Adventures in Italy

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

Well done. Ian's defences were very well placed and without the attack from France he would have held.

[devoncop]

21st January 1944

Snow carpets the hills and the only thing heating up are Larry's attacks. One goes in South of Trento which is held thanks to the intervention of a Sturm battalion of 90th Panzer Grenadiers and another on Italian Milita and Italian Waffen SS battalions in the small mountain range splitting the forward defence line which also holds.

The feature of both attacks was very heavy artillery support and over 200 fighter bombers from the US 15th AF. Losses were roughly equal but as Larry points out these were intended to soften up rather than break through.

The appearance of the heavy armoured units on my front line on its western extremity has led to the release of German armour being sent from the reserve to try and support the infantry in the front lines but over 200 Sherman M4's are already present with more arriving so it will be a big task.... I

Still....only 30 or so turns left.....keep the faith [:)]

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like right now. I've been trying to find a way around the Germans
and it's not working. I'm actually going to have to drive through them I guess. I've
been attacking with a one-dot setting just to give the defending arty a target so that
it will toggle to visible so I can bomb it. Sometimes the arty tubes behind the lines
are invisible because they haven't moved or shot yet and when they do they become visible.
I'm loosing a handful of aircraft everytime I bomb him but I have to believe it's helping.
I've been getting good hits on his arty tubes and it's just a matter of time before I can
use the three-dot setting to blast through his lines.

[devoncop]

24th January 1944

More Allied artillery and air softening up of my front lines and supporting artillery and attacks from the 5th Polish Division South of Trento which again were stopped thanks to Sturm Battalion support.

On the western side of the line the US CCR Armoured and 1st Armoured Division are concentrating ready for a bit offensive to smash through the front line. KG Baumer which has its full complement again of Tiger II tanks and which had been supporting a part of the front defence line hopefully not threatened is withdrawn to the second more compact line. As the most powerful German armoured unit still remaining it is vital I do not allow a breakthrough in one part of the line to cut off my most strongest units.

Larry indicated in his in game messages to me that his softening up process may now be complete and the"big push" is imminent.....

[devoncop]

28th January 1945

Heavy attacks this turn, as expected led by Allied armour from both 1st Us Armoured CCA Brigade but also by British 7th and 9th Armoured Brigades all aimed at the Eastern stretch of the 1st defence line in a sector manned largely by the weak KG Binz of the Italian SS and some weakened Grenadiers of the 71st Infantry Division. The line bent, but avoided breaking thanks to intervention by a small unit of German armour behind the line but the Allies gained 5Km
for little loss.

In the central area south of Trento co-ordinated attacks also took place by Infantry with artillery support by the 5th Polish and 85th US Divisions which were just held back by battered elements of the 4th FJ Division and more infantry from the 71st Division. Once again there was major artillery and air support for the Allied attacks.

Interdiction was a bit less this turn but another 50+ planes were shot down.

Finally in the western area Free French and US troops launched further attacks against dug in Panzer Grenadiers of 90th Division and German infantry battalions supported by more Italian SS and once again held.

In other news.....the Brazilian Expeditionary Force have disappeared from view.....no doubt up to something nefarious I am unaware of !

As we enter February I really need the first line, even as it is breached to try and delay the Allies hitting my more compact second line for another 2 weeks....a tough ask.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looked like just before I ended the turn. I succeeded in pushing
the Germans back one hex so not much has changed. 28 more turns.

[devoncop]

31st January 1944

Heavy attacks continue across the line but particularly around Feltre on the Eastern end of the defences where US 1st Armoured is causing serious casualties to the defenders who lack much armour support.

Interestingly Larry's interdiction level dropped from 5% to 1% this turn so the air losses are having some effect. Another 70 planes were shot down this turn.

It is difficult to know whether the faces of the German defenders or the members of the British 8th Army HQ's gathered together with their associated artillery south west of Trento were more incredulous as they witnessed 40 JU88's and 53 fighters launch repeated attacks supported by artillery on them with only minimal interference from a few Tomahawk US fighters. By the end of the attacks 81 out of 120 25pdr guns had been destroyed along with 8 17 pdrs and 110 Infantry and Engineer in squads. Operation "Phoenix from the Ashes" was declared a success.

The orders to slowly relocate some units from the first defensive line into the second is given as things get more desperate, especially on the Eastern end of the front...

The calendar ticks over into February...By 7th February the fighting on the first defence line will have lasted a month.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like before I have moved anybody. There's been some rearrangement
of the front lines and I see some Axis units have been shuffled around to reconstruct
a new front line approx where the old one was. Maybe all my attacking is having an
effect.

[larryfulkerson]

I just received some moves from Ian and just before the playback they ask if you'd
like to review the battles first and I picked out one that had 11% Axis losses and
3% Allied loses and found that the Luftwaffe had put in an appearance and lost a
few planes. I lost 5 P-47's only. So obviously I need more than just one squadron
on AS because using just one still gives me losses and I don't want any. Especially
right now. The aircraft are more important than ever in this game so far. I would
do an airfield strike or two but Ian has AA units in his airfield hexes and I don't
want the losses to ground fire that would result. Maybe if it were the only target
left or something really important.

