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Chapter X - Operation Overlord
Chapter X

Operation Overlord


Last time we left off with a surprise invasion by the British in Northern France in the Normandy area. It was more of a surprise for me, mind you, then the enemy. In fact, the Germans were rather prepared for such an occasion while I never even dreamed that my ally would start an invasion on its own. In the (not so) new expansion, For the Motherland, I would have been notified about their plans beforehand, or rather I could have checked on the Theatres tab, but that's not yet available in this AAR, so let's not waste any more space on that. Instead, let's reevaluate our current situation!

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Now with 100% more actual numbers about the British and German forces in the area. (Unfortunatelly the troops still in the transport ships are not shown.)

The British have invested waaay too many assets into Operation Get There Before The Yanks for me to let them screw it all up. Well, it might not seem like that much (it's about 5-10 Divisions) but enough not to take lightly. That means two things:
  • I'll start Operation Overlord ASAP. Otherwise the British will be eliminated and I don't want that.
  • Because of the limited number of Transport ships (and thus the inability to conduct all the landings at once), I'll reprioritize the objectives as follows:
    1. Brittany. The success of the British invasion takes precedence over everything else.
    2. Marseille. A second front in the South will confuse the Axis even more, hopefully helping with the invasion in the North.
    3. Antwerpen. Again, a third front will help with dividing the Axis defences and with the other fronts already open, opposition is expected to be much lower.
    4. Sicily. Even though this is still meant to be the main axis of attack, it will be started as the last one because of the distance from the first landings.

By the way, to the AI's credit, the troops from all over Brittany started to move towards the British landings to form a defensive line but the ones in Belgium did not. This means that the AI is capable of measuring the threat to some degree at least. I've read earlier reports where all the troops from Southern England tried to fight back a small invasion in Scotland.

So, as I said, the first priority is to help out the Tommies in Carentan and Granville. But the closest available transport fleets are in Norfolk and it would take days if not weeks for them to get back to Europe. (I can't say for sure because unfortunatelly there's no indicator to the total length of the journey, only until the next sea zone or province.) But there's a much faster way of transporting units: by airplanes. I have five Airborne Divisions up in New York with five Transport Planes to carry them. Unfortunatelly due to some calculation errors on my part, I need two Transport Wings to carry a single Airborne Division (the current weight of a Paratrooper Regiment is 6 points and I have five of them in a Division while my current aircraft with their level 1 Cargo Hold can bring 16 points), but that's still better than nothing! (Note that the base weight of Paratroopers is only 5 points but I increased their numbers in a single Regiment from 3000 to 4000 with the Firepower Focus Doctrines and even with '42 level Airborne Warfare Equipment it was reduced from 7 to 6. So basically I have twice as big Airborne Divisions than I would normally have.)

To provide some support, I ordered the USN First SAG to leave Oslo (it is highly unlikely that Germany would start invading Norway now) and rebase to Dover from where they will patrol the Eastern English Channel and support any ground combat on the shores from Caen to Calais. I also ordered my Fighter Groups to achieve Air Superiority rather than simply Intercepting enemy Fighters. I'll need a clean airspace! Meanwhile reinforcements started to close in from the French ports of Dieppe and Le Havre to the East of the landing zone.

The first two Airborne Divisions (the 82nd and 101st Airborne) in Dover in the morning of the 4th of January and from there they were sent directly to Falaise, a province situated between the German reinforcements and the British landing, and more importantly, behind a river. Unfortunatelly the province was not empty as suspected.

battle_of_falaise.png

We are in clear numerical superiority but an Airborne Assault against an actually defended province is never an easy victory. Fortunatelly they were on the move and not dug in.

And while the boys of the 82nd and the 101st were fighting hard for freedom, justice, etc., the Lockheed C-37 Electras were already on their way back to New York for the rest of the boys. All, except for the 51st USAAF Troop Carrier Wing which remained in Dover to bring much needed supply for the British troops in Carentan.

