"Bayonets Made of Milk" - A Dual Italian Grand Doomsday Campaign

[Myth]

Ah, July! I am quite pleased at the end of this month, as it sees the closure of two theaters of war. This of course means, Benito, that I may finally certain forces elsewhere.

Nearly as soon as July began, I ordered by air fleet in Iraq to interdict all of Kuweit City and ordered Guzzoni to attack from Najah with every man he had, and sent Messe driving south form Basrah. As soon as Frattini arrived in Basrah, I threw his awfully disorganized division into the battle as well. I struck now rather than wait for my divisions to reorganize as there were only three British divisions in Kuweit City—five were still retreating from Basrah. I gained three victories in Kuweit City, first destroying three divisions, then those five from Basrah and finally one more British division that was landed in Kuweit City, in a striking reversal of Britain’s strategy in June. As soon as Messe had occupied Kuweit City, I redeployed the entire Corpo Alpina to Alexandria and, once Cavellero arrived in Basrah, Messe was redeployed there as well. Soon, the entire Italian coastline on the Gulf will be guarded and Iraq will be safe! As for my brave bomber crews, I sent them all to Gibraltar—it is an ideal location from which to interdict the near waters and to support ground operations in Morocco. First, of course, they had to rest and refit after having supported one grueling campaign after another.

As for the French thrust back into Algeria, they still hadn’t reached Tlemcen. On the other hand, I transported Birzio Piroli from Gibraltar and Geloso from Algiers to Oran and they assaulted French positions around Oujda. The invasion of French Morocco had begun!

Geloso assaulted French positions around Oujda with Rossi R, and Birzio Piroli in reserve. In time all formations in Oran were committed to the attack.

Soon after, in Savoy, my admittedly desperate troop movements to the front are still continuing, but I had amassed enough. From Nice I sent waves of divisions—as some of them inexplicably abandoned the offensive, the only truly loyal general there is apparently Roatta—against the positions of three French armored divisions in the region of Toulon. The fighting was hard, but eventually the French were forced to flee with heavy losses.

French positions around Toulon broke only after a long, hard struggle.

My troops in France continued on, but they only managed to capture Marseilles, beyond Toulon. The Germans had managed to overrun the rest of France, save a final foothold in the Pyrenees Mountains.

The French campaign is almost over—for the Germans and the French. For the Italians, it is over.

While Germany was overrunning southern France, I remembered that French fleet that had been driven out of Marseilles when my soldiers landed, two months ago. I was worried that this fleet may actually have amounted to something and, as a consequence, I ordered all my bombers to patrol the Mediterranean south of France. They indeed found French ships—and British ships! They were all, of course, sunk.

Pay no need to the sinkings not done by Italian aircraft—they are not important. Notice that another defeat was inflicted on the British, though not a serious one. The light cruiser was actually sunk in the Persian Gulf, before my bombers’ orders were changed to interdiction.

In miscellaneous news, Italo Balbo has reached beyond the grave to affect Italy’s doctrines one last time! On July 6 a treatise was found in his desk concerning a ‘Perimeter Defense’ doctrine, which was astoundingly complete; I immediately ordered it implemented. On the same day, I also hired Arturo Crocco to develop an advanced encryption device to further safeguard Italian communications.

I must end saying that, though I am disappointed with progress in France after realization that the French had rejected peace, I am in some ways glad of this. After all, let the Germans deal with the burden of overwhelming partisans. I have other countries, other colonies, to conquer.

Avanti! Glory to Italy!

 

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Interesting news, especially regarding the late Italy Balbo. Strange how his associates could carry on his research like that. He must have left meticulous and thorough notes. I myself will be brief and say only that I chose Yugoslavia as my next target. I began moving troops to their border, naturally, but it was a while before they reached their destination.

Firstly, on the 6th of July my submarines sunk another two convoy transports. Just yesterday they sunk another one and an escort ship. I don’t know whether or not these raids are severely impacting the British, but I don’t see a reason not to continue. Either way, on the 12th Germany traded us blueprints for the aircraft assembly line. This means that they completed the technology a full 12 days ahead of us, for only on the 24th Lancia presented me with our model. I scolded them for being incompetent slightly, and assigned FIAT to develop an advanced computing machine to speed up research. I believe there’s nothing else to say on the less interesting events. Now, let us discuss war!

