Gotterdammerung, GC 43-45 Xhoel (Axis) vs Hghx-0 (WA)

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: Bitburgerdraft

Great AAR, convinced me to buy the game!

Thanks Bitburgerdraft, means a lot!

[xhoel]

T18

Due to bad weather nothing happened during T18 in all theaters.

T19, 6th of November-13th of November 1943.
Situation Report [Northern Europe]

Bad weather over the Reich has grounded the 8th US Air Force and RAF Bomber Command. No raids are conducted by the enemy. Our fighter groups continue to be on R&R and operational aircraft numbers continue to rise. With the weather somewhat clearing this week, there is not doubt that the bombing will resume again. The belief is that the enemy will strike the truck factories in the Frankfurt-Mainz-Mannheim sector. To counter that, all available fighter groups that are not on refit have been transferred to the area. Around 990 fighters are concentrated here.

[xhoel]

The Landing

Despite the bad weather in the Mediterranean, the Anglo-Americans have finally launched their invasion. A full Army has come ashore in the Piombino sector. 10 divisions are located in the beachhead as of the start of this week. Our patrols indicate that more forces are located just off the coast, waiting to land and bolster the number of men the enemy has in the sector. The British 1st British Airborne Division has also dropped south of Piombino.



The 1st BR Airborne division marked in black.

The invasion has been a disaster so far for the WA. Their fleet sailed in bad weather and without air cover in sectors that our patrol planes have been mining for weeks. Both the weather and our mines/gunfire from the shore batteries have destroyed 19 Troop and 13 Cargo Ships. Intelligence puts the casualties at 17.000 men (14.000 of which are KIA), 340 guns and 100 AFVs.



All landings were unopposed except for the one at the Piombino port. Considering the sheer strength of the landing forces, any opposition from our side would have been brushed aside and would have had no effect on the enemy.
The defense of the port of Piombino port however was the right choice. Here the former 16th SS Brigade was on lager, having been upgraded to a SS PzGren division just during this week when the enemy stuck the port. The initial assault by the 45th US Infantry Division supported by the 753rd US Tank Battalion and a British commando task force caught the division off guard, but the defense was reorganized and the attack repulsed.

The enemy has suffered heavy losses. The 45th has been decimated in the battle, having only half of its initial strength and will need to be refitted before it is ready for offensive operations. If the enemy is smart, he will pull the division back to North Africa for R&R. If the division remains in the beachhead, it will pull a considerable portion of supplies and manpower that would otherwise go to fighting divisions. We hope the Americans will chose the latter option. The same fate has befallen the 753rd US Tank Battalion which has been destroyed as a unit, losing 90% of its tanks in the battle.



The battle of Piombino was a close call however and the 16th SS PzGren division (understrength) has suffered considerable casualties too. Considering the precarious situation in which the division is right now, AGC has ordered its evacuation to the east. The port of Piombino will fall into enemy hands this week. The evacuation if a tricky matter however, because the division will have to move through country landscape where paratrooper elements of the 1st British Airborne Division are spread out (level 4 interdiction).

The plan for containing the beachhead right now is dictated by the necessity of evacuating the 16th SS PzGren Division. Intelligence indicates that the enemy has committed all of its naval assets to this endeavor so no secondary naval landing is possible. This frees our armored reserves to redeploy in the sector to contain the enemy landing.
The plan is to move our troops as close as possible to the enemy so that the 16th SS PzGren division is protected on its flanks. The II Flieger Corps has been ordered to interdict enemy movement out of the southern landing sector where most of the enemy formations are located. They have been fairly successful in their endeavor even though they have suffered heavy casualties in the process.

Piombino sector after our moves:



Interdiction levels:



The enemy forces that have landed are composed of Infantry formations of British (8 divisions) and American (3 divisions) nationality and are supported by Armored Brigade Groups. The enemy has also brought ashore with them around 400 tanks. To counter this, all three of our Corps tasked with containing the landing have been reinforced with independent Panzerjager Battalions.

For supplying their forces, 5 landing sites are being used as temporary ports with cargo coming off straight from the ships on the beaches. This method of transport, is inefficient especially in bad weather. The fall of Piombino will improve their supply situation but if the enemy is contained to this beachhead long enough, this may turn into a stalemate.

