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Also keep in mind that replacements require freight along with supply so you may just be hitting the limit of your port capacity. Supplies have priority over replacements so if supplies take up the majority (or all) of your port capacity you will not receive the replacements needed for the support troops to arrive. I fly a lot of supplies into the airbases with transports and that seems to help the supply situation on the airbases and free up some of the port capacity. This is a trick I learned from a WWII transport pilot from the MTO who said that his entire tour was just flying supplies and support troops into new airfields the entire war.

Turn 9

Weather is still nice in Italy, but it looks like a Perfect Storm is about to happen in Northern Europe.



In The Heel the supply situation is still good. Stockpiles building. Recon suggests the enemy supply levels are not doing as well. Italian surrender, railyard/port bombing, and lately some interdiction behind the line is having the desired impact.



Germans make an attack on the Western Allies left flank and gain territory. I'm fine with the give and take down here. The better he thinks he's doing the more he is likely to commit. I have much bigger plans than getting to Foggia from The Heel.

Even though the Air Support isn't in place yet we go ahead and shift the remainder of Tactical Air to the airbases in The Heel. Not sure how the lack of Air Support will impact the day to day repair and turnaround of aircraft (surely not good!), but Ike is anxious to see 5th Army make some headway.

Below is a picture of the available assets. I actually split them into two Ground Attack directives, +1 hex size, centered just behind the enemy's main line of resistance. This will get some interdiction over the enemy line, but also create havoc that he has to retreat into and be supplied through.




The B-17s and B-24s we concentrate again around Gaeta:




The Brit bombers go for the railyard and ports in the area directly behind the front lines:




With the LW no longer contesting supply routes I commit the B-25s to a final railyard/port bombing assignment in the Naples area.




The success of everything from the air relies on air recon. Many times I see WA players neglect this, and their results show it. Also, Air Directives are executed in order, so get your recon first.
I usually have three days of recon and do my strategic bombing starting on the 4th day. I think in most of these instances I bombed on days 4,5,6, and 7, but sometimes I rest a group on day 5 or 6 depending on the losses/morale beating they're taking.




Losses are light, and the LW is apparently in hiding.




We get some decent interdiction results behind the German lines.

And now the battles to start pushing out of The Heel.




Success near Bari, but General Hube hangs on by his fingernails...






29th PzG Div is down to about 30 working AFVs...




The German 65th Inf Div hangs on against several weak attacks.
TF support isn't enough to help brigades take a hex from a division, but they can definitely help a brigade/regiment defend against a division.




As we start taking cities from the Axis our VP situation is improving.

Final notes on turn 9:

Move Beaufighters to islands (Corsica and Sardinia) to begin airbase replenishment.
Expand some air bases to see if they'll get support or I need to relocate some units.

2nd Armored ships to heel, will disembark next week and spearhead until withdrawal (turn 18).
9th US Inf will do the same.

Left to evacuate from Sicily:

7th Army
II US Corps
1st US Inf Div
3rd US Inf Div
45th US Inf Div

8th Army
XIII BR Corps
1st CA Inf Div - will break down for invasion prep force
5th BR Inf Div
51st BR Inf Div
50th BR Inf Div

Expected reinforcements:
8th IN Inf Div on turn 9
1st US Arm Div on turn 13
1st AI Mot Grp on turn 13

Want to make my next invasion around turn 13 so these new formations can follow on.

In The Heel:

5th US Army
I FF Corps
2nd Tabor Goums FF Mnt Rgt
4th Moroccan FF Mtn Div

VI US Corps
9th US Inf Div
34th US Inf Div
36th US Inf Div
1/82nd Arb Rgt
2/82nd Arb Rgt
6615 US Ranger Force Rgt

V BR Corps
1st BR Inf Div
46th BR Inf Div
56th BR Inf Div
78th BR Inf Div
231st BR Inf Bde
2nd BR SS Bde

X BR Corps
2nd US Arm Div
6th BR Arm Div
7th BR Arm Div
1st CA Arm Bde
4th BR Arm Bde
23rd BR Arm Bde
25th BR Tank Bde

Want to be in position to pull VI US Corps and some of X BR Corps for next invasion

Heel Supply Sitrep:
Taranto: 0
Manduria: 13k
167,266: 24k
Otranto: 80k
167,264: 72k
Brindisi: 58k
164,262: 30k
Total: 277k

Create new invasion targets on both sides of Italian coast.




