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Msus
April 10th, 1941


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Rommel’s troops and the Italians were progressing even quicker than expected. It had been ten days since the main offensive had started and the Afrikakorps had already reached the old fort at Msus. The Italians were either bad architects or the fort had seen it’s fair share of sand storms but it was practically falling apart. His men had already started to make repairs as it was one of the few buildings in the dry and rocky region. Rommel had chosen the desert route because he knew the British wouldn’t expect it. While the Italian infantry divisions were moving along the coast to the city of Benghazi, Rommel had taken the tank divisions under his command and ploughed straight through the dusty plains. Only two British divisions had stood in their way and were quickly defeated. That was a few days ago. Out here it was just themselves and the Bedouines who carried on with their lives, almost oblivious to the war fought around them.
The plan Rommel had come up with entailed the encirclement of British divisions in Derna. While the Italians would hold on to Benghazi, the fast moving German tank forces would cut off the divisions in Derna. Supply lines were waverthin in the desert so that Blitzkrieg and encirclement tactics worked even better. If all went well the British in Derna would run low on supplies in a matter of days. The Italians would move in from Bengazhi and hopefully capture the city without too much loss of blood. Rommel preferred prisoners above dead bodies.

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Mechili
April 17th, 1941


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The general who would later be remembered as the Desert Fox was standing on top of a hill that gave him a perfect vantage point of the battlefield. Beneath him the first large armoured clash of the African campaign was raging on. The forward units of his division had encountered the British tank force. Rommel had gotten enough time to dig into this hilly area. 88s surrounded him. Dug deep into the ground with very little ground clearance, the guns could be difficultly spotted which had added an element of surprise. The opposing force had been almost completely disabled. They were the guinea pigs for a new tactic Rommel had devised. The artillery had been dug into a U-shape. Small German units had lured the British main force into the artillery’s range. Panzers then swooped around from the other side of the hill and closed the trap.
The rest of the campaign was going equally well. The divisions at Derna had surrendered and they had gained air superiority over Cyrenaica. The Italian bombers thrived when they weren’t shot down by the dozens.

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Time to Marseille to become an eagle in the desert... :D
 
Looks like you'll destroy an entire division in the Barca pocket. That'll help later on, especially when the unit events start firing for Britain. That said, first they'll probably severely weaken themselves sending units off to Greece. :p
 
Forte Maddalena
April 26th, 1941


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Egypt was almost within reach. Axis forces had retaken much of the ground the Italians had lost in the preceeding months. Tobruk had been taken, as had Forte Cappuzo. Soon they would reach the former border with Egypt. Rommel had doubted if a continued offensive was wise. But reinforcements from Italy had convinced him that he had to keep striking at the worn out British. But his own troops were growing fatigued as well. Days of marching and driving through the desert sand, bloody combat. He would let them rest when they got to the border. And then he would strike again. The Suez canal was one of the most important targets in the war against the British. Without it the Empire would be cut off from it’s motherland. Suez meant Gibraltar and Gibraltar meant London.

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Forte Maddalena
May 1st, 1941


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Rommel was racing through the hallway. In his wake two of his aides. He had just been woken with the news that his worn out Leichte Division was under attack at Forte Cappuzo. He was heading for the radio room. The radio room was nothing more than a former storage room. A small window barely illuminated the interior.
“Report!” Rommel barked at the radio operator.
“Sir!” the radioman said surprised. “I have a new message from Mj. General Von Esebeck, Sir.”
“Let’s hear it!”
The radioman handed him the paper with the message. Apparently three infantry divisions had attacked Forte Cappuzo at dawn. The fort was only manned by the accompanying infantry brigades. Most of their equipment was damaged. The Panzer division was away on reconnaissance. The situation was desperate.
Rommel turned to his aides: “I want all available aircraft to Forte Cappuzo. And inform the Panzer division of the attack if they haven’t already been told. They are the only hope of holding that fort.”
Rommel had faith in his men but he was still worried. It wasn’t going to go as easy as it had seemed.

