bremen-or-not-bremen-question-turn-6-1940-spring-a

The Axis start the Spring 1940 turn with their army in western Germany out-of-supply again.

Start
No Declarations of War.

Options: Germany declares an offensive in the west and attritions on the other fronts. Italy passes in the west and attritions on the other fronts.

This is the smart thing for Germany to do in the east. Since he chose last turn to liberate his western army from destruction, he was unable to take Poland in 1939. However, he now has 4 turns to defeat Poland through attrition in 1940. It does not matter if Poland dies in one turn or several, so long as Poland is defeated before 1941 begins.

Movement
The Axis surround Warsaw and take some ground in Poland. There’s no way Poland’s remaining infantry can escape to cause mayhem now that it is surrounded (and it will likely be dead this turn anyway from attrition).
Meanwhile, as expected those German infantry on the Hungary border free up supply lines to the western German army. Similarly, the Italian tank in Tunis moves NW and into Algeria.

Finally, in Egypt the Italians take more ground as they move closer to the key cities of Alexandria and Suez.

In Germany and the Low Countries, the Axis re-take some territory that was temporarily under Allied control. The Germans also have moved their air forward with what appears to be likely attacks on Wilhelmshaven and/or in eastern Holland.

It looks like this:

 

 

The whole map looks like this:

Combat
The attrition rolls on the east and in the med force the loss of the last infantry on Warsaw and the loss of a single 2-3 infantry in Italy (the French lost the infantry from hex T24).

The Axis also allocated 2 GS on hex L27. The French air are down south and can’t fly any DAS, so here we go. It’s 3:1 odds in favor of Germany. Germany rolls a 4 (D) and the panzer division advances to create a breakthrough there.

Germany also attacks the GB infantry on Wilhelmshaven on hex K28: 3-3 x 2 (J29), 3-3 (K29), 3-3 (L28) vs 3-4. Odds 12-6 (2-1). Die Roll 6. D Elim. 3-3 (L28) and 3-3 (J29) AAC.

The airborne unit drops from Kiel onto hex L26 (east of Antwerp). There are also 3 GS allocated onto hex L26. It will be 6 vs. 1 (doubled to 2). 3:1 odds, with any losses coming from the German air. As it was, the Germans won this battle without any losses.

Three panzers move to the breakthrough hex. One exploits and takes the Hague while the others line up for what should be an attack on Brussels.
Indeed, during exploitation the Germans allocate 12 GS on Brussels and now they have 24 (12 from tanks + 12 from GS) against 4 (doubled to 8). 3:1 odds.

The British decide to fly 8 DAS and Germany intercepts with 8. GB wins the air battle 3 to 1. Germany loses 2 air with GB losing 1.
The Germans win again without any losses on the battle on Brussels. Both Holland and Belgium are now in German hands and the allies will lose BRPs if they do not take them back on their turn.

It looks like this after combat advances in Holland and Belgium:

The western German army, as expected, has its supply back. Also, as expected, the French tank near Leipzig is out of supply and so is the GB tank in western Germany. Finally, the French infantry east of the Hague is out of supply (though the above picture did not show this).

Construction and SR
The Italians place an airbase on Bonn and also one underneath the hex the airborne unit is on since it would not be able to drop next turn without an airbase there. Germany places an airbase on Frankfurt.
Germany spends 36 BRPs to rebuild 12 air. Germany is down to 85 BRPs.
Italy builds three 2-3 infantry, the 2-5 tank, three 1-3 infantry, and a 3-4 air for 19 BRPs. Italy is down to 53 BRPs.

Italy sends 4 ground units to Egypt and a 5-4 air unit to Egypt. Italy is geared up for an attack next turn on the British in Egypt.
Germany closes the gaps in southwestern Germany with infantry and moves a few units from the Berlin vicinity to the west in order to be available next turn if/when needed.

The map looks like this:

Note: I moved the stack in Egypt that has the Italian air west one hex so you can see the infantry it was covering one hex to the NE. Also note there are 5 Italian lent air on Bonn as well as 5 German air. You can’t see those because the stacks cover each other.