Second Front: ANVIL-DRAGOON Rethought

I've looked over SFs treatment of the August 1944 invasion of southern France. Naval and air forces do not work correctly for the invasion when playing the ETO scenario (41B3), as the invasion requires such forces from the MTO but the OBs do not specify such transfers. (The grand campaign scenarios, 41B1 & 2, work fine for southern France. In working through this situation, it strikes me that the Axis player should not be certain that Aug II 44 is the most likely date of the invasion, so I have taken the opportunity to improve this area too.

It seems simplest just to rewrite 41B3 in its entirety rather than just post modifications to it, so here goes: B>3. The ETO (1944-45 Theater Scenario). This scenario starts on the Apr I 44 turn and ends either upon the conclusion of the May I 45 turn or upon an Axis surrender (per Rule 38A2).

Use the Apr I 44 initial forces and the reinforcements starting from Apr I 44. The Allied player controls the ETO theater. At the start of the game, he owns all hexes in Great Britain. For this scenario, the ETO includes the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Corsica. Treat Corsica as part of the ETO theater, and at the start of the game the Allied player owns all hexes in Corsica. Due to defensive forces not included in the scenario, Axis forces may not enter any hexes on Corsica (this includes Axis naval forces entering any coastal hexes of Corsica.

In addition to the above, Allied forces may use airbases, ports, and naval bases in North Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia, as well as the port of Napoli (26:2422).

The Axis player controls the West and Greater Germany theaters. At the start of the game, he owns all non-neutral hexes except those owned by the Allies.

The Allied player may invade (southern) France using forces drawn from the MTO. Starting on Jul I 44, the Allied player may plan amphibious landings and airborne operations for MTO forces for the turns Jul II 44 through Aug II 44. On the first turn that an amphibious landing or airborne operation is planned to occur, if the Allied player does not cancel it, he announces during his initial phase that he is invading southern France and receives:

Ground Forces: All units sequestered for the invasion of southern France (see the American, British, and French sections of the Jul I 44 MTO order of battle). These MTO units are sequestered on Jul I 44, and the Allied player may plan amphibious landings and airborne operations for them from that turn. Note that these units in any event transfer to the ETO on Aug II 44.

Air Forces: When Allied player announces the invasion, he receives the air units listed below as reinforcements in any airbases in Corsica, North Africa, Sicily, or Sardinia. These air units remain in play from the announcement of the invasion until the Allied initial phase of the Sep I 44 turn, upon which they are withdrawn.

American: from MTO Tac: 2x B-26G, 8x C-47, 2x CG-4A, 3x P-47D25

British: from MTO Tac: 1x C-47 (RAF), 1x CG-4A (RAF)

French: from MTO Tac: 1x B-26B, 1x B-26G, 1x C-47, 1x P39Q, 2x P-40N, 2x P-471325, 1 x Spit 8

Naval Forces: When the Allied player announces the invasion, he receives the naval units listed below as reinforcements in any ports or naval bases in Corsica, North Africa, Sicily, or Sardinia. These air units remain in play from the announcement of the invasion until the Allied initial phase of the Sep I 44 turn, upon which they are withdrawn. Note that the Allied player may count LCs towards his RE limit when planning amphibious landings. Also note that American and French TFs are not available on Jul II 44.

Allied: 12x landing craft, 20 pts naval transport
American (from Aug 144 only): 1 x 12 pt TF, 1 x 8 pt TF (both USN)
British: 1 x 16 pt TF (RN)
French (from Aug 144 only): 1 x 4 pt TF
Italian: 5 pts naval transport
See Rule 42 for the victory conditions.

The MTO scenario (41B4) needs to account for Allied air and naval forces allocated to the invasion of southern France. Accordingly, the above listed air and naval forces are sequestered on Aug I 44 (not Jul 1 44) and return as reinforcements on Sep I 44. (Note that upon their return some of these forces may be involved in other reinforcement activities, such as various naval units being transferred to the ETO.)