The Battle of Falaise was won on the 6th of January with 281 casualties on our side and 1189 on theirs. There's this "new" rule that was introduced somewhere in SF giving a huge drop of Organisation to Paratroopers once they secured the province they were dropped in (plus until the next midnight they are considered out-of-supply, too!). So I really hope now that I won't get a nasty counter-attack too early...

On the 7th, the 11th and 17th Airborne arrived in England and were sent forth to St-Malo and Argentan respectively. The former to help the British effort to break out of their beachhead and get a port and the later to widen the front and maneuverability of the troops in Falaise. Meanwhile the 82nd started advancing on Caen to cut off the German reinforcements along the beach of the Channel.

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Actually I thought I would get the port of St-Malo, but I was wrong :(


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The firepower from five (mostly) modern Battleships (USS Maryland, USS West Virginia, USS Colorado, USS Tennessee, USS California) is not to be taken lightly.

By the 10th, the British and American invasion managed to capture two ports (Cherbourg, level 6; St-Malo, level 2) while the German defence was still in complete disarray. The first wave of proper American ground forces was still a week away but the British already had eleven Divisions plus a Corps HQ in the area. The invasion was looking very promising but its success was still far from certain. The Germans have plenty of troops to fight back and they won't underestimate the importance of this invasion. It is also very important not to overextend our forces either in terms of space or in terms of supplies: having more troops in the theatre than we can supply via the ports (many as they may be) in France would doom all our efforts and many lives would be lost.

And then disaster struck:

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That can't be good...

As it turns out, I was the one to underestimate my enemy. I was completely sure that the Kriegsmarine is in no shape to do much anything, so I didn't even attempt to protect those Transport Flotillas... My only weapon against those two Battleships is a single Patrol Bomber Wing...

transports_lost.png

Well played, Mr. AI. That's half of my Atlantic Transport Fleet there... Along with an entire Corps of Motorised Infantry...

Now the interesting part here is that if I were playing as Germany, trying to invade say the UK, losing half of my Transports in such a way would probably blow up my entire plan in my face. But now it's actually delaying the operation slightly. First of all, I won't make the mistake of leaving 18 Transport Flotillas filled with expensive military equipment sailing alone in the wide open. The USN First SAG will always be escorting them from now on. Second of all, it's time to put that 200 ICs (or at least part of it) I'm currently wasting on Supplies while already having 99.999 in stock and build twenty more Transport Flotillas. There goes my plan of never building any more ships... They'll be ready by mid-May, which means they won't help much with my current plans, so I'll probably have to postpone the landings in Sicily and Marseille until then.

On the 15th, German and Italian reinforcements started to arrive in the area from further East, jeopardizing the entire operation. Fortunatelly, help was getting close. With the Transports joined by the USN First SAG, it was possible to ferry four Armoured Divisions over to help. They were to be sent to Caen but in order to put them on shore there, I had to take the province first with the help of the 13th Airborne because Armour suffers insane penalties when attempting amphibious landings (and taking Caen without the firesupport of my Battleships was no easy task!). But by the time they got into the proper sea zone, the Germans managed to outmaneuver themselves, leaving Dieppe completely empty. So I took the liberty of deploying two Armoured Divisions with their Corps HQ in that port. (It is only level 2 but every little bit helps!)

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With the four Armoured Divisions deployed to the battlefield, the odds changed considerably.

Now with the Normandy landing secured (even if only temporarily), I can open the second front in Brittany. The 1st Armoured Corps will land near Lorient and St. Nazaire unless the opposition there proves to be too tough, in which case they will land in Quimperlé and attempt to surround the Brittany ports.

With January coming to an end it became apparent that Operation Get There Before The Yanks was only a half-success. Sure, the British were able to get back to Europe first, but in the end, it was the US that contributed the most. And with the complete chaos on the entire front and the two fronts in Normandy and Brittany linked up, the time to open the third front in the Low Countries is getting close:

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The first wave of four Armoured Divisions will land in the next Chapter.
 
