Cohen vs Enrico - AAR

[AlbertN]

Destroyed Pool after 3 Impulses (Axis, Allied, Axis) of May / June 1943:

The two Chinese Infantries are victims of Yamamoto attack. With China production of 1, soon going to be 0 if not this turn already, these are non replaceable losses.

The 6-4 CW INF and 6-4 ITA MOT were traded in Marocco.
French ships, the Condor and the Hurricane were all destroyed in the neighbouring sea zone.

Other CW units have been destroyed in Burma, and the New Zealand cruiser has been sank by Japanese cruisers in the Arabian Sea.

[AlbertN]

Production coming JUL / AUG 1943, from the MAY / JUN perspective, mid-turn.

[AlbertN]

Production coming for SEP / OCT 1943, seen from the perspective of MAY / JUN mid-turn.

[AlbertN]

Destroyed Pool - End of May / June 1943:

The battle raged some more but the turn ended with 1, once it was to end with 1 (As per, Axis had 3 Impulses, Allied 2 - and the first impulse was crap weather!)

The Allies landed in Casablanca, getting in trouble the Italian army in Morocco (and overrunning the Bf109 there, and destryoing the Re2001 in the skies.). In the while they pushed from southern Morocco (destroying the Italian MECH and INF-DiV).

Aerial combat over France saw the Germans preventing carpet bombing over their units, with the escorting Typhoon being shot down by their Bf109s.

On the Caucasus sector grand air battles happened, but no losses for anyone. Germans were trying to carpet bomb too there, to "create" a hole in the Soviet defences and march through the mountain passes, to no avail. A ground assault, rather bloody, erased a pocked of resistance on the northern side of the mountain edges (the Astrakhan militia that remained trapped and costed 1 INF and 1 MIL to Germans - on top of boosting up Soviet production).

Submarines in the Atlantic, at their own sacrifice, sink 5 CPs of the CW (when the turn ended, the UK lost some production which is nice!).

The USA operation against the Marshalls turned out to be a tragedy for many American families, where even under absolute air supremacy and intense shore bombardment, the marines and soldiers of the USA got butchered, tainting of crimson red the beaches.

July / August will start with Allied initiative, the Western Allies taking naval actions and the Commies and Chinese land action.

[AlbertN]

JUL / AUG 1943 (After One impulse per side).

The Germans seem to have intent to break the empasse in Siberia, Eastern Front.

Their forces, albeit with scarce air support and still with troops arriving from the Moscow sector, advance toward the Soviet positions. Will the Soviets stay or retreat further into Siberia?

[AlbertN]

JUL / AUG 1943 (After one impuse per side)

The German High Command has grown frustrated at the futile attempts to find a hole in the Caucasian Front.

The Soviets have bolstered their defences with quality troops, including two Tank Armies deployed to the eastmost part. And Astrakhan is a perilous threat to the side (or can turn into being a place where the Soviets can produce and supply at will).

Goering for now has failed in unkeeping the promises made (The single Carpet Bombing attempt in May / June rolled an amazing one, and there were still places with a single Soviet unit, now everywhere there are 2!).

There are evaluations to convert this front in a static one since it can be defended with a certain ease after a last push for shortening the front at the westmost pointe - where Von Bock has been assigned to lead the assault.
The Soviet air forces in the western sector have been exhausted already in a preliminary air battle and now there is no air umbrella anymore there.

[AlbertN]

JUL / AUG 1943 (After one impulse each).

Zhukov, starved of reinforcements, felt that the time to start withdraw has came. Slowly and in good order the Soviets begin to pull out of Manchuria.

On the other hand the Japanese seems to tail along nicely, due to lack of pressure from the USA this time after their disaster at Eniwetok.

The Japanese Imperial Command is in wait to get to the plains where their armoured superiority would shift the weight to their favor neatly - or so they hope.
Their fighters already inflicted losses in the previous month to the Soviets (Oddly enough the two fighters with 4 Air to Air factor shot down a LND4 and a FTR2 with 5 Air to Air factor. Earlier in the war when the Japanese had 5 Factor fighters in the zone and the Soviets had 4 air factor fighters the Japanese lost theirs ...)

[AlbertN]

JUL / AUG 1943 (After one impulse per side)

Burma Situation is stalled, due to bad weather. The Oil Rigs are still firmly in the hands of the Commonwealth, but their troops are under siege and isolated.

Kunming is the last bastion of the Chinese, as Lanchow fell at the earliest in July. (This very turn, the Japanese got Land action, used two bombers to disrupt the Chinese, hitting with both, and then performed a land assault with HQ support.)

