T22 – 27 November 1943
And ... its cold and clear – bomb baby bomb. Especially as the U-Boats are up to -6 on the VP chart.
So the frustrating question is where? My guess is the Bremen-Kiel group but my assumption is there will be a lot of fighters. So in addition to several raids aimed at the U-Boats, I commit almost all of the rest of 8AAF to a wider bomb the region mission – very well escorted and covered by an AS [1]. BC mostly does the Ruhr, just to remind the locals we still exist. Elements of 8 AAF join in.
Tactical Air goes for trucks and rail capacity.
Italy, the bulk do something around Rome but a large element of Tactical Air supports 8 Army. 15 AAF goes for the railyards in Tuscany and Bologna – well escorted as I expect to find German fighters. Also running some recon looking for their bombers.
Results. BC's twin raid on the Ruhr have given the German engineers something else to do.
Quick comment about hitting resources. I never target this as its not a VP source and the Germans, globally, have a lot but there is a small gain. Resources get shipped by rail to factories, if you've blown up the local stock, that means more rail cap allocated to the job. That rail cap is not moving supplies or units.
If it was the Bremen U-Boats that had repaired, that is them back out of action. And no German fighters.
Kiel is added to the bombed list, a lot of German fighters but I have enough escorts now to protect the bombers.
And that removes Hamburg from the list of suspects. Note that on same raids I overwhelmed the fighters and all that fuel will help rebuild my VP score.
Air losses in that blow out. Would have liked more dead German pilots, my LB losses were high but mostly those were 2 engined or Lancasters over the Ruhr (75 – and another 30 Halifaxes) – I suspect more flak has been moved in over the last few turns. Relatively few US bombers lost.
File that one under 'very annoying'. But had the MP for a second attack which worked, not just nice to drive back the PzrGr formation but overran 35 Ju-52s on the air base. I'd rather have destroyed 35 Ju-88s.
So retake Marcigliana airbase (probably the most fought over hex on the map). Its not that I really want it (or can use it) but it chokes the movement of supply to Rome (ZoC costs). Anzio and Lido di Roma are in my hands now and I'll have a ground supply route to 5 Army next turn.
This cluster of #1 and #2 ports ease supply in the short term. Be a while before Naples is useful.
8 British Army broke out (that PzrGr regiment was weakened by lack of supply). Need to think about how far I want to go on that flank but the threat undermines the German grip on Rome.
Have found the German bombers.
Destroyed unit list. Gives some idea how often Marcigliana has changed hands. Still no-where near the numbers I'd like to have taken out.
Can Anna wait? … or is she just trying to find a taxi?
[1] The advantage to this is these fighters go looking for a fight, escorts primarily are there to deter. Can't do it yet, but once you have P-51s over Germany on AS missions then its the end for the Luftwaffe.
