Allies:
Richard Banks (Detroit)
Scott Peterson (Salinas)
Mark Royer (Boston)
Richard Thomas (Salem)

Axis:
Chris Lundvall (Snohomish)
Gary Renaud (Anaheim)
Peter Robbins (Vancouver)
Blake Woodside (Toronto)

July I

The only major offensive move by the Axis in the July I turn was the night bombing of Cagliari's port. About 40 air units were involved, 18 of which were aborted after their night landings! Remember that aborted units, under the new air rules, are removed from the map and require air RPs to be returned to play.

This probably encourages a "use them or lose them" attitude, with risky attacks being attempted by players who know that they can make up their losses with air RPs. This pyrrhic attack was successful, closing the port and putting the invasion force out of supply for a turn. Moral: ship in some supply along with the ground troops.

July II

The Allies re-open the port with an engineer that had landed with the invasion, and push north almost to Sassari. Sardinia will fall next turn. There are lots of planes flying CAP and naval patrol, but otherwise quiet reigns. The Axis are also quiet, and are concerned about two major problems: the fragility of the coastal defenses in France, and the 28 REs of Italian losses. (One of the conditions required for an Italian surrender is 50 RPs of losses.)

August I:

The Allies launch a surprise (well, it was to me!) air drop with the 82nd Airborne in southern Corsica, right on top of a weak coastal division in rough terr ain. This succeeds, although with some losses. Sardinia is secured by the Allies, and seven temporary airfields are built in the north to cover the 82nd.

The Axis, noticing that (a) the only engineer that landed on Corsica died in an exchange, and (b) that the Allies only hold one port there, think that Corsica might be held. Accordingly, the evacuation of Corsica is stopped, and the Hermann Goring Panzer Division is shipped to the island. "Hermann" gets past the danger zone die rolls, and arrives safely in Ajaccio. With some flak units and a couple of engineers to keep the ports open, the Axis are optimistic.

They are even more optimistic after another night port bombing raid closes Bonifacio, the Allies' only port. About 30 bombers were required, and 20 crashed on 1anding at night. The Luftwaffe commander is beginning to develop a reputation for expensive victories.

The Allied Aug II turn is strangely quiet, except for air raids. All of the Axis-held ports on Corsica are closed by bombing, and the Sardinian airfields are stuffed with all the planes they can hold. Landing craft are brought to the north of Sardinia, apparently for another landing (in Corsica?) next turn.

The Axis prepare an attack on the unsupplied 82nd Airborne in Bonifacio, using a lot of air to make the attack a 2:1 (the 82nd has the maximum allowable DAS), but they roll an 'AS'! The Luftwaffe suffer high losses, but the ground support mission draws off the Allied CAP, so that another raid catches the landing craft that have just arrived at La Maddelena, sinking both.

Second Front: First Battlefield Report Origins/Europafest 1994

Introduction
July and August 1944
September and October 1944
A Word about Danger Zones