[larryfulkerson]

This is what it looks like before I have moved anybody. Ian has been suffling his
units around, I imagine replacing the worn out units with fresh ones, and his air
power was unleashed for one turn only I'm guessing. I suppose if you're the Axis
player and you're going to use your air power responsibly it would be best to save
it for the end and times then use it like there's no tomorrow. I'm wondering if
that's what Ian is doing.

My front line units are getting worn down. I've been replacing the tired ones with
fresh ones for the attacks and now I have whole formations that are tired from all
the attacking these past few turns. A lot of them are yellow and I can't shoot with
those. I've seen at least one red one. Losses have been high because I've been
using two-dots and it appears that for a while at least I'll have to go back to
one-dot attacks. Give the units a little rest while they are attacking.

[devoncop]

7th February 1945.

The fighting over the first defence line has lasted a month now. Time seems to be passing slowly for the defenders (and no doubt facing past for Larry!)

He is right about Axis airpower. As the scenario has gone on I have been more and more aware of how vital having not just flak units but POWERFUL flak units on the important airfields. At the beginning I was relying on stacking bombers with fighters and expecting the fighters to protect the airbase from attack.
This was deeply flawed as in trying to preserve what air resources I had I was often putting them all in "rest" settings as putting them on AS missions would have seen them overwhelmed.

The problem however was that numerous interdiction missions or airfield attacks would hit each airfield in turn meaning only the actual fighters at the base defends and they get swamped by the number of allied fighters available.

The only issue now is that in an attempt to use every available resource to try and combat Allied armour I am having to use LW Flak units on the front lines where possible in the hope their 88mm's can take out a few Shermans.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like just before I ended the turn. I gained a hex. But that's
as far as it would go and now it's vulnerable to counterattack. Will it survive? I
think so.

[devoncop]

7th February 1944 (ctd)

Larry's latest move means time is up for the first defence line. In the right most yellow circle in his screenshot above is shown in all its glory the offensive by 1st US Armoured Division and 7th British Armoured Brigade which has lots of support. Even my favourite Brazilian Exp Force has been spotted skulking around behind the eastern lines waiting to cause a nuisance of itself!

As a result a withdrawal is ordered towards the north east covered by Panzer reserves who had been slowing the Allied advance. To avoid the southern section being cut off as the Allies advance on Trento it too has been pulled back save for small rearguards. Trento itself is the scene of units streaming back across the bridge north towards the fresh second line whilst engineers and nervous LW Flak units ready themselves to blow the bridge on the approach of the first American tank sighted.

In the western section there has been less pressure and units are also pulled back where possible though interdiction is a little heavier. About 35 Allied planes are shot down.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like just before I pull the trigger for the resolution of
the combat phase. I want to take an after shot and compare the two.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the "after" shot and you can see how some of the German units were pushed
backward and some of them are missing now. I'm about to launch the second combat
round.

[devoncop]

11th February 1945

Larry takes advantage of the thinning German lines and pushes forward with 1st US Armoured and and also with the entire southern front moving North the hurry to cross the Trento bridges intensifies. Most units make it and as planned both bridges are blown to keep Larry's engineers busy.

The fugitives from the disintegrating first line have bolstered the second which is now in a stronger position than the first was, helped by its shorter frontage.

The last of my reinforcements are just arriving and doing the same with the final approach to the Brenner Pass on the third last ditch line.

The only offensive action this turn was three rounds of bombardment on the infamous Brazilian Expeditionary Force which took 18% damage on one of its infantry regiments on the extreme right of the front North West of Feltre.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the changes between "before" attacking and "after" attacking and you can see
how the Germans were pushed backward and several have disappeared and I killed all
three aircraft units at the airfield through an airfield strike. There were eight
battles during this turn and most of them were successful. This is the kind of
attacking I'm going to need at the other two MLR's to get to Brenner's Pass in time.
I think there's about 24 turns left.

[devoncop]

11th February 1945

The sad remains of the Luftwaffe in northern Italy are obliterated as the Allies capture Trento Airbase and the scattered remnants from my first line reach the 2nd Bolzano line. This comprises the bulk of my armour including KG Baumer's Tiger II's along with multiple artillery capable HQ's supporting fresh Infantry Regiments and it hoped that it can hold for at least another 15 of the 23 or so remaining turns...it continues to be too close to call I would say whether Larry gets Brenner and the overwhelming victory that would result.

As a result of the headlong retreat to the second line no artillery strikes of note could be made so Larry's infantry got some peace.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like when I opened the turn. I hope to be able to clear a lot
of that congestion away this turn.

[larryfulkerson]

Ian has revealed that there's no more Luftwaffe so I'm moving almost all the AS
missions to CS and INT and this is what the lineup looks like now. I've got the
dark green planes on INT and everybody else as CS except for one AS squadron just
in case he gets some fighters as reinforcement anytime soon. I expect I'll leave
them this way the rest of the game.