Nirosi
Posts: 1776
Joined: 9/17/2017 Status: offline
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May 9th, 1941 (End of Axis turn) In the Eastern Mediterranean, the Canadian advanced toward Tobruk pushing Italian motorised infantry that wisely retreated. At sea, only two British naval groups were left in the area and the Italians found the real strength of the left-over fleet during air raids that hit both the Ramilies group and the Nelson group, the second one quite severely. The Nelson and sister ship Rodney were latter sunk by fresh Italian submarine flotillas. With the former Royal Navy fleet spread out between sea, Alexandria and Malta, the Regia Marina considered the risk of a trap limited and therefore ordered the fleet waiting at sea near Sicily to hunt the Ramilies and what is believed sister ship Royal Sovereign, the only group left at sea as far as we could tell. However, the damaged group managed to avoid detection, escaping a guaranteed doom. With the British fleet gone, and therefore no more sea supply runs and shore support, the situation around Tobruk should stabilise for a while. Unless of course Tobruk defender can not resist an assault by Canadian troops, assuming they dare do one. In Rome, Comando Supremo is confident that Tobruk fortifications are more than enough and Italian soldiers should have no problem repelling what must be very tired Canadians. In Berlin, OKW seems a little more worried. In Malta, Italian and German bombers did moderate damage to the Warspite group and a submarine flotilla. Of interest is that only anti-aircraft guns, both from land and from the ships, responded. The fighters in Malta stayed on the ground either voluntarily, or, as Italian intelligence believes, because the on-and-off blockade did not allow them to be put back in full operation order yet.
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