S, S, S, W, M, R, R

Axis Player Turn

“Operation Winter Storm”

The Canadians in Kottbus are attacked by three Fallschirmjager, one Panzer, One Panzer Grenadier divisional group, an SS Mountain, two Eastern Cossack Divisions and assorted rocket units while Hitler Youth and Infantry assualt from the South. The last of the Luftwaffe flies out of Berlin and Copenhagen to provide GS. In an inept display of aerial combat, the Allied fighter aircraft return to base on 2 of 7 bombers and attack craft. AA is only able to return two more bomber units and allied DAS is slaughtered by German AA. Luckily for the Allies the OKW Mechanised Commado unit fails to have any impact (rolled F). Surrounded the allied units are doing okay in defence until the Canadians spot the Cossacks on their horses. It is almost a year to the day they suffered their ignomious defeat at the hands of Spanish cavalry outside Zaragosa and suffering post traumatic stress flash backs, they panic and abandon the line. The retreat dissolves into a rout and two Canadian armoured divisions, an Indian Infantry division, allied contingents for Belgium and the Netherlands and valuable Engineer tank and motorised Artillery brigades are marched off into captivity (HX ZoC retreat scam).

Linz is recaptured and elsewhere the lines are strengthened. In the exploitation phase Dresden is reinforced and the Elbe line regained.

The thousand year Reich is being born again!

Allied Player Turn

Reports are coming into the news desks that the champagne has been returned to the cooler. Victory parades in Allied capitals have been postponed.

Winter gear is being rushed to the Western Front from mills in the US and Canada. US reinforcements destined for the Pacific Front are being diverted to Europe.

Victory Slogan “Home for Christmas” has been replaced by “Home alive in 45”

Owww. That hurt. The Allied Commander contemplates tossing the table over and resorting to fisticuffs to settle the domination of Western Europe but settles for a good scotch and practices his stiff upper lip in the mirror.

To teach the Germans a lesson Essen falls to the Engineer/Seige Artillery strong US forces as does another hex of the Ruhr conurbation. Around the Frankfurt pocket more troops are thrown into the battle and Festung Frankfurt shrinks back into the city itself, the remaining troops wait expectantly as Goebbels informs them via radio of the massive German offensive coming to relieve them. In northern Germany the US forces begin to crumble the German line – lots of attacks destroy various stacks and units but no significant breakthrough is acheived.

The British take Zossen in a 6:1 attack and press further around the outskirts of Berlin.

In the Sudenten a nasty EX result occurs in some wooded rough terrain and the possibility of liberating Prague appears as distant as ever.

At Linz the Allies attempt to ratake the city but the ferocious defence kills half the attackers and leave a US armoured division a smoking ruin in the snow. Defenders fortify themselves with locally made chocolates.

At Ljubajana the US army is unable to shift the defenders despite superiority of 4:1 due to fortifications and weather.

Exploitation. As a result of the exchange in the Sudenten, the Dominion mechanised units are able to push into Czechoslovakia proper and the SA Armoured XX seizes Pilsen, drinking large quantities of beer and leaving the snow yellow for miles around. The New Zealanders in the north enter Aussig on the border.