Adventures in Italy

[devoncop]

15th April 1944

Only limited advances from Larry this turn as he suffered from turn burn so I was able to reinforce the defences south of Naples and those just to the north of Foggia airbase which has now effectively been abandoned.

I am also managing to gradually man the fortified Gustav Line further north and am hoping the reinforcements due will really help with this.

As 700851 McCall points out, Rome historically fell on 5th June 1944 so to match history I need to keep Rome Axis for another dozen turns or so....that may well be possible though it is undeniable that the pace of the Allied advance is increasing from a couple of months back.

[larryfulkerson]

I just loaded some new moves from Ian and the first thing I do when I am confronted
with a new turn is to check out the aircraft and I moved some late model P-38's to
the Salerno area and that means I need to adjust the range to fit the map from where
it' parked so here's me trimming the range from 289 to 190 and it looks to just about
fit okie dokie so I'll keep it there for a while. I'm going to start up the INT
missions again and I'd like them to have some CAP while they are out there. This will
do that I think.

[larryfulkerson]

I just took delivery of a P-51D squadron, 75 planes big and it's sitting at Malta
ready to be flown to the Salerno area. It's best attribute is it's air-to-air
abilities, some of the best for the period. I'm going to of course use it as an
AS platform mainly but if need be, in a really stout pinch, I might be perswaded
to use it in the CS role but not willingly. They don't have the anti-personnel
punch that the P-47 has but it's close.

[devoncop]

19th April 1944

Larry has now closed up to my forward defence line in the West running eastwards from Naples ...only skirmishing so far but it won't hold for long. Likewise in the East...though the defence is stronger further North there.

I have managed to save most of my HQs which are almost my only artillery assets but interdiction was very very heavy last turn and it will obviously prove a problem when the good quality resources reinforcements have to travel to the front. I have noticed that entrained units seem to get hit more often than those that use roads so they may need to avoid the railways.

[sPzAbt653]

no invasions more than 30 hexes from a friendly airfield

That would give the Germans an advantage [knowing where an invasion will not happen].

May 1, 1944 is a placeholder until I find when the landing craft were actually withdrawn. And, everybody's game will still show the original rule until I post the newest version with the amended rule [and naval units].

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like right now. I'm thinking that it might be advantageous to
cut right across the peninsula to trap all the German forces south of that path.
That ought to catch a lot of Germans I'm thinking. Plus, it'll position me for the
push on Rome.

[UP844]

May 1, 1944 looks a bit optimistic to me: the landing at Anzio was already conditioned by a lack of landing craft, as part of them had already departed to take part in the Normandy landings.

The landing in Southern France - the last landing operation in the Mediterranean - was originally scheduled to take place simultaneously with Overlord, but it was delayed by two months by the lack of landing craft.

I think February/March 1944 would represent a more realistic approach.

The Allied could retain some capacity to perform small tactical landings (like Patton's end-runs in Sicily or, on a greater scale, the landing at Termoli in late 1943) just to keep the German player alert like the real Germans were (even though they greatly overestimated the amphibious capabilities of the Allied). In the real conflict they never used it for a variety of reasons, first of all their basic uselessness.

P.S. Side note: the last surface combat in the Mediterranean took place in the night of March 18th, 1945. See here for details.

[UP844]

@ larryfulkerson: Gen. Mark Clark will be furious if your plan works [:D]

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: UP844
@ larryfulkerson: Gen. Mark Clark will be furious if your plan works [:D]

General Patton says I'm still in grade school compared to him. He says
it's a 100% guarenteed foolproof positive fact that he's the best in the world.
He says he's a stable genius. he says he's going to build a wall along the
north border of Italy and he's going to make the French pay for it.

