Sicily 43 DAR (No peeking Herr Antoni)

[cillmhor]

So after being shipped out of Italy after my first attempt at a DAR which fell through after my opponent unfortunately had to pull out, I now have a sterling veteran of TOW, Antoni, opposing me in Sicily this time. And this time I'm going to have a go as the Allies and attack.

I have ready Carlo D'Este's brilliant Bitter Victory on the Sicily campaign and so I'm really looking forward to this one. I know historically that the Allies gave themsevles a hard time by pulling in two different directions as Patton and Monty fought to be the conquerer of Messina. Hopefully with only one commander this time we can avoid all that messy infighting:rolleyes:. But you never know...

I have some good infantry divisions (British, Canadian and US), and Commonwealth armoured brigades and the 2nd US
Armoured division. I also have a healthy fleet to help with the landings and good air power. The Sicily 43 scenario starts with your troops landed which is good as I can concentrate on moving inland instead of trying to fight my way ashore. I am guessing this was done to reflect the weak Italian defenses that awaited the Allies on 10th July.

The toughest enemy units facing me are the Herman Goering, 15th Panzer Grenadier and 29th Panzer Grenadier Divisions, and some assorted German paratroop units. The Italians have some reasonable formations, but also have some very poor ones.

My troops are landed as follows: US 3rd Infantry, 2nd Armoured and independent units at Lizata in the west of the southern landings, my weakest point in the first turn. Then further east at Gela are the US 1st Infantry, 45th Infantry and strong US Ranger and engineers units. And finally the 1st Canadian, 51st Highland, 50th and 5th Divisions all land south of Syrcuse.

My main priority in the first turn is to move inland and try and surround and eliminate the weak Italian coastal units, which I accomplish to a point. You can see below the extent of my main Commonwealth thrust below:



I'm quite pleased with the initial push taking Syracuse, although the coastal battery proved to be a real headache. The US forces have also consolidated and I've eliminated a few Italian coastal defence units and moved US infantry units into contact with elements of HG Division in the west to try and keep them pinned and from retreating to form a line before I can move in force to meet them. I also used 82nd Airborne to surround a couple of Italian units, leaving the paratroopers a little vulnerable too.

That's it for turn 1. Some progress, but the Axis counter may now appear?