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The War in Spain: Month Two

At midnight GMT on 21 May, First Army Group HQ, Second Army, the 29th and 30th Infantry Divisions, and the 2nd Blackshirt Legion were ordered to land at Ibiza.
Later that day, a law proposing limitations on the citizenships and rights of those Italians of Jewish heritage or religion was struck down, in light of the original suggestion for the law coming from Germany pre-Anschluss. Mussolini, in his explanation of his decision before the Grand Council of Fascism, said that such laws would make Italy more like Germany and would be contrary to the goals of fascism. (Or something like that, I basically pulled that out of thin air. This is my explanation for modding the savegame so I do get to keep Enrico Fermi, since he left Italy in 1938 due to anti-semitic laws passed by the Italian government at the suggestion of Nazi Germany.)
Two days later, the 12th Division "Sassari" was upgraded to modern standards and First Army Group (consisting of the aforementioned units) landed at Ibiza without resistance. This was hardly surprising since the nearest Spanish forces were on Mallorca. Transport Squadrons A and B were the same day ordered to return to their home bases of Genoa and Taranto respectively. On 25 May Ethiopia cancelled two trade agreements, and on 26 May the 21st and 32nd Infantry Divisions, in addition to the 3rd Blackshirt Division, were loaded aboard Transport Squadron B.

On 27 May, a battle in the Gulf of Gabes resulted in a flotilla of Spanish destroyers and a flotilla of Spanish transports being sunk. The next day Sardinia Air Command was ordered to establish air superiority over the Gulf of Leon in response to Spanish bombardment of the Italian forces on Ibiza.

29 May - Sardinia Air Command intercepts Spanish bombers above Gulf of Leon
May29aerial.jpg


On 1 June, a design for a new aircraft carrier class was presented to Comando Supremo, and the decision was made to see how the currently building aircraft carrier to be named Aquila performed compared to the specifications of the new design. A more useful, however, application of this research was that several G.50 Freccias and Breda Br. 65s had been modified so as to be usable from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, and these versions of these planes were selected to be used as the first carrier air group to be produced by Italy. Production, however, was not to begin until the stress on Italian industry could be lessened, if possible. Also on 1 June, Generale di Corpo d'Armata Dalmazzo (Lieutenant General, in other words) was put in command of the 32nd Infantry Division before an assault on Murcia was to begin.
At 600 GMT the battle began, and lasted until 1000 GMT the next day. Unfortunately, the Italians lost yet again, much to the chagrin of Mussolini - Comando Supremo began to suspect that the Spanish might have been better prepared for war than Italy, having just won a war shortly before the Italians declared war on them, as well as possibly being better organized (but what else to expect from amphibious assault on fixed positions?) but they kept their suspicions to themselves.

The Battle of Murcia - 600 GMT
Murciabegins.jpg


The Italian forces that had failed to take Murcia were sent to Menorca, and landed without resistance there on 6 June. However, an hour after the three divisions unloaded, they were attacked by the Spanish divisions on Mallorca, and ordered back into their transports.
On 8 June, Transport Squadron B was ordered to the Central Gulf of Leon, with Comando Supremo having in mind keeping the troops aboard it as a reserve. However, Transport Squadron B of the light cruiser RM Bartelomeo Colleoni, two flotillas of destroyers, and three flotillas of transports met five Spanish vessels - the battleship ARE Jaime I, the heavy cruiser ARE Baleares, and the light cruisers ARE Libertad, ARE Republica, and ARE Mendez Nunez. 2nd Squadron was ordered to the Central Gulf of Leon, with a projected ETA of 18:00 GMT.

Begining of the battle
navalbegins.jpg


Ten hours later...
navalplus10hours.jpg


The result?!
sothisisvictory.jpg

(Just how losing two transport squadrons counts as a victory is beyond me, but I suppose it's better than losing the entire Transport Squadron...)

And this is the annoying part - the battle ended one hour before 2nd Squadron would have been on the scene, or at least in the same sea zone - which I was hoping would mean that all of the Spanish ships would be sunk by my shiny new Littorio, or at least they would recieve a good pounding from long range.
Veryveryclose.jpg

SEE HOW CLOSE IT WAS?!