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Is Luxembourg axis? :p

In any event, good show on the continent! I hope that new front in the Low Countries works out, just try to keep the Russkies from getting their grubby mitts on too much of Eastern Europe!
 
nice progress, despite the loss of those transports and their divisions. Good luck with Antwerpen.
 
Slan said:
I've read earlier reports where all the troops from Southern England tried to fight back a small invasion in Scotland.

I wonder where you read that? :rolleyes:

What were those two ancient relics doing out in the Atlantic in 1943? I'd have thought the UK would've trashed the Kriegsmarine by now, especially that fleet you ran into because that area is normally the UK's prime hunting ground for convoy raiders.
 
Must have been Admiral King who let those transports sail unescorted!!!

How many armour divisions can all of the west French harbours support?

And I agree with Cybvep in both points :)
 
What were those two ancient relics doing out in the Atlantic in 1943? I'd have thought the UK would've trashed the Kriegsmarine by now, especially that fleet you ran into because that area is normally the UK's prime hunting ground for convoy raiders.

I was wondering that too. Those are WWI ships which managed to knock out your corps. Which just prooves that there is no such thing like outdated war material. As long as it can shoot, it can be used.
 
The British have invested waaay too many assets into Operation Get There Before The Yanks for me to let them screw it all up.

So the full name of the British invasion was in fact Operation Get There Before The Yanks And Thereby Force Their Hand? Well done UK AI for showing who really calls the shots! ;)

Some seriously gripping action there! A very bold move using the airborne divisions like that - when they landed on occupied provinces I really thought some of them were doomed! Transport ships go down fast, don't they? That it is a really bad outcome and I am also a bit surprised the Germans were able to put that fleet out there in defiance of the world's two premier navies... At least you didn't lose them all - which would have seriously impacted your plans!

And I also agree with Cybvep on both points. :)
 
Is Luxembourg axis? :p

No, neutral Luxemburg. Due to some vanilla AI issues, the German AI is not told to attack Luxemburg separately and due to how the earlier events went, Luxemburg was spared of the war completely.

In any event, good show on the continent! I hope that new front in the Low Countries works out, just try to keep the Russkies from getting their grubby mitts on too much of Eastern Europe!

Thanks :) We'll see about that new front but I'm not yet sure how effective the Soviets will be. Their front is a very useful distraction for me but I believe my front will only be a distraction for them as well. I don't think the German AI will redeploy too much from the East to Europe.

nice progress, despite the loss of those transports and their divisions. Good luck with Antwerpen.

Thanks :)

What were those two ancient relics doing out in the Atlantic in 1943?

They were sinking my troops, that's what! :mad:

Slan gets a badge of honour for not reloading after losing so many unescorted TPs. You earned it, son! :D

I'll wear it proudly, Sir!

Now be a man and use the AI control for the rest of the campaign in Europe ;)

You know what? I might just do that... But I retain the right to revert back control if things start to really go downhill!

How many armour divisions can all of the west French harbours support?

Good question. A single level of port gives 4 points of supplies but that's multiplied by 1.5 in the HPP by default. With level 4 in Basing Operations (+30%) and William H. Stanley as the Chief of the Navy (+10%), it comes together to 7.8 points per level. As of January 27th, I control a total of 22 points plus the British control 8 more (although their efficiency is somewhat lower), so that comes up to about 30 levels multiplied by 7.8 is 234 points. A randomly selected Armoured Division consumes 8.3 Supplies and 7.9 Fuel. Based on that I could have up to about 28 Armoured Divisions. Assuming of course that all the ports are in 100% condition, all my supply convoys are fully functional, and not counting the British forces either. I currently have 16 Divisions deployed and the British have another 12, although not all of these are Armoured. So it's not that bad right now I guess :)

As long as it can shoot, it can be used.

And as long as it can shoot, it can cause damage!

Anyway, Slan would avoid the failure if he used several CAs and CLs as escorts.

Well, yeah, that might help and I have plenty of IC to do that but quite frankly since I've already started the landings, I probably won't need them. Unless the Germans manage to pull like a hundred Panzer Divisions out of their backside and my entire operation goes up in flames. Which is possible, although not very likely :) So by the time those CAs or CLs would be commissioned, I should already be in Berlin...

