It Takes A Village to Raze a Village

[rkr1958]

Turn 67. Axis. March 13,1942. South China Sea. End of Turn.

1. Forces used to seize the Philippines and Dutch East Indies are being redeployed as feasible elsewhere.

[rkr1958]

Turn 67. Axis. March 13,1942. Burma. Malaya. Singapore. End of Turn.

1. Looks like the CW was trying to get through the backdoor into Siam.
2. Japan forceable shuts that back door and pushes into Burma.
3. Japan continues their siege of Singapore and lands another unit.
4. Their push down the Malayan peninsula continues too.

[rkr1958]

Turn 67. Axis. March 13,1942. China. End of Turn.

1. By necessity Japan shifts a number of forces to the south.
2. In the long term I feel this may be beneficial to Japan including a shift of focus on the southern China.
3. Longer term, the capture of Kumning is definitely in the cards.

[rkr1958]

Turn 67. Axis. March 13,1942. MPPs.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Opening Messages.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Murmansk Convoys.

1. German U-boats sink 56 MPPs headed to Russia.
2. U-377 takes a bit of damage from and has to dodge an allied destroyer squadron.
3. She remains on station along with 4 other U-boats including U-371 fresh from her reinforcement at Narvik.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Italian Sub. Western Front.

1. da Vinci fresh from reinforcement at Bordeaux moves back along a UK convoy and joins her sister sub, the Axum.
2. Italian subs and German U-boats (next post) sunk 18 MPPs headed to the UK.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. German U-boats. South Atlantic.

1. U-37 & U-30 continue their journey north, along an allied convoy line and hunting as they go.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Rhodes. Aegean Sea. End of Turn.

1. It's with a bit of relief that I found the UK AV. Well I hope it was the same AV that popped up two turns ago. Either way there's an AV off the coast of Rhodes trying to force their way ashore.
2. The RN and AV combine did manage to knock 2 steps off of the Rhodes garrison which was immediately reinforced back to full strength (i.e., 5-steps).

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Italy. Balkans. End of Turn.

1. It's been mandated (by me) that all costal ports and then cities will be garrisoned.
2. The Italy is almost there in Italy and the Balkans.
3. Italy, at this time, is unable (prohibited) from buying more garrisons.
4. So, they'll need to start saving and buying a corps every other, or every third, turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Production. Germany.

1. Germany finally managed to purchase a heavy tank unit, with all the frills.
2. They also purchased the last garrison that they're allowed at this time.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. East Africa. End of Turn.

1. Nothing for Italy to here but stay put and hold on for as long as possible.
2. Unfortunately Italy wasn't allowed to reinforce the corps holding Dijbouti.
3. The upside is that the allies have at least 4 infantry corps and a tank unit committed to this theater, which means that they aren't somewhere else more significant causing problems.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Middle East. End of Turn.

1. Though attack several times, the garrison holding Baghdad took no losses.
2. Like his brethren in East Africa, the only thing this garrison can do is sit tight and hold on for as long as possible.
3. This single garrison is tying up a French army, British corps and 2 British garrisons.
4. Not really that bad of deal while it lasts.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. The Eastern Front. The Arctic. End of Turn.

1. Quite and the way I like it.
2. Hope (it should) stay that way.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. The Eastern Front. Army Group North. End of Turn.

1. The Wehrmacht has decided to try to flank the Soviets in this sector from the south.
2. Hopefully that will give rise to some movement forward for the axis.
3. By the way, the Soviets retreated from Novgorod giving the city to the Germans.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. The Eastern Front. Army Group Center. End of Turn.

1. The fighting both north and south of Moscow in this sector is both hard and bloody.
2. It's turn out to be a battle of attrition.
3. Hopefully it's a battle the axis can win.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. The Eastern Front. Army Group South. End of Turn.

1. The fighting in this sector is also hard and bloody.
2. I really want Stalingrad.
3. While I'm at it, Grozny too.
4. And might as wish for, want, Astrakhan.
5. I dare say the capture of these would be devastating for the Soviets.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Decision Event.

1. I think Germany better use for 75 MPPs than on build a naval base in Malaya.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Japanese Home Islands. End of Turn.

1. Initial deployment of the Japanese Home Islands Defense Force (3 garrisons).
2. Japan has a mandate (again by me) to garrison every port and city in the Home Islands.

[rkr1958]

Turn 69. Axis. April 10, 1942. Production. Japan.

1. To that end (i.e., Home Defense Force), Japan bought 4 garrison (no frills) this turn.