|
 Taking Tunis has turned out to be a tough challenge for the American core. American Campaign: Tunis  After a week of fighting we haven't made much progress at Tunis, although we have destroyed some of the better enemy forces. It's taking longer than expected, but now we can make a move on Massicault and come around on Tunis from the east as well. The British continue their steady advancement, but that too is unlikely to secure the peninsula for us before the enemy can evacuate more troops from the continent. Allied Turn: May 8, 1943 Clear(dry)  With their troops now close to the action, the British are able to take Kolba, and even begin to move on to Menzil Temime.  This is an example of a most unusual combat. At Hamman Lif, the bombers suppressed the town entirely. The AEC I attacks into a rugged defense. It takes no damage, but with one lucky roll it forces a retreat.  Our tanks separate Tunis from Massicault. To get into Tunis, we need to break the artillery. On the north we are close to getting rid of the armored car trying to hold the city; next we'll need to bring more forces to bear on the south. Axis Turn: May 8, 1943  The M10 and the Tiger continue to battle it out. With the British guns behind it, the M10 is actually keeping even with the German unit. Allied Turn: May 9, 1943 Clear(dry)  The M7 proves quite useful in combat. It takes down the guns on the north side and some space is finally cleared there. Having a bit of armor makes these units more useful in an counter-battery situation. If assaulting with towed guns, they have to be moved in without being able to attack. That means they'll take the fire from the enemy first, and have to recover on their turn (or risk being destroyed). A single towed gun is often unusable except as a damage sponge. Whereas something like the M7 can roll into range, last through more than one hit and do enough in return to actually get rid of the defender's artillery.  Bombing commences at Massicault. In addition to the air strikes there's pressure on the ground from both sides.  The British and Italians wear each other down at Menzil Temime. It again is for our side a matter of skirmishing while waiting for the rest to catch up. Axis Turn: May 9, 1943  The Tigers appear to be pulling back from the fight with our tank destroyers. Overhead, we get a shock as the B26 is lost to crack shots from the air defense guns. Allied Turn: May 10, 1943 Clear(dry)  We're finally getting to the heart of Massicault and our armored units batter the Tiger some more. The B26 is replaced. This is getting to be a bit expensive to deal with.  At Menzil Temime, the Italians are on their way out. They were prepared with an AD gun but we didn't bother bringing planes up here except for recon.  Of course one reason we didn't is that it is so far from our airfields. On that front, we finally take the airfield at Tunis, and one of the tough flak guns is now gone as well.  The auxiliary Hurricane II braves the flak to finally destroy the Tiger. Axis Turn: May 10, 1943  At both Massicault and Tunis, some of our units are pushed back by strong attacks from overstrength units.  A setback occurs at Menzil Temime as the Breda swings into action and demolishes the Churchill IV. Allied Turn: May 11, 1943 Clear(dry)  Despite the loss of the tanks, the British are determined to take the last point out here and it seems likely to happen.  Massicault is now surrounded and should be taken in the next day or two also. Tunis keeps building up its defenses; now there are guns all along the south side of the city.  Our troops are exahusted. We take a day to recover strength and decide to make sure that Massicault will go down so we can then focus everything on Tunis. Axis Turn: May 11, 1943  The break lets the Axis build up strength as well. Allied Turn: May 12, 1943 Clear(dry)  Massicault's defenders are driven out. We don't quite capture it yet, but there is no real chance for the Germans to hold it tomorrow.  We continue to work at Tunis as we wait for the Massicault force to take the southern side. The Engineers have a particularly tough day and are forced to withdraw from the battle.  The British forces take Menzil Temime with just about the last of their supplies. Axis Turn: May 12, 1943  The Germans do get the infantry that remains into Massicault. At Tunis they bombard our troops. These actions aren't enough to disrupt our plans. Allied Turn: May 13, 1943 Clear(dry)  Tunis is the last bastion of the Axis in North Africa. We begin to take it by pushing from the weak north side.  Massicault is secured and our forces are ready to overwhelm Tunis. Axis Turn: May 13, 1943  The Germans want to hold Tunis as long as they can. The guns open up and with an attack from a PaK38, the Free French troops that had moved into the city (not the core unit) are lost. Allied Turn: May 14, 1943 Clear(dry)  There's not a lot of maneuvering room here, but as we have enough troops now, we can just do a squeeze slowly eliminating guns and troops as we go. Except for the fact that a slow squeeze is not what we need right now. We are expected to finish this by tomorrow. Axis Turn: May 14, 1943  Curiously the AD guns in Tunis do not go after the bombers, but this Spitfire. I've often hoped to distract them with multiple targets, and it almost never works.  The Pak38 that moved back into the north side pushes our 75mm guns off the airfield. This was a mistake on my part for not backing them up with other nearby guns. Allied Turn: May 15, 1943 Clear(dry) ** LAST TURN **  We are almost out of time. But we only need to take the city hexes. We begin with our bombs and a barrage of artillery. Then a few of our armored units hit the back of the enemy. One of the opposing artillery units and a flak gun is destroyed, which means no defensive fire to deal with. As a tactical note: Since this was the last turn, I was able to dispense with suppressing the 88mm AD gun and instead use the bombers on units we actually expect to fight. If we win they don't get to fight back.  This lets us destroy another AT gun.  Finally, the three-star Pak 38 is driven back and then removed.  In a very close finish, we do get the victory.  Nothing remained on the map except the last few units hoping to escape from Tunisia. The route for the Americans is the same as for the British as we say farewell to Africa. We look forward to finally striking at the heart of the Axis! Compared to the British, we clearly had a tougher time with this battle. Certainly the British as an auxiliary force was unable to smash through the Italians at any rate approaching the speed of the core, but that wasn't really what slowed us as much. This strategy of crossing and coming from the north didn't really work once the Germans fortified Tunis consistently well and we only had one avenue of approach. I didn't really handle the flanking of our infantry well, and losing two bombers along the way wasn't so great for prestige. On the bright side, we demonstrated the abilities of the M10 to handle even a Tiger when defending, and the initial rush to Tunis did go very well as we combined our tanks, artillery, and air power to get through the German lines. Once our planes get enough experience, they ought to be able to stand up to ground attack much better; until then, we may have to be cautious with the tactical bombers. Ending Prestige: 2040 Result: Minor Victory (2100 prestige awarded) Another vote on which side to show is coming up.
|
| ← # ? Aug 28, 2013 19:21 |
|
