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NB: This chapter is a little longer again, but that’s because it contains quite a bit of narrative action plus all the usual monthly reports, plus nine days of intense fighting on the Balkan Front. Vur ha and apologies to Professor @nuclearslurpee
Battle was joined again at 6 am, but this time the Turkish flyers were jumped by another two Italian fighter wings, making it an escort of five enemy wings in total.
There's supposed to be a malus to an air force that stacks so many wings in a single battle, though this is apparently precious little comfort to our bedraggled air force.
Already damaged and coming off this exchange the worse for wear and unable to stop the raid on Delnice anyway, 4 AG's mission was cancelled when the third dogfight of the day ended that afternoon.
Seems like now that we've advanced a good ways we're coming into the real teeth of the enemy air power. We could stand alright when the border was a couple hundred km closer to our own heartlands, but now we're a bit farther afield and closer to the Axis core so they are not lacking for airframes. Men, maybe, but not airframes.
The pressure and casualties were mounting in Sopron, despite determined Turkish spoiling attacks on Körmend and Szombathely. 1st Mar Div retreated at 7am, before it broke and while it could still choose its destination – lest a nasty gap be left in the line at Tata.
OTL Event: The Grumman F6F Hellcat Debuts.The Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter was first used in combat, as groups of Hellcats took off from the aircraft carriers Yorktown, Independence, and Essex. One historian would later opine that "The introduction of the Hellcat may have been the most important event of the Pacific war", while another would give the statistics supporting the opinion.
Rijeka was taken by 8 Mil Div at 6pm – 1 Mtn Div would follow them in at midnight. This was the cue for a concerted attack on the Italian-commanded German division holding Karlobag: revenge would be had for the earlier loss of Lussino, with a numerical advantage of over six-to-one for the attacking Comintern forces.
In common with the other members of the Cambridge Five, his entry to British intelligence was achieved without vetting; his social position and personal recommendation were considered sufficient.
That afternoon Agent SkitalecS3 brought a welcome update on recent Soviet progress: great gains had been made in the north and some progress was now also being made towards the former border with the Greater Reich in Poland. Army Group North appeared to have been irretrievably cut off. Ourah!
… an action he never completed. The sound of the gunshot barely registered to him in the split second before the bullet thudded into the back of his head. His body was found a little later, with a strange card left on his forehead, above his two now unseeing eyes that were widened in slight surprise.
It seemed that a new S.I.T.H. operative, based in the United States, had made his mark – in emphatic fashion. The ‘Duke of Midnight’ showed that those who had betrayed the UGNR in general – and Inönü in particular – were not safe from retribution, even when on the soil of a foreign and allied country.
Of course, this operative’s true identity and nationality were not known by others for sure. But Soviet and Turkish intelligence sharing was clearly operating well. And an overt calling card had been left, as an example and a threat to others. [Hope you don’t mind your new in-game avatar, @Midnite Duke. Otherwise, you can plausibly deny him as a false flagger! ]
As I don't recognize this avatar, I am forced to conclude that this is Gary Oldman and the Turkeyverse has expanded into yet another classic film franchise.
An hour later, across on the Adriatic coast, 222 SD had the honour of being first to reoccupy Karlobag, avenging their previous ousting from Lussino when the enemy had first broken through in this southern salient. This was followed up that evening with an exploratory probe by 8 Mil Div towards Pola which, along with Rovigno to its north, seemed to be unoccupied. There were hopes of trapping the German division that had now retreated to Lussino from Karlobag.
Supply transportation, which in Turkey had lagged behind the world’s leading standards for some time, was improved on 29 August. Both equipment designers and logisticians were kept on the task of improving it further.
We have now upgraded from men carrying supplies on their backs and walking from the factories to the front lines, to men carrying supplies on their backs and running from the factories to the front lines. Truly modern technology is amazing.
Little did he realise who the ‘guest chef’ was at the restaurant that evening. And she had taken extra care with the gnocchi to make it as tasty as possible!
Before long, both Guildenstern and Callan had consumed a good portion of their meal – their last on this earth.
“For Luka Brasi and with the compliments of Şükrü Ögel,” whispered Cennet softly as she walked past the slumped forms of the two men. She checked her watch: it was just after midnight back in Ankara – very fitting.
Quite a rapid killing-off of our enemies in this update. Game-wise of course this is precipitated by the elimination of British spies, but in-universe one wonders who is left to pose a serious challenge to S.I.T.H. and the rest of the Turkish intelligence apparatus.
A little later that morning in New York, a messenger from the FBI brought Perse the fateful news: “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead!” All Perse could do was scream in anguish.
On the Patriotic Front, the last few weeks had witnessed wholesale advances by the Soviets, now all along the Russian-Polish sector as the Steamroller finally seemed to be getting into gear, complementing the recent Turkish advances in southern Poland, which were now largely on hold.
“It looks like shortages are hampering their efforts. Perhaps we can arrange a resupply of backbones for them!” exclaimed a derisive Inönü when he read this report.
Will Leningrad and Riga, even Konigsberg and Warsaw, fall to the Comintern in September? Will the British finally get off their arses and finish off the Italians in Africa? Can Australia be rescued or is it doomed? And can the British hold India, or may Turkish troops need to start looking at establishing a garrison on the UGNR’s Persian border with western India?
In the US, will The Duke of Midnight and/or Cennet strike again? Can Perse survive? Can anyone stop the Cambridge Ring from destroying MI6 from within while the Comintern begins to dominate on the continent?
Manpower in HoI3 has an undersized effect on combat ability. In real life, a division losing 10-20% of its men would be considered combat ineffective for all purposes except desperate defensive deployments, however in HoI3 the effect on combat ability is quite minimal until you get closer to, say, 50% or 70% losses at which point it may become noticeable.
Manpower in HoI3 has an undersized effect on combat ability. In real life, a division losing 10-20% of its men would be considered combat ineffective for all purposes except desperate defensive deployments, however in HoI3 the effect on combat ability is quite minimal until you get closer to, say, 50% or 70% losses at which point it may become noticeable.
