The British have held on to Le Havre, ever since the French army itself fled the country. Half the Luftwaffe tac bomber force, two sorties by the navy with shore bombardment, and 9 divisions making concerted attacks, have failed to dislodge the British.
Le Havre is not a victory point city, but I can't just let the enemy hold the city forever - they'll use it eventually to break out, and they'll hold down my 9 divisions indefinitely.
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The campaign in Yugoslavia proceeds slowly. Zagreb is almost invested. The main railroad towards Sarajevo is being secured and repaired. Once Zagreb is captured, the heavy fighting will take place around Sarejevo, no doubt.
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It's starting to look like an invasion of the USSR will be impossible in '41. It's going to take a year to establish a friendly port in Tunesia and push both the French and British out of North Africa. At all costs, I have to get that done before the US can get involved!
That darned Chocolino. I can't recall ever beating him in a game, and now it looks like he'll be able to do his own invasion out of the USSR - perhaps as early as '41, probably '42.
This has become a game fraught with suspense and critical choices.
The fortified isle commanding the sea lanes of the Central Med is no longer British! Combined arms of the Italian Army, Navy, and Air Forces succeeded in wresting Malta after sustained bombardment from sea and air, and with an amphibious assault by a specially trained infantry division, and an airborne commando raid that softened up the island's defenses in the weeks prior to the landing. Our German allies assisted in the conquest by stationing 5 squadrons of tactical bombers in Sicily, within range of Malta.
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The true story of the Italian conquest in Malta is a cautionary tale. While our ally succeeded in the end, the effort was a comedy of errors that fed one upon another. Only the success of the Italian submarine force, in denying supplies to the defenders of the island, made this conquest possible.
The Italians insisted on relying on their new airborne assault capability at first. They were ready to drop as early as September. Unfortunately, someone forgot to maintain adequate supplies to the airborne base south of Catania, in Sicily, and when the go signal was given, the transport planes did not even have enough fuel to take off with a full complement.
After a two week delay to get a supply convoy in place, the airborne assault was attempted, after heavy bombardment from sea and air. However, the assault team was woefully inadequate to the task of breaking through the defenders' lines around Valetta. The only success the Italians could claim from this fiasco was in keeping it out of the newspapers.
Back to the drawing board. High Command turned to the navy, and insisted that it prepare a seaborne assault on the island. After scouring every port on the Adriatic for sufficient transports to ship one ready division from Albania, once again the supply pipeline failed, and the division was unable to even make it to the docks in time.
After another two week delay to get supplies through to Albania, the division boarded its transports, and finally sailed into the Med. A week later it did succeed in taking Valetta.
Notwithstanding all these difficulties, it is believed that now we and our Italian allies will be able to keep supply convoys in place to North Africa, and offensives against both the French and the British will now be possible.
To offset this positive development, OKH this very week decided against creating an Afrika Korps, having no faith in the Italians to actually pull off a successful conquest in Malta. Now, to get such an armored force into North AFrica will take another month.
It can be said that the comedy of errors continues.
The German Army is now advancing from Albania into southern Yugoslavia. Rumor has it that the British govt is now putting heavy pressure on the Greeks to allow British advisers into the country, to direct Greek preparations for possible war. Of course, the Greeks' first thought is that the British merely want to use their country as a base to make a British attack into Yugoslavia. It remains to be seen whether the British have a heavy enough hand to press F12
And what will the government in Die Turkei think of all this?
The Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of the Med are the focus of the game right now, while the Axis refits for the next campaigning season.
On both seas, the number of STPs destroyed by Axis subs has decreased sharply. So far, I have no idea why that is. The sub force has maintained its strength, although the combined French and British navies show slow but steady success in sinking the subs. New builds are about even with losses, right now.
The Yugoslavian invasion proceeds methodically. It's a forgone conclusion, but one that must not cause too many losses on the Axis side. Every available PP is needed to build up the panzer force for future campaigning. With production set to 'hard' level, it is VERY doubtful that the Axis can field as large a force as was historical for summer '41. But we're trying.
North Africa is a sideline. Pressure continues on the diplomatic side, to get the French to surrender. It is hoped that the British will fairly soon understand that the French are more a liability now than a positive force for them. Social unrest continues to rise in the UK, due to the continuing effort in propping up the French.
Belgrade fell to a combined arms assault. One benefit is to give my newest armored unit some battle experience. When Sarajevo falls, Yugoslavia is expected to surrender.
In North Africa, Gabes is invested by a combined Italian, German force. Will the surrender of that Tunisian outpost convince the French to agree to an armistace?
Italian armored spearheads have slipped between the sea and the Qattar badlands, and have taken El Alemein. They continue to prepare for a final push on Alexandria and Cairo.
Two more sub groups lost in the Atlantic, replaced by two groups completing training. The Italian navy is slowly repairing subs put out of action in the first months of the war, and hold sway over the Med. The Royal Navy has been strangely reluctant to send out its carrier force,either from Egypt or Gibraltar.
I admit to being indecisive in my planning for '41. The problem has been my inability to predict how many armored corps I can have in time for the '41 campaigning season, playing on 'hard' level. Right now it looks like I will have way short of the historical number. On the other hand, the Allies and Commintern are also on hard level, so will have reduced OOBs.
I also don't know how much the French refusal to surrender has hurt me in terms of PPs.
Decisions, decisions. Having taken Malta, do I go all out to clear the French out of North Africa? Do I go all out against Egypt? Should I take Greece? Should I pressure the Balkan states to join the Axis? Why give my potential enemy, the Soviet Union, a broader front to attack me with? Should I attack the Soviets, with a reduced OOB? Should I instead try something I've never done - Sea Lion? If I don't attack the Soviets, will they attack me? That's the big one.
After intense aerial and shore bombardment, followed by amphibious landings, Italian forces entered Tunis this week. Convoys bringing in supplies and equipment immediately began docking at the port to prepare for the final phase of the conquest of French North Africa.
In a related action, one division of assault troops took Algiers against light resistance. This will be a bridgehead for German troops who are already embarked and in transit across the western Med.
After months of preparation, German forces launched an attack on Turkey this week, in retaliation for Turk negotiations with the Western Allies and the Comintern.
Strategically, our intent is to flank the British position in Egypt and to give notice to the Soviets that they must abide by the non-aggression pact, or they could be threatened from the South.
Of course the buildup for the assault could not be completely unobserved, but efforts were made to disguise the troop movements as a planned assault on Greece.
Ankara and the Western Allies turned a blind eye against Bulgaria's entrance into the AXIS alliance. Bulgarian participation has been essential.
The situation map below tells the story:
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In North Africa, the Italian coup against Tunis and Algiers has been followed up with efforts to position troops for a push westward, to put an end to French resistance.
As expected, with the loss of Tunis, the French have fled westward. It's going to be a game of chase from here on out.
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Along the General Government border, there are alarming troop movements. The Soviets continue to bring up infantry forces right to the border, positioning them for what looks clearly like an aggressive intent. This is disquieting and frankly perplexing, because we have an iron-clad non-aggression pact with the Soviets which we have every intention of honoring!
Despite heavy diplomatic pressure, the Greek government refused to allow the transit of German troops across Greek territory. That refusal would make it impossible to transport troops directly to Istanbul. Therefore, Germany has declared war on Greece.
No one is to blame for this other than the Greeks. Look at the map here, and we're only talking about a short 60 mile stretch of RR near the Greek border.
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Having expected that the Greeks would be stubborn, the remaining division of German armor that was embarked on assault craft in Bulgaria, sailed through to the Aegean and made landing near Athens. Greek resistance collapsed almost before a shot was fired.
This daring naval action was made possible by the Luftwaffe, which almost complete destroyed the small Turkish navy, in a series of air strikes in the Black Sea. It is known that the Turks had at least on sub group remaining lurking in the Black Sea.
Now it is up to the Greeks to once again make a decision - will they capitulate and avoid further bloodshed?
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In other naval action, the battleship Schlesien has been sent out into the Atlantic, in a raiding experiment. Shipping losses due to our sub activities have generally ranged from 0-5 STPs a week in the Atlantic.
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