Merry Christmas Mr Churchill

 The Axis won initiative for the 8th Turn running. Weather turned out to be mostly snow and rain. The Krtiegsmarine sailed out into the Faroes Gap but failed to find any convoys in the gloom. Axis aircraft and subs moved into the seas and failed to find convoys. The German auxililary cruiser aborted some convoys in Cape Verde Basin. Japan transported infantry to IndoChina. 

The Royal Navy sent two aircraft carrier escorts for Transports running the Italian gauntlet in the Med which evaded interception and deposited the Alexander HQ and artillery division in Egypt. They sent strong forces to search for the Kriegsmarine in the Faroes Gap but failed to find them. In a major coup A night bombing raid got past German interceptors (not night fighters) but the resulting bombs did little).  The Gort HQ reorganised them. Wellington bombers disrupted the Italian supply unit in East Africa. This means that the sub unit there can not reorganise at the end of the Turn and the Italian ground forces there can't move as they were already out of supply. Commonwealth forces can now start moving out of the area with the threat neutralised. The Chinese made some more adjustments of forces at both ends of their line. The Soviets moved their armies to counter the big weak spot in their Southern flank facing Rumania and Hungary.

The Germans and their Axis allies moved towards the Soviet lines and a combined German Rumanian offensive eliminated a militia army near Odessa leaving a gap in Soviet lines. German forces advanced cautiously wary of being cut off by Soviet forces attacking weak Rumanian forces guarding their flanks. Germany infantry moved to eliminate French partisans. The Graziani HQ rail moved to France with the intention to move other Italians there to aid the occupation of France. Japan moved marines back to the mainland. 

The Commonwealth tried to find the Kriegsmarine in the Faroes Gap but only managed to damage some destroyers with planes. The convoys in that region moved to the Bay of Biscay with some Spitfire aerial cover. The heavy bombers did a daylgiht low level raid on Hannover (the Luftwaffe interceptors were flipped over from last time) and destroyed the factories there! Soviets rail moved a factory away from Odessa and Kiev and moved Ukranian forces largely away towards Kiev and set up blocking forces on the Dniester but looked extremely worried there.

Hitler decides to be brave in the Faroes Gap but unfortunately the Royal Navy gets the jump on his forces and attacks a portion of the main battle fleet with the battleships Gniesenau  and Scharnhost being sunk (glug glug) amongst other casualties and the Royal Navy only lost an obsolete battleship and 2 cruisers and one damaged. The Kriegsmarine wisely left the Faroes Gap. The Italians moved a militia unit to France to aid in garrisoning there.The Japanese shuffled aroubd a little.

Here's the Kiegmarine surface fleet before the Battle of Faroes Gap 

And now after the Royal Navy snapped it in half like Bane did to Batman.Note Karlsruhe and Graf Spee are in repair not sunk and a couple of Dutch ship counters were sunk and damaged too.

In their Impulse the Commonwealth moved an old battleship to be in the same port as the transports and aircraft carriers and the Queens fast passenger liners finished moving an Australian motorised corps to Suez port. The Soviets rail moved another factory to the north out of the way of the Germans.

Italy moved another militia unit to France. Germany attacked and destroyed the Soviet forces at the Dniester clearinga large gap they can advance through. Japan did little.

The Commonwealth took a naval impulse and moved naval forces to protect convoys next trun, moved convoys back to the Faroes Gap and moved other forces from the Red Sea to the East Med, an increased naval force gathering around the Med. Soviets moved another factory northwards. The US moved fighters and long range bombers to Iceland and Faroes "just exercises" says Rooseevelt to Hitler.

The Turn ends. No partisans were rolled for. A US entry marker was drawn for Germany/ Italy but a value of only 1 was drawn. Those lovely American resources will have to wait for at least one more Turn.

The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force have both dealt severe blows to Germany and the RAF has finished Italy's East Africa sub menace as welcome Christmas presents for Churchill. A brooding Hitler finds a great deal of comfort in the prospect of blitzing Ukraine and getting his hands on resources and factories.