In any sort of reality, a combat formation not able to fill out it's frontage fully (that is, attempting to either attack or defend more space that it can) should definitely suffer a combat penalty. Unfortunately, the geniuses at Paradox have never been in uniform, unlike, say, @Bullfilter or myself, who have some experience in actual combat operations, and so their models of combat operations and how that impacts at the operational or strategic level is irretrievably fucked. Not to mention that it almost never seems like hit land on strength the way they do on organization, which bothers me as well.
Per a post here a division at 50% strength has >50% effectiveness though the exact amount varies based on values set in the defines.lua file.
To sum up the post: the formula for strength damage per shot is
Code:
(Attacker Strength + LAND_COMBAT_STR_DICE_SIZE) * LAND_COMBAT_STR_DAMAGE_MODIFIER
Attacker Strength = Current Unit Strength / Maximum Unit Strength
The two ALL_CAPS parameters are in defines.lua and in the vanilla game are set to 2 and 0.6 respectively. A parallel set of values exist for ORG damage which follows the same rule. The total damage is found by multiplying the number of shots, which is what the soft/hard attack stats tell you - of course in-game each shot can hit or miss depending on RNG.
So with default settings, a full-strength unit is dealing (1.0 + 2) * 0.6 = 1.8 damage per shot. A half-strength unit is dealing (0.5 + 2) * 0.6 = 1.5 damage per shot, meaning that a division at 50% strength has only lost one-sixth of its combat effectiveness, where in real life these numbers would more likely be flipped completely.
The best we could do would be to set LAND_COMBAT_STR_DICE_SIZE to 0.0 (a negative value would probably cause weird errors for very low-strength units as the damage per shot goes negative), which would mean raw combat strength is directly proportional to unit strength. In practice this would probably be pretty accurate, since it would directly model Lanchester's square law.
E: Side note, the parameters for ORG damage are 4 and 7.5 respectively, which explains why you see units take a ton of ORG damage and not much STR damage. In fact ORG damage is a factor of 20 to 25 times greater with these values.
So, it's time to focus once more on the TT altiverse. I will soon play another month through and then begin writing up, in however many chapters seems manageable.
Yes, it took a while and plenty of complementary pressure from Turkey, but it's finally happening. The trans-Atlantic SITH operation is purely fictional, but still going off actual spy neutralisations 'in Turkey' (which I've changed for story purposes to 'by Turkey').
Not sure about Körmend, but Szombathely was a good one to take, even with some casualties? Or was it the case that without a second front the defenders would've turned the battle?
Mainly it was wanting to calm things down after all the recent casualties and deteriorating MP situation. For the time being, Turkey will start preparing for the next phase of the war, while they watch the Soviets hopefully consume Army Group North in a kind of mega-Stalingrad encirclement while simultaneously rolling into German-occupied Poland.
I loved the detail that the airfield in Pescara is marked red. That's my preferred location for an amphibious attack against Italy when the time comes for one. Has airfield, port, one stone throw away from our coast, one more stone throw away from Rome, surrounded by easily defensible mountains. Once we make it to Trieste
Thanks! It was to highlight the nearest peninsular Italian air base, which would likely become a later focus of air operations if an invasion is prosecuted.
At least this means we can hold Karlobag with only a brigade or so, their militia in the islands would be subject to same cross channel penalties. Now onto Trieste!!! Vur Ha!
Air parity sounds like a long project, do you think it'd work if we start amphibious assaults to 3 4 different provinces from different sea zones so at least 1 or 2 would be undisturbed? From Ancona to Monopoli there are a dozen provinces, nearly all plains, and I'm sure at least some would be undefended. Pescara is the best option there, but if it's garrisoned and the neighboring provinces are not we can make a landfall to a neighboring province to reach Pescara after landfall. A second vector here would be Termoli from the Southern Coast of Dalmatia. Whichever they pass on will make it to the coast stronger and they'll link up at Pescara.
Maybe, but I think the general plan will be to generate enough fighter presence over an invasion site (maybe 1-2 provinces) to protect the small invasion fleet until it can disgorge its cargo onto the beaches.
Monopoli in the South is another province that can be reached by 2 separate sea zones, and from Monopoli one can quickly take Bari for a port, and Taranto for both a port, air strip and VP. Brindisi here is also reachable by 2 sea zone and also neighboring Taranto, so as a result with transports on Southern Coast of Dalmatia, South Adriatic Sea and Gulf of Taranto, 6 plains provinces can be reached all neighboring port provinces (or 9 which are only 2 provinces away from a port). I'm sure out of this 6/9 provinces, more than half would be undefended.
How many transports do we have? What is the latest situation of Regia Marina? Important points to know before making any plans. What does the mk1 eyeball of our ultra modern submarine says about which provinces are defended?
I will update the relevant naval strengths in the next episode. It's a small capability for now. I think the RM only has destroyers left, and probably not many of them. It's their air power I'm really worried about, especially as we try to assault their homeland.
There's supposed to be a malus to an air force that stacks so many wings in a single battle, though this is apparently precious little comfort to our bedraggled air force.
Seems like now that we've advanced a good ways we're coming into the real teeth of the enemy air power. We could stand alright when the border was a couple hundred km closer to our own heartlands, but now we're a bit farther afield and closer to the Axis core so they are not lacking for airframes. Men, maybe, but not airframes.
This is true, and has been for a while. For Turkey, even Italy without any German air support would be a tough proposition for the Air Force - though more wings are on the way.
Chaps trusting chaps. You'd have thought that the previous 900-odd years of English history might have contained a few hints about the wisdom of these blithe assumptions!
As I don't recognize this avatar, I am forced to conclude that this is Gary Oldman and the Turkeyverse has expanded into yet another classic film franchise.
We have now upgraded from men carrying supplies on their backs and walking from the factories to the front lines, to men carrying supplies on their backs and running from the factories to the front lines. Truly modern technology is amazing.
