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Operation Theseus. The battle for Suez. May/Jun 1941.

The powerful “Das Afrika Armee” reinforced with the Italian forces began an unstoppable march to Egypt but were blockaded in the Alamein. The Italian fleet and the Suez CW fleet sailed to support the battle. German air naval force in Sicily, initially reserved to attack Malta, was sent too. This time, the gods of war favoured axis side and the CW air naval forces were annihilated. The CW admiral had to take a difficult decision, stay at sea or sail back to Aden. If he stayed his fleet (specially his 3 carriers without planes) will be in serious risk and if Alexandria felt there was not a safe port that his ships could reach. By other side, if the CW fleet left the sea the english defenses were unsupported and the coasts of eastern Mediterranean were open to invasions. He decided to stay. A new combat round began and the Savoias found the unlucky CW fleet. One carrier was sunken and one more was damaged. After that the admiral ordered to withdraw. With the heavy support from the Regia Marina the Alamein Front was broken and after some bloody combats the axis troops took Alexandria and reached the Suez channel. The CW 8º Army suffered heavy casualties and trenched behind the channel but the lack of cover forces at his backward made weak their positions. After many laments, weeps and some swearwords uncle Winnie reconsidered his defenses and finally abandoned Suez to defend Aden and Kuwait. Theseus was an unexpected complete success for the Axis, next turn we could try to gain the rest of OKW objectives.

When I'm reading these AAR's I have this tendency to hover my mouse cursor over the units to find out what is underneath the top unit. I guess I'm playing the game too much!

Me too, sometimes I try to scroll the screen or open the menus![:D]

Operation Felix. Crushing the Rock. Jul/Ago 1941.

This turn was one of these that made me love WIF many years ago.

The Pedestal Operation.

After fall of Suez my game enemy was a little raged so he gave up his natural caution. Winnie launched everything he got to save Malta, including one of the two corps that garrisoned Gibraltar. The English fleet based in Gibraltar was sent to the western Mediterranean sea and one transport with a cruiser was sent to Malta.
When my impulse came I was tempted to commit a near suicide attack to the rock but I had just one Italian infantry corp and one div, ready in La Spezia. With not many planes to support the invading fleet I decided to wait next impulse. I supposed that Winnie will reinforce GIB the next impulse and if this happened, I will launch a second assault to Malta. Another decisive air naval combat was fought and the weak CW carrier planes were swept away from the blue blue skies! Clearly with a cloudy mind by the demoralization, my opponent stayed on the fight without any air support. One carrier and two cruisers sunken later the combat ended but the English fleet remained at sea and Malta was supplied and reinforced.

The Felix Operation.

In the second impulse, Allies priorities were clear. Reinforce Gibraltar and defend Malta but soon the things began go bad to them. The Gibraltar reinforcements were a corps and one div, totaling one transport and three cruisers. I had some Italian submarines at the Gulf of Cadiz. I don´t like too much submarines in Wif. I use to build them from time to time to intimidate CW more that to fight but sometimes, like this time, the possible victims were a good prize. My subs intercepted the fleet (with a 1 dice roll) so my enemy was in big trouble. If he chose stay at sea, their troops were assured by other naval units and even a naval bomber but Gibraltar was vulnerable to my attack next impulse. By other side, if the convoy fought through to get the Rock could suffer damages. And then, what a glorious day! He chose to fight and his roll was 10! I chose surface combat and blanks, the transport was damaged, and the div was aborted.

Now I got a real chance to assault the Rock but wasn´t easy. I needed luckier die rolls or like I prefer to think, more generalship talent exhibition. First, I had to evade the English fleet blockade; second, I had to get the rock with my brand new marines.

The Baleares Naval battle.

he unique option for British Admiralty was a surface and devastating combat but it was not the day. After the first combat round Winnie ordered withdraw the CW ships. Keep fighting was very risky (the fleet could be trapped in Mediterranean Sea) and near useless (without air naval factors).

German rock to the rock!

Simply, I had one to one odd, I needed 17, 18, 19, 20. I get 18!

Epilogue of this turn:

Franco, like the opportunist that was, celebrated the victory and offered his allegiance to the axis.

The german marines get the Iron Cross and the honorific name “Felix”.

After the fall of the rock, my opponent was pronned to surrender. The truth is that until that moment, the war was going very bad for me but after the conquest of the Rock, Suez and the terrible losses of the CW (including 3 CVs, two transports and some cruisers, planes and corps) sun brightened over the axis side. That day, the session ended sooner than usual. [:'(]

Here a scheme picture of the operations:

Last turns of 1941.

After the successful mediterranean campaign we prepared to the next strikes:

The Greece invasion, Operation Fall Marita.

My objectives were capture the greece resource and align Yugoslavia to the axis. I thought it was easy but the bad weather and the logistic difficulties drove me at a very long campaign to the middle year 1942.

Deployment to Barbarossa 1942.

With the bad weather rolls was very difficult. Specially frustrating was the Middle Orient advance with Vichy Syria and no supply units option I discovered that was a nightmare. And I knew that attack the Caucasus was near impossible. To solve the supply problems the axis needed conquer Kuwait and Aden. Winnie reinforced both ports and the Indic Fleet. The next battles were ready.

Asia.

Japan took Indochina and finished to prepare the war with USA.

1942

“When the first signs of summer embellished the fields, the madness of the men ruined our hopes”

The German army were ready to fight the Russian giant. Finally was a frontal and simple attack. Maybe we could launch a second attack when Arabia was assured.

The japanish were ready too and only needed good weather.

The next posts show the fronts in march / april 1942.

The Atlantic Wall 1942.

You can see that the Kriegsmarine was a real menace to CW and the poor defenses in UK.

The Atlantic Wall (Spain)

After align Spain , the Spanish forces invaded Portugal. The CW defended the Azores and saved the Portuguese Army.

Mediterranean " Near Mare Nostrum". Operation Fall Marita.

Greek army defending the Termopilas [;)]

False Sea Lion, Kriegsmarine Transports.

Along 1941 and 1942 I kept and army with four corps and one HQ ready to invade UK, in fact to scare the brits. It worked inmovilizing a big part of the Royal Fleet and some "home guard" corps.

Middle Orient Front.

You can see the hellish nigthmare supply and I think that in this moment was a supply bug but I´m not sure.

CW convoys./ False Battle of Atlantic.

The axis built a powerful submarines fleet but most of the time stayed in the ports. My strategy, one more time was menacing and intimidatign more than real and expensive fights.

North China Front.

Japan began to have problems to control the growing chinese army.

South China Front

The problems for Japan are evident in the south too.

Japan waiting the Tora, Tora , Tora!

The bad weather rolls were a bad omen to Japan´s destiny.

Hard Fighting for Kuwait End of Spring 1942.

Das Afrika Armee stands and fights for Kuwait for secure Middle Orient.

While, Italy prepares to conquer Sudan and launch an offensive to Aden across Arabia.

Persia, End of Spring 1942.

Axis aligns Persia and the soviets send troops to defend Caucasus and conquer Persia after the inminent german attack.

Greece, End of Spring 1942.

Reinforced greek army resist the italo- german offensive. The axis commander begins a slow campaign to minimize casualties.

Barbarossa 1942, The Set Up.

The German forces are grouped in two army groups, north and south.

The main group was the south group led by Guderian and Rommel.

OKW objectives:

Primary: Destroy the Russian armies in the south front and advance to the Caucasus.

Secondary: Keep the north Russian armies hard pressured to force them to stay in the north.

The North Front led by Von Bock.

The South front, led by Guderian.