Springtime for Hitler
Units are placed. The Axis win Initiative again! The weather is Fine except in the Arctic Zone.
Mussolini chooses a no-cost combined and rail moves an armour corps into South France. Frogmen launch an attack on the French Navy at Oran but fails to hit anything. Italian naval bombers find Allied convoys in the East Med but only succeed in getting shot down by RAF Hurricanes and the pilot is lost at sea. Hitler chooses a Land impulse and creates two powerful concentric attacks in Poland and one in France. In France his siege train fires and disorganises an entire target stack. The US air force flies in two medium bombers to support. Both Manstein and Eisenhower flip over to support the attack. The attack is with the Blitz column and the Germans roll 19. Despite the air support the French militia and US artillery is destroyed and the strong US motorised corps is placed on the production circle to arrive next Turn. Picture is before combat.
Japan choses a Naval and evacuates all its troops from India moving some to Malaysia and Singapore and others to Indonesia and Japan. The Kido Butai moves to Australian waters threatening to port strike the US Pacific Fleet next Impulse. It uses its cruisers to find a convoy but the Kiwi P40s fly to provide cover and the carrier planes refuse to engage and the Japanese fail to find the convoy at next attempt. Japanese escorts fan out to protect its convoys. Two divisions get transported to Indonesia to help protect the oil fields. Japanese subs fan out to attack Allied convoys and sink the convoy in the New Zealand coast sea zone and send the US cruiser to port.
Stalin chooses a Land impulse. In the long running grudge match between Stalin and Rommel, Stalin hopes to settle it by using 15 offensive points to launch a doubled powerful concentric attack on Rommel's stack. Despite air support Rommel's stack is broken through- one Soviet mechanised corps is lost but the entire stack goes on the production circle and the Soviets have broken through between Warsaw and Konigsberg. Soviet infantry units have been sent to near Konigsberg with an infantry army heading towards South Poland. There another powerful Soviet concentric attack wipes out the Hungarian and Bulgarian infantry corps. These two victories result in the creation of a Guards Banner tank corps and mechainsed corps. Shturmoviks battle through to ground strike the SS armoured stack but fail to achieve any results. Soviet troops close up to the Dnestr river line and to the east of Lvov. Stalin hopes his attacks will cause Hitler's blitz to pinch off the giant Poland salient to get distracted. China chooses a Land impulse. An artillery bombardment disorganises the Japanese tank corps but a subsequent Communist ground offensive just disorganises the attackers and a Chinese army is lost. The Nationalists attack Kweihan - the artillery bombardment fails and in the air battle the Chinese P40 is shot down and the pilot lost! The ground offensive only leads to the Chinese being disorganised with the loss of a garrison army but the Japanese HQ flipped over to geet a defensive bonus in the battle.
France chooses a Land impulse. The US and Commonwealth use their Offensive Points to have a simultaneous Naval and Land impulse and the US also pays offensive points for an Air impulse. Escorts fan out to protect Allied convoys. A convoy moves out from Australia to the New Zealand coastal waters and the Japanese subs fail to intercept. Yankee subs swarm around the Kido Butai but fail to find it. An old sub finds a convoy in the Marshalls, dodges a Japanese naval plane and sends the convoy and its escort back to port. Commonwealth transports and an amphibious ship head out from New Zealand to the South Pacific intending to reach the US West Coast in the Return to Base phase. Commonwealth & US transports head to the American East coast to pick up Canadian & US units. Newly produced carrier units rebase onto the 3 decks of the 3 new huge Essex carriers in San Diego. The US Pacific Fleet moves to the Cape Naturaliste sea area to avoid a potential port strike from the Kido Butai. In an awesome demonstration of US airpower two heavy bombers and one medium bomber groundstrike the column with Manstein HQ and Panzer corps and division. The 7 factor Bf109 flies to intercept triggering two 7 factor fighter and a 6 factor P38 in response. The Bf109 valiantly sends back two Yankee fighters but is itself shot down with the pilot lost. The bombers disorganise every German unit in the stack. The US and French launch a combined powerful attack on Slovakian militia in the mountains west of Vichy and annihilate them. The noose tightens around Vichy. Commonwealth Mosquitoes fly on their own to ground strike the northern flank of the German line but Bf109s send them back. Manstein is surrounded and attacked by mostly Commonwealth units. The stack is disorganised. Hitler sends his Bf110 to protect a medium bomber and a Stuka. The US scrambles two fighter units but the Stuka gets through whilst the medium bomber gets shot down. 
The Commonwealth artillery disorganises the SS garrison corps in the North. The Italians send a fighter and their stuka to support the northern end of the line. The Commonwealth send two fighters to block the Italian airpower. The end result is the Italians are repulsed with no losses on either side. Gort flips over - the attack odds are low, the Germans choose the blitz table to get advantages from their multiple armour units but the Germans are all disorganised. Gort rolls well and loses a tank corps but sends the entire German stack to the Production circle and half units disorganised. Monty flips over to get an HQ offensive bonus and does even better - he destroys the two German corps and advances his armoured corps and motorised infantry corps into Antwerp - the hole in the north of the German line. Hitler consoles himself he has one fighter left and a Stuka. Bradley flips over and reorganises two medium bombers and a fighter. Churchill taps his remaining 7 factor Spitfire and his plentiful heavy bombers. The Western front is a mess. In India Commonwealth units make their way to its Eastern coast and to reclaim resource hexes from Japan.