Quite a rapid killing-off of our enemies in this update. Game-wise of course this is precipitated by the elimination of British spies, but in-universe one wonders who is left to pose a serious challenge to S.I.T.H. and the rest of the Turkish intelligence apparatus.
A long time. As mentioned above, from the very start of the Guildenstern story arc, followed by Rosencrantz a while later. Plus Perse being a deep-cover double agent from very early on, so one day being distraught at the the discovery that Guildenstern and Rosencrantz were dead. I even had a Tom Stoppard cameo at one point.
Kelebek may not like it, unless he can find a nearby active volcano. According to wikipedia "t the moment, there are only two active volcanoes in Antarctica – Mount Erebus (due south of New Zealand) and Deception Island (south east of Cape Horn, South America)". Either one of them would be suitable for such a base, for their names alone.
Manpower in HoI3 has an undersized effect on combat ability. In real life, a division losing 10-20% of its men would be considered combat ineffective for all purposes except desperate defensive deployments, however in HoI3 the effect on combat ability is quite minimal until you get closer to, say, 50% or 70% losses at which point it may become noticeable.
In any sort of reality, a combat formation not able to fill out it's frontage fully (that is, attempting to either attack or defend more space that it can) should definitely suffer a combat penalty. Unfortunately, the geniuses at Paradox have never been in uniform, unlike, say, @Bullfilter or myself, who have some experience in actual combat operations, and so their models of combat operations and how that impacts at the operational or strategic level is irretrievably fucked. Not to mention that it almost never seems like hit land on strength the way they do on organization, which bothers me as well.
Per a post here a division at 50% strength has >50% effectiveness though the exact amount varies based on values set in the defines.lua file.
To sum up the post: the formula for strength damage per shot is
Code:
(Attacker Strength + LAND_COMBAT_STR_DICE_SIZE) * LAND_COMBAT_STR_DAMAGE_MODIFIER
Attacker Strength = Current Unit Strength / Maximum Unit Strength
The two ALL_CAPS parameters are in defines.lua and in the vanilla game are set to 2 and 0.6 respectively. A parallel set of values exist for ORG damage which follows the same rule. The total damage is found by multiplying the number of shots, which is what the soft/hard attack stats tell you - of course in-game each shot can hit or miss depending on RNG.
So with default settings, a full-strength unit is dealing (1.0 + 2) * 0.6 = 1.8 damage per shot. A half-strength unit is dealing (0.5 + 2) * 0.6 = 1.5 damage per shot, meaning that a division at 50% strength has only lost one-sixth of its combat effectiveness, where in real life these numbers would more likely be flipped completely.
The best we could do would be to set LAND_COMBAT_STR_DICE_SIZE to 0.0 (a negative value would probably cause weird errors for very low-strength units as the damage per shot goes negative), which would mean raw combat strength is directly proportional to unit strength. In practice this would probably be pretty accurate, since it would directly model Lanchester's square law.
E: Side note, the parameters for ORG damage are 4 and 7.5 respectively, which explains why you see units take a ton of ORG damage and not much STR damage. In fact ORG damage is a factor of 20 to 25 times greater with these values.
All: thanks once more for the comments and discussions. There is still a short time for any operational or strategic suggestions for the coming month, before I start playing the next sesh.
I don’t think the proverbial barge pole extended to 10,000 km would keep me far enough away from there! Especially given how far away the Soviets still are, and my experiences trying to take it in the Q&D2 AAR. . Rome is far closer, but will still be hard to take. And they don’t even have a navy any more. Nice wind-up, though, Professor.
Not to idly bump the thread, but whilst perusing the board I noticed that Talking Turkey has recently become the AAR with the most replies on the HoI3 board, having surpassed Uriah's Doppelgänger AAR some eight pages ago i.e. last November. While I'm certainly not one to denigrate the classics, I do think we can all agree that this is quite an impressive mark of persistence and quality and ought to be recognized as such.
Thus in the spirit of good-natured fun I am proud to award our esteemed authAAR the following award.
Of course the watermark is totally intentional and not at all an artefact of limited Google Image search results requiring me to select the best of a bad batch. After all, our esteemed authAAR is an employee of us readAARs and is paid* to entertain us with his long-winded tales, yes?
As a footnote, one might observe that the length of this AAR is eclipsed by Butterfly Effect, which is now into the 300s of page counts, however as Butterfly transcends space, time, and indeed any puny award we could give it, this footnote shall suffice.
Not to idly bump the thread, but whilst perusing the board I noticed that Talking Turkey has recently become the AAR with the most replies on the HoI3 board, having surpassed Uriah's Doppelgänger AAR some eight pages ago i.e. last November. While I'm certainly not one to denigrate the classics, I do think we can all agree that this is quite an impressive mark of persistence and quality and ought to be recognized as such.
Thus in the spirit of good-natured fun I am proud to award our esteemed authAAR the following award.
Of course the watermark is totally intentional and not at all an artefact of limited Google Image search results requiring me to select the best of a bad batch. After all, our esteemed authAAR is an employee of us readAARs and is paid* to entertain us with his long-winded tales, yes?
As a footnote, one might observe that the length of this AAR is eclipsed by Butterfly Effect, which is now into the 300s of page counts, however as Butterfly transcends space, time, and indeed any puny award we could give it, this footnote shall suffice.
Love it! Thread bumping is never early or late, but is done exactly when it should be. The hot air of your humble authAAR and all the commentAARs who have contributed to reaching this millstone er, milestone have made this all possible:
I can fly higher than an eagle
For you are the air in my balloon
Ps: next sesh played through, hot air for the next chapter being generated.
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Chapter 212: An Adriatic Autumn (1 to 11 September 1943)
Chapter 212: An Adriatic Autumn (1 to 11 September 1943)
Foreword
Once more, the whole month has been played through, so here follows the report for the first part of the session. A few digressions along the way, one definitely from left field, but then you’ve come to expect those – have you not, my dear readAARs?
