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Good to see the Italians trying hard then falling short - very realistic! 
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I don't know why, but I really like the look of those Italian Armoured Cars (AB 40, AB 41, AB 43).
Improving doctrines for your tank forces is great, though your German-bought L Arm regiments already have German standard training. It'mm be more useful in the future when you start building more homegrown tanks.
Radar for the Regia Marina? Blasphemy... Do you mean to say, that Italian sailors aren't good enough to see their targets? Who even thought about fighting in bad weather, or at night?
That's one nice example of an Enigma machine, I love how Italian scientists came up with that design all on their own...
It's definitely good enough, some research seems even too good, for Italian standards.
I can't wait to see how the Italians will fare in the big war.
True, they do come with German doctrines, but recall those tanks were purchased way back in 1937 and Italy's mobile doctrine work was never improved since then (aside from the required Operational Level Command Structure and some work with Mobile Warfare (so, nothing to improve the organization or morale of their tanks!).
I fully expect to get a healthy dose of @El Pip for the Radar in the Italian navy. They did finally see the importance in 1941 (OTL), and had 12 units deployed by 1943 (again, OTL) and given their extremely poor showing against the Greeks, they clearly recognize that they should have wiped the Aegean with those forces!
Good to see the Italians trying hard then falling short - very realistic!
They're certainly not going to be super helpful; perhaps against the British (who apparently had a conniption and couldn't stage forces in the correct areas... ugh) but against real opposition--aka the Soviets--they don't do very well, then they have to give up a bunch of territory, then they realized the reason they had to give up all that territory is because they didn't have enough convoys to transport supplies everywhere and perhaps they should have invested a bit more into their merchant marine...
EDIT: Also, an update: in the interest of working desperately to get the AI to give more of a challenge (aside from upping the difficulty, which is also happening), I'm doing a bit of savegame editing, and releasing some puppets, organizing a few revolutions, etc. For instance, I'm releasing as puppets Belize, Jamaica, and The Bahamas and giving Newfoundland to the Canadians (because just maybe they could not leave a complete Strategic Bomb wing in Grand Bahama and waste guys on HQs there... seriously), as well as their remaining territory in Africa (those destroyer squadrons need to be in the Home Waters, my dudes!).
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You've already predicted some of my comments on these so-called Italians, so I will save us all the time.
Excellent picture of unimpressed German paratrooper, you can see in his eyes he knows he is wasting his time but is forced to carry on.
I agree with @roverS3 that the AB xx armoured cars do look quite funky, but I wouldn't want to drive one. They are at least properly Italian, indeed so much so I suspect they are one of the sources for the terrible reputation of Italian armoured vehicles - several reverse gears (4) and a 'rear driver', which can easily be mis-translated as the driver responsible purely for driving backwards. Actually he steered the rear wheels and a front driver did the front wheels. This system was required because Fiat had designed a very manoeuvrable four wheels steering system but couldn't work out how to get one steering wheel to steer two axles, so they bodged it.
Not sure on this "creatively acquired" Enigma. The Italians just brought the commercial model in the late 1920s, along with almost everyone else, and then kept using it, with a few modifications as time went on. The British were reading it during the Spanish Civil War (Mussolini shared several dozen machines with Franco and his high command to help 'secure' communications).
Excellent picture of unimpressed German paratrooper, you can see in his eyes he knows he is wasting his time but is forced to carry on.
I agree with @roverS3 that the AB xx armoured cars do look quite funky, but I wouldn't want to drive one. They are at least properly Italian, indeed so much so I suspect they are one of the sources for the terrible reputation of Italian armoured vehicles - several reverse gears (4) and a 'rear driver', which can easily be mis-translated as the driver responsible purely for driving backwards. Actually he steered the rear wheels and a front driver did the front wheels. This system was required because Fiat had designed a very manoeuvrable four wheels steering system but couldn't work out how to get one steering wheel to steer two axles, so they bodged it.
Not sure on this "creatively acquired" Enigma. The Italians just brought the commercial model in the late 1920s, along with almost everyone else, and then kept using it, with a few modifications as time went on. The British were reading it during the Spanish Civil War (Mussolini shared several dozen machines with Franco and his high command to help 'secure' communications).
