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July 30 1943

In the Ukraine the Soviets give up. Resilient resistance and counterattacks on the flanks have stopped the offensive. There will most likely be no conquest of Rumania or Hungary this year. Stalin shots some generals and enter a more defensive mode.

July 30 1943

In France finally the supplies from Spain flows in and Patton starts to look for weak links in the front. Reports reach him that the Bourges area is held lightly by a Rumanian division and a Rumanian HQ. With tanks full of gas patton orders the Shermans forward and they sweep aside all resistance. In the north Eisenhower does his part by eliminating a italian inf corps and the two armoured wings meet up behind Paris creating a pocket of 4 corps. And the front towards Germany almost completely open. So history repeats itself almost [:)].

August 13 1943

In France the pocketed troops struggle and ties up a lot of units. the rest advance and reach Belgian and almost the German border.

August 13 1943

In northern Russia Germans retreat and I follow. In Finland only a HQ in Helsinki left.

August 13 1943

In the South the Germans also enter defensive mode and retreat. Stalin for a moment regrets shooting those generals last turn and again orders the tanks forward hoping to knock out Rumania before bad weather arrives.

August 27 1943

In France the pocket is eliminated and a lot of mobile units are staring on the fairly weak axis frontline. I hope to get at least some German/Netherland cities before the bad weather comes.

August 27 1943

In the mediterranean the Italians contest my capture of Tripoli. How dare they [:)]. I probably need to send some more units here in the winter. Some UK divisions land on empty Sicily. Not sure if I will be able to keep it.

August 27 1943

In the north the Germans continue to retreat and Helsinki occupied and the Finns sue for peace.

Looking at the casualties I dont think I have eveer seen so big German and Soviet losses in 43. Also More than 560 US Uk merchants sunk and 57 escorts crazy never seen anything like it [:)]

August 27 1943

In the South the offensive in Rumania continues. Shatter one German mech corps.

I am next to both capital and oil with 2 turns to go. I might be able to do it.

Stalin declares Operation Liberate the Ukraine a success most of it back in Soviet hands now as the German scramble to the west.

Looking at forces the Soviets have lost a lot over the summer but German army also very small. The Axis will live to 44 but I dont think they will live to see 45.

September 10 1943

In France the Allies approach Germany and one German hex is taken [:)].

September 10 1943

North part not much happening.

September 10 1943

In Romania the Soviets roll into Bucharest after stubborn resistance. That completes the objectives for the summer now buildup for next spring to end the war I hope.

A funny sidenote. The turn after my joke about shot generals (maybe not superfun but still [:)]) Zhukov commanding the offensive in the south actually died. I did not see it because there was so much else showing in the turn report.

September 24 1943

End of clear weather probably.

In the west the Ruhr area falls that will lower German economy a fair amount.

September 24 1943

And the eastern front.

December 1943

Skip forward a bit as not that much happening. In the Mediterranean the allies start to reclaim parts of it and on the eastern front the Germans retreat and the Soviets follow.

I think the Soviets have suffered way over 4000 losses and still manpower at 62%. Ill post force and casualties next turn.

Allied production at 1500 per turn Axis a bit over 400 so not a very even contest now.

February 1944

Axis retreat continue and I follow. Not that long to spring now.

Interesting game. What went wrong for the Axis here?

My opinion, Axis got side tracked and invaded USSR too late with too little.

Never really had a good chance of damaging the Soviets, and still lacked punch in 1942.

In taking Portugal and Spain, the land mass the Axis had to protect was too large. I do think the allies are potentially able to invade in force to early.

So not enough units to protect the west and too few units to push the Soviets.

Addition - things went from challenging to bad with the encirclement of a large part of the German army in Russia.

The Axis had an amzing BoA. Have anyone seen numbers like it? 560 merchants and 60 escorts sunk [:)].
This was unfortunately cancelled out by losing too many expensive mech/arm corps in late 41 and the whole of the summer of 42. The summeroffensive (you can see for yourself scrolling up page 5 and forward) was fought at a chokepoint at Rostov basically and too many German units lost to shatter results. This meant that the German army biggest size in the whole war was like 1470 which I think is not enough to withstand the allies later on.

But it was a very exciting game both 41 and 42 [:)].