Forte Maddalena
May 11th, 1941


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The army at Forte Cappuzo had managed to pull through. With the help of the panzers and the aircraft the British had been scared away. Now they occupied the old border with Egypt again. The men had seen their fair share of rest and were now on the attack again. The target was Sollum today and the next day the attack on Rabia would commence. And finally the day after tomorrow the divisions in Al Jaghbub would march on to the Siwa Oasis.

Rabia
May 21st, 1941


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They were making good progress. Rommel was riding on top of is tank. They were heading for Sidi Barrani. His division would attempt to cut off the escape route of the divisions in Sollum. Even better news was that Operation Merkur had been launched: the aerial invasion of Crete. The British would no doubt have to divert some resources to the island which might give Rommel the chance to strike at the heart of Egypt. If all went well.

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Already breaching Egypt, excellent. Too bad the British didn't put up a fight for Tobruk, but their AI isn't as clever as they sometimes were in real life. ;)
 
If Crete falls, a good aircarrier will be added to your forces. :D
 
Italians hah! The Germans should've gotten some land in the Med, if they actually won the war for saving Benito's skin in Greece and North Africa. Onwards to the Mandate of Palestine I say!

(This can be a long and interesting scenario, personally one of my favorites!)
 
Rabia
May 24th, 1941


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Once again the German encirclement tactics worked. If it weren't for the amazingly quick response from the other British divisions the Germans could've captured and neutralized two tank divisions. But with the help of their comrades they managed to break the encirclement but not without taking heavy losses. For some reason the British already put up more of a fight on the Egyptian side of the border. But Rommel knew the fate of the campaign would be decided at El Alamein, a natural bottleneck. On one side the Mediterranean and on the other side the Western Desert.

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Rabia
May 26th, 1941


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Operation Merkur was a great success. And they were lucky they won too. The airborne assault hadn't been flawless and the hilly nature of the island had helped the British in their defense of the island.
The fall of the island would prove to be a great boost for the North African campaign. It allowed the Germans apply pressure from even more directions.

Berlin
June 7th, 1941


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The offensive in the African theatre was progressing slowly but steadily. In Berlin they had just received news that the British had attacked Lebanon and Syria, two new countries that secceeded after the fall of France back in 1940. The Führer had chosen to aid the two countries and had ordered the transfer of several land and air divisions.

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Beirut
June 18th, 1941


Three regiments had been airlifted to Tripoli, the temporary capital of Lebanon. British reserve forces had captured the city in the first hours of their offensive. After the German troops had recovered from the flight they had been ordered to retake Beirut. This went easier than expected. Only two understrength divisions stood in their way. Meanwhile in Egypt the British had finally received new frontline troops which managed to slowdown the advantage of the Germans.
 
I hope that those Fallschirmjäger regiments send to Syria not vanish into oblivion...
 
Sorry for the lack of updates. But I only have a PC that can play HoI2 at a decent speed during the weekend. Haven't had much time lately to play the game and I ran out of stuff to tell. But this weekend I plan to do a big update.

On a side note I've taken the free time during the week to come up with my own Channel Pactian epic unholy alliance AAR. It's going to be with Germany but I'm trying to see what kind of unholy alliance would make for the best AAR. It won't be UK as I don't want to completely rip on The Channel Pact. Of course I'll be aiming for the same level of quality as that AAR.

But since HoI3 is coming out in the near future I'm going to wait until that arrives to play it. It's going to be a long AAR and I don't want to get stuck in a HoI2 AAR when I have the HoI3 icon lurking on my desktop.
 
I promised an update during the weekend but alass I have to postpone this till tomorrow. I unexectantly had to work the whole day on Saturday so I couldn't get any game time in. But I've used Sunday and played a lot. I guess I could whip up a bad update in a few minutes but I plan to catch up in a very grand way so I'm taking my time.The writing style will be moving more to the epic scale of things. I guess all that Channel Pactian-epicness of the last week got too me.

Also I'd like to do another competition: When will my forces reach Jerusalem?

Few hints:
1. The Desert Rat is fighting in the Syria Campaign
2. The advance in North Africa is slightly slower than it has been in the beginning but still pretty fast.
3. Rommel is ace in this game because he manages to do everything a year before time.

So when will my forces reach Jerusalem (which in all likeless means total victory)?

The winner will get the German Bratwurst of Guessing Excellence. This title retroactively upgrades the normal German sausage I gave Myth in Wacht am Rhein. It can be put in your sig if you win.
 
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August 1941?
 
The Suez Canal
December 13th, 1941


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The Suez Canal in more peaceful times.​

The sun was fading rapidly. General Rommel got out of the Kübelwagen he had been travelling in for hours. He adjusted his cap and relaxed. In the distance he could see western bank of the Suez Canal. They were finally here. The Suez Canal had long been the main objective of the German-Italian offensive. With the Suez Canal in their hands the British Isles would be virtually cut off from India, its most important colony. They had to go around the southern tip of Africa, around Cape Good Hope. It would take them longer and they’d be much more vulnerable to the German U-Boats who patrolled the Atlantic.

But they hadn’t won yet. While they could now prevent ships from passing through the canal, they needed to keep moving east as well as to the north and to the south. To the east lay the valuable oil fields of the Middle East, to the south lay Italian East Africa which was being encroached from all sides. And to the north lay the soft underbelly of the Soviet Union and its valuable oil fields at the Caspian Sea.

Suddenly Rommel heard a high-pitched sound. He recognized it as an artillery shell flying through the air.

“Take cover,” he yelled and took cover behind the car.

Luckily the shell was poorly aimed and exploded several hundred metres away. The British had managed to set up their artillery again but they didn’t know where to fire. Yet.

“Dig in at the west bank,” he ordered his subordinates. “I want artillery on the slope of that hill,” he said while pointing to a hill running parallel to the canal. “Don’t allow them to organize to close to the canal.”

He stepped into the Kübelwagen and continued: “I’ll be going to Port Said and coordinate everything from there.”

Port Said was a town at the Mediterraean entrance of the Canal. It was far enough from the British guns in the Sinai but close enough to the front to allow him too coordinate the offensive. He regretted not encircling the British in Egypt itself as he now faced ten divisions holding a 200 km long canal. Luckily he had twice as many men as well as aircraft. But it would still be challenge. First they had to cross the canal and then a scorching desert. Once in the desert they’d have no cover and the British would be dug in deep.

Rommel’s thought wandered off to the preceding months. After the British had regained their organization in the Western Desert the offensive had slowed down. Rommel’s troops had managed to surround El Alamein but in that natural bottleneck the British proved excellent defenders. Dozens of large and small attacks proved ineffective and the front had seesawed back and forth. But after another attack on Gerawla and the subsequent retreat of the German and Italians troops in that area Rommel had managed to take El Alamein. While British no doubt planned to encircle the Germans in Fuka, Rommel’s Panzers had been faster and taken the town. With over five divisions trapped in Gerawla the trap had been closed. In two days they had captured almost 10,000 British soldiers. The combined German and Italian forces then met in El Alamein and after a bloody battle took the city of Alexandria.

Alexandria was one of Egypt’s biggest city and the largest port in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean. The loss of the city had been grave to the British as it was the home of their Mediterranean fleet. It had to retreat to Tel Aviv and operating from Crete and Alexandria the Regia Marina managed to keep that part of the Royal Navy in check.
With Alexandria taken Egypt now lay open. Without rest the Axis drove straight into the heart of Egypt. From the south the British got no help as their forces were already fighting the Italians there. Slowly the British were corralled towards the Suez Canal.

The war was going well, Rommel thought. Operation Barbarossa had been launched several months ago and was going very well for the Germans. North Africa was now theirs as well. Only in Syria things were going badly. The three German divisions had managed to slow the British advance but now they only controlled the area around Aleppo. Luckily the German-Syrian troops had managed to fortify the city and its surroundings and any attacks, although bloody, had been stopped. They just needed to hold out until help arrived from Egypt.
 
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