---xxx---
Midnight Brief and Orders - 31 Aug 43
As August 1943 ended, Inönü received some additional reports he or his staff [ie including gentle readAARs] had sought and some orders were issued to start the new month. First off, general thinking was beginning to return to the previously mooted invasion of Italy. Some background information would assist in setting intermediate objectives and marshalling and positioning the required joint capabilities.
The main fleet remained based in Izmir and had a lift capacity of 180. The generally smaller US Marine divisions coming in at about 30 to 40 'weight', more for larger Turkish infantry or marine divisions that might take part in a first wave. Basically, it was about one full corps in a single lift.
A map showing the ranges of the shorter (INT) and longer (MR) Turkish fighter wings from Split was also provided, with Italian air bases in range also marked.
The three-division task force over in the Far East had been cooling it heels for some days. The men of the 4th Cavalry Division in particular had been enjoying life at the outpost in western Mongolia without a dedicated general to lead them. The Cowboy Men (as they were known) would soon have to adjust to the rigours of the Balkan Front as all three formations were ordered back to Ankara by rail, for further deployment once they finished their long train ride. But until then, they would live it up – and hard as they could!
(3.00 min)
Apologies, but despite being absolutely nothing to do with the time period of the game this video is a real hoot and unlikely seen by anyone outside Australia. There is no hidden agenda: I thought of the cavalrymen killing time in an outpost in the wild west (of Mongolia) and this spang to mind - like a toadstool in a field of mushrooms.
The notes for this clip state that this is the original 1980 Casablanca/PolyGram Australia music video for The Skatt Brothers Life At The Outpost. This official video was done by the Australian record company, without the actual Skatt Brothers, when repeated requests to the bands management company to produce a video for Life At The Outpost went unanswered. I remember it well from the time – tragically! But with a band name and song like that, they should have expected no better treatment than it got!
The men of the 4th Cavalry were sure workin’ it right! Their divisional motto: “Hop shoo bop, hop ride!”
On the Balkan Front, three battles involving Turkish troops remained in progress: in southern Poland there was an attack on Jedrzedow [63% progress] and the defence of Cieszyn [-5% progress]. On the Adriatic, the Germans cut off in Lussino were still trying to break out to Pola [just -1% progress, but with heavy Italian air support against a third-line militia division].
After all the moves and switches in recent months, a general reorganisation of divisions to the nearest corps HQs was conducted, trying to maximise command communications along the front. Following this, orders were issued for 1 Mtn Div to make an opportunistic advance into the vacant province of Kostel, while they would eventually be ‘backfilled’ in Rijeka by 14 Inf Div, now finished with the attack that retook Karlobag.
With the difficult air situation foremost in the President's thoughts, the War Ministry provided an update of the current aircraft wings in production under license.
---xxx---
1 Sep 43
The fourth anniversary of the start of the Second Great War was noted at HQ 1st Army, where Inönü remarked that the brave Poles may soon be liberated, with Turkey having secured a swathe of southern Poland around Krakow and the Soviets now poised on its eastern border (well, the one established after the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939, at least). What the Poles may think of such a ‘liberation’ was, of course, brushed aside.
Closer to home, nationalist rebels rose in Knin, just north of Split, soon after midnight. It turned out to be a substantial and well-organised force of Yugoslav nationalist militia, which actually outnumbered the garrison division sent to deal with them. The fighting started out evenly: the counter-insurgency operation would take some days, it seemed.
The defenders of Cieszyn were holding well, but were subject to large raids by German and Italian bombers, including the Nazis’ very up-to-date Hs-132 CAS aircraft.
NB: the in-game pic for the Hs-132 (ie Stukas) is more relevant than the aircraft model provided – especially as ATL Germany has not yet developed the jet engine! Another small Paradox research fail, it seems.
Despite these huge air raids, midday saw victory in Cieszyn – with heavy German casualties on the ground, at least.
That afternoon, Perse attended a memorial service at an undisclosed (to the British, and therefore hopefully safe) location in Washington DC. She still could not believe that her old mentor and late benefactor was gone, let alone poor Tom Rosencrantz. What evil and terrifying S.I.T.H. hitman was out there now, in the supposedly safe US? This 'Duke of Midnight' might well be after her too – she looked nervously over her shoulder, and checked the small derringer she kept in her handbag.
Perse – in mourning, 1 September 1943.
That night, at 9pm 2 Mtn Div arrived in Delnice, which allowed 12 Inf Div to shift west to Rijeka, where it was hoped it could help sustain the campaign to secure the approaches to Trieste, a key objective for the mooted invasion of Italy.
Air Damage Report. A full day of German and Italian air strikes on Cieszyn killed 839 defenders, but failed to shake their resolve. The Italian raids on Pola would continue for six days, causing casualties at an average rate of around 500 per day.
---xxx---
2 Sep 43
Midnight brought more good news from the Krakow sector: the counter-attack to retake Jedrzedow, carried out by two expeditionary Soviet divisions, had succeeded.
And later that morning, Muzir’s Mountaineers marched into Kostel, liberating it without a shot being fired. But they were somewhat exposed and would need more support before they could push forward further.
Air Damage Report. The Pola raids continued.
---xxx---
3 Sep 43
The news was a little late arriving, but on 3 September the Allies acknowledged the earlier loss of Sydney. Sad days indeed.
By 11am, the damage to the organisation of the militia brigades in 8 Mil Div, holding Pola, was beginning to show, despite the enemy ground attack being at great odds [-2%]: but the air bombardment had been horrific. The fight against the rebels in Knin was going better [83%].
The wider Turkish front was still stretched quite thinly against a growing German presence, so stripping units from it to bolster the Adriatic sector was difficult and had to be done carefully. Even though the Soviet advance in southern Poland remained a little slow, the heavily armed 17 Inf Div was redeployed that afternoon from the eastern extremity of the Turkish line bordering the Soviets at Rzeszow to the Adriatic sector.
An hour later, Jedrzedow was reoccupied, once more providing a buffer for Krakow. 97 SD would join 307 SD there five hours later.
