Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet in a conference and plan to achieve serious inroads into Germany by Summer 43. Stalin takes the implicit message that Berlin is his. Are the Allies counting their chickens? Hitler hopes so. He reckons he can generate good quality infantry and garrison units faster than the UK can and the US can get them over the Atlantic. If Mussolini can draw away the Yanks to the South of France then Hitler can match the number of British corps at the border of France. He can use his reinforcements this Turn including units that were Broken through last Turn and now returning to the fray against the Soviets. Stalin has to move units to Poland and the Baltics by rail which will disorganise them and mean they might not be able to fight till next Turn. Both sides roll for Initiative and the Axis win. The weather on the next impulse is rain except the Med and south of the north monsoon zone. Mussolini disbands a weak biplane unit in France and keeps the pilot.
His dilemma on the West is to try and protect the Belgian border AND the southwest entrance into Germany.
His problem on the Eastern front is how to contain then destroy the large Soviet salient in Central Poland as well as withdraw his forces safely from Ukraine.
Hitler collapses Vichy. All their land air units in France go to the Force Pool and Vichy territory becomes Occupied by the Germans. The French overseas territories and their units switch to Free France. Hitler now rolls to capture or destroy Vichy naval units in France. One convoy and old battleship is destroyed but the Dunkerque is captured. For those ships being built two battleships escape but the Clemenceau is captured and given to the Italians to complete. Hitler gifts it to the Italians. The rest of the Vichy Fleet escapes . Hitler would like a no-cost combined in order to move his subs out to attack Allied shipping and intercept moving troops but that won't allow him enough land movement to plug his many gaps. He moves AA and artillery divisions intended for the OstFront southwest towards Stuttgart. Units in France advance northeastwards towards Belgium crushing the brave Maquis in the way. Air units rebase away from danger. Forces in SE Ukraine start their long march backwards. Mussolini chooses a no-cost combined and uses some of Germany's spare rail capacity to move units to occupy former Vichy cities. Air units are rebased away from France into Belgium. In the North sea German naval aircraft despite the rain damage a light cruiser and send another cruiser and a convoy back to port. The Japanese choose a naval impulse and move convoys and tankers to maximise resources being brought to the Japanese mainland and to supply their perimeter bases. Light and heavy cruisers are sent out to escort them. Transports and Amphibs move corps to Midway (making it hard for the US to invade there), India (along with a supply unit) and Yamamoto to Truk to join the main Japanese strike fleet. The two big Japanese fleets and subs stay in port waiting to see what the Yanks will do.
The US chooses a Naval action. Three transports move from France to the US east coast and embark two Mexican corps and the Clarke HQ. The MacArthur HQ flips over and the three transports reorganise ready to sail back across the Atlantic again. Two transports in the East coast of US move South - they aim to South to pick up the Brazilian corps and then transport them across the Atlantic to France. The US sends convoys to connect to Australia. Task Force 58 with 3 battleships, some cruisers and carrier along with the two antique Brazilian battleships accompany a transport carrying F4 corsair fighters to Pearl Harbour. The main Pacific Fleet sailed south to American Samoa and were joined by two cruisers carrying US marine divisions. The French also choose a Naval action and send a transport to collect the Senegalese territorials. The CommonWealth transport an artillery division to Brest. A landing craft moves to pick up the French Foreign legion corps from Morocco. British transports move from Gibraltar to pick up Commonwealth troops from Libya & Egypt - will the Allies invade Italy next Turn with them. US subs damage the Japanese convoy and light cruiser in the Marshalls sea zone. French subs enter the Bay of Bengal but fail to find the Japanese convoys there. Escort vessels and aircraft are moved by all navies to protect their convoys. The Commonwealth move out their new antisubmarine warfare vessels into the Faroes Gap and North Atlantic and their new sub hunter Sunderland aircraft into the Faroes Gap. The Sunderland can try and intercept u-boats that don''t have the schnorkel or walther characteristics. Two Royal Navy carriers and a battleship sail south towards Africa on their way to join the Asian fleet at Aden accompanying transports carrying Wellington medium bombers and older Hurricanes. Hirohito berates Mussolini for not distracting the Royal Navy with Mediterranean offensives. Stalin moves troops in the Northern half of the Soviet German front and aircraft nearer to the front lines. He attacks Krakow from the north and rolls very well overcoming the rain and only 2:1 combat odds - Hitler orders a mobile defence and both Hungarian and German militia corps are broken through to return next Turn. The Soviets lose a militia army and one of the attacking armies is disorganised. Lend lease Hurricanes flew as fighter cover preventing any Luftwaffe bombers coming to the aid of the defenders. China puts a second army into a blocking position on the Kweihang to Kumming road. Seeing the Japanese HQ on its own occupying Kwiehang surrounded on 3 sides by Chinese armies including the Stilwell HQ the Chinese launch an attack with Stilwell fully committing to the attack and the Japanese HQ adopts a die hard assault defence and flips over itself to gain an advantage over Stilwell. The Chinese roll averagely and the end result is no losses to either side but all attackers are disorganised.