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They got the torpedoes working half the time, you say? Well, that ought to give the Brits what for, eh? What's that, Giovanni? The British have torpedoes that only break up on impact 1/10 times? Ah, that cannot be... Surely that is just Allied propaganda! The Mediterranean shall be an Italian lake! Hmm, should we build amphibious tanks and armoured cars so we don't have to use ships to move them from one port to another? Maybe I have to phone Mussolini with this idea...
Nice post, as usual. Whoever thought that having a fixed rear machine gun on a bomber was a good idea must have been either a true Italian, or extremely inebriated. Perhaps both.
Nice post, as usual. Whoever thought that having a fixed rear machine gun on a bomber was a good idea must have been either a true Italian, or extremely inebriated. Perhaps both.
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You've already predicted some of my comments on these so-called Italians, so I will save us all the time.
Excellent picture of unimpressed German paratrooper, you can see in his eyes he knows he is wasting his time but is forced to carry on.
I agree with @roverS3 that the AB xx armoured cars do look quite funky, but I wouldn't want to drive one. They are at least properly Italian, indeed so much so I suspect they are one of the sources for the terrible reputation of Italian armoured vehicles - several reverse gears (4) and a 'rear driver', which can easily be mis-translated as the driver responsible purely for driving backwards. Actually he steered the rear wheels and a front driver did the front wheels. This system was required because Fiat had designed a very manoeuvrable four wheels steering system but couldn't work out how to get one steering wheel to steer two axles, so they bodged it.
Not sure on this "creatively acquired" Enigma. The Italians just brought the commercial model in the late 1920s, along with almost everyone else, and then kept using it, with a few modifications as time went on. The British were reading it during the Spanish Civil War (Mussolini shared several dozen machines with Franco and his high command to help 'secure' communications).
I wish that Decryption/Encryption was more of a counter thing: you have a certain "cooldown" before you can expect your codes (or those of your enemies) could be broken, dependent on funding. Thus, if you continuously fund your counterintelligence types, you have a higher likelihood of "breaking" the cyphers and reading the plans of the enemy. Of course, this would be dependent on other outside events (think engagements with uboats or ships in certain areas where recovery of a hulk could be accomplished) to give those sorts of historical benefits of cracking them. I'm also considering the "creatively acquired" one of the newer models (since I am fairly certain that the Germans are up to date in the D/E themselves). That's one thing about this game, the levels are never really explained very well. Meh.
To be fair, the US' B17 also had a relatively fixed M2 .50cal in a sort of "sunroof" turret that the radio operator was supposed to use, not to mention early models having fixed forward firing M2s directed to the 1 and 11 o'clock on the cheeks!
Update: I'm going to forego the Japanese tech review, mostly because the focus of this game was supposed to be the European powers... not that the Pacific theater isn't important (it is very important! It will get it's due!), but the level of detail going into things is getting slightly absurd. I'm sure @El Pip would give a nod as to the desire of my dear followers to--in the words of the inestimable Monty Python:
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Italy looks fairly ready for war. Wether those tanks will be of much use against the desert rats or if an Afrikakorps is required remains to be seen. ( Hint: might want to check if the AI has decided to defend egypt or not, unless that comes way too late now).
Forum still hates me and doesnt report updates here, but looking forward to this war.
Forum still hates me and doesnt report updates here, but looking forward to this war.
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VI: 4. Goering's Dream: Axis Military Expansion
Germany.
A modern view of the Heeresversuchsanstalt
Peenemunde with an A4 ballistic missile in
front of the old power plant. Below, some
recently declassified video of construction at
the site.
