Centuur
Posts: 8802
Joined: 6/3/2011 From: Hoorn (NED). Status: offline
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March/April 1943, Axis impulse number 1: The OKH in Berlin isn't happy with the situation at the Ostfront at the moment. Abwehr reports that the number of Soviet units increased a lot during the winter. At the moment, they count 24 Soviet corps including HQ's in the Urals, while the Germans have 18 corps available. The counts on FTR's are about equal (6 German and 5 Soviet, not counting the two obsolete FTR3 the Luftwaffe still has in the region). On bombers, the Luftwaffe can pull a nice punch in the region. The quality of the land units is far better on the German side, but the lack of units to fill gaps when losses appear is troublesome. The situation around Tashkent also doesn't look promising. The Soviets have 6 corps (incl. HQ) and the Axis have four corps there, which are also not good units (Italian troops...). So reïnforcements need to be send to the frontlines in the East to make sure the Soviets can be dealt with. Listen to: Das Grossstadt-Lied (Über die Dächer der grossen Stadt) - Adolf Steimel Tanzorchester https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SkI2C_Yu00 Germany takes a land action, Italy an air action and the Japanese take a naval action. Germany flies two condors in the Cape St. Vincent, putting the US forces out of supply. Italy flies a Gabbiano into the Red Sea. Japan flies NAV into the China Sea and a FTR into the Sea of Japan. Alle planes go into the 4 box. Japan puts convoy escorts in place. It keeps the main fleet in reserve, since it wants to react on the expected move by the US navy towards the convoy lines to Japan. Problem is, that the US fleet is fast, and can reach as far as the Sea of Japan to get a reasonable chance of getting a shot at the Japnaese convoys. There is no way the Imperial Fleet can defend all sea area's adequately by sending out the fleet. Sure, one can sail into the South China Sea to try to intercept the moving US fleet, but if that fails, the chance of a counterattack is gone. Japan lost the initiative. Japanese cruisers sail into the Coral Sea. They search the sea area in storms for Allied merchant shipping. Axis roll 2, Allies roll 7. The merchantmen, while fighting the storms, are confronted by the torpedoes of the big Japanese cruisers. HMAS Sydney escorting the merchantmen is sunk:
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Peter
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