Yamamoto, a most successful General of the Japanese Imperial Army (Clearly, Yamamoto here must be a General. Cannot be an Admiral, he's not see a shore since 1939!) is preparing the siege howitzers and heavy artillery, wanting more space around Kunming in order to assault it better.

With all of his homeland occupied and under the heel of the invaders, Chiang is living in a world of dreams and is hoping for the army of Steiner ... I mean Stillwell to come to the rescue, and annihilate the besieger and lead the Chinese people to the final victory.

[AlbertN]

JUL / AUG 1943 (After one Impulse each side).

The USA started to prepare for something, having got the old battleships in Majuro and Eniwetok; also they have flow air patrols over the seas (It was not storm the impulse before this).

A raiding squadron of cruisers went in for the kill of the Japanese shipping in the Marianas Sea, and the Japanese bravely reacted with bombers. The USA forces found the Japenese, and the P38 dived in for the kill (The P38 moved of reaction there, was in the 2 Box, and 4 light cruisers in the 4 box).

The miracle happened there, against all the odds the Japanese bombers fend off the attackers, mincing them to bits (The Japenese rolled 20... and the USA rolled 10 in the air combat) and diving on the cruisers, damaging one and setting the rest of the team en route back toward Honolulu.

[AlbertN]

JUL / AUG 1943 (After one Impulse Each).

The Allies started again to populate with their ships the coasts of Morocco and Gibraltar.
In the while their bombers and artillery strike disrupted the Italian armoured forces, which are left behind as a screening force for the retreating Italian army (which hopefully can counterattack and retake Casablanca in the while where Marines, Alexander and a TP wait - two of them disrupted as they got stuck there without fuel).

The USA have 2 AMPH loaded with INFs ready to land somewhere. Where, it is not sure yet.

Germany sends more troops over (Berlin militia. Beefy enough and cheap enough to be sacrificed for a secondary sector in the eyes of the Fuhrer).
Italy sends in more airplanes meanwhile their fighter force is kept intact by avoiding air combat, and letting the Allies bomb at their leisure.

[AlbertN]

JUL / AUG 1943 - Destroyed forces in the first two impulses (One per faction).

The two German Fighters and the Spitfire got lost over the skies of Paris.
The Brits inflicted 1 damage to German production.
The Germans saved the pilots, the Brits did not.

The Soviet fighter was lost over the zone north of Batum; pilot was saved.

The P38 was shot down in the Marianas, pilot was saved - as it was shot down by a bomber and the "result" was softer.

The Chinese units were performing a last stand in Lanchow.

[AlbertN]

Mid July / August 1943 (After Naval Combat of Impulse #6 - Axis)

Cruelty of fate, my gaming buddy laptop battery died mid-turn, so we saved there.
He forgot his battery charger in the room where his kid sleeps sooooooo....

Here you can compare the casualties, that peaked up in the turn of 3-4 impulses!
What you do not see are an amount of submarines and cruisers damaged, and well 11 CW Convoy Points sank!

[AlbertN]

Mid July - August 1943:

The Soviet Siberian Fronts are withdrawn more to the East, reaching a mid-line before to possibly pull back further in the comforts (defense wise!) of the mountain ranges of the Urals.

The Germans have not yet followed (Picked Air Action the 2nd round, but a bug made it skip the whole Air Rebase phase - Italy seized a port elsewhere with a CW Ship, that had to rebase, got intercepted - and pratically after the Intercept the and naval battle it skipped the Air Rebase phase somehow. I do not know why. No Axis power had any rebase at all.).

[AlbertN]

Mid July / August 1943:

Marocco has been truly heated this summer!

The Allied focused their land actions there, combining a landing against Cavallero and a mass assault against the (disrupted by bombing earlier on) armoured unit of Italy.

The Axis scrambled all their bombers, including the naval bombers, in order to stop or delay the Allies, and raging air battles insued. (All the new air losses from above come from Marocco. That's a total of 6 planes from both sides combined!).
Thanksfully the Allied bombers getting to the targets failed to do any meaningful damage.

The Italian riveted tanks got smashed anyhow, meanwhile Cavallero resisted the landing (That's where 2 USA INFs got butchered! By trying to get ashore); and other forces got disrupted (Including the Marines in Casablanca).
Casablanca recapture was a severe loss for the Brits, who lost a HQ and a Marine - though their "parked" TPs escaped ... it got intercepted, the British fleet in the zone successfully intervened and a naval combat followed. Some cruisers took damage or got sank.

The Italians sailed out with their ship, and stormed Casablanca in return - with massive shore bombardment.

During their next impulse UK and French sailed more naval units to engage the Italians, but the fleets did not found each other this time.
CW and USA forces storm the forces led by Balbo, south west of Casablanca. The weak Italian anti tank equipment could do little against the shermans and churchills of the Western Allies (still inflicted 1 loss, the CW MOT) and the Italians had to withdraw.

