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FlyingDutchie: Well, my fuel supplies are in quite good shape so Ploesti isn't really that important. As for divisions in Africa, they began doing their own thing. :p

Update coming up!
 
The Year of Upheaval
Part 6: The Withdrawal Westward, February 11 – February 28, 1942

Withdrawals in the face of the enemy are always difficult affairs, tactically, operationally and strategically. Tactically, it is an enormous challenge to disengage from the enemies; it means leaving one’s own prepared positions and moving out into the open where an aware and capable enemy could wreak havoc in all sorts of different ways. Operationally, it means dispersing the combat strength of a division or a corps or an army in such a way as to provide safeguards against attack while at the same time moving them away from the enemy. Strategically, it means finding a new line at which to defend against the superior enemy. The Italians would face all these difficulties from February 11 through to the end of the month.

The Soviets would not let up their pressure. On the 12th of February they called off their latest offensive against Onesti, having sacrificed over twelve hundred soldiers for no real gain save the slaughter of nearly four hundred and fifty Italian defenders. At Tulcea and Artysz, however, the Soviets won: the former was an offensive Italian battle inside the pocket and the latter was a defensive Italian battle in the ring. Losses cumulatively approached four hundred on the Italian side and barely surpassed four hundred on the Soviet side. Nevertheless, the real damage was done operationally. With Artysz open, the Soviets would be able to relieve the pocket. And then the real pressure would begin, particularly from within the erstwhile encirclement. With the withdrawal beginning, Da Zara’s and Campioni’s naval aviators switched to other targets. They would, instead of interdicting Soviet ground forces, hit their logistics infrastructure. Italian warplanes would dominate the skies in the coming two weeks as they had the previous two. No bridge, no road nor rail junction in northern Dacia between Hungary and the Black Sea would be left undestroyed by the end of the month.

083-01-CAGsagainstInfrastructure.jpg

Italian carrier air groups hitting north Dacian infrastructure.

By the 18th of February the withdrawal was in full swing. Graziani’s very battered army was pulling back behind the cover of Bastico’s stalwart defenders. The Italian position was, with the fall of Artysz, effectively that of a terribly extended salient defended only on the northern side. It would have to be a phased withdrawal; there was no other way to try to bring out all formations intact. Bastico’s third corps, which had been operating on the interior of the pocket, was also to begin withdrawing, but only until Bastico’s corps headquarters areas. These three divisions were, however, to have a terrible time in the days to come. The Graziani’s army was able to disengage nearly easily, despite its previous heavy defeats. The Soviets did not have the operational level planning to instigate truly unrelenting deep operations. This would result in enforced delays on the Soviet side—worse than those on the Italian side, certainly—that would allow the Italians of Graziani’s army to get away.

083-02-WithdrawalStage1.jpg

The first stage of the withdrawal.

As the first stage of the withdrawal was beginning, the forces that had been in Thrace and around Istanbul were already passing Belgrade by. Guzzoni and Pintor had definitively escaped danger, in the first success of the massive withdrawal effort. By the 21st of March, The Italian defenders of Onesti had been assaulted by utterly overwhelming force and were forced to withdraw. Graziani’s army was very nearly out of the firing line by this stage. Bastico’s third corps, however, took the first of a series of hammer blows from Soviets in the now broken encirclement. These were undoubtedly designed to halt the Italian withdrawal long enough for the pressure from the north to break the Italian armies apart and lead to a decisive defeat of Italian arms in Dacia. The corps formations, however, refused to prolong contact, even though such refusals would further the disarray of the divisions and impede their withdrawal efforts. It was impediment, or destruction. By this point the Soviets had an overwhelming amount of divisions in the theater: at least thirty divisions, including at least four armored divisions and an independent marine brigade and this does not even begin to count the Soviet forces in Anatolia.

083-03-WithdrawalStage2.jpg

The withdrawal under increasingly severe pressure from the Soviets.

Trezzani, of Bastico’s third corps, again got hammered: this time at Valenii de Munte. There, two armored divisions pounced upon his withdrawing infantrymen and caused considerable havoc before Trezzani could achieve a tactical disengagement some hours later. Onesti had fallen. Only one of Bastico’s corps was now standing, right next to the Hungarian border. It was the lynchpin of the entire swing out of the salient. By the 24th, however, all formations had disengaged on a tactical level from the pursuing Soviet forces, save for Bastico’s corps by the Hungarian border, which would be the last to evacuate, and his third corps, whose individual members were now effectively the terribly embattled rearguard and just barely keeping ahead of their pursuers. Graziani’s army, however, had effectively achieved operational disengagement: there was no way now for the Soviets to reach his forces. Three out of four armies had now effectively escaped.

083-04-WithdrawalStage3.jpg

The withdrawal by the morning of February 24th.

