New Start for Italy long

[robot]

Sedan France
5/13/1940
1900 Hours

We are to advance against the French here in France. I have been given command of 3 companys of Infantry and one co of tanks. Most are green raw recruits and a few are veterans of the war in spain they form my nucleas of command. I have two comapnys of elite Besagliera troops Each Platoon has a LMG and a ATR attatched. Plus each co has a platoon of LT 45mm Mortars with an officer as leader of them. He will be calling down fire support missions when we use them. Each company also has as support 2 sec ATGs and 2 sec Inf Guns. Plus 2 sec SPAA and one platoon of colonial calvary as screening with a sec of Lancia heavy armored cars.

HQ CO has 6 152 FH attached as artty support. Each company has 6 81 mortars as support.

Also a company of light tanks will be in support consisting of 3 platoons of four tanks each. We also have a company of autocannon 20mm type SPA.

The third company is made up of 3 platoons of elite Marine troops. It seems as tho we have an overabundance of artty. But remember these are mostly green troops never too many I always say. They are going to need all the help they can get.

A lot of talk has gone on that this force will be modeled after the roman legions of old. I just hope they have the toughness to be half the troops of old. This would make me and our homeland very proud im sure. We shall see as we advance against the French. We will move out at 1905 Hours vis is near 550 yards Clear and crisp out today. A beautiful day to die im sure or the enemy would be even better.

HQ: I Ariete Roma legion
Col: Anthony Pavetti Commanding

[robot]

Sedan France
5/13/1940
1930 Hours

It is not going well for us today. These are supposed to be elite troops but they are not proving it to me. The heavy artillery that is being thrown at us by the French has almost stopped our advance. The troops have gone to ground and refuse to get up and even try and advance towards the enemy. They are also unable to locate the enemy till they are right on top of them by then it is too late and we take heavy casualtys from the very accurate fire of the French. They are cutting our cavalry to pieces and the infantry that follows them.

The French are firing what I believe is rifle grenades at us and these have proven to be very deadly to us today. Either that or they have knee mortars like the Japs use in Burma. There 75 have been a big pain to us as well as there mortars. We have lost a lot of good men today plus a lot of armor we can ill afford to lose.

The marine company on our south flank has all but given up. Have sent my meanest and baddest noncoms to there side of the line in the hopes they can kick there asses into gear. In the recon photo you can see how they have fallen apart. Also you can see how close we are to taking the center objectives. About 200 yards and we can call it ours the marker shows the direction of the north VH which is maybe 300 yards to the north east from the center. Our north flank has moved to with in 450 yards of it at this time.

If we can get the southern flank to begin to move as well as the other two companys then we may still have a chance to pull a victory out of this. Dont really know the extent of the damage we have done to the French but dont think its anything like they have inflicted on us. They are ferocious in there efforts to stop us from advancing even 50 yards let alone 1000 yards. But after all they are fighting in defense of there homeland.

Hope to have better news for you when I make my next report. I will keep trying to get the men to move forward somehow. They are so depressed right now I can not even get them to fire there rifles when they do see the enemy. I have heard talk about dont fire are they will return fire and you will die. This does not bode well for our efforts dont you agree. So much for the Legions of old.

HQ: I Ariete Roma legion
Col: Anthony Pavetti Commanding

[Riun T]

hey buddy, even playin with enhanced, I think your going to fight with these Italians like "alexander" rather than legions of old,, the Batt. HQ leads the way for the extra suppression removal,and your being to spareing and short with the prebombardments and smoking of approachways,,layer it on thick to bolster your own troops aswell as get a maximum amount of "line of sight" hazing/blockage to the enemy,,then don't set your deployments so wide for your force,, mass them to deploy like a blossoming flower with the bulk of your force to have a objective set for the enemies rearmost field.your big line{about 25-30 hex wide} front of mostly green troops are not powerful enough yet in that wide a deploy to support each other,, and u can't concentrate enough Arrty 30 hexes wide to suppress any area for very long before,They see you,, because your short timed/widely despersed barrages aren't localized enough for a concentration in any specific section of your line. THEN THEY GUN U DOWN BUD!![:(]

[Riun T]

I'd have stacked for a latteral NE to SW run across the map with everything but my Artillery and reserve ammo truck/dump in about a 6-10 hex wide "CLUMP" and march the whole clump,surrounding my mobile HQ from victory cluster in the north right to the southwest corner of the french side of the map!! diagonally smoking ALL the way,, and knowing right down to the individual hexes what path I should prebombard and smoke before my troops get to that area,, u don,t have to spread out soo much on a advance/assault, and its better to make the enemy use gas and forces to cut across his own units inorder to intersept u rather than having eveyone spread out on your side for him to just pick u off in any areas across your whole wide field whenever the Arrty/smoke u had thins out in those areas that he does have some forces ready.

[robot]

Sesan France
5/13/1940
1955 Hours

Well we have been trying to do our best against the French but our best just doesnt seem to be enough. Our troops might as well have pea shooters as much damage as they are doing with there rifles. They are unable to hit the side of a barn it seems. maybe as they get experience they will be better shots if they live long enough to make any experience. Our losses in men has to be getting up around 400 men. The french are much better shots and they are killing our men at an alarming rate. Also there MMG are death to our light armor taking them out as fast as we move them to within range of there guns. Our squads all need glasses to see better im thinking as well. They dont see the enemy until they are within 50 feet of them by then they have been cut to pieces by the acurate fire of the French.