My divisions were in position on the 20th, and I didn’t hesitate to declare war. My main objective was to conquer territories that would block German access to the land, so that all their progress would be in our name. However, an unpredicted event occurred. Probably due to some tension in the region, both Romania and Bulgaria declared war on Yugoslavia shortly after ourselves. Since Yugoslavia was now at war with the Axis, it was offered a place in the Allies, which it accepted gratefully. Now, Bulgaria and Romania were both at war with the entire Allied coalition, and in a similar fashion, received invitations to join the Axis. Bulgaria accepted, but Romania declined, and rather impolitely.

Here’s an overview of my strategy. These divisions in Tirana would march into Pristina, while mountaineer divisions will stay and anticipate a Yugoslavian attack on Vlore from Skopje, where three of their divisions are stationed. Once this happens, the mountaineers will march into Skopje (which is also a mountain province) and attack the surrounded Yugoslavians crushing them completely. Meanwhile, on the Northern front, our cavalry will ride forth as quickly as possible to conquer lands that Yugoslavia would border with Germany and Hungary (also now part of the Axis) so as to cut them off.

Everything went as planned, and the Yugoslavians descended from the mountains into Vlore. The mountaineer divisions immediately began the encirclement maneuver.

Needless to say, they realized the situation they were in, but it was much too late. Even our Bulgarian allies began moving to take Stip for themselves, and to Pristina before ourselves. Nis, the province north of Pristina, was conquered by Romania rather quickly, allowing us a narrow passage into the north, but at least blocking off Bulgarian advance instead of our own. Finally, on the 25th of July, we reach Pristina before the Bulgarians do.

Meanwhile on the other Front, we managed to severely cut the German advance, though not the Hungarian. Soon our cavalry would move to Zenica and Sarajevo to secure the shore area for us alone. Being supplied for an offensive, they can move at an astonishing speed, which is, though potentially slower than Hungarian tanks, still fast enough to cut at least the German attack.

Down south, everything was going according to plan. The mountaineer divisions reached Skopje and began reorganizing for an assault on Vlore, while Bulgaria took Stip and began moving in to support us in case of a slight miscalculation on my part.

We were, however, defeated at Pristina, though once again our allies were moving in to help support this territory. The month ended looking like this in Yugoslavia:

As you can see, Bulgaria placed most of its forces under my command yesterday, following a brilliant victory in Vlore that crushed four (!) Yugoslavian divisions. I ordered all of them to move in and support Pristina, expanding the front in that direction as far as possible before the Romanians take Belgrade, which was already heavily assaulted. Simultaneously, our forces would conquer as much of the eastern territories as time allows, for since Romania would control the Yugoslavian capitol, they would be the ones to annex it. Regardless, I don’t think a single country in our brilliant alliance did not benefit from this offensive. In the end, as always, reported ship casualties.

My dual channel defense plan works brilliantly. The two naval bomber squadrons make quick scrap of most vessels entering the Gibraltar straights, and not one British vessel has yet managed to get past my 6 carrier blockade, though they are slowly taking damage and will need to be returned for repairs. Perhaps even next month. Notice that most ships sunk by us in the past 3-4 months have been the work of the RM Sparviero! It is truly a rising star in our navy, and its sinking roster easily doubles that of any other ship. Maybe even that of all other ships combined! Glory to Italy and the great RM Sparviero!

 

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My Benito, so much to tell you of this month. War is progressing steadily, but not at all as I had originally planned. Firstly, on August 4th Bulgaria decided to return its entire expeditionary force to its own command. Why they would do this, I do not know, but apparently they saw the pressing need. Not that I mind particularly much to be honest. Also on this day our cavalry has reached Sarajevo, and with the Romanian occupation of Belgrade, all German and Hungarian progress into Yugoslavia has been cut short by my swift advance. Now we race only against the Romanians.

However the celebration was relatively short-lived, as already on the 11th Romania annexed Yugoslavia, taking some of the coastal provinces that are quite vital to my strategy.

Needless to say, I decided to waste no time and declared war on Romania. Given the heavy German support, we recaptured all Yugoslavian territory in under a week. Here’s a map of my mountaineers racing against a Bulgarian army moving towards Nis from Sofia. Thankfully we got there earlier, though a few hours later their divisions stood alongside us in defense of the province. It would have been a shame to have lost it to the Bulgarians. I had other territorial conquests for them in mind.

