the end of the turn. Although I can't
always predict when the end of the turn is coming. That's the one defect of
that plan.

I've moved all the RR engineers to the east side to extend the rail quickly and
all the regular engieers went to the west side to see if they can't extend the
rails accidently more or less. The supply situation is slowly getting better.

Another AA unit from Sicily made it to the Salerno area, to the captured airfield
there. I'm not all that worried about an airfield strike by the Axis side but by
habit I like to park AA units at airfields. And important bridges. And at the
front atop the attacking units to stiffle the enemy CS a bit.

[devoncop]

25th March 1994

Some serious damage incurred on the unfortunate Senegalese Free French at over 20% through three rounds of bombardment. They will be missing the warmer climes. Finally the Rangers also get some decent damage caused with around 15% or so from more artillery. It would be great to eliminate them but given the way the front south of Foggia is crumbling, this is unlukely as I need to save that artillery for the fight further north.

On the edges of the fighting around Salerno I just managed to squueze out my Panzer Grenadiers into the mountain passes so I can withdraw them past the Free French scrap hopefully before they get cut off.

The turn ended suddenly for Larry last move which may explain why I had a whole turn with no interdiction..........bliss

I would love to use the troops at Salerno Port on the MLR which is only 5KM to the south now but I REALLY am loathe to just hand the port over after its reseistance so the FJ will stay put !

[larryfulkerson]

You may remember that I stood down the Baltimores because they didn't have any planes
on hand and then the game engine started filling up the squadrons with replacements
and there was still no planes on hand and now we have two planes on hand but there's
still vacancies in two of the squadrons. That third one looks like it might be
combat ready. Their strength is less than 5 so I'd probably put them on CS if they
were flying missions. I like to use the bombers with a strength approaching 20 for
the bridge bombing missions, they have more punch to bring down a bridge.

I turned in a requesistion slip for a squadron of A-10 Thunderbolt II's but I was
told that there weren't any in inventory. I thought I try at least.

I found a use for those resting Baltimores. They are flying milk runs to Tunisia for
fresh milk and vegatables and eggs. Daily, and it counts toward flying time for the
month so nobody has any heartburn.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the situation on the east coast right now. The supply level is lousy and
I'm following the red green yellow rule and so the attacking is sporatic at best
now. The units are having to save up their supply to move or attack. I keep
moving the arty back to the rear where the supply is better for them to fill up
with bullets and then move them to the front where they expend all those bullets
and need to be moved again. It's micromanagement but necessary to have good
support at the front.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the west side and the supply levels are remarkable being so close to the
supply point. My arty is keeping up with the battle for the most part, tho some
tubes are resting being yellow already. I'm trying to drive the battle toward
Salerno and I'm meeting stiff resistance. Three-dot attacks are the only thing
that can move the German stacks and the losses are heavy on both sides. A typical
battle result might call for 34% losses for the Germans and 12% losses for the Allies.
Something like that.

If I had any navel support I would be using them right about now. There's been a lot
of CS flown in this AO. I'm thinking of moving a fighter unit to the airfield there
but I'm wondering if it would be bombarded by German arty. Probably. I'd best wait
on that fighter.

I've started moving the units and I'm finding a lot of tired ones and not too many green
ones. The fighting has been going on for a while now so I'm not all that surprised that
there are lots of tired units. I've got them strung out along the roads and rails to
suck what supply they can from the hex they find themselves in.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd move some of the bombers to the peninsula east of Taranto and it
turns out that the eastmost airfields aren't up to code supply-wise. The planes
there will eventually turn yellow quicker at those fields because of the low
supply in those hexes so I need to move them. I like my airfields to have good
supply in order to help keep the planes in the green. It helps too to have an HQ
unit adjacent to the planes as they refit. Same color icon as the planes perfered.

EDIT: I've had a second thought about the airfields in the north too....I no longer
think they are okay and that I'll have to move those planes as well.

