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August 28th, 1942 (End of Axis turn)

In a worrisome development, the Allies opened a new front in Norway landing near Stavanger with two corps and pushing the defending division out of the city. An infantry corps was rushed to Oslo to beef-up defenses and a Panzer Corps stationed in France was dispatched to Germany to be shipped to Norway as soon as possible.

At sea, German U-boats and raiders are continuing to inflict serious loses on the enemy.

In Libya, Allied troops continued their advance, with the help of US Marines landing by the coast, and easily destroyed an Italian corps.

In the Soviet Union, Axis troops advanced toward the Dnieper but did not engage the enemy. The only fighting occurred in the North near Leningrad, but mostly near Vitebsk, where the Soviet front was breached South of the city, and Velikie Luki, that was captured by German panzergrenadiers. The two forces will soon converge on Vitebsk. OKH also expect the Soviet troops by the Berezina to retreat to the Dnieper.

Bloody excellent AAR.
Entertaining and informative.
Also dedicated posting over the Christmas break.
Good work.

Thanks [:)]

Could you please post a view of the casualties on both sides at this stage?

Ok' I'll do it (and forces at hand to) at the end of the Summer campaign as it is in just 2-3 turns. That is when loses will more or less stabilise for Winter, so it will be a nice spot.

September 11th, 1942 (End of Axis turn)

Disaster at sea! A whole U-boat flotilla was pulverised in the North Atlantic and the equivalent of another two where sunk, but the sinking was spread over a few flotillas. Still, our valiant sailors managed to make the Allies pay too.

In the Soviet Union, only a small Soviet counterattack was reported, near Leningrad, pushing the III Corps. Soviet troops did not exploit their success, staying put. The position was retaken without fighting.

Further South, the Berezina was abandoned as well as Vitebsk. German troops advanced and some secondary fighting occurred. OKH reported surprising resistance from a rifle corps near Velikie Luki, resitting three days of assaults by the best Germany had to offer before caving in!

In Ukraine, the only operation was near Dnepropetrovsk, where an army covering the city’s Southern flank was dispatched across the river but put up enough resistance to disrupt the following attacks on the city itself. OKH is confident however that it is juts a matter of time before it falls.

In the Mediterranean, in an act of desperation in view of the Allied advance in Libya, an assault on Gibraltar was ordered and German infantry landed on the Rock and tried to dislodge the defenders, and therefore close the Mediterranean Sea from the West to have more resources to deal with the situation in Libya. Alas, the assault failed despite the Regia Marina and Regia Aeronautica valiant efforts to help.

In Norway, both side dispatched reinforcements and the British finished off the Stavenger defenders just Nort of the city. OKH believes that the British have about four corps of all kinds in the country. For now, OKH managed to send two corps (including a panzer one) and an extra division. The German fleet was also brough back home.

Exhausted German soldier in Ukraine taking a break.

Italian troops marching toward the front on the Dnieper river banks.

Finnish soldiers on an obviously quiet part of the front.

SM.79 bombers coming back after a bombing run on Gibraltar. A fifth aircraft did not make it back.

September 25th, 1942 (End of Axis turn)

At Gibraltar, the German corps is struggling to stay combat ready. OKH has abandoned all hope to take the Rock after a last attempt and considers the corps lost.

At Rhodes, the British landed a corps and forced the garrison there to surrender after two days of battle. Comando Supremo decided to take a gamble and rush in another corps before the British could occupy the port. The corps did make it to port and, after an encounter with Allied submarines, landed safely unscratched, much to Comando Supremo’s surprise.

In Libya, the Allies keep pushing West. Only minor delaying battles occurred.

Relatively few battles occurred in the Soviet Union where the front remained relatively stable. Of interest are the captures of Smolensk and Dnepropetrovsk.

In an unfortunate series of event, a hole fliegerkorps of medium bomber was lost bombing Kronstadt. OKL will investigate who left the bombers fly such a dangerous mission when the unit was already in very bad shape; heads are expected to roll.

To add insult to injury, the mission had no reason to be launched anymore. As the Soviets seems to have realised that they need to garrison Kronstadt, no landing there is possible anymore, making air trikes against the Soviet fleet pointless and costly.

The reserve corps in Stettin keep in reserve for such a landing had already been sent to Oslo to try to correct the situation there. The small volksgrenadier corps that inherited the now cancelled mission of taking Kronstadt was therefore sent to Bergen, where the division holding the city advanced South, probably seriously affecting the British armored corps (Est of the city) supply. OKH hopes that the situation will make the British either redeploy and/or try to deal with the division first instead of assaulting the still fragile new defenders in the city. Enough delays might allow for bad weather to finally arrive in the sector, probably freezing this front for a while.

A formation of He 111 flying to their doom toward Kronstadt.

German infantry pushing into Smolensk by the city's Western rail depot.

A German soldier doing recon near Bergen.

October 9th, 1942 (End of Axis turn)

In Norway, Bergen was taken by a British offensive just before the weather turned for the worse, which would have helped the defenders gain some time to entrench in the city. Now, three German divisions are trapped behind enemy lines and are considered lost.

In the Mediterranean, Rhodes is still besieged but with each passing week, the danger fades as the British corps is, we believe, getting weaker by the weeks. In Gibraltar, the German corps on the beaches was abandoned when Italian air and naval forces left the sector. No serious action happened yet in Libya.

In other news, Germany was very heavily bombed with no opposition from the battered fighters in Germany. Another fliegerkorps should be operation in the coming days to help defend Germany and another one after that by January.

In the Soviet Union not much happened, except for a massive partisans’ upveal in Belarus! Axis troops have been dispatched in three different areas to deal with them.

With the end of the Summer campaign in the East, OKW is assessing the situation. Since the start of the war, German loses have been very high with loses on the ground been split about 50-50 between the campaign of France and in the Soviet Union, which together must be responsible for about 90% of Heer’s loses, the rest been in secondary theatres. The most impressive number is the staggering loses of the Luftwaffe and the Regia Aeronautica, that put a serious drain on Axis war efforts. German naval loses, in term of U-boat mostly, have also been severe, but at least they are giving as much as they take. Finnish air force seems also to have suffered more that its share.

Allied loses were very high for the Soviet Union, especially since that country has been at war for about five months only. However, OKW knows that the Soviet can mobilise many resources in the coming months. The British seems also to have suffered greatly on land, in the air and mostly at sea. However, OKW believe that their most serious problem is the heavy loses in escorts and merchant marine that are probably now a serious drain on British resources. On the other hand, with the US now in the Allied camp, thing will only improve for them each passing months.