Winston's Soft Underbelly -- A Dream Realized?

[rkr1958]

32. Nov/Dec 1944. Bismarck, Marianas and Solomons.

And Truk is very strongly defended. By-passing Truk and Siapan is looking more attractive by the minute.

[rkr1958]

32. Nov/Dec 1944. Economic Reports.

Germany has run out of oil and as you shall see in the next post their access to oil points is now down to 2 points per turn. Even the CW is having oil problems. They had to skip reorganizing 8 subs and cruisers because of oil.

[rkr1958]

32. Nov/Dec 1944. Germany. Final Production.

Though Germany production "claims" access to three oil points, the one in trade from Mosul Iraq has not path to Germany and can no longer be counted.

Of the other two oil resources that Germany controls and has access to, the one at Breslau was lost to strategic bombing turn, leaving only one oil resources for Germany this turn.

German BP output dropped to a point not seen since Jan/Feb 1941. Germany both militarily and economically are collapsing. In the previous post, all of Germany's new builds were infantry and are design to keep the Reich alive for as long as possible. Also, they require no oil to fight and reorganize.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. Victory Totals.

Germany lost one, Prague and the USA gained (the same) one. The capture of Prague by the USA also resulted in the conquest of Czechoslovakia.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. Destroyed Pool.

The axis moved first and last this turn. They got three impulses and the allies got two. The weather was horrible in most of the zones for most of this turn. It was blizzard in the Arctic and North Temperate except for the first impulse pair which saw snow in the North Temperate with blizzard in the Arctic. The north monsoon saw a mixture of rain and fine, but the south monsoon saw storms the entire turn, which prevented allied land action in New Guinea. So Lae is still in Japanese hands.

The Germans did launch two counterattacks against the Western Allies in Germany and Belgium on their first impulse pair. That how the Brits lost their IX armor corps.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. Germany.

Both the Western Allies and the Soviets managed only small gains against the Germans this turn.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. Balkans.

Led by Gort, a combined CW and USA army is slogging its way through the Balkans headed for the Italian position in Albania, which is the seat of the illegal and fascist Italian government in exile.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. East Africa.

Well, the fascist Italian unit running amok in East Africa has finally been stymied by the "rise" CW territorials. Specifically the one that just appeared in Uganda led by Idi Amin.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. Manchuria.

The Soviets continued to pour troops into Manchuria and managed to capture the cities of Harbin and Changchun, which went added to the capture of Kirin, brings their total to 3 Manchuria cities liberate since their DOW against Japan last turn.

[rkr1958]

Jan/Feb 1945. China, North Temperate.

The Japanese are making an all out effort to keep the Soviets and communist Chinese forces from linking up.

China Sea.

In the China Sea, the RN and USN sent surface patrols in order to make way for USN carrier task forces next turn. That is, the "presence" of one or more of these surface patrols eliminates the penalty for "in the presence".

[rkr1958]

33. South China Sea.

The USN moved a strong carrier task force in the South China Sea to support the RN there. Unfortunately, the allies were unable to locate the Japanese fleet. Once it does, the allies should have no problem clearing it out and cutting the Japanese convoy supply line through that area.

Additionally, the USN and RN moved strong naval and ground forces to all allied control minor ports in and surrounding the area.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. Bay of Bengal.

To include the Bay of Bengal.

On the ground in the Pacific, USA strategic planners have made the decision to by pass the islands of Truk and Siapan and to push towards Japan through the South China and China seas. This, however, doesn't mean the USN won't try to control all waters surrounding Japan, including the Japanese coast, China Sea and Sea of Japan. They will regardless of the US land strategy employed.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. New Guinea.

The allies still have a bit of unfinished business in New Guinea.

Also, the allies are using a number of minor ports surrounding New Guinea to support the land push to Japan through the South China and China sea. Note that MacArthur command was moved to Darwin and he's ready to fulfill his promise of returning to the Philippines. However, to his dismay this isn't the first on the priority list for the allies to liberate or take.

Also, can you locate my favorite "unit", which is in this screen cap? [;)]

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. China. North Monsoon.

Sorry, I left this out of my series of screen caps for this turn. Though the Nationalist Chinese suffer from attack weakness they are able through maneuver and one high odds attack create a headache for the Japanese.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. Use Oil. Germany.

Germany didn't have enough oil to reorganize all its oil consuming units. Looks like the Battle of the Atlantic may official be over. That is, Germany choose not to reorganize any of their u-boat units.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945. Economic Reports.

USA BP output is approaching four times of Germany's output. Also, note that all Germany's BP's went to infantry corps.

[rkr1958]

33. Jan/Feb 1945 -> 34. Mar/Apr 1945. Trade.

New Trade Agreement. The CW will try to send the 2 non-oil resources through trade to China.

[rkr1958]

34. Mar/Apr 1945. Victory Totals.

No Change from last turn.

[rkr1958]

34. Mar/Apr 1945. Destroyed Pool.

The allies moved first and the axis last. This turn consisted of 3 impulse pairs with fine weather across the map in the last two except for rain the arctic. Even the first impulse pair had decent weather worldwide with fine everywhere except for storms in the arctic and rain in the north temperate. Enough on the weather.

The US played two o-chits this turn and took two super combines on their first two impulses this turn. The Western Allies (USA and CW) were very active in all theaters and on land, air and sea. The Soviets continued to pound the Germans on land and in Asia, continued to pour more land and air forces into that country.

[rkr1958]

34. Mar/Apr 1945. Germany.

The biggest development against Germany was that they are out of oil. Specifically, they had no oil for reorganization, which meant that all oil consuming units that were disorganized remained disorganized. This included Rommel and Guderian. And the prospects for any oil next turn is slim to none. At the start of the turn the Germans had only two oil resources that had potential for supplying oil to Germany. Both were lost this turn to strategic bombing before the Soviets captured one of the two. Now, the Germans have only one oil resource, which will surely be targeted by allied strategic bombers next turn until lost. So, Germany is OUT of oil.

As a side note, back in Europe the Italians were asked and did agree to surrender to the CW. As far as I can tell nothing really changed. Albania is still the seat of the illegal Italian government that fled after the partial conquest by the CW two years ago.