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T16 – 16 October 1943

Well lets do good news/bad news

Good news it looks like the Germans couldn't manage an attack on 5 Army (I'd spent ages obsessing over a defensive layout), bad news .. VP



Also while the Luftwaffe managed to match my interdiction over the sealanes they remained open.

Also 92 air units having to rest. Bad weather means all the UK air groups are grounded. Probably predictably, almost all air commitment in Italy is to protect the landings. No real gain in the relative naval interdiction scores but some damage to their land units and the rail lines bringing in their supply.



Hermann's finest are sent to improve the agriculture on the Orkney Islands. A massive attack breaches the Biferno giving me Termoli – this is indicative of why the FJ formations are so tough to deal with. They lost but look at the damage they caused.



Overview at the end of turn, hopefully can launch some sort of attack around Naples next turn, though I suspect bad weather will stall that.



Ground losses, German numbers nicely inflated by the recent surrenders



Air losses, guess the best I can say is I am starting to make some inroads into the German bombers.



Random image of the week. You can never have too much Italian neo-realist cinema so here is Anna Magnani commenting on my recent progress.

T17 – 23 October 1943

I think there are times when a single picture says it all ...

so here you go for this turn:



In Italy force the naval air to fly despite the conditions as I need some interdiction.

In NW Europe back to light rain. The 2 main BC raids were effective on the Ruhr and a smaller raid on the U-Boats at Rostock seems to have done enough damage o take out that production.

B-24s attacked Stuttgart starting the process of wrecking the factories there (this is the first raid of the game), B17s did a good job over Leipzig (the VP will offset what I am shedding in Italy), the Stug produiction in Hannover was hit.

Attempt to force the Adriatic coast (despite the rain it is only light mud on the ground) failed



Other than that, looking for weak spots in the German line along the Bifano – my assumption is of a lack of reserves due to the commitment at Rome but to make anything of that I first have to break through.

Have managed to get some more depth for 5 Army. Even better that breaks the rail line to Rome. All German supplies to the Naples-Bifano defences are now going to be down the Adriatic coast. If I can get some airpower in place, then that can effectively be closed off.



and sticking to neo-realist films, here's the conditions for my brave partisans



This time the wonderful Silvana Mangano.

T18 – 30 October 1943

So enforced rest means a lot of my planes are available as we revert to light rain and some mud.

Only 43 airgroups out of action.

The Italian missions are focussed on breaching the Bifano (now I know which hexes have infantry), targets around Rome and the rail lines down the Adriatic. I now have sole fishing rights off Rome, but allocate Coastal Command just in case.

In Europe, decide its time to really go for Berlin, weather will turn against me soon so I can afford resting formations. So a combination of a large block of BC, the B-17s and the B-24s all get to raid various targets. Rest of BC does the Ruhr and some passing Tigers at Kassel. B-26s return to Hannover.

Ruhr and Kassel (HI not the Tigers) reported badly bombed, BC actually did ok at Berlin, B-24s claim to have knocked out the Stug production, B-17s do a lot of damage – note the commitment of the Luftwaffe. Hannover raid hit HI and Stugs.



The train molesting Mosquitos delivered in Italy – can't see much freight going down that rail line.



On the ground, opt to allow 5 Army to rest but 7 and 8 breach the Bifano line. Decent recon showed me where the infantry were and each chosen hex was substantively bombed.

Second advantage of the Mosquito raids around Ancona is that a Corps scale landing should be safe, especially as the Paras generate interdiction to the south. The actual landing is just a brigade – hence the relative speed at which it was ready. Balance of the transport planes dumped supply to 5 Army.

I still have a small scattered reserve in various ports.



I continue paying a massive price. But having started this unwise approach, my only choice now is to stick to it.

ORIGINAL: loki100

I think there are times when a single picture says it all ...

so here you go for this turn:



and sticking to neo-realist films, here's the conditions for my brave partisans

Just as I started reading your post, The Bangles' Hazy Shade of Winter launched on Youtube. Seems strangely appropriate.

ORIGINAL: bomccarthy

ORIGINAL: loki100

...

Just as I started reading your post, The Bangles' Hazy Shade of Winter launched on Youtube. Seems strangely appropriate.