2nd Squadron was ordered to patrol the Western Mediterranean to prevent any surprises by Spanish capital ships being visited upon, say, another shipment of troops. The next day, 9 June, saw the submission of a report to the Government by Societa Montecatini on improving oil refining techniques. FIAT began recieving money from the Government for researching improvements into computing machines the same day.

Spanish submarine flotilla meets Transport Squadron A - 13 June 1938
ASWTransportSqdrn.jpg


Battle of Mallorca - one hour after it began, 14 June 1938
Beginningofmallorca.jpg


After a 16-hour battle, at 21:00 GMT 14 June the Spaniards managed to defeat the Italian forces. Three days later, on 17 June the Spanish recaptured Menorca which had been captured about ten days earlier by Italian forces before they were driven off by the Spanish, and a Spanish submarine flotilla was sunk in the Gulf of Salerno.

The Economy, 21 June 1938
economyjun21.jpg


At the highest echelons of the Italian Government - okay, it was actually separately considered by Comando Supremo and the King - there was discussion of how to continue the war, after having lost 8 divisions to superior Spanish forces in the area, and whether a peace should be striven for or whether the war should continue - but the current goings-on were a bit too reminiscent of the Great War for some tastes... The populace at large remained ignorant of these musings, however, and merely read the newspapers or listened to the radio broadcasts or watched the newsreels - all, naturally, controlled by the government, which tended to emphasize the naval victories over the land defeats.
 
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I terzi a quinti mesi - The Third through Fifth Months

The 22 June saw several events of some importance. The 13th Division Re was upgraded to modern standards, Cruiser Squadron 1 was renamed Force C and ordered to the Gulf of Almeria to reconniter. RM San Giorgio was nearly sunk by Spanish torpedo bombers (not exactly surprising, considering they were Italian-designed SM.79s most likely captured from the Nationalists and the fact that they probably could sink a Great War relic like the San Giogio by itself fairly easily) and ordered to return to its base at Sardinia. On the way back, its commander Contrammiraglio (Rear Admiral) I. Campioni was replaced in that capacity by Contrammiraglio Martinego.
On 24 June Force C in the Gulf of Almeria was ordered to raid Spanish convoys until August 24th. 26 June saw a 2 hour naval battle which resulted in a Spanish transport flotilla being sunk. On 27 June a trade agreement was negotiated with Ethiopia, and three light cruisers and 6 destroyer flotillas were separated from 1st Squadron and put in a squadron named Naval Reserve (to be based in La Spezia until these obsolete CLs and DDs of WWI vintage can be replaced).

INTERLUDE
For some time Sardinia Air Command has been battling Spanish bombers above the Gulf of Leon.

The Italian Fiat CR.32 (because the CR.42 wasn't ordered or operational until 1939, which would make it more like the Basic Fighter or Basic Interceptor rather than the Interwar Fighter)
cr32.jpg


The Spanish-flown Tupolev SB-2
Tupolev_SB-2_2.jpg


The Spanish-flown Ilyushin DB-3 (this image used because all Wikimedia had was a 1024x768, which was a little large in my opinion)
il-db3.jpg


Transport Squadron A arrived in the Gulf of Almeria on 2 July and Generale di Corpo d'Armata Barbasetti di Prun replaced Generale di Divisione Bianchi as commander of II Corps, Second Army. The troops aboard Transport Squadron A were ordered to assault Melilla at dawn (approximately 700 GMT), 3 July. Force C began bombarding Melilla at 1100 GMT 2 July. On 3 July, the artillery attached to 13th Division "Re" was upgraded to the most modern equipments, which was beginning to be of slightly lower quality than the artillery of most foreign powers.

In the early morning hours of 3 July, 1938, a naval battle in the Gulf of Almeria led to 2 Spanish destroyer flotillas being sunk.

GulfofMbegin.jpg
VictoyinGulfofM.jpg


The 4 hour long naval battle ended, and there was an hour where the thunder of the battleship and all of the heavy cruiser guns dissipated and the only noise was the Italian cruisers bombarding Melilla. Suddenly, small arms fire erupted.

The beginning of the battle, and an hour before the battle ended
BattleofMelillabegin.jpg
60minbeforeendMelilla.jpg


A 13 hour battle led to the first Italian victory in a long time.

