Victor (axis) vs Pion Urpo (allies).

[gerones]

Turn 60. November 24, 1942

Winter everywhere except Mediterranean zone. Axis forces in Eastern front are organizing their defenses for the winter. Now they have cumulated experience from last severe winter so OKH expect its troops to suffer less from extreme cold weather this time. Main offensive soviet armoured arm advanced to Kiev sector so may be Dnepropetrovsk is not now their objective. Probably, the soviet partisan spawned near Kiev allowed Mikko to spot a little Kiev sector that was reinforced with new units.

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Africa is now completely in allied hands. Tunis was seized by the allies. To mention, the overwhelming allied air superiority in this scenario. Probably, the allies will continue to have air superiority all the time in their italian campaign unless the germans can free up 1-2 fighter wings from other fronts and redeploy them in the Med. Also, it would have to recognize that the italian High Command has quickly organized Sicily defense in a rather relatively short time frame. Now, it is time to also organize the defense of mainland Italy.

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Decimated american convoy was finally sunk.

As you can see in the image above italians have entered this turn in -1 quality manpower. Anyway, in the next turn I will post everything about OOB´s, manpower levels, tech lab situation, etc.

[gerones]

Turn 61. December 14, 1942.

Winter weather everywhere again.

As promised, I will use this turn for making an Axis forces overview as of december 1942. First, I will be referring to OOB´s at this date in all scenarios where the Axis forces have deployed military units.

Eastern Front

Axis OOB as of 14 December 1942

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OKH estimates that Red Army strength is as it follows:

15-20 garrisons
45-50 inf corps
10-13 mech corps
3-5 armoured corps
5-6 fighters
4-5 tactical bombers
1-2 strategic bombers

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North Africa-Mediterranean Sea

Italian forces OOB:

10 garrisons
3 inf corps
1 fighter
1 tactical bomber
3 BB
2 DD
3 subs

Germany has just began to deploy forces in this scenario so its current forces are only 3 garrisons, 1 fighter and 1 tactical bomber.

British and american have deployed an overwhelming navy and air forces in MTO:

4 fighters
4 tactical bombers
9-10 BB
6-8 DD
3 carriers
2-3 subs

US Army and British 8th Army forces in MTO are:

2-3 airborne divisions
8-9 inf corps
4-6 mech corps
3 armoured corps

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As a little note, free french forces were spotted close to Sardinia coasts and ready to disembark. They were strongly escorted by allied navy so no way to interfere at all in this operation.

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Western Europe

Wehrmacht forces are 17 garrisons deployed in France and in Berlin. Garrison unit in Berlin has a HQ on it (Schorner) and it is used as a Luftwaffe HQ. 2 Luftwaffe fighter Fliegerkorps are stationed in Berlin air bases and they are assigned to defend the Reich against allied bombers as its only mission.

Kommandierender General der Luftwaffe estimates that RAF Bomber Command strength as it follows:

2-3 fighters
5 strategic bombers

To this forces it would have to add recently joined USAF 1st and 2nd Bombardment Wings that started to bomb fortress Europe right in this turn.

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Atlantic Ocean

Kriegsmarine has deployed 6 subs units in the Atlantic. They are mostly operating in southern convoy area. Allied naval opposing forces in the Atlantic are unknown at this moment.

Some technology info now: below are two screenshots showing current lab situation of both Germany and Italy:

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And finally, some info about Germany and Italy war effort. Germany is collecting now in every single turn about 150 PP´s. Italy has a far more less PP´s each turn so only collects 27 PP´s. German manpower is 77% whist Italy has just reached -1 quality in the last turn. Germany cumulated PP´s are 408. Italy has 48 PP´s on the reserve.

[zechi]

I would recommend that you quickly exchange the Vichy French GAR in southern France at least with German GAR or better INF. With some air support cities guarded by Vichy GAR will be captured on turn 1 of any invasion of southern France by the Allies. The fact that the Allies go for Sardinia could mean that Operation Dragoon is imminent.

[gerones]

I would recommend that you quickly exchange the Vichy French GAR in southern France at least with German GAR or better INF. With some air support cities guarded by Vichy GAR will be captured on turn 1 of any invasion of southern France by the Allies. The fact that the Allies go for Sardinia could mean that Operation Dragoon is imminent.

To take Sardinia by the allies is becoming a norm since this island provide important air bases for targetting objectives in mainland Italy and/or Southern France. Also, it is a good platform for airborne operations. In the upcoming year, the germans are forced to bring more and more units to this scenario because the allied forces that Mikko has commited to the Mediterranean are really strong. So I will probably deploy in this scenario 4-5 german corps and a number of garrison units. Also, I will try to bring here a second fighter unit and a second tactical.

