Jimbo'T outflanked...

[Jim von Krieg]

Intercepted and decrypted report from K'talan Commander to what seems to be a higher headquarters - German Signals Intercept

Overlord,

I have the unfortunate task of informing you that we are suffering continuing casualties against the Germans. We are administering astonishing and crippling punishment on the humans; however, they keep charging forward. Analyst Note: We believe this K'talan Commander to be in the North African Theater somewhere along the Egyptian-Libyan border.

At the current casualty rate, I am concerned that our forces will not be able to continue operations at the current pace. We desperately need replacement vehicles from the replenishment ship.

Just recently as we were clearing a ridge of enemy forces, we suffered a slight setback. Unfortunately, we lost a platoon of our tanks overwatching the first objective of our offensive due to a furious and unexpected counterattack. We had seized the position and were advancing quickly as ordered when a large enemy force counterattacked against our right flank to overrun the heavy armor platoon guarding that sector.

With no nearby forces, the humans retook the first objective and were in behind the strike force. Worth noting is that this is the first episode in which we have lost armor to the human tanks. In truth, visibility at the time was diminished by blowing dust and our optics were unable to compensate.

Luckily, our strike force had not gone far so they moved back to engage the humans. After a furious battle which teetered back and forth, our strike forces were able to thoroughly annihilate the humans and continue with their mission.

We definitely need the new optics our scientists developed that were not issued to the invasion force. Our lack of long range visibility allowed the humans to strike with no warning as to their presence. Analyst Note: This reference to new optics concerns us as the current generation of K'talan optics give them an overwhelming advantage in every engagement. It should be noted that dust seems to limit the range of their current generation of battle sights. This limitation may allow us to develop tactics to get in close to their forces undetected we may deliver the first blows. We view this as critical to our success, because when the K'talan forces initiate engagements it is devastating and few of our troops live to report on the battle.

Our intelligence indicates that these forces are a mix of two distinct groups of humans. One group is called Germans and the other are referred to as Italians. It is clear from our engagements that the German forces are better fighters. However, the overwhelming numbers of human combatants make it difficult to establish rapid dominance, especially when they are in defensive positions.

Additionally, we are having difficulty getting all our forces deployed to the front in time. On numerous occasions we are conducting operations with only one third of our strike forces. On too many occasions, large elements of our strike force struggle to move to their start positions. Given time this is normally sorted out, but it does slow the initial attacks and/or counterattacks. As we are not always attacking or defending at full strength, we are suffering needless casualties.

Forever in your service,

Jimbo'T, Commander, 1st Heavy Battalion