Air Damage Report. The Pola raids continued.
OTL Event: Italy. The Italian mainland was invaded by the Allies for the first time during World War II, as the British commanding General, Sir Bernard Montgomery, sent the first British and Canadian troops across the Messina Strait, from Sicily to the southern tip of Italy. The British Eighth Army, 5th Division, and the Canadian 1st Division began Operation Baytown early that morning and encountered little resistance after going ashore at Reggio di Calabria.
---xxx---
4 Sep 43
In Washington, MI6 had despatched an agent to investigate the recent deaths of two of their operatives – Rosencrantz, who had been assigned on official business, and then David Callan, who had been off on some side-visit of his own. As a precaution, the presence of this agent was kept from the Americans and was very close-hold within MI6. But perhaps someone had ‘kissed and told’, as these precautions did the man no good at all.
Midnight came (in more ways than one) and its self-styled ‘Duke’ left his calling card on the cooling body of yet another British agent. Who had in fact been betrayed through the Soviet penetration of MI6 itself back in London. As some more people there were beginning to suspect.
On the Adriatic, 18 Inf Div’s arrival in Rijeka and the earlier securing of Kostel prompted 6 Mil Div to make a play for Rovignon, while Öktem’s men continued on to Pola, hoping to reinforce the increasingly shaky defence that suffered under incessant aerial bombardment.
That continuing enemy air assault led to a quick reorganisation of the Turkish air groups at 8am. 3 AG (Hitay) took the two most ready fighter wings in Split (6 AF’s Wildcats and the La-5s of 5 AF), with the other two wings being rested and repaired in 4 AG. In Budapest, the TAC wings of 1 TAK Group were detached from the longer-range (MR) 4 and 9 AFs (La-5s and Mustangs), which with 3 AG were ordered to run an intercept mission over Pola.
They were engaged by 9am, and though they had expected a heavy enemy fighter presence, they were not prepared for what came.
Six wings of Me BF 109Ks met them over Pola initially, joined by four Italian TAC wings with an MR fighter escort at 11am, which proceeded to raid the militiamen! But the Turks never got to grips with the bombers: they fought hard and did some damage to the swarming Luftwaffe fighters, but this rate of effort could not be maintained without taking severe damage. Regrettably, the mission had to be called off, as the latest air raid on Pola was finishing.
In somewhat better news, another fifth column attack by the Germans in the Slovakian sector – the 15th Infanterie in Zilina this time – ended quickly in Turkish victory for 3 Mot and 1 Armd Divs (18/18,732 Turkish, 66/5,007 German casualties).
With a German division having appeared in Capodistria and making for Rovigno, 12 Inf Div was added to the push on that province of the third-line militiamen of 6 Mil Div. The fighting in Pola showed no let-up.
While the Turkish operational focus was almost entirely on the Adriatic at this time, Agent SkitalecS3 reported more good news from the Baltic Sector: Riga had now been surrounded, trapping a German panzer grenadier division there as the Soviets continued to liberate the coastline of the Baltic SSRs.
Air Damage Report. The Pola raids continued.
---xxx---
5 Sep 43
The morning or 5 September saw 8 Mil Div in a deteriorating position in Pola, as the air raids and ground attack from Lussino continued. 222 SD was ordered to conduct a spoiling attack on the German 6th Infanterie, despite the need to cross the straits from Karlobag: at least the Germans were distracted by their own attack on Pola. It was hoped this extra pressure might finally stop the enemy, who showed no sign of running out of supplies yet, despite having no port access.
Of course, this led to Italian bombers (just one TAC wing) beginning to hit Karlobag as well, by 5am. Two were raiding Pola simultaneously, so perhaps this might have lightened the pressure on Pola slightly. The fighting went on all day, as did the air raids.
14 Inf Div (MAJGEN Seven) was the next to arrive in Rijeka at 11pm, up from Karlobag. They were sent on to reinforce 1 Mtn Div in Kostel, where Italian and German divisions were now beginning to cluster, filling in the earlier gaps.
Air Damage Report. The Pola raids continued and the new strikes that began on Karlobag would last for four days, killing an average of around 375 per day.
---xxx---
6 Sep 43
By early that day, Turkish manpower levels were down to 7,000 in reserve, with 5,050 vacancies in line units.
At 5am, 18 Inf Div joined 8 Mil Div in Pola. But they proved to be too late, with the militiamen closer to breaking point than had been fully appreciated. They broke and ran three hours later, dragging Öktem’s division with them, before they had a chance to reinforce the line.
Had I realised how close the militia were to breaking, I'd have ordered them out just before 18 Inf Div arrived, but hadn't wanted to risk the Germans slipping in.
But the Lussino attack was maintained, with it now becoming a holding action, designed to keep the Germans in place. 14 Inf Div was diverted from their advance to Kostel to head to Pola instead. The hope was to get them in place before the Germans could escape from their entrapment in Lussino.
That evening, Pola remained unoccupied, but not so Rovigno: a German kampfgruppe based on the 68th Infanterie had managed to slip in first, with MAJGEN Panov of 12 SD leading an assault on their hasty defensive position in what looked to be an even fight.
Meanwhile, 2 Mtn Div liberated Ribnica, discovering Ljubljana to still be unoccupied. 217 SD would join them fairly soon, at which point an attack on the last enemy occupied city in the former-Yugoslavia might be contemplated.
Air Damage Report. The Karlobag raids continued while those on Pola finished after the German attack succeeded, having killed a total of 2,944 Turkish soldiers over six days, most of them the poor militiamen on 8 Mil Div.
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7 Sep 43
217 SD arrived in Ribnica at 1am: 2 Mtn Div held the ground while the Soviets made a bold dash for the Ljubljana. As that began, the Italians began air strikes on Rijeka, trying to hamper the finely-balanced Turkish attack on Rovigno.
Air Damage Report. The Karlobag raids continued and new Italian raids on Rijeka began, trying to suppress the attack on Rovigno – they would continue into the following day, killing over 500 men per day.