German interests in their rocket program had grown to the point where the testing facilities in Peenemunde were becoming overwhelmed. The previous year, production had begun on expanding the site with more facility space, testing pads, and construction for the program. This construction wrapped up in mid-January. This construction was accompanied by a similar deep investment in a radar site built in the East Prussia city of Konigsberg, finished in April, which fulfilled several goals: not only would it monitor flight testing out of HVP, it served to monitor the airspace around Poland and even kept an eye toward the Bear in the East. This monitoring station was manned by the Luftwaffe’s Forschungsamt des Reichsluftfahrt Ministerium, generally abbreviated as RLM/FA. Despite the name, it maintained no ties to Goering’s Air Ministry, received funding directly from the Treasury, and was Goering’s prized trump cards. Built in no small part to spy upon the interior of the nation, the RLM/FA proved to be adept at what would become known as “Signals Intelligence” or SIGINT. This allowed information gathered from intercepted radio and other electronic means to build a picture of the location (roughly speaking) for enemy units. Combined with the Luftwaffe’s own strong capability in “Image Intelligence” or IMINT, this made their comrades in the Heer very happy to cooperate.
Junkers Ju 388s destined for KG 9.
Goering’s insistence at the continued level of funding not only for his “spy agency” but also for the Luftwaffe meant that the air arm added JG 17 and 18, commanded by Fliegerkorps XXVII (Interceptor) under MG Pflugbeil in May, and later in the year JG 19 and 20, commanded by Fliegerkorps XXVIII (Interceptor) under MG Futterer by September. These pure interceptor formations were joined by the formation of Fliegerkorps XVIII (Multi-Role) with the activation of ZG 11, under MG Schultheiss in December. For larger aircraft, the Luftwaffe went on to activate Fliegerkorps XXX (Tactical Bomber), with KG 9 becoming an active unit in mid-August. Two transport groups, LTG 4 and 5, were assigned to Fliegerkorps I Det 1 and Det 2 respectively in the Air Mobility Command at the end of May.
A test of the next generation of aircraft to equip
the MFGs, the Ju 88. Given the advanced age
and limits of the ability to fit more kit into the
Do17Ks, the Luftwaffe’s old Ju 88s seemed a
an ideal way for the aircraft to continue to
serve, and keep the Junkers company happy.
For the Kriegsmarine’s part, the readaptation of former Luftwaffe Do 17Ks meant that a third Marinefliegerkorps (MFK III) could be stood up with two MFGs (128 and 130), fully activated at the end of February. Much of their budget was tied up in the deployment of the Type XXI submarines, the first two geschwaders of which (UbG 18 and 19) were activated mid-August. These were the first of the type to join the fleet, and more were under construction, but suffered from significant delays in production given their advanced design and capability.
Pz.Kpfw. VI ‘Tigers’ in a field during training,
1941. These beasts were too large for most
bridges in Europe, and the Heer mostly forgot
to continue their development for years until
Soviet heavy tanks were observed that were
far more advanced than those in the Heer.
The Heer had similarly slowed in expanding through the year. Two division-sized formations, 61. and 62. Infantrie-Division (mot) were activated as part of XV Armeekorps (mot). These were the first two of a planned ten divisions, designed to support the Panzer-divisionen in their breakout and exploitation roles by rapidly protecting the flanks of the panzers with significant numbers of infantry which could hold territory, essentially to “wall off” the gains made. This new Armeekorps also received a brigade of motorized infantry of its own in late July, and the first schwere Panzer-brigade of heavy panzers, the Pz.Kpfw. VI “Tiger.” These were the first of the “Cats” series of German tanks. These tanks had not really gone through much development beyond that they were heavily armored and armed. They only moved at a rate not much faster than the leg infantry; thus, having them paired up with a motorized infantry brigade as part of a motorized (and thus, at least theoretically, fast moving) Armeekorps made little sense. Despite this, the second motorized Armeekorps, XVI, was also being activated with the deployment of its motorized air defense artillery brigade in late December.
Italy.
An artist’s impression of what the RA would
call their “heavy artillery,” a Cannone da
149/40. The decision to go with a trail spade
plates which had to be hammered into the
ground before firing was an odd one.
Having previously identified that the army was deficient in heavy artillery, the high command had set about to correct the situation. Throughout the year, the Regio Esercito would activate a total of six field artillery brigades for their infantry divisions. There was little other space for the other branches: the Regia Marina commissioned two batches of advanced destroyers in August, and in late October activated a fourth Maritime Patrol Group. With much of the budget in a desperate bid to stave off the attendant economic collapse from the overproduction of military forces, and to correct the significant lack of logistical capacity and infrastructure development throughout the nation, no other construction could be contemplated.
