Carnage al Dente
Chapter XVIII - Free the Frog, 2nd try
Players:UK, USA, 2xUSSR, GER, ITA, JAP
Still an Axis player on vacation
Recap: Wehrmacht continues to close in on Moscow. They have, however, had problem with British landings in France and Romania swtiching sides. Japan has also launched a rather powerful attack on commie Persia.
Late July, 1941
German and Hungarian (AI) forces attacked the traitors in Romania and drove them in front of them. Italy did not take part in this as they were busy guarding Il Duces precious new colony. The Brits had safely been leaving the Romanians to die. That also meant that the dangerous British army was at the seas again.
Authors note: For some reason, we could not break the truce before, but as this evening session started, Romania and Germany was at war. Strange (bugg?). Italy could still not break the truce and as we have a House Rule against inviting fellow majors to war, Germany only invited Hungary. The House Rule is there to prevent “sharing” threat evenly, so it would not really matter for this specific situation – but it did not really matter if the few Italians joined or not.
July 31st, 1941
The Italian leadership thought that the Brits had increased their presence at their side if the border and discussed it with their German counterpart. As the discussion continued, the British attack came. It was a powerful attack with armor, motorized and regular infantry. The German-Italian defense force was well dug in behind the river, covered in the woods. It was a hellish tactical situation for the Brits and they really had to struggle. They lost men and vehicles by the numbers.
July 31st, 1941
But the Brits had a plan. They simultaneous attacked from the English Channel on a wide front. The German defenses were far behind the river side, cautious from earlier lessons. It still looked like a potentially dangerous situation. The British blitz was feared by now.
August 4th, 1941
Within a few days, the German line was compromised. Italy sent reinforcements and the Hungarians was called for. It would take some time before these reinforcements would show up. Italy sent planes as well, and some had actually already been present here and they quickly engaged the Brits who came in force, in the air as well as on land. This time, the slightly upgraded Italian planes seemed to fare better.
The south was still strong but Axis feared being attacked from the rear and then started to prepare a decent rear-guard. The Italian division fighting in Coutras was pulled out of the battle to secure the retreat route for the German division who alone managed to fend off the numerous Brits struggling to get over the river.
August 9th, 1941
Already by the last British attack, the Axis leaders had spotted their interest to cut France in half by the latitude along the northernmost tip of Vichy France. They were hardly surprised when the Brits tried that stunt again. Still, this attack was strong and fast and Axis had problems to delay the Brits enough. A French armor under British leadership managed to attack that last province, La Ferte St. Aubin, and chase away the Italian HQ there. German HQs manage to cut the attackers supply-line but it was a rather shallow gesture as they did not have enough regulars to enforce the pocket. The Brits would surely open it again.
The Italians rushed from the south, hoping to reach St. Aubin first.
August 12th, 1941
The French 3rd Armor Division reached this lush province first but was immediately attacked by the Italian 5th Infantry Division. The Italians quickly got the upper hand of the battle and was later supported by the 5th Mountain Division which cemented the outcome of the battle. After roughly two days of hard battle between farmsteads, lakes, small woods and old castles – the French bitterly retreated back across the river.
The Italians had effectively opened the dangerous pocked the Brits had created.
August 14th, 1941
The Italian soldiers had little time to celebrate the victory. They had to quickly dig in as Brits were racing towards them. Two days after their victory, two British motorized divisions attacked across the river. Alas, the Italian position was good and the attackers had to struggle hard. The 5th Infantry’s divisional HQ and field hospital was located in an old castle, Chateaux de St. Aubin.
The battle of St.Aubin was of great importance as several German divisions, including a panzer division and the famous Major General Guderian with staff, was still inside the sack.
August 15th, 1941
The Brits surely understood the significance of St. Aubin and threw everything they had at it. As so many times before, Luftwaffe seemed depleted or locked on other fronts so it fell on the Italians to guard the air space. It was a task that was far from easy, but of great importance. The Italian fighters fared pretty well against the CAGs and it must have been a heartening sight for the Italian soldiers to see Italian fighters chase away the British planes.
They did not have that luck at all times. It happened that British bombers of some sort managed to drop their payloads unchecked. Even so, the Italian positions were good behind the river.
Good news though, Italian reinforcements had arrived to the front and was now unloading trains and organizing themselves in proper battle structure
August 17th, 1941
As the battle of St Aubin raged on, the German and Italian units slowly retreated towards the opening of the sack. Some German divisions, however, had been blitz through or surrounded. As much as three divisions were already lost or would be within short.
The Italian reinforcement now left their assembly area and marched towards the front. The Hungarian started to arrive as well. The shock of the British started to fade and the front seemed to settle somewhat. Still, the battle of St Aubin was still of great strategic value and the Brits seemed to move more troops to support the attack.
August 18th-20th, 1941
The Brits, desperately in their eagerness to take St Aubin, threw in another 3 divisions in their attack of the province. Two of them were French armor divisions, including the 3rd Armor previously beaten here. They seemed to have communication problems with their British commanding officers as they did not managed to reach the battle very quickly. The two motorized division who had been attacking across the river since the 12th were about to be depleted, their soldiers badly battle weary. And so they broke and pulled back before the reinforcements reached the front.
The Brits had lost over 2 thousand men in a few days. For the Italians, this was the greatest battle they had had in the war. Not only had they first thrown out the Brits (French) from St Aubin, but they had valiantly defended the province and thus saved half a dozen German divisions. If fact, by this victory, the entire British attack on France drew to a halt. This was cabled out on all radio channels in Italy and dominated the news paper for days with shaky pictures, interviews and stories. The Italian soldiers in the two 5th were true heroes and without them, the badly planned German defense would have crumbled which would have doomed the west front and perhaps even the entire war… sort of…
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