News Report: Russian Front. As the German Army retreats from the last German-held territory in the Soviet Union, news emerged of Heinrich Himmler’s "scorched earth" (verbrannte Erde) order, with the goal to be "not one person remains, no cattle, no wheat, no railroad track ... neither a house nor a mine which would not be destroyed for years ... no well which would not be poisoned.”
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8 Sep 43
One of the old garrison brigade finished its conversion to motorised infantry at midnight and was sent north to fill out 3 Mot Div, stationed on the Slovakian border.
Their place in the production queue was taken up by yet another wing of license-built Yak-7s (costing 1,000 men of the precious manpower reserve).
SkitalecS3 was once again the bearer of glad tidings, with an early morning despatch from Moscow advising that a good number of German divisions had been cut off in Narva from the rest of Army Group North, itself surrounded. Another large group of German units had been pocketed west of Leningrad, which was now bordered on three sides by Soviet units. Huzzah!
Another STAVKA communiqué arrived four hours later, with news of a Soviet drive on Warsaw, though there was no activity yet on the boundary line with Turkish forces. This meant further Turkish divisions could not readily be redeployed to the west at that point. It was also noted that some areas liberated by Romanian units in Poland were being designated as under Turkish occupation.
At the same time, yet another division of potential turncoats turned up in Vienna in Slovakian colours, heading east: how long would this go on? Toüdemür ground his teeth as he was forced to let them march through unhindered. By this time, the mysterious MAJ Tyler Durden had once again disappeared to places unknown, perhaps to rest and recuperate for his next mission of mayhem. And making sure he avoided the official US LO, MAJ ‘Wraith’ Loggins, then touring US Marine divisions deployed in the Adriatic sector.
Late that morning, a manoeuvre Loggins dubbed the ‘Pola-Rovigno two-step’ was executed. At 11am, the partly-recovered 18 Inf Div was ordered up to Kostel, while 1 Mtn Div conducted a flank attack on Rovigno. As that hit home at midday, the Germans buckled and began retreating after now being outnumbered almost ten-to-one. Meanwhile, 14 Inf Div force-marched in Pola at 11am, before the Germans could escape from Lussino. This meant the expensive holding attack by 222 SD could finally be called off.
The Germans in Lussino then renewed their attack on Pola at midday, but now they were up against a far stronger, fresher and well-led regular formation. As 12 Inf and 6 Mil Divs continued their advance on Rovigno, 1 Mtn Div halted in Kostel and began digging in again. 217 SD was on its way to a still-unoccupied Ljubljana. The situation in this sector had hopefully been stabilised – for the next period, anyway.
Two major public announcements were made by foreign governments that day, both linked to the same event: the fall of Tripoli to the British.
Churchill made a broadcast with another of his memorable catch-phrases: he considered this marked the ‘end of the beginning’ of winning the war (as a number of informed members of the Turkish commentariat, such as Professor Nukeluru Slorepee, had already asserted).
A few hours later, Mussolini broadcast in his usual bombastic way that Italy would fight on with renewed effort, conjuring up thoughts of the ‘eight million bayonets’ he had once (apparently) boasted of. Both of these declarations were prompted by the fall of Tripoli as the final element in a range of strategic criteria.
On the down-side for the Allies, by 8 September the great city of Calcutta (Kolkata) had fallen to the Japanese in India, while Australia’s capital had been shifted to Melbourne after the fall of Canberra to the same enemy.
AuthAAR gnashes his teeth as home town is yet again occupied in an HOI3 game!
That evening on the Adriatic front, things remained busy. At 5pm, 12 SD occupied Rovigno, while at 7pm a division of elite Italian Alpinieri pulled into Ljubljana to set up a hasty defence. MAJGEN Diskoerekto’s 3 Mtn Div quickly sprung into action, turning the over-matched 217 SD’s attack into a more formidable effort merely by joining in at 8pm. By 9pm, perhaps aware of their opposite number’s fearsome reputation, the Italians did what they do best just an hour later. 3 Mtn Div halted in place, however, to ensure the key province of Novo Mesto remained secure, while 217 SD continued to Ljubljana.
Of interest, this short foray would only require Diskoerekto’s well-drilled men to do seven hours of post-attack reorganisation, in case they were needed again soon.
Air Damage Report. The four days of raids on Karlobag finished, killing 1,492 soldiers of 222 SD. Two days of Italian strikes on Rijeka also finished, having killed 1,078 Turkish troops. Meanwhile, aerial attacks on Pola resumed that night as the Turkish defence was renewed; these would last until the morning of 10 September.
OTL Event: Italy.Italy surrendered to the Allied forces after more than three years as a member of the alliance of the Axis Powers, 45 days after the overthrow of Benito Mussolini. At 7:30 in the evening local time, radio listeners in Italy were stunned to hear their Prime Minister, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, read the statement that "The Italian Government, recognising the impossibility of continuing the unequal struggle against the overwhelming power of the enemy, and with the object of avoiding further and more grievous harm to the nation, has requested an armistice from General Eisenhower ... This request has been granted. The Italian forces will, therefore, cease all acts of hostility against the Anglo-American forces wherever they may be met ..." U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower released the news of the unconditional surrender, "effective this instant", at the same time in a broadcast from Allied Headquarters in North Africa.[Comment: excellent coincidental timing in the ATL of the two announcements as Tripoli fell. Not the same outcomes, but the sentiment is there. Spooky. ]
Half of the 70,000 Allied prisoners of war in Italy were able to escape in a single day, walking out of the camps when their prison guards deserted. Allied forces began the Dodecanese Campaign, an attempt to capture the Italian-held Dodecanese islands.[Comment: The persistent Japanese provocateurs in this time line are irritating in their own right, even though we successfully invaded the Dodecanese long ago!]
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9 Sep 43
The early morning of 9 September saw 14 Inf Div defending strongly in Pola [-0% progress], though the Germans in Lussino still remained in supply. The long battle against the rebels in Knin was also came to an end, with a Turkish victory at 5am (81/5,997 Turkish, 287/9,000 Yugoslav nationalist casualties).
