Last update ended basically at the end of 1940. This one covers January through March 1941, but I'm going to start you off with a February Production screen. A nice slow start for now, because it's going to be a WILD ride through the rest of the update!
My garrisons meant to defend Portugal are done, so now my Production Queue is filled with some extra defenses, offensive infantry, my armored cars (license-built), two cruisers (heavy and light), and even some fortresses. There are more forts in the queue than you see, and more land units too. These are just some of the critical items I'm concentrating on.
One reason, btw, that I suddenly have so many different items actively building in my queue is that I've just finished those expensive interceptor fighters -- the Bf-109Fs that will hopefully allow me to fend off any British air attacks upon Lisbon.
You'll recall from last time I'd trapped the British "Wessex" Division on a non-central Bahamaian island, where it had no supplies.
In the month since then, I've battled and defeated them, and they've surrendered. Now, in mid-January, the Bahamas are entirely in Portuguese control, which frees up some units to go wander elsewhere.
One of those units is brought to Barbados to add some heft to an offensive against the British in St. George. Mopping up to see if we can finish this theatre off.
You might think, from the screenshot, that I'm not doing so well. But in actuality, the out-of-supply British do not pose a threat to me. I can wear them down, stop my attack, and then recover and reinforce while the British sit there wondering when we're coming to finish them off. You'll see the demise of that garrison within a couple of months, I promise you.
We're doing the same sort of mop-up in Singapore/Malaya. I want to close off that front so that I can use those units for more productive work than just guarding these guys. We were able to pry one of the two divisions out of the southernmost province, and they retreated north as we moved in to (we THOUGHT!) trap them both.
As you can see from the screenshot, the British are not quite as pinned-down as I'd expected. Somehow they've found some supply in order to move. They must have just lain dormant for a while, waiting to figure out what to do, and finally decided to use their last reserves to move north out of a desperate situation.
All in all, I can't blame them. But one thing they gave up was their entrenchment, which they will come to rue.
Both divisions were on their last legs, and so once one of them was pushed back (and thereby without entrenchment), and the other chose to move (and thereby without entrenchment), my job was alot easier. By the 1st of March I'd defeated both lingering divisions, accepting the surrender of their tattered and underfed soldiers, and by the 5th all of Malaya was in Portuguese hands. You'll notice that, immediately, we re-embark some of our troops for use elsewhere.
Before I go on, I want to draw to your attention the notices of Portuguese commerce raiders -- that's
Chita and Co.! -- which have been sinking one or two transports every day (sometimes probably 3 or 4) throughout this period. Almost every raw screenshot has 1 or 2 or 3 such notices. It's still probably true that the Allies have plenty of Convoy Transports left -- they have seen a reduction in convoys of probably 50-70% because they don't control very many ports any longer!
But it must be having an impact on the war somehow, if only as a minor impact on Strategic Warfare, perhaps.
As you'll recall in the last update, we had pushed north into Tanganyika, and we're approaching the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam, where the British have a major Naval Base which hosts carriers and battleships (no word on why these weren't deployed against us -- timid AI, I guess). We bring up enough divisions to mount an attack, and toward the end of January we go forward, outnumbering the enemy by more than 2:1. Granted, that's less than is usually advised when attacking entrenched positions, but remember we have the same thing going for us here as in the other battles -- if we exhaust ourselves, we can always cease the attack and rest while we try again. The difference here is the enemy is still receiving supplies, but on the whole we'll recover our edge faster because we outnumber them and have reinforcements approaching from the south.
By mid-February, only one of the three Portuguese divisions can still muster fighting strength -- one division breaking off just the week before. It's a "race to the finish" with no clear sign of which of us will prevail. I'm hitting the enemy with my tac bombers to help.
A couple of days later, the British blink! They throw in the towel and retreat to the north. Other British divisions are seen fleeing northward too. Our tired, but exstatic troops move forward and capture the colonial capital!
Having waited another couple of weeks to be sure the enemy fleet has departed the area, we transport another division up by sea, and begin advancing along the coast again.
That's the Kenyan port of Mombassa, visible in the top right of the screenshot. We're making tremendous progress, and before long will be linking up with the Italians in Somaliland.
Now... Going back in time, again, you'll recall that we had entrapped a number of British divisions in the south. They had been fleeing from our advance into South Africa and Bechuanaland, but our cavalry linked up between Angola in the west and Mozambique in the east, creating a cordon of Portuguese territory north of these British divisions.
In January, the 18th Infantry had attacked the flank of the 3rd Cavalry, and by the end of that month the beleaguered 3rd appeared as if it would be unable to hold out, despite the British disadvantage of not being in supply (they're using up their reserves, every day).
In fact, by the middle of February, the British defeated the 3rd Cavalry, which was forced to retreat to the west. The British, of course, advanced, and would have broken out of their entrapment, except...
On the 8th of March, the Portuguese 22nd Infantry, advancing from Mozambique, successfully made contact with the British rear guard, causing them to have to halt their advance and turn to defend themselves!
The British, still out of supply, and having tired themselves out against the 3rd Cavalry (which would soon re-engage the 18th Infantry and provide some distraction to their flank), were in no shape to defeat a full-strength Portuguese infantry division. They were trapped, and would soon come to grief.
There were another 2 British divisions which had been attempting to break out of the pocket, and on the 15th of March converging Portuguese divisions engaged them, and began to crush this last bit of Allied resistence in the south of Africa.
The British were stronger in numbers, but surrounded with no supplies reaching them from the north, their fate would also be sealed before the spring was finished.
Soon, it was clear that every Portuguese division in the south -- all except some garrison divisions to guard the cities -- would be racing north to see what of British Africa they could claim on their way to the Mediterranean.