Adventures in Italy

[devoncop]

3rd September 1944

More bludgeoning of the line around Savona and more ground gained by the Allies though at present the line still holds. The troops retreating from the south towards the Gothic line straggle back in a poor shape and it is to be hoped the units can regain strength back where supply is good.

A big problem I have only just noticed (though I could in truth have done little to mitigate it) is that one of my more powerful Infantry Divisions is due to arrive as reinforcements very close to Savona but by the time they arrive I am sure Savona will have fallen. This is a right royal pain [:(]

Interdiction was not heavy this turn though again over 60 Allied planes are reported lost. The huge numbers of planes Larry is able to deploy very effectively on CAS however does not seem to be affected sadly.

As we enter September 1944 a review of the very limited number of reinforcements due and the pressure from France does not augur well..........Research is being done in German High Command about possible second homes in Brazil and Peron's Argentina is supposed to be nice....

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the front lines in France and as you can see I have an attack scheduled and
it's got lots of support in the way of planes and arty. Three squadrons of bombers
and fighter-bombers are directed to attack in support. I'm hoping to make a hole
I can thrust a unit or several thro. I've got two divisions in that front line, I
think maybe one of them can defend and the other one can maneuver if we ever get
into the terrain further to the NE. More units are arriving. Two arty units got
shipped to Toulon this turn. Plus the Brazilian formation's HQ unit with it's arty.
I repaired one of the two broken bridges on the railroad leading from Toulon to
Grenoble in the north. I'm pushing units in that direction with the intent of
doing a right hook and marching east toward Italy to see what kind of response we
get from Ian. This will take a moth or more to accomplish because the rail has to
be repaired all the way to Grenoble and that's going to be slow in coming to fruition.

[larryfulkerson]

I have plans to repair the rail leading north from Toulon to Grenoble to enable the
advance to proceed to Grenoble and then do a right hook to the east to further
adventures. Brenner's Pass isn't all that far from Grenoble compared to the other
front lines there are. This might be my best route to get there...northern France
to northern Italy. It could happen.

[larryfulkerson]

There's only 70 turns left and I'm only about half-way there. I'm not sure there's
enough time left to repir the rail all the way there. Instead of the one from
Grenoble, the rail from Grenoble going east, maybe I should concentrate on the rail
leading east out of Toulon...concentrate on it. I'm assuming that German group will
be eventually pushed out of the way as units enter the fray.

Well, if I'm going ot concentrate on just the one rail leading out of Toulon then all
the troops I'm sending north need to come back down and head east instead. Expand the
front lines in the east if possible.

[devoncop]

6th September 1944

Heavy fighting continues in and around Savona where a sustained assault by the British 45th and 46th Divisions suported by heavy bombing was repelled by elements of 15th and 26th Panzer Grenadier Divisions.In the most intense fight 60 Allied infantry squads and 8 Engineer squads were destroyed for the loss of 11 German squads but the attrition on the defenders continues. It is unclear how long the front will hold but more units continue to arrive at the front from both sides.

The delaying feint by the Monte Rosa Division in the far north has unsurprisingly been identified as such by Larry and it is hoped the mountain passes have been secured in the meantime as the Monte Rosa is pushed aside.

Supply is restored to the central units plodding back north to the Gothic Line and many have now reached temporary safety there. The only bridges north of Rome that remain between the capital and the Gothic Line are now those around Florence but these are being rigged with explosives at the time of report.

[MikeJ19]

Larry and Ian,

Well, you guys inspired me to take a look at the actual battle for Italy. I wanted to see if the Allies attacked out of France. The maps I saw did not show this approach.

I may do some more reading though.

About 20 years ago, I did a battlefield tour around Rimini on the Adriatic coast - it would not have been fun to fight there...

Have a good evening,

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Larry and Ian,

Well, you guys inspired me to take a look at the actual battle for Italy. I wanted to see if the Allies attacked out of France. The maps I saw did not show this approach.

I may do some more reading though.

About 20 years ago, I did a battlefield tour around Rimini on the Adriatic coast - it would not have been fun to fight there...

Have a good evening,

Hey there Mike dude, thanks for the info. I must be a pioneer to have decided to take the scenic tour and head for Grenoble and then do a right-hook toward Italy. I'm not sure it'll work but I'm going to try because the terrain is more beautiful than the rocky hills of the middle of Italy. And about this tour you took around the Rimini area....that sounds cool by the way, did you take any pictures? Pictures would be cool. I'd like to know what you find when you do further reading to see about the Allies attacking out of France. Please post something about what you find, even if it's nothing.

I just now heard through the grapevine that Steve is going to post the newest version of this scenario pretty soon now. And Brian has okied a restart so we're going to use the newer version and do a restart with me as the Allies again. I'll have to invade at Salerno right off the bat just to have a more interesting AAR I wish I could get Brian to post in our AAR's. Ian has no problem posting stuff.

[devoncop]

10th September 1944

The assaults by the British 46th and 45th Divisions supported by air attacks and artillery continue against the unfortunate Panzer Grenadiers of 15th Panzer Grenadiers but as they were being forced to pull back the reserve troops of 242nd Sturm Battalion of the 90th Panzer Grenadiers arrived and the ground was saved. Fresh reinforcements have now dug in to try and hold against further attacks. Increased artillery support has arrived and the bambardment from the newly arrived units incurs another 45 or so losses in Infantry and Engineer squads on the British.

Intelligence shows further US armour and artillery arriving and moving East from Toulon so the task will become harder still. In an attempt to give the front line some air cover AA batteries are moved up in the hope the air threat can be reduced.

I decided given the problems Larry seems to be having in central and eastern Italy in repairing infrastructure (many, many bridges are still shown as blown north of Rome in the west and Foggia airbase in the east) and the increasing pressure from France, some troops have to be stripped from the Gothic line and have made their way north west.... It is to be hoped this is not a mistake.

My remaining fighter airbase was hit repeatedly despite heavy flak defence by interdiction so I can only hope some Allied planes came down but the turn ended before I remembered to check.

No reinforcements this turn but unhelpfully a number of Panzer grenadier battalions were withdrawn from different Divisions....Thanks Jodl.[:(]

[larryfulkerson]

I started to fill in this "spreadsheet" with the proficiency of each unit but
discovered that it becomes a hassle after a while. What I need is some way to
do a CSV dump of the game and I could cut and paste the relevant information,
probably. Maybe not. At any rate I've determined that there's probably a better
way to discover the proficiency level of the units or there needs to be, perferably
without having to visit each unit in turn. I need a list of the planes, where they
are, their location in other words, um.....maybe a health dot for their condition,
relative strength, range, and proficiency. Like the list we have now but with an
additional column: proficiency. It's important. So important that I AM going to
visit each of the plane units and rank them on specific airfields which ones are
the go getters and which are the new guys. The best of the best will go to France.

[larryfulkerson]

Well, I get to Grenoble with the Free French and discover that it's occupied by the
Germans. It's probably a small unit but my FF guys are yellow tired and will have
to rest a bit before they can worry the German unit. The supply level is in the
single digits and the going is really slow. The rail is goibg to have to be repaired
if I'm going to be able to make some headway in this direction.

[devoncop]

13th September 1944

After Larry's airforce "stocktake" that he described above it is no surprise to note multiple movements of air squadrons to and from France. It is this sort of drilling down and attention to detail that leaves me in awe of Larry's quartermaster skills and explains how he will often get a crucial edge in any struggle I suspect.

Speaking of struggles the mini "Battle of the Somme" Italian style continues in the same hex just north west of Savona which again the Axis hold against multiple attacks. It is noticeable the attacking forces are getting noticeably stronger each time.

The mountain pass south east of Gullestre now sees advanced US armour elements reach the first German blocking forces. I am fortunate this is a single tracked pass and hopefully the advance can be delayed for a while at least.

Larry had his turn cut short so was unable to reset his planes to interdiction so that was welcome and just the usual bullying of my fighter base and flak protection occurred with me lobbing more artillery at the attacking units near Savona.

[larryfulkerson]

I got to ship another couple of infantry regiments from Anzio to Toulon
and I discovered another German remnant on the road leading north out
of Rome. I'll take care of him later. Right now the supply leading to
all my front lines is too low and operations will have to get by with
what they have but the rail is repaired all the way from Toulon to Savona
and the attacks there are ongoing. Each turn there's an attack on the
same stack in the German line; The hope is that it will give way eventually.
At the beginning of the turn I usually set all the bombers to CS so I
can have their services for my attacks but then just before the end of
the turn it's my habit to set the INT missions that seem appropriate
and for the last turn and this one too I haven't been able to set the
INT missions and the Axis guys get a free ride. So I'm going to have
to go back to leaving them on INT and give them direct missions to fly
during my turn.

[devoncop]

17th September 1944

The fronts remain static..........just !