Weather is Fine all over. Hitler chooses a no-cost combined impulse. U-boats spread out to many sea zones including the oil tanker rich Central America sea zone and several head to the Faroes Gap along with some naval aircraft. The Commonwealth use their new "sub hunter" Sunderland aircraft to intercept u boats moving through the Faroes Gap and they succeed in their interception roll! The Germans try to fight through with 3 of the u boats whilst the others stay in place but roll a terrible 9. 1 u boat is sunk, one damaged and one sent back to base. Hitler orders an urgent operational review into these deadly new airicraft. Units continue their slow evacuation from South Ukraine. Land units move to form a strong defence behind the river barrier on the France/ Germany barrier. Mussolini also chooses a no-cost combined impulse. The Germans lend a rail move to help move a strong infantry corps to Bordeaux. An Italian. motorised corps moves to Toulon. A Naples militia corps is moved by Italian trains to Toulouse. Italian subs move to Cape St Vincent to find the heavily laden transport and naval bombers move out to both West & East Mediterranean sea zones including the newly arrived "nazgul". Only the East Med planes find any targets but they delight in shooting down the Spitfire damaging the French tanker and 2 convoys, a British heavy cruiser and sending a light cruiser back to base. Il Duce gives medals to the pilots. In the Faroes Gap the Germans roll a 2 but the Commonwealth uses its 3 intelligence points to make a reroll and they roll 8 failing to find any convoys. Churchill sighs with relief. The u boats send the US convoy and cruiser in the Norwegian sea zone back to base. Hirohito chooses a combined impulse and sends his Advance Fleet into the Bay of Bengal a. A transport moves a militia unit from Japan to China and rearranges units to reinforce the disorganised HQ in Kweihan. Hirohito uses 2 Offensive Points to move an additional unit so he can use the 6-3 marines to move around the river line and moves the Yamashita HQ to the front line. Zero fighters and medium bomber along with Yamamato and two other battleships lend ground support. The Indina Hurricanes decline to get involved. Mountbatten HQ and Yamashita HQ support the combat and become disorganised. The result is the Australian corps is forced to retreat to "Dacca" and become flipped over. The Yamashita HQ and the 6-3 marine corp advance into the vacated hex.
The US chooses a no-cost combined impulse and sends transports to France carrying the Clarke HQ and two Mexican corps. Eisenhower HQ flips over to reorganise the transports so they can cross the Atlantic back again this Turn. The Commonwealth chooses a Land impulse. Mosquitos try a ground strike against the German HQ and militia corps but get shot down by the Bf109 and the pilot dies - the second RAF pilot to die this Turn. Commonwealth forces uses the paratroopers to capture Paris and send tanks and infantry to the East to attack Kesselring HQ and militia. US fighter-bombers and bombers and a Spitfire contest the skies over the battle with Stukas and an Italian fighter. Most of the bombers on both sides get through. Monty executes a near perfect offensive and destroys both the militia and Kesselring HQ. Bomber Command attack Nuremberg in a low level bombing raid avoiding fighters and flak - potentially 3 build points damage is caused but only 1 is lost as there is one factory but the factory is destroyed. Its not all bad news for the RAF this Turn! The Chinese do little this Impulse. The Soviets rail move a Rokossovsky HQ, an AA division and an infantry army to near Cracow. The Timoshenko HQ disorganises itself to reorganise the infantry army and the AA division. The defenders of Lodz and Warsaw swap places but the artillery stays put in Warsaw. Soviet units cautiously advance into cities abandoned by the Germans in South Ukraine. China after the excitement of last impulse remains quiet. France chooses a naval impulse and uses its subs to try and find the Japanese battleships in the Bay of Bengal but fail to find them.
The weather is terrible in the Northern Hemisphere except the Mediterranean. Hitler takes advantage of the bad weather and uses the reduction in movement costs from the railways to move away mostly to the southwest to Rumania but some move westwards towards Lvov. All the remaining offensive points are used to move all the remaining air except one unit to Hungary, Rumania and Germany as the limits are reached for moveable air units in a Land impulse. Meanwhile Axis units retreat into Belgium from France. Italy takes a Land impulse and rail moves the very weak Venice Militia to South Italy. Japan takes a no-cost Combined. Subs are sent to try and destroy the convoy supplying the Samoa base where the US Pacific fleet is but fails to find them. Subs are also sent to the South Pacific sea zone in case the US sends convoys through there. Marines in Singapore are landed at the port used by the Japanese to supply their land troops. Their troops already in India start moving to be in a position to attack Calcutta from the Northwest.