Set new airborne landing targets to support invasion sites.
1st BR Arb Div and 3/82nd US Arb Div sail to Corsica for prep.
Commandos transferred to TF 545 (C) for landings.
British will hit the western coast while the eastern coast will be invaded by the Americans.
On the western coast the two northern british beachs will have BR units, southern British beach will have US units and the armored/motorized reinforcements.
Eastern landing will be a re-allocation of VI US corps.

Ike's strategy is to keep the Germans engaged with 5th Army while 8th Army and 7th Army attempt to bisect the peninsula and cut off Army Group C north of Rome.
Once the landings are made 7th and 8th Army will be separated by just over 100 miles, whereas the bulk of Army Group C is engaged with 5th Army and over 150 miles from this planned axis of advance. Add in the fact the Germans will also have to navigate rough terrain for much of that journey and it is easy to see the gallows AFHQ is erecting in Italy.

Turn 10

Here is some of the air base/supply info I collected because I felt like I was still having problems getting Air Support.
For some reason I didn't get all 10 airbases. I tried to get a cross section between captured bases and those created upon invasion.
Now some have gotten Air Support to meet their needs, while others seem basically ignored. All of these air bases are still at priority 4 for supplies.
















Forgot to get the initial screen on this last one, but you can see they did get some of their need.

How should we decipher the info on the Unit Supply Detail screen?

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

Also keep in mind that replacements require freight along with supply so you may just be hitting the limit of your port capacity. Supplies have priority over replacements so if supplies take up the majority (or all) of your port capacity you will not receive the replacements needed for the support troops to arrive. I fly a lot of supplies into the airbases with transports and that seems to help the supply situation on the airbases and free up some of the port capacity. This is a trick I learned from a WWII transport pilot from the MTO who said that his entire tour was just flying supplies and support troops into new airfields the entire war.

I have over 200k freight in depots by this point.
The supply bug only bit the initial invasion turn (6)
So I've been supplied on turn 7, 8, 9 and 10 with no problems.

Could my air support manpower needs be going into 5th Army as replacements?

I was presuming from the description of 'air support' in the pool that I had units that just needed to flow as freight to the desired spot.
If 'air support' in the pool just means toolboxes and bomb carts and it also requires a manpower drain to create 'air support' in an air base I'll need to dial the supply level of all ground units below the air bases to ensure they get first dibs, right?

If that is the case I can see how best to manage that going forward. I tend to think of the refit function as accepting replacements in ground units, and I don't like the prospect of lowering the beans and bullets to the troops just so the guys in personnel put my air crews on the right boat. Because of how critical 'air support' units are to air bases, and the WA player overall, those units should be priority 5 or something.
I think of supply and replacement as functions with genuinely different priorities. I understand a game that already has so much granularity probably doesn't need another, I just need to understand the mechanic so I can work with it.

It's possible that the movement of air support squads under the auto system is not being fully tracked and accounted for on the unit supply details screen like normal replacements. I know it is a different routine, so perhaps when something is off for sending air support, the "no" messages are not created like they would be during the normal replacement segments. That's my guess. Is it possible you are short of British and/or American manpower? Since that auto movement of air support does not happen when normal replacements are moved, I can't say that changing priorities of ground units will make a difference. It might if you set them such that they don't bother to take replacements and manpower is the limiting factor.

I don't think I'm short on manpower, I haven't taken any egregious losses, but I admit I didn't track it.
I have a saved game against the AI that is on turn 4 before invasion of The Heel and I'll try to do some testing with it while waiting on turns this weekend and see if I can find the bottleneck.

What kind of manpower level should be considered 'scraping the barrel' for Americans and CW?

Turn 10

Weather on the ground is muddy in Northern Europe already, and this system is working south.




