Atlantic
With the southern convoy now eliminated, the Germans turned their attention north, reducing the large convoy from 78 to 65 ships. There still remain just three U-boat squadrons in action, leading the Admiralty to ponder where the other squadrons are as at least 5 are known to have been formed. Two smaller convoys have now entered the Southern Atlantic, 18 and 13 ships each, and the last Battleship from the former Med Fleet, now designated Task Force 15 has arrived. This task force will set sail for the Home Isles shortly, and its arrival will designate the second challenge to U-boat supremacy.
Western Front
French garrison units move westwards around Paris to repair a hole in the now single-file defense line. A new German Panzer division has shown up on the Front, confirming French suspicions that they cannot have seen the whole of the German Army yet. No counter-attacks were made at this time, as the French repaired some forces and awaited the next German move in the hopes of finding more over-extended or worn-out units to fight against.
In the South-East the war of encirclement continues against the invading Italians with French hopes of cutting off both Infantry divisions in the next few weeks.
The British repaired the withdrawn RAF and will consider re-committing it to battle depending on how the French fare on the continent, however with obvious German reinforcements arriving it may well be held back.
Africa
The Eight Army has repaired and withdrawn to its preferred defensive line, no doubt to be harried by Italian Naval and Aerial units as the Italian Army makes its slow advance towards them.
Casualties (Infantry / Tank / Aerial / Naval)
German: 462,312 (^ 24,180) / 1508 (^ 0) / 884 (^ 26) / 265 (^ 0)
Italian: 100,720 (^ 5,036) / 0 (^ 0) / 0 (^ 0) / 5 (^ 0)
British: 1,092,812 (^ 10,072) / 104 (^ 0) / 1326 (^ 0) / 245 (^ 0)
French: 629,500 (^ 95,684) / 572 (^ 0) / 208 (^ 0) / 105 (^ 0)
US: 0 (^ 0) / 0 (^ 0) / 0 (^ 0) / 0 (^ 0)
USSR: 0 (^ 0) / 0 (^ 0) / 0 (^ 0) / 0 (^ 0)
Stored Production
UK: 4 (^ 4) -- FR: -3 (^ 26) -- US: 52 (^ 10) -- USSR: 251 (^ 32)
Summary
Well, as expected the French production point deficit prevented me from reinforcing all the units I would have liked to. In particular it leaves the south-eastern garrisons a little understrength. I'm still hoping to isolate and destroy at least one Italian Infantry division before France falls if I can. The Axis has gotten decidedly more cautious in their attacks in the north of France now, which will make it harder to kill more units though hopefully it'll also slow down their advance. If I find more over-extended or weakened units I intend absolutely to sacrifice French production points for German ones - anything I can do to further weaken or delay Barbarossa.
With the correlation of forces as they now stand, and the already late date, I don't think Sealion is on the cards at all. This means that the Royal Navy's Atlantic Fleet (it's only one) will soon number 2 CV's, 2 BB's, 3 Destroyers and a Sub, enough I think to begin paring down his Subs. Strangely only 3 of them are out and about, despite the fact that I know the Germans have at least 5. With one convoy getting very close to docking in the UK, I had expected to see a more all out effort to stop it.
Still all in all, despite some success in the North of France, the initiative remains very firmly with the Axis. Africa has been greatly weakened by the departure of the British Med Fleet, the Royal Navy isn't yet able to come out and play safely in the Atlantic, and the RAF is just a single Fighter squadron. I need to be careful here to make sure that I i) slow down the Italians in Africa for as long as possible, ii) make the Hun pay an ever higher price in France and iii) preserve the Royal Navy until both the threat of Sealion is completely gone and it's strong enough to start getting the convoys through.
Any comments, suggestions, critiques are of course welcome.
