In at the Death: The fall of the Italian Social Republic

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These Italians and their crappy outdated equipment :rofl:. This Salo Republic is pretty original to play. Hope you manage to hold the line!

Edit - Reminds me of Captain Bertorelli and his troops from Allo, Allo. haha

 

[Dr.Dave]

Great AAR! Subscribed!

 

[CCA]

Myth - Yes indeedy - it is back - although updated much more sporadically - HOI3 is extremely slow and I have discovered a brilliant little mod called "Kaiserreich" for HOI2 and started an AAR based on it:
That AAR will be my primary focus - although I will be making updates on this AAR here and there.

BoemsiBoemsie - Yeah the Salo Republic is pretty original - and also *fun* to play. However HOI3 lags like a cuddly soft toy on my computer - it's not much fun waiting 20 seconds after every day!

Dr.Dave - Thank you Dr. Dave - I hope not to disappoint!

and without further ado the promised gameplay AAR from June 22 - July 24

Research:
- I decide to focus exclusively on Militia stuff - I'm planning to have an almost entirely militia based army for plot and gameplay reasons. (My factories keep getting bombed to almost nothing - I don't see the Salo Republic being able to raise anything more sophisticated than Militia regiments)

Production:
- In keeping with my Research focus I've decided to concentrate on militia - I've decided to raise 3 militia brigades, which will be either tacked on to existing divisions or given a completely new formation - I haven't decided yet. And a few AA brigades - allied airpower is playing havoc with my troops and IC - lacking an air force - I should at least have *something* with which to shoot back!

The Cabinet:
- I don't remember making any changes - interesting though that Mussolini is a "No Minister Type" - possibly a bug?

The Battle of Fabriano:
- A screenshot of one of the many battles of Fabriano - ok only one Italian division actually participated - but hey! What makes good propaganda and what the truth is are not even nodding acquintances with each other.

The Western Front:
- Although Axis claims about "Anglo-Saxon invaders being thrown off the beaches of France" is completely true. The German AI seems to have successfully repulsed the allied invasion! Perhaps they shall assist their brave Italian comrades *coughs loudly*

The Eastern Front:
- That is if they don't get overrun quickly in the Eastern Front! Our brave Romanian comrades have made a courages - but possibly foolish decision - we shall stand with them and fight with them to the gates of Berlin if need be.

Edit: and for those interested in my HOI2 Kaiserreich AAR:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?p=10209771

 

[linkthewindow]

Yeah, I think "no minister type" is a bug - at the moment my head oif State and head of Government are both "not ministers" in my Romania game :/.

 

[Myth]

Whoo, militia!

 

[Dr.Dave]

I agree with Myth!

Nice to see the germans doing so well on the western front, but too bad about Romania.. Let's hope the soviets doesn't overrun you.

 

[CCA]

linkthewindow Yeah - hopefully they fix that up on the 1.3 patch!

Myth - I wish I shared your enthusiasm for Militia Well I do , but that doesn't make them great combat troops. Hopefully they'll do ok holding at the Gothic Line

Dr.Dave Oh, trust me it just gets worse!

_________________________________________________________________

August

August is widely regarded as the low-point of the Axis Alliance. In a single month the Axis was reduced to 4 members (Croatia, Italian Social Republic, Japan, Germany, (Siam?) as Hungary and Finland capitulated to the advancing forces of the Red Army... The Salo Republic, however was beginning to further cement it's legitemacy throught the Battles of Fabriano and Fabo. These two battles are often taken to be the 'bloody birth of a nation and the baptism of fire' Before the Battles of Fabriano and Fano the Italian Social Republic was regarded as a little less than a German puppet state. Afterwards, the fighting prowess of the Salo Republic's soldiers had convinced even the most ardent nay-sayers that the Salo Republic was here to stay. Mussolini also used the leverage gained from these battles and the distracted state of the German Army to loosen the iron grip that Germany previously had on Italian internal affairs.

