boldairade
Posts: 722
Joined: 1/15/2005 Status: offline
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April 23, 1943 Greece/Olympus Allied planners expected Axis forces here to adopt a defensive posture to take advantage of rough terrain if Allied units could take Athens. This is NOT what happens. The Axis forces railed into this theater are powerful and built for offensive maneuvers. A panzer grenadier corps, armor corps, and alpine corps have arrived on the front. Seeing that the worn down US VII Corps is holding Athens, the Axis attack. Air strikes soften up US defenses, and then the 7th Pz Grenadiers, supported by 32nd Coastal division and Italian tac bombers go over to the offensive. Two attacks, however, are stopped cold by Allied bombers and especially the Allied fleet. Allied planners are sure that next turn, we will see more powerful Axis forces contesting Athens. XIX Pz Corps will likely attack with support for 7th Pz Grenadiers and 2nd Italian Alpine Corps. The Allies do everything they can to prepare a defense of the key port city. Worn down naval units are rotated out, but relatively fresh BB and CA are moved in to support the ground troops. Battered VII Corps is withdrawn, and the elite III Canadian Corps moves up. Additionally, with Axis bombers exhausted and Italian subs withdrawn, the Canadian HQ and General Simmonds land in the south. Finally, another fighter formation lands in Athens itself, UK No 1 Fighter. This is all an immense risk. Should Athens fall, we will be able to neither supply or effectively withdraw the number of formations in Greece. Nirosi knows this. He is likely gambling absolutely everything on driving us out. On the one hand, it is a huge opportunity for him to make a kill. On the other, he may feel a need to eliminate this theater. Right now, Germany is fighting the BOA, the air war over the Reich, Norway, Africa, Greece, and of course the Eastern Front. Nirosi may feel that this is just too much for Germany to handle in the long run, and is going for broke to eliminate Greece. This is precisely why the original Olympus was to be launched only AFTER Germany launched its spring offensive in the East-so that top German formations could not react. A mild positive: A fresh US heavy bomber arrived in Rhodes last turn and this turn hammers Axis oil fields in Ploesti, doing significant damage.
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< Message edited by boldairade -- 1/17/2022 1:56:10 AM >
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