Now that would improve the WiTW soundtrack [;)]

T19 - 6 November 1943

So, the Germans actually isolate my landings on the Adriatic.



VP situation, I'm roughly covering the costs of the Italian campaign from the bombing, last turn's raids on Berlin seem to have contributed quite a lot.

Despite the fighter cover at Berlin, I have only 67 units being rested. Also a lot of air reinforcements and a brand new toy to use over Germany.



Since in Italy the Germans are pulling back along the Bifano, swap a lot of missions to interdiction. Substantial naval air to Adriatic. In NW Europe, its all about Berlin again (this time the B-24s are ordered to do a tour of the railway stations). Most of BC over the Ruhr.

Looks like a lot of heavy rain next week.

Results, amazingly Bomber Command found Berlin again, the German rail system may be worth avoiding for a week or two and the massed B-17s delivered, despite all the fighter cover.



Italy was all about placing interdiction (& getting naval control), at least the landing is no longer isolated, but I'm not going to be able to reinforce.



8 Army broke out and its motorised infantry reach the outskirts of Pescara.

Should have mentioned, I've motorised 2 infantry divisions (you have the trucks for this), till that NZ division arrives they give you a real tactical asset to supplement your tanks. As here, rested they can move quite a distance even in poor terrain.

7 Army has encircled Naples, depends on the weather but that will fall quickly (there is also a TF off the coast cutting supply).

5 Army expanded its bridgehead, exploitation attack by 1 Canadian armour just failed (1.8:1), would have made a real mess of the German supply lines.

Creating a problem for the German units south of Rome, if they stay they increasingly risk being cut off. Of course the other risk is a nasty group of Pzrs waiting to pounce – of note there are none in the front lines any more.



And my shiny new toy?

How does a tattered bomber force manage to generate 7 naval interdiction when a full force one barley manages to contest Rome? Well, besides less dying, the obvious-in-hindsight answer is:



Who knew that naval mines could cause major problems to naval landings? What might have happened had I had embarked on this journey of discovery earlier?

T20 – 13 November 1943

At Rome, German counter-attack drove back the Canadian tanks, they also managed to isolate V Corps beachhead (using a very pretty layout of interdiction.



Nothing interesting on the VP chart, poor weather in N Europe (so all the UK air has a week off), not bad in Italy. Most missions are interdiction, start on the railyards in Tuscany, abandoned regiment in Naples is heavily bombed.

End up with good interdiction North and South of Rome and the sea lanes re-open. Mosquitos carry on interdicting along the Adriatic.

Naples quickly taken. 5 Army retakes Marcigliana, 8 Army almost reaches V Corps.

Major airdrop both to the enclaves and for my advanced tanks.

I'll probably pull the battered Canadian armoured division back to the UK to refit, don't want my limited port capacity full of replacements at the moment.



In the meantime in Rome, Anna decides I am being too slow and to take things into her own hands:

great detail:. I am learning much.

Any chance for a map showing how you are organizing Britain? and one when you get 6 months further on.

thanks

Well that of course is highly classified ... [8D]

At this stage I just put the big HQs onto supply sources, collect new arrivals in the south. The new fixed units are a bit of a pain as one is in Liverpool and another in Southampton, so you can't use those ports for preparation - but then that makes then good places to collect secondary invasion forces.

I like to slowly sort out the UK stuff into 2 invasion sites, so 4 hexes in France, a corp for each and 8 divisions. I'll start some prep soon as I can release some TF from the Med. But at the moment due to the ability to auto-repair smaller ports and as mobile artillery they are all too much use.

I generally dump most of the SUs into the Army Group - this can then be sent to the armies once they are in France and allows me to re-organise come the New Year for the invasions.

The strategic airforces are all in E Anglia, expanding every airbase in SE England ready for 9 Air to arrive and Tactical Air to return from their Italian holidays.

Once we hit the new year, I'll do a post on how I interpret the various French options ... I'm really not sure at the moment which to use, but my opponent has given every invasion in Italy a rough time of it

T21 – 20 November 1943

Everything north of Rome was heavy rain, below that light, so still scope for the Italian campaign to carry on but rest all the UK bombers. Next turn I'm promised cold and clear skies over the Reich.