[gerones]

Turn 62. January 3, 1943.

Wehrmacht forces in USSR have completely turned into defensive strategy. Red Army will very likely start an offensive right from this turn when severe winter has began. In the image below, you can see both axis and soviet dispositions for this winter. I believe that Mikko again will attack in several sectors looking for damage to german PP´s and manpower but don´t think that he wants to achieve already a breakthrough. German garrison units and inf corps reached +1 survivability this turn so this will compensate a little the upcoming german manpower below 75.

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Free french forces landed in Sardinia last allied turn. Cagliari garrison got rather good defensive results and was only reduced to 6 steps. I reinforced it to 9 steps. Another turn holding would be an italian defensive success. Also, allied navy in the Med began to harass axis forces in mainland Italy: this forced Regia Aeronautica to withdraw from southern Italy. Regia Marina abandoned Sicily and was deployed along italian and southern France coasts for facing possible allied landings.

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As expected, severe winter started at the end of the turn.

[gerones]

Turn 63. January 23, 1943

As expected, Red Army launched a general offensive in allies last turn attacking in numerous sectors. Soviets pushed hard in Smolensk-Bryansk sector, destroying a german mech corps and a garrison unit thus liberating again Bryansk. In other sectors of the front the soviets caused damage to axis units but without destroying completely the attacked units. OKH has ordered a retreat in Smolensk-Bryansk sector.

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Allied naval transport units are ready to land in mainland Italy:

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Luftwaffe dive bombers caused severe damage to the american transport reducing it to 4 steps. Also, italian subs attacked an australian transport in Messina. There are many axis units deployed in Sicily but they are rather weak. So may be the allies movement in last turn was a feint for a landing with massive air and naval support in Sicily or for trying a landing further north near Rome or Florence. In this last case, the allies would have to wait for fair weather for trying it.

[gerones]

Turn 64. February 12, 1943

Russians continued with their offensive. They cleared the way to Smolensk and they assaulted vigorously Wehrmacht positions in Dnepropetrovsk. As a result, 2 german inf corps were destroyed as well as a german mech corps and a few garrison units. On the other hand, geman mech corps in Dnepropetrovsk was cut off and what is worse, the city was reduced to 0 PP´s so the unit is actually without supply.

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Italy. Allies are about to land in Sicily and they already have landed in mainland Italy cutting Sicily and Reggio from main supply. Regia Marina decided to counterattack the landing forces thus resulting in a heavy naval engagement around Palermo. Also, a free french trasnport was torpedoed.

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Fourth german infantry lab was bought. No need to buy fourth lab in air since progress here has been enough: Germany will soon reach dog fight level 6.

[gerones]

Turn 65. March 4, 1943

Soviet attacks to german lines continued on last allied turn: another german inf corps was destroyed in the south but the isolated mech corps in Dnepropetrovsk incredibly holds at 1 step. Depleted Fallschirmjager division was also overwhelmed by russian tanks and was destroyed. Finally, a depleted romanian corps at 6 step was destroyed and a soviet bridgehead was formed 2 hexes NE of Kherson. In the center, the soviets seized Smolensk, destroying a few garrison units.

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OKH ordered to counterattack and destroy the recently bridgehead formed NE of Kherson. So Luftwaffe wings operating from good weather hexes made a furious attack over the soviet infantry forces that was finally finished off by a concentrated attack of german armoured forces. It was also decided to abandon Dnepropetrovsk salient so german tanks were withdrawn from the dangerous position they were occupying. New Dnepr river defensive line is already built and new reinforcements are to come. It is planned to deploy a total of 35 german inf corps in the East, to form a total number of 50 axis inf corps (german+minor axis infantry corps). Also, it is planned to focus all the offensive axis arms in the south supported by a Luftwaffe that, in the following turns, will be fully upgraded and operating at a maximum combat effectiveness. 1-2 mechs will be deployed in Kiev-Kherson line to support this. If the soviets are excessively confident may be they will receive a severe blow.

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Zoomed to 3 level to show the the highlighted area in the image above:

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Allies landed in Sicily in the last turn. British X Armoured Corps and american I Armoured Corps made contact and cut Palermo from the rest of Sicily. XIII British Corps (mech) also sucessfully landed so the allies have now a consolidated position to progress in Sicily. Because of the almost total allied air superiority no axis air strikes could be made over recently landed allied forces in Sicily so Regia Aeronautica operating from Rome air bases made some sorties over the australian forces recently landed in Calabria with poor results and taking heavy fighter casualties.