To cut off the supply coming in to the beachhead, Luftflotte 2 has been ordered to patrol the coast northwest and southeast of Corsica and to continue mine laying operations. So far they have been successful and the beachhead is cut off for the time being. Another raid is planned to be conducted soon. It will target the beachhead itself, in an attempt to hinder enemy movement to and from the beachhead. For this operation, additional fighter groups from Luftflotte Reich have been transferred to Italy. There is no doubt that this raid will not be an easy one, but Kesserling feels that it's a risk that we should take.

Cut off supply from the beachhead:



Fighter groups in Italy:



In the Bifena Line, the enemy has finally made contact with the XIV Panzer Corps defending Salerno. The 1st Fallschirmjager Division is moved off the line and is being transferred to the Piombino sector. The rest of the units take their positions on the front. The 15th and 3rd PzGren Divisions are available as reserves in this sector.



Due to units parting the front (the 16th Panzer Division will be transferred to the Eastern Front next week and the Feldherrnhalle PzGren Division will be transferred in 5 weeks) additional infantry divisions are being transferred to Italy. One Infantry division has been transferred from southeastern France to Pisa and 2 additional Infantry divisions are expected to arrive next week in Bologna.

Light summer rains will continue to fall next week, and the ground conditions are expected to remain the same (light mud).

[John B.]

That is quite blow to the Allies!

[DanielAnsell]

Great AAR!

[xhoel]

@John B: Quite a blow indeed. A lot of casualties taken that could have been avoided.
@DanielAnsell: Thanks for the kind words!

[xhoel]

T20, 13th of November-20th of November 1943.
Situation Report, Air, Northern Europe

The 8th US Air Force bombed Southern France last week in an attempt to neutralize airbases which the enemy suspects we are using to Interdict naval movement northeast of Corsica. Their bombing campaign has been fruitless as no aircraft are stationed in southern France at this time. The battered JG 301 and additional fighter groups have been transferred from Italy here for R&R and to catch the enemy off guard. The task force consists of 118 fighters.

Italy
Air.

The enemy is protecting the landing zones with a lot of fighters, something that makes ground support/attack operations from the LW quite hard to conduct without proper fighter cover. The WA have hit airfields in central Italy in the hopes of destroying our bomber groups which have been harassing the movement of supply ships going to Piombino and the surroundings. Their effort has been in vain, because it was conducted under poor recon and intelligence data and also using very few air groups. The WA have reoppened the shipping lanes leading to the landing zones and our attempts to cut them off again have proven less successful than those of last week. The northern prong has managed to cut the enemy supply off, while the southern came close to it but has not achieved its goal. Losses are heavy, 30 bombers are lost in the operation. The heavy losses are a clear indicator that we cannot continue such operations week after week.





The LW bombed the 56th BR Infantry Division, in an attempt to soften its defenses for the attack that was to come. Both of its raids were intercepted by WA fighters, which managed to destroy 33 tactical/dive bombers, depleting our close air support groups.



Ground

The enemy has secured the beachhead and brought new forces ashore. In the northern sector, 2 American and 1 British divisions assaulted the positions of the HG Panzer Division but were unable to dislodge the defenders, who fought valiantly against an enemy that outnumbered and outgunned them. The clash of armor in the battle has been unparalleled for the Italian theater so far, 620 AFVs took part in the battle. Heavy casualties were taken on both sides.



In the south the, II SS Panzer Corp launched a powerful counterattack, dislodging the 56th British Infantry division from its forward positions. The British took heavy losses and will probably be pulled of the line for the time being.
The arriving Infantry divisions took their positions in the defensive ring around the beachheads and units have been shifted to create a tight defensive perimeter that will be hard to breach. We suspect that the II SS Panzer Corps sector is the one in which the British will attempt to breakthrough, and the Corps has been reinforced with additional artillery and has been given priority in receiving both reinforcements and supplies.





In the Bifena Line the enemy has moved 2 full strength infantry divisions (9th US and 8th Indian ID) in the sector of Benevento and Avellino. The infantry regiments defending these positions have been reinforced by panzergrenadier regiments.
Rain is expected to keep falling next week and ground conditions will remain lightly muddy. The biggest question right now is: Where is the WA armor?