Rain forces Strategic Air Force to continue concentrating on the area south of Rome.




Overall air directive allocation:




Tactical Air Force shifts the ground attacks to follow the front line as 5th Army continues to push out of The Heel.




Again we put up satisfactory interdiction over the plains.




General Ridgeway continues with pressure directly in the middle, forcing back the panzers and paras and creating an opening for British armor to reach the Adriatic Sea behind German lines.




The armor corridor is weak, but more brigades pour in to widen the encirclement.




The Free French take position on the left flank, holding the hills above Taranto while 9th US Inf Div is moved from the port at Brindisi to anchor the right flank under the umbrella of TF 81




Air Interdiction values over the new front lines:




50th BR Inf Div sails from Sicily to Taranto. Still liking the supply situation our soft factor recon indicates the Germans are enjoying.




Heel Supply Sitrep:
Taranto: 0
Manduria: 0
167,266: 22k
Otranto: 80k
167,264: 70k
Brindisi: 83k
164,262: 7k
Total: 265k

The Americans abandon the temporary port in the top of The Heel and make their last amphibious operation adjustment.




The British Airborne will be supporting the 8th Army assault on the western beaches.
The WA lack the necessary transport to lift all of the airborne in this theater in a single week. The British will be shipped from Corsica to the British beaches to serve as reserve and to dynamically re-target for landing sites in support of the 7th&8th Army link up.
The American Airborne are assigned 4 landing sites, but the 509th Para Rgt will be prepping to make a sea landing in the center American beach. The 509th will then adjust their landing site to support the 7th & 8th Army link up. The 82nd Airborne will assume blocking positions in the hills to protect the 7th Army thrust by armor across the boot.

It is possible that 5th US Army is taking up all of your replacements. I would try changing the supply priorities and make sure that your combat units are not on REFIT and see what that does.

It is possible that 5th US Army is taking up all of your replacements. I would try changing the supply priorities and make sure that your combat units are not on REFIT and see what that does.

Definitely no units on refit, but I'm sure I put 5th Army on priority 4 to catch up from the supply bug. Because the area is overflowing with supplies I didn't think of it as an issue. I was expecting the available Air Support squads to be subtracted from the pools and available freight and show up.

I'm running a test now to watch a few more things. It took some trial and error to learn the 'preferences' of the supply engine for the Axis in the Med, and I have a feeling this might be some of the same thing. If I can understand how to anticipate it I can figure out how to live with it.

ORIGINAL: carlkay58
It is possible that 5th US Army is taking up all of your replacements. I would try changing the supply priorities and make sure that your combat units are not on REFIT and see what that does.

My opponent in my other Battleground Italy game as the WA just notified me he installed the beta, so it will resume.

Its only on turn 3, so I'm going to try and monitor the manpower situation as well.
I want to see if it is the British manpower situation that is causing problems. If they're scraping the bottom of the barrel each turn and getting assigned most of the captured/created airbases it could be the culprit.

Right now on turn 3 British manpower active pool is at 32, USA is 7,009.
All pools are 591 and 10,315.

Turn 11

Weather is nice again:




Heel Supply Sitrep:
Taranto: 0
167,266: 19k
Otranto: 78k
167,264: 63k
Brindisi: 102k
164,262: 15k
Total: 277k

Supplies are now going back up in The Heel, so we continue pushing out toward Foggia.

Most of my heel airbases are fleshed out with support, but still not expanding airbases in Corsica even though it has over 200k freight stockpiled and II US Corps HQ with over half a dozen construction units.
I think the auto-assigned engineers have different priorities than I do, but there's not much I can do about it except wait for them to the fix the stuff they consider more important before they get to expanding my runways as ordered...

The Germans as expected made an effort to rescue their cut off units. He made several attacks on the armored cordon, but was only successful where he needed to be successful.
The consequence is that 16th SS Sturm Bde (Mot) is also in a bad spot, and I think I can add them to the bag.












If 23rd Arm Bde had held their nerve they would have maintained the pocket, but alas they broke. This is probably to our favor, as it encourages the Germans to try and save those units instead of pulling back to better defensive terrain.