[larryfulkerson]

According to the pending battles meter I've got 7 battles scheduled and most of them
are against the perimeter of German units and no bridge dropping missions this time.
This is the first combat round of the turn.

[devoncop]

29th March 1944

The battles were bloody and again successful for the Allies. Larry is methodically grinding through my lines ....particularly in the East. I was restricted to artillery skirmishing this turn as rudimentary new defence lines were begun south of Naples as Salerno is likely to fall any turn now. There have been some ferocious battles around the port.

I have to think about pulling back my forces in the West in any case as the Allied progress in the East means there is a chance they may decide to try a grand envelopment through the central mountains and come out behind the troops around Naples. I am trying to bolster the central areas as much as I can just in case. More chipping away at the Rangers who lost a further 10% or so.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

Loved your story about the Baltimores... I hate it when the supply system messes up.

Ian,

I agree, you do not have enough units to lose them by getting cutoff.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry,

Loved your story about the Baltimores... I hate it when the supply system messes up.

Ian,
I agree, you do not have enough units to lose them by getting cutoff.

The story about the Baltimores is based on a true story. When I was at Bien Hoa
working as a weapons mechanic ( bomb loader ) the milk run was a C-130 that
took off daily for somewhere in Japan, some airbase in Japan, some airbase that has
a huge PX that carries just about anything you could want. I ordered an RC radio kit
for my model airplane and it was only $150.00 and it worked fine for about a year then
I left for the world on a silver jet plane and sold the radio to a guy that wanted one
but I sold it for $100.00 because it was used and had been through at least two crashes.
Anyway, that's how the chow hall got fresh eggs. fresh milk and vegetables. And I don't
remember how it worked that the RC radio thing got to me or who I paid for it. I think
it had something to do with the model airplane club I joined that I could order stuff
through them and it would come a couple days later. Something like that. It's been way
too long for me to remember stuff like that. Especially since I've spent about 4 decades
trying to forget all that stuff.

I repaired the bridge over the river in the mountains so the supply lines should carry a
bit more supply now. Every little bit helps. Next time I play this scenario against Ian
I'm going to be the Axis dudes and I'll have to remember the trouble mountain roads are.

[devoncop]

1st April 1944

Palermo continues to hold and the Rangers take more damage but resist overrun thanks to allied air.

Big damage caused by grouped artillery to the Indian Division SW of Salerno with over 30% casualties. I really need to try and wear some of Larry's units down

[sPzAbt653]

If I had any navel support ...

So far I haven't found any good source of Naval Support, Assignments and Dates, for Husky, Avalanche or Shingle. But it seems that both the UK and USA kept at least a few cruisers with a gaggle of destroyers on hand for spanking the Germans when they got a little too feisty near the coasts.

I'm thinking of adding a couple cruiser units and a couple destroyer units for the Allies, to come and go by Theater Option [so as not to be in play all the time and become a play-ability nuisance for the Axis player]. Not sure if that is totally fair to the Allies though.

[UP844]

I also have been unable to find any hard data about the Allied naval forces in the Mediterranean in late 1944-1945.

After the invasion of Southern France was over, the only ships mentioned in the sources I found are a few destroyers (US and French in the Tyrrhenian/Ligurian seas, British in the Adriatic) as well as some small craft (PT / MTB). The very rare surface engagements - mostly in the Ligurian Sea - with the few (ex-Italian) German ships never involved more than two destroyers on the Allied side. As far as I know, the British employed their DD's to provide fire support in the battle for Rimini (late September 1944); the American and French performed some bombardment missions along the German-occupied coast, but never as support for ground forces.

I found a vague reference to a British cruiser stationed in the Adriatic late in the war, but I was unable to discover more information about this ship [:(].

On a side note, some parts of the Italian coast are depicted as far less rough than they actually are [;)].

[sPzAbt653]

Thanks for adding that UP844, much appreciated!