Japan.
The IJN aircraft carrier Amagi.
The Empire of the Sun underwent a massive defense overhaul in 1941. Overburdened with anti-tank forces for which no enemies were foreseen (the Nationalist and Communist Chinese maintained no armored units; the Soviet Union and Japan had signed a nonaggression pact after the disaster around Khalkhin Gol; the Southern Resource Areas were largely jungle islands and thus extremely unsuited to tank warfare), most divisions were relieved of their anti-tank brigades. Some divisions were broken up as their forces were better apportioned to hold the territory that they held. Two divisions, a Special Naval Landing Force (better referred to as a Marine) division in May and a Mountain Infantry division in November were activated. The Imperial Navy activated a Carrier Air Group for the Amagi, which was commissioned at the end of July, as well as two destroyer squadrons in September.
The IJN aircraft carrier Amagi.
*****
Author's Note: Thank you, Sebas, for giving me a break to post this update!Unfortunately, as @El Pip says, the AI in this game essentially ate lead chips for breakfast, second breakfast, tea, supper, dinner, dessert, and brandy... The Iraqis get their licks in, however... somewhat. It's why my plan is to reduce the AIs "load" by releasing the African, Caribbean and Asian nations as puppets (it actually fits in a bit with the story, even!) as well as to rotate some of the more oddly deployed forces back to the relevant theaters and to bump the difficulty to hard. I'm hoping to iterate out the mod to my other computers over the next few days and then I'm going to bump through the various Allied nations to "gift" them some extra units--I can't just tag switch in a multiplayer game, and the save game editing is rather difficult--and then maybe some extra leadership and manpower, etc. We'll see.
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Another good-looking update, with more equipment coming on line. Good luck with the mod work!
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Who doesn't like a nice big rocket development site... Love the fresh footage of the construction.
The IJA clearly had some terrible intelligence on China, I guess they thought the Chinese had lot's massive tanks...
The binary template that the AI tends to use really leads to these kinds of strange things, lot's of AT to fight infantry and militia in the Jungle and to island-hop, sure, that makes sense...
Good to see the usual Italian 'special' quality of that gun, having to hammer down those legs every time seems like such an unnecessary hassle. Very Italian.
The IJA clearly had some terrible intelligence on China, I guess they thought the Chinese had lot's massive tanks...
The binary template that the AI tends to use really leads to these kinds of strange things, lot's of AT to fight infantry and militia in the Jungle and to island-hop, sure, that makes sense...
Good to see the usual Italian 'special' quality of that gun, having to hammer down those legs every time seems like such an unnecessary hassle. Very Italian.
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Ah, Italian artillery. Now that's something you don't see often. The spade system gives some indication as to the reasons.
Göring, cooperating with someone? Now that is unheard of. This must be a really funky ATL... Though seeing some competence in the Luftwaffe is a refreshing change. The usual incompetence has, it appears, moved to the Japanese ordnance department, as evidenced by their decision to deploy AT guns to defeat human waves by the Chinese. Perhaps they expected the waves to be so thick with men that an AP round would cause appreciable casualties?
The new Panzers truly seem to follow the usual German convention for heavy tanks: impractically heavy, no one has considered if they really need motorized troops to accompany them or not, and ending development as soon as the first production examples start rolling off the lines. I hope they don't reach the point where the Soviet high command issues an order that captured examples should not be used as they are prone to catastrophic failures.
Göring, cooperating with someone? Now that is unheard of. This must be a really funky ATL... Though seeing some competence in the Luftwaffe is a refreshing change. The usual incompetence has, it appears, moved to the Japanese ordnance department, as evidenced by their decision to deploy AT guns to defeat human waves by the Chinese. Perhaps they expected the waves to be so thick with men that an AP round would cause appreciable casualties?