So the full name of the British invasion was in fact Operation Get There Before The Yanks And Thereby Force Their Hand? Well done UK AI for showing who really calls the shots! ;)

You've got a point there...

Some seriously gripping action there! A very bold move using the airborne divisions like that - when they landed on occupied provinces I really thought some of them were doomed!

I really felt like I have to do that, there was no other choice! It took two weeks for my transports to get to Europe and half of them were sunk before they reached England! And even though losing 1-2 Airborne Divisions would have been a greater loss than losing those four Motorised ones (I have like metric sh*tload of those by now), losing a dozen British Divisions to a failed invasion would have been far worse. Desperate times call for desperate measures :) And it's alseo nice to face some crises with the strongest country in the game :D

Transport ships go down fast, don't they? That it is a really bad outcome and I am also a bit surprised the Germans were able to put that fleet out there in defiance of the world's two premier navies... At least you didn't lose them all - which would have seriously impacted your plans!

They go down fast and they really should. In my opinion they represent simple ocean liners filled with soldiers and maybe tanks but they don't have either any armour or anything to shoot back with. A Flotilla of Submarines should be able to sink an infinite number of them given enough time :) And yeah, losing all of them would have brought down my entire invasion plan as well, and I very much doubt that the UK would have been able to take back Europe on their own. That would have meant at least 4-5 more months of preparation.




But it still would have been AWESOME! :D
 
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They do have NAVs (start off with 2, should've built more), but what the German AI does with them is a completely different matter, one we can't do anything about.
 
I'm just hoping that this doesn't turn into a meatgrinder that allows the Soviets to break out into Western Europe, also if you can liberate Euskadi once you cross into Spain, Franco was an absolute bastard to the Basques in OTL. I think that your goal should be to keep all of Germany, Italy and Austria and at least some parts of Czechoslovakia and Poland, maybe even Greece and Slovenia if possible, but that's kind of OT. Also, what's the good word on the Japanese?
 
Chapter XI - Trial by fire
Chapter XI

Trial by fire


So, here's the situation as of January 27th, 1943:
  • The landing zone around Caen has four Armoured Divisions and four Airborne Divisions with a single HQ.
  • The landing zone around Brest has five Armoured Divisions and one Airborne Division with another HQ.
  • The British forces include eleven Divisions (two of which are Mountaineers and one is a Marine Division) along with an HQ.
  • Currently the enemy has approximately twenty counters on the visible map but some of those are HQs. I don't have 100% intel.
  • So far it looks like I have air superiority, which is good. I also supposed to have naval supremacy but that turned out to be less than perfect...
  • The new landing set out from Portsmouth already and will arrive the Mouth of the Thames in a few hours.

I would also like to remind you that it was suggested to me that I should set my invading armies on AI control. And that's exactly what I'll do. To be more precise, the units already on shore will be turned over to the AI except for the Airborne who will be my mobile reserve. For now I have that two Corps (the 1st Armoured Corps coming from Brest and for the time being aiming for Nantes and the 3rd Armoured Corps based out of Dieppe and going straight for Paris). The third one (4th Armoured Corps, on their way to the Low Countries) will also be set to AI control right after they get a port.

middleburg.png

The 4th Armoured landing in Middleburg came under attack by German 6. Infantriedivision. I believe that Division is of Austrian origin.

That attack was a tactical mistake on the German's part because it allowed for a quick counterattack and thus a very easy capture of a level ten port in Den Haag. The only real limiting factor was the weather. In late January, the temperature rarely climbed up above 0°C, causing the ground to freeze which slows any unit to a crawl. And it causes much more trouble for the attacker than the defender because they can use strategical redeployment which ignores the penalty (at least as far as I know...).

