Chapter Thirteen - Co-Operation
When last we looked, Canada was the only Ally in possession of enemy home territory, and was
working hard to help the British beat the Italians in north Africa. We'd taken Tripoli and Bengazi without much fighting. The Italians appeared to be reacting to our invasion, which ought to open things up for the stack of British forces we saw earlied on Malta. The German invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece had stripped the toe of Italy of its German units, and we have a fleet of three to five destroyer flotillas guarding the Straits of Messina. Well, it looks as though the British are off to do something, Malta is empty.
Meanwhile, Bengazi is a nice port, four undamaged levels and one coming back. Plus I captured a nice pile of supplies. The best part of any operation like this is that every grab for the good guys takes the same resource away from the bad guys. Right now, the Italians are all being supplied from Tobruk, which is not nearby, and ought to be strained either now or before too long.
More important than all of this, the Brits are moving. Presumably from the shame of being outshone for so long by their former colony, the birthplace of the greatest sport on earth.
On the 12th of November we drove off another single DD flotilla which Italy sent to the Straits of Messina. On the 14th we attempted to cut off the western Italian desert from all supplies. We do this by driving southwest from just south of Bengazi. It would have split Italian north Africa in half. This didn't work out so well.
Would have been nice, however, I'll wait for them to clear out and try again. The other provinces in the area, further inland, have too low infrastructure to allow movement. I assume the same goes for supplies.
On the 16th, as expected, our second Amored Car brigade is completed and we form the two brigades into a division and ship them immediately to North Africa. The men have been training on the existing ACs, so they'll just have to get organized when they arrive. They're not expected to lead the fight, just cover ground.
Meanwhile in Yugoslavia, the Germans have covered half their ground, and seem to have destroyed all serious opposition.
The British, with an airforce Canada can only dream of, are marching across Africa. This is a process which always takes a great deal of time. The only way to make rapid progress is by sea.
After an abortive attempt to move inland east of Bengazi, we decide to hold there, and try to split the Italians with a sea landing between the Tripoli area and Bengazi. We manage to find an area of the desert which is not as empty as we were hoping it would be.
After shouting "show yourselves, we know someone's there!" we give that landing up as a bad idea. Then the Italians counter-attack south of Bengazi, in Agedabia.
I realize that, while those marines cannot attack again for a week, they can defend right away. Let's just hope that they get into the line of battle before the retreat is sounded.
I will say this, while the men do not appear in the line of battle, they add their numbers to the overall battle progress number. It now looks like we cannot lose, but I've seen that turn to defeat before. Not this time. The Italians see which way the battle is going and call it off, losing 900 men to our casualties of 400. On the 22nd of November, Germany conquers Yugoslavia. I wouldn't hold my breath for Greece, but I was quite amused when the Greeks offered me a trade deal in the days after the fall of Yugoslavia. Not much point guys, sorry.
Canadian Agriculture hits level six! We now have +60% to Manpower. I only wish that meant more. With the losses we've already taken we effectively have negative manpower. We have zero and need about one and a half just for replacements. Italian mountain troops are driven off east of Bengazi. There are quite a few men south and east of the port, but right now we seem pretty secure. Still, we'd pushed two provinces east of Bengazi, and pull the victorious division east to consolidate. We do try to expand in the area east of our Tripoli holdings moving to the edge of the accessible desert and trying to trap some Italian units.
That's small beans, though. Italy gets all of its supllies through Tobruk, and even a competent commander would be in a confused state facing several Canadian invasions and a re-inforced and re-invigorated British army. And we're not up against a particularly competent commander in north Africa.
As a punishment for getting cocky and stripping Sicily of most of its defenders, the Italians send two heavy cruisers against our three destroyer flotillas in the Straits of Messina. The nickel and dime attacks we face do real damage to our destroyers and some were off for repairs. The Italian CAs Fiume and Balzano inflict some damage then depart, probably to avoid an encounter with the British.
Meanwhile, it turns out that I ought to have landed directly in Tobruk, which was vacant. So it's a race for the port. Yes, I can clearly win a race against the Italians I can see. It's the Italians I can't see who are worrying me. That's always true. Good advice. Be very afraid of Italians you cannot see.
Now below you'll see the division I meantioned earlier which I was trying to trap and capture. I'd driven them from where they are now, and forced them to retreat iirc. Nonetheless, as this battle screen shows, they're on the offensive as I took their destination before they got to it. So Canada and Italy will try a bit of round-robin combat. I'm showing the more interesting battle in Sidrah, from which our division is attacking south.
We lose two of the three fights quickly, losing 250 men and inflicting only 75 casualties. On the other hand, on December 2nd we won the race for Tobruk. Now this might take some time to play out, but unless Italy can retake a port, they're effectively dead in Cyrenaica and the rest of north Africa. We won the remaining battle of the three round-robin fights, allowing us to keep our position in the depths of the desert.
As you can see at the top of this shot, we're abandoning Sidrah, pulling our exhausted men back but still maintaining a solid line. We're also shipping more troops to Tobruk. All we really have to do is hold on in the four ports and combine with the UK to eliminate the remaining Italians. Italy, seeing a disaster coming perhaps, decided Eight Million Bayonettes. I'd take a quarter million rifles if it were offered.
Hoping to make something of our recent successes, we attack south of Bengazi, again trying to divide the Italians into two.
The Italians start off the battle healthy. Note again that we're only taking on the enemy who are not moving to another of their own provinces. However, overnight the Italians run out of supply...
... and it shows
We win, but the battle results did not pop up, though all boxes are still selected for land combat ending. In the east, the British have reached Tobruk, taking their first bit of enemy territory that I have seen them possess in north Africa. Canada has deprived the entire Italian North-African Army of supplies, and the UK and Canada are in the process of eliminating Italy in that sphere!