(I'm going to unpuppet myself by loading as Germany)
An excerpt taken from "Salo: A Sellotape State?"

Members of the 3a San Marco division pose for a photo

The Battle of Fano

The Battle of Fano took place during World War II, on August 22 to August 30, 1944, near Fano, Italy, as part of the "Operation Dingle". The battle was a clear Italian/German Axis victory which also had repurcussions on the employment of Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano and the Italian Social Republic that went beyond the immediate tactical and strategic results of the battle.

The Battle of Fano also marks the first time that the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano fought as a majority with German troops playing a supporting role.

Background:
On 22 August 1944 the Allies launched Operation Dingle, a series of probing attacks and 'opportunistic offensives' on the Gothic Line to test the Gothic Line defences and the strenght of the National Republical Army. The attacks were supposed to be merely 'probing' ones but each corps commander had leave to 'expand the operational capacity' of the attacks to 'take advantage of weakness.' One such 'weak point' identified in the Gothic Line was a thinly held area centred around the town of Fano. The sector was held by the disorganized 10th SS Panzer Division, The 3a Italian 'San Marco' marine division, the 2a "Littorio" division with the badly depleted German 278 Infantry Division being kept in reserve.

On 22 August General McBride launched a two-pronged attack. The main attack, by the British 8th and 10th Indian Motorized Division would go up the coast and attack Fabo directly. In a secondary simultaneous attack the 80th "Blue Ridge" as to infiltrate by bypassing the town and heading north to cut off the defender's supply lines. The initial attack achieved operational surprise, the 10th SS Panzer division was badly disorganized, with it's official duty in Fano being "Rest and Refitting," the 10th SS division could not fight as a coherent force for the duration of the battle. So the San Marco and Italia division bore the full weight of the Allied offensive. It is worth remembering that these two divisions only had a very limited motorized capability.

It came as no surprise then that the faster and more organized British attackers were able to successfully cut through the Italian-German lines and encircle Fano by August 27.
IMG]http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/5562/hoi348small.png[/IMG]

However, this encirclement could not last long, by August 28th relieving troops in the form of the German 326 Infantry Division had arrived to turn the tide.

By August 29, British troops began to pull out of their positions. The Battle of Fano had finished and the Italian Social Republic was able to declare it's first victory as an independent power (notwithstanding the fact that it was German troops arriving to the rescue that had turned the tide...)


Aftermath:
The Battle of Fano was a huge propaganda triumph for the Salo Republic. Republical propagandists played up the Battle of Fano as a crucial one with Agenzia Stefani describing the 2a Littorio and 3a San Marco division as 'heroes having saved not only the Gothic Line, or Italy, but the entire Axis.' Regime propagandists gave the impression that Fano was the 'hinge' that the Gothic line was based on. Although these claims were exaggerated, the fact still remained - outnumbered and outguned Italian troops had managed to hold off and eventually defeat a force easily twice it's size with substantial air support. This victory cemented Mussolini's authority and put him in a position to negotiate the "Salo Agreement" with Hitler.
An Excerpt from Wikipedia

The ENR at the end of August 1944:

By the end of August 1944 the bulk of the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano was in a disorganized state and worn by unending battle.

Meanwhile, the collapse of the Hungarian Front has led to a potential problem with Soviet troops possibly poised to pour through this gap in the Axis lines. Could the depleted ENR successfully defend both fronts? What would Mussolini request in the "Salo Agreement?" Find out more!

 

[Myth]

The Italian front looks like it's all right for the moment, but Hungary is certainly worrying. It wouldn't be good to have another front to deal with.

 

[CCA]

The Italian front looks like it's all right for the moment, but Hungary is certainly worrying. It wouldn't be good to have another front to deal with.

Yeah it is quite a problem - I think I'm going to end up defeated by Soviet, rather than allied armies!.

Does anyone know how to edit the saves so that I can give myself an airforce? Historically the ISR did have an airforce and I want to mod that in