[devoncop]

22nd April 1944

Limited attacks again by the Allies capture Avellino about 55Km East of Naples though the Panzer Grenadiers in Naples themselves hung on. As a result I managed to get reasonably effective artillery fire on the advancing Indian and US troops before pulling the artillery in the main back towards the mountains to the north and the Gustav line. In the West Foggia airfield is abandoned to the fixed Flak units manned by some very nervous Luftwaffe crews as the exhaust fumes of the Allied tanks come into view


Interdiction was again heavy though patchy. It is likely that Larry has restricted a lot of his bombers to the areas close to the front line as units travelling south from Brenner Pass or Bologna travel quite freely whilst those trying to withdraw to new positions are often hit by repeated interdiction strikes.

It is attention to detail like that, (and the drilling down into the proficiency of individual squadrons as detailed earlier in this AAR) that makes Larry such a fine opponent. As any readers will have gathered I am much more of an instinctive player and though I keep an eye on unit strengths and combat stress I definitely do not have Larry's comprehensive analysis at my fingertips and in the long run this will hurt me I am sure but I am really enjoying the challenge. It is a fine scenario and a brilliant game system in my opinion.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the east front lines, the British front lines. I've wrapped up the German
defenders and I've already started negotiations over the river crossings. The pushing
and shoving has escalated and it's a more or less one-sided argument. Not much guarding
the airdrome I don't guess. I'm going to base a lot of planes near Foggia.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the west side and the first thing I noticed in this image is how far away the
railhead is from the front lines. I'm going to have to xfer the RR engineers over
to this side to bring it closer to the front for these folks. There's several attacks
scheduled and I'm optimistic that some medium success will be had. I checked the planes
and they are all ready...I'm going to pull the trigger and watch it all go down.

[devoncop]

26th April 1944

Well Larry made good progress this turn and although Naples is still Axis, it won't be next turn. I managed to withdraw the Panzer Grenadiers both from Naples and in between Naples and Avellino which were at full strength along with the HQ's with artillery and some of the armour.

It was a shame to have Foggia airfield overrun but I have barely any planes left to lose so it is more the disadvantage of Larry being able to use it.

Only a couple of turns now until I start getting meaninful reinfocements....at least they have a shorter journey to the front lines..[;)]

[MikeJ19]

Morning Guys,

Great stuff. I agree that there has to be a meaningful threat of landings to keep the German player from sending all of the units to the front.

I'm continuing to enjoy the reports on a campaign that I know little about...

Have fun

[larryfulkerson]

A series of turn burns has taught me to get a picture befoe the attacks. This is
the west side and as you can see there's several attacks scheduled and I'm hoping
I can push these guys to the side and get around them, get the engineers on the
bridge leading north from here and get the advance going again. There's no rail
line on the east coast as you go north much further north than I am already so it's
not possible to do an advance on the east side so I need to stear the advance on
the east side to the north west and try to catch the retreaating Germans. Although,
I suppose most of them are gone already.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the east side. I was able to RBC a couple of the AA units backward and
gain some hexes but my guys turned yellow after moving a single hex so they are
just about out of gas. I'm going to have to let them rest a turn at least. The
railhead isn't far away so the supply levels are okie dokie. i'm thinking of
moving these guys to the west until I find a rail line that goes NW and follow
that, see if I can't sneak up on Rome.

[larryfulkerson]

As a result of the attacks the German defender on the west side in the middle
evaporated and that left a hole so I'm pouring units through it to get into the
German backfield. I need to see if I can grab the river crossings leading north.
I'd like to wrap around the German lines and dispatch them while the fighting is
going on. I consider the fighting in this area mop up work.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T85 and I've been moving units and this is what the west side looks like now.
I'm trying to move around the blockers to get further along the advance path and
the goal is to grab all the river crossings leading north. There's some German
blockers on the route north and I'm going to have to fight over the river crossing
they are guarding. I'm trying to find a way around them to surround them and do
some mop up.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the east side and everybody is yellow and nobody can shoot. They need some
rest still. I noticed that several of the fighters are in reorg and I'm wondering
what in the world caused that. Proximity of enemy troops? Strange.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like from 50,000 feet up. I'm not sure I'm going to make
the historical deadline for Rome or not. Probably not. Supply problems.