Between then and now there were little particularly significant battles worth noting. As you will see on the next map, the Bulgarians are following my plan, taking the province of Tulcea and moving northwards to take the Soviet border. I do not want a border with the Soviet Union no matter how small, as it would mean I would need to garrison it actively. Who knows where Hitler’s ambition would take him next. Unlike your Hitler, mine fully imagines himself to be the senior member of the Axis.

You can also see two German tank divisions that suicidally charged Arad and Cluj-Napoca. I had to move my cavalry into Sibiu to follow them to fortify the supply line they have created for themselves in Italy’s name. The logic behind the offensive is quite clear though. To completely suppress and annex Romania, we need only hold the key provinces in the country, as the others are only trivial. We estimate that the three provinces are Cluj-Napoca, Ploesti (for the rich oil fields) and of course Bucharest, the capitol. I am assuming that the German tank commander is simply blitzing the Romanians, which are mostly concentrated on the southern border with us and the Bulgarians. Regardless, this is what the map looks like today.

Among other news, our subs sunk a total of another 5 convoy transports and 2 escorts. I’d like to see the total convoy sinkings for the last year of war with the Allies. The number should be rather great, and hopefully made and impact on the British economy, as British convoys are 95% of what we’ve intercepted thus far.

Also this month, on the 8th I chose to sign the Tripartite treaty with Germany and Japan. It seems relations between the Axis and Japan are getting warmer every day. My predictions were correct. They truly are like-minded and would prove a great asset to our strong alliance in the future. Of course, in having signed the pact, I had every intention of violating it for the glory of Italy. It is merely an insignificant document that helped improve our relations with Japan. Nothing else, in my opinion.

On August 14th Germany chose a rather interesting course of action. They liberated Croatia in the sole province of Zagreb to be their new puppet state. I am entirely uncertain of why this was needed, but the Germans do many odd things in my opinion, so this one did not shock me so particularly. Also, on the 10th, three of the nine CAG units in production completed and await deployment. And since we’re speaking of the navy again, I’d like to take the opportunity and present to you possibly the most exciting news of the month:

Just take a look at that remarkably impressive list of destroyed vessels, all in the space of one month! Of course, they are all small bait, but nonetheless, all these vessels were trying to enter the sea through Suez. Imagine what would happen if I had all my aircrafts on alert status as well! Unfortunately, I was keeping them all at base to have repairs completed, as many were lacking in strength to do the damage they could potentially be doing. I’ll let them bomb the straits of Hercules for another two months, and then I’ll force them to spend some time in their hangars, for the new naval bomber model should be done very, very soon.

Glory to Italy, the great conqueror of Europe!

 

[Myth]

Ah, it is wonderful to hear of such successes from you, Benito! Your invasion of Yugoslavia was spectacularly executed and I do hope my own invasion of that worthless country, coming next month, will do as well as your own. I, too, have some good news to report, otherwise.

With the closure of the French theater of operations, I conducted two redeployments: certain units in Savoy and Piedmont were directed to Venice to prepare for the invasion of Yugoslavia already mentioned as being slated for next month. The second redeployment was of the seven remaining divisions in Barcelona—including a headquarters unit—to Oran to bolster the offensive power of my formations already there. I, of course, remember those 8 Allied divisions in Casablanca. Surely this will end in another Kuweit City, where 90,000 Allied troops were defeated!!

With total command of the sea, Italian transports can move about with impunity.

With their landing, total Italian forces in the western desert were bolstered to 16. As the French still had not arrived at Tlemcen, I ordered divisions into that region, where they halted the French thrust. Also, at about the same time Oujda was captured by my forces and any remaining units in Oran I sent to reinforce those around Oujda.

Italian forces maneuvering across the desert hills to prepare to throw the French out of their Moroccan colony.

In Iraq, meanwhile, all activity has ceased. Mj. General Fautilla had finally reached Kuweit City and the entire Italian coast on the Persian Gulf became well guarded. Also, the Corpo Alpina and Messe’s Centauro were redeployed to Alexandria this month and sent to Albania for reorganization and preparation for the invasion of Yugoslavia.