Our men are also deathly afraid of the French med mortars and 75 hw they are dropping on us continuously with no let up. Some squads have refused to move even 5 feet let alone 50 for at least 35 minutes ever since the frist bombardment started. I have called for our 81 to drop about fifty feet in front of our line then move the men up to engage any troops thet are there but this doesnt seem to help as the French are not effected as much as our men seem to be. Even after a very heavy artty fire they seem to cut our men to pieces as we move up the fifty feet.

I have not given up this battle as yet but I dont see how we are really hurting these French at all. there is no way I can call this a draw let alone a victory. We will be lucky if we take the front north Objectives let alone the rear ones. Right now I have men within 100 feet of each objective but even pushing for those few feet is going to cost us dearly in lives. The French are tenacious in there defense and stopping us from moving forward. If only I could get some coheisivness in our companys and get them all moving at the same time. We could then tear the back bone out of these Franchies im sure.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Anthony Pavetti Commanding

PS: Sir those Marines you gave me have been worthless today. Id like to take the lot out and shoot them all. They have spent most of the day retreating not advancing.

[robot]

Sedan French
5/13/1941
2020 Hours

Little over an hour into this mayhem and the Frenchies are still holding strong. Every 50 feet sees at least 100 more of our brave men being killed. I know most of my troops are green but this is rediculous. I spend almost all of my time just trying to get them to move. They will not fire back when they are fired up on. Most of the time they cant even find the enemy to shoot at them.

Our losses are staggering so far at least 500 men have been killed. Almost every piece of armor we had has been destroyed. Even our self propelled AA has been torn apart.

We have finally taken the center objectives and are very close to taking the northern ones as well. It seems as tho these will be the only ones we have the strength to take today. As Company A and B are down to way less then half strength. And the comapny of Marines are so suppresed most of the time they are running from the battle. There losses are slight compared to the other two companys due to the fact they have been retreating most of the time. I think we need to reclassify our elite status as they have not showed me they are elite today.

Also our off board artty hass not shown me much today. They have been near ineffective with there bombardments not causing very many kills or suppression to the enemy. Our troops have been moving slow and cautious but this doesnt seem to help. Only moving behind heavy screens of artty shells. If they could only see the enemy before they are right on top of them would have made the outcome of this battle so much different. And not have such low morale where when fired on they return some form of fire and be able to hit something when they do fire.

I can not see even a draw here today as a matter of fact I have given great thought to a surrender so as to spare my men more death. Dam we looked so great in our new uniforms as we moved up now they look like rats on the dock at marseilles. All dirty and grimy and kind of desperate to get away from this death and distruction. I know that El Duche if he has heard about todays fiasco is not very happy and his lower lip will be hanging even lower today.

HQ: I Ariete Roma legion
Col: Anthony Pavetti Commanding

[robot]

Sedan France
5/13/1941
2040 Hours

We are being cut to pieces by the French. My men are unable to make any head way at all. If a squad gets up the nerve to move forward they are cut to pieces by some of the most accurate fire I have ever seen. We have lost the center vhs to a counter attack of 7 renaults that took out at least 5 squads of our men in the process. We took out two of them but where unable to hold. This is muder in all the sense our men are unable to hit any thing while the French continue to be the best dam marksman I have ever seen.

High command is not going to be happy about what happened here today im sure. I may not be around much longer I think my fate has already been decided. I did my best I thought I just have never commanded men like I have here today. I believed I knew a lot about tactics but I guess im not that good. When you have the cream of the crop your job becomes so much easier it seems. This kind of fighting either makes you or breaks you. We are getting whipped bad by a bunch of Frenchies and this hurts worse then anything. If I still have command after this battle I vow to go back to school and learn all I can. I will make myself a better commander thats for sure .

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Anthony Pavetti Commanding

[robot]

Sedan France
5/13/1940
2050 Hours

This terrible battle is over. It was weird was goin hot and heavy all of a sudden they quit. They literally beat the crap out of us. High command has called it a draw how that decision was made I have no idea. We lost 856 men to killing only 838 of there men. We also lost 4 artty same as them but our afv losses were stagering to theres. They lost 11 tanks to us losing 36. They lost 2 soft and 4 apcs. We were tore apart by there accurate shooting and supperior tactics. I guess I am lucky to still be in command. Ill tell you I thought I was done for.

We are to move to the right flank of Guderians 10th panzer and make a determined delay just out side of Paris next month. The only thing we were able to get was replacements for all the men we lost. There will be no repairs are replacements of the armor we lost. We will be fighting very short and under strength next month. High command said at this present time they did not have the equipment to bring us up to strength right now.

The men that survived this nightmare at least will be more experienced when we begin to fight again. Was able to repair all Inf Guns and ATGs hope this makes up for not having any armor. Only one tank and one auto cannon survived out of a whole company of each.

At least we will have extra artty from HQ to help us this time. I only hope it is more effective then last time. As the marine company did not show me much last battle. I have assigned them to protect our right flank the most northern part of the map. As I Expect the enemy to hit us more in the south they should do well there. A will hold the center and C will be in the south. The survivors of A from the last battle were all given medals and commendations for there great work against a tough and determined enemy. At least the few will now be a little more toughened and able to help the new comers to our force.

We are hard at work building some sort of defences. We still have at least a month to prepair. Understand we will have at least 20 mines to deploy.Even tho there were no Engineer replacements that came in we do have at least 8 squads for all three companys total they will be laying mines as well. I expect this will be a much easier fight this time and my men will truly show what kind of fighters they really are.

HQ: I Ariete Roma Legion
Col: Anthony Pavetti Commanding