WWII:BtB, Turn 10, Summer 43

 

With only five cards in their hands, both commanders have taken cautious movements at the beginning of the summer.

The first encounter appeared when Russian begun to mobilize his Northern Flank towards Leningrad. Two Russian infantry Fronts moved towards Pskov and stopped at Kholm forests.
	But German quickly brought 4th Pz Army into the area and attacked the Russians. But, protected by the heavy forests, German assault was rejected and Russians kept the position.
Then Russian Infantry moved towards the swamp area of Luga where they were rejoined by the fresh Armies garrisoned at Leningrad. During the summer, Leningrad finally finished their works in trenches.
	All of these Russian movements were preparing a Summer offensive with the arrival of three more Mechanized Fronts. Two were designated to the Northern Area (Luga and Leningrad) and the other to the Center (Tambov).
Interestingly, for half of the summer, there was a corridor running from Kharkov to Odessa, vacant of Axis units that Soviet did not try to use. Probably they were afraid of the presence of the mobile Pz Armies at Kerch, Melitopol and Kaluga, all of them able to cut off any retreat. But it could be funny to explore the possibility of sending a Mechanized Russian corps to cut Axis supply around Crimea. Nevertheless this opportunity disappeared when Axis close the gap at Poltava. Then Russian moved his Mechanized units to retake Kharkov and launched again an attack against Kerch, but it failed.
	The German Staff took a courageous decision. A German and a Romanian corps were sent behind the Russian lines to disrupt the supply of the tanks at Kharkov and avoid a full offensive this turn. This could gave some breath to German to relocated his defense around Kharkov, abandoning Kursk. Russian easily destroyed the weak units and consolidated the supply lines.
At Pskov, after a first rejected attack, Russian sent his two Mechanized Fronts and obtained a crushing victory. But Russian tanks did not advance into Pskov and only a small infantry corps occupied the point.

 

Whereas all the above maneuvers happened in Russia, German commander spent a lot of efforts in defeating Allied invasion at Calais. He needed four consecutive attacks against Americans and British units to finally push them back into the Channel waters. It is worthy to say that Allied did not spend a single operation in this area. Not even sending more reinforcements into the beachheads. Although the invasion has been defeated, his main goal, i.e., to divert German efforts to France has been a success as war has seen two fronts for almost a year.

In the last action of the turn, with many possibilities to break the front line at the North around Pskov, Russian decided to go for Replacements. Although it would cost him losing the tempo of the attack, it felt that an excessive optimistic advance could put in danger the supply lines. The heavy German Armies still stationed around Moscow and Tula are too menacing.

Losses:

Russian: 17, British: 9, US: 8.

German: 20, Romanian: 6.

 

VP:+10 for Axis. Although Kharkov was retaken by Russians, they spent 1 VP to remove a Stand Fast marker.

WWII:BtB, Turn 9, Spring 43

Finally Fuhrer was calm and did not give special orders to his commanders. On the opposite, Stalin asked to his Generals at Moscow, Tula and Rostov to stand fast at their locations.

As usual Spring Thaw bring us some logistics operations. Both sides disrupted enemy intelligence by reducing card hand by 2, Soviet looked for replacements and Axis put his engineers to entrench at Orel, Kaluna and Melitopol (marked with yellows markers in Vassal file).

As soon as weather allowed it, Axis attacked at Calais to eliminate Allied invasion in West Europe. Some British units were sacrificed at the beach but the beachhead was conserved and US reinforcements were urgently sent to release some pressure. Nevertheless, Allied are confined at the beach by powerful German Armies. During the rest of the season, German attacked again but Allied defeated all the assaults.

In the East, German was systematically sending Axis Minors (Romanian and Hungarian) troops to hold the line at the Southern Front. With the Trench built at Melitopol and two German Panzer Armies in the area he hoped to resist any attacks around Azov Sea.