On 5 July, II Corps of Second Army under Barbasetti di Prun finished unloading at Melilla.
On 6 July a battle in the Gulf of Cagliari led to a Spanish CL being sunk by RM Littorio, which was undamaged in the battle. Transport Squadron A was dispatched to load some of the troops on Ibiza.

On 8 July, First Army Group HQ and the 29th and 30th Infantry Divisions boarded Transport Squadron A.

On 13 July, Transport Squadron A was ordered back to Genoa in order to repair damage incurred during the Battle of the Gulf of Almeria on 3 July.
RM Eugenio di Savoia was ordered to Taranto for repairs, and RM Alberico da Barbiano and RM Alberto da Guissano were separated from Cruiser Squadron D based in Venice and ordered to rendevous and join 2nd Squadron.
At 300 GMT on 19 July, First Army Group was ordered to attack the Spanish X Corps at dawn (700 GMT) on 21 July, 1938.
On 20 July the artillery attached to 32nd Division was upgraded to the most modern Italian standards.
On 21 July, virtually no time was required for the Spanish X Corps to be defeated quickly. The two Spanish divisions retreated to Ceuta.
On 27 July, Spanish forces retook Ibizia, which had been abandoned by Italian forces for nearly a month by this time.
The next day 1st Division "Superga" was recreated and deployed to Taranto. First Army Group was ordered to attack Ceuta at 700 GMT 29 July, 1938.

29 July-

The Battle of Ceuta, 700 GMT
BattleofCeuta700GMT.jpg


Despite being bombed by the Spanish as they began their attack, an 8 hour battle led to the surrender of Lister Forjan and the Spanish X Corps, which had been composed of an infantry division (their 9th, I believe) and a militia division. Mussolini announced the establishment of Italian Morocco, even though Ceuta had yet to come under Italian control.

On 4 August, a carrier air group composed of G.50s and Br.65s was ordered for the aircraft carrier that was under construction.

Eight days later on 12 August, the 15th Division "Bergamo" was upgraded to modern standards.

On 13 August, Transport Squadron A was off the coast of Mallorca when it was ordered to stop and ignore its previous orders to unload three divisions under the overall command of Generale di Corpo d'ArmataLisi F. The three divisions were ordered to unload at the unguarded island, and on 15 August they were finished unloading and Mallorca became controlled by Italy.

During mid-August after the capture of Mallorca, South Air Fleet's First Wing, which was made up of the 7th Fighter Division flying Fiat CR.32s, the First Close Air Support Wing, and the 4th Bomber Division were transfered to Italian Mallorca.

During these months, Italian soldiers were bombed in what is now Italian Morocco, Ibiza, and some submarines were also bombed off the coast of Portugal, but these were left out of the narrative in the interest of preserving the reader's interest in what was going on.

The Situation in Spain, 0000 GMT 21 August 1938
Situation21Aug1938.jpg


Italian Economy and Production, 0000 GMT 21 August 1938
Productionandecon21Aug.jpg
 
Are you planning to keep Spanish Africa?
 
Crush3r: To tell the truth, I haven't really decided. On the one hand, it's more territory to add to the New Roman Empire; on the other, it's more territory to police, so I may give it to France. Or Vichy France. Or something, I'll have to decide.

Nabendu: Yes, the Spanish are being most annoying, I've decided that I have erred in my timing, and that it's a lot more fun to conquer Spain in vanilla HOI2 with the Blitzkrieg doctrine. The tactics based on WWI are, however, slightly more historically accurate, since I've read that the Italian Army didn't exactly have a single doctrine, but used both experiences from the Great War and motorized tactics.


I've played to at least October 1st, but I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to update next, maybe this weekend sometime.
 
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(Now this chapter I'm writing from the history file, as opposed to what I record while playing on a handy piece of paper, so if there seem to be any holes in the information ... blame me and my pathetic filing system.)