Other nasty bit is German interdiction just off shore for 5 Army. I can re-open due to the odd weather split.

VP, my city bombing score reduces as some stuff repairs as does some U-Boat production. Can see the benefit of Naples in the city VP line.



Not much happened. The Germans sailed out of Pescara just as my tanks arrived. Linked up to V Corps, 7 Army is pressing towards Rome, 8 Army is a bit out of position (but I'll send some units across as Rome is what matters).

The French mountain divisions are really handy as are those high morale specialist brigades. Can hold the line or do an 'ooze' offensive.

I'm busily repairing all these small ports that I'm now taking, will ease supply. Railheads past Pescara and up to Beneventum and the main ports are generating plenty of supply.

ORIGINAL: GloriousRuse

....
Who knew that naval mines could cause major problems to naval landings? What might have happened had I had embarked on this journey of discovery earlier?
...

is this a good place to confess that in one game I was really pleased I'd set the Wellingtons to the mine bomb load, but forgot to change it back to bombs and was wondering why they were doing absolutely no damage on their raids?

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.

I suspect more flak has been moved in...

A useful gameplay tip for those who play Axis. Everyone knows to move HQs around the Reich to add some flak cities or contest ingress routes.

It turns out that most HQs start at Supply Priority 0.

In a surprising turn of events, it helps if those AA guns have ammo. Which means they may need to be higher than supply priority 0. Much learning.

I give all my mechanized units 1 hvy, 1 mixed and 1 light flak support unit. Makes it very painful for them to unit bomb them...especially if there are 3 divs in a hex.

I never attach flak to my cities, but do rail them around.....mostly into factories along the Rhine. Any flak reinforcements are given to units.

The freebie RR-Flak I usually cluster in possible invasion areas to mess with interdiction...you rail them out to get them out of trouble for free.

ORIGINAL: GloriousRuse

I suspect more flak has been moved in...

A useful gameplay tip for those who play Axis. Everyone knows to move HQs around the Reich to add some flak cities or contest ingress routes.

...

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky

I give all my mechanized units 1 hvy, 1 mixed and 1 light flak support unit. Makes it very painful for them to unit bomb them...especially if there are 3 divs in a hex.

I never attach flak to my cities, but do rail them around.....mostly into factories along the Rhine. Any flak reinforcements are given to units.

The freebie RR-Flak I usually cluster in possible invasion areas to mess with interdiction...you rail them out to get them out of trouble for free.

think that overall the flak allocation options for the Germans is one of those games inside the game.

A personal view is that BC is more disrupted by flak than the NF. Mainly as flak damages, damage = lower morale, low morale = not flying, so you can remove a chunk of BC for a few turns and that adds up. Doesn't stop the destruction of the Ruhr but slows it a bit.

Of course, as with everything, the Germans don't have enough so you are left with the dilemna of disperse vs concentrate (& thus miss where the bombers actually are)

T23 – 4 December 1943

The weather has been very much in my favour in this game. I've only lost 3 bombing weeks and 1 week of ground operations. Back to cold in the north, rain and light mud in Italy. I do hope I don't get the reverse situation in 1944.

Seem to have mostly guessed right about the U-Boats. I'll have one more go at them and then leave it (only 3 more turns of them then need to worry about the V-weapons).



Last turn's massive air effort has consequences. 109 air units out of use and, for the first time, quite a lot of Bomber Command.

Small indicator of a shift of attention. For the first time placing new tactical airforce squadrons in the UK rather than in Italy.

Air war, not very inventive. Would like to do more U-Boat damage and since I am bombing in the Baltic region make a start on the V-weapons. Italy, not pushing it but 15 AAF has gone for the airfields where the bombers were.

BC did its usual damage to the Ruhr, seems to have hit the U-Boats at Hannover and the Tiger production at Kassel (but not enough to close it down).

Tactical Air started on the launch sites. I often find that early 1944 can be slow for bombing so its worth inflicting a bit of damage on these to reduce VP loss.

8 AAF hit the Panthers and trucks at Nuremberg, but ran into massive concentration of German fighters along the Baltic, did some damage but at heavy losses.