Four division on the Persian Gulf coast must certainly be enough to protect it.

Back in Morocco, I launched two attacks—one from Oujda against French positions around Marrakech and one from Tlemcen against the French near Bouarfa. I fully understood then why the French had taken so long to get to Tlemcen, my troops were only slated to reach Bouarfa on September 29!

Two attacks, neither of which the French had enough strength to repel.

On August 29, Marrakech fell to Italian forces and I sent Rossi R’s division further to Mogadar to encircle those Allied divisions in Casablanca, which were soon joined by that French division retreating from Marrakech.

Those “Anzacs”, as they like to call themselves, are doomed!

My bombers, this month, finally got their well deserved rest in Gibraltar. As for my submarines, after a long time of neglect I sent them to hunt convoys off the coast of Somalia, where they were quite successful. However, I called them back and sent them to Gibraltar as well, as I had noticed that the French forces in Morocco were strangely not in supply and, assuming the “Anzacs” also were not, I was determined to keep things this way. Hence, soon my submarines will be hunting any convoys near the Moroccan coast.

Finally, just yesterday, Lancia presented me with their work on a deep logistical organization. While it was not enough, as they themselves acknowledged, it must surely help! I immediately contracted Breda to develop an improved infantry divisional TO&E, as I wished only the best for my soldiers. I also changed a minister in my cabinet—out went that man of the people, good old Guido Buffarini-Guidi, and in came the very prince of terror, Umberto Albini. I had realized that the conquered colonies were not contributing any manpower to my army, so I decided instead to capitalize on whatever industry there was in place.

I am confident that, with this ministerial change and the conquest of Yugoslavia, I will finally achieve what you have long ago—the industrial capacity for a fifth research team!

Glory to Italy!

 

[unmerged(51077)]

Good updates! Glory to Spain!

 

[unmerged(59108)]

[OOC]

Who is Spain? Spain is Italy in a few months!

[/OOC]

 

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While one Benito builds an empire in the Maghreb, the other builds one in the Balkans!

 

[Myth]

[OOC]

indeed, indeed. plans are being made

[/OOC]

 

[unmerged(59108)]

Benito, this month has been absolutely torturous with its complete lack of interesting things to report! Surely you wouldn’t want to hear about every exact date and time that the UK tried and failed miserably to infiltrate me with a spy, or the USA manipulated global opinion about Germany. It’s remarkable, but as you know, I note down key events throughout the course of the month to better structure my report to you. This month, I have two entries…

Regardless, my observations regarding the German tanks were absolutely correct. They rode around to Brasov, easily entered Ploesti, and with the help of Bulgarian divisions they conquered the capitol, Bucharest. Before the line could be broken, I proposed annexation to Romania. They could do nothing to prevent it.

You may be wondering why Germany took the Osijek province away from Hungary, and I wouldn’t know the answer, but in the end, I do not feel there is a single country in the Axis that did not benefit from this war. Hungary got a province in Romania. Germany did not conquer very much, but they did aid us as we aided their takeover of mainland France. Bulgaria took one province from Yugoslavia, and was allowed by me to take the Romanian border with the USSR. Unfortunately, I still have a small border with them, but in the event of war, I doubt they would be breaking through into our territory.

I will, of course, be there to aid our allies, but I’m not too worried about the one mountain province just touching them lightly. I stationed 3 mountaineer divisions there on anti-partisan duty. In fact, right now most of my army is on anti-partisan duty. I don’t want to have these rebel groups spring up in the back, impeding our glorious progress forward. Once the partisan level is relatively normal, I will resume my conquest, but where next? A quick offensive in Greece wouldn’t hurt, while performing a deep operation in Spain would allow us access to Gibraltar, and hence provide a wonderful opportunity to strike at the British directly whenever I feel we are ready.

I already even have a plan for how I should conquer Spain. I will send heavy infantry divisions to the north, and along with the Germans, force push them down, leaving them little choice other than to form up and defend with numbers. Then, I will break another assault force into small groups and quickly ship them to southern Spain, where we will establish a platzdarm for further landings, and will continue to pump divisions in there while the Spanish are so busy up north. We’ll secure the south and form defenses behind a river that encompasses a number of provinces there, while leaving an attack route without having a river to cross to our east. I’ll leave most of the shores to Germany. Let them guard it from Allied landings. All I want are the Mediterranean coastline and Gibraltar. Something tells me, this plan will succeed flawlessly.