But Russian industrial efforts during the last years have finally arrived and four new Mechanized Fronts joined their mates at Tula, Rostov, Krasnodar and Saratov. This gave Soviets the so needed Armored support and mobility to shift his attitude to offensive.
The first attempts were to break the line by the south through Kerch. But there, the veteran 2nd Panzer Army stood well across the channel against the inexpert 1st Ukr Front. The other attempt was against the weak Romanian garrison at Kharkov. There the Axis were routed and retreated to Cherkassi, opening a gap in the Front line. But Russians, cautiously, were afraid of the several Pz Armies still at full strength that could arrive to this region and did not advance into the city.
Final position, Spring 43

Losses this turn:
SU: 5 steps, BR: 5 steps, US: 4 steps.
GE: 10 steps, RU: 5 steps.
VP: +10 for Axis.

N44, 9th June

 

Stormy weather in this day, so no Air or Naval support for the Allied Invasion. German got the remaining units of the Pz Lehr division.

Utah:

No combats at Utah Beach. Allied did not attack due to the bad weather and German tried to improve his position specially at the North where fresh infantry units were detached to the defense of Crisbecq Battery. 709th Div is also in the area guarding the road towards Valognes. The exit towards Carentan is still firmly defended by FJ and 243rd Inf Div. American commander is choosing to land armored units preparing for the coming offensive.

Omaha:

Also no combats at Omaha. Arriving units of the Pz Lehr are taking positions behind the front line as they will be charged of the St. Lo ‘s defense. This allows German player to shift 12SS towards Bayeux-Caen axis. American continued to land strong 2nd Div with the armored support of some TD.

Caen:

As said above, the arrival of Pz Lehr has liberated 12SS of some of its tasks at Omaha and now is concentrated along Bayeux-Caen road. There it has taken defensive positions around the village of Tilly-sur-Seulles. Armored units launched an assault against a combination of Canadian and British units but with little success in terms of casualties.

21 Pz continued with its fight around Caen against 3rd British Div with severe losses at both sides .

British reacted at Caen by attacking German positions at Buron but they were rejected. The other main assault was performed at Dives-sur-mer to find an exit inland for the Airborne units. But German 711th Div retreated to a better defensive position at Cabourg and stopped any British advance.

This is the situation at the end of Turn 4.

WWII:BtB, Turn 8, Winter 43

 

Winter has arrived and during the first half of the turn, Commanders were spending their efforts into preparation for the long upcoming year. German got Hitler Orders to Stand fast at the Azov Sea whereas Allied must to push in Africa.

Few operations in the first Action Rounds. German reinforced their South front by sending 1st Pz Army to Melitopol and bring into play some Corps. Allied main effort was into boosting his Mechanized production by playing Tank Armies reinforcements and Lend-Lease which will allow to bring into play Mechanized Fronts. In Africa, British Desert Army entered Tunisia to menace Mareth Line defended by the Italians. Allied rearguard was somewhat weakened by the removal of CW corps following Bonzai! event.

Nevertheless when Desert Army launched its attack against the weak Italians, the defenses were crushed and British may road towards Tunis which was quickly reinforced by sea with two mechanized corps.

Southern Front in Russia	North Africa before Battle at Mareth Line

At Western Europe, German assaulted the beach head but Allied are continuously sending more replacements and this invasion is a headache for Germans.

At the end of winter, Russian Tank Armies were deployed in the Front which forced German to relocate some of his armies to avoid being encircled.

This is the final situation:

Losses: Only Italians suffered losses (2 steps) in this quiet winter.

WWII:BtB, Turn 7, Fall 1942

 

I do not know how to explain this. I am feeling that every turn I should make the same comment. Yes, Axis had those annoying Hitler orders and Russian must attack this turn. Now, odds of getting orders for German for six turns in a row are 1/729. Really bad luck.

Stand fast markers were created at North Africa to catch the Mechanized Korps and in Russia (Center and South Army Groups).

First Action Rounds saw German bringing Italian and Hungarian reinforcements to strength South Army Group at the Eastern Front to counter the redeployment of Russian Shock Armies at Tbilisi and Armavir.

	Allied attacked the German-Romanian formations at the mountains in Maikop but battled ended in a stalemate although the weak Romanian Army was nearly destroyed.
At Africa, Afrika Korps received orders to stand against British Desert Army with devastating results as at the Battle of Buerat it was completely annihilated. Only a few Italian small units are now guarding the road towards Tripoli.

