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AlbertN -> RE: Cohen vs Enrico - AAR nr.4 (Alas Again Restarting!) (9/25/2015 5:10:26 PM)
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Early June 1941 (Impulse #2, Allied to be played) - Marocco
By the end of April the Brits managed miracolously to supply their forces in Marocco. Hitler was not pleased and reprimanded Goering. "The Kriegsmarine is lost and so the navy of my trusted ally, Il Duce. Where is this Royal Navy graveyard you promised me?"
Goering pointed out that all the carriers of United Kingdom were sank or damaged, along an amount of cruisers and battleship! But the Fuhrer pressed on.
So once May opened, the hunter-killer squadrons of the Axis renewed their efforts in Marocco, smashing the Belgian convoy. (But you know of that already).
Yet the Brits were paralized still (Naval impulse) waiting for stable supply; and the sudden conquest of Marocco made the local population somehow unsupportive. (All hexes changed ownership except these in ZoC - that quite disrupted later on the UK supply).
Churchill promised Gort more supplies, and issued the RAF to cover convoys and brought in an old carrier and a surface fleet squadron (Split at the 0 and the 3 Box). And to begin with it seems it worked, the Brits got cruisers damaged (of the 3 box) but then found the Axis well enough to redirect convoys off (Avoid Combat option).
The Axis land offensive though continued, since the Brits were on their spots. The Beefeater MIL (London MIL) was destroyed in combat, and a rearguard of motorized artillery caught alone. Gort thunders to the UK about his worsening situation.
On a note - UK could not bring a convoy in the zone in the impulse they sent ships because of "Presence of the Enemy" and did not had close enough convoys. But in their next impulse the Convoy arrived, and was not found during their turn (The Axis elects to fight any given time it is possible to them - even had to take Combineds with Germans for most of the turn).
IF the convoy survives though, only the 6-4 INF in Mogador would be supplied, because of hexes between Mogador and Gort being Axis due to the Conquest of Marocco!
But the problem does not really sussist. The Axis air squadrons find the prey. (Finally rolling a 1 against a 8 or 9, anyhow netting 13 surprise points! And finding with -everything- including the Bf109s in the 1 box.)
The Luftwaffe shows the RAF the true grit of being a loser of WW1 and having twenty years of suffering. Both fighters of the RAF are destroyed, only aborting a Bf109 themselves. (UK loses a pilot too there).
The Swordfishes of the old carrier Argus promptly opt to return to the carrier, suddenly being quite outgunned and outmatched. (They could have been choosed as "Bombers - but that would have been a gamey tactic since Axis had whatsoever no ships involved and we play fair.)
The Italo-German bombers go past the flak (that aborts a Gabbiano), still having 4 NAV diving and torpedoing the Royal Navy.
3 Destroyed and 2 Aborted - with the last surprise points spent to pick the 2nd target. The Axis destroys the Argus, a Battleship and damages another; the Uk aborts a cruiser, and with the last abort the Convoy is shooed from the sea zone.
The Royal Navy promply elects to vacate the sea zone, leaving Gort to its grim fate.
Gort commands "Every man for himself!" and the UK units start their desperate race toward Cisneceros, but from Mogador and the northern side of the mountain range reaching the coast ... it's a long distance.
The Axis pursues, and destroys the British - only a division remains isolated, and in the Jul / Aug turn will probably be destroyed.
Only of "land" units of UK in the battle for Marocco + Gibraltar whole the Axis netted:
Gort, 1 Mech, 1 Mot-Art, 2 MIL, 1 GAR, 2 INF, 1 MOT, 2 Mot-Div (one of them is the one in the map still, but I consider it destroyed), 1 Eng (That assuming I am not forgetting anything).
That cripples the UK potential for the short coming future of any meaningful landing of sort once the focus will be in Soviet Union.
By the end of June a German Panzergrenadier Corp was spearheading toward an undefended Cisneceros, containing the evacuated RAF remaining in Marocco (1 Bomber, and 2 FTR - which could rebase even if OOS) and 1 TRS (That shipped a South Afrika FTR2, which got shot down in the sea).
Thanksfully Churcill was dispatching reinforcements to Gort, well convinced his Royal Navy and RAF would prevail.
But supplied by the well guarded Cape Verde Basin, where the Marine National sails (the French Navy), the Brits debark (though disrupted as they return mid-turn) and INF and a MECH. Enough to prevent Cisneceros fall!
But that is where the turn ends, and Jul / Aug starts - in the sector little happens, the German Panzergrenadier corp promptly heads back to help destroy the remaining UK division. Aerial assets are being switched to other sectors (Lybya and Greece, and Bf109s railed to Poland over time).
With the opening of July, Italian submarines and 1 Condor try again to raid the North Atlantic, but the Royal Navy earns good success there, protecting not only the convoys, but destroying an Italian submarine; and expelling from the sea zone the rest of the Axis assets.
[image]local://upfiles/36315/3644DB2B7E4C4FEA85871FC871BA5651.jpg[/image]
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