Downfall 1942

[joegrundman]

Winter 1942

BuOrd announces substantial improvements to reliability of Mk14 torpedo



Bureau of Ordinance, having taken seriously reports of severe reliability problems with the standard torpedo used with US submarines, immediately set about the task of finding and correcting these issues.

In mid November 1942, BuOrd announced that all errors with depth keeping and exploder function have been corrected.

US announces +1 torpedoes result

[joegrundman]

Winter 1940
US subs exact toll on Japanese supply mission to Midway



Japanese supply mission of destroyers and cruisers and the battleship Yamashiro successfully reached the destination, but losses to US submarines were significant.

DD1,CA2 sunk

[joegrundman]

winter 1942
Japan foregoes offensive operations, attrition costly in India and China



Attrition on the Burma/India border cost allied soldiers 2 1-2 infantry

[joegrundman]

Alaska Highway Built



a hedge against invasion, but also promises to facilitate transfer of materiel to Russia

cost 25 brps

[joegrundman]

Persian Corridor established



after some heavy duty diplomacy, Persia agrees to let the allies use Persia to transfer supplies from the Indian ocean to southern Russia.

Russian troops have entered northern persia to secure the Teheran end of the corridor while commonwealth troops have moved into the southern end of Persia to secure the ports and oil facilities

25 brps to open

[joegrundman]

Winter 1942

Battle of Tripoli



Emboldened by the victory at Bizerte Point, the Royal Navy decided to steam in force to cut off axis attempts to supply africa at the port of Tripoli (tobruk and Tunis already under allied air cover are not viable ports)

Italian LBA in Malta detected the British Task Force sailing out from Algiers and intercepted it with two task forces and all available submarines (2 italian, 1 german) before the British task force was able to link up with the second british taskforce sailing from Alexandria

In the small hours of the morning the italian TF1 found the British Task force and closed to gunnery range before the British could launch any airstrikes.

But again, the superior gunnery of the British, was apparent. Shells from the HMS Duke of York hit and damaged the BB3 Diulio, the British ship took one hit in return fire. The British battlecruisers HMS Hood and HMS Repulse damaged the BB3 Doria, but some extremely good shooting by the Italian ship also hit HMS Hood and badly damaged it.

Both sides lost CA2 int he action.

A german submarine in the area fired on the Task Force, hitting the BC3 HMS Repulse with two torpedoes, leaving her badly damaged and listing.

The Italians withdrew the damaged battleships, but the British felt compelled to keep them screened in the force to avoid them being subject to air attack and sunk.



Later, the British TF3 from Alexandria encountered Italian TF2. In a long range battle, neither side did much damage, but the italian BB4 Roma got a hit on HMS Warspite, who also got a hit on Roma. An Italian CA2 was sunk, while a British CA2 was damaged.

An italian submarine in the area fired a salvo which got one hit on HMS Warspite. The venerable battleship is now damaged. No other Italian submarines got any hits.

At this point it became clear the Italian fleet cannot possibly win, and withdraws to her base in Sicily.

But with three Royal Navy battleships damaged and needing repairs, this was a costly experience

Supply is cut to North Africa

[joegrundman]

Winter 42

U-boats still causing big problems



The U-boat war is now much more even, but stil 1 u-boat factor sunk, for 5 transports sunk and 6 aborted

but with 15 transports still operational in the atlantic, the allies have more options than ever before

[joegrundman]

winter 1942

German winter offensive in Russia surprises the defenders



In an attempt to widen the breakthrough and threaten the Urals, the Germans with better winter equipment than a year ago, coupled with an unusually mild winter by Russian standards, launched an offensive crossing the Volga southwest of Kuybyshev, and a second breakthrough just east of Gorki.

A new pocket of isolated russian defenders has appeared between those two breakthroughs

[joegrundman]

winter 42

Axis forces retreat from Egypt



With the loss of the oil supply, axis forces had to abandon tanks and much equipment is it retreated some way into Libya in the face of the British offensives

[joegrundman]

Winter 42

Axis Retreat in Libya turns into Rout



Unable to maneuver without oil, many axis tanks had been abandoned, many others reduced to artillery emplacements, only a few able to drive. The latest British attack completely overran the northern flank of the axis line, isolating the rest of the axis defense, and in the mopping up stage destroyed or captured the entire axis army on the egypt-libya front.

The road is open for the British to capture Bengazi and link up with the anglo-american forces moving towards Tripoli from Tunisia

[joegrundman]

winter 1942

Anglo-American forces under Patton advance down the coast of Tunisia into Libya, isolating city of Tunis



The city of Tunis is bypassed as Anglo-American forces under Patton focus on linking up with the British army under Montgomery advancing west from Egypt.

According to Patton Tripoli and Tunis will be attacked together in the Spring.

In Morroco, after a short firefight, the defending Vichy forces in Rabat surrendered to the British, and Morocco is now securely in Allied hands

[joegrundman]

winter 1942

B17s continue bombing campaign over Germany



the defensive capabilities of the B17 live up to its reputation as two german aaf lost to 1 bomber. The bombers inflicted some damage on "key economic and military targets" in the Cologne area, although another bomber factor was lost to Flak.

2 aaf and 4 brps done to germany for 2 bombers for the US. Overall a success

[joegrundman]

winter 1942

Commonwealth Troops start East African Campaign to defeat Italy's presence in Abyssinia




9 British Commonwealth factors arrive in East Africa to eliminate Italy's presence there. The campaign is estimated to be over by Summer 1943

[joegrundman]

Winter 1942

Allies Producing 'Liberty' Ships



to meet the demand for more transports in the Atlantic, the US has mobilised annother transport factor

[joegrundman]

winter 1942

Fleet Boats prowl the pacific



American subs sink 1 transport factor in the pacific