Operation Ikarus - The Matrix Games version of West Front

Southwest Iceland:[H2H, TEAM]v.2: By the spring of 1945, most of Europe lay firmly under the Nazi jackboot. After the fall of France in 1940, Hitler was finally convinced to delay Operation Sealion until late April 1941. This proved wise, for by then the Germans were well prepared to cross the channel in force. Although it was a bitter, costly struggle, the last resistance in the British Isles had been stamped out by the end of 1942. This had also delayed Hitlers greatest ambition: Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Launched on the day before the Fuhrers birthday, April 19, 1942, the operation was a astounding success. By late 1944, all major objectives had been accomplished, and the Russian bear sent scurrying east of the Urals.
For 1945, OKW intended to take care of some loose ends. This included driving out the remaining British Commonwealth forces in Palestine-Syria and parts of North Africa, moving on the Azores, and taking Iceland. Gibraltar had fallen with relative ease in the summer of 1943, ensuring that the Mediterranean Sea became an Axis lake. Although enduring painful Allied submarine and commando raids staged out of the Azores, the admirals of the Kriegsmarine, and Hitler himself, knew that Iceland would be the greater prize. Although the Royal Navy had taken a terrible beating and had fallen back to bases in Canada and the United States, it still exerted a powerful influence in the north Atlantic due to this strategic island. Capturing it would secure the Reichs northern flank, force assistance to the floundering Russians to go thru the Pacific, and green-light the planned occupation of Greenland in preparation for one of Hitlers dreams: strategic bombing of the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada.
So the Axis settled on a plan: Operation Ikarus, to launch a feint attack on the Azores with the quite powerful Italian Navy in the vanguard. Meanwhile, the Kriegsmarine would strike quickly and decisively from bases in Norway and Britain towards Iceland, clearing the way for the largest armada ever assembled by the Axis powers. Five crack divisions would lead the assault, supported by the 1st Fallschirmjager division staging out of the Faroe Islands. These men would be the first to jump from the Luftwaffes burgeoning strategic bomber fleet, recently converted into troop transports. The assault was to target the southwest quadrant of the island, where most of the population, ports, and other assets were located. Objective: Reykjavik.
As for the Allies, they had spent years building up the defenses of Iceland. The remnants of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division, having been withdrawn from Britain during its death throes, was sent to Iceland, and was by 1945 largely re-constituted. There were also several brigades of British troops and even some Russians who had escaped the fall of Murmansk, complete with some rolling stock. Sensing that the Germans were about to make their move on the island, the Joint Chiefs authorized further assets to be sent to the island, including a U.S. light armored division and some British units. These were about to arrive when the Axis fleet was sighted over the eastern horizon. TURNS 40-50 ARE NIGHT TURNS.