A Foothold in Britain - Early Autumn 1942

    One of the best parts about invading an island is the abundance of opportunities to separate your opponent’s armies and destroy them piecemeal.  By contrast, when fighting along a multi-thousand mile front, (like in Russia or North America), your only gains are the captured provinces as you slog forward.  Your opponent can always shuffle spent troops off the front line, while steadily building up forces in the rear.  But on islands and peninsulas, you get to steadily knock large chunks of your opponent’s army out of the game, making mid-campaign comebacks impossible and accelerating the pace of the invasion.  Thus, whenever I invade an island, I draw up my plans with an eye towards these divide-and-conquer operations.  For my invasion of Britain, the entire operation is a series of such maneuvers.  If successful, the British army will be decimated and the actual capture of victory points will be a mere formality.

The Battle of Bideford

    My initial plan called for a landing at Taunton.  Aside from the flexibility to seize either of three nearby ports, a landing here cuts off the troops in Cornwall completely, and sets up the first envelopment operation.  Of course, this didn’t work out as I had planned.  The British mounted such a stout defense of Taunton that I was forced to land at Plymouth and Exeter instead.  Oddly, though, the rigid defense of Taunton may have worked in my favor.  As British divisions retreated from the battle, they headed west in Bideford; that is, they steadily increased the troops available for encirclement.  Say what you want about the British, they are obliging.

    With Plymouth occupied, I was able to bring IX and LI Gun ashore very quickly, and we launched an overwhelming attack up the peninsula.  My troops, no longer suffering from the amphibious landing penalty, took Taunton with very little trouble in early September.  IX Gun held the line there, while LI Gun spread out into Exeter and Bude to set up the death blow at Bideford.  The battle there raged for nearly a week; when the smoke clears on September 10^th, we count up 1,495 killed on our side, 4,269 British dead, and 44,421 British POWs.  This battle helps to alleviate some of the misgivings I developed during the Malay Peninsula Campaign, in which virtually every battle saw higher casualties on my side.  In this case, it definitely helped that most of the British troops were already exhausted as a result of the defense at Taunton.  However, from this point on, the casualty figures are generally in my favor, due to superior division composition, skilled troops and leaders, and deft strategies.

A Breakout . . . Kind Of

    After the Battle of Bideford, I now have three full corps of infantry ready to start plundering the English countryside, with two more en route.  Unfortunately, we run up against the drawback of peninsular combat.  Namely, that the same narrow front that I used to encircle the British can be easily used against me by allowing the British to concentrate their defenses in a small area.  Neighboring Taunton are Bristol to the northeast and Weymouth to the east.  In order to prevent counter-attacks, I attack both provinces simultaneously.  The ensuing battles are bloody and lengthy, setting the tone for the remainder of the British invasion.  With IX Gun reaching the breaking point (mainly due to air raids), we abort the attack against Weymouth on the 16^th.  We suffer 1,926 dead (not including losses from the air raids), and inflict only 1,407.  The British, however, are sufficiently bruised that they do not attempt a counterattack.  The Battle of Bristol is the most severe yet; we suffer 3,607 dead, and inflict 5,818, noticeably higher figures than the Battle of Bideford.  Yet with the seizure of Bristol we gain a second route of supplies and an open door to the juicy interior of the country.

    Late September and early October are the most tenuous of the invasion.  It becomes apparent that the British have a vast army ready for the last-ditch defense of the home island.  I launch an unending series of battles to expand the breakout.  I win most, but, ominously, I always encounter fresh British units in the next province.  I proceed without any definite plan, and my attacks seem to be launched out of momentum rather than strategy.  At the end of September the situation is very perilous; while VI Gun has nearly arrived, we still have only three corps spread throughout a four province wide front.  Each is starting to run low on organization, averaging around 20 per division, and a large number of fresh British divisions are ready to attack us in a number of areas.  At this point I hold two transport fleets in Bristol and Plymouth in case I need to evacuate the force.

    Yet the expected devastating counter-attack never occurs.  VI and VII Gun arrive on the front in mid-October, followed shortly thereafter by six much-needed anti-tank gun brigades.  The British have a large number of armor divisions on the front, but for some reason they are clustered in Wales.  As my offensive presses northward, I keep the Severn River on my left, and it serves well to neutralize the armor.  However, as with most strategic situations, the river was a double-edged sword.  When invading from Bristol, I normally like to isolate and conquer Wales early in the campaign, in order to take advantage of the numerous ports and (usually) light resistance here.  Yet in this case, the combination of the British armor and the river combine to make that plan unfeasible.

    Accordingly, I begin to formulate a new plan.  With the British acting unaccountably timid, I decide to crank the audacity level up to 11.  IX Gun, having already advanced through Gloucester, Evesham, and Birmingham, will turn east to occupy Leicester and Lincoln.  This will cut Britain in two, separating London from the northern portion of the island.  IX Gun, perhaps aided by VI and LI Gun if needed, will fend off the inevitable counter-attacks, while VII and VIII Gun surround London itself and go in for the kill.  With the big city taken, we can gradually smother the remaining forces in the southern pocket, after which the surrender of the government will be a formality.