Witness to World War 2.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #2.

RN. Italian Coast.

RN is unable to find and engage the Italian ships off the coast of Italy. Also, this force in place is critical to (attempt to) prevent the Italians from resupplying / reinforcing Sardinia. Especially putting a unit in Olbia, which they are likely to try.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #2.

Great Britain. Ground Strike.

Only a 20% chance of flipping the out of supply Italian mot corps northwest of Cagliari, but worth the try. The RAF though misses.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #2.

Great Britain. Amphibious Invasion.

Great Britain establishes a bridgehead on Sardinia. Not it's up to the RN to prevent the Italians from reinforcing and resupply the island.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #2.

Great Britain. Amphibious Invasion.

....it's up to the RN to prevent the Italians from reinforcing and resupply the island.

warspite1

So where is HMS Warspite????

[brian brian]

I often forget that one hex too. I hope I get it right later today on the brand new maps - heading out shortly to race along in front of an oncoming “10” roll for the weather here, for a 2 day “World in Flames” impulse for the first time in many years. Roll well, everyone!

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #2.

Great Britain. Amphibious Invasion.

....it's up to the RN to prevent the Italians from reinforcing and resupply the island.

warspite1

So where is HMS Warspite????

He's in Malta awaiting orders to reinforce either RN forces off the Italian Coast or West Med or go out on ASW escort or patrol duty. You might be interested to know that Vice Admiral Stuart Bonham Carter, commander of the Malta naval base, has designated HMS Warspite as the flagship of battleship squadron 2, consisting of the four Queen Elizabeth-class battleships based in and operating out of Malta.

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

I often forget that one hex too. I hope I get it right later today on the brand new maps - heading out shortly to race along in front of an oncoming “10” roll for the weather here, for a 2 day “World in Flames” impulse for the first time in many years. Roll well, everyone!

While I guess your 10 roll means "blizzard" for you it apparently means "monsoon" for us. We've gotten a tremendous amount of rain causing several streams and creeks to overflow, street flooding and some street closings. Though personally, right now I'd take the rain and flooding versus the blizzard.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Axis #3.

The Weather Chart. For the July/August turn any modified weather roll of 10 or less results in fine weather for the arctic and north temperate weather zones (i.e., the Eastern Front). A modified roll of 11 results in rain in the arctic and advances consecutive impulses by 2, instead of 1, shortening the turn. A modified roll of 12 results in storms in the arctic, rain in the north temperate and (also) advances consecutive impulses by 2. In general, on the Eastern Front in 1941, the axis want fine weather and the turn to last as long as possible. So, a modified roll of 11, or especially a 12, are bad for the axis and usually wished for by the allies.

Last turn's raw weather roll was a 10, which since there was no weather roll modifier, resulted in a modified weather roll of 10. While this produced favorable weather for the axis on the Eastern Front and advance consecutive impulses by 1, this also resulted in a +1 die roll modifier to the next weather roll. So with the upcoming weather roll for this impulse pair the Soviets are hoping for a raw roll of 10, which would produce a modified roll of 11. The axis are hoping for a roll of 8 or less, which would produce the desired fine weather on the Eastern Front and "remove" the +1 weather roll modifier. However, in a pinch they certainty would take a raw roll of 9, which would give a modified roll of 10 resulting in fine weather on the Eastern Front but would still maintain the +1 weather roll modifier.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Axis #3.

Weather.

The weather roll was an 8, which produced a modified weather roll of 9. This roll was at the upper end of the range that the axis were hoping for the Eastern Front.

Actions.

Japan - combine.

Germany - land.

Italy - combine.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Axis #3.

The Italian Coast.

The British amphibious invasion of Sardinia took the initiative away a bit from the axis on the Eastern Front by forcing Italy into a combine and using both their land moves on Sardinia.

Italy's RM.

Italy uses her one naval move to move a transport into the 3-box of the Italian Coast, joining two Italian heavy cruisers already on patrol there, and loads a garrison corps. The British RN is unable to find this force and prevent the Italians from disembarking the garrison into Sardinia.

The Italians did make a tactical mistake as to the fact that the garrison was disorganized by the disembarkation. The Italians were seriously considering a counterattack against the British's bridgehead, however, this already low odds counterattack was made near impossible with this mistake and was not attempted. This tactical mistake compounded the one the Italians made by not ensuring that all hexes on Sardinia were covered by ZOC lock to ensure at least one notional even when Sardinia was out of supply. The British will now be able to bring one, possible two HQ's in and another corps or two next impulse. With patience and the RN, Sardinia should soon be British.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Axis #3.

The Eastern Front (1/2).

The Luftwaffe fail in their attempt to ground strike a Soviet army group stack.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Axis #3.

The Eastern Front (2/2).

No land attacks this impulse, which the German used for maneuver and the axis used to rebase fighters to the front to deter or intercept Soviet ground support.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Axis #3.

Japan. China. Ground Strike.

Japan launches a successful ground strike against Tungkwan, which contains Mao and two other units. The Japanese manage to disorganize two of the three defenders, however, the one they wanted (i.e., Mao's HQ-I) was not flipped.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Axis #3.

Japan. China. Land Combat.

Japan uses their combine to successfully "liberate" Shanghai and get back the BP in production they lost last turn because of the partisan they just killed.

Japan did make a slight tactical error. They should have moved their transports to the 3-box, instead of the 0-box, and included enough additional BB's and/or CA's to provide 3 factors in shore bombardment, which would have made this assault automatic (i.e., +21) instead of +18 which had a 4% chance of loss and 6% of (half) disorganization.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #4.

Actions.

USSR - land.

China - land.

Great Britain - combine.

Free France - naval.

USA - combine.

Great Britain. RN. Great Britain required a combine in order to expand their bridgehead on Sardinia and continue their naval operations against the Italian fleet.

The first of two Great Britain naval moves was to reinforce their forces off the Italian Coast by moving a force of four battleships, the carrier Eagle and a transport carrying the 10 mech division. HMS Warspite is the flag of this force.

The second naval moves was to bring more land forces into the West Med, 0-box intended to reinforce the expanding Sardinian bridgehead.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #4.

RN. Italian Coast.The RN finds and surprise the Italian force there and look to sink an Italian transport. However, Italian AA fire is effective and RN carrier pilots miss their mark 2 of 3 times.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #4.

RN. Italian Coast. Round 2.Both sides fail to find. The battle ends.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #4.

Great Britain. Sardinia.Great Britain uses 1 of their 3 land moves to expand their bridgehead in Sardinia from 1 to 2 hexes. The other two land moves are used to disembark a HQ unit to both hexes.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #4.

RAF Strategic Bombing (1/2).

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. Jul/Aug 1941. Allied #4.

RAF Strategic Bombing (2/2).