I was pleasantly surprised to see that a 6-hex corridor of friendly hexes opened in the Taranto area immediately following the Italian surrender on GT6. I assume this was due to the void left by the Italian units that disappeared after the surrender, but I don't know exactly what factors go into determination of control of a given hex. Those 6 hexes to include Taranto are all Allied controlled, even though no Allied ground units have ever set foot there.
If you didn't know, historically the Allies launched Operation Slapstick on 9 September 1943, the same day as the Salerno landings. Slapstick went off with little planning in response to an agreement between the Italians and Allies where Italy agreed to open the port of Taranto to the Allies upon the formal declaration of surrender. The British 1st Airborne Division was transported to Taranto on several Royal Navy ships and entered the port unopposed, having already been vacated by the Germans.
In my game, upon discovering the 6 friendly controlled hexes at the start of GT6, I immediately launched my own version of Operation Slapstick. Since everything I had was either still in Sicily (Messina was still holding out) or committed to my toe operation or future amphibious operations, the only thing left was the Brit X Corps with 2 divisions that had been sitting in Tunisia basically as a reserve. They entered the port of Taranto on GT7 where they found the entire heel to the east of Taranto completely void of German units, and with the exception of a German regiment holding the port of Bari to the northwest of Taranto, they were able to go all the way to Foggia. This in turn relieved some of the pressure on the north side of my toe operation as the AI readjusted its lines and allowed me to break free from the toe to link up with the Slapstick units in the next couple turns.
Whatever it was in the game mechanics that caused this event, I got some great enjoyment out of exploiting it, mainly due to the historical parallel.
