Strategic Earthquake

The strategic earthquake was the rapid fall of France to the blitzkrieg in 1940. Will there be a similar strategic  earthquake this Turn? Read on... The first big Summer of the war and a long Turn is likely after the prematurely short Turn of March/ April. The Germans have u-boats, stukas and pamzers. The UK/ Commonwealth (CW) has 4 engined heavy bombers to bomb the hell out of the Axis. The first of them rolls out of the factores- the Stirling. There's also a long range flying boat Sunderland which will be sent to Canada to patrol the North Atlantic. The pilots of the Whitley medium bomber switch to a Wellington which has ground attack and slightly longer range. The Germans meanwhile are producing two u-boats to continue the u-boat offensive. Guderian Panzer HQ and armoured and mechanised corps were placed in central Germany to go either west to France or east if Stalin attacks Germany's back door. Italy produces a Parachute division and 10 offensive points.

 The weather is Fine except in Northern Monsoon area (which most of the Chinese Nationalists are in). The Axis just win initiative. The Japanese transport infantry corps in Japan are transported to Northern China. The good weather is in the Communist area so the Japanese look to build up forces to outflank and crush the northern edge of the Communist line. The Italians move their paratrooper and motorised infantry divisions in light cruisers to Rhodes where the bomber is that can be used to drop paratroopers. The artillery division is transported to Bardia to join the motorised and mechanised corps there. The Germans take a combined action and spread uboats over several sea zones to wreak havoc. German land units rearrange themselves and launch an armoued assault on 2 French infantry corps near the border and blitz them into oblivion. More significantly the French throw all their fighters into intercepting German stukas and medium bombers and outnumbered the accompanying German fighters. In the swirling dogfight one fighter each was shot down and the German pilot was lost as came down over enemy territory. A bloody nose for the Luftwaffe. At sea the u-boats struck as there were only some light cruiser escorts protecting the convoys but all searches for the enemy failed.

The Allies apart from China chose combined impulses. The UK moved the newly created Western Desert Armoured Force to Malta. The Wellington bombers rebased to Malta also. The Sunderland patrolled the North Atlantic. The Ulster militia was transported to Southampton. The Stirling moved to East Anglia to get closer to Germany for a bombing raid. The Soviets moved a sub into the Baltic and moved Armoured and motorised infantry bombers to the border with Nazi Poland causing palpitations in Berlin. The French moved the HQ out of Paris and moved in a motorised infantry corps. Most of the Brest French fleet moved to Africa but the carrier stayed put to avoid a die roll penalty if Vichy is created and when its checked if some parts of the French Empire will become loyal to the Free French. China seeing its cavalry threatened moved it to Northwest to the mountains.

The Japanese started to move units to surround the exposed Communist infantry corps. The Germans expanded their armoured spearhead and using some ground support planes annihilated two stacks of the best French infantry corps in blitzes and moved gradually towards Paris. Their armoured reserve moved towards Poland along with an infantry corps intended for invading Norway but  this was now called off.

The big news is that Italy declared war on the Commonwealth and caught them by surprise. The US is unimpressed and drew an entry chit and will stop suppplying resources to Italy. The Italians used their Offensive Points to combine Naval and Land impulses. In Cape St Vincent their sub damaged 3 convoys and aborted 5 convoys and tankers in the Western Med; their Naval aircraft sank 3 convoys and aborted 2 conovoys and tankers. Crusiers in the Eastern Med repeatedly failed to find anything. The frogmen attacked the CW fleet in harbour used their surprise points to choose the carrier Glorious for Sinking who then rolled an epic 8 to become damaged, one cruiser aborted the battleship made defence rolls. Sub failed to find iconvoy targets in the Red Sea (crucial fail). So Malta and Alexandria are still in supply from the East. Landing in Haifa  were the Marine corps and infantry division. The paratrooper division dropped in to take Famagusta and secure  theCyprus resource. The mechanised , motorised corps and artillery division entered Egypt with the HQ trailing behind. CW is worried. Mussolini strutting around.

Now the Empire strikes back. A cost free Combined impulse is chosen. A transport moves the Western Desert Armoured Force from Malta to Alexandria. Egyptian Territorial forces moved up to the border with Palestine to close off the landed Italian forces. Six battleships sallied forth from Alexandria and with elan of Nelson sink an old Italian battleship and a light cruiser and damage and scatter the rest of the Regia Marina (Italian navy) including convoys in the East Med with only one batleship forced back to port in return. 

 

China moved its cavalry back to cover the flan they had exposed. The French  continued their policy of throwing troops in front of the Wehrmacht's blitz. What were they buying time for?

Now comes the strategic earthquake. Stalin declares war on Germany and starts to mobilise his massive reserves. (In the proper World in Flames game this hardly happens due to various restrictions but I ignored them because I wanted to see what would happen. Apart from palpitations in Berlin the effect in Washington is very negative. The US rolled 4 so 4 US entry markers were lost. This will delay US entry into the war. Will it be worth it?

A Soviet sub enters the Baltics and sinks all the convoys it can find. Next the Timoshenko HQ uses offfensive points to boost the infantry armies and cavalry corps in the attack on German militia in a forest to the east of Konigsberg and destroys it. A combined armoured, mechanised, motorised infantry and leg infantry with air support destroys another infantry corps on another road to Konigsberg. The offensive from Ukraine towards Warsaw is much riskier and even though the German infanty corps is destroyed it kills two Soviet infantry armies (the weakest ones were chosen) and disorganises the rest of the Soviet forces meaning no more advances in this sector. The Siberian infantry army gets promoted to being a Guards Banner Army. 

 

The Soviets have lost some casualties and been halted in the drive towards Warsaw. They are advancing towards Konigsberg. The Germans have an HQ in the way with an infantrry corps in Kongisberg itself. Driving to the rescue is Guderian HQ, an armoured and mechanised corps.

This looks like being a long turn so lets end this blog now and update it later when I've finished the term.