As I said earlier, I have two notes written down for this month. The first is the swift annexation of Romania without any particularly decisive battle on September 11. The other is Arturo Ricardi’s completion of the trade interdiction submarine doctrine. I decided not to let something go unfinished, and ordered him to produce the indirect approach doctrine, for which we also received the German plans for, simultaneously with the former doctrine. Now, let me at least entertain you with Japan’s progress at this time.

As you can see, China is steadily on the way to demise, but as I was overlooking this map, I noticed a peculiarity. Japan’s foes down to the south are not the Guangxi Clique, but Communist China! How they got down there is quite mysterious to me, but apparently they too have set out to conquer the nationalist-held territories. This is a most interesting development, and I should watch it unfold, for should Japan show weakness once, it will undoubtedly repeat its mistakes.

And of course, as always, the list of ship casualties. As can be expected, the infinitely superior Italian navy has not taken a single hit. Glory to Italy!

It would seem the RM Renmazuo is the star this month, though most of the sinking was done by aircrafts. Regardless, it is important to maintain a healthy level of competition among the various vessels of our glorious navy. Sporty rivalry leads to the desire to improve, and improvements can not reflect in any way other than positively on our progress to total victory! Glory to Italy!

 

[Myth]

Ah, Benito! It is indeed a shame that so little occurred to you and your Italy. For myself, this past month may have been the most gratuitously successful since the very beginning of the war.

In early September, I prepared for war with Yugoslavia. I gathered up six transport flotillas to transport two corps to the Adriatic Sea for amphibious operations against Split and Dubrovnik. Wary of the Yugoslavian fleet, as even it could destroy undefended transports, the Regia Marina finally sailed from Tobruk harbor. It also happened to run straight into a small French fleet, which was quite shocking. Campioni A.D. sent one French ship to the bottom and continued on his journey to the Yugoslavian coast, well knowing his priorities. On September 8, war began and Italian forces all along the Yugoslavian border, and of course those of the miscellaneous Axis members such as Hungary, Romania and Germany, attacked.

The Yugoslavians were struck from every compass direction!

Messe, supported by the Corpo Alpina, tore through Yugoslavian defenses in front of Pristina and rolled on to Novi Pazar. Yugoslavian forces were in retreat everywhere, bridgeheads at Split and Dubrovnik were soon created and Italian forces from Venice were marching into Ljubljana. With the landings complete, the Yugoslavian fleet steamed out of Split harbor, where in a battle that ran down the entire length of the Adriatic, Campioni A.D. sank the entire Yugoslavian navy before going off to hunt down and sink those renegade French ships. On land, meanwhile, disaster had struck! Messe was cut off in Novi Pazar and I had no forces within reach to relieve him. Even worse, he was under attack from two Yugoslavian divisions!

Yugoslavia on September 14, only Italy and Bulgaria made gains by this date but Italy's position was threatened.

Messe managed to beat off the enemy assaults and continued his drive to Belgrade. Meanwhile, due to some strange German honor, all the land they claimed when attacking from Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary was credited to me as their supply lines ran to Tirane rather than Berlin! At the same time, much of the Yugoslavian coast had fallen into Italian hands.

Organized Yugoslavian resistance was collapsing into desperate pockets of men.

By September 25, the Germans marched into Sarajevo and claimed it for Italy, thus marking the end of the Yugoslavian campaign, as Sarajevo was the final noteworthy city in the country. I formally declared the annexation of Yugoslavia by Italy that evening. Italy gained all the remaining unclaimed parts of the mongrel country, but had forced to concede one territory to Bulgaria, which was a national claim.

The map of Yugoslavia at the hour of annexation.

Elsewhere, events were just as important. On the 21, I signed that same agreement that you did last month—that Tripartite Pact. I am unsure why I received a some of money upon signing it, perhaps Hitler thought I was not only corruptible but actually hostile to him in some way and not sign it. I didn’t even need the money; I have more than enough from overproducing consumer goods to placate that one small section of the Italian population that was up in arms about certain of my actions.

The letter Ciano sent me on the Tripartite Pact, it wasn’t as offensive as many of his other letters.

