Hearts of Iron 3 (Their Finest Hour AAR): ‘The March of the Machines’
Chapter Forty-Six : April to June,1942
The Japanese Take The Philippines
Before we get into the details about each Front, let us go over a overview. First thing I did was give the USA two objectives. One was Hanoi, northern Indochina, on the hopes they will come to help me defend it against the Japanese. The other objective is Sevilla, the capital of Republican Spain, on the hopes they will send enough reinforcements into the Front to stop the Axis were advancing. They don't need to send much to take advantage of the terrain.
By the 4th of April I noticed the 4e Group de Bombardement (the Tactical Bombers) were now stationed in Hanoi. They would nothing for the next three months as the Saigon HQ would have nothing for them to attack.
On the 5th of April another Underground Resistance cell was ready to be deployed. I placed it in Strasbourg. I also noticed that the Italians and Germans in Africa have mostly disappeared leaving behind a lonely Italian Tank Division. I assume the Axis AIs had been pulled back to cover the ports along the African coast.
By the 7th I had decided that the Submarines would be more useful in the Far East and assigned half of them to the Saigon HQ.
On the 8th if April I also decided I needed a name change for the two HQs. So Beirut HQ was renamed the African HQ and the Saigon HQ was renamed the Asian HQ. The Dakar HQ, which I still can’t seem to disband because I can’t find that last province, was renamed Worthless HQ.
On the 13th of April my first unit built since the Fall of France was auto-deployed to Hanoi, being assigned to the Asian HQ. It was redeployed to the port of Saigon - which makes sense as the Chinese protect the northern border of Indochina but our Navy would not be able to stop a Japanese invasion from the sea.
On the 28th of April the Bordeaux Underground Cell spread into Marmande.
By the 23rd of May I assigned all African Army units to the African HQ and all Navy units were assigned to the Asian HQ.
On the 4th of June a new Underground Call spread into St. Die from Strasbourg. On the 17th of June the Underground also spread into Versailles.
Technology wise we seemed pretty slow for the three months. We had Education advance to Level 3 while we also gained Light Artillery Level 4. We tossed Militia Anti-Tank Weapons (4) , Supply Production (5), plus a few other techs into the Research list. We don’t have enough points for what I want or what I need but I am going to try to get what I can get anyway.
Now, before getting into the Fronts, let us look at the War At Sea!
The Navy
First, the French Navy sunk ten convey ships and four escorts. About half Japanese and half Italian ships. We lost, mostly to the Japanese, twenty-four convey transports and twelve escorts.
In the Mediterranean the Germans have placed Naval Bombers in Africa and the result was that they carried out five Naval Strikes which did a ton of damage to my subs - sinking FOUR Flotille of Submarines. These subs were trying to leave the Mediterranean via the Strait of Gibraltar and some Flotille did escape. Good thing they did too.
The Italians only launched one Port Strike. I don’t think they have the range to hurt me at the moment.
In the Pacific it was just as horrible. The Japanese launched five Port Strikes and forty-one Naval Strikes, sometimes in support of their Navy during Naval Battles. As this Strikes were against weak, small, groups of French ships with no supplies or fuel just arriving on the scene after a long trip from the Mediterranean, the damage caused really hurt, forcing many ships to stay in port much of the time.
And the five Naval Battles we had in the Far East were against Japanese Aircraft Carriers. The French lost every one of them. And lost badly. The fifth Battle not screen captured was a defeat with no loses. Now let us talk of the Fronts.
The Spanish Front
First off I noticed many of the Spanish Divisions were in fact English, New Zealanders and Aussies in Republican uniforms. I also noticed, on the Axis side, that a large amount of Hungarian Divisions were not fighting on the battle lines.
As you can see on the 15th of April image the Allies have counter-attacked. It looks like the units selected to break into the Spanish right flank were taken from the Axis’s Center, making it weaker. But there is a danger that the Axis units will cut off the Allies’ advance before the Allies can cut off the Axis’s advance.
By the 15th of May the Axis have turned the Allies’ Counter Attack into a Pocket, cutting it off from supplies. You can also see one of my Submarine packs trying to escape the German Naval Bombers
By the 28th of May I remove the Objective Tag from Sevilla which is occupied by the Italians. Bringing in the Americans now would be terrible - they would have to fight dug-in defenders using a few ports to bring in all their supplies. All the advantages would belong to the Axis.
On the 5th of June, for some reason, the 43rd Indian Division leaves Gibraltar to try to retake the province of Velez-Malaga from the Italians. Funny enough all the Italian Divisions in Southern Spain seem to be German soldiers in Italian uniforms. Always, the Germans pretending to be Italians notice this and by the 12th of June march into Gibraltar without a shot being fired in defense. The Strait of Gibraltar is now blocked to French and Allied shipping.
By the 15th of June it is clear that Spain will not be able to hold off for much longer.
The Greek Front
I finally just decided to use one image - the screen shots all look the same. The Greeks are holding out still. I can only assume that the conflicts in Spain and Africa has delayed them being crushed by the Axis powers.
The African Front
There are three Ground Battles between the Allies forces and the lone Italian Tank Division left behind to hold them back.
The Allies win two of them and lose one of them. The amount of soldiers lost are impressive when you realize the damage is being delivered from only on Tank Division.
The Italians lost 2,681 soldiers while the French and their Allies lost 4,277.
Yet, the Italian Division would start to withdraw westwards with great speed after the last battle in late June. In doing so it is giving up a bunch of provinces to the advancing French, British, and Iraqi units. The only thing I can think of is that one Division can’t lose almost three thousand soldiers and still survive future battles. So I think the Italian AI is pulling it back to join other units or to get replaced by fresh units. Either way, the Allies are taking advantage.
So the total for the whole war is now:
Germans/Italians: 87,126
French/Allies: 211,869
But there is another front we will talk about in which the French don’t even have a hand in!
The Battle For The Philippines And The Far East
The forces in the Philippines fighting the Japanese were a mixed of local soldiers and American troops.
Highlighting some of the stacks showed me that both General MacArthur AND General Eisenhower were present on the main island.
Sadly, this would not help the defenders, as in the end the Japanese would slowly cut them down and take the capital, claiming the Philippines by the 16th of June.
Another event that happened in the Far East was the Japanese landing Marines into Teluk Anson on the 14th of June. This meant they were endangering not just Singapore but the whole of Malaya. The Marines would be followed by more Divisions. I assume they did this because Singapore was too hard to hit from the sea.
So, the French Navy is in bad shape, our Army is doing better, and our Air Force is...resting. The rest of the planet is going down hill. Either way, after recording this session I had Indian food. Hmmm....
Thanks for reading! Hope you join me in the next chapter. What will happen next? Alien invasion? The Soviet Union will DO something? The Americans DO something?