Still, by the first of February, Den Haag was under American control and five new Divisions landed in the freshly aquired port. This success was followed by a series of failed skirmishes against Roosendaal which was on the way towards Antwerpen, the second main objective of the operation. This is hardly surprising though, since one of the two German Divisions there has 90 Organisation! And half of my forces in the area are already under AI control, and we are getting outnumbered... On the fourth of February, the HQ of the second Corps to operate in the Low Countries, with the objective of taking Amsterdam. This will hopefully help getting out of the stalemate.

By mid February, German planes started to show up. It seems I was to quick to assume that they were tied up completely on the Eastern Front. Germany either had enough to spare or at least managed to allocate some here without getting too weak in Soviet Russia. So I had to reorganize my Air Force a little bit. Unfortunatelly the British started to panic:

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Come on guys, you don't need to bring fifteen Air Wings into a single battle!

This rule, by the way, is really stupid. I had to pull back multiple Air Groups to avoid all of them taking off to fight a single Light Fighter Wing! What the hell?!

By the end of February it became clear that the Germans are far from defenseless in occupied France. I still don't have 100% sure intel, but I estimate at least fifty Axis Divisions along the entire front which is quite long by now.

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The enemy is not only able to hold our attacks but are making their own counterattacks as well!

I believe the main problem with the AI on the tactical level is that it tends to fragment its forces and use up that precious Organisation on stupid attacks that are doomed from the start. The 4th Armoured Corps attempted to cross from Midleburg to Brugge or Gent multiple times without success. That's when it dawned on me that I could use some Navy help along those shores! The closest Battleship fleet was in the Mediterranean so it took a week or so to get those guns in place but it was better than nothing!

With the coming of March, temperature started to go into the positive for a change, allowing for a little more tactical flexibility. Which won't help in the slightest if I start running out of supply, which I do. At least in the West. Den Haag proved to be defendible so far but the ports around Brittany can't provide for the whole invasion force. The Air Transports will buy me some time but they won't be able to feed my armies for long. But at least the British honour the borders and stay in their occupation zone. That's very nice of them because they would screw up my entire supply network otherwise.

On 10th of March we finally managed to breach the defences of Antwerpen and rout the defenders. It was probably the added firepower provided by the USN Second SAG that arrived in the Mouth of the Thames. It wasn't long until reinforcements came though, so it took until the 13th to secure the city.

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The state of Operation Overlord on the 13th of March, 1943.

The main objectives of the Operation are secured. Now we need to liberate Paris and link up the two landings, in the next Chapter.
 
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too bad they're offering such resistance. from that last shot it looks like you could get a double pincer going to capture all those divs between Calais and Caen, if only you had the extra 10 armour to spare.
 
Chapter XII - New Frontiers
Chapter XII

New frontiers


So, it's March 13th, and the front is starting to become stationary. Reinforcements are getting here very slowly, but even if they came faster, it would only make things worse because of the supplies required to feed them. The landing zone in the Netherlands is doing rather well with two level 10 ports (Den Haag and now Amsterdam) but the part of France we occupy has only 22 levels of portage combined with three full motorized/armoured Corps. Plus the 8 levels of port in British hands, supplying another 15-20 units. Fortunatelly for me, they have their own supply network and they will stay in their territory unless I tell them to come to my place. Which I'm starting to consider. But it's too early, it would only make things even more complicated (especially with the invasion under AI control).

Meanwhile, the construction of 9 Light Fighter Wings was finished on March 23th. I immediately started to upgrade them into Jet Light Fighters. This might sound gamey (I'm not entirely sure but I heared that building a cheap unit and upgrading it into a more expensive one costs less than producing the expensive one in the first place), I did not do this intentionally: I didn't have the technology yet to produce Jet Fighters when I ordered these planes. They will be finished in July. (And quite frankly I'm not convinced that they will be that cheap either, costing 14 IC a day, compared to the 20 they would otherwise...)