Again the Allied heavy bombers concentrate on railyards and ports. The goal is continue degradation of the German supply network, and reduce their ability to respond with strategic movement.




Tactical Air Force lays down interdiction in the area just behind the front lines. We hope to push the Germans through this as the week develops.




Enemy disposition before Allied ground attacks:




General Ridgeway wastes little time. His orders are to maintain contact with the enemy and he proceeds to do just that. First smashing Germans on the left flank so that 5th Army infantry can take more secure positions in the rough terrain. The 38th Sec Rgt and H Goering Pzr Div are shoved west and the ridges are occupied to anchor that advance.




German paras and panzergrenadiers are pushed back in the center, with British armor in the vanguard.
This assault routs the H Goering Div who has been worn to a nub by weeks of ceaseless activity.




Now the attacks on the right wing are undertaken, with the goal of storming unoccupied Barletta on the Adriatic coast to again cut off German units and force them back into Bari.




Forces are shuffled to try and increase the cordon. The paras are kept on airbases and the Free French Mtn Rgts are moved to the ports to begin prepping for the next invasion targets.




German mech units on the front line are hammered right now. 29th PzG Div managed to get away with 10 tanks in their last fight. H Goering routed in the last battle they lost - readiness is probably way down with ground interdiction as well.



The number of Axis ready airframes is also inconsequential at this point.




Invasion prep sitrep:

5th & 51st BR Inf Div with 8th Army in Bastia
1st BR Airborne Div is prepping on Corsica
3/82nd Airborne Rgt is prepping at Porto Vecchio
1st & 3rd US Inf Div on ships in Porto Vecchio
45th US Inf Div and 8th IN Inf Div on ships with 7th Army in Olbia
1st CA Inf Div continues to prep for invasion with BR TFs in Africa

2nd Tabor Goums FF Mtn Rgt sails to Valletta to prep for invasion with TF 86
509th Para Rgt shipped to Taranto to prep.
Will juggle para responsibilities and use one para group for invasion.
Follow on forces will be:
4th FF Mtn Div, 9th, 34th & 36th US Inf Div

That will put 11 Inf Divs plus the paras ashore, to be followed by the reinforcement armor and whatever armored bdes I pull from The Heel.

Overall, things are going well. The Germans are fighting where we want to fight, and we're in a good position to bag several divisions right before we make the next landing.

Turn 12

Weather is getting uglier.






“All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time” - Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, USMC




The Germans haven't thrown in the towel yet. VI US Corps management of the flanks was poor. General Dawley insisted that British infantry did not heed his orders to take the high ground around Taranto when the Free French withdrew to begin prepping for the next invasion, but the British indicate they received no such order, and lacked the time after their combat to accomplish such a maneuver at any rate. General Ridgway in uninterested in excuses. His staff HQ has been chased toward Brindisi while the 23rd Arm Bde flees southeast of Taranto under pressure from the erstwhile 'pocketed' Germans.
When Ike, fearing the loss of 5th Army, asks Ridgeway what he needs for reinforcements he asks for just one man - General Gerow.
General Gerow was stationed in England, but is flown into The Heel in order to help turn the tables back on the Germans by taking command of VI US Corps.

The Germans attempted several attacks, but only met with success once.





3rd PzG Div goes into battle with only a single AFV still functioning.




They really managed to 'capture' 5th Army by navigating the path left open to them. With the port not shut down the German defenders had the supplies and morale to attempt the maneuver.
While Montgomery smugly notifies Churchill that, 'the Americans have lost the war in a single week,' General Ridgeway is not so glum. His paratrooper background, and knowledge that 5th Army's real task is to bear hug the enemy while 7th and 8th Army make the strategically decisive move, provide him infectious confidence that is readily absorbed by his corps commanders.

The key will be breaking the German cordon, and then ensuring as many units as possible can be trapped or engaged to prevent their disturbing the upcoming landings.

To accomplish this some new air directives are set. The evacuation of one of the airfields still leaves plenty of Tactical Air assets nearby to lend a hand.




