carlkay58 (Allies) vs Pelton (Axis) 43 Campaign

[carlkay58]

Air: I keep the same air directives this turn. Things will change once I am done retreating from the invasion

zone. The ETO is not very active due to the bad weather. The Axis aircraft total is under 1100.

[carlkay58]

Land: I only have two beaches left - with three infantry divisions and two Corps HQs left to evacuate.

[carlkay58]

Turn 31: (Jan 29, 1944)

He has let me escape in peace. It may have caught him off guard, I don't know. But I was not getting anywhere

and I have to send the Canadians and Amphibs back to the ETO to start preparing for the northern France

invasion. I made some mistakes on the whole invasion - from the planning to the preparations to the location

and the number of troops involved. I will get more into those faults later. The one good thing that came out

of it was the destruction of the Luftwaffe.

[carlkay58]

Air: I start to redirect the Tactical and 15th USAAF away from supporting the invasion zone and back into

traditional targets. The 15th USAAF expands it attacks on Oil refineries and the Italian rail network. The

Tactical AF begins to hit Axis airbases and rail yards.

[carlkay58]

Land: I run out of port capacity with a single CA brigade left behind. I leave the last three Amphib commands

to support him and hope for the best - but the brigade will probably beat the rest of its division back to

Ireland. I also start shipping the Canadians back to the ETO.

[Baelfiin]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

There has been extensive interdiction, naval patrol, and superiority over the entire invasion area. The problem is that the Tactical AF does not project the interdiction values that the 9th USAAF does over northern France. I am usually lucky to have interdiction levels of 2 or 3 in clear terrain and nothing at all in rough/mountain - i.e. the majority of the Italian terrain.

Baelfin, look at post #126. It lists the 15th USAAF Naval Superiority mission with 978:1148 sorties flown. So 978 bombers flew in total and 1,148 escorts/fighters flew.

A sortie = a fighter escort?

Im getting pretty decent numbers in my invasion, but will have to see how it goes.

[carlkay58]

Invasion Critique: I did several things entirely wrong on this invasion.

1) I hurried it. I should have spent more time bombing the Italian rail net to lower the Axis supply status

and decrease his mobility. It would have been much harder for reinforcements from the front line or from the

north to reach without rail capacity. On the other hand, bombing targets in Italy is not very effective due to the terrain.

2) I needed more time to use my air against him. This actually magnifies the effect that the supply priority

of the airbases had on my plan. This is fixed in the latest test version, but this game is entirely on

production versions. Because of not realizing what was going on, I lost the majority of my Tactical AF from

turn 2 or 3 on when I was sending them over to unsupplied airbases in Sicily. I found out about the specifics

(while I was busy trying to build up the supply network to get them supplies but not succeeding) around turn

20 - not in time for the invasion. I should have postponed the invasion until that was all worked out - but I

was on a strict time schedule because of needing to send back the borrowed troops and the amphibs to the ETO

for the northern France invasion. So a majority of the pre-invasion period saw little or no effect from the Tactical AF and later the Strategic AF when I shifted them to the captured and newly created airbases. While the newest versions have fixed it for existing airbases, the new airbases (either constructed or the temporary airfields on invasion hexes) are constructed with Supply Priorities of 0. So remember to change those when the airfields are created.

3) I sent too many troops ashore and was not able to keep them in supply. I should have gotten the supply

line secured first and then reinforced. Because I did not do this, I had severe supply problems. Even before

the Axis naval interdiction was causing me problems.

4) I did not plan a good area to invade in. I had no chance in taking a normal port - something that I should

have known better and planned for. The Allies need to have real ports - not just beach heads - to get a good

supply situation going.

5) I thought I had good air coverage for the invasion zone, but I did not. I needed time to build up the

Corsican airbases and staff them with the Tactical AF for close by air coverage. This would have helped in

the air and naval battle.

6) The invasion should have had Naval Patrol, Air Superiority, and other plans in order to maintain naval and

air superiority from the start - not in reaction to the Axis. This ties in to my air supply problems that put

my air development so far behind. I definitely need better air coverage and closer range.

So my next task is to figure out what to continue to do in the MTO and to start planning a better invasion

for northern France. I need to show what I have learned from this fiasco.

[carlkay58]

Baelfin - a sortie is a flown mission by either the primary aircraft (left of the or the escorts (right of the so the total sorties are the total air missions flown by either type of aircraft. Note that Superiority missions only have a number to the left of the : as the fighters are the mission aircraft.

[smokindave34]

If you had to do it again would you wait for clear weather? Do you believe the poor weather effected your ability to open the sea lanes? Obviously the weather was the same for Pelton but his bases were closer to the beachhead and maybe in better supply. I ask because I'm in a similar situation in my game as WA's and although I want to push the invade button I'm currently waiting for clear weather - not sure if its worth waiting?

[Baelfiin]

Thanks Carl

[marion61]

Wait. Don't rush it unless you have too. WA's can't afford to be thrown off.

[carlkay58]

Smokindave - the weather is what it is. The Italian mainland pretty much shuts down during the winter with the rain and mud - much like Russia's rainy season. The historic accounts of the campaigns show that to be the case. I don't think it would have been as bad if I had done an Anzio type landing instead. Two hexes closer to the front line and within better air support distance.

The islands of Sardinia and Corsica are much harder for the Allies in this game than historically. Historically the Italians surrendered and the few German units that remained on the islands were isolated and quickly overcome. WitW, however, requires at least one army's worth of troops on the two islands to root out the Germans and quite a bit of time and effort. This pretty much forestalls a major offensive on the Italian mainland at the same time. Once the five turns pass for the Italian units on the islands, the German units can easily overrun the islands if the Allies have not committed major forces to them. That is true even if the Allies have pounded the ports to rubble.

[marion61]

Sardinia and Corsica have been easy to take in my games. If all the ports are at 100% damage, they aren't getting supplies. All you really need do is maintain your own naval interdiction, and the axis have to fly from Italy as there aren't enough bases that can be safely flown from by the axis bombers. If axis move planes there, just destroy them. Those islands are death traps for axis units stuck there.