1946, August 21st:
- The Brazilian Navy pays off some of its older destroyers to free up manpower for land operations. Destroyers older than the
Amazonas-class series contribute little to shore bombardment and so can be easily spared.
- The Germans finish off the Americans in Rimini and we launch a spoiling attack on Rijeka to cover the evacuation of General Neto's armies in Croatia. German fighters reappear after a quiet period to ravage a CAS air army; The Brazilian airforce has taken heavier casualties of late then we expected, due to mobile and fixed AA (German AA efficiency is now at 225%). Putting too many fighters on ground attack instead of air superiority hasn't helped any either...
1946, August 22nd - 27th:
- President Gomes rethinks the matter of Croatia; Brazil annexes the country. 47 Axis divisions gather in Ljubjana and other nearby to retake the place, now the most important military objective to Hitler and his allies. The German drive south in Italy continues, but they are now running into the same problems we did earlier: miserable infrastructure in Rimini and Florence and defenders waiting to counterattack anyone who enters what has become a ruin-strewn shooting gallery.
- The Americans, whose idea of a holding defence is an all-out attack, blissfully cruise right back into Rimini. Shore bombardment keeps things from getting too nasty. The Italians tire of the upkeep on their last remaining warship, the modern fast battleship
Cristoforo Colombo, and order its unhappy captain and panicked crew to prowl, unescorted, off Genoa. The Axis pay no attention.
1946, August 28th:
- Brazilian forces evacuate the Adriatic coast. Grand Admiral Macedo Correa Pinto and Field Marshal Marscarenhas de Morais discuss what needs to happen next.
1946, September 1st - 3rd:
- Most of the Brazilian Navy cruises around the Italian boot to the west. American and German troops trade long-suffering Rimini and Florence several times, the Germans eventually coming off the winners.
1946, September 4th - 5th:
- Vasconcelos' highly experienced marines make short work of the Vichy defenders of Nice and begin to make for shore. A day later we realize that Brazilian occupation is NOT what we want in this case: The Americans get three new divisions and landing operations begin all over again.
1946, September 5th - 6th:
- Hausser, in unpleasant contrast, is wasting no time. Just before midnight on the 5th, he orders "Panzers Vor" and 19 divisions, 10 armored and all the rest mechanized or motorized with self-propelled or heavy attachments, hurl themselves at the Brazilian defenders of Perugia.
- We counterattack Florence, drawing off nine divisions and leaving Justo in charge, who convincingly demonstrates the superior power of German armour, even attacking into the hills and against fortifications. We retreat to Cassino an hour after dawn.
1946, September 7th:
- The exulting Germans gleefully ride into our shattered formations and drive upon Anzio to cut off Rome. To their horror, however, Brazil overtrumps: At them we hurl Gomes' massed CAS and, just to make destruction
quite sure, a counter attack to force the enemy to "cycle" in and out of what has suddenly been revealed as a deadly trap. Perugia, the only province the Axis own in the Central Italy airzone, makes a magnificent killing ground.
1946, September 8th:
- Vasconcelos secures a beachhead and hands over logistical responsibility to those who do it much better than we can. As weak Slovakian and Vichy French forces harass our marines, Brazilian reinforcements race to land.
1946, September 9th - 10th:
- How quickly hope is dashed. Germany smashes through and past Perugia by sheer brute mass. Anzio falls! Rome is cut off! With extraordinary speed and force a least two hundred divisions are driving into Italy. By attacking the Balkans we did indeed encourage the Germans to guard their left flank ... but they used
additional forces out of central Europe to do it, leaving their center, never weakened, now more powerful than ever.
- We've been Dunkirked. This is dreadfully familiar, but the risks now are greater then they were even in Britain. Virtually all of Brazil's mobile divisions are now pocketed in Rome and Nice. With nothing like enough strength to make a left-hand blow work, and our enemies having seized the initiative we held, de Morais' grand plan has well and truly been defeated. Now we must save what we can.
