OCS Sicily - Part 2

Turn 2 - 07/12/1943

Here’s the position at the end of the first turn:

East

West

I win the initiative roll and am faced with a hard decision: do I go first to improve my position and try to prevent him from moving, and risk a potentially killer double turn, or let him take a turn and hope to be able to benefit from a double turn myself. In the end I elect to go first, as there are a few things I want to do before he gets a chance to move. Things like protect my air base at Licata, recover a good line. Plus, I'm still stronger on air, so now is my best chance to inflict losses on his air units. Let's hope that decision doesn't come back to bite me.

In the east I use the river line to the south of Syracuse as my anchor, using the Italian Napoli division to hold the inland road. In the west I'm a little more aggressive, and put pressure on the Gela area where the initial landings were weak. However, in my combat I can't get the 6 or higher (no modifiers, so I blew another 70% roll) that would remove his sole unit and save the Gela area. Dang! That would have caused him serious issues in hooking up his beachheads. The only other thing of note is that in my 4 air barrages he rolled 2 hits. (A flak hit requires a modified 11, and I don't believe he had any modifiers.)

At the end of my turn it looks like this:

East

West

In his turn, Eric tries to drop some paras behind my line, just to the south of Niscemi, but I win the air interception (no modifier, needed 8+) to remove his air cover, then proceed to make mincemeat of the transports, forcing them all to abort with loss! (A loss requires a 5/6 roll.) A stunning result.

Other than that, the expected ship load of units arrive successfully. He presses around the Syracuse area, (using his single allowed air barrage - he rolls each turn for the allowed number of air barrages) but my artillery comes out of reserve and DGs him, so there is no combat.

The end of turn 2 has the situation like this:

East

West

Turn 3 - 07/14/1943

Once again, I win the initiative roll, and have another tough choice on who goes first. In the east most of his strength is still off to the south after landing, and will take a turn or two to get to the front line. In the US sector I'm more concerned. On my left he's strong, but all my units are in reserve, so I have flexibility to respond to his actions. In the middle I'm weaker, but so is he. On the right he has a big stack in Licata that scares me, but I don't really know what it contains. On the plus side, his lack of air barrage capability last turn has my fighters still all active, ready to create mayhem and (hopefully!) disrupt his air barrages. All things considered, I decide to let Eric go first.

In the end he didn't push forward as much as I'd expected. 1st Arm. pushed eastwards towards Comiso and the air base there, but otherwise there wasn't any movement, especially towards the west. In the east the expected moves were seen.

My air barrages go well, until he rolls 3 consecutive 50/50 interception wins for loss. I did well last turn, so perhaps I can't complain. I still get some good DG results, which should spoil his combats. Hah! Fat chance, as he rolls like a demon, with every combat gaining good surprise or a combat roll of 10+. Over on the right of the US sector, he needs an 11+ to gain surprise (I'm on +1 modifier for Action Rating) and proceeds to roll box cars, converting his weak attack into something decent. Pah! These remove my coastal artillery at gela, and a unit threatening his Gela/Licata link up. He continues the good rolls into his exploitation, killing another of my good units.

Position at the end of Allied turn:

East

West

In my turn I started to pull back in the US sector. However, I did mount one attack at Gela, managing to roll really well and removing a Ranger and a regular infantry battalion on a Ao1DL1o1 result. In the east I pretty much just hung tight, as I was in a good defensive position. However, I did start pulling the Italian Napoli division back along the main road, heading for the hills.

Position at the end of turn 3:

East

West

OK, that didn't go as badly as it could have, so giving him the double turn here was a decent option. The Brits have been held at Syracuse for another turn with no loss. In the US sector he's not very strong, but there are still units offshore, so they could cause me trouble. I don't think I can hold him from linking up for another turn, so it may be time to bug out. The Brits and US units are starting to link up in the middle, so time to withdraw from that area as well. Yep, time to chuck it in reverse!