Yet Another Sicily t BP Ian Allies me Axis

[devoncop]

5th October 1943

Renewed assaults on Messina cause further losses to the Allies but the city is retaken and on a more secure footage. The RAF and USAAC have been tasked to provide all necessary support to keep the city safe.

In other news the Free French Division overwhelm the Italian garrison at Cagliari on Sardinia with naval support as the next phase of the liberation of Italy finally gets underway.

The Allied Divisions on Sicily have been heavily damaged in the fighting in the East and will need some recuperation though a fresh Indian Division arrived and has been awaiting orders in Syracuse and further reinforcements will be released with the fall of Messina.

Importantly more German reinforcements in Sicily should now stop.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: devoncop
5th October 1943

Renewed assaults on Messina cause further losses to the Allies but the city is retaken and on a more secure footage. The RAF and USAF have been tasked to provide all necessary support to keep the city safe.

Hey Ian....The USAF wasn't called the USAF until September 18, 1947 and before that it was known as the US Army Air Corps. I think the first commander of the USAF was Gen. Curtis Lemay, but I'm not sure. I'll have to Google that and find out.

EDIT: Lemay served as the USAF Chief of Staff starting in 1948, promoted to the position from being commander of SAC.

[devoncop]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: devoncop
5th October 1943

Renewed assaults on Messina cause further losses to the Allies but the city is retaken and on a more secure footage. The RAF and USAF have been tasked to provide all necessary support to keep the city safe.

Hey Ian....The USAF wasn't called the USAF until September 18, 1947 and before that it was known as the US Army Air Corps. I think the first commander of the USAF was Gen. Curtis Lemay, but I'm not sure. I'll have to Google that and find out.

EDIT: Lemay served as the USAF Chief of Staff starting in 1948, promoted to the position from being commander of SAC.

Thanks Larry !!

(Above post edited to remove my ignorance)
[;)]

[John B.]

Very interesting AAR. Thanks guys!

[devoncop]

ORIGINAL: John B.

Very interesting AAR. Thanks guys!

Thanks John

Hopefully the enjoyment I am getting out of my ham fisted efforts to eject Larry from occupied Europe comes through....it really is a fascinating scenario.

What Larry is VERY good at is getting maximum "bang for buck" from his formations. Properly supported infantry by artillery that is both concentrated and rested has been responsible for a lot of the casualties the Allies have incurred. My eye for detail is not what it should be but I am learning the hard way [:)]

[MikeJ19]

Ian,

As ever, you are too hard on yourself. This is a fun AAR and I enjoy the two styles of play.

[larryfulkerson]

What Larry is VERY good at is getting maximum "bang for buck" from his formations.

Well, thank you very much. I've been practicing for a while now and I think maybe it's starting
to pay off.

[larryfulkerson]

Ian sent me a PM, thank goodness, to let me know that the moves are in my court
and so I must have deleted the email intending to do my moves right away and for
some reason didn't do my moves right away and soon forgot about the moves being
in my court. And there were no turns for a while. Time wasted. Sorry everybody.

[devoncop]

5th October 1943

The ferocious fighting amongst the narrow streets of Messina continues as the Stugs and Panzers again counter attack and throw out the bloodied Americans holding the city. An Allied response is immediately ordered and the American and British troops to the south now hit the Germans hard again and again retake the city destroying all 21 of the StuGs and for now Messina is again under Allied control.... (or what is left of Messina is anyway !)

In Sardinia the Free French push out from Cagliari causing heavy losses to the Italian Coastal troops in the area.

The Indian Division is ordered to the Messina area to try and finish the job of securing the island of Sicily once and for all.

[larryfulkerson]

There's an early morning fog over the west coast of the Italian mainland so
the recon flights couldn't spy what's in the ports but it was clear over
Sicily so everything is exposed. Ian took back Messina without using the
ships for support, I'm impressed.

I'm thinking of pulling all the German stuff to immediately around Messina
for mutual support and so that the arty will all be in one spot for protection.
I'm going to turn the airplanes on again because now the mainland is at risk.

I don't expect the remnants to last very long.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the above image with all the OPSEC removed. No Ian's please.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought I'd take one turn and move all the units to their final duty stations
before Ian turns the INT on seriously, and I'm sure he will. But so far it's
been smooth sailing when I'm railing things around. I guess the INT isn't turned
on yet. Or maybe he's trimmed his aircraft ranges to not reach this far north.

