WWII:BtB, Turn 6, Summer 1942

Again OKW and Allied orders for attacking in Africa. Both High Command Staffs are really worried about the outcome of war in Northern Africa and are pushing their generals to invest in Mediterranean Theater.

German, with a reduced hand size of 5, begun the turn spending only 1 operation and attacking at Kalinin. The combined action of 3rd and 4th Pz Armies obtained a crushing victory but Russians were able to stop the advancing Armies by sacrificing some infantry units placed in the forests.

However, as summer was advancing, Russian commanders begun to gave away terrain and relocated their defensive line around Moscow and Tula. German Armies entered the forests of Kaluga and are preparing for assaulting Soviet capital. Russian reacted by calling more Infantry Fronts to the first line of battle and reorganizing his small size units.

In Northern Africa, after a brief calm at Tobruk, British desert Army begun its pursuit of Italian and German troops along Lybia. Finally, they stopped at the defensive terrain at El Agheila where they prepared for battle.
 

	At the end of summer, a tense situation was achieved in Russia when 3rd and 4th Pz Armies maneuvered to the North looking for a flank attack against the weak Russian units that are protecting the supply line of Leningrad and also the rear defense of Moscow at Yaroslav.
Russian sent to the area his only Mechanized unit, the SW Front, that he was carefully keeping intact at Moscow. From there, it leaded the attack against the Panzer Armies with support of some Infantry Fronts and Armies. Germans were surprised by this strong attack and they suffered heavy casualties and retreated to Valdai.

While Germans were still recovering from the surprise and organizing their replacement units, Allied decided to keep the momentum and launched Sledgehammer invasion at Calais.

Allied disembarked a British Army and two mechanized American Corps with the clear objective of opening a new front in Europe, releasing the pressure against Russians. Immediately, OKW reacted by redeploying in the area the 18th Army from Pskov.

In Africa, the end of summer saw the battle of El Agheila were British units completely destroyed the Italians and forced German Africa Korps to retreat.
Situation at the end of Summer 42

Losses this turn:
Soviet: 10 steps, US: 2 steps
German: 14 steps, IT: 3 steps
VP: +12 for Axis
It is the first time in the war that Axis suffered more losses than Allied. The influence of Bomber Command, reducing Axis hand size to 5 has been crucial to this fact.