Strategic Air Force continues their port/railyard campaign. Still not bringing attention to the landing sites with recon or other prep, instead the desire is to slow the response time of Army Group C's southern deployed assets.




Tactical Air Force switches all escorts to FB roles and plans to pour fire onto the eastern side of the German cordon.




B-25s will attempt to disrupt supplies and the enemy avenue of retreat on the western side of the pocket.




Not the most effective week of CAS:

The 23rd Arm Bde is ordered to take up a blocking position in the hills west of Taranto. This will prevent the Germans from falling back into this spot, and will allow 5th Army to break the encirclement by pushing the German panzers off the plains to the northwest.



General Ridgeway gathers whatever he can for a deliberate attack to break the pocket.





With the pocket broken 5th Army morale bouys and so does their effective combat power. The Free French are ordered to assault Bari with the help of all 6 Allied TFs. The German defenses at this point are a simple Fortified Zone, which surrenders without inflicting a single Allied casualties.

“Thank God for the United States Navy” This was the message Maj. Gen. Leonard Gerow sent to Gen. Omar Bradley as the Allies established their beachhead at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.





Now begins the process of herding the Germans back toward the beaches and away from German lines.





With the pocket broken, and the Germans 'repocketed', efforts continue to hem them in.
The American TF's sail back around The Heel and into Taranto's harbor so they can lend their music to the battle in the hills to the northwest.




The follow up attack just north of this position compels another retreat by 3rd PzG Div and two regiments of 26th Pzr Div - unfortunately the elements of 26th Pzr Div rout and escape behind the Ojanto river instead of coming to rest besides the Free French in Bari. I had positioned the Free French in Bari hoping to cause additional retreat attrition when the 'bagged' units were forced back again, but the cumulative damage to the regiments of 26th Pzr Div meant their combined readiness and morale did not exceed 90 - so they routed to safety...
It's really the only thing that goes 'wrong' all week, and the consequence is we fail to bag two more panzer regiments.

General Gerow orders attacks to the west in order to drive back the Germans still on this side of the river.





The British also make a move against the 135th Fortress Brigade. I placed an American TF off the coast with the hope of dissuading (or better yet punishing) an enemy retreat to an adjacent coastal hex. I'm not sure if it played into the German rout or not, but it did lead to a mistake on my part. I overlooked getting that TF back into Taranto at the end of the turn, and cost myself a beachhead! Some things are worth triple checking...

This is the final theater situation map:




With the port at Bari under Allied control the Germans in the pocket are truly doomed. What remains to be seen is how much of Army Group C is also doomed.

Just about everything is in place for next week's invasion (except one TF - dammit! I'm not even sure how I screwed this up since it is in the right spot in my screenshot after the battle. Maybe I accidentally undid his last move back into port?!)

that was a fun bit of reversal of fortunes, good break out by the Germans at Brindisi and excellent response by you

Really good AAR. Great description and explanation of plans and results. Thanks

Rain everywhere in Italy. We will invade anyway, because the weather doesn't promise to get better, and the Germans will only get closer.

Strategic Air directives again go hard after railways and ports.
We establish naval patrols over the beachheads, but don't expect much trouble from the Luftwaffe.
Ground Interdiction is focused on the plains around Foggia. Anything we can to drive up the cost he'll pay to try and get between the hammer and the anvil.




Initial situation before Allied ground attacks:




5th Army finishes mopping up the Germans that it had been struggling to pocket for nearly a month. I had initially avoided taking the port at Bari because I didn't want the units in it to flee by sea. I think this in turn induced my opponent to try and hang onto it, when it really wasn't very valuable - certainly not more valuable than his on map formations. The cat and mouse game of creating and opening the pockets served 5th Army's strategic goal of tying down Army Group C for the strategic flanking maneuver. Approximately 35k Germans were killed or captured this week by 5th Army.
General Gerow was handed his first setback when the 2nd FJ Div pushed back a tank brigade covering the front lines.




Another German attack at the river's edge failed, and General Gerow decided to follow up this German failure with a crossing. Schmalz PzG Bde was roughly handled and routed under successive blows.




Air Interdiction values over the 5th Army battlefield: