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Keep it up! May your forces succeed versus the inadequete Yugoslavs.

May I suggest moving some men east from the French border? It seems like France will not attack you what with the German situation.

Let it be!
 
Everything is looking good! You'll be in Belgrade in no time.;)

I'm impressed that the Yugoslavians managed to build 3 CL's.
 
Did the CAG's success give you any carrier experience, and if so are you going to start tenetively learning carrier doctrines?
 
And so the invasion gets underway. Not a bad start, considering the relatively small size of the invading armies, as well as the total absence of motorized/mechanized/armored units. Not exactly a glamorous Blitzkrieg, but a serviceable footwar. :)

Let's see how this plays out and what Germany can accomplish in the time before Yugoslavia falls.
 
Holy crap, there's a lot of comments. :eek:

Jorath13: Yeah, carriers can still do some stuff. And four weeks, huh? Well, we'll see. ;)

Ahriman: Fantastic, it's always good to get to meet your readers. :D

delra: As BlitzMartinDK says, I don't really have the troops for it. :p

intruder alert: Welcome, friend! :D

Enewald: Unless there's a real wall in front of you when you run. ;)

BlitzMartinDK: Yeah, in retrospect I may have wanted to keep those militia. But on the other hand, I'm saving in supplies, a good thing when I'm chronically producing less than I require because all my other IC is in consumer goods and big production projects. :p

billy bob: Actually when it comes to the French border, it's not as much an attack I'm worried about, as thinking about possible quick land grabs should the French denude that frontier so much to deal with the burgeoning German invasion. Besides, 12 divisions will be enough. ;)

Maj. von Mauser: Yeah, the invasion's going well so far. I think, though, that the Yugoslav navy begins with those three CL. I'm a bit doubtful that they managed to actually build any of them themselves. :p

Merrick Chance': No, I actually get air experience for carrier operations. Which is alright because air doctrine involves improving stuff like port strike, naval strike and mission disorg rates, among other things, which are general effects that affect all air units, including CAGs. But yeah, I've got barely any naval experience and very little chance of getting any. :p

Judas Maccabeus: Yep! Let the enemy beware, especially when I've got more carriers running around amok. ;)

BlitzMartinDK: Operations remain top secret.
nods.gif


truth is life: Note that it did take weeks to wear down the Yugoslav naval forces and base to the point that nothing existed in there. But that was also with complete base-level CAGs and doctrines, and only four CAG squadrons too. Improve all three and things will go better. :p

Stuyvesant: Booh, down with mechanization! :p

Evil4Zerggin: Maybe. We'll see. ;)

Vote, people, vote!
 
The Year of Aggression
Part 7: Operation Anicius Gallus III, August 11 – August 25, 1939

During the period of August bracketed by these dates, Operation Anicius Gallus developed in beneficial, though unanticipated, ways. Rather than a wholly successfully broad front sweeping forward, large segments of that front stalled against heavy Yugoslav resistance, allowing for the evolution of spearheads of infantry divisions. These were units which broke through the Yugoslav lines and, for whatever reason, did not find secondary defenses behind the frontline. Also during this time, Bastico’s 2a Armata verged on completing the final conquest of the very north of Yugoslavia.

Delnice, having become a heavily torn battlefield between Italian and Yugoslav forces early in August, finally received respite from the deluge of steel and blood on the 11th. In a battle that lasted more than a week, nearly five hundred Italians lost their lives, in exchange for over 1,300 Yugoslav soldiers, which amounted to more than a full quarter of their entire force present at Delnice. Simultaneously with this victory, Bitossi of Roatta’s corps became involved in a battle at Sisak. At Sisak, for the first time, partially-mobilized Yugoslav forces made their battlefield appearance. Importantly, while the Italian divisions were binary, with two regiments of infantry, Yugoslav divisions comprised three regiments each. Italian divisions were a third smaller than their hostile counterparts. In an indication for the future difficulty of the Yugoslav campaign, Sisak would become, even more than Delnice, a wrecked and blood-sodden area, a testament to Yugoslav obstinacy.

037-01-SisakandDelnice.jpg

Battle at Sisak, and battle over at Delnice.

Events in the north were, Sisak notwithstanding, going well. Bastico’s 2a Armata was pushing toward the Hungarian border, moving beyond their original objective of Ljubljana, and won a victory at Ptuj that was reminiscent of the frontier battles: forty-eight Italians were killed, as opposed to over five hundred Yugoslav soldiers, nearly half the entire force. Nevertheless, the most important part of the front had perhaps become the southernmost flank. It was here, certainly, that half of Gambara’s corps and his headquarters, with Pintor’s own army headquarters in tow, were exploiting southward with alacrity risen from a lack of opposition. The two actual divisions in this ad hoc grouping, commanded by Messe and Frattini, were tasked to conquer and reconquer Split and Zadar, respectively. The broken remnants of the Yugoslav navy would be forced into the open, and the constant advance would allow the front to remain fluid.

037-02-ExploitingSouthward.jpg

Limited Italian forces exploiting southward.

By midday on the 13th, the task set before Messe and Frattini had grown. They were, far from simply capturing the eastern Adriatic ports, to march on Albania and secure it from the minor and unknown Yugoslav forces demonstrating down there. Further, it was anticipated that from Albania they would push back northward toward Belgrade and take it in a grand pincer movement, a maneuver for which they would have enough time given that the Yugoslav army was resisting heavily to the north.

037-03-SouthernFlankMovement.jpg

The southern exploitation on the way to becoming a grand flanking movement.

The fighting on Roatta’s front during this entire period was indeed quite heavy. There were only two battles taking place, at Vrnograc and at Sisak, but both were becoming bloody and lengthy affairs. The former was, indeed, longer lasting than the latter. The battle of Sisak was brought to an end late on the 18th, after a week of battle. Just over six hundred Italians were slain, as well as nearly 1,650 Yugoslav soldiers. As Gambara’s two southernmost divisions were pushing ahead against no opposition, the rest of Gambara’s corps, as well as Roatta’s corps, were becoming mired in repeated major week-long battles against improvised Yugoslav defenses. Vrnograc would only end on the 26th, another week after Sisak, and cost Italy nearly 770 young men, and Yugoslavia nearly 1,900.

037-04-Sisak.jpg

The battle of Sisak, concluded.

By the 20th, the north had been by and large completely cleared of Yugoslav forces by Bastico’s 2a Armata, in an often overlooked series of victories that resulted in the destruction of numerous partially-formed Yugoslav divisions. These were small scale battles, as opposed to the relatively titanic battles on Roatta’s front, though they were important in freeing Bastico to move his army southward to reinforce Roatta. In the very south, Frattini had been diverted from Zadar to push toward Sarajevo, leaving Messe as the only commander still pushing along the coast to the very south of Yugoslavia, though Frattini’s overall mission was to protect Messe’s increasingly lengthening line of supply and northern flank. While the broad front advance was still occurring, by this date there was a very noticeable slant to it. The front, rather than running from northeast to southwest as anticipated in the pre-war plans, ran almost northwest to southeast. Slow progress in the north, as Roatta fought steadily through increasing resistance, was juxtaposed to Messe’s completely unopposed march down the coast to Albania.

037-05-BroadFrontPush.jpg

The broad front push, working but not as well as had been hoped.

By the 25th, the last remnants of the northern Yugoslav forces were isolated by Bastico’s army and under their final assault. A corps headquarters and two damaged divisions, including one mountain division, were to be removed from the strategic balance. Along the Hungarian border, Bitossi and Mancinelli, both of Roatta’s corps, had broken through the Yugoslav front at last and were marching forward quickly. One was commanded to take the northern road, to completely secure the Hungarian border and get north of the Danube. The other was directed southward to link up with Caracciolo di Feroleto of Gambara’s corps, who had broken away from the heavy fighting on Roatta’s front and was advancing quickly as well, toward Belgrade. This link up was expected to isolate in an enormous pocket the greater portion of the Yugoslav army. Unfortunately, Pintor had not the resources to secure the pocket. This was bound to make the pocket a very fluid, and messy, affair.

037-06-VanguardPushings.jpg

The Italian vanguard units pushing onwards, even as the bulk of the fighting continued behind them.

The period of two weeks from August 11 to August 25 showed that the first trappings of real success were finally emerging. Spearhead units were breaking through and racing behind the Yugoslav front, ready to cause mayhem in the deep rear. However, in other portions of the front the Yugoslav forces were slowing down the Italian push considerably, by weeks even, already. The density and obstinacy of Yugoslav resistance was astounding, and was inflicting heavy casualties on the Italian units even while taking far heavier casualties themselves. The Italian death toll for the war had likely already passed five thousand, with the Yugoslav casualties safely triple that amount, but the bloodshed was not to end soon.
 
It is to be hoped that the Yugoslavs do not have any significant forces mobilising in Belgrade and the surrounding area - could get a bit sticky for Messe and the other spearhead divisions! Any intel on your enemy's remaining capability at this point?
 
A big pocket forming, but have you enough troops to close and annihilate it?

Close it perhaps...but not enough I think to prevent any sort of breakout. I still hold to my 4 weeks timeline! :D
 
I still hold to my 4 weeks timeline! :D
That's very brave of you, considering two-and-a-half weeks of game time have passed since you first made that prediction. In other words, you're allowing another ten days or so for the Yugoslavs to collapse... With only infantry to secure the necessary Victory Points...

Still, I have to applaud your willingness to stand by your prediction, considering no-one else (myself included) has seen it fit to produce any time tables. :)

As far as the actual advance goes, it's a textbook example of how no plan survives contact with the enemy. Some things work better, some things turn out worse... All in all, the situation seems well in hand. I suspect the major fighting will die down once the Yugoslavs are pocketed, and that going forward there'll be a standoff at the pocket while a few Italian divisions occupy the necessary VP provinces. I'm not willing to put a timeline on that, though. ;)
 
I dare call this "Guerra del Lampo", or "Lightning War".;)

While you have met heavy resistance in some sectors, you have met minimal in others. You have broken the front, and you have spearheads of troops both pushing forward to secure advanced objectives, and troops flanking the known centers of resistance to attempt an encirclement.

These my friend, are to major ingredients that add up to "Blitzkrieg", or "Guerra del Lampo".:)

You are making good progress.
 
That's very brave of you, considering two-and-a-half weeks of game time have passed since you first made that prediction. In other words, you're allowing another ten days or so for the Yugoslavs to collapse... With only infantry to secure the necessary Victory Points...

Still, I have to applaud your willingness to stand by your prediction, considering no-one else (myself included) has seen it fit to produce any time tables. :)

As far as the actual advance goes, it's a textbook example of how no plan survives contact with the enemy. Some things work better, some things turn out worse... All in all, the situation seems well in hand. I suspect the major fighting will die down once the Yugoslavs are pocketed, and that going forward there'll be a standoff at the pocket while a few Italian divisions occupy the necessary VP provinces. I'm not willing to put a timeline on that, though. ;)

It was a good plan but required more divisons. Give the man 2-3 more divisions and he could easily fufill the 4 week deadline.

Or used Graziani, the greatest Italian general since Scipio. :p
 
Enewald: Probably not, but then that wasn't really my strategy to begin with. How things work out though, we'll see. :p

Palmyrene: Nope, no real intel. They probably have some sort of garrison in Belgrade but probably not a large one, given that they need every division they have to try to plug the raging holes in the front. :p

Jorath13: Four weeks, huh? :p

Stuyvesant: The only problem with the pocket is that it basically sits astride the supply lines of two of my spearhead breakthroughs. :p

Maj. von Mauser: Yep. My entire intention was based around taking the VPs quickly. To some extent I'm being successful at this. ;)

billy bob: Yeah, another couple divisions couldn't hurt. Though Graziani has nothing on Messe, who really is the most highly skilled Italian leader in game. :D
 
........
Or used Graziani, the greatest Italian general since Scipio. :p

Really? I thought Caesar was better than Scipio...

About Graziani... Some real historical data. After Ethiopia annexion, he was appointed Governor of Abissinia. He started showing some... hmmm... psychological problems. When Mussolini asked him if all was fine, he said his shape was the best ever, and to demostrate it, he sent a photo of himself fully naked, standing up on one foot, with open arms, and with some weights on both hands....

Nothing similar to Scipio or Caesar... Generals with real abilities and charisma.
 
You should use Caviglia. Who cares if he was old. He had a good charisma.

Paradox was ridculous in the traits and skills they (didn't) give him.

But if we are looking for charisma, nobody can beat a man called "Electric Whiskers" Bergonzolli. "Bombastico" is a funny one too.