The new Panzers truly seem to follow the usual German convention for heavy tanks: impractically heavy, no one has considered if they really need motorized troops to accompany them or not, and ending development as soon as the first production examples start rolling off the lines. I hope they don't reach the point where the Soviet high command issues an order that captured examples should not be used as they are prone to catastrophic failures.
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The Japanese Anti-Tank forces strikes me to me almost as useful as Soviet ASW capability. Technically potentially useful, practically...
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I would never do that, for the gods would strike me down for hubristic hypocrisy. I am in absolutely no position to ever complain about rates of updates, particularly if they are due to ridiculous levels of detail.
Much progress and some welcomed mistakes and incompetence. German intelligence co-operating still concerns me deeply, but at least the Italians are starting to revert to type. What they really need is to have ordered all that artillery, but then entirely fail to actually manufacture any.
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Thank you! It's going to take a bit of save game editing, but I'm sure that I'm up to the challenge!
It is indeed. As an infantryman myself, I'd hate to be the grunt desperately calling for artillery fires only to hear "We've not yet staked down the guns yet..."
I think the preponderance of AT (and Armored Cars. Seriously?!) has something to do with the AI programming about getting it to use some of the other attachment brigades. Seems silly that artillery isn't the one thing that they encouraged versus AT, but maybe they made a mistake? NEVER!
Yeah, the Germans managed to grab a few before realizing what those Soviet heavy armored units were actually made up of, which caused a crash program to get caught up (like, seriously, I left the AR(H) techs completely behind, then when doing some of my research realized the Soviets were up to 1943 techs!!!). I don't even know if the upgrades have gotten out to the heavy armor in the field, but it wouldn't matter anyways because the majority of the armor is off the line...
I would never do that, for the gods would strike me down for hubristic hypocrisy. I am in absolutely no position to ever complain about rates of updates, particularly if they are due to ridiculous levels of detail.
I did specify that you would only acknowledge that the readers were demanding more updates... not necessarily that you demanded more updates (though I do hope that you are!).
Much progress and some welcomed mistakes and incompetence. German intelligence co-operating still concerns me deeply, but at least the Italians are starting to revert to type. What they really need is to have ordered all that artillery, but then entirely fail to actually manufacture any.
Oh, it gets really really odd at times... I thought I had produced them all, cancelled the construction of several brigades because I thought I had miscounted and then discovered that there were still divisions out there that did not have artillery brigades attached...
Good Job, Italy.
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VI: 5. Caesar in Hellas: Operation Naxos
Caesar in Hellas:
Operation Naxos
Italy and Greece had been at each other’s throats for years--if not millennia--before the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in 1941. The rise in tensions in 1941 could be attributed largely to Mussolini’s fear of becoming overshadowed by German success at territorial expansion. Hitler’s success in growing Germany without firing a shot in anger convinced Mussolini that Italy would be able to accomplish the same thing, and with the amount of discord in the Allies’ ranks (even if things escalated to war) Mussolini was certain that the West would simply wring their hands and scold Italy as they had done during both the Abyssinian War and the overthrow of Albania.
For their part, the British and French publicly stated support for Athens, but Westminster refused to be drawn into anything concrete that might show solid support. Indeed, the cabinet viewed Greece as a likely drain on the British resources, which might need to be employed elsewhere. They encouraged Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas to make diplomatic overtures to Rome, in a hope that the Italians would remain neutral in any future war on the Continent. Mussolini, for his part, played up these dispatches, publicly claiming that he would always respect Greek neutrality and even offered to formalize relations by renewing the 1928 treaty and selling Greece combat aircraft. Britain interjected, informing the Metaxas government that such a formal arrangement would cause their own support to disappear. This slight thaw only lasted until February after Italy invaded Albania.
In the months since the takeover of Albania, Greece had been making significant defensive preparations for an Italian attack. Italy, for its part, had been preparing a significant number of garrison troops to pacify the Albanian territory, but only three divisions had been deployed by 1941. Large numbers of former CCNN retrained as regular infantry would form the bulk of forces deployed to Albania; it would be their first taste of combat as well as validation of whether or not they could be relied upon to carry the fight to the enemy. With the planning process already started back in April, Mussolini ordered the Italian nation to mobilize on 21 July.
