Chapter 51: War On All Fronts.
Leningrad has fallen, but that’s no surprise. In my own campaigns, it is always the easiest of the 3 big cities to take. As long as the Germans don’t take Moscow and Stalingrad, they should be ok.
I have my own concerns to ponder.
One of those is the safety of Singapore. I have send one of the Battleship Squadrons from Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) to sit in the strait, protected by my fighters. The infantry corps will stay in Singapore for now. I want to see where and how the Japanese will move in before I commit them to the battle. Last thing I need is for them to be cut off, surrounded and destroyed.
I have also started a tentative move forward with the defenders of India. There are still no Japanese troops in sight and the Siamese army should be no match for the power of the British army. Look at that infrastructure. Offensives here will be slow and it is all but impossible to really use large armies with such appaling logistics.
Hong Kong is lost, but that was pre-calculated. It is no VP, and there are no resources to protect, and it is virtually undefendable, being surrounded on all sides by Japanese provinces.
Things will kind of jump between the European and Indian theaters from now on, but there’s no helping it. Doing it this way, helps new players to compartmentalize information. In the game, you too will be fighting on two or more fronts at the same time.
A first, halfhearted countermove by the Italian army is easily deflected by a flanking attack, forcing them to break off their own attack.
The Home Guard is coming off the production lines. I give each of them a random level-1 general and attach them directly to the Theater HQ. I always do this because I might, at some point, automate things somewhere and I always do this at the Army Group level, thereby ensuring that my port defenders stay where they should be at all times. The infantry will remain on post for now, until they have gotten their artillery and every port is covered by a Home Guard Division.
This gives me the opportunity to introduce the UK’s special unit: the Ghurka. Ghurkas are experts at mountain and jungle fighting. Just like with all national units, the total number of regiments you are allowed to have, is limited to a certain percentage of your total “infantry” regiments. This total includes mountaineers, marines, infantry, garrisons, motorised and mechanised regiments, but not tanks. The British army is still quite small, so I can only start training 3 Ghurka regiments. I can also start building 8 more regular infantry divisions, still using 3inf+1arty as my template.
I can see a lot of movement from the Germans and my radar in Dover picks up a Bulgarian and Hungarian HQ moving along the Baltic coast, heading north, into Russia. The Germans are planning something, it seems.
In Italy, I start getting organised, so that I can move deeper south and eliminate the Italian divisions in this part of the country. The 4th Army is currently too far away from the 2nd Army Group HQ, but that one is on its way by SR to Tripoli, where they will be 555 km from Napoli and able to restore communications.
More militia come off the line and are replaced by 2 mountain divisions.
As expected, the Siamese army tries to secure the passage between India and Birma, but they will be pushed back easily. Hungary joins the war against the Allies. We are now at war with everyone between the Channel and the Soviet Union. This is a good point to mention jungles: very hard to move through (50% slower), a -0.40 to attack and a massive attrition rate of 2%. Sustained offensives are not going to be easy, but if we can deal an early blow to Siam, that might be worth it. Siam has 6 VPs. The southern 2 VP provinces, Phet Buri and Bangkok, total 4 together. This should be enough to make Siam surrender. That means that the Japanese will have to fight their way through, provided we can make them into a puppet quickly enough.
Back in the UK, the artillery is coming off the production line as well. Soon, I will be able to use these divisions in a more offensive capacity as well.
It is the 21st of November and I am ready to move out. Time to take the fight to the enemy! Some of my units are out of supplies. It takes time to establish a supply network, even with a large port like Napoli under our control.
The initial successes in Indochina will be followed by an invasion of Siam. I hope to knock them out of the war quickly, thereby forcing Japan to spend manpower, time and effort in getting control back.
Fighting breaks out between Vichy and Iraq.
Taranto falls on the 4th of December after an overwhelming attack by infantry, motorised and armoured divisions against the mountaineers and garrison defenders.
By now, the Axis have gotten organised and launch a powerful attack on Isernia, the center of my defensive line, led by a very dangerous man, with Ortona coming under attack the following day. Now you can see why I placed troops in Ortona. If I hadn't, Rommel could have attacked Isernia from 3 sides. Now he only has 2 provinces to work with.
The southern escape route is almost ready, but not quite. However, Taranto is mine, so an escape is possible. The attacks in the north go up to around 66%. I send my fighters on ground attacks to hamper the enemy while lanuching careful spoiling attacks of my own.
It’s the 6th of December. The attacks in the north are still going on. My southern force is mostly starting to set up a secondary line of defense behind the river that runs just north of Napoli, while a handful of divisions keep pushing deeper and deeper.
Park’s fighters are the heroes of the hour. Exhausted after weeks of nonstop operations, they have succesfully send the Axis bombers packing, and the attack has started to falter. I can't allow them to rest, though. They have to keep the pressure on Rommel's men.
On the 11th, after a couple of days of nonstop bombing by Park, the battle of Isernia has been won with a killrate of about 3:1. Long live good defensive positions. Never underestimate the defenses offered by rivers, mountains and (to a lesser degree) woods. Park moves on to the units attacking Ortona. A couple of days later, they too will end their assault.
In Siam, we are moving ever closer to Bangkok and Phet Buri. Victory is only weeks away.
See you next time!