[EwaldvonKleist]

Ouch, heavy losses from the landing for WAs! Weather does not help them either.
I am not so familiar with the Theatre/game, but naval interdiction can cause some frustration when you get isolated by the enemy and take shipping losses or fail to close the ring on the water by a few hexagons as in T20.
One question/remark I have though: There are some panzergrenadier regiments placed in rough/mountain hexagons at the Naples line. The problem is that their AFV type element CVs are divide by 4 (!) in mountains and 2 in rough area (I think), while infantry element CVs is doubled (or more). So one loses quite some CV when fighting in bad terrain with armoured units employing AFVs as compared to a set up where the armour is on the clear terrain and the infantry fights on the rough one.
On the other hand, it is reasonable to have an armoured reserve nearby. Difficult decisions...

Pushing the Allies back in the Ocean is likely impossible given they have quite a number of units on shore now? You have for sure delayed them already.
Regards and keep up the good AAR!

[xhoel]

Their losses have been quite heavy indeed and they have not managed to break out of the beaches even though they have a lot of formations deployed. Armor is key here, and so far my recon of the beachheads has been bad. I know the enemy has brought units ashore but don't know what type of units they are.

The naval interdiction aspect (as well as the ground interdiction one) are two of my favorite new features because they do a much better job than interdiction in WitE. With that being said, the Allies should be doing a better job in securing their shipping lanes, but as of turn 20 they have mended some of their mistakes and I will not continue naval interdiction strikes as my bomber groups are on R&R.

The two PzGren Regiments that were deployed to the front line are located in a city and rough hex. Both these elements have little AFVs (20 or so) present and more than anything they are there to prevent a breakthrough. The rest of the mechanized forces in the Bifena Line are there because I have no other reserves and prefer to have some fast moving formations nearby, as the Germans did in real life.

No, destroying the beachhead is not an option right now. I am hoping to contain them until the weather turns bad and their supply situation worsens. I will have to give ground if the pressure mounts though. Thanks for the comments, it's always nice to see people are taking time to read the AAR!

[Zebtucker12]

Great AAR with all the pictures.
Unless im reading this wrongly there seems to be very little tactical use of the allied airforces?

[IslandInland]

Still a great AAR xhoel.

It's shaping up to be my all time favourite WITW AAR. I check it every few days and I'm genuinely disappointed when I don't have a new post to read. I really do like the AAR that much. Your writing is great. [:)]

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: Zebtucker12

Great AAR with all the pictures.
Unless im reading this wrongly there seems to be very little tactical use of the allied airforces?

Thanks Zebtucker12!

The way I see it, the allied air forces are simply stretched thin. They are running heavy air superiority directives over the beachheads and all over the shipping lanes. Add to that heavy naval patrols, airfield and rail bombings and you aren't left with much to use tactically.

[xhoel]

ORIGINAL: IslandInland

Still a great AAR xhoel.

It's shaping up to be my all time favourite WITW AAR. I check it every few days and I'm genuinely disappointed when I don't have a new post to read. I really do like the AAR that much. Your writing is great. [:)]

Thanks IslandInland! Those words mean a lot [:)]
Yeah we are a bit slow on the turns but I try my best to be done with them as soon as possible. Real life gets in the way quite often though. Now that the invasion has finally happened there will be a lot more action and things should get more interesting!

[MrBlizzard]

In Puglia where there is not contact it seems the Allies are defending in clear ground and I suspect that they could be very thin. Maybe if you stalemate the landing it could be possible a counterattack to destroy the Foggia airfield complex and all planes based there.
Great AAR by the way [8D]

[xhoel]

Thanks for the comment, glad to hear that you are enjoying the AAR.

I have been thinking about that quite a lot actually, but last time we had good recon on Puglia the enemy had 2 divisions stationed there. How we proceed from here depends a lot on whether we can force the WA to a stalemate in the Piombino sector. Destroying the airfields and the air groups there would be a very nice Christmas present though!