Stalin chooses a Land impulse and in South Ukraine moves troops cautiously forward into the vacated cities but is wary of fine weather next impulse and mobile German forces cutting to pieces Soviet forces rushing across the Dnepr. Aircraft units move cautiously north. Troops in Byelorussia and South Poland move South and East respectively as German forces advancing on Lvov threaten the rear of the South Poland front. The US chooses a no-cost combined impulse and moves Transports across the Atlantic waiting to return to base to the Panama canal or the West coast of the Americas ready to start picking up reinforcements for the Pacific. Two subs move to Brisbane ready to strike Japanese tankers near Netherlands East Indies next Turn. Gort HQ rail moves to Plymouth ready to move to France next Turn.The Commonwealth chooses a Land impulse and moves infantry and tanks and the Montgomery HQ to attack the SS garrison corps defending Lille. Hitler chooses a mobile defence hoping to kill some armour - they are the first casualties for attackers in a mobile combat- but the overwhelming odds mean the garrison is blitzed to return next Turn and the Allies take Lille which has had one factory destroyed but has 3 factories left to produce troops for France. These salad days for the Allies in France may soon be over as Hitler has plenty of panzer, panzergrenadier and HQs to transfer to the Western Front as well as to attack the Soviets in Front from the East. Some US troops move east whilst the Mexican corps move south. China again lays low. In India the Sydney militia move to block the road carrying resources for the Japanese from one resource hex they occupy. An Indian corps moves to the north of Calcutta in case the Japanese try to surround Calcutta from there and try and gain the resource there. Another Indian corps rail moves to Patna from Bombay. The situation in India is depicted below
And then the Turn ends which frustrates Hitler as he had only just begun transfer troops away from South Ukraine. Still with all these troops free now to be transferred to fight the Soviets in Poland and the Allies in France Hitler is optimistic again. He's even claiming he wanted to transfer the troops earlier - German High Command mutter under their breaths at this shameless rewriting of history. Stalin is also annoyed as he didn't get a chance to get control of 4 Ukranian resources and will need another Turn to build railways for supply in Ukraine plus to connect the Ukranian resources back to the Soviet rail network and thus available for use. He is also concerned about German mechanised forces attacking his Polish salient from behind. The Western allies had hoped to make major inroads into southern France but now face a wall of Italians and potentially lots of German mechanised forces stopping their advance into the Benelux countries and maybe even throwing them back into the Channnel.
Partisans potentially show up in many places (the Axis hope in South Africa) but nothing transpires. In the return to base phase French and Royal Navy transports carrying planes and troops, two aircraft carriers and a battleship all base in South Africa. Two Brazilian corps use return to base to land in France. The French foreign legion on a transport land in France in this phase. German war production is reduced by loss of factories and resources and Hitler concentrates on finishing garrisons and producing new infantry corps. The Japanese start building Territorials to help protect their newly acquired colonies and divisions to defend islands in the Pacific. The Americans continue their shipbuilding program of transports/amphibious landers and carriers whilst churning out planes. The French build infantry with their newly returned factories. The Soviet production is limited by not having plugged in the Polish resources to their rail network nor recovering all their lost Ukranian resources. This will not happen until 1943. So some oil is spent and more fighters including LendLease P40s are built and mechanised corps started and some Polish infantry corps are finally trained. Ski divisions will also be ready for winter. The Commonwealth produces its usual even split between aircraft, land units and ships. China finishes some cavalry and starts building an artillery division. Thanks to the codebreakers at Bletchley Park the Commonwealth gets 3 intelligence points.
Churchill meets Stalin with messages from Roosevelt. As Stalin desired the Western Allies have invaded France opening up a Second Front and helping divert Nazi forces from the Ukraine. Despite initial success the US & UK predict a much harder job pushing the Germans out of Belgium as the Germans are reinforcing that front. The Italians are flooding South France making the American attempts to liberate the area a more drawn out affair than anticipated. They note Stalin's recently declared peace with Japan. The Americans haven't been able to start a ground offensive in the Pacific. India has Japanese forces at the Burmese border and is trying to fend off a large invasion of central East India threatening Calcutta and Madras. The Allies are thinking of abandoning an invasion of Italy and moving ground forces in the Med to help India. A Soviet offensive into Japanese held Manchuoko and Korea may help force Japan to abandon its offensive in India. Their troops are not snow trained. Stalin counters that his troops though outnumbering the Japanese forces two to one (so able to break a peace pact) are mostly the weakest of his weak militia and local forces deployed in the area are not snow-trained. Still a surprise declaration of war may allow some progress and Stalin can transfer troops into theatre after war is declared. Stalin agrees with a heavy heart to attacking Japan.
The Soviet Union puts a peace marker on the Manchuria border and to Tokyo's shock turns it over to the offensive side - its a relatively high value of 4 as well. Hirohito asks Tojo and the Japanese military to prepare for war with the Soviets.The Axis destroys factories in Liege and Amsterdam as part of a scorched earth policy. The Turn ends with Hitler more optimistic but things still look more difficult for Germany. Mussolini hopes to hang onto his Southern French Empire.
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