Despite of the allies sunk 1 italian DD and BB in the last turn, two italian BB´s engaged again in the naval battle focussing their attacks in an american BB that was reduced to 3 steps. Regia Marina subs torpedoed again an allied transport that was to land in Sicily reducing it in 4 steps.

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Allies finally send a task force to protect southern convoy from U-boats attacks. I will post an image with its composition.

[gerones]

Turn 66. March 24, 1943

Soviets destroyed another german mech corps no matter it was well entrenched and was an experienced unit. Red Army advanced destroying 2 italian corps and 1 hungarian corps in the process. Soviet troops seized Krivoy Roj mines again. In the center, russians troops also pushed hard and they were able to form a bridgehead in the Dnepr river near of Smolensk. First objective of Army Group Center when summer comes again is to retake this important position so it will have to bring some air support here. Image below shows the situation in Eastern Front at the beginning of the axis turn.

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Kommandierender General der Luftwaffe in Eastern front decided to make a massive air attack against the soviets to soften a little the pressure on axis forces in the south. As a result of this, an axis counterattack, supported by all available tactical bombers stationed in Romania, achieved to destroy 1 soviet tank corps and 1 corps. Soviet intercepting fighters suffered high losses again because of their weaker dog fight tech level. Images below shows the situation after axis turn ended with zoomed areas in the south and in the center.

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Indian Corps landed in Sicily in the last allies turn. This unit helped the british XIII Corps to destroy 2 italian garrison units and to clear the way to Messina. Also, the australians attacked and destroyed a low effectiveness garrison unit close to Reggio. Image below shows the situation of Sicily at the start of the axis turn.

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Graziani troops in Sicily successfully counterattacked the indians forcing them to retreat so the Italian HQ 2 Corpo advanced to central Sicily. The other italian inf corps in the corner of Sicily abandoned that position because of the risk of being isolated. In Calabria, with Regia Aeronautica air support, the italians were also successful and achieved the australians to retreat.

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And finally, one of the american DD´s of the escorting allied fleet got ambushed by a german sub. Image below shows this task force composition.

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[gerones]

Turn 67. April 13, 1943.

Soviet winter offensive comes to the end with 2 other romanian inf corps destroyed in the Dnepr. German losses in this offensive have been significant: 4 inf corps, 4 mech corps, and a number of garrison units. Romanian army losses were disasterous: 3 inf corps which almost has halved its potential. Italian Regio Esercito have lost 2 inf corps and hungarians 1 inf corps. If we compare these losses with the ones in winter 1941-42 we can conclude that the offensive capabilities of the soviets have increased significantly.

Early fair weather in the East. Both soviets and germans took the turn for resting, upgrading and repairing so no major offensive actions. Only to mention that Red Army expanded its bridgehead in Dnepr river close to Smolensk. Wehrmacht counterattack achieved to destroy 1 soviet inf corps and to eliminate one of the 2 hexes of this bridgehead.

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In Sicily, the allies achieved to destroy Graziani HQ 2 Corpo and to progress to Messina whilst garrison unit west of Palermo was destroyed. Both sicilian cities were heavily bombed so supply situation has become very difficult no that is lowered to 1 supply point in all Sicily. Italian subs that last turn has engaged significantly a british BB were bombed and they see reduced its combat efficiency. The only axis offensive actions in this scenario were made again by Regia Marina that continued engaging allied navy here and there.

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Back to Western Europe scenario it would have to mention that the brits started bombing Germany itself. British fighters reached a strategic tech level which allowed the bombers to be escorted in their missions over Ruhr, Essen and Scholven synth plant. So heavy air combats occurred over german skies with high losses in fighters in both sides.

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American DD ambushed last turn was sunk by U-boats in the Atlantic.

[gerones]

Turn 68. May 3, 1943.

No significant operations in Eastern Front. Only to mention that the soviets seems to be determined to maintain their bridgehead in Dnepr river near Smolensk. As I told in last posts, first objective for Army Group Center in summer will be to destroy that bridgehead. That´s why Luftwaffe has moved from Romania to Belarus and Eastern Poland. Also, air reconnaissance has revealed an increasing number of troops around Petrozavodsk: it seems that the soviets are going to try something in Finland. A german corps was railed to Joensuu.

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In Italy, Palermo was seized by Indian Corps whilst the allies are about to land more units in mainland Italy. Luftwaffe dive bombers attacked an american trasnport and the remaining italian sub torpedoed a free french transport. Wehrmacht forces were railed to Italy and more are to come in the following turns. It is planned to deploy a total of 5 german inf corps and 10-12 garrison units in Italy-Southern France to face the allies once Italy surrenders which will happen soon.

