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T8 - July 17, 1943
 
The British have become cautious all of a sudden and are holding back their entire force, except for 2 recon battalions spread opposite my line.

The Americans have been reinforced by the US 2 Armd Div, as indicated on the map.

The US forces near the Etna Line are moving into the bulge. I will definitely be able to surround and destroy the US 45 ID. If the US 1 ID moves further east, I'll take it out as well. If it moves straight north from where it is, it will probably be impossible to do that, and it could even respond by moving into the gap in my line or attempting to force a breakout.

The defenders of Cerda and Corleone attacked the same guys as last turn.

Cerda - half a platoon, 13 fighters, 9 bombers for 11 fighters, 1 M5 Stuart, assorted vehicles and motorcycles

Corleone - 1 squad, 14 fighters & 4 bombers for 4 vehicles, 12 planes

I'll have my side of Turn 8 up tonight, so hold tight for a bit... the gap between our AAR and our real-time game is closing too quickly... I don't really want the enemy to know where I am or what I'm doing, now do I?

Sicily West

Sicily East

I already told Desert not to get too excited about this turn's AAR. While I do give away my plans for Operation Passaic, I've had to severely alter the plans since making them. So really, other than the idea that I'm trying to break the Etna Line (which is kind of like "duh!"), my opponent doesn't have a whole lot of valuable information about this operation.

Sicily West

Turn 9 - July 18, 1943
 
A battalion of the 29 Pisa Reg of the Assieta Div has held off American attempts to take Castelvetrano for 2 days now. It has lost almost no men.

The Americans are very sneaky. Just look at the map to see what they did. And those vast sections of frontline defended only by recon companies smell like a trap to me. I'm going to wait until next turn before deciding whether or not to attack. I am running out of time though, as the rest of Sicily has almost been occupied, and they should have enough men to extend that line to the ocean in about a week. Assuming 1 day for maneuvers, 2 days to crush the pocket, and 1 day to fall back to the Etna Line, I have a window of two more days to make my decision. I also can't underestimate the amount of support that the British can bring to bear in the 4 days (a tank division, the Canadian division, assorted engineers and scouts, etc.)

Corleone is being threatened by heavy US mechanized and tank forces.

Sicily East

It's probably just me, but loading attached maps takes way too long on here. I'm going to try it on another computer for Turn 10, later today... (so yeah, Desert, don't jump the gun this time...)

Woops. Sorry, I thought you were done.

Nah, it's all good. Actually it was my fault. If the AAR would load the attach faster/better, it wouldn't take me forever to upload the screen shots.

Turn 10 presently...

Sicily West

Sicily East

Turn 10 - July 19, 1943
 
The American armor is incredibly fast - they somehow managed to take Palermo after knocking the engineers out of Corleone.

The Castelvetrano garrison surrendered after a long fight - the town remains unoccupied for now.

The naval battalion in Palermo withstood an assault by the US 15 Reg.

Given the extremely fast rate of advance, my plan to encircle the American infantry around Troina isn't feasible. That armored division should be fully assembled opposite my line in just 3 days, half of what
I estimated. I am sending the HG Panzer Division's Tigers and 3 dozen 75mm PAKs to the other end of my line - those Italians won't stand a chance against the American tanks alone.

The boys at Cerda are going to make a last stand, though I doubt they'll even put up a fight when the US armor arrives.

Sicily West

Sicily East

Turn 11 - July 20, 1943
 
Cerda and Trapani fended off all attacks, but they are unsupplied and low on equipment and men. The last strongholds of the island (besides Etna) are about to fall.

The Canadians have been spotted on the mountain road west of Adrano.

I happened to notice that the section of the line SW of Adrano is missing massive amounts of men and equipment. All he has there are two British  recon battalions, and I doubt they could do so much damage to two veteran, fortified, Fallschirmjaeger and Panzerjaeger regiments. It must have been some sort of massive air raid or artillery barrage, but it doesn't seem possible...

PS: No picture for this turn and a bunch of the next few...

Sicily West

Sicily East

Turn 12 - July 21, 1943
 
That same spot has lost a lot of men again. They are definitely bombing me. That would explain why I can see those two arty units. I ordered an air raid on the British one.

Air Raid - 6 fighters, 3 fighter-bombers for 7 fighters; I did learn that the British unit is composed of 6 dozen 25 pounders

Then, I bombed the Brits with 12 Wespes, which have a longer range than the 25's.

Wespe - I took out 2 guns

I can't account for the 3 Canadian regiments, and two regiments of the British 50 ID; I bet he's waiting till my position there is weak enough to launch a massive assault.

There were 3 attacks made on the Etna Line by the Allies today:

Catania - I seem to have taken very few losses; enemy repulsed

Elsewhere in Catania Sector - the Italian regiment took heavy infantry casualties, and one of the German Pioneer regiments was shifted from its  positions, but losses weren't too heavy

Just East of San Fratello - 2 of the three units were de-entrenched; a couple of platoons lost, I guess

Trapani was taken. Cerda was not attacked.


Huh, very contradictory intelligence...

From now on, there shouldn't be double-screenshots. At least, not on a regular basis...