It Takes A Village to Raze a Village

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Opening Messages.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Research.

1. No additional research for any axis.
2. This turn was about reinforcement, upgrades and operational movement for all three axis (i.e., Germany, Italy and Japan). Well, except Japan didn't make use of any operational movement but did transport a corps from Japan to northern China.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. China. Start of Turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. China. End of Turn.

1. Pretty slow turn with the exception of an attack on the Chinese army two hexes south of Chengchow.
2. The Chinese army lost several steps and was forced to retreat.
3. Otherwise, reinforcements, upgrades and transport of a corps from Japan to Tsingtao.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. East Africa. End of Turn.

1. It's back on the defensive.
2. The CW corps, which is now reinforced by an RSA HQ, is just too strong for the weak Italian corps to take on directly.
3. The Italian corps that had moved into British Somaliland, withdraws back to Dire Dawa.
4. The other front line Italian corps was upgraded to infantry attack weapons level 1.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. North Africa. Start of Turn.

1. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky ... looks like Jim is trying to flank my Italians moving back from Egypt.
2. I don't see any CW units but I do see his FLOT pushing well into my flank.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. North Africa. End of Turn.

1. The Italian infantry are ordered to hold the line along the coast and even manage a bit of a counterattack against the British infantry army.
2. The Italian armor races directly south to secure the southern flank and knock off 2 or 3 steps off of the CW cavalry unit trying to flank the Italians.
3. If this was the first world war I would wonder if that might be Lawrence of Arabia?

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Yugoslavia. Start of Turn.

1. Drats, rain!
2. Honestly, I see that Yugoslavia is 45% towards the axis but I really don't have the time to waste courting them with Barbarossa two to three months away.
3. So, the axis are ordered to invade Yugoslavia.
4. After DOW, Greece signs some pact with the CW.
5. So I guess that means I'll have to leave enough axis forces in the Balkans after I clean up Yugoslavia to deal with Greece.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Yugoslavia. Post DOW.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Yugoslavia. End of Turn.

1. Needed a couple more infantry armies/corps ...
2. But overall, given the rain and my total ignorance of what Yugoslavia forces looked like after a DOW, I'm ok with the initial results.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. KM. Start of Turn.

1. As expected the KM did get bloody a bit more.
2. The good news was that the RN failed to sink any ship.
3. Though, the Prince Eugen is holding on by a thread.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Eastern Europe. End of Turn.

1. The KM rushes back into the Baltic. It's decided to use them against the Soviet Baltic Navy.
2. Mobilization, reinforcement and upgrades continue in the East.
3. I'm looking for the first fine weather spring day to launch the invasion.
4. That's why I need to clean up in Yugoslavia and get the two Panzer corps fighting there to the border with the Soviets.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Battle of the Atlantic (1/3).

1. U-73 lost a step and got surrounded by RN DDs, so it decided to move to the convoy lines to the south.
2. U-35 continues to hobble back ... will it make it?

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Battle of the Atlantic (2/3).

1. The Axum joins U-30 in attacking allied convoys in the South Atlantic.
2. Da Vinci lines up and attempts to breakout from the Med to the Atlantic to join the fun.

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. Battle of the Atlantic (3/3).

[rkr1958]

Turn 41. Axis. March 14, 1941. MPPs.

[rkr1958]

Turn 43. Axis. April 11, 1941. Opening Messages.

[rkr1958]

Turn 43. Axis. April 11, 1941. Yugoslavia. Start of Turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 43. Axis. April 11, 1941. Yugoslavia. End of Turn.

1. Yugoslavia surrenders.
2. Axis units, composed mainly of minor axis allies and the Italians, move to the border with Greece.
3. Right now, unless someone can convince me otherwise, I plan to invade Greece with this mixture of troops with German units going East to fight the Soviets.

[rkr1958]

Turn 43. Axis. April 11, 1941. Eastern Front. End of Turn.

1. It's a go as soon as the weather is fine in the East.