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Kriegsmarine U-boats still active in the Atlantic: central convoy torpedoed.

[gerones]

Turn 69. May 23, 1943

Red Army expanded its bridgehead in Dnepr river in last allies turn and destroyed a german inf corps in the process. Soviet bridgehead at the start of axis turn, was formed by three soviet Armies: 42th, 40th and 26th. Image below shows zoomed to level 3 the situation at the start of axis turn in the soviet bridghead near Smolensk and is highlighted the area showing only terrain for better seeing the bridgehead.

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OKH ordered to start the offensive against soviet bridgehead near Smolensk. Axis forces were supported massively by Luftwaffe that also attacked fiercely soviet armoured formations on the other side of the river for avoiding counterattacks. The result of the first phase of this offensive was that 2 soviet armies, 42th and 26th, were destroyed. Image below shows zoomed to level 3 the results of this offensive.

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Air reconnaissance revealed a strong armoured and mechanized soviet force in central Ukraine that will likely start an offensive soon. Now that Luftwaffe is busy operating in central Russia, there´s no way the germans can properly face these forces on open ground so they were ordered to retreat a little bit. Also, to mention that Red Army made an approach to Joensuu where the axis forces have been reinforced significantly. Image below shows the situation of the whole Eastern front at the end of axis turn and it is hightlighted the area that it is zoomed to level 3 in the images above.

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In Italy, british XXX Corps landed in mainland Italy and free french forces are also about to land. Wehrmacht begin Operation Achse (occupation of Italy) and Montecassino fortress line hexes started to be occupied by german forces.

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Central convoy torpedoed again and reduced to 25 PP´s.

[gerones]

Turn 70. June 12, 1943.

Activity around Smolensk continued and another german inf corps was destroyed in allies turn. Also, Red Army started the attack in Finland reducing a finnish partisan garrison unit to 3 steps. In the south, soviet Southern Front started its offensive so the weak axis forces there were completely overrun. Forget to take screenshots at the end of axis turn but it would have to mention that Army Group South has started this turn a strategical withdrawal to Eastern Poland and Romania.

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Here it is zoomed to level 3 the situation in Finland:

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II Canadian Corps entered Palermo so Italy surrenders to the allies in the last turn. More allied units were landed in Italy: this time 2 free french corps. Wehrmacht is about to finish the occupation of Italy and it will likely be finished off within 2-3 turns.

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Southern convoy was again torpedoed and ambushed when trying to move to New York.

[gerones]

Turn 71. July 2, 1943

Soviets launched again successful assaults to german positions in the west bank of Dnepr river near Smolensk. The soviets, supported by heavy artillery fire from the other side of the river and by an always present Red Air Force achieved to destroy two german infantry corps thus re-stablishing the bridgehead.

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In the south, the advancing russians seized Kiev and Kherson. Soviet troops in the south are specially strong and they are closely supported by Red Air Force. Red Army Southern and Ukrainian Fronts are formed by 14 inf corps (2 guards), 8 mech corps (2 guards) and 2 tank guard corps.

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Wehrmacht launched another counterattack to retook the positions in the upper Dnepr and this was again successful destroying 2 soviet armies one of them an elite unit. Image below shows the situation of this sector of the front at the end of axis turn.

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Positions were also reinforced in Finland. Anyway, the increasing losses in the Dnepr bridgehead will likely force the Axis to start a strategic withdrawal in the very following turn. A new defensive line between Novgorod and Vitebesk would be built which also has an adequate terrain for defense. These forces would try to make a stand during 1943-44 winter and then they will start another retreat if necessary. OKH has already planned a general withdrawal for 1944, so the german forces would be then occupying a defensive line that would match with pre-Barbarossa dispositions. Image below shows this and the zoomed to level 3 images showed above.

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Mikko will probably have focussed his russian general lab in organization area since the soviet troops appear to have a high effectiveness. Germans actually are above 100 but they have now -1 quality.

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Back to Italy. Taranto was attacked by the australians and reinforcements were sent to the german defenders. Image below shows the situation at the end of axis turn.

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U-boats are still active attacking southern convoy.

[gerones]

Turn 72. July 22, 1943

Wehrmacht finally withdrew and abandoned the salient between Novgorod and Smolensk. The battle in this sector of the front had become an attrition war that does not favour at all to limited axis resources. New defensive line, once cleared of partisans the area, it is situated between Novgorod and Vitebesk and it has adequate terrain for defense.