By the end of March, things started to get in motion again. My forces crossed the Maas river and they would be threatening Bruxelles and Lille, if they weren't overextending their lines already. But at least they captured Brugge, which is another 3 levels of Port. On the Southern front, my forces are starting to surround Paris, with Cergy to the North West and Versailles to the South West of the city already taken. What's even more interesting, is that a prodding attack revealed that the Germans only have a single Garrison Division there. The bad news is that a Garrison Division is the best suited unit for the defense of an Urban province like Paris. The good news is that I'm coming from the Western side of the Seine and by the game's definition, Paris is on the Western side as well, so I won't suffer as much river crossing penalty as the German invader usually does. With the fall of Dunkerque, the two beachheads were linked on the 30th of March.

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A smaller fleet of German ships was hiding out in Dunkerque and was promptly ambushed by Halsey's USN Second SAG when they tried to retreat to friendier waters. Most of the ships got away intact but the 6. Zertstörergeschwader Flotilla was sunk at least. The rest was sunk later on.

With the two fronts now linked up, we are finally starting to outnumber the defenders. But we are still outnumbering our won supplies as well! I will need to open a new front somewhere else as soon as possible!

And the Kriegsmarine still has some tricks up their sleeve. With La Rochelle surrounded, the old Battleships of the German Empire tried to make a run for it and return to Prussia, but they ran into the USN First SAG returing to the States for more fresh troops. The battle was short and decisive, with the participation of two Submarine Flotilla. Although we suffered some losses, we made some important hits as well!

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The KMS Schleswig-Holstein was sent to the bottom of the sea by the USS Chester, a Northampton-class Heavy Cruiser.

The Liberation of Paris started in the early days of April and the city was finally secured after heavy fighting on 12th of April. 695 brave American lives were lost during that battle but it was worth it. Paris is not only a city, it is a symbol of hope for Europe! By the way, a quick check revealed that German National Unity is like 20% lower than the Italian! They have only about 65% while Mussolini has almost 85%! Funny, huh? Unfortunatelly because of how the surrender mechanics work in SF, I can't take advantage of that, because all those Soviet and French VPs will count towards Germany's total. In FtM however, only their cores will count, so going to Berlin can pretty much make them fall, even if they still control France or Western Russia.

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Europe in April, 1943. After three months, Northern France is already Liberated.

Right now, the most resistance I have is in the Netherlands. Axis forces are making continuous counterattacks on my troops in and around Rotterdam. It's about time we started using our Air Superiority. I've ordered some Light Bombers to go bomb the hell out of those Italians in the Low Countries. And then the British surprised me again:

second_british_landing.png

That was... Actually very clever! Awesome! Although it kinda looks like a Naval version of Operation Market Garden...

Let's hope they won't start liberating the Netherlands, screwing everything up... I have to knock Italy out of this war, ASAP!

Meanwhile at home, the Great Depression is fading away, which is really a great relief, because it still has a huge impact on my Resources as well as my IC.

great_depression.png

It's about damn time!

The 1st of May finds the USN First SAG on its way to Tunis, where a certain Field Marshal George S. Patton is eagerly waiting to finally set foot on Italian soil. According to intel, the defenders of Palermo lack the Fuel for their Fighters, so we should have no problem witha chieving Air Superiority over Sicily. That will make the invasion of the Island a cake walk. Intel also assures me that there are absolutely no defenders in the area except for the Garrison of Palermo itself. The situation is very similar all over the boot: there are token forces in the major ports but aside from that, our greatest fear should be the Maffia stealing our underwear. The USN First SAG arrives in Tunis at 11:00 on the 8th of May and in two days, Palermo is already under siege. Meanwhile in Europe:

netherlands_liberated.png

I knew it! The British are secretly supporting the Axis! The bastards!

Hmm. Theoretically this shouldn't be that bad. From now on I will automatically send the supplies demanded by my units directly to Amsterdam. The problem is that the Dutch won't produce any supplies of their own because they will want to embezzle my supplies instead! The other problem is that the UK will no doubt give away all their forces to the Dutch whether they want it or not.

Anyway, by the end of May, I already had two beachheads in Southern Italy and a third invasion was on its way. With practically noone at home, Italy's demise is close at hand! But we need some material for the next Chapter, too, don't we? ;)

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The end of May. And Italy.
 
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