Garden of Aden

Q: Rule 31.A.2: The Allied Eastern Mediterranean 10 NTPs "may be used in the Central Mediterranean Sea, Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Persian Gulf Suez Canal, and to inland ports on rivers in the Near East Command." How does one use these NTPs to transport units and supplies between Eastern Mediterranean Sea/Suez Canal/Red Sea area and the Persian Gulf (presumably around the Arabian Peninsula)? This is off map movement and there are no holding boxes. See Rule 3.E.5 which specifies that Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf "sea zones " are in play. See Rule 2 7. B. 3, "Naval units must move along an all-water route and may not cross land at any time." There is no map coverage of the sea route.

JMA: Ignoring reinforcements, which enter using their own rules, the vast majority of Allied forces transferring between the Middle East and Near East moved overland and not by sea. Given this, I felt it kept the game simpler (no additional rules needed) with no real loss of accuracy to ignore shipping between the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Still, such a shipping route was indeed possible, and if you want an optional rule covering this, here's the simplest one that occurs to me at present:

Add an Allied off-map holding box for Aden. Treat Aden as a port with unlimited capacity and as an Allied supply terminal.

Naval transports can carry cargo from the map to Aden as follows:

• by spending 60 MPs in a Red Sea sea or coastal hex on the eastern edge of map 19A, or
• by spending 60 MPs in a Persian Gulf sea or coastal hex on the southern edge of map 22A.

Naval transports can carry cargo from Aden to the map as follows:

• by spending 60 MPs and entering a Red Sea sea or coastal hex on the eastern edge of map 19A, or
• by spending 60 MPs and entering a Persian Gulf sea or coastal hex on the southern edge of map 22A.

Now keep in mind that this rule is made as simple as possible to fit within the WitD rules. Sure, Aden doesn't really have unlimited capacity (but then you don't have an unlimited amount of NTPs, either), it really isn't exactly 60 MPs between both the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and most cargo wouldn't actually stop and disembark at Aden (the transports would refuel if necessary and then continue on their way), but don't worry about such details-the rule uses existing WitD rules well and results in about the right overall transit time between the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

Through the Desert on a Horse With No Name

Q: When using the Middle East Strategic Reserve optional rule the Allied player must keep 6 infantry REs in the Delta or Palestine; these REs will also countfor the Palestine garrison if in Palestine. As such, is it not the prudent thing for the Allies to immediately send 2 REs of ANZACs to Palestine to replace the cavalry brigades there (I RE ofAussies is already there) thereby freeing the horses to go galloping off into the desert until March?

JMA: It's legal in the rules as written. I suppose if this particularly bothers you, you could increase the Strategic Reserve from 8 to 11 REs and require 3 REs of cav to be in the reserve in addition to the 6 REs of inf, but that's really not historically accurate for the strategic reserve. Alternately, I suppose you could not count the reserve towards the Palestine garrison, but that's not accurate either - being tagged for the reserve does not render a unit ineffectual, despite what Wavell might have thought about it.

Besides, the real abuse is running the cavalry around in areas inhospitable to it - hot, waterless areas. For the real optional rule fanatics, there should be a "deep desert" zone, which we can approximate as follows: any hex in zone F in any turn or any hex in zone G from May I through Sep II that is more than 2 hexes away from a fresh water source. A fresh water source consists of.

• Any river or canal (but not wadi) hexside except the Suez Canal (salt water). (Count the hex adjacent to the hexside as the first hex from the source.)
• Any lake (but not sea), except for salt lakes (which includes the Bitter Lakes, the Dead Sea, and various other lakes, particularly in Turkey and Iran-I leave drawing up a complete list as an exercise for the student).
• Any city, including point cities.
• Any swamp or wooded swamp hex-but not salt marsh or sebkha.

At the end of each movement phase, check for the survival of each phasing cavalry unit in the deep desert. For each unit, roll one die and consult the Success Table. An 'S' result means the unit survives; any 'F' result means the unit is immediately eliminated. For the true rules fanatic, cavalry units eliminated due to this rule cost only 1/2 the usual cost to replace (since most of the horses may be lost but the men survive).

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