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In other things, Taranto defenders still holds and southern convoy reduced to 20 PP´s (it started from 58 PP´s) because of subs attacks.

[gerones]

I will be out of town for 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, the game will have to be stopped for this time to be resumed then. Apologies to all that were following this AAR!

[gerones]

Game is going to be resumed shortly.

[gerones]

Turn 73. August 11, 1943

Here we go again!After a rather long pause the game is resumed.

First of all, we have to remember what was the situation at the end of last allied turn. Wehrmacht summer 1943 campaign did not achieve its objectives: instead of this the attrition war because of the fight for the Dnepr river bridgeheads has resulted in the soviets definitely seizing the initiative in the East. This way, the Red Army removed the Novgorod-Smolensk salient, destroying several axis units. Image below shows the Eastern front situation at the end of allied turn.

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In other fronts, the things are rather bad for the axis as well. Allied bombers are devastating Germany for "free" and the situation in Italy could change inmediately if the germans don´t react well to this:

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As you can see in the images above, the allies have sent a significant landing force in german rearguard in Italy. The fact is that the Wehrmacht will have to react soon to this if the germans don´t want the allies to be in Munich in 1944. So OKH has ordered the recently formed SS Wiking unit to counterattack the allies beachheads once formed and a substantial part of the Luftwaffe available tactical forces has been sent to southern Germany to strike the landing units. Also, fighter escort wings have been rebased to Italy.

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I have zoomed to level 3 the situation of the southern sector of Eastern front for you to see how strong are the soviet forces there. Anyway, Germany and its allys have achieved to build a defensive line in pre-Barbarossa borders and new reinforcements will be sent to this front but now the main objective is to resist until the bad weather comes so the soviet offensive actions lose strength. Also, in the north the Wehrmacht has abandoned the recently formed Novgorod-Vitebesk line and a general withdrawal to Daugava river is not discarded.

[gerones]

Turn 74. August 31, 1943

Image below shows the general situation in both italian and Eastern front scenarios at the start of axis turn. Highlighted areas are zoomed to level 3.

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Red Army offensive in the Dnepr river near Vitebesk destroyed 2 german inf corps and another 2 garrisons. Axis player cannot afford himself to make any mistake and the german performance in the East in summer 1943 has been rather poor. The germans should be now retreating in order but instead of this they are now in trouble since Mikko, playing cleverly, has dropped a paratroop unit in Minsk seizing the city. No need to say that this movement will interfere in the german withdrawal to the west.

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As expected, in Italy, there was a massive allied landing near Florence but it also appeared landing ships in Adriatic sea, ready to land near Ancona:

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Keeping in mind the complicated situation in the East, OKH ordered to counterattack the soviets: I Armeekorps and XXXI Armeekorps, with some air support, attacked and destroyed russian 3rd Tank Corps. A new defensive line was formed in Daugava river whilst some elements (Manstein´s HQ included) started a withdrawal to Belarus despite of the soviet paratroops there. Look at the numbers of 3rd Soviet Shock Army: not even SS units achieve such numbers!

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In the south, the soviets are pushing hard in Romania, destroying a romanian inf corps in last allied turn. Axis forces reacted trying to cover the hole in their lines: Romania is threatened! Shot of the situation at the end of axis turn:

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Back to italian front. Wehrmacht morale has increased a little when a massive attack of Luftwaffe dive bombers destroyed an australian transport at sea when it was about to land near Ancona. Furthermore, SS Wiking, with some air support, counterattacked a french inf corps recently landed leaving it in a delicated situation. Reinforcements were sent to several cities of Italy as well as more Luftwaffe wings were deployed: we are going to drop them to the sea!

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U-boats fleet is ordered to come back to France for repairs and upgrades. Azores islands can be used now by USAF so it will be harder to harass the american convoy now.

[gerones]

Turn 76. September 20, 1943

Red Army continued its offensive in Belarus crossing the Dnepr river in force and seizing Pskov. German losses in this offensive have been high and irreplaceable. Surely the Wehrmacht will only find a solid defensive line in pre-Barbarossa borders taking advantage of the polish rivers. In Romania, the soviets penetrate a little bit more in axis defensive lines.

In Italy, Venice was seized by american paratroops! I garrisoned all italian cities except Venice because 82nd American Airborne division jumped from a non-spotted hex in Corsica.

Below are showed the situation at the start of axis turn:

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Unfortunately, I forgot to take screenshots at the end of axis turn but it would only have to mention that american paratroops were heavily attacked by SS and Luftwaffe forces causing horrible losses to the "All American" unit (reduced to 3 steps).