Chapter 49: Cyprus and Sardinia.
In preparation of the expected Japanese assault, I have moved 2 battleship squadrons and the carrier squadron to Ceylon. They will be tasked with ensuring no Japanese soldier will ever set foot in Singapore. Basing them in Ceylon gives them the range to do the job while also keeping ships that are in port well out of enemy bomber range.
Why do I need three squadrons? The reason is simple. If I keep just 1 squadron on duty at all times, Japan will probably launch attack after attack and in a war of attrition, they will have the upper hand, this close to their home waters. In order to solve this problem, my squadrons will work in shifts: one on standby, one on duty blocking the strait of Singapore and one (probably) under repairs. Note that I have used my most experienced admirals here. The Japanese navy is too powerful to take stupid risks.
I have also rebased a Fighter Group from Britain to Singapore, where they will provide aerial protection to the ships in case of a carrier presence.
Mexico is ready to join the Allies, in terms of Neutrality, but they are still impossible, which means they will join just as soon as the US does, who has a Neutrality of 28.74, or when Japan starts giving us a hard time.
Some of my ships got damaged in the raid on Sicily, and I will need to let them repair for a while before engaging in further offensives.
The Germans seem to be doing very good, unfortunately, so, just for the sake of argument, let’s be perfectly clear about it: if, by chance, they should get the Soviets to sign the Bitter Peace, I might not be able to defeat them on my own. All those units that are now playing Tchaikovski, will be able to return home for some Mozart in Paris, and they will have immense combat experience. German IC will go through the roof and they can do or build whatever they want.
I have never seen the AI do it on TFH, but they might. Defeating them then would become a battle of attrition between their MP and my flying circus. Since I would rely on the US for extra divisions, and the US is an AI, I cannot trust them to do the right thing.
And with that little disclaimer out of the way, let’s continue with our regularly scheduled program of messing with Italy.
My naval patrols sink a destroyer and a transport. They have a tiny squadron out in the sea, consisting of a cruiser and a destroyer, but they keep getting away after a short battle. The rest of the Regia Marina is still docked in Napels, which gives me a little idea.
But let’s liberate Cyprus first, shall we? This time, I’m not taking any chances. I have build 2 garrisons that will be placed on the island, in case Italy has any more paratroopers at hand.
The build-up of the 4th army is nearing its peak, and, as you can see, there are a couple of new interesting generals available in 1941.
While my preparations are underway, I want to show you what a single milita brigade can do the enemy’s supply lines (or yours, for that matter). I spawn just a single partisan brigade in Poland, and give it orders to make a beeline for the Slovakian border just south of Krakow.
The IC freed up by the construction of the armour divisions and the garrisons, is put to good use. The infantry divisions in Britain, who have been on port defense duty since 1936, can be freed up. First, though, I will have to give them their heavy artillery. There is also a division with only 2 infantry brigades, so it will need an extra infantry brigade as well, to bring it up to full strength. I start maxing out the naval and air bases in Tripoli, Misurata and Benghazi so that they can handle more supplies.
The partisans have reached Krakow, which is fortified, but had no division present, and the Italian light armour division comes just too late to stop us. We have now drawn a 3-province long scar across Poland. That are 3 provinces where German supplies cannot go anymore. In this case, it’s just a minor inconvenience, but it does mean that they have to reroute their supplies, which means more provinces traveled. Since every province draws a tiny amount of supplies, called Supply Tax, that’s less supplies to reach the frontline troops. It also means that Germany will have to send someone over there to stop them and defeat them. The Italian Larm tries, but Krakow is urban terrain and has a level-2 fort. With the weak Italian armour they fail to defeat a single militia brigade. It does slow me down long enough for a German infantry division to come around the South and head us off. This is where our run will end.
Tag-switching to Germany, this is what it looks like from their POV. All those supplies retraced around my “scar”.
By the way, I found this on the Wiki, so I might as well reproduce it here. These are the meanings of the different colours when you’re on the Supply Mapmode:
· Green provinces are receiving all of their requested supplies, and local units will be fully supplied.
· Blue denotes a supply surplus, which builds up over time.
· Black shows provinces in a state of zero supply, but with the possibility of requesting relief.
· Brown shows a province has received supply, but not enough to meet demand.
· Red hatching denotes a limitation imposed by a lack of infrastructure in the province (i.e. supply demand exceeds the supply throughput). This is known as a "supply bottleneck."
· Red shows when a province with units has zero supply.
· Yellow denotes supply received does not meet demand and the infrastructure is damaged.