Trezzani and La Ferla were assaulted yet again at Targoviste and were sent retreating toward the corps headquarters. Italian aircraft still filled the skies and it is to the brave naval aviators that, perhaps, the Italian soldiers could look to for their salvation. The sheer mass of Soviet formations in the theater completely overwhelmed their logistical network, under assault as it was by ubiquitous Italian carrier-based bombers. It was only on February 27th that Bastico’s third corps managed to finally achieve tactical disengagement. At this point, the word was finally given. Bastico’s last two corps would withdraw as quickly as possible. By the evening on the next day, operational disengagement had been achieved. All four Italian armies in the east had been withdrawn without loss of any formation.

083-05-WithdrawalSecured.jpg

The withdrawal was secure.

Tactically and operationally, the withdrawal had eventually been a success. At this point, it was up to Mussolini and his generals to reform a line of defense at a new string of locations and halt the Soviet juggernaut. Tactical achievement and operational skill would count for naught if they failed in this new and pressing mission. It was the creation and integrity of this new line that would engage most of Mussolini’s efforts, leaving other theaters to return to default strategies of limited liability.

As a closing note on this withdrawal, as was typical, given their dedication to their mission, Da Zara’s and Campioni’s fleets were actually the last units to leave the theater. They would only pass through the Straits on the 2nd of March, mere hours ahead of their closing by a Soviet assault into undefended Istanbul.
 
Enewald: No, it's a strategic withdrawal. Never said it was tactical. :p

loki100: Thanks. It was quite dicey at times. I did actually feel like I had managed to pull something pretty good off by the end of February just by getting them all out. :cool:

Forster: Maybe. I also have an AAR to write that I can't just abandon. :D

Jemisi: Yep. :p
 
Enewald: Nonsense. There's no such thing as a dogma in strategy, because holding one or more of those meant that you would probably lose in the end. :p

Forster: Napoleon was bad at retreating, since he rarely did it. And he was an absolutely terrible strategist as well. :p
 
Were you not building a level 10 radar station at Istanbul? If so, losing it isn't good to say the least...
 
Not exactly. he was building up the equipment for a level 10 radar that he planned to place in istanbul. it can still be used elsewhere. (unless he was building it up the slow way, in that case its not that much loss, only a single level)
 
Enewald: That's exactly the sort of attitude Clausewitz would have disliked. :p He argued, correctly IMHO, that the defense was the stronger form of warfare, but with a negative purpose. Attack was the weaker form, but with a positive purpose. Also, he conceived of a thing called the culminating point of victory, a point beyond which attack becomes defense. An Italian invasion of the Soviet Union would run into that point very very quickly. :p

thatguy: It's only about level 5 or 6 now I think. :p

sneakey pete: Can you build the radar equipment without actually setting a location for it? I didn't realize. I was building the radar in Istanbul. :p

No update tonight unfortunately, too busy. Mondays are my busiest day, as people may have realized. Update tomorrow evening instead! :p
 
You can just go into your productin screen, click radar and order 10 of them up. when they're done they go into the deployment list, you can drop 10 onto a single province at once. the only time it will take will be the time to "repair", so be warned that it can take a few months to repair using this method if you do it in a very low infra area.
 
Is there a way to quick-order infrastructure being built? I find it quite annoying to have to order every single improvement by going to the province in question.
 
Is there a way to quick-order infrastructure being built? I find it quite annoying to have to order every single improvement by going to the province in question.
The only shortcut is to multi-select many provinces. Then you can press a single key and add infrastructure to all selected provinces. Or you can add all the infra to one province in one visit, but that loses some practicals benefit.
 
Enewald: That's exactly the sort of attitude Clausewitz would have disliked. :p He argued, correctly IMHO, that the defense was the stronger form of warfare, but with a negative purpose. Attack was the weaker form, but with a positive purpose.

I think the advent of mobile warfare is the start of that argument reversing. Initiative means a great deal in 'modern' warfare and it belongs to the attacker. Localised concentration of force becomes easier to achieve and once the attacker has gotten inside the decision loop of the defender, the defender is going to struggle to keep up and regain their operational balance without significant material advantage.

Also, he conceived of a thing called the culminating point of victory, a point beyond which attack becomes defense. An Italian invasion of the Soviet Union would run into that point very very quickly. :p
Yeah. Tru dat.
 
You cannot win Soviets with defensive strategies, they have far too many divisions and huge resources that simply can grind your defences into dust.
The best defence is attack. ;)

Always do what the enemy does not expect you to do, they think you shall defend, attack them where they cannot defend. :p
 
You cannot win Soviets with defensive strategies, they have far too many divisions and huge resources that simply can grind your defences into dust.
The best defence is attack. ;)

Always do what the enemy does not expect you to do, they think you shall defend, attack them where they cannot defend. :p

I'm not sure you can expect a program to expect anything, as it is not sentient..:D