Nafziger to the rescue for Salerno:

Allied Naval Gunfire Support
DD'S (10 September)
DD'S (5-9)
HMS Abercrombie (Monitor)
HMS Roberts (Monitor)

A.M. 9 September
USS Savannah (CL42)
USS Philadelphia (CL41)
USS Boise (CL47)
P.M. 9 September
HMS Mauritius CL
HMS Uganda CL
HMS Orion CL

Night 13/14 September
HMS Aurora (CL)
HMS Penelope (CL)
Night 14/15 September
HMS Warspite (BB)
HMS Valiant (BB)

[devoncop]

5th April 1944

The wave of incessant attacks by sea on Salerno continues. This time the US 36th Division tried to fight its way ashore against the Panzer Grenadiers of the 8th Gerbigs Division who fortunately had tactical support from the armour of the 242nd Sturm Battalion of the 90th Panzer Grenadier Div and a small amount of artillery. Once again the invaders were repulsed with a near 30% loss.

Elsewhere additional troops including US armour caused more serious casualties to the battalions of Panzer Grenadiers holding the central mountain passes and these positions are likely to give way very soon.

In good news however in the East the elusive US Rangers who had tried to take refuge in mountains to the SE of Foggia after their aborted attempt to grab the base and its bridges are tracked down and eliminated with repeated artillery barrages. Am I now safe from further airdrops or will new recruits come forward ?

Further substantial losses were caused to the Indian Division approaching Salerno by artillery around the port and for now the line just about holds despite fierce fighting.

[larryfulkerson]

I've been resting the Baltimores because they don't have any planes on hand and I
find that the number assigned is rising so that means the Baltimore units are filling
up with Baltimores and getting stronger. More are needed yet but I'm hurting for CS
bombers so when they get to about 90% full I'm going to thrust them into combat again.

Bad news folks...The number of on-hand planes for the P-40E/N's is zero and that means
that production isn't keeping up with losses and the units are below max strength by
defination and I need to survey the P-40E/N squadrons and rest those that are half
strength or less. I may need to review that policy as results are discovered when I do
the survey. There may not be a problem at all, but with no planes on hand there's no
proof that any of them are doing well and if you're monitoring the status of your planes
closely, and I am because of the status of the Baltimores, then you need to be aware of
which squadrons are in trouble. Weak squadrons have a tendency to get shot down so it's
important to me that they are still combat ready. Cuts down on losses in the long run.

[larryfulkerson]

I don't have all the ranges of the different models of the planes memoized yet so I'm not
convinced I know the range of the P-40E/N so I went to the inventory and looked up the
plane in question and found the range to be 139....so I started the survey of the P-40E/N
squadron with the first in the list which is this beauty. This squadron still has 76% of
it' planes and that's close to my cutoff but I thihk I'll let this one fly, depending on
what else is found in the P-40E/N squadrons. Those P-40E/N squadrons that don't make the
cutoff are going to be flown to Tunisia and rested until they are combat ready. Which will
necessitate me to check them each turn to see if they are ready yet. Also, I may have to
check them from turn to turn as losses occur to the squadrons. I don't know if I want to
go to all that micromanagement so I'll use the rule of thumb and check the color of the
health dot for the unit. For now. If you're really serious about the game then of course
you would check each squadron each turn. Each unit really, needs monitoring depending on
it's immediate situation. I have a policy to survey the non-green ones to see if there are
special needs. A unit that has lost a lot of equipment needs to be moved to the rear and
rested reguardless of what the rest of the formation does.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the second squadron to fly the P-40E/N and it's missing about 7 planes or
so and I deem it combat worthy. Right now it appears to be parked on Sardinia
and I'm thinking that perhaps that might keep it out of all the major fighting
going on around Salerno right now. There's a lot of aerial traffic over those
hexes going on. Reguardless of whatever the Axis planes do there's a tremendous
amount of Allied traffic over that area. Lots of direct attacks on German stacks
three or four units to each stack, two or three stacks targeted on both sides of
Italy. I major breakthrough is desired you see.