Eighty years on. 19th August 1940

Historical

Clouds and rain restricted the morning to reconnaissance flights over southern Britain.  As the weather cleared in the afternoon, the Luftwaffe tried radically different tactics.  Single aircraft (mainly Junkers Ju88 twin engine bombers) attacked targets along the South coast of England and Wales.  Oil storage tanks at Llanreath near Pembroke Dock, South Wales, were bombed.  The lone bomber attacks continued overnight, targeting the East coast and Midlands.  One Messerschmitt Bf109 and four Ju88’s were shot down.  One Spitfire was lost and a Blenheim failed to return from a reconnaissance flight over Southern Norway.

The Home Guard began to prepare stockpiles of “Molotov Cocktail” petrol bombs.

U-boats sank three steamers off Ireland.  U-48 sank the Belgian passenger ship Ville de Gand.  U-101 sank the British SS Ampleforth and UA sank the SS Hungarian Kelet.

The German submarine U-104 was commissioned.

Italian troops captured Berbera in Somaliland.

Gallup published the results of a poll asking Americans whether they approved of a proposal to sell 50 old destroyer ships to England.  62% approved of the idea, 38% disapproved.

Game day 354.  Italy

A new Aircraft Carrier was launched at Venice.  Three submarines moved from Venice south through the Adriatic Sea.

In Egypt the Italian forces held the north end of their line while attacking the British in the centre and outflanking in the south.  Map reference 272,116.  Four armoured units from the west and three infantry units from the south attacked two British Infantry units.  The British were wiped out for the loss of one Italian armoured unit.  At Map reference 273,117 Two Australian infantry units were attacked by six Italian Infantry units from the south and one was eliminated.  The Australians withdrew to the east.

Four bomber units attacked neutral Greece, causing three points of damage to the industrial infrastructure.

Game note.  Historically the Italians attacked the Greek navy at anchor.  In the game Greece has no naval units, or as yet any military presence at all,  so I made a strategic bombing raid instead.  I rolled a die to see how many bomber units would attack, and it turned out to be four.  Of these, three scored hits, reducing the Greek economy from 3.3 IRP to 0.3 IRP.  This was far more drastic than the historical attack, but “c’est la guerre”.