December 1st-5th 1944
11:00 December 1st 1944
Further efforts are being made to shift enemy troops away from the coastal enclaves. Again the object is to unstick them from their positions rather than to rush in and take the territory. The bombers need targets and they are going to get them.
More submarines. We seem to be seeing a lot of these and by the looks of things they all get deployed in Miami and then all take the same path towards my convoy routes. The routing doesn't respond to my air patrols but if I put an ASW fleet in their path the AI is likely to go round so that won't work. Also, an ASW fleet would soon have an unpleasant encounter with those two big fleets we saw. This is something I may try when the current naval campaign is closed down as the US fleet definitely needs cleaning up again.
This is what you have all been waiting for. With operations arriving in Ecuador I have finally launched an operation in Central America. The naval support is no longer needed elsewhere so Kasakka's Fallschirmjäger are sent into Managua. The drop is at night to avoid any disastrous air interception and they are down, organised and fighting. With good air and naval support victory shouldn't be too difficult. Once I have control of the province they can defend temporarily and a large force will be shipped in. This will then form a block in Central America and I will expand southwards and take control of the whole coast of South America.
Weather in Central America is very poor but with the kind of support I have establishing a beachhead shouldn't be too difficult
This is something I didn't bargain for. The US troops advancing from Tegucigalpa are allowed to join in the battle even though they have yet to reach Managua province yet. I have this awful Market Garden feeling - just old men and kids turns out to be veteran armoured troops. This is most unfortunate.
Exciting enough yet?
Come dawn the air support arrives and I realise the awful truth. Because the battle is in Managua I can only get air support to attack the three infantry divisions or at least that appears to be what happens. Sending air units to the Tegucigalpa region doesn't seem to work.
Now is it exciting enough?
The next operation is an attack on Medellin. With my troops heading for Quito taking Medellin will lead to cutting the allied forces inland off from the whole west coast of South America. The occupation of both provinces will take time but the end of the main campaign is now vaguely in sight. This attack may even help relieve the situation in Central America (but probably not).
This is a bit worrying but only a bit since the AI has done exactly the wrong thing. There large battleship fleet (assuming that is what it is) is port striking Havana again and hence using only its CVL. Not only that but the CVL will lose org and they will go home till it recovers. So whilst a large fleet appearing would naturally be considered quite scary at this juncture, I actually feel quite safe.
The enemy is defeated in Medellin so I can now eliminate this relatively large force by air attack. This leaves the whole immediate area of coastal province vulnerable as no large enemy force exists to dispute landings.
To support the Fallschirmjäger I need to make more landings and generally clear the whole region south of it. The air landing attack is safe just as long as naval support can be maintained but as more US armoured divisions appear and join in it begins to look like it could be a very long and hence highly risky battle.
The Panama defences collapse but we are now up to 12 US armoured divisions trying to push into Managua as air support has actually destroyed two of the infantry divisions (once they were zero org there seemed little point in more logistic attack)
Now is it exciting enough?