In Italy 15 AAF managed to destroy 35 planes at the targetted airbases. I assume that was the Do 217s, He 111s and Ju 188s.

Quite scary pilot KIA ratio.



Tried to take Ancona on the run. Not a great idea, but I'm not too worried about breaching the N Italy boundary as the garrison requirements are less onerous into 1944.



Battle for Rome commences. Some of my moves were designed to constrict resupply (hence some of the air interdiction missions) as I squeeze around the city.

Along the Adriatic, the French fill in along my communications, I've also found the missing Panzers so some risk to my units up at Ancona but have quite a lot moving up so not too worried.

Have bypassed 4 German FZ in the Abruzzi. No point expending manpower on them as I have enough rail lines to go around where they are. Naples will be a functioning port next turn.



For a change, rare sighting of the OOB screen. Never sure it is that informative in WiTW.



And ... too late

It looks like you turned the retreat into a rout for the Germans in this game? I also guess you will have an above-average number of POWs/destroyed units given the pockets and promising ZOC-locks as of T23?

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

It looks like you turned the retreat into a rout for the Germans in this game? I also guess you will have an above-average number of POWs/destroyed units given the pockets and promising ZOC-locks as of T23?

I think the challenge is to stick to completing this phase with as big as haul as possible. As ever my dreams of what I'd like are bigger than my capacity.

The position of 8 Army is so damn distracting. The sensible thing is to clear the Appenines, take Tuscany and call it a day, the lure is Venice.

And I need to start bringing stuff back to the UK - nothing in Italy is automatically what I would use for the first wave in France but I want the better stuff to hand.

Also GR seems very unwilling just to sit still and get pocketed [;)] which is very inconsiderate of him. So far he's done a good job of just slipping out - and has a good feel for when to cut your losses and abandon stuff (one of the harder lessons for a German player in WiTW and both sides at different times in WiTE1/2).

He's also worked out how to defend vs BC, its not stopping me hitting the Ruhr but it does mean that the secondary operations are being curtailed.

T24 – 11 December 1943

First time that Bomber Command has been seriously disrupted, overall have 157 air groups resting and 40 of them from BC. On the other hand, 8 AAF is almost all available to wreak further havoc.

So slightly reduced the scope of my northern bombing campaign. BC again took heavier losses over the Ruhr but also did a lot of damage. Tactical Air has done a useful start on the V-Weapon sites in NE France. Fighter Command went hunting the German NF over their bases in the Ruhr.

The B-24s returned to Nuremberg and the Panther and Truck production there. Main group of B-17s moved back to the Hannover region and went for the tank production (Panthers and Stugs in that region). Only 2 rather incautious German fighters appeared.

Included oil production on the target list as it generates VP and is relatively hard to repair.



Italian missions all connected with the Rome operation and seeing if I can create an opportunity for 8 Army.

Air losses at the end of the air phase. As you can see, losses in Bomber Command are increasing but 8 AAF was mostly unscathed. A note is passed to Harris that maybe it is now the time to risk day time missions as they are clearly so much safer?



In practice what I had in mind for 8 Army was too ambitious. But I can keep the original plan as an option. In the end managed to breach the Ancona line aided by massive naval support and pre-attack unit bombing (heavies and 2 engined).



Flip side to that success was an attempt by 5 Army to seal off the Rome pocket. As ever the FJ elements are such a pain to have to deal with. Didn't even damage the fortifications and 5 Army is still suffering for lack of supply/ammo.



So Italy is pretty chaotic, I actually routed out some German infantry from Rome trying to force the encirclement – given the defeat above I was probably better keeping them and making them surrender next turn.

Not sure if my bridgehead over the Esino will hold – depends on what deeper reserves the Germans have but they must be fairly stretched at the moment.

On the other hand, I need to start paying attention to France.



This table is not usually that informative in WiTW but does show how 5 Army is struggling while the others are doing fine. Rail-line up the coast from Naples is partly repaired and that, plus the level 2 ports, will help.

Rail-line on the Adriatic is repaired up to the front – and well supplied from the big ports in the SE.



Random image of the week – Highlanders shocked to see sun in the winter (or indeed at any time of the year):