· The colors used on the map only refer to supply, and not fuel - although the mouse tooltip for each province will show specific numbers for both supply and fuel.
If I were so inclined, I could even have given them a general if they had found another militia brigade to fuse with.
Another side-effect: after the fighting in Krakow, just before the militia tries to get out, the city has been banged up a bit, meaning that the Germans will have devote at least some IC to the repairs.
I disband the partisans after that, because they are a useless distraction on their own.
Back to the main topic: the Mediteranean is mine now, and I can freely sink Italian convoys at will, barring interference from their bombers.
My second group of naval bombers is coming off the production lines and I use the IC to start building 21 militia divisions. Nothing fancy; just 4 Mil brigades because they are fast, cheap, and don’t require a lot of officers. 21 divisions will allow me to station 1 in each port in Britain. Just consider them the Home Army, if you will.
I have made some changes in the OOB in Africa.
Auchinleck, previously in command of 4th army, becomes a field marshall and is placed in charge of the 2nd Army Group.
Lord Gort, previously in charge of 9th Corps, becomes a full general in charge of 4th army, while O’Connor replaces him as commander of 9th corps and a new major general is put in charge of his former division.
If you ever play Italy, it is vital to move your generals as they gain experience to build up a reasonable officer corps by 1939-19340.
My planes and ships in the Med are also placed under the 2nd Army Group, who now has the command of 25 divisions, 13 of which are infantry, and the rest are Armour and Motorised Divisions.
8th Corps is a mixed corps of infantry and armour as a placeholder. The infantry divisions here will be put to other use later. The marines remain under direct command of the Theater HQ, as does the airborne division, because they would travel furthest for their job.
The Italians take until september to get back onto Sicily. Even then, they have 2 German infantry divisions as support. It almost looks like they’re scared.
We are going to do the same thing we did before, but this time we will also take the 2 garrisons along, who will stay on board the transports while the invasion is underway. My subs and a Battleships Squadron are doing picket duty. I have 1 marine pinning the paras in place, while the other 4 land in Lefkosia.
Eleven days later, the garrisons are in place and the marines are moving out.
While the Italians are retaking Sicily, I have other plans further north.
The target: Napoli.
The mission: surround the city and take it, forcing their navy out, where my battleships are waiting.
Strategic Option: depending on resistance offered, the armour will hold the northern line of my beachhead, while the infantry and motorised divisions will take as much of the southern part of the Italian boot as possible. If all goes well, the navy will be ravaged and southern Italy will be ours. I can either invade Sicily or I can simply use my subs to keep the divisions trapped on the island. It all depends on how much resistance I encounter.
Greatest Risk: I will have to keep the landing fleet in Napoli in case I have to pull a fast Dunkerque. I will need substantial fighter cover to keep the Italian bombers away, but I don’t have the range from Tripoli.
There are a couple of ways around this problem. I could retake Sicily. Simple, direct and efficient, plus an easy defense against mainland Italian troops.
I could declare war on Vichy, since I’m fairly certain I would be able to provide aircover from Tunis, but the US likes to declare war on Vichy after joining the Allies, so I’m going to let them do it. It will give them a presence in the general area and offer more of an incentive to joining an invasion of France (I hope).
Sardinia is behind door number three, and it is the one I’m going to go for. Besides opening practically all of Italy up to my long-range fighters and tactical bombers, Sardinia is also Italy’s primary source of Rares in Cagliari. Taking that away from them, will weaken their economy and, thus, their entire warmachine. I’m only going to use infantry, since most of the island is hills and mountains, and the primary target, the south port, is urban.
The main focus will be to get the troops off the landing fleet as fast as possible, since my entire naval combat presence in the Med will be exposed to Italian bombers.
I am going to use 9th, 10th and the infantry complement of 8th corps in the attack, which should provide overwhelming numbers.
The invasion starts on the 25th of September, and, as expected, the landings are almost completely unopposed, while the Italian airforce has a field day with my ships. Luckily, I don’t lose any, but some of them do end up pretty banged up.
After 8 days, Sardinia is mine. I leave the infantry from 8th corps behind, along with an infantry division from 9th corps, to guard the island, directly attached to the theater HQ.
Leningrad has fallen and the Soviet Union declares the Great Patriotic War. This is where their main asset, their massive MP, comes into fruition, provided they have enough troops left to hold the line.
As you can see, the Fighter Group I stationed in Cagliari can reach just about the entire Italian peninsula. If I wanted to, I could use my strategic bombers to start hitting the Romanian oil fields from here, or target Austria, just to spite Hitler.
Next: Phase 2 of my plan. See you then!
