Encircled by Enemies (PBEM gwgardner vs Chocolino)

[Chocolino]

9-27-40

The Italians have not been at war with the UK so far. But this changed today as an opportunity arose to ambush the RN in the Mediterranean. An so far unidentified naval force cruised near Tobruk were it was accosted by Italian air - with good results. A BB (Revenge) and a Carrier (Courageous) were sunk in multiple attacks (here shown as one picture).

[Chocolino]

9-27-40

Encouraged by these results the RM wanted a piece of the pie for themselves and fell on the remaining British ships, sinking a DD group and an unidentified unit. Italian submarines took an active part in the action.

Furthermore, air attacks on Dover and Malta damaged British submarines and the British strategic bomber fleet.

[gwgardner]

My darkest hour, in all my wargaming ....

That unidentified unit was an infantry corps on troop ships. It is hoped that the Italian navy has made every effort at rescue.

Tensions were rising, it was obvious that Chocolino would eventually channel his Il Duce tendencies, so again, what was I thinking!

[Chocolino]

10-11-40

Given recent successes in the Med Berlin-HQ sees Italy and its leader in a new light - their weekly oil allowance from Germany is slightly increased as a reward. At least they seem to not squander it.

Meanwhile the British jump on even the slightest excuse to extend their influence in the eastern Med. British ships have been seen in Athens harbor. Will Athens be brought under the British boot with a new UK garrison undermining our efforts at liberation? Our air attacks on Athens were ineffective this time, though. But German land units continued to advance along the coast toward the Greek capital.

[gwgardner]

That is a Greek destroyer squadron, which has joined with the Allies under Admiralty direction. Athens will not fall without a fight.

[Chocolino]

Interesting - I did not know that units can switch their country affiliation while their own country is still active. Always learning new aspects of this great game while playing it.....

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Chocolino

Interesting - I did not know that units can switch their country affiliation while their own country is still active. Always learning new aspects of this great game while playing it.....

Allows Britain to pay oil costs(I think, haven't tracked it to be sure), but the unit goes poof when the nation surrenders, so it is temporary.

Jim

[Chocolino]

Thanks for the info - I think I needlessly attacked this unit last turn since I still thought it was British at that time.

Also surprised that the UK is willing to spend oil on the Greek navy units when they were not willing to provide gasoline to French planes.

[Chocolino]

10-25-40

The picture shows the situation at the start of the Axis turn. German spearheads were cut-off from supply by daring Greek fighters while the Luftwaffe interdicted an UK landing attempt in Athens with their Palestine Colonials who are usually found in Jerusalem. So they tried to garrison Athens after all.

[Chocolino]

10-25-40

The Greeks fought bravely but in the end had few chances to maintain their block. By the end of the turn Germans could advance further on Athens.

[Chocolino]

10-25-40

Meanwhile the Italians try to challenge the UK supremacy in the Med. The Tobruk air units claim another kill (UK sub). You can also see the British garrison on Crete which has recently received aircraft. Crete has a dominant position in the eastern Med. and these bombers can attack Tobruk amongst others...

[Chocolino]

10-25-40

Sorry for the abundance of posts for this week - but there was just so much action.

The British attempted yet another unsuccessful landing - this time in Corsica where their troop ship was intercepted by the RM in a surface combat. Here the RM got lucky since they dodged an interdiction attempt by what turned out to be a powerful British covering force comprising of 2 CV and 2 BB plus support ships. A subsequent Italian sub attack on this group failed and only led to damaged Italian subs. But overall the Axis can be satisfied so far with their naval interdiction attempts.

[Chocolino]

11-8-40

The British launch a strong attack on Tobruk. They are surprisingly well supplied at the far end of their road network - they must be using optional truck supply. So far the Tobruk garrison is holding.

[Chocolino]

11-8-40

A bit further north, the Germans reach the outskirts of Athens.

[Chocolino]

11-8-40

Meanwhile the British CVs held their ground (water?) near Corsica. The Italians overplayed their hand and suffered severe losses attacking them again despite air support from the Italian mainland and Cagliari.

[John B.]

Wow, lots of naval action in the Med!

[Chocolino]

Yes - probably more than was wise for the Italians - even though they did get quite lucky until the last turn.

[Chocolino]

11-22-40

Athens did fall this turn and Greece surrendered shortly thereafter. But the key air base on Crete remains in British hands.

[Chocolino]

11-22-40

But the British took their pound of flesh - Tobruk did fall to a determined British air and ground attack. To make matters worse one of the Italian air units based there was overrun. This was a major defeat for the Italians who beat a hasty retreat to Benghazi.

I have to admit that I did not expect this attack to succeed - otherwise I would have re-based the air unit. I had always trouble with this attack when playing the British myself because of low supply (the British must have ordered/produced tons of extra supply trucks I assume). Congratulations to the UK player.

[Chocolino]

11-22-40

The British are engaged with land forces wide and far - from Narvik over Gibraltar, Crete, Lybia, Egypt and the Middle East. They also suffered some losses of land units during their amphibious engagements. It almost looks as if some of these units were taken from England's home defense as it is currently sparsely defended only.

Plymouth was not garrisoned for several turns now. Either a sign of the above land unit shortage or a trap. (There could be tons of ready but undeployed units in the British production queue.) But the Germans took the bait in any case and started with an amphibious landing in Plymouth of divisional size. That was followed by a few corps sized units that landed with regular sea transport. German HQ calls it "Reconnaissance in Force".

This was not a planned and prepared attack really, quite improvised and opportunistic. Most of our aircraft are still in Greece for example.

If nothing else this will slow down British expansionism in the Med.