Air Damage Report. The Pola raids continued, with four that day.
OTL Event: Italy.The second phase of the Allied invasion of Italy, Operation Avalanche, commenced at 3:30 am, as the U.S. Army VI Corps and the British Army X Corps stormed the beaches at the Gulf of Salerno, and encountered heavy resistance from German forces. Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark, who commanded the U.S. Fifth Army, decided not to precede the amphibious landings with an aerial bombardment of the German defenders, preserving an element of surprise at the expense of high casualties. British forces carried out Operation Slapstick, a landing at the crucial Italian port of Taranto.
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10 Sep 43
Midnight in Istanbul brought an ominous but familiar figure slipping out of an alleyway, silently stalking his latest prey: an unfortunate British agent who had been sent into Turkey to see if he could figure out why so many of their agents were suddenly being ‘neutralised’ in or by Turkey. The only warning was a faint whiff of sulphur and a hot-but-cold breath of foul air. He was soon in the clutches of the infamous Darth Kelebek, who had returned to Turkey after a long rest for a ‘refreshing bit of sport’, as he put it.
He turned up to the Interior Ministry’s Istanbul office later that morning with a small envelope.
“This is for Minister Kaya, for immediate transport on the Midnight Express to Ankara.”
“Yes, thank you Lord Kelebek,” murmured the nervous official. Given Kelebek was already there, mentioning his name wasn’t going to summon him again and it was just being polite. Or that was his theory, anyway. “The report on your latest interrogation of the British agent?”
“No, it is the remains of the British agent - for the records. He had nothing to say of any value, so I … reduced him.”
Kaya’s official just gulped, accepting the proffered envelope with trepidation and no further pleasantries. He put the letter in the official message satchel, but when he looked up, Kelebek had disappeared. As was his wont.
Victory in Pola also came at midnight, the Germans paying a very high price in blood for their failed breakout. By then, the Axis had managed to establish a hasty line of defence in front of Trieste.
At 5am, 217 SD liberated Ljubljana, bringing with it a small boost to the UGNR's manpower, leadership and industrial capacity. They began digging in as Axis units gathered around them.
Air Damage Report. The air attacks on Pola ended that morning, with 949 Turkish defenders killed since the evening of 8 September.
OTL Event: Rome, Italy. Two days after the government of Italy agreed to surrender, German troops invaded Rome, Naples and the rest of northern Italy. Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio and King Victor Emanuel III were able to flee through German lines and escape to Allied-controlled territory, and relocated the Kingdom's government to the city of Brindisi.
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11 Sep 43
With no battles in progress across the Turkish front for over a day, 18 Inf Div advanced on Capodistria when it became undefended on the afternoon of 14 September. A rapid thrust might secure the south-eastern approach to Trieste and trap a German infantry division in Umago – even though back-up formations were not yet available to help secure the recent gains.
The day ended with no more actions started or provinces changing hands. However, a report at 9pm indicated that the German 57th Infanterie division – a fifth column formation – had appeared in Bratislava, heading north-east towards Gänserdorf on the border with the Reich.
Air Damage Report. No enemy air activity was recorded as the situation on the ground remained quiet.
Casualty Summary. After the first eleven days of September, total Turkish losses to ground combat were only 1,985, but another 7,302 had been killed by air raids, giving a total of 9,287 battle casualties – still running at above the monthly recruitment rate of 18,700. And also not counting the men required to populate the new air wings. Axis forces facing the Turks lost 4,016 men to ground combat. There were no continuing battles as 11 September ended.
---xxx---
Coming Up: The Turkish focus remains on the Adriatic sector, as thoughts turn more to setting up for a possible future invasion of Italy. With the Turkish front now stretched thin enough to make any large concentration for a major offensive difficult and risky, it will now be the turn of the Soviets to make the running, especially in Poland and East Prussia.
While the impending eradication of the German Army Group North will bag even more troops, the defensive front for Germany will be considerably narrowed in the east, which may cause problems for Turkey until the Soviets can push further west and start freeing up Turkish formations: the line remains quite thin in places, especially around Vienna.
The Allies have at least managed to eliminate the Italian presence in Africa, but their hold on India and Australia remains precarious. What they might do next after the ‘end of the beginning’ remains a mystery – wrapped within an enigma. Their losses to Turkey on the spy front must also be hurting – will they persist, or give it up as a bad investment? In Italy, the local secret police seem to be thoroughly cowed by now: which could be useful as the time for invasion approaches.
Let's see...the British empire continues to collapse...
Italy is in a much better place than OTL (still holding on somehow in Africa and dealing with one defensive line against Turkey).
Germany is screwed with huge loses and the red army gearing up for a full out invasion of the homeland.
And the comintern are doing really well. Considering the war started late, France didn't fall until much later and the comintern only got involved a few years ago, we've obliterated the axis menace and now it's only a question as to HOW MUCH of Europe we can claim and grab before the end comes.
very tangential point: some days ago I was reading something and saw that for some internal game mechanics purposes (recalculation of some stuff or AI something something), the best day to save/load is 2nd of each month. I'm not sure how accurate or useful is this information, but here it is
One of the old garrison brigade finished its conversion to motorised infantry at midnight and was sent north to fill out 3 Mot Div, stationed on the Slovakian border.
SkitalecS3 was once again the bearer of glad tidings, with an early morning despatch from Moscow advising that a good number of German divisions had been cut off in Narva from the rest of Army Group North, itself surrounded. Another large group of German units had been pocketed west of Leningrad, which was now bordered on three sides by Soviet units. Huzzah!
MAJGEN Diskoerekto’s 3 Mtn Div quickly sprung into action, turning the over-matched 217 SD’s attack into a more formidable effort merely by joining in at 8pm. By 9pm, perhaps aware of their opposite number’s fearsome reputation, the Italians did what they do best just an hour later. 3 Mtn Div halted in place, however, to ensure the key province of Novo Mesto remained secure, while 217 SD continued to Ljubljana.
Come on guys, it shouldn't be that difficult to actually join the fight, we'll just walk to the general direction of the enemy and when there's contact we'll have found the front!... Oh never mind guys they're running anwyay...
Of interest, this short foray would only require Diskoerekto’s well-drilled men to do seven hours of post-attack reorganisation, in case they were needed again soon.
The three-division task force over in the Far East had been cooling it heels for some days. The men of the 4th Cavalry Division in particular had been enjoying life at the outpost in western Mongolia without a dedicated general to lead them. The Cowboy Men (as they were known) would soon have to adjust to the rigours of the Balkan Front as all three formations were ordered back to Ankara by rail, for further deployment once they finished their long train ride. But until then, they would live it up – and hard as they could!
Following this, orders were issued for 1 Mtn Div to make an opportunistic advance into the vacant province of Kostel, while they would eventually be ‘backfilled’ in Rijeka by 14 Inf Div, now finished with the attack that retook Karlobag.
This is going to backfire badly. It would have been far better to send them directly west to widen the encirclement of Lussino. Ten bucks says the Germans throw a wrench into things now.
NB: the in-game pic for the Hs-132 (ie Stukas) is more relevant than the aircraft model provided – especially as ATL Germany has not yet developed the jet engine! Another small Paradox research fail, it seems.
And later that morning, Muzir’s Mountaineers marched into Kostel, liberating it without a shot being fired. But they were somewhat exposed and would need more support before they could push forward further.
Rapid advance into the empty space would be ideal here if we can get enough troops to the line soon enough. Pushing the Balkan lines up into the bottom of the Alps would give us much better defensive terrain to work with while the main body of our force continues working its way through Poland. Plus it would shorten the lines a bit anyways.
On the Adriatic, 18 Inf Div’s arrival in Rijeka and the earlier securing of Kostel prompted 6 Mil Div to make a play for Rovignon, while Öktem’s men continued on to Pola, hoping to reinforce the increasingly shaky defence that suffered under incessant aerial bombardment.
With a German division having appeared in Capodistria and making for Rovigno, 12 Inf Div was added to the push on that province of the third-line militiamen of 6 Mil Div. The fighting in Pola showed no let-up.
While the Turkish operational focus was almost entirely on the Adriatic at this time, Agent SkitalecS3 reported more good news from the Baltic Sector: Riga had now been surrounded, trapping a German panzer grenadier division there as the Soviets continued to liberate the coastline of the Baltic SSRs.
That's a giant gaping hole in the German line across basically all of Latvia. If the Red Army can exploit the gaps we may be able to do a lot of damage before the Germans re-form their lines.
Had I realised how close the militia were to breaking, I'd have ordered them out just before 18 Inf Div arrived, but hadn't wanted to risk the Germans slipping in.
Churchill made a broadcast with another of his memorable catch-phrases: he considered this marked the ‘end of the beginning’ of winning the war (as a number of informed members of the Turkish commentariat, such as Professor Nukeluru Slorepee, had already asserted).
Once again, the British only showing up to the party once everyone else has done the hard work and painful dying. It's a good geopolitical strategy, no doubt, but leaves something to be desired in the swashbuckling department.
OTL Event: Italy.Italy surrendered to the Allied forces after more than three years as a member of the alliance of the Axis Powers, 45 days after the overthrow of Benito Mussolini. At 7:30 in the evening local time, radio listeners in Italy were stunned to hear their Prime Minister, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, read the statement that "The Italian Government, recognising the impossibility of continuing the unequal struggle against the overwhelming power of the enemy, and with the object of avoiding further and more grievous harm to the nation, has requested an armistice from General Eisenhower ... This request has been granted. The Italian forces will, therefore, cease all acts of hostility against the Anglo-American forces wherever they may be met ..." U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower released the news of the unconditional surrender, "effective this instant", at the same time in a broadcast from Allied Headquarters in North Africa.[Comment: excellent coincidental timing in the ATL of the two announcements as Tripoli fell. Not the same outcomes, but the sentiment is there. Spooky. ]
I actually picked up some time ago the short book Badoglio published recounting his experience with the fall and reconstruction of Italy and how she was treated by the Allies. An interesting read, though as one would expect a bit self-affirming in places, but certainly a different perspective on a little-explored part of the war history.
The day ended with no more actions started or provinces changing hands. However, a report at 9pm indicated that the German 57th Infanterie division – a fifth column formation – had appeared in Bratislava, heading north-east towards Gänserdorf on the border with the Reich.
very tangential point: some days ago I was reading something and saw that for some internal game mechanics purposes (recalculation of some stuff or AI something something), the best day to save/load is 2nd of each month. I'm not sure how accurate or useful is this information, but here it is
This is a topic of some controversy. Basically, saving on the 31st of the month (etc.) means that when you reload and the clock ticks over to the 1st of the next month, events will be checked and fired as usual on the 2nd, 3rd, etc. Saving on the 1st of a month for some reason causes events not to be checked and fired until the following month, in yet another classic example of excellent Paradox workmanship.
The theory, then, is that saving on the 2nd of the month will mean saving after all of those events have fired, leaving the remaining 29/30th of the month to accumulate things like espionage and political points which are ostensibly not tracked in the save file (this is also a subject of debate). However, as we see here events are not guaranteed to fire on the 2nd of the month, and could fire on the 3rd or even later depending on how lazy the game engine decides to be that month. With mods like HPP or BICE it is possible especially in the first few months when a lot of setup is happening for events to fire as late as the double-digit dates although usually sometime between the 6th and 9th is the more likely stopping point.
This means that to be perfectly safe one really wants to save on the first date after the 1st on which no events have fired, but this may be several days into the month which means several days of whatever quantities one claims are not tracked being lost to the ether.
Of course, whether any quantities are in fact lost when the game is saved and reloaded, and if so which ones and to what degree, remains a great unknown.