[xhoel]

T21, 20th of November-27th of November 1943
Situation Report [Northern Europe]

The enemy resumed the air offensive over Germany last week. RAF Bomber Command hit the Ruhr heavy industry and resource production centers hard during the night. The British have once again changed their tactics. Instead of the usual small raids of 16 bombers without fighter cover, they are now throwing massive formations of 500+ bombers together, escorted by a high number of night fighters (around 200). This is causing problems for our night fighter formations, and losses have mounted. Last week we lost 35 night fighters in the defense of the Ruhr industry.
The 8th US Air Force also hit these targets during the day with their 4E bombers considerably increasing the damage and making the factories much harder to repair. Because our day fighters have been deployed further inland, the Americans only had to contend with the heavy AA fire.
The 8th US Air Force has also used their 2E bombers to hit Belgium and NE France.

[xhoel]

Italy
Air

The enemy hit 3 of our airfields in Central Italy this week (Tarquinia, Rieti, Marcigliana) causing damage to the infrastructure, destroying around 26 bombers on the ground and killing a high number of support personal (around 2k men from destroyed air support elements).
Our bombers continue to be pulled back from Central Italy and are being relocated north where our fighters are able to guarantee their safety. Except for air recon, no other missions were conducted by our air forces in Italy, which continue to be on R&R.

Map 1:


Circled in yellow, battles where the enemy was held back, in red air field bombings and in black battles which we lost and were forced to retreat.

Ground

The enemy launched 6 attacks last week in an attempt to break out of the beachheads. All but one of them failed. Casualties are high. New infantry divisions are arriving in the theater and the arrival of the 14th Army HQ has improved administrative and logistic matters considerably.

The enemy renewed its effort to break out of the beachhead in the north, attacking the positions held by the elite HG Panzer Division twice with overwhelming numbers (4 infantry divisions). In both cases the attack was stopped cold in its tracks and the enemy has suffered heavy losses. The first assault was repelled by a timely counterattack of the 12th SS PzGren Division which was in reserve north of Siena. The HG Panzer Division has been relieved by the fresh 189th (Res) Infantry Division.





In the south the enemy has advanced 10 miles after pushing back the Feldherrnhalle PzGren Division. 3 other subsequent attacks have failed as the PzGren Division has defended stubbornly. The counterattack of the 16th SS PzGren Division managed to save the day however, as without their involvement, the Anglo-Americans would have been able to break through further inland jeopardizing the entire defense of the Piombino sector. The Feldherrnhalle PzGren Division has been pulled off the frontline and has been transferred to a more quiet sector in order to recover from the losses incurred during the hard fought engagements of last week. The spearhead of the enemy forces is made up of the 5th CA and 6th BR Armored divisions and intelligence reports that more armored formations have come ashore recently.

Start of turn:





See map 1, circled in black.



See map 1, circled in yellow, first of the 3 holding battles.



Feldherrnhalle PzGren Division TOE and new position.

The sector north of the lake of Bolsena has been reinforced by the newly arrived LI Gebirgs Corps (dark blue) commanded by the experienced GL Hermann Balck. The 90th PzGren and the 2nd FJ divisions have been reinforced with independent AA and Panzerjager Battalions and are expected to hold back the WA assault in the area. The 16th SS PzGren Division and the 2nd Regiment of the 4th FJ division are acting in reserve.

After German moves:



The situation in the Bifena Line is unchanged. The enemy has yet to undertake an offensive so our troops are holding their positions at the moment. Fortified Zones have been build behind the Volturno river, as we prepare new defensive lines in order to allow us flexibility once the situation changes. In the northern sector, regiments of the 15th PzGren Division have conducted long range recon on the enemy forces in front of our positions. They have discovered the 2nd US Armored division (broken down into regiments) and 2 other units which our intelligence has failed to identify.

Before and after:





Casualties:



Note that while German casualties may seem high, at least 2k of them come from destroyed air support elements and are not riflemen as is the case for the WA.

Weather:

[Chama]

Great AAR!

[xhoel]

Thanks for the comment Chama!

[xhoel]

T22, 27th of November-4th of December 1943
Situation Report [Northern Europe]

The 8th US Air Force has hit heavy industry targets in the Ruhr and Belgium this week. Most of their raids have missed their objectives and no heavy damages have been sustained. Operational losses for the enemy are high. Our fighters continue to be on the highest readiness in the north, awaiting for the enemy to strike the U-Boat pens.