By the next Axis impulse Germany, who takes combined, sends ample Wolfpacks in the Central Atlantic, as the Brits spent their Sunderland to support ground operations. The Wolfpacks of Donitz find many CW convoys, and from 19 CPs only 2 remain in the sea once the fight is over ... 11 of them have been sank; alongside some escorts but the Wolfpack force too took quite the hit, with many submarines damaged and some lost for good to the bottoms of the ocean.

[AlbertN]

Mid July / August 1943

Zhukov, starved of reinforcements and replacements hastens his withdrawal from Manchuria, with eyes set on establishing a perimeter around Chita.

The Japanese tails in (They still have to move this impulse), and this makes of Krasnokamensk (the place of the resource!) the most contested minerary complex of the war.

It was seized by the Japanese in their earlier advance in Kamchakta, then the Soviets took it back as they expelled from their homeland the Japanese and went in Manchuria, but for now it seems that resource will get back to fuel the Japanese hungering factories; but mostly will be denied to the Soviets themselves!

[AlbertN]

Mid July / August 1943:

What else happened in the world? Not that much.

The Allies started a strong strategic bombing campaign this turn; for now they have hit 4 German Factories (That goes into 6 BPs lost!) despite the valiant efforts of the Luftwaffe.
A pesky Tempest is being a pain in the ... *beep of censorship* ... Goering to set these planes down got them intercepted by 6 squadrons of fighters at once, and still the Tempest managed to deliver on the target all of the bombers assigned to it! (Alas the best German fighter in range was a 5 Air to Air, even with 5 more fighters behind Axis rolled at -1, and Allies at +1).

In the Caucasus for now the Axis bombed some to disrupt units (During the German Air Impulse) and then reorganized 3 Stukas and 1 Fighter. The Soviets too reorganized their fighter used there and 1 of the land units disrupted by the bombardment.

Yamamoto starts to soften up the perimeter of Kunming, with low success. (Japanse lose a Warlord - and China a Division). On the other hand, China cannot replace units at all with 0 production, any unit gone, is a unit lost ... let's say forever until the Allies can help China again.

In India the Commonwealth is raising an army (That includes a HQ) from the ashes of the army lost in Birmania. The Japanese are holding Dacca as a pivotal point of their defences; meanwhile the oil fields closeby Mandalay are still held by a british force, the last troops of the Western Allies in Burma admittedly.

[AlbertN]

Deeper into July / August 1943:

Zhukov's retreat brings the Soviets up into the mountain ranges around Chita; the Japanese have valiantly pursued and trampled a too slow unit of the Soviets (Rather meaningless but still 2 BPs, the Irktusk MIL unit!).

In the attempt to delay the pursuit of the Japanese, the Soviets issued their single bomber in a mission, but the present Japanese airforce dealt appropriately with the Soviet bomber unit. (Admittedly, 1939 units both pratically. So much relevant for the Airforces is this sector.).

[AlbertN]

Deeper July / August 1943 - Occupied China:

The Japanese mopped up the remnants of the Communist Chinese, and swept away a Nationalist cavalry unit that just arrived from a very long march across the deserts - too late to be of any weight of its own.

Only the Kunming redoubt remains, where Chiang is counting the days in the wait for the Western Allies to liberate him from this condition of despair.

[AlbertN]

Deeper in July / August 1943

The Burma situation is unchanged, though Indian forces are being marshalled and prepared ... for a future counteroffensive the Japanese Imperial Command suspects.

Meanwhile pressure is made on Yamashita to hasten the fall of the oil rigs, the HQ in charge of the sector, seeing the bombing runs not producing results (Hard to when the only "bomber" they've at avail is a fighter with 1 tactical point!) favors to wait for more.
Hopefully air assets from China can be relocated there.

[AlbertN]

Deeper in July / August:

The Italians led by Cavallaro opts for a relieving strike to easen the pressure on Casablanca. The US Vanguards there (consisting of 1 ARM, 1 MOT and 1 INF-Div) advanced after having dislodged Balbo and his army, but such attack left the US forces strained (Disrupted).

Relying on proper air umbrella (mainly due to shortage of ready Allied fighters) the attack was issued, and bravely the W.Allies send in their unescorted bombers. Which got promptly intercepted but ... the Italian fighter (6 air to air vs a 4 air to air USA bomber!) got promptly sent home and all the bombers arrived on the spot.

Nonetheless the attack was a grand success (Rolled 19, with just a measly +5.x) and the US forces got hammered and smashed. But to regain grounds was unhealthy.

The Allies retaliated shortly after, in their naval ways, giving a good hammering to the Italian Regia Marina that got forced back to Gibraltar.