The sinking of the Elli in port. This action precipitated
the invasion of Greece.
By mid-August, the rancorous back and forth culminated in the sinking of a Greek light cruiser Elli by the Italian submarine Delfino on 15 August and the bombardment of Greek merchant shipping the same day by Italian aircraft; all under orders from the Supramarino.* Greece, desiring to calm the populace, claimed ignorance of the source of the torpedoes and bombs, but no one was fooled. The Italian ambassador to Greece, Emanuele Grazzi, wrote in his memoirs that the attack had caused the unification of a people “deeply riven by unbridgeable political differences and old and deep-running political hatreds.” He would continue to say that the people would harden to resist any invasion. That these events occurred the same day as the delivery of the Italian ultimatum to Greece only further inflamed popular opinion. Metaxas replied laconically, “Alors, c’est la guerre,” (“Then it is war” in French) and the announcement carried over Athens Radio stated that “Since 0530 this morning, the enemy is attacking our vanguard on the Greek-Albanian border. Our forces are defending the fatherland.”
The Greeks had not had the time to fully mobilize their forces and were caught out of position. The Italians had deployed two corps, II and VIII, with a total of eight divisions in Albania as well as their airborne division, based out of Rhodes. Later in August, several further divisions were brought from IX Corps, but they were not originally available at the start of the campaign because of the fear that the British would declare war against Italy and there not being enough of the MSVN divisions to hold the ports in mainland Italy.
The Regia Marina dispatched the oldest battlewagons of SAG Africa to patrol in the Aegean and the cruiser force of SAG Adriatic (centered on the Trento cruisers) to cruise the Albanian coast to support operations ashore there. SAG Mediterranean, built around the four Littorio battleships, had notionally been dispatched to support those forces ashore, but this “deployment” meant little more than waving the flag operations well away from any real threat of fighting as well as to save fuel for other ships less important to the Navy high command. SAG Libya (formed from the Zara-class heavy and second wave Condottieri-class light cruisers) supported the forces ashore in Crete to cut it off from the mainland. The Supramarino also dispatched several submarine groups to choke off shipping to Greece, though little was accomplished given the small size of the force and the sparsity of valid targets. Little thought had been paid in the last decade concerning actually training the cruiser or submarine forces, which also likely contributed their lack of success--a waste of precious resources.
For it’s part, the Regia Aeronautica dispatched Gruppo 100 (Air Mobility Command) to ferry 1 Airborne (1 AB) on its operation to secure Crete from the recently improved bases at Rhodes. Also flying from Rhodes was 1TBW (1 and 2 TBG). 4TFW, consisting of 7 and 8 TFGs of multi-role aircraft supported the forces in Northern Greece from Tirane. Most other assets were retained by the high command for contingency operations in case of intervention from the Allies. This included the crack I Corps, holding the five mountain divisions arrayed along the Italian-French border and the five Cavalry (light armored) divisions in North Africa.
A view of the orders of battle of Italy and Greece
in comparison with one another. Catching the
Greeks before their mobilization was complete
proved to be a stroke of luck for the Italians. Below:
The arrangement of Greek forces for battle.
The first phase of the Italian plan involved II and VIII Corps invading Greece from Albania while 1 AB conducted an airborne assault into Crete. In Albania, the seven divisions of II and VIII Corps faced five understrength divisions across the border. These first engagements began on 14 August, and all concluded within the first day or two of the war; a rapid advance took place as those divisions brushed aside virtually all efforts by those Greeks to initiate any sort of defensive operations until 20 August. The air assault specifically targeted territory away from the Greek infantry division that was holding in Irakleio, as the high command did not want to drop their premier division directly into combat, their drop was completed by 16 August. 1 AB engaged the 5th Infantry Division (5.ID-GK) briefly in Irakleio on 18 August, but their resistance melted away in the hot Cretan sun.
Phase 1 of the invasion.