In Iraq, meanwhile, a revolt began in Karbala, probably an Allied attempt at forcing me to divert troops from other fronts. I was not fooled! I simply ordered Jordan’s sole division—commanded by Glubb Pasha, a major general more competent than many of my Italian generals(!)—to crush the rebellion.

The rebels hold a large area, but it is largely worthless.

In Morocco, Casablanca was finally surrounded on the 24th. 8 “Anzac” and 1 French division were within the doomed city while two lay without, unable to do anything. I do hope Casablanca falls next month—I am working to make sure nothing gets through to the beleaguered garrison.

The Allied situation in Morocco is hopeless.

As I just mentioned, I exerted every effort to prevent Allied shipping from reaching Casablanca. To this end my submarines arrived at Gibraltar on September 15 and were immediately sent convoy raiding off the Moroccan coast. As for my bombers, they patrolled that same area for the entire month and attacked any naval ships they found. They couldn’t stop everything, but they did sink a good amount of the Allied ships that went through that area of ocean.

Notice that the British lost a CVL division and two more CVs.

I must conclude by saying that this has been an eminently successful month. The Yugoslavian industries will propel the Italian industry to new heights, and there is finally a land connection from Italy to Albania, allowing for the use of those convoys elsewhere. The Allied navies have been hit quite hard and their position in Morocco will soon disappear in a puff of 75mm shells. Italy’s position will only be getting better! Glory to Italy!

 

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Remarkable! Two carriers and a light carrier! I can't wait to improve my bomber squadrons. To merely imagine the damage they could do...

 

[Arilou]

Casablanca will soon fall.... Oh well, they'll always have Paris!

 

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Nicely done! Though Il have to say these were really boring months

 

[Myth]

[OOC]

Though Il have to say these were really boring months

ya want some campaigns whose end isn't quite so sure, huh? aye, me too. don't worry, I'm thinking ahead

[/OOC]

 

[Vann the Red]

Spledid, Benitos, simply splendid.

Vann

 

[unmerged(17581)]

Quite remarkable! Success is riding high for both Mussolinis!

 

[Myth]

Benito, Europe is quiet now. I am merely reorganizing my forces, and redeploying certain forces south to Vlore, for the invasion of Greece planned to occur soon. This month’s drama occurred on the sands of Morocco, where my Italians won another great victory!

As soon as Italians set foot in Buoarfa, I sent them farther. Five divisions went on to Quezzane, where they smashed the two French formations defending the area and forced them to retreat into a corner at Agadir. Four divisions marched northwest to Marrakech to take part in the coming assault on Casablanca.

The beginning of the final stages of military operations in Morocco.

By the 14th, Quezzane was Italian territory, but a French counterattack from Agadir forced the five divisions defending—by now very disorganized—to flee back to Bouarfa. Geloso, however, took the opportunity to attack Agadir’s garrison in the rear and destroyed the two French divisions before returning to the line around Casablanca on October 23.

The first tangible benefits of victory—two destroyed French divisions!

On the 23rd, then, the final assault began. 11 Italian divisions fought it out with 8 “Anzac” divisions and a French division. The outcome, of course, was never in doubt. The Allies were smashed, and the conquest of Casablanca signaled the end of the western desert campaign. It was a highly successful campaign, from Zuara to Casablanca 17 Allied divisions had been destroyed. With the closure of this theater of war—except for a beach garrison at Casablanca—numerous Italian forces are available for deployment elsewhere.

The final battle in the western desert, and a significant defeat for the Allies.

There is also, however, very black news this month. I had sent my bombers to recover from their exertions last month off the coast of Morocco, but kept my submarines operating. First, my submarines ran into a French fleet but I hurriedly scrambled my naval bombers and saved them, sinking two French battleships in the process, before sending them back to Gibraltar. However, soon after a British fleet of 6 battleships pounced in them and dragged Dutch, French and Canadian screen ships into the fray! I again scrambled my bombers, but they only did light damage before the Allied fleet shattered my submarine task force. I lost five whole submarine flotillas, and the remaining three were awfully damaged! The only solace I could find in this defeat was that Casablanca was about to fall anyway.

The Allies finally manage to hit back at Italy on the sea.

