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Scenario Author:
Paul Bickford
Author's E-mail Address:
umbickfo@cc.umanitoba.ca
Last Scenario Revision Date:
March 6, 1999
VERSION 1.2
Background
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The Allies in 1943 pressed forward with efforts
to acquire air and naval bases on the Azores islands. The battle in the
Atlantic between the Allied convoys and the growing German submarine
fleet reached its peak in the spring of 1943, and the need for Allied
anti-submarine air bases
from which to patrol the vulnerable southern Atlantic convoy routes
to Europe became acute.
The British, for whom the Azores were so critical, had not seized the islands because of the fear that Germany would retaliate by invading Portugal or the entire Iberian peninsula. By the middle of 1943 the British Chiefs of Staff felt that risk of German reaction to the occupation of Portuguese bases had essentially passed.
The acquisition of bases in the Azores was discussed
by President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and their military advisers
at their meetings in Washington, May 10-25, 1943. Toward the end of the
Washington Conference, Churchill summed up for the British Cabinet (which
opposed the
military seizure of the Azores on moral grounds and out of concern
for negative political and economic consequences) the justification
for acting swiftly to occupy the Azores:
"My estimate that 1,000,000 tons of shipping and several thousand
lives might be saved was regarded by the Combined Chiefs of Staff as a
serious underestimate. In short, military necessity is established in the
most solid manner. I cannot see that there is any moral substance in the
legalistic point involved in overriding the neutrality of Portugal
in respect of these islands which are of no peace-time consequence but
have now acquired vital war significance. The fate of all these small nations
depends entirely upon our victory. It is a painful responsibility to condemn
so many
great ships of the British and American flag to destruction and
so many of our merchant seamen to drowning because our inhibitions prevent
us from taking the action which would save them. In this case the issue
is far more precisely pointed because the rate of new buildings over sinkings
is the
measure of our power to wage war and so to bring this pouring
out of blood and money to a timely end."
Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to give diplomacy
a chance to succeed. While the British and U.S. military chiefs readied
plans for forcibly seizing the Azores, British diplomats invoked the 600-year
old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance and succeeded in concluding an agreement
with Salazar and his aides on August 1, 1943, that permitted British forces
to land in the Azores.
American military leaders were distressed that the Anglo-Portuguese
Agreement failed to provide for U.S. bases, and Roosevelt and Hull refused
to support the British pledges to abandon the facilities at the end of
the War. Instead the United States pressed ahead with its own separate
negotiations, although with little success initially.
Chargé George Kennan described the circumstances in Lisbon as follows:
"He [Salazar] feels that he has strained his relations
with the Germans to utmost already and that we will be lucky if he gets
off with sinking of a ship or two and possibly some reprisals in the Azores
area. The idea of giving the Germans further cause for offense at this
moment would appall him. I cannot disagree with this analysis. German-Portuguese
relations seem indeed perilously
close to the breaking point. Any further strain may well cause
complications which would run counter to our desire to keep the Peninsula
quiet at this juncture."
To keep German reprisals to a minimum, Dr. Salazar
agreed to give the Americans
access to the islands on a clandestine basis, to maintain the
illusion of
neutrality.
Victory
Conditions
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AZORES43:
OPERATION "LEAPFROG"
AXIS:
Our spy network in Lisbon has determined that approximately
2 weeks ago,
the Portuguese government agreed to grant bases to the Allies
in the Azores.
Your mission, Herr General, is to aquire control of these
bases by a combined Air and Naval assault on the islands.The Allied bases
have been in place for at least 2 weeks, so expect them to be well fortified,
especially the American bases, as we have seen increased American Naval
traffic to the islands in the last few weeks. Mussolini, always hating
to be left out, has sent a small force
to assist you, and they will land on the Southern island of Sao
Miguel.
Their force is quite small, so an effort should be made
to assist them as soon as possible. The British are rumoured to have sizeable
Air resources already in the islands, so we have provided you the necessary
air cover for your landing force. You must capture all the Allied bases
and several key Portuguese cities on different islands in order to control
the area. Paratroop landings have been
made on the islands of Flores and Corvo, which we now control
and is to be your staging base. Try and keep your forces island hopping,
before the Allies have time to entrench reinforcements in the mountainous
terrain.
ALLIES:
Increased German submarine activity had been detected in
the Azores, leading us to believe the Germans had knowledge of our
bases. This was confirmed last night by the attack of German paratroop
divisions on the islands of Flores and Corvo, which is now in their control.
Try and keep the enemy landing forces occupied on the beaches, before they
have time to secure
staging areas inland. American forces dispatched last week from New
York to garrison the American base are en route to the islands now, and
are expected to arrive in a few days. Use your naval forces wisely,as we
expect heavy German submarine traffic in the area to continue.
Remarck: AG version only works in PBEM . Some problems with AI must be solved before you can play against computer
Last Update Changes
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