With much of the resistance pushed aside, combat began to stagnate around the central mainland region of Macedonia. II Corps had been tasked with capturing the strategic city of Thessaloniki [Salonica], at the same time covering the left flank of VIII Corps as it marched down through Ipiros regions into Central Greece. With little input aside from the expected hand-wringing of the French and British--calls for an embargo in the League of Nations abounded, though not one member actually pushed for such a resolution--Mussolini ordered more troops be sent into the fray. IX Corps, headquartered in Sicily, began organizing a pair of landings: one from the 31st Infantry Division (31 ID) for the Amfissa region to cut off Athens from the rest of the nation and a second with the 29th Infantry Division (29 ID) to support the 1 AB with securing Crete. This second phase largely started around 22 August, but VIII Corps’ units were hung up around Morfi; this angered the II Corps’ commander, General Roatta, who believed (largely rightly) that his corps was conducting much of the fighting in Greece.
Phase 2 of Operation Naxos.
Indeed, VIII Corps under General Berti was having difficulty advancing through Arta, and he was under significant pressure to reach 31 ID, well behind enemy lines. The corps would take nearly ten days to reach 31 ID in Amfissa, but in the meantime, II Corps had already begun the assault on Salonica, cutting off Thrace from the rest of Greece. Over the course of the next week, combat swirled around central Greece, as the Italian troops pressed their opponents back to the anvil of Amfissa held by 31 ID. On Crete, 29 ID landed on 29 August, and together with 1 AB forced the surrender of 5.ID-GK within days. The leg infantry loaded up in Irakleio to land in Nafplio to secure the southern flank of Athens--a destination they wouldn’t fully secure until 10 September--one of the biggest blunders of the war as it cost the division nearly 600 killed in action for almost no strategic purpose.
The final stages of the battle for Greece.
By 16 September, the back had been broken on Greek resistance. The Metaxas government had long since fled Athens, and those left behind sued for peace. Italy annexed Greece into their Empire, and the various divisions of the Esercito’s II and VIII Corps began to take up occupying positions in the conquered nation. The French had refused to intervene, which caused the British to shrink away from doing so as well, especially as Westminster and Quai d’Orsay both saw any declaration of war upon the Italians as bringing Germany into a wider war which they were not ready for. With Greece’s capitulation, the Axis grew more ascendant in Europe.
*****
Authors’ Notes:
[*]: In OTL, when the war was over, one of the surviving Italian light cruisers was transferred to Greece. It was renamed Elli.
I'm sorry for the break, and that I haven't ginned up the OOB for this post yet. I was working on trying to make sure that this post got put together for everyone. Also, might want to take a look at the Table of Contents! I put up a lot of stuff to try and keep people interested about where things are going in this story to try and get myself motivated. I'm having problems with my life right now--my finacee and I are breaking up and so everything seems like its falling apart. Worse still that things were looking so positive just a few months ago. Also, I might not be around much these next few weeks as the academy is into the final "operational" phase of training with regards to Patrol Techniques and Officer Survival... wish me luck!
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Good luck! Take your time. Remember real life is more important than AAR.
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Very best of luck my friend. I remember that phase of my own initial officer training in some ways like it was yesterday. Even if it was almost 40 years ago!
And all the best for everything else. Know you have good friends here wishing you well and waiting until you feel like either updating or just saying hello or commenting on other AARs.
PS: If resistance to interrogation after capture is part of the survival stage, remember: don't try to 'play' them or be a smart-arse. I did once and it doesn't work!! Name, rank and serial number.
And all the best for everything else. Know you have good friends here wishing you well and waiting until you feel like either updating or just saying hello or commenting on other AARs.
PS: If resistance to interrogation after capture is part of the survival stage, remember: don't try to 'play' them or be a smart-arse. I did once and it doesn't work!!
Name, rank and serial number. - 1
The Italians won!
As to other matters - look after yourself. And take whatever time you need for yourself. I hesitate to say I know the feeling, but last year I went through (and am still going through) a not dis-similar relationship situation.
As to other matters - look after yourself. And take whatever time you need for yourself. I hesitate to say I know the feeling, but last year I went through (and am still going through) a not dis-similar relationship situation.
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