At any rate, I've been moving units to ports to try to make sure that every port
has a garrison because I expect a boat-load next turn or thereafter. My guess is
that I can interrupt the sailing away from the port at Messina with attacks but
Ian has that port on Sardinia, or is it Corsica. He probably wouldn't give up
his gains on that small island to invade the mainland, BUT HE COULD. Or suppose
he gets reinforcements on Malta, they could sail for the mainland without a problem.
So I've got to garrison all the ports. The most important ones need extra protection.
I need to take a tour of the ports and see that they all are good to go.

I seem to remember that a partisan unit spawns in Rome when Ian gets to the mainland and
the Italians surrender. I've got an HQ unit that has volunteered to make a three-dot
stance in the middle of Rome to occupy the partisans while I see if I can't find an
INF type to babysit Rome instead.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm thinking all the ports are okie dokie for now. As soon as I get some
reinforcements I'll beef up the important places.

[larryfulkerson]

I've found a unit that I need to fly to some remote spot and just let it
rest and refit again. It's down to less than half it's assigned strength
and I've got too few on-hand ( 10 ) to fill it up in one gulp so it's
needing a few turns of rest. I like my squadrons at max strength and dark
green for health. I fly them when I can just so their proficiency might grow
but so far their flights have been few. This particular instance of my
aircraft units is one of the better squadrons so I need to baby it a bit.

[larryfulkerson]

I have scanned the entire map looking for the Allied ships and there's no
sign of them. They were last seen around the landings at Sardinia and they
aren't there now. I'm thinking that my theater recon value is so low that
they are offshore but I can't see them. I was going to see if I couldn't
fly in some Stukas and some fighters and see if I couldn't damage one of his
ships but....

[devoncop]

12th October 1943

Yet another counter attack by German forces on Messina which this time holds and at last the city can be properly secured.

The push out of Cagliari on Sardinia continues andfor the first time strategic bridges are targeted on the mainland and two are destroyed this turn with a lot of air combat as a result as the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica attempt to intervene.
Losses are about even but again this will benefit me in the longer run due to the disparity in air assets.

The strong and importantly fresh Indian Division which was intended initially to form part of an imminent invasion force has had to be sent to secure Messina as the Allies lost the British 50th Division and a US Division to withdrawals but will be able to operate from there once the destruction of remaining Axis forces on Sicily is completed.

1st British Airborne Division is however now finally at full strength and ready to go...

[devoncop]

15th October 1943

The mission to destroy remaining Axis troops on Sicily continues and after heavy fighting the northern perimeter is significantly reduced and progress, if slow is also made nort of Messina.

The British and US naval support has begun to degrade Italian coastal defence units around Reggio despite an attempt to interdict their movement by a full squadron of Italian Saetta's and all 20 planes were shot down by Allied CAP.

Reinforcements start to arrive in Sardinia though unhelpfully 3 full Divisions are withdrawn over the next 3 turns.

Larry instantly repaired the bridge near Salerno that was blown so attention has now turned to bridges on the East coast and two more are destroyed south of Taranto.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T29 front lines and as you can see we're already halfway through
October and the mainland doesn't have any Allied troops on it yet. I think
in real life Messina fell sometime in September.

I turned the aircraft on for a turn and all my fighters got chewed up pretty
well and the bombers didn't fare very well either. So I'm turning everybody
off again. Some of the squadrons are down to half strength. So far so good.

[devoncop]

19th October 1943

More serious turn burn as the remaining Germans on Sicily continue to fight hard but do give ground under assaults from British and American attacks. The considerable Italian artillery has now been finally almost totally neutralized but it has been a struggle.

Recon flights are now taking place for a landing on the mainland and new arrivals on Sicily are being prepared for what is likely to be a bloody mainland invasion at least a month behind schedule.

I see that Larry has repaired almost all the blown bridges so I am thinking that I am better employed dropping them on the day of the invasion rather than previously as it seems Larry has dispersed his engineers well.

[John B.]

You are behind schedule but, OTOH, there are lots of Germans who won't be fighting you on the mainland as you mop them up in Sicily.