The weather this Impulse is awful in most areas - Storm, Snow or Rain, except for the North Tropical zone. Mussolini chooses a Land impulse and retreats the units in Vichy and Toulouse - Hitler rages wanting fortress cities to be defended to the last man but Mussolini prefers to preserve his forces to protect the Italian border. Hitler has to choose a Land impulse. Along with his Italian allies on the Western front he moves almost all his troops behind river lines and abandons Metz and Strasbourg. He rail moves a garrison corps from Prague to Rotterdam to join the defenders there. He moves both arms of his pincers towards each other in South Poland but because of the -2 odds penalty for attacking in Storm weather he doesn't launch any attacks. Japan takes advantage of the Fine weather to start extending its front in Burma as they notice the build up of Commonwealth forces.
Stalin chooses a Land Impulse and moves his forces around the Polish and Rumanian fronts and closes his Ukranian theatre forces up to Lvov. His forces along the Dnestr river shuffle amongst themselves. Air units move from the Ukraine to around Lvov. De Gaulle chooses a naval impulse - apart from sending escorts out he sends three subs into the Bay of Bengal to sink the Japanese tanker there. The subs efforts are in vain though.The US chooses a combined impulse. Three new Essex carriers sail towards the Pacific. Armoured and mechanised corps move towards the French - German border. US infantry move towards the newly abandoned Vichy with a devastated factory. Subs were unsuccessful in their search for the Kido Butai. Churchill chooses a Land impulse and moves air and ground forces in India towards the Burmese border. He rail moves the Canadian armour corps in France close to Monty and slowly moves forces towards Belgium and occupies Brussels with an intact factory. China moves its mechanised and cavalry corps in a slow march towards Kumming.
Weather remains bad which suits Hitler. Hirohito chooses a no-cost Combined impulse and moves to reinforce Kumming and moves the Yamashita HQ from Netherlands East Indies to Hanoi intending a slow overland march to Burma (the direct naval route has French subs in the way). He also transports an infantry corp by sea ready to land in China in the Return to Base phase. He fails to find convoys off the East coast of Australia. Mussolini with a Land impulse continues his retreat towards the Italian border. Hitler chooses a no-cost Combined impulse. He moves units along the Dnestr to stop the Soviets outflanking the Axis river defences and rail moves the Romanian garrison unit in Bucharest to reinforce the line at Chisinau. He moves the von Leeb HQ out of Lvov with infantry replacing them. He uses a u-biat to attack the Caribbean oil tankers but they fail to find any targets. U-boats move into the Faroes Gap but fail to find any convoys or tankers. Hitler curses Donitz. The turn does not end.
China moves its mechanised (now disorganised by the move into the mountains north east of Kummings. US and Commonwealth and France move forces in France- to close the gap in NW France and to pursue the Italians in Southeast France. Stalin with a Land impulse mainly moves some air forces from Ukraine towards South Poland. The Turn ends. No Partisans appear. The US reinforces the Pacific Fleet with 3 Essex carriers and Lexington. The Kido Butai is reinforced by Shinano carrier.
France rush produces two mechanised corps and finishes an infantry corps. The infantry will help drive out the Italians and the mechanised corps will head for Germany and Belgium. China rush builds a mountain corps to join Mao in Sian. Italy uses its oil to boost production and builds a mix of air and ground units whilst completing the appropriated French battleship Clemenceau. Germany has a mix of shattered units to place back on the map and repairing a couple of u-boats. More infantry are being produced along with fighters and a Hs129 tank buster ground attack plane. Stalin rush builds 2 mechanised corps and 4 infantry armies, has 2 fighters and 2 ground attack planes and rush builds pilots so he has enough to fly these planes. Stalin intends to overwhelm the Germans with new units in the Summer but will have few units ready for the Turn after except any militia units he has free to build. Hirohito can't rush build the light carriers as he would also have to rush build extra pilots. He builds a wide range of naval, air and land units including a mechanised corps. He starts to build a road to connect the Thai railway with Rangoon.
The Commonwealth finishes upgrading three carriers but chooses not to burn extra resources to finish the new planes for them early meaning they will still be carrying their current rubbish planes. They rush build an infantry corps in Britain and complete a mechanised corps in Calcutta. Most resources go on ships (a new heavy carrier is being completed) and planes. The US uses its massive muscle to build 15 offensive points. It rush builds two motorised corps and a mechanised corps to be ready next Turn. Roosevelt wants to have waves of strong units to overwhelm the Nazis. Apart from more fighters it also helps Canada build Mosquito fighters and slowly build an artillery corps. Paratroopers and a Rangers division start getting built. For its Pacific front the US focussed on completing carriers and carrier planes along with amphibious ships and land forces and fighters and ground attack planes. A road is starting to be built (will take 7 turns and 4 build points in total) in the hex with Port Moresby and Lae. This will allow supplies to Port Moresby to be transported to Lae on the other side of the Hex but Lae is a port in a different sea zone. A supplied base there will allow air and subs based there to more easily help cut off the big Japanese base at Rabaul.The US by itself is producing almost as much as the Axis combined. In peace war markers the Soviets draw 5 and the Japanese 2. At the moment the Soviets can declare war if they wish. The bad weather in Spring has saved Hitler on the Western Front.
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