In the West, Axis reacted to the Allied invasion by sending the strong 18th Infantry Army and attacking the Allied positions at Calais. British and Americans fought with heavy determination and it took several rounds for the Germans to push back Allied to the beaches.

At the end of Fall 42, Allied invasion was close to be eliminated but the last Axis push was not enough to send Allied to the ships and now they are waiting for replacements.

 

	In Russia, after retaking Rostov, Stalin ordered a major offensive with the final goal of liberating Crimea. Several attacks were launched against Romanian and Hungarian positions. Russian  were able to push at Krasnodar and Maikop but Axis could defend the crossings at Kerch and Melitopol.
Without Mechanized units in the area, Russian lost some time to move his infantry units to the front line and it missed a good opportunity to break Axis line before OKW decided to urgently sent 2nd Pz Army to sustain the Front.

Tripoli was liberated at the End of the turn by the British and Italians are running to seek cover at Tunisia.

The map at the end of this turn:

Losses:

Russian: 5 steps, British: 8 steps, American: 6 steps

German: 16 steps, Italian: 2 steps, Romanian: 9 steps.

Axis Minors are suffering from the attacks at the Southern Front. This turn Russian did not suffered a big loss and this may change the tide of the war.

Retaking Maikop and liberating Tripoli let the VP at +10 for Axis.

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.

N44, 8th June

 

Weather in this turn is Overcast 3, so German gets 2 supply points and 1 infantry replacement. Allied obtained Infantry replacements for US and British and also air and naval support.

In this turn it arrived the first units of the Panzer Lehr Division together with some Flak regiments.

Utah Beach:

The reinforcements from 709th and 243rd Div are slowly arriving and they are taking positions to defend Montebourg and Carentan. The fight between 91 and 3 FJ Divisions against American paratroopers continued in this turn. There was a heavy attack from St Mere Eglise that forced 82nd AB Div to retreat. The 3FJ inflicted heavy losses in the just arrived glider Regiment but at the expenses of losing armored support.

During his turn, American player initiated an attack in his north flank to make a break in German line and look for a way to penetrate into Contentin Peninsula. The coastal fortification of Ravenoville was taken by the 22 Regiment of the 4th Infantry division with armored support and flanked by units of the 101st AB and 82nd AB divisions.

Omaha Beach:

Panzer Lehr units are being deployed to reinforce Omaha sector. Moving at full speed some of the mechanized units have arrived to the front line and they are trying to close the gaps in the German lines. German did not attempt to save the isolated units at Bayeux but it relocated 12 SS Pz Division some miles to the East to oppose to the British advances.

American concentrated his forces to attack the weak German units guarding the St. Lo-Bayeux main road.  In spite of the Air and Armor support, Americans could only obtain a limited advance as Germans find cover into the woods where they meet a recently arrived Flak regiment.

Bayeux was finally taken by Allied in an assault conducted by the 1st and 4th brigades of Special Service. However, German resistance was stiff and caused step losses into the attacking units.

CW Beaches:

Panzer Battalions of the 12 SS Pz Division have arrived to the battlefield and will give to the German the so needed armored strength to stop the British threat. Close to Carpiquet  airport, units of the 21 Pz Div counterattacked the advanced British units that were forced to retreat. Ranville was the scenario of heavy combats between 21 Pz and British Airborne. Germans received some support from the 711th Div but all their assaults to retake Pegasus Bridge failed (on a DR result and ulterior British DD).

During the German attrition phase, all the strongpoints have passed and survived.

Worried by the weak position at Ranville, British concentrated his units into an attack in his rear position against the 711th Inf Division. Attack was not very efficient but Germans were forced to retreat into the flooded regions around Cabourg, releasing the pressure against the British airborne units.

At Buron, British 51st Division launched his first attempt to penetrate in the suburbia of Caen but it was easily stopped by the 21st Pz Div.

British spent the rest of this day, regrouping his dispersed divisions and  moving towards Caen and Pegasus Bridge.

This is the final situation after 8th June: