Allied Turn 140 / 1st March 1942
- Lisbon and Gibraltar are still holding, the former by a single Portuguese infantry division, less than 100 LRS with a dozen guns hanging on by their fingernails. Gibraltar's garrison remains undamaged this turn, but I'd still prefer to have them out because they're the equivalent of three infantry divisions in good shape and they will succumb eventually. With that in mind, this turn the Home Fleet, no less, tried to pry open the Straits and managed to sink the greater part of the KM task force, but they're still sitting there, and I know the Bismarck group is lurking somewhere off the coast of the peninsula. So HF is hiding on the open seas right now, hoping to finish the task later.
- German 41 Armoured Corps breaks through in the Caucasus and is about to cut off the Makhach Kala balcony from the rear. I have five corps and an HQ in there and have some hope of getting them back over the Terek. There is also a local German attack, as expected, on the extreme southern end of the mainland frontline, north of Melitopol. I have 2nd Guards Army (2,000 rifle squads) and VI Guards Tank Corps (200 tanks) as reinforcements behind that line, so the Germans are welcome to try to get through here.
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- Bridge bombing continues; we are doing much better than them. Why didn't I think of this before? Incidentally, this turn my British bomber wings received their first Lancasters, bringing their range to 84 from 69. I can bomb Malta from Leeds now. Or Bucharest. Or indeed, if I wanted, Dnepropetrov on the lower Don front, and my Soviet infantry could watch and cheer. :laugh: Just to show I can do it, I destroyed the bridge between Tunis and Bizerte last thing this turn.