Carnage al Dente
Just because you are such great readers and since last chapter was a little short, I'll post an extra weekend-chapter.
Chapter XXII - Free the Frog, 3rd try
Players: Players: UK, 0.5 USA, 1.5 USSR, GER, ITA, JAP, HUN(2nd half of this session)
Recap: Stalin is dead. Soviet should have fallen. But it did not. It remains. The Red Army remains. And now the Brits attack France for the third time.
November 11th, 1941
On this date, United Kingdom’s third attack on France begun with an attack on Niort.
November 16th, 1941
It seemed like a similar strategy as the previous ones. They had done some initial scouting and knew the defenses. Even though Axis was not particularly surprise, it was simply difficult to cover up for these rapid landings. Italy quickly pulled some air force and sent some additional divisions.
The determined defense in Niort gave the Axis some time to react.
Authors note: As Hungary lacked player initially, AI-Hungary gave its western forces to be lead by Germany.
November 21st,
As massive amounts of British troops poured on the defenders, Italian fighters started to engage RAF in earnest. Even though RAF was still the better, the Regia Aeronatica obviously had the strength of hurting them.
During the rapid landing, Germany lost about 2 divisions. One of them might have been a panzer division caught in an ambush during retreat, but the Italian leadership never got sure.
November 25th, 1941
Italian reconnaissance spotted huge amount of marching enemies in Bressuire, massing up as the Brits attacked Poitiers. Two brave Italian divisions attacked as much as 8 enemy divisions and locked them in battle. The going would be tough, no doubt, but the British troops ended up in a chaotic position where they could not make use of their numbers.
November 28th, 1941
In three days, the Italian soldiers continued their attack into Bressuire. There were Brits everywhere, as more and more poured into the province, but they were in such chaos they could not use their numbers to their benefit. Still, the Italian troops lacked proper AT-weaponry and they had difficulty really hurting their opponent who was supported by a range of light tanks and tankettes as well as Archer tank destroyers. Nevertheless, when the Italians pulled back, the Brits had bled the most and lost a lot of vehicles. Probably more important, the Axis forces had gotten precious time to prepare the defense.
November 30th, 1941
The Brits seemed shaken by the chaos in Bressuire and ended up in a similar situation in Poiters as their forced once more clumped together in the roads. A joint Axis attacked charged right into them, as they had just launched an attack northwards against Chinon, which was only defended by tired Italians and Hungarians.
December 3rd, 1941
The British leadership obviously realized they could not bash their way through this one and several divisions in the rear had retreated out of the province. Up north, the Italian-Hungarian forces, including the Brit-hating Zingales, had left Chinon. The Brits in Poitiers, however, would not be able to turn this one to a victory. The two light armor divisions went through a tremendous battering as the Army Corps planners did not managed to move reinforcing units to the front.
Behind the German frontline, more and more German infantry, as well as some Italians, had arrived. For the third time, the situation seemed to stabilize.
December 5th, 1941
The Brits tried desperately to hold Poitiers but they simply did not manage to bring in any reinforcements, strange as that might seem, and the two light armor divisions were crushed by the Axis infantry after defiant resistance.
This Axis victory effectively marked the end of the British momentum of the third attack on France. Several units had been forced to retreat out of the area, two divisions in such bad shape it would take time before they could be used efficiently again. During the battle of Bressuire and Poitiers, the Axis had gotten ample time to pull their defense together.
The Brits were not beaten, however, and the Third Battle of France far from over.
December 6th, 1941
During the intense battle of the West, the German leadership had had difficult times to really make a difference on the Eastern Front. They were fighting far away from Berlin and it was winter once again, making movements slow and cumbersome. Some lands had been taken but no enemies had been captured, except a garrison division in the south.
This was all very frustrating as the USA was closing in on the war, with harsher and harsher statements. Had the Red Army surrendered, the situation had been completely different. Now, the majority of the Wehrmacht were bogged down in battles that could only be won by killing every single Soviet soldier. It was quite the moral-buster. And time was running out…
December 6th, 1941
Realizing the Wehrmacht would not come storming to the rescue from the north as originally planned, the Japanese soldiers in Iraq instead started a retreat towards the ocean. The Red Army pressed on relentlessly from the north, threatening to cut them off. It was slow going and as the British units were faster it was also very dangerous. Very little happened here that brought any pleasure to the Axis.
It seemed the Axis machine of war had halted. Like Carthagian hero Hannibal, the Axis had won some tremendous victories, but just when they were about to deliver the killing blow, things just got confused and the momentum got bogged down.
Il Duce saw this all play out but had little he could do to change things, the few excess troops and planes he had was locked in combat in France. Something needed to be done to strike at the British confidence; to get them off balance so that Germany could concentrate on the East and the Japs pull back from Iraq in good order. And there were only one place Italy could strike. A sudden idea was quickly shaped into a roughly designed Operation….
.... to be continued.