Chapter Fourteen - Squeezing North Africa
When we left off, Canada had deprived Italian North Africa of all four sources of supplies, and the UK and Canada were in the process of depriving Italian North Africa of Italians. Where would I be if I didn't give a nod to
the best anthem of any country I wasn't born in. I first knew the lockout was over and hockey was back when I heard the roar of applauds for this gentleman on opening night.
But back to our story: the Italians have fight left in them, and south of Bengazi they launch two attacks, one desperate, one well-thought-out.
Then the Italians attack at sea, sending a Light Cruiser and Destroyer Flotilla against three Canadian DDs, two Greek subs and a British Light Cruiser. This multinational force, led by a Canadian Admiral, in a serious deviation from most naval combat, has an actual result.
The Italian Light Cruiser is sunk, and the message "tell your friends" goes out to the entire Mediteranean. Credit for the sinking did not go to Canada. Our sailors were too polite. In the land combat south of Bengazi, we quickly won the western fight, losing 125 men and killing 275. We broke off the other fight when it got desperate. We killed 300 losing 220, but vacated the province. Once again our attempt to create a clean break between two parts of North Africa failed.
Having had little luck in the west with surrounding Italian forces, we decide to try another amphibious landing to start eliminating enemy units.
The Italian air force makes itself visible again in the Straits of Messina with an attack that failed to do damage. I still recall what they did to our troops, though, costing us 200-250 casualties in eight to ten attacks. Back in Africa, our men landed, were immediately under attack, but won almost immediately. In southern Italy we see our first German units in quite some time, including armor. We can't help but wish Yugoslavia was still holding out.
In the Gulf of Sidra, our fleet dropped off the new invasion, and the Italians came out to play, but did not bring an admiral. The British add a capital ship to the mix.
We damage an Italian DD flotilla while the enemy targets one of my transports. No ships are sunk, but the transport heads off to Sicily for repairs. Then an Italian Heavy Cruiser attacks our three destroyer flotillas in the Straits of Messina and is driven off. Our DDs, however, have seen better days. So has Greece.
So the Balkans campaign is winding down. That can't be good for someone, let's hope it's not Canada.
We're still working on cutting off the Italians from each other. A marine division is sent on a raid into the desert between Bengazi and Tripoli to come back after etsblishing nominal control over the only province which can be a conduit for supplies. Then the Italians send two capital ships and a destroyer flotilla to challenge our three destroyer groups. Two Heavy Cruisers and one DD against 3 DD, and we've been cycling our destroyers in for repairs so that the Straits of Messina isn't guarded by fresh ships so much as the least damaged destroyers we have.
Our admiral's spotting skill seems to help, or something has given us a positional advantage. As with so many naval battles, no ships are sunk, but my destroyers take yet another beating.
The one relatively undamaged Destroyer Flotilla is the one which had been protecting our transports. I finally broke up the group when my Straits of Messina fleet started to look pretty ragged. We have pulled one DD out of Palermo and are sending two off to Catania, where they can steam into combat directly if we're desperate. The Germans are showing up again in the toe of Italy's boot, across a very narrow strait from Messina.
North Africa is beginning to look like a done deal. I don't want that to sound arrogant, but the Italians have no source of supply, and the big green areas here are all inaccessible by military formations.
The Italians have a tenuous hold on maybe ten provinces, and good troop concentrations in two or three, all with no source of fresh supply. We finally manage to sever the two groups of Italian troops.
I cannot see the Italian supply net, so I am not sure if this means much, but whatever stockpiles the Italians might have around Bengazi cannot reach the western troops. That southern Italian unit was already exhausted and an infantry attack from near the Med makes them retreat almost immediately. I have been allowing my Armored Cars to build up Org in the newly recruited unti while capturing a few desert provinces, and now send them into the province being vacated to make use of their speed.
Just to the east of them, we send one of our marine divisions to connect the middle beachhead to the Bengazi port. It was a very quick win, as you can guess from the Italian Org.
On the 20th of December, Greece capitulates. Another naval engagement proves that Italy is determined to clear the way for the burgeoning German military presence near the Straits of Messina. Initially reported as a single Italian submarine flotilla, it turns out that this would have been one ugly battle if it weren't for my friends in the UK.
Needless to say, the Italians are all firing on my destroyers. Did I insult the AI earlier? I think he can hear me, Ray. Hmm, looking at this next shot - and some later ones - I suspect that there were two naval combats going on, so when I sent the most damaged destroyers for repairs, it counted as a retreat.
Later, I'm in combat against the Italian sub flotilla with the one and only DD which I have left to hold the Straits of Messina (he's really dependable!), and the two who were fleeing. I try to finish the combat in the west all in one throw, but the Italians, while out of supply, are not yet worn down, and I lose 220 killing 130 and call of the attack pretty quickly. Well, the Italians are now safe for about a week since I threw in all I had.
The future of Canadian recruitment is looking very dim. On the 20th of December we're at about -3 in manpower. We have zero, and we need 3.18 to re-fill our ranks. Remember the Canadian OOB I started with? I don't think I'll be needing to update that any time soon. I guess you can all applaud now. Thanks for waiting. We've got the two marine divisions I hadn't included, we'll add artillery and AT (though I'm not sure I'll need the AT, AA would have been better maybe), and we have two Armored Car brigades and we're working on a third. Heck, I might look for something to cancel, but the only infantry in progress is a fourth mountain division, which will give me eight brigades in one Mountain Corps, and obviously I want to keep that. There are countries with smaller manpower, but Canada is still not a country that's going to be throwing around a lot of units.
I won't show the actions, but we continue to try to clean up south of Bengazi and squeeze the remaining Italians into smaller and smaller pockets. I want to add to Canada's prisoner list! I figure we'll end up with an army of around 125,000 men, and I hope to kill or capture twice that during the course of the war. IIRC we were around 33,000.
Italy makes another run at the Straits of Messina, sending a Heavy Cruiser and two DDs. Fortunately the UK had an aircraft carrier and associated ships, but of course the Italians were shooting at us. We had brought two damaged flotillas out of Palermo. It turns out the threshold for being sent into combat in Canada is down to 50% strength, and whatever Org you can manage. So I had three destroyers fighting and two took damage, though again the enemy was driven off before any ships were sunk on either side.
Merry Christmas, guys! One of you gets some time off.
The Italians in the western pocket try to break out, or at least advance, to the west, and are driven off with fifty casualties on each side. In an effort to make this battle appear important by comparison, Afgahnistan mobilizes.
In a second attempt at a final assault at the western pocket, I launch my troops from many directions.
According to the top bar, I was still doing very well right up until the end. Having troops from many provinces, and therefore good frontage, doesn't do much good if my commanders cannot get men who were there from the beginning into the actual battle.
So we lost 750 men and inflicted over 500 casualties. One Italian unit escaped to the southern part of the pocket and was driven back. We'll occupy that and try again. I wasn't worried about having to fight the enemy twice if I'd won the first battle (meaning once in the north and again in the south). Men who are fleeing and arrive into an occupied province merely vanish. Those who arrive there first are in no position to resist. So had I won in the north, there would have been no real battle in the south, and I could have turned my attention to the eastern pocket betweem Bengazi and Tobruk. As it is, the new year sees Italy holding on to worthless bits of desert.
Worthless bits of desert that will soon be Canadian!