On October 21, Macchi finally presented me with their improved naval bomber, the SIAI-Marchetti SM.84. I immediately contracted Lancia to develop a deep vehicle repair organization. Also, as I predicted, the Yugoslavian industry provided me with enough factories to be able to afford a fifth technological team—I had Beretta begin work on developing an improved TO&E for my mountain divisions. Finally, I am pleased with the preparations for the invasion of Greece—everything is ready and awaiting only my word for the campaign to start. Operation Pydna will begin quite soon. However, I am at a loss as to what actions I should take once Greece is conquered, should I reclaim the Anatolian peninsula for Rome? Should I push into the heartlands of the old Parthian Empire? Should I march south into Nubia and reclaim Abyssinia for Italy? Fight the Spaniards and Portuguese for the remnants of Iberia? Perhaps there are options I am not currently seeing? I desire your input on this, Benito.

Nevertheless, Italy is marching inexorably forward! Just look at the map of Europe!

Avanti! Glory to Italy!

 

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It is good to hear that you are at least making some progress. I hope you are not too grievous over the loss of your submarines. I too had an incident about a year ago where all but 4 submarines were lost. Their only real use is the sinking of convoy ships, which is important, but could be done just as well by other vessels and even aircrafts. As for where you should go next, I suggest you sail from Kuwait to British-held and allied territories in the middle east. They are an easy target to smash quickly, and though your transport capacity would be overstretched, I feel that this conquest would be worth it. Especially considering that you can release them as puppet governments.

My own month has been nothing short of a bore up until recently. Firstly, on the 13th I ordered da Zara to leave the damaged RM Renmazuo in port and continue blocking the Suez channel. He sunk a great number of ships, but later that week I allowed him to make a carrier strike on the Rhodes airbase, as they had bombers stationed there to our inconvenience. As soon as the strike began, as usual, we did significant damage, but lost some organization among the crews. That’s when disaster struck. Well, not quite, fortunately.

The British sent a large fleet of 20 vessels, including two carriers to intercept me. As you can see, their positioning was significantly superior to our own! This was but three days ago! I immediately ordered Campioni to aid da Zara with the RM Renmazuo, currently in port for repairs. The battle lasted for three days, resulting in our victory just yesterday.

The RM Falco, a relative newcomer to our navy, made quite a first kill by sinking the HMS Courageous carrier. The other carrier was only damaged. I ordered da Zara to follow the British retreating fleet south towards Alexandria. This ended in another small victory.

The British were now held up in Alexandria. My ships were generally unharmed, though at least three would need to spend at least a month in repairs to be up to full strength again. By the way, this was the first battle in which the RM Sparviero took damage since its deployment 10 months ago. It’s a shame that some of its extremely experienced crew was lost in the fight.

But the worst news is still to come. Just before I went to bed yesterday, I was informed that our submarines, sinking convoys around Malta, had been attacked by a second, slightly smaller British fleet!

They have again come with two carriers, but da Zara’s ships are not in fighting condition, as the crews are in complete disarray. My first reaction was assigning naval bombers to the region for some damage on the enemy ships, and ordering the submarines to retreat to Palermo, the nearest port. Unfortunately there isn’t much more to say on this, as the battle is occurring right now, and its outcome is unclear…

Among other news, there isn’t very much to say. The only significant event occurred on the 28th, when Nationalist China annexed Communist China.

I do not know if this occurred as a treaty signed by the two sides, or if the nationalists managed to conquer the extremely well-fortified stronghold of the communists, as well as wrestle back their southern territories (quite unbelievable considering their conflict with Japan, and how poorly they are doing), but it’s definitely not something I’d foreseen. We shall see how this scenario unfolds, but for now, I must retreat to my workspace and design a plan of action for how to deal with the British menace…

 

[Myth]

[OOC]

However, I am at a loss as to what actions I should take once Greece is conquered, should I reclaim the Anatolian peninsula for Rome? Should I push into the heartlands of the old Parthian Empire? Should I march south into Nubia and reclaim Abyssinia for Italy? Fight the Spaniards and Portuguese for the remnants of Iberia? Perhaps there are options I am not currently seeing? I desire your input on this, Benito.

yes, this is a question open to the audience as well

[/OOC]

 

[unmerged(51077)]

Nice updates! So Discomb how many carriers have you sunk?