On 21 August, Transport Squadron A arrived in the Balearic Sea, and Italian bombers began bombing Huesca, which would continue for several months. On August 23, Sardinia Submarine Command and Western Submarine Fleet finished their assigned missions that had dated from the beginning of the war. On the same day, Transport Squadron A arrived in the Gulf of Almeira. The next day, Italo Balbo presented a report to the Government on his recommendations on striking at the logistics of enemy forces, based on reports he'd recieved from the war in Spain. The recommendations from the report were shortly thereafter issued throughout the Regia Aeronautica with the intent of improving the organization and lethality of the medium and torpedo bomber squadrons. The three divisions of II Corps, Second Army under Barbasetti di Prun boarded Transport Squadron A and two days later, Transport Squadron A entered the Gulf of Cadiz. At 19:00 GMT on August 28, Transport Squadron A was fired upon by Spanish naval vessels.

This is the battle, one hour after it began
onehourinAug2938.jpg

At 23:00 GMT the same day, or four hours after the first shells had fallen, the Spanish fleet withdrew and no ships had been sunk on either side.

At 700 GMT on 29 August, II Corps Second Army began to land at Huelva.
BattleofHuelvabegin.jpg


30Aug.jpg


After about 18 hours, at 100 GMT Spanish forces were defeated.
At 1400 GMT on 1 September, the three Italian divisions were unloaded and a mere two hours later, there was a naval engagement in the Gulf of Morocco.
1400GMT1Sept38.jpg


At 21:00 GMT, the Spanish squadron disengaged, leaving a flotilla of destroyers sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic.
truevictory.jpg


More troops were loaded aboard Transport Squadron A and on 5 September the 2nd and 3rd Submarine Flotillas were finished, the first examples of the Calvi-class submarines to enter service. The next day Spanish ships were engaged and the battle was won, but not without some loss by Italian forces.

victoryatsea.jpg


Mussolini is said to have ordered the arrest of whoever keeps calling these losses by Italian forces "victories".

On 9 September, Pietro Badgiolo reported to Comando Supremo about his recommendations based on his experiences and based on the experiences in Spain. Comando Supremo then disseminated the results to all army divisions.
The next day, Cantieri Navali Riunti sent the design for a new class of cruiser to the Government. On 16 September, 9th Division "Pasubio" was upgraded to modern standards. The next day, the Spanish cruiser Baleares was sunk after a four-hour battle in the Gulf of Cadiz. After repulsing several Spanish assaults, Second Army Group was ordered to assault Malaga, and it did so on 26 September, 1938 at 800 GMT. Seven hours later Italian forces had won the battle.

attackonmalaga.jpg


At 700 GMT on 27 September, Albacete was attacked, and three hours later the Battle of Albacete was another Italian victory. Several days later Mussolini signed the Munich Agreement, along with Hitler, Chamberlain, and Daladier. On 30 September, more Spanish forces were engaged and defeated in the space of a single hour in Albacete.


The Current Situation In Spain
situationinSpainandlittorio.jpg

(Also How RM Littorio has Sank Half the Spanish Navy Single-Handedly)
(yes, I admit that's an exaggeration...)
 
I am enjoying your AAR very much. You're certainly playing an aggresive game considering the limited quality of your current command. You caught my interest. One question: On your screen shots for production you always seem to have excess IC for production (wasted IC). Was this just due to the timing of new production being deployed and when you took that screenshot? If not why don't you apply that extra to your upgrades? Anyways, great job. I look forward to your next update.
 
Cool AAR. Good lucks.
 
Why are you people always wishing good luck to the writAAR? ;)
I think it's always the better when the player gets his ass kicked as many times as possible. Always more fun to read, and more historically plausible too.
In all honesty, there's really no doubt Alex will eventually beat the AI of such a minor power that Republican Spain is, but more difficulties he has doing so, the better!
In other words, as the AI is what it is and the odds in terms of sheer military power are in favor of Italy bad luck is the only thing that can make this campaign interresting.

Thereby, I wish him the worst possible luck (which means - have great fun! Blitzing countries in few weeks is much more boring as it happens so very much more often than surprise defeats like these)! :D

Keep up the good writing!
 
Well, I think people wish good luck to the writing... at least for me, even easy campaings can be fun if the writer is good to describe it.
 
It pleases me that the Spanish are tougher than anticipated, but hopefully the Impero Romano Nuovo won't utterly embarass itself.