Ferocious attacks on the newly arrived troops on Larry's target hex of choice NW of Savona cause fearful losses of 48% to about 10%. In real money that meant a loss of 140 assorted rifle squads to the Axis and only 35 lost to the Allies. The subsequent bombardments of Allied troops by German artillery added a further 30 but even so these are losses that are plainly unsustainable. Once again German armour arrived to rescue the territory but at huge cost. The equation is not straightforward however. The strip of land near Savona with mountains to the north preventing easy outflanking is crucial to the German defence so has to be held as long as possible as once into the open north Italian plains the Germans will face a catastrophic situation.

The US 34th Division is now seen advancing to the same front lines so nothing will be easing off.

No reinforcements this turn was not ideal given Larry failed a proficiency check again so no planes were on interdiction but neither was the subsequent proficiency test fail by the the Germans after just 2 rounds of bombardment.

I have a feeling the target hex for Larry may well fall this turn.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like down south right now. I'm running into more supply problems
than I am running into Germans. I'm trying to repair three rails at the same time...
the one leading north out of Rome, and the one leading north from Toulon and the rail
leading east from Toulon. They are all important and I can't do without any of them.
It's just going to take a while to repair the rail.

[devoncop]

20th September 1944

Decisive attacks finally gain ground north west of Savona as Larry commits an incredible 900 bombers and fighter bombers, over 100 fighters, artillery and elements of 45th and 46th British Division including the London brigade and takes the long disputed hex and pushes the German defenders out of another (though this has been reoccupied this turn).

Losses again were frightening for the Germand with around 40 to 50% losses suffered to only 4% or 5% incurred.

Crucially the most powerful German armour unit at present in theatre...KG Hudel ....was one of those particularly roughly handled and almost half of its Tigers were destroyed.

There has been a further "shuffling of the deckchairs on the Titanic" on the French front but I am now scratching my head to see how I can prevent a critical breakthrough.

More shelling along the line of Allied troops continued and as a combined concentrated force of Polish, British and US Engineers was spotted it was targeted and a decent number of both regular and rail engineers destroyed.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like from 50,000 feet. The rail is repaired all the way to
the fighting in France and I'm transfering all the RR repair assets to the rail
leading north from Toulon so that Grenoble will soon have some supply. I've been
sending units north toward Grenoble but they run low on supplies before they get
there right now. I hope to correct that. The mountain passes have been getting
representation by the Germans so I expect I'll have to fight my way through there
and supply is too low to attempt that now.

The units in Italy have been advancing until they get to about 50% in their supplies
and then I rest them. Supply is in the single digits at the front but I've repaired
all the bridges up to the operating troops. Taking the RR repair assets to France has
slowed down repair leaving Rome but it's being extended slowly.

The aircraft are all green except the 12th FG which is in reorg and is missing a plane.
I'm wondering how many more bridges I need to drop. There's one on the east side of Italy
that I hear rail traffic on so I'll do a survey of the roads and rails and see if I
can't find a good candidate for a bridge busting mission.

The units involved in the fighting in France are the British 46th and 56th divisions and the
American 91st division has joined the fighting and good things are expected from it. Attacks
will be scheduled shortly.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the area south of Grenoble and you can see a couple of infantry divisions
making their way north on the off chance that supply might be adequate soon. The
target is Grenoble and points north.

[devoncop]

24th September 1944

In an ominous sign that a big breakthrough is expected by allied High Command in France the glory seeking General Mark Clark's 5th Army HQ is seen arriving in Toulon (no doubt in time to claim enormous credit for any smashing of the German lines near Savona).

Attacks by the newly engaged US 91st Division by its 3262nd and 363rd Regiments are rebuffed this time however by a combined force of Panzer Grenadiers and armour despite allied air support, and the British 128th Infantry brigade's initial success in taking the ground immediately to the north west of Savona town was reversed when a counter attack by 26th Panzer and 34th Infantry Grenadiers supported by artillery regained the area with minimal Axis loss.

The northern Alp mountain passes continue to be static which is reassuring and a dribble of reinforcements has now resumed.

The turn was also notable for very heavy and persistant interdiction hitting (and on more than one occasion eliminating) German Flak units and the few remaining German planes.This caused over 140 Allied aircraft losses it is believed....

[MikeJ19]

Very interesting stuff. It is so frustrating when you do not have the supply to take advantage of opportunities or just to kill enemy units.

[devoncop]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19

Very interesting stuff. It is so frustrating when you do not have the supply to take advantage of opportunities or just to kill enemy units.

You can cut that out Mike ! Bad supply is my most reliable unit at the minute[:D]